Take no for an answer or deal with the bodily autonomy obsessed bird. Jay belongs to @midnightcreator12 :)
Bonus doodles - of blackbird duo shenanigans and of Faust being a huge simp for the royal magician who is most likely evil. Wuh oh! (Lady Sage belongs to my friend Bem who’s tumblr I?? Forgot again?? Sorry Bem I love you don’t kill me)
Thinking about this bit from Taking Pawns, ch6: Sometimes Staying Up Late Does Pay:
and it reminded me of my darling Dungeon Master friend whose handwriting is crazy and unreadable to me. And I was like. What if: Bishop's homebrew handwriting is complete dogshit to anyone who hasn't lived for 300 years. Like it's a series of shortcuts and abbreviations that nobody else has had the time to develop, mixed with seven billion codes he picked up on the way. And who has time transcribing all the older ones, right? Let's just scan them in, it's not like anyone but he is ever gonna have to understand them. Except this guy who might be able to make him live forever. Oops.
Ambrose the Vulpin Cleric (@midnightcreator12), Rain the Cervan Wizard (@posthocpaganda), Agatha the Mapach Wizard (@tired-o-fighter) and Eran the Luma Fighter (me!)
Ty @secreterces5 our cool DM for this little-animals-in-the-woods-tm campaign <3
hello character who is desperate to be a good person; i want to play a game. in front of you is the one person you will never be able to save. you have the rest of your life to make peace with this. there are no defined repercussions if you fail, but we both know you're going to attempt to win regardless. your time starts now
That’s why I love them they want to protect their family no matter what and they got different ways of doing it. Like I said on ao3 I thought Leo was your favorite so that’s why I asked your opinion and n raph I wasn’t sure if you liked him
Ah yeah, Leo is my favorite but I absolutely love all the turtles and the other three shift places on my second favorite spot constantly. I really absolutely love Ralph as a character too!!!! He has an incredibly important role in the au like I said. It's because of him the happy ending tag is even there at this point hahaha (no spoilers but he has unknowingly saved the day a few times already) I hope my love for him also shows in my writing since I do really enjoy his character. The zoo one shot is one of the ways I show it!!
I dunno I always saw Raph and Leo being two sides of the same coin
Oh they absolutely are in my post hoc au too!!!! They just go about dealing with their problems in different ways but they understand each other to a very deep level because they're just the same but backwards. Like looking into a mirror
The second essay written as of chapter 69 of Post hoc ergo propter hoc. This one is about *drumroll* Leo and Raph parallels!!
Let's talk about Leo and Raph
One of the first things that's probably apparent in this chapter is the stark contrast between Leo's breakdown in this chapter and Raph's breakdown in the one at fault/the mirror.
If you look at the title it's pretty obvious I wanted to draw a relation there hahahaha and for good reason. The mirror was titled this way both because of the mirror that shows up there and as a reference to Raph and Leo's relationship and in this chapter we’re seeing the other side of the reflection.
Now there's a few writing choices that are apparent if you read both. Raph's rage is represented by “hot” (fire magma etc) metaphors while Leo’s is represented by “cold” (ice). The way Raph runs away when he sees he is starting to crumble while Leo *pushes* everyone away instead.
The thing is that a lot (obviously not all) of the problems both of them have are the same or similar but they experience and approach them in completely opposite ways.
There's the feeling of inadequacy that Raph deals with by going “okay you think I am not enough so I am going to embrace that fuck you I am going to show you how bad/mean/angry I can be and not cooperate” while Leo goes “nonono please don't think I am not enough I can do it I can be better let me prove it”
This is a good way to show the reason why they clash so much. They understand each other in a very deep very genuine level but the way they deal with their problems is the complete opposite so they don't understand each other's way of acting and it makes them butt heads sometimes because in Raph's head Leo is just bragging about how good he is and showing that he's perfect and Raph will never measure up to him while Leo on the other hand can't understand why Raph doesn't try harder and in his point of view doesn't even care.
Obviously they get along super well in this au I am not saying they aren't. This is just a high stress situation and because of that there's going to be some conflict and this is the root of the one Leo and Raph have and a good example to analyse their parallels.
Another thing I mentioned in my last essay is how both of them deal with conflict.
They are the most combat oriented turtles, the two that enjoy the “ninja” life the most and that if they weren't in danger would still probably go around doing the ninja thing and enjoy a good brawl.
Now there's times when they approach this in a healthy way (friendly competition/sparring) but I am going to focus on the bad coping mechanism aspect of it.
They both just find fighting by itself fun. BUT there's also a key difference there.
Raph goes around looking for fights, trying to provoque conflict everywhere he goes because that's where he is more comfortable, where he can just push his rage out in a way he enjoys.
Leo treats the world like a battlefield instead. Where he can play the role of leader and strategist.
It may sound similar but it's absolutely not the same I swear and it has to do with the role they put themselves into and the way of approaching their problems I talked about before.
Raph usually takes a more “antagonistic” role while Leo goes for the perceived moral high ground. (Leo also sometimes antagonises his brothers on purpose but it all comes from the ‘I am the leader and what I say goes fuck you’ so it’s not the same thing Raph does)
Let's put a more concrete example. Both Raph and Leo are running around the city looking for a fight against a group of thugs to defend some civilians.
Raph decides that he's going to show those guys who’s the scary one here and prove it by beating them up.
What Leo does is become the classic superhero.
Both of them want to defend the civilians. Both of them are kids just coping and in the end do the same thing but they just fundamentally go for opposite roles because of the way they deal with their problems.
And it frustrates them both to no end because they just *understand* each other but they don't understand each other.
Now it's just a matter of looking at those chapters again. The parallels are there. The same people involved in Raph's breakdown are there too with Mikey and the doctors first and then Leo/Raph coming in later.
Poor Raph did try here. After the conversation he had with both Mikey and House he is trying his best but he had the bad luck of showing up too soon compared to Leo in “The mirror” so he wasn't able to do much because of the timing.
Leo arrived when Raph was mostly calm again while Raph did just before Leo was about to explode and that's the reason why we didn't have the reconciliation this time. Also Raph had the advantage of being able to process his rage a lot better than his older brother since Leo prefers to ignore it and deny it exists which doesn't help anything while Raph is more able to openly embrace his own feelings.
Not that what Raph did was healthy at all, he did hurt himself after all, but he came out of his breakdown a lot better than Leo did since he was able to take everything out while Leo just… did that.
Basically Raph sees Leo and sees himself through a fun house mirror but when he tries to reach out he gets smacked down because Leo is absolutely not in the mood thank you very much and that stings because he thought they connected and he wants to help Leo like Leo helped him.
Poor Raph will never fully grasp just how SIGNIFICANT it was that Leo admitted to being “a bit tired”. You guys know since you're aware of Leo's inner monologue and his inability to admit weakness to his family. Hell, he gave Raph a lot more than he gave Splinter!
Raph also doesn't know how important the role he is playing in the story is (he doesn't know. Y’all don't know but he has unknowingly singlehandedly carried the happy ending tag preventing a mayor, horrible, unfixable fuckup two? Three? times this far and this has nothing to do with what happened with the lab or anything. This is major plot stuff that's been going on in the background) while Leo feels the weight of the narrative over his shoulders constantly but… I will elaborate on that more when the fic is done and I won't be spoiling anything. Just another fun little contrast!!
And that's basically it! Leo and Raph are the same but also opposites and get along like a house on fire but also fight constantly.
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
titsay
