Litadragoon Arts and Crafts

After an unexpected, terribly potent hit from Hypno in a mission going awry, April dies in Donnie's arms. Not ready to go being as young as she was, her soul lingered just enough for Donnie to tether it to his own body in a desperate attempt to keep her around. He can't let her go. Not when her last words would otherwise be "I'm scared" and "I don't wanna die" and there was a chance to reconnect her soul and body, to have her back again.

He ends up preserving her dead body in his lab while he figures out how to reconnect her soul and body, but soon finds himself unable to sustain what mystic energy tethers her to him on his own and needs more time.

An act of love turns into unhealthy obsession, he's willing to do whatever it takes to get her back, and if he has to drain every single yōkai of their mystic energy in order to achieve that, even if it kills and corrupts him inside out - doesn't matter.

And so the Mystic Reaper made a name for himself terrorizing the slums of the hidden city, until that stops being enough too. 👀

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The reason we called it the Ragdoll Heart AU is because in the end, Donnie does achieve what he's set out to, but only after draining all of witch town of their mystic energy and permanently bonding his and April's souls together with Mikey's help, since her own has deteriorated too much after the time spent tied to Donnie.

They can feel what the other feels now, even at large distances, and now that he's no longer chasing an impossible goal, there's an aftermath full of consequences and a shattered family to be faced.

The aftermath of it all is really where the meat of the angst is for us and is a huge focus of what we discuss in regards to this AU in the server :).

How do you hate someone because it would be the morally correct option when he went these lenghts to get you back from the dead, when you weren't ready to die yet anyways, when his every emotion washes over you as clearly and imminently as your own now? How can you tell apart feeling his overwhelming, sick, obsessive love that revived you from influencing how you feel? When you only feel normal and content when he does, but his damaged emotional state depends just as much on yours and your proximity?

How do you forgive a brother who's not even sorry for the atrocities he committed, using his family like pawns in a game toying with life and death, for shutting everyone out? How do you forgive yourself as his family for not stopping him, not intervening sooner, not acknowledging the signs earlier on?