The Dawning of the Hour

I'm alright, but thanks. I am in Minneapolis, so...yeah. Haven't seen much ICE activity in my area, but I figure it's just a matter of time since I live in a neighborhood with a large Muslim population. My mom works at Target, she's already gotten instructions from management to stonewall ICE if they come in asking questions. My sister's boyfriend is an immigrant too, I'm not too worried about him because he's from France and very white-but still. He's a citizen, but it's not like that matters anymore.

I'll be honest. At the end of S1, I thought people were just being Tumblr sluts about Vox and Alastor. Like yeah, Vox definitely had a crush on him at some point, but clearly that was all over with. Sometimes men just hate each other! It doesn't all have to be doomed yaoi!

I was incorrect that was the gayest and doomedest yaoi I have ever seen. Like. Vox and Valentino have gay sex with Alastor tied to the cuck chair and it was somehow not the gayest thing that happened in that scene.

also if Draxum were to choose between letting gale die and letting gale regain his memories, which would it be? I feel like he would let him remember but grief the son he lost in the process? maybe he would end it all anyway? Draxum is one petty sheep, i feel like he would try to find a third option I hope Leo gets to break his nose at some point, he deserves to get some metal inside this man. do you think Leo would actually kill Draxum if he could? Draxum spared leos life, but idknow if Leo would return the mercy, if it came down to pure rage alone, and disregarding consequences, like Don being left as sole successor to draxums apocalypse. I feel like leo would absolutely kill draxum, in a second, if he could do it. maybe even in front of gale? huuuuh idkk i would pay real money to see Draxum and Leo locked in a cage together. I have a violent monkey in my brain that needs to see them fight to the death over the right to Donnies mind! i feel like leo would lose but even if he does, idc. like breaking your brothers murderers nose. the godly satisfaction, it'd be WORTH dying for. i dont even need draxum to die, i want him to keep suffering about Gale... but i also need to see leo getting one good nose breaker in, that would fix me me thinks I LOVE draxums character, I love draxum loving galois.

I LOVE whenever you write Draxum Leo conflict, because Draxum hates him SO much, but theres also the 'I cant kill you because the boy i killed used to love you' conflict. the 'no matter how much i want to crack your head open, i can feel my son watch me from the past, and I'm haunted by his voice, begging me to spare your life. and your blood would be a stain on my love for him' and i feel like, all it would take for leo to SNAP would be the knowledge that he wont be able to take donnie back. that donnie is GONE. Because draxum took this boy and mutilated his mind, until gale was everything left, and donnie is dead. in that scenario, draxum has the self control to not kill leo but but Leo would drain the ocean to get his sword through draxum's skull. kill the man who killed donnie. god, how do you survive losing your twin? Galois is half dead and he doesnt even know. he`s a walking corpse, and Leo is half dead too but HE knows why. Draxum killed donnie, and leo knows the rot intimately. The hottest fire of hell cant burn as bright as a trillionth of his rage. leo's hate is fueled by love, and his love for donnie can't be exhausted. the fuel of his hate is greater than what the earth can burn. The heat death of the universe would be a mercy compared to what Leo wants for Draxum. he needs draxum dead so badly, every breath he takes is because draxum is still. fucking. exhaling somewhere. But in the end, Leo's only an angry teenager, and he's not strong or smart enough to kill THE draxum. but by god, will he die trying. its the rage of a snow storm against the rising sun. something dying has nothing more to lose i should write that fanfic of your fic, just leo and draxum having a CALM TALK about galois ah hngh

anyway all this rambling was just to say, i adore what you created here, i am alive for this 3 way conflict

On the first question-I can't really answer that without spoilers, but I will say that their relationship does return more-or-less to normal. (the final scene I have planned is Donnie covering Leo's room in googly eyes because he already got yelled at for it he might as well do it)

Draxum would absolutely be searching for a secret third option, if he was put to the question he'd probably run out the clock trying to find a way around it. He would ultimately choose to save Gale's life, but he wouldn't know he'd pick that option until he was pushed to-if that makes sense. If you asked him now, he wouldn't be able to answer.

Leo wouldn't kill Draxum right now because he'd know he would lose Donnie forever if he did. He knows by now that this isn't going to work like killing the head vampire, whatever Draxum did to Donnie isn't going to just lift after he's dead-well, he doesn't know for sure, but he's not going to test it. Donnie would never hear him out after that, and with Draxum gone his whole mutant uprising will collapse. People are going to be angry. They can spin Donnie as the mind-controlled slave forced to do what he did, they can get people to see Donnie as just another one of Draxum's victims instead of an aggressor. But that only works though if Draxum's alive to serve as the punching bag. If all that anger and grief can be channelled into prosecuting him, then they have a chance at getting Donnie declared innocent and rehabilitating his image. If Draxum's dead, people are going to find someone else to scapegoat. His son, primed as his successor who personally built so much of the technology that allowed Draxum to commit his atrocities, would be the natural target.

And also Leo's not-not really less angry, but his anger is kind of burnt out? He still hates Draxum, it just doesn't really cause much of an emotional response anymore. It's half exhaustion, half acknowledging the situation for what it is. Donnie is in a lot of danger now, and whether Leo wants to admit it or not Draxum is keeping him safe. Plus he's come to realize how much Draxum loves Donnie. He'll never admit that, even to himself, but it's hard to maintain a burning hatred for someone who so completely loves the same person you love.

And ultimately Leo thinks the right to kill Draxum should go to his dad. Stealing his DNA, turning him into a rat, making him a homeless single father, never paying child support, kidnapping his kid-yeah, that honor should go to Splinter. I think most people would agree.

But he wouldn't hesitate to break Draxum's nose.

This is what I had to do to get Angel to leave me alone long enough to eat.

FINALLY THE MEME IS FULFILLED!!! I was already wondering how the heck it would go by this point, although Bishop was more upset than I imagined.

Whoa! The agreements and rules between Yokai/humans are tighter than I imagined, nice Worldbuilding!

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS BISHOP!!!! I imagine you're leaning more towards Artificially Enhanced Human/Cyborg. But I'm curious if there's something else in there.

Ok, so Freddy Mercury was a Siren and The Boys have official middle names!!!! Pff Splinter giving Leo the name of his lawyer, though considering the amount of crap he probably had to deal with, I think it's a compliment. So now Leo has Latin, middle eastern and Japanese names. Can we know the other guys' names?

I ADORE the Big mama dynamic with leo, this is what you meant by Being the Cersei to her Sansa? (I didn't watch Game of thrones) I love it. I think it's better than I imagined with Bishop.

You were right about the Donnie part. Still, I hope it's Raph who rescues them first.

I really look forward to seeing what happens from now on. Don't be discouraged sometimes people have time to read everything right away. Plus unfortunately it's all about the algorithm these days. You have to keep posting if you want people to keep coming. At least you still have an audience that will be here no matter what.

(this was sent two months ago and I keep forgetting that I have asks in my inbox)

Yeah I was having a pretty bad morning two days after posting the last chapter. Turned into a pretty good day, I visited my cousin and got to meet her babies, who were just the cutest. (also like hot damn the oldest isn't even two yet and she's speaking in full sentences, guess that's what happens when your mom is a teacher) But I was very cranky for a while there.

Sal's name was stolen from @audioeidolon's Little Scraps of Wisdom series (with their permission) and he may make an appearance in Book 4, I'm not sure. Sal also named his own daughter Violet Louise, in honor of his missing friend. (neither of them would ever admit they sort of named their kid after each other) I also want to slip in eventually that Violet is currently attending Columbia, because Sal is supposed to be from NYC himself and she would be about college age. Him wearing parachute pants is no reflection on him, those were just in style in the late 80s when the tabloid photo Leo is thinking of was taken. (I also just realized I never credited the author for Sal, I'll fix that)

I mention what everyone else's middle names are, Donnie has Splinter's mother's and Raph and Mikey have his grandfather and grandmother respectively. Great-grandma Hamato is never named, I don't believe she's even directly referenced in the show, and I just didn't make up a name for her. In my canon she passed when Splinter was quite young, maybe a year or two before his mother, so he remembers her quite fondly. And then obviously he's not going to use his father's name for his fourth son, Splinter never met his father and holds a very low opinion of him when he bothers to think about him at all. (which isn't often-slightly more once he became a father, but mostly just in disgust because the thought of abandoning his babies was so abhorrent to him)

This also means that Donnie and Mikey both have girl middle names, but considering the Japanese generally don't use middle names I figured Splinter just went "fuck it" to all the established naming rules once he saw Big Mama was giving him a middle name.

The Big Mama-Leo parallel to the Sansa-Cersei thing is pretty complicated without knowing ASOIAF, but I'll try to condense it. Cersei Lannister-played by Lena Headey, who also voices Big Mama-is Queen of Westeros during the events of the main ASOIAF series and is the one the speak the titular line "when you play the game of thrones you win or you die. There is no middle ground." I wouldn't really call her a 'power behind the throne' because she isn't using her power to influence the ruling of the realm, (and when she does rule as regent for her son she really doesn't care about policy or anything) but she makes ample use of her power for her own gain. She's extremely gifted in court politics, skullduggery, and subterfuge, and her actions influence pretty much every major event of the story. She's also a supreme narcissist, to the point where it actively interferes with her plotting because she can't second-guess herself, but that's besides the point.

Sansa is betrothed to Cersei's eldest son, the Crown Prince Joffrey, and very much serves as a reflection of Cersei at her age. Both are considered incredibly beautiful, and both are the daughters of extremely powerful lords. Sansa comes into her engagement very innocent and naive, believing it will be like a fairy tale. The guy who writes her is literally credited for establishing grimdark as a genre, so obviously that didn't go over well for her.

Cersei really doesn't like Sansa, (mainly due to a prophecy that she would be cast down by a new queen younger and more beautiful than her, but this isn't a factor in the parallel to Big Mama and Leo) but she still serves as a sort of unintentional mentor figure to her. Sansa sees how Cersei works, how she manipulates her situation and those around her, and uses it for her own survival. Specifically show Sansa-book Sansa I don't think really takes after Cersei much at all, she's still faffing about in the Vale and is leaving all the plotting to Littlefinger, plus I think Sansa will die before the climax of the story. But show Sansa uses what she learned from Cersei to survive her own marriage and garner power. She's ruthless, manipulative, and is shrewd enough to see what resources are available to her and make full use of them. And when she takes power for herself she acknowledges that while she still hates Cersei, she learned a lot from her.

Mom: "What are you doing? Do you want to help put up pumpkins?"

I feel like at some point it should pass a threshold where he just doesn't care anymore, his fucks have been depleted and he can't sum up the energy to act scared about it. He just jumps straight to insulting his kidnapper's fashion sense and abduction methods. Probably gives them tips.