*Looking Up Of Their Phone, Thinking "meh" And Looking Back At Whatever Bad Joke Is Happening In The

*Looking up of their phone, thinking "meh" and looking back at whatever bad joke is happening in the media* Stunning.

*visibly shaking* has anybody else noticed how beautiful everything is?

I keep thinking about @somerandomdudelmao latest upload of his comics where Donnie dies in a turtle pile with his brothers. Mikey and Leo hug him, and Raph holds them all on his arm. I can't stop thinking about it, so I decided to write this to get it off my chest. I hope you like it.

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Donnie usually feels a lot of things to the point of being overwhelmed by his surroundings. His skin always feels tingly to the touch, he can get irritated easily because of sounds, his throat gets grossed out by too many sweets, and sometimes he gets tired of trying to take in so many things with his eyes. It's a common thing for him; he's used to it, and it feels right. But right now, with Leo curled on his arm, Mikey on the other side, his hand resting above his heart, and the giant Raph-robot snuggling with their family, he can't feel a thing. He even has to concentrate to hear his twin's breathing, and Leo is snoring and drooling on his shoulder, with saliva creating a wet spot on the sleeves of his hoodie. He knows it has to be like that, but he can't feel the drool. He can't become uncomfortable because of it; he's too tired for that.

So instead, he tries to hate the Kraang. He has a list of reasons why he hates them:

They destroyed Raphael's body.

They took Leo's smile for several years before Casey Jr. came into their lives.

They took Cassandra away.

They took their Pops away.

Mikey had to grow up too quickly because of them.

A lot of families lost everything because of them.

All the technology humans had before was completely destroyed and torn apart.

The flora and fauna of the planet were destroyed to a point of no return.

He was dying and had to leave his brothers behind, April, Casey Jr., and everyone in the resistance who were their friends.

Yup, more than enough reasons, and he's sure he's missing a lot of other things due to his dull mind. Still, he can't get himself to hate them either, not because he actually feels some pity for them or something, but because he's exhausted from trying to do so. His brain just wants to think about other things, like, obviously, and against his cold bad boy image, his family.

He breathes, a little too shakily, making him cringe with the sound, and gives up that stupid fight of "Logical versus Emotional," letting his brain start craving on his memory about the years before the war. For sure, he missed those days. All the dumb jokes and funny times with his brothers, even when Shredder chased them! They were so young and carefree. Somehow he really believed they would be like that forever. Guess destiny doesn't like happy endings that much, huh?

He turns his head to look at each of his brothers. Raph has finally fallen asleep after an hour of being vigilant of his brothers. Mikey is murmuring in his dreams and clenching his hands softly. Leo seems to be between waking up for a few seconds and failing completely asleep. Donnie snickers and thinks about their shared insomnia, which not so surprisingly takes him to their first Turtle Pile. Donnie was around 4 years old, Leo was swallowing as much Jupiter Jim content as he could find, Raphael was learning how to control his force with their father's help, and Mikey was still learning how to make that low chirp thing that allowed them to speak like humans. He had just gotten hyperfixated on the circuits of a basic and old computer his father found in a trashcan some nights ago and was pulling an all-nighter to learn as much as he could about them.

 He had just started to make some sparks from putting the wrong wires together when Leo entered his "lab", rubbing his eyes and looking groggy, with a half-asleep Mikey hanging off his hand while chirping tiredly."Leo? What happened?"

He hadn't let go of the wires and had barely gotten his view off the disassembled computer and to his brothers. "Raph had a nightmare, the big guy doesn't want to be alone, and we're gonna have a sleepover. Come with us."

Leo yawned before offering his hand to his twin. Mikey looked at him with half-open eyes before reluctantly letting go of his newfound tech and taking his twin's hand, walking with them to the common room of the lair. Raphael was moving pillows anxiously with their father, just stopping when Leo put Mikey on his arm, and their father helped him lay down on the cushion in the center. 

Donnie climbed onto the net of pillows and blankets and got comfy beside the snapping turtle, leaving some space between the two of them. Leo curled up on the other side of Raph.Mikey was completely gone for the night, and Splinter put some weighted blankets on top of them, giving Donnie a purple one just for him, knowing that he wouldn't be too keen on the whole cuddling session. "Rest well, my sons. I'll be near if you need me." He gave them all a kiss on the forehead, letting the softshell last, who stretched out a hand to take his father's ropes.

Already groggy because of the sleepiness, he looked at the rat and asked in the best whisper he could manage. "Why are we doing this, Papa?"

"Because your brother is scared, Purple. This is our way to tell him we are here for him." Splinter kneeled in front of his son and pet his head with those little tuds he knew the little genius liked best. "It's a way of comforting him, making him feel safe."

"What is this called?"

Splinter thought for a few seconds and decided to just go with the easy shot. "A sleepover." His brothers were hearing the talk too, all of them too sleepy to care too much, but Mikey still frowned, puffing his cheeks and propping himself up a little with his hands, letting some chirps roll out of his tongue in a fast sequence, causing the laughter of his brothers and the confusion of his father."What did Orange say, boys?"

"He said we are a Turtle Pile, Papa." This time, Splinter laughed too and smiled tenderly at the small box turtle, stroking his cheeks affectionately. "Guess you're right, Orange. It's a Turtle Pile." He adjusted the blankets around the younger one before standing again. "Now, get some sleep. Tomorrow is a great day to play and learn some more, my sons."

Donnie smiled at the memory, feeling groggy, just like little Donnie so many years ago, and decides that he, as well, could give up to sleep now.

Shave your tummy, you'll look great and it's easy

MEN!!! it's spring. crop your shirts

The fact that I can relate to every of them except Raph is somehow both disappointing and hurtful

just want to appreciate their poses here they're all so good

I was thinking that the way the government and society was constructed in The Hunger Games was completely perfect for war. Okay, bear with me for a few.

We know there were districts from 1 to 13, with 13 being destroyed after they started challenging the main districts too much because of the Games and the way the system was handled. Why was it so easy to destroy an entire "city" without affecting the "nation" as such? Easy. There was no military power to rise up in arms, they were poor people without any kind of training who could barely manage to get enough to get through the day, there was nowhere to hide or set up a base of operations, there was no one who was the brains behind the necessary hits, there were no resources of any kind. Wheat is one of the most common and easy crops to grow, bread is abundant everywhere and yet in the books it is said that the bread is a privilege in district 12.

In the French uprising against the monarchy, soldiers saw their children, mothers, wives, and friends marching against them and threw all their "loyalty" to the crown to their families, to those who really mattered to them. This was one of the main reasons why the French Revolution worked; a soldier was not going to kill his family for a man he did not know.

In the districts, it is not like that, Peacekeepers are usually from district 2, completely removed from the citizens most likely to rise up against the government who are precisely those from the lower districts. Why should they care about the lives or desires of unknown and "lowly" faces? There would be no way they would stop to help the people, there would be no way they would stop to feel empathy for those people because they shared absolutely nothing with the most vulnerable citizens. They are a force that had been mistreating the weaker districts for years to the point where the question was inhumane.

The existing social imbalance shown in The Hunger Games was not only exposed in the preparation that some tribute from districts had, like the ones from district 4 who were proud to present "Professional Tributes" or the ones from district 7 who had good physical condition thanks to their main task of providing wood. But also the fact that the Peacekeepers feel no remorse for seeing any district suffer while being trained and rewarded in the higher districts.

The best way to win the war is to break the spirit of the fighting factions, the easiest way is to appeal to their most human and animalistic part of protecting their "herd", but when the warriors are not forced to kill their "herd", the question becomes much more complicated.

No cause this is so fun. Okay, so the deal is that last year my friend got a boyfriend and I did a match with a guy, every break they will seat on the seat of our classroom to play chess while I launched myself on top of my boyfriend and proceed to read my existence off for the next hour while my friend was sulking cause of the lack of attention, EVERYTHING FOR CHESS. Now everyone in my school knows how to play and it kills me that my teacher tried to prohibit chess tables LOL

one fun thing about being a teacher in march 2023 is that chess is a literal epidemic among teens. we are starting to have meetings about how we can STOP teenagers from playing too much chess which is like if we were trying to figure out how to stop them from reading for fun. When i was in high school five years ago chess was nerd shit only but now it is transcending every social and language barrier and is absolutely rampant. kids aren’t on their phone texting in class anymore it’s ONLY chess.com. kids are playing chess on their phones while playing chess in real life. this is still better than tiktok because at least the kids are developing an attention span from this