Light The World Challenge For Today: Music Brightens The Mood. Share A Song With Someone Today

Light the World Challenge for today: Music brightens the mood. Share a song with someone today 😊

One of my favorite quotes is “If art is how we fill up space, then music is how we fill up time.”

I think that’s a beautiful statement because discovery or creation of music is inevitably the discovery and creation of ourselves. Another form of self expression that can be shared to the enjoyment of everybody around.

As such I’d like to share my favorite song with y’all today: it’s called ‘Wildflowers’ by Maddie Poppe.

My feelings associated with this song can be summed in the words of my favorite poet, Nikita Gill.

If anybody wants to swap and talk about music, I’m all ears 😄🧡🙌🏼

So, I did a thing. *shrugs* Call it a fever dream or whatever BUT ITS TIME FOR VENGEANCE AGAINST ALL THE FANARTISTS WHO MAKE ME FEEL THINGS.

I have returned the favor. I hope y’all cry, or I didn’t do it right. 😈🙌🏼🔥

@funneylizzie I’m starting with you.

PS it’s written low key in stage directions because I may or may not comic it. Maybe. 😅😎👉🏼👉🏼

Based off of ROTTMNT Future Apocalypse: Enjoy

A Little Ninja’s Mission

Casey, the residential and most well loved 5 year old of the entire resistance base, wakes up in the middle of the night, hearing noises down the hall.

Being the ever brave little ninja that he is, Casey sneaks into the next room with his little hockey stick, trying to see who or what exactly has broken into their little underground sanctuary.

He’s surprised to see Adult Leo running through a series of exercises, progressively getting faster and more intense as the night continues.

Casey observes silently from the shadows, watching as Leo engages in battle over an invisible enemy, over and over again. With each swing of his katanas, the pure unfiltered rage burns in Leo’s eyes, causing little Casey to step back in fear at seeing his beloved sensei so unhinged.

When suddenly Leo stops and stands shakily on his feet, sweat dripping down his forehead, staring at something unseen before him. His katanas lower and the sound of haggard breathing can be heard.

Casey looks up in concern as his sensei suddenly drops to his knees, and the sound of wrenched weeping can be heard. Adult Leo drops his katanas with a clatter and curls into himself, the heels of his hands pressing into his eyes, as tears drip mournfully down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry…I’m s-so sorry…too late…always too late.”

Unsure on what to do when seeing his generally composed and confident sensei so shattered, Casey retreats back to his room, and stays awake for the rest of the night, unable to get the haunted look of Leo’s broken face out of his little head.

The next couple days, Casey doesn’t necessarily avoid Leo, but he does keep a watchful distance. He doesn’t talk with Leo when Leo tries to engage him with his teasing, but rather he pulls away to hide behind his mother, still observing Leo with a troubled little pout.

Leo notices, he has to. The safety of his little band of friends and family depends on his ability to quickly read and react to situations. However in his forever mental turmoil, Leo sadly believes that he deserves Casey’s shunning. He deserves all the pain. It’s his punishment for his failures, so he gives Casey his space and retreats further into himself.

His mother, observing Casey’s abnormal behavior, pulls him to the side one day and bluntly asks, lightly rapping Casey’s forehead.

“Ok, Squirt. What’s cooking in that noggin of yours? You've been avoiding Master Leonardo all week. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

Cassandra widens her eyes dramatically, and wiggles her fingers spookily.

“These momma eyes see everything.”

Casey looks at the floor, and remains silent. The slightly insolent behavior causes Cassandra to frown, her brows creasing in concern.

“Casey Jones. Look at me.” Cassandra says sternly. Casey only slightly shakes his head, a mirroring frown scrunching his tiny face.

Commander April O’Neil, who has been observing this interaction silently from the corner, pulls away from the wall and walks toward the Casey’s.

She smiles at Cassandra as if to say “I got this” and kneels down in front of tiny Casey, reaching out to ruffle his mess of black hair.

“Come on, Kiddo. Spill the beans.”

Little Casey’s hands tighten into fists, his shoulders start to tremble, but still he won’t look at April or his mom in the eyes. April rests a hand on his shoulder and prods gently.

“Casey…what’s wrong?”

A small sniffing can be heard, and Casey suddenly looks up, pleading in his eyes as he stares at Commander O’Neil and his Mom.

“Why is Master Leonardo so sad, Momma? Why does he cry by himself at night?”

April pulls her hand away in surprise and looks at Cassandra in shock. They both stare at each other for a moment, registering what that means, before Cassandra’s eyes lower and quietly says,

“So he’s doing it again...”

April pulls back slightly to massage the bridge of her nose with frustrated growl.

“I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s been so recluse these past couple of weeks. He’s acting almost like D-“ April stops herself and mournfully clears her throat before continuing, “His insomnia hasn’t been this bad since…since the accidents.”

She says with a small sigh. Little Casey looks up tearfully between April and his mom, confused at their reactions and reaches out to plaintively pull on Cassandra’s hand.

“Why is Master Leo sad, Momma? What’s wrong?!”

Cassandra looks at April, who smiles solemnly, and let’s out a sigh herself. She lowers herself to the ground and opens her arms to Casey. He immediately runs into them and wraps his arms around her middle, sniffing. Cassandra cradles Casey, pulling him close to her chest.

She’s silent for a minute, rocking her baby slowly before taking a deep breath and saying softly,

“Hey Squirt, you remember Slash? Your one favorite stuffed tortoise that you'd carry around with you everywhere? “

Little Casey stills at the name and shakes his head yes. Cassandra pulls back a little bit and lowers her forehead to his, making eye contact with him.

“Do you remember how sad you were when we lost him during our last evacuation? You cried for a lot of nights after that because you missed him. You loved him so much that it didn’t feel like home without him right?”

Cassandra doesn’t wait for Casey’s response before pulling back so she could rest her head on top of his, stroking his hair absently as she looks somewhere far into the distance.

“Master Leonardo is very sad right now because he lost some people very close to him. They were kinda like his Slashs.”

Casey is quiet for a minute, his little hands tightly grasping the cloak at his mother’s back. He turns upward slightly while listening to his mom before whispering quietly,

“His brothers?”

Cassandra’s hand freezes right above Casey’s head and she glances at Commander O’Neil who sits next to them, with the sheen of tears in the corner of her eyes.

Cassandra lets out a heavy sigh, her shoulders slumping, and she tightens her hold on Casey ever so slightly.

“Yes, some of Master Leonardo’s brothers. They’re not coming back, and he cries because he misses them. He misses them a lot, and he doesn’t feel at home without them.”

Little Casey chews on his mom’s words for a second before suddenly pulling back to look excitedly at his Mom.

“It’s sad that Master Leo doesn’t have all his brothers anymore, but … he has us doesn’t he? He doesn’t have to be without a home; w-we could be his family!

Tears well up in Cassandra’s eyes at the innocence in her son’s eyes, and she glances over at April who leaned forward to rustle Casey’s hair again. She grins, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

“You’re right, Kiddo. He does have us.”

Cassandra sniffs, refusing to show such uncontrolled emotion in front of her child, and leans forward to smirk at Casey.

“What do you say, Squirt? Do you think you could be our little ninja and help remind Master Leonardo that he isn’t alone?”

Casey looks up at his mom with an emphatic determined nod.

“You can count on me.”

Casey, determined to fulfill his ninja mission, prepares all the rest of the day. When night time finally approaches, Casey is shaking with anticipation. He was going to remind Master Leo tonight if it was the last thing he did!

He arms himself with the biggest blanket and the biggest stuffed animal that he had claimed after searching through the random boxes they had stored at the base.

The blanket was once a dark, rich, violet color but had now turned grey with all the dust and grime from constant travel. However if one looked hard enough, they could see the slight greyed-white markings of what looked to be scientifically formulas spread all across the blanket.

The stuffed animal was a faded pink teddy bear that had obviously seen better days. One of its button eyes was missing, and it had a shredded right arm that was barely holding on. There was a little tag on it’s rump with the letters R H smeared in red marker. It was almost as big as Casey was, and he had to struggle to pull it and the enormous blanket into the next room where he sat in wait for Master Leonardo to come.

It didn’t take long. Within the next couple minutes, Leo walks into the room, his steps heavy and slow. He leans against the wall, his chest rising and falling with shaky breaths. He has his eyes closed in a grimace, slowly hitting his head against the wall before schooling his face and reaching up to pull his two Katanas out of their sheathes on his back.

“Master Leo?”

Leo freezes at the sound of Casey’s little voice and whirls around brandishing his two Katanas in surprise.

“C-Casey? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?! Is everything alright?!”

Leo’s words slur together as his eyes frantically search for danger in the room, his katanas weaving to and fro with each jilted movement.

Casey flinches back at having Leo’s frenzied actions pointed at him. His feet stumble back, as he trips over the massive blanket that was pooled on the floor. He lands on his bum and looks up at Leo with wide eyes.

Leo pulls back sharply with an ache in his heart as he sees the slight fear in Casey’s eyes. He lets out a disheartened sigh and sheathes his katanas. Leo drops to one knee with a little side smile, and holds out his one normal hand in what he hopes is a nonthreatening manner.

“Hey there, Bud. What are you doing up so late? Did you have a bad dream?”

Casey just stares at Leo for a minute before remembering his purpose and quickly shakes his head. He scrambles to his feet and folds his arms with a stubborn frown, trying to look serious. Which honestly backfired because it makes his bottom lip stick out making him look unfairly adorable.

“Nuh uh. I’m here on a mission.”

Leo blinks in surprise, titling his head with a confused smile on his face.

“A…mission?”

Casey nods emphatically, and reaches down to pull the giant teddy bear and blanket into his arms. He staggers forward, straining with all his little might to try and reach Leo.

Leo watches with an amused smirk at Casey’s attempt to carry the heavy load for only a moment before deciding to take pity on him. He reaches forward to pluck the blanket and teddy bear from Casey’s arms and sits down with his back against the wall to place them in his lap.

Casey isn’t too far behind them. He immediately crawls onto Leo’s lap and flops heavily against him as only small dramatic children can do. The toll of staying up and dragging his weight causing Casey to get sleepy.

Leo chuckles and wraps one arm around Casey, lifting the stuffed animal to shake it him.

“And what little mission is that, Bud? To bring me this-“

Leo freezes as he gets a real good look at the stuffed animal, his eyes widening as he glances at the shredded arm, the one button eye and the all too familiar scrawl on tag. He recognizes this bear. Leo’s breath hitches. This…this was Raph’s teddy bear!

Leo stares at the teddy bear, not sure if he was seeing things clearly and then slowly back at Casey who watches him with concerned eyes.

“Casey…where did you get this?” Leo asks with a strangled voice.

Casey’s brows pull in worry at Leo’s pained voice. He starts hiccuping and leans forward to wrap his arms tightly around Leo’s middle.

“I don’t want you to be sad, Master Leo. I thought a stuffed animal would help you feel less lonely. I know my stuffies do. ”

Leo looks down at Casey in shock, trying to figure out if Casey knows what this teddy bear means. Who’s teddy bear this is, but his focus was elsewhere as Casey’s little body trembles slightly as he hugs Leo, tears slowly running down his face and onto Leo’s war dirty plastaron.

“You’re not alone, Master Leo. You never have been.”

Leo bites his lip at the words, and feels the all too familiar pain within his heart roar to life. He closes his eyes against the ache in his eyes that always precedes the tears.

Leo reaches down to pull the giant blanket around himself and little Casey’s shoulders to help ground himself. He stops only for a moment, glancing at the dusty violet fabric in his hand when he recognizes the markings on the blanket.

Donnie.

Leo has to bite back a broken laugh. Even with his brothers gone, they once again left physical reminders of their presence, reminding him that they were never really gone.

He curls protectively around Casey, hugging him closely to himself as he haggardly whispers the words,

“You’re right, Bud. Anatawa hitorijanai. I-…I’m not alone. We’re never alone. ”

They stay that way together for the rest of the night. Casey slowly relaxing as he falls asleep in the safety of the arms of his sensei, his lazy measured little breaths matching Leo’s slow drumming heartbeat.

And for the first time in a long time, Leo sleeps soundly through the whole night. His little guardian angel, his twin’s blanket and his big brother’s teddy bear, all tightly, tenderly wrapped up by his side.

Hope, as fragile and yet steadfast as she was, had been reignited.

Looks like the little ninja fulfilled his mission after all.

Coming outta art block swinging like…

Someone once told me that when dealing with artblock, you gotta take care of yourself first. Because the more alive YOU feel, the more alive your art will feel.

You can break the block, juts give yourself some time.

You CAN do this 🙌🏼🧡✨😊

Special shout out to these incredible ladies who have been in my corner since the beginning @holydoncakes @saspas-corner @anobodyinabog

Please someone who is more talented than I, please PLEASE P L E A S E make an edit with this song for Rise Leo 😖🙏🏼💙 It’s just too perfect for him that it would be criminal not to! Plz tag me cuz I wanna see!

Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you

A VERY GOOD BOI

like this is so tender? And my heart is healing? 💙❤️‍🩹

the blue one

I’m sorry @agzeret, didn’t mean to make you cry. Here’s a meme for this post instead 😅🧡👉🏼👈🏼

Leo screaming for his dad in ‘Flushed But Never Forgotten’ is treated as a humorous but Leo going to an adult for help when he looses his brothers is something he’s done before

In ‘Portal Jacked’ Leo goes to Senor Hueso as soon as he looses his brothers in his portal

And the reason I think Leo went to Senor Hueso was that Leo had portaled himself to Run of the Mill, making Senor Hueso the closest adult he knew.

I think it’s interesting that when Leo is left alone & believes his brothers are in danger, he’ll go to the closest adult he can find for help. 

Most cartoons have characters try & save their friends/ family by themselves but Leo is just like ‘I’m 14 I’m getting a grown up!’