So I've already established that AU Leo has a tendency to abuse his portaling abilities to just go and explore a bunch of places, including New York, which leads to him stumbling across Run Of The Mill several years before he does in canon. And of course he loves the place, the food's great, the Maze of Death is good for training and he gets to hang out with Hueso! Hueso does not enjoy Leo constantly showing up to bother him when he's trying to work, but it's not like he can just kick him out. This is one of THE Baron Draxum's sons, Hueso is already in trouble with yokai law-enforcement and the last thing he needs is more enemies. (And no, he does not have a soft spot for Leo, what are you talking about)

Anway that's all fine and dandy, until two particular individuals happen to stumble across the restaurant....

Similar to in the show, some time after Donnie's first encounter with the Draxum family, him and April find Hueso's restaurant as well and starts to frequent the place. And considering Leo's a regular, well, it's not long until they happen to visit at the same time and uh-

This happens pretty soon after Donnie first reunites with his brothers, but they've encounteredeach other a couple of times in between then and now, which means that the Drax Trio have had time to come to terms with the fact that Donnie is not planning on joining their team any time soon. And while they want to change that, they realize that for the time being he is currently an enemy. Mikey and Raph are still pretty hesitant to fight him, but Leo and Donnie pretty early on established a "fight each other on sight" dynamic, because of course they did.

All of this is to say, as soon as they lay eyes on each other in the restaurant, they immidietly start duking it out! Hueso understandibly does not appreciate such a ruckus in his fine establishment, so out of respect for Hueso the twins agree to avoid any fighting in the restaurant specifically.

Now, you would think that at least one of them would have the common sense to just avoid the place, but they're both stubborn and petty AF and so Leo and Donnie keep running into each other there! And they do respect the no-fight-rule.... to a certain extent. The rule was specifically for physical fights and says nothing about verbal ones! So every time Leo and Donnie run into each other they keep insulting each other to provoke the other into attacking them, which would lead to that twin getting kicked out and hopefully banned for life!

Introducing my OCs' Side Order arc: Your Side of Order!*

(formerly known as Order Tower; the whole Pizza Tower Side Order/Order Tower joke got old so I changed the name of the arc)

In this arc, Hope & Anyo are on a mission in order to find out where April & Ashley went after disappearing a month before the events of the story. The duo then end up in the Order Sector, where they meet Orion, an ex-elite octoling soldier who's been trapped in the Order Sector for more than a year, and their pet sea bunny, Binx. Despite Orion's distaste for Anyo's hybrid octoling lineage, the group, with the help of Pearl drone and dedf1sh, make their way up the Spire of Order, hoping to find answers & a way out of the simulation. Along the way, the group meet some new allies and familiar faces, learn a bit more about each other, and learn a bit more about themselves.

Also, while I'm giving this synopsis of the arc, I might as well adress the elephant in the room: Hope's arm in the parody art. This will be further explored in the arc, but in the begining of the arc, Hope attempts to figure out where the wormholes in the real Inkopolis Square lead to (since those little pixelated voids in the Side Order trailer, in this story, popped up in the real Inkopolis Square, making up parts of the forcefield around the area. these wormholes serve as enterances to the Order Sector and once you go through one, you can't get out of the Order Sector). She tries sticking one of her arms into one of the wormholes, only for it to get stuck. After trying to free herself from the wormhole with the help of Anyo, a good chunk of Hope's arm disappears into the wormhole, leaving Hope injured. After a month of treatment, Anyo gives Hope a new, custom made prosthetic arm that functions just like a biological arm (since it uses Hope's ink to power it). The arm also grants Hope some new abilities that'll be showcased in the arc.

In the arc, I plan to explore Anyo & Hope's characters a bit more. Since Splatoon 3 is the end of the current story arc in the series, I wanna cap things off when it comes to my OCs through Your Side of Order and another story arc featuring Kandi and Annie (since they're not in the Your Side of Order arc). In Your Side of Order specifically, the lore of the hybrid octolings will be explored, Hope's family dynamic & her character will be expanded more upon in the arc, and possibly more plotpoints will be explored alongside the canon events of Side Order.

More news on the other story arc I'm planning for my OCs will be revealed later this year. But for now, I'm just gonna say that this other arc happens at the same time that Your Side of Order takes place in.

Chapters of Your Side of Order will be posted on my Toyhouse soon (starting possibly next month because ya know February is basically the month before spring ergo the month before Side Order releases if it does release in March. also the first chapter/prolouge of the arc happens a month before the actual events of Side Order so it all lines up).

Any thoughts about Matt Hagen being the Clayface DC reforms?

This post may be a bit longer than my usual affairs, as I feel he's deserving of analysis both on the comics side and the [major] animated appearance side of things. So, since I mentioned comics first, let's break it down by comics to start. That'll be a lot shorter. Also my dog is giving me a migraine rn because the air conditioner cleaner people have come over.

In the pre-Crisis comics, Matthew Hagen is a petty art/jewel thief who decided to keep thieving when he found out he could shape shift for limited amounts of time before needing to refuel himself. There's...really not much I can say about comic!Matt, as that's literally his entire character. Sure, I've personally expanded upon him in fic, but fanfiction isn't canon and that's kind of the entire point of fanfiction. Literally this man was so irrelevant that DC killed him off in the 1980's and no one batted an eye. Afaik, they never brought him back either, except in tie-in material for the Young Justice series. In which his origin is entirely different, but we'll talk about that if/when I can get Rue to stop screaming at the repairman because she's getting on my nerves. In short, I guess you could redeem comics!Matt, but there's no canon evidence that he would ever want to stop committing crimes. Maybe that would be different if he was brought back and his origin reinvented. But I don't always deal in hypotheticals.

I'll be going over his animated appearances next.

- Batman: the Animated Series/The New Batman Adventures/Justice League: first of all, I fucking hate BtAS as a whole and could barely stomach my way through Feat of Clay pts 1 and 2. It makes me ill, and not in a good way; about the only episode I tolerate is the Mr. Freeze origin. But, ignoring the fact this version of Matt's backstory is entirely lifted from what the comic books and other media would do to Basil Karlo as there was no canon basis for Matt ever wanting to be an actor [although I guess you could swing it, Matt's greatest flaw is his greed], it's a decent enough introduction that doesn't fail to make the character it's introducing sympathetic; note that I haven't watched any of the later episodes of BtAS where he appears, but I've heard things. It's not awful within the context of the canon it comes from, and I could definitely see that version of Matt becoming a hero if not some normal guy again. The accident wasn't his fault, and in later appearances he still didn't seem to be all that thrilled about the crime thing. Also what was up with "Growing Pains" as an episode. At the very least, it showed his desire for a normal life, even if he had to create an entirely separate person [who became her own thing] to experience it.

- Young Justice: first off I've never personally watched this show. My knowledge of it is still fairly comprehensive though, thanks to my friend Conner being a walking encyclopedia. And I actually really like how Matt is in this show. His relationship with Talia is dare I say almost cute if extremely one sided [as he's just using her to find a cure for his terminal cancer], and the concept of him being part of the League of Shadows is one I feel should transition into the mainline comic series proper as there's really a lot you could do with that. I like how he redeems himself, not quickly but gradually. Re. Young Justice: Targets #1; he's working as a security guard and bodyguard, and seems genuinely content with his life.

In summary; redeeming Matt can work, you just have to know what you're doing as an author. Don't hijack some other Clayface's origin to do it, because people will notice. Maybe not many people, but people will notice. I'll notice.