#and now i have four turtle children i guess

[theyhavetakenovermylife]

Kids Of The Future

FastForward!Turtles x reader

A/N: Been having this idea for a while now, so decided it was time to write it down💙❤️💜🧡

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Arriving in the future and meeting Cody Jones, the great-grandson of Casey Jones and April O’Neil isn’t the only family surprise you and your turtle boyfriend stumble upon.

Warnings: I’m not sure what warnings apply to you meeting your own future great-grandchildren.

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Leonardo:

After the whole ordeal of finding Mikey somewhere in futuristic New York City in the year 2105, it was a relief to be back in Cody’s penthouse. Watching Raph and Mikey fight over the TV remote was oddly familiar and comforting. Master Splinter was right; adjusting wouldn’t be a problem.

“Well”, Leo said, turning to you with a small smile. “I guess date nights are going to be quite different for the time being”.

You snorted at his comment, wrapping your arms around his torso. “You think so?”

Leo nodded before placing a peck on your lips, causing his brothers to let out noises of disgust. But then someone came through the front door of Cody Jones’ penthouse.

“Hey, Cody!”, a voice sounded in the hallway, causing the turtles to stiffen, looking in the direction of the noise. Even Cody stiffened a bit, his eyes widening as if he had forgotten something.

You held on to Leo’s arm, watching as a young man walked in. His skin was green, and on his back he carried what looked like a small shell. His four fingers on his right hand, carried something that reminded you of a phone, reading from a hologram projected by the said phone. “Have you heard the news? Absolute chaos downtown. Undocumented aliens causing chaos with the peacekeepers and destroying a gravity level 3 road. It’s a mess! They even have pictures, and they kind of look like…”

Once he saw you and the turtles, he halted, before quickly pulling for the blaster on his left side. Cody told him no, as Leo moved a hand over to protect you, he and his brothers ready to jump at a moment’s notice.

“No, Kai!”, Cody yelled. “It is okay! They are with me!”

The so-called Kai looked from the fight ready turtles to Cody at his side. He hesitated for a moment, before he left his blaster alone in his belt with an audible sigh.

“We have talked about this Cody”, he said, looking like a tired older brother. You fought a chuckle. He kind of reminded you of Leo. “You have to tell me when you have people visiting. Remember last time? Where I almost shot up your and Darius’ business meeting, thinking those investors were there to kidnap you?”

“I’m sorry Kai, but it was kind of a spontaneous visit”, Cody said, rubbing his neck.

“Cody”, Leo said, drawing the young Jones' attention back to the turtle, rat and human, still ready for any attack. “Who is this?”

“I could ask the same thing”, Kai said. You were surprised at how well he matched Leo’s tone.

Cody started scratching his cheek, seeming a bit nervous, eyes flickering back and forth between the two of them. “Uhm… Kai, this is Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Master Splinter and…” You saw Kai’s eyes widen, as if he was realizing something. His gaze moved straight to you and Leo. “This is Leonardo and (Y/N). Leonardo and (Y/N), this is Kai. My personal bodyguard and uhm… your great-grandson”.

Silence fell in the room. The stare down that happened between you and Leonardo and the shocked Kai had taken up every sound.

Great-grandson. You and Leo had a great-grandson. That meant you and Leo would have children. You and Leo would have children! The thought rocked your head, and from the expression on Leo’s face, he was just as shocked as you were.

“Personal bodyguard?”, Raph asked, crossing his arms with a disapproving look. “What kind of personal bodyguard isn’t home when their boss brings strangers home?”

“It’s my day off, okay!”, Kai exclaimed.

“Bad excuse”, Mikey teased, bringing a hand up, causing Kai to scowl at him.

“Bad excuse or not”, Donnie said, staring at Kai. “There’s no doubt that he’s a lot like Leo”.

“Would it surprise you to hear that my grandpa used to say the same thing?”, Kai asked.

The conversation that unfolded between Kai and Leonardo’s brothers was wild to say the least. You and Leo stood staring at them, not truly sure what to say or do with your future great-grandson in the room. Yet you still turned to Leo, not being able to hold your thoughts back.

“Whatever date nights you got planned while we’re here, I think it’s fair to say they’ll be successful”.

Leo nodded in agreement.

Raphael:

Still shaken by the incident on the road, you, your boyfriend Raph, Donnie, Leo and Splinter followed the “walking pile of scrap metal” - as Raph had called the robot - into the big penthouse apartment. Your boyfriend was still fuming, angry at the fact that all of you were in a nice penthouse while Mikey was out on the street somewhere.

Leo thanked the robot for his help, and mentioned how they needed to find their missing brother, but the robot continued talking about how his Master had ordered him to bring them there as fast as possible. You could feel the anger radiate off of Raphael whenever this Master was mentioned.

But then you met this so-called Master, and your world got turned upside down. A 15 year old boy named Cody. Cody Jones. The great-grandson of Casey Jones and April O’Neil. To say you were shocked was an understatement. But you were soon about to learn some more shocking news.

As Cody was explaining where he had gotten his collection from - his ninja turtles collection that is - Raphael noticed something that almost made him smile. His beloved sais, being on display just as proudly as his mask had been. Oh how he had missed them!

So as Cody, and his ginormous robot named Serling, continued to explain, Raph went over to the display, his fingers tingling as he got closer to the weapons.

He chuckled as he reached out for them. “I have missed ya!”, he said, a smile growing on his face. “Come to papa- Ow!”

Before Raph had been able to grab his sai, someone had slapped him over the fingers, causing him to retract his hand in pain. He turned to that someone, expecting it to be that Serling robot, only to be met by a turtle like humanoid, with flesh toned skin and an anger burning in her eyes.

She pushed Raph away, stepping between him and his sais.

“Hey!”, Raph yelled, immediately bouncing back. “I was in the middle of something, spoil sport!”

“Do not touch them!”, she yelled, blocking Raphael’s way.

“You don’t tell me what to do!”, Raphael yelled. “Now move! I want my sai!”

“You’re sai!? They are not you’re sai, you thick shell head! They are the sai of my great-grandfather! He used them to fight the Shredder, and used them while saving the world, several times! So if you think you’re worthy enough to call them yours, you’re not just mistaken! You’re dumb!”, she yelled in Raph’s face, the two of them locked in a growling match.

“Rogue”, Cody said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “That is your great-grandfather, Raphael”.

You saw as the realization hit both Raphael and Rogue the same time with the same exact expression. You blinked, taking in the scene in front of you, feeling as if a rock sank to the bottom of your stomach. It was like watching twins, except one was green and the other and a human skin like complexion.

“No way”, you heard Donatello whisper right behind you.

“You’re kidding, right?”, Rogue finally asked Cody, side eyeing Raphael harder than Raph had ever side eyed any one. Even you could tell they were related, and it was almost frightening.

“I am not kidding”, Cody answered, stepping between the two of them. “Rogue, this is Raphael, and as you know, your great-grandfather. And that-”. He gestured towards you. “-Is (Y/N), your great-grandmother”.

Rogue stared at you for a moment, before turning her gaze back towards Raphael. “Really, grandma? You look that good and you chose this”, she said, gesturing towards Raph.

“Yup”, Leo mumbled. “That’s Raph junior, alright”. You couldn’t help but agree.

“(Y/N)”, Raph called out, arms crossed and gaze firmly fixed on Rogue in a new staring contest. “Remind me to teach our children some manners, ‘coz this one obviously has none!”

“Great”, you breathed out, rolling your eyes. “This is going to be fun”.

Donatello:

“So, let me get this straight”, you said, standing from the spinning chair and walked closer to your boyfriend, Donatello, and Cody as they continued working on the Time Window. You haven’t even been here for a full two days, and the two of them were already looking for a way to get you back. You didn’t blame them for wanting to work fast. You and the turtles’ presents in 2105 could prove dangerous in more ways than one, and could only get worse the longer you stayed there. “You live in this big cool penthouse all alone, just you and Serling?”

“Yeah, mostly”, Cody said, helping your boyfriend connect two wires too small for his own three fingered hands.

“What do you mean by mostly?”, you asked, your brows frowning.

“Well, I have a family that comes and visits every once in a while”.

“Family?”, Donnie asked with a pleasant smile, watching as the wires got connected. “Does that mean there are more Jones’ out there?”

“No, not really”, Cody said, chewing his cheeks with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “They’re not really family, but I see them as such”.

“I know what you mean”, you smiled, before mindlessly letting one of your fingers trace the edge of Donnie’s shell. “I have the same feeling about a group of people I know”. Donnie smiled at that comment, taking your hand to give it a small kiss.

“They have been friends of my family for quite some time”, Cody said, just as thoughtful as before. “I’ve pretty much grown up with them”.

“Will we ever meet them?”, Donnie asked.

“Yeah, maybe”, Cody said, getting slightly nervous. “They usually show up uninvited - not that anything is wrong with it!”, he quickly added, seeming almost panicked. “It’s just the norm. Their parents are busy, you know. With all that quality control at O'Neil tech and paperwork and…”

“Quality control?”, you asked. “Do their parents work for you?”

“No”, Cody smiled a little sheepishly. “Their parents own part of the company, just like their parents did and… their parents…”

“Their parents?...”, Donnie repeated, confused.

You and Donnie wanted to ask what he was talking about, when a pair of young sounding laughters erupted from just outside the lab. Cody sat up, panic in his eyes as he looked towards the door. Suddenly two green young humanoids came into the lab, laughing at something one of them had said. You were shocked to see the small shell-like outlines on their backs, and their shortened number of digits on each hand and foot.

They saw you and Donnie and stopped dead in their tracks. “No way”, they mumbled as they enthusiastically poked you and Donatello, eyes wide and smiles big on their faces.

“Nova, Orion, be nice”, Cody sighed, sounding like an exhausted parent.

“But Cody, it is them!”, Nova exclaimed before jumping on you, her arms wrapping around you in a hug.

“This is amazing!”, Orion said, jumping up and down in front of Donatello. “I have so many questions! Mom and dad literally have a picture framed of you and grandma in their office! There’s so much I want to know, grandpa!”

“Grandpa?”, Donnie asked in confusion. “I’m sorry, but I think you got the wrong person. I’m only 18, and very much childless”.

“Yeah, obviously”, Nova said, still hugging you tightly. “You and grandma don’t have your first kid before 29”.

“Okay, that’s enough”, Cody said, pulling the two young terrapin-like creatures off of you. “Great-grandchildren, what can you do?”, Cody smiled, hoping to relieve you and Donnie from your shocked expressions, as he started pulling the young hyperactive twins out of the lab.

You and Donnie sat and stared after them for some time, before finally turning to one another.

“They have that from you”, he said, before turning back towards the wires.

“With the way you and your brothers act, I’ll have to disagree. That’s definitely from your side”, you said, leaning on his shoulder and watched as he worked.

Michelangelo:

In the short time you had been in the year 2105, you had actually liked it way more than you thought you would. The food was good and the air was fresher than you had expected. But even better was the entertainment. The movies were amazing, especially on Cody’s brand new TV, that would allow the viewer to enter the movie, watching it while standing and moving around the scene as it pleased them. You and your fun loving boyfriend, Mikey, had already made great use of that feature, often bringing junk food along with you, snacking loudly during even the quietest scenes. Never had you thought that you would be able to wave your fries in the face of the villain of a horror movie.

But if there was one thing better than the food and movies of the future, it was the video games. Both you and Mikey agreed; the video games of 2105 was absolutely amazing! The storylines, the dialog, the graphics! Oh! How you wished you could get to see something like that in your own lifetime! Especially something like Helix.

As soon as you and Mikey learned about the existence of Helix, no one could get you or him to stop playing it. It took merely a few days before you had finished and played it through half a dozen times. So when the two of you learned about the upcoming sale of Helix 2, you and Mikey were over the Moon Station, begging Cody to take you to the mall to get it. And much to your happiness, he did, although with a sigh as you can Mikey started running circles around him.

Once at the mall, your enthusiasm didn’t diminish in the least. With big eyes you took in your surroundings. Aliens of all sorts mingled among each other, talking and buying everything from clothes and normal day to day articles, to high end luxuries from big name brands, that you had not yet heard of.

As you walked through the mall in search of the game store, hand in hand with Mikey, followed by his brothers and Cody, you came by the open space that went several floors up and several floors down. A viewing spot, where you could see people on escalators and elevators, along with the restaurants down on the ground floor. That was when you noticed the advertisement on the big screens that hung around on the floors. It was for the new Helix 2 game along with a strangely familiar guy, who stood with his arms crossed and a smirk on his lips, posing over the neon green title of Helix 2.

Mikey noticed how your attention was drawn off to the side, and followed your gaze to the advertisement. He stopped dead in his tracks, causing the rest to stop in confusion.

“Who the shell is that?”, Mikey asked, pointing to the terrapin-like person on the holographic poster, where the title shone and the guy winked at the people watching him. “Awfully handsome fellow though”.

“Oh, I feared this day would come”, Cody sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “Michelangelo, that is Dash. Dash Hamato. Five times winner of the Intergalactic Gaming Championships, and a pretty good friend of mine”.

“Wait, Hamato?”, Leo asked, hands in the air. “As in, Hamato Yoshi?”

“Yup”, Cody said with a nod. “Hamato as in Michelangelo and (Y/N) Hamato. The great-grandfather and great-grandmother of Dash Hamato”.

Your mouth fell open. You looked from Cody to the advertisement of Dash, who once again winked to the people walking through the mall. That was your great-grandson?!

“Oh no”, Raph mumbled, facepalming as he realized what was coming.

“Hell yeah sonnie!”, Mikey yelled, fist in the air as he turned back towards the poster of Dash as Raph growled in frustration. “Champion, just like his great-grandpa! I can see that the Battle Nexus Champion gene is running strong in the family!”

“Not this again!”, Raph said, shaking his head in his hands, causing Leo to put a supporting hand on his shoulder.

“He made a deal with Helix after his third win, and is now their official spokesperson”, Cody explained, watching as Mikey jumped in happiness.

“I have to meet this guy!”, Mikey said, before turning to you. “(Y/N)! Our great-grandson is Helix spokesperson! We have to meet him!”

“I don’t know, Mikey”, Cody said, scratching his neck. “Dash is a busy guy. He takes his gaming very seriously and is often hard to get a hold of. He lives on the Moon Base because the darker atmosphere makes it easier for him to practice his gaming”.

“That sounds like a descendant of Mikey”, Donnie chuckled.

“No great-grandson of mine can leave his great-grandparents hanging like that!”, Mikey said, wrapping an arm around you. “First we get Helix 2, and then we get a hold of Dash! Time to teach him some family gaming tricks!”, he said and started marching the two of you towards the gaming store.

#tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt leonardo #tmnt raphael #tmnt donatello #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt leo #tmnt raph #tmnt donnie #tmnt mikey #tmnt x y/n #tmnt x you #tmnt x reader #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt 03 #2003 tmnt #tmnt leo 2003 #tmnt leonardo 2003 #tmnt raph 2003 #tmnt raphael 2003 #tmnt donnie 2003 #tmnt donatello 2003 #tmnt mikey 2003 #tmnt michelangelo 2003 #tmnt 2003 leo #tmnt 2003 leonardo #tmnt 2003 raphael #tmnt 2003 raph #tmnt 2003 donnie

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

I want to tell you about the Flash arc ever: Rogue War.

We start off in the first issue with a totally normal premise. Zoom had escaped jail and was having a romantic fling with Cheetah. The two of them were running around killing people for fun. So naturally Wally and Diana teamed up to stop this horrifying turn of events. Oh and they're also trying to stop the murders as well. Diana was blind for unrelated reasons and she lassoed Wally so that he could act as her seeing eye dog. It's all very normal.

Anyway, so Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang were all doing in-depth research on the Flash family tree. Boy, can I relate to that. Mirror Master hauled in the Turtle for the crime of being... around? I guess? And Weather Wizard found a note tapped to their door inviting the Rogues to a Rogues fight.

In the next issue the Rogues broke the Trickster out of jail and then they tried to hunt down the corpse of the previous Captain Boomerang. It didn't go so well.

Hartley showed up and kidnapped Zoom's wife which was an ABSOLUTELY BALLSY THING TO DO MY GUY. Speaking of kidnappings, Zoom kidnapped Jay because he wanted Jay to build him a cosmic treadmill.

Then we get our Rogue fight. Captain Cold, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Captain Boomerang and the new Trickster vs Wally's best friend (Pied Piper), Wally's childhood best friend (Magenta), Heat Wave and the old Trickster. Someone start blasting the John Cena wrestling music because I associate that with massive showdowns and this is one for the century!

But what exactly was the titular character The Flash doing during all of this, I hear you ask. Well. Wally and Linda spent this issue in the doctor's office running tests and finding out that they couldn't have children. It's all very depressing and we're going to move past it because I won't do the scene justice.

Anyway, so the Rogues were fighting each other and we find out that Hartley's team was working for the FBI. They weren't the ones who had sent the Rogues the note inviting them to a Rogue fight. No, they were just a random, convenient grouping of Rogues who happened to have a bone to pick.

Cut to issue three and Wally was at work. He heard on the news that there's trouble going on so naturally he suits up and heads out. He arrived, in the middle of the Rogue fight, and he had no fucking clue what was happening because there were about nine Rogues duking it out in the middle of the street for no reason.

Now there are three teams. The og Rogues, who want to quell the Rogue uprising and find the previous Captain Boomerang's corpse. The FBI Rogues, who have the previous Captain Boomerang's corpse and don't want to give it up for FBI reasons. And Wally, who would really like them to stop breaking skyscrapers please and thank you.

So they're all fighting and causing just an insane amount of damage to the city when all of sudden the Top shows up out of nowhere and is all "Aha! Rogue fight!!" and suddenly there were four teams in this fight. And that's not all! Turns out the Top was the one who left the note and he had his own Rogue team at his beck and call. Girder, Murmur, Plunder, Tar Pit and Double Down now enter the fight.

There were FOURTEEN Rogues all trying to murder each other and Wally was left scrambling to make sure that they a) don't kill each other, b) don't kill him, and c) don't kill any civilians. Wally did knock out Hartley at one point and then Wally brought him back to his house to crash on his couch which was very cash money of him. Wally was like "go sleep off your bad decisions and we'll talk about this over breakfast ❤️"

But yeah, Wally was straight up not having a good time. Captain Cold killed the Top and shattered bits of his body everywhere, fires were raging because Heat Wave decided to go nuts, both Tricksters were battling it out mid air with acid bombs, ect, ect.

While this is all going on, Zoom's wife found Captain Boomerang's body and he was very much a zombie. The FBI wanted a zombie Captain Boomerang for... reasons, I guess? Cap begged for death so Zoom's wife let him die. Terrible timing though because right when he died the new Captain Boomerang barged into the room. See, the new Captain Boomerang was the previous Boomerang's son and he wasn't happy to see what he thought was a random lady killing his father.

So he threatened to kill Zoom's wife.

Not a great idea.

Zoom showed up and took his wife somewhere safe. That safe place was Wally's living room because it's fucking Zoom and he does whatever he wants.

And now we have five teams. The OG Rogues, the FBI Rogues, Top's Rogues, Wally and Zoom. Why was Zoom on his own team? Why wasn't he fighting with a Rogue group? Well, before Zoom was Zoom, he was an FBI analyst who specialized in the Rogues. He hated them with every fiber of his being. Zoom's main goal was to make Wally suffer but killing a bunch of Rogues was irresistible to him. Plus, they threatened his wife.

This was apparently too easy for Wally though. I mean, fourteen Rogues and Zoom at the same time? Pfft. Come on. So naturally Captain Cold called in Dr. Alchemy to distract Wally. Dr. Alchemy apparently thought 'distract' meant 'brutally beat him' because, by god, the man did not go light on the already extremely beat up and tired speedster.

But that's not enough. No, Cold was like "This is still too easy. Call in the big guns." So they brought out Grodd.

16 Rogues and Zoom versus a man who was bleeding out on the floor. Super awesome and fair fight. You love to see it.

Bart ran in at this point and was all "you never invite me to anything fun, Wally". Because Jay's missing and Wally's at deaths door and Bart learned from Wally that you hide your emotions under a layer of sarcasm at all times. Wally genuinely thanked him for the help and, at the realization that this was so serious that they were abandoning snark, Bart responded with a genuine "you're welcome". In one of my favorite blink-and-you'll-miss-it scenes, Bart and Wally stood back to back, surrounded by Rogues, prepared to make their last stand.

Then Zoom swooped in and killed a few. Zoom said his iconic line "I don't give a shit about the Rogue stuff. This is a speedster fight now." (I'm paraphrasing) Zoom grabbed Bart and threatened to snap his neck. Bart said his iconic line "Do it. You won't." (I'm paraphrasing but not as much as you'd think). Zoom then said his iconic line of "SPKFDVL" (not paraphrasing)

At this point Zoom decided that 16 Rogues and himself was WAY too easy for Wally. So naturally he invited Eobard Thawne to the party. Eobard showed up to the fight fashionably late on a cosmic treadmill. One that had Jay chained to the hood like a dead deer.

We still have two issues left people, so buckle up because it doesn't get less insane from here on out.

The Rogues actually had pretty good survival instincts so they took Zoom's whole "speedster fight" thing to heart and they bailed. They got out of there like rats abandoning a burning building.

Wally then showed the world how smart he was and managed to free Bart and Jay. Wally then showed the world how dumb he was and fought Eobard and Hunter on the cosmic treadmill. They then started time traveling with about as much control and finesse as a drunk driver in a snow storm.

They did a hit and run somewhere in the time stream. Poor Captain Boomerang. He got knocked into the arms of Meloni Thawne in the far off future. (And that's how Bart's brother Owen was born)

Hunter's whole plan here was to take Wally back in time to force him to watch Hunter's previous vicious attack on Wally's then pregnant wife, Linda. This attack was devastating as Hunter's attack caused Linda to miscarry the couple's unborn twins. Hunter wanted to make Wally suffer because Hunter thought tragedy would make Wally a better hero.

Eobard's just there cause he likes fucking with people.

So the two of them hold Wally down to make him watch the worst moment of his life when BARRY FUCKING ALLEN SHOWS UP.

You know. The man who has been dead for years.

You see, Barry was also time traveling because of course he was, he's Barry Allen. While Barry didn't have a single clue about what was happening, Barry saw an adult Wally getting beat up and the man went into a rage. That's his KID goddammit.

Barry did his whole best dad thing and gave Wally a pep talk. Wally, for his part, was pretty chill about time traveling Barry because honestly time traveling Barry showing up wasn't really as uncommon of an occurrence as you would think. Barry then dragged Eobard back in time to kill him (not joking).

Okay we're in the end game now.

Wally kicked the shit out of Hunter and threw him in front Linda, shielding her from Hunter's attack. Hunter flipped out and tried to operate the cosmic treadmill but he fucked up and hurled himself through time. Skill issue.

Wally time traveled back to the present where him, Bart and Jay yelled insults at the retreating Rogues because the Rogues were holding them at Turtle point.

The three made a mad dash to the hospital when they heard news that Linda was Not. Okay. Linda went from not pregnant to nine months pregnant in the span of a second because Wally fucked with time. Linda was in labor and EVERYONE WAS FREAKING OUT.

And that's the story of how the West twins were born.

The End.

#this is the arc equivalent of a kid with a bunch of action figures trying to fit every single action figure into their play fight #it was just BAM! all the Rogues. BAM! Zoom. BAM! Zombie Captain Boomerang. BAM! Meloni Thawne. BAM! Bart. BAM! Eobard. BAM! Barry #this arc man #this arc #dc #dc comics #the flash #kid flash #wally west #impulse #bart allen #barry allen #speedsters #jay garrick #irey west #jai west #linda park #hunter zolomon #Eobard Thawne #Rogues

[tmnt-obsessed-ace]

Guess who's having ANOTHER au thought (because I cannot be stopped)

Ok so the premise is simple.

A 17 year old 2012 Leo ends up in the Riseverse due to a portal mishap

Well more specifically he ends up in the Hidden City.

Completely alone in a new environment in a new dimension, how wonderful.

He's just in time to watch as a then Human Lou Jitsu is carried to Draxum's lab. And well Leonardo couldnt just leave that alone. He follows the gargoyles to the lab.

Because something is about to go down, and he's not gonna let that happen.

By the time Leo breaks into the lab and enters the main chamber, four baby turtles are about to be mutated.

He fights with Draxum, releasing Lou Jitsu in the process.

However Draxum quickly grows to realize that Leonardo is EXACTLY the kind of mutant warrior he was trying to create.

Why use a human to make more warriors when there is a mutant RIGHT THERE for the picking.

Besides, Leonardo is younger than Lou Jitsu and a younger donor would last much longer.

So Leonardo gets put in the machine

And the four baby turtles get mutated using Leonardo's DNA.

The lab ends up on fire and collapses like in canon (and Lou Jitsu ends up mutated into a rat like canon)

Leonardo flees the burning lab, with four crying baby mutant turtles in his arms.

Once he's out of the Hidden City he takes to the sewers immediately.

He wraps the babies in an old blanket he found along the way and collapses soon after.

Oh god...

Oh fuck...

These are HIS kids arent they?

He's only 17 and now he has four kids!

Four teeny tiny kids (the biggest one is smaller than his palm)

What is he gonna do?

He can't raise four infants alone! (He doesn't know what happened to that action star guy, he could faintly hear him scream over the falling rubble and the fire, but Leo was too focused on getting the babies to safety to care at that moment)

He forces himself to calm down, its fine...everything will be fine!

His family will find him (explaining why he suddenly is a father of four will not be fun but he can handle that.) And then everything will be fine.

Days turn to weeks.

Weeks turn to months.

Its almost a year since the lab fire.

The babies are all walking and talking at various levels (The softshell is already starting to learn how to read) getting into everything and full of energy.

Leonardo is so scared.

Its been a year and there hasnt been any contact from his family, no one has come for him. Were they even looking for him?

It takes another couple of months for his hope to fade. He was really stuck here wasnt he? Surely his family would've found him by now?

By year three he knows that no one is coming for him. All he can do now is raise his sons to the best of his ability. Keep them safe and loved, train them to become ninjas like his father before him.

Now 13 years since the lab fire, Leonardo at age 30, is a father to four teenage mutant ninja turtles of his own. Everything is fine

At least until his sons come home with new weapons, millions of dangerous insects released in New York and an old enemy returning to recapture his experiments.

Leonardo will not let that happen. He will protect his children even if it costs him his life.

Meanwhile its only been five months in his home dimension, his still teenage brothers completely oblivious to everything that is happening to their missing eldest brother.

(TLDR: 2012 Leo becomes a parent to the Rise boys while in a different dimension)

Calling this fun little au Same Story Different Font

#tmnt 2012 #rottmnt #crossover #tmnt crossover #aus that inspired this one #Shellshock and WDTYGB #those aus are some of my favorites #idk just 2012 Leo becoming a parent the same way Splinter did is adorable to think about #and when they eventually reunite with 2012 Gang and realize that while its been a few months for them its been 13 YEARS for Leo #he's an adult with grown children #that will be fun for angst

[badassturtles235147]

Like Father, Like Son

Ok, I’m sick and tired of people always assuming that Raph is Shredder’s twin! Yes, Shredder is angry but he is angrily insane, not angrily passionate like Raph!

Let me tell you who I think Raph is really like.

Master Splinter himself!

I know you are probably all like, “No, Leo’s like him!”

He isn’t! Sure, he and Splinter are close but just because they're close doesn’t mean they are alike. Yes, Leo is like Splinter when it comes to self-blame, fearlessness, leadership, and will-power but are you really telling me Leo is more like Splinter than Raph? NO!

I mean the signs people look at the signs!

On Turtle Temper, Splinter scolds Raph for losing his temper during a mission and getting him and his brothers caught on camera because of it. Splinter was hard on Raph in the beginning of the episode because he was angry. Angry that his sons’ safety could be in danger because of Raphael’s temper over a few nasty words. He let his anger and worry make him go harder on Raph then he probably had to but once Splinter hears Raph venting to his pet turtle, Spike, Splinter decided to take a different approach and just talk to his son.

Splinter tells Raph that he understands what he is going through and begins to tell him a story of when he lost his temper with Oroku Saki. Splinter is speaking to Raph from years of experience. This shows you that Splinter had a terrible temper in his younger days. He can not understand Raph fully if he only lost his temper that one time! That’s also why I believe Splinter is always on Raph’s case about his temper and never gives up on trying to help him because he’s been there.

Splinter may have better control of his temper now but there are a few times when Splinter lets his anger take control, especially when it involves the safety of his children.

Remember this: “HOW COULD YOU ALL BE SO CARELESS! Secrecy is the most important rule of the ninja and you have broken it! You four are forbidden from leaving the lair!”

Raph: WHAT?! You can’t hold that against us! We got slimed with toxic poke!”

Splinter: SILENCE!

(Can we all agree that Splinter overreacted in that episode? I mean, he had every right to be worried but he grounded the turtles even though it wasn’t really their fault and even after they fixed it, Splinter hit them and said they're still grounded! I think it’s because he still hasn’t gotten over his anger yet rather than disciplining them.….What did he do to April when she tried to sneak away? Let me know if you have any guesses!)

Again, this shows you how much Splinter and Raph are alike. Raph may get angry a lot but he is terrifying when someone threatens his family! Just like Splinter!

(You can not tell me you do not see Raph in this photo)

And remember New Friends, Old Enemy? After Mikey showed them the death dragon, Leo and Raph decided to try it out. When Splinter came in, he immediately saw a flashback, Raphael as him and Leonardo as Shredder.

I’m not saying that Leo is like Shredder! He is too much of a goody-three-toes. I’m saything they could have made Raph do the move instead of him being the one getting knocked down but instead they made Leo do it. I think it shows how much of himself Splinter sees in Raphael.

Raph and Splinter both have a temper, they are both protective, and they are both feisty.

But I’m not done! There are more similarities between them!

Splinter and Raph both have a soft spot for those who can’t defend themselves. When they see someone or some creature in trouble, their protective instincts kick in and they end up spending their entire lives taking care of that person! Raph with Spike, let’s not forget Chompy and Mikey. All the older brothers are protective of the baby in the family but Raph is especially protective because of his soft spot for his baby brother!

When Splinter mutated he could have just left the turtles and saved himself but he took them in and raised them as his own because his protective nature couldn’t let vulnerable creatures defend for themselves. He just could not abandon cute baby turtles and remember Lone Rat and Cubs? Splinter lost it when Raph’s shell got cracked and when Donnie almost blew up Spike before he mutated, Raph yelled at his brother for being stupid.

They are both true to themselves. Raph never tries to be someone else unlike his brother Leo who tries to be like a cartoon character or his father! Raph may hate himself sometimes but that doesn’t stop him from being himself and being proud of who he is. The only reason Raph may hate himself is because his temper sometimes loses control and it causes his loved ones to get hurt. Raph never denied that he has a problem but he refused to let his brothers make it seem like he doesn’t care or he’s not trying. Raph knows he has anger problems, he just doesn’t know how to control it but that doesn’t stop him from trying. Raph doesn’t try to be someone else but he does try to be his better self.

When Tang Shen wanted Splinter to give up being a ninja, he refused. Splinter loved Tang Shen and would do anything for her but he will not pretend to be someone he’s not. Splinter is a warrior, he could not just turn his back on that. Though that does not mean he put his clan before her. On Lone Rats and Cubs, Splinter said he wanted to be both. He didn’t get the chance with his wife because Shredder killed her but he will not fail his sons, this time he will be both father and warrior.

Family is everything to both Splinter and Raph. Nothing comes before their family, nothing! Not even themselves. When Raph tried to be leader for a day, Mikey got hurt and Raph instantly blamed himself. He even said, “I don’t care about risking my own life but risking my brothers’...”

Raph realized his mistake and understood Leo much better than he did before. He let his pride and stubbornness blind him and his little brother paid the price. Raph never tried to be leader again after that, he knew his place on the team, he was the warrior, the protector and though he has potential to be a good leader one day, it’s not a role he ever wants again.

Before Saki came, Splinter was apologizing to Shen, feeling bad for their argument and wanting to make it right. “I am sorry, Shen. You and Miwa are my life, without you I am a shadow.” He meant what he said, though Splinter moved on and made a new family with his sons, you knew that he often thought about the family he lost in Japan. He never stops missing them and you can tell that he regrets not being a better husband towards his wife.

They are both fiercely loyal, compassionate, determined, stubborn, prideful, and true.

They both have the same taste in women! Most men can’t stand being overpowered by women. Men want women who depend on them but not Splinter and Raphael! They find a woman who has an independent-fighting-spirit, attractive.

When Raph first met Monalisa they were enemies but once Mona punched Raph, knocking him down and he saw how ruthless of a fighter she is, sparks flew! We all know Monalisa is a warrior but she is also a caring, independent, brave and strong woman.

When Raph tried to defend her after Bishop basically called her stupid, Mona quickly stopped him and said, “I can take care of myself Raphael, thank you.” She then glared at Bishop and said, “If you dare talk to me like that again, I will chew up your Utrom brian and spit it out!” She threatened without hesitation. Even Raph was scared of her at that moment!

Then there is Splinter and Tang Shen. We never got to see how Splinter and Shen met but we do see a bit of Shen’s personality in Tale Of The Yokai, Shen is a fierce, honest, independent, brave woman. Shen never holds back on how she feels and tells Splinter that the ninja life is something she doesn’t want for her daughter, worried for her safety but Splinter wouldn’t hear a word of it. Shen then told Splinter firmly that he has to choose and then leaves. Splinter calls out and offers to walk her home (My guess hoping they could figure something out) but Shen said. “I can take care of myself. I’ve always had.”

Shen clearly makes her own choices she thinks is right as well as Mona. They both take care of their lovers, support them, and love them dearly. If anything, Splinter and Raph depend on them but that doesn’t mean they don’t like to take care of their women too. Also, to everyone else, they show their warrior side but to their lovers they show a much more soft vulnerable side.

Hamato Raphael is Hamato Yoshi’s son and he is proud to be! Though Raph isn’t Splinter’s biological son, Raph seemed to have inherited his father’s fiery-warrior spirit.

So, still think Leo is a lot like Splinter? Let me know!

(Not of the photos are mine and I don’t own TMNT!)

#tmnt 2012 #raphael tmnt #splinter #father and son #angry #love

[bonebabbles]

All arc long, we have seen Gray Wing not be treated like the real father of the kits he raises.

Five books, and we're now on the sixth and last of this rancid arc.

He is not referred to as Thunder's father outside of the closing line of Book 1 when Clear Sky abandons him, CLEAR SKY is, even ENCOURAGING Thunder to go connect to "HIS FATHER" in Book 2. Even if he was, he's a TERRIBLE parental figure. His constant enabling of his shitty brother winds up driving Thunder into a place where he is abused, and subsequently a near murder at the First Battle which Clear Sky causes. Even post-"redemption arc," after Clear Sky slips back into emotionally abusing his son, just like before, and Thunder leaves him for a THIRD time, Gray Wing screeches at Thunder to "STOP SULKING" and fetch the man who has maliciously attempted to hurt him at every opportunity.

Gray Wing is also not treated as the real dad of Turtle Tail's kits. As soon as he spills the beans to a domestic abuser on where his kids can be found, Tom the Wifebeater kidnaps his children and tells him he's their dad in Book 3. This gets their mother killed in the process, and from then on, TOM is treated as the father they're desperate to know and avenge. Sparrow Fur even laments about how he's their father so if the Clan doesn't like him, they don't like her either.

In Book 4, after Tom the Wifebeater gets his redemption death saving his daughter from a mauling Clear Sky allowed to happen, Gray Wing even says to Owl Eyes, point blank, "I'm not your father, am I?"

Owl Eyes has to DANCE around outright telling him that, no, he is not on the same level. Then he learns of Tom the Wifebeater's death and is so upset he cannot visit what might be his sister's death bed. Even though he only met Tom once during a kidnapping.

Gray Wing was not treated as their dad. He is seen as less than a father by all the characters, AND the narrative, even for the kids he raised from birth.

The only one of these four children that he seems to have a positive relationship with and is described properly is Pebble Heart.

But now, after pissing away 5 books of setup, because they're going to kill this character off soon, they start wanting to collect on what they didn't establish. On what they downplayed for drama and angst.

His fridge wife comforts him in a dream about how he's the perfect boy and Everyone Loves Him.

It doesn't matter that Gray Wing was functionally a terrible parent who's put Thunder in danger by encouraging (and even forcing) a connection to Clear Sky, or that he's been shown as having what I can only describe as "unrequited parental love" for these kits, or that "blood" and biological parents have been exalted for FIVE. BOOKS.

People will read this LAST book, Path of Stars, and conclude DOTC has great messages about adoption. That death scene is just soo good it's going to flush the rest of the arc down the drain, I guess.

#I also can't find the post I made on when he starts barking at Thunder for being a bad rabbit hunter #And Thunder snaps that he's tired and been hunting all day #And Gray Wing keeps yelling at him until Thunder snaps 'You don't always KNOW what's best for me!!' #i just... i cant believe it never came back around #that seems like such a perfect way to set up a character arc about Gray Wing's enabling as a massive flaw to confront #You Dont Always Know What's Best #Both as a response to Clear's abuse being dismissed as 'he did what he thought was best' AND Gray feeling it's Best for Thunder to know him #Nope. Can't say that Gray Wing has any flaws at all ever. Everyone loves him and he's soso perfect. #dotc hate #bones reads dotc

[taizi]

If you’d like another Rise prompt, maybe something about Donnie’s battleshell? If that’s too vague, maybe its origins, or maybe what Splinter thinks about it?

this is also set in the human splinter au <3

x

When Donatello was a baby, Yoshi didn’t worry quite as much about his soft shell. He and his brothers were all the same sort of fragile, questionable mutation and its potential effects aside, and Yoshi panicked over each of them an equal amount.

They played hard. They always wanted to climb and run and tumble. Yoshi is inclined to blame the ooze that psychotic goat-man alchemist pumped them full of, because blaming him is neat and comfortable and makes Yoshi feel warm inside.

But Yoshi has also spent a not-insignificant amount of his fortune on parenting books and magazine subscriptions, and according to the experts, children are just tiny crazy people who will run at full-speed into a wall multiple times for no reason.

Which is fine. Yoshi has been a papa for almost four years now and it’s quite possible that he’ll never want to be anything else ever again for as long as he lives. His boys have secured their place in his heart and no amount of broken windows or crayon-scribbled walls or gutted kitchen appliances (???) will change that.

The problem is that Donatello’s shell doesn’t afford him the same protection that his brothers’ do. He’s as fast and strong as the other three, and easily twice as smart, but he’s just not as hardy.

Yoshi has no idea what he would do without his credit card and his talent manager-turned-reluctant-godmother. Between the two of them, he has an answer for everything.

“I don’t want to,” Donatello announces before Yoshi has even opened his mouth.

“You don’t want to go roller-skating?” he says, affecting a tone of complete surprise. It causes Donatello’s chubby face to fold into an epic pout, which is adorable, which makes up for how frustrating he can be when he digs his little heels in about something.

“No, papa, I want to go. But I don’t want to wear that dum-dum thing.”

“Your Auntie Hala is going to cry for days and days when I tell her how much you hate the present she got you,” Yoshi tells him solemnly.

Donatello considers this. Then he says, “Don’t tell her.”

Ah, logic Yoshi can’t actually find fault with. He never would have guessed he’d spend his early thirties losing so many arguments with a turtle toddler. 

“You are wise beyond your years,” he says, wondering what it will look like when Donatello is a teenager, and whether or not Yoshi will survive it.

The ‘dum-dum thing’ in question is a modified back brace, meant for children with spinal disorders. Yoshi is pretty sure this qualifies. The reason Donatello hates it so much is the modifications Yoshi made to it; namely, the memory foam cover for his leathery carapace. It’s bulky and it slows him down and he hates falling behind the other three. Lately he’s taken to sitting out of their games because he would rather tinker by himself than wear the brace.

Yoshi is a little worried about that. He hasn’t come up with a way to make everyone happy yet, and he’s losing sleep trying to figure it out.

Leonardo pokes his head through the doorway. “Papa you said we were going,” he whines. “How come we’re not?”

“Negotiations have broken down,” Yoshi says, kneading his forehead with his palm.

“Dunno what that is,” Leonardo declares and visibly puts it out of his mind as not his problem. “Don-don, come on. We’re gonna skate.”

“No,” Donatello declares. His mouth is screwed up, brow furrowed, fully ready to be a little monster about it. “I don’t want to go if I have to wear the dumb fake shell.”

Leonardo tips his head to one side, considering this. It’s no secret to his brothers that Donatello has no fondness for the brace. This usually culminates in one or three of them helping him to escape it, and then hiding it somewhere stupid for Yoshi to find like the world’s worst Easter Egg hunt.

“We’re twins,” Leonardo says with all the unyielding certainty of a schoolteacher discussing matters with an obstinate child. “So we have to share. I’ll wear it, and then Donnie will wear it, and then it’s fair.”

Somehow—Yoshi can’t believe this, but somehow the logic goes to work. Donatello’s expression shifts from mullish to thoughtful. The most stubborn little treasure in Yoshi’s entire life is giving ground.

“It’s fair,” he agrees. He and Leonardo turn their big brown eyes up to Yoshi expectantly.

Honestly, Yoshi can’t believe he’s not going to have to wrestle Donatello into the brace for once in their lives. He’s a little embarrassed his second youngest child thought of this neat little solution before him. It costs him absolutely nothing to agree, and he straps the brace onto Leonardo’s back instead. When they get to the rink, one that Yoshi has unapologetically rented out for the afternoon so his kids can play freely, they’ll switch, and Donatello will wear it while the four of them turn inline skating into a contact sport.

And nearly a decade down the road, when Donatello is building advanced technology the way other kids his age are building blanket forts out of the couch cushions and Yoshi’s best sheets (re: his siblings) and he has long-since traded the brace for an armored shell of his own design, he goes from absolutely refusing to put it on to pretty much never letting anyone see him without it, ever, or else.

Because no son of Yoshi’s would understand the idea of a happy middle ground. It’s all or nothing, go big or go home in this house.

This is when the twin thing continues to save the day.

“Oh Telloooooooo,” Leonardo sing-songs, audible throughout the entire house, “Shell Time!”

“Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” Donatello replies, but it’s a token resistance at best.

And when Yoshi wanders that way to check on things a few minutes later, he’ll find the boys in the garage. Donatello is chattering a-mile-a-minute at Raphael about the computer he’s building, and his older brother is nodding along agreeably even though he clearly isn’t absorbing a single word. Leonardo is sprawled on his plastron, head pillowed on his folded arms, letting Michelangelo go to town with glittery stickers.

Donatello’s soft shell will be covered by nothing but the blanket Raphael tossed over his shoulders, and Leonardo will wear the battle shell just long enough for his twin to relax his spine and sit without pain—because fair is fair.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #lou jitsu #hamato yoshi #hamato donatello #ratdad #disaster twins #my writing #iwillkeepfighting #tmnt fic #prompt #human splinter au

[purple-tello]

Another special delivery of angst! These files are from the most recent updates to Facility 92's database by none other thaaaan, you guessed it, AGENT BISHOP!

Trigger warnings are implied experimentation and dehumanizing language

Subject Three - "Leonardo"

Filed by Agent Bishop in Facility 96.

After the ambush today, we were able to capture two of our assailants. The first of these is a mutated turtle, likely one of the, "children," referred to by One. There are no legal records of Three's birth, therefore its consent to DNA testing is not required.

From a quick glance, we have been able to identify Three as a species of Red Eared Slider, its human DNA matching that of Hamato Yoshi. Three's metabolism is also extremely high, as the drugs used to sedate them wore off extreme fast. Likely due to the mutagen. Extracting a sample will be necessary.

Three shows an intelligence that should not be underestimated. It waited until a guard's back was turned before drawing a sword out of nowhere to attack. All items have been apprehended from its possession as to keep it from using anything as a weapon. It has asked to see subjects One, Two, and Four. We have permitted it to see Four, though through bars. We cannot allow these subjects to escape, they are our only access to the mutagen.

It should also be noted that Three should not be left without supervision for long. Several escape attempts have already been attempted, and we cannot risk another. Three is extremely observant and should not be underestimated.

It is suggested that Three can be used to better contain Four. If either escapes, nonlethal methods are recommended, but should it become necessary, kill on sight.

Subject Four - "Raphael"

Filed by Agent Bishop in Facility 92.

Subject Four was quickly apprehended with Three, though it took much longer to sedate it. It was noticeably much easier to apprehend it when threatened with Three's safety. Due to the lack of citizenship or record of Four being a legal citizen of the United States, consent is not required for DNA testing of any kind.

Four seems to he a mutated form of Alligator Snapping turtle with the shared DNA of Hamato Yoshi. This connection between Three and Four suggests that despite their differing species, they are related. It is recommended that we push further for One's consent to its DNA to see if that connection extends to it as well.

Upon speaking to Three, this conversation was recorded.

Three: You okay?

Four: Yeah... Fine. What about you, you okay?

Three: Other than getting needles in my arm? Fantastic. It's always been my dream to be a guinea pig in a lab against my will.

Four: Leo stop, that's not funny. Did you see if the others got out?

Three: Don't ask that. They're fine, but don't give anyone an inch to investigate it again.

Four: You don't think -

Three: Shush. They're probably listening right now.

Four: Have you thought of a way out?

Three: God do you not hear me? Shush! And really? You wanna listen to my plans now?

Four: |after hesitation| You're probably right... I'm sorry...

Three: Oh I can tell.

Four: Leo I'm sorry.

Three: I believe you.

Four: LEO I AM SORRY. |Four was then observed panicking with its hands on its head| I'm sorry, okay? You were right, we shouldn't have done this! We should have just waited to get dad back and - you were right...

|several moments of silence|

Four: Please talk to me...

Three: You weren't listening before... Why would you now?

Four: Because... I don't have a good reason.. But I'm sorry. I was scared, I ran in when I shouldn't have, I put us all in danger, and now you're paying for it.

|more silence|

Four: I knew you were right, but I... I didn't want to listen. I was so scared I'd lose them, like how we lost you. I wasn't ready to face that again.

Three: I know.

Four: You do?

Three: Dude I literally did this same thing when you got taken by the - |Three cut itself off here and glanced towards the camera, as if afraid to reveal information. Note for later|

Four: You... Did?

Three: I got us all hurt trying to get you back. It took... God it took him talking to me to really sink in how dangerous this all is... I didn't think death applied to us before. I do now.

Four: Yeah... Because of what happened to you.

Three: No, because of what could have happened to you.

Four: What?

Three: Not here... But I get it. I just don't get why... You were always lecturing me for acting like that, why did you?

|silence|

Three: Raph?

Four: Because it's what you would have done, before.

Three: Huh?

Four: You're our leader. Doesn't matter that you gave that title to me when you got hurt, deep down we all know you're the one we follow. Even when we were kids, Leo, you always had the plans, the ideas. You got us out of trouble or figured out the answers to our problems. You gave me the chance to prove myself again, and I didn't wanna waste it.

Three: So you thought making the same mistakes I did would help?

Four: I dunno what I thought... Just that that was how we used to do things. Go in, get it done, get out. You and I would fight like we always did but we'd get the job done.

Three: Keep talking like that and the people here are going to think we're assassins.

Four: Oh... Right.

|more silence|

Three: ... Raph what are they gonna do to us?

Raph: Well... We know they didn't hurt dad...

Three: Dad has rights. We don't.

Four: What?

Three: They can prove dad is a US citizen. Us? We have no legal proof of existence anywhere. Nobody knows about us... They can do whatever they want to us...

Four: I won't let them. Not to you.

Three: ... We really gucked this one up, huh?

Four: Yeah... We did. I'm sorry, Leo.

Three: I know... And I forgive you... Hey, I have an idea.

After this both subjects refused to acknowledge or speak to each other. There was no indication of any communication between them other than their facial expressions. As ridiculous as it sounds, I suggest a mental connection of some kind.

It seems that Three is the only true motivation to keep Four calm and resistant to escape. It has not attempted to escape so much as see Three face to face. This could be utilized in their containment. Should Four escape, it's size is too big to kept alive. Do not engage, and kill on sight.

#ttatc #ask rottmnt #rottmnt #plot #tw dehumanizing language #tw implied experimentation

[grandnexus-spiderlings]

Probably a good idea to do an introduction. The Hidden City should know us by now but who knows!

We are the Spiderlings, children of Big Mama. This account is run by four people:

Raphael "Raph"- The best big sister we could ever have <33. Tag is "raph post" 15 Any pronouns

Leonardo "Leo"- ME~~! Proud middle child. I "run" the blog (it's a sideblog connected to my account) because as the face man it's my job of course!! Tag is "leo post" 14 Lol guess

Donatello "Donnie"- My beloved twin. The shortest in the family and yes that is important information to add. Tag is "donnie post" 14 He/They/Glitch

Michelangelo "Mikey"- The youngest, and he sure uses that to his advantage. He's the baby and he knows it. He gets away with everything, but I'm ONTO HIM. Tag is "mikey post" 13 Any pronouns, preference alternates. (He/him works no matter what time)

We made this blog to answer any and all questions that you may have! It could be about the hotel, or about us. Any uncomfortable or weird questions may be avoided as we (and the blog runner) are minors.

Other than that, we'll be posting things on here and you are free to ask away!!

-Going ooc for a moment hope ya don't mind

This is an ask blog for my Mama's Wishes au, and the whole gist of the au is that the turtles got raised by Big Mama. You can find more information and art on the au on my main blog: @bucketofbugz .

This blog starts at about the same time as the au itself, and will go through the same storyline. Depending on how much interaction this blog gets it might move faster or slower than the fic. The more interaction the better!

This also means that the posts are not happening in real time. I could post two things that are days apart but in canon they happened within a few hours. It all depends on the time I have.

#ask blog #mama's wishes au #tmnt #rottmnt #introduction #raph post #mikey post #leo post #donnie post

[thedawningofthehour]

I think that's the worst part, even in his final moments Draxum won't realize he made a mistake, and all he ultimately did was change one bad situation to another bad situation only worse, all because Draxum doesn't understand people as much as he understands science and fails to realize that in essence, the Yōkai are still human. Not to mention that he will left Galois to deal with a situation he's not prepared for.

Galois will undoubtedly have it worse, as he will not be able to understand why on earth they are fighting each other, aren't they all the same now? This is not what his father said would happen.

I just have another question, where will Bella and Pax be in all this? Let me guess, Bella will die trying to stop Draxum.

Now I'm curious how it would be if Draxum had won in the timeline in which he managed to keep all four turtles from the beginning?

That is a really good analysis, A+. Draxum is fun to write because he's not so full of himself that he thinks he's infallible-he's just very stupid in certain situations. He might be willing to admit he was wrong, (eventually) but he wouldn't until he understood how he was wrong. And he'd have a very hard time understanding this.

It also sucks for Galois because he is absolutely not 'leader' material and Draxum is not training him for any sort of political office. He's grooming him to take over his science man position, not his military general and world leader one. But people would look to him for leadership once Draxum was gone, and without people like his brothers and April and everyone he wouldn't have the resources to break himself out of the mindset Draxum built him into. I can just imagine him wanting to work on some advanced space travel thing while everyone is asking him to address some racial conflict or run for World President or something, and he's like "leave me ALONE, I literally gave you the technology to make a utopia, do you want me to press the buttons for you?! What the fuck are the rest of you here for?!!" Ironically, Cass would make a decent political leader herself, but she wouldn't be viewed as Draxum's 'true' heir since she's not his legal daughter.

I actually had Bella die at first, lol. Way back when she was supposed to be a super minor character and only be physically present in about two scenes, she was supposed to die off-screen and it would fuel some later character development (or devolvement) of Draxum's. I feel like she's too popular now to kill her off in that manner though. If I did have her die I'd give her a very heroic death, probably while protecting Leo. (I'm not gonna have her die, don't worry. I might fuck her up though, and I'm wondering if Leo should lose his arm at some point)

If Draxum did get to his endgoal, yeah I expect Bella would end up dying trying to prevent it. She's incredibly intelligent but she's also hot-headed enough to throw herself at things with no regard for herself. Draxum would probably try to do the same thing as with the turtles and just move her to the other side of the world so she'll live out her life in peace, but I could see her just killing herself to make a point to her uncle.

Pax would probably end up getting killed as well, though by the resistance. His kindness and aversion to conflict makes him easy to manipulate, and he'd be an easy target. Ironically, he'd make a great political leader himself if it wasn't for his trauma-induced mutism and difficulty trusting people.

I mean, he would have lost so fucking hard if he had gone with his original plan. If anything, it might have ended up here anyway, with just Draxum and Donnie after the other boys are killed, because one squadron is not going to kill billions of people. But also I feel like Splinter would have killed Draxum himself and taken Donnie away after Draxum got his other kids killed. It would be really nice to imagine a 'everything is fine' AU where Draxum abandons his plans and marries Lou and they raise their children together, (with cool cousin Pax and vodka aunt Bella) but I truly don't think anything could have convinced Draxum that humans weren't the problem before he was forced to live with them.

#I DID IT AGAIN my lunch is cold again #my bird is throwing crackers on the floor out of upsetness #my lunch isn't even anything he can eat but it is TAUNTING him #doth #doth asks #baron draxum #donatello #leonardo #bellona #pax

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Lend Me Your Ears By R. D. BOUCHETTE,” Vancouver Sun. March 2, 1931. Page 6. --- There's Still Hope - Artistry Re-born -  Sir Charles Chaplin - Trouble in Zion --- Those who fall to discern the tiniest gleam of hope for humanity, might pay a visit to the formidable grey fortress, which is the British Columbia penitentiary, on New Westminster's outskirts.

There, under the kindly but watchful eyes of Col. C. E. Edgett, the warden, is going on a process of human rehabilitation, of which we know very little. We, for the most part, are ignorant of it because we cease to interest ourselves in a man once he becomes a number. We forget that if the penitentiary fails to cure that man of his anti-social aliment we shall pay for it.

Warden Edgett's mission is not so much to punish the criminal, as to make him a law-abiding citizen. He does not, however, speak of it as his mission. He says it is the purpose of the Canadian penitentiary system.

***

Facts speak for them selves, and how well Warden Edgett is succeeding in his work is revealed in the figures. 

During his two years as "premier" of this limbo state, Col. Edgett has discharged 200 men from New Westminster. Two of them are again behind the highly-polished steel bars. Another two are in Oakalla. Four more are doing time in the United States. 

This means that more than 90 per cent have reformed their lives. We know that they have reformed, for if they still followed lives of violence, sooner or later they would be in the hands of the police.

***

Out at New Westminster penitentiary, last week, I saw George Paradise, serving a three-year term for selling narcotic drugs. 

I remember speaking to Paradise two years ago at police headquarters, just after he had "beaten the rap" on a drug-possession charge. 

"Why don't you quit taking dope?" someone asked him.

"Quit dope?" Paradise laughed bitterly. "You may take a child from its mother. but never will you take the love of that stuff from me."

Paradise was almost boasting. Less than a year later, in Assize Court, he asked the court to send him to the penitentiary so that he might be cured of his lust for drugs.

Paradise was a sign painter and artist. When I saw him at the prison last week he was in the church, paint brush in hand. He had completed a mural design, a background to the altar. He looked quite happy. He has gained about 20 pounds in weight. His eyes are clear.

He glanced proudly at his work. "I haven't done anything like that for 20 years," he said.

Then he showed me toys he had fashioned with his hands. There was a mechanical turtle, an elephant which raised and lowered its trunk when it was moved, several reproductions of Spanish galleons. Last Christmas Paradise made scores of children happy with the toys he constructed.

***

Paradise, now, does not feel that he wishes to retain the love of narcotics. He has never been more content in his life.

"How are things outside?" he asked me.

I said they were "not so good," there was a lot of unemployment.

"I guess I ain't missing much," said he.

In England they are talking about knighting Charlie Chaplin, the prince of pantomime. It strikes me as being a pretty good idea. Surely, if a man deserves a knighthood for brewing beer or distilling whisky or manufacturing soap, it is not unfitting to reward him for creating Iaughter. Compared to some knights I know, Chaplin could handle an earldom very nicely.

***

Mark Hellinger has story for those who "like their irony served piping hot." It is about a Jewish real estate man who, in boom years, built three very white apartment houses in New York.

Along came the depression and our real estate man found himself with three very large and very white elephants camped upon his bank account.

The sad part of it is that he cannot live in any of the apartments himself. They are restricted against Jews.

#vancouver #new westminster #british columbia penitentiary #coercive rehabilitation #rehabilitation #life inside #sentenced to the penitentiary #reformation #dope addict #illegal possession of narcotics #charlie chaplain #antisemitism #great depression in canada #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #prisoner autobiography

[tmntmiceandturtles]

Turtles roles on the team?

SOOOO

Raph is the oldest, Leo and Donnie are twins and the middle children, and Mikey is the youngest.

That being said, Raph can be kind of impulsive under pressure, so Shen decided that Leo should be the leader.

Who better than the son that always thinks everything through, right?

Unfortunately, Leo gets stressed out WAY to easily, and being the leader is a LOT of pressure. But he’s also a polite little boy and would probably have a stroke if he tried to ask if someone else could lead for a bit.

As the person Leo hangs out with the most, Donnie is very aware that being the leader is stressful for Leo and very aware that Leo couldn’t ask to step down for his life.

So Donnie is pretty much the unspoken co-leader. Whenever Leo gets too stressed out, Donnie will jump in and take over for him. Eventually Donnie became more of the leader than Leo, but Leo is still called the leader. By everyone but Mikey, of course.

Mikey is known to eavesdrop. A lot. He’s sneaky and somehow ends up with a lot of important information that he’ll happily share with the team whenever he feels is appropriate. Donnie picks up on this and ends up asking him for information often, which Mikey happily offers up.

Raph is the most skilled fighter of the four. He’s small and light, and really, really fast. Shen teaches the turtles to fight, and Raph often asks her for extra lessons. After April and Casey join the team, Raph and Shen teach them to fight, too.

April and Casey are more support than anything. Casey will gladly stand at Raph’s side and fight, and April basically babysits and makes sure everyone stays together.

Mona Lisa and Leatherhead can fight too of course, and I really really want at least Leatherhead in a fight scene, but we’ll see I guess.

And then of course there’s Karai. After she joins team turtle, she helps with teaching everyone to fight properly. She’s better at hand-to-hand combat than anything else, and the turtles prefer to use weapons (that they totally stole from the Foot Clan), so they learn from each other.

Lastly, there’s Usagi, who I haven’t really designed yet (😬) but I have a basic idea for. Usagi, of course, is a samurai-in-training. Usagi owns a katana, wakizashi, and a tanto, but prefers to just carry around either the katana or the wakizashi. Usagi knows it’s not proper, but there’s more important things to worry about right now. Usagi is more of an add-on to the team than anything, and isn’t going to stay for long.

#tmnt #tmnt iteration #mice and turtles #rottmnt #tmnt 2012 #rambles

[turtlethon]

Turtlethon Extra Slices: “Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue”

(CW for today’s post, which contains extensive discussions and depictions of drug use, as well as George Bush. Not that one, the other one.)

Before Turtlethon heads into season five, let’s take a step back to look at one of the strangest projects the 1987 Turtles were ever associated with. Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue was a half-hour anti-drug special produced by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation and Southern Star Productions, which was simulcast across the big four US TV networks on April 21, 1990. For our purposes, it’s worth noting that this was a few months after season three of TMNT was first broadcast, and the live-action movie was topping the box-office at this point.

Funded by McDonalds, Cartoon All-Stars is an extension of the “Just Say No” campaign that was the brainchild of the Reagan administration. Those fingerprints are all over the home video release, which opens with a treacly and seemingly endless advertisement for Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, followed by a message by then-current President George Bush and his wife Barbara that amounts to little beyond explaining the cartoon’s premise and re-iterating that drugs are indeed bad. (Subsequent TV broadcasts in Canada, Australia and New Zealand would replace this portion with a message from each nation’s respective big cheese.)

The show proper kicks off with the piggy bank of a little girl called Corey being stolen while she sleeps. Watching this from inside a comic book are The Smurfs, who march out into the real world to alert her. Also coming to life is the cartoon version of ALF, who springs forth from a picture frame. He in turn awakes a Garfield lamp, who for the purposes of the show is now the famous cartoon cat himself. When Garfield announces he’s too lazy to help out, ALF threatens to eat him. I’ve gotta say this pairing actually has pretty great chemistry. Alvin and the Chipmunks are also here and for the moment have nothing much to contribute.

With the aid of Winnie the Pooh – formerly a stuffed toy – the various cartoon characters wake up an alarm clock of Kermit the Frog, seen here in his Muppet Babies incarnation, who in turn interrupts Corey’s slumber. Slimer from The Real Ghostbusters then passes through the wall into the bedroom, and as he wasn’t formerly a toy or some other household item, I guess he may be the actual Slimer. If you’re wondering why RGB wasn’t represented by at least one of the actual Ghostbusters, keep in mind that this was during the period where network executives had decided to push Slimer to the moon, to that show’s detriment. The green ghost swallows a desk lamp made to resemble some fruit, and subsequently shines a light on the spot where the piggy bank is now missing.

The toons sneak into the room of Corey’s brother Michael and watch him smash the piggy bank, scooping up the money inside; as Corey herself soon shows up to confront him without their help, they’re really only here to provide running commentary at this point. During the domestic squabble that follows between the two siblings, Michael hides his stash under the bed, unaware that the various cartoon characters are hiding there. This leads to one of the special’s funnier moments as Simon of the Chipmunks confirms Michael is in possession of “marijuana - an unlawful substance used to experience artificial highs!”

Michael storms out of the house, and the assembled cartoons head off to confront him. Winnie the Pooh stays behind to pursue his own sub-plot, but makes a point of wishing the others good luck.

At the arcade, Michael hangs around with a group of Cool Kids™ and is egged on by a ghostly cartoon pusher called Smoke to try harder drugs. The sound of approaching sirens leads the kids to split up, with Michael fleeing into an alley. He’s confronted by a police officer who turns out to actually be Bugs Bunny. After briefly containing Smoke in a trash can, Bugs lectures Michael about his behaviour, leading him into a time machine. Meanwhile Michael’s father notices some of his beers have gone missing, and Corey is pressured by Winnie the Pooh to confess everything she knows to her parents.

Bugs transports Michael to the past, where everything is in black and white and people prominently wear their initials on their clothes to aid in viewer identification. The rabbit shows Michael how he picked up his current habit and goes back and forth with Smoke debating the risks and benefits of his actions. 

Michael’s father is busy in the shed with his... “KLIY”(?) when Corey appears to further her own B-plot. She tries to tell him about Michael, but it doesn’t go well. Okay, enough of this, let’s get to the reason why we’re all here.

Michael has apparently been dumped back in the present day by Bugs, and is now hanging out with the Cool Kids again when they decide out of nowhere that maybe they could try crack. Smoke is also present to spur them on, and although Michael is hesitant, the others soon steal his wallet. While in pursuit, he falls into a sewer, where he’s confronted by Michaelangelo. As the animation for this special was handled by Wang Film Productions – who handled the visual oddity that was “Cowabunga Shredhead” - Mikey is bigger and puffier-looking than usual, looming over the other characters. He’s also angrier than we typically see him as he reads both Michael and Smoke the riot act. This segment ends all too quickly as Mikey yanks a giant plug-stopper out of the sewer waters beneath his feet, pulling the boy and his enabler into the drain below.

Michael and Smoke then find themselves on a roller-coaster ride with baby Kermit, Miss Piggy and Gonzo, who demonstrate the effects that drugs are having on Michael’s brain. After waking up in a park, Michael then encounters Huey, Dewey and Louie, who perform a song about the virtues of saying “no”. Some of the other characters who’ve appeared throughout the special also chip in to suggest excuses Michael could use to not take drugs; Michaelangelo eventually pops up to suggest “I’ve got too much homework”. (Mikey isn’t particularly well-drawn here, and has some funky-looking arms.)

Waking up in his bedroom, Michael is confronted by Corey, so I guess that last sequence may have been a dream, and the roller coaster scene was itself a dream within a dream. The two siblings bicker some more before ALF pulls Michael into a hall of mirrors, presenting a ghoulish reflection of the teenager which the alien insists is what he really looks like. All of this would be fine if it wasn’t for the fact that we as viewers can see that Michael does not in fact look like the Cryptkeeper, so the whole thing comes off as if ALF is gaslighting him.

ALF then guides Michael to a room where a sign on the door reads “THE MAN IN CHARGE”. Inside is a crude, boxy approximation of Smoke, who then jump cuts to his normal character model. Wait, did the animators just draw some kind of fill-in figure and then accidentally leave it in the finished show? Roy Disney said at the time of this special’s release that the animation was done in eight weeks, which seems implausible, but there’s no doubt from looking at it that it was a rush job.

Corey enters Michael’s room and discovers his stash, which leads to her having an encounter with Smoke. Winnie the Pooh warns her that he’s bad news, only to get thrown into a nearby cupboard. Meanwhile Michael is having a bad trip, imagining that he’s being chased by Dewey on the Roller Coaster of Death, or something to that effect. He bounces through some more nightmarish scenes as discordant rock music warbles, before finally winding up outside a “SEE YOUR FUTURE” tent. Inside is Daffy Duck, who reveals the fate that awaits him, as a zombie-like Michael is seen writhing on a table.

The “All-Stars” then assemble once more and everyone again gets to say their own little bit about the importance of not doing drugs. Michaelangelo materialises, looking somehow even worse than in his previous appearance, and chips in by telling Michael he’s excellent “just the way [he is] - without drugs!” I get what he’s going for here, but it’s a confusing statement as he clearly is currently very much “with drugs”.

Having finally had his big revelatory moment, Michael returns home and confronts Smoke, who’s in the middle of trying to win over Corey. The teenager hurls the ghostly villain into a garbage truck passing outside, and the siblings vow to be ready should he return. They’re cheered on by the Cartoon All-Stars, who apparently now all reside on a poster even though that wasn’t where any of them started out. Michael and Corey decide to “go talk to mom and dad”, and the lengthy credits abruptly roll. Just in case you forgot who ponied up the dough for all of this, the Ronald McDonald House ad runs for a second time at the end of the VHS release.

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue has developed a reputation as something of a cult oddity over the last three decades and it’s not hard to see why. There’s an uncanny quality to the whole thing – the bizarre sight of The Chipmunks and the like talking in detail about drug use. The project is emblematic of the wider “Just Say No” and contemporaneous D.A.R.E. movements, as well as the wider War on Drugs ethos of the time, all of which hinged upon the idea of educating otherwise unwitting children about the subject early on in the hopes that this would turn them off, when it actually turned out to have the opposite effect.

Beyond the novelty of your kid-vid faves rappin’ about drugs, the other obvious reason this special still gets talked about is the crossover element. While having characters from otherwise unrelated properties interacting with each other is commonplace now – particularly given that the vast majority of all major IPs are now owned by five or six massive media conglomerates – this kind of thing was almost unheard of in 1990, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? being the obvious exception. What we get as a result is a line-up of notable fixtures of Saturday morning network line-ups in this era, as well as some old-timers like Bugs and Daffy. It’s revealing, however, that Disney weren’t about to offer up their counterparts here, and that neither Mickey nor Donald – or even Goofy, for that matter – were up for use.

Further analysis of the line-up also demonstrates how much the pendulum had swung back by 1990, in that only Michaelangelo and Slimer represent action-adventure cartoons. If this project had been commissioned five years earlier, it’s easy to imagine the cast being dominated by the syndicated stars of the day, with He-Man, She-Ra, Bumblebee, Lion-O and members of GI Joe all making an unlikely alliance to scold Michael for his weed use. As it is, Cartoon All-Stars marks the first cross-over event between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Ghostbusters, something we wouldn’t see again until IDW published a four-issue comic mini-series bringing the two teams together in 2014. Michaelangelo and Slimer have no real interactions with each other in this special, in fact poor Slimer is barely used at all. (The Turtles are on the rise at this point though and it’s arguably been at the expense of the now-waning Ghostbusters, a subject we’ll revisit another time.)

As an aside, I should point out that I’m not aware of any TV screening or VHS release of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue in the UK. It’s hard to imagine the three major broadcasters at the time working together to simulcast something like this in the spring of 1990. The BBC in particular had gotten into hot water three years earlier for an anti-drugs storyline in Grange Hill that revolved around a character becoming addicted to heroin, and surely wouldn’t have wanted to go down that road again; as we’ve covered previously in Turtlethon, they also had an ingrained cultural resistance to US cartoon characters in general. The involvement of McDonalds in the creation of this whole affair couldn’t have helped either.

Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue is must-see viewing for any afficionados of eighties or early nineties TV animation, if only to experience how figuratively and literally trippy the whole misguided project is. Due to the spider-web of rights issues involved and the fact that this was a not-for-profit venture anyway it’s widely available online, and in fact a nice 720p VHS rip is now up on the Internet Archive for you to enjoy. On our journey through the history of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show it marks an interesting turning point, where the green teens are the biggest stars in all of animation, and not yet Saturday morning mainstays like the other characters here, though that would soon change.

#Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue #1990 #PSA #PSAs #Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #TMNT 1987 #tmnt mikey #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt michaelangelo #ALF #Garfield #Slimer #Muppet Babies #TMNT #Ninja Turtles #Just Say No

[hannahvardit]

Tired dad is tired. (But doing his very best.)

#imagine being splinter #and you're just like #my family's dead and that sucks #i'm in hiding and that also sucks #oh i guess i'm a rat now okay that's something #and now i have four turtle children i guess #how did this happen to me specifically #what did i do to deserve this #why am i a rat #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #drawn in 2020

[anna-no-emma]

The Wayne Family Values AU

Bruce and Damian are fencing. Thalia is fairly sure Damian is winning although it’s a little difficult to tell with how...acrobatic their match is. Damian understands the gift of the high ground and isn’t afraid to launch himself from the stair’s bannisters and to balance on chairs. Bruce keeps up with him, clearly revelling in the challenge while throwing out pointers. 

Thalia is busy knitting. Jason sits near Thalia reading The Bell Jar. That particular novel is unbearably depressing, from what Thalia remembers. It’s Jason’s favourite and he reads whenever he’s in a good mood.  

Tim is crosslegged on the floor, cleaning and sharpening his impressive collection of knives. When it looks like Damian finally has Bruce beaten, a knife sails through the air, forcing Damian to duck and loose ground to his father again. 

“Timothy!” Damian yells enraged. It makes sense that it was Tim who threw one of Tim’s knives. However, Tim seems startled by his name as he looks up from he was totally absorbed in his task. 

Tim notices the knife embedded in the wall near Damian and immediately says, “It wasn’t me!”

“Liar,” Damian says, ignoring Bruce in favour of turning on his brother. 

“It wasn’t!” Tim insists. 

“You’re a coward and a liar!” Damian snaps. 

“I’m not,” Tim says. 

“Come on now boys,” Bruce says, placatingly. “Damian, I’m sure Tim didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just a bit of fun.”

Predictably they both ignore their father. And if having four sons has taught Thalia anything, it’s when not to intervene. Sometimes the outcome is better when the children are allowed to resolve things amongst themselves. 

Tim says, “I really didn’t throw it. I wouldn’t have missed!” 

“Please Timothy, your aim is atrocious.”

“Oh I’ll show you atrocious, brat,” Tim says, throwing a knife. Damian once again ducks out of the way. Tim grabs a pair of knives and chases after Damian. This starts an entirely new fight. The pair disappear up the stairs, exchanging both insults and physical blows as they go.

“Oh boy,” Bruce says, flopping down in an armchair, dropping his sword to light a cigar. “It’s not like Tim to lie like that.”

“Hmm,” Thalia agrees. “Jason dear, your aim has improved wonderfully.”

“Mom,” Jason whines finally looking up from his book. 

“What on earth...Oh I see. Oh well done son. Very well done, I never would have guessed,” Bruce says. “They way you did that with barely moving, brilliant chum, quite brilliant.”

Jason flushes in pleasure at the praise. “Yeah, ok dad,” he says before going back to his book. 

“Bruce dear, what do you think?” Thalia asks, holding up the almost finished sweater. “It’s for father.”

Bruce leans over and examines the third arm of the emerald green sweater, “I didn’t know Ra’s wore turtle necks.”

#the addams family #thalia al ghul #bruce wayne #batman #batfam #batfamily #batboys #gomez addams #morticia addams #dick grayson #nightwing #tim drake #red robin #jason todd #red hood #damian wayne #damian al ghul #robin #ra's al ghul #the bell jar #sylvia plath #fencing #knives

[lilyharvord]

I saw another anon on king mavens page ask how Cal would react if mare died and they didn’t wanna answer bcuz it’ll make them go into a depressive state. So if u don’t mind how do YOU think Cal would react if Mare died. If u don’t wanna write this u don’t hv too tho

I too saw annie's response, and while it makes me super sad to think about as well.... I've thought about it... I may have started writing a fic about it once (it was like once chapter), and I had an idea. So I'll give you my branched ideas. They're loooong so I have put them under the read more.

idea 1: Mare dies before they are married, before anything.

It's horrific. People are shocked... the little lightning girl? Dead? Impossible. Cal doesn't immediately hear about it, he's so busy he's doesn't know something's happened until he walks into a room and everyone goes quiet and slowly looks at him like he might collapse right then and there. He finds out because Farley pulls him aside. She takes him away from everyone to a quiet little garden with a fountain and tells him what happened. When he hears, he just sort of gives her this confused look, like HE doesn't understand, doesn't believe. Then he sort of sinks down onto one of the benches and just sits there. Doesn't move, doesn't even seem to be breathing. Farley thinks he'll explode in a ball of heat and rage and pain, but instead he just gets really really quiet, and really cold. The air around her gets so cold her breath fogs in front of her. He asks her to leave him alone and she does. He sort of draws into himself after that, doesn't really speak to anyone, spends a lot of time running and sitting at his desk and staring out the window. He attends the funeral but is quiet the whole time, he only speaks to the Barrows and even then, there isn't much to say that wouldn't hurt either party. After that he BURIES himself in his work. He gets so good at it that one day he looks up and ten years have passed. He's still got the stack of letters they wrote to each other, and he even has the letter he had been drafting to send to her on the front where he lost her. It ends with the phrase: I miss you. And god does that ring true. He miss her like a limb he lost. It feels like a part of him was torn away, just like with Maven, just like with his father, just like with Nanabel when she passed a few years back, just like the hole his mother left without him even knowing it was there. He visits her grave that year, just sort of sits under the little tree they planted, looks out at the mountains as the sun sets behind him, and talks to her like he does with Maven, tells her about everything that's happening. After a while, he just falls quiet and sits there, digging his hand into the grass and dirt right above the grave, like he can dig down to her, like it's her skin and he can still feel it's warmth. He swallow really heavily and then says: I never met anyone else that made me feel the way you did... I don't think I ever will. You were it. You were going to be it. And then he gets up and leaves. He runs into Gisa down in the Ascendent, they grab coffee at what was once Mare's favorite coffee shop, now it's Gisa's. They talk about everything, never mentioning Mare. Gisa only asks once if he's seen anyone, and he just shakes his head, and she gives him a tiny smile and says: she wouldn't have minded... well if a random bolt of lightning came from the heaven and struck you, then I guess you would know she minded. They laugh about that, and then he leaves cause he has an early flight home. When he gets back, he puts the letters in a box and then puts that box in a drawer. He never sees anyone else though. Doesn't even really fool around with anyone either. He tries once, and the whole time he just thinks about her, thinks about all the what if's and could be's. He apologizes profusely to the girl and says that it's not going to work. Something in her understands, some weird warmth that she gets that makes her pull him into an extra tight hug before she leaves from his little apartment in Archeon. He doesn't mind being alone as much, he has his friends and a strange little belief/hope that someday, he will see Mare again. And when he does he is going to pull her into the tightest hug and never, ever let go again.

idea 2: Mare dies after they are married and have at least 1 child

This one hurts far more. He knows she's on missions, and they made a pact to never be on missions together so that if the unthinkable happens and one of them does die, Coriane will have the other at least. Its a god awful early hour of the morning when there is knock on the door. Coriane is sleeping in his and Mare's bed, she had a nightmare and immediately came for comforting snuggles. He thinks he's dreaming when the knock comes again, a little more instant this time. He gets up, and Coriane sleepily trails after him, curious as a cat always. When he answers the door, he picks her up and is still sort of half asleep. When he sees the young soldier standing on the porch in uniform and the most pained look on his face, he is suddenly wide awake. The soldier reaches up and removes his hat before pulling out an envelope with the official Montfort seal on it. He holds it out and quietly says, "I'm sorry."

When Cal takes it, he worries that his hand is shaking, but it is perfectly still, Coriane is falling asleep on his shoulder, not even aware of the ramification of what this little envelope means. And he just sort of looks up at the man and asks, "Do the Barrows know?" The man blinks before saying, "Protocol dictates immediate family are informed first... spouses are immediate family along with children. We leave it to them to inform the rest...I'm sorry again sir." Then he gives a little clean military salute and leaves. Cal stands there for a long time looking at empty space, wondering what comes next, what he is even supposed to do. Coriane answers for him: by lightly tapping his cheek and whispering that she's cold. He closes the door, and sets the letter on the little table by the door. There are already four other letters there. One, an invitation to Farley's wedding to Cordelia at the end of the month, and another is a letter from Julian addressed to all of them, most likely about his trip with Sara to see the land north of Montfort. But there is her name in beautiful script on both envelopes. There is her favorite jacket hanging on the peg she always hangs it on. There is the book she left on the table, chaptered at the exact part she was on. There is her favorite mug in the sink because Coriane asked to drink her milk from it last night. She is everywhere in the house, and yet that letter means she will never be in it again. Those were her things. They not longer are. He carries Coriane up the stairs and puts her back in their his bed and then lays next to her, watching her chest rise and fall as she sleeps, a tiny smile creeping to her lips as she dreams, completely and blissfully unaware of how her life has fundamentally changed now. Then he rolls and stares at the ceiling, but the tears come and they don't stop as they fall silently. He gets up and showers at dawn--he didn't sleep-- and cries a little more there. He has to crouch down under the scalding water and bite down on his knuckle to keep from sobbing out loud and waking Cori. It's pitiful, and he knows it. She would be furious with him for not being honest about how he feels and trying to hide it like its some ugly thing. But it feels ugly, a twisted ugly thing in his chest that is screaming and clawing at his insides. He stands, turns the shower off, steps out, shaves, does his morning routine, and then wakes Coriane and gets her ready. She's still sleepy, doesn't understand, asks him when mommy is coming home, when she will be back so they can go to the market and get ice cream. He says they'll go today, but his voice shakes, even as he tries to hide it. Then he takes her to the Barrows, tells Ruth and Daniel to gather all of them together. When they are all sitting before him in the living room, packing it to the brim, he takes out the letter and reads it. There is a horrible silence when he finishes and folds it before putting it back in the envelope. Ruth slowly pulls Coriane toward her and then lifts her into her lap and hugs her so tightly Cori actually whines about it for a second before she sees the look on Cal's face. They all sit in the kitchen after that and Ruth makes tea and she makes hot chocolate for the kids and gives Coriane an extra 4 marshmallows. The kids leave to go play and the adults sit and discuss the logistics, where is the will, was the a will? Do they have to adhere to anything if there isn't one? Would she want to... to be buried on Tuck with Shade? The will would probably say. Should they do that if there isn't one? Ruth offers to take care of Coriane while Cal deals with everything, settling paperwork, etc. etc. Then everyone kinda starts talking about everything again, and he just sits in silence and stares at this knot on the table that Mare pointed out to him because she said it looked like a turtle on its back. He traces it a few times, just sort of thinking about that moment and all the other times they would be in this kitchen doing dishes after family gatherings etc. Farley watches him from across the table

before getting up and nodding for him to follow her outside. Everyone pretty much doesn't notice them leave, or they pretend not to notice. They sit outside on the back porch in silence, just the two of them. After a little bit, it starts to snow. The first snow of the year. Farley holds her hand out to catch the flakes and says quietly: "I hate that it doesn't rain when these things happen. It always feels like it should be raining." He nods silently in agreement, and then she sets her hand on his shoulder, and he bends forward, letting the weight of it drop his head into his hand. He doesn't cry again, he honestly doesn't understand why he feels nothing now, just emptiness, and numbness from the tips of his fingers all the way to the tips of his toes. Even with Maven he didn't feel this way. He felt something then, something biting and hot like a pan that he touched when it just came off the stove. They sit like that for a long time before Coriane comes outside, and slips underneath his arm to snuggle against him. Farley gets up and leaves then, sensing she's said her peace and he understands she's there if he needs her. He holds Coriane close when the back door closes, and she whispers quietly to him, "Mommy's not coming home, is she?" and he just squeezes her once in answer. She frowns and stares out at the snow for a second and then turns around to face him and cups his cheeks in her little hands like she had seen Mare do a hundred times when Cal was in the middle of an especially hard day. She looks at him with a very serious expression for a child and he can see Mare in her when she does that, in the crease of her brows and the slight squint in her eyes. In the hint of chocolate brown in the curls of her hair. She will be furiously beautiful like her mother, and he had a feeling someday she will break a man's heart like his is breaking now. She looks at him for a good little bit and then says, "don't worry, I will take care of you." And he laughs, knowing that Mare always said the same thing. He pulls her close again and whispers with a thick voice, "it's my job to take care of you. But it's just us now... we have to take care of each other."

The funeral is in the spring. Cal pushed it off. Mare hated the winter. Even though she had happier memories of it now, her childhood and the painful clenching of her empty belly were like a permanent stain on the season. He would not bury her in that time. When the snow thaws and the ground melts, they release her ashes on a hill and leave stone for her on a hill under a tree, with a view of the mountains. There is a long line of epithet underneath her name: beloved daughter, sister, friend, wife, mother. Staring at it, Cal wonders if she knows just how important she had become. If she knew that she wasn't just a captain, or a figurehead that brought a centuries old regime to its knees. Everyone leaves after, the Barrows going last, but Cal and Coriane stay. Cal just sitting in the grass next to the grave, the wind in his hair while he watches the mountains for a little while. Coriane sits on the grave, probably not the nicest thing to do, but she does, and traces Mare's name over and over again on the stone with her little finger. "Mommy had a long name." She says as she traces the four names on the stone. Cal hesitated to put his name on there with hers, but he adopted the Barrow name as much as Mare took the Calore one when they married. And in the very, very short will she had drafted, that he almost didn't read because reading it made everything real, she asked that he put both their names on it (but to put his name before hers and she even made a little quip at him in the will about it which made him laugh, even as it made him cry). He glances at Cori after she says that and nods. She then crawls into his lap and they sit watching the mountains before Coriane says, "Uncle Julian says that when people die, they become the dirt that feeds the trees and the grass... do you think mommy is happy to be tree food?" He laughs and hugs her really close before saying, "She's not tree food. That dust we let go of today was mommy. She's on the winds now, traveling everywhere."

He does not remarry, no matter how many years pass, and how many women try to infer that it might be for the best if Coriane had mother in her life. He thinks its a stupid notion that he can't raise his own child on his own. And its hard, god is it hard. But he does it. He makes Coriane Barrow Calore into a women that Mare Molly Calore Barrow would have been very proud of. And he holds onto the notion that someday, when he dies, and they scatter his ashes, that his will find Mare's and they'll be together again that way.

#ANyway #holy shit i'm crying now #like I am actually crying #(*ask lily*) #(*shut up lily*) #red queen #glass sword #kings cage #war storm #broken throne #post broken throne #marecal #and... have some angst on this lovely wednesday #holy SHIT #that hurt #I think I actually have to write a fic now #if only to cry while I do it #I DID NOT HAVE TO ADD THAT ENDING TO THE SECON ONE #but I did #so there #I made myself sadf #):

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#5

If you’d like another Rise prompt, maybe something about Donnie’s battleshell? If that’s too vague, maybe its origins, or maybe what Splinter thinks about it?

this is also set in the human splinter au <3

x

When Donatello was a baby, Yoshi didn’t worry quite as much about his soft shell. He and his brothers were all the same sort of fragile, questionable mutation and its potential effects aside, and Yoshi panicked over each of them an equal amount.

They played hard. They always wanted to climb and run and tumble. Yoshi is inclined to blame the ooze that psychotic goat-man alchemist pumped them full of, because blaming him is neat and comfortable and makes Yoshi feel warm inside.

But Yoshi has also spent a not-insignificant amount of his fortune on parenting books and magazine subscriptions, and according to the experts, children are just tiny crazy people who will run at full-speed into a wall multiple times for no reason.

Which is fine. Yoshi has been a papa for almost four years now and it’s quite possible that he’ll never want to be anything else ever again for as long as he lives. His boys have secured their place in his heart and no amount of broken windows or crayon-scribbled walls or gutted kitchen appliances (???) will change that.

The problem is that Donatello’s shell doesn’t afford him the same protection that his brothers’ do. He’s as fast and strong as the other three, and easily twice as smart, but he’s just not as hardy.

Yoshi has no idea what he would do without his credit card and his talent manager-turned-reluctant-godmother. Between the two of them, he has an answer for everything.

“I don’t want to,” Donatello announces before Yoshi has even opened his mouth.

“You don’t want to go roller-skating?” he says, affecting a tone of complete surprise. It causes Donatello’s chubby face to fold into an epic pout, which is adorable, which makes up for how frustrating he can be when he digs his little heels in about something.

“No, papa, I want to go. But I don’t want to wear that dum-dum thing.”

“Your Auntie Hala is going to cry for days and days when I tell her how much you hate the present she got you,” Yoshi tells him solemnly.

Donatello considers this. Then he says, “Don’t tell her.”

Ah, logic Yoshi can’t actually find fault with. He never would have guessed he’d spend his early thirties losing so many arguments with a turtle toddler. 

“You are wise beyond your years,” he says, wondering what it will look like when Donatello is a teenager, and whether or not Yoshi will survive it.

The ‘dum-dum thing’ in question is a modified back brace, meant for children with spinal disorders. Yoshi is pretty sure this qualifies. The reason Donatello hates it so much is the modifications Yoshi made to it; namely, the memory foam cover for his leathery carapace. It’s bulky and it slows him down and he hates falling behind the other three. Lately he’s taken to sitting out of their games because he would rather tinker by himself than wear the brace.

Yoshi is a little worried about that. He hasn’t come up with a way to make everyone happy yet, and he’s losing sleep trying to figure it out.

Leonardo pokes his head through the doorway. “Papa you said we were going,” he whines. “How come we’re not?”

“Negotiations have broken down,” Yoshi says, kneading his forehead with his palm.

“Dunno what that is,” Leonardo declares and visibly puts it out of his mind as not his problem. “Don-don, come on. We’re gonna skate.”

“No,” Donatello declares. His mouth is screwed up, brow furrowed, fully ready to be a little monster about it. “I don’t want to go if I have to wear the dumb fake shell.”

Leonardo tips his head to one side, considering this. It’s no secret to his brothers that Donatello has no fondness for the brace. This usually culminates in one or three of them helping him to escape it, and then hiding it somewhere stupid for Yoshi to find like the world’s worst Easter Egg hunt.

“We’re twins,” Leonardo says with all the unyielding certainty of a schoolteacher discussing matters with an obstinate child. “So we have to share. I’ll wear it, and then Donnie will wear it, and then it’s fair.”

Somehow—Yoshi can’t believe this, but somehow the logic goes to work. Donatello’s expression shifts from mullish to thoughtful. The most stubborn little treasure in Yoshi’s entire life is giving ground.

“It’s fair,” he agrees. He and Leonardo turn their big brown eyes up to Yoshi expectantly.

Honestly, Yoshi can’t believe he’s not going to have to wrestle Donatello into the brace for once in their lives. He’s a little embarrassed his second youngest child thought of this neat little solution before him. It costs him absolutely nothing to agree, and he straps the brace onto Leonardo’s back instead. When they get to the rink, one that Yoshi has unapologetically rented out for the afternoon so his kids can play freely, they’ll switch, and Donatello will wear it while the four of them turn inline skating into a contact sport.

And nearly a decade down the road, when Donatello is building advanced technology the way other kids his age are building blanket forts out of the couch cushions and Yoshi’s best sheets (re: his siblings) and he has long-since traded the brace for an armored shell of his own design, he goes from absolutely refusing to put it on to pretty much never letting anyone see him without it, ever, or else.

Because no son of Yoshi’s would understand the idea of a happy middle ground. It’s all or nothing, go big or go home in this house.

This is when the twin thing continues to save the day.

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140 notes - Posted November 2, 2022

#4

all the things that i could live without

rise of the tmnt pairing: don & leo word count: 1349 title borrowed from if i didn’t have you by banners post-movie

read on ao3

x

“Hamato Donatello,” Leo said, his even tone riding the line of good humor and sternness both. “How much shell time have you had today?”

Donnie pointedly doesn’t look up from his iPad. Making eye contact in these moments is too risky. Leo can clock a lie with such accuracy that Donnie thinks it must be a secondary mutation or something, because it certainly isn't natural. The only reason any of them get away with anything is because Donnie’s twin is an agent of chaos, more likely to encourage their stupidity than put a kibosh on it.

Shell time, however, is one of Those Things Leo Takes Very Seriously.

“Scoff,” Donnie says. “I’ll take a break in a minute, I want to finish reading this dissertation I found about chronic musculoskeletal pain and physiotherapy. Not all of it can be applied to us, given that it’s written by humans for humans, but—”

“Dude, it’s like four PM.” Leo’s tone has made its choice, leaning away from amused and into firm. Nooo. “You’re not gonna be able to sleep tonight if you don’t stretch out soon.”

��And I will, soon,” Don replies. It’s the pinnacle of absurdity that they’re talking about his stupid spine when Leo is the one recovering from multiple traumatic injuries.

Leo doesn’t think so, because of course he doesn’t. He’s like a dog with a bone. His persistent personality has saved all their shells more than a dozen times but that doesn’t mean Donnie has to like it when it’s aimed against him.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” the slider says with no small amount of showmanship.

Despite himself, Donnie glances up from his tablet. He can feel himself go soft to match his dumb shell, even if it doesn’t show on his face. He loves Leo so much, even when Leo’s being his absolute worst self, and right now Leo is being his best. Warmth unspools like fiber cable in Donnie’s chest, prickly and sparking.

They came so close to losing him. What would they have done without him? It’s frightening to think about. For once in his life, Donnie doesn’t want to know.  

He sits back in his chair, ignoring the twinge in his lower back the way he’s ignored it for the past three hours, and says, “What does the hard way look like?”

“You’re gonna hate it.”

“Color me intrigued.”

Leo shrugs and starts to lift himself up. The infirmary bed is raised at an angle, to help Leo breathe and reduce the risk of pneumonia that has kept Don awake at night, but now he’s pushing himself upright all the way, kicking at his blanket with the foot that isn’t casted.

“Oh my god, stop, I hate it,” Donnie blurts, all but flinging his tablet aside in his rush to put an end to this nightmare. “You win, you monster!”

Smugly, Leo says, “I always win. Even when I lose.”

“Oh, you must be feeling better,” Don tells him, easing him back down with gentle hands that don’t match his annoyed tone. “Because once again, you are completely delusional.”

It earns him a chuckle, a wheezing shade of what should have been a loud, lively thing, but it feels like a victory anyway. Don will take it. He won’t let it go.

Leo pats the bed beside him. Donnie sighs performatively, but he’s turtle enough to admit when he’s been outplayed.

The battle shell disengages with a hiss of hydraulics and he sets it aside. It’s such an immediate relief to work out his shoulders, and twist his fragile spine, that he maybe should have taken it off earlier, after all.

“Bring your tablet over here,” Leo says. “I wanna watch that baking show where no one knows what they’re doing.”

Donnie settles in beside him, and he doesn’t outwardly fuss the way Raph and Mikey and Casey all do, but he’s very, very careful behind the casual manner. His brother’s body was so broken, almost beyond repair. He has months of recovery left, and as the team medic, Leo knows that.

But he did what he did for the sake of his family and now he just wants to be close to them. He doesn’t want to be shut away in the infirmary and tiptoed around and hugged so gingerly that the mean voice in his brain is able to convince him that the space and distance and reluctant touches are because he did something wrong.

That mean inner voice that Leo sometimes listens to is as much his siblings’ sworn enemy as the Shredder ever was.

So, after a clan meeting taken when Leo was finally, fitfully asleep, and one educational screening of Patch Adams that made Casey and Raph both cry, they decided to forgo all the values of traditional medicine and give Leo what he needed instead.

They’re hardier than baseline humans are, and if the Krang couldn’t kill Leo in its own dimension than it’s likely nothing can, and these are the arguments Leo makes to be allowed out of bed.

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156 notes - Posted September 15, 2022

#3

for what it’s worth, it was worth all the while

rise of the tmnt pairing: raph & everyone, raph & casey word count: 2153 title borrowed from good riddance by green day post-movie

read on ao3 

x

Leo’s arms squeeze tight around them for three seconds, four—and then they fall loose. He slumps forward and would have hit the ground if Donnie and Mikey didn’t scramble to support his sudden deadweight.

They push him back upright, and then ease him into a careful lean against Raph’s cracked plastron. Raph wraps sore hands carefully around Leo’s slim shoulders, hyper-aware of every cut and bruise on his little brother’s battered body.

Leo’s head lolls as if he’s asleep, or—as if he’s asleep.

The giddy relief of an extremely close victory drains away in favor of fear. All three of them are shaking with the leftover dregs of adrenaline.

“What’s wrong with him?” Mikey asks shrilly. He’s clutching Leo’s arm like he doesn’t trust Leo to remain solid if he lets go.

“You want that list alphabetically or in descending order of how much each issue complicates my life?” Donnie replies shortly, lowering the lenses of his goggles over his eyes.

If it were anyone else, Raph and Mikey both would have snapped at the inappropriately irreverent tone—but it’s Donatello. They know how he wears his worry. Whatever he’s picking up with his scan, it’s causing his lips to thin, and lines to tighten around his eyes.

He’s an engineer, not a medic—Leo fills that uncredited role—but Donnie is Leo’s usual extra set of hands in the infirmary, so he picked up a thing or two. Raph can tell, from the careful, deliberate way he touches his twin’s neck and feels around the base of his skull, that Donnie is mentally rehearsing everything he knows about head trauma and spinal injuries.

“It should be safe to move him,” he finally says, sitting back on his heels. Absolutely none of that worry, poorly moonlighting as dispassion, has left his eyes. “I want him back home in the medbay immediately. Like, a week ago immediately. But,” he adds, uncomfortable being the voice of comfort and doing his best with it regardless, “he’ll be okay.”

It’s like Raph’s shell was too tight right up until that moment, crushing his lungs and restricting his air. And now he can breathe again.

“Of course he will,” he chokes out.

“It’s not a medbay if it’s not on a spaceship,” Mikey replies absently, doing a decent job of sounding like he’s not on the verge of hysterics as he helps tuck Leo safely into the crook of Raph’s arm. “You normally just call it the spa.”

“Ninety-nine percent of the time we only use that room for mud masks and manicures. So sue me.”

“Alright,” Raph butts in, not unkindly, “we can argue about it later. I’m sure Leo will have some key points to add. Donnie, the tank is out of commission for the time being—do you have any other ride you could call for us? If not, we might need to, uh—borrow one.”

He can’t even bring himself to feel guilty about it. He would do a lot worse than steal a car for his family, even if it sets a bad example. Donnie’s frown deepens as he taps on his holo-gauntlet, which Raph takes as a sign that he doesn’t actually have a secret fleet of vehicles he can summon from now that most of his tech has been soundly smashed by the Krang.

“Way ahead of you, mister,” a voice chimes in from the comms, and as one, the turtles glance at the glowing emblem on Raph’s forearm.

“April?” Mikey’s voice shoots upwards gladly. “Hey! You’re okay!”

“Of course I am, what’s a little city-wide alien invasion? I went to public school. And you boys need to update me pronto! Splints and I have been losing our minds over here! We got Leo back?”

“Yeah, we got him,” Raph affirms. He holds Leo a little tighter. They very nearly almost didn’t get him. “You can thank Mikey for that.”

Their sister makes a choked noise, what was clearly a sob before she strangled it into submission. “Angelo, you’re getting one helluva hug from me the second I see you. Brace yourself, baby.”

“Consider me braced,” Mikey says. His smile is shaky, but he manages to keep it.

“We just picked up Future Boy, and we’re on our way to you now. Give us two shakes—maybe three. Traffic’s kind of not great.”

“Ten-four, Apricot,” Donnie says, and then the comm goes silent, and the three of them just sort of look at each other.

With help on the way, and nothing to do but wait, there’s time for the hurts they’ve been too busy for to finally settle in.

Raph can barely keep his right eye open, it burns so much. His left shoulder is a solid ache. Mikey’s hands are still shaking, and Raph thinks maybe it has less to do with adrenaline than he thought, and more to do with that golden portal he tore open out of sheer stubborn, inexhaustible love. And Donnie is sitting in that tense, stiff way he only does when his battle shell is hurting more than it’s helping, his mouth set in a firm line that Raph knows means he’s gone nonverbal for the time being.

Still… still.

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164 notes - Posted August 22, 2022

#2

Prompt: rise!Raph’s relationship with sweaters/jackets and how they always tear

x

Raph is twelve when he finally gets the jacket he’s been dreaming of forever—since he saw it in a magazine April left in the lair weeks and weeks ago. 

Pops doesn’t usually go in for new clothes. They’re harder for him to get his hands on, and Raph can definitely understand his school of thought—new clothes would only stay new-ish for a handful of hours, given the rough way he and his brothers tumble around and play. 

But Raph really wants this jacket. And he swears up and down that he’ll take care of it, he won’t practice ninja or skateboard or play in it. 

April’s mom works at a big fancy department store and she’s happy to use her perks for one of her daughter’s best friends. Pops has lots of ‘savings’ leftover from his old job, even though he refuses to tell them what he used to do, no matter how much they pester him about it. So on Raph’s next birthday, he gets the jacket. 

He’s so excited. Normally his presents are things that he and his siblings can all share—and he’s happy with that! He loves to share with them! But this is nice, too. Having something that’s just his. 

“Put it on, Raph, let’s see!” April says eagerly over the sound of his brothers’ raucous cheering, so as soon as Splinter hands it over, Raph does. 

And it rips. 

He can hear the sound of shredding fabric. It seems impossibly loud. It shouldn’t cut through the noise of the party like it does, but it does. Everyone gets very quiet. 

The thing is—Raph is built different, just like Donnie. But where Donnie is soft, Raph is sharp. He’s always had to be very careful with his brothers, because one wrong move and he could accidentally hurt them. He’s grown up that way, being careful of others. He forgets to be careful with himself. 

“Red, it’s alright,” Pops says quickly, laying a hand on his arm. “We can get you a new one.”

But the same thing would just happen again, no matter how many replacements they buy him. 

Raphael is the oldest, and he has to set a good example, and throwing a tantrum or bursting into tears at his birthday party isn’t a good example. So he wrestles for control of his expression and says, “Let me just stick this in my room real quick,” and then vanishes as quickly as he can so the sniffles don’t start until his siblings can’t hear him. 

In his bedroom, he slides the jacket back off, wincing when the torn parts of the sleeves catch against his rough skin. He wants to throw it far away from him, but it's still a gift. He sets it down instead, folded inward so none of the tears show.

When Raph gets back to the atrium, he’s managed to come up with a grin, and he waves away his brothers’ worried glances. April has forced the party back into momentum by sheer force of her substantial willpower, though she does spare Raph a soft, big-sister-look that promises they’ll be talking about it later. 

Years and years down the road, that particular birthday is a crystallized memory, one he thinks back on a lot. It’s the first time Raph remembers hating something about himself. But he also remembers that the feeling only survived until that same evening, a few hours later, when Leo poked his head through Raph’s bedroom door.

“Raph, c’mon, birthday dinner.”

It’s tradition, by now, for each of them to end their birthday with their favorite takeout at their favorite place in the underground, just the four of them. (This has to be negotiated days in advance of the twins’ birthday, because arguing for sport, and sometimes in song, is one of their favorite hobbies.) Raph’s is easy, though—the City Hall loop station, with its massive arched ceilings and the beautiful broken skylights. Donnie even gets the lights on for him, so the whole place is glowing and warm.

He can already smell pepperoni and garlic. He can hear Donnie and Mikey talking further down the hall, a little more subdued than usual. He should go out there since they’re waiting for him. He doesn’t want to disappoint them, but he isn’t sure if he can find a cheerful face to put on. He thinks he wants to just…stay in his room, maybe. 

Then Leo says, “But can I please wear your jacket?? Please please pleaaaaase, Raphie?”

Raph blinks, glancing up at him. The gaping surprise makes his tear-sticky face feel funny. 

“The one I just got? Leon, it’s—” Ruined, he can’t bring himself to say. He can’t even bring himself to look at it.

“The coolest thing ever, I know,” his little brother says enthusiastically, pushing the door open the rest of the way and hurrying inside. He snatches the jacket up off the back of the chair it’s resting on and holds it out at arms’ length, admiring the details. “Honestly—can I be honest with you? I didn’t think much of it at first, like, when I saw it in the magazine. But after your modifications?” He whistles low, something he learned to do specifically to annoy Donatello.

“Modifications?” Raph says uncertainly. 

“Yeah! DIY style is big, you know! And ripped clothes are in.” 

Leo slides the jacket on. It’s comically big on him, and the holes in the arms are mostly hidden by the way the fabric bunches up; the tears along the shoulders are more obvious. It does something unhappy to Raph’s stomach when he sees them. 

But then Leo starts posing in the mirror, and pats himself down for a camera he doesn’t have, and hollers down the hallway for Donnie to come get a picture of him. 

It must be cool if Leo thinks it’s cool. 

“So?” Leo asks with those big puppy-dog eyes he taught Mikey when they were little, to absolutely everyone’s detriment and Leo’s eternal chagrin. “Can I, Raph?”

See the full post

205 notes - Posted October 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

have this <3

oh i LOVE this, their expressions are so MUCH, you pulled this scene directly from the story with absolute precision, thank you for the food 🥺😭🙏

248 notes - Posted October 17, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #its been a very turtle-y year :)