#Within The Shell

[ninnosaurus]

Within The Shell - Prologue? Pilot?

I don't know... What to call this? Prologue? Pilot? What I DO know is that I've finally finished the first "introduction" to my giant ass topside/family AU co-created with @thatonegothicgirl and Quill, who is sadly not around on the internet anymore. This is my first time writing with THIS many characters so please, be kind. While I DO have the Bayverse as the realistic walking-talking models, I will be adding some bits and pieces from all iterations I like. Like and reblogs are always appreciated <3

And a BIG HUGE THANK YOU to my beta reader @mystics-tmnt-blog !!!

Tatum looked at her phone as hunger gnawed in her stomach before leaving her room to the main staircase.  Her father told her that after he and his family revealed themselves and moved topside, they had all gone to live their separate lives. They vowed no matter what, to dedicate at least one dinner where they all met.

Today was one of those days. And by the sound of her father shooing Tanwyn out of the kitchen, it was sushi night.

   "Tanwyn, if you don't stop eating the seaweed you will sleep on the porch!”

She heard her dad swear and her younger sister bursting with screams and giggles before Raphael came around the corner, carrying Tanwyn like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. Tanwyn playfully screamed and kicked some more as he carried her to the couch.

   "Dad! Dad, stop! I'm sorry!" Tanwyn wiggled and laughed in his grasp. Raph shook his head. “Nah. I warned ya, Tanner.” 

Tatum looked towards the hallway leading into the living room where she heard her sister yelp before getting dropped onto the couch by the older turtle before he walked back into the kitchen, chuckling at her antics.

   "Dad?"

Raphael hummed as he looked up towards her.

   "I wanted to know when we're eating." 

The older turtle glanced at his watch.  "The others will be here in two hours, if your sister stops stealing the ingredients." 

Before his daughter even got the chance to protest the long wait, he raised a finger, "if ya help me, it'll go faster."

Tatum contemplated his words before accepting his offer to help. Raph noticed her mood was less than light hearted.

"You doin' good Tater-Tot?" Raphael's voice was calm. A low comforting rumble, like distant thunder.

The youngling mumbled. "Yeah, 'm good."

  "Ya sure? I know I'm not the best at talkin' but I'm here if ya need me, ya know." He nudged her with his right arm as she wiped her hands on a stray towel, surveying the assortment of sushi.

"I know dad. It's nothing serious, I'm just not in the mood for a huge party."

Raph hummed in reply before leaning down to lightly bump his head on hers, a sign of love. "At least stay an' eat, okay?" Tatum reciprocates the gesture with a happy sound while nodding to his request.

   "Where's mom?"

He looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember. "She's out gettin' desserts with your siblings and aunt. And I think she’s pickin’ Max and Daisy up."

   "Uncle Dee isn't coming?", balancing a full tray on her arm as she opened the fridge. He chuckled. 

   "Y'know how he is. He'll waltz in just in time to eat." 

Being Mr. Punctuality himself, Leo and Loukas were the first to arrive. Always on the dot, his brothers would suspect he would sit in his car until it was time. He toed his shoes off, put them neatly on the rack and went into the kitchen with Luke before he kissed Leo’s forehead and went off to pester the kids currently fighting about what to watch on the TV.

Leonardo passed RJ who was currently grabbing plates from the cupboard; "Hi, uncle Lee!" 

Leo smiled; "Hey, kid." 

He smiled as he held up a plastic bag from one of his favorite Japanese stores. "I brought snacks!" Jenny came to greet him with a hug, and he hugged her tight. "Where's Tanner? I got her something."

   "She's in the living room." Jen looked into the bag. "What did you get her?" Seeing a variety pack of 12 of seaweed snacks. "She's going to love them, Lee!"

 He followed her into the living room where he greeted Raph with a pat on his shell and a head bonk. Raph tilted his head towards the direction of the fridge. "Ya want something to drink? Managed to find that expensive diva wine you like." 

 Leo rolled his eyes and walked towards the fridge. "Thanks!" He opens the fridge and searches until he finds what he's looking for before walking to the living room where Loukas was seen bickering with Harley about something.

 Luke's head turned towards Leo, he shook it; "No thank you, I'm good!"

Shortly after Leo arrived, the hurricane known as Mikey and his younger storms whirled into the house. Amber handed Daffodil some boxes of baked goods and asked her to put them down in the kitchen, with Daffy trotting off to the kitchen with the goodies. When she saw Daffy was out of ear shot, Amber turned to her eldest.

Rue rolled her eyes at the look her mom gave her. "What?"

  Mikey and Amber shared a look with him very slightly shaking his head.

"Nothing, sweetheart. Come on. Let's go help your sister." Amber put her hand on Rue's back to lead her out.

Before Jamie could sneak off behind their parents backs to meet their cousins, Mikey grabbed their arm; not too hard, but with authority only a dad possesses. 

  "Hey, hey, hey! Hold on, what did I tell you?"

Jamie groaned; "I am not allowed to trigger Tatum. I am not going to fight with Tatum. I will not even look at Tatum."

Letting them go, Mikey patted their back before tapping the tip of their nose with his finger. "And don't sass me.. You know me and your mother don't like it when you two fight. Off you go."

Entering the living room, the youngest was met with "Mikey!" from his eldest brothers with Leo throwing an arm over his shell to bring him in close and Raph tossing him a beer. 

 "How you doin', Mikey?" Leo chuckled as he saw Mikey close his eyes and hummed in contentment at the first sip of his drink. "Exhausted." He replied before blowing air out through his mouth. 

"We've been- Well. We've been having-" He gestured with his hand like he was looking for a proper word, "bumps! On the road with Rue."

  Raph and Leo looked at him while he talked to them about alcohol, teenagers and how his daughter kept getting herself into trouble.

 

The kitchen was buzzing with life with the arrival of Alice, who was currently having a chat with Amber.

“Is Donnie coming tonight?” Amber looked at Alice who just shrugged with one shoulder.

“Maybe. He hasn’t been picking up my calls today.”

“Not at all?”

Alice shook her head. “Jen was kind enough to come pick me and the girls up.” A yelp from the living room made them both turn. Amber sighed in annoyance as she heard the voice of her youngest scream something. A barked out “hey!” and several angry stomps from her husband shortly before an angry Jamie was plopped down in the kitchen. Mikey pointed an angry finger at them. “You. Stay.” 

Amber looked at her kid before she knelt down in front of them. “Jamie…”

 Just as Jen and Amber were about to be seated at the dinner table, loud music could be heard down the road. The brothers looked at each other and laughed. Donnie was about to arrive and make his entrance.

   "Always on time to eat." Leo mumbled before taking a sip of water.

The youngest kids ran towards the windows facing the driveway. And just like predicted, within a few minutes Donnie was seen parking diagonally over Raph's driveway. Effectively blocking both Mikey and Raph's cars from backing out, Mikey stood up as he saw it and gestured "what the fuck?!" towards Donnie who only greeted his brother with a laugh and a bow

   His own way of being the middle child shit he was known to be.

Donatello walked through the kitchen where he greeted his wife.

“Hi, my love.” He kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. It was chaos at the hospital.”

Alice just hummed in reply. “Didn’t think you would come at all.” Her tone made his blood feel cold. Stepping up next to her he nosed the top of her head. 

“I’m sorry. I love you.” 

She tilted her head up towards him, smiling. “Come on, it’s time to eat.”

In the dining room, Donnie walked up to his daughters. Each of the twins getting a “hi, honey”, him being greeted with a “hi dad” as they looked up at him.  Sometimes it felt like they hadn’t seen their father for months, even if it’d only been a day or two of him working overtime. 

As Alice and Donatello sat down, they all greeted him with waves, hellos, shell pats, and offered him a glass for his wine.

Silence fell over the table. It was… thick. Heavy. Everyone could feel something brewing and hiding under the surface of smiles and “I love you”s. But they also knew the dinners were sacred. The heavy ice lingering above the table is forgotten if only for today. Yes. If there was one thing Donatello never missed, it was the yearly family dinner.

TAGS! @redsrooftopprincess @thelaundrybitch @avery73 @sophiacloud28 @iridescentflamingo @the-cauldron-witch @thegirlwiththeninjaturtletattoos @scholastic-dragon @avery73

I think that's all of you!

[eskwander]

Sayat-Nova, aka The Color of Pomegranates (1969)

[cloudinal]

Happy Pride !!

Hoodless version below cut

[pankiepoo]

stuck in your own little world

[marciaillust]

oh boy i did not start this year on a good note, 4 days in and im a ghost on my dead tired legs begging for rest

[themonstrousother]

Hey, could you please elaborate on the THEO = SISTER thing and how it relates to utenanthy? Cause I'm really curious.

I'll try to explain what I mean but it's been a while since I watched RGU I can't go into too much detail.

When I say Utena and Anthy are sisters, and comparing them to Theo and Eleanor, with both relationships being considered in a way pseudo-incestuous, I am talking about two aspects of their relationships (which overlap). The first way is due to these characters being doppelgangers, twins even.

Just as Shirley Jackson emphasizes that ‘Theo is Eleanor’ and ‘Theo and Eleanor are the same person’, Utena is Anthy and Anthy is Utena.

The second way is through the themes of patriarchy and gender in both THoHH and SKU. With both Eleanor&Theo and Anthy&Utena, both these relationships regulated into a 'sister dynamic'. Within literature, lesbian relationships, through rejection of the male (a patriarch) and its ability to be sustained without the presence of a patriarch, can completely destabilise patriarchal society. Through positioning them as sisters, their queerness is denied and a patriarch is introduced at the centre of their relationship (Dr. Montague and Akio respectively). 

I think these excerpts explain very well what I mean.

Queer Transformations: Renegotiating the Abject in Contemporary Anglo-American Lesbian Fiction, Paulina Palmer

There's an intersection between the Doppelganger layer and Patriarchal society layer due to how in Ohtori 'all girls are like the Rose Bride'; even the way the narrative positions them as doubles is linked to the reinforcement of gender roles in patriarchal society. This is most clear in their relationship with Akio Ohtori, who positions himself as their father (so Utena and Anthy are sisters due to being positioned as twins/doubles by the narrative and also because of how in Ohtori as the microcosm of society, two women cannot be lovers; instead they are siblings with an omnipresent patriarch) but also positions both these women into the role of his Bride.

(Side-note: Akio also often compares Utena and Anthy to Castor and Pollux, the twin half-brothers, one fathered by a mortal, another by Zeus. Interestingly, they're born from an egg which of course is a recurrent motif within SKU. I think this thread goes into it pretty well.)

[justiceforplutoo]

before I realized I was gay I was sitting in ap psychology with my best friend and she was doing her hair in a like stereotypically lesbian looking manner and i was like, "brionna, you look like a--wait, no, I can't say that word."

and she looked me DEAD in the eyes, looked me up and down, and said, "you can say it."

and really I think out of everything else that was really the moment my brain realized it was okay to be a little on the fruity side of the spectrum.

[lavendermin]

Wanting to make a sick fic with a fussy sick rin bc even though he’s so fussy he gets clingy and maybe a little weepy if his fever and cold medicine combo makes him delirious enough. Falls back into the little brother mindset craving attention and caregiving like his older brother used to do when they were little

[azul-nova-24]

I am surprised that there is isn't any Pacific Rim au Artworks of Jayce and Victor on Tumblr.

[ninnosaurus]

one like and I'll upload a work-in-progress sneak peek of the brothers training in the dojo from "Within The Shell"

[efort]

Favorite New (to me!) Films of 2024 (ty for tagging me @amrv-5 !!)

Cruising (1980)

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Biosphere (2022)

The Holdovers (2023)

Frankie & Johnny (1991)

High and Low (1963)

Duck Soup (1933)

[gingermintpepper]

U mention in 1 of ur tags that Poseidon has vitiligo? Could u tell us more about that pls?

Okay so, I saw this ask and went "oh man this is a wonderful opportunity to ramble about some of my design decisions for the Olympians" then I also, simultaneously went "This is also a perfect opportunity to doodle Poseidon" so I spent like, way too much time doing a dinky little doodle to show both what Poseidon's vitiligo looks like + what I generally envision his design to be like when he's on Olympus!

Of course, in true Ginger fashion, it's very messy but I think it gets the point across well enough! The big reason Poseidon has vitiligo (or why I've interpreted his skin as being speckled) is because well, as a horse/hippocampus (which is his actual preferred form) he has a piebald/pinto coat and the only way really to translate that onto a human-presenting form is some form of pigmentation disorder like vitiligo or leukoderma.

Poseidon, like almost every other Olympian (save for Apollo who has the most human-like appearance of them all) has multiple animal/mythical creature elements incorporated into his design/interpretation, many of these I've chosen to allude to what their 'truest' forms are like, for example Zeus' big bull horns because he was born a horned god or Aphrodite's feathered hair and talons because she is directly descended from Ouranos. Because gods are always changing and evolving as the world changes and evolves, these features of theirs can change to better match their current 'truest' self, but most deities, especially the older ones, tend to settle after a period of time and don't experience much drastic change. For my purposes, Poseidon was born with horse like features which he inherited from his mother including his striking piebald coat and his horse's ears, but he later acquired sea serpent traits such as his tail, sharp teeth and water-like hair after acquiring the domain of the Ocean and being forced to adapt very rapidly to his new environment.

Due to geneology and generational inheritance being such a major theme in my work, I chose to let that stand for the descendents of the gods as well! Humans naturally aren't born with coats and such, but many of Poseidon's children do end up having some form of leucism from minor things like Ancaeus' double coloured hair or Bellerophon's 'peeled' hands and feet (they were a lighter colour than the rest of his body) to much more intense expressions of the trait like Theseus' albinism or Triton's very unique speckling. It's rare for his human children to get an extreme expression of this trait due to humans just kind of having less melanin to work with compared to nymphs, spirits or animals, but it does happen from time to time.

[specialtysacrifice]

Sometimes the character analysis and meta is amazing and fluid and makes connections and examples for why these characters have become who've they've become

And sometimes I'm worried I'm just placating myself as these characters become "flanderized" or caricatures of themselves...

[fagtainsparklez]

hey did you see Purpled and Crumb were in the Tom Simons vlog??? Also fucking Sapnap and some people from Smosh and BBH and Squid Kid and Aphmau?!!!!? Literally the most wild collection of people ever

I SAW. crumb cuptoast continues to be the funniest person alive

[tgwdlmreprised]

"the unlucky storybook"

(yes im forever obsessed hiyokos only depiction in the kings storybook was as a sunflower but also oh my god shes a sunflower...)

[bensdavies]

Squeak has been with us 7 whole years today 😭