#has four yokai dads | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

likablemuffin · 5 months ago

Text

Do you remember those chocolates dad used to get?

(From: The Last One (A sequel to One Left)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had a plan. The one that was going to get Reni back.

Donnie had done so many tests, and he had found out the best way of getting Reni back.

Honestly, it did seem a bit... violent for anyone's taste, but it was the best Donnie could do.

Donnie was able to create a basically reverse brainwasher. If they did everything right, they would put Reni in the chair, strap the headgear on, and hopefully it would bring back Reni's memories.

But a big problem was, of course, getting Reni back. I mean, the last time they tried to get her back, she tried to literally kill them. It definitely didn't seem like she was very into the idea of coming home.

They eventually decided that the best idea would be for Raph to pick her up. It sounded lame, yes, but how else were they supposed to get her out of there? Of course, they'd have to get Reni in a position where Raph could grab her, which might actually be the hardest part of this mission. Once they get Reni in a good position, though, it won't be very hard for Raph to grab her.

So now, here they are again, in front of Big Mama's hotel. Not exactly the nicest sight ever, considering the memories they all have here now. The memories of Reni looking at them with such hate...

Thankfully, they're all able to sneak through the place pretty easily. The security for some reason kind of sucked. They manage to slip into the elevator unnoticed, and they go up to the floor that has Big Mama's office.

"...This elevator music isn't that bad, honestly." Donnie comments in the elevator. Mikey looks at him. "Well, Big Mama probably would have some good music in the elevator. She might be an evil bastard, but she still has taste." Donnie shrugs and stares at the ceiling.

After around a minute of unbearable wait, they finally get to the floor that has Big Mama's office. They step out of the elevator... and are instantly forced to dodge an array of weapons, including what looked like a firecracker that made a mark on the wall. Big Mama was not going to be happy about that.

But... great. Their plans have already been foiled.

As they look forward, they see basically all of Big Mama's guards, all with weapons, staring them down. And looking past all of the guards, Reni still stands next to Big Mama. Big Mama smirks at them. "Well, hello there, turtly-boos! Come on now, did you really think you would get past my scrumdilious security?" She giggles. "That would simply be embarrassing."

Leo swallows his fear and manages to step in front of his brothers. "We are here for Reni." Leo looks at Reni as he says this, and he will forever swear that he saw her light up ever so slightly.

Big Mama waves her hand in the air. "Oh please, we're doing this annoyance again? Come come now, I thought we all agreed that Reni didn't know you?" Raph steps forward this time, and Leo pretends he doesn't notice Raph's hands shaking. "You did something to her. You brainwashed her with that machine!"

Reni's eyes widen slightly from where she's standing, and she looks at Big Mama. Big Mama gives her a quick glance before she waves at the guards, causing them all to get into an attacking position. The boys take a step back. "I would never do something so horrible! Trust me."

Big Mama gestures for Reni to come forward, and Reni walks to the front of the wall of guards. She takes out her axes, and she stares into Leo's eyes, and to Leo, it almost seemed like she was thinking about something...

"Now, everyone, fight." The guards rush forward and start slashing at the boys with their various weapons; some had swords, some had simple knives, and one of them had a giant hammer. It was chaos. As they rush forward, the wind that they managed to create just from their speed blows Reni's mask tails. Leo gets one last look at her before he has to start defending himself against an owl yokai.

All four of them get taken off into their own directions to fight their own group of people, while Big Mama just watches with pure delight at the scene unraveling before her. Mikey somehow manages to take on five people all at once, and he barely gets hit at all. Raph deals with three, Donnie deals with two, and as Leo pushes the owl yokai to the floor, he realizes that he only has to deal with one.

Reni points one of her axes at him. And for a few seconds, it's just Leo and Reni. The voices of the others drown out, and everyone disappears. For a few seconds, Reni is holding a cardboard sword up at Leo, challenging him to a duel for who gets the last chocolate from Splinter's fancy New Year's chocolates.

Back before this all happened. Back when Leo and Reni would just play together, back to when there was nothing to worry about. The worst thing they would have to worry about was who got the player one controller. The player two controller was obviously the worse one, as Reni would always say. But Leo was the older sibling, so he always got player one. Leo would always be so proud of being the older one in those situations.

And at that moment, with no one else there but him and Reni, Leo swears he could hear Reni calling out to him. But it was her as a kid. Reni was begging Leo to save her, save her, save her, SAVE HER—

Leo snaps out of it and just barely manages to dodge Reni's attack. Reni growls at him, and Leo backs up. He doesn't want to fight her, his own sister. How was he supposed to fight her? He can't. He just can't...

One of the guards sneaks up behind him while he's trying to figure out what to do, and he grabs Leo's arms and pins them to his side. Leo struggles to get out of his grip, but he's far too strong. Reni comes up to him, and she kicks her knee into Leo's stomach. Leo gasps, and his hold on his sword loosens.

Suddenly, one of Mikey's chains comes out of nowhere and grabs Leo, managing to yank him out of the guard's hands. Leo struggles to keep himself steady, but he puts a thumbs up into the air for Mikey to see. Leo hopes that Mikey did see it, because if he didn't, it would be pretty awkward.

Leo quickly jumps out of the way of Reni attacking him again. Leo staggers and holds his stomach. Dang, did Reni's attacks ever hurt! When did she get so strong? Leo barely is able to hold up his sword to block Reni's next swing. Reni pushes her axe against Leo's sword, and Leo gets pushed back from the force.

Another yokai gets behind Leo and tries to grab him. "Not again..." Leo mumbles to himself before managing to quickly get out of the way, while Reni is barely able to move her axe out of the way before she cuts the guard. Leo doesn't move fast enough, though, because just as he moves away, he feels a tug on his sword, and before he knows it, his sword gets taken out of his grasp.

He quickly turns around, and he sees the yokai that tried to grab him running away with his sword, probably to fight the others. Leo tries to chase after him, but Reni grabs him by the arm and throws him onto the floor. Leo tries to get up, but Reni steps on his chest, forcing him back down again.

Reni increases the weight on Leo's chest, and Leo starts wheezing. Leo can hear the sounds of his brothers calling his name and trying to get closer to him, but all that he can do is stare at Reni. His own sister, attacking him, pinning him to the ground, looking at him with such hate...

Leo can especially hear Mikey scream his name, and from the corner of his eye, he can see Mikey forcing his way through the guards and coming towards him. Leo looks at Reni, and Reni looks at him. Reni is the final thing Leo sees before he closes his eyes.

Reni raises her axe. People are calling out to Leo. Big Mama laughs.

Reni lowers her axe.

Leo screams.

______________________________________________________________________

"Haha! I have succeeded! Now Dad has to give me the final chocolate!" Reni says as she stands in front of a defeated Leo on the floor. "Ugh, no fair! I'm older than you; I deserve the chocolate!" "But I beat you! Fair and square!" Reni giggles and runs off into the kitchen. Leo chases right after her, and just as Reni reaches the chocolates, Leo pounces on her. Reni squeals and tries to get Leo off of her, but Leo starts tickling her.

"No! My only weakness!!" Reni manages to say through her giggles. "HAHAHA!! YOU MUST GIVE ME THE CHOCOLATES NOW!" Reni rolls on the ground, and Leo still manages to keep tickling her. It was honestly pretty impressive. "No!! They're my chocolates you cheater!" Leo laughs, and his laughs blend right in with Reni's.

But Leo's laughs start to dull. The world seems to almost melt around them. Leo's laughs turn into screams.

They're not... they're not in the lair's kitchen anymore... where- where are they? This isn't home. What's happening? Why is...

Reni stares at what she's done. There's blood on her hands, and it's not hers. She's holding her axe, and it's imbedded into someone's wrist. Reni stares at their face. It looks familiar, but its never been screwed up in such pain before. Reni's vision is blurry, but she can make out a familiar mask on their face. It's a pretty blue color.

Every sound, every part of the room that isn't this person blurs. Reni can hear her breathing louder than she ever has.

"...Leo...?"

Suddenly, hands grab her, strong, rough hands. She struggles to get out of their grip.

What's happening, why can't she breathe, Where's—where's mother- where is she, Leo, Leo, Leo, Leo, LEO-

Reni cries; she doesn't know why, but she does. She starts uttering a name that she doesn't even know, but it just feels so... right.

People are yelling. Wait, who's approaching Leo, stop, stop, stop, STOP-

GET AWAY FROM HIM, YOU'LL HURT HIM, STOP, LEAVE HIM ALONE, DONT CAUSE HIM ANY MORE PAIN, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE-

Something sticks into Reni's neck, and she hears someone mumble an apology. The edges of Reni's vision start to turn black, and she struggles to keep her eyes open. What's happening? Where's Mother? She should be helping, saving Reni, saving Leo! Mother must know him, Mother, help! Please! Help... me...

"Leo...." Reni mumbles one last time before whatever was in that syringe finally knocks her out.

"Alright, Leo, let's just cut the chocolate in half, and each have one half, okay?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prev - Next

#Yall...#I WROTE THE NEXT CHAPTERRRRR #YIPPIEEEE!!#I seriously dont know why I had so much trouble writing it-#BUT NOW IT IS FINISHED MWAHAHAHA!!#FRDJGUNHAJKGNHRFDKGAD #rottmnt #save rottmnt #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt raph #rottmnt oc #rottmnt big mama #tw injury #muffins writing #red writing

9 notes · View notes

obsidiancreates · 11 months ago

Text

Out of the Shadows and Into The Neon (Part 9)

“Okay, everyone line up.”

The four children scramble into a line before their fathers, standing at attention. Raphie tries to look stern as he stands before them, ready to lay down the law, but…

Raph has his arms crossed and little twin sai hanging at his hips, Leo is looking up at Raphie with an attentive and dutiful expression, Donnie has his little bo already held in both hands, Mikey is crouched in a squat ready to leap onto the nearest fire escape and get to the rooftops…

Raphie can’t help it.

Instead of continuing his planned speech, he bursts into tears and scoops all four kids into a big hug.

“RAPHIE IS SO PROUD OF YOU BOYS!” he sob-shouts. “YOU’RE ALL GROWN UP!”

“DAD!” Raph pushes against his father, trying to get Breathing Room moreso than actually escape. “YOU’RE GONNA CRACK OUR SHELLS!”

“Seriously, bro, you gotta set ‘em down.” Leon plucks his son out of Raphie’s grip. “Don’t make me give the ‘stay where we can see you’ speech! I’m the cool dad!”

“You’re all the cool dads!” Mikey wiggles, and slips out of Raphie’s hold. He falls to the ground and lands in a crouch, one hand on the cement of the alley floor. “And cool uncles!”

“Guh!” Donnie squirms, but makes the least progress in escaping his uncle’s loving capture. “Uncle Raphie, I-I think I see a light!”

Raphie lets go, and as Raph falls he kicks off of one of his dad’s spikes to catch Donnie before he hits the ground. Raphie sniffles, wiping his eyes and taking a deep breath.

“Okay,” he says, voice still wobbly. “Now remember. This is a practice patrol, and we’re gonna do our best to avoid any fights. If one breaks out, you run and hide together and call Auntie April and facetime her until the fight is done. Got it?”

“Awww, but Dad! Why do we have these if we’re not gonna use ‘em?!” Raph pulls out his little sai, spinning them in his hand fast enough to make a metallic shhhhhing! sound before gripping them tightly and raising them for battle. “I wanted to kick some butt! And you just said we’re all grown up!”

“Raphie meant it felt that way because Raphie can remember when you were all tiny babies!” Raphie pinches his fingers together for emphasis.

“This is why direct communication is always preferable to emotional outbursts,” Donald says flatly. “Kids, you’re all still too young to take on any big fights. The weapons are an absolute last resort in case the literal worst occurs!”

“Which it won’t,” Angelo assures, partly to the boys but mostly to Raphie. “Just remember to keep up, call out if you fall behind, and if you see a villain, tell one of us!”

“But we’re already ten years old!” Raph keeps a grip on his sai. “We’re totally ready for a fight!”

“Not with an adult, little man,” Raphie says, rubbing his son’s head. “If you want to fight another ten-year-old, though, just make sure the kid is a jerk who deserves it.”

“Orrr, how about we don’t fight anyone, huh?” Leon elbows Raph. “Especially not human ten-year-olds.”

“What about yokai or mutant ten-year-olds?” Mikey whispers to Donnie.

“I think we can assume they fall under the same ruling,” Donnie whispers back. “But the three of you can claim misunderstanding, I guess.”

“Sweeet! Sorry your big brain means you can’t fight with us, Dee.”

Donnie sighs. “I could always say I had to jump in.”

While the two “younger” boys whisper to each other, Donald and Angelo lean their own heads together.

“Do they know we can totally hear them?” Angelo whispers.

Donald shakes his head. “Note to self, add ‘proper whispering techniques’ to the list of things I never realized I’d have to teach someone until I became a parent.”

“Alright, huddle up!” Raphie waves the kids closer. “Now just hop on our backs and-”

“Too slow, uncle-brah!” Mikey, practically vibrating with excitement, springs up onto the fire escape ladder and begins making his way to the roof like a bouncy ball on a mission!

“Junior, wait!” Angelo dashes after his son.

“Okay, nobody follow Mikey’s exa-!”

Raphie is cut off as Raph, Donnie, and Leo all follow Mikey’s example, leaping and flipping their way up to the building rooftop all on their own. Raphie watches, tearing up again.

“Your chasm is getting deeper again, bro.” Leon watches the boys with a proud smile of his own, but it slowly turns into a frown. “Heyyy… does this mean they’ve been sneaking out to practice their building-climbing?”

“Not according to the lair entry and exit logs,” Donald says, pulling up said logs on his wristpad.

“You record our entries and exits?”

“But of course! After the Big Mama incident when they were six!”

Raphie and Leon both Oooooh in understanding, then crouch and spring up to climb the building themselves. Donald uses his hovershell instead, meeting his family at the rooftop, where Angelo is clinging to Mikey and checking him for scrapes.

“Daaaaad!” Mikey pops into his shell in protest. “I only wobbled a little like, one time!”

“You almost fell!”

“Did not!”

“Hamato Michelangelo Jr, I know an almost-fall when I see one! Your uncles and I didn’t learn to skateboard right out the eggs, you know!”

“RAPH! SAVE ME!”

Raph, though, is too busy rolling on the back of his shell pointing and laughing- until his own dad picks him up.

“I was in the middle of telling you to keep close and jump on our backs to get up here!”

“We aren’t tots anymore, Dad! We can get around without riding on your shells all the time!”

“Wait, but, I still think that’s fun!” Mikey shouts as he pops his head back out of his shell. His limbs follow soon after, and Angelo sets him down so Mikey can scramble up Raphie’s back and wrap his uncle’s neck in a hug. “It’s cool, Uncle Raphie, don’t listen to Raph!”

Donald and Leon both look down at their own sons- who have the decency to look away sheepishly, Donnie laughing a little and rubbing the back of his neck while Leo taps his fingers together shamefully.

“Just saying, this is not a great way to build our confidence that you’re ready for this,” Leon says. “Look, I get it. Rules totally suck, especially when you’re a kid with a lot of energy and total rad ninjocity to go with it. But you guys don’t have any experience with this kinda stuff yet-”

“Yeah we do, when we went to the yokai hote- mmmph!” Mikey’s reminder of their little sneak-out is cut off as Raph quickly covers his mouth and drags him over to Leo and Donnie so the four are grouped up again.

“Okay, you have a little experience,” Leon allows. “But still not enough for us to feel like you’re okay to be doing this stuff on your own. The plan was for you to just hop on our backs to get up here and then follow along on your own, but now I think we should have you on our backs until you get a good idea of what patrol is actually like.”

Raph releases his little brother with a scowl. “Way to go, Mikey!”

“Hey, you followed me too!”

“Boys, no fighting!” Raphie pats his shell, and Raph reluctantly climbs up. “Little man, are you actually mad at your brother for going up first, or are you mad at yourself for following his lead?”

Raph sinks against his dad’s shell, like he’s trying to hide among the spikes. “Mad at myself for screwing up,” he mumbles.

“So what do you want to say to Mikey now?”

“... Sorry, Mikey.”

“And?”

“Do I have to?”

“Raph.”

“Fine. And… I shouldn’t take it out on you when I’m upset with myself, I should take time to process it and deal with it healthily.” With each grumbled and embarrassed word, Raph sinks lowers and lower among the spikes until he’s basically lying flat on his father’s shell.

“It’s okay Raph,” Mikey says from his own dad’s back. “I’m sorry I went up without listening or waiting for anyone.”

“I’m so proud of you both,” Angelo sniffles, making Mikey beam and Raph even more embarrassed. Angelo’s years disappear as he points off into the distance. “Now enough rules-laying! It’s time for RAZZMATAZZ!”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four shadows leap with ease from rooftop to rooftop, silent despite the huge stature the silhouettes imply. The bright neon glow of the city around them hardly touches the ninjas as they effortlessly move, unseen and unheard.

But the lights touch something else.

The hearts and awe-stricken souls of four young boys.

Clinging to their fathers, the boys all stare out at the city with wide eyes. The neon lights reflect, some colors seeming to linger a bit longer than others. Bright blues glow in Leo and Mikey’s eyes, toxic green gleams in Raph’s, and deep reds shine in Donnie’s.

“Dad?” Leo says as they land.

“Yeah?”

“Can we come up every night?”

Leon’s heart melts at the soft, awed tone in his son’s voice. “Someday, mi hijo.”

Leo hugs his dad’s neck a little tighter- and then too tightly. Leon chokes for a second, reaching up to loosen his son’s hands. “Whoa-”

“Dad, look!” Leo points.

Leon looks down at the street to see that Leo is pointing at a group of humans all filing out of a… reality office? They’re all somewhat slack-bodied, eyes wide-open and swirling.

Leon stops, and without a word his brothers stop too. He crouches and squints. “Don? Is that something mystic, or did a really bad lawsuit just hit that office?”

Donald reaches up to flip his mystic goggles down, but Donnie beats him to it and flicks them onto his father’s eyes. A robotic arm comes out of Donald’s battlehell to rub Donnie on the head as Donald’s normal organic arms adjust the settings. “Ooooh, it is definitely mystic.”

“Come on! It’s been quiet for weeks and now something happens?!” Leon groans, dropping his head dramatically at the timing of it all. “Okay, Raphie and I will go check it out, you and Angelo stay with the boys.”

Angelo and Donald both give a thumbs-up as Leo and Raph climb down from their dads’ shells and stand next to their uncles. Leon and Raphie hops down, sneaking into the office through an open window.

“Thank gosh for those new window-sizing regulations,” Angelo sighs as Raphie peeks his head back out and slams the huge window shut.

“Yes, an incredible stroke of luck for Raphie and his continued ninja-ing, he said completely non-suspiciously.”

“... Doooonald? Did you lobby for the city to require windows to be bigger so Raphie can keep sneaking into places?” Angelo grins at his brother.

“Technically since Mutant and Yokai are more or less a known ‘secret’ is it really lobbying to simply… throw money at politicians until they make more mutant-friendly building regulations?”

“Awwwww!”

“No, no no stop gushing! I am still the detached bad boy!”

Donnie giggles at his dad’s statement.

“Gasp! Not you as well! My own progeny!”

“Well, technically progeny would imply we’re genetically related, Dad.”

“... You know you’re adopted?”

“Was I not supposed to?” Donnie climbs down so he can look his dad in the eyes. “I mean, we aren’t the same kind of turtle, or even mutant turtles.”

Donald looks, slowly, over at his nephews. Who seem unphased, only equally as curious and perplexed as their brother.

“How long have you all known that?” Angelo crouches down and Mikey slides off so his dad can look him in the eyes. “Do you need to talk about it?”

“Why would we?” Raph asks, shrugging with his arms crossed. “Auntie April isn’t related to us either. Or Auntie Cass. Or Uncle Casey.”

“Papa Draxum isn’t even related to us, really,” Donnie adds. “Why would we need to talk about it?”

“Well… usually, with human families, being adopted is kind of a big deal.”

“Well, sucks for them.” Raph grins, somewhat deviously. “Just another way our family is way cooler than a boring normal one!”

“Yeah!” Mikey hugs his dad. “You guys are our dads! Nothing else matters!”

Donnie looks up as he feels water drip on his head. “Uh, dad?”

Donald is covering his eyes with his forearm, tears streaming down. “That one really got through.”

“Um, would a hug make this better, or worse?”

Before Donald can answer, there’s a scream. A familiar scream.

Donald and Angelo scoops the boys up as Leon comes crashing into the rooftop.

“Dad!” Leo pushes out of Angelo’s hold and rushes to his father. Leon groans and stands, a little battered but not seriously hurt. Leo hugs his leg. “Dad, what happened?”

“Okay, so, little good-news bad-news situation,” Leon says. “Good news, it’s just Hypno and the worm guy looking to not have to wait in line to find a bigger apartment.”

“And the bad news?” Donald leans out over the edge of the building.”

“Hypno may have hypnotized Raph into being their bodyguard against the rest of us.”

“What?!” Raph runs over to the edge of the building and jumps–

Only for one of Donald’s robotic arms to grab him mid-air.

“I have to go help my dad!” Raph swings his tiny sai at nothing.

“We will go snap Raphie out of it,” Donald says, setting Raph back down by Mikey and Donnie. “You four stay here! Don’t worry, Hypno and the… worm… thing… are complete villain lightweights. For us. Not for you.”

“But-!”

“Raph,” Leon says, kneeling down to put his hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “You know how upset your dad would be if you were in danger because of him, right?”

Raph’s eyes go wide, and he looks down. He grips his sai harder for a second… and then slumps, spinning them and putting them back on his belt. He steps back, huddled up with his brothers.

“We’ll be back before you can say ‘cowabunga’,” Leon promises. “Remember, call Auntie April!”

And the three fathers hops down from the building.

And their sons are left alone.

“Uncle Raphie’s gonna be fine, bro,” Mikey assures, putting a hand on Raph’s back. “They beat those dudes every time.”

“I know. … But they made him hurt Uncle Leon.” Raph sniffles and wipes his eyes. “Dad hates when he even-even accidentally hurts him during sparring or something.”

They all move back, hiding in the shadow of a billboard, and wait as the sounds of shouts, crashes, and portals sound from below. For a while it’s all they hear, until-

“Hey!”

“AHHH!”

All four spring up, drawing their weapons at once and spinning around to face the voice.

A little bird yokai girl, no older than them, hovers above. Her arms and wings are one and the same, yellow feathers drifting off as she flaps somewhat frantically to stay aloft. She’s majority yellow, with black accent feathers at the ends of her wing-arms, and a few on the top of her head that look kind of like a poofy topknot bun. She’s got a smart little deep-pink suit, and her orange beak is dotted with pink freckles.

Mikey relaxes a little, lowering his nunchucks. “Oh, hi!”

The girl arrows her eyes. “Are those guys down there your dads? “Four of them are!” Mikey puts his hands on his hips and grins, even as his brothers all gape in disbelief at his openness. “The other two are evilll villains!”

The girl scowls. “Your dads are beating up my dads!”

“Oh! You-your Hypno and the worm’s kid!” Leo chuckles nervously. “Um, our dads are just-”

“Totally ruining our chance of getting a penthouse!”

“... Will it help if we tell you they just want our uncle un-hypnotized?” Mikey tries as his brothers all glare at him.

“My dad hypnotized him because he needed a bodyguard!”

“Why’d he need a bodyguard to rent an apartment?! Huh?!” Raph points up at her with one of his sai, matching her scowl.

“Because we can’t afford one, we need it free, and some stupid humans have a problem with us doing that!”

“Listen, we all think housing should be free–” Leo says, and his brothers all nod in unison, “– but our dads only went in to see what was happening, and yours made it into a problem!”

“Oh yeah?!” The girl drops down, landing on her feet, feathers puffed and ruffled. “Well yours are ugly!”

“HEY!” Mikey spins his nunchucks again. “Take that back!”

“No!”

“Well you’re ugly!”

“Mikey, don’t! We’re not supposed to get in a fight, remember?!” Donnie whispers harshly.

“Too bad!” The girl throws her wing-arms out. “You’ll regret the day you ever insulted the dads of Tweetie Stone!” “Ah… sewer apples.”

#tmnt 2012 #rottmnt #tmnt crossover #reincarnation au #fanfic #my attempts at fanfic #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles 2012 #teenage mutant ninja turtles

17 notes · View notes

rolameny · 6 months ago

Text

welcome to turtle hell

may or may not have watched both seasons and the tv movie of rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles in a possessed state the last couple of weeks

the two pillars of my enjoyment for this series are:

the writing and production quality are ridiculously polished for a y7 kids' show. like, huge swathes of the tv show are what i would call mathematically perfect. absolutely pristine structure. this is a masterclass in character-driven action/comedy pacing. i'm being so serious rn and speaking from a real critique perspective.

raph (red bandana turtle) is my sweetie angel perfect son and i love him. i'm speaking as the loving mother to a perfect sweetie angel son.

ROTTMNT is a show from 2018 that tries a new spin on the classic turts -- in a move i find really fun, each one of the teens is a different kind of turtle. my sweetie angel is a snapping turtle, donatello's a softshell turtle, etc.

the character dynamics are also flipped around a little bit: instead of raph being the angry one guided by his leader leonardo, here he's the leader, struggling really hard between parentified eldest brother overprotectiveness and being a rowdy teen who also would just like to smash shit and have a good time. this show's leonardo is a showman who would rather have fun and look cool than train -- this gets him into trouble when he refuses to take things seriously and when his brothers can't recognize the rare times he DOES take things seriously.

they're the heart of the show imo, with raph slowly learning that he doesn't have to take on every burden and that he can trust his brothers to have his back, and leo learning in the post-show movie to listen to his brothers in turn.

responsibility and duty -- what is yours, how much of a burden is it, how will you respond to it? -- are huge questions in this show. it's notable that this show's splinter is like, brutally depressed and therefore negligent as a parent, and doesn't tell his turtle kids about any of his past or their family duties until forced. this splinter started as the scion of a clan dedicated to repressing the demon shredder; he bailed on his responsibility in his youth, changed his name, and made a career as a hollywood action star. then he got mutated into a horrible little rat man and acquired four turtle sons. he loves his kids but spends most of his time watching tv, including a lot of reruns of his own movies from when he was a cool respected human action star and not a depressed single rat dad.

there's a conversation splinter has with michelangelo late in the game, about the yokai scientist who mutated them both:

mikey is a reasonably well-adjusted sewer teen who would like to know more about his past; splinter loves his kids but has never gotten over what was done to him.

splinter: WHY do you care about him?

mikey: he made me. he made us!

splinter: i know. he's a monster.

to get back to my sweetie angel, raph is both the oldest (i don't know how they decided turtle ages. genuinely.) and the biggest/toughest physically. he towers over his brothers. mikey climbs on him like a jungle gym. all the turts have magic abilities in this show. raph's is that he can surround himself in a glowing red projection of his own body, which he can scale up to godzilla size. raph uses this both to clobber guys and frequently as a shield to protect his allies. the first time he ever activates his power, it's to save leo after he got tossed off a roof. this is not subtle: he is the strong one, the oldest one, he shields his brothers from harm and carries them and leads them. in the season two finale, he breaks under the strain of having to lead his brothers against shredder with no weapons or backup. and he's taught a lesson by a family member he never knew he had: you are not alone. you can't lead and protect and fight and plan by yourself. your abilities rely on your family, and you have to trust that they will catch you when you fall just like you always catch them.

it's not subtle!! it doesn't have to be. it works.

also, raph internalizes this lesson and decides to teach it to his brothers by jumping off a cliff and trusting they'll catch him on the way down. he is still a dipshit teenager. and my perfect son--

pivoting:

this show has 12-minute episodes (two per 24-minute half-hour tv block), and a lot of them are adventure of the week. that is not a lot of time at all, especially considering there are plenty of extended action sequences. the show is SO quickly paced for it. you're tossed into a situation with maybe one line of setup; a couple times the show starts in media res and then has one character turn to another to ask, "why are we doing [X plot action]?" to get you situated.

when i talk about mathematical structure, this is what i mean. this show is doing so much with character work and worldbuilding layered on top of its adventure plots that its pacing has to absolutely run on rails. it's really effective, and that layering keeps you from feeling like you're only seeing the mechanics of the plot. every character is fun and weird and vivid and has an idiosyncratic voice, both in the writing and in the performing. april o'neil gets squawky and squeaky; raph and casey jones jump up and down in volume as they get worked up over the course of a sentence; ben schwartz is here.

the worst i can say about this show is that nickelodeon cut its second season order in half and canceled the third season and you can feel it. stuff starts getting rushed in the back half of s2 and in the tv movie. characters get dropped. problems are brought up and left unsolved. and yet things still mostly work. if "damn, nick fucked you over" is the worst i can say about a show that show is pretty good!!!!

the animation, the fx work, the background painting, the sound design [there's a tiger roar sfx that occasionally gets dropped in at dramatic/comedic moments that makes me laugh every time], they're all genuinely so good it makes me mad. it's so fucked up that this show is this good. i'm in turtle hell.

#tmnt #absolutely lost in the sauce.#fucks me up that raph is the one to hear the anatawa hitorijanai three times. this is nothing to any of you.#and yet.#all of this to say nothing about the rabbit boytoy!#macroblogging

12 notes · View notes

nardos-primetime · 1 year ago

Note

You've said things with Big Mama eventually get sour for the clone boys (how can they not) but do they just try to run at that point or...

Fuck it lets lore dump I'm bored and too lazy to make comics maybe one day we'll see these in drawings but I'm feeling nice to I'll give more than normal. Typos inbound probably.

The clones are children. They started out homeless and hurt and only had each other to support themselves. Safe to say if they did run it would have to be something all four agreed on.

Technically it got worse before they even knew it.

"They're really close friends with a bird yokai around their age. She often comes in because her dad has work with Big Mama. Sometimes, they even sneak her out to hang out, too!"

This was about a yokai called...

October is essentially the only healthy friendship they gain while with Mama, being their "April". Her father is engaged in business with Big Mama, often taking his daughter with him, which is how the boys meet her! They played together a lot, even taking her behind the scenes despite some other workers warning them that Mama might not like it if she finds out.

At this point, the boys would have (somewhat reluctantly) taken on a few hits for her. As much as they threatened and fought the original turtles, they were effectively all bark no bite until Big Mama pushed them. Lee, ever the optimist, insisted that if they stuck together, it'd be fine, and despite obvious trauma that comes with taking a life, it was fine. They got praise from their mother, and they kept their home and the various needs/vices provided with it.

Mama had long prior learned about October. She's not stupid, after all. She'd even greeted her one time when the boys were sloppy with a sneaking out plan, inviting her to dinner to not only the clones' shock but October and her father's shock as well.

Unfortunately, October's father drops the ball. He doesn't follow up on his end of the deal.

And Big Mama is Big Mama. She knows she's the only person who has really gained a connection with these boys, and due to an issue Mic is having (he was the closest to perfect, but never quite there), the concept of going back out to the streets would not only be stressful, but potentially dangerous. So she uses this to give a warning to October's father.

The boys stop making friends with guests after.

Donno gets worse some would say, he never had as much as an averse reaction as the other's. (Nowhere near as worse as doomed timeline, he just starts getting far more into his "surgeries.") Rage shuts down for a few days before getting back to his work. Lee distracts himself from what they've done by trying to focus on the others (Rage accepts this the most).

Mic locks himself in his room for 2 weeks until he absolutely has to come out. Even then, he refuses to take any care from the others for half a week until he breaks down in front of Mama and has a wonderful bonding experience that she would totally never use against him.

So no, they don't run. They more or less make excuses or "man up", only after a certain aspect of their deal comes back up do things get extremely sour, but I need to expand on it a little more and I'd REALLY like to draw or write it out because I love traumatizing turtles. Who knows what I'll do, though.

(Thanks to @midwesternvibes for the bird idea in the first place hehe)

16 notes · View notes

angelpuns · 2 years ago

Text

I have a couple of rural au comics to post, but for now ( I'm away from my computer rn ) have some assorted sketches!!! I have so so so so many of these and there's so many things to talk about in them!!!

So Taro is a huge huge huge white dog that wandered onto the farm one day and Raph begged their dad to let them keep it!!! He became a beloved farm dog and is spoiled rotten <3

Donnie has always been very very smart and if he had been human, Yoshi would have sent him to school in Tokyo. But he's not. So Yoshi collects books for him to read and let's him tinker with things around the farm.

Yuichi and Leo have a long standing tradition of hunting frogs in the summer, especially when its super rainy. Leo has one more often, but as they:be gotten older Yuichi has started to catch up.

Some things about Baby Raph cause he doesn't get enough attention in these sketches: Yoshi found them in his house and Raph was already super super protective. He remembers the most about their mutation/where they came from but he can't make sense of it for the most part :(. He doesn't bother anyone else with it but when they were little would occasionally have nightmares and crawl into bed with Yoshi. He didn't cry for the entire duration of them living on their own - in fact he didn't cry until Leo and Donnie got sick and Yoshi had to take care of them.

Leo and Donnie were both very very fussy children and were constantly sick as well. Its hard being a dad to four turtles and having to drag all of them to the nearest yokai village - which is actually how he FOUND the yokai village! The twins were sick again and he was desperate, he ended up finding the village and the local doctor helped him ( despite the entire village's disdain for humans )

I'll be posting about this all day cause I've been waiting for a break from the Kid Leo Au JUST SO I CAN TALK ABOUT THIS OTHER AU

I love Kid Leo Au ofc but the Rural au combines two of my biggest interests and has a lot of research that goes into it!!!

Kid Leo Au = healing my inner child or whatever

Rural au = I get to do research :D

I'll add a link to the rural au master post later, once I get back to my computer :3 ( you can also read more about it through the rural au tag )

Rural Au Masterpost

#rottmnt #art #fanart #rottmnt fanart #rottmnt leo #rottmnt fanfic #rottmnt comic #digital art #rottmnt art #comic #rottmnt rural au #rural au

127 notes · View notes

shaotie · 26 days ago

Text

Seven Years - Ch 28: "INeedaMinute!"

Leo sat on the floor in the only free corner of Draxum’s lab. Like he already knew because he could sense it, Barry was there when he arrived, and as predicted his goat dad spent all their time ‘together’ working in complete silence.

Leo spent the first hour or so following the yokai around, watching his work, talking to (and about) him, cracking jokes and complaining.

{"Geesh, turn on a radio would you? How can you work like this?"}

Silence.

. . .

{"Sooo are you one of those fainting goats? What’ll happen if you get a fright? Keel over with your legs stuck up in the air?"}

No response.

. . .

Eventually even that got boring and now Leo was doing nothing to entertain his mind beyond tracing invisible circles on the floor with his left index finger.

But, unbeknownst to him, all that was about to change with one four-syllable word.

“Leonardo?”

Leo shot his eyes up to see Draxum looking right at him.

At him. Not through him but really, truly at him.

{"You can see me!? How’d you do that!?"}

Leo stood up and - eager to finally interact with and converse with someone - the words in his head wanted to spill out of his mouth faster than his tongue could keep up.

He walked toward his dad, gesturing excitedly with his hands and talking rapid-fire.

{"You've got no idea how hard it’s been, trapped here all alone, no one to talk to no one can see…"} “I cannot hear you.”

{"Wha…"}

Leo would’ve felt his heart sink into his stomach if he had (or at least could feel) either, and he abruptly turned around so Draxum wouldn’t see the conspicuous glowing blue tears in the corners of his eyes.

{"Pull it together Leon, he can see you, that’s a step in the right…"} “Leonardo, what happened to you? Why are you here?”

The urgency in Draxum’s voice told him his dad could also see the krangy infection on his carapace, so Leo spun back around and shrugged.

{"Dunno, probably got something to do with that."}

He pointed over his shoulder to his shell and Draxum said: “I take it that growth on your carapace has something to do with this.”

{"I dunno,"} Leo replied with another shrug. {"I think so, Krang Prime put it there. But you can’t hear me tell you that, can you?"}

“Did Krang Prime have something to do with this?"

{"Oh yeah, right on the nose,"} Leo said in a positive tone while nodding his head and tapping his nose for emphasis. {"Maybe this whole 'no on can hear me' thing won’t be as bad as I think now that dad can see me."}

~A Short Time Later~

Leo fists were clenched tightly as he glared at Draxum, hiding his fear behind anger that was threatening to turn into tears just as easily. Suddenly this whole ‘no one can hear me’ thing took on a whole new meaning and became a lot more frustrating.

Draxum had suggested Leo learn what his restrictions were regarding where he could travel and he currently had no way to communicate why that was a very bad idea.

Although he never ventured far from his family, there was something deep inside him he couldn’t ignore that was telling him venturing too far away from them would come with serious consequences.

Part of that was amplified by the fact that when Draxum went above ground via his yokai portals and Leo was left behind, he felt the only physical sensation he could feel, like there was a tug on his mystic form and a pressure in his glowing body, reminding him he was starting to push toward whatever sort of distance limitation was mystically placed upon him.

His ancestors had thought perhaps there was some sort of mystic connection between Leo and his body. They apparently were wrong about that, but shortly after his body died, Leo had a sinking suspicion he did have some sort of mystic connection between him and each and every individual member of his family. And his suspicions were proved true time and time again when he tested out his theory by pinpointing exactly where each of them were over a period of a few days, with striking one hundred percent accuracy.

He always knew exactly where in his mansion-sized house Draxum was before he even walked through the front door.

He knew exactly what room of the lair Donnie, Raph, Mikey, Splinter, and even April and Casey were in before he walked through one of the exterior entrances.

He knew who wasn’t in the lair and where approximately they were, whether it was New York or the Hidden City, and he could figuratively sniff them out faster than any well-trained bloodhound.

He also felt their mystic signatures were stronger when they were near and faded when they were far away. The more of them who were close to him, the more strengthened this new sense felt - kind of like an inbuilt mystic radar far superior to anything the tech whiz Donatello was able to create.

In addition to this, the more of them who were further away, the more the signal faded.

Just like he innately sensed within himself he would fade away if each and every one of them got too far away from him, or vice versa.

How was he supposed to communicate all of that without words?

He couldn’t.

So Leo settled for sticking his arm out to send Draxum as clear of a message as he could with a ‘thumbs down,’ along with the childish gesture of sticking his tongue out to blow raspberries at his goat dad.

~Not Long Later~

The next thing Leo knew, Draxum had somehow convinced him to join him in the lair for their family’s ceremony. And on the way there, Leo noticed something.

During his time living with the goat alchemist, Leo learned something about Draxum that ‘future boy’ Casey already knew from his timeline. When Draxum was stressed - really stressed - he did one of two things.

1. Completely ignore everyone and everything around him while getting lost deep in thought inside his own mind.

2. Drone on about things Leo didn't understand (kind of like Donnie and his stress babbling).

During the first half of the long walk to the lair from the nearest Hidden City portal, Draxum had done the former, with Leo by his side as he pondered over the seriousness of this situation and what they could do to help his son. But after Leo kept figuratively dragging his feet - making them late to arrive for the important ceremony that as of now started five minutes ago - he switched to telling Leo about all sorts of mystic stuff he hoped might help that the slider didn't understand (but he sure was glad his dad was finally talking to him after a year of silence).

As Draxum walked down the sidewalk, apparently droning on to himself from the viewpoint of any who he passed, he got the occasional sideways glance from the humans who heard him talking to himself, when he was really talking to his invisible son.

After the first five minutes of this, Leo trailed behind and tuned out Draxum’s voice; eventually even forgetting his dad was talking to him (which wasn’t hard to do considering nobody once talked to him in the past year - minus his daily visit with Mikey - who didn't know for sure if he was there or not) because of the many conflicting thoughts and feelings swimming around in his mind that were distracting him.

Leo worried about seeing the looks of grief and heartache on his family’s faces once they realized their deceased brother wasn’t showing from the mystic realm - knowing they would be the same looks of grief and heartache he saw day in and day out for weeks and weeks after his body died in Raphael’s warm arms.

He was equally anxious about the shock and sadness and worry they would have once they found out he had been trapped here, on earth, unable to reach out to anyone or move on to the mystic realm with their ancestors for the past year.

And for some strange reason he couldn’t fathom, the happiness he felt at the prospect of his twin brother finally seeing him via the gem he removed from his goggles was overshadowed by the fear he felt at the same prospect.

Fear of being exposed.

By his brother.

Who loved him and had seen him practically every day for his entire life.

Who he had been with regularly since the death of his organic body.

Who hadn’t seem him or even sensed his presence once during all that time.

As horrible as it had been not to be known for the past year, in his own way Leo had adjusted to this new manner of life and he begrudgingly admitted he had gotten comfortable with slipping under the radar, going around unheard, unfelt, unseen, and unknown for a full year.

The thought of having more eyes on him was something he surprisingly dreaded almost as strongly as he yearned for it.

The invisible slider didn’t know exactly when it happened, but somewhere around the fourth or fifth month he stopped putting on the pretense of leaving the company of whoever he happened to be with to be alone when he vented his frustrations through screaming and shouting and crying uncontrollably, he just did it right in front of them.

Crying.

Something he was doing now.

Leo didn’t bother wiping away the stray tears escaping his eyes to float around his face like tiny orbs of light that disappeared, only to be replaced by more. Nor did he bother hugging himself as he faux walked behind Draxum. He couldn’t feel either, anyway.

While following a few feet behind his dad with Draxum’s voice droning on and on becoming part of the background noise Leo stared blankly at the sidewalk in front of his feet. Until…

“Leonardo?”

Leo stopped float-walking in his tracks and stared up at the face of the alchemist who was staring straight at him.

Not through him. At him.

With a worried look on his face.

{"Oh crap, how’d I forget he can see me!?"}

Leo hastily wiped away the conspicuous glowing tears and looked up at Draxum with his very best fake (mystic) 'faceman' grin. But the look of concern on his dad’s face remained.

After a brief few uncomfortable seconds that felt longer to Leo, Draxum’s eidetic mind was replaying his words in his head as he tried to figure out if Leo was crying because of something he said, and if so, what it could have been. But when he couldn’t pinpoint anything with certainty, he said in his usual calm tone that carried a clear fondness with it: “The first thing Donatello and I will work on is a better means of communication for you. Are you alright?”

Leo gave Draxum a relaxed-looking ‘thumbs up,’ still with his fake grin, then when his dad asked the question: "Did I say something to upset you?" he reassured him that wasn't the case by shaking his head 'no'.

After breathing a sigh of relief Barry repeated what he had said that Leo didn’t hear and subsequently prompted him to turn around and witness the tears.

“Would you mind floating beside me please? So I can see you in my peripheral and know you’re still with me.”

'So I know you won't suddenly fade away or prove to be a figment of my imagination,' he nervously thought but didn't volunteer.

Draxum's eyes sparkled with appreciation as he watched son who he sorrowfully missed when Leo’s smile predictably changed to a sour expression at the verbal reminder he was actually floating as opposed to the walking he spent a very long year convincing himself he was doing, and he floa…uh walked up to stand alongside his much taller dad - wiping the frown off his face and smiling up at him when Draxum looked down on him with a smile on his face and love in his eyes.

And for the remainder of the trip to the lair Draxum did his best to focus on discussing upbuilding and pleasant topics with the son he hadn't seen and thought was deceased and in the mystic realm for twelve of the longest months of his life.

When they got to the lair, despite his worry and trepidation Leo rushed ahead of Draxum to be there first to see his family, opting to at least try his logical dad's suggestion to embrace his floating by not putting on the act of running down the long sewer hallway.

As soon as the invisible turtle turned the corner to stand in his open bedroom doorway, he froze in place and stared at his family.

{"I don’t know why I expected any different,"} he grumbled to himself.

Just as he suspected, Splinter was kneeling on the floor back-on to him, meticulously searching through the scroll he had made and mumbling something about this being his fault while he carefully picked through every single letter and punctuation for the tiniest of errors.

Errors Donnie was factually assuring him didn’t exist as he clicked at his wrist tech, texting April - who didn’t show up for some reason - and Leo could practically see the tension between him and Casey when his twin glanced up briefly to glare at him.

Judging by the stern look Raph gave Dee when he did so, Leo knew some harsh words were thrown Casey’s way before their dependable big brother stepped in to stop Donnie before it got out of hand.

Leo saw that Casey had an undeniable look of guilt on his face, clearly feeling like this was somehow all his fault for the one and only reason he wanted to see Leo just as badly as the rest of them, thereby directly defying Donnie with his mere presence (a sentiment Donnie had clearly shared at some point).

Next, Leo gazed at Mikey, who was watching Splinter, hopeful it wasn’t too late to see their deceased brother, and that the only thing missing was to dot an ‘i’ or cross a ‘t’ while he nonetheless was openly weeping over this who unfortunate situation.

Raph stood behind Mikey with both arms wrapped around him in a brotherly hug, and after shooting Donnie a stern look that got the softshell to break eye contact with their human brother, he went back to staring blankly at one of the flickering candles on Leo’s memorial.

He was lost in his own troubling thoughts, fearing he was right all alone and Leo didn’t show up because he had all but forgotten about them in exchange for his ‘better’ mystical family.

Leo sighed, 'walked' in the room, and ‘sat’ on the edge of his bed, somewhere between where Donnie and Raph were standing.

“I let April know it was a bust. She’s still stuck from that glue explosion at her new job in the adhesive factory and can’t make it for another hour or so, anyway,” Donnie announced to his family in a factual yet somehow sad voice. It escaped Raph’s notice when he briefly glared at Casey again, and the newer human addition to their family took the hint and said: “I’m going to bed. Let me know tomorrow if anything happens, ok?”

Donnie took a big, over-exaggerated step back to give Casey plenty of room to get past on his way out, but before he even took two steps Draxum’s large frame blocked the open doorway.

He stood tall with his hands behind his back and glanced at Leo, who looked up at him with a sad expression on his face, before saying: “That won’t be necessary, Leonardo is here.”

“Where!?”

Splinter raised his head to look around as though his keen ninja senses somehow missed a brightly glowing, life-sized mystic mutant turtle that suddenly materialized in the room. When he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he joined the rest of his family in looking up at Draxum.

“He’s sitting on the bed, I can see him with my yokai powers.”

Immediately Mikey’s tears dried up and he was the first one to act on Draxum’s words by pushing Raph’s arms away and crying out: “Leo’s on the bed!?”

In his unbridled excitement and without a second’s thought he practically pounced on the bed to be alongside his deceased brother who he hadn’t seen, heard, or felt for a full year.

Leo quickly flew up off the bed to avoid Mikey going straight through his intangible mystic form, and he hovered in the air looking down on the box turtle, whose head was whipping around as he called out: “Leo!? Leo where are you!?”

Draxum opened his mouth to inform Mikey that Leonardo was now floating above him but couldn't talk, but he closed it and rolled his eyes when Donnie looked down at the scroll still in Splinter’s hands and said: “So it did work only we can’t see him.”

Donnie rubbed his chin as he gazed at the scroll with Splinter - glancing up once to shoot Casey a dirty look suspecting he had something to do with this new dilemma.

Draxum opened his mouth again.

“Actually…”

“Leo!” Raph frantically interrupted, completely oblivious to the fact Draxum said anything at all.

“Leo can you hear us!? Say something!”

Leo and Draxum exchanged a knowing glance and then the goat alchemist opened his mouth once again to explain this whole situation, but he was cut off for the third time when Splinter pointed out something on the scroll to Donnie, who leaned over his shoulder to get a closer look when he said: “Perhaps if I change the wording here…” “Enough!” Draxum curtly (and authoritatively) interrupted.

Everyone finally gave the goat alchemist their attention when he calmly and factually informed them: “The scroll did not work because Leonardo is not now nor has he ever been in the mystic realm. He has been trapped here on earth with us for the entire year since his death; inaudible, intangible, and invisible, until today when I saw him for the first time.”

Leo didn’t know how it was possible, but the mortified looks on each and every face staring at the goat scientist was somehow much worse than the grief and sadness he saw a few minutes prior.

Mikey sat up on Leo’s bed and the glowing blue slider floated down to sit beside his little brother as he said in a sad, shaky voice: "All alooone?"

Before Draxum had a chance to answer, Donnie inquired: “Trapped?” with one of his big black eyebrows raised, and then Splinter angrily yelled at Draxum: “What do you mean by trapped and how long did you know Leonardo was here without telling us, goat man!?”

Draxum groaned and looked down at the much shorter mutant rat to say: “I only discovered his presence tonight, and I will explain everything I know momentarily, but first…” he calmly looked at Donnie as though he had just informed his family something minor happened - like he found a missing sock under the bed - and said: “Try putting the mystic gem back in your goggles. I suspect they will allow you to see Leonardo as I can.”

Donnie didn’t bother wasting time asking Draxum how he knew he took the gem out in the first place and practically flew out of the room with the speed he ran to his lab.

Then, after a brief moment of contemplation, Leo got up to follow behind.

Leo float-walked in through the half open door to Donnie’s lab, but only came in a few feet to stand behind the first worktable; where he stopped and anxiously waited for Donnie to reappear from inside his walk-in wall safe where he was retrieving his mystic gem.

Leo watched Donnie walk out holding up the glowing purple crystal, and he wasted no time taking his goggles off his head to lay them on a worktable and insert it inside. Then he put them on his face over his eyes with the intent of recalibrating the mystic sensors before going back to the room where he presumed Leo was.

But before he did anything, a glowing blue mystic form to the left of his visual field caught his eye.

Although he looked a little blurry because a calibration was in order, the form Donnie saw was undeniably his decease twin brother, Leo.

His heart skipped a beat at the sight and the only word he could get out at first was a quiet, hushed:

“Leo.”

All the fear and trepidation centered around feeling exposed when he was seen completely vanished, and was replaced with an overwhelming sense of relief that his very own twin brother was looking right at him, making Leo involuntarily huff out a silent laugh with tears in the corners of his eyes.

The slider couldn’t help himself, as much as he tried wiping the glowing tears of joy away with the palm of his hand, they just kept coming. While doing that he gave his twin brother a weak smile and a gentle wave ‘hello,’ before he was able to get control of himself and stop the conspicuously glowing blue waterworks.

During this whole time Donnie was speechless and stared at Leo with his gaping mouth partway open.

There were far too many thoughts and questions in his head all at once to be able to pick one line of thought and stick with it, so his stunned, overwhelmed mind deflected to his prepared and thoroughly practiced speech for when his brother was supposed to show himself during the ceremony; leading him to say with all the same intonation and inflection from his many practice sessions:

“Why didn’t you write MY letter first, Nardo?”

Leo broke eye contact with Donnie by rolling his eyes with an exasperated sigh, and with the way he gazed at the floor looking so deflated from that question, guilt immediately tugged at Donnie's heart from what he said so he ate his words with a hasty:

“Sorry, sorry. Uhh, you’re blurry, give me a minute I need to recalibrate,” then he quickly added a panicky: “Butdontgoanywhere!”

Despite what he intended to do, Donnie couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the sight of his very own mystically glowing twin brother, who he hadn't seen or heard from in an entire year since his death, and who was now standing right here in his lab, looking at him.

When Leo noticed Dee kept staring blankly at him without doing anything, he reassured him he was staying put by raising his hands above the worktable, so his twin could see when he pointed down at the floor while nodding his head and silently moving his lips ({"Yeah I'll stay here"}) like he was an actor in an old silent film.

Dee forced himself to look down at his wrist tech, working as fast as he could to open the custom app he made for his goggles, so he could recalibrate them - as though he was afraid looking away from Leo would make him suddenly disappear. But in the middle of clicking at his tech, Raph’s worried voice cut through the speaker in his com:

“What’s taking so long, Don?”

“Leo’s here, I need to recalibrate my sensors and…” “Leo’s there you can see him!?” Mikey blurted out.

Instantly Dee regretted sharing that tidbit of information with his family because his mind was spinning too much to be able to deal with this and everyone swarming him with too many questions and demands to see Leo too; so as soon as he heard footsteps running in their direction from down the hall he clicked at his wrist tech and the half-open, heavy, soundproofed door slammed shut (just before he muted his com, of course).

Leo turned his head to look at the door with his brows furrowed in confusion when it shut, wondering why Donnie didn’t want the rest of them to be here, too.

Dee seemed to sense his confusion because, without looking up from his app he said in a timid turned panicky way: “I just need a minute, Leo. I… I . . . Ineedaminute!”

The confusion left Leo’s face because he understood his brother needed some quiet time alone, just the two of them, to process this whole unexpected situation that probably blew his scientific-minded brain right out of the water. Then he eagerly waited for Donnie to finish what he was doing.

As soon as he looked up again, Donnie breathed a sigh of relief to see that not only was Leo’s glowing blue body in sharp focus, but he was still here, and this whole thing hadn’t been something his imagination dreamed up.

The scientific side of Donnie’s mind wanted to ask Leo questions, but his thoughts were reeling even more than Draxum’s had been when he first saw Leo. So all he ended up doing was to comically slap his hand on his head and open his mouth wide as if to say something, but with nothing coming out because he was in such a state of shock he had no idea where to even begin.

Leo waited patiently for what he knew was shock to subside enough so he twin could say something. During that time he gazed at Donnie with a crooked grin and love in his eyes, appreciating that his brother was really truly looking at him in return, as opposed to the many times he invisibly stood in his line of vision to pretend he was being looked at instead of through.

And the love and appreciation and joy he felt at finally being seen and known and having the precious possession known as hope once more overrode the comedic look of his twin brother staring straight at him with his goofy goggles over his eyes, and his hand still resting on his head with his mouth agape. (Although Leo did wish he could take a picture to laugh at it later)

After almost five full minutes Donnie was able to think clearly enough through the jumbled mess in his mind to ask: “Can you hear us?”

Leo nodded his head and Donnie commented (but in the form of a question): “But we can’t hear you?” {"That’s right,"} Leo inaudibly replied, still with a huge grin on his face.

It was then that Donnie remembered something potentially very important and informed his mute brother: “I can read lips, say something else.”

Leo dramatically pointed straight out at Donnie with a look of excitement mixed with accusation, while silently proclaiming rapid-fire:

{"I knew you can read lips! That’s how you made Mikey’s paintball prank backfire on him! I saw you looking at us from the other roof when we were planning it on patrol! It took him three days to get all that paint outta his shell and he still blames me for snitching!"}

Leo lowered his arm and straightened up, waiting for a reply; but based on the look on Dee’s face, he didn’t understand a thing he said.

“Ok, apparently lipreading is vastly different with a glowing mystic face. Try talking slower.”

Leo’s shoulders dropped and he slowly and clearly said: {"Do you know what I’m saying now?"}

“Scratch that idea,” his twin immediately replied. “I can’t read your lips, all the blue light makes it nearly impossible. Especially with the way the inside of your mouth glows.”

Leo raised his hand up to hover it in front of his mouth and looked down at the palm of it while opening his mouth wide, expecting to see bright light shining on his already glowing hand. But there was nothing - either because the mystic light emitting from inside his mouth wasn’t bright enough, or the blue light of his hand was too bright in comparison.

Donnie watched Leo closely and raised one of his big eyebrows when he asked: “Didn’t you already know?”

Leo looked up at him with his hand still raised up to his face and shook his head ‘no.’

A realization dawned on Donnie so he said more as a factual comment than a question: “You can’t see your reflection.”

Leo shook his head ‘no’ in agreement with that statement while silently saying: {"No, I can’t,"} and lowering his hand. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, until Donnie decided to lighten the serious tone in the room by saying in a joking way:

“Geeze, that must really suck for the ‘faceman’,” using air quotes to denote he was quoting Leo’s own word. He turned around to go to his computer, while saying: “Didn’t you keep a mirror in your belt pouch?”

Leo silently laughed and gently crossed his arms in front of his belly as his lips moved.

{"No, that’s you Dontron. Do you still have that titanium bust of yourself laying around here somewhere?"}

Dee sat down at his computer desk and jokingly said: “How many hours did you used to hog the bathroom every day with your skincare routine?”

His glowing slider brother carefully went around the work table to walk up close to Dee, and as he typed away he briefly raised his left hand to point to his private bathroom, adding: “I had to build my own bathroom just to have one I can use for more than five minutes!”

Leo was standing alongside Donnie now, watching the screen along with him, and smiled while saying: {"Guess that’s not a problem now, hey Dee?"} not expecting an answer but still kind of hoping for one despite the fact he knew he couldn’t be heard by anyone but himself.

“All that moisturizing paid off, by the way. You look great, not . . . uh…” Donnie’s quick typing slowed momentarily as he nervously cleared his throat to remove the tension in it from the unpleasant memory of Leo’s sickly, underweight body he saw in his mind; accompanied by the morbid memory of the glowing blue mist that was his lifeforce draining out. Then he said in a soft, timid-sounding voice: “Not sick at all. In case you didn’t know. There.”

With one final click, Donnie’s wireless Genius Build™ printer turned on and began printing what was displaying on his computer screen.

As soon as it was done, Dee took the eight by eleven piece of cardstock out of his printer, and Leo followed him over to the closest worktable, where he cleared off a spot to lay it down.

“This is a crude design I downloaded from the internet, but I’ll make a better one for you tonight," Donnie told him.

Leo looked down at what was clearly a grid-style communication board. Along the top was the alphabet and the ˽ symbol, denoting a space. Below that was a line of various emojis, followed by a line of common words like 'want', ‘sorry’ and 'please' - along with ones Leo felt didn’t applied to him, like ‘hungry’ ‘thirsty’ ‘bathroom’ etc. Then the final line showed common household items, like a chair, table, tv, bed, etc.

While he was looking it over, Donnie told him: “Alright Leo, I made this double sided so you can flip it over and...” He stopped mid sentence when Leo shot him a sour look and in his typical over-dramatic 'Leo' fashion he raised his outstretched arm up over his head to put his hand straight down through the paper, table and all, as though it wasn't even there.

“Intangible. Right. I’ll print another copy of the back for you, but for now let’s see how well this works. Tell me something short to start.”

Leo knew exactly what he wanted to say first, because this was something weighing heavily on his mind and figurative heart pretty much all the time ever since the whole ‘letter fiasco.’ Without hesitation he pointed to the word ‘sorry’ on the board before looking up at Dee’s face, to get his reaction.

“Sorry?” Donnie asked with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

He looked up from the word covered by Leo’s glowing mystic finger to look at his twin’s glowing pupils that were staring straight at him, looking at him expectantly.

The first thought that came to Donnie’s mind was that Leo was feeling guilty about dying for some reason, and was apologizing for that; but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions so asked: “Why are you sorry?”

Donnie joined Leo in looking down at the communication board again and followed along, speaking out loud when his glowing brother pointed to individual letters on the alphabet: “L. E. T. T. E. R.”

Leo looked directly at his face and Don felt like his heart dropped right out of his chest as he wondered how often Leo had been right here, invisibly in his lab, listening to every word while he went off on one of his many long-winded rants about how furious and hurt he felt that Nardo didn’t write a letter to him - his one and only twin - first and foremost; all while firmly believing he was expressing his misplaced, unhealthy anger over Leo's death all alone, in the safe confines of his completely sound-proofed lab.

Suddenly, considering the tragic circumstances his twin brother currently found himself in, that didn’t matter at all anymore and Donnie stuttered out: “Leo it’s not like tha… I didn’t mean to… that is I…”

. . .

He sighed, seriously considering for a nanosecond that turning the tables against Leo by yelling at him for secretly 'eavesdropping' would be a better alternative than admitting his own error.

Ultimately the scientifically-minded softshell decided that was an irrational thought that would only make things even more difficult for Leo than they already were, so he lowered his head with his eyes closed because he couldn’t bear to look at that sad, glowing, guilt-stricken face anymore, and softly said: “I’m sorry, Leo. It’s not your fault, I was just…” ‘Angry that you died, and took it out on you and everyone around me,’ he thought, but didn’t say out loud.

After a brief pause, Donnie cleared his throat and kept his head down but opened his eyes to look up at his glowing brother while continuing.

“I know you would’ve written mine sooner if you had time, but everything happened so fast-too fast. You didn’t know it'd be that quick, none of us did, we thought . . .”

He swallowed a lump in his throat and raised his face to make himself make eye contact with his glowing mystic brother, who was now looking at him with worry.

“We all thought we had more time together. I’m sure you did, too.”

Then he said in an even quieter voice Leo could barely hear:

“The letter doesn’t even matter now. I don’t know why it ever mattered. And I'm sorry I took the crystal out of my goggles. I wish it didn't take so long for me to know you're here.”

Without even thinking, the usually not-huggy softshell was desperate to feel his twinsie in his arms and reached out to embrace his intangible brother who he hadn’t seen, heard, or hugged for a full year. But instead of making contact he lost his balance and stumbled ahead because his arms went straight through Leo’s body like it was nothing more than thin air.

For a brief second he wad afraid none of this was real and his grieving mind was hallucinating Leo.

Leo, for his part, immediately shot to the side to get Donnie’s hunched-over body out of his, and cringed a little before watching as his twin stared at his own two hands and straightened up.

“Intangible. I need to remember that.”

He looked at Leo and they exchanged a smile before he added in a positive tone: “Well, at least we know the communication board is a viable option. Soo, now that you can answer me, what happened to you? Why did you stay behind?”

Until now Leo had been careful to conceal his infected shell from his brother. So he ‘walked’ back over to the table and pointed at the communication board, and Don followed alone with his eyes as Leo pointed to the shrugging emoji, denoting ‘I don’t know’ followed by using the alphabet to spell out a word that sent a chill down Donnie’s spine.

“Krang,” Dee said out loud after Leo was done, and his eyes widened and he gasped in horror when Leo turned around to show him his back, so he could clearly see the grotesque, glowing, purplish (but really pink) krang infection left behind on the carapace of his mystic body.

Leo looked over his shoulder at Dee, whose shocked expression morphed into one of clear hatred with the way his whole body tensed, his jaw tightly clenched, his big, black eyebrows pointed down in the center of his forehead, and the vein in his head began throbbing.

Leo knew what his twin was thinking and he immediately turned to the side so Donnie couldn’t see his the back of his shell anymore and got Dee’s attention by briskly and repeatedly tapping at the communication board with his index finger. When he looked down, he read aloud along with Leo’s pointing.

“N. O. T. Space. C. A. S. E. Y. Space. F. A. U. L…”

Donnie’s angry facial expression and tense posture melted away from the sadness he felt at the thought of unknowingly worrying his deceased brother (yet again). His brother who had been trapped in the prison dimension for seven long, torturous years, only to come home, grow sick and die, and then find himself trapped here on earth like this for an entire year before anyone found out; practically alone considering his circumstances, apparently all because of another terrible thing monstrous Krang Prime did to him.

When Donnie didn’t reply and continued staring blankly ahead at nothing in particular, he was jolted out of his inner turmoil by a flashing light right in front of his vision, from Leo waving his blue hand in front of his goggles.

“Alright Nardo I see you,” Dee said in an annoyed-sounding tone; but when he really looked at his brother he realized he half expected to see the green, red striped face of his annoying living twin in front of him instead of the glowing blue mystic form he beheld.

As soon as he realized his brief mental lapse into the past his tone softened and Leo pointed to the communication board once more while looking at him with a very worried look on his face.

“Go ahead I’m watching.”

Once again, Donnie read the letters out loud as Leo pointed out: “N. O. T. Space. C. A… Yes, yes I get it Nardo, it’s not Casey’s fault. I’ll . . . keep that in mind.” Leo nodded his head in agreement and Dee spoke out loud when they both looked at the board again and Leo emphasized his point by communicating: “K. R. A. N. G. Space. F. A. U. L. T. Space. N. O. T. Space. C. A…” “I told you I got it Leo!” Donnie snapped; not angry at Leo but with this who frustrating situation. Instead of stopping, Leo gave him a stern look and briskly tapped at the sheet again.

“Sigh, go on,” Donnie acquiesced, and Leo continued.

Instead of reading the individual letters out loud, Donnie silently followed along in his mind, and his heart sank when he read everything Leo slowly communicated to him.

Only when Leo was done did Donnie say out loud (verbatim for clarification purposes): “Krang fault, not Casey. Blame Casey blame me.”

He audibly sighed and looked his brother in the eyes to say in a sad, despondent tone: “No, Leo, I’m not about to blame you for what happened, and I’ll…” he gritted his teeth a little and forced out: “Work on my," his eye twitched, "feeeelings towards future boy.”

Leo took that as a win and he gently smiled at Donnie with a nod, before pointing to the door, eager for the rest of his family to have a chance to see and, in a sense, ‘hear’ him via the awesome new communication board.

“Sigh, if we must,” Donnie reluctantly agreed, not wanting this special one-on-one (quiet) bonding time to end.

He raised his arm to click at his wrist tech, and when the door unlocked and hissed open their understandably upset turtle siblings were the first to rush in so they could chew Donnie out for locking them out for so long.

When they did that, Leo surprised the softshell out of his wits when he abruptly flew up to hover in the air, so Raph or Mikey didn’t go right through him.

Donnie completely ignored their family's loud ranting to stare up at the ceiling where Leo was hovering above their heads and exclaim:

“You can FLY!!!! I have so many questions!”

Leo gave him what looked like a nervous grin before glancing at Draxum, who was also looking up at him with his arms folded in front of his chest and an eyebrow raised, clearly interested in drilling him with however many more hours worth of questions he had stored up in that intelligent brain of his.

{"Oh great,"} the floating slider thought out loud. {"And here I was missing all the attention."}

**No next chapter preview this time**

🔹🔹🔹

<<previous || next>>

🔹Seven Years Masterpost

🔹My Main Masterpost

#rottmnt #shaotie #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #shattered_ontheinside #au #leo angst #angst #rottmnt au #rise of the tmnt

3 notes · View notes

theemployees · 1 year ago

Text

Meet the Employees (Part 2)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ABCDE is 20 he’s 5’8 but with his tentacles even tho they don’t count he’s 6’0 uh he is the resident theif at Hueso’s stealing silverware sometimes, food too, and anything else shiny. He find the staff…ahem…tolerable…he was just an squid yokai living in a Bay Area- uh by himself since he was a baby he makes every lose their minds with his antics like contaminating food by sleeping it or just doing it anyway to be a butt face.

(Belongs to Bloodyballoon )

Thea is a very sweet and mostly calm woman with a very "mom friend" personality. She's currently a waitress for Run of the Mill along with some other non-disclosed jobs. She's the oldest of four children, having two youngers and a brother who shes the primary caretaker of.

She's also rather skilled in fashion design and wants to make clothing in both the hidden city and perhaps the human one (if she can get ahold of a cloaking broach).

(Belongs to @ieatoilpatings )

Ivan was originally just someone helping out his dad out with delivering organic produce to a restaurant until his dad offered that he became a delivery boy for said restaurant, considering Ivan had a habit of keeping to himself so now he makes plates when the restaurant needs them and delivers pizzas at great speeds.

(Belongs to @artstufff-jpg)

Nolan Pike is one of the newest workers at the Run Of The Mills, he lives in the hidden city with his family and loves everything about space, someday he wants to work for NASA and become an astronaut and live a exciting life, but to do that he has to deal with what “Normal” even means anymore as he somehow gets involve in all the chaos his new friends seem to create, and maybe even meet someone special.

(Belongs to @emmyawards201 )

"My my my~ What does a Fine Person like you want to eat tonight?~"

Well guess who decided to waltz his way into the roster, Meet Cayden Jade! The Elven Employee who somehow manages to get more tips from his customers then his coworkers! Cayden is known to be the smooth talker of the group and the best to go to for relationship advice. Cayden enjoys the thought of owning a food business in the future, owning his own lands of farm and produce to supply the needs of Yokai all around and most importantly, help his small town back in Texas with food shortages.

(Created by @suya-khamie )

A totally not under age employee at run of the mill! Though armless he's still able to do his job very well. He's usually seen carrying plates on his head and his pen in his mouth ready to take or give orders. He works to help his mom out the best he can and be a good big brother.

(Belongs to @coyotecam )

Meet Anika! The story loving sugar-glider mutant and waitress for Run of the Mill. When she’s not talking to her friends and coworkers she’s probably writing in the back room making stories from things she has gathered from the other employees.

(Belongs to @tigerkat360 )

Main 1 | Main 2 | Side 1

#rottmnt #rottmnt au #the employees rottmnt #rottmnt oc #the rotm employees #oc #employee art dump

17 notes · View notes

andistarbee · 9 months ago

Text

TMNT: AbstractedStar ( reunion arc.)

Chapter 2: Red

First chapter. Next

Word count: 1588 words

Raph slides down the latter into the sewers,landing and walking towards his home. He walked past the lab,past the faded graffiti on the walls,past the old and worn training room,the kitchen,and his room, making it towards the living room.

Splinter sat there,watching some soap opera. Raph walked in,stepping on a piece of paper,it crinkled loudly,alerting his dad of his existence.

" WHO'S THERE- oh,hey Red," Splinter yelled,Raph flinched, running towards the chair a second later.

" Hey,Dad!" Raph greeted,leaning against the back of the recliner," I just have a few questions,then I'll get out of your fur."

" What is it,Red?" Splinter asked.

" Do I have brothers?"

Splinter didn't respond,so Raph figured he should elaborate," I met this other turtle mutant today,he had a blue mask and his name was Leonardo," Raph explained,gesturing with his hands.

" He's alive?" Splinter muttered,pausing his tv.

" Well,unless I was seeing a ghost,yes."

" You remember them?"

" No,not really," Raph said," am I supposed too?"

" You are the oldest of your siblings, you all used to be so close," Splinter got out of his chair,walking towards a shelf,the do-not-touch shelf.

" So why don't I remember them?" Raph asked.

" Maybe your brain is blocking out what happened because of what happened," Splinter said,grabbing a thick but small book from the shelf.

" What happened?" Raph questioned.

" Well,I don't exactly know,but something happened where all four of you got kidnapped,and you were returned two months later,but Leonardo,and your other brothers, weren't," Splinter handed him the book,it was a colored a bright teal. Raph held it for a second,opening it.

Oh.

Several photos of turtle children were taken,the dates being noted next to them. The tallest one looked like him,spiky and had a red bandana draped around his neck.

" I assumed that all of your brothers were dead,but it seems at least one of them lived,did he say about his whereabouts the past few years?"

" Uhhhh,I think he said he has been living with this goat guy, he's been calling this guy his dad," Raph explained,still flipping through the album.

' Draxum?!" Splinter gasped,horrified and angry," I can't believe that yokai-"

" What are yokai?" Raph interrupted, he'd been hearing this word all day,yet he doesn't know what it means.

" They are like mutants,except they were born like this," Splinter paused to explain.

" Oh,wait we weren't born like this?" Raph questioned.

" Anyways,it seems that Draxum has manipulated Leo into thinking that he's his actual dad,which isn't entirely wrong," Splinter brushed off Raph,whispering the last part so he couldn't hear.

Raph ignored the fact that Splinter brushed him off.

" So,what should I do?" Raph asked.

" I think you should talk to Leo,but it's fine if you can't," Splinter said," I think he has his own life now,he should do what makes him happy."

" That makes sense," Raph muttered.

" Alright, alright,now get out of my room,I need to finish my show!" Splinter pushed him out of the room,he could barely do it though so most of it was Raph walking away.

" Okay! Thanks Sensei!" Raph said, going to his own room. He threw himself on his bed,opening the photo album. Maybe this'll wrack his brain.

--+

-------+

-----+

----------+

---+

Raph scaled a roof. It was an alright day for the middle of fall. The sun was shining,making it warm,but the breeze kept it cool. The wind was strong enough to make Raph's mask tails keep getting in front of his eyes,having to move them away so he could see clearly.

He was looking for Leo,but he'd been out for a few hours by then. He couldn't find a sign of him,a part of him felt grateful for that.

Raph didn't get much from the photo album,besides learning the kid in purple and Leo are twins, their birthdays,and what Splinter used to look like. They also used too skateboard,it seems that Raph had taught them how too,according to the pictures titled that implied it.

Raph hasn't done skateboarding in years,since he was twelve . He remembers falling over a lot,and Splinter being very sad about other things,so Raph had too take care of himself when he was injured. Searching for the med kit,and trying too make sure it didn't run out too quickly,as he was a clumsy kid,and it took forever for Splinter to notice.

He paused on a roof,he could hear something.

" GET AWAY!"

There it is. He ran towards the area,throwing himself into the alleyway where it was coming from. He just barely dodged a glowing blue sword that almost hit his face,pinning his mask tails to the wall.

A human ran past what looked like a mutant,it looked up at him. Wait a second--

" You idiot!" Raph hissed.

" Who are yo- OH SHIT-" Leo yelled," hey Raph! Hah, almost impaled your face there!"

" Don't get any ideas," Raph yelled at his brother,who pulled the ōdachi out of the wall, unpinning Raph's bandana.

" Sorry,I didn't see you!"

" Are you blind!?"

" Dang,rude."

" Sorry," Raph muttered.

" Eh, it's fine,but you scared away the human,I need to get information," Leo said.

" What information?"

" Where's the nearest fast food place," Leo smiled like he was joking.

" Are you joking?" Raph asked. With all that noise it sounded like he was going to kidnap that human or something.

" Nah, actually I need to buy stuff for dinner tonight, I'm trying to get dad to try it," Leo put his ōdachi back into the holster on his back.

Raph just realized how short Leo is compared to him,he was probably around two feet shorter. Well,makes sense if he's the oldest,sometimes. April is shorter than him,yet she's older than him. So technically she's the oldest sibling. He considers her family.

" Whatcha doin here?" Leo questioned,leaning on his one of his ōdachis.

" Wanna come over to my place? You can meet the rat man," Raph asked.

" Yes! That'd be great!" Leo smiled,seeming stoked," which way?"

" Down," Raph instructed, already opening the sewer drain.

" Oh,okay!" Leo said,face screwing up in disgust.

✺✸✺✸

✧✺✸✴✸✺✧

✺✸✧✮✺◉✣

✣◉✺✮✧

✧❥✸✴✮✺

✸✧✮

They made it into the sewer,Raph and Leo walked towards the living room.

" Did you make this?"

" Huh?" Raph turned around,seeing Leo point at the fading graffiti on the wall.

" Did ya make this?" Leo asked again.

" I don't know who made it, it's just always been there, it's stained," Raph answered, trying to brush it off," c'mon, let's go."

" Wait- waittt-"

" What?!" Raph growled,stopping in his tracks.

" Did Mikey make this?" Leo smiled.

" I don't know,can't remember."

" Oh yeah,you forgot about us," Leo sighed angirly. Whatever.

" Come on!" Raph hissed,Leo followed,hesitantly. They walked into the living room.

" Hey,Dad! I have a surprise!" Raph smiled. He heard Leo behind him choke from the sudden happy attitude.

" What is it- Blue?!" Splinter looked back,spotting Leo.

" Heyyy,Rat man!" Leo greeted, Splinter ran over to him. They stared at each other for a second,a awkward moment until the silence was broken.

" You're a lot taller than the last time I saw you," Splinter joked.

" Uh,yeah," Leo said,Raph noted how awkward Leo sounded. Shit,he forgot that Leo thinks that their dad kidnapped him and his siblings years ago.

" May I-?" Splinter opened his arms hesitantly, seemingly for a hug.

Leo nodded, Splinter hugged him, Leo returned the hug,but was clearly a little upset. Raph separated them.

Leo slightly smiled,the rat and turtle staring at one another.

" Have you been happy? Are you doing alr-"

" Shush,we can talk later!" Leo smiled,Now that I know where you are-",pulled his sleeve up to reveal and blue gem coming out of a bracelet around his wrist," I guess I should return the favor."

He broke the gem,Raph stared at him in confusion.

" Draxum knows our location, it'll be a small family reunion!" Leo grinned widely, in bliss,Splinter looked terrified. He couldn't be that bad, he's just an goat. But then again,he did manipulate Leo and kidnapped his other brothers,so he should run.

" Dad,come on!" Raph grabbed Splinter's hand,they ran into the nearest tunnel. Raph has been here his entire life that he can remember,so he probably knows them better than Leo,maybe even Splinter.

" Hey,where are you guys going?" Leo ran after them.

Raph continued running,coming to a ladder out of the sewer. He climbed onto it,Splinter following.

He reached the top,putting out his hands too open the lid,but it was already open.

A sheep yokai's face was a few feet away,Raph yelped,his hands slipped. SHIT-

Splinter narrowly dodged out of the way of him,Leo yelled something. Raph was caught in someone's arms, supposedly Leo. Raph felt his head hit the concrete,wincing in pain.

Leo was yelling something,but Raph couldn't hear it over the sound of his own heartbeat. They are so loud and annoying. Raph's vision started getting darker,the people around him turning into dark silhouettes.

" Ra......you can rest," Leo said. But Raph doesn't need it,even if his grip on consciousness was definitely getting looser,and black was starting to shroud his vision.

" Just sleep, i'll get you somewhere safe."

Raph heard that clearly. He couldn't really fight too stay awake anymore,it was getting too hard. Raph closed his eyes, allowing him to drift into a heavy sleep he wasn't sure he would wake up from.

Notes:

Sorry about the ending,I couldn't really figure out how to write it correctly.

But thank you for reading! Sorry it's been so long since the last chapter,but I decided that for now on I'll post a chapter every two weeks. Sometimes I may post one once a week,but it depends.

Anyways,have an amazing day and make sure to drink water!

#andistarbee #rise of the tmnt #save rottmnt #save rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #save rise of the turtles #rottmnt #rottmnt au #tmnt iteration #TMNT: AbstractedStar #rottmnt fanfiction #tmnt fanfiction #tmnt fan iteration #i tried

2 notes · View notes

rena-hoshimi-at-duty · 1 year ago

Text

Masterpost

Greetings. I'm Rena Hoshimi, here is my masterpost. (With @the-forgor-four-rottmnt )

TW: swearing, killing, blood. [[ooc: if you want, the @stella-kessho-2nd-account doesn't have much of those stuff]]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Enemies [kinda..?]]

Hamato Yoshi: @a-wise-rat

Hamato Leonardo: @captain-ryans-no1-fan

[favorite enemy] Hamato Raphael: @im-a-turtle-with-anger-issues

Hamato Michelangelo: @the-party-dude [not rlly I find him very tolerable]

Hamato Donatello: @donniepedia-the-encyclopedia

Casey Jones: @goongala-hockey-puck

Karai: @karaiirl [I don't want to be enemies idk ;-;]

[Other universe enemies]

Leonardo: @leontheluxuriousone

[fav enemy] Raphael: @raph-reign17

[Tolerable] Michelangelo: @mikey-the-mischevious

Donatello: @donvonryan

[Tolerable] April: @aprilthefiercequeen

[Tolerable] Cassandra Jones: @thecassclan

[Tolerable] Casey Jr.: @hugzfromcaseyjr

[The other universe enemies from the future]

F!Raphie - @b1g-raph1e

F!Leon - @ninjas-greatest-weapon {And baby Giovanna}

F!DonTron - @genius-othello

F!Angie - @marvelousmichelangelo

[Tolerable] Casey Jr. - @hugzfromcaseyjr

[Ronin universe]

Mikey - @ronin-mikey

[Mayhem]

@the-rager-ever [fave enemy]

[Other.... friends?]

Stella - @stella-kessho-2nd-account {And her baby Pancake}

Alex - @smartass-opposum

Vivi - @mikey-rottmnt

Hiero - @riseleon

Paxxon - @pax-man2010

Usagi - @yokai-nerd

Luna - @the-multiverse-jumper

Repo - @repo-maniac

[Villains/antagonists]

Big Mama - @bigmama10ffical

[Me] Rena - @rena-hoshimi-at-duty

Repo Mantis - @repo-maniac

Master Shredder - @leader-of-the-foot

My dad - @tigerclaw-takeshi

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rules:

No !ncest [WHO DOES THIS]

No pr0sh!pping

Dirty Jokes are acceptable

Swearing is allowed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tags:

#Rena Reblogs 🥀

#Rena has spoken 🌹

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Ask Rules:

You're welcome to ask anything you want as long as it's not.. weird..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am apparently what you may call Trans

If I ever speak with this '[[ ]]' it means I'm speaking out of my own character

#masterpost

11 notes · View notes

paytato435 · 2 years ago

Text

Chapter 1: After Dark

Containment Reflections

Today, Earth is different.

Billions of people are waking up to see the news: we are not alone in the universe, and our peers are not so welcoming.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's picked up a history book; intelligent creatures are cruel and cannibalistic by design. We are narcissists, everyone.

Imagine, for a moment, the damage these creatures could have wrought upon us if they had been successful in their endeavors. This is only the smallest sample of what could be waiting for us out there among the stars, their fangs bared and knives sharpening. How much time do we have before they return? How long before something else catches us unprepared?

The data is still incomplete, but the conclusion is all too clear: we must not allow this to happen again.

Unfortunately, despite the subject's love for baseless insults and threats, she herself has not communicated to us anything useful. All we have is her unrelenting cries of misery. We've considered putting her down just to shut her up (we haven't found anything inside we could guess are vocal cords), but living samples are far too valuable, especially considering we only have the one.

Biologically speaking, her constitution and regenerative abilities are astounding. Perhaps even more astounding is what has prevented her from regenerating. An unknown substance found in her missing eye has prevented the organ from regrowing. All other appendages, except for tissue samples we took from her brain, could be replaced. What substance had so irrecoverably damaged my specimen? Where can we find more?

And then there are the… mutants. The world is also changing with their arrival. The yokai that had lived for so long hiding in the shadows are slithering to the surface, making themselves known for the first time in hundreds of years. We know they've been there, of course, but one particularly devious mind of theirs has actually produced what could be another potential solution to this extraterrestrial dilemma.

Unfortunately, there is no clear path forward to obtaining these four exceedingly valuable creatures without leaving a trail. Patience and observation is necessary. Until an opportunity presents itself, I am here, entertaining the thoughts of a deluded, xenocidal monster. For now, that is enough.

After Dark

“Marina, we are not walking all the way to the park from here! We should head home.”

“Dad please? It’s my birthday!”

“Yeah Doug! It’s Marina’s birthday!” Angel pouted, throwing her arm over Marina’s shoulders.

“And it’s gorgeous out!” Marina put her free hand to her hip, her silver bangles clinking together.

Doug sighed. He knew if he didn’t let them go he would never hear the end of it. Marina had a smile that could melt anyone’s tough exterior, not that Doug had one in the first place. Maybe it had to do with her round face and big brown eyes. Or it was the constant way she bounced as she moved. Her mother often compared her to a little rabbit. She was definitely acting like one now.

“You know it’s going to take twice as long to get home from there, right?”

“Because we’re already halfway there!” Marina smiled, seeing the fight leaving her dad’s eyes.

She spun out from under Angel’s arm and started dancing her way down the street.

“Let’s go Elphaba!” She called back to Angel.

Angel, Marina’s best friend since middle school, seemed at odds with Marina’s vibe, until you saw them together. She was usually cool and laid back, but when Marina pushed her buttons they were as chaotic and playful as kids half their age.

“I’m Elphaba?” Angel asked incredulously, but jogged to catch up with her best friend. Doug lingered behind at a distance, texting his wife that they’d be out a little longer than expected.

“Are you trying to say you’re GAH-linda? Give me a break! You only have friends in school because you hang out with me. Otherwise you’d have your face glued to a book all day.”

Marina did a little spin and ended by pointing her finger right at Angel's studded nose.

“You… will… beeee….”

“Popular!” They both sang together. “You’re going to be POP-yoooo-LAR!”

Angel’s voice was anything but what her name would suggest. Marina didn’t know half the words, but they made it up as they went along, eventually making their way to Central Park.

“Dad, what did you think of the show?!” Marina asked as she plopped herself into a swing. Her brown curls bounced as she fell into the seat.

Doug’s face lit up. “It was fantastic! The set was very cool.”

“Of course you like the steampunk stuff,” Angel rolled her eyes, joining her friend on the adjacent swing and tucking her raven hair behind her ears. “Hey, think you’re gonna try the backflip again, Marina?”

“Girl, you know my backflip is flawless,” Marina scoffed, kicking off the ground.

“Oh really? I haven’t seen it in at least a year,” Angel narrowed her eyes. “Surely it can’t be that good.”

Doug rolled his eyes and began picking out pictures from the show to post to Facebook. The girls tried in vain to somehow swing higher than each other before each trying to show the other up with precarious dismounts. Doug wasn’t concerned- they’d done this a million times before, and Marina knew she’d never hear the end of it if she twisted her ankle and had to be carried all the way home.

No, Doug trusted his daughter. But…

Swish.

Doug stopped scrolling through pictures and looked up.

Huh. He thought he had heard something.

Was it the wind?

It was late, there wasn’t really anybody else around. In fact, they’d probably get in trouble if a cop drove by and saw people out here after dark. Was he setting a bad example?

Swish.

There it was again. Doug jumped to his feet and looked around.

“Everything alright, Dad?” Marina asked, flipping over her swing and masterfully sticking the landing.

“We shouldn’t be out here, sweetheart,” Doug tucked his phone away. “We can come back another time.”

“But we just got here!”

Doug gave his daughter the look. Marina deflated.

“Ok, we’ll go,” she relented.

Angel dismounted from the swing on the backswing, and rolled her eyes. Doug could see her thoughts loud and clear. Adults are no fun.

Well, she would just have to get over it. Her parents would kill him if anything happened to her.

He was on edge the whole walk home. It was as if something in the air had changed. There wasn’t any wind, the weather was fine. Was it humid? Doug checked to see if his wife had texted him back. She hadn’t.

“So, what classes are you taking this semester, Angel?” he asked, trying to distract himself from the unease.

“I’m taking Biology 2! We get to dissect a cat!”

“Oh,” That didn’t help Doug at all. “Lovely.”

“And PE, and Geometry… Marina, you're taking Algebra 2 though aren’t you?”

Marina nodded.

“You’re so smart. I-”

Swish.

“Do you guys hear that?” Doug interrupted.

Angel and Marina looked at Doug with concern.

“Is something wrong, Dad?”

Doug looked around, but there was nothing.

“We should have gone straight home.”

Marina reached out and took her dad’s hand.

They didn’t talk the rest of the way home, and Doug didn’t relax until they were safely inside the apartment. He was grateful they didn’t have to take Angel home tonight. She had already gotten permission to sleep over.

He decided to turn in early. All the doors were locked, the girls were safe, and his wife was reading in the living room. She would probably be up for a few more hours, the night owl that she was. He gave her a quick kiss goodnight and ascended the stairs to their bedroom. He could hear the girls chatting away in the kitchen, talking about the musical, school, and field hockey…

He shut the door behind him and made his way over to the window. He didn’t think there would be anything but…

There was.

He saw it only for a second, but just under the streetlight at the end of the street he caught movement. There was no way, it didn’t make any sense.

Well, he’d heard some weird stories coming up these days. Half-animal people were supposedly appearing around town. He thought maybe it was related to the hysteria the other day. The “alien invasion.” Surely it was nonsense. There couldn’t actually be aliens.

But he could have sworn he saw a long, reptilian tail sliding through the streetlight’s glow and into the shadows. Gators in New York were an urban legend. Surely he was just psyching himself out.

He closed the blinds and turned away from the window. He crossed the room and stood in front of the glass cabinet where he kept his small collection of antiques. He opened up the door on the side and gingerly took out his favorite World War One antique.

Sometimes when he was stressed it helped to hold onto something, and for some weird reason, holding his great-grandfather’s trench knife did the trick. He probably should take better care of it, honestly. He shouldn’t be touching it with his bare hands. Hell, it should probably be in a museum. But Doug and his family were practical people. If you couldn’t enjoy something, why have it?

He ran his thumb along the handle. If this protected his family over a hundred years ago, surely it could help keep his mind at ease now.

Ok, that was probably dumb. It was a knife, not a therapist. He put the blade back in the cabinet and buried himself in his sheets. He didn’t know how his family put up with such an anxious dumbass.

The Essay

I don’t belong here. The thought hadn’t really set in until maybe the 3rd day after all this stuff went down. That was when all the hype started to settle. We were all over the news. Some networks loved us, we were heroes. Others were grateful, but concerned. Who were the Mad Dogs? April did an interview with the local tv station, and it went VIRAL. “They’re my brothers, they’re my family. I’m just grateful we’re all safe.” That sound byte has been bouncing through my head and playing on every news station in the country, every radio station, and of course, it's been remixed all over social media in cute formats of people just… appreciating each other? I’m kind of addicted to the warmth of it all. I haven’t felt this happy in a long time. And yet…

Last night I couldn’t sleep. I tried to, I really did. But I just kept lying there, convincing myself over and over in my head that everything was ok now. I don’t remember when the idea crept into my mind, but I just feel like I’m waiting for the next bad thing to happen. It’s coming right? We get too comfortable, we get cocky, we get caught unaware, someone dies. My mom, Uncle Raphael, Donatello, Commander O’Neil… Master Michelangelo and Sensei. And while my brain tells me logically, the invasion is finally over, realistically, we are safe, emotionally, I could not bear to lose them all over again. I see them in my nightmares. Friends and family, new and old, here and gone, all of them suffering.

The one place I feel safe is here in the Lair. Underground is safe, underground is home. The guys have tried to take me topside a few times- to go shopping, see a movie, whatever. But I get this tight knot in my chest when I see the sky. I keep looking for the technodrome. I jump when I see the lights of an airplane fly over. I try to act like it’s fine, but to be honest I’d rather stay inside where it’s safe. Safe. I know it’s safe outside, it’s over… it’s over… but…

it’s fucking not.

Doctor Feelings I

“Bro, that is a LOT.” Mikey noted, scratching his head.

Both he and Casey were sitting together in the kitchen of the Lair. The others had gone out to the zoo to see the new penguin exhibit, and once again, Casey had turned down the invite. To his surprise, Mikey decided to stay behind with him.

“Well, I thought you’d actually write more but like…” Mike glances over at the dysfunctional teen. Casey is staring at a bowl of plain ass oatmeal. It was one of the only things he could eat at first, after living off a diet of leaves and rats for several years. The pizza after the invasion had left him fucked up for hours. He’d tried one of Mikey’s lemon bars yesterday after dinner, but he was still afraid of pushing his luck.

“What do you mean?”

“How do I put it…” Mikey waved his bandaged arms around as if he could summon the words. “I thought you’d write about more than just the invasion.”

“Did you want me to write about something else?”

“No, no!” Mikey shook his head. “You can write about whatever you want.”

“But then you’d read it,” Casey grumbled.

Mikey looks away and purses his lips.

“Yeah, I guess that was the point.”

“I don’t know what to do with the future, I can’t talk about the past,” Casey reminded him, standing up to put his bowl away.

“Yeah, yeah, I remember the spiel. Is that really for the best? I mean, it must be hard, knowing all this," Mikey gestures at the paper. "And not having anyone to talk to about it."

"Do you believe in destiny?"

Mikey looked a little surprised by the question.

"Come on, you're the mystic one here. Wouldn't you know?"

"I don't know," Mikey shrugged. "I haven't thought about it before."

"You've never thought about it, but you fulfilled the Hamato destiny when you defeated the Shredder, didn't you?"

"What's your point?" Mikey asked, crossing his arms.

"I suppose I wouldn’t call it destiny, because we did just alter the future the other day…. but I think there are some things here in this time that… would be very hard to change."

"Like global warming?"

"Uh, sure. I meant on a smaller scale, though."

"Oh."

"Maybe an example would work best," Casey sighed, tapping his spoon against his bowl.

"For the record, I'm bullshitting here; nothing I'm about to say is true."

Mikey nodded.

"Let's say, someone gets married in the future," Casey posed.

"Who gets married?!" Mikey shot up out of his seat excitedly.

"This is a hypothetical! Pick anyone."

"April! I want April to get married!"

"Ok… let's say April gets married in the future. You'd be excited if I told you that, right?"

"Well yeah, I just said I'd like it to happen," Mikey caught himself. "… if that's what she wants, of course," he added quickly.

"Sure. It's a great thing. Now, would it make sense for me to call April right now and tell her who she is marrying and congratulate them on their future engagement?"

Mikey pursed his lips together.

"That'd be creepy, wouldn't it? She may not have even met this person, and now you're just… shipping them because that's what Future Boy said." He said 'Future Boy' as if he was some kind of mystical fortune teller.

"Same goes for how you die. Now, your death had… extenuating circumstances," Casey saw Mikey shift uncomfortably. "But like, if I told Raph he died falling down a flight of stairs he'd probably never use stairs ever again."

"Did Raph die falling down a flight of stairs? That'd be lame."

"Of course not." Casey crossed his arms.

Mikey flipped Casey's essay over.

"...flight of stairs…" he mumbled as he wrote.

"What are you doing?"

"Gathering intel," Mikey looked away.

Casey narrowed his eyes.

"I'm serious, Mikey. If you want to feel like you have control over your own life, it's better if I don't say anything."

"Maybe you should make some new friends then!" Mikey suggested. "Ones that you didn't know in the future, and then you can talk to them about your trauma!"

"I don't have trauma!"

Mikey blinked.

"Ok maybe a little," Casey sunk into his chair. "But it's nothing I can't handle. Besides, who'd want to be friends with me anyway. I can't even go outside."

"Sure you can, it'll just take some getting used to," Mikey smiled.

Well, he did smile, until he saw the look Casey gave him. Everyone had started calling it the ghost look.

Casey would sometimes forget how to breathe when his family would do certain things. Little, dumb things that reminded him of the future past. Mikey's warm smile was one of them.

Even at the end of the world, Master Michelangelo always found a way to keep smiling.

“Your handwriting is immaculate by the way, did Donnie teach you that?” Mikey was making a conscious effort to change the subject.

“Yeah,” Casey shrugged. “He was always ripping into Sensei for his pretentious cursive notes, so he sat down and made sure mine was legible, ha.”

“So why is Donatello the only one without a prefix there? Uncle Raph, that’s cute. Of course I’m the badass mystic warrior Master.” Mikey wiggled his brow and smirks. “And Sensei is self-explanatory. What’s up with Donnie?”

Casey dropped his spoon in the sink as if it had burned him. He quickly fished it back up before putting it in the dishwasher.

“Oh, I must have left it off. You don’t need to read into it- he’s Uncle Donnie, yeah.” Mikey made that ‘I’m not buying it' face.

“It’s kind of hard to differentiate between you all when I think it out,” Casey sighed. “So in my head you guys are the short names and they’re the long ones now, unless I specify otherwise. I didn’t call him Donatello, that’d be like… calling Master Splinter, Yoshi.”

“Ew, I get it,” Mikey scrunched his face up.

"And I just… I just told you the less you know the better."

"I'm sorry."

There's a heavy silence for a minute. Maybe Casey should head back to his room; or he could go back to deconstructing the wreckage salvaged from the Turtle Tank for Donnie.

But neither of those things seemed to interest him, and he didn't want to leave Mikey feeling down like this. He'd been guilty of doing that around everyone recently.

“Mikey, are you really going to go to school?” If Mikey had chihuahua ears, they would have shot right up.

“Of course!” He grinned, squeezing Casey’s paper, and crinkling it. “Oh crap, sorry,” he straightens it out quickly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Casey waved it off, and sat back down at the table across from Mikey with a glass of water; the safest of liquids. “I’m just surprised. I didn’t think you'd want to, considering…”

“Times are changing, Casey Junior!” Mikey beamed, dancing in his seat. “You wrote it yourself, everyone loves us! And Pops is always grumbling how he wished we’d get an education.” He started rubbing the paper to his face like a teddy bear. “And there’s art class, I’ve always wanted to take a proper art class!”

Casey can’t help but smile; Mikey’s optimism was too infectious.

“You should come with us!” Mikey encouraged.

“With you? I… I don’t know,” Casey shrugged. “Donatello left me enough lessons to get me through college in any STEM degree I could ask for.”

“Is that what you want?”

“What I want?” Casey repeated. He hadn’t really considered that before.

“Yeah. Do you want to go into a STEM field?”

Casey chuckled to himself.

“I guess not. I think he was just projecting what he wanted onto me a bit. And I didn’t ever really have time to think about it. This-” Casey gestured all around him. “-didn’t exist for me. It wasn’t a planned thing. He made those lessons for fun and gave them to everyone who wanted to learn. God knows we needed as many educated people as we could get.”

Mikey nodded thoughtfully. “But what do you want?”

“Do you have any suggestions?” Casey asked.

“Really? Nothing?!” Mikey’s mouth gaped open in surprise.

“I don’t know what people did before the apocalypse, how am I supposed to answer that!” Casey shrugged helplessly.

“Maybe you could be a martial arts teacher!” Mikey’s eyes sparkled.

“And compare myself to Sensei everyday? I don’t think so. I did my best but… I don’t think I’m that great a fighter.”

“Are you kidding me? You’re great! I’ve seen you sparring with Leo.”

“I’ve got a long way to go,” Casey scratched the back of his head. “And I’m sure Master Splinter and Raph would still kick my ass.”

“I could see Raph being a teacher too,” Mikey smiled, giggling to himself.

“I could see that,” Casey agreed. “What other jobs are there? Like, ones you wouldn’t find people doing in the apocalypse. I know there’s cleaners and doctors and cooks, caretakers…”

“Zookeeper,” Mikey suggested. “Designated Penguin Patter.”

Casey sulked at the reminder. He wished he didn’t feel so anxious all the time.

Truth be told, it was embarrassing. Casey hadn’t felt this useless in a long time. He supposed he never had the opportunity to. The opportunity to feel afraid of the world around him. When push came to shove he was business as usual, but now that nobody was shoving him…

“I feel bad staying home again. And you’re missing out on it too, that’s not fair.”

“I chose to stay home,” Mikey tapped his fingers together. “But for you…”

“I told you already, I don’t want to go out. Well, I do but…”

“It’s scary.”

Casey nodded.

“Is there anything that we could do to help make it less scary?”

“What could make the imaginary pink monsters around every corner go away?” Casey asked sarcastically.

“Have you tried grounding yourself? Like, reminding yourself where you are when you get scared?”

“How am I supposed to think about that when I’m scared?”

“Well if you don’t know when it’s going to get to be too much, but you’re afraid it will, do it preemptively. ‘I’m at the zoo, the invasion is over, I’m with my family, I’m safe…' that kind of thing.”

“I suppose I could try it,” Casey thought it over. “It sounds a bit exhausting though.”

“What makes the lair safe?” Mikey asked, seemingly out of curiosity more than anything else.

“Uh… it’s underground?” he answered as if it were obvious. “The Krang were always on the surface. This was the one place we could hide.”

“But you’d have to go out onto the surface sometimes, right?”

Casey nodded. “We’d go foraging for stuff. Supplies and such.”

“And did you panic there?”

No. Casey didn’t remember feeling that anxiety on the surface. Even though it was arguably more dangerous. What was the difference? He was with the turtles up topside, and he would go out on missions in teams of people foraging, sometimes with his sensei or Master Michelangelo. They were always on alert, and it was always quiet.

That was it.

“We didn’t talk on the surface. Sounds would easily give away our location,” Casey explained. “The noise up there…” he gestured to the surface. “… it's overwhelming. We also always brought our weapons, but you can’t bring those to the zoo.”

Mikey tapped his thumbs together again thoughtfully for a few seconds, thinking.

“Well, maybe we could go out at night? For a late night walk? It’s quieter, and we don’t have to talk.”

‘We can still talk,” Casey signed.

Mikey watched Casey move his hands with curiosity.

“Is that sign language?”

“Oh, you don’t sign yet?”

“I feel like I’m a comic book you’ve already read,” Mikey pouted, crossing his arms.

Casey laughs.

“I’m sorry. I could teach you?” He signed as he spoke. “In the future we had to communicate somehow in the field; it’s pretty fun, too. And then, maybe we could sign on walks outside. That could help.”

“Yes! Show me show me show me!” Mikey jumped out of his seat.

“You.. want… learn… sign?” Casey asked slowly out loud and with his hands.

“Want… learn… sign?” Mikey mimicked him. “Yes!”

“Yes!” Casey knocked his fist in the air.

Masterpost Next!

Notes: Thanks for checking out my fic! It's the first thing I've written in probably a decade, and I've never written fanfiction before so... I hope it's coherent lmao. At time of writing, I have about sixteen chapters planned out so far, and I don't have an ending, so we'll see where it goes haha!

#after dark #rise angel #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt casey junior #rottmnt casey jr #rise casey #casey jones #rottmnt fanfiction #snapper and stinkpot #casey sas au #my ocs

10 notes · View notes