#and then 2012 Casey comes in like ‘hey I’m Casey Jones’

[thejadecount]

God I would absolutely die for a 2012 and Rise TMNT crossover

2012 and Rise TMNT Crossover Masterpost

12 Raph would be angry that he’s the leader in the Rise universe and not his own and so confused/irritated at how the Rise version of himself acts, meanwhile Rise Raph is just confused on why he acts like such a big jerk

12 Donnie would probably be lowkey scared of Rise Donnie meanwhile Rise Donnie thinks of him as the Superior Donnie

(“Where did you get all this supplies for your inventions?” “I stole them” “WHAT? BUT STEALING’S BAD—“ “Maybe for you, my morals however, are much looser—“)

The Mikeys chill. They’re best friends.

Meanwhile 12 Leo is all serious and brooding as the 12 Leader while Rise Leo just constantly makes fun of him but is secretly really impressed with the other Leo’s leadership skills and looks up to him

Meanwhile Giga Chad Rise April to 12 April:

“Why am I white?”

“Wh-what? What does that have to do with—“

“But why?”

“I-I think you’re missing the big point here—“

“Well I’m definitely not missing the point of you that’s for sure.”

“What-WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN—“

“Anyways—“ *moves onto a whole different conversation with the turtles while 12 April is very confused*

[indieyuugure]

Hi I love your art it has so much emotion and detail! But I was wandering if the turtles from 2018 will learn about the 2012 love interests, and what would be their reactions?

Thank you! I try my best to put as much raw emotion into the pictures as possible!

So the Donnie-April-Casey love triangle disaster has been brought up a few times in the comic (mostly as a joke)

The first time it’s brought up is Colliding Worlds part 2, where the Donnies find Rise Leo, 12 Casey and April. Donnie and Casey throw each other’s their favorite insults (Gap Tooth and Cave Mouth) hinting at the tension between them and April. Leo and Donnie definitely acknowledge the tension as Rise Donnie then says:

“Not to intrude on your conversation that is apparently of extreme importance, but perhaps we could pick this up any other time!?”

The next time their love triangle is mentioned is in Eye of the Storm Part 2, where if you look closely you can see this interesting little scene while the others are recapping the book so far.

Later in Eye of the Storm part 3, you can see that Rise Casey has taken notice to the 12 Casey and Donnie’s tense relationship.

He asks why Casey and Donnie dislike each other so much, but is cut off with a harsh “No.”

A few pages after, Rise Casey sees 12 Casey flirting with April and Donnie walking in very upset. Rise Casey sees what’s going on a puts it together out loud, to which 12 Raph says:

“‘Love Triangle’ makes it sound so romantic. It’s more like what happens when you add water to hot oil.”

And of course in the most recent update, you see while the 12 boys are hugging it out, Casey and April flirt, April asking “What’cha thinking about Jones?” And Casey delivering the corniest one liner, “A red and yellow sunset.” (Give Casey a break, his two brain cells worked really hard to think that one up!)

As for Leo, There’s some scrapped dialogue from Retribution Part 1 where the Leo-Karai debacle was going to be brought up.

As you some of you probably noticed, Rise Leo is accidentally quoting Karai. In some of the ideas for the dialogue, it looked something like this:

R!Leo: You always talk to yourself when you’re alone?

12Leo: Ka-L-Leo? *sigh* Gosh you sound like my sister…

R!Leo: Wait! You have a sister!?

12Leo: uh…well um, it‘s…kinda complicated…

Later on the next page:

12Leo: thanks…I…I needed that…

R!Leo: Hey! I’m just returning the favor! But, by the way, you seem really awkward talking about your sister, you didn’t like accidentally fall in love with her because she was adopted by your enemy and so thought she wasn’t related to you and you thought she’s super hot, right?

12Leo: … … …

R!Leo: WHAT!? Wait Seriously!? That was like the stupidest thing I could come up with!! Ohmigosh that’s priceless! What’s she like? Is she super into martial arts? Is she hot? Is she-

12Leo: I DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!!

R!Leo: *snicker-snicker* (so he still likes her, lol)

As for Raph’s relationship with Mona Lisa, I’ve posted this concept Art before, but I’ll post it again. Mona was meant to appear earlier(probably somewhere in Corrupted Logic) however, that was scrapped, and while I would like to put her in later, I don’t think it would work.

I do, however plan on doing some shorts that’ll go in the back of the comic, much like the holiday specials I’ve done and the Behind the Scenes Potty Mouths short. I really REALLY love Ramona and I think if any of the ships get a special, it’s that one.

Mikey and Renet or Shinigami(whichever you were thinking of I guess) haven’t been mentioned at all. I don’t plan on either of them showing up or it really being mentioned at all. Sorry Mike.

The vast majority of the romance(what little there is) in the comic, is played out in the background, as I don’t want it to take the stage as the main focus. The plot is not about the Donnie-April-Casey love triangle or whatever the heck is going on with Leo and Karai, it’s about the turtles defeating the Krang and learning to work with their counterparts and be a better team along the way. So sorry if it’s a little hard to spot/doesn’t exist in the canon, lol

Good question! :]

[sunsetsandsunshine]

ok i see requests are closed butttt i just found ur blog and we are strangely haha uhm very way too similar so. i must now see.

i see ur tmnt 2012 headcannons and yes yes ok very nice but what about casey... 🤔🤔🤔

any llittle small headcannons for casey?? 😇

idk if u do anon emojis since i JUST read those but uhhh like if u do i'll come back wjth one

I’m not gonna lie to Anon…I really don’t like 2012 Casey 😬😬😬

It’s not like I don’t like him as a character- he’s funny and a good friend towards the turtles but he’s just not my personal cup of tea, y’know?

But I did re-watch S2 just for you- to make headcanons on the little goober, so hope you enjoy!

~ TMNT 2012 tickle headcanons ~

~ Casey Jones ~

He’s so cringe I’m crying- I couldn’t make these headcanons without laughing at the gif

I kid I kid 😭😭😭

A switch- 100% a switch

Or probably a Ler-leaning switch

One of the two

Definitely has experience from tickling others since he has a little sister

Absolutely has NO MERCY when tickling Raph

I feel like he would be the type of Ler that just…goes for you’re death spots

He finds the tactic easier and it makes more sense to him

Why go for spots that aren’t so ticklish when you know exactly where they’re most sensitive spots are?

In the show, the turtle boys do, like, creative handshakes and when Casey saw them doing it one time he just KNEW that he had to make handshakes with them as well

All they’re handshakes with Casey end up getting poked to the side continuously

Again- since he has a little sister he is EXTREMELY experienced when tickling others

Actually found out how they were ticklish is through Master Splinter

He wanted to ask him for advice on how to beat them in a sparring match and Splinter was just like, “If all else fails, just tickle them.”

Casey was very confused but he DID use the tactic when he wa sparring against Leo and he never second-guessed Master Splinter again

One time, Mikey was tickling the absolute snot out of Donnie near the living room area

And Casey just so happened to be in the lair at the time and heard shrieks and shouts so like any human being he panicked and went to the source

Only to find Donnie getting absolutely wrecked by Mikey

The youngest didn’t notice Casey at first but when he did he was all like, “Yo dude! You wanna get in on this? Donnie took and hid the remote so I have no idea where it is- I’ve been trying to get the answer out of him so AGES.”

And ofc Casey agreed- much to Donnie’s dismay lol

Definitely is ticklish at the top of his knees

You think those are for protection because he plays hockey? Well…sure- it is- but it’s also because he’s insanely ticklish there

Leo is the one who discovered it actually- which he still takes pride in to this day

He refuses to tell anyone how he did tho because Casey made him promise

Mikey calls Leo and Casey “The Ticklish Knee Knuckleheads”

Which embarrasses the two to no end

But hey at least they’re not alone

Gets in more Ler moods than Lee moods

Is the kind of Ler who will pin you’re hands behind you’re back when tickling you- I’ve been in that position before and jansvsjsnensk it’s AWFUL

Loves playing Tickle and Seek in the lair

Absolutely loves being the seeker

Talks about how he’s going to individually wreck them all once he finds them

Has reallllly ticklish feet- his worst spot-good luck trying to get him there he will not hesitate to kick you

Doesn’t really know how to ask for tickles- he’s an awkward dude 😂🫡

So if or when he’s in a Lee mood he just over exaggerates a yawn and stretches near someone- hoping they get the hint

And if not he’ll just poke and poke and POKE in hopes the person just snaps and goes for revenge

Which happened all the time so win-win for Casey Jones

Likes to talk in the first person when tickling someone

“Oooh…Casey Jones has Michaelangelo exactly where he wants him…tickling his ticklish tummy with such precise persiguen!”

”Oh…what’s did we have here? I think we wants a raspberry on his tummy~!” While Mikey is just laughing his shell off and begging Casey not to but he always DOES anyway ksbdhejwbdb

“Aaaaand he’s gone ladies and gentlefolks~!”

An asshole of a Ler I say

[remmushound]

2012 casey being friends with 2018 donnie. Just think about it, please.

@assanmaharielsreblogs Casey poked his nose into Donatello’s lab to sneak a peek at the dorky turtle. At least, the turtle was dorky in his world. Here, he didn't know what the turtle was like. All he knew was that April seemed to have some sort of obsession with this Donatello (probably because of the eyebrows) and that couldn’t stand! Not while he was around and had been trying to woo April for years! He wasn’t going to lose her to a mutant turtle from another world, of all things!

“HEY!” Casey puffed out his chest and stomped into the room with a cocky bravery.

Donatello didn't look up from his screen, his three-fingered hands working a mile a minute on codes Casey didn't bother trying to decipher. “Hello, genderbent Cass who doesn’t live here nor sleep in this room.”

“I…” Casey was at a loss for a moment, an exhale making the exaggerated size of his chest fall back to normal as the cogs in his brain stuttered. “I have something to say to you, mister—!”

He walked up to Donatello and pointed an accusatory finger in his direction, but when Donatello stood up, the young human quickly flinched away.

“Oh god you’re taller than I expected.”

Donatello raised a painted-on brow and motioned to Casey with a bored expression on his face.

“And what, dear knock-off Jones, do you have to say to me?”

For a moment, Casey truly forgot why he was there. Come on! He told himself, this is Donnie! Sure, this version was taller and calmer (and frankly hotter) but it was still a Donnie! And no man of the Jones family would be afraid of some dorkish, sewer-dwelling mutant!

“Now you listen here, foureyes!” Casey shoved his finger in Donatello’s face. “April is my girl! Not yours!”

“Okay.” Was Donatello’s only response.

“Okay?” Casey repeated with a frustrated growl, “That’s all you have is an ‘okay’?!”

“What do you want, exactly?” Donatello crossed his arms.

“What I want is for you to leave April alone!”

“Alright.” Donatello shrugged and sat back down in his chair, immediately getting back to work as if nothing had happened.

“Wait, really?” Casey’s voice fell to a soft whisper as he didn't know what to do.

“Sure.” Donatello shrugged, “Don’t really care for your April much, anyway.”

“Hey-” Casey started to growl a warning.

“Don’t get your hockey pucks in a twist. I’m not interested your April.”

“You’re not?”

“No. I couldn’t care less if she or anyone else is interested in me, because I’m not interested in them. Unless their name is Atomic Lass, at which point I would gladly settle down and have three point five kids, any questions?” He said the last part so fast that Casey could hardly keep up.

“I have several.” Casey raised his hand.

“You get one.”

“Okay.” Casey took a moment to decide in his head which question to ask, before he finally pointed beyond Donatello, “Is that a jetpack?”

~~~~

“WAHOOOOOOO!” Casey didn't care that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. It was fun, and that was all that mattered. The freezing wind buffeting his face, the feeling of weightlessness. Nothing beneath his feet— nothing to support him apart from the purple jetpack strapped securely to his back.

Donatello zoomed after him with far more skill and prowess than the young human, but with no less free-willed enjoyment as they flew around the skies of new york.

“THIS IS AMAZING!”

Casey gave a surprised shout and laughed as he flipped over awkwardly, and Donatello flew over to easily right him.

“Ohhhhh!” Casey looked down and his body gave a dangerous shudder at how high they were.

“Careful.” Donatello drifted past him casually, “If you get sick up here, it might reach terminal velocity by time it hits the ground.”

“Wait, really?”

Donatello narrowed his eyes. “No. But we will have a very angry vomit-covered New Yorker on our hands.”

“Oh.”

“And nobody wants that.” Donatello crossed his hands behind his head as he flew, “If you think flying is cool, then just watch this— oh, and don’t try to copy it or we’ll have to scrape you off the pavement.”

The wings of Donatello’s jetpack retracted and the turtle fell with a scream of Fibonacci! His body naturally positioned into a dive, as if jumping from a board into a pool. Casey watched Donatello closely and roared cheers of encouragement at the daring fest, but when Donatello just kept falling with no signs of starting to pull up, Casey couldn't help the anxiety that grew in his chest. Halfway down, and further still. Lower than birds flew, and lower than buildings. Just as Casey was about to brace himself for an imminent impact, Donatello started to grow once more as he pulled up just before hitting the ground and accented in seconds

Donatello was back where he started in no less than two heartbeats. He shot past Casey and even higher than the Jones as he gave a whooping cry.

“And that’s how you do it Hamato-style babyyy!”

“Dude!” Casey flew higher to meet him, “That was wicked cool!”

“Well, I don’t like to brag— oh, who am I kidding? Yes I do! Praise me!” His eyes shimmered with excitement as he beamed and stared straight into Casey’s eyes.

“My Donnie could never be this cool.” Casey laughed at how adorable Donatello was with his pleading eyes. “He’s too busy trying to impress April to do anything like this! He makes charts and everything!”

“Hey, never discount the power of charts, my black-eyes fellow. They can be very useful. Though I must admit that Simp Me is rather disappointing.”

Casey almost choked on his spit as he laughed, clutching his stomach as his sides came into stitches.

“I mean, with a mind as big as a Donnie’s, why would he use it to impress a girl of all things? Seems kinda obsessively creepy, yeesh.” Donatello shivered.

“Well, he may be creepy, but you’re pretty cool, Dee.” Casey gave Donatello a playful punch on the shoulder as he annunciated the nickname in a teasing tone

Donatello brushed his shoulder off, but the smile on his face betrayed his enjoyment at the touch. “And you’re tolerable, Jones.”

[beetlegoose01]

Frostbite- Recovery (Chapter 3)

It was a decent day outside after a long, boring day of school. Crisp, clear, the sun peaking out from behind the canopy of clouds scattering the periwinkle blue sky. Casey strolled through the crowded streets of New York, thrilled to hang with his best (non human) friends.

"Casey, wait up!" Riley whined, blowing a huge bubble of pink bubblegum. She trailed behind her older brother with less pep in her step, due to her lugging a heavy backpack. She was a short middle schooler, with a jet black pixie cut and dark almond shaped eyes. Freckles dotted her fair cheeks. A complete pain, but he would be lying if he didn't say he cared for the little squirt.

"Sorry kid." Casey said, ruffling his little sister's hair, much to her annoyance. "I'll walk slower."

"So what are we gonna do today?" She asked eagerly. "The sky's the limit!" She flashed him a cheeky, braces filled grin. Riley didn't really have any friends of her own. Too shy, and a bit strange around her classmates. Her love of sports made her an outcast with the girls, and none of the boys wanted to hang with a 'weirdo'. Luckily, Casey would be her best friend for life, he had vowed that.

"You said it!" Casey checked his phone. A text from Raph asking if he was joining them for patrol.

Riley frowned. "Is that one of your friends again? The super weird ones?"

"Er...yeah." He pocketed his phone. "Boring friend stuff."

"Yeah, your gang."

"They're not a gang..."

"Mhm. Sure. I won't tell dad you're a drug dealer if you tell me the truth." She sang.

"I'm not a..." Casey said. "You're bluffing."

"Am I?" She looked mischievously at him, winking.

Laughing, Casey flicked her nose.

Riley looked at him seriously. "You're not gonna ditch me for them, again, right?"

"Nah, don't worry. Come on, let's go to the rink."

But Riley seemed distracted. She trailed ahead, following something that Casey didn't see.

"Hey, Ri! Wait up!" He panted, raising an eyebrow. "Riley Elizabeth Jones! You can't just run off..." He was starting to sound like her mother- which was enough to make him stop talking.

"Look at it..." She crouched down, cooing at a little racoon blinking and twitching its nose at her. "I'm gonna call you Sparky."

Casey winced, reminded of rats just by looking at the weird creature. "Ugh, no you're not- come on before the rink closes, pipsqueak."

"Aw, okay."

~•~

Evening drew quicker than he expected, and before he knew it, the sun had dipped down the horizon and the sky was a peachy orange. After making sure Riley was safe at home, he ducked through a manhole cover and climbed into the depths of the creepy sewers. The sewers weren't terrible, but he would be lying if he didn't have to plug his nose in order to prevent the foul odors from entering his precious nostrils. He didn't know how the turtles managed it. Wait...do turtles even have noses?

'I'll have to Google that later.' He thought to himself, trudging through the mucky waters, trying his best not to think about what exactly was in the water. Though he already knew the answer, it wasn't fun to dwell on such disgusting matters.

No, Casey Jones could handle the smell. But what he couldn't handle was...

A rat scurried past him and he let out an involuntary squeal of horror.

Rats still gave him the creeps.

Sighing, Casey stumbled his way into the lair, where he was pleased to find Raphael hunched over a game of pinball, deep in concentration.

"Hey Raph." He greeted, leaning forward to get a closer look.

Raph only grunted in response.

"We're still on tonight to ride our bikes?"

"No, Dr. Frankenstein still hasn't fixed my bike."

"Ah jeez. We can still hang though tonight? At patrol?"

"Ha, I wish! Nah, Leo wants us to go searching for the mutant tonight." He grumbled back. The ball spun around and fell forward, the brief moment of distraction causing the turtle to lose. A big 'Game Over' in neon lights hung mockingly over his head. "Argh...damnit!" He punched the arcade machine so roughly it nearly toppled over. "Whatever, that game's stupid anyway."

"Where is Leo anyway?"

"Doing some meditation shit with April and Sensei." Raphael shrugged. "To focus their minds. I dunno, I wasn't really listening. I tend to tune Leo out, y'know?"  He gave a wicked grin. "Say, we might have some time to read some comics or-"

An aggressive, distorted guitar riff interrupted their banter- followed by what sounded like a man screaming like a banshee.

"Woah!" Casey exclaimed.

Raph grimaced. "Not again. He's always playing it at the worst possible moments."

"Mikey?" Casey wondered, thinking the genre of music must be the orange clad turtle's choice.

"Mikey?" Raph repeated, shaking his head. "Nope, that's all Donnie. When he needs to 'unwind' he plays it as loud as possible. Even without headphones!"

"Donnie?" Casey said, flabbergasted. "But he's so-"

"Geeky? Yeah I know. I can't believe he of all turtles thinks that crap is real music."

"Hey, it is real music!" Casey said defensively.

"Oops, did I strike a nerve?" Raph teased. "Didn't know you liked it."

"Well yeah! The Electric Skullz are legendary!"

"Aw, nerd bonding." Raph held a stubby hand up. "Please save me the embarrassment and go talk with someone who cares." He gave Casey a condescending pat on the head.

"Maybe I will." He said gruffly, following the noise.

Raph chortled with laughter, only stopping when he realized Casey was serious. "Wait- come on, man. I thought you and Donnie hated each other? Let's go do something- and he's gone."

Realizing he was now alone, he crossed his arms. "Eh, I'm gonna go watch Full House."

~•~

Casey hesitated, but ultimately his love for the heavy metal tunes was enough to follow it.  He felt awkward, like he shouldn't be doing this. Casey Jones was no snoop- he just was embarrassingly curious for his own good.

Passing Leo's room, then Mikey's, he finally found the last room in the hall. He creaked open the door, peering inside.

Donnie's room had clearly not been slept in very often. It was neat, but not in the same neatness as Leonardo's, who frequently cleaned his room but it still looked used. This room looked barely touched, and the bed had no creases or anything proving a living being had slept in it. A folded tatami mat was poking under the bed. Posters of scientists, newspaper clippings and photographs were decorating the dull grey walls, strung together with such precision. Some inventions were scattered on the floor, clearly failed ones as they had wires sticking out.

But what caught his eye was the turtle in the middle. He was...dancing. Every movement he made was precise, delicate. Of course, the skills of being a ninja helped, but each step was to the beat (well, less beat, more of intense screaming). It was surprisingly adorable.

Wait...adorable? That couldn't be the right word. 

"Sick moves!" He said, hoping his voice was loud over the music.

Donnie froze, suddenly aware he was being watched. His expression was a mixture of being mortified, then slowly switched to horror and anger.

"Wh- I- I wasn't-" He sputtered, blushing and stumbling over to shut the stereo off.

"Hey, hey, chillax." Casey raised one hand to show he meant no harm. "I love the Electric Skullz too!"

Donnie looked puzzled. "Y...You do?"

"Heh, for sure!" He replied genuinely, a smile revealing itself.

Donnie smiled back, finally relaxing. "And you're not just pulling my leg?"

"Nope. I'll prove it to ya. In 2012, the lead singer of the Electric Skullz was Nova Kun. She then stepped down after mysteriously disappearing. And then was replaced by-"

"James Mercedes!" Casey and Donnie finished in unison.

"Woah..." Donnie's eyes sparkled with delight. "My brothers always hated heavy metal. I don't even think they consider it real music!"

"Not even Mikey?"

Donnie shook his head. "He likes that bubblegum pop stuff. It's okay but..." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Not really my thing."

"Me neither." He agreed. "Don, you shouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed. This stuff's cool."

"You think so?"

"Would I ever lie to you?"

Donnie looked at him wearily.

"Would I ever lie to you about music?" Casey said. "I'm very serious when it comes to good tunes."

He thought for a moment, then smiled. "I guess not."

Casey returned the smile, bumping his shoulder playfully. The turtle's cheeks warmed, chuckling.

"Maybe you aren't so annoying."

"Gee, thanks, I'm touched." Casey said sarcastically. "You aren't so terrible either."

The bedroom door slammed open abruptly, causing both human and turtle to jump. A stoic Leonardo was behind the door.

"Patrol time Donnie." He said simply, his arms behind his back. "...and Casey?" He squinted, trying to process what he was looking at. "Uh...what's going on guys?"

They exchanged looks.

"Nothing!" lied Donnie.

"Just a couple of dudes being bros." Casey said, draping his arm around the tall turtle's shoulders. "Amigos, chum of chums..."

"Not there yet, Jones."

"Eh, he's warming up to me. We're like comrades...buddies..."

"I think I get it." Leo smirked.

Casey found himself leaning against Donnie's closet after he was pushed aside. "Say...why do you even have this? You guys don't even wear clothes..."

"That information is classified." Leo narrowed his eyes. "So, patrol?"

"No problemo Leo." Casey said quickly, stepping away to leave the room. "Are we partnering up again?"

"No, this is a solo stake out mission."

Casey looked back at Donnie who's eyes flickered in ...disappointment? The action was so brief, he barely caught it. No doubt Donnie was just upset about not being partnered with April. Yes, that had to be right. Why else would he be disappointed? Though Casey would be lying if he said he didn't want to talk about the Electric Skullz some more.

"You coming, Don?" Leo glanced back at his younger brother who hadn't moved from his spot.

"Yes, of course." The blank stare from Donatello had switched to a serious, determined one.

"Let's go."

~•~

Leo climbed out of the manhole cover, followed by Raph, Mikey, April, Casey and Donnie. He scanned the area, checking for anything suspicious. As the oldest brother and arguably the most mature, he had a duty to protect his family. So far the only suspicious activity was a raccoon rustling through a trash can. But he would never let his guard down for anything.

"Mikey and I last saw the mutant near Eastman and Laird. I'm thinking we scope around, keep our eyes peeled. If you see anything- and I mean anything, contact one of us and we'll come for backup. Your T-Phones are there for a reason."

"I dunno, Scalysnout was pretty tough!" Mikey said.

"Scalysnout." Raph repeated.

He looked sheepish. "Eh, it needs work." 

"A lot of work."

After each member was assigned locations, Donnie started his mission alert and focused. Though he liked working with his brothers, April and to a lesser extent Casey, he was more in his element when he worked alone. It gave him time to breathe. Of course, the return of a dangerous mutant wasn't exactly comforting.

Climbing the roofs, the mutant ninja concentrated on making sure he wasn't being followed. Which involved him frequently checking behind himself.

'It's not paranoia, it's called being sharp.' Donnie silently quoted Leo under his breath.

The night was oddly quiet though. One would breathe a sigh of relief at the prospect of an early night, but Donnie still felt uneasy. He glanced around, the full moon glistening in the sky over a blanket of stars. Peaceful, if one wasn't anxious about a rampaging monster patrolling the dark streets.

Still...it didn't seem like anything was happening.

"Hey, let go of me!"

'And once again, I've spoken too soon.' Donnie thought bitterly to himself, but he followed the sound of distress.

He slid down the fire escape, landing in a dark alleyway. Turning the corner, but still hiding in the shadows, he found the source.

A girl, maybe eleven or twelve years old was furiously fighting off two Purple Dragons with her fists. Her attacks, though admirable, were completely useless. The gang members merely jeered and pushed her effortlessly to the ground. The girl was definitely a bit strange, especially with the racoon perched on her shoulder- but Donnie didn't have time to judge her.

"Ha, got it!" One of the members snatched her phone, tauntingly holding it over her head. Because of her size, she had no chance of grabbing it back.

"Give it back, creep!"

Donnie had to act now or this girl was toast. Raising his bō in front of him, he whacked one of the members to the ground with a swift movement.

"What the-"

"Who did that? Show yourself!" One of the men demanded, swinging his switchblade defensively.

The other lay on the ground groaning in pain.

Donatello knew better than to make himself seen- especially in front of the girl. But that didn't stop him from defending her. He jabbed his staff directly in the other man's solar plexus, knocking him down instantly. 

Realizing their invisible opponent was fierce, the Purple Dragons made a hasty retreat.

"Wow that was nuclear!" The girl exclaimed, eyes wide. "Thanks, er, whoever you are."

"Not a problem. Do you need help getting home?"

"Yeah, my brother would probably kill me if he knew I was walking home alone. I just came to pick up some food from Murakami and then those creeps attacked me."

"They're known for that." Donnie agreed. "You really shouldn't be walking alone at night. It's dangerous for a kid." He hadn't meant to sound condescending, but the girl bristled anyway.

"Hey, I'm thirteen!" She paused, biting her lip. "Almost."

Donnie chuckled lightly. "Still, I'll help you get home."

"Thanks...erm...?"

"Donatello." He supplied.

"I'm Riley." She started to walk ahead, but realized her new friend didn't seem to be following her.

"I'm behind you, don't worry." Donnie said. "Just have to keep my distance."

"Ain't ya gonna show yourself?"

"Better not. But if anyone comes at ya, I'll help."

Riley stopped, now suspicious. "Come into the light."

"Riley I..."

"Do it now."

He could hear Master Splinter's scolding as he stepped out of the shadows in front of the streetlight. He held his breath, awaiting a scream. A little girl seeing a giant humanoid turtle was destined to end horribly. But she had a gutsy look in her eye that comforted him slightly.

"Woah..." Riley uttered. "You're a ..."  She reached a shaky hand to lightly touch Donnie's bicep. "You're real?"

Donnie nodded slowly, his brown eyes looking gently at the little girl. "I am."

"Are you an alien or...is this a costume?"

He chuckled. "Not quite."

"Either way, I owe you one for saving me. I don't care what you look like. I've seen weirder."

Donnie had a faint suspicion she was referring to the Kraang invasion.

"Besides," She continued. "No one will mess with me if you're by my side." She smirked, and Donnie swore her cheeky grin looked strangely familiar.

~•~

By the time Donnie had returned, the other three brothers were already at the lair. To his surprise, it wasn't Raphael who was in a sour mood. It was Leo, who stormed over with the rage of someone who was told Space Heroes had been cancelled.

"Where have you been?" He demanded, cutting any small talk.

"On...patrol?" Donnie stared down quizzically at his shorter brother. "Like we were supposed to."

"Don't sass me. You had us worried."

"I wasn't worried." Raph replied honestly. " "Chill, Mother Hen. Donnie's a big boy." Raph rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Raphael."

"We all came back half an hour ago." Leo crossed his arms bossily.

"Don't mind him. He's just grumpy because none of us found Scaleysnout." Mikey murmured, eyes glued to the TV screen.

"That's not why I was...I was concerned, is all."

"I wasn't aware there was a curfew." Donnie shot back irritably. "Something held me up."

"Like what? A stop sign?" Mikey said, collapsing into giggles as if it was the funniest joke. When nobody laughed he scooted back to the television set. His oldest brothers stared at him for a moment, before looking back at Donnie.

"Explain?" Leo asked.

"The Purple Dragons attacked some kid. I couldn't just stand there so I defended her."

"Nice work D!" Mikey praised.

"How admirable." said Raph sarcastically. "You saved one person. Do you want a gold star? We save people all the freakin' time, genius. Except we don't usually gloat about it."

"I'd hardly call that gloating." defended Donnie.

"Besides you should really talk. You gloat, like, all the time Raph." Mikey teased, bracing himself for Raphael to slap him on the head. "Uncle, uncle!" He wailed. "I'm sorry! Raph, stop!"

Leo stayed silent, analyzing the situation. 

"She was just a kid. I didn't know what else to do." Donnie said, reading Leo's unimpressed body language. "And she didn't freak out when she saw me...so that's always a plus."

"She saw you?" Leo repeated. "Donatello, that was completely foolish! You know Sensei always told us to stay in the shadows."

Donnie hung his head, already preparing himself for a lecture.

"When I tell Splinter..."

"You wouldn't, Leo." Donnie interrupted. "Because that would be so hypocritical of you, and you know it. Showing myself was the only way to save her- Riley. And who's going to believe that a giant talking turtle saved her from a gang? Be realistic."

Leo's lips twitched, ready to retort, but didn't. "Fine."

Raph looked up, releasing Mikey from a chokehold. "Did you say Riley? That's weird."

"It's a fairly common name Raph."

"Well, yeah. It's also Casey's sister's name. He's mentioned her a few times to me."

Donnie perked up slightly. "Oh...that's interesting."

"Could just be a coincidence. New York is a pretty big city."

"I guess so."

"You need to be more careful, Donnie." Leo scolded. "You were lucky this person you saved was related to one of our friends. If she even is."

"Jones and I aren't really friends." He thought for a moment, remembering just a few hours ago when they bonded over music. "It's complicated."

"Aw no way!" Mikey complained. "I thought you two were finally getting along! This is bogus, dude!"

"Why do you even care?"

"Because you two have a lot in common!" Mikey scooted over. "I thought you guys would be bros in no time." He pointed at the screen. "Watch this for a sec. See, these two characters Ripjaw and Ellie hated each other!"

"Yeah, and?" 

"I remember this episode." Leo said fondly.

Donnie watched the television moodily. Two heroes in spacesuits seemed to be arguing about something.

"Stop following me, you fool! You're always getting in my way."

"So?" He said, hands on his hips. "That doesn't mean anything."

"Keep watching!" Mikey snapped, uncharacteristically harsh. "Look!"

"We have to put aside our differences!" Ellie yelled. "If we don't, the evil Slothman will kill our friends!"

"I'm not working with you!" Ripjaw sneered.

"Stop being selfish! Why do you even hate me so much?"

"Because...I love you."

"You...do?"

"More than anything."

"I love you too!"

Donnie made a face of pure horror as the character's embraced. "No. No way!"

Leo and Raph meanwhile seemed to find this extremely amusing.

"See what I mean?" Mikey pointed out, oblivious to the implications.

"Oh you bet we do." Raph sneered. "Can I plan the wedding?"

Leo batted his eyelashes. "I'll be the best man." He concluded.

"I'll be the Flower girl!" Mikey chimed in, eager to be included.

Donnie's cheeks turned beet red.

"Well I didn't mean you two kiss or anything." Mikey said sheepishly. "But you could totally be friends!"

Donnie shook his head furiously. "Over my dead body. I'd rather eat raw sewage than be friends with him. Let alone-" He blushed.

"Aw, love is still alive." Raph rested his head on his palms.

Donnie scowled.

Leo frowned. "Come on Don, you know we were only teasing."

"Whatever. This show is clearly for kids. I've got work to do."

The three remaining brothers looked at each other uneasily as they watched Donatello storm away to his lab.

"That ...didn't exactly go to plan." Mikey said nervously.

[fanatic-scribe]

A Bottle and Some Cards

Chapter 1/?

Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

Word count: 2,484/2,484

Ao3: Here

Characters: Donatello (main), Casey Jones (main), everyone else

Pairing: Donatello/Casey Jones

Warnings: Aged-Up Character, Drinking Games, Slow Burn (kinda)

Ch 1 / / Ch2 (coming soon) / /

Summary:

Ethanol is the intoxicating part of alcohol and its molecules are so small that they can actually pass into the gaps between brain cells. There it can interfere with the neurotransmitters that enable all the brain’s activities. If you drink fast, alcohol will start to flood the brain. Alcohol affects parts of the brain responsible for self-control. And that is why Donatello did all this dumb shit to himself.

A/N: Just something fun I made for the hell of it. There may be other pairings in this but Idk yet.

This work will be tagged with #B&C tmnt

Chapter 1: Salt and Lime

“Pussy.” Mikey huffed at Casey as the human chugged down his cup of beer. Casey stuck out his middle finger as he drank.

“I’d say sensible,” Donnie chimed in, “the dare said to ‘drink a concoction of whatever the opponent makes using whatever they can find in the kitchen.’”

“Yeah so?” The other’s looked at him dumbfounded. Flashes of Mikey’s bizarre “food” concoctions from when he was a young chief, and them too worried to crush his dreams, flash in their minds.

Taking turns they began to reminisce of his old creations. The ‘Squid Oatmeal Pizza.’ that Raph still swears he saw an eye on. But, as Donnie pointed out at the time, “It could be a raisin. You know, from the the...oatmeal...part?” at least that's what the boys keep telling themselves. They ate the entire pizza that night.

And who could forget the ‘Apple Pizza Pie Suprise’ with ‘All the wonders of both pies together with a twist!’ Poor April, who had not yet tried his creations and was too late to hear the turtle’s warnings, found the twist quickly after chewing on the bite only once. The brother’s had watched helplessly as their best friend’s soul left her body to the depths of hell. The pizza part of this creation was a classic Mikey order that she has seen only once; double anchovies, roasted garlic, chocolate, cappuccino pizza. The only thing that had stopped her from spitting it out before Mikey had walked away was the shock of the taste, it had paralyzed her. All she could do was open her mouth to let the food fall onto her plate and push it directly into the trash next to her. None of the brothers could blame her. She remembers her bite having a certain pop to it that she tried many years to forget.

‘Asian cowboy fusion calzone dude!’ Is what had gotten Karai. By this point, Mikey was a better cook, he would make odd foods for himself all the time still but no one had told Karai. She took a small bite that Mikey offered her but immediately spit it out, much to the turtle’s amusement as he was laughing. She found out later that to Mikey “cowboy” meant beans and s’mores and “Asian” meant teriyaki sauce, ginger, and shrimp. Karai learned an important lesson that day, never trust Mikey’s original cooking.

“And that was all him being nice and trying to cook.” Casey added pouring himself another cup of beer, “This would be him making something bad for my dare.” Everyone shuttered thinking about the horrors that could have been. Except for one bubbly laugh.

“Yeah, you’re right dude.” Mikey took a drink from his cup, “I get creative when I’m drunk so I probably would have killed you.” They all chuckled at this, everyone would have rather drunk.

They loved their weekends together because they got to do this, have fun and laugh. April was in college and spent a lot of time studying, even if she came to the lair at least four times a week. Casey wasn’t in college but he had a job at his local ice arena, he helped teach young kids hockey and did general cleaning and maintenance, that kept him pretty busy. Karai was always busy, over the time she took over the Foot Clan had reclaimed their good name but she was still having to deal with certain people still loyal to Shredder or mob bosses who saw her as an easy hit. Even if they were busy they still would try to gather together every weekend to relax and half fun together. This Friday night, with alcohol already clouding their minds, they were playing Truth, Dare or Drink.

Leaning forward Casey took hold of the bottle and spun it, still leaning forward he plucked up a dare card not looking at the words yet. “Wow, Casey Jones picked dare.” Donnie chaffed, “Did not see that one coming.” Casey smiled cheerfully at the turtle with wide eyes, gap teeth, and a middle finger on both hands. There was a chuckle at their banter, Donnie had become comfortable with it and often looked forward to his time with Casey. They had truly become good friends.

As the sound rolling of glass slowly dulled so did everyone’s voice until both were silent. The neck of the bottle pointing, if a bit vaguely, at Donnie. Mikey oohed with excitement like Casey Mikey enjoyed movement rather than talking so he always preferred dares. Hopefully, this dare won’t be a drink instead.

Dramatically, Casey lifted his arm to point at the turtle, “Donatello! The cards dare you to,” He lifted the card up to read aloud, “do a body shot off your opponent.” There was a chorus of laughs and oos from everyone as Donnie shook his head.

“No, no. I’m not doing that. I’ll drink.” Everyone turned to boo him. “BOOO!” he answered.

“Donnie you haven’t done one dare!”

“Mikey, I’ve only gotten one other dare.”

“AND YOU DIDN’T DO IT!” Mikey was having a hard time trying to understand what Donnie didn’t get about this very simple topic. Just before Donnie could say anything Raph leaned forward from his spot on the couch interjecting their argument.

“Hey come on, it's fine. This is Donnie’s choice.” He paused for a second taking a drink from his cup as everyone looked surprised. He smirked as he pulled the cup away, “And he’s choosing to be a fucking killjoy.” There were a few laughs as Donnie just rolled his eyes, he reached for his cup leaning forward from his spot on the floor.

A hand reached out and stopped his wrist, he followed the hand up to April who had walked over to him from her seat next to Karai. She was crouched down sitting on her heels, he ninja training with the other girls must be going great, he had not even heard her move. “Look, Donnie,” He’s heard that tone of voice before, “if you don’t want to do this that’s fine but you had two easy dares. Just have fun no one will make fun of you.”

“Bullshit.”

“Did you see us make fun of anyone else?” Thinking back Donnie could remember everyone laughing at crazy antics but then just more celebrating all together. When Leo had to let Raph draw on his face with a sharpie everyone was laughing, even Leo now sporting a lovely penis across his forehead among other drawings.

Donnie sighed, might as well give the people what they want, “Alright fine I’ll do it.” he said throwing his hands up. Before he could even stand up Casey and Mikey had already hoped up and started moving to the kitchen laughing and cheering. As everyone else stood and made their way to the kitchen Casey was sitting on the table, legs dangling over the sides, shrugging off his jacket and throwing it to the side. Bent over the open fridge Mikey was looking for the tequila Casey had brought over with the beer. The salt and lime already in his hands as Mikey grabbed the chilled bottle and placed the items on the table. Soon the rest of the group joined them at the table just as Casey began to pull his shirt over his head.

Donatello couldn’t help but see how the human had really grown into his frame, as a scientist observes an animal grow and mature. His muscles were more defined from when he was a gangly kid, his abdomen had the defined lines of muscle. His hips made a V just before his pants, this was accented further due to a small patch of hair leading from his belly button to bellow his pants. Donnie realized this felt different than observing and animal grow and mature, ‘Must be the alcohol.’ he thought to himself, because what else could it be? A shout from Mikey quickly shook him from his trance. “Dude, what the hell!”

“What?!”

“What the fuck is on your nipples?!”

The turtle’s had seen Casey shirtless before but something had changed. Now there was a visible bar of metal going through each nub where there hadn’t been last time. “Oh yeah,” Casey chuckled looking at his chest, “I got my nipples pierced.”

“Well, that part is obvious!” Shouted Raph, “When did you do this?”

“A little after the tongue at a shop.” Raph had known about the tongue. They had gotten their tongue piercing done together by Slash. Sure it may have been a ‘teenage at home piercing’ but it was straight and healed up just fine, that was almost a solid year and a half ago. Donnie rolled his eyes as he got to work cutting the lime, being very careful as he could feel his body sway.

“It’s just body modification, lots of humans do it.” Even though his words were indifferent his eye’s lingered on Casey’s chest, a slight amount of dark hair contrasted with the sparkling silver rings. There was something fascinating about it that just drew in Donnie’s attention, they suited Casey.

“Dude, it’s so weird looking!” Mikey reached forward and poked at the human’s nipple. Normally Casey was cool with being randomly touched by Mikey, especially in a party situation like this. However, as soon as he pressed down on Casey the turtle had his hand pushed away as Casey scooted away on the table with a nervous hum, laugh. He had reached up to covering his nipple with his hand and other arm held up to keep Mikey at a distance.

“Whoa! Ok!” There was still a chuckle with his words, “Hey Mikey lets not touch my nipples ok.” There was a questioning look in his eyes as well as everyone else, Casey shrugged, “They made my nipple more sensitive than I'm used too.” There was a slight pinkness in his cheeks as everyone briefly discussed this new topic. Donatello could feel his face heat up as well, ‘Must be from the alcohol.’ he thought.

Raph snatched the lime slice Donnie had cut and ran the fruit next to Casey’s belly button and poured salt over it, the crystals clung to the lime juice on his skin. After much debate, the group decided to pour the shot into the dip made by Casey’s pronounced collar bone when he leaned his head back. It wasn’t enough to fit an entire shot and he wasn’t allowed to move or he would pour the tequila but it made the body shot feel more authentic, whatever that means. Casey complained slightly about the cold fruit and liquor but no one really cared enough to change anything, besides it was already too late to change anything. So Casey just sat there, neck stretched back, leaning on one arm with a lime slice in his mouth waiting on a certain purple-clad turtle.

Donnie stepped between the human's legs a bit reluctantly, they looked at each other, well as best they could without Casey moving his head.  Donnie with his arms crossed, he waited for Casey to back out because surely he would by this point. But he just sat there, lime sticking out of his gap teeth surrounded by a shit-eating grin, Donnie couldn’t let that grin win. After a few more still, silent seconds Donnie took a breath and bent down.

Donatello’s rough tongue ran over the area of salt on the human’s stomach, he could feel Casey tense slightly under his tongue, he could feel the soft, warm skin as it contracted against muscle. Donnie ran over the slight dip were his abs were more defined, he couldn’t taste the human over the tart lime and salt but some animalistic part of him wanted to. Some inner part of his brain wanted to bite the human. Vaguely in the distance, he could hear hoots of encouragement but they were drowned out by the sound of hot blood rushing to his head. Still, they pulled him back to the task at hand, already forgetting his primal thought.

As Donnie stood he rested his hands on either side of Casey on the table, he leaned forward and touched his lips to the human’s collar bone and the tequila. Donnie could have sworn he heard Casey’s breath hitch over the chorus of cheers when his tongue lightly ran over the soft alcohol wet skin. With a loud, almost comically, disruptive slurp Donnie had swallowed the alcohol, it burned his throat but the salt helped.

Moving on, he leaned forward to take the lime from the other’s mouth, he bit down and pulled only to be met with resistance. Casey held onto the lime with a smirk forcing Donnie to play a game of tug o’ war for the lime, very annoying.

The turtle looked up to glare at Casey only to find black eyes already looking at him and it felt like time had frozen. Donnie wondered if he had ever looked at Casey’s eyes. Donnie thought that he had eyes like the deepest water, black and bottomless pools of onyx trying to pull the turtle in. For a moment he thought he could explore those eyes for hours trying to find their end and never get tired.

Snapped out of his daze by Casey letting go of the lime causing Donnie to stumble back from his own tugging. This earned a chuckle from the group followed by pats on his shell and congratulations. Smiling and laughing with everyone he couldn’t help but feel his heart beat faster and harder in his chest. He glanced over at Casey and saw him putting his shirt back on and laughing with Raph about how he jumped off the table and almost fall.

Everyone was using this time to talk about what had been happening in the game and to grab more snacks and drinks. Also to pet Ice Cream Kitty, like a lot. A few people cried. Petting Ice Cream Kitty is serious business. Donnie was pouring bags of snacks into different bowls when his eye’s drifted to Casey once or twice, looking for something. He was standing in front of the open freezer having just put whipped cream on the sugary cat, he then tipped his head back to fill his mouth with whipped cream. Donnie watched as his long neck stretched back, Donnie remembered how soft his skin felt against the harsh salt taste. A more animalistic part of his brain said something but it was muffled in the back of his mind.

“Don, you ok?” April’s voice pulled him out of his daze and he realized he has spilled quite a few pretzels.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine just lost focus.” He smiled and worked to clean up the spilled pretzels. Why was he so fascinated by Casey?

‘Must be from the alcohol.’ he thought.

Notes:

Hope you liked it! I know nothing happened yet. Bummer. Well, the next chapter will be coming soon! Sometime next week Maybe

[liugeaux]

Repost Vol. 57: Abandon All Expectations – IDW’s TMNT is a True Reboot

Originally Posted via Techpedition.com on January 31, 2012.

HEY! Welcome to another repost. I haven’t been able to do one of these since I ran out of old Myspace posts to explore. This one is going double as a Shellheads promotional post, so those of you who are here because of a carefully placed TMNT url, enjoy!

This was written at the beginning of 2012 and was an opinion piece on the  recently launched IDW comic series. Sure, the series has gone on to become a significant pillar of the TMNT lore, but at the time, fans were VERY skeptical that someone other than Mirage could usher in the next era of TMNT.  

I’m posting it here un-edited, so forgive any typos or ridiculous hyperbole. Techpedition didn’t have any copy-editors, lol.

Abandon All Expectations – IDW’s TMNT is a True Reboot

I know all of you loyal Techpedition readers have been clamoring to hear my opinion on the new IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series. You’ve been waiting for the proverbial stamp of approval from yours truly before diving into yet another turtles comic series. All cheesy bravado aside, I’ve never been shy about my love for the TMNT and I can say definitively that IDW’s take on the Turtles is the most “out of left field” to date. Caution: Major Spoilers Ahead!!!

With 5 or so proper issues and a Micro series half done, enough of the story is on the record for me to start spilling opinions. First off, Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz are rebuilding the Turtle lore completely. When it comes to this revamp, nothing is off limits. The first story arc not only doesn’t include The Shredder, but for the vast majority of it, the Turtles are looking for Raphael, who is lost. Essentially, the Turtles don’t “become a team” until issue 4, that really sets the tone for series.

The origin story is uniquely different in ways that have never been explored in TMNT fiction. Rather than Splinter being the pet rat of ninja master Hamato Yoshi, he is actually the reincarnated soul of Yoshi in the body of a rat. The Turtles are the reincarnated souls of his 4 (murdered by the Shredder) sons. The mutation they went through was originally caused by a mutagen accidentally spilled by aliens. In the IDW series, the mutagen is a super soldier formula developed by Baxter Stockman for a “yet to be seen” General Krang.

Probably the most alarming change in the story is the fact that the Turtles don’t age to their “teenage years” as Turtles. Immediately after the mutation, they are full grown Teenage Turtles. This is used as a plot device to have April and other characters interact with the Turtles and Splinter both before and after the mutation. It was a bit alarming at first, and I was questioning the writing until the origins of the turtles came to light. Conveniently, to fit the story better, the Turtles don’t need a 15 year maturation period.

Casey has had a pretty big role as Raph’s first post-mutation friend and his story has seen significant panels. This is probably due to Eastman’s fondness for the character. Clearly there’s a lot of backstory that is in the works, especially in the Stockman-Krang relationship, but its being doled out very sparingly.

This is one of my principle problems with the story telling style. Ideas that didn’t make any sense in the first issue aren’t clarified in a timely manner. Personally I love it, but I don’t know if its good for the series itself. Readers that are in for the long haul, like myself, benefit greatly from the serialization of the story, but I can see where jumping into the series mid-run could be really hard. Once they are 20-30 issues in, the groundwork will be laid and penetrating the fiction will become very hard.

The writing is the sharpest the TMNT have seen since, Tristan Jones’ Tales of the TMNT stories or the Dreamwave series in 2003. I’m not a huge fan of the art style. Its nice to see the Turtles in color, but I can’t get into the intentionally gritty and slightly abstracted depictions of the Turtles. Luckily the story is strong enough to carry the title. I really miss the art from the Mirage series. That weird Jim Lawson style kind of grew on me. The important thing the series has going for it right now is that its interesting. That’s something the Turtles have needed for a long time.

The most significant new character in the series is a mutant cat named Old Hob. He was mutated along with the Turtles and is the reason Raphael was separated from his brothers. I really like Old Hob, he has a swagger about him that other Turtles secondary characters like Hun or Null have had in the past. I’m not sure if a recently mutated cat being a gang member makes sense yet, but if the short history of the series has shown anything, its shown a resilience to logic breaking plot points. So, I’ll hold off on passing judgement just yet.

I really like it when properties venture in new directions and the Turtles have never been afraid to do just that. This is by far the most radical (ha, see what I did there) departure to date. Eastman being involved in the transformation gives the departure some validity. I don’t think IDW and Tom Waltz could get away with this series “as is” without having someone close to the Turtles supporting them. I’m sure the fans would rake them over the coals.

A note to IDW as a publisher: As a slightly crazed collector of the comics, I don’t appreciate each book having multiple variants on day one. The first 5 issues had anywhere from 4 to 12 variants a piece. I understand it, they’ve got to make money, but 12!? I understand subsequent printings having different covers, but retailer incentive variants and store specific covers are disappointing and nearly impossible to track down. I end up buying multiple copies of the same book for no good reason. It also takes the novelty of the cover art away. One of my favorite parts of the old TMNT books was the iconic nature of the cover art. With four different covers available for each book, no one cover stands out as THE cover to the book.

On the other hand, I want to praise IDW for releasing the nicest collected book to date of the original Mirage TMNT books. The hard cover collection of the first 8 books of the Mirage series is a beefy, beautiful and true to the original books. The weird Peter Laird, computer re-shading, George Lucas inspired, tragedy of a reprinting has been abandoned. Thank GOD! IDW, please keep these collections coming.

[cryptidwizard]

A Good Kid.

@yarrayora requested a Casey Jones fic from the point of view of his fellow students and his teachers, I hope you enjoy! Contains some spoilers from tmnt 2012 season 2 and 3

“He’s a good kid!” His parents said with a sheepish smile when Casey was in preschool. The smell of rain still fresh in the air though the showers had stopped. Casey took the opportunity to play in the mud and stomp in puddles, tracking mud inside and dripping wet. The teacher rolled his eyes, “Something like that. That little Arnold Jr. of yours must be a handful.” He commented as Casey now toweled dry barreled into his parents giving them a hug. His parents laughed, and agreed. “He takes after me.” They both say in unison.

In kindergarten during Show and Tell one day, Casey stood up as straight as possible and said in a loud voice he had a big announcement. “Go on Arnold, please tell the class.” His teacher smiled warmly already learning there was no way to control Casey’s excited volume. Casey took a deep breath as if he couldn’t wait to get it out, “I’MGONNABEABIGBROTHER!” he shouted quickly and stumbling over his words. “Can you repeat that hun?” The teacher asked not quite understanding what he said. “I’M GONNA BE A BIG BROTHER! MY MOM SAYS SO, HER TUMMY IS HUGE! ITS GOT A BABY IN IT!! THEY THINK IT’S A GIRL AND SHES GONNA LOOK LIKE ME AND IM GONNA TEACH HER TO ICE SKATE!! WE’RE GONNA PLAY HOCKEY TOGETHER!!! IM GONNA BE THE BEST BIG BROTHER EVER!!!!” Casey exclaimed, practically vibrating in excitement. His teacher gave him a grin, “We are all very happy for you Arnold. I’m sure you’ll be a very good brother, though you might have to wait a few years to teach your little brother or sister how to ice skate.” Casey wilted at the news of waiting for ice skating but brightened once again at the prospect of having a little brother or sister to call his own.

Casey is a good kid and a good older brother. His mom and dad both work so he takes care of his little sister when they have to do “grownup stuff” Casey proudly shares to his classmates. “He’s a responsible kid,” Says one teacher to another during their lunch break gossip time, usually talking about students and things they tell teachers. “If a little excitable.” Another adds.  “Did you hear how his mom is sick a lot? Arnold says that’s because she “helps sick people” but I’m not sure.” The gym teacher reveals. “Well nursing job or not that sounds a lot like an autoimmune disease.” The science teacher mentions. The language arts instructor looks up, “Oh my father had that, it was absolutely awful. He passed a few weeks ago.” The thought of Arnold Casey Jones Jr. disappeared from their thoughts as they offered their condolences.

“Hey Case’ what’s up?” Asked a classmate as Casey concentrated on coloring a Get Well Soon Card in second grade. “Hmm?” He asked as he looked up, “Oh hey, I’m making a card for my mom. She’s not feeling well. It’s just taking a little longer than usual to feel good again.” Casey explained somewhat glumly. “I’m sorry about that. I hope she feels better!” Says the classmate. “Thanks!” Says Casey before adding a quiet “Me too.” A teacher then notices the card and tells Casey she hopes his mom gets well soon. She doesn’t.

The condition of Mrs. Jones hasn’t improved the teachers learn. When Arnold Jr. misses two weeks of school in third grade, everyone knows what happened. The Monday after the second week, Casey enters class, eyes red and glassy and wearing an oversized jacket that teachers can only assume belonged to his mother. He doesn’t speak, he ignores words spoken to him and only pretends to do his work. This continues for a while. At first teachers are able to ignore it and place it on him grieving, but it continues still. When they regretfully have to ask his father to come in to talk about Casey’s grades his father blankly replies, “He’s a good kid.”

In fourth grade, Casey gets into his first fight. Kids can be cruel. They joke and say terrible things, they can’t comprehend the consequences. That is until someone teaches them. Casey taught them. From what the teachers gathered, two kids have been making fun of Casey for a while now. For the longest he hadn’t let it bother him, but they allegedly brought up his mother. Casey had apparently just snapped. Both kids were sporting bruises and Casey had a large scrape on his cheek. He hadn’t spoken since the fight ended aside from the words, “They said mean stuff about my mom…” Casey has sat in infuriated science. “He’s a good kid!” His father pressed, looking disheveled, his shirt incorrectly buttoned up. Arnold Sr. let out a deep sigh, “He hasn’t been handling his mother’s death well, no kid should have to go through this. He hates not being around his sister and I, like he’s scared we’re gonna leave him too. Those kids shouldn’t have been saying that stuff, Arnold shouldn’t have retaliated. Can you please let him off the hook just this once?” Casey’s father pleaded, looking desperate. The teachers pitied what was left of the Jones family, and decided if Casey apologized to the two boys, he’s be off the hook. Casey manages a muttered apology, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. He stays silent on the way home.

Casey manages to stay out of trouble for the most part in fifth grade. Aside from minor arguments and a generally rambunctious behavior he is fine. He angers easier and is more protective of his friends. Especially his sister. When she started kindergarten, he would walk her to all her classes, usually causing him to be late for his own. When he found out she was being messed with by some older students, Casey was infuriated to stay the least. He threw the first punch and got the shit beaten out of him, but it guaranteed his sister wouldn’t be messed with again. Arnold Sr. shows up fifteen minutes late to the meeting, he smells of alcohol. He doesn’t try to defend Casey’s case, he doesn’t call him a good kid. Just asks “How much trouble is he in?” and is informed Casey has a week’s detention. His father vows Casey will be punished accordingly for his actions, the teacher doesn’t notice Casey’s fearful expression as he leaves with his sister and father.

On the first day of sixth grade, Casey shows up with a black eye. The teacher calls his father, he doesn’t answer. Casey says his dad is busy. He doesn’t say that his father is passed out drunk, he doesn’t say that his father is the one who punched him last night. So the teacher never knows. Casey says he was fixing the lock on his doorknob when his sister had opened the door. “Oh, Arnold I’m so sorry that happened. You should see the nurse and get some ice for that.” His teacher says with sympathy. Casey mumbles something, the teacher frowns “I’m sorry I didn’t hear that dear.” The boy looks down, “I don’t wanna go by Arnold. I wanna be called Casey.” She looks surprised, he hadn’t had a problem with that name during roll call. “Alright, Casey. Let’s get you down to the nurse.” The teacher says with a shrug. She’ll never know the Casey doesn’t want to be constantly reminded of his dad every time he’s referred to. She doesn’t know Casey learns to use his mom’s old makeup to hide bruises.

Casey gets into fights; his father was called in so much they just stop bothering to call. When they do call him, Arnold Sr. doesn’t bother to defend Casey’s actions. He just says “He’s a bad kid, he isn’t going to change. He’ll be punished accordingly.” Always smelling of alcohol and cigarette smoke. Teachers had begun to dread getting Casey in their classes. The plethora of friends Casey used to have had vanished, he scares people. Casey decides to quit on regular old ice skating. He tries out for hockey. He’s a bad kid.

Casey makes friends with people on his hockey team, some still keep their distance. Though Casey’s a natural player and a fun guy to be around. He’s still competitive, still has an anger that can’t be extinguished. To his team, he’s a fun-loving knucklehead that’s got a real angry streak on an off the ice. To teachers he’s a slacker, who only applies himself in hockey, a bad kid with bad anger issues. The only thing that seems to engage him is hockey and fighting, everything else makes him feel stupid or inadequate. So he doesn’t try, so it doesn’t hurt when he fails. Casey is told he’ll be kicked off the hockey team if he doesn’t bring up his grades. He starts to look for a tutor, but who would tutor a notoriously bad kid? Casey tells teachers that no one’s going to want to tutor him, a student craving extra credit for mysteriously missing days disagrees.

Casey hits it off with his tutor, so he says to a nosy teacher. He brags that April O’Neil is “So into him.” April rolls her eyes and laughs, Casey has a friend he finally close to. April first saw Casey as a bad kid, a no brained thug who just wants to fight. When he discovered the criminal underworld and the threat of the Kraang and dons a vigilante costume with a hockey stick; April thinks maybe he’s an okay kid who just wants to fix the city and bust a few heads. Then she truly gets to know him, sees him interacting with the turtles, protecting people he cares about and realizes he’s a good kid, a good person, a good friend who’s been dealt shitty cards in life. She just wishes other people would see the real him under his façade.

When the Kraang invade, many are unaccounted for when humans are enslaved and mutated. Casey Jones, April O’Neil, and Irma Langinstein are three of the many. Teachers and students alike can only hope the three are alive, and pray for their own safety as the mutagen splashes down upon them. The pain and feeling of bones shifting and skin morphing is unlike anything other experienced. The feeling is traumatizing and agonizing but they will forget it all soon enough. There is only serving the Kraang. There is only Kraang.

Casey and April’s trigonometry teacher’s vision clears, everything aches and smells heavily of something alien burning her nose. Above her stands Arnold Casey Jones, his expression concerned and his hand outstretched ready to pull her up. Her memories feel disjointed but they come back slowly. “Casey….Casey Jones..? Where am I? What happened?” She asks woozily and is supported by Casey before she falls. “Don’t worry about that Ma’am. I’m going to get you home safe.” Casey says in calm reassuring tone, there is a flash of light and suddenly they are standing at the entrance of her house. Her memory clears and she gasps, “You’re alive! H-how am I alive?” His teacher asks in confused panic. “The military came through, I’m just doing my part volunteering to help people get home safe.” He soothes. His trigonometry teacher nods half dazed and is helped into her home by Casey. He gives her a hug, tells her to stay safe and is out the door, gently closing it shut behind him. His trigonometry teacher seems stunned, Casey was failing her class in the months before the invasion. She always thought of him as a delinquent, yet here he is volunteering and doing his part in the efforts to help things get back to normal. What a good kid.

A student being harassed by Purple Dragons for his wallet is saved by a hockey mask wearing vigilante clutching a baseball bat. “Casey Jones?!” The teenager asks in surprise. “-Huh?” Says the vigilante before trying to deepen his voice, “Uh no, who’s that?” At the classmate’s look clearly saying he wasn’t buying it, Casey sighed and used his regular voice, “How’d you know it was me?” Casey asked. “Dude you literally shouted, NO ONE MESSES WITH CASEY JONES! While you were beating up those guys.” Casey looked a sheepish as he could while still wearing a hockey mask. “Oh, uh right.” The classmate looked around awkwardly, “Um listen Case’ I just wanted to say thanks dude. You’re actually pretty cool.” The mask wearing boy seems stunned “Yeah no problem, get home safe man.” Casey said before pulling himself up to the nearby fire escape and seemingly vanishing. “Cool.” Whispered the teenager.

Everyone in school has heard stories of students or teachers being saved by April O’Neil or Casey Jones. Sometimes in strange costumes or armor, other times in just everyday clothing. Nobody confronts them on it, or says anything to the police. They feel honor bound, grateful for what Casey and April have done for them. No one thinks of April as a weak and nerdy girl anymore, she’s strong and powerful and a force of nature all her own. No one thinks of Casey as a stupid student and angry thug, he’s protective and crafty and a good kid. He’s always been a good kid.

[gal-with-pastels]

my thoughts of 2012 tmnt

after a long time away from this series due to its story not being good anymore and major antagonists disappearing and things left unanswered i final came to the conclusion that the nick tmnt was good at first until season 3. and seeing that its final episode of the series name was released and that the series was coming to a close. do i think this series could've done better after season 2 ? yes could've , a lot of people were hoping for a tmnt 2003 crossover that never happened . i would've enjoyed seeing a mutant Casey jones or april , hell even venus de milo who would always be alongside the turtles similar to slash . i really REALLY hated April becoming basically a ninja and being half kraang she didn't have to become one , and being half kraang made her abit over powered .. she could've been similar to the 2k3 april . and basically i'm happy to see this show put down , until ether a new company picks it up or nick makes a new series of it . it was similar to teen titians and teen titian's go , though instead it slowly shifted into a bad series . What happened to the kraang, what happened to aprils mother, where casey's parents?! the characters never did seem like teenagers , i depicted Leonardo being at least 17 , Raphael being 16 in a half , Donatello being 15 and Michelangelo beings at least 13/ 14 . in the show i would've enjoyed to see more mutant possibilities maybe even the cast selecting fan made character designs to include in the show as antagonists or protagonists , like how the tmnt 2003 had a child's fan made tmnt character in the show .. it was a bug man mutant i think. i feel like the show was mostly rushed , maybe just for merchandizing . for being a tmnt series i have to rank this below tmnt 2k3 and tmnt 1987 , being right above the next mutation series . these series started to loose their story and plot at least after 3 . this series however plot began to fall apart at the start and middle of season 3 . and i'll be the one to say it , they basically started off killing the major antagonists after season 3 , shredder is a good example of this . who was killed after season 4 then brought back from the dead. i could've enjoyed if the series could have shredder as the main antagonist and main villain that the tmnt had to face as well as having to deal with the kraang and other mutants . and april playing a similar role as her other incarnations. a normal human who is good friends with the turtles . i have to say them going into the whole ninja thing wasn't my cup of tea . using disguises and needing to use their ninja skills if necessary would've been great, they could've swapped with the two ideas , being disguised during the day and not at all during the night . they could've used what the 1987 tmnt had used , disguises . but hey this is my opinion , of the rise and the crash and burn of the tmnt 2012 series .

[stokan]

The Uber Oscars

Every year the Oscars hand out an award for Best Actor. But since they also hand out awards for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress they still leave the most fundamental question unsettled: who gave the year’s best acting performance.

Well (now that the dust has finally settled form this year’s crazy Oscars) I’m here to retroactively answer that question for every year dating back to 1990. Welcome to the Uber Oscars!

2016 Casey Affleck Emma Stone Mahershala Ali Viola Davis

If Viola Davis had competed in Best Actress, like she should have, she would have won it easily. I’m starting this exercise with a gimme putt.

2015 Leonardo DiCaprio Brie Larson Mark Rylance Alicia Vikander

Time changes how art is perceived, and this feels too recent to really have a clear perspective on it. I would wager that 5-10 years from now Brie Larson’s work will be considered the best of the bunch, but Leo so thoroughly dominated last year’s award season and his win loomed so large in the popular consciousness I gotta give him the nod here for now.

2014 Eddie Redmayne Julianne Moore JK Simmons Patricia Arquette

I remember being blown away by Julianne Moore in Still Alice, but the movie came out only three years ago and yet I barely remember a single thing about it. JK Simmons’ performance in Whiplash on the other hand, was instantly iconic to everyone who saw it and will define his entire career. So, sorry Julianne, but you’re lagging every so slightly.

2013 Matthew McConaughey Cate Blanchett Jared Leto Lupita Nyong’o

Screw your McConaisssance, this is Cate Blanchett all the way. Leo should have beaten McConaughey anyway, and then we could have had a real debate. Great year though overall.

2012 Daniel Day-Lewis Jennifer Lawrence Christoph Waltz Anne Hathaway

Another great year. Anne Hathaway is now officially underrated and Jennifer Lawrence is one of the most memorable winners of recent years. But one of my rules in life is that in an acting-related contest between anyone and Daniel Day-Lewis, the winner is always Daniel Day-Lewis.

2011 Jean Dujardin Meryl Streep Christopher Plummer Octavia Spencer

Uh, well someone has to win, so using the Daniel Day-Lewis Rules, this one goes to Meryl Streep, I guess? Says a lot about the 2012 Oscars that one of the hardest trivia questions in the world is “who won Best Actor six years ago”.

2010 Colin Firth Natalie Portman Christian Bale Melissa Leo

At the time it was probably Christian Bale. Now it’s probably Natalie Portman. But it’s close.

2009 Jeff Bridges Sandra Bullock Christoph Waltz Mo’Nique

I might be biased here, but I think Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds is an all-timer. If you wanted to talk me into Mo’Nique though I’d be willing to listen.

2008 Sean Penn Kate Winslet Heath Ledger Penelope Cruz

REALLY strong year. Any of the other three could have won most years. But Heath Ledger’s Joker is arguable the single best performance of the 2000s. It’s certainly the most iconic.

2007 Daniel Day-Lewis Marion Cotillard Javier Bardem Tilda Swinton

If Heath Ledger’s Joker isn't the best acting performance of the 2000s then Daniel Day-Lewis’s Daniel Plainview IS. So, sorry Javier Bardem, but you're gonna have to settle for being the strongest Uber-Oscars runner-up of them all. And Tilda Swinton, any day now feel free to give Cate Blanchett the Oscar you stole from her.

2006 Forrest Whitaker Helen Mirren Alan Arkin Jennifer Hudson

As much as I want to try and argue that it’s Jennifer Hudson, I think it’s pretty clearly actually Helen Mirren.

While we’re here, 2006 Best Supporting Actor is on the shortlist for weakest Oscar acting category of all time.

2005 Phillip Seymour Hoffman Reese Witherspoon George Clooney Rachel Weisz

Fun fact: Even George Clooney can’t totally remember what movie he won an Oscar for. Anyway, this was the easiest call on the whole board. Not so fun fact: this was the Crash year.

2004 Jamie Foxx Hillary Swank Morgan Freeman Cate Blanchett

Oh god…is it Jamie Foxx for Ray? It’s Jamie Foxx for Ray isn't it? UGH. I hate this game; why did I make it up?

2003 Sean Penn Charlize Theron Tim Robbins Renee Zellwegger

Why does it feel like Charlize Theron’s performance in Monster doesn't get its proper due? It’s profoundly great work and should be talked about way more. Is this how think pieces get started?

2002 Adrien Brody Nicole Kidman Chris Cooper Catherine Zeta-Jones

Can I pick none of the above?

2001 Denzel Washington Hallie Berry Jim Broadbent Jennifer Connelly

If you want to really get me talking, ask me about how Art Carney’s 1972 win for Harry and Tonto led to Denzel beating Russell Crowe out for this Oscar. I’m fun at parties.

2000 Russell Crowe Julia Roberts Benicio del Toro Marcia Gay Harden

If Kate Hudson hadn't been upset by Marcia Gay Harden I would have given this one to her. But you have to actually get the Oscar to be eligible for an Uber Oscar.

1999 Kevin Spacey Hilary Swank Michael Caine Angelina Jolie

Full disclosure: I’ve somehow actually never seen Boys Don't Cry. But Angelina Jolie is not only incredible in Girl Interrupted, it’s the performance that made her into a superstar. It’s impossible to overstate how famous Angelina Jolie was overnight in the wake of this Oscar win. That counts for something.

1998 Roberto Benigni Gwyneth Paltrow James Coburn Judy Dench

I’m a big Shakespeare in Love fan and defender and even I refuse to give this to Gwyneth Paltrow. Also, the only thing that has aged worse than Roberto Benigni’s win is this poster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/71st_Academy_Awards#/media/File:71st_Academy_Awards_poster.jpg

1997 Jack Nicholson Helen Hunt Robin Williams Kim Basinger

Would you like for me to quote the entirety of Good Will Hunting for you? Because I can. Have I mentioned yet that I’m fun at parties?

1996 Geoffrey Rush Francis McDormand Cuba Gooding Jr Juliette Binoche

This basically comes down to what you value more in a performance: craft or charisma. Although craft seems like the obvious answer, in this case Cuba Gooding Jr. basically invented an entirely new character archetype through sheer force of personality. So let’s call it a tie for now.

1995 Nicholas Cage Susan Sarandon Kevin Spacey Mira Sorvino

Yes that’s right kids, Nicholas Cage not only has a Best Actor Oscar but he’s actually one of the most deserving Oscars winners of the 1990s. The 90s were a weird time.

Speaking of which, here are actors who won Oscars at this Oscar ceremony for things other than acting: Mel Gibson, Emma Thompson and Christine Lahti. As I said, the 90s were weird.

1994 Tom Hanks Jessica Lange Martin Landau Dianne Wiest

Here’s the thing, this should be Martin Landau. He's incredible in Ed Wood. It’s one of the best supporting actor performances of all time and definitely one of the best overall performances of the decade. 1994 Best Supporting Actor is one of the strongest categories ever and he won it easily. But that said, no one is beating Tom Hanks for Forrest Gump. Is it great acting? I genuinely don’t know. But off the top of your head name 10 performances in the history of film that are definitely more iconic than Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump. I’m not saying I feel great about it, but for better or worse, right or wrong, this completely meaningless made-up award is his.

1993 Tom Hanks Holly Hunter Tommy Lee Jones Anna Paquin

Holly Hunter winning acting awards is so 90s. And I hear your arguments for Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, but so much of the esteem for that performance came from “straight man plays gay and has bravery to depict AIDS”. Nothing against Tom Hanks and the great work he does, but you don’t brownie points for that in 2017. Plus, although people sleep on it now, The Piano is actually STRAIGHT FIRE, SON!

1992 Al Pacino Emma Thompson Gene Hackman Marissa Tomei

I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to give this to Marissa Tomei. But I recognize that it actually belongs to Emma Thompson. However it definitely DOES NOT belong to Al Pacino. Scent of a Woman wasn't even his best Oscar nominated performance of 1992.

1991 Anthony Hopkins Jodie Foster Mercedes Ruehl Jack Palance

Hey, remember a few seconds ago when I asked if you came name a more iconic acting perforce than Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump? Well here’s your answer. This probably the Uber Oscar winner of the whole decade.

On an unrelated note, I kinda miss the days when people like Jack Palance, Marissa Tomei, and Dianne Wiest could win Oscars for comedic roles. #MakeOscarsGreatAgain

1990 Jeremy Irons Kathy Bates Whoopi Goldberg Joe Pesci

If Anthony Hopkins isn't the overall Uber Oscar winner for the 1990s then Joe Pesci is. In fact I extended this meaningless exercise all the way to 1990 just to include him. And now that I’ve reminded you of the greatness of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas we can finally draw this to a close. Congrats to all the fake winners on your fake awards!