#i might have been the one who started the psychic mikey headcanons in the 90s

[brightlotusmoon]

The TMNT franchise kept telling us about Mikey's potential for three decades. Rise took that, ran with it, broke a few walls with it, and showed it hardcore.

He's the Battle Nexus Champion, the superhero Turtle Titan, the Holy Chalupa, the Mystic Master.

19-year-old me has been cackling like a witch from 24 years in the past.

[brightlotusmoon]

so basically this is what i got from that anon ask aksjdl

PFFFFF OMFG THANK YOU. I fucking love that meme.

I have been memed! On my birthday! I am very very happy right now. Also very high. It's extra hilarious.

Also, uh, you're welcome fandom, I think.

I started using "baby brat" in my first 2012 AU all those years ago and it was hard to stop. Little did I know the collective unconscious would float by and pick it up.

[brightlotusmoon]

You know that TMNT RP crossover I've been turning into a fic with @remmushound with a document that's literally 244145 words? I've been editing the document and I found a scene I wanted to share just because. Bay Mikey and Rise Leo having a chat.

-

A huge grin spread across Mikey’s face. “You know what, I bet our April would have done the exact same thing as your April at that age. But then she’d have to tell her dad because it’s his project.”

Leonardo hummed. “I don’t think I’ve ever met April’s dad. Or her mom. Or anyone in her family.”

Mikey pondered this. “Well. Humans are good at lying to each other, especially to protect others. She’s probably kept you guys away from them for her own reasons.”

“Yeah, Most likely. She helped Donnie get back home when night came, and she’s kept our secret since.”

“That’s our hogosha,” Mikey beamed. “In every world, April’s always our first human friend, our first real friend.”

“It’s good to know she’s a constant. I wouldn’t want a world without my sister.”

“Ditto,” Mikey said. “She’s our sister, our mom, our best friend. Casey gets there, in his own way. And hers.”

“She’s your sister-mom? Does she know about this?” Leonardo tried not to laugh.

Mikey chortled. “Yeah, we joked about it.”

“Heh. Of course! You gotta joke with your sister/mother about her status in the family!”

“Well, when she’s the first of her kind that you really get to know across all your timelines, you gotta figure out a bunch of different emotional boundaries. And by you I mean me. And sometimes Donnie. One time really Donnie.”

“Oooo? Spill!”

Mikey hummed. “Weeelll… in one reality she was a teenager like us and Donnie got this huge huge crush on her. Raph too, but it faded. Donnie just kept being awkward for, like, three years.”

“Ooooff. Ouch. Not your Donnie right?”

“Nah. Though me, I totally felt a little crush. Maybe he did too, but now they’re just best friends. Nerds.”

“Awww, you had a crush? That’s adorable. Try anything with my April and we won’t hesitate to send you to a Yokai ER.” Leonardo only half-joked.

Mikey held his hands up. “Dude, she could do that by herself. Don’t worry, no attraction.”

“Better not be, or she’ll turn you into Kame no sūpu! And Miguel will season you well!”

Mikey crossed his arms. “Bet I’d make a good soup, anyway, I know flavor.”

“Eh, mutagen might throw off the taste.”

“I bet it totally would.”

“What does mutagen even taste like…?”

Mikey tilted his head. “Vinegar,” he said distantly.

“…. That’s oddly specific.”

“I know. One of my past selves thought it tasted like vinegar.”

“….. he tasted it?”

Mikey sucked in a breath. “He… didn’t really mean to.”

“How does one do that accidentally?”

“He, uh…” Mikey was trying not to laugh. “He rubbed it on his face. He misread the label.”

“…that poor dude. But at least we know we can make deviled eggs with mutagen if we ever run out of vinegar.”

Mikey wrinkled his nose. “I guess…”

“…would eating mutagen turn someone into mutant? Or is it just blood-to-mutagen contact?”

Blinking, Mikey frowned. “Ya know what, I think it depends on the type and where it came from.”

“Yeah, let’s not tell Baron Draxum about that.”

“Not a fucking word.”

Leonardo made the motion of zipping his lips.

“That dude creeps all of me out.”

“He could make an army of cows by infecting the steak supply. We don’t need any more mutant pigs either.”

“Ugh, that’s a horror movie waiting to happen.”

“Night of the living steak. Ewhhhh.”

“Okay, now I’m grossed out.”

“You should be! That would just be horrifying!”

Mikey sighed. “A couple of our past selves would have called it Saturday morning.”

“You mean there’s worlds crazier than mine?”

Mikey grinned. “Just barely.”

-

[brightlotusmoon]

I don't know why I get the immediate rush of serotonin and a little oxytocin whenever my You've Got Kudos! emails are long enough to scroll. I assume it's because I wrote well enough that some readers just dove into my Works and splurged.

Also, my fic count is 40. Huh. That's more than I thought. Although I did start in 2016.

[brightlotusmoon]

TMNT: Michelangelo's New Superpower Turns His Empathy into a Weapon

Most people mistake the youngest turtle brother as a slacker and dismiss him as a dumb party dude, but a lot of that stems from his desire to be around the people he cares about and his natural hesitation to resort to violence. In the end, he cares more about helping his friends than doing harm to his enemies, and that's why the idea that his power can make others stronger or chill them out when needed is such a perfect expression of his natural attitudes and empathy. Even his control of animals shows how his caring demeanor extends to all living creatures and that he considers even the smallest and most neglected —like Slash— to have the potential to be an ally and even friend.

[brightlotusmoon]

Look what I did! Somebody pet my head and hand feed me a gummy snack.

[brightlotusmoon]

They're Mutants So Human Rules Don't Really Apply | Archive of Our Own

Am I really the only one with tags like that in the TMNT AO3 fandom?

Good thing I'm also under 'Autistic Michelangelo' and 'Michelangelo Has ADHD'. I don't think that was even a thing until a few years ago.

[brightlotusmoon]

@remmushound I admit that a big reason for giving Mikey psionics is so he can do movie projection of his past lives memories and show the Rise kids entire 2003 episodes. Also so Mikey can subtly poke at Bay Leo regarding his stress management.

[brightlotusmoon]

Awww, of course.

[brightlotusmoon]

Panels from IDW TMNT 119.

Michelangelo, given a chance, can rally a whole town for a social justice cause, and that's who he is more than his comedic portrayals.

This whole issue is incredibly important, a tribute to the franchise beginning, I feel. They have always been warriors. This generation is about social justice rather than family blood feuds. The Ninja Turtles have always represented marginalized minorities being given a chance to rise up.

[brightlotusmoon]

Wait, since when did the show so Mikey as having psychic powers? Was it just the 87 series or did it happen elsewhere?

He had a couple of clairvoyant dreams, communicated with animals, had on the spot intuition Spidey Sense. In 2012 his empathic insight was slightly terrifying and his family rarely ever believed him.

Then we have Rise Mikey, who actively used telepathy twice, with Todd and with Bullhop, surprising himself. Sure, they may have been cute throwaway gags but they were really really deliberate, which makes me jokingly think someone on the crew knows my old school Empath Mikey headcanons.

[brightlotusmoon]

A comment thread on AO3 lead to mutual love and respect. And then they said this to me:

"...I don't want to keep blabbering on and freak you out or anything, but I've looked up to you for a while ^^"

And I just

*hand over heart*

[brightlotusmoon]

Luna in her bed above and between our pillows like a throne. She sings lullabies by purring.

Also I just took a selfie and didn't recognize myself and I think that means I'm dissociating again. Also the new medication is making my head really quiet and sometimes I interpret it as being tired and then I lie there full of sudden dopamine and endorphins that don't know where to go after a decade of only the opiates.

Writing my classic typecast psionic autistic characters with their superpowers causing problems is somehow finally feeling repetitive, which means they've burrowed into my soul and become boring enough to revamp.

Good thing I've based Bay Mikey on the best of 2003 and 2012 Mikey. Good thing I remembered that Kevin Eastman loves 2012 Mikey and I was absolutely right to write him how I did.

[brightlotusmoon]

Me, checking my AO3 comments notifications and seeing this:

"Tmntlover left the following comment on Cold Fire Rising:

I loved your “Same as it Never Was” reference. I’ve watched that episode and it was so sad. This is the second time I’ve read this and it is the best fanfic I have ever read! This made Mikey my second fav character outside of Leo!"

[brightlotusmoon]

Re: TMNT Michelangelo having ADHD in canon and being autistic in fanfics.

I found this comment in an ADHD support group, and it describes Mikey perfectly.

"I can often tell by looking at a person that they have ADHD - that they are empathic, that they have high intuiton and are very "imaginative". Sometimes, a photo will catch it, too!"

More and more people in the fandom headcanon Mikey with ADHD, but they don't have to, it's already canon.

I've been nudging Mikey's Autistic traits for years, because Donnie was stereotyped as an autistic nerd since the late 2000s. In 2012, 2003, and 2016, I like to think Leo is also autistic. Rise Raph, too.

There are many ways to be autistic, not just Donatello.

See. As a spectrum we're a Mobius Strip, an Ouroboros, a color wheel, never a line. No mild or severe, no high or low, just varying traits and presentation.

(The autistic advocate community as a whole prefers " is autistic" to "has autism" since we see it as defining and identifying, how our brains are wired. It falls on the individual to say if they prefer Identity First Language or Person First Language.)

[brightlotusmoon]

RiseMikey’s sudden eccentric panic isn’t just a random thing lol I swear I’m going somewhere with it! My current working idea is that risemikey’s empath power was really weak in BayWorld, but now he’s back in riseworld, it’s a lot stronger and he’s basically getting in a feedback loop with baymikey that’s making him freak out. It’s subject to change, but that’s what’s currently on my mind

OOOH OMG YESSSS I LOVE IT.

I do know that at some point I want the two Mikeys in a therapy session for exactly this issue, though, and it winds up bringing up Bay Mikey's buried trauma personas that give him those Multiverse Nightmares that Rise Mikey shares.