#if not just totally absent

[eebie]

we are deconstructing gender on Google docs tonight boys

[snackugaki]

.... i have been so normal about wanting to draw tactical!Venus and tactical!Jennika.

hey. HEY. y’all need to go check out @donathan ‘s artwork, and if you are the proper age, go throw some money into their patreon for some... some real, real good art. 👀👀👀 ...but do not if you are a minor, that shit ain’t for you.

some IDW TMNT comic spoilers... and.... I guess... Next Mutation ssspoilers? I know some of you kids haven’t turtled up and watched my beloved childhood iteration yet.

alright, so, y’know, completely normal expenditure of my energy and skillset, amirite? big big thanks to @/donathan for allowing me to play around in their AU’s aesthetic because I have severe, terminal VenusAndJennikaDeserveEverythingoccocal SoIWillManifestItMyselfitis.

and tbh, all y’all’s fics have been, mwah, chef’s kiss. but SOME of you put LORE. delicious, tasty, appetite-inducing lore.

and i am nothing but the littlest hoebag for lore.

okay so, quick rundown for those who both A) are immune to spoilers B) also do not know Venus or Jennika’s origins-- bulletpoint time~!

So Venus de Milo, the “girl turtle”, the “fifth turtle” (not counting April’s extremely brief stint as a white-bandana’d turtle in the Archie comics run) was introduced in 1997′s Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

An episode of “The Toys That Made Us” touched upon Venus’ creation so idk it’ll cover what I won’t deign to acknowledge.

her backtory is interesting (just her show was a trashfire /affectionate)

Master Splinter’s frolicking around in the dreamscape where all the cool enlightened old people hang out away from teenagers, right?

but oh no! dragon lord, a bad dude with a widow’s peak to rival Vegeta Dragonball’s widow’s peak; is there too! stomping around, ruining shit!

Splinter’s dreamscape buddy Chung I warns Splinter to stay out of the dreamscape ‘cuz Dragon Lord’s around

And like in true old people fashion, just ignores his friend’s admonition and tries to investigate himself

bad choice, womp womp

Splinter gets trussed up and rendered “stuck” in the dreamscape

cue the catalyst for Venus to make the 10+ flight from China to the U.S

don’t worry about what the boys were doing, just literal surfing in sewer grey water, breaking their little turtle skulls on cinderblocks, and picking fights in warehouses with Foot clan goons

tl;dr Venus still has Sixth Ranger mode on, so naturally she whoops all of their asses in the dark, ties them up (like how some of y’all enjoy writing Leo does huhu nudgenudge winkwink)

venusistheoriginalshibarienthusiastandteadrinkerfightme

and then, y’know, it’s still the 90s and children’s television so blah blah the usual “oH My gOd a GiRL tURTle???/?? AWoooOOogaaa ga ga ga” 

it’s.... I mean, i’m 38 so it no longer strikes me as bad as just really fucking embarrassing... for them. to be written saying. fuck, at least they didn’t make her bandana color pink.

so fast forward to Venus teaching them to dreamwalk so they can go rescue Splinter from Dragon Lord’s clutches in the dreamscape.

unfortunately, Dragon Lord offscreen murders Chung I so Venus is narratively anchorless post-rescue, so she’s invited to stay with them. thus ensues wacky hijinks with their new pal, Venus Boom Boom de Milo.

I glossed over the urge to write a cumulative review of Next Mutation. Just, take my word as the target demographic of the show during the last gasps of 90s Turtlemania that TNM was a trashfire overall but... y’know... if you ever needed a palette cleanser after some grimdark or angsty TMNT content, give TNM a whirl. The slapstick was intentional and The Point in the show. Venus’ circumstances for coming was as serious as it would get.

... Also, yes, they made them not related in TNM, preteen snackugaki didn’t clock why because I watched a lot of wuxia as a kid so brotherhood is a term beyond blood ties to me (and if I’m being honest, martial brotherhood is fkkn metal) and later I heard tell that it was to lure more girls into the franchise with both a girl turtle and romance options. which idk whatevs man. 

I also have to clear that, actually no, Donatello and Venus did not fight EVERY episode. Donatello, despite sprinkling a little too much barely disguised snobbery, did defer to Venus’ expertise in “the supernatural” when the situation called for it, and Venus would commend Donnie on his scientific ingenuity. They even teamed up skillsets to create surveillance drones! She essentially casted Calm Emotions on him while he tried to hack the controls of the Astro Megaship back for the In Space Rangers. They breached the divide between STEM and Humanities! They only had one “real fight" near the end of the season-- because Donnie was playing his containment breach elevator mid trash copyright strike immune proto-EDM too loud while she was trying to meditate. and that’s just being bad roommates tbh.

...christ I know it’s gonna come up too, but also NO, there was not constant advances made toward Venus during the show. At most was Mikey pulling his ol’ “I work out every day~!” schtick for like 2 episodes of the 5 spent to introduce Venus. And then after? A shipper’s desert, you’d have to dig and peer behind like 8 curtains for any viable fodder. 

...OKAY NOW FOR JENNIKA’S ORIGINS: Jennika is an IDW character specifically so, naturally why she isn’t in (or would’ve been, AHEM) a lot of iterations yet (or at all, COUGH) (but to continue in honesty there’s a lot of legal tape to cut through since Jennika is IDW’s while TMNT overall is Nick’s) Introduced as a Foot Assassin, her place in the Foot Clan shifts when Splinter takes over from Shredder (Saki), eventually she forms actual bonds with both the turtles and Splinter to where it’s implied she also saw him as an important figure to her if not an outright surrogate father figure. And because TMNT is mess and drama the other 50% of the time, Karai takes over the Foot from Splinter and shenanigans compounded by Karai’s then-current machinations for the Foot-- results in Jennika getting shanked in the stomach by Karai during a clandestine meeting to resolve clan rivalry. She’s losing blood fast, Donnie works to save her and it’s Leo who volunteers for blood transfusion to keep her stable mid-transit. 

SURPRISE!

Leo’s blood mutates Jennika into a mutant turtle. And then Casey ghosts/dumps her. My poor daughter. She has a real rough time of it before fully integrating with the boys. Raph falls in with Old Hob, gets hoodwinked, and now they live in Mutant Town. Jennika slowly finds herself again, as a mutant turtle, a Splinter clan ninja, a girlfriend, a guitarist in a band she started, a sister in a found family, and a constable to a very little town.

okay! we’re all marginally informed about my two wonderfull daughters, Venus and Jennika~!

so if I can indulge further, I’m going to use my cognizance and make it everyone’s problem because I have beem quietly foaming with ideas for bg lore for tactical!J&V, more bullet points!

ok so, donathan mentioned a bit about their tac! Leo and Donnie being the snipers, Mikey and Raph spotting for them while also being demolitions and heavy ordinance specialists respectively

I would think, then for Vee and Jen, they’d be classified as close quarters combat specialists, complicated extraction? compromised area? call them to clean up and clear out~

give or take “magic” being a thing used in donathan’s AU, or anyone’s AU of this AU, Vee would probably be a close combat specialist along with Jen.

Vee, I feel, would, barring a ...”tactical fan”, (even though in TNM it was just her fists and her little wizard components but her toy came with a fan so.) probably use batons, Jen in lieu of her tekagi-shuko would... most likely use tactical karambit. not that large of a leap really.

for my personal lulz, Vee and Jen are... accurate, height-wise. Raph gets to be the biggest brother since alligator snapping turtles are, in fact, the largest motherfucking freshwater turtles on the north american continent. no getting around it.

my Vee in all Rise AUs is a softshell since the messy hanzi used to write her first given name, Mei Pieh Chi (美鱉气) has the hanzi that’s most commonly translated as softshell turtle (鱉). eh ‘di wow talaga

snacku what do you mean ‘accurate’???? tl;dr female turtles are usually the larger ones in most species.

and listen, I love and I mean LOVE, how some of y’all have written the tac!boys, mwah; but god I’m a professional turtle bully. I need to see them get dunked on. for nutritional value. and if it comes to it, I will provide that food for myself. brb laughing at eventually drawing Venus just offhandedly tossing Donnie into the air to skeet shoot his ass for fun brings me the greatest joy.

they absolutely dote on Mikey, as is the natural order of things. 

and even tho I stated TNM Donnie and Venus got along in the show, and depending on the existence of magic in this AU; I just really love dichotomous rivalries (in as much “science” and “magic” exist as a dichotomy, much less as “diametrically oppose” fields-- just, opposites man. i’m a simple girl with simple trope needs)

Vee’s arms (and legs) are absolutely covered in burns, scars, and missing flesh divots, just as close to swiss cheese limbs as you can be

Jen and Donnie debate tracks that go into their joint “On Our Way To Commit Murder” playlist

if Vee’s tactical look seem very familiar, and you’re wondering if-- yes, you’re correct. and you can “call her ms. de milo if ya nasty”

Vee was actually pretty calm and rational in TNM... but for this AU, she can be a little unhinged, as a well-deserved treat. (and ‘cuz that specific anime unhinged facial expression is fun as fuck to draw, which is my treat)

[columboscreens]

[fatuismooches]

The idea of reader not fearing Dottore at all is so funny to me😭😭 esp. when they come to scold him, probably happens often because he just! refuses! to rest!

Every time this happens fatui soldiers drop whatever they're doing just to look observe you two, it's not every day you see someone giving a lecture to a 2nd ranked harbinger! even Dottore's own segments do the same

I think fatuis who work under Dottore will still fear them, but less when you're here. More to be said - if something happens to Doctor, you're the first person they come to

Look, if you want to kiss the crazy doctor man, you gotta match the crazy doctor man's energy. Which means you have to be able to stand your ground throughout it all. Nothing new for you though since this has been happening for several hundred years 😀 You try not to do it in front of other people but sometimes things have to be said. The Fatui just have to make sure they don't outwardly react to your statements otherwise they probably won't see the light of day again.

The regular Fatuis do admire you a lot, simply because of your incredible ability to speak to their Harbinger like that with no consequences lol, they've already pieced together what your relationship with him is and they find you fascinating yet also kinda terrifying at the same time, because how did you even find yourself in that position?? A lot of them want to talk to you but they really can't otherwise they know Dottore would kill them 💀 But they're just glad they have the option to report to you instead of the Doctor.

[devilinthebox]

in a way i am grateful not to have access to Robb's inner voice because i don't think i would have survived the horrible mixture of anger, resentment, despair and hurt he must have felt here

also those being such similar scenes where Robb is adamant to know what happened to Theon and also the only times (aside for maybe 1 or 2 mentions) Ramsay's name is uttered in Storm.

[thesargasmicgoddess]

My husband to me this morning: You are an absolutely stunning and gorgeous 43-year-old woman.

Me: Thanks.....but...I'm 41? 🤣😬🤦🏻‍♀️

Kiddo:

#ThisMarriageThing 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️

[waugh-bao]

@charlesandkeef I don’t think IORR is ever going to top this one. Someone actually started a thread there to discuss how much happier Keith seems on stage since Charlie died:

[non-un-topo]

Been writing some bonus/missing scenes from my tetrad mysteries series because I miss writing these four idiots so bad but have no energy ;_;

[insomniac-ships]

I'll be active here again someday, I promise. :'D

[bisexual-horror-fan]

I know I've been very absent on here and to be totally honest it's my damn job. Work has me so tired and so stressed I've legit not written anything in over a week when usually I write almost every single night. I know my fic posting has slowed for the past while but I was still actively working on stuff behind the scenes. I have a lot of half finished projects but it's so bad that in the new year if my job stress hasn't lessened then I think I will look for a new job.

[cwarscars]

heid / age 24

(( did i tell u guys i'd actually made some significant progress on my rpgmaker game about heid's past crew / him as a young man? this is like a TINY graphic used in game but I actually really like how it looks. owo more in taggos i miss u guys ))

[mrmallard]

I feel like I've become more noticeably talkative on Tumblr lately, and I can chalk it up to two things: sobriety, and being moderated on GameFAQs for six months.

A lot of the casual GameFAQs community is Really Fucking Bad, Actually, but I hung around for a long time because it was somewhere I could argue and vent and really nail down my position on things. I'm like the epitome of the person who argues in the comments, I know it's a bad thing but it is what it is - and honestly, GameFAQs being a shithole is how my values really crystallised and locked in during a volatile period of my life, arguing with people who really are the scum on the underside of the unwashed ballsack of the internet.

My moderation actually ended back in March, but I realised how shitty it was making me feel when I posted there, so I stopped.

But the bigger factor in my increased activity is my sobriety. I've been sober since early February. I repress a lot of how I feel when I'm drinking, so actually like Having Thoughts and Feeling Emotions at full intensity has led to me sharing that on Tumblr. And I know it's the sobriety, because again - I was moderated on GameFAQs for six months, and my moderation lasted until March. I've been ramping up the chattiness since I quit drinking in February. Before that, I was really letting the alcohol consume me and trying to keep enough of it under wraps to playfully address it at worst or completely omit it at best.

idk if I want to be sober forever; I think I should be sober forever, but I also need to get out there and meet new people, and the pub scene is literally the only social thing my town has going on. It's that, or move to a new town with no prospects and no safety net. But that's neither here nor there.

What does matter is that these two factors are probably the biggest reason for my increased output on Tumblr.

[chidoroki]

Happy Mother’s Day to Isabella

(with one Isabella from almost every chapter she appears in)

[divineprank]

I went trick-or-treating at Hyrule Castle today and I got my ass spanked by the mummy that lives there. :’) Anyways, going to make some small changes to the Gan-Man and add a Tears of the Kingdom verse!!! I see so many new followers! Hello guys!!! My name is Parli and I can’t wait to get to know you all!!! ♥ My IMs or askbox are definitely open if you’d like to plot or geek out about Zelda together!

[amoonfullofstars]

me walking in the kitchen pretending to be normal after i've spent the last hour reading that trucoop fanfic from the zine plsss i'm going insane (and i'm not done reading it ahgg)

this is the only thing i can think about rn

[allofthebees]

I'm not over Ninjago or anything like that but I am steering clear of the tags until the entire second half of Crystalized is available to watch