#many unhappy returns

[turtleblogatlast]

I will never be over Leo’s 4D chess play in “Many Unhappy Returns”. Like, just in general it is a spectacle to see this character who we’ve seen goofing around time and time again, who’s only sometimes decided to take things seriously, only to show him making a maneuver like that.

And here’s what gets me the most about his plan against Big Mama: he comes up with it on the spot. The second he sees that Big Mama has the solution they need, he’s already in game mode.

It is so satisfying watching the episode back when you realize his plan, because he literally sets the stage entirely for a decisive victory. He sees that the champion is a kraken, and comes up with both the solution to defeating it and a reasonable excuse to get that solution into the battle with them on the fly:

“Like your champ aaand those six guys. In fact, we don’t want this over too quickly. You should armor up those rookies. The whole shebang. Especially with these pointy helmets.”

And this is why giving him teleportation powers is perfect, too. He analyzes the battlefield and makes use of all the assets, moving pieces around to guarantee a win. It is honestly so impressive to witness and one of my favorite parts of his character.

[sariphantom]

🍂Risetober 2023 Day 15: Battle Nexus🍂

Well it was either that or another LFLS-related drawing. I already made people sad with the Green prompt so… Leo in his Lou Jitsu outfit it is albeit LESS icky this time.

[risequotes]

Daily Rise Quotes: DAY 231

Mikey: What? She’ll never help us!

Leo: She’ll help me! I'm the face man. People love me!

Donnie: Last time you saw her, she tried to kill you.

Leo: Who hasn’t?

(Season 2, Episode 1 - Many Unhappy Returns)

[untitled-tmnt-blog]

... Okay, so you know that thing where you translate text through a whole bunch of different languages, and then back to English? I was curious.

... I'm entertained by the simplest things.

Full text, before and after translation, below the cut.

Original text:

You love us, you missed us! We're back, baby!

Rat Jitsu and Blue, saving the day!

It's about time! We've been getting our butts kicked after you left us high and dry!

High and dry? Come on, dudes!

When I said, "You got this," I meant that.

Look, I bet the only reason we're here right now is 'cause Donnie inputted coordinates of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Mikey razzed his tazz.

April finally used her crane license.

And Raph is gonna put it all together in a plan to defeat that lead-head with this mystic collar!

Wow, Leo, that's remarkably accurate.

English > Spanish > Japanese > Finnish > Albanian > Chinese (Traditional) > Dutch > Arabic > French > German > Lithuanian > English

Final text:

We love and miss you! I'm back baby!

Mouse and blue save the world!

It's time! We have been doing great since you raised us!

Is it expensive and dry? Let's go, everyone!

When I say, "I get it," I mean it.

The only reason we're here now is because Donnie managed to enter the coordinates.

McGee plays Taz.

April finally used her smuggler's license.

Rafe has put it all into his plan to take down his boss with this mysterious necklace!

Wow, Leo, that is very accurate.

[sweetoyeeto]

CAN ANYONE HEAR ME????

[fevertowrite]

Escape pods

Because Donnie overthinks and Raph can’t sleep.

[Inspired by Rottmnt movie, takes place after Many Unhappy Returns]

x

Raph can’t sleep; he rolls onto his side, blanket discarded by his feet. He tries counting backward, starting with 100, counting sheep, coming up with a story involving Jupiter Jim, everything in the book of sleeping, and he simply can’t. Finally, defeated, Raph sits on the bed, his eyes adjusting to the dark. It was 3 am. 

They fought nonstop the past few days with Feral Shredder and Big Mama (more so Feral Shredder); his body’s physically sore and tired, but his mind. Is this how Donnie thinks? His big ol’ brain on auto and never shuts off? Speaking of Donnie, Raph hears a light thumping coming from the lab or thinks it’s from the lab. But, of course, Donnie and Leo are usually up at random o’clock, and he can’t blame them after the fight they've had. 

Raph swings his feet to the cold pavement, his body shudders for a second, but he’s instantly up in big brother mood. Everyone should be asleep after what they’ve gone through. He passes by Leo’s room first; his brother has his eye mask and is sleeping like a baby. All cuddled up on the blanket with a teddy bear. Raph smiles and chortles; his younger brother usually coops himself up in the kitchen, drinking some rando tea. It’s good to see him asleep after hearing he fought alongside Pops at Battle Nexus. That took a toll on him.  

For some reason, he checks on Mikey next. Mike usually is the first to go to bed, but the fight with Feral Shredder and Mikey literally throwing a ship at him was miraculous and took a toll as well. But, like Leo, Mikey was fast asleep, though his blankets were discarded to the ground, and his feet hung on the bed frame. Raph silently enters his room, picks up the blanket, and puts it over him. He leaves his room quick, now knowing who exactly was up. Raph rolls his eyes; the resident genius isn’t the easiest to put to bed, but they have training in the morning, and both need their beauty sleep. 

And Raph was right. Donnie’s awake and in his lab. Raph barely goes in here due to Donnie’s little “mad scientists need their personal space” gibber gabber, and they let him have it. But being 3 am and having training, plus, what they just went through, Raph didn’t think that mattered. 

Approaching slowly, being a ninja and all, Raph sees the broken battle shell, thanks to the Shredder. Unfortunately, it’s torn, and all the gizmos and everything that makes the battle shell is gone. Just a torn, purple mess, Raph sees soft scratches on Donnie’s softshell. He takes a breath; the battle shell thankfully took most of the beating; he can’t imagine what would’ve happened if his brother didn’t have that extra protection. 

“Donnie.” 

Donnie jumps out of his seat; he spins around to see Raph, torch in his hands and goggles on his eyes. “Never,” he breathes, turning off the torch, “scare a turtle with a torch.” He lifts his goggles, adjusting his eyes, and sees a sheepish Raphael. 

“Sorry.” He says, and Donnie scoffs. 

“What you doing in my lab anyway?” Raph knows Donnie means no harm when he tries to act tough, and being the big brother he is, it’s his duty to ensure everyone’s asleep and rested.

“Well, I couldn’t sleep and heard noises. Watcha making?” 

“If you must know,” Don looks at the battered prosthetic, “I’m making a few improvements for my shell.” He retorts, pulling his shoulder back with a wince. 

Raph comes closer; there’s the new, unfinished battle shell. It looks similar to the old one, but Raph assumes it’ll be sturdier. On the side, these small colorful pods probably can fit the palm of Donnie’s hand cause Raph’s hands are enormous for comparison. 

Curiosity gets the best of him, “what’s this?” he doesn’t want to pick up the pod, afraid it’ll explode like some sort of bomb, so he just points. 

“Hmm?” Donnie looks, and his smile falters, “well, it’s a prototype, and still in the blueprints, buuut – “ 

“Donnie,” Raph says sternly, curiosity eating him away. He’s seen Donnie make his prosthetic a bazillion times but never seen these. 

“So uhh, after my neardeathexperience with the Shredder, I’ve been thinking of making these pods all day, and it’s been eating me alive if I didn’t do it tonight.” Donnie shrugs, and the faint wince is there again; maybe the Battle Shell didn’t protect him as much as Raph initially thought.

“Pods? Do they explode or somethin’” Raph tilts his head now, thankful he didn’t actually grab one. 

“No, dear brother, quite the opposite. In battle,” Donnie feels awkward; he hopes he would never use it in battle and that it was ultimately the last option. “Let’s say, in battle, one of us gets hurt, like really bad, and whoever we’re fighting is overpowered. So, I’m trying to make this, I guess, emergency pods. They attach to your chest and build like a little, literal escape pod and take you to the lair. AGAIN, I’m still figuring out the schematics and how it’ll fit depending on body size, and ya know.” He quiets down when Raph just stares at him.

Silence fills the room, and Donnie looks away, kind of ashamed, like his idea wasn’t that great after all. Sometimes if Pops didn’t give him approval, he would lean on his oldest brother for it. 

“Soooo yeah.” Donnie rubs the back of his head, pulling his arm back to massage his sore shell. 

“Donnie,” Raph starts, smiling, “this is a great idea.” He grabs the blueprint, despite Donnie’s soft, no don’t, but he does anyway and reads it. Most of them are big science words that he doesn’t try to read, but these drawings and his brothers idea, Raph can picture them as truly useful.

“And you just thought of this today?” 

Donnie timidly nods, “don’t tell anyone, again, it’s a prototype, and I’m not sure if I can execute it, but I’ve been thinking of it since –“ He shudders, and Raph didn’t know much of Shredder being so close to hurting Donnie. There was so much going on, and Donnie was able to get on his feet, but he looks again, now closer, with the lit-up room the scratches on his softshell and what could have been. 

“I – I won’t. No one would know.” 

“And I hope no one would ever know because it’ll be one of those things, I’ll have but never need to use.” Donnie tells him and turns away, now feeling like he told Raph too much. 

“As you said, it’ll be for absolutely only for emergencies.” Raph agrees and rubs a hand on Donnie’s head affectionately. “That big brain of yours overthinks every scenario.”

“Ha,” Donnie sneers, ducking away from Raph’s hand, “you can only imagine.” 

And Raph can, being the leader and having to protect his brothers, always came with a burden. But, he doesn’t feel so alone knowing Donnie overthinks too. 

Raph looks at the time and forgets he came in to drag Donnie out, not motivate him with his gizmos. “Come on, Don,” he ushers, “even geniuses need their beauty sleep.” 

Donnie doesn’t argue; he yawns, letting his tiredness take over. He’s glad Raph knows about it; if he ever was out of commission – or something worse – Raph would know about the pods and get everyone to safety. 

“Let me clean up, and I’ll be out in a few.” 

Raph nods, never realizing he and Donnie had a few things in common. Maybe anxiety and overthinking every little thing isn’t the best thing to have in common, but to know Donnie has his back… Raph smiles.

“Alright, I’ll wait for ya.”

Donnie wants to say, no need, I’ll be here for a minute, but he doesn’t mind having company, even if it’s more than a minute or two.

[minumi-chan]

A Twin Thing - Ch. 5 - Fourteen years old

Read on A03

Rated: G

Summary: Flashes of pink lightning alight in his vision as a haunting roar echoes through his mind, making him feel almost cross eyed. The drill misses the next bolt entirely, hitting the side of the metal with a rattle worse than a subway train pulling into a station.... Or shipping containers raining down onto the dark docks. He turns the drill off immediately but the noise continues to bounce around inside his mind. A roar. The crunch of metal. Pressure and piercing hot pain in his soft shell.

A/N: This is set after the fighting in 'Many Unhappy Returns'. I just wanted to touch a little bit on some possible aftermath for that, since the creators didn’t really have time to do so in-series. I also prescribe to the Medic!Leo headcanon.

Status: Complete

::CH1::CH2::CH3::CH4::CH5::CH6::CH7::

~~~

Electricity buzzes loudly through the air with a loud pop and bang before everything in the lair powers down with a low pitched hum into dark silence. 

“DONNIE!!!”

“DON!!”

“PURPLE!!”

The good thing about the power down is that his electronically shut lab doors cannot be opened easily, so he is safe from his family’s irritation as he blows a fuse for the third time within a week. 

With a few taps on his wrist pad, Donnie sends Shelldon off to replace said fuse. At this rate, he will need to add upgrading the electrical circuitry to his to-do list if he wants to continue rebuilding his inventory of lost tech in the most efficient way possible. In the meantime, he is going to sit calmly at his work bench under the glow of the emergency backup lights in his lab and just breathe through his frustration for a few minutes... maybe hours... Maybe he should just do something really wild. 

Like go to sleep . 

With a crackling clang, the power returns and various cheers of delight or relieved sighs echo through their home. Light flashes through his room and the sound system comes back to life with music reverberating through the lab. 

“All set Donnie!” The little drone confirms as he flies back into his charging port. 

“Thank you Shelldon...” he sighs, stretching his shoulders only to wince as pain prickles through his shell. With a hiss, he thumbs over the bandages wrapped around his plastron, criss crossing his injured shell.  

Maybe he’ll lay off the electrical for a bit... and switch up to some straightforward assembly. Swinging his stool over to a secondary workbench, he picks through pieces of metal plating without his usual enthusiasm. There’s a residual spark that shoots out of the outlet when he plugs in his drill... he will definitely need to work on rewiring the lair....

The sound of his drill screwing in bolts to the perfect tightness and fit is practically like therapy for Donatello. Nothing soothes his frazzled nerves quite like the act of immersing himself in constructing and tooling a new piece of machinery.... And there is so much to re-make. His back spasms sharply again, as it has been since mid-morning, but he continues to ignore it to avoid interrupting the flow of his work. 

So much work...

Flashes of pink lightning alight in his vision as a haunting roar echoes through his mind, making him feel almost cross eyed. The drill misses the next bolt entirely, hitting the side of the metal with a rattle worse than a subway train pulling into a station.... Or shipping containers raining down onto the darkened docks. He turns the drill off immediately but the noise continues to bounce around inside his mind. 

A roar. The crunch of metal. Pressure and piercing hot pain in his soft shell. 

Donatello releases a slow breath through his mouth counting for several beats. His back shifts as he finishes, and he flinches, nearly dropping his drill at stab of pain from his shell. If his calculations are correct, he was due for a stretch break an hour ago. Given that his self-appointed recovery coach is nowhere in sight, Donnie simply ignores the regimen Leo has set out for him to follow. Really he only does it to appease Leonardo’s need to play medic for their family. He doesn’t actually agree with the forced breaks. 

There’s still so much to rebuild... 

With another sigh, he lifts his goggles to rub at his dry scratchy eyes, massaging his temples to ward away the encroaching headache from too much coffee and not enough sleep. Soft footsteps approach his door, and there is a quick rap before it slides open with a hydraulic hiss. 

Donnie turns expecting a cross-armed Raph waiting to scold him for the brief power outage, and blinks several times when instead Leonardo stands in his doorway. He's trying to look nonchalant as he gives the lab a casual once over, but he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t want something, so it’s not very effective. He hears the phrase in the voice of a pokemon battle narrator and giggle snorts to himself for a moment. 

God he’s tired ...

Seeing as Donnie has not told him immediately to shove off, Leon walks in and pulls up a spare stool to sit across from Don. Despite the easy smile Leo presents, the shadows cast from the lamp on Donnie’s workbench reveal the slight worried crease of his brow. 

“Soooo,” he drawls slow. 

“Not in the mood, Nardo,” Donnie quips, eyes on his unfinished project but gaze unfocused. 

“When did you last sleep? And I don’t mean ten minute power nap in your break nook,” Leo points a thumb behind himself at the corner decked out with a blanket, pillows, soft cushiony bean chair and rug. He and Raph had forcibly set it up in his lab years ago to encourage some rest periods during his obsessive project stints. 

“Oh... I dunno,” Donnie responds slow and sarcastic, unwilling to be honest, but not skilled at lying so he finishes on a question, “Two days ago?” 

He can feel the worried look Leo settles over him in silence. Donnie picks up his drill again, and continues where he left off. 

"Should you be using power tools when sleep deprived?"

Donatello snorts unkindly, "Should you be practicing medicine without a doctorate?"

"Wow. It’s definitely been more than two days if you’re this pissy . " 

The drill jerks to a stop, Don stares unseeing at the cold metal. Pink lightning. Blood curdling roars. The screech of metal. Fire in his shell.

"Yes well, losing all of one’s custom designed and manufactured tech in the midst of a three day long near death experience might do that to a turtle."

Leo’s customary flippant smile is nowhere to be found, replaced with a raw concern that is rare to see from him these days. He looks around the room again, crossing his arms, then uncrossing them to lean on the workbench, brow slightly creased as the awkward silence stretches between them.

“This isn't usually the music you go for,” Leo finally comments to redirect them from the too real confession neither of them are comfortable pursuing. He props his cheek on one hand, eyes still studying the room. 

Donnie shrugs, pulling his goggles back down over tired eyes to help him focus as he starts the drill again, “It's Mikey's Playlist.” 

“ Whaaaaaaaat?!” Leo whips around in shock, and taps his fingers against his plastron, “How come you never take my playlist recs?”

“Littlest brother privilege.”

“What about twin privilege? Eeeh?” Leo leans in closer to him until he can see his stupid cocked eyebrow and wide grin in his field of vision. His ability to refrain from sticking the drill up Leo’s nose while it’s still on should be considered valiant.

“Does not exist, because we are not twins," Donnie replies automatically without pausing in his work. He rubs at an odd twinge in his chest absently, only to wince when the movement flares up the pain in his shell once more. 

Leo just watches him work, chin in one hand, still smiling, though there's a crestfallen air to it that was not there before. Donnie enjoys precisely four minutes and twenty-three seconds of blessed silence from his most annoying brother before a flash of blue catches his attention. When he blinks up, Leo is pulling out a medkit through a portal and placing it on his work station. 

“I’m fine,” he grumps, glaring at the red box Leo now leans on with crossed arms. 

“Then why are you obsessively rebuilding every piece of tech you ever owned?” Leo counters around a smug grin.

He doesn’t have his battle shell on or he would have extended a metal arm to taser Leo just for shits and giggles. His shell throbs at the memory of why . 

A clawed hand grabs his ankle, pulling him back down to the ground like he weighs nothing. The ear piercing screech of metal on metal as claws rip through his flight thrusters, then his battle shell. The agony when they puncture through even that into his tender leathery shell beneath.

"Don, Donnie --" Leo's voice cuts through the flashback only when his hand curls around Donnie's wrist and squeezes. 

"Stop," he whispers, tugging his hand away. 

His brother immediately lets go, waiting him out in silence, not intimidated by his glowering at all.

“You’re incorrigible.”

“I don’t know what that means," Leon's smile is unfaltering, though it doesn't reach his eyes in this moment, "But either you let me change your bandages, or... you can upset both Raph and Mikey with your middle child nonsense.” 

“Technically we’re both middle children.”

“‘Cause twins duh.” 

“Negative,” Donnie stares morosely at his workstation. 

A pinch of.... something hurt pulses in his chest. He’s certain his injuries are only to his shell, so why does he keep feeling-- 

“Would it really be so bad being my twin?” Leo asks barely above the music, picking at a nonexistent spec on the table. His brother looks up at him, expression blank as he catches his gaze and holds it expectantly. Donnie narrows his eyes, refusing to be the first to look away and haruffs stubbornly silent. 

Of course it wouldn’t be so bad. It could even be, dare he think it, fun having an honest to goodness twin. Someone who could know his thoughts before he even expressed them, who could match his wit tit for tat, who could motivate him with foolhardy competition, and know exactly when he needed to shut out the world and be left alone. And when he needed a handhold to navigate through the muck and mire of the world around them. But he will never say this to Leo, because it is a statistical impossibility that they could ever be twins no matter their freakish, mystic, mutant origins. 

Leo stares back at him, head tilted and blinking once at his silence. Absently, he rubs at the center of his plastron, before he smiles-- small but real this time. The chair squeaks against the floor a bit as he stands with a put upon sigh and shake of his head. 

“Let me see your shell, and I’ll leave you alone, kay?” He moves around the table without waiting for permission, kit open and in hand.  

Donnie’s neck curls partially into his shell in anticipation of the pain. He brings his feet up onto the edge of the stool and curls up with his arms around his shins, hiding his snout in his knees. 

“It still hurting that bad?” Leo’s voice is soft behind him as he cuts through the quiet din of the music still playing in the background. 

Donnie shrugs.

Leon huffs a breath through his nose and though he continues his task with gentle hands, the last of the bandages tugging at the scabbing on his soft shell makes Donnie flinch hard. 

“Donnie-- you’ve been bleeding again. Bro... What part of take it easy is not getting through that giant brain of yours? I gotta spray some disinfectant... It’s gonna sting like mad, you tell me when. Okay?” 

Donnie takes several breaths as his eyes begin to sting. His toes dig into the edge of the stool and he tenses with a nod. The first sensation of the spray is like cold fire along his back, then the burn of a hot iron concentrated on the three angry-looking claw marks across his soft shell. He doesn't realize he’s whimpering until Leo’s hand squeezes his shoulder with steadying pressure. His breath hitches and he buries his face behind his knees. 

“I can’t take it easy. I lost all my tech,” he babbles quietly. “I threw everything I had at him and it was like child’s play. Didn’t leave a scratch on him. I’ve got to replace, upgrade, and re-design... everything . Otherwise...” 

His brother works in silence, spreading ointment and rebandaging him with fresh linen and gauze until the sharp pains of earlier are only dull distant throbs. He sighs in relief, his eyes feeling dry and heavy with exhaustion. 

“Otherwise what, Dee?” Leo prods him, arms encircling his shoulders to surround him in a gentle hug, careful of his freshly rebandaged shell. 

Donnie allows it, shutting his eyes in frustration of revealing too much of his inner turmoil to the brother least likely to let it go. 

“Otherwise your head will explode for lack of me not being able to knock your ego back down to size with a well placed hammer-bo strike,” he mumbles into his arms, eyes still closed so he can ignore Leo’s stupid face and whatever emotion might be broadcasting there. 

Instead of answering, Leo chuckles, squeezing him tighter for just a moment before pulling away entirely. The med kit snaps shut, its contents rattling inside as Leo makes his way to the exit. 

“Get some sleep. If you pass out in here with the door locked again, I’ll portal Mike in to draw the ugliest most crooked eyebrows ever with his permanent inks directly on your dum dum face.”

“Snort,” Don huffs a small laugh through his snout, and finally glances over at his brother.

Leo is still in the doorway, looking at him oddly, med kit braced against his hip. 

“For what it’s worth, I think you make a great twin. No tech required.”  

Donatello says nothing as Leo closes the lab door. He turns back to his work without acknowledging the comment, face annoyingly warm. It’s a stupid sentimental notion after all, and there’s no sense getting attached to it like his dum dum brother has.

~~~

A/N: Buckle up and hang on to your butts because we're in the end zone, and swinging back into the timeframe of the film where the angst train is coming fast.

[unfortunate-songbird]

yes yes it’s very upsetting and sad when Leo is like “none of you guys trust or have any faith in me :( “

But it just cracks me up a lil too bc like….

sweetie, you literally got your brothers trapped in a death maze once because you wanted your picture on the pizza wall

I get that you have everything under control This time, but it’s not entirely unreasonable for your family to have a Little skeptism

that being said, he popped Off that episode that was Amazing

[memorydarkness]

Leo when he plays someone vs when he have been played.

[rottmnt-reaction-images]

[captaincolorblob]

No idea how I didn’t notice this till now despite having re-watched Rise multiple times, but uh. can we talk about this. like. 

I thought Donnie was fine cause his battle shell looked normal right after the attack but I’m starting to think that was so it was less tedious to animate.

[riseepshowdown]

Bug Busters: Looking for a way to eliminate the Oozesquito problem, the turtles enlist the help of the head of the Nexus Hotel: a spider yokai known as Big Mama.

Many Unhappy Returns: with the Shredder on a rampage, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, and April look for a way to beat him. Meanwhile, Leo and Splinter turn to Big Mama for help.

[risequotes]

Daily Rise Quotes: DAY 315

Donnie: I don't know how much longer we can keep this up. He is crushing us.

Leo: Really? 'Cause I thought my overall ninjocity was totally working!

Raph: It wasn't.

Leo: I'm pretty sure it was about to.

(Season 2, Episode 1 - Many Unhappy Returns)

[tenaciouswritingdragon]

I absolutely love Leo in Rise. At first he got on my nerves because of how goofy he acted compared to other versions of him in tmnt. But now... after really watching the show (not entirely finished yet but working on it) he's still my favorite turtle. He was AMAZING in Many Unhappy Returns. I literally gasped when all his seemingly stupid bravado-induced ideas came together in such an epic way. And can we talk about his portals?! The boy has come SO FAR since the beginning, when he could barely open a portal while concentrating really hard, let alone multiple while fighting! He's already grown so much in terms of his abilities!! I love seeing him pop off