#there is always a klunk in tmnt

[brightlotusmoon]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / Tear Jerker - TV Tropes

"A flashback shows Splinter having a vision that somehow involves Mikey and death. A conversation ensues about steeling against love and compassion in order to survive. In the present, a ritual can be performed to save Klunk's life and Mikey is prepared to use a stray cat he found. He tries to justify what he's doing by saying, "Nobody loves it"—only to recoil in shame with what he just said, so he has the stray released, even if it means losing his friend. In the end, Splinter admits that Mikey's way of compassion is something he could learn from."

[camarilla-arts]

some... Cats?

[cupcakeslushie]

am IN LOVE with your feral leo au

the story just keeps getting interesting every time!

i love the art so much! i just wanna- AGEUGAUEGUAEGA * insert more gremlin noises *

-{ by someone who should probably study for their exam }

Thank you! Also *softly bops you on the head* I hope you studied and did well on your exam!

IT’S FERAL LEO HOURS!!!

@renmiel Honestly Donnie hasn’t really had time to process properly. After Leo, he’s the one on the team with the most medical knowledge so he’s stuck in a sort of, assess what we can fix immediately mode, hence why he’s the only one with bites, and then when Leo’s all cleaned up, Donnie moves into a denial stage and thinks with enough prodding he can sort of snap Leo out of it. Raph tries to tell him that Leo might never be the same, but for being so smart, sometimes Donnie refuses to see what’s right in front of him if he doesn’t like the reality of it. It takes him a few days to realize this won’t be a quick fix.

@imadino @blankiss2204000 @aron-has-ocs

The plan at first is really just to make him as comfortable as possible so they don’t get attacked lol. Just because they’re his family doesn’t mean Leo wont pounce and lash out if startled. So he stays with Mikey in the infirmary for a few days, listening to his little brother’s stories about when they were young, and looking at the pictures on his phone, up until Mikey’s recovered and can move around. By then the rest of the family has “Feral Proofed” the lair (i.e closed off all the places Leo could escape to and get lost, hidden all the sharp objects things like that). Then they make sure someone’s with him at all times. They make him a nest in the corner of the living room, but he’ll prowl around at night and check to make sure the lair is secure, and by the morning he can be found at the foot of someone’s bed—usually Mikey.

Once Leo’s more at ease with them, Donnie can get to work on patching Leo’s shell. He does try to make turtle noises back at Leo, but Leo just huffs and wheeze laughs at the sad attempt, and pokes Donnie in that big forehead of his. Still Donnie keeps trying and gets better. Now that he’s fully accepted the situation as it is, he’ll do anything if it helps, even if it is a bit embarrassing.

Yes that “churp” is a turtle noise. I’ve found it’s a pretty common staple of TMNT fanfic that I’m obsessed with lol.

Leo’s recovery is LONG He gets nightmares pretty regularly and it’s months before he’s even able to let his guard down, despite only ever remaining in the lair where it’s always quiet and safe. I’d say it takes Leo at least a year before he starts to resemble himself and speak in fuller sentences (though the chirps and hissing never go away). Then maybe two years before he’s able to make cheesy jokes and fight without reverting to his more savage way of fighting. Even starting off slow—bringing him only on what they think will be easy missions, can sometimes end with them having to pull Leo off of the bad guys before he causes them serious harm.

Leo isn’t embarrassed so much—he realizes he did what he had to in order to survive and make it back to his family. He’s more serious and actually shockingly calmer now, but at the same time, in no uncertain terms, he makes it clear that he thinks Raph should take the reigns back, Leo knows he’s in no proper state to lead.

@asleepyb0i one word. Klunk!!!! Mikey finds him one day a few months into sneaking out to help with Invasion clean up, but he let’s Leo hold him so much that he’s Mikey and Leo’s little fluff ball.

Leo and Draxum never really liked one another, but awkward Dad #2 does try to help when he can. Leo manages to sneak out of the lair a few times, and gives his family heart attacks every time, but they always manage to track him down, or he finds his way back, his sense of direction is one thing that was sharpened in the Prison Dimension.

GOLLUM??!! GOLLUM????! I don’t think he looks that bad off does he???? 😱

A. You’re so right. Galaxy brained!

B. @snipersiniora That’s a good way to lose a finger! No, he keeps the nails for a long while until he’s a bit calmer.

C. @snipersiniora He’ll eat anything at this point, but pizza will always be a fav!

D. You know what’s funny? While I was googling the spelling on Pepino like forever ago, just to make sure I was spelling it right, I read that there’s actually a common Spanish phrase (and please native speakers correct me if I’m wrong!) something translated like “I care a cucumber.” When you don’t care about something or want the convo to end, and I think that’s hilarious and maybe I’m reading too much into it, but if the writers knew about that phrase and having Heuso use it cause of course Leo’s green like a cucumber, BUT ALSO because Hueso didn’t much like Leo at first and always seemed to want him to go away—that’s gotta be the funniest thing ever.

E. Well…they are in a sewer….with lots of…………….rats.

F. The crack’s pretty large but not too deep. Donnie patches it before shell rot sets in (it never set in before because the prison dimension kept Leo in like a sort of stasis where his wounds healed and scarred over in a few days). He’s gotta be very careful for a few weeks, while it heals, which is a bit of a re-learning curve. Leo’s not used to his wounds actually slowing him down for so long.

G. I will say…..no. Just for possibly any future angst I might want to cause lol

H. Leo was in the prison dimension three years so he’d be 19!

I. Re-introducing Leo to Cass and Sunita, yes all good 👍. Re-introducing Leo to Big Mama, no very much bad, all out hissing and clawing!

@hapfrog @snowblossim @zowise2912 aw thanks!!

Music is a very common calming technique Donnie reads about, and then puts into practice when they need to. It works like a charm at relaxing Leo. The prison dimension was so quiet, unless it was filled with Leo’s cries or Kraang Prime cursing and screaming at him. So music allows Leo the audio proof that he’s not there anymore.

Leo’s reaction to his bale crying would be to curl up around them and protect! If there was no threat to scare off he’d focus on providing physical warmth and comfort.

Leo’s knees are probably the least of his worries, that boy’s body is so torn up it’s one big ball of pain, which he’s gotten so used to, it hardly registers. But he does have to do a lot of physical therapy with Donnie and Raph (alongside Mikey who needs it for his own hands).

Leo didn’t have to eat or sleep in the prison dimension. His body was kept in a sort of stasis—the only wear and tear was from the Kraang. He didn’t even physically age. I wouldn’t think about it too much (I know I haven’t lol) So re-eating syndrome wasn’t a challenge for him, but mentally he does have to get used to the idea of being hungry and eating. He kinda fights them the first time they try and get food in him, but after remembering how good food is—even the simple bland soup Splinter makes him, he’s a nightmare at meal time (his table manners are non-existent).

[hermit-searching]

TMNTposting, Michelangelo edition:

I still have favs, but I would love nothing more than to talk about the boy in orange. Michelangelo is such an interesting character, development-wise in the series. While Leos and Donnie's usually end up developing more negatively (like the emo breakdowns and all that) Michelangelo and Raph seem to always be the ones that make positive growth. And I love it. We love to see that here.

All Michelangelo's are pretty silly and goofy. They're the most laid back of all the turtles, mostly due to the "youngest brother" dynamic he has with the rest of the turtles, Rise being the most obvious one of all. With 87 Michelangelo, he's more of a chill party dude with an unyeilding optimism despite the circumstances in the later "Red Sky" seasons of TMNT 87. He's the only one of the turtles who genuinely still saw the good in things, and tried to revisit the old dynamic they had even though there was a massive hate campaign against them, and getting double mutated...among many other things. This dude, this little guy, was able to keep a steady girlfriend through all this which is insane (and adorable).

Some of the other cute things I remember about him is:

-he remembers their time being regular turtles.

-he normally sides with Leonardo whenever theres an argument (usually started by Donatello)

-the little alien star child in season 7 could have destroyed the planet but he still decided to be nice and comfort him anyways.

Also random fun factoid about the memory of being a regular turtle. Both he and Donatello or Raphael have mentioned before they spent half their life at the bottom of a glass bowl, in the pet shop. Which either implies they lived in a tiny fishbowl for a really long time, or they were really young when they mutated. The implication seems to lean more towards the latter, and the turtles mutated straight into being teenagers. It's entirely likely the 87 turtles are technically young kids stuck in the bodies of teenagers. Enjoy the nightmares thinking about that.

Now for 03 Mikey. I want to chefs kiss the writers because this series was when they started the "kinda annoying younger brother" trope for him, but somehow still managed to handle his development with absolute grace. The Battle Nexus arcs are some of my favorites in TMNT 03, personally. Both because I'm a sucker for 03 Leosagi, but also because they showed everyone just how smart Mikey can be, and that he is perfectly capable of handling a fight on his own. He's been named Battle Nexus champion, not once, but twice. The first time was more circumstance, but don't let that distract you from the fact he outsmarted Raph in a fight and still won the tournament.

And the second time? That time, he was cursed so any injury he sustained couldn't be healed and he still won! The second time was entirely on his skill and fighting alone and he won.

Despite rubbing it in his brothers faces, he genuinely didn't believe he was capable of winning the Battle Nexus tournament and I LOVE the writers for giving me that. 03 Mikey is a loveable menace.

fun things I love about 03 Mikey:

-he literally saves Klunk because he liked her vibes. on Christmas. good for him.

-despite how often they bicker, he's Raph's best friend.

-the whole thing about him (and his brothers) helping the homeless people in the Garbageman episode.

I don't really have much to say about 2012 Mikey tbh. He sure is a guy who exists. It is cool he survived in Dimension X for a few months on his own though. Good for him.

And finally, I'll leave the Rise ramblings to the other TMNT blogs out there. Because everything I say is something someone else definitely has before. And I mostly want to make these posts for the people out there who never watched the older TMNT series.

[taizi]

i’ve been afraid of changing

tmnt 2k7 pairing: mikey & donnie, mikey & april, mikey & woody word count: 4575 pre-movie

well, i’ve been afraid of changing ’cause i’ve built my life around you but time makes you bolder even children get older and i’m getting older too

read on ao3

x

Mikey hates his job.

He thinks it for the first time on a Saturday evening when he’s lugging his catering equipment back to his van, sore all over and with a headache pounding away at the base of his skull, miserable and hungry and with another party to look forward to tomorrow morning.

He shuts the back doors, leans his forehead against one of the dusty rear windows, and thinks I hate my job.

He doesn’t know where the thought comes from. Maybe he’s just tired. Maybe he’d feel better after he got some dinner and played a few rounds of Mario Kart and clocked an hour of kitty therapy with Dr Klunk, PhD. Maybe it’s not a big deal. If he’s learned any one thing from daytime TV, it’s that everyone hates their job.

But it’s the first time Mikey’s ever hated anything about his life. He’s always had his brothers. He’s always been taken care of. He’s always had a home he loved running to at the end of the day. Sure, he didn’t get to play in the sun when he was little, or go to those cool fusion restaurants downtown that April liked, or hit up the movies or the skatepark without enough planning and subterfuge beforehand that the whole thing felt more like the Invasion of Normandy than a fun night out. But his childhood was a happy one. And for awhile he’d had this crazy idea that happiness wasn’t something you were supposed to outgrow.

But now Raph is mean and reclusive. And Donnie is short-tempered and too busy for anything besides his computer. And Leo is still gone. And Mikey hates his job.

He climbs into his van and just sits in the driver’s seat for a minute. He didn’t wear his headset today, because Donnie hasn’t used their private channel in weeks anyway, so what’s the point. There isn’t a familiar little voice in his ear telling him to get a move on, Mike. Don’t stay up there too long. It isn’t safe. Come home. Which is good. He doesn’t want to go home.

He thinks maybe he hates it there.

x

The thing is, Mikey is halfway to Rupert’s to pick up a pie for his birthday, when it occurs to him that he should be upset that his brothers forgot. He actually stops short, halfway down a fire escape, letting that percolate in his brain for a minute.

He should be disappointed or annoyed or hurt, right? But he’s not any of those things. He’s not even sad.

He hasn’t seen Raph in like three days. Donnie had breakfast with Mikey this morning, but the older turtle had shadows under his eyes, and this pale, brittle way about him that Mikey clocked as a migraine and a chronic lack of sleep, so he immediately curbed his own energy and made a mental note to leave his brother alone.

Their birthdays are stupid, made-up things anyway. Dates they picked for each other when they were little, and marked on a big calendar that Splinter hung outside the dojo. Leo’s was a couple months ago, and that night Donnie and Raph got into a screaming fight about—Mikey doesn’t even know what.

Maybe they’ve outgrown birthdays. Maybe Mikey’s going to outgrow every single good thing about his entire life until there’s nothing left but a job he hates doing and a home he never wants to go back to.

Woody is waiting for him out behind the pizzeria. There’s a private drive back there for delivery trucks but the gate is locked at all other times. The building behind Rupert’s is vacant, its windows boarded up. It’s a safe spot for Mikey to venture out of the shadow into the warm, flickering light of the kitchen where it pours from the door Woody has propped open.

His human friend is sitting on an upturned plastic vegetable crate, and smiles automatically when he sees Mikey.

“Hey, amigo,” Woody says, offering his fist for a bump. “Bingo—”

It’s such instant relief to be around somebody who wants Mikey around. He didn’t even realize how much tension he was carrying until he exhales and a bunch of muscles in his back and shoulders go loose and suddenly it’s a little easier to hold his head up.

He grins back and completes the fist bump. “—bongo!”

Woody is still on the clock, but it’s a slow night, and his sister Darcy is running things up front. Mikey met her by accident last year when he was hanging out with Woody in the prep kitchen after close and neither of them were paying attention to the footsteps thumping down the stairs from the second-floor apartment. He’s never told his brothers about that because they’ll probably kill him. Besides, Darcy’s cool.

They head inside, kicking the door shut behind them. The packed heat of the pizza ovens and the heady smell of garlic and oregano and basil is so familiar it brings a rush of comfort.

Mikey stays for hours. They cook pizzas and break-and-bake cookies and a very wonky attempt at a birthday cake in one of the ovens. He goes home with a bag full of leftovers and a meticulously-wrapped present from Darcy that she refused to let him open in front of her. Before he left, Woody hugged him so thoroughly that the warmth of it stayed with Mikey for the entire journey underground.

It doesn’t last long after that.

“Where the hell’ve you been?” Raph barks at him by way of hello when Mikey is barely two steps through the door. There’s a big duffel on the floor next to him, so either he just got in or he’s on his way out.

Mikey should rise to this, he thinks. He should be full of festering hurt, disappointment, resentment. You forgot about my birthday and now you’re giving me shit over a non-existent curfew?

It wasn’t so long ago that he was willing to get right in Raph’s face when Raph was being especially antagonistic. Mikey doesn’t wear anger like his brothers do, but everyone has put on a jacket that didn’t really fit once or twice.

He used to goad and wheedle and harass his big brother into venting his feelings the only way he knew how. Tussles and shouting matches were a vehicle for Raph to express the parts of himself he wasn’t comfortable with talking about. Mikey knows that. And he knows that Raph is always angling for a fight these days because he has so much he needs to say to somebody.

But Mikey isn’t the person he needs. The person all three of them need. He couldn’t be even if he tried. He doesn’t want to try.

He hates his job and he hates being home and he’s beginning to hate how Raphael talks to him like they’re total strangers who made a bad first impression on each other and never managed to forget it.

“I was at Rupert’s,” Mikey says, walking past him. “If you needed something while I was out, you could have texted me. You still have my number, right?”

It takes the shape of a joke, the way he used to tease a good mood out of moments like this. He sets his bag on the table and roots through it, coming up with a tinfoil-covered pizza round. There’s a birthday cake underneath the foil, the sides uncertain and lopsided because it wasn’t big enough to bake to the edges of the round, the buttercream icing a little lumpy and way too rich.

It’s Mikey’s favorite thing in the whole world, because he and Woody laughed the entire time they made it, about a hundred different things, and somehow it tastes like laughter, like they managed to bake that in there with the butter and vanilla. It almost feels like it doesn’t belong in this kitchen. He puts it on the counter anyway.

“There’s dessert if you want it,” Mikey says, meeting Raph’s eyes from right across the room and about a thousand miles away. Raph is frowning at him, but the anger from a moment ago isn’t there anymore. Mikey doesn’t want to know what fresh new thing Raphael has to frown about, so he says goodnight and goes looking for his cat.

x

He cancels a gig. He doesn’t tell Donnie. He doesn’t get out of bed. No one comes looking for him. Everyone else is busy, everyone else is on track. Mikey can’t keep up.

x

Donnie corners him on some random Thursday. It’s been a few weeks since Mikey’s worked and a part of him has been dreading this confrontation. It was only a matter of time.

“We don’t need the money,” Mikey says. Because they don’t. Donnie has been seeding funds from untraceable backdoors into Fortune 500 companies for years. The jobs were Donnie’s idea to keep them busy, back when sensei first forbade them from doing ninja stuff while Leo was gone. “What does it matter if I quit?”

“It’s not about money, it’s about responsibility. If you make a commitment, you stick to it,” Donnie grinds out. His voice is carefully measured, straining on the brink of losing his patience. For some reason, it’s rubbing Mikey wrong. It’s making him feel itchy and restless.

Responsibility. Commitment. What do his brothers know about keeping promises? About sticking to it? They’ve abandoned Mikey one after the other and now Donnie is lecturing him about responsibility and commitment.

“You can’t make me go,” Mikey blurts, too loud. “I won’t. I don’t want to.”

“Jesus,” Donnie mutters, rubbing his forehead. He’s already so fed-up with Mikey after like three seconds of conversation that Mikey can feel his eyes start to sting. “The last thing I want to do is fight with you, Mike. I thought you liked Cowabunga Carl.”

It’s not fair. Donnie’s so smart. He’s tired and overworked and unhappy, but he’s smart. How can he get this one thing so wrong? How can he not know Mikey as well as he used to, like all of those years of being each other’s best friends and co-conspirators and secret-keepers from where they were relegated to the “B Team” aren’t as intrinsic and important and fundamental to him as they are to Mikey? How can he look at Mikey, right in the face, and not understand him at all?

Something breaks.

“I hate it!” Mikey screams. His chest is full of heat and air and nothing he can dig his hands into and ground himself in, just emptiness and panic. “I hate my job, I hate going up there by myself, I hate driving in rush hour traffic, I hate being around strangers who wouldn’t want anything to do with me if they found out I was a freak of nature, I hate the kids when they scream and run around because it makes me feel like I’m in danger even though I know that’s stupid! I hate all of it, I hate going out there and I hate coming back here, and I hate that none of you love me anymore! I hate you!”

There would be a ringing silence in the lair, if not for the way Mikey’s chest is heaving as he gulps for air. He’s crying, but he can still see the way Donnie’s face has gone slack and sickly white with horror, the way he’s looking at Mikey like he’s a fucking alien creature in the living room that Donnie has no idea how to communicate with. They don’t know each other anymore.

“Mikey,” Donnie whispers.

Mikey takes a shaky step back, then another. That burst of too much feeling has left him, deserted him, and now he’s reeling from the lack of it.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he says hoarsely. “I didn’t mean it. I love you.”

Donnie’s hands catch him before he can move another inch.

“Please don’t go, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Hey, look at me.” Those same hands let go of Mikey’s arms and cup his face, framing it carefully and keeping him still. Donnie moves into his line of sight, his eyes round and full, mouth pressed into a wobbling line. “I love you, too. Of course I love you. I’m here. I never should have—I never should have let you think I was anywhere else. I’m right here, okay? Don’t go.”

His hands move again, pulling Mikey into an embrace so tight it almost hurts.

“I don’t hate you,” Mikey sobs. He can’t believe he said that. He can’t believe he knew how to say those words in that order.

“Mikey, I know,” Donnie replies. His voice is all thick and watery, and he presses one hand to the back of Mikey’s head, and holds onto him like he’s terrified Mikey is going to vanish into thin air. “You don’t have a hateful bone in your body. You’re the last good thing I have.”

x

When April and Casey show up a few hours later, Mikey isn’t surprised when they make a beeline for the sofa. He freaked Donnie out pretty majorly, it’s only natural he’d call his best friends for support or advice.

What does surprise Mikey is that Casey only trades a speaking look with Donatello before tugging on Mikey’s mask tails playfully and then heading in the direction of Raph’s bedroom like a man on a mission. April, meanwhile, plants herself on the arm of the sofa on Mikey’s side and wraps her arm around his shoulders.

“I don’t know about Casey, but I’m here for one reason and one reason only,” she confides in him. “To make Donnie watch this bootleg of RENT that I just downloaded from a potentially malicious website. You in?”

Donnie makes a disgruntled support technician sound.

Mikey beams up at her. She’s so cool. She’s one of the best people he knows. She isn’t his friend like she’s Donnie’s and Leo’s, but she’s his big sister in a way they can’t claim. The way she cares about him hasn’t changed a smidge from day one.

“Donnie needs more culture in his life,” Mikey says. “And he’s totally gonna cry during the I’ll Cover You reprise. I’m in, times like, a billion.”

April smiles back at him and takes his face in her hand. She thumbs at his cheek like she can still see the tear tracks there from earlier but she doesn’t say anything about any of that.

She just says, “Good, ‘cause we brought enough Thai food to feed a ninja army.”

Splinter emerges from his rooms, drawn into the open atrium by the sound of their voices. Or maybe he’s in on this, too, because he doesn’t seem at all surprised by April and her formidable arsenal of takeout bags. His dark eyes are gentle as he greets her. He pats Donnie on the arm as he passes by, and tugs on the ends of Mikey’s mask tails in that affectionate way all of Mikey’s relatives do, the way Casey just did a minute ago, and then settles into his recliner.

His presence nearby is like a balm. It always is. Even though he sent Leo away, and saddled Donnie with the mantle of leadership that was never his to carry in the interim, and Mikey is sort of unhappy with him somewhere in the back of his mind, he’s still their dad. He still makes the world make a little more sense, just by being there.

They’re twenty minutes into RENT before Casey reappears, and he’s got Raph with him. Casey accepts a heaping container of green curry and rice from April, gives his red-banded best friend a truly evil look, and pointedly takes a seat in an armchair.

There’s a spot left on the sofa on Donnie’s other side, or in the other chair. Raphael, to his credit, only waffles about it for a moment before he sinks onto the couch. Mikey feels Donnie’s whole body go stiff with tension, but neither of them break into their usual song-and-dance routine—maybe in part because April is absolutely willing to take them down with extreme prejudice if they start a fight right now. Maybe because they don’t actually want to.

“What is this shit, anyway?” Raph mutters.

“Theater,” Mikey, April and Casey say at the same time—only Casey sounds significantly less enthusiastic than his little brother and his fiance both do.

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” Mikey adds. “Twenty bucks says you’ll have one of the songs stuck in your head tomorrow.”

“You’re on, brat,” Raphael says.

For a minute, they might as well be fifteen years old again, before they started getting tugged in different directions, before Leo’s absence drove a wedge between them that honestly feels like nursing a knife between the ribs.  

Raph turns his head, golden eyes darting past Donnie to look at Mikey sidelong. Mikey finds himself thinking that it’s absolutely crazy he could have ever found anything about Raphael unfamiliar. That’s his brother. No matter what else changes, that’s always going to be true.

So Mikey sticks his tongue out at him. Surprise, relief, and good humor run through Raph’s expression one after the other, and they all settle into a comfortable scowl.

“Pass me that chicken satay before I come over there and take it from you,” he demands.

Donnie snatches one of the skewers off the plate as it changes hands in front of him and smugly says, “Taxes.”

“I’ll show you taxes—”

“Okay, boys, I love the bonding going on here, but talk through Light My Candle and see what happens,” April interjects pleasantly.

Raph and Donnie shut right up. Casey snorts and mutters “cowards” under his breath. Mikey leans against his sister and bites into an eggroll so he doesn’t say something really embarrassing about how much he’s missed family movie night.

Splinter watches them more than he watches the musical. Like something about the rowdy, reactive audience they make is more precious and compelling than anything Broadway could ever have to offer.

x

Donnie works about half as much as he used to, and drags Mikey into his lab with him the rest of the time. Sometimes they tinker and talk, other times Donnie starts, like, solving world hunger or the energy crisis, and Mikey parks himself on the loveseat and watches a movie.

He started out with headphones and a laptop, but then Donnie scolded him for trying to loop him out of Legally Blonde. Now they project movies onto the wall so Donnie can watch while he works, and Mikey can make silly commentary, and it feels like they’re friends again.

Mikey doesn’t hate being at home so much anymore.

“But Donnie can’t babysit me forever,” Mikey confides in Woody sometime later. They’re in the kitchen at Rupert’s, after closing time, and Mikey is helping him shut the place down. Right now he’s doing the books in the broom closet of a back office while Mikey hangs over the back of his computer chair and idly swings himself back and forth, the ever-important moral support. “He hates his job, but he has to have something productive to do or he’ll go crazy. That’s why we started working in the first place. I need to figure something out, too. Not Cowabunga Carl. Something I won’t—hate.”

“Donnie’s a genius, right?” Woody asks abruptly. “He has like two actual PhDs that he got just for fun?” 

“Oh, yeah,” Mikey says. 

“Call me crazy, Mikester, but maybe he’d be happier if he found a job that played to his strengths.” 

Woody shuffles receipts around on the desk until he finds the computer mouse and then Googles “new york remote jobs phd graduate” and gets hundreds of results with buzz words like “researcher” and “scientist” and “engineer” that make more sense in relation to Mikey’s polymath brother than entry level tech support. Mikey reads over his shoulder with wide eyes. 

“Look, NYU is hiring. He won’t even need a teaching degree to work at the university.”

“E-mail that to me,” Mikey demands.

He feels full of purpose. He imagines Donnie as a professor, explaining any number of impossibly complicated subjects to his students the way he’s been happy to explain things to Mikey since they were toddlers discovering the world together. He imagines Donnie brainstorming with colleagues whose minds are as bright as his.

Mikey wants it for him so badly he’s annoyed with himself for not coming up with this idea a year and a half ago.

Woody is watching Mikey in that careful sideways manner that makes Mikey think there’s something else he wants to say.

“You know,” the human settles on, “I’m kind of hurt.”

Mikey is a ninja, and more than that, he’s the youngest of four dynamic, explosive personalities, so he’s good at sussing out tones. Woody is clearly joking, so Mikey tips his head, more curious than anything.

“What’d I do to you?”

“You left me hangin’, amigo. You quit that catering gig—which was the right call—but now you’re sending your resume everywhere but here.” He shakes his head, mock-solemn. Mikey is staring at him.

“I don’t have a resume.”

“It’s a figure of speech.”

“Rupert’s is hiring?”

“You see anybody else back here, bud?” Woody’s smiling at him. “Uncle Rupert cooks days, I cook nights. But nights are significantly busier, and sometimes my uncle comes back in to help me out. He’s gonna work himself into an early grave at this rate. We’ve been looking to add onto the night crew for months.”

Mikey feels like the world just tilted off its axis. He glances around at the kitchen he knows so well, the place he spends all his free time, because it’s where his best friend works. He thinks of how often he helps Woody knead dough, prep gallons and gallons of sauce, box up orders. The countless evening hours they spend drinking cream soda and eating cheesy breadsticks or Chinese from across the street and watching cable TV on the crappy plasma mounted on the wall.

He thinks of doing all of that as a job. He would love it. He didn’t know he could have a job that he loved.

“Really?” he says quietly.

Woody laughs at whatever his face looks like. He gets up and shoves open the order window and bellows, “Darce, take that Help Wanted sign out of the window! And text Uncle Rupert! Mike’s on board.”

“Thank GOD,” Darcy shouts back, and audibly stomps all the way across the tiny lobby to rip their handmade paper sign down.

“Uncle Rupert’ll love you,” Woody confides in Mikey, dropping back into his seat. “I mean, he loves you already. We talk about you enough at home. He doesn’t know you’re a turtle, but I don’t think it’ll be a big deal. You’re way more normal than that one delivery guy who drops off the produce order every Tuesday in a glittery tux, and Rupert keeps him around.”

“That guy’s so weird,” Mikey says, and he’s sort of crying, but he’s laughing at the same time.

x

A little over two years after Leo left New York, April followed a ghost story through a South American jungle and managed to track down the familiar boy behind it. She did her best to convince him to come home, because missing him was like missing a limb.

She told him about Donnie lecturing on half a dozen different topics at NYU, and Raph getting hooked on musical theater, and Casey sneaking Mikey into Comic Con in a DIY Bowser costume just to get an exclusive variant cover edition of the new Silver Sentry comic and how extremely grounded they both were for that.

She didn’t say they’re lost without you, because she didn’t think that was true anymore. But if she knew her friend as well as she thought she did—as well as she used to—then it should be enough just to tell him that his brothers needed him. They missed him. They loved him, and he wasn’t there.

Mikey hears all of this firsthand, about eleven and a half hours later, when April’s plane touches down at LaGuardia and she calls the lair the second she’s allowed to turn her cellphone back on.

He and Donnie are just getting in at around three in the morning, because Mikey is a tiny bit drunk. Rupert hauled down a case of craft beer after closing time and Darcy goaded everyone into a drinking contest and Mikey discovered that a mutagen-reinforced metabolism has nothing on a family of Irish-Americans. Woody called Donnie, and Donnie agreed to come pick Mikey up, and Darcy sat on Mikey’s carapace until his brother got there, because none of them wanted him wandering the sewers and getting lost.

Everyone worries about him a little more than they used to. But the Dirkins clan sent him off with waves and laughter, and Donnie was smiling crookedly as he guided Mikey’s clumsy limbs down a manhole ladder, and all of it made Mikey feel cared-for. It reminded him of being younger, being taken care of.

By the time they get home, Mikey’s burned through the fun parts of too much alcohol and now he has a pounding headache. Donnie points him toward a chair at the kitchen table and starts rummaging around in the fridge for the coconut water he keeps on hand for Casey and Raph when they’re in a similar state.

And then April calls the repurposed payphone that serves as their landline and says she found Leo, and Mikey’s heart jumps right into his throat.

“He said he wasn’t coming back, but you should have seen the look on his face,” April says. She sounds croaky and exhausted from her exploits and the red-eye flight, but her voice is still full of care and hope and optimism. “He’s homesick. He misses you guys so much. He doesn’t want to be out there anymore.”

Mikey wants to ask her how she knows for sure. He wants to beg for some kind of impossible guarantee. But he can hear Casey in the background of her call, probably waiting at the arrivals gate to take her home, so instead he says, “Thanks, Apricot. Thank you. Get home safe, okay? Tell Case I said ‘or else’.”

“You bet, honey. I’ll see you later.”

Donnie couldn’t hear the other half of the conversation, even with his freaky ninja hearing, but he knows how to read Mikey’s expression like a book. He’s holding a glass of that fancy water like he’s forgotten it’s in his hand, and his clever eyes are narrow and darting across his little brother’s face.

“What is it?” he asks as soon as Mikey hangs the phone up. “Is everything okay?”

Mikey doesn’t answer right away. He’s still processing.

The truth is, Leo has always had the same number one priority. Before his father’s expectations, before his duty as the eldest son, before his own wants and goals and secret childhood wishes, he had one thing he always put first.

If his brothers need him, he’ll drop everything. He’ll run to them, wherever they are.

Maybe that's still true. Maybe Mikey still knows how to believe in that.

So he looks up at Donnie and says, “I think so.” He even really means it.

[angelmichelangelo]

tmnt being the definition of the found family trope no matter what version…

like, you have these four brothers (who, depending on the iteration) might not even be biological brothers but love each other like siblings anyway, adopted by a rat who raises them without hesitation. and then you get april, this human girl who just decides on the spot after meeting them “these are my family now” and goes along with keeping their identity a secret. and then there’s casey jones, who’s family life is either alluded to or outright said as being Not Great, and so he’s thrown into the mix and he’s instantly adopted by them to give him a piece of family that he wouldn’t usually have.

and then there’s the other mutants like leatherhead, mondo gecko and slash who the turtles welcome into their family, because they know what it’s like to be the outcasts and the freaks and if they can’t be a part of the “normal” parts of society, they’ll create their own and make it as warm and as welcoming as possible. any of the mutants that aren’t outright villains are honorary members of the hamato clan. that’s just how it is in this family.

we’ve also got woody, who again, gets tangled up in all their crazy adventures but is so quickly surrounded by all the love they have to offer, it’s near impossible for him to stay away for too long.

and then you have mikey and raph who have a habit of just adopting strays on the spot, whether it be any version of klunk or ice cream kitty, or chompy or pepperoni, they see helpless creature in need of a home: they have a home. and nobody bats an eye cos that’s just how they role in this family.

the found family is so special and dear to me because it just proves that family can be anything you make of it and tmnt just IS all of that. they’re a rag tag team that doesn’t always get along or understand each other but love is always stored in the weird adopted mutant family :’)

[moonchildlix]

TMNT PIA: Character introduction - Michelangelo

Here’s an overall rundown on the goodest boy.

Michelangelo is a red eared slider, he’s 17 years old, 5’9” and goes by he/they pronouns, aromantic, pansexual. He’s also the oldest of the four turtles. Like with every version of Michelangelo, he likes to goof around and have a good time usually by annoying the living daylights out of his younger brothers, but this time it’s also paired up with a protective, responsible oldest sibling trait that is typically seen with Leo, leading to him being the annoying older brother who loves to tease and have a laugh at his younger siblings, but he does know when to quit. Like with most iterations, Mikey is a big fan of comic books, TV and of course, pizza.

I would actually say that this version of Mikey is sort of a combination of multiple different takes on the character, the main ones being 03, the 07 movie, Mutant Mayhem and Batman vs. TMNT, but he also has a lot of elements typically seen with Leo, especially 2012 and even Mutant Mayhem in how he’s the oldest brother and desperately wants to keep his family safe. It is worth noting however that although Michelangelo is the oldest sibling, he isn’t the leader.

And a few extra facts:

In this iteration the turtles are able to fight pretty with much any weapon. They do still primarily fight with their usual weapons, but they can also fight with others, including each other’s. Mikey prefers to fight weapons that can incapacitate rather than kill or do serious harm. Because of this, he typically prefers to use nunchucks, kusari-fundo and tonfa. He can use a katana or other weapons, but only in emergency situations. He doesn’t like the idea of taking a life. This is mainly due to the fact that he is the oldest of his brothers and has a natural protective instinct that does not allow him to harm others (Unless they already caused harm to his family)

Splinter originally wanted for Mikey to be the next leader of the Hamato Clan, mainly because of his ability to be responsible and always keeping an eye on his younger brothers, but Mikey declined the offer, mainly because he didn’t want that level of responsibility and also because he’s not as focused on ninjutsu as he would have to be in order to be the next leader, in his exact words ‘I don’t take ninjutsu as seriously as say… Leo’. This then lead to Splinter presuming Mikey thinks Leo should be leader instead and after thinking about for a few days realised his eldest son had a point. (More about this on Leo’s post)

Like with most iterations, Mike is a big fan of comics, tv and of course, pizza. Mikey is the best cook of the family and eventually took over the responsibility of making meals for the family.

He has a scar over his eye which was actually caused by Leo when they were younger (Mikey being about 12 at the time). About a month after Leo was allowed to begin using actual swords instead of fake wooden ones, Mikey suggested they do try them out, but Leo ended up accidentally slashing Mikey’s eye. Mikey was more concerned with calming Leo down and reassuring him that he was okay (Even though at the time it was the most severe injury he’d ever gotten) while also trying to make sure Leo didn’t get into too much trouble with Splinter and telling Raph to make sure Donnie didn’t see the blood. After the injury was treated, Mikey had tried to comfort his younger brother, asking if he thought it would create a cool scar, but this only caused Leo to start crying. Years later, Mikey thinks his scar makes him look more badass, and Leo cringes whenever he brings it up.

He’s a really convincing liar, unless he’s talking to his family, since his conscience makes him really uncomfortable if he tries. He usually only lies to enemies.

He has a calico cat named Klunk. Mikey found her as a kitten in the sewers, cold, wet and hungry and took her back home with him. Shes been living with them for over a year now. She’s his baby! He loves her almost more than his brothers.

While he’s not the best of the siblings when it comes to stealth, Mikey is the best at stealing things, especially without the person noticing. When they were children they used to play a game called ‘Mask Tag’, the way the game worked was all the brothers would play tag, and whoever was ‘it’ had to steal their masks, if he manages to catch the mask, that brother would be disqualified. They would play four rounds, with each turtle getting a chance to be ‘it’ and whoever caught all the masks the quickest won the game. Mikey almost always won.

Here’s a link to his character playlist

Ideally I would like for Mikey to be voiced by Steven Yeun, who is most known for his roles as Mark Grayson from Invincible and Keith from Voltron.

[bluepeachstudios]

Favorite episodes of tmnt 2003?

OOOH that's a hard one, I love so much of 2003, but I'll try and weed out my absolute favs.

Tales of Leo (turtle tots!!!)

Lone Raph and Cub (I like this a lot because I've always seen Raph as a very untrusting guy, and suddenly he has to trust this little kid and he's just very good with kids ain't he?)

The Golden Puck (Literally just because of their outfits and the fact that Donnie was reading an encyclopedia of hockey while watching hockey. Like did Casey lure him there with promises of a hockey book??)

The City at War Arc (I love Leo and Raph's whole dynamic through this entire thing. Leo prioritizing perceived responsibility over safety, Raph prioritizing their safety over others, and how at the end Raph decides that even if he doesn't agree with Leo he's still gonna stick by his brothers)

The Big Brawl Arc (all of it the whole thing; I love how Mikey gets a chance to shine and drink in attention, how Raph goes mobster trying to find his dad, how protective Donnie is over Leo, USAGI,)

The Lesson (turtle. tots.)

Christmas Aliens (I love an episode where they show how competent Mikey is, I love them decorating for all the holidays, I love them inviting their homeless friends, I love Donnie running to his brothers to ask excitedly who wants to lick the bowl and Raph going absolutely FERAL on it, I love Leo and Usagi giving EACH OTHER SWORDS EVEN THO NOBODY ELSE IS GIVEN GIFTS ITS JUST THEM AND THE SWORDS, I love Klunk, I love all of them.)

Samurai Tourist/Ancient One (I'll put these together because they're right next to each other but these two episodes really show the peak in Leo's post-exodus mental state. I love how Usagi tries so hard to reach him and might have broken through if the assassin hadn't shown up and cemented the idea that Leo needed to get better. I love the way Splinter handles Leo hurting him; he doesn't get mad, or upset, he just realizes that Leo needs more help than he can give. I love Leo figuring out that he's his own worst enemy and starting the healing process, even if it's never shown in the show)

Prodigal Son (I KNOW IT'S ALSO WITH THE OTHER TWO BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH OKAY, it shows how much Leo has learned and healed and he doesn't panic and just detectives his way into finding his family and methodically bringing them back to a safe place and the way they're all just sitting there and WAITING for someone to find them like they have no idea what to do, and Leo facing Karai SHOWING her that he is giving her mercy despite what she did to him and it SCARES her, she doesn't mess with them again)

DNA is Thicker Than Water (huge jump I know but I had to cut down a lot already I can't just list every episode, and this one always hit me really hard.)

This ended up way longer than I meant it to be but yeah :x I like a ton of episodes for small moments, and you can basically throw on any episode and I'll be happy to watch but I think these are my absolute favs.

[mikittalabs]

ok so mikey's always the comic relief character and generally doesn't get much focus but if a tmnt iteration were to really go into his character i think i would explode. i think his most important trait is actually just how fucking nice he is to everyone no matter what (except last ronin but he gets a pass he is going through it).

he's kinda like papyrus in that regard where you just don't get to tell him who he can't like or trust. he's the turtle-shaped physical manifestation of the indomitable human spirit or something. it's been a bit since i last read idw but mikey in that is just, so goddamn empathetic and loving. he finds the joy in everything just fucking.

ARGH??? this is about fried green beans for fuck's sake!!! it's literally a joke line and yet it like. perfectly summarizes mikey's core being. or how in rise, mikey literally drags draxum into a redemption arc. 12 mikey's friendship with leatherhead means everything. and 03 mikey in the christmas episode where he adopts klunk and how he just befriends half the supporting cast on the spot.

i got nothing on the other mikey's cuz i haven't seen 87 or read mirage yet but i'm sure they will make me explode also.

[atlantahammy]

👤

👤 Are there any oc’s in your au?:

Always and of course, like... We've got: Friends Oc's Astra Starlock - Dragon Yokai (Her and Donnie's triplets) Mata Nightwalker - Kitsune Yokai Ice Illusia - Angelic Yokai More, soo much fuckin' more.

And like Technically any iterations of other characters I drag over form other versions of tmnt I guess count? IE: Jennika who'd be Frida, Venus, Bishop, Hun, Klunk, etc. Since I'd have to come up completely with how they look and act even if there is already reference material for them,

[beanstalk-nicholas]

I actually think you can have Cas pretty easily, since his confession is only right before his death and he's not in a relationship with Dean, so you wouldn't have to ship the turtles with anyone. But I also don't know who would be a good Cas candidate. And I would advise against Usagi since he is an adult with a son and that would be a weird pairing with a teen. Oh and does Mikey have Klunk or another pet variation in this version? Or is it similar to Sam who always wanted a dog but never really gets one?

USAGI IS OLDER THAN THE TURTLES AND HAS A SON??? I only know of him from “what if he was in rise” fandom posts I don’t actually know anything about him other than people like him and Leo together LOL

.... I also don’t know who Klunk is :’) i have very little knowledge of tmnt characters outside of rise (I watched other tmnt stuff as a little kid but I barely remember most of it)

And yeah although dean and cas are technically not in a relationship in the show (although my fandom goggles say otherwise lol) whoever is the cas in the au doesn’t have to be romantic with the turtles 🤔 the yearning and the tension between dean and cas is so important to me it’s just a lil hard for my brain to restructure their relationship oops. Im sure there’s a way my brain just hasn’t figured out the answers

[brightlotusmoon]

The Path/Transcript | TMNTPedia | Fandom

[Splinter sits on a chair in the center of a room. There are bookcases on either side of him filled with books and both books and scrolls are stacked around the chair. His walking stick leans against a stack of those books, and in one hand he holds a lily, in the other he holds nunchaku.]

Splinter "Lonely warrior, your path is difficult. Should we strive to be as cold-hearted as our worst enemy? Like your mighty brothers, you too are a warrior born and trained. You, though, are not as steely-edged as may be required... You follow your heart on a broken, curving road to uncertain destinations. Even so, there may still be balance for you. Will you choose wisely? With compassion? Or will you think only of yourself? We shall see."

He's talking about Mikey, by the way. Mikey is the lotus.

And then his cat dies in his arms. But he adopts one of the kittens, Klunk II.

@remmushound this is what's happening in the astral plane with the Multiverse Memories movie screen. Bayverse Splinter has some Feelings to sort through.

Ooooh, I should find the issue of City At War where The Rat King shows up during Splinter's hallucinogens, and Splinter is given a This Is Why You Suck trope speech about why he won't reach nirvana. Haha burn.

[flamingfantrash]

day 10 and 11, imagine if rise brothers had one switch to share and 2003 mikey with klunk, I grew up with 2003 tmnt, I will always love them but their head shape, i hate it

[whispering-about-the-tmnt]

Favorite and least favorite episode from the 2003 TMNT series??

Well, I'm gonna start my favorites by being predictable and saying Same As It Never Was, because... of course! But I also have a soft spot for Things Change (since it was the first episode of the series) and The Christmas Aliens (I just love the laid-back feeling of the lair scenes and Klunk!)

As for my least favorite... I always have a hard time picking my least favorite of anything, because I tend to just ignore the things that don't appeal to me, but maybe... Reflections? Not because it was bad or anything, but because it was really just a clip show. Now, I might have included some Fast Forward in the list, but I actually kind of consider that season and Back To The Sewers as their own separate entities and not part of the 2k3 series, as such. Maybe it's the tonal shift.

Anyway, thank you for the ask! That was fun!

[redstringraven]

dear tmnt wiki why is klunk listed in the villains section of the main page for 2003, inquiring minds would like to know. he’s done nothing to deserve this. he makes us the freshest of biscuits and provides the cutest of beans, and the loaf is always immaculate. i beg you to reconsider. sad cat diary.mp4

[zelgadis55]

Chapters: 35/35 Fandom: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2003), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Michelangelo (TMNT), Leonardo (TMNT), Donatello (TMNT), Raph, Casey Jones, April O'Neil, Splinter (TMNT), Hun (TMNT), Klunk (TMNT) Additional Tags: Literature, fan fiction, Drama, Dimensional Crossover, 2k12 Mikey in the 2k3 universe, Family Feels, 2k3 side of AOtGO, AOtGO, slow acceptance, Bad Dreams, Survivor Guilt, Crossover, 2k3/2k12 crossover Series: Part 1 of AOtGO Summary:

 Lost and alone in another reality, one turtle must try to find his way home. All while trying to forge a place amongst a family who lost one of their own under horrible circumstances and seemingly resents his very presence. No OC's. Set: 2k3 up until 'Good Genes'. 2k12 up until 'The Good, the Bad and Casey Jones'. 

Comments, thoughts and concrit is always welcome.

                               And One to Grow On                                               Ch 34                                            epilogue

“You've been through this,” Donnie eventually turned to Michelangelo anxiously. “Is there anything I can do to help him or make him feel more comfortable?”

Blanching at the reminder, Mikey shook his head sadly as he watched Leo from a distance. “Not really, dude,” he answered sombrely. “Nothing got through to me until it started wearing off. I mean, some distant part of me noticed I was hurt or cold or thirsty, even that my legs were killing me from just standing so still but it was like it just didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was doing what I was told, whether it was attacking you guys or standing in one spot until I was told otherwise,” he explained quietly, repeatedly pulling lightly at the elastic of his left elbow pad before releasing it to snap back against his inner elbow in a visible display of just how upset he really was about all this. "The worst part was when I started getting my mind back but my body wouldn't obey me yet.”

“I see...” Donnie muttered despondently. “In that case, perhaps it would be better if I sedate Leo after all.”

“No, don't,” Michelangelo insisted again, his demeanour seemingly distant. Yet Donnie could see his attention fixated on Leo.

“Why not?” Donnie asked gently. “Everything you just said makes me think it would be kinder to help Leo sleep through this and we know the sedative won't have any ill effects when mixed with that chemical in his system.”

Mikey shook his head and looked up at Donnie. “I dunno, dude. I just...” His voice petered out and he moved towards Leo. Upon reaching home, they'd removed Leo's mask to be able to see his eyes and Michelangelo was focused intently on whatever he could see in their dull, emotionless depths. Despite Donnie's small protest, he stepped closer. Leonardo turned his head, watching Michelangelo the way a cat watches its prey but he didn't otherwise make a move. Mikey smiled warmly down at him and reached out a hand to rest on Leo's comfortingly.

“Mikey!” Raph choked in disbelief. “Get away from him! He's dangerous!”

“It's okay,” Mikey said softly, more to Leo than to Raph or even Donnie. “Everything's gonna be okay,” he promised.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/3956152/chapters/83752957   or   https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10696178/35/And-One-to-Grow-On