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torturedblue · 9 months

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It’s the middle of the week, have some dancing turtles

Spoilers below as I gush about my Mutant Mayhem Monday experience 🤗 please feel free to gush with me I wanna hear other people’s thoughts too!

First off… When Seth wanted to put the teenager in TMNT he meant it. Like, all the versions act like teenagers, but like Nickelodeon PG stereotypical teens. MM turtles were the realest PG-13 outta pocket 21st century teenagers I’ve ever seen and I love that shit because it’s the first time I actually felt like I was around the kids in middle school and high school again with the way they talk. Kinda appreciate Superfly cussing too? Like idk it’s Ice Cube and this villain goes hard tryna kill some teenage turtles he formally saw as his lil cousins, let the grown mutant cuss

Also uh, was not expecting to be sad so early in the movie? Like I could tell from the trailers it was gon be an emotional rollercoaster but shit like ten minutes in and these turtles are fuckin depressed. And to see it really hit me because in every other version (except for Bayverse) the turtles literally never let not being part of the human world get to them. In the shows especially they’re so well adjusted and never bothered by sticking to the shadows. Then there’s Rise where they pretty much go out whenever they want and indulge in most of the human world stuff they want to. For these guys to be so stunted and desperate to have more freedom was so heart wrenching. Especially when Splinter grounds them for a whole month and the reality sinks in of how much they know the life they want isn’t an option for them

Wasn’t expecting any kind of ship or romance but that crush Leo has on April hit me like truck because…… holy crap the Leo-April pair has never been a thing? On top of that this is only the second on screen black April we’ve seen and I’ve been a Leo kinnie across the board since day one so to see this combo of my favorite character liking a black girl is making me lose my mind 🥲 and like it got me thinking of several of my favorite shows and the single characters I kin in those and if they’ve ever had black love interests and it’s just still not a common normalized thing honestly.

I’m sure a lot of people aren’t excited for the prospect of ships coming back (especially after 2012 scarred us) but as a Leo lover and black girl it got me so excited to see something like this. I’m just hopeful and optimistic they won’t mess it up like a lot of shows do. The “this is just as friends line” already makes me a little worried bc that trope never has a good history but I have faith they’ll handle things tastefully and not make it toxic or messy

MURDER THE SHREKS!

“I assume you’d wanna be on camera. ‘Cause you have, like a very camera ready look…” OKAY SMOOOOOTH LEONARDOOOOOO 👏🏽

Could not stop laughing while he was shooting his shot my face was literally donnie’s restraining myself from bursting out laughing

Just a couple of my favorite questions that April wrote down for them:

“Do you carry salmonella?” Look I still don’t know wtf salmonella is but it’s the second time a TMNT iteration has joked about it so I’m starting to think it has something specifically to do with turtles 👀

“Have you caught covid?” Oml covid exists in this world

“Are you the source of covid?” OUT OF LINE 💀

“How many people has the red bandana turtle stabbed? Does he need therapy?” Yes.

“Does sunlight cause you to burst into flames?” They’re- they’re not vampires? 😂

Leon Ardo deserves the world and whatever he wants in it give him everything 😭

I will never understand what made Donnie laugh so hard at the name Nardo other than it being because it’s his sibling and that it bothers Leo lmao

All imma say about the puke scene is that I’m glad I heard an “out of context” spoiler about it bc I knew exactly when to look away and I’m glad I did bc the scene lasted for so long??? 😀❓But hey at least I had Unwritten to listen too while I was sparing my eyes 😂

The sequence of them going around and shaking down those gangs and Superfly’s connections. BAD. ASS. And each of them got their own moments to shine? Loved it. Like they each even got to take point and have their moments where they got to kick in the door lol. And the fight scenes were just, muah. Chef’s kiss, they all looked amazing taking grown ass adults down together

Okay Splinter definitely gets the best dad award for putting together that little surprise party, with all the celebrity Chris’s and pretending to wait on them 🥺 so pure. It did make me sad the guys immediately left and you can just see such a sad dejected look on Splinter’s face, knowing he can’t provide what his kids really want or make them happy enough without it 🥲 At the very least they say thanks and that they appreciate but I would’ve at least stayed for a lil bit and gone along with it, Splinter just looked so excited about it and it was so sweet 😭

And he doesn’t even get upset though he knows they’re hiding something, he just says he’ll help them if they’ve gotten into trouble, which is something I’m sure almost every kid has wanted instead of having the kind of relationship where they’re more scared of telling their parents they messed up instead of handling it on their own

I love how musical Superfly’s family is 😂 Ray Filet just starts sing-introducing his name and Mondo and the other couple mutants when they drive with in the car trying to find music they could all sing to together 🥹 not to mention the musical references Superfly makes later that I’ll get to. “Kinda don’t wanna murder everyone on Earth, I just kinda wanna sing” Me too bruh.

Raph immediately going “goochi goochi goo” and playing peekaboo with Genghis frog is so underrated that boy has such a soft side he’s not even that afraid of showing at times, and maybe it’s continuing the trope of Raph having a soft spot for pets/animals? Who knows 😌

Yo I was kinda shook when that government guy knocked Leo out and he just fell unconscious on the ground 😶 Like we’re used to seeing the authorities be brutal especially in movies like this but that’s a whole teenager? You just assaulted a minor? 🙂 Crazy

Also I know it’s sad they got captured and drained painfully but Mikey in that scene was hilarious 😂 like even the way he was dramatically crying and Leo was just started to cry with him like “iM sO sOrRy mIkEeEeEy! 😭” gold. When one of his children is hurting Leo hurts too. One of my favorite moments 🤣

They literally started singing BTS while being tortured they’re so unserious but like in a serious way to them and I love it. Also the fact that they did it just to make Donnie feel better? So pure. Like Raph of all turtles offered to sing while being drained of blood (bc I refuse to use the m word 💀)

The way Splinter snuck in and soloed literal government soldiers single handedly? Badass. Never loved seeing a Splinter save his sons so much 🥹

“But it’s the only way we’ll be accepted.”

“No! We accept you!”

“You can come live with us! We accept you!”

“WE VIBE!”

Oml they’re so puuuuure 😭 I really thought this was gonna be a moment where the guys invite them all to come live with them and Splinter was gonna be like ‘aha 😬 whoa slow down there’ but damn nah he was just as enthusiastic as them inviting all those mutants to come live in their home forever “The more the merrier!” Like ugh he just loves finding family like Baxter Stockman and we see where the guys got their loving nature from 🥹

The amount of his soul Mikey put into that BROSEEEPH was so real like I’ve never heard the name broseph be said in any other way, I’m so glad they put that moment in there

“New York, New York!” “I’m the king of New York!”

Oml superfly’s a Broadway baby 🤗 he’s a big bad villain marching through time square and talking about King Kong but he’s fill gonna nerd out and make his musical theatre references 😂

“For once in your life you didn’t sound lame. You actually started to sound like a leader”

“That was really heartfelt Raph”

I love the Leo Raph dynamic in this movie. Like they don’t always agree or understand each other but they will show love towards one another and show mutual appreciation

Something about any of the turtles shells cracking always gets to me for some reason like those are some serious permanent injuries so I want to see if they do anything special with that in the sequel or show maybe 🤔 And I couldn’t tell if all of theirs cracked or just one, and if so which turtle it was. I think Leo or Raph. I feel like it was Leo but Raph’s are also starting to have a trend of getting cracks in their shells so 🤷🏽‍♀️

Also I do not want to judge what other people like to wear but why are Raph and Donnie the only normal dressed ones 😭 like Mikey looks like he’s going on vacation and Leo looks like he’s going to clock in at Best Buy 😂 tell me it’s because they have limited resources for clothes lmao. HE’S LITERALLY WEARING A LANYARD

Them taking off the masks was crazy honestly… like them deciding not to wear them made my brain pause until I realize they’re kids going to school now and not being ninjas all the time… they don’t need them anymore. I’m just so pleased with the fact that this movie was willing to do what all other iterations weren’t. I see why they’re getting a sequel and show already, these guys and the plot development deserve so much more exploration

Maybe I missed something in the beginning but I’m wondering where Stockman went. Like is he still in custody? Did he die? Because not seeing him again that’s what I assumed but we only saw him get arrested or whatever, so if anything I don’t get why Superfly and the others wouldn’t try to break him out 🤔 I was surprised they didn’t make him a villain though, but I’m pretty happy about him getting to be a more optimistic kind character tho

SHREDDER HAD ME SHOOK LIKE THE ARMOR ALREADY LOOKED SO COOL AND I WAS NOT EXPECTING THEM TO GET THE BIG BAD INVOLVED AHHHH I’M SO READY TO SEE THEM REACT TO THIS ANGRY GIANT TIN CAN

Although I do wonder if Shredder’s gonna have some personal gripe with them since they have a different backstory he doesn’t seem to be a part of. And shit now that they’re public and in school it’s gonna be so much easier for him to go after them 😅 pluses and minuses…

The soundtrack: golden. Cultured. Nothing but range. Goes from a 90’s rap song to Natasha Bedingfield’s soulful 2000’s song. Most movies only ever have all pop mainstream songs or only rap songs because they think they can’t mix but MM does it effortlessly. The turtles are so versatile not just with music genres but they make old and new references ‘cause they’re well rounded kings 💪🏽 Between rizz, Adele, broski, Hey Arnold, K-Pop, Ferris Bueller, etc… I mean Donnie’s literally doing the sprinkler and the funky chicken in that gif up top 😂 they’re born in 2008 I doubt any kids today know about those dances anymore

Clearly I have all the thoughts and feelings about these boys and the movie, but I think this is probably my favorite TMNT movie? I’ve loved all of them but I think this one definitely brings me the most comfort fr

#mutant mayhem spoilers #tmnt #mutant mayhem #tmnt 2023 #tmnt mutant mayhem #tmnt mm #tmntmm #mutant mayhem tmnt #tmntmm donnie #tmntmm leo #tmntmm mikey #tmntmm raph #tmnt mm splinter #superfly #tmnt superfly

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0mysticmidnight0 · 1 month

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hello there!! I just had an interesting concept for ROTTMNT!! OKOK SO! What if the rise boys had a little sister, who's almost the equivalent to Mikey, but more shy and calm, who suddenly snaps right in front of them? If you want, I have a certain scenario for this. So, let's imagine that the rise boys + their little sister we're questioning a villain or a criminal about something, (that's up to you!) then suddenly, the villain/criminal takes a look at their sister. The villain/criminal then starts to insult her in front of her brothers. This goes on until- whoosh- suddenly a shuriken barely missed their head! It was from the little sister who now snapped at the villain, not saying a single word. (i just wanted to share this funni idea to you cuz ur pretty cool, have a nice day!!)

I added a few little details and such! I hope you don't mind! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-This was your first mission with your brothers. I mean, it was a patrol. But still! They finally let you go with them! You were begging for some action. "So where are the bad guys?" You asked. -This was like the fifth time you asked and Donnie just grumbled as he explained "My dear sister, as i have been explaining since we left the lair.. There's a very small chance crime is happening as we speak. I checked before we left. It's not likely we'll-"You glared but you quickly smiled once you heard Raph say there was a few foot soldiers having a meeting.Donnie glares at Raph. -You guys sneaked in and listened. You saw them take a few dark pieces of metal. Your brothers stopped them before you could even comprehend the situation, the other foot soldiers got on a truck and escaped with the metal. -Luckily for you five, you managed to tie a foot soldier up. "Where are they taking that mystic metal?!" "Don't make me go Dr. Delicate Touch on you!" Donnie stars pointing his Tech bo at the foot soldier. "Guys! We'll never get any info like this!"

-You watched your brothers start threatening the foot soldier as they stay quiet. You hear the foot soldier chuckle darkly. "Who's this newbie? Weakling. Raph glares at the foot soldier. "You have no right to say that about our sister!" He growls. I bet you only showed up now cause you were such a wuss. You need your brothers to protect you. Pathetic-" The foot soldier gets cut off with a shuriken barely missing his head. "Oh, i missed." you sighed.

-Your brothers blinked a few times before they could process what happened. (Their reaction was the photo above!) At the end of the night, you guys weren't able to get the metal since your brothers knocked the guy out. Bonus! (Aftermath) "I wasn't actually trying to hit him!!" "That was risky!" "Give her a break, big guy. She showed that guy whats up!" "Don't encourage this behavior, Nardo!" "Why? I would've done worse!" "Why am i the only one getting in trouble?! You guys were the ones that knocked him out!" Hope you enjoyed from yours truly, MysticMidnight.

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bathomet-writes · 1 year

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science, baby!

summary: You and Donnie were intellectual equals, him with his inventions and you with your college studies. When you spend the afternoon studying in his lab, you can't deny the chemistry you two share.

relationship: Donnie x F!reader

warnings: romantic, fluff, humor, awkward flirting, love confessions, kissing

word count: 7,637

author's note: an anonymous request!! hope u enjoy!! 💖💖 (just fyi there's brief mentions about halfway through of...bewbs...if ur unfomfy with that i'm sorry!!)

Donatello knew he wasn’t good with feelings. He’d been getting better at processing and expressing them only recently, no thanks to Dr. Feelings. He supposed it also came from just getting older, interacting with more people and such. But just when he thought he was becoming slightly better at getting a handle on his emotions, there was you.

You were a fly in the ointment, a wrench in the plans. Everytime Donnie thought about you, he got irrationally annoyed. It made no sense.

“She is such a know-it-all, and I would know.”

You were one of April’s classmates from college that had slowly been integrated into their little social circle over the last couple of years. Donnie was usually either indifferent or mildly suspicious of most people April introduced his family to, even if she did have good taste in friends. But you had gotten into his good graces only because he found out that you were in the STEM field. You were a biochem major, or was it clinical laboratory science?

He should probably know at this point, you were talking about your school work a lot more lately. The point being that you were at least a bit of an equal to him, being into science. An inferior science, but still.

“Ugh…” Donnie sighed, removing his battle shell.

After a long day of saving the city from villainous teen hackers and general badassery, he needed to unwind. The seclusion of his lab called out to him like a siren song as he shuffled past the living area of the lair. From the couch, Leo gave him a lazy wave of his foot as a greeting.

“Donald.”

“Nardo.” He grunted.

Leo immediately notices the absence of Donnie’s battle shell, quirking his eyes up from his comic book. He must have had a long day if he didn’t even bother waiting until he was in his own room to take it off.

“If you’re going to your lab you’re gonna want to stay decent. There’s a weirdo in there doing homework.” He smirks.

Donnie stops dead in his tracks, his hand hovering over the security keypad of his door.

“Pardon?”

“Relax, it’s just Y/N. She asked if you would mind if she used your space for a while.”

With gritted teeth, Donnie slowly spun his head around to face Leo. He was a pretty reasonable guy, but his lab wasn’t exactly a study hall. There were rules, we live in a society, you don’t just go into another man’s lab when he’s not around.

“I do mind, actually!” He shouts, nearly spitting. “How did you even open the door?”

“That’s what we said! And she just let herself in.” Going back to his comic, Leo slumps down into the recesses of the couch.

Donnie’s eye twitched so hard he looked like he might bust a blood vessel.

“Fascinating.” He growls.

Alright, that tears it. You were officially the most annoying person he knew. Donnie quickly punched in the code, completed the retinal scan, and charged into his lab to see you sitting there. And in his chair of all things. There were plenty of stools and benches around, but of course, you just had to be sitting in his gamer chair.

You straighten as soon as you hear the door slide open, the mechanical hiss loud enough to hear even with your headphones in.

“Oh, there you are! How was your day?” You take out your earbuds and regard Donnie with as much friendliness as you can muster. You had a feeling he would be a little peeved seeing you like this.

Unfortunately, your prediction was correct. Donnie calmly steps forward after setting his shell on the rack on the wall. With a sharp inhale and his hands folded behind his back, he opens his eyes.

“Doing a little studying, huh? Some light schoolwork?”

With a soft chuckle, you spin back around to the work table. You almost forgot you still had your thumb on the plunger of your pipette. Carefully, you deposit the rest of the sample into the tube.

“Yup,” you chirp.

“Mmhmm. No, that’s great. You comfortable? Could I get you a pillow or a glass of water? Perhaps a more ergonomic chair with custom Corinthian leather upholstery?”

You detect the thick sarcasm in Donnie’s voice, smiling to yourself. You remain focused on your work however, you were almost done anyway. Without looking up, you sense Donnie standing right behind you, practically breathing down your neck.

“Is that what I’m feeling? You spare no expense, Don. It’s so luxurious.” You sigh, shimmying your shoulders.

Donnie clears his throat before grabbing the top of his chair to spin you around. He wanted to look you in your cute, dumb face if he was going to lecture you. Wait, your face wasn’t cute. Even if you were wearing green-tinted protective goggles. Lab safety looked incredibly attractive on anyone! But with the way the subtle purple hue of his LED lights hit you…

“What are you doing in my lab, using my equipment?”

Dang, you were even wearing a lab coat. He secretly hoped that it was one of his that he kept in the closet with this other spare– No, enough of that. He was mad at you.

“I’m using my own, thank you very much. And I needed to get out of the lab on campus. It’s way too crowded right now with finals and everything. Plus it stinks of chemicals.”

Smiling sweetly up at Donnie, you give him a gentle pat on his hand to dismiss him. He sputters watching you angle your foot onto the floor to twist the chair back around.

“And now my fortress of solitude will as well. Thanks for that.” He makes a point to sniff indignantly at you and the bevy of chemicals you had lying around.

“Anytime.”

You screw on the cap of the test tube, moving onto the next one on the rack. It’s a little awkward with latex gloves on, and you feel yourself fumble grabbing the new tube. Maybe it was just nerves from being watched by Donnie. It did feel sort of hot in here all of the sudden.

Peeking over your work, you see Donnie pull up another chair across from you at the table. He looked pretty steamed, almost like an angry tea kettle the way he was glowering at you. Without thinking about it, you find yourself smiling again. You quickly try and bite at your lip to cover it up. You at least had enough self-awareness to know that you had a bit of a crush on Donnie. Sure, he was kind of a control freak. And somewhat graceless when it came to matters of the heart, no matter how much he insisted that he wasn’t.

He was quirky. Well, more like a weirdo with a god complex. But you were sort of the same.

You both had a lot of things in common, a passion for science notwithstanding. When you first met him, you just assumed he was yet another aloof bad boy-type. You’ve been down that road before, and it never ended well for anybody involved. Not to sound like a total stereotype, but there was a little more to Donnie than all that. It just took years of wearing him down to see his true nature. He was fun, and funny! Didn’t help that you found him hot too.

Donnie’s flat articulation makes you almost drop your test tube when he finally speaks up.

“You’re lucky the ventilation system I installed in here is top-of-the-line.” He sighs, leaning back into his chair.

He thankfully didn't notice your flub as he looked up at the ceiling. You try and find something witty to say back, but you come up empty. Instead, you reach your hand out to the box you need from across the table.

“Pipette tip?”

Donnie looks back down, his drawn-on eyebrows furrowing. “The what?”

You huff, pointing to the container right beside him. You would get it yourself, but you were a little preoccupied. Plus you had tragically short arms.

Donnie knows this as well and gives you a smug smirk. His hand comes up and flutters over the box, teasing you.

“These?” He leers. “Why don’t you just…”

He deliberately slides them over to you. It’s a painfully slow joke that makes you blush a bit. You shoot your arm out again, only with a little more gusto.

“TODAY, PLEASE!” You scream, startling Donnie.

He jumps and pushes the box all the way over. “My god, woman. As I was saying–“

You frown as he tries to bore you with more shop talk. Donnie just could pass up an opportunity to brag about his lab and how much better he was than you. He thought he was better than most people, to be fair.

Donnie was annoying sometimes, but you much preferred hanging out with him than the other students over at Eastlaird. The other clinical laboratory majors were mostly sorority girls who never talked to you, which was fine. You didn’t really have anything in common with them other than your career interests. The chemistry and biology students weren’t much better though. They were a more diverse mix of people, but they were so stuck-up. Even more than Donatello. College would be much more enjoyable if he was there with you, but moments like these would just have to do.

You finish up your pipetting before looking around for the trash can. You swore you put it right by your feet, but you can’t find it anywhere. Delegating Donnie as your temporary lab assistant, you call out to him again.

“Biohazard Bin.” You announce.

He blinks, spinning around in his chair. He was mindlessly scrolling on his phone, so he didn’t really hear you.

“Biohazard, what now?”

You get up from his gamer chair and it slides out from under you. “Unless you want infectious diseases all over the place?”

Finally, Donnie gets up as well and helps you search around. How was it that you were able to lose all your stuff in his lab all the time? He’s found plenty of articles of clothing of yours strewn about after you left the lair before. In spite of himself, always managed to gather them up and keep them in a little “lost and found” laundry basket he put by his door. You both knew it was only for you, and you actually found it kind of sweet.

With a simple look beneath the work table, Donnie finds the red trash bin lying underneath. Of course it was.

“Here you are.” He grumbles, kicking it over to you.

You stop it with your foot before it topples over, glaring at him. Donnie sure was being a little stinker today. “Thank you.”

Carrying it back over to the table, you sweep your arm and push all your refuse into the bin. You place it on the floor and move to make the last couple of notes in your lab book. It was mostly full of bored doodles, but it had all your observations and measurements listed out for your reference. Curiously, Donnie walks over to you and leans over your shoulder. He was eager to see what you were even doing, not bothering to just ask you himself.

To his horror, your notebook looked like a mess. The drawings were fine. They were even a little adorable. But your hastily-written out equations were so…confusing to him. You didn’t even use numbers half the time! You just drew out weird shapes and stuff in place of numerals, it was mind-boggling. He loses his cool when he sees you write out ‘2 + 2 = 6.’

You snicker, feeling his head inch closer to yours. You knew that would get him.

“You’re not even— ugh! You’re not doing it right!” He grabs at your notes before being stopped by your hand on his wrist.

“Do not rip it up.” You warn.

“I was simply going to crumple it up and toss it into the biohazard bin.” He sneers, pulling his hand away.

“How would you know anyway? Medical science is my domain.”

You slide past him and grab for your backpack, slamming your notebook shut and dumping it in before he could look at it anymore. You definitely wouldn’t want him to see all the other doodles you did in the margins. There were a couple silly drawings you did of him in there, and you would probably combust on the spot if he were to look at them.

“Even an idiot could see that your math is all over the place. Hell, I don’t even know what to call it. These are the ramblings of an insane person.” Donnie points over to your backpack as you tuck it under the table with the rest of your equipment.

“You probably don’t even use that calculator of yours. The Texas Instruments are wasted on you!”

He seethes thinking about how lucky you were to be able to go to school when he couldn’t. He’d looked into online classes, at your behest, but it just wouldn’t be the same. He needed to learn, but he also needed to be around peers. People who shared his love of science, to rub elbows with the academic elites. Donnie really did crave more in-person social interaction, but what with the whole…turtle situation, among other things, it just wasn’t possible.

“Listen, Dee. You do things your way, I do them mine. Who cares about how naturally attuned I am to the natural world and how I don’t need to do fancy equations to do….science?” You wiggle your eyebrows at him mockingly.

“You’re so right. I don’t care.” He turns, crossing his arms over his chest.

You mirror his pose. “Really?”

“Nope.”

You walk around Donnie as he stands there, eyes shut in defiance. You can’t help the way your gaze wanders over him, taking in his body language. You found yourself sometimes ogling him and his impressive physique lately. He was mostly brains, but Donnie sure didn’t slack in the brawns department as well.

Internally, Donnie notices you scrutinizing his form. He chuckles to himself, of course you were taken by his appearance. Who wouldn’t be? He usually prided himself and other people based purely on the mind. Personality and intellect were far more important than physical appearances, but he couldn't deny that he thought you were kind of hot. You know, just because he appreciated you in an aesthetic sense. Nothing more.

“Dost I detect a bit of jealousy, fair maiden?” You stop in front of Donnie, bending slightly forward to get a better look at his face. You can see the corner of his lips move a bit.

“Okay, now you’re just making fun of me.”

His eyes pop open when he realizes you’re but inches away from his face. Taking a shaky step back, Donnie attempts to tamp down the blush that tries creeping into his cheeks.

You yawn and stretch, an even expression on your face to juxtapose his flustered one. “Not making fun, just forming a hypothesis.”

Shrugging off the lab coat, you carefully fold it up and hand it over to Donnie. A bit taken aback, he quietly takes it from you. He didn’t think he was right about you borrowing his clothes, but you did. And so casually too. You even folded it up the way he liked it, with the sleeves wrapped around the coat and everything.

There it was again. Annoyance bubbling up in his gut. It felt a little more like butterflies in his stomach, but Donnie didn’t know how else to describe the emotions he was feeling right now.

“Uh-huh.”

Donnie gulps, feeling unusually sheepish out of nowhere. You borrowed and used his stuff all the time, even being so bold as to enter his lab when he wasn’t there. He should still be mad at you, but he wasn’t. He swore you were really testing his bad-boy resolve right now, especially with the way you so easily moved around his space. Like you practically lived there. You opened up several drawers and cabinets to replace other materials you ‘borrowed’ from him, mostly just the protective gear like goggles and gloves.

Jeez, he felt like he was going soft. Donnie places his lab coat on another counter to hover behind you again. He watches on, almost admiring as you pack up the last of your lab equipment. He recognized most of the materials, but there was one thing that looked unfamiliar. Some kind of plate with an erlenmeyer flask.

Sucking up his pride, Donnie pokes at your shoulder from behind.

“What’s that?” He whispers.

His voice was so quiet, so polite. It kind of threw you for a loop. Turning around, you give him a small frown. “What’s what?”

“That. That thing.”

He points over your shoulder, and you feel your frown grow into a smirk. Maybe you could tease him like he did to you earlier. Feigning naiveté, you look him in the eye.

“I’m kinda busy here, Don.”

He heaves, picking up the plate and shoving it into your smug face.

“You know what I’m talking about! This thing that spins the liquid? I ascertain that it’s some kind of magnetic stirring device.”

Donnie moves it around in his hands, regarding with a cold, scientific stare. It doesn’t really do much to cover up the blush forming on his face. You smirk even harder, lowering his hand.

“The…magnetic stirrer?”

His eyebrows shoot up, looking from you back down to the plate. It wasn’t that straight-forward, was it? You looked pretty serious so Donnie takes you at your word.

“I see.” He cocks his head to the side.

You feel your heartbeat thrum in your chest watching him. He looked so enraptured with his head tilted like that, almost like a dog when it hears a new sound. If Donnie had ears, they would most certainly be perked up. You don’t bother to hide the warm smile that forms as you continue to enlighten him.

“You just put a magnetic doohickey in the flask and turn it on. I like it when the little tornado happens.” You grin, spinning your finger around to illustrate your point.

“Yeah, that part’s pretty cool.” Donnie nods and hands you the plate while holding onto the flask. The so-called ‘magnetic doohickey’ was just a little pill knocking around the bottom, and he spins it around in his hand, watching it clink against the glass.

You stand there for a second, him looking at the flask and you looking at him. You were both equally captivated.

After a while, Donnie realizes that you were probably waiting on him to hand you the flask. You were staring at him, after all. What other reason would you have to do that?

“Sorry,” he coughs, handing it back.

He looks you in the eye as you take it from him, your love-struck gaze nearly knocking him on his ass. He’s never seen that look on you before? At least, he didn’t think so. Donnie wasn’t that great at reading facial expressions either, but with your tinted cheeks and lowered eyelids, you were either drunk or coming down with something.

His heart dances in his ribcage as you walk past him, leaving him absolutely dumbfounded. You get even more comfortable when you take down your hair that you had pulled up into a loose bun. Your locks were a bit messy, but to Donnie they looked so inviting. He wondered how it would feel to touch your hair, just to see how it felt. For…scientific purposes.

“Enough science for today. I wanna relax…” You sigh, looking around the lab. “You don’t mind if I still keep floating around your space?”

You looked back to see Donnie absentmindedly wringing his hands together in worry. Or was he rubbing his palms together menacingly? You couldn’t really tell.

Donnie stammers a bit before shoving his hands into his pockets. Or at least at the side of his legs. He kind of forgot that he didn’t have any pockets. It was just the best bad-boy pose he could think of on the spot. Eventually, his hands flounder about until they land behind his head.

“Do what you will.” He tosses a lazy look your way before marching away.

“Sure.” You chuckle, strolling over to follow him.

You were used to following behind Donnie, you always kind of felt like you were trying to catch up with him most of the time anyway. His legs were just longer than yours, giving him a quicker gait than you. You were physically different in a lot of ways, obviously. Intellectually, you felt a little bit behind him as well. Sure, you were smart. You wouldn’t be where you were in college if you weren’t. But more than that, the fact that Donnie saw you as that much of an equal that he let you into his lab so much, let you watch him work on his own projects, it was secretly one of your favorite things you got to do with him.

You would never tell him that, of course. But you were grateful for Donnie taking the time to show you so much of his private life. It was a little piece of him that not many people got to see. You looked up to him, for better or for worse.

Walking behind him, you find yourself in a completely new environment. You knew he was expanding his lab all the time, slowly renovating more and more of the abandoned subway tunnels that the turtles called home. But this room was practically a greenhouse! There were countless plants covering the walls, pots and rows of soil laid out in a very organized fashion. So Donnie-like, this couldn’t have been anyone else’s handiwork.

“Didn’t know I was into gardening, huh? I know, it’s a bit of a shock to most people.” He smiles and stretches his arms out, presenting his organic creations to you. “Behold, my oasis.”

You have half a mind to tease him about it a little. You really didn’t have any idea that he had a passion for plants. You expected to see a man-eating plant, “Little Shop of Horrors” or something like that. But, it was just a regular garden. You marvel at the wide variety of produce he was growing.

“I didn’t know you had such a green thumb. Well, greener.”

You spin around, taking in all the sights. There were pumpkins, watermelons, carrots, anything and everything you could imagine. Maybe you wouldn’t ever have to go to the grocery store again.

“Isn’t it magnificent? I’m most proud of the tomatoes, I think they’re just starting to ripen.” Donnie smiles, leading you over by the small of your back to the planter on your left.

You don’t miss the little bit of physical touch he gives you. Back when you both weren’t as good of friends, you sort of kept a tally of how many times Donnie would instigate a handshake, a hug, anything physical really. You told yourself it was simply for research, but you knew you were lying.

“Ohh, nice.” You coo, looking over at the tomatoes. Most were still in the early stages, too small and too green to eat just yet. But there were a couple that were ready. You poke at one hanging on the vine.

“I need to adjust the humidity though. It’s getting a little too hot for the poor things.”

Donnie taps at his tech gauntlet, adjusting the temperature in the room remotely. Looking down at his wrist, you get a sneaky idea. You haven’t really tried outright flirting with him before, content to just daydream and doodle your crush away. You thought it would go away eventually if you just ignored it. But, it didn’t. And you wouldn’t know if it was worth it or not if you didn’t at least try.

While he’s still distracted by his screen, you casually try to lean up carefully against the planter. Placing your hands upon the curve of your waist, you playfully wink at Donnie when he looks back up.

“Aren’t I a hot little tomato?”

You see several thoughts flash behind Donnie’s eyes as he looks you up and down. He looks almost frantic, before finally settling on abject disgust.

“That is vile.”

Not one to pass up a challenge, you level him with a little kissy face and pop your foot. “Hey, I remember someone mentioning they had a childhood crush on Cheery Tomato.”

Donnie purses his lips. There you went, being annoying again. Even he knew flirting when he saw it right in front of his face. Yes, he did have a proclivity for people who were cute and mean. He hated to admit it, but you fell right into that category.

“Perhaps I did.” He admits, rolling his eyes.

You strike another pose, jutting out your hips to emphasize their presence. “And Atomic Lass?”

“My queen…” Donnie sighs, clutching at his chest dramatically. He couldn’t deny his history of fictional crushes.

“Who would have guessed you had strange tastes?” You drop the coquettish act and go back to a neutral stance.

Judging by the way Donnie was looking at you, with a little less revulsion, you figure that your attempt to flirt wasn’t a total wash. You’d have to keep trying though, you definitely needed more data points. You watch as he briefly attends to his other plants, checking their water levels and taking notes on their growth.

“Be that as it may, you are not a quote, unquote ‘a hot little tomato.’ Tomatoes aren’t that attractive of a fruit.”

As he moves to the pumpkins on the ground, he pulls out a piece of tailor’s tape to measure their circumferences. If he was going to grow the world’s largest gourd, he’d have to step up his game. Thinking about plant food and soil salinity management was the only thing keeping him from getting worked up about the way you were standing there. With your stupid, attractive hips and your sultry ways. Why was he so weak to your feminine wiles?

“So what fruit am I exactly? A sassy strawberry? A plucky peach? A beguiling blueberry?” You crouch down next to him, playfully bumping his shoulder.

His eyelids drop looking over at you. Two could play at that game.

After giving some serious thought, Donnie tried to compare you to the most applicable fruit. The most obvious answer to him would probably be something more unconventional, like a passionfruit. You were very passionate about most things, be it schoolwork or your shared interests. It was honestly the most attractive thing about you. But that would be too easy.

“You’re…much more of a meddlesome melon.” He smirks, rubbing at his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

Your sensuous smile drops as soon as the words leave his mouth. If there was a sound effect to encapsulate the mood right now, it would be a pane of glass breaking. Or a car crashing.

You stand up so quickly you almost fall over. “A MELON?”

Somehow unaware of your shock, Donnie goes on. He felt Don Suave all of the sudden, a new twinkle in his eye.

“Yes. Sweet, edible, fleshy.” He purrs, shooting you a lurid smirk.

Did he really not realize what he was saying right now? Unconsciously, your eyes drop to look down at your chest, then back up at Donnie.

“I beg your pardon?” You inquire. You’re almost impressed by how shameless he was being. Almost.

Once again, you see Donnie try and put the pieces together in his mind. Slowly, it dawns on him. The inherent insinuation, the unintentional innuendo. For a split second, his eyes follow yours, down to your–

“Gah—! T-That’s not what I meant to say! I guess my mind just kind of went to—“

He puts his hands out, trying his best to placate you. But he quickly pulls them away, seeing how he was accidentally gesturing toward your chest. His face goes bright red, rivaling the hue of his prized tomatoes.

You blush, covering yourself up. “Stop talking about my boobs, dude!”

You’re not really angry with him, and you can’t help but start to laugh. Especially seeing the terrified expression on his face as he runs away from you, back out into the lab.

“FORGET I SAID ANYTHING!”

“Pfft��!” You chuckle, chasing after him. “No wait, come back!”

You have to book it to catch up with him again. You’re afraid you might have traumatized him by the way he’s curled up underneath his work table. You get on your knees again and crawl toward him. Like a feral cat, he scrambles away before you get too close.

“Well, it’s been nice chatting with you but, gosh, would you look at the time? I really should be getting back to…science stuff.” He clasps his hands together and paces around to the other side of the table.

You poke your head out and look up. “Science stuff?”

“Yes, yes. Now off you go!”

Taking the opportunity, Donnie grabs you by your hands and lifts you off the ground, leading you toward the doors. You gasp, feeling him so easily move you around.

“I can do science stuff too, y’know. Why can’t we do it together?”

Donnie gives you an exasperated look before picking up the pace. “Because you’ll distract me.”

“Oh, will I? Are my melons really that meddlesome?” You make yourself into deadweight, causing Donnie to actually use some force to pick you back up.

With an impish smile, you watch as his face contorts with barely contained rage.

“I will resort to physical violence.”

“I would love to see you try.”

Oh, you were really working on his last nerve. With no hesitance, Donnie lifts you up by your wrists and spins you out into the middle of the lab. Your head swims a bit at the sudden motion and you start to see stars. You hear Donnie grab for his tech bo and switch it to its full length, readying himself into an offensive position.

If Donnie couldn’t best you with a battle of wits, he would just have to prove himself in an actual battle.

“We may be evenly matched in terms of intelligence, but so soon you forget that I am also a ninja and a master of the mystic arts?”

He smirks, challenging you. After you come back to your senses, you take a moment to see if he was joking or not. You usually knew when Donnie was serious, and he seemed pretty serious. You didn’t have any ninja skills to speak of, so you were suspicious. He wouldn’t attack someone so cute and defenseless, would he?

“You’re all talk, purple. Let’s see if you can back it up!” You shout, shifting your foot placement to blade yourself to him.

Donnie and you stare daggers into one another, waiting for someone to make the first move. Looking at you draw your hands up into fists, he gets a much-needed reality check. He wouldn’t actually use his bo on you. Even he was above something so boorish.

However, he wasn’t above using other means of subduing you. His eyes flit over to your backpack, then back up to his own collection of chemicals. He quickly pads over to his stockpile, throwing the cabinet open and cackling like a mad scientist.

“What the–?” You turn your head, watching him rifle through a bunch of unlabeled containers.

“I’ll show you. I can create bioweapons just as good as you.” He chuckles, his eyes going dark and sinister.

You suddenly feel yourself become a little threatened. But, you try to keep your cool. Surely he wasn’t going to do weird experiments on you or anything. Not that you wouldn’t let him, in a much less hostile context.

Huh, where did that come from? You shake your head and turn to fully face him.

“Oh yeah? What are you gonna do, make elephant toothpaste?” You joke.

Donnie chuckles lowly, taking two unmarked plastic jugs in his hands. He didn’t really remember what was what in his cabinet, he was still in the process of alphabetizing everything by elemental names. That wouldn’t stop him from unleashing a little bit of hell on you though.

“Mere child’s play! Watch as I combine a simple pnictogen hydride with some sodium hypochlorite, and…”

Your eyes go wide, and Donnie reaches for an empty beaker at his desk. For a smart guy, he was honestly kind of stupid. You step forward and put your hands on his his, stopping him before he manages to pour the liquids.

“Wait, that’s ammonia and bleach.” You frown.

Donnie shakes his head and chuckles at you again, a little more condescendingly. “You’re quite astute, but I suppose the layman's terms are more your speed.”

Okay, maybe you would die, but you really wanted to punch him right now.

“You’re making chloramine gas.”

He looks down at the containers for a moment before his eyes slowly meet yours. “Which is…?”

“Donnie,” you sigh. “It’s mustard gas.”

You mourn the fact that Donnie’s education was basically all self-driven and restrained mostly to what he could find on the internet. But you thought it was kind of common knowledge that you should never mix household chemicals like that. Donnie’s irises shrink, suddenly cognizant that he was this close to making a lethal gas.

“…Ah.”

He stills, about to put the ammonia and bleach away.

Then you both watch in slow motion as the tiniest drops from each container spill out and drop into the beaker. With lightning-fast speed, you launch yourself onto the table and shove the entire piece of furniture out of the way. With a loud crash, the beaker shatters onto the floor and the two potentially deadly drops land somewhere on your shirt. In your haste, you fall unceremoniously to the floor as well.

“Oww…” You hold your hand, a sharp pain shooting up your right arm.

“JESUS CHRIST!” Donnie shouts, picking you up and moving you to the counter.

He makes quick work looking you over, assessing your injury and making sure you’re not too hurt.

“Look up, how many fingers am I holding up?” He points up all six of his fingers to wiggle in your face.

“Less than ten, like usual. I’m fine, I promise.” You smile, shaking out your wrist. “Just landed a little wrong. But what about you? Were you trying to kill us all?”

Donnie sputters, bringing his hands down to look at them. They did almost kill you, even if it was by accident.

“I don’t understand. How did I not realize?”

Sometimes, Donnie couldn’t see the forest for the trees. He was so preoccupied with flexing his stupid knowledge on scientifically accurate chemical names that he didn’t even realize what he was doing. His hands drop to his sides, feeling positively shameful.

You feel your heart sink a bit seeing him so dejected. With a gentle kick to his side, you try and console him.

“Because the only thing bigger than your brain is your ego.” You quip.

When Donnie doesn’t reciprocate your joke, you realize maybe now wasn’t the best time for it.

He rubs at the side of his arm, too embarrassed to even look you in the eye.

Sighing, moves to sit beside you on the edge of the counter. “I guess I just have a little too much intelligence.”

You give him another little nudge, bumping your foot against his.

“Not a whole lot of wisdom.”

Finally, Donnie looks up at you. The DND reference isn’t lost on him, and he smiles a bit.

“Sorry for almost killing you. I want to say it won’t happen again, but…” He scratches at the side of his face awkwardly.

“It’s fine. I’ve accidentally made poison plenty of times. Just let me handle the chemicals from now on, okay?”

You reach your hand up and stop just before you touch Donnie’s back. You knew he was really sensitive about people messing with his natural, leathery shell. You don’t want to make the comparison to him having a tough exterior that housed a soft, sensitive inner self, but you can’t deny that it’s an apt comparison.

When Donnie realizes that you’re asking for his permission, he gives you a small nod. He’s actually a little touched that you’re being so delicate with him, when all he’s done is be unnecessarily rough and callous with you.

With the lightest touch, you pat him on the top of his shell. The velvety, slightly ridged texture was such a contrast to his brothers’. It feels a little weird, but nice.

Those wretched butterflies return to Donnie’s stomach, as well as the blush on his cheeks. He couldn’t really refute it any longer. Now that he was feeling you pet him so tenderly, he realized the answer that was staring him in the face all along.

He had a crush on you. A massive, embarrassing, debilatating crush.

After a minute or two of Donnie staring unabashedly at you, you try to break the tension.

“What?”

Without breaking eye contact, Donnie murmurs softly to you. “Nothing.”

You pull your hand away and place it back on your lap, twiddling your thumbs. You look around the lab, thinking of how best to navigate this situation. Donnie was giving you major heart eyes right now, even if he didn’t realize he was. Maybe you would have to be the one to take the lead on this.

“Seems to be a lot of chemistry going on around here lately.” You raise your hand up and cough into it, peeking back over to Donnie.

“C-Chemistry?” He stutters.

In his head, a million thoughts raced. Donnie had an internal dialogue with himself, trying to figure out the next course of action.

Oh my god. Did you just stutter?

No, this is not happening. Keep it together, man.

This is just playful banter. Don’t think about it like flirting. Now say something, anything!

After the voices in his head quiet down, Donnie takes a deep breath and says the first thing that comes to his mind.

“You’re pretty.”

You stop looking around the room, angling your head back to him. “What?”

Without thinking, Donnie tries to backtrack. He did think you were pretty, he really did. But playing the role of the emotionally distant loner just wouldn’t let him give you a genuine compliment.

“Pretty dumb! Hahaha, just kidding! Unless?” He spits, folding his arms and laughing awkwardly.

Okay, anything but that.

You watch as sweat begins to bead on his face, almost making his bandana darken in color. Donnie was a bit of a novice when it came to flirting, apparently. It was sweet.

“You’re pretty dumb too. Pretty and dumb.” You smile, scooching closer to him.

Abort mission. Disengage, Donatello. Don’t make it worse!

Donnie unfolds his arms and waves his hands around, defaulting to lecturing you instead of acknowledging your flirty comment. Info-dumping was sort of his only form of defense at this point.

“Love is just a mix of dopamine and oxytocin. Therefore, I am not in love with you. I am just feeling a chemical imbalance within my brain.” He states matter-of-factly.

With a mock gasp, you put your hand to your mouth. “That’s awful! Do you think it’s contagious?”

Donnie’s eyes search your face, not reading your tone at all. “That’s not— do you not know how the hypothalamus works?”

You’ve had just about enough of this cute charade, and you slide until your thighs are flush with one another. It shuts Donnie up completely, and your eyes meet.

With a cheeky smile, you lean even closer to his flustered face. “I don’t think you know how any of this works.”

Donnie’s face shifts in a multitude of shades, going from jade to scarlet. It’s a little weird to see a turtle blush, but you kind of liked it. But you didn’t want to torture the poor guy any longer, deciding to just cut right to the chase.

“For your own sake, I’m going to say this as plainly as possible: I have a crush on you.”

“Oh.” Donnie’s eyebrows raise. He’s a bit astonished, but he’s grateful for your straightforwardness.

So far so good, now to go in for the kill.

“May I kiss you? On the mouth. Sorry, I don’t know why I had to specify that.”

You blush in spite of yourself. You were usually pretty smooth, but for some reason Donnie’s dopey look was making you weak in the knees.

Donnie wets his lips a bit, growing slightly more aware of how dry they felt.

“Maybe just…mouth adjacent? To start with.” He shudders.

Donnie couldn’t believe it, but he felt all the tell-tale signs. Heart palpitations, limbs tingly and numb. He thought he was having some sort of episode.

“Sure,” you smile.

As you close the gap between you two, you make sure to just narrowly avoid hitting his lips. You gently place a kiss upon his cheek, lingering there for a bit longer than you ought to. To your delight, you feel Donnie’s tense shoulders immediately relax when your lips touch his skin.

“My god.” He sighs, leaning into you.

With thinking, Donnie starts to twist his head around. He thought he would be able to control himself from jumping straight into it, but your warm breath on his cheek was just too much.

As he turns his head, you move yours as well.

“Wow, I didn’t think I was that good.” You chuckle against his chin.

Donnie doesn’t even have enough of his faculties to give you a snide retort, too blissed out to speak. He somehow blushes even harder.

“Aah…” A soft sigh was all he could muster.

Jesus. Donnie was kind of cute when he was shy. Taking his silence as your okay to keep going, you cover every inch of his face in kisses. He never said you couldn’t smooch him multiple times. You grab him by the sides of his headgear and plant a couple more onto the vast expanse of his forehead, making him giggle.

“Ghehehe!” He chortles.

You stop, pulling away to look him in the eye. It seems that it took you both by surprise.

His eyes then begin to shift around nervously. “Uh…I didn’t mean it.”

“Aww!” You gush, smooching him on his snout. “Muah, muah, muah!”

“Hey, quit it already!”

Donnie shakes you off of him before pulling your hands away. He doesn’t realize the position he’s put you in, holding your wrists to the side and allowing him to tower over your form. You have to crane your neck just to maintain eye contact.

“Sorry, too much?” You give him a lopsided smile. “I didn’t realize you were such a hothouse flower.”

He nearly chokes hearing you call him such a delicate term. But you were unfortunately right, Donnie was vulnerable around you. More vulnerable than he let himself be around anyone else. His annoyance fades away looking down at your slightly flushed expression.

“It's weird, you’re like a whole person, who likes me…and I didn't create you in a lab. You’re real.” He smiles, a genuine show of his true emotions.

“What was that?” You wouldn’t just let him slip in that bit without a questioning look.

With a small chuckle, he drops your wrists. “Nothing.”

You absentmindedly bring your hands up, your fingertips brushing against your lips. You just realize you just confessed to Donnie, after nearly years of pining after him. Where did you stand now?

Donnie, feeling a little more comfortable, lets his head fall a bit. His forehead knocks against yours. He didn’t know how, but he figured he should probably give you some sort of response.

“I don’t hate you.” He hums into your hair, covertly reveling in your scent. “I mean, you know…”

You smirk. “Not exactly the declaration of love I was expecting. I suppose I should take that as a compliment though.”

“That’s the idea.” He sighs, snaking his arm around your waist.

You don’t mind Donnie sublimating a more traditional ‘I love you too’ with some physical touch. Maybe that was just how he communicated his feelings that were too big to put into words. You understood, without having to tease him too much. You’re happy just to be this close to him.

You make the move to place a hand on his upper thigh and return his embrace, hoping your touch was enough to tell him he was doing just fine. He still seemed a little nervous about holding you like this.

“I’ve never given you a compliment before.” Donnie muses to himself, moving his other hand up to pet your head. “Now that I think about it.”

“That’s absurd, of course you have!”

You try to list out an example…but you honestly couldn’t think of any. Your mouth opens and closes dumbly, making Donnie laugh.

“See? I’m bad at this.”

While he’s preoccupied with his private pity party, you reach over to his other leg and swing Donnie so that his legs lay on top of yours, effectively making him sit on your lap. The audacious move startles him, and his arms wrap around your neck seemingly by themselves.

“If I may be so bold…” He blushes, pushing your head into his chest. “I have a feeling you’re going to be working in my lab a lot more now.”

“You’re not as dumb as you look, Donnie.” You smile, cuddling up against him.

You’d be doing a lot more in his lab, but it probably wouldn’t be studying.

taglist: @saspas-corner

#rottmnt x reader #donnie x reader #rottmnt donnie x reader #donatello x reader #tmnt x reader #sfw #requests

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xxsycamore · 1 year

Text

𝗡𝗮𝗽, 𝗡𝗮𝗽𝗼, 𝗡𝗮𝗽𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗡𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗶, 𝗡𝗮𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗼, 𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮 [Napoleon x MC]

► Lately Napoleon notices that MC is using quite a lot of nicknames for him…

Napoleon Bonaparte x MC • rating: G • wordcount: 776 • tags: fluff; nicknames; humor; ‼ slightly suggestive • masterlist

a/n: While talking about how in the ikeseries games there are suitors whose nicknames are the actual names of other suitors and thus making it hard to figure out who the person is speaking about, (see: Leo (midcin) and Leo-nardo/Gali-leo; Liam and Wil-liam (ikemen villains); Leon (ikepri) and Napo-leon) it accidentally turned into a discussion of preferred nicknames for Napoleon.

From @viohasgoneintothewoods : Nap

From @venulus : Leone, Napoleoncito, Leoncito

From @krys-loves-otome : Napster, Naps, Napoleoni

Lately Napoleon notices that MC is using quite a lot of nicknames for him…

1. As soon as he wakes up.

"Wakey wakey, Nap…"

The sound of MC's voice wakes him up just to the point where he reaches a hand out of the bedsheets to drag her in for his infamous morning kiss. But he pauses. He realizes the nickname she called him with.

"…Nap? Because I sleep a lot?"

"Yes, because you sleep a lot!"

Napoleon hums, nestling himself further in the mess of bedsheets.

"I don't even nap that much, I just sleep in…"

2. At breakfast

"Vincent, can you pass this to Napo?"

"Napo? Oh! Here you go, Napo!"

Napoleon blinks at MC's new nickname for him, quickly adapted by Vincent, barely remembering to take the plate from his hands. He guesses he's Napo now.

"Hah. Napo. I like how it sounds." Leonardo chimes in, not even looking away from his morning paper.

"Napo…" Jean tries. If it sticks with Jean, then it sticks forever.

3. On a date

"Are you falling asleep?"

Napoleon makes a low sound in his throat in reply, enough to let her know that he's not falling asleep. Their picnic date turned into a lazy reading session in nature, and frankly, the book hasn't been too interesting.

"This is why I call you Napster."

There it is again.

He remains silent for a moment. He looks for the line he read last in the book but he can't find it.

"You don't even call me Napster."

4. At the école

"Napoleone! Your fiancée is here!"

Turning to the boy who informs him of MC's arrival, Napoleon nearly misses the incoming attack from his other short opponent. But only nearly. Because he's not their cool teacher for nothing.

"Ahh, did you lie about proposing to me again? Stupid Napoleoni…"

Napoleoni? Napoleoni??!!

The laugher of a dozen kids is too much shame to live with. He will never be their cool teacher again, not with that lame nickname.

5. At night

Being a vampire doesn't mean that you don't deserve a nice massage at the end of a long day. Truly, his muscles aren't given the chance to stiffen too much, but he can't miss the magic touch of MC's hands on him. He's lying on his stomach, with her straddling his waist and working the knots on his shoulders.

"Mmm…"

He's aware he is being vocal. It's just that good.

MC giggles.

"You're roaring like a lion."

"Mmyeah? Do you have a clever little nickname for that too?"

"I do actually!"

She pauses, and Napoleon thinks she might be coming with it right now.

"Napoleoncito."

Oh. So we're spanishing it up now?

"That's a little too long, don't you think? Defeats the purpose."

"Hmm, hmm…"

She's not even moving her hands anymore, but Napoleon is too interested to see where this leads to care.

"Leoncito then. I like it! You're my little lion…"

Now, this is taking it too far.

In one quick and swift movement, Napoleon snakes his way from under MC and throws her down on the bed - so that he's leaning over her with a hand on each side of her head.

"Am I still a little lion?"

MC catches her bottom lip between her teeth, looking him in the eye. He seems quite handsome from this angle, if she has to be frank.

"Please don't eat me."

"Only if you tell me what's up with you and nicknames lately."

She giggles under him, fidgeting with a button of his shirt. Not necessarily with the intention to undo it.

"I just thought you might've gotten bored with the same old every time. You've got your 'Nunuche' for me but my 'Leon' or occasionally 'Leone' is not as creative as yours is."

Napoleon's eyes scan her features while taking in her words. Then he sighs.

"So that's what it was."

"Mm, maybe I should try harder…"

"I didn't say that I'm bored with how you call me."

"I liked Nap… it's keeping it nice and short. Maybe an 's' at the end will help it roll off the tongue better. An elongated one. Napsss…"

"Nunuche."

He leans in closer while she trails off in voiced out thoughts that he made clear he is not enthusiastic about hearing. She doesn't turn away, but doesn't stop either.

"Or maybe you liked Napster better? I liked Leoncito the best."

"Nunuche."

He's so close he can practically feel the shiver of her skin as he whispers against her neck, letting his fangs scrape against it.

"Call my name next."

He hears her suck on a breath and a smirk blooms on his lips.

"Napoleon."

Taglist: @arsnovacadenza @ale-teodora @kimi00twin @otomelady @privilegedpancake @g-kleran @pumpumnnnp @thesirenwashere @ravenarld @kimmy-banana @devonares @animeworldsposts @randomanimatedhusbandoseeker @galaxyprison @sadshaxk @starshards26 @pro-cat-stination @acethephoenix256 @ikevamp-shrine-2 @nad-zeta @crystal13unny @keen19thcenturygoatsstudent @lordsister @ikemen-banshou @themysticalbeing @canaria-blackwell @otome-scribbles @rhodolitesrose @coornn @kpop-and-otome @queen-dahlia @kisara-16 @chaosangel767 @ikemenlibrary @queengiuliettafirstlady @aurora-morning @aquagirl1978 @ikemenlover24 @violettduchess @mcofthemansion @tiny-wooden-robot @joy-the-reader @katriniac @ikemen-writer @tele86 Let me know if you want to be tagged/untagged!

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #ikemen vampire napoleon #ikevamp napoleon #ikemen vampire napoleon bonaparte #ikemen napoleon #ikevamp fanfiction

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glubby-guppiez · 6 months

Text

*I MADE A TMNT AU [WIP]

*Oroku family info

*Basic synopsis

*Turtles are from a zoo in Guatemala

*The turtles are Central American Snapping Turtles

*They were stolen and mutated by Baxter Stockman

*Baxter Stockman is the main villain and the turtles work to stop him because he is too far gone and has hurt so many people and creatures in his quest for vast knowledge and is completely apathetic

*)(amato + Foot clan does not affect the story

*The turtles + Splinter lived in Guatemala until they met April and then they moved to New York to go after Stockman

*The turtles start off as regular mutant turtles, but early on during the events of the AU, get mutated further into dragons (friends idea)

*Character Info

*Shared info about the turtles

*Central American Snapping Turtles *All were originally named by the zoo *When they are mutated into dragons, their heights increased *The mutation process was very painful *Wings grew out of their backs and broke their shells at the top where the wings grew *Knows/speaks/writes in Spanish and English *Keeps their original weapons *Learned ninjitsu and self defense similarly to Mutant Mayhem and Bayverse via books and videos but also by watching humans at the dojo that is right above where they live

*Michelangelo

*)(e/)(im Cis male *5'11" (Pre-Dragon) *7'2" (Post-Dragon) *Very muscular build *Lost one of his right toes *Wears cheap ass gym shorts and an orange sweater around his shoulders that soon turns into his mask after he mutates into a dragon (tears off a sleeve) *Nunchaku on belt *Stickers on shell including an anime sticker Raphael put on as a joke that won't come off *Old mask had the iconic Mikey short tails *Gay *The Leader *Optimist *Actually good at strategizing *Tries to stay energetic and joyful even when it's inappropriate *A little bit insensitive tbh *Not entirely on purpose he just doesn't understand why everyone isn't happy-go-lucky and constantly optimistic like he is *#1 Cheerleader *Tries to keep good relationships with his family *Very loving and supportive of them *Learning empathy as part of his character development *Dating Mondo Gecko

*Madonna (Donatello)

*She/)(er Transfem changed name *6'4" (Pre-Dragon) *7'6" (Post-Dragon) *Largest and most muscular turtle because of her Bo training and mechanical handling *Wears Skirts and an apron with lots of storage including a large tool belt *Steal's Raph's clothes even though they are small on her *Paint splats on shell *Braided mask tails *When everyone's masks broke because of the second mutation she made everyone but Mikey new ones (Mikey immediately tore up his sweater and made a new mask) *Straight *Group inventor *Not very good at organizing her thoughts and explaining her inventions and tech is always very messy and hard to follow *Personality is like Rise!Donnie but toned down *Doesn't really get mad but sulky *Very bad grammar *Often butts heads with 'Nardo *)(as a large bo collection and only uses her least favorites and never the ones she really likes unless she has to *Small crush on CJ in the beginning (purely one sided and goes away after a while)

Leonardo

*)(e/)(im Cis male *5'8" (Pre-Dragon) *6'7" (Post-Dragon) *More scrawny and lanky than the rest of the group *Was effected the most by the second mutation out of the group appearance wise *Wears comfortable loose clothes like hoodies and sweatpants *Plain, long tail mask *Wore glasses before second mutation *)(as a dragon carved onto his lower shell (he asked begged Madonna to do it) *AroAce *Main intel of the group *Very observant *Non verbal and writes everything that comes to mind in these journals called: "Big Book of 'Nardo Thoughts" and hopes to publish them one day. *Thinks he should've been the leader *Geography nerd *Otaku

Raphael

*She/)(er Cis female *5'4" (Pre-Dragon) *7'4" (Post-Dragon) *Muscular but chubby build *Wears feminine clothing mainly jeans and crop tops but also skirts and dresses *Mask tied into a nice bow *Madonna put nail polish drawings on her shell *Paints hers and Mikey's nails *Lesbian *Sassy like 1987 Raphael *Very girly and feminine *Very protective of her family *Does have rage strength *A voice of wisdom/reason *Still kind of childish *)(angs out with Splinter a lot *Gets a girlfriend named Marilyn

Splinter

*)(e/)(im Cis male *5'6" *47 *Bushy-tailed Woodrat *Wears a dirty ass expensive silk bathrobe that he stole from a human that he WILL NOT take off *Raph likes to style his fur *Straight ally *Only knows Spanish *Reads a lot and taught the turtles how to read *Great cook *Mediocre dad *Was taken from his own parents at an early age so he has no clue how to parent outside of instinct and books *He's trying he goes to the PTA meetings he goes to them/ref *Brought home a whole bunch of girl books for Madonna when she came out to him *Praises Mikey for his optimism *Adores 'Nardo's writing *Wants a wife so bad

Baxter Stockman

*TW FOR MENTIONS OF ABUSE *)(e/)(im Cis Male *5'5" (Pre mutation) *6'4" (Post mutation) *56 *Black and Brazilian *Buzz cut (Pre mutation) *Skinny build (Pre mutation) *Becomes a fly mutant *Much more muscular post mutation *)(air grows out *Kind of looks like Super Fly *Wears stereotypical lab gear *Questioning AroAce *Very devoted to his work *Abused and neglected his wife (April's mom) and daughter (April O'Neil) *Made the turtles, Shredder, Splinter, and other mutants *Everyone fucking )(ATES him *Rightfully so *)(e uses mech suits to fight like 2012 him in season 1 *CJ is his pupil early on *Kind of a bitch to CJ *Sadistic asshole *This man gets very uncomfortable to be around after he was mutated *Like bro wanting disect and study every damn living thing he comes across after the mutation *Throws a fit when he's wrong about something *Has a deep desire to be all knowing

April O'Neil

*She/They/It Demigirl *5'8" *19 *Afro latina *Afro puffs *Skinny but athletic build *Sports a black and yellow track suit with a white undershirt *Bisexual *Daughter of Baxter Stockman *Tech whiz *Madonna's best friend *Big sister figure to the turtles *Grew up in Guatemala and moved to New York with the turtles and Splinter shortly after meeting them *)(er dad's #1 hater *Fluent in Spanish *Knows English but it's rough *Uses a gun *Dating Karai

Casey Jones (CJ)

*They/)(e/It Nonbinary (fine with gender neutral or masculine terms) *5'2" *17 *White *)(as that 2000's mid length emo boy haircut *Wears Jeans + Band tee and a lab coat *Main inspo from 2012 Casey design wise *Omniromantic (pref for men) Asexual *Kind of wimpy and doesn't fight *Mainly uses mousers and other robots *Stockman's pupil until he joins up with the turtles *Works alongside 'Nardo and Madonna *Genuinely scared of Mikey *Grew up in New York *Failed Art Class and will have to repeat highschool they are so salty about this it is not even *Geek loser *Main personality inspo from '87 and 2012 Stockman

*I will write about more characters later and more lore but rn this is all you get. If you wanna see specific characters or if you have any questions, feel free to ask me my ask box is open!

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obsidiancreates · 1 year

Text

The Algae Is Always Greener On The Other Side (Part 3)

(I try to do age math in the opening. Don't @ me if it's all wrong all that matters is I think by the end of Season 4 the 2012 crew are freshly 19. On AO3 this is split into 2 chapters so if it's too long for you here you can check over there, same title same username)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait, weren't the episodes we were watching of you also called 'Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?'" Angelo wonders, tapping his chin as he stares at the screen.

"Maybe ours inspired yours," Raph says, slightly proud of the concept. "We're older, aren't we?"

"... Are we?" Mikey asks.

They all go quiet.

"... So we're in 2022 in our world," Donald says. "Nardo and I are sixteen, Raph is eighteen, and Angelo is fifteen."

"You're all different ages? Whoa, trippy..." Mikey looks at them with wide eyes.

"They're also years into the future!" Donnie checks his T-Phone. "Let me see, we- yeah, we're in 2015! You're about seven years ahead of us!"

"So you are older," Leon says slowly.

"I- well, yes, but- for us, we turned 15 in 2012-"

"Wait, so your Mikey wasn't just saying that? You're all quadruplets?" Raphie looks at Raph. "So then who's the-the big brother?"

"Leo," three of the duller colored clan turtles chime in unison.

"Generally we agree, i-in terms of hierarchy if not actual ages, that Leo is oldest, Raph is second oldest, I'm third, and Mikey is youngest." Donnie points to each brother as he goes down the list. "But we're all 17 now, I think maybe closer to 18. I uh, stopped keeping track of our Mutation Days once we started dealing with aliens and crime bosses on the daily."

"You are all nearly 18," Splinter confirms. "I know we have not celebrated in a few years now, but I am still keeping track."

"So... where does that leave us?" April O'Neil asks, looking around. "You guys'd be 25 in our time, but you haven't even left the 2010's yet! I mean, I was like, 11 in 2015!"

"This is hurting my brains, dudes!" Mikey groans, slumped against the couch. "Let's just start the show alreadyyyyyyyyyy!"

There's a general murmur of agreement, and the show begins.

On screen, it opens with a shot of a manhole cover, a song beginning right away.

Rise of theeee- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

"WHOA!" Mikey scrambles closer to the screen. "DUDES, IS THAT YOUR SHELLRAIZER?!"

"Turtle Tank," Donald corrects, pride practically pouring out of him. "And it has multiple smaller vehicles inside of it."

"I wanna ride in it so bad," Mikey says in a sort of joyful whimper of longing.

"Uh, do those guys have fire on their heads?" Leo points out.

"Oh, yeah. They just do that, don't worry about it," Leon waves off.

Heroes in a half-shell, turtle power!

"Interesting," Donnie says quietly. "I wonder why that lyric is consistent across our shows?"

Rising up against evil, paint the city green! Raph is ready for a fight, Leo's making a scene!

Leo snorts. "Well, if that doesn't lay out our differences perfectly, I don't know what will."

"I don't know, Leo," Raph says. "You sure love making a scene of going solo."

"Yours does it too?" Raphie looks both relieved and horrified.

"Oh yeah. Sometimes Fearless Leader here is more Fearless than Leader."

"Hey!"

Mikey's got mad skills, Donnie rocks machines!

"See? I told y'all I got the squills!" Angelo rocks happily in his spot.

With each other they discover their destiny and rise!

"Destiny?" Leo looks at them. "You guys have a destiny?"

"Had. We kinda handled it already, twice!" Raphie punches his fists together.

"I think we're kinda destined for stuff too, dudes," Mikey says. "Just like, I don't think our destiny is totally sure what it's for, either."

"A wise observation, Michelangelo," Splinter praises. "It could very well be you are destined simply to protect, whatever that may mean."

"Hey, not to cut the philosophy lesson off," Raph says, "But I see a hippo in a suit and a worm with hair in that ball of villains."

"And a... pig in a cook's hat?" April looks over at April O'Neil.

"Oh, you'll see eventually," April O'Neil assures. "I think. If yours started out at your first big life-changing adventure, I think I know where ours is about to kick off."

Cowabunga!

"YOU CAN DO WHAT?!" Raph springs out of his seat! "Holy shell! You- did you just make yourself even bigger?!"

"Can make mystic clones of myself now too." Raphie puffs out his chest. "Just apart of being awesome!"

"Look Leo, other you made a portal with his sword!" Mikey shakes Leo. "Dudes, you're like our M&M games, but real!"

Donnie blinks at the screen and then looks at his counterpart. "Was yours also magic, or just-"

"Incredible tech, and yes, the fire is a custom color created by my custom-made fuel." Donald buffs his nails against his shell. "Appearance, is half the battle. I do use mystic quite a bit nowadays, but I'm never ashamed of using pure tech for so long."

The song ends, and a scene opens on two goons with small dogs strapped to their chests chasing a mystic animal of some kind. Someone knocks over a bunch of small flags on stands, which scatter across the path of the goons. Instead of barreling through them, the goons expertly tiptoe through the flags without knocking over or even brushing against a single one.

"Well, that about sets the tone for your universe, doesn't it?" Donnie sinks into the couch.

"Only about half the time," Donald corrects. "Other times things do get... intense."

"We just don't live in the same constant gloom as you all," Splints says. "We actually get to have some nice times every once and a while."

"I am glad to hear it." Splinter seems genuine in the statement. "The hardships we face are so rarely tempered by fun or rest. I am glad not every version of my sons must endure them so regularly."

On screen, the animal continues fleeing, resulting in a bit of chaos as it runs. It gets cornered by the goons, and suddenly teleports away! The scene shifts to a rooftop at night, with some sort of shady deal going on.

"I don't remember this," Raphie says, scratching his head. "I do remember the goons, though."

The camera pans up, and then closes in on the silhouettes of The Turtles. Bits of their colorful accoutrement are visible in the shadows- well, relative shadows.

"Your world is so bright even at nighttime," Raph grumbles. "How do you ever hide?"

"We don't usually bother," Donald says with a shrug. "I believe I remember this, but it had nothing to do with whatever mob deal was going on down there. I don't think we even knew that was happening."

"What were you doing then?"

"Wait and see, Other Me."

The Screen Turtles all leap down to another ledge on the building. Screen Donald's techbo opens up with a claw, and he fires it at a building across from the group.

Donnie's jaw drops. "You- I- it- how?!"

"SCIENCE!" Donald cackles. Sure, his mystic-charged wooden bo is fine, but he does miss his beautiful techbo more often than not. But like Shelldon, it just feels too soon to make a new one.

The Screen Raphie asks for an All-clear from an unseen (but obviously by voice) April O'Neil. They get it, and they zipline across the cable Donald had shot out just moments before. There's an intense shot of them ziplining at high-speeds, fast and action-ready music playing behind them.

"It looks like Super Robo Mecha Force 5!" Mikey stares at the screen in delight.

"Yeah, our show is totally taking some stylistic inspiration from anime!" Angelo holds up a hand, and his whole family high-three/five with a whoop.

"You mean there's more cartoons like Super Robo Mecha Force 5?" Mikey whispers, awed. "Dudes, I need to visit your universe!"

"We all do!" Leo looks the most excited they've seen him since his own show showed a few clips of Space Heroes. "We've been looking for a good new cartoon!"

Angleo rocks even more, excited! "Oh, baby, do we have choices for you! And if you want some movies too, we've got Lou Jitsu and Jupiter Jim!"

"Jupiter Jim?"

"Um, only one of the best low-budget sci-fi movie franchises ever!" Leon grins at Leo. "We are so going to find a way to send you guys them, that Space Heroes show makes me know you'll love it!"

Raph groans, but Leo literally squeals in excitement. His family all share fond looks around him. He hasn't really been this excited since... well, it's just nice to hear his geek-out squeal again, even if it doesn't sound quite the same as it used to.

On Screen, the mob boss laughs evilly over his money, it shows the turtles again, and... they zipline straight over him.

"Hey, um. Do you ever find out what that guy is up too?" April checks.

"Never seen him before ever." "I'm already forgetting his face." "I don't think so." "Nuh-uh."

"Right. Just wondering."

Instead, they unhook from the line just over a rooftop pool! They drop one by one, each saying a part of the word "Cowabunga" as they do! They cannonball into the pool, and April O'Neil films it on her phone and whoops, even as she's hit with the entire pool's worth of water at incredible volumes of force. All it does is knock her glasses askew.

"What I wouldn't give for our world to have those physics," April groans.

"Ha! You must be this rad to ride that ride!" "Uh, based on our velocity and entry angle, IIIII concur, we rad!"

The duller colored clan burst out into either laughter, soft giggles, or amused smiles at the face Screen Donald makes.

"Okay, maybe your weird expressions aren't that bad," Raph concedes, chuckling a little. "But they're still stupid."

"Ah, just like your overly-large feet, then."

"You little- no, you know what? I'll give you that one." Raph shrugs. "You probably stub your toes way less often."

April O'Neil praises their stunt, and Raphie praises her for being their 'girl with the plan'. Leon praises her for having the keys to the roof while also stealing said keys off of her. Angelo suggests they go bungie-jumping at a public park next, and April O'Neil agrees, putting down a 'Caution: Wet Floor' sign first, as well as a 'Dry pool' sign.

"Well, that's... thoughtful. I think." April gives her counterpart a small and uncertain grin.

"It's not like it costs nothin'," April O'Neil waves off. "They fill those pools up for free!"

"Well, obviously," Donnie says. "Our world isn't that messed up. Ha-ha, could you imagine a world where water isn't free? How horrible would that be?"

They all pause. They feel like someone is looking straight into a camera somewhere with a tired expression (it's the Author).

Back on the Screen, April O'Neil asks Donald if she can hitch a ride. With a statement of "No probles", which makes Mikey laugh and his brothers groan knowing he'll start using that now, Donald turns around. His purple metal shell opens up with a seat and handlebars, and April O'Neil plops onto it as Donald takes off!

Donnie's eyes are giant and watering in what is also a very anime-fashion. "That is so cool, and so, so unfair."

"I'm sure you'll be able to build tech to my standards someday Other Me, he said completely genuinely and not at all to spare the other Donnie's feelings."

Screen Raphie, as he follows his brothers, looks over at a construction site. He spots the animal that was being chased earlier, all alone, shivering and whimpering. He's so distracted by the cuteness and his heartbreak for the little creature that he slams into a wall very hard. Luckily he recovers almost immediately.

"You don't leave the little guy, do you?" Raph leans forward in his seat.

"Of course not!" Raphie is offended by the mere suggestion. "Mayhem is an important part of our family now!"

Raph visibly relaxes at that.

"He's a big softie for animals," Mikey whispers loudly to the colorful clan. "For some reason they love him."

Raphie tears up now. "They do?"

"Yeah, like, almost every animal we meet instantly adores him."

Raphie starts crying, big streams of water pouring down his face while he sniffles. "Good for you, man."

"Whoa, whoa, what's with the waterworks?" Raph looks concerned. "What'd Mikey say?"

"Hey!"

"Animals don't tend to be very nice to Raph," Angelo explains, giving his older brother a hug. "Even Mayhem still isn't."

"What?!" Raph stands up. "But you're like this, giant spiky teddy bear! If I squeezed you I half expect a squeaky toy noise to come out of you!"

"It might," Leon says. "Actually, sometimes all of us do that. Like how you guys sounds like rubber when you move."

"Point is, there's no reason animals should be afraid of him!"

"I think it's my fear stink," Raphie says sadly. "Or my seeing-cute-animals stink. Maybe my worried-about-rejection stink."

"Well, whatever it is, I'll help you figure it out." Raph says it with a growl and a scowl, like he's vowing revenge instead of vowing to help someone get better with animals.

Raphie sniffs. "You-you mean it?"

"I can't have some version of me wandering around his universe with animals hating him! What if you find your world's Spike and can't even take him home because he won't let you? I won't let that happen!"

Raphie sniffs again, the streams of tears disappearing as he wipes his eye. "Thank you, man."

Raph plops back into his seat. "Yeah yeah, thank me when it works."

Screen Raphie jumps down to try and help Mayhem, startling the poor creature as his incredible mass makes a loud 'boom' upon his landing. He starts cooing at Mayhem while his brothers watch, and then laugh at his attempts. He claims that pets love him, and Mayhem viciously attacks his face and shreds his mask. Mayhem then jumps into April O'Neil's arms and begins showering her in affection.

Raphie sighs sadly again, and April O'Neil pats him on the back. "Hey, he'll come around sometime," she assures with a soft smile.

"Yeah, especially since I can already see where that went wrong." Raph flicks Donnie on the head, and when Donnie yelps and turns around to glare at him, he snatches a notebook and pen out of Donnie's shell. He writes down a few notes, and rips the page out to hand to Raphie. "Try these next time you see the little guy."

"You could have just asked," Donnie seethes.

"Yeah, but then I wouldn't get to steal it off of ya."

"Grrrr!"

"Thanks, Tiny Me," Raphie says, pressing the page close to his chest. "You're not as mean as you pretend to be."

"Um, he just stole from his brother through violence," Len points out, sliding up from behind Raphie with a slidewhistle sound.

"But he did it to help someone!" Raphie grins. "So it's a good foundation!"

"Yeah, tell that to yourself," Donnie mumbles, rubbing the back of his head. It doesn't hurt still, but it's the principle of it.

Back on the Screen, All of the characters wonder what Mayhem is when The Goons show up. The Turtles all, somehow, hide themselves entirely behind April O'Neil at the sight of humans as Raphie says to initiate Plan H. They all pop back out, and Leon begins speaking in a strange meant-to-be-a-stereotypical-nerd way, asking for directions to a sci-fi convention.

"Why don't we just do that?" Mikey demands, pointing at the screen. "Hello, like they said, we even sound like rubber! I could say I'm a mascot!"

"Do you really think any humans in our world would believe that?" Leo asks, raising a not-eyebrow.

"... Alright, fine. But we should still try it someday! If we do get caught."

"Which should be never," Splinter reminds sternly.

Screen Angelo also does a fake-nerd voice, and Donald pops in using his own voice and completely flubbing the lie. Leon tells him to make it to rehearsals.

"How could my own son be so poor at acting?" Splints laments. "I suppose it is on me, for failing to pass down the most important lessons of all..."

"I think the 'teaching how to defeat Shredder' lessons were more important, actually," Donald says.

"Hmm. You just say that because you are embarrassed, Purple. But don't be! We will begin acting lessons alongside ninja lessons as soon as we are home, with other Blue joining us!"

This is met with mixed reception.

"Give to me creature. How you say, ah... pretty please. Or I'll destroy you."

"His name wouldn't happen to be Steranko, would it?" Donnie ventures.

"Oh, these guys ain't actually human," Raphie says. "They're yokai."

"Wait, yokai spirits are real in your world? We pretended to be yokai once, but we've never met any real ones."

"Oh yeah, yeah, we're part yokai," Leon says with a grin. "That's what mutants are for us."

"I wouldn't call yokai spirits, though," Angelo adds. "Just sort of, mystic people animals!"

Back on Screen, Raphie threatens to defend April O'Neil, and April O'Neil threatens to defend her friends if the threats continue to threaten them. It's as long-winded as it sounds, in an amusing way. After making Donald insecure about his voice, the goons transform into their true Yokai forms in a big show of purple lights. Their tiny puppies become hellhound-like creatures, and they carry mighty weapons with them! The Turtles are stunned, until-

"Soooo... you guys from Jersey?"

Leo lets out a single sharp laugh. Mikey reaches out to Leon for a fist-bump.

Screen Angelo is disappointed in Leon's joke, which Screen Leon defends as a coping mechanism. Raphie says it just means they can finally use their weapons, using the word 'ahoy', which prompts Screen Donald to lament that they were saving that for a ship-based adventure.

"So, just making sure I understand this right," Donnie says, "You've never used your weapons before, including during training?"

"Well, we didn't so much as train as uh, watch Lou Jitsu movies and copy the moves," Raphie says with an embarrassed chuckle as he rubs his neck. "And a few online video tutorials."

"You did not train your sons at all?" Splinter aims a narrow gaze at Splints.

"Oh, excuse me for wanting them to be children for a few years," Splints says with a roll of his eyes. "I do regret my repeated absence from their lives, deeply, and for failing to prepare them when they were of the right age, but I never regret raising them as children rather than warriors!"

"They need to be warriors to survive! The world is not a kind place for creatures like them, like us!"

"Exactly! I was already dealing with my ex-lover kidnapping me to be a battle slave, and then being turned into a rat! They were dealing with growing up hidden in the sewers and being strange turtle-human hybrids! I did not want to pile onto that! So action movies were their sensei, and I told myself I would train them properly when the time was right! ... And by the time it was right... the forces against us were much farther ahead."

The room goes quiet.

Silently, privately, everyone wonders if maybe neither Splinter did things right, or wrong. If maybe, there's no true good answer to the problem. Raise them as normal kids, and they'll never make it. Raise them as warriors, and what parts of them do make it may not be the parts they need most.

But no-one voices it aloud.

So the show plays on.

The fight begins, and true to the colorful clan's assurances when watching the duller clan's own first battle, it's a disaster. Donnie's techbo doesn't work as intended, though thankfully Mayhem retrieves it through teleporting, which distracts Screen Donald long enough for him to be hit very painfully. Angelo and Raphie tag-team the one that attacked Donald, while Leon makes a quip to the other about ruining cannonball day and goes for an attack. His katanas are broken instantly.

"Ugh, been there too many times to count," Leo groans. "Sensi must replace our weapons at least twice a month each. More for Donnie."

"It's wood! How am I supposed to keep it in good condition if it's wood?!"

"That wasn't a dig, D, I was just saying!"

"Yeah, bro! You're a statistical outlier."

The duller clan all freeze, eyes wide white discs as they stare at Mikey in shock. He has his eyes closed and a pleased smile on his face.

"How do you know what that is?" Donnie marvels.

"How do you think I keep track of which pizza places are worth ordering from, bro? Most of them are Great to Passable, but there's a real bummer place on that one corner, the one as clipped the streetlamp with the Party Wagon that one time? Total. Statistical. Outlier. I didn't know pizza could be that bad!"

The staring continues for a bit, and then they all wordlessly look back at the TV. Donald gives Mikey a thumbs up form the other side of the couch, which makes Mikey smile.

On Screen, Leon throws his little sword stub at the villain and keeps fighting, dodging hits and claiming he doesn't need weapons to beat them because of his rad skills. As he says it he runs up the side of a cement truck, flips off- and lands on his neck quite painfully, collapsing into a heap of limbs.

The dull clan all scream, and Donnie is up and checking Leon's neck in a second. "How did that not break you neck entirely?! Did you get throat damage, any loss of mobility-"

"Whoa, settle down there mi hermano!" Leon pushes him away. "I'm fine, that kind of thing happens to us all the time! Just another difference in our worlds or something!"

"Oh. Okay, okay. Good, I-I think." Donnie hesitates, and then goes back to his seat. Leo rubs his brother's shell, giving him an understanding look. Throat injuries and Leos... not something Donnie can take lightly.

On Screen it cuts to a shot of Raphie being punched, and then telling Angelo to go 'ninja mode'. They both slink into the shadows of the construction site, and it closeups on the villain... who points them out right away because they did not hide well.

"You guys are better at that now, right?" April checks.

"Way better." Raphie is cringing at seeing his past self try to hide behind the skinny metal beam. "Funny, I didn't realize how much progress we really made in such a short time."

"I'm very proud of you boys," Splints says (which makes Donald sparkle and giggle in utter blissful joy). "Not for this, this is very embarrassing. But for how you have grown from this!"

Screen Raph, meanwhile, is shot at by a beam of mystic energy from the villain's sword. He lets out a funny little yelp and announces plan doube-B, making Angelo whoop and pop into his shell. Raph throws him at the villain, who catches Angelo easily. Angelo pulls out his nunchucks with a grin and starts swinging! And hitting! Himself. As the chucks doinks uselessly off of the villain's arm.

"Hoo, this is worse than I remember," Angelo says, covering his eyes a little. "I guess I get it from storytelling, showing how we start off and all, but this is rough!"

Screen Angelo, covered in bruises and bumps from his accidental self-assault, is then further injured by the villain tossing him away with a mystic bubble then crushing his nunchucks. Raphie tells the villain to 'pick on someone my size' and a bell dings like it's a wrestling match. The villain just snaps his fingers and has his dog attack Raph instead. It bites Raph's head, throws him around, and then tosses him clear across the construction site. To add insult to injury, it vaporizes his sai.

"Um, can we turn this off, actually?" Raphie looks for a remote. "Raph's not enjoying this anymore."

"No, no, this is where I come in again!" April O'Neil beams.

Indeed, on screenshe begins throwing bricks and threatening the villains. They don't say a word, just make a mystic bubble around Mayhem to prevent the poor creature from teleporting away. April O'Neil holds into the bubble as tight as she can, but the villain blasts her away with mystic energy.

"I have the agent, and the vial!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." April O'Neil rubs her chin and looks down. "I should probably ask Barry what that meant, huh? Because if Mayhem's a secret agent of kind, I need to get him a medal."

But no medal comes for Screen Mayhem. Instead the villains activate some kind of rune and open a portal on a lone out-of-place brick wall, making the turtle all exclaim in awe. A bike riding pizza boy, for some reason, rides through the construction site... and right into the portal. No-one stops him. He falls a long way down the tunnel, and Screen Angelo shouts as Screen Leon makes an "Ooy" sound. The villains run through with Mayhem... and April O'Neil follows them! Raphie tries to jump through after her, but it closes!

"Wow!" April looks at her counterpart. "So you chose to get involved, and I was sort of... thrown into it. How weird."

"But it looks like you dealt with it good!" April O'Neil gestures to the tessen in April's pocket. "You even got a weapon!"

April smiles. "Yeah, well... it helped to have such good friends supporting me through it."

The colorful clan all "Awwww" as the duller clan all blush and Splinter gives her a proud smile.

On screen, Raphie shouts 'April!' as he sits up with a large bump on his head from hitting the wall. Leon says she's probably okay because there's no 'April bits on the ground'-

"Blech!" Mikey shudders at the thought. The colorful clan all see a little thought bubble rise from his head showing a notebook-sketch-like imagining of his own April going through a wall and coming out like paper shreds on the other side, making Mikey whimper at his own imagination. But none of the duller clan react to the disturbing visual, so they either can't see it, or have see such things very often (it's the former).

-and Raphie shouts to ask April O'Neil if her bits are on the other side of the wall. They all wonder where she went, and Angelo looks at the symbol and realizes they know it. The image of the wall fades to show a messy shelf, and Angelo comments about it being 'Splints's do not touch cabinet'.

"Dudes, our Splinter's whole room is a do-not-touch zone!" Mikey wringles his not-nose as the screen shows Splints watching some kind of Japanese game show, but it's not in any sort of negative emotion, just... surprise. "He lets you go in there?"

"This is the living room," Donald corrects. "We'd never go into Splinter's room willingly, but yes, when he's sick we have been in there on occasion."

"Yours gets sick?" Raph's eyes go wide. "I've never even seen our Splinter sneeze!"

Splinter gives a proud chuckle. He's not some fully-infallible being, they all know it, but a lot of human sicknesses don't seem to affect his family at all, and he's mastered the art of silent or imperceptible sneezing- a must for ninjas living in a very dusty New York.

The Screen Turtles start wondering how to get the item from Splints, and Raphie decides to try and get him out of the room. They all slide (literally) in front of the projection of the show, bowing slightly. Raphie asks for the living room in a bright voice, and it cuts to show Splints laying in his chair covered in crumbs and drinking a whole carton of milk with a straw.

"Splints leaps to his feet, standing on the couch. "This show is a outrage! I am not-"

He's stopped by skeptical glares from all of his children, April O'Neil included. He sighs and sinks back down. "Fine. Maybe I do look like that." He looks at his own hands sadly. "... But it is hard to take pride in your body when it is... this."

One the other side of the couch, Donnie watches Splints with sympathy. He knows how that feels.

"We love you, Pops," Raphie assures, bringing his dad into a big group hug. "No matter how many crumbs your robe is full of."

Splints sighs and smiles a little, hugging back the best he can. "Thank you, my sons."

On screen it's... less heartwarming. Splints laughs at them for even asking for the room, claiming he thought 'Purple' is the funny one, which Donald agrees with in a flat tone. Donald then offers to hook it up for Splints to watch in bed, but Splints declines because his butt is asleep in his preferred fashion.

Splints glances over at his other self, expecting a look of intense judgement. But Splinter mostly just looks... curious, possibly trying to figure out how the two ended up so different.

Screen Splints waves the turtles out of the room and laughs at his shows, so Raphie begins forming a new plan. He's interrupted by-

"Leon's got it!"

"You call yourself Leon?" Leo looks at his counterpart. "Why?"

"Why don't you? We can have more than just one nickname, my friend! A little variety, spice up the identity! Better than- what'd your Raph call you? Fearless Leader? Oh, man, that nickname is bad! It just adds pressure!"

"It doesn't add pressure, just annoys."

"Whatever you say, Other Me." Leon leans closer to Donald. "It totally adds pressure, I know it."

"Oh, definitely," Donald whispers back with a nod. "But what's a Leo without an inability to voice lapses in confidence?"

"Don't make me point out your fake confidence, Don."

"It's not fake, I'm astounding."

"So why do you turn into a puddle of happy goo whenever Dad says even the most bare minimum nice thing about your inve-"

"HEY LET'S STOP INTERRUPTING THE SHOW ACTUALLY-"

"I KNEW IT!"

On screen Leon reminds his brothers that their father passes out 'after milk and cake', and it cuts back to the construction site. Raphie holds up the trinket, sticking his tongue out as he tries to figure it out. Donald doesn't help with the comment of "A few hours ago I would've called this foolish and impossible. Now I just call it foolish!"

"Did you think magic didn't exist?" Donnie seems surprised.

'Wait, you did think it exists? But your world doesn't even have mystic powers!"

"No, but we have a spirit realm, and I always figured if that exists-"

"You have a spirit realm? We have spirits too but I don't know if they have a whole world."

"We've been to ours... sort of. We went out into some woods for a few days and fought some spirits once."

"We forged our own new armor and weapons and everything!" Mikey butts in excitedly. "I fought a spirit that looks like Rahzar- do you guy have him? Ugh, he's the worst, dudes! Anyway, we all had to fight different enemies, and I had to learn how to focus, and Donnie had to learn how to uh, trust his strength or something? And Raph had to learn to manage his anger again and Leo had to learn make his leg stop hurting-"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" April O'Neil waves her hands to stop Mikey talking. "Come again? Who told you guys that?"

"I found them from the spirit realm," Splinter says. "I'd been separated from my body, and sought them out to prepare them for their return to New York."

"There's a lot of missing context there, let's all acknowledge that before moving forward," Donald says, "But to me that sounds a little bit like telling Mikey to just stop having ADHD and telling Leo some kind of injury is all in his head instead of letting it heal."

"It's fine, it was all in my head," Leo says firmly. But the way he rubs his knee... begs to differ.

"We'll have words about this later," Angelo says sweetly. But then all of a sudden he is staring at all of them with the most dead-eyed smile as flames rise behind him and he looms over them. "Because remember we'll probably see all of that at some point and any lies or secrets will be exposed."

He smile sweetly again, now once more normal sized and sitting in his seat, and the show continues to play.

On screen, the brothers are discussing the pressure Raphie is under to get this right and clearly making it so much worse as the shots zoom in on Raphie's eyes and a bead of sweat rolls down his face. After demanding they stop talking about his fear stink-

"He retained that from his mutation? Fascinating!"

"Uh, what?"

"You're a snapping turtle, right? Snapping turtles can release a musky odor when they're stressed! We never smelt it from Spike because he just took everything as-is, so I always wondered if it was true or not."

"Oh, it's true." Leon laughs, once again draping himself across his larger brother's shoulders. "He has a lot of stinks, actually, it's like a mood ring but smelly!"

"Stop talkin' about it! You're making Raph self conscious!" Raphie shoves Leon off of him.

Screen Raphie holds the trinket to the wall and tries to make it open, even punching the wall and throwing it at the wall, but it just shoots off, hits Raphie's head, and lands in front of Angelo. Angelo says to let him, the 'artist of the crew' try, and Leon agrees because he can't do any worse. It works for Angelo immedietely, opening up the portal right away!

"Heck yeah!" Angelo pumps his fists in the air. "Magic hands, baby! Oh, if Junior could see this he'd be all over it, that has to be because I'm meant to be a mystic master!"

"Oh-ho, you're so right bro!" Leon fist-bumps Angelo. "Look at that, it was all right in front of us the whole time!"

And with barely a moment of debate, the Screen Turtles cannonball right into the portal, Raphie leading and the other following right behind. They all land horribly painfully except for Leon, who says the words 'Land safely' aloud as he almost loses balance. Clearly he took a lesson from his earlier mishap with the cement truck stunt. It zooms out, showing a huge city with marvelous and strange buildings, creatures, and vehicles!

The duller clan all marvel just as the Screen Turtles do.

"I can smell Raph's amazement stink."

"Smell my amazement stink too, dudes, that's awesome! Please tell me we'll be seeing a lot more of this place!" Mikey looks at them with a wide smile.

The colorful clan all think. Leon tsks. "Um... so..."

"We've only visited there again... once?" Raphie says, rubbing the back of his head.

"Um... twice, if we count when Nardo portalled us out of Tahiti," Donald says. "I think."

"We kind of ended up in jail and broke out, so... I don't know if they love us there." Leon gives a bashful smile and shrugs. "It was all a lot of misunderstandings."

"We've been there," Leo sighs. "I mean, not a mystic city, but someone branding us as criminals or menaces when we aren't."

"On the bright side, more things to relate on!" Angelo smiles too widely, hoping to draw some real ones from the others.

"Kind of an upsetting thing to relate on," Donnie sighs, "But... I guess it's a little comforting knowing we aren't the only one this happens to."

The show pans down for a closer look at the strange city, landing on the still-awestruck Screen Turtles. April whispers to them from behind, and they immedietely surround her in a big group hug.

"Donnie, where are we?"

Donnie groans at the screen. "Yours do that too?!"

"Do... what? Look to me for answers because they're dum-dums?" Donald's statement results in some protesting from his family, not about their dum-dum status, but about how they don't actually seek out his answers most of the time, he just gives them. These protests go ignored.

Donnie throws his hands out to the screen. "Yeah! Wait, it doesn't bother you?"

"Not really. Like I said, they're dum-dums."

"Oh." Donnie suddenly stiffens, and looks at his now glaring family. A 2-D bead of sweat suddenly appears on his forehead with a "bloob" sound, and he rubs the back of his neck. "Um, what I meant by agreeing that' your dums-dums is that, besides April and Sensei-"

"We don't look to you for all the answers," Leo says.

Donnie's 2-D sweat disappears, and he scowls. "Are you kidding me, Leo? You guys expect me to know everything right off the top of my head!"

"That's 'cause you're the smart one, D!" Mikey holds his knees and rocks in place. "You keep acting like we don't know anything, so you gotta!"

"You not knowing to stay out of my lab and Raph not knowing how power conduits work is different!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yes it-!"

"Boys!" Splinter rubs the space between his eyes. "Donatello, your brothers rely on your intellect and ability to learn quickly during battle, and in day-to-day life. That is an honor, to be looked up to in such a way."

"But they don't look up to me," Donnie grumps, crossing his arms. "They look down on me for being a nerd."

"It's our burden to carry," Donald says, eyes closed as he nods and slides over to pat Donnie's hand. "We got all of the brains out of the mutation process, clearly."

Donnie laughs a little at that. It eases the tension a bit.

On Screen, Donald gives a scientific explanation to Raphie before April O'Neil corrects him with an entirely different, yet correct, explanation of it being a hidden city under New York.

"Um... wouldn't that collapse?" Mikey tilts his head. "Because like... I thought sinkholes were bad."

"... Huh." April O'Neil thinks about it. "... You know, it's maybe better to just be glad it doesn't seem to matter."

Screen Leon asks where the 'dog thing' is-

"That thing is way more cat than dog," Raph mutters.

-and April O'Neil points them all toward a large and very imposing castle. They enter easily in the very next shot, all exclaiming in wonder again as Donald admires the aesthetic with shining eyes. They come to the edge of the upper entrance platform and find Mayhem and the delivery boy both locked in vine-like mystic cages, but before they can save them a tall, terrifying creatures enters his shadow looming before a shot pans up to reveal his intimidating glare.

Splints laughs. "What a dramatic try-hard!"

"Pops! Remember, we're not holding Barry's past against him anymore!"

"This is not holding it against him! This is making fun of him, behind his back! Completely harmless!"

"Wait, this is the guy who's your other dad now?!" Leo gapes at them.

"Yeah! Draxum made us, so after The Shredder sucked out his life force I helped him get back on his feet! He helped us save the world from Shredder!" Angelo beams.

"Dude, you should meet my friend Leatherhead!" Mikey pulls out his T-Phone and shows Angelo a picture. "He also met us by attacking us and then became our friend!"

"Oooooh, Leatherhead is such a cool name for an alligator!"

"Came up with it myself! See, his head, it looks and feels like leather!"

"So clever!"

On the screen the delivery boy somehow believes this is due to the pizza shop's calamari being made of pig butts, and Draxum dismisses the claim. The gargoyles on his shoulders suddenly move, jumping down seemingly just to scare the human in the cage.

"Where did those guys go, by the way?" Leon looks at his family. "Anyone know?"

"Nope. But I don't think we gotta worry," Raphie says. "They're only bad guys by proxy, really. Without Draxum they're just weird little flying things."

"True."

Draxum grabs a vial off of Mayhem and informs the delivery boy that he's about to be experimented on, which the delivery seems excited about. It briefly cuts back to the turtles and April O'Neil, who all seem much more concerned. But they don't act, and watch on as Draxum pours the vial into a large machine.

"You're just going to let him to this? You need to jump in!" Leo is leaning forward in his seat, staring in disbelief at the TV.

"We're gonna! We just needed a second."

"To do what?!"

"We were a little curious where it was going," Leon admits. "But we stop him! ... More or less..."

Draxum's machine powers up, and April O'Neil and Raphie comment about this is probably a bad thing. The liquid from the vial causes some kind of mass to form at the top of the machine, which strange-looking mosquitoes suck into their bodies. Draxum brings one over to the delivery boy, who asks if it will hurt as his cage changes to suspend him in the air. Draxum confirms it will hurt, happily, and the mosquito bites the human. The ooze inside turns him into some kind of fish-mutant in a painful and disturbing process (though still not quite as horrific as what they saw from Snakeweed) as The Turtles and April watch on in horror.

"You just let that guy mutate?!" Donnie stands up and snarls at the colorful clan. "You just watched! It's your fault that he's stuck like that now! You could have prevented it!"

"Excuse us for being a little slow to act on our first ever villain encounter just after losing all our weapons!" Leon crosses his arms. "You wouldn't have jumped in unarmed either!"

"I'd have to!" Donnie looms over the still-sitting other clan, irises and pupils pinpricks as he seethes. "Do you even understand how serious that is?! How life-destroying being mutated IS for humans?!"

"Do not lecture my sons on such a thing!" Splints leaps in front of Donnie, looking up and jabbing a finger at him. "They understand very well now!"

"They don't seem that sorry!" Donnie spits. "Do you even know how to reverse it?! Have you even tried to develop a retromutagen?!"

"Donnie, calm down." April puts her hands on his shoulders. "It's not the same for them."

"They let someone be mutated! April, they didn't even try to-!"

"Hey." She steps between him and Splints. "My dad is home, and safe," she reminds him in a soft voice. "And we'll find a way to thaw out Timothy. He won't be stuck like that forever."

Splints's own fire fizzles out as they all watch Donnie sag, the anger leaving him entirely and replaced by sorrow and guilt.

"I-I just..."

"I know. We all know." April guides him back to his seat.

"You'll figure it out, bro," Mikey says, tone as soft as April's as he pats his brother's knee. Donnie just sighs.

"... Who exactly is Timothy?" Donald keeps his own voice soft as well. At first he'd figured it was just a friend who got frozen, but now...

"... A human teen who tried to help us." Donnie brings his legs up and hugs himself into a little ball. "It was our fault- my fault, he got doused with mutagen. He... he was just wanting to be like us. Be a hero."

"He got turned into this freaky pile of clear goo with guts and stuff," Mikey says, scooting to press close to his brother's side. "He lived in Donnie's lab for a while, but after a while he lost it and tried to kidnap April and kill us."

"It wasn't his fault." Donnie's voice is small. "The mutagen... he was barely even sentient. And-and now he's frozen, from a tainted batch of retromutagen we used to stop him, and I can't... I can't figure out how to unfreeze him to turn him back. ... He was my friend. And... we ruined his life. His family's life. ... He just wanted to help us."

The room is quiet for a very, very long time.

"I'm... not a chemist," Donald says slowly. "I'm more a machine's man. I know I agreed to unfreeze your friend, but... if it's that complicated, it... may take some time."

"Everything does," Donnie mutters. "... New deal, though. I want a sample of your world's mutagen. I'm going to find a cure for it, and you're going to offer it to every mutant you know."

"Okay." Donald nods.

"We didn't mean to seem insensitive," Angelo says. "We haven't had something like that happen to a friend before. All of our mutated friends still have their minds, and none of them turned into-"

"It's fine." Donnie hugs himself tighter. "I-I'm sorry I blew up at you. You didn't know what would happen to that person. Just... I hope he's okay."

The tension doesn't really lift, just... loosens, a bit.

The show begins again, the new mutant screaming and flopping around comically. Different sections of the screen show the various reactions of the Teens, most reacting with disgust and shock while Donald makes a joke about it being confirmed the crab cakes were indeed imitation crab.

Mikey lets out a little laugh. He's the only one. It's... not the most joke-ready mood.

On Screen, Donald's brothers look at him in disapproval of the joke as the new mutant mourns having to deal with being a fish just after getting used to acne. Donnie curls up even tighter in his seat, eyes a little misty. Mikey and April both press against his sides to comfort him.

On screen the mutant runs out of the lab. Draxum pays it no mind and simply enjoys that the mutation worked "like it did all those years ago".

Splints is the one who sighs sadly now, looking at his hands. Donnie glances over at him, and when their eyes meet, there's an unspoken understanding between them despite the previous fight.

They'd both been coming from the same place with their feelings, after all.

Screen Angelo wonders if they could be part imitation crab, making Screen Donald laugh and then disappointedly realize it Was Not A Joke. Draxum threatens Mayhem once more, spurring April O'Neil to call to action. Leon remind her they're unarmed except for Donald, and Donald brags about his staff being high-grade titanium. Raphie tries to encourage them to fight even without weapons, but April O'Neil reveals that she, somehow, found the weapons room.

"You should be leading their team," April says, her voice still soft as the mood in the room continues to feel soured.

April O'Neil laughs a little. "Lead this team of bozos and juggle college? Nah, I'll leave that to Leo and Raph."

Screen Turtles all fall down a chute, along with April O'Neil. The turtles all land in a heap of limbs while their human friend just bounces off and lands perfectly on her feet. They all marvel once again at the weapons room and begin picking out familiar weapons of katanas and nunchucks- until Raphie points out the glowy ones. With zero hesitation they all grab the clearly magic items, except for Donald. Even at April O'Neil's prompting he refuses and promises his techbo he'll never let it go-

"Ooooh, Dontron broke his promise!"

"Her spirit lives on through the mystic tech I wield, Nardo!"

"You still broke it!"

-and takes some kind of crystal instead.

Fully armed, the Screen Turtles set out to save Mayhem. Mayhem is shown to be being prodded and tormented by the gargoyles-

"If we'd seen that I would have snaped their little wings off," Raphie growls. "Who does that to a dog-thing?!"

"If we visit your world I'll help you hunt them down and snap off their wings." Raph cracks his knuckles.

One again The Screen Turtles tumble out of a chute into a heap, APril being the only one with an okay landing. Raphie begins trying to give a hero speech, when Leon adds a note. Then Donald does, and then Angelo, and Raphie can't seem to deny their notes and just finish his sentence. While they ramble, Draxum stares at them in tearful awe. Raphie tries one more time to make the speech, and finally the bored April O'Neil leaps into action!

"Ugh." Donnie leans away from the screen. "Why are your eyes bugging out like that? It's reminding me of Rockwell."

"I'll be honest, I had no idea they did that in that moment." Donald shrugs. "But as we established, our worlds have a vast different in emotive expression."

WHile the Screen Turtles panic over April O'Neil just running right in, she lands on Mayhem's cage and begins trying to chew through it.

"It is a constant," April laughs. "Ugh, that must have tasted awful."

"Didn't taste anything over the adrenaline. Now that you mention it, I'm pretty glad I didn't manage to bite through. Those gargoyles might've saved me from a nasty experience!"

Draxum uses some kind of mystic vines to attack. The Turtles just run down them, save for Leon, who is very vocal about his hatred of it. Drxum then releases a giant monster, which Leon hates the fact that it looks at him. It destroys the vines and Draxum commands it capture The Turtles as specimens. They all leap up as Raphie cries "Cowabunga!", Leon taking longer just so he can do a fancy little move.

"What was that for?" Leo looks over.

"For flair." Leon flips his mask tails like they're hair. "And the floor was a little slippery, but I saved the moment!"

The mood finally starts lifting in the room again.

Screen Leon slashes right through the monsters leg, and it roars in pain! It throws stone blocks at Raphie and Angelo, and while Raphie gets hit a few times ANgelo leaps through them with ease and laugher! Angelo uses his weapon to throw Raphie forward and-

"What's Hot Soup supposed to be?" Raph looks at his counterpart. "That's like, the second time you've said it."

"It's Pops's catchphrase form his old Lou Jitsu movies!" Raphie picks up Splints. "Say it for them, Pops!"

"Put me down! You cannot force a Hot Soup moment!" Splints waves his arms in protest. "It is not just some catchphrase, it is a warriors battle cry! It is not my fault it also happens to look good on t-shirts and merchandise!"

Screen Raphie slams into the monster's face, knocking it to the ground! Donald jumps in, his battle shell opening to Flight Mode (making Donnie drool over the tech once more). He tries again with the two rockets on the end of his techbo, and this time it works extremely effectively! The monster is completely defeated, and Draxum admires their accidental skills as all of them but Donald lay groaning in pain in the wreckage. Leon takes it as a surrender, but alas... it is not.

"Wait wait wait, what training? You don't train at all?" Leo looks at his counterpart. Leon looks back with a defensive remark right at the tip of his tongue-

But Leo doesn't look judgemental.

He looks concerned. It reminds Leon so much of Raphie's looks that the snark dies before he says it.

"I do now." Leon shrugs. "We weren't really expecting to do any big fighting or heroics back then. Trust me, I learned how important it is."

Leo sits back, relaxing a little. "I'm glad. Maybe we should try training together sometime then. It looks like you end up swapping out those other weapons for ones like ours anyway, we can compare techniques. Learn from each other."

"I don't know, your guys' training session looked way more formal than we do them. We tried it that way once and it got us kidnapped for ransom."

"How did- nevermind. A little informal sparring then?"

"Now that I can get behind."

Draxum uses more mystic balls to add some kind of powerful outer layer to his arms. Their attacks do nearly nothing to him, but while he goes to brag April O'Neil finally gets the one-up on the gargoyles. Draxum uses the moment to trap her in some kind of cocoon, making Mikey launch another attack! But this time-

"IT'S A FIRE FACE!" Mikey jumps up and cheers! "DUDES, THAT'S THE COOLEST MAGIC WEAPON EV-AH!"

"I miss old Fire Face," Angelo says with a content nostalgic sigh.

Screen Angelo, of course, does not have good mastery of his weapon right away, but manages to blow up the ooze mass at the top of the machine and land a hit on Draxum nonetheless. Raphie tries next, flailing his arms and excitedly begging for it to work, and red lightning suddenly envelops his arms! He's betrayed by it, alas, and Leon decides that's a good enough signal to find his out by running right at Draxum and swinging. It... does nothing. For a second. Then it opens up two portals above and below each other, sending him on an endless loop through both.

"I think I'm going to be sick just remembering that feeling," Leon says, gagging a little. "Portal loops are not fun."

"Wait, but, what's Raphie's then?" Donnie asks. "You have portals, Angelo has, uh... fire... demons, he has... electricity?"

"It's actually a sort of energy-body thing. I can make a really big version of me, make really big or long arms, make clones, it's pretty awesome! And it's not actually our weapons, totally, it's our ninpo!"

"Your world is both fascinating and terrifying."

"Thanks! ... I think."

Screen Donald slides up next to Draxum and begins his own attack, being shockingly effective all on his own until Angelo, yanked around by his weapon, knocks into him. Draxum gives a classic 'under me you could be true warriors' speech-

"Kinda surprised Shredder hasn't ever tried that on us, actually," Mikey says.

"I think he knows we'd never go for it." Raph smirks. "Besides, we're already true warriors! I'm not saying you guys aren't by the way. Assuming you get better than this."

Angelo laughs. "So much better, I cannot wait for y'all to see how awesome we are later on!"

-and cocoons all the remaining turtles. Donald realizes the machine behind Draxum is about to blow when April O'Neil says they still need to save Mayhem, but Draxum is so preoccupied with his 'Join me' speech that he doesn't notice until Donald points it out. The explosion squishes Draxum under a rock and frees Mayhem, who's the only reason they all survive as he teleports them out! They get back to New York and celebrate their first successful fight!

"Oooooh, I get it." Leon nods as his Screen Self tries to propose a name other than Mad Dogs. "It's the thing where I almost say the show title, but then I don't! It's a running gag, I've been doing a running gag this whole time guys!"

"Wait, does that mean we're actually a TV show? Like, someone wrote us?" April O'Neil wonders.

"Don't think about it too hard," Mikey advises. "Our cartoons always reflect what's gonna happen or did happen to us most days, but like, we don't talk about that. 'Cause then it's too real."

The onscreen celebrations are ended, however, but thousands of the oozequitos flying out of the portal and into New York city! With the sun rising The Turtles have no choice but to flee back home and leave it for another day. A single oozequito flies right into the screen and squishes... ending the episode.

"Huh, it took us like, a year before something like that happened to us, with the mutagen getting all over the city and stuff! You've got some bad luck, dudes."

"But, also a pretty sick first adventure, right?" Leon nods, smiling widely. "I mean come on, we got magic weapons right off the bat!"

"It certainly makes me interested in seeing more," Splinter says, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Many mysteries were hinted at, and much potential was shown."

"Oh, we live up to that potential, baby!" Angelo winks. "Just you wait and see!"

"Looks like we'll be waiting a while." Donald points at the screen. "We're back to their universe next."

"Awwww, man!" Mikey goes limp with disappointment. "We already know that one! I wanna keep watching you guys!"

"I'm sure we'll get back to us," Angelo assures. "I mean, how long can these shows be, anyway?"

#tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt 2018 #rottmnt #tmnt fic #tmnt fanfiction #fanfic #my attempts at fanfic

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