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condemnhim · 9 months

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(mutant mayhem spoilers)

OHMIGOSH so i saw mutant mayhem two days ago, on its official opening here in the US

it was really really good and i loved it so much and ugh i could rant about it for ages. so here's a nearly 2000 word rant about it. sorry for any spelling and grammar errors

(more under the cut)

so first of all, lemme talk about the characters real quick. my favorite character continues to be donnie but all of them were really likeable in this one, and the dynamic the turtles had is amazing.

mm!leo was a very very good version of leo, staying relatively close to older versions of leo but having some of the more fun traits that leo has had recently in tmnt media (for example, he was willing to do some things with his brothers, even if they went against splinter. even if he felt bad about it.) he was funny and cool, really bringing it all together. nicolas cantu (that how you spell his name? idk) did a great job as his voice as well, he pretty much perfectly illustrated all the emotions he needed to for leo throughout the whole movie. the only thing i didn't like about leo was the fact that he had a crush on april, but that's mostly a me thing because i've never been a fan of the turtle x april ships, they're just uncomfortable for me. they played it off pretty well though.

mm!mikey was really enjoyable for a character who is generally a little bit hit-or-miss for his moments. it was really a hit for all of the times he was on screen or talked which i'm very glad about. i a little wish that the movie focused even more on mikey, but maybe the series/sequel will. he was funny and not nearly as gross as some previous iterations were (ahem 2012) and it was just a really fun time with him. he was pretty much the best parts of all of my favorite versions of mikey all put in one. shamon brown jr also did an amazing job with him!!!!! he's a really good voice actor and he was pretty much perfect for mikey. and yeah, one thing i think they could've done better is just giving him more screen time and focus i think?

mm!raph was really great. you could tell that he was definitely raph but he wasn't super aggressive or hard to talk to. he was funny and there were plenty of moments that made me laugh with him. even though the movie didn't go terribly far into all the characters, you could tell that he definitely has a soft spot for his brothers and for splinter as well. seeing him as a turtle tot was amazing as well by the way, he looked like a cinderblock. and yeah, you bet i gotta bring up brady noon, who was amazing for raph. (really, casting all teenagers for the teenage mutant ninja turtles was a great casting choice on all levels.) even though he was this kinda aggressive guy, you can tell that he has dreams and he has people he cares about. it was really great to see for raph.

and of course i gotta talk about my favorite little guy. mm!donnie was SOO GOOd and like my favorite from the whole movie, he was really fussing great. his design is so good just because they really incorporated the tech stuff into his design, and the stickers on his bō were a nice touch. one thing i wish they would've shown more of is stuff that donnie made himself, y'know? donnie's original tech is usually kinda pushed to the front in tmnt which is great, i love seeing donnie tech. but the main thing donnie did in this movie is fight with his regular bō and use his phone and drive a car or something? i hope we get to see his tech in the future. also, micah abbey did such an amazing job at him@!!1 i mean i really enjoyed how he had a higher voice which is NORMAL for teenage boys, like people's voices change at different rates. he sounded great!! i am sad we didn't get to see more scooter action with him though

april i sure have thoughts about. i mean the thoughts are all positive. she was such a good april and an amazing addition to the cast. first of all, i am strong supporter in her design. sure am a big fan of the non-white aprils. a lot of fans didn't like her design for whatever reason?? some of them didn't like that she's not white and others had issues with her body shape, which is stupid. she's a teenage human, there's no reason to give her the "perfect" adult woman's body (in their eyes anyway) when she's meant to just kinda be this a little average but nonetheless badass ally to the turtles. her personality was great, she felt like a real teenager. her arc of getting (mostly) over her camera sensitivity was really nice, and i appreciate that she wasn't totally over it by the end. ayo edebiri was a really great cast for her as well. (also, i'm glad that even though she agreed to go to prom with leo, it seems like she still sees him purely platonically. i will NOT stand for another 2012 donnie and april situation.)

anyway, splinter, amiright? it's interesting how they went with the route that he was originally a rat. he was a really good character and one of my favorite versions of splinter now. he really was just trying to be a good father to these turtles in this weird little family situation, and i can't blame him for being so overprotective of them when he was made to be a monster in times square by mrbeast. jackie chan was a great choice to play him. (i don't support what jackie chan did to his daughter though btw.) the fact that he learned martial arts through old tapes, new movies and fussing youtube (a video of a channel i watch was in it by the way????) is amazing.

okay now all the other characters were really cool too. all the mutants that baxter stockman created were really interesting and it's great how they brought back so many existing characters while adding new ones. bebop and rocksteady were actually funny which i don't really expect from bebop and rocksteady most of the time to be honest. superfly was actually really scary for being this kids movie villain, which i guess isn't very surprising for tmnt. he got away with kinda a surprising amount of swearing for it though, a whole lot of instances of "damn" and stuff. mondo gecko was very fun and i was actually a bit scared when mikey found his tail. cynthia utrom didn't play as big a part in this movie as i expected her to but she will definitely be a bigger part in the future, especially considering that she's obviously meant to be an utrom. (and oh my god that end scene??? but i'll get into that later) i sure was a big fan of superfly's family turning on him for the benefit of humanity (and the chance of living with the turtles and splinter.) the voice cast was great for all the side characters. i think it's really cool that the main cast (as in the turtles and april) were all voiced by younger, less well-known actors while the side cast and villains were all played by the much better-known actors.

anyway onto the art, IT WAS AMAZING AAAAHHH as an artist this was on fussing spider-verse levels of art and animation. it looked like teenagers helped design it, which is what they were going for. the movement looked great and SOO natural, aahh!! the fight choreo was amazing too, there was that one scene where they were trying to find info about superfly was so well put together. there really were a few stand-out moments but all of it was so good. i love it when the ninja turtles actually use their weapons as they should be, which has happened in the past but it was so clear that they did their research here. also i'm glad that jeff rowe and seth rogen said that they ensured that the animators weren't being mistreated or overworked.

anywho, the music amiright? the soundtrack being based on NYC-based rap and hip hop was a really great choice. that one song that goes "can i kick it, yes you can" was a great choice for the main title-y thing of that movie. it hit all the places it needed to.

some other notes i wanna bring up:

the stakes were real my guys. at multiple points, i felt such genuine fear for these fictional mutant turtles in my heart i thought i would have a stroke or something. for example, when cynthia just kept shocking them??? are they not aware of the damage that like father like son did to ninja turtles fans???? also when superfly just had them in his hands and you could HEAR their shells crunching a little bit. UGH that hurt me fr. it felt so so real and it was so so good.

the fact that the cardboard cutouts that splinter acquired were chris hemsworth, chris pine and chris pratt lmao

are any of the characters autistic? i was thinking about this and to be honest i think yes, some of them probably are autistic. but it's not as clear as it is in rise, especially with donnie, y'know?

about the pop culture references and memes that they used didn't actually feel dated or cringe to me. i've heard others complaining about that but it didn't bother me much, it felt how teenagers actually talk. (i'm a teenager btw, i'm pretty used to how we talk.)

making leo have a crush on a girl after rise!leo lmao

but speaking of leo having a crush on april, there is more i wanna say. so i do not ship them, i've never shipped any of the turtles with april. it just don't sit right with me. but i think they still have the opportunity to play it off with elegance and grace, by having april straight up refuse him when he's honest with her about how he feels. hoping that will happen at some point. i've been asked to dances and stuff by friends, i hope that's why april said yes to him asking her to prom at the end. i will find seth rogen if they put leo and april together in the end. (for legal reasons this is a joke.) but yeah.

and the end scene???? oh god what do you guys gonna think shredder's gonna be like in mm???? because as much as i like the pretty goofy side of shredder that we've seen in the past (like '87 shredder was so silly compared to 2012 or god forbid rise shredder), i would love to see a really just horrifying version of shredder that they would actually maybe kill off in the end? and then there's another sequel where leo has to grapple with his own conflicted feelings about killing shredder or something. that would be so real lmao

i'm really looking forward to the future of mutant mayhem, even though i still want more rise!! and also we must keep showing support for the wga/sag-aftra strike, even though it's gonna delay production on the next parts of the series.

it was a great movie though and a great use of one hour and thirty nine minutes.

#tmnt #mutant mayhem #tmnt mutant mayhem #teenage mutant ninja turtles fanart #teenage mutant ninja turtles mutant mayhem #ehehe #movie #condemnhim rambles #sorry this is so long #also sorry i'm not proofreading #i know nobody cares #and i highly doubt anyone will read all this #but i had thoughts to share >:)

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wingstobetorn · 16 days

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Mutant mayhem raph!!

This is so fucking long. Under the cut! ^_^

(Link to askgame)

My first impression: “oh look, new iteration of TMNT. Probably won't get too attached to it, but I'll still watch the film :) Raph looks cool.”

My impression now: ... Where do I even fucking start? This is, without a doubt, my favorite version of Raphael for SOOO many reasons. As much as I love (and I mean fucking love) joking about his anger issues and violence, the number 1 thing I love about Raph is how he canonically never uses violence against his brothers and instead chooses to channel all that anger into his enemies. It's subtle but you can just see how much Raph hates the thought of being a monster; his face dropping when his brother said “Sure he's a big angry monster but he saved the city" PAINS ME EVERYTIME... and the way he clearly wanted them to stop talking about it?? Another thing I really love about Raph specifically is the parallel him and Splinter's dynamic have with Bebop Rocksteady and Superfly's. Something something "This guys been making me angry my entire life! I think he's the reason we're so angry!" IT FUCKS ME UP EVERYTIME. EVERY GODDAMN TIME. AND THE WAY HE LOVES AND CARES FOR HIS BROTHERS HOLY SHIT!!!!!! HE LOVES THOSE GUYS SO MUCH AND EVEN TOOK A MOMENT TO SAY HE WAS GLAD THEIR FACES WERE THE LAST ONES HE'D GET TO SEE BEFORE HE DIED!!!!! RAPHAEL I LOVE YOU

Favorite thing about that character: HELP ME I ANSWERED THIS IN THE PREVIOUS THING AHAGAH

Least favorite thing: “Hey Leo, how does it feel to have your head so far up dad's butt?”

Favorite line/scene: “I dream about fighting every night! (You have a rage problem, Raph) ITS NOT A PROBLEM!!!!” AND THEN PROCEEDS TO FALL ON HIS ASS. I have so many scenes of his I love how do you expect me to choose only one????? I'm just listing this off because that was the only food I had for months while waiting for the movie to come out.

Favorite interaction that character has with another: I'mmm insanely bias towards Leo and Raph interactions. “What the heck man? I said go left!" "I GOT HIM 😡😡😡" and also when Raph said "Wait April are you puke girl? 😆😲" And Leo's ass was fucking growling at him basically saying don't talk to my girl that way, despite the fact he made fun of her first. what is wrong with these boys. The twins ever.... To me.

A character I wish that character would interact with more: I would love 1929299 interactions of Raph with all of his brothers that would be very nice. Aside from his brothers, I think him and April's duo would be hilarious.

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of them: SUSIE DELTARUNE.

A headcanon about that character: He was called Raphie when he was younger by his family until he grew out of that name. They still sometimes call him Raphie just to make him mad and/or tease him.

A song that reminds me of that character: Imma Kill You

An unpopular opinion about this character: Shrugs.

Favorite picture:

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exovapor · 3 years

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The Adventure - TMNT Bitches: Chapters 4 & 5

CHAPTER 4: The Ping

· Baxter Stockman sits staring absent-mindedly at the computer screen. He’s been watching the screen for hours, waiting for a sign from the interdimensional portal device to let him know where Shredder went and where to send the rescue team. However, even though he’s staring straight at the screen, he isn’t seeing anything flashing across it.

· Stockman’s mind is having a slight issue with focusing after Karai’s parting threat. What type of mutant would he turn into? A hippo? A raccoon? A frog? A gelatinous pile of ooze?

· Or, would he even survive the mutation? The more time Stockman spent studying the mutagen, the more he has come to realize just how unstable and dangerous the substance is in Earth’s atmosphere.

· They had gotten VERY lucky that both Bebop and Rocksteady survived the initial mutation trial. By his calculations, the mutagen would kill 1 out of every 5 people and that ratio only increases the more unstable the chemical becomes. Sure, Krang keeps them supplied with a fresh batch every so often, but the fact still remains, the substance and the subsequent mutation are dangerous for the test subject.

· Karai really wouldn’t mutant him, would she? After all, he is the brains behind their operation! Where else will she find a someone with his knowledge, with his skill, with his ambitions? Without him there IS no operation!

· He is still contemplating his uncertain future when a pinging alert sounds from his computer. He can’t believe his eyes! There on his screen a little dot flashes to indicate that the portal device has powered back on and it has sent over the last known Jump coordinates. He feels elated, relieved, and then shocked. The last known Jump coordinates were one thing, but the actual devices location is another…the device is still here in this dimension and in New York City no less.

· He watches the screen as the little dot flashes and then disappears all together, sending back a exact copy of the previous Jump coordinates. The device is no longer pinging in NYC, nor this dimension. Someone just used the device to follow Shredder. “Turtles”, Baxter spits from his mouth, knowing full well who would want to follow his master into another dimension.

· He quickly phones Karai to let her know that he’s got the coordinates of Shredder’s location and then he sends a message to the backup portal device to command Bebop and Rocksteady to come back and get armed up, they’ve got to stop those turtles.

_____________________________

CHAPTER 5: Normal Among Freaks

· The brothers stand clustered together on the top level of the parking deck, taking in the foreign surroundings. Hoping that this dimension isn’t too divergent from their own; otherwise, they will be ill-prepared for this trip.

· Mikey breaks away from the group to follow his curiosity, all the merry voices drifting up from the streets is just too tempting to ignore. As he looks over the edge of the parking deck, he sees all forms of aliens, vampires, people in Viking armor, people in battle body armor, people dressed in renaissance clothing, wizards and witches, women in small barely-there outfits, people in super hero attire, others in space suits, robots, and so much more, he can’t believe his eyes, “Hey, dudes, um…how sure are we that this place is like ours?”.

· “I’m pretty sure, Mikey,”, Donnie says over his shoulder, while swiping through screens, trying to see if there are any traces of Shredder still left in the area, “why do you ask?”.

· “Ahhhh..well…because…um…I’m not seeing a lot of normal people down there”, Mikey replies back, his voice full of tension, “I think our new looks may not work for us here”.

· Raph runs over to join his smaller brother at the edge and is immediately flabbergasted by the display…especially the barely-there outfits of many of the women, “Shit! Ya guys gotta see dis!”.

· Leo and Donnie begrudgingly join the other two at the edge of the parking deck to survey the spectacle that has their brothers so enthralled. Their eyes sweep across the scene and they are equally amazed by what they are seeing. Leo lifts his brow at Donnie in a questioning gaze.

· Donnie pulls his goggles from his forehead, over his eyes, and starting electrically analyzing the scene, “Hm. Well, Mikey, I think we are still safe. It appears that all the biological beings down there are indeed humans, just in costumes…hmmm…most of which seem to be crafted out of fiberglass, foam, and various textiles”. He replaces his goggles back on his head and goes back to his virtual computer screen, scanning through some information, “AH! This explains it! The data screaming out of some of these buildings states that there is a Sci-if/Comic Book Convention, by the name of Dragon Con, taking place over the next few days”, he says with a wide grin. He sighs and with longing in hazel his eyes he adds, “I’ve always wanted to go to one of those”.

· “OH, OH, me too! ME TOO!”, Mikey affirms excitedly. His eyes light up with joy at the prospect at socializing and partying, “Can we, Leo? Can we catch it out?”.

· At that moment, Raph sees one woman practically nude except for a set of heels, a collar, a thong, and some black tape crisscrossed over her areolas, “Damn, I’d like to check her out.”. Raph leans over the lip of the concrete deck and cat-calls down to the woman below, “Babydoll, can I take that tape off with my teeth?”. The woman looks up at his roguish grinning face, she takes in his large body, his shirt pulling taunt and tight across his torso so she giggles and waves at him, replying, “Any time big boy, come find me.”.

· “Oh, I’ll find her alright. Leo, I’ve got a mission”, he turns to Leo and Donnie grinning proudly.

· Leo gives a no-nonsense look to all of his preoccupied brothers, “We came here on a mission. We don’t have time to play around. We’ve got to find Shredder before he has a chance to use that mutagen.”

· Mikey’s carefree face falls once again and he stares longingly down into the streets below, “But it looks so fun! We finally look normal, it would be nice to join in for once.”, he mumbles in a broken-hearted tone.

· Raph’s mood turns sour at being denied a chance to follow his…instincts…and he throws Leo a confronting stare. “Just our luck! We ooze ourselves ta look like them and now all of them are looking like freaks like us”, Raph declares sarcastically while gesturing with his large hands towards the costumed crowds below.

· A grieved huff comes out of Donnie as he crosses his arms and rebukes Raph’s assessment of his fellow nerds and geeks, “They are not freaks! They are cosplay enthusiasts who gain satisfaction from crafting genre replicas and embodying their favorite heroes and villains.”

· “Yeah, like I said, freaks.”, Raph echoes back with a half-cocked smile and rolling his massive shoulders. He knows when he has Donnie on the defensive about his geek stuff and nothing brings him more joy than egging-on his nerdy brother…especially when he’s been denied playtime by Leo. He’ll take his fun where he can find it.

· “We should get back from the edge and try to go as unnoticed as possible,” Leo says a little unsure of situation and the effect that it is having on his brothers. He doesn’t like the unsettling feeling of being uncertain, of the group already getting distracted, and is still in the habit of wanting to remain hidden. He backs away from the edge and turns to Donnie, “Donnie, is there any indication that Shredder was here and where he may have gone?”.

· The tall dark haired mutant starts scanning the area as Leo follows him, they move towards the middle of the parking area, following Donnie’s scans. Raph pulls a very curious and reluctant Mikey back from the edge of the parking deck, by the collar of his shirt, to join their brothers. Donnie’s scans send back confirmation of black hole activity, other than their most recent arrival, and he is still scanning the horizon when they hear a blaring horn.

@turtle-babe83 @tmntspidergirl @nittleboo @kokokatsworld @the-second-circle-of-shell

#tmnt bayverse #tmnt x reader #tmnt smut #tmnt fanfiction #tmnt #tmnt 2016 #donnie #leonardo #raph #mikey #tmnt donnie #tmnt leo #tmnt raph #tmnt mikey #exovapor

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technofantasia · 4 years

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Rise of the TMNT Timeline

Alright, by piecing together some clues from the show and making some educated guesses, I’ve put together a tentative chronology for Rise!

(Note: not all episodes are included, just a couple that either have timeline evidence or are somehow plot notable. This is assuming the canonical episode order is also chronological order.)

[EDIT] Added some more information (namely Splinter’s birthday month).

1600s-ish: The Shredder was created and sealed away September 1960: Splinter was born 1966: Splinter’s mother left (Finale part 1 flashback) 1979: Splinter left for America (Finale part 1 flashback) 1980-1984: Splinter became an action film star, dated around 1984: Splinter started dating Big Mama 1987: Splinter’s “Hot Soup: the Game” was released 1989: Splinter proposed to Big Mama, was imprisoned in Battle Nexus November 2002: April was born April-August 2003: (Presumably) Raph was born April-August 2004: (Presumably) Leo and Donnie were born April-August 2005: (Presumably) Mikey was born October 2005: Splinter and the Turtles were mutated February 2014: The first Lair Games was held 2014-2016: Donnie made his first battleshell, goggles, and tech bracer Early 2018: Piebald was flushed August 2018: Mystic Mayhem (the series begins), Down with the Sickness September 2018: The Turtle Tank was created (The Fast and the Furriest), Bug Busters, Hypno part Deux October 2018: Bullhop, Evil League of Mutants, Shelldon was first created (Smart Lair), Shadow of Evil November 2018: April’s 16th Birthday (Warren and Hypno), April meets Sunita (Operation: Normal) December 2018: Snow Day January 2019: S1 Finale February 2019: The sixth Lair Games was held (Lair Games), Repairin’ the Baron March 2019: Air Turtle April-May 2019: S2 Finale

(Reasoning below the cut!)

So. Assuming that the episodes occur in chronological order, we can reasonably assume that the course of the show proper takes around or slightly less than a year.

In Hypno Part Deux, April is going to a homecoming dance; homecoming dances happen usually around the beginning of the school year, in late September or early October. Since she is canonically 15 at the time (she says she’s 16 in Always Be Brownies, which happens after her birthday) and has a birthday that comes after homecoming, that would likely make her a high school junior! That’s not important, just a fun fact. Placing the beginning of the series around August makes sense, then, since it’d be before April started school and during flu season, giving Splinter a good reason for catching the rat flu in Down with the Sickness.

The other solid time marker we have is Snow Day, which obviously takes place during snow season in New York (which is usually December to March). It’d likely be closer to December, since I’d like to imagine that they would have gone out to have fun in the snow as soon as they could have, potentially even at first snow. Since Lair Games comes chronologically after Snow Day and confirms the year as being 2019, we can assume that most episodes that happen before Snow Day happened in 2018 while those after happened in 2019.

Another, slightly more tenuous time marker is Bullhop, where a calendar is shown that says the 21st of the month was on a Sunday; by our previous assumption, this is 2018, so a calendar shows this must have been during the month of October, which falls in line with the rest of our timeline here! Neat. The 2018-2019 NBA season went from October 6 to April 10, so, since Air Turtle presumably showed a late season game with potential for turnaround, early March seems like a fair bet. All of those episodes combined give a pretty good sense of time throughout the series, spanning from probably around August 2018 to Mid-2019. The finale could have happened any time after March and before June (when high school would end, meaning Sloppy Joe wouldn’t have had to be working Draxum’s kitchen). Because there were quite a few episodes that should have happened before the finale, though, I’ll split the difference and say the S2 finale happened in or around May.

Fun detail: by this timeline, April’s birthday is sometime between October and December/January, likely November (seeing as it comes after Bullhop but before Snow Day, and judging by the fall colors of the foliage in Operation Normal which comes directly after her birthday episode.)

As for the brothers, we can assume that they might have different birthdays judging by how in Lair Games, Mikey says that one of his favorite days is “my birthday”; if they all shared a birthday, he might have been more likely to say “our birthday”. They were mutated sometime close to October, but since they didn’t seem to see the date of their mutation as anything special in ELoM, we can assume they don’t celebrate it as their birthday. We know that at the beginning of the show, Mikey is 13, Leo and Donnie are 14, and Raph is 15; at no point during the show do any of them have a birthday, which leads me to assume that they are the same ages by the S2 finale. They COULD have had a birthday offscreen, but since birthdays are a pretty big thing for teenagers, I’d think that if one of them had a birthday it would be pretty noteworthy. I’ll just guess and say they didn’t have one. If that’s the case, then all of their birthdays would be some time between April-ish and August-ish. By the time the show starts, then, they would have already had their birthdays, confirming for us their (probably only guessed anyway but whatever) birth years as 2003, 2004, and 2005. Realistically, Splinter probably didn’t know how much older Raph was from any of the others or anything like that, but the years are still somewhat important for age calculation purposes. I could try to guess their birthday months by saying they might all have wanted a unique birthday month, but that would be complete conjecture on my part (as compared to the rest of this which is just mostly conjecture), and would honestly be more headcanon territory than an educated guess? So for the timeline I’ll just say that their birthdays are between April and August.

Now, reaching further backwards to figure out Splinter’s life timeline!

In Splinter’s memories in E-turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we see a clip of a teenage Splinter. Said “teenage splinter” looks to be on the older side of teenager, as he seems to have his own apartment and just looks older besides, so I’d place him at either 18 or 19 (leaning towards 19). Additionally, taking a look around his room, it looks like he might be using a Sony Walkman (first made in 1979), and has what looks to be a Star Wars poster on his wall (1977). Additionally, he has a TV in his room that looks to be a Toshiba Blackstripe model that was popular in the mid-to-late 70s. While I can’t tell if he does actually have a walkman or not, I’d probably place this scene as being 1978 or 1979 anyway, so let’s just say it’s 1979. If he was 19 in 1979, that would place Splinter’s birth year as 1960, which is nice and even so I’m keeping it. That would make Splinter 58-59 during the course of the show, which seems to track! He has a birthday in Mascot Melee (the turtles are buying him a new robe as a birthday present), which, according to my episode timeline, puts his birthday around early September.

The flashback of Splinter as a kid is a little bit tricky, since he looks to be about five or six judging by how he acts in the scene? But he’s also holding a Kamen Rider doll, and that show didn’t exist until 1971. I nonetheless place the scene in 1966, since this is a cartoon and hey, maybe the Kamen Rider equivalent came out a few years earlier in this world, who cares. The bottle flip challenge already apparently happened in 2014 here, why not move some other stuff around? This exercise has already had me comparing calendar days, I will not be deterred

In Many Unhappy Returns, the clapperboard for the film “Crouching Shrimp, Hidden Tiger Prawn” in Splinter’s flashback shows that it was 1984 when he first met Big Mama, meaning that he was not only Lou Jitsu by then (at just 24 years old!), but that he had been making movies for at least a few years. After all, he and Big Mama were supposedly inseparable after meeting, and in The Shadow of Evil, it’s shown that Splinter did date around a bit as a star. Assuming that rat dad isn’t the cheating type, that would have had to be before meeting Big Mama. In Fists of Furry, Splinter mentions that he hasn’t seen any of his dojos in thirty years; while he may not have meant literally thirty years on the dot, assuming he’s at least close, that would mean that he was first abducted around 1989 (age 29). At that point, he and Big Mama would have been dating for around 5 years, which seems like a reasonable amount of time for him to wait before proposing. He also would have had time to build up quite a bit of fame as a movie star; the game he had of him looks to be on a system similar to the Atari 2600 and in fact looks pretty similar to the real life game “Kung Fu Master” that came out on Atari in 1987, a year which would have been the prime of his career. Sure, that date works as well as any. After that point, we know he was imprisoned in the Battle Nexus until Baron Draxum kidnapped him in order to use his DNA to mutate the turtles 13 years before The Evil League of Mutants. That would have placed his kidnapping and their mutations at around October of 2005, judging by the monthly timeline of the show. So, Splinter would have been around 45 when he adopted the turtles, after having been imprisoned and forced to fight for ~16 straight years. Dang.

Finally, I figured that the whole deal with Shredder and Karai would have happened at some point in the 1600s as it was 18 generations ago, judging by the number of “greats” in Karai’s grandma title, and if you average out a generation to be about 20-25 years, that lands you in the range of the 15th century. That works especially because Ninja apparently first started becoming a thing in the 15th century, so the timing checks out well enough.

(and, just as an extra fun note for the timeline, the lair games was said to have been going on for 6 years as of early 2019, meaning it must have started in 2014. We see that, in 2014 (year 1 of the Lair Games), Donnie doesn’t have his goggles or battleshell and is instead wearing glasses. In 2016 (year 3), though, he looks about the same as he does in the present, meaning he must have created all his tech that he wears on him (battleshell, goggles, tech bracer) between 2014 and 2016.)

So, the above timeline is a guesstimated and shoved around compilation of all this totally meaningless investigation, typed in a form that makes some kind of chronological sense! I hope that someone finds it useful, or just fun to think about :D

#tmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #hunny rambles #this took... way too much time and effort #but its useful for fanfiction i guess!!!#reference

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mar-iiposa · 4 years

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Hi, how're ya? ^^ How the beyverse turtles would react on their first time riding a horse? (I know, it's not a comum question :D I've been thinking about it)

a/n: hi! I'm good, thank you ! congrats to being my first request. what an odd request for a headcanon, never really thought about turtles riding full on horses lmao. I, myself, have only been on one for a mini-photoshoot when I was in preschool, but definitely had a horse phase shortly after that. well, here you go !

how do I put this in a way that, at the very least, makes some partial sense yet somewhat proves the point

okay so you know how horses are depicted as beautiful, graceful, and free-spirited creatures?

imagine that depiction. but with a 6 ft tall turtle on top of it.

that's how leo looks on top of an entire horse.

feels heroic, like he's about to lead his army into a deadly battle

at first, the he's a little hesistant, "do I really have to get on this thing? How did a horse even get down here?"

"leo, donnie can literally get on the horse with all of those gadgets on, you'll be fine."

donniewearinghisgadgetsnotthehorse

he's seriously overthinking this

if you're on the horse with him, that'll probably calm his nerves down, immensely

if not, sucks for him lmao

"fearless ain't so fearless anymore, huh?"

"shut up raph." he's so done with his younger brother(s)

but as SOON as he gets on this horse, all of his previous worries just 🌠 wash away 🌠

"oh, well this isn't so bad."

"what else did ya think, numbnuts?" there goes raph again-

takes the horse around the lair, like a great warrior or something

"on a crusade now?"

leonardo sends his second youngest brother an unphased stare before carefully trotting off with the horse towards the dojo

"no horses allowed in the dojo, leonardo" "yes dad"

a little disappointed when they have to return it, but he knows it's for the best :)

"no."

"why not??"

"I'm gonna fall off the thing."

"that thing is a horse, raph."

as we know, Raph, the muscle of the team, is scared of heights

pretty obvious

but is he scared of falling off the horse? you bet your ass he is

almost fALLS WHILE MOUNTING THE HORSE

once he's on the horse, he's all stiff and awkward

"what do I do now?"

once he gets the hang of it, he noticed that he starts to really bond with that horse

gives the horse a name in his head, he doesn't tell anybody

"get yer ass up here with me."

you're just partially speechless at the sudden command. but nevertheless, you end up on the horse, holding onto raph

just strolls around on top of the horse, it's so therapeutic for him??? oddly enough??

a little sad when he has to say his goodbyes

everyone else, but you, tend to not notice the final look he gives the horse

he was so attached to it already

"I know you miss them"

"shut up-"

"I absolutely have to?"

"yes donnie."

"is there some sort of logical reasoning explaining that I really have to?"

"just get on the damn horse-"

won't shut up about it

"you know, there are over 100 deaths a year related to horse-riding and technically spe-"

"get on the damn horse, donnie!" raphael hollers from the other end of the lair

"a-alrighty then."

he hesitates a little mounting the calm creature

instantly falls in love with the horse. instant connection

"I am naming them cornelius."

GIVES CORNELIUS A LITTLE TOUR OF HIS LAB

and shows him the monitors on his computers

cautious around it though, who knows if the horse is a spy

won't stop blabbering on and on about fun facts for horses

petting cornelius and carefully brushing their silky mane

he's fallen head over heels for this horse, watch out y/n

doesn't experiment on the horse because although the dude loves to experiment, he won't do it on animals :(

feeding cornelius carrots and apples !!

"say goodbye to the horse, donnie"

"we'll meet again, cornelius-"

saddened by the bittersweet departure

would still do anything for cornelius

actually the one who somehow managed to bring it into the lair

"giddy-up!"

conquers the horse

"where did you get it fro-?"

"the world may never know, donatello."

"he stole it from this birthday party."

"ah, ah, ah! I'm borrowing it!"

apparently he knows how to get the horse back to their ownner

he doesn't. yet.

TRIES TO FEED THE HORSE PIZZA

"donnie, do you think bobby can eat pizza?"

"well no, I think pi- you named it "bobby"??"

"he looks like a bobby. right, y/n?"

"just don't give bobby any pizza, mikey."

mikey doesn't even google the question as to whether or not horses can consume pizza

thank god he's right

headcanon that mikey brings the horse into raph's room, riding it, and it turns into a chaotic mess

the horse poops in raphael's room.

a lot.

mikey sadly (but thankfully) doesn't keep the horse

after endless hours of begging master splinter to

but he does visit it every week or so after that so that's nice :)

Sorry if they might seem ooc at all? it's just sort of an unusual request that I'm not used to seeing around haha. feel free to request more headcanons or request a story with a specific prompt. anonymous or not is fine, just be descriptive in what you want !

#tmnt imagines #tmnt imagine #tmnt leo x reader #tmnt leonardo #tmnt 2016 #tmnt 2014 #tmnt mikey #tmnt #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt fanart #x reader #x y/n #tmnt raphael #tmnt raph x reader #tmnt donnie #tmnt donatello #teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtle imagine #horses

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tmntallthewaydown · 4 years

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Tales of the Hidden City Writing Appreciation Post Pt.1!

The last batch of episodes, Tales of the Hidden City, were excellent. As an animator, it’s easy to get bowled over by the visuals of the show and just rant about those, but I wanted to spotlight another awesome part of Rise of TMNT -- the writing!

The writing is always fun in the show, but there were parts of these episodes that I really wanted to call out for how clever and great they are.

Each of the Tales of the Hidden City eps puts the characters in a situation where their strengths are negated or challenged. (Also, big cheer for a bunch of episodes finally exploring the Hidden City. It’s such a fun location, I want to see it all.)

Donnie Vs Witch Town an episode where Donnie’s tech can’t solve the problem Raph’s Ride Along an episode where Raph’s heroics are seen as anything but Hidden City’s Most Wanted an episode where Mikey’s peacekeeping can’t keep the peace Bad Hair Day an episode where the face man’s face ain’t enough

I figured I’d do a separate post for each episode so it doesn’t get over-long.

I’ll be focusing on character development mainly since that’s what stood out to me most!

Donnie Vs Witch Town

Directed by Abe Audish, Written by Ian Busch, Storyboarded by Alicia Chan

*Spoilers for the episode!* I won’t do full recaps, and assume you’ve all seen the ep if you’re reading this..

We start with Donnie referencing the Shadow Fiend in the Battle Nexus.

“Rumour has it, this Shadow Fiend is quite the fierce champion”

I’m assuming this line’s here because the writers want to keep dropping us tantalizing crumbs to set up the Shadow Fiend as being an important figure in this season. The writers want to keep them present and in our minds as well as let us know that whoever the fiend is, (I bet we all have guesses), they’ve gotta be making quite the name for themselves if even the Turtles have heard of them.

April says she’s headed to Witch Town, whereupon Donnie is horrified. I think horrified is the right word.

“Drop it, D.” “Why not ask me? Mr Science!”

The “Drop it, D” is an elegant way to imply this conversation is a continuation of one they were having pre-episode. April is already very done with the discussion.

Donnie’s line is great because it’s one of two times in this episode that he calls himself ‘Mr Science’ or ‘The Science Guy’. Here, the line comes off as triumphant and proud, but later there is a feeling of desperation to it. It’s a really nice parallel to set up at the beginning, so we can hammer home the duality of what that label means to Donnie.

To preface, this episode deals with Don’s self worth being tangled up in his ability to do Science good. Because of this, he does a lot of projecting in this episode. For the most part, you can assume any time he mentions ‘Science’, he is actually talking about himself. Basically, substitute that word for his own name, and it makes the subtext more obvious.

Here, have these just because they’re fun.

Don ‘helping out’ with various Science Fair projects. April has a good reason not to ask him for help again.

A nuclear powered cooking multi-tool?

The Erupting Volcano. The floor is literally lava.

The Classic Potato Battery experiment.

“Hmm. That must have been the work of another Teenage Mutant Ninja Dummie.”

I’m calling out Donnie’s response here just because I enjoy the consistency the writers give to the way he handles failures. Innnnn that he will feign complete ignorance of the incident and claim it must have been someone else entirely.

“You turned a cuddly animatronic bear into a psychotic robot bent on destroying us? No? Got April Fired? Mmm? Nothing? Mmm?” “That does not sound like me, no.”

- from Al Be Back

In general it’s an established part of his character that he has problems accepting failure.

Donnie deflects blame in many other episodes - to April in ‘The Purple Jacket’ and to his brothers in ‘Todd Scouts’ off the top of my head. This trait is pertinent to this episode in particular because the apology we get at the end of the episode from him is by far the most full and cohesive admission of blame he has given in the two series so far. I’d say it’s a step forward on the level of Leo’s apology from the ‘Air Turtle’ episode (another great episode showing Leo’s growth towards becoming a team player!).

Either way, it’s nice that we see him redirect the blame early in the episode so the moment can provide more of a contrast to him coming full circle and accepting the blame later.

One last thing about the line - I put my hands up to admit that this may be me overthinking it, but Don essentially calls himself a dummie here. Whether this was intentional by the writers to hint at his insecurities or just a fun line, I couldn’t say - but since it relates back to events later in the episode I thought it might be worth mentioning.

Moving on, Donnie accompanies April to Witch Town despite it being the last place he wants to be. It’s our first hint that his obsessive need to convince April that all Mystic stuff is garbage might run a bit deeper than just vocal teasing.

April calls him out on being closed minded and we get

“Oh I’m sorry, I was just stewing over how everyone needs to be more like me.”

Of course we know that’s not how he really feels, as we’ve all seen that episode.

The writing here is nice and subtle. It lets us know that Donnie isn’t being honest. He’s giving April sass, but the sentiment he’s expressing is false.

The episode continues with Donnie comparing every feat of magic to it’s scientific equivalent until April essentially tells him to can it if he doesn’t want a bat to the plastron. The witches show off, prompting exclamations from April at how amazing their magic is.

Then we get one of my favourite lines from Donnie as he snaps.

“Your Mystic Magic is not amazing, it’s simple and soft. There, I said it.”

That soft is a word that Donnie would use as an insult, associating it with something he dislikes and looks down on, is very affecting. You know what else is soft?

The writing here is so revealing and wonderful. They could have used any insult, but the writers chose to have him express his frustration in a way that sheds light on the way Donnie sees himself. It gets right to the root of the problem he has in this episode, which is that without his science and tech, Donnie doesn’t feel like he is particularly ‘Amazing’ either.

That April calling magic amazing is what prompt’s Don’s snap, rather than any of the words of the townsfolk, is one of the clues we’re given to the truth behind D’s drive in this episode. The writers will bring that back later on!

So April and Don are kicked outta Witch Town when Don’s improv musical performance to convince April to let him help her instead ends up blowing up in his face.

Popping this here because watching Donnie get deservedly smacked by April at this point was very cathartic for me. Dingus.

Donnie offers to help the witches in return for them helping April. It seems sweet at first, but it becomes plain fairly fast that this is really another opportunity for D to try and prove that science is king.

“Ah would you look at that. Banished, and I still saved the day.” “Wait, is that why you did this?” “Nooo! It’s because I was sorry - about being closed minded - about how wrong I were.”

Again, it’s up to the writers to show us that Donnie is lying about his motivations here. That little bit of incorrect grammar (saying ‘were’ instead of ‘was’), calls out to us that something is up. Donnie is smart, and it’s out of character for him to word things sloppily. It lets us know that all is not well, and that things are yet to be resolved, internally at least.

I couldn’t help calling out this wonderful posing, even though I’m trying to focus on the writing. It really sells us on the dissatisfaction brewing between them. Gorgeous acting from the animators.

The peace offering potion the witches were making seems to work, and Donnie wastes no time in trying to rub their faces in the fact that science provided one of the ingredients - until it becomes clear that Donnie’s contribution has soured the brew. He tries to avoid blame and responsibility, as we’ve seen him do in previous episodes (and earlier in this one). Nothing I’m calling out here besides the novelty of seeing a mob of witches trying to lynch a scientist - a bit of a historical reversal!

The big bad is storming Witch Town and Donnie gets ready to smack down - specifically “because when I defeat it with my tech, they will have to admit science is better!”

It’s worth saying that on the word ‘they’, he points directly at April. Because as we’re about to discover, it’s not actually proving to these random villagers that Science is best that’s important to him (though maybe that would be nice), but about proving to April specifically that Science is best. Thank you animators/storyboarders for making that subtext more explicit!

At this point we as the audience have had it up to here with Donnie’s bullheadedness. The reveal that D’s gripe is personal and April/brother specific, rather than just a frustration with Witch Town in general, goes some way to explaining why he is so obsessive over it.

Donnie’s Tech Bo breaks in the conflict, and we get the awesome reveal of April’s Mystic Bat. She is of course, badass with it and kicks butt. April saving Donnie’s hide with Mystic Magic prompts the confrontation between them that is the emotional heart of the episode.

“Why are you so obsessed with proving me wrong on this!?” “Because! I’m the Science Guy! (sigh) If Mystic Powers can do everything I can do but better, then why would you guys even need me?”

Here is the payoff to the opening ‘Mr Science’ line from earlier in the episode. The wording is similar, however this time the line is tinged with defeat. The duality revealed is that Science makes Don feel powerful, but without it, he feels powerless.

The visuals that go hand in hand with the dialog are very telling here, too.

The image of Donnie holding his broken Tech Bo isn’t just to show us that his technology isn’t enough to win, that it can be broken. It’s also showing us how he sees himself, drawing a direct comparison between Donnie and his broken Tech. He’s not always perfect, but he’s ultimately useful, right? Until he’s not. I’ve no doubt that this was a deliberate move from the Storyboarders, and I think they sold the moment brilliantly.

His words make it clear that Donnie believes that “if Mystic Powers can do everything I can do but better”, ie, help April with her project without blowing her classroom up, why would she not keep going to Mystics instead of him in the future?

With her not ‘needing’ him for scientific assistance any more, he sees no reason for her to continue hanging out with him. This ties back to the clues the writers dropped earlier in the episode, that suggest he doesn’t regard himself highly without his science.

The obsession this episode with disproving how ‘Amazing’ Mystic Magic is in front of April makes a lot more sense through the lens that he is fighting to keep April’s friendship.

“You Guys” expands this sentiment to include the rest of his family. If his tech ends up letting down the team and is unneeded then by extension, he would also be unneeded.

As viewers, we know this is untrue. Even beyond the fact that these characters rely on one another emotionally, we saw Don fight alongside his brothers in ‘Insane in the Mama Train’ - all of them tech-less and Mystic-less - and they kicked butt, even if they did end up being eventually captured. However, it’s clear from the writing here that this isn’t how Donatello himself feels.

“You’re not important to me because of your tech, you’re important to me because of you! I don’t think Mystic Powers is better than Science. If anything, they’re stronger together, just like us! Right?” “Right!”

April’s comeback is wonderful. Super eloquently written and gets right to the heart of his insecurities. First undermining the thought that if Don didn’t have tech, she wouldn’t need him, then framing Mystic Powers as something that will bring them closer together. Beautiful writing!

I also want to just celebrate how the writers handle April’s characterisation as being someone who is super excited and curious about any kind of Mystic Magic or supernatural shenanigans. I really like this consistency in her character where she is way into anything otherworldly or unexplained. I hope we get to see more of it in the future!

We get to see April and Donnie kick butt together which super fun! I’m very happy we got another episode with these two, the way they bounce off one another is really enjoyable to watch.

“I was wrong to not be more open-minded. It’s just that Mystic Powers are the one thing I have not been able to solve. As a man of Science, it is maddening to finally come upon something that you do not understand. Especially when your dum-dum brothers totally do, and they wave their dum-dum weapons in their dum-dum hands all the dum-dum time! But that is just a long way of saying I am sorry’.

The apology is very articulate, letting us know that D is truthful here. It’s a nice little payoff when compared to his earlier lie with April, where the writers had him fudge his words to imply his dishonesty.

April actually believes him this time too, judging by the lovely acting here.

We’re treated to this perspective on Donnie’s feelings, which reveals a couple of interesting things to us. ‘The one thing I have not been able to solve’ indicates that he has previously attempted - and failed - to understand Mystic stuff, which is new information. It goes against our impressions from the rest of the series so far (that he is simply disinterested). We also learn that his brothers’ understanding of their powers has created a knowledge imbalance that is a frustration to him. I very much hope that the show keeps taking steps in this direction with Donnie, just because I would love to see an arc that results in him getting more involved with the Mystic side of things.

To wrap up the episode, I really appreciated the way the writers handled the internal conflict in Donnie Vs Witch Town. There was a lot of subtlety and subtext in the writing, which I am absolutely here for. Donnie’s end reveal really recontextualizes the earlier shenanigans in a meaningful way, and marks a step forward for him. April has her Bat now, and Don is a little more open to Mystic Powers as a possibility! I’m excited to see where we go next!

Thanks for sticking with me, if you got to the end, and I hope you found it as interesting as I did! ‘Raph’s Ride along’ is the next ep I’ll dig into.

#rottmnt #donnie vs. witch town #analysis #writing #episode #rise of the tmnt #april o'neil #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt april

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pgjoy · 4 years

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Rise of the TMNT

SPOILERS

Rise is “on pause” and, while a movie is coming out, I doubt it will be picked back up. However, it’s the most recent TMNT and still rerunning on nicktoons and nickelodeon. It’s available for purchase in the US on amazon and in the apple store.

Four turtle brothers and their rat dad enjoy their lives while they try to 1) learn ninjitsu from old martial arts movies and 2) save the city of new york (and the world) from mutation and/or death.

Rise changes quite a few constants in TMNT- Raph is the leader. Splinter has depression over being a rat-man. The focus is more on who the turtles are rather than what they do, and it’s a comedy first and foremost. If you haven’t given it a shot, do so!

Most of the characterization of the turtles comes from what they do and say, rather than what people say about them. They have two potential communities they can join- secretly, they can taste a little bit of human New York, but OPENLY they can join the hidden city. They aren’t isolated any longer, and that lets them open up as people and characters.

My secret hope is that they get more seasons to flesh out the finale- Erase the last 4 episodes or treat them as a multi-season preview- make the 3 season arcs that nick forced them to wrap up in 4 episodes.

Rating 11/10 this one is my favorite. It’s energetic, the references to well loved anime and western cartoons are excellent, and it’s major changes from previous cannon are bold and daring.

Who are they? April: A human teenager! April’s a character as much as the turtles are- she’s best described as their sister, as this time she’s a teen, too (and because she will not hesitate to fight her brothers, or for them). She’s clever, fun, alienated at school, and always getting fired from jobs. She’s doing things outside of shenanigans with the boys. Has as crane operator’s license. Involve and instrumental in every major fight in the series. Involved in every major group hug as well. She’s very cool, but in the way your peers grow to love as you get older- She’s an April who exists outside of her relationships to the turtles and Splinter. Other Aprils tag along or support missions. Rise!April is as likely to include them in what she’s doing, too. The chaotic friend- would stop you from doing something stupid if she wasn’t too busy charging in herself. Donatello: A soft-shelled pancake turtle! Tries to help with science without regard for the consequences. Definite middle child, in that he acts out for attention but also wants to be left alone. Leo’s twin??? A scoundrel in the way that I remember being as the ‘smart kid.’ Believes he knows better than anyone else, and more likely to feign ignorance over problems he’s caused rather than apologize. Self described as an ‘emotionally distant bad boy’ but cries with joy at the slightest hint of parental approval. Smart in the way an engineer is smart, and prone to believing conspiracy theories. Probably dismantled the TV and didn’t even attempt to put it back together as a child. Leonardo: A red-eared slider! Knows how to get under everyone’s skin. Definite middle child in that he fights for attention with jokes and actively seeks to be the center of attention inside and outside the home. Donnie’s twin??? Self described ‘face man.’ Big into himself with little regard for his family members. Always on the look out for another father figure. Bad jokes, awful one liners, looks for positive attention through comedy and cheating. Very good at coming up with or seeing through plans, unless he doesn’t want to. He’s no longer in charge, and that frees him to focus on his love of old scifi movies and annoying the local populace for fun. Loves stage magic. Loves to rag on his brothers for things they like. Probably the kind of friend you need when most of your friend group is indecisive- he’s happy to make all the plans but you’ll probably have to pay. Michelangelo: A box turtle! He’s the littlest brother, and the only one who can retreat into his shell. VERY touchy-feely. Mikey loves his brothers, and is a constant source of positivity. He’s prone to selfishness when he’s pursuing his own goals, but he’s so positive and excited about what he’s doing that you won’t notice until later. He’s afraid of ghosts and loves cooking. The fact that he doesn’t know a feat is impossible is the reason he can pull it off every time. Not good at being firm or mean with other people, until he’s past his limit. Then. it’s time for Dr. Delicate touch. Probably the kid who hid on the stairs to listen to the X-files after bedtime but the whistling made him too scared and he had nightmares about it. Raphael: A snapping turtle. BIG. Largest brother so that he can hug everyone at once. Decided that being the largest brother made him the big brother, and so is in charge. Raph is very interested in justice and the correct way of doing things. He’s very aware of how his brothers are vs how they want to be perceived. He’s bad at plans, but good at action. Gets weird when he’s by himself. Does poorly under pressure, but learns to do better as time goes on. His plans mostly consist of ask questions, be helpful, and SMASH! Being the one in charge frees him from being angry at the decisions of others- but opens him up to the stress of leadership. He’s the friend who you call when you’re in trouble. He’ll freak out about it, but he’ll help you out every time. His brothers will literally eat poison just to get on his nerves. Splinter: A human man who was turned into a rat by warrior alchemist Baron Draxum. He’s raised his sons on a steady diet of movies he starred in since he rescued them. Much, MUCH more of a lazy dad than a sensei, he gradually learns that he has to be more involved as a father, that he has worth even as a rat man, and that his sons need to learn about the history and culture he came from. As a man, Splinter was named Yoshi Hamato (first/last). As an actor, he was Lou Jitsu. And Lou Jitsu is best described as this photo of Jackie Chan:

(A photo of Jackie Chan from his younger years. He is wearing a backless white cable knit turtle neck sweater, but the sweater has no sleeves which barely covers his chest. You can see his obliques. Dude is ripped.)

Shredder: A FERAL ANIMAL WHO KNOWS NO REASON OR RESTRAINT. Not the main villain of the series- he shows up at the end of season one and retreats into the shadows after the boys nearly die fighting him. Other cast members: Rise has a plethora of new and different mutants to fight. No bebop and rocksteady, but... Todd: Todd’s a capybara mutant who was once a man. He runs a puppy sanctuary and is the one non-parent everyone trusts their kids with. I love Todd. Makes a mean lemonade.

Did I make it ALL the way through? YES! And I will again when the movie comes out.

Are they ninjas? Not at first! They have to learn and grow into ninjitsu and the traditional martial arts of their family. And they do! And the fight scenes are dynamic and gorgeous.

Are they a family? YUP! From the gate they are a family. They know and love each other like siblings do- they have enough room

Do I like them?

Who’s my favorite?

Do they murder?

Is there magic?

How old do they seem vs. cannon ages (if any)

Are they going to ever talk to each other again after the end of the series?

If I was rescued by them in a dark alley would I be grateful or horrified?

What’s left unresolved?

The best:

The worst:

Ranking:

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holdyourbreathuntilyouseelight · 5 years

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The Bodyguard - Chapter 2

Summary: Magnus is a dancing popstar sensation whose popularity continues to climb. Alec, an ex-Secret Service agent, is hired on as a professional bodyguard in charge of Mr. Bane’s personal security by insistence of Magnus’ manager. Despite their initial differences, Magnus finds himself falling for Alec the more time they spend getting to know each other and relies on him for more than physical security as his safety gets threatened. Loosely based on the 1992 film The Bodyguard.

Rating: M

Genre: AU, Everyone is Human AU, Celebrity!Magnus, Bodyguard!Alec, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Romance, Eventual Smut, Mutual Pining

Author: holdyourbreathuntilyouseelight

A/N: Thanks for reading and the feedback so far! For this chapter - mild trigger warning for a forced-on kiss - female to male. It does not last long, but please be mindful if you are sensitive to this type of situation.

Read on AO3.

Previous chapters on tumblr: Prologue // Chapter 1

"Is this really necessary, Alexander?"

Alec grumbled under his breath at the use of his full name, not bothering to correct the star anymore. He clearly enjoyed pushing his buttons, so giving in and showing how much it annoyed him was only fueling the fire.

It was only two weeks into the tour, and Alec's prediction that he'd be met with resistance on his plans to keep Magnus safe from the one in question was proving true.

He liked to do a full sweep of every venue prior to letting Magnus roam free. Especially since it was clear Magnus had no regard for personal safety.

Alec continued his patrol, withholding the sigh he longed to release. "Yes, Mr. Bane. I take my job seriously."

"Is there anything you don't take seriously?" Magnus drawled, examining his nails. "I need to get started on my pre-show prep so I'll be ready in time for dress rehearsal. Are you almost done deactivating the bombs at least?"

Alec rolled his eyes. "You know, just because you think you're invincible and everyone worships you, doesn't mean you're right."

"Whatever. Can we hurry this up? I'm starving."

Alec chose not to respond, instead speaking into his wire. "Are we clear?"

"All set. Set him free." Raj chuckled, knowing the impatience of the pop star.

He turned to Magnus. "We're clear."

"Finally." Magnus complained, heading towards his assigned dressing room with his prep team in tow.

Alec followed and leaned against the wall outside of his room, pulling out the mini tablet he had. He opened up the venue map and checked each of his staff's positioning.

Magnus may not outwardly appreciate his efforts, but Alec wasn't going to let that weaken his meticulous professionalism. He had been hired to keep the man safe, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

Magnus let his team do their work, trying not to think about the tall man outside of his dressing room acting like he was going to be tackled at any moment.

He knew Raphael had his reasons for hiring Alec, but he had mostly been a giant pain in his ass. Magnus had not taken well to the modifications done to his home or that the Lightwood man seemed to be the bossiest person on the planet.

He remembered when he came home from a day of shopping to find his house transformed from when he last left it.

"Why are there bars on my windows?! What is this, Alcatraz?!"

Alec inhaled slowly. "Mr. Bane, we will be taking every precaution to keep you safe. That means your home needed some changes."

"This is ridiculous! RAPH!"

Raphael came back into the room, hanging up the phone. "Listen to Mr. Lightwood, Magnus. He knows what he's doing."

"I don't care! I should not need a damn retina scan to enter the front door!"

Alec didn't speak to his over-exaggeration, instead forcing his voice into a steady calm. "Mr. Bane… we've added extra security measures for a reason. The fact that you haven't had more issues with break-ins and over-enthused fans is shocking. Your social media is littered with ways for your fans to track you to this address. You had no security or surveillance system in place, your windows were a completely accessible entry point, and you had so many people running around, anyone could slip in, especially without any proper screening process at your front door."

Magnus had pitched a celebrity-level temper tantrum but Alec didn't budge. It was clear Magnus wasn't getting through to him, so he reluctantly let him continue to run the show and got used to not having his way. Even though he didn't usually keep his mouth shut about it.

After that, Magnus gave up on arguing about it, since even Raphael wasn't sympathetic to him. He made sure to be home for the next set of changes, and that he pushed Alec's buttons at every opportunity during the process.

Still, despite Alec's irritating ways, he knew his heart was in the right place. He may be a hired gun of sorts but the changes did make Magnus start to think about what he was doing. Sometimes, when he was about to post something to social media, he'd now review it. Even going so far to crop certain parts out or blur them to make it a little more secure.

He'd never tell Alec that, of course. He could just picture the smug look on the tall man's face.

Still, annoying though he may be, he at least was easy on the eyes. And Magnus very much enjoyed riling him up at every opportunity. His buttons were so very easy to push. Flirting openly with him was especially rewarding, as it usually caused his porcelain skin to change to a lovely pink hue.

A knock on the door made Magnus look up from watching Meliorn work on his make-up.

Alec's voice came through the closed door. "Mr. Bane, there's a Camille Belcourt here to see you. She says you're old friends. Do you have time to see her or should I get Raphael to set up a time tomorrow?"

Magnus swallowed, the few of his team members who knew his past well looking awkward, and he forced a smile. "I'll be all right. You guys go take a break. Get some nourishment. I'll handle Camille."

"One of us can stay…?"

He shook his head, waving them off. "Go. I'll find out what she wants and then send her on her way."

The group of them left, and Magnus turned in his chair. "Let her in, Alec."

The door opened and the tall brunette entered, a wicked smirk on her lips.

"Magnus. It's been too long."

Alec met Magnus' eyes, and Magnus gave a subtle nod, confirming that she was who she said she was. Alec closed the door behind the pair.

"Camille. What brings you to my dressing room?"

She waltzed over to him in what she probably assumed was a seductive manner, but Magnus wasn't buying it. "Aww, can't I stop by? Or was that privilege revoked when we broke up?"

"You mean when you cheated on me with your agent for nearly a year and then got caught?" Magnus replied coldly.

She pouted. "Still holding a grudge I see."

Magnus crossed his arms, huffing out a breath. "Yeah, I'm stubborn like that, I guess."

"Oh, Magnus. I know we both made mistakes…"

"Some more than others." he interjected bitterly.

"… but I was hoping we could catch up. Reconnect. It's been too long."

"Is this because I got invited to that big award show next week? Are you thinking I'll take you and get you some spotlight time?"

"Now that is a wonderful idea! I could make myself available…"

Magnus sighed. "Camille, just because your modelling career has hit a plateau, it isn't a reason for you to try to manipulate me into letting you back into my life."

Camille stepped closer, looping her arms around his neck, her eyelashes fluttering over her green eyes in an attempt to be sultry. "Magnus, I miss you. We had something good for so long. And your fans love us together. Please? Just think about it. What me and you together could mean… How much fun we had… I know you remember that." she taunted, leaning into him further.

Before he could reply, Camille had backed him against the vanity table and grabbed his face in her hands to kiss him eagerly.

Magnus lost his balance, arms flailing as he fell backwards, before he grabbed her shoulders and shoved her off of him, hard.

"Camille! Don't—!"

But she was forcing herself on him again, her tongue invading his mouth, and before he could do something like bite down on it to get her off, she was wrenched away.

"I believe Mr. Bane told you no." a low voice growled, and Magnus looked up as he wiped his mouth to see Alec with a tight grip around Camille's wrist.

She was dead silent, eyes wide at the dangerous tone, and Alec dragged her by the arm to the door with little to no remorse.

"You've overstayed your welcome, Miss Belcourt. Mr. Garroway will escort you out. And you will not be welcomed back on my watch."

Camille shot a glare back at Magnus before letting an angry Luke direct her outside.

Magnus was speechless, chest rising and falling. He didn't know what to say. Alec looked furious, like he was ready to punch a hole in the wall, and Magnus hadn't seen him in such a state before. He was normally quite pulled together.

"Are you all right?" Alec finally asked.

Magnus managed to find words, hugging his middle and watching the floor instead of meeting his bodyguard's eyes. "Fine. Um… thanks."

Alec nodded. "I apologize for barging in. I promise I wasn't eavesdropping, but I heard you cry out and well…"

Magnus nodded, not lifting his gaze. He felt mortified, not really sure how to talk to him now. He was always giving Alec a hard time about his extensive measures, and, still, at the first sign of Magnus' lack of safety, he was swooping in to his rescue. It was his job, he supposed, but Magnus could've handled it himself too.

Alec took a step closer, eyes roaming over Magnus' form. "She didn't hurt you, did she?"

Magnus shook his head. "No, no, I'm okay. Just… humiliated." he muttered under his breath.

Alec crossed the distance between them then, reaching a hand out to cup Magnus' face so he'd look at him. He lowered himself slightly so he was at eye-level.

"Hey. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, okay?"

"Well, for starters, I let her in here despite my better judgment."

"You just have a good, trusting heart. Sometimes, those that know it, take advantage of it. Especially when they're a person like Camille. But that isn't your fault, okay? I know I've preached taking more precautions about your safety since the second we met—"

"And you were right! I mean, even my hair and make-up team know Camille is bad news, and yet I still let her in this room alone with me."

Alec smiled softly at him, and Magnus found himself mesmerized by the sight.

"You want to see the best in people. That's not something to be ashamed of. But you also mean a lot to a lot of people, and your personal safety is important to honour too."

"I know. I'll try to be less… difficult about it."

Alec laughed, and Magnus couldn't help but break into a grin at the sound. That was new.

"It hasn't hindered me doing my job yet, has it?"

"True."

Alec rolled his eyes amusedly. "All right. I'll send your team back in. Dress rehearsal is in fifteen minutes and you still need a lot of work…"

"Hey!"

Alec grinned over his shoulder at him, and Magnus chewed his tongue as he tried not to laugh, unable to believe that Alec Lightwood had just made a joke.

But then his hair and make-up team returned with snacks and drinks for him, and Magnus was distracted with soothing their concerns that Camille was long gone.

He didn't share what had gone down during their absence, but they didn't look too worried. He figured that was because of the oddly giddy look on his face that Alec had imprinted on him before he left.

The show was a great success, as always. Magnus shone as bright as he always did in front of a huge crowd, every move he made followed by thousands of eyes and screaming cheers.

Alec directed the security that lined the stage as well as those that kept things clear backstage. He himself watched Magnus from the sidelines, always scanning the crowd for any signs of potential danger.

Thankfully, it was another uneventful night for danger and Magnus quickly cleaned himself up to go do the usual meet-and-greet outside for those lingering around.

Alec dutifully followed, the fan interaction always his most dreaded part of the evening. It was much harder to keep track of everyone and everything when they all were in such close quarters, desperate to get a handful of the star.

But he knew it was extremely important to Magnus and the fans and that it wasn't going anywhere any time soon, so he sucked it up and stayed tight to Magnus' side.

It was much harder to keep things organized when there were people leaping at Magnus and excitedly hugging him and reaching in their coats for their phones. These days, autographs were a thing of the past, so bulky phones came out for the two hundred selfies Magnus would take with his idolizers.

Still, it was hard not to smile seeing the way people would light up like all their dreams came true when Magnus gave them his undivided attention.

Magnus had a way with his fans—he maintained total eye contact, smiled so wide his eyes sparkled, and he listened to every word they said like they were telling him the most important thing he'd ever hear. He joined them in retelling of stories of his, became completely animated in his responses, and generally charmed them even more than they were already.

Each fan would leave, giggling with their companions and sifting through the many selfies he took with them to find the first one they'd post, and Magnus would embrace the next just as whole-heartedly and full of love as the last.

Even Alec couldn't help his entertainment watching the interactions, but he stayed watchful, making sure not to miss a beat.

Finally, things wrapped up and they headed back inside the venue to gather Magnus' things before heading to the local hotel. They'd leave for the next city in the morning.

"Well, tonight was a definite win for the books. I can't wait to lounge in a ridiculous-sized tub and then sleep with eighteen pillows." Magnus was babbling as they headed through the halls.

Alec tried to keep the amusement off his face but it was a hard feat. Working for Magnus was definitely a change of pace from his previous work.

Magnus led the way down the hall, rambling on about all the perks of getting the best suites at hotels and where his best stays were. It wasn't until he opened the door to his dressing room so he could gather the last of his belongings that he went silent.

Alec saw the blood drain from his face, his posture suddenly rigid, and he instinctively cut in front of him to barricade him from whatever horror he was facing.

The vanity mirror was covered in a series of polaroids, all taped in an arrangement. Alec stepped in the room further to get a closer look, but it was clear what the pattern was spelling out.

YOU'RE MINE

His eyes narrowed as he looked over the pictures. Most seemed to be candid shots—captured moments of Magnus walking down the street, stopping at cafes, even some from him around the house through what had to be his windows. Him rehearsing, eating dinner, even a couple where he was asleep on the couch.

"What the FUCK is THIS?!" Magnus finally said. Although he obviously meant to sound more malicious, it mostly came out hoarse from fear.

Alec pulled out his phone and started taking pictures immediately. He was trying to control the growing anger in the pit of his stomach. He had security staff everywhere. How had this person gotten in here?

Raphael had come by to see what the hold up was, as the car was waiting outside for them to go, and the smile melted right off of his face like candle wax.

"Do you want to tell him or should I?" Alec asked the silent man, his irritation not masked in the slightest.

"YOU knew about… about…. Whatever the hell THIS is?!" Magnus demanded, rounding on him now that he had a target.

Alec raised a hand in surrender and kept his cool. "Let's talk at the hotel. I'm going to get the police here to do a sweep in case there are any answers. And I'll need to speak to the director of this place to see if there is any surveillance near this room that might help us narrow this person down." He gestured at Luke. "Luke, please escort Mr. Bane outside and do not leave his side for a moment. Do a sweep of the car before getting in it too."

Magnus huffed and stormed away, looking hurt and betrayed, and Alec tried not to let it bother him. He knew his response was entirely valid. Alec had urged Raphael on multiple occasions to tell Magnus, to warn him so things wouldn't come as such a shock and so he could be more wary, but Raphael feared making Magnus paranoid for no reason.

After all, until tonight, they had only received a couple of ransom-like letters in the mail. It could've been a prank. And once Alec was hired on, nothing else came. Obviously the manager had hoped it was over and he wouldn't have to worry the star, but Alec knew obsessions like these rarely faded on their own.

Alec hoped that one good thing would come out of the display left for them tonight—there would be something useful found to track the person down and end things before they got worse.

Of course, luck would have it that things wouldn't be that easy.

The police came and went, promising to call if any evidence lead to something, but Alec could tell by the looks in their eyes they weren't too hopeful. After all, so many people had been in and out of that room that night. And if, god forbid, it was someone on Magnus' team doing such things, it would be virtually impossible to pin it on them from their DNA being at the scene alone.

Naturally, the surveillance stopped shortly before reaching Magnus' dressing room, so they didn't have much to go on there. It was designed to capture where regular guests frequented, rather than more of the backstage situations, due to privacy. Many stars ended up undressing and redressing backstage or in the hallways—to avoid lawsuits or uncodely conduct, they limited the survaillence in those areas during show nights.

Defeated, Alec headed to the hotel to meet with a furious Magnus and hopefully smooth things over.

By the time he arrived, it looked as though Raphael had explained everything—how long ago things started, the few notes they received and what they looked like, and how, despite taking things to the police, nothing had really come of it yet. It was why Raphael had wanted better security during the tour, hence his hiring of Alec.

Alec entered the room quietly, standing with his hands behind his back in a soldier's stance as Magnus paced back and forth in front of a forlorn Raphael.

"So this has been going on for months and you just decided it was better I didn't know?!"

"I worried about making you paranoid, affecting your comfort on stage and with fans… If it was just a harmless prank or something to rattle you with no real intention of going further, it seemed cruel to burden you with it…" Raphael explained, looking at the shag rug with his head hung.

"And what about you? What's your excuse?" Magnus snapped at Alec.

He exhaled slowly. "I would've told you myself, but I figured you'd assume I was making it up in order to make you more compliant with the changes I implemented. I wanted you to trust me as your head of security and was worried you'd rebel even further against the new things in place if I gave you a reason to."

Magnus grumbled under his breath. "Damn."

Alec raised one eyebrow in question.

"You're probably right. I wouldn't have believed you. I guess I needed to see it for myself."

Magnus straightened up from his moping position and crossed his arms.

"So… now that everything is in the open, what comes next? Should we… should we be cancelling the tour?"

Alec noticed he was looking at him now; normally he'd go through Raphael first, but he supposed he could understand why he was a little less forgiving of the man he'd known for many years keeping secrets.

"Well, truth be told, no. I think, with stalkers of this nature, the more you keep moving the better. Now, of course, with a music tour such as yours, all of your dates and venues are posted. But if those pictures tonight are anything to go by, they know where you live. I'd feel better knowing they don't know where you're sleeping each night, as your hotel stays are private. And I will continue to make sure we have maximum security at each venue. In fact, I may double it if the police don't give us anything substantial from their findings tonight."

Magnus nodded. He seemed to accept Alec's input on the subject.

"Also, the last thing we want to give this person is the attention from you they're craving. So not a word of this to anyone, okay? All we need is the media getting wind of it and it'll explode. Not even anything cryptic on social media that could allude to the situation we're dealing with. Attention and the spotlight on them is exactly what this person wants. We don't want them to know they've gotten to you."

"But they have." Magnus muttered.

"I signed on to be your personal bodyguard, Mr. Bane. I'm good at what I do. You don't have anything to worry about as long as I'm nearby."

"Good." Magnus said, nodding. "In that case, Raphael… I want you to call our next series of hotels. Make sure I am booked in a suite with a double bedroom. I want Alexander staying in the next room for the rest of the tour."

Alec's eyes widened but he didn't say anything.

Raphael nodded quickly, pulling out his phone to get started. Alec figured he'd do anything to get back into Magnus' good graces.

"For tonight, Alexander, you have your own room and I'll stick to just having a hired gun outside my door. You better enjoy it while it lasts because I'll warn you… I'm a bathroom hog." Magnus said, a sly smile on the corner of his lips before he headed into his en-suite.

Alec swallowed, not really sure what to make of the new arrangements, but unable to deny that his job was continuing to get more interesting.

Continue to Chapter 3

#malec fic #malec #magnus bane #alec lightwood #shadowhunters #shadowhunters fic #the bodyguard fic #celebrity!magnus #bodyguard!alec #malec au

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tmnt-veelicious · 6 years

Text

Across the Stars - Ch.11

Man I suck at updating rapidly, I’m so sorry OTL ANYWAY, here’s the new chapter aaahhh :’Y we meet Mikasa, yeehhh !

!! WARNING, NSFW (18+) STUFF HAPPENING HERE !!

First Chapter --> HERE Previous Chapter --> HERE Next Chapter --> HERE

''What do you think she looks like?'' started April as both women were walking down the sewers. Tonight was the night Leonardo was finally bringing this new person around the lair. April had been surprised at first, knowing how the leader usually was reluctant about bringing outsiders, but she dared believe that he was finally starting to open up and accept the fact that meeting new people was not a bad thing. ''Based on what Donnie found, she's Japanese. Mikasa Kanegawa. Her family moved to the United States fourteen years ago for business matters and stayed ever since. Right now she's a martial art teacher, mostly specializing in different forms of karate and taekwondo.'' ''Why am I not surprised,'' lightly laughed the reporter. ''The fact that Leo can speak Japanese just makes things better.'' ''Wait, he does?'' added in Vee, her eyes wide. ''Yeah, he and Splinter are the only one who does. Raph tried to learn but he had some hard time keeping up.'' ''Well that's awesome then, I'll have someone who to practice with when I'll finally get to learn that language!'' April frowned, looking towards her friend: ''What do you mean by 'finally get to'?'' Vee shrugged: ''Oh, well, I've been studying Spanish and German for some years and when I'll feel confidant enough with them I'll get to Japanese and Brazilian Portugese.'' ''Okay, so you're telling me right now you know how to speak four languages?!'' ''I'd say mostly three and a half,'' smiled the artist. ''German is still a bitch sometimes. … My main goal is to be a polyglot.'' ''Poly-what now?'' laughed April. ''Polyglot! It means that I can speak multiple languages. I love learning them and it's a good exercize for the brain.'' ''Jeez, I can see that, you bring out big words just like Donnie. … You two really belong together,'' added the brunette playfully, nudging the other's arm. They finally arrived to the lair, first greeted by Mikey and Raph. April was soon off to go help clean around as Vee made her way towards Donnie's workspace. She was slightly surprised to not find him there, the gears in her mind suddenly turning and fearing for the worst. She frowned, suddenly hearing clanking sounds coming from the garage part of the lair, accompanied by some faint music in the background, recognizing Holy Diver by Dio. Oh no he DIDN'T. She made her way towards the source, getting to the garbage truck and noticing a form underneath; Donnie. He was wearing worn out jeans with holes at the knees part, his 'dirty work' pants as he liked to call them. Only his legs and feet could be seen as his upper body was tucked under the truck, occupied with some parts underneath the vehicule. Vee had a deadpan look on her face, getting to him and nudging one of his feet with one of hers. ''What the hell are you doing?'' she asked. She saw the turtle slightly jump, unaware that she had arrived. As he was laying on a plank with wheels, he rolled out from his hiding place, revealing his features dirtied with oil and soot, same for his torso and arms. ''Oh, Vee! Good timing, I need help,'' he said with a grin. ''Your tiny hands are exactly what I need.'' ''Donnie!'' scolded the woman, hands on her hips. The mutant's smile faded, his lips now forming a thin line: ''… What?'' ''You said you'd be working on the truck tomorrow! Leo and Mikasa will be coming in at any moment now and you look like you walked straight into Mordor.'' This time Donnie couldn't help his cocky grin, easily quoting: ''One does not simply walk into Mordor.'' Vee puffed, trying to contain her snicker. She did get back to a serious state though. ''Couldn't you just wait? It'd be cool for Leo's friend to have a good first impression of this place.'' ''I know,'' added the turtle. ''I just thought about fixing the suspension, usually that's quick work.'' ''Quick or not, now's not the time!'' Vee tried to soften her features. ''… Tell you what, if you stop right now and go clean, tomorrow I'll help you with whatever you want to do.'' ''But you hate working on cars and mechanics,'' pointed Donatello. ''I promise I won't complain,'' smiled the human. She got nearer, soon hunched over him, her gaze suddenly flirtarious. ''And then we'll spend the evening together and do whatever you want.'' ''Whatever I want?'' ''Yeah!'' ''Even spend all our evening learning all the decimals of Pi?'' Vee winced a little. ''… Not what I had in mind, but yeah, whatever I guess.'' The other laughed, getting up. ''Don't worry, I'm messing with you,'' he said, now standing next to the woman. Vee couldn't help getting closer, her fingers instinctively hooking at his jeans' loops, slightly biting her lip with a smile. ''… Wearing those jeans, you can mess with me anytime,'' she dared say. She was met with a renewed chuckle from the mutant, the male placing a finger under her chin, tilting her head up so he could leave a kiss on her lips. He knew he had her under his charm, soon leaving a hand to cup her jaw and neck, grinning wide in his mind. And as soon as the kiss ended, he playfully frowned, cackling. ''Ah-ha! Right into my trap! Now you have to go clean with me.'' Vee was confused for a moment, until she brought a hand to where he held, noticing how dirty her skin was now. ''Oh you nasty boy!'' *** Donnie had opted for a bath this time, the tub easily fitting both of them anyway. Vee sighed, her back resting against her lover's torso, her eyes closed as she let her muscles relax in the warm water. She hummed as she felt the turtle's arms get around her, hugging her close, resting his head on top of hers. ''Feels like heaven right now,'' mumbled Vee, a soft smile on her lips. ''No need to bring religion into this. Let us praise our rightful deity instead; the glorious serotonin,'' added Donatello with a calm sigh. Vee giggled, sighing and humming once more afterward, letting herself drift into this peaceful feeling. She felt the turtle's hands move after a while, slowly, trailing her shape and soon getting to the woman's arms. They were now holding hands, the mutant bringing one up after the other, leaving lasting kisses on top of them. ''You're so small...,'' mused Donnie. Everytime he compared her hands to his three-fingered ones, he couldn't help wonder how life would be like if he and his brothers had ever taken that purple ooze... He did envy humans for being so free up above … but at the same time he couldn't deny how unique he and his family were, somehow finding solace in that simple thought. ''Is it a bad thing or a good one?'' asked Vee, bringing the other back from his thoughts. ''Definitely a good one,'' answered the turtle in a sweet tone, bringing his arms and hands around the woman once more. ''You're cute.'' Vee puffed a small laughter: ''Oh please, I'm not cute. I'm a femme fatale,'' she joked. ''You're the one who said it so it is now law.'' He chuckled, leaving small kisses on top of her head.

He could certainly not deny that fact, her hourglass shape ever so hypnotizing. She was no thin supermodel, but he couldn't have asked for better, to say the truth. Donnie's hands moved once more, stuck in his daydream, somehow starting to lust over her shape. Vee followed his lead, relaxing as she felt one of her lover's touch on her thighs and the other to her breasts. Long sighs left her, sticking closer to the mutant's body, her legs slightly spreading as she knew the male was going to her core, ever so slow and teasing. Vee let out a soft and low moan as the turtle touched her, his pace never too harsh. ''I'm sure this was your plan all along,'' mewled the woman, her eyes still closed, her head hanging back to rest against Donnie's collarbone and base of his neck. ''If I could, I'd keep touching you all day and night long,'' he said, a low churr rising. ''Your body's one of the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.'' ''Hmm, you're too kind, sir,'' added in Vee, smiling lazily. Her hips started to follow his rhythm, biting her lip so she would stay quiet. Donnie's hand on her torso moved to her neck, cupping her jaw and tilting her head slightly more so he could trail kisses along her features as he started to finger her. ''Oh, Donnie...,'' let out the human in a small whimper. She felt her mind spin, getting dizzier with each seconds. She couldn't stay put, her toes curling, her back slightly arching in pleasure. She could feel her lover's erection, grinning lazily. ''It's not fair, I'm the one having all the fun here,'' she commented, her fingers slowly trailing on whatever part of his skin she could reach. ''Don't worry, I'm having fun too,'' answered Donatello, nuzzling her. ''I just want to focus on you...'' A long moan escaped Vee, easily distracted by all these sensations she now felt. Her breathing followed the other's pace, slightly increasing in speed. She mumbled some nonsense, her whole body exploding like fireworks. She didn't want to be selfish, but this whole attention spent on her could only arouse her, gasping as she could feel Donnie's free hand go from her neck to her torso, his caress needy yet sensual. ''Don't stop,'' breathed out Vee, clutching anything she could get a grab on. Her voice started to rise without her consent, blushing at such weakness on her part. She could feel the mutant's finger curl inside her, reaching the right spot. It didn't take long afterward for Vee to cum, moaning her lover's name, her hips moving in circles as she could feel her walls clamp around the other. She felt out of this world, her whole self being on such a high. She had a hard time coming back to reality, only getting to her senses when she felt the turtle's arms around her once more, petting her and some kisses left on top of her head. ''Oh- oh fuck,'' she mumbled. ''That was... fuck.'' ''I know, love,'' smiled Donnie. Somehow eternity seemed to last for a while before they decided to get out of the bathtub. Vee still had a hard time thinking straight, but as soon as she saw that her lover still had an erection, she acted without hesitation. Both still naked, Donatello was backed up to a wall, Vee before him as she started a handjob, staying close as she left lasting kisses on the other's torso. ''Now's your turn,'' she said, showing a smirk as she looked up to Donnie. She felt the other's hands get lost in her hair, holding her close as he left a hungry kiss on her lips, sounds of love escaping him from times to times. His hips lightly followed the woman's rhythm, too caught up in his lust to think rationally. ''Cum for me, Don. I know you want to.'' A loud churr escaped him as he got to his release, knowing he couldn't have lasted longer anyway. He could feel Vee's mouth travel in light kisses around his jaw and his neck, both now in this blissful afterglow. They didn't dare move, lost in eachother's arms, whispering sweet nothings to one another. It was only after a while that Vee was the first one to move, proceeding to clean the mutant before stating that they needed to get dressed. She couldn't erase her smile, same for Donnie, the male playfully growling at times and quickly bringing her near for quick stolen kisses. They finally exited the room, snickering, holding hands and simply unable to let go of one another. *** As they stumbled on the main place, the couple froze as they spotted Leonardo near the entrance, already presenting his friend; Mikasa. Vee quickly brought Donnie to the side with her, now speaking in a hushed tone, gritting her teeth lightly. ''Goddammit, I knew we'd get late. Now we'll look like we don't care about meeting her.'' ''What are you talking about?'' snickered the turtle. ''I'm sure nobody will mind. We were just …. occupied,'' he ended with a comical wink. ''You big dork,'' laughed the woman, lightly slapping one of his shoulders. ''… Now, let's just act as normal as possible. I want to make a good first impression.'' ''I'll let you initiate. The only things I'll know to say are my name and ask how's it going. I suck at presentations.'' Vee was surprised for a moment: ''Huh, wouldn't have guessed.'' ''Hey, I've waited months to meet you. What do you think I was doing? Preparing my speech, duh!'' Both were now laughing and snorting, quickly trying to stop themselves before attracting attention on them. Vee confidantly took Donnie's hand in hers, next making her way towards the group. Their arrival didn't escape the newcomer's gaze as she turned to them. The artist couldn't help her amazement as their eyes met, the first word to come up in her mind being: feline. Her almond shaped eyes had brown irises sparkled with gold, piercing anyone's soul like a hidden fire. Her long ebony hair were straight and silky, complementing how tall she was. Vee couldn't help thinking how she would be intimidated by such woman if she were to meet her on the street. Dressed in a black leather vest and dark clothes, she didn't look like someone you could easily mess with... Leo showed a smile, going towards the couple so he could introduce them rightfully. Vee slightly shook her head, coming back to reality. She finally showed a smile, shaking Mikasa's hand. ''It's a pleasure to meet you,'' said the newcomer. The artist was mesmerized by the woman's voice, soft yet so strong and confidant. She couldn't help thinking how a good match she could be for the leader in blue... *** ''How did you two first meet anyway?'' asked April as everyone was seated around the kitchen table. ''I thought Leo was rather careful around strangers...'' That got her an annoyed stare from the leader, but he got back to normal as Mikasa began speaking: ''I was walking home from work one night and I wanted to take a shortcut through an alleyway. Unfortunately, some street gang probably had the same idea and they stumbled on me, asking for my money.'' ''That's when he jumped in, I'm guessing?'' commented Raph, smirking. ''Actually, she beat me to it,'' added Leo. ''She kicked the living shit out of some of them. I only got to intervene when I saw a guy get a gun out.'' ''It was an … interesting fight,'' half-smiled Mikasa. ''Battling alongside a shadow was an intense experience.'' ''Were you scared?'' asked Vee. The fighter's smile was renewed, tender this time. ''Of course! I pretty much am all the time whenever I battle, but that's what drives me to go forward and aim for victory.'' ''And what about when you saw Leo?'' added in Mikey with a playful look. Leo and Mikasa glanced at eachother, smiling, the woman snickering as she tried to hide her features in embarassment. ''She called me a kappa,'' answered the blue clad turtle. Donnie and Vee were the first ones to laugh, the others confused. ''And what the fuck is that?'' questionned Raph. ''A turtle-like demon from Japan,'' answered Donnie, still giggling. ''Thanks, Donnieclopedia~,'' added Mikey. ''Okay, am I really the only one who got to faint? That's not fair,'' complained April with amusement. '''Cause you're weak, April,'' laughed Raph as the reporter slapped his arm next. Mikasa seemed intrigued. ''Was I supposed to faint? Is it weird? How did Vee react then?'' Vee looked smug, slightly hunching forward on the table, sustaining herself on her elbow. ''To put it simply, I said: Wow.'' The other frowned a bit in confusion. ''Wow?'' ''Yes! I mean, it's not everyday that you get to see a walking, talking turtle. I was already friend with Donatello before meeting him in person so I guess it made things easier? … Also I'm a very curious person so I was mainly mesmerized than scared.'' Mikasa seemed pensive for a moment. ''… I guess I was curious too. For me, it's not everyday I get to battle with the aid of a ninja.'' she had smirked at that last part, briefly glancing towards Leonardo. ''Ha! I'd pay money to see her kick Leo's butt,'' commented Raph with a smirk. His only answer was the leader throwing him an annoyed glare. Donnie did snicker, amused that one of his brothers was finally living through some embarassement like he had to go through the first time he brought Vee to the lair. *** That first meeting with Mikasa had gone surprisingly well! Vee did notice many times how Leo seemed flustered at times, always smiling and his behavior way relaxed. She knew the boys meeting new people was a good thing, April often mentionning how it was refreshing to see them slowly open to the surrounding world. Of course they had to be careful, but it was certain that the mutants had a good reasonning and knew when to show themselves to people. Mikasa was still a mystery. Seeing how relaxed and composed she was during that whole encounter, she must have had a good relation with Leonardo, trusting him and his family to know she had nothing to fear. Vee knew she'd be eager to meet her again, forever captivated by her whole character. *** The next day, Vee did keep her word, not even complaining once as she was settled under the truck, by Donnie's side, helping with whatever he wanted to do. She mostly had to reach for wires inbetween small spaces, her tiny hands proving to be helpful. She was glad to have put on old clothing she didn't care about, soon her grey tank top covered in oil. Her features were dirtied too, but at least she wasn't the only one in this condition. She couldn't deny this moment to be fun, always happy to help the mutant with whatever project he was on. He was always patient with her and somehow eager to teach her new things, as if sharing his knowledge was a dear passion of his. At some point Donnie gave Vee a break, saying that he didn't need much help for what he had to do next. The woman still stayed though, taking this opportunity to teach in return; taking control of the radio and putting in some jazz. She would speak about her various inspirations: Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and many more. How and when the style started, how jazz spread into its many branches. Donnie could see how passionate she was about music, his love for the artist growing again once more. He could never erase his smile, watching her be so passionate and inspired, the woman drawing at the same time, stating that so many ideas could bloom in her mind whenever she listened to anything. A moment of peace settled in, Vee too caught up in her drawing, seated on a stool, and Donnie focused on the truck's motor before him. The soft tune of Nancy Wilson's Wave was floating in the air, creating a nice mood. The woman's eyes were sometimes glancing up to the turtle, her pencil doing precise strokes on the paper, soon the mutant's shape taking form. She had always wanted to draw him, but was always so shy about asking him to pose... Hunched over her drawing for a little while, she was next back to an observational stance, only to squeak as she spotted Donnie right before her, a smirk on his lips as he was trying to clean his features with a rag. ''You're looking at me and you're drawing. May I dare guess you're drawing me?'' questionned the mutant with amusement. ''Gnnoooo?'' tried to lie Vee, clutching her sketchbook against her chest. ''Aww, come on, I want to see.'' Damn it, she couldn't resist his pleading eyes. She sighed briefly, moving the sketchbook and revealing her work. Donnie studied the drawing for some seconds, now cleaning his hands with the rag, a pleased smile then appearing. ''… You draw so well,'' he complimented. ''I wish I could draw like you.'' Vee snorted a small laugh, arching an eyebrow: ''Are you kidding me? You draw all those complicated blueprints, you have talent too.'' ''Oh please, it's not the same. I follow lines and models. You draw organically, that's something else!'' Vee pointed the garbage truck, mostly the lettering that said 'Tartaruga Brothers'. ''You did this I presume?'' ''I used a stencil,'' simply answered the turtle. ''Same for when I do tattoos.'' Vee did a double take, surprised. ''Wait! So you're telling you're the one who tattooed your brothers? That's awesome!'' ''I did come up with the machine, but as for designs, it's all thanks to Mikey. He's more the artist around here. All I do is follow the lines and fill with black if necessary.'' ''Can you tattoo me? I've been wanting new tattoos lately!'' asked Vee with a large smile. She did wince a little though, knowing she must have sounded needy. ''Unless, that's if you want, of course.'' Donnie lightly laughed, amused by her enthusiasm. ''My equipement is mostly made for strong skin, since us reptiles have it thicker than humans,'' he answered. ''I'd have to change my machine a bit if I ever was to tattoo you. … But yeah, I'd like that!'' ''Sweet, I can finally get your name tattooed on my butt,'' she joked. Both were now laughing, soon Donnie's features showing a loving smile, next tenderly moving some strands of hair away from the woman's face. ''… You are beautiful,'' he said, lovesick. Vee chuckled: ''Ha! Even if I look like a chimney sweeper right now?'' ''Doesn't bother me. As long as I can see you smile, it's the best look there is.'' He couldn't help cupping the bottom of her face, next hunching a little so he could leave a sweet kiss on her lips. Vee did laugh a little afterward, grinning. ''I must be tasting like that damn truck and oil,'' she said, gesturing her dirtied look. ''Then,'' began Donnie, taking her sketchbook and pencil out of her hands, leaving them on a table nearby. ''I think this calls for a shower.'' ''And what next?'' ''Lots of kisses that don't taste like oil?'' ''Now we're talking,'' chuckled Vee. *** That patrol had been pretty much eventless, considering the constant lookout for Foot clan activity. Raph and Mikey were already off to the kitchen for a late snack, leaving Leo and Donnie to hang their equipment. As Donnie was calm as usual, Leo seemed thoughtful, many things bouncing around in his mind. He seemed to weight his words, biting his lip a little in anticipation, finally leaving his katanas to rest on their stand as he started to speak. ''I don't know what to do.'' The purple clad turtle frowned, glancing to his brother. ''… What do you mean?'' ''About Mikasa,'' he added without hesitation, his blue eyes finally rising to meet the other's gaze. He paused, collecting his thoughts: ''I feel so at ease when I'm with her. I want to believe that something could happen, but at the same time I don't want to hurt myself like last time.'' Donnie was confused. ''…. 'Like last time'? Leo, what are you talking about?'' The elder sighed, somehow looking defeated. ''… I've been with another woman before.'' The tall mutant was suprised at first. ''And you didn't tell us?'' he asked next. ''… What happened?'' He wanted to be angry at his brother for keeping such secret, but at the same time he started to fear the tale. Leo sat down, back against the wall, his eyes stuck to the ground. For the first time - at least that's how it seemed for Donnie - he looked ashamed, scared, unsure... The purple clad mutant joined his brother on the ground, waiting for him to speak. ''It happened in spring, two years ago. I was on a solo patrol and I saw those men run after this girl.... I didn't wait before jumping in, scaring them away. I thought I'd scare the girl too, which is somehow expected, but instead she rushed to me, crying and thanking me. … Those men were after her because she owed them money and at that moment she had none, she was in trouble.'' ''Why did she owe money?'' ''Because she was an escort. Those guys were some of her boss's lackeys or something like that and she had to give her share so they could provide her with their protection. … It was stupid, and dangerous...'' He sighed once more, passing a hand over his face, trying to clear his thoughts. ''… I wanted to go away, but she insisted on thanking me as I brought her back to her apartment. … She didn't want me to leave, scared that the guys would stumble at her place.'' Donnie showed half of a smile: ''I'm guessing that night took an interesting turn?'' Leo gave back that same smile. ''Indeed. … It felt like a dream. That dream lasted for five months until she disappeared. She said she had to leave town for her own safety. … She never contacted me since then.'' His expression came back to a neutral tone. ''I've never told anyone because everything about it was rather strange.... There was no real love involved; she only wanted me around for protection and sometimes she would invite me in her bed. … I wanted to believe I loved her at some point, but I couldn't bring myself to experience something you guys didn't.'' A sigh escaped him, somehow relieved to speak about all of this. ''When I saw you bring Vee here for the first time, I couldn't help feeling angry and scared. I didn't want you to experience the same shit I went through; to fall for someone and then watching them go away without any warning. … But as time went by, I came to get to know her better, seize how she really is and I knew you two were meant to be. … To see you two together, it kind of brings me hope.'' Donnie was silent, pensive. He would have never guessed such thing to have happened to his brother and somehow it also made sense? He could remember how Leo would often go on solo patrol and be secretive about some of his endeavours. … But never he would have known that it was because of some girl. ''… What was her name?'' dared ask Donatello. Leo half smiled: ''Rose. At least, that's what she wanted me to call her. I never got to know her real name. … She loved roses and her lips were always as red as one.'' He then left a hand on Donnie's shoulder, to emphasize his next words. ''… I would like if you didn't tell Raph and Mikey about this. I will tell them in time. It's just that... it somehow seemed easier to tell you first now that you experienced that feeling.'' ''Also I'm sure they would both freak out,'' lightly laughed Donnie. ''… Don't worry, Leo, your secret's safe with me.'' The leader nodded, satisfied. As both were heading out, the blue clad turtle did stop the other another time, slightly hesitating on his words. ''… Is there a way to know when the time is right? To know if she's the right person?'' A tender smile was now on Donnie's lips. He had wondered the same a few times before... ''First and foremost, you have to be friends. Talk and spend time together, that's the best way to go. Things will build up by themselves and the moment will come without both of you knowing. … As long as you respect eachother, the answer will come naturally.'' ''Ha, now that you voice it out, it does sound pretty obvious,'' chuckled Leo. ''… Thanks Donnie.'' ''Anytime.'' As they both went their ways, Donnie got to his room, carefully opening the door and peeking inside. He noticed Vee already asleep in his bed, tangled in the drapes. He had expected to find her this way, knowing the patrol had ended late. A small smile forever present on his features, he didn't wait to get inside, undressing and finally climbing next to the woman, tenderly wrapping his arms around her form. Vee woke up a bit, mumbling some words, but she was soon drifting back to sleep as she felt the other nuzzle and kiss her features. ''I love you so much,'' he murmured next, sighing against her skin. These words couldn't feel any truer right this moment. They were the absolute truth in fact, but only now did he really realize all the luck that had been bestowed upon him...

#chapter #fanfic #fanfiction #tmnt #tmnt donatello #tmnt leonardo #tmnt raphael #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016 #selfinsert #oc #fancharacter

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calliecat93 · 6 years

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Callie Reviews: TMNT 2012 Season One (Part One)

Ever since 1984, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has gone form a cult-status indie comic to a massive mass market. There have been various comics, movies, video games, merchandise, and of course cartoons. And it’s easy to see why. TMNT’s concept, a group of mutated teen turtles fighting evil in New York, is both incredibly bizarre and incredibly appealing to a mass audience. You have action, science fiction, martial arts, and of course plenty of mutant ideas to make toys out of. The fact that this Fall will be releasing the fourth animated TMNT series and that a new movie series is in production shows that even over 30 years later, this is a franchise that is far from losing it’s power.

As a kid, I of course knew that Turtles as a thing and I even watch parts of 2k3. But I was never really a fan until the day I stumbled upon the 2012 show. I fell in love with it and, since it started when I was just starting this blog, it was a huge focus for me for several years. I have since moved on and while I’m going to check out the 2018 show, I don’t think I’m going to be as crazy as I was with this show (but never say never). Back in 2012, I was someone who... lets say ignored the flaws and defended the show far too passive aggressively to the point that looking at my older stuff makes me want to blow up by blog.

Nowadays, while some of my opinions hold true (like the ‘Donnie is a stalker’ accusations are still bullshit), I am more willing to admit the shows problems, especially now that I can take the show in fully. I also like to believe that I’ve become a better reviewer since I was 19 years old, plus it had been far too long since I went back over the show form the very beginning. So does the show still hold up? Will 25 year old Callie feel differently than 19 year old Callie did? Well we’re about to find out. This is the TMNT 2012 Season One Review!

The Premiere (Episodes 1-2)

Our story begins with a training sequence that introduces us to the titular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Along with some minor character establishment, like Mikey being the funny one and Raph the violent one, the biggest thing here is one of the shows strengths: the choreography. It’s best exhibited in Leo and Raph’s duel. The movements are very fluid and well-paced. It’s fast, but not too fast, it’s enough to move things along but still let you take in all the impacts. It’s very well done. Raph ends up winning and we are introduce to the boys mentor and father, Master Splinter. Aka, the best written character int he show, but we’ll get to that later.

After the opening theme, we cut to the boys 15th Mutation Day where we get our backstory. Borrowing from the 80′s show origin, Splinter was once a young man named Hamato Yoshi. He had just bought four pet turtles when he stumbled across a shady dealing. Being a ninja master, he was able to fight back, but he ended up getting splattered with a strange green substance. This turned him into a rat, as one brushed his ankle while the baby Turtles become anthropomorphic. Yoshi, taking on the name Splinter, fled to the sewers and raised the four turtles as his own as well as taught them ninjutsu. It’s a simple, but still solid telling of the origin that pays tribute to previous origins, leaves some mystery about the substance and who was dealing it, and is told with use of comic-style panels reminiscent of the original comics.

The Turtles, having lived in the sewers since their mutation, are hoping to convince Splinter to let them finally go to the surface. After some begging, Splinter reluctantly agrees. We then cut to Leo watching a Star Trek: The Animated Series parody where we learn of his desire to become a great hero and leader. This is interesting for several reasons. One, it establishes that Leo isn’t the leader of the group yet, a departure form normal as he’s normally put into that role automatically. And second, ti does a great job at character establishment. In previous versions, Leo is often seen as the boring, overly leader type. Not a bad character mind you, but he lacks the quirkiness that the tough Raph, genius Donnie, and wild child Mikey present. Here? Leo is shown to be an idealistic, naive, but good-intention kid who aspires to be a great hero like he sees on TV as well as give shim some dorky characteristics, like quoting cheesy one-liners to sound more heroic. It helps make him more relateable, funny, and sets up a character arc for when he does inevitably become the leader. Very well done.

The boys finally go to the surface, and are in awe of what they see. They even discover their trademark favorite food, pizza. Given that they only ever ate worms and algae until this point, it makes their love of it all the more understandable. But not all goes well as they soon witness a group of business men kidnapping a red-haired teenager and her father. They attempt to help, but end up only beating each other up and the bad guys get away with their captives. Mikey ends up beating up one and discovers... a brain with tentacles... yipe... he tries to tell the other three, but they don’t believe him. A common trend in the show.

Upon returning home, the boys try to blame each other for the failure before Splinter accepts it for not giving them proper training as a team. While he considers keeping them down below for another year, Donnie convinces him to let them go help the girl due to seeing how terrified she was and how they failed to help her... and because of the crush he developed in a record five seconds. Splinter agrees, but first assigns Leo as the official leader, much to the ire of Raph. They’re eventually able to find the kidnappers vehicle and wreck it, capturing the driver named Snake and they discover a vat of a glowing green substance. A vat that they recognize as the same one that caused their original mutation.

Snake, after Raph threatens to mutate him, leads the boys to the facility where the captives are... and uses the boys bickering as a chance to escape. Leo uses this to trick the crook into thinking that they’re going to plow his van into the place as he conducts a plan to sneak in. All while Roah is an asshole who refuses to listen and outright undermines Leo’s orders. Yeah, Raph is a real jerk during this season. FYI. When Leo shows hesitance about his plan, Splinter tells him of his final confrontation against his rival Oroku Saki, aka The Shredder. It ended in his wife being killed, his house burning down, and his infant daughter nowhere to be found. Well, that won’t be important in any way, shape, or form later! The point being that he lost everything, but gained the boys, easing Leo’s worries about how much is riding on the plan.

So yeah the boys crash the van, Snake gets mutated, the boys break in, fight some guards, and Mikey proves that he isn’t crazy about the aliens.. and then trips an alarm. Smooth Mikey, smooth. They find the captives, that being this version of April O’Neil and her scientist father. Now in most versions, April is an adult woman. Here? She is aged down and is around sixteen years old. We’ll talk more about that later. The bad guys, aka The Kraang, take the captives away and as the boys give chase,t hey are confronted by the mutant Snake... who is a weed monster. Hey, that’s breaking supervillain rules writers! If you have an evil sounding name, that’s what you turn into! Donnie is sent to rescue the O’Neil’s as the other three face Snakeweed... Mikey’s idea, not mine.

The boys eventually defeat Snake via Leo’s direction and mass electrocution while Donnie is able to rescue April, but her father is taken away. April plans to find him however, no matter what it takes with the boys promising to help in whatever way they can. Once home, Leo finds out the complex reasoning for why he was named the leader over everyone else... because he asked. Ming-boggling, right? Well there is actually another reason, but we’ll talk about this in S4. The boys also made the news as their shruriken got found, but come on, what could one tiny news story do that would be bad? Well... being seen by your master’s worst enemy and re-igniting his lust for vengeance might count! Woopsie!

Overall, a solid two parter. It establishes the characters well, has fun fight scenes, the animation is a little dated now but still pretty good, the dialogue is funny, and it does a good job setting up future plotlines while fulfilling it’s own plot. It started 2k12 off on the right foot and was still enjoyable over five years since it’s initial premiere.

The Beginning (Episodes 3-8)

The episodes following the premiere create a steady flow of creating the status quo. You have episodes like Turtle Temper, Metalhead, and Monkey Brains (kinda) that have the boys dealing with the Kraang’s Plan of the Week as they continue their mutagen experiments. It helps with character development and some minor plot progression, such as Raph learning how dangerous his anger can be and Donnie learning to rely on his instincts rather than on his mind 100% of the time. Some are going to want me to comment on the shipping stuff, But I’m gonna save that for later. The biggest issue with these episodes, aside from Monkey Brains, is the Kraang. They are not interesting as villains at all. As great a VA as Nolan North is, the Kraang’s way of talking just gets... annoying. It doesn't help that the threat ultimately becomes either an accidental mutant or Donnie’s robot... well okay a Kraang possessed the later, but it shows that those are more interesting villains than the Kraang themselves and they exist mroe to just have an excuse for a plot. It’s really irking after awhile.

As far as plot goes, it’s mostly your usual ‘Monster of the Week’ stuff. But it has some small things that have a larger impact later. For one, in Monkey Brains, April begins to tap into what looks like some strong emphatic abilities. More on this next season. But due to this, Splinter decides to take April on as a student and train her to be a kunoichi (a female ninja). This will be the largest part of her character for the remainder of the series. April herself... is not utilized as well as she could have been in these early episodes. She’s described as the boys guide to the outside world, and she does serve that in some respects. For example, introducing Mikey to social media in New Friend, Old Enemy to let him make friends without exposing his mutant identity. And in Never Say Xever she takes them to a blind man’s shop so that they can actually experience life topside for once. The issue is we never see April establish bonds with the boys or Splinter after her introduction. In New Friend, Old Enemy she just acts like she’s been friends with the guys for awhile and after showing Mikey the net, doesn’t appear or is even mentioned in the episode again. She disappears after her importance in Metalhead as well, but she is given mroe to work with there at least. I glossed over this when I was watching the show and April does get mroe time with the guys, her relationship with Splinter being one of my favorites. Still, they didn’t do a lot with having April become part of the group or really act on her role as their ‘guide’ and I feel they just wanted to ignore it to get to the other stuff. Which is just a bummer.

So you’re probably wondering about Shredder stuff, right? Well thankfully the Foot Episodes are also the most plot relevant episodes. It starts with New Friend, Old Enemy where Shredder arrives in New York and assigns one of his lieutenants, a famous martial artist named Chris Bradford, to find out about Splinter. The Foot end up encountering the Turtles, with Bradford later using this to manipulate Mikey after accidentally becoming online friends with him. He captures him and use shim as bait to lure out the other three and then follow them to where Splinter is hiding. It fails with the boys using their knowledge of the sewers to literally wash Bradford and his partner, Xever, away. Along with the dangers of meeting people you don’t really know on social media, the episode presents a very unique lesson. In a fight for your life, screw fairness, You fight by any means necessary to stay alive, including fighting dirty. Most shows emphasize on being fair, but this one actually acknowledges that if your life is on the line, you do what it takes to get out alive. It’s a unique message for a kids show and one that I really appreciate.

Next is Never Say Xever where Xever gets to lead the charge. After the boys track down the two and get beat up, Xever receives inlet from the Purple Dragons, who int his version are pretty much a trio of teen thugs. The Turtles fought them off earlier at the shop April took them to, with Leo sparing the leader as an act of mercy. Something that Raph takes umbridge with... as he does with most anything that Leo does in the first half of the series. It’s no surprise that Leo and Raph butt heads, as they do in most series, and it follows their respective arcs. Leo having to deal with being leader as well as realizing that it’s much more pressuring and unforgiving than he thought, while Raph act son his jealousy that Leo got the position even though he’s the better fighter and therefore questioning Leo’s orders or outright just being an asshole for no good reason. But after the shop owner is kidnapped to lure the Turtles out, Leo’s act of mercy ends up saving them as the lead Dragon repays the favor by throwing him back his discarded sword. Which Leo uses to break a water tower to wash the bad guys away again. Angered, The Shredder decides to handle the Turtles himself.

The episodes do a good job in establishing a solid status quo. Bad guy does a thing, one character has their B-Plot to deal with, there’s a clash, the plots intertwine, bad guy gets defeated, and the lesson of the day is learned. A simple routine, but it works here. Plus we get plenty of character establishment and moments which makes you care about them. For example even though Raph is a massive jerk, the end of New Friend, Old Enemy has his comfort Mikey after the deceit and have him see that he’s a good kid who simply got duped as anyone else would. With this being after Raph mocked him wanting to make friends throughout the episode, it helped show that he does have a caring side. Leo frequently has issues with being a leader, such as dealing with Raph and moments like in ITHNiBS where the guys outright refuse to listen to him when he tries to remind them that they’re grounded. Even Splinter has a lot of moments, being a stern but fair parental figure and wise mentor, but is also snarky as Hell. We also see hints to how much the past has affected him, like after April agrees to undergo kunoichi training and leaves the dojo, there’s just a brief moment where he looks down with a forlorn expression. As though wishing that he was telling this to his own MIA daughter. It’s so subtle, but it speaks volumes about his emotional state.

The characters are ultimately what makes these episodes works and what I would say is the strongest part of the series. You are likely going to relate to or like someone from this show and their progression. But now that we have a fully formed status quo, it’s time to shake it up a little bit and have the Turtles experience their first hard dose of reality.

The Escalation (Epsidoes 9-13)

Episode 9 begins as a typical ‘Mutant of the Week’ plot with the guys trying to catch a pigeon mutant that was after April. But when they do, they discover that he was simply trying to deliver a message... from her father. The message warns her to get out of the city due to a mutagen bomb, but she refuses to leave without him. As such,t he Turtles... somehow... find where Mr. O’Neil is and try to save him. While they get him out of the cell and get the location of the bomb, Mr. O’Neil sacrifices himself when the Kraang outnumber them so that the boys can protect April. All while poor April can only watch, helpless to do anything. Ouch...

The Turtles can only go to where the bomb is to disarm it, but things get further complicated when Bradford and Xever attack, wanting payback from before. Fortunately Donnie disarms the bomb and the four corner the two, but Bradford refuse sot go down quietly and stabs the bomb, but all it does is mutate himself and Xever. But ti also washes them away.... again. I should also point out that this point,t he Turtles have gotten incredibly over-confident since they’ve beaten every bad guy so far, feeling unstoppable. So then... Shredder arrives. Yep. And he kicks their shells HARD. Liek he holds no punches, he easily over-powers all four of them and almost stabs Leo int he head. The only reason that they escape is Shredder getting distracted by his now mutated lieutenants. But the boys retreat, badly beaten up and completely demoralized.

The next episode focuses on the fallout. The four are mostly feeling better, but their fears are being escalated by, of all people, Splinter. This is due to the boys nearly getting killed by his long-time rival re-igniting his own trauma and having nightmares over losing them, causing him to again keep them in the sewers and be far more harsh with his training. The only one doing moderately well is April, who gets intel about the Foot planning to destroy the sewers. The Turtles try to stop it, but get pounded by Bradford, who is now a giant dog mutant named Dogpound. This forces April to get the inlet herself, but she gets caught an captured by the Foot. This further brings Leo down, but to his surprise Raph actually encourages him to pull himself together and lead the team. The Turtles manage to both save April and stop the Foot from destroying the sewers with Splinter apologizing for allowing his fears to affect both himself and his sons. Overall, a solid pair of episodes that bring the boys down a bit, finally has all the plots meet somewhere, and deliver a strong message about not letting fear control you or the others around you.

After a filler episode where the only importance is Shredder forcibly recruiting Stockman to his forces, we get some more Kraang stuff with Episode 12. Where we actually show them being dangerous. Shocker, right?! It also introduces us to long-time supporting character within the franchise Leatherhead. Here he is an alligator mutant who the Kraang experimented on and it causes him to have violent fits of rage if he so much as hears the word ‘Kraang’. The Turtles end up saving him when the Kraang try to re-capture him, but find his angry bursts, well... dangerous. But Mikey is able to befriend him and it becomes more clear that LH is actually a rather intelligent, good-hearted mutant who has been put through Hell. He gets run off by Splinter though when one of his trauma-induced bursts causes him to attack the boys, forcing the rat master to intervene. Mikey, and by proxy the other three, give chase to an old subway car where LH reveals how the Kraang took him to their home, Dimension X, and experimented on him. He escaped and also took their Power Cell, cutting them off form Dimension X, in hopes of saving humanity from them. The Kraang want it back and act like a zombie swarm as they break through the car. LH fights them off, leaving the Power Cell in the Turtles care.

While Episode 11 sucks (to put it simply Leo and Raph are overbearing assholes while Donnie and Mikey are just made to be as weak as possible), the other three do a good job at making the villains more solid threats. Shredder was built up as intimidating and powerful, and boy did he deliver. The Turtles face their first major loss and have to deal with the fallout, Leo especially dealing with his first real failure as a leader. Even the Kraang come off as a scarier hivemind and we get mroe stuff on them, like Dimension X and their plans to mutate the Earth. Add that with a strong supporting character like Leatherhead, who is understandably traumatized but is an intelligent being who is trying to prevent others form suffering like him. and it helps make some strong episodes.

The first half of the season concludes with the 13th episodes... that aired as the 14th for some reason. But I’m going in order of my DVD’s and this was after Episode 12, so it’s what I’m going with. It both concludes a lot and opens up a lot for the future. The episode I am talking about is, of course New Girl in Town.

TBC in Part Two....

#tmnt #2k12 #tmnt 2012 #callie reviews

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thenerdytomboynewb96 · 5 years

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Samantha Allan Park Ch. 51

Any references to TMNT or anything from popular media and culture is NOT MINE. I only own my OC's. Any references to “TMNT Out of the Shadows” DO NOT BELONG TO ME. Only my additions that I came up with myself belong to me. Anything from the films or other series ARE NOT MINE, only my OC’s and my ideas that I have added onto the story FOR FUN. Thank you.

Chapter #51

Spring Break through Renet’s eyes:

She had only known them all for about a month now, and she couldn’t have been happier that this was the family she had been destined to be with. In fact, she believed that this family was placed on this earth for her to find them, just like her Aunt Sam had. Maybe it was Rachel who had been looking out for her, maybe it was some sort of greater power, but with this family she truly felt she would never ever be alone again.

On Monday morning Renet had woken up very early. She sat up only to see that her parents were still asleep, and as long as Keeno was still sleeping, then so were they. She tip toed over to where the closet was and silently pulled out a clean t-shirt and pair of sporty shorts. Once she had her shoes and clothes on, she silently left the room without anyone knowing she had ever moved a muscle. She then ran down the halls, amazed by the beautiful building she was in. She ran down the staircases and then from floor to floor, until she heard movement from the weight room that is.

She walked closer and looked through the glass of the door to see her mutant uncles and her Aunt Sam working out and using all different types of equipment. She didn’t realize that she had leaned forward as she stared in awe at her family’s incredible strength and abilities until the door had begun to open and she then tumbled forward. Leo turned around when he heard the door and smiled when he saw the small child. “Well, looks like we have a visitor” he said as he walked over and leaned over the child who was teeny tiny to him even when she was standing up. “I wanna be strong like you guys” she said, her eyes still open wide. “Heh, well it’s going to take a long time for you to be as strong as us” he said as he leaned down and scooped up the child so that she was sitting in his arms. “When did you become strong Uncle Leo?” she asked with curiosity. “Hmmmm, we were probably 7 or so when Sensei introduced us to martial arts. That’s when we started training daily. But you’re took young for rough training like that.” Renet crossed her arms and began to pout. “How am I gonna fight bad guys and save the world if I’m not strong?” she moped. Leo couldn’t help but chuckle. “And who said it was your job to save the world?” he said with a smile. Renet paused, realizing that she might have just said something she shouldn’t have. “I want to keep all of you safe. You all protect each other, I want to do the same thing” she replied. This way she wasn’t lying, but she wasn’t revealing secret information either. “Hmmmmm, well Raph is the best at preparing workout routines for the rest of us. Maybe he can come up with something for you. Let’s go ask” he whispered as he brought the girls ear close to his face, making the girl giggle from her uncle’s silly actions.

Leo walked over towards where Raph was lifting weights as he laid back along a bench, while Sam was standing nearby as his spotter. She smiled when she saw Leo walking over with the little bundle known as Renet. “Oh Raphael” Sam said in an oddly sweet voice. “What?” he grunted as he looked back at her. That’s when he saw Sam nod her head forward. Raph looked forward and began to sit up, and that’s when he saw his brother and the young child. His expression immediately changed from the annoyed expression from the way Sam had said his full first name to a calmer one. “Hey. What’s up?” he asked as he stood up and away from the bench. “I have a small fry who wants to turn into a tough tatter tot” Leo said, moving her arms as if she was fighting a bad guy. Raph chuckled. “Oh really?” “Train me?” Renet asked, her hands clapped together in front of her as a means of asking permission. While Renet bowed her head forward, Raph and Leo exchanged the same comical look. “Ohhhhh fine. I guess I can train you for today” he said as he took Renet from Leo’s arms and carried her across the gigantic space to a spot where she could ‘train’ without using any heavy equipment.

He first taught her some different stretches to complete first so that her muscles would be warmed up. He then took her to a spot where there were hand weights of all different sizes. He then showed her different exercises using the lightest weight they had (which was about 2 pounds). He then showed her how to use machines that would be safe for her. She used the bikes (although Raph had to help her use the pedals), he taught her how to use an ab machine (which was actually just a curved pole that could be used in a variety of different ways, how to use the rowing machine, some different exercises on yoga balls, a mini stepper machine, and a few other machines that were harmless as long as he was there right beside her. Within this gym was also a course based on the Ninja Warrior series. Raph ended their training session with helping Renet complete the course. He helped her climb the ladders, he held onto her and helped her jump (which was really him carrying her) from one jumping stone to the other, and he helped her move across each set of monkey bars the course had to offer.

Raph was having so much fun with the child that he hadn’t even thought about her parents, not until Jay walked over with a concerned look on his face. “Dude! I have no issues with you having a play date with my child, but let a dad know first! Okay?” “What are you talking about?” Raph asked, confusion written on his face as he placed the girl back on her feet on the ground. “I came down here on my own daddy” Renet said as she walked over and put her arms up so that he dad would hug her. Jay crouched down and gave his daughter a huge hug, but then pulled back and put his hands on her shoulders. “Why didn’t you tell us you were leaving the room? We woke up and started freaking out because we couldn’t find you. We ran into the hall and ran into your uncles who said you were down here.” “Oh” Raph said as he then looked around the room, “I hadn’t realized they even left, hehe.” Renet smiled at her uncle and then turned back towards her dad. “You and mommy were sleeping, so I didn’t want to wake you. But I was ready for the day!” she said with excitement. Jay smiled. “And that’s fine, but next time you need to let us know!” “That or inform us to contact your parents” Raph said with his arms crossed as he now walked over and stood over top of Renet. The girls smile began to fade. “You’re mad at me…” she said in dismay. Raph shook his head. “Nah, I’m not mad. But I am worried that you’re going to scare your dad again. I don’t know if I can train someone without permission” he said, secretly winking to Jay as a signal that he would catch him up later. Renet then rapidly began shaking her head. “No! I’ll let my parents know next time! I promise!” she said turning back and forth between her dad and her uncle. “Good. In that case, training is over for today. Let’s go eat” Raph said. Jay stood up while holding his daughters hand, and he couldn’t keep from smiling when he saw his literally hopping daughter squeeze his own hand while also squeezing the hand of her rough and tough uncle. Today was day one of her training with Uncle Raph, which continued throughout the rest of the vacation. She would later on be grateful for these training routines that her uncle introduced to her this week and at such a young age. She had no idea now how much these routines would come in handy the older she grew. Donnie was right when he said that one day she would change the world, but for now, she just wanted to spend more time getting to know her ‘scary’ teddy bear of an uncle.

On Tuesday evening she got to spend more quality time with the oldest brother when the teens had returned to the pool. Renet wanted to join the group, but she also had seen teenagers before and she knew that some groups were mean when they didn’t want to be bothered from their fun. However, Leo sensed this child just like he had the previous morning (something he was also learning to master) and snuck into the house through a side door. He then scooped up the surprised Renet from the doorway and walked her outside. “So why are you hiding from us tatter tot?” he asked. “I didn’t want to get in the way” she said softly. “I’m sorry what?!” he said out loud, shocking the child in his arms. “Well my soul is broken. HEY GUYS!” Leo called out to the others in the pool, “RENET THINKS SHE’S GOING TO GET IN OUR WAY.” “Ha! I must be hearing things, I thought Leo just said Renet would get in our way” Kris said, literally slapping his knee. “That’s funny!” “I shall now reenact the way my heart feels” Mikey said as he flopped into the pool. Raph, Donnie, and Sam all looked at each other. “Ditto” the trio said as they all threw themselves into the pool the same way Mikey just had. “See?” Leo said as he placed the girl on her feet and then sat in a chair nearby so that he was on eye level with her, “those dorks over there love you. You can’t get in the way when you’re the path they want to follow” he said with a smile. “Now let’s go back inside and get your floaties-” “My swimmies!” she interrupted. “My apologies, your swimmies, so that you can join us in the pool” he said as he stood up and walked with her back inside.

The two returned soon with Renet’s swimmies which Leo helped blow up and place around her arms. He then walked with the girl back over towards the pool. He knew that Renet still wasn’t confident in the water yet, so he placed her on top his shoulders as he walked into the pool. Sam had brought a couple boogie boards from the beach shed up to pool since she liked to lay in the sun on the boards. She gave one to Renet and the teens took turns pulling her around the pool, and once Jay and Brenda made their way outside with Keno, Jay jumped into the pool and pretended to chase after her while she was being pulled from the turtles who were pretending to save her from the ‘monster’ that Jay was acting as. At one point Sam pretended that she needed to be saved and Leo held onto Renet in the water so that she could save Sam. This process was then repeated as Leo helped Renet save Mikey, then Donnie, then Kris, and then Raph. After a couple more hours in the pool, Renet grew very tired. Many of the teens and adults had taken breaks and had rested throughout their time at the pool, and everyone had taken turns holding baby Keno, but Leo had decided to play with Renet as much as he could since he didn’t always get the quality time he would have hoped for with the girl. Between all the aunts and uncles the young child had, it wasn’t always easy getting time to play and bond with her, so he wanted to take advantage of this time as best he could. That was why he also offered to take the groggy child inside and freshen up once it was obvious how tired she was.

Leo walked with Renet to the elevator that took them to her parent’s room. Leo had Renet take a ‘tubby’ but had her keep her bathing suit on. This way he could help clean the chlorine from her eyes, but not have her sit completely naked in the tub as well. Of course, Renet got her second wind and wanted to play once she was in the tub. Well Leo wasn’t ready to say no to bath paints and bathtub fishing. Leo taught Renet how to write some Japanese kanji on the sides of the tub and was surprised at how easily the child was able to copy his own handwriting. Soon after, Renet had thrown a bunch of toy fish into the tub so that she and Leo could use toy fishing rods to pull them out of the water. Finally, the actually tubby was complete and as Leo was helping Renet dry off and change into a clean pair of clothes, he began to count how many times she had yawned (it was 9, oh now it was 10 times). Leo smirked as he walked the sleepy child over towards one of the beds. After the long day full of play he had had, he decided to lay down next to her, but leaving enough space so that if he happened to turn over that he wouldn’t hurt her. He fell asleep…and the next thing he knew, he was gently being shaken awake. “Hey bro, time to wake up” he heard Raph saying. Leo groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. “What time is it?” “Dinner time!” he heard his youngest brother call out from down the hall (which he also heard Sam smack him because ‘Renet was sleeping in there’). Leo rubbed his eyes as he sat up. He then stared down at Renet who was still sound asleep. “You okay?” Raph asked him. Leo looked confused. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” “Hmph, sorry. It was just the look you were giving her” Raph replied as he sat down on the bed. Now Leo’s eyes were wide. “Was my stare creepy? Was it weird?” Raph chuckled softly. “No, you just looked at her as if you were a dad.” “Is…is that weird?” Leo asked. “No, trust me. I’ve had talks with Jay and Casey about it. Apparently all four of us do it. They say it’s just natural instincts and Jay says him and Brenda appreciate that we have them. They’re always trying to monitor the baby so they love that we know how to be protective of their daughter. They also think us being so fatherly is what’s helping Renet get so comfortable so quickly with the whole family.” “Well our family is definitely one that takes a while to get used to” Leo chuckled. They both then looked back down at the sleeping child. “Man I want one of these one day” Raph said softly. “Me to. I never realized how great it would be to have a kid around. And we’re fortunate to have two in our lives now” Leo said with a smile. “Hopefully more in the future when Sam and Kris get married. And if April ever gets married then she might have some to.” “But let’s not rush things. Let’s cherish the time we have with these two while they’re still kids” Leo said. “Couldn’t have said it better myself bro” Raph stated. “Hey, you guys coming?” Kris said as he now stood in the doorway. “Yup, who wants to carry the tatter tot?” “I’ll do it. You guys keep hogging her, so I’ll take care of her this time” Kris teased, which then lead to him receiving nudges from the two brothers.

Of course, Renet being the sneak she was, was acting the entire time. She had been awake ever since she heard Mikey yelling in the hallway, but she kept her eyes closed so that no one would notice (something Sam and Mikey had taught her). She was shocked to hear her uncles talk as if they were never going to have children one day. Granted, there were still a lot of people that would eventually enter their lives that they had never met, but did they really think that she was one of the only kids that would enter their lives? And why did they think Aunt Sam was going to marry Uncle Kris? That was a bit shocking to her. Apparently they had no idea who Sam really loved (or who she would love, since nothing could tell Renet when her aunt fell in love with her husband when she did, she just knew that one day it would happen). But she wondered why they thought it would be Kris. Was it because he was human? He acted the same way that the others did around her, and Sam treated him the same as she did the others, so maybe her turtle uncles assumed that Sam would only date a human. She did just hear her uncles talk as if they would never have kids of their own, so maybe that’s how they felt.

She carefully brought it up with her intelligent uncle the following afternoon when she was with him on the beach. Every day at one point or another throughout that entire week, Renet ended up on the beach with Donatello. There were days when he taught her how to fly a kite, there were days where they went sightseeing and watched dolphins from the shore, some days they went scuba diving and examined different plants and animals they saw in the water. Today, they were collecting shells. It was part of a craft that Renet was completing. She took some sand from the beach and scooped that into a zip lock bag. She also had a bucket in which she was placing small shells. At home she had a jar where she would place all the shells and would then pour the sand in from the beach. Of course, the entire time she was on the beach with her uncle, the two were always talking up a storm. “Uncle Donnie, what do you and your brothers think of humans?” she asked as she picked up a rosy pink colored shell she spotted in the water. “Can you be more specific?” he asked as he picked up a shell, but then tossed it back into the water once he realized it was badly cracked. “Do you like humans?” she asked. Donnie chuckled. “Well of course we like humans. You and your entire family are made of humans. That and we saved the entire city, well, the world actually. And the world is made of humans. So yes, we care about them. Why do you ask?” “I thought maybe that’s why you all think Aunt Sam likes Uncle Kris.” Donnie paused while the two were crouched down in the water. “Why would that have anything to do with whether we like humans or not?” he asked gently. “I thought maybe you assumed she liked him because they were both human.” “Ahhhh I see” he said as the two stood up and continued to walk along the shoreline. “And why are you worrying about things like that in the first place?” Donnie asked. Renet had to think of an excuse. “Because I’m a child, and I see everything” she said in a playfully menacing tone before running along the shore towards a shiny shell. “Well, I definitely can’t argue with that” Donnie said as he placed his arms behind his head and trailed behind the young girl. “Gasp! Something you can’t argue with? You can’t be my Uncle Donnie” Renet teased as she stuck her tongue out playfully. Donnie stopped and stared at the child with raised brows. “Well something I can argue about is whether that shell belongs to you or me!” he said he snatched it from her hand and then ‘ran’ away. “Hey!” Renet laughed, “that’s mine!” “Well let’s look at the facts. I’m taller, I’m faster, and I’m a ninja” he said as he dorkily kicked his leg in front of him, “therefore, unless you can defeat me, then this shell is mine.” “Well the facts say that finders keepers losers weepers” she said with her hands on her hips. “Those aren’t facts because they can’t be proven. Soooo I win you lose!” he said as he continued to take long and slow strides along the shore. Within seconds, tiny little Renet was chasing her tall uncle all over the beach. Once Donnie could see that Renet was growing tired, he pretended to trip and collapse onto the beach. “Oh no!” he said. “Got it! It’s mine!” Renet said as she scooped up the shell into her hands. Donnie snapped his fingers and placed his fist under his chin as he sat up in the sand. “You got me this time. This has been a terrible tale of the troublesome tatter tot” he teased. Renet walked up to Donnie and sat in his lap. “It’s okay Uncle Donnie, I’ll share it with you” she said as she held it close to his face. “It’s purple, so we can take turns keeping it” she said with a beaming smile. “You’ve already shared more with me then you’ll ever know” Donnie said as he smiled and hugged his niece. As the two gathered their belongings and made their way back to the relax space, Renet wondered if what her uncle had said was similar to what her two oldest turtle uncles were talking about the other day. ‘He must be the same way. He must think I’m one of the only kids he’ll ever see.’

Donnie laid down on a hammock so that he could look up at the stars, but his gaze was distracted and redirected to the four year old who climbed up and was now sitting on his stomach. “Uncle Donnie, are you ever going to have kids?” Renet asked bluntly. Donnie fought to hide his laughter. “Ex-squeeze me?” he asked. “Will-you-ever-have-kids?” she asked as she clapped out the syllables. “No” Donnie said, “why?” “…I want cousins” Renet stated. This was a lie. She loved her baby brother and was fine with how things were now where it was just two children being spoiled with attention, but she needed to say something without giving away her real reason for wanting to know. “Well even if I had kids, they would be even younger than your baby brother by the time they were born silly. Now what’s up with these questions today? Did Uncle Mikey say something stupid in front of you again?” he asked as he rolled his eyes. “No” Renet giggled, “and I always ask you questions.” “Yes, but today they have a unique theme. Why are you asking personal questions?” Now Renet felt embarrassed, she couldn’t think of an excuse that wouldn’t make her uncle feel sad. “Renet” Donnie said more sternly, “be honest. It’s okay” he reassured her. Renet looked down while she spoke. “Why do you all think that you’re never going to have families?” she asked in a low voice. Donnie scrunched his face. “Now why are you worried about something like that?” he asked gently, sitting up some so that he could sit face to face with her. “I want you all to be happy. You guys all helped change my life in such a short amount of time and have made me so happy. Why don’t any of you think that you’ll be happy like that?” “But, we’re already happy Renet. We have more than we could have ever asked for right here, right now. Me talking to you on a beach is literally something I never thought would ever happen to me.” The girl shook her head. “That’s not the type of happiness I mean. I mean like how dad looks at mom, and how he looks at me and Keno.” Donnie paused, wondering how he should respond to this. “You see….your uncles and I…we would love to have something like that. But, it’s not really possible-” “Why not?” she asked in a demanding tone. He displayed an apologetic look, as if what he was about to say would upset her. “You and your parents, Sam and Kris, Irma and Vern and April and Casey, they’re each a one in a million type people. Meaning that there’s no one else like them. They accept us for who we are, not what we look like. Like, Sam has literally put her life on the line to protect my brothers and I. Not everyone in this world would care about others like that. Sam cares about us, and we all care about her. That’s why our families are connected, because we all care about one another and would do anything for the others. But not ALL humans are that way.” “But Aunt Sam said that there are people in the city that want to thank you! They care about you!” Renet said as she excitedly started kicking her feet, hoping that maybe this conversation is what Rachel was talking about and was the surprise that would lead to her uncle’s future.

Donnie sighed with a smile. “They may support us, but we can’t put our trust, our lives in the hands of hundreds of thousands of people we don’t know. It’s complicated to explain. We are and will be forever grateful for what the people of New York do for us, but we’re still ninjas. We still live in the shadows. That’s why there are no workers here, because we can’t be seen. But you should be happy about that” Donnie said. Renet titled her head to the side. “Why?” “Because that means that we can dedicate more of our time towards you” he said as he hugged her once more, something that he was more prone to doing ever since the children had entered his life. “And Keno to, right?” “Oh of course Keno to! We would never leave him out” Donnie said as he rested his chin on top of the small girls head. “Good. Oh! A shooting star!” Renet exclaimed. “That’s a plane” Donnie said as he leaned back and laid down in the hammock. “What about that one?” she asked. “Another plane.” “Man I can’t catch a break” she said as she flopped backwards.

The two continued to look up at the actual stars for the rest of the night until they had both fallen asleep in the hammock and needed to be carried in by the others.

Renet decided to drop the questions for now (Donnie wasn’t the only uncle she asked interesting questions to). She knew what was in store for everyone in her family, so she decided to leave the topic alone. That and if she began asking too many questions then she might change things in a bad way, so she chose to keep quiet. However, right now she was screaming in excitement while she was riding on a jet ski with her youngest turtle uncle.

She could see her mother holding onto her father’s arm for dear life in fear that something was going to happen to their daughter, but she knew her Uncle Mikey deserved more credit than that. This was one of her favorite things about her youngest mutant uncle. While the other three said it wasn’t safe for her to be out on a jet ski, Mikey knew his boundaries and knew he could keep her safe. He knew how to have fun without being so paranoid. This was also due to him having incredible reflexes. There had been a few times that Renet had been down to the lair and had the opportunity to watch her uncles spar from afar and while Mikey joked around A LOT, he did pay attention and was always alert. Granted, sometimes him being alert kicked in at the very last second, but she lost track of how many times his brothers thought they were about to win the match and then Mikey dodged at the last second, as if getting a second wind and becoming twice as skilled as before. He was the same way with physical activities.

When they were all on the water slides, Mikey was the one who went down with her so that he would be right there in case something went wrong and she got scared and couldn’t swim. Mikey was the one to help her learn how to boogie board and feel comfortable in the water. Mikey was the one who taught her how to do basic rolls and flips on the trampolines near the game room. There was so much that Mikey helped her learn and feel comfortable with, and more than anything, Mikey trusted her. He made it very clear when they were getting ready to ride the jet ski that she would have to sit relatively still so that she wouldn’t fall off (even though they also twisted the clips on her life jacket so that she was literally strapped to him) and that she needed to hold onto a small handle in the front so that she could hold onto something tightly. He explained to her what to do if they tipped and that in order for her to ride with him then she had to follow the rules. While the others weren’t so sure if Renet would be okay with all of this at such a young age, Mikey trusted that Renet would follow the rules and he believed that she would be able to handle the fast speeds of the Jet Ski, and right now the child was extremely grateful for his trust in her.

“Let’s go faster!” she shouted. “What?! We’re already going so fast that we passed everyone else twice!” Mikey announced with a laugh. “I love feeling the wind in my hair” the child said as she turned her head side to side. “Then you’ll love this, hold on tight!” he said as he sped up to an upcoming wave and made the jet ski jump off the water some. Of course Renet was howling with laughter. She was enjoying every second of this action packed adventure she was currently on. The group was following a course that was set up further out into the water. Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey all had their own jet ski. Casey was riding with April, which he had no complaints about holding onto her while she drive, and then Kris and Sam each had their own as well. Vern was driving a jet ski as well with Irma holding onto him tightly from behind. “Ohhhhh we’re gonna pass grammy!” Renet said, lightly kicking her legs from the fun of passing others on the speedy water vehicle. “Let’s go!” Mikey said, swiveling and swerving quickly throughout the course until minutes later they made a sharp turn and passed by the others. “YESSSSSS we’re winning!” Renet exclaimed. “Hehe, let’s go splash Uncle Raph” Mikey whispered, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the adorable yet wicked face the child made in agreement with his claim. The two sped up some and as they made their turn, splashed the heck out of Raphael. “Argghhhh I’m gonna get you back for this, just wait!” Raph bellowed. Renet, who now knew more about how her sometimes grumpy uncle acted, knew that he would not actually hurt her (maybe get a little rough with Mikey though) and giggled at his reaction. Renet then gasped and began to squirm. “What’s up tatter tot?” Mikey asked. “I gotta pee” she said. “Well then let’s park and I’ll run you inside” he said. He double checked behind him on both sides and then drove away from the course. He carefully pulled up to the side of the dock and then turned off the jet ski. “What happened?” Jay called from the side. Mikey scooped Renet up so that she was now sitting on his shoulder, and as he ran he screamed out “we’re taking a pee break!” Renet giggled when she saw her parents sigh, and also Sensei shaking his head at his son’s silly remark.

The two made their way into the gigantic house so that Renet could ‘use the potty,’ and she almost made it…but she was a few seconds short. She was potty trained and could use the bathroom by herself, but she had waited too long and it was a decently long run back to the house, even if they were using the bathroom outside by the pool. Luckily, there was also a shower in this rather large bathroom. “Looks like we’ll have to get you cleaned up before we head back outside. You can’t go back and swim in a peed in bathing suit. That only works if you’re surrounded by the ocean” he teased, trying to make her feel better. He then realized that the young girl was beginning to cry. “Oh no. What’s wrong?” he asked in concern. “I peed myself like a baby” she said as a few tears drizzled down her cheeks. Mikey sat down criss cross and pulled the child over towards him and gave her a hug. “Hey, it happens sometimes. I used to wait until the last second as a kid all the time, so I had a lot of accidents when I was even older than you” he said as he gently pat her on the back. Renet then took a step back so she could face him. “Really?!” “Mhmmmm, really-really. Of course my brothers always teased me about it, but that’s just what brothers do.” “Will….will they tease me?” she asked, her face growing sad once again just from the thought alone. “What? Of course not! But, if it makes you feel any better, I’ll keep this a secret between the two of us” he said with an honest smile. Renet then nodded her head as a few more tears spilled from her eyes. “Now let’s get you showered up and out of these bottoms. There’s towels outside so I can always wrap you up in one so no one knows you’re not wearing bottoms” he said as he began to stand up and make his way over towards the shower.

Mikey knew that his brothers were sensitive to things like giving Renet a bath since she was a girl, but he knew that most adults were fine with things like this as long as the kids were still very young. Because of this, he helped Renet take off her yucky bathing suit bottoms and he let them soak in the sink while he turned the shower on and let her stand there and rinse off. Afterwards, just like he promised, he quickly got a towel from one of the racks outside and wrapped it around the girls waste so that it looked like the towel was being used as her skirt. He walked inside with Renet and lead her up to her room where he helped her change out of her bathing suit. “Do you wanna go back to the beach, or do you wanna stay inside?” he asked the girl who was now jumping on the bed. “Is it okay if we stay inside?” she asked softly. “Of course!” he said as he caught her mid-jump and placed her back on the floor so he could help her get dressed. “And I know exactly where we’re going to go” he said. The two left the room (Renet quickly latching onto her uncle’s hand) and they made their way down towards the trampoline and rock climbing room.

As soon as Mikey opened the door, Renet ran right in and ran towards one of the longer trampolines and instantly began rolling around. “Well look at you, our little ninja in training” he said as he walked over and fell backwards onto a trampoline. “You really think so?!” she said as she sat up and stared at him. “Well yeah. In another life you would totally be kicking butt with us” he said as rolled forward so that now he was next to the child. Renet pouted and crossed her arms. “Why can’t I fight bad guys with you in this life?” she asked. “Because” he said as he pat her head, “you’re thinking of things from a kids perspective and have no idea how dangerous and serious being a ninja really is” he said with a smile. “But one day I’ll grow up and I’ll be mature enough to fight. You guys can’t save the world forever.” “Ouch. That’s pretty dark” Mikey said. “Sorry” Renet said with a saddened expression. “Why do you want to be a ninja so badly? Even Sam has other future goals. She’s going to be a soccer star and a dancer in the next few years, so she doesn’t even want to be a ninja forever. So why are you so dedicated towards becoming one?” he asked gently as he now sat criss cross facing her. “I want to keep you all safe” she said, not fully telling him the truth. “Awwww but that’s our job. Your job is to change our diapers when we get old” he teased as he gently nudged her with his foot. This got the girl to smile, along with an ‘ewwww’ as she ran forward and leaped onto him. And of course the playful uncle rolled backwards with the girl in his arms as she pretended to fight and defeat him. 15 minutes later the two were in a position where Renet was sitting on Mikey’s shell while Mikey groaned and begged for mercy. “Pleaseeeeeee let me go! I’m innocent!” Mikey begged, trying to crawl away from the child sitting on his back. “See, I could totally save your butt from bad guys” she said, crossing her arms and nodding in confidence. “So we’re back to that, huh?” he said as he rolled over so that now the child was sitting on his stomach. “I’ll never back down” Renet teased. “Well how about this? When you’re my age, then I’ll train you so that you can become a ninja and save everyone. Okay?” he asked, putting his hand out for a fist bump. ‘You’re going to train me way sooner than that, but I’ll play along with this for now’ the child thought to herself. “Okay” Renet replied while following through with the fist bump. She then looked over towards the rock wall. “Will you help me climb that before my parents get back?” “Girl I’ve been waiting for you to ask. But remember, you have to follow my rules. Okay?” “Got it!” Renet exclaimed as she rolled to her side and then began to run over towards the rock wall, but then stopped and turned around and ran back to her uncle so she could give him a big hug. “Awwww, what’s this for?” he asked as he snuggled his chin against the top of the girls head. “Thank you. For trusting me, and for believing in me. Everyone else still sees me as a child, but you trust me more than they do. That and you can keep secrets. One day I’m going to owe you a lot of favors” she teased. Mikey then kneeled down in front of the child. “You know why I treat you differently from everyone else?” “Why?” “Because even though I’m 17, people treat me like a baby to. I’m literally the same age as my brothers, but because I was the last to be born they see me as the baby. Honestly, that’s why I act the way I do sometimes, because that’s how they all view and treat me. But I’m a lot more than the kid they think I am. And I believe that you’re a lot more than just a typical 4 year old. They’re going to see you as a child no matter how old you are. I’ll always be a baby brother, just like how you’ll always be the little girl that joined our family as a daughter and as a niece.” “You’re really smart, and really insightful Uncle Mikey. I’ll never forget that, I promise” the girl said as she put her pinky forward. “And I’ll never forget about your feelings either kiddo” he said as he completed the ‘pinky promise.’ “Now where on earth did you learn the word insightful at your age?” he asked as he walked with her over towards the rock wall.

The ironic part of this conversation between the two was that Mikey had no idea that one day he would train Renet to help do incredible things, and Renet had no idea how important it would be that she could trust her uncle more than anyone else in the family. Neither one knew of what was in store for their future. But one day, they would look back on this conversation and laugh at the irony. For now, they were just worried about climbing this rock wall before anyone found out.

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