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as8bakwthesage · 2 months

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I gave Tem Souldancer a proper reference for their civilian self and their Magical Boy/Enbie transformation!

So a couple of notes:

Tem Souldancer is 16 years old when they meet the Turtles. They use they/them pronouns. They are also a self-insert who I ship with Donnie.*

Tem is short for Artemisia, a name that they adopted after moving to NYC. Their "real" name is Crow, but they did keep their surname out of respect for their family's culture and history. So they went from Crow Souldancer to Artemisia Souldancer, but everyone calls them Tem for short.

Tem is Two-Spirit, and is on Testosterone. Their gender is "your worst nightmare." They are also ace-spec.

Tem was diagnosed with ASD as a child. Their special interests lie in the complexities of magic and systems of the mystic arts. They study magic almost like it's a science. And also crows. They have a huge thing for crows. Duh no shit

They are very silly

Tem's Backstory and Powers...

Tem's Backstory:

Headcanon time! The magic in ROTTMNT stems from two sources - from the Spirits of the Earth or from the Krang/Onni. The magic that comes from the Earth and its Spirits acts like veins, and ties all living creatures together. The veins are in all kinds of colours, depending on the life force of the person a single vein is connected to. For obvious reasons, Raph's is red, Leo's is blue, Donnie's is purple, Mikey's is orange, April's is yellow, etc. However, most people cannot see the Veins, including the Hamatos.

Tem, and by extension their family, can see these Veins, alongside some other stuff. This is because many centuries ago, a young woman was given these abilities by one of the more powerful Spirits in order to protect the Earth from the Demons who would try to destroy it (the Krang.) This woman adopted the title Souldancer because it felt like she was dancing among the souls of the living. This would become the surname for Tem's family.

Souldancer children are born with a small crystal on their body, varying in shape, colour, and location. These are called Soul Crystals, and they help the Souldancers use their powers. However, they only appear on firstborn children. Any other children born after do not get a crystal. The secondborn are taught how to do magic for reasons that will become apparent in the next paragraph.

The firstborn child would be trained in the mystic arts and in the ability to see and manipulate the Veins. The secondborn child would be responsible for producing the next generation of firstborn and secondborn children, so that the Souldancer line never died out. The firstborns are not allowed to have relationships or develop attachments to others. (Kind of like the Jedi Order in the Star Wars prequels, and the reasons why are the exact same.) The firstborn are called Guardians, and the secondborn are called Carriers.

Tem is a very weird case because they and their brother Rook are the firstborn together. They are twins, and they both have crystals. Rook's is green while Tem's fluctuates between white, shades of grey, and black (I'll come back to why that's weird later!) But Souldancer twins have never been born before this, so Tem's parents had to figure out what to do. Because Tem was born a few minutes after Rook, their parents decided that Rook would be the next Guardian because he was older. Tem would be the next Carrier. They were supposed to marry a man who was nine years older than them when they turned 16.

They tried to smile and continue living. But they've always loved using their magic and protecting and helping others, and they don't want to give up that part of themselves. So when they turned 15, they ran away from home and moved out to NYC, where they knew an entrance to the Hidden City was. They figured that being closer to the Hidden City would mask their Soul Crystal from their parents' detection.

Tem set up shop and began working as a waiter, while also doing VTubing on the side (which they are slowly but surely getting more views and money from.) They also use the nights to their advantage to not only fight crime and help out injured people using their powers, but also to fight any and all remnants of the Demons' armies. Tem is also trying to destroy any and all remaining Krang weapons (one of which being the Dark Armor.)

Tem meets the Turtles in season 1 of ROTTMNT. They get very insecure about having to share a spotlight with any other heroes. Tem has lived in their brother's shadow for years and wants to escape it and make something of themselves independent from their family. They project hard on the Turtle brothers as a result. However, they soon become friends with the brothers, and develop a rivalry/friendship with Donnie (which eventually turns into a romance, but that's a very slow burn.)

Tem's Powers:

Remember how I mentioned above that Tem's Soul Crystal being greyscale is weird? Well, here's why! All Souldancer firstborns are born with a Crystal, and they all come in different shapes and colours. However, no child has ever been born with a Crystal like Tem's before.

The scale of White to Black shades in magic is reserved for those with a LOT of power, typically Spirits. White magic was typically more focused and could allow a person to utilise any kind of magic they wanted to. Black magic, on the other hand, was harder to control and was more prone to instability. However, it was also the culmination of all colours, so it could also do crazy powerful stuff. The shades of Greys in magic are a combination of both of these aspects. The darker the shade, the more magical energy a person had, but that magic was unstable and difficult to control.

Tem's Crystal changes colour depending on how upset they are. If they feel a very strong emotion such as hatred or terror or even love, their Crystal gets darker. However, Tem's appearance while transformed is a mix of different shades of greys mostly because it is a reflection of their experiences with their magic and emotions. The colour of their Crystal only changes whenever Tem overexerts themselves.

Tem's powers are more specific however. They can see the Veins, but they can also interact with them. If they spend enough time, Tem could find anybody in the world using the Veins. They can even siphon magical energy from a large network of sources to heal others. Think of it like the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Typically, minor injuries like cuts or bruises or even sprains don't take too much magic or effort. Wounds, stabs, broken bones are trickier but also not too difficult to heal. Near-death injuries are harder, but not impossible. However, when someone dies, it is basically impossible to heal from that.

Tem also can drain the life force and magical energy from others. Very similar deal to the Healing magic. Draining magic is easier when it's in smaller quantities. Typically draining small amounts of magic from someone will make them tired or weaker. In larger quantities, it could bring someone to near death or even kill someone. However, removing so much magic from someone as to practically take their soul would absolutely be way too much Black magic for one person to handle and it could possibly kill them.

Alongside that, Tem can also mimic the powers of the Turtles, mostly whenever they are in close proximity to them. So the closer Tem is to a brother, the easier it is for Tem to mimic their powers. Their crystal and clothes even have the colour of the corresponding brother added to them, which disappears when Tem is no longer using their powers. It's also important to note that the more Tem uses one of the Turtles' magical abilities, they also tend to feel whatever it is the brother in question is feeling. They can only use one power at a time, and if they try to do multiple at once, it is too much.

In their Corvid form (as they like to call their transformed black and white self), they can glide, jump farther, run faster than any ordinary human. They also have a significantly higher pain tolerance and much faster reflexes.

*I have been a TMNT fan since 2012, and I was 16/17 when Rise was announced/released. Tem is an abridged version of myself in 2017/2018, which is when the events of the first season start. I'm adult now, so any and all content from me about teen Tem and teen Donnie will be strictly SFW. This is kind of a grey zone for me in terms of self-shipping because it's retroactive and Tem's experiences differ from my own drastically.

Why I'm retroactively self-shipping is very personal to me, but it boils down to healing my inner child/teenager. I grew up with these characters and I'd like to pay homage to my younger self and give them some love and support from healthy places. This is very much a love letter to teenage Aso.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt oc #rottmnt self insert #art #my art #tem souldancer #self insert

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