#((but get how casey got Karai to like him and how karai shows her own care later uwu so least the siblings have a bond ;3;))

[ducknotinarow]

⏰ - 2k12 Karai Foot!Casey

| Send ⏰ to peer into my muses memories

Growing up in the foot was not ever going to allow for a normal childhood. Less so if you were the daughter to to the clans head and from the moment of birth expected to be the heir. Meaning Karai had to be a shining example of what the foot was she couldn't be weak she couldn't once stumble. So her training was always extreme compared to the other members of the clan. All matters of weakness had to be worked out from her. Pride was one trait she built up because of all of this. Heaveily panting, and her body aching even when her chest lifted simply to breath.

She moved her feet though and stood tall, she wasn't going to let this stupid boy father claimed was her new brother out due her after all. Stupid Casey. Had joined her in training sessions, he could fight properly. It was all raw and pure emotion driving his movements. Sloppy at best but result were there. What got to Karai was father seeming to praise that. She had the forms memorized! She was leagues above the older members even! She wasn't going to let this stupid new kid make her look bad.

Her fault for letting focus shift when she missed blocking a kick correctly. Her arm was twisted expose a weak spot as their kick slammed just a bit too hard against the bone. Karai's eyes squeeze tight and a gasp left her hissing softly as she moved to hold her arm. She tried to move it but it hurt, didn't matter she can't stop. She adjusts her stance again no matter how her arm throbbed in pain Slowly moving to lift her head and open her eyes she blinked a few times. Staring at Casey's back, listening to him as he took a protect stance in front of her.

But why?

------

"Hey Stupid" Karai casually called to Casey as slide the door of his room open leaving it like so as she made her way in. Looking at him in his current sour state. She just smirked kick them well their down, read across her expression. "Oh is the great Casey still bent outta shape for getting chewed out during training?" She taunts a bit before she looks around his room. She had years to get used to Casey's unique taste of interests. Clearly could tell some of his belongs had been tossed around in a classic little Casey tantrum.

"Jeez you aren't six anymore aren't you too old to still be throwing fits when things don't go your way?" She continues to push as she smiles at him. Shrugging her shoulders at the expression he fixed her with. Lip tugging into a pout, brow all knotted up as he tries to fix a fierce glare to his brown eyes trying to get her to leave clearly wanting to just sulk in his room she just gave a roll of her eyes "You look like you ate a lemon."

Karai goes to say as she starts making her way to Casey's dresser now. "Oh wah wah poor Casey got a little scolding, as if your not used to that?" she starts to pull drawers open making a face when she peers inside "I swear if I come across any of that weird monster junk your all into I'm beating you with it."

Of course there is a sudden protest from Casey, moving from where he was to try and tell Karai to get out of his stuff. She ignores and shuts the draw moving to the next, digging through trying to find something not gross looking in there. Still wearing her smile as she dose her job of getting Casey railed up listening to him trying to make her stop as if she ever listen to him. She tugs something suitable free and holds the first up idly turning it in her hold. Did Casey own anything that wasn't just a mess? outside the training Gi's they wore. It'll have todo they needed to get going soon anyway. Moving to stand as she tossed the clothes into Casey's face. Smiling still when that did nothing more then added to his bad mood.

"Are you done?" She simply asks giving Casey no idea what she was up to as she idly trailed eyes around his room letting them land on a jacket of his, it was the most hideous thing she had seen but eh it'll do. Happily ignoring Casey more as more questions came out of his mouth and she made her way over to take it from it resting place. "I rather not get there late so if you could hurry and get change that be helpful alright?" As if Casey had any clue what was going on which is why she kept talking as she was. Annoying him was simply her privilege and she abused it at any given chance. Pulling his jacket on sighing as if she had any right to be the one losing her patience here.Only changing her tune when Angel joined them at the doorway to Casey's room. She smiled and regroup with the youngest. Smoothing over the top of their hair. "I know you're slow but I didn't think this slow," She tosses over her shoulder back to Casey "we're sneaking out."

That seemed to change Casey's own tune himself as Karai shut the door to give him a chance to get changed now. Paying a second to see the time they should get there just on time even with her need to mess with Casey. Door opened behind her "finally" She scoffs before taking lead so Casey could grab Angel. "The easy half is less busy we'll get out with little to now effort easily." She states and they were soon on the move as if going on a mission.

In a way it was there own kind of mission. Constantly always being watched over kids of the foot or not a streak of rebellious nature was going to infect them all. As they breezed through the building not even noticed and made their way outside to the cool night city air. Quick to grab on to Casey's wrist and pulling him off to follow along. They needed to keep moving, mostly to not lose time they were going to cut it close. That did sort of annoy Karai's little plan here but it should be fine she figures. Telling Angel to cover Casey's eyes as she counties to lead him. Which work fine when they were simply just on the side walks. Not so much when it came to zipping across the street with oncoming traffic. They lived so it was fine clearly.

When Casey seemed to get restless and ask again what was going on fairly considering he was well aware they had nearly got ran over a few times. Karai let Angel move her hands away from Casey eyes. Letting him see they were down at the USB Arena "There happy now puck head?" Karai once more teases, as they worked their way to the back and easily slipped inside. Blending into the crowd with no issue. Sure it was an Islanders game instead but Karai was sure getting out to a game was hopefully good enough for Casey. As they found free spots to sit on the benches falling in order, Casey Angel and Karai. Easily lost among the roaring crowds cheering as the game started up. Karai taking a moment to tap Casey's shoulder to gain his attention now. "Oh good you fixed that stupid look on your face finally."

[glubby-guppiez]

*Random TMNT 2012 (mainly side characters) hc's bcuz hyperfixation

*(this is the best divider to ever exist btw)

*Warnings: Spoilers for TMNT 2012 ofc, mentions of gender dysphoria and trans related insecurity, transphobia, accidental arson, bullying, manipulation, ptsd, also the tone of the headcanons shift randomly also also typing quirk

*Chris Bradford is trans. )(e did a full transition, he did hormones, voice training, top and bottom surgery, a few different surgeries to make him look/feel more masculine, all the bells and whistles, even went the extra mile to do procedures to hide his surgery scars. )(e's closeted and does about everything in his power to make sure no one even question that he was assigned female at birth because he's scared of his social image of being the great macho man, Chris Bradford, crumbling.

*Leo mainly or solely uses fandom and fanfic socials like Wattpad, AO3, Amino, Tumblr, and maybe Twitter. She mainly interacts with Space )(eroes and Crognard The Barbarian fan posts and shows a special interest in gender swap aus.

*Later on, post show with Muckman's help the mutants are actually able to freely walk around humans without them completely flipping out and starting a mob to witch hunt after them.

*Speaking of walking around humans, Napoleon and the frogs down in Louisiana are considered local urban legend and humans get really excited when they spot the frogs in the woods.

*Dr. Rockwell is a very big coffee enjoyer and used to secretly steal coffee from the nearby shops around the mighty mutanimals hideout and on the rare occasion when someone caught him and called him out he would always use the excuse of the shops being owned by big corporations.

*Don Visioso is a deadbeat father of 5. )(e also has had multiple wives and many divorces.

*Mondo Gecko will call people posers if he's jealous enough of them.

*Ivan Steranko is also trans but has only had hrt and face masculinizing surgery and refuses to get top and bottom surgery.

*Anton Zeck is incredibly smart and performed extremely well in high school and even got free scholarships for how well he did.

*Shinigami is a big video game nerd and will geek out if anyone mentions one of the games she plays.

*The reason Anton hated the mutant name Mikey gave him at first is because it either sounds a lot like or straight up is a nickname old bullies of him gave in order to make fun of him.

*Premutation, Chris acts transphobic towards Xever (despite Xever being cis) out of jealousy and insecurity.

*Baxter Stockman is either a gay aroace trans mspec nonbinary man or a cishet ally. No in-between.

*Mini April cluster!!!:

*April has a deep love for literature and writes poetry in her spare time.

*She almost burned down the culinary class in her school once.

*She's questioning aroace.

*She felt extra empathy for Muckman because he reminded her of Kirby a little bit.

*She likes to hide stickers around the lair whenever has them on her person.

*She thoroughly enjoys having long conversations with each of the individual turtles. (It's her favorite way to spend time with anyone tbh)

*April does eventually take some time to properly learn Japanese and becomes pretty decent at speaking and reading it.

*)(er and Donnie often like to geek out together whenever they find anything new about aliens (both species they haven't seen yet and ones they know well like the kraang).

*End of the mini April cluster!!!

*Kirby O'Neil is a pretty decent cook. That man can make a mean chicken stew.

*Shinigami actually owns multiple cats. 2 ragdoll, 1 sphinx, 1 Persian, and 3 British shorthairs (I could name them all, but I don't wanna). Also, the majority of them are black cats. She feeds strays, too.

*The last headcanon is much to Karai's dismay because she is somewhat allergic. She gets headaches, her skin gets slightly irritated and she gets the sniffles if she's around cats for too long.

*Casey's younger sister wants to be a hair stylist when she grows up, so Jones let's her do his hair every once in a while and he flexes it to every one at the lair like: "Oh? My hair? Yeah, my sister did it for me. Pretty metal, what she did with it, right?"

*Tigerclaw is the only Foot Clan member to not bully Baxter Stockman.

*Someone manipulated and lied to Alopex in order to make her hate and hunt down her brother.

*After season 4, Baxter Stockman leaves New York and takes over Stockman Industries. (If you're unaware of what that is, it's on billboards that the turtles pass throughout the show the most notable appearance being in the ending scene of the final season 4 episode, 'Owari'.)

*Slash deep down still misses The Newtralizer.

*Leatherhead kind of freaks out (apologies for the bad wording) when someone fully wraps their arms around his neck when hugging him because it reminds him of the restraints the Kraang put him in.

*Pigeon Pete learns how to bake so he can make his own bread.

*The turtles get a Wii (or whatever the universes equivalent is).

*Mondo Gecko gets an old Xbox and plays Tony )(awk games, Bully, and Twisted Metal on it.

*Ivan and Anton actually move out to New Jersey post show.

*Alr, that's all for now, toodles!!!

[thefiercest]

TMNT: Tang Shen

You know, when you think about it...Tang Shen is the real hero in the TMNT 2012. Think about it, without her, there would be no TMNT!

The woman sacrificed her own life, to save her husband and her daughter's future! Without Shen's brave act, Splinter would have died that night, then he never would have gone to New York and adopted four baby turtles.

There would be no Earth! The Kraang would have gotten April because she had no Donnie to protect her and the whole world would have been destroyed!

Casey would have probably ended up dead, because his dumbass can't stay out of trouble, and he had no Raphael to look out for him!

Karai would have probably ended up being Shredder's daughter forever, never learning the truth and turn into a cold bloody villain like him because she had no Leo to care about her!

Leatherhead would have been the only mutant in New York and ended up being lost in his anger because he had no Mikey to help heal him! There would also be no Slash because there would be no Raphael which means, the Mighty Mutanimals would never exist!

Monalisa would have stayed in space fighting in war forever and probably never find her true love because her true love was Raphael.

Tang Shen made all of it possible by sacrificing herself! She is the center of everything! She is the reason; the turtles came to be! So, in a way, Shen gave birth to them more than that stupid mutagen jar did! Because if it wasn't for her, there would be no Splinter following a stranger into an alley and accidently getting mutated!

Call her mom, Mikey and not that broken glass jar!

She is not just the center of the rivalry between Splinter and Shredder but also the center of the whole show! Which is why, I think it sucks that she was only in one episode when they had a chance to add her again in the End Times episode! They could have had a ghost Shen helping out with ghost Splinter! But no, of course not, because why would they? >:(

Karai could have finally met her mom and the turtles could get closure for not being able to save the woman who was technically their mother as well and their father's true love. Can you imagine how they must have felt? I bet they were still carrying that burden. Mikey and Donnie's faces when they saw her dead with their own eyes, and all their faces as Splinter screamed like he was dying. Out of all the traumas these turtles have gone through, witnessing their mother (and father's) murder by the same man, was probably what stuck with them throughout their lives. I think Shen's is worst though and I say that because with Splinter's death, the turtles had no control over that but with Shen's death, they could have told her what was about to happen but didn't because they feared for the future.

Still, in the end, they tried to save her, even though they knew it could risk everything but failed.

Some people think that the turtles sacrificed Shen but they didn't. Like, did you guys not see them running in and Raph calling out to her, trying to stop her? They loved and cared about that woman so much. You can see it if you look closely, the future was not the only thing they were worrying about but Shen as well.

I know that the turtles never met her and never got to know her and are not related to her but that does not make her any less their mother. As I see it, she 100% is. Just because they never got to know her personally, does not mean they did not love her through the stories Splinter probably told them about her or wonder what it would be like if she was around to help raise them. I think their relationship with Shen, is similar to Karai's relationship with her. Never knowing her but still loving her and wishing she was here. Carrying her with them.

If Shen was in the End Time, you can not tell me she would not have called them, her sons and say she was very proud of them and Karai.

I can see Leo apologizing to her, feeling a lot of guilt. Raph only staring at her, unsure of what to say and Shen helping him with that. Donnie trying to explain their reasonings even though he felt like no reason would be good enough. Mikey hugging her while crying. Shen giving Karai a piece of wisdom that she could carry with her always.

I would have loved to see that and Shen telling them that she was happy to give her life, for her children, like any real mother would.

[clanofjones]

Ghosts of Our Days: Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen: A Vigilante's Guide to Love and Murder

A/N: Aka... "Ouch, My Feels": The Chapter. @theosb0rnway and I peaked here in my opinion.

Enjoy the chapter!

Casey's POV

Casey had to find a bag for the head in order for it to stop dripping blood on her favorite pair of ripped skinny jeans. He hurried back to the apartment, a skip in her step, humming songs under his breath as he went. Raph would love it, she knew that, he was equally determined to destroy the Foot and Super Shredder. She unlocked the door, getting some blood on the key, before walking inside.

Drawing out his boyfriend’s name, he called: "Raphie! I've got a surprise for you!" Raph was on the ice box, to Casey’s surprise, and smiling at her and looking curiously at the bag. He sniffed and immediately wrinkled his nose.

"Oh god, how many people did you kill?? You smell AWFUL, babe! And that's sayin' something." Casey glared.

"Hey! Just one, but it was a MESS. Wanna see what I brought home as a little souvenir?" She winked and stepped closer, deliberately moving slower to piss Raph off.

"Yeah, sure, but then you need to shower, get all that shit off ya'."

"Only if ya' join me!" He smirked. Raph sighed.

"Anything for you, Case. Alright, let's see this big ol' 'surprise' you got for me."

"You're gonna love it, baby!" But before he opened the bag, however, she gave Raph a kiss, which turned into several kisses, which turned into the vigilante having to shove her boyfriend away in order to show him the surprise.

"Okay, okay, enough! Come on, let me show you!"

"Fine, but we're finishing that later."

"You know it! Alright, babe. One. Two. Three!" On three, she grabbed Karai's hair and pulled her head out of the bag. Raph screamed, scrambling back and falling on the floor, his semi-transparent leg slipping through the wall in his moment of panic. He turned away from Casey, trying to calm himself down, but it wasn't working.

"Raph? Babe? I know she's a little scary, I'm sorry-"

"What the fuck, Casey. I... I told you m-my family w-was OFF LIMITS." Casey looked at him confused, putting Karai's head down and sliding down next to him.

"Whaddya mean? She's not family, Raphie, she's Foot! Shredder's second in command!"

"She's my FUCKING SISTER, IDIOT." Casey reached out to put a hand on Raph's shell, but he growled and kept himself turned away. She was in disbelief. Karai wasn’t Raph's sister, was she? That couldn't be right.

"Raph, you're crazy, Karai isn't yer sister, alright-"

"YES, SHE IS! Hamato Karai! Or Miwa! WHATEVER!" He scoffed.

"It doesn't matter now, she's dead. Just like everyone else who crosses your fucking path." He stood up.

"Including ME." Casey's eyes widened, then turned into a glare.

"F— Fuck you, Raph. YOU KNOW WHAT, FUCK YOU!!" She lifted his hands up to the sky.

"You never said bullSHIT about her being your sister, and Splinter spews bullshit like that all the time, so how the FUCK-"

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MY FATHER THAT WAY!" Casey thought for a second and laughed.

"You remember that hockey thing I talked about when you asked me what my favorite team was or some shit? The Rat Trick? Well, guess what? Scott Mellanby found a rat in the locker room, so he killed the stupid thing with his stick. HE KILLED THE FUCKIN' RAT, RAPHAEL!!"

Raph screamed, launching himself at Casey, but he ran right through her.

Casey chuckled quietly, still in mild disbelief that this was even happening. Not just the fact that Raph was angry, or that Karai was angry, but that he was fighting with the ghost of her own boyfriend, something that should not even be remotely possible.

Raph was insulted. Casey, on her unwavering quest to avenge him and kill Super Shredder, had done just the opposite. He went out and killed his sister, beheaded her, came home covered in her blood, and thought that he would be okay with that.

He wanted to yell, scream, break down, and cry, but more than that, he just wanted to leave. He wanted to go home, see his family again, and be far away from the man he thought was his forever. The man he thought kept her promises. Turns out that was the biggest lie he ever fell for.

"I'm leaving."

"What?"

"You fuckin' heard me. I'm goin' home, away from all this shit, away from you and your stupid fucking one-woman crusade!"

"FINE! Go! Do whatever the fuck you want, not like you were ever tied here or anything! Not like I asked for this shit either!" They gave each other one last look from across the room, one of hurt and longing, wanting this all to be solved, but it couldn't be. Then Raph scoffed and walked right through the door, leaving Casey alone with the ice box, the plans, and Karai's horrified head still lying sideways on the floor.

"Hey babe, those weird losers above us just broke up-" Casey dropped down on the ground and screamed

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, ASSHOLE!!"

There was no more noise from downstairs after that.

Later that night, after all the blood had been cleaned up and Casey had very reluctantly taken a shower by himself, she lay on the ice box in disbelief.

What the hell was he thinking? Raph wasn’t out there, that was just an illusion that had eaten away at his brain! Raph was in the ice box, safe and sound. Well, rotting slowly, but still safe and sound. He kept that thought in the front of her mind, shoving all the other thoughts away and burying them deep down.

She had to focus on Shredder. After all, it's what Raphie would've wanted.

April’s POV

The occupancy of the Lair was at an all-time high, whilst morale was at an all-time low.

With over twenty New Foot Clan members, they were pressed for space, resulting in the dojo being jam-packed with the humans and their bedding, with the actual corridors of the sewers also home to a few.

April was under the impression that they had drawn up a rotation for who was to sleep outside each night.

Shinigami had only made herself known when the time came to speak to the Foot members and holed herself away almost all other hours. Although, to her credit, April recalled, she had allowed herself to be around April and the turtles.

Speaking of the turtles, Leo had taken on Karai’s role to an extent, helping Shinigami to manage all of them. Mikey had been on culinary duty, with the Foot members who knew how to cook, which was a decent amount, and, suffice it to say, they had been eating much healthier and fulfilling meals than smoothies, despite the glaring need for a grocery run. Donnie, on the other hand, had returned his focus to the hunt for Skullshot, much quicker than April would have liked.

(“He killed Karai, April. We have to go after him now.”

“I know, Donnie. But what the hell are we supposed to do with the Foot?”

“Not our problem. They chose to come here.”

“Shini asked them to.”

“Then it’s her and Leo’s problem!”)

April herself had spent a decent portion of her free time with Aria. The kunoichi in training was April’s age, and April couldn’t fathom how she’d never noticed her before. Granted, Aria had only recently begun in April’s school district, but nonetheless.

“How’d you join the Foot? I haven’t, like, fought you yet, have I?”

“No, I think I’d remember if you did. You’re not exactly forgettable.”

April felt a faint blush rise on her face, even if it wasn’t meant to be taken in such a way.

“But no, I didn’t join Oroku Saki’s Foot Clan. That one is a little too ‘eek’ for my tastes. Besides, not like he’d take me even if I was that stupid to want to join his cult.” Aria brought one foot up, her knee bent, and slung an arm over it. “Like, yikes, my dude.”

At that, April laughed. “Imagine staring down Shredder and saying that.”

“I would! I’d look at him, hopefully not die, and — have you seen him lately? Man is freaking nightmare fuel by now, and he ain’t getting better — and I’d go like this—” she hissed through her teeth with something resembling sympathy, and said: “‘Yikes, my dude. Take a chill pill. Or two. Or ten!’ And, like, yeah, sure, he’d try and kill me, but nobody has told him to take it down a couple of notches! Ever. It’s always ‘Oh, you tried to kill me? Me?? No! Fuck you! Die, you spikey bitch!’ And, yeah, that needs to be said too, but c’mon, man.”

April laughed again, and leaned back, her arms supporting her. She watched Aria and caught her watching her right back, and they both glanced away as if neither had been staring at all.

----

April talked to Aria a lot, to say the least. More than she did Donnie, but Donnie was growing increasingly difficult to talk to.

“How are you handling it?”

“What’s there to handle? There’s just adjusting.” Aria frowned, and April sat up straighter. “I— There’s nothing that can actually be done. One of my Sensei’s is dead. That’s that. We just need to make sure we stay on top.”

April thought she was being rather simple about the whole thing. There were emotions attached to loss, such as the ones she had displayed so viscerally when Leo and Shini had delivered the initial news.

“All we can do now is get revenge on the asshole that killed her. And that’s me being generous.”

April’s frown deepened. Something — completely unrelated to her powers, Donnie — was telling her that avenging Karai wasn’t going to solve much of anything. Not that she even knew where to find Skullshot if it even was their only option. The guy seemed to pop up out of nowhere, randomly, every time looking more and more like a Bizarro version of Casey Jones.

A short, stiff silence that had April twisting the hem of her T-shirt in her hand followed swiftly.

----

“So…” April began, and Aria looked at her, barely raising her head. “You never told me how you got into the Foot.”

Aria breathed out a soft laugh. “Yeah, yeah. Can’t keep anything from you, can I?”

April bristled cautiously, wondering if she’d gone too far.

“Dude, don’t worry, it’s fine. Nothing particularly traumatizing.” Aria readjusted her posture. “So, this is a little after the New Foot gets started up, yeah?”

April nodded.

“So, you guys seem to absolutely LOVE the alley that my window faces, and I see mystery ninjas all the time! Eventually, I said to myself, ‘What on Earth is up with these ninjas?’ and followed the New Foot for a bit.”

“How come they didn’t find you?”

“You guys aren’t as sneaky as you all think you are. You’re all loud as hell. I followed on the ground from a bit away and almost got caught a few times, but I think they thought I was a cat.

“I got caught for real when I was getting in. Or, trying to, I guess. I got caught in a bunch of old ropes and this flimsy ol’ ladder broke on me. Believe it or not, Karai didn’t have me leave, or killed or whatever. She had me interrogated but told me it was impressive I’d snuck up on them, and if I’d like a job in the Foot.”

“Just like that?”

Aria shrugged. “I don't think she would have been as forgiving if the New Foot hadn’t lost a ton of people after the incidents at Auman Chemicals, and all that. Either way, they needed recruits, I don’t think anyone was crazy about making the trek back to Japan.”

April frowned. “Well, I think you’ll be a great kunoichi.”

Aria looked at her and smiled. “Thanks. I was really nervous when I started, and then I didn’t even know about Oroku Saki. Not really, you know.”

“First-day jitters?”

“‘Everyday Fear of Ostracization’ is more like it. I was just lucky Sensei took something of a liking to me. Something about ‘all walks of life’ when I asked her.” she shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you.”

April leaned a little closer, keeping her eyes on Aria to watch for any adverse reactions. “Well, I’m glad she did.”

“Thanks, April.”

Aria looked up at April suddenly, and her eyes widened for a fraction of a second. Then her eyes softened, the edges crinkling a bit as she smiled.

----

“She told me stories about you,” Aria said, one day.

“No kidding?”

The girls were in the kitchen of the Lair, having been tasked with coming up with a meal while Leo dragged Mikey off for training. So far, they had a small pile of protein bars, an ungodly amount of fruit snacks, and bread that may or may not have been alive.

“Yeah. You, Master Splinter, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello. Raphael. And Casey Jones.”

“What did she tell you about the others?”

“She said that Leonardo was one of the best ninjas she ever knew, of skill and character. She said he was at her level.”

“Truth be told, Sensei Shinigami has told me more about Michelangelo than she did. But they agreed that he was one of the kinder souls out there. Sensei Shinigami thought he was funny. With focus, he could outrank any of us easily.”

“Focus? Not our Mikey,” April laughed, not unkindly.

“Really?”

“You just haven’t met him yet. You’ll see, trust me.”

“I’ll take your word for it. If you would believe it, she told me Donatello was the smartest person she ever knew, if a little tactless.”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” April nodded at the potshot.

“She said that Raphael had the spirit of a true warrior if a little rash. I didn’t hear many stories from her after the attack on Wolf Hotel, but I don’t think she was surprised he was injured. I think she knew he had it coming, one way or another. She also said he had a hell of a trash mouth.”

April laughed into her hand. “Well, she wasn’t wrong. That’s Raph for ya’.”

“Master Splinter… My Sensei never told me much about her, but what she did tell me was always positive. She said that only the most skilled of ninjas could have taught the turtles and that he was a lot of things, but inept was never one of them.”

April looked down and nodded. “Maybe it’s for the best that you never knew him. There’s been enough heartache already.”

“He was like my Sensei to you, huh?”

“I guess so.”

A beat of silence passed between them.

“What did Karai tell you about Casey?”

Aria’s shoulders bobbed up and down with silent laughter. “Jones… Sensei told me that Jones was always the most likely to kill a man with a smile. You know, in a good way.”

April smiled, her fears not completely dashed. “Here's hoping that serves him well.”

“You haven’t heard anything?”

“No. The closest thing has just been that Skullshot wacko.”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“Do… What do you think? What do you think happened?”

“You’d know if Shredder got them, yeah? If anything’s happened to them, then some random guys off the street got them. Or the government. They could also be on the run.”

“One of them got stabbed before they ran. I don’t think Casey knows much about first-aid, but Raph could probably fix it up if they had the supplies. They could've bled out, or they could be dead, and we never would have known.”

Now it was Aria’s turn to have nothing to say on that. She looked down and fiddled with her hair, and the two girls continued regaling the other with tales of the past.

----

April hadn’t seen Aria all day.

All day turned into two days.

Two days became a week.

Distantly, April wondered if she had found Casey and Raph.

Or maybe, as cynical as it may be, she had met the same fate as them, and April would yet again lose everything she had fought so hard to keep.

A/N: Ah, yes. My four-course meal of pain which I co-cook and then throw at your faces as hard as possible.

I'll link everything later. It's 10:30 over here and I am exhausted.

[turtles-n--cats]

Warriors AU: 2012 gang pt2

Finally finished enough of the 2012 characters to make a decent part two

With this we’ll finish the last of the siblings, and a few others. There is some mention of a couple OCs in this post. I have a handful I've tossed into this au of mine, and I’ll share all of them in their own post later

As before, we’ve got a long post, so all can be found under the cut, and once again Credit for the bases used goes to Rockyspotted on deviantART

Karai, aka Viperpaw: Her name is a reference to her mutation in the show. Seeing as how no one is getting mutated in this au, the name will have to do. She’s a dark silver classic tabby with gold eyes. 

Originally named “Harmonykit”, and Splinter’s first-born, Viperpaw was stolen along with her younger brother Bravepaw(Leo). While Bravepaw was recovered, She was presumed lost along with her mother. She was raised never knowing the truth, brought up to despise her birth father and his clan. Her mentor in nightclan is 2012 Tigerclaw, who is still named Tigerclaw. (they do not get along)

Casey Jones, aka “Casey” or “Wolfpaw“: Casey’s nothing if not loyal (and a fair bit impulsive) in the show. Wolves are epitome of loyalty. He’s a black ghost ticked tabby with a white mask marking on his face, and brown eyes. He’s surprisingly big for his age

Casey’s a former kittypet who’s currently on trial as a warrior apprentice in Sunclan after then found him holding his own against a fully trained Nightclan warrior. His mentor is Fennecfur (the Bayverse version of one of my OCs)

April O’Niel, aka “April” or “Leopardpaw”: Her name was pretty much just based on appearance, though a little on how her temper is occasionally like a raging wildcat. She’s brown-ish orange marbled bengal cat with blue eyes

Much like Casey, April is currently a trial-apprentice in Sunclan. Her father was forcibly recruited by a gang of terrifying cats roaming the twoleg place calling themselves the “Krang Gang”, and who’ve been kidnapping kittypets from their yards. Her friend Casey told her about the clan cats thinking maybe they could help her. She currently still stays in the twoleg place at night. Her mentor is 03 April, aka Dawnpelt

And lastly we got a lil bonus for you: Tang Shen, aka “Spiritpond”: I did a lil research on the meaning of her name, and ended up having to look up each word of her name individually. The name Tang means “soup” or “hot water”, and Shen means “Spiritual” or “deepthinking”. A pond is technically soup if you think about it, so her name is “Spiritpond”. It also, in this case, has a double meaning cause she’s dead.  She’s a silver lynx-point tabby, like Leo, though her points are a touch darker in color than his, and her eyes a deeper blue.

She died trying to rescue her daughter from Poppystrike/2012 Shredder, She currently spends most of her time watching over her kits from starclan, occasionally walking among them as a ghost, not that they can see her.

[l-art-stuff-l]

wait whaaaat okay im so intrigued by your tmnt iteration what do you meeean they lost venus 😭😭

❓What happened to Venus? Is she still alive?

❓Why is your iteration called Revolution?

❓What's the age order of the turtles?

Since you mentioned Splinter let them chose their own pronouns: 🏳️‍⚧️ What are the turtles' genders?

❓️What is Karai's relationship like with the turtles?

❓️How often does Renet show up? Do you have any time travel adventures planned yet?

❓️What happened to Hamato Yoshi after he broke Splinter and the turtles out of the testing facility?

feel free to skip any of these if they're like spoilers or something <3 im just so curious now lmao

hi tumblr never showed me this ask? sorry it’s been like *checks date* two weeks 😭

what happened to Venus? is she still alive?

worry not, Venus is alive and well! they actually got separated from the others when they were little kids, and they showed back up around the time Raph turned 14. she went through some shit

why is your iteration called Revolution?

to be honest i just looked up words that were synonymous with change. i chose revolution since it could be interpreted as “revolt” or “revolve”. will you break the cycle or continue it?

under the cut since it’s a bit long

what’s the age order of the turtles?

using Raph as a baseline, since he’s the youngest. ages for when the story would start

Raph is 14 years old, Donnie 14 years and 10 months, Venus is 15 years and 8 months, Leo and Mikey are 16 years and 4 months. guess which twin is older

what are the turtles’ genders?

Raph is bigender, he/she. Donnie is demigender, it/they/he. Venus is agender, she/they. Mikey is genderfluid, he/she/they/it alternating

Leo is going to be a trans girl, but it’s going to be a later realization. Leo does identify with being a boy for the majority of her life, so if i’m talking about Leo prior to the egg-cracking it will be with he/him. after the egg-cracking Leo will be using exclusively she/her

+ bonus others! Splinter is pretty pronoun apathetic but since everyone at the lab would use he/him or it/its those are the ones it’s most used to and therefore most comfortable with. Casey is a turigirl, static gender but changing pronouns (he/him some days, she/her others, sometimes both). April does not care whatsoever, so she/her is the default except for when it’s funny or convenient. Renet is genderqueer probably, uses zi/zir and ae/aer. Irma is a cis girl, she/her. Timothy is a trans boy, he/him

what is karais relationship like with the turtles?

this is the one i had the most trouble putting into words. at the start, karai acted pretty antagonistic towards them. it was kinda her job. i want her to be like 03 karai before she gets mutated, where she’s flip-flopping back and forth between her sense of honor and her loyalty to her father. in revolution, it’s venus that insists on giving karai another chance instead of leo. they know what it’s like to be torn between morality and loyalty. after getting mutated, karai and the turtles eventually start getting along for more than a few hours. i want them to be friends by the end of the story. they still don’t quite see eye to eye on a lot of stuff, but they trust each other. if the turtles need to do anything shadier than they’re used to, they go to karai for help. if karai, for any reason, has to part with with her snake skin, the only people she trusts to look after it are the turtles

how often does renet show up? do you have any time travel adventures planned yet?

Renet shows up a lot, since ae kinda sorta get stuck in the turtles’ time for around half a year. i’ve been thinking of having a short time loop arc, where the turtles + friends are each stuck in individual time loops that take place during influential moments in their lives. to get out of their loops, each person has to get a piece of something (crystal? mechanism?) for them to put back together to break the loops. the time scepter is also a catalyst for a pretty devastating event ;)

what happened to Hamato Yoshi after he broke Splinter and the turtles out of the testing facility?

he lays low, for a while. he hides Splinter and the turtles, teaches them what he can about the outside world, how to read and write and speak (in english and japanese), and he starts teaching them how to defend themselves. given the reason Splinter and the turtles were mutated… it’s no wonder they get a grasp on it all so quickly. especially the fighting. Yoshi isn’t as young and strong as he used to be, and he’s a bit paranoid (for good reason), so he makes sure there’s escape plans if anyone finds them, safe spots to hide in, books and videos about martial arts and parenting and survival for Splinter

i’m still not sure how long he manages to hide them, but eventually he gets found out. Splinter and the turtles manage to escape, but… Yoshi doesn’t. it’s a fairly quick death, at least. that’s also when Venus gets separated from the others. the turtles consider him a grandfather of sorts

[calina12]

ROTTMNT Movie: Why Cassandra’s absence unnecessarily hurt their characters and the Mother-Son narrative on several layers.

I’m gonna be really honest here, I do not understand why Cassandra had to be almost entirely cut out of the movie. Baron Draxum for example and other Rise exclusive characters being held back, because Nickelodeon wanted the movie to be as watchable even for Turtle fans not familiar with the changes Rise made? That I get.

But there is no reason to exclude Cassandra too, the same rules do not apply to her and Rise was very much aware of that and played it to their advantage in the show.

Because one of the main reasons why having introduced and keeping her for so long as nameless “Foot recruit”, only to drop the Casey Jones twist right at the end, worked as well as it did WAS because the narrative deliberately played with the fans assumption for her to be KARAI. They cleverly never denied it but also never pretended like she was, so when then in s2 we met the actual Rise Karai we kinda got the rug pulled from under our feet but at the same time.. not at all.

We assumed she’d be Karai, but in retrospective its easy enough to accept that this assumption was on US. Not every mayor foot clan female character automatically HAS to be Karai.

So we met the real Karai, which took down the first barrier for Cassandras reveal, and this opened up the opportunity later on when we hear her stating her name to go: “Huh, right. Why DID I expect for her to not have a legit name besides Foot recruit? Of course she would have a fucking name! And she’s been an absolute ball of chaos and stubbornness the ENTIRE time, her having been Rise Casey Jones the entire time actually checks out.. surprisingly well enough. Damn!”

The show had this entire narrative spiel, cleverly playing with the fans assumptions, to make it easier for everyone to accept and love this “new” female character. So literally, why the hell was she cut out of the movie? Just do the same thing on a smaller scale.

People who are unfamiliar with Rise and her identity would have once again automatically assumed she is Karai. Just do the name trick again and they’d been good to include her at least somewhat in the movie as long as she and Casey are kept apart until Casey drops the bomb in the end. She wouldn’t even have to be there for it either; play the ending the same as it happened in the movie we got, but INCLUDE HER in the plot. Even if it obviously cant be to a large extent, but still.

One moment I especially liked in the Movie was when Casey told the horrifying doomsday story he heard as a child. And while the moment of course also works on itsown, I like how there is a not at all far-fetched interpretation hidden here that it wasn’t actually a cultural thing to pass down the story of the event like THIS, since the story’s wording resemble Cassandra’s speech pattern ALOT:

Disclaimer: I’m not saying Cassandra deliberately traumatized her own son or that the concept of it is somehow funny. I am NOT.

So even if Cassandra had only been allowed to be part of a subplot, so she and her son Casey dont met for the end reveal, it actually would have been fine by me. I would have gotten the story reason behind it and that when Cassandra has the Rise show for herself its fine to give her son the bigger role in the movie while she has a subplot. Especially with one or two more scenes like the above so the viewers can connect even more details about him to them ACTIVELY having had a dynamic in the future. Then yeah, I’d be 100% cool and down with that.

But simply not with the way the final version of the movie went about it, no matter whose fault that is.

Cassandra is a major representing character of the Rise show, she should have been there. And you straight up had the most picture-perfect narrative deception with the is-she-Karai?-thing you already successfully pulled off in the show for a similar enough Casey Jones related reveal – just fucking do it again, please! What was the issue here??

There are even more narrative issues that her absence creates in my eyes regarding the existence of the male Casey Jones now. But not in the sense that I think he isnt supposed to exist, but in the sense that so. much. narrative disconnection between them right now was most likely not EVER supposed to be created. It even had the potential to literally fix almost everything from my perspective :/

So let me talk about boy-Casey and his role in the movie for a sec.

(Oh, but first: His design is damn GREAT! This crew knows how to (re)design these characters <3)

Casey himself in the movie as a character has honestly nothing for me to criticize on. The only thing I would normally bring up regarding his personality here is the fact that this version of Casey has lost most of his usual edge and spunk, which he is normally characterized with in the TMNT franchise. But truth be told, its not that big of a deal.

Casey Jones serves very well as the new self-insert character the viewer can hold onto and explore the journey with. He is mostly the straight-man deuteragonist paired up with Leo as one of the two main vehicles of the narrative (the first two characters we see in the movie), so Leo doesn’t have to give up his flawed Rise-personality as the main character now in the movie so HIS plot and character arc works. This is very well done, and for all it is its nice that they decided to go with a character Turtle fans are already familiar with but also one who hasn’t been part if this shows universe.. in the form we see him here (more on that in a bit).

This is actually a great choice being made here, because it simply means the crew once again KNEW that by using a well known character of this franchises long history they can use a trick to 1) save important time they would have otherwise needed to “waste” on introducing us to an unnecessarily completely new character for this movie; and 2) they also wouldn’t have to give an already well-established Rise character the straight-man treatment out of the sudden, which would have stripped them off their personality just for Leo’s sake.

Look, this Casey is nothing too special character wise. That isn’t actual criticism or character bashing, that’s his role as a narrative tool. His purpose is to be kinda…well.. bland and generic so the actual Rise characters don’t have to be. Although, wait. I want to point out one moment!

First time watching this movie in English (I normally watch it for the most part in German, my native language. Awesome Dub) I LEGIT lost my shit at how fucking DISGUSTED Casey sounded for this line. Its so brutal and I love it. This scene in general gave Casey a lot of needed edge even as the straight-man. But DUDE. I did NOT expect him to just verbally murder Leonardo right here. A+ voice acting. Haley Joel Osment, Sir, chapeau. xD

I like the cleverness in how the writers used boy Casey Jones’ character with and I honestly came around to respect it a lot more than I initially expected. He does not really have alot of the core character traits that the Casey Jones character normally is characterized with (just enough to get by), but theoretically speaking these specific circumstances totally would have allowed to just give this exception a free pass.

Its fine.

But

This is unfortunately where we come back to Cassandra Jones. Because fact is: Cassandra is a well established character in the Rise universe, she WAS officially stated to be this shows version of Casey Jones and she was even acknowledged, by her SON Casey, while the movie shows pictures of her showing off her personality.

And it is this acknowledgment of her, ESPECIALLY when you take her personality into concideration (which the movie DID through the following photos), that I have a gripe with.

Because buddy, that right HERE was the fucking solution to new boy-Casey Jones having to sacrifice most of his usual brunt personality traits for the narratives sake. His MOTHER, Cassandra Jones: This universes actual version of Casey; was running around showing off the exact character traits her son COULDN’T HAVE: Brash, chaotic, rude, loud and impulsive.

If BOTH had been characters in the movie they would have filled in the narrative “shortcommings” for the each other (you know how I mean this), creating a perfectly round Jones picture. THIS is allowed in story telling - even encouraged when done properly, to naturally expand a character’s identity or family. And the way it could have had been executed in the movie through this mother-son pair I would have applauded with a standing ovation for at least a solid month.

NOT having Cassandra in the movie was a WASTE on more than one mere level.

So I’m asking AGAIN: What excuse is there for Cassandra to not be included? Because in my eyes it gets harder and harder to find any other reason for Cass’ exclusion than higher up executives simply demanding it out of sexist reasons.

Rise’s Mother-and-Son-Jones pair literally would have had created a honestly remarkably well executed BRIDGE to expand the Casey Jones character in a way that would have 1) taken care of the criticisms Cassandra’s character reveal has received, and 2) created a solid opportunity through an ON SCREEN STORY with both of these Casey’s here, that would have increased the chances of Cassandra’s character being taken over to future TMNT incarnations.

Because Rise would (and to be fair, DID, but only to lesser degrees now) established her as a flexible JONES character that can be both: CASEY Jones and CASSANDRA Jones; his mother who has her own personality, function and PLACE in the TMNT story: The Foot Clan.

This wasnt just GOOD for her character, that was fucking brilliant!

I truly understand that there are Cassandra fans who are justifiably upset that this movie took away the ballsy milestone of insisting that “No, the Rise Casey Jones is this unique and very different FEMALE character.” The movie indeed caused damage here as one can VERY clearly see in the rottmnt tags. Cassandra has been replaced as the Rise Casey for the standard one for ALOT of fans (not even necessarily with malicious intentions) and certainly the fact that she has not been part of the movie AT ALL “in person” made this divide much bigger than it ever should have become. I mean, damn, quite alot of people dont even includer her in the picture of his present FAMILY. Thats his MOTHER and the teams friend!

Cassandra fans are allowed to be pissed about that. And before the movie aired, I definitely was one of them who didnt wanted the classic Casey there at all. 

But now looking at the narrative puzzle pieces I have in front of me? I did change my mind, because I will be real – Yes, I make a lot of theorise and I like analysing and figuring out narrative/plot potential but the Cassandra & Casey stuff in Rise just checks out WAY too well for me. Looking at it on a broader scale I don’t want to give my train of thought here unnecessary discredit by only making it into a complaint.

The Rise show has proven time and time again that they truly LOVE this franchise and these characters, and that they DO know what they are doing. They are unfortunately often held back by instructions they have been given by their higher ups. As convenient of an excuse as that may sound like…buddy, that’s how it is. You think creators have free reign??

For me personally, THIS is how I see and accept the Cassandra-Casey situation in Rise. As a genuine (and honestly clever as fuck) attempt from the creators to not only massively expand the Casey Jones character into completely new directions for the future - because let me make one thing clear: if there has always been ONE major character in the franchise, who has the most potential in the way they COULD be used through their loose-footing in the TMNT’s core story and cast, ITS CASEY JONES -

It was also one HELL of a risk being taken to play the long-game and basically manipulate your audience TWICE using their expectations regarding her, to be able to open the door for Casey in future instalments to also have Cassandra as a rounded and liked MOTHER character. A character who can even come back unrelated to the male Casey Jones character or AS Casey Jones herself.

I can fuck with that in respect.

(Gosh, look at them, this is so GOOD! I’m so damn mad about this, dont touch me)

I only wished that Cassandra could have had properly been IN the Rise movie to really cement her as a this flexible character option for the future. Because unfortunately it IS quite an important factor to SEE and FEEL Cassandra and Casey at least SOMEWHAT together on the story screen. To properly make that narrative connection as a viewer so the story possibilities, implications, differences but most importantly CONNECTIONS of the two character variations can actually be truly TAKEN IN.

For all it is right now, these ARE open doors future incarnations can use however they want.. but its more on PAPER/ in the subtext than straight up explored on screen for the fans to connect and get attached to for real (I mean I did get attached as hell to their potential Mother-Son dynamic, but I’m well aware the way I consume media doesnt exactly represent the general masses lol)

I hope with all of my heart that Rise gets a season 3 because of this movie just for Cassandras sake alone. I WANT that Rise gets the necessary chance to properly use Cassandra as both: the Casey Jones character (since she IS still stated to be the official Rise Casey) AND as her own character Cassandra Jones, boy Casey’s mother who was originally part of the Foot Clan.

Make her the best of both worlds, even if it costed Rise the milestone of having a straight up exclusively female Casey Jones. The long-term possibilities for Cassandra to have higher chances of RETURNING in other incarnations- so for her character to survive longer than just being in Rise- are just too damn good to pass on. THIS I can fucking respect.

But FUCK whoever forbit the crew to include Cassandra in the Rise movie when there where SO MANY (even just straight up LOGICAL narrative/plot) reasons for her to be there.

I refuse to believe that this is a coincidence. That the one time Casey Jones is used as a straight-man character who lacks his signature roughness it just so happens to be in the one version where a second (already established) Casey Jones (the creators had to fight for) is running around. Who HAS the exact personality traits he was stripped off and who happens to be his MOTHER who can surprisingly still very much stand alone as her OWN character even WITH her son around…

I’m not buying this bullshit. There was one hell of a long-term plan here by the crew and some asshole in power said “no”.

And THIS I’m criticizing. Not Cassandra. Not Casey.

THIS bullshit.

[misteria247]

Okay— so!

I like the Oroku sibs thing you have going on it's just so sweet and aofnoenfoent

Idk if i havent seen it but is Raph the leader instead? Since i think it would fall on him without leo being there. What would his leadership be like? Wr know how his time being the leader ended up with, so how does he cope?

And if there's no leader, i just think they work together, with Raph callong the shots when it comes to fighting, Donnie caing the shots when it comes to important science stuff, and mikey calling the shots when it comes to interacting with new people.

ALSO ALSO SORRY FOR ASKING A LOT BUT

Would Karai still be a snake? Would Leo be thrown in the mutagen with her?

And What would the space arc look like? Would karai join in?

That's all, sorry if the asks the a lot rkfjt

Hello my friend! First off don't apologize for all the questions! I like answering them whenever I can and it's always nice to interact with everyone!! Second off sgsgsfsfsfsf I'm glad you're enjoying the Oroku siblings, they're literally are becoming my children at this point and it's just such a fun concept to play around with and knowing that others like em as well makes me super happy!! Now onwards to your questions-!!!!

Hmmm to be completely honest with you I've actually been thinking about the whole leader thing for this au and one of those thoughts for a possible leader was surprisingly enough Donnie. While I adore Raph to bits and pieces and he'd make a great leader, I also know that my boy is a passionate turtle who sometimes goes head first into things without really planning. And Mikey, while talented and a prodigy, can also be a bit spaced out and off the ball sometimes when it comes to leadership. Donnie on the other hand likes to plan things and when he's not completely stressed out he's pretty good in the strategy department. So going based on this logic if anything plus thinking about how Splinter chose Leo in the original series because of his quick thinking, he'd probably go with Donnie. That and personally I think it'd be an interesting idea to play around with since we've already seen Raph be the leader in Rise and in that one episode of 12. But I'm also thinking about just making all the boys have a say in leadership as well. Honestly it's got so many things that it could go and I'm just playing around with what would fit best! As for how he'd cope Raph would probably be very much like he was in the show only instead he'll be much more willing to intervene in Donnie's leadership role whenever he feels like something's not done right or he feels like his little brother is in need of guidance or assistance.

Ah yes Snake Karai! Honestly she'll still get turned into a snake mutant! It'll just be under different circumstances than the original ones in the show! I just have to figure it out better. I've got an idea of Karai getting caught by the Shredder to be used as a pawning chip to lure both Leo and Splinter out of hiding, only for it to not go according to his plans. I've got to plan it out more for it to make sense lol. It'd basically be an opening for Leo to bond with his original family and clan on a one on one type of ordeal, plus give him a chance to grow to be his own person away from Karai somewhat. Since Leo his entire life has been trained to be her bodyguard and in a way doesn't really feel like he has a sense of purpose other than to protect his older sister. Which is something that drives Karai nuts because she wants him to be able to feel like he has a choice in what his destiny should be instead of the lessons their ex master and father Shredder had drilled into him. Plus Karai's character growth would take place in the five months her little brother is in his coma since she's always been by her little brother's side since she was five and he was four.

As for the Space arc yes most definitely Karai would be joining the Hamato kids, April and Casey on their journey. Mainly to help protect Leo and her new little brothers as well as trying to save their father and planet. Basically wherever Leo goes, Karai is sure to follow and vice versa. It's one of the reasons why they're called the Princess of the Foot clan and the Shadow of the Foot clan because they're rarely seen without the other attached to their hip. And if it's something as dangerous as a journey to outer space with a android and several new alien species out there, you can bet that Big Sister Karai is definitely going to be tagging along with her little brother who seems to be a magnet for trouble on a good day. (That and the thought of letting Leo go alone on a journey like this fills Karai with a shit ton of anxiety. Because the last times Leo had been left alone without her had been when he was about six years old and had been seen by a villager who attacked him with field equipment giving him a nasty scar on his arm, and when he was about fifteen years old when the Shredder had beaten him to death and tried to drown him, resulting in a ruined knee, a wicked cracked scar on the back of his shell, a scarred and ruined throat and vocal chords and a five month coma. So she's pretty paranoid about leaving him alone during dangerous missions.)

[skeleton-in-a-hoodie]

Seeing people talk about ROTTMNT/2012 crossovers is making me tempted to do a crossover between canon and ageswap at some point. If I ever did, on the ageswap end it’d propably happen when Yoshi was a teenager, somewhere between him being 14-18, but I don’t know where it’d happen in the 2012 show’s timeline.

Sticking this under a readmore cause it got longer than I expected

Like the main options are a mix between:

Season 1 - The 2012 turtles are mostly excited about a) different universe versions of themselves and b) weirded out that the ageswap turtles are Yoshi’s uncles, not sons. Also the second Yoshi mentions being friends with Tang Shen, the boys are ready to be wingmen. This is not mentioning Splinter’s reaction to Yoshi, a semi-feral rat child who would happily fist fight a god, or Yoshi’s reaction to him. April also gets to meet an alternate version of her mum that isn’t secretly John Carpenter’s Thing. Wins all around.

Season 2 - no one leave ageswap Yoshi, Shadow, Casey, and Mikey alone. They will cause chaos together and the only way to stop them will be to grab the Ageswap turts and Splinter.

Farmhouse arc - the Turtles, April and Casey have been through hell, Leo’s just out a coma and New York is a Kraang infested mess. Ageswap Yoshi picked up Uncle Leo and Raph’s mothering tendancies and is the team dad of his own group, so there’s a none zero chance he’d be a mother hen. Properly the worst time for Mayday to interact with the 2012 team. Shadow would be the only one having a good time.

Post season 4 - the 2012 gang are properly going to cry right off the bat, then get super protective of Yoshi. Like you stay in the Lair where it’s safe... and good luck to them with that, Yoshi also has Raph’s temper mixed with Leo’s sense of self preservation. Yoshi would not know how to react with Karai, like that’s his mum/not mum and he’s her dad/not dad.

[obsidiancreates]

The Deadly Venom Liveblog

Wait, what? Karai is human again? Offscreen? Oh god they whiffed it...

EWWWW BRAIN WORM

God I love that Rocksteady is so happy to be named Rocksteady. Love him.

Wait so she's still a snake, but also not? This is why we don't do these offscreen.

I feel none of the tension they were hoping I'd feel... probably because... THEY DID ALL THE IMPORTANT SHIT OFFSCREEN

At least I have the bop of the theme song to soothe me

Is Leo doing really well, or is Splinter sick?

Okay yeah Splinter is still wounded.

Splinter was more fun in the first two seasons.

Oh okay he has magic. Yeah okay "technique" motherfucker that's a spell.

Casey I love you sweetie but you're ignoring April again. Are you ADHD as well? He might be ADHD as well.

Does her dad not like Casey?

Oh We In A Nightmare]OH SHE GOT POISONED

OH FUCK THAT BITE IS NASTY AND TERRIBLE

Casey why are you beatboxing to yourself while on patrol

YAY RETURN OF THE BIKE YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS RETURN OF THE WAR BIKEEEEEEEEE

HE HAS MISSILES ON THE BIKE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Not only is he beatboxing, he's using his own name as the lyric.

Awwww Casey was trying to make friends! Oh he'll never get an alternative-style friend in Karai now after thi- ASK EHR OUT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!]Oh no! Casey's gonna get bit!

KISSED?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

WHAT IS THIS I HATED ALL OF THAT

Why the hell did Kirby bring April to The Turtles by the way? Oh good he agrees

ONCE AGAIN DONNIE HAS TO DO A LITERAL MIRACLE CURE ALL BY HIMSELF WITH TONS OF PRESSURE ON HIM TO HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS

Sorry was Mikey about to suck Casey's butt. Okay who let the perverts write this episode?

WAIT LOL KIRBY IS ONLY AS TALL AS DONNIE HE'S ONLY 5 FOOT 6 INCHES THAT'S SO FUNNY TO ME oh no he's a little taller nevermind

KIRBY LEAVE DONNIE ALONE HE'S 16-17 YEARS OLD IF WE GO BY 1 SEASON = 1 YEAR AND HE'S ONLY 15 IF WE GO BY THE TIMELINE THE SHOW INSISTS ON I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU'RE PANICKING ABOUT POSSIBLY LOSING YOUR DAUGHTER BUT STRESSING OUT THE ALREADY STRESSED TEENAGE BOY ISN'T GOING TO HELP HER

Yeah no this is just- this is just magic. This is spells. Splinter can do magic now.

Oh no, did they get bit in the water? Is there venom in the water? Why do they feel sick?

OH DONNIE IS A PINEAPPLE HEAD. HE STAYED AS ONE FOR THAT WHOLE RUNNING SHOT

Girl your venom is OP

OH GOD DID DONNIE HAVE A HEART ATTACK?!?!?!?! WHAT WAS WITH THE CHEST CLUTCHING

WHY'D YOU HANG CASEY UPSIDE DOWN HOW DARE

Slow, but then, within the hour? That's pretty fast Karai.

This plot is dumb. We did villain Karai, we don't need it again. Or let her be a villain outside of Shredder if you must. But this is stale.

PFFFFFFT "April, you must defeat the venom with Willpower." "... Oh god why did I bring her to TURTLES AND A RAT-" I just love Kirby's immediate panic after Splinter said that, my thoughts exactly man

So like. The Kraang are legit just. Gone? ... That kind of sucks. It's really good when Shredder and The Kraang are both there, I think it's getting stale now because it's only Shredder. ... I miss The Kraang.

Oh look Leo got bit twice more... but he's fighting it... I'm yawning.

It's magic, Karai. This show has magic now. I guess.

Oh that was a weird choice for the punch. ... Actually this whole sequence was weird.

Kirby's having a hell of a night, man. Magic Ninja Rat Man just healed his daughter who's half interdimensional alien.

Awwww Donnie arguing in Karai's favor since she's under mind control. See this is why I hated that part where he threw the can at Casey in Casey Jones vs The Underworld, multiple episodes establish Donnie as, largely, the Bleeding Heart of the group, and yeah he has moments of exception to that but generally he's not outright cruel. But that throwing thing was so... bully-like... ugh.

Leo unlocked the Healing Spells, his Mana leveled up. Multiclassing unlocked.

[etsap123]

TMNT Next Gen-Chapter 5

     Donnie, Leo, Angel, and Raph stood around the lab desk as Casey and Mona rested their bodies. April was next to Karai, beating her heart as Donnie typed away at his keyboard.

     “Ok, so based on their blood tests and the substance found on that dart, they both seem to have been exposed to chemicals that are causing the mutagen in their bodies to become unstable.” Donnie said, pointing at his computer screen.

     “So that's why Mona, and Casey, weren't hurt by the gas. They're not mutants.” Raph said, looking towards them.

      “Yes, but the chemical itself doesn't appear to have the strength to do permanent damage, so in time the mutagen in their bodies should be able to stabilize itself.” Angel said, standing next to Donnie.

     “Well, that's a relief. How long do you think they will be out, though?” Leo asked.

     “Yeah, I can only pump her heart for so long.” April clenched her hand.

     “We're not sure, but if they manage to improve their strategy with these chemical weapons, every mutant in new york could be at risk.” Donnie said turning to Leo. 

     “We need to figure out what's behind this and take it down before things get any more dangerous. Casey, Mona, notice anything that could give us a clue to who that person was?”Leo asked, walking towards them.

     “No, they were hooded and masked, preventing us from seeing their face.” Mona said, looking down.

     The dude did have a weird symbol on his arm, though. Casey added.

     “Well, what did it look like?” Raph handed him a piece of paper.

     Casey took a pen and began to trace the symbol to the best of his memory.

     “There, that's the best I can remember. It was bright green and kinda techy.”

     Casey handed the paper to Leo.

     “Ok, let's prepare a scouting mission. We need to find this person and figure out what their plan is.”

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

     Five people sat around a table with multiple screens around them.

     “In order to carry out our extermination, we need to remove primary threats.” The one at the end of the table pulled up the bios of the turtles on a large screen.

     “They are the ones responsible for the kranngs defeat and have shown great skill in combat, so it's vital that we remove them.” He continued looking at the table.

     “On another note, the DNA drones we sent out have picked up that over the last two years, they have all bore offspring, which are sure to become a threat later.” The screen now showed the x-ray bios of the expecting mothers.

     “Sir, we need to improve our Antigen serum to increase its effectiveness, or else we won't stand a chance.” A table member added, gesturing to the screen.

     “Well how will we do that? The one coming back with mutagen got apprehended by these mutants, even when they were under the impact of the chemicals. Not to mention they're hiding somewhere our tracker isn't able to locate.”

     The man at the head of the table paused, thinking to himself.

     “Keep an eye on that tracker; we need to know at any point when they are in range.” He said, pointing at the man with a tablet in his hands.

     “And the antigen, sir?”

     The head member tapped away at the screen before him.

     “This one.” He magnified a bio on the screen.

     “April O'Neil, she has the DNA that was used to perfect the mutagen, so an altered version should be able to do the opposite.”

     The men at the table looked at each other.

     “Lucky for us.”

     The man zoomed in closer.

     We have it already altered for us.

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

   Karai's eyes fluttered open, squinting from the light above her. Her head was killing her.  She coughed, sitting up as Angel stood up next to her.

     “No, no, you need to lie down.” She tried to usher Karai onto her back.

     “What, no, I'm fine, just le-.” Karai hissed, grabbing the back of her neck, which was currently covered in gauze.

     “She's right, Karai. You need to rest. We still don't exactly know what happened, and the last thing we need is you inadvertently hurting yourself.” Donnie said, walking up next to Angel.

     Karai groaned, laying back down on the table as Leo walked into the room, holding Kiba. Angel, moving out of the way, let Leo by with their daughter in hand. Karai smiled, reaching out for Kiba to latch onto her finger.

     “You really scared us back there.” Leo said as Angel sat down next to Vine, rubbing his head.

     “I'm sorry, Leo, I don't know what happened.” She said, averting her eyes.

     “You and Vine were attacked using weapons designed to harm mutants, and you seemed to have gotten the worst of it.” Donnie said, holding a clipboard.

     “We almost lost both of you.” Angel added.

     Karai turned to face Leo, who bore a stern yet concerned expression.

     “Me and the others will be going on a scouting mission later. We will leave you, Vine, and the kids with Slash and Letherhead while we're out.” Leo said, looking over at Vine.

     “What? You and your brothers are mutants. April's a mutant. If you guys are going to head out there, at least wait so, we can help.” Karai said not bothering to hide the underlying venom in her voice.

     Leo remained silent.

     “You are not going to leave me out of this.” Karai clenched her fist.

     Leo's face fell.

     “I'm sorry, Karai, but you know it would only be more dangerous if anything were to happen.” Leo said as Kiba crawled onto the table to look at her mom.

     Karai looked to her daughter, who snuggled her head to her chest before releasing a sigh. “I hate it when your right.” She whispered.

     Leo's face softened before placing his hand to Kiba’s back.

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

     In the dojo, the baby bunch sat and played next to the bonsai tree as Raph, April, and Mikey prepped for the mission. Dakota had his hands covered in paint and smeared it across the floor as Irrilia played with the rubber bands that were rapped around a tissue box.

     Raph groaned, picking up Dakota to wash off the mess, when he noticed a familiar face on the floor. A green head with a red stripe in the middle.

     “Well, would you look at that?” Raph smiled as Dakota wiped his hands on his shell.

     With curiosity, Cody looked at the two babies lying on a blue pillow. One had a blond tuft of hair and freckles; another had sleek black hair and a beauty mark above their lip. Cody's eyes watered at the sight of the adorable creatures that huddled together under the blanket.

     April walked over to Raph as Kohanna shakily crawled up to Iris to look at the picture book in front of her.

     “We need to focus Raph. Before you know it, our hearts will be the ones that fail.” She said, sheathing her tanto blade.

     “I know that; it's just going to be hard leaving them, knowing there's always the possibility we wont come back.” Raph said, looking at the kids on the floor.

     April looked away before Mikey jumped up behind them.

     “There is no need to panic, you guys; we've dealt with situations where the world's fate was in our hands. This should be fine.” Mikey said, giving them both a squeeze.

     Raph smirked. “Thanks, Mikey.” He placed Dakota down next to Cody. “Let's go crack some skulls.”

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

     “Thanks, Letherhead. Make sure the prehensile ones don't go sneaking away.” Mikey said, handing him Mei and Ash.

     “Leatherhead smiled before looking up at his friend. I will guard them with my life, Michelangelo.”He said, pulling them closer.

     “Also, make sure Vine and Karai's vitals stay stable, and if something happens, notify us by using this new emergency feature on the Tphones.” Donnie said, showing Rockwell A small pin in the case that you pull like a grenade.

     “Will do.” Mondo said, jumping up next to them and grabbing the phone before Rockwell could take it.

     Slash walked over to Raph, weapon in hand.

     “Don't be afraid to call for backup, Raphael; the mighty mutant animals are always prepared for battle. He said, looking at his former owner.”

     “Don't worry, Slash. This is mainly a stealth mission, and we need you guys here because we don't know what we're up against.” Leo said, walking up to them.

     “Wait, so we're not fighting them?” Raph asked, crossing his arms.

     “We need to figure out what we're dealing with before we start running into battles, Raph.” Leo said, turning to his brother.

     “Yeah, for all we know, this was all just a setup to get us out looking for them.” Angel said, looking at the info she and Donnie were analyzing on her Tphone.

     “Well, that sucks. For a second, I thought we were finally gonna go on another combat mission.” Raph said, releasing a scoff.

     Leo and angel just glared at him, given the state of their loved ones, as April placed Kohana in the playpen with the other young mutants.

     “We should head out now before we lose track of time. Make sure to keep an eye out.” Leo said, placing some makibishi in a bag on his belt.

     “Yeah, let's do this!” Casey yelled, pulling out his hockey stick.

     “Mona, what street were you guys on when Karai noticed this person.” Donnie asked.

     “We were in the alley behind the channel six building. They should be under the fallen scaffolding.” She said, walking up next to Raph.

     “Then we have no time to lose. Come on, Team!” Leo urged before quickly heading out of the base with the others behind him.

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

A being cloaked with A familiar diamond pattern quickly walked into A lab. The leader was busy looking at a string of numbers on a computer, not bothering to pay them much mind. A small child was sitting on the desk beside him, playing with magnets as he turned to the member in the room.

     “Vital! We have a tracker reading! They should be somewhere within a mile radius of this address.” The member said, rushing over with a tablet.

     Vital took the screen from his hands and zoomed in on the location. He snickered, leaning back against the desk, before taking off his mask. His eyes were colored symmetrically blue and brown sticking out against his pale face.

     “Perfect.”

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

     The Hamato team lept across the city, eyes set on the building wearing the large channel six.

     “So like, what happens if the guy is actually dead from all those metal pipes that fell on him?” Mikey asked, looking at his brothers.

     “If he is dead, then good riddance. If he's not, then we force him to tell us what the heck he's doing, then kill him.” Raph said, landing on an Air Conditioning unit.

     “We're not just gonna go around killing people, Raph.” Donnie said, moving past him.

     “Yeah, what do we look like, assassins?”Casey asked, following Donnie.

     “Well technically that ones of the main things ninjas were employed for but more or less.” Angel said land next to him.

     “Man, you all are no fun.” Raph said, jumping after them.

     “There! The fallen scaffolding.” Leo said, stopping the group. “Remember, stealth mission, so don't try and do anything reckless.” He continued looking at Raph, Mikey, and Casey.

     April looked at the city floor with confusion. She wasn't sensing anyone here. The group hopped down onto the pavement before looking around. Mikey began rummaging around in curiosity as the others looked through the wreckage.

     “Doesn't seem like anyones here. Maybe they escaped somehow?” Angel turned to Leo.

     “We saw them get crushed by the rubble. If they managed to free themselves, they likely had help from others.” Mona added as Casey tossed metal behind her.

     Donnie looked at April before she began to lift and move the pipes. “Do you sense anything, April?” He asked as she concentrated her hands in front of her.

     “I don't think so, but I am getting some strange vibe.”

     “Woah, guys, look!” Mikey yelled, alerting the other's attention. Mikey grabbed the wrapped mutagen canister as the orange putty began seeping through the foil.

     “What?” Donnie walked over to Mikey. “What was this person doing with mutagen?”He questioned, grabbing it from Mikey's hands.

     “Do you think they need it for something?” Casey asked, scratching his head.

     “I'm not sure, but there's definitely something going on. I mean, what random crime syndicate goes after mutagen now?” Donnie pulled back the foil, observing the sludge that covered the item.

     “We should take this back to your lab once we're done. It's too dangerous for it to be left out here.” Leo said.

     April watched the scene with contentment as she felt herself begin to slip away.

     The echo of screams and cries made her blood run cold. Her eyes blanked as her breathing shifted. The images of their mutant allies on the floor and the shadows of infants flooded her mind, making her hyperventilate.

     “April?” Angel snapped in front of her face.

     Donnie handed the canister to Leo before holding onto April's hands as her body began to sway.

     “April? What's wrong? What are you seeing?!” Donnie asked, trying to snap her out of it.

     She gasped, creeping down to her knees as Donnie wrapped his arms around her. An alarm went off throughout the group's Tphones, causing the group to look at each other with worry.

     April looked down, panting as she came back to her right mind.

     “The kids are in trouble.”

-To be continued

[ducknotinarow]

Karai - Family Meme; all that apply uwu

| Talking about family

"And what are you hoping to get out of this?" Karai fixes a cold narrowed gaze your way taking a moment to weigh. "Fine whatever."

Send 👔 for my muse to talk about their father

"Hmm complicated to talk about Shredder isn't exactly going to be comparable towards any other sort of father figure you might met or see portrayed even. I used to look up and respect him greatly took his word as truth. In a sense I say it all black and white. Didn't matter we were on the the other end of morals. If my father told me something was right I blindly followed his word. I strived to be the perfect daughter. The perfect solider. Anything that would prove to him that I lived and breathed for our clan. That I was ready to be considered able to lead. That I believed in our cause even...I did with out fail. I never doubted him if I did? It felt almost like a sin. Going against him may seem like a usual rebellious teen move..but its like going against everything. I ever thought or was even?...that isn't a father." *For frame of reference I do follow cannon of Karai being Splinters daughter buying the lie that he was the one who killed her mother and such.

Anyway, despite Shredders obsession with Splinter I will say before learning he was still alive and even had the clan alive in a sense as well. Shredder wasn't the worse father not a great one considering the shit he had Karai go through for her training like getting locked up with snakes to get over her fear of them. If it weren't for Shredders obsessions? I think he would been a pretty decent dad loosely based off how Shredder wasn't that bad a father to Karai in the 03 iteration XD. But it's very clue that Shredder isn't so much raising kids and caring for a family even if the whole clan sees Shredder as their father in cannon. He is training soldiers.

And that is how he treats them maybe worse even with how Karai states going against her Dad is on par of commenting a sin. Her whole world view shaped by him would be hard to just suddenly change that. Its going against who she even sees her self as. So it takes a lot for her to even be willing to and what was that? Of course, her brother Casey. Everything he been through sure she didn't get much better but seeing how Casey was used and treated. How torn Casey clearly was? Well it was the wake up call she needed. Not so much a family she never knew or had but the one she always did.

Send 👚 for my muse to talk about their mother

"...My mother will always be this empty space in my life I feel. I know so little about her but all I do know about her I try to keep in mind always. Her name the few things I know she loved, I wonder if she would see me as her daughter? I might gone against her own beliefs after all." Karai hold in a lot about her own mother, someone she loves a lot but never met felt cheated out of knowing. Part of Karai in the childish part of her mind thinks that if she hadn't been killed her life? Would have been perfect. And not how it is now, she likes to think her family would have been normal. That Casey and Angel would still been adopted by Saki and Shen. And life would have been just fine they wouldn't been raised to be tools just maybe kids. To Karai her mother was the answer to having a better life. Not the one she got. Which is why she is driven by her own hate towards the Hamato clan. Not so much the turtles more Splinter since he was pinned as the killer but that doesn't mean she won't extend her hate to his own sons.

Send 🤜 for my muse to talk about (one of) their sibling(s)

"Not much to say on either of them. Angel is well a young kid sweet and I like doing her hair and showing her fun things to do or haze Casey together, dose want a lot of attention though at times. And gets an easier deal. Casey? he is lets see weird and annoying. Always going on about the weird stuff he is into. And he is always coming into my room or getting in my way." Karai goes on before her words fall off. "But...I"

Karai despite her confidence when it comes to interpersonal relationships? Well lets just say she struggles a bit with expressing herself in a way to display she is a loving and caring person deep down. Karai truly dose love her brother and sister she is a bit more open about it with Angel but she is younger so its easier to get away with that. Casey? She of course closes it off a bit but he has become a big part of her life. Karai may have a father but never had someone look out and care for her like Casey dose. I've stated before Casey in a sens ehas filled the hole left by her mother in her life.

Karai might not be one to like being taken cared for but it doesn't mean she doesn't need it. She has had to stand on her own at a young age so Casey being pretty instance to display he is the older brother and it being his job to look after her? Dose get through to her often. It's why Casey is enough for her to question everything she ever know when seeing Casey ready to throw it all away for one turtle himself. She is full of regrets but her biggest is always feeling like she was never there enough for Casey. so she strives to change that when he has to go into hiding and more when Shredder dose finally get his hands on Casey.

She won't lose another loved one not when she can do something about it. But she also won't admit that Casey is the older sibling in the same breath.

They have a pretty normal sibling dynamic despite it all. Fighting one second but working together well the next. Casey and Karai are often paired as a team meaning they spent a lot of time together which is why she knows about his love for horror movies, monster ones especially. Why he loves hockey so much as well. Karai has sharp edges but for a select few? she can be caring and loving even to her older brother who drives her crazy.

[cicissketchbook]

Y’all wanna read my Apritello story?

So sometimes when my artistic drive is down, the writing bug will come bite me. I’ve been working on an Apritello story for awhile that currently has three chapters that are up on my Patreon. Eventually I’ll post it publicly, but I want my patrons to have early access. Anyway here’s an excerpt from the first chapter.

It’s kind of angsty.

The summary is, April invites Donnie to join her for a long weekend at the farmhouse, which sounds romantic until you consider that she’s been plagued with visions of his accidental death and is desperate to stop it from happening.

To say there was tension in the air was a drastic understatement. Truthfully, things had been tense for a while. Blame it on cabin fever, or perhaps they were outgrowing their sewer lair, but the brothers had been quick to jump down each other’s throats. 

Leo was especially on edge, and not unlike how it had been since they were kids, his mood had set the tone for everyone else. One thing that differed from childhood though, was that he had been butting heads with Donnie, while Raph remained a mostly neutral third party. 

There was the knowledge that they were getting older and they all had desires to get out there and live their own lives, and then the realization that doing so wasn’t really possible for them in the world they lived in. They wanted what any young adults would want, but they were mutants.  The world still saw them as freaks. They couldn’t lead normal lives the way they wanted to. They knew this, they had known this all their lives. They had all been on the same page about it. They realized that living their lives in the sewer, at least most of it, was probably in the cards. April had always contested this idea, believing that the world would accept them in time. It’s not like people didn’t know mutants existed, but the turtles weren’t willing to take the risk. It’s not like they couldn’t go out and do things like they always had, but leaving the nest for good just wasn’t feasible. And they were content with this. The sewer was all they’d ever known. They’d always been together and they were happy to always be together. 

But like all families, arguments were inevitable. Familiarity breeds contempt, after all. And they were accustom to bickering. But… it was different now. Leo seemed ready to explode at the drop of a pen, Raph never seemed to be able to find enough alone time, Donnie felt like he brought more to the table than the other three combined, and Mikey… sweet Mikey was such an incurable optimist that he sought to find the positive in every situation, but they knew he did this to mask his depression.  

If asked what they were arguing about today, the simple answer would be that they were all just getting on each other’s nerves. Donnie couldn’t even remember how the argument started because they fought about trivial things so frequently, but he remembered the thing that Leo said that set him off.

“God, why is it so hard for you to just do your part? Why do we have to pick up your slack?”

Donnie was silent for a moment, almost unsure he’d heard correctly. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me, you never fucking help out with anything!” Leo’s tone implied that there was something else he was upset about that he wasn’t speaking of. 

Donnie, by his best effort, kept his voice calm and composed. “I’m sorry, are you referring to three days ago when I didn’t help clean up the disaster in the kitchen because I was literally putting the microwave back together? Or perhaps last week when you left a mess for me to clean up that you all made while I wasn’t even here? And then you got mad when I didn’t?”

Leo seemed to get more aggravated at the mention of Donnie not being there, but continued on. “C’mon man, there are four of us that live here, it’s really not asking too much for everyone to help clean up around here.” 

“Dude, I clean up after myself more than anyone. The difference is, when I make a mess, it’s in my lab rather than communal space and-“

“Oh, right, I forgot. The huge space you have that’s your’s. That none of us have.” Leo turned to their other brothers who sat near by. “Hey Raph, other than your tiny bedroom, do you have your own creative space that you can do whatever you want in? Mikey, how about you?”

Raph hadn’t spoken, but seemed invested in the exchange his brothers were having. It was impossible to tell who’s side he was on. Before Mikey could speak, Raph stopped him and said firmly, “Leave us out of this, man.”

“So now your mad at me… because of my lab?”

Leo paused, not making eye contact, before he huffed. “No.” He admitted quietly.

Normally, Donnie was used to these arguments making little or no sense, but Leo seemed genuinely angry and he couldn’t understand why. 

“Bro, what is up?” He demanded. “Why are you actually so upset?”

“I just…” Leo started. Donnie could tell there was something he didn’t want to say. Leo crossed his arms and turned away from his brother. “I just want to know… where your priorities are.”

“My priorities?” Donnie was trying not to lose his patience. He had no idea where this was coming from nor where it was going. Which meant one of two things. Either there was something his brother wasn’t telling him, or this was in fact going no where. Like, this had started out a fight about cleaning duties, and now he’s talking about priorities. If Leo did have a point, he wanted him to hurry up and make it because this argument seemed like a waste of time.

“It just…” Leo blew another huff through his nose. “It just seems like… you are… distancing yourself from us, Donnie.”

This statement completely threw Don for a loop. He hadn’t expected that at all. “What in the world are you talking about?” He asked, truly bewildered by the turn in conversation. “Because I don’t want to clean up messes that aren’t mine? Like what the hell-?”

“No, obviously it’s not that. It’s alot of things.” Leo spoke quieter now, not as impassioned. 

“Well, I would love to know what those things are, because I am completely lost here.”

“You never want to hang out with us anymore, and when you do, you act like you’d rather be doing anything else-“

Donnie cut him off with a humorless chuckle. “We’re brothers, we all get on each other’s nerves.” 

“And I get that, but we do all still live together and we all need to contribute to the household chores, and you’ve just been acting like you are so far above doing any type of housework that doesn’t directly effect you.”

“Well, excuse me Leo, sorry if when it rains and the power get knocked out and I have to go topside by myself in the cold pouring rain to fix the power line, I don’t also want to have to mop up the leak in the kitchen when none of you did anything to help!”

“Okay, you keep bring up specific instances, but I’m talking about in general-“

“No, you’re talking alot of nonsense is what you’re doing!” Donnie’s lack of patience was starting to show. “First you’re mad that you think I don’t clean enough, then you’re mad that I have a lab and you don’t? Then you say I’m distancing myself from you all…?” Donnie stood and made a move like he was going to walk away. “If you have something to say, Leo, you better just say it because this whole conversation seems like a waste of time to me. It’s late and I’m tired, so make your point, or I’m going to bed.”

“Are you distancing yourself from us because of April?”

Donnie had already started walking away, as he didn’t expect Leo to actually have a point, so he was halted to a standstill at his words. “What does she have to do with anything?”

Leo looked away again, like he didn’t actually want to have this conversation. After a moment, he sighed and continued without making eye contact. “It just seems like… I mean… I thought we were all on the same page here. We’ve had this discussion, a long time ago. We aren’t…. Human. We’re getting older and it makes sense that we’d want to start living our own lives, but… we can’t. Not really. The world doesn’t accept us, so staying down here is just how it has to be. I thought we had agreed on that. That no matter what the world thought of us, no matter that we can’t lead normal lives, at least we all had each other. But… now it seems like you have other plans, Donnie.”

He finally looked at his brother and Donnie could see the emotions in his eyes. Nothing of what he said had been new information, of course. Donnie knew, painfully well, that the world saw them as freaks and being “normal” was not a luxury they’d ever be able to have. Alot of their friends were at the point where they were starting to branch off, which didn’t help. Karai and Shinigami were currently back in Japan. It was just a visit, but the kind of visit that lasted for a month or two. Casey had gotten a hockey scholarship for a different school than the one April attended. He was trying to go pro, so he poured all his time and attention into practicing. He still came around, but not like he used to. Mona Lisa had left Earth awhile ago, also with promise to return, but they hadn’t heard from her in a few weeks. They were sure it was just a new mission she had, but that didn’t make Raph feel any better. April was the only one who still came around all the time. With most of their enemies gone, everyone was moving on and it felt like the world didn’t need them anymore. 

The pain in Leo’s voice would’ve normal made Donnie want to hug him, but it was the accusation that he couldn’t get over.

“Leo…” He gestured non threateningly with his hands. “Why are you acting like I’m not literally living down here in the sewers right along with you? And I still don’t see what April has to do with anything-” 

“Okay, I’m going to jump in here.” Raph said unexpectedly. “Look, Dude, I know we don’t… we don’t say it enough but… we would be up schitts creek without a paddle without you.” He crossed the room to give Leo a lighthearted punch in the arm. “Wouldn’t we, Leo?”

“…Yeah.”

“So because of that, the idea of you leaving is…. It’s scary.” Raph admitted. He was going to say something else, but Donnie interrupted.

“I’m not going anywhere! What in the actually hell are you guys talking about?!”

Leo rolled his eyes, apparently getting annoyed again. “Don, can we please stop pretending like you’re not going to marry April and then move in with her?”

Donnie froze. To say they touched a nerve was an understatement. April was his best friend, but truthfully, it was very painful to be her friend sometimes. His feelings for her were still just as intense as ever, but for different reason now. In his youth, he’d maintained a kind of innocent hopefulness that they would someday be together, and he never even really thought of the details of how. He knew, even back then, that it wasn’t that simple and when he really thought about it, nothing about it made sense. Which is why he didn’t think about it. Now though, after some soul searching and dropping into a deep depression which he was starting to get better from, he’d resigned himself to the reality that she would never be with him. He’d accepted it, and told himself that it was enough to just be her friend. But the truth was, that pain never went away.  They had such a close friendship, they had developed such a level of comfort with each other, but he knew it would never be enough. The idea of never seeing her again was unbearable, but to be so close to her, knowing that it was as close as he would ever get… it was torture. He didn’t care though, he just couldn’t let her go.

What really hurt was when she would talk about the next stage in her life. She was in school now, but with her grades and what she was studying, she could go anywhere. She wanted to travel, she spoke of it often. She never made any committal remarks about moving away, other than when she talked about the farmhouse and saying how expensive it is to live in the city. Her dad had signed the property over to her for tax reasons, and she would’ve inherited it anyway. She wanted to renovate it.

He was only vaguely aware that Raph and Leo were still talking.

“It’s not like we’re mad at you for finding love, that’s not it at all!” Raph was saying, obviously more concerned than Leo about ruffling his brother’s feathers. “It’s just, we need to be realistic about what would happen if you weren’t here.”

“Yeah, and the reality is, frankly, I think we all feel left behind by our friends, but we didn’t think  our clan would be breaking up as well!” Leo threw his hands up, finally letting his true feelings out. “I mean, all we have is each other, we’re the last of the Hamato clan! I can’t let this clan die, I just can’t.”

“Why do you guys feel the need to do that?” 

They stopped, taken aback by how low and serious Donnie’s voice was. He was done barking, he looked ready to bite. 

“Do what?”

Donnie’s chest felt tight and he had to taken in a sharp breath through his nose to keep his cool. “Why do you guys feel the need to not only remind me of my unrequited feelings for my… our  best friend… but now, you’re holding it against me?”

Raph looked concerned at first, but then sighed. “Donnie, c’mon, don’t act like you wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to get out of here. April isn’t going to stay in New York forever.” 

The statement, while probably true, hurt to hear. “What does that have to do with me?” He said, quieter this time. “I can’t help what April does.”  

“Dude, she is literally planning her future with you in it. Have you not noticed that?” Leo nearly screamed. “You have the opportunity to get out of here and do something with your life, and we’ll be-“

“No she’s not!” Donnie shouted back. “Are you guys smoking crack or something? Don’t say that shit to me! April doesn’t…” He paused, his words getting caught in his throat. “April doesn’t want me. I thought we’d been over this.”

Mikey, who hadn’t yet spoke, immediately picked up on how much pain Donnie was in. “Hey guys, let’s just drop it, yeah?”

Leo pressed on as if his youngest brother hadn’t spoken. “Maybe she didn’t five years ago, but she sure as shit does now.” He didn’t seem bothered by Donnie visible cringe. “I mean, dude, you’ve spent the night, alone at her house.”

“So has Mikey. And Raph once, I think.” Donnie said quietly, and Raph nodded in confirmation. “And she’s spent the night here a billion times, that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Mikey and Raph didn’t sleep in her bed.” Leo said accusingly. 

“I did.”  

They all paused and turned to the youngest brother. Raph spoke. “You did?”

“Every time I go over there, I sleep in her bed.” Mikey said matter-o-factly. “Whenever… whenever I’m sad, she let’s me come over and… she’ll listen. She doesn’t try to offer solutions, she doesn’t try and tell me things to make me feel better, she just… listens. And that’s what helps me the most. Then we watch funny videos.”

None of them commented at first. They all knew Mikey struggled with depression, but he rarely, if ever, talked about it. They all had told him at some point that they were there if he needed to talk, but he never came to any of them. One might of thought that hearing that his brother shared a bed with April might make Donnie jealous, but quite the opposite, it made him very happy and appreciative to hear about it. It made sense that Mikey would be more comfortable talking to April than to any of them, and to know that she had been there for him was comforting. Donnie wanted that for his brother. 

“See?” He said finally, more to Leo than anyone else. “April… she’s there for all of us. She cares about all of us… I’m not special.”

“Donnie, don’t say that.” Mikey offered and rose from his seat to place a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Donnie placed his own hand over Mikey’s and squeezed it, staring at the floor.  “She cares about you the most. More than you know.”

“Mikey, please, please don’t.” He said through his teeth. “I can’t… I can’t even believe we’re having this conversation right now. You know how long it took me to accept the fact that I was kidding myself by thinking there could ever be something between us? Of course you guys know, which is why it is so baffling to me that you feel the need to do this.” 

“So if April wanted you to move away with her, you wouldn’t do it?” 

Raph punched Leo in the arm again. It was a strange thing, to see Raph scold Leo for being insensitive. Donnie had had enough though.

“I’m out of here.” He turned on his heel and heading towards the turnstiles. 

...............

Yes, it’s NSFW, of course it is.

[fandomlovers-things]

So I'm gonna rewatch the 2003 series and last time I saw it I was baby so I wanna just write everything I can remember from the show to see how accurate I remembered things

I know the first ep is when the mousers robot attack snd the turtles home is ruined so the move to somewhere else in the sewers ( they moved their home alot as I recall tho my guess is thrice in total)

They met April because of that whole attack, how I do not remember

The rest of the first season is a blur

The go to space somehow at some point? They got kidnapped I think? No I think it was more of an accident idk I remembered I loved those space episodes as a kid

There were another set of space episodes with this twink robot dude who really annoying

Casey gets introduced early I think and he got a thing for April even tho He and Raph's 'angry dude bros with motorcycles' energy was pretty gay (That's on me tho I'm sure I remember the whole show much gayer than it was lol)

Didn't Donnie have a lizard boyfriend? And he died? Or no didn't Donnie turn into a big lizard thing himself?? Did both happen???

Wait no I have the knowledge that throughout the show everyone calls him Don and almost never Donnie or Donatello

My favorite episodes were the ones where they got separated and each got teleported to have their own episode and learn a lesson or some and I think that was where Leo met his bunny boyfriend for the first time?

Yeah the shredder was a krang, big fucking plot twist (my sister and I were talking about it the other day and she was like what the fuck was that about tho whereas I just accepted it lol)

Always thought Karai was hot

And also weren't Karai and leo frenemies? I really don't remember her much just that I secretly shipped them before knowing what shipping was

Ok At some point some important crazy battle happened and Leo got hurt bad and had ptsd after that poor boy

He went to traint with Splinter's master's master? I guess??

April and donnie were bffs or something

Mikey found an orange kitten

Don't know how but leo's bunny boyfriend came to New york once?how did that happen??

I hated the future season

And the next one where April's design changed and the turtles had eyes

There was an underworld where people were taken and mutated?? Mahical crystals involved? Idk there was this blue haird girl I thought was pretty

Come to think of it April was hot too (I shouldve known I was pan way sooner )

I don't remember anything else or how the show ended other than Casey and April got married which sound so anticlimactic to me idk

[clanofjones]

Ghosts of Our Days: Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen: I Have a Foot But No Head: What Am I?

A/N: Written with @theosb0rnway! This one was genuinely so fun to do! CW for... implied murder? I guess?

<- Chapter 14

Start

Masterpost

Ao3

Karai's POV

"Now, I'm gonna show you what happens when you mess with my family."

"Cas- Skullshot, don't do this. We both want the Shredder dead, we can destroy him together!"

The vigilante shook her head, letting out a high-pitched cackle into the night. "See, that's the thing with snakes! They LIE. Now you've got one more chance to tell me where that motherfucker is."

"I don't know! Believe me, I want to find him just as much as you do-"

"Sure ya do. Like I said, lying snake." He hissed those words and shoved Karai's wakizashi to her neck. Karai didn't back down.

The wakizashi dug into her flesh a minute amount, and Karai hissed, taking the insult to heart, as her skin turned to scales and paled to a ghostly white as her snake hands hissed at Casey.

“Like I said. Lying snake.”

"I know it's you in there, Casey,” Karai began, and held her arms up in what he hoped was a gesture of peace — probably not a wonderful gesture, given that her snake hands were hissing at the vigilante, but the gist was there. “What would your family think of this? Your father, your mother, do they even know what you're doing? And your little sister-"

"My father doesn't give a shit about me, my mother is dead, and you LEAVE ANGEL OUT OF THIS."

"I knew it was you. I don't know how the others haven't noticed yet. I'm sorry about your mother. Nobody should have to endure that. I can relate."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, this whole 'my mom's dead too' shtick won't work on me, bitch."

Karai doubted that. "What would she think of this? Of the atrocities you've been committing? All for what? To defeat the Shredder just like everyone else wants to?"

"It doesn't matter what she thinks, she's been gone for years! Shredder took somethin' from me and I'm gonna make sure he gets EXACTLY what they got."

It took Karai a second to process. "It's Raphael, isn't it? That's why you left, that's why you're doing all this!"

Casey growled and pushed the sword into her neck."DON'T SAY HIS FUCKING NAME, YOU NO-GOOD FOOT SLIME!"

"Casey, please, I can help you-"

"Your time is up, Karai. You're gonna die, like all snakes should, but unlike that weird myth thingy, you and your stupid snake face ain't coming back any time soon."

"Wait, please-"

Casey pulled the blade back, and in one blow, carved through flesh.

Karai’s body fell scales returning to skin, snakes on her arms retreating into fingers, and an appendage fell a short distance away as Casey smiled, picking it up.

"I think I'll take you home. Raphie's gonna love to see that I killed a Foot leader! One step closer to Shred Heeeaaad!" She finished the cheer in a sing-song tone.

As he walked away, an extra pep in her step, she turned the limb over and smirked at the decapitated head of Shredder’s protege, as blood trickled from Karai’s severed neck.

April's POV

As she stared at the body on the coffee table, she only had one question, which she voiced in only a whisper.

“Where's... where's her head?”

Shinigami burst into tears again, and Mikey gave her a glare so powerful April wanted to melt into the floor.

Donnie and Leo couldn't do anything but stare, both of them still in utter shock.

It was only hours before that Karai had been in this very lair, alive, well, and very much in one piece.

Finally, Leo looked up, his own eyes filled with tears.

”Skullshot.” He whispered— no, growled, as he grit his teeth and let out a primal scream, falling to his knees.

No one said anything else, not daring to move as Leo reached his arms toward her, pulling away at the last second.

How could he touch her like this?

That was for Shinigami to do, not him, and she was clearly elsewhere in her mind, trying to recover from the loss of her love.

Suddenly, she stood up, climbing off of Mikey and grabbing her phone. She made a call in whispered Japanese, before sitting back down again, saying something into Mikey's ear.

“Uhhh... Shini's bringing her whole crew over, ‘cause it's not safe for them outside.”

“Obviously.” Leo hissed. “Skullshot made sure of that. Donnie, let's go set up the dojo. April, stay with Shinigami and help her... with Karai.”

He stood up quickly, and Donnie followed, like a robot matching towards its destination.

April couldn't move. Did this confirm all her worst fears or destroy them?

Casey knew Karai was their ally, but at the same time, she'd also been their enemy for quite some time and her Foot group was still the Foot. She took a deep breath in and let it out, finally walking over to Shini and Mikey.

“Shini?” She put a hand on the other girl's shoulder."How can I help you?"

“Keep her here."

"What?"

"Until- Until we find... the rest of her, keep her here."

That made sense, wait to give Karai a proper burial until after her head had been found, but there was no place they had to put her, and they weren't going to take her to the local morgue without raising suspicion or starting a murder case that would only draw Skullshot out even more and cause damage that the city and the police didn't need. She'd have to ask Donnie about a safe place to put the body for now.

"O-Okay. I'll... talk to Donnie later about finding a place for her. But... can I help you at all? This can't be easy for you, Shini. I know how close you and Karai were—"

"I should never have let my guard down for him. That Skullshot boy is an enemy to us all now, and a greater threat than any of us feared!" Her voice broke, and she stared at April, makeup down her cheeks, her brown eyes wide with anger and fear.

"Even my Karai could not see what he was, and now, now… SHE IS GONE BECAUSE OF HIM!" Mikey flinched. Shini noticed, rubbing his shoulder to calm him down, and probably herself too. "All I can do now is get my people to safely and... hope that he does not attack again." She buried her head back into Mikey's chest.

April sat down on the bench next to them. She tilted her head upward towards the ceiling to avoid looking directly at Karai, or at least what was left of her. She wondered how no one could find the head at the crime scene, they usually always got there before the cops did, unless someone took it.

No way, April thought.

Who just takes a head and not the entire body? Then she remembered who she was dealing with and realized that the whole idea made absolutely all logical sense.

She was interrupted by Shini's phone ringing again, which announced the arrival of the Foot at the sewer entrance.

She got Leo from the dojo, hoping the distraction would do him some good. Judging by how lifeless he looked when he got back, leading at least 20 Foot soldiers, it didn't do shit.

The Foot soldiers, on the other hand, seemed a mix of confused and fearful, most of them only partially in uniform, if at all. They were all ranging between their teens and late twenties, from what April could see of their faces.

One girl, holding her half-folded uniform against her chest, was pulling up the rear of the group, eyes bouncing around the lair as if she were trying to take in everything.

Shini let out a breathy sigh, and repositioned herself, blocking Karai from the view of the doorway.

“We must cover and move her,” she said in a whisper, and April nodded.

“Should we get, like, a sheet, or something?” Mikey whispered.

“Yeah. Probably. Don’t want any of the others to freak out,” April replied.

Mikey ducked and weaved through the recruits, and out of April’s line of sight.

“Where is a safe place to move her?” Shini asked, voice hoarse.

“Uh, probably the med bay.”

Shini nodded. Luckily, Mikey was quick with retrieving the sheet— an old, worn, brown one that April could only guess had been previously used as a makeshift tarp for some of Donnie’s more… Colorful experiments.

April dimly acknowledged that they might want to invest in a morgue as Mikey disentangled the cloth, and stretched it over Karai, until she was covered, more or less. At least most of the blood was dried by now.

Shini took hold of Karai’s upper arm and underneath her shoulders. “Help me, and hold her ankles,” she instructed to April, before turning to Mikey. “If you would, directions would be appreciated.”

And so they walked, Mikey mumbling a direction every few paces, April felt something well up in her stomach, and her eyes went glassy with unshed tears. Shinigami had given up on restraining herself, crying ugly tears.

When they arrived, after five careful minutes of averting her gaze from Karai’s corpse, April caught sight of the med bay door. Mikey held it open, and stood in the doorframe, back to them, casting glances down the hall in case anyone came to look for the leaders of the New Foot Clan.

Shini and April laid Karai down, and Shini tucked the sheet under Karai’s neck.

The trio exited the med bay, all three uncharacteristically silent, with the return to the dojo uncharacteristically so.

April noticed that the girl she had seen before had managed to get into her Foot garb, and was bouncing on the balls of her feet, glancing about. Shini noticed her looking and gave her a look that April couldn’t quite figure out.

“We should probably feed these guys,” Leo whispered, having reentered their vicinity. He sounded no better, and April was sure he was just searching for a task.

“We have old pizza, fruit juice, I think some croutons, and some doughnuts,” Mikey rattled off. “And some actual fruit, I think. Maybe stuff for really small, crunchy bread rolls.”

“Smoothies and bread rolls,” Leo decided as Shini sat down again, making a futile attempt to wipe the tears away.

“We got a blender, right, dude?”

“Yeah, the one you used a hot glue gun on, because we kept trying to throw in the air for target practice after we got our weapons.”

April smiled at the mental image.

“Oh, right.”

April sat, leaning against the wall, next to Shini, and leaned against her. Shinigami scrubbed at her eyes again, her makeup smearing, before drawing April into a half-hug while the blender whirled in the next room over. Leo tentatively sat on Shini’s other side and put an arm around her.

To Mikey’s credit, though his culinary skills had been off-and-on according to April, the smoothies and bread rolls were halfway decent.

“I should speak to them,” Shinigami said in a hoarse tone as if she hadn’t used her vocal cords in days.

“I can go with you,” Leo offered.

“That would be much appreciated, Leonardo. Thank you.”

Which left April, alone. She made her way to the dojo, passing Leo and Shini on her way. She sat down on a sheet, laid out presumably by Leo and Donnie, next to the girl she had noticed before.

The girl’s eyes darted to her and did a swift double-take.

“You’re April O’Neil.”

Uhm… Yeah. Did we fight before, or do you just know all of us by name?”

“My Senseis have spoken of you. Mostly good things. They keep a handful of photos of all of you in their quarters.”

“‘Mostly’ good things?”

“Karai says that you’re abrasive and reckless, Shinigami says you don’t think much in a fight. They agree that you are a good one, though. And a decent kunoichi.”

April frowned, and her brow furrowed. Obviously, this girl wouldn’t know Karai was dead, but it didn’t bring her any less of a shock. “That’s… Better than I expected, to be honest.”

The girl let out a puff of air and a smile with it. April took the moment to look at her up close. Her skin was a darker brown than April originally thought, and her dark hair was caught up in a braid.

“So,” April began, trying to sound as normal as possible, “You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”

“Aria.” She took a sip from her smoothie, before turning to look at April. “Alright, who made these, and what’s in them, because these are good, but I don’t wanna develop a fascination for, like, peacock innards or something.”

April let out a soft laugh and looked at her incredulously. “Peacock innards?”

“I dunno, if you guys have anyone who worked as a lunch lady, then I could be eating cardboard with marinara sauce and a basil leaf on it instead of pizza.”

April looked at her with a look of bewildered pleasure, apparently frozen on her face. “Alright, Mikey would never let that slide. Nobody is safe from pizza smoothies, though.”

Aria looked between her and the smoothies like April had sealed their fates to one of eternal torment. With smoothies. “Why. Why is that a thing. It’s literally oil but liquid-ier.”

April shrugged. “Your taste buds become neutral after a bit.”

“How long is ‘a bit’?”

“Like… A couple of months.”

“No offense to any of you, but I don’t want to be living out of the sewers for that long.”

“Yeah, no, you’d get crazy sick if that happened.”

“Say, how come we got called down here? I was having a nice post-training nap.”

April faltered and contemplated how much of a truth to give this girl. On one hand, she didn’t want this girl’s smile to disappear. On the other, she didn’t want her trust in April to disappear either.

Lucky enough for April, Leo and Shinigami reentered, neither looking particularly cheerful about the news they had to deliver, if the heavy expressions were any indication.

Aria, as well as the other Foot members, swallowed the vestiges of the meals, before standing at attention.

“You might as well all sit,” Shini said, and they followed suit, but not without an odd glance at each other.

“Hai, Sensei!”

Shini glanced around, almost as if finding something other than the elephant in the room to touch upon.

“This is Leonardo, and he and his family have kindly enough extended their home to us for our refuge. While we are here, we must treat it with utmost respect.”

“Hai, Sensei!”

A bout of silence passed, and one Foot member stepped up. “Sensei, were our security measures not apt at our headquarters? We performed a security check five hours prior to your call, and we agreed that we were safe.”

Shini opened her mouth, then closed it again. “It was not a dissatisfaction with our security,” she said.

When she did not continue, Leo continued. “Have you all heard of the new vigilante, Skullshot?”

There were a handful of nods.

“Good. You have heard of how this person has been taking out members of Shredder’s Foot Clan?”

More nods.

“In… recent developments, Skullshot does not seem to have the distinction between Shredder’s Foot Clan and this, New Foot Clan.” After a small pause, he added: “He has killed one of our own.”

There was a beat of silence, but not an unknowing one. It was one of unpuzzling, and April saw Aria’s eyes dart around the room, doing a succinct headcount.

She let out a tiny gasp around the same time that April began to see reactions from the others.

“Skullshot has murdered Hamato Karai.”

The reactions were spilling much faster now that they had climbed the hurdle. Shinigami nodded, and tears slipped past her already finicky control.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, April found, as she curled in on herself, head in between her arms and knees.

“NO!” Someone screamed, and April heard a person begin to hyperventilate.

She uncurled a bit and saw Aria, on her feet, frozen, as her chest heaved, a purely broken look on her face, as tears welled in her eyes.

Mobility slowly returned to her body, and Aria’s arms raised to rub up and down her arms, which were turning into fast scratches, and April was afraid she’d tear the cloth and hurt herself.

“Hey! Hey,” she said, and sprung up, her own face feeling remarkably wet. “Calm down, it’ll be okay.”

“You don’t know that!”

The din was ear-splitting, and April could see Leo and Shini attempting to restore calm as Mikey and Donnie looked into the room. She knew that she shouldn’t be this invested in calming down a single girl, but she couldn’t very well leave, could she?

“No,” April agreed softly. “No, I don’t.”

Aria stumbled on her feet, and very nearly fell, her face scrunched up as tears cascaded down her cheeks. April took a step forward, and an unneeded arm shot out to steady her. Aria met her gaze and glanced at her arm.

April froze for a moment and wondered if a knife was going to be pulled on her if she didn’t make her intentions known. She was already crying, April couldn’t make her feel worse.

So, she extended her arm a little, in an invitation for a hug. Aria shuffled back awkwardly and brought her hands up to scrub at her face. April dropped the arm, and a pool of guilt and jumpy regret welled up, settling into her bones.

“You… You’ve got other things to worry about,” Aria said, and her voice broke into a wobbly mess of sound, and she sat on the floor, glaring at her drink.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t help you out,” April reminded and sat next to her.

“You shouldn’t need to. You knew her longer than I did.”

April didn’t point out that a hefty chunk of her memories of Karai had been of the latter attempting to capture or kill her or the others, whereas Aria’s were likely genial. “Maybe. But you knew her too.”

Donnie, Leo, Mikey, and Shini were all running around the dojo, attempting to calm the Foot members.

“I should be able to do this.”

April didn’t have an answer for that.

“I can’t do this.”

April didn’t have an answer for that, either. She just extended an arm — an invitation — one more time. Aria accepted it this time and gave April’s shoulder a squeeze too. They both stared at the ceiling, with the horrified sounds of other Foot members surrounding them, holding each other loosely, only an arm around their shoulders.

A/N: You know what? You guys have been great readers.

Have the best thing I have ever animated :)

Excuse the rampant style change, this took three months because we all know animation is hard. I used Krita and IbisPaintX.

@theosb0rnway I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS IT IS MY MAGNUM OPUS

[hamatoclan76]

Lets talk about ¨Fast Forward¨ and ¨Back To The Sewers¨

So, yeah. I was finally able to finish watching the TMNT 2003 series. I know i could write an entire review about the series but i decided to focus on the two last seasons ¨Fast Forward¨ and ¨Back To The Sewers¨ since they are quite controversial seasons in the fandom due to their writing.

I’m going to explain what i think these seasons did right and then what went wrong with the writing that made them not get so well-received in comparison to previous seasons. I´m going to start with Fast Forward and then move to Back to the Sewers.

Time Travel to the future

(Fast Forward Intro)

(Fast Forward) Season 6 starts with the turtles accidentally time traveling to the future, year 2105 to be precise. That’s 100 years from the current timeline. It´s a risky idea but not bad, right?

But here is the problem: There were already unexplored main plotlines that needed to be developed: Karai´s possibe redemption, the foot clan, Hun, etc. Instead of finishing those arcs that were already established in the series the writers/producers decided to jump to a completely new setting that had almost nothing to do with things that were previously explored.

So that´s one of the biggest problems with this season. If this was a spin off, this wouldn´t be an issue at all. That´s because the audience would know that the spin off exists as its own thing and it isn´t part of the main series. Watching ¨Fast Forward¨ was weird to me. It was like i was watching other series but with the same characters.

Before talking more about the problems i have with this season. Let´s talk about what i enjoyed:

I really liked the arc about Cody learning to be his own person and realizing how his uncle was manipulating him (if not abusing him). His relationship with the turtles and Splinter is really sweet. It was nice to see how they took care of him and he let them live with them while he was reparing the time machine.

Bishop episodes are really good. I wished we could seen more of him. The idea of him getting redeemed and forming an alien alliance is very interesting.I always saw Bishop as well intentioned extremist, In the sense he believed he was helping people with his horrible methods. I like how he recognizes he did terrible things in the past and he is trying to make up for his crimes.

I enjoyed some  of the slice of life moments.It helped developing the characters in a way that allowed me to see what they do when they are fighting aliens or the foot clan. For example: One of my favourite episodes is Raph and Leo going to wrestling match and chaos ensues. That episode explores Raph´s passion for wrestling, something i think the series didn´t before.

I like the concept of the ¨Dark Turtles¨. Yeah, i know it is a bit ridiculous but i would have been great had the series given them a proper redemption arc since it was implied they weren´t really that bad. ( DNA is thicker than water in one of my favourite episodes of Fast Foward).

Now that i have talked about the things i liked i´m going to move to my problems with season 6.

I think that one of the reasons i feel conflicted about Fast Foward is due to the lack of actual plot or stakes. It feels like things are happening but at the same time they aren´t. Many episodes have more mundane premises. The villains are less intimidanting and they don´t add too much to the story. There are some good episodes like ¨The Journal¨ and the one about Mikey training but overall it is like the writing itself is dull and boring.

It would have been better had the writers focus on developing the characters better (like Raph having problems with adjusting to the future). There are concepts that are great. The thing is that they later get dropped or forgotten (Dark turtles subplot). There could have been an entire arc about Bishop helping the turtles with getting back to their time as a way to make up for his actions.

Speaking of the time portal, that thing is brought up in only the first episodes and then its barely mentioned again in the season. Like.. wasn´t the main plot about them getting back to their respective timeline? It´s like the main characters were so comfortable living in the future that they forgot about their main goal. There episodes that are just about them hanging out instead of finding a solution. It´s okay to have slice of life moments while they are waiting for the machine to get repaired but it could have been at least hinted that is Cody is working on it.

Fast Forward would have worked better had the crew of show put more effort into writing the story, thinking what they wanted to do with the characters and explored concepts that were interesting. And before you ask: No, i don´t think this season being more lighthearted is an issue, the real problems is that writing itself is sloppy and isn´t as good as previous seasons.

Back To The Sewers

(Back to the Sewers Intro)

Season 7´s main plot is about the turtles trying to find all the ¨bytes¨ that made Splinter after he was disintegrated in Cyberspace. Many episodes are about them enterting in Cyberspace and looking for these bytes to make Splinter whole again. The team also has to deal with a new type of Shredder that is a fusion of viral and Ultrom Shredder´s memories. (More of that later)

Things i like from ¨Back To The Sewers¨

Donatello´s character arc: It was very refreshing to see another side of Donnie. At the started of the season he blamed himself for losing Splinter (something he had not control of). His arc is kinda similar to Leo´s arc in Season 4 except he was able to let go his guilt more easily than Leonardo. Unlike Leo, Donnie wasn´t so afraid of failure as he was obsessed with fixing the problem to the point he isolated himself.

I really like how the Cyberspace and the real world are connected with one another in this season. Some episodes have premises that are downright terrifying such as getting stuck in a false parallel reality or people hacking and rewriting your memories. I think this season had very interesting concepts that much like Fast Foward they didn´t reach its fullest potential.

Casey and April´s relationship was fantastic. It was sweet to watch Casey proposing marriage to April. Their wedding was great conclusion for their relationship too. I like how Casey struggles with asking April and how Raph helps him. It´s definitely one of the highlights of Back to the Sewers.

What went wrong with Season 7?

First of all, i think that one of the biggest issues was how short the season was. It has only 13 episodes to develop the main plot and characters. For that reason good concept don´t get enough time to be explored. They are introduced and dropped in one episode. I would have love to watch a three part story arc of the turtles getting brainwashed to make them believe that they work for the Foot Clan. I mean, that was creepy when i watched it.

If season 7 had 20 episodes-for example- then there would have been more time for the main plot to be better paced. What happened in reality is that with 13 episodes it made arcs feel rushed. Some things were left unanswered, dropped or forgotten.

Another issue i have is the lack of Karai content in this season. Season 5 ended with her falling in love and she was never seen again. I know she gets redeemed in the film but it is really weird how she goes to April and Casey´s wedding in the finale and she is never mentioned by the Foot Clan in Back to the Sewers. They could written an episode about how she left the Foot Clan and how she wants to settle down.. just something to learn what happened to her.

Speaking of the Foot Clan... Why they had to bring up Shredder again for this Season? Why just not make Viral the main antagonist? She was fine as a villain, Why in the world they needed to bring him back? There are so many other characters that could have antagonists for this story. 

Virtual Shredder brings up tons of questions as well. When did Ch´rell deciced to upload his memory on the Cyberspace. Why not on a spaceship or computer? Why on the web? It´s so weird.

My last point would that Back to the Sewers had potential to be a darker season because of its themes and story yet is very lighthearted despite how twisted some concepts were. I wished they could been taken more seriously with having actual consequences for jumping into Cyberspace, how risky it is and what would happen if someone got trapped in there.

So there you have it. Note that i don´t think the last two seasons are horrible, in fact i have fun watching them. I just don´t understand what went wrong with the production that made the show suffer such a downgrade in quality. Maybe the producers thought the series was getting ¨too dark¨ and decided to write a more lighthearted show. Maybe there were new writers in last seasons, that may explain why the writing became more dull. I wished the Tmnt 2003 would have gotten better treatment that the one it got.