#He looks like he wants to commit murder even with a technically neutral expression lmao

[terrah-lee]

Back on my iteration I really need to name bullshit again.

Talked a bit about the turtles but I’ve barely mentioned Splinter, so it’s time to talk about the rat man. In this version Splinter doesn’t find out about the turtles until years after their creation by the EPF (Raph being 16 almost 17, Leo 10, and Mikey and Donnie 9). While the boys were created on purpose Splinter’s mutation was a complete accident. In this case mutants have been around for a while, so it’s mostly just awkward when Splinter’s students show up at the dojo he runs the next day and he’s suddenly a rat. There isn’t much about his life that actually changes because of mutating, though… except for the fur. There is so much fur.

At this point Tang Shen had passed away several years ago from illness. Both she and Splinter had wanted kids and just never got the chance. Learning of the turtles’ existence was an accident. Searching for them was not. Splinter couldn’t just ignore what he’d learned; Tang Shen wouldn’t have.

Splinter wasn’t exactly surprised to find out that what he’d heard barely scratched the surface of the abuse the turtles, particularly Raph, had been through. What it did do was spur a whole lot of research on child development and trauma. If he was getting those kids out he was going to do it right, damn it. During the time he spent to research and plan he started to visit and slowly gain the turtles’ trust.

Splinter does eventually get all four of the boys out, but most of the work is done by an outside group that attacked and bombed the EPF. Splinter always counts himself lucky that he got to the turtles before law enforcement. Raph in particular was very aggressive at the time, and the likelihood he attacked someone and was killed as a result was high.

I’ll probably talk more about the turtles’ relationship with Splinter later, but in current time (5 years after Splinter finds them) they’re all pretty close with their dad. Raph is probably the closest— the younger three had Raph to rely on (and they often still did even after Splinter entered the picture) but he didn’t have anyone. 

Bonus Raph sketches as I figure out how I want to draw this fucker: