#crispr-cas9 (bring me a gene) is the best song ever

[fun-fact-generator-3000]

Rise of the TMNT Donatello Headcanons

(Based on things I or people I know have experienced.)

Long post ahead.

Donnie is a huge puzzle lover and every time he finds a new puzzle game to play, he rants/explains it to his brothers. (Leo tunes him out every time.)

On one such occasion, Donnie was ranting about the glorious creation of RegEx Crossword and Leo told him it seemed boring, so he's taken to writing Leo insults in RegEx shorthand.

When he was younger, Donnie would mess with his brothers by eating something that tasted disgusting and not reacting at all, then saying, "that was good," and giving his brothers the food to try.

Unfortunately for Leo, Donnie would usually go to his twin to infodump about a new topic, but it made Leo very good at gift-giving to Donnie.

Donnie is definitely touch-averted, but the kind where he will not tolerate touch from anyone at any time unless he initiates it. When he does initiate it, it is hard to get rid of him. (And in those cases it is rarely ever hugs, more like attacking Leo.)

Donnie frequently uses words like "hath," "doth," and "thou."

Donnie hates the phrase "me neither," and will get annoyed when his brothers say it. (It's NOR DO I or NOR HAVE I)

When Donnie is working in his lab, he gets very frustrated at any noise, even ambient noise, so when people walk into his lab during one of these moods, he will get very snippy with them.

When playing games like Headbanz or 20 Questions, Leo gets very annoyed because Donnie is way too specific. He will ask questions like "am I a vertebrate?" or argue semantics like whether ketchup is technically a fruit/fruit based. Eventually, this leads to both of them asking questions like, "in a nutrition label, would a fruit be one of the first three ingredients listed?"

Donnie is insanely curious and will constantly ask questions. Splinter used to lecture him about whatever topic he asked about when he was a child, but as he grew older he resorted to google or the library. (He is constantly bringing out his phone to google niche questions like, "the volume of a typical human body when fully liquefied including connective tissues.")

If he is into a task or project, he physically cannot sleep because his brain is thinking too much, and will stay up for hours without realizing it, but if he does not want to do something, it will take him literal days to do it, if at all.

He loves documentaries and video essays.

However, he also is a huge fan of any and all TV and movies. He has a list of movies he has heard people talk about that he wants to watch.

When watching sad movies, his brothers will periodically look over at him, trying to "catch" him crying because they cannot believe he does not cry during movies. Despite not crying though, Donnie gets extremely into movies and has to sit for a while afterward to process and then rant.

Donnie chews on things when he is preoccupied (especially because softshell turtles typically have a strong bite). This can be things like bottle caps, pens, and especially the hem of any shirt if he is wearing one. As such, all of his "human" clothes have holes in the collars.

Donatello is a very fast reader when he is interested in a topic, but if he is not interested, it is almost impossible to read because he just starts thinking about something else.

Similarly, he cannot read aloud because he reads too fast for his mouth to speak. This also causes him to frequently stutter or stumble when info dumping because his brain is going too fast to convey through spoken word.

He is extremely pretentious about grammar. For example, he constantly annoys Leo by pointing out any dangling participles.

Donnie is a very adept sarcasm user, but he frequently misses other people's sarcasm, especially Leo's.

He is a major perfectionist. When things go wrong or he is not immediately an expert at something, he gets very frustrated and snaps at those around him.

Donnie loves coffee, of course, but not to wake him up. He drinks coffee because it slows down his endless stream of ideas and plans enough for him to think. However, too much caffeine makes him sort of dazed or spacey.

Donnie is the type to be super organized and neat, but as soon as he starts a project, that goes out the window and his workspace becomes his own version of organized chaos.

Both he and Leo sign swears and insults at each other from across the room.

He loves cryptograms and fictional languages and will write messages in writing systems like Anglo-Saxon runes or alien languages (like from Jupiter Jim).

He LOVES drawing blueprints. He is decent artistic already (as shown by the chainsaw-made snow sculpture), but he really enjoys drawing blueprints with a straightedge and ruler and ends up hanging his favorites on the wall.

Donnie has a very high pain tolerance and would do things like poke needles through his epidermis to freak his brothers out.

He is a collector of junk. While most of it is sectioned off and organized, he also has bins of spare wires, screws, and tubes.

When he was young, he took apart everything. Nothing was ever safe. Radios, music boxes, flashlights, etc., all would be taken apart and strewn about to be studied.

Donnie is a proud Oxford Comma supporter!

He cannot use the same dish twice. If it is out of his sight for a minute, it is automatically contaminated. (Splinter hates this)

He loves nerdy science songs or science parodies of songs.

However, he also loves musical theatre and does mini performances of soundtracks.

He is constantly over-prepared. He keeps a first aid kit, flashlight, swiss army knife, pen, pencil, etc. in his battle shell at all times.

Because Donnie is much more flexible than his brothers due to his soft shell, he often sits in weirdly contorted positions that they cringe at.

When he was 5, Splinter wrote "good job" on a slip of paper and Donnie has kept it ever since.

He talks like an old man. For instance, he complains about "punk youths" and the state of the younger generations, despite being one of the said punk youths.

This is all for now. I always think of more, so I may make a second post of this with new ones I think of. Most of these are just from my own childhood.