#i think she's the oldest one among the turts

[circusinarun]

We've all seen the new rottmnt comic, didn't we?

And let's be honest, Frida is slayin'

"welp... I guess I'll be on the kitchen then..."\jjjjjjjj

Don't listen to me, just some shit that people say

[purpleturtle9000]

Hi I’m baaack I have a question about the reds!! How close are they?? Is there any conflict/confusion bc they’re both trying to eldest sibling everyone? Does little Raph figure out gender things earlier thanks to Red being there? Do they get hugs I hope they both get hugs they’re so wonderful

Have a lovely time of day thank you for all of your turtle posts they get me through the day <3

omg hi! my turtle posts also get me through the day tbh and i am! so glad you like them!

The reds are so close you have no idea. I am soft about them on the daily. Sometimes they argue about who has jurisdiction to scold the blue things but usually they just team up instead.

Okay first of all yes there is confusion with both of them trying to be the eldest sibilng! (Meanwhile Leonardo has been the oldest for a while and is vaguely confused by all this as well. Red died twenty-seven years ago at the age of twenty-eight, and Old Man Blue is trying not to laugh at someone half his age trying to be his big sister. He's also full of emotions and near to crying about it every day.)

Leonardo, Tello, and Angelo are all older than Red, but at least they're all still shorter than her. Can't shake up the family dynamic that much, I say, as if I haven't put them all through a fucking blender. Angelo and Tello call her their big sister anyway, cause they're nice like that. Leonardo near-exclusively calls her 'short stuff' and is closer than he realises to being flung through a wall again.

Ironically, Red herself does not take Raph seriously as a big brother. She knows that he is, for the younger turtles, but she's a decade older and three feet taller than him. She sees him as being just as small as his younger brothers. Raph is not impressed with this, being used to being the biggest and oldest.

He is impressed with how tall and spiky she is! All the boys thought they'd stopped growing, like human kids would have, and seeing everyone taller caused absolute consternation among the young turts. Especially in the case of future Mikey. Nobody will talk about future Mikey being as tall as teen Raph. It's still terrifying.

Despite Red once calling Raph 'little', and the bedlam that ensued, they get along very well! Which is also terrifying for a certain set of self-destructive blue turtles who insist they're totally fine whilst in the middle of a week-long mental breakdown. If one red turtle is scary, two red turtles are even scarier. Red is not above sitting on either Leo if he's doing something stupid.

Red's and Leonardo's definitions of 'something stupid' are very different. Leonardo does not appreciate this. It's the funniest thing Donnie's ever seen.

Apart from their mutual 'I must protect my siblings' prime directive, and the fact that they both punch things as their first plan instead of waiting for anyone else to come up with a better one, there's another big similarity! Red is also missing the same eye as Raph. (I know he's fine in canon but like. did you see the fucking tentacles coming out of his eye socket. he's missing an eye in wify.)

There's a constants-and-variables theme I'm playing at with wify, kinda, about how sometimes the same things happen under different circumstances. Mikey's portals being what saves Leonardo from dying in the future timeline and then dying in the prison dimension. Casey Jr gets a hockey stick from both versions of Casey Sr but only one of those involves her dying. Red lost her eye fighting human survivors and Raph lost his eye being mutated by the Krang.

Raph and Leo, the teen versions, have a lot to unpack about the whole thing. Leo blames himself and can't get over his part in Raph being taken. Raph thinks Leo's afraid of him, because mutant-Krang-Raph hurt him in their fight, and maybe grossed out by the extent of his injuries. Lots of angst incoming with that angle but it's gonna be fine I swear.

Raph and Red, however! Red has tips on adjusting to life with one eye, and has some extremely cool eyepatches that Angelo decorated for them. Raph gets to borrow them whenever he wants and gets his own ones too, which makes him feel a little better about it all. And it helps bridge some of the gap between him and Mikey, because Raph asks Mikey to decorate them for him.

Overall, having Red around helps him adjust and helps with his self-esteem. Not to mention that he sees someone who's managed just fine with one eye for years, and it's a huge reassurance that his life's just changed, not over. The entirety of what happened in the Krang invasion was impossible for him to deal with on his own, he needed some kind of proof that he's going to grow up to be okay after all, and that's exactly what she can give him.

Leonardo has a habit of shooing Raph off to a spa day in the Hidden City, cause holy shit does this teenager need a break. Raph brings Red along! They keep snacking on those cucumber slices that are supposed to go on their faces but nobody's brave enough to tell Red what to do. Or not to do, as the case may be. She greatly enjoys floating around in the heated pool (and creating waves with her tail to surprise-drench Raph).

Red is like nine feet tall, she's the only one who can bear hug him and pick him up off his feet. He loves it so much and there are so many piggyback rides in his future. Even if he's gotta be a little careful not to get lightly stabbed with a shell spike. He does a few times, though, oops. Casey Sr nicknamed Red 'porcupine', that oughta explain it. Donnie and Tello figure out a battle shell for Red so it's safer and they have a great time.

When Red comes out about her gender, everyone is immediately 👀 at Raph because surely he's gonna feel the same way, right? They've already had this discussion with the purples about how Donnie's always been agender but used to be less fussy about pronouns and Tello didn't switch to they/them until their thirties.

Raph has not figured this gender thing out yet. He is in denial. Red finds this totally hilarious. She doesn't say anything in front of the others, cause she doesn't want to embarrass him in front of everyone they know, but they have a talk later where she's like, "Hey did you know that wishing you were a girl for literal years is a sign that you're not a guy?" It seems very obvious to Raph when she says it like that.

(Based on Donnie calling Raph 'Raphaela' that one time, and having to figure out his own Gender Fuckery, I hc that he was unaware that this was a surprise to Raph. Donnie also finds this totally hilarious.)

Also hc that Red's mystic armour got bigger along with her and Raph finds this extremely cool! He also feels completely safe when his big sister is there all armoured up to protect him, and it's not uncommon to catch him napping in armour-Red's lap like a cat. Red will hurt you if you wake him up, you've been warned.

Red will also put the fear of pizza supreme into anyone by full-naming them from across the state. She's taller than anyone else and learned how to project her voice like for stage theatre. Raph thinks this is the funniest thing imaginable and regularly gets her to yell Leo's name just to see him run for his life. Red has yet to yell at Raph and they all assume she never will. They do meow back and forth (Casey Jr spent longer than he will admit thinking that they had a cat infestation).