#platonic apritello

[thecomfortable]

Headcannon: Donnie got so good at stalking that April stopped noticing after season 1.

Yes, this comes after my headcanon: April apologies to Donnie for leading him on. They are mutually to blame.

Click for better quality!

[tastybluesprite]

OK ANIMATIC/ANIMATION IDEA FOR THIS SONG

Imagin Donnie and April just wreaking havoc all over New York and running from cops an shit lmao. I love this concept sm and cant stop thinking about it. Like this song is literally so them.

[canipleasegetthenumber15]

The boys are very fond of their April lol <3 It started off as just an apritello piece, then I added the others b/c I love platonic affection and gushing over friends (surprise, surprise, lol).

[that1notetaker]

Part 1 of Ace! April + Best friend Dynamics - Next? Some context: April isn't very confident about being around people in canon. She's weird and badass, and while we love that, she thinks she's got to 'be normal' to be liked, and make friends. It reminded me of the Ace Experience, and how that'd add another layer to the slow acceptance that is herself. Enter Donnie.

[justcatie07]

Another screenshot redraw

💜💛

[ladysqueakinpip]

my sister said I'm being annoying about apritello on main again so I decided to spare u all and going forward I'm gonna tag all my apritello rants as "squeakys apritello propaganda" so if u don't wanna see my salt or indoctrination blacklist it 👍

[iwillkeepfighting]

"Meet Me On The Battlefield" is officially the theme song for my bad-future-timeline Rise April and Donnie

[7-eventh]

Apritello, please~💓💞💓

i don't draw ships, but since you're my first request i decided to draw some platonic Donnie and April!

[randomcerealbrand]

What’s your favorite TMNT ship besides Timatello?

Also another question, how would you react when your online friend turned out to be a Roblox YouTuber?

Favorite TMNT ship? Uhhhh...

I don't have any other ships I like as much as Timatello. I know some of my friends' OCs that are shipped with the turtles (in a not weird way dw) but they don't technically count.

I like Leosagi, but mostly 2003 Leosagi and certainly not 2012.

Aprinardo in TOTTMNT is alright, I like them being a couple because they actually aren't weird towards eachother and it's wholesome, but I only see them as platonic.

Leochi (Leo and Yuichi Usagi) is pretty good, I love the concept of Yuichi working at the Run Of The Mill Pizza, or a crossover between dimensions.

Shellshocked is sweet, but it could never happen, unfortunately.

Donnie and Atomic Lass is just funny as hell.

Apritello is something I don't really enjoy, especially in 2012, because of the way they wrote it. If written correctly, I can see this ship happening from a platonic standpoint.

Mikey and Renet - Again, platonic.

Raph and Mona Lisa - 2012 did it and it was rather undercooked and he never actually called her by her actual name, which was odd. Overall it's very sweet but I wish they had more time to develop it. Again, I'd love to make them a thing in my Rise fanon, but my current storyline is incomplete.

Raph and Alopex - Yeesh, the age gap that some of the artists said they had was.. Odd, to say the least. But their relationship definitely did grow to be pretty good until they parted ways. I'd be down to make Alopex best friends with Raph, but the romantic aspects don't vibe with me.

Donnie and Bigfoot - Get the fuck out.

Any of the turtles in general x April - Depends on the way the canon version wrote it. (Aprinardo is currently the only good one.)

April x Irma - Sillies :]

Leorai - This is dogshit.

Baronjitsu - I mean... Sure, I guess. I like the concept.

Splinter x Tang Shen - Canon in 2012, I liked it, it was sweet. As for ROTTMNT, I like how she was one of his co-stars in the Lou Jitsu movies.

April x Casey - Depends on the iteration. 2003 is great, 2012 can go fall off a cliff. 2018 would be cute :]

Raph x Casey - Sure.

Donnie x Casey - 2012; fix the amount of toxic behavior and hostility they have towards eachother, and I'll talk to you about it.

Vernon x April - Bayverse; He's okay, I guess he just misread her signals, but she doesn't like him back and I suppose he respects that.

Donnie and Mona - IDW Comics - Very cute, I like it :)

Donnie and Irma - We don't get to see much of them throughout the franchise, but I like their dynamic in 1987 (platonically) and I enjoyed their dynamic in 2012 as well.

Leo and Koya - I like it. Not much else to say.

Frida x Casey - YES. YES.

Casey Jr. x Nobody - AROACE CJ FOR THE WIN‼️‼️‼️

Splinter and Big Mama - I mean there is some tension there, but I don't think they'd ever get back together.

Leo and Dale - I honestly really like it, they're just two guys in the apocalypse who really like eachother :]

April and Dale - I bet Dale realizes that he likes men and immediately starts apologizing to April. She forgives him and they become besties and they gossip with Sunita and Casey about shit 😭

I saw someone ship Sunita and Dale together once and cringed so 🤷

Sunita x April - I like it, it's cute, but I feel like it's pretty platonic. I'll think about it more as time goes on, but yeah.

Sunita x Raph - I once saw a friend of mine ship these two together and honestly, I liked it! Very good art, very good opinions on it.

Those are all the ships I can remember off the top of my head. But none of these compare to Timatello.

[fabuloustrash05]

I saw your rasey post and oohhh I agree with you so much I’m aroace so the whole people pushing platonic dynamics into romantic ones has always made me rlly uncomfortable I’m kinda glad I found someone with the same option!! I especially hate the 2k3 ver of the pairing cause Casey’s 23 in that series….while Raph’s 15 and it’s just ew throw it into a fire please….burn it!! But I think as a whole stuff like r(a)sey kinda plays into a bigger issue of some people not being able to invest in characters relationships unless they involve some form of shipping

I don’t care if people ship r@sey (03 tho I’m calling the cops on u cause that’s a no no) everyone got their opinions and I’ll respect that, HOWEVER I heavily dislike the ship and I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole. It’s on my block tagged list for a reason.

Like I’m all for shipping, I’m a shipper at heart, but NOT EVERY SINGLE FRIENDSHIP NEEDS TO TURN ROMANTIC. Raph and Casey friendship is and has always been special to me. So people shipping them just shows that some people just can’t comprehend two people just being friends without making it weird. Raph and Casey friendship is one of the most iconic things in TMNT! So shipping them together just ruins it (for me personally) and it’s really annoying seeing fans be like “oh! In the new show Tales of the TMNT I hope they add Casey so Raph can crush on him!” Umm, how about NO??? We already got one Turtle crushing on April we DO NOT need the Turtles crushing on every single human friend they make in this franchise! 🤦‍♀️ Just give MM Raph his Mona Lisa god dammit

Another TMNT ship that comes to mine regarding this topic is April x Donnie in Rottmnt. Yes, I used to ship them but I realized that doing that and hoping for them to be a couple just ruins the special bond that they have! Platonic rise Apritello is better than romantic rise Apritello. I stand by that. Plus I ship Donnie with Kendra so-

Honestly if I had to ship Casey with ANY of the Turtles, it would be Leo. Raph and Donnie is too predictable, overrated and, well, dumb. Also Mikey is a character who has one too many love interests already. Leo x Casey would be far more interesting to see happen in any future TMNT project.

[tastybluesprite]

Pedicure

Ok I had this idea a while ago, but I finally finished writing this lol

Warnings: This fic contains tickling so if that makes you uncomfortable keep scrolling.

“April. No. Absolutely not. I refuse.”

“Donnie you lost the bet!!”

April and Donnie made a bet that if Donnie could beat her at basketball, April had to do whatever he wanted.

However her condition was that he had to do a pedicure.

Donnie didn’t step down when he should’ve and unfortunately lost the bet. His vision was too clouded with pride to remember how bad he was at basketball. It almost wasn’t fair. But alas, he lost.

“April. Please. Literally anything else I’ll do I promise. But I cannot do this!” Donnie pleaded.

“Why not?” April demanded.

Donnie looked down to hide the blush creeping on his face.

“Um… I… I- …It’s embarrassing…”

This wasn’t completely a lie. It was indeed humiliating for the purple branded tech whiz. But no. There was another reason why he didn’t want to do it. Another reason he found in his own opinion to be most humiliating of all.

“Look, it was for my first time once also. It’s no big deal. I’ll be super careful and make sure that you feel as comfortable as possible.”

Donnie threw her an unsure look but sighed.

“Fine. Because.. and only because it is you. For this one time only, I will do it.”

April cheered and pumped her fists. “Heck yeah!” And she went to her house to get her own supplies.

Donnie was so screwed.

When she came back, she and Donnie sat in his room. Donnie sat on the side of his bed, legs draping down, and April at his feet.

“You really Don?” She asked with a grin.

Donnie looked away nervously but nodded. And so she began.

April started with clipping at his three toe nails, and using tweasers to pull off excess hanging skin.

‘This isn’t so bad…’ Donnie thought to himself, allowing himself to relax a little more.

But suddenly he felt a rough scraping at the bottem of his foot, and he convulsed, yelping as he instinctively tried pulling his foot away.

April giggled at this reaction but continued nonetheless. “Sorry.. this might tickle a bit if you’re ticklish.”

“W-wahahait!!!” Donnie cried out, trying to keep his giggles down as he continued his attempts to pull his foot away.

April sighed light heartedly “Donnie you gotta stop moving.”

“C-cahaAHAHahhANT!!!” He cried through his giggles, growing weaker as he fell back into his bed.

“I didn’t know you were this ticklish.” April said with a grin.

She shrugged to herself as she dropped the tool and decided to go right for him. She figured that this was a good enough punishment for losing the bet anyway.

“Ahahaprihihil wahahait!!!” Donnie protested through his now anticipatory giggles, trying to wrestle her hands away.

“Not a chance! You cant expect me to hear that laughter and not want more.” She argued with a playful smirk.

As Donnie was already weak from laughter, April managed to pin him to the bed, and shoved her hands into his underarms, making him shriek and slam his arms down in a feeble attempt to protect himself.

“AHAHAPRIHIHIL”

“Jackpot” She grinned, digging more forcefully into the deadly spot.

Donnie’s brain basically turned to mush. He had no thoughts in his head other than ‘this tickles!’ ‘Stop!’

When Donnie’s laughter grew silent April took that as a sign to stop.

Donnie curled into himself right there on the bed when she got off him, trying to protect himself from any possible further attacks.

“Mehehean…” he giggled weakly. April poked his side playfully at this and he squeaked, flinching away.

“Sorry Donnie. You ok?” She asked sheepishly.

“Y-yeheheah I’m fihine..” he said, starting to get up.

April then began gathering the nail supplies.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Well, I figured that was punishment enough.” She explained. “Why. You want to do this?”

Donnie hesitated but slowly nodded. Once they started doing it, Donnie realized it wasn’t so bad.

Aprils face lit up as a wide grin grew on her face.

She tackled him in a hug, “Well who am I to say no.”

And so he allowed her to paint his nails (making her promise not to use the scraping tool). What a fun afternoon they had together.

[pumpkinpie59]

while everyone likes to crap on leo/rai (for good reason) and on apritello for being cringe ig

i feel like one thing every 2012 ship has a problem with is pacing

yes i mean every ship

it’s clear that the 2012 writers don’t rlly know how to commit to romantic subplots so they either go the “they are super into each other right off the bat so there’s little build up” angle or the “will they won’t they,, but we’ll never show them actually get together” angle

i’m not saying these are atrociously bad or anything but it can be really annoying in the long run

apritello is the entire reason i got into 2012 when i was 11 lmao so it got stale for me when the show focuses less and less on their development since they didn’t want to commit to an actual subplot after the bigfoot fiasco. they both grow, sure, but it’s pushed to the background and we never see them talk about it. instead we get a kiss in a non-canon music video ://

dw apritello i still love you

with ramona, while it’s incredibly sweet how in love they are, the pacing of their first episode was ,,,, bad lol. the first time i watched it i was so underwhelmed i was like,,, this gets better?? right?? and it did but yeah i think that first episode for sure needed tweaking.

and more mona would’ve been great too. she needed some character exploration outside of her relationship with raph,, like having her talk more with the other characters her age (i would kill for april and mona content). i’m not saying she doesn’t have depth. she does. but a lot of it gets pushed to the background for her dynamic with raph.

they just didn’t even try with mikey and renet i’ll be real. they threw renet in there as a love interest and then kept making her and mikey kinda go in circles with their interest in each other. they’ll be cute and close in some scenes and then renet will act like she’s just humoring him while mikey kinda forgets about her when shini shows up.

i think renetangelo is cute to some extent (tho i do dislike 2012 mikey a bit so that doesn’t help) but time travel romances are automatically rlly hard to write well and since 2012’s romance writing is already messy, they weren’t going to do well. and renet herself is automatically more interesting when she’s not interacting with mikey. like her platonic dynamic with leo?? adorable. my favorite renet is 2003 and she’s not a love interest and she’s so charming!! renet is just a fun quirky friend of the turtles.

y’all know i love a lot of tmnt love interests so the fact that i prefer renet as a friend prolly says a lot about how she should be written gjdkdk

i don’t wanna talk about leo/rai much, but other than the glaringly bad i/ncest issue (both siblings and cousins), they just weren’t very good as a romantic dynamic either?

like yeah i’m biased bc lotus is the only leo love interest i will ever accept (and also leo/rai is gross lol)

but like ,,, with karai, leo saw her as an escape from being a leader so he can explore his rebellious streak. which is interesting! but unlike with lotus, leo was willing to betray her behind her back, and karai was willing to manipulate him to do what she wanted him to. but okay that’s getting off topic. back to the pacing,,

season 1 gets a pass for me since i actually love the pacing of season 1 alone (like honestly, after the cousin reveal, there wasn’t any romance up until season 2 from my memory,, and even before that after karai betrayed leo and the other brothers found out, leo wasn’t into her,, it was his brothers who were making fun of him), but afterwards, season 2 onward,the timing of leo/rai moments were always a slap in the face bc they were always. ALWAYS. right after they acknowledged her as family THRJEKSJDJDKSK

but yeah i think pacing is the worst problem of 2012 ships :p

obviously some other problems too, like sexism lol. but pacing is most glaring for me

[that1notetaker]

Their best friend's chaotic dynamic won me over.

[hersheyotaku]

Fandom: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Rating: T Characters: Donatello, April O'Neil Pairings: Donatello/April O'Neil Tags: Injury, Minor Injuries, Blood and Injury, Healing, Kissing, Hurt/Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, Requited Love, these two are just fools who dance around their emotions a bit too much, a little TOO comfy with skinship to be platonic, your honor is it platonic to kiss your friend literally everywhere? Summary:

“Oh Dee,” April whispered.

Four jagged gashes stretched across the upper portion of his shell, mottled bruising surrounding them that was clearly the work of the twisted metal and wiring of his wrecked battle shell when it caved inward under the force of the Shredder’s onslaught. While the wounds would have undoubtedly been deeper—and possibly fatal—if Donnie had been raked by those claws directly, it was still a grisly sight.

April swallowed thickly.

God, if she’d only been a moment faster with the crane. She could still hear Donnie’s screams as the Shredder slammed him to the ground and tore into him with the savage fury of a wild beast. Donnie had barely managed to escape with his life by accidentally blinding Shredder with that silly little handkerchief she’d made fun of when he’d first shown her the feature. From now on, she would never question any attachment Donnie decided to rig his tech bo with.  

Apritello Week Day 5: Protecting/Taking Care of Each Other Read on Ao3 here https://archiveofourown.org/works/46638430

[miss-andromeda]

2012 TMNT 😁

The first character I first fell in love with: 

This should be a no-brainer...I think you know him. Tall, purple bandana, gap between the teeth, way too smart for his own good...yeah, it's him. 😌💜

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

Honestly, Raph! I started the show thinking very surface-level of him; awesome ninja, anger issues, stuff like that. Then when I started rewatching the show, I started to see how vulnerable and soft he could be with his brothers - along with unbelievably sassy he can be. Seriously, dude has some of my favorite one-liners in the whole show.🤣❤️

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

Oh, this is gonna be interesting...I'm gonna be blunt here, Leo. Don't get me wrong, I like him a lot and he has some amazing moments, but he doesn't necessarily have the snark that makes Raph and Donnie stand out, and the sunshine and humor that makes Mikey so endearing. I love Blue, but he's 4th place out of the four. 💙

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

Hmm...probably Shredder. I've seen people say that his motivation is pretty lame (which, in some way, it kind of is) but he's not just a bratty child. He's a really twisted villain and seems to really believe his motivations are completely justified - and you can't deny he's completely ruthless in battle. Really exemplifies the concept of the head of the Foot - and honestly, I think he's a great villain.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer:

Probably April. I liked her a lot when I was younger (the concept of girl power and she's got a potential romance with my favorite turtle? Sign me up!), but once I got older...she really grated on my nerves. Don't get me wrong, I like her in season 1; she's an inexperienced teenager who's dealing with the pain of having her dad be kidnapped and is meeting some new friends along the way. Season 2 onwards? I wanted to strangle her. Not just because of the love triangle (although that is a part of it,) but also because she lost a lot of that awkwardness that made her likable in season 1, and just became a cliche girlboss. But she wasn't even likable there; she just felt like the token female character needed to add "diversity" to the group.

The character I would totally smooch: 

See my first answer. 💜

The character I’d want to be like: 

Probably Raph; minus the short temper, I'd love to have the skills he has and the undying love with an animal - be it Spike/Slash or Chompy. Plus, the sass. ❤️

The character I’d slap: 

Well, I already mentioned April, but I like her in season 1 so that saves her. And it's kind of a cliche choice to pick a villain, so let's pick someone that I've despised since the beginning - even when I was a dumb kid.

Casey.

Does he get better in later seasons? Yeah, I'd say so; he becomes less in your face and more...just annoying, but kinda like Mikey annoying where you can't hate him. But in season 2, I wanted to strangle him too - and admittedly, still kinda do. He's way too obnoxious for his own good, is way too gross in his flirting with April (he's not chauvinistic or anything, but you just roll your eyes a lot of the time), and doesn't back up his bragging or anything with actually being likable, unlike Raph.

So yeah, he's the one.

A pairing that I love:

If you asked me this when I was a kid, I would've said Apritello - April and Donnie. Now, I don't shame anyone if they ship them, but let's just say I way prefer my version in All's Fair in Love and Science (shameless self-promo 😅) where they love each other platonically and April shamelessly teases him about his crush on my OC, Andi.

But to answer, a pair that I love? Mikey and Renet, personally. She captures that inexperience as a Time Master wonderfully, and she never comes off like an idiot - she's just trying to find her footing. And Mikey's so in awe of her that it's kind of adorable. They both have that same kind of childish, free spirit that makes me just want to protect them. 😅🧡

A pairing that I despise: 

Okay, there are two.

One is the aforementioned Apritello. I used to like them as a kid, but watching it in hindsight is just cringeworthy. Don't get me wrong, I am all for Donnie having a crush (and admittedly, I'm a sucker for the love at first sight trope), but did they have to make it so forced and awkward? And I understand April feeling uncomfortable and not wanting to ruin their friendship about his feelings for her, but that's what communication is. And by not having that, she just kept leading him on and making him think he had a chance - only to either ignore him or just continue treating him like just a friend. It was so forced and awkward and...ugh.

And for the obvious - Leorai, Leo and Karai. Okay, who thought it was a good idea to imply that two siblings could have a romance - and have it be canon that one sibling had a crush on the other? Don't get me wrong, I love Karai; she's bar none my favorite female character in the show. And like I said, I love Leo - but the crush he had on Karai is what brings his character down for me. If they wrote him as impressed by her skills and seeing the good in her from a platonic point of view, it would've been sweet - and added another layer to Leo's character. But no, they went with the pseudo-incest perspective and made us all creeped out.

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Thank you for the ask, girl! ❤️

@kikithedreamerwriter @m1dnyt3-w0lf @margoteve @jasminarts01 @thelaundrybitch @raphsmuneca @happymoonangel @android-cap-007