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dandylovesturtles · 2 years ago

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100 Feet and A World Away Lore Post

I said before if I won the first round of the TMNT AU Competition I'd put up a lore post of my separated (kinda) AU called "100 Feet and A World Away," which is really more of a reward for myself because now I get to ramble about my babies.

This is an AU I've been building in my head for some time and do eventually want to write a fic about. When? I do not know I have soooo many things I'm in the middle of right now but! hopefully! eventually!

So for now here's just some lore because I can't contain myself, I have to talk about this eventually haha. Like releasing a pressure valve.

without further ado

100 Feet and A World Away (a separated (kinda) AU) (aka the Shape of Water AU)

cw: dehumanization, child abuse (not by a parental figure), brief dismemberment (caused by Donnie, not TO him)

Backstory

quick note: in this AU the age gap between April and the boys is bigger than in canon because it just made things logistically easier; April is 20 and the boys are their S1 ages (15/14/13)

everything up through Lou Jitsu escaping with the boys from Draxum's lab happens as in canon

a few years later (when the boys are about 5/4/3), Splinter goes out to get supplies, leaving the boys in what he thinks (hopes) is a safe place (he doesn't have a lot of choices). He comes back to find the boys have disappeared.

he won't know what happened to them for 10 years

they were spotted by a human sanitation worker, who called animal control, who were like "what the hell is this" and got a Shady Military-affiliated Corporation involved. The boys are taken to a lab to be studied and, once their sturdiness and combat potential are observed, trained to be used for combat by the US Military.

the boys didn't go quietly, at least not Raph and Donnie, who viciously bit and tried to run; they were shocked and sedated. Leo, who had Mikey, saw this and decided to comply because he didn't want them to hurt his little brother. Mikey was too young to understand what was happening so his reaction was mostly just to cry.

Splinter had told the boys never to talk to humans, and the boys take this to heart, hushing up and never speaking to the humans even once they're taken to the lab. As a result, the humans know they have large brains but still assume they only have the intelligence of an ape at best. They treat them like animals, really the comparison I keep thinking of is the raptors in Jurassic World lol: something scary but with the hopes that they will eventually act like attack dogs.

to be clear revealing they could talk wouldn't have helped them much so it's for the best

the boys are given serial numbers when they arrive at the lab but the scientists call them by numbers as a shorthand based on the order they were processed in:

Mikey is Turtle 1

Leo is Turtle 2

Raph is Turtle 3

Donnie is Turtle 4

because Raph and Donnie acted aggressively, the scientists were afraid they would attack each other as well as Leo and Mikey, so they decided to isolate the two of them. On the flip side, because Leo and Mikey were more docile and Leo kept holding onto Mikey, they decided to keep the two of them together. An experiment in isolation vs socialization

as a result, the boys have not seen each other for the last decade, with the exception of two Incidents that I won't be detailing in this post (gotta keep a few secrets lol)

the boys are put through harsh training in an attempt to "tame" them and train them to attack/kill soldiers as ordered. they're also run through tests to determine things like their mental capacity and problem solving skills. there's no like medical testing/experimentation on them in this AU though it's mostly like if they do bad they get shocked and also the scientists/trainers don't really have compunctions against hitting them or muzzling them.

when not in training they live in their own zoo-like enclosures inside sterile rooms, much like the one in Shape of Water which is part of why the AU is the Shape of Water AU lol

MEANWHILE

April is an aspiring investigative journalist who just saw her first success uncovering some shady dealings in a supposedly non-profit organization

she receives a tip about something strange happening in an otherwise normal lab and testing facility just outside NYC's city limits

she's expecting to find illegal animal testing or bioweapons research

instead she finds Turtle Four

Donnie

has been isolated this whole time and as a result is more than a little feral, but not so much that he can't talk. he just has absolutely no sense of social etiquette (my inspiration is the bit in Rat Flu where he says "Make him say yessssah" and HEY BOY IT'S ME THE PS5-)

also he's still autistic but he hasn't learned to mask at all so he acts in a way the humans find weird and unsettling

thinks the humans around him are all idiots and he's so much smarter and better than them. basically his canon superiority complex has ratcheted up to 100 because he has no respect for these guys at all

makes regular escape attempts so lab security just keeps adding more and more obstacles (like an electric fence around his enclosure and steel doors to the room)

probably could have escaped by now but he always doubles back for his brothers and that's how he always gets caught by The Hunter

not as good with tech as his canon counterpart but only because he hasn't been allowed to read or study anything while he's been stuck here, so he only knows as much as he's pieced together messing with things in his enclosure and observing the humans. he's learned a LOT even this way (which is why he knows he's a genius!) but his thirst for knowledge is immense and he wants to get out so he can read books! break things and put them back together! use the internet!

has built up an entire imagined scenario of how things will be once he finally does break himself and his brothers out of there and I'm sure that everything will go exactly how he's expecting and there will be no hiccups at all :)

no longer has any attachment to the name Donatello and thinks of himself as Turtle Four, though he does remember being called Purple too

thinks their dad has abandoned them and doesn't really have any hope that he's looking for them

has a lot of scars on his body from his many many escape attempts and punishments, but most noticeably a scar along his jaw on the left side of his face

Leo

has been with Mikey this whole time so is still much more socialized, lucid, and "human" acting compared to Donnie

has poured all his energy since coming here into being Mikey's Big Brother and making sure things are safe and comfortable for him, being upbeat and positive for his sake, trying to make him laugh and keep him happy to the best of his ability, and generally just doing his normal canon thing but pushed to 11

this façade is the only thing keeping him going and god help him if it cracks

the scientists realized early on that it's easier to get Leo to comply if they threaten/hurt Mikey so Leo is scared of going out of line and just a big ball of guilt 24/7

due to An Incident he has a scar on the right side of his face that matches Donnie, and he doesn't particularly trust Donnie as a result. wishes he would stop his escape attempts because it makes the scientists cranky and they take it out on him and Mikey

still insists their dad is coming for them, if only to keep Mikey's hopes alive

inwardly pretty sure they're going to die here

is the only one who has seen Raph since their initial separation and refuses to talk about it

I'll Keep These Feelings Inside And Then I'll Die

still fully associates with the name Leo

Mikey

fully aware that Leo's putting on act for his sake, but if being a Big Brother is what he needs to keep going then he'll be the Little Brother he needs

knows it's unhealthy but what are they supposed to do?

feels guilt for being used as leverage against Leo

fascinated by humans even though he knows they hurt him regularly

once he saw a scientist doodling and his mind expanded by 1000%. the scientist drew him eventually and he's wanted so bad to do art ever since

the previous bullet point sounds like it's leading to a wholesome interaction but it is not, I'm sorry I mislead you

not as sure that their dad will save them as he lets Leo think he is; he has faith that their dad loves them and is still looking for them but also thinks Donnie is right that they should be helping themselves so they can get back to him

generally has more faith in their brothers than Leo does

can destroy you but chooses not to

still fully associates with the name Mikey

Raph

has gone full savage; it's a defense mechanism

his memories are still there, but they're so deep in his mind he currently only accesses them as vague feelings and sensations

still knows his family by scent, if not by sight

gentle giant when he's surrounded by Familiar Smells, very very aggressive when surrounded by Unfamiliar Smells

he's so dangerous the scientists don't interact with him much, which doesn't help the situation

thinks of himself as "it," when he thinks of himself at all

uncovering the real Raph would take a safe place and time and patience and he isn't getting any of that here!

April

was just trying to live her life man

dating Sunita but presently bummed that Sunita has rejected her suggestion that they move in together (it's because Sunita hasn't broken the whole "I'm actually a slime monster" news to her yet and isn't sure how, but April doesn't know that so she just thinks Sunita isn't as serious as she is)

when she meets Donnie he scares the absolute shit out of her at first

her first instinct is to get away from this whole mess ASAP, but then she realizes Donnie is just a kid and she can't just leave him in there

then he reveals he has 3 brothers and no he is NOT leaving without them

what has she gotten herself into...

is undoubtedly and irrevocably Big Sis April by the end

Splinter

never once stopped looking

finally found a lead that seemed legit but would need a human to help him get inside

found out about a young intrepid reporter looking for tips........

and that's all I'll say now ;)

The Hunter

basically the evil Robert Muldoon (from Jurassic Park)

I haven't named him yet sorry

his job is to catch the turtles if they escape, and he also participates in their training

fully aware that the turtles are more intelligent than they let on, thinks this just makes them more exciting to hunt

Donnie is basically his archnemesis (having a 14-year-old archnemesis is kind of cringe though bro)

will hurt them and doesn't feel bad about it

is missing a finger thanks to Donnie (I did say this was a Shape of Water inspired AU lol)

This was probably a little thin in places so if you are interested and have questions ask me! Wheeeeeeee~

#100 feet and a world away #my separated au #there's more I want to say but also I don't want to spoil too much if I DO write the fic #so this is just like #the really basic stuff

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