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Ao3 Link: Here
Donnie and Leo loved to get each other gifts. It started with small things when they were younger. Leo brings home a bundle of wires from dumpster diving, or Donnie finds sparkly plastic jewelry for Leo to wear around the lair. There was something about seeing an item and instantly thinking that the other person would like it.
-
On their 8th birthday, Leo pulled Donnie aside from the celebration and towards their room. Donnie grumbled at Leo's excited giggling and yanked his hand back to sit down as soon as they were through the door and alone. Leo didn't seem to mind, still smiling like a madman.
"I got you a gift!" Leo said, and Donnie just rolled his eyes.
"I know you did. You're not very good at keeping secrets. The only thing I don't know is where you're keeping it." The slider glared at his twin and with a huff reached under Donnie's bed. He then pulled out a small cardboard box with a bow on it. Donnie raised his eyebrows.
"You hid it under my bed?" He asked.
"Uh, yeah! Why would you look under your bed?" That was a fair point, Donnie conceded, then reached under his extra pillow, and pulled out a similarly sized box. Leo grinned and shoved his box into Donnie's hand before snatching the other one.
Leo stuck the bow to his head before ripping through the paper and rifling through the tissue paper inside. Donnie on the other hand was very careful in peeling up the pieces of tape, setting the bow to the side before unfolding the tissue paper and pulling out a white coffee mug. It was covered in designs of constellations and atoms that Leo clearly drew himself in varying shades of purple.
Donnie blinked down at the gift in surprise and looked up at Leo, who was pulling his own white mug covered in Donnie's hand-drawn designs, these of unicorns and rainbows. Leo broke out into a huge smile and began to laugh.
"We really are twins!" He shouted.
"Shut up," Donnie mumbled, annoyed.
-
7 years later, Donnie was sitting in his lab finishing up the wrapping on his gift for his twin. He smoothed out the wrapping paper across the heavy box with steady hands, trying to dispel the nervousness that always came with getting a gift for his brothers.
Over the years both Donnie and Leo had given a lot of gifts to each other and to the rest of their family. Sometimes it was for special occasions, sometimes they saw something that the other person would like or need and just did it, sometimes it was just because. But giving gifts to Leo always felt different.
The thing was that, at least for Donnie, the gift exchanges were reminders of how well the twins knew each other. Donnie had a hard time understanding any of his brothers, but with Leo, it was a bit easier. He believed it had something to do with them both being people of thought, rather than action, like Raph and Mikey. Leo may have acted stupid, but Donnie knew that his true strength lay in his strategy, in his understanding and manipulation of the enemy. He tended to show it casually most of the time, but it was always still impressive.
But the point was that Donnie understood Leo on a level that he didn't quite with the rest of his family, and each time they gave each other gifts it helped reinforce that understanding. Plus, it was an easy way to show that they loved each other, without all the complexities of emotion.
Donnie reached out and grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen out of an old coffee mug, with purple hand-drawn constellations and atoms, scribbled a quiet "happy birthday" on the paper and stuck it under the bow. He then walked out and knocked on Leo's door.
He heard scrambling from inside and was greeted with a bright overwhelming smile on his twin's face.
"Finally! Why do you always say wrapping till the last minute?" Leo yelped as he pulled Donnie inside his room. Donnie didn't dignify the question with an answer and shoved the present into Leo's hands. Leo in turn put the box on the ground and shoved his own huge brightly wrapped box into Donnie's.
It had been a tradition ever since that first 8th birthday that they would give each other their presents separate from the rest of their family just so they could have a moment with each other alone on their birthday. And Donnie always had the strangest sense of Deja Vu whenever they did it. It was always a reminder of how little he and his twin had changed as they grew older. Because Leo still ripped and tore through the paper after sticking the bow on his head, and Donnie always peeled away the tape, to the point that Leo only used one or two pieces on the whole box to make the process faster.
Once it was open Donnie picked up a new soldering tool, remembering how he mentioned his old one was fizzing out uncontrollably, and in another box a Jupiter Jim comic book wrapped in cellophane. With a card on top that read "Mint condition ;)." Donnie felt himself start to wiggle and put down the box to flap his arms up and down, he wished he was in his wheelchair so we could spin around. He looked up to thank Leo and hug him, only to find Leo already leaning across the gap with an excited squeal, talking so fast that Donnie couldn't keep up.
In Leo's lap was a new custom wooden chess set, with each of the pieces a different sea creature. (Except for the nights which were unicorns, because his brother never grew out of that phase.)
Donnie hugged Leo back with a smile and patted him on the back before they drew apart.
"This is great, Don! I love it so much! You've got to play with me later today!"
Donnie just sighed and rolled his eyes, accepting the fact that he was going to get his butt whooped in chess because he never could be Leo at that game.
"Later," he said. "Let's just enjoy the party." Leo smiled and bolted for the door, dragging his twin behind.
Just like always.
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Thank you to @rise-august-art-challenge for hosting the Rise August Challenge, which this is inspired by.
Please let me know if I should improve or fix something.
One Part of My Brain: Ah yes, a beautiful piece of art.
The Rest Of My Brain: Baby. Baby. Babies. Yes, they are babies. They are small, and babies.
Turtle tots! 💚
AO3 Link
Based on the Rise August Challenge by @sariphantom Thank you for Hosting this Challenge.
Mad Dogs: Draxum ponders over why his creations would use the term “Mad Dogs” to identify themselves. He sees why. (BAMF Turtle Brothers, Draxum trying his best)
Disaster Twins: Donnie and Leo like to show their love through gifts. (Fluff, Angst, Gifts)
Dr. Delicate Touch: How did Mikey become Dr. Delicate Touch. (Turtle Tots)
Yokai: Donnie and his brother weren’t humans. So, he was excited to discover that there was a whole city of people like them. Except that it turns out they aren’t Yokai either.
Mayhem: Agent 64 knows that their mission is over. That the council would want them back to continue their work elsewhere. So, they gave themselves a new mission: to spy and report on human activity.
Cassandra Jones: Cassandra Jones had loved the Foot Clan, the Clan just hadn’t loved her back.
Senor Hueso: The hidden city was aware of the invasion but didn’t know how it ended. Senor Hueso finds out when the turtles come to eat.
Big Mama: Leo is trapped with Raph by Big Mama (Whump)
Kimono: Ralph wears a kimono; it feels strangely right.
Pizza: Mikey tries to make pizza from scratch. It... doesn't really work out.
April O’Neil: It’s hard to believe that April is human sometimes, even she sometimes questions it. (BAMF April)
Cassy Jr.: Cassy Jr has a panic attack. Raph helps. (Angst)
Cannonball: Cannonball Day ends with Mikey having his arm in a cast. (Hurt/Comfort, Broken Bones)
Purple Dragons: Donnie was not happy that the Purple Dragons had made him almost destroy his brothers. But they were fine in the end, so no harm, no foul. That didn't mean they weren’t still on thin ice with him, then they decided to do the incredibly stupid thing of risking his son’s AI’s life. They weren't going to know what hit them.
Invention: Donnie has never been the safest in his lab. He regrets that now more than ever, as his newest invention begins to malfunction.
Hidden City: The Hidden City is a weird place. so, when something weirder comes along they notice it. And rumors are a thing no matter where you live.
Warren Stone: Warren Stone is not the most intimidating figure, but he'll be damned if the relaxing date he had planned for him and his boyfriend was to be interrupted by anything.
Lou Jitsu: Splinter finds an old Lou Jitsu Movie, and he takes it home. He never meant for his boys to find it. (Fluff, Angst, Tots)
Snow Day: Mikey isn't the best at dealing with low temperatures. His brothers must deal with the aftermath. (Hurt/Comfort, Whump)
Sleepover: Everyone needs some comfort after the invasion, and since Leo can't be moved from the Med Bay, they'll have to make do. (Hurt/Comfort)
Mrs. Cuddles: How did Raph become afraid of Mrs. Cuddles?
Hypno: It turns out that Leo and Hypno have a lot in common. So, when they're not trying to beat the living daylights out of each other, they have a lot to talk about.
Turtle Tots: Turtle brothers have always been trouble magnets, which hadn't been great when they were younger. There was a reason Donnie invented his battle shell.
Rise: The Hamato children remember what it was like when they awoke their Ninpo.
@nickelodeon please bring back Rise!
Image ID: Image is a low-resolution screenshot from Rise of the TMNT movie. It takes place during the sequence where the turtles try and fail to interrogate Casey Jones Junior. It depicts Donnie lying comically on the floor, seemingly unconscious after accidentally activating Junior’s grappling hook and being knocked out by it. End ID.
salutations fellow turtle analysts! I am currently (very slowly) working on a fanfic that takes place immediately after [ROTTMNT MOVIE SPOILERS!] Leo gets rescued and, although I know it’s largely unnecessary, I wanted to be as accurate as possible about the various injuries everyone had sustained in the movie. for this, I have gone through the movie yet again and wrote down all the notable occasions of the main crew getting hit or being visibly injured and/or in pain for unclear reasons.
some clarifications and warnings before I jump into the readmore
1. this log does not contain potential injuries sustained during the first fight with the Krang, EXCEPT for Raph. my reasoning: everyone but Raph got to go home in the escape pods and had a chance to recover somewhat. I think it’s best demonstrated by Splinter - he was majorly hurt during the fight, but seemed to be doing well when Leo and the others left to look for Raph. it could’ve been done to ease on the pressure, for comedic effect, it could just be that the escape pods provide some sort of first aid OR he simply had enough time to recover on his own. and while I don’t think it’s sufficient enough evidence, I choose to believe everyone but Raph did a “reset” so to speak in that scene. if you have counter-arguments regarding this, feel free to dm me about it and I’ll see if I agree and whether I should amend my statement!
2. I tried to keep my notes purely observational in nature, so in some cases I do not state specifically that there is an injury present, but rather describe the character’s expression or gestures and what they might imply (such as, someone holding onto their head or the glowing cracks caused by Mikey’s gateway)
3. feel free to dm me or reply to this post if you think I missed anything! as I’ve said, this log is incomplete, simply because I’m just one guy and can only notice so much on my own. although I don’t promise to amend this post in every case
4. my notes contain some light swearing and take on a more conversational tone in some parts
5. I mean this goes without saying, but there are descriptions of physical injuries, sometimes near-fatal. so take that into account if you decide to read through
6. slightly off-topic, but if there is something wrong with how I did the image ID’s or if there are general issues with accessibility, please let me know! i don’t know if i’ll be able to fix all of my errors, because I spent the entire day working on this post instead of preparing for my entrance exams, but I’d like to at least try
with all that out of the way, I present to you: The (Incomplete) Injury Log of the Rise of the TMNT Movie! (under the cut because it is ridiculously long)
Image ID: Image is a high-resolution screenshot from Rise of the TMNT movie. It depicts, from left to right, Leo, Mikey, Raph, and Donnie looking at the photoraph that Casey Jones Junior had brought from the future. The Key is drawn on the flip-side of the photograph, but the turtles haven’t seen it just yet. Mikey and Donnie are peaking at it from behind Raph’s back and Leo is standing at a slight distance from the three of them. End ID.
Keep reading
Guys…I have made an amazing discovery. (Watch with sound on).
Reblogging because it is a beautiful screenshot.
Artists, can you redraw this?
Pretty please? 🥺
Posting a random screenshot until we get season 3, there’s a chance I’m going to do it forever, day 173
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Leo had a sly smile as he approached Casey from behind, who was sitting on the couch with Mikey watching TV.
“Hey, man.” He said, leaning over and wrapping his arm around Jr. The time traveler looked up with a bright smile.
“Hi Leonardo. How are you?”
“Oh, I’m wonderful, my friend.” Leo said, eyes mischievous. “Say, I was wondering, what do you call a baby butterfly with whiskers?”
Casey tilted his head in confusion, while Mikey's eyes widened, and he sat up straight. A look of fear on his face.
“Leo don’t-”
“A cat-erpillar.”
Mikey fell back and groaned in annoyance, while Leo erupted with laughter. “Oh, that was a good one.” Leo brushed away a tear.
“But... caterpillars don't have whiskers.”
The two brothers stared at Casey for a moment, and Casey just stared back. Then his eyes went wide with realization.
“Oh, because cats have whiskers, and caterpillar starts with ‘cat.’ Cat-erpillar.” He started chuckling and giggling. “I get it! That's pretty funny sensei.”
Leo’s eyes went wide, and his face fell with shock. Then he lit up like a sunrise. Mikey saw this and began to wave his arms around in a panic.
“Leo, wait-”
“Oh, this is going to be fun!”
“No, it won’t! Leo, please-”
-
The next time they were eating pizza with the family. Leo smiled and bumped Casey’s shoulder with his own.
“Hey, kid.” He said and Casey looked up. “I saw this really cool chimney for sale and was thinking about buying it.” Jr furrowed his brow, while everyone else went stiff with concealed panic.
“Why would you want to buy a chimney? We live underground.” Leo waved his hands dismissively.
“Not important to the story. I thought it was going to cost a lot it turns out it was-”
“Nardo, please!”
“-on the house.”
The table erupted in groans and there was a bang as Raph dropped his head to the table. Casey just nodded at his master's words.
“Well, that was nice of them.” He turned and took another bite of pizza, then stopped mid chew a look of deep thought on his face. Then, he spit out the bite as he started to laugh.
“OH! On the house! Because roofs are on top of houses.”
“Ah, there you go.” Leo said, slapping Casey on the back. “See guys, he gets it!”
“This is going to be a thing, isn’t it?” Donnie asked, unenthusiastically and already knowing the answer. Leo just smirked back.
“Of course, it is.”
-
Leo and junior were sitting by themselves on a rooftop, when Leo turned to his friend.
“You know, I used to have this friend with kind of messed up feet.”
“Really?” Casey asked, turning to face him.
“Yeah,” Leo said, leaning back. “He would always stand super crooked and would always have to keep rocking back and forth to keep standing up.” Casey's face pinched in sympathy at the thought.
“Did it hurt him?”
“Naw, it was mostly just annoying or uncomfortable. Eventually, his doctor recommended that he at these new orthopedic shoes, and he kept saying that they weren't for him, but he did end up getting them and now he...”
Leo looks Casey straight in the eyes as he finishes his sentence, looking like the cat who had caught the canary. “...stands corrected.”
Casey just smiled back at the smug face.
“That's good for them. I'm happy they found something that works.”
Silence. Then-
“Wait a sec! Mater Leonardo-”
“HAHAHHAHHA!”
-
“Casey!” Leo called, and Jr quickly bolted over worried.
“Leonardo, what is it?” He found him standing by the closed bathroom door. Leo looked over and smiled.
“I need your help.” The turtle said, stepping back. “The door is jammed.”
And, indeed, sitting on the door handle was a jar of jam.
“Ok, I’ll try and open it” Casey said politely, walking over and picking up the jar. He was already pushing down on the handle before he looked at the label on the jar and froze.
Leo burst out laughing and nearly fell over, gasping and bending over with his arms wrapped around his stomach. Casey just furrowed his brow in confusion, mouthing the words over. Then he straightened up, looked at the laughing turtle and began to giggle himself.
“I don't think that was as a good as the others.” he said, still chuckling.
“Oh, come on! That was a great one!” Leo said, taking the jar from Casey and leaving to return it to the kitchen.
-
“Hey, Leo?” Casey asked from his seat in the back of the tank.
The slidder smiled at the use of the nickname, instead of “sensei,” or “master.” It was nice that the kid was starting to relax around him.
“What up, Jr?” He responded and looked back. The kid was shifting back and forth anxiously. He then shyly looked up and cleared his throat.
“What do you call a dog that can do magic?”
The rest of the tank froze and stared in shock at the time traveler. Was he about to...
“I don’t know,” Leo said casually, not really taking in the question.
“A Labra-cadavrador.”
Leo’s head finally caught up to the conversation and his eyes went wide.
“Did he just...?” Mikey asked.
“No,” Donnie said. “He couldn’t have.”
Before the shocked discussion could go any further, Leo launched himself out of seat and tackled the human boy with a hug, laughing and squishing the boy tight.
“That was so good, kid!” He cried joy overwhelming him at the thought that Casey could relax enough for him to joke like that. The kid trusted him, the kid was joking! Leo had never been prouder.
“You deserve around of a-paws for that one.” The slidder said, still hugging the kid tight. A round of groans echoed in the car. “Don’t listen to them, Casey. That joke was paw-some!”
“Stop it! No more!”
“Sorry, Mikey,” Casey said, rubbing the back of his head from his spot in Leo’s arms. “Can you, uh, fur-give me?”
“Donnie, open the window. I’m jumping out.”
“Wait, no! I really am sorry! I’ll stop!”
“Would you care if I joined you, Angelo?”
“WAIT! NO, SIRS-”
Prev - Next - Masterpost Ao3 Link: Here
Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge, and look at @rise-april-art-challenge to see more submissions by other fans. Please give me feedback if there is anything I should work on.
Are you saying that you wouldn't explore a creepy burned down building?
Week.
the fears aren't fears anymore they're just levels of stupidity now. having body image issues? lemme put a scalpel to my eye! there's a weird spooky building that got burned down? sure thing let's go explore! someone mysteriously sent me movie tickets for an unknown film even tho i never gave out my address? sounds like a lucky break to me!
literally how have these people survived this long
Prev - Masterpost Ao3 Link: Here
The yellow of the setting sun was painted over by the swirling pink of the hole in the sky. The wind whistled past Leo's ear as he listened to the young voice coming from his comm.
“Just tell me when you’re home free, and I’ll pull the plug!”
Casey’s voice rang in his ears as he looked up at the hulking steal encased monster and the endless void of suffering just on the other side of the gate, marching towards him. Towards the city. Towards the world.
Towards his family.
Maybe that shouldn’t be as high on his list. Maybe a real hero would do this for the world. But Leo isn’t a hero. Leo is selfish, arrogant, and a screw up.
But if there's one thing that Leo could consider good about himself, it was this: he was loyal and he loved his family more than anything. So, screw it.
“Casey, listen to me.” He says, not taking his eyes off the Krang. “When I get to the other side, you close that door.”
He knows what he’s asking from the kid. Knows he is asking him to pull the trigger, to kill him. Leo knows he could have lied, could have told him to close it without telling him that he was still on the other side. But Casey shouldn’t have to live with the guilt of thinking that it was an accident, that Leo had a chance of making it out and Casey somehow screwed it up. He deserves to know that it was Leo’s choice. That there was no other way out.
“What? Sensei, no!”
Leo tunes out his response, his explanation, to focus on the enemy in front of him. He knows the way it will go, knows the words.
It feels like he’s already said them a thousand times.
Raph’s panicked voice brakes through his concentration. He’s begging, pleading, trying to reject what is happening, to demand and hold all of existence down so that is has no choice but to compile.
Leo did the same when he was dragged away by the escape pod.
He says something, a joke he forgets before it’s even out of his mouth. What he’s really saying is “I know this hurts. I know you’ll hate yourself for this. But you’ll live. You’ll be ok after a while. And that’s all I want.”
He stares at the end of everything he loves, and, with his body and mind collapsing inwards on itself like a dying star, he brings forward his Ninpō and rases his blades.
It’s a pitiful fight that’s over before it starts. But he feels his first blade in the void of the prison behind him and digs the one in his hand into foot pining him down.
“What you fail to understand is I missed on purpose.”
His Ninpō flared and he teleported deep into the prison.
In the moments between the disappearance and reappearance, Leo could swear that he could feel the weight of thousands of despairing eyes burn into his soul.
The Krang tried to fight him, tried to run back towards the open doorway, and Leo knew he couldn’t keep him there for long.
“Casey, please.” He pleaded.
This is a plea that he knows, one that sings in his blood. Hamatos have always been forced to sacrifice everything for their family, for the world. And they always died the same way: begging their loved ones to understand. To forgive them for not coming home.
The portal closes, the Technodome explodes.
Leo let’s go of his hold and waits for death.
-
Mikey opens a portal and saves him. He comes home.
But Leo is still waiting for death.
He sits in his med bay cot and listens to the beeps of his heart monitor and waits for it to stop. He feels each breath and waits for it to be cut off.
Nothing happens.
It doesn’t feel real. He thinks back to when the Krang’s anger was trying to crush him, when it rained hits down to try and crack open his shell and rip apart whatever was inside.
He hadn’t been alone. He could feel them, watery eyes that watched with despair, hands that reached out and tried to hold him, voices that thanked him and whispered to him that “Anata wa hitori ja nai.”
As he hugged the photo of his family to his chest and smiled, he felt a sense of familiarity well up in him. As if he had already done this 1000 times over. But it wasn't him, no, it was spirits that gathered around him. That could do nothing but reach out for him as he waited to die.
Leo wonders how many of his family sacrificed themselves for the ones they loved, how many died for some cause. How many deaths did it take to carve the knowledge of sacrifice into a bloodline?
But Leo hadn't died.
He began to cry. He let the tears flow freely and he cried. Because even if his heart had never stopped beating, he still felt like he had died. Like whoever he was had disappeared into that dimension and left him a broken body to return to his family.
But that wasn’t true, he was alive. Scared and beaten and broken, but alive.
Why? Why him?
Out of everyone, out of all the souls that had reached out and shared his pain, why was he the one to come back home?
What had he done to be brought back while they were mourned?
No one answered.
After a minute Donnie would walk in on Leo still crying. He would grow stiff and reach out and grab his hand. Leo would cling to it and sob that he was sorry that he hadn’t listened to them, that he had put them in danger for his ego, that he had almost made them lose him.
Donnie would just cling right back and soon began to cry in turn, begging Leo to never do that again. To always be safe and with them, and Leo agreed.
Thus, Leo returned to life not with fire and ash but with tears and sobs. Nothing would be the same, nothing would be the way it was before, but they would always love each other and nothing else mattered.
Prev - Masterpost Ao3 Link: Here Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge and look at @rise-april-art-challenge to see more submissions by other fans. Please give me feedback if there is anything I should work on.\
@nickelodeon Bring Back Rise
I am a girl. I am a girl because everyone my whole life has told me so. I am a girl because I wear skirts and dresses, because I like talking about boys with other girls. I am a girl because I wear bras, and need tampons, and need to shave my legs every week. I am a silly younger sister, and a caring older sister. I am a girl because my body chose to be a girl, and I love being one.
But I want to be a boy. I want to be muscular and strong, and to have a flat chest. I want to shop in the men's section for button downs, and shorts with large pockets. I want someone to look at me and think "He's so handsome." I want to own Nerf guns, and climb trees while scraping my knees. I want to be a mischievous little brother, or protective older one. I want to be a boy. But I am not. Because I am a girl.
Sometimes I want to be a mix of the two. I want to be a boy who wears skirts and high heels, and doesn't feel like any less of a man. I want to be a girl who intimidates and works long days to provide for her family, and who is still seen as a woman. I want to go a long time without washing my hair or shaving, and still be called Miss in the grocery store. I want to wear makeup and curl my hair, and still be told what a fine young man I am. But I cannot. Because I am just a girl.
Sometimes, when I am alone, I will take off my clothes and look in the mirror. At my body, who chose to be a girl. (Though I do not hate it because of that choice. It did not know that the soul that lived inside of it would not match.) And I will say to myself "I am a girl", and for that second I will be. Then I will say I am a boy, and I will become one for that moment. Sometimes I will say " I am a boy and a girl." and I can be both. Other times I will say "I am just a person." And my concept of gender will fade for that moment.
But after, the words will fade and I'll put my clothes back on. And I will be just a girl again. Not because I chose to, but because that is what I have been told my whole life.
I am a girl because everyone has told me so, and they will never see me as anyone else.
(This is my experience as a multi-gendered individual. I do not speak for anyone in the community except myself. People have different experiences with gender and sexuality. Nothing is universal. If you want to understand someone, ask about their own experiences. Don't presume. Make sure to take care of yourself.)
last straw
You Can Call Me Glad She/He, Bisexual, Bigender, Autistic, I write Fanfiction.
81 posts