Rise August - Blog Posts
Moments Chapter 5: Mayhem
(I know it's September, I'm just going to keep going.)
Ao3 Link
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Agent 64 has been doing reconnaissance. for of the human world, and of the human family unit known as the “O’Neils,” for a few months now. And it had much to report to the Council of Heads.
For starters, the human city of “New York” was much too loud for any truly restful nap, and it’ appears that humans are at least partly nocturnal because the city is just as loud at night. Thankfully, the human known as “April” has been setting up ben for The Agent in a quieter location.
The human April has also been the one to care for Agent 64, she has also given it the code name “Mayhem” and has been an excellent asset for Agent 64 in its reconnaissance. Even if she must leave for her human education most days-
“Agent 64,” One of the Council members interrupted the report Mayhem was giving. “While we are all glad that you are enjoying your time on this... ‘reconnaissance mission,’ I’m afraid that the council and I are questioning whether this is strictly necessary.”
Of course, it is necessary. Humans have been a threat to yoaki kind before, and it is important to be aware of all threats.
“Well yes, but-”
Very well then. Now that the council and Agent Mayhem have reached an agreement, it could continue with its report. It had several pages on human food, partially which to avoid and which to steal if you ever got the chance. It also wanted to discuss the magic humans could do by rubbing their fingers through its hair.
-
The meeting lasted two more hours.
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Thank you for reading. Let me know if there is anything I should work on.
Thank you to @sariphantom for hosting the Rise August Challenge, which this is inspired by.
@nickelodeon Please save Rise.
Moments Chapter 3: Dr. Delicate Touch
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Ao3 Link: Here
Tensions had been running high in the Hamato household for days now. Raph and Donnie had been fighting, Raph and Leo had been fighting, Donnie and Leo had been fighting, everybody was fighting with everybody. Mikey doesn't even really remember the reason why it started, he only knows that every attempt to apologize or to calm everyone down had only caused more harsh words to be exchanged and more feelings to be hurt. And honestly, Mikey was just getting sick of it.
Even still, he might not have done anything about it. The fighting may have lasted another week before fading into obscurity, and it all would have gone back to normal. But Mikey was tired. He had stayed up all night for the first time, and when the morning had come, he had been barely able to keep his eyes open, and of course, when he went down to breakfast everyone was pointedly ignoring each other or glaring at each other. But Mikey had been too emotionally and physically tried to give a damn, just sat down with a thump and tried to eat his cereal in peace. Then, Leo decided to open his big mouth.
"So, you're really going to pretend that nothing happened?" the Slider said, glaring at Donnie.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Donnie responded coldly, not looking up from his bowl. Mikey squeezed his eyes shut with a despite, silent plea for his brothers just to stop.
“Oh, wonderful. We’re just going to mosey on past all that stuff you said. Awesome. Great.” Mikey put his head in his hands and wished he had hair to tug on.
“You’re not even going mention what you said yesterday?” Raph asked, eyes narrow. Mikey could feel himself losing control and getting closer to a breakdown every second.
“Don’t start with me, Rapha.” Leo snarled and opened his mouth to say something else that he would most certainly regret later, and Mikey felt the moment he lost it.
“Shut up, Leo. You’re not helping.” Mikey said. The others all stopped and stared at him. “What? He’s not. He’s just mad 'cause he knows he’s in the wrong, and he can’t worm his way out of it, so he's pointing out everyone else's mistakes.” There was silence for a moment then Dee, still a little unsettled but determined to use this to his advantage, shakily smiled and turned to Leo.
“Ha! See Leo-”
“Oh no, Donnie,” Mikey interrupted before that could get off the ground. “Just because he’s trying to deflect, doesn’t mean he isn’t right. You need to get off your high horse and quit pretending you’re better than us because you’re smarter!” And you!” Mikey said pointing at the eldest brother, and the others watched as Raph leaned away from his younger brother. “You need to quit it with the passive-aggressive stuff! Just say you are angry and hurt! We don’t need you pretending you’re not and then ignoring us or saying backhanded stuff! Comminate! It’s not that hard!”
Mikey then turns to the whole group and grits his teeth.
“All of you know you’re wrong! But none of you are going to come out and apologize and would rather keep shouting at each other because you don’t want to lose whatever weird and annoying game you’re playing!” Mikey was waving his arms and then slammed them down on the table. “Well, guess what? It’s not a game! And if you don’t stop, I’m going to tie you together, and dangle you over the sewer fallout! And I will be happy and smiling while I do it, so don’t TEST ME!”
By the end, Mikey was breathing heavily and the others had backed up several feet. The wind had drained out of him and slumped slightly.
“I’m going back to bed. Don’t wake me up.” He left the three of them in the kitchen, and marched back into his room, collapsing onto the bed and curling up into his shell until he fell asleep.
-
When Mikey awoke, he groaned and popped out of his shell keeping his eyes closed. He was already forming an apology in his mind to his brothers for his sleep-deprecated shouting earlier. So, when he opened his eyes and found the three brothers surrounding his bed, he squeaked in surprise and then groaned again once he realized who was there.
"Look, guys-" he said, but was quickly interrupted.
"We're sorry, Mikey," Raph said, and Mikey blinked.
"What?" he asked, feeling an intense amount of whiplash.
"Yeah..." Leo said, fidgeting with his hands. "We shouldn't have been fighting so much, you were right."
"As much as it pains me to admit it," Donnie said avoiding eye contact and crossing his arms. "You were right, and we could tell that our fighting was hurting you too. We should have been more considerate."
"We've all already apologized to each other and made up," Raph said. "So, we just needed to apologize to you as well."
Mikey was overwhelmed, and quite possibly in shock. This was so different than what he was expecting when he woke up. But he felt a rush of relief that the fighting was finally over.
"Thanks, you guys," he said, feeling a smile. "And I'm sorry about being so mean."
"You were just a tad mean," Leo said with a dismissive wave. "Honestly we needed more than a little delicate touch, doc." Donnie clapped his hands from where he was standing.
"Well now that all the sticky emotions are over, I am getting back to business." He turned around and waved back to the others. "You three enjoy yourselves doing whatever it is you do."
Ralph rolled his eyes and turned to Mikey.
"Do you want to play Animal Crossing with me?" Mikey shook his head.
"Nah, I'm going back to my nap," he said.
"Alright," Raph said and nudged Leo. "Come on, Lee."
"Alright, Alright," Leo said exasperated. "Night, bro," he called back.
"Night," Mikey said and curled up with a smile.
-
I know this is late, stuff happened. Thank you for reading. Let me know if there is anything I should work on.
Thank you to @sariphantom for hosting the Rise August Challenge, which this is inspired by.
@nickelodeon Please save Rise.
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Moments Chapter 2: Disaster Twins
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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.
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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.
Beautiful!
Rise August Day 1: Mad Dogs
So... let's just pretend that I finished this on time and I'm TOTALLY not a day late on even my own art challenge, shall we?😅
Moments Chapter 1: Mad Dogs
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AO3 Link: Here
Draxum was still adjusting to being in contact with his creations. He had thought they had been destroyed with his lab, so when he saw them alive, he had been overwhelmed. When he had lost them, he hadn't truly mourned, he had been uncertain if the experiment would work and wasn't sure what it would have created, he wasn't even certain if they would be fully sentient. The fact that they were alive and there had caused a rush of emotion. Surprise and shock, but also pride and wonder. He had called them beautiful, and he had meant it.
As they fought, Draxum observed them carefully, trying to see what his creations had become in his absence. They had somehow managed to find the scrapped prototypes for the weapons that he had intended to give them if he had raised them. And each of them seemed to use them with at least a moderate form of success. Impressive. But what was more impressive was the fact that they could speak clearly, enough to banter with him and each other, and they each seem to have different and separate personalities from each other.
Even though he only spent a short time with them he could see that they had become people. Not weapons, or animals, or some empty shell that could be puppeteered. They were aware, sentient, alive. It made some small and strange thing bloom in his chest. He had ignored it.
He learned eventually that they called themselves "The Mad Dogs." Draxum had creased his eyebrows at the name, wondering why they would want to name themselves after a crazed and feral animal. But otherwise had not thought about it.
-
It had not been until much later that he remembered he had made them to be weapons.
It had been a hard thing to remember. They acted up and goofed around so much, and rarely took anything seriously. Even when he had revealed a core piece of their identity, the truth about their human DNA, all they had done was squeal like little girls and jump up and down. And though he saw their power, it was easy for Draxum to continue thinking of them as nothing more than children. It took him seeing how they reacted after the Krang invasion to remember that fact.
Draxum had received a call from Michelangelo's phone shortly after the chaos had settled. All he had managed to gather was that Michelangelo had done something mystical and had been severely injured before he was out the door and on his way to the turtle's lair.
-
When he arrived, he ignored the mess that the layer was in and march straight to the med bay. He threw the door straight open with a slam.
"Would anyone care to tell me-" he started, but he was immediately interrupted.
The Alchemist found himself tackled harshly against the wall, pinned there by a steel-like forearm across his neck, and staring down the glowing purple of a mystic technological weapon. Beyond the weapon he saw two animalistic eyes reflecting the purple light, pupils blown wide with adrenaline. Draxum froze under Donatello's gaze, the two eyes pinned him more securely to the wall than even the threat of the weapon. From behind the softshell, he heard a deep rumbling, and when he managed to look beyond the thing pinning him to the wall, he saw three more pairs of eyes staring him down intently. He felt his heartbeat pick up several notches, and his breath catch. His hind mind kicked into gear telling him to leave, screaming "threat!" in his ear. He felt like he had stumbled upon a den of predators, willing and able to kill him without thought. Like a pack of ravenous, hungry, and crazed dogs.
"Donnie," a voice said, and all attention twisted from him to the source. April stood in the corner; hands raised in surrender. "Donnie it's okay, it's just Barry. He's here to help Mikey, remember?"
Slowly, the purple turtle leaned back from Draxum. His weapon dissolved and he stepped away, pupils still wide but holding more clarity than before. Donatello nodded, glared at Draxum, and retreated towards the bed his brothers were gathered around.
Now that Draxum was able to get a clearer look at the room, he nearly winced at the state of the brothers. Leonardo was by far the worst, wrapped in a huge number of bandages and looked trapped in the bed under the weight of the injuries. Raphael was favoring his left side, his right I was swollen shut, he had his body hunched over the bed pointing his spiked shell outwards and revealing the puncture wound above his shoulder. Donatello looked the best out of the brothers, resting on the foot of the bed like a sentry, but he was leaning on his bo staff like a crutch, and the Alchemist could still see bandages and patches on his arm. He also noted the lack of battle shell and the way the turtle angled his real shell away from him. Michelangelo was sitting at the end of the bed too, and Draxum saw the burns reaching up his forearms and the way his hand shook. They all still pinned him with that unnerving stare, but it was less of a threat and more of a warning.
"Sorry," April said. "You just startled them a little, they're still kind of on edge."
"Yeah," Michelangelo said from the bed, with a small smile, but his voice was hoarse and weak. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize," Draxum said. He slowly approached the bed trying to keep his body language relaxed. "Now," he said gesturing for Michelangelo to show his injuries. The others' animalistic eyes still pinned on him. "Would you mind telling me exactly what happened?"
-
Later, when Draxum would try to go to sleep, the image of those stares would burst through his mind, and he would be wide awake again. He would be reminded of the name "Mad Dogs" and would find that it suddenly fit.
Because no matter how childish they were, how silly, how kind, they would always have the capability to be weapons. They would always be more powerful than almost everyone they would ever meet. They would always have a wild part of themselves, that would seek to eliminate any threat to themselves or to anyone they cared about. It was a frightening thought, and The Alchemist was suddenly very happy that he had not raised the boys.
Because no matter how much he had missed, and he had missed so much, he was happy that they had the chance to be more than weapons. Happy they had the chance to be more than crazed and feral animals. Happy that they had been raised as children and not soldiers. Happy that that wild part of themselves was not the only thing that defined them.
Even if he still did not understand why they chose to call themselves by that title, he was happy it was a part of themselves that they could embrace along with their... humanity.
-
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Thank you for reading. Let me know if there is anything I should work on.
Thank you to @sariphantom for hosting the Rise August Challenge, which this is inspired by.
@nickelodeon Please save Rise.