Latest Posts by gladiatorofthevoid - Page 3

YOU HEARD THEM BOYS, GIRLS AND WHATEVER THE HELL! 

WE HAVE OUR MARTCHING ORDERS! 

MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!

TAKE NO PRISONERS! HAVE NO MERCY!

RISE DESERVED BETTER! AND WE WILL MAKE IT SO!

(no blackmail though, kiddies. let’s be civilized savages. 😊)

Lets. D0. This.

(Please note: Post will be updated as I find more resources and think of more strategies)

(Please do not re-use gif without permission…unless it’s to save Rise…)

YOU can watch Season 1 and Season 2 of RISE right HERE!

So I’ve seen a a lot of people still wondering if Rise of the TMNT can be saved.

There’s is a lot of hope, especially with the boom of fans joining the fandom after the movie dropped last year, people making more art on tumblr, twitter, tik tok, and so on. But also a a lot of doubt, especially after JJ Conway’s post on twitter.

BUT…I still think there is a chance…a GOOD chance. WITH ORIGINAL CAST AND CREW! Why?

We live in the internet. Information is more then easy to get out now thanks to social media. There is all kinds of ways to get the word out to people. Let’s abuse it. 😎

Fans have brought back shows before.

We need a MAJOR push through social media, more fans, more art, it’s up to us…and I think we can do it!

Fans convinced Netflix to bring Sense8 back for a finale

Fans convinced fox to bring back “Futurama” after it was cancelled in 1999.

Hey Arnold got the jungle movie thirteen years after the show was cancelled

Animaniacs got a 3 season revival 22 years after it stopped airing.

Brooklyn 99 was cancelled in 2018, and the fans convinced NBC to pick up the series.

Arrested Development was canceled after 3 seasons, but AFTER it was cancelled, it grew an audience and they made it come back!

Fans saved the original Star Trek in the 60s with letters.

They did it. Why can’t we?

So what can we do?

Well…

1. PETITIONS TO SAVE RISE that we can all sign…

PETITION 1 (The strongest one, but the more petitions signed, the better!)

PETITION 2

PETITION 3

PETITION 4 (save the content that was cut/we missed)

PETITION 5! (Make an ROTTMNT season 3)

2. Pester Nickelodeon and Netflix on social media (THE BIG ONE Y’ALL, THIS IS THE MOST DIRECT AND IMPORTANT)

Be polite, be non-toxic (don’t be rude or mean, the boys would not want that, and the Nick/Netflix won’t listen), but be LOUD, PASSIONATE, AND ANNOYING! Ask for DVDs of the show/movie, and then BUY THOSE DVDs!

MAKE SURE TO ASK FOR THE FULL ORIGINAL CAST AND CREW TO COME BACK, INCLUDING ANDY SARIANO AND ANT WARD.

Sample DM/Letter (but try to come up with your own. Too many repeats and they will ignore it)

“Dear Nickelodeon/Netflix/Viacom, I can’t tell you how much Rise means to me, and I really love that you put the show on air. But it was not fair that the show was cancelled before it got the chance to reach the audience it deserved, only because of a few bad reviews and a lack of advertising. The show is great, there’s tons of fans, tons of art, and people, including me, want so much more! Please bring it back! We want the original crew to come, Flying Bark, for the show to get it’s full second season restored, and it’s five season run like it was originally intended. People hated the 2012 TMNT when it came out, but it got it’s chance and now there are people that love it. Why can’t Rise of the TMNT have the same? It’s clear that the creators love their work and there’s a growing fan base for it. Rise just came out at the wrong time, but it deserves it chance to shine.”

The more personal you made the letter, the more you say what Rise means to you, the better.

As for me? I’m sending them a picture of Pizza Pigeon with the #wewantmoreriseoftheTMNT and #saverottmnt

Request movies/seasons on Netflix.

Ask for Rise Season 2, another season, another movie. Just keep asking!

Nickelodeon’s facebook page

Rise’s facebook page

Leave good reviews. Share. Leave TONS of comments

Nickelodeon’s instagram

Nickelodeon’s Twitter page (treat carefully, there be Musks out there…only use if you are over 18)

Nickelodeon’s TikTok

Niceklodeon’s letter inbox

Nickelodeon, 1515 Broadway, New York, NY 10036

Rugrats was brought back because fans bombarded Nickelodeon with letters saying they wanted it back. Might as well cover our bases.

Contact Paramount

Official Fan Page Rise’s Instagram

The more followers the better.

Netflix’s instagram

Netflix’s facebook

Netflix’s Twitter (Treat carefully. There be MUSKs out there…only use if you are over 18)

SPAM NICKELODEON’S EMAILS!

feedback@nick.com

contactus@nick.com

Letterbox@nick.co.uk

help@paramountplus.coM

If anyone has any more, any deeper more direct points of contact, or more ideas, please share!

3. Leave good reviews for Rise anywhere and raise awareness everywhere you can!

One of the key reasons Rise did not do too well because it was unfairly review bombed before people could give it a chance…so get out there on tik tok, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and ESPECIALLY youtube.

Make reviews! Analysis! JOKES! Support other content creators! When the Rise Reanimated video comes out, share it like no tomorrow!

No one paid attention when How to Train Your Dragon came out, but word of mouth and people saying it was good, made it the success it was. Let’s repeat history!

Anytime there is NEW RISE CONTENT on Nickelodeon’s YouTube channel, watch it, share, spread it.

Share this post on social media, across various sites, use the information here to spread awareness about how people can help and what they can do. Be relentless! (Like Leo in Lair Games)

Ask influencers to review, react, and give RISE a chance without placing judgement.

4. Make. ART!

Draw, Write, TWEET, Make MERCH, Sell MERCH, Make Tik Toks, Videos on YouTube, posts on instagram, discord, what pad, demanding more Rise, spreading the word, and just showing how much you love this show! Not only will it attract attention, but it’s also good for all of us. There will be more Rise content either way.

PLAY THIS GAME!

If you see official Rise MERCH in the while, buy it if you can! Also support as many rise content creators as you can. If you can’t draw? Write! If you can’t create! Like! Share! Comment! Support each other!

Rise April ART Challenge

Keep in mind…there WILL be pushback.

Companies as big as Nickelodeon and Viacom care about their bottom line: $$$…money. BUT pushback, whether they are taking down your videos on Tik Tok, striking artists on twitter, mean that they’re taking NOTICE. So don’t. Give. UP!

One last thing to remember: DO NOT harass fans for enjoying other versions of TMNT

Even though Rise is the first and only TMNT I have ever loved, I don’t believe in shaming other fans for looking forward to, or enjoying other TMNT series. Gatekeeping like that was what stopped Rise from (heh) Rising as high as it should have. All Rise fans are welcome, and all TMNT fans are welcome. Rise deserves to reach more fans, it deserves another season, and it does not need to knock down other TMNT series to do it. Show them your love and your need for more Rise, without making other TMNT fans feel unwelcome.

Share, spread the word, give it your best shot! A village can move MOUNTAINS! SO let’s do it.

So that in the near future…we can MAKE THIS JOKE!

IT'S NOT MY FAULT! YOU GAVE ME THE PROMPTS! HOW AM I NOT SUPPOSED TO WRITE ABOUT AN ADORABLE PAPER NINJA LEARNING ABOUT PAIN WHEN YOU MADE HIS NICKNAME ONE OF THE PROMPTS!

ALSO! "SPOILING" YOU?!!

I-

YOU-

SHUT UP!

Rise April Challenge 15: Buddy

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Buddy really liked his friends. They were fun, and always fixed him up when he got torn up. They were great!

Sometimes they got torn up too. But it was different than when he was ripped. A bit of tape and paper and he was fine, but his friends didn’t work like that.  

They leaked when they got a tare, apparently it was called “bleeding,” and they needed to wait a long time to get better. Thankfully Blue-Friend was very good at fixing human rips and holes, they also were harder to rip them than Buddy.

But there was another thing that was different.

Keep reading

You heard them folks. Spread the love!

(And don't worry Zee, we're just happy you are helping out this community and making us all feel welcome 🥰)

I'm not sure which of your blogs I should put this in, but whenever you comment on my pictures for the Rise April Challange, it really makes me happy to the moon! And it feels like I'm not wasting my time either. Thank you so much for hosting this challenge and letting everyone see each others work! Before I downloaded tumbler, I really didn't know there were so many more fans for the show out there. I really feel like I belong here. I love everyone's art and stories, and I really hope we can save Rise as a community! Thank you again, so, so much! ❤🧡💙💜🐢

Lol. All joking aside though, thank you for participating. And I want to support as many people as I can. I’m tired of toxic fandoms. I saw we invite people in, treat each other with respect, help each other out. And I’m happy you found a community! We all need a place to belong!

Keep up the great work! Sorry I’m not getting to them fast enough! I have so much stupid homework to do!

Rise April Challenge 15: Buddy

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Ao3 Link: Here

Buddy really liked his friends. They were fun, and always fixed him up when he got torn up. They were great!

Sometimes they got torn up too. But it was different than when he was ripped. A bit of tape and paper and he was fine, but his friends didn’t work like that.  

They leaked when they got a tare, apparently it was called “bleeding,” and they needed to wait a long time to get better. Thankfully Blue-Friend was very good at fixing human rips and holes, they also were harder to rip them than Buddy.

But there was another thing that was different.

He had been confused when his Orange-Friend made a huge amount of noise as Blue smeared a green cream over his fingers. When the smaller one had yelled as he ripped his hand from the hot pan, Buddy had thought that it was to call the Blue one to help. But even as he was getting fixed, Orange kept yelping and shouting. Why? Blue was already here.  

It had been very confusing.

-

He ended up asking Red-Friend. It was hard since he didn’t know how to say a lot of words, although Purple-One was teaching him more.

“Hey, Buddy. What’s up?” Red asked as he walked into the dojo.

“Buddy!” The paperman said. He found out that his name was also a used to say friend. That was very fun! He waited till he was closer before beginning to piece together his question.

“Why... do... Orange... make noise... when...” Buddy paused, trying to grab the word. “...he touch... hot?” That worked.

Red furrowed his eyes.

“When he got burned?” Burned! That was the word. He’ll try to remember that.  

Buddy nodded.

“Well, it hurt. That’s kinda what you do.”

Hurt. That wasn’t a new word, Buddy had heard it before, but he didn’t know what it meant.

“What... ‘hurt’?”

Red looked shocked, before shaking his head.

“Right, forgot that you don’t know this stuff. Hurt is... uh, like when you feel pain.”

“Pain?” He didn’t know that one.

“It’s like-” Red started but stopped and stared at Buddy. Buddy stared back. “Do you... like feel pain? It’s just that your paper and-” He stopped again, and Buddy just waited. “Pain is like when your body is yelling at you. That something is hurting- uh, that something is wrong. Do you... have that?”

Buddy thought about it. He always knew when something was wrong with his body, but it never yelled at him. (He thinks Red meant that part ‘figuratively’. (Good word, Buddy!)) It was just him knowing that it wasn’t right.  

He eventually shook his head.  

“Oh. Well, that makes sense. Don’t worry about the noises, Buddy. It’s just something we do.”  

Buddy nodded and left to go think.

So, his friends got “hurt” and felt “pain.” That did not sound fun. Buddy thought of other times his friends were hurt. He recalled their scrunched-up faces and the ugly sounds they made. He thought of the way they squirmed, trying to get away from their rips, or how they clenched their teeth. He decided that he didn’t like seeing his friends be hurt.  

But if it was bad for him to see hurt, was it worse to have pain?  

Buddy decided that he was happy he didn’t have pain, and he was also going to make sure that his friends didn’t need to get pain.

Buddy smiled tucked away this line of thought and wondered off to see if anyone wanted to play a game with him.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge and take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions from other fans. Feel free to give me feedback if I need to work on anything.

Rise April Art Challenge 14: Spar

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Ao3 Link: Here

Sparing had never been fun for Donnie. It was tiring, and he would much rather be in his lab being a genius than in the dojo being a punching bag. It didn’t help that Donnie could never pull his punches correctly. He was never sure how much force to use, so he would either just barely tap his brothers or leave them with bad bruises that would last weeks. It was frustrating.

So, when Mikey had asked him to spar with him, Donnie had tried to redirect him to Leo or Raph. It wasn’t working.

“Come on, Dee!”

“Mikey, I don’t want to!”

“Just one round, please.”

“No. It’s never just one round!”

“It is this time! I promise!” Mikey’s wide eyes and puffed out lip were wearing down Donnie’s defenses, and the soft shell did not want to have to deal with a grumpy Mikey.

“Fine!” He groaned and walked towards the dojo. Mikey yelped in victory and followed behind.

Donnie picked up a wooden bo and swung it around, trying to adjust his mind into the right patterns for fighting his brother. He turned to face Mikey, only to find him kneeled down and fiddling with a boombox.

“Mikey, what are you doing?” His younger brother turned to him and smiled.

“I know you don’t like sparing, so I thought I could help make more fun.” He hit the play button on the box, and a fast electric song filled the room.

Mikey turned up the volume till it was blasting and nodded to the beat, picking up his nunchakus and lengthening the chain.  

Donnie knew this song. It was heavy on the base, so deep he could feel it in his bones. He felt spikes run up and down his arms, and his legs were tensing and relaxing to the swings of sound that the music used. He could feel the desire to move well up inside of him as the rhythmic, electric spikes pounded into the room.

“Did you go through my playlist?” He asked, but Mikey just swung his hips to the music.  

Right.

Left.  

Mike slid his way onto the mat and took a fighting stance. Donnie slowly followed suit.

The music spiked for a moment and Mikey struck. His chain whipped out, and Don brought up his bo to block it. But the move was different than normal.

Mike had swung with his whole body, spinning completely around causing his weapon to be drawn back. It was an ineffective move, revealing too many openings that Donnie could take advantage of if he wasn’t so confused. The music spiked again then fell, Mikey then swung his nunchakus one way, then the other.

Right  

Left

Another spike. His brother charged Donnie, moving to ensnare his chain around the soft shell's arm. He dogged (Spike) and Mikey swung for the other arm.

Right

Left

Donnie finally attacked back, knocking away his brother's second swing and going stab to the chest. Mike leaned back, (Spike) then leaned forward and spun his weapon. Donnie ducked before he even saw Mike go for his head, and before he even had time to question how he knew, he dropped to ground.

Spike. He swung for the legs.

Mikey jump back into a handstand and (Spike) flipped forward trying to land on Donnie back. Don rolled away and leapt to his feet and struck for Mikey’s shoulders.

Strike, Right

Strike, Left

He was doing it now.  

There was a lull in the music and the two looked at each other. Mikey had a smug and happy smile on his face. While Donnie just looked shocked.

“Why?” He asked, and Mikey shrugged.

“You like dancing. Fighting’s like dancing, all we needed was a beat.”

Donnie smiled and they both fell back in their fighting stances as the music picked up again.

-

“Come on, Dee! I wanna eat!”

“Just one more round, Mikey!”

“Uuuuhhhh. Worst idea ever!”

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge and take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions from other fans. Feel free to give me some feedback if I should improve on something.

April Rise Challenge 13: Umbrella

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Ao3 link: Here

Leo had been reading one of his comics when Donnie had barged in with a wide look in his eye.

“Woah, Hermano,” Leo said, catching his twin as he almost slipped and fell.  “What's got you in such a rush?”

Donnie's wide eyes turned to the slider, and he bared his teeth in an excited smile.

“Leo, it’s a Rain Day.”

Leo froze, and then his eyes bulged out.

“Really?! You’re sure?”

“Even if it wasn’t for my super advanced and accurate weather predicting system, I can see the storm clouds.” Leo broke into a smile and let go of Donnie so we could hop from foot to foot, whooping loudly.  

Rainy days were not unusual in any sense of the word. But Rain Days were different. They were only held on days when the water came down in sheets and the thunder rolled loud enough to drown out the city traffic. Rain Days only happened when there was a storm, and they were the best brother tradition the four of them had.

“How long do we have?” Leo asked, already looking around for his raincoat.

“About two hours,” Donnie responded. “So, we need to be ready in an hour and a half to get there in time. You-”

“Yeah yeah! I got this!” Leo cut in, scouring under the bed for his umbrella. “Take care of your own stuff, Tello!”

Donnie shrugged and rushed out of the room to get ready on his own. Leo felt giddy as he ran around, for once mad at himself for not keeping his room cleaner.

-

Within the hour, the four turtle brothers were all gathered at start of a long sewer tunnel. They were all dressed in rubber raincoats with either hoods or in mickey's case a rain hat. Raph had a bag under his arm that held towels and snacks, and each of them had a different colored umbrella. Mikey was bouncing on the balls of his feet, gleeful and unable to stand still.

“We all told dad where we’re going, right?” Raph asked glancing around.

“Of course,” Donnie said.

“Then let’s go already!” Mikey yelled, breaking into a sprint down the tunnel. The others quickly followed suit, whooping and hollering in excitement and anticipation.

It didn't take them long to reach the end of the tunnel where a large sewer grate was swung partially open. They all slowed as they neared it, allowing their noises to fade away into a heavy almost silence. They listened closely, but despite the heavy gray sky and the smell of electricity in the air, all they could hear was the distant sounds of the city.  

Raph reached out push the gate the rest of the way open stepping in the fresh air, and walking out of the tunnel to be bathed in the bit of sunlight that could peek through the wall of clouds above. The others followed behind, pulling their jackets tighter at the frosty cold.  

The outside of the tunnel was a long concrete canal that was far away from the rest of the city. The brothers walked silently down watching their breath appear in the cold air and float upwards. There was a rumble of thunder, and the boys stopped and waited. Leo felt the first drop of water land on his nose.

“It’s starting.” Leo said, and Mikey squealed in excitement. They all opened their umbrellas and continued walking.

By the time they reached their destination the rain had been consistently falling for a couple of minutes. A strange drum of water meeting plastic meeting each of their ears as the umbrellas prevented them getting wet.

Their destination was a small ladder that went up the side of the canal. Raph had already started climbing it, but Mikey couldn't wait any longer and simply ran up the side. Leo wanted to roll his eyes at his brother's enthusiasm, but he didn't want to be a hypocrite, so simply followed Raph up.  

On the top of the canal there was a singular huge tree, the last of the autumn leaves still clinging to its branches. In front of it was a shallow pit that they had dug when they were younger. It was big enough that Raph could lay down inside of it without having his feet hanging out. The bottom of it was coated with smooth rocks, and it was already filling with a shallow amount of rainwater. Mikey was sitting up in the branches of the tree, his umbrella hanging upside-down by its hook while he smiled down at them. The remaining three brothers sat beneath the tree branches and watched the sky, quietly waiting for the real rain to start. It didn't take long.

The sky opened and dumped the water down, thunder rolled loud enough to drown out the noise of the city, and the wind blew so hard that their umbrellas quickly became useless. Leo threw his up to Mikey who hung it upside down on a different branch than his own, which was already overflowing creating waterfalls down to the ground. The other two umbrellas swiftly followed. They hung like ornaments, catching the rain. It was a good thing that Donnie had reinforced all their umbrellas so they wouldn't break under the weight of the water.  

Once it was done Leo turned to the shallow pit which was filling up quite nicely. He smiled, stood up, walked to the edge, turned around and spread his hands.

“RAIN DAY!” he yelled, and on cue the thunder roared. Leo leaned back, allowed gravity to take hold, and fell shell first to the man-made pond.

The water was shockingly cold, and Leo was going to need a good cup of coffee after this was all done, but it felt heavenly.  

No matter how old they got, or how human they could act, some part of the Hamato brothers would always be turtles. It was a fact that could have been uncomfortable if they had not grown up with it. And on Rain Days four would allow themselves to be weak and indulge in the joy that rain brought to their amphibious minds.

As Leo sat up from the water, he heard his brother's yell and watched as Mikey ran and jumped into the water that came up to the box turtle’s knees.

Mickey wasn't an aquatic species of turtle, but for some reason he still loved Rain Days. Maybe it was simply hanging out with his brothers, or maybe he just enjoyed the rain for a normal reason. It didn't really matter.  

The youngest brother yelped and jumped at the temperature, making Leo laugh. While the other was distracted, the slidder reached over the side of the pit and grabbed a fistful of wet sticky mud. He aimed slowly as Mikey tried to get feeling back in his feet, and just when the orange turtle turned to him, Leo hurled it right into his face. It landed with a wet splat and Leo laughed at the look on his brother's face.

“So... You have chosen war, brother?” Mikey asked, and Leo knows he should be afraid but all he can do is smile and meet the challenge.

“Bring it.”

-

The day is spent with the four of them flinging mud and each other and splashing in the achingly cold water, and by the end of it they're all shivering with slightly blue fingers. And towards the end as the storm dies down, they all lie on their backs with their eyes closed underneath the old tree and feel the droplets fall on their faces until they decide to go home.

When they get back home, covered in mud and soaked to the bone, they'll take a lukewarm bath and sit with a hot drink under their heating lamp slowly bringing feeling back into their limbs. And the week will be filled with them complaining about their runny noses and how cold they all still are. But in the end, they'll be back to that old tree and shallow pit on the next Rain Day.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge and look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions by other fans.

(Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this, I had a lot of schoolwork that needed to be done. I will be working on catching up with this.)

Spread this video around! SPREAD IT AROUND! DO IT! PEOPLE NEED TO SEE THIS!

April Rise Challenge 10: Reckless

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Ao3 Link: Here

!TW! Talk of Self Sacrifice/Death Of Loved Ones. No Actual Death/Sacrifice !TW!

Mikey whoops as he leaps straight up, the air rushing past him. There’s one glorious moment when he can’t go any higher, but before gravity pulls him back down, where he just hovers. Then he falls back to the ground.  The turtle curls into a ball and leans forward into a rolling tumble in the air.

Wait.

Not yet.  

NOW!

Mikey stretches out his arms and catches a rung of a fire escape, swinging all the way around before letting go and flinging himself to the next building.

“COWABUNGA!”

He tucked into another roll and leapt to his feet to keep running.  

This was a perfect night! The moon was full, the city was alive, and Mikey was razzing his tazz! Nothing was going to spoil tonight!

-

Raph was completely ruining his night! When Mikey had snuck back into his room, the runners high and excitement making him feel bubbly and buzzy, he hadn’t even glanced at the dark shadows in the corner.

“Hamato Michelangelo!” Mikey yelped, jumped, and curled into his shell in surprise. Dang it!

Before he could uncurl and relax, the box turtle felt his shell be picked up and turned over so he could peer out into one very angry snapper’s eyes. Yeah.... He’s going to stay in here for a minute.

“Hey, Raph.” He called trying for his most innocent smile, even his older brother couldn’t see it.  

“Where were you?” Raph asked with narrowed eyes. Oh no, not good.

“With April?” He tried.

“I called her already.” Double dang it. That was his only hope. Mikey popped his head out.

“Can you put me down first?” The snapper did so, and Mikey let his legs pop out so he could stand as tall as he could to appear confident. Not that it helped with the older brother.  

“I wasn’t doing anything bad.” The box turtle started.

“Then why didn’t you take anyone with you?” Raph crossed his arms.

“Because I wanted to be by myself for a little!”  

“You should have at least told someone.”  

“Then you would have made someone go with me!”

“I would not!”

“YES! YOU WOULD!” Mike threw up his arms in frustration. He knew this would happen. He tried to slow his breathing and lower his voice. He did not want the twins to take part in this.

“Well, I would have been better than you going topside alone!  I was worried sick! What if something happened?”

“I had my phone.”

“Really? Cause you didn’t pick up my calls.” Mikey winced at that. He had put his phone on silent for that very reason, he just didn’t want to be dealing with a call from Raph every 20 minutes. But... yeah, that wasn’t the best move.  

“Ok, I’m sorry. I’ll be better next time.”

“NEXT TIME? No, Mikey, there is no ‘next time!’ You can’t just disappear like that! Do you not realize how much stress you put me under when I don’t know where you are? How can you be so reckless?”

“Quit being such a hypocrite!” Mikey shot back. Because, ok, no. That is where Mikey draws the line. Because, yeah, he snuck out, turned his phone off, and worried Raph. And he will say that he’s wrong for doing that.  But Raph does not get to talk to him about being reckless.  “You wanna talk about being reckless, how about that time tackled Meatsweats, even though I would have been fine and we had a plan?”

“You were going to get hit! I had to-”

“Or when you dropped off a cliff so that the rest of us could unlock our Ninpō?”

“You guys-  

“Or what about with the Shredder, when you covered Donnie with your own body?”

“His shell-”

“Or when you almost killed yourself to save Leo from the Krang?!”

“HE WAS GOING TO DIE!”

“YOU WERE TOO!”

Both of the brothers froze at the words. Triple dang it, Mikey shouldn’t have said that.

The younger tried to take a deep breath and calm down. He knows that it wasn’t the same. That Raph did that to save them, not to go do parkour, and the idea of any of the others dying made him feel sick. But he couldn’t hear his brother talk about taking risks without having his mind go white with images of him running to save someone’s life at the cost of his own. But still...

Great now he felt guilty.

“Mikey...”  

“I’m sorry. I should have said that. You’re right, I won’t do that again. I mean it.” Mikey looked down and wrapped his arms around himself.  

It wasn’t too surprising when Raph hugged him. They both clearly need it. Mikey just hugged back.

“Thanks for apologizing.” Raph said after a moment. “I forgive you, and I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have been so mad. You should be able to be alone sometimes. We can talk about that later, and I promise that I’ll try to be less overprotective.”

“Thanks,” Mikey said, tightening the hug.

He wasn’t going to ask for Raph to be less reckless. If any of them were in danger, Raph would do anything to save them. I wasn’t fair to have him make a promise that he could never keep. But they could talk about that later, when they were less tired and more reasonable. For right now they just hugged.

​

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Ao3 link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. And take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for other submissions from other fans

Rise April Challenge: Day 9 Style

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Ao3 Link: Here

Casey is very clearly nervous as he follows Leo around the dark shopping mall. Leo feels a good amount of sympathy for the kid, as he did come from an ending world full of danger. The kid defiantly has a strong case of PTSD, so the slidder doesn’t mention the way he’s gripping his chainsaw like a lifeline, or how his head has not stopped swiveling around looking for something coming to attack him.

“Do we really need to do this?” Leo rolled his eyes.

“Dude, you’ve been wearing mine and Donnie’s clothes for months now. You need some of your own.”

“Yeah, but..” Casey’s eyes roamed over the clothing racks and mannequins that Leo would admit did look spooky in the dark shadows cast by their flashlights.  

Leo finally stopped and began to ruffle through some shirts. What would look good on the kid? Black looks good on almost anyone, but he kind of wanted to put him in brighter colors too. Light blues and reds could work if paired with some more grounded colors.

“Anything specific you want kid?” He called out.  

“Um...” The kid's eyes wandered helplessly over the rows of clothes.  

“Guess we'll have to try all of them then.” Leo smirked

-

“Hmm... not bad. Give us a twirl.

“It’s a little tight in the back.”

“All the better to show off what you’ve got to the ladies. Or dudes if they’re your thing.”

“...What am I showing off?”

“Never mind.”  

-

“...”

“What?”

“...”  

“What?!”

“That’s not where your head goes.”

“It’s not my fault this thing has so many holes!”

“It’s also backwards.”

“IT’S CONFUSING!”

-

“Oh yes! You’ll be turning head’s left and right, king!”

“I don’t know what that means but thank you?”

-

“No, absolutely not.”

“But Master Leonardo-”

“I’m not getting you a lime green shirt!”

-

Leo got him the lime green shirt.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. And take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

Rise April Challenge: Day 8 Boom

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Ao3 Link: Here

Donnie groaned as he woke up, head pounding. His mind was already moving through the motions of waking up and starting his day (and/or afternoon.) But his train of half thought was derailed by the weight of his battle shell that was still on his back.

He never slept with his battle shell. Leo would have chewed him out for months if he did, Donnie knew better than to challenge him on that front. Which meant that something was very wrong.

Donnie opened his eyes to find himself lying on his side, on a cold concrete floor. The room he was in was huge and empty, a warehouse of some kind. Moonlight was the only source of light, cast in from the small windows high up on the walls. As his eyes squinted, trying to make out the shapes in the dark, he just managed to see that the walls were inscribed with graffiti. Which wouldn’t have been unusual, this was New York, except for the fact it was all the same piece of art. A large explosion with the word ‘BOOM’ splashed across it. Donnie looked out over the room with growing confusion as he saw it repeated over and over on the walls, some clustered so close to each other that they overlapped and covered one another, while in other places there would be yards that were completely bare. What was happening?

Don leaned down and attempted to bring up his comm to try and reach his brothers. But when he did the screen flashed with two words that made the turtle grit his teeth: 'No Signal.' That wasn't something that happened to Don's tech. Which meant one thing, something was jamming his comms.

Donnie sighed, stood up, and took a step forward. Only to feel his toes just brush on something plastic. He froze and leaned over to see the faintest of discoloration of something close to his foot. He bent down and pulled on his goggles to see it better. It was a flat circle, plastic from what he could see. At first Donnie was confused at what he was looking at exactly, and then the horrible, fearful, realization dawned on him.

It was a landmine.

His foot was centimeters away from activating it, if he had longer legs or had leaned forward even a little further it would have exploded under him. His mind ran with images of what would have happened if it was just an inch closer. Donnie thought of taking a slow step back from the thing, when another thought occurred to him. He raised his head slowly and looked out at the rest of the floor and grew even stiffer. The whole floor was covered in mines. Like the graffiti, the small disks were spread out without any order to them, clustered or sparsely scattered all over. And Donnie didn’t have his jetpack shell!

Damit! The only good thing he could see was a door on the opposite wall from him. It wasn't an impossible distance. He just needed to...

Ok. Ok. He could do this. Donnie slid his left foot to the side and took a slow step forward with his right. He scanned the floor and picked it up right to move it to the next safe spot. Easy.

It was slow going, the mines were hard to see in the dark even with his goggles. They were painted the same color as the floor, and it was only using his glass's ability to detect them and put a glowing indicator over them that Donnie was able to move through them. It also didn’t help that he sometimes had to backtrack to avoid a dead end or a section that he could tell that he wouldn’t be able to move through.

Why were these even here? Had someone built them to try and trap him or did they have another use?

Donnie was so close to the door now, only a few feet away. The mines had grown in number, and he had to stretch to reach new safe areas. So close, so close. He had just placed his right foot when his headset let out a loud warning beep and he froze. His weight delicately held in place by one crocked foot while the other just barely touched the floor in front of him. He tipped forward, shifted his weight and yanked himself towards the new safe zone and waited.

Nothing happened.

Donnie let out a deep breath and looked at the alert that just disturbed him. It was a huge number of markers, right in front of where he was standing, huddled close together in a semi-circle around the door. 4 rows, and no space between them to step.

He felt himself start scratching his arm, his short nails leaving thin white lines on his skin. The door was right there, he couldn’t just stay here. He needed to jump for it.

No. No. That was a stupid plan, there was too much risk. Could he even leap that far? And even if he could-

He had to.

Donnie spread his feet as far as he could and squatted. He shook his hands and tried very hard not to think about what he was doing.

He jumped.

He didn’t shut his eyes, he needed to see where he was going.

Donnie’s feet hit hard. There was one split second where he was sure he was going to fall; he could feel his feet twist to keep up with the shifting momentum, and he was almost certain that they were about to slide out from under him.

He didn’t fall.

He had made it. He smiled and faced the door. Whatever trap this maniac had set up had failed. He was home free.

This was too easy.

He pushed the door and smiled at the cold night air.

Snap!

Beep.

Donnie froze and looked down at the trip wire that had been snaped by the door’s swing.

Beep.

He traced it to the wall of the building.

Beep.

He stared at a mass of wires, taped to the side of the warehouse.

Beep.

Shit.

Donnie ran.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

BOOM!

There was no slow, epic, walkaway. No bright orange flashy lights. The boom was set off with waves of compressed air and noises so loud that Donnie’s ears rang. The heat was consuming and the softshell fell forward after the first wave. He scrambled to his feet and kept running.

He could stop, he had to keep moving, because-

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Donnie heard the mines inside going off and focused on keeping himself going. He ran and darted down alleyways and around corners. Finally, stopping when the light of the fires could no longer be seen. He leaned against a trash can and tried to slow his breathing.

His comm crackled to life. Raph’s worried and gruff voice barely reaching him through the ringing in his ears.

“Don! Don! Are you there? Donnie, can you hear me?!” Donnie lifted the comm to his mouth and responded.

“I’m here. I’m ok.”

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. And take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge to see other submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

Rise April Challenge: Master Post

Ao3 Link, if you would like: Here

April O’Neil - April meets a strange turtle. Turtle Tots, Fluff,

Competiton - Leo won’t listen to his twin, not even when he is hurt. Hurt/Comfort, Disaster Twins,

Casey & Casey Jr - A mother and a son meet for the first time. Angst, Hurt/Comfort, !TW!

Dream - Raph goes savage if he is under a lot of stress, and he always worries about hurting someone. His brothers know he won’t. Angst, Fluff,

Bottle - Donnie is not having a good time. Autistic Overload, Angst, !TW!

Professor - Skipped

Nonsense - Mikey has a concussion, Leo helps him. Fluffy, Weird, Hurt/Comfort, 

Boom - Donnie finds himself in a minefield. Angst, Tension,

Style - Leo takes Casey Jr shopping for new clothes. Fluff,

Reckless - Mikey sneaks out and Raph finds out. Angst, Fighting, !TW!

 Hope - Skipped

 Family - Skipped

 Umbrella - Boys have fun in a storm. Fluff

 Spar - Mikey finds a way to make sparring fun for Donnie. Fluff,

 Buddies - Buddy the Paper Ninja learns more about his friends. Kinda Angst, Fluff,

 Mask - The boys are acting weird; April finds out why. Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, 

 Cosplay - Skipped

 Sleep - Leo tries to fall asleep. 

 Baby - Mikey becomes the older brother for a day. Fluff, De-ageing,

 Chaos - Raph is sick, and something is going on with the others. Sickfic, Fluff, Attempt at Crack,

 Jokes - 4 times Leo told Casey Jr a joke, and 1 time he returned the favor. Fluff, Humor, Puns

 Father - Splinter realizes he's a father, it brings back bad memories and sends him into a dark place. Angst,

 Spooky - A random stranger gets the scare of his life when he sneaks into the sewars. 

 Rebirth -  Leo reflects on something that happened in the prison dimension. Angst

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. 

@nickelodeon Bring Back Rise

Rise April Art Challenge: Day 7 Nonsense

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Ao3 link: here

(I was sick yesterday, so I had to skip that day’s prompt. I might try again at the end of the month. Please enjoy.)

The sound of fake lasers and explosions are just barely audible from Leo’s spot on the couch. It’s late and he doesn’t want to keep anyone up with the sounds of Jupiter Jim’s saving the world. Besides he’s watched this movie so many times he can resight it by heart.

It’s just getting into another of the long action seance since when his phone’s alarm starts blaring. Leo feels himself slip into doctor mode the second he hears it. The slider stands, shutting off the alarm, and heading to Mikey’s room.

His littlest brother, for all his claims that he can take care of himself, had decided to razzmatazz a little too hard and had ended up with a concussion. Leo had taken on the responsibility of waking the little orange one up every few hours. His insomnia was acting up again anyways, so it wasn’t so bad.

Entering the room, Leo blinked when he saw the empty bed. There was a moment of panic, before he turned and saw him on the other side of the room staring at the wall above his bed. It, like the rest of the room, was covered in bright colors and paint. But there was nothing more than that. Leo walked over to his brother and squatted next to him.

“Hey, bud. What you doing?” Mikey turned to him; eyes unfocused but with a soft smile.

“I’m tracking the goldfish.” He slurred. Leo blinked. Ok, that wasn’t great.

“Ok... I’m going to ask you some questions, alrighty?” Mikey nodded. “Ok, what year is it?” His little brother paused for a moment, then turned to Leo with absolute confidence and said:

“The one that’s bee like, but without the pink sickness.” There was silence, then...

“Oh, boy Mike. This is worse than I thought.” Mikey blinked and stared at his brother before continuing with his concussed rambling.  

“Do you think that you can see lines that have never been there? Or will never be?” Yeah, Leo needs to stay with Mikey till the others wake up.

“I don’t know.” Leo answers, deciding that he can deal with a little nonsense while he waits for everyone to wake up.  

“I don’t think I can. But Donnie can see jumps even when nothing moves so maybe we can if we look the right way.” Leo just nods and leans against the wall.

The next few hours are filled with Mikey talking about a whole range of topics. Some of which Leo can’t understand even a little, things like: bell heads, blanket laws, the power of purple elephants. But some of the things that are mentioned are worrying. Like when he says that Leo should never ever be called Green, with a look of such fear and grief on his face. Or when he whippers that he doesn’t want to crack into dust. It thankfully doesn’t last long, because he’s always running off on another tangent by the time Leo is trying to sort out what is being said.  

In a few hours the rest of the family will be up to help, and in a few days, Mike will be right as rain and when Leo brings up what he said the younger will just be confused and say that he can’t remember saying anything like that. After that, it will fade from their memories and will never be thought of again.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. And take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for other submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

Rise April Art Challange 5: Bottle

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Ao3 Link: Here

!TW!  Autistic Overload, Small spaces and mention of drowning !TW!

(Not super proud of this one but whatever.)

Donnie's body is burning.  

He paces across his room on a familiar path, one he knows well. Shifting his speed from a hobble to a sprint at random intervals. His hands routinely rase to try and shake themselves out but they fall back down before they can do anything. He can feel his neurons sparking and buzzing like a live wire across his whole body, lighting up his muscles and bones. Everything inside of him is lost in the need to move, make, act, run, think, jump, swing, build, analyze, DO! And he would gladly do as it asks, but he's so tired.  

He feels like he's going to keel over at any moment. He can't keep his hands steady; his sight keeps going in and out of focus and he can barely keep a line of thought going. He's not going to be able to do anything like this. But the rest of him doesn't care, it needs. Needs to stretch, create, learn, know, strike- STOP! The two forces feel like they're tearing him up apart at the seams, each thread snaping and sending hot shivers up and down his body, and he has no hope of keeping up with it. Donnie is burning with black, lifeless energy, and he feels like he is just going to disintegrate into ash.  

Donnie stops mid sprint, the wall of his room inches away from his nose. He stops himself from turning around and beginning the next round of his pacing. He just needs to slow down. Just for a minute. Just one minute of nothing, so his body can rest. Then he can do... whatever he wants to do. But he needs a moment of nothing.

Donnie sits down with his back to the wall and closes his eyes.  

He can do this; he can do this.  

His hands twitch, wanting to hold and move something. He bounces his leg instead.

He cand do this, he can do this.

Don starts pulling up memories and old thoughts, distracting his mind with the bouncing of his leg.  

He can do this, he can.

He shuffles through his mind until he comes to a picture of a green glass bottle.

He can do this.

The soft-shell isn't sure where the bottle is from. Maybe it's from a long-forgotten memory, or an old dream, or maybe just from his imagination. Regardless, he laches on to it and pulls it to the forefront of his focus, pushing all his desire for action onto it and narrowing his endless burning into a single point on the non-existent glass.  

He can do this.

Donnie tries to calculate how tall the bottle is, how wide, how thick the glass is, and how much water it could hold. He moves on to what exact color the glass is. (Bottle green of course.) How it would feel in his hand, (smooth and solid.) What sound it would make if he were to tap it. (A ding if he tapped while he was holding it, a clang if he dropped it.) What would his room look like if he were to look at it through the thick tinted glass. (The colors would be so muted by the dark green, the perspective so warped by the curve of the bottle.)

(He sees himself inside the bottle, sitting and bouncing his leg up and down so fast it's just a blur.) (He reaches up and slides his hand across the 'cold' surface. The low temperature shocked his hand out of its trembling.)

The burning is slowing, ever so slightly.

(The thrumming of the air-conditioner in his room is muffled by the glass. The sound of Donnie's breath echoes back at him from all angles.)

The feeling is still too loud, too big, too fast, too much, too much.  

He just needs it to be softer, a little farther away, just less.

(He feels the cold trickle of water running down the sides of the bottle and towards the bottom. It grounds him and soothes his acing body. It runs over his shoulder and begins to fill the space around him. A pool soon forms around him, calming and swirling, it dulls the burn to a slight sting wherever it touches. He leans his head back, to let the water run over his forehead and down. The water soon rises until it's just a few inches above his head. He sits on the floor of the bottle, surrounded by cold and still calm. The burn in his veins tries to fight the feeling. Tries to urge him to move, to reject the feeling of rest and do something. Donnie doesn't listen. The feeling is already dying, pushed back by soothing cold. He feels the water flow inside of him, spreading its restful numbness and quite peace into the very core of himself. He allows it, he lets himself farther down into the bottle and just rests. He blows out a few bubbles and watches them float to the top.)

(Donnie let's himself become lost in the nothingness of the water. Donnie let's consume him, just for right now. Donnie lets himself drown.)

Don gets up after a few minutes and falls into bed to sleep. In the morning the need to do it is back, but it is no longer eating him alive. It doesn't burn.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. Also take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

Rise April Challenge: Day 4 Dream

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Ao3 Link: Here

(Kinda streched the prompt a little, but I like it. There is some bad grammer but it’s on purpose.)

Raph knew it was coming, even before the jittering and zoning out started. There was only so many life-and-death situations his brain could take before it decided to take a vacation and leave him behind. But it was only when he woke up to find himself not in his bed, but standing upright in the middle of the lair, that he realized how bad this was going to be. So, knowing he had very little time, Raph began to prepare.  

The whole lair was raided for blankets, pillows, and cushions to add to Raph’s ever growing pillow fort in his room. (It’s not a nest, not a nest, not a nest. Even if he stole sheets from his brothers’ rooms so it would smell familiar. It’s not a nest.) The kitchen is emptied of snacks and water bottles. He moves every single one of his teddy bears into the fluffy pile and he sets up a speaker to play the sound of running water. He moves the more important or breakable items on to higher shelves, or out of the room all together. He’s already. Now comes the embarrassing part.  

He decides that Donnie is the best one to tell. He won’t stress about it too much and will be able to talk the others down if they start panicking. Still, Raph sifts nervosity as he stands outside Don’s lab. He shakes his hands out and breathes as deep as he can. He can do this. He can do this. The snapper knocks on the door.

“Come in!” Donnie calls and Raph crouches through the door and into the dim lab. He crinkles his nose at the smell of metal and oil, and he squints at the weird light. The purple light always made it look both too bright and too dark. Don loved it, but it always confused Raph even on a good day. Which today defiantly wasn’t.

Donnie was hunched over one of the worktables with one of his battle shells, his arms half buried inside an open panel. He didn’t look up as the Raph got closer.

“Uh... Hey Donnie? Can... um... we talk really fast?” The genies looked up from what he was doing, goggle lenses glinting.  

“Of course, large compatriot. What’s up?”

“Uh...” Oh man this was not fun. “So, I’m not really going to be around for a bit.” One of Don’s robot arms pushed up his glasses so he could give Raph a worried look. “Not literally. I’m not going anywhere. And it's nothing bad! Raph promises. But I think I’m just going to go a little... weird? Soon.”

“You’re going savage.” Raph winces at the word. It is accurate, but it still makes him uncomfortable. It always makes him think that he could hurt someone.

“Yeah.” He nods.

“Do you need anything?” Raph waves his hand.

“Nope, I got everything set up.” He’s quite proud of himself for that. “But could you or someone just check in to make sure I didn’t do something...”

“Of course.” Donnie says

“Great. The key is hung up next to the door.” Raph moves to the door, but his brother’s voice stops him.   “You’re locking yourself in?” It’s so much softer than what he’s come to expect from his standoffish sibling. Raph’s shoulders raise straight up, and he freezes.

“Uh.... yeah. I’ve been sleep walking and I don’t want to wander off.” It feels like a confection.  

“Are you sure?”

No. He isn’t. The idea of not being able to get to his brothers is awful, and being trapped alone is way worse. But he can’t just go walking into the sewars. (A small part of him worries about more than just him getting lost. He worries about blood splashing across his face. He worries about bones in his mouth. He worries about dead brothers.)

“Yeah, I’m sure. It’s fine, Don.” Raph leaves the lab and hurries to his room.

-

Raph is warm and soft. He is safe and good. He cuffs at the thought and tries to sink deeper into the warm-soft-nice. This is good. He should sleep.

He smells something... important. Something that is also good. Raph snuffles around till he finds where it’s coming from. A thick blanket. He covers his face with it so he can smell it better.  

It smells twirling-acrylic-orange. Mikey. Mikey is good, very good.

Where is Mikey?

Raph lifted his head and pushed back the blanket to look around for his littlest brother. (Not so little anymore, but never as big as Raph. No, never. He never needs to be as big as Raph.) Mikey wasn’t there. None of his brothers were. That was bad. Bad bad bad. Raph needs to get them, to share this soft-warm-safe feeling with them and so they could all sleep.  

He gets to his feet and wanders to the door. He tries to shove it open; it doesn’t give. He grunts and pushes again. Not good, not, not, not, not, not. He wines thinks about breaking it down. He needs his brothers. But it seems like so much work and his brothers are safe. He knows that he just... wants them to be safe here. Is that too much to ask?

He returns to his nest and flops down onto his stomach. It’s not as good anymore.

-

Raph wakes up to something squirming against his side, and hushed words that are hard to understand. He cracks his eyes open and finds a familiar shell lying across the edge of the blanket.

The shell looks like flowing-glimmering-blue. Leo. He looks to his right and finds Mikey leaning on him and drawing in his sketch book, while talking with Leo. Two brothers, it makes him well up with yes-yes-yes-good feelings but where is- 

A voice cuts through his thoughts. It’s shifting-sparking-purple. He turns to Donnie who is sitting on his left with his tablet in his lap looking at Raph questioning. Did he ask Raph something? The snapper lets out a little grumble to ask what Don needs. Words are too hard right now.

Donnie reaches over and offers the eldest a water bottle. Oh, yeah Raph needs that. He rolls to his side disturbing Mike who yelps at the unexpected movement, he takes the water and drinks it. It tastes so good! Should water have a taste?  

He hands the bottle back to Donnie and looks over everyone. Safe. They are safe and good, and they’re here which is so much more good.  

Raph’s mind is worried about them being here. It says that they are not safe if they’re here. That them being here is bad. But that doesn’t make since Raph is here. And Raph can protect them. Even better than that, even if Raph can’t keep them safe, they can keep each other safe. Leo is strong and Donnie is smart and Mikey is kind. They’re so good that they could keep him safe if he needs it.  

(He won’t though, because he’s big and they’re little. No matter how big they are or how strong, they will always be his little ones. His. His. His little ones! He loves them, loves them, loves them-!)

Raph’s mind slips into the haze of pride-love for his brothers, drowning the worry. He lets Mike lean against his chest so he can draw and throws an arm over Leo’s back so he can feel him. He wants to tough Don too, but he knows that tough can be bad for his little brother, so he holds back. Raph can hear him tapping on his tablet anyways.  

He closes his eyes and just lets the overwhelming feelings wash over him but doesn’t go back to sleep. He doesn’t need to. He has his family all around him, safe and good. He doesn’t need to fight or run or even understand what is being said, he can just be. It’s the greatest dream Raph could ever have, and he doesn’t want to miss a second.

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Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge.  Also take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge​ for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

Rise April Challange Day 3: Casey And Casey Jr

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Ao3 Link: here

!TW! Talk of Grief and Loss !TW!

Casey Jones doesn’t remember his mother well. He doesn’t mind too much; he’s lost so many people over his short life. Everyone in the future had, and he's still trying to get used to the idea that isn't normal here. So, he's kind of grateful that he only has vague and blurry memories of her. It means that he doesn’t have much to grieve for.  

He knows that’s shitty to say, but he thinks in his circumstances it’s fair. He’s lost so many people, he’s lost everyone, his whole world. Yeah, it was shitty, coated in blood, grime, and krang flesh. But it was his. He was born into it, it helped make him, and it held everything he had ever loved.  

Master Michelangelo, with his flowing movements and soft sparking magic lifting him high enough to see the world bathed in unworldly light and color that only the two of them could see.  

Commander O’Neil, hugging him with scared arms with a quite “Try to keep up, Jr.” Diving into battle, smiling with bloody teeth as she tore apart burning metal machine.  

The quiet and lonely shrine with a huge, spiked shell that hung on the wall with a pair of cracked purple goggles with red and blue lenses on the table below. Where his family always gathered before a mission, just sitting and holding each other, with hushed ‘I love you’s and ‘be safe’s on their tongues.  

And of course, Master Leonardo. Who had tried so hard to be a father to him, even though he was fighting a war that he knew he was losing, even as he held the lives of everyone on his shoulders. He had tried so hard to be a father that he always said Casey deserved.  

He had lost all of them.  

So... yeah. Casey was grateful that he didn’t have another person to morn.  

But... his mom was here. Alive. And he had to keep himself from panicking because he had time to figure out what to say when you're meeting a version of a mother you had never really known. He thought he had time. He didn’t.

-

Casey Jr sits ramrod straight on his spot on the couch, across from the intimating woman across from him. His mom (mom, mom, MOM!) Stares across from her with sharp eyes and narrowed in what looks like anger, and Casey's mind is very split on this.  

One half of his brain is just screaming that she’s here and alive and real! Not just a story, or a memory that he isn’t totally sure he didn’t just make up. She’s really sitting across from him, and he can see his eyes and hair on her face. And somehow this is the most earth-shattering thing that has happened to him. Or at least the only part of this disaster that he can process.  

The other half of him is trying to decide what should happen now, what he should do or say. He isn’t given the chance to figure out because she speaks first and Casey Jones the Second hears the first words he ever heard his mother say.  

“Do I need to start a collage fund?”  

It’s... it’s absurd, and out of nowhere, and said with such seriousness that it makes Casey break down into laughter that shakes his whole body. He bows over trying to get enough air into his lungs because this is so stupid and chaotic and that probably (is) the best thing you could say in a situation like this. What is his life?  

“No-No!” He says between laughs. “I don’t think-” He breaks into more laughter. “I don’t think I need that.”  

He continues to laugh as she stands, hesitates and then marches to the seat next to him, sits down just as straight as Jr had a moment ago, and stiffly hugs him to her side. He wheezes through his laughter.  

“What-what are you doing?” Casey manages to hiss out.  

“I have been told that mothers are meant to comfort their children when they are crying.”  

Crying? Was he- Oh... yes, he was. At some point his laughs had begun to turn into sobs, and tears had leaked down his face. Everything had just hit him all at once, and he just... couldn’t anymore. He leans down and wipes his nose and eyes, and just breathes.  

“Sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”  

“It’s alright.” Cassandra (Mom? Casey Sr?) responds, still holding his shoulder.  

It takes a miniate before either of them can do anything other than look over each other, looking over every similarity and difference. Then Mom (Cassandra?) meets his eyes and with a stone face asks what Casey thinks she’s been wanting to since she saw him.  

“Can you tell me how I die?” The time traveler looks away.  

“What makes you think you did?” He doesn’t think he can look at her right now.  

“Because I would not be so foolish or weak as to let my son travel through time!” She says it like he just insulted her, and he wants to argue but...  

“Infection.” He answers. “Which is impressive considering that when you were found you had one arm missing and had been impaled at least 5 times. You lasted about a week after that.” It’s easier to say than he likes. There is silence. Then:  

“I am... happy that I did not abandon you.” He turns to his mom, and she doesn’t look at him, staring past him and he makes a realization. That this whole conversation is as hard and awkward for her as it is for him, and he doesn’t know why it took him so long to realize that. Hell, they're almost the same age! He smiles and faces her completely, pulling on the quiet patience of Master Leonardo.

“I know that this is insane, and neither of us had time to really think about it. But if it helps, I don’t think we need to decide what or how we feel right now.” She pulls a face at the talk of “feelings,” but does relax slightly.  

“Very well. Until we become comfortable with the reality of this situation. Would you be amenable to the title of my brother? I... am uncertain of being refired to as a mother.” Brother? That could work. Casey grips Cassandra’s hand.   Yes, it's Cassandra for now. Maybe for forever, but that would be ok too.

“Sounds good.” 

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Please check out @zee-rambles as the one who came up with this challenge. Also take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge​ for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

Rise April Challenge Day 2: Competition

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Ao3 Link: here

When they had been younger, Donnie and Leo had begun to wonder which of them was the older. All the brothers knew that Raph was the oldest and Micky was the youngest, but as for the middle two there was never a real answer. When this had come to the children’s attention, they had done what any child would do when they had a question. They asked their father. It wasn’t all that helpful.

“Neither.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN NEITHER?!” Leo shouted, “One of us had to have been born first!” Splinter shrugged.

“You are twins. Twins are born at the same time.”

“But that’s not fair!”

“Yeah!” Donnie agreed, “I have to be older, so I can tell him what to do.” Leo growled and glared at his brother, looking just about ready to tackle him. Splinter sighed; this was going nowhere. It’s time for a new tactic.

“Very well. We will try something...”

Thus, the Competition was born.

-

The exact game or challenge was never the same, but the bet always was the same: Winner got big brother rights over the other for a day. When they were younger it was simpler things like a race or a guessing game. But as they got older, they got sneakier and more vicious. So, the competition had to get more complicated, the rules more specific, and inevitably more dangerous. The last straw had been when Splinter had walked in on Leo balancing on a tightrope, holding several lit candles. While Donnie watched on, peeling candle wax off his arms from his attempt. After that the Competition was borderline banned unless they were given express permission.

After a while it faded into childhood memories, a funny story to remember on family game nights. Until now.

-

“Donnie I am fine.”  

“No, Leo, you are not. Did you not hear me? Your ribs are bruised, your left wrist is fractured, your right shoulder was dislocated, and that’s not even the half of it!”

“I'll just walk it off.”

“...Walk it off? Walk it off! YOU CAN BARLY EVEN STAND!” Why did Leo always have to make this so difficult? The blue turtle rolled his eyes and leaned more on to the kitchen island.

“Listen Dontron. I'm just making myself breakfast, it's not like I'm going on a hike, or training. It’s not that big a deal.” Donnie clenched his teeth and balled his hands into fists.  

Stupid dum-dum, so stupid all the time, why was it always-  

He took a slow breath and closed his eyes. It was pointless. Leo got into this mindset sometimes, one that made the thought of getting any form of help itchy and painful. It was worse when he was sick or in pain or had gotten too into his own head. But it had been a while since any of the brothers had to deal with it. Normally Dr. Feelings would help, sit down and talk to the slider into whatever he needed. But Micky wasn’t here right now, and Donnie didn’t have the time or the patience to try. That left only one option. He didn’t want to half to use this card, but it was the only way Leo would listen. Donnie opened his eyes and glared at Leo.

“I declare a Competition.”

Leo’s eyebrows shot up, then furrowed.  

“...What?” The slider asked,

“You heard me.” Donnie crossed his arms.

“Don, we haven’t done that in years. Besides dad will flip if he finds out.”

“Are you backing down?” Donnie asked, and Leo glowered back. They both knew that backing down meant a forfeit, meaning an atomatic  win for Donnie. The only way out for his brother was to accept the challenge and win.  

“Fine. What’s the game?” Donnie smirked, perfect. He pointed across the kitchen to the door.  

“Walk through that door and back, without holding on to anything.”

Leo snarled at his brother in rage.

“Come on Donnie, play fair!” He snapped.

“If you can make yourself a meal, you can walk into the next room and back.” Donnie stood his ground.

Leo growled and glared at the counter he was leaning on in frustration. He then took a deep breath, let go, and began to move towards the door. He made it five slow, hobbling, stumbling steps before one of his legs gave out and he began to fall. He rolled to his side, trying to avoid putting his weight on his injured wrist only to slam his hurt shoulder instead. He hissed and rolled on to back and stared at the ceiling till Donnie’s face came into view.  

“I win.” Don deadpanned and bent to help his brother up.

“Cheater.” Leo hissed, but accepted the hand and pulled himself up, half collapsing on to his brother when he was upright. The genius shrugged, and supported the idiot as he carried him to the med bay.  

“Doesn’t matter, I’m still older.”

“Only for today.” Leon protested but followed without resistance.

“Well, as today’s big brother, I’m keeping you in bed. So your stupid body can heal itself.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, I’ll get you next time.”

“Keep dreaming, little brother. Keep dreaming.”  

It was hours later, as Donnie typed on his tablet and Leo watched some videos on his phone, that the slider managed to get out of his head enough to turn to his brother and whisper a quite: “Thank you.”

Donnie pretended not to hear, but quietly reached up and rubbed his brother’s head.

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Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge. Also take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge​ for more submissions.

Rise April Challenge Day 1: April O’Neil

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Ao3 link: here

Today, April had learned something very important, something that she was quite mad at her mom for not telling her. And that was that people were overrated and mean. They weren’t worth her time, and she was never going to talk to one again. Screw those stupid cartoons, the power of friendship was dumb, and she didn’t need it!

The first day of school had not been fun for April O’Neil. Turns out, that kids can be cruel and will easily turn on someone that is even slightly different.  

She laid down on the grass under an old tree and watched the other kids run around the jungle gym with narrow eyes.

She was mad, enraged even, and if her mom thought that a trip to the park would cheer her up then April would prove her wrong. This was not the type of mad that went away with swings and ice cream. This was a life changing type of mad, the kind that made people wear black and laugh evilly. Yes, this was a supervillain mad. And April didn’t think she would mind being a bad guy, they were cool, and they didn’t need any friends.

They didn’t get lonely.  

She wasn’t lonely. She was mad. She was mad. So mad that there was no room to be lonely. She-

Something fell out of the sky inches away from April’s nose. She jumped and scrambled back, fear and shock playing across her face. The thing lay unmoving on the ground as she tried to catch her breath. April looked up into the tree above to see where it had fallen from, but nothing was there. She looked back at it on the ground, and after a moment bent over to pick it up.

It was only about the size of her fist, round and purple, cold and smooth in her hand, and she turned it around. No markings or anything. Was it an egg? Could there be purple eggs? She put it near her ear and shook it. Nothing. April put it back on the ground and stared at it. What were you meant to do when things fell from the sky? Should she just leave it? Tell someone? Call 911? Did this happen a lot?

The egg-thing had apparently gotten tired of waiting for April to do something, and she watched as it sprouted legs. It was so sudden that it took April a few seconds to realize what had happened, she blinked down at its four limbs folding out of its body. Then the thing bolted away from her, towards the bushes that bordered the park.  

“Hey!” She sprinted after it, “Come back!”

It was fast, scurrying across the ground like a spider. Dodging and weaving its way around rocks and sticks. It was too far for her to reach, and it was about to disappear into the scrubs, never to be found again. But she was April O’Neil, and it would not get away that easily. She flung herself forward, arms outstretched, and eyes shut tight as she dove into the bush. Her knees scraped against the ground as she slid, and the branches scraped and caught on her clothes as she broke through the wall of leaves. But her hand had closed around the sphere. She had it.

“Ha!” she shouted “Got ya!” She opened her eyes and stopped when she saw two tennis shoes at her eye level. April looked up and met two wide black eyes, framed by square glasses.

“Uh...Hi?” April said. The masked kid jumped backward, stumbling away from her and falling onto his butt. “Hey! It’s ok, I was just chasing this thing.” She held up the purple sphere so he could see it. “It fell out of a tree and grew legs!”  

The boy did not respond, shrinking into his oversized hoodie, sleeves falling over his hands and the collar covering the bottom of his face. Silence stretched between them for a few seconds as April waited for the kid to talk. He didn’t.

“My name’s April, what’s yours?” Silence.

“Are you ok?” Nothing.

“Can you talk?” The boy shakily nodded. Well, that was a little better. She slowly sat up on to her knees, before looking at the other kid again. “Sorry it I sacred you, this thing was just super cool, and I didn’t want it to get away.” The boy uncurled slightly and leaned a little forward.

“You think it’s cool?” April blinked at the odd question but nodded.

“Yeah, it just fell out of a tree and grew legs all by itself!”

“Well not all by itself.” The boy reached into his jacket and pulled out a blocky remote control. He punched a few buttons and the thing in her hand wiggled out of her grip and ran toward the boy. April’s mouth dropped open.

“It’s a robot?” she asked, amazed.

“Yes,” the boy said sitting straighter and smiling proudly, “I made it.”

April’s eyes widened “Really?”

“But of course. I am testing out different joint attachments and its flexibility so it can climb and cling to different surfaces, that way-”

The boy sat up straighter as he talked, arms waving and gesturing to the bot as he talked. April smiled and listened. She decided that she liked this kid, he was weird. But in a cool way, and he was going to be her friend. But he had acted super jumpy before when she had tried to talk to him before, she would need to be sneaky.

The boy was lost in talking about wires and frequencies, legs kicking out in excitement. Perfect. April scooting closer, nodding and smiling even if he wasn’t really looking. Almost. Almost. He stopped talking when she shoved her hand in front of his face. He looked up at her, scrunching his eyes.  

“My name is April.” She said with a smug grin, happy to have managed to confuse him enough that he wouldn’t just run away.

“Yes, you said that already,” he responded dryly.  

“Yeah, but you need to tell me yours and shake my hand.”  

“Why?”

“Because.”

“That’s a stupid reason.” He turned his head away defiantly.

“Well, I can’t be your friend if I don’t know your name.” She said. The boy’s body stiffened, and he slowly turned towards her.

“You want to be friends with me?” he asked shakily. She smirked.

“You have to tell me your name first.” she demanded. He hesitated and squirmed, April stood still holding her breath. It was all or nothing now. The boy took a breath and locked eyes with her.

“You can’t take it back.” The boy declared.  

“Deal.” She reached to take his hand, but he pulled it back.

“And! You have to be my brothers’ friend too.” April shook her head. While more friends sounded exciting, she wasn’t going to just agree without meeting them. Kids could be mean after all.

“No, I haven’t met them. What if I don’t like them?” The boy paused to think.

“If you like them, then will you be their friend?” He asked. She nodded, that seemed fair. The boy reached out and took her hand. “I’m Donatello.”

April eyes widened as she staired down at her new friend’s green, three-fingered hand, and after a moment smiled at him.

This was going to be way more awesome than being a supervillain.

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Ao3 Link: Here

Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge.  Also take a look at @rise-april-art-challenge​ for more submissions. Please give feedback if I need to work on something.

You are important and real. You don’t need to find the right person. You are not doing it for attention. You are not making it up. 

Reblog if you think asexuality is a legitimate sexuality.

I’m trying to prove something.

Thanks Techno. Good night. o7

Today, all I have is medication and lemonade, and I forgot to take my meds. 

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.)