These Turtles Are Ruining My Life (and I Am Happy)

One of the funniest parts about the whole “Leo not giving Draxum any grace” idea is that Draxum is one of the ONLY notable older men in the show that Leo isn’t willing to give a proper second chance to OR really hear out in the first place.

No seriously it’s genuinely a Thing.

I adore the idea of Leo developing a love for glam rock not only because he likes the music but also because of how many glam rock bands had vibrant and extravagant eye makeup - looks that his own red stripes were right at home with.

Like just imagine a little Leo rifling through his dad’s music and choosing to vibe with glam rock specifically because he was like “:0! Like me!:)”

[ cw: death mention / sibling death mention / isolation / ]

Thinking about how Leo’s portal and teleportation powers have both directly (and in one instance, indirectly) been the cause of him being separated from his brothers at least four times now.

There’s that time in Portal Jacked, where his inexperience leads to his portal being messed with and his brothers ending up in Tahiti.

There’s the Bad Timeline, where Leo’s portaling led to them losing the Key, therefore indirectly leading to the apocalypse and in turn, ending with Leo being the last of his brothers alive (though just for a few minutes.)

There’s him teleporting him and Krang into the Prison Dimension, cutting him off from his family so wholly that the only way to fix this was a literal mystic miracle.

Then there’s the comic, where Leo’s powers act up again and make him lose months of time completely isolated from everyone and everything he knows.

Just, looking at all of this, it’s like the universe gave him the powers of distance on purpose to test him (and his bros), literally seeing if they can overcome unimaginable space and still make it back together. Imagine if it doesn’t stop here, and Leo has to learn to either deal with the occasional complete isolation or deal with time travelers coming back to stop some terrible event his powers (whether directly or indirectly) have caused, events that always lead to separation in some way, shape, or form.

It’s worth noting, too, that his portals often led to accidental separation, but his teleportation was the one power of his that was used to isolate himself on purpose…and was also the one that in any other scenario would have been the most permanent.

Tackled it partially here, but I love the idea of Draxum knowing little extra details about the boys from before they were mutated. Things like “you liked strawberries”, “you were four times faster than others of your species”, “you tried to eat Huginn and Muninn”, “you were way too sentient for a regular turtle it was actually kind of freaky in retrospect did the proximity to Empyrean have something to do with it-“

Little details that pop up over the years, and while sometimes the boys (mainly Mikey) will ask for more information out of curiosity, most of the time the info just sort of comes out randomly. It’s not like Draxum had them all too long, but he still finds himself remembering their pre mutated turtle selves vividly, even after all these years.

The boys ask Splinter if he too has baby stories of them to share and he’s just like “I love you boys but you were hellions.”

Headcanon that Leo really loved to give his family massages growing up. We know that he’s good at them from the episode “You Got Served” and we know he likes spas and relaxation and getting massages himself from when he tried to get these in “Bad Hair Day” and from when Donnie made a tennis ball massage machine in “Smart Lair.”

So I think it’d be cute to think that maybe one day Leo overheard Splinter complaining about a bad back and immediately Leo thinks back to a comic or movie or something he saw where a massage helped so he offers to give one and it actually ends up helping Splinter.

Then April swings by the Lair at a later time and mentions her back hurting because of her backpack from school and Leo’s all like “I gotcha!”

From there, he occasionally manages to convince Donnie to sit for one because Donnie’s shrimp posture does not help him any (Leo pokes fun at how sandpaper-y Donnie’s shell is despite knowing it’s always like that and Donnie smacks him for it.) Donnie usually prefers hand massages instead however as all his typing and inventing adds up over time, and shoulder massages too once he starts wearing his battle shells more. Leo also figures out how to give massages to Raph and Mikey’s shells as well, though it’s a struggle at first to not scratch his hands on Raph’s spikes.

I think since Leo has such bad luck with spas and the like, he tries giving himself massages (though it’s not as helpful.) Like, with how his abilities work his legs are probably always aching from his portal jumping and one foot landings, so maybe he branches past back massages out of a need to help his own aches too. (Though he really wants a shell massage himself, the same way he’d give them…the one time with Donnie’s tennis ball massage machine was but a short moment of what Leo’s been missing out on and what he’ll continue missing out on…)

I don’t know, I just think it’d be cute to think Leo could have honed his massaging skill this way in order to help out his family (and also partially because he wants a massage himself.)

Something I really like is that April’s constant stream of odd jobs she goes through is somewhat reflected in the boys as well. Like, you have April working at random pizza places or getting a crane license or being fully willing to apply for a job at a place clearly made out of cardboard. Then you have the boys as well who do anything from working as a basketball mascot, building a massive dog park, being waiters, getting a whole band gig at a theme park, etc, etc-

Main difference is that April actively applies for these jobs (and is hopefully paid for the short time she’s in them) whereas for the bros the jobs usually find them (and they practically never get paid.) It doesn’t even stop at jobs either, they just seem to casually amass skills in general.

I don’t know, I like how both April and the turtles are just so ready and willing to do things. Sure, they’re not always good at these things, but they do them readily! In a way, being heroes is just another job (well, more like volunteer work/vigilantism/another fun activity) that they initially took on because of their general sense of “why not?”

They’re very willing and open to trying out new things despite their tendency to revert back to what they enjoy (and how commonly trying new things ends up going wrong), and I think that adaptational interest of theirs really helps them be well rounded in multiple regards.

How many people got mutated by oozequitos in the end because there’s no way in hell it was just what we saw

[ cw: implied past food insecurity / ]

Raph loves food a lot, it’s clear with how happily and readily he eats just about anything. It was difficult growing up while having such a big appetite, as in the beginning food was a lot more scarce and there was only so much Splinter could do. Despite these difficulties, Raph never lost his love for food and he genuinely appreciates every meal he can get.

And Mikey sees how much Raph loves food.

So, way back when Mikey was still not allowed to touch their small stove, he took it upon himself to make Raph some food as a show of love.

But, as new to cooking as he was and with no instructions, Mikey ends up burning the meal.

Raph finds his baby brother crying and apologizing over a pan of ruined food, and the snapper just barely manages to make out that this was for him.

So, while Raph comforts Mikey, he waits until the boxshell looks up, his little face scrunched with tears. Then, Raph takes a piece of the burnt food and eats it with no hesitation.

Mikey watches with wide eyes as Raph proceeds to finish the entire meal, never once indicating that the food was anything less than stellar. When he finishes, he smiles over at Mikey and thanks him, genuinely, for cooking for him.

Mikey jumps into Raph’s arms and from that moment forth he throws himself into cooking, with Raph being named his “taste tester.” Obviously Mikey gets much better at it over time, and he has a very real love for the craft, but every time he tries a new recipe, he makes sure to bring it to Raph first.

Something about this kind of swimming getup for characters always immediately gives me transmasc vibes. Blue swim trunks and a tank top? Sorry man my brain already connected the dots. The vibes are there, and they’re not leaving.

Things I make for myself when insomnia kicks in

Just a chart about what I wanna change up and keep consistent in my art - I mainly wanna draw Raph with a tail because he deserves one, it fits too well. Donnie gets a long tail too because I didn’t realize how dino-like he looks until I gave him one, and now it’s a must for me haha.

“Haven’t You Noticed (I’m a Star)” from Steven Universe works so ridiculously well for Leo

Space arc to get Leo back means that the bros can get a chance to taste space pizza