we are but punished serpentines

“Look, I’m not... you’re mistaking me being frustrated with me being mad at you, Jenni. I’m not mad at you. I’m frustrated you got hurt on my account.”

Miwa couldn’t help her unease. She’d looked into that thing’s eyes, seen the recognition there. In its wild, feral nature, something about it knew her. From where, from what, she didn’t know, and she didn’t like the gnawing pit in her stomach. Everything that had happened still felt like a weird fever dream.

She’d never been more anxious to wake up.

“I just want to know why you did it. I’m fast on my feet, I’m a damn good fighter. You know I can take care of myself. But we’ve already almost lost you once; we could’ve lost you again.”

While everyone else seemed hesitant about her, Mikey had always welcomed her with open arms. She was family, after all. And family was supposed to be there for each other. He never thought he’d have an older sister that was actually related to him in a way, but then she came along. It almost made him wonder if he had any other siblings out there.

There was a small chirp when she placed her hand on his head. The contact did help a bit. He leaned a bit into the touch with a sigh.

“Just feelin’ out of place is all,” He replied honestly. “Do…” he hesitated. “Do you sometimes feel like that?” He asked after a moment of thought, wondering if he should ask or not.

“You wouldn’t think so but... yeah. I spent my whole life wondering where I really fit in. My mom’s a Chinese immigrant. My dad was a Japanese man who disappeared before I was born. I grew up between two worlds, while navigating a country that wasn’t ever really mine.”

Miwa gave another little rub to the top of his head before moving her hand, mostly so she could hug her knees up against her chest. She wasn’t particularly surprised at how leery the others seemed of her; after all, she was a wrench in the gears, in a manner of speaking. They’d only ever known each other, and now out of the blue an older sister appeared?

That would be tough for anyone.

“I get that, I really do. But in the long run... if the secret is serious? It may hurt more when it finally comes out.”

Sighing a bit, Miwa leaned back on her hands, eyes closed. She didn’t really know what she could do right now other than to provide support- clearly something was eating away at him, but she didn’t want to pressure him if he wasn’t ready to talk about... whatever it was.

@paintedboxturtle​ said: ❛ I was having a bad day. I am having a bad day. ❜

Mikey had been something of a rare case since day one. Despite the initial unease between she and the rest of the turtles after she’d started trying to get to know her dad better, he’d continued to look to her, ask after her, and try to get to know her. She wasn’t sure the boy had a distrustful bone in his body.

And hearing he was having a bad day surprised her... and even upset her a little bit. She reached out with one hand, tentatively, and placed it on top of his head, giving it a gentle little rub.

@dragxnleader​ said: "Did you know japanese and spanish have similar sounds? That might've been why it was easy for me to learn spanish."

“They’re both phonetic languages, right? I never actually tried to learn Spanish myself... learning Japanese and English after Mandarin was tricky enough.”

She waved her stick of candied fruit around for a moment or two, thoughtfully gazing up at the sky above them. Her original intent had been to put on her mask and gear and do some vigilante work, but with sweets from the tea shop at hand and the company of one of the turtles, well... she just hadn’t felt it.

Besides, she wanted to get to know them better. And the best way to do that was to sit down and actually talk to them, not be afraid of them running her off just because of a rocky start.

@technotello​ said: ❛ Ironically that same family togetherness is thought to be the reason that depression rates actually do spike at the holidays. ❜

“I’d ask why the dour mood about the holidays, but the more I get to know my dad- our dad, I guess- the more I realize you honestly make a really good point.”

In the month it had been since learning the true identity of her biological father, Miwa’s life had been something of a roller coaster ride. From flying very close to ostracizing her newfound little brothers to discovering what an absolute waste of air her dad really was, it was just one thing after another.

Honestly, she was kind of happy she didn’t celebrate American holidays at this point. If just talking about the cooler weather brought on this sort of conversation, she couldn’t imagine what it must actually be like in the lair once Christmastime actually rolled around. Had they ever even had a proper New Year’s celebration?

@lethargic-hunter​ said: ❛ It’s just that I hardly know anything about you. ❜

“You’re right, you don’t. And honestly, that’s probably for the best.”

She’d seen the young man around the lair, of course, in her time slipping in and out. He definitely wasn’t human, but she was fairly certain he was no mutant either. And his odd relationship with the turtles...

Leaning against the doorframe where she stood, she folded her arms across her middle, nodding out towards the pit area.