#2012!turtles

@assanmaharielsreblogs

“What are you?” Leo and Lenoard said at the same time. The two were the same height and stood face-to-face with each other, both flinching at their identical voices.

“Hey! Stop that!” Lenoard growled, showing yellow teeth and crooked fangs.

“Stop what?” Leo growled right back, “I didn't do anything!”

“Stop doing that thing with your voice!” Leonardo squeaked, waving his hand aggressively.

“What thing— this isn’t a thing, this is just my voice!”

“Like, likely story!” Leonard stuck out his tongue.

Leo gagged and covered his nose as the yokai breathed in his face. He smelled of onion and week-old steak left to rot in the sun, and Leo could see bits of meat still clinging between the creature’s teeth as the ogre scowled.

“I’m serious—“ Leo tried to be subtle about wafting the smell away

“Who put you up to it, huh? Who?” Leonard walked closer and forced Leo back against the wall, “Danny? Mickey? The government? I pay my taxes!”

“Wha—the govern—? No— wait. Mickey and Danny?”

“Yeah.” The ogre swiped his tongue over his teeth, “What about em?”

“And… what’s your name?”

“Leonard.” The ogre backed away and tilted his head, “Are you on the puffs?”

“I…” Leo dug his fingers into his temples as he shook his head, “I wish I was, Leonard. I really wish I was…”

*******

“This is… very strange.” Donnie was muzzle-to-muzzle with the well-groomed rat and he was almost certain he could smell lavender clinging to the yokai’s fur.

“So… what are you meant to be? Some sort of overgrown kappa? And why does your voice sound like my voice?” The rat snorted and tweaked his whiskers in concentration.

“My voice?! You’re the one making a mockery of me!”

“You do a good enough job of that on your own with that gap in your teeth. Geeze, have some respect for yourself and get those fixed.”

“Respect—?! I have respect for myself and there is nothing wrong with my teeth! It’s you who should have some respect— what honest guy wears a purple suit and matching hat?”

“Whoever said I was honest? That’s a blatant lie. And FYE—“

“You mean FYI—?”

“Back in my day, colorful clothing was all the rage— until Beau Brummell ruined it for us.” He said the last part with a growl

“Back in your day— when were you born?”

“1770.”

“What?! You— you’re over two hundred years old?!”

“Us yokai age slow. Every hundred human years is like ten yokai years.”

“So… you’re only twenty five?”

“By yokai standards, yes.”

“That’s… actually really fascinating!” Donnie couldn’t help but feel the slightest excitement at the new knowledge, “You’ve lived through some of the most important events in history! You’ve seen World Wars one and two! You’ve seen the civil war—Vietnam—!” Donnie felt suddenly disappointed as a realization occurred to him, “Oh… I guess you probably wouldn’t have actually… seen any of that. Human and yokai history probably doesn't mix much, huh?”

“You kidding?” Danny laughed, “Yes it do! For every important event in human history, you can bet that some kind of mythos was there to witness it.”

“Mythos?”

“Well, not everyone here is yokai— that’s just for us Japanese folks. There’s creatures from all over with different names— there’s aztecs, cryptids, folklores— you name it. As a whole, we’re Mythos!”

“Fascinating.” Donnie breathed.

“Yeah— I ain’t got nothing compared to those guys. Some of them’s been around since before humans.”

Donnie’s Interest was rekindled tenfold. “How old was the oldest mythos?! Do you know?!”

“Well, yeah, the titans are the oldest I know of, but I’m exactly sure on dates…”

“Titans? Can I meet them?” Donnie didn't care about making a fool of himself— the chance to learn about a whole culture unknown to him was too strong to resist.

“Are you kidding?! You don’t just ‘meet’ the titans! There’s like, a whole system you gotta go through, and I don’t want to get arrested again.” He spun his paws around each other as he explained.

“Wait— again?” Donnie gawked.

“Ehhhh not important.” The yokai slung his arm around Donnie’s shoulders to guide him down an alleyway, prodding a finger against the chest of his plastron. “Sides, you ain’t need no titans! Stick with me, little man, and I’ll tell you anything you need to know...”

*******

Mikey and his new friend ran into each other at the corner where an alleyway and sidewalk met. Their immediate reaction to the others' presence was the exact same.

“Woah!” Their voices echoed in turn, their movements matched, “Hey! You should like me! Stop that! No you stop! Grrrr! How do you know what I’m about to say?!” Both stopped, staring at each other with narrowed eyes for a second before lunging forward so their noses touched, “Bubblebabybaublebounces! Pizzas the best food! My favorite brother’s Donnie [Danny] and I’m still scared of the dark!” They both sucked in a deep breath that doubled as a gasp, “Hi my name’s Mikey [Mickey] what’s yours?!”

Both pulled back and covered their mouths. The eel, coiled on the ground much like a snake, motioned to Mikey, who nodded and uncovered his mouth slowly.

“Hi! I’m Hamato Michelangelo! You can call me Mikey! Your turn!”

“Hi! I’m Hayato Mikaeel! You can call me Mickey! Your turn!”

“Wow! Your name is so much like mine!”

Mickey, it seemed, couldn’t wait for his turn, “And you sound just like me!”

“Dude that is so weird! We sound the same and we act the same!”

Once more, their noses almost touched as they spoke as one. “IT’S LIKE WE’RE THE SAME PERSON!”

*******

Reminder: 2012!turtles are referred to by their nicknames, rise!turtles are referred to by their full name. Love the suggestion and definitely gonna do more Interactions like this down the line 💕

“So you’re Leo, huh?” Michelangelo’s eyes were narrowed as he pointed a finger toward the dark-blue clad turtle.

The turtle was unamused, shoving Michelangelo’s hand away as if it were infected. “Yes. And if you’ll excuse me, this is a time sensitive matter.”

Leo crossed his arms and gave a smug smile as if he had just smited some invisible foe. There was a moments confusion shared between the rise turtles before Donatello walked over to scrutinize the leader of the other team. Leo was oblivious to the interaction until a touch on his shoulder made him flinch back to the reality beyond his own mind. His eyes flicked open and he looked over to the softshell. Donatello took Leo’s mask between two fingers, pinching the material to feel its fabric before running a finger across Leo’s shell and then his skin. Leo pulled away.

“Uh— personal space, much?”

Leonardo grinned and leaned against a nearby wall. “No— none at all.”

“What species are you?” Donatello asked.

“That’s a...” Leo thought for a second, then snapped his fingers, “great question. Donnie?”

“Yes?” Both Donatello’s spoke at the same time, and then exchanged looks.

“Uh, well, that’s something I’ve always wondered too!” Donnie said, “we could be diamond back terrapins—“

“No.” Donatello said, abandoning Leo in favor of examining Donnie, who seemed all too happy to comply with the poking and prodding. “Shape, pattern, color, all off. Diamondbacks are white with black spots and have spines on their shell like mine. You’re all green with Oval-like shells and no markings.”

“Oh okay.” Donnie watched Donatello curiously, “then maybe red eared slider—“

“Hmmmm. No. You’d have more markings like Nardo here.” Donatello grabbed Leonardo and pulled him close, spinning him around to show the yellow stripes and red markings.

“Stripes are where it’s at baby!” Leonardo whistled.

“This is serious! And we’re wasting time!” Leo snarled, “every second we waste here is another second Shredder could be ripping our city apart!”

“Yo, chillax my man.” Leonardo wrapped his arms around Leo and hung against the older teen like a drunkard. “We know how to handle a shredder or two!”

“Good.” Leo’s tone caught the rise turtles off guard, so serious and stoic when compared to the high-energy, jovial brother they knew and loved. “Donnie said your world’s Shredder is most similar to the one we’re dealing with; an undead demon who will destroy everything in his path—“

“You mean like Raph when he hadn’t had lunch?” Leonardo snickered, and so did both Mikey’s, but Leo only stared. Determined to make his mirror-clone crack even the smallest smile, Leonardo went on. “I mean, I don’t know how your Raph is, but when ours is hungry he’ll eat just about anything he can fit in his mouth. And that thing?” Leonardo grabbed Raphael and tugged him down, forcing his mouth open to show the fangs within, “Is ginormous! Look at the size of that thing! I could fit my entire head in there!”

“He ate glass once.” Michelangelo said.

“Hey! It’s not my fault it looked like food!” Even with the vicious snarl, the brothers of Raphael didn’t flinch. The other turtles, however, pulled back as if there were a raging beast about to rampage.

“It was a glass figurine!”

“Well you shouldn’t have made it to look like a sandwich!”

“Technically it was a sandwich.” Donatello examined his nails casually, “sand, which had been superheated to approximately 1,760 degrees Celsius.”

Leonardo scoffed. “Who even uses Celsius?”

“LITERALLY EVERYONE!” Donatello growled back.

“What in the world is going on?!” Leo’s voice fractured the argument like the glass figurine they had been discussing.

“Talking about Raphael eating mikey’s glass sandwich sculpture.” Leonardo said.

“Superheated to exactly 1,760 degrees Celsius.” Donatello added.

Leonardo pointed back at Donatello. “Can we get that In Fahrenheit please?”

“That would be...” Donatello pressed a few buttons on his watch before concluding, “3,200 degrees, exactly.”

“Thank you, good sir!”

Leo growled and pulled on the tails of his mask. “I can’t believe this— you’re all just Mikey with extra steps!”

“I take that as a compliment!” Raphael said, grabbing Michelangelo and pulling him into a careful hug, “I love my little brother!”

“I think you’re missing his basic point here.” Donatello said with a wave of his hand.

“Ugh! This is no good!” Leo turned away from them and started pacing. “Gotta think of something— gotta think—“

Donnie walked over to Leo and tried to put a hand on his shoulder, only to be shrugged away. Donatello walked over to the other Donnie and stared at the pacing turtle, though his look was more of bewilderment than the gentle concern shown by the other gangly teen.

“Splinter!” Leo declared.

“WHERE?!” Raphael looked around, holding his arms close his body as he looked around for the rat.

Michelangelo perched himself on Raphael’s shoulder and cupped his hands over his eyes like binoculars. “No sign of ‘em, Captain Red!”

“HE’S FINALLY UNLOCKED THE POWER OF INVISIBILITY!” Leonardo cheered.

Donatello held his hands to his chest and his eyes lit up. “Oh I am so proud— and so jealous!”

“What?! No!” Leo groaned, pinching his brow. “Just— just take me to him. He might be the only one with any sense in this hellhole.”