#sotau

Mind meld🧠⚡️

Continuing the April ninpo headcanons…I SO wish we could have seen the whole mind meld power more outside of the s1 finale and of course after the end of the series April would also be able to use that power as well. I know that their eyes just glow in canon, but I thought it’d be super cool if the colors and patterns in their eyes got all blended together instead of or in addition to the glowing.

April is able to reach them from anywhere and share thoughts, feelings, and visions without verbal communication. Most of them have to be in relatively close range to meld, but she trains herself to be able to reach them from across the city if needed since she goes on solo missions and has her own life in the city. She most often connects with Donnie and Mikey.

Part-time, she’s a voice of reason and comfort in the back of their minds…other part-time, she’s an enabler.

The biggest key in April’s ninpo is communication and projection. She’s the only one that can cross over to the astral plane and speak with the Hamato ancestors without outside help. However, she can help anyone else in the family cross over at the same time, but it takes a lot of focus and energy to maintain the link of two people so sometimes after long sessions, she’s exhausted.

Leo hates the feeling of his soul leaving his body so he only reaches out to his ancestors when he’s at the end of his rope as leader or feels lonely. He makes the most of every visit as a result. He loves his family to the ends of the earth and beyond, wishing he could bring himself to visit more…but the whole process makes him nervous (and nauseous). Sending Leo to the plane also wipes April out the most because his mystic energy is so weak in comparison to his brothers so she has to do the “heavy lifting” so to speak, but she doesn’t mind it one bit.

Raph takes comfort in reaching the astral plane. He’s been there before (during the season 2 finale) and seeking advice from his ancestors is something he loves and takes pride in. The process it takes to reach the astral plane is reminiscent of his own projection powers so it’s like second nature. It’s also a huge bonding experience for him and April. He even utilizes the time to practice speaking Japanese to his ancestors since he starts learning after the events of s2.

Don’s pursuit of strengthening his mystic powers is often neglected in favor of pursuing his tech and scientific discoveries. He’s an extremely powerful mystic that doesn’t believe he is because of his bias against magic. Makes it hard when your trying to reach out to your ancestors you definitely know are there…he’s seen them….and can almost feel them….he just can’t fully will his mystic energy to reach out that far beyond his control and without an exact “target”, no matter how many times April helps try to drive it down the right path, so the energy just spirals in all directions and never reaches far enough. He’s never made it to the astral plane…yet.

One aspect of this AU of sorts is that I believe the reason why Shelldon was a bit more than just an “AI”….was due to Donnie’s mystic powers. His magic abilities actually caused a bit of his own soul to drift into his creations, which is why both Shelldon and Terra have sentience but experience the world independently, like kids. They can even feel what the other is feeling and communicate without technological aid. The brothers can always tell when he’s talking with her because Donnie’s spots start to glow like he’s using his ninpo. Happens most often in…stressful situations:

Needless to say he’s pretty protective of Terra and it’s why he can’t recreate Shelldon. He literally “died” but Don didn’t realize just how connected he was to Shelldon until it was too late:

I don’t have official turnarounds or anything made at the moment but I do have this sketch sheet along with a few cleaned up/colored angles!💜

I should def make some more official and cleaned up refs for her it’s what she deserves;-;

Plus her mini shell is essentially the same as her larger one but is just small enough to fit in your palm:

While I’m not necessarily taking requests at the moment, I went back through my old sketches to see if there was anything I hadn’t posted yet that would suffice.