#tnv asks

Was thinking about Leo's recovery journey and these sketch pages magically appeared. I'm interested in how he'd adjust if he were a bit more himself

THESE ARE SO GOOD AAAAAAA!!!! 💕❤️💞💗 Absolutely love love love each of these you made him so COOL WAAAAA!!! 😭💞❤️💕😭💞💓💗😭😭

It’s so funny you bring up Leo’s physical therapy post parasite removal—because I actually have something fun up my sleeve when it comes to Leo’s PT, and I hope to get it out soon ;w; (warning: it will be fluffy feel good teehee)

And as for Leo’s adjustment to being home once he becomes more of himself again… that IS something I want (and plan) to explore in Purgatory Paradise. While I’m having a lot of fun writing his dazed, loopy early on moments (some much earned fluff lol) there’s a lot to discuss as Leo becomes more cognizant. His relationship with his brothers and other family members will never be the same again—and there’s awkwardness and tension that comes with that. There are still a lot of difficult questions left unanswered. Like why Leo hid his identity, why he planned on sacrificing himself, or what his time in the PD was like. And on top of that, there’s the adjustment period of Leo finding his place in his family again and relearning what it was like to NOT be in the Prison Dimension.

Leo will feel like a stranger in his own home for a long time. Both wanting to keep his distance from his family (out of guilt) and from feeling left behind. He can see how much his family has changed over the years, and that will make him feel lonely. He’ll never be with the brothers he used to know, and that hurt. Despite the efforts of his family, there will be a rift between them for a while. Because the thought of talking about the really heavy stuff too soon was taboo. Especially with Leo’s mental state being unstable at first. Not to mention the addition of his Krang tail, which will also be a source of discomfort for everyone to adjust to. (Something I wanna explore more hehe).

Each brother will be struggling with their own guilt on their actions during the whole fiasco… and their relationship with Leo. And Leo himself will have a plethora of things to work out moving forward. Though in typical Leo fashion, he will hide most of his inner struggle with a smile and jokes. For better or worse, that hadn’t changed about him.

There will be times the family overcompensates. Whether to make up for lost time or to accommodate Leo, it will ultimately make Leo feel even more alienated than before. There will be times Leo will relapse and think he’s still in the PD. Hallucinations (or things that seem like hallucinations) will sometimes creep back. There will be times Leo purposefully picks fights with his brothers to make things feel like they used to… and because he wasn’t sure how to interact with his brothers now that they’ve all changed. And for a long time Leo’s family will be overly worried about him in a way that smothers him. Donnie, Raph, Mikey, and Splinter will have to navigate the uncharted waters of how to interact with Leo in a way that won’t trigger his trauma, which won’t be easy.

And then there’s Leo’s relationship with Ninpo. After being isolated for so long and having his own power ‘gone’ for a while, Leo’s body was underprepared to process feeling so much Ninpo again upon his return. Being reunited with the mystic force of his clan—the overwhelming sense of home—made him nothing short of straight up drunk. It’s the overwhelming sense of safety and togetherness that makes Leo’s brain go mushy and happy. But even though it makes him feel good, he needs to adjust to get better. Leo will have to learn how to properly harness his Ninpo again in a way that doesn’t harm him, as well as adjust to the feeling of being surrounded by it again. There will even be times Leo wants to have alone time away from his family and away from the lair to help clear his head.

There will be growing pains. Awkwardness. Hard pills to swallow. And hard conversations. But there will also be laughs, joy, and a brotherhood stronger than ever before. Maybe even a few new friends are made along the way. Though things will never be like they used to be, I do like to think that there’s a good future for all of them. Leo will slowly overcome his physical and mental obstacles with the help of his brothers and they’ll find their new normal together.

… But the thing is, the quirks Leo had as ‘Neon Void’ aren’t gone—and I don’t mean the feral parts. Leo learned new skills during his time in the prison dimension… but also bad habits. After all, he’d been playing by the Prison Dimension’s rules for the past few years. His sense of what could be a life-threatening situation has been skewed since he couldn’t die in the PD. And that was a hard thing to unlearn when coming back. It didn’t help that Leo’s sense of self-worth took a plummet after spending five years with Krang and his insults. And while Leo did a good job hiding from Krang One (for the most part) there were times Leo wanted to dance with the devil. Craving social interaction or enrichment in their empty void of a prison. Even at the risk of being caught and tormented, there were times Leo purposefully sought out Krang to provoke him. While Leo became more clever, his smart mouth got worse… and so did his social filters. There are times things are best left unsaid, but Leo will relearn that the hard way from time to time with his family.

But the thing they REALLY must be mindful of from now on isn’t Leo’s episodes or physical changes. It’s his sense of protectiveness towards them. Leo’s obsession with protecting his family and destroying the Krang Key only got more intense during his captivity. Paired with his dismissal of the potential consequences on HIS life, Leo is a short trigger away from becoming a loose cannon who will do anything to save his family. And he’ll do it with a smile and a laugh. Because it was a habit now. A spiteful habit he couldn’t shake, because smiling was the thing Krang One hated the most.

Keep up the good work

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

OH MY GOOOOOOOD????!!!!!

Quick sketch but: every time Neon Void started cackling, all I could think of was him rocking/bouncing on his tail lol

akjshdkjashda omg i LOVE that!!! so cartoonish and so him. hehehe I LOVE IT!!

@liz-zeee & @starryarcadesolitude you both had similar questions, so i wanted to answer them together :>

hehehe when it comes to Leo's tail, I have a lot of fun things planned-- but the short of it is, Leo still has his Krang tail because 1) he had sort of accidentally fused it with himself when he teleported it into his back and 2) i have some fun ideas i want to explore with Krang Tech where it can 'integrate' with just about anything, not just Krang.

Rest assured-- the 'Krang Bits' that were still in the tail were eradicated during the parasite extraction. Whatever fleshy-bits that were there got burnt to a crisp (ew) and eventually sort of picked out (also ew) with the help of his family.

But that DOES leave the question of 'how does it work/how is it still attached'??? Part of the problem is that part of the tail is literally IN Leo-- tangled up with his spine in a way that made it dangerous to remove. As for how it works and the possibility of removing it... that's a secret i might want to write about in the future (with, perhaps, the help of a certain rabbit samurai >:3)

Leo's tail is a fun source of conflict too. I want to explore more about everyone's feelings towards it, and how Leo's life is a bit different with it. For Leo's brothers, it was a reminder of Krang and all the danger Leo could cause with it. But for Leo.... it was an anchor. It's both a trophy and a way to ground himself. Because to Leo, having the tail of Krang One was proof that Leo had beat him, and this was all real. But he's very much aware of how much his family doesn't like it-- and that's too fun to pass up, right? mehehe

WAAAAAAAA!!! 💕💗💖💞💓💕💖

anyhow I made a little comic for it :3

This is just my headconans of the rottmnt turtles, ‘my personal s(hell)’ (the nickname I give rottmnt headconans) anyway, the turtles went to the shopping district of the hidden city five years after the krang invasion, few weeks before thanksgiving, and Leo finds a pretty mask!

And again, love the fic no like seriously will forever be my favorite fic ever :D

when someone tells me my silly fic got them into/back into Rise