Untitled

don't you hate it when company drops by unannounced?...

After Leo's tragic death, Donnie builds a robot that looks just like Leo (like in all those fanfics). The twist? Leo's actual spirit possesses the robot.

At first, Leo's ghost can't do much. He's weak, and so the robot just follows its intended programming while Leo goes along for the ride. But slowly, as Leo gets used to his new existence, he learns to override the robot's AI, and basically use the robot as a new body. But, there's a problem.

Leo's brothers don't know that the robot is possessed. So when Leo starts to disobey the robot's programming, it causes issues. Donnie barely convinced the family to let him undertake this project, and now, his robot is getting far too invasive, clinging to it's "brothers" even when explicitly commanded not to. Of course, this is just Leo trying to interact with his family after being thrust into the spirit realm. But in everyone else's eyes, it's a weird and creepy robot, with faulty AI that can't understand boundaries.

Finally, Donnie has enough. The robot crosses a line, so Donnie takes it out into a sewer tunnel and destroys it, smashing it into scrap metal. The family is glad to be rid of the thing, which they began to see as a flawed coping mechanism. But Leo's spirit still clings to the robot.

And Leo is terrified. He doesn't understand what happened, or why Donnie would do something like that to him. Leo had been using the robot to live a second life, to speak and move freely, to talk with his family. And once Donnie destroys the robot, that is all ripped from him. Without a vessel to ground him in the mortal world, Leo is forced back into the spirit realm, separated from his brothers all over again, rejected by his family. And in his confusion, Leo gets angry.

Strange little things start to happen in the lair. People get calls that just play static, mystic powers fail more often than usual, Donnie's tech malfunctions. It's weird, but no one minds too much.

Then, one day, Donnie walks into his lab, to see Leo's robot, sitting on the table. It's perfectly repaired, to the extent that no one could even tell it was broken in the first place. It's eyelights are on, and it slowly looks up at Donnie.

"I hate you," It says in a perfect copy of Leo's voice. "I hate you."

Anyways-

Im gonna ramble about this because like woh, wooohhhh, whuuuhhhhhh... Its gonna rattle around in my brain for days. I love these quietly sad stories.

Ive read some Robot Leo fics and theyve destroyed my feels with their sad or unfinished endings where Donnie's just made a simple AI thats incredibly Leo-like n all. One of em (that was finished) just had a super vague "they act too real to be just an ai but the author never confirmed nor denied" so it was left up to interpretation... and the ending was happy/sad with the ai asking to be "let go/let me rest in peace" kind of thing.

But this??? THIS!? HHHHRRRRRR......

THE POTENTIAL!!! They dont know its possessed by the actual Leo thats slowly just manipulating the AI/taking control more and more overtime?? WHU

His bros wouldnt want to get attached to that thing bc, its just a robot! Just Donnie's way of coping that theyve all reluctantly agreed to... (THEYRE STILL GREIVING) Itd probably be rlly awkward for everyone else having a robot clone of your dead brother/friend/sensei walking around. And he gets more lifelike overtime bc Leo's slowly taking control!? Starts getting eerily more accurate to the real Leo? They begin to notice the mannerisms an AI (even one so advanced) somehow has begun to perfect to an insane degree, says things an AI shouldnt even know/be able to come up with but the real Leo does. Does the voice of the robot slowly get closer and closer to Leo's real voice because of the possession? Instead of recorded sounds and reactions, does it start making unique sounds because of it? (Did donnie program the AI/robot to have his memories??? If not, then itd freak them out if it began recalling/referencing things only Leo and the fam knows about. But thatd probably clue them in an ruin the end goal of the plot tbh... BUT STILL)

And when it starts breaking the coding, and disobeying commands, and trying to hang out with the bros who are just severely disturbed and no where near ready for Donnie's eerily similar robot to interact with them, that seems to be trying to replace Leo? What line did Leo cross for Donnie to destroy the robot...? Did his brothers draw the line or did Donnie? Did Leo approach one of his brothers and try to comfort them but it backfired? Did Raph order Donnie to do it? The robot could remind Raph of that possessed rabbit (yk the one hehe) or Mikey couldnt handle seeing Leo's face on a robot, or Donnie couldnt take something of his going awry again when the AI stopped listening... especially when THIS project means so much to him? Maybe theres a final straw, and all the little things just pile up until someone snaps. But on the other hand theres just Leo's ghost trying to return to his fam, spend time with them. Leo doesnt want to be alone so he spends every moment he can around them. He probably isnt fully aware/there at first either... Does he know hijacking the robot wasnt intentional? Does he think Donnie planned this/made a body for his spirit, or that its an accident. OR, did he see Donnie making a robot and take this as his opportunity to return? Didnt know if itd work because his spirit form was so weak, but took a chance and tried anyway?

Can he control it when its powered off? When its powered off/charging is Leo forced out or does he 'sleep'. Does it even need to be charged? Maybe he doesnt need sleep.

What about that learning curve when he begins to override the AI? Whats that like? He probably feels powerless/like a spectator at first, but when he first finally makes the robot follow one of his commands...? The implications!! If he can control it he can come back instead of just watching like an outsider.

But, the thing is when he breaks the coding/doesnt follow whatever rules it just backfires on him because they dont know its Leo possessing it. Does Leo know they dont know? Probably, pretty quickly. Hes just stuck here trying to live a second life. Maybe he tries to tell them, but everyones in denial, or just think its Donnie's coding gone haywire again and become self aware like Shelldon.

My take, idk how to draw robots.... ive drawn a robot dragon, once..?

But i think its decent, i hope??? I honestly cant tell if i like it or if its weird. Had fun designing it tho and i enjoy the colors.

Like man, I just spent 10 minutes typing out some random concept that wouldn't leave me alone, and ur out here making full fledged designs??? I'm done. Currently eating this design. Reblogging isn't enough, I need to sink my teeth into your art.

I've never really thought much about Robo Leo's design before. In my head I kind of default to seeing him as basically the same as Leo? But I don't think that Donnie would like to make him look identical... Sure, he could probably figure out how to build a hyper-realistic version of Leo,but would he want to? It's creepy enough for him to build this robot without making it into a carbon copy of his dead twin. The robotic features help stop him from getting too attached. He even programmed the bot's voicebox so it would sound less like Leo and more like a normal robot, which makes it all the worse when the thing starts talking in Leo's voice (it's not programmed to do that it shouldn't be able to do that HOW IS IT DOING THAT)

I also imagine the robot as having a permanent smile! It doesn't have a jaw, it just speaks through it's fake teeth. Donnie did this to remember how happy Leo was, but it really just ups the robot's creep factor. It's creepy eyes are bad enough! Now imagine this staring at you, from the dark, smiling. What's even worse is that ghost Leo will try to chat with his brothers, and then drop the most horror-movie-sounding lines ever. He'd pull stunts like walking up to Raph in the dark, and saying "I missed you". Leo genuinely believes that these are just normal interactions, and meanwhile he's giving people heart attacks left and right.

(Idk if anyones asked yet but is it alright if us random ppl make AUs out of ur AU idea??? I have other ideas that grow off of yours but go in a different direction, and i kinda wanna see what happens if i run with mine :o)

I just went with a partly realistic but also noticeably "yeah thats a robot when you look close" design, i got little experience designing smth like that so idk if i pulled it of?? I also like to think with suspension of disbelief the mouth could move, Donnie totally has the willpower to make that happen.

But AAGFKHFS IM HAPPY U LIKE.

The idea of having a permanent smile in the robots design.... shivers, the spook factor, the reason behind it, AUGH. Im too scared of that.

First of all, anyone can write a fic based off this, as long as they credit me! And PLEASE lmk if you're writing a fic about my ideas, because I want to see all of it <3

So about the concept. I have SO MANY ideas for this AU, haha. You guys are all free to interpret the original idea in your own ways, but this is just what I thought up for the plotline:

So in the original idea, Leo actually isn't aware that he's a ghost, like, AT ALL. The reason is that he's supposed to be kinda semiconscious; he understands that something has changed since the Kraang Invasion, but he's not lucid enough to wrap his head around the concept of being dead. This impacts his behavior a lot, because he's not really in control of himself or his powers. Leo doesn't mean any harm, but he often ends up causing chaos or hurting his loved ones, just because he's not aware of his own actions. Nothing makes sense to him while he's in this half-dead state, which leads him to making a ton of awful choices out of confusion or distress.

At first, I think Leo doesn't really mean to possess the robot. He sees it as a kind of gift from Donnie- after all, the robot is literally built in Leo's image, so Leo decides that it must be his robot, for him to use however he wants. Leo basically claims the robot as his possession from day one. And since the robot is "his", Leo sees that as permission to basically practice his powers on the thing, by making it move, bypassing the AI, etc. Only after a while of this does Leo really possess the robot, and he starts using it to interact with his family and loved ones.

This is where things start going wrong. Over time, Leo gets really attached to the robot body. He sees it as not only a way to interact with his brothers, but also a sign of how much his brothers love him. After all, Donnie was the one who built this robot, allowing Leo to talk with his family for the first time in months. Again, Leo isn't aware of his own death, nor does he realize that this robot was just meant as a TEMPORARY coping mechanism. Leo is really happy with Donnie for building the robot, and he eventually starts to see the machine as just an extension of his own body. And when said body is destroyed, you had best believe Leo is not pleased.

I think it was ultimately Donnie's choice to destroy the robot, as a sort of catharsis. I don't think Leo did one big thing to upset anyone, rather, I think Donnie was growing tired of the robot in general. It would be a few months after Leo's death at this point, and the robot would start to grow less comforting for Donnie, even if it weren't acting weird. In Donnie's eyes, destroying the robot was a way to move on and accept Leo's death, instead of relying on a machine to try and replace his brother. Sure, he could just power off the robot, but it was more cathartic for him to destroy it himself, showing that he didn't need the thing to comfort him any more. Unfortunately, Leo did NOT agree with this plan.

When the robot is destroyed, Leo sees it as a HUGE betrayal. Like I said, he's not really aware of the full situation, so he completely misunderstands Donnie's reasons for destroying the robot. He sees it not as Donnie throwing out a piece of machinery, but as Donnie rejecting Leo. Not to mention, this completely cuts him off from his family, right after Leo got used to interacting with them in a semi-normal way. Leo is immediately overwhelmed with the emotions of it all, and his distress overrides whatever remains of his reasoning. It all leaves him angry and scared and completely irrational.

Leo becomes desperate to regain the attention of his brothers. A part of him wants to get back at them for rejecting him, (especially Donnie), but a bigger part of him just wants his brothers to see him again. He wants their attention, and he starts to try and get that attention in any way possible. He doesn't mean to haunt them, but that is absolutely what happens. Leo needs his brothers to see that he's there, but he doesn't understand why they look so scared every time he manages to get through to them.

That's basically how the original idea would play out if I expanded it into a full length story. I do have some more ideas for how exactly Leo would haunt his brothers (Shelldon? Mind meld?), but that's essentially what I thought up for the base plot. If you guys had different interpretations, you could totally do that too though!

TW for imagery and mentions of torture yall

After Leo's tragic death, Donnie builds a robot that looks just like Leo (like in all those fanfics). The twist? Leo's actual spirit possesses the robot.

At first, Leo's ghost can't do much. He's weak, and so the robot just follows its intended programming while Leo goes along for the ride. But slowly, as Leo gets used to his new existence, he learns to override the robot's AI, and basically use the robot as a new body. But, there's a problem.

Leo's brothers don't know that the robot is possessed. So when Leo starts to disobey the robot's programming, it causes issues. Donnie barely convinced the family to let him undertake this project, and now, his robot is getting far too invasive, clinging to it's "brothers" even when explicitly commanded not to. Of course, this is just Leo trying to interact with his family after being thrust into the spirit realm. But in everyone else's eyes, it's a weird and creepy robot, with faulty AI that can't understand boundaries.

Finally, Donnie has enough. The robot crosses a line, so Donnie takes it out into a sewer tunnel and destroys it, smashing it into scrap metal. The family is glad to be rid of the thing, which they began to see as a flawed coping mechanism. But Leo's spirit still clings to the robot.

And Leo is terrified. He doesn't understand what happened, or why Donnie would do something like that to him. Leo had been using the robot to live a second life, to speak and move freely, to talk with his family. And once Donnie destroys the robot, that is all ripped from him. Without a vessel to ground him in the mortal world, Leo is forced back into the spirit realm, separated from his brothers all over again, rejected by his family. And in his confusion, Leo gets angry.

Strange little things start to happen in the lair. People get calls that just play static, mystic powers fail more often than usual, Donnie's tech malfunctions. It's weird, but no one minds too much.

Then, one day, Donnie walks into his lab, to see Leo's robot, sitting on the table. It's perfectly repaired, to the extent that no one could even tell it was broken in the first place. It's eyelights are on, and it slowly looks up at Donnie.

"I hate you," It says in a perfect copy of Leo's voice. "I hate you."

Anyways-

Im gonna ramble about this because like woh, wooohhhh, whuuuhhhhhh... Its gonna rattle around in my brain for days. I love these quietly sad stories.

Ive read some Robot Leo fics and theyve destroyed my feels with their sad or unfinished endings where Donnie's just made a simple AI thats incredibly Leo-like n all. One of em (that was finished) just had a super vague "they act too real to be just an ai but the author never confirmed nor denied" so it was left up to interpretation... and the ending was happy/sad with the ai asking to be "let go/let me rest in peace" kind of thing.

But this??? THIS!? HHHHRRRRRR......

THE POTENTIAL!!! They dont know its possessed by the actual Leo thats slowly just manipulating the AI/taking control more and more overtime?? WHU

His bros wouldnt want to get attached to that thing bc, its just a robot! Just Donnie's way of coping that theyve all reluctantly agreed to... (THEYRE STILL GREIVING) Itd probably be rlly awkward for everyone else having a robot clone of your dead brother/friend/sensei walking around. And he gets more lifelike overtime bc Leo's slowly taking control!? Starts getting eerily more accurate to the real Leo? They begin to notice the mannerisms an AI (even one so advanced) somehow has begun to perfect to an insane degree, says things an AI shouldnt even know/be able to come up with but the real Leo does. Does the voice of the robot slowly get closer and closer to Leo's real voice because of the possession? Instead of recorded sounds and reactions, does it start making unique sounds because of it? (Did donnie program the AI/robot to have his memories??? If not, then itd freak them out if it began recalling/referencing things only Leo and the fam knows about. But thatd probably clue them in an ruin the end goal of the plot tbh... BUT STILL)

And when it starts breaking the coding, and disobeying commands, and trying to hang out with the bros who are just severely disturbed and no where near ready for Donnie's eerily similar robot to interact with them, that seems to be trying to replace Leo? What line did Leo cross for Donnie to destroy the robot...? Did his brothers draw the line or did Donnie? Did Leo approach one of his brothers and try to comfort them but it backfired? Did Raph order Donnie to do it? The robot could remind Raph of that possessed rabbit (yk the one hehe) or Mikey couldnt handle seeing Leo's face on a robot, or Donnie couldnt take something of his going awry again when the AI stopped listening... especially when THIS project means so much to him? Maybe theres a final straw, and all the little things just pile up until someone snaps. But on the other hand theres just Leo's ghost trying to return to his fam, spend time with them. Leo doesnt want to be alone so he spends every moment he can around them. He probably isnt fully aware/there at first either... Does he know hijacking the robot wasnt intentional? Does he think Donnie planned this/made a body for his spirit, or that its an accident. OR, did he see Donnie making a robot and take this as his opportunity to return? Didnt know if itd work because his spirit form was so weak, but took a chance and tried anyway?

Can he control it when its powered off? When its powered off/charging is Leo forced out or does he 'sleep'. Does it even need to be charged? Maybe he doesnt need sleep.

What about that learning curve when he begins to override the AI? Whats that like? He probably feels powerless/like a spectator at first, but when he first finally makes the robot follow one of his commands...? The implications!! If he can control it he can come back instead of just watching like an outsider.

But, the thing is when he breaks the coding/doesnt follow whatever rules it just backfires on him because they dont know its Leo possessing it. Does Leo know they dont know? Probably, pretty quickly. Hes just stuck here trying to live a second life. Maybe he tries to tell them, but everyones in denial, or just think its Donnie's coding gone haywire again and become self aware like Shelldon.

My take, idk how to draw robots.... ive drawn a robot dragon, once..?

But i think its decent, i hope??? I honestly cant tell if i like it or if its weird. Had fun designing it tho and i enjoy the colors.

Like man, I just spent 10 minutes typing out some random concept that wouldn't leave me alone, and ur out here making full fledged designs??? I'm done. Currently eating this design. Reblogging isn't enough, I need to sink my teeth into your art.

I've never really thought much about Robo Leo's design before. In my head I kind of default to seeing him as basically the same as Leo? But I don't think that Donnie would like to make him look identical... Sure, he could probably figure out how to build a hyper-realistic version of Leo,but would he want to? It's creepy enough for him to build this robot without making it into a carbon copy of his dead twin. The robotic features help stop him from getting too attached. He even programmed the bot's voicebox so it would sound less like Leo and more like a normal robot, which makes it all the worse when the thing starts talking in Leo's voice (it's not programmed to do that it shouldn't be able to do that HOW IS IT DOING THAT)

I also imagine the robot as having a permanent smile! It doesn't have a jaw, it just speaks through it's fake teeth. Donnie did this to remember how happy Leo was, but it really just ups the robot's creep factor. It's creepy eyes are bad enough! Now imagine this staring at you, from the dark, smiling. What's even worse is that ghost Leo will try to chat with his brothers, and then drop the most horror-movie-sounding lines ever. He'd pull stunts like walking up to Raph in the dark, and saying "I missed you". Leo genuinely believes that these are just normal interactions, and meanwhile he's giving people heart attacks left and right.

TW Suicide Attempt

we all talk about him portal chopping an arm off but,,, it would be so easy. so quick

Feel free to alter dialogue to suit your muse!

“That really spooked you.” 

“I don’t want to pry, but.. I want you to know I also want to listen, if you want someone to talk to.” 

“Well, pretend I’m not here. What would you say if nobody could hear it?” 

“Does this happen a lot?” 

“Hey, what happened between you two?” 

“When is the last time you ate?”

“Is this okay?” 

“Hey.” 

“This is the third meal you’ve missed this week, are you okay?” 

“[Name]?” 

“What did he/she/they do?” 

“This … hurts you.” 

“You don’t feel safe, here.” 

“When you look at [trigger], you… what is that?” 

“What can I do?” 

“You were crying in your sleep.” 

“What do you dream about?” 

“Whenever you get stressed, you do this thing with your hands. What is it?” 

“You’re right, I don’t understand, yet. Will you help me?” 

“Should I leave a light on for you?” 

“I brought you some water.” 

“I won’t judge you.” 

“It doesn’t have anything to do with trust. You don’t have to tell me. But I’ll listen, if you do.” 

“Count your breaths with me, okay? Ready? One, two, three, four…” 

“I’m here.” 

“Talk to me.” 

“You don’t need to tell me everything. I just want to know how I can help.” 

“Let me hold your hair back, at least.” 

Oka, I plan on following everyone on tumblr

literally everyone

Based on my headcanon on how the turtles would react to stress because IM A FUCKING SUCKER FOR THIS KINDA COMFORT COMICS OKAY!!! SUE ME!!!

To recap the stress response headcanon briefly:

Donnie stress stims (scratching his arm, they give him fidget toys so he doesnt hurt himself)

Mikey hides in his shell, away from harm. You know, turtle istincts and all haha

Leo gets nausea and gags a lot (any strong emotion does that really)

So some of y'all need to go touch some grass and learn that brotherly affection can include forhead and cheek kisses without it being gross

TMNT: Roots

Here’s a bit of Splinter and the turtles’ dynamic

Mike: He often bakes sweet treats for his family and takes requests on what to make next, this time around Splinter asked for a cake that looked like cheese

Raph: He added a sun ☀️ and everything Raph, don’t be so ungrateful!! Splinter enjoys involving himself in his sons’ hobbies from time to time

Leo: Splinter often projects himself onto Leo even if he doesn’t mean to, and Leo doesn’t have the courage to tell him otherwise. In short: Leo is a people pleaser

Don: Splinter may not completely understand how Don’s mind works, but he’s still appreciative of his genius. He can always count on Don to locate the whereabouts of their enemies/important hideouts, etc.

eng ver: