I-I…um…help?
I-I…um…help?
could you please do 29 for dialouge prompts, leo and donnie?
dialogue prompts
29. “Tell me where it hurts, and be specific.”
x
When they were little, Donatello’s twin was his translator.
Donnie was the last of the turtles to start talking—though the first to start reading and writing and dismantling kitchen appliances—and no amount of coercion or bribery or outright begging was enough to get a single word out of him in English or Japanese before he was good and ready.
Splinter was in over his head already just by having four unplanned children to raise who were not even the same species as him. He fretted about his sons’ health and their development in those early years, and had absolutely no one he could turn to for regular parenting advice, let alone advice on what was and was not normal for mutant turtle children.
He tells the story now with a rueful good humor granted only by hindsight and a decade and a half of distance, but at the time, Donatello refusing his second meal in a row while blinking silently in face of his father’s increasingly worried questions probably would have driven Splinter to tear his fur out if not for the contribution made by Donnie’s talkative striped shadow.
“It’s the, uh, the red things, daddy,” Leo piped up. “He doesn’t like those.”
Splinter blinked at him, and then down at the plate Donnie was refusing to so much as look at it.
“The tomatoes?” he said.
“Tomatoes,” Leo parroted. “They’re hard outside and squishy inside. He doesn’t like things like that. And they touched everything else so all of it is no good now!”
Never having considered that texture, of all things, could be the issue—and kicking himself for it—Splinter scrambled a fresh pair of eggs for his stubborn little softshell. He skipped the cherry tomatoes, and sliced a bell pepper instead that he made sure to put on the opposite side of the portioned plastic plate.
Donnie sniffed his fresh plate of plain eggs suspiciously, but it passed his inspection. He crunched into a piece of bell pepper so eagerly that he must have been hungry. Splinter sank back in his chair with an exhale that left him feeling like a deflated balloon.
Leo, eating the discarded tomatoes out of Donnie’s original breakfast, giggled at him. He was the first of Splinter’s babies to start speaking, and the sound of his bright voice tripping eagerly over clumsy human words rarely failed to coax a smile out of his father.
“Thank you, baby,” he said, poking Leo on the edge of his beak and earning himself another peal of bubbly laughter. “I’m glad one of us speaks Purple’s language or I might have set us up for failure big-time.”
“‘Course I do! ‘Cause we’re twins!” Leo said, with only half an idea what the word meant, but happy for any reason to be one of a pair with his best friend. Donnie knew very well what the word meant and simply nodded along, because he was happy, too.
Now that they’re older, and Donatello no longer needs a translator, he finds himself returning the favor instead. Leo is far from nonverbal—Leo talks too much—but he hardly ever actually says anything. He can pontificate and harangue and lecture to lengths of absolute absurdity without giving a single word of substance away that he doesn’t want to give away.
Donnie can read him like a book. Like one of his favorite books that he doesn’t actually have to read, because he knows every page by heart.
The summer after the world didn’t end, Donnie’s twin becomes someone unfamiliar.
He’s self destructive in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. He seeks out things that scare him, lingering above the death drop an extra second even though he’s been afraid of heights since he was fourteen.
It’s obvious that he’s trying to train himself out of weakness. No more childish fears, no more lazy Sunday mornings, no more silly Nardo.
Raph and Mikey have clocked it, too, in their own ways. At first Raph was pleasantly surprised when Leo beat him to the dojo for training, ribbing him amicably when he was also the last to leave. But then Leo started turning down Mario Kart tournaments and ninja tag in favor of shutting himself away and working working working to correct an internal ugliness that just doesn’t exist. Mikey’s used to being the exception to every rule, used to arms opening for him wherever he goes, and the way his sweet, sunny smile slips every time Leo talks around joining him on the sofa for Kitchen Nightmares reruns—or explains away why he’s skipping dinner—is one of the worst things Donnie’s ever seen.
At the very least, Leonardo doesn’t lie to Donatello’s face. He’s stopped looking him in the eye altogether.
You’re not going anywhere without me, Donnie thinks at him, ready to dig in his heels and fight like hell.
It’s hard to say how long it would have gone on, but one late night Leo limps home from a solo patrol and Donnie is waiting for him, arms folded, tolerance for foolishness nonexistent.
“What, are you tracking me?” Leo jokes half-heartedly. And then, when Donnie doesn’t blink, he adds, “Wait, actually?”
“Don’t waste my time with questions we both know the answer to,” Donnie says, and points Leo directly towards the medbay. Leo, who had been angled toward the bathroom instead, likely because he can close the door and suffer in private with no one the wiser, sighs loudly and course-corrects.
The overhead lights in the medbay hum to life when Donnie flips the switches. Leo looks over his shoulder to gauge how far those lights have traveled past the open door, restless with wondering if he’s going to have to save face in front of someone else.
All of this? All this behavior? Donnie hates this.
Larger-than-life Leonardo seems smaller as he boosts himself up onto the edge of the bed. The infirmary is the one place he never puts on airs, the one place he takes seriously because his family’s health and safety has never once been a punchline to him. He peels off all his false layers at the door. He’s back to not meeting Donnie’s eyes.
“Tell me where it hurts, and be specific,” Donatello says.
“Your bedside manner could use some work,” Leonardo replies. His attempt at wily good humor limps along a lot like he had limped through the front door, like the least funny thing in the world. “That’s why between the two of us I’m the team medic.”
“And I’m two minutes from pulling the fire alarm and making this a house party,” Donnie says frankly. His tone isn’t gentle, isn’t quite angry. He’s somewhere in the middle, gentleness and anger fighting for the spot that affection has never once surrendered and never once will.
He hates the way his twin’s eyes get wet, staring down at his own knees, knuckles stark white and standing out like a string of pearls where his hands are bunched in the thin blanket he’s sitting on. He hates that it’s come to this, the quiet of midnight in the medbay, one of the brightest lights in Donnie’s life dimmed and miserable and so clearly struggling. It’s laughable that Leo really thought he could have hidden it forever.
Donnie sits beside him on the bed and says, “What if I quit?”
The non-sequitur takes Leo by surprise. He was clearly expecting a full frontal assault and glances sideways at Donnie briefly.
“Quit what?”
“My bad, I should have been more specific,” Donnie allows. “I meant, what if I quit being a ninja? I have better things I could be doing, and I don’t like getting hurt.” Leo is staring at him fully now, totally bewildered. Flabbergasted, even. It melts some of the sternness Donnie has been careful to shore up for this conversation. “Would you love me less?” he asks.
It would have been kinder if Donnie had slapped him. “Don’t say that,” Leo says, barely any air behind it.
“Are you more capable than I am?” Donnie steamrolls on. “Are you better than me?”
“Of course not. I don’t think—I didn’t say—”
“Then why do you have to be perfect if I don’t?” Donnie presses the advantage ruthlessly. “Why aren’t you allowed to struggle and doubt and spectacularly fuck up every now and then without raking yourself over the coals for it?”
Leo glances over at the door automatically, like Raph is going to be summoned by the bad word. He’s sixteen, he’s just sixteen, Donnie wants to scream it loud enough that those resistance fighters in Casey’s future could hear him, the ones who thought it was a halfway decent idea to put a child in charge.
Earlier Donnie thought that Leo looked smaller here. Now he thinks he can tell by looking how much weight his twin has lost since June. There’s a deficit of Leonardo in this world and his whole family is feeling it keenly.
Raph wants to scoop Leo off the sofa when he stays up too late and tuck him into bed, wants to listen to Leo filling the comms with chatter on those nights when patrol stretches long and dull. Raph misses his little brother, the gossipy, gangly, growing up little turtle that Raph used to be allowed to carry everywhere.
Mikey wants to bicker over who gets to play Sonic in Smash Bros and eat cookies while they’re still hot from the oven with the person he admires so much, who taught him all the best cheats in Smash Bros and that fresh sugar cookies in the falling apart stage, pre-icing, are better than ones that have cooled.
‘Sometimes you gotta get burned to get results,’ ten-year-old Leo had announced, but he was always the one who lifted the cookies off the sheet pan, he never let Mikey burn his fingers.
That goofy, clever kid who was always getting them all into trouble and talking their way out of it again is worth a thousand made-up Master Leonardos.
Leo keeps his face lowered, shoulders hunched, because he knows what he’ll see if he scrapes together the courage to meet Donnie’s gaze. He’ll see the love blazing in his twin’s face like one of those digital billboards towering above Times Square, and somehow he’s convinced himself he doesn’t deserve it.
Donnie doesn’t give a damn what Leo has decided he deserves. Donnie’s going to love him anyway, on purpose, whether he likes it or not. If Leo wants to grow up so badly, then he can stop acting like a kid pushing vegetables around on his plate and swallow the truth.
It’s okay if he doesn’t grow up yet. They can be kids awhile longer. It’ll be like when they were babies, when Donatello would rather go hungry than stomach certain foods. Leo never let Donnie sit alone at the breakfast table, keeping him cheerful, babbling company, even when their brothers had moved off to play.
This time Leo is the picky eater, willing to go hungry and sit alone at the table. But Donnie learned from the best. He's returning the favor.
Donnie isn’t going anywhere without Leo, either.
More Posts from Theanonymousninja247 and Others
✨ Star Friends ✨
When I found out that @chessman-protocol boy Crit liked Astronomy, let’s just say I was beyond estatic and immediately planned this little comic. Here’s to my boy Vincent doing his best to make friends with folks who share similar interests 😅💙
Funny enough, I didn’t realize I put this in Vincent character’s until I looked at the whole thing, but Vincent very much shares the lack of stranger danger the way I did/ I do to this day. To quote one of my past managers I’m “abnormally friendly” or whatever
I can’t tell you how many times even as a small child (drove my parents nuts) that I saw a cool person with whatever connecting factor and I just straight up walked to them and was like “Ok cool. We’re friends now.” And nobody’s really stopped me? So apparently I have friends now. 😆
Vincent however is just a wholesome baby boy who doesn’t realize he’s actually an intimidating hunk of a turtle and randomly walking up to strangers and not saying anything can be taken the wrong way.
Like I said, he’s trying his best. He wasn’t exactly the most socialized if you can’t tell, but he does love dearly and is certainly a boone of a friend to have once you get past the inevitable social awkwardness. He’s loyal to put because he really doesn’t know better, and I adore him for that. Anyway, dunno if Crit knows any ASL or not, but either way Vincent is just excited to meet somebody else who likes space ✨🌌 💙
Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you
A VERY GOOD BOI
like this is so tender? And my heart is healing? 💙❤️🩹
the blue one
12. Do you ever have trouble focusing on writing? How do you get around that?
46. What time are you the most productive when it comes to writing?
72. What do you do if a scene gets too serious?
Dang. It’s been so long since I’ve had a legitimate ask in my inbox so I forgot what to do. *does arm wiggle thing* AnYwHiZzLe Perception be upon ye! Let me answer your query’s!
12. (YAY MY FAVORITE NUMBER how did you know?) Ma’am. I say this with all the love in my heart, but I’ve got that ADHD up the wazoo. You try wrangling the 5 chickens that live in my brain into one corner and get them to work together long enough to form consecutive thought. In all seriousness tho, it can be a benefit when I FIXATE on writing ya know? Because I can sit down for like a solid 5 hours and manage to wring out a good 7-10 pages in that time, if I A: Make the time and B: Set my mind to actually doing it. Bullet point lists are my favorite because it keeps my chickens from wandering mentally too far.
46. Uh…Evening/Nighttime usually I think🤔 There’s something about the phrase “sacred night” in the fact that that’s when all the thoughts and feelings have time to compress.
If you want to talk to me though? The earlier in the morning is when the brain juice flows the fastest and as such so does the words from my mouth 😆😅
72. Hmm good question. I guess it depends on your definition of too serious? Because sometimes I think that’s the power in writing, to say what we can’t usually say outloud. And sometimes that means saying the hard things and taking things serious when the rest of the world can be so full of flippancy. So I guess it’s all weighing on your motive and direction overall. Best tip I can give is just to pace yourself and make sure to make a new paragraph at every “new” thing, like view of direction or action, stuff like that.
Thank you so much for the ask! It was fun!🧡🥰
A good reminder for anybody that anyone great had to start somewhere.
embarrassment has good bones
*shakes silently with a hand over my mouth as my mom asks me why I’m suddenly crying*
You have no idea, NO IDEA, how much the Disaster Twins relationship means to me
@somerandomdudelmao *cough-cough* *COUGH* Sorry I'm still not over this arc... *disappears*
Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life
Sick
Favorite line of today:
Me: Be honest. How bad are my eye bags
Roommate: 😦☝🏼😐✊🏼😬😅
Me: *blinks and walks into bathroom to see my reflection before hooting* DANG! My eye bags are so heavy they look like they’re carrying last generations trauma!
calling out the bestie @anobodyinabog
@fishsticksloser Ah creating mischief through writing snippets for your friends, I see. A worthy engagement indeed, for tis an endeavor I participate inquire frequently. May all the inspiration be upon ye, and your fingers fly swiftly in your story.Show no mercy, my friend. Make him suffer 😈🫡🧡🙌🏼
and if I may be as bold, may I see the destruction afterwards? I do so enjoy a good creative volley
Apologies everyone... I fear I have accidentally killed him. Who knew a cryptid could be so powerful...
YOU ARE NOT SORRY IN THE SLIGHTEST--
DON'T EVEN--
Jayus’ Jammie Jams
Today our first song is something Raph coded! It’s got a nice soft wholesome beat and I feel like this would be the type of song that encapsulates those soft moments when he feels safe enough to let his guard down around you. You know those small moments when you catch him looking at you with a small wonder filled smile, maybe a fond little smirk? I’m thinking in the secret moments like, late evenings or sleepy nights. You know where that look is the only outward expression of the inner mess of affection that’s threatening to burst from his heart because of you? Just the kind of song that makes him appreciate the kind of softness that comes with being with someone as sweet at you 🧸❤️
Dedicated always to @anobodyinabog
Good gravy this one hit me. This one hit me hard. The words just….Ugg I’m in Spain without the S.
(text from this post, fic is little kid with a big death wish by @remedyturtles)
i'm genuinely not sure where to start here - ig first of all this fic is absolutely incredible and if you somehow haven't read it yet you absolutely should!
okay. man. rem, this fic means so so much to me and i'm so glad i got to be here for it. i think this is one of those fics that'll stick with me years down the line even if one day i'm not into tmnt anymore, one i'll come back to over and over again
your writing has touched so so many people myself very much included, and i just. want to thank you so much for writing this fic and thank you for sharing it. you're an amazing writer and an amazing person and i'm lucky to know you. i can't wait to see what you do next
HOLY HONK MY MIND IS LITERALLY 🤯🤯🤯
Nothing is more fabulous than deep character analysis 😤🙌🏼💙🤌🏼
How Leo’s role as face man prevents him from confiding with his team
Watching throughout the entire series we see Leo constantly keep up with his role as the face man of the group
While on missions he can use his charisma and persuasion in order to get people to go along with his plans without letting people know what he’s really thinking
But he never seems to put it down
•Leos Emotional Guard
At first glance Leo’s entire personality revolves around being lenient laid back and chill, and to everyone else it makes him seem like a very open book, and that’s why the face man role works out for him
But it means that no one is really aware of anything beneath the surface. They never bother to ask because who would need to?
However, this also includes Leo’s family
Despite his chilled back personality Leo is one of the most emotionally guarded ones out of all of the brothers
Throughout the series we can see little moments of vulnerability from each members of the family, digging deeper into their emotions and their insecurities and then go on to discuss said feelings and gain some form of comfort or closure from their family. Most notable ones shown below
Donnie in “Donnie vs Witch Town”
Raph in “Anatawa Hitorijinai”
Mikey in “Hidden City’s Most Wanted”
April in “Always Be Brownies”
Splinter & Donnie in “Turtledega Nights”
•How Leo is Different
Similar to everyone else, Leo is shown to have these moments sprinkled in too but they never occur with his family
The two most memorable moments we have are shown in “Portaled Jacked” with Senor Hueso and during his one-on-one conversation with Casey
Why these two characters and not one of his close family members?
Because it’s easier talking about problems to strangers and people who don’t know you as they have no previous knowledge or connotations of you to fall back on and there’s no feelings of burden or guilt if you believe the topic will never be discussed with them again. There’s less feelings of consequences that comes with being vulnerable towards people who don’t know you well. Because if you open up more to the people who do, the risk that their opinion of you will change gets higher
Then we add in the fact that Leo is already extremely guarded of his emotions. He doesn’t want his brothers to think less of him because he already isn’t confident of his place in the team already and thus doesn’t confide in them
•Deflecting with Humor
And then the two moments where we do see little slips in Leo’s carefully constructed masks that occur around his family, which we can find in “Minotaur Maze” and “Many Unhappy Returns”
He ends up immediately backtracking and deflecting with humor, thus changing the subject and preventing anyone from delving into it further and reacting to the quips instead
“You know it’d really help me if you guys said that I was your champion.” “Just open it!”
“This whole situation was my plan all along. If it wasn’t, then why’d I ask your tailor to make me this outfit?” “So we could both perish looking super fly?”
What makes it worse is that Leo has such a habit of doing it that his family expects it, which then causes them to believe there’s no underlying issues beneath the surface and thus don’t react accordingly. (with the addition that both parties had valid reasons for being upset with him at the time)
But it causes a situation of Leo internalizing his emotions, and if he doesn’t expand on the topic himself, then his family won’t see a reason to either nor think there’s an issue to begin with
•The Movie
To add onto this point, we see Raph and Leo arguing over Leo’s role as leader. As usual Leo deflects the argument with humor and avoids the situation. But we can see during the argument that how Leo privately lets down his guard and for a second the audience is able to see how he’s really reacting to Raph’s words. However, it is apparent that Raph doesn’t see this side of him and most likely never really has
“You just don’t get it Leo”
Now as the audience it is very easy to draw to the conclusion that Leo has clear issues with his role as the leader and most likely many insecurities regarding it thus why he acts the way he does. Like any other serious situation, he copes with, he deflects with humor and tries to avoid it
This argument then implies that in the two years since Leo was made leader of the group, he never revealed his internal issues with it and never made it apparent to his brothers either because he hates being vulnerable
The face man role works for him because it requires skillful work in that you can manipulate people the way you want to without ever letting them know what your thinking. And Leo carries that role with him when it comes to his brothers and family as well. But this doesn’t work out for him anymore when he becomes the leader and communication becomes so important to the team. (I talk about this more on a different post)
Thus the events of the movie and why things played out the way they did
Naturally he learns how to trust in his team more when the situation becomes dire enough that he realizes he can no longer keep deflecting
But even after all the traumatic events that he went through. When it comes to the one time we see him really cry. He still only lets himself cry when he’s completely alone within the prison dimension
TLDR: Leo’s role as the face man is kept on both on and off duty as we find that he is really one of the most emotionally guarded out of all of his brothers as he doesn’t want to let them know what he’s really feeling out of fear that they might think less of him as he is already insecure of his placement in the group and would rather confide in people who don’t know him well over his family where he runs the risk of them treating him differently
Honestly, “Mr. Emotionally Unavailable” has some real competition ahead of him
If we were being completely blunt, all of the brothers have trouble when it comes to letting go of their real emotions, Donnie just being out of his depth with them and it being uncomfortable, Raph wanting to be strong for his brothers, and Mikey most likely wanting to focus on his brother’s emotions over his own as the Therapist of the group, but i believe the Leo definitely has the worst case out of all of them.
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“If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."Doing my best to make this blog a safe place for every kind of folks. Y'all are more than welcome here!🧡P.S. The only thing minor about meis my minor inferiority complex. But HAY, life like me, is growth in progress🤙🏼🌱
289 posts