1) My username is not misspelled.
2) I do, however, have dyslexia. Beware the typos!
3) This is all just random. Cosplay and conventions will be a theme.
Starting the year with more wonderful commission art! This is the first of two pieces I commissioned from @doodlesfromthebird - of my characters Jayla and Isha from A Werewolf in October.
They both turned out so great, and the background is so pretty 🤩🤩🤩
Glorious art I commissioned back in 2021 from the amazing @linnpuzzle , featuring the main characters of my (soon to be finished!) urban fantasy novel A Werewolf in October. Posting it now to celebrate that I'm on track with my editing and should be able to fully declare the whole project "done" next year 🥳
In the first picture, from left to right, you have:
1) Isha, monster hunter in training.
2) Arturo, reluctant vampire.
3) Jayla, enthusiastic werewolf.
They are the novel's POV characters, and as you can see in the second picture, they have some hidden magics 😊
More of Linn's art can be found:
Website: https://www.linnpuzzle.com/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/cinnapon/posts
Bluesky: linnpuzzle.bsky.social
Second part of what the non-vampire turtles are doing.
Universe:12
12!Donnie hadn’t imagined finding a mysterious message on his computer when he was doing research that evening. Neither had he expected to find a photo of his oldest brother's unconscious body being dragged around by an alternate version of his younger brother. He would have enjoyed chatting with the turtles in the other universes more if it was under better circumstances. Instead he needed to focus.
12!Donnie first sent a quick text to 12!Raph and 12!Mikey, telling them that it was an emergency and to meet him in his lab.
Then he went over what he needed to build the portal. It had been a while since he and his brothers had been to that universe, but he thought he could use the parts from an old Krang portal to achieve his goal.
First to arrive was 12!Raph. He slammed the door when he entered. “What happened?”
“Leo’s in trouble. I'll explain more when Mikey gets here. For now, help me move this over there.”
12!Raph muttered a bit but didn’t argue with him.
They didn’t have to wait too long for their youngest brother to arrive. 12!Donnie knew he'd been visiting the Mutanimals and hadn’t expected him to be that quick. “Dudes! I came as fast as I could. What is happening?”
12!Donnie walked over to his computer, explaining on the way: “I received an emergency message from another universe while on my computer. It included this picture.” He enlarged said picture to show his brothers.
12!Raph pushed 12!Donnie aside. “What is this? I was on the phone with Fearless just 20 minutes ago.”
Then 12!Mikey jumped and grabbed hold of 12!Raph's shell, to have a look at the screen. “Bro, that turtle kinda looks like me.”
“A good observation, Mikey. That is your counterpart from another universe."
“Like the funny guys from last time?”
“Yes. I have actually talked to two of the turtles from last time and turtles from two other universes. Leo is at the moment in a universe defined as universe 03. Regarding the other Mikey in the picture.” 12!Donnie closed down the picture and instead opened up the chat window again. “Randomly kidnapping brothers is apparently out of character for “this” Mikey according to his brothers, whom I have been in contact with. ” He scrolled up in the chat thread.
12!Raph crossed his arms. “So their Mikey's been corrupted, possessed, replaced or all of the above. Who cares? Let's just go there, get Leo and probably fight.”
12!Donnie stopped scrolling when he reached the top of the chat thread. The video that had started all this. “It’s a little more complicated than that.” He pressed play on 03!Mikey's first message.
12!Mikey was the first one to break the silence when they were done watching the video. “Dude, glowing eyes! That's like something out of a movie. What if they've been infected by some interdimensional creature and now they're trying to gather more people to build an army and take over the world!” 12!Donnie and 12!Raph exchanged confused looks, before 12!Raph sided-eyed 12!Mikey. “I think the TV has finally rotted your brain.”
“Okay, it may be a bit farfetched but it might as well happen considering what we've been through." 12!Mikey emphasized his words by gesturing with his hands.
“That aside, I have been in contact with several of our counterparts and we have all agreed to meet up in universe 1987 to regroup and figure out our next step. Leonardo and Raphael from universe 1987 are working on finding their dimensional transporter to go pick up Michelangelo from universe 2003 and the other turtles." 12!Donnie turned around from the computer to look at his brothers. “I should have a portal to the 1987 universe up and running in half an hour.” 12!Donnie looked over at the parts he had gathered up so far. He hoped he'd be able to make it work.
12!Raph put a hand on 12!Donnie's shoulder. “So we have 30 minutes to prepare to travel to another universe. I’m going to go over my gear, howl if you need anything.” With that the other two left 12!Donnie alone.
—-37 minutes later—---
They were all once again gathered in 12!Donnie's lab. 12!Donnie could feel 12!Mikey leaning a little closer to him. He didn’t know If that was his brother looking for reassurance or trying to show support. 12!Donnie appreciated it nonetheless. He didn’t like how quiet his younger brother was right now. 12!Raph’s face didn’t give anything away but 12!Donnie could tell that his older brother was also getting antsy.
12!Donnie typed a sequence on his computer keyboard and the portal sprang to life. It took a few seconds for the portal to stabilize.
12!Donnie looked around his lab one last time before he gave his brothers a silent confirmation to enter the portal.
It went from being a random drawing to becoming something else afterward…
Everything happened during a failed mission against the Kraang. The objective was to stop the activation of an experimental dimensional core that used living plasma as an energy source.
The core became unstable, and Raphael was exposed directly to the center of the rupture while holding the containment long enough for his brothers to escape.
The accident drastically altered the matter of Raphael’s body, turning it into something between plasmatic energy, radiation, and condensed energy.
His body visually “fails” at times, like glitches or distortions, with an extremely high body temperature, electronic interference, and energetic residue left wherever he goes, along with constant low noises similar to static, electrical vibrations, or distortion.
He constantly experiences different and rapid emotions that his own brain — or whatever is left of it — cannot fully comprehend all at once, causing him to remain emotionally numb most of the time because he cannot properly process those feelings.
But whenever he does manage to feel them, both he and his own body enter a frenzy, creating radiating heat waves, magnetic distortions, electromagnetic explosions, and an uncontrollable rage.
His vision extends beyond visible light, giving him an extremely wide range of perception and awareness.
I’m back with another part! This time we're going to look at what some of the non-vampire turtles are up to.
Rise!universe
Rise!Mikey's brothers were getting worried. Not only had he been gone longer than usual, he wasn't answering his phone. When Rise!Donnie checked his brother's phone tracker, it seemed to have vanished without a trace.
Rise!Donnie returned to his lab after examining the tracker's last known location. Using his goggles to look for what could have happened, he'd found traces of Mikey's Hamato Ninpō, but something was off with the readings.
It had been hard to convince Leo and Raph to let him return to his lab on his own, to run the readings through his computer while they kept on searching for Mikey.
Back at his lab, he was surprised and alarmed to find a chat program he didn't recognize open and running on his desktop. It had a generic look to it, grey background and a common font. The only thing posted in the active chat window was a video file without a preview image labeled SOS.mov. Very basic. The program itself had no name, only a blank icon with … as title.
After doing all thinkable security checks and finding no hints of intrusion or malware, he decided to isolate this computer from the rest of his network and open the video file. It might be desperate, but it could be from Mikey. Stranger things had happened.
It turned out to be from a Mikey, but not his brother.
The video showed a muscular turtle in an orange mask. He looked to be in distress. “SOS! Mayday! Something is majorly wrong. This is from universe: 2003. I hope this gets to you, little dudes. Something weird is happening here. I came home a while ago to find both your Mikey and Donnie here but their eyes were, like, glowing and my Raph and Donnie were there too with glowing eyes and Leo was just lying on the floor! I overheard them talking about some experiment or something. I managed to sneak in to steal Donnie's dimensional communicator before two other turtles arrived. Well, one was unconscious and being dragged by the other one. I managed to take a pic before I escaped. Please tell me that this is reaching you guys!”
This wave of overwhelming information was followed by a picture that made the confusion and overload worse. The image showed what had to be Mikey, his Mikey, dragging another turtle down a paved ramp into a large room with a pool and a bridge in its middle.
Rise!Donnie wasted no time in calling his brothers. “Raph, Leo I've found Mikey! Get back here. Oh and Leo, you owe me money.” He couldn't fully enjoy winning the multiverse bet due to the whole Mikey situation, but a bet is a bet.
Rise!Donnie then went back to trying to pinpoint the origin of the chat program. He didn’t get far before a blue portal appeared in the lab. “Where is he?!” Rise!Raph was the first one out of the portal followed by Rise!Leo.
“I don’t know his exact location but I have received a picture from a universe called 2003 indicating that he is there.” It took his brothers several seconds to react. Then there was screaming and shouting, which Rise!Donnie let slide.
The three brothers gathered around the computer. Another message appeared in the chat program. This one was in text form:
This is Leonardo from universe 1987. We got your message. Are you safe? What do you mean that our brothers are in your universe? Raph and I saw them like an hour ago.
An answer quickly followed, also text only. Rise!Donnie double-checked that the computer's auto-recording functions had activated. He needed backups of backups of this exchange!Yes, I’m safe. Managed to sneak away from the lair and am hiding on a roof.
I think Donatello's portal generator is still in his lab. We can come to you and regroup in your universe.
The fourth message that appeared in chat seemed to come from a third person joining the conversation:
What is going on? Why is there a picture of a potentially alternate version of Michelangelo dragging my unconscious elder brother around? Please respond post-haste!
"This is really confusing to Raph," said Raph. He sure had his way with words.
The fifth message read:Oh, I should have realised that the knocked-out turtle looked familiar! I’m assuming that this is one of the turtles from universe 2012?
Wait, you know who that is, little dude? And to the other guy here in chat, I don’t know what's going on, I don’t even know how you're getting these messages. /03!mikey
You are correct in your assumption, Leonardo from 1987. This is Donatello from universe 2012. Here is my hypothesis: The event or action that made it possible for our Leonardo to transfer to another universe might have linked our universes together, which could explain why I'm receiving your messages. At least, that's my educated guess. What I would like to know is what universe the Michelangelo in the picture is from. I don't recognize him at all.
Rise!Donnie took this opportunity to jump into the conversation. That would be our younger brother.
The chat went quiet for a moment. Then: Hello! Who are you?
Rise!Donnie assumed this message came from Mikey from the 2003 universe and therefore replied: I’m another Donatello. I don't know the name of our universe yet. But I know that the Mikey in that photo is most likely our younger brother.
Not that the Mikey in the picture was acting anything like their Mikey. But Occam's Razor and all that. Mikey was missing and this was their best lead - clearly other turtles had disappeared as well and were acting out of character.
And why is your brother absconding with my obviously unwilling brother? Rise!Donnie was pretty sure that came from the other Donatello in the chat. It was hard to tell without indication of who was typing. At the back of his mind he started thinking up quick adjustments that could improve the program. Making tweaks without knowledge of the other universes' levels of tech would be an interesting challenge.
Rise!Donnie exchanged a glance with his brothers before answering:
How should I know? We've been searching for him for almost an hour. This isn't like him at all!
Mikey had looked unharmed in the picture. How in the world had he made it to another universe, possibly with a quick stopover in a third universe for some light kidnapping, without burning himself out? No way he got there by his own power!
The chat was silent once again. There was no way to tell if it had stopped or if people were typing answers. And even if he got a reply, there was no way to be sure he'd know who it was coming from. Therefore, he added:
Okay, this is very confusing. Is there any way for us to talk face to face?
Maybe they could create a group chat with voice call? Or maybe they could go to the 2003 universe? That would be quite the trip!
It took a few more seconds for a reply to come:
Donatello from 2012 writing: I can get me and my brothers to the 1987 universe. Is there any way for the rest of you to get there?
Leonardo 1987: We can pick up Mikey in universe 2003 and meet you back in our universe. Other Donatello, do you have a way to get there? I can probably open a portal between your universe and ours if you need help. Let me know!
____
Okay, I’m going to end this here. I have spun the wheel and I know who is going to turn vampire next. It'll be a while before I get to them, because I wanted to write more about what the non-vampire turtles are up to first. So the next two posts will be about them.