#2012 mikey

[forgetful-nerd]

Some crimes can never be forgiven.

[batgirl68649]

Have a Happy Birthday to my second favorite turtle of all the time, Mikey! 🤗

(Here’s some turtle birthdays in case that you don’t forget here)

[weirddokiddo]

Out of context TMNT

[josephine-smosephine]

Holy moly I wrote a lot.

Anyway-

Part 1 of my Dimension X idea

Ok so, last post was about version 1 of how Clem gets to Dimension X and back. I unfortunately forgot to actually discuss the second method, so I'll be doing that now.

In the second method Draxum and Mikey are practicing his mystic abilities when Mikey decides to tackle a spell he definitely isn’t ready for to prove to his brothers that he can really take care of himself and that Draxum is a good teacher. This backfires pretty badly and it ends up transforming Mikey into a toddler.

Draxum finds him clumsily doodling symbols of a forbidden spell on some loose practice papers instead of being a dutifully practicing teenager. He rightfully freaks out and rushes to stop him but by the time his hand brushes against the box turtle’s baby soft cheek, he’d already gone.

You know damn well the rest of the family blames Draxum for Mikey’s disappearance and works him like a dog to get their baby brother back.

At first Draxum isn’t very worried about how long it would take him to locate where Mikey has found himself in, but once they reach the 48 hour mark Draxum is drowning in guilt. He fully believes that he may have just doomed the first person to ever believe in him to death; Draxum may have just killed Mikey with his own bare hands.

Mikey ends up going missing for a day or two before Draxum and the boys are able to bring him back with a location spell, leftover magic from Mikey, and Hamato ninpo. They all are happy to have their brother back but once the smoke clears they find that the heart of their family has come back… wrong.

First, from what they can tell-he’s older. His once unblemished skin is twisted with scars of all kinds, each one more gnarled than the last. Haunted eyes track his family from his place within the summoning circle, and his fear is only highlighted by the light of the candles surrounding him. Then, the moment their father’s furred, pink hand reaches out to touch Mikey’s grime smeared cheek; they can only jump as the tiny tot lets out a glass shattering scream.

The overwhelming feeling of terror shoots through their ninpo connection like ice through veins. In the end Donnie has to sedate him so he doesn't hurt himself trying to get away.

Draxum only feels even more guilty from Mikey’s reaction, and tries his best to quicken the aging spell but it'll take a few days for it to be complete.

The reason he comes back so much sooner is because I’m lining this up with more 2012’s time translation, although not nearly as short as the show’s.

As for the few days I was thinking that Clem would display the same behaviors he does in the first version: such as making his brothers quiet to avoid “big danger”, not actually remembering his family until much later, and going by a different name. At first the others notice that their little brother isn’t responding to Mikey or Orange, so they try a various barrage of silly nicknames to try and get him to break his quiet streak. It’s only when Leo calls him “Tangerine” that he finally introduces himself in the softest voice they’d ever heard; it was practically a brush of air with how small it was.

“Im Clem”

It’s from there that the brothers start to push for more answers more consistently as the days pass, because Draxum says it's very likely that once the de-aging gets reversed that Clem will no longer remember what happened in the alternate dimension.

Leo is the first to discover that unzipping his lips is a sign someone taught Clem to say that it was ok to speak. From then on they absolutely take advantage of it and are able to get their little brother to get more comfortable with them and to speak about the “pink place”. Donnie, Raph, and Leo end up getting second hand trauma as Clem describes a place they can only refer to as “pink super hell” and the staggering multitude of times their baby brother was almost killed. They actually do cry when Clem describes in scarce detail how it felt to kill something called a “Krang” for the first time, and how someone named Kiki had helped him do it.

The Rise bros don’t really know what kind of role Kiki had in their brother’s life but they both are eternally grateful they helped keep Clem alive and hate him for making Clem grow up so fast. They learn what role this “Kiki” actually played in pink super hell when Splinter tries to comfort Clem after a meltdown.

Splinter tries to hold his youngest as he thrashes his little body around like a wild thing, refusing to make even a peep; he even bites down on his own arms to try and muffle his sobs with a desperation that breaks Spinter’s heart. He reaches out once more with the intention to sooth, but his hand gets smacked away by a scared and grief stricken Orange. It's not until Leo gives the ok that Clem bursts out in terrible cries,“I WANT MY KIKI! He makes everything better- he loves me and keeps me safe and I WANT KIKI! NOT YOU!”

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find out who Kiki was to his son…Not at all.

Unfortunately all they are able to get out of Clem the last few days are more trauma, Kiki, and a mutant named Leatherhead who is apparently Kiki’s best friend and something like an Uncle figure to Clem(despite the tot’s only memories of the guy is him being in a cell). Then when Clem finally gets restored to Mikey he doesn’t remember much from his time in Dimension X, although some habits still stick.

Such as being unnaturally quiet when he feels like there is danger around, overeating due to past food insecurity, and dreams about the life he used to lead. Of course he notices his brothers being weird around him and sometimes almost calling him by another name, but no matter how much he pushes no one will answer him.

I actually find myself liking version 1 more… But enough about Clem, it's time to check in with Mikey!

In this AU the invasion takes a few more days so Mikey’s grief can be more properly explored as they get prepared for the Krang invasion. As stated in the last post, his family notices the change in Mikey pretty quickly despite how hard he tries to hide it.

The first to reach out is Raph, but this ends in an argument so explosive that even Raph has to take a step back from the overwhelming tension. Then Donnie tries to figure him out through a series of experiments, observations and questions. This is how both the audience and the others find out that Mikey has been taking things to his room (toys, incense, food, and art supplies), yet when he tries to ask Mikey completely shuts him out. Leo tries to ease Mikey into talking but his youngest brother just- changes into a smiling husk(one of the more disturbing things the brothers have observed). April and Casey have some success but in the end they just get a facade of Mikey that diverts them from any and all topics until they become too exhausted to keep going.

The last to reach out is Splinter, who recognizes the grief in his youngest’s heart and tries to break down his walls. Instead he gets chewed out for every flaw he has failed to recognize within himself before his son runs off into the sewers. It's not until hours later, just before the attack, that he discovered Leatherhead was who Michelangelo ran to.

Unfortunately they ran out of time to question him before all the cannon stuff went down, although this time they are able to get Kirby O’Neil out of NY and some of their belongings. Mikey only took his shrine and offerings, leaving everything else to be burned by the Krang.

They could take the entry of New York, but he refuses to let them take anymore from Clem.

Never again.

The Farmhouse Arc will go mostly the same, but this time with an actual adult and licensed physiatrist who will help these children recover even if it kills him.

The audience will get more hints about what happened in Dimension X, along with seeing as tensions between Mikey and his family only rise to a deafening crescendo. It all comes to a head when Mikey is making food and accidentally knocks a few things over. It's less of a mess than in canon but everyone is already fed up with him, so they take this as their breaking point for Mikey’s behavior. Although the situation truly becomes unsalvageable when Raph knocks over what looks like just an extra serving (he knows Mikey makes two for himself, and considers it gluttonous). With Kirby out getting groceries and unable to act as the peacekeeper, Mikey’s cheery persona crumbles into unforgiving rage.

He screams at them with a terrifying hysteria and shouts at Raph that “HE’S GONNA BE HUNGRY-HE CAN’T BE HUNGRY HE NEEDS TO BE HAPPY HE-” among other nonsense about someone they don’t know. Yet, it's more than they've gotten out of the orange banded turtle in months, so they keep pushing.

It's not until Mikey flees from the house that they realize that this was the wrong thing to do; so they try and wait for him to come back on his own, hopefully cooled off. Until Raph goes missing next, having gone looking for Mikey first without telling anyone.

Things go pretty similar to cannon, but this time Mikey forages a stronger bond with Genghis Frog as he is the first person Mikey (vaguely) mentions Clem to. Genghis doesn’t quite understand the weight of the situation but I think it’s funny to imagine the amount of 12 year olds losing their mind at the lore drop.

When they return home Raph properly apologizes for his actions(with Kirdy’s coaching) and tells Mikey that he just wants to understand. This my friends is where all my set up of Raph looking like the bad guy comes in. Mikey ends up confessing that he butted heads with Raph the most because he knew that his brother would understand; Mikey wasn’t sure he could stop himself from telling his big brother everything.

Raph urges Mikey to at least tell him how he can help. Mikey decides to do him one better and takes Raph Clem’s shrine that he hid in a blocked off section of the upstairs attic. There, he tells Raph everything about Clem he can remember, the fear he felt at taking the role of “Kiki” and how he had gotten the brightest boy in the world killed because he wanted to make him feel brave. Raph just holds him close and promises to help him tell the others in the morning.

That he does. (Kirby is putting his skills to good use)

Over the rest of the time they spend at the farm house Mikey shares the hardships, happy moments, and grief he had in Dimension X, with Clementine. His brothers some to adore Clem the more he described him to them; he even shares through his tears the fantasies he had in that pink hellscape about Clem coming home with them. There would be a kid’s science book in his hand and a familiar Captain Ryan figure in his other; a knitted red blanket would be draped over his shoulders and a clean yellow mask would mark Clem as a Hamato.

“Hamato Shen Clementine” gets added to the family's shrine, right beside Tang Shen. Splinter tells Mikey that she would have loved to meet her grandson, just as he would have.

Mikey sobbed like a child in his father’s robes that day, and he supposed that's what he was.

I WAS GONNA POST THE REUNION- but I wrote too much again ;^_^ but yeah Splinter would have been divested to learn what had happened and that his son had to grow though the grief of losing a child all by himself for so long.

If you see any spelling mistakes? No you don’t.

[josephine-smosephine]

Tmnt crossover idea but it’s in Dimension X-

Ok so, if we take that headcannon that 2012!Mikey had been in Dimension X for 3 months to a few years and then we pop in a baby (around a year old) Rise!Mikey.

Now Rise!Mikey could get here a multiple of ways, one being that he unlocked his mystical abilities early or something mystical came into contact with him as a toddler. OR he was training with Draxum, gets turned into a baby- and then plops into a different world.

2012!Mikey(who we will call Mikey) finds him a little into the first month trapped in a Krang testing facility in a cell far too big for him. He has no idea who this new turlte is or where they came from, but he decides to do his best to keep Rise!Mikey safe. Mikey names him Clem(as in clementine, because he forgot the name for tangerine) after they blow up the facility together.

Mikey gets Clem a breathing filter from the Krang who had already made one incase Clem needed to be transported. I doubt the Krang want to spend even more resources they need to take over NY on a transportation method when they can just give him a filter.

Over time Mikey teaches his charge how to survive in Dimension X: such as how sound can scare larger predators (or “big danger” as Clem likes to say), and how to understand Krang speak as well as technology. Clem’s incredible vocal feats help them out a lot with avoiding scuffles, especially during times where Mikey is injured enough to keep them grounded in one spot.

Mikey figures out that Clem is from an alternate dimension pretty quickly due to the toddler’s blabbing about his three older brothers and his rat dad; and he gives Clem stories about his own brothers and their friends when it’s safe. The next months (or years, depending on how you like it) Mikey learns how to take care of a whole person through trial and error. He has no idea how to keep Clem safe in this hellscape of pink and brown on his own; so he is forced to sacrifice Clem’s innocence by teaching how to kill his first Krang. Mikey doesn’t know how to comfort the tiny tot after their first semi-permanent home gets destroyed by Krang- but helping Clem make paint out of whatever they can find in their environment and letting him give his shell a makeover is the best he can offer.

Eventually Clem’s age and his reliance on Mikey make his memories of anything before Dimension X begin to go hazy at the edges. So Clem turns to Mikey as a sort of parental unit and his only family in this dimension. Mikey on the other hand begins to notice that Clem’s name for him “Kiki” now bears a new, terrifying weight he isn’t ready for. Yet, how can he refuse this responsibility for someone so sweet? So young? So kind in a way Mikey hasn’t felt allowed to be in years?

Mikey didn’t even realize he was taking a parental role before they ended up in their first true life-threatening incident. While nursing Clem’s wounds Mikey notices that he’s been thinking of Clem as his kid.

As time goes on they grow older (by months or years depending on your hc) and Clem nearly forgets all that was before Dimension X and his Kiki. In turn, Mikey is struggling with his new role as a father figure to Clem. He tries to keep them both alive and allow for his kid to hold onto his scraps of innocence for long as possible. Seeing glances of Leatherhead and teaching Clem about his best friend really helps him cling to his own childishness and hope(although it’s quickly fading). Leatherhead is able to meet Clem in the short instances escape plans started going right before failing halfway. Clem finds Leatherhead super cool. Clem especially likes the gator because he can make a lighter side of his Kiki come out; one Clem hasn’t seen since his first month being here. Leatherhead adores Clem then he first meets him, but he understands that it’s a heavy responsibility placed on his friend’s shoulders; emphasized by his Mikey losing his brightness under the oppressive weight of Dimension X.

Mikey, while now fully taking the tile of Clem’s Kiki, still believes that his brothers are coming to save them even if they seem to be taking awhile. He likes to imagine coming home with his son and introducing them to his brothers. He knows they would find his sweetness and his chaos charming; he imagines that Donnie would teach him how to read, write, and about the world around him. Leo would want to teach Clem all about Space Hero’s and Japanese history(he would talk his kid into his naps). He wonders is Raph would teach Clem how to throw a punch or hold a paintbrush first? Mikey knows his red wearing brother would show his soft side to Clem but he wasn’t sure how open he would be about it. Then There’s Master Splinter, Mikey knows he would love to hold someone so small once more. Mikey couldn’t wait to bring Clem home.

This faith breaks within the same week that Clem is returned to his own world.

There is no warning, no big fight, no tracks to follow or a scream to alter him. Mikey feigns sleeps as Clem takes a short version of a first watch and he opens his eyes to empty space. Of course Mikey combs through as much of Dimension X as possible, he screams Clem’s names until monsters attack him and risks his life with an unplanned raid on a Krang prison only to find absolutely nothing. Mikey looks until he has to accept the reality that he is- was the father to the brightest little boy in the world, that his son died because of his father’s own ignorance, and that his brother weren’t coming for him. He only had Leatherhead now, and Mikey would be damned if he wasn’t getting him back.

Once Mikey is back home, he arrives a of who he used he used to be. He cleans out his room with an almost manic energy (to his brother’s concern) and collects all the toys he can find scattered about, broken or not. He takes two plates of food to his room but doesn’t seem to be recovering his lost weight any faster. He spends his free time learning how to properly cook or doodling in his room. Then, he trains with a kind of dedication Splinter would be jealous of(if Mikey ever spoke to him longer than a minute). His brother’s try and stage an intervention but- if it was hard to get him to sit down and talk back then, it was impossible now.

Mikey tries to act normal, only confiding in Leatherhead about the child he lost in Dimension X. Mikey tells the gator about cleaning his room because Clem deserved to feel clean; he had cried to his Kiki because he forgot what it was like to not have a constant layer of filth over his skin. Mikey sobs to the gator him about gathering all the toys he could never provide to Clem and setting them up neatly next to a poorly drawn but smiling figure protected by a wooden frame. Mikey screams to the gator about bringing all the food he couldn’t provide for Clem and eating silently in his room, waiting for a second set of utensils to scratch against porcelain. And Mikey shakily describes to Leatherhead his new rigorous training schedule; how if he was just faster, smarter, better then he could have had Clem right beside him in this very moment.

Leatherhead pulls Mikey into his arms as they melt into a puddle of grief and love and regret for the child they both loved so dearly. The child that was taken from them far too soon.

So two ways that Clem, or Rise!Mikey returns home.

The first one for how he comes back in the early tot days of Rise is that after however long of Mikey being missing (days, months?) I kind wanted time in Dimension X to line up more with Rise so Mikey is actually missing for longer than like- 15 seconds) Splinter finds him half buried in garbage and sobbing his eyes out in the sewers. If it’s the complete of months route than obviously Splinter is overjoyed that his youngest is home, but he comes back… different.

Mikey refused to respond to his own name for the first few weeks, only going by “Clem” before Splinter snapped and yelled at him to go by his real name. In his fright, Mikey became compliant with these demands.(Yoshi doesn’t know where he got that name-). He’s scared beyond belief, and they look far older than they should be. Yet, every time he asks Orange just clamps up and refuses to answer. Additionally, his bright and talkative son is now quiet; getting anxious when his brothers or Splinter is, apparently, is too loud. He only speaks when Splinter fakes an “unzipping” motion on his mouth. It’s some sort of sign that “big danger” has passed (Yoshi is scared, terrified of what kind of monster made his son so quiet) and it’s ok to be noisy- if you count hardly taking above a whisper as noisy.

Eventually he starts to grow out of his odd habits (mostly) and remember who his family really is. Although, Splinter finds himself worriedconceredangryjealous of whoever was the “Kiki” his son called out for nearly every night. The one his son preferred over him when his anxiousness over his brother’s volume made him break down in silent tears. When he would push Splinter away and call out- “No! Not you! I want my Kiki! Kiki! Kiki-”

I think these behaviors would stick throughout the Rise series and be a point of intrigue for the viewers and the characters in Rise. Mikey can’t properly remember much from Dimension X anymore but his habits, fears, scars, and general PTSD are still there.

Then for the version where his stay in Dimension X translates into a three years or more. I would personally have him appear again, a few months into being missing but when Splinter finds him he is MUCH older than he is supposed to be. This shoots him up to at least second eldest child(or eldest of you prefer). I think it would confuse Raph the most (right after Splinter) because he very clearly remembers Mikey being the youngest. The sky is blue, the sun comes up in the morning, and Mikey is a baby. Yet now he’s helping take care of Donnie and Leo with him.

Mikey would be able to better articulate what happened in Dimension X, but he refused in fear of this new nice place being ripped away from him if he strayed too far from the script that Splinter wanted him to follow. So he used his superior survival skills to re-learn how to act; although simply learning all the unspoken rules and pretending to know who everyone is doesn’t quite count as re-learning who his family is, it’s just a another method of survival.

Splinter is the most worried about his youngest and how the hell he suddenly came back so traumatized and so much older, but after the first month he gives up on asking. The part of him that doesn’t want to know what happened; to pretend everything is ok wins out. So Splinter decides to let Mikey pretend this is all normal until his now second eldest eases into his new role.

His Dimension X mannerisms actually don’t stick for very long, or at least it appears that way. appears so. He kinda gains something like a Raph,s savage mode instead due to him shoving down all his learned survival instincts from Dimension X into a neat little box so he can fit in better in this one. I think a bit farther down the line is when we see those instincts come to light, maybe during a Hypno fight where the villain casts an illusion of Mikey’s worst fear. Then he immediately regrets it as everyone in a 5 mile radius gets several traumatized by Mikey immediately gunning it and trying to skewer Hypno alive with completely silent footsteps.

Mikey ever truly remembers his brother when he gets back to his own Dimension but he relearns how to love them. Although it’s definitely hard to keep calm sometimes, especially with his younger sibling’s loudness and careless habits that could get them killed- Mikey loved them all the same.

Ralph pics up on Mikey’s preference for quite over the years, as well as his irrational fear of anything pink (sticks around in both versions but if more intense in this one). He tries his best to accommodate his traumatized younger brother, but a part of him still feels off when watching Mikey tease Donnie for being the youngest. Because Raph remembers a time where he wasn’t.

I also like to image that both versions keep this savage mode AND know a bit of the Krang’s language, although the first version dose so instinctively while the second actually mixes his speech with Krang words when no one is looking.

If we go with a Hypno fight and Savage Mikey reveal being with the first version I imagine it would be a lot more confusing and tears. For the next episode he refuses to speak or go by his name once more- just like he used to but he still remembers his brothers pretty well. He would try and keep them safe by making them be quiet (a hand on the mouth or a silent hiss until they shut up) and keeping them fed. Of course everyone is highly concerned about this and all three brothers are trying to figure out what the hell is happening when Splinter shows up.

I’m thinking that he stares as his once more feral son before signing heavily at what he has to do to get him to stop. First he calls him “Clem”, which gets him a happy chirp (his other sons are watching with slack jaws)….then he yells at him to go by his real name with an intensity the audience has never seen from Splinter before. Of course the family is shocked (a but terrified) but then Mikey snaps out of it.

I love to imagine that in the show itself Mikey’s past becomes a whole mystery that his family tries to figure out for both version. It’s the kind of big reveal saved for later seasons (before the show got cancelled) that ends up having hints shoved into the movie then gets truly revealed by a creator’s twitter post.

I’ll tell you about Mikey’s interaction with Krang and his reunion with 2012!Mikey in the next post because this one is getting comically long.

EDIT- I never wrote the actual second version where he was practicing with Draxum🫩

I’ll do it next post.

Edit2: Part 2!

[forgetful-nerd]

NGL, the last one might work.

[mandykat53]

Mikey after five seasons