#rat sons

[scatterbrainedbot]

so yall. i randomly remembered a minor background moment from the 03 series. and it has spawned Thoughts....thoughts with Strong brainrot potential......

[mifflebat]

“ legacy “

@scatterbrainedbot ‘s rat sons au !!! happy birthday dude !!

[voodoodo11]

I drew my sons.

Ollie is my black hooded rat and Casper is my albino rat.

They're both under a year old (will become 1 in October) and I love them with all my might ya'lllll

[coolstuffifoundatgoodwill]

"went thrifting and found some awesome shoes, my beautiful rat son, and what ever this is ???” - @staywild--moonchild

1.) Those ARE awesome shoes, black and light pink is a GREAT color scheme, plus it looks like they will do the running for you!

2.) Your rat son has a bizarre heart shaped rash, you might want to have him looked at by a professional... 

3.) THAT would be a Step Co.’s Universal Fabric Magnet. As you can see by the patented Step Co. color scheme, the positive end on your left will attract your cotton and polyester blends, while your negative end is for your more finer silks and satin. Back in the far off time of the 2150′s, welders would use these puppies to hone their craft and separate fibers at a microscopic level. What a primitive way to work huh? 

[scatterbrainedbot]

leo honey please dont glare at the camera like that ur scaring people

gettin ready to fling these guys into the multiverse!! (aka the @tmntbestsibscompetiton )

edit: AH WAIT ALSO thank u sm to @/uncannyalien for the id card formats!!

[scatterbrainedbot]

are your rat sons rat sized after their mutation or person sized? somewhere in-between?

an excellent question! heres what im thinking:

so despite being exposed to the mutagen at exactly the same time as Splinter, i think it takes a few years for the boys to develop any physical signs of mutation (ie size or more humanoid proportions). instead they show more signs of mutation in their intelligence, rapidly developing skills in things like verbal (and non verbal) communication, problem-solving, recognition of themselves and the concept of other people, etc etc.

basically they mentally develop like wickedly smart and chaotic little human toddlers, but in only-slightly-bigger-than-average rat bodies, up until theyre about two or so. then they start getting growth spurts. (yes this is largely because drawing tiny rat babies clamoring over an entirely unfazed happy turtle papa fills my heart with endless joy)

around age four ish is when i think theyre approaching like clearly anthropomorphized 'oh that is a child' status. theyre much smaller than a human kid their age would be, and they face a lot of mishaps in which they learn the hard way they can no longer squeeze through every tiny gap in sight (donnie def gets stuck inside serval appliances).

around seven ish they also cant all fit on splinters back at the same time anymore :(

now, while this is very much an Alternate Universe and not really gonna be more than vaguely parallel to the '03 verse, it is born of the 03 verse, and one of my favorite things of '03 is how those boys feel like absolutely massive tanks of turtles that are in fact hilariously miniature whenever on screen next to any average sized human person. in a similar vein, no one in this house is getting even close to 6ft. short kings all around.

so the answer i suppose is, eventually, mostly human sized, just very short human sized!

[scatterbrainedbot]

I AM SPINNING I AM PACING I AM FULL ON FROLICKING IM SO EXCITED

@d1sc0rd1a THANK U FOR THESE TAGS

okayokayokayokay so pretty much all of these questions will be Officially Answered properly in the character design/intro pages im working on but also i am physically vibrating with excitement about the fact that you noticed all these details and i have very little self control so! lore dump time!!!

(minor tw for mentions of leos self-harm/self-destructive anxious behaviors and unhealthy coping skills)

- mikey does indeed have curly fur! i believe he would be considered a 'rex' rat (pictured on the left) for this trait? though the curls can be more easily seen on mice (pictured on the right). or, at least it seems that way. have not delved too deeply into the details of rodent genes and husbandry, but id assume its the same sort of mutation considering curly haired mice are also referred to as rex sometimes? either way hes a extra floofy bby 🧡

-as for raphie, unfortunately being more fluff and less shell than the average rapheal comes with its downsides. especially if you and your brothers occasionally encounter things like territorial dogs, hungry cats, or sewer crocodiles while exploring places ur dad said not supposed to go. (most of his scars will have more ninja related stories, but his ear i think got messed up from something very animal. probably around age 11 ish? old enough to sneak out from dads protection but young enough to not fully know how to handle himself alone against real danger. thankfully his ear injury looks worse than it actually is for the most part, as the damage was largely to the outer ear. his hearing wasnt super affected, except that he now has a bit of a harder time being able to track/pinpoint noises origins if its on his right side.)

-also yep! dons got some glasses that just clip/rest on the bridge of his nose! theyre mostly just for home use, as they do fall off if hes knocked around. in the field he has some goggles he tends to use (theyre helpful as they have multiple additional functions like heat-imaging, extra zoom/telescoping, and recording capabilities. but also theyll give him headaches if he wears them for too long without breaks). contacts are theoretically also an option but he absolutely hates the sensation of putting them in. so sometimes when hes tired he'll just not bother with either clips or goggles and just squint and struggle. leo hates when he does that lol.

-speaking of leo, he is def an anxious baby :) he has a few patches of fur missing on his hand cos he has the tendency to tug on it while hes thinking. he yanked and chewed on his own tail a lot when he was younger too, which is why when hes older he usually wears some wraps to cover the scars left from that behavior. he finds those scars specifically to be kinda embarrassing and shameful because they werent from any battle or life-lesson, just his own 'inability to control himself'. all of his brothers have repeatedly called him out on the fact that that is not a healthy way to think about his anxiety or mental health, but leo insists hes fine. hes kinda convinced himself that a proper warrior always has control over his own body* and his own thoughts, thus he should be able to just like willpower-brute-force his way into 'being better'. (this line of thinking pisses raph off so much he has to leave and go hit something)

Splinter also tries to talk him through some of that internalized guilt/shame/everything, but splinters very metaphorical, poetic, and indirect when it comes to talking about Big Things, which combined with how much leo gets caught in his own head, makes it kinda hard to gauge how much these talks actually help

*this is made extra fun considering leos also ftm trans, so he is faced with a body that fundamentally disobeys him perhaps more than the average rat-man.

-and im still going back and forth between a few species for splinter, but im leaning mostly towards an African Spurred Tortoise! they have these beautiful if kinda subtle geometric shell patterns and are the third largest species of tortoise in the world. the only thing that doesnt fit perfectly with Splints is that (allegedly) their lifespan in captivity is around 50ish years, whereas im p sure Tortoise Splinter is well over 75, probably closer to 90 when the boys are born and hes mutated into Old Man Papa.

but maybe hes just a particularly long lasting African Spurred Tortoise.

the Hamato family has taken very good care of him for many decades after all. :)

(well. until everything all fell apart, that is.....)

[scatterbrainedbot]

Hey, hey, @tmntbestsibscompetiton here! We don’t currently have a description or picture for your entry into the competition yet! You don’t have to send one in, but if you’d like to, just answer this, or tag us so we can make sure it’s ready for when the competition begins! Thank you so much for joining, and good luck. 

@tmntbestsibscompetiton

falls down stairs IM HERE IM HERE SORRY IM SO LATE

RAT SONS AU

in which Master Splinter is a wise and silly old tortoise, and father of four skittering, chaotic, ninja rat children. <3

(inspired by that one background moment of the 03 series! 🐢🐀🐀🐀🐀)

there will be lots of similar plot points as the 03 series (like 'tales of leo' and 'good genes' etc etc) but there are also a lot of fundamental changes in the foundation of things too — like the guardians and ninja tribunal and the hamato family line etc etc. content wise tbh its probably mostly just gonna be snapshots of random moments throughout the boys lives, but i do kinda have some plot concepts? so we'll see 👀

(embarrassingly long) introduction under the cut if u'd like to read!

——————————————

Years ago, Oroku Saki defeated Hamato Tang Shen in battle, and finally brought an end to the family that would deny him his power. He ordered her homestead be razed to the ground, and all mystic artifacts to be delivered to him. Particularly, the Hamato’s prized pet tortoise, which was rumored to be itself a conduit for the family’s legendary mystic abilities. With the creature in his possession, along with the new rapid-enhancement chemical he commissioned from laboratory familiar with mystic properties in New York — at last, he would be granted his godhood, and guarantee the legacy of his fathers clan. The Hamatos could deny him no longer. He had won.

Or he would have, had the fools at the lab not ruined everything, the precious mutagen spilling all over the tortoises crate and the fool handlers who carried it. The contaminated men morphed into horrific, animalistic monsters, attacking the scientists and wrecking the laboratory itself. And, most crucially, in the ensuing madness, the crate which contained the tortoise, his last possible connection to the Hamato’s power, lay shattered, and empty…

Meanwhile, Hamato “Splinter” Yoshi, who until this point had quite enjoyed his extended existence as a simple tortoise and family pet, found himself fleeing the eyes and hands of the man who killed his human family, and the lab that granted him this new shift in consciousness, to instead face the terrifying chaos of the streets and alleys of NYC. His transformation into something more bipedal had hurt considerably and left him aching and disoriented, but still he could not pause. He could not falter. Not until he found somewhere safe to hide himself and the four squirming, impossibly small rat-pups in his arms. He hoped the chemical that washed over them had not warped and hurt their young bones as it had his own. He hoped he could find somewhere safe to care for them. He hoped they could survive the night without their mother. He hoped, he prayed he could protect these precious, squeaking, peach-fuzzed ruminants of his family. He did not think he could survive any more loss.

For now, he would do what he could, and slip into the shadows of this city. Having lived so long among ninjas had its benefits there, at least.