#tentative devotee reference sheet

[s0fti3w1tch]

"Ghost" in My Dreams

[context] Raph was the last to see Leo before he disappeared. The guilt haunts him.

[s0fti3w1tch]

Tentative Devotee AU (TBC Soon)

Leonardo is a Foot trainee, raised and trained by Lieutenant and Brute since he was 9. Life before then is fuzzy at best. — In the past several months, he's been going on his first proper missions, quickly aware of a persistent threat against the Foot Clan: 3 mutant turtles and a human who've foiled them time and time again.

What he wasn't aware of was that they were 4 siblings who never gave up on finding their missing brother.

CONTENT WARNING! This AU will explore: Mourning of family / Mourning of a child (who isn't actually dead, but believed to be). Violence is canon-typical up to the standards of the movie— That is also a reference point for the tone of this AU. There will be cult themes and dips into the topic of cult trauma, alongside family issues.

Main Comic:

Enemies || [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ tbc... ]

Baby Blue || [coming soon]

[TBA]

Minisodes/Mini-Comic:

Donnie's Apology Gift

First Mission Mishaps!

PSAs: Triggering Content, Why Leo will not have a "Dark Side," Cult Parents

More content below the cut! ♥︎

Scrapped/Changed Ideas or Scenes:

"Maybe this is the lowest point of my life" / Severing Ties

Usagi's first design + role

Mona Lisa first design

Reference Sheets:

Leonardo's Room

UPDATED LEO FULL REF

Leo's Outfit Change + Sorta-Timeline

Hand Marking

Scarf

Leo's Guitar

Eyes (outdated)

Nail Polish

Butterfly Charm

Future!TD!Leo

Usagi WIP

Doodles:

More Lore/Story Heavy = ♥︎ / Just More Fun = ☀︎ / 💬 = answer to an ask

Leo Solo!

"Keep it together, Leo"

"What I know about family?"

He/They/Xe of the day! / Speed-Color ☀︎

Scooter Boy! ☀︎

He's Writing Fanfic ☀︎

Guac Baby ☀︎

"Yeah, of course! But also..." ☀︎

Animation Test

No Sleep

[ i was listening to sonic music while drawing this ] ☀︎

disillusionment

Cook :P ☀︎

3 Swords?! ☀︎ 💬

Peepaw'd :) 💬

Head Empty + Leo kinda mad ♥︎ 💬

Blep! 💬

Feelings Down ♥︎💬

Multi POV

TD Spoilers Over Memes [1]

Trust in the Foot ♥︎ 💬

"Keep your brother safe" ♥︎ 💬

Big Sisters ♥︎

Turtle Sister to Turtle Sister 💬

Foot Clan Family

Motorcycle Theft! 💬

Shell Cracks + A Small Moment ♥︎ 💬

Trans Sibs!!! ☀︎ 💬

Hamato Clan

Not Growing With Us ♥︎💬

Recognition? 💬 ♥︎

"Donnie, stay out of this"

Unknown Tension

Protective Older Twin 💬

"Can we be brothers?" 💬

Donnie's hope (colored ver: here)

"Donnie, whatcha got there?" ☀︎

Drawing for Donnie 1

Yōkai Connections

Hueso's First Encounter With Leo 💬

+ All my AU Crossover Content linked here~!

Separated Leo Crossover : Bathtub Arc ☀︎

Preview Comic (Test)

TMNT AU Competition Basketball Saga ☀︎

DOUBLE-HANDED BACKHAND SWING

Nail Bat Recieved

Leo Hype Squad!

No PomPoms

I didn't intend for this AU to be that big, but I realized I did want to give this a go and make at least something. It's my goal to finish this project eventually.

The AU will be told in segments, comics of various points of the story.

Bonus! Miscellaneous info that doesn't play big into this AU but matters enough to me:

Leonardo is transmasculine, uses he/they/xe pronouns and is referred to with primarily masculine terms.

A version of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo comics exists and it's Leo's second favorite comic series in this AU.

'Tentative Devotee' is the name of the fanfic I was originally going to write. It was just gonna be a 2-shot fic and a way to navigate some feelings as someone who was born and raised in, and eventually left, a cult.

The initial tone/direction of this AU was much different, Leo ending up in the Foot Clan under different circumstance (i.e. direct kidnapping from Lieutenant and Brute). I found this didn't quite work for me.

[s0fti3w1tch]

This is from way earlier this year, but I never showed bc I never finished it. Since it came up in the Sep AU comp's recent poll, here's Tentative Devotee AU Mikey's full post-'Enemies' design

[s0fti3w1tch]

I'll be back to asks (again, open still!) and sharing a mini-comic or two later this week! As always you for your patience and support!!

Here's a sorta (general) timeline of Tentative Devotee's story!

It somewhat differs from canon, mainly the inciting incident of the movie's events occuring in 2021 rather than 2020.

*also I don't mean that story 1: enemies takes place 2018-2019, I mean that this is the design used for Foot!Leo for those years and it's this designs first appearance in the comic

TD!AU Masterpost

[s0fti3w1tch]

Trainee's guitar :P

Hueso gave them the guitar 3 years prior to Tentative Devotee - Enemies. :D

Completely unrelated to the basketball saga, I was originally gonna draw xem in casual clothes but the Leo Hype uniform was call me

[s0fti3w1tch]

Ok so the charm half that broke was Donnie's half, correct? And he repairs it and gives it to Trainee in the future. Does he know trainee is Leo at this point? Does Leo recognize the charm? What happened to Leo's original half of the charm? Did it just get lost when Leo also got lost?

The fact that Leo loves charms is precious to me. Sorry for so many charm questions.

Don't worry about the charm questions, I love answering and clarifying them! TD!Leo and charms is a big thing for me :)

1. Actually, it was Leo's charm that got broken! Leo's charm has blue on the top, while Donnie's has purple on the top (for those who have trouble with seeing the color, Leo's has the one where it's brighter on top) When Leo went missing, it was one of the only things his brothers and Splinter could find

2. At that point in the story, Donnie already does know that Trainee's Leo!

3. Donnie kept both his an Leo's charms away in a box. Donnie can't bring himself to fix it even if he wanted to, as it's a reminder of his self-percieved "failure" to fulfill their promise of being at eachother's sides through everything.

I will reveal more whenever we get to the part of TD where this scene takes place. I hope this helps!

[s0fti3w1tch]

Future!Trainee in honor of the Peepaw Polls because why not :D

now a full ref for him after his actual first appearance yesterday

I'll get to the TD!AU asks soon btw and the masterpost will be properly updated in the coming 2 weeks :)

more details below the cut:

[s0fti3w1tch]

I'll answer more asks tomorrow (again, I'm fine with the amount and I'm fine with more!)— But before I was gonna sleep, my twin joked about Leo's ever changing scarf in this AU, so I quickly made this.

I'm only half joking when I say I'll never draw his scarf the same length between panels. But for when it matters, here's a ref for the scarf

the length when draped over his shell normally

the scarf wrapped around so if ya don't want it swooshing around

ref for the ends of the scarf

(ft. chibi-ish TD!Leo with a comically and even more impractical big scarf than usual :))

TD!AU Masterpost