You woke to a throbbing pain in your side. You didn’t remember how it got there, but that wasn’t the most confusing part.
The most confusing part was where you woke up in the first place.
“There’s no way a dream would just continue when I wake up,” you mumbled to yourself, quickly assessing your surroundings. You were in a large room, a bedroom of sorts, though not where you remembered falling asleep the night before. Was it night before? Or morning? You weren’t sure.
“You seem to be out of place, child.”
There was no way you could miss that voice. Master Splinter.
“You… Know?” you asked slowly, clutching your side as you slowly sat up.
The mutated rat stood feet from your bedside, holding two cups of tea. “I do not know where you come from, but I am certain it isn’t from here. Tea?”
You didn’t hesitate to take the cup, carefully, from his hands. You were in awe at how real he was- how real everything seemed. “I think I’m dreaming, Master Splinter.”
“So you know my name as well,” he mused, looking down into his cup of tea. “Very intriguing. Do you know where you come from?”
“Not here,” you mumbled. “You wouldn’t even believe me if I told you.”
“Stranger things have happened, Y/N,” Splinter told you, and you swore you saw a smile.
It didn’t take you long to explain everything you knew. Where you came from, how you fell asleep watching a movie about them, how you came from a world where the Turtles, Splinter himself, April, Casey, the Foot Clan- where everything was fictional.
The old soul listened, and you felt like you had never been in the presence of a better listener before in your entire life. He drank up every word you said, there was no obvious judgement, and most of all, he didn’t think you were crazy.
At least, he didn’t make it known if he did think that.
“I don’t know how I got here,” you finished, letting out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding in. “I fell asleep on my couch. And I woke up on Donnie’s table with this pain in my side.”
“From what they have told me, you were involved in an attack with the Purple Dragons.” Splinter took a step closer, placing a gentle hand on your knee. “I have no doubt that answers will come, and all will be revealed.”
“I’ve basically given up on thinking this is a dream,” you grunted. “I’ve never had such vivid dreams, or felt this much pain in them.”
In fact, you very rarely remembered your dreams to begin with. Every morning when you woke, you’d have a cloudy memory of what occurred in your head as you slept. Within minutes, all cloudy thoughts vanished as if they were never there.
If this really was a dream, you hoped you would remember it when you woke up. You couldn’t imagine forgetting this.
“What do I do now?” you asked quietly. You suddenly felt so small. “I’m in a strange city in a strange world with nobody.”
“You are never as alone as you think, child,” Master Splinter told you. His words absolutely dripped with wisdom, each phrase therapeutic to your soul. It instantly made you feel relaxed. “As long as you are here, you are welcomed to our home.”
“How can you trust a stranger so easily?” you whispered.
“When you have lived as long as I have, you become an excellent judge of character,” he stated rather proudly. “Whether my sons realize it or not, they share the same trait. If any one of them had an inkling of a feeling that you would be any sort of threat to their family, they would have made it known.”
“Mikey made a comment about me possibly being planted from the Purple Dragons.”
He sighed. “Michelangelo can have... Quite an imagination. While that might have been a thought in their minds, they all knew that to be false rather quickly.”
They really did act like how you remembered. How they spoke, how they presented themselves- there was no way your brain could simply make this up. You didn’t know everything about them, but this was really them.
You were really in the world of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
“If you don’t mind, I’m sure my sons have questions for you,” Splinter said, and you swore you heard him chuckle. “I would prepare for that before you leave this room.”
You finally smiled. Everything would be okay. Maybe it would be more than okay. “Thank you, Master Splinter. You really are who I remembered you to be.”
He waved an arm in the air as he turned to leave. “I am who I am, Y/N.”
You were now alone in the strange room. As you quietly drank your tea, which tasted much better than other teas you had in the past, you mentally braced yourself for what may come your way once you left that room.
You tried to mentally prepare yourself for the questioning you knew would ensue as soon as you left the safety of your room. Keyword is ‘tried’.
It seemed that they had been preparing lists of questions, and immediately shot them your way as soon as you exited.
“Whoa, whoa-” you exclaimed, your eyes wide. You could barely distinguish one voice from another, though it was obvious that Mikey was the one speaking the loudest. And had the most unusual questions.
How do you like your pizza? Really? That’s the question you go with?
You silently wondered what questions didn’t make the cut to be first in his mind.
“One at a time, guys, no need to crowd her. Sheesh.” It was Leonardo who stepped forward, holding an arm in front of his brothers as if to keep them from going any closer to you. “I’ll start. You’re not from around here. Where are you from?”
Oh, that was a loaded question. More loaded than a farmer’s gun in the south.
You know what, never mind.
“Do you want the long answer or the short answer? Neither of them include how I got here, still figuring that out,” you said, blinking a few times.
Were they all this absolutely ripped last night?
You swore you were not attracted to these turtles. That would be weird.
Right?
“Whichever one is more exciting, please!” Michelangelo almost sounded like he sang his request, putting his three-fingered hands together in a prayer-like manner.
The brother let you get settled in what you only could assume was their living room before you began the tale. It reminded you of the setting in the movie where they were situated most of the time. It wasn’t too complicated a layout, but you instinctively looked around for the Hashi room. That scene always cracked you up.
“I’m not sure how I got here,” you started, staring into space. There was no way you could just keep looking at them. You’d start to feel things. “Where I’m from, you guys are fictional.”
You remembered them referencing some popular Sci-Fi and Marvel from the first movie.
“Like how you know about X-Men and the Avengers. You guys were just made up.”
“We aren’t real?” Mikey gasped. “Like, legends?”
“Kind of?” You shrugged. “You definitely have a lot of fans. I think that it all started with comics about you guys, then movies and cartoons came out. I’m not really sure. I mostly know about you from these movies- the same guy who directed the Transformers movies directed your movie, actually- and from a few other sources.”
“How much do you know about us?” You could feel Raphael staring into your very soul.
“That depends?” Your voice raised as if asking a question. “There were a lot of different continuities. I mostly know the most recent movies and some profiles from a more recent animated series. I could be wrong, but I think there were… Four? Four animated series that were all similar, but targeted different audiences.”
You were absolutely not about to admit that all you really knew about those animated series were from gifs on Tumblr with no context. It was just better that way.
It took no time at all for each brother to individually attack you with questions about each of their characters. You answered them as best you could, but honestly, some of your answers you pulled out your ass. There were just so many different versions of them.
If this ever ended (and you prayed it didn’t), you promised to yourself to indulge in each continuity.
Once each and every brother became satisfied with your answers, you finally felt yourself relax. They took this surprisingly well. You couldn’t imagine someone suddenly popping into your life and telling you that they’ve read about you in books and were a fan of you.
Your life was way too boring for that. You were barely your own main character.
“We know that the technology for teleportation exists,” Donatello said. “It would only make sense that if that exists, it’s also possible for a device that can cross through dimensions exists as well.”
As he rambled on, you found yourself lost amid the scientific jargon he spewed. You clearly knew words like ‘the’ and ‘and’, but the words enveloping them? Not so much. You were never the best student in science class.
Although, you admitted to yourself, this was far beyond that. And to think he had no technical training.
“Does that make sense?”
“Hm?” You blinked, looking back up at the purple-banded turtle.
“I’m thinking it could have been an accident. I’m not sure if it had anything to do with the Purple Dragons, but you somehow got caught in them after transporting here,” he said thoughtfully. “You weren’t involved in any technological experimentation, correct?”
You blinked again. “Not that I was aware of. I have an uncle who is a rocket scientist, but I haven’t seen him in forever.”
Donatello sighed. “Until we can find out exactly what brought you here, there’s really nothing we can do. There’s not much to go off of. You weren’t involved in any experiments, you say you were sitting at your home- what were you doing at home? Did you get struck by lightning?”
“I was indoors,” you stated. “Watching a movie by myself. Alone.”
That did sound pitiful.
He made a face. “Right. As I said, until we figure this out- you’re stuck here, Y/N.”
You sat quietly on the couch, looking down at your feet. This wasn’t exactly the best-case scenario, but you were convinced this wasn't the worst-case scenario either. You could have been dropped into the live-action Avatar The Last Airbender movie. That would be the absolute worst.
“So what now? Do I go up top and find a job, get my own place, start a life here? Do I stay down here hoping to help you guys figure out what got me here? What?”
Your first option didn’t sound like something you wanted. You were suddenly given this opportunity to not have anything expected of you. You could live in secret, or as secret as the turtles allowed you to be. You didn’t want to feel like a freeloader, but also figured that one extra mouth to feed wouldn’t be a huge stretch for them. You knew how they ate already.
Man, you would not keep your figure on their diet.
It was Leonardo that spoke up. “No rash decisions yet. We’ll take every day as it comes. You can get a job or something if you want, but I’m almost nervous that who or whatever brought you here might be looking for you. They might be angry that whatever happened possibly happened wrong.”
Good point, good point.
“So I’ll stay down here until further notice,” you concluded, leaning back into the couch. You certainly didn’t expect it to go as far back as it did, and you ended up laying down with only your legs not on the actual couch. This was very smooth of you. “Huh.”
You could barely see Leonardo tilt his head in your direction. “You alright there?”
“This is a lot to take in.”
“We’ve seen some pretty strange things, but this might top it,” Raphael said. You couldn’t see his face, but you could almost hear the smirk. “At least we got a fangirl.”
You sat up slowly, rattling your brain for a witty remark. When none came to mind, you settled on sticking your tongue out. You might not be a teenager anymore, but there’s always that inner-child inside of you.
Being with these four, and Splinter, was something you had dreamed about years ago when you first saw the 2014 movie. Now that you had calmed down (for the most part) and ‘grown-up’, it was bringing back the memories of dreaming how something just like this would go. Who you would possibly end up with. How you would get along with the others.
You weren’t sure if you were excited or terrified that those dreams actually come to fruition.
“The rules for House Party are pretty simple!” you announced rather confidently. “Here’s how it works. We choose one person to be the party’s ‘host’. They leave the room while we choose three or four other people to be ‘guests’. The guests will pick a character or thing to act like and the host has to guess who each guest is acting as.”
“So, it’s like a more complicated version of charades?” Michelangelo said slowly, rubbing the back of his head.
You smiled. “Kind of. The guests and the party host can talk to each other. The host can be as involved or as not involved as they want to. The game is over when the host correctly guesses each party guests’ identity.”
“There are eight of us,” Leonardo said. “So with one host and four guests, we will have three observers.”
‘I mean, at least he does quick math,’ you thought to yourself. “Who wants to be the party host?”
It was a few seconds before anyone spoke up. To your surprise, it was April who volunteered to host.
“Alright, so I just need you to leave the room until we call you back in, okay?”
It was still so weird to you to be here with them. Just kind of hanging out, partying, going shot for shot- did you mention Casey didn’t hold back on the alcohol? He brought enough to fill a small bar.
Let’s just say you weren’t cold. What you liked to call the ‘alcohol blanket’ was in full effect.
After taking another sip of your vodka kool-aid, you clapped your hands together. “Right. Four people need to volunteer to be the party guests.”
“I will,” Casey said quickly, holding up his half-empty beer bottle. “This sounds fun.”
“I want to be a party guest!” Michelangelo said right after him with a grin that just lit up the room.
You looked between Raphael and Vern with a smirk. You were internally counting on one of them to volunteer as well, just for the hell of it. Vern just kind of sat there and existed for the majority of the party. Participate, man.
After an overly dramatic sigh, Raph finally nodded. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
That left Vernon (Falcon guy, as you liked to call him), Leo, and Donnie.
“I’ll be the fourth,” Donatello said with a small smile. “This should be fun.”
After about ten minutes of arguing, ‘playful banter’, you had helped the four party goers figure out their personas. It was time to bring April in.
When you went out to grab her, you gave her the rundown of how it started. The host would enter and act like they were doing house-ly duties when there would be a ‘knock’ at the door. It was an imaginary door, of course.
You expected the ding-dongs to be as obnoxious as possible.
“Ringy-dingie! I’m ringing the doorbell!”
You were so thankful that you had already swallowed your drink. Mikey was going full-force.
“Answer the door, you fool!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” April looked overwhelmed already.
Next to you, Leo and Vern were trying to contain themselves. It was only just beginning.
Everybody was ‘in’. April continuously tried to start conversations with each of her four party guests, but was often interrupted by another guest. She looked about ready to pull her hair out.
“Does anybody want a drink? A snack?” April called out, throwing her hands to her sides with a huff.
This was going both better and worse than you had planned.
“I would love a beverage, darling!” Mikey drawled, giving April a wink. The accent was a mix of German and Japanese, and you grinned knowing exactly who he was impersonating.
After all, it had been decided ahead of time. All April had to do was figure it out.’
“Oh, are you an immigrant to this country?” April asked, pouring him an imaginary drink.
“No, darling, I am a business woman.”
“A business woman? What kind of business?”
“Oh, it is a secret, darling.”
Leonardo nudged your side. “Does it usually take this long?”
“For people who haven’t played before, it can take this long,” you mumbled back. “But it is funny to watch.”
The entire idea of this game came from an old high school memory. When you were done with any of your various arts classes (choir, band, art, those types), the entire class would play this game together. It usually happened on a Friday afternoon and was definitely the highlight of your week.
Ah, back when life was simple. But you wouldn’t trade it for anything now.
Raphael was loudly chatting to Donnie, you didn’t know if it was a nonsense conversation or a real one but there was a definite mention of-
“Capes! No capes!” Michelangelo exclaimed
“Edna Mode!” April said quickly, pointing to Mikey.
Mikey grinned, and you swore he winked at you as he gave a dramatic bow before taking his place at the sidelines next to you, Leonardo, and Vernon.
Ah, Vern. Everybody forgets about him. For good reason.
“How did I do, sweetcheeks?” He somehow squeezed himself between his eldest brother and you.
“You did good!” You were not blushing, you were definitely not blushing. Did he just call you sweetcheeks?
He’s just a flirt, you reminded yourself. It’s nothing personal.
“It’s kind of an adrenaline rush up there,” he continued. “I’ve never really performed for anybody like that before.”
“Makes sense, with how you guys have lived all your lives,” you said, taking another sip of your drink.
It was just getting warmer and warmer in those sewers. Maybe it was just you.
It didn’t take much longer for April to figure out Raph was a cowboy from the Wild West, Donatello was playing himself (he thought it would be funny), and Casey…To be honest, you couldn’t remember what Casey decided to be.
You were already going shot for shot with Mikey and Leonardo by that point, the party game all but forgotten.
You honestly couldn’t remember much of the party after that. You knew there had been pizza and chips and dip, but that was from before the games started. You were almost certain video games played some sort of part in it.
No, all you knew is that the next time you woke up, you could feel something hard, maybe a little rough, and bumpy laying next to you. The small night light across the room barely illuminated anything, but you could clearly see an orange band laying next to the bed.
Organizing for my next 4 installments of Universe!Reader x TMNT is lowkey giving me anxiety because of the transitions. We be jumping right into that party
Spoiler: each party game is the start of Reader x Each Turtle. No, she’s not going to date all four at the same time. That’s a lot for one reader. Each are now its own individual story
