Rat Sons AU: Character Introductions

Rat Sons AU: Character Introductions

Hamato Tang Shen

(aka the love of my life)

more ramblings & doodles:

(so do yall remember how in the 03 series Tang Shen was kinda just like a passing thought with no like actual characterization besides 'is pretty' and 'dies'?? and that both the boys she grew up with fell in love with her despite being raised as siblings?

yeah we're ditching that)

meet Hamato Tang Shen, official adopted daughter of Hamato Sho (and notably his only child.) Shes an absolute mountain of a woman, buff as all get out, stubborn and quick with a comeback, and a fully trained master of ninjutsu and the mystic arts.

Despite the death of her biological father when she was five, Tang Shen's childhood was largely a happy one. Hamato Sho, being a friend of her fathers, brought her to his ancestral home in the mountains after the tragedy. Sho did his best to nurture and encourage her, in all the ways he felt his own childhood lacked— with kindness and humor, free of any burdens of destiny or namesakes.

Of course, being raised by a the snarkiest old man alive who also had a major problem with authority, Tang Shen was perhaps a bit too bullheaded a child for most of her peers growing up. She didnt mind much — the Hamato farm was home to so many loud and opinionated critters, she rarely felt lonely at all. She loved spending time with the animals, and spoke to them constantly. Especially Yoshi, the family's pet Spurred African Tortoise, who they nicknamed "Splinter" after Tang Shen made a friend at school with the same name and the confusion of it all got old. She also took to calling the tortoise Jiji, as he was even more an ancient old man than her father.

By the time Tang Shen was approaching twenty, she had settled quite happily into the life she had on the farm, content with the company of her father, their animals, and, on more days than not, Yoshi, her cute best friend (/boyfriend??).

Unfortunately, no matter how hard they tried, the Hamato family never could escape destiny for very long.

lol this is way too much for a character that is mostly ever gonna be seen in sporadic flashbacks but yall i love her sm u dont understand

did u notice its all past tense :(

[rat sons masterpost] [more Hamato family lore]

(easier to read/separated contents below the cut! (super long))

HAMATO TANG SHEN

Page 1:

Pronouns: she/her

color motif: forrest green

Born in China, moved to Japan ~age 5, moved to New York State ~age 28

Daughter of a badass mystic warrior (a Guardian?) who was a close friend of Sho

Taken in by Sho after her bio father was killed in some major important mystic conflict (Sho later formally adopted her)

She grew up on the Hamato's familial land on the outskirts of a small mountain village (Gifu Prefecture??) which Sho was partially using as a small dysfunctional farm, and partially letting become overrun by nature

This overrun area became a sort of training grounds for a young Tang Shen, where Sho taught her first basic self defense, then later all forms of ninjutsu and even the mystic arts.

When she was young, she enjoyed helping Sho raise their assortment of animals: chickens (her favorites), two pigs (Sho's favorites), an old steer, a horrible peacock (Sho's sworn enemy), and, of course, the Hamato's ancient pet African Spurred Tortoise, Yoshi

As a child, she befriended a boy, also named Yoshi, whom she immediately teased for having the same name as her family pet. They became inseparable.

She was rather ostracized by other children her age growing up, both because she was a foreigner, and because she was considered too outspoken/opinionated and known to stir up trouble when she felt something wasn't fair

Other young girls, in particular, would also bully her for her appearance, since she was taller, more muscular and broad-shouldered than most of her peers. (Sho never wanted to throw hands with eleven year olds before, but here we are)

Later on, she and Yoshi (the human, that is) fell in love

Page 2:

When she was small, Tang Shen loved learning to care for all the different types of animals living on the farm— even ones that weren't necessarily meant to be there, like the occasional rat, trying to establish a nest in a quiet corner of the barn.

Sho would help her catch any such critters she found, and they'd journey together into the woods or up the mountain to find a good place to release them, since they couldn't be allowed to stay on the farm.

(It was during one of these journeys that a newly-fathered Sho finally began to find his footing and connect to the young girl he took in. He had brought along some extra feed and an unneeded towel to give the rat a decent chance at settling in wherever they brought it to (and hopefully prevent it from finding its way back to the farm). But Tang Shen, five years old and only abstractly aware of why her life had recently changed so much, insisted there was a lot more the rat would need. She spoke of how lost and frightened it must be, having been just scooped up and taken to some place new so suddenly. Sho listened.)

Tang Shen developed a love of rats in part because of these little adventures she shared with her adoptive father.

As an adult, Tang Shen (having discussed it previously lol) was gifted a pet fancy rat by Yoshi.

She named the rat Miko and carried her everywhere.

HEY NOW, HERE COMES TROUBLE

commissioned the incredible @danksy-ns to draw my rat sons au raph and mikey and!!!!!! YALL!!!!!!

I DONT EVEN HAVE SPACE IN MY BRAIN FOR WORDS ITS TOO FULL OF LOVE AND AMAZEMENT!!!! LOOK!!!! AT MY BOYS!!!! MY DARLING TROUBLE MAKERS!!!! THE ABSOLUTE MENACES!!!!! I KEEP HAVING TO PAUSE AND JUMP AROUND MY ROOM BEFORE COMING BACK TO LOOK AT THEM

THANK YOU AGAIN DANKSY FOR UR AMAZING WORK AND FOR DRAWING MY SILLY RAT CHILDREN

and yall, if you can, please consider commissioning @danksy-ns so she and her kitty can get home safe this holiday season!! PLUS THEN YOU GET TO LOOK AT HER AMAZING ART FOREVER SO ABSOLUTELY WIN-WIN ALL AROUND!!! her emergency commission info post can be found [here]!

Hehehehehehehehehehe

(Hello, zach. I'm making something for you >:3)

(i am full of both immense excitement and also fear)

I just wanna hold little Donnie in my hands like this:🤲

You can but he'll be quite the grump about it!

April encounters some strange turtles.

Everyday I think about how cute irl turtles are and yearn to hug them. I'm coping by drawing April doing it instead.

Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.