This Minecraft Short Comic Called "A Strange Coast" Made By Ian Flynn I Believe, I Found In A Book From

This minecraft short comic called "A strange Coast" made by Ian Flynn I believe, I found in a book from my library I work has to be one of the most beautiful and respectful takes on the game.

It understands minecraft so perfectly and doesn't treat it as childishly as the other stories in it did.

And all that within 10 pages and no word spoken.

Made myself emotional over the “Leo and Donnie chose to be twins” headcanon.

———

“By the way, it’s Leo and Donnie’s birthday next Thursday. You’re coming, right?”

Draxum looked up from his work organizing next week’s lunch schedule to look at Michelangelo, sitting on the counter and swinging his feet. Celebrating individual birthdays wasn’t a thing that the yokai did, but Draxum had been forced to accept that the boys could not be dissuaded from this human tradition. He’d been to two birthday parties now, for Michelangelo and Raphael respectively, eating cake and presenting them with some small trinket he purchased.

He’d known that he would have to go to more birthday parties at some point. But he wasn’t expecting two at once.

“Why on the same day? I can’t imagine the blue one wanting to share.” Actually, he couldn’t imagine Donatello wanting to share, either.

“Oh,” said Michelangelo with a laugh. “That’s ‘cause they’re twins!”

Draxum stared at him. “Twins? What kind of nonsense is that?”

Mikey tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“They’re entirely different species, for starters,” Draxum pointed out.

“I mean, we all are, but we’re still brothers.”

“Yes, by virtue of your shared DNA donor and the circumstances of your raising.” Draxum waved that off. “But “twins” refers to a situation where two children are born at once, especially as the result of a split of a fertilized egg. Which is absolutely impossible in the case of Leonardo and Donatello. Even if I were to be charitable and simply consider them “twins” for having the same hatch day, I can tell you they do not.”

“Uh, okay,” said Michelangelo, unimpressed. “But they’ve always been twins, so I don’t think it matters to them.”

“Why not? I would think it would matter to Donatello especially, since he claims to be scientifically minded.”

Michelangelo laughed. “Not everything is about science, Barry. Not even to Donnie.”

“Then his decisions about when to apply science and when not to are inconsistent and confusing.”

“Well, it’s their birthday, so they get to pick.”

“I am certain that is not how birthdays work.”

“It’s how it works for us!” Michelangelo slipped off the counter. “We’ll see you on Thursday, right? It’ll mean a lot to them if you come!”

Draxum was fairly sure Leonardo in particular would prefer he didn’t, but that didn’t matter. Now he had a mission: he had to correct this strange incongruence.

“Yes, I will be there.”

“Yay!” cheered Michelangelo. “Okay, see ya Dad!”

He squeezed Draxum around the waist on his way out. Draxum was finding he didn’t mind that as much as he used to.

———

Leonardo and Donatello’s party was just as loud and obnoxious as the other two. Blue and purple decorations covered every inch of the old subway station, strange music blared from unseen speakers, and a horrendous amount of junk food was spread out over a table. It was the same group of people present today as there ever was, the eclectic mix of humans and yokai that the boys considered family, but it felt like a crowd three times the size with the amount of noise being made.

Draxum stood off on his own for most of it, his slim birthday present already delivered to the table stacked with gifts. He’d been a little shocked when Donatello and then Leonardo came by to say hello, since he’d been prepared to be ignored by both of them. It was… nice, maybe, that they did that. Even if Leonardo just wanted to make jokes at his expense.

For most of the party, the two birthday boys seemed to be competing with each other for attention. In fact, the longer he took it all in, the whole affair seemed like a clash of ideas. The purple decorations were neat and tidy, geometric patterns and hard angles. The blue decorations were whimsical, uncoordinated, and haphazard, and there were places it seemed someone had deliberately covered up some of the purple with the blue. Leonardo wanted to play rock music and Donatello wanted to play techno. The cake was a mess because they’d both requested different themes for the decorations. There were arguments between the two of them every few minutes, and according to the human girl April this was “typical behavior.”

But why? They weren’t really twins. They didn’t have to share this day.

Hopefully Draxum’s plan would fix all this nonsense.

When it was time for gifts, Leonardo loudly declared that he was going first, sparking an argument. They squabbled for a bit before agreeing to play rock-paper-scissors, which was apparently what they did every year.

Leonardo won the game and celebrated obnoxiously while Donatello scowled at him. Then he gestured at the gift table - which Draxum, in his efforts to stay out of the main throng, was closest to.

“Hey, Barry! Grab me a gift! Make it a good one.”

Draxum sighed but reached over to take one of the blue packages, checking the tag to make sure it was for Leonardo. “This one is… to Leo from Donnie,” he read.

“Oh no, not that one. Our presents to each other are always last.”

“Because they always get sappy about it,” said April with a laugh.

“Do not!” yelled Leonardo at the same time Donatello hissed, “You take that back!”

“Uh, yeah you do, and you know I’m right.”

Draxum ignored the petty argument to look back at the gift table. If they weren’t going to be satisfied with his choice, he might as well give them his own gift.

He lifted it, in its sensible brown packaging, off the table and handed it over.

“Why not start with this? It’s to both of you from me.”

“Both of us at once?” asked Leonardo. “Oh man, you’re throwing off our whole system, Barry.”

“Yes, but he’s giving it to you,” Donatello pointed out, “which means my turn is still next.”

“Uh, no, if it’s for both of us then it counts for both of us, which means it comes back around to me!”

“Ooooh no, you do not get to loophole your way into opening two presents in a row-“

“Ahem!” Draxum loudly cleared his throat, getting their attention. “Would you please just open it?”

“Yikes,” said Leonardo. “Touchy.”

“Some people just don’t understand the sanctity of opening birthday gifts,” said Donatello with a sniff. But he leaned in to watch as Leonardo tore off the wrapping paper and opened the box.

They were both silent for a moment, staring at it. Then Leonardo said, “Uh, no offense, Barry, but what is this?”

“It’s a… scientific study on how twins are formed during the gestational period,” said Donatello, pulling the paper clipped thesis from the box. “Oh, there are more in here… Also about twins.”

“Uh…” Leonardo blinked at it, clearly bewildered. Well, he was always a bit slow. “Thanks…? I think?”

“Not that I don’t appreciate the scientific literature,” said Donatello, “but this isn’t really my area of study and Leo does better with training manuals and textbooks than research papers.” He looked up at Draxum. “Is there something about this we aren’t getting?”

“Yes there is,” said Draxum, sweeping his hand around at the entire party. “I am here to correct your mistaken assumption that you are twins.”

The room fell silent. Donatello set the paper back in the box, staring at him. Leonardo’s brow creased in anger.

“We are twins, though,” he said, setting the box aside like it was burning him.

“No, you are not. There is simply no way that the two of you could be twins. It is biologically impossible.”

“You think that I’m so stupid I don’t know that?” Donatello demanded, getting up from the chair he was sitting in. “Are you doubting my intelligence?”

“Yes, if you honestly think you are twins with him, then I am.”

“Uhhh, Draxum,” said Michelangelo quickly, stepping between him and the now furious Donatello, “this was a… funny joke, but you can stop now-“

“This is not a joke. I am simply explaining the facts.”

“Yeah, well,” now Leonardo was on his feet, too, “the facts are that me and Donnie are twins. Always have been, always will be.”

“You are not,” Draxum insisted. “And given what I have seen here today, I’d think you’d both be relieved, since you clearly don’t enjoy being twins!”

Both boys looked like they’d just been slapped in the face. The rest of the room had gone completely silent, like everyone was collectively holding their breath.

Donatello broke first, turning on his heel and marching out of the room, his hands balled into fists and his shoulders hunched up as high as they could go. “Dee!” called Leonardo, and then he was scurrying off after him. There was the sound of a heavy door slamming, then silence.

It didn’t last long.

“Draxum!” roared the rat, actually getting up from his chair to get in Draxum’s face. “You come in here and upset my boys on their own birthday!?”

“Seriously not cool, Drax,” said the human April. Cassandra shook her head in shared disappointment behind her.

Draxum pushed Lou Jitsu back, scowling at his accusers. “I was only explaining reality! This is really the rat’s fault for letting their delusion go on so long.”

“Delusion!?”

“Barry!”

“Rat!?”

“Ooookay,” said Raphael suddenly, stepping his way into the middle of the fray and starting to herd Draxum back toward the exit. “That’s enough of that for now.”

“I am simply trying to explain-“

“Trust me, hoss, you wanna step away from this one,” said Raphael, and his tone was angry but surprisingly measured. “Come on.”

They retreated to the sewer tunnels outside the subway station. The smell was much worse out here, and Draxum wrinkled his nose.

“Alright.” Raphael heaved a sigh, folding his arms. “So here’s the deal. Mikey likes you, and I guess I kinda do too, so I’m gonna try to help you before you completely torpedo your chances with the rest of the guys. Which, you kinda did already, but maybe we can turn it around.”

“I still don’t understand why they’re so upset,” said Draxum. “Surely it was obvious they aren’t twins.”

“Uh, yeah, they know they aren’t twins by bio-whatever,” agreed Raphael. “They ain’t stupid.”

“Hmm.” Draxum turned up his nose. “Donatello isn’t stupid, maybe.”

“Leo ain’t stupid, either, he just pretends like it.” Raphael pinched his brow. “Listen, that isn’t the point - the point is they already know they didn’t come from the same egg or hatch the same day or whatever. They’re just twins anyway.”

“But how? That doesn’t make sense!”

Raphael sighed again. “Alright, look. Dad didn’t know when we hatched, right? But we all wanted birthday parties like we saw on TV, so he let us pick.”

“Yes. And for some reason Leonardo and Donatello chose the same day.” Draxum could figure that much out on his own.

Raphael nodded. “I was the biggest and oldest, and Mikey was the littlest and youngest, and Leo and Donnie were just kinda sandwiched in the middle. I think at first they just wanted a thing. Somethin’ that set them apart from me and Mikey, ya know?”

“Not really,” said Draxum. Raphael glared at him, and he sighed. “But go on.”

“So they picked the same birthday and called themselves twins. I think Pops just so glad they were actually getting along that he agreed to it. And I think he thought once we got to the day, and they realized they were really gonna have to share it, they’d both demand their own day instead. I know I thought that was gonna happen.” He smiled at the memory. “But the day came, and… they fussed the whole time just like they do now. Arguing about what kind of cake they wanted and who got to open their present first. But they didn’t ask to split. They kept it the same day, and they kept calling each other twins and it just stuck, until we didn’t question it anymore.”

“…They are both stubborn,” Draxum pointed out, and Raphael laughed once.

“Yeah, guess they are. But that’s not what this is.” Raphael shrugged. “They chose each other back then. Maybe at first it was just to have a thing, but then it became real. And every single year they keep choosing each other. That’s why they’re twins.”

Choosing each other as twins… Draxum furrowed his brow. “It’s not normally a choice,” he pointed out finally.

“Yeah, well, our family doesn’t get a lot of choices, so just let ‘em have this one, okay?”

“…Fine,” Draxum finally relented. “As long as it’s noted that this is purely a social designation, and not a biological one.”

“Uh, sure, whatever.” Raphael rolled his eyes. “Glad we got that cleared up, though. Think you can come back to the party and behave?”

Draxum wrinkled his nose at that phrasing, but nodded. “Yes. I will not bring it up again.”

“Good!” Raphael’s smile abruptly transitioned into something much more dangerous. “Because if you make my little brothers upset on their birthday again, I’ll remind you what it was like when we were enemies.”

Then the smile was back. “Now let’s go in!”

He walked back to the subway station, leaving Draxum to follow on his own. Draxum couldn’t help but sigh wistfully.

Raphael would have made a great general for his army.

———

The boys had already returned by the time Draxum got back. They were opening more gifts, and he noted they were wearing hoodies now - though they had apparently decided to swap their signature colors. They were smiling and chattering, and any hint of their earlier upset was gone.

Until Draxum stepped into their line of sight, and both of them went rigid, wary of him.

Apparently just talking to the red one was not enough. Draxum would have to do more. What a pain.

But he didn’t want the boys to hate him. So he sighed and launched into it.

“I… am sorry. I shouldn’t have said you aren’t twins.”

The boys looked surprised at that; slowly, their posture loosened back up.

“And… to make up for my present, I will… take the two of you wherever you want to go in the Hidden City.” The next words were painful, and he ground them out. “My treat.”

Leonardo and Donatello shifted their gaze from him to each other. They were silent, but it didn’t seem like they needed to talk to have a conversation.

Then they finally looked back at Draxum, slow grins growing over both their faces.

Eerily matching, very evil grins.

“Oh,” said Leonardo, happily menacing. “I think we can think of something.”

“I concur,” said Donatello in the exact same tone.

Oh, thought Draxum. Maybe they really are twins.

Haven't posted here myself in years but Rise of the TMNT has had me in an absolute chokehold the past three months. And then I discovered @somerandomdudelmao 's not-so-lil fancomic and I've been wanting to make art ever since. Finally got the urge tonight to doodle some of my favorite frames of best boi Uncle Tello. I'll probably post some more doodles next time I get the urge but wanted to do a lil acknowledgement of Cass' hard work and the ending of her series that means the world to me and the rest of the Rise community <333333

Didn't like the selection of the popular tier lists for TMNT, so I made my own. Have fun

Ok here's my actual opinions

(This isn't necessarily about whether I think they're good characters, it's more about how individually compelling I find each of them)

(Except the jail category. They just suck.)

Let’s just say the tots accidentally found a Time Machine or something and was able to travel to a time where Mikey and his brothers are alive,

what would be

1.) Ronin’s reaction to the missing tots and when he does eventually find them what would he say to his past self, brothers and father?

2.) the tots reaction to Past Papa and their uncles

3.) Past Turtle’s +Splinter’s reaction to tots

i ended up writing a lot 🧍‍♂️

1. Mikey Would lose his Mind. Those kids are literally so important to him, he will not rest until he manages a way to get them back.

I'm guessing they basically disappeared out of thin air. So his first thought would probably be maybe someone from the nearing towns got them for whatever reason. This leads to Mikey just going through each town near them like an absolute force of nature while looking for the kids. He doesn't leave anything amiss but he doesn't find them. Which ends on Mikey growing even more upset and leads to contacting April to brainstorm about the situation, getting to the conclusion that maybe their turtle luck of possibly something time travel related happened out of nowhere to the little ones (just like it has happened before in their lives).

The realization of time travel happening to his babies would lead to Mikey thinking about the one person that could help him in this type of mess or even be the perpetrator herself. Renet. However, Renet has been AWOL from his life for a Long time.

So,

Mikey would give her no choice but to intervene in his timeline again by simply causing a lot of destruction Everywhere.

April is not aboard with his plan but Mikey goes with it anyways.

This Does get Renet to appear in his life once again out of sheer necessity to help cease the danger to the timeline. Which actually ends up on Mikey getting exiled from the timeline itself BUT. after talking to Renet Mikey gets her to help him look for his kids and send him permanently to where they are just so they can be with him again because if they are together then everything will be alright. Renet tries to explain that even if they get to them, Mikey would need to abandon them since he's exiled now to which Mikey replies that she either gets him and his kids back to their own timeline Or she lets lets him and his kids stay together in the one timeline they randomly disappeared to.

Knowing Mikey would not cease, Renet decides on the latter because of their past friendship and because that way Mikey would basically stay exiled. Mikey's presence in that random timeline they were about to go would be final and done in complete secrecy so Renet's higher ups would be no the wiser .

This all ends in Mikey getting thrown to his own past without him knowing yet.

As Renet disappears (eerily similar to the way she completely disappeared from his life decades ago) she tells him that the changes that started ever since the babies arrived in the timeline they are now, already created a whole new timeline ramification that wasn't supposed to happen in the first place, so the harm to the timeline itself wouldn't possibly be any worse making it extremely unwise for her to ever set foot in it again while she tries her best to never let the higher ups know of all that transpired.

Mikey is alright with that.

And then she's gone, forever again.

WHILE ALL OF THIS WAS HAPPENING (like maybe a month in total) the kids actually tots actually were lucky enough to end up in the lair, were the past versions of Mikey's family had been taking care of them.

When Ronin visits the lair he finally realizes he's in the past.

After reuniting with his tots (the past family was extremely weary of ronin at first but the tots literally started wailing for his dad and would Not stop squirming on their holds just to get to ronin) and making sure they were all right. Mikey gives them the whole "I'm from the future" explaining everything to them (except, extremely toned down). So now the current family now has few permanent residents with them.

Mikey hugs all of his brothers after Splinter lets them stay (including himself, because it feels like that was a beloved version of him that disappeared the same day raph died). He tells his younger self that everything will be ok, he is here to stop things from happening now (young mikey has no idea what that all means but hey! new family members!). Ronin doesn't tell his brothers much else except how happy he is to be with them again. And when he gets to Splinter... there's truly nothing to be said except a thanks for letting him and his kids stay with them and how glad happy Ronin is to be able to help in whatever they need. He hopes his father will take him seriously now that he's literally way older.

Ronin will do his best to stop his father from treating their brothers and little him badly while also stopping events that lead to his own future (He does a great job at it!)

2 and 3 kinda?. The tots are ecstatic to be around more turtles like them! (and one rat they guess...) They definitely tend to drift more to young Mikey because he looks like dad and he smells like dad and his chirp sounds just like dad's when he makes the funny squeaky voice so the sense of familiarity and comfort that young Mikey gives them it's completely unparalleled since they miss their dad fairly often.

The tots love their uncles! Raph takes a liking to them fairly quickly and will kill everyone in the room and then himself if something happens to them. Leo is always around as moral support when one of them cries. Donnie makes sure they are ok health wise and gives them the softest of pats. And Mikey makes sure they are well fed and entertained and just spends more time with them out of everyone before ronin appears. The tots don't have much of an opinion about their grandpa, he carries them sometimes and plays with them (sometimes) but he's often busy with other things like spending a lot of time in the dojo, place where the tots are not allowed yet since they are quite young.

Whenever the brothers and Splinter need to get to a mission they tend to leave the tots with April and Casey (if he decides to not go with the turtles, which doesn't happen much). April adores them, she thinks they are the cutest little tots on earth. The tots love spending time around April because she kinda looks and sounds like their granny they used to see on dad's phone. Casey loves to hang around them and indoctrinate on how cool hockey is everytime he can ( the tots don't understand but they think the tall guy is funny).

i wasnt supposed to post this one here but i dont have anything else rn 🫂

and my plan was to do the whole airplane scene but my wrist still hurts so have this instead 🧍‍♂️