Hope This Is Legible - Tumblr Posts
LONG POST AHEAD! All words and it's just about my lil au!
I've just gone through my tumblr blog and realised that i haven't actually posted about my theory (and au canon) about why nardo's ninpo was "broken" when he popped up in the present, so now I'm gonna infodump as much as i can remember about it!
How should i put this..
So, is his ninpo broken? No, but it is definitely damaged. I'll explain that in a sec, but first: what did he do to fuck himself up so bad?
He completely neglected his health, skipped meals, gave his rationed water to others, and completely ignored his need for rest and sleep. He didn't think this was a problem, especially when he started feeling less and less hungry, despite not eating properly. Less thirsty, even though he still wasn't drinking nearly enough. And less tired, despite staying up for days, at times.
Now, he didn't really notice this shift, and neither did anyone else with the uh, apocalypse going on. But what actually caused it?
His ninpo, of course! His ninpo started sustaining him, literally keeping him alive. It's kinda like his body switched to survival mode and just preserved itself with his little built-in life source!
Why is this so bad? Because it has severe consequences. One of the side effects of this is that during the decade where his body was forced to sustain itself, it got so used to him not eating, drinking and sleeping that when he got back to the present he couldn't eat proper food for weeks, and it took months before he could eat foods like pizza.
Hell, he couldn't eat a peach without throwing it back up 20 minutes later after being in recovery for two weeks, a peach.
But as i mentioned earlier, his ninpo dulled his hunger. So it even made him nauseous anytime he tried to eat more than once a day when he had access to food again, and it took a lot of trial and error to find the right routine for his recovery.
Now, it may have been sustaining him, but it was not doing more than the bare minimum, so he was, uh, severely underweight, to say the least.
But enough about that, his sleep. I've mentioned him basically not having a sleep schedule in previous posts, and here's why! He literally couldn't sleep due to his ninpo, he didn't feel tired until after long missions, and even then he couldn't sleep until he literally crashed, and went out like a light for the next day.
This let him handle a lot more work around the base, but it also made his insomnia absolute hell for him. Instead of your average insomnia, he, like i said, didn't feel tired whatsoever. And this didn't just magically go away when he was suddenly safe in the present. In fact, it still pops up in 'manic episodes' where he just.. stays up for a few days.
This is why he looks so chronically exhausted lmao, he's got some permanent eye bags for a reason
Little important info rq, in my au the brothers can boost each other! Physical contact is needed, so let's say donnie just used a lot of his ninpo energy creating a complex blueprint, and is now pretty drained. If leo reached out and pressed his finger on donnie's arm, he could actively send a flow of his own ninpo energy to replenish some of what donnie used up. In this scenario, after the boost, donnie's next few ninpo constructs would be Leo's electric blue instead of his pixelated purple! Until he's used up the boost leo gave him, that is. There is no limit as to how much they can boost each other, but they usually just use it as a pick me up during lengthy battles or in scenarios similar to the one i described here.
So, what does this whole situation mean for his portals and all that hamato stuff? Well, he couldn't talk to karai or communicate with his ancestors and fallen family members anymore whatsoever after his ninpo was drained for the first time, so he went about.. nine years without directly communicating with them before he had 'recovered' enough ninpo energy to speak with karai in the present (let's be real, he tried as soon as he had more than two grapes worth of energy stored up)
This impromptu (and secret) meeting with karai actually led to some rather plot heavy things happening as soon as he left the hamato minscape, but let's not talk about that yet.
What about his portals? So, he lost his ability to portal when he'd just turned thirty, and during those first 14 years of the apocalypse he gained experience and training, along with some rather impressive skills with his portals, and he greatly improved the size of his portals (this happened specifically when he lost raph) and the number of portals he can open at once, along with the precision of where and when they open and close.
He does regain his ability to portal when he's been given a boost by mikey, and he immediately tests it out by teleporting an apple around the kitchen in a showy manner. And i personally love the thought that his portals would mostly be mikey's fiery orange, with little swirls of electric blue throughout them when he does this
But! I've completely lost track of what i was typing, so let's get back on track.
One of the side effects is spazzy ninpo. long after he's recovered, if he uses up too much ninpo energy during a battle his ninpo will get spazzy for the next day or two, what this means is that it's basically switching between survival and rest every few minutes, making him crash over and over until his body and ninpo are both drained, and until his body remembers that it can just rest and replenish. A boost would help him recover faster, but usually, it's best to let his body figure it out on its own
Especially since nardo can be a bit of a workaholic at times, as you can probably tell if you've read this far. So if he's being forced to have a rest day or two by his fucked up ninpo after overusing it in battle.. i think he might need that rest.
Have nice day
Okay, so i can't remember what the exact reason for this post was, but hey, lore/infodump ig :]
Oh, and if he got cut off from his ninpo by the krang, he'd have died pretty early on in the apocalypse. Oh well, good thing that didn't happen, lmao
LONG POST AHEAD! Lots of text and no drawings after the cut!
So, I've been procrastinating this post for a while because i don't have any art explaining his new arm except this one, and i wanted it to be pretty similar to, or even better than the first prosthetic post, but i don't think i can do anything more than an infodump today, lmfao sorry
But here it is! In all of its glowy/floaty glory!
Some facts and features about his arm under the cut
So, I'll just copy and paste what i wrote in my notes, since my brain is complete mush lately
The notes are unfinished and in no specific order, but i figured it might be interesting if you think my au is fun ,^,
His arm! Made of a mix of carbon fiber and whatever the fuck the metal future donnie invented is
-the metal parts of the arm are matte, for style, obviously
*The nails are made of a type of nanotech so he can customize everything about them, with some limits due to there being limited nanotech stored in the hand itself.
- he can have claws, short nails, stilettos, talons, or even a mix of them. He knows a thing or two about programming nanotechnology due to his other prosthetic, so he can customize it on his own eithout issue. And yes, he does
paint the nails on it, as well.
*Some form of electromagnetism keeps his hand and forearm attached, without it they'd just fall to the ground. Some things it can do with this feature involves;
-see how his sword is situated on his back? He couldn't possibly get it off without bending over backwards, it's too long, right? Actually, he can grab the handle with his prosthetic and then detach the hand from the forearm, this will let him independently control the hand, which lets him pull the sword out of its scabbard no problem
-the limbs can move independently, the only limit being his ability to focus enough to smoothly control the individual pieces. This lets him easily take his sword out of its scabbard with the hand while simultaneously blocking a hit with the forearm, for example
-since the hand is the only part that doesn't glow, it's much stealthier, so he can surprise attack opponents from behind, even when he's standing right in front of them
-are the parts sentient? Do they have independent will? He doesn't fuckin know, and neither does Donnie. He discovered that they can move independently on a whim and decided that it's best not to question it. He's totally not extremely cocky about having potentially created artificial intelligence on accident -Stickbug
*The individual pieces of the arm can hover, letting him do things like what is shown in the illustration
*Nanotech is stored in the individual pieces
-if something were to, say, slash his prosthetic forearm and leave a gash, the nanotech would mend it immediately, letting him keep fighting unaffected until he can properly fix the damage
-if something were to slice the entire forearm in two, the electromagnetism would pull the pieces together while the nanotech seals the gash, making the forearm good as new
*What is it powered by?
-i didn't mention this in the thigh prosthetic post, but his thigh isn't actually powered by anything, it doesn't need more than the guidance of his muscles to function
-the electromagnetism in the arm is powered by his ninpo, it lets him turn it on and off on a whim, and it gives him a more natural sense of control when he operates it
-his ninpo powers the electromagnetism, but what powers the rest of the arm? Trick question, it's the electromagnetism! It triggers mechanisms in the individual pieces that powers all the mechanical features, such as the nanotech, fingers, and a coupleo nes on brand with it being genius built:tm:
-since the arm is technically powered by, and connected to his ninpo, he can teleport it much like his nagamaki!
*since it's powered by his ninpo, if his ninpo gets spazzy he cannot use the arm. If he were to try to use the arm when his ninpo is spazzy, a lot of things might happen
-first things first, why would his ninpo be spazzy? It's a side effect of his body effectively sustaining itself with his ninpo for over a decade. It made up for lost sleep, lack of food and water, and everything you might need to, y'know, live. This quickly drained his ninpo until it was little more than a spark, and anytime that spark flickered out from him overworking himself, he'd crash and pass out for the next day and a half. He didn't actually know this was going on until he popped up in the present and everything just kinda started making sense
-it could switch on and off sporadically, causing it to fall to the floor and snap back into place at random
-the hand and forearm might suddenly shoot off in a random direction, which is hilarious, but also dangerous
-he would have basically no control over the arm, leading to jagged movement and randomly activating different features
-it might randomly teleport to or from him, depending on how he feels
*at first glance the previous point might seem like bad design choices, but it's actually a necessary feature! Since he tends to overdo it pretty often it's important that he can't use his prosthetic when his ninpo is spazzy
-his ninpo only gets spazzy if something triggers it, it's kinda like it switches between rest and survival mode, this gets triggered if he's overused his ninpo and it got too close to when he relied on it for survival
-the only way to fix his spazzy ninpo is, well, rest. A lot of napping. Which is why it's so important that he literally can't use his prosthetic when he needs rest
*It can teleport?
-why yes, it can! Being able to telepoort the pieces to and from himself gives him a huge advantge in battle. Since you can't disarm him! Pun intended
*it's a very silent piece of tech, which is ideal for his fighting style. the only part that makes the typical 'tech prosthetic' sounds is the fingers, as they are connected with joints instead of electromagnetism
*the flexible parts
-the main part covers the delt/ shoulder of his residual limb and wraps around his neck for a snug, comfortable fit.
-there's a sliver of it cutting the metal of the palm in half right between his fingers, giving it more mobility. (Try gently bending your own palm, it's surprisingly flexy)
-there's a small sliver at the 'wrist' of it, since it wouldn'tbe able to bend properly if there wasn't something leting that part of the hand bend, as well
-the flexible parts in the hand is yellow, while the piece covering his shoulder is green, adorned with his iconic shoulder stripe, in yellow, of course
-the green and yellow aren't a perfect colour match, they're a bit more saturated than his skin and markings, but it's not very noticable at first sight, so if he wears a hoodie over the arm his hand could be mistaken for a real hand, letting him hide it in public, to avoid stares
*The hand
-it has a softer, kinda rubbery material covering his palm and the length of the fingers that lets him tell different textures apart better, even if just by sound. It's a lighter, more desaturated green than the hand, even lighter thann his skin
-the soft material is not smooth, but rather textured, not bumpy, per se, just somewhat rough. Maybe a bit sandpaper-y
-the textured material gives him better grip, especially in battle, since it wouldn't exactly be ideal for a sword that is 5'7 long to suddenly fly across the battlefield. As funny as it would be, lol
-it also lets him control his grip strength better, so he doesn't accidentally crush someone's hand, or whatever object he was holding
*There's a good chance you might find him walking around with just the shoulder/bicep piece, since he can teleport the other pieces to himself at will, and it's less draining when he leaves them somewhere, off
Have nice day :]