Documentaries
Summary: I.E. One reason for each brother on why Donatello has banned watching anything involving turtles on Discovery Channel or The Animal Planet in the lair.
Disclaimer: I do not own TMNT. Viacom does. Enjoy this one shot please.
Donatello could always tell when his brothers had watched a documentary about turtles. It wasn't very often that it happened but sometimes they would stay watching when accidentally landing on one while they were channel surfing or when they were bored. His three brothers reacted in different ways after watching turtles on television.
Leonardo became philosophical...
Donatello tried to slip away unnoticed when he saw the contemplative expression on Leonardo's face as he watched the old tortoise slowly meander along a dusty desert ground.
When Leonardo caught his eye before he could escape into his bedroom Donatello knew it was too late, "You know Donnie. I think even regular turtles end up realizing that it is the hardships in life that make us stronger."
"Sure Leo, whatever you say," Donatello said as he tried to cut the conversation short so he could escape an hour of Leonardo's pondering. It was too late for escape though as Leonardo continued, oblivious to Donatello's lack of any interest in listening to Leonardo wax poetic at him.
"But is it really the turtle that thinks that or am I placing my own experiences on a creature who in reality simply continues to live without an understanding towards hardships?"
Raphael became emotional...
Donatello had been calmly soldering a few electronics at his desk when he heard Raphael's angry shout all the way from the living room.
"Pick on someone your own size YA UGLY DISGUSTING CRABS!" There was a crash and Donatello jumped up to his feet and rushed over to the living room where Raphael had smashed his glass and drink against the wall next to the television. On the TV Donatello watched as hundreds of little baby sea turtles crawled along the sand of the beach to the waves of the ocean. There were little close up shots of big crabs scuttling along lifting baby turtles with their claws and taking them away to be eaten.
Donatello carefully watched as Raphael seethed from his chair, his hands gripping the armrests so hard that he could hear the cracking of the interior frame from a dozen feet away. Donatello wasn't surprised the next day when Raphael came back from his topside excursion with about a weeks worth of crabs taken unnoticed from some vendors of the fish market.
Leonardo ignored Raphael who was tearing into the crab-legs with a sadistic glee in favor of quietly whispering to Donatello, "Should we tell him these crabs are not the kind found on that beach in Florida?"
Donatello took one look at the grin on Raphael's face as he stabbed a crab in the head with a knife and whispered back, "Let's not. This is his way of thinking he's enacting justice."
Worst of all, Michelangelo became inquisitive...
Donatello passed by the bathroom and noticed Michelangelo standing in front of the mirror with his mouth wide open as he poked at his teeth. Donatello hesitated in his stride and that was enough for Michelangelo to notice him. He quickly bounded over before Donatello could leave and quickly asked, "Hey Donnie? Why do we have teeth?"
"Where did that question come from?" Donatello asked hesitatingly, "We've always had teeth."
"Regular turtles don't have teeth," Michelangelo continued, ignoring Donatello's own question, "I saw this scientist dude talking about turtles on tv. Turtles don't have teeth so why do we have teeth?"
"Its because we're mutant turtles, Mikey. Emphasis on the mutant part," Raphael said as he passed by and hearing the question Michelangelo had asked Donatello.
"Though put in layman's terms Raphael is correct. You see when the ooze mutated us it changed our skeletal systems to be more homo sapien in form due to the contaminants that had touched us before the canister broke-"
"Yeah, yeah," Michelangelo said as he waved his hand dismissively, "teeth because we're mutants. Got it. They were also talking about how long a turtle pe-"
Donatello ran down the hall and into his bedroom faster than his usual speed before he could hear Michelangelo's question and be forced to answer it.
Splinter watched as his most intelligent son set up a sophisticated parental lock system on the television that blocked any educational programming that was about or mentioned anything about turtles.
Splinter should have seen it coming a long time ago. After all Donatello had a traumatizing experience when he had accidentally stumbled across a documentary on how many pet turtles died due to neglect by the owners and the mistaken assumption that turtles liked the darkness. After that day Donatello had been instrumental in making sure their home had enough light.
Donatello always worked so hard when he heard of the dangers turtles faced naturally and needed to not be surprised by something else he didn't know enough about turtles coming from the television. The parental lock was a good idea all around.
FIN