History Fanfic / TheChroniclesOfKaraiGettingHerShitTogether

* AluminumChristmasTrees: In Chapter 29, Karai takes Leo to [[UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken KFC]], claiming that it is super popular in Japan during the holidays. In RealLife, KFC as Christmas dinner has been a widespread practice in Japan since 1974.

* AmbiguousDisorder:
** Leonardo suffers from depression, most often exhibited by his self-destructive tendencies in the form of cutting himself and his ChronicHeroSyndrome. The PTSD he suffered from the Shredder's near-death beatdown when the Kraang invaded only escalated this to suicidal and hallucinatory levels. He also routinely suffers from IBS brought on by the severe anxiety attacks.
** Donatello's {{workaholic}} etiquette, his addiction of stimulants like coffee [[spoiler:and smoking]], his [[TheInsomniac insomnia]] and his GuiltComplex towards Leo's self-destructive behavior all hint that he suffers from an anxiety disorder.

* BalefulPolymorph: [[spoiler:After Karai is hit with a faceful of Donnie's retro-mutagen mist, she briefly takes on the form of her canon-counterpart's mutant form before turning fully human. Later on, she finds out that she transforms in and out of her original mutated form in her sleep, a habit she has learned to do temporarily.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome
** While in-canon it takes a few episodes for Leo to get back to full-health after his near-death experience and coma, here it takes them ''half a year'' before they return to New York, with everything from physical healing to psychological problems prolonging their stay at April's farmhouse.
** [[spoiler:Mental problems like depression, PTSD and self-harm can't be willed away within the span of a SaturdayMorningCartoon episode. It's a fact that it takes a ''lot'' of time and a ''lot'' of patience to endure such things and they aren't something you can cure so much as learn to live with. Much of the story involves Leonardo suffering from some form of panic attack, depressive episode or some kind of self-inflicted injury, only for someone to catch him in it and trying to do something about it.]]

** In canon, Casey Jones routinely fights Donatello for April's affections. [[spoiler:WordOfGay confirms here that he is "[[ArmouredClosetGay gay in denial]]", spending a lot of his time with Raphael in a bromance and complaining an awful about his handsome classmate.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** While in-canon it takes a few episodes for Leo to get back to full-health after his near-death experience and coma, here it takes them ''half a year'' before they return to New York, with everything from physical healing to psychological problems prolonging their stay at April's farmhouse.
** By the time Karai makes it to the farmhouse, the team is on a tight monetary budget caused by the sudden move, paying bills, groceries, gas for the car and various other things they need. It takes a hefty amount of money Karai stole from Fishface and a scheme or two devised by Donnie to keep them functioning before they head back to New York.
** [[spoiler:Mental problems like depression, PTSD and self-harm can't be willed away within the span of a SaturdayMorningCartoon episode. It's a fact that it takes a ''lot'' of time and a ''lot'' of patience to endure such things and they aren't something you can cure so much as learn to live with. Much of the story involves Leonardo suffering from some form of panic attack, depressive episode or some kind of self-inflicted injury, only for someone to catch him in it and trying to do something about it.]]
** [[spoiler:Karai has been a human woman most of her life. When she is turned into a snake-human mutant, it takes her time for her to learn how live with it, and even then she has no idea how her body really functions. It comes as a surprise to her when her skin starts shedding and she has no idea were her genitalia even ''is'', much less how they work.]]
** [[spoiler:Anatomically speaking, turtles in relation to turtle penises are much larger than human penises. Now make those turtles human sized and it makes it anatomically impossible to perform sex with a human without a lot of trial and error. When Kirby jokes not to get April pregnant when he agrees to let her stay with them, Donnie (who was too sleep-deprived to remember to be tactful) gives him a ''very'' detailed explanation on how that would be impossible.]]

** In canon, Mikey has only ever shown interest with girls like Shinigami and Renet. [[spoiler:WordOfGay says this Mikey is pansexual.]]
* AdaptationalVillainy: On-top of [[AbusiveParent the kind of abuse you would expect from someone like the Shredder]], Shredder [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil uses rape as a method of punishment for Karai]]. Not only that, but it is confirmed that he has regularly purchased underaged girls from human traffickers for this very purpose.

** In his comatose-state, his brothers discover that Leo engages in self-harm, using a knife he keeps hidden to cut his arms and then hides the wounds in his hand-wraps. Raphael even refers to them as battle-scars because "you would have to be battling something to do that." [[spoiler:It is implied that his routine self-destructive behavior is routed in feeling that he is inadequate in Splinter's expectations of him.]]

** [[spoiler:Both Karai and Leo are [[BiTheWay bisexual]].]]

** [[spoiler:It is strongly applied that Shredder actually ''is'' Karai's father brought on by a temultuous affair Tang Shen had with him before she married Yoshi. Since the Hamato Clan are staunch believers in FamilyOfChoice, Splinter still thinks of her as his daughter.]]

* BalefulPolymorph: [[spoiler:After Karai is hit with a faceful of Donnie's retro-mutagen mist, she briefly takes on the form of her canon-counterpart's mutant form before turning fully human.]]

* HiddenDepths: Leo and Splinter are both big fans of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls''.

* UnrelatedInTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:The canon turtles are all just excepted to be brothers with Splinter being the source of their human DNA, making Karai their sister on a genetic level. In Chapter 19, it turns out that back when they were all nine, Donatello was able to have their DNA tested. It revealed that Leo and Mikey are paternal half-brothers (pre-mutation) with two unrelated humans being the source of their human DNA. Raphael is Mikey's third cousin on his human side. Donatello is unrelated to all three of them on all sides.]] [[spoiler:When Karai and Donatello where imprisoned and tortured by the Foot, Donnie confesses to her that his DNA came from Splinter and has been keeping this a secret from the others, making him the only turtle that is Splinter's biological son and Karai's half-sibling.]]

*** In the show, Mikey's gluttony is often played for laughs. Here it is a form of PostStressOvereating, [[spoiler:a quirk he may or may not have inherited from Splinter]].

** Downplayed in Leo's case. While in his coma, Donatello believes that Leo might never walk again, and when he wakes up he is unable to move or feel his legs and is forced to rely on wheelchair and Karai to get around. When given time to heal (more-so than in canon) and doses of Donatello's experimental medicine, he eventually regains feeling in his feet and is able to walk again.

* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Everyone in the household acts as this to Leonardo when his depression and anxiety begin to afflict him, but Karai has been proven to be the most effective in helping his mood when he suffers from a breakdown. While she is caring and gentle with him, she is the only one who doesn't walk on eggshells around (not that she could walk, being part-snake), she is one of the few who understands his trauma (having been a victim of physical and sexual abuse), he can be honest with her in ways he can't be with his brothers and her BrutalHonesty is proven to be the most effective in getting through to him when he gets upset.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Donatello's workaholic work etiquette, his addiction of stimulants like coffee [[spoiler:and smoking]], his [[TheInsomniac insomnia]] and his GuiltComplex towards Leo's self-destructive behavior all hint that he suffers from an anxiety disorder.

* MythologyGag: When Raphael's lack of interest in pursuing a relationship with a human becomes apparent, Leo cites that his type must be "out of this world", referring to his relationship with Mona Lisa in-canon.

* DarkerAndEdgier: The fanfic is full of angst, cursing and various controversial subjects such as rape, child-abuse, depression, alcohol, debilitating injuries, making [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 the canon series that the fanfic is based off]] of look like [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 the lighthearted '87 show]] by comparison.

** In canon, Casey Jones routinely fights Donatello for April's affections. [[spoiler:WordOfGay confirms here that he is "gay in denial", spending a lot of his time with Raphael in a bromance and complaining an awful about his handsome classmate.]]

* TraumaButton: [[spoiler:Since the Shredder would routinely strangle Karai when he was enraged or sexually abusing her, she becomes sensitive whenever she has someone's hands on her neck. She completely shuts down when the Chimera grabs her by the next and she suddenly has a panic attack when he touches her neck while they were intimate.]]

* BizarreAlienBiology: While much of Karai's human appearance is left in-tact from the waist-up, she has various quirks that highlight her new mutant body. She very quickly grows accustomed to getting around without legs, she prefers sleeping in dark cramped spaces (like under beds instead of on them), she can get around in the winter and autumn chill perfectly fine despite being cold-blooded (just like the turtles), she sheds her skin once every few months and while she can eat human food perfectly fine, she much prefers hunting live-animals and she only needs to feed once a week.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Donatello all-but admits to Karai that Michelangelo's greatest strength is his determination ad strength of will, the only thing keeping him from surpassing both Leo and Raphael in a fight (who are established as being the best fighters) is his complete lack of competitive spirit.

* BizarreAlienBiology: While much of Karai's human appearance is left in-tact from the waist-up, she has various quirks that highlight her new mutant body. She very quickly grows accustomed to getting around without legs, she prefers sleeping in dark cramped spaces (like under beds instead of on them), she can get around in the winter and autumn chill perfectly fine despite being cold-blooded (just like the turtles) and while she can eat human food perfectly fine, she much prefers hunting live-animals and she only needs to feed once a week.

** Karai is a repeat victim of sexual abuse by the Shredder. While she says that he only does it to punish her for failure, it is implied that he does it in a twisted, misplaced affection for her and her mother Tang Shen. It is also explicitely stated that she was trained to kill at a very early age, has done so before she hit her teens and [[spoiler:was forced to allow Shredder to rape an underaged prostitute as a "test of loyalty".]] While she usually [[SadClown hides all of this under snark and jokes]], she is clearly not as maladjusted as she says.
** In his comatose-state, his brothers discover that Leo engages in self-harm, using a knife he keeps hidden to cut his arms and then hides the wounds in his hand-wraps. Raphael even refers to them as battle-scars because "you would have to be battling something to do that."

* AmbiguouslyBi: Casey and Raphael tend to spend a lot of time together alone. [[spoiler:There is even a BrainBleach moment where they do a literal dick-measuring contest.]] That said, when Donatello and April become an official couple, Casey conspires to get them to break up.

* NoodleIncident: Karai has once been trapped in a piano.

* DeadpanSnarker: Much of Karai's dialogue and inner-monlogue is her reacting to things with heavy amounts of sarcasm and irony.

* AdaptationalVillainy: On-top of [[AbusiveParent the kind of abuse you would expect from someone like the Shredder]], Shredder [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil uses rape as a method of punishment for Karai]]. Not only that, but it is confirmed that he has regularly purchases underaged girls he buys from human traffickers.