Leonardo Hamato-Lou-Splinterson

Player: Dandy
Contact: dandywonderous or PMs to this journal
Age: 18+
Other Characters: N/A

Name: Leonardo Hamato
Canon: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Canon Point: towards the end of the movie, after Leo is trapped in the Prison Dimension but before his rescue
Age: 16

Backstory: In-depth bullet points available in Leo's journal

Leo - along with his three brothers Raph, Donnie, and Mikey - was mutated as a baby turtle by the yokai alchemist Baron Draxum, with the intention of being used as a weapon against humanity. However, his human DNA donor, Yoshi Hamato aka Lou Jitsu aka Splinter, stole the children and hid with them in secret. Splinter was determined for the kids to have as normal of a life as possible, and did not raise them to be weapons, but only taught them martial arts for fun and as a way to blow off steam. This backfired when his clan's ancient enemy, the Foot Clan, resurrected the Shredder, a demon possessed suit of armor. The brothers, determined to be heroes, speedran their martial arts training, and were eventually able to tap into their clan's mystic powers and defeat the Shredder. Afterwards, Splinter named Leo the new leader, a responsibility he ran full tilt away from.

Months later, Leo goofed around on a mission and ended up losing an artifact called the Key. This turned out to be a costly mistake, as a boy arrived from the future, warning them that the Key would be used to free the Krang - a dangerous species of space aliens bent on conquering Earth and eradicating all life on the planet - from the Prison Dimension they've been locked in for over a millennia. Leo rushed into danger, and his recklessness caused Raph to be captured. After learning that if he couldn't stop the Krang now, his entire family would die, Leo finally stepped up as the leader his brothers need, saving Raph. However, the boys couldn't stop the Krang by fighting, so Leo teleported himself and the Krang back into the Prison Dimension and ordered the door shut - trapping himself inside with a very angry, very homicidal alien.

Personality: On the outside, Leo seems like an unserious jokester. He drops one-liners and puns in the middle of battle, he plays pranks on his brothers, and he rarely shows up for training. He's often cocky and self-congratulatory, and is an obnoxiously sore loser and an even sorer winner. He projects an outward air of confidence that can quickly tip into arrogance, and he always wants to look cool and in control.

All of this is a mask that Leo wears to hide his many insecurities; he even outright admits that jokes are his way of coping with scary situations (though he, of course, says it like he's kidding). Leo often expresses that he feels useless, and he worries that he isn't as capable as his brothers and can't earn his place on the team. He feels like no one trusts him, and has a hard time trusting in return. He's often trying to subtly steer his brothers away from danger, and will panic when they're in trouble. He clings to his class clown persona by the skin of his teeth, hoping that no one will see that underneath it he's a raw bundle of exposed nerves.

Still, Leo is a good kid at heart, and he's driven by a deep well of love - not only for his family (though that is extremely deep), but also for the world at large. Leo is often the first of his brothers to notice when civilians are in danger and will readily jump in to help someone in need. He's wary of those he thinks might be up to no good, but once he's accepted someone as sincere, he'll welcome them as a dear friend very quickly. While he may scoff at the title of "hero", that's what Leo is at his core: someone who wants to help, even at severe costs to himself.

This is heightened in his current state: full of regret for losing the Key and inadvertently starting the war that lead to the death of everyone on Earth. Leo is bound and determined to make up for his mistakes, and he doesn't think sacrificing his own life for everyone else is enough penance. Leo will be driven even more than usual to protect others at the expense of himself, as a way of fixing everything he feels like he's done wrong. There's also a drive in Leo to prove himself; a terminal middle child, Leo is always looking for validation from others. He craves praise and affection.

Even though he wants to fix the mistakes of his past, Leo still avoids showing vulnerability. Leo is terrified of being alone, and, especially without his family around, he'll be doing everything he can to endear himself to others so he won't be abandoned. And no one wants to deal with someone who's a burden! So Leo will be doing all he can not to let anyone know he's breaking apart on the inside - because it's really not important.

Leo, of course, can be pushed to the point of showing real emotion, but it often takes a lot. He only truly flies into a rage in defense of his family, those he truly cares about. Outside of those instances, Leo doesn't like being mad, and will try to swallow bad feelings when he can, hidden behind his jokes. He can and will be petty, and will take revenge on perceived sleights when he can, often with a prank of some kind. But he's rarely angry.

Leo showing sadness is even more rare, and often takes a life or death situation. When Leo is sad, or truly afraid, he's more likely to shut down rather than cry. The sign that Leo's emotions have gotten too big for him to deal with is that he goes totally silent, not making any jokes or chattering away as he's want to do. When Leo is like this, he's reached his breaking point.

Leo's jokes and puns are often pretty terrible, and at first glance he seems not very bright. Leo doesn't have a very large vocabulary and only knows the basics of math and science; he's never been to school and he has no interest in fixing that! However, this lack of book smarts hides that Leo is actually quite sharp, and very perceptive, a skill he used as the team's "face man" before becoming the leader. Leo can usually tell when someone's lying to him and is pretty good at lying himself - though he has a way to go before he's a true conman. Leo is also extremely good at reading a combat situation, finding his enemy's weak points and getting his allies where they need to go to be the most effective. These are some of the skills that make him a good leader, when he stops being scared of the role and starts embracing it.

Leo is also good at encouraging those around them, inspiring hope in his team even when things seem bad. Leo uses his perceptiveness to learn exactly what makes his allies' tick, and then pumps them up to win the fight. He's great at a rousing speech, when the situation calls for it. And he never gives up on anyone he cares about, unwilling to leave anyone behind.

But he's still a kid. His first instinct when things are bad is to run to his dad, or a trusted adult. He's inexperienced, even with two world-saving battles behind him. He worries about his image and avoids doing anything he considers embarrassing. And he's still going through puberty. It's a lot on his plate!

While the trauma of all he's experienced has pushed him to take things seriously and embrace his strengths as a leader, it's also left him with a mountain of guilt and a deep desire for atonement. Whether this will develop into a strength or a weakness remains to be seen.

Powers/Abilities:

Teleportation: Leo's ninpo (his family's innate mystic abilities) gives him the ability to teleport in two ways:

• Portals: Leo can open two portals, and transfer himself and other people/objects through one and out the other. Momentum is preserved through the portals, and Leo can change their trajectory, meaning he can do things like let an object fall until it reaches terminal velocity and then launch it like a cannon. If the portal closes while something (or someone) is midway through, they will get cut in half (portal-chopped!).
  Though Leo can theoretically portal anywhere, he's terrible at aiming at places he can't see, unless he's been there many times before. Leo can portal to his bedroom from anywhere, but he can't portal to anywhere from his bedroom. In game, this will mean that Leo can portal to certain parts of the convoy from anywhere, but will otherwise be limited to his immediate location. I'm open to any other limitations that need to be set on this, though!
  As far as size, Leo's portals can handle something roughly the size of a truck.


• Direct Teleportation: This happens between Leo's twin katana, a direct transfer from one to the other. To do this, Leo can throw one of his katana and then teleport between them, or he can leave one of them somewhere, move somewhere else, then zap back to the original sword. While in theory this has no range limitations, in practice Leo typically does this for short range teleportation, since he leaves whatever sword he's teleporting away from behind.
  Leo can also teleport other people this way, though they have to be touching the katana to do it. If Leo and the other person are touching the same katana, they'll both teleport together; if Leo is touching one and the other person is touching the other, they'll trade places. Leo often uses this to get close to an enemy, then swap in a slower, heavier hitter, but it has other uses (like locking himself and a homicidal alien in a prison dimension together!).

Sword Creation: Leo can use his ninpo to turn a small blade (like a butter knife or a garden trowel) into one of his katana, which he can then use for teleporting. To put limits on this, I headcanon that it's very difficult for him to do this without the full strength of the rest of his family backing him up, so while he might be able to do this to replace his missing katana and maybe once or twice more in the future, it's not like he can just spawn weaponry whenever he wants it. And again, it can't be something out of nothing, he has to start with some kind of bladed object.

Turtle: He has a hard shell. He can hold his breath for about half an hour. Turtle stuff.

Mutant: Because of his mutant physiology, Leo is very fast and strong. Not to superhuman levels, but more than any human teenager could realistically be.

Inventory:

• One katana


• His ninja pouch (contains a few throwing stars, some Jupiter Jim bandaids, and a fidget spinner)


• One much-loved photograph of his family


• His wrist-communicator (dead)

Game Plans: I want Leo to think he's dead, and I want him to think he's never going to see his home again, and I want him to grapple with that fact, all while trying to convince his new friends that he's totally fine!

Leo is a very social character, despite it all, and as a busybody hero type he can't help but get into everyone's business. Even if he thinks he's dead, his drive to make up for his mistakes will push him to try and help everyone here, if that means getting them to Nirvana in one piece or just helping them to survive the wilderness. If he's trapped here, might as well make the best of it!

Also being a busybody hero type, some of the negative effects of turning into a monster (like wanting to feed on other creatures) is going to be rough on him to deal with. There's a lot to explore there, especially starting with a character that in some ways is already seen by the world as a monster.

But also I just love traumatizing the blue turtle. ^^

Monster Choice: Just going to note at the start that I am trying to avoid any monsters that would make Leo a Reptile Squared, if you get what I'm saying.
1. Undead (Ghost species, wraith or poltergeist subspecies): as mentioned, I want Leo to think he's dead, so this is the obvious choice. Leo thinks he has both feet in the grave, and this will only confirm his suspicions and plague on his fears. Also, Leo vocally believes ghosts don't exist, so there's some irony to this.
2. Celestial (either Angel or Unicorn): keeping with the "thinks he's dead" theme, Leo would also think he's dead if he started turning into an angel - at least it's not the bad place! Leo is a protector at heart, but one who explicitly protects via fighting, fitting the theme. Also there's more than one episode where he's shown to like unicorns.
3. Yokai (Raiju species): a bit of a swerve here, but Leo's own nature leans towards the trickster archetype, with his focus on being the face-man and his penchant for winning through tricks rather than outright strength. Leo's powers also bare a strong resemblance to lightning. And he was mutated by a yokai, so in a way he's returning to his roots.
Vehicle Choice: Motorcycle, specifically one that resembles his shell hog from canon. Speed attribute.
Sample: here's his top level!

OUT OF CHARACTER:



Name/Handle: Dandy
Contact: dandywonderous, dandywonderous on discord, PMs to this account
Other characters: N/A
Reserve: N/A
Referral: Tony Stark's player Bear was the one who approached me on the EMP meme, but I know other players in the game as well.


IN-CHARACTER:

Character name: Leonardo Hamato
Character journal: faceguy
Series name: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Canon notes: post-season 2, pre-movie
Age: 15

Arrival Condition: Healthy! I'm being nice to him this time ^^

History: Wiki, but I also have my own history post in his journal (for this game disregard everything after he gets made leader)

Personality: On the surface, Leo seems to be your typical "class clown". He's constantly joking, including making quips and horrible puns, rarely takes anything seriously, and is obnoxiously self-aggrandizing. He's always trying to draw attention to himself and puff himself up as the best and most impressive guy in the room, even begging his brothers to call him their "champion" or trying to lead them in chants of his name at various points. He slacks off, going on missions the least out of all his brothers and always looking for ways out of his responsibilities. And he's more than willing to lie and deceive to stay out of trouble, with mixed success.

Underneath this persona, though, is a pretty insecure teenager who doesn't really have a grip on his place in the world or the role he plays in his family. Though he loudly and proudly declares himself to be the "face man," the person who schmoozes and schemes their way to victory, this is as much an act as the class clown face is. Leo struggles with feeling inadequate, panicking when he can't pick up new skills as well as he thinks he should be able to, even going so far as to declare himself "useless" when he can't use his powers as well as his brothers can. When separated from his family, Leo calls himself "nothing without them," showing he doesn't have much of a high view of himself, and isn't sure what he's supposed to do or who he's supposed to be when he's not being "Raph, Mikey, and Donnie's brother." Even something as simple as picking a codename doesn't come easily for Leo - while his brothers easily pick codenames based on their interest, Leo struggles to come up with anything other than his association with the color blue, which was something picked by his father, not Leo himself. On top of that, a lot of Leo's self-aggrandizing is rooted in a deep need to be praised and appreciated - trapping Leo in a spiral where he praises himself, annoying everyone around him, leading to him not getting the praise he needs, so he praises himself, and so on.

All his fears and insecurities have become even more apparently recently, after his dad made the sudden snap decision to make Leo the leader of the team over his older brother Raph. This was not a position Leo wanted or asked for, and he's been running full tilt away from it ever since. Of course, Leo can't just admit that he's scared of the responsibility, so he compensates by acting more obnoxious than ever: ditching training, ignoring his brothers' input into plans and attacks, and trying to do everything himself in the flashiest way possible. As a result, Leo has been spending a lot more time than ever arguing with Raph and isolating from the rest of his family, which hasn't exactly been great on his mental health.

All his showboating and insecurities aside, though, Leo is, at his core, a genuinely caring kid, who loves his family and wants the best for them. Though Leo may tease them or prank them or cheat to win at the Lair Games against them, his brothers and friends are the most important things in his life and he'd do anything for them, up to and including committing crimes on their behalf (oh yeah, and dying for them, though he hasn't quite gotten to that step yet). Leo is quick to become attached, too, declaring almost any older man who is even a little nice to him his new father figure and easily accepting new friends and allies into the fold (except Draxum - that guy threw him off a roof!). And he cares for those he doesn't know; he's often the only one of his brothers pointing out potential danger to civilians or advocating for their safety during missions (not that his brothers don't care at all, but they tend to be a little too wrapped up in what they're doing to think about those things, and Leo has to herd them as best as he can). And when Leo knows he's seriously messed up, he's willing to sincerely apologize (even if it hurts).

Leo's strengths lie in reading the situation around him and thinking fast on his feet, things that actually make him an excellent fighter in a combat situation. Of course, his fatal flaw is that he never communicates his plans with his family, but rather charges in on his own, causing them strife along the way; this is a lesson he's still learning. But even though he has things to learn, his cleverness serves him well in many areas of his life; too bad he hasn't realized yet that this is part of why his dad chose him to lead.

tldr: funny clown turtle secretly a nervous anxious wreck, more news at 11

Abilities:

• Hamato Ninpo - Portals and Teleportation: Since they were mutated with the DNA of Hamato Yoshi, Leo and all his brothers have the ability to tap into Hamato Ninpo, a mystical power inherent in all members of their family. The Hamato Ninpo gives each of them unique abilities, and Leo's is the power to create portals and to teleport instantaneously.
  
  • Portals: Leo's portals allow him to teleport himself, other people, and objects from one portal to another. These portals can be small enough for just his hand or large enough to fit a vehicle through. The portals maintain momentum between them, meaning he can do things like open a portal on the ground and one above it to cause someone to fall indefinitely, or can build up momentum between two portals and then change the angle to shoot an object like a cannon. (If you're familiar with the video game Portal, it's literally the same.) If something is stuck between portals when Leo closes them, that thing is at risk of being cut in half, unless it's strong enough to withstand the force or has some property that blocks mystic/magical energy.
  
  
  • Teleportation: Leo is able to teleport himself from one point to another instantaneously using his katana. He typically does this by throwing one of them and then teleporting to it when it reaches its destination. Also, if someone is touching one of his katana he can teleport that person between them, basically allowing him to swap places with someone else; he can use this to pull off moves like getting close to an enemy with his superior speed and then swapping in a slower, heavier hitter to deal a big blow in his place.
  
  Leo can only teleport between his swords as far as he can throw one of them (which is pretty far, but obviously things like physical obstacles limit this). For his portals, in RP I typically limit his abilities to portaling only within his field of vision or to places he's very familiar with (so like, he can portal from anywhere to wherever he sleeps at night, but not necessarily vice versa), but I'm willing to nerf this further if needed!



• Magic Weapon Creation: Another thing his Hamato ninpo allows him to do is turn something that isn't a weapon into a weapon: specifically into his twin katana. We only see him do this once, and it's with garden shears, so I'm going to say at the very least the object has to already be pointy/bladed in nature. His swords are the only things he can make this way; he can't conjure up a gun or anything like that (that's Donnie's job).



• Heightened Mutant Abilities: Being a mutant turtle, specifically one created to be a living weapon, Leo boasts extremely high rates of speed, agility, and durability. His shell and reptile skin allow him to tank hits that would kill the average human, and he can move incredibly quickly and is easily able to hop across large gaps. He isn't invulnerable by any means, and he isn't going to be breaking the sound barrier, but he can generally move faster and withstand more than what is typically possible for a human.



• He is a Turtle: He can hold his breath for a long time and pull his body fully into his shell. I wasn't sure if this counted but here it is anyway.


Personal Item: His sleep mask (he won't think this is funny but I think it is funny)

Sample: TDM thread!