Loved it. It all makes sense now. I had wondered why poor Donnie was the only one to be sent to such a terrible fate, but explained like that, it does make sense. Of all of them, Donatello seems the one most likely to wonder about his position in the family and on the team, and it would make sense that he would want to see how much he was needed the same as Mikey wanted to become a super hero.

Great job. <3

poor Donnie. I love this, so understandable, and yet i don't know of any other SAINW fic that took this route. kudos.

Poor Donnie... but he has a point: Sometimes I almost wish he wasn't so smart. *sighs* Very good, loved it in all its angsty glory :)

O.O Wow. Do I hear 'sequel'? That ending sounds really ominous. Really good. Wow again. This was really good. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was also kind of seeing a pattern... Unfortunately- I haven't been able to get my thoughts in order enough to set it to paper. Great job though. Really great. I feel so bad for Donnie. Just wanna give him a hug. Great story!

What's to say? Except that this fic was amazing! Our poor, poor Donnie! The way you described his pain, his guilt and his self-loathing, the smooth flow of this story, made Don and his nightmarish experience in that world all the more real to me. Now that you mentioned it, I find it interesting that out of all places, the scepter chose that world for Donnie to go to, to fight his insecurities and his fears.

//I told him about a world brought to its knees by Shredder’s unspeakable cruelty, our once vibrant city transformed into an Abaddon of mangled buildings and hopeless, dead-eyed citizens. I told him a family, torn apart by pain and loss; of Splinter, decades in the grave, and of April, transformed by war into a grizzled shadow of her former self. I told him of Raphael and Leo, locked in a bitter, endless feud, and of Mikey, who no longer understood the concept of laughter.//

The imagery of these words and the changes that had happened were simply beautiful. I loved how Splinter comforted Donnie afterwards by embracing his son, because it was exactly what Donnie needed more than anything at that moment.

whoah...

I got literal chills at the end there! they're still going, in fact.

what I love about this fic is its subtle layers. Donatello facing the darkness within himself. Not resolving, as most writers would have it, to 'change' and never ever leave, but simply acknowledging that who knows what he might be capable of or what bring to the family.

I like that this fic explores the 'dark half' we all have inside us, the selfish, self-centred, needy and greedy beast we try to suppress but secretly feed. That Don has been so confronted with the reality of his so that he can no longer deny it... would be a burden indeed.

Moreso to accept it might be unconquerable.

Awesome work, as always. wow.

Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa!
This is amazingly deep, and, seriously, this is one of my favorites, now.

"All my life I had battled with insecurity; that sick, creeping suspicion that I was a superfluous entity within my own family."
! ! !
This floored me. Nothing I can say could adequately praise what you've done here. But I do want to tell you that you're right about that pattern. You're on to something, something incredibly ominous. Like, bullseye. Thank God Donny's worried. As long as he fears the possibilities, he's safe.
...right?
I gotta say, this one's gonna take a while to shake off. I think I'll be sleeping with my light on tonight.

Wow.

...

Wow.

Why do you have to make the voting process so damn difficult?

So...thought-provoking. You really dug right in there and picked his brain so realistically. Beautifully written.

Congrats on the nomination, and good luck.

Jaganashi, aka Kismet

This is so beautifully written, I keep coming back to read it over and over again! You captured Donnie's thoughts wonderfully.

Might as well read this one, now that I’ve caught up with ‘Fade’, right? I remember when you posted this, I contemplated whether or not to read it. But I didn’t have time so I postponed it and, well… it just never got done.

But I’m here now! Right, so I’ll just do what I should’ve done weeks ago and shut up and read this thing.

*is finally done reading, and trying to overcome her sudden wave of speechlessness*

I’m not quite sure what to say about this. I saw 'SAINW' and that superhero epi with Mike, but that’s it. Anyway, it’s enough for me to understand this. And it totally makes sense! It makes so much sense, it’s weird anyone else didn’t think of it earlier. I suppose they all got to play heroes in their other-dimension visits, even Don. Though he was the only one who needed to see just what exactly would happen to his family if he were to ever leave it.

And the last sentence truly ties this baby up with a finale that chills to the core. Beautiful. C2 next!

Woah. That was pretty insense. And the last line was absolutely brilliant. I loved it. Nothing more to say.

Love, peace and chicken grease
Cheese Monkey

I haven't seen that episode so I was a tad lost...but it didn't matter in the slightest. It's a testament to your skill that I still feel as though I got it all and haven't missed out on anything.

Donatello is not, and has never been, one of my faves. And then I come across this line: "All my life I had battled with insecurity; that sick, creeping suspicion that I was a superfluous entity within my own family. Intellectually I knew it wasn’t true, for they both loved and needed me, but the emotion still remained, unmoved by my own attempts to exorcise it..."

It sort of sums up how I see Donatello. I still love him and the group would not be whole without him by any stretch... but still. That's incredible. More than anything, you have an eye for digging into the heart of the character and seeing their innermost workings. You then render them in such vivid and visceral colors and words. Just amazing.

If this story were a puppy I would rub its belly.

"God help me, the epiphany had soothed a rough patch on my soul like a balm."

This story is a thing of beauty. I could almost enjoy this piece as a standalone without having seen or heard of SAINW. The construction and imagery are fantastic. I especially like the seamless way we moved from Donnie alone in his room to Donnie talking to Splinter and back. Then we turn a corner and plummet into Donnie's deepest and most private fear. It's better than a House of Horrors ride. :)

I have one technical problem: Call me dumb, but the last sentence-- a very important sentence-- tripped me up a little. The subject is too far from the verb for me to follow. That was a tad anticlimactic after that the rest of this fabulous story.

man, that was so great. Everytime a read something about Sainw, a just want to cry. Donnie have to past troung so much...I feel that was not fair, but you make me realis that MAYBE, he have learn something from this living nigthmare.

great work
for me, This his a masterpiece.