The Factory Of Ideas

A Gift's Misuse

     You know those gifts from the second episode of season one of ROTTMNT called Donnie's Gifts? I have an... Idea. 

     Okay. So in this idea, Leo keeps his gift for some reason. Threw it in the back of his closet or in a box somewhere. 

     I see this taking place after Leo is made the leader, though you can have it take place wherever in the timeline you please if you pick the idea up. It just needs to be after Donnie's Gifts. 

     If this is after he's made leader, he's having trouble adjusting to being leader. Switching between taking charge, doing whatever, to just doing things himself. If he makes a mistake, Raph is there to fix it. 

     He still feels like no one trusts him much, if at all, so it puts a damper on his willingness to take charge. It's easier to just do things himself. 

     As much as Raph does damage control by choice, Leo can tell it's starting to aggravate him that he's not stepping up. Leo wasn't even expecting to ever become leader in the first place. He had always been the face man, nothing else. 

     No one took him seriously. 

     He kept questioning why, why did no one take him seriously? But deep down, he knew. He knew why. 

     ...It was the jokes. 

     At this point, it was instinct to joke about practically everything. If no one treated him seriously, why should he treat himself seriously? Things were easier to handle with a layer of humor. 

     ... 

     It was his coping mechanism, but it annoyed those close to him more than anything else. Sure, jokes were fun, but all it did was make him a bother. 

     ...And jokes weren't as fun all the time. He started to use them as a defense. He used them to put up walls. Even between him and his brothers. 

     He had always brushed off his own issues with jokes, if they could even be called issues in the first place. An example; his brothers didn't tell him they were proud of him. That wasn't even an issue, he didn't need his ego inflated more than it already was. 

     Leo's jokes are the problem, but it's become instinct to tell jokes. What can help break such a habit? What can discourage him? 

     Donnie's gift, the shock collar in the back of his closet. He could use it to... Discourage himself when he makes a tasteless joke that upsets his brothers. He's not going to wear it around his brothers, Raph and Mikey know he doesn't like the collar. Donnie thinks the collar was destroyed and discarded. 

     ...It was the perfect punishment.