He-Row in a Half-Shell

[rage_on]

WHO: Raphael and you!
WHERE: Around the city
WHAT: Turtle boy's been bored and mildly concerned that he was stuck alone in an abandoned city. Finding people- what a relief..?!
WHEN: 7/10 to 7/17
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as necessary


If this was a joke, it had long since wore out Raphael's patience. It's one thing finding out he was without his brothers on this forsaken planet, but it was another thing entirely to find no one else around at all. The information that had been thrown into his head from touching that strange orb had not been very reassuring, and all he had were more questions and no one to provide answers.

The rain had only lent to the depressive state of the place, and the only hope that maybe there were people around somewhere were in the few places he'd found things around the town center. Places that looked cleaned up and in recent use, power and running water. But where were all the people then?

He hated this.

There were ships still in the hangar, so no one could have left. Of course, none seemed to work either, much less open up. Days had passed, ridiculously long so far as he could figure. With little other things to do aside from scout around, the young turtle had set up a bedroll in a corner of the diner, deciding to stick close to the town center and food for the time being. Maybe someone would show up some day. Hopefully.


That possibility has suddenly gone up a hundred percent, and while he has no idea of what sort of situation the previous abductees of the Agrii have been through the past few weeks, he'll be happy to see he's not alone in this wreck after all.

Hopefully no one freaks out finding a big green turtle napping in the diner.

Or maybe one might come across him doing push-ups or going through kata by the fountain, if not doing some rounds about some sector of the city or another.

Perhaps people are just going about their business, trying to get back into things. It's habit for him to stay out of the way of people, but don't be surprised if you get the feeling of being watched as he tries to gauge what sort of people he's stuck with here. After all, aliens may think he's pretty normal looking, but people tend to scream. A lot.

Comments

[beholding_archivist]

One of the things Jon has been doing ever since leaving the tunnels, is to check if the city hasn't changed too much - Or if some of those that have been missing can be found somewhere that isn't their little temporary bunker. In that vein, the Archivist also comes to check on the diner, of course. This place has been run by a young man he hasn't exactly met in person to have an actual conversation with before, but having been here, Jon has at least seen Eli. But already upon entering the diner it feels different than it used to. Emptier. Colder...

Jon frowns a little as he walks through the now seemingly abandoned place, but stops upon noticing a shape seemingly- Sleeping? In one of the corners and approaches it with at least some caution.

"...Eli? Is- is that you?"

[rage_on]

These longer hours of day and night have been throwing him off. It feels like he'd just finally gotten to sleep when he hears a voice. His eyes snap open, and he can hear the footsteps that confirm he hadn't simply been dreaming.

Raphael pushes himself up abruptly with a gasp, still crouched where he'd been lying, fists up in a defensive position out of habit. The tattered ends of his bandanna flutter over his shoulders as he fixes green eyes upon the figure that's approached.

[beholding_archivist]

And the pile suddenly moves.

Okay. Jon sort of expects that, at least. But he doesn't expect what the pile reveals itself to be and Jon almost leaps back with a yelp of surprise, raising his hands before him.

"Jesus Christ- Wh- wha.... WHAT--?!" That's a good question, right?

[rage_on]

It's the reaction that Raphael figures the guy is decidedly not a threat. He eyes the man flatly, sighing as he lowers his fist and gets to his feet.

The man's taller than him by a handful of centimeters, but where the turtle lacks in height, he's got in bulk, his arms and legs well-muscled, his wrists and feet wrapped in bandaging akin to a freehand fighter. Jon might also catch a glimpse of at least one of the pair of weapons tucked behind his shell as he moves. If he's not to busy being startled.

"Mutant turtle," Raphael supplies dryly, his tone not as dripping in sarcasm as he usually would. Jon's one of the first signs of life he's seen around here, after all. "So can we get over the whole freak-out thing and move on? Thanks."

[beholding_archivist]

And Jon certainly doesn't wish to be a threat. Especially not to someone, mutant turtle or not, that already looks as if he can easily break him in half.

"I-- uh... I am... s-sorry-- I... I'm sorry." He stutters apologetically and lowers his arms. He has met Catra, who is just as less human as this one, but... Christ. A humanoid turtle? Even statement investigations that have taken him to the doubtlessly more obscure corners of the internet haven't prepared him for that.

"Y-you weren't down in the tunnels with the rest of us!" Jon quickly states the obvious.

[rage_on]

He does like breaking things.

The turtle rolls his eyes as Jon stumbles over his words. At least the human's trying, he'll give him that. Anyone who hasn't run off screaming their heads off by now gets some fraction of points.

"Tunnels? What tunnels?" he asks. "Is that where everyone's been hiding? I swear, this has been the worst week- or however long it's been. I thought this place was abandoned!"

[beholding_archivist]

"The Agrii... They told us to head into some tunnels down South. A-about a month ago. We've.... We've been in there for the past weeks?" At least he assumes it has been weeks. He even points roughly in the direction. "The door has vanished when we got out."

At least he seems to calm himself down slowly.

"I-- I'm Jon, by the way. I take care of the- the library. And help with the hospital."

[rage_on]

"Why'd they go and do something like that?" The turtle snorts. "And why'd people even bother? It sounds like a trap." Especially with the vanishing door business.

At least the guy's kind of getting a grip. "Raphael," he says with a nod. "There's a library?" The hospital he'd found, but it was creepy enough being empty that he hadn't wanted to stick around.

[beholding_archivist]

Jon frowns at that reaction. "Because of the storm? The... The energy storm that happened?" Unless that one has already been over before Raphael was brought here...?

"There was a storm here, wasn't it?" Jon asks, frown not leaving his face. He can answer about the library in a moment.

[rage_on]

That seemed a little extreme for a storm, at least in Raphael's opinion. He tilts his head, giving Jon a weird look before he shrugs.

"Calling it a storm would be a stretch," he says, glancing towards the windows as if he could still see it. "It rained a lot and stuff, yeah, but it wasn't like, bad. Didn't even need an umbrella."

But turtles were fine with the water. Humans might object a bit more.

[beholding_archivist]

"R-right... then...." ...then it wasn't quite as bad as the Agrii had made it sound. Now that's... curious.

"W-well.... When I first arrived here there had been a storm and that one had been quite dreadful." And he pauses a moment in which he looks out of the window himself. He hasn't come across any further damage to the city yet either... Maybe that's something to address later.

He turns his attention back to the humanoid turtle. "Right. The library! It's... Not far from the hospital, actually. But don't expect many books in there. Or... Much content at all? I'm gathering content from everyone here to change that."

[rage_on]

"Bad enough to herd everyone into a bunker?" Raphael wonders at that. He's had more bad experiences with aliens than good, so of course he's suspicious.

Then he's squinting at Jon's description of the library. "...sounds like a lousy library. So what else is there around here for entertainment?"

[beholding_archivist]

"Entertainment." Jon repeats the one word that has easily become his main focus, entirely setting aside any question uttered regarding the entire population of this planet willingly letting itself get locked up.

"You think this is some sort of vacation." There's a tired sort of disapproval in his voice.

[sinistral]

The nice thing about being out of the tunnels is having the room to stretch. The small space hadn't really lent itself well to the exercise requirements of a supersoldier, much less one with an enhanced dislike of other people and an even more pronounced dislike of secret underground bunkers wherein people toyed with one's brain.

Not that he's bitter. Not at all.

Still, room to breathe and room to explore and he's taken to both eagerly; there was a freedom in having a personal space bubble more than a few feet wide. Even so he slows his run to a walk on seeing the figure by the fountain. The Soldier himself is familiar with a number of fighting styles himself so he can vaguely recognize what he's seeing as some sort of practice, even though he can't nail down the exact form. What interests him more is that it appears to be a turtle moving through the forms.

Or maybe he just slipped and hit his head without noticing.

No. No, that was definitely a turtle. A humanoid turtle. A turtle man? He's seen some strange aliens before but this is new. "Are you from around here?" he calls, when there seems to be a break in movement.

[rage_on]

With so little movement around it's not difficult for Raphael to tell when he's got company. No screams, no panic- a good sign, he hopes. He goes ahead and finishes his repetitions before finally turning to look over towards the man, not wanting to seem overly eager to find other lifeforms around.

The question seems almost ridiculous, but given they're both in alien territory, the turtle doesn't take it too personally. "Hardly! I got kidnapped like a week ago or something and thought I was abandoned. Which really would've sucked."

He folds his arms, sizing the man up. The turtle himself is only about five feet tall, his brow furrowed beneath the red mask-bandanna he wears. "You live here? I was beginning to think no one else was around."

[sinistral]

He's patient in the wait; after all, he's interrupted the turtle-man's workout session, and the Soldier knows what that feels like. It also gives him a few more moments to observe him. Definitely strange because, well, turtle, but who is he to judge?

"The theme around here is definitely kidnapped-from-what-you-were-doing." Not that it's at all reassuring, but some people find comfort in similarity of situation. Regardless, it doesn't hurt to share the tidbit of information. Plus, if someone came here by alternate means, he'd definitely want to know.

The Soldier keeps his own posture relaxed under scrutiny. People don't always react well to the metal arm, his tac gear, or the combination of the two. But he doesn't think that look is necessarily directed at physical appearance as much as the entire situation. Which, to use the slang, majorly sucks.

"Apparently do, now. Arrived not too long ago myself, but straight to an underground bunker where they were holding a whole host of us." Though that clearly hadn't happened here, which is curious. He wonders if it's by design or accident.

[rage_on]

Compared to the things he's seen back home? Bucky's practically normal. The turtle frowns even more at the confirmation that the whole kidnapping thing isn't a unique one.

"Not cool. I just got back from space adventuring and saving the planet. Can't a guy get a break?" he grumbles. Still, at least he's not alone. Not that it makes the situation any better, but misery loves company, or something like that.

"Wait, so there are more people around here? Why were they holding you? -or maybe I should ask who 'they' are."

[sinistral]

"Apparently not." It'd probably been a rhetorical statement, but, well, apparently none of them can get a break. Not exactly reassuring, but that's apparently their lot in life right now.

He nods, then shrugs. "Yeah, though I couldn't tell you how many because I don't know for sure. We just got released from an underground bunker." Skipping right over the why, the Soldier jumps instead to the who. "They call themselves the Agrii. From what I can gather, they're the ones who brought us here, but no one here has actually seen them. Apparently this is their planet, and they want us to fix it up for them."

[rage_on]

Okay, that sounds like one party he's glad he'd missed. It doesn't make much sense to him though.

"If no one's seen 'em, how do we know for sure they're who they say they are?" Raphael's frown is back in full force then. "What?! It's their crappy planet, why don't they fix it themselves?!"

As if being kidnapped wasn't bad enough, being expected to fix things for their kidnappers? Forget that!

[sinistral]

"The simple answer is that we probably don't." Not an answer that satisfies, not even close, but there it is. The Agrii hold all the power in this situation, from their very presence on this planet to the information disclosed on their whereabouts. Unfortunately, frustration probably isn't going to change any of that any time soon.

"From what I've been told, they can't. I haven't seen one myself, but the place sees storms. Apparently almost wiped them out." And instead of working on the problem themselves, they'd passed the buck and kidnapped a clean-up crew for themselves. Go figure.

[rage_on]

"What, are they made of sugar and melt in water?" Obviously the teenage turtle finds this all hard to believe. "There's way too many holes in that story. If the place was trying to kill them, couldn't they go find a new home? That's what they always do in comics and movies."

Getting people from outside of their world to make things better is a new approach. "I mean, I guess we should be glad they aren't trying to take over Earth or something but this plan is super lame."

[sinistral]

"Not sure, honestly. Haven't been here long myself, but from what I've been told they're not exactly forthcoming with a lot of information." The situation annoys him as well, but no use in railing against it — mostly because he's pretty sure that the Agrii are well aware of his own complaints and just choosing not to address them.

Must be nice.

Though, the turtle-man does have a good point; instead of trying to invade elsewhere, the Agrii seem to just want someone to clean up their mess. That's probably a good thing, in the grand scheme of life. "I mean, that is a point in their favor. A small point, but a point."

[rage_on]

It's very annoying, but it's not like Raphael can be mad at a guy who's not been here any longer than he has, and it's not like the Agrii have made the best first impression themselves.

He rolls his eyes. "Still leaves us with the short end of the stick. So now what?" They all pretend things are fine and just stick it out in this place? That idea does not fly with him.

[sinistral]

"That's the nice way of putting it." His own way had involved a lot of rather forceful words. He's sure that's probably the norm for most people at this point.

"Haven't quite decided on that next step myself. For me, it's exploring the place, seeing if I can find anything useful. I've been led to believe there are times we're taken off the planet, but I haven't experienced it myself." He's curious about the prospect only for the mechanics of it, to see if there's anything to be truly learned from it.

[rage_on]

"That's about all I've been doing. It's been pretty boring so far. Also lacking in things to punch." Aside from walls. That'll get old really fast.

"Well, there are ships sitting there. Thought it was weird seeing them there when I thought maybe everyone who was here abandoned planet. Any idea where they take people?" The turtle teen does not like that there are so many unknowns.

There's some consideration as he looks at the man again. "You know, you've been pretty chill for a guy talking to a mutant turtle like it's just another Tuesday." He tips his head up slightly. "You some kinda special ops guy or something?"