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

[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?"

[sinistral]

"There's a definite lack of useful things to punch." Like the Agrii, for example. He's sure they'd make great punching bags.

He shakes his head at the question though. "I'm not sure. All I've heard is off planet, but that doesn't exactly give much detail." An unsatisfying answer, and he knows it, but he's sussed out so few concrete details himself. Conjecture only goes so far, and becomes dangerous in large amounts.

The Soldier can't stop the uptick of the corner of his mouth at the comment though. "You're not the weirdest thing I've seen, if that's what you're asking." He supposes it's nice to have confirmation that turtle had been a correct impression. "Before I came here I'd been to a few other planets. Safe to say I don't subscribe to the view that humans are the only intelligent species in the universe."

Honestly some humans definitely don't qualify as intelligent in his book, but he bites his tongue around that comment. This isn't the place or time.

[rage_on]

Punching aliens is one of his favorite pastimes. So far the Agrii haven't done anything to prove that they didn't deserve it either.

Off planet just gets a big ol' frown from the turtle. "'cuz there can't possibly be anything worse outside of an abandoned world," he mutters, rolling his eyes.

It's nice to have someone who says things you can actually agree with. Raphael nods, smothering a grin at human intelligence. He's met some decent humans. And then he's met Others. "Same, although I gotta say, nothin' beats home. Even if humans tend to panic way too easily sometimes. That was the only nice thing about being off-world. Around aliens, we aren't the weirdest thing out there."

[sinistral]

There's probably going to be quite a line for the Agrii-punching booth. Hopefully there's enough of the three-eyed aliens to go around.

Personally though, the Soldier agrees. While it's not ideal to be on this planet, he also doesn't like the idea that they could be yanked off it to who-knows-where with no notice. It's really not worth stating it though, when the thought is so obvious.

But at least — if he's reading the expression correctly — he's not the only one who has opinions on human intelligence. "Even if home wasn't so great, I'd want to make the choice to leave on my own, not have it forced on me. But I'm told this is a decent group of people, if that's a concern." In other words, once people got used to the turtle thing, he'd probably be fine.

[rage_on]

Raphael shrugs. "Eh, I'm not that worried about it. If anyone has problems with me, they'll needa rethink their priorities. I'd rather get back home than be stuck with some alien's clean-up duties."

He holds out a hand. This human's decent at least. Definitely Seen Some Things. "Name's Raphael, by the way. Nice to know there's at least some reasonable people around here."

[sinistral]

"That does seem to be the general consensus around here." If it makes him feel any better about any of it.

After a moment he takes the handshake, but keeps it brief. Touching is still pretty high on his list of activities he doesn't much enjoy. "The Soldier." Which is as much of a name as he has claim to, anymore.

[rage_on]

The turtle takes the hesitation in stride, figuring talking to mutants is just behind the line where handshakes with two-fingered, one-thumbed hands are touched. Or maybe the guy's concerned about salmonella. April's been fine though, and she's even kissed his brother on the cheek, so surely there's no worries there.

"The Soldier, huh. I like it. Nice and simple, but suggests a lot."

[sinistral]

Shhhhh don't type that too loudly, next thing you know there'll be Agrii-nella with all kinds of weird side effects. Don't give them any ideas! They have enough ideas already.

And he's actually grateful for Raphael's reaction, honestly. It's nice to not have the criticisms about how it's not really a name or the questions of but what's your real name. Simple, uncomplicated acceptance has become a luxury. "It does what I need it to do."

[rage_on]

Well now you've done it, you've jinxed us.

He's come to be pretty flexible about names. It happens when you have a little brother whose hobby is to name anything he gets the chance to. Like the bad guys they end up crossing. This guy might've ended up with something having to do with the metal arm for sure.

'The Soldier?' Raph thinks it's cool. The 'The' is important.

"You do a lot of fighting?"