At least it's not actually raining men

[monstermama]

WHO: Ripley & OPEN
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Settling in, disclaimers that this isn't her fault (pink hearts, sparkly glitter)
WHEN: V-Day (and a few days after)
WARNINGS: Possible language (Ripley has a dirty mouth)

She'd been there a day now. A day to poke around and find a place that wasn't too close to the rest of them, but not too far either. Not hers- not yet, but hers for now. It was in the area near the Flood Plain. One of the residences somewhere in the middle. She'd been listening on the network, going past to see what was and what wasn't. The Flood Plain had food in ready supply if she needed it, things she could hunt. Things that might try hunting her. It almost felt natural.

It wasn't too far from the bar she'd met the android, Cayde, in. Close to the meat of the place, since she'd yet to see humans pass up a place to go to drink themselves stupid when the situation called for it.

She'd been about to leave to go hunting, see what there was in terms of sport and violence here, when the sky had opened up above her. All over Temba, it seemed. She held her hand out when she saw that it wasn't doing any damage to the area around her. Flecks of glitter stuck to her hand, a little pink heart joining the flecks to stick to her before she wiped it off. Or, tried to. It didn't seem to want to come off, sticking to her and just moving to another part of her body. "Great."

What a welcome. She managed to drag together a blanket to toss over herself to protect her from the worst of it, but... well. There was glitter raining from the sky, and someone had left something on the pad she'd made a nest of when she got back to the room she'd claimed. A note. Fangs. And a pink ball of fluff that she kicked off to the side.

After a half a day of glitter-rain, she took to the network.

username: ripley
Does this happen often? Is there some sort of weather schedule to look out for to avoid this? Whatever this is.

For the next few days, Ripley will be found using blankets and tarps as coverings when she ventures out, looking for food, information, and trying to figure out where she fits in this strange new city. Find her wherever you like, looking for things, attempting to scavenge, or eying the data points with curiosity.

Comments

[monstermama]

It was the plink-plunking of the rocks hitting the water that caught her attention. Possibly dinner? Only one way to find out. She was as quiet as she could be when she moved to see what might be making the noise. Ripley had found there were things that bit back in this particular part of the city- which is why she'd settled close to here. It felt more like home to her, less in the visual and more in the 'constant state of danger' zone.

Peering over a rock, she saw... something. Something not human, but looked either bipedal or capable of it, if the toss of a rock was anything to go by. She wasn't familiar with what it was, though. Hands resting on the rock, she propped her chin up and opted to watch and see what it did. Whatever it was, it didn't look particularly perky. Not like that other tiny little thing she'd seen.

[rage_on]

Raphael paused a moment to give into the frustration of dealing with the ever-falling sprinkle of glitter from the sky. "Aarrrrgh!" he flailed, swiping at his arms, trying ineffectively to dust off the back of his shell.

With a huff he stooped down and grabbed a bigger rock to throw, roughly the size of his head. He hurled it with both hands, flinging it a fair distance before it landed in the water with a *bloosh*. It was after a while of watching the outspreading rings in the water that he suddenly jerked his head around. He was usually better at figuring when he was being watched, inwardly scolding himself for not keeping his guard up.

[monstermama]

Whatever it was, it was clearly angry, if that little rock throwing episode was anything to go by. Ripples spread out from the larger splash, and then the green thing turned in her direction. She didn't move from her vantage point, just flexed her fingers to indicate movement. The 'argh' had indicated something close to speech for her, so it was possible it was also intelligent. Intelligent and mad and having a tantrum.

A sparkling heart landed on her nose, and she blew it off, sending it and a few more glittering specks to whirl away from the top of the rock she was resting on. Well hello, little green man. Woman? She couldn't tell gender from here. It didn't smell like anything she knew.

[rage_on]

It didn't take Raphael long to pin-point his previously unnoticed audience. He looked a little embarrassed at first before snorting, turning to better face her. Aside from the red mask-bandanna with the tattered ends that he wore over his eyes, he had a belt tied about his waist, elbow and knee pads that had definitely been battle-tested, and stained bandages wrapped about his stub-toed feet and his palms. The pair of pronged dagger-like weapons tucked into his belt behind him definitely cemented the feel of a fighter, even if earlier he'd been acting anything but.

"Well?" he finally prompted, scowling as he tried to ignore the fact that he was still getting powdered with glitter. He sounded gruff but young, a brave, annoyed front hastily drawn up to cover for whatever she might have seen earlier.

[monstermama]

She could read body language. It was part of being part of a species that spoke via pheromones and a link to their queen, that hunted via thermosensors and scent instead of visually. Arrogance. Embarrassment. Ah, yes, and youth. Smiling, she moved to sit up more where she was, head tipping at her as she heard something distinctly understandable from him. A word. "Did that help get whatever it was off your chest?"

Yes, Raphael. She was referring to the rock-tantrum.

[rage_on]

"...."

His shoulders hunched up at being called out like that. For an empty city it was sometimes super easy to run into other people, case in point. He scratched at the back of his head, absently trying to dust glitter off of it in the process as he glanced away awkwardly at the woman's question.

"...not really," he finally admitted. "This stupid glitter isn't helping either." The turtle brushed at his arms, scowling as he only seemed to be spreading the shimmer.

[monstermama]

"No, it's not." She didn't bother trying to rid her skin of it where it fell. It was pointless until she could get into water, and Ripley often tried to avoid pointless. It was annoying, but it wasn't hurting her. Just making her look like she was ready to go to a disco.

Head cocked to the side, she gave him another curious look. "What are you?" Because he wasn't human. And he had to know that. Neither was she, but that might not be so obvious.

[rage_on]

It was easier to talk to someone who was a new face, at least. Giving up on his attempts with an exaggerated sigh, Raphael folded his arms instead, if only to keep himself from another futile battle against the glitter coating.

"You never seen a mutant turtle before?" he asked, managing a faint smirk. Mutant turtles weren't exactly commonplace even back home either, after all. He lived with most of them.

[monstermama]

"No. Never seen a turtle before, either." She hadn't seen a lot of things, Raphael. Turtle hadn't been flashed on one of the cards in her training session. But, he was certainly something interesting. The shell reminded her of something else, something she doubted he'd ever seen either.

Still, he didn't seem so mad anymore, and she needed to learn more about this place and the people in it.

[rage_on]

That was surprising to him and it showed on his face, brows lifting beneath the mask. "Whoa, seriously? What planet are you from?"

It wasn't meant to be a sarcastic question but sometimes his tone just had that hint to it. Most of the people he'd run into around here either knew what turtles were or just figured he was an alien of some sort, and either way no one- well okay, one person had screamed in terror but everyone else was generally cool about having a five-foot talking turtle around.

"Name's Raphael. Who're you? Other'n new?"

[monstermama]

"Supposedly Earth, but I wasn't made there. Went there once. Johner was right; it's a complete shit-hole." In the year 2386, Earth had come upon some hard times. It was a good thing the species had taken to terraforming and colonizing. Still, she doubted anything like him still existed on Earth. Most life didn't exist on it anymore.

She did smile at the question, opting to answer. "Ripley. You been here long?"

[rage_on]

"'Supposedly'? Wait, no, made?" Raphael didn't bother to hide his confusion but then of his brothers he was the most emotive. "I'm from Earth- well, a version of Earth. After being to other planets I still think there's nothing to compare, but home's home."

He started closer, stepping away from the water's edge, eyeballing a rock to potentially sit on before abandoning the idea after seeing how much glitter was on it. "Know what? I have no idea how long I've been here. It's gotta have been months at least. I don't think it's been a year yet, but the hours here are weird and the days are stupidly long."

[monstermama]

"Mm," she hummed in agreement at all his outbursts. If he wanted to know, he'd have to ask. She was cagey like that. Still, it was interesting that he'd been to other planets. She wasn't sure what that meant in the long run, but that he was from a time or place that had the capability was something to note.

He mentioned the hours and days, and she was glad to see it hadn't just been her. When you're in space and only have the computer's clock to guide you, there's no solar or lunar gauge to mark things by. Stars didn't track the same way solar systems did. "So you'd know if this kind of thing is usual." She gestured up, blinking as more glitter fell down and she had to swat it out of her eyes.

goigehgh THANKS FOR EATING THAT NOTIF, DW

[rage_on]

"Guess in a way you could say me and my brothers were made since we weren't always mutants, but how's that work for a human? You make it sound like some kind of science experiment." Unless she just had a strange way of referring to human birth.

Raphael sputtered and swiped a bit at his face to briefly be rid of a fresh sprinkling of glitter. "Pff- Blah! I think it went in my mouth- wait, what the heck? Why does it taste sweet?" He looked incredibly confused at that, shaking his head. "This place is going to drive me crazy. Actually it already kind of did a couple weeks or so ago, but that was because of something else, I think." His expression darkened at that, not proud at all of having been driven into a mindless, violent rage.

"Anyway, this? Not normal. I don't know what this is about."

DW's a butt.

[monstermama]

He had brothers. She had... sisters? Or had, before they'd failed in being made properly. Until she'd flamed the room full of their corpses and one lingering life form that had begged for death. Seven. Seven 'sisters', and now here she was. All alone. Her head cocked a little at Raphael, and she shrugged. "It was a science experiment."

It sounded cryptic, but it was just her way of answering what he'd asked. Nothing more, nothing less. If he wanted to know more, he'd have to ask. She was still sometimes a little too literal. She watched him spit out some of the glitter, taking a finger to one of the crystalized pieces and putting it on her tongue. Well, look at that. He was right. "Sounds like there's a lot of strange things that happen here- beyond random people showing up?"

[rage_on]

"No kidding? How's that work? I guess you could say we were an accidental science experiment. Came into contact with some mutagen these alien brains were trying to use to make Earth something more suitable for them."

Raphael had to nod- this place was just full of strangeness. "Oh yeah. This place is a mess. If you couldn't tell from looking. But there's these storms we have to figure out because the aliens who live here- the Agrii? They can't survive in them. But they don't know how or why the storms started and from the one that we actually experienced? It was more than just heavy rain and lightning. You'd see things- people you know, people who shouldn't be around here. It's like this storm thing could tap into your head."

[monstermama]

"Accidental, mm?" That made sense. If she was a mad scientist trying to make anthropomorphic animals that could be weapons (because why else would scientists be doing that?), turtles wouldn't be her first choice. Or on the top ten list. "Let's say that they wanted something my old self died with and they got... unexpected results." Results they'd kept tinkering with until they'd wound up with her. She still felt a shiver of fear at winding up as Seven.

The idea of a storm messing with her head was intriguing, if only because she wondered what anything else would find while trying to muck around in her memories. Which side would it play with? What nightmares would she see? "I remember the Agrii from the... globe. That one when I first arrived and woke up. I still don't see how they expect anyone to stop storms unless they decide to provide terraforming equipment."

[rage_on]

"Uh...huh." At first it sounded like a vague reply, which it was, but there was still enough in there to put some things together. "Wait- your old self, are you like...a clone or something?" So he wasn't very tactful about it, but the concept of clones wasn't new to him. He'd seen one of his human friends get cloned. It was...pretty weird.

Raphael made a face at the mention of the datapoint, but he nodded. He'd been compelled to touch the thing too. Except when he'd arrived, the city truly looked like it had been abandoned because even the 'he-rows' who had been brought there were scarce at the time. "Yeah, no clue. They didn't exactly provide us with instructions past 'fix things.'"

[monstermama]

"Or something." It was the truth, after all. She was a clone, yes, but she was something they hadn't expected in that in-between mix. It was as good an explanation as any.

The turtle kept speaking, and she found the whole idea of it amusing enough to keep the smile on her face. "No manuals? No 'how to' books? Just... fix it? How trusting of them to presume anyone had a clue what they were thinking of."

[rage_on]

Raphael made a face, but he gave a shrug. Or something. Right. Well, not like they didn't have a weird group of people here already or anything.

"Nothing! Stop the storms so they can come home, I guess, but how the heck do you stop weather?" He shook his head, paused, and then for a brief moment gave into another attempt to brush glitter away. "Agh, I hate this stuff!"

[monstermama]

"No idea. Weather and terraforming wasn't my area of expertise." No, it wasn't. Ellen was a pilot. A mechanical engineer. A survivor. Planetary goddess hadn't been on her resume.

She looked up at the glitter, wiping it away from her lashes, watching the turtle-man get angry at what was on him. "If it's new, then hopefully it won't last. If not, then maybe we should start wearing plastic wrap."

[rage_on]

"Sure isn't mine," Raphael grumped. "I prefer hitting stuff. I break things, not fix them. They should've grabbed Donnie instead-" He hesitated then, looking immediately sorry he'd said something like that. "...but I guess I'm glad they didn't." Being stuck here sucked- he didn't want to put any of his brothers through that. If they'd all been together, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad.

"...yeah, guess that's true," he muttered as he eyed the heart shaped glitter bits that were stuck to his stubby fingers. "Wonder if these guys even use plastic wrap."

[monstermama]

Ripley found herself grinning, amused despite herself that she could actually determine facial features and emotions coming from them from a turtle-man. All in all, it was incredibly interesting. And a nice reprieve from murder and mayhem. "I haven't figured any of that out yet. Plastic wrap, that is. Still trying to figure out what the water and food situation is here."

[rage_on]

With a snort, Raphael folded his arms again, shoulders lifting and falling in a shrug. "Plastic wrap's the least of our problems. We haven't been left without food, it's just mostly liquid and goo-shaped. Unless you're into that kind of thing. There's these big lobsters out by the beach though, and probably stuff running around in the woods. And there's a greenhouse but of course everything just looks weird. Me? I just want some pizza."

[monstermama]

"What's that?" Sorry, Raphael. Even her previous self wouldn't have known the joys of pizza. Ripley herself had lived off some strange goop in the station's cafeteria. The idea of hunting for food was genuinely appealing.