[VOICE | Backdated Pre-Event] Survey

[anything_it_takes]

[You wanna play it this say, Raph? Taking surveys to prove a point? Fine. Let's play.

It's not about who cares - well okay, to be fair, that's the MAIN reason they developed such fine-tuned stealth skills in the first place. But that's not the only reason a ninja should stay hidden. With enemies who would probably not announce themselves first, who would see him and his brothers on the Network and then proceed to silently hunt them down one by one...

The last time the team faced Shredder, he nearly killed them all, starting with Leonardo himself; the memory of seeing the intent in Oruku's eyes while facing down his blade remained a deeply chilling moment. But now Leo's team is down by one, they're not always together and they can't just stay underground here. If Shredder found one of them out in Keeliai, alone, with no way to contact the others for help...]

How many people have had their enemies show up.

[A question with the cadence of a statement. That's how you know he's serious, apparently.

If this survey turns up zilch? Leo will have to concede the point completely. But he doesn't really suppose that'll be the case. Let's find out.]

Comments

[seriouslytwisted]

[dude WHAT

what is that other option what kind of life do you lead, santo]

No. Not school school. Our master uh...he taught us stuff, like reading and writing and some math or whatever, but we don't go to school. [And in fact they're kind of done now; not like they need to know advanced algebra or anything, they're not gonna get jobs when they grow up.

...well Donnie does, but that's because Donnie's a nerd (read: super genius) and knew advanced algebra when his brothers were still trying to get the hang of their multiplication tables. Not that Mikey ever did.]

[zerotoawesome]

[The kind that makes him think living in the sewer, eating pizza, and occasionally beating up alien brain squids and the Shredder is a pretty sweet deal.]

It's not all boring school stuff. Sometimes it's combat training and how to use our powers... Not like they even let us anymore. Seriously, I went from being one of the top face punchers to being told to stay class and just watch the fight on TV.

[seriouslytwisted]

Ha! [oh sorry for laughing (not really) that's kind of dickish, huh]

So what, you just...do normal kid stuff? Why? Just quit.

[zerotoawesome]

[Come on, man. He knows how ridiculous it sounds. He hates it, and being here has made him feel more useful than he has in months.]

Would you just quit your family?

[seriouslytwisted]

[Raph opens his mouth.

Closes it.]

Guess not. [Turns his head and huffs.] If your family's just making you sit on the sidelines though, they need a smack or two. Family's not supposed to do that to each other.

[zerotoawesome]

They seriously do, bro, and I've considered it way too many times. [Not that he's going to act on it.] We weren't ninjas or heroes or anything for a long time. The adults just feel guilty for sending us to die, so they've gone in the completely opposite direction.

[seriouslytwisted]

[O-ooh. Yeah, Raphael's familiar with that situation; Splinter had gone completely nuts when they'd almost been killed by Shredder. Kept them down in the sewers, drilled them until they literally collapsed with exhaustion, acted like a total psycho, all because he was scared. Yeah, their dad doesn't express his fear very well.

Still, Splinter had eventually admitted that he was wrong. It sounds like Santo's still in the middle of that, and Raphael can't imagine having to deal with being on lockdown for more than the handful of days they already were. He'd probably go nuts.]

Look-

[He stops himself, suddenly aware of the open connection and the fact that Leo is most likely creeping all over this conversation.]

Look, uh...come meet me on the roof. [Y'know, The roof. The usual place.]

[zerotoawesome]

I- Yeah, okay. I'll be up there in ten minutes.

[And sure enough, miraculously, Santo gets there exactly at ten minutes, climbing up the side of the building up onto the roof to meet Raph.]

--> perma-action!

[seriouslytwisted]

[Eventually they should consider relocating their meeting spot to the ground, so the poor kedan don't have a huge rock person climbing up the side of their building like a granite King Kong. THAT DAY IS NOT THIS DAY.

Raphael's doing some hand-stand pushups when Santo arrives, and just flips back onto his feet to crack his neck.] Okay, put 'em up. We're gonna spar.

[zerotoawesome]

[One day, they'll stop accidentally ending conversations on a depressing note, which is mostly Raphael's fault for actually being someone that Santo cares about and he thinks gets him. One day he's also going to fall through the roof of this building... And that will be awkward.

Not yet though!]

Dude, are you serious? [He puts his hands as a surrender, not expecting this or intending to fight his bro.] I don't wanna hurt you.

[seriouslytwisted]

[Raphael just Rolls His Eyes, which is so impressive a gesture that it gets capitalized. Like if there was a worldwide competition for exasperated faces, this one would take home all three of the medals.]

I punch robots in the face on a weekly basis, man. You're not gonna hurt me. [Raph puts his fists up again.] Now c'mon. It's just a spar.

[zerotoawesome]

[Santo would totally give that eye roll a 10/10. You know, if they were actually in a competition. He'll at least concede that impressive skill to Raphael.]

Yeah, but how often do the robots actually punch you back? [Because he always kind of assumed that Raph was untouchable, at least to the kedan. Still, he's putting his fists up now, even if he still looks a bit uncertain.] No hard feelings when I knock you out, bro.

[seriouslytwisted]

Uh huh. [Raph seems to be taking this seriously, which is a change; usually if he's fighting he's doing a lot of trash-talk, or having fun or being unnecessarily rough.

But he sizes Santo up. He knows if he gets seriously clobbered by the guy -which, he'll begrudgingly admit, is a strong possibility- then Santo might feel guilty and that's kind of the opposite Raph's going for here.

Sparring is, after all, his tried-and-true 'work shit out in my head' method. That and talking to his pet turtle.]

So- [he says conversationally, pausing to grunt as he throws a couple kicks in Santo's direction to see what he does with them,] what happened to make the adults decide to bench you guys?

[zerotoawesome]

[Santo will take it about as seriously as he takes anything else, but he just wants to make sure that Raph knows what he's getting into. It's not every day that someone who can take a punch from him is someone that he doesn't want to actually hurt.

Raphael agreed to this though, so Santo won't be holding back... Except for making sure that he doesn't punch Raph off the roof, shoot his fists at him, or explode near him.]

Lot's of reasons. I guess it started when we had to protect this one girl from like every bad guy we ever fought. People died that day, some lost body parts... Other things. [Santo replies. He blocks the first kick, but the second one gets by and hits him. He doesn't seem bothered by the blow obviously, but it's clear that Santo doesn't have the same level of martial arts training, especially since he's telegraphing his followup punch.] Other stuff happened after that, and mutants split into two groups. One side thought we should be an army, and the other one thought we should try to be just people... I chose the one that was less likely to get my friends killed.

[It's not something Santo talks about easily, if ever. But, again, he trusts Raphael. He's strangely okay with letting his guard down with him while pretending not to actually have feelings.]

[seriouslytwisted]

[Raph isn't one to sympathize with someone; he'll feel a pang of it here and there, but he's not a bleeding heart, not openly so. First and foremost he's pragmatic, and he's subscribed to the idea of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps before you have a little cryfest. That being said, Raphael's arguably the most emotional and passionate of his brothers, and while this isn't always obvious in how he speaks, it's a little more obvious in action. He's surprisingly good at reading the subtler tones in a conversation when he's honestly trying to. It makes him compassionate, but it's a thing he saves for just the people who matter who, up until now, have only been his family and very occasionally, April.

Santo's obvious in what he's doing, and Raph's pretty sure that's because Santo hasn't had over a decade of martial arts training, but right now he's thankful for it. Taking a rock fist to the head would probably conk him out for a while, and he wants to work out some kinks (both physical and emotional) before that happens.

He rolls over Santo's arm easy, like he's liquid, but doesn't take the opening around to his back and just throws his own punch instead. This isn't like sparring with his brothers.]

Any of your buddies end up going to the army side?

[zerotoawesome]

[Santo tried really hard to be that way, but in reality he was a lot softer than his attitude and rocky exterior would suggest, and lately he hasn't been hiding that as well as he usually does. He's never talked about things like this before, but now that it's started, he's not having an easy time bottling them back up.

He'll probably force himself to just stay quiet next time he and Raphael hang out. Limit their conversation to punching things. Better than admitting that this might possibly be helping. He's not weak.

Even if his punch looked slow the way that Raph just flows around it like it was nothing. He wasn't holding back that much. He'd been trained by ninjas and badass fighters, but since he was huge, mostly invulnerable, and could hit like a tank, they often weren't things he took to heart. He relied on raw strength.]

A handful did. None that really mattered. [He doesn't mean that, but he's a bit bitter about it. He blocks Raph's punch with one hand, the other thrust at the turtle's shell, going for an open-palmed strike.] They wanted to stay and it's none of my business. I enjoy busting heads more than the next guy, but the others would be lost without me at the other place. [Not that he gets to do a lot of protecting anymore.]

[seriouslytwisted]

[As if the universe is intent on keeping Raph's ego in check, Santo's palm strike lands right in the middle of his plastron and makes him wheeze. He backs up, holding up a hand to signify a pause. Ow.]

Are you...the leader of your team?

[zerotoawesome]

[Santo is more than a bit surprised that he lands the hit, and Raphael putting his hand up makes him quickly take a step back. He really isn't trying to hurt Raph. Not that he's going to mention it or ask if it's okay, because Raph is tough and badass.]

The leader? No way, bro... I'm pretty sure I'd mess up everyone if I was making the decisions. [He's pulled through a few times when he had to, but Santo knows he's probably too dumb for leadership.] I'm just the punching guy.

[seriouslytwisted]

[Nah. It takes an unbelievable amount of punishment to put Raphael down for the count. In fact, that he even bothered to stop and catch his breath speaks volumes of how much he trusts Santo not to make fun of him or think less of him for it; it's the kind of weakness he barely shows in front of his brothers, but then again he's much more competitive with his brothers than he is with Santo.

Better be more careful next time. Santo's better than he lets on.]

You're cool with that? Just being the punching guy? [That's Raphael's role in the team and he's usually proud of it, but sometimes just being the punching guy isn't enough. Doesn't feel like enough. ...then again, thinking that always ends up getting him into trouble, especially lately.]

[zerotoawesome]

[The fact that Raphael can take that kind of strike as well as he did is worthy of all Santo's respect. He's not about to make fun of a best friend over this, especially not Raph. Everything else later is fair game though.

It helps that Santo knows Raphael can kick his ass too.]

Why wouldn't I be? I wanna make a career out of being that guy someday. You know, professional wrestling, cage fights, MMA... All that stuff! I'm gonna be famous one day, dude. [That, and he's crazy terrified of being a leader after the last times he's tried.]

Besides, who wants that kind of pressure? If I made the wrong decision, my people could get hurt... Or worse. You get it, right?

[seriouslytwisted]

I-

Yeah.

[Raph shakes off the last of the ache and slides back into a ready stance.]

My brother- last time I gave being boss a shot, I got him hurt. Kinda bad. [Raphael says this gruffly, like if he makes it sound like he doesn't care then it's not weak to say it. He's protective of his brothers, especially Mikey, and the more Santo talks about his role in his family and how he feels about his friends, the more Raphael thinks he might have found a guy who'll understand that, understand him. An actual friend that isn't a brother, or someone else's friend first.

Shouldn't get his hopes up though. He could disappear one day...like Donnie. Only Raph won't be seeing Santo once he makes it home.]

Not like our teams could get along without us, huh? I dunno how many times I've had to save my brothers' stupid shells. [Raph starts up sparring again. He knows he's not gonna be able to hurt Santo, not without getting real creative, so it's kind of more like practicing his movements and reactions. He doesn't hold his punches -except for where he needs to so he doesn't break a hand or something- and concentrates on dodge, counter, block.]

[zerotoawesome]

[Even though Raphael talks about it in a way that might suggest that he doesn't care, Santo gets it. He's seen the way that Raphael gets over his brothers, they've talked about Mikey and Donnie at different points. Santo understands, because he has to do the same thing.

He's just happy relieved that Raphael hasn't lost anyone yet.] I had a teammate die in my arms, bro.

[He says that just as gruffly as Raph spoke before, and leave it at that. He wasn't even the leader of that team, but it was still enough to scare him off of ever really wanting that kind of responsibility. Putting himself in danger was nothing, he did that without even thinking, but if it was someone else...]

No kidding. Every team needs a strong badass, and that just has to be us. [He smiles a little as they fall back into the sparring, not trying to hurt Raphael really, so when it starts to be more about the form of each move, Santo actually ends up trying to fight a bit more cleanly. Not that his form is anything compared to Raph's, be he can at least try not to embarrass himself so much.]

You've gotta teach me some of these moves sometime.

[seriouslytwisted]

[WOW SANTO NOW RAPH IS GONNA IMAGINE HIS BROTHERS DYING IN HIS ARMS

Raphael doesn't know what to say; just seeing his brothers hurt is hard enough. Thinking that they could die, that there'd be nothing he could do to protect them. That he'd end up having that in common with Santo too-

That tone of voice is so familar it hurts.

Guys like them don't say 'I'm sorry for your loss.' They don't talk about those experiences. They don't cry on someone else's shoulder, they don't write poetry, they don't show their emotion in any kind of healthy way.

They shove it down as deep as it'll go and agonize over it alone. That's what Raphael does, anyway.]

What, the kata? Sure, I'll show you. [Raphael's not supposed to take on any students, or rather Splinter's impressed upon them the danger of it once they started making acquaintances on the surface, but he's never listened to his father particularly closely anyway.]

[zerotoawesome]

[SORRY RAPH

It was reflexive one-up that he didn't even want to win. He's not expecting sympathy or anything like that, especially not from Raphael. He didn't want that either. It was what it was, and that was something he had to deal with in the healthiest way possible...

By pretending it doesn't exist, joking inappropriately, and punching people until he feels better.]

Really? Because I was just thinking the only way I could be more awesome than I already am is if I could do some sick ninja moves... [Not that he's asking for help or anything. Because he totally doesn't need it.]

[seriouslytwisted]

Well, uh... [Raph doesn't really know how to teach someone, so he's just gonna pretend their previous conversation didn't happen in favor of something a little lighter.] What do you already know? You look like you know some stuff.