(no subject)

[seriouslytwisted]

Characters: Raphael (TMNT 2012) and OPEN
Date: TODAY
Location: errywhere
Situation: Dumpster diving!
Warnings/Rating: not really




It's seriously amazing, the shit people throw away.

Ever since they'd started going up to the surface, Raphael and his brothers have gotten pretty good at figuring out the best places to dumpster dive. Shockingly enough, the humiliation of it pales in comparison when, at the right location, you can find loaves of bread, pre-made salads and sandwiches, boxes of crackers and snacks and ramen and cans of vegetables and fruits and meats and fresh vegetables and fruits, and still-cold milk and eggs just lying on top of sheets of cardboard. Mikey would smell everything, and anything he says is gross goes back into the trash. Everything else went home.

It was way, way better than worms and algae every night, that's for sure.

So now, with no more money left and rationing still in effect, Raphael's resorted to the tried and true method of scrounging around in the garbage behind restaurants and the huge groceries of the more developed sectors for food for he and Mike and Donnie. The pickings are more slim than usual, but it's better than starving, and Raphael isn't getting a job if he can help it.

Ah, look at that, only slightly stale baguettes, still in their plastic wrapping. Jackpot. He drops his pillowcase onto the ground, flips the top of the dumpster open completely and climbs right in.

Comments

[duelkatana]

It's been too long. The first days of the week passed by in a spinning world, a heavy body, and the taste of sour, warm acid on his tongue. It's nothing like staving off infection from an injury; there's no sharp pain, no compress against the hot wound, no pills or bitter tea. The wrenching feeling of his insides twisting themselves into a pretzel is closer to memories of childhood spent wrapped in blankets against his cool-skinned brothers.

The other day, however, he woke up and the floor seemed to be horizontally aligned again. Yesterday, his limbs felt less like solid lead weights attached to his torso. Today, his fever finally seems to have broken - and today, he'd done inventory and discovered that the stockpiled rations they'd purchased with their little money at the start of all this were dangerously low.

It had been an easy decision: he can see straight and he can walk straight. That's all he needs. And they still need to eat. So near evening, he takes up a burlap sack and heads for one of the larger restaurants in the Water Sector, intent on scavenging. It takes him a while, and when he gets to the alley behind the building, the aroma of food hanging in the air still turns his stomach. He bites down on a groan and throws the sack down a bit irritably, then slinks back to rummage through the trash cans.

On any other day, there's no way he'd miss the slight shuffling coming from within the dumpster. But today rather sucks.

[seriouslytwisted]

Yeah, that aroma of slightly rotten food probably isn't helping either. The stench of a trash alley isn't ever pleasant even to the totally healthy.

Raph doesn't miss the sounds of someone shuffling down his alley though, and he collects his prizes before grabbing the edge of the dumpster and hauling himself out. "Hey. Go find your own-" Oh. It's this guy.

Raph takes a moment to look over each baguette before shoving them into his bag. "I already checked those. Nothing good in there."

[duelkatana]

Right you are. The second the trash can lid comes off, Leo's hit with the repugnant smell of garbage, and it takes everything he's got not to just lean over and pitch in his own contribution. But that would be counterproductive, wouldn't it?

He's still fighting it off when a sudden voice startles him, and he turns sharply to see Raph shoving some bread into a bag. He's too irritable to be surprised, so instead he just slams the lid back onto the trash can with a grumble. His Raph is so doing this next time.

"I noticed."

[seriouslytwisted]

"So," Raph says, by way of casual conversation, "you look like warmed-up crap." He slings his bag over his shoulder and heads over to give Leonardo a calculatory stare. Leonardo looks like how he felt a few days ago.

[duelkatana]

He sort of feels like warmed-up crap. But he'd never admit it, not when it's still better than he's been all week. He can just feel his Donatello's classic why-are-you-so-dumb glare from across dimensions. Shut up, Don.

"I'm fine," he mutters, rubbing a hand over his face briefly. His gaze flits to Raph's bag and he seizes the opportunity for a topic change. "Looks like the rationing's hit all of us."

[seriouslytwisted]

"Y'know, call me nuts but I think that's kind of the whole idea behind it." Y'know. Rationing the populace and all, supposed to affect...the populace.

Raph gives Leonardo another obvious up-down, judging his strength by what he sees. And the fact that Leo didn't even notice him in the dumpster before, that was kind of telling. He makes an executive decision based on what he sees. "C'mon. I've got a few more good places in mind."

[duelkatana]

Right, he just looked like a dope. Whatever, subject successfully changed. Sort of. He grits his teeth when Raph gives him another once-over, trying hard not to feel like a test subject being gawked at. He doesn't look that bad, does he?

It comes as a bit of a surprise when Raph tells him to come along; if he were in a better mood, he might try and think more of it. Instead, Leo just grunts and picks up his sack, leveling a look that's something between embarrassed and irritated at Raph. "Lead the way."

[cmdreffingshepard]

It's been a long time since Shepard has found herself with an abundance of time on her hands and nothing to do. It's been at least three years since she last had a proper shore leave - before Cerberus, before Saren and the Reapers.

Now, she mostly doesn't know what to do with herself, and getting home is starting to seem less and less likely - at least in the near future, no matter how important it is.

So yeah, maybe she's itching for a little action, wandering the streets at night, sidearm on her hip. She'd almost rather find herself confronted with a known enemy - a Collector attack, she could deal with that. All this sitting around, waiting for god-knows-what, though, that's chafing.

She hears the sounds coming from behind a grocer, and she ducks down the alley as quietly as she can, trying to pinpoint the source. When it seems to be coming from a dumpster, she sighs and takes her hand off her pistol, though she remains alert.

"Hey!" she calls, more annoyed than anything. "What're you doing in there?"

[seriouslytwisted]

The scuffling sounds from inside the dumpster silence, and then the head and shoulders of a teenage mutant (ninja) turtle pop up over the side so he can glare daggers at the intruder. "What are you, the trash police?"

[cmdreffingshepard]

"No, and you're lucky I'm not," she points out with raised eyebrows, arms crossed over her chest. His appearance is a little surprising, but she's seen walking, talking turtles before. Went into the tunnels with one, as a matter of fact.

Besides, once you've made friends with turians, krogans, and salarians, turtles are pretty mundane.

"You're asking for trouble, doing that. What if the actual police came along? They seem pretty interested in labeling Foreigners as trouble makers."

[seriouslytwisted]

Raph's pretty used to people not freaking out over him now, so when this new lady gets all bossy at him he just rolls his eyes and goes back to what he was doing. "Then I'll probably handle it myself and get the heck out of here."

[cmdreffingshepard]

Shepard rolls her eyes at him - way to sound just like a bratty teenager. She turns, but doesn't actually leave; instead, she's looking back down the alley, making sure no one else is approaching them.

"You should at least have a spotter. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, especially when one of them is buried in garbage."

[seriouslytwisted]

Shepard you have found the brattiest of bratty teenagers. Donatello would apologize for him if he was here.

"Oh wow, a spotter, what a new concept! Man, wish I'd thought of that." Raph throws a box aside. "You better get a patent on that groundbreaking idea before someone else uses it."

[fotia]

Dumpsters are usually a pretty reliable place to find discarded appliances, or discarded anything with metal in it, really. With the rationing it seems even the production of metals have been affected, though, and less metal equals less scraps to scavenge equals a pretty pissed-off Leo who couldn't gather enough to work on his hoverboard project.

Still, he has to make do. He approaches a (somewhat noisy, would you look at that?) dumpster and tiptoes to peer inside.

Apparently, said dumpster has already been occupied by one (1) rather large, scavenging turtle.

Leo blinks for a moment, pretty sure he's seeing things, and then his eyes widen as he recognizes exactly which turtle is inside.

"You!" He points an accusing finger at Raphael. "You're hiding the body of a murder-victim, aren't you?!"

[seriouslytwisted]

Raph didn't even hear this guy, which goes to show how into picking through this trash he is. When he's caught, he's torn for a moment between shame and the resulting anger of that shame, but then what Leo says actually registers.

He can work with this.

"In a dumpster? What kind of amateur do you think I am?" Raph straightens up, grabs the edge of the dumpster and hops out. "I'm just hiding the murder weapon in there."

[fotia]

When Raph hops out, Leo staggers back, putting enough distance between him and that heartless murderer psychoturtle. An arm is raised in defense, and he can already feel the tips of his fingers heating up as he glowers at Raph.

"If you're really as professional as you say you are then you wouldn't hide anything in a dumpster! Dude, don't you watch any CSI?!" Yep, because that is completely the point, Leo Valdez.

[seriouslytwisted]

"Sure, I watch that boring piece-of-crap show. You know those cop shows are always like the opposite of how it really works, right?" Like you know how it really works, Raph.

He gets a charge out of seeing Leo recoil though, and folds his arms in a way he thinks probably makes him look tough. "Now that I told you though, I gotta kill you. No witnesses and all."

[fotia]

That doesn't even make any sense, is what Leo's thinking about Raph's reasoning about CSI shows, but he quickly lets that thought go because of more important, pressing matters. Like the fact that a walking, talking, murdering turtle is out to kill his ass, for example.

So he draws both arms to his sides, palms facing his opponent, fingers curled into claws. "Yeah? Go ahead and try me, lettuce-brain!"

[seriouslytwisted]

Hahahahaha what is that stance even Leo

"Lettuce-brain? You really want your last words to be an insult like that?" Raphael entertains the idea of drawing his sai but no, that's going too far. He doesn't wanna hurt the kid, doesn't even want to rough him up. Just. Scare him a little.

[zerotoawesome]

Santo had never never experienced the fine art of dumpster diving before, and he can't say that he gets the concept. Mostly because his only experience with it has been getting his ass handed to him in a fight and thrown into a dumpster during the course of it... That usually just into the side of one, though. Being inside it was a rare occasion, and he can't say he enjoyed it all that much... Or the mandatory hosing off before he was allowed back inside the mansion afterward.

So finding someone willing to just climb in and look around was kind of strange to the large mutant, especially when it was someone like Raph, who, in his opinion, shouldn't have to be doing that kind of thing just to get by.

Really, it was just coincidence that he passed by the alley and saw Raph from the street, but curiosity always gets the better of him, and he just couldn't resist walking over to figure out just what his bro was up to. He leans over the edge of the dumpster, looking in. "Dude, that's kind of nasty. You know that, right?" He's smiling though, obviously just ribbing the other badass.

[seriouslytwisted]

Santo was surprisingly quiet for a giant rock guy just now. ...either that or Raph should employ the general rule of having another person when dumpster diving for a lookout, because everything echoes in here. He can barely hear himself think.

So when Santo peers over the edge and speaks, Raph jumps and ends up hitting his head on the side of the dumpster.

Which really fucking hurts.

Raph cradles his head for a minute, then looks up at Santo and immediately looks away. "I-" Shit he is not admitting to dumpster diving to Santo, of all people. "I'm just looking for something I threw away. Accidentally." He climbs back out, and he's leaving the bread in there and his pillow case draped over a nearby stack of relatively clean boxes, but he can come back and get them later. When Santo's not around.

RAPH STOP BEING ADORABLE

[zerotoawesome]

It must have been all that secret, hardcore ninja training Santo had back home... On the couch watching badly dubbed movies...

Santo should feel bad that Raph hit his head, and he does. It sounded like a pretty nasty thump, but... Santo is still kind of a jerk, and he can't help but laugh a little bit, but he means well.

"Oh yeah?" He looks into the dumpster a little more, but misses Raph stashing his haul. "Did you find it then? I could probably help you look." He's nice (dumb) enough not to question Raph's story. Besides, it's not like he can think of any reason that the other teen would need to lie to him about it.

NO

[seriouslytwisted]

Raph would punch Santo on the arm for laughing at him but Santo is um. Made of rock. So yeah he'll hold off on that.

He brushes himself off and shrugs uneasily, flipping his bandanna tails back over his shoulder. "Nah, y'know, it's not that important." Important enough to dive into a dumpster though. "-I mean, I looked all in there and I don't see it, so it's. Y'know, it's fine. I'm over it."

BUT I CAN'T TAKE IT

[zerotoawesome]

Santo wouldn't hit back... That hard. Not when he deserved the punch in the first place.

"O...kay," He looks at Raph for a moment, because he's thinking that it must have been at least a little important for Raphael to actually climb into the dumpster to look for it. He shrugs it off though, since it isn't really his business, probably.

"How have you been, dude?"

oh in that case i am v. sorry i will stop it immediately

[seriouslytwisted]

Raphael shuffles his feet. "Yeah, good. Holding out okay and all, even with all this weirdo crap going on. You?"

...how is he gonna get Santo to leave without telling him to go the fuck away (because he actually likes this person as opposed to many others)?