Lou Turtle

It was a quiet morning in the lair. Splinter had left for work early. Donnie and Mikey had gone out too—probably for something academic, given their skills or whatever. Raph and Leo were resting peacefully. After all, the event was set to happen at 7:30 in the morning.

Leonardo began to feel a pleasant swaying sensation, almost like being rocked to sleep. He snuggled deeper into his bed, until he noticed his action figures starting to tumble from their spots.

"Raph...? Raph... RAPH, IT'S QUAKING—GET UP!" Leo said, scrambling out of bed as fast as he could. Fortunately, he was one of those dorks who slept in pajamas, and he had quick reflexes. He rushed into Raph's room, clapping loudly to wake him while struggling to stay on his feet. His brother was sleeping on a floor mattress, half-dressed... Thank heavens he hadn't slept completely exposed that day.

"RAPHAEL, IT'S QUAKING—UP, NOW!" Raphael lazily opened his eyes, noticing how everything around him was swaying. He was still groggy, so it took him a moment to process the situation. Feeling too calm, he clumsily got up to look for a shirt, all while hearing his brother’s voice booming from the living room.

"RAPHAEL, NOW! WHY ARE YOU LOOKING FOR FLIP-FLOPS?" Leo was losing his patience, frustrated by his older brother's lack of urgency. Mayhem—April’s pet—was there; it was a small detail they had forgotten until they saw him bolt out the door just as they were about to leave. Raphael finally snapped into action, scrambling to catch up with the creature on the stairs and struggling to keep his balance while trying to put a leash on him.

Eventually, they made it down to an open area. Leonardo had evacuated empty-handed. Luckily, Raphael had come down wearing flip-flops and carrying his phone.

"Here," Raph said, offering his sandals to Leo.

Then came the waiting—and waiting, and waiting. Leo looked after Mayhem, walking him around the area to distract himself so he wouldn't smack Raphael for his irresponsibility, while Raph handled what he called "managing the adults." Donatello arrived later. He mentioned, with frustration, that he’d been forced to retake his exam. He admitted he had initially thought the shaking was just some idiot kicking his chair. He also confessed to getting disoriented: one moment he was far from his group, accompanied by two random guys who had also become separated from the others.

Splinter arrived some time later, clearly shaken. Across town, where he had been working, the tremors had been much more violent. Buildings had collapsed and walls had cracked. To make matters worse, he’d had the bad luck of lacking a strong enough signal to call any of his sons.

It wasn't long before Raph's phone rang again, this time it was Draxum. "I'm glad you're all safe. A huge scare, but everything's fine, thank God..." The phone was passed to Mikey, who sounded a bit anxious. "We're at the designated meeting point... Some things got broken, but nothing that can't be replaced. I'll head home as soon as I can. Take care—love you guys."

Eventually, the minutes ticked by. The atmosphere settled down. Splinter was now insisting on installing an earthquake alarm system, while Donatello scowled, having just remembered he’d left his cell phone with someone back in the classroom.

"I left my phone behind—I haven't answered a single message! People are going to think I'm dead," he said dramatically, though he clearly wasn't joking.

"Who would be texting *you*?" Splinter asked, drawing a loud burst of laughter from Leo and Raph.

"They'll think you actually have friends," Leo said, high-fiving Raph while they made silly, dramatic gestures to tease him.

So, there’s this person who’s been kind to me: "Come on, Pepe, you can do it!" I approach with the best of intentions, and out of my mouth comes: "If I threw a punch at you right now—considering you train in martial arts—do you think you’d dodge it?" "Uh, yeah...?" "Cool!"

Then there’s this other person I haven’t spoken to yet... What would you say to them, Pepe? THINK. "I notice you’re very thin and have a noticeable fuzz on your arms. That’s because your body is trying to conserve heat, since your low body fat makes it inefficient. Actually, it’s called lanugo!" That’s why I often prefer to just stay quiet lol.

Because, well, I've met many wonderful people within the fandom, however, I TRULY love genuine connections that go beyond turtles, or that we have something more than that in common!!

Especially because, well... I feel like the vibes I give off in my profile fall short of my personality: I am a vegetarian, a feminist, and I participate in youth councils in my country. I have won literary competitions, especially environmental ones, I am under psychological observation because (being a woman) it is difficult to distinguish if I have PTSD, just anxious behaviors, autism, or even ADHD, I LOVE LISTENING TO AND GETTING TO KNOW PEOPLE, ANALYZING CHARACTERS, AND I'M ONE OF THE MOST MULTIFANDOM PEOPLE I KNOW!!!

And (Although everything I put above sounds like a responsible guy or something like that) I'm actually the closest thing you'll ever see to a rebel without a cause, haha, I am literally the person you find without a backpack at school. Besides, I'm very committed to my inner values. I'm almost at the one-year mark of boycotting Nestlé; I don't drink Coca-Cola, I don't use Spotify because it supports genocide, and I don't play Roblox because it supports pedophiles and a long list of ETCs involving things I avoid or kicking the asses of talkative macho men when I get the chance. I basically only play Sudoku, crossword puzzles, or COD Mobile!

Okay, so... I'd like to use MM Raph as an example, since he's the closest representation we have to a real 'Teenage', although, ironically, he's one of the Raphs with the most violent tendencies. This Raphael, as we see, may yearn for that emotional connection with his brothers; however, he shuts himself off. We can't judge him, because, as we saw in that episode where he goes to 'therapy' with a fighting instructor, his brothers just mock every detail he shares. They don't take him seriously. Overcome with shame, he explodes again. After all, he's the team's 'muscle,' right? His brothers will never see him as anything more than that.

On the other hand, we have Rise Raph, who during the course of the series is the same age as MM Raph. Clearly, they don't react the same way to circumstances. From the beginning, they make it clear that Rise Raph is a 'Noble Giant'. But what if he wasn't always like that? Taking into account that Raph DOES have violent tendencies, but only under dangerous situations (Triggers) under the name of 'Savage Raph', and the fact that his brothers recognize it means that his violent nature is not nonexistent, it is repressed.

The turtles in ROTTMNT live under the neglect of Splinter, a former star in every aspect (fighter, trainer, actor...) who was an icon. Clearly, his mutation affected him psychologically like shit. He was always there for the turtles physically, but emotionally he was lacking a lot. Raphael, being the older brother, feels the responsibility of being the wall that Splinter wasn't. However, he was also just a child. When such a young mind is forced to understand complex concepts like 'My father is sad', 'My brothers are sad', 'I feel lonely', you can do nothing but ATTACK. Basically, before becoming the protector, it's very likely that you were the danger in the first place. Basically, even though they share the same age, Rise Raph DID have his 'MM Raph stage', only when he was younger because, like the other version, it was difficult for him to understand his surroundings.

So, as Raphael grows up amidst the helplessness, he comes to understand: I am not like my brothers, I am bigger, I am stronger... He builds his self-perception based (unconsciously) on what he felt he lacked to feel protected. From being the most irritable of the brothers, he became the one who stopped the problems. From being the one who pushed his brothers away when they sought him out, he became the one who longed for company, but, unfortunately, wounds heal, but they don't disappear. I have no proof (but also no doubt) that, when they were little, Raphael may have hit his brothers on occasion out of a psychological impulse to defend himself, driving them away forever, in one way or another.

The fact that his violent version now comes out when the triggers are related to hurting his family or separating them (Words like: 'Alone') They only prove to us the internal shame and guilt that Raphael carries for having been the one who hurt his brothers, for not having been patient when they needed him. for having been a danger before becoming the shield, forgetting that, to begin with, he was the same: A scared child. Savage Raph isn't Raph being "mad"; it's his repressed, unintegrated survival instinct taking over because his conscious self is terrified of failing his brothers again.