OOC → Application
Series: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 series)
Series Medium: Animated TV show
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character: While Raphael’s story can be said to have started some years before he hatched, I think that as far as he is concerned, it only really began when a fateful accident led to four infant turtles being dropped down a storm drain along with a canister of strangely glowing, green ooze.
The contents of the canister proved to be a mutagen with unusual properties: the four turtles and a nearby rat, which had also been affected by the mutagen, displayed rapid growth over the next few days, taking on markedly humanoid characteristics. The rat, named Splinter, had been decidedly unusual from the start and adapted quickly to the change, adopting the young turtles and then, as they grew older and showed signs of intelligence, giving them names and taking it upon himself to teach them the art of ninjutsu he had learned from his master.
For a good fifteen or so years life continued like this, the little family largely keeping to themselves in the sewers with the world unaware of their existence. Things might have stayed like that too, had it not been for a series of events that would end up changing all their lives forever.
Things started, as it were, innocently enough, as one night during a training session the hidden underground lair of the family was attacked and laid to waste by a small army of robot mousers. The destruction of their home and surrounding tunnels forced them to relocate to a new home, as well as leading to their first encounter with the Purple Dragon gang and the Foot ninja clan. The mousers would return to cause more problems and bring about something that wouldn’t be as easy to adapt to as a wreaked home was. That would be one April O’Neil, a lab assistant working for Baxter Stockman. Raphael and his brothers found her in the sewers as she was attempting to escape the mousers that her boss had created and, as she’d fainted after meeting them, they had little choice but to take her back to their lair.
April was the first human they’d ever had to trust with their secrets and this opened a new path in their lives. The four brothers began to make more and more trips to the surface, with and without their master’s permission, often for training purposes or to keep an eye on the gang activities. Raphael would also often head up to the surface to blow off some steam as a way of dealing with his anger, and it was on one such occasion that he met Casey Jones, a vigilante with similar anger issues. They fought initially, but eventually were able to come to an accord and Casey became a close friend of the family, and in particular Raphael.
Some of their past was still a mystery to the turtles however, and it was only when Leonardo was contacted by Oroku Saki that they finally learned of the Shredder and his role in their master’s past and were able to confront and (apparently) defeat him.
This only served to anger the Shredder and draw his attention to them further, resulting in Leonardo being ambushed while out training and badly beaten. The rest of the group were barely able to escape with their lives and were forced to retreat to a location out of the city in order to rest and regroup. Leonardo recovered eventually, and Raphael took it upon himself to aid his brother during that time, even going so far as to help him forge new swords for himself.
When they returned to the city, they learned that the Shredder apparently believed them dead, giving them the perfect opening to obtain their revenge. Together the four brothers and their master infiltrated the stronghold of the Foot and fought their way to Shredder. After an intense battle, during which Splinter was injured badly, they were finally able to defeat their opponent and Leonardo cut off the Shredder’s head. But when they returned to where they had left their master, they found Splinter had disappeared.
An intense search followed, during which the turtles learned that their master may have been taken to T.C.R.I., a research company in the city whose logo had also been on the canister that had mutated them. Seeking both their master and answers about their past, the four snuck inside the building and found much more than they’d bargained for in the form of aliens, teleportation accidents, and space adventures. After the dust had settled, they learned that the mutagen had been a creation of the Utroms, aliens that had been stranded on Earth for centuries and were on the verge of returning home.
But things couldn’t be over that easily, as the Shredder returned and was revealed to also be an Utrom set on conquering the galaxy. After another intense battle, the Shredder was apparently destroyed in an explosion while the remaining Utroms were able to return to their home planet, leaving the turtles and Splinter with a better understanding of their own origins.
Despite the Utroms being gone and the family being whole again, things hardly returned to normal as the turtles faced a range of opponents from street thugs to other ninjas, and occasionally made new friends, like Leatherhead, a crocodile that had been affected by the mutagen as well.
While things might have been considered over where the Shredder was concerned, his absence was causing other problems as the Foot, the Purple Dragons, and the local gangs began fighting over the territory that had previously been solely under his control. While Splinter urged his sons to stay out of the fighting, Leonardo claimed that, as they had inadvertently caused the situation in the first place, the only honourable thing to do would be to try and help out however they could. But Raphael disagreed, arguing that this wasn’t their fight and after a particularly heated argument, Raphael left his brothers to do what they thought was best: helping newcomer Karai, leader of the Foot Clan in Japan, try and restore order to the city.
Things very nearly ended badly for Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Karai, but at the last minute Splinter and Raphael returned to help turn the tide of the battle, allowing Karai to take control of the remaining Foot ninja and leave with the promise that they would no longer seek revenge on the turtles.
It was a promise that didn’t last, as the Shredder returned, having managed to survive the explosion, and began getting back into business with reorganising his networks and using the remaining Utrom technology to work on a new plan. The turtles tried to stop him again, but they quickly found themselves caught up in other matters as the planet was invaded by dinosaur aliens.
While the invasion undoubtedly changed the world on a vast scale - from proving the existence of life on other planets to inadvertently providing large amounts of alien technology to the Earth - it was most important for Raphael and his brothers in that it also alerted the world to their existence when Donatello was captured and displayed by the invading aliens on video screens worldwide. This would come back to cause problems for them several times in the future, as previously people had assumed that they were humans in costumes and now they were believed to be aliens that needed to be stopped.
The turtles’ longstanding feud with the Shredder was finally brought to a close when they confronted him one last time aboard the spaceship he was trying to flee the planet in. The fight was heavily against them and everyone suffered major injuries, in particular Leonardo was impaled on Karai’s sword, much to Raphael’s shock, and it was only when the Shredder was accidentally cut off from them that they were able to get a break. Having no other options, the turtles and Splinter decided that the only solution would be to destroy the ship’s engines, sacrificing themselves to end the Shredder and prevent him from beginning a campaign to take over the galaxy.
Fortunately the Utroms were close by and were able to intervene, teleporting all those on the ship off before it was destroyed and exiling the Shredder to an asteroid where he would hopefully remain forever.
The mental injuries from the battle took much longer to heal than the physical, Leonardo in particular became withdrawn, moody, and unpredictable because of the defeat he’d suffered at the hands of the Shredder and Karai. He was, as Michelangelo commented occasionally, acting more like Raphael. This meant that Raphael often found he had to be the level-headed one out of the two of them, a situation he found more than a little disconcerting.
The situation came to a head during a training session between Splinter and Leonardo in which Leonardo lost control of himself and injured his master. Splinter was forced to admit that, as much as he had hoped otherwise, Leonardo was not coping with his problems and so it was arranged to send him off for training in Japan. The three remaining brothers hoped that the trip would be enough for Leonardo to heal and return to his normal self, and spent the time of his absence looking forward to the eventual reunion.
One that wasn’t destined to be happy. Unbeknownst to the family, Karai had returned and taken control of the Foot once more, declaring herself as the new Shredder. Vowing revenge on those who had taken her father from her, she gathered her forces and mounted a surprise attack on the underground lair of the turtles while Leonardo was away. Unable to fight back against their attackers and overwhelmingly out-numbered, Raphael and his brothers were forced to split up and try and escape on their own. Raphael managed to escape in their car and then later on his motorbike once that was destroyed, eventually hitching a ride on a train to Coney Island where he laid low, waiting for the danger to pass.
(The story continues through season four, the lost season aka season five, season six, and is now into season seven. However as I’m taking Raph from this point in canon, I’ll end the history section here.)
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality: Fundamental to Raphael’s personality is the importance of family. His family has been his entire world for much of his life and, despite one or two very short experiences in the surface world, he’s had little to no contact with anyone else.
While this all changed when April and later Casey joined them and the little group became more open about interacting with others, Raphael still tends to centre his entire world around his brothers and father. They provide him with balance, something which he’s aware that he needs, as without them he tends to spiral out of control, as is apparent through his behaviour during the time when Splinter had gone missing. Raphael had been on edge with wanting to find his father and when they finally did go out searching for him, he became so frustrated with the lack of result that he wound up getting into a high speed chase with a car thief, destroying the car and very nearly the thief before his brothers were able to stop him.
Because of how important they are to him, he’s fiercely loyal and protective of those he cares about. While he might mock Michelangelo for joking around too much or challenge Leonardo if he doesn’t agree with his choices, he’ll also be the first to jump to their defence should a situation turn bad and he’ll blame himself for not being there if any of them get hurt.
Raphael is also well known for his anger and outbursts, so much so that he’s often called a hothead by his brothers. The truth is that he feels things very intensely. It’s most obvious when he’s angry - he often needs to leave the lair and clear his head, and on one occasion he flew into such a rage that he very nearly hurt Michelangelo badly - but it applies to other emotions as well: when Leonardo was badly hurt and near death, Raphael was in tears, though he tried to hide it. This often leads to him jumping to conclusions too quickly, or leaping into a situation without bothering to check all the details, causing problems for both himself and his brothers.
A lot of his frustration and anger finds a target in his older brother, Leonardo. While Raphael cares about his brother, he also resents him a little due to their differing attitudes and how Leonardo is often treated as Splinter’s favourite, most noticeably during the City at War story, where Leonardo went against Splinter’s orders but was later forgiven and told that he had been in the right all along.
Raphael states at one point that he believed as a child that he would be the leader of the group due to how he was physically the strongest and bravest of them. However as he grew older, he came to understand why Leonardo was chosen over him, and even envies his level-headedness on occasion. Perhaps because of his early desires to be in charge, Raphael often projects his own expectations onto Leonardo and pushes him a lot. It’s brought the two into major conflict on several occasions, to the point where their brothers have commented that there’s nothing unusual in the two coming to blows.
And finally, despite being a giant mutant turtle, trained as a ninja, and having to go through a lot of bad situations, Raphael is essentially still a teenager in a lot of ways. He wants to be accepted and it upsets him as he knows that he’s too different to be able to fit in easily with the rest of the world. While in the series this particular aspect of his personality is underplayed, only making a very brief appearance when Raphael encountered a blind lady and was pleased that she accepted him so readily, I believe it should be mentioned as it will have a larger role in Landel’s setting. Becoming human will of course allow Raphael to be accepted by the other patients much more easily than if he had his normal appearance, but it would also bother him as he would much rather be accepted as who he is than simply because he confirms to the norm.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Raphael started life as a normal turtle, and while he’s been mutated into something more, basic details remain the same.
He stands upright and is essentially humanoid in appearance, though his skin is dark green in colour and his torso is protected by a large shell. His hands are equipped with two thick fingers and a thumb, while his feet only have two large toes, akin to the tabi boots worn by ninjas. Aside from variations in skin colouring, Raphael and his brothers look virtually identical, even around the face, which is why they’ve taken to wearing colour coded bandannas to allow easier identification.
As a human, Raphael looks decidedly different from his normal self, largely because there are few parallels between a mutant turtle and a teenage human.
The first thing that would get attention is that Raphael is decidedly short, standing at only 5’2”. He’s also very muscular for his age, having the physique of someone who works out regularly and, judging from the number of different scars on his body, also spends a lot of time fighting. His hair is long enough to be considered unruly and dark brown in colour, often overhanging his eyes, which are also brown. His face is angular with well-defined bones and there’s something about his general appearance that suggests he’s constantly on edge, looking out for trouble. Or maybe just looking to start some.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: Around the time of season four episodes ‘Scion of the Shredder’ and ‘Prodigal Son’. Karai has revealed herself as the new Shredder and attacked the family in their home. Raphael and the others have split up in order to escape and he’s unaware if the others have managed to make it or not.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Raphael has had extensive training in ninjutsu from a very young age, so he’s understandably a very skilled fighter.
While in the series each of the brothers has a signature weapon that they almost always use, they have been trained to also handle a variety of other weapons, as well as being able to hold their own in unarmed combat. As well as fighting, his training has also taught him how to use stealth and concealment to get around undetected, as well as meditation techniques (he knows them, actually using them is something else entirely), and how to get out of some tricky situations using escapism.
How about improbable appendages?: He’s a giant mutant turtle, his whole body is improbable!
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: Initially Raphael would be standoffish and abrupt with the other patients; he’s not used to having to work at making friends and not knowing what has happened to him or where his family is (or even if they all managed to survive the attack on their home) will make him more difficult than normal to deal with. He’ll no doubt get into several fights with staff and patients alike as he tries to get a grip with his new situation and the loss of his family. As time passes he’ll start to realise that things will be far from easy on his own and he’ll have to adapt and form close friendships with others. In particular, I’d like to explore the idea of him forming another ‘family’ group in the game, which would be something he desperately needs but would also feel somewhat guilty about.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: While fighting monsters and the high rate of patient disappearance would definitely be up there, I think the biggest psychological impact on Raphael would be the inevitable point where he learns that he’s considered fictional by a large amount of others. The TMNT franchise is so widespread that even nonfans vaguely know what a teenage mutant ninja turtle is, and it would be incredibly unfair of me to ask that everyone’s characters spontaneously forget about it, particularly if it’s canonical that they would know.
While at first he might argue against those who claim to know a lot about him from fiction, eventually it will become clear to him that they’re telling the truth and he’ll have to come to terms with that. Finding out that he’s a fictional character will make him question a lot about his life and how real or important it really is, which won’t be helped by the fact that he is now human.
Separation from his family will also have a psychological effect on him as he won’t be able to rely on them to help him and keep him grounded. While forming another similar group in Landel’s would definitely help with this, he would be feeling guilty about ‘replacing’ them in his own mind, and as time passes, he may even start to forget minor details about his brothers or think of them in terms of being dead and gone.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: Raphael’s been through a lot of bad situations in the past, from fighting for his life against hordes of ninjas to being teleported to alien planets and forced to participate in gladiator matches. He’s taken his fair share of beatings and managed to keep going. While Landel’s will definitely unsettle him in a way that would be new and confusing for him, he would be able to find a way to deal with the challenges presented.
Third-Person Sample:
Raphael was troubled. ‘Course, Mikey would say he was troubled all the time and that they couldn’t afford the kind of help Raph needed to stop being troubled, but that was just Mikey being Mikey. This was a different kind of troubled for him, and he knew he wasn’t the only one to have picked that up, ‘cause Donny had been keeping quiet in his lab all day and even Mikey had found something to do that didn’t make that much noise.
That meant Raph was left entirely on his own to work out his problems the way he did best: with his fists and a much-abused punching bag. There was something oddly relaxing with the way that he could just throw punch after strike after kick into the bag, letting his mind wander as he did so.
And the topic it kept coming back to was his older brother and their fearless leader, Leonardo.
Raph could get it; Leo had gotten his shell kicked by the Shredder and Karai and there was nothing more humiliating than that. But they’d all gotten beat pretty bad then, so how come Leo was the only one taking it so badly? It was frustrating ‘cause sometimes it felt like Raph was looking in a mirror when he watched his brother and it really pissed him off to see Leo, the level-headed one he’d always trusted to come up with the best plans or to step in and fix his mistakes (even if he’d never admit that part to anyone else), acting like an out of control psycho. Like him.
He kicked the bag hard enough to lift it off the hook and send it flying, sand leaking out everywhere. It didn’t do anything for his anger though. It looked like he was going to have to find another target for that.
“I’m goin' topside for some air,” he growled at no one in particular. If they needed him, he had his shellcell, but right now he really wanted to feel a couple of Purple Dragon thugs under his fist instead of a punching bag.
--
Raphael had gone out looking for Purple Dragons, but instead he found the one person he hadn’t wanted to: Leonardo. It seemed his brother had had the same idea and beaten him to the targets. The Purple Dragons didn’t stand a chance, not that they normally did against a little mean an’ green, but this was brutal even by his standards. It wasn’t like Leo and that was obvious enough with each vicious strike of fists against flesh. So much so that Raphael had jumped in and grabbed his brother’s arms before he’d really thought about it.
“Geez, Leo! Knock it off! They’re down, you won already! You can stop now!” The situation was far too familiar for his liking, even if their roles had been reversed now, and he didn’t like it one bit.
“Let go of me, Raph! I know what I’m doing!”
Leonardo tensed against him, but he didn’t struggle or fight back yet, for which Raph was grateful. While he was confident enough that he could take Leo down or at least keep him busy if it came to a fight, for once he could see that it might be better to try resolving this without violence.
“Not from where I’m standin', bro. And believe me, I know how you feel, I’ve been there. But you stopped me then and now I’m gonna do the same for you, even if you think you don’t need it.”
The Purple Dragons hadn’t been stupid at least and had gotten the hell out of there the moment they could. Raph let go of his brother’s arms and stood back.
“So if you want to hit somethin', try hittin' me.”
Leo jerked back and stared at him, and for a moment, Raphael was all too aware of what his own face had to look like in this situation: lost and uncertain, like he didn’t know if he should take his brother up on the offer or not. But then it was gone and the wall Leo had been keeping between himself and the world was back up.
“That was a stupid move, Raphael. You could have gotten hurt just jumping in like that.”
The words were right but there was something off in the voice itself, and Raphael considered just smacking his brother one anyway, like maybe the chance to have a real, no holds barred fight might help the both of them sort things out, but somehow he didn’t think it would do much more than just make everything worse. As much as he didn’t like it, whatever Leonardo needed, he didn’t think he could actually give it to him. His brother was going to have to work this one out on his own.
Leonardo didn’t seem to notice anything was off about him, turning away and heading for a nearby manhole cover. “We’re heading back home,” he said without turning around.
Raphael’s eyes narrowed automatically at the order, but he glanced back at the alleyway, the walls and cement sporting spots of wet redness that was all the gang members had left behind. Maybe this time it wasn’t him that needed to be sent home and kept an eye on.
“Fine,” he agreed sullenly, and if the answer surprised Leonardo, he didn’t show it at all. Just jumped down into the sewers and started the trek back home.
--
The trip back had been silent, neither one of them feeling like talking much. Raphael had spent too much time watching his brother’s back and thinking uncomfortable thoughts about his own actions in the past. He decided he hated it when Leo acted like him. It made him think too much.
Their silence didn’t go unnoticed when they returned, though this time it was Raph who shrugged helplessly at Donny and Mikey while Leo went over to hang the punching bag back onto its hook and start working it over.
“No luck, huh?” Donatello asked softly.
Raphael shook his head. “I dunno know how this is gonna end, but it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
“Great, so what do we do?” Mikey put in.
Raphael shrugged again and propped himself up on a nearby wall. “He’s still our brother. We do what we can for him ‘til he gets this over with. Which he better do soon, otherwise I’m gonna clobber him one.”
“Well at least some things don’t change,” Mikey joked.
“You got that right,” Raph smirked, reaching over and affectionately whacking his brother one upside the head. He sobered up as he glanced in Leo’s direction again. “Let’s just hope that this one changes back.”
First-Person Sample:
(Raphael doesn’t strike me as the type to keep much by way of a journal. He’s prefers physical activities to work out his issues and probably tends to think of journals as the domain of fourteen year old girls. Not to mention that another point against him having one would be the chance that Mikey would find it and take great pleasure in reading its contents aloud to everyone. In Landel’s he may use it to make note of anything hugely significant, like the maps made available, but otherwise it’s probably going to be left alone and ignored.)
Series Medium: Animated TV show
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character: While Raphael’s story can be said to have started some years before he hatched, I think that as far as he is concerned, it only really began when a fateful accident led to four infant turtles being dropped down a storm drain along with a canister of strangely glowing, green ooze.
The contents of the canister proved to be a mutagen with unusual properties: the four turtles and a nearby rat, which had also been affected by the mutagen, displayed rapid growth over the next few days, taking on markedly humanoid characteristics. The rat, named Splinter, had been decidedly unusual from the start and adapted quickly to the change, adopting the young turtles and then, as they grew older and showed signs of intelligence, giving them names and taking it upon himself to teach them the art of ninjutsu he had learned from his master.
For a good fifteen or so years life continued like this, the little family largely keeping to themselves in the sewers with the world unaware of their existence. Things might have stayed like that too, had it not been for a series of events that would end up changing all their lives forever.
Things started, as it were, innocently enough, as one night during a training session the hidden underground lair of the family was attacked and laid to waste by a small army of robot mousers. The destruction of their home and surrounding tunnels forced them to relocate to a new home, as well as leading to their first encounter with the Purple Dragon gang and the Foot ninja clan. The mousers would return to cause more problems and bring about something that wouldn’t be as easy to adapt to as a wreaked home was. That would be one April O’Neil, a lab assistant working for Baxter Stockman. Raphael and his brothers found her in the sewers as she was attempting to escape the mousers that her boss had created and, as she’d fainted after meeting them, they had little choice but to take her back to their lair.
April was the first human they’d ever had to trust with their secrets and this opened a new path in their lives. The four brothers began to make more and more trips to the surface, with and without their master’s permission, often for training purposes or to keep an eye on the gang activities. Raphael would also often head up to the surface to blow off some steam as a way of dealing with his anger, and it was on one such occasion that he met Casey Jones, a vigilante with similar anger issues. They fought initially, but eventually were able to come to an accord and Casey became a close friend of the family, and in particular Raphael.
Some of their past was still a mystery to the turtles however, and it was only when Leonardo was contacted by Oroku Saki that they finally learned of the Shredder and his role in their master’s past and were able to confront and (apparently) defeat him.
This only served to anger the Shredder and draw his attention to them further, resulting in Leonardo being ambushed while out training and badly beaten. The rest of the group were barely able to escape with their lives and were forced to retreat to a location out of the city in order to rest and regroup. Leonardo recovered eventually, and Raphael took it upon himself to aid his brother during that time, even going so far as to help him forge new swords for himself.
When they returned to the city, they learned that the Shredder apparently believed them dead, giving them the perfect opening to obtain their revenge. Together the four brothers and their master infiltrated the stronghold of the Foot and fought their way to Shredder. After an intense battle, during which Splinter was injured badly, they were finally able to defeat their opponent and Leonardo cut off the Shredder’s head. But when they returned to where they had left their master, they found Splinter had disappeared.
An intense search followed, during which the turtles learned that their master may have been taken to T.C.R.I., a research company in the city whose logo had also been on the canister that had mutated them. Seeking both their master and answers about their past, the four snuck inside the building and found much more than they’d bargained for in the form of aliens, teleportation accidents, and space adventures. After the dust had settled, they learned that the mutagen had been a creation of the Utroms, aliens that had been stranded on Earth for centuries and were on the verge of returning home.
But things couldn’t be over that easily, as the Shredder returned and was revealed to also be an Utrom set on conquering the galaxy. After another intense battle, the Shredder was apparently destroyed in an explosion while the remaining Utroms were able to return to their home planet, leaving the turtles and Splinter with a better understanding of their own origins.
Despite the Utroms being gone and the family being whole again, things hardly returned to normal as the turtles faced a range of opponents from street thugs to other ninjas, and occasionally made new friends, like Leatherhead, a crocodile that had been affected by the mutagen as well.
While things might have been considered over where the Shredder was concerned, his absence was causing other problems as the Foot, the Purple Dragons, and the local gangs began fighting over the territory that had previously been solely under his control. While Splinter urged his sons to stay out of the fighting, Leonardo claimed that, as they had inadvertently caused the situation in the first place, the only honourable thing to do would be to try and help out however they could. But Raphael disagreed, arguing that this wasn’t their fight and after a particularly heated argument, Raphael left his brothers to do what they thought was best: helping newcomer Karai, leader of the Foot Clan in Japan, try and restore order to the city.
Things very nearly ended badly for Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Karai, but at the last minute Splinter and Raphael returned to help turn the tide of the battle, allowing Karai to take control of the remaining Foot ninja and leave with the promise that they would no longer seek revenge on the turtles.
It was a promise that didn’t last, as the Shredder returned, having managed to survive the explosion, and began getting back into business with reorganising his networks and using the remaining Utrom technology to work on a new plan. The turtles tried to stop him again, but they quickly found themselves caught up in other matters as the planet was invaded by dinosaur aliens.
While the invasion undoubtedly changed the world on a vast scale - from proving the existence of life on other planets to inadvertently providing large amounts of alien technology to the Earth - it was most important for Raphael and his brothers in that it also alerted the world to their existence when Donatello was captured and displayed by the invading aliens on video screens worldwide. This would come back to cause problems for them several times in the future, as previously people had assumed that they were humans in costumes and now they were believed to be aliens that needed to be stopped.
The turtles’ longstanding feud with the Shredder was finally brought to a close when they confronted him one last time aboard the spaceship he was trying to flee the planet in. The fight was heavily against them and everyone suffered major injuries, in particular Leonardo was impaled on Karai’s sword, much to Raphael’s shock, and it was only when the Shredder was accidentally cut off from them that they were able to get a break. Having no other options, the turtles and Splinter decided that the only solution would be to destroy the ship’s engines, sacrificing themselves to end the Shredder and prevent him from beginning a campaign to take over the galaxy.
Fortunately the Utroms were close by and were able to intervene, teleporting all those on the ship off before it was destroyed and exiling the Shredder to an asteroid where he would hopefully remain forever.
The mental injuries from the battle took much longer to heal than the physical, Leonardo in particular became withdrawn, moody, and unpredictable because of the defeat he’d suffered at the hands of the Shredder and Karai. He was, as Michelangelo commented occasionally, acting more like Raphael. This meant that Raphael often found he had to be the level-headed one out of the two of them, a situation he found more than a little disconcerting.
The situation came to a head during a training session between Splinter and Leonardo in which Leonardo lost control of himself and injured his master. Splinter was forced to admit that, as much as he had hoped otherwise, Leonardo was not coping with his problems and so it was arranged to send him off for training in Japan. The three remaining brothers hoped that the trip would be enough for Leonardo to heal and return to his normal self, and spent the time of his absence looking forward to the eventual reunion.
One that wasn’t destined to be happy. Unbeknownst to the family, Karai had returned and taken control of the Foot once more, declaring herself as the new Shredder. Vowing revenge on those who had taken her father from her, she gathered her forces and mounted a surprise attack on the underground lair of the turtles while Leonardo was away. Unable to fight back against their attackers and overwhelmingly out-numbered, Raphael and his brothers were forced to split up and try and escape on their own. Raphael managed to escape in their car and then later on his motorbike once that was destroyed, eventually hitching a ride on a train to Coney Island where he laid low, waiting for the danger to pass.
(The story continues through season four, the lost season aka season five, season six, and is now into season seven. However as I’m taking Raph from this point in canon, I’ll end the history section here.)
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality: Fundamental to Raphael’s personality is the importance of family. His family has been his entire world for much of his life and, despite one or two very short experiences in the surface world, he’s had little to no contact with anyone else.
While this all changed when April and later Casey joined them and the little group became more open about interacting with others, Raphael still tends to centre his entire world around his brothers and father. They provide him with balance, something which he’s aware that he needs, as without them he tends to spiral out of control, as is apparent through his behaviour during the time when Splinter had gone missing. Raphael had been on edge with wanting to find his father and when they finally did go out searching for him, he became so frustrated with the lack of result that he wound up getting into a high speed chase with a car thief, destroying the car and very nearly the thief before his brothers were able to stop him.
Because of how important they are to him, he’s fiercely loyal and protective of those he cares about. While he might mock Michelangelo for joking around too much or challenge Leonardo if he doesn’t agree with his choices, he’ll also be the first to jump to their defence should a situation turn bad and he’ll blame himself for not being there if any of them get hurt.
Raphael is also well known for his anger and outbursts, so much so that he’s often called a hothead by his brothers. The truth is that he feels things very intensely. It’s most obvious when he’s angry - he often needs to leave the lair and clear his head, and on one occasion he flew into such a rage that he very nearly hurt Michelangelo badly - but it applies to other emotions as well: when Leonardo was badly hurt and near death, Raphael was in tears, though he tried to hide it. This often leads to him jumping to conclusions too quickly, or leaping into a situation without bothering to check all the details, causing problems for both himself and his brothers.
A lot of his frustration and anger finds a target in his older brother, Leonardo. While Raphael cares about his brother, he also resents him a little due to their differing attitudes and how Leonardo is often treated as Splinter’s favourite, most noticeably during the City at War story, where Leonardo went against Splinter’s orders but was later forgiven and told that he had been in the right all along.
Raphael states at one point that he believed as a child that he would be the leader of the group due to how he was physically the strongest and bravest of them. However as he grew older, he came to understand why Leonardo was chosen over him, and even envies his level-headedness on occasion. Perhaps because of his early desires to be in charge, Raphael often projects his own expectations onto Leonardo and pushes him a lot. It’s brought the two into major conflict on several occasions, to the point where their brothers have commented that there’s nothing unusual in the two coming to blows.
And finally, despite being a giant mutant turtle, trained as a ninja, and having to go through a lot of bad situations, Raphael is essentially still a teenager in a lot of ways. He wants to be accepted and it upsets him as he knows that he’s too different to be able to fit in easily with the rest of the world. While in the series this particular aspect of his personality is underplayed, only making a very brief appearance when Raphael encountered a blind lady and was pleased that she accepted him so readily, I believe it should be mentioned as it will have a larger role in Landel’s setting. Becoming human will of course allow Raphael to be accepted by the other patients much more easily than if he had his normal appearance, but it would also bother him as he would much rather be accepted as who he is than simply because he confirms to the norm.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Raphael started life as a normal turtle, and while he’s been mutated into something more, basic details remain the same.
He stands upright and is essentially humanoid in appearance, though his skin is dark green in colour and his torso is protected by a large shell. His hands are equipped with two thick fingers and a thumb, while his feet only have two large toes, akin to the tabi boots worn by ninjas. Aside from variations in skin colouring, Raphael and his brothers look virtually identical, even around the face, which is why they’ve taken to wearing colour coded bandannas to allow easier identification.
As a human, Raphael looks decidedly different from his normal self, largely because there are few parallels between a mutant turtle and a teenage human.
The first thing that would get attention is that Raphael is decidedly short, standing at only 5’2”. He’s also very muscular for his age, having the physique of someone who works out regularly and, judging from the number of different scars on his body, also spends a lot of time fighting. His hair is long enough to be considered unruly and dark brown in colour, often overhanging his eyes, which are also brown. His face is angular with well-defined bones and there’s something about his general appearance that suggests he’s constantly on edge, looking out for trouble. Or maybe just looking to start some.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: Around the time of season four episodes ‘Scion of the Shredder’ and ‘Prodigal Son’. Karai has revealed herself as the new Shredder and attacked the family in their home. Raphael and the others have split up in order to escape and he’s unaware if the others have managed to make it or not.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Raphael has had extensive training in ninjutsu from a very young age, so he’s understandably a very skilled fighter.
While in the series each of the brothers has a signature weapon that they almost always use, they have been trained to also handle a variety of other weapons, as well as being able to hold their own in unarmed combat. As well as fighting, his training has also taught him how to use stealth and concealment to get around undetected, as well as meditation techniques (he knows them, actually using them is something else entirely), and how to get out of some tricky situations using escapism.
How about improbable appendages?: He’s a giant mutant turtle, his whole body is improbable!
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: Initially Raphael would be standoffish and abrupt with the other patients; he’s not used to having to work at making friends and not knowing what has happened to him or where his family is (or even if they all managed to survive the attack on their home) will make him more difficult than normal to deal with. He’ll no doubt get into several fights with staff and patients alike as he tries to get a grip with his new situation and the loss of his family. As time passes he’ll start to realise that things will be far from easy on his own and he’ll have to adapt and form close friendships with others. In particular, I’d like to explore the idea of him forming another ‘family’ group in the game, which would be something he desperately needs but would also feel somewhat guilty about.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: While fighting monsters and the high rate of patient disappearance would definitely be up there, I think the biggest psychological impact on Raphael would be the inevitable point where he learns that he’s considered fictional by a large amount of others. The TMNT franchise is so widespread that even nonfans vaguely know what a teenage mutant ninja turtle is, and it would be incredibly unfair of me to ask that everyone’s characters spontaneously forget about it, particularly if it’s canonical that they would know.
While at first he might argue against those who claim to know a lot about him from fiction, eventually it will become clear to him that they’re telling the truth and he’ll have to come to terms with that. Finding out that he’s a fictional character will make him question a lot about his life and how real or important it really is, which won’t be helped by the fact that he is now human.
Separation from his family will also have a psychological effect on him as he won’t be able to rely on them to help him and keep him grounded. While forming another similar group in Landel’s would definitely help with this, he would be feeling guilty about ‘replacing’ them in his own mind, and as time passes, he may even start to forget minor details about his brothers or think of them in terms of being dead and gone.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: Raphael’s been through a lot of bad situations in the past, from fighting for his life against hordes of ninjas to being teleported to alien planets and forced to participate in gladiator matches. He’s taken his fair share of beatings and managed to keep going. While Landel’s will definitely unsettle him in a way that would be new and confusing for him, he would be able to find a way to deal with the challenges presented.
Third-Person Sample:
Raphael was troubled. ‘Course, Mikey would say he was troubled all the time and that they couldn’t afford the kind of help Raph needed to stop being troubled, but that was just Mikey being Mikey. This was a different kind of troubled for him, and he knew he wasn’t the only one to have picked that up, ‘cause Donny had been keeping quiet in his lab all day and even Mikey had found something to do that didn’t make that much noise.
That meant Raph was left entirely on his own to work out his problems the way he did best: with his fists and a much-abused punching bag. There was something oddly relaxing with the way that he could just throw punch after strike after kick into the bag, letting his mind wander as he did so.
And the topic it kept coming back to was his older brother and their fearless leader, Leonardo.
Raph could get it; Leo had gotten his shell kicked by the Shredder and Karai and there was nothing more humiliating than that. But they’d all gotten beat pretty bad then, so how come Leo was the only one taking it so badly? It was frustrating ‘cause sometimes it felt like Raph was looking in a mirror when he watched his brother and it really pissed him off to see Leo, the level-headed one he’d always trusted to come up with the best plans or to step in and fix his mistakes (even if he’d never admit that part to anyone else), acting like an out of control psycho. Like him.
He kicked the bag hard enough to lift it off the hook and send it flying, sand leaking out everywhere. It didn’t do anything for his anger though. It looked like he was going to have to find another target for that.
“I’m goin' topside for some air,” he growled at no one in particular. If they needed him, he had his shellcell, but right now he really wanted to feel a couple of Purple Dragon thugs under his fist instead of a punching bag.
--
Raphael had gone out looking for Purple Dragons, but instead he found the one person he hadn’t wanted to: Leonardo. It seemed his brother had had the same idea and beaten him to the targets. The Purple Dragons didn’t stand a chance, not that they normally did against a little mean an’ green, but this was brutal even by his standards. It wasn’t like Leo and that was obvious enough with each vicious strike of fists against flesh. So much so that Raphael had jumped in and grabbed his brother’s arms before he’d really thought about it.
“Geez, Leo! Knock it off! They’re down, you won already! You can stop now!” The situation was far too familiar for his liking, even if their roles had been reversed now, and he didn’t like it one bit.
“Let go of me, Raph! I know what I’m doing!”
Leonardo tensed against him, but he didn’t struggle or fight back yet, for which Raph was grateful. While he was confident enough that he could take Leo down or at least keep him busy if it came to a fight, for once he could see that it might be better to try resolving this without violence.
“Not from where I’m standin', bro. And believe me, I know how you feel, I’ve been there. But you stopped me then and now I’m gonna do the same for you, even if you think you don’t need it.”
The Purple Dragons hadn’t been stupid at least and had gotten the hell out of there the moment they could. Raph let go of his brother’s arms and stood back.
“So if you want to hit somethin', try hittin' me.”
Leo jerked back and stared at him, and for a moment, Raphael was all too aware of what his own face had to look like in this situation: lost and uncertain, like he didn’t know if he should take his brother up on the offer or not. But then it was gone and the wall Leo had been keeping between himself and the world was back up.
“That was a stupid move, Raphael. You could have gotten hurt just jumping in like that.”
The words were right but there was something off in the voice itself, and Raphael considered just smacking his brother one anyway, like maybe the chance to have a real, no holds barred fight might help the both of them sort things out, but somehow he didn’t think it would do much more than just make everything worse. As much as he didn’t like it, whatever Leonardo needed, he didn’t think he could actually give it to him. His brother was going to have to work this one out on his own.
Leonardo didn’t seem to notice anything was off about him, turning away and heading for a nearby manhole cover. “We’re heading back home,” he said without turning around.
Raphael’s eyes narrowed automatically at the order, but he glanced back at the alleyway, the walls and cement sporting spots of wet redness that was all the gang members had left behind. Maybe this time it wasn’t him that needed to be sent home and kept an eye on.
“Fine,” he agreed sullenly, and if the answer surprised Leonardo, he didn’t show it at all. Just jumped down into the sewers and started the trek back home.
--
The trip back had been silent, neither one of them feeling like talking much. Raphael had spent too much time watching his brother’s back and thinking uncomfortable thoughts about his own actions in the past. He decided he hated it when Leo acted like him. It made him think too much.
Their silence didn’t go unnoticed when they returned, though this time it was Raph who shrugged helplessly at Donny and Mikey while Leo went over to hang the punching bag back onto its hook and start working it over.
“No luck, huh?” Donatello asked softly.
Raphael shook his head. “I dunno know how this is gonna end, but it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
“Great, so what do we do?” Mikey put in.
Raphael shrugged again and propped himself up on a nearby wall. “He’s still our brother. We do what we can for him ‘til he gets this over with. Which he better do soon, otherwise I’m gonna clobber him one.”
“Well at least some things don’t change,” Mikey joked.
“You got that right,” Raph smirked, reaching over and affectionately whacking his brother one upside the head. He sobered up as he glanced in Leo’s direction again. “Let’s just hope that this one changes back.”
First-Person Sample:
(Raphael doesn’t strike me as the type to keep much by way of a journal. He’s prefers physical activities to work out his issues and probably tends to think of journals as the domain of fourteen year old girls. Not to mention that another point against him having one would be the chance that Mikey would find it and take great pleasure in reading its contents aloud to everyone. In Landel’s he may use it to make note of anything hugely significant, like the maps made available, but otherwise it’s probably going to be left alone and ignored.)