Laptop
After hours and hours of pacing up and down the corridor on his crutches, Raph was moving very slowly. His body was covered in sweat, and he was breathing heavily. He stumbled and nearly toppled over, but he gained balance again, not as quickly as the first three times – or had it been four times? He had lost track of counting – but still.
He wouldn't stop, he couldn't stop, he had to do something. And this wasn't useless. He was trying to do something for his form. Not even Splinter could object that. And Splinter wouldn't be back before tomorrow anyway. He had told Raph before he had left. And yes, he had been frowning a bit, telling Raph not to overdo it when he had found Raph doing his special training in the corridor. But how could someone overdo trying to stay in form? Not Raph, for sure.
He had to do something. Period.
He stumbled and regained balance again, although for a moment, it looked like he would fail this time. But instead of getting to move again, he, for the first time in hours, stopped.
He took some deep breaths and waited. And waited. And waited even more.
He furrowed his brow.
Where was it? Where was the satisfying tiredness that usually came over him after training, the tiredness that told him that he had done something and that it was okay to be tired now?
His frown deepened as he waited a little longer. Yes, he was tired, he was very, very tired, exhausted even, but the satisfying feeling, it was missing!
He wanted to scream, he wanted to hurl his crutches to the floor, but he was too exhausted.
A frustrated groan was all he could manage.
"Hi there, Raph!"
Raph looked back over his shoulder and found April standing there, looking at him with a smile. She had something tucked under her arm, but he didn't bother to give it a closer look. He was too exhausted even for that.
"Are you done with your training?" she asked.
Her voice lacked any sarcasm, actually, it sounded pretty nice. April knew when he could handle a joke and when he couldn't, he had to give her that.
He replied with a shrug. "Guess so."
"Good," April said as she closed up to him. "Because I need your help with something."
She placed a hand on his shoulder, not at all put off by his sweat-covered skin. She didn't even wrinkle up her nose although he must be stinking like hell.
Another thing he had to give April – she had never been put off by him or his brothers, although they were mutants and must look weird to human eyes. But this was April after all.
"Okay," he mumbled as he started walking over to his room.
He knew he maybe should take a shower first or at least try to quickly tidy up his room which was a mess, to put it nicely. April might be family, but she also was a girl.
But he was too exhausted for any of this, even too exhausted to really bother, so he just entered his room and slumped down on his bed.
April had a seat next to him, not really noticing the mess around her, and handed Raph what had been tucked under her arm.
He took it and realized it was a laptop.
With a frown he looked back at April.
"A laptop?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied.
Raph held the laptop out to April. "You know you should go to Donnie when you have problems with technical stuff."
"Yes, but I don't have problems with technical stuff," April said. "This laptop is for you."
"Huh?" Raph's eyes widened. He had a closer look at the laptop, but his brow just furrowed again. "Aaaaaaaaaand what am I supposed to do with this laptop?"
"You'll need it for what I need your help with," April explained.
"Now you really have to tell me more about this help. I have absolutely no clue," Raph said.
"Okay, you remember my message board for unusual sightings around New York?"
He nodded.
"Good," April continued. "The thing is that this message board got so many users that I need help to manage it. And this is where you come in."
"Me?" Raph blinked a few times. "You do know that you are not talking to Donnie, right?"
"Yes, Raph, I do," April assured him. "And Donnie has a lot on his plate already. So I thought that maybe you could help me. If you want to, of course."
Raph looked to the ground and twisted his mouth a little, thinking.
"What do I need to do?" he asked when he looked at April again.
"Just look over new posts and make sure they're on topic and no one's breaking the rules. Pretty easy, huh?"
Posts? On topic? Raph was a little lost here.
"Uhm, I guess?" he replied.
"No worries," April said. "We'll start right with the basics. I'll show you everything you need to know. So do you think you can do this?"
Raph thought about it. He just needed to check this message board for posts – April would explain what this exactly was to him later, right? – and he could do it from this laptop. And the most important thing, he would be doing something other than lying around in his bed or pacing up and down the corridor. Something other than useless because April needed his help. So why not? Maybe it was just pure desperation because he had never been a technical kind of guy, but heck, he would be doing something!
He shrugged. "Why not?"
April beamed at him.
"Good. And now first things first. If you become an admin on my board, you'll need a nickname. So what do you want your nickname to be?"
Again, Raph's eyes widened. What was it with April addressing the wrong turtle today? Mikey was the naming expert, not him!
"Uhhhhhmmm… What's your nickname?"
"Alpha Omega," April replied. "I thought it has a nice touch to it, being the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet AND my initials. April O'Neil. A. O. Alpha Omega."
"Okay." Raph thought about what his nickname could be, but all he was able to come up with, was RH for Raphael Hamato and this was kind of lame. So what else would make a good nickname?
"A nickname can be literally anything," April replied, obviously realizing that he had some problems figuring out a nickname. "A childhood nickname, your favorite character from a book or movie or maybe just a name you like. There are many, if not to say endless possibilities."
A character from a book?, Raph repeated in his head, immediately thinking about "Realms" and his favorite character there.
"Well, I always kind of liked Arosthar the Black," Raph replied.
"Awesome!" April said. "So how about we make your nickname 'Arosthar'? Or do you want to personalize it even more?"
"Personalize it?" Did April realize what she was asking from him here?
"Yes, make it special and different from the book's character, like changing the name a bit, so that it's not just a name from a book, but something you created."
"Can we give him another color?"
"Sure. Anything you want, Raph." April smiled at him. "This is the internet, the place where you can be anything you want."
Raph thought about it. He had never been a big fan of black. Reminded him too much of the Foot.
"How about 'Arosthar the Red'?"
"Perfect!" April called out. "Now let's get started. First, you need to open the laptop…No, Raph, not with force, like this."