[voice; action]

[seriouslytwisted]

[voice]

[Exploring and ninja-ing around is turning up a whole lot of dead ends and questions with no answers, so now Raphael is going to try his last resort.

Conversing with strangers.

Making sure he has his voice only function on (pretending that little SNAFU with it in his earlier conversation didn't happen) he reluctantly addresses his fellow...strand-ees.]


Okay, seriously. How many of you people actually buy that "you are in the in-between" story?

[the mystic new-age voice for the quote helps set the atmosphere, yes it is necessary]

---

[action]

[Before this post, Raphael will be swimming around in the Water Sector, trying to keep as hidden as possible but needing to surface to breathe and also sneak back up onto the docks occasionally when he can't cross sections in water. He's a stealthy little bugger, so the average Joe might miss him, but anybody with serious training or extra-sharp senses might find him.

...or you might catch him when he's losing his temper and angrily kicking over a barrel after talking to yet another tree-hugging native yokel, whatever.]

Comments

[seriouslytwisted]

Yeah well I can't exactly stop being frustrated. Y'know why? Because this whole thing is frustrating.

[fatedchaos]

I know you can't stop. [No, Vanessa. Don't get mad. Getting mad is bad.] Yelling at someone trying to help you isn't going to make you less frustrated.

[seriouslytwisted]

[She is actually being quite reasonable and patient, and despite being an angry individual Raph really isn't a hopeless hate machine. Yet.]

...yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry, I mean.

[fatedchaos]

[She does her best to be reasonable and patient. 8c]

It's okay. Seriously, it is. I know that this whole thing is hard. [She pauses, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.] We've all been in that place when we arrived here. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are actually still frustrated.

Just try to not take it out on your fellow kidnappees?

[seriouslytwisted]

[SIGH. Awesome. A lecture.]

Yeah whatever.

I think you're right about the portal in the water though. Or a portal somewhere. It's not some freaky magic mumbo-jumbo that got us here.

[fatedchaos]

[It's like talking to a brick wall.]

You don't think portals could be magic? It has to be somewhere in the water, if we're all washing up from the ocean.

[seriouslytwisted]

No, portals are science.

[Duh. Duh.]

[fatedchaos]

You think science brought us here? [As much as she'd like to pretend that magic isn't real, she can't help the skepticism in her voice.]

[seriouslytwisted]

You know what? I don't know and I don't care. All I care about is getting back.

[fatedchaos]

Nobody knows how. At least, nobody's offered a way back. And the Emperor is the least helpful person I've ever talked to.

[seriouslytwisted]

Somebody's gotta get something set up then. [A coup, a strike team or something to sneak into the palace and MAKE that Emperor be helpful, that sort of thing.]

[fatedchaos]

[Oh no. She smells trouble and adventure.]

I'm pretty sure people have thought of that before.

[seriouslytwisted]

Then they sure aren't real good at it, are they?

[fatedchaos]

Do you think you could do better, then?

[seriouslytwisted]

[Raph only stumbles a bit on the next part.] Wh- Yeah, considering I'm actually gonna do something.

[fatedchaos]

How do you plan on doing that? [She's not being an ass. She's actually curious.]

[seriouslytwisted]

[...............]

...I dunno yet.

But I'll figure something out.

[fatedchaos]

Good luck. I think, if you figure something out, there'll be other people who would want to help you.