~Character Chat~

((It's funny because I know exactly what you're talking about, but they don't Izzy would know! It's too bad she couldn't come for this trip. It would've been awesome, but researchers just don't do that.))

Peter: (tipping his head to the side) Portal...?
Sarah: (to August) But seriously, kid, this is what we do. You're not in any danger.
Senet: Unless a pack of mohre zan fouhr expehrienced Sybek show up, anyway.
Nike: Senet!

(I'm glad you got it..I figured you did- you seem pretty...genre savvy might not be the right trope...but something of the sort. Riddle and Izzy would nave probably never stopped laughing!)

T.Mor: It's a game.
August: (thinks.) I know...but it's still scary...I don't like heights...(Pause. He tries to collect himself.) Sybek? What're those?
T.Mor: Nothing. Don't worry about it. (doesn't want August to have another freak out.) We should keep moving. (Keeps walking.)
Riddle: T.Mor, we'll NEVER get past the the slums before dark. Just give it up. Have a little fun with it. (She starts walking as well though.) Fine, we can walk and talk...That's fine.

(())

(After they've walked a short distance, the team abruptly straightens up as a single unit, their eyes wide. It would almost be comical if it weren't so foreboding.)
Peter, Sarah, and Nike: Shit!
Senet: (in the same instance) Merde!
Sarah: (turning on her heel to look at Senet, pointing an accusatory finger) You jinxed it! You had to jinx it!
Senet: (backing up) Me?! I only said--!
Peter: Quiet, both of you! (They both shut up.) We all have our signatures masked, right? (The other three nod.) So what's the problem? As long as we don't use our powers, we'll be fine.
Sarah: But they're in--!
Peter: I know where they are; I felt it too. Don't patronize me. We know what they look like, and we know what to watch out for. Again, as long as we don't use our powers, we'll be fine. (to T.Mor, Riddle, and August) Sorry, but we can no longer safely use our skills. We'll be without their aid from here on out.

T.Mor: That's alright...We might have to get down from the roof at the end of this block though...Since we can't do anymore flying...
Riddle: I know a place with fire stairs that still work...(She lies down along the street edge of the building and peers out.) Yeah- two buildings over...we can get back to street level that way...
T.Mor: alright. We'll do that then. (Hangs back with the team while Riddle and August continue forward, bickering.) We aren't in danger are we? I mean...More than we are already?

Peter: We shouldn't be. If we don't use our powers, they can't sense us. Even if we cross each other in the street, they'd have no reason to think that we're bonders if we don't give them one. Even so...if something does happen to us, feign ignorance. You know nothing about bonders. You know nothing about the planes. You had no idea that your fellow guards could do that. The worst that could happen to you then is that you'll be turned into soulbonders and forced to join the Sybek.
Nike: And if that happens, and an opportunity presents itself for you to help us...don't. It would only worsen your situation.
Senet: Also, no one desehrts ze Sybek. No one.

T.Mor: Forced to join another team I dislike and probably made to do hideous terrible things to people...sounds familiar...(grimly.) The punishment for deserting here is death...Well, torture, then death. Is it worse working for them?
Riddle:(From several buildings away.) I FOUND IT!! COME ON GUYS!! There's stairs!
T.Mor: GOOD JOB. I'm coming! (Continues walking.)

(The team follows.)
Peter: (as he's walking) Well, you'd be causing people unspeakable pain before their swift, untimely deaths, and committing genocide on a Planar Universe level. That's billions of people per plane. I mean, you could try to desert. People have done it, but it's not easy. And if they catch you, you feel that same unspeakable pain before your own death. Even so, the conditions of their workplaces are wonderful, and they take great measures to keep their recruits from seeing the pain they cause. They're absolutely evil, but they're not sadists. Er, most of them aren't. So I guess it depends on what your definition of "worse" is.

T.Mor: (Contemplates this for a bit.) How's their healthcare? I mean...It sounds terrible of me...I know it does- but even there sounds better than here. Here sucks. And being a punchclock villian is pretty much the same where ever you go I figure. I killed people here...I could probably kill people in other places too if need be. (You can hear the angst in his voice as he says that.)
Riddle: Wait- are we not staying anymore? Can we go get the brick?
T.Mor: No. Riddle the brick is dead. It's gone. It's on another plane of existence...We're going to SInk Pump...and then we'll figure out what we're doing next. (Starts descending the fire escape ladder thing. It's kind of rusty.) Come on August.
August: Why me next?
T.Mor: So that if you lose your footing Riddle won't let you fall.
Riddle: HEY! I wouldn't...Oh wait...I totally would. Nevermind.
(They descend.)

Peter: I have no idea how good their healthcare is, but I completely burned the side of this one Sybek's face, and he seems alright now. Hates my guts, though. He has a permanent scar, you see. To my credit, it was self-defense.
Nike: As for killing people, the Sybek never actually see it. They make sure of that. You'd lead the bonder to his or her death, but you wouldn't stick around for it. Like Peter said, they're not sadists. In fact, they think they're the good guys. They think what they're doing is right.

T.Mor: Seems like I ended up with the short end of the universal stick then...How come other villians have better jobs than I do?
Riddle: Eh, there's probably some universe where it works out that you have the better job. We just haven't come across it yet. Suck it up. You'll get over it. I mean, look- Your life is already 10 times better since you lost your job a half hour ago.
T.Mor: How? Enlighten me.
Riddle: You don't have to wear that stupid mask anymore. And you can do whatever you want...within reason and the law...and...Oh yeah We're going to SInk Pump! Isn't it suppoused to be a veritable menagerie of rebellious camraderie with a rather anarchic but friendly economic base?
T.Mor: You read the brochure then?
Riddle: What brochure?
August: How can they have an anarchic economic base? isn't that contradictory?
T.Mor: I dunno...Never been there.

((Out of curiosity, what did the SInk Pump sign originally say?))

Peter: How well will the people of SInk Pump react to us if we come there dressed as guards and toting guns? Should we at least take the masks off?

(Nobody knows...Not even me. If I sat with my notebook for long enough though, I could probably figure it out. )
T.Mor: We'll ditch the masks once we reach the city limits- no need to lose the advantage of not being bothered by hustlers before we have to. The guns though..I dunno. Keeping them could be useful- especially since you guys are keeping the awesome powers on the down-low for now...
Riddle: Yeah, they might can you guys if you look too guard-y...We could scavenge the wasteland for random clothes...There's probably a lot...Heck- If you wanted, you could probably trade what you have on right now for more pedestrian junk...Just knock on some doors.
August: Seriously? That's how that works here?
Riddle: Look around you. We're out of the wealthy district. Nothing's even on fire anymore. They couldn't afford duct tape in the first place, so how can they be missing it? From here on out trade can get you anything.(As if this was magical.)
T.Mor: It will just all be rather dirty and second-hand looking...

((Lol xD))

Peter: Perhaps it's better that way. After all, we want to blend in.

Riddle: (Marches right up to someone's front door and knocks. A tired looking guy opened it.) Hi. I'll trade you his pants for pants of equal or lesser value. (Points at Senet's pants.)
Tired guy: Those are nice pants...Look practically new. Hold on a second and I'll see what I've got. (Dissappears into the house for a bit. Stumbles warily back to the door, wielding two old torn up pairs of jeans.) I have Light wash and Dark wash.
Riddle: They're the same colour. (Flatly.)
Tired guy: Well, they weren't at one point...
Riddle: (Shrugs.) Hey Senet...come see these pants. (Back to the guy.) If you have anything else, I can trade you most of the rest of these guys clothes too.
Tired guy: (His eyes light up. this is as good as winning the jackpot.) You all can come in and I'll put on a pot of rock soup.

Sarah: (quietly) Rock soup? Really?
Peter: Shh!
(The team enters.)

(It's a dark hallway, attempting to be lit by flashlights nailed to the ceiling. the walls are composed of several different substances, including, but not limited to cardboard, corrugated metal, phonebooks and mint tins. The tiny entryway opens into a cramped living room with an old decomposing couch and a wooden chair with a pillow. through a door you could see what appeared to be a kitchen. The tired man hurries though and turns on a burner in the kitchen. There's already a pot sitting there, and he adds what appears to be a rock and some paprika.)
Tired man: You all can just make yourselves comfortable...and I'll be back with some things. (He goes through a door that isn't even held on with hinges, careful to put it back in place behind him.)
(T.Mor sits on the sofa. he sinks almost to the floor. He says nothing, his sofa does this too.)
Tired man: (Re-enters through the door clumsily with all the random clothes he has, and the door falls to the floor.) Ermm...(Smiles nervously, and awkwardly puts the door back in place.) I forgot to introduce myself...You can call me Phil.
Riddle: Hi Phil! So...you wanna show us that stuff?
Phil: Yeah. erm...the soup might be burning though...you can browse while I go see...(Is almost tripping over himself in anxiousness.)
August: (Digs through the pile.There's shirts that are held together with twine, shirts held together with hot glue, shirts that seem to have been home-made from miscellaneous goods (including candywrappers and garbage bags), and pants in varying states of disrepair. The jeans he'd originally brought out were the best of the bunch though.) Wow...I thought you were kidding Riddle...
T.Mor: Be polite. This is practically the middle class.
August: oh.
Phil: (Comes back in juggling several mismatched bowls of soup. he distributes to T.Mor, Peter, Riddle and Sarah.) I'm sorry, but you'll have to share...Ran out of clean water. More's boiling now though...Did you see anything you liked? (Hopefully.)

(The team has selected some of the better-looking clothes in the pile. That isn't saying much.)
Sarah: Looks like the Organization is going to be needing four more pairs of nondescript clothing.
Nike: The Organization can pay for it about a million times over. They replace clothes all the time.
Sarah: Yeah...

(T.Mor also picks out a set. He goes for the twine-sewn shirt.)
T.Mor: Umm...do you have a bathroom or something so we can change?
Phil: Yes- Through the kitchen, it's the door that isn't the broom cupboard.(is ecstatic. He could probably pay for actual stew meat for three months based on the clothes he just traded for.)
(Time elapsing montage in which Riddle eats all the soup. Phil is waving at them as they leave.)
Riddle: BYE PHIL! YOU ROCK!(as they walk off.)
T.Mor: Man, the twine is itchy...
Riddle: Why did you pick it then?
T.Mor: I used to have a twine sewn shirt...it was a nostalgia buy.
Riddle: wow.
August: So...did anyone else feel like if they moved too much his whole house would collapse?

Peter: Definitely. This whole place is... (He doesn't finish.)
Senet: We offehred to let zem leeve at A-3. We offehred to bhreeng 'ees seestehr. 'Ee tuhrned eet down!

August: What's A-3?
Riddle: It's a magical city with shiny buildings, and Shiny, and A girl who laughs when I talk and Shiny shiny shiny, And trees.
August: Trees? (Laughs...then looks around.) Wait...there aren't any trees here! I just noticed that...
Riddle: You know what a tree is? (Surprised.)
August: Yeah, they have them, They have them on every street corner practically...
Riddle: That's weird.
T.Mor: (Is starting to reconsider the whole 'staying here thing' he didn't realise how bad everything really was until he got back home, and looked at it for a bit.)I'm kind of hoping that that offer is open-ended...
Riddle: (So shocked by that that she halts in the middle of the street, turning to look at T.Mor in shock.) WHAT? We might be going back? Seriously?
T.Mor: I'm kind of out of a job, Riddle. It would be useless to re-apply. It would be useless to ever come back here once we get to SInk Pump. I mean...Everyone except you is wanted dead.
Riddle: Oh. Well, there is that...(This thought never occurred to her.) And then I could go back and get the chainspork...
August: What's going to happen to me then?
Riddle: We're taking you back to your treed universe.
August: "Treed" isn't a word.
Riddle: Why not? It should be. It's a perfectly cromulent word.
August: That's not a word either!!
Riddle: So?

Peter: The offer is still open, yes. We could always use new bonders. You don't even have to be affiliated with the Organization; you could make a living for yourself and everything. Granted, it's easier to be part of the Organization. You could have a sit-down job like researcher if you wanted, too.
Nike: If you chose to be a bonder, you could get an escort for your sister as well.
Sarah: There's only one problem. Well, six problems. They wear long robes, and their touch is deadly.
Peter: We should get to SInk Pump and discuss this there. I'd feel better that way.
Senet: Moi aussi.

T.Mor: Good...I'm thinking I would want to keep active...(the wheels in his head are turning.) Yeah, Lets keep going...It's getting late. (The grey sky is starting to get grey-er. An easy indicator of the sun setting.)
Riddle: I hope it doesn't rain.

(They trudge along in silnce for a bit. The houses are degenerating rapidly as they walk along UP street...In the space of 2 blocks it went from crumbling brick rowhouses to corrugated tin and plywood house shaped things...which were beautiful in their inginuity, but it was silghtly disconcerting that anyone would cultivate the skill of making multi story houses out of tin, duct tape and plywood.
The paved street fell right out from underneath them as they walked, turning to a muddy, pebbly, mess. Riddle was having trouble because the combat boot on her bony leg was too heavy for her to constantly keep pulling out of the sticky mud. She eventually pulled the boot off that foot all together, and tied the laces together to wear it as a bag. All of her toe bones have little holes drilled into them where they are held together with fishing line...just as a precaution.)
Riddle: And now I have to carry around three pounds of boot lead. Stupid counterweight mechanism! I hate it!
T.Mor: You could just chuck the boots and go barefoot...
Riddle: And risk getting foot rot form the mud? HA. No.
T.Mor: Oh. Sorry. Just bite my head off. (jokingly.)
Riddle: Om nom nom...
August: I'm hungry...
T.Mor: We've got three more blocks til the wasteland...We can eat there...
(The corrugated tin buildings have dissolved, giving way to the cardboard slums. The peasantry here are hurriedly saranwrapping their houses to attempt to prevent melting in the nightly rain. There are small children playing in the mud. Some girl with a chipped mug is holding it out hopefully, asking for food, or money or...anything really. Anything tradeable.)

((I randomly happened across zees veedeo of a French girl singing "Wake Me Up When September Ends." Her voice is good, but she pronounces her R's like W's. It's adorable xD))

Sarah: This place gives me the shivers.
(As they walk, they pass a group of people who are talking in an alley. The people stick out from everyone else because their long, dark robes look all shiny and clean. They wear differently colored hoods; one is red, two are blue, one is green, one is light blue, and one is pale yellow.)
Peter: (hissing under his breath to T.Mor, August, and Riddle without actually turning towards them) Say nothing. Don't look at those people.
The green hood: (a male voice) Bah, this place is just crap. Can't see why anyone wouldn't be on board. This place'll be better off gone.
One of the blue hoods: (a female voice) Got that right.
The light blue hood: (a male voice with some strange accent) Ahnd look ad da people... (He turns, though his face is obscured by both his hood and a thick scarf. It is assumed that he's passing his gaze over the scene, but one can't be sure.) Waid ah minude... Yu seven! Sdop righd dere!
Peter: (quietly, without really moving his mouth) Don't back down. The innocent have no need to run.
TLBH: (approaching the group) Yu, boy, brahn hair. (He points to Peter.) Look ahd me.
Peter: (faking confusion) Um, is there a problem?
TLBH: (Recognition is flashing on his face, though it's impossible to see.) Yu wudn'd hahppen du be a bonder, wud yu?
Peter: (tipping his head slightly to the side) What's a bonder?
TLBH: (grabbing his scarf with a mittened hand. Yes, mittened) I dink yu know dahmn well wahd a bonder is! (He yanks his scarf down, revealing that not only is he a vreshnik; the left side of his maw is dominated by a burn scar that travels downward and vanishes under his scarf.)
Peter: (jumping back. The rest of the team does, too. They're pretty good actors.) What the hell are you?!
TLBH: Don'd play dumb! Yu know me! (He lunges at Peter, who dodges.)
Peter: (backing away, as is his team) I've never seen you, or anything like you, in my life!
TLBH: Liar! Ahnd I bed yu know wahd'll hahppen when I lay a hahnd on yu!

Riddle: The guards will arrest you for inappropriate touching?(Does her best wild mass guessing.) There will be a robot unicorn attack? There will be sparkly Rainbows and some cliched 80's music followed immediately by a montage of you two skipping merrily through some fields and going to carnivals together? Am I close? (Riddle actually has no Idea what she's doing. This reaction is just off the top of her head.)
T.Mor: (Doesn't even feel the need to respond since Riddle handled the lying so neatly.) What she said?

((Aaaaalways, I wanna beeee with youuuu, and make belieeeeve with youuuu, and live in HARMONY HARMONY oh love~!

You know, that song actually came out in the 90's. It only sounds like 80's music.))

TLBH: He DIES! (He tries to grab Peter again and fails.) BURN in HELL wid de RESD ohf yur fire! I don'd CAHRE dahd Hell doesn'd even EXISD!
Peter: You're insane!
TLBH: (He tries a different approach. He holds his right arm out, closing his hand into a fist. Peter, who had been staggering backward, seems to freeze in midair. He's stuck in a position where he really should've fallen over; one of his legs is off the ground, and he's standing on his other heel. Even his hair is halted in movement. It's almost like looking at a picture. TLBH begins to storm over to him. Just as Senet and Sarah are about to act--)
The green hood: NA'ARSIF!
(TLBH, or Na'arsif, stops.)
TGH: (tiredly) Leave him alone. He's not whoever you think he is. I mean, what are the chances of that?
Na'arsif: Bahd he looks jusd like--!
TGH: I don't wanna hear it! The planes effect each other, remember? What are the odds that he could possibly be the one who gave you that scar? Let him go. All you're doing is turning away a potential Sybek!
(With a resigned sigh, Na'arsif drops his arm. Peter continues his backwards fall to the ground, lying there for a moment and panting.)
TGH: Now get back over here and stop acting like such a rookie.
(Without a word, Na'arsif turns on his heel and stomps back over to the rest of the Sybek. Peter gets up, his breathing still shaky.)
Peter: (quietly) Let's get out of here. Now.