sunburned | (no subject)

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The city hasn't changed very much, in the time since he was last there. The market still heaves with bodies, the air heavy with spice and incense. He finds himself remembering the scraps of Hindi that he learned when he was here last. He doesn't know the others well, but he tries to keep them in the corner of his eye - particularly Kivrin, who he knows matters to Julie.

"There has to be some way back," he says, to nobody in particular. "To the island, I mean? We cannot be stranded here?"

ooc: gathering post! This is where they get separated, so choose the groups you will, darling ones! :D

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The longer they're stuck in this horrible, crowded place, the more frustrated Aphrodite becomes. Sure, it's bitchin' to have her godhood back, but what good is it if she can't use it to get home to her Luke? She's got half a mind to make herself invisible to mortals and start causing some trouble just to blow off steam, but Thor would still be able to see her, and strangely, that's enough to give her pause. For the time being, at least.

"What is this, like, some test?" she asks the group at large. "Some stupid task or whatever the island powers want us to figure out and then they'll send us back?"

"Perhaps," says Thor. None of their number blend in with the crowds around them, but Thor, particularly, sticks out like a sore thumb, at least a half head taller than anyone they encounter, if not more. "The island is fond of its tricks."

"Yeah, well, I'd like to send a nice big energy ball right in the face of the island's stupid tricks," Aphrodite huffs in reply, hands going to her hips. "Or at least I would if I knew which direction to throw it." She and Thor are definitely standing out, a couple of blonde deities side by side, but she doesn't particularly care if they're especially noticed. She just wants to find the way home.

Thor laughs, a low rumble in his throat as he takes in the strange sights and sounds. It is a conscious effort to not continue to make it rain, so eager is he to use all the powers once left to him. In the end, he cannot help himself the indulgence. Clouds roll in above the city and rain pours down on the busy streets, leaving a suspiciously dry circle around himself and Aphrodite as they walk. Their path clears a little as people find shelter from the rain, and he shoots Aphrodite a wry smile.

"And I would bring the thunder," he replies in agreement. "But our keepers are a treacherous lot, and I do not trust them to fight fair. Our powers would sooner be turned against us than them."

She knows the rain is Thor's doing, and the fact that they stay untouched by it while everyone around them gets drenched gives Aphrodite a bit of a long-missed thrill, of being in the company of a fellow god, both of them untouchable. She's kind of missed stuff like that, even if she's gotten used to living as a mortal.

"They never fight fair," Aphrodite says, throwing up a hand in a vague gesture at their surroundings. "Look what they're doing to us now. We're stuck in this place with no way of knowing how to get back. It's so not fair."

"Are you truly so eager to return, Aphrodite?" asks Thor, turning to face her with a curious look. He worries about Loki, alone on the Island, but he cannot claim a fondness for Tabula Rasa beyond that reserved for his few friends that have remained over the years.

"To the island? Not really," Aphrodite replies. "I like having my godhood back. But my boyfriend is back there, and he needs me. I have to get back to him." The truth is that she needs him too, just as much as he needs her, but that's not as easily admitted.

"Luke?" says Thor. He has heard Aphrodite speak of him before, but has never met the man himself. He wonders who could have snared the heart of a love goddess. He must be formidable indeed. "That is his name, right?"

"That's him," Aphrodite confirms, her expression softening automatically at the mention of his name. "He's a demigod. Son of Hermes. He hasn't had the easiest life, and the island's been pretty jerky to him lately."

She puts on a flippant little smile, adding in the kind of vain statement anyone she knew back home would expect of her. "Except for how he's got me, of course."

"Hermes," Thor echoes, thoughtful. "I do not know him." He shakes his head, then, stricken with sudden ruefulness. "But I hope he finds peace, soon. The island is not always the most comfortable of prisons."

"Maybe," Wanda said vaguely, trying to tuck her hair under an ornate scarf in an effort to make herself stick out just a bit less. "Though to tell the truth, I'm not seeing a whole lot of island in all of this, aside from the bunch of us being here in the first place. We're not usually left so... adrift when stuff like this happens."

"Why does the island do any of the stuff to us it does?" Aphrodite says with a shrug. "Stranding us here in this city with no explanation seems as likely as anything else. It would be nice if we could get some kind of hint as to what we're supposed to be doing, though."

"No dice, looks like," Wanda conceded with a frown, absently playing with a stray lock of white hair that refused to stay in place. "Maybe there's nothing to be done. All of the disappearances lately... maybe we're just the latest, and this is what comes next."

That idea rang a little hollow to her own ears, admittedly, but it still seemed likely. "Either way, I think priority numero uno should be figuring out a way past those walls that stopped you," she went on, scoffing in annoyance when a small child shoved his way past her in the general bustle.

"For sure," Aphrodite agrees with a nod. "It's harder for me to teleport if I don't know where I'm going, but nothing I tried could get me past them. There's got to be some way out, though."

"It does seem to imply that someone's not done playing with us," Wanda reluctantly admitted, crossing her arms. "We could try going through it? I or the big guy shouldn't have too much trouble, but the locals probably wouldn't be so keen on it."

"Hey, if it gets us out of this place I don't really give a crap what the locals think," Aphrodite says. "Whatever works."

Wanda may not have had a whole lot in common with the love goddess, but at least in this they were of a mind.

"Subtlety be damned, huh? I couldn't agree more. Something to run by the group, maybe?"

"For sure," Aphrodite replies. "Unless someone else has a better idea, I figure we might as well try everything, you know?"

"And try to enjoy the surprise vacation in the process, I guess," Wanda added with a nod, doing her best to swallow both her distaste for the crowded locale and the slow, unnerving realization that she actually wanted to get back to the island.

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