Carmela
"Come on Audrey... Where are youuuu?"

Margarita groaned to herself as she waited on the outside of the wall since... The exact second the curfew had ended. She shouldn't even be awake at this time of the day, and the rush to get off of her ass has left her arms bundled around her in a mess. Stretched limbs wrapped all over her body in a chaotic manner to the point her left hand rested on her right shoulder and her right hand was behind her, pressed against her back by a rouge coil of arm. Was if her left arm or right arm that kept her hand like that? She didn't know. It's a wonder how the rest of her body was untangled at this point, but hey,

Parahumans are weird.

Nevertheless, Margarita waited patiently for that new girl to come out and walk through the forest; the second person to do so other than Silas.
Rachelle
◇ [Seven AM, Swedish Time...]

• "Oh gee, I'm gonna be late!"

□ In her defense, she'd heard that the following day would be partly cloud; tantamount to a bad day to be out for her, seeing as large parts of the sky would be obscured by clouds and shadows. So, she'd spent most of the night underneath her grow light, absorbing limitless yet underwhelming energy from it. Whereas sunlight tasted like a bundle of finely toasted and offered herbs, nuts, and berries, the artificial light emitted by the grow light tasted like expired dry herbs, and an ammonium fertilizer taste, and thus the rest hadn't been very restful. Hence, it was seven in the morning, and she was *Just* Rushing out of the residential building all of thr Cradle lived in, instead of being there before curfew even ended.

▪︎ Unfortunate, but not much she could do except hurry.

◆ "Hiya, sorry, hun!" Audrey called out as she neared the gate and caught sight of Margarita, jogging with long strides offered up by her impressive height. Six foot two inches of ginger beauty, she jogged down to the fence, a large packsack on her back festooned with all the tools she'd need to go out into the woods. Seems she'd spent a while getting prepared. "I didn't rest very well, sorry. My grow light gives me all the energy I need, but it also tastes kinda horrible, so... I dunno if I like it very much. Helpful, but at what cost...? Anyways, I hope I didn't keep you waiting!"
Carmela
"Buongiorno, hi! Nah, I didn't wait too long at all!"

Margarita scanned the other girl as she jogged towards her tied-up form now that they had the opportunity to see each other in person. She could have at least tried to be presentable, but oh well. She didn't have the ten minutes she needed to

'*Good Lord she's tall.*'

"I mean..." Margarita distracted herself for a second, stretching her "Free" Left hand beyond her right shoulder and extending it towards Audrey for a handshake. Rubbery noises were audible to the both of them every time she stretched or retracted her noodle limbs, seemingly jointless in its rope-like form. "I didn't too, so I guess we're both on the same page, *Si*? Caught so little sleep, but I kinda need to maintain the campsite too, so..."

"You ready? It's just a short walk over there." She used her bendy arm to point its thumb at the general direction of the forest, specifically at a lightly used path that led into the woods.
Rachelle
◆ "Okay, goodie!" Audrey beamed back, ever debatably the brightest soul at the Cradle. "Also, oh no, you too? Stars must be in a weird place or something, I'm kinda behind on my astrology." She giggled. "Been too worried about the angels to keep up."

□ That was the truth. She'd been quite worried ever since she was made privy to the angelic threat that said cult posed to the Cradle, and the worry wasn't going anywhere. Forever a worrywart, she'd been worried that they'd storm the building soon enough, and thus her sleep had been impacted. It was refreshing, then, to hear that she wasn't alone. Perhaps, even, she'd found someone of her zodiac, or of her mindset. For now though, she pushed the gate open the best she could and hummed jovially, a walking exclamation point in human form.

▪︎ She was sure ready, but...

◆ "Bam! Let's go." Audrey beamed, stepping through the gates first. But, before she stormed forward she raised a hand to meet Stretch's, softly grasping and shaking a few times before letting go. "But you lead the way, Stretch, I dunno where this place is."
Carmela
",Yeah, I have the worst sleep schedule in existence. I don't think it even counts as a schedule anymore." Margarita laughed dryly at her self-deprecation and her lack of discipline now that it came to mind again. "Yeah, the angels... I don't know, they shouldn't be here right now, so... Eh, could care less."

She silently hoped she was right, beginning the effort to untie herself from her own mess as Audrey pushed the gates wide open for the two of them, earning Audrey a quiet 'Grazie' as Margarita stepped out.

"Oh, erm... This way, yeah." She answered, letting go of Audrey's soft fgrasp before pointing her one free noodle hand at the forest, the path to the site imprinted in her mind like the back of her squishy hand.

"So, erm... Where do you come from, if I might ask? Oh, watch your step." Margarita questioned, stepping over a tree branch that she had sdmittedly tripped over a few times.
Rachelle
◆ "Felt that, hun." Audrey replied in turn as she held the gate open, one hand curled around one of her packsack's straps and the other tapping gently against her hip. "Being solar-powered means that I kinda get nothing out of sleeping, except passing time until the sun comes out again. My grow light does the same job as the sun, but gosh... It tastes *Horrible.*"

□ Trying her best to laugh the disgusting taste of burnt plastic and seltzers far too carbonated away, her face still twisted into one that reflected how nasty she found the taste of the sadly essential light mounted above her hammock-bed. It was damned nasty, and she was happy to be out in the wilderness and morning sun again, shoulders and arms drinking it all that the lifegiver above had to offer. Once Marg stepped out and through the gate she let it close behind her, a resounding metallic thud the clearest sign the pair were going to get that the Cradle was safe once more.

▪︎ Or, safe as it could be with those Angel weirdos lurking around... She tried her best to shake the thought out like an unwanted burrdock.

◆ "Olympia, Washington! A little neighbourhood called the Rhodonite Heights; really nice, but also kind of stuck up and boring." She casually spoke, voice entirely devoid of any actual ill will or hatred. "Lots of... You know, retirees, lawyers, bankers... Doctors. My parents are both doctors, so I guess I see why they settled down there. Mom's a neurosurgeon, Dad's an anesthesiologist, you know the deal. I guess wealth attracts wealth, and most wealthy people seem really stodgy and stuck in their ways." She hummed to fill up any dead air that might have stretched on beyond her words. "How about you, hun? I know you're Italian, but nothing else. Where are you from, city-wise? Is it a nice place? Oh, is the Mob a thing still? I know I had a huge 20th century American mobster kick in middle school, weirdly enough, but also sorry if that's insensitive!"
Carmela
"Oh grazie." Margarita quietly thanked, the back of her right hand brushing against the cold steel of thre gates. "That's... Interesting, really."

"So the sun is your food source, huh?" Margarita looked up at the sunny skies, the occasional cloud passing by yet leaving no part of the Cradle in its cool shadows. What she found annoying was someone's source of energy. How weird.

But then again, isn't everyone in this concrete place weird? Her arms were all tangled and knotted anyways...

"Oh, I see, Washington..." Margarita initially incorrectly assumed for it to be the capital of the USA, but the hint of Olympia said so otherwise. Either way, she had *Zero* Idea of where Washington, the state, nor Olympia was, so she continued to nod along, hoping that geography was no longer the favoured topic by Audrey who continured to ramble on and on about gheif parents.

"Si, si..." Man, that wealth... '*I wonder what they do with all that money...*'

"Oh, erm... I hail from Naples, or at least from the outskirts of Naples. It' honestly nice during the spring- yeah no, it's alrightI It's got its fair share of everything from food to- I uh... *Si, si*, they go by different names now, but functionally they are the same one that you might think of but with a few differences- no, it's fine, really! I appreciate questions about my homeland; I'm just glad to share stuff about it."

The rapid fire questions left little room for explanations, but at least it left out the 'are you a drug dealer?' line of questions when people ask her aboht her former line of work.

"By the way, erm... Do you mind if you just pull the hand stuck on my back? I can feel my arms coming loose but I just... Can't seem to... Pull my hand out..." Already audibly pissed, Margarita grunted at her efforts to free herself, her body wriggling as if it was freeing itself from two pythons at the same time that refused to latch off.
Rachelle
◆ "Yup." Audrey hummed as the pair walked, verdant eyes upturned towards the sky. "The sun's my lifegiver! It's actually made my life a living hell at times, but there's not really much I can do about it, right?"

□ A touch of regret, a hint of wondering what her life would have been like if she'd just been born *Normal.* What would she be like if she wasn't solar-powered? If the chlorophyll mats hadn't grown all over her body and marked her out as a weirdo? It was quite a spiral to embark on, and as soon as she felt herself slipping she shook her head, perhaps a bit too hard, and looked back over at Marg. 

▪︎ And thankfully, she now had a good conversation going.

◆ "Naples? Nice! Isn't that relatively near to Mt. Vesuvius?" Her head tilted lightly as she spoke, genuine curiosity speckling her voice. "Also, ooh, nifty. Or, maaaybe not; I've heard the Mob's pretty frigging violent." She continued, making her way around Marg as the other gal asked for help with the hand stuck to her back. Lightly gripping her wrist with one hand and her hand with the other, Audrey gave a tug, and it (hopefully) came unstuck, after which she kept on walking at pace with her friend.

◆ "There, that should feel better, huh?"