"It's not run by them, but the people who don't have--" She hadn't really wanted to go into it - she's freaked out enough, and she doesn't actually realise that the conversation with Joel wouldn't necessarily go the way the talks with Les had gone. But then he says that Nerium's not the most powerful. She'd done all of that, but she's not the most powerful, and it makes Raleigh blanch, the color just fading from her face-- And then?
Raleigh yelps as Oscar lunges forward, and she grabs Joel's arm to stop herself from falling forward off the bench with sort of choked sound on her part and he's barking his head off.
A squirrel, some twenty feet away, chitters at him as it turns an acorn in it's tiny paws. "Oh, my god," Raleigh wraps Oscar's leash around her wrist. "Oscar! Stop it." He's losing his tiny mind, and while Raleigh's let go of Joel, she can only manage to brace herself with one leg, because the other one - after all of it, it's not really anywhere near functional.
"She's not?" And then he says that somebody could just do it again, and Raleigh's shoulders just sort of droop, and she sucks in a breath, pinching the bridge of her nose for a second.
"Not like they do here," she finally says, faintly. "They don't exist in other places the way they do here. I mean. Exist like-- it's not so open. You know? It's not.... God. Uh." She hates that it scares her, that it scares the shit out of her, because she's both been inches from being sacrificed for a spell, and with what Les told her... "This- we don't need to talk about this," she finally says abruptly, her brows furrowed together.
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Raleigh yelps as Oscar lunges forward, and she grabs Joel's arm to stop herself from falling forward off the bench with sort of choked sound on her part and he's barking his head off.
A squirrel, some twenty feet away, chitters at him as it turns an acorn in it's tiny paws. "Oh, my god," Raleigh wraps Oscar's leash around her wrist. "Oscar! Stop it." He's losing his tiny mind, and while Raleigh's let go of Joel, she can only manage to brace herself with one leg, because the other one - after all of it, it's not really anywhere near functional.
"She's not?" And then he says that somebody could just do it again, and Raleigh's shoulders just sort of droop, and she sucks in a breath, pinching the bridge of her nose for a second.
"Not like they do here," she finally says, faintly. "They don't exist in other places the way they do here. I mean. Exist like-- it's not so open. You know? It's not.... God. Uh." She hates that it scares her, that it scares the shit out of her, because she's both been inches from being sacrificed for a spell, and with what Les told her... "This- we don't need to talk about this," she finally says abruptly, her brows furrowed together.