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Having resisted the urge to toy with her own hair several times, Svelte had conscientiously busied her hands with smoothing over the flattened bag after giving away the lion's share of her chips away (whether be it to Madame or the ground, they were given freely). She wanted to be friendly at least in the back of her mind, but the front was still stewing from being stranded... even her shadow whispered taunts to punctuate every thought until Svelte took extra care to grind its will into the ground. She really didn't need to dwell on it, but it did put her in an uncomfortable situation... and when Madame mentioned the weather, Svelte's eyes narrowed further.
Shrugging inwardly with a sigh, she dropped the issue and found her smile, content in knowing that she'd always have plenty of time to brood later, "It is only a little rain," she said, unconsciously letting a slip of her odd lilting middle eastern accent touch her words. Svelte arched an eyebrow, mentally directed at herself before remembering to ditch the accent, "We should be at one of the homes already, we will knock and ask for a phone to call a cabby to drive us back into town. Or, if we are lucky, we will catch the residents heading into town. You're welcome to make our grand entrance, if you want..." Taking extra care to keep even a twinge of amusement from coloring her words.

"Medical professional or not, it is still just a tree no matter the image you give it," Svelte paused to take a firm hold of Madame's hand, "Relax, it is just a tree. A horde of doctors will not come swarming out of the forest and stethoscopes will not rain from the skies... Come now, we'll be asking at this house here," She intoned firmly, leading Madame down a long driveway willing or not.

((Cue npc's? Please? xd ))

Just like that she was gone again. Whatever force had taken her into the desert years ago had done so again, removing her presence from Longshore and displacing it...elsewhere. When Svelte turned away, she might feel a tingle...the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as though lightning were about to strike. Then, looking back towards the strange girl, she would find only a pile of clothes where Madame once stood.

Despite the candy in his mouth, Richard began feeling ill...the old motion sickness returning to disorient him. It was hitting hard...harder than it had in recent memory. Doubling over in his seat from nausea, he could swear they were moving faster and faster down the same street, with the same buildings and landmarks passing by over and over again. Their speed continued to increase as the world outside began to blur into one streaming image of time and space flowing into a great nothingness. The driver turned around and...

Richard awoke in a cold sweat on a hospital bed, the feint smell of piss and 409 tickling his nostrils. A heavyset nurse of obvious Latin descent stood over him with a clipboard. "Oh, my," she said, a bit surprised. "Are you alright?"

The sounds of the airplane engines still cooling down from landing faded away the moment Angela was ushered into the airport. Dressed in a taupe, causal but classy, cascade dress jacket, a high collared white blouse, and dark, fitted denim jeans, she presented herself easily as a woman there on business. Her long, easily waist-length, blonde hair was braided and wrapped up a few times to hide it's length and add to the business-not-pleasure appearance, and her small dainty feet, clad in taupe flats to match the jacket, brusquely stepped out of the hustle and bustle of the air port and easily dismissed the glares she got from those she brushed aside on her way into the outside.

No stop at the luggage area was necessary for she'd managed to bring everything she needed in a carry-on bag, after extensive searching cleared it (it was a good thing it was a national flight), but she still made a mental note to avoid flying if at all possible for her next assignment. From the slim pocket at her side she produced her data-phone and dialed the pre-programmed number of the partner she was to check in and meet up with once she'd arrived.

Davis Kent - the name she was given - had not been introduced to her in her short time with SHRP but she expected that he would be no more difficult to work with than those she had suffered through at the University of Arizona. If she was ever perfectly honest with anyone, which she avoided most of the time seeing as how it was a rare individual who could tolerate her bluntness and lack of social grace on the best of her days, she did not work well with others. She had gotten the sense that something about Davis Kent might not work well with others either but she would soon find out first hand.

Either way all she had to do was survive him for however long this first assignment lasted and hopefully afterwards she would be able to request solo-assignments for the future. Working with others was too close to botching everything in her mind, since other rarely ever managed to do their jobs with the level of efficiency and skill that she herself displayed, so the sooner she managed to get a hold of Davis the sooner they could begin working on the assignment.

Ring... ring...

Annoyance colored her voice when she responded to the man's voice demanding to know her name when she had been the one responding to a call.

"Who's this?! Who is this, you called me."

In the middle of a slightly important phone call I might add. But she didn't add. She might add if the conversation lasted long enough but for now she was content to cross her free arm over her chest and display an equal amount of annoyance in her body posture as she was in her voice.

She could conclude that this was possibly the same man that she had been attempting to make contact with but a moment before the opportunity to leave a message, but she wasn't going to dig for that information. If it was Davis Kent then he might have recognized her number, assuming he'd been given advance knowledge of a partner joining him, or he might just be being difficult.

"'M Jack. Good ta meet ya, Nima. 'Op in and get comfy... It'll be a bit to town." He shifted the vehicle into gear, and they moved off quickly. "Where ya from, y'don min' me askin'?"

Jack gave a low chuckle at her initial response, shaking his head a bit. When she gave him an excuse, he shook his head again, adjusting his mirror so he could see her behind him.

"Don' worra 'bout it, gurl, I don' take no affense. I unnerstand 'bout not havin home... mine done died on me, too. 'Course, got a new one, but shtill... Na havin' roots, dat can rilly get to a body..." he trailed off in thought for a few moments, before shaking himself out of his thoughts and back to the present.

"Wotcha doin' a-ways out 'ere a-hoofin' it?"

"You called me first," he replied. His voice was casual and even, as though he could not possibly be wrong; implying such would be an effort completely wasted on him. Not that she got the impression he was stupid...or maybe he was. In either case, his was the voice of a man who simply did not care. "Oh, hey...is this uhhh...whatshername...Angela? Sorry, I don't usually answer the phone."