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Riley tried not to be too amused at Junko's reaction, but it was this reaction that reminded her why she liked the ghoul. Her innocence on the matters to which they spoke was her defining quality, and it was precious. One so innocent should remain unspoiled for as possible... before reality settled in to the corners of the subconscious and began filling the thoughts with lies and dirt and filth. While inevitable, postponing that taint was always a worthwhile endeavor.

Somehow, Riley knew that the conversation was going to go somewhere she didn't want. She sensed it, but hadn't the sensibility to stop it before it happened. Junko mentioned that dreadful post she'd made in a spur of self-conscious second guessing, and Riley's comforting rocking motion stilled.

It. Ah. It isn't a question as to whether or not I love Malodore. It is simply a question as to what's right. I am comfortable in assuming that it would agree with me in the idea of sleeping in the same bed to be, ah, improper. It was an answer, and at the same time she hadn't actually answered either of Junko's questions directly. It was her specialty.

She heard her phone buzzing inside of her jacket behind them, and for once she almost felt inclined to be rude enough to go check it, thereby breaking up this awkward topic of conversation.

As Junko fell into a trance of deep thought, Riley casually managed to reach one of her hands behind her, and slipped it into her jacket pocket. She pulled the phone out, and and very subtly gave it a quick side glance. One text. From.. Jericho. As much as she really wanted to hear from him, she couldn't help but seem a tiny, very tiny, bit crestfallen. So tiny.

As if she was reading Riley's mind, instead of reacting to their conversation, Junko pronounced Riley's feelings to her. Riley's eyes sharply switched back to look at the ghoul in her lap, and then narrowed slightly. It would have been a bit intimidating, if her face had not just turned the color of a ripe eggplant.

That. That wasn't. Ah. I mean. I said that my feelings were not relevant to the issue at hand. I didn't. Say. Whether or not-

Oh, look, there was a phone in her hand that she would now pay attention to, because she didn't want to answer this question. She flipped the top up and read Jericho's text.

And then her blush turned so dark, it looked black.

Really, these 'friends' of hers were going to kill her.

This wasn't where she'd meant to let the conversation get to. In fact, this was quite possibly the one topic she wished she never had to talk about, and yet it seemed like having ghoulfriends meant having frequent chats about dangerous things like love and trust. It was entirely disarming. Malodore does care for me. She answered, while once again evading the actual question. And I care for it very much as well. There, that settled the issue, right? Of course!

Only, Junko's final comment had Riley tensing up just slightly. In truth, she had come to accept that there was nothing inherently 'wrong' with love. She was scared that whatever 'love' was would just end up hurting Malodore if she was killed, but.. well, at least now it knew what it was in for. Right? That only left one, minor problem.

What, exactly, do you define love as, Junko? I am curious. And clueless, it seemed.

See? All settled! That wasn't so bad after all! Junko felt rather proud of herself now, finding this was a fine time to think the conversation was temporarily over and looking down to her phone again to reply to Seiji's last text. She was feeling much more cheerful than she had been before.



Junko was surprised by Riley's sudden question and hit send by accident, not realizing she had since her eyes were on Riley again. What would..she define as love? Junko grew quiet and thoughtful again, lowering her hands with her phone on her lap. Hmm..what is love? Well...it could be a number of things! It was probably easier to name what love wasn't, but Riley wanted to know what Junko felt love was. "Love is..." She tilted her head and looked away from Riley, pouting her lips in deep thought. "It's...when the mere thought of that someone makes your heart go crazy with happiness, and your skin feels all tingly warm, and even your mind feels a little fuzzy and you're unable to think of much of anything. Or when you want to spend every waking moment by their side, and at the end of the day you don't want to leave them. When...you can fight, but you still feel all these things for them despite that. And you trust them completely, even with your life. You can confide in them, and they can confide in you, and you're there to support them in spite of anything. When you can see they have flaws and imperfections, but they don't matter to you." She tapped at her cheek for a moment. "You care for them so much you'd die for them." That sounded good, right? Junko was sure she was leaving quite a bit out but these were her immediate thoughts on the subject. She turned back to Riley and looked rather expectant on whether or not this would be acceptable for the other ghoul.

"How's he doing on Cadmus' boat, anyway?" She still hadn't caught on that Riley kept calling Malodore 'it'. Junko'll get it...eventually...

Junko was very unaware of Riley's inner turmoil with all this, thinking that she was so quiet because she was in pleasant disbelief and seeing if every little detail Junko had named off applied to her. That was it. Riley was just making sure...and any moment now she'd be blushing again and giggling and admitting that yes, she was very much in love!

Orrrrr...not? Junko was startled by Riley's words, unsure as to why she would call this kind of thing 'dreadful'. Honestly, Junko had always been oblivious to this kind of thing! But Calder had made it seem so...appealing. Calder and then...then Seiji...she wasn't in love with Seiji, it was far too early to even wonder about that kind of thing with him, but still the idea was nice to think about. Maybe not the totally scandalous part like in Calder's books he'd given her to borrow but...the rest was nice. "Dreadful? I..I don't think that's how you're supposed to view love." She chuckled.

Wait! She didn't know!? Junko blinked. "Have you tried texting Malodore first?" Certainly Riley didn't seem the type to pine and wait for Malodore to make the first move!

Oh, so that was it. How interesting! Strange yet interesting. Riley was definitely not a 'typical ghoul', but then what was a typical ghoul? Even Junko wasn't quite sure of the definition. Was she one? Was she typical? Hmmm! But she could understand not wanting to feel helpless, even Junko didn't enjoy feeling vulnerable. She felt like a fool when she couldn't even fight off Mei-Xiu. Sigh. Fighting just wasn't how Junko worked! She had the physical strength of a brittle twig!

So Riley had sent messages? How strange! Then again Junko was surprised Malodore even had a phone! He didn't seem the type to keep one, really. Malodore always struck her as...somewhat old fashioned, but in an intriguing way? Hmm, strange how he wasn't sending messages back! Maybe she was right! He was just busy! "Attacked...by a plant?" Junko blinked. Attacked by a plant. Did that mean the ship itself attacked them? Or was it an invading plant? She was actually rather curious! Now she was wondering how Seiji's ship was doing. He'd been asking for updates on herself, but he hadn't given her any...

...Gah! Her text! Junko suddenly gasped and looked down at her phone. Oh no! Her unfinished text sent! Now he was going to worry! Right? Would he worry? A part of her kind of hoped he would worry, but she didn't want to make him worry. Did that make sense at all?

((Ohshitson Red made Junko SWIM? I bet that was a laugh and a half.))

On the bright side, despite not having any showers...Junko was feeling better after the swim. If only because of the water itself. The turtles? Those were the scariest Jackdamned turtles she had ever seen. Weren't turtles supposed to be cute? On the bright side, there was more food to be had. The Mistress was slightly appeased by that. Only slightly. She had nightmares about those turtles for nights to come. It only got better when they hit fog again, and their food disappeared.

Great. She was angry again. It wasn't even any better when they were out of the fog because the point of the matter was there was no food again.

Ugh. More fog?! Junko was about to lose her mind if they didn't make it to their destination soon. The ghoul was standing with the net Red had given her staring at it with a bit of disdain..until she heard it. Those mysterious noises. What was that?

Junko wandered to the ship's railing and stared out toward the dolphins, gasping when she spotted him. Whoooooa! That song was really kind of annoying though. What was it? "Bloody annoying!" The Mistress growled, answering Junko's unspoken question. For once Junko didn't try to stop her, since they shared a feeling for once. Junko sighed and tossed the net over to try and catch something...

She held it down until she felt a tugging, reeling the net back in. What...what was that? It was pink, and looked more unhappy blob than fish...gross.

((Junko caught +5/50 of fish! That is one heavy blobfish.))