A few slimes in different bright colors bounced around the area as Rika sat. Surprisingly to her, they didn't seem to be aggressive. Perhaps they had gotten used to the humans, and didn't see them as enemies. Or maybe they were just weak and stupid.

They could be bold, though. A blue slime with rosy-red cheeks had the nerve to bounce right up to where Rika was sitting, as if they were both passengers waiting on the world's strangest bus line. She heard a sucking noise, and when she turned back to look, the slime had what appeared to be a royal crown stuck halfway out of its mouth. It was chewing on it like a baby with a pacifier.

"No," Rika said. Did the slimes even understand English? "You. Can't. Eat. Me." She pointedly slid herself to the far side of the bench, away from the slime, and sucked another piece of tteokbokki into her mouth. By now she was starting to feel the spice kick in, and her mouth winced in protest. Could she possibly-- no. She was not even going to think of it. No matter how much the slime looked like a blob of water, she'd rather die before putting her mouth on that thing.

A burbling noise emitted from the slime, like a stomach rumbling in hunger. Rika attempted to fix the monster with her fiercest glare, but it was broken when she was forced to exhale sharply, the spice tingling at her lips. "Fine," she sighed, dangling a piece of the cake over the gap between herself and the slime. "But if I feed you, you have to tell me something.

"Where the hell can I get a decent milkshake around here?"

Pori

If Pori meant to calm down the girl when she turned back into a human, it didn't quite have the intended effect. Rika let out a tortured shriek and dropped the bit of food she'd been dangling, staring at the slime-girl in wide-eyed shock. "You're -- A PERSON?!" Was she a slime that somehow evolved the ability to take human form? Or the opposite - a human who could turn into a slime? The giggle and the joke sealed it. She very much doubted that monsters had the ability to use humor. "Good to know. Can you tell that to all the other slimes?"

The slime girl introduced herself and said that she always wanted to try a milkshake. So... had she never had one before? Rika felt a little sorry for her. To have never had a milkshake in one's life was something she couldn't even bear to think about. "I'm Rika," she said, offering her hand to shake. "I didn't see any when I came from over there--" she pointed back in the direction of the tteokbokki stand-- "so we should keep going in the other direction." It took her only a few moments to finish off the tteokbokki. Damn this stuff was hot. "Let's get a move on. I really need something to cool down after that spice, and you seem like you're really hungry yourself." As she started walking, she asked the girl, "How did you get here, anyway? Did you come through a portal, too?"

Pori

"Yeah, I kinda wandered in here just now," Rika said in response to Pori's question. She almost snorted at the reference to her own character class. Who knew that when she picked that option from Earth-chan, all she would end up doing afterward was wandering from place to place? "I'm from America. What about you?" It seemed clear that neither of them knew much about the area, although Pori knew a bit more than Rika. If they stuck together it would be less likely they'd get hopelessly lost.

Rika still wasn't sure what to make of the jiggly girl. She seemed sweet and innocent and driven solely by base physical needs. But as much as the older teen wanted to believe in her, she couldn't let her guard down that easily. Otherwise she could be easily lured into a trap by the girl's act... though if Pori had any nefarious motives, she was doing a darn good job at hiding them. Rika never thought of herself as especially good at reading people. So to be on the safe side, it was best to be suspicious of everyone. She did feel a little bad for harboring such thoughts toward the girl - presuming she was as innocent as she seemed? - but she was sure Pori would understand, if it ever came to pass that she was called out on it.

So they walked onward, Rika waiting for the moment when slimes would jump out of nowhere and Pori would - allegedly - scare them off with whatever ferocious powers she had, but something else caught her attention before they ran into any slimes. It was another street stall, and praise be, it was hawking drinks. "Banana milk! Banana milk!" Was this some kind of smoothie concoction. As she came up to the stand, she saw there were many more flavors on offer: strawberry, melon, lychee and peach, and even a coffee-flavored bottle. "Which one do you want?" she asked Pori.

Pori

"Canada, huh. So you like... ride a moose to school or something?" The girl made it easy to talk and joke with her. Rika liked that. She frowned when Pori mentioned that she hadn't figured out a way back to Canada yet. Maybe Earth-chan was still setting up waypoints there, for the same reason that she hadn't found a way back to Las Vegas either. "I'm sure someone will figure it out. All those people can't have just disappeared into thin air, right? I mean, you found your way here. Maybe they have to... I dunno... unlock the portal from their side before it'll be open." She was just spewing words at this point. No one could reasonably know what had happened to all of the cities that weren't connected to a big safe zone. Beijing, Chicago, and Paris, just to name a few. She just didn't want to be a damper on the girl's spirits, not when they seemed to be getting along so well. "And yeah, don't go to New York. I hear people there are so stuck up." She hadn't actually visited the city, but there was a certain coastal solidarity that she felt obligated to maintain. "Come to L.A. instead. We have all the best beaches."

Pori was getting ready to pay at the drink stand, and Rika was not about to be outdone. "Screw it. Give me one of all of the flavors too." She reached out with a fistful of money before Pori could pay in her place. No way was she going to owe anything to a girl she had just met. When the drinks were handed over, she ripped the plastic cover off the bottle labeled "strawberry" before tipping it into her mouth. Cool and refreshing liquid hit her lips as she chugged it noisily. It was not quite a milkshake - it was something quite different, but good and sweet all the same. Before she knew it she had downed the entire bottle. "Mmm," she said, breaking into a grin.

"Dare you to try the 'leeches' one next," she said to Pori.

Pori

Apparently New York had a beach as well. Rika thought it must be pretty sad compared to L.A.'s own beaches, though. She'd never actually been to one, but she'd seen enough Hollywood movies. "Maybe I should go to the beach sometime..." she mused. It seemed the other girl didn't have much interest in going to her own home either. Not like all the people flooding the chat channels crying out for their family. Rika had since made her peace with that.

Pori grabbed the lychee drink and chugged it down without hesitation, declaring her love for it. Rika was in the middle of deciding between banana and melon, but on the girl's recommendation, she supposed she'd give the odd drink a try. At first the sweet taste of peaches hit her mouth, followed by something a bit more unusual, but sweet all the same. "You're not wrong. This is pretty good." The taste of spice had largely subsided in her mouth, so she drank her second bottle a little slower, taking periodic sips.

Then the girl asked her a strange question. Do you value survival? "I mean, who doesn't?" she responded right away. After thinking about it a little more, it occurred to her that in this strange new world, there might be some people who treated it differently. Some who thought of it like a game - she'd seen mission boards crop up, and some people seemed to delight in finding monsters to fight, or even other people. Of course a lot of those people were probably dead now. "What about you?" She turned the question back on Pori. "I mean, even though you're just a kid, you seem to have it pretty figured out, huh?"

Pori