Nope has tried to keep busy in the face of now officially being tasked with taking down the Big Bad Villains instead of just... generally helping and hoping for the best. Nope had to be honest, the latter was kind of what he was doing before, though in his defense, he hasn't been doing this long and his power is terrifying to him. Stop a few bad guys, but a lot of watching the forest, trying to see what is going on with Raphael, Manchineel, just... everything. Without getting murdered very dead. Staying in touch with his new colleagues, too. By giving a lot of prior warning to him popping up, as Nope started to notice... regular people being terrified of him. Well, he can't really blame them given his powers and kind of creepy indistinct "appearance" as Nope... but after momentary frustration, it kind of just makes him a little sad and want to stay entirely out of view. So Floral, Helios, and Ariadne see a kind of subdued Nope. Who apparently also has a habit of reintroducing himself, then apologizing when they actually remember him.

When Watcher tells them Raphael is on its own, it's time to dive into the forest, which is mildly terrifying. Thus imagine his baffled surprise when a seemingly regular person just wanders through it. He is in halted personal time for a moment, just kind of checking if he is imagining things, until he goes back to normal time, tries to not make his appearance too surprising. Hands balling, opening again. And the woman just adresses them with all the calm in the world. Okay... wait, he actually recognizes her. Kind of. Second-handedly, in a way.

"Uh, are you Miss... Peters, was it?" Nope ventures, wanting to make sure. There is the feeling of him side-eyeing nowhere in particular, trying to think of how to handle this. "Are you actually... safe...ish here? Only heard hearsay about that." Now that he says this, given how Ms. Peters talks, it sounds pretty dumb, if he has to be honest with himself. And now he has to figure out how to talk to her. Would she get put in danger simply by talking to them and not telling Manchineel? Or them telling her something about what they are planning or asking her about Raphael?

...As the train of thought tries its best to reach a decision, he kind of hopes the others chime in first, now that he already blundered into this.