bigapplesauce | Zagreus' arrival [Open]

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Zagreus' arrival [Open]

The first thing Zagreus is aware of, is the obnoxious degree of coldness in the air. In fact, he can see his breath; that's just downright inauspicious, for waking up.

Not that an inhospitably cold atmosphere is out of the ordinary. No, not in the slightest, and his immediate response is a sort of resigned annoyance. However, the sight that greets his eyes, looking beyond his offensively visible breath, is definitely not expected.

Open sky, framed by stark bare branches. He starts to get up...only to slide gracelessly from the crook of the tree he'd apparently been passed out and huddling in, with a noise of general outrage.

Luckily it's a very short fall, but it's still disorienting when you aren't expecting it, and he definitely isn't. Brushing himself off and narrowing his eyes at his decidedly parkish surroundings, Zagreus tries to recall if maybe, just perhaps, there is a reason this is happening. Nothing presents itself. How typically uncooperative of reality.

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"I'm not sure it's really that enviable," she answers, an admission of her own. Look at them bonding and sharing, or whatever this is. "I mean, at least you've got an idea of what you want and what you don't want."

Just no specific plan of how to get it. Whereas Lucy has no goals or ambitions, but actually has some knowledge of, well, how to be mundane. How to go about getting things. They'd make a great team.

Sure, a great team, if you ignore the likely eventual destruction of probably a lot of things. Or maybe that's what makes teams great? A question for the ages.

"More an idea of what I don't want. Which is, basically any part of this." Not that he's exactly a stranger to want, but specificity tends to escape him in that regard as in any other. His wants tend to be fickle and often actually contradictory, or just inchoate stirrings of will. Want is more a thing he is than a thing he does with any clarity. "But surely there are things you want, or want to avoid." Apathy only goes so far. And prying at others is more interesting than being petulant about reality.

Great and terrible, perhaps. But Lucy might be able to keep him out of the worst of troubles. Maybe.

She shrugs again. "Quite a few things I can't have," she answers. Some of which basically involves not being the person she currently is. It would probably be easier if she actually cared about the things she used to. But she's not about to ask for help this time - she's become more averse to having people fiddle with her mind, after she spent so much time rebuilding it.

"Honestly I didn't think I'd be alive past yesterday, so I didn't really plan ahead." As for what she wants to avoid... Feeling like she currently is, probably. There's just this empty feeling.

"Then surely this is a step up from that, at least. Not being dead, always a good start in most endeavours." Despite the sarcasm, this is bordering on optimism, which almost feels dirty. But really, as being supportive goes, this is grade A work, relatively speaking.

"Why didn't you think you'd be alive past yesterday? Was it going to be a painful death?" He is, naturally, curious and morbid and morbidly curious. But there is also the matter of...what commonality might be behind them both turning up here. Not that pure chance isn't an appealing culprit, but one never knows.

Honestly, Zagreus is being positively helpful. Relatively speaking, perhaps, but still.

"Too quick to be painful, I think," she answers, wrapping up the last of her sandwich and putting it in the fridge for later. "An explosion to kill the Master. I set it off, everything went bright, and then I woke up here." Lucy doesn't terribly mind the morbid. Or the curious, really. For all she knows, she might be dead and this is some sort of afterlife. It doesn't really feel like it, though.

An afterlife that has Zagreus as any sort of inhabitant would be pretty disappointing. "What sort of explosion? Some chrono-spatial whatever, or the garden variety sort?" Sometimes explosions tear open rifts between universes. Mostly they just blow things up. But with her involved it's really more of a 50/50 chance. "...Any particular reason you wanted to kill the Master? Not that it's ever really a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon but...well, I suppose I could fault you in particular even less." He's getting sidetracked, but one has to admit it's interesting.

"Well, technically he was already dead, but they were trying to resurrect him. Given what happened last time, I couldn't let that happen," she answers. And if no one else were going to stop him, she had to, you know? Not like she was getting anything else done, stuck in prison.

"I don't really know how it worked. They were bringing him back, but I had this... this counteragent, and it caused an explosion." But then the writers probably didn't even know how that worked, so who can blame her?

He nods as though this is all fairly standard stuff. "So, probably the former. I wonder under what circumstances the other poor souls tend to arrive?" These are the kinds of things he wants to know, and that he could probably find out most easily by being affiliated with someone. If he could just get a grasp of the logic and rules of this situation, he'd feel a lot less dispossessed.

Surprisingly fastidious, he disposes of his meal's trash and takes up a morosely boneless position on the couch. Remarkably relaxed of him, when it's not his space, but he can't even be bothered in his current state, and she's no threat anyway.

"Any circumstance whatsoever, is the impression I've been given," Lucy answers with a shrug. Not that she has gotten any first-hand accounts regarding this. She hadn't asked Peter, and hasn't really had an indepth conversation with anyone else.

See, Zagreus is being a good guest, cleaning up after himself and everything. And yes, Lucy is essentially harmless, after all. It's unlikely she could be much of a threat to him even if she wanted to, unless she was very determined. Like, 'blow him up' level of determined, but she reserves that for her special someone.

Ah. So that's that idea terminated. There's probably not a pattern there to dig out. He sighs. He isn't even really sure why this is so frustrating a circumstance, but given time he'll be a rankling mass of negativity and potential violence.

More's the pity, really. A nice threat would do him a world of good, quite possibly. He'd have no question how to deal with that, and it'd be wonderfully settling to the nerves. "I'm in your debt, you know." When he says this, it sounds like a warning. The food and shelter are trivial, and if she has any sense, she'll know that. He would have gotten by without either, decently enough, though admittedly probably with more troublemaking. But answering all his questions, and not making him the authorities' problem instead of hers, well.

"Didn't think you'd be one to care about debts," she answers, going back to settle on the bed. She isn't really expecting anything in return, except maybe a future unwillingnes to sell her out or something to that effect. What are friends for?

And he hasn't been a problem to her. Honestly, it's nice to have someone to talk to who isn't so easily phased by the details of her life. And neither of them has the highest opinion of the Doctor. There's a familiarity there, and she hardly cares about pleasing the authorities, or about making his life difficult. She's just not a very spiteful person, not unless she has reason to be.

He feigns offense, at that. "Lady, you wound me." Truth be told, Zagreus cares about debts with the geas-like compulsion of any fairytale creature, and with the same propensity for repaying them in the most harmful manner possible, regardless of the spirit in which they were intended. Still, he doesn't actually bear her any specific ill will. Aside from that brief spat in their earliest meeting, where she'd thought he was the Doctor, she's treated him fairly neutrally. This is a surprisingly safe strategy. Her apathy may well be a blessing in disguise.

"My sincerest apologies," she answers, not particularly sincerely. "But please don't feel pressured to repay me, et cetera."

What she meant is that she doesn't think Zagreus cares about returning kindness for the sake of it. And she's never cared enough to be properly scared or disgusted by him - she saves that for her husband. Her feelings about Zagreus is probably something like positive but vaguely disapproving, which ends up somewhere around neutral.

No, that concept would definitely be foreign to him. It has yet to occur to him that kindness might motivate her at all. He generally assumes that people operate more or less like himself. He strikes up with people or does things to/for them out of boredom frequently. It's a great way to get things happening.

"You needn't worry about that. But perhaps you'll need a favour someday." This is like some awful parody of the lion and the mouse fable.

"Perhaps," she agrees. The situation is weird enough that there might be plenty unforeseen events yet in store for her, so who knows.

"If these rebel people decide to get tetchy about something or other, or if a common friend of ours shows up, it's not entirely unlikely." They have a lot of common "friends" who could cause trouble, after all. Very few of them she would actually welcome. And the ones she would like to see aren't the sort to make trouble.

There are indeed plenty of mutual acquaintances who might kick up a fuss if they knew Zagreus was in a densely populated area uncontained. But he hadn't really thought of her as someone terribly likely to inspire enmity, unless it's just by association via her husband. He just really hasn't kept up with the social sphere like he ought to. Tsk, tsk.

"As much as it pains me to say, if any common friends show up, you'd probably do well to let my name go unsaid." Of course he wants the drop on anyone and everyone. But just as a piece of friendly advice, anyone with a history of brainwashing might warrant suspicion, if they're known to have been in contact with him.

"Of course," she agrees. "For both our sakes, probably." Most of them aren't very pleased with Zagreus, and would definitely be suspicious if they found out him and Lucy had been buddying up. Even if they haven't actually done anything to arouse suspicion.

Granted, Lucy herself doesn't have an awful lot of enemies, and generally doesn't pose much of a threat. But she tends to mingle in controversial circles, to put it mildly. They're certainly more interesting, and tend to be less judgemental and annoying to deal with.

Indeed, he'd mostly said it for her sake. It's not like he's worried about being found out by anyone from their universe, or like he would avoid them for any amount of time. It's just the idea of being an unexpected factor that appeals. And it would be such a waste for Lucy to get incarcerated or have her mind forcibly checked out when he hadn't even done anything.

"Though, if anyone else should turn up...I wouldn't mind hearing about it. In fact, I'd be most appreciative." If someone they know is going to wind here, Zagreus wouldn't take any bets on who it's likely to be. Really, given that this is a pretty strange situation, it's only a matter of time before some Doctor or other shows up.

"I'll keep that in mind," Lucy answers with a smile. "And likewise, really. Best to have some warning." She's not entirely sure she'd like to be Zagreus' informant, but in most cases she wouldn't mind telling him either. There are a few she's like to protect, people she's actually ended up caring for. Some of them can hold their own against Zagreus, and some of them probably can't. But for the majority of them, she doesn't care too much. She'd rat on the Doctor in a second, probably.

"Certainly. Very sensible." See, Zagreus is capable of interacting with people without resorting to violence, trickery, or mental invasion, and having the outcome be favourable to everyone involved. Magic! As long as that person is amoral and hasn't any expectations for him to live up to.

"You know, you're a lot more sane than I would have expected, all things considered." This is his version of commenting on the wallpaper, and it shows in his idle tone.

Magic indeed! Lucky for Lucy.

"I've put some work into it," she agrees. Perhaps not entirely sane, by most people's standards, but more stable, which is something. "Who'd think a year and a half in solitary confinement would improve one's mental state?" Given that this is Zagreus, she doesn't really want to discuss her mind too intimately. But he has a point.

Who better to discuss it with? It's not like he'll forget it's there if she doesn't mention it for long enough. "That does seem to be a bit of an oddity. I was never incarcerated for nearly that long, and it never did my mind any favours." Admittedly one of those times had been in a watch in a pond, and more than one of those times had been preceded by some degree of mental torture. That might factor in somewhere.

That probably would make a difference, yes. Lucy's incarceration signified the end of mental torture, relief, and the saving of the world. It was complicated. But it allowed her some peace of mind, and time to work through her issues a litte bit. It probably also could've gone the exact other way and just made her crazier. Who knows.

"To be fair, isolation was probably an upgrade from what I had before. And no one interfered with my mind while I was there."

This seems reasonable enough. "Isolation is, in my opinion, almost always an upgrade." Sensory deprivation is not and being trapped is certainly not. But yes, give him a suitably solitary environment and he'll not be the worse for wear, as long as he's not agitated to begin with. "Was mental interference something to worry about?" That sounds a lot more in keeping with his imprisonment experiences.

"Well, it was while I was staying with Harry - the Master," she answers. She still tends to think of him as Harry, even though that's not his real name, nor the name most people associated with the Doctor know him as. "He seemed to treat my mind as a playground, honestly." It's interesting that he, who had an interest in keeping her safe and happy, was so careless and invasive, where as Zagreus who probably couldn't give a shit, only did it with permission.

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