Zagreus' arrival [Open]

[antitimelord]

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.

Comments

[antitimelord]

"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.

[essentiallyharmless]

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.

[antitimelord]

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.

[essentiallyharmless]

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."

[antitimelord]

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.

[essentiallyharmless]

"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.

[antitimelord]

What an odd situation that must have been all around. He and the Master are not entirely dissimilar. But ascending to any sort of power by means of political election? Not exactly the top of Zagreus' strategy pile, though it's hard to say he wouldn't resort to it in a pinch. Likewise, he doesn't entirely understand the motivation in keeping humans. They can be enjoyably manipulated, but it isn't exactly difficult or worth revisiting...the true artistry lies in how to set up a domino effect with those manipulations. He supposes she must have been compelling despite her relative lack of value as a target. It really does take some degree of familiarity and interest to breed contempt for boundaries beyond the purely incidental.

"Then your mind was in good company with the rest of the universe, as I understand it." The Master he remembers is more orderly, but hers was mad, more than mad enough to make the universe a plaything. That at least he can understand.

[essentiallyharmless]

Lucy can't even begin to contemplate the Master's motivation when it came to their relationship these days. She knows she was good for him, in the beginning. She calmed him, distracted him, grounded him a little, and she knows he cared, but it wasn't enough. Especially once h had reached his primary goal and had time to waste. He got bored, and frustrated with the Doctor, and often he took that out on her. She's not sure why he thought it fit to play with her mind. She hasn't considered it for a long time.

"Fortunately for them, though, they didn't have to remember it," she anwers, just a touch bitterly. It's almost tempting to ask Zagreus for another favour. But she's not that desperate, and she's grown used to having a mind that mostly sort of works, and isn't particularly keen on jeopardising that.