bigapplesauce | Zagreus' arrival [Open]

Current Location: The ground. Central Park?

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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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A kindness to everyone involved, probably. And honestly, Lucy knows extremely little about Zagreus, except that he wasn't very popular at the parties, that he seems to like to burn down things, and that he's capable of rewriting her mind. Which isn't exactly a very promising start if you mostly want to avoid trouble, but since when has Lucy been bothered about consequences anyhow?

She smiles and gestures for him to follow, leading the way out of the park. She hasn't had time to really familiarise herself with the city or neighbourhood, but it's crawling with places to eat pretty much everywhere, so it'll hardly be difficult to find someplace.

"I contacted the rebel group myself. They sounded less inclined to meddle with my life, and I've had just about enough of all-powerful governments," she explains.

Being concerned with consequences is for losers anyway. But it's likely she's more able to think along those lines than he is, and she's right to think that he is, at best, a troublesome party guest and at worst a hazard to life and limb. But for now at least he maintains his (relatively) gracious demeanor, following her from the park, though he's pretty clearly bristling at the future under the surface.

All-powerful governments? He hasn't had any dealings with those, but is opposed to them on the same principle as the factions and their nosiness. "And have they proven to be less meddlesome, then? Of course, you're only human, what's to meddle with." Don't take it badly, in this case it's a blessing, really. Despite her explanation it doesn't occur to him that she might speak from experience about the powers thing, and he doesn't know enough of her history to mark her down as actually fairly competent, and worth keeping track of.

"As of yet, yes." Though, true, there hasn't been much to meddle with. Not yet, anyhow. And she's pretty used to humans being considered simple or unimportant, so no worries. "They seem to be more positive towards us immigrants having actual rights, at least."

"Not sure what they'd make of you, though," she adds after a second. "Like you said, I'm only human. They might be more interested in checking you out thoroughly."

Zagreus is very sure being 'checked out' is completely unacceptable. He isn't even sure they'd have the instrumentation for it, for one, and he doubts they'd like anything they found, if they did. Though, being the center of any kind of attention does have its own appeal, and he's relatively certain he'd be a show-stealer of a find, no matter how odd the things the rift coughs up tend to be. ~~What if they falsely determined him to be completely harmless, and not too dangerous to walk free at all? Perish the thought.~~ But who knows if they even have the resources for anything like that? Or the resources to be useful in any way at all?

"Well of course. 'Actual rights' wouldn't include any manner of privacy or integrity, naturally." These still just don't seem like too different of options, here; caging is better than culling, but not by a whole lot. "Is anyone actually trying to get away from this, this zoo?"

"Naturally," she agrees. Though to be fair, it wasn't that terrible and invasive. Lots of people probably have worse times at customs. Not that she ever did - always flying first class and being a respectable, rich, white woman meant having some respect shown, even by airport security.

"I assume someone is. Some probably succeed, too, though I'm not sure how. They're watching all of the exits out of the city," she says as they cross the street, heading towards the shops.

Watching all the exits, and probably watching her on some level too; no matter how harmless and human she's been playing it. He needs to know more about them, before he shows his hand, at the very least. Maybe she can be convinced to play spy? Not that he's in any position to bargain...not like he's ever managed to coerce anyone into doing anything subtle...

"But you don't know of anyone actively working with that goal." He eyes the city in a way that somehow manages to be absently watchful, following her with the sort of trust displayed by those used to not knowing or caring where precisely they are, before turning his scrutiny her way. "Notably, you are not working toward that goal yourself. I take it you've settled in, then?" He manages to sound only a little disdainful.

"I hardly know anyone here yet," Lucy points out. Peter didn't much care for the city, but he didn't seem... ambitious? Adventurous? Brave? Reckless? Something like that. Not enough to take the initiative to try and get out of here, anyway. The only other people she's met were rebels.

"I've tried not to get involved. Unlike you, I don't mind settling," she answers. Though it's a bit (or a lot) of a lie. She's not sure exactly what she wants to be doing. She suddenly has far more options than she's had in years - or ever, really. No responibilities to family or friends, even. Settling in has mostly been what she's been doing to postpone any sort of choice or ambition. And part of her doesn't even care.

Yes, it's a despair-filled sort of freedom, isn't it? For her. Still a vast step down for him. But he's at least the sort who could imagine feeling liberated by a catastrophe.

"And what will settling entail, then? No powerful shadows to stand in at the moment, are there." Hey, it's not like she'd seemed broken up about her husband's death. "At some point you might have to cast one of your own."

She's doesn't seem broken up about his death maybe, but she is. Though not in a conventional sense. It's not really the death itself, but the necessity of it, and of her having to bring it about. It's all kind of complicated and painful, and acting blasé about it is an easy defense. Apathy comes easy to her.

"I'm sure there's plenty if I decided to go looking for them," she answers with feigned nonchalance. Hell, they already tried to have her fight for the rebels, whatever that would entail. Or she could go help Romac. Plenty of shadows. "Perhaps it's easiest not to stand tall enough to cast one," she comments, partly to herself.

Not exactly like he'd have been sensitive in speaking about it even if she had seemed upset. Honestly that would have been much less likely to keep his behaviour in check. At least this way the seeming lack of emotional vulnerability keeps them on closer to equal footing, not that he'll ever not be disdainful of her humanity, as a general rule. And yes normally he'd probably have a better sense of her inner turmoil, but really, apathy is a great cloaking mechanism, and he is rather distracted by the feeling of being trapped.

"What do you think I intend to do? At least for now." It's inevitable he'll make ripples somewhere along the way. But until he has a better idea what is going on he does intend to remain as inconspicuous as his nature and attention span will allow. She has a point.

When it comes to Zagreus, Lucy has an inkling of what to expect. Compassion and sensitivity is not really part of it, so at least she won't be disappointed or feel betrayed. Even if she does end up allowing him to see that she's vulnerable, there's only so much damage he can do. Well, unless he specifically sets out to hurt her that is, in which case there's probably a lot of damage he could do, but let's avoid that.

"Any idea where you'll sleep?" she asks, because that's something he should probably figure out. Bit too cold for most people to sleep outside.

And Lucy has decided to say fuck it try and figure out where it's cheap to eat, and decided to just take Zagreus to a Subway. Whatever, it's food, and they have places to sit. She steps inside it and holds the door open for him.

Oh, she'll question whether he eats, but not whether he sleeps? Admittedly she may have witnessed him waking up and falling from a tree, so there's that to consider. But again, she does have a point. Even if he isn't exactly normal in his sleeping habits, it's still a thing to think about. And think about it is exactly what he hasn't done; getting the hell out has taken priority.

He raises an eyebrow at her choice in restaurant, if such it can be called, but that's as much commentary as he feels compelled to make as he follows her in. Wow, warmth is great. Sandwich smells aren't bad either, come to that. He isn't as susceptible to the cold as most, but that sure doesn't mean he has any love of it either. "No idea, no." He admits with a glower. THESE AREN'T THINGS HE'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE TO CONSIDER. Sure, things tend to go a little bumpily for you if all of reality is antithetical to you and generally opposed to your existence, but this is just stupid.

Hey, Subway is affordable and lets you be very specific with what you eat. Also it's familiar, which is the main selling point at the moment. And close. It's good enough.

"You could borrow my couch for a couple days, but that would put you within a rebel-controlled building," she offers, joining the line to order. Hell if she knows why she's offering, but it's not like she wants to spend an awful lot of time there, or feels very protective of the space. And there's that 'fuck consequences' thing, which helps.

Now, now. Who says there are even necessarily any consequences to letting Zagreus in your house? Maybe don't set expectations too high on the dishes-doing or not causing nightmares for shits n giggles front, but at least maybe the whole rebel-controlled building thing will give him the sense of caution he lacks inherently.

He's surprised at her offer, and at how level-headed and generally informative she's been all around. Not that he knows her to be flighty especially, but still. He decides to gamble on the rebels not watching her too closely. He still hasn't ruled out mindwashing her into some simple spying, though he also hasn't ruled out just asking her either, with the same frankness she's been using. Either way, this isn't a bad idea, if it lets him find out more about a group with knowledge of the Rift. And speaking of frankness..."Why are you doing this? What do you get from it?"

Lucy has nightmares anyway. Nothing new there. And Lucy doesn't even have dishes yet. The apartment came somewhat furnished, but not fully equipped with things like that.

She doesn't answer his question immediately. "I'm not entirely sure," she answers honestly. "Company of a familiar face? Distraction? Pure altruism?" she suggests. That last one probably isn't true. Not that she hasn't done charity work and such before, but she's been low on philanthropy in the last couple of years. She's far too indifferent to have a ~~master~~ grand plan behind it.

Mentally he settles somewhere near 'distraction' for likeliest to be true. It's not like 'why not' isn't a sentiment he fully understands and empathises with, either. He nods agreeably enough, and is content to let the matter rest until he's ordered food. He's even too distracted and brought down by circumstances to make his order anything especially outlandish.

"Well. To familiar faces and altruism, then." Any and all possible ironies are not lost on him, as he offers a mocking toast.

"Indeed," Lucy answers with amusement. "You're actually not the first familiar face I've seen, though. When I arrived, the first person I met was a man with the Doctor's face, the version of the Doctor I'm used to. He was quite human, though." And she sincerely doubts his motivation for helping her was altruism. His intentions were quite obviously less than pure. Not that she minded at the time.

She gets herself a subway club and a drink. "Stay here or back to my apartment? It's not far."

He has to roll his eyes at that. Someone always has the Doctor's face. It's pretty much a universal constant, it means things are operating as intended, etc. He resists the urge to mutter anything about fobwatches, though he reserves the right to investigate in more depth later. But really, it could be anything.

"Your apartment, then." The warmth here is very appealing, but beyond that he isn't eager to linger in a Subway no matter how nice the sandwiches smell. "How human is 'quite' human? Moreso than usual, presumably."

Lucy nods and leads the way. Thankfully it's not far, just a couple blocks.

"Well, he seemed quite unused to the idea of aliens, at least until he got here," she answers. "Probably it's just the fact that all my social interaction lately has been at those intergalactic parties." It did seem to change her expectations a bit. He's the first one she'd met in ages who wasn't used to time travel and all those things that came with being familiar with the Doctor.

He supposes a preponderance of intergalactic parties might skew one's perceptions a bit. ...How do people even kill time without intergalactic parties and casual mayhem? His outlook on this misadventure is just getting more and more negative.

"Yes, I imagine that was quite a shock. To both of you, really. Any other familiar faces?"

"None that I've seen yet, but then I've barely met anyone besides you and him, and it seems a bit of a coincidence to run into the only two familiar faces so quickly if there aren't others," she answer, pulling her coat closer around herself as they walk.

"Oh," she adds suddenly, remembering. "There's a forum here, too, or whatever you would call it. You need a special kind of smartphone, but apparently they're quite easy to get hold of." She pulls hers out of her pocket and hands it to him so he can investigate.

Well. Maybe that's logical and maybe it isn't. Who is he to judge? But he suspects she may be right, either way. It's a small multiverse, afterall.

"Who maintains this forum? Who has access to it?" He inspects the phone, though he's not exactly sure what he's inspecting it for, but launching every eyecatching app in quick succession seems like the best way to find out. As of right now, it doesn't seem like an especially useful resource, and if it's a faction specific tool then count him out, of course. ...The GPS might be useful though. If it has that, and if his presence doesn't convince it they're currently located in a body of water. He wants one anyway.

"Not sure who maintains it, but apparently anyone can use it. There's ways to lock it to specific groups or people though," she answers, watching him fiddle it it. "Or so I'm told, I haven't really used it much." She's not really one for that dang new-fangled technology, et cetera.

"Here we are," she says suddenly, as they arrive at an unremarkable building. There's no obviously apparent security (though it's obvious there must be some, just not that noticable), and they can slip in quietly.

Well, convenience will likely win out over paranoia in the end. Though wouldn't it be a genius notion to set up a network like that and then monitor it? As they'd discussed earlier, altruism is the rarest of motives.

"Seems nice enough, for alien refugee housing." The place is unremarkable, but he keeps an eye on it for any means of surveillance anyway. Surely more conspicuous beings have turned up in Manhattan than himself, but he can't expect to blend in, at least to someone on the lookout for the unusual. He follows her in and tries not to think about any other instances of having been reduced to such mundanity in the past. Though hey, at least he's himself this time. That's always a good feeling. Well no, it's terrible, but there are worse alternatives.

"Given it's free, I won't complain too much," Lucy agrees, leading the way to the elevator. There's security cameras, but who knows how closely they're actually watched. Not to mention there's a lot of strange people in this building. Victorian ponce is hardly the weirdest thing.

"Mind you, I moved in a few hours ago, so I hope you're not expecting the tastefully decorated home of a Lady. Or curtains. Or plates." She did go and stock up her fridge a little though, and got like, toilet paper and such. But that's about it.

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