kaisou | [001] Your childhood home is just powder-white bones

Varian comes up to the rooftop on the regular. With his earth elemental powers, he needs to get a decent amount of sunlight every day to function. It's not ideal, given he'd rather stay inside, but needs must. He was sitting in a quiet corner of the rooftop taking in some sunlight when the melody cuts through his thoughts, distracting him from anything else.

He shifts in his seating spot, craning his neck to try and locate the source of the singing. When he finally clocks Orpheus, he raises his hand in greeting. He's a little loathe to interrupt the singing, but it also feels like intruding otherwise, so-

"Uh, hey. That's... a nice melody."

Orpheus doesn't notice there's someone up there with him at first, too wrapped up in his own problems to pay much attention to his surroundings. As such, he starts a little at the sound of an unfamiliar voice, turning to look as the birds scatter at the sudden movement.

"Oh, um." He blinks, owlishly, trying to anchor himself back in the moment after losing himself in the singing. His voice is quiet and soft-spoken, and his expression is one of resting heartbreak once the surprise wears off. "Thank you. It's an old song."

Older than the seasons. He feels a little strange, singing it here and now, but it had felt right in the moment, at least, and he's never been good a resisting that kind of impulse.

"I'm Orpheus. It's nice to meet you? I, um, just got here yesterday."

"Yeah? I've never heard it before. I liked it though."

Varian's noticed he's definitely spooked the man and feels a little guilty for it. But he thinks being unaware of an audience would probably be...worse. Maybe. He smiles awkwardly anyway, trying to put the guy at ease.

"Oh wow, you're really new. Hi, I'm Varian nice to meet you-" a pause. "Like...went into Hades, Orpheus?"

Zagreus is here so why not, honestly, but it's good to check!

It's pretty late, but Fern is still out regardless. He needs to stretch his legs after being in the library for so many hours, and doing a little scouting mission around his old home to check for any danger is a good way to clear his head.

He's still getting used to the human city, but even he really isn't expecting to find some curled up in the fetal position sobbing his heart out. Stopping where he is, he looks around confusedly before approaching. "Bro, you okay...?"

Stupid question. He is very clearly not okay.

Zagreus is... well, living the vagabond life, more or less. He hasn't found a place to live, and it's not like he really sleeps anyway, so he's just hanging around in various places, trying to help out where he can and make sure his dog gets fed.

Which means he's in a pretty prime position a man just showing out of bloody nowhere and starting to sob. Which-- that's probably a portal thing, surely? And the bloke clearly isn't taking it well.

He heads over, crouching down next to the man. "Uh, d'you need help, mate?" ...Frankly crying is not something he's had to deal with often. The dead he runs across have more or less gotten used to their status by the time he meets them.

For a moment, the only response Orpheus can really muster is to shake his head, crying too hard to form words or get himself back upright. He doesn't want to be rude, though, so he does his best to pull himself together, forcing himself to take deep breaths until he can sit back up and try to take in his surroundings.

"Sorry," he says, voice raspy and thick with tears still as he dries his eyes on the back of his hand. "I'm just, um-"

And then it strikes him just what he's looking at. The buildings are taller than any he's seen before, brighter even than those of Hadestown, and under the strangest sky he's ever seen, ribbons of color snaking through the air. He looks back to the man speaking to him, the utter devastation on his face replaced, at least for now, with confusion.

"Um. Where am I?"

Orpheus just shakes his head, still doubled over with his forehead nearly pressed to the ground. He's not okay! He's pretty sure nothing will ever be okay again, actually! Eurydice's gone, gone, gone, and whatever just happened was nothing but a cruel reminder that he can't undo his mistakes.

It's tempting to just stay there on the ground until this person decides to leave him to it, but that would be very rude, and even as swallowed up by his own misery as he is he wouldn't feel right taking it out on someone else. So he forces himself to take some deep breaths until he can straighten back up again and wipe the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, looking up and oh that's not quite what he was expecting?

"Oh, um. Sorry. Is this place yours?"

He's assuming, as any reasonable person would, that he's stumbled across some kind of nymph, and that this is his glade. Or... something? Nymphs don't usually settle in cities, now that he thinks about it, but stranger things have happened, he guesses.

Yeah, that's fair. Fern will wait there patiently, glancing around a little, feeling awkward as heck but not wanting to leave someone so obviously in distress on his own. He looks confused by that question, and shakes his head.

"Here? Nah, I think whoever runs the city owns the place. It's pretty nice though, I guess," he replies, scratching one cheek. "How come you think I own it?"

For a moment, it doesn't seem like Orpheus understands the question. He blinks at Varian, owlishly, brows furrowing in confusion before it sinks in.

He doesn't stop looking confused. If anything, it only gets worse - has news of what happened spread so quickly? And to - what is this place again? Another world, somehow? But the wave of absolute devastation that washes over him at the reminder sort of eclipses all of that. His face falls and he looks away, shoulders sagging as he fidgets with the strap of his guitar.

"I - um, yes," he says, seeing no reason to lie about it or even try to avoid answering. "I didn't know people knew about that already, here."

He doesn't sound very happy about it.

Varian realises, maybe about ten seconds into Orpheus looking like the most confused puppy in the universe, that he probably didn't handle this in the most delicate way possible. He makes a choked, panicked noise, waving his hands quickly.

"Oh no...no!" oh god, of course he wouldn't know he's a well-known myth, why WOULD he? "It's um- a story I heard. When I was little."

Shit shit shit, how can he salvage this?

"Time works weird here! Like...I'm from your future, but a lot of people here are from my future. Anyway, in my time your story is well-known. Because it happened a long time ago!"

That's technically not a lie!

Zagreus will... try an awkward pat on the back. There there?

He looks back at the city before looking down at the man next to him. "It's, uh, called Kaisou. Guess you're not from here either, then?"

He tries to look friendly, at least, giving the man a lopsided sort of grin. "I'm Zagreus. What's your name?"

That makes a lot of sense. Orpheus knows a lot of cities have parks like this, and if there are dryads tending to them he hasn't met any in his admittedly brief visits.

"Oh, maybe that was rude to assume? But, you're a nymph, right?" He doesn't look quite like any Orpheus has seen before, but it's more or less the only thing he can think of that'd fit. But maybe that's also an assumption he shouldn't be making? Well, it's too late now, he's already said it out loud. "And I don't normally hear about nymphs coming to the cities unless they have business there. Which I guess you might? Um, sorry."

On the bright side, he does seem to have mostly stopped crying, momentarily distracted by trying to work through this situation here. So that's progress.

The awkward back-pat is appreciated! Orpheus at least tries to look steadied by it, smiling, though it's a bit forced.

"I'm not. I haven't ever been to a city quite like this before." The closest really is Hadestown, but that was underground and still not quite as towering or bright as all this. Or at least not bright in the same way, without the ever-present haze of the factories. "And, I'm not sure how I got here? A moment ago, I was..."

He trails off, before shaking his head. That's not something he wants to talk about right away.

"But, I'm Orpheus. It's nice to meet you?"

That doesn't make him stop looking like a confused puppy, unsurprisingly. Orpheus just watches Varian backpedal furiously, worrying his lip as he tries to puzzle through the implications of all that.

It takes him a minute, during which he glances around and tries to put two and two together. This city does seem much more advanced than any place he's seen before? It hadn't really occurred to him that it could be the future as opposed to just somewhere more sideways in time and space, but...

"Wait," he says, snapping back to focusing on the boy he's talking to as something occurs to him with a sudden desperation. "If I'm - if you know my story, then. Do you know how it ends?"

He's hopeful as he asks. He doesn't clarify what sort of ending he's asking about - it doesn't occur to him to do so. What else could there be, but whether he reunites with Eurydice or not?

Oh no, the confused puppy look is making all of this so much harder. He'd kind of hoped he'd managed to slide past all of this and make a convincing argument and then Orpheus asks that question and his heart sinks. His smile fades- likely giving away what Orpheus is asking him before he speaks a single word.

"...Yeah, I know how it ends."

He really can't...make that any better.

"I um- but this place has...alternate lives, so it might not be the only ending? Y'know?"

"A nymph?" Fern's totally taken aback by the question, but at least he understands what Orpheus is asking. There are nymphs back home, some water nymphs were even neighbours to the Tree Fort! They were always super cool and super nice, and frankly, he wishes he could say he was a plant nymph. That would make his life a lot simpler.

"Dog, it'd be cool if I was, but I'm not," he explains. "There might be some nymphs around here, I haven't seen any but who knows. I haven't been here for very long. But I'm not one, I'm just made outta grass."

Any explanation about this place (what little Zagreus can offer) is halted by that little revelation.

"Is that... a common mortal name?" he asks, not quite tentative but definitely a bit confused. You definitely don't look like the Orpheus he knows. (Though, falling to his knees and sobbing does seem in character for the dramatic man.)

Oh. That's not a promising look Varian is giving him. That desperate energy drains from him, slowly, and his posture sags, shoulders slumping as he looks down at his feet.

Normally he'd cling to that last bit of reassurance, find some choiceless hope to hold onto in the face of his grief, but after everything he's been through in the past few days? It's hard to keep going like that, getting his hopes up over and over again, only to come up empty handed every time.

So he just nods, mutely, quiet for a moment as he tries to think of how to respond.

"Um, thank you," he says. "I think I might've... earned my story's ending. But that's nice of you to say."

"Oh," says Orpheus, brows furrowing. He hiccups a little, in the aftermath of all the tears, and rubs at his eyes before continuing. "Were you always?"

This is probably a rude question! But Orpheus is entirely innocent as he asks it, and it only occurs to him that maybe that's personal a solid three seconds after the words have left his mouth. He jolts a little, wincing apologetically.

"Um, you don't have to answer that, if you don't want to?"

Orpheus blinks at Zagreus, owlishly, as he tries to puzzle out what Zagreus is so puzzled about. Maybe he knows someone else named Orpheus?

"No? Or, at least, I've never met anyone with the same name." And his mother never mentioned naming him for someone, either. He thinks on it for a moment, before the choice of words strikes him. "Are you not mortal, yourself?"

He asks it with no confusion and much less reverence than the average person might - still with some, but more like how one might ask if someone is a doctor, or professor, or other well-respected profession. The presence of gods and other immortals is something that Orpheus is fairly used to, after all.

Well, at least he's being given an out. He hesitates, trying to figure out what he wants to do here. Talking about his whole situation is difficult, especially with a total stranger.

"... No," he answers, shaking his head. "But it's just - really complicated, okay?"

Varian doesn't much like being the bearer of bad news. He definitely doesn't like how upset this has clearly made Orpheus. He might have just met the guy, but no one deserves to have their first few days in a new world plagued with crippling guilt.

"I mean...from the way I heard it, I don't think that's true?" he fidgets with his hands. "But...I do understand uh... feeling that way. I'm sorry. It must be really rough."

"No, I'm not. It's just-- I do know an Orpheus, as well." And as far as he knows, the one he knows is the famous one, so... this guy would probably know that he shares a name with him, yeah?

Or maybe it's the different world thing. Blood and darkness, sometimes this place can be a bit much.

"Oh. That's strange," he says, frowning and unsure of what to say about that. Zagreus seems pretty confused about it, so it seems like there's something he's missing here. He's just not sure what it could be. "Maybe I'll get to meet him, someday? But, um."

He glances around again, worrying his lip. Zagreus is probably fairly important, as immortals tend to be, so Orpheus doesn't want to take up too much of his time with questions, but he is very disoriented.

"You said this place was called Kaisou? Is that the city? Or, um, the country, or the realm, or something? I've never heard of it before."

"Okay. I'm sorry, for asking something I maybe shouldn't have."

He gives the boy a sympathetic look, a little concerned but effectively distracted from his own problems by having someone else's to worry about.

"I'm Orpheus. It's, um. It's nice to meet you? Even if I don't really understand what's going on."

"Fern," he replies stiffly. "I'm Fern."

He gives a little nod, at least knowing what it's like to show up here and be completely confused. "It's cool, man. You'll get used to it, eventually. This place is kinda weird but not that weird, and it's pretty easy to just settle in."

Orpheus's brow furrows, and he opens his mouth to start to ask what Varian means before pausing and thinking it over.

Does he want to know how his story is told? Even if it sounds like this boy is trying to tell him he's at least made out to be sympathetic, he can scarcely imagine what people might have to say about him and what he did. He guesses it's a question of who was doing the telling - Hermes, probably? - but even so...

"I'm sorry to hear that," is what he settles on saying, after a moment's thought. "But, um. How did you hear it told?"

Varian's found it easier living here. Having no one know who he is or what he did until he chooses to tell them is such a weight off. He can have a semi-normal life here, or as normal as this world can be, anyway.

"Oh um. It was a storybook for me. With these stories from ancient Greece? Like the Gods and heroes? Like uh...Zeus and Hades or um- Jason? Achilles? I don't know if any of those are familiar."

Maybe, Hades at least, he'd expect.

"Anyway, the story I heard was that the woman you love was taken to the underworld. You went to rescue her and Hades told you that if you could both walk out, with her walking behind you and you not looking back you could both leave. But you go to the exit and hadn't realised she hadn't quite got there first yet and looked behind you and..." he clears his throat. "And you lost her."

"Oh, um, okay," says Orpheus, frowning as he looks around. It all seems very weird to him, but maybe he shouldn't try to make that call right away. He worries his lip slightly, trying to think of how to start sorting through everything going on right now.

"What is this place, anyway? I'm not really sure how I got here? I was just - walking, and I don't think there were any big cities near where I was."

"It's the city, yeah. Though, the realm is different from wherever you were? That... happens, for some reason."

He shrugs, messing up his hair. "Honestly I've not got the best grasp on it, but it seems we're all stuck here until we find a way to get back home."

"It's a whole other universe than wherever you were before. And it's a whole big human city, if you don't got those back home," Fern explains. "Uh, if you haven't heard this before, your universe isn't the only one out there. There's tons and tons of 'em - an infinite number, probably, and the labyrinth you can through was like a whole wormhole deal. There's no way home either, so you're stuck here with the rest of us. Maybe forever."

[001] Your childhood home is just powder-white bones

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