synopsychic | [A day or so after the Werewolf Mess]

[Lyall's voice pops back onto the network a good long while after his aborted, panicked message from when the full moon rose. His voice isn't panicked anymore, now, but it is tense, and he's talking a bit faster than he usually does.]

Well. So. It's Randolph Lyall again-- I'm back, and no longer a maddened werewolf, or, in fact, a Heraclide. I'm very sorry about all that. Very... very sorry.

But I'm not in liminal space. I had to punch through to get to the network, the way I punched through to the other Jaunt a month or two back now, and I'm fairly sure I don't have very long.

I appear to be... underground? The underworld, perhaps? I know some of us were going here, are you still here? I would... really very much like to get out of here, but I can't seem to get a proper portal open to liminal space. And even if I could, I would just have to come back down here when I opened it again, and--

[He cuts himself off, and starts again, a bit more steadily, but even more quickly, trying to impart information.]

--and even if no one can get down here, I did have another vision when I came to. Watch out for shooting stars. Either at dawn or dusk or some other time where the sun and moon aren't making a mess of things, there's going to be shooting stars, and then a very large earthquake. We may want to start thinking about disaster relief, or else finding whatever idiot gods or titans or whomever are going to cause it and stop them before it happens.

... but I really would like out of here, too. Please. If anyone can manage it.

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I could have done more. Should have done more.

[Hajime just looks tired, and there's still a bit of distress through the pack bond, though he's trying to clamp down hard on that.]

I'm...fine. Are you okay?

[Lyall pauses, as if considering how to answer, but in the end he finally says grimly:]

No, I am very much not okay. But I'll manage. Don't beat yourself up about letting me get away. You didn't know. You weren't even yourself, so how could you?

I was a damn monster, that's what I was. I probably deserved to get executed like one.

[There is no small amount of shame in his voice...and yes, he'll be beating himself up over Karis's everything for a while.]

That isn't your fault. We can't help what the Arcana make us into.

[He looks grim, as he says it. He wasn't in the greatest of people, himself, and he'd still had his own mind to endure it... he didn't do as much as he should have to rein the man in, because interacting with that brain had been so distasteful.]

And we knew Tower would likely send you into someone who was destructive. Lay your blame on Tower, not on yourself.

Tower, right...

[He had forgotten in all the fuss. Forgotten that this was Tower's Jaunt and he needs to foul everything up as far as Tower's concerned, but he doesn't know how.]

...we can't even do anything in here. We've got to get out somehow.

[He has no idea Lyall's been on the network--he certainly can't reach it.]

I've broken through to the network, but only briefly.

[Well, now he knows, at least.]

There may be someone coming for us. Or if we can find a way out on our own, it may be that Hades won't be able to stop us. He's as drugged as the rest of the gods, and may not even notice us escaping. I've been looking, but finding paths out of here is hard when you're on the inside.

That...sounds both good and bad, really.

[He shakes his head.]

I guess if we split up, we can cover more ground, track each other by scent...

[But he just found Lyall and doesn't really want to separate just yet, not that he would admit this...]

[Lyall has a visceral reaction to that, and that reaction is "no". He shakes his head sharply.]

We may never find each other again. I don't know if scent is constant down here or what may cross our paths to muddy it up, and the pack bond only gives me direction to find you, which doesn't help when the path twists around on itself. And... well, I'd rather not be alone again, if you don't mind.

[There's quite a bit of relief on Hajime's end of the bond that Lyall doesn't want to separate.]

Yeah. I...yeah. Being alone here, it kind of messes with you. Like if you hang out here too long, you start to think you should be dead, too.

Technically, we should. But I don't think the Arcana would like that, and-- and I'd rather not like it, either.

[He shakes his head, then himself.]

Let's see if we can find one of the rivers, perhaps. We can fly across if we have to, but at least I know it's one of the boundaries of Hades.

And we just have to stay out of the rivers, right? Doesn't bad stuff happen if you drink that water?

[Why didn't he pay better attention in class when they discussed mythology?]

[Yeah, Lyall's not much better. He knows what Lanides would know, but Lanides didn't really care about the underworld, either.]

From what I've been told, and what I remember, yes. No drinking. At least one of them makes you forget things. I don't know what the other does, but I imagine it isn't any good.

With the way this Jaunt's been going, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a river that turned you into a monster or gave you violent diarrhea or...yeah. Not going barracuda to cross the river.

[Lyall snorts a little.]

If I weren't a werewolf, or else inside the body and mind of someone here, I imagine the food might just do that. ... either one, now that I think about it. There's immortality going around to new people, now, and I'm pretty sure it's related to eating ambrosia.

Yeah, it's...

[He's quiet for a long moment.]

Karis. He...they were setting him up to become the new god of war. To replace Ares.

Lanides suspected something of the sort.

[He sounds a bit grim.]

While I am not happy that you had to go through that, Hajime... I am glad Karis isn't going to be any kind of deity, now.

Yeah, it's...not something he needed to be doing. He didn't need any power over anyone, much as he might have thought he deserved it.

Lanides wasn't much better, to be honest. He was just quieter about it. Smarter. Not the best combination.

...is it wrong that if I see their spirits floating around out here, I kind of want to kick their asses on principle?

[Lyall is surprised into a little chuckle.]

I don't think so. I imagine they would be very confused, though.

[He finds he rather likes the idea, honestly.]

I could always explain it's because they're assholes while I'm beating them up.

[He might as well have a hobby while he's stuck here...]

You'll have to let me watch. Though you look enough like Karis that he'd be even more confused. I at least have some differences from Lanides.

I can tell him I'm his conscience and that I'm here to get him back for never listening to me...

...not that he had a conscience, but hey, if it confuses him more...

Maybe he'll learn better, at least. ... Can the dead learn? I mean, the dead, here.

[Since he's technically dead twice over. Three times, now. And he likes to think he can still learn.]

...I kind of don't care if they can or not. It's the principle of the thing at this point.

[Plus, he supposes it gives him something to do. There's not much to do here, he's found.]

[A day or so after the Werewolf Mess]

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