deercountry | [002] tell me everything that happened

Entry tags:

[002] tell me everything that happened

Who: Orpheus (

themuseabandonsyou), Kyle, Bigby, Kassandra, and Michael
What: December 2021 catch-all
When: Throughout December
Where: In memory (the Road to Hell, the Underworld), Cellar Door (a fountain square, a small cafe)
Warnings: drug-like mental effects/mind alteration, dog attack

I. they had lights inside their eyes (cw: drug-like mental effects/mind alteration) (Cellar Door - a fountain square)(closed to Kyle)

sweet little melody

sharp brown tailcoat and a very strange top-hat

glow

"Let me call you sweetheart
I'm in love with you
Let me hear you whisper
That you love me too,"

II. did you see the closing window (Cellar Door, a small cafe)(closed to Bigby)

III. did you hear the slamming door (cw: dog attack) (The Road to Hell)(closed to Kassandra)

"Wait for me, I'm coming."

IV. they moved forward, and my heart died (The Underworld)(closed to Michael)

I own

V. Wildcard

ooc: Want to do something with me this month? Let me know at questionableveracity on Plurk or quodVide#2951 on Discord!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, no, I mean, he was trying to eat me, too," says Orpheus, glancing at his past self, who's busy getting up off the ground and gingerly testing his injured leg. "I understand. But, yes, that's me. You've met her? Or - you've heard of us?"

From the sound of it, as much as he'd prefer it wasn't the latter he's fairly resigned to the possibility, frowning slightly. He doesn't want Kassandra to think he's upset with her over it, though, and shakes it off quickly.

"The old tale?" he echoes, thoughtfully. The name sounds familiar, but it takes him a moment to remember just where he heard it before. "Oh, you mean the priestess of Apollo who went mad, a few years ago? Did something happen to her?"

"Heard of you, yes. You're rather famous."

Barnabas could not shut the hell up about Orpheus, Herakles, Odysseus, and all the rest. The old sea-captain she traveled with was a veritable fountain of tales and stories, and even someone as hard to impress as Kassandra had to admit that it took stones to walk into the Underworld for love.

She looks briefly puzzled at his question, but then realizes that he's probably from before her time, and that's something she's gotten more comfortable with these days.

"I...well, yes. Apollo cursed her for spurning him. You did not know? In the tale, she's not mad, but nobody believes what she says."

Orpheus just nods slowly, looking sheepish and vaguely uneasy.

"So I've heard?" he says. "But - really? You mean she really was an oracle?"

That has some implications. Orpheus can't remember exactly what Cassandra's claims were, but very little of it was good. Something about a war, even greater than any before it?

He shakes his head. That's something he can worry about later.

"Well, um. Either way, it's nice to meet you! There aren't many people here who recognize the gods I know as more than just stories." Fewer still who have personally upset Hades, so that's something, too. He smiles, and behind him his memory-self limps over to Cerberus and pats the great hound carefully on the chest, smiling up at him before continuing along the railroad track, singing;

"I'm coming, wait for me
I hear the walls repeating
The falling of my feet and
It sounds like drumming"

"Yep. She absolutely was."

Kass shrugs and thrusts out her hand, giving Orpheus a smile. And also Cerberus and the dream one, too.

"It's a pleasure, Orpheus. It is always good to have a face to associate with a name, and to meet someone who understands just what the Gods are like."

She doesn't have the highest opinion of them, not really, but she does respect them. They've got power that demands it, and even she isn't foolish enough to doubt that.

"How long ago was this memory, for you?"

Later, Orpheus will have a little crisis about the cruelty of granting someone the Sight only to ensure that everyone surrounding them thinks them mad, but for now he shoves it down in order to focus on the present. He smiles, taking Kassandra's hand, cocking his head to the side slightly as he thinks over her question.

"That's a little complicated?" he says, frowning thoughtfully. How much does the time he spent in Deerington count? Since he woke up a few hours after he'd fallen asleep, back in the real world. Deciding not to get into it unless she asks, he decides for these purposes it's as real as anything else here. "For me, though? Not quite a year and a half."

"Fair."

She doesn't need to press. She was curious, but nothing more, really. It isn't as though it changes this conversation, really.

"And how long have you been here? Were you one of the ones from the dream, before? Or are you new like myself?"

Normally she isn't as full of questions, but in this instance, she's very interested. It isn't as though one meets a figure of legend every day. And also, if he's Greek, then he'll likely understand wat she's going through.

"Oh, I've been either in the dream or here in Trench almost the whole time," he says. "I spent a while after - um, after all of this looking for a way back into the Underworld? But then I fell asleep and wound up in Deerington for almost a year, until the dream ended. I went home for a little bit, to try to keep looking, but then I was called back here, and it turns out Eurydice had already been in Trench for a few days by the time I arrived."

He beams, clearly pleased as anything about it. It really is everything he could've asked for, getting another chance with her despite it all, and while Trench has been a bit trying at times he's more than happy to weather it for the chance to be around her.

"It sounds like you've already had a lot of what's going on explained to you? But if you have any questions, I'm happy to try to answer them. How long have you been here?"

(Behind him, Cerberus stands and stretches, before turning and plodding along after memory-Orpheus like an oversized puppy.

"And I am not alone
I hear the rocks and stones
Echoing my song
I'm coming")

"I've been here for a couple of months, but not so long as you. A fair bit of it has been explained, though I do have a few questions."

Kassandra's attention is half on Orpheus now, and half on the dog, a wistful smile on her face. She's plainly amused by the display, since it's kind of fascinating to see the beast that had attacked her behaving like an ordinary puppy.

"First, I...where is this place? Not Trench, or the Deer town, but this place? This does not look like Greece, or any underworld I've ever seen."

Her recollections had been even more barren, with no sign of a city in the distance.

"It's the road to the Underworld, or part of it," says Orpheus, frowning a little in thought. "I guess it must've changed a bit, over time? I know Mister Hermes told me the train was pretty new."

He glances down at the half-buried tracks next to him. "In the stories I heard growing up it was always a boat, before the ferryman became the conductor, but I guess times change. And they're changing faster now than ever."

So he guesses it's really no surprise that Kassandra doesn't recognize this. What will Hadestown look like, by the time he and Eurydice have passed into legend?

"You've seen more than one underworld, though?"

"No, just the one. Now two. This place looks...well, it looks like Trench, in a way? And far nicer, in some ways. A city. Hades was just grey and ashy when I went. Like it was full of kilns spewing smoke out constantly."

She has no idea what a train is though, or what the tracks are, but she'll assume they're something that replaced Charon. Maybe something had happened in the underworld? Or maybe...

"It could be that our versions of the Underworld do not match because our worlds are not quite the same. You certainly would have come before me, but Charon definitely still had a boat. Still...you know the Gods, and that's more of a connection than I've had with anyone else here."

“Oh? I guess it could be,” says Orpheus, thoughtfully. “I just assumed, but it sounds like a lot of the people here from Earths where our gods never existed are from slightly different ones? So there’s no reason why that couldn’t be true for us.”

And that’s a little bit boggling to think about, even if it is a possibility that maybe should have occurred to him earlier, but he’ll think on it later. For now he just smiles.

“Still, like you said? It’s not every day I meet someone else who’s actually spoken to Lord Hades, or even thinks the gods were ever real at all. I’m glad! Um, not that he was upset with you, over Cerberus, but you know what I mean.”

As they walk, it becomes clear that the glittering city in the distance is surrounded by a massive wall, towering well above their heads and all made up of stone and steel. Orpheus frowns at it - both Orpheuses frown at it, the one from the past looking overwhelmed and worried and the one in the present just looking tired and sad.

“And, um. It’s not that nice a place. It looks that way, from a distance, but…” Maybe an endless smokey field would be preferable, to what it became.

Kassandra flashes a somewhat easygoing smile, reaching out to pat Orpheus's shoulder in what she hopes comes across as reassuring. She'd mostly meant that comment as a way to lighten the mood, but apparently that'd failed. So, sensing the tension, she just tries to be understanding and offer kindness in the face of this obviously difficult memory.

"To be fair, I did earn his ire. I killed his dog," she says gently, retracting her hand and focusing on Hadestown as it looms above them. The wall reminds her of Athens, but the grey stone and strange metal paint a fair less pleasant picture of what dwells within.

"Do you want to keep going? I'm sure we can turn around and the memory will fade. I would not want to push you to relive something that troubles you so plainly."

Orpheus smiles at the gesture, and it's genuine if a little preoccupied. He stops walking, though his memory-self continues down the road, still humming to himself.

"Last time I tried to walk out of one of these, it just brought me back to where I was? I think to leave we have to wait for something that's out of place, or - oh!"

Orpheus points behind Kassandra at faint white silhouette in the distance, which quickly resolves itself into the shape of a gigantic white stag with massive antlers that grow into the shape of a wreath above its head.

"I definitely don't remember that? And deer are really important here, so, that's probably our way back?"

The stag seems to draw nearer much faster than it should across the featureless plains despite the apparently leisurely pace of its stride, walking up beside the pair of them and kneeling with a soft snort. It looks at them with milky white eyes, gentle and unafraid.

"Oh indeed."

Drawn to where Orpheus's finger is pointing, she watches the animal on it's approach. Quite a stag, indeed. If she weren't certain that this was one of Trench's creations, she'd likely assume it was sent by Artemis herself.

"So it would seem," she says as it approaches. "What a magnificent animal."

Now she stoops, getting down to eye level with the enormous stag, looking into it's pale eyes with a mixture of pity and curiosity. Assuming it was blind, she waved a hand in front of the deer's snout, and chuckled a little as a long, pink tongue flicked out to tickle her palm.

"I had heard deer were important. And that the previous town was filled with them. Do you know why it is deer with this significance?"

Edited 2022-01-05 19:20 (UTC)

Orpheus smiles as he watches Kassandra and the stag, reaching out to pat the beast on its broad, strong neck himself and receiving a friendly bump of its nose for his troubles.

"Oh, I think that's -" Actually, maybe a little difficult to explain, now that he thinks about it. He frowns a little, thoughtfully, and tries to put things in order before he starts speaking.

"There's a short answer and a long answer," he starts. "The short answer is the young goddess whose dream we were all sharing in at the time - Julia - her beliefs about the world shaped how the dream worked. The deer were important because she thought they were, basically."

Climbing onto the white stag's back, he offers his hand to help Kassandra up as he continues. "But - why she thought they were important I'm not as clear on? I think I know, but it's kind of complicated, and I might have some details wrong. But, basically, it has to do with the first person to be drawn into her dream - a woman named Ramona Derwin, and just how she and all the rest of us came to be there.

"See, um. All of us in the dream were there because somehow, Julia had come across each of our stories? And knew about us from them. Ramona's story was one of her favorites, and deer in the world Ramona came from were magic, so they became magic in Deerington too, or at least I think that's how it went."

Kassandra listens intently, her focus no longer divided between Orpheus and the Deer. This feels important, like it has weight. When he finishes, she accepts his hand and hauls herself up deftly, settling herself onto the stag before she says anything.

"I...do not doubt what you are saying. It seems outlandish, but then you are Orpheus and I'm in a strange world where I've been turned into a squid. So, honestly what is strange, anymore?"

Just roll with it, really. That's been the thing she's been saying to herself, over and over since she arrived. It's all so overwhelming but at the same time, what really is there she can do but adjust?

"I suppose it's the will of the gods that we come here. Or something. Do you know what we are meant to do? Or have you any inkling? Other than to try and survive, of course."

Orpheus nods sympathetically as the deer starts to set off back in the direction they came, away from the lights of Hadestown.

"It's strange to me too," he says. "The dream stuff, and having so many people know of me, and the way the gods of this world are. But you're right? After a while you sort of get used to it, and then everything strange is normal again."

He goes quiet for a moment at her question, thinking it over carefully.

"I don't know," is what he concludes, unsatisfying an answer as it is. "For me, being here is a second chance. Eurydice's here, and we're free to build another life together, and that's all I could ever ask for. But I know it's not that simple for everybody. But I'm sure there's some purpose to be found here, for all of us? Whether it's something grand or something small."

Kassandra considers what he's saying seriously, knowing how his story ends, and knowing the anguish of having lost loved ones, too. A second chance? That's fair. That's honestly more than most people could even dream of, and she nods, squeezing his shoulder in a kind of solidarity.

"It does not need to be complicated, or grand. Some people deserve to have a happy ending and a second chance. Free from the gods, if possible."

That's her feeling, anyway. She reveres them out of a respect for their power, not out of any real love. Hermes was the closest of any of them that she felt genuine affection for, and only because he was someone who's motivations she'd understood.

"I'm not too worried about finding a purpose swiftly, myself. I'd rather have a break from the burden of responsibilities, personally and as bad as Trench is...it is a vast improvement over home in some ways."

Orpheus does look a little confused, at that comment. Free from the gods. Despite the situation with Hades, his impression of the pantheon is fairly positive, bordering on rose-tinted. Maybe because of it in part, really, given all the help he received from Hermes and Persephone. But he doesn't really comment on it beyond giving Kassandra a brief confused look, before remembering that not everyone's experiences with the divine are as positive as his.

"It's nicer than where I came from in some ways, too. It's colder here, but there aren't storms like there were in the winters there. And it seems like there's almost always enough food that no one has to worry about going hungry. " That counts for a lot. He shudders a little bit, just thinking about it. "Anyway, I hope you can find some time to rest here, in that case? It sounds like you deserve it."

Her experiences are mixed at best, but they do err a bit more on the negative side. Some of them had been a right pain, and others had been maliciously cruel. Hades had been the only one to deal with her honestly, but she still liked Hermes the best.

"Not going hungry is a good thing. It's at least one solid positive thing about this blighted city."

The Beasts and the Blood were still something she was wrapping her head around. As was the weather, but that would come with time.

"And thank you. My road has been...long. And sometimes, it is nice to just have the opportunity to slow down. Trench at least has hot water that comes out of pipes, and I did not know what I was missing until experienced that."

"Exactly! The food here is strange? But I'm glad to have it anyway."

Even if he does miss how readily available things like chocolate and coffee were, back in Deerington. Oh well. At least he had a feeling that probably wasn't going to last, and made a point to enjoy it while it did.

"And that's really nice too, isn't it? Being able to take a hot bath without having to heat up water on the stove or over a fire is incredible."

As they talk, the lights of the city fade away into the distance, as do the train tracks and the telephone poles, leaving them in a featureless void. For a moment, it's like they're not even moving, suspended in an endless blackness - then suddenly the noise and lights of Trench are all around them. Orpheus jolts slightly, startled, before settling down as he realizes where they are.

"Oh! I guess it's over," he says. The locals seem to only care about their sudden appearance in that the stag is blocking much of the sidewalk, but most of them are just stepping carefully around it and maybe shooting annoyed looks their way if they're feeling particularly bothered by it.

"It's incredible."

Actually, it's made this ancient Greek a lot more keen on bathing, since the water is warm! Blessedly warm. Like in the legends of King Minos and Daedalus' castle.

A bit surprised, she snorts, looking down at the sudden press of people. Shifting her weight a bit, she slides off and pats the stag.

"I suppose it is. That was...quite the experience."

Holding up a hand to him to help him down, she smiles.

"It was also nice meeting someone that understands what home is like."

Orpheus takes her hand and slides down as well, patting the stag on the neck. It snorts, blinking its pale eyes at them in acknowledgment before turning and ambling off through the crowd, which parts around it out of reverence and necessity both.

"It was. This kind of thing happened a lot back in Deerington? It seems like it'll probably happen a lot here, too."

Just a fair warning. It's not so bad, or at least it wasn't this time - the memories are painful for Orpheus, but he comes out of them with the knowledge that Eurydice is waiting for him back home, and that's really all that matters. But he knows it may be harder for some of the others. Still, he smiles at Kassandra, nodding.

"And yes! Same to you, even if we're maybe not from exactly the same world? They're still close, in ways that I think count for a lot."

Just a little bit of familiarity, in the midst of all this strangeness.

"I think so to."

She nods back and pats the Stag one last time. She'll take the warning to heart, of course. Why wouldn't she? Kassandra is not stupid enough to ignore the voice of experience. And if that means that she needs to be aware that she might stumble into more memories, then so be it.

"Be well, Orpheus. If you ever have need of someone that knows their way around a blade, feel free to contact me."

"You too!" he says, brightly. "And - I think you probably already know what I'm good at?"

As strange as that might be for him, he's trying to be in good spirits about it.

"So if you ever think I might be able to help you with something, just let me know. I'd be happy to try."

And with that, he glances around, idly adjusting the strap of his guitar on his shoulder as he gets his bearings. Right, he recognizes that clock tower, so that means home is... that way.

"Anyway, it was nice meeting you! Hopefully we'll see each other again soon."

With one last smile, he waves and turns to go.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[002] tell me everything that happened

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Sorry, I've been out of town for the holidays! <3

No problem!!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject