[001] time has a funny kind of violence

[themuseabandonsyou]

Who: Orpheus themuseabandonsyou
What: Arrival, acclimation, acceptance
When: September 1st
Where: The beach, Cellar Door

Content Warnings: suicidal imagery,

In another world, in another time and place, Orpheus plunges an antler - the last physical remnant of Deerington that came with him when he returned home - into his chest with shaking hands, and the world goes dark.

He finds himself floating in the darkness of some great and cold and foreign sea, the current too strong to resist. Somehow, though, the lack of light and the freezing temperatures and the pressure of the water all around him don't seem as immediately dangerous as they should. Somehow, the body he's in now is perfect for it, all flowing lines and long tentacles. It should be horrifying. It is kind of horrifying, if he thinks aboout it too hard, but there's an odd sort of peace to it, especially as he lets the tide sweep him inexorably wherever it's going, giving him time to reflect.

He thinks about arriving back home, walking out of the fog that surrounded Deerington and arriving where he fell asleep, and immediately turning around and heading straight back for the railway town. About Mister Hermes waiting for him with some small amount of surprise but great relief that he was back so soon after he'd run away in the first place. About telling him everything - about Deerington, the people he'd met there, the visions he'd seen, and his decision to come back home rather than keep running away from everyone who might want to help and support him. He thinks about how for a while it had seemed like it might be alright, and that he'd renew his search for a way back into the Underworld with support from those around him this time.

Of course, it couldn't stay that way. Slowly, steadily, things had started to feel... wrong, somehow. Off-kilter. Over time he began to feel less and less like he belonged anywhere, not because of anyone shunning him or anything like that, but in the sense of feeling connected to the world itself. It was hard to describe, but when he called on Hermes again to ask him about it, he got his answer.

You see, Hermes is the god of between-places - of travel, transit, of being neither here nor there. And that's where Orpheus was, caught between where he came from and where he was going. And the only solution, he'd said, was to finally go, to get to his destination, wherever that may be. And as much as Orpheus wanted to protest, he knew Hermes was right. So he said his tearful goodbyes, as best he could with his very self starting to slip sideways out of reality, and took the plunge.

I. it can't leave you the way it finds you

And now he's here, washing up on the beach. The transformation back into his old shape is awkward to say the least, but he manages it, crawling out of the ocean hand over hand and gasping for air as his lungs regrow. Once he's free of the waves, he collapses, just lying there for a moment in the sand and taking in the new and foreign sky above him. He feels... less bereft, than he might have expected? That's not saying much - being here is essentially accepting that his search for Eurydice is over, and he's still not sure that's sunk in all the way yet, but there's an odd feeling of belonging. A sense of relief, the loss of an ache that he'd felt so acutely that there had been no other way but to come here. It's strange, and he doesn't quite know what it means or how to deal with it, so he just... doesn't. He's cold and wet and covered in sand, but right now all he really has the capacity to do is lie there and stare at the sky.

II. good grief; I've heard people say it

Some time later, as he's been brought a bag of odds and ends - bizarrely, many of the things he thought to try to bring home with him from Deerington - and gathered the few familiar things of his he's found strewn around the beach, he wanders steadily into town, finding himself drawn as inevitably towards the sound of music and laughter as he was brought here by the ocean currents. His eyes are wide as he marvels at the architecture around him - it's been a long, long time since he's been in a city of any real size, and the ornateness of the buildings is dazzling to him in a way that rivals Hadestown in all its gleaming signs and towering heights. Jostling through the crowds awkwardly with his bag, guitar, and lyre all slung across his shoulders, he hums along softly with the music drifting out of the various venues as he passes them, not quite noticing the way little flickers of firefly-like soft golden light seem to dance around him as he does so.

Comments

I

[onerthes]

[There was a figure there, dressed in a simple, white Ao Dai as she came over to greet him there on the sand. She knelt and offered a cloak to him while one of the others came by with towels to help clean him up. If he looked up, there were all three eyes staring down at him, a small smile on her face.]

Well well... look what the cat dragged in. Easy now. Your body needs time to adjust. We all went through it.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ It takes Orpheus a half-second to react to Vira-Lorr's presence, unmoving for that brief moment while he caught up with the present before blinking owlishly up at her. ]

Oh, hi, Vira-Lorr. It's good to see you again?

[ That he sounds kind of unsure about it isn't a reflection on how happy he is to see her specifically so much as a general uncertainty of what's going on or where they are. He sits up, propping himself up on one arm and brushing his still-wet hair out of his eyes with his other hand as he looks around. ]

This is the new world? The one that came after, um. After Deerington?

[onerthes]

Yes, you could call it the waking world of the young woman. It is what remains behind, reborn from that place's ashes. Welcome to Trench.

[She smiled and settled on a small towel to rest while he got his bearings.]

It is good to see you, Orpheus. You are hopefully not in too much pain right now. It's not easy to come out of the ocean...

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus frowns a little at that, going thoughtful and melancholy over the memory of what happened to Julia and her last words to all of them. It's hard not to feel like they failed her in a deep and irrevocable way, and it weighs heavily on him. ]

I'm okay. Being something else like that was, um, really strange, and I don't think I want to do it again? But I think I'm fine. [ He finally takes the offered cloak, draping it over his shoulders as he looks over at her. ] You said everyone went through that? Did all the Sleepers come here the same way?

ii

[howtheworldwas]

[ The leaves are changing, and that can only mean one thing: winter is coming.

Eurydice hasn't seen fall colors like this in years, and on some level, red and gold leaves are a good sign. When the weather was at its worst, there wasn't that much of a fall at all. At least this is a proper season, if a slightly worrying one.

Still, Eurydice is utterly convinced she doesn't have much time to prepare. She's felt awfully restless ever since she arrived, which she chalks up to the season and the new city. Fortunately, this isn't her first round of being a newcomer, and she knows that the first and best thing she can do is learn about this place. Eurydice is already more or less dressing like a local, wrapped up in a large, black coat with her welcome bag slung over her back. She's in the process of drawing up a little map, making notes of decent sources of food, shelter, and work, when she someone humming. And not just someone. She knows that voice. It's --

-- it's you.

And then she's ducking and weaving through the crowd, muttering a few excuse me's as she goes. Once she's a few paces behind him, she'll call out: ]

Orpheus!

[ Does he turn around? ]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ He doesn't.

Instead he freezes in place, catching himself a half-second before turning, eyes wide. He knows that voice. He'd know it anywhere, hears it almost every night in his dreams, was reminded of her almost every day in some way or another back in Deerington. This has to be something like that, doesn't it? He knows, on some level, that this isn't a dream any longer, that it may not be beholden to the same rules and lines of thought that Deerington was, but after a year of seeing some distorted reflection of her around every corner, he can't hope like he used to.

But he can't ignore it, either. After a moment's pause, he calls back, uncertain and afraid. ]

Eurydice?

[howtheworldwas]

[ Orpheus answers, and a wide, watery smile breaks across her face. He can hear her. She's real, and so is he. This time, there's nothing stopping her from reaching out. The gods she knows are not here. She hasn't signed any deals.

She crosses the last of the distance, wrapping her arms around him from behind and burying her face in his back for just a moment. He's here. Physical and solid and real, and she's holding him, and she desperately does not want to let go. She clings with the force of someone nearly drowned. Her body is cold to the touch, like someone who's just been out in a hard winter storm. ]

It's me.

[themuseabandonsyou]

It's you!

[ And he laughs with teary-eyed relief, still a little disbelieving but willing to let himself have this for as long as it may last. She's here? She's here! It had always been some distant possibility before - plenty of his friends had loved ones from their homes arrive too, and some of the people he knew said they were dead back home, but he hadn't let himself dwell on the idea for too long. He hadn't felt like he'd deserved to hope for something like that.

He doesn't feel the cold of her skin, not right away, not through the jackets they're both wearing, but as he reaches up to lay a hand over hers it registers that something is very wrong. Finally, (hesitantly, fighting the instinct of experience and repeated nightmares), he turns to look at her, eyes wide with concern. ]

You're freezing! Do you need another jacket? Here - [ And he sets his lyre down on the ground and pulls off the straps of his bag and his guitar, putting them down as well and drawing a few passing glares from pedestrians trying to walk on the sidewalk that's now occupied by musical instruments before he shrugs off the denim jacket Julia gave him and throws it around her shoulders. ]

I can't believe it - I thought I'd never see you again. I - Eurydice, I'm so sorry.

II

[laminae]

Fern had already washed up a bit ago with the other remaining residents of Deerington, so he's managed to find his foot and make it beyond the beach. There's still a whole city to explore though, and once he's found several other Sleepers and settled in he goes about wandering the streets. He's checking things out when he notices the bits of light, confusedly following them until he spies a very familiar guitar.

"Orpheus? Hey, Orpheus!" Immediately he races on over. Holy cow, Orpheus is the last person he expect to see here. The last time they had talked Orpheus had been so sure about going home - so why's he back here?

[themuseabandonsyou]

Orpheus stops humming at the sound of that familiar voice, turning to look as the little golden firefly-lights fade away.

"Oh! Hey, Fern!"

Orpheus smiles and waves to him, doubling back through the crowd to meet him halfway. It's not a surprise seeing Fern here, after the explanation he got on the beach, but it is something of a relief to find a familiar face so quickly. There's a hint of sadness in Orpheus's smile as he approaches - still rattled over his decision to cut ties with his old home and come here - but he's clearly trying to mask over it as best he can.

"It's great to see you again! How long have you been here?" For his part, Orpheus very clearly just walked out of the ocean, hair still damp with seawater and covered in caked-on sand. From the looks of things Fern's had a little more time to settle in.

[laminae]

The lights fade and Fern is left perplexed, though that thought settles in the back of his mind momentarily as he instead focuses on Orpheus. He's here! That's great! Great and - horrible, given that he shouldn't be here.

"Not very long. Uh, longer than you, though," he replies, gesturing at Orpheus' wet hair. Regardless of their last conversation, Fern can't help grinning, and after a beat he decides to latch onto Orpheus in a tight hug. "It's great to see you, too!"

[themuseabandonsyou]

Laughing, Orpheus stoops down a bit to make up for the difference in height. As difficult as this whole situation is for him to grasp right now and as much trouble as he's having coming to terms with it, it's hard not to be happy to see Fern again after everything. He can worry about the rest later.

"I just got here less than an hour ago, I think?" he says. "This place is called Trench, right? It seems - livelier? Than Deerington ever did. There's a lot more people here at least."

And they're a lot less rude than the Townies were, just on first impression. On that note, Orpheus steers them towards a low retaining wall at the edge of the sidewalk and sits down, setting down his bag and collection of instruments out of the way of the people trying to get by.

II

[droptheious]

It took Varian a while to get even remotely settled in this new environment. But once he'd got his clothes and found his leg, he felt at least a tiny bit put together- enough to wander around and try and get a feel of the place, anyway. He hears the humming before he sees Orpheus, but he recognises the music immediately. Once you've been exposed to Orpheus' unique ability, you never forget it. So he turns quickly, pushing himself through the crowds to try and find his friend. He sees the light and follows that finally pushing himself through to where he can see him.

"Orpheus!! You made it!"

[themuseabandonsyou]

Orpheus stops when he hears Varian call out, much to the chagrin of the pedestrian who'd been walking behind him. He gives a quick "sorry!" and edges around them, cutting more carefully through the crowd as the little lights around him fade into dimness then invisibility.

"I did," he says, nodding, and it's maybe a little less bright and enthusiastic than it would be if it hadn't involved saying what may have been a final goodbye to everyone he'd known before, but he's trying. "I just made it to shore a little while ago. How are you doing? Did you and Fern make it here together?"

[droptheious]

Sorry, random pedestrian, there's important reunions that have to happen. Varian smiles, genuinely happy to see Orpheus, for more reason than his own selfish desire to not let his friend vanish away forever.

"I'm really glad to see you, and yeah! We both made it together, we're fine!" well, he has fucking magic now and that's something he's trying not to think about - he has more important things to discuss here and he rocks on his heels excitedly. "Orpheus, Eurydice is here!! I saw her and I recognised her from that lantern thing you had! Have you seen her yet?"

[themuseabandonsyou]

"That's great! I'm glad you were able to find each other so quickly," he says, and it's his intention to ask after how the two of them are doing - how long they've been here, what the place is like, but then Varian keeps talking and he freezes, wide-eyed, unsure that he heard correctly.

"Wait."

Wait. That can't be true, can it? He guesses it was always a possibility back in Deerington, where many of the Sleepers were from the same worlds and some of them were dead back home or from different points in time, but he'd never really dared to hope for anything like that. Not even his sometimes boundless-seeming optimism could make him feel like he deserved to think for a second he'd be reunited with her this way.

But maybe it's not about what he deserves. Or maybe it's not about deserving at all.

"She's here? You're sure?"

ii

[entreats]

Ange has been staring at people from a distance. Not one to join in, but still very much busy with taking in the face of every single person that passes. Most don't look familiar to her, but every now and then there definitely is a face that she recognizes from Deerington.

And though it's not like Orpheus is the first person she spots in that sense - not by far - there's still the same reaction as the first person she spotted that way. Still the same surprise, the same relief. After all, she liked Orpheus. He's a nice guy, and here he suddenly is again.

"Orpheus!" Ange calls out, jumping up from the spot she was sitting at, running over to the guy with the instruments - typical - and the golden light around him - not.. so typical..?

[themuseabandonsyou]

There's another familiar voice! Again, Orpheus stops what he's doing - the lights dimming into invisibility as he stops humming - and turns towards the sound, pushing carefully through the crowd to meet Ange halfway before he even sees her.

"Ange! It's good to see you again!"

He hadn't expected to when he spoke to her last, and while he's caught on to the fact that most of the Sleepers from Deerington have apparently made it here now it's still a very pleasant surprise to run into her so quickly.

[entreats]

"It.. It is good to see you again." She's not going to deny that, no matter what tsun layers there usually might have been poured over such a statement. Right now she's just glad to see him.

Glad, but also surprised. Especially since now they're so close and face to face, she can see that it really is Orpheus.

"But.. didn't you go back home..?"

ii

[laruetheday]

Clarisse is still not 100% on a lot—like the place they came here from, or even things about herself, or her friends. Names float by, and sometimes she can grab one and it'll stick, but sometimes it won't, or it will and it's wrong. Anyway, when she sees Orpheus, she can't remember his name right away, but she gets the sense that she should. He's famous, or something, right? Everybody knows his name. Demigod, half-blood, like her and Nico. She remembers that much.

"You made it," she says as he gets close enough to be within earshot. She doesn't sound super thrilled, but she's not disappointed, either. Maybe just a little bit relieved, if she's being honest.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Orpheus doesn't quite catch on that he's the one being spoken to right away, but once he notices Clarisse in the crowd he slows to a stop and waves, before closing the distance between them.

"Oh, hi, Clarisse," he says, able to muster a pretty good amount of enthusiasm despite all the confusion and sense of terrible loss he's grappling with. Clarisse is - well, she's not really from home, exactly, but she's the closest thing he had in Deerington for a long time, and he's genuinely glad to see her. "Looks like you made it, too!"

[laruetheday]

Clarisse scoffs. "Looks like it," she says, sounding... less enthusiastic than Orpheus had, for sure. But it's not like that's abnormal for her.

"You're, um..." She thinks for a couple seconds. "Perseus, right? No, wait." She waves a hand, like she's trying to summon the name out of the air, before saying triumphantly, "Orpheus." Yeah, yeah, Orpheus. He would play his guitar on the roof of the apartment building all the time! It was so annoying! She remembers now.

"I, uh, didn't know you were planning on coming... here."

I.

[obeir]

Dressed in the simple robes that all former-squid arrivals receive, K is making his way along the beach to check on who and what has washed up since last he was here. It's become his routine since his memory finally started returning. Sometimes there will be people to help, or less frequently he collects one of his own belongings or something that he recognises as Tech Boy's.

This time the tide has brought in another Sleeper refugee, from the looks of him. Something about the newcomer resonates with K's still fragmented memory. There's a sense of familiarity, and he can remember... A sunny park, on the grass, playing music together as a woodland audience slowly gathers around them. Countless instances of passing the man in the hallways of their shared apartment building, exchanging pleasantries. A monstrous avian-creature with the man's face, attacking him. Making the man soup? They must have remained friends, despite that attack.

But somehow K has no name to put with the face. Maybe the man will remember him, too?

Kneeling beside the newcomer, heedless of the shallow water soaking his robes, K leans over him and peers down at him, offering a curious, "Hello." A cautious smile pulls at the corners of his mouth. "You made it. If you're unable to speak just yet, that's normal. Don't worry. It'll come back to you."

Luckily for the newcomer, K's relatively well-versed in the arrival process by this point and is prepared to help him through it.

[themuseabandonsyou]

All in all, Orpheus seems to have it together a little better than most of the very new arrivals. Names come back to him easily, at least. This is - his name was long, and had a lot of numbers in it, so Orpheus doesn't actually remember all of it in this case, but he knows he called him 'K' when they met before, remembers the sound of a viola, passing nods in the halls.

Of course, remembering how to talk is another matter entirely, and when he first opens his mouth to greet K all he manages is a soft wheeze. Frowning a little, he raises a hand, half to make sure that he can, that it's the right shape now and that he can move it, and half in greeting, clearing his throat and trying again.

"Hello," he says, much more successfully than the first try, still lying flat on his back and blinking owlishly up at the other man. "Is this it? Did we all make it here?"

[obeir]

"Many Sleepers did," K confirms. "Though some chose to return to their worlds of origin and remain there." His smile wanes as he thinks of Martin, of Arid, knowing he'll never see either of them again for that reason. He's been trying not to think too deeply on that, unequipped as he is to really process the loss of his closest friends just yet. They both had their reasons, he knows, but that they both face certain death in their homeworlds doesn't sit well with him.

Luckily Orpheus's situation presents a good distraction. From one of the Wakers K accepts another set of robes, linens, and a Welcoming Bag on Orpheus's behalf. One of the linen cloths is rolled up and he carefully attempts to wedge it beneath Orpheus's head as a makeshift pillow, then drapes a linen blanket over him to preserve his modesty as a simple courtesy. If he makes any attempts at sitting up, K will assist him, but otherwise seems content to sit and keep him company while he recovers from the transition into this new world.

"Did you? Return to your homeworld for a while?"