12773/A Procedure for Moving Through Labyrinths

A Procedure for Moving Through Labyrinths
Date of Scene:	13 September 2022
Location:	Enchanted Forest
Synopsis:	Caitlin and Donna explore a labyrinth on Themyscira, where they meet an ancient man who is much less than he seems.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    There seems to be a never-ending supply of eldritch artifacts just waiting for some minor villain to buy them from some shady auction with the intent of mayhem. It's one of the things the Titans get called in to deal with on a relatively regular basis. Something not necessarily as inherently and dangerously magical as to require the specialists, but of the more generalist superhero teams, the Titans are the ones generally most comfortable dealing with magical things. Today's had been one of those situations where there's a significant gap in threat between weapon and wielder. A supervillain so z-list that a few hours after the event nobody can even remember his name, and a handful of goons presumably rounded up from the nearest rent-a-goon office as a last minute afterthought. The artifact in question though, an amulet for summoning a dangerous magical creature called the Leucrocota, or Wolf of the Evening, was not something that could, like the villains themselves, be simply left in the hands of the police. Instead, Donna and Caitlin had set off in the T-Jet to make a brief trip to Themyscira, to give it over into the charge of the rangers of the Enchanted Forest, experts in handling mythical creatures.

    The T-Jet had come in to land close to a complex of buildings by the edge of the forest where the forest rangers make there base, and the amulet handed over. Job done, the pair might normally make a brief visit to the palace to pay their regards to the queen before heading back to America, but Donna had other ideas.

    "I spotted it when we were coming in to land," Donna tells Caitlin, as the pair approach a small temple-like structure a couple of miles hike through the woods from where they had left the T-Jet. "I've been here before, or possibly somewhere very like it. I think there's more than one. It's one of those places that don't like being mapped, though. Doesn't seem to stay in the same place from one day to the next."

    Donna uses her sword to cut away the undergrowth and overhanging vines that cover the doorway leading into the interior of the small building, and steps inside. Shafts of sunlight entering through holes in the ruined temple roof illuminate the interior with a dim gray light, and the footsteps of the pair on the stone floor are dulled by a layer of dirt and forest debris covering the ground. An angry chittering comes from one corner, accompanying the shaking of interloping undergrowth; some small forest creature making its displeasure known to the invaders of this sanctuary before temporarily fleeing for safety.

    There is no altar and little sign that this temple-like building ever actually played the role of a temple, but in the middle of the floor an opening leads into darkness below, stone steps fading from visibility after only a few feet. An old stone statue of a minotaur stands guard at the head of the stairs, and at its feet is a wooden crate, weathered, but obviously far newer than anything else in here.

    Donna steps over to the crate and lifts the lid, peering inside, before looking back to Cailtin with a grin. "You'll never guess where we are. Want to go on a little adventure?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"This is..." Caitlin taps her chin. "The back alley entrance to the IHOP in Tartarus," she proposes.

The redhead's dressed in her Amazon armor. A few trophies from her trips to the lands of Asgard have been added to it, including sturdier plates on her hips, a fur stole on her back and some other rune-marked accoutrements and decorations.

While Donna's looting the lootbox, Caitlin takes a few seconds to turn a slow circle and examine the temple's interior. The redhead lets a piping little whistle loose and her drone clambers up from a pocket on the back of her armor and takes off flying and scanning the interior to map it out.

"...crud. Now all I can think about is strawberry pancakes," she grimaces at Donna.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "No backdoors to Tartarus except the big one," Donna says with a laugh. "That would be trouble. One Doom's Doorway is quite enough." She crouches down by the crate, sorting through the contents before pulling out a couple of hand-held lanterns of the Themysciran glow-water type, and spindle of a thick cord that glints with a metallic shine in the rays of sunlight spearing in through the broken roof. She holds up the spindle, smirking slightly.

    "This should give you a clue, even if that..." she nods her head in the direction of the statue, "...Does not."

    She stands, examining the stonework at the entrance to the stairway. After a few moments she locates a hook set into the wall, and loops the end of the spindle of cord around it, before holding out one of the lanterns to Caitlin. "The labyrinth of the Minotaur is at Knossos on Crete," she says. "But only /partly/ on Crete. The legends say that it was built by Daidalos, but that's not exactly accurate. What he built was an entrance to the Labyrinth. A way to get into it to trap something there. Nobody knows who built the labyrinth originally, but it's a lot more extensive than the traditional legend states, and it doesn't really exist in a single place. There are labyrinths around the world that may seem like they're relatively safe and small, but if you happen to take the wrong turning you'll discover they're a lot more than they appear. Many labyrinths are interconnected in some way that nobody is very clear of. It may be that /all/ labyrinths are connected to a greater or lesser degree."

    "We have a few places on the island that lead into the Greater Labyrinth. There's one over the other side of the forest which is a more stable location. Diana took me in there once. For a long time, before she left the island, it was one of the places she'd go to challenge herself. This one... I'm not certain. If it's what I think it is, it's a quite small labyrinth that's intended purely as an entrance to the Greater Labyrinth. Kind of a labyrinth lobby, if you like. There's /probably/ nothing too dangerous in it, so long as we don't go in too deep and end up in the Greater Labyrinth. Want to take a look?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Oh, right, the--" Caitlin bonks her head against her palm. "I'm never going to get used to the Obvious Signs that we put everywhere on the island," she admits. "They're entirely too sensible. 'What's in this cave?' 'Poisonous bats, obviously'," she quips.

She helps Donna with the lanterns and gives the spindle of thread an intenesly curious look. "Is-- is that the same thread from the myth?" she inquires of Donna, eyes widening a little. "I remember that part, Theseus went to the labyrinth and someone gave him an enchanted ball of thread that led him right to the Minotaur and back again."

She holds up a hand, pausing herself. "Ok, wait, more importantly: the Minotaur is *dead*, right?" she inquires of Donna, more directly. "And then, the second question, about the, um, string."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I mean... maybe?" Donna says with a laugh. "The original Minotaur is supposed to be dead, though you can never entirely be sure with things like that. Something like that... well myth is a funny thing. It might be that the Minotaur is too strong an idea to be dead in the important sense of the word, as in... not there any more."

    She gives a small shrug. "I wouldn't suggest we go in deep enough to find out, honestly. And anyway, the Minotaur is only one of the dangerous things that might be found in the labyrinth. Probably not what we should be worrying about, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be keeping a close eye on things, and listening for any signs we're not alone down there."

    She holds her lantern out into the darkness of the stairway, illuminating enough to show the staircase itself isn't that deep. In the shadows, barely illuminated by the lantern above, the end of the stairs and the start of a path forwards can be seen.

    "No, it's not the original string," she says. "I'd say it was put here within the last twenty or thirty years. The forest rangers leave little caches like this around in places where they might be needed. It's wire-wound for strength, but I don't think it's magical. Just enough to make sure we don't get lost, so long as we don't go in too deep."

    Lantern held high in one hand and the spindle held in the other, Donna starts to descend the stairs, getting about half way down before peering back up at Caitlin. "Coming?" she asks.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin reaches back to unhook her battle-maul from the U-shaped clip that holds the head close to her upper back. She swings the three-hundred-odd pound weapon up onto her shoulder with minimal effort, and whistles her drone to come back in close to her.

"Of course I'm coming," she says, and starts down the stairs after Donna.

"Because we're going into unfamiliar terrain with no food, no water, no radio, no intelligence, and we've told no-one we're going cave diving in the Labyrinth." She lifts the other lantern overhead for the most possible spread, and her little drone activates soft perimeter LEDs to serve as a floating little light torch just over their heads. "So when this all goes horribly wrong, I want to be able to tell your mom 'I told her not to but I couldn't let her go in there alone'," she explains. "Then, I'll be the favorite, and I'll get promoted to Princess #3."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Caitlin a huge grin, her teeth glinting in the light of the lanterns. "You didn't tell me not to though," she objects. "You're clearly as bad as I am. Besides, last time I did this mom told me I shouldn't be exploring places like this until I'm older, and I'm older now. So obviously it's fine and we are following the queen's instructions."

    The pair are quickly down the stairs and into the labyrinth proper. Despite being quite a short distance from the surface, the air is distinctly cooler here. Perhaps a little cooler than is entirely comfortable, but a pleasant coolness after the warmth of the Themysciran sun. Donna quickly finds another hook buried into the stone wall at the base of the stairs, about waist-level. It's obviously a guide for the cord to keep it level, and Donna quickly hooks it through. The floor of the passageway feels like packed dirt beneath the feet at first, but a little tapping with the feet reveals a hard stone base, with a layer of slightly muddy packed dirt atop it. The walls are made from blocks of carved stone, and glisten slightly with the damp. Generous quantities of old webbing cluster around the corners between wall and ceiling, indicating the place is not entirely lifeless.

    Donna stops at the beginning of the passageway, holding up a hand for silence. After a few moments she gives a short shake of her head. "I don't hear any movement, or any breathing other than yours. But don't relax your alertness, something could be being quiet. I do hear water dripping somewhere ahead and to the right though, let's see if we can find the source."

    She continues forwards again, the light in her hand bobbing will-o-the-wisp like into the darkness of the passage, casting its illumination on the walls immediately around, but not as far forwards as would be ideally comforting. "Let's go!" she says.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin cocks an ear as well, and when Donna suggests moving, she sniffs the air deeply. "I smell standing water," she remarks. "And I don't hear a lot of water moving." She squints at the walls and ceiling. "I don't feel any air pressure spikes or movement. I'll have to be careful about C02 build up," she reminds Donna.

The redhead recalls her drone to her wrist and reprograms it with the interface hidden in her left vambrace. "..okay, done. I've got SIRIN set to scan for air pressure differentials. It never occurred to me to program her to *sniff* things," she admits. "Guess I'll add that to the next protoype evolution."

She presses on again in Donna's wake, refusing to let her nerves show on her face at the prospect of being lost under tons of rocks in a limitless maze...

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna continues forwards, displaying none of the nerves Caitlin is trying to hide. It's a fair bet she's not feeling them -- it would certainly be in character for her to take descending into a mysterious labyrinth entirely in her stride. If there have been some signs since the whole business with the other Troia that the walls of Donna's normal self confidence have taken a bit of a beating, it's not showing today.

    "There's at least /some/ water moving," Donna replies, "Or I wouldn't hear it dripping. I wouldn't expect anything to change suddenly in a place like this, that has been around for thousands of years and maybe more. But at least if we run into any pockets of flammable gas, the lanterns won't set light to them. "

    It's not long at all before the path forks, and Donna heads down the right hand fork without a moment's hesitation. The spindle keeps unwinding its cord behind them as they go. The second and third turnings Donna takes without slowing down, still following her ears towards the direction she heard the dripping water. The first two turnings have hooks embedded in the wall she threads the cord through, to avoid it rubbing against the stone work on the turn, but the third does not. "I think we're getting close," Donna says. "You hearing it?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"I hear the dripping," Caitlin confirms. Her eyesight is pretty fantastic, and the limited light around them is affording her a greater view of the dark shadows perpetually looking down any given long corridor. "It's pretty steady but I can't hear anything much louder than it. Hopefully it's just some natural condensation, not... water leaking from an overhead lake."

"Did you know that our brain can sense the build-up of carbonic acid in our blood?" she supplies helpfully. "You can't taste carbon dioxide; we've just evolved a sense of when our blood isn't oxygenated sufficiently. You can asphyxiate in a room full of nitrogen gas and you won't feel particularly short of breath."

Fun science facts!

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna pauses her forward march to raise an eyebrow at Caitlin for a moment, before punctuating the expression with a shrug of her shoulders. "Maybe..." she says, oddly, before continuing to walk forwards. "Perhaps I should have asked myself more questions about how I can get away with holding my breath for quite a long time," she continues, her voice dropping to a whisper as the source of the dripping water sound gets closer. "Or why I seem to do pretty well in a vacuum, all things considered. I guess when you think your powers are a gift from the goddesses you don't bother to question how any of it..."

    Donna stops suddenly and holds out a hand, calling for halt and silence. The source of the dripping water is very close now, but Donna's ears have caught another sound, and she listens intently for a few moments. The concentration is unnecessary though, because a bare few seconds after the pair halt, another quite clear sound joins the continuous dripping: someone's whistling.

    Donna peers forwards into the gloom, then gestures to Caitlin with one hand. All five fingers opening and closing in four groups of three - sixty feet ahead. She traces an arch on the wall beside her, then points to Caitlin and the near side of the arch she'd traces, then herself and the far side. She snuffs her lantern and starts forwards again at a cautious pace, treading silently.

    Sure enough they soon reach the opening Donna had indicated, and when they do she glances very quickly inside then darts across the open space to place her back against the wall on the far side of the opening. A faint bluish glow fills the chamber beyond the archway, and the shadows cast on the wall indicate someone, or something, moving in the room beyond.

    The whistling stops. "Who's there?" a croaking voice calls out from the room, speaking something close enough to pass as Themysciran, though it might be some other form of Greek. Donna winces slightly, annoyed that their efforts at stealth appear to have failed.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin freezes in place at the gesture. It's a well-ingrained reflex, one the Titans have beaten into themselves after many hard won lessons about giving away their position. Caitlin makes some near-inaudible noises at her drone and brings it winging back, killing the lights and tucking it into the safely armored pocket on the back of her armor.

Caitlin isn't the stealthiest of people, especially in her heavier armor, but it's been pretty well padded to reduce her noise signature as much as possible. She ghosts along the other wall and waits for Donna to play peekaboo.

It's all going great until it isn't. Caitlin's eyes widen and she looks at Donna with exasperation. Fingers wiggle at Donna and Caitlin mouths 'your fault!' at the princess.

Predictably there is some exasperated back and forth, and Caitlin finally rolls her eyes and relents the point. She lifts a hand at Donna and licks her lips, turning her mouth to the archway.

"<Sorry if we startled you; we mean no harm,>" Caitlin says in Themysciran. "<We're just exploring. We're not looking for a fight.>"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna unslings her shield, and holds it out into the gap of the archway, peering at the light reflected in the silvered stars on its surface. It's not a perfect mirror by any means, but it's enough to make out the figure of a man standing unthreateningly in the chamber beyond, staring at the doorway with no visible weapons.

    "<Exploring? Unusual {something}>", the man's voice replies to Caitlin. "<You are people. Long it is. I {something} from you.>" It's enough to confirm that the dialect he speaks is pretty unfamiliar to Caitlin, though largely comprehensible. "<How know you of a way out? Long it is also I have been here.>"

    Donna steps around the edge of the doorway, shield held forwards and sword held ready but back. "Who are you?" She asks. "And how did you get here? We did not expect to meet anyone else in this labyrinth.

    The source of the glow is clear once the chamber is entered -- a pool of the same 'water' that is used by the Amazons to light those lamps has accumulated in one corner of the chamber, bounded by what look like natural rocks. A series of stalactites dangle from the stonework ceiling, dripping into the pool slowly but steadily. The stalactites themselves glow the same pale blue.

    The man peers curiously at the pair of Titans from under bushy eyebrows. His beard is extensive and ill-maintained, and his clothes are little more than rags. He looks gaunt and ageless; the obvious conclusion is that he has been down here quite some time, though this raises the obvious question of what he has been eating.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin hangs her hammer on her back and steps out with both palms lifted. She breaks away from Donna as soon as they clear the archway. Her appearance is much more open and convivial, clearly indicating she has no hostile intent. It has the dual purpose of making for two different targets to deal with, and making the tanky redhead look more vulnerable than the shield-bearing Princess.

"<We found the entrance>," Caitlin explains to the man. "Er... </a/ entrance. There...> uh... <maybe there more than one.>" She chances a glance at Donna, then looks back at the stranger. Caitlin puts a hand to her chest in the universal gesture for 'self'. "<I am Aikaterine,>" she tells him. Her hand indicates Donna. "<Princess Troia of Themyscira.>" She gives him an undeniably curious look. "<Can you... how long have you been here, down>?" she asks, unable to restrain her curiousity.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna flashes a puzzled expression at Caitlin, and gives another shrug, but she relaxes slightly from her martial posture when Caitlin goes with the friendly approach.

    "<How... long...>" He repeats slowly. "<I am {something} of this. Long months. Of Themyscira?>" He blinks owlishly at Caitlin, looking puzzled. "<I am of Puro. The name I own is Didero. Themyscira is {something} for me. It is within the Kepto? You speak {something} like in the Kepto.>"

    Donna relaxes a little more. "<He means... he's asking us if we're from Crete,>" she explains to Caitlin. "<He has...>" she switches to English to continue. "I think he's speaking a dialect that has been dead since before there /was/ a Themyscira. If this is genuine, he's at least three and a half thousand years old."

    Donna lowers her shield and sheathes her sword. "<No, one of the islands>," she replies to the man. "<How did you get lost in here?>"

    "<So many turnings,>" he replies with a shrug. "<Have know you the way out from here? My family will have worry.>"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin winces when he mentions family. She lifts a hand at him apologetically and looks to Donna. "I think he'd be completely unhinged if he had been down here all this time," she murmurs. "Solitary confinement tends to cause reality to break down for people. Some kind of temporal dilation, maybe?" she hazards.

Hypothesis suggested, she looks back to the man, tempering her sorrowful expression. "<We can help you out,>" Caitlin assures him. "<I am a doctor. I would like to look at you before we leave.>" She steps closer, stopping outside his arm's reach with her palms turned upwards. "<Only with your permission,>" she reassures the man, with her most earnest and unassuming expression firmly in place.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The man takes a slightly alarmed step backwards. "<I don't know,>" he says, raising his hands in a warding gesture. "<I do not cause trouble.>"

    "I think you just told him you're a sorcerer," Donna tells Caitlin. Then "<She means herbalist, not doctor>," she tells the man. "<Our words are different.>" The man relaxes visibly and gives Caitlin a nod of the head before taking a few steps closer to her.

    "There's a problem here, Cait. He's... well he's a man. We can't just take him out given that out means Themyscira. We're going to have to ask the queen's permission. It's not like he just performed some great service for the Amazons."

    Caitlin's inspection reveals no obvious wounds -- for someone who has been stuck in a place with no obvious food source for thousands of years, he seems to be in remarkably good health. Better than could be expected if he'd only been down here for a few days, though the growth of beard alone suggests he has been here longer than that.

    "Also... I don't like this, Cait. I mean... something feels off. He's not lying to us. But this... I don't know. Something's not right here."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks at Donna and thins her lips slightly. Donna's instincts are often good, and this entire situation is suspicious. Someone surviving alone down here this long is being kept alive by something unnatural, and they both know it.

"What's the alternative, Donna? Do we leave him down here? For all we know the walls move around the minute we leave. My map of the place could be completely useless. We can't guarantee we could find him again."

She glances back at the man and lifts a hand apologetically. "<Do not mean to insult,>" she promises him. "<Dangers outside and beyond. Talking of which would be safest way for you,>" she says in her fumbling Themysciran.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I know," Donna replies, her expression an agony of indecision. "But on the other hand, what if this is some kind of a... a trap?" She gives a quick shrug. "If it wasn't for the fact that he doesn't appear to be lying, I'd think he was someone or something in disguise, trying to trick us into bringing him out of the labyrinth. I mean... he can't be telling us the whole story. Someone doesn't just wander into a labyrinth one day and survive three and a half thousand years or more."

    Didero nods his head to Caitlin "<Sounds are heard here, yesterday. Many yesterdays. I longed to investigate, but also I had fear. I stay within this chamber. I am not a warrior.>" He peers curiously at Donna, who has started pacing the room, exploring its nooks and crannies, and then turns to look more closely at Caitlin, peering through the dim light cast by the lanterns, and the glowing blue of the pool of water, emitting the same quality of light. "<To you is the look of warriors. It is strange to me. Is this normal in Themyscira?>"

    "<How long have you been down here, Didero?>" Donna asks suddenly. "<Who was king in Puro when you left?>"

    Didero frowns, and gives his head a shake. "<I have... a long time,>" he says. "<So much is forgotten. I do not recall the name of the king.>"

    "<What of your family? You have a wife, children?>"

    Didero opens his mouth to answer, but no words come out. His frown grows deeper. "<Strange it is. Their names do not appear on my tongue. Did I forget so much? It is a long time I have been here. I remember the dripping of water, the stones beneath my feet. I remember it was dark once, in older days, before the water started to drip.>"

    Donna gives a vague nod of her head, and approaches the pool. She crouches by the edge, dipping her hand into the faintly glowing water, her fingers breaking the surface.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"That's a bit of a reach, isn't it?" Caitlin asks Donna. "A trap needs good bait, a planned target and good timing. Throwing someone down here on the off-chance a couple of Amazons find him-- let alone decide to break tradition and bring him upstairs-- is one heck of a long shot."

She shakes her head, grimacing, and tries to puzzle through it. "You said there are other ways in and out of here, right?" she asks Donna. "Is it possible we could find one that pops out elsewhere on the island? We could at least get him to the mainland. It's too far for me to swim, but you could fly him there," she suggests.

Caitlin looks down just in time to see Donna touching the water, and makes a failed attempt to grab her wrist. "Donna, you--" Caitlin sighs heavily. "Never put your fingers in suspicious glowing liquid. That's how Vic lost his favorite fingertip." She unloads her hammer and uses the pommel to probe the pool carefully and gauge the depth.

"<How many time ago did this water come? Soon? Later?>" she asks of Didero. "<Did you drink it?>"

Donna Troy has posed:
    <"Drink? No,>" Didero replies. "<I have not thought to drink it. >" Donna raises an eyebrow at Caitlin, but doesn't respond. He'd have to have drunk /something/, right? "<I see no sunrise and no sunset. It was many days that the water came. I do not know how many.>"

    "It's the same water we use for the lamps," Donna tells Caitlin. "Look at it. More concentrated than when we have it in the natural state, more like after we have processed it. There are underground pools like this though, where it collects. It's safe. More than safe, it has healing properties."

    Despite what she says, Donna takes her hand out to allow Caitlin to explore the depths of the pool with the end of her hammer. It's shallow, only about a foot deep, the water apparently filling a depression in the ground there. As Caitlin continues to probe, the hammer soon bumps against the edge of a rock in the middle of the small pool, a couple of feet from the edge. It's hard to gauge exactly what it is, but after some more probing it's apparent that it fills the middle of the pool quite neatly, its edges pretty much equidistant to the edges of the pool, its top only a couple of inches below the surface of the water, and distinctly flat. To Caitlin's probing, the rock feels suspiciously square.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Clunk clunk. Clunk. There's a pool, there's a Thing, and there are not a lot of ideas elsewhere for the two women. Caitlin exchanges a look with Donna and sighs, rolling her eyes with an adolescent resignation and sets her hammer down on its head. "If I lose an arm over this, you're tying my shoelaces forever," she says, and kneels down next to the water. The redhead is *very* cautious; she sniffs the water carefully and deliberately, then touches a pinkie finger to it. A single bead is collected and held on her obdurate skin, then tested against a little scrap of paper in one of her belt pockets. Finally she touches it to the tip of her tongue and immediately spits to the side. "Yep. Tastes like lamp fluid," she agrees.

Caitlin stares at the pool while rolling up her left sleeve, grimaces, and reaches down into it to grab the mysterious object and haul it up out of the water.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Didero looks on with curiosity as Caitlin reaches into the water to try to haul the stone out. It's a little too large for Caitlin to grip easily, and the first tentative tugs indicate that while it has some give, it's wedged into place. After a few moments Donna steps into the pool to get to the far edge of the stone object and lever it up from the other side so that Caitlin is able to get her arms around it and lift it out.

    Freed from the water, the object is clearly dressed stone. Though the edges are worn, there's no question it was originally squared quite neatly, about three foot on each side, and a foot tall.

    "<You are as strong as Atimite>", Didero marvels, staring at Caitlin. "<Dapuritio Potnia!>"

    Donna wipes a hand across the surface of the rock, rubbing away at the algae formed on its surface. As she wipes, three symbols carved into the surface become slowly visible, though worn. Looking vaguely runic, the first appears to be perhaps a trident, the second looks like stylized brazier with flames in it, the third a cross. Donna's lips make the shape of sounds, but she doesn't read aloud. She blinks up at Caitlin, then turns to Didero. "<Didero, can you come here and read this?>" she asks.

    Still looking rather awed at Caitlin, Didero steps over and peers at the symbols. "<I... cannot read,>" he tells Donna. "<I never learned the art. But the symbols... I know these symbols...>"

    "<Yes,>" Donna replies. "<These letters are not the same letters we use, but I can read them...>"

    Didero frowns, and nods his head. "<It... it is my name. I... I used to stand here, on this stone. I remember now.>"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Great. Now I look like I broke a glow stick," Caitlin mutters, and tries to shuck the illuminated water off her as best she can. "So it's a ... what's the word. Soapbox?" Caitlin hazards at Donna. "That thing orators stood on, right? Or am I thinking of something else?"

She purses her lips and glances at Didero. "<Do not be scared,>" she tells him, and whistles a quick trio of notes. Her drone comes out from its protective case and perches on her shoulder, and Caitlin points at the block. "Image scan, then LIDAR analysis," she tells the robot. It wharbles a response and buzzes into the air, scanning the object into its memory banks.

The redhead picks her hammer up and swings it around to lock into the hook on the back of her armor again so it's out of her way. "I don't recognize any of these symbols. Pictographs?" she hazards.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It's the language you call Linear B," Donna replies to Caitlin. "Not pictographs. Not exactly an alphabet, either. It's syllabic -- Di-de-ro." She's staring at Didero strangely.

    "<I was blind>", Didero says, staring at Caitlin's drone. He turns to Caitlin wide-eyed, and bows his head to her. "<Now I see your owl, I know you for who you are. Forgive me, Atana Potnia.>"

    The scan reveals nothing surprising about the stone slab. It's solid, carved from limestone.

    Donna gives out a soft sigh. "I think I know what's going on here, Cait. Though... not exactly how. The water must have seeped through from the bedrock above and started dripping down here. It's naturally magical. I mean... not /this/ magical. There would have to be some residual spell it was interacting with. Maybe something in this part of the labyrinth, or maybe something in the stone itself. But... I don't think we can bring him out of here, Cait. Put the stone down on the ground, away from the water. Somewhere... somewhere flat, close to the doorway."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin moves the stone over to the doorway and sets it down carefully, using her knees to make sure it doesn't slip and break. "I don't get it," she tells Donna-- pointedly not responding to the 'Atana' comment from Didero. The idea of being conflated with Athena cleary hits a jangle somewhere between stealing identities and flat out blasphemy.

Caitlin's got a complicated religious outlook.

"Why-- maybe we can bottle the water up and take it with us," Caitlin suggests, looking at the man. "Or one of us can stay with him and the other can head back up to the surface. I don't want to just leave him here, Donna," she says very stubbornly. "Not if we've got a chance to save him from this."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna rests a hand on Caitlin's arm, giving it the gentlest of squeezes. "Caitlin, if I'm right... there is nothing to save him from. I'm sorry."

    Didero stares at the stone platform in its new position, and takes a step forwards. Then, after a few moments pause, another step, and another, until he stands right in front of it, staring down at it. He nods his head to himself a couple of times, before turning to look at Caitlin. "<I begin to remember,>" he says with a sigh. "<Perhaps instead to remember what it is that in truth I did not remember. Yes, I was from Puro, but I do not remember Puro. Once I had a family, but I do not remember them. I never knew either, did I? Not truly>"

    He takes a step up onto the stone platform, and turns so that he is facing the doorway. He shifts a little, getting himself comfortable. "<Here I shall see more. If people pass again, I shall see them. As the world changes around me, I shall see it change. I thank you for this gift.>"

    His voice grows strange, slower and deeper, and his voice echoes more. His features seem to soften, and the ruddiness of his skin pales. "<I do not know how this is happened. But it... it is a comfort to me that it has happened.>" His limbs stiffen, and the last of the color fades from his skin. His eyes move slowly, with difficulty, to glance first at Donna and Caitlin, then turn to look at the doorway and the hall beyond.

    "<Thank you, Troia and Aikaterine of Themyscira, if that is who you are. If you... are... not, if... you are... who... I think....>" his jaw stiffens, the words coming slowly as he struggles to move his mouth. "<I am... blessed. If... not... also... blessed. It is... more... than a... a stat...."

    Didero falls silent, unmoving. His skin, his hair, the rags of his clothes, all now match the gray of the limestone plinth. Donna steps up to him and touches his arm for a moment before pulling her hand away. She turns to Caitlin with a blank expression.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin watches, dumbfounded, as Didero resumes the position on the plinth. She shakes her head, not fully understanding-- or at least not entirely comprehending. But her eyes track to the dripping water overhead, the position of the pool, and she can imagine then a lonely sculpture tucked into a corner, a piece of art forgotten for centuries, and awakened by a steady drip of enchanted liquid. She glances back at Didero but it's too much for her to bear to see that all-to-human skin hardening back into cold stone.

When Donna looks at her, tears are in Caitlin's eyes, her arms hugging her ribs through the leather armor. "Magic water," she says, voice full of misery. "Just enough to wake him up and leave him alone in the dark forever." Her words are full of bitter sorrow. "He didn't even get a chance to see what living was like."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna nods her head at Caitlin's words, then steps up to wrap her arms around her friend and hold her a while, a few moments of pity shared for this lifeless statue given a brief time of some ersatz approximation of life.

    Didero -- the statue, not the man lost to history who's likeness the limestone bore -- had called himself blessed for the chance of those moments to experience life, even if it was a life hollow of true experience or true memory. It seems scant comfort, but he did not go unwillingly back to his true form of stone.

    "Come on Cait," Donna says as she pulls away. "Let's go back home. I've lost my enthusiasm for looking for adventures today."