wilderlogs | Of travel I've had my share, man.

Who: Hercules

theincredibleherc and YOU!
What: Hercules arrives
Where: All Over Philly
When: During the Philly camp period.
Warnings/Notes: Possible language, not anticipating anything too serious.

Falling for what seemed like hours and hours is an unfortunate thing, but it's a damn sight better than being stuck in a completely empty mockery of a reality that Hera had created. And hearing voices in his head whispering about saving some place he'd never heard of? That's damn weird, but par for the course when dealing with faeries, just like waking up in a place you definitely didn't fall asleep. Never one to concern himself with the finer details of a request for help...and because anything was better than being stuck in an empty universe...he mentally made up his mind to actually take this at face value. A request for help and a mysterious tugging in some unknown direction was enough to get him up and moving.

And so that is how the Lion of Olympus arrived in the ruins of Philadelphia. Striding out of the forest and into the ruined city, his mace casually carried over one shoulder, Herc noted the signs. Stuffing a hand into his belt pouch, he pulled out his Starkphone and checked for signal, just to be sure. Finding none, he shrugged and casually flicked over to a music all, beginning to blare Guns and Roses. The noise, he figured, could be a beacon to anyone around...or to any enemies that might be lurking nearby. Either was better than being alone.

The longer he went without sight or sound of anyone, the more noise he decided to make. That mostly entailed singing along with whatever song came up on his playlist, a range of classic rock and hair metal that Amadeus had left on there. And a few odd choices that he figured were gags left by Hank.

Eventually he'll find his way to The Philadelphia Free Library, figuring that maybe he could find an old newspaper or something inside. Pushing his way through the door, he stepped inside and called out, just to be sure.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

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"Phosphophyllite." A beat, and then they added with a shrug, "Or just 'Phos' is fine."

For some reason, a lot of the organic folk here had seemed to struggled with their full name. God knows why, it isn't that long. Maybe they just weren't that bright.

Curiosity apparently sated for the moment -- just for the moment, though -- Phos took a step back, giving the man a proper once-over finally. Yeah, just...big. And hairy. It was kind of gross, honestly, but they were nice enough not to comment. So nice. "Are you new? Lucky you. It sounds like they had a really bad time just a few days ago."

"Phosphophyllite?" Hercules answered without any problem or hesitation. "Like the stone, or like the Greek for Leaf?"

That seemed important. He was guessing stone, but with that hair? Or what looked like hair, anyway, he couldn't be sure...leaf wasn't out of the question.

"Yes! The stone!" They grinned, nodding with satisfaction. Good to know some of the squishy organic types could figure that out on their own. Cheerfully, they tacked on, "Is it also a kind of leaf where you come from...?"

Sorry, buddy. "Greek" wasn't any more familiar a word than "Starkphone".

"No, no. It's a stone, but the name for the stone comes from an old word for leaf. Two different languages."

Hopefully that comes across well enough. He's getting a strange sense about Phos, one not too different from a dryad first encountering people.

That...wasn't too far off, honestly. Functionally, it was a better assumption to be working with than most.

"Huh..."

There was a pause while they looked a bit bemused, puzzling over those details. Hell, the concept of different languages was a new enough one just since coming here. It could just be a coincidence, but it seemed like a strange coincidence that phosphophyllite would be a kind of stone in some other language coincidentally. And as much as they'd been able to not think about it so much while here, with all sorts of novelties and distractions, they couldn't help but think back to everything suspicious about Sensei, all the questions they still didn't have answers for.

Ugh. They weren't even sure where to begin with that one, the origin of the words and names and language Sensei had given them.

"That's...interesting." They smiled again, but it was just a little less cheery, a bit more pensive. "...Anyway, did you meet the rest of the group yet? They could probably answer any questions you might have better than I could."

What a smooth subject change. The absolute smoothest.

It's easy enough to just brush off the weirdness and focus on the question. Since everything else seemed to confuse or worry the little guy. Spirit. Thing. He's still not sure what the heck Phos is. Not that it'll make him rude or aynthing.

"I have not. You are the first person I've seen in this place. I just felt like this was the direction to go, so I went. How many are there?"

"Uh..." Phos has to pause for a few moments, trying and failing to do a mental headcount. There's a good number of people, and Phos only really knows some of them, and more have shown up while they were absent, too. "Something like...thirty? Maybe? I haven't even talked to all of them, and I've pretty sure some other new people showed up lately..."

They try a moment longer to think on it before just shrugging. "You can try counting them yourself, but no one really sits still for that kind of thing. And some of them are creeps, anyway."

"Oh? In what way?"

He has to ask. mainly because Stone Boy here is giving him a bit of the heebie jeebies himself. Not that Herc is afraid, it's just strange talking to someone like him.

"Like hurting things that could be people and not caring and yelling and starting fights when you tell them to stop. Or suggesting I eat something to make sure it isn't dangerous for the rest of them."

They're...maybe complaining about someone in particular. Maybe. Crossing their golden arms, they scowl at the ground.

"I don't even eat in the first place," they add, almost as an afterthought.

"Well, in fairness to them...you might be a different kind of being than they are used to. I've seen many things and you are unique to me, too."

Just...trying to be diplomatic, here.

"Nah." Phos rolls their eyes, waving off the attempt at diplomacy with a little frown. "This guy's just a jerk, trust me."

Yeah. There goes any pretense of this not being about one person in particular. Phos tucks their mirror back away, turning on a heel and gesturing for the large man to follow thwm.

"I can show you where everyone else is. And...you can tell me about some of those 'many things'."

Did they just lower their voice in a shoddy imitation of Herc's? Yeah. Yeah, they really did.

Well. You know what? He'll take it. And laugh to himself as well.

"Very well. Lead on, then, Phos."

Weird spirit you might be but meeting more people? That's a prospect he'll never turn down. He's a people person, you see. Until he has to start with the punching.

Of travel I've had my share, man.

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