[audio/video]

[absinthe_eyed]

[An audio feed begins. Dull scratching sounds, muffled but hurried words. After a moment, the words become clear...]

--where I dropped--

[...only to disappear in a buzz of white noise. It gives way to a video feed featuring the too-close face of one Justin Pendleton, although he may not be recognizable as such. The typically fastidious boy is

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[audio]

[had_not_lived]

Oh my God, Justin!

[Equal parts panic and relief, there. He doesn't even know what to make of your expression. But the rest is kind of worrisome.]

Are you all right? Where were you? Were you under the graves, I talked to Rosella but she said she hadn't seen you and...

[audio]

[absinthe_eyed]

Neil. When is it? I was--there were caverns underneath, and they were full of--but I didn't see anyone. No one human and alive. I was running from everything I heard because I knew I couldn't fight them, I could only outrun them or outsmart them...

[He sounds far more scattered and excited than usual. Understandable, under the circumstances. Justin also sounds positively giddy.]

I'm starving, Neil, and everything hurts and it's beautiful. I forgot what it--but you know how that is. Shilo's going to murder me.

[audio]

[had_not_lived]

So you're all right? I mean you--

[He pauses, because though he's more or less followed this-- Rosella has told him about the mazes and the monsters, more or less-- it take a minute for the meaning of the latter bit to really hit him. And he sounds cautiously thrilled.]

Wait, you-- you didn't-- you're alive? How?!

[audio]

[absinthe_eyed]

Entirely, yes. The--everything healed after I... after I came back.

I don't know how! There's a man under the cemetery--or one of the powers that the deities can't control--and he did it. I don't know. I don't know how. He was there when I--after I'd... he was in a chamber, and I'm not sure what happened.

It's amazing. I can't--even before when I was alive, I never felt it. Never felt alive. It's like being alive for the first time.

[audio]

[had_not_lived]

I know what you mean.

[The saying that you never know what you have until it's gone rings quite true for Neil, in so many ways. Most people are lucky enough not to know what a beating heart really means.]

So you-- you didn't have to give anything or forget anything or...? That's amazing! Oh my god, Justin!

[He's possibly nearly as ecstatic as you are.]

[audio]

[absinthe_eyed]

You do. I know.

[There's a thoughtful pause.]

It wasn't free. Not entirely. [He still doesn't sound bothered, although he won't be sleeping well for weeks after all of the zombies and ghouls and the being-ripped-apart thing. It's better than a deal with the deities, at least!] But I paid a smaller price than you and Todd, I think.

[audio]

[had_not_lived]

Well. [He considers it for a moment; he'd like to know, because he worries; but he doesn't want to press.]

If you're happy, I am.

Now go find Shilo! She must be sick with worrying by now and well, you've got good news to share!

[audio]

[absinthe_eyed]

I will. That's where I'm going now.

I'll talk to you later.

[audio]

[had_not_lived]

Okay. Okay! I'm so glad! We'll have to go out, soon, after... you know, after everything's sorted out.