{ to be fair, the city isn't exactly a place he'll find a need to breathe underwater, but the necklace was a gift from mermaids to do just that. he may as well wear it on the off chance, especially as portals of unknown origin keep appearing. another danger to mention at some point.

but her question has him pause, if only for a moment, before he gives her the same news he delivered to everyone on the network here mere weeks ago. }

Unfortunately, yes, given that I died here recently.

{ she knows from experience that he'd rather be straight to the point. there's no need to try and sugar coat it with fancy words, even if this is a difficult subject to broach. he'll be fine as long as he doesn't think too deeply about what happened. and for what it's worth, there's very little to give away how he's coping with it on his face at the moment. }

But slowly we're learning more about what happened here and the state of things at present.