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The trident was a nice touch, she had to admit.
Uniquely, for someone so used to dying to falls, Lux wasn't scared as she fell to this echo of negative space between levels of the Neverend. Folly smiled.
Call her curious, but she never could help herself when it came to this particular mortal: so dedicated, so certain that currying favour would save them. At least that's how it seemed. The code opened itself before the god: console and players, the world and it's every being, the very nature of reality at her gloved fingertips, every line a strand of her web to pluck, to rewrite, to twist to her whims.
"Wow, the way you just exploited that glitch, I almost thought you were Nox for a second there,"
It was trivial to shed the invisibility, to hover—untouchable, unstoppable, flawless—just above the green-blue water; perhaps Lux deserved to speak with someone on an even footing, but unfortunately for her the only being down in the echoes below the chambers, in the depths above the deep, was Folly.
Lux didn't look good, that much was clear- bleached pale hair, clothes worn, exhaustion in every line of fragile mortal code. Perhaps a field in the sun would've been a better place for this conversation, maybe full of folly trees… hm. Well, you work with what you have. They jumped like they'd been electrocuted at her sudden appearance and Folly couldn't help but laugh.
She really wasn't cruel, didn't want to be mean, didn't aim to hurt Lux, but messing with her was just too entertaining, especially when actual advice was nipping at her heels. The way Lux looked up at her once the shock had settled, it was like seeing—and excuse the on the nose metaphor—a moth drawn to a fire, ensnared, entranced, uncaring if it burned so long as it was warm.
"Folly! What- what are you doing here? How did you get here?"
"Such meaningless questions, is entertainment not answer enough? Maybe I should.. show you what some better questions could be, since we have the time,"
Lux was blabbering something about answering anyway, about not insulting Folly or something else along those lines. Even though people don't often lie to a god—Lux least of all—sometimes mortals needed.. a little push to give the answers that they needed. A temporary shift to the code here, a new line or two there, threaded into something so wonderfully and imperfectly Lux, at least for now.
"Why did you find this place?"
Folly was one prone to a monologue, but occasionally the mortals said something interesting enough to remain quiet for a moment or two.
"For Jemmie, I was.. hoping this place would be safe to release him, so he could never be used again."
Oh.. that anger was interesting, grief tinged the chlorine air, regrets too; but the anger was new. Interesting. All of that mingling with the confusion at how unwillingly the words fell from Lux's mouth, far more entertaining than watching the others scurry through the endless corridors like bugs in the dark, seeking food, warmth, shelter from the world so much larger than they were.
"I don't think that will work, you're welcome to try though! You have French Fry with you, right?" Lux nodded. "Great! Just release that little guy first, as a test, you wouldn't want to kill Jemmie right?" Folly ignored Lux's pained shout of 'NO!' interrupting her, "But I guess that would solve your problem of him being used against you,"
Lux hesitated, looking down at the yellow creature playing happily in the bucket in her hands.
"Why are you hesitating?"
"I'm scared." Lux flinched at the words as though hurt by them. "I don't want to hurt him! I don't wan to hurt Jemmie or anyone! I want them gone, and this is the best way to do it, but I want them dead, so they can't hurt anyone else again- and that… I don't think I'm strong enough to do it."
A tug on a simple string of code was enough to force Lux to drop the bucket, let poor little French Fry out into the endlessly still water. Like a spider with a twitch of their web to cause the fly to struggle and trap itself more. Predictably, he started squeaking in pain, the colour fading as though leeched into the water.
"Ooh, that doesn't look healthy, but on the plus side at least you two match now! I don't think it was the water that did that to you of course," Folly reached out and let Lux's bleached, rough hair run through her hand as the mortal hurried to scoop up the axolotl back into safety. If only it were so easy to do that to players.
Lux looked hurt, that was expected, simple enough to fix, without the need for any code.
"Lux, you're stronger than you think, you've got Rat! Astron! The anchorblade! You can resurrect wardens! You are strong enough to fight Nox and Blake and you're going to kick their asses! Yeah?!"
Lux grinned, the bucket clutched to her chest like she could shield it from the world. "Yeah,"
"I can't hear you!"
"YEAH! Yeah I am strong enough! Me and Rat we've trapped them here for good! And if- if they ever come back we'll trap them again!"
"Trap them, kill them, close enough!"
"Wait what- no I can't kill-"
Folly's ears twitched as she heard faint shouts from the level above them,
"-Looks like we're out of time, I hear your friends calling, better not keep them waiting,"
It was trivial to vanish, become a spectator of the world rather than a participant, to leave Lux alone in the in-between again, standing in the chlorine saturated water, doomed to flit around aimlessly until the next light drew them back to the world.
Thankfully for Folly's attention span, the shouts of Rat and Astron searching for Lux were heard shortly after, the lantern for the little moth to follow. Folly only hoped it wouldn't hurt too much when it burned.