"—I apologise? Erm, offensive how, exactly?"

"Not you. The thing keeping you. It's offensive, I'm offended. Can I just....? Oh, no. The only way out is through. Damn."

"My Father? I suppose he is pretty offensive as a person."

"You're not wrong, but you're also not right, either."

"I seem to be that pretty often in this conversation," he comments, smiling.

"I'm really out of practice at talking, sorry."

"You're doing fine! All your words even have meanings, which is more than I can say for some people."

“I don’t have the context to understand the implication there. Why wouldn’t my words have meanings? That is what words are for.”

"I should introduce you to Charon sometime."

“I assume that will make more sense if I do meet him.”

"He usually communicates by grunts that I have yet to find out how to decipher."

“Oh, I see. Well, now I’m curious, so I suppose I’ll have to meet him.”

"Father must be able to talk to him, I think."

"Or they have worked out an elaborate sign language. Which seems the obvious thing to do if one can only grunt."

"That... is a possibility I hadn't considered, yes!"

"Or a chalkboard. Actually, have you mentioned that you can't understand him and tried to work around it?"

"Well, I've mentioned it, but I haven't really... had much time to chat, whenever I ran into him."

"Oh. Okay. Well, I can make you a chalkboard if you want one. Or at least, something that functions like one, anyway."

"I might take you up on that, if I run into you again. But I neglected to include chalkboard-sized pockets in this garb," he says, motioning down at his chiton.

"I could tie it to a string, or maybe on the end of a necklace. Though that would be very unwieldy. Hmm. Expandable, maybe...? Oh, you probably have access to the thing that makes chalkboards without me, I'm likely devoting too much thought to this."

"The thing that makes chalkboards being?"

"..... S...late...? I'm guessing, I don't know."

"I think I shall just ask Father. Once he's gotten used to the idea that I'm not staying down here forever."

"Or you could play an elaborate game of charades with.... Charon, was it? Hm. Ferryman of the Underworld?"

"The one and only, yes. Are you acquainted?"