He's only been down here a couple of times but his impression so far is that this place and its patron are Very Weird and he should expect Some Shit.

This attitude likely leaves him underprepared for what will follow.

At first there's nothing out of the ordinary (except for how the whole place is pretty extraordinary in general): a floating isle of stability in the midst of the chaos, grounding Greek columns holding up nothing and with no walls, and the not-quite-overwhelming presence that is Chaos themself. But one thing does seem off.

Namely, the exits aren't there this time.

And after a couple of seconds, Chaos's presence itself seems to withdraw further than it has the previous times he's been here, and from about the same direction in the endless void above he came from...

...comes a man who could well be his brother.

Or something even weirder, actually.

He is wearing the same chiton, the Stygian Blade or a copy of it is hanging from his hip, his skin is similarly pale and his hair is similarly black and similarly adorned with burning laurels and his feet are similarly on fire and, when he looks up, his eyes are similarly a mismatched shiny emerald-green and deep black-irised red.

Yeah, definitely weirder.

He jumps to his feet fairly quickly and says, "In the name of Hades, what."

"...are you... me?" He shifts his weight like he's about to step forward, and his hand moves toward his own copy of the Stygian blade, and then he desists from this course of action and instead asks, "Zagreus, son of Hades? Bleeds red?"

"Well we are in Chaos," he says, a mix of exasperation and fondness in his voice. "Yes to the last two questions, I am not sure what either 'yes' or 'no' would mean to the first one."

"I'm not sure either," the other Zagreus admits. "This is, uh, more Chaos than I've found here so far."

"...it's, yeah, I think this is more Chaos than I'm used to. Nice to, uh, meet you? Me? I am so confused." He looks around at the air and starts very slowly pacing around the peaceable area, in a relaxed kind of stance that suggests he doesn't seem to consider his doppelganger a threat at all. "Uh, Master Chaos? I don't suppose there's a neat explanation forthcoming?"

(The feeling of dry amusement in the air is probably not just their imaginations. No other response seems to be forthcoming, though.)

"I'm going to take that as an 'I thought it would be funny'," he says, watching the other Zagreus pace around. "Though that's more of a why, less of a how."

"Yeah," he says, stopping the pacing and turning around to look at—himself?—again. "...not the same, though. We look a bit different? In some ways this is more confusing than if we did look identical."

"...you're..." He's frowning slightly in thought. "...I want to say—happier? Than me? More... more."

"I didn't want to comment on that bit, but... yeah. You remind me a bit of how—well—I guess we don't know much about each other other than we share a name and probably some biographical details. You remind me a bit of how I was around the time I started trying to escape the Underworld."

"...well, I recently started trying to escape the Underworld, so, that holds together. Uh... how's your relationship with your father?"

He laughs, at that, half in surprise. "My guess is it is not very unlike yours. Lord Hades is good at many things and one of them is being terrible as a father. As a boss, too, at least from my admittedly limited experience."

"Oh yes," he agrees emphatically. "I hate it. Telling someone to do something you know they're bad at and then berating them when they fail at it is just insulting them for your own gratification with more steps."

He laughs some more. "I could not have put it better myself. If he weren't so obviously angry and miserable all the time I'd assume he gets off on it. Maybe he does anyway."

Snort. "Oh, I did not want to think about that. He would get off on being angry and miserable, though, wouldn't he."

"He would. You said your started trying to escape recently?"

"Yeah. It's a slog but I'm getting better."

"I've been at it for a few years now. I'm almost there, so close I can taste it, but the Champions of Elysium are... proving tricky. And Father has no sense of fairness so I have to defeat both of them at the same time."

"Figures. Well, good luck. I haven't even met them yet, but I'll get there."

"And to you as well. I confess to a desire to ask you for all of the details of your life to see how well they line up. And to get to know you. At this point I think I would say I am... not you. In some important sense. I am not sure that makes sense?"

"...what makes you say that?" he wonders. "Not that I disagree. I still don't know what it would mean, for you to be me. But if you want to talk through all the details of our lives, I've got time."

So Zagreus unceremoniously lets himself drop onto his ass, legs stretched out before him, and leans back to rest some of his weight on his palms.

"I'm not sure. A vague feeling, I suppose. One of the things is that you look... I want to say warier of me than I am of you." He cracks a smile. "And it doesn't really look like you've been checking me out very much."

"I can't check you out," he jokingly complains, "you're too distracting, you keep—moving and then I think about whether I move that way, and what it would mean if I did—"

He shakes his head slightly and starts pacing the area, staying within easy conversational distance of Other Zag. Staying in motion helps him focus.

"Don't you feel that too?"