[ He looks away as she looks toward him, turning instead to search the fathomless reaches of shadow surrounding them, pulsing with light and some distant roar of sound, barely held at bay. The voice of the Planet is like the faraway echo of whalesong, millions joined together into one rising sound that crests like a wave before falling back into silence. The surface of the water runs placid and they fall and he guides them, as if he knows where he's going.

Or where they'll end up. ]

He's not... All there, exactly.

[ And he lifts an arm from where it had settled, curled around her, to tap the first two fingers of that hand against his temple. ]

Most people can't handle the pressure, down here. It starts to take you apart, if you're not strong enough. He just- Couldn't hold on, anymore, I guess.