Event log: How Delightful

[hadrielmods]

Who: Anyone and everyone!
What: Delight's resurrection.
Where: Throughout the city, starting in the bar.
When: March 23rd-April 3rd
Warnings: Partying too hard, poor life choices, underage drinking, the worst hangovers of all time.

On the morning of March 23rd, bright and early, Delight is resurrected. Her temple is restored, and her bar appears in the city. What does that mean? Well, obviously it's time to celebrate. We hope everyone brought their party shoes! From March 23rd to March 27th, the party will be mostly contained in and around Delight's bar, with an invitation from the goddess herself. But it won't be long before she decides that's just not good enough - gotta bring the party to the people! From March 28th to April 3rd, the natural light is dimmed and replaced with flashing colored lights, fireworks, and even a few disco balls. Loud music blares through the city, making it hard to sleep, and a wide variety of trouble is available to be gotten into.

Wanna drink away the pain of being trapped in a hellcave? There's unlimited amounts of alcohol of all kinds, and Delight will be happy to supply anything that might be missing. More interested in karaoke-ing your heart out? Hit up one of the jukeboxes. Enjoy gleeful displays of your own mortality? Here's a skateboard and a ramp, have fun. There's just about anything you could desire, as long as what you desire is to party hard and make bad decisions. And hey, if you find yourself getting tired, grab one (or five) of Delight's special energy shots. They'll eliminate your need for sleep, food, water, cure an oncoming hangover and immediately relax any sore muscles you've got for 24 hours per shot! There's no down side! (Except for all the effects coming back to hit you at once when the shot wears off, but whatever.)

After about a week and a half of tequila shots, keg stands, roman candle battles, tagging the city with free spraypaint, inappropriate party games, and balloon hats made to look like rocket ships (wait... that's not a rocket ship), Delight realizes everyone's partied out and starts to wind things down. On April 3rd, she'll clean up the city, removing everything except for a few remaining fireworks and disco balls, stored in her temple. Her bar will still be around, if you can stand to even look at liquor after all the poor choices you made. Otherwise, lay in bed and try to recover from your hangover while the city goes back to normal.

► This log covers March 23rd-April 3rd.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► Did you party too hard? Please report any character deaths right here!

Comments

Glacius | Killer Instinct | OTA

[glacius]

March 28th-April 2nd | Various Locations in the City

This is Glacius' first time being witness to a god's resurrection. So far, it has done absolutely nothing to convince him that the strange beings that rule this city are at all deserving of the title.

When the party had been contained to her newly-established bar, he could deal with it, even if it was of no importance to him. He was not about to indulge in such careless behavior when he still considered himself on active duty--and a partygoer, Glacius certainly is not. Throngs of humans making all sorts of trouble, loud noises, explosions in the sky, and brightly flashing lights of all color-- these all contribute to a potent brew of chaos that the peaceful, quiet alien would attempt to avoid at all costs. Now that it has spilled out from the bar into the entire city, to the point that he can't be free of the booming music or the spirit of debauchery no matter where he goes, it has become an absolute nightmare for the alien--never mind the fact that at the beginning of the month he had been attacked by one-eyed monsters.

As it is, Glacius finds himself getting more and more frustrated as the days go by. He does not want to drink. He does not want to dance. He does not want to pull stupid stunts that could end up with him or anyone else injured. He is a disciplined alien warrior who just wants to keep his head down and find a way to get out of this bizarre city, away from its equally strange overseers. Maybe your character is the same, and having someone to bemoan the relentless, now intrusive festivities or be confused about this manner of revelry would be a refreshing change of pace. Or maybe they are the exact opposite, and they have decided to take it upon themselves to try and show this otherworldly being the merits behind learning to relax and have a little bit of fun. Whatever the case, they are free to encounter the alien as he wanders through the city of Hadriel, looking for somewhere, anywhere that this party hasn't yet reached.

April 3rd | Riverside, Not Far from the Caves

There is a massive ice alien passed out cold in the grass by the gently-trickling river.

It had become too much. No matter where he went, he couldn't be free of the music, of the noise, of the chaos. Even when he'd retreated to the caves he'd been calling his temporary home, he could still hear the steady baseline booming of the festivities ringing in his ears, to the point where it had been pounding behind his temples as a massive headache. He couldn't even think straight, let alone sleep. He didn't understand how people could be enjoying this sort of thing; to him everything was terrible and he just wanted it to stop.

That was when he had discovered the strange energy shots left out by Delight, and that they somehow magically cured his fatigue and headaches. And that was when everything had gone downhill.

The ice alien had been desperate to find a solution and this, apparently, was it. He began relying on the shots to see him through the rest of the event, taking them for multiple days straight whenever he began to feel his body wearing out on him. When Delight had taken it upon herself to finally call it quits and end the party, cutting off the music and cleaning up the city, Glacius had at first been ecstatic--right up until he realized that meant the energy shots were gone too, or perhaps more accurately they hadn't been magic cures. They'd just temporarily treated the symptoms of his fatigue and exhaustion, and now everything he'd shrugged off over the past few days was all catching up to him at once, resulting in an energy crash of monumental proportions.

Given that he hadn't done much drinking, he didn't have a hangover, but that didn't mean that he didn't feel like absolute death. It had been days since he'd last slept, after all; the ice alien didn't even have time to make it all the way back to the caves before his mind started slowing down and his limbs began feeling like lead weights. He passed out on the spot in the grass by the waterside, completely dead to the world where anyone could stumble by him. Of all the ways his presence--which he'd been working hard to conceal up until this point-- could be discovered, this has got to be the absolute worst one possible. If anyone wants to nudge him awake and help him to a more secluded location where he can rest properly, it would be appreciated--even if realizing that he'd been seen in this position would be a huge blow to his dignity!

March 28th

[casperdisaster]

Noah is absolutely not looking for a quiet place to hide out when he quite literally runs into Glacius. Considering the way his arms pinwheel and his legs stagger in an attempt to catch his balance back under him, not to mention how his eyes seem unable to focus -

Well, it doesn't take the smell of liquor coming off of him to tell this boy is drunk. Or the way he pauses, holds his hands out in front of him again, and looks up at Glacius.

"... Whoa. Cool."

Noah has been drinking since this party started.

[glacius]

Glacius gives out a stunted squawk of surprise when Noah bumps into him, recoiling immediately from the contact. He's not big on touching people at all, so at least the teen finds his balance on his own--otherwise he'd have had to reach out and catch him. His disdain for the loud, invasive party and the drunken antics of all who are partaking aside, he's not the sort of being to just stand there and let someone potentially bite it unless he really doesn't like them.

Unfortunately, the way that Noah is staring at him does not put him as ease. It's one of the dangers of looking around--there's always the possibility that he could be spotted. Well. Hopefully when this human sobers up he will assume that his sighting of such an exotic being is merely a product of his intoxication...

In the meantime, hopefully he can discourage such careless behavior. The alien tilts his head slightly as he watches the human in front of him stumble about like a newborn chick. "Perhaps you should cease your intake of alcohol. You could incur harm from your lack of coordination."

[casperdisaster]

Noah waves his arms in what is probably meant to be a dismissive kind of wave at Glacius, but ends up being a bit too loose overall to be much of anything.

"Nooo. No. I'm good. I'm great. I've been drinking for a long time. I mean. Uh. Like. I am an experienced drunk. Although I have also not been sober for days. I'm good." He pauses for only a moment then slowly gives Glacius a very carefully thought-out thumbs up.

"... Are you an alien? I met an alien before, she had horns on her head, like this-"

Noah makes a gesture that looks similar to cat ears.

"-And they were colored like candy corn... I miss her. She had kittens and let me pet them."

[glacius]

At that, Glacius simply scoffs. He's "good"--right. He looks like he needs his head dunked in a tub of cold water. And clearly not so experienced, if he'd let himself get this far gone--to the alien that just suggests neglect, or carelessness. However, Noah's subject change takes him off guard, and his dull, unimpressed stared breaks into something more open for just a moment. He's faced with an alien and that's it? That's all he's going to say? Maybe what he's heard about nonhumans being commonplace here is true...

"I am," the ice alien grunts, shrugging one shoulder. "...I admit, I am surprised that you are... so calm about this. Though perhaps the alcohol is dulling your responses."

[casperdisaster]

"You are?" Noah's asked several people if they've been aliens in the past, but he's always been wrong. To finally get a yes, even drunk - this is making his day. He's clearly not the same kind of alien as Di, but Di was nice and took care of Noah when he was still freaking out about being a physical being again.

"Oh, no, I mean. Maybe? But I'm a ghost. Usually. Back home I've been dead for almost eight years, but I've got a body here, so it really isn't my place to judge others."

April 3rd

[circumitus]

Partying had been well and good and all, if you are a party person.

Rey, however, is not. She's never been invited to parties, never partook in festivities at bars, and she sure as hell has never quite been this drunk before.

Lucky for her, she doesn't sleep that often. The music and the noise doesn't even phase her that much. When you've spent enough time on battlefields to the raucous noise of active gun charges and mortar, the sound of constant partying isn't so bad. It just... makes her jumpier more so than usual.

Having wandered away from the festivities, she makes her way to the riverside to check up on her dam. Perhaps even work on it a little while she's being the "all work, no play" insomniac that she is.

Until she notices a blue pile passed out by the waters.

Hands in the pockets of her cargo pants, Rey saunters towards the sleeping alien and judges him with the toe of her boot to make sure he's still alive.

"Hey," she says to the creature, her voice a little softer and more hoarse than one might expect coming from a face like hers. "Are you dead?"

Rather than waiting patiently for an answer, she peers a little closer to make sure whether or not he's even breathing still.

[glacius]

He is still breathing--the breath gusting in and out of fluttering gills on both sides of his neck in a regular, temporarily unbothered rhythm that suggests a very deep slumber. When he feels something nudging his body, and when he hears what he is assuming to be words spoken at him, the alien... well, he doesn't quite wake up yet. His voice is husky and not completely coherent, and given that he doesn't even have the energy to properly formulate words, what crawls from the pit of his throat is a grudging protest from a creature that does not want to be moved.

Whether his quiet, half-conscious "noooo" is a response to Rey's question or simply him protesting everything that's happening in this exact situation is not entirely clear.

[circumitus]

"Got you that bad, huh?" She scoffs with another judge of her boot. "Don't suppose you had any of those shots."

Rey had seen what happened to the people who were winding down on those drinks, and decided to stay away from them. As someone who is used to two mere hours of sleep, she's somehow managed to figure out how to stay on her own two feet without them. It's a miracle that she's managed to escape the hangovers and the migraines in wake of the celebrations.

[glacius]

Glacius heaves a mighty sigh that has huge clouds of freezing mist billowing up out of his neck and into the air, briefly obscuring his face. One hand swats, lightly and sluggishly, against the toe of the offending boot that keeps bothering him. A moment later and that seems to alert him, in a moment of rather delayed realization as he grips the same toe, to the fact that there is in fact someone else next to him; someone else who is seeing him in this sorry state.

The alien's head rolls around in the grass and one eye cracks open to the tiniest green sliver, then widens. His body tenses up--it's about the only movement he can manage in this condition--and he lets out a garbled noise of surprise, his mind still too foggy to really put up anything coherent.

"another NUDGE of her boot", oops

[circumitus]

If not for the fact that he was breathing, Rey would've wondered if the alien was alive at all. This is even further confirmed when he grabs her boot before she can give him a third little scoot to make sure he wasn't just dead weight.

She stops. Blinks.

"Taking that as a 'yes', then."

March 31st - Park Area

[synthedick]

Nick, too, is not much of a party person. He's technically not a person at all, and with no need to sleep, the racket isn't keeping him up; it is undeniably distracting, though. It's because of all the hullabaloo that he's still walking his daily route around the city, keeping an eye out for trouble: the noise and lights might attract creatures from the caves. Even if they don't, the ruckus is making it hard for those who do need sleep to get it. Deprived of basic needs, folks get antsy, on edge. Someone has to keep an eye out for them.

It's nighttime (or should be nighttime according to his internal clock, but with all the flashing lights and blaring music, it's hard to tell) when he reaches the outskirts of the city, and he decides he'll take a break from his routine. Weaving through the trees of the park, he meanders toward a lonely, ruined bench he often stops at when he needs a moment to himself. He won't be getting that moment this evening -- someone has beaten him there.

Given the unusual shape and size of the stranger, Nick thinks for a second it might be one of the monsters from the caves; however, this one seems calm enough at first glance, and doesn't seem to be making its way into the city, toward the noise and the people. Maybe it's just looking for a quiet spot to dwell on things, too.

So he gives conversation a chance first, calling to the being as he makes his slow approach. "Can't say I expected anyone else to be all the way out here, but with the city the way it is, I'm not surprised."

[glacius]

Glacius had gravitated to the park ever since he'd discovered it. Though all the green plant life was a step away from the icy, snow-coated tundras that he had enjoyed on him homeworld, the calm was at least familiar... and it was big and out of the way enough that it wasn't hard to get space to himself. Given that was all he had wanted since the damned party had crept out to encompass the whole city, this was a natural retreat. He could still hear the damned music, and the flashing lights still colored the land--of all the things a "god" could use their powers for, honestly-- but at least there were not many people out here.

In fact, he's not even sure if that the figure he sees approaching now is human. They're the shape and size of a human, yes, but he's pretty sure that the pinpricks of yellow light he can see peering at him are the being's eyes, which is... well, it's new. Glacius isn't one to judge, though; his own eyes stare back like little green light bulbs. At least this person doesn't seem alarmed by him... and the sentiment is one he wholly shares.

"It's not my place," the alien answers simply, "I don't belong among such crowds and I have nothing to celebrate. Plus, the noise of it all--I could barely hear myself think. Highly irritating. I can only hope this does not become a usual occurrence."

[synthedick]

"Couldn't agree more," Nick replies, taking another couple of steps toward the strange being, averting his eyes to look toward the riverside in the distance. He doesn't want to stare -- it's both impolite, and often taken for a sign of mistrust, of apprehension. He gets the feeling that if this guy is trapped in the city the same as the rest of them rather than having wandered in from the caves, he's had his fill of calculating, judgmental looks. Nick knows that feeling all too well, himself.

Though he's not looking at the stranger, he is still paying attention: the closer Nick gets to him, the more his internal thermometer drops, his synthetic body letting him know that there's a distinct chill in the air as his sensors pick it up. That is curious.

"This is the first party like this I've seen since I arrived," he continues, stopping a few feet from the stranger, the yellow glow of his eyes affixed on the distance. "Most of what happens is less obnoxious and more... dangerous."

[glacius]

Glacius rumbles out a quiet noise of contemplation. His head had swiveled, briefly, to the side to regard this not-human as he approached... but the stranger still seems fairly relaxed. He doesn't seem like he's trying to size the alien up or get into some kind of altercation. Glacius hesitates for just a moment, not sure if he wants to drop his guard yet, but then decides to go along with things for now so long as they stay peaceful. He turns his head back, his gaze going up instead of out--but there are no stars there, no open sky. Just like his old prison, but a stone ceiling instead of a metal one.

"It sounds like no matter what these 'gods' decide to do, we cannot win," Glacius speaks carefully, considering everything. "When I first showed up here I was immediately attacked by hordes of one-eyed demons. I can only assume now that was orchestrated by the gods, perhaps as a test, or maybe just mindless cruelty. I cannot fathom such motives. I cannot fathom any of this. But I will endure."

[synthedick]

"That's a good attitude to have," Nick says, his own gaze following the alien's upwards. He's been underground a number of times on cases, but never in a place the size of Hadriel. Even the Vaults weren't entire cities; however, they were often just as cruel in their own way.

"Giant bats came in with me. The folks running this joint claim they have no control over what goes in and out of the city when we're pulled here. Don't know if that's true or not, but I wouldn't put it past them bring those monsters in on purpose. The 'gods' have a use for us, after all."

He doesn't sound happy about that last bit, contempt cutting an undercurrent in his voice. No one liked being used -- certainly not an individual who was more machine than man, who was used to being treated like a thing.

april 3rd

[pellameno]

[ There is a massive ice alien passed out by the river.

Huh.

Pell feels like he's dying but he managed to coax himself into getting some food from the store and then didn't realize he'd been going the wrong way out of the store until he hit the water... and spotted a large figure down the way. Ever curious, even when feeling like death, he's stumbled over that way. The odds of it being a monster passed out are very slim (or extremely coincidental) and he's been told there are other inhumans here. So he gives this a shot.

The ice giant is going to get a concerned nudge. ]

Hello? Are you alright?

[ Since this doesn't strike him as the best place to be passed out for any length of time. ]

[glacius]

[Given that said massive ice alien is still caught deep in the snares of fatigue-induced unconsciousness, it might take a bit more forward of an approach to actually get a coherent response from him. As it is, the nudge is merely enough to get a very groggy groan from the ice alien, and he attempts to scoot sluggishly away from whatever is trying to wake him up. Then he goes limp again, heavy breaths billowing from the gills on both sides of his neck in thick plumes of freezing mist.]

[pellameno]

[ Ooohhh that's cold. Pell brings his hand back in to rub his fingers warm again, then reaches out once more and gives the alien a good shake. He speaks more loudly this time, as well. ]

I'm sorry, but there are better places to sleep. You're close to the caves, you should move.

[ Come on, buddy, wake up. ]

[glacius]

[Woah, that shaking is distinctly uncomfortable and is not going to fly. Glacius lets out a louder, higher-pitched squawk of protest and now attempts to roll away from the unwanted stimuli... which might have been a better idea if he wasn't passed out right by the river. As it is his massive body goes over the gentle slope of the grassy bank, and, well... right into the water with a loud splash.

A moment later his upper body erupts from the river with a loud and garbled squawk of surprise, sending cold water splashing everywhere. Given how exhausted he is, and how it makes his limbs stubborn in their refusal to cooperate, his coordination leaves much to be desired. He grabs for the bank, slips once or twice and goes back under--all the while doing the bizarre equivalent of verbal key-smashing--and then finally manages to get purchase, flopping the upper half of his body back up onto the bank, then dragging the other half up haphazardly a moment later.

He stares up at Pell not, panting, looking completely taken aback.] --What did you--what just happened?!

[pellameno]

[ Pell fell backwards at the splash into the river, and just watches dumbly as Glacius struggles to climb back up -- if he'd gone under again he would have tried to help but the shock of it all happening is a little more than his hung over mind can manage. He's still sitting there with wide eyes and splash-dampened clothes when Glacius gets back up on the riverbank. ]

You ah-- I tried to wake you up and you rolled into the water. I'm sorry. I just thought you'd want to get inside.

April 1st

[thechoiceisyours]

Chris is feeling a lot better than usual thanks to Delight's energy shots, but that doesn't mean he's any more interested in the party than he had been when this all started. So he's using the energy for something productive, out exploring the city and looking for useful things to bring back to the house.

That's how he runs into Glacius, not quite literally but nearly so, having just left the library and heading in the direction of the shops. He's let his guard down a little, with Delight's return and the spread of her party--while annoying--making the city feel a little safer for the moment, and so he isn't paying as close attention to where he's going as he usually might.

And so he comes face to face with... He doesn't know.

His first instinct is to freeze in place, going totally still, but this guy is obviously not a wendigo and, logically, he's probably not a monster. Not a dangerous monster, anyway, or at least Chris really hopes not; if so he's in serious trouble no matter what he does, so...

"U-um. Hey."

Please don't eat him or something.

[glacius]

Glacius has not had any luck at all getting away from the party, given that Delight has seen that it now engulfs the whole city. But by this point he has also stumbled upon the energy shots that the goddess has concocted, and has indulged in quite a few of them already. It was against his better judgment, honestly, but laying low in the caves trying his hardest to sleep and failing had become a miserable experience. At least now he was free of the headaches and the fatigue that had been plaguing him for the past couple of days; though he's still irritated by all the partygoers having no thought for the others who might not enjoy these sort of raucous festivities--others such as himself, in fact--he's a lot less grumpy now than he had been very recently.

So when this stranger nearly bumps into him, the towering ice alien stops up short and freezes in place as well. He's still very wary around humans in general--his past experiences with them had been painful, torturous affairs--but he's starting to realize that the people in Hadriel are generally more accepting. He watches Chris carefully, tilting his head when the man addresses him.

"Hello," Glacius' voice is deep, rumbling out of the gills on both sides of his neck. What is this human doing out here alone? Should he not be with others of his own kind? "... Are you lost?"

[thechoiceisyours]

Okay. Okay, this is weird, but okay.

Chris relaxes a little when Glacius responds, because he definitely doesn't sound threatening; he's still somewhat frightening looking, but the question combined with that Glacius freezes in place just like he does isn't exactly intimidating. As weird as this guy looks, he's probably just another person stuck here like the rest of them, and Chris is getting more and more used to beings that don't look human.

"No, I was um... Looking in the library." He gestures a little to punctuate the response, showing a small book he has in hand; it's utterly blank, but he thought maybe Ashley would like it for writing in. "And I'm not all that huge on parties."

Though it's a little tough to avoid this one, considering it's taken over the city.

"I uh... I'm Chris, by the way."

[glacius]

Glacius' glowing green eyes are still watching Chris very carefully, and they linger on him a moment before flicking down to look at the small book the human is displaying. Libraries were human information repositories of sorts, right? So what he's holding must be some sort of archaic logbook. Despite his wariness, the alien actually looks curious now--he's an open-minded being, one who likes exploring and learning of other cultures when isn't being tormented by them.

"Glacius," the ice alien places the pads of his long fingers to his chest and dips his head, a formal posture of introduction. "I... must admit, it is a refreshing change of pace to meet one of you that feels similarly about all of this." After what he's been through and what he's witnessing now, he was beginning to think the entire species was touched in the head, but that's probably not a very tactful thing to say here.