Intro Log: Faceplanted

[hadrielmods]

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for October
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: October 10th-14th
Warnings: Newbies, spookies, and evil trees!

If it's your first time here, congratulations! You get the lovely, unique sensation of eating dirt as the Door knocks you facefirst into the ground. You'll probably be a little woozy at first, so take your time getting up- meet some folks, introduce yourself, don't be weird about it. Welcome to Hadriel! You're not the only person who just got to taste alien dirt firsthand, though- there are several people in the same predicament as you, so feel free to say hi! Probably shouldn't spend too much time talking though, because the lovely trees that you thought were just scenery are starting to creep ever closer the more you let your guard down.

All around you is a forest of spooky evil trees- it seems to be just a normal sort of forest at first, but the more you take your eyes off of them, the more they shift around you and close in. Or is that just your imagination? If you move too close to one, look out! They're rather determined to pick you up and stick you into the ground so you might take root- and if you resist, well, a severed bud can still serve as a seed, right?

If the trees tear your clothes though, don't worry, there's plenty of extras to be found lying around the arena if you don't mind them being a bit dirty. Lying on the ground and sometimes hanging off of these tree branches are some free shirts, yours for the taking! You know, if you'd be caught dead with one...

But hey, after you've met new friends and found a new aesthetic, feel free to go explore the rest of the city! Find a house, a new monster, a project to help with, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers October 10th-14th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► All characters arrive with phones that have network communication and the newbie guide installed.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

Comments

[paragonbrosca]

Really, really, good breeding. [Magic breeding, but she honestly doesn't care enough to elaborate.] Mabari are bred to be smart and to fight and he's part of the reason I'm still breathing, so I'm happy with him.

[She rubs his head, which receives a nuzzle in turn.]

And if that sounds weird, just ask yourself if it's weirder than suddenly arriving in an underground city. I've seen a lot, but that's not how I expected to end this day, that's for sure.

[outofthefire]

I've never heard of that breed of dog. Is it new?

...okay. Good point. It's not how I expected to end my day, either.

[paragonbrosca]

Mabari? Nah, they've been around in Thedas for...centuries, I think. Probably longer.

[Settling back in, she lets out a comfortable sigh and Barkspawn rests his head just atop the water, closing his eyes.]

...at least we got free t-shirts out of it, right? I know that made the whole thing worthwhile. [She smirks, vaguely gesturing to her pile o'stuff. Some of it's her own, some of it just might be from the stores...and yet, that tree.]

[outofthefire]

Thedas? What's Thedas?

[...okay, the dog is cute]

Mine was pretty cool. Which one did you get? [eyes the pile of stuff. it's impressive. Laura's going to need to ask where she got some of that]

[paragonbrosca]

Uh, let's see....I gave away one that said 'I'm still the worst' but I found another one that fit me better. A lot of the clothes in the stores are made for humans, though. I couldn't find much for myself.

[She shrugs, unconcerned as she'll just wear her armor outside anyway.]

Thedas is the continent I'm from. So far, I've met one other person who even knows about it, and they mentioned someone else with a mabari. I guess you were pulled in from somewhere else, huh?

[outofthefire]

[wait a moment. let's address something really quick]

For humans? If you're not human, what are you?

[Laura needs new clothes asap. that corset and panty set is ruined]

Yeah, I'm from the United States on Earth.

[paragonbrosca]

Earth...doesn't ring a bell, but maybe there's someone else around who'd know about it.

[She shrugs, thoughtful, then answers the question as Barkspawn lets out a comfortable sigh from his spot.]

I'm a dwarf. We're all shorter than humans, but buffer, and most of us live underground in a big city. So, this isn't all that unfamiliar but from what I can tell, it sucks a lot less. People are nicer and there isn't lava, so I'll take it.

[A slight chuckle. It's not as though she has a choice, right?]

[outofthefire]

Yeah, I mean, Earth's Earth. Home to humans everywhere.

[takes a moment to process this]

I've never heard of anything like that, other than in fantasy movies.

[Laura is generally confused. other worlds? dwarves as a real thing? other underground cities? what?]

[paragonbrosca]

Huh. It's known that humans came from somewhere else across the sea, but we don't know where. Earth was never named, but....

[She shrugs, having no way to verify it, one way or another.]

No dwarves, huh? Is it just humans? Who's around to tell you lot that you're all too tall? [She quirks her lips, clearly joking.]

(cw: slur)

[outofthefire]

Earth's a planet, not a place across the sea.

No. I mean, we have midgets, those are shorter than most people, but I've never heard of dwarves before. And I guess that's up to the shorter humans? [she chuckles a little]

[paragonbrosca]

Huh. An entire world of humans...and nothing else?

[So strange, from her perspective.]

'Thedas' could be used for the name of the world, too, I guess. It's supposed to be just the continent, but no one's traveled much beyond it. [Well, outside people from beyond coming over to stay, hundreds to thousands of years ago, but that's tedious to think about. She cracks a smile.]

As long as someone does it, right? I'll provide that service here, free of charge.

[outofthefire]

That's right. Nothing but humans as far as the eye can see.

Yeah? Why not? [no sarcasm, she's actually curious]

[laughs a little] I'm sure we'll all be very appreciative.

[paragonbrosca]

...I dunno! [She shrugs.] Humans came from somewhere else, but I never heard about where or why, and no one else seems to know. And the Qunari -those are big grey people with horns- they must know where they came from since it's only been a few centuries, but they sure as hell aren't telling anyone else for whatever reason. Probably because they want to be 'mysterious'. [Insert air quotes here, as she rolls her eyes. She loves Sten, but his people are just weird.]

Hey, do you know what this is and how it works? [She gestures to the phone that's atop her clothes pile.] It was on me when I got here, but I've never seen anything like it before. [Barkspawn leans over and sniffs at it again, but Aren tugs him back.] Uh-huh. You're not going to get everything to smell like wet dog.

[outofthefire]

Qunari? You mean your world has other [struggles a moment to find the right word] people other than dwarves and humans?

I've never seen anything like it before, either. I thought maybe it was a calculator, but there aren't any buttons.

[paragonbrosca]

Yeah, and there's elves. They're like shorter humans with pointed ears, but don't tell them I said that. That's about it, though.

A...calculator? What's that?

[Aren quirks an eyebrow, wondering how vast is the gulf between their knowledge.]

[outofthefire]

[her eyebrows raise slightly] So, wait, your world has four different--species on it? And they're not all trying to kill each other? No way.

It's a little machine you use to figure out math problems with.

[paragonbrosca]

[That gets a chuckle out of her.]

I didn't say that they weren't at each other's throats. The Qunari want to conquer everyone and almost did a while ago, humans have done a number on elves with wiping out their homeland at least twice, and dwarves...well, our own worst enemies are ourselves and darkspawn. But mostly ourselves. Before you ask, darkspawn are tainted monsters that make everything worse because they corrupt everything-fucking-thing, including the land. There were a lot more dwarf cities before they showed up, but now there's just the one. We keep killing them, but they keep coming back. Fuckers.

...huh, so it's not something I'd know by another name. Oh well, worth a shot. I'll figure that thing out sooner or later, even if it's just to use it as a doorstop.

[outofthefire]

[her eyebrows are now way up] And your world has monsters, too? [short laugh] No offense, but I'm glad I'm from my world. All I had to worry about were [she draws herself up short, then continues] other humans.

[slightly coy smile] Mind if I scoot over a bit. Maybe we can figure this thing out.

And I just realized I never introduced myself. I'm Laura Palmer. What's your name?

[paragonbrosca]

Other humans can be pretty nasty all on their own. I've seen that much.

[Aren's not going to prod, but her glance is sympathetic for a moment.]

Yeah, sure! Scoot on over, Laura. I'm Aren Brosca.

[It feels weird to say that without all the extra titles, but what do those matter here?]

[outofthefire]

[there's a pause before replying] Yeah. So have I.

[she isn't sure what to make of sympathy. a big part of her feels like she doesn't deserve it due to all the messed up things she did in life]

All right. [she scoots over, leaving enough personal space to not seem like she's crowding] Nice to meet you, Aren. Now let's see if we can figure this thing [points at the phone] out?

[paragonbrosca]

Right!

[She reaches for the phone, managing just enough laziness and persistence to do it while not climbing out of the hot springs. Snagging it, she angles it so that Laura can see. Might as well just poke randomly until something happens, right?]

...what the hell's 'pong'?

[outofthefire]

[Laura's looking over her shoulder. this thing is weird and unlike anything she's ever seen before]

Pong? That's a computer game from when I was a little kid. What's it doing on there?

[paragonbrosca]

A game? Huh. And there are...little pictures. A smiley face, okay. Not sure what that is...[meaning the gun emoji]...and a can of salt? I am so confused.

[She frowns, shaking her head. This is all weird. Barkspawn's grunt seems to agree with her.]

[outofthefire]

That's a gun. [points at the gun emoji] I don't know what the can of salt is for. What are we supposed to do with these pictures?

[paragonbrosca]

[A gun. She files that away for later.]

...I dunno. Is that how people really send messages here, by pictures? Maybe not everyone knows how to read.

[She didn't, not for a long time, but that isn't something worth sharing.]