hadriel_logs | Intro Log: Clever Girls

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Intro Log: Clever Girls

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for November
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: November 10th-15th
Warnings: Sick beats.

You wake up, confused and alone and maybe a little chilly if you forgot your coat. You're on the floor of a large arena, and above you, stretching up high, is the stone ceiling trapping you in this city. Welcome to Hadriel! You'll have a great time here.

Provided you manage to escape the pack of velociraptors that have arrived with you. They seem to have gotten used to this place a little faster than the rest of the new arrivals - or maybe they're just hungry. They're scary, smart, and very fast - plus they've got those cool three-inch claws designed specifically to tear their prey open. Add to that teeth, muscles, and plenty of clever pack tactics, and you might be in a little bit of trouble.

Maybe you can distract them with a little music, though? Scattered around the arena, you can find some stereos and boom boxes. They won't pick up any radio stations, just static, but don't worry! If you're jonesing for a good tune, you can find some CDs and good old fashioned cassette tapes lying around, too. Everything you need for a sweet dance party! Maybe the velociraptors will be into it. Or maybe you'll just get eaten.

If you manage to avoid being chewed on by sharp teeth, and get out of the colosseums, there's plenty to do. 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 November 10th-15th.
► 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Regaining her strength and energy in her new body is a lot harder than Lup thought it would be. So instead of getting to go out and explore Hadriel with Barry his first few days, she's been banished to rest and recover after her exertion in the arena. Which really means just dicking around on her own phone. So imagine her delight at finding this unintended broadcast...]

Didn't realize I was subbed to the hot nerds of Hadriel channel.

[Suddenly Lup is on his screen, and Barry blinks, bewildered and wide-eyed at the sight of her. Isn't she at home resting? How is he seeing her? If this thing is like a Stone of Farspeech, shouldn't he be alerted to any attempts of communication?

This requires further testing. After he's recovered. This is all very stressful.]

I-- I don't know what any of that means, Lup. How'd you. I mean. What's. [Help him.]

[Lup loves you Barry, but she's also laughing her ass off at just how damn adorable he is when he doesn't know something. It's nice to have the advantage. She's gonna enjoy it for as long as it lasts.]

You must've hit the record button, babe. Pretty sure you just sent video out to everyone of you just futzing around with your phone.

...

[This can't be happening.]

Oh shit.

[This is the nightmare scenario.]

Oh fuck.

[This is fantasy middle school all over again.]

How do I delete it?! How do I take it back? Retract, end, why're there so many buttons? Lup, c'mon, why're y'laughing, this is an emergency!

[Oh, hun. His completely justified reaction just has Lup busting up even more, a hand flying up to cover her grin while she lurches forward on the couch. It’s really not fair considering none of them had experience with phones prior to Hadriel, but damn, at least Lup hadn’t done anything as embarrassing as an accidental broadcast.

Eventually though, between giggles, Lup finally responds,] Holy shit, I’m gonna hurl... [She’d definitely forgotten how physical laughing could be.]

Oh, babe, it’s chill. No one will care. This practically happens on the daily. There’s no deleting off of the network though, so maybe I should run you through which buttons to press and which to avoid.

[As completely mortified as he is, face bright red and gut sinking with shame, the sound of Lup laughing never fails to make Barry feel better. Even if she's laughing at his expense. The loud, joyful sound of the love of his life genuinely enjoying herself at least makes him not want to jump in front of a speeding moped to end his suffering.]

... Y-Yeah. Yes, god, please Lup, I-- I have no idea what I'm doin' here. I-I know you showed me earlier, but it was so fast and it's just-- Lup, there're just so many buttons.

[At least he's calmer now, halfway hiding his beet-red face behind his hand and halfway openly pouting at Lup on the other end. Technology is equal parts Exciting and Terrifying.]

[Let's be honest, Barold. The moped, with it's top speed of like twenty miles an hour, will surely not kill you. It will probably just cause even more embarrassment when people hear you tried to die via slow moped collision. It's not nearly as dramatic as one might think.

And gods, he's so adorably flustered. Funny how Barry stammering nervously like this just tugs so tenderly at the woman's heart strings.

No sweat. We can run through a quick demo. One sec. [Lup drops her phone on the couch before wandering off out of screen. There's the distant sound of a small scuffle, but Lup eventually returns victorious with a second phone, holding it up proudly to Barry through her own.] Ready to get lit up by some knowledge?

[Look, Barry doesn't have a lot of options for an overdramatic exit down here, okay?

He breathes a sigh of relief, still trying to recover from the crushing humiliation. As Lup fishes around in the background, Barry scoots back against the wall and pulls his knees to his chest, making himself smaller, more comfortable, trying for some privacy - unwittingly livestreaming or not.]

Th-Thanks, Lup, I sure appreciate it. I'm real sorry I freaked, I just...

... Lup, why do y'have two?

No more questions! Time to learn!

[Which means he doesn't want to know.

Lup settles back onto the couch and crosses her legs, propping her own phone up against the opposite armrest.] Alright, quick tutorial. To get out off of the network pronto, you wanna hit the little lock thing up in the corner. It'll make this call super private.

[go ahead, she knows he wants to hit that button immediately]

[... he just won't ask.]

Th'little lock thing... This padlock? [He hesitates for a second, like he's somehow managed to find the wrong icon, before a trembling finger hits the little button. A notification at the bottom lets him know that this conversation is now private. Barry sighs deeply, running a hand slowly through his hair.]

Okay, that... Was that right? I-I think that did it. Thanks, Lup.

[Barry knows what's up.

The man sighs in relief and Lup just continues grinning down at him, looking all too pleased.]

Nailed it, babe. [She laughs, but there's no doubt in Lup's mind that within a few weeks Barry will know more about their phones than anyone else under this roof.] I can give you a better run down in person, but here's the most important part.

[Lup brings up that screen that pops up from icon on the main screen with an eye inside of it, the camera instantly switching on, showing Barry himself reflected in her phone. Lup gestures to the giant red button at the bottom.]

No touchy. That'll just bring us right back to where you started.

[Barry watches carefully as Lup demonstrates, pointing out his glaring mistake. He instantly reddens again.]

G-Got it.

[How such a simple, stupid button could cause so much grief is beyond Barry. Why haven't the buttons been labeled?! That's just irresponsible design, in his opinion.]

Anythin' else I need to know? Like, uh... What buttons can I press?

Anything else is fair game.

[Sorry, Barry, but you literally stumbled upon the one button in a sea of buttons that would ruin your life. Still, Lup gives him a quick run down over the main menu.]

Besides accidental cave-wide broadcasts, it can snap pics, make calls, send texts. [She gives a pretty quick run down of what buttons go to what. And if Barry checks his photo album , there's no way she hasn't already taken a few ridiculous shots of herself with his phone while he was sleeping.] There's some kinda game but meh, it's whatevs.

[Pong was interesting for like two seconds.]

You can go through your contact list and select certain people if you want to lock a call to them. It's pretty choice.

[Barry's not entirely sure he believes her, seeing as the single button he'd pressed without supervision came very close to actually making him explode with shame.

He pays close attention though, double-checking on his own phone to make sure he gets all the icons and menus right. Should've brought a notebook for this. He'll have to study up before he starts using this thing in earnest.]

Yeah, I mean... It's amazing. [He can even press the button for the main menu, and Lup's video minimizes to one of the corners, keeping the conversation active. This technology is incredible. As long as he doesn't commit social suicide in the process, he's excited to dig in to the systems so he can understand them properly.] Does the contact list update every month? I can contact anyone in th'cave with this, any time?

[Lup's eyes crinkle with delight while Barry swipes through screens, carefully navigating his way around the main menu. See? He's already outshining them all.]

As far as I know. [It's always immediately added their friends when they'd arrived and it had removed Lucretia pretty quickly after her departure. Which really wasn't a wide enough range of individuals to say for certain, but Lup's pretty confident anyway.] Anyone in the cave. Including the turbo-liches in charge.

[which is still a little unsettling. what if pan had a number you could just hit up whenever you wanted to chat? fucking weird.]

... Wait. [He frowns, blinks at Lup's image on his screen.] Y'can just contact those?

[And sure enough, after a few uncertain taps, he opens the contacts menu, and there they are. The names of the beings in charge, the ones Lup had given him the crash course on after dealing with the raptors. Hope, Fear, Delight... He could just send a God a message any time he felt like it.]

What good is that? I... I know y'told me about'em, but what do they... do?

[Yeah. It's fucking weird. Just another thing to add to the growing 'I don't think you dicks are really gods' list.

Now that the crash course in phones seems momentarily over, Lup drops the second phone right off the side of the couch with a careless clatter before grabbing her own and settling back into the couch cushions.]

Not much. [But she pauses briefly, mouth pressing into a thoughtful line, before she realizes that maybe that isn't as honest as she could be.] Okay, maybe a few things. Can't speak for most of them, Hope's the only one I know that's done anything. If anyone dies in the cave, he brings 'em back. Haven't seen it happen myself, but I've heard it from enough sources. Just seems to be common knowledge by now.

Anyway, so I popped in here as a lich, right? Had me do a few stupid chores for him, but he was able to give me my body back. So I guess he isn't complete bullshit.

[Barry listens carefully, nodding now and then as Lup tells him about Hope's powers. So if he dies, he won't have to worry about coming back as a lich right away. That's good. But the unpredictability of the Door could lead to a lich shift in Hadriel at some point too, which complicates things. Lup had gone through that. How'd she get out of it? Another blip with the Door?

He really needs to get his hands on a notebook asap, so he can keep this all straight.]

Hope did that? [He frowns softly. At least his lich concerns are put to rest - he won't have to teach himself the kind of chemical engineering necessary to construct a pod like the one he'd bought on Faerûn. Just do some chores, and he's good. But being a lich stinks, especially when you're all alone about it. A dozen years in exile as a lich on and off has taught him that.] I'm sorry, Lup. I'm real happy he got ya your body back.

[Yes, Barry, but chores. Ugh!]

Yeah, guess he isn't completely useless. [Despite her bitching, she is a big fan of having her body back. Lup can't really put into words how meaningful it was to just take up space again.] Though for claiming he's a god, the guy really doesn't have much else to back up that up with. He needed a pic of my body to go off of and had no clue who the hell Taako was.

Fishy, right?

... That is fishy.

[Another mystery to crack. He really needs to get to the library and start decoding some books. There has to be an answer somewhere.]

Not much of a god if he has t'ask, huh. Maybe Taako's right? That they're some kinda liches? [What other kinds of beings could have those kind of powers, but no divine or extra-planar knowledge of the people they govern? How would he even start to measure that? He needs to start somewhere simple, get a sample group to control against, start logging energy signatures. Maybe when he gets started with his measurements, he could investigate the temples as well for any residual energy that differs from the control group. Now where to get that kind of equipment...

He's spacing again, Lup.]

[It's just the start of it. Lup has a few other observations and ideas of her own to share once Barry starts to really throw himself into his research.

(She knows him. It's only a matter of time before he's neck-deep in impossibly detailed research notes with multiple hypotheses and at least a half-dozen experiments behind him, alright.)

For one, do these so called gods even have any control over the door in the first place? The coincidence seems way too high for them to have specifically brought in both Taako and Lup without knowing of their relation. Does the door work on it's own? Was it in this place first before the gods popped in to play divine and act like they were in charge? And secondly, everything from the investigation of the Null seems to back up her feelings on just how un-godly they actually are. They had to pull individuals out and interrogate them for information? Sounds pretty fake to her.

The liches who ran Wonderland seemed to have full control over that space. Just add a few more liches, give them a bigger space to work with, and it kind of felt like the same thing, right? Drawing people there, trapping them in, feeding off of them until there was nothing left...

But they'll have plenty of time to share information on Hadriel and the gods and the door in the upcoming weeks. Right now, Lup just wants her boyfriend, not her research partner.

She grins down at Barry, looking more amused than anything.]

That big ol' nerd brain of yours goin' into overdrive already?

Edited 2017-11-25 19:16 (UTC)

[Lup knows him all too well. If the accidental livestream hadn't thrown him off so badly, Barry would already be on his way to the library, or to the laboratory indicated on the map, or scrounging for a pen and paper to organize all the jumbled thoughts making his eyes glaze over. She's quick to pull him out of it before he loses himself in them. Like she always does.

Before Lup came into his life, he could end up sitting like that for hours at a time, near hypnotized by his own thoughts, by the ceaseless motion of his hand putting words to the page in a steady stream of consciousness. Before Lup, only his wrist cramping up or a concerned colleague grasping his shoulder would shatter his focus and bring him crashing back. She's really the only one who's ever been able to ease him back so quickly without making him feel bad about it.

He blinks at her, cheeks reddening, and he adjusts his glasses with a sheepish chuckle.]

Y-Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I just... [He shrugs. There's no "just" - Lup knows how he gets sometimes. How he obsesses over having to know, having to understand.] This place just doesn't feel right t'me, y'know.

Well, babe, get on out there and figure out why.

[Lup knows. Even if their first few years together had gotten off to a shaky start, the woman has had a full century to learn just what makes C.S.O. Barry J. Bluejeans tick. And sure, sometimes the way he overworks himself to the bone just infuriates her, but most of the time, it's become such an easy acceptance that Lup barely bats an eye. He's just the kind of man who can't leave a mystery unsolved. If there's a question out there in the world that he doesn't know the answer to, he'll dig it up and find it himself.

She honestly expects him to crack most of the Hadriel mysteries within a month.]

Just be home in time for dinner or there'll be hell to pay. Taako's doin' a big spread just for you.

... He is?

[Barry blushes bright red. That's really sweet. Taako probably wouldn't be caught dead admitting to preparing a feast for anyone that isn't him or his sister, but if Lup says it's for him, he believes her. For as prickly and allergic to affection as the elf can be sometimes, Taako is a caring, amazing brother-in-law. Barry loves him very much.

Barry is also very nervous about upsetting him. So he clears his throat and pushes his glasses up his nose with a solemn nod.]

I-I'll make sure to be home on time.

[Barry blushes and Lup laughs, which feels as familiar as anything. It's pretty much their base state.]

I feel like I should be offended that you're on way better behavior around my brother than you are with me.

Intro Log: Clever Girls

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look at me just stealing from jenny

it's good very good worth stealing

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