hadriel_logs | Event Log: Shining, Shimmering, Splashing

Entry tags:

Event Log: Shining, Shimmering, Splashing

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Shining, Shimmering, Splashing event, as well as new world exploration and rebuilding!
Where: All over the city, and beyond!
When: December 13th-26th
Warnings: Way too much sun, water that makes you feel weird, and some monsters

Welcome to the new Hadriel. It's pretty much like the old Hadriel, except for all the destroyed buildings - oh, and the sky above you. With two suns, and a whole world to explore if that's what you're into. But is it safe? Of course not, are you new or something? Arriving on this new world doesn't change much about the layout of the city, but it certainly changes what you have to deal with. Of course, that's mostly thanks to the Null.

Because of Hope's near-death and subsequent slow recovery, life in Hadriel overall is just a little - or a lot - harder than it used to be. Food in the shops is nearly impossible to find, the orchard has been partially burned (and with Sorrow dead, won't be growing much anytime soon), and there's no running water. It's time to explore, rebuild, and try to survive without the help of the one god that was providing most of the amenities. Of course, you're not the only ones who need to eat - the monsters that were brought along with the city are getting hungry, too. Of course, some of them are edible, so maybe the fact that they're coming into the city to try and eat you makes them more like a convenient food delivery system - if you can munch them before they munch you.

And the water... well, that's another story. There are pools around the god temples now, and the water is perfectly safe to drink. The only down side there is that it'll induce emotion in you. Drink a glass of Love water and you'll find yourself inclined towards warm feelings, fix a cup of coffee with Rage water and you'll have a bit of trouble with that temper. You might get a few blessing effects, too, if you're lucky. But what can you do? Unaffected running water won't be working for a few days, so enjoy those mood swings!

► This log covers December 13th-December 26th.
► 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!
► If you manage to get yourself killed after you've finally escaped the Null, let us know here.

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[Lup, as usual, does nothing normally.]

Need a hand, chickadee?

[The elf seemingly pops out of nowhere, still wearing the same cutoffs and crop top that show off just how dark her already tanned skin is looking after a few days of laying out in the open, absorbing the full force of both sun's rays. Her long hair is pulled to the side in a ridiculously fancy braid (Taako's doing, Lup doesn't have the patience for it herself), but her smile is wide and curling, her happiness radiating off her in waves.

She approaches close enough to dip a bare foot into the pool, testing the water.]

( Doing nothing normally would imply there was any real 'normal' in a city which shifts from planet to planet every few months in a bid to outrun the killer robots that just invaded. It doesn't mean that the surprise is lessened any, Kate blinking with wide eyes before shaking her head slightly to clear cobwebs. )

'M good. ( She hasn't caught nearly as much sun as Lup, too busy inside the new clinic and guard buildings to properly sunbathe, but there's already the first tinges of a darker colour on skin made too pale by months underground. )

Good day?

( She can't say she's seen too many people grinning brightly as the suns themselves since they moved here. )

Boo, [Lup laughs, feigning a pout before she's kicking her foot across the water, splashing Kate just slightly with the spray.] Way to ruin my fun.

[But it takes no time at all for her beaming smile to return, the elf plopping down by the side of the pool and sticking both her legs into it, just perched at the edge.]

Hell yeah, sis! Those killer robots are gone, we've finally got a bit of breathin' room to just sit, and we're not stuck underground! I'd say that shit's finally comin' up our way, wouldn't ya say?

( Sorry bout it, Lup. Try again later.

Kate's legs slowly kick through the water idly, slow movements that just keep her from being entirely still. She might not be smiling, but Kate feels relaxed in her own way, the pleasant burn of a productive day and the quiet of dusk washing over her. )

Didn't think we'd actually see the sun.

( She'd hoped, but after so much time in Hadriel, underground as it was, it seemed like the only time the skies would open to them was when the gods decided an illusion would help get them energy. )

[Lup's been around Kate enough to know that she doesn't smile anywhere near as much as the elf does, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's not happy. Lup gets it.]

Same, if we're being all honest about it. Been over a decade for me. I forgot how alive I feel under it.

( It's good to know that people get it. She smiles more nowadays, but after so many years feeling so few reasons to smile... well, they're hard to come by.

More than a decade. Lord. The months since coming back to Hadriel were enough time spent underground for her tastes. )

... I ever tell you there's communities of shit underground where I'm from? ( It's hard not to think of Creatures all the time when you're underground. Harder still when there were so many reasons to fight down in Hadriel's caves. ) Always hated going down there.

( Why she says this, she doesn't know. It just seems to fit. )

[The elf relaxes across from the other woman, feet kick slowly against the water of the pool, while she reclines back on her hands.

Passages of time are easy for Lup to relate to having experienced, even if time moved so differently for her. Ten years to an elf was a blip against their lifespans, but for Kate's people... Well, that was a much more significant number than Lup would like to think of. She'd thought she'd lucked out when Barry had agreed to become a lich with her, that she wouldn't have to experience the shittiness of varying lifespans. But here she was again, dragging more folks into her life that she couldn't help but care so deeply for.

Lup's head tips to the side, her long braid slipping from her shoulder.]

That so? What kind of shit? Anything interesting? [a beat before she adds with a grin,] Anything worth fighting?

( It is. You can change a lot in ten years. Hell, you can change a lot in three. Or even a day, if it's a particularly significant one. That's the way things go, and Kate still has trouble imagining a life where ten years isn't significant, when so many people in her life had so few decades given to them.

She can't imagine wanting to live for so long that a decade feels like a day. Too much bullshit, too many people who'd fade out of your life all too quickly.

Her hands find her hair and pull it loose as Lup questions what's underground, hiding the flinch she can't quite stop from coming as it curtains between them, a moment before Kate shakes it over her shoulder and considers the question. )

Occasionally. Most of 'em just wanna be left alone, though.

( And fighting them was more like frightening things that had the ability to shake the earth and spike the temperatures. )

[It's something that Lup doesn't have much choice in now, unless she wants to unstablize her lich form and lose her sanity. Taako still has a couple hundred years left in him, but her mind wanders too frequently towards what's going to happen to her when her brother finally dies for good.

The other woman's answer tugs at the elf's heartstrings, her usual grin faltering only temporarily. After spending so many years fighting, it's difficult to remember that sometimes there are monsters that don't want to kill anyone. They just want to be left alone to live their lives.]

Yeesh. Almost makes me feel bad about blowin' through harpies before.

( Yeah, that's a shitty existence to be stuck with, for sure.

It's a strange thing. Back home, she spent her entire life hearing about how Creatures were terrible and that getting rid of them could only be a good thing. Then you end up in the job of taking care of supernatural threats to the country and you see nothing more than proof these things are no different to humans and superhumans. There are the shit ones who do want to cause chaos and fight, but most just want to do their own thing.

Kate's quiet for a moment, glancing over at Lup before she shifts to dip her hair in the water. )

Hope asked people to kill 'em before. Said there were too much shit and he'd not be able to keep 'em back.

( That memory comes to mind quickly, the week of worrying when Sam disappeared into the caves. Everything that happened after.

Who knows if they'll be asked to do that again. )

...Bit diff'rent when we have to share the space.

( Back home, it was easy to avoid Creatures if they kept to themselves. Humans and Superhumans lived above ground, like this, they preferred the caves and tunnels underground. )

[Funny that a guy named Hope was encouraging everyone towards murder, huh? Lup looks a little surprised by that news, it happened before she'd ever arrived and most of her interactions with the gods have been fairly limited due to her own avoidance.

But something feels heavy in the air between them and, even still wearing her clothes, Lup slips into the water with her friend and moves a little closer. So she can nudge Kate's ankle with her foot.]

Shit. Makes sense though. Do you... I mean--[her lips purse together thoughtfully] Do you wanna stay here? In Hadriel?

( It might be easy enough to notice the way Kate never fully dips in the water. It's always body parts, with something ashore to easily pull herself away. She's a shit swimmer. May as well avoid it.

The question gets her attention, and it's not the first time she's been asked that here. Carlisle asked her too, once, a while ago. Does she? There's a lot of things, a lot of people here who would be worth staying for. But there's a lot of people back home too. A life without gods who feed on emotions, with a system where her powers can do real good and with proper freaking clinic equipment. )

... Dunno if I've got an answer for that. ( So there's the honest truth. ) Used to want nothing more than to get out of here. ( Especially when it was underground, for so many reasons. Kate shrugs as she shifts herself into a more comfortable position against the edge of the pool. ) Found a lot of reasons to hang around, but...

( Hm, to put it simply: ) Miss my friends from back home, too.

( Faith's been here before, and it was like extra light in the stuffy cavern of the underground. Being here without her, without that white noise in the back of her head which is a constant reminder of the other woman's existence, even a continent apart, still feels...

She still misses her. Even if it's not as pronounced as the first time. Still misses Carl and his irritating tendency to grin and call her stupid nicknames, dropping into the clinic after some disaster asking to be patched up. Misses Alicia and Diana sharing a look between themselves and correcting Kate on the meaning of the newest canvas they picked up (no, it wasn't, "I got drunk and chucked paint at a wall"). She misses Jay's allergy to shirts, although that one is somewhat mollified by a young man who decidedly isn't allergic to shirts (and Hadriel is poorer for it). She misses Jon, by her side and smoothly assisting her in running the clinic as though he hadn't just finished healing up someone who broke all the bones in their leg. )

Hey, that's as good an answer as I was expectin'.

[It's not as black and white an answer as most people might expect, but when you've been anywhere as long as Kate, and hell, even as long as Lup has, nothing is really as easy as a simple yes or no.

After slipping into the water, Lup wraps her braid up around her head and fastens it there with magic before dipping down into the water, all the way until her chin dips in.]

Gettin' out of here is all we ever talk about. But... s'not really all that easy, is it? I don't really have a lot of friends back home that aren't here-- [when you planet hop for a full century, you don't keep up with as many friends as you'd like] But shit. Stuff's gone down that I don't wanna lose. 'Ko an' I are closer than ever and Barry an' I've had some pretty important chats. Thinkin' I'd just go back and lose it all again. That fucks with me. Feels like progress lost.

Like I'd have lost all of the shit I've done here on top of the ten years of my life before. Straight fucked.

( That's the rub, isn't it? If Kate had known that she'd lose all the progress made here, that it'd be locked up behind some door with no way of accessing it, she might have reconsidered how badly she wanted to go home the first time. Sure, she and Faith found themselves back in the same position they were when they left - best friends, telepathically linked to one another - but so much was lost.

She lost her memories of Sam, conversations had in the earliest hours of the morning with her best friend, all these things which eventually came back a jumbled mess. )

It's bullshit. ( She can definitely agree. ) Pisses me off that I spent three years wondering why things felt different, y'know?

( It's strange. You'd think losing the memories of all the shit Hadriel pulls on you - the emotional trauma, the injuries and dying - would be a blessing.

But it just pisses her off to know they all got locked away. That she got put through all of it and then there was nothing to show for it. )

Same here. [Lup's had been just a little longer, that itching feeling at the back of her mind that she was missing something, but it's all the same result in the end. Memories ripped away from them, locked up until they both tumbled back into this place, where they'd flooded in and left the lich feeling disoriented for days after.

At least she has a little better idea of what Taako went through before Hadriel. It makes more sense why he was so closed off from her at first, not wanting to share what damage had been done to him in her absence. Finding peace about the whole thing still feels so far off.]

At least we've both experienced it once an' came back. Better than just, y'know, not comin' back. Gives us a little more perspective than everyone else, huh?

( A point well made. By now, Hadriel just feels like some sort of routine. Topping itself every so often but always coming back to these sort of empty days in between where they wonder what the gods will do to obtain energy, and now... how long they have before the Null come knocking once again.

The unpredictable becomes predictable. )

Got to wonder why it wants us to hang around so bad.

[There's no real reassuring answer to hat, but Lup tips her chin up and smiles across the short distance between the two women anyway.]

'Cuz we're the life of the party, babe. Who wouldn't want the two of us around?

( That gets a snort of laughter from Kate. Sure, the life of the monthly murder parties. )

Alright. Sure. ( There has to be one advantage of bringing Chaos into the city, right? Killer parties. )

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Event Log: Shining, Shimmering, Splashing

two; lets get NAKED

😏

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