hadriel_logs | OM NOM NOM (or: The Hadriel Community Kitchen Initiative)

Who: OPEN
What: With the gods out of commission, Hadriel attempts to feed itself
Where: A makeshift firepit, set up on the southwest bank of the river
When: Roughly December 13-26, after Fingon's Network post
Warnings: The threat of starvation, dubious food, possibly slight fire burns.

The Null may begone, but the damage they inflicted remains: to the city's infrastructure, to it's citizens, to the gods themselves. With Sorrow dead and Hope out of commission, one problem in particular is critical: Hadriel's food supply is dwindling, and many lack the skills to catch and cook their own meals.

That's where the fire pit comes in: a great hole dug into the earth for a cooking fire, topped by a metal grate. Use of the pit is open to all in the city: anyone who hunts or gathers food can bring it here to be prepared, and anyone who shows up hungry will be fed.

The pit also serves as a place to find interested hunting partners; in an unfamiliar and extremely harsh environment, it's best not to wander off on your own for too long. Anyone interested in hunting can take a look at a slate set up near the pit: on it is a list of volunteers looking for an expedition to join.

[OOC: This is an open log, so feel free to top-level to your heart's content.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He gives him a look, more unsure than anything else, and sits down on a nearby rock before she answers. How's she doing? Well...

"Not great."

She's tired, she's hungry, she's sweaty. She's lost, she's...alone. She could go on, but she doesn't really go into it all at all.

" I don't...I still don't really get what this place is."

It's a disheartening response, but not a surprise. Fingon nods and checks the fish; finding it cool enough to eat, he passes it over to her.

"I'm sorry. Hadriel is rarely kind to its new inhabitants, but it usually isn't quite so hard a place to live in. But if you have questions, I will try to answer them. I've been here nigh on....eight months, now?"

He settles himself on a nearby rock, close enough to be companionable and far away enough not to be too alarming.

Maybe it's the hunger and lightheadedness that's making her be so honest to a stranger. Who knows.

But she eyes the fish with gratitude, mumbling a quiet but honest "Thanks".

She turns the stick in her hand, taking a moment to answer before she digs in.

"Shit, 8 months?"

She can't do 8 months. She can't be separated from them for so long again. She can't be away from her baby girl and her husband like this, not again.

"I-...I don't even know.

This person- Lup? She gave me a summary, but how does this place even work? Where are we, how does it- what even happened here?"

"Eight months," he confirms somberly. "And there are people who've been here longer as well. But people suddenly disappear from the city as well; one day, the Door simply sends them home. There's no way of knowing in advance how long your stay here will be."

His heart goes out to her at the look of distress on her face. He's been lucky, surrounded as few are here by friends and family from home. For many others, he's now reminded, the situation is so very different.

"Aside from the city itself, where we are is difficult to pin down. You were here when Fear moved the city, I believe? Well, he has been doing that periodically for some time now, keeping his people away from the Null.

This is the first time anyone can remember it being place above ground, though."

"Wait, wait--wait."

She brushes her hair back with one hand, fingers from the other held to her temple in frustration. She does her best to sound calm - but after staring at him and trying to understand his explanation, she just...she can barely process it.

Of course, the frustration is not directed at him. There's a hell of a lot going on here and she just doesn't know where to start.

"Who's "Fear" and what's the "Door"?"

Fingon tilts his head slightly, an eyebrow raised. "Fear I can understand, but no one mentioned the Door to you?"

Well, explanations given in an emergency were never that informative. He gives a side-glance to the cook-fire, making sure nothing's amiss, then considers where to begin.

"The Door is the portal which pulls us to Hadriel. It used to be somewhere in the caves beneath the city, but no one was ever able to find it. Now that the city is no longer underground... well, I suppose we shall find out in a month whether anything has changed.

"The being who knew most about it was Sorrow, one of the rulers of Hadriel. Fear is one of his kin. They numbered eight before the attack, but Sorrow is dead and Delight betrayed the rest to the enemy. It seems the rest have her imprisoned."

She listens carefully, though her head is still spinning. Maybe a bite of the fish could help out a little on that part, but she's almost already forgot that she's holding it.

This all sounds so...unreal? And that's saying something.

"So this...Fear? Is he the one that pulls people in here?"

"Oh, no. If Fear had his way, none of use would be here to annoy him. His role in all of this is to transport the city away when their enemies catch up to them."

He shrugs.

"I don't believe even Sorrow knew how the Door chooses people, and if he did he never spoke of to us."

"The Door?"

Aw, jeez. Should she be taking notes?

"So the Door just...does it?

And this Sorrow guy is gone?"

"Yes to both," Fingon nods. After a moment's thought, he rises to grab two skewers of fish; he offers one to Alana then takes a bit of the other.

"Every month, the Door opens and brings more newcomers to Hadriel. They, and we, provide energy for the beings that rule this place. You'll hear them referred to as 'gods,' at different points. I don't believe they are, myself, but they are powerful indeed.

"Each of the eight is empowered by the emotion they are named after: Fear, Sorrow, Hope, Delight, Rage, Love, Confusion, Tranquility. They are prone to manipulating the minds of the people here so that they can extract as much emotion as possible from us at once.

"Recently, we found out why they were doing this. A race called the Null has been hunting them, and has already succeeded in wiping out many of their kind. They invaded Hadriel in an attempt to murder one more: Hope, who possesses the power to resurrect the dead. Sorrow was killed in defense of Hope."

As Fingon speaks, Alana finally takes to eaten the first skewer of fish, and it might be simple, but, god, does it go down good right now. She welcomes the second one offered to her, too.

But she listens to Fingon intently, she needs to know more about this place, she needs to know what's going on, so she can start looking for a way out.

" "Gods"? Whoa. " Talk about-...well, god complex.

" Wait, so...why are the other guys killing them?"

She asks, fully knowing that, sometimes, there isn't a reason. Not one people can remember, anyway, not the ones that do end up dead.

War never changers, no matter where you are.

Fortunately for Alana there is an answer to that question. It's a strange one, to Fingon's mind (perhaps for anyone who is not the Null, really,) but it does exist.

"Apparently the gods' race and the Null lived together, once. But the powers of the gods' race induced emotion in the Null, perhaps for the first time ever. They decided to slaughter their former allies, rather than continue existing as beings that could feel."

"Wait, so they...killed them because they gave them feelings?"

Well, they sound like straight up assholes.

OM NOM NOM (or: The Hadriel Community Kitchen Initiative)

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