Intro Log: No calls, please

[hadrielmods]

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for March.
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: March 10th-13th
Warnings: Fresh meat, floating plasma eyeball monsters in HD, disappointing infomercial products.

Good morning, and welcome to your first day in Hadriel. Feel free to acquaint yourself with the other travelers who are starting to wake up around you- or explore your surroundings for maximum survival odds!

You may notice that there are a few metal boxes lying on the dirt ground around you. At first these boxes seem innocuous, with no locks or mechanisms to keep them closed. However, any attempt at opening these them reveals that, not only is there absolutely nothing inside of them, but they just so happen to be a handy-dandy Scream-in-a-box from that stupid old Nickelodeon commercial. One peek and it echoes with a loud, bursting scream... though, anyone who tries to use this box to keep themselves awake will only succeed in pissing their neighbors off, because infomercials only exist to lie to you.

If you're concerned about something a little more sinister... well, you're right to be. Lurking in the shadowy corridors of the arena are Cacodemons, from the Doom game series. These nightmarish monsters travel around the area by floating a few feet off the ground. They are capable of firing plasma at you from their mouths, and their sharp teeth speak for themselves. While they're easy to shove back when they're not firing at you, they have a tendency to converge on a single target. You think you can handle one? How about five? Good luck... and try not to melt on your way out.

Once you've managed your daring escape from the colosseum, feel free to go explore the rest of the city! Find a house, find a new monster, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers March 10th-13th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well!
► All characters now arrive with phones that have network communication.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

Comments

steve rogers | ota

[prespangled]

arrival/the colosseum:

[He must've drank the schnapps after all. His head feels fuzzy, and his body aches, but it's that last one that really brings him around. His body always aches, and he'd thought...Steve frowns. There was supposed to be procedure, and Steve was going to be changed by it. He doesn't exactly know all the details on how. Dr. Erskine gave him a chance and he jumped at it, but he's pretty sure the result wasn't meant to be this.

Steve grits his teeth as he pushes himself up. Something went wrong, and he doesn't have the slightest idea where he is. His heart is pounding in his chest, but he holds it together well on the outside. He's not about to go running and screaming-

Steve's hands fly to his ears when his boot accidentally flips one of the nearby boxes open. The sound that comes out of it is terrifying, a cross between a screaming woman and a falling bomb. But it attracts something even worse. Steve starts at the thing that's floating in his direction. His ma always told him that staring was rude, but he doesn't think she meant something like this.

It's getting closer, and those aren't the teeth of a gentle creature. Those teeth are sharp, made to bite and tear flesh, and he doesn't have enough of either to satisfy. Steve starts crawling away, but less to save himself and more to reach the prone figure of someone else.]

Hey. [Steve shakes them gently, eyes still on the approaching monster.] Wake up, we gotta go!

[He curses softly, about to slide a stranger's arm around his skinny shoulders. He takes a deep breath. He's a soldier. He can do this.]

the city:

[Steve doesn't look like someone who should've made it out of the colosseum alive. But he probably shouldn't have survived boot camp either, or that fever last winter, or that time he told that Kelly bully to shut his trap. The odds have been stacked against him every day, it's only a little bit worse here.

He explores the city, sticks to the main roads and wisely avoids the alleyways. Currently he can't stop looking at the ceiling overhead, the rock and shadows. Steve stops for a minute, tired but still on his feet.]

It ain't the Sistine Chapel, that's for sure.

the city

[mismanagement]

[Under different - or perhaps just more civilized - circumstances, shifting through the relics of another person's life might be considered thievery. Digging through the refuse of a broken house looking for something useful - though, if they're going to get technical about it, the whole thing is little more than grave robbing. Maketh is of the opinion that whoever or whatever lived here previously, they're long dead.

Needs must, in the end. She's trying not to be overly sentimental these days. Maketh steps out of a shattered door-frame, and pauses. There's a man standing in the middle of the road, looking up towards their false sky. Not a very tall man, through dressed in what looks like a military uniform. Maketh swings the bag over her shoulder, hands clasped smartly behind her back.

Stand at attention, make a good first impression.]

Hello. You're new, aren't you?

[prespangled]

[Steve knows about hard times, how sometimes you just have to make do under the circumstances. He's never had to go as far as she is right now, and in theory he'd frown upon theft and grave robbing. But the living have to live, even if that means using what the dead or missing have left behind.

If they're alive. He's had thoughts, but the sound of another person's voice snaps him out of them. Steve looks at her, takes note of her posture, and promptly turns himself in her direction. Maybe now he'll find some real answers.]

Yes ma'am. [Steve nods before putting something together from what she just said.] You're not?

[mismanagement]

Not anymore.

[Hard to believe that it's been a month now. More than once, maketh has been tempted to dismiss the whole thing as some sort of fever dream, born out of guilt and the other, knotted things she's been trying not to think about. But it's hardly that simple.

She nods just once, appreciating the manners.] At ease.

[Oh, wait. She grimaces.] Forgive me. Habit.

[These people aren't her soldiers. She has no right to give them commands.]

city

[cowardley]

[ For Ash, it's just another day. The stores are easily accessed from the main roads, and it's never a long walk from the home she and her friends have taken as their own. When she spots Steve staring up at the ceiling above, she has to stop to look as well, searching for any telltale sign of something nefarious afoot. With nothing spotted, she quickly realizes he must be new. ]

It takes a little while to get used to. [ She tries to be conversational about it, looking up briefly again. She felt suffocated when she first arrived, but that feeling was drowned out quickly by the horrors of this place. ] I mean, sometimes I still do a double take out my window in the morning.

[prespangled]

[Steve's pretty glad that he's not alone here. But at the same time, that just means more people who are trapped. If there's a bright side, it's that no one's been as vicious as those floating things, so Steve isn't so alarmed when she steps up beside him.

But he does turn his attention from the ceiling to her. It's just rock, after all.]

Yeah, I guess it would. [His breath catches a little, doing a double-take of his own.] A little while? How long have you been here?

[cowardley]

Uh, it's been... [ She frowns in a brief moment of concentration, lips tightly pursed. This would be the fourth - oh god, the fourth? - group of people to have come in, and since it appeared to be a monthly thing (at least every four to three weeks)... ] It's been four months, I think, for me. I know there are other people that have been here at least another month, or two.

[ Hadriel is a place you're stuck in. ] It's not an easy place to be trapped in, but you'll get used to it. ...Sort of, at least until the bad things start happening.

the city

[casperdisaster]

[Noah's going on a shop run, so he's got his duffle bag with NOAH CZERNY printed on it in neat red puffy paint letters. He doesn't really mean to sneak up on people, but he has a way of being quiet. Too quiet, really, even when he's got a body and is all breathing and the like.]

Oh, yeah, we aren't in Italy anymore, Dorothy.

... ... The Sistine Chapel's in Italy, right?

[prespangled]

[Steve's shoulders tense up from the surprise of it, which he tries to cover up, especially when it becomes obvious that the guy didn't mean to startle him. He clears his throat before he responds.]

Well it's not in Oz. [He got that reference! One corner of Steve's mouth tug up before he glances down at the bag.] Are you Noah?

[He's already gotten the impression that a lot of scavenging and/or "borrowing" goes on around here.]

[casperdisaster]

[Noah looks briefly amazed by Steve knowing his name. Is he psychic or something?!

Thankfully before he can make an idiot about himself over that he glances at his bag and remembers, right. Back on the train when everyone had identical bags he took the liberty of writing his name on his to not lose it. At least he didn't say anything. Just ignore that the amazed/realization/embarrassment crossed his face as easy to read as very large newsprint, please and thank you.]

That's me. Um, I've been here a while now, so... [he sighs, shrugs a bit awkwardly.] I'd say I could answer questions but most of us don't seem to know anything helpful.

[zen_en_vert]

Steve?

[Says Bruce, in astonishment, at the remark. He'd thought for sure, no, but that voice- that accent. He's seen photos, too, of the pre-serum version of him, and that is unmistakably him.

It's enough to waylay him in his step, making him shift to cross the alleyway towards him.]

Is that you, Cap?

[prespangled]

[Steve has between one and three friends, depending on how you look at it. The voice that says his name isn't Bucky's, and it's not a woman's. It doesn't have a German accent either.

He turns in the direction of the man who's walking towards him, a man who looks almost as confused as Steve feels.]

Yeah, that's my name. [Steve. His brows knit together at the second part.] Who the hell's "Cap"?

[zen_en_vert]

Captain Rogers.

[Says Bruce, sincerely- congratulations on the promotion, Steve. Comprehension filters slowly in as Bruce looks him over.]

I'm sorry- what year is it when you come from?

city

[vendetta]

[ At this point, Miller could more or less time the new arrivals to the hour. They come in like clockwork, like it's all been pre-programmed. Whether that's something set up by the gods or a function of the Door itself, he has no way of knowing. There are never really enough answers here, not for someone like Miller who soaks up information like a sponge. Still, he knows a lot more now than he did when he first got here.

It's hardly his job to orient the newcomers, but they'll all be much more useful in the long run if they can get settled quickly -- that, and it helps to promote oneself to people. Help them out when they're new to all this and confused, they might repay the favor later in one way or another.

So Kaz sets out with his cane and walks down the main roads of Hadriel, on the lookout for anyone like-minded. Sometimes you can spot a soldier just by looking at them, no matter how they're dressed.

When he spots a scrawny kid wandering around, though, he definitely doesn't think soldier. The newcomer looks exhausted, which is how Kaz feels. Walking on a peg leg gets painful pretty fast, but he's also gotten used to it, so he hides it well. The kid speaks up and Kaz's mouth twitches in reply. It's nice to not be bombarded with terms from some world he's never heard of. ]

Not even close. I'd take Rome over this place any day.

[ Not that Kaz has actually been there, but details. He knows it's better than Hadriel, not that it takes much. ]

[prespangled]

[Steve might've just arrived here, but he's already grateful for that sort of thing too. It's nice to know that he's not alone in this world, even if he already knew that he's not alone.

Come to think of it, 'nice' probably isn't the right world either. But at least maybe they can work together to figure out how to get back to their own world.]

I only saw it in books. [Steve admits as he looks over at him, noting the cane, wondering if it happened here. But it's not the sort of thing you just come right out and ask folks about.] Sounds like you're pretty familiar with it.

[vendetta]

[ It's true that most people are too polite to ask. Miller actually wouldn't take much of an issue with having to explain it -- he feeds on that anger, lets it fuel him even here in Hadriel. If he has to rely on all of that rage to keep him going, then so be it. He doesn't particularly like knowing that it might benefit one of the gods, but...

He's not like some other people. He can't keep his emotions locked down tight. ]

Well, not really. Never been there myself, but it seems like a nice place... and really, anywhere would probably be better than Hadriel.

[ Well, there are a few places that might be worse, but they'd be few and far between.

Kaz tilts his head at the kid. ] I'm guessing you just got here? I haven't seen you around before...

arrival!

[pellameno]

[ Pell has just sat up himself, startled awake by the screaming boxes. He rubs his eyes and only has a moment to take in the scene (boxes. bodies. a strange building that he shouldn't have woken up in because he shouldn't have woken up at all.) before he hears someone else shouting. When he looks towards the sound he sees a small man trying to wake someone much larger, probably because there's a horrifying thing coming their way, a creature he couldn't have dreamed up in his nightmares. There's a moment of "what is that?!?!" before he's shoving himself up and into movement towards the two. ]

I'll help you.

[ There's more light on the other side of the room, and more people awake. It'll be safer if they can drag him over there. And drag it will be, as they're of a height and this man is taller. Still, there's no time for discouragement. Pell takes the unconscious stranger's arm and lifts. If they can move fast enough maybe the creature will turn back into the shadow it came from. It's moving pretty slow. ]

[prespangled]

[If determination was all it took to get things done, they'd all be home by now. But it when it comes to moving a much larger body, unconscious and dead weight, Steve could use the help. He doesn't stop trying to move the stranger, and he won't abandon them, so he's just on the verge of putting his fists up against the thing when he hears someone calling out.]

Over there.

[Steve nods in the diretion of the light, and Pell seems to have the same idea too. Neither one of them are giants, but the two of them are already making more progress than Steve was alone.

He turns to face the monster once they're on the other side, huffing and puffing as he looks around.]

Do you see it?

[pellameno]

[ Only once they set the stranger down does Pell look up to see where the monster is. He can see the shadows shifting near where they came from, the now familiar bobbing motion of the creatures. ]

It went back. I don't think they like when we're in groups.

[ They'd rather pick the newly awoken off one by one, and isn't that a creepy thought? ]

Hopefully it doesn't come over here with friends. [ He kneels to check on the man they dragged, who's still out like a light. Well then. Back to his new acquaintance. ] That was really brave of you.

City!

[hungryasacaveman]

[Since Steve is so intent on staring at the ceiling of the cave, he might catch notice of a strongly-built young man in blue climbing on top of one of the buildings, on which a stalagmite has developed. He's climbing slowly, but with a determined air about him that suggests he can keep this up for a while, even as he begins to run out of stalagmite.]

[prespangled]

[It's not something he sees every day, that's for sure. Steve blinks and just watches him for a few seconds, before he starts making his way closer to the building, alternating between looking for anything in his path and then back up at him.

Finally he stops and calls up.]

Hey! Down here!

city

[quaerit]

[ Interesting comparison. It draws Gansey's curious attention, and he looks from the boy up to the ceiling, and back again. For his first while here, his eye had been constantly drawn to that ceiling. It seems so impossible, and yet it's there, never even hinting at the danger of caving in on them.

It ought to. It's a vast space with no support aside from the walls at its edges, and they are very far apart.

Gansey offers the newcomer a little smile. ]

It's just as impressive, albeit less colorful. This is an impossible cave. What's your guess on where the light comes from? That's the first thing I wondered.

[prespangled]

I guess so. Just kind of hard to appreciate it right now.

[Right now when he's new, and it's just the roof of the cell that his kidnappers are keeping him in.]

An impossible cave does seem like the best place for impossible things. I've seen a few of those today. [He frowns a little at the question. It's a good one, and after looking around, Steve just doesn't have an answer for him.] It's gotta be coming from somewhere.

city

[imobouzu]

[ Jinbee was in the colosseum to help people where he was needed but he missed Steve. On the other hand, he looks unfamiliar so the teen figures he's a newcomer, none the less.

He was going to approach and see if he might need any help but then he heard Steve speak and... ]

What is sisetin chapel?

[ He's curious. And didn't quite catch the proper name of it, apparently. ]

[prespangled]

It's...well, it's a church.

[Steve turns his attention from the ceiling to him. He looks friendly, curious, and it's always better to talk to another person than to himself - Steve's done plenty of that from time to time.]

It's famous for it's ceiling, which was painted by a really famous artist named Michelangelo. Ring any bells?