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

[unknowable]

Adam looks genuinely concerned at the prospect of Blue finding somewhere else to live. It's true that this house isn't quite big enough for all of them, and it'll probably be awkward - one girl in a house full of teenage boys - but the alternative, her staying on her own, isn't better. It's worse, in Adam's opinion.

He knows Blue would not want them to act like she needs protection, but Hadriel can be dangerous, and frankly, they all need protection sometimes. It's safer as a group, and it would be strange - wrong - to have Blue in the city and not have her with them. Even Adam has accepted the necessity of living together, and even grown to like some things about it. Safety, familiarity. People he can trust.

It helps that it's their house, not Gansey's, but he wouldn't say that aloud.

"You just stepped foot inside and you're already planning your escape? It's not that bad in here."

Adam tries to keep things carefully light-hearted. He wants her to stay, but he doesn't want her to feel pressured.

"Of course we'd like you to stay. There's only four bedrooms, but I'm fine staying on the couch, so you can have mine."

Enjoy your third room offer, Blue. Chivalry's not dead, just on life support.

[ampliat]

Yet Blue understands what he means by "their" house all the same. The same way that living in government housing in De Chima had been easy because it was given to everyone. And how the house Ronan made had been easy because they'd all contributed to the development with their various talents. It had been theirs.

Just like this one seemed to be. The longer she stood in the living room, the more she started to like the damn furniture for all it's oddities. This place was weird, but she was a big fan of being out of the ordinary. Point to the city for winning this round against her.

She gives Adam a rueful smile and shrugs slightly.

"I was trying to protect your virtue, really. It's kind of scandalous to live with a girl. You know how tricky we can be," she teased back, wanting to keep the mood light. To dance around the eventual crashes she knew were coming. Come on. This place was ruled by the god of fear. One day it's all going to crash and burn around them. They can take a minute to joke.

"I think you might have to fight Gansey and Noah for who gets to give me their room, though," She adds. Then smiles a little to herself. "Thank you, but I think Gansey might fight you to get to sleep in the living room again. I think he's been waiting for an excuse to move out here." Right in the center of it all, just like at Monmouth.

"We'll have to watch out for miniature versions of the town being built overnight on the floor, though."

[unknowable]

He smiles, a careful sliver of a thing, but genuine. "That, I'd like to see. I've missed Gansey's art projects."

And it's doable, he thinks - it might be a little crowded down here, with the three of them, but if Gansey and Blue are comfortable then Adam isn't going to complain. He would have been fine sleeping on the couch, but he does like having his own space - somewhere to retreat to when he needs to be alone, or when he's angry about something and doesn't want to inflict himself on anyone else.

Anyway, he guesses it's probably easier for Gansey to move anyway, since he only arrived recently and hasn't really had a chance to get attached or to acquire random bits of things from around the city. It makes sense.

"You'll be up there with Noah in the next room, though - I should warn you that even alive he doesn't have the best concept of personal space."

Blue never seemed to mind that at home, though. It used to make Adam a little jealous, but even as pleased as he is to see her, he doesn't think it will anymore. It's been nine months since he's been around Blue, longer since they broke up. He doesn't know how long it's been for her - he hopes it won't be awkward, but knows that it probably will be. They'll handle it somehow.

[ampliat]

"We may have to set more ground rules, then," she jokes along with him. Though maybe not entirely a joke. A living Noah is a whole other ball field from a dead Noah. She won't really know how she feels about it until that first hair ruffle, though. Until then, it's all just a lot of catching up.

Too much.

She's aware they're playing it safe in this conversation. They're dancing around anything that's to do with them and talking about everything that's not to do with them. It's how they've been ever since. Maybe even before then. A wall she's never quite been able to cross with him.

In that other world they were working on it. With her Adam-

She cuts herself off mentally. There's no separate Adams, as much as she wants to picture them separately. Just one that will never remember all that changed. Does that mean it can't happen again, though? Were they only ever to overcome so much because of where they'd been?

She misses her friends already.

"You know," she starts. "It was kind of like this when I got to De Chima too. You had all already been living in the apartment for a week or so. There'd been a room for me, but all the apartments were five rooms. It was just natural we'd all fill the spaces." She wanders still, the walking helping distract her from the fact that she doesn't know where she stands with anyone anymore. How should she act again?

[unknowable]

"We didn't really think about it when we got here," Adam admits quietly. "It had been just the four of us for months by then. I think we all figured that if you were going to come, you would have already."

Otherwise they might have picked a larger house. But Adam thinks that although they missed her and wanted her there, at the same time none of them could really wish for her arrival. Not in a place like this, where being here only means danger and things that verge on torture. Adam wouldn't wish this on any of them, but here they all are.

"But there's space for you here, too. We'll just have to shuffle around a little."

He gestures at the doors leading off the main living area.

"That one's mine, and that's Ronan's."

Ronan's being much more easily identifiable, as it has a scuff mark from where Ronan hit it in anger not long after they arrived. Not that that should be any surprise.

It feels oddly mundane, giving her a semblance of a tour, but he doesn't really know what else to do. For him, it's been so long since they've seen each other, and knowing it isn't the same for her feels - he doesn't know. Strangely unequal. He doesn't know what she might have shared with him in that other place, if maybe they were closer friends, or maybe they fought. Before he was brought here, Adam had thought that they were getting back on solid ground, real friendship not so strained by what had been between them before.

He really doesn't know, now. A lot of things are different for both of them.

[ampliat]

In the other world, it'd been different. Maybe they didn't want to be separated from family and friends in Henrietta, but their world hadn't been so dangerous--

Well. When they arrived. Now that she thinks about it, she would have liked to have spared them for what came later. Their naivety had been their undoing. Here, though, there was no room for naivete. That was clear from the start.

She looks at each room as he points to it, grateful that Ronan's room is so marked. At least it's not easy to get lost here.

As she looks, though, she finally thinks to ask. "What's with the furniture?" She turns more directly toward him, canting her head. It's a legitimate question. It's an attempt at small talk to ease tension she wants to disappear entirely. Maybe if she keeps filling the silence with talking between them they'll get down to it.

And she is actually curious. "It doesn't look like it was made for actual people."

[unknowable]

He'd sort of forgotten about it. They're all used to it by now, so Adam doesn't really think of it as strange anymore - but with Blue there, he can look at it through her eyes for a moment or two. Yeah. That shit's pretty weird.

"I think it was made for the creatures that were here before us. I don't really know anything about them - I don't think anyone does. But this city was theirs, and I guess they worshiped the gods? Anyway, the houses and the shops and the furniture was all made for them, probably."

And it's beautiful, in its own way, but strange. At least it's still usable.

"They must not have looked like us. They're all dead now, anyway."

Because that's a super uplifting thing to talk about. But really, it's better that Blue be fully aware of what she's fallen into here.

"I don't know why they didn't come back to life. Everyone else does, here."