hadriel_logs | Intro Log: Rock This City

Entry tags:

Intro Log: Rock This City

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for January
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: January 10th-14th
Warnings: New folks, rockin' dudes made of rock, and collectible friends!

This time, it's different.

There's no cave, no stone walls looming up around you and overhead, no stifling air or artificial light- not that you'd appreciate it, seeing as to how you've probably never been here before. And still, when you land facefirst on the dirt ground of the colosseum, you may not quite appreciate all the improvements and steps we've had to take to get here- after all, you're still surrounded by strangers in a crumbling city on an alien planet in the middle of nowhere.

Oh, and you're being attacked by Earth Elementals. These creatures are tall, between seven to ten feet, and made of solid rock, capable of punching through all the squishy bits of you- and for whatever reason, they definitely want to start punching. They're incredibly strong and, seeing as to how they're enchanted alive and have no internal organs, they're very difficult to kill.

But don't let that scare you off. For all the collectors in you, you can also find a very special array of beanie babies all scattered at the ground at your feet. Do you know that some of these things will be worth a lot of money someday? Better find the rarest one and stockpile it while you can! You might run into the rainbow crab, the platypus, or the sought-after bald eagle, or many more! Be sure to never take the tag off and never ever let anyone play with them so they don't lose value.

Once you've got your kids' college fund squared away, it's time to start exploring! You can 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 January 10th-14th.
► 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

I arrived in the same manner as you, several months ago.

[He isn't sure what kind of reaction he expected, but there's something so entirely off about this one that it gives him a moment's pause. It isn't out of character - not in the slightest - and yet the level of surprise on Prompto's part feels oddly out of place considering that from his perspective they should have just been together.

Ignis' hand drops down from his friend's shoulder and he spares a moment for a curious look at the chocobo chick in his arms, but questions about that can come later.]

I'm surprised that you escaped the coliseum without my notice. [Then again, he had been distracted by... other things.

It's almost subconsciously that he reaches a hand to the chick, allowing it to observe before he even thinks to venture to touch it. All the while, though, his eyes are on Prompto's face. It's been far too long since he last saw him.]

Were you injured?

No, we got out fine! Just — Iunno , hightailed it right out of there 'cause, I mean. Guns against rock? Not all that effective. I had my hands full too, anyway; couldn't really reach for my revolver. ( several months ago, ignis says when he speaks of his arrival, but unless ortech had been messing with his memories again — which, considering the circumstances, frankly didn't seem all that unlikely — prompto doesn't remember him being gone for quite this long.

he's no less glad to see his friend again too, however, and the chocobo seems to recognise ignis too, judging by her placid gaze and lack of discomfort when the adviser reaches out to pet her. ) Man, Iggy — ( the more he speaks the brighter his grin grows in relief and delight; the circumstances of how exactly ignis came to be here can wait. ) — it's really good to see you.

[The chocobo doesn't balk from him, so he gently rubs two fingers down the soft feathers under her chin and lightly scratches into the thick down of her chest. It's pleasant to see something so familiar, even if he has no idea of how Prompto came across such a thing.

More comforting though, is the presence of his friend.]

And you as well. [He replies warmly, dropping his hand and clasping both neatly behind his back.] I haven't seen any of you since shortly after I arrived. It's been... taxing, at times. I've missed you all a great deal.

Dude, I'm super glad you're okay, too! Y'went missing and we couldn't find you anywhere — guess this is where you ended up? ( the time disparity seems to be getting less important by the second, to be honest; maybe he's even remembering wrong. not a far shot, considering how his memory's been messed with before. ) Not a bad thing, though, 'cause you missed a huge attack on the town; s'where I got this. ( prompto gestures, vaguely, to the white patch of gauze and elastic over where his eye is still healing, and casually leaves out the bit where aranea had an unfortunately fatal encounter with the business end of some very wicked claws — no big, since she came back in the end.

in his arms, the chocobo leans into the scratching, eyes almost shut with a satisfied little peep, and prompto fights the urge to coo even if he's no stranger to this. she's so cute. ) Guess you dodged a bullet there, disappearing when you did.

[What Prompto says triggers an immediate expression of what can only be called alarm, and with the relief of seeing his friend slowly fading back into the background more pressing concerns are coming to the fore. One of the most notable ones is, of course, Prompto's injury (which Ignis does not recall happening, but already acknowledged it may have happened at some point further along the timeline), but that is quickly overtaken by an entirely different worry.]

I had been under the impression thus far that my absence from Eos would not be noted. [If it was...

Gods, it doesn't bear thinking about. The only small comfort here had been knowing that while he was gone, his friends - and Noctis, most notably - would not be bereft of his presence.]

When did I... disappear?

What, from Eos? ( ignis looks worried, a reaction he isn't quite prepared to deal with, and prompto can't help the slightly bewildered note that creeps into his voice when he answers. ) Probably together with Aranea and me since we kinda all showed up together in that weird town at the same time? You disappeared again from that place a couple of months back though, so I thought you came here after that — unless... you didn't?

[Weird town--? Wait a moment. Ignis brings up one hand to bid Prompto to be quiet, while carefully adjusting his spectacles with the other. There's something going on here that he isn't understanding, and he isn't going to stumble on the answer by fumbling around in the dark until his friend says something that makes sense.]

No.

[He was definitely nowhere else.]

Prompto, where do you believe you last saw me?

Um. ( ignis all but shushes him, and the doubt is a cold drop in his gut; was he really imagining things? it's unlikely ignis would lie about any of this, but there's definitely stuff here that doesn't add up. when prompto speaks again it's slow, almost hesitant as he makes an attempt at putting the pieces together. ) Wayward Pines? Small town, surveillance equipment everywhere, tried really hard to look and feel normal but still Big-Brother kinda deal?

You may have been somewhere that I wasn't.

[But, Prompto thinks that he saw him there? Was it actually him, or some version of him created by this other place... Or maybe he doesn't remember it, and he isn't sure which of the options is more unsettling.

A small but permanent frown has settled on his brow as the conversation has continued. That people have been to other places before here isn't a phenomenon he's encountered yet (and perhaps, if he know Rose better, he would have).]

To my recollection, we were last at Cape Caem, preparing to leave for Altissia.

[Noctis is placed differently. As is Ravus. Prompto and Aranea, no doubt, are as well.]

What. Dude, we were already in Altissia when I got knocked out. ( but can he trust what he knew, especially with how things weren't all as they remembered, anyway? )

B-but they messed with our memories, so maybe I never actually went to Altissia? I mean - they made it so I thought I'd lived in that town my entire life, so maybe... I don't know, somethin' got mixed up along the way and they made me think I'd left Cape Caem? Then again, the scientist folks said they didn't know anything about our home worlds. Apparently they found us just there, in that place, so they couldn't have known about — ugh. I don't... I got nothin', Iggy.

I believe that you did go to Altissia. As did Noctis, and so will I at a point further along my own timeline.

[It doesn't make sense when you think about it purely from the perspective of what they know to be possible, but those preconceptions are so readily challenged by Hadriel's very nature that he has little problem with shifting his focus.]

The Door draws people here from multiple worlds. It should be no great feat to draw them from multiple times as well. [Time to blow Prompto's mind.]

I have seen Noctis here before, at the age of thirty. And King Regis, still living.

( he's had to pick his jaw up off the floor several times, in the course of their adventures. this is one addition to the count. ) You've gotta be kidding me. ( the king, alive, here? and noct, from ten years in the future? ) Wait — does that mean we're each from different parallel universes? If we didn't come here from the exact same time, that is. If any of us was even a minute off, it'd probably count.

[He shakes his head, and for the sake of a distraction reaches out to pet the small black chocobo again.]

I don't believe so. People have reported returning to their own worlds at the exact time they left, coming back here after an amount of time has passed which varies from one individual to another.

[The worry he'd had before - that he was in fact being missed - is easily pushed aside once again.]

There's magic at work here unlike anything I've ever studied before.

( right. pet the chocobo. good idea, except prompto's gonna smoosh his face into the feathers of her back to calm himself; there, that's way better. ) Holy crap. So maybe we get grabbed from a particular instant in our timeline like some kinda cardboard cutout and end up living in another dimension — this one — but whatever brought us here can just slot us right back in like we never left, and we'd still remember all this stuff?

( ok, his head might be hurting a little, but prompto thinks he might be starting to see it. ) We should make a movie out of this. When we get back, I mean. After everything's over.

I don't think we're going to remember any of this. [And that is, really, all at once the best and the worst thing about it all. There is a lot here that Ignis would not want to forget, despite the horrors of it, and despite being drawn so far away from home.

There are events, and people... that he doesn't want to lose.

It isn't the first time that he's thought about how everything that happens here fits into their 'real' lives. Time spent in Hadriel feels as real as anything else, and it's hard to believe that they could return home, to the same point in time that they left, and simply forget it all.]

Were you looking for something in here? Perhaps we can move to a more comfortable location.

... We won't?

( the implication of it stops prompto short, and a rising note of something like panic, something like denial begins to bubble under the surface. ) That's — they can't wipe our memories like that. ( but there is a possibility, given what they'd been put through by ortech. he's going to forget this, and whatever happened with aranea after they'd —

a sickening wave of nausea settles on him almost instantly, like a sheet thrown over his head, and prompto shakes his head quickly. ) N-no. I was just looking around.

[It's almost imperceptible, and would be entirely so to those who don't know him well, but Ignis' expression softens in the face of his friend's distress and he clasps a hand over his shoulder in a quiet offer of solidarity.

Prompto is young, and the one of them that shows it the most, and Ignis can't help but feel a certain level of responsibility for him even though it has never been asked for or expected.]

Then let's move on.

[He isn't certain of how to reassure him entirely - not yet - but it's clear that they have a great deal to (potentially) discuss.]

You must tell me how you came upon this little thing... [With 'little thing' said with all the fondness that one might say 'princess', Ignis indicates the black chocobo.]

Okay. ( prompto manages a nod, voice small; gingerly he swallows past the lump in his throat, wills the nausea to go along with it, and it might be that it does work, or perhaps ignis' changing of the subject simply is what eases it along. ) We found her. Well, to be accurate she showed up on our doorstep out of nowhere and I couldn't just leave her outside in the winter so of course we had to adopt her — ( just talking about the chocobo is enough to get him feeling better already, that prompto doesn't realise he's rambling a little. ) — and I guess, the rest is history. M'really glad she's here and didn't get left behind when I got pulled into this place, too.

[Ignis' own fondness of chocobos is a semi-well-kept secret, though not much of one at the moment, with how softened his expression is on regarding the little chick in Prompto's arms.]

One can only hope she doesn't develop the same habits as the last black chocobo I came across. [He rubs the top of her head with two fingertips, and lets out the softest-sounding chuckle.]

Though I might forgive this one for stealing my spectacles, so long as it doesn't happen too often.

Maybe they figured you didn't really need those. Anyway, she wouldn't do that. ( he's completely forgetting, perhaps, how miss fluffles shit on aranea's good shirt the first time they met. the chick, to her credit, maintains a picture of pure innocence as she shuts her eyes in appreciation of a very satisfactory headscratch. ) She's a good girl!

[There's a certain sharpness in Ignis' eyes as he flicks them quickly up to Prompto's face.] That's hardly the point, Prompto. [He says, though he keeps his voice gentle enough to avoid startling the chick.]

Sorely needed or not, I have no intention of ever letting a good pair of spectacles be used as a nest decoration. [So, you know, as long as she actually gives them back.

Ignis' smile softens, his attention duly distracted by the small creature's appreciation, and he curls one finger under her beak to rub there.]

But I'm sure you're correct.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Intro Log: Rock This City

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confusion +1

here he goes helpfully adding more

dammit prompto

i love everything about this thread

confusion is over 9000

through the roof m8

not sure who I feel worse for

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