hadriel_logs | Event Log: The Hope of a Child

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Event Log: The Hope of a Child

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the The Hope of a Child event
Where: All over the city!
When: January 23rd-Feb 1st
Warnings: Youths

By now, the gods have probably done enough weird crap to you while you're asleep for you to be a little suspicious- but it's not like you can just not sleep, especially when there are a few supernatural forces making your eyes droopy and your body feel heavy.

And now, when you fall asleep, you'll wake up somewhere else and you'll likely have quite a different temperament- you'll be younger, maybe a little more naive and innocent, and you won't exactly remember all the wild stuff that's happened to your adult self. Maybe now you'll be a little more trusting and emotional, hm? The gods could definitely use a little boost in power, and what better way to do it than to harness the power of overemotional kiddos!

Or maybe you aren't affected at all and find yourself surrounded by youths. What are you going to do when your best friend doesn't know how to cook for themselves? Or your bitter rival is throwing a temper tantrum because they broke their favorite toy? Nobody asked for this kind of responsibility, but think about what would happen if nobody was around to take care of these babies...

► This log covers January 23rd-Feb 1st.
► 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 trip over a kid and die, please let us know here.

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[Okay, good, he doesn't seem either hurt or too mad. Lance glances toward the pile of junk he'd been sorting through and then back at Michael, torn between answering and making up an excuse to hide what he's actually doing. But there's no need to do the latter, at least not that he's seen yet, so for now he'll try the 'we're in this together' attitude.]

Yeah, it's just me.

[Which is... Something he's trying not to think about too much.]

So I'm looking for anything useful. Like um, food. Or a phonebook.

[Or anything that will help him survive here, or better yet figure out how to get out. Even if the adults here haven't been mean, they haven't exactly been helpful either and so he's going to have to rely on himself, as usual.]

[Hmm. This place gets weirder and weirder.]

It's like there's a lot of kids just wandering around here all alone. I wonder if we all got kidnapped for something.

[He shares this like he's sharing his predictions for the weather, or what's for dinner. Like it's only mildly interesting, and he's resigned himself to whatever the outcome is.]

I haven't seen any payphones, and I don't have any quarters. What do you need a phonebook for, anyway? Wouldn't you just call 911 or your house?

That's what I wondered too, but why would they have kidnapped so many? And there are adults here too.

[It doesn't make any sense, whether in terms of logic or motivation. As far as the question about the phonebook, he gives a shrug and continues looking through the pile of junk.]

Well yeah, but a phone book also tells you the nearby cities and what state you're in. Since like, no one here is saying where we are except 'Hadriel' I thought maybe we'd find out more that way.

[Of course, that's assuming the phone book was actually from here, but it should be obvious if it is or isn't based on whether it lists Hadriel as a place.]

[Michael shrugs, too.]

I don't know. Are your parents rich or famous or something? Maybe it's like a ransom thing. Maybe the adults are kidnapped, too. Or it's like one of those prisons in the desert so nobody can escape. Like in Texas.

[He states this very matter-of-factly. As for the phonebook thing... Smart. This kid's smart. But now that he's thinking along those lines, Michael has what he thinks is a better idea.]

If you want to know where we are for sure, find somebody's mailbox. If there's any mail in there, it has to have the whole address on it. I saw some houses, maybe they've got mailboxes.

My parents aren't that rich.

[They have money, especially as far as it looks to a ten year old child used to the bare minimum of everything, but he still knows they're not rich enough for a ransom to be worthwhile. And it seems really unlikely there would be so many other people around if it were really about Lance specifically, or that someone would've kidnapped a ton of people at once; the prison thing is a little more likely, but even that doesn't seem right. What would they be in jail for?

But the mail thing is better to focus on, and he nods at the suggestion. It won't tell them anything about places nearby, but it might let them know if Hadriel is in a specific state, or if it's a country, or something. And it's more likely to find a mailbox and mail if they go looking than it would be to randomly find a phonebook, right?]

Yeah, okay, let's go look. It's worth a try.

[Michael doesn't think his parents are that rich, either. And if they were, why would he be here alone? Wouldn't his brothers and his sister be here too? Wait. He corrects himself: half-brothers. Half-sister. The distinction is apparently important.

It was worth a shot, he guesses. He doesn't know, none of this makes any sense.]

Okay, um. Yeah. Let's go.

[He suddenly realizes that, since he was the one who saw the houses, he's now the one in charge of leading them back. This makes him feel sort of uncomfortable, but after a too-long pause, he manages to make himself shuffle off toward the building's exit.]

So, uh, where are you from?

[Might as well make small talk?]

Okay.

[He's less worried about following Michael than he has been about following any of the adults; although he often feels competitive toward other kids, that's very different from the distrust he has for adults. So he follows Michael out of the store, responding to the question easily.]

I'm from New York. What about you?

New York like New York City?

[If so, that's cool. Michael's never been there before but it looks nice on TV.]

I'm from Maine. It's pretty boring.

[That second part is added on the assumption that this other kid is from the much more interesting NYC.]

[He shakes his head.]

I've been to New York City, but I don't live there. It's cool but it's really loud.

[And expensive, as far as he's heard. He likes where he lives, though; it's quiet and suburban and peaceful.]

Maine's um, really cold, right? And full of lobsters?

[This is all he knows about Maine, with 'knows' being a questionable word.]

Oh. Where do you live then?

[There are people in New York who don't live in the city??? How is this possible?]

Maine's really cold in the winter, yeah. There's a lake by our house that freezes and school gets cancelled a lot. I guess there's probably a lot of lobsters if you live on the beach. The only time I see them, they're already food.

[He shrugs.]

I live, um, in upstate New York. So like, north of New York City.

[It also gets really cold there, but a lake that freezes would be awesome and he's a little jealous.]

Do you get to go ice skating on the lake? I've never eaten lobster; is it good?

[Upstate New York. Makes sense, he guesses. It's probably just like all the non-exciting parts of any other state.]

I'm not really good at ice skating. [Kind of a klutz, in fact.] Mom says I'm gonna fall and cut my fingers off.

[So that's a no.]

Lobster's pretty good though. It kind of tastes like- [Wait, what does it taste like?] Like... crabs?

[His family eats a lot of seafood apparently.]

What do you guys do in New York?

I went ice skating once but I wasn't really good at it either.

[So he sympathizes. Maybe someday he'll be more coordinated.]

Oh, okay, I know what crab is like. I tried it at a restaurant once but it was... Weird.

[Not bad, but weird. As for the last question, he shrugs.]

I dunno, I mostly do school stuff. I have a lot of school work; I'm supposed to graduate in a few years.

[Michael guesses that skating must be universally hard, and also that "weird" is a good way to describe crab taste, but both of these observations are blown out of the water by the last thing Lance says.]

What? How are you gonna graduate soon? Don't you have to be like, eighteen for that?

[This kid is nowhere near that old. Unless he's just like, really small for a teenager? Maybe he has one of those growing diseases. Michael's heard of kids skipping grades before, of course, but this seems like... more than that.]

[He shakes his head at the question, glancing around at their surroundings to make sure they're still not in any danger before answering.]

You don't have to be, you just have to like... Know a certain amount of stuff. So at some schools, if you can learn faster you can graduate faster.

... Huh.

[So he just gets to skip like, all the grades? Michael is a little bit jealous.]

That's really cool. So are you gonna be like, Doogie Howser?

[He's trying to imagine a kid their age working a job like an adult, or something. Doogie Howser is all that comes to mind.]

Thanks.

[He brightens considerably at the compliment, and at the question.]

I'm not gonna be a medical doctor, but yeah, maybe!

[...Okay so he's going to actually have to go through more school first and therefore will end up an adult before he starts working, but right now the idea of the timing of all that is very nebulous to him. But eventually!]

What do you want to do when you grow up?

[Good, he's managed to make the other kid look happier. That's a rare accomplishment for him. Usually he says something wrong in the first few minutes and ends up making a quick enemy, or at least making everyone awkward.]

I don't know. Both my parents are doctors- the medical kind- so I guess I should probably do that, too. [He shrugs.] But then I'll be in school forever, so I guess that kinda sucks.

[And then he'll be busy 24/7. He's not really looking forward to it, but he doesn't have any other ideas. He's not really good at anything besides school.]

Are you gonna be a professor or something? [It's the only non-medical doctor he can think of at the moment.]

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Event Log: The Hope of a Child

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