Event Log: Tears of Joy

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Tears of Joy event
Where: All over the city
When: April 21st-April 30th
Warnings: Lots and lots of regret

Sorrow's back! That's great, except for the sudden wave of sorrow and regret blanketing the city. And boy is it strong. It's hard to think about anything except all the times you've hurt someone, let someone down, failed. It's hard to get through your day while your mind is full of those thoughts, but you have to, right? Otherwise you might be letting someone else down.

Everything would feel a lot better if you could just find a way to make up for what you've done. A way to earn forgiveness. Do you deserve it? Maybe not, but if you can figure out the right thing to do, it won't matter - you'll make up for all the wrongs you committed and everything will be fine. So what will you do? Clean your friend's entire house? Hunt monsters and leave their heads at your ex's doorstep, like a particularly upsetting cat? Or is there something else even more drastic you can do?

Or maybe this isn't really affecting you at all - but someone else feels like they've wronged you, and they want to make it up to you. Are you going to take advantage of this? Pretend it's not happening? You do still feel kind of annoyed by that thing they did that time...

► This log covers April 21st-April 30th.
► 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 decide the only way to make up for what you've done is the final solution, please let us know here.

Comments

[abyssalarcana]

Well look there, someone pays attention to the network. It doesn't surprise her when people assume these sorts of things anymore - though it doesn't help her mood any that Ravine is right. But more and more, she realizes how intensely frustrating it is to be trapped here with these creatures. Nick had warned her of imprisonment, but that's already what has happened. The tactics her people employ rely on the fact that nothing is permanent - that their enemies can be killed, and that they can flee or fight until death and return home to strike again. They rely on unpredictability, shock, and impermanence. Everything about this place runs counter to that and it's starting to get to her.

"Yes," she says, defiant. "Exactly. The more, the better. I'm sick of this place and everyone in it."

[whip_poor_will]

Funny enough, Ravine pays very little attention. But she doesn't need to be connected to eavesdrop on the peanut gallery and the going-ons around here.

"And do you believe that having monsters on speed dial will improve matters for you further? That it will bring you closer to the one you love?" Her eyes narrow as she turns towards the fog once again. "You won't find it here. Not in that place. Not even for you."

[abyssalarcana]

The one you love.

A chill runs down Caedra's spine. A feeling she is certainly not accustomed to, particularly not here. This woman, whoever she is, has struck too deep a chord and the shock is enough to overwhelm what otherwise would be an immediate and violent reaction.

She takes a breath and steels her nerves. This thing before her is not what she took her for.

"What are you?"

[whip_poor_will]

It's a question she gets asked a lot. Despite her appearances, it's obvious real fast that Ravine isn't a normal living, breathing woman. Those who draw near her could vouch for that. She does not give a physical presence. While she stands still, the shadows cast under her appear to be moving; twitching. Her expression turns neutral as she stares not only at Caedra, but somewhere further than even that.

"Some would have us called 'grim reapers', as 'Psychopomp' tends to be too obscure." You probably haven't heard of it. "In short, we are something of guides for the dead."

Although that doesn't entirely answer how Ravine can know the things she does, but she'll pitch it as a packaged deal.

[abyssalarcana]

"No, I know what a psychopomp is. The only ones who call you reapers are from the inner planes. Most of the rest of us are at least familiar with your role in the multiverse." A celestial, then, but at least usually a neutral one. They have a job to do and generally they stick to it, from what she has been told. Thirdhand knowledge only; if she met one when she died, she doesn't remember now but that's to be expected.

"So, what, you read souls, then?" It actually sounds like a reasonable explanation, from her point of view. They must be able to converse with the things before they have taken form, in that ethereal period as they transition between death and the great river Anahita.

[whip_poor_will]

"I wouldn't necessarily describe it as 'reading', and certainly not of one's soul, but that is one way of looking at it."

Many people had different ways of viewing her, of naming her, of whether they venerate or admonish or accept her. Some reject the very notion of her existence, while others go mad from it, driven to become malignant forces over time.

Ravine would at least see to that that doesn't happen here. Not while Hope is around and the entities command this place.

[abyssalarcana]

"Whichever it is, if we are to not be at each other's throats while here, I recommend you stop doing that to me."

Phrasing it as more of a request than a command will hopefully help, Caedra figures. This creature has the ability to inflict pain on her more easily than most and if that happens she won't hesitate to fight back, but she would rather it doesn't get to that point. Other races may accuse the demons of insanity, but they generally recognize when someone isn't worth taking on. This is one such individual, with abilities equal to or potentially exceeding her own, if it's anything like the celestials she is familiar with.

[whip_poor_will]

"Oh, rest assured I am unable to be at your throat any more than you are capable of reaching mine."

There are some ways of reaching and harming a Psychopomp, but hell if Ravine is going to be sharing such trade secrets with someone such as Caedra. The fact that she may never harm a living thing without becoming something much worse than this demon woman is another matter entirely.

No, that's a card she is going to be keeping close to her. Never mind that Ravine simply cannot 'turn off' what she so often sees...

[abyssalarcana]

That's... really not a satisfying response. Not 'oh sure I'll stop' but 'we can't hurt each other' which is something she doesn't even believe, given her confidence in her own abilities.

"That might be so, but the collateral damage would probably come back to haunt us one way or another. So again: keep your mind-reading out of my head," she replies, more forcefully this time.

She would offer a trade. Cut out the telepathy and in return she wouldn't target this creature in future acts of violence. But given that the intrusion had been completely unnoticed until she said something, Caedra isn't willing to make such a deal - because Ravine could easily just say yes to it but keep doing it anyway. And Caedra regularly breaks promises when they stop working in her favor, so it just wouldn't achieve anything.

[whip_poor_will]

That's the problem when you're a bodiless dead person -- there's not really much to bargain with. Ravine doesn't take deals and there isn't much that anyone corporeal could offer her in return, especially not this woman in particular.

So she throws her gloved hands up.

"Very well. If you insist, Caedra Allal Nisariel."

What one doesn't know won't hurt them. And Ravine tends to keep most of what she learns from people to herself before they ever find out, anyway.

[abyssalarcana]

Caedra noticeably bristles at the use of her full name. 'Allal', from her human family - she doesn't give that name out to anyone these days, not here or anywhere. The network doesn't display it. It's not her truename but it still holds a certain power, being what it is, and that to her is more of an offense than the woman alluding earlier to Amamot.

"Then you owe me your name, if you're going to throw mine around," she growls.

[whip_poor_will]

What's the matter, Caedra? Don't like it when someone has a leg up on you?

Ravine can easily see on the surface level just how much hearing that name spoken crawls under her skin. She could say anything she wants then, and this woman wouldn't be able to do anything about it. That she is owed nothing comes to mind.

"I was once Yehudit, but these days I am called Ravine."

But she isn't that cruel. So few have heard of her own true name -- her dead name. If anything, Caedra is perhaps 'owed' that much.

[abyssalarcana]

"That's better." A former name is helpful. Makes them even, in some sense, and she's surprised it was given so easily, but the celestials likely have their own strange rules they follow, or if not that then some vested interest in balance. Maybe. She doesn't know for sure, only assumes based on hearsay.

In any case, Ravine absolutely does make her uneasy. It's not quite the same innate disgust as she would feel at seeing an angel, but creatures like this one still fill a role that she and her kind seek to undo. Shepherding souls to the afterlife? It's well and good if those souls end up in the hands of the tanar'ri but so many go to the gods; or worse, are driven to the Hells and tortured until they break and join the ranks as infernal soldiers. Without psychopomps and the death gods, souls might simply stay on the material plane, tormenting mortals as wights and poltergeists, and wouldn't that just be fun to see! The armies of the devils would be starved, and the chaos and fear in the world would be at a new and beautiful high.

"Then perhaps I'll leave you to whatever it was you were mourning," she says as she takes a step back, not ready just yet to take her eyes off the taller woman. Paranoia can be a helpful tool. She does still want to return here later, to investigate what this odd fog will do, but without an observer - particularly one who seems unable to keep herself out of Caedra's head.