hadriel_logs | Event Log: Senses Fail

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Event Log: Senses Fail

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Senses Fail event
Where: All over the city
When: May 14th-May 20th
Warnings: None

You wake up on the 14th, and something is different. Maybe it's something small - you can't smell anything, or your hearing on one side seems to be on the fritz. Or it could be something large and impossible to miss - you've gone completely blind, or you seem to be missing a leg. You've lost something, and no matter what you do, you can't seem to fix it.

Will you ever get it back? Probably, but it's impossible to be sure. And even if you're thoroughly convinced that this is temporary, that still means you have to figure out how to live like this for the next week. Even small things can be huge difficulties. Your sense of taste doesn't seem that important, until you accidentally eat something that'll make you sick. And sure, maybe you can figure out how to live without one hand, but what about when you wake up three days from now and you've also lost your magic?

Do your best to keep yourself calm, but remember: it can always get worse.

► This log covers May 14th-May 20th.
► 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 your lost sense turns out to have been essential to your survival, please let us know here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Laura woke up not being able to hear. she screamed herself hoarse trying to make herself hear something, but it was worthless.

she eventually gave up trying to hear and went to the shops to pick up a notebook and a pen. she'd have to use that to know what others were saying. it took a while and it was frustrating, but at least she could know what others were saying.

she can't hear Kelson talking to himself. if she could, she'd be genuinely worried for him. so instead she taps him on the shoulder, says "Hi" a little too loudly, and offers him the notebook and the pen so he can reply]

[Kelson practically jumps out of his skin, having not been paying attention, and used to the subtle clues he gets from his now nonexistent magic. The Camber medal in his hands, he let's it drop, the chain still around his neck, and the medallion falls, bouncing against his chest.

He looks at her funny for a moment, and then takes the notepad and pen, realizing she must have lost something too. Obviously. He writes 'hi' back, in rather nice script. Kelson has excellent handwriting, although he's finding using the pen is a little weird.]

'I suppose I don't have to ask what you lost.' [Kelson writes, his letters well formed and ending in small flourishes.]

[she blinks in surprise as he reacts like he's so startled. surely she had made some noise in her approach, even if she can't hear it?

she just stares at him frankly. she's not afraid since she knows that this is more stupid god tricks and it won't last forever, but she is mildly annoyed. she hadn't realized how much she depended on her sense of hearing until she lost it.

she reads over his shoulder and when she gets to the part about what she lost, she covers her ears with her hands and shakes her head no.

she then points to him, asking what he lost]

[Kelson unfortunately, hasn't been here long enough to know the gods play games. Even if he did, he lost something too precious to hope it would just come back. Not that hearing or vision would be any better. It was a cruel trick. Unfortunately, Kelson was more sad than currently fearful, thinking of everything he wanted to accomplish back home, and might not without his magic.

[He smiles sadly up at her, wishing he could help but unfortunately all he could do was continue writing to her so she had a way to communicate.]

'My magic.'

[while Laura's been here long enough to have the gods mess with her mind on many occasions. she's mostly gotten used to it. it's just a pain in the ass in the meantime. she reads his response, tries for an encouraging smile, and replies a little too loudly]

That's gotta be rough.

[Kelson smiles as she tries to speak and mistakenly overcompensates for volume, and in her sympathy. Meanwhile, he's a little concerned looking up at her, that she's relatively resigned to her own predicament.]

'It is.' He writes. ' I didn't realize how much I relied on it. Are you alright?'

[she's been through too many things inflicted by the gods. if she got upset every time, she'd spent a good part of her life upset. and she has no time for that.

she reads what he wrote and offers a sympathetic smile]

It won't last forever. The gods will have their fun with us, then things will go back to normal. And I'm fine. Mostly. For some reason, it's hard to get people to understand that I can't hear.

[Kelson read, smiling at her, and started his own reply.]

It will come back? You're certain?

[Kelson breathed a sigh of relief, audible if only she could hear, and his shoulders relaxed.]

Are you certain this is for fun? There isn't some sort of plan? From the little I've seen of these beings, they didn't strike me as particularly haphazard.

[she smiles back and reads his response]

I know it will.

[she could see him going through the motions of a sigh]

I'm sure. Fear probably needs a lot of energy if he's gonna move us to a new spot, so he's trying to mess with our minds. Does losing your magic scare you?

[she's a little too loud with everything she's saying]

[Kelson made hushing noises as she spoke too loudly, both for his ears and the subject. ]

Yes, it did. It does.

If we're being moved, which I presume is for the safety of everyone here, don't you think you should try to be scared then? I dislike what these beings stand for and how they do what they do but if others will be in jeopardy if Fear does not get enough energy, that's on all of us.

[she presses her lips together, then mouths "sorry" at him. she tries to lower her voice into a whisper]

That's got to be tough.

I guess I can try? It's just, I know that all of this [she gestures around] is temporary. It's hard for me to be scared like that. Besides, I know what it's like to be really frightened. This doesn't measure up.

[Kelson smiles, he knows it's not her fault, it's as much her lack of hearing as it is his own sensitivity.]

So you've been here quite a long time. And in all that time, all these games these beings have played have been temporary, a means to boost power. What happens when they aren't temporary? Just because 99% of the time you expect one thing to happen, there's always that one chance.

I'm not saying this is it. I'm just saying....be prepared.

[she smiles back and whispers again]

Over six months. I kinda figure that I'll be here longer than I was ever home. I'll deal with much more than this, but I'll survive. I almost always do. And I expect it to not last because the gods know that if they ever do make anything permanent, we'll revolt. They can be killed. It's just a matter of figuring out how.

I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

There are worse things than a revolt, Laura. All they need to do is kill us and start over.

[He hated to have to voice that but he knew from experience and his own history books that broad action could easily be taken. They needed very little excuse.]

Everyone can be killed. The real question is can they kill us before they themselves are killed? I don't think that's a risk worth taking at the moment. Not without more information.

Keep that in mind?

Do you seriously think they'd do that?

[Laura doesn't have a lot of experience with the gods. she knows people who are close to one god or another, but she's never bothered]

I'm guessing they can. Sorrow lasted a long time before the Null were able to kill him.

I'll try.

[she sighs and leans back on her hands, tilting her face towards the suns]

Aren't we cheerful?

I cannot say I know them well enough to answer that. I think we should be prepared for the possibility however. Others have done so for less.

[Kelson himself threatened to kill 10 rebel Mearans for every Haldane soldier which was killed. Wencit of Torenth had murdered 200 of Kelson's men, threatening to kill 200 more every two hours unless his demands were met. People did these things. These 'gods' were no different.]

Yes, I do believe that's the entire point.

Great. Now I have that to be paranoid about. Thanks.

[Laura let herself be murdered rather than live possessed by a demon. she does know something about hard choices]

Bumming me out was the point?

Making sure you were prepared was the point.

[He wasn't sure what 'bumming out' was, but he clarified anyway.]

I know the gods only care about us as long as we're useful to them. Once that's done? [she draws a finger across her throat to mime slitting it]

Quite.

[Kelson tried not to equate themselves to livestock. What happened after they stopped producing?]

But they've got more than one use for us. They can't fight off the Null all by themselves. So we're not just food, we're their soldiers too.

[and Laura has been practicing with her bow and arrows in secret ever since the demon attacked]

Perhaps they need to be reminded of that then.

[Kelson's voice took on a darker, more serious tone. He really needed to talk with these beings. Some things were unacceptable. And at the very least they needed to understand this haphazard method of rule was detrimental to themselves as well as their hostages.]

It probably wouldn't hurt. I'd go to Hope if I were you. He's the one the Null were really gunning for.

[she'd wish him luck (and be of the opinion that he's going to need it). she's never really tried interacting with the gods before, but she assumes that they don't care what their hostages think]

Why Hope? Why were they after him? I had been considering Sorrow. He seems knowledgeable.

[And honestly Kelson had no interactions with any of the others, but Hope and Fear had been on the top of his list.]

Hope's the one who can bring us--and the other gods--back to life. Kill him, and the rest of us are easy pickings.

[they're good ones to have on the list. they were the two who were apparently there when the first people came to Hadriel]

Event Log: Senses Fail

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