Event Log: The Beach Episode

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The event log for the transition to our new planet!
Where: The city, which has now been fragmented onto four separate islands.
When: May 27th-June 10th
Warnings: Surf's up! If by 'surf', you mean separation from your friends, weird sea creatures, and cold rainfall.

The sun and the sand and a drink in your hand- well, it all sounded pretty nice when you voted for the island planet, but ultimately what you're getting is a bit less glamorous.

The transition takes place instantaneously, with very little noteworthy shakeup, though those of you who are particularly in-tune with the supernatural may feel a bit dizzied or nauseated by the sudden movement. And that's exactly what it is: for those of you who are outside, the change is fairly noticeable, as in the span of a single blink, what used to be miles of desert is now rocky ocean. The city is simply in one place one moment, and then somewhere entirely new a second later.

And that somewhere new is exciting! The islands have plenty of landscape to explore and weather conditions to adjust to, fish to catch, and- wait, how do you get to the other islands? What if your friends or your home or the bar is on these other islands? Enjoy having to figure out who is where and how you're going to get by with only a small fraction of the city to work off of- hopefully those boats will come sooner rather than later...

► This log covers May 27th-June 10th.
► 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 drown or get eaten by an alien shark, let us know here.

Comments

[lifetothefullest]

He's glad she seems to relax a bit, and doesn't think much of her question; it's not really secret or anything, and it's only fair to answer since he's been asking her some things.

"I do work at the clinic on occasion, but I'm not a medical doctor." He can do enough first aid to be useful and has a new healing spell, but dealing with physical injuries is definitely not his area of expertise and that's part of why he took a step back from the clinic in general. "I'm a psychologist."

[abyssalarcana]

That's not a word that the system the gods have put in place seems able to translate for her, at least not in a way she finds satisfying. But that's fine, new words are interesting and this place continues to provide them.

"Psychologist," she repeats, sounding it out. "What does that mean?"

[lifetothefullest]

The question is one he hears often, and he vastly prefers to it some of the other responses his profession gets, so he definitely doesn't mind explaining. "A psychologist studies how people think, and how the mind works. I'm specifically a clinical psychologist, so I work in helping people resolve mental or emotional issues; basically, where a medical doctor would treat physical injuries or illnesses, a clinical psychologist treats mental ones."

[abyssalarcana]

Despite his fairly thorough explanation, Caedra is left puzzled. Mental illness? Can a mind be sick? She genuinely has no context for this sort of thing, especially if his world isn't magical - because she certainly is familiar with mind-altering spells such as Geas or Feeblemind, and presumably a strong enough individual could train to remove those sorts of curses but that doesn't fit with what he seems to be suggesting.

"I don't think I understand," she admits. "People think differently all the time, right? How can you possibly claim to know how someone should think?"

[lifetothefullest]

It's something that's always interesting to him; something like magic which is completely new for Lance, but his profession--which, of course, he considers pretty mundane--is just as unusual to them as magic is for him.

"You're right; people do think differently, and have different experiences, and I definitely don't claim to know how or what someone is thinking or should thing. But there are some patterns and generalities, and many mental health issues have tested and effective treatments because of those general similarities."

He's quiet a moment, trying to think of a simple example. "Take a phobia, for example. A true phobia results in extreme fear when faced with whatever the subject of the phobia is, because the brain is associating it with an immediate and very real danger even if the object is actually completely harmless. Understanding that mechanism allows for developing a treatment plan, such as exposure therapy, where the individual confronts their phobia in a very controlled environment. Over time, the link between the object and danger diminishes due to multiple safe interactions with it, and so the individual often has a much less serious reaction when encountering their phobia in everyday life."

Sorry for all that, Caedra; he gets a little talkative about his field.

[abyssalarcana]

Yep, sorry in return, Lance - she starts to zone out halfway through his description. It's a whole lot of words about something she has no real interest in. Fear is a tool she uses to intimidate her victims - if they're afraid of unreasonable things otherwise, she doesn't particularly care. Mortals are already usually afraid of a lot of things they most definitely should worry about.

"Sounds like a lot of work for something that isn't very important," she scoffs. "Your people must lead easy lives if that's the sort of thing they worry about. Are you from that place - something States?" Everyone from there that she's met so far is tedious at best.

[lifetothefullest]

Okay, well, that's more the response he's used to. Oh well.

"It was a basic example." Lance offers in return, not interested in trying to actually argue with her, but he has to say something. "And yes, the United States, although that's definitely not the only place where psychology is a field."

[abyssalarcana]

"No, but it's so far the most boring of all the places I've heard about," she retorts. "And yet somehow there are so many of you here. What do you make of this city and its people, being from a place like that?"

[lifetothefullest]

"Canada's more boring."

But it's more a joke than anything else; Lance went to school in Toronto, and as much as he enjoyed it he definitely finds the US to be less boring.

As for the question, "It was... Definitely an adjustment at first, but there's something to be said for experiencing somewhere completely new, and in which things that are impossible at home are not just possible but normal."

He glances over at the ocean, then back at her again. "What about you? Is this place even noteworthy compared to where you're from?"

[abyssalarcana]

"No. It isn't," she replies. "It's empty, or at least it feels that way. The last place seemed barren but for the city, though I didn't get much time to explore. This one - well, we'll see, but with all this ocean I don't have much hope. It's hardly enough people to call it a city. It's a prison colony."

Controlled by prison guards who dare to call themselves gods, and full of people apathetic to their own shackles. She longs to escape to deeper water, away from shore, to see if Rey's suggestions hold true. Perhaps distance is the key to strengthening this world's connection to the chaos of the Abyss. Distance, and a far larger sacrifice than last time.

[lifetothefullest]

That's a more interesting answer in multiple regards, and he nods in response; he understands the sentiment at least, and she's not wrong about it being barren.

"I think it was part of the Null's thing to wipe out any beings the gods could use to gain energy, so whatever planets they keep bringing us to really are empty except for us." And things like fish, but fish are... Not exactly noteworthy.

[abyssalarcana]

"I see. I think I had heard something along those lines. Although it's strange, isn't it - some of these beings, the ones who call themselves gods, managed to survive, but as far as we've seen, not one of their hosts did. Has it ever been said which there were more of?"

This is a better topic to be on, she decides, and she does seem to relax a little as she focuses on her line of questioning. It sounds like this - oh, what was the word? Well, doctor, in any case, has been paying some attention to the information gained before her arrival, and she's eager for anything that might provide some new insight.

I'm so sorry for how late this is omg; feel free to drop it!

[lifetothefullest]

"I'm not sure, actually. I presume more hosts than gods, though, since they need so many of us." Even if the original hosts might've been more efficient at creating emotion or something, it still seems like there would've needed to be more of them.

It's a good question, though, and one he'll have to keep in mind. "But you're correct; as far as we know, none of the previous hosts survived."

psh it's not even 2 weeks! you're golden

[abyssalarcana]

"Then somehow the Null must have been extremely efficient when it came to killing them all off. And, presumably, that it was easier to do that than to kill the gods directly. So why don't they attack more often? Are the Null limited in number, themselves?"

The impression she had gotten was that they were a fairly large collective. Surely, slaughtering everyone in this city ought to be a simple task based on sheer numbers alone. They would win in a war of attrition, wouldn't they?