hadriel_logs | Event Log: The Beach Episode

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Event Log: The Beach Episode

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.

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Oh. That king she talked to for not very long at all at the last party. And she still couldn't decide what she thought of him. Somehow he'd seemed both restrained and crazy all at the same time. Maybe that came with being in charge and not that much older than her. Maybe he'd just been raised spoiled being nobility and all and that really wasn't his fault. At least he'd seemed willing to listen and learn a little bit, even if he was far too determined to make the people who were actually in charge really angry.

Better than some people she could name.

She perched on the edge of one of the cliffs, sitting with her legs dangling over the side and looking out at the water. It made her miss Percy. Her jeans were already soaking wet and she didn't even care. This time her hair is pulled back into a ponytail since it isn't a party anymore. At least she remembered to brush it this morning.

"Yeah, I guess. It kind of reminds me of someone." She had to bite back a sigh, and she probably should have stood up or something to be polite, but she at least looked up at him.

"Trying to keep yourself occupied, Your Majesty?"

The first thing that passed through Kelson's mind when he saw her was that at least her skin was covered this time. He was slowly getting used to seeing the miss match of different cultures, although perhaps varying the individuals he talked too would help with that. He still didn't understand the need for some people to show so much skin, but as he had been reminded multiple times, he was no longer in Gwynedd. Maybe this experience would make him a better king.

Not commenting on her choice of dress, instead he sat down beside her, careful to keep his legs dry, however.

" Someone back home?" The new atmosphere didn't remind him of anyone in particular but her words brought him back and he tried to keep his own sadness out of his voice.

"You look cold, my lady." He was 95% sure she was not actually a lady, but he didn't want to be rude.

"Yeah. He was here for a while, but he left." She was still mad about that. As if the first time wasn't enough. The cost of being popular. Or infamous. Whichever. "He'd have really liked the water. He could have taken some people between the islands, too, and we could really use that." Sure there was Nico, but she wasn't going to risk Will's wrath tiring him out.

"I'll live. Being cold is so far down the list of bad things that can happen to me, I'm not even concerned."

Maybe it was his imagination, or a cultural difference....but she seemed angry about him leaving. Going home he presumed. "Then perhaps enjoy the water for both of you. Forgive me if this is presumptive but you seem angry that he was able to escape, or be sent home."

Kelson didn't understand. He would give anything to see any number of people from his kingdom again, Morgan, Duncan. Rothana. God, Rothana. Or to see his father one more day, even just a day, for any of them. Maybe it was different for her. Maybe the pain was too much.

As for being cold, he wished he had another layer he could give her.

"It's just...not the first time he's been sent somewhere else and I can't get to him. I mean, I think I know where he is and I'd rather he stay safe there if he can but being alone is not my first choice anymore." Sigh. Why was she even saying that to him? Percy wasn't here and they'd all just have to learn to live without him. Maybe they'd even get boats eventually and they wouldn't need someone who could swim people back and forth.

"Sorry. I shouldn't dump all that on you."

Kelson thought he understood at least. He'd had to send men on quests, missions, off to war, and each one of them left someone important behind. Including him. He'd even been the one 'stuck' on occasion, being told he couldn't go and do what he wanted too, not yet. Waiting was hard, especially when you were separated from the people you cared about and the duty you wanted to do. Kelson was not particularly good at waiting.

"It's never easy. Especially when you are stuck somewhere and you can't act as you wanted too. I understand. I wish I didn't." Kelson shook his head. "No, despite everything I am happy I understand. It's a good thing to know."

He looked a little puzzled at her last sentence. Something there didn't parse correctly. "I don't understand. Do you feel faint?" He brought his hands up in case she needed assistance.

Edited 2018-05-29 00:18 (UTC)

"Sorry." She wasn't stupid, she knew other people felt the same way she did sometimes, but she also knew that she needed to be reminded of that from time to time. She tended to get lost in her own head. And she was bad at feelings anyway.

"Huh? No. I'm not even moving. Besides, this is easy. There isn't even any lava." She kind of wished there was, weirdly. At least she could have something to do, even if it was as mindless as the climbing wall. "I'm just sorry I, uh, said all of that. You probably don't want to deal with all of that."

Perhaps she needed a priest. If one ever came through the door that he actually trusted, he'd suggest he talk to her. There seemed to be a number of people here who might benefit from the right clergy. Or perhaps he was using them as a crutch again. Alfred was right, he needed to learn to commune with God without one of them. Waiting certainly wasn't doing anything.

Wasn't magic just another method of prayer? Another way of celebrating the divine? Kelson wished he had asked that to one of the few Deryni priests he knew when he had still the chance. Now he had to work it out for himself.

Which was the point, wasn't it?

"Lava." Kelson repeated the very unfamiliar word, struck out of his reverie and thought for the moment, still concerned she might pass out. "It's alright. Back in Gwynedd, listening and solving people's problems is my job. Although, as has been often pointed out, I am not in Gwynedd anymore. But that doesn't mean I can't listen."

She stared at him for a moment, grey eyes almost as stormy as the water beneath them. What was she even supposed to say to that? Somehow "sorry but I don't talk to strangers about feelings" seemed like it wouldn't go over well. And she was in a great position to get pushed off a cliff if she insulted someone too much. Not that she thought he was the type, but she hadn't lived this long without being a little paranoid.

"There really isn't a solution. I'm here and he's there. It's not the first time it's happened and we both survived. I'm not happy about it, but I can take care of myself and he can take care of himself. Besides, he has studying to do and I will never forgive him if he doesn't pass his exams."

A pause there, for a moment, as she seemed to realize she should probably try to be polite. He'd only offered to help, after all.

"Thanks, though."

That at least he understood. Exams. Everyone was nervous about being tested, no matter what it entailed. It was nature. Kelson smiled at that, and glanced at her, then back at the water.

"I'm sure he'll do his best." Kelson turned away, knowing that was a poor comfort and that there was little he could do to make it better. She was here and he was there. It was true. Even if they were both together, there was still only so much she could do. Sometimes, those we loved had to sink or swim on their own accord.

"Your welcome."

"I'm sure he will." He always did his best. She was just worried this time that his best wouldn't be good enough. But she was always worried about that. Comes with fearing for her life and the lives of all her friebds on a preety much daily basis. Eventually, "their best" wasn't going to be good enough and they'd slip, leave themselves open for just a second too long and then they'd be weaving another shroud.

She stared back out over the water for several long, somber moments before she spoke again, this time changing the subject before she had to delve too deeply into anything else she wasn't prepared to discuss.

"How long until they figure out we can't swim across this, you think? In absence of Connor and Travis I feel obligated to take bets."

Eventually, everyone's best wasn't good enough. That's what gets you killed, whether it's a battle or a disease. Best is relative. Someone will always be better, eventually. Kelson gave her a small smile as she looked at the water, and offered him a tidbit into her life.

"Who are Connor and Travis? Friends? And I think it will take them at least a few days. If they have not yet realized our need for ample fresh meat, vegetables and grain, traveling may take just as long. Someone might have to mention it to them."

If these beings could teleport, they probably did not realize that other people couldn't. He really needed to figure out how that guy did that, back home. He was there one minute and gone the next. If he could figure that out...he could get from island to island. At the very least.

"Yeah. From home. They're kind of the troublemakers, but everybody likes them." Came from their dad, of course. Luke had never been that way, but, well. Hermes was a lot of things so his children were too.

"I could do the math for the gambling, but they were always better at actually just doing it. They would probably have made a fortune by now. Or else started a water balloon fight. Or a prank war." It probably would have been a welcome distraction for all of a minute.

"Someone probably should. Hope might realize, but we'll need to start planning differently. The needs here are completely different than they are j a desert. Do we even still have a source of fresh water?"

Kelson smiled, thinking of the younger crowd of squires and pages back home, some of who no doubt were troublemakers, although not in the same class as the two Hermes boy, and who most likely were having such tendencies stomped out of them as unbecoming. Still, maybe not typical boyish tendencies but well enough known. He missed it.

"Prank war?" Another unfamiliar term. "Balloon?"

Kelson sighed. He had hoped that such resources like fresh water would still be available, but he hadn't checked yet. "I'm unsure. I have not seen any yet."

"Oh, uh, sorry. It's like playing jokes on people? Like someone puts a rubber snake in your bed, so you dump cold water on them in the shower, so they sabotage your project and it blows up in your face or something and it just keeps escalating." Giving their stuff to the naiads to hide, setting up traps in the woods for capture the flag, more explosions, you know. The usual.

"A balloon is like a rubber bag that you can fill with air or water and if you fill it with water and throw it at people it breaks on them and gets them wet. Which usually leads to retalition with more water balloons until everyone is soaked." Less deadly than usual Camp stuff, but still fun, sometimes.

"We'd better find out about that water fast. Drinking seawater is going to make people sick."

"What's rubber?" That kind of seemed key to the entire story she was telling here. There was lots of rubber in it, and ....honestly he wasn't sure what it was.

"So a practical joke that gets out of hand?" Did he get that right? That all seemed, really quite unseemly. "Do people really do that where you're from?" Doing something like that would measure out all sorts of punishments if they were caught. You were expected to act in a certain way. That most definitely did not qualify.

"Yes. Water is the priority. With any luck, each island will have it's own supply. Or it will rain."

Sigh. They couldn't even bring people in who had similar enough experience that they could talk to each other? Not that she hated teaching or anything, but really? There were a lot of words she took for granted. That a lot of people did.

"It's like...stretchy bouncy stuff you can make into a bunch of different things. It comes from a tree, but there are ways to make it without the tree too. And yeah, that's pretty much exactly it. They usually tend to win, though." Came with being children of Hermes.

"Hopefully. I don't think they'd let us just die, though. They need us as much as we need them."

Kelson was starting to realize that. Talking to people, particularly Annabeth and Laura, he had found words seemingly commonly used to be completely unfamiliar. Then again, Laura was a little more patient. Maybe that came of having to teach him what a toilet and sink was.

"Oh. That explains it quite well, thank you."

Kelson shook his head.

"They need bodies. They don't need us in particular. We're hostages. Others are just as good as we are."

"No, but they already have us so why waste the effort? It's less work to just keep us alive." Besides, they needed the emotional snacks, right? Some fresh water shouldn't be too hard. Hope did all the food already. Or most of it, anyway.

"As long as we're useful, they're not going to let us die from something as mundane as starvation or thirst. Not when they can get fear or anger or sorrow out of it." If nothing else, someone could make a deal for it if things got desperate.

"Possible. But it seems equally effortless to wait for the Door to just bring in new people.It depends on their priorities and how demanding they see us currently. There's always the possibility that new prisoners will be less. Or more. It's a gamble."

It depended on how currently hungry these beings were and their own individual priorities. As far as Kelson was concerned at least.

"I guess so, but I don't think it's a gamble they'll take. There's too much uncertainty. They already have us, they know how we'll react." So why risk new people who may or may not be what they need? It couldn't be that hard to give them some water.

"We'll be alright. Or as alright as this place gets."

"True. It's always a risk though, as we don't know how they think. I don't think it's the water, it's just a possibility."

Kelson shrugged and gazed off into the water. "I'm going to scout the island. See if I can find a source for water. If you scout the other half we can get done faster."

"Sure." It wasn't a bad idea at all and she stood up, ineffectually brushing at some of the dirt on her wet jeans. Oh well. It was just clothes.

"Call me if you find anything interesting." And off she went.

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Event Log: The Beach Episode

28th or whenever after lol

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