INTRO LOG: FACE OFF

[hadrielmods]

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for November. Don't get your face eaten!
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: November 10th-17th
Warnings: Monster-related violence, people lamps, general unpleasantness, mass confusion.

You wake up on the hard earth of the colosseum. By the state of things and the various aches and pains in your body, you've probably been passed out there for awhile. A few things should immediately become clear to you upon an initial assessment.

1. You're not alone
2. You're near other people who look to be in a similar state.
3. You're also near an assortment of human shaped lamps.
4. You're also near something that skitters off into the shadows of the colosseum.

Of all of these alarming things, the skittery object might be your largest concern. Be wary when turning corners or shutting out the lights: the Hunters work best when your vision is obscured, so their gelatinous form is even harder to spot. Their main goal will be to kill people of course, though they prefer to hide in corners and smaller rooms. Watch out when trying to work through the halls of the colosseum to find the outdoors- they're surprisingly quick, and they prefer to kill their prey by opening their face-flaps and wrapping their mouths around your head. Fun!

More information on Hunters can be found here!

Second largest concern? Maybe it's the people lamps. Maybe it's the actual people around you. Whatever it is, be sure to familiarize yourself with it quickly. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't, after all.

All done with the horrible monsters and awkward greetings? Try your hand at exploring the rest of the city! Find a house, find a new monster, or simply scavenge for supplies until your little heart is content. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers November 10th-17th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well!
► All characters now arrive with phones that have network communication.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

Comments

[divulsion]

[Wanda doesn't seem surprised by the response. Except for the blood, Natasha looks fine. It makes sense to Wanda that the other woman would be able to handle anything that comes at her. It doesn't even occur to Wanda that Natasha might have really needed her help, convinced instead that Wanda's own methods were likely just faster with the telekinesis.

Looking down to her own leg, the shirt tied around it, Wanda grimaces.]

I came across a man in one of the hallways, under attack. He was more concerned with yelling at me to get out than his own safety. I pushed him out of the way but it got hold of my leg in the process. [She pauses a beat, averting her eyes before looking back.] It's dead now.

[That's all that matters in the end, isn't it?]

Do you know where we are? What those things are?

[vdova]

Let me see it.

[ She'll answer the other question in a minute. She's too concerned with the status of Wanda's leg, especially in these caverns, and especially with those things running around. She kneels and doesn't bother waiting for Wanda's response; she just starts peeling away the 'bandage' as careful as she can, making note of how it's tied up so she can replicate it. ] Who was this man?

[divulsion]

[Wanda doesn't fight it, stands there for Natasha to check out her leg though it does make her feel a little like a child all over again. Something about that classic image of mothers checking the skinned knees of their children. Or perhaps more appropriately, older sisters doing the same. No, familial feelings have no place here for Wanda.]

A doctor, he claimed. He felt honest. [No reason to explain to Natasha what she means by him "feeling" honest rather than sounding it. Her powers are excellent in this regard.] Spoke like one. Acted like one. Treated the wound like one. It will need better care but it's fine for now--at least until we get somewhere safe with better supplies.

[If they can find better supplies at some point. There has to be something somewhere.]

[vdova]

[ Wanda's 'feelings' are always correct, and Natasha doesn't question it. If Wanda said the man was what he said he was, then he was. ] Hopefully we'll be able to find some. He's not wrong, you'll need it.

[ She ties the shirt up again, and stands back up, taking in their surroundings before moving her concentration to Wanda. ] I don't know where we are, or what that was, and that worries me. The fact we're both here is even more worrying. [ She assumes that the man who helped Wanda wasn't a native, else she'd have this information already. ] The're dragging civilians in, too, whoever they are. We need to be careful, and not just because of those monsters. Can you walk?

[divulsion]

[Wanda makes a face. More attention to her wound. She hopes to god that neither Natasha nor the doctor mean stitches. Stitches in a place like this? Without anesthetic? No thank you.]

I can walk. The pain is not as bad as you think.

[Her gait is awkward, but more from the fact that she's trying to keep that bandage in place--even though really it's tight enough that it's not going anywhere--than anything else.]

And if I can't later, I still have my powers. [She'll fly. Ish.] What do we do from here?

[If anyone knows how they ought to proceed, it's Natasha.]

[vdova]

[ No, no stitches. Natasha's not that ambitious, and besides, she's got no idea if there's an outside world outside of this cave. Wanda will have to deal with tape or glue, should it even come to that, if Natasha can find it. But a cursory examination of the wound doesn't make Natasha think she'll need to.

Natasha nods at Wanda's affirmation that she can walk and turns, starting down one of the long tunnels. She calls back her answer to Wanda's question over her shoulder. ] We find a way out.

[divulsion]

[A way out? Fine with her. Wanda follows behind Natasha, looking over her shoulder often to make sure that none of the creatures sneak up behind them. It's bad enough that it's so dark, but they practically blend in with the shadows and the last thing she wants is to have one of them eat her head when she's not paying attention.]

Did you see the lamps? The ones that looked like babies? People with lightbulb heads?

[Is it a clue? Does Natasha, in all of her spy experience remember some weird artist that specializes in making creepy lamps that may have some strange and distant political connection to some thing in the past that has resulted in him enacting a crazy kidnapping plot against the Avengers? That's how this shit happens isn't it?]

[vdova]

I did. [ They weren't particularly hard to miss, although Natasha's seen worse. She didn't really inspect to see whether or not they were made of actual people; getting out was more of a concern than admiring Hannibal Lecter's personal art gallery. ] Someone has a sick sense of humor.

[ There are a lot of types of people Natasha's met over the years who'd have made some kind of bizarro art and left it in the ruins of a coliseum. They are now, for the most part, also all dead. And none of the ones who are living have the capability to spirit Natasha away without her knowledge or memory of how it happened. It's incredibly unlikely that this is some kind of personal vendetta at that angle. ] If we were going to be made into lamps, it probably would have happened by now.

[divulsion]

[Wanda does not look reassured by this. Sick sense of taste is all? Sure. Those lamps are like little nightmares though. Body horror inspiration. She'd appreciate it as something she could torment someone with if she weren't one of the good guys who didn't do that sort of thing. Or at least it was unlikely there would ever be call for it.]

People don't actually do things like that, do they? It sounds like something out of a horror movie.

[Some terrible sensationalist American flick full of gore and psychological horror for the sake of it.]

[vdova]

[ Natasha stops and looks at her, just briefly. ] You of all people should know that reality is more terrifying than anything someone writing a movie could think of.

[divulsion]

[Wanda bristles slightly.] In many things, yes, but it all comes from the imagination in the end. One way or another.

[They come to an intersection in the hallways then, and Wanda pauses, looking in all directions. Eventually she points down the right side.] I came from this direction here.

[vdova]

[ Natasha lets it drop; she's made her point, if a bit harshly. When Wanda pauses, she does, too. ] What makes you so sure?

[divulsion]

[Wanda gestures with a lift of her chin.]

The lamps are memorable. I remember the one with the broken off foot in particular.

[Which leaves them two directions to go in.]

Down one way, and then the next if the first doesn't take us anywhere useful?

[vdova]

[ Natasha doesn't physically reveal her revulsion, but she feels it, gaze lingering a little too long at the lamps in particular Wanda's pointing out. She huffs a sigh out of her nose, and takes off her glove, wetting it in her mouth and then holding it up.

And she waits.

Natasha points to the tunnel careening off to their left, and puts her glove back on. ] That way is the exit. It's where the air is coming from.

[divulsion]

[Wanda waits patiently, watching Natasha a moment before her attention goes back to the hallways. Someone needs to be watching around them as Natasha makes her decision, someone needs to be keeping an eye out for--

--movement.

Wanda tenses, ears straining for sounds. She holds up her own hand to get Natasha's attention, points down the hallway that they had come from.]

Light? [As in, should she light up the hallway with her power, see if something is down there?]

[vdova]

[ Natasha looks over her shoulder, and freezes. She hears it, too, and shakes her head. ] No. Run.

[ And she grabs Wanda by the wrist and bolts down one of the corridors. Neither of them are in any shape to be fighting another of those creatures, it'd be suicide to do anything to gain their attention right now. ]

[divulsion]

[Run? Wanda stares after Natasha incredulously. She tore the first one apart! She bounced the other up and down the hallway like a tennis ball. Shouldn't they stay and fight?

But Natasha's grabbed her and so when she bolts, Wanda has no choice but to run with her. Perhaps it's the smartest choice. They don't know how many are down there, to get trapped now and so soon, to get caught up in fighting and not investigating wouldn't be wise.]

What's the plan then? [She asks through panted breath, running behind her, looking over her own shoulder to make sure they're not being followed.]

[vdova]

[ Wanda's also got a wound that's going to require stitches and Natasha knows neither of them will survive a fight against more than one of those things. She's not sure how many were down the tunnel, but it's always best to plan for more than one of anything. ]

Don't know yet. [ Natasha calls over her shoulder, looking back ahead of them just in time to skid to a halt when one of them pops out in front of them both, all hissing mandibles and barely visible. ] —На кой хер!?

[ The curse lets loose, Natasha lashing out with one leg to kick the thing in the middle. It has the decency to stumble back a few feet, but it isn't down for long, and they don't have time for this. Natasha unholsters her batons, each stick crackling with electricity, and looks over her shoulder at Wanda. ] Behind us?!

[divulsion]

[Wanda feels that spike of adrenaline as a Hunter pops up in front of them. Natasha kicks it, keeps it back with her batons, and Wanda lets her do her thing, not interfering on the off chance that she screws things up, throws them off.

Her attention shifts back to the way they came, and when she sees another Hunter there, Wanda doesn't bother to let it get close. She shoots a bolt of energy toward it to keep it back, and then uses her powers to throw one of those awful, creepy lamps at it. She clocks it in the head and then glances back to Natasha. A second one pops up next to Natasha's first, and Wanda turns back to her own, uses her powers to pull this one into two pieces, twenty feet away.]

I've got it--we can't stay here!

[vdova]

No, we can't. [ Natasha looks grim, stanced with her batons. She looks around for a brief moment when she can, the hunter in front of her stunned, but not for long. They have seconds to decide what to do -- and then Natasha spots it. There's a smaller tunnel off to the side, room enough for one person, and one person only.

She whips around, grabs Wanda by the back of her jacket. ] Sorry about this. I'll meet up with you later, find shelter, find help. Go.

[ And she shoves Wanda into the tunnel, turning on her heel and booking it back the way they came. The plan works, and the hunters all charge after Natasha. She doesn't look back. ]

[divulsion]

[Wanda doesn't want to leave. Are Natasha's batons better than Wanda's powers? Does her injury really make the difference? But Natasha knows what she's doing and this doesn't have the feel of some noble self-sacrifice, so she goes as ordered.

She'll find the exit and she'll find help and she'll send them back to Natasha if she can't get back herself.]