Event Log: Assassin

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone!
What: The Assassin event
Where: Throughout the city
When: April 15th-23rd
Warnings: Inevitable character death, potential horror and gore and unpleasantness. Please remember to tag for warnings in the header if it things get too bad!

The morning of April 15th in Hadriel is cheerful, with artificial light streaming through your window. Your blankets are warm, jabberjays are shrieking, and you're probably going to experience a murder attempt today.

Maybe it'll be from a stranger, maybe it'll be from a friend, but the bottom line is that everybody is after somebody and nobody is safe (...okay, twelve people are safe, but that's beside the point). Time will only tell when you'll be overcome by that murderous rage and try to kill someone else. The best thing you can probably do at this point is stay calm, keep your head high, and try not to die for the next eight days.

Helpfully, Rage will have restocked her armory for the event, for those of you have yet to arm themselves. Additionally, for a limited time only, the armory will be stocked with bear traps, tripwire (in both 'general wire' and 'barbed wire' flavor), and voice recorders. Use all of them, use none of them, just get on out there and kill each other!

Oh, and one last thing...

► This log covers April 15th-23rd.
► 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!
► Did your assassin catch up to you? Please remember to hit up our death post!

Comments

[barbarus]

[ Damen finds himself smiling at her. He's not expecting to be complimented, but it's one he takes with a nod. ]

As do you.

How old are you, girl?

[ She's not out of her teens, he knows that much. That doesn't bother Damen, though. He was holding a sword when he was younger than that. If anything, he's pleased to see that someone so young has the means to defend herself here. ]

[whichend]

[ Arya doesn't answer Damen right away. Judging by that smile, he doesn't seem to judge her too much for her size, and his question isn't particularly accusatory -- but admitting her real age feels like a weakness.

But then again, if she can go public with a name that's almost hers, she can admit to this. ]

Two-and-ten.

[ Arya smiles, a little mischievously. ]

But it would be a large mistake indeed, to underestimate be because of that.

[barbarus]

[ Damen smiles, too, and in approval. She's small for that age, he thinks, but she doesn't lack for fierceness. Her dark hair and eyes could almost be Akielon. He's not sure whether it's that, or her smile itself, which prompts him, but he rolls his shoulders and nods. ]

I was training hard at your age, keen for battle and ready to show my worth. You look like you can handle yourself.

I'm Damianos, of Akielos, if you know it. Who are you?

[whichend]

[ Arya stands up a little straighter at Damen's compliment. It's a different sort of praise than commending her for her harshness, her ability to kill at such a young age. This feels better, more honorable. Something Lord Stark would have liked. ]

I can.

[ She says, firmly. A little of that confidence fades at Damen's question, but Arya keeps her expression still, guarded. ]

I am called Arya, formerly of a place called Westeros.

[ She's not quite ready to say Winterfell again. Winterfell belongs to someone else. ]

[barbarus]

Westeros.

[ He clearly doesn't know it, and the name sits strangely on Damen's tongue. It's another new land, possibly another new world. Yet Arya doesn't seem so very far removed from his own. She holds his sword as well as any Vaskian horsewoman. She wouldn't be out of place where he is from.

Perhaps their worlds are similar. ]

It's not a land I know, but if it makes girls like you, it's one I should.

[ Then he smiles, and waves at the sword. ]

Put it down, unless you want to fight me. I would rather speak. Why do you say 'formerly'?

[whichend]

[ Arya doesn't smile back. If anything, she looks a little unsettled. ]

No. No, you do not want to know it.

[ Damen doesn't want to know it because it makes girls like her. Arya can't bear the thought of anyone going back there: not her, and not even Damen.

Arya doesn't even protest the order, just slides the sword slowly back in its scabbard. ]

Because I am not from there anymore, nor do I live there. [ A beat. ] And I have no intention of going back.

[ That's not strictly true -- Arya knows she has to go back. She has unfinished business. But that doesn't mean she wants to. ]

[barbarus]

[ Damen slides his own sword away. He comes closer to Arya, though carefully, keeping his movements slow, and - hopefully - unthreatening.

She's the first person he's encountered who hasn't wanted to go home. What does that mean for her, he wonders? Is it a wish that could be granted here?

And who would realistically choose this glorified prison over their home? How bad would home have to be to choose living in a cave full of monsters instead? ]

I thought the same, once, about a place where I was held. I would never want to go back.

Now I think I may, if things change enough. Would you truly want to stay here? It's a big prison, I know, but it's still a cage.

[whichend]

[ This place might be a prison, but Arya believes it has the potential not to be. She doesn't want to go home, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want to leave the cave. But people are kinder here than they are in Westeros, and for all its gods and monsters, Arya feels safer here than she has in a long time.

Arya doesn't move towards Damen, but she doesn't move away, either. It's a good sign.

Held is an interesting choice of words. Arya wonders if this man has been imprisoned before. ]

Is there something you wish to go back for?

[ Arya thinks about her list. About justice, about vengeance. She wasn't sure what she wanted then, and she's less sure now. ]

I wish to stay with the people I have met here. A safer cage is better than the freedom that kills.

[ Especially if Arya isn't really free, not where it counts. ]

[barbarus]

[ For Damen, it's not just a matter of want. It's a matter of necessity. He cannot for a moment accept that he won't go home. That's something that's held true for him throughout his captivity in Vere, and it has not changed now he's here. If anything, it's only gotten stronger. ]

For my people.

[ He looks at her, measuring her. Honesty comes naturally, though. For Damen, it always has, and he sees no need to hide his identity here. The enemies who care about it are, very unfortunately, elsewhere. ]

For my Kingdom, which I must reclaim, and for an alliance which I made before I came. For all of these things, I must go back.

Safety doesn't matter to me. [ Though, he pauses then, and gives her an appraising look. There's a touch of a smile on his face, interested and maybe a little pleased. ]

What is in your world, that you call this realm safer?

[whichend]

You're noble.

[ Arya says, sadly, like a sense of honor and duty is a curse rather than an honorable trait. This man reminds Arya a little of Eddard Stark. This one, too, has the sensibilities of a northman -- but not the dress.

Arya gazes at him for a long while, trying to find words to answer his question. ]

Men.

[ Arya says, simply. That's the common denominator, anyway. After a moment, Arya elaborates. ]

The kind that hurt others.

[barbarus]

[ That clarification is enough. It makes Damen's eyes darken.

His life has been ruled by war. There are many times when he has been naive - times when he has failed to see the twisting machinations of men more devious than him, times when he has trusted the wrong person and been betrayed. But always, he has known that there are men that do not deserve to be called men, whose desires are so base that they deserve little but the sword.

He's seen it even among his own soldiers, and it disgusts him. ]

They are not men. If they would call themselves that, they should earn the right.

This is why you have learned to go armed. Do you fight alone, girl? Or are there others who stand with you?

[whichend]

[ Arya does not look away. If anything, her gaze becomes harder, more unapologetic, into Damen's darkened eyes. She's strong, and she wants Damen to know that. ]

No. They are men. That is what msn are, without their honor and chivalry and meaningless rules they made up for themselves, that they can break as they please.

[ Joffrey had spoken of the weak hearts of women, but really, it's not that women's hearts are weak. It's that they have them at all.

Some days, Arya wonders if the men took her heart in addition to her loved ones. But it doesn't really matter. She knows how the world works, now. ]

I fight alone. I fight for the lost.

[ The dead, the stolen. It's safer that way. Allies exist to leave people. ]

[barbarus]

[ Damen meets her gaze. ]

When my men betray their honour, they are no longer my men, and have no place in my army.

But the world is full of men like that. More than I ever knew. You are not wrong.

[ He wouldn't have agreed with that a year ago. In fact, only a few months ago, he would have thought differently, until he was betrayed by the people he should have been able to trust the most.

He's not as much of a cynic as Arya, but that is to his own detriment. There is a part of him that knows it. ]

Some day, you should show me how you use that blade. Do you train here?

[whichend]

[ Arya manages a melancholy quirk of the lips, almost a smile, at Damen's opinion of the honor of men. He sounds like Arya Stark's father, a man who lived and died what feels like a thousand years ago. She half expects Damen to smile and ruffle her hair. She's glad he doesn't. Arya might cry, otherwise, and that would be horribly embarrassing. ]

I do.

[ She says, proud that Damen is taking an interest. She stands up a little straighter. ]

I train everywhere -- in the dark, in the forest, sometimes in the streets. I would be honored to show you.

[barbarus]

[ Damen nods. Even in the short time he's been here, he's developed routines. Patrolling the city's streets and perimeter is one of them. Another - ]

I train by the trees. The little patch of them, by the water.

[ He points, showing her the path towards Hadriel's greenest area. ]

Every day, to begin the day. Often, to end it as well. If you would like to join me, the honour would be mine.