hadriel_logs | Intro Log: Please Remove Metal From Luggage

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Intro Log: Please Remove Metal From Luggage

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for August
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: August 10th-13th
Warnings: New folks, metal falling apart, fun stuff

As you wake up on the sand of the colosseum, gazing up at cloudy gray skies, you might wonder what you're doing here. Where are you? How did you get here? You'll figure it all out soon enough, so try to clamp down on that rising panic, or you just might end up in a dangerous situation.

Because, of course, you're not the only thing that arrived. The Door has also chosen to pull in some rust monsters. These monsters may look a bit like insects, but they're much larger, with a rather vicious bite. You can fight them, but be careful - anything metal that touches them instantly begins to corrode. Your sword, a bullet from your gun, even your robot friend. Might want to keep a little distance.

And that's not all. Scattered across the ground of the colosseum can be found a variety of unique and delightful musical instruments. If you're the musical sort, maybe you can figure out how to play one - or maybe you already know. Hopefully no rust monster has wandered too close to the one you want to try, or you might find that it's missing important metal bits.

Once you've found a way to express the song in your heart, feel free to leave whatever bit of safety you've found. You can explore the rest of the city! Find a house, a new monster, a project to help with, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers August 10th-13th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► All characters arrive with phones that have network communication and the newbie guide installed.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

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I suppose you could call them enemies.

[He remembers his ale at just the right time, taking a good swig of it.]

And it probably doesn't hurt to say so, here, so far from home. Where I come from, I come from a long line of... I suppose you'd call us sacrifices.

[He shrugs.]

There was a group of untrustworthy folk who kept my family, using our blood as a focal point to bring magic to a pair of enchanted swords for various occult acts. I stole the swords and ran. I imagine I'll be hard to find now, all the way in Hadriel.

[Edgar has lied most of his life. About who is, where does he come from and just what he is -- hiding in plain sight among the humans. So he likes to think he's learned to pick up the subtle signs of a lie when someone tells them. With humans it's always been simple, enough.

But with this man? He can't be certain. At first he looked at him with the usual suspicious lenses on, taking everything in with a grain of salt so to speak. What he hears sounds like straight from myths and legends, something that he wouldn't necessarily believe but the openness behind his words threw him off. Lot of non-human creatures in Hadriel didn't have any qualms when it came to revealing information like that.]

I suppose this is the real test of luck, then. Let us hope that they do not follow you here.

[Then his smile shifts into more sympathetic one.]

What about rest of your family?

[And y'know really, the world could use more people with that kind of outlook. Or the "pocket dimension" could. Either way.]

It's no biggie, really. I'm gonna stick around here a while and see if I can find anyone else. Anything else though, let's see... Oh, yeah! There's shops sitting around where you can grab food and clothes and stuff. You don't have to worry about paying, it's all free. If anyone hassles you about stealing or whatever, they're full of crap.

[He nods, biting his tongue thoughtfully.]

Well. My mother is the one who helped me do it. She had to stay behind, in the heat of the moment.

[He takes a deep breath.]

But she can take care of herself.

[It's easy to drum up the right emotions when he speaks. He's not thinking of some false mother he's never known. He's thinking of leaving behind Yasha, Jester, and Fjord, to be taken to the Iron Shepherds' hideout to be tortured and broken and prepared for a life of slavery.

He can't help them now. There's no going back, for him. Not unless some kind of miracle happens, but he sincerely doubts that's how things will shake out.

He just wanted to get his people back. Now he just has to hope the rest of them can handle it.]

That's fair, a lot of people like to do the same. Kate generally looks favourably on these people for their sensible decision making and judgement that they likely will need to come here eventually. Her expression shifts a touch - not quite a smile, but more relaxed than not, heading further into the clinic and waiting for him to follow.

"Staff're from all sorts of worlds. Skills range from basic first aid to power-based healing and psychology," she explains, leaning against the wall by the staircase as she does. "City doesn't have much technology. Limits what we have on offer, unfortunately."

Free food and clothing? That's surprisingly generous of our captors. And here I brought my full purse.

[Just Wait Until You Actually See It Molly.]

Alright then. Good luck with your heroism.

Shit, really? That's awesome. That's basically what we do, too. Uh, not the circus thing, the killing monsters thing.

[Of course, that kind of defeats the purpose of playing for answers, but whatever.]

What was the circus like?

Not from any of the planets I've been on.

[If they exist somewhere in the galaxy that Carolina is from, she hasn't come across them yet. Then again, it is a hit and miss as to whether they actually are something that can be found where she is from. It's not always so black and white.]

Only from eating them here. Been trapped in this place for, hm, half a year, I guess.

[Oh fun, free answers. Molly neglects to mention that about half their jobs have been criminal activity as well, meanwhile. Killing monsters sounds sufficiently romantic enough to distract from their other jobs, and it helps that Kyna apparently relates to it.

As for the circus...]

It was good. We looked out for one another. That all ended after a while, though. Creative differences.

[Meaning they lost their Designated Adult to the law thanks to fucking Kylre and whatever shambles left of the carnival were completely and obviously unsustainable without him and half of the rest of the family. Leaving with what remained of them would have been a self fulfilling prophecy.]

Thankfully, around the same time I met my current group, the Mighty Nein. Now we look out for one another as well. Badly, most of the time, if I'm being honest. None of them know how the hell to handle people. But they try.

[Even as he insults them, it's clearly out of love.]

[His face falls instantly.]

Half a year. That's... a pretty long time.

[And spells bad news for him. Enough so that he completely bypasses the mention of interplanetary travel. The longer time spent in one place, the more likely he is to outlive his welcome.

Meanwhile, it's not like he has anywhere else to go. Hoping to return home isn't on the table. Mmm, unfortunate.]

...So! You've traveled to other planets, then? That's impressive. Is that anything like visiting the varying "universes" all the people here come from, or are all your planets pretty much the same? I've always wondered.

[He's never wondered. It's never even come to mind. He had enough on his plate understanding Wildemount, let alone Exandria, let alone other planets entirely.]

Yeah, it's uh... it sure is free.

[Hope you like tacky flamingo shirts and canned peas, bro, because you're gonna be swimming in it.]

Thanks, man. I'll see you around. There's not really a ton of people around here, so chances of that are pretty good.

Still. I'm sorry to hear that.

[And he means it. To someone like him and his kind, isolated from the rest of the world and humans, the family meant everything. Without love, company and connection to someone eternity turns into a worst punishment and torture that there is.]

Was she the one who taught you how to use a sword then?

[RIP basic luxuries of living in the real world.]

Good thing we both stand out.

[He flashes a grin, and wanders off to go check out these shops full of free things and inevitably be incredibly disappointed.

Well, maybe not by the tacky flamingo shirts. He can make those work.]

Whatever Rey was expecting, an apology seems too much to ask for. What the young woman says, however, baffles her.

"Vehicles don't normally have a habit of going through me."

Quite the opposite, actually.

[Kyna snorts at that, head tilting.]

Don't know how to handle people how?

[Because that's something she's very familiar with.]

No, I learned that by necessity. I did a lot of traveling afterwards, and there are always nasties and bandits waiting to ambush a traveler.

[Really, the swordplay came to him naturally, with minimal teaching by Gustav. Likely a holdover from his old life, really. The learning curve was getting down the dual swords specifically, and scimitars at that.

He rests an arm casually on one of his sword hilts at his hip.]

I figured what better way to use the swords I'd stolen than by using them for myself. The scars that didn't come from my time with them, I gained from activating the swords to defend myself.

[Not like he can lie about that, if there are monsters around in Hadriel so often. He'll be seen doing it.]

[At least Rey has been around long enough to know things most modern folks do. She remembers when the country was still divided and called America, when there were states that hadn't been completely decimated. Sometimes knowing this makes things even more confusing.

[She absent-mindedly begins making the drink too the best she can remember. It's been a while since she's heard anyone talk about Long Island, let alone the drink itself. Pretty sure it has a different name now... What was it...?]

Not that hard of a trip, but it's a pain in the ass even with the boats. Just been staying in the room upstairs since the move, myself.

[Where Firo used to stay. It's unfortunate that he left, but at least she knows he has a life to return to.]

[Molly rolls his eyes, remembering them.]

It's like they've never had friends before. It's incredible, really. You can tell it's their first time spending any meaningful amount of time in a group dynamic. Some are better than others, but they're all very... stunted.

[When Jester, who grew up locked in her bedroom or whatever and has just recently left her home for the first time, is one of the better ones about this, then you know the situation is dire.]

[Peter hadn't spent too much time in the lab during his first month. There hadn't been much need for it, so most of his attention had been on trying to make himself comfortable in this bizarre new setting and trying to cope with all the bullshit that had happened back home. Apart from losing quite a bit of sleep stressing over shit he had no control over, he'd been somewhat successful in the coping department. Sort of. Not at all, really, but he's good at faking it.

Anyway, this last batch of new arrivals had brought some bigass rust fleas with them, and he'd been left with one useless, rusted out web shooter and like one remaining cartridge of web fluid. Annoying, but he'd been meaning to find an excuse to drop into the lab more anyway. Whereas the first couple times he'd visited the lab he'd mostly just been taking notes and trying to stay out of the way, this month he's staking out his own little corner of the lab and diving into some little personal projects.

Whether he's elbow deep digging through scrap metal and Null parts, mixing up some new batches of web fluid, or disassembling his web shooter so he can try to fix the damn thing, Peter's going to be hanging around the lab quite a bit more often over the next couple of weeks. As much as he likes his nerd shit, he also like chatting with people, so just interrupt the shit out of whatever he's doing. It's probably not that important anyway, right?

Also, expect huge, mystery spider webs just popping up every now and then, like that one web hammock that just appeared in the break room one day. Apparently the lab is now infested with giant, lazy nap spiders (look, he's gotta test this stuff somewhere, okay).]

[He glances around briefly, using both his eyes and his scanners to make sure no one's in hearing range before he answers.]

It was meant to be a calibration technique, to make certain my reflexes and coordination were functioning as intended.

[So basically it had come programmed into him.]

[in the orchard, there is a mildly bored looking eighteen year old girl, a copy of "A Tale of Two Cities" in one hand, a half-eaten hot pink fruit in the other. she likes going to the orchard for a little peace and quiet and also to gorge herself on as much fruit as she can eat at a time. for a scrawny little thing like her, she can pack away an impressive amount of food.

on her way out, she encounters Sanji, about to take a bite out of one of the blue ones. those aren't bad and they do kind of smell and taste like oranges. she leans up against a tree across from him and says]

Yeah, that one's not bad. I like these [she holds up the hot pink one in her hand] better, though. They taste like pomegranates, only you don't have to fuck with all the seeds.

[Laura's noticed this restaurant before, but no one's ever made use of it.

until now, at least.

now it sounds like a tornado has taken up residence inside of it. a very unhappy tornado. she chuckles to herself before she opens the door and follows the sound of the unhappy tornado.

it's taking all of her willpower not to laugh when she sees the mess Sanji has made of the kitchen. instead, she settles on]

Hey. Need a little help?

[Lup's a frequent patron of the speakeasy, especially on those earlier days in the month, where the liches in charge give them a little bit of a break as all of the newbies come crashing into the city. And this month is no exception.

She's out on her own for the evening, cruising for conversation, free drinks, and a few folks to drag to the dance floor. And unfortunately for Sanji, it looks like he's the first one to land in the elf's sights.

She flashes him a charming, toothy grin, a hand running up to give her shorter hair an artful ruffle, both of her long ears perked upwards in interest.]

Well, I was comin' over here to see if you wanted to dance, my dude, but if you'd rather we drink, I'm down for that too.

Right.

[Edgar would have liked to hear more about the escape. The 'untrustworthy folk', as he put it, didn't sound like ones who'd let their prisoners escape all that easily. He'd expect battle skills to be required.

But that can wait, he supposes. There's another question that's been pressing his mind:]

Sounds useful. But that only brings me to wonder: just what are you and what makes your blood so special? [And should Edgar be careful with it.]

Devilblooded -- the usual story from those that need a reason to fear an honest tiefling.

[He snickers a bit. An easy lie to tell in a town where he's apparently the first tiefling, one based in truth. People are quick to distrust a tiefling.]

It's said my particular bloodline is linked to an archdevil of the Nine Hells. I don't know if I believe that. The swords are what's enchanted, and I assume they'd take the blood of any tiefling, but I'd hate to test that theory.

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Intro Log: Please Remove Metal From Luggage

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:D!!!

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Peter Parker | OTA (any time between the 12th and the 20th hit me)

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the orchard

the kitchen

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