Intro Log: Please Remove Metal From Luggage

[hadrielmods]

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!

Comments

[evocation]

Yeah, it sucks. Most people here aren't dicks about it, though. They'll just ask a lot of dumb questions.

[She doesn't wait for an invitation to sit, just pulls out a chair and plops down.]

How do you play?

[uncharisma]

Well, I'm capable of giving a lot of dumb answers.

[He gives her a winning, toothy fanged smile as soon as she makes the move to sit. He likes her already.]

We bet and we draw three cards each. Make sure to keep yours hidden from me, and keep your eyes from wandering. You can discard one card maximum to try for a better hand, and at the same time we decide if we want to ante up. Then we reveal our hands.

Simple game, simple rules. But without coin to bet, I thought we could make it more interesting.

[evocation]

[Kyna grins back, head tilting.]

I'm gonna test you on those dumb answers. What sort of bets were you thinking?

[uncharisma]

Well, I don't know anyone here so far. I thought we could bet questions. Interesting ones, about each other. A game about getting to know one another.

[He is absolutely not planning on playing fair. Willingly betting the truth when you're a liar through and through would be completely foolish. But no one is around to call Molly on his bullshit, so a bullshitter he will continue to be.]

[evocation]

[Luckily for Molly—or maybe unluckily—Kyna has a distinct lack of shame, so she just shrugs. She was expecting something worse.]

Okay, deal. Do I have to win a hand to get your name?

[uncharisma]

[To him, this is worse. They could be playing for their lives, but that's really not Molly's style. Besides, he'll take any opportunity to tell tall tales.]

I'll give you that one for free. Mollymauk Tealeaf. My friends call me Molly.

But we could still start small with our bets. Something simple to match our simple game: "What do you do for a living?"

[He's not used to a deck that goes up past 6 for this game, but it should still work.]

Oh, and I removed all the lettered cards, because those don't exist in the playing decks back home and I had no idea what to do with them.

[Especially when you mod the deck like that.]

[evocation]

Uh, okay. I'm Kyna Midha.

[And Kyna is best friends with a con artist. She knows that screwing around with a deck and playing a game the other person knows is a first class ticket to rip off city, but whatever.]

How am I supposed to know what hands are good ones if the deck isn't the same as the one I'm used to?

[uncharisma]

I could ask you the same question, really. I don't know what... [He glances down at the cards he set aside.] "J", "Q", "K", and "A" mean.

[Really, this isn't even part of the con, he figured just using numbers would be easier than these weirdo rebel letter cards.]

2 to 10 is straightforward. 10 can be 10 or 1.

[He bites his tongue a bit, thinking.]

If you want, I can explain which hands win, too, or we could scrap the whole thing and just use my fortune telling cards to go for the high draw. They're all numbered normally.

[evocation]

Um... Whatever you think would be easier. I could show you one of my card games later if you want, and explain the deck to you.

[She's easy to please, although the chances of her teaching him something stupid are high, considering she sucks at poker.]

You're leading this circus, right?

[uncharisma]

--Oh. Yes. I am.

[This is stupid. He was caught off guard by the circus joke, too, which really wasn't expected and certainly isn't a secret but he needs to keep his ammo if they're going to be playing this.]

Alright, the best hand you can get is three of a kind. Then a high straight, then a low straight. Then all evens, then all odds, then two of a kind, then highest card.

[He draws three cards from the deck and I roll 3d10 and then places the deck neatly before her to draw from. Thank the gods for his poker face, also, as he checks his hand.]

[evocation]

[Molly can thank the gods for Kyna's utter lack of poker face, too, because as soon as she gets her hand, her mouth twists. Somewhere Tucker is having an aneurysm. She hesitates, then slides one card across the table, face down.]

Give me another one?

[Card games are hard.]

[uncharisma]

[He can't help, meanwhile, but to smirk a bit at Kyna's open reaction to her cards. It reminds him of Jester teaching Nott this game, and pretending to be bluffing when she was caught muttering "That's good," upon viewing her hand.]

Certainly. I'll take one as well.

[He hands her another card, then allows himself one as well. And ends up with the same hand. That's obnoxious.

So he reveals his hand. Two 10's and a 9: the highest two of a kind.]

I did alright.

somehow the dice were nice to me which feels like a trick

[evocation]

[Kyna shows him her hand, too. Somehow, magically, she's gotten all evens—a two, a four and a six.]

That's better than yours, right?

oh shit

[uncharisma]

[A grin splits across his face the instant he sees her hand.]

So it is! Not bad for your first game.

[And since it was pretty low stakes, with a question he doesn't mind answering, he'll tell the truth for once.]

"What do you do for a living," then. Well, I do a lot of traveling. With a group, of course. We complete jobs for coin; most often killing monsters that are terrorizing the local populace and all. We do alright.

As a freebie, I don't mind telling you I used to be part of the circus, before that. The Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities.

[Which might explain his extremely flashy aesthetic.]

[evocation]

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?

[uncharisma]

[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.]

[evocation]

[Kyna snorts at that, head tilting.]

Don't know how to handle people how?

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

[uncharisma]

[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.]

[evocation]

[She laughs, toying with the cards in her hands.]

Are you calling your friends a bunch of nerds?

[uncharisma]

I don't think I was, but now? Now I definitely am. Nerds, the lot of them.

[He adds the cards back into the deck, shuffling them in.]

Want to start the bet this time?

[evocation]

[Kyna snorts at that response, watching him shuffle the cards.]

Uh... You mean like, what we're going to tell each other next?

[For the most part, Kyna is an open book, so this might be a bit unfair.]

[uncharisma]

[It is absolutely unfair, because if they get into any dangerous territory, Molly's just going to lie through his teeth. He has no one to call him on it, here.]

Of course, unless you can think of anything else to bet. I'm perfectly willing to bend the rules, just this once. Or go right along with them. Either way's fine with me.