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

hell yea

[uncharisma]

[Normally, people who gasp the instant they see Molly are the type to clutch their valuables and falsely call the Crownsguard on the filthy devilblood mucking up their fine town. When it's a child, it's the typical image of a little human hiding behind their parents lest they be burnt in fires straight from the Hells, or whatever. So very rarely does he turn at the sound of such an astonished gasp (Complete with object dropping!) and see an excited face.

Maybe this is the first tiefling she's seen, but surely she'd heard of people like him before. People like to tell tall tales about creatures they don't understand, after all, and fiction exists at that.

Not so, apparently, with her question. He lowers the strange apple-like fruit with the texture and give of a kiwi in his hand and looks at her with solid, pupil-less red eyes, flashing her an extremely devilish grin, complete with sharp fanged teeth.]

They call it the Mask of Many Faces, something magical creatures like myself can use to appear like anything. My real face is something too horrifying to reveal.

[Yes, he's being a shit, but her first lesson in dealing with Molly is don't ask a leading question if you don't want the easiest lie handed to you. Somewhere, Fjord is probably pissed at Molly's impersonation of him.]

[thelastjoy]

[She knows, rationally, that masks don't shift and move so realistically. But she thought she knew other fundamental truths about the world, like that people couldn't fly or that robots would only hurt you if you paid them enough first. It's easy to let herself think that this too is just a shift in what she knew about the world.

Besides, the idea of an elaborate mask makes her feel like she's back home. It's like every fair the boys had dragged her to, people dressed to an obnoxious nines and over the top masks everywhere. The tattoos really help with the mental image. The man would be just a particularly peacock-ish runner showing out for the masses.

The attitude, too, holds true to the kind of people she's used to dealing with. As her hand falls away, Girl's smile grows and she perches a fist on the curve of her hip.]

Something scarier than this painted nightmare? Almost got me curious. But come on, that shit's shiny. If we were at home you'd have the crash kids howling'. [She makes it sound like a positive thing.] Haven't seen anyone go so all out here.

[uncharisma]

["Painted nightmare" is a new one. And so is a lot of that other stuff she said, actually. Molly isn't thin-skinned by any means; even though her words about his appearance are technically a bit insulting to tieflings in general, the fact she says it almost like a compliment means he's ready to accept it as that.

And even if it were an insult, Molly would still roll with it. Because that's carnival life for you.

He laughs a bit.]

If only it were so easy for me to impress the kids at home, I'd have had an act in the carnival. But no, this painted nightmare is actually my real face, sorry to say.

[He swishes his tail around to show off that, yes, it's very attached to him.]

[thelastjoy]

[For once she's actually trying to be kind, though it's an easy thing to mistake. They way she and her housemates talk to each other would probably raise more than a few eyebrows in polite society. Compliments were always crude in her world, and tone meant more than wording. Sometimes she forgets that other people don't share in her culture.

The excitement wavers in her expression- real takes a moment to process. Girl's seen enough that she knows she can't scream every time something different pops up or think weird means a connection to a higher power pulling at the strings of fate. But it still takes a moment for real to fit itself into her world view.

The smile comes back, a little smaller now. And a little wistfully disappointed.

A reminder of home would have been nice.]

Don't go apologizin' for how you look. 'sides with all the ink, you got the mark for somebody awful proud of their skin. Just. Huh. Ain't seen anyone with horns that were grown in, you know? Used to the fursuits and modded out androids.

[uncharisma]

[Now, carnival life for Molly mainly involved loving insults and underhanded compliments. He very rarely takes offense to anything, even direct abuse thrown at him, because he's completely used to it.

Though that's not to say that nothing gets under his skin. He has a few particular sore spots. But his appearance certainly isn't one of them, because the girl's observance is completely true. Molly is pretty proud of how he looks, is proud of himself as a person, and is proud of how he presents himself to the world.

So really, Molly quite likes being called a "painted nightmare". He'd like to be called that over candlelight sometime, honestly. Change things up a bit.

The only thing he's sorry about is to disappoint the kid.]

You're quite right about that. I think I look plenty striking. Not a lot of lavender tieflings out in the world.

[He indicates his pierced and outfitted horns, normally a quick indicator of a tiefling. That is, if "tiefling" held any meaning in Hadriel the way it does in Exandria.]

Good way to find out who's the real arsehole in the room is to look the way I do, at any rate. You're certainly not one of them.

[thelastjoy]

Tiefling what they call people like you? It mean something?

[She's used to odd terminology for people. Crash kids, burners, micro chips- her people subdivided their groups in so many possible ways that she could barely keep up. The names weren't always obvious. Sometimes it was best to just ask.]

Gettin' pretty doesn't make someone an ass. Pretty people can be asses but it ain't like a cause and effect kinda gig. [Party was certainly a pretty boy and only an asshole about it half the time. Honestly, if this guy turns out to be the fun kind of asshole, she has plans to make them meet. She knows Party would go gaga over the whole look. Maybe staring at some new ink would help move his mind off their own paint nightmare's sharp loss.] Plain folk can be just as ass-ish. And I could be, for all you know.

[uncharisma]

Now, I'm sure it means something, but mostly it just means I've got horns and a tail.

["Tiefling" probably originates in Zemnian or something, for all Molly knows. It's certainly not the same word in Infernal, the language of devils and their kin.]

And that's not quite what I meant, but you know what? I can be kind of an arsehole, too.

[He gives her a little wink at that.]

No, people like me aren't so well liked by all the other fine folk of the Empire. So me flaunting myself in the way I present? It's a good way to see if anyone looks at me like they can't stand seeing such a proud devilblood.

[Peacocking with a purpose: that's the Mollymauk guarantee.]

[thelastjoy]

Huh. Guess that's a powerful enough reason to have a new word.

[Honestly, with how she heard it, Girl's half hoping it had to do with fangs.]

First step's admittin' it. [Her face wrinkles into another small smile. She huffs deep in her throat like she's holding back a laugh.]

Empire? Don't know where that is. We're all kinda from different worlds and shit here, if they didn't warn you. [He had to be new. She would have seen him a mile off if he was a regular.] But I get what you mean, you know? Sometimes flauntin' your colors is the only way to get back at the fat cats tryin' to make you their prey. Paints an awful big target on your back, but makes it easy to see who's your kind too.

[At least that was the excuse the runners gave-that her own family gave- for the mismatched clothes and the reliance on hair dye.]

[uncharisma]

[It has a little to do with fangs, at least, insofar as tieflings also have them.

Mollymauk sighs, an overdramatic gesture. Or maybe not, considering their topic of conversation happens to be one of "different worlds and shit".]

So I've been told. If there were more people that've heard of the Dwendalian Empire around, I'm sure I'd be less of a surprising sight. Though that just means I get to be the first impression of tieflings for everybody.

I like the thought of setting the stage. That was never my job in the carnival, but I'm of the opinion that it's never too late for dreams.

[thelastjoy]

Carnival?

[That's another delightful word to latch onto. She's only heard of carnivals in passing, something other runners brought up when the more level headed units organized enough a community fair out in the far zones.]

You worked for a carnival, or fair whatever, all the time? That can be a job? [How much more interesting would that be instead of a life of war and rebellion?]

Maybe you'll find some folks who know 'bout your Empire. This place sometimes grabs whole handfuls of people from the world.