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

[bythewaves]

[ For a moment, the pleasant mask he works so hard to maintain cracks. For a moment, Maglor looks old. Unfanthomably old and tired, with grief as deep as the oceans. Just for the briefest of moments. ]

Sometimes. But truly it was said that we would weary of the world and envy Men.

[unphase]

[she's an ambassador's daughter, she's learned at her mother's side to notice things about people. so she sees the crack in Maglor's mask, but she doesn't feel okay asking about it]

...because Men can die?

[bythewaves]

Mm. [ He smiles a little wryly ]

I suppose it wouldn't seem such a nice thing to you. But Men are free, in a way that we are not.

[unphase]

[she flashes back to the moment in the clearing, Jo's arms around her, then pain]

...no. Not really.

[tentatively]

How're we freer? Is it just because--because we can die?

[bythewaves]

Not just die - but you leave. One of the names my people call you is Strangers, as you come and go out we know not where, while my folk must perforce linger, for we are tied to the world and its fate, watching as all around us slowly crumbles.

[unphase]

That sounds horrible. How do you. . . how do you stand that?

[bythewaves]

Because we must. Elves are made to endure, and so we do. But truly, truly, we envy you, Soujourners in the world.

[unphase]

...it always looks nicer on the other side, doesn't it? I've known beings who probably would've sold their souls for immortality, but you look at mortality and see it as a blessing.

[bythewaves]

Master Samwise of the Hobbits had a saying - 'the grass is always greener in someone else's field'. HE had the right of it, I think.

[unphase]

Yeah, that sounds about right. [a pause] But what's a Hobbit?

[bythewaves]

[ He blinks, and laughs, shaken from his melachonly ]

Ai! Forgive me, I keep forgetting most worlds do not seem to have hobbits. They are a small people, standing about half my height, hence the other name you will hear for them - "Halflings". But they prefer Hobbits. They are mortal, akin to Men, we think. A folk who prefer the quiet life - good food, good drink, and comfort.

[unphase]

So your world has three forms of sentient life on it? That's unusual. Most planets only have one.

[bythewaves]

Oh, much more than that!

[ He laughs ] There are the Valar, and their servants the Maiar, to begin with, the spirits of the wood and water and mountains. Then there are us, the Eruhini - Elves and Men, Dwarves and Hobbits. And there are the Onodrim, the Treeherders - Ents, in the Common Tongue. And then there are those warped and twisted by Morgoth long ago, the Orcs and Goblins, the Trolls and Dragons and Wights and things of the Dark.

[unphase]

[her head is spinning. no planet she's ever heard of has had so many different forms of life evolve (or come to be somehow) on it]

Isn't your planet crowded?

[bythewaves]

[ He chuckles softly ]

Why would it be? We are as we are meant to be, each in our place. There were never as many Elves as Men, Dwarves keep to their mountain halls these days and Hobbits prefer to be left in their homes in peace as well. Only the Dark things marr the Song.

[unphase]

It's just that I've never heard of so many different races on one planet. Other than Earth, and that's because of immigration and jobs.

[bythewaves]

[ He shrugs at her wryly ]

I would not know - this is how it has always been - it feels strange to think of worlds of only one people.

[unphase]

[she laughs dryly] You'd find my world very strange. Not just because it's in another dimension.

[bythewaves]

Strange is not bad. [ He smiles ] Just different. And I've never been to any other dimension barring this one - it might make a good adventure.

[unphase]

Might if it were anywhere but Bgztl. We're up to date with all of the latest technology, but society's been pretty stagnant for the last few hundred years.

[bythewaves]

[ He lifts a wry eyebrow at her ]

The other things about being essentially immortal is that we change but slowly - a hundred years is truly not that long, to me.

[unphase]

I guess it wouldn't be. But my family used to be royalty three hundred years ago and the way my mother acts, you'd think we still were'

[bythewaves]

[ He smiles a little wryly and thinks briefly about his own family, long dispossesed ]

Some folk like to cling to old ways, I suppose.

[unphase]

My mother would be one of them. She doesn't approve of anything I do.

[she sighs and looks resigned]

[bythewaves]

It can be hard, living up to parents who want more than we can give.

[ He says with weary knowledge ]