Event Log: Gifts from the Door

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone taking place in the event
What: Random stuff showing up all over Hadriel!
Where: Throughout the islands
When: Oct 5th-8th
Warnings: None

For once, something terrible isn't about to happen- unless you think that getting stuff is terrible, in which case it absolutely is! On the morning of October 5th, items will start appearing all over Hadriel from various other worlds. These items are generally small in size, but are absolutely not from Hadriel and not anything that the gods could have really created, given their limited knowledge about the customs and culture of whatever world you're from.

It's just as well really, because some of this stuff is alien to you as well. Different things from different worlds are all liable to show up and they don't always wind up matched to those whose worlds they're from.

So maybe you wake up with a candy bar on your pillow- or maybe you find some coins that look alien to you, or a necklace, or something else that you may be unfamiliar with. The only way to find out what it is is to ask, right?

► This log covers October 5th-8th.
► 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!
► If that candy bar was actually poisonous, please let us know here.

Comments

[circumitus]

To Rey, it's never been a matter of being okay. When has anyone here ever been the definition of 'okay'?

No, it's about this reckless behavior over something so meaningless (to her) that's why she's bothering at all. One doesn't just get that way overnight, but Rey hasn't been blind to Atem's downward spiral. Hell, she's been that way herself... and she hasn't forgotten the efforts he had made for her then.

"Really? So you're saying you always would have considered taking a stroll through one of the most dangerous parts of the city without telling anyone? That you've always wished for that sort of shit?"

[puzzlingly]

"Are you trying to make me say those things? Because that's so not what I said." He might be reckless, but in truth he doesn't go thinking of ways to put himself in danger at every moment, he just doesn't seem to care much once he's in that situation, especially not when it involves anyone but himself.

[circumitus]

"It's not about what you said. It's what you mean, and right now you're talking a whole lot of shit."

Maybe not bullshit by the means of 'bullshit', but the way he talks about death and dying hits a nerve and Rey isn't going to let it slide.

(Worse yet, he's sounding like her sometimes.)

[puzzlingly]

"Sometimes I do that, I guess..." He can admit that, and he does it with an empty smirk — when he does, his lower lip tears a little where Kaiba had hit him, still not having healed completely, but he simply licks the wound. He can also admit, without really saying it either, that she's right, if she wishes to take it that way. Just take it. Maybe that's why he never talks about these things, they are all full of shit and he knows it.

"Don't tell me you never lost something and didn't do a lot of stupid to get try getting it back."

She doesn't have to admit it, whilst he doesn't have to specify either.

[circumitus]

That much she can see. Everyone does it. Talks shit about themselves. Nick's done it, Rose has done it, Atem has done it... Rey sure as hell is no innocent on the matter, either, which is probably why it's so easy for her to catch those details and sense a lie.

"Yeah, but I don't make an active effort to bite off more than I can chew... anymore," she adds that last part with some disdain towards herself. "That's why I haven't died in--" Pause. Mental math time. "--eight years."

That's almost a whole decade of being alive! It's an accomplishment when you've lived the life (lives) she has, so shut up.

[puzzlingly]

Anymore.

When is it enough? When does one stop trying too hard? Sure as hell he hasn't come to that point yet, not even after everything. That certainly catches his attention, if the silence is any telling, but he doesn't ask, he supposes it's something everyone might figure out on their own. If they ever do. Clearly he never did, maybe this time around might be different.

"Is that a personal record?" He asks with a little irreverence, but also, truthfully curious about it.

[circumitus]

"Hell no," she snorts. "That's more of an average, really. Not dying past ten years would be... but Schmidt's record would be hard to beat."

Lucky for Rey, she is Schmidt, and Safronov, and Stone, and all of the other women that she had spent their brief lives as. They're all part of her.

While she doesn't mean to derail, sometimes it's better not to agitate someone further when they feel backed into a corner. Not if you want them to stay civil towards you, and Rey isn't looking to burn any bridges.

[puzzlingly]

It's clear that Atem is guiding the conversation away from him, it's something he always does but it might not be hard at all to notice by now, not for someone like Rey. Hardly feeling cornered, he knows by now that she will not let him go into the fog without a fight. One that in all truth, he doesn't wish to have. His reasons are completely selfish and all she wants to do is keep him safe.

It's fine, he can play that game too.

"Heh, just something else I beat you at." He stares at the fog one last time and at Rey before he simply starts walking away. If she wishes to follow or not, he will not complain.

[circumitus]

Well, it's a step in the right literal direction, seeing that Atem isn't about to go marching into the fog. She turns to follow, if only to give him a sharp, subdued rap against his shoulder.

"Sure, but if you try beating them at any of the shit they did, you'd lose a limb or several. Losing body parts suck. Would know that, too."

She knows he's purposefully attempting to steer the conversation, trying to make light. For now, she'll play while he isn't as guarded as before.

[puzzlingly]

"Yeah, yeah, you had it bad, I got it. Losing part of your body, or you know, your whole body and memories and stuff. Been there, done that."

She wants to compete, fine, bring it on. That's no light conversation at all, but he's not backing down.

[circumitus]

It wasn't supposed to be a competition, but Atem was the one saying he had her beat in her survival milestone. It doesn't help that she never had to waste time with a real childhood, those years of upbringing and training before all that shit was downloaded straight into her brain. She was 'born' straight into the battlefield...

"Hey, done the memory song and dance as well. Losing, rewriting, shit getting displaced, the works." She pauses. They could go on all day about this, but she's spoken enough about herself that Rey remembers how much she doesn't know about this kid. "So, how did you die?"

Too forward of a question? Well, look at who you're talking to. Rey doesn't beat about the bush.

[puzzlingly]

He's heard it all before by now, not that he gets half of what that means anyway, but that question, it makes him stop on his tracks for a second. He doesn't turn to look up at her, and just like that he keeps going. It had to be Rey who would be the only one so forward to ask that. He doesn't really mind sharing, in fact, he just notices how is it that she's the first one to ask...

"Saving the world." He says with a shit eating grin — he needs to stop doing that, that lip will not heal soon if he doesn't. "Now that's the short story, want the long one?"

[circumitus]

Fully aware of the nature of the question she just asked, Rey doesn't give halt and keeps walking where Atem stops. She figures he'll catch on and he does. If he wants to tell her off for asking such a blunt question, he knows that he can.

She glances over her shoulder just in time to see his expression. A brow arches.

"Wow, bold claim. How about the unabridged version. Don't have any hot dates planned today."

Like she ever does, but that's neither here nor there. Point is, they have time.

[puzzlingly]

Atem lets out a bit of a tired sigh at the request. It's not quite intended, but to actually understand he needs to explain everything first, that's the tiring part, to relive that which he couldn't change or even atone for. Maybe he can keep it short.

"Let's just say, someone unleashed a Demon into our world. A dark spell was used and no one was really aware of the price until it was too late. That Demon destroyed our land, killed my people and..." There is barely a pause when he says that, noticing that he might be letting the memories take over, he doesn't allow it. "And It bowed to destroy the world afterwards."

"Zorc is Its name and It isn't," Wasn't? Hopefully... "Like Caedra, it was more like the primal force that would drive any other lesser demon; evil, chaos and darkness personified." There is this need for him to make that clear, that it wasn't something that could be reasoned with.

"It could have succeeded if I hadn't sealed It inside a magical item. But there was also a price to be paid. I had to seal myself — my soul — inside it too to make it work. That's how."

There are so many details that he could give, so many of his own thoughts about the matter that he could say, but he's decidedly detached himself from that story for it to not affect him more than it could — everyday he would think about it, and every day he would reproach himself for being as blind as his father had been — all of that might help understanding it a little better, but for now, that would do. Rey could always ask anything she wanted anyway.

[circumitus]

Even though she had suggested the long version, that still sounds like a pretty succinct story for something obviously more complex. There are details Atem is leaving out, and Rey knows that. She can also hazard a few guesses as to why.

She doesn't pause, though. Instead she pushes her hands into the pockets of her cargo pants as she keeps walking, eyes drawn up to the overcast sky. It's a shame they can't see the stars here that often...

"Did it have to be you? It couldn't have been anyone else to 'seal' themselves?"

Someone who probably wasn't a damned kid, maybe?

[puzzlingly]

That's a good question that he maybe never asked himself, there was no point because he never regretted what he did then.

"There was no time to find out. But as Pharaoh, it was my duty." And his right, who else would have been able to use the Millennium Puzzle as he did? Who else would have been able to summon the Gods to fight for him? No one. The Item chose him for a reason. She thinks of him as a child, but he was much more, a whole country depended on him and he did what he had to. But that also is a lie, if anyone else would have been able to do something, he wouldn't have let them do it, a lot of people had already died for him — his family, his friends — that guilt is still a heavy burden that he carries to this day, and who would dare to oppose him anyway?

Atem's voice carries a prideful tone more than a morose one, he knew that his was a little price to pay to save the whole world from falling into darkness.

[circumitus]

"Even so, not everyone would be so self-sacrificial."

Not to be goading or anything. Rey is mostly speaking from personal experience of knowing types who supposedly had a 'duty' to others but took that power to serve themselves than to help the people. Maybe Atem's idealism stems from his age, but it must have worked out.

Just not for him.

"Did it hurt?"

Blunt as always.

[puzzlingly]

"I was... the only one left." Only he wasn't. But it better than than his cousin. It was Atem's responsibility, not his High Priest's. And for the first time the kid sounds like he's actually telling how he died and not as if he were reviewing the soap from last night. If only they had soaps they wouldn't be talking about this, though.

Atem continues in silence after that question is asked, not stopping on his way to what seems to be the Speakeasy, but he seems more lost in thought that before. Carlisle had asked the same thing before. At the moment he gave a knee-jerk response to something he had been avoiding to think about, it hadn't been a lie but now he muses about it.

Dying itself hadn't hurt, not in a physical way, anyway. He mainly just remembers being very tired, and then it was a blur of events that lead him to forget himself. What happened inside the puzzle does not factor in this question so he won't mention it at all if he can help it.

"No."

[circumitus]

Being 'the only one left' could mean a lot of things, mostly in how unlikely that actually is. While that might be the reality, Rey knows better than most that logic and morals don't always line up the way they should be. Maybe there was no one better. Maybe it did have to be him.

Or maybe it was just dumb misfortune.

Rey squares her broad shoulders while she walks, jaw tightening as she nods at Atem's reply.

"Guess that's good. Well, save for sharing a body with someone thousands of years later with memory problems, however that works." Rey isn't one to talk about the logistics of these things. She's got memories of her own that she has to sort out every day, and so very little of her own existence can be easily explained. Better that they talk about this crap instead.

[puzzlingly]

"It wasn't so bad." In truth, it could have been worse. He could have forever remained trapped in the Puzzle, he could have completely lost himself, eventually.

"Call me crazy but, I would do it all over again if I had to." It had been worth it.

[circumitus]

"If you had to, though." Rey shrugs. "Would call it crazy if you claimed you'd do it again for kicks."

There are things she had done in the past that she would make the same claim over. Even the more ignoble acts.

[puzzlingly]

He had to relive a lot of it during that Dark RPG, but he supposes that doesn't truly count. Atem doesn't say anything afterwards, he's not sure what he could say and it might be obvious that he might have gotten a little lost in his memories. The hunt for the cards had lost a little importance now.

[circumitus]

The silence speaks volumes. Not only from Atem, but Rey herself knows what happens when the quiet falls so suddenly like that.

So she decides to break it, not with words but by drawing a hand out of one pant pocket, extracting a couple cards neatly held between her index and middle finger to present directly in Atem's face.

Cards that the kid should be very familiar with.

[puzzlingly]

"...!"

There was nothing more than Rey could have done to draw a smile out of Atem and drag him away from those thoughts. It's an almost immediate reaction after the first surprised one that makes him give a little jump. Clearly he hadn't been expecting it.

"You found them!" Not that they were absolutely important or even special, or maybe they were, just because they were there and it was her who was showing them at him. He takes them, if only to take a better look at them as they keep on walking.

Pot of Greed, Pot of Greed, Pot of Greed, Pot of Greed, Pot of Greed... Huh...

"...Really?" He chuckles out. "Hey, Rey, do you know what Pot of Greed does?"

[circumitus]

If it keeps Atem from throwing himself into the fog zone, then Rey is satisfied as well. She smirks as he snags them from her hand and proceeds to sort through her findings. It's not a varied collection, but she figures the kid would have better use for them than in her possession.

A brow arches at his question, remembering that ridiculous game Atem played at the Colosseum a while back.

"Something something, two cards, hand." She waves dismissively, gaze rolling towards the sky. "Right?"