hadriel_logs | Event Log: The Stampede

Entry tags:

Event Log: The Stampede

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for Stampede event
Where: All over the city
When: December 26th-December 28th
Warnings: None

There's a rumbling sound in the air early in the afternoon on December 26th. Whether you're new in town or you've seen it all, something like this hasn't happened before. Is it an earthquake? It feels kind of like a small one, and that might be endurable if not for the sudden snarling and gnashing of teeth!

As it turns out, these yet-unnamed apex predators are overrunning the city, ignoring their previous apprehension to barrel right through anything- or anyone- that stands in their way. Seemingly spooked by something, they are aggressive and violent and won't hesitate to tear anyone they meet to pieces... after trampling them underfoot, of course. They're so large and muscular that they may even take a few portions of buildings with them- how would you like to see one of these monsters crashing through your living room?

At least it's only these weird mammoths, though... right?

► This log covers December 26th-December 28th.
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So it is just you, then. That is your way.

[ That might be worse. She cannot decide. ]

I want to know why you are like this!

[ Now, she's snarling again. Baring teeth. ]

Why do you show honor now, when it does not matter?

I suppose so.

[He doesn't react to her snarls, even though he feels as though he's betrayed her somehow. He hasn't really, he just tried to present the good side of him, the side that was still Deputy Pratt, and ignore the larger part of him that's been so battered down he almost believes the cult's teachings. The part that thinks that Jacob is right. About everything.]

There's no such thing as honor, not the way you think of it. Sometimes survival isn't honorable. Sometimes it's not...

[He sighs, running his thumb along the edge of his knife.]

It's not anything like you imagine. What you think you'd do in a situation is a hell of a lot different when you're actually there. When you're actually being tortured. Dying.

When the decisions aren't yours to make anymore.

You're wrong!

[ Honor is the backbone of everything. Without honor, they are brought low. Kettara clenches her fists, trembling with the force of her anger. How dare this human tell her these things? ]

Do you think me a child? I have fought in battle! I executed men and women who had no honor, I watched those with honor die under their blades. You think I am a child?! I was born in a cage!

[ The last part nearly comes out in a scream. ]

There is always a choice, human.

[She may be bristling with anger, but Pratt just looks... defeated. He doesn't have the fight in him for this conversation. He can't make her understand and he really doesn't want to try and explain everything because that will be like reliving it for himself. It's better if she hates him and goes away so he can pretend none of this happened.]

No there isn't. There's the illusion of choice, the outcome would be the same no matter what you did. Except in one version you're dead. The end result would be the same, just without you.

[He tucks the knife away, looking back up at her, eyes haunted with thoughts of the past.]

You hate humans, why do you care?

[ Part of her wants to either strike him dead or flee, like she did before. Just turn around and run away in wolf form, and then keep on running until the rage subsided. Kettara clenches her fists tight. This time she doesn't run. Instead, she advances on him. ]

That is a lie the selfish tell to justify their survival. You should have fought for those people! You should have died for them! At least then you would have been honorable.

[ Her eyes are wide with furious tears. ]

You were supposed to be better!

[ She wanted him to be better, to prove that not all humans were like the ones who caged and killed her mother. But that was a foolish hope. ]

[he doesn't recoil, calmly watching her. Maybe he wants her to hit him, it would at least make him feel like he's serving some sort of penance for all he's done. He'd deserve it anyway.]

How would dying help?

[he really and truly does not understand.]

No I wasn't. I can't help people, I tried. I can't do any of that. He was right, about me, about everything. I was worthless from the beginning. Weak. Traitorous. Ungrateful for the gifts I've been given.

I was trying to .. not be that.. here. A new start where I could...

[He closes his eyes and hangs his head.]

I don't know why I bothered.

Your spirit would have been honored! Now you will walk alone when you die.

[ A sorry fate, to become a lonely ghost - shunned even by the dead. But it was decided by his own actions.

Kettara snarls at him, baring her teeth. ]

You seek redemption? Now?

[ Despite her anger, it's a genuine question. ]

[He jerks a little, that seems to get through where nothing else has.]

Isn't that what I deserve? Alone. Never granted access to Eden. Doomed forever.

[He's still looking anywhere that isn't her, because he's on the verge of crying and desperately doesn't want anyone to see that.]

That's...That's what purgatory is supposed to be for. To atone for past transgressions but.. Maybe I'm not even worthy of that. It's not working. I can't fix it. I can't help anyone. I'm not sure why I'm still trying.

[Because at his core Pratt is a genuinely helpful person who wants to be liked. It just hasn't worked out for him.]

[ Kettara feels herself shaking, ears flattened against her head. She wants to fight or run, beat Pratt senseless or - she doesn't know what she wants. To make him see the shame of what he did and stand judgement for it.

Only that - is what he's doing. Standing there for her judgement.

Kettara hisses, kicking at the ground. Unbidden, she thinks of the old Horde, who followed a warlock to ruin and abandoned their own traditions in the process. Those orcs - her ancestors - put their shamanism aside in favor of easier, more destructive power and thus lost their way. It was not until a new shaman appeared and brought them back to the fold, helped them remember their path, that the new Horde could rise. Didn't their Warchief come to power promising forgiveness?

A thought occurs to her then. A dangerous one. ]

Two paths remain for you, Deputy Pratt.

[ Her voice is low and hard. ]

Either you are an exile, or you wish redemption. The exile has no clan, no allies. No one will bury him or celebrate his deeds. He dies alone. But he lives. He lives as long as he wishes, on his own terms.

[ If that is what Pratt wants, then Kettara will enforce it with her axe. An exile is doomed to their solitude, unwelcome among all others. ]

The one seeking redemption must prove his spirit is changed. He must take a new road and forsake all cruelty. And it is a long road. The spirits must judge him worthy. He must change without denying the past. If that is what you want, Deputy Pratt, then I -

[ She grits her teeth. What she is proposing has never been done. It may spell her own exile. ]

Then I, Kettara Bloodthirst, daughter of Kashara and shaman of the Earthen Ring, will take you as my apprentice. I will make you a shaman. If the elements judge you worthy, you will have the power to heal others and maintain balance within the world.

[He blinks at her, finally raising his head to meet her gaze. But he looks confused, not understanding. Her voice is firm and there's a seriousness to the situation that he's unable to grasp. He feels like he missed something critically important and is struggling to make up ground.]

I don't.. I don't understand.

[She wants to make him her apprentice? Doesn't she want to kill him? He was expecting to have his face caved in and now this.]

I don't want to be in exile. I'm a deputy, I'm supposed to help people, that's what I'm there for.

[Sure there was the other reason he pursued that career, but he wouldn't have gone through with it if he didn't genuinely enjoy his work. It wasn't like this job paid spectacularly or anything.]

Maintain balance?

[Well that sounded like what he used to do back home. That's familiar, and he's latching onto that as the only real part of what she said that he understands.]

Why would you help me? I thought you hated me.

[ Kettara lifts her chin, defiant. Her eyes are wet with tears, but she ignores them. This is either the correct path, one Master Muln would approve, or the worst decision she's ever made. There are no elders she can ask. Her own master is a world away, and she can barely hear the voices of the elemental spirits. If she is wrong, the Earthen Ring will exile her for it. They will shun her for exposing their ways to a human, and a human who behaved so dishonorably in the past.

But he wants to help people. He regrets what was done. Anyone could see that.

So she does not falter. She stands tall. ]

I hate what you were. But it was a shaman who returned the orcs to the honorable path, a shaman who united all the races of the Horde. If they deserved redemption, then - then it is my duty to offer it to you as well.

[he wants to state the obvious, that he's not an orc. And also that he doesn't really believe in elemental spirits or shamanism and that's probably blasphemy to the Project back home. But he's also seen her turn into a wolf and conjure water out of thin air.

All he's seen Joseph do is talk.

He shudders, even just thinking ill of the Father makes him nervous, like Jacob is going to appear behind him to remind him of his purpose.

But... well, Jacob isn't here. And Pratt is.]

And you can teach this to me? To a human?

[ Truthfully, Kettara doesn't know if humans can learn to hear the elements. In a better world, someone else would have volunteered to be Pratt's teacher. Not someone like her, barely out of her own apprenticeship. But this is the world they have been given. This is the choice she has made.

She stands tall, meeting his gaze. She does not flinch. ]

I don't know. It has never been done. No human has ever asked. But I will try.

[There's hesitation before Pratt replies. Because he doesn't believe in it, he'll probably never be able to do it - which will frustrate both of them. He's already setting himself up for failure and he hasn't even agreed to this yet. But she is offering to help, and being able to heal people would go a long way to make him more useful than that 'crazy guy who hoards food and has a gun range'.]

Okay. Okay I can do this. I can make things right. What do I need to do? How do I start?

There is no oath. No ceremony. You agree or you do not.

[ Though shamanism itself has many rituals, many traditions, the act of taking on a new apprentice is shockingly informal. Most of the old ways were unique to specific clans, forgotten during the war or wiped out entirely in the aftermath. Now the clans mean less. There is the Horde and then there is the Earthen Ring, who take all who swear to maintain the balance.

Never before has a human joined. Again, Kettara wonders if she's doing the right thing. Then she shakes her head.

She is committed, now. There is no place for doubt. ]

[That seems wrong. There should be some ceremony or marker of passage into becoming a student. He probably doesn't even get a shiny badge for this. But she's the expert not him, so he nods, looking determined. He can do this.]

Then I agree. Train me.

[ And it's done. Just like that, it's done.

Kettara takes a deep breath. Lets it go. ]

You are my student.

[ She is no longer an apprentice. She has taken on a student of her own. Would Master Muln be proud of her? Or would he be ashamed at her brazenness, at how she so blatantly challenges the way of things? No human has never become a shaman, or spoken to the elemental spirits. To her knowledge, no human has never tried. Why would they? Humans have their own ways, their sacred Light and their arcane magics. They never had a need for such things, not when their own traditions held so strong.

But this is not Azeroth. This is a new world.

Kettara lifts her chin. She will not falter now. She will see this through to the end. ]

Tomorrow, I will show you how to speak with fire. I need time to prepare the ritual. But I will come for you at dawn and you will be ready. Do you understand?

Speak with fire?

[Well that sounds all kinds of mystical and cool. If he wasn't so confused and upset about everything here, he'd be a lot more excited. He still is, but it's tempered by the belief that he won't be able to do this and will end up disappointing her. Again. ]

I'll be ready. Do I need to do anything specific before then?

[Should he meditate on the nature of fire for three hours? Sleep in a specific spot? Paint himself with odd colors? All he knows about magic is what he's seen in movies where people had to do ridiculous things prior to initiation for reasons that never made sense.]

No.

[ Kettara resists the urge to pace or kick the ground. She's committed now. She has to see it through. ]

Just be ready when I come for you. Don't die in the meantime.

I'm not going to die. I'm not weak.

[ At least there's that. Sometimes he's afraid he's becoming weak, but he fully believes in his survival skills. ]

I'll see you then.

[ Kettara gives him a long look, but doesn't argue. He's - something. What that will be in the future remains to be determined. And perhaps it is not her place to judge his past. ]

Yes. You will.

[ Then she drops into her spirit wolf form and turns to leave. ]

[He lets her go, turning back to look out at the mammoths. He's not sure if this is a good idea, in fact he's pretty convinced it's not. But he agreed to it and he is actually a man of his word, so he'll go through with it.

But for now he's going to keep defending his range. He refuses to let his hard work be trampled by some overgrown cows.]

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Event Log: The Stampede

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