Event Log: Is It a Wonderful Life?

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for Is It A Wonderful Life? event
Where: All over the city
When: Jan 4th-8th
Warnings: None

Throughout the next few days, you may find yourself plagued by visions and dreams of back home. The dreams will be lifelike and difficult to tell apart from reality, as the world will be constructed from what you remember of your world. However, unlike usual dreams, you won't be present, and will find yourself unable to be seen or heard by those around you.

The dreams are vivid reminders of what might happen in a world without you: a world in which you disappeared when coming to Hadriel, a world which desperately needs you back for some reason or another. You may see your parents putting up missing posters, your significant other moving onto their next relationship, or even your hated villain finally taking over the world without you there to stop them.

When the vision leaves, you're back here and nothing about the city has changed. Though maybe you have a different outlook on it now...

► This log covers January 4th-Januray 8th.
► 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 you try a weird solution to make it back home, please let us know here.

Comments

[theladyofhighever]

I see. [a small crease forms between her brows] Are they magic?

[she assumes that they have to be]

[itsnotaonesie]

[He's been in Hadriel long enough to where that isn't even a weird question anymore. weird is the new normal.]

Oh, no, they're mechanical. The mechanism in my palm here shoots it.

[He holds his hand out and points it out to her. That sure is some web shooter.]

[theladyofhighever]

[strange is the new normal for her. she's used to magic, but some of these . . . technologial wonders that people seem capable of inducing are truly strange to her]

Mech-anical? [she says, as though she's never heard the word before. actually, she hasn't] It's all controlled in your palm?

[she leans in closer to get a better look at it]

[itsnotaonesie]

Yeah, it's just this button here. You can try it if you want.

[He'll remove the webshooter and turn it around so she doesn't accidentally web herself if she decides to poke around at it.

[theladyofhighever]

[she inspects the button. then inspects him, to make sure of his veracity. then pokes at the web shooter's triger. and jumps about a mile when webbing shoots out of it]

How did--how did you do that?!

[itsnotaonesie]

[He really doesn't mean to laugh, but he totally laughs a bit. It's good natured, at least. She must be from one of those planets that doesn't have wi-fi.]

I didn't! You did, when you pushed the button.

[theladyofhighever]

[she blushes when he laughs, but at least he doesn't seem to be laughing at her. which is good. and wi-what?]

Oh. Yes, yes, I suppose I did. But how does it work?

[itsnotaonesie]

[nah, he's too nice to laugh AT people. Unless they really deserve it. She doesn't though, so he won't.

He pops the web cartridge out, and starts pointing out things and doodads while he explains all this nerd-ass shit.]

Okay, so the webbing itself comes out of this tiny cartridge here. The fluid is condensed and there's a lot of pressure behind it. So, when you put it in here like this, and then push that button there, it releases some of that pressure and shoots the web out.

[idk man this is where i bullshit web science]

[theladyofhighever]

[no, she's just shy around people she doesn't know and comes from a world where they have High Dragons and Darkspawn and dwarves and elves and magic, but not much as far as technology goes. her phone still confuses her.

but she pays close attention to what he's doing]

I suppose I understand? But may I ask what its purpose is?

[because it seems to be a weapon of some kind, but she's not absolutely sure]

[itsnotaonesie]

[DUDE I WANNA GO TO THAT WORLD]

It's got a few, I guess. A non-lethal way to stop bad guys, transportation, stuff like that. I use it to swing between the buildings and stuff a lot.

[theladyofhighever]

[NO YOU DON'T, EVERYTHING THERE WANTS TO KILL YOU.

aaaaand, time for the culture clash]

But why would you need a non-lethal way of stopping bad men?

[she's not going to say that swinging between buildings sounds like fun, even though it does]

[itsnotaonesie]

[THAT'S NOTHING NEW]

I mean, you can't just kill people, I don't want something like that on my conscience anyway. Besides, most of the ones that I deal with are just small time criminals. I turn them over to the police and let them deal with it.

[theladyofhighever]

[THEN WELCOME TO THEDAS.

and she looks confused]

Yes, you can if they're trying to kill you. [and her conscience is fine] But what are the police?

[itsnotaonesie]

I mean, yeah, I guess you can justify it if it's self defense. That's just not how I operate. The police, it's their job to keep people safe, enforce the law and stuff. I just help out sometimes.

[theladyofhighever]

...I killed a great many times. In self-defense. I don't feel badly about it [she lies to herself] because I know it had to be done. I had to survive, to kill the Archdemon.

[listens to the explanation of the police and nods slightly] Ah. Rather like the Guard, only the Guard operates without laws in place.

[itsnotaonesie]

Yeah. Guard, police, its the same idea.

[He opens his mouth to reply, closes it and just thinks for a moment, and finally replies]

I'm sorry, Archdemon? Your world sounds pretty intense.

[theladyofhighever]

[she looks thoughtful and maybe a little sad]

Yes. It is.

An Archdemon is an Old God which as been corrupted by the darkspawn, causing a Blight. A Blight is. . . the darkspawn surge to the surface, corrupting and killing everything in their path. If a Grey Warden doesn't kill the Archdemon, the Blight will never end. [a pause] I am a Grey Warden.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Damn, and all Peter has to deal with is purse snatchers and bike thieves. And the occasional murder alien.]

...I don't know what half that stuff means, but it sounds pretty hardcore. What is a Grey Warden? Aside from being the dude that fights the Archdemon?

[theladyofhighever]

[she tilts her head to one side slightly] Hardcore?

[a pause]

A Grey Warden is someone who devotes their life to the darkspawn. Hunting them, killing them, making sure they can do no harm to anyone or anything.

[itsnotaonesie]

[uuuuUUUHHHHH man how do we translate this into oldspeak]

Like, uh... Badass? No, no, um... like, like really awesome. Like, just whoooa, y'know?

[No Peter she probably has no idea]

Are they like, ghosts? Demons? Man, there are some spooky worlds out there, jeez.

[theladyofhighever]

[very carefully?]

I see.

[no, she doesn't]

No, we're human. Or elves or dwarves. The Grey Wardens may recruit whom they will, as they will it. Anyone who might prove an asset against the darkspawn.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Can't say he didn't try!]

Ohh, no, I mean the, uh. The darkspawn? Those sound kinda demon-y. But that's cool, you got like, elves and stuff? We just have humans where I'm from. Well, I mean on my planet. There's still like, aliens and junk.

[theladyofhighever]

Oh. [she blushes, feeling slightly foolish, then tries to recover]

The darkspawn are. . . according to Chantry legend, the darkspawn are descended from magisters of the Tevinter Imperium who gained enough power and enough hubris to think that they could unseat the Maker of all.

They breached the Fade and stormed the Golden City, the seat of the Maker. But the Golden City was blackened by their sin and the magisters were cast back down to Thedas as the first darkspawn. But not the last.

But, yes. We have elves and dwarves and the Qunari.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Don't even feel bad about flubbing in front of this guy, he's nothing but flubs. Like right now, he's absolutely flubbing right now because he has no idea what she's talking about. But it sounds cool??? he thinks?????]

Uh...huh. Okay, I think I follow. So, short version, they're bad news. Got it.

[That much he can make out. Bad news bears.]

Now, Qunari I've never heard of.

[theladyofhighever]

[darkspawn are cool if you like largely mindless killing machines that spread disease and corruption and death wherever they go, leaving entire swaths of land as waste where even the corpses don't go away because the darkspawn corruption went so deep, it even killed the maggots who'd feast on mouldering flesh?]

They are very bad news. Best hope that none ever find their way here.

[they have been known to corrupt bears, driving them mad]

Qunari are . . . complicated. It's both a race and a philosophy. Anyone can choose to follow the Qun regardless of race, but when I say "Qunari," I think of a companion I had. He was over seven feet tall, broadly muscled, with grey skin, white hair, and red eyes.