hadriel_logs | Event Log: Soulmates

Entry tags:

Event Log: Soulmates

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for Soulmates event
Where: All over the city
When: February 14th-February 22nd
Warnings: None

Oh shit, what even happened last night? You're pretty sure you had a normal night, no crazy drunk antics (unless that is your normal night). But this morning you woke up with a brand new tattoo, and it's... a name?

Maybe it's a name you recognize, one of your good friends. Maybe it's a stranger. Maybe it's someone you can barely stand. No matter who it is, you kind of feel like you should look for them and figure out what's going on with this weird tattoo. And when you find them - well, they've got one too, except this one is your name. It would seem weird, except as soon as you see each other you kind of understand. Of course you'd have a tattoo with the name of the person you've found such an amazing connection with. You were meant to be together.

So enjoy your time with your newfound soulmate. Who knows, you might wake up tomorrow with a whole new name on your arm, a new connection, a new love. Make the most of it!

► This log covers February 14th-February 22nd
► 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 to pull off a stupid stunt to impress your soulmate and fail so miserably you die, please let us know here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...uh. Nathan. Drake? Nathan Drake.

[He didn't always have trouble talking to people, and he feels as though - in particular - he shouldn't be having trouble here. Nate knows this woman.

For sure.

Hence the struggle to articulate himself, like's he's twenty-four again and nervously sitting at a bar while his brother flirts with three separate women only a few seats away.]

But Nate's fine.

Nathan. Oh.

[ Of course. The name is familiar, but for none of the reasons she'd imagined. Lucretia smiles ruefully, dropping her gaze with a sigh and pushing up the sleeve of her sweater.

Nathan Drake is there, bright green against her skin, and she holds it out to show him as she lifts her eyes to his again. ]

And I'm Lucretia. I don't know if you happen to have looked at your arm today, but...

Oh.

[The name-on-the-arm thing cinches it, then. Event related, but the influence makes him think it's a perfectly reasonable thing anyway. There it is, practically glowing on her skin, Nathan Drake.

He crumples the paper napkins and throws them in the cart trashcan before hastening to roll up the shirtsleeve on his left arm. No surname, just Lucretia. Nate cracks a smile.]

Guessing this is you, then?

...Yes.

[ She'd meant to be casual about it, taking it all in stride, because after realizing who this is and what's happening, it's not as though it's a surprise to see her own name on his arm.

But he pulls his sleeve back and she just stops and stares, momentarily breathless. Lucretia's always kind of liked her name, but seeing it there on his arm, Nate smiling down at her like this is all normal and he's perfectly all right with being branded like this, being tied to her...

It's almost beautiful.

She smiles back, just down at his arm for a moment before flicking her gaze back up to his face. ]

I suppose this means we don't know each other, after all.

Suppose not.

[ His grin widens, and he rolls his shirtsleeve back down again. For whatever unfathomable, event-related reason this is as normal as normal can be, and given that Nate isn't a conventionally romantic person he just kind of takes it as-is.

Almost genteelly, Nate extends an elbow to her. ]

You wanna go for a walk?

[ When was the last time someone held out an elbow for her to take? Never? Magnus, a million years ago, joking around?

But somehow, Nate's offer right now means more than Magnus' ever could. Lucretia just lights up, gazing up at him as she slides her hand into the crook of his arm.

Holy shit those are some muscles. ]

I would love to.

I'm sorry again about your coffee. Here, do you want -

[ And she offers him her own cup. Not like she really needs it now - she feels wide awake. ]

[ Completely unaware of the muscle-marveling Nate is more than happy to lead on, because he gets the feeling they have things to talk about even though he has no idea what those things might be. ]

Um. Thanks.

[ The crooked smile he quirks is friendly, at least, and he's grateful for the offer. Nate accepts the cup with his free hand. ]

So...why do I feel like I know you? Do you know anyone else here?

[ It feels like a victory, if a small one, that he accepts her coffee. Like the cute boy at school asking to borrow a pencil before the test. ]

It's...well, I think that's the, um, gods. Behind...that feeling.

[ Of course, knowing the source of it doesn't make the feeling itself go away. She can tell herself again and again that Nate is a stranger, that she has no reason to trust him, much less walk around hanging onto his arm, but that doesn't change the fact that that's exactly what she wants to do. ]

But - well, yes, as a matter of fact, there are a few of us from my world here. Do you know Lup? Or - Angus?

[ Barry spends most of his time buried in the lab, which is not the type of place she can see Nate choosing to be, and Taako - yeah, she's not bringing up Taako right now, thanks. ]

[ He meant knowing outside of the event, because there really is something weird he can't entirely pinpoint, but Nate is aware that most of this sensation is probably manufactured. Acknowledging that as the truth is the hard part, though.

When she continues he almost trips over a curb. ]

Uh- yeah. I do, actually. Lup and Taako, Angus, um- Merle. [ Nate pauses after he rights himself properly, thinking of the others. ] ...Magnus and...Kravitz?

And Barry, and Johann. Yes.

[ It warms her heart, hearing Nate talk about her best friends like that. Even if he nearly falls over his own feet in the process. Lucretia beams at him, catching his arm to help stabilize him. ]

You...must have been here for a while, then.

[ Merle and Magnus...she can only imagine what it would have been like to meet them here, too. ]

[ Wow. Everybody, huh? Assuming they're all close, they've all worked together. Probably in a more professional capacity, probably on that trip Lup told him about, once. ]

Close to two years now, yeah.

[ He thinks for a moment. ]

They never mentioned you. Not that- [ Shit, uh. ] Not that that's bad, just- I mean, Taako's a talker but not about specific stuff, so.

[ Oh. Her smile falters and then vanishes, and she looks down at the ground, nodding. ]

No. He wouldn't.

[ It's something of a surprise given how long she's been here, how many people she's met, but she's never had to explain this before. What does she say? She doesn't want Nate to hate her, but she also doesn't want to lie.

She swallows, still avoiding his gaze. ]

I...hurt Taako. Badly. I never meant to, of course, but the outcome was the same. He trusted me, we cared for each other, and I suppose that makes it that much worse.

He doesn't speak to me any longer.

[ It hurts, laying it all out like this, a sharp pain replacing the usual dull ache in her heart. She bites her lip, falling silent. ]

[ He's fucked something up immediately. Nate can tell the instant Lucretia's face falls, and it's like being punched in the solar plexus, thinking that he was the cause for it. Whatever the issue is, it's embarrassing enough that she avoids eye contact and Nate knows the feeling intimately. He's been there, finagling around a reputation or a lack thereof.

Nate would like to be able to reassure her, but he knows it would come across particularly hollow given the person involved. It is Nate's understanding that Taako neither forgives nor forgets easily, if at all, so the gravity of the situation is not lost on him. ]

What, um- if you don't mind me asking...what happened?

[ Where does she even start? There's so much. Even assuming Nate has some context, even with him having met nearly all of the players involved, knowing many of them well, it's still so much. A long, complicated, heartbreaking story, and one she's never even tried to tell anyone.

It's not a happy story, either, or one that paints Lucretia in a flattering light even when she's the one telling it. But she has to tell him. They've only just met, but with Love's influence on her, she can't just keep this bottled up. She needs to share it with him, whatever his reaction may be. ]

We'd made a decision. And it was - [ She shakes her head. ] It was the wrong one. We let something out into the world, something dangerous. People got hurt. People died, thousands upon thousands of them, and there was nothing we could do.

It was killing them. The others. I could see it in their voices, hear it when they spoke. It haunted all of us. We'd done this, and maybe we...well, we'd had to do something.

And then Lup disappeared.

She couldn't die, of course. Shouldn't have been able to, anyway, but...she was just...gone. We looked and looked, Taako and Barry most of all, tirelessly, but if things had been bad before? If we'd been hurting, suffering, before then? [ She shakes her head again. ] It was too much. I couldn't just stand by. I couldn't just watch them in such pain.

So I decided to fix it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event Log: Soulmates

uh-huh

shush

MAKE ME

I WILL!!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject