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.

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[This is a question Jo always dreads. Home isn't waiting for her. Heaven is paradise, true, but there's no one there.

At least here she has company.]

It's complicated. And what are we supposed to do? We can't control the door. [Even the gods might not be able to.]

Well, have you tried? Has anyone really tried, beyond spending a few minutes thinking about it?

[The Door is an obstacle, anyway. Why are people so obsessed with it being the only answer? She can get herself home, normally, and so can several others here if their skills in magic are any indication.

Probably the real solution is to destroy the thing. That would free her. Hm. There's an idea that she will have to think more about. Tackle it herself, or point the Null to it? That could be very interesting.]

I'm not saying it's easy. But it seems like too many people are too quick to give up, if they really do want to get home. Perhaps those best equipped to do so aren't interested. Perhaps it's "complicated" for them too.

What's the complication?

They have tried. [She doesn't know exactly how it went down, but Kate made it seem like it was bad.

Jo gives Caedra a look and shakes her head.]

Everyone has reasons, right? Even you have motivations that you might not tell other people about. [Jo doesn't think they're worthy motivations, but whatever.]

There's nothing left for me to do back home.

Well, that's not very complicated at all, that's quite the opposite.

[Which, to any other person, she probably would simply suggest they go and die. She would even offer to do it for them! A service, truly. But Jo is a mystery written on her arm and she decides to try and be at least a little gracious, if only for the sake of curiosity.]

Can't you give yourself something to do there? Do you have hobbies? Goals?

[Even today, Jo would fight that suggestion.

When Caedra questions her statement, Jo regrets saying it. Even with her current benevolence, the questions needle at her. Her answer is a little snappy.]

It's hard to do anything when you're dead.

Oh! Is that all? That makes more sense.

[But it's also sort of puzzling. Because after all-]

But do you not have an afterlife? It isn't like life just stops when the body dies. Well. Unless your soul was destroyed but then I imagine you wouldn't be here, would you.

[Jo huffs out an impatient sigh. Caedra is right, but it's not what Jo wants.

She can't help anyone from Heaven.]

You're right, but what am I supposed to do from Heaven? I'm stuck. [Yeah, it's Paradise, and she was happy, but here she wants something more.]

Is the realm of the gods that boring? I've heard all sorts of rumors but didn't realize it was so tedious that you couldn't even have fun. How tragic! It sounds like I made the right choice. Would you care to switch sides?

[No, she imagines, Jo would not care to do that. But it's a very funny thought, casually offering such a thing. Given her work in spreading Amamot's cult in her previous human life, it's only expected that she would continue to do so among the mortals here as well. To no real success so far, admittedly, but there have been little glimmers in the eyes of a few when they realize how they might benefit.]

[It isn't quite that she can't have fun. It's Heaven, it's perfect.

But when she's not there, she wants more.]

No. [Jo gives Caedra a glare. Despite the friendly feelings she has today, she has no desire to become a demon and she remembers Dean after his time in Hell. It's not good.]

Why did you make the choice?

I was young and thought myself very clever and didn't have a full understanding of what I was doing. So I call it good fortune, that I had access to a tome of occult arts and that I turned to it when I was desperate. Lord Amamot has cared for me ever since I first agreed to work for him.

[Which she knows is because she has served him faithfully and well. He's not exactly a generous man to those who displease him. It's almost impossible to imagine any of the Abyssal lords being altruistic and Amamot, a creature who afflicts others with desires for war and bloodshed by his mere presence, is no exception.]

It doesn't bother you that he took advantage of you and you'll pay for it forever?

[It might not, but it bothers Jo. It always bothered Jo. Demons took advantage when people were weak, whether because of desperation or stupidity. It was unfair.]

What a strange question.

[And she's not condescending when she says it. She's genuinely surprised, and confused. Was she taken advantage of? Well, maybe. It's true that she had known less than she had realized. True too that demons take advantage of humans all the time, and she supposes he benefited well from their arrangement and still does, or he wouldn't have made such a bargain.]

Even if your assessment is right, no, it doesn't bother me. I have everything I ever wanted and more. I'm happy. You say I've paid, as if I'm suffering, but I'm not.

[Jo watches Caedra as she answers, shaking her head before the demoness even finishes speaking.]

And it doesn't bother you? It never bothered you that it's all built on ruining lives?

I think you place too much value on them. Does it bother you that your entire civilization is built on the deaths of cattle and sheep and chickens?

[Which is how she views them now, of course. Livestock at best, insects otherwise. It doesn't matter that she used to be one. She was born anew and none of that history matters now. The present is where she prefers to live her life.]

It would bother me more if they had souls. [They don't. She's never seen any animal ghost or anything like that.]

We could take better care of them. Maybe eat less of them. But we're not tricking them either.

Aha! A clever answer and not one many of you seem to latch onto. It's funny, actually, how many I've run across here who insist that souls aren't real. A shame, too, how hard these gods make it for me to prove otherwise, even though I have encountered souls here already.

[But oh well, it doesn't seem to bother her any. It's not her job to prove anything to any of them, and if they continue to prefer their own ignorance then all it does is benefit her when they do things like jokingly pledge their souls to Amamot. Which, admittedly, has not happened yet. But it could!]

But even if we are linked by the names on our arms, I suppose I won't be able to convince you that those souls aren't actually worth all that much. Most aren't, anyway.

You won't. [The names on their arms and the gods' influence are keeping her here for the conversation, but she won't change her mind.]

Everyone has worth. Even if you think it's small, it's there.

Like I said, not worth much. I didn't say they're utterly worthless. That's why killing them by the hundreds and thousands is far more useful than one at a time.

[They overvalue themselves. She knows what they're worth. Approximately six thousand gold each for the average soul, give or take depending on the specifics of the currency and the value of the individual. Souls themselves do well as currency once one has enough stored up, unless consuming them seems viable. It's always nice to have options.]

Killing them doesn't make them worth more. [Jo shakes her head in disbelief. What a ridiculous statement.]

And looking at them as fodder isn't fair.

I don't care what you think is fair, it's still true. Whining about it won't change that.

[Arm labels or not, this conversation has gotten tedious. It isn't like she expects someone with so narrow a view as Jo, or any human, to understand her points and while whatever the gods have done seems to have kept things civil, she's now bored with the back and forth. She frowns, then folds her arms and tilts her head as she looks up at Jo.]

Perhaps in time you'll see the larger picture, if you're dead at home. Maybe from that higher plane of yours, you'll learn something. Give it a few decades, you'll see. If you want that realization to come sooner, though, you'll need to have a far more open mind.

[Jo shakes her head. Her time in Heaven has only deepened her belief that people are all important in their own ways. She had time to think about how lives interact.]

I don't know if I want to listen to a demon telling me to open my mind.

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Event Log: Soulmates

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