hadriel_logs | Event Log: Predator vs. Prey

Entry tags:

Event Log: Predator vs. Prey

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the Predator vs Prey event
Where: All over the city
When: March 13th-March 21st
Warnings: None

It all starts with an explosion, because Rage is excellent at managing her anger. But an explosion isn't enough - she hasn't worked out all her feeling yet. Not until the city itself has gotten caught up in her anger at Fear for being unable to save Delight. And yeah, that means you.

So now you're a predator (Rage) or prey (Fear). You want to hunt, or you're being hunted. Maybe you were defenseless before, or maybe you're the sort who no one could be afraid of... but it's different now, because the gods are passing on their blessings to you. All the better to catch and kill, or run and hide.

What will you do? Try to resist the urge? Good luck with that. Who would want to resist, anyway, when it feels so right to give in? Hunt someone down like a cat after a mouse, or flee like a deer before wolves. Maybe you can find someone to help you, whether that means hunting in packs or looking for safety in numbers. Who knows, maybe you'll even make a few new friends while trying to kill your old ones.

► This log covers March 13th-March 21st.
► 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 get caught by a predator or have things turned on you by your prey, please let us know here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. [early event; prey] the drama, the trauma, don't play the prima donna

[Taako is no stranger to fear. Even though he's damn good at not showing it on his face and keeping it under wraps, even when he's had a hundred years of knowing if he dies it's not permanent, he's spent a damn long time of that ensuring he doesn't eat shit. In one hundred years of trials that killed thousands of others, murdered even the most expertise of expertise, he's died eight times.

He'd say he's pretty good at staying alive. This is going to be no different.

Taako's no abjuration wizard, but he's got enough of a knowledge of barriers that he's keeping his head low and trying to deflect. Not that he's a hero, but he has people he'll try to protect one way or another. And if you're looking for a fight, well... let's just say he won't go down quickly.]

ii. [later event; predator] my god / you said it yourself that you would never stop / until you felt the needle drop

[Alright well, plan A? Plan A didn't work out.

Sometimes that's just what's up. Sometimes you put forward a big held together plan and it just falls apart, and he can't get past how pissed he is about the whole ordeal. How dare the liches up top jerk him around like this, how dare they make him fight. He's not hunting down people, not even necessarily looking, but the destruction feels good and it's better than wallowing over the pain of death and rebirth. So Taako can be heard before he's seen in the way fire razes out from his fingertips and scorches pathways in the ice, the way he breaks open the lake without hesitation. Every click of his boots spreads out power, eyes straight ahead.

There isn't enough behind them for it to be right. But he won't come down until it's over.]

iii. [wildcard] what now? / the whispers and the screams

[If you wanna discuss other scenarios lmk! You can hit me up by PM or at

cancerously.]

[ He'd escaped her, and Lucretia had been beyond furious. She's put up with all his shit, been patient and tolerant and understanding while he did his best to push every button she had. She'd ignored it all, swallowed it back and kept smiling. And he can't do this one thing for her? Can't suck it up for once in his life and just die?

So she would have thought, upon seeing him again, that she'd be more than down for round two. Except that's not the way it works. She senses him before she sees him, nearly alight with arcane energy as he shatters the ice of the lake before him. Lucretia turns a corner, meets Taako's eyes...and smiles.

She doesn't have to say a thing. For the first time in years, she feels like they truly understand each other, like they're on exactly the same page, and she raises her staff wordlessly, sending a fire bolt of her own straight into the lake and watching steam explode upward. ]

[A lot's different, now. Taako's very, very good at surviving, but he underestimated where he shouldn't, took too many hits in too short a time. But that's not important anymore. None of it. What is important is that he's going to make every goddamn person who ever thought nothing of him pay. He's going to prove he can take any challenge, fight any battle, take down any asshole who has the nerve to get in his way.

If they had been on opposite sides before or now, Lucretia running from his ire, this would be a very, very different story. But that's not this tale. Not when the magic comes crashing into his vision and his head tilts up and sees her there.

A subtle grin plays at his lips, hands moving fluidly as he starts to walk across the destroyed lake top; he's levitating, not truly touching the ice more than using the broken floes to propel him forward through the steam before he touches down on the other side, the click of his heels on the bit of remaining permafrost.]

Enjoying the display?

It's beautiful.

[ It really is. The steaming, ruined lake, Taako levitating his way effortlessly across, the scorched vegetation lining the shore, exposed when the heat of the flames had melted the snow covering it. It's wanton annihilation, destruction for the sake of destruction, and she loves it. ]

Still, there's something...missing, don't you think?

[ The lake hadn't fought back, the ice hadn't screamed in pain or fear as it was shattered. Destroying it had felt good, she's sure, but there had been no challenge in it. No satisfaction

She looks at Taako as he lands before her, cocking an eyebrow. ]

Bored yet?

[He knows the feeling before she even said it. He can cause mindless destruction whenever, but the point is for someone to know. What's the point if someone can't feel it? What's the point if someone isn't in awe of him, afraid of everything he can do?

At least she understands. She gets it. And he may be formidable alone, but...

Taako's not foolish enough to look a gift horse in the mouth, on an already strenuous case.]

I've been bored for years, bubbleh. Catch up.

[He giggles a bit at his own joke, a little tease, not as malicious as his regular self would be to her.]

Sounds like you got an idea. Or a plan. I'll take either.

Hmm.

[ She doesn't have a plan so much as...a desire. An impulse to seek out life, and then to end it, as messily as possible. Screaming and begging and running and blood. And with Taako at her side?

They can really fuck up someone's day now.

Her smile broadens in response to his giggle, and she turns her gaze away from the lake, back in the direction of the housing. ]

I think the people deserve to see what we can do, don't you?

[ She glances back at him, just out of the corner of her eye, already eager to go. ]

I say we find an audience.

[He can feel it too, the adrenaline in his limbs and the push in his chest to go, go, go. As soon as her eyes are pointing his feet are itching to move, and he takes a few steps before he has to stop from just running off.]

We're gonna need a good one. Both of us, we can probably handle anyone here. Who could even be strong enough?

[There's so few here liable to give them a real challenge, and that's what he wants. He wants to feel powerful. That's not gonna work on some lowlife chumps.]

Nobody's gonna appreciate it if they don't fight back.

[ Lucretia's right beside him, heading back towards the housing and all the people there without a moment of hesitation. She nods in agreement as he speaks, thinking hard. He's right. They're too good. They can't let all this power go to waste on just anybody. ]

We need a challenge.

[ She looks up at him, a glint of excitement in her eye as she unconsciously voices his line of thinking. ]

Someone strong. Skilled. Someone who knows us, who can predict what we might do.

[ It'll be more dangerous than going up against a stranger, for sure. But isn't that the whole point? Taking people off guard who didn't know what to expect had been enough when it was just her, but with the two of them together, they could kill just about anyone in the city without even stopping to think. They need more.

They crest the hill, and Love's housing comes into view. Lucretia's gaze flicks over her own empty house to settle on the one next door, and then she glances over at Taako again. ]

Think anyone's home?

[Of course it'll be more dangerous, and of course it is the point. They need danger. They need expertise. They need--

His eyes drift from looking ahead, to looking at her, something utterly dangerous clouding the clarity in his head; it's almost visible in his eyes like a shadow, even though she isn't clear enough to see it.]

I bet someone is. Think I know how to get 'em out.

[He hasn't been home, since his revival. Do any of them know he even died? Did he simply disappear?

It'll be up to them to figure it out.

He steps quietly towards the door, pressing it open and putting on his best scared, quiet voice.]

Hey-- anyone home?

Taako!

[Trusting her brother like she does, it's no surprise that Lup falls for his bait, the elf's feet thumping down the stairs before she's right in front of him, disheveled and wide-eyed, just the barest hint of relief shining through her worry at the sight of her twin in front of her. Whole and alive. Completely safe, even after the nightmare this event has been. She'd been blowing up his phone since everything went down, since he disappeared from the house without a word, but Taako's just been too busy getting killed to keep his beloved sister updated. So she's just been left in the dark, feeling more panicky and fearful than ever, barely willing to leave the house.

But now he's right here and so of course Lup is going to throw her arms around him, dragging Taako in close, fingers curling into his hair, his clothes, trying to fill the void he'd left behind within her the last few days.]

Where were you, dingus? I was - [She trusts him so completely. There's just no suspicion on her end at all.] Fuck, I was so worried.

[ Perhaps the best part of this is just how well they work together. It's not that Lucretia had ever stopped trusting Taako - even when things had been roughest for him, even when he didn't know her and had no reason to trust her, her faith in him had never faltered.

The irony of what she's trusting him to do now, as he adopts a terrified expression and calls out in a soft, trembling voice, escapes Lucretia entirely. She steps to the side, out of sight of the front door, and lets Lup get a good three seconds of tearful, relieved reunion in before she steps back into view, smiling in a way Lup has probably never seen her smile before. ]

We missed you too, Lup.

[ And she raises her staff, casting Hold Person. Lup is just too powerful. Lucretia's not about to let her get the jump on them.

Besides. It's only right that Taako should get the first blow. ]

[He should have texted her. Had let her know when he left when he got axed, making a supply run before Lucretia, before Nate. By then it had been two days, rage's influence worked into the fabric of his revival, clouding his mind and leaving him drifting in the sea of his own power.

Maybe something in him didn't text her, despite knowing she was not the hunter this time, as the final protection from an addled mind. Maybe now it doesn't matter.

He holds her for just an extra second, some part of him reveling in the touch, the connection they have no matter what. But he feels the spell cast and steps back out her arms, and she'll be able to see his face for the first time. Something's wrong, something's so wrong, the way his eyes look cloudy and unfocused, the small but serene smile grin on his face as he steps back to give himself some room.]

You were right to be, babe.

[He knows Lucretia is leaving it open for him, and he takes it, gripping at the Krebstar as he casts Cone of Cold, ice and snow slamming from him in a cone directly for her.]

[It doesn't hit Lup at first.

She's standing there, holding her brother, teary-eyed with relief at the sight of him standing safe in front of her again, and then Lucretia slips into view. It just seems so normal. Just a family drawn together in the middle of a city gone mad, brought together through their old pain to reunite again under the hardships of this city, finally able to push past old hurt and be together again. For just a moment, Lup feels her heart flutter happily at the sight of the two of them standing side-by-side, at the hope that swells in her chest that two of the most important people in her life have repaired their relationship.

But then it hits her. And then it literally hits her.

Before Lup can even react, Lucretia's casting hold person and taking the elf's control over her own body away. There's enough panic that comes with that normally since the Umbrastaff, a cold, twisting fear that sets off her panic almost immediately. But that isn't it. Of course that isn't it.

Taako looks at her with a look she can't comprehend, with a face she can barely recognize, and attacks her. There's no chance of dodging, no chance of throwing up a counter spell. She can't move. She can't speak. She can't scream.

Lup can do nothing but just take the full force of the blow, the pain of this betrayal more significant than any damage their spells can do.]

[ It's about to get worse, Lup.

Lucretia watches intently as Taako casts the spell, her lips curving up into a satisfied smirk as the blast hits.

Lup's literally frozen, her eyes wide with shock and confusion, as much a victim of her own blind trust as of Taako's attack. Lucretia lets her spell drop; it hardly seems necessary anymore. Besides, she's got more interesting ways to paralyze the elf.

Before Lup can react either to Taako's spell or to being freed from Lucretia's, she casts Phantasmal Killer, and waits to see what manifests. There's no compassion in her eyes, just hard, cold hunger. ]

[Lucretia's all too right on this one.

It's nearly instantaneous, the immediate return of her movement to her, Lup crashing to the ground while she's no longer held stiffly in place, and the quick change of scenery, the familiar walls of their Hadriel home shifting from dulled paint to billowing, black curtains. Taako and Lucretia disappear along with it, the elf immediately curling her arms around her middle when she sees the curtained room she spent over a decade in materialize around her, no one else in sight.]

N-no - [Her voice comes out small, trembling and frightened, so unlike Lup it would be funny if the situation itself wasn't so tragic. One moment, her dearest friend and brother are working together to attack her, to hurt her, and then the elf is right back here, in the place all of her nightmares stem from, trapped and powerless and alone all over again.

Her whole body shakes, fingers digging hard into her own arms, Lup's breathing already going ragged, like every breath takes so much effort now.]

Don't. Please don't. N-not again. I can't. Taako - Taako, I can't. Lucretia, please.

[But she can't see them, can't see the pair standing there right in front of her, watching Lup fall to the ground and shiver, casting her wild gaze all around her, seeing a barrier around herself that neither of them can see.]

[It's weird. It just feels exhilarating to see her catch the trick to his spell, the ice hitting her as she stumbles back. He's readying for another spell, but Lucretia steps forward and something... shifts. There's no push back, no response from her, just a collapse and something that can't yet break through the haze shoving him forward like a marionette. She drops and and cries and something is just wrong and he unconsciously reaches up to press a hand against the side of his head, trying to steady a dizziness he's creating in his mind.

The other hand starts to reach for Lup, then redirects, and touches Lucretia's shoulder.]

Hey, woah, that's no fun-- she won't fight back if you do that. Thought we weren't just finding a scrub out here.

[He looks a little pale, and doesn't even know why.]

[ Lucretia doesn't react the way Taako does. Lup's not her twin, and she hasn't shared her memories the way Taako has.

He's right about one thing, though. Watching their target curl up helpless on the floor isn't satisfying at all. Hadn't they picked one of Hadriel's most powerful magic users for a reason? She still rolls her eyes, contemptuous of Taako's lack of nerve, but she drops the spell. ]

Ugh, fine.

[ Immediately, though, she casts Lightning Bolt, though this time Lup is free to fight back. ]

Come on, show us what you got!

taako | ota | predator and prey

friendship ended with lup, now taako is my best friend

HJLKSGDF now i wanna make that photo

please

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ok im just going for this hmu if u ain't down- ii

NAH IM HERE FAM

YAAAAAAAAAS

<3

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