hadriel_logs | Event Log: Speak Your Truth

Entry tags:

Event Log: Speak Your Truth

Who: Everyone in the city
What: The event log for the Speak Your Truth
Where: All over the city
When: April 3rd-April 9th
Warnings: None

There's a secret burning in your chest. It's hot behind your ribcage, and you need to let it out or else it might consume you- but who would you tell? Who could even begin to understand what you need to say? Your closest friend? Your significant other? Maybe even someone you don't get along with very well? It's hard to know who to trust and who will even understand, but in a strange way, neither of those things seem to matter- all you can think of is what will cause someone the most pain.

Maybe you're trying to get it out in the open so you can put it behind you. Maybe you just need to come clean because the guilt is eating you alive. Maybe you just really want to hurt someone- regardless of the reason, you're aching to tell someone else your darkest secrets.

Will they understand? There's only one way to find out, and it won't be pleasant for either party involved. Good luck, Hadriel!

► This log covers April 3rd-April 9th.
► 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 your secret gets a bit bloody, please let us know here.

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Well, your soul would be nice.

[Look, she can't help it. That kind of reaction from him absolutely kicks her own deep instincts into gear and while it's almost a joke, it's also clearly true, even if it's not what she's here for right now. She smiles, but it fades.]

But I'm not here to kill you. Not this time. I want to tell you how I became who I am now. Maybe it would help, you know? Understanding.

Yeah, not happening.

[Not that he really has a choice in the matter if her sword sucks out souls or something. He doesn't know how demons work.]

You can say whatever the hell you want, just stay over there.

[Gods below, does she wish it were that easy here.

A wave of irritation flares up in her but she does her best to stay put for now, sword nowhere in sight.]

I will stay, then, and I will have nothing to do with Hell despite your disgusting colloquialism. I'm sure it's not your fault; mortal cultures conflate the two major lower domains out of fear. I didn't always understand the difference, myself.

Edited 2019-04-10 00:22 (UTC)

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[He doesn't realize she's taking him literally. He's still on edge, but he hasn't run away.]

What did you want to tell me?

[This is not really the time to educate him on her archenemies and anyway, talking about them tends to fill her with enough anger to completely sway from the topic she approached him for. Someone else can instruct him some day. Maybe. Mostly it's just not worth it.

It takes her a second to go on, being that the conversation isn't really one she wants to have, and yet she feels compelled to try.]

I... wanted to tell you about how I became like this. How I became involved with demons in the first place. I was not one originally.

[He marginally lowers the knife, more confused than anything.]

Okay. I'm listening.

[Though that admission alone raises a whole host of questions: can one be turned into a demon? Well that's horrifying.]

Good. It's a challenging thing to listen to for your kind, I imagine. Many mortals assume their races are composed of people who are generally good and kind, who want to help. Do you agree?

[Because knowing the answer to that will frame how she intends to go about this topic. Caedra doesn't merely disagree; she knows humanity is full of evil just as much as it contains good. It's one of the few things she enjoys about their race.]

Of course not. Humans are fucking vile monsters.

[He's pretty sure any kindness and helpfulness is ultimately a ruse for something sinister. There's not a lot of trust left in him.]

Ahh, so you know, then. You'll understand better than the rest.

[Possibly. She doesn't really expect much from him and the fact he's here and listening at all is interesting, given the details of their last encounter. And she would still rather enjoy killing him, too. Just for fun this time. But it would ruin her little attempt at sympathy so perhaps she'll hold off.]

When I was human, I did some of those rather vile things myself. But I had a purpose. A need, rather. Because I had nothing to my name, no means with which to earn enough money to get by on and little to look forward to until I realized I could ask someone not at all human for work. The lords of the Abyss, it seems, have ample use for human tools.

The lords of the Abyss?

[He's not sure what to make of that. He knows she means it literally, but he has no way to comprehend the true meaning of it. What's the abyss? How'd she interact with it? Is it the place with the wind dragons she'd mentioned over coffee?]

Okay so you killed a bunch of people when you were human too. Practice for now when you're not.

[She just nods at the question as if confirming. Yes, that's right, the lords of the Abyss. Doesn't that explain itself well enough?]

I suppose you could put it that way, yes. Humans are plentiful and their souls are a useful resource. I remember the first one well. I was shocked by how much blood there was and how little it bothered me. I had always thought killing someone was supposed to be this awful thing, and that soldiers and mercenaries become jaded to it over time but for the rest of us, it wasn't supposed to be like that. Like it ought to be traumatizing or difficult. But it wasn't.

If you think that their death has a purpose than it won't even bother you. You don't even notice them dying, or the blood really. It just .. happens. The only ones I regret killing were the ones I didn't want to. The others... I don't even remember.

[He blinks a little, not really wanting to go further down this path.]

Though you seem to enjoy it.

I do! I don't know if I did then, but I do now. You, though.

[Because hold on a minute, isn't that interesting? So there's more to Pratt than she had realized. It doesn't make her regret going after him of course, nothing of the sort, but isn't it funny to know that the terrified creature she had almost caught has killed a few of his own?]

I had no idea you had it in you. You use those guns, I imagine? Did you have a purpose?

Guns. Knives. Whatever is around.

[His fists. He strangled someone to death while sobbing about it. But they're still dead so all his remorse doesn't really mean anything. He stiffens up when she asks that, narrowing his eyes.]

Of course I do. It's you that are running around killing at random. I did it to further the mission of the Project.

What project? If I've heard of this before, I can't recall.

[Mostly because nothing most of these people say is worth remembering. This sounds like it might be, though, which makes her suspect this is the first time she's heard of it. A project whose mission involves killing? Why, humans really do think of everything, don't they?]

The Project at Eden's Gate. We're trying to cleanse the world in preparation for the Collapse.

[no.. wait.]

They're trying to cleanse the world. By killing everyone in their way. Killing them. Torturing them. Skinning them alive. You'd like them. Really your kind of people.

[Yes. Yes, they do sound like her kind of people, and her eyes widen a little with her delighted smile, rather like a child who had just been told she'd be given a piece of candy.]

What fun! Oh, I need to hear more. What's the Collapse?

The end of the world. When society collapses and only those who are worthy will survive. They're building bunkers and gathering supplies for the coming apocalypse.

[He lowers the knife somewhat, since it seems they're just going to be having a random conversation about the end of the world.]

I don't wanna survive in a bunker for seven years. I'll go crazy. Moreso than I already am.

[Apparently so. The compulsion to talk, to speak her piece, overrides her bloodthirst for now - and his topic is suitably fascinating that she wants to hear about it before she tries acting on the rest of her instincts.]

Yes, I imagine so. Your people don't do well in tight spaces for long. You tend to turn against each other like hungry rats. But why do they think their society is coming to an end? That's the most interesting part.

Because that's what we do, we kill each other. Everything we create we destroy, raze it to the ground.

We're doing a fine job killing ourselves without your help.

[A pause.]

Why did you want to tell me about what you did when you were human?

[Humans do well to kill themselves, it's true. But there's never any harm in encouraging them a little harder to kill themselves in greater numbers. Violence is just as beautiful when it's indirect, or so Amamot seems to have discovered, and so she is beginning to learn.

At his question, though, she frowns a little, then shrugs.]

I felt like it. I'm not really sure why. But I don't think it hurts, does it? Understanding that some of us come from similar roots, despite where we are now. If nothing else, it means you too can follow a path like mine.

Become a demon?

[He snorts.]

Jacob's already tried turning me into a killer, I don't need anything demonic added to it. I don't even know you're telling the truth.

No, you're right. You don't know. But for me, it was true, and I don't suppose you have a reason to doubt that, do you? That suggests at least that it's possible.

[And she's tired of proselytizing anyway, so suggesting the possibility is enough. That was a job for another life. If Pratt dies here and Hope does not revive him, his soul will go where all the rest go and he may become a demon whether he likes it or not, but far more likely is that he will simply be collected, bartered, and consumed as part of that great unending war in the lower planes. Even if he were to take her at her word and decide her path was for him also, without power and protection he would still probably be eaten by some other demon within minutes of birth. Such is the cycle of things.]

You have a sword that makes people decay, anything is possible I guess.

Are you offering that to me? You fucking hate me. Why would you do that?

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Event Log: Speak Your Truth

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