hadriel_logs | Intro Log: Eight Legs No Heart

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Intro Log: Eight Legs No Heart

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for June.
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: June 10th-15th
Warnings: Spiders. Soooo many spiders. New people. Probably swearing.

For once, the new arrivals to Hadriel will not be waking up on the cold hard ground of the colosseum. Oh, sure, you'll still awaken in the arena - but this time the Door has been kind enough to ensure that you wake up comfortably arranged in a very nice chair. Or maybe not so comfortably. Some of those look pretty awkward - hopefully you didn't wake up with a crick in your neck! And hey, feel free to try to drag some of these super cool chairs to your new homes. They're probably not cursed or anything.

As you make your way out of the arena, be careful getting to close to the walls - well, except that's the only way out, so good luck! Chilling up on there waiting to get the drop on you are Skulltulas. These funky-looking spiders have squishy underbellies, but their upper exoskeletons are hard and very difficult to break through. They really just want to nibble you a few times, and maybe suck out all of your blood. No big deal, right? Have fun!

Have you conquered your arachnophobia and managed to escape? Great! Feel free to go explore the rest of the city! Find a house, find a new monster, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers June 10th-15th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► All characters arrive with phones that have network communication.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"But they will go somewhere else after a few days?"

That is good.

He makes sure to keep an eye on her and not lose her, but he will also look around, study the buildings and ruins that they pass, looking a bit longer at the far away walls of the cave.

"How big is the city?"

"They're supposed to."

Not promising that they actually will; there's always a possibility of a break in the pattern someday. Rey just can't see that being today.

She shrugs. "Pretty big. Not that it matters, since it seems like all of the previous tenants have been cleared out some time ago. We're all that's here."

A situation which may be familiar to Muscovy. Something to do with an uninhabited ship the size of Manhattan Island, perhaps?

It does indeed sound familiar. Which brings up another question.

"And nobody knows how to leave this place, yes?"

It was the same on the Tranquility, at least to a degree - the shuttles were there, but in constant need of repair. And while there were ways to pull things over from their worlds and send them back in the Drabwurld, none of those that had been pulled there possessed them.

...He probably should feel some kind of dread at that, but really, he's with Rey and Firo here, and unless there was a way to take them home with him (and assuming that this place is like the Drabwurld, like he assumed that the Tranquility was, where they would go home to the same time that they came from) he'd like to stay with them as long as possible, unless there is a way to stay together even if they go home.

Of course, it still hasn't struck Rey that Muscovy is one of those who already knows her. So far this conversation has been pretty par for the course, as she guides the stray child onto the city streets, heading in the direction of the spirals. Bringing him home doesn't even occur to her, especially since that isn't just her call to make now.

"They don't." She shrugs, and continues walking, not even looking at the boy when she does. "Suppose one could try their luck in the caves, but it doesn't seem that those who do end up so fortunate."

Rey, on the other hand, isn't willing to make that gamble. She's spent enough time in the caves to know where it leads...

Exactly back to where she started.

"Do they die?"

He's still speaking in the same cheerful voice as he has the whole time - they're just exchanging information, after all, and this is a very basic one. It might be a logical conclusion, but Rey expressed it very vaguely so it might be something else.

Especially coming from someone who climbs into the Tranquility alone when that usually gets people badly hurt.

The cheeriness of the kid's voice doesn't go beyond her notice, but she doesn't think it's too weird. Well, it's weird, but she's seen some pretty chipper people around here get by, despite their circumstances. It's just easy for Rey to assume that this kid is one of those weirdos.

"Probably. Definitely seen some come back worse for wear, though. Have gone through the tunnels before as well and haven't found any sort of exit."

A Rey Stunt that Muscovy would no doubt be so surprised to hear.

Seriously, she needs to stop being silly and take along company when she does such things.

"You took someone along, yes?"

Rey is very silly, even though that isn't quite the descriptor that she would ever use for herself.

"Sometimes." She shrugs like it's no big thing. "Don't really need to, though. Can handle things fine alone."

They're closing in on the Spires. Rey can just drop the kid off there and be on her own merry way. Or so she assumes.

It's okay, silly people mostly don't realize just how silly they are until he tells him, and sometimes not even afterwards.

"You should go with someone so they can help you if you get hurt or if too many monsters attack you, yes?"

Generally Rey is a quick study. When it comes to social tacts, however, she's a little slow on the uptake.

"Sure, whatever." Why does he seem to care? It's not like he knows her or anything.

Oh wait.

...

Hey, what do you know? They've made it to the Spire! At least this seems to be one of the intact structures. Sweet.

"Anyway, this is it," Rey gestures towards the tall, peculiar building. "Should be safe here, so long as you keep your door shut."

He nods and waits for Rey to lead the way.

After all they're going to her place, right?

Why is he looking at her like that?

"What? You need help finding an empty apartment or something?"

Can't you just do that on your own?

"But I will live with you, so finding an empty one would be very silly, yes?"

Rey is being very silly today. ...A bit more than she should be, really, and he's finally starting to wonder if something could be off here. She ...looks a bit different too, doesn't she?

With the exception of the scars on her face, there are some noticeable differences from the Rey that Muscovy remembers. For one, she's got all ten of her fingers, which would be a good thing, except...

"Why would you want to do a thing like that?" She arches an eyebrow. Although she's recently begun to live with Nick, Rey doesn't see herself as a particularly desirable roommate.

"Because you are my mother, yes?"

Duh.

....This is getting troubling. Now that he looks at her hands, too... does this mean that she forgot, like Galadriel? He doesn't like that idea.

What.

"What." Rey blinks. Did he just say what she thought he did?

She shakes her head. It isn't the first time someone has ever come up to her, acting like they knew her when she had no memory of them. Both in this world and her home. Having your head and memories tampered with tends to invite incidents like those. But what this kid is suggesting is something entirely new. No one has ever thought of her as a mother before.

Until now, evidently. But why?

"You must be mistaken. Can't be your mother. That's not even possible..."

Aren't we lucky that they had Sex Ed With Firo And Rey now, because Muscovy can guess what her issue with the possibility of being his mother is.

"Family does not have to be related by blood, yes? What is important is that you don't leave each other for good no matter what happens. And you are my mother so you should not try to leave me, yes?"

Not related by blood.

Well, that sort of explains some things. Sort of.

"That isn't... No. Am not your mother. Have never even met you before."

This is weird. This is so goddamn--

Wait a second.

...Waaaait a second.

"You wouldn't happen to come from some other world that you weren't from originally, would you?" She recalls the stuff Carlisle had said to her, and this is ringing all too familiar. "Do you know Firo, too?"

So that is how it is. For a moment, loneliness washes over him. It wasn't that bad when Galadriel forgot about him. She was his aunt, but only that, and had only been his primary caretaker for a fairly brief time. Rey... there is a reason why they had come to the conclusion that she should take the title of his mother. Because she just was a lot closer. To have her deny that she even knows him-

But that is the solution, isn't it? He just has to make her remember. Tell her all the things so that she will know that they are a family.

He nods, the smile returned. "He is my big bro. And you are my mother, and we are a family. We lived together on the planet, and when the other Rey came you adopted his last name and I did too. And you're the head of the household because the treehouse was yours and you're the strongest."

Well, his story lines up with what she already knows. Carlisle even called her 'Ms. Prochainezo' when they first met.

Still. As far as she is concerned, the 'Rey' that those two know is a completely different person. She isn't obligated to take on the responsibilities of this other Rey that exists in some other universe. Especially when that entails being some kid's mother.

"Apologies. Don't remember any of those things. Am not your family. Wouldn't wish that on anyone, anyway."

Rey had been pretty clear to Nick about what being family entails to her. How she has a track record for hurting them. No one should willingly want that.

"You cannot stop being family, yes?"

His smile might be a bit too sharp, too bright now.

Family is forever, that's the very definition of family. You can fight and hurt each other, but in the end you will come back together. You cannot leave for good, you cannot just walk away.

Once you have committed, you cannot back out, and it doesn't matter if the worlds are being silly and take her from a place where she won't remember yet.

This is maddening. Also absurd. While he is smiling, her jaw locks up and her hand balls into a fist. For someone who has tried and tried to disassociate herself from the mistakes of her past selves, accepting this is too much. Mostly because she doesn't even remember because it also wasn't her.

"No," she snaps, turning away before she can even look at the kid. "We are not family. Don't even know you."

Rey really is living up to the 'you can hurt each other' aspect of family, as she makes to leave. You can't just walk away? Well, she's trying.

"Trying" being the key word here.

Because Muscovy cannot force her - he's weaker than her, and he knows it - but he can follow her.

She'll come around and stop being silly eventually. He just has to be patient. Good thing that patience is a thing that he is good at.

...And now he's following her. Great.

Perhaps if she ignores him, he'll go away. She keeps walking, taking the long route towards their house. If Muscovy talks, she won't answer. Whatever he has to say, she doesn't want to hear it. Not about this other world, this other Rey, or this 'family' she supposedly had made for herself there.

While she doesn't look at him, she can sense the boy still following her by the time she makes it to her house. It's a strange looking structure, though not out of place with the architecture of this city. And spacious, to boot. Definitely not a place where Rey would be living by her lonesome.

It's also a significant upgrade from a treehouse.

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