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

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.

Muscovy doesn't say anything, and for a while she needs to turn around before he is noticeable.

That ends when his fairies decide that they have stayed in the canister that dangles from his backpack long enough and fly up, chattering at him with their bell-like voices, growing agitated that he doesn't answer before they're distracted by something that they pass and take off to look at that.

They return after a while, carrying a big bag of chips, and settle down on his head to open the bag and start to eat, so that the rustling of the bag and the crushing of chips announces his position.

He looks at the house curiously, but only briefly, because he is mostly focused on not losing her.

What the h--

When Rey hears those chimes, she does glance over, finding two little flying people floating around Muscovy before taking off. A brow arches as she turns to look ahead, acting as though nothing ever happened.

Hearing the bag crinkles and the chip crunching, the muscles in her face twitch a little more. He's still following her. Why? Because he thinks she's someone else. And while it's not like it's easy to mistake her face for another person, it's still a frustrating thought.

She scoffs to herself, continuing to ignore the boy as she makes her way through the front door. While she attempts to slam the door shut before Muscovy can make it through, there is a little space and window of opportunity for him to do so. Sneaky that he is.

He'll take the opportunity, slipping in after her, complete with munching fairies and big backpack, and then just stand there, looking around briefly while he waits for her to continue on. Or stay there.

Hopefully, she didn't trick him in here to then slam the door shut on him and run away, but if so... he'll find her again. He's fairly good at finding people.

As it turns out, the two of them aren't the only ones in the house. Hearing someone coming up the walkway, Nick had left his desk upstairs and headed down to the first floor, glad to work in the company of his roommate rather than in the silence upstairs. He's moving just a hair slower than usual -- those steps are giving his leg trouble again -- so he doesn't make it to the door by the time Rey's through it.

Correction: Rey and guest. Nick's glowing eyes start at the flying... insects (he'd swear they looked like something out of a children's book at first glace, but given he comes from a world where giant, radioactive mosquitoes are common, he's not ruling out that they're something more sinister). They trail down to the kid's backpack, finally landing on the kid himself, giving him a curious look. His gaze is only there a moment before it flicks back to Rey.

"Didn't know you'd be bringing company over." He'd have put on his trench coat if so, and maybe be less surprised by the fact that Rey brought home a child in the first place. Apparently, the Door had no qualms with bringing in even young kids.

The flustered ringing in her ears almost deafens her to Muscovy's presence when he breaks through the door. By then Rey is marching into the house, shoulders squared and hands in fists when she stops in the middle of the living room.

She blinks at Nick coming down the stairs, the ringing only just subsiding for her to make out his words. Her senses flare up again when it occurs to her what he said.

An "oh goddammit" blurts out of her mouth as her head swings from the child over her shoulder, and back to Nick. "I wasn't," she hisses through her teeth. "He just followed me here."

NICK HELP. Rey doesn't know what to do with a child that thinks she's their parent. In all of the many lives that she has crammed into her brain, this one is new territory for her. And that makes it terrifying.

He doesn't contest that he just followed her there - after all that is kind of what happened. So he'll just stand by the door, the fairies thankfully quietli sitting on his head as they watch the big things curiously, and wait for the two adults to have their conversation, looking Nick up and down with interest as he stands there. Who is this man, and how are him and Rey related?

It doesn't take a detective to see that Rey is being pushed to a limit by this kid's mere presence. Nick doesn't know why that is just yet, but he knows that her hitting any kind of an edge can make a situation dangerous in no time.

So he steps forward to diffuse the situation, to pull Rey out of it and let her decompress. "Let me handle this," he utters to her as he crosses the room, dropping to one knee before their guest to put him on eye-level. "You got a name, kid?"

Edited 2016-06-15 03:39 (UTC)

For as calm as the boy seems to be, Rey is the very opposite. Her unease is only slightly muted, but palpable enough that someone like Nick would be able to pick it out from a mile away.

She wants to tell him that the kid's crazy, but the facts lining up make that difficult. Still, when it had come to Carlisle, he hadn't expected much from her, if anything at all that she can recall. This one, whoever he may be, wants her to be his mother. A total stranger, no less!

Relief is visible in her disposition as Rey sinks back when Nick passes by, approaching the strange child with a more gentler nature than the one Rey had graced him with.

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