hadriel_logs | 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

They should have never left Winterfell.

[ it is as if they are speaking of two girls foreign to them. as if arya and sansa were two girls they had known once, two girls who left the north and had learned their lessons of the way of the world. ]

Not for romance and charm nor for adventure.

No.

[ Arya says softly, a quiet agreement. She finally sits, hands folded, picking at the insides of her nails. Every so often she'll steal a look at the other girl, the girl who was once Sansa Stark and is now her own version of no one.

Never have two sisters been more similar. Arya hates it. But at least Sansa is here. In Hadriel, things can be hard, but they can be better, too. Better than Westeros.

Arya moves in a burst, wrapping her arms around the other girl and vowing to never, ever let her go again. ]

Sometimes, [ she whispers ] I can be Arya again. And you might be able to be Sansa, here.

[ the bread falls from her hands which begin to tremble. alayne stone is stronger than sansa stark, wiser too. a baseborn girl has more wits to her than a silly lady with her romantic notions of beauty and love and gallantry but she begins to cry nonetheless, silent tears pressed into the skin of the girl who holds her. ]

Why would Arya care for her sister Sansa? She had been terrible to her, entirely awful. By right, she should prefer Alayne.

[ Arya doesn't respond at first. She just squeezes her sister -- not Alayne, her sister, she has to remember -- tighter. She's having a hard enough time convincing herself that the girl in front of her is really her sister. Arya doesn't want any extra doubts, not when she has so many. ]

Sansa was a child. And so was Arya.

[ Arya bites her lip, still choking back tears. ]

They -- they didn't know what cruelty really was. What it could be like.

[ sansa raises a hand to wipe at her hands, at hot tears that come out without her control and thaw the controlled, distanced expression she had worn for months and months, for years, nearly. ]

I thought they would be good. I was so stupid. I thought they would show him kindness.

[ their lord father, eddard stark who is so long ago dead and always, always in sansa's heart, in her dreams, the good and the bad ]

It was my doing. It was because of me that he is dead.

They should have. They ought to have shown him kindness, they ought not to have accused him of anything, for he did nothing. They lied, each and every one.

[ Arya says, with the anger and conviction that Sansa might have heard after the Hound killed Mycah over what Joffrey did. Her voice is a little harsher even still, toughened by years and experience. She grips the other girl's shoulders tightly. ]

It was not you. That is as much of a lie. It was Queen Cersei and King Joffrey, and soon, their debt will be paid.

[ And Arya will be the one to ensure that. ]

Joffrey is dead, he died at his wedding, he choked on poison.

[ and sansa had somehow found it in her to feel sorry for him, the little fool, the boy-king who gave her naught but torment. she hoped he would die but watching him had been horrid. ]

The queen she -

[ she loses track of what to say, she grasps at the girl's hands ]

If she finds me, she will kill me. She thinks I killed Joffrey, I did not. I wished it, I wished for it dearly but I did not kill him. She wants my head - Sansa's head, Alayne Stone came to be so Sansa Stark will not fall into the hands of the Lannister queen.

Would that I had killed them.

[ Arya says, coldly. It's not the way Arya Stark of Winterfell would have said it. This Arya says what she means. She is not a soft child anymore, sheltered by Winterfell's walls and her father's kisses. She knows she will never see either of those again. ]

Then Queen Cersei would not wish to kill you. But I will still kill her.

[ She grasps Sansa's hands in return. ]

I will keep you safe. I swear it. You need not be Alayne when you are with me.

I do not want you to.

[ sansa has already lost so much to the lions of lannister, both her and arya have. their lord father and lady mother and robb and bran and rickon, all gone and taken from them by treason and cruelty. she wants them to die, queen cersei and her men, the freys and the boltons and all those who have taken winterfell, she wants someone to kill them but not arya. because if arya tries - if arya tries they might take her too like they did robb before her ]

All we have is one another.

But I can. I've been practicing.

[ The kingsroad, Harrenhal, the House of Black and White: they were all good for one thing, at least. They made Arya stronger. Less like herself, perhaps, but the girl has to die for the wolf to be born. ]

Who else could? Who else will?

[ But she understands Sansa's fear, and adds, slowly: ]

But if it means I will lose you again...then I will not do it. Not until the time is right.

[ Arya Stark, learning caution. Times have changed. ]

Intro Log: Eight Legs No Heart

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