hadriel_logs | Intro Log: Death Comes

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for July.
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: July 10th-15th
Warnings: Deathclaws. That's all you really need to know.

As usual, the new arrivals in Hadriel will be waking up on the dirt ground of the colosseum, and as usual, they won't be waking up alone. This month brings coat hangers of all shapes and, uh, sizes strewn about the colloseum floor around all of the new arrivals.

Get up, get out, meet and greet, find some new exciting interior decorating options, but don't forget about the more prominent threat: the (newly) local deathclaws roaming about in the inner halls of the arena. These deathclaws are vicious bipedal creatures with long arms ending in curved talons, horns ripe for goring and, of course, teeth as long as fingers. These animals have been engineered to be as deadly as they can possibly be, so you might want to buddy up before taking one on.

Have you escaped from the deathclaws? Made a few friends? Not died horribly? 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 July 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

[ Handshake delivered, Lir finds himself briefly at a loss for what to do with his hand, before remembering it has a place beside the rest of his body. He picks himself up in an end, straightens. Then, reasonably: ]

There's all manners of sorcery. [ Curt, cruel, kind. Sometimes, involving kittens. He has witnessed his share of performances. ] It could be they're alive, only reshaped. It seems only kind to shake a hand held to you.

[ In the event that there is magic at play, and these hangers are, in fact, animate. One must cater to all realms of possibility, however strained away from probability. ]

Not to trouble you, but do you know where the forest has gone?

[ He doesn't recall the castle woods as prone to flight, but you never quite know when a forest gains a whim. ]

[Already this guy is reminding Firo of one of the things that vexed him most about people like Isaac and Miria: their ability to say absurd things as if they're totally reasonable. At least this guy isn't as loud.

...Come to think of it, Firo realizes he really has missed their antics. He smiles faintly just thinking about it until the next question brings him back to reality.

Forest? Firo'd assumed he was new, but maybe he means the orchard.]

Sorrow's forest? It's right where it's always been. Not that it's been there for long--it just showed up a bit ago.

Oh.

[ He leaves it, for one-two-three blinks, just at that. The forest's shown up recently. Yes. Some forests are simply of a mind to do that, and there's to be no helping them. Lir understands. One can't control the whims of inanimate wood.

Alas, his hand comes up, palm outward as if to physically mark his objection: ]

But I am not searching a forest of sorrows. I would not know what to do with them, if I found them out. [ Softer now, pensive: ] Experience the discovery, I suppose. That is the frightening part.

[ And back on his previous track: ]

I am looking for a forest of unicorns.

[Firo listens with one eyebrow raised, waiting further explanation of the forest issue. So it sounds like the guy is new, which might explain a lot here.

Or not, because Firo's pretty sure getting dragged to a new world shouldn't make people start spouting fairy tales.

He very valiantly holds in a groan.]

Unicorns? You know those don't exist, right, pal?

[ That... sees every line in Lir's body stiffen, his back and the hands that abandon finding purpose, only to focus more keenly on not jumping up to signal his mounting objection. ]

There are. [ Slowly. Carefully. No edge of bite yet, but a hint of frustration swimming amid melancholy. ] There are unicorns. They exist. In fields and in woods, and —

[ The breath that leaves his lungs is harsh, heavy. ]

And in castles. Once. But not anymore.

[If this guy is anything like Isaac, with his Alcatraz fairy, then Firo knows trying to convince him of the ridiculousness of unicorns is impossible. He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. Okay, let's see where playing along gets him.

He looks back at the man and folds his arms over his chest.]

All right, let's say there are unicorns. What do you want with 'em?

I want...

[ Well, isn't that the question. He supposes it depends with the season. Today, he wants very little — to see her, perhaps. That'd be enough.

But it's a difficult need to put in words before a stranger's scrutiny; not for the first time, Lir's mouth fails him. The stammering's staccato, incomplete. ]

I don't know. But I will, when I'm beside them. I'll know how to speak and how to look and how to think of them. I'll know enough to forget there ever was a time when I didn't know it.

[ And all this, with conviction. ]

But I must find them first. If you see one... please. Please, let me know.

...Uh, okay. Sure, I'll do that.

[Firo's pretty sure that's not how reality works at all--magically knowing what to do with something when you find it--but he imagines at this point that arguing won't do much.]

What're you gonna do in the meantime? Until you find your unicorns.

[ A question for poets and philosophers and an entire brigade of men who do their business of thinking, while leaving the likes of Lir to more wholesome devices: say, slowly patting his sword and pondering the vast horizon.

That's always done him a great deal of good and will certainly not fail him now. ]

I'm... not entirely certain. Or mostly certain. Or in part.

[ He gives his shrugs like he might his apologies, weak and almost regretful to be there at all. ]

I suppose I should put myself to use. Whatever the use. Have you... dragons to slay? Curses to vanquish? Mountains to climb?

[ He can't well say why so many heroic deeds involve mountains, or why men expect to set their heroes upon them — only that it's the done thing, and so Lir must (will) perform it. ]

No to all of those, but there are caves full of monsters.

[He shakes his head.]

Is that seriously what you do? Don't you have a normal job or anything?

[Slaying dragons is probably not something a guy with a typical day job would come up with. You don't think of slaying dragons unless that's a usual skill or you've read too many books.]

[ Caves... full of monsters. Acceptable, to a greatly stretched extent. Lir supposes there's nothing too legendary about seeing a creature in its own home, and that's always what unearthing monsters from their lairs has seemed like: the littlest bit rude.

He has the sense not to say so — after all, this young man has gone to such trouble to find Lir a purpose. It can't be helped that it should be the littlest bit... morally decrepit. ]

Sometimes... I guard a castle. [ A pause. ] I guarded a castle. A good deal of it fell. [ And another. ] I suppose I may not have been particularly skilled at guarding.

I appreciate the honesty, but you might wanna keep that to yourself, eh?

[At least Firo doesn't really have a horse in this race. He shrugs and moves on.]

I don't think there're any castles here. There aren't any back home either. What were you guardin' it from? More dragons?

Strangers. Enemies of the kingdom. [ An awkward cough. ] Dust.

[ There was, memory kindly reveals, a less than exhaustive list of tasks set before the guards of Haggard's castle. Lir, for his part, can't imagine why. It was surely the sort of palace of ruins that many an unkind man would feel at ease claiming for their own. Sure... ly.

His eyes lift to the boy's again, soft. ]

You've never guarded, have you?

[ Someone who has might understand the aimlessness. ]

Dust? So you were like a maid too?

[Firo would laugh at his own joke, but the final comment has him narrowing his eyes. Should he be offended by that? He will be, just to be safe.]

And what the hell is that supposed to mean, huh, pal? How would you know?

[For all this guy knows, Firo's guarded tons of things! Not that he has, he just doesn't like being underestimated.]

Intro Log: Death Comes

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