hadriel_logs | [OPEN] Use Your Heart Like a Weapon

Who: Amos and YOU
What: Amos is bumming around Hadriel, feeding the fish and being a nuisance. Careful, he’ll see you and start talking to you!
Where: The river, the orchard, Delight’s bar
When: June 22nd onward
Warnings: Alcohol and probably swearing?

Hurts Like Heaven, by Coldplay

Pisces: Amos sits beside the river, near the bridge that crosses close to Rage’s temple. He’s throwing out handfuls of bread to the fish in the water, and occasionally making nonsensical commentary out loud. Half the conversation is mental, as he listens to the piscis thoughts and small details of daily lives, which is generally rather boring to anyone not interested in algae, rocks, mating, or territorial squabbles. Amos, being Amos, is somewhat interested. Mostly he comes to see if there’ve been any changes to the river: monitoring the fish is a good way to keep track of that.

“Well, it’s nice of you to offer, an’ I do appreciate it, but I think you’d better keep that patch of riverbed to yourself. You’ll find a nice lady fish you can spawn with, I bet.”

Orchard: With a basket under his arm, Amos is wandering the strange orchard and picking likely-looking fruits. As he walks under the cave-trees, two of the jabberjays swoop back and forth, pecking at fruits and Amos’s head as they pass. Amos tends to duck right as they dive at him, but he doesn’t always: it’s a game. Occasionally he throws a twig at them, not to hurt but in play.

While Amos’s walk is nearly silent, the birds are cheerfully screaming at and scolding him in various voices.

Delight’s Bar: Amos comes here often enough: he enjoys the bar and the company more than the alcohol, truth be told, but he’s not above a nice drink or two every few nights. He’s quite pleased to find Delight herself is behind the bar this evening, and he promptly bops over to pay his respects to the goddess.

“Hey there, sugar. How’re you this fine evening?”

He’ll scan the rest of the room in a minute, see who else of his friends is here and make the rounds, but first things first.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Amos looks up at the Alcohol Demon and grins brightly, pleased. "Hey chief! How're you?" he asks, delightedly. "Ain't seen you inna bit. I'm feedin' the fishies. Wanna help?"

He offers up a handful of breadcrumbs, so the Alcohol Demon can have some of his own to throw to the hungry, eager fish.

"I went wandering in the caves hoping they'd be less boring than here." He ignores the offered bread, looking down in the water at the fish, trying to figure out what's so fascinating about them.

"In case you were wondering, they're not." They are however; full of monsters and the Demon spent most of the time getting lost and then having the shit kicked out of him.

"Any particular reason why you're feeding them?"

" 'Cause they like it?"

And thus Amos likes it. What other reason is there? He peers at the Alcohol Demon, then looks down at the fish. " 'Cause it's a thing people do, sometimes. Kids, mostly. An' the fish enjoy a treat now'n'en, like everybody else."

"Seems like a waste of food."

And a waste of time. Though it's not like there's much to do here, but staving off boredom by watching fish eat seems like it's really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

"Would you be able to tell if they didn't like it?"

"Yeah." Amos glances at the Alcohol Demon with a 'duh' look, then clarifies. "I can talk to animals."

He casts another handful. "We've got plenty to eat, an' kindness never hurts, even if it's to the littlest of critters."

"You know, I want to say something snarky, but one day the gods will flood the place and you'll be saved by the fish and I'll have to eat my words." He leans on the railing of the bridge to watch the fish swimming below.

"Do the fish have anything interesting to say?"

Amos barks a laugh. "Nope, I'll be nibbled on just like the rest o' ya'll. They ain't all herbivores." He points to several circling the feeding frenzy, darker shapes in the water with enormous eyes and needle fangs. Cave fish: always creepy. "I can never convince predators I ain't worth eating. They always gotta try it."

Shaking his head, he adds, "Fish don't think much, though. It's mostly food, territory, an' sex."

"Sounds just like people." He didn't move, watching the fish swim round and round.

"Maybe you're delicious, never know. I get pecked at by birds all the time back home so I'm assuming I'm a rare delicacy."

"...Iiiii didn't think you were edible?" Amos asks, turning to look at the Alcohol Demon. "I mean, um, you don't look very, uh, fleshy. Do the jabberjays here do it?"

Because if they do, Amos can ask them about the attraction.

"I don't think I am. Then again, nothing survived long enough to really get a good mouthful." He manifests a baseball bat and drops it into the water just to watch the fish swim around it.

"Those the stupid talking ones? Not yet. But then again, the ones back home were being driven mad by the Oro. Birds are susceptible to sonic soundwaves."

"Right, 'kay." Amos blinks a little, and watches as the fish scatter in alarm before the braver (and greedier) ones start nosing back. "So....what's the Oro?"

Gold in Spanish, but he doubts that's what it means when the Alcohol Demon uses it.

"A cult that wants to take over the world. They're fucking welcome to it. Place is a cesspool."

Watching the fish dart away and then back was only marginally interesting. He's definitely not seeing the appeal of fish. "They're trying to drive people insane with sounds and drugs so that when they swoop in and fix it everyone thinks they're the hero. While they're busy infiltrating government and whatever it is they think will further their goals."

"...riiiight. Sounds like fun." Amos grimaces. At least he can say that about the yakuza: world domination is not one of their goals. Kameko is of the opinion keeping her organization on the rails is hard enough as it is, why add the world to her list of chores? Amos agrees.

He throws the last of his breadcrumbs, then dusts his hands off over the water. An eyeless albino specimen rises gracefully to the surface to eat these last few pieces.

He tilts his head, he likes that one, like a ghost among the normal colored fish. He can relate.

"It's stupid is what it is." So this place is almost like a vacation for him. Almost. Except he's bored as fuck most of the time. "I do wonder why this place brought us here. Unless the world ended and this is some fucked up afterlife for the people who didn't make the cut."

"Kinda doubt this is Hell, though Purgatory ain't out of the question," Amos answers breezily. He's pretty sure the world hasn't ended quite yet...at least, not his world. There was a distinct lack of apocalyptic signs before he'd woken up here. "Hope says we're here 'cause Fear opened a magical doorway, and it's just pulling through people an' monsters. An' they don't know how it works. Which is pretty typical of enchanted items, actually."

"That's great isn't it? The people running the place have no idea what's going on either. Somehow I'm not surprised in the least."

He almost tosses another bat into the water, but the fish aren't swarming like they used to with the lack of food being thrown at them. "We'll probably just pop up back where we came from and have this story that no one will ever believe."

Amos laughs. "Hey, happens all the time in fairytales. Might just happen to us too. If we're lucky it'll still be the same year an' everything."

And if they're unlucky they'll be like Rip Van Winkle, and everyone will be dead. Amos has met one man who was fae-enchanted and slept for years beyond his time: he was not a happy man. Amos is certain he'd feel the same way, if that happened.

[OPEN] Use Your Heart Like a Weapon

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject