hadriel_logs | Intro Log: Don't Wake Tonberry

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for September
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: September 10th-13th
Warnings: Cute monsters, a way to pass the time, and plenty of newbies!

Waking up in Hadriel certainly has its down sides, but if this weird murdercave city is good at one thing, it's keeping people entertained. As you awaken on the hard ground of the colosseum, you might see a rectangular cardboard box lying near you. Ignore it for now, as you get your bearings, but if you get bored? Well, you'll find these exciting and unique board games will keep you entertained!

But how could you possibly get bored, when there are plenty of cute monsters around to keep you company? Sharing the colosseum with all the new arrivals are Tonberries. In addition to their natural cuteness defense, they also carry very large knives. They're slow-moving and look innocent and even friendly, but be careful - one strike from that knife and you'll be a bloody mess. They won't attack unless you get too close, but who doesn't want to hug a Tonberry? And of course, if you attack, they'll counter with extreme prejudice.

Managed to resist the urge to hug a Tonberry? Safely escaped from the clutches of the colosseum, new board game in tow? Awesome! 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 September 10th-13th.
► 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

i. colosseum :: i woke up on a foggy morning

[There is a man here who, for several long minutes, doesn't stand up. When he does, after what appears to be a great deal of thinking, it's clumsy and tentative, like the first steps of a baby deer. It's obvious he's survived plenty before he came here, from the triumvirate of scars on his face and the fact that, when he rests his hand by accident over a fragment of bone in the sand, he doesn't seem surprised. Still: he moves like he's never moved before.]

[It's shock more than anything. Shock at breathing, moving, being whole. It's not right, he knows; he has no delusions, no denial about what happened to him. He can't stand up in the way he normally would, because his arms were cut off, split between one world and the next, dimensionally cauterized. And yet once he gets to his feet, he gingerly wraps his arms around his middle and does his best to convince himself that, no, this is his body. All of it. Scars and arms and all.]

[He doesn't realize he's shaking for another few minutes, during which he stands. It's more inaction at once than he's allowed himself thus far in his life--which, well, that might be ironic, considering, but nonetheless: once he notices the trembling of his own hands, he frowns sharply and then smooths his expression out to vague disapproval. In the same moment, a remarkably solid apparition manifests behind him, over his right shoulder. This figure's agitation is more palpable, the feathers on its crest lifted in an attempt to look even bigger than usual.]

It's all right, [is what Abdul says, entirely on automatic, and bends down to sift bloody sand through his unbelievable hands until the only thing left in his palm is that fragment of--]

Femur? [Except he still can't tell if it's human.]

ii. caves :: hiding from the sun

[Attempting to escape, and quickly, makes the most sense to him. No matter what he's told, he does know both that he's very, very dead and that this isn't the way any kind of afterlife should look. Which means something is wrong. Which means there's a problem. Which means he has to fix it.]

[That way, at least, he's in his comfort zone. It would make sense that the only way to escape a cave would be to navigate out of it, and Abdul has a fair amount of confidence in his ability to do so; he steps into the labyrinthine caves with Magician's Red still striding behind him, the flaming ankhs of his compass rose leading the way. They ought to lead him out, or at least not get him lost worse.]

[There are two problems with this, though. The one is obvious. Every time he thinks he's made some progress, he ends up back in the greater cave, in what he's come to know as the city. The second problem, though . . .]

[Even with his own fire lighting the way, there's a palpable similarity between this place and that place--the void. He can breathe here, but every few minutes he starts to panic and feel as though he can't, as though those jaws are closing around him again and pulling him into nothingness. Magician's Red's muted avian noises of displeasure echo off the walls--and then, suddenly, they're echoing more, doubled and tripled until the section of cave they're in sounds like a bunch of birds yelling at each other.]

[The cacophony is comforting, somehow. He sighs and sits down on one of the less-pointy rocks, giving the echo flowers a dubious look and an exasperated noise. The compass floats towards him and pulses in time with his heartbeat; that helps, too. If his heart is beating, then Cream is not here. Logic. Whether he's truly dead or not . . . that's something he'll have to worry about later. For now, he sings something soft to himself, or to his Stand; even he isn't entirely sure. The flowers pick it up in a round sort of way, which doesn't quite work. But it's much better than silence.]

iii. library :: but it came out

[He doesn't mean to get sidetracked by facts, but that's sort of Abdul's way. He was all ready to keep searching for a way out, but after his repeated and sound defeat in the caves, when he gets back to Hadriel he finds his exhausted mind distracted by the architecture.]

[It's bizarre. Like nothing he's ever seen before. It makes him think, as tired as he is, about what the advantages would be to building a city with a hexagonal theme. Architecture is, in its way, evolutionary; what is the evolutionary benefit of a six-sided building?]

[He wants to know. So he heads to the library. It . . . is a massive disappointment, and that's the kindest way he knows how to put it. There is very nearly nothing relevant to his research on the history and architecture of Hadriel, although he does find a book on bees that he flips through thoughtfully for a while. After that, though, all bets are off. This library is disorganized, and he is an organizer, which means that he's going to at least try to make a dent in all of this. He gets to work reshelving, then switches after about an hour and a half of that to careful repairwork, especially of the burned books.]

[The thoughtful might notice a certain frenetic quality to the way he looks for tasks, switches between them, constantly reprioritizes. He is ordinarily more focused than this. It's hard to focus on anything now, though. This is--unfortunately--the best, the only thing he can do.]

iv. exploring ( apartments & shops, sept 11-13 ) :: & it shot its rays down

[Eventually--and slower than those who know him well might expect--Abdul's practical side wins out. He needs to find a place to stay, and he needs to find food. Somehow he got roped into finding a place with Polnareff, which is fine; it would be strange at this point to have a full night's sleep uninterrupted by a Stand attack or Polnareff asking him a three-in-the-morning question about whatever subject he's considering that night. It's often food-related.]

[Regardless: he can be found with Polnareff looking at apartments, or rather, he will be looking, Polnareff will be exclaiming loudly either in a positive or negative way. Even after they've made a decision, though, Abdul lingers around the building; he still doesn't understand the architecture, and not understanding it is really bothering him. There has to be some reason for this, and yet . . .]

[And yet they still need food, so off he goes to get that squared away. On the way home (with his and Magician's Red's arms full of bags), he stops in at the park. A nice moment of peace, he thinks, before heading back into incomprehensible chaos--but he takes a few steps too far in, and there's old blood everywhere, on the statues and the benches and stained even into the bark of the trees.]

[Abdul rolls his eyes and gestures pointedly with a loaf of bread.]

There has got to be somewhere in this city that no one's bled on yet.

[ Aside from the colosseum Wanda sometimes goes to the caves. They're emptier since the extinction, but she's learnt to see here with scarlet, in the intent of what's usually lurking or the echoes of someone lost. It feels human. She calls out, ]

Hello? Who is here?

[He stops signing abruptly. His Stand's hearing isn't particularly acute, but it doesn't need to be; even if she hadn't announced herself, the compass rose is flaring in the direction of her voice. He considers standing, then--doesn't after all.]

Not an enemy, I don't think.

[ Not inaccurate. Wanda walks calmly towards him, the last few tendrils of her power drifting away. He's the one carrying the light. ]

Are you lost?

Intro Log: Don't Wake Tonberry

mohammad abdul | ota

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