hadriel_logs | Intro Log: Don't Wake Tonberry

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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!

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[God, who cares? He will in a minute, but right now, they could be at the bottom of the sea for all he cares. Polnareff lingers in the hug, relishing the tight grip Abdul has on him. Any awkwardness or hesitation is ignored; this isn't a moment for things like that.

He's still grinning as he pulls back, and he stands just a touch too closely. He's not about to allow Abdul to get out of his line of sight, not again.]

Yeah. Come on, let's--

[He nods towards one of the exits. There's a few of those stupid looking monsters wandering around, but they're easily avoided. Polnareff shoves his hands in his pockets, but doesn't yet move to go. Just waits, leery of stepping ahead.]

[He wonders how long it's been for Polnareff. Since he-- And he should ask. Yes, he should, and will, but right now--]

[It's not that he can't. It's that he doesn't want to. It's cowardly, but he doesn't want it to stop, the closeness, because there's no one more real than Polnareff, so this--it's enough to keep him together until the next step. If there is a next step.]

[He might just disappear between one moment and the next. There's no way of knowing. Or rather, there usually is, but not here, not now, not after dying. Is Magician's Red still with him? He's almost afraid to find out.]

[Polnareff nods to the exit but doesn't go. Abdul's brows draw together in a flash of irritation. You don't have to worry about me so much is on the tip of his tongue, but then--no. No, he can't, no matter how wrong he feels he can't act like Polnareff isn't in the right to be concerned. He's talking to a dead man, after all. For the second time.]

Mm. Let's go.

[He claps Polnareff on the shoulder (his fingers are all his fingers) and heads out of the exit, sure in his turn to make sure Polnareff doesn't get too far behind. Once he's outside, he pauses, looking up at the cave's ceiling.]

It's nearly as dry as Cairo, but nowhere near as hot. Spacious, but not outside.

Yeah.

[God, but he loves how clever Abdul is. He'd liked it before, but that was in an abstract, absent sort of way. He'd liked it because he could ask pretty much anything and get an answer. Only now does he appreciate just how brilliant his friend is.]

The buildings are messed up, too. Look--

[He points towards one of the spires. They're unsettling to look at for a reason Polnareff can't quite pin. It's just spirals, but he still glances away after a few seconds.]

[Polnareff sure is smiling a lot, even as he looks away from the spires. Abdul glances at them, too, then away, his brows furrowing.]

Are we supposed to be able to go in there? They don't look right.

[He sort of wants to go in the opposite direction from the buildings, but that doesn't make sense, does it? He glances from them to the colosseum, then in the other direction, towards the caves.]

I'm not sure any of these are good options.

[No, none of them look particularly appealing, do they? Polnareff glances around. They can't just stand here, though, and he doesn't want to go back. Those monsters hadn't been particularly threatening, but nor does he want to linger by them.]

Let's just walk around a bit. We don't have to go into anywhere, but it can't hurt to just see what's around.

[Yes it can. Of course it can. He hadn't lost Abdul in a fight; he'd lost him by just walking around. But this time is different, Polnareff thinks, and behind him, Chariot appears, hovering above them protectively. This time he won't fail. He won't let anything happen to Abdul, not here, not now that he's been giving this miraculous second chance.

(Third chance, something in the back of his mind corrects, and he shoves that thought away).]

[He turns to look at Polnareff just in time to see Chariot come out. Something about the Stand's posture--his expression tightens a little bit. It's understandable, he tries to tell himself, it's understandable, it's normal, it's fine, but it's not. He doesn't want it to go forward like this, not for either of them.]

[Glancing forward again, he searches for words that won't hurt. Something with the flavor of a joke to it, while still getting the point across.]

[Eventually:]

You know Kakyoin would ruin your day for hovering like that.

[The words are like a sucker punch. Polnareff gapes at Abdul, his breath leaving him in one harsh exhale. Shock grips his system, icy cold, and for a long for moments he's frozen in shock. Kakyoin, Abdul says, the name sliding off his tongue so easily, Kakyoin would ruin your day, like it's a joke, like he expects Polnareff to laugh in embarrassment and put Chariot away.

God, he doesn't know, does he? No. How could he? How could he, and yet the very fact he doesn't feels like a slap to the face.

They'd buried him, he and Jotaro. There hadn't been a body for Abdul, but they'd buried Kakyoin there in Cairo. They'd bought two gravestones, gotten them engraved, made them look fucking perfect. It'd been a shit funeral, just him and Jotaro and Mr Joestar, but they'd all stood and said a few words. God, Polnareff can't even remember what he'd said. Something about bravery, maybe. Cleverness. Those first few days after Dio's death are still a white blur, full of hospitals and heat and a grief so vast he'd become numb to it.

He's gone pale. He realizes he's stared too long at Abdul. He must realize something's wrong. God, forget something's wrong; he must know, just to look at Polnareff's stricken expression. He has to say something. He has to stop staring in shock. He has to--]

Kakyoin--

[He doesn't know where that sentence was going. Polnareff glances away, breaking their gaze for a moment. Heat prickles at the corners of his eyes, and with a rough exhale he shoves his wrist over his eyes.]

Kakyoin didn't make it.

[He knows. Oh, he knows something's wrong, he knows that right away. Polnareff's transparent on the best of days, and there's agony as easy to read on his face as if it was written there. He knows something is wrong, but it can't be that.]

[No. That's ridiculous. He hadn't wanted to die, but he'd done it for a reason: so that no one else would have to. So that Polnareff and Kakyoin and Jotaro and Joseph could live. So that it would end, finally, for all of them. So of course nothing bad happened to Kakyoin. That expression, it's for something else. Some other reason.]

[Anything else, really, would be all right.]

[It's not that, though. Not Kakyoin. Who had finally made friends, who was learning to trust himself, who hurt so much and had so much more to do--no.]

[No.]

[His expression just . . . freezes, in total incomprehension.]

What?

[He can't say it again. He can't. He didn't want to think about any of it in the first place, not Kakyoin or Abdul or Iggy. Abdul was alive, so surely the others would soon follow. Surely all of this was a mistake, one that was miraculously rectified. Abdul is alive, so they neither of them have to ever think about his death again. So too it will go with Kakyoin, won't it? He hadn't wanted to think about their friend at all, because soon he'd be here and he'd be fine.

But he can't deny Abdul anything. So Polnareff takes a shuddering breath and forces himself to meet Abdul's eyes.]

Fighting Dio, we-- he--

[He runs a broad hand against the space between his ribs. There, right there, and the morgue had done their best to cover that wound up, but it hadn't mattered, because he'll see that wound in his mind's eye for the rest of his life.]

He found out what the World could do. And doing so got him killed.

[Got him killed.]

[Got him killed. So--Kakyoin is dead.]

Kakyoin is dead, [he says, out loud, while looking at Polnareff. And mouths the words again silently, wrapping his mind around them slowly, like closing his bare hand around a hot coal. Kakyoin is dead. Kakyoin is gone. Kakyoin won't ever go home to see his parents. Kakyoin is lost. Kakyoin won't ever be found again. Kakyoin was murdered.]

[Kakyoin is dead. Kakyoin is dead. Kakyoin is dead.]

[They aren't far out from the colosseum yet. He turns his head back towards it and looks for a moment, his eyes distant, like he's looking somewhere else. He wonders if he could walk backwards into that place again and come out alive, stop all of this from happening.]

[He looks forward again--not at Polnareff, not at anything really, just forward. Then he looks down at his hands.]

[Kakyoin is dead, he tells himself firmly. He died.]

[I am dead, he considers, a moment later. Kakyoin and I are dead.]

[He stumbles. And with hands that don't feel like they belong to him, he reaches out blindly and steadies himself on Polnareff's shoulder, his grip too tight, fingers digging in, eyes unseeing.]

[Fuck, and he grabs for his arm, steadying him as best he can. Should he say something? What is there to say? Abdul is going through the same thing he'd gone through a few weeks ago, the same shock and horror, and there's not a damn thing that can pull him out of it.]

I know.

[He takes a step forward, closing the distance between them. I'm here, because those first few days in the hospital, all he'd craved was closeness with Jotaro. It didn't matter what form it took; so long as he could feel the warmth of his skin, hear the steadiness of his breath, watch the way his chest rose and fell, Polnareff was content. They're dead, but we're still here.

(Abdul isn't dead. It's like Judgement all over again: there was a mistake made, and Polnareff had thought he'd lost it all, but like a miracle, here Abdul is again. He's alive. He's alive, and he's fine, and they're going to be okay).]

I didn't want--

[What? He didn't want Kakyoin to die. He didn't want anyone to die. He didn't want to die, but here he is, dead, with Polnareff suffering, and he couldn't even protect the person who needed protecting most.]

[He didn't want any of this. He wanted to protect this family and their people. And he didn't.]

[He doesn't know what he's feeling. Grief and loss and horror, but distance, too. There's a hand closed around his heart, but it doesn't feel real at the same time. What should he do? Is he meant to be crying? He's pretty sure he isn't.]

[Polnareff is here. Polnareff is alive. That's good, isn't it? He didn't fail at this; he kept Polnareff alive.]

Jean.

[His voice is thin and cracked. All he wants to ask is why, but there isn't any reason.]

I know.

[He says it again, because that's all he's certain of. I know exactly what you're going through, and he tugs lightly at Abdul's arm.]

C'mon.

[They've no home to go to, but they can at least go somewhere a little more private. By its very nature, the arches of the coliseum make for private little alcoves. He pulls them into one, his back leaning heavily against the stone pillar. He doesn't let go when they reach there-- just holds on to Abdul's arm, fingers curling tight around his wrist.]

[It shouldn't feel safer, but it does. It shouldn't matter, because he's just as dead as he was before, and so is Kakyoin. But Polnareff is solid and steady; the way he pulls Abdul close makes him feel the twin warmth of relief and guilt, because he shouldn't be taking any kind of relief from someone who's had to be sad in his absence.]

[He lets himself be pulled, putting up no resistance. Once they're in the privacy of the alcove, he just looks at Polnareff for a while, his mouth twisted up in an understated sort of agony.]

[After a moment, and in total silence, he leans forward and presses his forehead to Polnareff's shoulder. Just for a moment, he tells himself. That's all. It'll be fine.]

[It doesn't matter how long it takes. Polnareff is content to stay here for hours if that's what's needed. His free arm wraps around Abdul's shoulders, keeping him pressed close, while his other hand keeps its grip on his wrist. After a moment he slides his fingers down, seeking out Abdul's own, gripping his hand in something uncharacteristically intimate.]

You can cry if you want.

[Murmured, and he tips his head up, staring blankly up at the stone walls.]

If-- if you need to.

[It takes him a while to realize that Polnareff's fingers are twined in his. As a result, it takes him a while to respond. When he does realize, he squeezes back ever so lightly, even as his eyes stare into nothing at the wall past Polnareff's shoulder.]

[The suggestion . . . it almost makes him laugh.]

I don't want to.

[Maybe he needs to. But he doesn't want to, and he feels like he can't. Instead, he wraps his other arm around Polnareff's middle, because that's as close as he can get.]

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Intro Log: Don't Wake Tonberry

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