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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( what. on earth. he's flattered, Em, really, but this is mildly... out of character, for the you he was with on that mountain (and he hasn't noticed yet, that her hair is longer or that she's thinner, that she's not the Emily he was with on the mountain.

give him a minute, maybe it'll spark in his brain.) )

Em. Hey. ( he grips her shoulders, her upper arms, tries to peel her away from his body to look at her, to get her to calm down.

and then it clicks, sparks away. a little fire lighting up in his head. ) You look... different.

( lean, longer hair, less put-together. not even in the same clothes she wore that night. )

... What's going on?

[Okay. Okay. Breathe. Pull yourself together. Emily lets go and allows him to push her back a bit, and evevn though she's been hoping for this moment for goddamn months, nothing could prepare her for this. For the confusion twisting his face. For the disconnect between them thanks to this fucking hellhole and its shitty timing.

She's not prepared. She doesn't know what to say.

So she marshals her thoughts together, takes a deep breath, and marches forward.]

It's a long story. I-- We're not on the mountain. This place... I've been here seven months. Seven months, Matt. [Hence how she's changed, in so many respects.

She shakes her head, looks down briefly, gets ready to explain some more, but all of that gets pushed aside when she sees the dressing on his thigh, his cut up, bloody sweatpants.]

Oh my god, are you okay? What happened? What was in there with you?

Edited 2016-09-10 19:16 (UTC)

Seven...?

( hold up, trying to process. )

I don't-

( understand. this could be a prank. it could be, but there's something in Emily's voice, in her behaviour, in that fact that she looks totally different that makes him believe it's all true.

but it's completely unbelievable. )

- We were just together. On the mountain. Like, just now.

( how could this even happen? he'd almost, almost be able to understand them both turning up right now, together. but that he blinks or passes out or something and turns up with her having spent seven months down here, alone?

what???

oh. and as for that other question; ) Uh, yeah. I'm... fine. It's patched up.

[...yeah, there's no good way to get into this. If there were, she would've figured it out and led with that.

Or maybe she wouldn't have, because it's Matt and some part of her still can't believe he's really here (she grabs his wrists, her hold firm but not tight; she's not letting go, she's too scared he'll disappear if she does) and she's pretty sure she'd mess up telling him no matter what.

Breathe. Fix this. No abstract bullshit about the Door or the gods. One thing at a time.

Okay. His leg. Let's start with that.]

Are you okay to walk a little farther? There's a house-- Chris is here too. [Best not to tell him about Hannah quite yet.] There's all these empty houses, so we've been living in one of them.

[She glances in the direction of the house, fingers shifting a little against his wrists. As soon as she looks at him again, though, she has to swallow against the tightness in her throat.

God. He's really here. Matt's here.]

I'll explain on the way, okay? Just-- let's go. Whatever attacked you could wander out here and try to kill us.

[That's not exactly true. Monsters don't leave the colosseum on arrival day. But if it'll get him to move, to head to the house with her and let her start telling him about this place and how it doesn't need to make sense to work, then she'll tell him a harmless little lie.]

( he doesn't often argue, and even though this is all very strange, Matt can't say he wants to argue about Emily being this... nice. this affectionate. he slips his wrist from her grip and grabs her hand instead, a firm squeeze that says I'm here, because-

well, she seems freaked as hell, whether because of this place, or his presence or not or-

something else? Matt has no idea, other than the fact that he's never seen Emily like this, not even when she was hearing about Josh's murder, and so he has to do something, right? just because they haven't been having the best night so far doesn't mean he has to be a dick when she's this upset. )

Yeah, I'm fine-

( and wait what. ) Chris too? What about Ash? Or- ... Or Sam? Jess?

( or Mike, maybe? Josh is... shit. he can't quite believe that happened yet. )

And- sure. Let's go. ( he would have let her lead him anyway. )

[Of all the things that could help her ground herself, it's Matt holding her hand that does it, because it means it's him, the boy she'd grown so fond of back home, the one this place had shown her she probably loves. He's here, he's still the calm, supportive boyfriend she remembers.

Emily can be herself again.

Without another word and without letting go of his hand, she leads him down the street and towards the house. His question of who else is here, the names he lists, doesn't outwardly faze her -- or at least, not enough that it's noticeable as they move at a quick walk.]

They're not here. [Not anymore.] Chris got here before I did, but he'd been on the mountain longer. You know how there are all these stupid video games about time travel or alternate dimensions? This is another dimension, and the thing that brings us here, it like, takes people from the same place at different times. So Chris says he remembers making it off the mountain at dawn, but I never got that far. You and I called for help, and the towet fell, and I made it back to the lodge, and then I got here.

[That's a lot. Shit.]

It sounds crazy, I know, but that's not even the weirdest thing about this place.

( he keeps up with her steps, not only because he would like to sit down, take the weight off, but because he needs to try and understand what's going on, what Emily means by all of this.

(and he's still assuming she's telling the truth, because this is just too absurd to make up, because she's way too rattled to be playing a part here.) )

Wait... the tower fell? ( Em, spoiler alerts kthx. the alarm comes through clear in his voice. but- but they really needed to get there. she mentioned making the call, which means something went right at least but-

most importantly? ) Were you okay? You weren't hurt, right?

( MATT IT HAS BEEN SEVEN MONTHS. )

[Really? That's what he chooses to focus on? She's maybe half a second from telling him just that when what he said really clicks.]

You-- oh my god. [She stops, her grip on his hand loosening a little.] You didn't get that far.

[Which means...

Shit. He doesn't know much at all about what happened.]

Matt, [she starts, her voice low, her frown deep. When she continues, the words are almost flat, but there's enough in the way she intones them to let him know she's being serious. (She's learned her lesson. She's never pulling a prank that big again. Even if she hadn't learned, she wouldn't be doing it now. This is too serious.)] What's the last thing you remember?

( his expression falters, flickers in not understanding. it's one thing after another, a veritable barrage of pieces thrown at him that tear holes in everything a person could ever come to accept about reality. it's one thing to end up here, but quite another to hear that your girlfriend - the girl you were quite literally just with before you ended up here - had been stuck in this place for seven months.

even thinking of this like a video game isn't enough to keep his head from spinning. video games are temporary, an escape. you aren't actually involved, just mashing buttons and able to leave whenever you please.

and hearing that Emily has experienced things he's yet to even get close to, back home?

lord, someone give this boy an aspirin. )

Chris and Ash. They- ( the memory hurts, another layer of unexplained occurrences on top of all this, ) -They said some psycho killed Josh!

( can you hear the anguish in your boy's voice, Em? like things back home weren't confusing enough. ) We- we were going to the fire tower, to try and call someone. Get help.

[Emily shuts her eyes, half wincing, half just overwhelmed for a moment. It's a difficult memory, that conversation. Her friends had been bloodied up and were freaking out, and her boyfriend had been confused over the story of what theh believed had happened to Josh -- so Emily had taken the lead where they'd been unable to.

And that's as far as Matt got before the Door pulled him here.]

Goddamn, [she sighs, shaking her head. Goddamn. Time to take charge again. Time to be the dependable one here. Matt needs her, and she is not going to let him down.

She breathes deep and opens her eyes, and when she speaks her tone is even and calm despite the mess they've been thrown into.] You need to listen to me, okay? I know this is going to sound crazy, but it's true, I swear to god.

Where we are now, it's called Hadriel. There are these gods who live off emotions. One of them opened this thing called the Door, and that's what brought us here. It's chaotic. Like, random. There's people here from fucking everywhere, sometimes the same place but different times, or the same time but with little differences. Like us: you only got as far as hearing about the psycho. I got, like, a lot further and found out there's no psycho, it was all just Josh pulling a prank to get back at us for what we did to Hannah.

Matt, are you with me? This is important. [And even though she's insistent when she asks that, she isn't being sharp or mean. She is, right now, terrified that he'll dismiss what she's saying and leave her, dump her, and that the Door will keep her here to torment her even more than it already has.

So she squeezes both his hands, keeps her gaze on his, and prays as hard as she can to a god she's never been sure if she believes in that Matt will do none of the things she fears.]

( the good thing about being brought into an already impossible situation is that it makes believing everything else easier, too.

aliens have visited our planet? sure, why not, he's been dragged into an underground cave and pelted with video game monsters. aliens seem totally believable after that.

and then there's Emily, with her longer hair and her leaner physique, in clothes he doesn't remember and without makeup she was definitely wearing. it's all too strange, and it means that Matt is more than primed to believe what she's saying.

but Josh? Josh is the guy who--

he did that? to them? to Chris? okay, Matt can understand getting back at them for what happened to Hannah - if it had been Matt's own family, he's not sure he could have taken the time to plan a scheme like that. he'd probably have just clocked everyone involved there and then. but it was Chris he stuck with the--

god, this really doesn't make sense. )

Y-yeah, I'm with you.

( there's so many questions running through his head, but they're all an indistinct blur, he can't pick any out of the mass that echoes in his mind, and just opts for squeezing her hands back.

give him a few, Em, he'll eventually get there. )

[Honestly, that mindset will help Matt get through a lot in this shithole. A month or two in and he'll learn to just take it all in stride, or at least he'll learn to adapt like she and Chris have. (Hannah is lucky, kind of. She hasn't had to face something bad yet. Emily's first month here, she turned into a wendigo.

Which brings her back to the topic at hand. The quick tightening of Matt's fingers around hers is her cue, but she holds off a few seconds longer, looking at him, watching for signs that he's really not with her, that she's said too much, that he doesn't believe her. He isn't lying, though. You can't really fake that on your first day here, and Matt is honest with her.

Matt's really here. The thought shoots through her like lightning, and suddenly all she wants to do is hug him again and never let go.

As soon as they get to the house, that's what she'll do. Get them settled in her room and then-- whatever he wants. However much he wants, as many times as he wants. She's missed him too much and been too much of a bitch to him in their time together to deny either of them that now.

One thing at a time, though. She still has a story to get through.]

Right. After we met up with Ash and Chris, we split up. You and I got to the fire tower and called for help, but right when the ranger service told us when they'd come for us, something knocked the tower down.

[And she'd held on for dear life, and Matt had tried to help her amid her insults and snapping, and he'd confronted her about when she hugged Mike on the trail, and--]

We got separated in the mines. There's mines under the mountain, and we fell in, and I... I got out after this thing chased me. [(Better not to mention wendigos right now. There's enough for him to catch up on without them.)] I went back to the lodge but you weren't there, and then... god, Matt. [Despite being mostly calm through the telling of this, her voice cracks now, because the memories are still so immediate, even after seven months away from them.

Her grip on Matt's hands tightens, and she shakes her head, sniffling.] Everything was just so much worse than we thought. We were hiding in the basement and then Mike left to go find Josh, and then we were walking out to go after him, and that's-- [She sniffles again, but this time, she manages to sound calmer when she continues.] That's when I got here. I had no idea what happened to you. It was the last time I saw you until-- until now.

[She has given up by now on keeping the tears out of her eyes, but she can at least keep them from falling down her cheeks, right?

Nope. There they go. At least she's not sobbing.]

Edited (clarifying things) 2016-09-17 00:57 (UTC)

( that's.

... that's a lot to take in. as if everything so far wasn't enough. the stabbing pain in his head - nothing to do with the tonberries, by the way - intensifies, throbbing behind his ear.

how do you even begin to go through this, begin to understand or file all of this away?

he has no clue.

Matt breathes deeply, letting Em talk, trying to keep himself calm and strong, to remain stoic in the face of Em's sudden cracks, with the tears running down her face. he can do this, right? he can be strong, take this in stride...

the lump in his throat says otherwise. )

I- I'm not sure... I get this.

( he admits that with a loud swallow, trying to keep himself together, trying to sound calm but be honest about it all the same. but, then, in a rush: )

I believe you, Em. I do. It's-- I'm just...

( the psycho was enough. finding out everything else? what. )

[It is a lot. It's a lot, and he just got here, and he has no idea what was really going on on the mountain, and here she is, fucking crying. Sure, it's because she's relieved that he's here, but...

She needs to be the strong one now, the support. He's lost in a strange, new place, and she's been here long enough that she's... comfortable, in a way. Used to it.]

It's okay. [She sniffles, brushes the tears off her cheek with the back of her hand.] I know, it's-- it's a lot, and it sounds crazy. It's fine.

[It'll be fine. He just needs time.]

Don't worry about it, okay? Just come with me to the house. [She starts to turn to lead the way when she remembers something they both experienced that night.

Turning to face him again, her smile goes a bit coy -- just a little. But hopefully, it's enough.] You cold? I said we could get warm, right?

( that's another thing that's odd. that Emily is so... perhaps calm is the wrong word. accommodating. that he's come from the mountain, from the disaster that was that evening. arguing, demanding, hugging Mike (he's still not convinced there wasn't something to that, something more than just a hug.

it's never just nothing with Em.)

but suddenly, he's here, and she's been here for seven months without him, grown out her hair and begun looking stressed. she's experienced hours of their night on the mountain that he hasn't, knows more about these things and she's told him, which means a lot but-

god. where do you even begin? )

I mean, I'll try, but- ( how can he not worry about-

oh.

well. that might distract him.

Matt gives her a smile, one that's laced with understanding. ) Warm? Or hot?

[Matt has missed so much while she's been here. He's missed her transformation into a wendigo, her death, her resurrection at Hope's temple (that dick, how dare he resurrect her next to Josh when they're both naked), missed the murderous urges from Rage, the fireflies from Delight, the gift of fabric in excchange for happy memories, the mirrors that showed futures so beautiful they were painful, the guilt Sorrow unleashed on them all. He's missed the friendships she's mended and the lessons she's learned.

Honestly, she doesn't blame him for being thrown by all of this. She just hopes he'll adapt soon so she can-- so she can make things better between them. Show him what she's realized about how good he is and how much of a bitch she's been.

For now, she can take it slow for them, make good on the one promise she made him on the mountain, one of the few nice things she said to him.

Her smile widens, turns part smirk, and she traces the inside of his wrist with her fingers.]

Very hot.

[Without another word, she heads back for the house, and Matt follows willingly.

And Emily makes good on her promise.]

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Intro Log: Don't Wake Tonberry

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