Intro Log: HOLY F*^K THAT'S A F*&KI%G DRAGON

[hadrielmods]

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for October
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: October 10th-13th
Warnings: New faces, new greeting posts, and dragons. What's more to want?

If your first thought upon waking up on the cold, hard ground of Hadriel's very own Colosseum is 'maybe I partied too hard last night', one, Delight would love you and two, you're wrong. Or- maybe you did, but that's not why you're here. Instead, you wake up with the same clothes you were wearing when you were last home, but surrounded by very different people. So, make some friends! Might as well voice your confusion and concern and show the technologically unsavvy of you how to operate these fancy new phones, right? Just be sure not to trip over these odd bags of chips on your way to greet your fellow man.

Don't spend too much time out in the open, though. There are monsters about, and not quite the usual ones. This month, Hadriel is bringing in four dragons, each with their own unique abilities and raidboss-esque stamina. They'll be terrorizing the city until someone puts them down- maybe that someone is you! Maybe you should, uh, actually hide. They're hungry and territorial and mean and they're definitely out for a good meal. Check out our OOC post for more information, as well as who will be eventually killing the beasts!

But hey, once you escape from the dragons, feel free to go explore the rest of the city! Find a house, find a new monster, or simply scavenge for supplies.

New, as of October's intro log is a Newcomer's guide that installs itself by default on every activated phone. Thanks, Mello!

Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers October 10th-13th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► All characters arrive with phones that have network communication and the newbie guide installed.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

Comments

TRUE, TRUE

[robobees]

( just one more thing they'll end up having in common that neither of them will realize until it's already been brought out on the table for everyone else to see. ( henry … doesn't make a habit out of pointing out his shortcomings, the things that have molded themselves together to make him the person he is now – because he doesn't like to think about the way his past has shaped him, at least in the sense of the henry-of-the-past has at all contributed to the henry-of-today.

it's a thing he has to get over. a thing he has to deal with.

proverbial skeletons in closets, and all that. )

yes. live-action dnd. did he stutter? or are you so oriented in the land of the rising sun that you don't –

… know what that is. okay. questions better left unasked if only by dint of not quite wanting to come off wholly offensive during the first five minutes of conversation. this is not how you win friends and influence people, henry. remember what your mother told you; be friendly, even if it means you aren't quite friends.

yet. it had been enough to win him favor with gansey. perhaps it will work well enough here. ) Oh, I don't. I do, however, know how to read things on the Internet. Wonderful thing as far as information goes. ( and by that, of course we mean he spends the majority of his time on youtube – or rewriting wikipedia entries just for the hell of it.

he really needs more of a hobby than that, but what can you do when there's little else to devote your time to? )

Not sure if they're directly responsible for the things that come through the door re: the monsters, but they do have their hands in everything that goes on here. It could definitely be worse, don't get me wrong – but it could surely be better, as it were.

… Mm. Bit more of a personal experience than anything else. At least from what I've seen about the goings-on here. ( he takes in a breath, allows for a break in the words that are effectively spewing from his mouth and waits for the shaking of hands to commence, and then he's tilting his head to the side a bit in intrigue, grin turning lopsided, amused.

which, by all intents and purposes, might just mean trouble. ) Ishida. Japanese, then? I guess that means I'm no longer the token Asian boy. ( HENRY … ) Which guide did you read, by the way? The one provided by the city itself, or … the one that Mello guy whipped up?

1/2

[repelling]

[ Which also would be, in and of itself, a commonality. Have to be aware of one's shortcomings to bring them up, to underscore them. Have to think about them at all, even a little. About the past -- and maybe he had too much, with an insular, toxic focus. The years after sensei's death, defined and restricted by it, a vice that choked more with every passing season, until --

Anyway.

Somehow, a game with no traction in Japan whatsoever had never fallen into his internet browsing. His life tended toward preoccupation with an entirely different sort of very real fantasy. There were monsters everywhere, everyday, and so were he to learn, he could easily pretend to be above that sort of thing --

(but, let's be frank, let's not lie, though he would -- Uryuu Ishida would be a hell of a sadistic DM and he would delight in it, designing intricate, terrifying campaigns, so the world should rejoice, really, that he hasn't got a clue.)

How about this for sad: Uryuu still does most of his typed work on library computers. Only recently had he gotten his hands on a gifted smartphone and had access to the internet through it.

He's a fast learner in just about everything, but by any metric... he'd be a n00b. ]

So when you like them in fantasy, [ Uryuu, blandly following the thread back to its beginnings, ] you mean you like reading about dragons in DnD on the internet.

[ When you say it like that, it sounds kind of pathetic. Not even playing it.

Just saying.

Could be worse, could be better, insert a cliche about life, but in these circumstances, it's actually something. He doesn't know what to expect. It's all still hard to swallow. All he's got are dragons, a vague guide, and Kurosaki's confused confirmation. And it's kind a contradiction, this, Cheng-kun or -san avows a lifelong distrust of organized religion, but can only place his gods are trouble on the present nuisances.

He might have pointed it out, not that Uryuu is ever himself (except always) contadictory, or inconsistent, but -- ]

[repelling]

[ Token Asian boy?

Uryuu stares for a moment, taken aback. It's not a term that gets much use in Japan, for obvious reasons. They are all Asian boys (and girls and whatever else). Probably because of that, he's not really offended, just confused.

And pedantic, which isn't new. ]

Er -- what? But you weren't before. Kurosaki's -- Ichigo Kurosaki's been here three months. His hair's loud, but he's also Japanese. You're Chinese?

[ ??? ]

The city's wasn't much of a guide. I've been relying on Mello-san's.

[robobees]

( well. that's just something that's going to have to come about on its own, isn't it? not that either of them are going to willingly divulge the secrets and shadows of their pasts, the ghosts that have followed them into the present, unless there is a level of trust laid down between the two of them, lines made in the sand to be blurred.

it's something to think about, at the very least.

there would be no blame in finding out about the other's lack of experience with technology; it just so happens that henry himself has been privileged enough in both the past and present to have access to anything he could possibly want or need at any given time – oh, the life of luxury, such a damned hassle, sometimes – and with as much free time as he has a tendency to find on his hands at any interval, what else is a boy to do but spend it catching up with the rest of the cyber world?

even if it means coming across something as nerdy as that. he'll keep his fantasy to vidya games, thanks so much. somehow … that makes it a little less nerdy than tabletop. somehow. don't ask him how. he doesn't have an answer that would carry any weight.

( and oh, the idea of that one being a dm – y e p, talk about sadistic. ridiculously long and detailed campaigns, twists and turns, and would he go so far as to change his voice from foe to foe? we would expect nothing less from him, and if anything less were offered, there would be a hell of a lot of disappointment. )

henry hums a thoughtful note, mouth twisting in contemplation. ) Reading about them, striking them down and selling their scales for armor and weapon upgrades, that sort of thing. ( he might not look like a tabletop gamer, but the digital sort? that knows no bounds. ) What I've learned in my perusal has been enough to teach me that staying away from them is generally the best way to go unless your constitution is through the roof. Or you have particularly high dexterity. Evasion, and all that.

( you fucking nerd.

also. excuse him. there really is a reason his native language is thought – and thus the reason behind needing robobee so much in the first place – and one of those reasons happens to be his complete and utter lack of a brain-to-mouth filter, more so in that he has a tendency to let the words out before he thinks them over.

and … sometimes just because he doesn't have much of a care of what he says, anyway. this is perhaps more the former than the latter instance, but he does see the flicker in uryuu's expression and wonders if he should have gone about that a bit more delicately.

not everyone thinks like you, henry. check yoself before you wreck yoself. ) There's another? I really haven't been doing my homework. Not making my rounds as I should. ( he heaves a sigh, leaves that thought alone for a small moment. )

Mom's Korean, Dad's Chinese, I'm one hundred percent Canadian-transplanted-American. ( meaning that he moved from vancouver to henrietta. he don't got that southern drawl going for him. he already sounds pretentious enough. )

Guy's got a weird notion of what he thinks is helpful, but I have to give credit where credit is due; he definitely has a better outline than what the city itself provides. The only thing you really need to know, though? Stay out of the caves unless you have any real intention of monster-slaying. And the booze in Delight's bar isn't bad.

[repelling]

[ At the very least. In the meantime, trust, especially that sort of trust, doesn't come easy.

Funny -- it could be funny -- someone might laugh. Go figure, the prestige of the Ishida family. The wealth in which Ryuuken had been reared, encompassing both a Western mansion and maidservants. The hospital they owned, Karakura General, aside from the specific and arguably highly eccentric (and certainly not remotely resembling public knowledge) Quincy lineage. The wealth which Uryuu believed Ryuuken continued to prioritize, yes believing for years that what mattered most to that man, to his father, was money --

Yet, Uryuu, dirt poor by choice. Scraping frugally by. It could have been, might have been, that if he had been obedient, if he had done exactly as Ryuuken wanted -- not gone to see "that old man," drawn to his grandfather's simple kindness, not continued to train as a Quincy, not dedicated himself, not become so consumed by it, instead, focusing on the living (not that his scholastics ever suffered) -- he would have enjoyed comparable privilege.

But, really, Ryuuken was not such a man. The Ishida family had not been such a family. Even if Uryuu had been the model son, he would not have been given excess luxuries, no time-wasting video games -- though, he probably would have gotten a personal computer for use for school, and as Ryuuken was never around, it wouldn't have been a challenge to use it for gaming -- so in no world, really, despite all that objective privilege, the incredible head start, would Uryuu have had comparable luxuries.

Also? He doesn't play video games. Can't afford the systems or the time. There is training, studying, training, work, training, extracurriculars, training.

(No. Inoue-san does the voices. She insists. And if someone were to accuse Uryuu of perhaps the rules bending, occasionally, for her characters, well -- shut up.)

Because he doesn't play games, either, it again takes him a moment, but again, he's quick. He can connect the dots from no actual experience, no live-action session experience, but Internet usage. Again, snap judgments. There's no actual dragon fighting experience here, not with the guy who prefers fantastical beasts to keep in games -- it sounds like one of those MMORPG's or something.

Even sussing that out, it's hard to get a grasp on how seriously to take Cheng-(kun? san?) and this conversation. Normally, he'd dismiss information gleaned from fiction, but fiction's gone and become very real. The other thing -- his honest, immediate reaction would be breezy overconfidence, because though he doesn't look it, his constitution's pretty good (in other words, this kid can take a beating, keeping on his feet with his stomach crushed, and even if his body can't do it, he can puppet it --), and his dexterity's even better.

But it's not the sort of thing he says to people seemingly like Henry Cheng.

So he stands there, listens, and says, blandly, ]

Right. I'll keep that in mind.

[ And it's not getting less confusing, which, really, Uryuu doesn't take well to being confused. At least he doesn't feel a real need to be in the know about Cheng(-san?)'s race hang-ups. Maybe it's an American thing. He's pretty sure he noticed a few other names that sounded Asian while scouring the directory, but as he'd rather get away from the bizarre topic, he doesn't say. ]

Canadian-transplanted-American-transplanted-Hadriel.

[ A dry observation, because, well.

Again, it's not the sort of thing he goes around saying -- that he might just have such intention. Never mind all this keeping his mouth shut when he'd gone and outed himself earlier with a run of the mill human, but exigencies -- if a dragon strikes here, maybe Cheng(-kun?) will get to see something interesting. Until then, as for the tunnels -- he needs to keep sharp, after all. What better way to train? He's curious, too, to see what's in there. ]

That is useful. [ Said mostly to be polite, because the guide had already emphasized that. Even if it's totally misleading, for the aforementioned, definitely going into the tunnels.

But -- booze? Uryuu lifts his eyebrows, startled. Well, it's a good segue to confirm the appropriate honorific. ]

I'm not really interested in that, but -- er, what year are you, were you?

[robobees]

( it may go without saying, without really saying, that he's never known what it's like to be without. with a company like his father's prospering, and then the work of his mother underlying that, to say that he had never wanted for anything would have been a crude understatement. he embodies the visage of your garden variety spoiled brat on the surface – brand new hybrid car, expensive clothes of immaculate ( if a bit eccentric, and that's being polite ) taste, the sort of techn-gizmos-and-gadgets littering his space at litchfield that would put the next generation youtubers and tumblerinas to shame –

and yet, he doesn't tend to think about that very much. not in the sense that one would expect, having come from a background such as his own. blame it on the fact that he hadn't begun this journey as the average american, spoiled rotten and presumptuous – or even an american at all, which might have given him a slight advantage over the rest of everything else …

but we digress. what we mean to say is that he might not wholly understands what it means to go without simply by dint of never needing to, and he might be that jerk that goes out of his way to slide plastic for over-priced coffee if it means the extra boost, the extra flavor, but he's … a bit more humble than the visage he makes would lead one to believe. and that means he's already a cut above the rest. set in a different mold, as it were.

he's his own thing.

( that doesn't mean he totally gets the being dirt-poor by choice thing. is it a pride thing? a japanese thing? … no, henry, don't think like that. you might end up offending someone. and you don't want to offend any prospective fellow asian friends, do you? )

now, coming from someone that has little more to do with his expansive amount of free time than watch youtube videos of other people playing video games, going out of his way to prove certain points while making it look like he's spent far more time than he actually has doing so and giving the occasional hunt for freedom of press in the sense of a larger font for a certain academy newsletter –

he doesn't understand how anyone could not have time for gaming. not having the money for consoles … eh … that might be a bit easier to take in, but it's with that proverbial grain of salt tossed over the shoulder and immediately forgotten, because all that's going to do is ultimately loop back around to the original point of not knowing what it's like to be without.

and being without gaming equipment is definitely being without. had they been back in his own life, his own town, his own reality-as-he-knows it, he might have seen fit to sit the other down in front of a needlessly large screen and begin giving endless examples of why certain games are better than others.

but this isn't his life.

this isn't henrietta.

and this is some ridiculously far-flung parallel universe in which monsters and baddies come through doors that act only as entrances and not exits, and death is impermanent, and dragons are more a literal thing than a green health bar at the bottom of a high-definition lcd screen.

( henry. we really need to sort out your priorities. is that a thing we can do? or can we call your home planet, and tell them to come get you?

and … no. no shutting up. you've just admitted that there would be the use of voices during a campaign. and that is relevant to certain interests.

also to potentially be used for blackmail. who said that? )

of all the things one could choose not to say to one ( 1 ) henry cheng, every little bit of that blurb of information about puppeting one's body is pretty close to the top of the list of things that he would be genuinely interested in. ( you tell him about those soul threads. tell him!!! ) after seeing everything that he's seen – heard everything that he's heard, touched everything that he's touched – there is very little that he wouldn't believe given some level of explanation, because after all –

that's a bit of a story we'll save for later. perhaps when he brings you home to meet the rest of the family. who knows. ) See that you do. You never know when it might come in handy.

( you know. when you decide to go out on your own for a little bit of dragon hunting. you never know what sort of information might come to your aid when you least expect it.

he gives a sort of fluid roll of his shoulders at the assessment, dry as it may be; he has nothing to hide, here, and if getting that all out in the open means progression, he's all for it. ( again, there is no more time for secrets, having been left in the past with everything else that he wants to stay precisely that way. ) at least his new friend ( oh, yes, you've already been dragged into the friendzone, sir ) has no real intention of going into the runnels, a fact which sets his expression alight with something brighter than it had been before. perhaps a bit more intrigue, because he still has yet to parse out exactly what it is about uryuu ( sorry, no honorifics here ) that sees fit to draw him in as it has thus far, but you had better believe that he's going to figure it out. so help him.

what … year? oh –

school. duh. ) Just graduated. Taking a year off before college – or, I was. A shame, really, that a cross-country expedition is being put on hold by dint of having been brought to this fine … place. ( his expression flickers, just so, dropping a bit at the thought that, at this very moment, he could be seeing the other side of the country with his two best friends.

and instead – ) Yourself?

( figured out the right honorific yet, buddy? )