hadriel_logs | INTRO LOG: A TAXING JOURNEY

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INTRO LOG: A TAXING JOURNEY

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for December. Watch your step!
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: December 10th-17th
Warnings: Taxxon-related violence, teeth shoes, general unpleasantness, mass confusion.

You wake up in the dust of the colosseum with no shoes on, regardless of the state of your feet when you arrived. There's dust covering your clothing and in your hair, but other than that, there's no signs of injury or bruising. You're also not alone- nearby, there are others, either still passed out or just waking up like you are. Feel free to take solace in that fact. Or don't- some of you aren't human, and are clearly not great people either. No offense.

To your left, there is a door in the wall of the arena, supposedly leading to the halls which will then show you to your freedom. To your right, and scattered haphazardly on the ground, are a myriad of teeth shoes. These shoes might be better than going barefoot right now, but good luck finding a matching set, let alone one that fits you.

When you do eventually try to escape, be careful. The halls are crawling with Taxxons. Large and grotesque, these caterpillar-like creatures have circular mouths and multiple rows of sharp teeth. Their sense of smell is impeccable, and they will stop at nothing to feed when they scent blood. So, you know, try to avoid stepping on anything sharp on your way out.

All done with the horrible monsters and awkward greetings? Try your hand at exploring the rest of the city! Find a house, find a new monster, or simply scavenge for supplies until your little heart is content. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers December 10th-17th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well!
► Characters may find their own shoes scattered around with the teeth shoes if you like.
► All characters now 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

Oh thank all the saints, and Amos is very grateful for Kamina dragging him along by the elbow. Every little bit helps, and they're going to need it...

He doesn't have the breath to shout a warning, just takes a hard lunging step and shoves Kamina past the tunnel opening. He flings himself forward but something in the mad rush of hungry frenized insect catches his leg and he goes down hard, bruisingly despite the instinct to tuck and roll that carries him momentarily out of danger.

The insects collide behind them in a snarling screeching bundle. Gasping for breath Amos tries to get to his feet, take advantage of the momentary lack of pursuit.

Kamina goes flying past the junction just in time to avoid the mad rush, stumbling forward and just barely managing to not stab himself. As he whirls around, mouth open to demand an explanation, he sees Amos lying on the floor in front of a mass of writhing bodies and immediately lunges forward again. His sword flashes once, then twice, and then he's between Amos and the mob, hauling the kid to his feet and shoving him back.

"Get the door!" There's no outrage or wildness in his voice this time, just command, and he faces the swarm in a solid stance, sword flashing as he cuts what limbs he can, blocking any attempts from the tangle of bugs to break free and come after them. Maybe if he cuts enough of them, the problem will solve itself?

At least with Kamina slashing the insects, they're more likely to set on one another than on the two men. Amos bolts for the entrance, more than willing to get out of the way. His little knife is less than useless, and Kamina will probably do better for himself without Amos to complicate the fight.

Outside the cavern is...a bigger cavern. But there are no insects immediately nearby, just a tangle of ruins and rubble-strewn streets. Amos can handle a city-scape, he's far more used to them than caves.

"All clear out here!" he calls back to Kamina, breathless, before hurrying along towards the crumbling buildings. Places to hide oh thank the holy saints.

The more he cuts, the more they seem to go crazy, ripping each other open. He's not afraid, of course he's not, but it's pretty damn unsettling. Listening behind him, he hears Amos yell the all clear and delivers one last slash as he backs up, checking behind him. The bugs seem to be caught up in their feeding frenzy, and he reaches the doors without incident finally, wiping stray bug blood from his cheek and finally slamming the door behind them, leaning against it. "They were tearing each other apart, it's completely insane--hey, wait. Is that...are we underground still?!" His sentence is interrupted as he looks up into the sky--or lack of, staring at the darkness overhead with an accusatory glare.

Amos stops, feeling safer on the little street between crumbled buildings, and tips his head back to squint at the unspecific source of light. Yup. "Looks like it. C'mon, let's get a little farther away." Both for safety and for his peace of mind: the feeding frenzy is loud to his mental senses, and he wants to get away from the unsettling clamor.

"But I just got out of a pit!!" He sounds outraged, and apparently needs no prompting from Amos to move along, choosing a direction and storming off, only pausing to wipe his sword off on a rag tied around the sheath and shoving it home. At least the light's a little better out here; indistinct cavelight, but still brighter than those close tunnels full of bugs. If Amos looks, there's a logo on the back of the red cape he's wearing, a skull wearing oddly pointed sunglasses, and as it moves flashes of blue tattoo are visible on his bare back and arms. Glancing back, he's still frowning. "Hey, kid, you have any idea where we are? What's the name of this place?"

"Not a clue. I just woke up about twenty minutes ago, just like you did," Amos answers with a shrug, following along after Kamina because why the hell not. The cape is interesting, as are the tattoos and the sword...okay, so he's just curious about Kamina and willing to follow as long as he's allowed. He likes people, and so far Kamina has been delightfully entertaining and useful. "But you asking means you don't know, either."

Well, that's helpful. Only not so much. But it's not his fault, and he did get Kamina out of that mess, so...well. Kamina stops at an intersection, turning back to the kid and looking him over a little more closely, arms crossed over muscled bare chest. "Not a clue. I guess we're gonna have to find out. Thanks for getting me out of a tight spot back there. I'm Kamina, leader of Team Dai-Gurren. Who're you?"

A nice hero-type, leaderly, who looks mostly human and has volunteered his name first. Should be safe enough to hand out his own. Amos nods a little and offers a grin. "Amos is my name. You're welcome, I'm glad to help."

Helpful is definitely what he's good at: being helpful means people like him. That, and he's been groomed to be the personal assistant of one woman since his teenaged years: she'd become the leader of the third biggest yakuza in Japan, and Amos had stayed right with her, learning to be very, very helpful indeed.

But he has no idea if her name will hold any weight here, so he doesn't drop it. He's presuming he's wholly on his own to get out of this new and exciting mess. It wouldn't be the first time, and he's certain it won't be the last.

Probably better that he didn't drop her name; it wouldn't have done him much good, and any mention of the yakuza--or 20th century Earth--is more likely to just confuse Kamina more.

"Amos! Okay, Amos. Seems to me like you've got really good hearing or something, knowing where those bugs were. You got any ideas on how we get back to the surface? I don't really have time for kicking back down here, when my team's up there!" He points up at the roof over their heads. Clearly his focus is already on the next step of this process, which is getting outta here as soon as he can.

"Ain't got the faintest clue, sorry." Amos spreads his hands and shrugs. "I wasn't underground before I woke up here, an' I've no idea where here is. As for the bugs, well, that a little trick of mine."

His hearing is normal, just as the rest of him. The only unusual thing about him is his ability to talk with animals, and he's not used to bringing it up much. Either people know or they don't, and he's fine either way.

"So is that just a trick for bugs, or...?" Well, he can maybe be a little curious. Starting down a random way between buildings, Kamina gestures for Amos to follow him. If neither one of them knows a way out, they're gonna find someone who does!

"Bugs and other animals," Amos admits, following along obediently. He's really got no better idea on where to do, so he might as well follow Kamina. Plus, the man seems to be nice enough. "Which ain't much use down here, aside from avoiding hungry monsters." Well, most of the monsters, the ones more animal-based than mythological or demonic.

He might not have any idea where he's going, but if there's anything Kamina has learned over the years it's not to let ignorance slow you down. They aren't gonna find any answers staying in one place, right? "So, you can hear them? Like some sorta tracker?" That's kinda useful. He'd be good to have around in case those bugs get out, or in case there are more wild beasts running around out here. "I dunno, sounds pretty useful to me! Keeps you from getting killed and might even get us dinner! If you can find us a nice juicy pig-mole or something, we could have steaks for weeks!" Mmmm, steaks...he may be drooling just a little...suddenly, he's starving. He hasn't eaten anything since before...well, before the battle. After that it gets a little fuzzy.

"Yeah, I can hear 'em." After a fashion, It's mental, not physical, but Amos isn't going to bother explaining the finer details as long as Kamina has the gist. "Sadly, I'm not hearing anything that might count as dinner, unless you wanna see if the bugs taste nice."

Which he really doesn't think they do, mainly because there's just something a little gross about giant insect...and besides, most centipedes are poisonous, aren't they?

"Man, no thanks." He makes a face at the idea. Not that he's opposed to eating bugs in general, but the sight of those guys tearing each other apart was enough to make even him a little queasy. "I guess we'll just have to go hunting for a better dinner. We'll probably have more luck if we split up."

He stops at an intersection, turning to look both ways down each street before looking back at Amos. "Here. I'll go this way, you go that way--meet up at that big tower over there?" He points. It's hard to miss the big white thing stabbing up towards the ceiling.

"Sounds like a plan," Amos agrees, because while there's safety in numbers, he's not really sensing anything that might be too dangerous ahead. And the place looks fairly abandoned...and unless Kamina's sword is a whole lot more than it seems, it won't be any good against demons or haunts in the ruins anyway.

"See you later, then, Kamina!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

INTRO LOG: A TAXING JOURNEY

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