INTRO LOG: A TAXING JOURNEY

[hadrielmods]

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!

Comments

[amos_moses]

So they're not the first to be magically brought here. And as for the bears, well, Amos has gotten a sense of them, far-off danger somewhere outside the edge of the city. He knows, but Noah's got more information to give.

Well-accustomed to gods of all kinds, fleshed and not, he simply nods in response. "Hadriel. Can't say I've heard of it. What do these gods call themselves?" Hopefully they were not of the insane kind, or of the totally-obscure-half-forgotten sort, because Amos could really only cram so much useful mythology into his head.

[casperdisaster]

"One's called Hope, the other is Fear." He kind of pauses to let that sink in, gives a bit of a sigh. "I'm sure you can guess what they... I don't know if they're supposed to preside over it or what, but they seem feed off of it? Hope feeds off hope, Fear feeds off fear. Fear's pretty scary," everything is scary to Noah, most consider Fear to be just kind of a low-key douchebag.

"Hope's why we have light and air to breathe and food and stuff, so like... if you ever talk to him, say thanks and stuff? Most people are pretty rude but if he's the reason we're still alive I figure might as well be polite, you know? There's going to be another coming back, apparently. Rage. Not sure how I feel about that."

Scared. He feels scared.

[amos_moses]

"So a primitive kind of pantheon. Alright." Amos nods a little to himself. Simple, then, if that's how it actually works...not that he disbelieves Noah, but when it comes to gods things are often so much more than simple. "I find being polite to everyone does a lot of good. Ain't no call to be rude, as my grandmother always said."

Granted, she'd been a little more formal about it, and had despaired of Amos's poor grammar.

"You been here long, Noah?" Small talk, trying to get the kid at ease.

[casperdisaster]

Noah has to actually stop and think about that question before he can answer, mentally counting things off.

"Um, about eight weeks or so?" He says, saying aloud like more of a question than a statement, not that Amos would know. "We were taken from home and brought someplace else first, were there about... four months? And then there was a mess with a corrupted ley line and then we were here."

[amos_moses]

"Ah," says Amos, and then, "You got lucky, then."

Because Noah still looks all of one piece and not magically transmorgified, which is what tends to happen around powerful sources of magic gone corrupt or wild. Ley lines are tricky things, if you can work with them. Amos cannot, and only knows a few general facts, like how sometimes compasses don't work over them and fae-workings on ley-lines tend to screw everyone over, even if you do happen to live several miles out.

But then, fae-workings anywhere are generally bad news, so maybe that last doesn't count...

"But I guess if you're still here you haven't found a way out, huh?

[casperdisaster]

Noah could tell him all about ley lines, technically being part of one now. It's different than from how Adam is. Adam became more than himself, with the line added to him. Noah lost pieces of himself, with what was left added to the line. Addition versus subtraction.

He shakes his head slowly at the last question, giving a little sigh.

"It seems like the thing only works one-way so far."

[amos_moses]

"Well, things always change, sooner or later," Amos offers, though he knows it's not much consolation. Change isn't always better, but at least change is the constant in life.

"Are there other people here? Natives? A few others showed up when I did, and some not-humans, too, but..." It's both a measurement of allies and political climate, framed as pure curiosity as he tips his head at Noah, smile still faintly on his lips. There are far more laugh-lines than frown-lines on Amos's face.

[casperdisaster]

Noah shook his head at the 'natives' question.

"One of the Gods, Hope, he did an announcement a couple weeks after we first showed up. We're here because everyone who was from the city died." Noah looked around, pointedly, at the damage apparent. Even if some buildings and the like had been restored to pristine condition, there was no hiding that this used to be a very desolate and war-torn place.

[amos_moses]

"Ah. A new set of playthings for the gods. How delightful." Amos chuckles, though the humor is a bit dark. He's used to some of the games the immortals play with mere mortals. Honest belief is a powerful weapon in his world, both for the gods and the believers, and he knows this well. Not too surprising, then, that this is another game of that ort.

"So I guess if we're the only ones here, aside from the gods, we get to fend for ourselves." It's not exactly new to him: he's scavenged a living before, when things have gone wrong and only his own cunning and ability to adapt have gotten him back to where a rescue could be reasonable.

[casperdisaster]

"More or less." Noah says with a sigh and a shrug. "At least there's not so few resources that we have to fight over them. Yet, anyway."

[amos_moses]

Amos files that comment away for better probing later, and asks instead, "Think you might could give a newcomer a few directions? Or warnings? Y'know, where not to go, where to find food an' shelter, that sort of thing." Amos could certainly find these things on his own, but it was much nicer to be forewarned. He liked that better, and Noah was being so delightfully helpful.

[casperdisaster]

"Ummm, I can try?" Noah said with the sort of wariness that comes from not often being able to be helpful.

Having had to do the daily errands runs here and there he did actually know the area quite well, well enough to give Amos a basic rundown of where necessities could be found - including shelter.

As for where NOT to go...

"... Most of the monsters seem to vanish into the caves. Um, the other caves." Noah pointed towards the small honeycombing of smaller cave mouths that branched off the main one. "... There doesn't look to be any light or anything in them. I don't think anyone's explored them. I don't think I want to, and I'd recommend, uh, not. There's also a big river that's in the middle of the cave. Most of the bridges are out except for ones at the very edges, but it doesn't look like there's anything across there anyway. Nothing worthwhile."

[amos_moses]

"That's helpful. Anything unusual about the river? Or just plan ol' water?" Because, well, rivers of poison or lava or full of flesh-eating fish are on his list of places to avoid, definitely.

And Noah is being so helpful. Amos gives him a cheerfully encouraging grin, bouncing a little on his toes.

[casperdisaster]

"I think it's just water? I haven't gone in it though." Noah frowns thoughtfully at that. It looks like perfectly normal water from what he's seen, though?

Still...

"The water from the taps is safe."

The last place he was had water that wasn't safe, so yes he tests it first now if he plans to let his friends drink it.

[amos_moses]

"Ah, now that's very comforting to know." Amos chuckles again. "Boiling an' straining water is so tedious...."

He speaks from long experience. He's been that far into the wilderness before...and been around magically contaminated water, which is a far more complicated issue. "So I'll let someone else try to go swimming in the strange underground river 'fore I do. Thanks a bunch, Noah. You've been super-helpful, really."