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!

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Is this girl honestly talking to him about the upsides of eating bear meat? Kaz hates that it makes him think of Snake, who's always been interested in how just about any kind of animal tastes. He clenches his jaw and looks away, his hand tightening imperceptibly on the handle of his cane.

From what Miller has heard so far, most of the vicious monsters and animals have all been driven out to the caves. That doesn't necessarily mean that they're safe, his arrival is a testament to that, but he doubts that it would be a problem in these housing units. "Bears aren't exactly fond of enclosed spaces," he mutters under his breath.

As for any corpses or other signs of destruction that Miller might find inside the spire, he can handle it. He's seen some horrific sights in his time, seen his own men obliterated by CIPHER's ambush. He long ago decided he was on his way to Hell; as far as he's concerned, this Hadriel place is just an incovenient detour.

The girl's question startles him out of his thoughts and he stares down at her, brow knitting above his glasses. "No," he says bluntly, but then he has to acknowledge to himself that he probably should be dead, twice over now. First when Big Boss had wiped out his whole unit, and then the helicopter crash. He's just too stubborn to die, and he has too many debts to settle.

"Why would you say that?" It's not the sort of question someone asks out of the blue, but Miller's already determined that this girl is kind of off. If she's been trained as a soldier, it's understandable.

Arya would talk to someone about the upsides of eating acorn paste, if it came to that. It'd be a short conversation, since acorn paste doesn't do much except trick your belly into thinking it's full for a few minutes, but when you're on the run, it's better than nothing.

There might not be bears in there, but there has to be something dangerous. Arya's grown to expect that sort of thing. Danger is amplified when it catches you off-guard, and after watching the Lannisters torture villager after villager, Arya vowed that she would never be caught unaware, ever. It's all a matter of paying attention, of knowing what's happening around you at all times. It's why Arya's gaze can't seem to focus on one object for long, not even the strange man in front of her. She's wary, permanently wary, because that's the only way a girl as small as she will survive.

But she'll grow, eventually, and that's when she'll make them all pay. Arya threw herself into making herself dangerous. She has a goal, a reason to keep on living. It's why she can't forget herself, even if she's supposed to.

She looks back at Kaz and gives him a nod. She's glad, really, because necromancy is serious business, and not something she wants to deal with.

"Because you're lacking an arm and a leg," she says flatly, because it's obvious. "And no one survives wounds like that. I've seen." She's seen all the death a person could possibly imagine. Lommy lost his leg, and she carried him awhile, until he got weak and sick and ultimately, killed.

It's difficult not to notice the way that this girl is constantly on edge, like she's waiting for the next shoe to drop or something to attack them out of nowhere. Maybe that's the way this Hadriel place is, or maybe she's been bred to be that level of paranoid. There's something to be said for always being ready for the worst, but to see that sort of habit in someone so young is disturbing to the say the least.

Then again, Miller had witnessed what Eli had been capable of, kidnapping Sahelanthropus to set up a last stand against the world. He isn't about to underestimate anyone else his age.

The girl's answer causes the fingers of his hand that's no longer there to twitch, and his whole body shudders with the phantom sensation. He sighs and redistributes his weight. "Maybe where you're from that's the case, but medical advances have made it possible to survive it." He looks down. "Besides, the people who took my limbs from me... they didn't want me to die. They wanted me to suffer."

Even so, Kaz is aware that if he had been left there for even a few more days, his body might have given out on him. It'd been a close thing, no doubt about that. He's alive because Venom had been able to get him to the necessary medical attention in time.

Miller fixes his gaze on the girl once more. "What's your name?"

Then whoever took this man's limbs was smart, Arya thinks, because death is a gift when life becomes bad enough. Suffering is infinitely worse than death. Sometimes, she thinks (when she allows herself to) that the rest of her family were the lucky ones. They're not afraid anymore. If Arya knows one thing from handling the dead at the House of Black and White, it's that the dead fear nothing. On the contrary, some are scared of them.

Arya nods in understanding. It wasn't murder. It was torture, and unlike the Tickler, whoever tortured this man cruelly decided to spare him. Is there food and gold in the village? The Tickler's voice is faint in the back of her mind. Arya bites lip, hard.

"They took my sight from me," she says, at last. "It was supposed to be a punishment, but I took it back. Will you take your limbs back?" Robbing someone of their power is a somewhat satisfying form of revenge, although killing them is better. The dead can't hurt you, after all.

"I don't have one," she responds. Names can be taken just as easily as limbs or eyes. She thinks he might understand it. "But the people here are calling me Nymeria." She looks up at the man. "What's yours?"

Many people in Miller's shoes might have had the same thought, that they would rather be dead than have to carry on like this. But he's never considered it that way. Maybe in some of his darkest moments while a POW that thought had entered his mind, but now that he's back on his feet (so to speak) he's actually relieved.

If he was dead, who else would there to be exact revenge on everyone who wronged him?

Is this girl really blind? She can't be, she'd noticed that his limbs were missing, unless she'd been able to hear that. It doesn't seem possible, but on the other hand, he's seen stranger things.

This Nymeria really knows how to start in with the hard-hitting questions, doesn't she? Not that Miller minds, exactly, but every subsequent remark she makes only gives him a clearer idea of what she's already been through. "Kazuhira Miller. Kaz is fine, if that's easier. And don't worry, I already got my limbs back," he explains, tone darkening as he remembers that pivotal moment when they'd had Skull Face at their mercy. Shooting off the two limbs that had been taken from him -- too bad Huey had ruined it by putting that monster out of his misery.

Maybe he doesn't physically have his arm and leg back, but that had been the next best thing.

She has her sight back, now. It was some kind of drug they'd given her in the House of Black and White, or a poison. She lived in darkness for six months, she thinks, but it could have been longer. She hasn't been able to gauge time very well since the execution. Arya isn't even sure exactly how old she is, but whatever her age, she feels older.

Arya isn't particularly good at beating around the bush. Most children aren't, but Arya was always rudely curious, even compared to other kids. Especially now, when she knows that she might not live long enough to find out the answers to her questions if she doesn't ask bluntly. She gives Kaz's limbs a closer look. "No," she points out. "You replaced them. You didn't make them give them back. Unless..."

Her brow furrows. She's thinking. Maybe their healers only know how to save the body, but not the limbs itself, once they've been removed. "You've made them pay?" That's what Arya would do, if it were her. She's already got a whole list of people to kill. Those people took her friends, her family, and her home from her. All she knows how to take is their lives.

She thinks it might make herself feel better, probably. She feels hollow, sometimes, without her old life, and she wants stupid Queen Cersei and the Tickler and everyone feel the same way.

Replaced them? Not quite. Miller might be standing on two legs, but it's not what it looks like. He lifts his left pants leg to show her the peg leg beneath. It's a pretty crude replacement, not a proper prosthetic with articulation, but he doesn't want to make things easy for himself. If he gets complacent, or used to living a life with artificial limbs, then he won't be motivated to continue his path of revenge.

As for his right arm, there's not even a temporary replacement there. His sleeve is hollow, flapping in the light breeze that cuts through the road.

It doesn't take long for Nymeria to put the pieces together. Kaz might have normally restrained himself from regaling a teenage girl with his dreams of revenge, but since she's asking directly, there's no reason to lie to her. He gets the sense that she's speaking from experience, which is a disturbing thought.

"Yeah," Kaz responds, his tone turning to a dark kind of satisfaction. His fist clenches around his cane. "Yeah, I did." He tilts his head up, looking off as he relives every vindicating moment. When he snaps out of it, he turns his attention down to Nymeria again. "But my work isn't done yet. That's why I need to get out of this place ASAP."

It's not crude at all to Arya. She peers down at it. The prosthetic, as rudimentary is it is, is an invention that is completely foreign to her. A thousand questions fill her mind at once -- how does it stay on? Does it hurt? What is it made of? If she could have made one for Lommy, three years ago, he might not have died. They might not have been captured by Lannister men, and her whole life might have turned out very, very differently.

But that was the life of Arry the orphan boy, and doesn't have anything to do with her anymore. She gave that up for training, for power, and maybe a little bit of food and shelter. She'd been instructed to serve the Many-Faced God, but she only had one prayer to give him. A list, of those she would kill.

It had shrunk, since she first made it, but it was not small enough. Arya has convinced herself that a life is an even exchange for a life, and that when she takes the lives of those who killed her family, she will feel truly alive again. She'll feel something besides near-permanent, hollowed out anger and occasional curiosity, she hopes. She has not considered that that might not happen. Can't consider it.

"Ay-sap?" she asks, with a tilt of her head. That's not in any language she recognizes. Her face still keeps that same serious expression. "You still have a list. But have you planned for what they will do when they come here?" Arya has. It's why she was so keen to get Fear's blessing, why she's wearing this face instead of the face she was born with.

Of course Nymeria wouldn't be familiar with that acronym, if she's from a world where prosthetic limbs are nothing more than a pipe dream. "It stands for 'as soon as possible,'" Miller explains. Thus far there's been no proof of anyone actually making their way out of this impossible city, but that could simply mean that the right escape method hasn't been found. That isn't Kaz's area of expertise so much as it's Snake's, but that won't stop him from searching for a way out all the same.

Nymeria's next question is as pointed as ever, but where it might have frightened some people, or made them falter, Miller only appears more confident. He starts toward the spire, figuring that Nymeria will follow along after him if she's that curious to hear what he has to say. He has to admit, it does help his pride to know there's at least one person in this place who wants to hear him out.

"If they came here, that would just make my life easier," he explains, talking over the tapping of his cane with each step that he takes. "The people I'm hunting, they're the kind who would prefer to hide in the shadows. Half the job is rooting them out... in a city this small, it'd be a lot harder for them to hide."

Despite his missing limbs, Kaz carries himself with determination. He doesn't seem to believe that he'd be hindered by his disabilities. He'll pull the trigger with his own hand if he has to, just like he'd helped Venom when the time had come with Skull Face.

People don't escape from the city, but they do disappear. Arya has heard rumors of people simply vanishing, often around the same time that others arrive. Bruce talked to the gods on the network about it, but the gods either didn't know much about it, or weren't telling the whole story. Arya guesses it's the second of the two. People are never what they seem, and everyone has secrets. Even gods. Whatever brought her, Kaz, and everyone else here is both dangerous and mysterious.

Right now, Arya is too focused on staying alive to investigate that any further.

Arya does follow Kaz, poking her head into the occasional room to make sure there isn't something sinister waiting for them. She's curious about these people who come from other worlds, and although she's starting to get a little bit used to that by now, it's still something that feels strange to her.

Arya nods. This man, she thinks understands. Sometimes revenge is inevitable, even necessary, and it would all be easier if there wasn't such a grueling hunt associated with it. Arya has a weapon ready and waiting for the men on her list, if they arrive. She just hopes it happens soon.

"Who are they?" Arya isn't afraid of them; her fight is not with these people, but it's good to know about all the sides in everybody's wars. "If I see them, I can tell you where they are." She's not going to take Kaz's revenge from him. He looks like he needs it just as badly, if not worse, than she does.

There's no denying that it's a little strange for Miller to have a young girl at his heels like this. The last time he'd experienced anything like this had been with Paz, and that had all been one huge farce, a secret he'd held onto -- though he regretted that now. Maybe if he'd been more honest with Snake, he wouldn't have abandoned him so ruthlessly.

Well, there's no way to undo that now. The damage has already been done and Kaz doesn't have much space in his heart for regret. It's all filled up with righteous anger, with that lust for vengeance.

Nymeria here seems drawn to it, and maybe that's why she's still following him around. Kaz breathes out in relief when he finds that the apartment on the ground level looks to be vacant. There are three separate bedrooms, which is more than he needs, but he'll make use of the space one way or another.

He exits the third room back into the living area and then looks Nymeria over, wondering for a moment if it will be a problem for her to know where he lives. She has a fierceness about her and Miller imagines that she wouldn't hesitate to use that weapon of hers, but there's no reason for her to point it toward him. They're on the same side here, looking for the same thing if from different people.

"They're part of an organization called CIPHER. I can't give you specific names or descriptions, except for one... Zero." Just saying that name causes Miller's face to twist with anger. "I've never seen him myself, but there are pictures of him. A little dated now, but..."

He pauses, realizing that he's gotten way too close to dragging a teenage girl into his mess. "Don't worry. If he ends up here, I'll find him myself." He says the words in that same breathy tone, somewhere between rage and anticipation.

Arya would probably follow Kaz around even if he didn't have a matching desire for revenge. She's always been able to make friends, and if not friends, allies, fairly easily. They were always with the wrong sorts of people, of course. She could never charm another lady or a suitable bachelor. The only knights she'd ever come close to being friends with were Berric Dondarrion and the Hound, and she prefers not to think about that last man if she's able.

Kaz reminds her of Berric and his men in many ways. All improbably alive, and alive for one goal only. It's that kind of motivation that lets people survive at all, Arya has found. She's got it. She says it in her prayer each and every night. It keeps her sharp and focused, and if her family wouldn't approve of what she's become (which they certainly wouldn't, she's no Stark anymore,) it can't be helped.

That's what she tells herself, anyway, since she can't bear to imagine the shame in her father's eyes if he ever learned. Or Jon's eyes.

Arya is inspecting the kitchen appliances -- what a strange toaster -- when Kaz comes back. She perks up at his return. "Zero," she repeats, acknowledging she's heard him. And she understands that he needs to be the one to kill his enemy. She wouldn't want anyone else killing Cersei, or Raff, or Ser Ilyn for her. "You will," she says. "Hadriel is small, unless you visit the tunnels. Have you seen those? There are beasts inside, I'm sure of it." She's not bothered by the tunnels. She probably should be, but instead, Arya is excited.

Kaz hasn't even had the chance to take a look at the appliances, too concerned with making sure that there's a place for him to sleep. Shelter is the first point of concern, but food is a close second, and he doesn't see anything here that he can eat, even as he hobbles into the kitchen to start looking through the cabinets. With the number of other people who are stuck here, there must be a food supply somewhere. It's just a matter of finding it.

At Nymeria's question, Kaz glances over, frowning at the strange device in her hands before he shakes his head. "I've heard about them, but I haven't gone there myself. That's where all the monsters end up, right?" That's what Snake had told him, at least, and as much as they're at odds, it's not the sort of thing he would have lied about. Probably.

Miller leans himself back against the kitchen counter, mainly to take some weight off of his back. He lets out a sigh and shakes his head. "I probably won't be heading there anytime soon. It may look like I have a death wish, but I really don't." He can't die yet. He's got too many scores to settle.

Arya doubts that Kaz has a death wish, since she isn't entirely convinced Kaz is still alive. How does a person know if they're dead? Maybe she's dead too, killed by the Tickler or the Kindly Man without ever knowing it. Arya doesn't let those thoughts linger. They're silly, and frankly counter-productive. What does death and life really matter, anyway? All men die eventually. Someday, she will too.

Arya nods. "The monsters don't have anywhere else to go, and I don't think they are vanishing monsters. So we know there must be bears and slime monsters in the caves at least, although there's likely more."

Arya watches Kaz search the cabinets, and eventually she realizes he's looking for food. Of course. Can't survive without that. "There is food in the shops," she offers. "It just appears, and as far as we know, it's free for the taking. The gods provide it, so if you do not want to be in their debt, then you must hunt. Or fish, or make acorn paste." Arya doesn't suggest stealing. Kaz doesn't really seem like the type.

Edited 2016-01-24 21:56 (UTC)

It's not necessarily that Kaz would be above stealing if he were really left with no other choice, but it's not the first thing that comes to mind. Hunting is probably out of the question, but fishing is something he might be able to pull off if he can fashion the right tools and find some bait. The question is whether that's worth all the trouble when food is readily provided for them.

"Have you eaten any of the food from the shops?" he asks, figuring that if there was some kind of unexpected side effect, the people who had been here for a while would have figured it out by now.

"And as for the monsters, you can probably assume that there's giant centipedes added to those ranks now." Kaz rolls his eyes, but in reality he's still at a bit of a loss over that entire encounter. Thinking back on it feels surreal, and he'd assume this was all some bizarre dream if he didn't know better.

Still, Hadriel has done a good job thus far of making him question his sanity.

"Some of it." Arya doesn't eat the packaged foods, mostly because she doesn't recognize it as food more than half the time. She's definitely walked past bags of chips and cans of soda thinking that they're toys, or explosives, or something completely alien that the previous residents of this city needed for survival. She sticks with the raw fruits and breads and things like that, things she recognizes. Hadriel isn't the best place to get poisoned.

"That's not why I'm small, though." She adds, quickly. Arya isn't sure why she still looks like she's ten years old, but suspects it has something to do with eating little more than acorn paste for an extended period of time. Even now, when food is free for the taking, she doesn't take much. She doesn't know when it's going to run out, and besides, she's simply not used to eating so much anymore.

Arya nods, solemnly, not really catching that the giant centipedes comment was at least partially a joke. She's seen a lot of large, strange monsters here that centipedes wouldn't surprise her. "Do you think you can eat a centipede? I've never tried. But they seem easy enough to kill, and if the meat is good, there's no reason it should go to waste." She shrugs. "I ate the bears here, for a while, before they disappeared."

In that case, it's probably safe for Miller to assume that he can eat the food that the gods provide for them. It may feel a little like giving in, but he also isn't in the best state to go hunting, so he can't turn his nose up at it either. It might seem wrong to eat from their hand and then plot against them at the same time, but survival and escape are Kaz's two primary motives at the moment.

He's not expecting Nymeria to bring up her size, unclear on what that has to do with anything. She is small, sure, but she's also young. She might have some kind of complex about it, probably because she's used to people underestimating her, but Miller has no intention of doing that.

What he wants is to get her as far from this dangerous situation as possible, but that clearly isn't an option at the moment.

When she starts in about eating the monsters, though, Kaz can't stop his eyebrows from shooting up in surprise. "You sound like an old friend of mine," he says, though there's a grimness to his tone because that all ended in one big mess. "More seriously, you'd have to make sure you could cook it and also that it wasn't anything poisonous."

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INTRO LOG: A TAXING JOURNEY

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