hadriel_logs | Event Post: Everyone Chill

Who: Everyone participating in the event!
What: The event log for Tranquility's resurrection event!
Where: All around the city
When: December 27th-January 7th
Warnings: Absolutely nothing creepy or weird at all.

The revival of Tranquility on December 27th marks a vast - if temporary, and actually completely fake - change to the city. Upon awakening that morning, the inhabitants of Hadriel will find the city changed from its usual broken-down dour cave self into a sparkling, clean, delightful island city. Instead of being surrounded by hard stone walls, the city is surrounded by warm ocean waters and soft white sand beaches.

Gentle waves lap at the shore, the sky overhead is perfect, wide and open. The spires have been replaced by shining skyscrapers, the roads are clear of rubble and paved neatly. The stores are quaint, windows no longer broken, and the items inside have changed too. Instead of simple canned goods and strange clothing, you might find delicate pastries, cool drinks, fresh fruit, and flowy summer clothes to match the city. How nice! How calming, really. Didn't everyone need a vacation? So throw on some flip-flops, grab one of the mopeds that have been provided, and enjoy yourselves!

As the days go on, though, you might notice one or two odd things. Maybe the pretty sun hat you picked up looked, for just a moment, like a grubby old baseball cap instead. Maybe that beach ball is a little heavier than it should be. Maybe the shining wall of that skyscraper feels more like stone than glass. Maybe - just for an instant - the sky above was solid rock instead of the gentle, calming hues of the sunset.

While there is a mild compulsion toward calmness and tranquility, towards accepting the city for exactly what it seems to be, that can be ignored - and the illusion can be broken, if you choose to try. But do you really want to? Isn't that croissant much nicer than yet another can of beans? Wouldn't you rather relax at the beach than run around, trying to convince all your friends that this is just the gods getting inside their heads again in an even more creepy and all-encompassing way than usual?

Come on. Don't be a buzzkill.

► This log covers December 27th-January 7th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you chill out so much you end up dead, please let us know here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They'll have to come out eventually, but this change is some of the first real moments Kate's given herself to really sit and contemplate everything over the past months. Sure, she could find a way to work - has been, even - but only so much can be done when it's this peaceful, when the breeze and the shoreline and the sky all whisper to relax, to let go.

Take a break. But what kind of breaks can be had here, when mercy killing friends is part of the deal, or sacrificing yourself for others. When things are so messed up that you begin to expect horrors shambling towards you on a monthly basis. How can you relax when the city has nothing but a bar and a few fields?

(It's a shame chaos and evil largely means those who are good at fighting and violence. It isn't exactly the pool of talent needed to set up a thriving city, nor is a selection of people all determined to make their way out.

It's not the first time she's caught herself wondering if they'd all be better off just making the best of it, a thought always quashed by her own desire - no, need - to leave, to get out of this fishbowl.)

She nods, slow and thoughtful, at his words. It's hard to see anything good in the half-crumbled remains of a city with monsters at its edges. "Haven't seen that much of it," she comments, although if the gods are to be believed - and for now, she will believe them - this is safety.

Makes her wonder what the world outside is like.

"I don't think any of us have, given how the gods have us trapped here," Glacius murmurs, his mood starting to dip as he's reminded that the beautiful sky above them is nothing but a farce. A trick of the gods to keep them placated, to try and make this prison seem more acceptable--and for just a moment he feels bad for buying into it, even if he knows it's trickery. "When I lived out in those caves, so long ago, I spent along time exploring them and trying to map them out, desperately searching for some sort of exit. But of course there was none. It makes me wonder how this cave came to be... was it once a normal city, sealed off by some sort of cave-in, or did the gods create it themselves to house their intended power sources?"

There's so much about this place that goes unanswered. So much that Kate wants the answers to, if only to see if any of them will answer the mystery of the Door, whether there's some unturned stone, some key unknown to the people calling themselves gods (can you really be a god without some sort of omnipotence, some knowledge that encompasses everything in your domain?).

The thing is, the longer she's here, and the more she does attempt to talk to them (to Hope, mostly), the more she becomes convinced that the only answers they need are found outside of these walls, outside of the fishbowl that keeps them all pacing around and around in circles. "They keep talking about protecting people." Whether that's them, their captives, or whatever - whoever - came before them. These beings that supposedly got on with the gods, who gave their emotions freely. "Makes me wonder what's so dangerous."

To that, Glacius only heaves an explosive, hearty scoff. "Protecting people-- protecting their own self-interest, more like! This is not protection, this is imprisonment and torture. No matter what might lie beyond those walls, it cannot be any worse than what we suffer here, in a place where even death is a frequent occurrence."

The ice alien huffs, old grievances with this cave and its so-called "gods" (Glacius does not believe them to be such, but it seems to have become common shorthand around here) rears its head. He looks to Kate, his green eyes glowing fiercely. "I am sitting here enjoying a fake sky when I should be dong everything in my power to find a way out from this place... and yet I... feel as though I have exhausted my line of thought on this matter. The caves are a labyrinth, the walls of this cavern likely too thick to breach... and likely thick enough to block any messages that might be broadcasted for help. All I can do now is watch the Door, but nothing has changed... nothing ever seems to change..."

The ice alien sighs despondently, rubbing at his forehead wearily, starting to feel trapped again despite the once-comforting expanse above him... and as that ugly feeling reemerges, he could swear for one moment that he saw a tear or a ripple in the illusion, dull stone replacing glittering stars once more.

"Perhaps I should fall back on that old idea of the explosives after all. Maybe not on the ceiling, but deep in the caves, where no innocents could be harmed... it is a risk, of course, but if I do not try something we'll never get any closer."

Kate's never believed in gods even back home, the word just seems easier to use than "the fuckers who play with our emotions" every damn time. And she agrees, deeply, with everything Glacius is saying, with the fact that they seem to have no way out from this cave, that all avenues have been exhausted except the one they can't understand and have no information on. Her fingertips drag down her calves, idle movements of no real consequence other than to give herself something to concentrate on that isn't an illusion. Something that feels like it's supposed to, the denim fabric under her fingers thick and true.

Her breath catches in her throat at the mention of the explosives, eyes drawing down towards the patterns she's drawing on her jeans. A few months ago, her reaction would have been immediate. Positive. She would have tried anything - and did - to get out. But the destruction caused by that attempt, everything and everyone she's met and done after it, even the increasing contact with the gods of this cave, and she hesitates.

"Might not work." Probably won't. She doesn't hold much hope for leaving on their own terms most of the time now, just a stubborn determination to dig deeper into the Door and the world here, to try and unearth something. "We'd end up with no caves for th' monsters that get brought here." They'd roam the city itself, making things more dangerous.

Glaicus gives a defeated curse underneath his breath in his own language. "You're... you're right. But I cannot just give up! My people are out there, somewhere, and I must protect them. For so long I have fought and attempted to maintain order to make the universe a safer place for them. How can I do that from here? And how am I to live with the suffering of my friends in this place? All of you, alien and human, deserve better than... than this... and I want so badly to give it to you, but I remain stuck."

Edited 2017-02-02 15:54 (UTC)

"The hell if I know." Blunt, but not meant harshly. There's so little logic to this place, so much that they've no answers for, which the gods either don't know or won't say. Kate exhales, runs a hand through her hair, pushing back loose strands, and stretches out until she lies down on the sand. Or what looks like sand, anyway.

"Wonder if time's passing back home," she comments, threading her hands behind her head, pillowing it from the not-actually-sand beneath her. "When Faith turned up, she said it were still the same time as when I left."

Event Post: Everyone Chill

it's all bc i have yours to bounce off

too kind!! <3

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