hadriel_logs | Intro Log: None Hadriel With Left Shark

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Intro Log: None Hadriel With Left Shark

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for February
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: February 10th-16th
Warnings: Shark week

Once more, new arrivals will wake up on the ground level of the ruined colosseum. There isn't anything particularly comforting about it, either- everything is a bit cold and impersonal and there is, of course, the fact that nobody remembers just how they managed to wind up here in the first place. That can all be explained in time, though- until then, you've got quite a bit on your plate already.

And why is that? Well, that may be because you're also surrounded by sharks.

Yes, on land.

It doesn't mean that they're totally incapacitated though- you still have your two headed sharks, your giant sharks, and your sharktopus that are more than capable of flopping in your general direction before taking you into a death roll. And don't forget the (far more dangerous) sand sharks, capable of swimming through the ground as if it were water itself. You might want to start to find ~~a life raft~~ high ground soon.

But hey, if you manage to get away from the sharks, feel free to help yourself to one of the odd food shaped blankets. These cozy comforters are perfect for your new bed, but they tend to carry a faint scent of the food they represent, so be sure not to sleep on an empty stomach!

Listen to the Jaws theme, grab a harpoon, and get cozy! On your way to safety, make sure to explore the rest of the city! Find a house, a new monster, a project to help with, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers February 10th-16th.
► 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!

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[Henry's initial reaction is one of surprise, before his brain kicks in and he realises it's because she is a woman. He cannot help but wonder if all noblewomen share Anne's sentiment about their role in society.]

You... viewed it a prison?

[He thinks of his sister and, very briefly, of Elizabeth Mortimer.]

Not all is well here. But it does lack the pressures of court.

Not by ordinary means. Some residents arrived with guns; that is the only source of them. You might find one spare if you ask around.

[Henry is content to stick to the weapons he knows. As for the latter question:]

Whenever all parties who wish to involve themselves agree upon it. Organise training as you please.

Russia waits for Firo to move so he can follow, and tilts his head in confusion when he ends up not going it.

Why...

Oh. Right. He reaches (not up anymore, only over) to take Firo's hand. That must be what Firo was waiting for, after all that's how they often walked around when he was here before.

...he doesn't know how he'd feel about that. The fact that he could easily be called back to his world in the blink of an eye, and then dragged back here just because an interdimensional portal willed it. This reeks of uncontrollable technology, the kind the Brotherhood would want to contain, maybe to observe...but ultimately, it would be destroyed for the greater good of mankind. Danse would have advocated strongly for its disposal even if its destruction represented a lost opportunity to pursue teleportation research, and he'd imagine everyone in the top brass would agree. This kind of power was just too great to be in anyone's hands for Danse to be comfortable with.

He was already having difficulty sleeping. Being at the mercy of the Door and a handful of powerful beings that could warp reality itself isn't going to help.

But then his attention snaps back to the detective. And when it mentions the Brotherhood...well. The chain is yanked taught with a harsh clink, the metal teeth digging deep into his skin when Danse abruptly tries to stand. To go back on his word and fight? To pick the peaceful route and walk out? Even he isn't sure. Right now there's just an ugly pounding in his head and his heart, an ache that pinches hard and squeezes, like a cloth wrung out to dry. He can't bear to just sit here and listen to this...this Institute monster speak of his dead brothers and sisters that way. As if it honestly would have cared, that it did care on that day when his already fragile world was shattered into pieces again.

How he hates that sympathy. That pity. The whispers and the sideway glances and the awkward attempts to make conversation to someone who was drowning in grief while the rest of the world celebrated.

The chair's frame rattles hard, and the chain's links are strained. If this was a weak pair, Danse might have snapped the bonds already. Instead, all he can do is lock a murderous glare at that synth. His voice is quiet, but each word is laden with burning venom, hissed between clenched teeth.

"You. Have no right. To speak of them."

And Danse didn't either. It's why he hasn't talked about them much. Missing is the usual "Ad Victoriam". No mention of Brotherhood principles, no pride of being Brotherhood, or dying for the Brotherhood cause...there's no identification with the Brotherhood at all. In fact, he hasn't spoken of his brothers and sisters since...well. Since his blind betrayal.

And Danse truly believes that this should remain the case. As far as he is concerned? He's a mockery of everything the Brotherhood stood for. He's the worse person to champion their name. But he won't let anyone else sully it either.

[ Tina's strong point isn't language, written or spoken. It was as close to an illiterate as she liked to get.

Watching Junkrat inspect her Boom Puppy, filled her with a kind of motherly joy~ She was proud of the alterations she'd made to the grenade launcher, it had proved to be a rather exciting if not somewhat unpredictable weapon, and that's just what Tina liked! Unpredictability with a truckload of firepower.

As he turned the offer up, Tina was, at first, a little disappointed. Maybe he was misunderstanding what she'd offered him? It wasn't every day she decided to share her genius with just anyone. However, the moment he pulled out that Rip-Tire, Tina's eyes grew wide in excitement. ]

Oooh~ Purdy~! I wan'it! Gimme gimme!

[ Making grabby hands at it as Junkrat set it in place and readied it. The second it zoomed off, she was smitten. Leaning against the wall once more, her eyes fixed on the tire as it soared around the arena, taking out almost everything in its final destination. The explosion was spectacular~ the colors and smoke lite up the reflection in her eyes (that lazy one drifting off to the side.) ]

Oh. My. God... That was FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!

[ Throwing her arms up in the air as she jumped about excitedly. ]

Holy Shit shawty!! Dat was! Dat was!! A motorized, spiked, explosive, projectile!?! That's the best-est thing I've ever seen shawty!!!

[ She was in her element! Breathing in the fumes in deep heaving breaths. Letting the smell of petrol and soot fill her lungs, was like any drug to a junkie. Her eyes were wide and full of chaos. ]

Boo... Yoo has to teach me how to make one!! I neeed~ one or I might die!!

[ Skidding to her knees, wrapping her arms around his metal leg and looking up at him with pleading, puppy dog eyes. ]

"That's the big question. If sealin' that frog in a pot of water was considered the best option for everybody." If trapping monsters Underground was simply the best course of action. If the frog's interests got put on hold for the sake of somebody else's, someone with the power to decide for it. Maybe the frog lost a coin toss. Maybe the frog just wasn't granted the ability to decide for itself.

Maybe they're overthinkin' this. Entirely likely, really, but what's the point of a thought experiment if not to think?

"What'd they do that for?" He keeps his hands buried in his pockets, but he hasn't blinked or looked away since the doctor's started talkin', his interest wholly fixed. "Is that just a human thing? Division for the, uh, sake of it?"

Lee makes a small pensive noise in his throat at the misleadingly simple question. In essence it is asking him to explain the history of human behavior. Territorialism. Religious divides. Economic struggles. Race. Gender. Sexuality.

"If I am honest with you, Sans, humans aren't that picky about it. It may be that the better question is 'what won't they divide themselves for?" A deep, frustrated breath follows. He is aware that, to someone not from his own world, that was far from a helpful answer, and as such he braces himself for another try.

"Humans have been on the earth for centuries, and in that time we have divided ourselves on any number of reasons. Competition for land, for food, for-," he stops himself before he says 'mates' and changes course. "-those things were the start. As with any living creature dependent on food, water, and shelter. But as humans advanced, things like religion, race...whether you were male or female or if you loved men or women...all of these things were...and still are...used as reasons to make 'us' versus 'them.' All evidence suggests that, if it were not necessary for survival, we would not necessarily be social creatures."

Can't say that's surprising to hear. In the time he's been here, he's gotten to learn first-hand that humans have all sorts of quaint little categories for things. They're all more or less interchangeable from the perspective of a monster, and yet there's still people who act all shocked when they realize that a skeleton like him and a dinosaur-lizard scientist like Alphys are the same species. That kinda variation just don't occur to 'em.

So he's honest. He can appreciate that, on top of everything else.

"Can't say I can really understand the point of it. But, uh, I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Monsters must'a been sufficiently different enough. Turns it all into an us vs. them, as the Doc said, and then - what? They move onto assigning the next them to drive away and divide?

"But you eventually reach a point where it ain't really feasible to divide anymore, y'know?" Can't divide by one, or divide by zero. Just don't work like that. Viruses, maybe, can compensate for high rates of division with high rates of population, but humans ain't viruses.

And for good reason.

Of course I can fight. [He stretches his shoulders because it's way past time he's shaken all the rust out. Too much lazing around playing video games for the last few decades.]

The Guard, huh. Sounds old fashioned, but I guess I can check it out. But, like... what is this place all about? Just showing up outta nowhere to have a flying shark trying to eat me doesn't paint the clearest picture.

Rosen smiles but the smile is taut and mirthless. "I wouldn't underestimate the human capacity for intolerance. Even human bodies turn on themselves. Organic mechanisms fail, cancerous cells spread and devour a person from within."

He realizes then that his tone has turned bitter, his own personal resentment for human behavior seeping through his more scientific rhetoric. Though he knows it is not required, he feels compelled to offer some explanation.

"Where I am from I work...or worked, rather....with men and women known as 'Alphas'. That honorific is overly simplified, but in essence these are people with super enhanced physiological abilities. Abilities that are extremely rare in humans. Some can manipulate thought through enhanced hormones while others, as a result an over developed lobe of the brain, can see miles farther than the average human or smell something that would be impossible for the average human nose to detect, or hear something many city blocks away. I've even met one who has managed to entirely halt his aging process, in essence rendering himself immortal. These people are still very much human but their capabilities are miraculous. Entirely physiological," he makes the distinction to contrast the Alphas abilities with Sans' earlier demonstration of magic, "and they all have scientific explanations. Even so, there are people who fear them. In fact the government has done everything in its power to keep the existence of such people a secret from the world. They lock them away. They...experiment on them...."

Rosen had a hand in that. If only he had known what he had been a part of. Would it have changed anything?

"Whether now or later, I fear there will be a breaking point. A war."

Edited 2017-03-01 21:36 (UTC)

Suppose that ain't too strange a notion. The human child from above, the one that changed the king and queen's life for the better - the stories always said they got sick. No explanation, no discussion of how or why.

Then again, it might be it didn't really count as sickness at all.

He don't get much of an explanation as to why they do that. What he does get, instead, is a description of somethin' that reminds him some of the human magicians that once frequented the Surface. Once, because he can't be rightly sure that that's still common knowledge among their lot. Can't be rightly sure what kind of enhancements those might be, other than the examples he offers.

Cripes. And here he thoughts humans didn't need enough power.

"So you got one group of people who're...powerful. More so than your average bear." Just outlining things nice and neat, for clarity's sake. "And you've got the average fella, who might not take kindly to feelin' like there's somethin' out there that could wipe 'em off the map. Has advantages no one else has."

No wonder he fears there'll be a breaking point, given everything. Way he lines it up, it sounds all but inevitable.

"We divide." Rosen brings the point back around to the start. "We find something different and in that moment we have our reason to divide ourselves further."

He makes an awkward gesture to indicate his clothes, a blue cardigan, white shirt, and white pants, now dirtied with the dirt from the arena. "This is an institutional uniform. I thought perhaps I could preemptively stop a war between Alphas and humans by going against the government's wishes, by telling the wider world the truth about the existence of Alphas. I thought the...err... the "average fellas" as you called them... and the Alphas could make the decision for themselves to live together peacefully if the issue was presented to them openly and honestly." He shoves his hands roughly back in his pockets then.

"But I miscalculated. Instead I was locked away and the government hopes that with time they can convince the world that I am just mentally unbalanced so they'll move on. Forget. Go back to pretending like the others don't exist. And this...I... will be just another division."

It would be a lot to take. Maketh just shrugs again. "The gods - the things in charge - bring us back. We're not much use if we're dead."

Keep it simple, stick to the facts.

She watches him a moment.

"I don't hold it against you. This place is--a lot to take in."

Find a reason to divide themselves or possibly simply generate one. Fabricate one, if necessary. Wish he could say he's surprised, but it ain't much of a surprise at all. That's just kinda how humanity rolls, ain't it? First it was monsters. Then, it's humans who're different. And whoever's in the position to define different - makes it pretty damned arbitrary, don't it?

There's a sharper tunneling of focus, a subtle dilation of the lights buried in his eyesockets, at that last comment.

"How d'you mean, locked away?"

And how does he mean, someone can just up and get away</i. with that?

"How?" His eyes go wide at the question. "Well, it was all pretty efficient. I was arrested and the government department that I used to work for guaranteed that, without the due process that is promised by the legal system, I was declared mentally unstable. I was then put into a cell in the psychological ward of a New York prison. And I have been there now for- well- for perhaps over a year now."

Rosen straightens. "Today has been the freest I have been for a long time now. And this conversation," He offers Sans a sad smile, "Is the most I have been able to speak to anyone about any subject other than my supposed insanity since before I was incarcerated."

Edited 2017-03-02 02:44 (UTC)

Huh.

No wonder he don't seem real unsettled about bein' down here. Might be a small cage, but it's more spacious than the one it sounds like he was stuck in for a year. Linear time - it sure is something.

A system that lets somethin' like that transpire without complaint, well, that's even better. Yeah, sounds pretty fantastic for just about everybody. You say somethin' somebody don't like, and you disappear. Sounds, uh - familiar, in its own way...?

...

He won't pursue that thought.

"You seem pretty sane to me, pal." He tips one eyesocket shut in a wink. "I doubt anybody here'll lock you up for any sorta reason like that."

And if they do, it ain't like they'd be real successful at it. Incarceration ain't exactly one of the Hadriel guard's specialties.

Its only dawned upon Rosen himself that perhaps this is why, beyond a daze fueled by adrenaline and rapid heart rate, he doesn't feel distraught. The sense of upset and helplessness he should feel have been delayed in coming and now he wonders if they will come at all.

"Thank you."

Its a strange thing to have your sanity confirmed by a talking skeleton, but he will take it for the moment.

"Then let me ask you, Sans, when the monsters and the humans became divided, was there a singular reason? Was there a specific catalyst for the war?"

What had been the last straw.

So, uh, yeah, maybe Sans ain't the best person to confirm a subjective experience; talking skeletons aren't what he thinks humans would generally consider a very sane thing to be chattin' with. But if it helps, then it helps.

That's what matters.

He reaches up to scratch at the crown of his skull with the rasp of ossein against itself, a wholly reflexive and by and large generally useless gesture, since he lacks the skin to be technically itching up there in the first place. But it helps him think. Grounds him some.

"They say it was the SOULs," he says, sortin' through all the different explanations. 'Cause there were plenty of 'em. Hard to say what the real cause was, though he supposes the King would know. "We had the potential to take theirs, and with that power - we could wipe 'em off the map. Suppose that's how they justified it. Never happened, though. We're generally a pretty peaceful people."

"So then if I understand correctly souls are quasi-tangible things where you come from? Or are in some way transferable?"

So far as he knows there has still been no success in quantifying the soul or confirming its existence by any medical means. There have been experiments in weighing the body before and after death, but the results have generally been inconclusive or dodgy.

Thus the idea of 'taking a soul' is another step above the assumption of its existence. And he does not think Sans is speaking allegorically about the taking of souls. This is not the field of preacher men and their flocks.

"How would a monster take a soul? Is this also magic?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Everyone's got one. Human SOULs are just, uh...unique, kinda. They can persist after death; most monster SOULs can't." Boss monster SOULs are the only exception there but, uh, he ain't really eager to go down that road right now. Too complicated.

"Generally, you gotta kill the person it belongs to. Hence why it ain't necessarily a big thing, where we come from." He inclines his skull, faintly. The general moral consensus is that killing shouldn't be necessary, and if it is - it's a hell of a burden.

Asgore didn't wanna kill those six kids any more than they wanted to die.

"Is there a particular-," Lee struggles to find the word he wants, "- value to a human soul?" The word 'value' doesn't sit right with him though he hadn't been able to think of something better. Even so he doesn't like how cold that sounds, almost like an auctioneer's appraisal of an artifact. "What I mean is, what would any monster want with a human soul?"

Sans had said it had never happened before. If that is the case, then what would be the basis of the human's fear? Or is it just another case of human's preemptively acting in self-defense? Or perhaps it is another issue of human's arbitrarily choosing reasons to create divisions between themselves and the 'alternative'?

"Humans're stronger, generally. Their SOULs follow that same kinda pattern. So a monster with that kinda power would be, uh...pretty nigh unstoppable, it turns out."

Humans, they got those special qualities to 'em. They got determination, and they got the will to persist where most monsters do not. They're made of more than just magic and the hopes and dreams of those who live Underground.

"Humans have this thing we call determination." He opens a bony hand in artless supination, one eyesocket lidding at half-mast with the other dropping shut entirely. "With the right intent, one human could tear up the entire population of monsters."

One did, in actual fact. Or was it two?

You think so? What, he a jerk or something?

[ Surely friends are friends, right?? ]

You been stuck here long, Frisk?

[ That was the wrong thing to say. Gladio grits his teeth, eyes narrowing with rage. They know each other too well; they each know their dads are touchy subjects, and if Noct hasn't talked about Regis then Gladio's said even less about Clarus. He intends to keep it that way. ]

Fuck off.

[ For all that Noct might be holding on, Gladio tries to throw Noctis at the floor with all his strength. The training wheels are off now, Noct. Don't write a check your ass can't cash. ]

Don't say another damn word!

Edited (weird spaces) 2017-03-02 05:47 (UTC)

With the right intent

"Its strange but I am used to thinking of humans as among the more fragile of organic life. We have no outer protective shell, we are immediately susceptible to the slightest changes in climate, we are prone to disease..." Lee numbers each off on his fingers. "And we have no magic. But at the same time it is undeniable that we have the greatest capacity for destruction of any creatures on earth."

His shoulders slouch forward, "and it sounds like that your humans on the surface share in that same capacity. What does that say about us?"

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Intro Log: None Hadriel With Left Shark

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