hadriel_logs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Open to everyone
What: #TeamTranquillity are in it to win it. Deciding to work together, the gang has taken over the library and converted it into a space for weary residents of Hadriel to catch their breath and just take it easy amid the intensifying competition in the city to invoke one emotion or another.
Where: The Library
When: March 15th to March 21st, duration of the event.
Warnings: Will Update if necessary!

[Hadriel's library has unfortunately seen little use; the books are either unreadable or cover material so random that only ~~Hope~~ someone who completely did not understand the concept of fun would have picked those books. Little wonder it's hardly frequented by Hadriel's residents.

But it's still a library: meaning, it's got plenty of space, and plenty of peace and quiet.

So with all the chaos erupting over the city? It could make the perfect sanctuary, a place to take a breather from the emotion wars. A place where a person could unwind over a cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, knit a sweater in peace, or even plunge themselves into pillow/blanket fort and just take a nap. A place to relax.

A place for Tranquillity.

Which is why Team Tranquillity has taken over the library and converted it into a mini R&R. Tables and chairs have been pushed to the side to allow for floor space, and comfortable chairs, sofas and even beanie bags, all in softer pastel colours, dot the empty space. A couple of tables and chairs have been left as well, so that those in need of them can use them as they'd like. And of course, the giant pillow fort bundled in one corner for people to unceremoniously throw themselves into.

The members of Team Tranquillity are all around to ensure that your time in the Tranquillity Space is as relaxing as can be. Some members are even offering services, ranging from massages to meditation, gentle exercises to a steaming hot cup of joe. Knitting classes, advice on handling emotional stress when under torture and trauma, and even some fortune-telling for light laughs.

And it's perfectly alright to drag a beanie bag to your own personal corner and just crash there for the day. No judgement from Team Tranquillity.

A message is sent out via the network to inform Hadriel's citizens of the new place in town to get away from it all. Drop by whenever, do what you need to relax and recharge. It's a stressful world out there, and sometimes we all need to take some time to chill out, right?

Welcome, to the Tranquillity Space.]

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[Well, he doesn't seem to be mad at her for her presence, so that's a good start. As much as most humans have never seen a monster, Alphys' interactions with humans before Hadriel was incredibly limited- and at least mildly violent- so it's hard for her not to be a little jumpy.]

Uhm... no. I just heard that, uhm, t-this team had set up some sort of quiet space, uh, here? I thought I'd come. See. W-What everyone was doing.

[Which isn't a lie; she's team Fear, but she has no intention of doing something scary with this place. Then again, she could probably get a cheap thrill in just by shutting off all the lights, but that just feels mean to kick down everything this team's been working so hard for.]

[While L might not embody the spirit of tranquility perfectly, he isn't particularly emotionally demonstrative. There's no overt sign of ire or joy, or much in between; his placid, pale features take in her unusual ones with some interest, but no real judgment.]

If a quiet space is what you're looking for... and it seems to be, for a lot of people... then this seems to be the destination of choice, yes. As long as people don't cause trouble, everyone is welcome.

[It sounds more like something he's parroting that someone else said, rather than his own sentiment. Really, L would prefer to just be left alone in a lot of ways.]

We haven't met. Your name is...?

Oh! Yeah, no, I don't intend to uh, d-disrupt anything. I don't want to cause trouble, I just, uh, thought this place would be... nice?

[She grips her hands together, running the palms over the backs as he talks out of a kind of nervous tick. At least he's asking a question she can answer.]

Oh! Uh, Alphys. D-Dr. Alphys, actually. And, uh, you are...?

[She holds out her hand for him to shake, if he wants. Best to act cordial as she can on a first meeting.]

[L nods, accepting that Alphys doesn't seem to want to disturb the peace as well as the fact that, truly, the library is nice as locales in Hadriel go for the moment.]

You're not wrong. We set up here for a reason, and I think it's going well. Even if the books are useless, the hot chocolate is a nice change of pace.

[He's downed so many cups of it that if there's a shortage in the near future, he might be the one singlehandedly responsible.]

Dr. Alphys? I won't forget. What is your primary field? As for myself, I'm Luke Landau.

[It's not his name. It doesn't matter here.]

[He's freaking her out less and less the more they actually speak, which is nice, especially when they're talking about hot chocolate and questions about herself she actually knows how to answer.]

Yeah. It all seems, uhm, r-really calming.

It's, uhm, nice to m-meet you, Luke. I'm uh, I'm an engineer, but uh, my specialty is in robotics and uh, I guess kind of SOUL m-magic and technology research. I've done, uh, a lot of stuff in my, uh, studies and stuff.

[Whether or not it was the most fitting choice for him, L's actually doing something to uphold his part of being on team Tranquility. Apathetic and blasé counts as being tranquil, ultimately, and in that way, he's a pretty decent fit for this team.]

Well, that is the point.

Soul magic? Does that tie into robotics at all? And what stuff have you done in your... stuff?

[He's not openly picking apart her choice of words, but there's a little bit of implicit eyebrow-raising there.]

[Frankly, she'll take it. Alphys' entire existence is one big Anxiety Ball, so having someone rather nonreactive at least absolves her of the worry of stressing someone out.]

Well, uhm, y-yes, kind of. I used to study, uh, what made SOULs work, and magical t-technology, to create an entertainment robot with an artificial SOUL. It's all, uhm, kind of hard to explain simply, but, uh... it was about understanding the differences between human and monster SOULs and, what m-makes them tick.

[L quirks one of those implicitly raised brows. He's about to comment on something he's noticed, but wondered if it was a fluke or not.]

That word... "soul?" You say it differently than I do. Like there's a special emphasis or meaning. In my world, it's not something that's proven to exist, is in fact a metaphysical concept that many don't believe in, at all. An artificial soul is still very much the stuff of science fiction.

[Oh! Right. She grips her hands together a bit as a nervous habit; she forgets that most humans aren't in tune with this sort of thing. Or perhaps, like he's saying, it doesn't exist in their world at all.]

Well, uhm, where I come from, SOULs are very m-much real. They're, uhm, the essence of one's being, and if they get destroyed, you die. Human SOULs are much stronger than monster ones, but can't control magic-- except, uh, they can persist after death separate from the human's body. Monster SOULs can't, uh, exist without our form. They just dissipate back into magic.

[If a human could ever be said to look soulless, L's a pretty good candidate. His dark eyes look like they're painted with a glassy lacquer; they are on the edge of the uncanny valley, even though he truly is a human being.]

Do you have to destroy the body to destroy the SOUL, or doesn't that matter so much?

[Because, as far as he knows, that'll do the job, with or without any kind of essence of being.]

No, n-not necessarily. You could destroy the SOUL and not the body, or the body and not the SOUL. At least for humans. With monsters, uhm, the SOUL doesn't last outside the body, and a body with no SOUL isn't physical enough to sustain itself without the m-magic. So, uh, for humans, yes.

[It certainly will. Humans have so many things besides their SOUL in them- blood, bones, organs. Monsters only have the magic, and when it's gone, it's gone.]

So, what happens if you destroy the SOUL but not the body?

[He's genuinely interested in this.]

Where do you fit in all of this? What your SOUL like?

[Frankly, it's been a while since Alphys had any kind of discussion on SOULs, so she's interested to see what other people- especially people with no prior knowledge- have to say on the matter.]

If a human SOUL is destroyed, it's like when, uhm, s-somebody dies. The body stays there in whatever state it was in when the SOUL leaves and begins to decay as human bodies, uhm, do. But that's only for humans, uh... I'm a monster, so I have a monster SOUL. Just like, uh, any other, I would imagine.

[It's not the strongest SOUL, since she's not the strongest monster. But she gets by alright, though admittedly more with her head than her magic.]

[L's listless and directionless in Hadriel. If something can grab his interest, he'll have a lot to say on the subject.]

I'd guessed you were a monster, but didn't want to offend you by saying so if that wasn't the case.

[Under the pretense of being polite, L might have just inadvertently insulted her by implying that being a monster was something bad.]

Oh, well, uh, y-yeah. I've been noticing, uh, humans have a lot of bad connotations with the word? Probably because of the war. But it's okay. It's just the name of our race.

[She's getting kind of used to it, at this point. So many of the humans here trying to reassure her that "she's not that bad!" when to her it means something entirely different.]

But, uh, I appreciate it. That you were, uhm, t-thinking about all that.

I don't always.

[It's L's somewhat awkward and abrupt way of admitting that any kindness on his part was probably accidental.]

In a lot of worlds, the connotation is inherently evil, isn't it? It's interesting that it's the name of a race in yours, but... "souls" are something that are equally associated with something good. I can't pretend to know why that is, but it seems prevalent.

Well, uh... I appreciate it, uhm, a-anyway??

[He's trying, she concludes. That's... sure. Let's just go with trying.]

Talking to people here, it seems more the idea is that monsters are, uhm, mindless, or... i-irredeemable. That they can't be reasoned with. I don't know what to think about the SOUL thing. I haven't talked to many people about them at all.

[L nods, corroborating that he's trying, at least a little. A generous mind could probably stretch it that far, and Alphys seems to possess that much easily.]

That is the general perception. But talking to you, it's clear that it isn't the case, at least in some realities. You seem extremely reasonable to me.

Oh. Well, t-thank you. I strive to be, uh... reasonable. As a person-- or uh, well, as a monster.

[Smooth.]

I don't even think most worlds have other monsters, uhm, l-like us, so, I can understand why they wouldn't know.

Reasonable is reasonable. It doesn't matter what one is, if they've attained that.

[L's not the most honest person, but he does actually mean that sincerely. Part of it is that he can sense, through Alphys own lack of smoothness, that her words and manner are all pretty genuine.]

Have you tried to communicate with the monsters here? Or is it too different to make much headway in that regard?

I mean, I've never really t-tried? I don't fight, uh, pretty much at all, so it seemed unwise to try and do that without some sort of backup. Besides, they all seem to be flesh and blood animals, as oppose to magic, which uh, means they're not my kind of m-monster.

[It's an important distinction, or at least her suspicion. She's not even really sure how everyone in the Cave can understand each other, but she's sure that's the Gods' magic too, most likely.]

Mm... I thought it might be the case.

[Still, L's a little disappointed. It would have been interesting to try to make some headway at communication with creatures that have, up to this point, seemed nigh impossible to reason with.]

As far as you know, you're the only one from your reality who's made it here, aren't you?

Oh, uh, n-no! There's more people from my world. We just don't, uh, look the same, exactly.

[In fact, seeing as Sans has made quite the presence in the city, he might've already made himself known.]

There's, uh, Sans-- he's a skeleton, and uh, he talks to a lot of people, so he's kind of hard to miss. Uh, Asgore is here too, uh, he's the Underground's King. He looks like a goat monster, super tall. And his son, uhm, Asriel, and his human child, Chara. Plus there's Frisk, who's also human, and Undyne, who looks more fishy, a-and Mettaton who's a robot. Oh! And Napstablook. They used to be a ghost, uh, b-back home, but the gods made them human.

[She's counting on her fingers as she goes, trying to keep track of everyone.]

Uh, Sans' brother Papyrus used to be here too, m-months ago. Another skeleton. There's actually a lot of us, now that I think of it.

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