hadriel_logs | Event Log: Oh Shit (B side)

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Event Log: Oh Shit (B side)

Who: All the characters in Group B
What: The event log for Group B
Where: The right side of the city
When: The evening of March 28th-April 9th
Warnings: You're safe! But you're starving. Soon enough you'll be attacked by monsters, which will probably change both of those.

March 28th brings many changes into the city. First of all, that loving, dopey feeling? Gone. But you don't have too much time to mourn your affectionate side because, in addition to the humiliation of being voted in last, Love is also getting their personalized event overshadowed by the first major citywide disaster of Hadriel.

On the evening of the 28th, the city splits itself into two for some reason, isolating the left and right halves of the city. In the right half, if anyone tried to figure out where the other half of the city went, they'd find themselves staring down a massive rock wall- which is unfortunate, because this is the unlucky side without Hope. That means that after the split occurs, the lights flicker and die, the network takes far longer to get up, and what few stores there are will no longer be stocked with food.

The first two are solved within a couple of extra hours- dim lighting and profoundly glitchy network access will be created, particularly when attempting to contact anyone on the other side of the city. As if that isn't enough, without Hope there is no new food being stocked in the stores at first, and what is there isn't exactly being kept fresh and will run out within just a couple of days. Eventually, Love will try to substitute a replacement, but the bulk necessary to actually effectively feed everyone just isn't there, so enjoy your prolonged starvation!

That seems to be the main thing to worry about it until March 30th when the monsters begin to push and prod at Confusion's ineffective barriers and break through into the main city, where delicious meals (read: you) await them. The flow of monsters from the bestiary into the caves will seem almost unending, as we're stocked up on 18 months worth of them (and any/all offspring they may have created during that time).

Try to hunt some of them if you can, but watch out for the poisonous ones! It won't take long for hunger and thirst to start to settle in, so you might want to act fast. Additionally, since Hope is not present, there will be no revivals until the end of the event. You can deal with a minor permadeath setting, right?

► This log covers March 28th-April 9th.
► 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 die of starvation or animal mauling, please let us know here.

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[It's better to cut these things off before they begin. Chara knows the dangers of loving them and Sans has experienced it at the hands of his double.

They only asked for it once. Never again.]

I have my reasons for that. [Personal reasons they won't explain, a SOUL-to-SOUL connection.] And you know I will not contest the things I have done for them.

[It's not just the fact that Frisk is Chara's Partner. Frisk was someone who saw not just a SOUL to save but someone they sat down on a couch with for hours and simply talked with. Someone who knew they needed to let go but also how to hold on.]

[Yeah, sure. Figures they'd find a way to pin that on themself, rather than the murderous double-image who was out for his EXP since the very beginning. Should'a figured that by now.]

You're the only one who has, kiddo. That's no small thing.

I know Sans.

[Even back when they were acting as a demon, Chara would be hard-pressed to deny what they have done for Frisk. Telling Sans to hold off on his judgement of them, dragging Frisk back to their home when they were dying over and over....

Chara could have completed the front of being a demon by having nothing to do with Frisk. But they didn't. A strength as much as a weakness.]

But it is not enough to sweep the consequences of my actions under the rug. Or is being nice to one person enough to earn forgiveness for going out of my way to slaughter everyone in the Underground?

Kid. I know.

[He don't need that reminder. He don't need any reminders that they've done some things that just can't be forgotten, or forgiven, or any of it. Papyrus. Undyne. Mettaton. Whatever comes after, the world that spirals into nothingness, a picture full of scratched-out faces and a blazing rictus of a grin at the center of it all.

He knows.]

But I don't think goin' outta your way to hurt people's your problem. Bottom line? You don't. Never done it once, all the time you been here. For months.

What went down with Alphys?

You were angry. And you lashed out.

[Maybe there's no comin' back from that. But it's a clear indication, as far as evidence goes. As far as why someone does that kinda thing. 'Cause he's been tunneling in real hard on the why as of late. As if that'd be enough to make up for lost time.]

I don't think you like to hurt people, kid.

I just think the world never taught you how to put the damn brakes on.

[He hits the nail on the head when it comes to Alphys and her death. Chara had been so terribly angry after everything that had happened during the time with the doubles. And maybe going after the doctor wasn't just because Chara learned what she accidentally did to Asriel and sought incorrect justice.

Chara's own double and what happened to Asriel, Frisk and Sans. They couldn't say that didn't play a part in it either. Just a child lashing out because they were angry.

That's all.

And perhaps Sans is right, in the end. So.]

Then I should try. What do you recommend?

[He's an adult after all. He should know.]

[That prompts a faint laugh, a whuff of a chuckle that leaves him shaking his skull in wistful exhaustion. Asking Sans for advice? Sans? C'mon, everybody knows that's just a recipe for disaster.]

C'mon, kiddo. We both know askin' me for advice is bound to take us down a dark and ruinous road.

[His shoulders shift in a vague shrug that don't get much further than its initial pull and drop.]

I dunno, kid. I'm muddlin' through all this, same as you. Same as anyone. And you and I both know - I'm gonna keep makin' mistakes.

['Cause that's just kinda what he's best at, ain't it?

This whole giving a damn thing is tough work.]

Perhaps I am that desperate.

[Or just tired. And if you're dead and gone you can skip the middle man between sleeping and waking and just have oblivion.

Game over, roll credits, ect.

You don't have to make the effort to wake up any longer.]

But I know not to expect perfection from others. I have no standards, remember?

[No point in expecting it when you know you won't receive it, no matter how hard coded it is in your brain.]

[Har dee har. He laughs anyhow, 'cause dark humor's pretty much just how he slides on by, and it's how Chara gets by, and it's better than gettin' mad about it. Find a reason to laugh, and it defangs it, removes its bite by increments.

In a manner of speaking.]

Eh. We'll keep our standards low. Keeps us from gettin' disapopinted.

[May as well. People liked it better if you could make them laugh. Less questions are asked if you're 'happy' enough to make jokes.]

That is what I am thinking. It will stop the disappointment from the less than intelligent events in this place, at any rate.

[Can't say they're disappointed during this event. More angry, tired and desperate. But that's likely clear.

Either way the lab is coming up soon. They've got their hands full so Sans is going to have to grab the door for Chara.]

[He toes the door open when they reach it, though it ain't real clear how he manages to do so when it's pretty obviously bolted. Chalk it up to magic; he can tell where the bolts are set, and can slip 'em out from the grooves without needing to lift a phalanx.

He sets most of his spoils down onto the table with a series of loud clatters. A cursory glance affirms that Alphys must be out. Possibly scavenging for her own.]

Thanks for gettin' us started, kid. Every little bit helps.

[When it came to Sans things were either rule of funny or simply magic and something you just rolled with. Monsters were weird, after all. Everything thus far in Hadriel provided it.

Chara sets their own items on the same table before slipping both hands in their pockets before looking around. Naturally, as they've never been in the lab they'd be curious about what it looked like. And hey, anything to take their mind off of Frisk and Asriel being missing, right?]

You are welcome. Hopefully it helps in the long run.

I'm sure it will.

[It ain't much. But it's something, maybe. Some little indication that if they can keep pushing through the way things are, out there, it'll be worth it. They'll see Frisk again. They'll see their brother again. It'll all coil back to its source, and they can be that family they never got to be in full.

Almost, anyway.]

You ever been in here before?

[You know Chara, Sans. Determined. Even when they don't want to be. But for now they do have a reason to keep going. It's not a perfect, whole or healthy reason to keep going.

But it's theirs. The Fallen Child shakes their head.]

I have not. When was it set up?

[They should probably keep an eye on such things being built, if just to know about it. Perhaps that was the downside of not wanting to be here. You don't really try to learn things about the surrounding.]

'S a neat little place. Newt and Hermann orchestrated settin' it up as soon as they got here.

[There's the usual pressure atop his chest that comes with bringing 'em up. Not sure if that ever fades, really. The people that hit you with a steady impact don't leave you nice and easy, do they?

Never.]

Alph kinda took residence, after.

[After.

No need to say after what.]

[No there isn't. Chara remembers Sans posting to the network about it so they don't ask.

And no, it never does. That's the downside to caring, isn't it?]

I suppose she would be in her element here.

[Chara could make a joke about experiments or something but at the same time it might bring up what they learned during the doubles event and they're not sure if Sans ran into Alphys's double.

She didn't dig into Chara's privacy when they asked, even if it was likely out of fear. And they were getting along a little better...so Chara won't either.]

Was everything in this place found around Hadriel or were requested by the Gods?

[Chara's not sure of the exact limits of what the Gods could or could not do, besides not sending them home. Learning that limit might be useful.]

A mix of the two, I think. The two of 'em were kinda regular god batteries, the way they went on and on.

[One hand rests across the table, briefly, phalanges curling around the edge. The two would fight like no one else, snappin' at each other's throats in mingled annoyance and worry in one moment and more or less collapsed on top of each other in the next. Woven inextricably into one another - maybe even into the very fabric of their SOULs.

This place was theirs.]

I was there for the building day, but...y'know me. [A wink, and a cocksure grin.] I didn't help 'em any.

[When it came to someone who had a perpetual grin, you looked for the little things. A hand on a table, bones curling around the edge like he was trying to hold onto something that wasn't there.

Chara had only met Newt a handful of times and their only meeting with Hermann had been nothing short of a disaster. Naturally they didn't know of the relationship between the two or how deep it was with Sans either. But they haven't forgotten his post when they, along with Papyrus, left Hadriel.

One tends to remember the moments where someone who doesn't make an effort makes an effort.]

I am no surprised, no. At the very least it wasn't destroyed by this...event.

Yeah, nah. Guess they got pretty used to building reinforcements into things. Had these big ol' alien things that liked to tear up cities where they came from.

[That's easier to talk about, marginally. Marginally, 'cause it means he don't have to think about the men that came with them. It'd only been the second time he'd met 'em, when he ran into the thing dragging itself through the city's streets, through the fog and mist, bioluminescent spines quivering with some gelatinous fluid he couldn't and didn't much care to put a name to.

'Course they knew how to build things to last.]

Aliens tearing up cities sounds like something from a comic book.

[Not that they've read many personally and it's quite a shift in topics, but it may be for the best. Something a bit easier to talk about because dancing around certain topics get old after awhile. They've had a lot of practice with that song and dance before.

If something's built to last then the memories do too, after all.]

It does, don't it?

[It's easier to talk about, like this. Achieving some manner of distance. He chuckles, 'cause he remembers - that ain't even the half of it, huh?]

Even better? Apparently the solution on the human side of things was to build these giant robots to get rid of all the aliens.

[How Extra can one race be, honestly.]

Perhaps Alphys's dreams of living in an anime are not far off if one world can manage such a thing as giant robots.

[It's something silly in this storm of absolute disasters - in-between pushing themselves off a wall and talking about giant robots - that makes them smile a little bit.

Better than nothing.]

I wonder if there is enough junk in Hadriel to attempt to build one as well.

You tellin' me. She probably would've lost her head over something like that. Pity they didn't get any giant robots dropped in when everyone's home lives came calling.

[Not sure what anyone would do with a giant robot down here, 'specially since there ain't nearly enough room to manipulate it. But maybe it'd serve as a good base of operations if another set of dragons comes through.]

That may be the arbitrary line in the sand the Gods draw. We can't be having fun, now can we?

[Bitter, who's bitter? Not Chara. But they could see the practical and impractical uses for a giant robot or something of the same like. It'd make things interesting either way.

But thinking of uses for things brings Chara back to the situation at hand and they start feeling antsy again.]

...I should be going soon. If there is anything else you need, then feel free to let me know.

Yeah.

...yeah. I get that.

[Can't stay here jaw-wagging forever, can they? Got things to do, people to help, problems to solve, the pair of 'em. Making an effort, miraculously enough. Workin' together, maybe even more miraculously.

Regardless, it's with a rare hum of sincerity that he adds, quietly:]

Stay safe out there, kid.

['Cause someone here cares.
Really cares.]

[There's a lot of things Chara can say to that. "I'll try.", "We'll see." and so on. Nothing about making a promise to stay safe because they all know how those turn out.

So they don't. Acknowledge it with a nod of their head and don't bother smiling because it's pointless. They both know that any smiles at this point in time are false.]

You as well.

[If he doesn't have anything else to say, Chara will take their leave. They have things they need to do....things that would not help in the long run. But it's better than nothing.

Better than going back to that wall.]

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Event Log: Oh Shit (B side)

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