hadriel_logs | Event Log: Jumpscares

Entry tags:

Event Log: Jumpscares

Who: All characters participating in the event!
What: The event log for the Jumpscares event
Where: All over the city!
When: May 16th-May 20th
Warnings: Some startling jumpscares, interdimensional demon cats, the usual

A dark shadow looms over Hadriel on the morning of May 16th. There's a tension in the air, something palpable, as if everything has gone still and is ready to snap. You've been waiting for the other shoe to drop for hours now, and you're getting to the point where you're starting to wish that it would just happen already so that you can stop feeling this way.

Of course, when it does happen, it's not quite like you expect.

Maybe it's a tiger leaping out of your closet, claws extended. Maybe it's a faceless slenderman, stepping out from around the corner or a monster with beak and claws ripping open your shower curtain when you're most vulnerable- but within seconds, after you've been startled half to death by the monsters, they're gone. They vanish in a puff of smoke, or dissipate into glitter, or become something silly instead for a few brief moments before disappearing entirely.

Weird. But not unendurable, I guess. The bright side is that there will also be a few demon cats that have also made their way through the door. No two cats are ever in the same location, but there seems to be enough of them to go around, though the toothy one can be a bit vicious. Still, they aren't untameable, and might make nice pets, as long as you don't mind a bloody finger or two when it's time for lunch!

► This log covers May 16th-May 20th.
► 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 have some heart problems that are unfortunately exacerbated by this event, please let us know here, and we're sorry.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Because I failed my duties. I could not eliminate a threat. I allowed my men to be lax in their discipline.

[She didn't like them, but that's hardly the point. Their lives were her responsibility.]

[He considers that a few moments, allowing himself to lean back against a nearby wall; he's convinced at this point that Maketh is not a threat to him during normal conversation, and he's exhausted.]

Even if all those things are true, they don't necessarily mean you're weak.

[Sometimes people just fail. Sometimes they make mistakes. Sometimes they're simply outmatched by someone with more skill or an upper hand.]

Of course they do.

[She frowns at him, trying to follow the logic.]

If I had been stronger, a better officer, my men would not have bene killed.

[He's quiet again, deciding how to respond to that in a way that she'll understand without being too specific or getting into particular details.]

I find it difficult to believe that, even in your world, bad things only happen to those who've done something to warrant it.

Well, no--

[Bad things happen all the time. Sometimes people are just in the wrong place. Accidents. Friendly fire. Bad intel. Maketh wavers.]

Someone is always to blame.

[He's glad she seems to be in agreement on that, so he can lead into the next conclusion.]

And that someone is the person causing the harm, not whoever they're causing it to.

So I should blame Kallus, or the Inquisitor?

[Maketh gives him a sad smile.]

They hardly had a choice.

There's always a choice.

[Even in a difficult situation; even in one that's life and death.]

But it isn't necessary to assign blame to someone else in order not to blame yourself.

You really believe that.

[Maketh watches him for a long moment, wondering. For a long time she's accepted the inevitably of certain things. Orders will come, people will die, and on bad days they will not be strangers. On the very worst days they will be people she loves. And sometimes - many times - it will be her fault. It is always someone's fault.

Eventually she shakes her head.]

I don't blame them for wanting to live. But my men--

[She blinks.]

I didn't like them. They weren't good soldiers. But they were my responsibility. If I had been stronger, a better leader, then they wouldn't have failed. The Inquisitor wouldn't have killed them.

Yes.

[He says it with certainty in response to her first statement, then goes quiet again to give her a chance to think and respond. When she does, and finishes speaking, Lance's next words are no less sure than his last.]

Unless you were purposefully careless, it isn't your fault. Senior agents, or officers, or anyone with command over other people always feel responsible when something happens to those they're leading, even when they've done everything they can.

[Lance is sure Booth will blame himself for what happened to him, and that thought briefly makes his chest tighten in a mixture of sadness and guilt. He has to take a brief moment to make sure his voice is steady before he continues, and isn't entirely successful but hopes she won't notice.]

And if you didn't actually lose them in a battle, it's even less your fault.

[Because from what she's said and how she's acted, he gets the impression that her soldiers weren't killed in the middle of a dangerous conflict.]

It would have been better if they'd died in battle.

[Maketh rubs her face, suddenly tired.]

Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko. Taskmaster Myles Grint. Those were their names. I put it down as a rebel attack. Grint had a daughter. It wouldn't have been good for her, if got out her father was executed in my damn office.

[Hearing confirmation of what he guessed to be the situation--or something like it--holds none of the usual satisfaction he gets about being right; this is just terrible, and he wishes he were wrong about it. But the more he hears about things that happened in Maketh's world, the better his understanding of why she is the way she is and, consequently, how to help.]

I'm sorry.

[It's condolences, for having to experience that, and he doesn't miss what she says about Grint's daughter.]

That was a kind thing you did, to protect her. Was it something you could've gotten in trouble for?

[It's a kind gesture regardless, but if it were something that required a risk on Maketh's part it'll be even more significant in several ways.]

[Maketh nods, sighing.]

It would have been another reason to call me weak. A good officer has no time for sentiment. Kallus probably did find out. I doubt he would have cared, if things had been different. But we learn how to survive. Only the strongest may serve at the Emperor's side.

[Again, this is the answer he expected but would've been glad to be wrong again. He gives a long, quiet sigh as he contemplates what to say in response, and eventually decides on a simple question.]

Do you regret doing it?

[She pauses.]

Which part?

Trying to protect Grint's daughter.

No. I owed him that much.

[She didn't know Grint's daughter, had never met the girl. But it was something.]

[He nods, and gives her a small smile.]

You chose to do what was right instead of what was most beneficial to you.

I--

[Maketh hesitates. She hadn't thought of it that way, not really.]

Oh. I see.

[He's glad she seems to get the conclusion so easily, and smiles a bit more.]

Good. I hope it's something you'll keep in mind.

[Even if the words are a little short, his tone is easy enough to read; that's one of those things he'd like her to think about and go over in her head a bit.

And then he hesitates briefly before changing the subject, much less confident about this than he had just been.]

I think I met someone else from your world, here.

Oh, I see.

[Maketh resists the urge to rub her eyes. Stars, she hopes it wasn't Hux. Kylo and Anakin can be explained if not excused. Hux is another matter all together.]

I suppose I should apologize for their manners. Which one?

[Yeah of course it would be the worst option.]

He was slightly taller than I am, with red hair.

[Maketh groans. Stars above.]

That would be Hux. What did he do this time?

[There are a lot of answers he could give that, although he'd brought up the topic in order to ask a specific question that he's suddenly unsure if he actually wants to ask. So he's silent for several seconds, mentally debating.]

He convinced me your world is in even greater need of therapists than I previously thought.

[It's dryly sarcastic, but he means it. It's also not what he'd been thinking about asking, obviously.]

[Maketh raises an eyebrow. It doesn't explain what Hux did, precisely, but perhaps it doesn't need to.]

I see. If it means anything to you, we're not from the same time. He's--twenty years after me? I'm not sure. I went to the Academy with his father.

[She grimaces.]

Awful man. I'm amazed he lasted long enough to spawn.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject