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

Taako is beginning to realize that this entire city is one big hazard. Sure, he's used to being in danger and getting thrown here and there into life-threatening situations, but usually those only last a couple of days with time to rest in between. Meanwhile, apparently even resting here can be dangerous, because he's just trying to make it home when out of friggin' nowhere, here comes a huge burst of fire.

Thankfully, he ~~rolled a nat 20 on a dexterity saving throw~~ is very, very fast and hits the ground hard and quick, the flames going right over his head and barely singing the tip of his hat, which he takes off immediately to try and extinguish.

"Okay, look, I completely understand, like, preemptive magic, but that seemed like overkill." He doesn't even see Rey yet, simply complaining to whatever is in the vicinity. "Are you trying to kill someone or just really unhappy to see me?"

Preemtive m--?

For fuck's sake.

"It's not magic," Rey huffs with all the frustration of someone who's had to, more than once, explain this. Even Carlisle probably still thinks of her as a damn 'pyromancer'.

After a moment, it seems like going on another tirade about the differences between magic and whatever freak sciences behind her abilities are don't matter. That's neither here nor there.

Sliding a hand down her face, she breathes out a heavy exhale. "Don't even know who the hell you are to be that unhappy."

So it's the former, then. Yes, her instinct was to kill someone -- just not this guy.

He rolls his eyes as he pulls himself off the floor, smacking the last of the flame from the tip of his hat and re-seating it on his head. "Listen, as someone else who, uh, throws big fireballs, if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and flies like a duck, it's probably magic, homie."

Alright, so that one got away from him, but she'll get the point, probably. "I mean, people've told me, hey Taako, maybe don't blow stuff up when people are super close, but you just went for it. Burnin' slots like it's nothin'. Which, I mean, sometimes you just gotta do, but whatever you seen must've really spooked ya."

Well, if she wasn't gonna kill him before, she might now.

What.

"Well, it's still not a duck. Or magic."

No matter how many times any pointy-eared, weird-clothed assholes say otherwise. Rey isn't about to dress herself up as some mythical creature from the fairyland of... something. She can't keep up with where she was going with that thought.

And while she would like nothing more than to punch this guy in the face just to work off the remaining jitters, she just sighs. A puff of smoke escapes her exhale, leaving a sulfuric taste in her mouth.

"Don't know what you mean by 'slots', but it really was nothing." Both the effort and the thing that spooked her. Huff.

I mean, she could probably punch him, his AC's low as hell and he's more liable to run, but isn't it more fun to talk? And also listen to him say stupid shit?

"Y'know, like, spells you can do in a day and stuff. Does your world not have slots? Have I been missing out on a universe where people can just make fire, because wow, what a ripoff." Seriously, he would love to just be able to do that whenever. Maybe that's being a warlock? But then usually you have to make a pact with a demon or whatever. That might explain all the scars. "Seriously, though, you're blastin' out stuff like that at a lil scare, I'd hate to see what you'd do to somebody, uh, actually comin' at you. Which I do not intend to do, by the way. No interest in dying by immolation today."

Fortunately, Rey has heard much stupider things. Her patience is also better than one would expect.

"No? What you're describing sounds like shit from a video game." Or, you know, a tabletop RPG, which Rey is much less experienced with. Next thing you know, he'll be talking about EXP and using ability points. "And good, not interested in immolating random ass strangers."

He must be new. He looks and sounds pretty new, and she is sure she's never heard anyone going by the name of 'Taako' around here before.

Works for him, on the patience and the not being murdered by fire. This is going much better than he expected it to go, considering this talk started with a wall of flames and some screaming.

"Don't know what that is, but also pleased to not have to fight anybody. Not really my biz if I don't have to." He's not so much of a lazy schlub that he wouldn't fight if his life depended on it, but he's not gonna go looking for trouble where it isn't, despite being an incredibly creator of conflict. "Still though. Wicked cool. I'm into it. Though I prefer more, uh, variety in stuff, you know? Not that just lighting something up isn't some kind of answer to just about everything."

A few years ago, maybe Rey would have been the type to set a stranger on fire in a heartbeat, no matter their approach. Nowadays, she'd rather have reason when it comes to the people she actually intends to kill.

"You're 'into it'," she echoes flatly, not all that impressed with his rambling, but certainly not punching him in the face, either. "What do you mean by variety? That something to do with that... spell shit? You can do more?"

Having not come from a land of magical unicorns and pointy-eared people, it's still a weird thing to talk about in the context outside of movies and video games.

Frankly, Taako can in no way formulate a world where fire can just be created from nothing and not also have magic attached to it. There'd be a difference if there was some sort of starter- if you had like, gas or something, like how dragons work (or how he assumes dragons work). Why wouldn't she know about magic? Unless she's secretly a dragon at which point we have jumped the gun into something way out of his depth.

Instead, he decides to focus on what he does know how to talk about, which is snapping his fingers and sending off a few sparks just for the show of it. "Yeah! It's magic, baby! There's more than one." Seriously, what is this girl? "What do ya wanna see? I mean, I'm not gonna burn some crazy spell slots unless there's a really good reason, but I have a bunch of cool shit I'm not doin' anything with right now."

To be fair, the fire Rey produces technically isn't created from nothing. Just nothing that can be seen, which naturally would be perceived as 'magic' by those whose worlds function that way.

It's no concern to Rey, neither is it up to her to educate the bullshit scientific laws that are very possible by her world's standards.

She does blink when a few sparks fly from his fingers, a brow slowly arching as he offers up being something of a show pony.

"Cool shit such as...?"

Sorry, Taako. She isn't as verbose as you are.

Come on, Rey, at least have some ideas. He has to know how to impress you perfectly so you'll understand that he's super cool-- but if she's willing to let him pick favorites, he can roll with that too.

"Alright, alright, house deals, I get it." What can he pick that's not going to injure one of them, is the real question. There's a lot he could do to scare, but considering he almost got burned straight out of existence roughly 5 minutes ago, he's not super keen on anything that might provoke her. His eyes scan the vicinity, looking for a quick material component, until he spots a pile of clothing through an open window off to his left in a shop, and grins. That ought to do it. He reaches slightly underneath his cape to where a rather ornate umbrella sits at his waist, grasping it by the handle and pointing towards the pile with a quick command word. Almost as instantly as he speaks, the pile begins to animate itself and climb from it's position on the shelf out the window and over to where the two of them are standing. While it's not really levitating, there's absolutely now some pants, a shirt, a couple of shoes and a handful of socks now surveying their environment a bit and Rey in turn.

"This is actually pretty easy, but uh, you can throw fire in my face so I kinda figured scaring you was probably off the table, even if it would've been funny as hell." He's also really enjoying watching a pair of pants walk itself. "I could tell 'em to attack you, but uh, again, not super into death by fire."

Sorry, man! She doesn't come from any mystical fairy land of magic missile and lightning bolts. Maybe if she bothered hanging around those losers who sit at tables with cheese puffs and Mountain Dew and pretend to be fictional characters every night--

Wait.

Rey blinks as he gives life to a set of attire by pointing an umbrella at it. She starts to say something, until she finds herself mildly insulted by that last part.

"Am not that easy to scare," she quips. "Especially am not afraid of some animated clothes, hostile or not."

Seriously, she's seen worse than this guy. Rude.

He rolls his eyes. See, this is what he gets for being concerned about other people's wellbeing. He flicks the umbrella and everything drops, face obviously displeased. Fine, she asked for it.

In an incredibly quick movement, Taako steps back, and is very suddenly not humanoid anymore. In fact, he's now about 40 feet tall and has significantly more teeth than previous. The fun thing about being a transmutation wizard is that Taako is very, very well versed in turning into other things- and his favorite happens to be a t-rex, so, that's happening now. As a bonus, it's still wearing his stupid pointy wizard hat. He leans down towards Rey, jaw close, and lets out a loud, bellowing roar before Rey can almost see the dinosaur smile.

"Well, if you insist." It's a lot harder to pronounce things in this form, so the words are a little stinted, but he's getting it together.

Well, she did ask for it. Boy, did she ever ask for it.

Now she's looking up at a giant dinosaur, and it's looking back at her. Her hair blows back as it screams in her face, nose wrinkling as she waits for the gust of breath to pass.

That's... something. Rather than cowering and stuttering in terror, however, Rey just lifts a hand and--

--and pokes a fucking dinosaur right on the nose. Boop! Definitely tangible.

"You're a T-Rex," she so bluntly points out. "How the fuck do you have T-Rexes in your Magical Pixie Land?"

Shut up magic is still bullshit to Rey, no matter how many times she sees it.

Taako laughs as he touches her in her obvious shock, and it's almost loud enough to be constituted as another scream. Usually, he's a lot freer with his gestures, but having teeny tiny arms sort of cuts that out. Rey can still see him try to spread them like he's flicking his wrists, but it likely doesn't quite translate.

"It's a dinosaur, of course they exist. What world are you in there there might not be dinosaurs?" Seriously, they're as normal as having an elf hangin' around. "Magic and dinosaurs aren't mutually exclusive."

Any threatening gesture sort of loses its impact when you're a giant ass creature with teeny tiny arms.

"Never said there weren't. Wouldn't be able to tell you're a fucking t-rex if we didn't have any. But that's 'Earth'."

A wondrous place where magic is dumb but there are mutations and robots and freak experiments. But that's totally normal. Totally.

Listen, he has like, a ton of teeth, that should be enough of a threat at this point.

"Hey, maybe you saw one here or whatever. I don't judge if your world is too dumb for dinosaurs." Regardless, though, the shock value has worn off, and just as quickly as it happened, he's Taako again, elf and clothed and twirling his Umbra Staff. "So do you believe me now? In the cool shit ol' Taako brings to the table?"

Should be. But he's not like, chomping on her or anything, so that helps.

Rather than marveling at his show of magic tricks, Rey just gapes at him.

"You really talk about yourself in the third person often?"

Yup, that's what she got out of that. Sorry, Taako.

It takes all of his strength not to roll his eyes so hard they leave the cave entirely. Instead, he just gives her a flat, absolutely disbelieving look.

"Uh, I'm Taako? Y'know, from TV? People should be falling at my feet for that name, honestly, everyone here is missing out. It's a reminder! For uh, all of your sakes."

It's cool, Rey, that's what he got out of that, so if we're having an award for who has more tact, neither of them win.

"Think more of the tortilla food at the sound of that name before TV ever comes to mind."

Not to mention TVs are fucking old. Big, bulky things, and old.

He kind of makes this face when she speaks, like he's confused but in a way he absolutely shouldn't be.

"Tortilla food? What the fuck?"

It seems, at first glance, he'd be telling a joke. Making a taco riff. But by the look on his face, he genuinely has no idea what she's talking about.

And Rey is making this face. You know, the are you fucking with me? face.

"What? You seriously mean to say that you've got dinosaurs and television, but no concept of Mexican food?"

Not even a Taco Bell?!

"Okay, well for starters homie, no idea what a Mexican is, 'cuz I'm gonna guess its a place but I've sure as hell never been there." He'd imagine there'd be someone who invented whatever it is she's talking about, but it seems truly ridiculous if his name is associated with it that he wouldn't know. "Second, what does that have anything to do with me?"

God, Rey hates this place so much sometimes...

"You're the one who brought up being named after a delicious beef and cheese snack." Mmm, Mexican... "That's more likely to attract people who are stoned as shit than drop them to their knees in total veneration of... whatever they're supposed to be reminded of."

"Okay, look, I'm pausing this whole thing, right now." Seriously, what is she talking about. He puts his hands out in front of him, umbrella tucked under his arm in a 'bear with me' motion. "Listen-- I'm a chef, alright? I cook for like, a living, though maybe not right now, and you're standing here telling me there's a food that's essentially fuckin' named after me and I don't know what it is."

Rey better be prepared to give lessons at this point, because Taako's absolutely not letting her off the hook on this one.

Event Log: Jumpscares

II! rolls in here late

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I HAD TO HIT THIS BACK INSTANTLY

FFFFFFFF

THE BEST

the hilarious thing is that i just had burritos for dinner. CLOSE ENOUGH.

FANTASTIC i had meatballs yesterday so like, still in the ballpark

http://www.pocho.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/truckinvasion.gif

THANK GOD

TACO TRUCKS ON EVERY CORNER, MAN.

thats what hadriel is about to become

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