hadriel_logs | INTRO LOG: BLACK CATS & WALKING UNDER LADDERS

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INTRO LOG: BLACK CATS & WALKING UNDER LADDERS

Who: New arrivals and everyone else!
What: The intro log for February.
Where: The colosseum and all around the city.
When: February 10th-13th
Warnings: Fresh meat, creepy moving shadows, terrible luck, the screams of your loved ones.

Welcome to Hadriel, new friends. While waking up on the ground of a broken colosseum may not be the most pleasant arrival, you can at least find comfort in the fact that there's no giant monster immediately attempting to eat you. Plenty of the people already here will tell you that they weren't quite so lucky. But - wait. Is that something moving in the shadows, or is it just your imagination?

Of course it's not just your imagination. That would be way too easy. No, arriving along with everyone this time are wraiths, vengeful spirits that enjoy darkness, shadows, and misery. On the plus side, they won't try to kill you. On the minus side, their touch chills you and saps your energy, as well as inflicting a temporary curse of awful luck. Anything that can go wrong, will, including (and especially) things that might kill you. Wraiths are subtle and sneaky, so be sure to watch your back. That shadow isn't just a shadow.

Compounding the confusion the wraiths can cause, you just might wake up to the sound of chattering voices - only to be quite alone. A small flock of jabberjays has come through the Door as well. These genetically engineered birds are capable of mimicking entire human voices and conversations - as well as screams of terror and pain. Initially only in the arena and bringing only conversations from their world, they'll soon settle throughout the city and begin to learn the voices of those living in Hadriel. Your best friend screaming bloody murder just a street over? It could be them, or it could just be one of these lovely birds. Don't let it stress you out.

Once you've escaped the colosseum, hopefully without accidentally impaling yourself on your own weapon, feel free to go explore the rest of the city! Find a house, find a new monster, or simply scavenge for supplies. Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers February 10th-13th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well!
► All characters now arrive with phones that have network communication.
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

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Master werewolf extraordinaire. Got it.

(He takes Peter's hands in his own and helps himself to his feet, wavering a bit. He'll be unsteady for a while. It's a skewing thing to go from being completely unbalanced to balanced again. Coming back from insanity is a little bit like getting off one of those spinning cup rides.

He gives a nod and steps around Peter to head out onto the balcony. He sits himself down on the floor because really standing is just so not happening anytime soon. He's pretty lethargic as is so sitting it is.)

You must be pretty devastated, hm?

[peter sits next to newt, because standing over him just seems weird, pulls two cigarettes from his pack, and lights them both before handing one off to the other boy. coming back from insanity and death seems like reason enough to earn a full cigarette, and if he can't finish it, peter will.]

Devastated? Why?

(Newt's kind of glad that Peter sits next to him. He doesn't even care enough to feel ashamed about scooting over the extra inch or two between them so that their sides are pressed together and his leg is bumping into Peter's.

He murmurs a thanks before taking a small inhale. Newt hasn't been able to finish a cigarette yet. He mostly smokes a little at a time whenever Peter does. Today might change that though.)

You've said before I've got perfect hair.

(He says it in a relatively light tone. It is an attempt at a joke but really, he does feel kind of insecure. He didn't look at himself but from what it feels like, he probably looks awful. And not just because he's scattered in bruises and cuts. And for some reason, the idea of Peter seeing him as unappealing makes something churn unpleasantly in his gut. Not that he thought Peter was that shallow, no, not really, and not that he really cared for any particular reason he could pinpoint but...Well. Yeah.)

Good thing it grows back then, huh?

[peter's tone is truly light, like this simple fact of life is all that's particularly significant about newt's mangled hair. he reaches out and carefully twists a strand around his finger. it really is a shame about the hair, but peter isn't shallow like that. he's had an ugly shaved head before, and it fixed itself in time.]

I was thinking you might want me to cut the long parts down though, so it all matches a bit better. It'll grow out more like even, too.

(There's a moment where Newt feels a little bit self-conscious when Peter touches his hair. He doesn't say anything for a while, smoking instead. He gives Peter a slight smile before it fades.)

So it looks a little less awful? (Is what you mean- but he's not asking in that hysterical, looking-for-an-insult kind of way. Newt's all about the self-deprecation thing really.) Might be a good idea though. Maybe when the welts heal up a bit. I don't really want to cut my hair and risk getting any of it in them.

I didn't say that. But it would look less like it does.

[like newt's head has been sloppily flayed by the handful, he means.]

Yeah, we'll wait for 'em to scab over at least. They should now that your head is clean and nothing's pulling anymore.

(Newt manages a slight smile. Of course not. He shifts a little closer to Peter and yes, that is totally possible, and slumps down a bit so that he could lean properly into Peter and rest his head against his shoulder.

He raises his cigarette back up and keeps on smoking like this is the normal way they always sit.)

All right.

(Again, he's quiet for a while. This time, he actually is thinking. There is something he wanted to clarify. Because it didn't matter- Peter needed to know.)

I was getting bad when you first met me. I didn't realize I was until right now. It wasn't much but I recognize it now for what it was. I was getting these headaches all of the time and sometimes my balance would be weird. Not really like I was dizzy but...And then I was paranoid, more angry. It probably didn't seem it but I was.

(He taps a bit of his cigarette out.)

I feel completely okay right now. Like it's not even in me anymore. I feel disoriented because I- well, I think you can figure out why.

(Pretty much anyone who went full blown insane with an actual disease and then was shot in the head by their best friend was going to be pretty disoriented. But it wasn't the same sort of feeling that he felt with the illness. He wanted to make that clear.)

I didn't just slump into it though. I want you to know that. It's not like I just got real bad out of the blue.

(He is a teensy bit hesitant to tell Peter the next part. Not really because he wants to hide it but because it's...Kind of super shitty.)

[the contact is odd, but peter doesn't reject it. considering the obvious damage done both physically and mentally, he can hardly begrudge newt the desire to be close to another person, to be reassured that he was no longer whatever he had been.]

Yeah, I'm following you on the why.

[he takes a deep drag on his cigarette, holding the smoke in his lungs before exhaling it slowly through his nose.]

You got real bad for a reason.

(If Newt were a bit more himself, he'd think it odd too. Of course that's irrelevant right just then.)

Mmmhm.

(He sighs, twisting his cigarette around. It was a little...difficult to talk about, actually.)

WICKED uh...um. They picked us up and separated us all into different rooms. I was isolated from my friends and they were isolated from me. Then they uh. They did stuff..for uh. A month. To you know.

(He gestures vaguely towards himself.)

See the difference between the brain patterns between the immune and not immune under......stress.

[there's a moment of silence after newt's awkward proclamation.]

So they tortured you. For a month. And then dumped you in a holding ground with other sick people when it broke you.

Kitten...

[there's nothing really to say to that, so peter just drapes an arm over newt's shoulders. what else can he do? that's completely inhumane, not to mention a close cousin to the thing peter most fears happening to him.]

(This wasn't really telling Peter for the sake of pity but rather because Newt wanted him to know that he wouldn't get bad over night. That he was stronger than that. That he had intentionally been broken.

It's an oddly comforting gesture when Peter loops an arm over his shoulders. Newt allows himself to push into Peter, getting himself properly comfortable under that arm.

"Kitten". It's the first time since Peter's found him that he even realizes he's being called that. Filters in that Peter had been calling him it earlier and he grabs Peter's knee and gives a soft squeeze)

To put it one way, yeah.

(He exhales slow, cigarette momentarily forgotten.)

But I'm here now, pup. So...maybe it'll be okay. I've got you.

(Which is kind of the world to Newt. He wasn't okay when he was alone and he's been alone for long enough now.)

And Nymeria, of course. Ugh. Nymeria.

(He did not want to worry her. Hadn't even thought of what he'd tell the young girl. The truth, really, she could handle it yeah, but that didn't make this any easier.)

[putting his arm around newt was the right thing to do. the other boy burrows into him like he's a warm thing in a cold world and it makes him feel better, too.]

Yeah, you do. And vara. She'll...understand whatever parts of it you want to tell her, y'know. Or why you don't want to talk about it. She's a smart little cookie.

[he drags on his cigarette, looking out into the middle distance.]

I think it'll be okay if you decide you want to try and learn how things are when they're okay. Not just...accepting whatever kind of fine it is you learned back where you were.

Yeah, she will. I just don't really want her to worry.

(But it was unavoidable. Of course she'd worry. Newt would worry if their situations were reversed. He didn't really even want Peter worrying about him but Newt knew he wasn't even remotely strong enough to put up a front 24.7 at the house.)

Yeah- you might actually have a point there. I'll try to, at least.

She's gonna worry anyway, and she can probably imagine worse happening than what did. Kid's had that kind of life.

[peter doesn't know the details, he just knows, deep in his gut, that arya has been through more than either of them probably want to understand for someone so young.]

You might find that it's actually kinda nice sometimes.

Mmm. Yeah.

(Newt really didn't need to be told that. He did understand. He and Arya had a pretty intense grasping of that sort of thing. It's something they've discussed before. It's not really unusual for Newt as it might be for Peter. There had been kids as young as Arya that WICKED fucked with, did awful things to.

Anything was possible in the realm of Awful People and Things. It didn't discriminate against age. When he'd met Arya, she'd had a look he understood. He had no clue what she's been through, God, no, but he knew it wasn't pretty.)

Yeah, maybe I will.

(Except he doesn't think so. He won't bother to tell Peter that even when he's felt happy in the past, in the Glade, there's always still been some part of him that didn't really want to be around. Then again, he didn't even bother telling Peter that this feeling of his predated the whole virus thing.

Some things were just better left unsaid.)

It's okay, you can think I'm full of shit. From your perspective, I probably am.

[which makes him sad in a wholly different way. even when they were broke and living on shoestrings, peter had never been an unhappy kid. being bullied and ostracized just made him shut out outsiders instead of listening to them. he'd always made his own contentment, more or less, but he'd had the space to do it in. newt and arya aren't so fortunate.]

(Newt feels a little guilty when Peter calls him out. He looks down towards his sneakers for a moment, scratching idly at the side of his head where there was still healthy skin and hair.

He doesn't know much about anything. Growing up, his family, what his childhood might've been like. He doesn't even know what Peter's was like. Though he doesn't think Peter had an inherently perfect life, knows as much too from what Peter's told him, but Peter seems effortlessly optimistic too. Not in that overbearing, too-hopeful way. Just. Like he could see the world for what it was, both good and bad parts. It was admirable as much as it was frustrating.)

Sorry.

(Because he does feel like he owes Peter a little bit of an apology. Or a big one, rather. For being such a burden, yeah, but also being difficult. He gives Peter a small kind of smile, weak but genuine enough.)

I promise I will try.

I know you'll try. Believing it might be possible helps.

[it certainly helped that peter knew few things were entirely out of the realm of possibility. there were some odd side benefits to growing up in a family steeped in magic and storytelling that seemed like it, in living in a world where the lines between what was real and what wasn't blurred and sometimes didn't even matter. peter knows that he's lucky, that for all he's poor his perspective and experiences make him wealthier than many. it's always been something to hold onto while sleeping on cheap mattresses and old couches and wearing clothes that belonged to someone else first.

newt, he realizes, doesn't have anything to hold onto, just mind-games and his own intelligence and a disease that will eventually steal even that from him. he gives a little squeeze across the other boy's shoulders, not holding his doubt against him.]

Don't forget about your cigarette.

(Newt doesn't respond to that. He doesn't spend a whole lot of his time believing much of anything anymore. He leans heavier into Peter and he's starting to feel the exhaustion of everything. It's bone deep and he doesn't want to sleep, really, he doesn't.

But thing is, this is the first time he's felt safe. The first time that it felt like things might actually be okay for a little bit. A hand idly grabs at Peter's shirt, fingers curling briefly. He lowers the cigarette to the balcony floor and puts it out.)

I'll finish it later. I just want to shut my eyes for a tick, hm?

(He really didn't want to sleep. Knew it was going to wind up with nightmares. But it was the sort of exhaust he couldn't ignore. Not really.)

[they should go inside, where newt will be warm and comfortable, where there would be a bed instead of cold porch to and cold wall. there should be a blanket at least, to keep him from catching a chill. but peter doesn't suggest they move, doesn't introduce the idea that newt might actually sleep, that he'd like as not end up carrying the other boy inside eventually. he just pats newt's arm, stubs out his own finished cigarette, and taps out another, settling in for awhile.]

Sure. whatever you want.

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INTRO LOG: BLACK CATS & WALKING UNDER LADDERS

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