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[queenkiller]

[The video clicks on with some fumbles, some readjustment as Hella realizes what she looks like in the playback on the device and just sort of. Stares at her apparent reflection. It's really weird, but she's been laying low and trying to figure out this thing for almost a month now so she thinks she's sort of got it.

She certainly looks out of place, in full dark scalemail armor and with scars on her face and a very serious expression. She doesn't shift from full serious mode when she finally begins to talk, but she sounds more awkward than stern.]

Hey. I'm Hella. I've been quiet, I guess. But I'm new here, relatively speaking.

[She pulls a lock of red hair behind her ears, her bangs the only hair outside of her usual bun today.]

I noticed you all have a monster problem. Apparently it happens once every month? Anyway, we should be coming upon a month of my being here soon, and I'm... willing to offer my services.

[She holds up a sword, the hilt of it embellished with red jewels, the center one being the largest and bleeding into a white diamond-like color in the center. If anyone has any ability to sense dead things or magic, this thing is giving off a severe ghostlike energy.

Because of all the powerful dead people and gods and stars living in it.]

I'm really good at killing things. I also live near the colosseum. I can kill anything that comes through that Door.

[Said with full confidence.]

If you're worried about someone arriving and want to check it out but don't do well in dangerous situations, I'll guard you. For trade, maybe. Or favors.

[If anything, Adaire's taught her the value of owed favors. Though Hella still doesn't have the patience to wait on collecting.]

I'll hear any offers now. Thank you.

[She fumbles with the phone a bit more, and finally shuts it off.]

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[queenkiller]

[Those are some weird fucking glasses, dude. She sounds a little distracted as she answers.]

...Yeah. Sure.

[She's not distracted by the glasses, though. She hasn't partied with strangers in foreeeever. Throndir and Adaire were recent additions, sure, but that was tempered by Hadrian's presence as well as other factors. He was always... a comforting, if not quite comfortable presence.

Still, she doesn't know this guy at all. At least she had Hadrian's reassurances about Throndir and knew of Adaire from the cartographer's time in Velas scamming the locals.]

Handy with a sword?

[smoketendrils]

[They are very important for tinkering okay!!]

Among other things. I guess you could say I used to do this for a living.

[queenkiller]

Do what? Kill monsters? My world doesn't really have monsters like these, just weird people and wild animals. ...And stars. I guess those count as monsters.

[smoketendrils]

Consider yourself fortunate. We're having something of a dragon problem right now.

[a pause, and then:] Stars?

[queenkiller]

[What the hell. Hella doesn't know what to say to the mention of a "dragon problem", so she just sort of. Lets out an awkward laugh. She's... reasonably certain dragons don't exist in Hieron. It seems like a weird problem to have.

And then he asks about the stars, and she realizes her life is pretty fantastical as well.]

The stars fell from the sky and turned out to be these... burning creatures of strange flame. The fire transformed anything it touched... It was unlike anything I'd ever seen. I killed one, but there are more out there.

[And it turned the large ruby in the center of her sword's hilt almost entirely white.

Then Hadrian just fucking talked to one of them, apparently. Fucked up, tbh.]

[smoketendrils]

That sounds... [insane?] ...Unusual. But I'm starting to think one person's "perfectly reasonable" is another person's "batshit insane." Part of this place's innumerable charms.

[So sardonic. So. so sardonic.]

[queenkiller]

[Wild shit happens in Hieron, you don't even know the half of it.]

This wasn't perfectly reasonable at all. But then again, a week ago we still had a sun. Maybe this is the new normal.

[You know, celestial bodies having it out for one continent.]

I'm not happy about it.

[smoketendrils]

I can imagine literally no person in the world being happy about it. Do you even want to go back to that?

[queenkiller]

[It's the first time she's had this reaction. That question. She hadn't really thought about it before.]

...Yeah? I think so. I have friends there. And this place sucks, too.

[Everywhere sucks. She's already used to that.]

But I don't know. I think the world is ending. The Heat and the Dark are coming, or whatever it's called. Maybe no one can do anything about it.

[smoketendrils]

That's a fair answer. If it means anything, I would have said the same thing. And... I would rather face the ending with my friends and my city, then try to turn coward in some land I don't think I'll ever fully comprehend.

[queenkiller]

...Yeah. I'll get home and face the Heat and the Dark if I have to. My friends could use the help.

[She knows Hadrian's worried and unsettled about everything going on. She needs to be there for him, at least, if not everyone else.]

[smoketendrils]

As could mine. The dragon problem, as I mentioned, which is why I'm starting to get a little bored. Not having to fight for my life every day is enough to drive a man insane when it's all he's been used to.

[queenkiller]

Yeah, I get that.

Well, I'm glad to know I'll have someone who can fight dragons fighting alongside me.

[smoketendrils]

I'll try not to snipe all of the kills from you.

[ah tongue in cheek murder hobo humor.]

[queenkiller]

[Hella smirks.]

You're going to find that difficult to do.

[She Deals A Lot Of Damage.]

[smoketendrils]

Wonderful. This should be fun.