hadriel | 006 [Video]

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006 [Video]

So uh... Hey everyone. Again.

[He could probably get a better opening line, but whatever. Moving on.]

I know like, a bunch of people just arrived so... Welcome, I guess. We're still working on the newbie's guide to waking up in a cave-city run by gods, but until then like, if you have any questions I can try and help? Also uh, it's probably safe at this point and we're just being paranoid, but you may want to avoid eating any meat products you find here. For reasons.

[MOVING ON.]

Also uh, sort of related, but I was thinking that maybe before next month we should really... Plan some way to help out? I mean, people just sort of show up and half the time there's monsters too, and... Maybe some sort of organized thing for helping the new people not get like, eaten or whatever would be a good idea.

[This is not exactly his area of expertise, so if other people want to take charge on this he's more than happy to let them, but otherwise he'll try and figure something out. It really seems like something important to get established.]

In uh, a rare moment of good news though, the whole coffee thing worked out. So if you want coffee there's some at Delight's bar now, though you'll have to like... Be kind of patient with me and the others being possibly terrible baristas. Still kind of getting the hang of the whole thing.

[But surely coffee itself is well worth any less-than-practiced customer service; they're at least pretty good at making coffee, including somewhat elaborate drinks, and as far as Chris is aware they're all trying. That's what counts, right?

Right?]

I think that's about it, except for that like... If anyone's curious, the handheld games from the arena this month are just normal games. I thought maybe they'd be some sort of weird alien-versions of them, but I guess not; I took one apart and it was all the expected stuff inside it.

That said I'm totally betting I can beat anyone's high scores.

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[ He's technically been here a month! But he hasn't really talked to many people, so sure, newcomer it is. ]

Well I'm a guy who's most of the time almost always never wrong, and allow me to submit that I could absolutely crush you at game-of-your-choice.

[ No he's really not that good but hey, overconfident declarations on the network all around. ]

[Wow you're already making him be wrong how rude.]

That's a lot of qualifiers on that statement, bro. Wanna reconsider?

[Oh video game related trash talk, how he missed you.]

Nope.

[ Though he was liking you and then you called him bro. He supposes he'll forgive you for that. You sound like a random kid, and random kids are allowed some amount of saying dumb shit. Part of growing up and all that. ]

We've all got to find some way to kill time 'round here, don't we? And ancient video game based bravado is as good as anything. [ A laugh, warm and friendly. ] You name it, I'll play it, if I can find one lying around.

[Yeah he's kind of bad about the bro thing, even when he specifically tries to avoid it; he's been mostly holding off with people here, but the video game talk just makes him fall back into old habits pretty quick.]

I've got a whole bunch of the games, so we can always just take turns on one of them. At least the one thing these things are good at is recording high scores.

[Since they even come with dedicated buttons for it.]

Anytime.

[ Seriously it's not like there's much else for him to do around here. Getting into a video game feud with some kid on a network could be fun. You sound like you have a good head on your shoulders, besides. Aside from the bro thing. ]

'Bout that newcomer thing, though, that's probably a good idea. Made any progress on that?

Awesome. Knowing this place things are probably gonna go south here soon, but after that there should be downtime.

[And, probably, people will need to distract themselves.]

Not a whole lot; only uh... One other person really mentioned anything about it at all. I think the coffee kind of distracted people.

[Not that he blames them; coffee is important.]

[ A bit of a laugh. ]

Typical. People caring more about gettin' their fix than anything else -- but I guess people have gone without caffeine for a while, now. Maybe that's understandable.

I've not been here for that long, so I don't know how much help I'd be. [ He is, however, a space marine, but he still doesn't know much about Hadriel and how it works other than being fucked up because of that last stunt with Rage and no he hasn't quite gotten over it whyareyouasking. ] Do monsters tend to show up and bother the newcomers? Last time it was just finger-biting chests, this time it's.

Video games. [ THE GODS ARE WEIRD. ]

Yeah, and I mean, everyone's pretty much constantly dealing with serious stuff so... I can't blame them for like, focusing on something that's not-terrible.

[Because even as minor as coffee is, it's such a nice thing in contrast to everything else here.]

The uh... The video games this is pretty unusual, yeah. It's usually monsters, though they kind of vary in how uh, persistent they are in trying to eat the new arrivals.

[He pauses a moment, considering what York said.]

So I'm guessing you showed up with the mimics?

That I did, and I guess I was lucky for it. No monsters this time, and when I showed up the monsters only mattered if you tried to open the real suspicious looking chests in the hope of finding treasure.

[ Or something. Look he just really doesn't understand why so many people had trouble with that, his first inclination showing up in weird underground city was not to open the random boxes scattered around the place.

A pause, and a laugh. ]

'Bout as lucky as I can be for being pulled to this place to begin with, I guess.

What about you? Been here much longer? [ He figures you've been here for much longer, but what he's wondering is how much. York is starting to get the sense of how escape from this place really isn't a thing, but that doesn't mean he still doesn't hope for better news. ]

Hey, maybe people thought they'd have like, supplies or something in them. I dunno.

[He's pretty sure he wouldn't have investigated the chests if they'd been there when he'd awoken in the arena, but who knows. So he's sympathetic if also slightly judgmental.

And yeah, lucky is definitely a relative term here.]

I was uh, not lucky. When I got here there were these gross, transparent monsters that hid in the dark and their entire face was a mouth. It kind of sucked.

[But thankfully he'd had a lighter and Bob had a gun, so working together they'd been able to get out without too much injury. Now that he looks back on it maybe he should say he was lucky after all, especially since he'd been hurt and exhausted before he even showed up here.]

Yeah. It's been like uh, six months or something now.

[ Supplies or not there was just something incredibly suspicious of a bunch of stereotypical old school treasure chests scattered around the area, okay. Some people he expects to be curious, sure, he certainly was, but he's just surprised how many actually went for it -- but it seemed like most people got out of that one okay.

Those monsters, though. ]

Six months? [ God, that's a long time. ] I guess getting out of here is a bit of a long shot, huh. Maybe we should be stocking up on video games. And coffee.

Transparent monsters with only a mouth sure makes me feel super extra lucky to not have run into them, I'll tell you that. [ A bit of a laugh, before his voice quietens down into something more genuine. ] Glad you made it out okay.

[ Well you're talking to him on the network so he figures you must've at least mostly made it out in one piece. ]

There any monsters like that out in the wild, or is it just a welcome party bonus?

Yeah, I mean, people do leave, but it's um... Not on purpose. We haven't exactly figured out how to why it happens, either.

[But it does, and then sometimes people who leave come back, and Chris really believes there has to be a pattern to it but no one has figured out what that pattern is.]

Thanks. I um, ran into someone else in the arena--Bob; he's still here--and he uh... Really is why I didn't get eaten or something.

[Because Chris might've been more mentally prepared to deal with monsters than Bob, Bob had definitely been the more capable one for other reasons.]

I don't know about those ones exactly, but yeah. There's monsters in the caves that are around the city, and um... Sometimes the gods let them loose in the city, too.

People do leave, huh? How do you mean?

[ Any possibility of there being any way out is of interest to York. And about the monsters, well, transparent ones with giant mouths or whatever hell else is here, monsters in the caves, monsters out past the city. He's heard of them, but he's not really strayed much out past the city ruins.

Maybe he should, one of these days, just to see for himself. ]

Well hey, listen, if you ever need someone else to keep you from not bein' eaten, I could probably do that. [ See, he's a nice guy. Likes to keep the peace, that generally involves preventing people from being eaten in his vicinity. ] Beating you at video games isn't the only thing I'm good at.

[ He's a space marine! ]

They just kind of disappear, and there doesn't seem to be much pattern to it. Just one day they're done.

[It sucks, and then there's the searching for them in case they're hurt or something, and then the period of waiting to see if they're dead and will come back or if they're truly gone.

And awwww, that kind of offer is always appreciated.]

Well, you know, I'm not gonna turn down like... Lessening my chances of being eaten, so I'll probably take you up on it if it's ever like, full on monster city in here again. If you uh, are interested in like, working in a group to make sure this place is at least sort-of safe, there's also a city patrol thing that's getting going? My friend Maketh runs it.

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006 [Video]

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