IC Inbox | Hadriel

[volitaunt]

[ wow look at this html wowow ]

Comments

text;

[nonscriptum]

[Professionalism is not his strong suit, but Nate does his damnedest to scribe a boiler plate write-up that reads like something he might have issued from his office at the marine salvage company, as opposed to his usual informality.]

I'm heading up an expedition to the foothills of the mountain range in the next few days and looking for people with experience in excavation, long-term exploration, combat, and magic. I'm reaching out to you because I know you're proficient in at least one of these things, if not more, and I'm going to need all the help I can get.

It's a week out to the mountain range, maybe longer, and when we get there the intent is to locate and gain access to a bunker. With any luck we can learn something about this world we didn’t know before, and use it to our advantage.

This trip will be at least two weeks long. The weather is turning, snow is getting thick, and the temperatures will consistently be somewhere around freezing. Parts of this will suck. If you're interested, I need to know what you specifically can bring to the table in terms of survival and resources. Everyone's going to have to pitch in for shelter, food, and keeping watch, because we don't know what's out there.

Let me know as soon as you can. We leave at the first of the month.

Nathan Drake

Re: text;

[volitaunt]

i'm former New Republic Navy.

[ Would you look @ that he capitalized something. ]

proficient with sidearms, rifles, hand to hand combat. also used to rough terrain and wilderness survival, though i've picked that up through experience over the years more than through training. also pretty good at blowing things up. in case we need to get in that way.

good enough? because i'm going to follow you like a stray felinx if you say no.

text;

[nonscriptum]

[It's fine, that letter was the last time Poe will ever see Nate capitalize anything in his texts. Who has time for that?]

yeah, i'd say you're more than qualified. kind of got that impression from you when we met.

i don't really have much context for the new republic navy but out of curiosity, what did you do?

[volitaunt]

pilot. i grew up in the cockpit. used to fly colonial defense on the moon where i grew up, then enlisted the minute i could.

i'm kind of going nuts without anything to get me off the ground here.

[nonscriptum]

[Well I'll be goddamned, as Sully would say.]

no shit. got a friend who was a navy pilot.

i know the feeling. used to travel a lot more, so staying in town for long makes my skin itch.

[volitaunt]

yeah?? here?

[ FLYING FRONDS. ]

traveled for what? just cause you could?

[nonscriptum]

not here, sorry. back home. you'd like him, he taught me a lot

work, mostly. and i didn't have a brick and mortar home for a while, so it was just easier.

[volitaunt]

been doing a fair bit of planet-hopping myself before the whole stuck-in-another-universe thing happened the first time. not so much for work though. well, it was, but it was more 'survive and resist' kind of work.

been living in one place for the past year, though. another universe. different universe. different than my home universe, i mean, which is a really fucking weird thing to type.

[nonscriptum]

jesus. guess you're pretty used to this bullshit, then.

"survive and resist" kind of makes you sound like some sort of freedom fighter

[volitaunt]

used to it as a person can get, i guess

we are. me and Finn and the rest of the Resistance. i've been fighting for years. it's the reason i left the NRN.

the two genocidal maniacs leading the First Order, the people we're fighting? they're here. kylo ren and armitage hux. REALLY disappointing to find out death doesn't stick in this place.

1/2

[nonscriptum]

[NRN means absolutely nothing to Nate, but as he is about to ask Poe sends him a much more pressing text.]

holy crap

text -> voice

[nonscriptum]

You know Hux?

voice;

[volitaunt]

[ pls excuse the long pause ] You know Hux?

PRIVATE voice;

[nonscriptum]

Yeah, certified asshole? Red hair? [Soulless, et cetera.] He said he was a military commander and a couple people here corroborated that. He's been in Hadriel before.

THAT

[volitaunt]

That's him.

[ His voice has all the venom and frustration of years of fighting someone too well-protected to kill, all the acid hate that layered in over it all after the Hosnian cataclysm. ]

General Hux of the First Order High Command. His machine destroyed five planets, something like twenty-four billion lives. He annihilated the New Republic, the New Republic Navy, and every civilian on those worlds I ever met. [ A deep, slow breath. ] Kylo Ren is the only reason I haven't tried to kill him already. He's been here?

[nonscriptum]

[Nate doesn't have to try too hard to pick up on the obvious history. This is information that he wants and needs, and only makes him angrier to learn. He has to wonder who would stop him if he decided to off the guy before he could hurt anybody.

Kylo Ren, whoever that asshole is.]

Yeah, once before. Listen- I think this conversation is something we should have in person. Can we hold out an exchange until the trip?

[volitaunt]

Yeah. Yeah, okay.

[ A pause. ]

If you need me before then I'll probably be out by the Guard station punching things.

[nonscriptum]

Got it. See you around.

action;

[weedbgon]

[ And I brought the mood music.

Merle's always been kind of a nature guy. Which is probably not surprising for a nature domain cleric who got raised by a Pan-worshiping hippie commune out in the woods somewhere or whatever his backstory is. Point is, this is not something that's changed.

So while Poe is exercising his god-given right as a Star Wars protagonist to have personal problems and hang out in a jungle, Merle is exercising his self-given right to just kinda be hanging out in that jungle already. Look, he can't climb around in the vents of the illustrious Adventure Zone estate all day every day. Gotta get out sometimes. Explore. Stretch his legs.

Weirdly, it's not every day that dudes happen to go strolling through his neck of the woods out here? He thinks it's weird personally, that is. He doesn't know. It just seems like a thing people should do. Walk around. Throw a rock at a big puddle.

Basically, Poe becomes the center focus of a resident gremlin of a man in very short order merely by existing in said man's proximity. He's like, finally. Some ass-pained looking person with the good sense to walk off into the jungle. It's like the intro to that Shia Labeouf song, only with a dwarf who decides to harangue someone and start walking with them for no good reason. ]

If you're out here for the grand tour, I hear it helps to look up once in a while.

[volitaunt]

[ Poe blinks down at Merle, and at the sprouts sticking out of his hair. Not... the weirdest thing he's ever seen, by any means, but Poe does wonder what species Merle is that he can grow them. He's weirdly humanoid--

Not important. There is a tiny plant grandpa reprimanding him. ]

Sorry, I-- Wait, how-- Where did you come from?

[weedbgon]

[ Valid question. Merle still laughs at him. ]

Around? I mean, where'd you come from? I think- I think I was hangin' out out here first. For all I know, you followed me outta town!

[ He doesn't really think that. That's the disclaimer. He's never seen this guy before in his life. ]

[volitaunt]

[ Poe rubs his eyes. ]

Look, I didn't follow you. I have a camp. It's just south of here. I'm--

[ WHY IS HE EXPLAINING HIMSELF. ]

Who are you?

[weedbgon]

[ It's the true power of a man canonically described once as a "mildly eloquent piñata." That's the true power of basically anyone from his universe, actually. ]

Oh, I'm Merle. I almost-- I was gonna do a whole Rumpelstiltskin thing with you, but I dunno. Just a bit too old of a bit. And then there's the firstborn child thing, and that's not a mess I'm lookin' to get into right now. [ He waves his non-wooden arm like that's self-explanatory. ] Merle Highchurch! If you haven't heard of me, don't worry. It's mutual.

[ There is almost always some amount of laughter in his tone, is the takeaway here. ]

[volitaunt]

Rumpel--what?

[ He feels like he's been dropped into a conversation where he only knows half the words. It takes a second for Poe to realize Weed Grandpa has introduced himself. ]

Uh. Poe. Dameron. Do you live out here? I mean, you're from Hadriel, right, you're not just some guy who was living out in the jungle before we showed up.

[weedbgon]

Yeah, no, I'm from Hadriel. "From."

[ As much as anyone can be. ]

It's nice to get out, though, right? Get a look around, see the trees! Some douchebag chopped down a bunch of the old ones from the park. You notice that, Poe? Or have you been camping out the whole time? City can't be that bad!

text;

[restinglichface]

it probs doesnt need to be said
but you get it
you really fucking get it

a lot of folks will try to say brainwashing the null to let them live is the moral thing to do but
we both know its the worst outcome for em
us too
killing em is kinder than they deserve but its the only option

[look, she saw his convo with hope and had to say something]

[volitaunt]

no matter what we do, we destroy them.

one of them just takes longer and puts more people at risk.

people are acting like they're showing mercy, or taking the high ground.

[ A long, long pause, long enough that it might seem like that's all she's going to get. ]

i've had someone in my head. more than once. invading my mind. i don't t

i don't think i could

i've never felt anything so violating.

and

the gods did this to us. they did it to us once already. when they took our emotions, or amped them up.

they took mine. and when they all came back i thought i was going to die.

wanted to for a bit.

this place, they do things to us so often that i wonder if people forget what it means to be changed against your will. i wonder if they even realize we'd be doing to the Null what these fucking gods do to us.

[volitaunt]

I noticed. Why did they? [ He's been meaning to ask about it, but it keeps getting bumped down his priority list.

He winces away from Merle's question, because the answer--well, it's not complicated, not in the least. It's just selfish, immature, and is probably making Finn worry. ]

It's not, I'm just.... [ 'Avoiding someone'? ] Taking a break. You want some tea or something? I've got the makings where I'm camping.

[weedbgon]

Sure! Yeah! I drink tea.

[ Poe, breaking away from the busted up city life. Maybe he's got a problem with (metaphorically) itchy feet, too. Maybe he killed someone and he has to lie low. Merle's in exactly no position to judge. He has, personally, screwed up a lot of things in very big ways, which he proceeded to run away from for several years.

People gotta do things in their own time sometimes.

What truly matters here is that this guy gave him a conversational inch, and Merle is prepared to take the mile. And the tea. ]

... oh, and the trees thing! Yeah, I hear that had somethin' to do with boats? They had us on-- the city got moved onto some islands a while back. Right before I got kicked back home. Guess someone really wanted to get out on the water. I dunno. I'm trying to grow back all the shit they tore up. When I got time.

[ AKA when he remembers, because he has nothing but time and just gets easily distracted. ]

[restinglichface]

fuck

[it's just words, fucking words flashing across her screen, but lup feels the hurt there, can practically hear Poe's voice in her ear, trembling.]

happened to taako

[it's not her story to tell, none of it is hers to tell, but after speaking to lucretia just before this, she just can't keep it in. she feels like she'll explode if she doesn't tell someone.]

she took his memories out of his head. took me out of his head. he couldn't remember me for years. his own damn twin. had his whole fucking past rewritten for him. lived for years thinking hed just gone through all of it completely alone w/o anyone at all

i cant
i just fucking cant
i hate them
but doing that to them is so much worse than they deserve
killing is kinder

[volitaunt]

[ There's nothing he can say that will get across how viscerally he reacts to that story. How much he wants to find Taako and give him a hug, how much he wants to find Lup and do the same. He's not sure which is worse--to be forgotten, or being the one forced to forget.

It doesn't even occur to him to ask who she is. If Lup wanted to say, she would say. ]

it is.

it is.

and there isn't any way i see this ending well if we twist them up that way.

at best we make them want to kill us. at worst we make an entire species insane, and we're responsible for whatever happens after that.

[volitaunt]

You can grow it back?

[ Take that inch and run your marathon, Merle, because Poe is curious. He's used to people with powers by now, but that doesn't mean he's tired of hearing about what they can do.

Besides, it's going to take a couple of minutes to get to his camp site, so the narration figures another tag of rambling and they'll be there. ]

[weedbgon]

[ He shrugs and does one of those see-saw "ehhhhhhh" hand gestures. ]

Kinda. It kinda works. I got a lot of real nice spots with stumps still sittin' in the middle. Y- all the stuff around it grows in fine! Looks great! Not a lot you can do for a stump. Nature does its own thing. It always figures its shit out. But when it's your domain it's worth a shot, right?

[ Merle digs out one of his beard sprouts. It's happening. It's firmly attached to a pit from some random-ass jungle fruit that's native to this planet. ]

Little bit of, uhh. I'm mostly doing patchwork. [ And, laying eyes on this camp he might have forgotten had to exist already: ] You want some? Might spruce up your digs!

[restinglichface]

[It feels awful - how could any of this feel right - but it also feels good to know she isn't alone in how she thinks. Someone else gets it. Someone in this damn place actually fucking gets it.]

got it in one
we either kill them the first time around
or fuck them up and then be forced to kill them anyway

theres no other option
there just isnt