wilderlogs | THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE ※ RIVENDELL ※ LOG 2

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THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE ※ RIVENDELL ※ LOG 2

THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE
OOC POST
The group is told to take a week of rest in the Last Homely House as the injured and sick among them heal. The Elves promise them that at the end of that week, there will be a great Council, with representatives of several peoples in attendance.

Until then, they can wander the peaceful halls of Rivendell, which are filled with travelers from all over the Wilderlands who are making a rest stop while they travel through the lands of Middle-Earth.

The most notable part of Rivendell is the Hall of Fire, a great feast hall where people can eat, drink, and be merry. This is the great social hall of Rivendell, where the Elves and their visitors share news of lands far beyond, tell stories, or perform music. The music here almost sounds divine, especially when the Elves sing and play, but they're just as eager to hear songs from other lands, so if any of the squad decide to share, they'll be glad to listen.

Some of the hall's guests are a touch more lively than the others, like a party of dwarves staying at Rivendell. Their stories are a mite more adventurous and if you get in their good graces, they might be willing to share some of the beer they brought with them. Listening to their stories or their talk about their craftmanship is a way to get into their good graces.

The Elves love learning, so there are libraries the group is allowed to browse, though they mostly only contain tales of Middle-Earth (for now), though the Elves seem to be collecting what books about other lands they can. These libraries often have viewing stations with telescopes pointing at the sky. The Elves have been almost delighted by the changing skies, enjoying the challenge of trying to understand how the sky has been knitting itself together with the addition of new worlds.

There are also beautiful balconies here, overlooking the gorge and the waters below, and terraced gardens filled with flowers, bushes, and flowering trees. Their rooms are open to the outdoors and have beds that seem grown into the shape of bed-frames instead of carved. The bathrooms actually have running water. The Elves have figured out how to direct the clean running waters of the gorge in primitive indoor plumbing. Water for hot baths has to be heated first in brass cauldrons over coal braziers before getting dumped into the bath.

It's time for the squad to rest, eat, and regroup. If a great Council is going to be called involving them, it might be a good idea to make sure they go into it as a united front, lest decisions about their fate be made for them.

NOTES
✦ Joint log: Since this camp period won't be particularly long, everything will take place in a joint log. Players can post starters with prompts for others and tag into other players' prompts.

✦ Post in actionspam format. Plots and mod-run events in the game are meant to be in actionspam format to keep a brisk pace.

✦ Cursed Weapons/Powers: So they know about how they'll be treated: those with cursed weapons and dark powers will be tolerated by the Elves after entry. While they'll get the same general treatment, the Elves around them may at times seem uncomfortable. Those with cursed weapons will only be distrusted a little, as the weapons themselves will seem more suspicious than their bearers. Those with dark powers or some kind of dark nature (such as being a vampire, Necromancer mage, werewolf, etc.) will be treated with the greatest distrust.

✦ Fairy Swaps: The Elves may be slightly alarmed by the Brugh fairy swaps but get over it easily. However, if the character swapped in is one of the "dark" characters, the swap might be extra cause for alarm. (A potential prompt idea).

✦ Npcing: There will be two npc threads. The "Random Encounters" thread is for characters to have a totally random encounter with an npc. These npcs will be fellow travelers from lands beyond. While they can't give much information about the group's status as Chosen Ones (that will happen during the Council) they can provide info about events in the Wilderlands beyond that may come to affect the squad in their travels. The "Specific Requests" thread will be for more specific issues your character might want to discuss with the Elves. While they'll push any Chosen Ones discussion off to the Council, they're willing to discuss issues with the characters, like if they have questions about having received magic, about being bound to their weapons, etc. The Rivendell Elves have heard a lot of gossip from all over and can potentially provide info based on things they've heard.

✦ Clothes: The group will not yet be fully equipped for their travels (that will happen upon leaving) but everyone will at least be given new clothes since theirs are dirty and sometimes torn. Characters without appropriate travel footwear will also be given light and sturdy boots that will somehow be in their size without their size being asked. They'll also be given basic toiletries like scissors that can be used to cut hair and beards. There are no razors, however, because the Elves don't need to shave so they don't keep them on hand.

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[The look she gives Dixon is the same one she gives Harper when he claims something like that. It's fond and amused and completely disbelieving. Manners only really count when you're using them with people you don't want to be using them with. Otherwise, you're just being nice to nice people and that's not hard at all.

She doesn't press, though, sitting back against the wall and wrapping her arms around her knees. It's a more loaded question than Dixon could ever realize, but as long as he doesn't know there's no harm in giving the easy answer.]

I remember you said your home is really pretty. I think it's probably normal to want to stay in pretty places if that's what you're used to. My home isn't very pretty all the time. I mean, some of it is, but there are a lot of things to fix and a lot of people that need help. I guess I started out just wanting to help, and going around fixing things was the best way to do that.

[He gives her a bit of an eyeroll back. He wants credit for trying. It's hard enough just to try.

Then he gives her a bit of a perplexed look; it gives way to concern. She doesn't look comfortable anymore, and he gets the sense that by prying into her past, he's stuck his fingers into a barely-healed wound. He wants to ask more, but backs off.]

I think I started out wanting to help too. [Maybe. It's hard to remember when it stopped being about the duties but about the badge. Definitely before he actually started his career, maybe as far back as Academy. Maybe further back then that.

All he really knows is that once upon a time he was a kid and he thought being a cop was about curtailing evil and rescuing people from bad situations. At some point he stopped thinking that and more upsettingly, he didn't even notice he stopped. It's the kind of shift that should provoke some kind of moral riot, some horror, some questioning who someone even is anymore, and he didn't even notice it.]

Well, seems like you can help a lot here. Especially with that healing thing you do.

Edited 2018-06-18 20:56 (UTC)

[It takes a second, but a little smile twitches at the edge of her lips. Fine. Credit for trying this time. She won't be such a softy next time, though.

She stretches one hand out in front of her when he mentions her new magic, wiggling her fingers until they start glowing softly. It's a fun trick, even beyond what she's really supposed to do with it, and it feels safe. Everyone here is different in some way. Everyone has magic or a magic weapon or something about them that makes them unique and special and able to make a difference. It's okay to admit she has it, this ability to change something. Nobody will think differently of her or be afraid of her for being able to heal things.]

I hope so. It's different helping than I'm used to, but I'm getting better at it. [She turns enough to give him a lopsided smile.] A lot of people never want to help at all, or even want to make things worse to make themselves better, so if you want to help, then that's a good start.

[or even want to make things worse to make themselves better

Dixon flinches and doesn't quite understand why. He just knows she articulated something he hasn't been able to arrange the words for himself, put the bulbs into a spotlight he's been trying to hide from. He wants to crawl out of that glare and into that "good start". But he doesn't say any of that.]

What kind are you used to? [To continue giving her her space he returns his attention to the drawings, starting to sketch out a person. Or the vague shape of one.]

[To be fair, she's got more years behind her than Dixon could ever imagine. That means lots more time to think about things like that and how to put words to feelings and thoughts most people might ignore. Just think of it as 'older and wiser' except 'older' here is on a galactic scale.

Her smile just goes a little bit softer before she, too, looks away, studying the architecture or the walls or something that isn't him.]

Lots of things. Sometimes I help people find things that make them happy or find how to be happy with what they have. I talk to Dylan, he's our captain, and help him find ways to help the most people. I grow pretty flowers and they make the universe more beautiful and less sad. [Her tail twitches in what might almost be a wave.] I'm a pretty good listener, too.

[He's of two minds about that; part of it seems so simple, to just be happy with what you have. To just look hard enough to find it. And then it also seems so complicated, like if he hasn't figured it out yet he doesn't stand a chance going forward.]

That's true, you're damn good at that. [He adds a tail to the figure. Might as well do that drawing for her now.] Plus you keep Harper on a leash, and that definitely makes the world a happier place.

[He can't resist the sideswipe.]

[It is both simple and complicated, yes. Again, millions of years in the making. There's no end date, though. You just keep going until you find what you need or you find something you didn't know you needed or both or sometimes neither. There aren't a lot of guarantees in the universe.

Trance's turn to roll her eyes.] I don't keep my friends on leashes. That would be weird. He just knows I won't tell him something that's not true, so sometimes he listens.

[It's like 70/30, but then her truths tend to be true about the same amount of time, so she'll take what she can get.]

Not a real leash. It's a phrase. [Get your bitch on a leash is the full saying, although Dixon is keeping it a little less aggressive than that. At least here in polite, friendly conversation.

He breathes deep through his nose.]

I get that I was wrong flying off the handle at people back there. I just don't understand why he went after me like that, when I went out of my way to keep him safe out there on the hill.

Right. I knew that. [She did not know that, and her expression clearly says as much.

This is not a turn in the conversation she was expecting, and yet again, she's hit by the combined novelty and discomfort of not knowing what was coming. It's terrifying, but it's almost starting to be terrifying in a fun sort of way, like a fast thrill ride. It will probably cycle back around to just plain terrifying again once it's something that matters a little more than a conversation, but for now, she's going to enjoy it.

In a manner of speaking, at least. She's not enjoying this particular conversation very much at all.]

I don't know what happened in the fight, but Harper's from a not very nice place, and sometimes he's not very good at remembering he's a good person, so when he gets angry or scared or sad, sometimes he wants other people to hurt like he's hurting. It's not a very good answer, I guess, but if you want a better one, you'd probably have to ask him. He's my friend, but not all his stories are ones I can tell.

[It's a familiar expression to one he wears pretty frequently, and so he doesn't comment on it.

If Dixon had any self-awareness at all - he doesn't - he'd be able to see how Trance's description of Harper's behavior tracks somewhat of Dixon's own impulses. He isn't totally in the dark about how lashing out distracts him from his own problems, but he doesn't have a strong enough hold on it to see it reflecting from others.]

The way I see it, if someone saves your life, you keep your acting out to yourself instead of taking it out on them. It's not my fault the place he comes from is jacked.

[She appreciates it. Really.

She almost wishes she could tell Dixon that he's hardly the only one Harper has lashed out at, but she's pretty sure that would be counterproductive right now. Or ever.]

It's a lot more complicated than that. Not just Harper. People in general are complicated. Not that it wouldn't be really nice if things always worked like that, because people just being nice to each other would make so many things in the universe easier, but it's really hard. Not everyone is good at doing hard things.

No shit. [Take it from Dixon, reigning prince of "being bad at hard things". Like grammar, or sobriety, or kindness, or grieving. He's pretty bad at all these things.]

Unless he up and apologizes, I'm not making peace with him. We can be in the same room but that's all I'll tolerate.

[She won't even comment on the language. Honestly, it's more of a concession than she was expecting, and possibly even more of one than she can wring out of Harper, so... she'll take it. With only a tiny sigh.

She follows it up with a small smile, though. She really does appreciate the... attempt? Sure, she'll call it an attempt.]

I understand. That's a good step. Thank you.

[Dixon grumps and scowls, but he does commit himself to a fragile tolerance. He won't guarantee - both out of stubbornness and knowing his own impulsivity - that it will be anything stronger than fragile, that his will towards coexistence won't just collapse the instant Harper so much as looks at him funny.

But he won't instigate.]

Do you think we'll manage to get through this without killing each other? Not me and Harper, but the whole unit. We keep getting new folk and no chance to vet them, and people get tetchy under stress.

[Oh, she's already thinking about how she'll separate them if she has to. She believes in the goodness of people, but she doesn't trust in it. Important difference.]

Oh, probably. Most people I've met so far have been ready to work together, and humans are happier in packs, anyway, and most of you are human. I think we'll all manage to pull through somehow.

As long as everyone at least tries.

[Hint.]

[He doesn't have nearly such an optimistic view of humans, or of people generally, regardless of their species.]

I don't know who introduced you to humans, Trance, but if it was Harper he's been straight lying to you about how we are.

[Optimism about sentient beings is kind of what she does. Lucky for Dixon, too.]

It wasn't Harper. I know lots of humans. You make bad choices sometimes, or a lot of the time, but in the end, you usually pull through. You'll see.

I met someone who made the bad choice of torturing a girl and lighting her on fire until she died. [He snorts. A sort of darkness sets over him, or rather, comes from within. He carries as much, if not more, of the ugliness in humanity as anyone else.] And another person made the choice to throw an innocent guy out a window for no reason.

[The latter is him, but he won't cop to that yet. He'll just stew on it.]

And I've met humans who gave their lives to save others, and ones that are working to fight a threat bigger than any of them because it's the right thing to do. [And there are those of her own people who have committed genocide or worse. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.] You're not going to convince me you're all awful and evil just because you've met some bad people. Yes, bad people exist, but even bad people can become good people sometimes. There's a lot less true evil in the universe than most people think.

[He can try all he wants, but she won't be swayed into despair or unhappiness, not over this. It's like a passing shadow trying to fight the sun.]

That just makes it sound like all humans are different, not that each of them's got good and bad in them. And there's a phrase on my world that says you only need one bad apple to spoil a barrel.

[When Trance talks about the good people do, Dixon feels like he's watching a bunch of strangers through a telescope, good people off on a different planet from where he's at. Like it's even further away.]

I guess at least we agree that bad people only become good people sometimes. Ain't no guarantees.

Why would you keep apples in a barrel? [Wait, no, not important right now, no matter how inefficient that sort of storage sounds.] Anyway, yes, all people, humans and everyone else, are different, but that doesn't mean they don't all have good in them, too. Sometimes people just need a little push in the right direction.

[She's not entirely sure Dixon would understand if she tried to describe Magog in general, which would kind of defeat the purpose of telling him about Rev Bem specifically, but she'll do it if she has to.]

Where else are you going to keep them? [Although when he thinks about it, he realizes that he's never actually had a barrel of apples. A bag, maybe? Sometimes Dixon's dad used to bring home boxes of past-date produce from the grocery store he worked at.]

I keep wanting to think this whole quest is a push. A big push, I mean, everything about this feels big.

[He wants to believe he can be better and he also wants to give up. One would bring pride, the other the sort of relief that comes from knowing you don't have to keep trying at something.]

[She doesn't know the answer to that, either. A storage pod, maybe? She hadn't been allowed to do much provisioning for the Maru and Andromeda handled most of her provisioning herself except for what Harper bartered for. Most of that didn't involve apples.]

Maybe it is. For all of us.

[She's got more than a few things she could need a push on right now, too, although most of those things are too personal to share.]

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THE LAST HOMELY HOUSE ※ RIVENDELL ※ LOG 2

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