OCTOBER MINGLE

[etrayamods]

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: October 25th - Early November
WHERE: Etraya
WHAT: The arrival of newcomers, and some holiday fun!
NOTES\WARNINGS: Supernatural elements, temporary physical alterations, mild horror and jump scares, spooky scary skeleton robots, mild suggestion of compulsion or loss of control, mild body horror.

⏵ arrival ⏴ Welcome to Etraya! Everything is fine now. 😊 Arrival goes expected - or it does for the most part. Aurora greets newcomers in the hospital as they awaken, offers a brief explanation and gives them their earpiece so they can communicate with one another. Around the hospital and outside of it, Companion Bots are hard at work decorating the city for Halloween—complete with festive touches like pumpkins, cobwebs, and glowing ghost decorations. The atmosphere is fun, light-hearted, and maybe just a little spooky. 🎃👻 Some carry buckets of candy, and offer those they come across a trick or treat. Except both options are, in fact, treats. 🍬 Tricks are treats specifically wrapped in a green wrapper that very clearly declares that they are tricks. Treats are wrapped in orange, and labeled with treat! Companion bots will recommend that those who do want to take a trick take them when they're beside their friends. There won't be any permanent effects from these, nor will they be terrible tricks - just fun ones! All effects last roughly 24 hours. Giggle Drops cause uncontrollable giggling that bubbles up randomly, even during serious conversations. Beasty Bites cause characters to grow small fangs, and they will begin craving red foods - apples, cherries, etc. Bat Gummies cause small, bat-like shadows to follow characters around wherever they wander. These shadows are harmless, and super cute. Pumpkin Puff is a cotton-candy-like treat, that causes their voices to change dramatically. Either becoming significantly deeper or perhaps very high-pitched, as if they've recently inhaled helium. Floating Fudge gives characters the ability to float in the air! Just a few feet off the ground, but it's still fun. Right? ⏵ getting spooky! ⏴ Etraya is embracing the season - and maybe even going a little overboard. Around the hospital, a few small pop-up shops are manned by festively dressed companion bots. They offer samples to everyone - although sampling isn't really necessary. After all, everything here is free! Candy Shops: Perfect for stocking up on sweets and treats for the upcoming trick-or-treating event. These will not stock the tricks the companion bots offer around Etraya, but instead only carry harmless sweets. They do take custom requests, too, and are happy to create the treats others want! Costume Shops: Find the perfect costume for Halloween! But beware... rumor has it, if you wear a costume, you might become whatever you dressed up as for a few hours. Those who put on vampire costumes may find themselves suddenly craving blood and growing fangs - those with werewolf costumes may find themselves feeling a little wolfish. These effects may last a few hours, up to a few days. ⏵ masquerade ⏴ In the spirit of mystery, Etraya will be hosting a Masquerade Ball outside the hospital through the nights of October 26th and 27th. Dance anonymously with other attendees and make new friends under the cover of your disguise. Everyone receives a single rose they can exchange with someone else throughout the evening. At the stroke of midnight, the roses will reveal the true identities of your masked dance partners. 🌹 ⏵ all hallow's eve ⏴ On October 31st, multiple companion bots set up shop along one of the walkways through the larger island towards the center. With chairs and small booths set up, they offer candies out to trick-or-treaters who wander around through the first part of the night. Some of them will request trick-or-treaters to do a trick for them, to earn a bigger treat! They may ask characters to dance, sing, or show a talent unique to them. Can your character bend themselves into a pretzel? They want to see it, and will offer them a nice bracelet in exchange! Can they whistle super loud? Maybe they'll get a nice piece of kevlar armor after showing off. This can be anything within reason - bike parts, small weaponry, armor pieces, toys, canvases for painting. Please request these items HERE. Not everything is as light-hearted as it seems, however. Aurora issues a warning to the citizens of Etraya: Do not stay outside after midnight. Strange happenings have been reported, and those who disobey may start seeing visions of past loved ones. The visions are compelling—guiding people away from the safety of the buildings and into the mysterious mist surrounding the outskirts. But be careful, these spirits may not be as friendly as they seem. If you come into contact with these ghosts, you’ll feel a chilling cold, leading to hypothermia-like symptoms. The longer you’re exposed, the worse it gets. Treatment? You’ll need to be warmed up quickly. ⏵ skellys! ⏴ The Companion Bots wanted to join in on the fun, so they painted themselves with glow-in-the-dark paint to look like skeletons. But in the dead of night, for those already suffering from the chilling touch of the ghosts, seeing glowing skeletons approach from the darkness might not be the most comforting sight. 🤖💀 Stay safe, warm up, and enjoy the festivities! ⏵ NOTES ⏴ For all questions relating to this log, please refer to the mod queries comment. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ. ⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Comments

[unaliveyourself]

[He actually wasn't expecting the upfront answer, honestly. He'd anticipated more crumbs to pick apart, to continue needling any openings he could find, and that was fine. But this is genuinely useful information, details he hasn't had time to dig back in the network for yet, and he thinks he finally has a better idea now of where the scale tips on the reactions he didn't get previously.]

That makes sense. How a person reacts in a life or death situation can tell you a lot about them, after all.

[The question then becomes: what kind of a test is it? Survival of the fittest? The Most Dangerous Game? Or is effective collaboration the key, here?

As a show of good faith, he adds a piece of information of his own, free and clear:]

A colleague of mine once jumped on what he thought was a live bomb to protect an office full of people he had never met. Once you see something like that, you know everything important about that kind of person, I think.

[aimsforknees]

[ That is— honest, John thinks. An answer for an answer. If his "colleague" was near a potential live bomb then it seems likely the gunshot wound is real, too. He can almost hear Harold's satisfaction: John was honest and got honesty in response. No need for these complicated games.

John is the one here, John is the one playing this game, not Harold. He'll play however he likes. ]

Your colleague is a good person.

[unaliveyourself]

[In a way, honesty can be a gambit, too. It doesn't escape Dazai's notice that John comments on this where he didn't flinch at double suicide nor gunshot wounds. If he were only saying that because it would be expected, he would have done so sooner. Dazai suspects he is indeed genuinely affected by the story, which tells him something about the other man in and of itself.]

He is.

[Dazai expects big things from him. The boy has a great deal of potential, if he could only find the self-confidence to grasp for it. Having him team up with Akutagawa is already moving things along, from what he can see. What had Mori said, back in the mafia? Only a diamond could polish a diamond. He looks forward to seeing the final cut that the two of them end up with.

But while they're being honest, Dazai skips the pointed insinuations and temperature testing and pushes them both into the deep end:]

What do you think of their warning, about midnight? If it was truly meant to protect us, why remain vague about the nature of the threat? It seems more designed to encourage risk-taking than deter it.

[aimsforknees]

[ John feels like this conversation has moved away from testing the waters, from dancing around each other. His conversation partner is clearly aware that John isn't just some innocent new guy, just as John is aware that these questions point to the fact that this guy isn't just here to have some fun. It was fun while it lasted but he doesn't feel like he'll get much more mileage out of his persona. Besides, at the end of the day their world is too small, it would be impossible to hide forever. ]

Or she can't say. We don't know the limits of her programming.

[ The Machine is like that, with Harold's strict limits guarding what it can and can't say. They know next to nothing about Aurora. ]

[unaliveyourself]

Wouldn't you say that Echo almost certainly was the one to program her, though? If restrictions like that were included, there has to be a reason for it.

[Logically, it makes no sense not to tell them the nature of a threat that is genuinely meant to be avoided.]

There's also the fact that this entire city bubble is artificially constructed. Any threats that do exist must have been placed here on purpose.

[Now that he too has dropped the act, there's almost a frightening clinical quality to his assessment; it's like his opening salvo in this conversation stripped of any pretense of playfulness. Dazai does not trust one single thing about this place, and does not take it on faith that Echo's intentions are benevolent.

Not every test of character is a test of goodness, after all.]

[aimsforknees]

[ John takes a moment to think about this. Harold is better at all this theorizing than he is, John is mostly just here to be paranoid and shoot things. That's his job. He's always acted under orders, always just done what he was told. He doesn't like how open ended things are here. ]

I don't think we can make assumptions about why things happen here. If Echo truly is watching over all the universes that exist all at once then I'm not sure the way it thinks about us is the same as how we think about each other.

[unaliveyourself]

Oh? What makes you say so? It almost sounds like you have experience dealing with a perspective outside the norm like that.

[He knows his own perspective is somewhat removed from humanity's at large, but he's curious what drives the other man's thoughts here -- especially since he brings up the scale Echo is working on. It's an interesting angle to come at it from. He hums, rocking on his heels, and then adds:]

Say, are you familiar with the trolley problem?

[aimsforknees]

[ While he does have a unique perspective given the Machine, John isn't willing to give that away so he shakes his head. Besides, the Machine is more analogous to Aurora. ]

No, just makes you think. There's a lot of debate out there about whether god sees the world the same way people do. If Echo watches over the multiverse, that seems similar enough. And yes, I know the trolley problem.

[ The trolley problem is cliché and John already feels tired thinking about it. ]

i am. so sorry for him. he is just Like This.

[unaliveyourself]

Do you really think Echo is akin to a god? It feels much more likely to me that they're just an individual with a lot of power.

[He tents his arms behind his head, walking a few paces around John to lean against the wall. The trolley problem might be cliche to anyone who's ever had an interest in philosophy, but he's only just met this man, after all. The kind of backgrounds suggested by a level of baseline paranoia don't necessarily align with academic ruminations -- but since John is familiar, he'll launch into his point.]

This situation reminds me of a major criticism of the utilitarian viewpoint -- that what feels justified, even obligatory on a scale of a few people, one life against five, becomes horrifying to most when it's one thousand against five thousand. When it gets into the millions, or hundreds of millions, one might begin to ask if there is truly a difference between one tragedy and the other.

[Whether or not John has gotten that deep into the academic weeds, he's not sure, but he moves on quickly. That's just to set up his thoughts.]

But therein lies the crux, wouldn't you say? In any version of the trolley problem, the parameters of the dilemma are clearly defined. Here, we are simply told that the multiverse will crumble entirely if some worlds aren't culled -- yet we're not told how many can survive. People from more and more worlds are regularly brought in, too, yet we're expected to believe we have an equal chance at saving our worlds as those who have been here for months longer. If someone had access to every single universe simultaneously, why continue to gather "representatives" in batches, rather than all at once? All the more so if one assumes a nonhuman perspective -- it'd be more efficient that way, right? But imagine if even these moments were a series of trolley problem experiments at various scales. Does it become a moral imperative to protect one person who goes out into danger alone? Five? Ten? Do you risk the safety of your entire world ignoring a warning for the sake of that imperative?

...Of course, that's all just speculation.

[He pushes off the wall again, then, splaying his arms out wide in a "who knows" gesture.]

Echo might just as easily be taking advantage of the tendency to seek patterns in meaningless noise and document what people do in the face of it. Maybe there's no meaning to any of this at all, and we're all just test subjects for someone's science project!

[aimsforknees]

[ If John is being perfectly honest (which he is) that whole speech started to blend together in the middle. He kind of thinks he can just ignore most of it and focus on the end. And if not... well, that's what he's going to do. This is turning into much more of a Harold Finch conversation. ]

We might be, but I'm not risking it.

[ And that's really what it comes down to. John won't risk that this isn't really what they're here for. That he might have a chance to save his world. It's the culmination of everything he's done in his whole life. Ten year old John would be in awe right now. ]

[unaliveyourself]

[Dazai can sense he's losing the man, which is a shame. Their earlier verbal jousting had been enjoyable, and he'd wanted to discuss the situation further, but he's not especially surprised. There's precious few in his life that even bother to humor him on these tangents, and only one that put in the effort to engage him about them, even if he couldn't always follow Dazai's train of thought -- and that man is years dead.

Dropping his arms back to his side, he straightens himself up almost abruptly, rolling a shoulder in a casual shrug.]

Mm, I doubt any of us would want to, but that's what I'm saying. There's no way to know what that would even entail. Disobeying a directly stated warning could be just as disqualifying as leaving people to suffer the consequences of their choices alone in the dark.

[Hence, trolley problem. No matter, though; he shakes his head.]

I won't take up much more of your time, then. But perhaps you can indulge me on one last question-- might I get the name of my erstwhile conversation partner?

[aimsforknees]

[ It call comes down to free will. That's what it's always been. The Machine gives them numbers and they have to decide what to do with them. Perhaps this too is about free will. All he can do is make the best choice in the moment. Thankfully he has Harold here to help with that.

As for the question... John just holds out his rose. ]

A trade. And then at midnight we'll know.

[ John's smile this time in genuine. He's had a good time. ]

one last suicide cw for the road

[unaliveyourself]

[He looks from the rose to the other man for a moment, and then lets out a softly amused noise before offering over his own rose. It's not exactly the romantic ideal he pictured, offering it to a man he'd verbally sparred and then traded information with rather than a beautiful woman with whom he could propose a double suicide with, but ah well. It's a connection formed, a potential ally in the future. A worthwhile investment, as it were.

It's rare for Dazai's smiles to be truly genuine, but this one isn't as hollow as the others before. The man he's met tonight is an interesting one. He looks forward to learning more about him.]

You have yourself a deal. Until we meet again, then, Mister Mystery~

[He goes out of his way to say that last bit directly in English, without the help of the translators. It feels appropriate, somehow.]