etrayalogs | OCTOBER MINGLE

Entry tags:

OCTOBER MINGLE

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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Krouse doesn't drink either. It's about the gesture. Same goes for nodding at John's disclaimer about not knowing Harold was around yet. John just doesn't seem like a guy who'd sign off comfortably on 'book search in the creepy city' without notes.

As for people Krouse knows - he scoffs. ]

Yeah. A few. If you meet a small, creepy child, the girl with the most strikingly peculiar bedside manner in the multiverse, or the most annoying blonde girl imaginable? That's them.

[ He didn't use to admit to knowing them. Listing them off, he kind of remembers why. ]

Riley, Amy, Lisa. You probably don't want to know them.

[ But Krouse says it without rancor, which is also a novel development. They're almost all on casual speaking terms these days, incredibly. For a certain measure of 'casual speaking terms'. ]

[ It sounds like how John would talk about his... well, calling them friends would be... his associates from back home. Imagine if Fusco was here. The thought is amusing. ]

So what you're saying is that I should be on the lookout so I can hear embarrassing stories about you.

[ It's a tease. He probably wouldn't do that. Probably. ]

[ It's not necessarily easy to pull off an aghast look behind a mask, but Krouse is actually fairly good at emoting without most of his face when he wants to be. Looking aghast is a good cover for looking, briefly, deeply unsettled. ]

Yeah. I don't know that they could give you much on that front.

[ Or: embarrassing is only technically one of the words that applies to the stories they could tell about him. Another word that springs to mind is severely incriminating. And Krouse is eighteen enough that both prospects feel almost equally terrible. ]

Tell you what. I don't ask Finch about your embarrassing stories, you don't ask my fellow multiversal travelers about mine. Deal?

[ Krouse called Harold "Finch" and John is struck by how pleased that makes him. Krouse might have saved Harold, but John is wary of people being overly familiar with Harold. It just doesn't seem right. They've been forced into close quarters here, but Harold is, truly, a very private person. ]

I'm pretty sure I don't have any embarrassing stories, but you have a deal.

[ John is always cool. He's always competent. He definitely hasn't needed Carter to save him a handful of times, he always had the situation under control. ]

You have no embarrassing stories?

[ The disbelief is palpable and friendly. John's too level-headed seeming a guy to lack both the self-awareness that everyone has embarrassing stories and to have nothing he's embarrassed about. Shamelessness is reserved for the delusionally confident and the blithely apathetic.

It's a lot more likely that Harold, or Finch, isn't the kind of person who's going to divulge those stories to some random teenager. Which is why it's a funny angle to push. ]

You can't tell me that after we struck the deal. Now I'm overcome with curiosity.

[ It's hidden behind his mask but John raises one eyebrow skeptically. ]

Do I seem like the kind of guy that has embarrassing stories?

[ There was that one time with the Aryan Brotherhood thug where Carter had to come to his rescue... or when Theresa cut his hand while he was trying to catch her... really, it could happen to anyone. ]

The less likely a person is to be embarrassing, the more embarrassing stories they have. It's kind of an inverse law.

[ Krouse leans in, like he's confiding a secret. ]

If someone is consistently embarrassing, those are anecdotes. Part of a general life pattern, right? That's not really a story, per se. When someone who's usually on the ball blows it, though? That's a story. You have to find out why someone who isn't embarrassing got themselves into that predicament. There's a narrative arc, motive, cast of characters, the whole thing.

So yeah. In your case? There has to be a decent catalogue.

[ Oh, two can play this game. ]

So I guess you have plenty of anecdotes?

[ John isn't going to justify Krouse's comments on himself, he's turning the conversation around. Certainly he's not going to tell any of his own stories. Not that he has them, to be clear. ]

[ Well-played, old(ish) man. ]

Harsh.

[ Krouse says it with a smile behind his mask, unruffled by the accurate hit. ]

Harsh, but fair. I hear it's something people theoretically grow out of.

[ He's willing to cop to being eighteen going on nineteen, a fundamentally embarrassing age to be. If he can't deny it, he might as well lean into it, as unfamiliar as conceding anything about his age to someone older feels. ]

I'm assuming you were a teenager, once upon a time. Back before they invented color television, right?

[ Okay he's not that old. ]

Clearly you weren't paying attention in history class. When do you think color television was invented?

[ John does actually know the answer but he's not sure Krouse does.

[ Krouse never finished high school, and the only parts of history class he found interesting were earlier than colour television. ]

If I'm remembering my Flintstones right, shortly after the wheel, but before the extinction of the domestic dinosaur.

[ He grins behind his mask. ]

[ Oh, haha, he gets the joke. ]

It was 1953, though it took a decade or so to become mainstream. No one had black and white television when I was growing up and the Flintstones had long since aired. How old do you think I am?

[ He both does and doesn't want to know. ]

You know that off the top of your head?

[ And yet he doesn't know Star Trek. Krouse reshuffles John into a different category of trivia collector, the kind most often found on forums discussing classic cars or herpetology. Practical nerds.

Krouse gives John a once over, evaluating. Definitely over thirty. Fifty seemed too old. ]

And genuine guess? Thirty five to forty five. You're in good shape for your age, but - [ Krouse gestures at his own temple to indicate John's touch of grey ] - I'm assuming you've been stressed longer than you've been here.

That, and you just seem sick of everyone's tomfoolery. You also seem like a guy who might unironically say tomfoolery, if the circumstances were dire enough. Sorry.

[ Just because Harold is the one with the brains doesn't mean that John doesn't know anything. He probably read it in a book at the library when he had some time to kill; he does that, sometimes, sits around the library and listens to Harold work even when there's no number. He doesn't think he learned it from Harold, he remembers everything Harold says with great clarity.

But Krouse is exactly dead on. Good for him. ]

I've never said that word in my life. [ And now he never will— or, no, he'll say it exactly when Krouse is least— no. He simply won't. This is fun, they're having a good time at a party, but he's not here to get close to anyone. There's no need for drawn out jokes to thread together the instances of their meetings. He's not about to get attached. ] But I do wish people had their act together more, on the whole.

[ Krouse taps the rim of his glass against his mask's 'mouth', a tiny clink mostly lost to the ongoing celebrations, such as they are. ]

I'd drink to that. The eternal lament of anyone with spare brain cells and functional sensory systems.

[ He shakes his head, lowing his 'sipped' drink. ]

'Functional sensory systems'. I've been listening to the bots too much.

[ A cunning ruse to distract from Krouse's new commitment to getting John to spit up a solid 'tomfoolery' one of these days, or at least a 'shenanigans'. Given John's air of discipline, Krouse might even be content with a good, old-fashioned 'enough of this dicking around'.

Not that Krouse himself will evoke that. Intentionally. Ideally, someone else takes the fall on that one. ]

Do you talk to them often?

[ John hasn't talked to them apart from absolute necessity, though Harold has interrogated them (not that he would call it such) and shared his findings with John. That's the benefit of being a team, of having Harold, an AI expert that he can trust. Those first few days without Harold were bleak, John is only able to stand here and make jokes about 'tomfoolery' because he has Harold here. He doesn't want to envision who he'd be without Harold again. ]

The bots? Depends on how you define 'often'.

[ Enough that Krouse is quibbling semantics, which already isn't a fantastic look. ]

It's not really a conversation. They're like chatbots, you know? Or - maybe you don't know. It's an internet thing. Computer programs that supposedly respond like people. They can't hold a real conversation, but I think they either don't have or can't access Aurora's database for communicating to us.

It's too bad. If they were easier to mess with, maybe we could engineer some real answers out of them, huh?

[ That's a thought. What if they just had mini-Auroras running around everywhere? Not that they don't already, in a way; the bots are just little surveillance systems for Aurora, plus... whatever other systems are in place.

At first it had grated on him, how much Harold knew of him at any given time, how much it seemed Harold watched him. And then it grew... comforting. Knowing Harold might be watching his apartment at any moment. Knowing Harold was keeping an eye on him.

John doesn't want to get used to this. ]

I didn't realize you were that bored to take up conversations like that. There really must not be anything to do here.

[ Which is what John has already surmised. He's bored and on edge which is a terrible combo. ]

There's only so many arcade machines to beat in the apartment building.

[ He shrugs as though it's not a humble brag and another soft deflection. Talking about the restless down time between missions makes him antsy.

Maybe he should ask for a goldfish. Or a house plant. Something he can look after that doesn't expect too much from him. Not everyone is cut out for a Harold. ]

But if you want to play 'I wish we had', I'm game. Personally, I'm holding out for a movie theatre. The other bubble we visited had one. Got to watch Lord of the Rings again. And please don't tell me you don't know Lord of the Rings, man. I don't think I could take it.

[ John has seen Lord of the Rings, thank you very much. They brought all the movies overseas for the troops to watch during his deployment. Fantasy isn't his favorite genre but he enjoyed them. ]

I did see all the movies. Based on a book series, right? You read those too?

Read them? You're looking at the owner of his own, personally annotated copy of the Silmarillion.

[ Which he lets hang for a moment, then clarifies with an undertone of laughter: ] That's the expanded myths of the origins of Middle-earth. They didn't put it in the movies.

But okay. Good, you're not completely hopeless. Next question, and this is an important one - favourite Fellowship member? I'm thinking Aragorn. You seem like an Aragorn guy.

[ Oh, Krouse is such a nerd. John has his number now. He's reminded of how Harold gets involved in certain topics and can go on and on. ]

It's been a long time since I saw them. I remember enjoying them but I only saw them once, and don't remember that much to be honest. What makes me an Aragorn guy?

[ He was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan when the movies were out, and while he hadn't joined the CIA yet... those weren't good years. ]

[ Krouse's free hand comes up, waving through the air in controlled but enthusiastic flits to emphasis what he's saying. He is that kind of nerd. He just doesn't get a chance to do it often anymore. ]

The cheap answer is that Aragorn is a gruff, grizzled Ranger of the North, a seasoned warrior, and all around hardass. You'll forgive me for the obvious surface level comparison there.

The real reason you're an Aragorn guy is that you think. That's one of the reasons Aragorn isn't just the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor, but the right heir to the throne. He's not just some cool fighter, which is what pretty much every rip off of Aragorn screws up. He's wise as much as he is strong, which is the whole point Tolkien was making - strength without wisdom, power without justice, that's Sauron's territory.

Not that I'm saying you give me a 'secret heir to a throne' impression, but that strikes me as the kind of guy you'd respect. Am I right?

[ Power without justice is... exactly what John and Harold are against. If Krouse thinks that he's... respectable? Someone who thinks and does the right thing? John has certainly tried to live up to that standard these days even if he can't escape what he's done in the past. Even if he can never make up for it all.

That feels... too personal to reveal. ]

I like to think that people respect me, and not just because I have a gun.

[ The truth is that most people don't care for his help until its too late and he's always having to fight to give it, but he has to try. Always, always he has to try. Even if no one ever respects him or gives him any credit, he has to try. ]

[ Krouse manages to suppress his snicker just long enough to deadpan: ]

If it helps, I don't respect the fact you have a gun.

[ Then he throws up his empty hand in preemptive placation. ]

I respect firearms. But any idiot with a few [ fuck, what kind of America does John come from? Krouse lowballs his estimate ] hundred bucks can get their hands on a gun.

But, see? Classic Aragorn thinking. It's not about the ancestral blade reforged or, in your case, the gun. Which brings us around to my being willing to extend you some tentative conditional respect, pending further confirmation of existence of functioning brain matter.

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