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

[tinflower]

Okay. [ He's nodding. He can work with that! ] It's just... a toy. Let's stick with that.

People got handed out toys they had to take care of, but they got a message that they had to get rid of by a week, something like that. But everyone didn't get the full message, so when people didn't get rid of those toys, they started getting obsessed over them. The toys started to mess with their heads.

Some of them even exploded.

[bigpoofymammoth]

...

So what you’re saying is, there’s a mission involving mind-controlling toys that explode for whatever reason?

[tinflower]

Yeah. And there was a mission after that was a mission where we were in a craft in the sky that needed fixing, but, we never got the chance to fix it.

[bigpoofymammoth]

And what’s keeping you and everyone else from fixing this 'sky craft'?

[tinflower]

They sent us to do a different mission instead, and the sky craft crashed.

[ He points down at the ground. ]

Here.

[bigpoofymammoth]

[Manny looks down at the ground before he looked back up at Gorgug.]

Let me guess, is it the one involving the Im'mari or is that something else?

[tinflower]

[ Gorgug stops walking, grimacing at the mention of the Im'mari. ]

It... I think so. There was something that made it crash, and... that ship, it shouldnt've been up in the sky.

[ He looks up at Manny. It's not every day he has to crane his neck so high. ]

But that's not the mission we left it for. The Im'mari-- [ again, he winces, ] --that, it took over the last mission. It was a different mission.

[bigpoofymammoth]

I see...

So what did the last mission entail before it was taken over?

[tinflower]

[ Gorgug doesn't answer immediately. He looks back, knowing he should keep walking, get out of this cold, so he picks up his pace again. But, eventually: ]

...I think...people were supposed to face their fears. They got locked up in-- they got trapped in places they couldn't get out of, but I don't know-- I don't know what was the mission or what was Im'mari.

But it was easy to get trapped, alone. People had to... find each other. I think.

[bigpoofymammoth]

Okay, so let me get this straight.

You guys had a mission involving mind-controlling toys. Then you got roped into a mission originally set to fixing some kind of sky craft. Before that got changed into people being trapped alone in some place where they have to find each other and face their fears.

How does any of this relate to saving our worlds from total extinction?

[It seems like the more Manny hears about what'd happened in Etraya prior to his arrival, the less he understands how it’s supposed to spare their home worlds from being erased from existence.]

[tinflower]

[ Well... ] The person who decides if our worlds get to exist are the ones making the missions that we have to pass. That's it.

You pass, or you don't.

[ Because, you know: he kinda understands the confusion in what the missions have to do with anything, but that's not the connection. It's the person handing them out. ]

[bigpoofymammoth]

So I'm supposed to impress whoever’s bringing us here to ensure the safety of our worlds?

[Just because he's getting a better understanding of this situation, doesn’t mean he has to like it. Then again, he doubts anyone would considering what’s at stake here and at their worlds.]

[tinflower]

Yeah, and it goes on for years? Until you go back. [ He shrugs. ] I don't know if anyone's been told their world's going to be saved or not. I don't know if any of us know.

[ Now that he thinks about it. ]

[bigpoofymammoth]

[This is starting to become a huge headache for Manny, who had way too many things to worry about in regard to his home world. Especially his family, who are all waiting for him to come back to them.]

So how often do people go back to their worlds?

[tinflower]

I don't know... a couple of people I know here have disappeared. A friend from my world did, too.

But I don't know how many people do. I've never checked.

[ And definitely not recently. Maybe he should. ]

[bigpoofymammoth]

We should probably check how many people are around, so we could get a better idea.

[tinflower]

There's a contact list on this. [ He points to his earpiece. ...probably a lot smaller than Manny's own. ] Oh yeah, Aurora left a message about something being out here tonight too. So everyone got a warning. If they checked the network.

[ Unlike Gorgug. ]

[bigpoofymammoth]

I see. How do they work exactly?

[Manny had seen a couple of them around, but he'd never thought about using them until now.]

[tinflower]

Uh...

[ Okay, this is going to take a lot more than just walking and talking will manage, Gorgug thinks. They don't even know what stuffed toys are, so. Give him a second to think about this. ]

Do you...is there somewhere you're staying? I can try to explain, but... I think-- you don't know anything about network or communication devices, right?

[bigpoofymammoth]

[Manny shook his head to both questions.]

I don’t think so. The architecture and technology here is nothing like what I've seen back home.

[There is a form of communication and networking back home, but it’s not like the ones used in Etraya.]

[tinflower]

...I've been trying to walk the way I came. There's a... I have a place you could say has a big roof over it. And curved walls.

You can hang out there until you find somewhere you like better? It's pretty close to here. And I can probably help you with the network if we sat down.

[bigpoofymammoth]

Alright then. Lead the way.

[tinflower]

[ There's at least one decent visual for Gorgug to know what's the right way he's going, thankfully. It's dark, but he can see quite a distance in the low light, the mist curling about around and near them a bigger issue getting in his way.

But once it starts to become clearer, he asks, ] Do you see that? It's that way [ to the mammoth, and whether or not he can immediately, a structure does start to come more into view even with the night sky: a large dome that sits above the ground, nearly more than double the size of Manny's own height. Gorgug wanted all that space for just in case projects, though it's been mostly useless so far...

It does mean, however, that when they get close, and Gorgug approaches what looks like a wall and nothing else... he comes to a keypad that Manny may or may not see, taps a couple of buttons, presses a finger down on one, and waits as a high entrance starts to open outward.

Manny will see there's a couple of buildings on the inside, but there's open ground space as well. Just... not much else.

But this does have a roof. ]

[bigpoofymammoth]

[Manny nods as he saw the structure from the distance. It was certainty a lot bigger than he thought, especially when he'd gotten closer and closer to it.

At first he was bemused at what Gorgug was doing when he approached the wall. But he quickly deduced why once the entrance had started to open up. There’s certainly a lot more open space inside than he'd anticipated.]

Okay, this should be good enough for me to stay.

[tinflower]

[ Phew, well, that's a good first impression. Although: ]

Sorry that there isn't anything except the ground. I don't know what you sleep with. [ Sticks? Leaves? ] Did you still want me to show you how to work the network? I'm coming back here tomorrow. I can show up in the morning.

[ So, either now or later... ]