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

[ornithologist]

Scrambled eggs, of course, are the true testament to cooking skill, which means Harold has covertly observed John making what is essentially a chef's graduation test multiple times. He feels entirely confident in his conclusion that John is much better at cooking than he is. Mid-century mid-west cooking was plain and unremarkable, to the extent Harold even experienced it; without his mother around, gender roles being what they were at the time, he and his father had made do. Once he'd left Iowa, he'd been consumed with intellectual pursuits and never found or made time to learn cooking. It had seemed unimportant.

Which means Harold is able to be simply appreciative as he closes his book and makes his way to the table. He'd be fine with a quiet dinner, but since they've been silent for so long by now, he does make an attempt at conversation. He thinks for a moment before choosing the topic.

"I met your shapes girl," he comments, taking a seat. "She was thrilled I could find a surface integral but nonetheless declared us both imaginary numbers."

[aimsforknees]

That's at least a safe topic. He can talk about 37. "Were you able to make any more sense on how we're imaginary numbers and she's a real number?"

If anyone can make sense of that topic it would be Harold. John had just sort of accepted it and moved on with the conversation. He still feels guilty for making her eat at all the food trucks, even though it had been right. If he's being honest— which he's not. Not right now. He's not going to think about how he'll have to fight against her one day, fight for his world instead of hers. He only just—

John realizes his fork has been still for too long and focuses on that instead. Stab it in, twirl some pasta, chew. Harold can talk about real and imaginary numbers and John will listen.

[ornithologist]

This is the perfect question to ask Harold to get him going. He'd kept himself masterfully self-contained while speaking with Ms. 37, which has left him with a plethora of thoughts with no outlet. Normally he handles that quite well -- he doesn't go spilling his guts as a matter of course -- but things are so strange here, and he's so upended, even Harold wants someone to vent to. And this is as innocuous a topic with as trustworthy an audience as it gets.

"It's not mathematics at all," Harold says indignantly. "It's a religion based on Plato's allegory of the cave. Imaginary number simply means we haven't bought in and are doomed to be reborn into new paltry lives as non-believers."

Harold takes a bite of pasta and pauses, forcibly halting himself to appreciate the food.

"Thank you, John, this is lovely." It doesn't feel right to call him Mr. Reese at the moment, somehow.

[aimsforknees]

John takes a slow breath. He's never cooked for Harold before. It's somehow— intimate, in this moment. He remembers cooking for Jessica— it's just. Been a long time since he cooked for anyone. He's always liked doing it. He can accept the compliment, the food turned out well. Belatedly he realizes this is probably the first hot meal Harold has had since their arrival.

"Any time, Harold. I'd be happy to cook for you again." That's maybe too personal. John feels a bit raw right now. He thinks some of that comes through in his offer. He takes a bit of pasta again, thinking through all the steps of the movement again. After he's chewed and swallowed he speaks again. "So the math terminology is just a cover up?"

[ornithologist]

He hasn't ever cooked for Harold before, because Harold wouldn't be presumptuous enough to ask something like that of an employee, or honestly even a friend. He is conscientious that there is a disparity between him and John, and he tries not to overstep it. Here, in Etraya, it seems like it would do more harm than good to stick to his usual rigorous boundaries quite so steadfastly.

The offer garners a slight smile from Harold in acknowledgement, but he lets John push on past the personal subject. He accepts it as it is and will take him up on it later.

"Not entirely. There's a real theoretical debate about how our perception of the world impacts our understanding of it. Not that I'm the biggest student of philosophy, but it has implications for how to train a computer to recognize its environment. Something as simple as recognizing this as a plate, with food on it, is not trivial to a computer, which necessarily raises questions about how our own cognition is accomplishing the task."

Harold pauses again, realizing he's going on at length.

"It's immensely complicated. The short version is that it is about math inasmuch as any religion is actually about its stated subject."

Wait, is that really the short version? It is to Harold. He resumes eating.

[aimsforknees]

John listens to Harold but finds himself falling short on understanding. This is not a rare occurrence, but he likes asking these questions and hearing Harold's answers anyways. He feels some part of his mind relaxing ever so slightly as Harold speaks, some tension leave his shoulders. He's still eating the pasta mechanically but finds he doesn't have to focus on each step; listening to Harold is a much better distraction.

"So math is applicable to our perception of reality in terms of how it applies to computers, but doesn't have anything to do with 37's religion?" That's sort of what he got out of the topic.

[ornithologist]

"No no, that's only why I know of it." Harold shakes his head briefly. "Are you familiar with Plato's theory of the cave? It seems their whole religion is based off it. The idea is that mathematics could be used to prove it... which is not actually possible, but that's what makes it a matter of faith."

He is eating between pieces of exposition, but he wasn't actually all that hungry, which is good because Harold is far more absorbed in his thought process here than the food.

[aimsforknees]

"Some people are looking at the shadows on the wall of the cave and can't understand what's real, and the people casting the shadows do?" It's been a while since he's done that kind of learning, but he thinks that's right. Or if not then Harold will correct him.

If he's being honest, from an objective standpoint, he did a good job with the pasta. John isn't hungry either but he knows that eating is good for his body and he was practically suffering from hypothermia not that long ago, even if it defies logic. He's forced himself to eat many a time, he doesn't need to be hungry to get it down.

[ornithologist]

"Essentially, though it's more about the people -- they're prisoners -- chained in the cave, unable to know what things really look like under the 'light of the Sun'. If you saw only the shadow of a chair, but had never seen a chair before directly, how would you know what it really was? If everything we experience--"

He gestures expansively with his fork. Now he's really off, since John's encouraging him.

"--are shadows and we are the prisoners, how do we find out what is really there? This basic question preoccupied many famous thinkers for centuries. The key distinction here is that Plato assumes there is an absolute, unchangeable reality, and we have to find it. Perhaps through math, or logic, or natural science, but there is an objective truth that the enlightened man can find. That is the angle 37's religion seems to be taking. We can step out into the sun and understand the truth if we follow the religion.

"Others, such as Kant, argued that there is no one true objective state, partly because our sensory perception of something is itself an element of its reality. A blind person would experience the chair through touch. Their reality of a chair is therefore different, but still true."

[aimsforknees]

John doesn't actually care about philosophy or the reality of a chair, but he likes listening to Harold. It's calming, to hear him go on and on about a subject. He can pretend, just for a bit, as if they're just in this room together; tomorrow there will be another number, he'll wake up in his loft, go for a run, tussle with Bear. Of course— it's just pretend. But he can listen to Harold.

"So what do you believe about the truth of the world? Since you know so much about philosophy."

[ornithologist]

The question makes Harold come back to himself with a snap, and he promptly frowns at John. He hates answering personal questions and this one definitely counts.

"I know enough to train a computer in object recognition, Mr. Reese, not to answer your questions about the meaning of life," he says crisply. Harold climbs to his feet and goes to the kitchen cabinets to recover a set of tupperware. "You seem to be adequately recovered. Thank you for dinner."

It's a clear dismissal, that he's going to pack up his leftovers and leave. But it's also a return to form, a comforting regression to the mean on their standard exchanges. If this were a safehouse in New York, if there was another number tomorrow, Harold would depart just this way.

[aimsforknees]

John is— they were just— he hadn't meant anything by the question. It hadn't been a dig to find more about Harold. He was just making conversation. Harold had insisted on staying, he had cooked for Harold— it feels like a slap and for a moment John is left reeling by the sudden change in mood.

But. This is what he wants. Surely. For Harold to collect himself, to get out of John's space, to leave John to numb himself and fall asleep. Put sufficient distance between himself and everything that has happened tonight. His jaunt outside, the cold, this strange dinner.

That's right, this is how things should be between them. The usual.

"Sure, Finch. See you tomorrow."

John goes to do the dishes.