etrayamods: (Default)
∎ ETRAYA MODS ∎ ([personal profile] etrayamods) wrote in [community profile] etrayalogs2024-12-21 05:15 pm

DECEMBER MINGLE

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: December 21st - Early January
WHERE: Etraya
WHAT: Newcomers, a surprise gift from Tatianna, and a visitor!
NOTES\WARNINGS:



⏵ arrival ⏴

Welcome to Etraya!

Arrival goes as expected - characters awaken on hospital beds and are offered an explanation of their situation: that they have arrived in the city of Etraya, and they are their world's only hope. They are welcome to wander the hospital if they would like to - the upper floors are mostly empty, full of pristine hallways and numerous rooms filled with supplies, cots, and things one would expect from a relatively average 21st-century hospital.

The lobby is filled to the brim with tables of freshly baked goods. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" banners are taped to the walls, and several other typical birthday decorations can be found in this area. A few of the baked goods tables are lined with massive cakes covered in unlit candles, just waiting for someone to grab a lighter and sing off-key. Is it anyone's birthday? Who knows! The companion bots seem to believe it's every new arrival's birthday and will greet them as such - with friendly waves and cheers as they make their way to the lobby.

A coat rack is situated by the doors leading out of the hospital, covered in warm clothing that fits the new arrivals just right - whether it's to their preferred style or not is something else entirely. Some of them appear normal enough. Others? Well. They can't all be perfect, now can they?

Outside the windows, the grass is covered in a couple of inches of loosely packed snow.

We hope you enjoy your stay.


⏵ an unexpected gift ⏴


Out by the hospital stands a tall, decorated tree covered in candles and golden pinecones with a handsome, red velveteen tree skirt. In front of it are a few oversized wrapped gifts for show- and atop one of those sits a familiar woman. Or unfamiliar, if this is your first time.

It's Tatianna in a slutty Santa outfit with a big ol’ burlap sack.

“Hey, I got something for you,” she says, digging into the bag and rummaging for a moment.

She produces a painted egg and holds it aloft.

“It’s your Winter Solstice Egg! This is the egg holiday, right? Wait, shit. I’m mixing them up, aren’t I? ...Well. It’s a little late to change it. Here you go!”

How one treats their egg is fully up to themselves. They can choose to ignore it entirely, or destroy it and leave the yolk and innards to rot on the ground. They can hand it over to someone else or care for it as if it were something precious. No one will prevent them from doing whatever they please with it!


⏵ naughty or nice ⏴
However, how they treat the egg will define how the egg treats them in return.

Those who keep the egg and tend to it will get the benefit of being able to watch it hatch seven days after they are handed the egg. Eggs that are treated with attention and love may yield a loyal companion, or a weapon of choice that always returns to its owner, while neglected eggs may yield a curious, cursed trinket or an animal who treats its new owner very much the same way its owner had treated it before it was born.

Please submit an egg request below for what items you would like your character's eggs to hatch into! Please note that these cannot be things that would be applicable in the game.

Those whose eggs are destroyed or forgotten will simply get the gift of... nothing!


⏵ free your spirit ⏴


With the winter chill gripping the air, a mysterious figure makes their presence known in Etraya - a towering, horned creature dragging a massive sack behind them.

𝓐 𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖘𝖊 𝖇𝖚𝖎𝖑𝖙 𝖔𝖓 𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖍𝖆𝖘 𝖆 𝖜𝖊𝖆𝓴 𝖋𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓.


Regardless of a character's strengths or weaknesses, they will find that when Krampus raises his massive sack over their head, they are powerless to stop him from catching them. Those capable of great magical feats or other supernatural abilities will sense something... otherworldly about Krampus, but will not be able to place the source of that sensation.

Once within Krampus' sack, they are welcome to fight, but escape is impossible. It will feel as if Krampus is dragging them over every rock possible, dragging the sack in through the rivers to the point it soaks through and drenches them - potentially almost drowning them.

When the sack opens, they will find themselves in an impossibly dark space. Around them are others who have also been captured and dragged here by Krampus, trapped in small cages hanging from a massive, wiry tree.

Krampus will return often, banging clawed hands and birch rods on the walls of the cages and knocking them into one another.
𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖋𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘.

The whisper resonates through the darkened area, regardless of Krampus' presence. Confess your secrets, and be freed. Otherwise? You'd better hope someone figures out where Krampus has set up base; those who refuse to confess may find themselves stuck here forever.

⏵ NOTES ⏴


Krampus' base is under Etraya! Deep within the catacombs, he has set up multiple cages to capture those who inhabit Etraya to punish them for their naughty habits. Fighting him is possible! Defeating him by means of combat is not, however, possible. Think of it like fighting a god: Krampus creates the rules in the space around him, including who can use what ability.

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

fortitudosalutis: (023)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 07:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That, unfortunately, makes a lot of sense. Gather up people, make sure they're good and restrained, and then get to work. Maybe leave them to rot for a bit so they're hungry when it happens, and disoriented. Weak. Carver breathes out slow, scanning their surroundings. Unfortunately, he can't see much of anything. ]

You know what phase two is?

[ Nothing good, probably. ]
fillme: (its 2 for 1 mcchickens)

[personal profile] fillme 2024-12-22 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Wah—!!

[startled, Hikaru falls backwards onto his ass onto of his crouching position, blinking wide, startled eyes—very briefly, his irises subtly distort at their edges in the shock.

concerned, Hikaru stares down at the egg—relieved to find he hasn’t cracked it. similar to Castiel, sometimes Hikaru has difficulty controlling his functions, including his strength.

Hikaru scowls up at Castiel.]


The hell was that?! How’d you do that!?

Scared the hell outta me…

[he sulks at his egg.]

I coulda crushed ‘em…
fortitudosalutis: (015)

cw self harm thoughts

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
This is some Grimm Brothers bullshit.

[ Carver twitches, fighting the urge to just smash his face into the bars out of sheer frustration. Sometimes, when he can't move, when he's forced to hold still, it feels like his bones are going to burst through his skin. Crazy shit like that, his racing thoughts infecting the rest of him. Pope never liked that. Always hated him pacing, those moments when he couldn't hold still or focus.

But there's a task at hand. A test that's been posed to them. And that clarifies the world. ]


Okay. Talking about the dead didn't cut it. So it's some metaphorical bullshit, right? We're supposed to learn a lesson.
decodex: (pic#17490132)

[personal profile] decodex 2024-12-22 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Uh, no. No idea. I don't think we should be here to find out, though.

( he doesn't even know if he's on the right track, but he feels like he is. this feels like a scene from the saw series. )

...Hey, weird question: did you do anything particularly bad lately?

( the 'confess' sign hasn't slipped past him. more fuel for his jigsaw theory. )
cactusy: (the longest‚ crappiest journey)

[personal profile] cactusy 2024-12-22 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
And it has to be related to confession.

[ Shaw goes still, letting her cage swing more and more slowly until it's swaying gently. ]

Regrets? I'm not so good at those.
ascarylady: (side-eye that bitch face)

free your spirit

[personal profile] ascarylady 2024-12-22 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
As if in response to Bruce's refusal, there's the click of a lighter from one cage over and that expected sizzle of a cigarette being lit right after. Sevika keeps the lit cig tight between her teeth until she can stow her lighter again and free up her only hand to reach up and retake it. The smoke has a heavy chemical stench to it, far worse than anything Earth might be able to summon up, though, in the end, it is still just a cigarette. One of the last ones from Zaun she had snuck away in a pocket. May as well smoke it now if she's going to die in a damn cage...

"Then you better get comfortable," she says, giving his adamant no an actual answer now that she's gotten the cigarette lit. "Because we're going nowhere."

She had tried the bars, too, when she first got dumped in her own cage, and with far more violence than an old man's cane. Those were solid and she had yet to find a trick to get them open.
fortitudosalutis: (010)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Carver shoots him a suspicious look. ]

Define lately.
fortitudosalutis: (018)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Confession. Something you'd bear to God or the commander. Something that matters, so no more bullshit about the blood on their hands. That's just a given. They're soldiers of one stripe or another. He doesn't know this woman's creed or her cause and ultimately doesn't care to. For the moment, they're almost on the same side.

He gives the bars one more rattle before letting go abruptly. ]


Everybody's got regrets. But it's gotta be something good, I'm thinking, or it won't count.
ascarylady: (107;)

unexpected gift

[personal profile] ascarylady 2024-12-22 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Why does she have an egg? Who even paints eggs like this? Where's the nearest place she can toss it and forget about it? All questions running through Sevika's head after having one foisted upon her by that random... hooker? It seemed the most likely scenario in that outfit, but who knows?

But she doesn't get far enough along in the thought process of ditching the thing before Castiel intervenes with his suggestion. That has her stopping dead in her tracks to turn her attention to him and away from the bright, festive egg in hand.

She stares, of course. Stares at him like he's an idiot or he's grown two heads or something along those lines.
]

Why the hell would I do that?
messenger: drunk, severe (❝ you need a big god ❞)

[personal profile] messenger 2024-12-22 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ castiel curls his hands around the bars and and leans his head through. ]

Suit yourself.

[ he doesn't especially want to do this, either.

it won't be easy.

secrets are secrets for a reason. ]
decodex: (pic#17491778)

[personal profile] decodex 2024-12-22 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
...

Let's try since arriving here.
cactusy: (I'm about to take two weeks off)

[personal profile] cactusy 2024-12-22 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Something big, or something really personal and private. Cool. I'm not so good at either of those things, either.

[ She pauses. ]

I don't know what's real and what isn't. Probably never will again.
ascarylady: (051;)

[personal profile] ascarylady 2024-12-22 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Calm down over there. You're rocking the tree.

[ Or only the branch their cages are hung on. Whichever. Sevika's already found a comfortable way to sit in the little cage, leaning idly against the back of it, and has fished out a cigarette to smoke. The little spark of red light at the end of it offered barely any useful illumination. ]
fortitudosalutis: (002)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Carver just grinds his forehead against the bars, trying to think. Maybe, if he goes for the hinges again -

But that won't work. He knows even as the thought bounces around his skull. Okay.

Okay. Fuck. ]


What're you confessing, anyway?
ascarylady: (107;)

egg

[personal profile] ascarylady 2024-12-22 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Of all the things to say when approaching Sevika...

She isn't, which makes Maria right on the money with that guess, yet she can't help but wrinkle her nose and give the woman an offended look.
]

The fuck is that supposed to mean?

[ Yeah, sure, she's stuffing the egg away in a coat pocket instead of being gentler with it, but how does that make her not a parenting type?! Sometimes, you just shove kids places to keep them out of the way! It's normal! ]
fortitudosalutis: (047)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That stills him. Carver cocks his head, doglike. Squinting at her in the dark, taking another look at the way she holds herself. Her stillness. ]

What?
fortitudosalutis: (003)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
No.

[ He scowls. The worst he's done is pull a knife on Caitlyn and maybe think about pushing Harold Finch down the stairs, but he didn't do anything. He hasn't had to kill anyone for their supplies in months now. ]

I've been a fucking Boy Scout.
fortitudosalutis: (019)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He scowls, one hand going to the knife at his side. It's a new voice, the bloom of a cigarette lighting up the dark. he doesn't recognize this woman. ]

How long you been stuck here?
cactusy: (let the intrusive thoughts win)

[personal profile] cactusy 2024-12-22 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know if this is real.

[ No shift in tone. No anger, no fear. It's said as a matter-of-fact statement. ]

I thought I did, I thought I finally had a handle on it, but then all this magical save-the-whole-universe-from-destruction crap happened. Seems pretty fake to me, even though I don't get what the angle is.
fortitudosalutis: (018)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Carver shifts, leaning back against the cage. Watching her as much as he can in the dark, this woman who speaks almost monotone, who's killed men in their beds or close enough. All for a greater purpose, if her talk of hunting terrorists is true. But the longer that Carver fought through the Valley of Death, and the more contracts Pope had them take from the CIA and other interested parties, the more he realized those lines were relative. In the end, the only thing that mattered was the brother or the sister at his side. Everyone else can burn. He walks with their ghosts now.

And sometimes, every once and a while, he hears their voices.

His fingers twitch. ]


I'm pretty sure we're in Hell, [ he says after a while. ] My world's not worth saving, anyway.
ascarylady: (058;)

[personal profile] ascarylady 2024-12-22 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
A day and some change, I figure. Too dark down here to really tell for sure.

[ Her gaze flits to where his hand went briefly, taking note but not lingering on it. Armed? Smart. She sure wishes she was (figuratively and literally). ]
cactusy: (are you going to shove it up your butt?)

[personal profile] cactusy 2024-12-22 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Why Hell?

[She asks, her brow creasing. ]

You religious?
fortitudosalutis: (018)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Four tours in the Valley of Death, [ he replies softly. If this woman was a soldier from home, from his wars, then she'll know the place and probably some of the stories. If she's not, then the name will say all that needs to be said. ] Korengal. We saw God in the bones out there.

[ On the red of the killing fields. ]

Why wouldn't we be in Hell? That's where the murderers go.
fortitudosalutis: (019)

[personal profile] fortitudosalutis 2024-12-22 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Great. Long enough that things could get worrying. Sooner than later, dehydration is going to become a problem.

He watches her intently, taking in what he can of her shape in the dark and the distant cherry of her cigarette. A big woman, it seems like. Broad shoulders, an air that says she knows how to use her body. But -

Ah. Only one arm, he thinks. ]


You get dunked in the river, too, or was I special?
clavesregni: (105 06 09)

caitlyn kiramman | arcane | ota

[personal profile] clavesregni 2024-12-22 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
i. an unexpected gift

[Caitlyn is not familiar with any 'egg holidays' or, really, what to do with an egg at all. Nothing in her life, none of her education or experiences, have in any way whatsoever prepared her to take care of an egg. But if there's a helpless little creature in there waiting to be born, of course she'll have to figure it out. She can hardly let the thing die.

The first thing she does upon receiving the egg is slip off the overcoat she's wearing and wrap it around the egg, because it's quite cold and she's fairly certain that eggs need to be kept warm.

The second thing she does is to huff in frustration because--]


I'm not a bird!


ii. free your spirit

[A hearty shake and rattle of the cage door does nothing. Failing that, an examination of the hinges offers precious little hope of breaking them. Still, she pulls off her belt and tries to jam the buckle into one of the hinges to dislodge the pin. After several minutes of trying, she's scuffed both the buckle and the hinge and scraped a couple of her fingers, and the pin hasn't budged.

Caitlyn is tired, she's sore and damp from being dragged over rocks and through water, the uniform she insists on wearing at all times is muddy and a little more tattered than before, and for a moment, all she can do is rest her forehead against one of the cage bars and miserably wonder if she'll ever go home to Piltover.

That's when she hears the whisper.]


Confess? I haven't got anything to confess.

[What secrets has she got? Other than, perhaps, her surname, which she's been doing her utmost to avoid telling anybody, but that isn't really a secret, per se.]


iii. wildcard!

[ooc: feel free to wildcard me, I'm at [plurk.com profile] sprucemoose for plotting!]