DECEMBER MINGLE

[etrayamods]

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⏴

Comments

[cactusy]

Because I've had more of them than I've had friends.

[The phrasing is purposefully flippant, but there's a note of truth to it all the same. She pauses, and then amends:]

The important people in my life have all been family, or coworkers. If there's a person I want to commemorate, odds are we had a job in common.

[ascarylady]

So? A big explosion dropped Zaun into the trenches. We still live there. It's all about persistence.

[unaliveyourself]

[If there’s to be any proof that what he was upset about before wasn’t the depression callout, it might be this: there’s no reaction at all to what she says, this time, not even a minute twitch in his jaw or hands.]

No, Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy.

[It’s a little funny, he thinks, having it cited as an example to him, when he’d used it as an example of what he doesn’t want to Krouse in a conversation not too long ago.]

Each of them died alone in the darkest of despair, torn apart by a loss they couldn’t imagine how to move forward from. That’s nothing like what I’m looking for at all.

[leastdramatic]

Emotionally worn out from having talked about certain things way more than he anticipated today, Jason goes ahead and leaves. He keeps his ears open to make sure he can still hear Bruce behind him though.

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just shrugs and hefts the bottle again. Wondering if he's going to break Pope's rules once again and get absolutely blitzed on vodka.

It's tempting. He hasn't gotten drunk in a very long time. ]

You're talking like I was around when they made that call. It's just history now.

[once_reborn]

"Yep, but I'm still a jam-a-chair-under gal, myself."

Which she figures is something the other will understand.

"I don't trust any lock I haven't made myself, you know? Or modified, at least."

She looks over at Sameen as they move across a square.

"So what do you do back home?"

[fortitudosalutis]

[ He watches her for a moment, then nods. He understands that much, in the end. ]

First and only ink I got was for my unit, right after my first tour in the Valley of Death.

[ That had to be marked. It was the beginning of things. ]

[wolfish]

"Oh, all sorts of things. Someone back home used it to make licorice boots, even." Don't ask, Kirk. Or do. Constance is nothing if not creative, and she feels less distant from him, more tangible, when he thinks of the absurd pursuits she's undertaken in pursuit of restoring her noble house. "She also made it rain attack spells across a battlefield, though that was a miscalculation. Spells fall into different categories, but if someone has a mind to tinker, the possibilities are vast."

[zauneyete]

Who knows? [ He lies ] The man was more beast than human. Could be that he saw me as prey.

[ Unfortunately, silco is silco.

Unfortunately, the hissing from outside the cages gets louder, as if to emphasize that it was the wrong answer. ]

[zauneyete]

[ Silco's bark of laughter was both out of character, and shocking in the dark. It is quick, and violent, before it's smothered back down to general distaste. ]

And not their goal at all, or else they would have chosen more wisely.

[ what does that mean? ]

[zauneyete]

[ Silco watched him suspiciously from his cage, as the boy finished off his lock, and it clattered to the ground. That was good, it worked, but now... Well.

He half expected the boy to leave anyway. Foolish types often did — and it might have not even been all that foolish, considering that he was limited on resources, power, and prominence at the moment — so perhaps he would have done exactly what he expects of Accelerator.

Which is why he actually jumped, when the boy leapt from one cage to the next. That was a bit far for even a Zaunite, though only just. ]

Right.

[ He said, with a tip of his head, but that eye doesn't blink and it watches him 'pick' it, trying to figure out how he's doing it without tools. ]

[hexcope]

[Oh. Right. That Renni.

No, he won't forget that now.]

…

[Jayce reacts in silence, just slack-jawed for a full moment.

Dead. Well that’s- not really as reassuring as he thought it might feel. Better they weren’t fully alive for what he and Vi did to them, but… he’s vastly underestimating shimmer, if it could go that far. Reanimating someone who’s fully gone, even if it’s an almost entirely devoid manner. Hextech has nothing on that.

What if…?]

I don't even know where to start on that.

[ascarylady]

You and me both...

[ Because Sevika tries to know as little as possible about what Renni is up to most of the time. Sometimes, she wonders if Renni hadn't bit it in her revenge attempt, would she have been next on the list of who she executed herself?

Well, regardless, she rolls her shoulder in a shrug. It is what it is. ]

I can tell you they aren't as efficient as you might think. Those suits need to be full of shimmer to keep them going, and breaking the seal in any way puts an end to them pretty fast. You probably noticed that yourself, though.

Re: egg requests.

[ghostlord]

I'm so damn late, apologies Mods! Would it be possible for Kexing's egg to hatch into something somehow abominable and cute? As he deserves.

[leastdramatic]

[Interesting phrasing… Jason mentally notes that]

Yeah, that’s the other thing. It’s hard to see any rhyme or reason in why certain people wind up here.

[godsandbats]

Behind Kirk’s stoic expression, his interest into the subject grows. It sounds like a good field to study. After all, sometimes, what looks like magic is actually science that isn’t well understood yet.

“Could science and magic mix? Or are they just extensions to each other?”

[hexcope]

Seemed pretty efficient to me.

[They killed a few enforcers in seconds, and if he had been any later on his reaction time with the one that was up close, it'd be his head skewered on one of their blades. Vi's the only one who came out of that entirely unscathed.]

I didn't notice.

[And normally he's pretty perceptive, but that whole event is a blur. Adrenaline moving him in ways he didn't think he could, bursts of blue light he never ran practice tests on. You just never had to look it in the eye. One dead kid? There's hundreds more.

He's just staring hard at the counter now, replaying that moment.]

[ascarylady]

[ Funny. He didn't? Hmm. ]

Was that your first time in a real fight?

[ Because someone who knows what they're doing? They notice those things. Sevika knows those things are fast, can take you out before you know it, provided they got the drop on you. She still saw them as inefficient. Everything relied on the enemy being unprepared, as Jayce and the enforcers had been.

Had Vi led them straight into a death trap for the sheer sake of revenge? Seems more likely than not. It could be an easy win to push the "Vi is the dangerous one" narrative here, but... fuck, she's too tired to bother, and she isn't Silco. ]

[hexcope]

That obvious?

[Of course it is. To someone like Sevika, he must seem like a complete novice.]

[ascarylady]

Extremely. You have the same lost look on your face as a kid who's killed for the first time.

[ Same look she had once, very long ago... ]

You don't expect it. You don't mean it. But you're scared and trying to survive. That look.

[heavensnight]

What if it isn't up to the egg thing? Mine's doomed either way. But it still feels like I should put in an attempt, you know what I mean?

[she sighs.]

Like I can manage this much if nothing else.

no worries

[zauneyete]

[ A scoff. ]

Persistent.

It's easy to walk away, isn't it?

[ He asked, with a shrug. Eventually, he would get his hands on an egg, but it would end up destroyed, so net neutral for Silco. ]

No, I'm more interested in your idea of what is being Asked. There is what they say, of course, however...

[ Silco shrugged, an easy roll of a narrow shoulder, as if to say that it didn't matter to him. Truly? It didn't. If they were going to "save the world", then he would have one reason to do so. the problem was, did he believe it? he didn't know if he did. He didn't want to, for certain. It was better to distrust and learn that he was correct, than it was to believe and be disappointed.

A lesson only betrayal could teach someone like him, of course. ]

There is no way of knowing if this is correct, yes? Has anyone had proof that their "world" was saved, after all?

[zauneyete]

[ It is an odd exchange.

Silco blinked a few times, but even so. ]

I frankly don't know much about my world outside of books, and trading partners. I've never left where I'm from, after all.

[ There is something sad in that, isn't there? That someone could stay restrained to a city alone? This isn't a sprawling metropolis, either. Sure, he could say he's also been to Piltover, but for all intents and purposes, they were the same city. Up until sharing profits was concerned, at least. ]

Would you like to hear about it? Only my city? I'm quite fond, but it is not for the faint of heart. I cannot say it is a kind place.

[zauneyete]

Hm. Other worlds have as... disparate of a mess of individuals?

[ Look. Silco knows it won't take long. If someone doesn't say something, he'll be shocked. He's banking on it.trying to destroy worlds, instead of saving them.

[zauneyete]

If someone isn't that way, I'd suspect that they would take issue with what we are trying to do.

[ A twitch of a smirk. As if being a little shit isn't just a requirement to work with them. ]

A real alchemist? Hm. Better than the Doctor, even. He was supposedly one of those, but he never made gold.

[ A beat. ]

Well, I suppose he did out of shimmer. I don't think it is the same.

[ Though her suggestion. He laughed. ]

Wouldn't that be ironic? I would hate to use something of theirs, truly. Those high ceilings and marble floors... [ Ugh. ]

But the principle of just ruining something of theirs? Emblazoning it with our own... decor? [ Oh. He likes that. Thinking of the council building being ruined by a neon-eye. It would surely upset any that came in after — and the ones already here. ]