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

[ascarylady]

[ There's... silence, at that. Outright silence for a minute, two, and then? Sevika starts laughing. Oh, how she laughs. Of all the things to learn— ]

I can't believe it. [ No, she can, actually. ] There I was, telling Talis he was just trying to play hero, but it was you all along. Fired? The day after the fairgrounds? Yet you kept going. Damn, you couldn't let go, could you?

[clavesregni]

Yes, I'll start there.

[She smiles politely. And with a little bit of relief, now that she has a specific starting place. Much less daunting than trying to hatch an egg with no guidance at all.]

Thank you. For your advice. I don't believe I got your name.

[clavesregni]

[The silence seems to drag on for ages, and when the sound finally comes, it's not at all what Caitlyn was expecting. She tries to find a little bit of humour in it, to force a smile across her face to match Sevika's laughter, but she can't quite find it in herself.]

Of course not. [Oh-so-earnest and sincere.] I'd spent months investigating a myriad of seemingly unconnected crimes. Missing children, strange experiments, robberies and murders, and they all had too many things in common to truly be unrelated. I was certain one person had organised it all. I only needed proof. And when I met Vi--

[Everything had changed quite rapidly once she'd met Vi.]

I couldn't give it up and go back to being-- To being 'Piltover's little princess.' [As Sevika had so succinctly put it.]

[zauneyete]

[ It's quick, this time. Quicker than before.

Now mind, they still have to escape, but when he hears the click, and watched the kid yank it off the door, there's an irrational part of him that settles down. The one that would have tried anything other than giving this thing what it's looking for, just to make it through.

He pushed at the door. ]

I'll remember this. [ He says. It half sounds like a threat, but that's just Silco being... Silco. ]

You picked that up quickly.

[ He kept his voice low, in case the thing noticed them. ]

[zauneyete]

Interesting.

[ He says.

It's thoughtful, the way he says it. ]

I suppose that's one avenue to look at.

If we get out of here.

[ Another kick. ]

[zauneyete]

[ Silco looked directly at him. Unblinking eye staring at him.

He smirked. ]

Who says I've lied?

Do I look the type?

[zauneyete]

[ A half-laugh. ]

It matters to us, of course.

We live... half-underground, where I am from. A city suspended over fissures formed deep into the stone, where the sump pipes from the city across the river pump filth into our lower levels, and their runoff gets into our drinking water. Our air is polluted from the mining, that many of us are forced into doing as children, to make ends meet.

[ A tight smile. ]

We are a resilient people an undercity worth of men and women who would scam you for a dollar, or gut each other for an advantage and dinner the next day.

[ Pride. That's what his voice has. So much pride at that. ] We persist, despite everything. Hearty and strong. We use waste, runoff, and refuse, and make something of it.

[zauneyete]

[ Silco would take the opportunity in a heartbeat, let's be honest. He'd love it. ]

I don't know. I heard whisper of rumor that you could use some sort of currency to obtain things.

If that is the case, we'll be able to get something. I'll do some digging on that, and see if we can find something.

You sort the alchemist since you've already spoken with them. We'll scout for places to work from as well. I can task Jinx on that. Keep her out of trouble.

[ Keep her from talking to Vander. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

You look like every other white guy I’ve met with a jacked-up face, [ Carver drawls, flashing his teeth. ] What, you think you were special?

[ Everyone lies. But there’s rarely such concrete proof as this. If the chain lowers when they say something true, and tightens when the opposite happens, well. ]

[leastdramatic]

[Snorts]

Yeah, no kidding. I'm sure some people have done some note comparing but that's not the focus right now.

[Jason gives the bars another frustrated kick]

[knightowl]

She wasn't wrong. Bruce has no idea what she's talking about. But it does help him form a better mental picture. Her world didn't sound like a very peaceful place at least at some point. He could relate to that somewhat.

"Interesting. How did blowing out the land work out for the culprits?"

[bigpoofymammoth]

No problem. My name's Manfred, but my friends call me Manny.

[clavesregni]

Very nice to meet you, Manfred. [She doesn't want to assume they're friends. She would certainly like a friend, but it would be awfully awkward, were she to assume wrong.] I'm Caitlyn.

[levelshift]

[He's going to go ahead and assume that's a good 'I'll remember this' and not a bad 'I'll remember this,' mainly because the latter would be a big pain in the ass after he's gone out of his way to be helpful. If it isn't, then he'll deal with it when they're out of here.

He leans away from the door of the cage, looking down at the ground.]

I'm a fast learner. [Ha ha, understatement!] Can you get down on your own?

[Seems like a good idea to ask that before attempting to touch the guy.]

[bigpoofymammoth]

[Manny wouldn’t really mind if she considers him as a friend. Especially if they’re going to work on saving their respective worlds.]

Nice to meet you too, Caitlyn.

[ascarylady]

"Not well."

Which was likely the answer Bruce had been expecting. It hadn't gone well for Zaun at all. While Sevika was no scholar, she had lived in the remains of the once-great city all her life. She never needed a history book to tell her the tale.

"For us, in any case. They got their river in the end, and the folks who added the gates to control it moved up to Piltover and made their great, big, golden city of progress. If you couldn't afford that? It was Zaun for you, with all the darkness, disease, and muck you could ever hope for."

iii

[materialized]

[ Chuuya is, of course, the same and the exact opposite; as someone who controls gravity, and one whose temperament only goes so far, the exact opposite comes about. Rather than emotional appeal, the bars bend and the floor caves, but never enough to allow for any sort of actual give or escape. That, of course, only makes his mood worse, and despite exhausting himself so completely with his tantrum he does not back down.

Instead, he's going to glare at Dazai like this is his fault. It is, of course, because this fucker is always the one who's responsible. Dazai is always the one keeping secrets, running off on his own, abandoning those around him at the drop of a hat, keeping his goddamn plans to himself, and Chuuya has this instinctive sense that he doesn't have one up his plan more which pisses him off even more — ]

You asshole...

[ Secrets. Chuuya doesn't have many of his own. He's too simple and honest for that. They're there, but it's not the same as the man he's glaring daggers at, who is constantly hiding everything. ]

This is your fault. If you don't find a way out of this, I'll kill you myself.

[ He won't. They both know that. ]

for spice i wanna say this happens after a couple other krampus threads i did, if that works?

[unaliveyourself]

[In a sense, Chuuya isn't wrong. By his third krampus-napping, Dazai understands exactly how this works and what's being asked of him. He still shrieks and thrashes and whines about it, and a lot of it's even genuine frustration with all this, but part of it is a personal spiteful pettiness to drag it out longer each time, to make anyone that's listening wait a maddeningly long time for each drop of blood they intend to wring from the stone where his heart ought to be.

Chuuya's not wrong. Between the two of them, Dazai is the one who keeps it all close to his chest, playing his own personal game of chess with the curtain drawn over the pieces so nobody else can see. But where Chuuya isn't quite right either is that it's not those secrets that the creature demands of them. That's the trick of it. Fraud, extortion, blackmail, drug dealing, gun running, murder .... there's no end of crimes they could waste their breath confessing, here. None of it will do any good. Hell, many of them they committed together back in the day.

He does have a plan, and he doesn't, because the only way out is to bleed. With outsiders, with Shaw and Castiel, he could bleed without exposing the source of the wound -- without having to show them the knife being borne into flesh. Chuuya is different. Chuuya has been there from nearly the beginning, since they were only fifteen years old. Echo and Aurora don't just ask them to bleed for each other, but to lay the knife against each other's throats, and trust each other to make the cut.]

Oh? Do you really think you could?

[Tossed almost carelessly back, a reflex action for a known script, while his mind busies itself thinking of costs and benefits, loopholes, misdirections. How soon was the next mission? Could he run out the clock bantering with Chuuya, like this? What could he tell his former partner that he doesn't know, that won't sever his own carotid and leave him to empty out on the cool metal floor?]

Hey, hey, Chuuya, do you still have your gun? I bet it could fit through the bars. Aim it just right, and you could hit me! If it's the perfect spot, I might even go into a coma....a pale imitation of really dying, of course, but because I'd still be alive, nobody could heal me because of No Longer Human, and Echo couldn't do anything about it, either!

[It's an inelegant solution. The opposite of a quick and painless death, a clean ending that doesn't trouble anyone. Perhaps the simple fact he even said it betrays that the matter has been weighing on him. There is a perpetual sword of Damocles that hangs above Dazai's neck. He's been waiting for it to fall for as long as he can remember. And yet, of late there's something laced there that taints the blade, and he is no less ready for it, but -- not here. Not in the space Echo controls, not until he is able to wrench their power away so it cannot be used to entrap him.]

I think I'd make an excellent Sleeping Beauty, don't you? Though the only true love's kiss I'd wake to would need the taste of hemlock to seal the deal. It'd be a proper double suicide, then.

[Spoken almost like a correction. You didn't hear anything, Chuuya. Nothing at all.]

[knightowl]

It's a funny thing. Even after all these years, corruption had a way of boiling his blood. Even in a world not his own with people he'd likely never meet. He didn't doubt there were good people in Zaun and they deserved better than whatever life they'd been forced to live because of the greed of others.

It grates that he can't do much about it. Maybe more in a general sense than in Zaun's specific case.

"Funny. Doesn't sound very different from home."

[etrayamods]

Yes, apologies for the delay! We wanted to find just the thing. Kexing’s egg will hatch into a Hundun, a creature with no face, no tail, six legs facing in all directions, and four wings on top.

It likes to cuddle and will insist on sitting in his lap in spite of being rather heavy.

[ghostlord]

WHAT A PRECIOUS DARLING. Thank you, Mods!

[lastonetodie]

Of course. [ He nods. ] The inhabitants of a world care deeply about where they are from.

[ He simply listens as Silco extols the virtues (?) of his home and people, a place he is clearly proud of. He is not really sure what to make of it...it sounds quite dire, but he, too, had clung to N'Erud's...wreckage...to fulfill his duty.

Was that pride in a home? He is uncertain. ]

It sounds as if...it is a difficult place to live, but it is possible for life to thrive regardless. It must be an accomplishment to survive it.

You mentioned mining as a major activity. What resources are to be found in your city?

IS SILCO SHORT????

[stresstokens]

[ The being below Silco which is almost certainly not a yordle - quite frankly, he's not cute enough - continues to glower up at Silco, possessed of a distinctly familiar sense of simmering teenaged resentment, though none of that resentment is directed at him. Supervillain though Silco may look like, Riz has for better or worse decided unilaterally that he can't judge based on appearances, and several of the professors at Aguefort look even more frightening and even more villainous, which -- well, some of them probably are, but that's not current-day Riz Gukgak's problem.

What is his problem is the fact that this is all obviously fishy and others are just absorbing it, hook, line and sinker. Anyone who's not is a welcome ally, at least momentarily speaking. Riz gets to his feet with a derisive sniff. ]

They've been teaching us lessons, all right. Funny how none of them seem at all relevant to saving the world. It's not like most of us need to be taught how to fight. [ He eyes Silco up and down. He caught the way he glanced up, the way Riz's gaze is always cast upwards -- maybe he's friends with some orcs too. ] You're new here, aren't you?

[ascarylady]

Ha, figures. So much for everything being free.

[ Although knowing there was at least something like that was comforting in a way. The whole "take whatever you want" vibe was weird. Too weird. ]

Right. I'll get in contact with him. If he can work out how to create more, we'll have to figure out some way to cut a deal with him. When I said he'd fit in down in Zaun, I meant it. I figure we can get proof that he's able to make more out of him for free, but after that? Definitely not.

[ascarylady]

Zaun? Hm...

[ Where to begin? She thinks on it a moment, taking a drink from her beer as she does. Well, he already knows about how Zaun became an undercity, so. ]

It's a maze of a city that reaches down deep into the earth. Most people who visit won't go further down than the surface level and the level closest to the top, right under that one: the Lanes. You'll find most folks living around or just under the Lanes, but there isn't a single level that isn't populated by someone or something.