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

free your spirit

[unaliveyourself]

[The person caged next to her is a young man who is sprawled out on the floor of his own cage as though he is attempting to become one with the floor. He has tried being the multiverse's most obnoxious prisoner. He has contemplated the void and gazed into the abyss, and both have apparently rejected him, which is rude of them frankly.

So by the time Shaw is talking to him, he's kind of done with the effort part of this whole situation, really, and his tone of voice would almost be peevish when he responds, if not for how flat it is.]

That sounds exhausting and probably painful, no thanks.

[cactusy]

Really? You're already giving up? Pretty lame.

[She swings her cage extra hard to make up for his inaction, trying her best to clack them together regardless.]

[unaliveyourself]

There’s not much point struggling.

[Answered casually, with a shrug.]

If Aurora-chan is to be believed, Echo watches over everything that happens here, which means this “kidnapping” is a farce. I suspect we either confess something or remain here until the next mission.

[It’s almost certainly another little test, in its own right. Dazai has come to believe those are the real assessments here, frankly, and the missions are a convenient sleight of hand misdirection.]

[cactusy]

Okay, so confess something. Be the change you want to see.

[Clang, clang, clang.]

[unaliveyourself]

[He gives her a baleful look for a moment, because ugh, that sounds like effort, gross. Expecting him to be proactive about his own escape?? How dare.

But then he thinks, actually, it could be interesting to test what kind of confession would open the cage.]

One time when my coworker was taking a bathroom break, I took his notebook out of his drawer and hid it in the next drawer over. When he came back, he spent nearly half an hour digging through that drawer over and over before he even thought to open the other one... but by then his minute-by-minute schedule for the day was thoroughly ruined! He then proceeded to waste three more yelling about it before sinking back down to his desk to finish his paperwork behind schedule.

[Somewhat predictably, the door of the cage doesn't budge. Dazai gives the bars a useless, pitiful little rattle.]

Aw, c'mon! That was a good one!

[cactusy]

[Okay, well. Clearly impish pranks aren't confessions enough. Shaw has more of those than one might think, considering that her blank stoicism is often read as humorlessness, but she won't bother trying them now.]

I used to steal from my job all the time when I worked retail.

[No? Nothing? Lame.]

[unaliveyourself]

[Alright, so. The escalation to petty crime isn’t sufficient, either. He is starting to develop a suspicion, but he’s still resisting it. Maybe somewhat larger crimes will do?]

I’ve committed fraud, blackmail, and extortion on numerous occasions.

[cactusy]

I've committed murder.

[Surely that's enough, right?

Krampus remains unmoved.]

[unaliveyourself]

[Well, shit. Sometimes Dazai doesn’t actually appreciate being right. He lets out a tired breath.]

The next mission must be any day now. They skipped the previous month, you know. Are you quite sure you’d like to continue?

[cactusy]

I've never been on a mission here; how do they start?

[Could this be the start of one? Because she's absolutely started missions being taken captive and tied up before.]

[unaliveyourself]

I’ve only been on one, but from what I’ve backread, Aurora always makes a network post a few days in advance and allows people to ask questions. Though she’s not always especially forthcoming with the answers.

[it could be a deviation from the pattern, perhaps, but as far as he can tell there’s no sign that this is meant to be a mission.]

Besides that, missions are mandatory for everyone. I haven’t seen that many people here.

[cactusy]

Great. So if this isn't a mission, then we've just been plain old kidnapped by a plain old bad guy.

[She rattles the bars of her cage, frustrated.]

What the hell else is there to confess, intel?

[unaliveyourself]

[The truly miserable thing is that Dazai understands exactly what’s expected of them now. He had a suspicion from the start, but it hadn’t been truly confirmed until the point the confessions hit murder.]

They want something personal.

[There’s an almost clinical sharpness to his tone, now, as the realization settles in. Dazai isn’t someone whose anger burns hot. It’s a cold, seething fury instead. Again with the damned ghosts. ]

Painful.

[cactusy]

They picked the wrong person for that, then.

[She says, dropping back onto the floor of her cage.]

I don't do personal, and I don't feel much. I'm drawing from a shallow basin here.

[unaliveyourself]

[His eyes widen almost imperceptibly -- but that they do at at all is evidence enough that he's been caught off guard. He smiles, then; there's something empty about it, like a doll's.]

Perhaps that's our confession, here. I'm the same way.

[The door creaks approvingly in response, but won't quite open just yet. Dazai knows what it wants from him. So he'll drag it out a little longer, just out of spite.]

...Well, we're getting warmer, at least.

[cactusy]

You have a personality disorder?

[She asks, squinting over at him through the gloom of the cavernous room.]

What's it like for you? Beyond the basics.

cw brief reference to SI

[unaliveyourself]

If you asked my coworkers, they'd probably say I'm nothing but a walking series of personality disorders!

[Which is to say, he doesn't exactly have any kind of formal diagnosis. Mori wasn't that kind of doctor, after all, and once he was taken into the fold of the Mafia, it's not as though there were psychiatrists available.

But then Shaw asks him that, and it's the second time he's caught wrong-footed. He hadn't expected her to ask; most people don't bother to try to understand him, and it's the way he prefers it, typically. He could get away with not answering, could find a glib quip to brush her off and deflect, but the truth is -- the answer ties into the confession he's certain is the one this creature wants. There's no real point in avoiding it, unless he really does want to be trapped in here indefinitely -- and dying isn't an option on the table anymore.]

Have you ever walked by the window of a shop after hours, and looked inside? Everything's arranged as it should be, unable to be disturbed until the following morning when new customers arrive. But the shop never seems to be open. Even when you see people inside, you must have just missed closing. So all you can do is watch, really.

[Another minor groan from the door. He can move the bars a couple centimeters by now, but not enough to get out.]

[cactusy]

[Ugh, metaphors. Shaw slips her finger between the bars near the door latch, giving it an impotent tug.]

I'm like a big, empty canyon. Sometimes I echo.

Are you the window-shopper here, or the store?

SI cw continues actually

[unaliveyourself]

Mm, it varies, I'd say. The shopper moreso, though. Nobody spends all day looking through the window, after all. It'd be excruciatingly boring.

[There'd be no point, no meaning, to visiting the window repeatedly. You'd get tired of seeing the same things over and over, never having the situation change in a way that matters. The only reason to keep coming back is in the irrational, unreasonable hope that the door might have been left unlocked, at one point or another.]

I'm only just going through the motions, honestly. I decided to follow some advice my friend gave me before he died and change the way I lived, to be on the side that saves lives rather than taking them... that it would make my world a little more beautiful. He was right, it did. But that only really matters if you want to keep living in it, you know? I never really do.

[Pop. The door of the cage gives way, just like that.]

[cactusy]

Great.

[Shaw mutters, when his door opens. She's not annoyed that he's free - jealousy is just another one of those emotions that she doesn't really do - but this is confirmation of what she needs to do as well, and she's not happy about it.

Maybe she can get away with talking about her personality disorder and job history too, even though it's a far cry from a painful secret. It's worth a shot, anyway.]

Sounds like we've had similar career trajectories. I don't know what I would've done if somebody told me to make the switch because it'd make my life more beautiful, though. Probably laughed.

[She exhales.]

I'm going through the motions, too, but I'm okay with that. I always have been. I don't feel unfulfilled or, I don't know, depressed about it - it's other people that it bothers, not me.

[unaliveyourself]

[A muscle spasms in Dazai's jaw. For just an instant, something flashes in his eyes -- the first spark of something there this entire conversation.]

I might have, if he hadn't been dying at the time. But then, maybe he wouldn't have said it, otherwise. Who can say.

[His cage is open. He would be petty enough to leave her here, for that, but he doesn't move. If he leaves now, she will have the advantage over him not only in terms of knowing a piece of vulnerable information when he has nothing on her, but in the fact that she might be inclined to use it if he hands her a reason for a grudge.

(The second reason, burning more quietly in his chest -- not unacknowledged but left on read as it were -- is that it feels disrespectful to Odasaku's memory to consider leaving her to rot in the context of talking about his last wishes. It isn't worth it.)

He does sit up properly, though, looking directly at her as though to signal his intention to stay until she's paid her own toll for exit.]

Let me ask you this, then. Do you earnestly see value in living? If you were to be informed tomorrow that your world is being culled, but you alone would be permitted to carry on in Etraya, would you bother?

[cactusy]

[The reaction is subtle, but still obvious to Shaw: she's good at recognizing anger in whatever form it takes, and clearly she's pissed him off somehow, though she can't even begin to guess what she said that was so offensive. She'd implied that he was depressed, sort of - was that it? That seems likely.]

I would.

[She says in answer to his question, without hesitation. But, also without hesitation, she adds:]

But if I was told that I could pick between me and the world, I'd pick the world. My life matters to me, but it doesn't outweigh the lives of billions.

sorry for the delay! holiday scramble

[unaliveyourself]

[He doesn't know of their connection, of course, but Dazai finds himself thinking on a conversation he recently had with John, the questions the other had asked him. Is humanity more important than an individual world? Is a single individual more valuable than seven billion? John had hesitated when Dazai asked him to define importance. This woman is quick to have an answer, meanwhile, but he wonders if it is really how she feels, or if it's an opinion that others have instilled in her. A learned, socially acceptable response.]

Very utilitarian of you!

[chirped, singsong. any trace of the genuineness of before is gone, replaced by a transparently false cheer.]

But still no dice, hmm? Let's dig a little deeper, then. Would it change your answer if you were not the one who had to die, but someone close? What if you had to kill them yourself, with your own hands?

'tis the season

[cactusy]

[The image of John falling to the ground in front of her comes to her mind unbidden. Shaw doesn't flinch much, but she does now, albeit so slightly that it's almost noticeable.]

I can't imagine a situation where I'd have to choose between saving my entire world and killing someone who mattered to me, so it doesn't matter. It's a dumb scenario.

[unaliveyourself]

[Ah, there it is. Her avoidance of the question just seals it. Dazai's smile grows sharp, a cat who's sighted the canary.]

Is it? A few days ago, would you have imagined being spirited away to a nexus like this, called upon to defend the existence of your world? Things are different here, wouldn't you agree?

[He doesn't comment that he can easily think of any number of scenarios where she might have to make a choice like that. Something to keep in his back pocket a little longer, to perhaps use later if necessary.]