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

[zauneyete]

Hm.

[ He looked across the way at him with an eerie gaze. ]

Are you any good at lockpicking? Or is this like a child trying to pick their first lock?

[ He doesn't keep supplies for such things these days. To be fair, he arrived without much of anything, given that he'd just been strapped to a chair and shot. He wouldn't have them anyway, but you know. He could. (He wouldn't.) ]

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just snickers at that. He could posture and puff himself up, even show off his hidden tools—now tucked away safe in case he needs them again—but insomnia’s been biting him lately, winding him up in the gray hours, and he’s too goddamn tired to get prissy with some motherfucker and his messed up eye. Not when his skull keeps throbbing in time with his pulse like he really is facing down a migraine. Not to mention the fuck who dragged them here in the first place, pausing only briefly for a detour into the goddamn river and it’s downing games.

Then again, there’s something to be said for games.

Carver tilts his head. He has a knife, is the thing. Sheathed openly at his side, ready for the drawing. And he considers the distance between their two cages, remembering the carnival games of his youth and how they morphed into sandbox games that he and the others played between patrols. Always with real knives—it wouldn’t have been fun otherwise. ]

I bet I could hit you from here, [ Carver observes blandly. ] But personally I’m curious just how bad he’s gonna fuck your skinny ass up.

[ The fucker with the sack, he means. ]

Wanna make a bet?

[zauneyete]

[ Silco's lips twitched. It's the ghost of a smile, something that bursts forth, before it's drowned back out by general unpleasantness. ]

From someone confident enough to make it?

[ He doesn't doubt that he can hit him, if he keeps a knife at his side so obviously. Silco lifted one from the kitchens, hidden away in his boot where none can find it. He's hardly a combatant, but one does not attempt to stage a revolution without getting their hands dirty from time to time. ]

I don't really care if it decides to take me out. Eventually, it may take all of us.

[ That smile, sharper, meaner. That one stays. ]

I noticed you aren't confessing anything either.

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just smiles with his teeth. There's something to be said about needling people, pushing and pushing and pushing until they finally reveal themselves. And now this man's gotten interesting. Not shouting and fussing, no, now he's focused. ]

Fuck that. I haven't even done anything here.

[zauneyete]

And you think I have? I've only just arrived.

[ Let's ignore the fact that he's already gotten into two fights with the same person, stabbed him multiple times, got stabbed, etc etc etc.

That's nothing to confess! That's normal. ]

Says a lot that this... thing seems to want confessions out of even the most... innocent among us.

[ Clasped hands, an inauthentic smile. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just sneers at him. He has sins on his soul, but those aren't for outsiders to know. Those belong to the commander, and to God. ]

Yeah, well, I'm open to alternatives.

[zauneyete]

[ He only stared at him for a long moment, and then he blinked with his good eye for good measure. The other... just stared out. Unerring, unending. A pit of something brilliant and hateful. ]

Personally, I've been trying to find weaknesses in the bars.

[ A pause, and then a smile. ] Did you think I was only throwing a tantrum?

[ Another kick, at a different level.

It could be two things. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

Pretty much, yep, [ Carver agrees. There are quieter ways of testing the joints. But then again, Carver might have been doing the exact same thing if he hadn't had a conveniently placed stranger to do it for him. ] Hinges don't give anymore than the bars. And the chain's strong. Anchored, too.

[ Not the best for escaping from. ]

[zauneyete]

Hm.

[ The sound that escaped sounded annoyed. ]

I can assure you, I'm not prone to fits without good reason. That would accomplish nothing.

[ Says Silco, a man who has explicitly had an on-screen fit, but let's not talk about that. ]

That being said... [

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Hm.

[<small> The sound that escaped sounded annoyed.</small> ]

I can assure you, I'm not prone to fits without good reason. That would accomplish nothing.

[<small> Says Silco, a man who has explicitly had an on-screen fit, but let's not talk about that.</small> ]

That being said... [<small. He ran a hand through his hair, and looked back up.</small> ]

There has to be a way out. No cage is impenetrable.

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver grinds his forehead against the bars, trying to think. The simplest, most brutal answer might just be that they're meant to die of dehydration here. It happens. It's done. Men do those things for reasons of their own. But then, that line about confession. ]

This is such bullshit. It wants us to confess - confess what?

[zauneyete]

That is the question.

[ He says it bluntly, with a derisive sneer in the direction of the creature. ] It took us, ergo it has something to gain. Perhaps it is a lazy creature with enough power that it can run roughshod through us, to get what it wants.

We could, after all, be the collateral, and it is looking for something specific.

[ A shrug. ]

Or it could be that it wants us to confess... secrets, that it will aim to use later.

Perhaps this will be only our first encounter with it.

[fortitudosalutis]

Nobody likes me enough to ransom me, [ he replies coolly. Nobody here, at least. He's a stranger - an inconvenient one, Carver knows. ] But fine: I'm getting bored. So, here's a secret, motherfuckers - I'm a bastard just like my mama. Turns out it really does run in the family.

[ He bares his teeth out in the gloom, waiting to see if that does anything. It happens to be true, but it isn't really a secret, just not something anyone thinks to ask him. ]

[zauneyete]

[ Silco's curious little bark of a laugh is more out of surprise than at the words themselves, or the fact that it doesn't do anything. ]

Ah, so there is a standard for confessions, then, is there?

[ He looked through the bars at the man. ]

Picky kidnapper, isn't it?

[ He figured if he was here for long enough, Jinx would come, right? Or Sevika? They might not pay a ransom, but never doubt his daughter's ability to throw a few bombs and rain destruction on this prison.

There might be collateral, though. He should probably avoid that for now. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

Apparently.

[ He thumps the side of his head against the bars, scowling. ]

Okay, smart guy: you're turn. Or we can throw things at each other until we get bored.

[zauneyete]

Hm.

[ He says, considering.

This is a game of figuring out what's the most banal thing you can state to get out of the situation, isn't it? ]

I stabbed someone upon arrival.

[ He says, with a sound like pride in his voice. ] Several times.

[ That is neither a secret nor something Silco has tried to conceal.

Ergo.

No go. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just watches him. His tone is bland. ]

Okay.

[ Well, apparently that wasn't enough of a confession. ]

Why?

[zauneyete]

[ Silco rolled his eyes. ]

Because he charged me as soon as he saw me, of course.

[ #it'scomplicated ]

[fortitudosalutis]

Personal, huh?

[ He grinds his forehead against the bars, frustrated, but he keeps it out of his tone. Maybe that's enough of a secret he can exploit. ]

[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. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Even in the dark and gloom of this place, Carver's look is scathing. ]

Man, make it a bit more convincing when you lie.

[zauneyete]

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

He smirked. ]

Who says I've lied?

Do I look the type?

[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. ]

[zauneyete]

[ A laugh. ]

No, not at all. Most people where I'm from eventually end up like me.

Or dead.

I'm only special in that I received treatment, of course. At least where I am from. I hardly think that's of merit.

[ Silco really will die on any hill. Even if the proof says otherwise.

Good job buddy. ]

[fortitudosalutis]

And here we are, going in circles again. Great job, team!

[ They're not allies. But they're stuck in this moment together, which is great fun for both of them. Carver grinds his forehead against the bars again, wondering if he's in the mood to throw a knife at this man. Just because. Just to see what happens.

Maybe. They'll see. ]

[zauneyete]

[ violence is a cycle etc etc

except no, Silco won't say that. He only shrugged. ]

I notice I'm the only one who's sharing anything worth anything, hm?

Would you prefer I start interrogating you? Or would you refuse to answer?

[ he just got shot recently. and stabbed. a lot. he'll be ok. ]