etrayalogs | DECEMBER MINGLE

Entry tags:

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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bruce remembers their first meeting. Remembers thinking Jason is exactly the kind of kid he would have taken in all those years ago. The exact kind of kid he'd have put in harm's way. Somewhere, some version of him had and if Jason's answer is any indication, it ended about as well for him as it had for Tim.

Who was he to ever recruit these children, like they were little tin soldiers? None of them deserved the danger being associated with him - with Batman - brought on them.

He's quiet.

Luckily(?), Jason is fluent enough in Bat-Speak to know what that silence could mean.

"We both made a lot of mistakes," he continues. "I... crossed lines he told me to never cross. Big ones. He was so damn stubborn and wasn't listening. It took a while before we could talk to each other again without trying to beat the shit out of each other. And now we're much better. My relationship with the big guy still isn't perfect. We both still have problems. But we've moved past a lot of the anger. He's even mentioned he was proud of me despite everything I did."

Bruce knows what it must have cost to say those words. Because he could never bring himself to say them and it cost him the people he loved dearly. He never speaks to Dick or Tim and barely to Barbara and it's usually only because Terry is involved. He never told them he was proud of them. He only made more demands and made them feel like they were never good enough.

It sounds like there was a lot of tension in Jason's relationship with his Bruce and it doesn't surprise him. Not even a little.

"I'm sure you've given him good reason to be proud, Jason." He's turned away, but only briefly.

"And for whatever it's worth, I'm sorry for what happened to you."

Bruce may not know Jason's Robin tenure ended but Jason knows Bruce's apology is genuine. If the older man is anything like Jason's dad, he's not one to easily apologize. Jason also doesn't intend to tell Bruce what exactly happened to him, if he can help it. He has a feeling the man bears more than enough guilt as it is. In a different time, Jason would've gladly inflict more emotional anguish on his adoptive father but he understands now that it only leads to more pain. There's no real satisfaction in it.

"Thanks, Bruce," He says. "Sometimes I still think it's surprising."

Neither of his Robins had a particularly good ending to their tenures either. He and Dick had a falling out they never resolved and Tim...well it was better for Tim to leave after it was all said done. Bruce suspects Jason's wasn't a pleasant parting of ways either.

"Why surprising?" He can hazard guess, but rather have it confirmed.

To a normal person, the pause Jason makes is hardly a pause. To anyone who's been trained long enough to read body language, it's noticeable. It feels strange being anxious about confessing to an different iteration of his father what his moral code used to be. He hasn't forgotten how bad his fights used to be with his Bruce over those issues. He doesn't know how this Bruce will take it. But maybe this Bruce needs to hear it if issues with his BatFamily are still around.

"I didn't cross just any line," he says quietly. "It was the line. Multiple times I did it."

The pause Bruce notes and decides whatever Jason is about to say is probably worse that what he imagined. He hears Jason's confession and the only real reaction Bruce has is the sound of his cane strike the floor of his cage. He knows sometimes it can't be helped. Tim shot the Joker before he could do anything to stop him and at that moment, he wasn't sure he would have.

Sometimes saving yourself is more important than making sure everyone gets out alive. Terry's first mission as Batman saw a man drown in a sinking vessel.

But it's never deliberate. It's always a consequence of something.

"Do you still?" Because if he does there may be a problem.

"No."

Jason is quick to answer that and in a firm tone. He wants to make it clear he's no longer that Red Hood. He's no longer the violently ruthless crime lord who'll take off the heads of other criminals.

"I wouldn't have been back with the family if I was," he continues. "There are times when things are really dark that I think about it but I know doing that wouldn't be worth it in the end."

Edited 2025-01-07 01:47 (UTC)

Bruce is...relieved? Or at least put at ease. There were contingencies for these kinds of situations, but Bruce had never wanted to use any of them.

At any rate, he had nothing more to say about it. As long as Jason is being truthful, and so far Bruce had no real reason to doubt him. Not yet.

"You should try your door. See if it opens."

Jason nods. He reaches for the bars again and jerks them. Unfortunately for them, they're still locked tight. Jason sighs.

"Seems like it's gotta be both of us," he says.

What secrets could Bruce possibly have? Jason already knew the biggest one. The rest were too personal. Things that haunted him in his sleep and sometimes in his waking hours. Nothing he would want to burden someone else with if he could help it.

He doesn't say anything. Not for a while. But then he relents. "It's been almost 40 years since the Joker died. I thought the nightmare was over. Anyone that came after would never be what he was."

And for the most part, Bruce was right. Every rogue that rose up after his tenure and during Terry's had paled in comparison. It's why even after everything Bruce had wanted Terry to give the suit back. He didn't know if the Joker was an imposter or a clone, but it didn't matter. He was...Bruce didn't Terry to suffer the same way Tim had.

"I was wrong. He knew who I was and before I got here, he gassed me."

Jason goes pale at Bruce's confession. He's not surprised there was a Joker in Bruce's world. His world and Bruce's world share enough similarities that there wouldn't be a reason for a Joker to not exist in Bruce's world.

What disturbs Jason instead is how the Joker still somehow came back after so many years and managed to ambush Bruce. From the way Bruce tells it, the Joker died in a way that wasn't ambiguous. Maybe there was even a body as proof. And yet still, the Joker found a way again. The bastard was like a roach in nuclear holocaust.

"The kid managed to antidote you?" He asks quietly. He doesn't know Terry but at that moment, he was immensely grateful to him being around for Bruce.

A question Bruce wonders about himself. He doesn't remember hearing Terry or Barbara. Whenever he tries, all he can see is Joker's face inches from his own, lips pulled tight in that familiar rictus grin. And laughing. Laughing until he thought he would die from it.

"I don't know. I woke up here not long after."

And that was the troubling part. The antidote, he'd mixed himself, knew its components. When he woke up in the hospital, he felt perfectly fine. How that would react to his heart? He didn't know that either. So far, there'd been no side effects. But Jason didn't need to know that part.

For now, Jason is grateful that Bruce didn't become another dead victim to the Joker's toxin.

"So the bastard's out running loose in your Gotham again?"

God, Jason really hopes this Terry kid has a fighting chance against him.

“Yes and Gotham is defenseless.”

He tests the door of his cage. Still locked tight. That moment of vulnerability was not enough it seems.

“I made Terry give me the suit back. I didn’t want him to face the Joker. He refused but…I. Well, he returned it.”

At that, Jason is quiet. He's thinking. This Bruce has purposely been keeping himself since his arrival. There aren't a lot of details Jason knows about his world. What he does know appears to have enough similarities for him to make some guesses.

"How long was he doing the job before that?"

“About a year.”

But it could have been 10 years and Bruce would still have asked for the suit back. It wasn’t Terry’s experience or lack thereof that was the deciding factor. The Joker is simply that dangerous.

Bruce would not have trusted anyone but himself against that monster.

Another small pause as Jason considers how to phrase his next question.

“How’d he even come into your life?” He says.

To be one of Batman’s protégés, meant there was a special story or motivation the kid had. It’s not normal to decide to wear a costume and fight crime.

"His father was murdered. So he stole the suit."

Because Bruce refused to help him. At least in the way Terry had wanted. The police would have been better suited than Bruce such as he was. It's the finer details Bruce leaves out, for brevity's sake, he'll tell himself.

Oh that feels very typical for any kid of Bruce's. Even right down to the sense of correcting an injustice.

"He ever get the guy?"

If you count drowning his henchman and turning him into a radioactive skeleton 'getting' him. He did a pretty good job in Bruce's opinion.

"He did. I asked him if he wanted the job and he agreed."

That makes it even more interesting to Jason. Terry already took care of his vendetta and still wanted to keep going? It says a lot about how much Terry cares about being a Gotham protector.

"He's gonna come back," Jason says confidently. "He's been at the job long enough that he's not gonna stay away for long. It's what any of us would've done."

That's the problem. Bruce didn't really doubt Terry would come back, especially with Bruce's disappearance. He didn't want Terry to face the Joker and he especially did not want him to do so alone. If he had to fight him, Bruce would have felt better with being his eyes and ears.

He doesn't say anything to that. "Try your door. I'll try mine."

[Jason isn’t surprised by the subject change. It’s a lot for anyone to take and probably more so with Bruce. Jason reaches for his cage’s door and pushes.

It clicks and opens]

Finally.

It’s more talking than Bruce cares to do. Especially about himself. He nudges the door with his cane and grunts when it pops open.

“Let’s go.”

Don’t worry about him, Jason. He can keep up.

(no subject)

leastdramatic - 2025-01-09 01:27 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only