etrayalogs | MISSION 009

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MISSION 009

⏵ CAMP ETRAYA ⏴
On May 16th, Aurora and the companion bots direct those not heading off to Solmara to make their way to Camp Etraya.

Nestled away from everything else in a large clearing full of wildflowers and redwoods, Camp Etraya is a nostalgic summer camp experience put together just for it's residents! Cabins are assigned, scary stories are told around campfires, gossiping happens among friends on the trails surrounding the cabins - and don't be surprised when something goes awry. After all, this is still Etraya.

While the rest of Etraya is still accessible and will not be blocked off, characters are discouraged from venturing far from camp for too long: Aurora will specify that they are on a mission, and that missions do require participation, but she has intentionally left them the freedom to wander. Not sleeping in their assigned cabins, not participating in events, and staying away from Camp Etraya will end with her having to take more extensive security measures, so please be on your best behavior! The last thing she wants to do is start enforcing boundaries, but she will if she has to.

Camp is set up much like your generic summer camp! Each cabin is named, housing is assigned to characters as they arrive, there are camp counselors, and rotating daily tasks and chores. There are also multiple activities that characters are expected to participate in, and each activity is worth points that goes toward their camp graduation score. This score will be visible on their earpiece, and follows the A-F grading system. We are not be monitoring this, and are leaving character scores up to players. We do, however, ask that you please report your characters' camp grade HERE for rewards and demerits to be handed out after the mission itself.

Cabin assignments can be found here, which also has their roles, and chores assigned to that cabin. Those who are participating in Solmara have received an assigned cabin, too, but their absence toward the beginning will not harm the cabin's ability to compete given how spread out their assignments are.

⏵ WELCOME TO CAMP ⏴

Camp life is meant to instill a sense of belonging, connection with nature, encouragement towards the creative, all on top of a firm foundation of responsibility. Upon arriving, campers will be escorted towards a table of white t-shirts and countless buckets of dye!

Each Etrayan will be invited to make three Tie-Dyed shirts- as well as required to wear one as part of their summer uniform. Camp counselors must wear 80s basketball shorts or cut-off jeans. Campers may wear cargo shorts or a skort. For those with physical limitations to what they can wear, accommodations will be provided.

Here, bonding is the camp runners' priority. They will be pushed into various ice-breaker activities, such as trust falls, two truths and a lie, and Never have I Ever. As the sun goes down, there will be weenies roasting over the bonfire, followed by s’mores and a sing-a-long! With the stars well-visible, it’s off to bed with campers.

Each day after will start much the same: with the ringing of the bell and raising of the flag (Aurora, while unfamiliar with flag designs but an understanding of the concept, has chosen a rainbow flag for the camp. Rainbows make people happy, right?), followed by a meal at the Great Hall, morning assembly, activities with counselors, chores, free time, and then an evening winding down by the great fire. An hour after sun down, campers will be escorted back to their cabins for curfew. Camp Counselors are expected to keep track of their campers, and ensure they're all within their cabins for bedtime. This is part of their grade, too! Curfew lifts an hour before the first bell.

⏵ CAMP ACTIVITIES ⏴

As with most summer camps, Camp Etraya offers a wide variety of activities to participate in. While some of these activities may be mandatory, others are optional. We'll be leaving this up to individual player discretion: perhaps Viktor is mandated to report to arts and crafts, whilst it's optional for Silco to show. Silco, on the other hand, may be mandated to report to the archery contest. Characters are encouraged to participate in a minimum of one camp activity per day.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of camp activities.

Three-Legged Race - You and a partner are tied together at your ankles, and you must race others to the finish line. Those with abilities that would give them an advantage will find that the rope that ties them together hinders those abilities from functioning.
Archery - This can be more traditional, magical, or include moving targets! If you're particularly unlucky, your target may even shoot back.
Softball - What instills a sense of camaraderie better than a bit of team sports? Games will be held on Wednesdays, the field is otherwise available for practice.
Dodge Ball - Standing diametrically opposed to Softball is dodge ball, the bully’s sport. This is a great opportunity to claim dominance or be sent to the Nurse’s Office.
Obstacle Course - You are directed into a large maze with multiple obstacles for them to overcome, such as rock climbing walls, ramps, tires, and nets.
Capture the Flag - Small teams are put together in order to take the flag from a particular bot, whose entire goal is to avoid being caught.
Canoe Race - Canoes are placed into the rivers just off of the camp, and characters must race to the finish line.
Chocobo Riding - Learn how to care for and ride these magnificent birds! Newbies will be taken around the corral, whereas more experienced riders can take the trail around the lake.
Arts and Crafts - Make friendship bracelets, bead lizards, paint rocks, learn origami! Or perhaps you're tasked with putting together an enchanted necklace. Don't know how to do enchantments? Now is as good of a time as any to learn.
Campfire stories - Share scary stories amongst yourselves around the campfire late into the night. If you're particularly unlucky, you may just hear the thing you were just warning others about..

⏵ NIGHT TIME ⏴

Once campers have been put to bed, the counselors can still stay up. Unwind with hidden beers and the strumming of a guitar. Don’t get too comfortable, though, since without supervision, no one is keeping the campers in bed.

After dark, should campers evade their counselors, they can go exploring in the dark. Eerie lights glimmer from the lake. There’s rumors of a headless spectre walking from the archery field to the edge of the forest. Should you behave, you still might hear a scratching at your bunk house window.

And on the very last night of camp, there will be a talent show. Show off your hidden talent and bask in the excitement of wowing your fellow campers!

⏵ NOTES ⏴

Welcome to Camp Etraya! Please enjoy the s'mores and campfire songs. :)

Camp will last approximately two weeks, going from May 16th to May 30th.

For all questions relating to this mission, please refer to the plotting post. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ.

⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

This is pretty simple.

[She says, jerking her chin at her marshmallow stick.]

But on the train we were actually doing something.

"Well, I think you look fabulous." Wade assures him, grinning. Admiring the glitter, some of which has migrated to Ardyn's cheeks. He'll be finding that shit for weeks!

"Mmm, that's the problem. Contained explosions? That's some other guy's specialty, not mine. I'm a go big or go the fuck home kinda guy." He clears his throat, adding quickly, "And also, Aurora wouldn't give me any fireworks. Not even cherry bombs for the porta-potties."

Vax shakes his head. "No, not like that. I'm sure they wanted to be as convincing as possible. When more people started asking for proof, that was the result."

"Maybe all the fighting we had to participate in was a good way to keep us from asking too many questions about the place." Who knows.

[Oops.

He'd not meant for that to happen. Wade grimaces over the top of his s'more.] Sorry? I was just excited...

I see.

[ What of another who could change shape? Dion thinks better of asking, not having told anyone what he can do. It would be safer that An Zhe never sample a Dominant, lest their curse become his as well.

They would have no way of anticipating how someone with that ability might be affected, after all. ]

Is it disorienting, taking in another's memories?

Yes, it is magic.

[ It's a simplification, but it isn't important just how his light works. Magic is an accurate assessment. Dion gently tosses the sphere of light up, little more than a gentle bounce. It assumes a lazy, drifting orbit around them. ]

I find it useful once night falls, or in dark spaces. It should be easier to find stray campers with a light source or two.

[ He levels his palm again and calls forth another little sphere, casting it into the air as well. ]

This is a holding period.

[ And at the end, an unknown element. It doesn’t feel simple to Carver, though he’s beginning to realize he shouldn’t say that out loud. That one of these days he’s going to start looking paranoid and even twitcher than usual and people might start asking whether he’s worth keeping around. You have to think about these things.

Carver shakes his head. He watches the fire and his stick. ]

Doesn’t matter. This is what we’re doing now.

I used to think the same about my chompers!

[ She points to her buck teeth, which are... well, not pointy, but definitely large and prominent. ]

Kids made fun of 'em all the time because I was kinda funny-looking and they were bored, and then one day I figured out these things can bite through metal. I bet yours are useful too, you just haven't figured out how yet!

[Kirk nods, understanding]

And even more so when you’re fighting a deadline.

[Kirk certainly wasn’t interested in asking for permission when he was a dying man trying to cure himself. He’s also had to quickly whip up antidotes to counter enhanced humans who were ready to be nearly godlike rulers]

...[Honestly, he hadn't expected to react the way he did. Something about the sound and abruptness of it...it triggered his fight or flight reflex for a moment. Closing his eyes, he takes a deep breath.

He then looks to Wade's monstrousity of a s'more and then proceeds to grab hold of it and breaks it.] We're even now.

Maybe Hob had a sense of Loki's mischievous thoughts and sprung his idea right in time to avert chocolate on his face. Either way, he's glad Loki is on board with the idea. They haven't had a lot of time to be alone since coming to camp, as they're kept pretty busy, and there are often others around. It's not exactly in line with their duties, but Hob can't help but want to have some fun, too.

"Good. I saw a spot on the western side that's a bit more private. Meet me there later? Don't forget your towel."

[ At least Kaeya knows someone he can trust on the mission. The information will be reliable. Vax wonders what will be discovered. ]

Some people seem to know more about this place. They share information when they can on the network.

Whu-hey! [Wade stares down, watching as his s'more crumbles in his hands, a splat of marshmallow hitting his shoe.] It was an accident!

[He pouts, eating the rest of his crumbled mess. At least it still tastes good. There might also be a little smirk there, because this situation is kind of funny.]

[ Gorgug goes wide-eyed, and he touches at both of his tusks (the camera dangling around his wrist from the strap) as a new world has been opened to him. ]

...

...I should try stabbing metal?

[ He's never tried stabbing metal with his tusks. What if...?? ]

[Jason is just about to resume moving when Knife taps on his shoulder. Jason turns to face them, confused as to what they're trying to communicate.]

The fuck is that?

[Jason nods and looks back to the ground beneath them.] Lucky.

[barely audible in an exhale:] For the love of-- [audibly, deadpan:] Never mind. Keep going until you spy high ground. [...] Or a decently tall, climbable tree.

He shakes his head slightly. "Just a magic book, not a book about magic." Which was better, in his opinion. He really liked many of the vistas he'd seen before he decided to see if he could leave the library with it. "We do get out on missions sometimes, it's been.. strangely .. not mobile since you arrived. You'd probably have liked the train one." He didn't.

If he ever found a way to get back into that library it was as good as stolen..

But opportunity may never present itself! Sephiroth frowns at the fire, digging through memory. There'd been a lot of neat ones.. "One of the ones I thought looked most interesting was in a mountain range somewhere, it smelled like spring. The mountains were just.. hovering in the air, tied together by ropes or vines, I couldn't tell. And there was an enormous blue planet taking up a big portion of the sky."

"It's generally not good to steal. What's an MRE though? Does your military not give their soldiers meat?"

Not that he's ever been in the military, but the idea of living on a vegetarian diet is...a little too Buddhist monk for his tastes.

"Generally." Wade knows, doesn't stop him, though. He does a lot of things he's not supposed to. "MRE stands for Meal, Ready-to-Eat. It's rations. Sometimes they contain what might be thought of as meat. But you get what you get. So, sometimes it's... a vomlet."

[when there is silence, Maria always feels the need to keep talking. worried that maybe she didn't say the right thing. in moments like these, it would be so easy to misstep and hurt him. but she bites her tongue to try to give him a chance. maybe Gorgug needs the quiet to think, to take a breath. when he talks again, it seems she was right about that.

and obviously Maria knew there was no fixing how Gorgug felt. maybe this wasn't the point of this. sometimes it was just being able to voice your thoughts and feelings could help and much like Gorgug worries, she hopes this is doing some good for her friend.]

That's the hard part about this whole living gig. We can't really know but the situation right now makes that harder. But I know you're a good person. Even if you get angry or worried you're not doing anything right. If you were worried about this then that shows how much you care, I think. Our first interaction was you trying to help me. That meant a lot.

And even now, look at you. Worrying about the whole body business. It's sweet. You're sweet even if I know you guys don't want to hear that sometimes. Doesn't make it less true. [she gives his shoulders another pat and him a kind smile.]

I hate to say it but all we can do is take this one day at a time and hope we're making some traction. But Gorgug, not once would anybody ever think you aren't doing anything. That is the farthest thing from the truth. As long as you're trying then that's all that matters. Even if that sounds corny and like I'm just saying something to make you feel better but it's what I believe anyway.

There goes my end of the mission idea. [Maria has no idea if her sarcasm is obvious there but she very much means this sarcastically.

and because she has no idea what she's supposed to be doing as camp counselor, and she does just want to be helpful, she gestures to her own drawer.] Prefer jean shorts? [Maria doesn't think Shaw seems like a khaki girl? what does she know though. but also Maria cut her shorts way too short so.]

[and there he goes. always having a charming line for her. she gives him a wry smile.] We'll see. Pop quiz in the morning. [still of the idea that Ardyn just says empty nice things but hey, she's happy with the attention anyway. they're still here, aren't they? Maria hasn't stopped indulging him once.

Maria has never told this story correctly to James. the legend goes that the moon blinded the man from his love's candle light but Maria has always lied, saying a storm happened. the original story was a little too on the nose for Maria's tastes. it was obvious Maria was supposed to be the moon, meant to be a distraction.

but what does it matter here? not like she needs to impress anybody.] One night, the moon was exceptionally bright and so the man could not see the candle his lover lit for him. He searched the entire night until exhaustion took over him and he died. But she never gave up. Each night, she waited and held her candle for him, always waiting for him. They say you can still see her light, that her ghost searches for him to this day.

[ HELP, WHAT HAS SHE STARTED, THIS IS WHY DOREEN ISN'T A GUIDANCE COUNSELOR ]

... Maybe work your way up to it? Try like... opening a pop can with 'em first? My point is, even if they can't go through metal, they're super cool and I bet you'll find a good use for them!

I didn't volunteer the first time and I won't volunteer the second time, if there was one. I know what I'm good for and it isn't things like that. [though Maria still does not actually know what she's good for but there is a reason why she tends to avoid people she cares about during missions that require specific skill sets. at the end of the day, she knows she would only slow people down. typically, she goes it alone. unless it was someone like Henry who really did need the help. but most of her friends are better off than her.]

Hound somehow sounds even hornier than 'Dog'. But whatever floats your boat, Hound. [even saying it, there's that air of flirtation. but when is Maria not flirty anyway?] A cane could make you real distinguished. Some people like them as accessories anyway. Could be a new thing for you. But who knows? Maybe I can distract you for more than one day. That'll be my challenge. [and to some degree, it's still just an excuse to have him to herself. it really had felt like a long two weeks without seeing him and maybe that's a problem if she had missed him that much. they'd become such a staple for each other.

and maybe that's something she should think about? but that isn't what tonight is about. instead she just looks back up at the stars.]

Were you ever able to look at the stars back home?

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MISSION 009

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