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⏴

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[ She can't help a frown at that, but shrugs. ] Then I'll leave you alone.

[ ...at least for now. She's determined to check on him, to learn more about him, and she isn't going to give up easily. But knowing how Shadow from her world gets, she'd at least leave him alone for tonight if he didn't want company. ]

[ He does, and the knife stays in hand, but he isn't exactly the type that's going to put it down just because he recognizes the voice. Though he isn't exactly looking to lob it out into the dark either.

His eyes scan the shadows, though Silco doesn't have the luxury of closing his, so one of his eyes is a pinprick in the too-dark night. ]

And you think I'm interested in carting you back to our little... jails for the night? Please. I'm just looking for a place to smoke.

[ And to get the FUCK away from being around too many people. One or two? Sure. But these groups? Silco doesn't settle well with the experience. ]

I think you would be surprised. The intent would be to return to where we came.

[ Obviously! Just leave. Hit da bricks. Etc etc. ]

The point is to simply show the people in charge of us that if they wish to send others on a mission, they can choose to simply leave us alone for a month. To show them that this is an inappropriate use of their time, their resources, and our time and interest.

[ Silco could be in his underground lair right now, trying to convince ~~scarecrow~~ people to make shimmer. But NO! He's here instead. ]

I know.

[ He's got a cigar already lit, but when Jinx flops down next to him, he switches the cigar to the other hand to reach out, and wrap his arm around her shoulders.

This is worse than even the train, in his opinion. The train, at least, he knew he could do something. It was interesting. It was a problem. It was something Silco knew how to solve. He could do something with it. But since then, it's been spinning wheels. Ineffectiveness. Rising anger, festering. Like an uncomfortable slide of listlessness that he'd spent a lifetime avoiding.

Jinx sits next to him, and he sighed, sending out a puff of cigarsmoke. ]

What do they think they're doing, putting a couple of trenchers in the woods like this, hm?

[ He tries to keep it light. They <both know Silco hates it. ]

[ Moving down is a little unsteady, but Vax manages with the help. Once he's lead to a safe place to rest, he takes a seat with a sigh. ]

Thanks.

[ Reaching down, he unties and removes his boot so he can check out his twisted ankle. It's not something a little rest won't fix. ]

[ that's all he needs to know that she's fine, shadow puts her down on the tree limb that he's standing atop of without any other concern. simple and he doesn't give much, but the look he gives her is more... she's better off not saying anything and return to what she was doing. ]

"Rice treats?" Judging from the puzzled expression, he has not tried them before. "Sure, I'll have one. But why are they called rice treats?" There's no rice in that list of ingredients.

Vax accepts the bag and places it on the table to open it and have a look at these misnamed snacks. "There's water in the cooler, if you want one." At least he has that while he's stuck sitting out here helping people with their bows and swords.

[ Sure feet step silently through the underbrush. It's no mine, no stone and rock, but the forest floor is no worse than a slippery mineshaft or the low, flooded part of one of the fissures. He'd been lurking near the lake, slipped out well before curfew had even ended and had chosen not to go back. Not that anyone had been forcing him to do much. Sorry, Aurora, Silco isn't really jiving with this whole... "summer camp" deal. If anything, he wants to leave. Get out of here. Go back to where he is at least solitary and comfortable.

But then the group from Solmara comes back. He made sure to catch Sevika's eye, but hasn't had the opportunity to catch up yet.

It doesn't matter. He'll get it later. Whatever happened... well. Did he care all of that much? No. Not beyond whether Sevika survived. Everything else served to make him angry. Particularly —

Well. Something else was making him angry too. Had been making him angry. Angry enough that every moment in this little camp serves to make his mind wind around all the things that makes him angry. His existence here in Etraya. Who's come through. The fact that he wasn't the only one alive. That Sevika had left. The letter, oh that letter makes him as angry as anything else. He keeps coming back to it.

Thinking about it.

He hates that he's still thinking about it. He hates that even now he's thinking about it. He hates that Vander came back seemingly unharmed — seemingly, but he can see the signs. The way he's favoring a leg, the way he turned that was unnatural as if he's avoiding stretching something open again.

Just because it's been years doesn't mean he doesn't know the man. It's why he doesn't hesitate to keep his feet silent, and doesn't hesitate to approach. It's barely a thought before he decides.

With a burning cigarette, it's probably easy to miss the smell of foul cigars until it's too late — the butt of a knife slams into the bandages on his side (It's not stabbing!) before he seems to appear out from the other side of the large tree, all fury, a smouldering cigar clamped between two teeth, and that hateful pit of an eye starts to dance back as he makes the hit, and then starts to try and move away. ]

Vax tilts his head slightly as he observes. "I see."

He takes a few steps to the rack where other bows and arrows are stocked, then carries one over with an arrow.

"You want to position your hand here." He demonstrates where to hold the bow. "Then, when you nock your arrow, you want to use the top of your hand as a guide to hold it at the right level, like this."

[Forests were loud regardless of the time. Owls hooted and there was scampering in the underbrush, all signs that nocturnal creatures moved about. It was easy to focus on it, so different from the slithering, sliding or click of animals moving over stone or gravel. Despite scratching out a living in Etraya, he still wasn't that used to forests and would have preferred even the creaking slick smelly docks that still had considerable familiarity.

He was busy wrapping again, cigarette smoke caressing his cheeks and nostrils as he worked. The acrid tang of cigar smoke did indeed reach him, and he was able to shift his leg from resting at the heel on the log to the ground when the butt of knife slammed into his side. He growled low in his throat in surprised pain, and he jerked away from the punchy blow, tearing some sutures beneath for his efforts.

Silco...

Vander didn't have to look to know who had attacked him, and he would admit that it was awful ballsy for the older man to assault him outright. His head snapped around to locate Silco in case he come face-to-face with the blade the next time, and the red hate-smoldering eye was easy to pick out in the dark as he bared his teeth around his cigarette.

Blood was already striking through the bandages and damn it, now he was going to have to wash them and find new ones. Annoyance flared, but he otherwise simply stared at the older man. He could give chase, but he expected it would aggravate Silco further if he didn't. If he didn't rise to the bait, Silco would likely feel the need to come back and settle the cheap attack.

So instead, he issued a low chuckle.] Missed me, did you, Slugger? Summer camp doesn't seem to have improved your mood.

Why is the concept of just punching something weirdly reassuring... Sure, it's a brutish and simplistic way of solving a problem, but it would be handy if it worked!

"Look, being prepared for anything I could worry about is my job! ...In theory! I hate thinking so much about everything that could go wrong. If punching doesn't work on ghosts for some reason," you'd think if it did more people would try it, after all, "I can probably just... set it on fire or something. I mean, that doesn't always work; I got chased through the woods by a flaming skull once, and fire wasn't a great idea in that case..."

Popp's mood darts from anxious to proud to sheepish. Luffy is pretty easy to talk to, okay?

[Without anything resembling an invitation, Sleeper nudges up under a hand to curl against their brother's side, gaze also skyward. None of the stars are familiar, but then, who knows where they might actually be in the broad multiverse. Figuring that Dylan is looking for silence among the bustling camp, they don't bother saying anything.

They know their brother will speak when he's ready. But sometimes even being alone doesn't have to be done without the company of a cat.]

[Peter might find himself a little surprised by the huge eyes Sleeper is giving him, but they totally have to play it up.]

Please, sir, may I have s'mores?

[Their attempt at a British accent is probably not going to pass muster, but they thought it a literary joke worth the reference.]

[He thought for a moment, there was nothing more that needed to be done. She got into her tree, he gets to lay in the grass. Look at the stars in peace.

...

But then came the approaching footsteps, ears turning to the sound as he closes his eyes and lets out a long tired sigh. The grass rustles as he scoots himself away once she's laying down as well. Can she just take a hint, ugh.]

What happened to being closer to the moon?

[ Popp's mouth falls open. That's an amazing set of moves! It might be objectively better than the Avan Strash, which is a treacherous thought that Popp will have to take to his grave. ]

I - I guess that was all right. It's no Avan Strash, but it'd sure get the job done!

[ He scratches the side of his face, doing a very bad job of trying to sound laid back. He can't let Cloud know he thinks he's cool now?? ]

[ She remains laying on her back, stifling a giggle. Turning her head, she watches as he scoots away. Only watching for now instead of trying to scoot after him. She might decide to just pop back up again if he moves too far... ]

I got to be closer to the moon. Thank you, Dusky. And now I'm back down here.

... [Does she mean that, or just saying what he wants to hear? With a huff, he turns his attention back to the group of people around the campfire. He neither confirm or deny she can come up. Her presence seems to be allowed at least, for now.

He can't deny that there's a part of him that's curious, about this pink hedgehog he didn't know of until coming to this place. But he's also not going out of his way to look into it. These people from the other Shadow's world are only bothering him, because he's another reflection of someone they know. That's all.]

[ Dion's posture stiffens as the odd lights grow closer. He has seen something not unlike them, but they were flames in true, where he quite doubts these are the same. There is something ethereal about them. Perhaps they are but an illusion. ]

Did they do this previously?

[ His voice is calm and quiet when he speaks. The way his eyes never leave the odd flames as they draw closer suggests enough regarding his concern. ]

[Why is she thanking him? He shakes his head, tired of her games. His eyes turn upwards, ignoring her. To the best of his abilities anyway. It's unfortunate he can't fully relax and look at the stars while knowing someone is there with him. Someone that isn't her.

It was one of those rare moments when he could away from the cold confines of the base, be outside. Even when knowing it was forbidden for him to leave. Having Maria there, it felt like the rules didn't matter. He could be wherever she was. Except...when he no longer could. His expression turns pensive, thinking of all the things they talked about. Where stars come from, the vastness of the universe, who he is. What he could be, and where they could go on Earth. Things he didn't really put much thought, when he didn't know if he'd ever leave that base.

And now this is his present, left on his own to navigate the world out, practically a whole other universe. Still questioning himself once more. He look to the stars in hopes to find answers. Although, these aren't the same ones from home. Just strangers to him like everyone else.]

[He shudders again when she says the name. Luckily the one Wade knows is super dead/disintegrated. Although that didn't mean anything for this place. Or for Marvel. Death is just a suggestion.]

No snitching. [He promises, but...] So long as I can borrow something from your extensive wardrobe sometime?

[Would it be better for his cabin and his own grade to fight Carver or to let him go? Fight him. Let him go. Stab him? No, that would definitely be bad.]

Fuck me, the burden of leadership is so complicated! [Maybe it's a good thing that X-Force was so short lived because he sucks at this.]

Fine, fine. I'll move. But you better make a Tie Dye shirt tomorrow, mister. Something to brighten you up and turn that frown upside down.

[He steps aside finally to let Brandon pass. Although he'll 100% be trying to figure out where he goes out in the woods to keep an eye on him. So he didn't end up getting eaten by space bears or whatever the hell is out there.]

Just maybe nuke it a little? Then feel super sad about it later and then help Christopher Nolan win a fuck ton of Oscars?

[This dude doesn't seem entirely sincere is all he's saying. Nothing else. No fourth-walling here! Cough.]

I did! So many. I'm a popular guy. I mean look at me-- [He gestures to his scarred face, looking like someone Crane might have doused in gasoline and lit on fire.] I'm adorable!

[ octavia joins the campfire as she recognizes dean way back from the labyrinth mission where he helped her out so it had been a while but she takes a seat to listen in. she basically grow up on stories about myths but she's curious about what kind of true stories he has ] Yeah, sure— I'm listening but it better be good.

[Insincere. The accusation rolls off his back. Because he understands he is being insincere. Just like everyone else.]

You look like a man ~~who doesn't take himself seriously~~ who knows how to charm people.

[After all, humour is just another means of manipulating people into dropping their guard.]

How's that working out for you with Aurora?

Watching him closely, Amy then does her best to imitate what he does, her expression set in serious concentration as she steadies the arrow with her hand.

"Oh, okay, I see," she says. Then she draws the bowstring back - that part seems easy for her, at least. "And do I hold it at eye level in order to aim?"

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MISSION 009

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campfire horror hour

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