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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[ His heart twists and contracts at the question. At least he knows who Leah is, knows why he's asking. It would be so easy to utter a platitude here -- Carver is clearly out of it, not tracking where he is, mentally someplace else -- but Harold's promise to John years ago that he would never lie to him is something he's silently and spontaneously kept to the rest of the team as well as they joined. It's a policy that's never served him wrong. The one time he betrayed it to protect John, tried to shield him from a number that involved domestic violence, he'd come to regret it.

So he says, ] I don't know, [ unvarnished and raw.

He needs to center him, give him something to stabilize with. Harold did this; he won't leave him in this state, even if he's frantically guessing at how to handle it. Abandonment, he's sure, is the actual worst sin, if such a thing existed. ]

Bear's commands are in Dutch, [ he tries. ] He was trained for the military, so they're words that won't be said in casual conversation. I need you to memorize them. Are you ready?

[ Learning a list of Dutch words might serve as a grounding exercise, he hopes. ]

Just... black. I'm doing all mine in black out of protest.

[She pulls the jar of black paint a little closer to her, punctuating the point.]

Maybe in December Aurora can put them all in my stocking.

[ A pillbug? Carver tilts his head, eyebrows going up. ]

Yeah.

[ Apparently this is a story that requires context. He cannot wait. ]

I wish I was still there.

[She says it petulantly, but she does mean it: if she were still out working a mission that she could see the point of, she'd have been up hours ago. But here, where their mission is summer camp? She's sorely tempted to just crawl back into bed.

And she might still do that yet. But first, she'll at least make an effort to dig through her bag, looking for some semi-clean clothes. Unfortunately, breaking the news about the tie-dye uniforms will have to be Maria's job.]

Relax, Ace.

[Jayce holds up both hands now, passively.]

It's just an idea. There's the width of an ocean between idea and execution.

[And I can do it without you, if I need to.]

[ Harold has caused an impressive level of fallout from his scientific advancements, but he's never used actual human subjects. It's a whole different realm and one he's extremely cautious of.

Dourly, ] I'm forced to admit I have, in fact, spent the past few years as a professor. Of applied ethics in technology.

[ He's aware of the irony. ]

Oh.

[ His voice is soft. A little distant. Leah might be a ghost now. Carver can't see her in the corners but that doesn't mean anything except as a promise that he is, indeed, losing his mind. Harold's still talking, the sound of it fading in and out, and it's hard to focus. The whole world feels like it's under water.

In that way, it's not unlike drowning.

Carver feels his fingers twitch. Focus, son, the commander whispers. You have a job to do.

There's always a job to do. That much he clings to. ]

Dutch, [ Carver repeats softly. It's not one of the languages he speaks and their own dogs were all trained on German instead. But the duty stands. And Harold's still staring at him like a grenade with a pin already popped. Probably wondering how far the fallout is going to spread.

It's strange that he hasn't bolted, though. Or ordered Carver to quit his foolishness. ]

Yes. I'm ready.

I knew it!

[Jayce laughs, and it's like all the tension drops from his shoulders at this honestly trivial revelation.]

God, you are just like Professor Heimerdinger. Except, not three feet tall. Or a Yordle.

[With his hands on his hips, Jayce sighs, and shakes his head. Maybe it's the following guilt he feels now that he's made this association, but he relents. Just a little.]

Yeah, okay. I'm listening.

[ Harold tries to imagine how he'd feel if he weren't sure if Grace were alive or dead, if he'd ever see her again, and it's a vicious sharp kind of pain he can't dwell on long. Sometimes seeing her alive and safe was the only comfort he had, a beacon that reminded him he'd done one thing right in leaving her. Abandonment is a sin except for when it saves someone's life.

Maybe this isn't the right way to go about talking someone down from a panic attack with psychotic features, but Carver had just agreed with his assessment that he'd needed a job, he'd asked him for orders, and Harold's experience with others like him is that he must be oblique. He doesn't mind addressing emotions directly, but it makes them squirrelish. He has to come in from the side in order to have what he says land with any impact, because they'll reflexively dodge an emotional conversation like they would a blow.

So he runs through the commands with him for as long as it takes, looking both for Carver to memorize them but more so to gauge his mental state. He watches carefully, leads him through ontspannen, bewaker, af liggen, as many as he can think of. ]

... Do you have all that? [ he asks finally, his eyes still tight with worry.

Harold has his share of flaws and he's made a tremendous amount of mistakes, but he doesn't flinch from facing the consequences of what he's done. ]

[ Sometimes, in the field, Carver can feel his thoughts just slip away. The self fades into the background, leaving nothing but the orders and the objective. He never liked it afterward but he knows it's saved his life before. How a person can become a ghost in their own skin in order to finish an engagement.

It's like that now, a little. He has to focus on Harold's words to make sure he's not missing anything, isn't getting the words garbled through the rotten-fruit softness of the moment. But he's not really there, Carver thinks. He wonders if he's dead and his body just hasn't realized yet.

That happens, sometimes. When somebody takes a wound and they just stand there, calm and a little confused before they just drop.

Harold asks a question. Assessing whether Carver's listening, probably. ]

Yes, [ Carver agrees, and recites the words and their definitions back. This is a test, after all. You have to get it right or there'll be consequences. And Harold might not like rank or the few times that Carver's called him sir, but he slots almost neatly into the void that Pope and Leah left in the world. Someone must take that role. It might as well be someone like Harold Finch, who believes in people even when they must, inevitably, disappoint him. ]

[ It is funny as a revelation given their prior conversation. Harold actually smiles a tiny bit despite himself, dry self-awareness tempering it. ]

I trust this is a positive association? [ It seems like it from Jayce's reaction, but he just has to needle him a little. ]

I recommend we start with Dr. Romano's arm as a discrete problem and focus there. Once we have proof of concept, we can consider where else the resulting techniques can be utilized.

[ That is an actual person with a specific request he'd like to have fulfilled, so Harold feels safe picking that to focus on. It's always the generalizations that cause the trouble... helping individuals, well. He's dedicated his life to that for a reason. Losing sight of that in favor of big, grand ideas has always been his chief concern. ]

And, do you...

[He trails off, not sure if he should even bring this up, but winds up persevering anyway:]

Want to talk about your... you know. What happened?

There were massive ones in the desert - think the size of a two-story building. Not aggressive, but they wouldn't go around obstacles they could just roll over, so-- let's call 'em a moderate danger. Anyway, we saw one from a distance - and we realized there was a raiding party using it as cover. Six people.

[She raises an eyebrow right back at him. Does six against two sound like insurmountable odds, Carver?]

[ It doesn't exactly seem like it's working, but... he's also not getting any worse. And he hasn't hit himself again, good Lord. Harold is going to see that in his nightmares.

He isn't thinking of this as a test himself but he still isn't surprised that Carver passes. The ability to focus through trauma is a crucial survival skill in the kinds of scenarios he's been in. But he still doesn't feel quite right leaving to retrieve Bear, thinks they're not quite there yet. Harold abandons calculation and follows his own instincts instead. ]

The first time I was held hostage, I didn't know how to adjust when I got back, [ he offers. By someone who later became an ally, but that's another story. ] I shuttled myself from safehouse to safehouse and if I stepped a foot outside of that, it was like I couldn't breathe. I couldn't function. I knew it was all too likely that it would happen again -- and it did, later.

That's where Bear came from. Mr. Reese found him and pressed him on me. I thought he was being ridiculous, [ Harold admits, ] but... it did help. To know I had protection that didn't depend on a person.

[ It let him maintain his pride and his privacy, which were some of the only things Harold insisted on keeping in the wake of the ferry bombing. ]

He...

[The smile grows a little sad.]

Did his best with me. I was a difficult student for him.

[That's putting it lightly. And Jayce realizes now, a little too revealing on how he's going to be with Harold, too. Not on purpose, not trying to replicate the past, but despite his fondness for Heimerdinger, Caution and Progress just don't mix. One of them will need to bend, if he's not careful.]

I already have plans for the arm drawn up. He wants it to run on electrical battery power, which is fine, not everyone's comfortable with having a magically-charged power source.

I'm still going to need human trials for the nanomachines. Which is why I'm going to use myself. Worst case: I die, and Aurora brings me back without them, and we try again.

[And in a real foot-in-mouth moment, this is maybe a little too honest a conversation than he should be springing right now.]

[Kirk isn’t surprised. After what Jayce saw in his raid memory, talking about his vampirism was inevitable. It’s a lot for most people to take in]

I wasn’t being completely forward with you with what my condition is. The truth is my attempt to cure myself also gave me a different and more violent condition.

I have ways to keep it under control. Artificial plasma covers my basic needs. But the raid you saw is what would typically happen with me and my team.

[ There's quite a few things Harold is about to say here, and they all get erased by Jayce's last comment. He stares at him, aghast. Difficult student, was it? Harold is someone who, with great caution, changed the entire world. He doesn't think they're incompatible at all. ]

Mr. Tallis, [ he says sternly, ] do not inject yourself with anything that has been programmed with code written on paper.

[ He lets that stand for a solid second as an absolute Jayce needs to internalize. ]

I don't object to using yourself as a test subject, but we will not approach it with death as an acceptable outcome. [ That's also an absolute for Harold, even in this case. Death means losing a memory here, which is uniquely horrifying to him. ]

[ Big goddamn bugs. Okay. Carver blinks, then just shrugs and accepts that. Sure. Pillbugs the size of buildings. The world's a crazy place sometimes. ]

You could take six if you timed it right.

[ He knows Shaw. Six is nothing if approached correctly. ]

But you...

[He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, leaning in a little closer to Kirk as he drops his voice. They really shouldn't be talking about this here, but he can't just drop it.]

You didn't have to do it like that, did you? Practically tearing their throats out?

[ Carver's quiet for a long moment at that. Harold's words flow through him like a river. Some catch on the rocks and stay, but most of them just drift. It's so hard to focus. Every breath seems heavy. But he understands that something important is happening now, that Harold is trying to make him understand something, and this is always an intimacy whether it happens in conversation, by touch, or in an interrogation. There's something sacred about it.

Focus, he thinks, and his fingers twitch again. Focus, now. ]

Leah let Freya sleep in our bunks sometimes, [ Carver says after a while, softly. His gaze is focused elsewhere, on the horizon line. ] She wasn't supposed to. It was against the rules. But when the kids had nightmares after raids, it helped.

[ It helped him, once, when he was nineteen and scrubbing bone and brain matter out of his hair for the first time. Terrified that the next time they went out, they were all going to die. ]

I wasn't going to use that code! That was for making tables organizing coin flip probability!

[He's rolling his eyes now, teenage-like.]

I said worst case for a reason. I'm not trying to die.

[But this is at least an acceptable response from Harold, so it's a win in his book.]

[ John, John, John! The lack of imagination! Vision! It's the dog photos all over again! ]

If you make them that way. [ He points to the picture of a duck--specifically, circling the wing with a finger. ] Make it spin around and start firing. Or--

[ Hold on, hold on. Gorgug's got a sketchpad and he's doing the basic doodle of a duck. The outline of the body, duck legs, and now the wings? Are spread out forward.

He points an arrow at the very tip of the wing, and writes 'GUNS SHOOT HERE' in very nice handwriting. ]

Duck guns, [ he says, very wisely.

And doodles a small newsboy cap on the duck. ]

You didn't even realize there was a word processing application on your device, [ he retorts in vehement exasperation. Harold is not taking that excuse. He was writing code on paper at all -- that's cute when it's a beginner doing it, but not a sign he should be doing serious work. ]

Including it as worst case includes it as a possible outcome, which we will not be doing. If you can't test it safely then you aren't prepared for testing. Rushing ahead is not just dangerous but shoddy.

[ It's unethical and also bad practice. How's that for reasoning? ]

Christ.

( partially at how loud that yell was because what the hell, man. but also, turning to sophie: )

You've gotta chill out a little, you know - go into it subtly, not scare them shitless right off the bat.

( and julian's - not letting the weirdo run off that easily. instead, he flicks a hand toward gorgug, and telepathically tries to lift him off the ground. just enough so he can't get purchase on the ground to avoid him running rampant. )

[Kirk had already been publicly outed as a vampire during the Aphaia mission. While he certainly isn't happy about it and isn't going to publicly shout it out every time it comes up, he's accepted that this is the kind of conversation he has to have multiple times. It's still not great though.

Jayce's question is one that Kirk himself has contemplated over many times. An uncomfortable silence hangs in the air as he thinks about how to reply]

We only recently decided to minimize killing. For many years after my transformation, killing criminals was my way of making the best out of something terrible. Animal blood can only go so far and even artificial plasma is different from human.

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Page 82 of 140

MISSION 009

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cw: talk of death via science gone wrong

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cw: blood-drinking/cannibalism. AGAIN.

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cw: Just normal vampire things