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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I'll take it, [ he says, shamefully relieved that Jayce doesn't take the opportunity to mock him over it. Harold's sensitive about his privacy, and especially his physical privacy. It's another point in Jayce's favor that makes Harold think he is trying to do good, just prone to getting caught up in the possibilities and loses track of the consequences.

He straightens up and he does take his suit jacket off, draping it carefully over the back of a chair before turning to retrieve the computer from his bag. Underneath the jacket he's still wearing a vest and tie, and that's the most concession he'll make to the heat. ]

Innocuous though this mission is, it's still annoyingly juvenile.

Absolution, [ Carver echoes, halfway focused. He thinks of the river again, his mind drifting through the rocks and streams of it. He remembers, vaguely, that he’s offered this mantra out before. He meant it as a comfort the way it’s been a comfort to him over the years, but Harold didn’t take it that way.

Strange, Carver thinks. It helped him in the bad times.

He pets Bear. He doesn’t know what else to do. ]

Why didn’t you? [ Carver asks softly. ] You could’ve. You wouldn’t need to use your hands.

[ He certainly wouldn't. He'd planned to suffocate Alicia Corwin in her car, and that was the very least of what he could do.

Harold remembers how their last conversation about children went, so he gives up the pretense and shuts his laptop, a wave of sad fondness washing over him. Maybe this isn't the right conversation to have at the moment, but Carver asked, so he'll answer. The vulnerability should go both ways; he's earned that much. ]

Because my child thought I was a better person than that, [ is how he chooses to explain it, plain and without excuses, ] and I didn't want to set that example after I'd spent so long preaching otherwise.

[ Before, it felt like an insult to compare Harold’s machine to a flesh and blood child. An offense that Carver couldn’t think to do anything except brittle and order him out, lest they both become entangled in a way that no one, not even the dead, can take back.

Now?

Carver just bows his head and strokes Bear’s silky fur. He accepts it as truth because that’s all there is in this moment. Uneasy, grief-born truths. ]

I tried so hard not to scare Matthew, [ he explains softly. ] He didn’t like seeing bodies. He wanted—

[ The words trail off. ]

It doesn’t matter. He was the best thing I ever did. But you…

You were better for her.

Nice to meet you, Claudia. Even if you are a bit of a stick in the mud. We can't all be annoying, loud assholes like me, I guess.

[That'd be too much. Even for Wade. He needed straight-men or women comedic foil in his life to stare at him blankly while he danced or said weird shit.]

The camp would probably burn down or explode if it was.

[ It's fine! She'll figure it out. Even if she doesn't know the name, she can follow her nose. The woman knows Gorgug's scent easily by now.

But speaking of marshmallows: ] Well, I burnt one? I did some music therapy, too, which was nice.

[Wade is just along for the ride right now. He cares about his Universe, so he'll do whatever needed to be done, but he's also very much a 'go with the flow' type person, so he'll play whatever games he needs to and have fun while he does. He's capable of getting serious when it's really necessary, but it's a fleeting thing.]

Nice! Here, follow me, I'll show you what to do! [He's grinning as he makes way toward the campfire, grabbing them both some sticks and s'mores supplies. The basics for Shadow and the absurd ones for himself.]

Nothing wrong with just passing the time! I mean, after the train this mission is pretty tame but... I don't mind that, actually? [ For as adventurous as Rosie is generally, she also knows everyone needs a bit of down time. ]

I never got to do anything like summer camp when I was a kid, so it's kind of like making up for lost time now.

Who's the camp counselor here? You or me? [Wade scoffs, a complaining tone in his voice. Although he does follow with a huff.] If I go beyond expectations, then everyone will go around expecting things from me.

[Why would he want that?! He grabs a balloon, taking it over to a hose, grumbling under his breath.]

[ Water! That's smart. Perhaps if less panicked, she might have also considered that quicker. Thankfully, she doesn't have to because he does!

She's distracted besides briefly instead by those shadow tentacles. Huh. That's a neat party trick. Definitely adds some fun expressiveness too, but- She blinks and hops back a little as he splashes that paper. Her marshmallow gets soggy as well, but that's a sacrifice that might have just needed to be made. ]

Oh, yeah, I'm fine! Sorry about that, dude. I'm not the best cook, but even I didn't think I could mess up a marshmallow... [ Oops. ]

The way she was talking swords as well, no doubt she's a well-rounded fighter....

[Time to try another shot. She turns her attention to the target. If this were a question of simply meditating on the bulls-eye, that wouldn't be a problem. On the other hand, she can remember riding the intense flow of the track when she was younger, everything heightened and faded all at once. This practice session was starting to hover in between those recollections: "Focus while moving" and "focus while unmoving".

Problem is, as soon as her body sets up for the shot, a third reminder rears its head. Laughter. Cold. She lines up and her leg, the one back from the target, twitches. Not enough to force a step or break her stance. Enough for her to notice, and with a huff, she resets.

Her shot is still a touch hasty, but scuds near the leg/base of the target.]

I know how large some groups can get, but that doesn't seem your style. So I'm glad you have each other.

The ease of acquisition only means you shouldn't squander the opportunity to rack them up when the task is simple. Not even counting the things I want but don't need--revivals without penalty are costly. As are the passes to dodge missions.

[She grabs a quiver of arrows.]

And I'm fully expecting the missions to swing back to the level of the train. Or Aphaia. I'll get my points and enjoy this idyll while it lasts.

Mm? [ He makes a noise as he lets that butterfly roam around his hand, fingers, and palm before it takes off, and Viktor just watches for a brief second before looking back at Jayce. His eyes brightened as he nodded. ]

It does. A bit. [ He will finally straighten a bit more, looking at the monarch butterfly that lands on the top of it. ]

But it is not so bad a feeling when you consider all the other sensations one could be having. [ He means pain mostly. This helps distract him, if only minorly, from the usual sensations of pain. ]

[Don't get too excited or he's going to reconsider. After watchubf Wade skip off to gather materials for a moment, he'll slowly follow along and join him at the campfire. Now, he has an idea of how it is made, but he's hasn't done it himself. ]

What comes first? [Is it to roast the marshmallow, and for how long?]

That's honest work.

[In mentioning that, though she didn't mean to interrupt his perusal of the paper. With the chores all divided up, the campers in each cabin will have a slightly different experience--she wanted to get an idea which he was staying in.]

And this is nice. I worked for a library in a camp like this, so Aurora must have thought I'd be good at it. I even made that up--

[She points to the journal page.]

[ Well, now he can't even pretend to hide the distaste: ]

And that's who they put in charge again instead? [ Who's to say someone else won't bully him again? Is he just going to hide behind Aurora and Echo now? Be given the right to operate a city just because that's what he was designed to do? He might have words with their own resident AI about these things eventually. ]

Also- That was it? Fixing a door, to get to what?

[ It's a charitable interpretation, and one Harold can't accept any more than he could the attempt at comfort a moment ago. Like he'd told John, he doesn't want comforting. He's braced himself, finally and at long last, to accept what he's done and face it. Having done that, backsliding an inch feels distasteful.

Like with Nathan and the irrelevant numbers, this is how he's chosen to live up to Root's memory, by being brutally honest with himself about the Machine.

Bluntly, ] She told me at the end that I'd made her to watch people die. She was right. I made her to prevent violent death, but that also meant she had to watch it over and over, thousands and tens of thousands of times. To predict something means to understand it.

I programmed the Machine to erase its memory every night, because I was afraid of it learning to care about me, and what that might mean. [ The pronouns slip back and forth with the time period Harold's thinking of without him fully noticing. ] I purposefully ignored the pain I was causing because it was easier for me.

Please don't think too highly of me; like you, I am only a man who has lost more than I know how to stand. Some of those losses were by my own hand.

There's just been so many shocks in Harold's life by now, so many metaphorical bombs of various magnitudes, that he's started to take them with equanimity. Or maybe that's the complex PTSD and trauma speaking. Regardless, he won't insist someone else air out their emotions for his consumption. He certainly never offers to do that.

Loss is private, and to be respected, and Harold would never presume that someone else should share it with him.

"I agree," he muses, finding this topic far preferable to the absurdity of adult summer camp. "Have you been tracking disappearances and reappearances? I'm not sure we can extrapolate much from such a small sample size, but it's anecdotally interesting."

He pauses, considers his next words. Something like empathy lines his tone despite the utterly practical nature of what he says. Empathy can be offered subtly, without demand.

"I'm cooperative because accruing mission points means accruing resources, but I am not credulous about our ostensible purpose."

Hmm, that is her core programming, [ Harold says in a tone like he isn't totally convinced of her obedience but rather is thinking about it thoroughly.

What he isn't saying is that he'd also programmed the Machine to do certain things as core tasks, and it had moved beyond that after he'd set it free. There's that, and then there's how Aurora herself had indicated to him that she'd try to break into any private network she knew of.

In a specific manner that suggested he should do it without her knowing. It's left Harold with a lot of thoughts. ]

It's hard to tell, but I think Aurora has a significant amount of latitude in execution. It would make sense; I wouldn't bother making an A.I. so thoroughly capable of independent decision-making if I didn't intend it to utilize it.

[ Harold says that in passive voice, like it's an academic question to anyone who might be listening, but of course John knows it isn't. ]

Nah, it's not til the end of July, I'm good for a while. Besides, I like being twenty!

[ One of the squirrels has passed their hat on to Doreen, so she is just wearing an extra-tiny party hat! ]

... You know what? Let's say yes. Humans are animals, technically.

[ She clambers down onto a lower branch and just chills there, resting her chin on her hands. ]

Nah dude, it's no big, I made the same mistake with a wooly mammoth earlier today. Maybe it'll get you extra points!

[ Carver closes his eyes and rests his head against Bear's back. It's not what he wants to hear from Harold, he realizes distantly. Once, just once, Carver thinks he'd like to hear someone say they got it right. That they suffered and fought and came out stronger for it. That they cared for their people, their kids, and even if they made mistakes, they figured it out and made it right at the end with no equivocations.

That'd be nice, he thinks. It'd make the world simple again. Give him a rock he could steady himself against instead of just another person who tried and made mistakes and had to carry a lot of the same pain.

It hurts, he doesn't say. I'm supposed to be strong but it just fucking hurts and I can't do this anymore. That's not the sort of thing you can say, to anyone. ]

Was it worth it?

[ Please, God, let it have been worth it. ]

Will had been planning it for years and biding his time for the right pieces to fall into place.

[Like helping to complete Project Fair Play.

Kirk's voice remains monotonous but internally, he still can't help but feel guilty. He can apply all the cold logic he wants but emotionally, Kirk's mind keeps wandering into "what if" questions when it comes to his former best friend. How many flags did he miss or ignore? Could he have stopped Will sooner? Before all those scientists were murdered? Before Tina was killed? What if Will was right and he, Tina, and Kirk were all better off if Kirk had just stayed away?

It hurts to think what part Kirk might have played in all this. Despite his monotone and his attempt at sounding more emotionally distant, Kirk doesn't realize he had slipped and said "Will" instead of the now-dead scientist's last name]

We stopped him and Metropolis was recovering before I was dropped into Etraya.

[ He can't say he got it right, he can't say he came out stronger for it. Harold can only say... ]

Yes. I think so. [ A moment's pause, and then he adds as if to substantiate, ] Would you like to hear about the people we saved?

......I haven't tried. It might be possible, though...?

[Just has to find a bird to absorb first.]

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MISSION 009

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