etrayalogs | 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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ancient."

"Decrepit."

Barbara crosses her ankles.

"Maybe that's what this really is: the hint we need to retire."

As though Barbara could ever even figure out what that kind of hint looked like.
The last time she was given one she nearly bashed Dick's nose into his pretty, pretty face.

"I thought the hint would be having a nice little home upstate," Jason says.

Not that he really imagine himself doing that kind of traditional retirement anytime soon.

"As if Bruce would ever give anyone somewhere small."

That last word comes with raised hands to make quotation marks with her fingers.

Jason snorts.

"Well, small by his standards," he says. "Ten rooms instead of 20. Practically poverty level in comparison."

"How will you ever manage yourself?"

She's never been one of the little flock of birds living in the opulence of the mansion. Yes, of course, she has spent vast amounts of time in each iteration of it. More downstairs than upstairs. And she does have a room, according to Dick's last updates of their world (before he returned to it full time), in the new Pennyworth Manor. But. It's not specifically hers, because of her.

Jason pressed the back of his hand to his forehead and pretends to almost faint.

"I'll manage somehow, like a Dickensian protagonist," he jokes.

He continues to spoil Haley.

"How've you been holding up with this mission?"

"Well enough." Does she have to point out why it's only that much, and why 'the only that much' happens to be greater this next month after? She hopes not. She'd rather not have to rehash that sitting here, in this place, only too aware Dick would have loved it with an exuberance bording on familiar mania.

"Getting to know my cabin mates. Avoid task assignment."

With a raise of her book. "You?"

Jason knows Babs still misses Dick. It's more than understandable. But he'd rather let her set the pace if she wants to talk about it some more. Forcing a person to talk sometimes just makes them shut themselves up more.

"Hanging around the archery range because of my cabin's assignment. Avoiding socializing," he replies. "Perfectly normal stuff."

"Yeah. That's about right. We sound perfectly boring."

There's the faint flash of a smirk. Blink and you'll miss it, between the earlier paragmatic evenness and the way her eyes narrow a little, as her gaze shifts across all the different areas of the camp they can see from here.

"I do have to wonder why this, you know after all the last places the missions were."

"Could be related to that other mission. There are only so many people who could go on that one," Jason says, thinking. "Gotta keep the rest of us occupied somehow so maybe this was the best Aurora could think up while she was distracted by whatever's going in Solmara."

"Suppose it's still better than the labyrinth."

There's a vague squint, letting that one lie for the time.

"I can't tell if I'd rather it stayed this calm, or just stopped pretending it was."

"Yeah, hard to say," Jason agrees. "Having a breather is nice but on the other hand, maybe it's better if we just get this shit over with. What was the labyrinth?"

Barbara wrinkles her nose, tapping the corner of the book against her leg.

"One of the first fieldtrips everyone took while still on planet."

"And not exactly a walk in the park," Jason guesses. "How bad are we talking about? Minotaurs? Sphinxes? Mind games?"

She leans back. It's all too clear—it always is. The bone grinding drag of all those days, and even the time she ended up back in her chair again once it was over. Both of Dick's in that place. And everyone else, too. Everyone thrown together and ripped apart on whims. You looked away for one second, and everything and everyone were gone and changed up.

"It was Dick & I's first mission here, but the second of the ones that happened." The doubles came first, but they weren't here for that. That was part of her research and part of the big pre-Labyrinth topics everywhere, when she was surfing the network but didn't have her computer to truly start doing more than recording on her laptop.

"General Ivy-like fun first. Everything shifting around you all the time. Nothing staying the same or matching for long. Nowhere to sleep—at least nowhere truly safe, or counting as an actual shelter—except what corners you found yourself unable to stop from collapsing in."

"And then the challenges. A robot who thought it was bleeding out and dying. These chairs you woke up in, tied back-to-back with someone, with drills pointed at your chest." Dick had died in that one. For Damian. And she hadn't even known about that until he was already back on his feet and very alive. Or the glass boxes, filling with gas, where you have to choose to save yourself or the other person."

The strange glowing ball that had thrown them into their memories.

"Those sorts of things."

"Sounds delightful," Jason says dryly. He doesn't need to know all the details to know just how rough going it was. Hell, his own first month in Etraya might as well been like a fear toxin leak.

He sighs and runs a hand through his white-streaked hair.

"What was at the end of the maze?"

MISSION 009

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