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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[ He turns the broken stick in his hand, considering it. A moment ago, all he wanted to do was has the opportunity to bang out on the drums, and he's sure he would have kept it up if the stick hadn't broke--it's not like it hasn't happened before. But there's something there in him now, twisted and knotted.

His brows hunch up, tight and pinched, a complicated frown on his face as he gets up from the small stool. ]

No, it's-- it's okay. I'll find it and mend it... [ Well, he'll look around for it, which he starts to, but looks back at Maria instead. ]

I feel bad.

[it doesn't take a real therapist to see that this made Gorgug feel some kind of way and she goes over to where the smaller instruments are kept, pulling out a pair of drum sticks. she waves them at him with a smile.]

It's fine. Besides, it's good, I think. Getting out whatever you got inside. So you shouldn't feel bad for that.

[wait, is this therapy...?]

[ Gorgug doesn't follow her. Even when she holds up the drumsticks, he stands there and listens to what she says, thinking about it. 'Whatever's inside of him'--he understands what she means, but it's difficult, and he isn't looking at her anymore so much that he's staring towards the ground between them. ]

I feel bad because I'm here, and I don't-- like it. I don't understand anything, and I...don't...feel...like I can change. I'm stuck. And nothing matters.

[ And nothing ever did. Nothing about this is new, except it's really making itself known right now as he's being asked to talk about his feelings. Or had been asked. This is what he's meant to be doing. Play some music, talk about his feelings.

is this therapy ]

[Maria listens, letting him talk. he's able to get his feelings out through his drum playing and talking about this. she can only guess what his mission did and she won't pry. he needs to be able to talk and Maria thinks this might just be therapy.

and she is not qualified for this but it's time to see what she can do.]

What do you think change is? How do you think you'd be different?

[she'll just let him talk. get it out.]

[ Gorgug winces, mouth tugging askew and letting the tusk on that side become more prominent for it. What is different? When one could say he's doing what he would be doing back home... ]

I'd be making progress in my schoolwork. I would know if I'm doing good or what I'm missing. It wouldn't feel so-- aimless.

[ He pauses, and he looks at Maria. ]

I don't even know if I'm doing a good job keeping my universe safe, or if any of that's real in the first place.

[there's a joke to be made about how it would be hard to focus on schoolwork in this place but she keeps it to herself. right now doesn't seem like a good time to joke.

but she does understand where he's coming from with his other points.]

I don't think any of us know that, Gorgug. I made my shirt into a crop top and worried about the moral ramifications from that. [you are not alone.] But are you feeling this way because of the mission? Or it's just piled up?

[ He looks at her top, not because he hasn't noticed the state of it, but she mentions it, so there's a second where he looks down. But his eyes immediately return up, to actually focus on the question of: which came first, the chicken or the egg? ]

...both. I haven't liked being here for a long time, but-- the mission made me feel worse about it.

[ In a way that always knew, but didn't like having to see in action in such a dire manner: how powerless they are to their situation. Aurora might be better than Borealis, but it's like he told someone recently (name starting with C, ending in laudia: they're just in a very nice prison). ]

Your crop top is nice, [ he adds, because--he wants to. ]

Thanks. [Maria had cut it up herself and she'll always take the compliment when it's there. who doesn't like nice things being said about you?

but back to the matter at hand. the more important matter at hand that is not Maria's crop top.

for Maria, Etraya didn't feel like a prison. Silent Hill had been a prison. but just because the bars on one were far more suffocating, with worse conditions, it didn't change much. it was why Maria didn't talk much about how great she found Etraya. others would disagree and rightly so. but she enjoyed being here because she had nowhere else. unlike someone like Gorgug, who had a home. a real home. not this place.]

It isn't easy, trying to look at a hopeless situation and find the good in it. But sometimes, when you're in these situations, you have to move the goal posts around a bit. What you could accomplish back home might not be something you can accomplish here. But also just because you can't figure it all out right now, maybe look at what you have accomplished?

[ ... what has he accomplished? Gorgug looks aside with the thought experiment, trying to imagine it. Have his skills grown as an artificer since he's been here? He's been slacking on his barbarian training--intentionally, even, afraid of hurting people after he went on a rampage for a month.

...

Gorgug looks back at Maria, feeling bad for going quiet, a grimace in his expression. ]

Sh-should I try and make a list of what I think I've accomplished...?

[ How to cover up the fact you can't think any up.... ]

[Maria is not the best at this because she definitely doesn't feel like she's accomplished a lot.

but she can be a great hype woman.]

I'll start with something you've accomplished. You were one of the first people I told about me, what I am, and you made me feel okay. You made me feel like I could be what I am and still have friends.

And that meant a lot.

Oh. [ Oh.

Gorgug stands there, not sure what to say, speechless in a different manner than he was when trying to rack his brain. He looks at Maria and then down, fumbling to process some kind of reaction. Accepting Maria as she is has never been an issue for him, and so, it's never been a big deal except in her trusting him with that knowledge; but Maria saying it to show what it means to her is, well-- ]

That's because you're really great, Maria.

[ His voice is soft around the edges, and he isn't crying, but maybe his eyes are starting to look a little shiny..

H-he's just sniffling because his nose feels a little runny, okay!! ]

[Maria reaches up to put her hands on his shoulders, smiling softly at him.]

Thank you.

But see? It can feel like you aren't doing much because you don't see big, obvious changes. But you helped me and maybe I'm just one person out of the dozens here but you still helped me. You and your friends moved Heather in and helped her.

That's some kind of accomplishment, right?

[ Gorgug struggles in this spot that he's in, where he can't hide from what she's saying, and also the larger, real reason he's feeling bad. Why he's sad, why he cares about not doing much. He nods his head to what she's saying, since it's not a bad thing to help friends. It's not a bad thing to make a friend feel okay being who she is.

He rubs at his nose, using the little space there is between them to look down. ]

I just want to know my parents are gonna be okay, [ he admits softly. ] I don't know what to believe about what's going on, but I want them to be okay.

[ He blinks rapidly, and against a lump in his throat: ] I miss them.

[ Carefully, not wanting to knock Maria, he lifts an arm to rub at his eyes with a hand, and sniffs again. ]

[at the end of the day, Gorgug was still just a teenager. a large one and not like any teenager she had expected to meet but one nonetheless. of course Gorgug missed his parents and this is definitely one that Maria can't say she has any personal experience in.

but that doesn't mean she isn't going to give it a try. her hands stay where they are, just wanting to keep a point of contact, and she pats them this time.]

It is hard, isn't it? Not knowing what is happening, if everybody will be okay. It's difficult and I'm sorry I can't say one way or the other. But you should talk about it. There are a lot of people here in the same boat as you, just as scared and worried about the people back home. It shouldn't be the elephant in the room and if you need to keep breaking drumsticks to get it all out then so be it.

But right now, you are doing a lot to help this world and everybody in it. I don't think it's a coincidence that we have all these people here together, all of us going through the exact same thing. I do think how we treat each other has something to do with it and you've never failed to do the right thing for everybody. That has to count for something.

[ Gorgug feels like a contradiction when Maria speaks about talking, about feelings. Has he known that he should talk to others about his emotions? There's been something there inside him for a while, that comes and goes: something stuck that he can't get rid of, doesn't know how to address to even himself. A few nights over past weeks of rage nightmares that Fabian has had to suffer the consequence for, only quelled once he and everyone took off for a mission that Gorgug personally passed on. When time continued to move, but it didn't seem like it did to him.

He wanted to talk to Sam. He wanted to get the lump out of him, but then he would forget--the white noise would take over in his head. And now he's here, thinking about his parents and wishing he could see home, or wishing he could be a kid going to school and dealing with classes again.

But he's here. A person in the everybody that Maria's talking about, and it still feels so sad.

Eventually, slow as he is to process and take Maria's words seriously, as soft and as quiet as he was before, Gorgug speaks. ]

...You know, I know that, it's very likely that I'll disappear or go home one day, and I won't remember this or I won't know if I was really protecting my home, but I-- I hope I did do some good, right? And I just-- I think I just want you and people like you to be, if you want somewhere to stay that's safe, I want this to be safe, but... I know it's not safe. And that doesn't make me feel very good.

What if you go without a body?

[ His head is drooping, more and more: avoiding eye contact, looking down only at the ground. His thoughts becoming a scrambled mess, and--he doesn't like this.

He wants so many things to be true, to be real, and he can't achieve any of it because--he's just one of everybody. He's just a kid. ]

[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.

[ Gorgug doesn't argue with anything Maria says. He can't, might not want to--truthfully, Gorgug's beyond any point where objections might come to mind. Everything she's saying is reaching him, is being heard, but as it is, the sadness that's been always growing inside him builds, swells, his gaze staring at some non-descript part of the ground speckled with patches of grass, but that's otherwise nothing but dirt. ]

... Maria? [ He says, after a silence that's not as long as the last time. ] Can I... would you...

[ His hands fidget together. He's still just staring at the ground, voice low. ]

...can I have a hug?

[ If there's guys out there who care about being called sweet, they might also be the same guys that would never ask for a hug.

And they're not currently in the proverbial room with us. ]

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MISSION 009

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