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

[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.

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?

[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.

That's-

[He raises both hands, palms completely cover his face as he runs through it all in his mind. Vampire, sure, he can accept that easily. That's pretty cool. But it's really about the choices that followed that, that seem out of place to him.]

Isn't there... I don't know, a legal system? Doesn't killing them mean they can't be tried in court? Doesn't that technically not make them criminals yet?

There is a legal system. Unfortunately, it's sometimes not enough because of corruption.

[Corruption is especially rampant in Gotham]

And what you saw was in the heat of a government-sanctioned raid.

[Nevermind that the memory also showed the Justice League not being bothered by a military leader yelling at them for moving ahead of his soldiers.

Kirk knows that many of his actions as Batman are seriously morally questionable. It's why he still struggles on thinking if he's just someone making the best out of a bad situation or if he's just a monster making excuses]

I know how it looks. I don't enjoy it.

That's why I'm concerned, Kirk.

[Jayce stares at him, biting his lower lip for a second before.]

Because it really looked like you did. Government-sanctioned or not, the three of you took it way too far.

That's how most people in our world saw us. There are few people in our world who have powers like ours. That alone gave plenty of reason for them to be afraid of us. It's why a tenuous alliance was made between us and the government. It's why they secretly developed contingency plans in case we took things too far.

[As much as Kirk would like to defend himself and Bekka and Hernan, he can also understand why people like Luthor thought of them as monsters]

It was only recently that things started to change.

Change how?

[Because, yeah. The further Kirk explains, the further Jayce has a problem with seeing the other side of things. If he lived in Kirk's world, he would be afraid.]

Magnus.

[As much as Kirk doesn’t want to talk about his now former best friend, Will is a large part of the story]

He took advantage of how tenuous the alliance was and how suspicious most people were of us. By the time we all realized what was happening, he had already killed over a dozen people and the government had activated their contingency plan to eliminate us. He nearly succeeded in eliminating free will.

After Magnus was defeated, we all recognized changes were needed. We agreed not to kill and the public recognized we aren’t monsters trying to be gods.

That's a pretty big jump from killing twelve people to eliminating free will.

[What kind of WACKY and WEIRD world has a problem with someone trying to CONQUER FREE WILL ON A GLOBAL SCALE?

Not like any place Jayce has ever known!!!]

It... sounds like it turned out okay in the end, at least?

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 wants to judge Kirk for what he's done. That was genuinely a slaughter- those normal people stood no chance against Kirk and the others. Not only that, but it had been against the orders his government had said- sure they had permission, but probably not permission to go that hard.

But what a hypocrite that would make him, wouldn't it? Isn't what he did exactly that? Not identical in every manner, but close enough that he'd be casting stones while living in his own glass house.

He remembers hearing of Will. He knows that was Kirk's friend. The one who betrayed him. It's even more complicated now, isn't it?

Jayce sighs out his nose, lips taut. If he can't forgive Kirk, then how could anyone forgive Jayce?]

What happened was... out of your control, wasn't it? People make mistakes.

[Kirk knows a lot of his actions could be considered mistakes depending on how one looks at them, right down to when he decided to try to cure himself]

It's been over a decade since I transformed and I'm still trying to find a way to reverse the serum.

The... hunger is what I meant when I said I walk a tightrope every day to not lose my mind. The artificial plasma can cover my basic needs but even then, it's not the same.

MISSION 009

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cw: blood-drinking/cannibalism. AGAIN.

cw: Just normal vampire things

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