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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ John does get what Harold is not saying. The way he says it, the things he omits, all paint a picture. They know each other that much, at least. So Harold thinks that Aurora has leeway, that she can get around these things, that she has some amount of independence. Perhaps even independence beyond what Echo desires.

That's good news, in John's opinion. Certainly she's foreign the way the Machine wasn't, but he feels a little more fond towards AI these days. And she told him that she likes talking to them, that she enjoys when they reach out. He hopes those are her own feelings, and not ones given to her by Echo. ]

So she thinks we'll enjoy tie-dye and staying in cabins. What's yours in charge of?

[ They have to suffer some indignity, but hopefully Harold doesn't have too onerous of a responsibility. ]

She's quite young, really, [ Harold says with a sigh. ] And there's a substantial body of evidence to suggest that humans do, in fact, enjoy summer camp.

[ Things being true on a population level not necessarily applying to individuals was an extremely difficult nuance to teach people, much less a computer. Harold regularly despairs over others' failure to distinguish them -- as he'd said to Jayce, it's not about caution, it's about respect; about letting each individual have autonomy and precisely unique attributes. It's a delicate balancing act, and one that had taken the Machine such a very long time to learn.

And then she'd taken it beyond what Harold intended, letting the man at the radio station decide his own death for himself. But in retrospect... he sees the point. A machine keeping someone alive past their own wishes would lead down a dark path. It just hurt to feel another failure, see another death from Samaritan. ]

Fun facts and chess club, I think? [ Harold sounds dour but not depressed about it. ] I'm hoping I can get away with running chess club, and that we won't have too many attendees.

[ Please just a small group of nerds trying to avoid socializing. That sounds ideal. ]

You don't feel like sharing the joys of chess with all of Etraya?

[ It's a teasing comment, and said with one of John's amused smiles. It's— a relief. That they can talk like this again; John has not forgotten what transpired only a month ago. Not just the rift, their separation, but— he's dead. That he gets this chance at all is more than he ever expected.

He wonders if it will ever stop feeling like relief. He hopes he will never take these moments for granted. ]

Maybe you will enjoy it. Maybe Aurora is onto something.

[ He doesn't mention that they should probably learn to appreciate these activities, these breaks in the monotony that make up Etraya. Maybe after all the missions are done they can ask Aurora to come up with more things to do. If the missions will ever be done. ]

I'm actually quite ambivalent about chess, [ Harold gripes, tugging uncomfortably on his tie-dyed shirt like he thinks it's out of position. It doesn't help at all, of course. ]

It's fundamentally a game about attributing differential worth to human lives. It is, however, an excellent game for learning strategic thinking, so I have picked up some of it.

[ That's understating things, but the truth is that Harold is no grandmaster or even close to being one. He's just good enough to wipe the floor with any casual player. And as John notes, it is a relief that they can talk like this again -- and maybe in some senses for the first time. Harold never dropped casual personal details with this frequency before, but now he just doesn't see the point in withholding them.

Not with John. This is the last chance he'll ever have. What does it really matter if he admits that he doesn't actually enjoy playing chess? ]

[ That's such a Harold thing to say. Leave it to Harold to take something like chess and put a moral spin on it. It's so Harold that for a split second John is lost in how much he loves him. It's such an innocuous thing that catches him off guard, he's not ready for it, but for just that split second, before he can catch himself, his smile widens before he gets it under control again. ]

I bet you're better than you're letting on.

[ He got one personal detail out of Harold, can he get more? Can he push his luck? ]

[ He catches the flash of a genuine smile and gives John a correspondingly subtle look in return sidelong, one of pleased surprise. Harold has no idea what he said to provoke that, but he's happy to see it, and doesn't want to spook John by addressing it directly. ]

I'm no international master, [ he says dryly, ] but I can teach you a trick that will beat most novices in four moves if you're interested.

[ It's really the kind of thing that's used to show off in high school and won't trap anyone who's spent any time at all learning chess seriously, but it is funny to spring on unsuspecting friends. ]

[ The look that Harold gives him in return makes him feel... warm. He's not really sure what that feeling is but he moves on from that thought with ease that comes from practice. He can just enjoy the moment for what it is; for whatever it is. ]

I never learned much chess so I can help you fulfill your mission duties. Don't suppose I could canoe you around?

[ He doesn't expect to be taken up on the offer so it's clearly presented as a joke; Harold subjecting himself to a canoe ride is amusing in its absurdity. ]

[ With anyone else, no, probably not. With John... ]

Oh, why not? We might as well be getting points out of this dratted affair, [ he grouses. ] Bear would enjoy it in any case.

[ Harold does try to be conscientious that he has an extremely active dog who needs more exercise that he could possibly provide. And he does think he could swim if he needed to, he just hasn't tried it since his injuries, more out of modesty than anything else. Most importantly, he's absolutely comfortable putting himself in John's metaphorical hands. If he's going to do this at all, it will be with John. ]

[ There's surprise when Harold takes him up on the offer, though it doesn't show on his face. Somehow... Harold has changed. Or has he? Is it simply that they're here in Etraya that makes the difference? New experiences, new situations, not just the day in day out rush rush rush of balancing cover identities and numbers. Maybe it's not that Harold has changed at all, maybe John just never got to see this before. He has no way of knowing. ]

Which do you want to do first?

[ Harold has never actually forgotten how exhilarating that ride on a motorcycle was -- he just hasn't had a suitable opportunity to explore that kind of thing further. Normally they have too much else going on and too much to hide, and he doesn't trust anyone the way he trusts John.

He looks out at the chaos already forming on the lake, squinting in disapproval. ]

Let's reserve our aquatic adventures for early tomorrow morning, if you don't mind, before it gets busy. [ Harold is still Harold and would prefer not to have an audience. ]

In the meantime you can learn how to troll people at chess.

[ Following Harold's gaze, John can see why he would want to wait. He doesn't mind, chess is fine. And he doesn't expect to hold a candle to Harold's skill with chess, but surely Harold knows he used to play xiangqi in the park, back before Samaritan.

Back when they had freedom, when they had any sense of time to themselves. When their lives were only the numbers, so sometimes the Machine would give them the morning or the day off and they could do things like play strategy games in the park or go to movies. They haven't had time to do that for years, not with their cover identities to keep up, and now all of a sudden they have nothing but time. ]

Troll? Is that what it's called?

[ It sounds like some sort of slang, is it chess specific? He's guessing not, but it's not a phrase he's heard before. ]

[ He's more than willing to teach John however far he wants to go with chess, he just doesn't want to assume. But Harold is easily able to believe John could give him a run for his money once he knows some strategies, not least because his poker face is beyond belief.

It really has been so long since he's thought about something like this. Harold misses those days before Samaritan more than he could possibly ever express. ]

It's a term used online to mean petty harassment. [ Dryly, ] I think you'd take to it naturally.

[ That's not meant as an insult, just an acknowledgment that John is very good at getting a rise out of people when he wants to. ]

[ John does understand what Harold means, but chooses to take it as a tease instead. ]

Am I petty, Finch?

[ But he says it like a tease too, though he knows Harold would understand it to be just that. This is a back and forth they play sometimes, where John chooses to smile, to joke, to have a little fun. Just with the team, just with people he trusts. ]

[ It has been a while since they've ribbed each other. Things got so serious so rapidly after Samaritan came online... but falling back into it is extremely easy. ]

Considering I own a very expensive collection of Einstein's letters somewhere, I'll go with yes.

[ He can't help but give a smile at that. Back in the old days when it was just the two of them, back when things seemed so simple. ]

Maybe I've changed my ways. I've learned my lesson. Sincerity only.

[ Because he's certainly demonstrating sincerity right now. ]

[ Dryly, with Harold's characteristic sharp edge to his good-natured humor: ]

Let's not extend the joke to the point of farce.

I believe chess club is this way, [ he adds, and starts hobbling off. Having a task does help to push his self-consciousness about his clothes into the background. ]

[ The smile returns, but it's warmer this time and less amused. Maybe it's the reminder of one of the earlier numbers, but he can feel the years between them. True to Harold's point, he lets it drop and follows him over towards chess club. Today they'll do chess and tomorrow he'll get to take Harold on a canoe. Maybe summer camp won't be so bad after all. ]

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MISSION 009

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wrapping up?

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