MISSION 004 (part 1)

[etrayamods]

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: July 19th-July 27th.
WHERE: Moorecroft Village
WHAT: Enjoy life in your new suburban neighborhood!
NOTES\WARNINGS: Potential death.

⏵ welcome home ⏴ Welcome to Moorecroft Village, where the sun casts a gentle glow through soft white clouds. Pavement paths wind around the village, adorned with wildflowers in every hue. Birds sing a soothing melody, while a few content cats lounge in sunspots or on benches along the streets. Cars hum by, ferrying residents to work, the store, or back home after a busy day. It looks almost perfect. The ideal little village, occupied by individuals from all over. Orcs, elves, faeries, werewolves, vampires, and dhampirs coexist harmoniously, each contributing to their quaint little town. Despite their varied backgrounds, they appear to embrace this place as their own. They take their baby carriages out during the day for a stroll, chatting with friends and neighbors about current happenings, discussing their most recent mission (a ‘game’ of Whodunit, in which one of theirs, Theo, was tasked with killing one of their own each day and they all had to figure out who had killed them before they could come back to life) and the difficulties therein, new job assignments, weird things the teens in their houses are getting up to... generic, neighborly conversations. The village is full of life. There are numerous facilities to wander and things to do! The library houses a vast collection of books spanning history from countless other worlds and whimsical children's tales. Teens gather at the ice skating rink, while the movie theater screens films spanning generations. An aquarium full of wonders: glowing rainbow fish, miniature great white sharks, a colorful octopus with patterns running over it that almost look like ivy, and numerous others. In the daytime, everyone can explore clothing stores, indulge in gourmet cakes from the grocers, and partake in leisurely pursuits without financial concerns; just like on Etraya, money does not exist here. ⏵ help wanted ⏴ Moorecroft surpasses Etraya in its development, offering attractions and activities to engage its inhabitants throughout the day. But with these advancements come additional responsibilities. By day, at least one adult from every household is expected to fulfill their shifts at 'day jobs', lasting anywhere from four to eight hours. Meanwhile, the youth are expected to go to school, absorbing knowledge in various disciplines. Each job duty requires different skillsets, but whether or not those required skillsets are matched to those who are expected to work them... well. They’ll have plenty of time for training, won’t they? Or perhaps they’ll get dropped right into their job and be expected to figure it out all on their own. For the younger residents, education is structured into two main institutions: "Sandalwood Lower" for those twelve and under, and "Maplewood Upper" for older students. These schools offer a broad curriculum encompassing Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Physical Education, Technology, Fine Arts, and a diverse array of Foreign Languages. Electives range widely, from specific sports to Survival Training, Creative Writing, Journalism, and Sociology. At lunchtime, the school cafeteria presents an array of choices. Options range from standard fare like school pizza to other offerings such as vampire's blood, brains, and hearts—just in case an unexpected guest should drop in. After all, one never knows who might show up in Moorecroft. ⏵ honey do's ⏴ But life extends beyond work and school. A structured routine of what is expected of each household is kept on digital calendars, and installed on the wall in the kitchen of each house. These calendars update daily with smaller tasks, and weekly with larger ones, detailing what is expected of those residing within its walls. Typical tasks include simple activities such as: Take the child(ren) for a walk outdoors. Visit the local park. Bake a pie for the neighbors. Tell your spouse(s) how important they are to you. Share a secret. Shop with your child(ren). Mow the lawn. Don’t forget to attend your child’s school’s PTA meeting! Help with homework. Take family photos. Go on a date. More complex tasks are found under weekly checklists, and may involve: Host a neighborhood barbeque competition. Volunteer at the hospital. Teach your child a sport. Start a soccer league. Create a garage band. Get a part time job. Join a club. Eos will check off each task as it is completed. At the bottom of each calendar, a tally records the completion of tasks, providing a visual measure of productivity and community involvement. ⏵ night watch ⏴ As the sun lowers over the horizon, everything shifts. Every long-term resident understands the consequences of curfew and the threats within. They retreat to their homes, urging those unfamiliar to them who may not understand the rules just yet that they, too, need to return indoors for the night. Within the confines of their houses, life continues under a fragile veil of normalcy. A peek into some of the homes of long-term residents will find them playing board games with their family units, completing homework or work assignments they were unable to finish during the day, watching a few family-friendly shows on their couches, or enjoying a late dinner. Eventually, they’ll return to their beds and wait for the sound of their alarms. In Moorecroft, no friendly companion bots roam the streets during the day. In their place, highly advanced robots emerge to enforce curfew once the time comes. They silently make their way through the streets, sweeping away anything that isn’t part of Eos’ design: trash left out on the street, bugs left by suspicious men wearing cowls that have ears on them, graffiti, new decor that Eos decides she doesn’t like. No winds shake the trees, there are no cars on the road, but noises can be heard coming from outside that don't sound... normal by any means. Croaks, whispers, scratches against doors and walls alike. Those who defy curfew will be asked, once, to return to their homes. If they opt not to listen, they are met with force: physically restrained, subdued, and dragged back to their homes. If they decide to fight, the bots are not above killing them and dropping their limp bodies just inside the front door of their houses. They will revive after 48 hours but not without cost. Each return carries an absence—a missing memory, a lost skill, or a fragment of their very essence, stolen away in the process of their revival. Even those who manage to evade capture will awaken in their beds with no recollection of their death or what they may have witnessed before dying. They will instead have a vague feeling that something horrifying happened. ⏵ NOTES ⏴ Daily and weekly tasks can be chosen by players! We won't be listing these out for each household, but relying on players to choose what's most fun for them to play with within their households. As noted on Mission Plotting, we're open to one group successfully staying out past curfew, but would like to keep this to one thread. We have a separate log for NPC interactions for this mission! For any questions relating to the contents of this log, mod queries thread on the initial plotting post to assist us in keeping all mission-related information in one place. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ. ⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Comments

Francis Krouse | Worm | OTA

[equivo]

1. smoking under the bleachers
[ Of all the places in all the multiverses Krouse expected to wind back up, 'high school' wasn't high on the list.

But here he is, enrolled, oriented, and scheduled. He's even got a locker that clangs and sticks the way his last one did. It's all as overwhelming normal as the house is, down to the faint haze of cleaning products, rubber, and teenagers that lingers in the hallways while everyone is supposedly in class.

Krouse should be in either math or English. He'd have to check the folded schedule at the bottom of his backpack to be sure. Since that's in his locker, hanging above his barely opened textbooks, he's blessedly free of knowing exactly what educational opportunities he's missing out on.

Instead, he's leaning against a support strut at the back of the outdoor bleachers, watching fluffy clouds roll by in the bright summer sky as he smokes. ]

2. video games
[ Krouse is, evidently, a member of the school's AV Club. The meetings are marked on his schedule along with his classes, and he set about determining exactly what kinds of obligations and privileges come with membership early.

So it is that on a day when his lunch hour lines up with a following free period, Krouse slaps a printed poster in Impact font on the door of one of the school's resource rooms: GAMING GATHERING - WALK-INS WELCOME.

Inside the room, Krouse has rearranged the tables into islands focused on the televisions of varying size and clarity hooked up to an assortment of gaming consoles. There are fighting games, first person shooters, casual party games, and even a few single player options for anyone who thinks they can hold an audience. Music and sound effects clash with each other in a tumble of enthusiastic noise, punctuated by the chatter of students who come in and out over the course of this impromptu gathering. One weekly task down early might make up for some sins, Krouse figures.

And with his work mostly done, aside from troubleshooting any tech problems as they come up, Krouse picks up a controller at a fantasy themed multiplayer versus game. It's one of the kind that comes with a variety of different heroes to play as: wizards of different elemental types, fighters specializing in various weapons, rogues ranging from the stealth assassin to the chaos inciting trapmaker. The objectives shift between maps and match types, from capture the flag to straightforward defeat in combat. It's not hard to pick up the basics of the gameplay loop, but mastering the mechanics is meant to be a challenge.

It's the perfect thing to keep himself occupied for a while, as long as he can loop in some opponents. He flags down anyone he knows might be interested, that he knows at all, or that just happen to be free when a new match screen comes up. ]

Hey. Want to give this a try?

[ He smiles almost innocently, tapping the back of the chair next to him. ]

3. detention
[ The first time he was in high school, Krouse spent less time in detention than most people thought he deserved. He was good at getting away with things, better at finding ways to do whatever he wanted to do within the letter of the law.

But that had been when he'd had reasons to give a damn about the consequences. Chances are that he still should here, however much Aurora has let them get away with in the past, but then again, the delinquent is surely as necessary a part of the high school ecosystem as cheerleaders and teacher's pets. Someone has to serve as a cautionary tale.

Besides, detention isn't all bad. It's a great time to get through homework without any better options to distract him. Krouse spends his time under the watchful eye of their teacher supervisor bent over his notebooks, freely half-assing his way through his assignments. He'll wind up with Bs and the occasional A anyway, so there's not really a point to trying any harder than that.

When the teacher leaves the room for a break, warning them not to get up to anything on their way out the door, Krouse leans back in the plastic seat welded to the scarred desk and stretches luxuriously overhead with his fingers interlaced. He looks far too content for someone who's supposed to be getting punished. ]

4. contact / wildcard
[ If you want to plot something more specific out, you can drop by my plotting comment or get in touch via PM or terriblepurpose. ]

closed prompts

[equivo]

deliquency | nuvia

[equivo]

[ Krouse technically isn't cutting class yet. If he turns around in the next five minutes, he's really only been on an unreasonably long bathroom break.

That's probably not going to happen, but it's nice to occasionally entertain the possibility that today might be the day where you shape up. As long as he hasn't quite committed to slipping out a less-watched side door, he's just stretching his legs on the way back to where he belongs, and who's to say he hasn't gotten lost, what with the new school and all?

He's not so sure that series of excuses applies to...whatever the girl he sees when he turns a hallway corner is attempting. He stops where he is, eyeing her dubiously, and then glances up and down the hall for potential witnesses. ]

What are you doing?

[utinam]

[School was nothing like Nuvia imagined it would be. For some reason, the teachers are all picking on her just because her father was in charge of the PTA. They kept consistently reminding Nuvia to shape up with her grades or else she'll be kicked out of the cheerleading squad and her father will be informed about the situation as well. Some even had the nerve to lecture her about it in front of the entire class as though she was doing her father and class a favor by reminding them the consequences of getting bad grades. It didn't help matters when the cheerleading squad scolded her for forgetting the cheerleading uniform they have given her yesterday. It was school spirit week. She was expected to wear it all week for the pep rallies.

At that point, Nuvia had enough of being bossed around and scolded over nothing. She was going to find a way to escape without getting caught by anyone. The minute she was free, she was going to wear her cloud made dress like she is supposed to.

Even though she was firm on her decision to leave, finding the courage to do it was another matter entirely. Won't her father get in trouble if she escapes? Will it ruin his reputation as the PTA advisor? It was tough to say, not to mention she would be making a terrible example to her older brother too. After literally forcing him to go to school against his will and everything...

The more she thought about it, the less and less she wanted to do it until she overhears someone's inquiry. Quickly turning around to check their identity, only to find it was another student and not a teacher; a sigh will escape at the realization.]

Shh! Don't tell anyone, but I'm leaving.

[equivo]

[ Krouse raises his eyebrows slightly at the girl with what appears to be a cloud stuck to her head, and resolutely decides that any 'head in the clouds' jokes are low hanging fruit. He doesn't know when or if there would be an occasion for them, but it's good to establish some lines in the sand ahead of time. ]

Okay.

[ He looks at the doors, then back to her, shrugging lightly. ]

The doors aren't alarmed, if you're wondering. [ He pauses, then tacks on: ] That means I'm not going to tell anyone.

[ Talking to Sandalphon has been teaching Krouse that he can't expect everyone to pick up on implications he doesn't state aloud, and besides that - maybe he just doesn't feel particularly compelled to be a smartass right off the bat. ]

1

[myagic]

[Even if Rita hadn't already resented being forced to go to school, any novelty represented by the experience would've worn off quickly. The classes are dull, the teachers are boring, the rooms stuffy and crowded, and they expect her to attend all day? As if.

--Especially when it's a useless class like English, or whatever other Earth language she was supposed to be in (was it Spainish? Spinish? Whatever.). What's the point of learning that when everyone here understands each other anyway?

This leads to Rita readily ditching class. Sometimes she's gone to the library where she can read in peace, but today she's with Natsuno, and they've decided to head outside instead. The bleachers offer somewhere they can avoid being spotted for a while, though Rita wrinkles her nose as the acrid smell of something burning reaches her nostrils. It's particularly unpleasant, yet familiar, though it's only once she spots the person responsible that it clicks.]

YOU-?!

[Her voice raises in a furious accusation, because how dare Krouse exist at all after the stunt he pulled, let alone be here of all places!!]

[neverleave]

[Natsuno would rather leave school premises altogether, but some locals were either tasked with reporting truants or just really bored, and the last thing he needs is having his "parents" called in. Besides, he's with Rita today, which already makes things much better. The bleachers seem like a good place to hide for a while and talk. One of them will put their head in the other's lap, maybe some other stuff -

Except that the bleachers reek. Natsuno pulls a face and quickly spots the culprit, but Rita screams before he can say anything.]

Can we not? [Of course he's heard all about THAT JERK KROUSE AND HIS DIRTY TRICKS, HOW DARE HE. And yeah, that was a dick move. But Natsuno's knows Rita's temper and long resolved to stay out of these conflicts.] Let's just find another place.

[equivo]

[ Krouse takes a drag of his cigarette as Rita's righteous shriek slices through the air, then taps the ash off to the side. He keeps his eyes down, his mouth carefully schooled to a neutral line. ]

Hey, Natsuno. [ He says, mildly. ] How's it going?

[ He lifts his head slightly, finally looking Rita head on. It's still kind of fascinating how much vibrating outrage she can cram into such a tiny body. It was more entertaining when it was at a safely dodge-able distance. He drops his foot off the bleacher strut he had it propped against and rocks forward a little in preparation for whatever she's almost certainly going to throw at him. ]

Rita.

[myagic]

[Natsuno would rather this didn't blow up, and there is a part of her that thinks they should just find somewhere that doesn't reek and leave this jerk to drying out his lungs, or whatever it is he's doing.

Unfortunately, that part of her is drowned out by the louder, far angrier part that really wants to see him smoke. Entirely. And that urge only grows when he has the stupid nerve to stupidly ignore her while also casually greeting Natsuno like he's never done anything wrong in his life?!]

Don't "Rita" me! What the hell do you have to say for yourself, you jerk?! You idiot?!

[She raises a hand, a red glow already suffusing it in preparation. Maybe someone should mention fire might not be the best idea...]

1.

[nitropowered]

[Normally, Katsuki wouldn't even think about skipping class, and it wouldn't be so easy back home. Of course he could skip out the whole day, but coming and going isn't so easy when he's locked in a homeroom instead of moving from class to class. It's still taking some getting used to.

This morning, though, he'd had a new task on the family calendar - 'skip a class', so instead of going to health class, he heads out of the school with his gym bag hooked over one shoulder, scowling slightly as he tries to figure out what to do. Having never skipped class before, he really doesn't know what people usually do when they skip. Go to a café? Maybe that works.

Circling around the school toward the back where the playing fields are, he decides to cut under the bleachers and across an abandoned lot to a little café he saw there. What he doesn't expect is running into someone else under the bleachers. Smoking. Katsuki's nose wrinkles slightly, but he alters his path to cross the other boy's.]

Who're you?

[equivo]

[ Someone looks like he's in a sunny mood. Krouse smiles with feigned winsomeness, tilting his head slightly to one side as he finishes the drag on his cigarette and exhales a billow of smoke through his nose. ]

Krouse.

[ There's no reason to assume hostility, so he won't. He does take note of the guy's build in an off-handed way that's not really scoping him out as a potential threat, because that's not the context they find themselves in. It's just that it combines with the gym bag to suggest a certain athletic bent that might mean they won't end up with much to talk about.

Then again, he's been working on expanding his mind when it comes to jocks, courtesy of one Fabian Seacaster. Maybe this will be the beginnings of a beautiful friendship. ]

Who are you?

[nitropowered]

[The expression on the guy's face is instantly annoying, but Katsuki doesn't comment on it or anything, more curious than annoyed. Krouse. The name sounds familiar, but it still takes him a few moments to place it - a friend of Deku's, he thinks. The one Deku was spilling all Katsuki's stuff to.]

Ah. I'm Bakugo. Bakugo Katsuki.

[A pause, and he looks the other boy up and down, from the top of his head to the soles of his shoes, then back up again. He looks like a delinquent, not the type of person who'd be friends with Deku, the goody-two-shoes that he is. Skipping class. Smoking under the bleachers.

This whole damn place is like it's out of a Western teen romance drama. It's ridiculous.]

You're a friend of Deku's, aren't you?

2

[ontologically]

You set this all up?

[She'd checked in out of curiosity mostly, to see what Krouse was up to. She didn't have a lot of friends and he's... a largely positive aquaintance at least. She never had time for video games. When she was younger she had a bit of a passion for film - Earth Aleph film specifically, but that's about as far as she went into nerd territory.

Still. She's surprised. She doesn't get the impression that Krouse is or was lazy, but she also couldn't really imagine going to the effort if it were her.]

Didn't even realize you were into video games honestly.

[equivo]

[ Krouse's smile widens into a grin as he takes his hand off the back of the chair and leans back in his own, his head tipping into a relaxed loll. ]

Old hobby. I've been picking it back up with all this extra time on our hands.

[ He could mention it was a hobby he was nationally ranked in, and that it was a little bit more than a hobby, but he's not sure how it'd land. More than that, though, he doesn't necessarily want to tip his hand to the general milling masses.

It also wouldn't look great to hype himself up too much in front of a game he hasn't mastered yet. ]

It was also on my assignment list. I thought I might as well knock something easy out early. Hence, the set up.

What about you? A fellow connoisseur of the digital arts, perhaps? [ He arches his eyebrows, playing up the bit. ] Or more of a dabbler in the realm of virtual entertainments?

[ontologically]

[She lets out a scoff.]

First of all, never talk like that again. You'll start sounding like my dad.

[The good one that is, and by that she of course means the bad one. Discounting squirrel girl. And the fact that she's probably not even supposed to have a dad here.]

I didn't really have time. Like, we had the systems and sometimes I'd play them with my sister and cousins [Plus Dean.] when we were a bit younger but I wouldn't say it was a hobby or anything.

2 (i'll skip the question just so other people can have that for an entrypoint) 😌

[tinflower]

[ Gorgug pops his head in not for himself, but while looking for Adaine.

Because she's a part of the A.V. Club, back home--and so while this might not be home, sometimes, a predisposed habit makes you do things that you otherwise wouldn't. No harm can come from it, and the noise is attractive in itself, though Gorgug isn't really one to be lured in by social activity.

But what keeps him is a familiar figure. One he hasn't gotten to speak to since the ship, but one who'd had his head on his shoulders. A friend of Fabian's--that latter part being noteworthy, and so he doesn't mind coming in, lacking his oversized axe from his shoulders, and still dressed similarly to how he had been on the ship.

(But maybe the style of hoodie and jeans matches better here than in space.) ]

Hey, man. [ Hi again. ] You like videogames?

[ Could this have been a task? Yes. Is Gorgug assuming that? No, his voice curious, only a little surprised, but not in any outstanding manner. ]

[equivo]

[ Krouse is between opponents when Gorgug approaches, his last one having laughed off her close loss and drifted over to watch one of her friends in the middle of a tricky platformer. Krouse looks up from the selection of maps he was scrolling through with a relaxed, easy smile, nodding his greeting.

Gorgug does look more at home in a high school than he did on a space station. Especially this high school. The girl whose dual wielding fighter he just beat had tiny golden scales peeking out of her sleeves and above the collar of her bright pink sweater. ]

Hey. Grab a seat if you're sticking around. I'm not waiting on anyone. [ He has a hunch Gorgug is probably more comfortable with open invitations than implicit ones. ] And I do like videogames. Lucky for me, or this whole project would be excruciating.

What about you? I know yours run on crystals, but I got the impression they're not that different. I tried finding some magical consoles for this, actually, but no joy on that front.

[tinflower]

[ SCALE PEOPLE IN PINK SWEATERS??--

No, there's no recognition here, except in the guy spoken to, an offer that's taken as Gorgug, with a 'sure' as he carefully--slower than necessarily, but not comedically so--places himself into a seat. ]

As long as there's still good games. [ Right?, is implied, that neither their system really matters more than that; but probably speaks of familiarity before Gorgug continues. ] But, not really-- I play games on my crystal, and I used to go to the arcades, but-- but not in a long time.

[ Which does make him pause, figure to share, since there's an interst there for the other: ]

A lot of the game cases at the arcade-- it looks a lot like the arcade in Elmville. It doesn't look that different. [ His lips pinch, a flash of something awkward--or just entirely Gorgug--as he adds, ] But I didn't hang around.

[ An aversion, almost sheepish, but acting like nothing. ]

3.

[micycle]

[The one other kid in the room isn't displaying near the same amount of ease with the situation. In fact, he's been bouncing his bony leg so hard for the last few minutes that the desk has begun to rattle, an irritant that only increases once the teacher leaves the room. He keeps flicking his eyes up to the clock on the wall, only to find that the battery must have long-since died - it's been stuck at 2:15 for over ten minutes, now.

Before his nervous shaking can be interrupted, he finally breaks the (relative) silence:]

How long does this usually last?

[Somebody isn't as accustomed to the delinquent life.]

[equivo]

[ Krouse has been trying to tune the other guy's fidgeting out for sympathy's sake. He's a veteran knee bouncer himself when he's not redirecting to something else. It's still annoying, but it's somewhat comforting to know it's definitely pissing everyone else off more than it is him. ]

Half an hour to an hour, generally. They don't want to be here any longer than they have to be either. [ He half-smiles. ] Keep that up, and maybe they'll kick you out early. Or give you another one for tomorrow.

On the other hand, this is a fake school run by a mysterious AI, so who knows? Maybe they'll lock us in overnight chained to the desks, or march us down to the basement to use us as human batteries for the janitors.

[ He's aware he's being a little bit of a dick, but he does mean that as a joke. ]

1.

[rootlessly]

[The newest task on the family calendar just so happens to be attend a PTA meeting, specifically assigned to Vash. Something about it being important for both parents to be present in their children's lives, career notwithstanding.

So here he is on the upper school campus to fulfill his "parental" obligation without Rosie, looking both incredibly lost and desperately nervous. He's even wearing a nice new blazer instead of his usual worn red SEES jacket, fidgeting uncomfortably with the brand new shiny clothing tag rubbing against the back of his neck.

Incredibly, he is also three hours early, having copied down the time wrong as 6 when it was asked of him, but he hasn't noticed that yet. The sight of a person seems to hearten Vash all the same, however, and he raises a hand to try to flag down Krouse's attention.]

Excuse me, sorry to bother you, ah--do you know where I can find the main office? I'm here for the PTA meeting, but I'm a little lost ahaha. My um. My...--

[cough, cough. he clears his throat, trying to salvage this before his voice gets high and squeaky from embarrassment]

R-Rosie usually does dropoffs and pickups so she's more familiar with the layout here, and all...

[equivo]

[ Krouse raises a diffident hand back, taking in the stranger with a swift, incisive once over. Dressed up for an occasion, nervous about it, and as soon as he starts talking fairly unlikely to be a problem. ]

The front door is on the other side of the building, up the steps. Can't miss it. You go in and walk down the hall until you see the sign on the ceiling for the office.

[ There's no reason not to be forthcoming. He gives the guy a slight smile, shifting his shoulders against the strut he's leaning on. Everyone's friends here. ]

Are you helping set up?

2.

[furiousfists]

[ When Adaine had joined the AV Club back in Elmville, it had mostly been as an excuse to keep an eye on the suspicious incel nerdlords who worked there, and to gain access to the surveillance systems that the corrupt faculty had installed and let the AV nerds oversee the running of. But when one of her assignments in this "mission" were to join an after school activity... Well, she figured she might as well fall back on the familiar.

Gaming has never been her thing, although she has given it more of a shot since arriving on Etraya than she ever did back in Elmville. Partly because in Elmville she had better, more important, world-saving level things to do, and partly because the people inviting her to play games in Etraya were a lot cooler than Skrank or Shellford.

It would seem the same is true in Moorecroft as well.

Adaine's mostly assisted with the setup of this little event— cable-wrangling, lining up chairs with tables, that sort of thing. But she's pretty much finished with her tasks by the time Krouse extends an invitation to join him in whatever fantasy game he's playing.

She sighs. ] I suppose I might as well. [ Though, as she sits down, picks up a controller, and enters the character selection screen, she adds a caveat. ] As long as you don't mind me critiquing the inaccuracies of their magic systems the whole time.

[equivo]

[ There's nothing wrong with the Moorecroft club members that Krouse has picked up on. They're friendly enough, if generally uptight about their space and their things, but some friction is predictable. Normal, really.

So he's not relieved to have a fellow Etrayan he's familiar with around, because that would imply he has anything to be relieved about. Maybe it's just nice to not be the only new kid in a group. That doesn't quite make them a team, but it does give them a common interest. He keeps track of things like that the same way he keeps track of all the other moving parts of this predictable, normal scenario.

None of these not-exactly-calculations are relevant to this invitation. This is just being friendly. ]

Mind? [ And friendliness is already paying dividends, Krouse brightening as he nods. ] Absolutely not. Critique away. I want to hear everything.

[ The character selection screen shows each avatar next to a block of stats, their stylized, cartoonish model, and a corner camera series of clips of their signature moves. If it's magic users Adaine wants, there's plenty to choose from. ]

How about we take some digital wizards toe to toe? See how they measure up?

[furiousfists]

[ Adaine presses the buttons on her controller hesitantly, holding it with the grip of someone not used to holding gaming controllers. She scrolls through the different mage options, seemingly unimpressed by everything on display. ]

Sure... I'll start with the clothing options. I know that most magic users don't wear armor, but a bikini... dress... thing...? That's just impractical!