etrayalogs | MISSION 004 (part 1)

MISSION 004 (part 1)

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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

⏵ welcome home / Peter Parker ⏴

[Peter looks... so tired.

It's not very long into his current status as 'teenaged single dad', though a week of time certainly feels like an eternity when you've got a robot baby with a mean case of colic. Crying when she's 'fed', crying when she's 'changed', crying when she's sick of society — you name it, Baby has suffered it. And her suffering leads to Peter Parker suffering. Sitting on a park bench and rocking a baby stroller, one may notice he has dozed off and is just doing it on muscle memory now.

Tragic. Absolutely tragic. When he startles back awake, the exhaustion is palpable.

The moment the baby starts making fussy noises, a soft whine of complex human suffering escapes Pete's mouth.]

Please please please don't cry. I'll do anything...

Why does this place do this to people? This is diabolical.

[When the baby is at home, being watched momentarily by poor Connor or Fett, Peter prefers to find somewhere a little more familiar for him — just to catch a moment of peace, really. He climbs up the side of the school when nobody's looking and finds a nice, flat space on the roof that reminds him a lot of home. It's an immediate comfort, somewhere he can lay down and relax. Him and a good book; this one's some kind of Lord of the Rings from another universe or something, but it's no less engaging as he snacks on totally unhealthy junk food he'd bought and carried up in a plastic bag.

And while he's enjoying the quiet? He would not be against the company, if it presented itself.]

⏵ honey do's | Peter Parker ⏴

[Another interesting place to find Peter Parker: at his parttime gig at the local coffee shop. It's actually not that out there, because he had been applying for the local barista gigs back home before he'd arrived here. It just makes sense, right? And frankly, he kind of likes it, even if he sucks at the job at first. There are always so many steps to people's coffees, and it just makes him miss MJ handing him some basic, bland coffee and a doughnut for the road.

Not the time to get heartsick, right? But he can't help but stare at the cup of coffee he's made with a sort of wishful, melancholy frown. Every time he tells himself how ridiculous all of this is, he just thinks about Ned and her, and how their lives could very well be hanging in the balance of whatever these 'tests' are. Makes it hard to do anything else but your best, even if it could all be B.S., right?

... Sorry if he's staring at your coffee cup that you're waiting on.

He'll be here until closing, since he just handles the last few hours of the day there. Feel free to squeeze in a cold bagel and what's left of the drinks, just before closing. He's here mopping and putting up chairs, but he'll more than happily take one down for a world-weary Etrayan who needs a breather.

If you don't find him at the cafe, he may just be completing some of the other silly to-do list tasks.

Knock, knock, neighbors.

His include:

→ Bake a neighbor a cake.
→ Offer to mow a neighbor's lawn.
→ Babysit someone else's child or children.
→ Pet-walk for someone else in the town.
→ Tutor someone struggling with homework.

Feel free to use any of these in a starter.]

⏵ night watch ⏴ | Spider-Man

[Once his baby is put down for the night (please stay asleep all night, missy), Peter sneaks out of his window with his Spider-Man suit donned and ready. He has to admit... it's been easier these days just being Spidey, not Peter. Much easier to just pretend there's nothing else going on behind the mask, or at the very least, there's nothing anyone else can see through. He crawls atop people's roofs with expert quietness, sneaking by robots on patrol and ducking away when his spidey senses go off in a big way; last thing he wants is to stir up trouble. Or to see anyone else wrapped up in it, either.

When he sees another person from Etraya going around in the night, he drops down behind them.]

Psst. What're you doing out here? Don't you know it's dangerous?

[Just how dangerous, he hasn't quite gotten yet. As far as he knows, the bots will probably just escort them back to their homes. In a very rude way, mind you, but that's been the extent of the drama so far.

At some point, that's gonna change.

It starts with Peter hearing something going off in the distance — someone yelling, or some loud, terrible metallic noise. Maybe the sound of gunfire, or metal clanging against metal. Whatever the case may be, Spider-Man's not about to leave you to fight off the bots and their abundant, differing weaponry; he web-slings straight for the heart of the racket, eager to try and get it resolved.

Maybe you're getting dragged back toward your home, or maybe you're in the middle of a nasty skirmish with a bunch of these bots. Either way, Spider-Man's gonna be there and ready to have your back and try to get you outta there in one peace.]

⏵ after night watch ⏴ | Spider-Man

[Knock, knock.

You get the knock at the door at an ungodly hour. What time is it? One in the morning? Gotta be one in the morning. But the knock happens again, this time a little more urgently. If you're quick to answer, Spider-Man will be leaning awkwardly against the front column of your porch, or perhaps the wall of your house, trying to play it cool with folded arms and a casual attitude.]

Hey! Nice night, right? Was just gonna stop in... see how things are going...

[There are obvious rips and tears on his spidey suit that implies he has had ninja stars, knives, and bullets thrown at him. Is that a singed glove? Did he get singed by a flame-thrower? Or even weirder, he may show up with his hands locked together by some weird cartoonishly large cuffs that were deployed on him by the bots.

Basically, just expect him to not look remotely casual despite his tone.

He's just trying to find a place to hunker down and escape the bots currently looking for him.

... And yes, if you don't answer the door quickly enough, he will crawl in through the window.

... Even in the cuffs.]

[One particular night went... poorly. That's a word for it. Peter would think of a lot of other words if he wasn't busy bleeding half of his blood between his fingers. Who would have thought there were bots that had no effect on his danger senses? After all of this time, it had worked like usual — danger here, danger there, danger up above! — until the moment it just didn't. How the end of the fight went doesn't matter as much as him scrambling to get back to his home, sore and dizzy from the pain that is currently pulsing in his lower back, straight through his abs.

Totally shot. On the bright side, it was through-and-through? And on the brighter side, he's pretty sure nothing was hit? but now that the adrenaline's worn off a little, he very quickly realizes he's gonna lose way too much blood for it to be comfortable. In the process of thinking all this, he goes to open what he thinks is his own bedroom window, just to find it — locked? No, this is his house. Right? Did someone lock it behind him?

As Chrissy likely begins to prepare for bed, she'll hear a very concerning tapping noise on the living room window.

Totally not the start of a horror movie. No ma'am.

The bloody handprint on the glass is also not a horror movie thing.

Don't even consider it.]

[Describing this place as bizarre would be an understatement. For someone who spent her entire life in one boring little town in Indiana, having to spend more time in a fake small town with a coat of pastel paint in some universe that isn't her own is just... dumb.

But if she has to be stuck with someone for the duration, she's kind of relieved that it's someone vaguely familiar. She's still trying to wrap her head around the assignment, and the fact that Mike is barely four years younger than her just makes it all the more amusing.

It's late and the house is silent- and while she's hoping that means that Mike has already gone to bed, she's decided not to push that too hard when her own relationship with sleep is still so sketchy.

Just as she's about to get into bed, she hears something tapping on a window in another part of the house. It's a small house and there aren't that many windows, so it takes her all of two minutes to pinpoint where the noise was coming from- and stop dead in her tracks at the sight of the bloody handprint.

Common sense dictates that she should call someone, or tell someone, but there's really no way to tell how long it would take to find someone willing to do something about it. Then again, maybe it's just a weird handprint and there's no need to do anything about it aside from cleaning the window tomorrow.

Either way, she's decided to wait for now, in case there's something else to see.]

[As if the moment wasn't spooky enough, the rap-tap-tapping is joined by another eerie sound - a creak, low and then high, coming from down the dark hallway behind Chrissy. It's joined a moment later by a footstep, and then another, squeaking on old floorboards. Closer, and closer still, and then-

The hallway lights flick on overhead, flooding into the front room.]

Hey, did you get more milk?

[Mike's hair is somehow even messier in the middle of the night, sticking out in at least seven different directions. He pauses, rubs at his eyes, and frowns.]

... What are you doing?

Edited 2024-07-21 14:36 (UTC)

[Mike's inquiry is punctuated by another slap against the window, dull and menacing. The red hand looks quite unsightly in the darkness outside of the glass, and the sound of the window's latch being shaken is unmistakable. Someone -- nay, something -- is trying to get inside their home, and if the low groan is anything to go by, it is clearly a demon or ghost or horrible monster. They're from Hawkins, so there are not very many other options, you know?

Anyway, you have about fifteen seconds to formulate a plan, because the mysterious red hand is apparently strong enough to wrench the locked window open without any trouble whatsoever, and the white-eyed figure with blood-soaked hands and strained breaths is fixing to slide through the opening.

True horror. True terror! R.L. Stine wishes he'd made it up.]

Edited 2024-07-23 04:15 (UTC)

[Any other time, Mike's presence would be comforting. Right now, though, she nearly jumps out of her skin at the sight of him. It doesn't help that she hadn't turned on a light when she'd come in, or that the last time she'd been in a weird house, things had ended terribly for her. None of that was Mike's fault, though!]

Hey! Hi, yes. I got more milk.

[And, like, a bunch of other things as well- but none of that matters right now because there's very clearly someone lurking at the window... leaving bloody handprints and trying to come in.

There's no time to comment on Mike's crazy hair or point out the weirdness at the window, though, because Chrissy is already looking around for a weapon.

Unfortunately, the closest thing she can get her hands on is a hideous throw pillow, which she's absolutely brandishing like a sword.]

Peter Parker | MCU | OTA!

Closed Starter for Chrissy (and Mike!?)

I'm sorry. this is so many words for her to be like "????" lmao

here to help

i take these things very seriously

amazing. wonderful. no notes.

after night watch!

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after night watch bc this is wildly amusing to me

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welcome home

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after night watch

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three weeks late w starbucks....

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after night watch

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