etrayalogs | 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

[ Not long after they're all pushed together, Riz decides that it'll do him good to get to know the other people he's living with. It'll do them all some good, really; as harmonious as things seem so far, they don't know how long this whole thing will last, and he'll know how to act a little better if he gets a feel for everyone else's personalities.

(Riz is not, he knows, an easy person to live with. Sometimes he gets... worked up, in ways that he just can't seem to help. Figuring out how these people will react, if at all, will at least help prepare him for that eventuality.)

So when he sees Natasha as he's biking past the park, he ponders his options for a moment, then decides to approach her, walking his bike beside him. ]

Hey. [ He glances down at the robot baby, leaning down to wiggle his fingers at when one is summarily snatched and he clicks his tongue. ] Excuse me. I was using that.

[ He looks back up at Natasha, just letting the baby do as she pleases with his finger for now, deciding to just ignore how weird it is that a robot has saliva as she gnaws on his knuckle. ]

How's it going? Has she been good today?

[ It seems a cruel fate that Natasha's been left to. Riz has steered clear of the baby himself, and he knows that Hob and Ororo help when they're not at work... but suddenly being forced to be the caretaker of some kid day-in and day-out sounds much more challenging to him than any job could be. ]

[While they'd spent a little time here and there getting to know one another in passing, Nat hasn't spent the one on one time with Riz that she'd been hoping to. She feels that she's been a tiny bit neglectful there. She knows that she should do more than stop by his room and ask him how school's going, but her skills in parenting or anything close to it are supremely lacking.

Honestly, she doesn't have skills in communicating when it doesn't come to things like missions or training for combat. Perhaps it's a bit strange, but that's how the cards all fell in her life. She grew up in a Russian training program for young woman that took away any thoughts of a true childhood and instead trained them emotionally, physically and bodily to be first rate spies and assassins, doing what ever it took to get the job done.

The first day Riz had met her had been the most anyone (beyond her sister and the Avengers) had seen of her true personality in ages. She's got it wrapped up tight once more as she sits on the bench. Her eyes turn to him kindly when she realizes he's there. The cool, calm actress meets him. There's nothing of the turmoil that burns within. ]

She's been a bit fussy, that's why we're out for a walk. I see you've got your bike out. You know I would have happily picked you up in the car from school. Did everything go okay today, anything exciting happen?

No, not really. It was pretty boring. Just class as usual.

[ Too boring, boring in a way that feels like a simulacrum of what normalcy is supposed to look like for a specific kind of person. But he knows that he's been a little heavy on the conspiracy theories, and for the sake of proper socializing he has to tone it down from time to time, so that's what he decides to do. Not every thought needs to be spoken out loud. ]

Y'know, I don't think I ever asked you what you did back home? Not this, I'm guessing, [ he says, gesturing at the busy playground in front of them. ] I don't think I've met a single person here whose life back home wasn't... exciting.

[ Tumultuous, some may say. Rife with tragedy and conflict and the necessity to fight and fight and fight and fight.

But to Riz, young as he is in his adventuring career, it all just sounds exciting. Maybe he'll grow weary one day, but as he is now? He's still too excited for the adventures to come to consider what it's like when the adventures start getting old. ]

You know, I've never been to a normal school? I grew up in a place called Russia on my planet and was kidnapped by some really horrible people, well, my dad sold me into this place, anyways, they trained us to do pretty nasty stuff, but it wasn't ordinary.

[She shakes her head and laughs softly, looking down at the baby below them. Nope, there was never going to be one of those in her future. Even now, Natasha does her best not to get too attached to any part of this life. It's not who she is, nor can she let herself enjoy the comforts of it. She has to focus on the things that go bump, and on figuring out the intricacies of this strange neighborhood they live in.

So far she's gotten only one or two people to come to her margarita and quilting club. So much for local colorful gossip. ]

Me? I - um, well. I worked as a sort of person for hire, for things like gathering intel, taking people out and in general saving the world sort of thing. I was also a part of a larger group called The Avengers. We came together when needed to try and keep my universe safe from outside threats. I was your basic spy.

[There was a much larger resume in a book somewhere, but for the sake of not really knowing Riz she didn't want to drag out her entire history. He was still part of her family, and she wanted to offer him some leeway for being that. ]

How about you, what was your life back home like?

MISSION 004 (part 1)

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