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

[ He stares at Dean for another moment.

Then he bends his head, looking down at his own shoes rather than over at the other man holding his baby as he confesses: ]

My papa died almost two years ago. Now mama might soon be having a baby with her new boyfriend. [ Her boyfriend, because thinking of the man as his stepfather is still hard, still something else entirely that Fabian also struggles with.

It's not the sort of thing he usually talks about, but-- Maybe he's hoping Dean will understand, despite the obvious differences in their stories. ]

I-- I don't know how to--

[ He attempts to say more a few times, but then gives up, shaking his head. Instead he just adds, as if to summarize: ]

.. It is hard.

Edited 2024-08-29 19:32 (UTC)

[ He does get it, on some levels. There's very clearly differences, Dean's father never remarried, though he obviously fucked around. Which leads him to offer- ]

After Mom, we...were all over the place, staying in motels, sometimes sleeping in the car. Dad was so focused on trying to find the thing that killed her he sometimes forgot he had kids. [ He clears his throat, glancing at the baby he's holding, now mercifully asleep. Eardrums = saved. ]

But then he apparently fooled around with a lady in Minnesota, had a kid with her he never told us about. We only found Adam - our half brother - when he was, I dunno, eighteen? And... [ His jaw clenches, even after all these years, he has feelings about that.

Going into the ghoul crap isn't necessary, though, he's gonna skip that because Adam was real. The story was true. ]

And Dad made time to ditch us and go do stuff with him. Baseball games, fishing. Real father/son stuff, you know? We had no idea that's where he went some weekends when he left us to fend for ourselves. [ It's so fucked up, thinking back on it, and it still makes him angry. ] So...I do kinda get it. It was...really hard not to hate him. 'S not his fault, though.

[ It's not hard to notice the similarities and the differences in what Dean is telling him. Yes, the situation is very different from Fabian's own, but there are similarities enough in it that he can kind of understand how Dean must have felt, just like Dean must be able to understand the opposite.

It leaves Fabian quiet for a moment. It's all so much. He just stares at the silently sleeping baby instead as he's thinking about it all. ]

I don't think it's mama's fault either.

[ He says it quietly, like there's anyone else here to overhear them, even though there clearly isn't. ]

I just wish I could.. understand. I know she loves me, but sometimes it also seems like she just-- like she doesn't really care. [ A slight pause, and then he adds, almost carefully: ] You know?

Yeah, kid. I know.

[ He looks down at the little baby, remembers carrying Sam out of a burning house, just six months old, wondering if their dad was gtnona make it out too, or if he was losing both parents that night. ]

Hard line to walk. [ But maybe this little robobaby can help, in some way. It's sleeping now, and oh so gently he'll move to hand it back, cradle it just a little and flick away the disappointment he didn't get one, too. ]

[ Fabian takes the baby back when it looks like Dean is about to hand it over to him. Despite his trouble with getting the thing to sleep - something Dean seems to be a whole lot better at - there's something very gentle about the way he handles the little robot baby, like it isn't a robot. Like it's real.

He looks down at it for a moment, but then the young man turns his gaze back up to look over at Dean again. ]

.. uh. [ A little awkward, clearly. Like there's a part of Fabian that feels uncomfortable with having spoken about all of this, even though it technically is for the better. ] Thanks. For the help with the baby, I mean, but also for listening to all that nonsense I was saying.

[ Yeah. This is 100% teenage embarrassment after having spoken about feelings of any kind. ]

MISSION 004 (part 1)

cw: mention of family death

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