etrayalogs | DECEMBER MINGLE

Entry tags:

DECEMBER MINGLE

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: December 21st - Early January
WHERE: Etraya
WHAT: Newcomers, a surprise gift from Tatianna, and a visitor!
NOTES\WARNINGS:

⏵ arrival ⏴
Welcome to Etraya!

Arrival goes as expected - characters awaken on hospital beds and are offered an explanation of their situation: that they have arrived in the city of Etraya, and they are their world's only hope. They are welcome to wander the hospital if they would like to - the upper floors are mostly empty, full of pristine hallways and numerous rooms filled with supplies, cots, and things one would expect from a relatively average 21st-century hospital.

The lobby is filled to the brim with tables of freshly baked goods. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" banners are taped to the walls, and several other typical birthday decorations can be found in this area. A few of the baked goods tables are lined with massive cakes covered in unlit candles, just waiting for someone to grab a lighter and sing off-key. Is it anyone's birthday? Who knows! The companion bots seem to believe it's every new arrival's birthday and will greet them as such - with friendly waves and cheers as they make their way to the lobby.

A coat rack is situated by the doors leading out of the hospital, covered in warm clothing that fits the new arrivals just right - whether it's to their preferred style or not is something else entirely. Some of them appear normal enough. Others? Well. They can't all be perfect, now can they?

Outside the windows, the grass is covered in a couple of inches of loosely packed snow.

We hope you enjoy your stay.

⏵ an unexpected gift ⏴

Out by the hospital stands a tall, decorated tree covered in candles and golden pinecones with a handsome, red velveteen tree skirt. In front of it are a few oversized wrapped gifts for show- and atop one of those sits a familiar woman. Or unfamiliar, if this is your first time.

It's Tatianna in a slutty Santa outfit with a big ol’ burlap sack.

“Hey, I got something for you,” she says, digging into the bag and rummaging for a moment.

She produces a painted egg and holds it aloft.

“It’s your Winter Solstice Egg! This is the egg holiday, right? Wait, shit. I’m mixing them up, aren’t I? ...Well. It’s a little late to change it. Here you go!”

How one treats their egg is fully up to themselves. They can choose to ignore it entirely, or destroy it and leave the yolk and innards to rot on the ground. They can hand it over to someone else or care for it as if it were something precious. No one will prevent them from doing whatever they please with it!

⏵ naughty or nice ⏴However, how they treat the egg will define how the egg treats them in return.

Those who keep the egg and tend to it will get the benefit of being able to watch it hatch seven days after they are handed the egg. Eggs that are treated with attention and love may yield a loyal companion, or a weapon of choice that always returns to its owner, while neglected eggs may yield a curious, cursed trinket or an animal who treats its new owner very much the same way its owner had treated it before it was born.

Please submit an egg request below for what items you would like your character's eggs to hatch into! Please note that these cannot be things that would be applicable in the game.

Those whose eggs are destroyed or forgotten will simply get the gift of... nothing!

⏵ free your spirit ⏴

With the winter chill gripping the air, a mysterious figure makes their presence known in Etraya - a towering, horned creature dragging a massive sack behind them.

𝓐 𝖍𝖔𝖚𝖘𝖊 𝖇𝖚𝖎𝖑𝖙 𝖔𝖓 𝖑𝖎𝖊𝖘 𝖍𝖆𝖘 𝖆 𝖜𝖊𝖆𝓴 𝖋𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓.

Regardless of a character's strengths or weaknesses, they will find that when Krampus raises his massive sack over their head, they are powerless to stop him from catching them. Those capable of great magical feats or other supernatural abilities will sense something... otherworldly about Krampus, but will not be able to place the source of that sensation.

Once within Krampus' sack, they are welcome to fight, but escape is impossible. It will feel as if Krampus is dragging them over every rock possible, dragging the sack in through the rivers to the point it soaks through and drenches them - potentially almost drowning them.

When the sack opens, they will find themselves in an impossibly dark space. Around them are others who have also been captured and dragged here by Krampus, trapped in small cages hanging from a massive, wiry tree.

Krampus will return often, banging clawed hands and birch rods on the walls of the cages and knocking them into one another.
𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖋𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘𝖘.
The whisper resonates through the darkened area, regardless of Krampus' presence. Confess your secrets, and be freed. Otherwise? You'd better hope someone figures out where Krampus has set up base; those who refuse to confess may find themselves stuck here forever.

⏵ NOTES ⏴

Krampus' base is under Etraya! Deep within the catacombs, he has set up multiple cages to capture those who inhabit Etraya to punish them for their naughty habits. Fighting him is possible! Defeating him by means of combat is not, however, possible. Think of it like fighting a god: Krampus creates the rules in the space around him, including who can use what ability.

For all questions relating to this log, please refer to the mod queries comment. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ.

⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's quite a list Yuri's given already. Kirk mentally notes all of that and will need to add it to his files later. He's already been building one since arrived in Etraya.

"Dark muck?" Kirk asks. That last item sounded a bit vague.

"Can't say I really know what it was, but its effect was like some infection that plagued the mind. Someone I know was already on edge, but it threw him off the deep end. Made his eyes glow, too." Yuri got the distinct impression that Dimitri was torn between hurting him and protecting him at the time. The man was more tortured than ever before, and Goddess, that alone is a feat. "Never seen the like, before this place... Heard people call it some kind of corruption."

That doesn't bode well. Though Kirk has lived with his condition for over years now, he still considers it a corruption. It only takes a few days of not drinking blood before he acts more like a rabid beast than a man. It's a tightrope he walks every second and it's why he hasn't given up on making a cure. It sounds like this dark substance is something he'll have to stay clear of.

"How prominent is it? Is there a way to cure this corruption?" He asks.

Yuri wishes he has a better grasp of just what that corruption actually was, beyond some shard of some big, evil thing. Others could understand it better, but it was all Yuri and Claude could do to knock Dimitri out and bring him back to his senses. Had they not been cunning about that (and if Claude wasn't a good shot) they'd have been in serious trouble.

"Others may have more insight, but my understanding is it's some evil that hitched a ride here. Started with some, spread to others, fomenting terror. Haven't seen it in a while, but I don't exactly trust that." Even if not the same thing, something similar might be out there. Yuri may come from a small, unadvanced world, but that doesn't mean he hasn't run into evil, supernatural nonsense. "As for curing people, you have to get them on board with fighting it off."

Fighting as a way to get someone back to their senses isn't new to Kirk. It's what Hernan has come close to before Kirk pulls himself together again. So Yuri's explanation doesn't bother him.

"Almost like a virus that's gone dormant," Kirk muses. "How long ago was that?"

"Been a couple months now," Yuri replies with a shrug. Other things have happened since, but that incident will stick with him. People losing themselves to some pervasive influence always will. A loss of agency is, after all, his nightmare scenario. "Haven't seen something like it since, but I don't take that to mean we won't."

"Many things seem possible here," Kirk agrees. Just the idea that they've all been suddenly pulled in across the multiverse and fed a dubious excuse for why suggests many things. Particularly if so-called hosts (wardens?) were holding them captive for darker reasons.

"How long have you been here?"

"Oh, right around half a year now..." Yuri says it casually, as though he hasn't counted the days. No one needs to know how very aware he is of the true length of his tenure. Well, no one but Dimitri, but now he's apparently vanished.

Hopefully he went home. Hopefully his war is over. Yuri sorely wishes to believe it, though he struggles to. "Others have been here far longer, if the network's anything to go by."

“For something so high stakes, our esteemed hosts don’t seem very forward with how we’re supposed to save our worlds,” Kirk says, holding up his egg and looking it over again. Is this one of the activities Aurora meant? We’re they supposed to bond over eggs?

"They certainly don't." Yuri agrees with him easily, shifting his egg bundle in his arms. It's something that has stuck with him in his tenure here. "Sometimes they test our teamwork, our willingness to sacrifice for others... Then other times they have us competing against each other. Maybe it's some evaluation of the qualities we embody as representatives of our worlds, but I'm not convinced that's so."

It somehow feels a little too much like these are just ideas someone had on the fly, but he's biased as the planning and plotting sort.

"They sound like messy character tests," Kirk says, frowning. "They could be just excuses and we might be more like entertainment to them."

Kirk has seen the darkest parts of humanity over the years. It's easy for him to imagine someone having darker ulterior motives.

"Has anyone ever left here?"

"The thought's crossed my mind." It could be an elaborate jest. It could be some elaborate theatrical performance for some unseen audience, for all they know. Yuri'd despise the latter, but they're so much in the dark that there's just no telling.

His first answer to the question is a frown and an uneasy shift of weight. "Don't know whether leaving's the word for it, but I've had some familiar faces vanish on me."

"Perhaps they were sent back home," Kirk says. It's only a guess though and it could be a mixed blessing at best. There was still much to learn about Etraya.

"I'd like to think it. Rather they be home than here." Let him handle this — they're needed back home. Dimitri can end the suffering of their people, and he knows the man loves them enough to work toward that goal. As long as that can be achieved, Yuri is willing to endure what their overseers throw at him here. "Home's predictable. This isn't."

Kirk nods. That's certainly the impression he's had of Etraya so far. If there's a logic to who or what gets pulled into here he can't see it yet. Even the buildings don't make sense as they're all clearly from different worlds. It's like someone took jigsaw puzzle pieces from different sets and try to jam them all together.

"Perhaps there are patterns we're not seeing yet."

Kirk would certainly like to get to the bottom of it.

Patterns seem likely. Certain minds will incline toward certain sorts of ideas. Plans and preferences can be linked to individuals if seen enough to be recognized.

"Might be easier to stay on top of all this if we managed to spot them." He suggests it by way of agreement.

"Something might emerged if someone pays close enough attention," he says. He's been going through old network posts and collect some information from there. Evidently others have tried to investigate.

"Or perhaps the chaotic nature gives more credence to the entertainment theory."

"Authors and artists have pet themes and subjects, don't they? Maybe if we looked at it from that angle, it'd make better sense." Yuri's been down this mental avenue before, but he hasn't had someone to discuss it with this way. With some, the risk contemplating a demoralizing prospect too deeply wasn't worth having another potential perspective. "...As much as anything can make sense here."

He punctuates the words with a nod toward their eggs.

"True. It's worth a perspective," Kirk calmly says. Demoralizing or not, Kirk is used to having to consider all possibilities given his time as a scientist and a vigilante.

He looks at his egg. He'll need to take it to a lab.

"Do you recognize it?"

Yuri shakes his head. Knowing how things work here, it's probably nothing that any of them could easily identify. "Too large for any bird my world's got, and too small for a wyvern, so your guess is as good as mine."

He just hopes it's something that won't bite them when all's said and done.

"Great," Kirk dryly says. He then remembers an earlier conversation he had with Kimie. "Do you think anything is native to Etraya?"

Yuri folds his arms, weighing the notion. "Best I can tell, it was just Aurora and her mechanical brigade... Though that begs the question of how she came to be here to begin with."

"Perhaps Echo is their creator," Kirk suggests, remembering when he messaged Aurora about his... dietary accommodations. "She seems to follow them at least."

"It'd make good enough sense. Cities like this one seem to have a similar setup." Yuri offers up that tidbit, shifting the egg in his arms. He doesn't know as much as others may about it, busy as he was working on Dimitri's mental health and trying to play his role well enough to succeed in their first bizarre mission together. "Though how well they get on and how long they've been at it varies. Some guy mentioned on the network that some other city has been at it years, if what they told him is to be believed."

...He backreads too.

Behind his red goggles, Kirk raises an eyebrow in interest.

"There've been other multiverse hubs?" he asks.

The theories behind alternate universes were always complicated but that detail further mucks up unpacking how they work.

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the way kirk is contemplating jamjars

He's not wrong...

It's true

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