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 does strike me as something of a loose schedule," Yuri agrees easily, considering that while it may not be rigid, he has the distinct impression of a routine. "What they ask of us is less predictable so far, but the general timing's there."

"And how often do people arrive?" He asks. So much of Etraya feels... deliberate. Deliberate in what Kirk isn't sure about yet.

"Now that one I'd call much more regular. From what I've observed, it's routinely once a month," Yuri replies before fumbling to procure a little well-worn leatherbound notebook from somewhere in his fitted attire. This is followed by more fumbling to reach the right page (Kirk needn't know he writes down the name of every person he feels he's failed to save) before awkwardly maneuvering the notebook to show Kirk the arrival dates he's recorded in his tenure. "Been keeping track here."

Red eyes behind red goggles scan through the dates Yuri wrote. Kirk sees how consistent the dates appear to be. It somewhat reminds him of a lunar cycle.

“Perhaps those were the times easiest to pull people across the multiverse,” he says. “As if the usual barriers were at their weakest.”

"Your guess'd be better than mine. Proper astronomy isn't even a thing in my homeland, let alone the concept of a multiverse." The scale of it, for that matter, is deeply unnerving. Yuri tries not to dwell on it overlong, tucking his notebook away once more now that it has served its purpose. "I do my share of reading, but I'm running from well behind."

"I doubt most of us are familiar with this level of cosmology," Kirk says. It certainly isn't one of the sciences he's an expert in. "Where I'm from, the multiverse was always considered just theoretical."

"So not necessarily common knowledge then." Yuri hums as he ponders that. "Well, maybe I'm not so far behind then."

"It's possible," Kirk says calmly. "Magic doesn't seem to exist in my world. Or if it does, it's being kept well-hidden. But what I'm hearing so far here is there are plenty of worlds where that's not the case."

"Mine among them," Yuri responds, shifting his egg once again, slow and deliberate, so as not to lose hold of it. Once he's done so, he lifts a hand, and a soft sphere of light flickers into being in his palm. "My country's got an academy dedicated to the subject, though I didn't attend."

Kirk looks at the orb with interest and wonders how solid it is. He had never seen light condensed so freely like that before.

"Fascinating," he says. "Could anyone in your world do magic or are there only certain people born with the ability?"

"It's like most any skill — some people have an aptitude and some don't. For those that don't, it's nothing that can't be achieved with hard work, though what kind of magic you lean toward varies." Some elements or spell types come to a person naturally. Some never do. But being able to use magic to some degree is possible for all.

Yuri releases the spell, energy bounding into the air above them and bursting, showering them with glittering light before vanishing. "That one's a healing spell."

Kirk looks up as the bits of energy fall on them like snow.

"Healing cuts and bruises?"

It's a guess as he's assuming that like a science, magic has to have some limitations.

"Cuts, bruises, sometimes worse. I'm not a dedicated healer, but I know my way around. Sometimes field medicine's preferable to a spell though, particularly if you need a specialist." Yuri explains this, feeling the two skillsets fill in gaps for one another. "Both disciplines have their value and applications."

The use of magic for medical purposes has Kirk interested. For an over a decade, he has struggled to find a scientific cure for his vampirism. Plus, it was only recently he learned that the man who was seemingly working with him on a cure and who was supposed to be one of his best friends had been secretly a madman. Whether Will had purposely turned him into a vampire in the first place Kirk will never know for certain. In any case, Kirk’s project has been reset back to zero. Outside-of-the-box thinking is what got him to be a vampire. It’s natural the same kind of thinking could help him out. Being Etraya with people from all kinds of worlds could be bring on a lot of learning opportunities.

“What is magic usually used for?” He asks.

"Oh, all sorts of things. Someone back home used it to make licorice boots, even." Don't ask, Kirk. Or do. Constance is nothing if not creative, and she feels less distant from him, more tangible, when he thinks of the absurd pursuits she's undertaken in pursuit of restoring her noble house. "She also made it rain attack spells across a battlefield, though that was a miscalculation. Spells fall into different categories, but if someone has a mind to tinker, the possibilities are vast."

Behind Kirk’s stoic expression, his interest into the subject grows. It sounds like a good field to study. After all, sometimes, what looks like magic is actually science that isn’t well understood yet.

“Could science and magic mix? Or are they just extensions to each other?”

"I've seen them mix for myself. For instance, understanding how a healing spell influences the body changes the quality of a spell. I understand it forces a normally gradual process to occur rapidly, so if I've the time, I slow it down. As a result, I cause less scars than someone brute forcing it. A guy back home was keen to mix magic and technology as well, seeing how an enemy force effectively married the two." Yuri could safely say magic and science played well enough together in the right hands. "So it's all about the minds involved, and the usual trial and error."

"So the medical properties or potentials in technological advancement can be very potent," he says. He's keeping his voice monotone but he wants to keep digging. Perhaps this could become a new project for him while he's here. "Is there anyone else from your world here?"

"There were a good handful before, but it seems I'm the last man standing. Of those, only Mercedes had me bested with healing though, if that's your interest." Yuri says this, but the interest is clear. He shifts his weight, turning the thought about in his mind. "Though that being said, there're plenty of books on the subject in Garreg Mach's library."

There'd be even more if he finagles requesting Abyss with its shadow library.

“If you don’t mind helping, I would like to know about the healing and medical properties,” Kirk replies, now feeling a little more willing to open up. “A case I’ve been working on has had a setback. Perhaps what it needs is a different approach.”

Out-of-the-box thinking was what turned him into a vampire. Perhaps the same mentality can cure him, especially now that Will wasn’t around anymore to sabotage the work or try to kill him again.

Yuri weighs the words for a moment. Carefully selected as they seem to be, they give him a distinct impression. "I'll help as best I can. My people have only just begun tinkering with ways to use magic and science together, mostly with weapons... In the midst of a war, you understand... But medicine's a cause I can get behind."

At one point in time, Yuri was a terminal case. The plague had ravaged his homeland and very nearly ended him. No doctors would bother, poor as he and his mother were. Had it not been for that old man and that red liquid, Yuri wouldn't be here now. If he can lend that hand to another, it's only natural that he will.

Kirk nods, understanding. Science has had a long story of being used in warfare. That's how monstrous things like nuclear weapons come into existence. It's only natural it would happen in other worlds too.

"I'm not interested in weapon use or warfare for it," he says. "Only medical. The case I've been working on is complicated and has been around for years."

"Oh yeah, I follow," Yuri assures him, because it's true. He does understand, perhaps uniquely so. "I was born the year a plague broke out, and that ravaged my country for years. I'd rather no one suffer for want of care or cure."

He'd seen too many die, and he'd been extremely fortunate to be saved. "What sort of ailment are you looking to remedy?" Years...was it also a plague, rapidly consuming lives, or something that wears on, with more time to treat if only the methods were found?

At that question, Kirk is quiet as he thinks about how to phrase his answer. If he was really going to try and find a cure in Etraya, then he'll have to diverge some frank information about himself.

"An extremely rare blood condition," he quietly replies after a moment. "Technically there's only one case but if that's cured, it could save others."

Namely it could save others from becoming Kirk's next meals.

"Blood, huh..." Funny how, in Yuri's life, blood has been a running theme. Not just because he's grown up having to do some unsavory things, either. He's long held his suspicions as to what the red liquid that saved him really was, then there was that mad cardinal who needed very specific individuals for his blood ritual...

Is it safe here, to bring up that little matter he'd discussed with Seteth? Perhaps he'll circle his way around to it. "Have you got a clear idea of the symptoms? I'd wager you do, after years."

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