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⏴

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Who said we were friends?

[ She's red-faced and sputtering now. Poor Asuka is trying very hard not to show her embarrassment, but she's not succeeding all that well. ]

And who said I'mgonna let you approve of anyone I date? And who says I'm gonna date anyway?

[ How the table turns.. And yet Fabian doesn't seem like he's intending on slowing down! ]

I'm saying so! When it comes to the first two, of course. [ Wow, Fabian. So generous. At least leaving one out of three up to her.. ] As for that last one-- Do you want to? Is there anyone here you've got an eye on, huh?

[ Now he's just fishing for gossip. ]

I dunno. [ Riz wrinkles his nose. He doesn't tend to think anyone likes him, but that's by and large due to how things have historically worked. He rarely thinks he's actively disliked, even when he is, but considers himself somehow a little separate to all of that, these days. ]

I don't think that they don't like me. But I don't think it's 'cause of me either. Everyone just seems pretty uncomfortable with the whole thing. I think they probably would've treated you the same way, if you were in my place. They're nice people.

[ He wishes that their places were reversed, frankly. Riz is fine on his own, and has none of Fabian's hang-ups. He has the opposite hang-ups. Fabian could have used some of Ororo's kind, gentle care. And in Fabian's position, Riz...

Would have killed the robot baby through neglect, probably. Whatever. He's never having kids anyway.

He smiles at Fabian. ] It's okay. I don't want anything out of this but to get to the bottom of things... and to get away with as many sleepovers as possible.

[ Translation: he hasn't been harassing them into liking him. Sorry, Fabian. That's a fate that has befallen you and you alone. ]

N-no! There isn't! And there won't be!

[ Well, she's reacting exactly how you'd expect a prickly teenage girl to react - poorly. ]

I'm not going chasing after any of that stupid stuff! Idiot!

[ ...

You know what, that's a good point. A good enough point, in fact, that Fabian only now starts to slowly realize something as he's thinking about what Riz is saying. He was thinking so much about the relationship between his friend and said friend's fake parents from the fake parents' point of view that he didn't consider the Riz view of it all.

And when he does that, something stands out to Fabian. Something odd.

Fabian frowns, still trying to figure this out. ]

Wait, I thought you liked new people.

[ Why else would Riz have been so utterly desperate to befriend him all throughout their first year at the Academy? ]

[ At least Fabian doesn't seem to mind being called an idiot in this context - or maybe he's just used to Asuka throwing stuff like this around. ]

Alright, alright, if you say so..

[ He totally does not sound convinced. In fact, it still sounds like he's teasing her. ]

But I'm going to be keeping my eye out!

No! You don't need to keep an eye out...!

[ She's still flustered over that.

And maybe because a part of her thinks Fabian is cute, but she's never gonna say anything about that because haha, what is communication? ]

Katsuki is deeply not a pleasant person. He has all the bedside manner of a brick to the head. Izuku twists his mouth dubiously, and it's in these moments that he seems less the Hero who had to grow up too fast and more the teenager still in training.

"Hm... Not really, but he's not interested in getting permanently injured either. And there's not much he can do if you just don't want to fight. If your heart's not in it, then there's no way it could be a real fight like he'd want."

This could all just be a non-starter, but Izuku has to look out for his friend.

"This may sound weird, and it's hard for me to explain, but he has his own sense of conviction. It's not just hunger for power. He's dear to me, someone I admire. A good Hero, and a good friend."

[ That alone has Riz giving Fabian an incredulous look paired with a quiet exhalation of laughter, cheeks puffing with the force of it. ]

What? Whatever gave you that idea?

[ It's not that Riz dislikes new people. He considers himself to be a pretty friendly person at the end of the day, and there's some strange part of him that's always trying to see the best in others, who wants to trust them, who wants to be friends with them and hopes they'll want to be friends with him in turn. For all of the horrors he and his friends have collectively seen, some part of him believes that most people are basically pretty okay.

But it's not something he seeks out either. He gets anxious, and worried, and then his palms start to sweat and he stumbles over his words and he can't seem to figure out the right sequence of words said in the right order and at the right time. It can be intimidating, and stressful. He doesn't leave most of the talking to the others when they have to go around discussing things with people just because they're good at it; it makes it easier on him too. ]

I don't, like, not like them? They're fine. But... I've got you, and Gorgug, and Adaine. What else do I need?

[ Fabian can do all the talking for him. All he has to do is stroll up and say, hey, we're best friends, so anything you think is cool about him is transitively cool about me! As a plan, it's flawless. And requires minimal small talk, which is nice. ]

Well.. yes.

[ It's hard to say anything against that. Fabian also knows that just having a good chunk of the Bad Kids here together is important. That they will all have each other's back no matter what, and that it is a good thing to have in a place as dangerous and unpredictable as this one.

And it's not like Fabian would be dissatisfied if he had just them. He loves all of the other Bad Kids, but--

He blinks. ]

But you haven't thought of making other friends as well?

[ Then why had he chased Fabian so hard during their first year at school? It's not like they didn't have other people in their party that Riz could get along with much more easily - especially when there's more mellow people like Gorgug, or people who had-- well, Fabian hesitates to say anything truly bad about himself from two years ago, but who perhaps had the slightest bit less of a stick up their ass. Maybe. ]

Uh...

[ Riz is a friendly guy. He's always considered himself to be a friendly guy, anyway. He likes people! He likes people, and he likes to talk, and he's sociable! At the end of the day, he'd like to be friends with most people, or at least friendly with them. But that's very different from actually thinking about making other friends, or making it happen.

Once he got with the Bad Kids, it felt like the effort of making more friends was just... unnecessary. He's busy with work, and research, and school, and having to actually put himself out there (horrible) and try to win people over (mortifying) meant time, and putting the time into actively making friends the way he hunted down Fabian felt like a bit of a waste. ]

I mean, if it happens, that's awesome! Friends are great! More of them are good! But, like. Lemme put it this way. You're a year in my future, right? Have I made a single friend outside of you guys that isn't someone that you guys befriended first?

[ Ragh is more of Gorgug and Fabian's friend. Zayn is close with the girls. Ayda isn't his friend yet, but might be later, but never as close as she is with Adaine, or Fig. Tracker is Kristen's girlfriend. He might hang out with the AV Club from time to time, sure, but Gorgug's part of that whole thing too, and it's not like they're friends-friends. Just friendly. Besides, Skrank and Shellford are kind of... not nice to be around.

Or so thinks the guy who regularly bites his friends. ]

Of course! [ Fabians scoffs.

Maybe a guy who is very much aware of Riz's shortcomings shouldn't get all huffy about the other's ability to make friends, but.. you know, this is how Fabian functions. He will complain about Riz's bad habits when they annoy or inconvenience them, but he certainly won't allow anyone else to speak badly about their little angel. ]

You made tons of friends! [ Granted, Fabian's definition of friends may need some work, considering he's on a way different level of being social than Riz is. It ends up not really aligning because of that. ] Do you even have any idea just how many clubs you're in? Think about how many people you would have to actively talk to and interact with to be part of that many clubs!

Fabian... [ Riz's voice is coloured with disbelief, but there's something impossibly fond in it. It's true that Fabian has to wrestle with thoughts as complex as the rest of them - this very evening proves that - but in so many ways, his thinking is so simple, so straightforward. Riz would be jealous if he had enough self-awareness to do so, that someone could believe that everyone they chatted with was... ]

How exactly do you define a friend?

[ Clubmates? Those aren't friends, necessarily. They're colleagues. ]

...

[ For once Fabian doesn't have a quick answer to something.

And it doesn't even seem like it's because he's trying to hide something, or because he's thinking of how to respond to something in a way he deems cool enough for Fabian standards.

No. He's just.. kind of dumbstruck? He stares at Riz like he really has no instantaneous answer for that question, just blankly blinking for a moment or two before he manages to find his voice again. ]

A friend? I mean.. [ Clearly this is something Fabian has never had to consciously think about, huh. ] I don't know. Isn't it just when people are being friendly towards each other? Is that not what everyone considers a friend?

[ Riz, is that not how it works for you?? Wasn't it just that you wanted him to be more friendly to you at the start of freshman year, and that's why you latched onto him?? ]

That's kind of sweet, [ Riz says, because he's a teenage boy who has somehow completely missed the memo that describing people as sweet is not a very masculine and cool thing to do. That's Fabian for you, though. As much as he may love his own reflection, he's not prone to wanting to dig much deeper than that; he's been plagued by the worries about not being enough for anyone, yet here he is waltzing around, considering the whole world a friend so long as they're kind enough to smile at him.

Then again, now Riz knows that he should take Fabian's self-proclaimed popularity with a grain of salt; it could very well be that he just considers the entire damn school to be his friend. ]

I don't think that's how most people define it. Or, well, that's not how I define it. A friend to me is... [ He hums. It feels a little silly to be sitting around defining something like this. ] Someone I'd go out of my way to spend time with, just because I like spending time with them. Someone I feel close to, and who feels close to me too? Like, I go to club with the guy and we'll play crystal games sometimes, but me and Skrank aren't really friends.

[ Skrank, catching strays! Ouch! ]

Well-- [ Pause. He's still processing this here. ] Of course Shrank isn't your friend.

[ Shrank truly is catching strays from all sides here.. But, look - Fabian doesn't think the guys from the AV club are exactly the coolest or even just the most pleasant guys to be around, alright. He feels like he's pretty valid about this one! ]

For one, he's not even really nice or friendly.

[ Please don't mind the fact that this mostly is because Shrank is not nice to Fabian since Fabian is bird-racist.. ]

But why would you go to a club when you don't even consider the people there your friend?

Well... they have a really cool LAN set-up.

[ Riz has never used Fabian for his wealth a day in his life. He accordingly sounds a little bit guilty about the fact that he is absolutely just abusing his AV Club privileges to play around with their tech. ]

And I like arcanotech! I get to play around with all kinds of shit there! Besides, being in clubs'll look good on a resume, or on a college application, and I was already part of the club, so. [ He shrugs. ] It just kinda worked out that way. The guys aren't that bad. They're just...

[ He contemplates this. Fabian was bird-racist to Skrank, true is as true does. But... ]

Kinda lame?

[ Riz. Look in the mirror. ]

Oh, yes, they are the worst.

[ ...

Other than Fabian being judgemental - the way he loves to be! - here, it does seem like he's reserving any sort of comment like that for Riz. Even though most people would objectively be able to tell here that Riz should probably look into a mirror.

Yet Fabian isn't saying a word. Either he's really good at holding it back, or he's not even thinking about it. ]

But I have honestly never considered hanging out with a club just to.. do things. [ You know, which is the entire point of a club. Fabian might be unsocialized enough in that sense for this concept to go over his head entirely. ] You can just do things on your own!

Aren't you, like, Mr. Party Of The Year? [ Riz points out, raising a brow at him. ] You do stuff hanging around other people all the time!

[ Admittedly, Riz hasn't actually attended any of Fabian's parties. But he's a popular guy, right? Even if he wasn't the one holding the parties while Hallariel was still living at home, he must have stil been at all of the parties, or at least surrounding himself with a lot of other cool people in places Riz isn't invited to (and in places he does not wish to be invited to). ]

...but I don't actually have any tech at home. Our crystal console is like a million years old. [ Is he admitting to just using the other club members for their stuff? Maybe a little bit! Just because he doesn't use Fabian doesn't mean he doesn't use anyone. ] Besides, crystal games are way more fun with other people. And just doing stuff with other people who are into the same thing is the whole point. I'm sure there's, like, a dance club or whatever you'd have fun in.

[ He huffs. ]

There is. It's called bard class. [ Why would he need a club to do stuff that he's already doing in class? Besides-- ] And parties are far different!

[ Did Riz say something in the middle of all this that Fabian probably should pay attention to? You know, about not having tech at home and all that, while Seacaster Manor has a big fancy interconnected tech system?

Fabian sure should pay attention to that, but the unfortunate part of having Fabian as your friend is that sometimes these things just slip right under his radar.. Sorry, Riz.. ]

Don't you even know what those parties are about? They are about me!

I thought they were mainly about getting really drunk and dancing and doing really stupid things, [ Riz points out thoughtfully. He hasn't actually been to one of Fabian's parties before, but he's gleaned an awful lot from television, and he's pretty sure it's an accurate reflection on what parties should be like. It's certainly not as though the party they had attended - before it had come to its final vicious end - had anything at all to do with the weird wizard dude hosting it. It was all about the hot chicks.

Fabian should be the first to acknowledge that. He's the one who wanted to smooch the scary lady. ]

Aren't they about you getting to hang out with other people? It can't all be about you unless they, I dunno, run around chanting your name the whole time?

[ Which is not beyond reason, he supposes. Aguefort students love a chant. ]

[ Okay, Fabian can't deny that the parties are about that as well.

But the me factor of it all is very important too, alright! It's important to him and his little baby feelings! ]

The Ball, do you seriously think that the people don't chant for me at my parties? [ He almost sounds a little offended.. ] Or-- well, they usually just chant Maximum Legend instead, but that is me! I am Maximum Legend!

[ He may or may not be pointing at his obnoxious golden neck tattoo right now.

Very subtle. I know. ]

They can't possibly do it the whole time, [ he mutters.

Fabian's really cool! Riz is, in fact, Fabian's number one fan and will spout off about how cool he is to anyone who will listen most of the time, but sometimes even Riz has to try to counter that put-on ego of his.

Especially when he's talking about having the whole school over for the sole purpose of worshipping him. That can't possibly be the actual reason why. ]

...is that why you got the tattoo? I've been wondering about that this whole time. [ He lifts one arm to look at his own tattoos next to Fabian's. Even though they're different colours, Fabian's looks different from his own -- fancier to suit him, of course, but less matte. ] It's super shiny. I didn't think anyone in Elmville did tattoos like this.

Papa did it.

[ Well, that would explain why it doesn't look like something from Elmville, huh.. A tattoo straight from hell... Fabian says it so plainly, like he thinks this is very normal and natural, but also with that hint of pride in his voice he always gets whenever he's talking about his father. ]

He used gold from his own hoard and tattooed it onto me with his boat tattoo gun.

[ All just.. very normal things to say. Very normal, Riz!

Fabian is even willing to break their 'don't tell Riz too much about the future in case it will mess things up' rule for this, considering that Fabian thinks it'll be good if Riz knows, actually. Maybe then he can't look so nervous and make the whole process harder for Fabian! ]

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MISSION 004 (part 1)

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