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

[She, in full 'suburban' disguise, kicks the door shut behind her, two heavy bags of groceries in her arms.]

Thanks, I come highly recommended from the agency.

[She's very sarcastic for a Jedi, quite frankly. She plants the bags on the kitchen island, then pulls off the bob wig, scratching a bit. The process might even show some of the long scar her fringe usually hides; because she's also been through a lot, for a Jedi.]

Ugh, not getting used to that any time soon. I'm Mal, by the way.

[And she starts fishing out perishables to go in the fridge.]

[Aelwyn rests her chin on her hand. The one with the blackened veins that indicate her own commitment.

She smiles. It's a sharp and not quite nice expression. Does she trust this woman with Adaine? No. Does she trust herself with Adaine? Also no. But this is what they're apparently stuck with for now, all four of them.]

Aelwyn. One of our "daughters" is my little sister Adaine.

Just to get it out of the way, I should probably mention that I'll kill you if you do anything to jeapordize her.

[Her tone is the upmost of friendliness, despite the harsh iron to the words beneath them. She can fake a happy family with the best of them after all.]

Do you want to cook tonight or shall I?

[She gets a bit of a deadpan expression for that. Mal reaches out, holding her hand. On the other end of the room, the tap flows open. After a moment, a glass moves under it, fills with water, and moves across the room to her. She takes a sip and lowers her hand, shutting the water off.]

I wouldn't try that.

[It's a sign that she takes Aelwyn seriously that she bothers with the demonstration. Sometimes you gotta show the colours a little bit.]

Honestly, people with the threats. [She shakes her head.] Besides, I'm a Jedi Knight. Protecting people is kind of what we do. I'll do whatever I can to help her and keep her safe.

And I'll handle it. Need to figure out what half these ingredients are, anyway.

[Said while reaching into the bag, pulling out a cucumber with a curious expression then a shrug.]

[Aelwyn scoffs at the display, though she doesn't outright laugh. It's a near thing. The look on her face at the words Jedi Knight isn't recognition, but her smile does tighten the slightest bit at the idea. She hasn't had the best experience with any organization that claims that their purpose is protecting people.

She doesn't bother with the theatre of moving her own hand to summon the invisible spectral hand to snatch the cucumber off of her so-called spouse and place it on the kitchen bench. She just does it without moving an inch.]

That's an indication that I'm handling it then. You can watch if you want to learn the ingredients for next time, but seeing as I know what the ingredients are, It's probably best i go first. I'm supposed to be a chef, anyway.

[She stands up and walks over to the kitchen as she speaks the next part.] And it's not really a threat. It's a... disclaimer. There's ways to jeapordize a situation without outright malice. I was simply making my intention clear.

[She holds out a hand to take the bag rather than go through the petty passive aggressive bullshit of using magic to take it. A dick measuring contest doesn't help anyone. Especially since Aelwyn knows hers is bigger.] May I see what we're working with? ["We're". That makes this a team effort. A bone thrown.]

[She wants to protest but, hell, might as well figure out what does what. That's the problem with different universes. Who knows what stuff is or how to use it - it's all different rules.]

Disclaimer, huh. Last time I saw one of those was on a barrel of toxic chemicals. Do you always greet people with death threats, or is today just one of those days?

[And she hands over the bag because, well, a contest doesn't serve a point anyway. If you're going to fight, fight, don't talk.]

Just when it concerns the people I love. Like I said, not a threat. Are you always this much of a baby?

[Adaine is all she has left. The last tether to sanity that she has, now that she's lost everything else that might hold her back.

She used to be scared to admit that. That she loved her, despite everything. That she loved anything. Complete and total ego death will do a lot to you.

She starts placing everything on the counter, going through the ingredients.]

It's a cucumber by the way. It's a culinary vegetable. You put it in salads and other assorted... vegetable dishes, I guess. Never cook it though. [She uses her invisible mage hand to lift it in the hair for emphasis.]

Edited 2024-08-27 15:02 (UTC)

Nope, just talkative and...gosh, just a real low tolerance for people being kriffing bayanas.

[One of the occasions she's happy to have a fluent knowledge of Huttese and other galactic slang. And in truth, she has dealt with a lot of this, back when she was one of the bad guys. When every phrase was a barb, threats part of normal conversation. This one is thorny by even their standards.]

Cucumber, got it.

[How do they get through even saying the word without at least smiling at how ridiculous it is?]

MISSION 004 (part 1)

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With bonus Western reference

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