etrayalogs | FEBRUARY MINGLE

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FEBRUARY MINGLE

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: February 14th - March
WHERE: Etraya
WHAT: The arrival of newcomers, a mini mission, and some new city features!
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.

In the hospital's lobby are several party tables set out with miscellaneous baked goods: croissants, cookies, breads, cake slices, as well as tea and coffee to accompany them - or hot chocolate, for those who are opposed to the other offerings.

Outside the hospital, the last remnants of snow are melting in the sunlight as the weather begins to warm up. It's still chilly enough one might want to put on a coat, but not so cold a jacket is necessary for wandering around without freezing off one's fingers.

We hope you enjoy your stay.

⏵ heroes return ⏴

As the Quantum Rail train glides to a halt, returning passengers step out onto familiar ground - the train station, right where they had initially begun their mission. When exiting the station, their earpieces vibrate, indicating the automatic download of a detailed map which highlights key locations, transit paths, and notable landmarks. As Aurora promised, she had been working on a few renovations around Etraya! A sleek trolley system now winds through Etraya, following clearly marked pathways through the city bubble to make travel across the city smoother. However, the trolley only moves one way, eternally following the loop Aurora has set it on. And because of this, it takes six hours to complete it's loop all the way around. Don't miss your stop!

Pets and animals have been returned to their usual preferred areas, some awaiting the arrival of their owners, and others keeping to themselves in the forested areas throughout Etraya.

Beyond the small upgrades, things seem relatively unchanged - until one familiar sign catches the eye. One marked by four vertical lines, methodically crossed out one by one: the final slash has now been drawn through. The tally is complete. What it indicates has yet to be made clear, but it has to mean something, right? No one would go through the effort of making an ominous-sounding sign without following through.

⏵ love in the air ⏴

This Valentines Day, Aurora and the companion bots have opted to try something a little different: they have scattered mystery valentines across the city. Hidden within mailboxes, tucked into cafe menus, slipped under doors, on the outside of high windows for those wall-crawlers to spot. There are countless of these little slips of papers, strewn throughout the city. And within each valentine, is a challenge or gesture to complete. Please feel free to make these up yourselves as long as they fit in with the theme!

Some examples include:

Deliver a flower to a stranger.
Write a heartfelt poem for someone.
Share a box of chocolates!
Confess your feelings for another.
Play matchmaker for two people - this can be platonic, or romantic!
Gift a friend with a stuffed animal.
Give five different people a genuine compliment.

While not mandatory, completing five tasks will earn an individual an additional ten points to use towards anything they would like!

Each little Valentine is signed "Your Secret Admirer. ♡", and some of them may even be addressed to specific individuals. Don't be surprised, Eddie, if you see one or two that are specifically addressed to you lurking around your collection of chicken friends!

And while most of these are harmless, some of the valentines cards come with effects for those who come into contact with the paper. Perhaps they thought it was a piece of garbage, or were just kicking it out of the way rather than intending on taking part. It doesn't matter! They get to join in on the fun, too.

Heart Eyes - your pupils literally turn into hearts for a few hours, making it hard to focus on anything other than things (or people) you find attractive.
Love-Struck Stammer - You can only speak in poetic compliments or romantic declarations, regardless of whom you're speaking to.
Chocolate Bliss - Everything feels good. Simple. Easy. As if there's nothing in the world to concern yourself with. You feel happy, without any concerns or worry.
Rose-Tinted Vision - everything looks soft and romantic, as if you're in a romance novel. You know the ones.
Magnetic Attraction - regardless of what you had been doing, you suddenly find yourself unable to leave the side of the person closest to you. Had you been eating chocolates while walking down the street? Well, have fun getting stuck to the guy who'd been out for a jog!
Serenade Syndrome - you find it impossible to resist the urge to sing your words, turning all conversations into love ballads.
Heartstrings - A thread appears, connecting you to someone close by who you share many similarities too. Perhaps you had never met this person before, but the threads tied around your pinky fingers that refuse to let go until you allow yourself to open up to them clearly means you should be a little more familiar with them.

Love is in the air—or maybe just a bit of well-intended chaos! 💕

⏵ NOTES ⏴

Welcome back from the mission, and welcome to Etraya for our newcomers! We've tried to keep this log simple for an easy introduction, as well as some downtime for our mission-goers who worked hard to solve the Quantum Rail mystery.

There is something else going on, but. . . well, no one seems to know what! The computer that had been on the lower floor of the hospital is now missing, and Aurora may seem a little flustered as she flits around Etraya, in search of something.

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⏴

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Cid was a little tired at this point, but with Barnabas, they could call it quits anytime they wanted to.

And, well. This was relaxing as it was. And romantic, strangely. Cid swallows.

“No… I’m not.” He approaches again, coming up off the stairs as he gestures with his chin for Barnabas to scoot over to let him sit next to him. Cid eyes the letter in Barnabas’ hands.

“What’s it say?”

Scooting over without resistance, he likewise opens the letter—and feels his body pressing to Cid's own as he takes his seat. It's as if they were magnetically compelled to sit side to side with as little space as possible.

Barnabas furrows his brows, looks to Cid, then the letter—

Confess your feelings for another

Barnabas glowers at the paper in his hand. He says nothing.

Cid peeks over, reading the paper.

“…Seems straight-forward enough, doesn’t it?”

Cid had plenty of little instructions given to him that he had not yet completed. His papers, however, were scattered all about the trolley car. Cid puts his arm over Barnabas’ shoulders as a matter of comfort.

As if he needed help being any closer to Cid with the magnetism going on...

Barnabas turns his scowl onto him, sparing the paper his ire. Contempt is plain in his eyes, if not in his features, as he silently regards him.

"I do not think there is aught to confess that you do not know already."

Of course this isn't implying that Cid is aware of any fuzzy feelings he might have for his fellow Dominant, but rather...everything else he throws in Cid's face, like the betrayal, for example.

But does it satisfy the magic, Barnabas?

“Why are you acting pissed at me for, again! What did I do?”

Didn’t he ask him to stay? Cid looks at him like he’s gone insane.

“What is wrong with you today? You’re not having your monthlies, are you?”

"You dare..." He doesn't even complete that, biting it off with a click of his teeth as he stares wide-eyed and intensely at Cid. His brows knitting together, that deep flame consuming the paper into utterly nothing in Barnabas' hand.

See, the problem with Cid being able to tap into Barnabas' feelings beyond the aether wash his soul is constantly being drowned in, means that he can also piss him off.

Which is why he is now grabbing Cid's wrist to painfully pull it off of his shoulder—except it doesn't budge. It is stuck there.

Barnabas' grip tightens.

Edited 2025-02-16 03:10 (UTC)

“Augh!” He grunts and hisses as all that kinetic energy goes nowhere but against his wrist. “Hey! Hey- Hey, relax, would you? I’m not the enemy here, don’t take it out on me! I wanted off this trolley…” he huffs and shakes his head, recentering.

Cid winces and his brows knit as he looks at Barnabas with a little bit of pleading in his still heart shaped pupils.

“You know how this place works- The instructions burned in your hand, but they’re the key all the same.”

His grip loosens slightly, his momentary temper cooling. Cid is right, the only way these things work is if he does the task as was requested. Barnabas looks out the window, his jaw tight as he considers what feelings to confess—after all, it didn't specify.

The largest hurdle here is the fact Barnabas has to admit he has feelings at all, and not to Cid. To himself.

So he thinks, thinks back to an age well past them both, to when he first took Cid into his service, when he first brought him to Waloed—to Stonhyrr. Though, such memories are almost too vulnerable, too...raw when he picks at them.

His gaze falters slightly.

"Waloed became emptier without you."

Cid looks out across the space between them. Though they still sat together, there was a palpable gulf. Loneliness, anger, and regret tore through that particular chasm like biting winds.

But still, Barnabas’ words reach him with his heart already softened and receptive to him. There’s so much he wants to say, and so much he wants to hold back. They both twist in his gut.

“… I missed you.”

He missed him when he left. He missed the man that he was before he changed. He missed his life, what they all had. He missed the simple things, his people, their plans.

What is he supposed to do with that? It's words he did not want to hear, and yet there is an ease that washes over the ache of his heart that almost hurts more for it. Still his eyes do not find Cidolfus, cast out to the passing scenery as they are. He can feel the magnetic pull lessen itself—that confession counted—and yet he does not move to push Cid away.

This has not gone the way he expected it to. Nor the way he wanted. Perhaps he would have been better off letting Cid come to him after all. He might have avoided...this.

How much longer before the next stop? Not that it is one that either of them want nor need, but it is a marker for this little scheme that seems pointless now. So, he chooses to just...enjoy the silence and the company in the limited capacity he can, though it doesn't spare him from the pain of old wounds being picked at.

This spur between them, this moment of his departure-

Cid had never grown less upset about it, only firmer in his choice over the years. Though he only felt madder for it. There were so many things that he did not know that likewise, Barnabas would never tell him.

Well, maybe if Barnabas was feeling more desperate… Drunken ploys play behind Cid’s eyes as he looks at the other man. Though the magnetic field had ceased, Cid does not remove his arm. He leans in, gazing at Barnabas’ reflection in the darkened window.

He chews his tongue for a moment before squeezing Barnabas’ shoulder, and starts to bring it back to his own lap.

The warmth of him, his company and the comfort it provides, pulls at him in ways he refuses to admit. Not even to himself. His gaze staying out the window, but he is not blind to how Cid's reflection haunts the glass, gazing at him in ways that a forlorn lover might. It makes Barnabas' jaw tighten, his throat following suit, yet he does not pull further away...though Cid's own hand seems to.

Instead, after a few rhythmic sounds of the trolley on the tracks, he turns to look at Cid. Though it is only a partial turn, something less directly facing, his gaze sidelong as he silently regards him. There are too many words that should be said between them, yet they can never pass his lips. Never truly form in his head, for they hurt enough as it is in his heart.

Perhaps he doesn't need them, with how his dark eyes trace over Cid's features, linger on his lips for a moment too long, before meeting the striking green of his eyes again.

Cid raises his brows at Barnabas as he turns to look at him. Their faces are close like this, and the closeness hurts. He craves it often, even if it usually ends in barbed words and piercing looks.

Was there anything he could say to soften this?

Not likely.

Barnabas usually grew irate even with his presence. …But he’s the one who requested it. But they’re in public. What did any of this mean?

Cid’s hand stops before he removes it entirely from Barnabas’ back, his fingers hovering below his neck. He meets his gaze- though his body and soul had weathered, the keen look in his eye had not.

Cid leans forward, taking that silent signal at face value to press his lips against Barnabas’.

There's hesitance, though Barnabas would name it reservation. As Cid's lips press to his, he stays still and seemingly unresponsive, but with a beat, he meets Cid. Pressing into the kiss with a slow earnestness that he otherwise denies them both.

It is a fragile thing, something one might not liken to the King of Waloed, but for those who truly knew him...there is little else fitting matters concerning his own heart, drowned and fortified with aether as it may be. Barnabas allows himself this quiet, soft indulgence, his thick lashes fluttering closed as he gently drinks of it.

Cid kisses slowly, gently, brushing his tongue against Barnabas’ lower lip. It’s a question, unassuming and warm, before it is withdrawn again as quickly as it comes.

His other hand twitches in his lap. He wants to take Barnabas in his arms, he wants to press the issue, he wants to yell and interrogate-

But he wants this, quiet and simple, like a dream he’d never dared to have.

How sweet this is, sweeter than Barnabas believes himself worthy of. An indulgence that is not saintly nor sanctified, and yet he cannot find himself pulling away from it. Though it gnaws at him, at his principles and ideas of morality, those words of his god ever echo into his mind, and even into this terribly gentle moment.

And so, he breaks the kiss, but only barely. His breath warm on Cid's lips, just as Cid's is on his. Still his eyes remain closed, but he feels as though he can see somewhat clearer for it, even if his ears feel deafened by the echoing of guilt that rings within them.

"...We should complete Aurora's tasks, should we not?" A justification, something to settle the sound in his head. If what they do achieves that goal, then is it indulgence any longer? That they might enjoy the labor is besides the point.

“Did we not do that? Or shall you take up another one with me?” Cid’s eyes open slowly to gaze up at the larger man- darkening the seat even right beside him.

He looks at his hand, where he was holding them, which leads his eye to where they actually are- scattered about the train.

“Oh-“ he stands up, realizing how badly this could go for him. He was still loopy from it all. He picks up the next one nearest, his expression changing from confusion to almost ire as he reads it.

“Read someone a heartfelt love poem.” He presses a glove to his face, embarrassment welling up despite the effects.

Barnabas lets his eyes slip open as Cid talks, half-lidded and almost dreamy in how they regard him. As if he's somewhere between consciousnesses and unconscious, a perfect place to be. Then Cid rises, and Barnabas feels the numbing cold of separation snap him back into full awareness, though he does not defy his suggestion. Only waits for Cid to find something for them to complete, that he might do so without the burden of indulgence.

...Though what he finds leave Barnabas silent still, his grey eyes staring at Cid as if scanning for an answer to a question he can't even find the words to ask.

"A poem." He finally says, as if regarding the concept with a fascination unfit for something so pedestrian.

"I doubt you know of any, nor less have any on hand."

“…I could think of one, maybe,” Cid says as he crosses his arms. He feels like he’s on trial out here, standing like this on the train. Its awkward. He sidles back towards him to hand him the Valentine to share the curse.

“Do you know any?” Cid’s cheeks warm with the thought of it. He was barely able to tell him he missed him. “Perhaps …I’ll just find a new one. Maybe the effects will wear off on their own in a few days.”

Looking at the letter and its instructions, Barnabas does not quite feel the shift in himself immediately. Not until he looks at Cid and finds his focus as sharp as ever, all else around him seems to become hazy and unimportant, Barnabas' pupils shifting to take on the shape of hearts.

"None of love." He answers honestly. What poems he knows are not ones that speak of such fragile and fleeting things as affections such as that.

"Indeed a different one would be wise, if we are unable to complete it for now."

Besides, the idea of hearing Cid recite poetry to him makes his heart flutter, stunted as that feeling may be for him.

Edited 2025-03-10 22:54 (UTC)

Cid turns around, spotting another open letter. He frowns as he picks it up, turns it over and reads it, his lips just barely moving as he parses it. And then repeats it, louder, for Barnabas.

“Plan a wedding with another,” Cid reads as he approaches again, this time sitting back into his place next to Barnabas.

Cid turns it around, then back. “That’s almost vague. Though, I can certainly make plans more feasibly than I can pull a poem out of thin air. …Is it meant to be our wedding? I suppose it would have to be.”

Cid hasn’t looked at Barnabas again yet, but he can feel- butterflies in his stomach, of all things.

“Honestly… I never dreamed of such a thing. I just wanted to survive when I was young, and then… Well, we were always so busy. Running a kingdom hardly happens by accident. I couldn’t imagine stepping away from it all to marry someone.”

The mention of marriage leaves Barnabas feeling oddly hollow, despite the way he is compelled to keep his focus on Cid. Despite how it makes him feel to stare at him, like he is the single object of all his affection. The thought of either of them being married is...odd. Strange beyond words. It is something that Barnabas has rebuked as King, no wife, no heirs.

The thought of him and Cid being married is stranger yet, but there is an ache there. Subtle, yet strong. It is not a desire he holds, not quite as one might image, but there is something of a bond they once shared. Of trust. Of loyalty. Of...

"We are men bound by our ideals." Barnabas says with a slight edge only softened by the affection he feels despite everything. "Marriage would never suit either of us."

“…That may be. But the magic’s making me feel nauseous, so let’s just play pretend for a moment.”

It wasn’t nausea, of course, but that nervous excitement he hadn’t felt in decades mixing with how he was craving a cigarette and regretting the last beer he had.

“Pick a flower. I’ll think of someplace nice.”

He folds his arms, allowing his rigidity from his discomfort begin to melt against Barnabas’ shoulder.

“… I think it would be nice to be wed on a beach front. Warm, clear water… Plenty of fish. Just endless sky and ocean.”

"Very well."

He pauses for a moment to think on it. To consider the meaning behind flowers, and what best would be suited for them, even in this fake planning of theirs. He could be sarcastic, he could pick something that is disparaging towards Cid, but the effects of the letter still holds him, and so he finds himself picking something that...perhaps is bittersweet in truth. Both a deep want of his own, while also a means of criticism for Cid.

"Perhaps Edelweiss and Blue Gentian would do." Courage and devotion, paired with justice, victory, and determination...

He thinks on the location that Cid describes, and part of him yearns for it. For the sea, for the endless sky, yet another part of him clamps down on such notions. Such childish fantasy as that. He shifts, slight as it is, his gaze lingering on Cidolfus still, his gaze softened more than he could realize.

"Certainly what guests you would fool into attending would appreciate the view."

Cid doesn’t know all of his plants perfectly, but he knows what an Edelweiss looks like, at least. The color scheme would be awfully Walodean, but was that so bad- for the sake of their pretending?

“Guests…” The very idea of everyone he would invite witnessing him marrying Barnabas would be absolutely befuddling to them. He had spent the last five years outside of the kingdom, after all. Cid ends up picturing the people of the Hideaway alongside those he knew and trusted from Waloed. Though he’d seen many of them die in uncomfortably recent memory. He shoves this down, and it stays there with the warmth of the magic in his veins.

“Aye. Mid wouldn’t even be on shore if she could help it.” He scratches his jaw as he remembers the locket bearing her image and her voice that he keeps safely in a drawer in Stonhyrr.

“…What else goes into a wedding? …Rings, clothes?” Cid had been to weddings before. They were in Waloed, of course, and he tries to picture them properly. He wasn’t sure what aspects were chosen and which were by default, honestly. “Food. Right- Food’s taken care of. That’s what the ocean’s for.”

Cid looks at his hands, trying to imagine a ring. He wasn’t a big jewelry guy, though he had a necklace for a time. He looks at Barnabas, at his hands, and tries to imagine a ring there.

“It’d have to be gold for you, wouldn’t it?”

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FEBRUARY MINGLE

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