etrayalogs | FEBRUARY MINGLE

Entry tags:

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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He gets the drinking. All too well. It wasn't that many years ago he was drinking himself to death on the streets of New York. Now he's careful with his drinks, doesn't let himself get that way anymore. He has a purpose, Harold's purpose, to carry him onwards. He can manage to make it through his dark moments knowing there will be a number in the morning. ]

I never went back to being a civilian. Went straight to the CIA.

[ Now that is a casual drop of information for Carver. John is pretty sure he hasn't mentioned that before. ]

[ It's nice to have some confirmation. Carver inclines his head slightly. ]

Kinda figured, way you talked. Way you move.

[ Training like that bleeds through. And there aren't many places to get it. ]

We probably ran in some of the same circles.

What kind of work did you do?

[ John isn't entirely sure they did, he was more on the intelligence side of things. Put a lot of people in the ground, but only after doing his homework. Most of the time, at least. The CIA liked how good he was at making judgment calls just based on his gut feeling, especially considering he was either proved right in the aftermath, or they didn't care to confirm. He thinks sometimes Kara and Mark just liked seeing him kill people, seeing him bend more to their purpose. Being less of a "boy scout," as Kara used to put it. ]

[ Carver lifts his glass, watching the sake swirl. There are a lot of ways he could answer that. He wouldn't necessarily have to lie. Just emphasize certain aspects over others. John and Harold already know he kicked doors in; Carver could let them believe that was the end of it.

Or he could tell the truth, and see how it settles. ]

Everything, [ he says after a moment, softly. ] We took people, held them. Extracted information. Started a few wars. Ended a couple others. All the shit the U.S. didn't wanna admit they ordered done.

[ Maybe not so different, then. John remembers how Kara used to handle interrogations, how sick it made him. Sometimes he tried to push back, take over, get her to pick another way, but she never liked that and sometimes he was just too worn down to try. ]

Similar, but I was smaller scale. Just one partner and our handler. Mostly intelligence and making people disappear. No teeth, no fingerprints.

[ He feels a familiar cold creeping in, his chest freezing over. But this is who he is, the good he does for Harold is just a veneer on all he's done before. ]

Surgical.

[ In and out, suited for delicate work, no backup, probably a limited extraction window. Carver nods slowly. Similar to his own role, but not quite the same. The Reapers nearly always fought in a pack. ]

Comes in handy here. How’d Harold find you?

[ How did Harold find him? On the verge of death. Getting picked up by the police. It's so strange to look back on that day in the park, this stranger looking right through him, saying all these secrets so casually. ]

I got arrested for beating up some kids on the train. They started it.

[ But that's all John has to say on that topic. The details of those early days are for them and them alone. ]

[ Carver snorts at that, unsurprised. It's not that different from how Leah and Pope found him after his discharge, save for the repetition: Carver had to be bailed out of jail multiple times, each a little worse than the last. ]

I would've done anything Leah asked when she told me about the job the commander lined up, [ he admits quietly. ] So long as they let me come. I would've done it for free.

[ So he gets it, what it means to be offered a lifeline. ]

[ John takes a slow sip of sake as he tries to think about how to reply. He isn't going to say a word about his salvation, how Harold saw straight through him and said "you need a purpose" and how right he was. How John has this second chance now, a chance not to be a better person but to do some good. He's barely even said anything to Harold about it, doesn't know if Harold truly understands what he's done for John. ]

It's good to have people who can pick you up when you've fallen down.

Yeah.

[ He swirls his glass, watching the sake. Watching John in turn. ]

World makes sense then.

[ Harold had picked him up, just that once, just that first number. Gave John his purpose. He hasn't let him fall since. Has been there to hold him steady every single time. Raced across town to rescue John from the clutches of the CIA, stood on the rooftop with him to diffuse his bomb vest. In the end he had trusted John with Jennings. But the world does make sense now. He has Harold to guide him, to show him the right way. He can do good by Harold's hand. ]

Yeah, it does. Some people are just that way.

Edited 2025-02-17 19:03 (UTC)

The commander was.

[ His voice softens ever so slightly. He loved Pope like a father, no matter the cost. He thinks he loves Leah even more. ]

My sister still is.

What was your commander like?

[ John has Harold now, but he had Kara and Mark before. Mark who asked them to kill each other and then tried to kill him on a rooftop. Kara who shot him and then strapped a bomb to his chest. Real lovely people. ]

[ Carver takes a drink at that. A long one. He mulls over the words, trying to find the right ones to honor the commander. ]

Intense, [ he says finally. ] He didn’t falter when he had to make the hard choices, but he never abandoned us. He showed us how to survive, made us strong enough to take whatever the world would do to us.

[ If John is being honest, that doesn't sound very good. It sounds like he's the reason Carver is wound so tight, why he can barely relax, or at least a large part of it. But he knows better than to say so out loud. ]

Sounds like a good commander.

He was.

[ Carver takes another breath, exhaling slow. ]

We had a lot of bad officers in Korengal. Either they were incompetent or they didn't give a fuck. Not Pope. He looked after us. He gave us a place.

He taught you a lot, didn't he? Gave you a purpose.

[ He wants to get a better understanding of how this Pope impacted Carver. It's always the people like that which shape you. ]

[ Carver nods slowly, rubbing his thumb along the rim of his glass. Not really looking at John. ]

He tapped me early, once he knew I wasn't gonna get myself killed.

[ A lot of the others just died in the early days. They weren't fast enough or sharp enough and so one day they went out and didn't come back. Pope honored all their dead, but he couldn't spare time on the ones who weren't strong enough; there wasn't time for that. ]

I wanted to be a sergeant. Studied my ass off for it, too. [ His jaw tightens, some of the old anger boiling up. ] Got shot down so hard my head spun. But he didn't care. Said fuck 'em, you're one of mine. That was true even after we went home.

[ John is the opposite of that. He advanced so easily and so fast, they wanted him. He scored well, performed well, did everything he was supposed to do. Thought that's what he was supposed to do. ]

He believed in you. That's the sign of a good commander.

[ That doesn't change the fact that John thinks he probably messed Carver up. ]

[ Carver's grip tightens on the glass a moment before he remembers to ease up and breathe. Of all the gifts Pope gave him over the years, that trust was probably the most precious. Pope didn't look at him and see a fuckup with a temper; he saw a soldier he could mold, one of his future leaders. The Army didn't want Carver anymore than it'd wanted the others, but Pope never gave up on him. And if that trust required sacrifice, it was one Carver gave willingly. ]

He said I could be strong. Then he made me that way.

[ Carver is clearly strong. The world he's from is destroyed beyond belief but he keeps fighting for his family, hasn't given up. That takes strength. But he can see the dark things in Carver too, and those are probably part and parcel of that strength. John can see them in himself, as well. It's not a judgement on Carver, just an observation. ]

Takes a lot of strength to go through all that.

We were tested.

[ Sometimes by Pope's hand. Other times by God, and the enemy. Carver lowers the glass, watching John. ]

But he prepared us.

[ Praise God. ]

[ He's pretty sure Carver has said something to this effect before, about god. ]

What kind of tests?

[ He's quiet for a long time. Watching the glass and the swirl of sake. Talking about this with an outsider is a sin, he knows. But of all the people in this place, Carver likes to think John would understand it. That John and Shaw know something about brutal necessity, and what it costs body and mind to survive.

There's always a toll. You have to be prepared to pay it. To endure. ]

Did you know, [ Carver says, a little distantly, ] that you can feel it when your body starts giving out? When you're drowning, I mean. It's almost nice. Things just...stop.

[ John waits out the silence, doesn't push. Carver will either talk or he won't. And when he does— John does know about that. He nearly did, in the back of Harold's car, speeding to who knows where. Remembers feeling the blood slowly draining from his body, barely remembers Harold trying to get him on the gurney. Doesn't remember anything after that. ]

Yeah. Didn't drown, got shot.

[ Was drowning one of Carver's tests? Is that how he's making sense of it? ]

cw: alcoholism and suicidal ideation

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cw: torture

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