etrayalogs | MAY MINGLE

MAY MINGLE

WHO: Everyone!
WHEN: May 17th-31st
WHERE: On Etraya
WHAT: A mingle log!
NOTES\WARNINGS: N/A, please note any needed warnings in threads.

⏵ a hero's return ⏴

As champions exit the Labyrinth, they’ll find that their environment has gone through some fairly drastic changes. Where there used to be larger bodies of water is now thinner rivers going through land; the amount of bridges connecting landmasses has decreased, given what had been individual islands are now much more connected. In addition, Etraya is significantly more green; flowers bloom, birds chirp cheerfully, and there are numerous additional species of insects, mammals, and aquatic creatures throughout the lands. Baby foxes roam through forested areas, bees pollinate the flowers to spread them more thoroughly around the inhabited areas, and it feels brighter. Or perhaps that’s just in comparison to how the Labyrinth had been.

There are more areas to explore, new facilities, animals, and Etraya feels significantly more settled than it had before. Aurora’s promise of renovations had been true. And if one looks up, they may notice a city bubble visible on the closest planet that hadn't been visible before.

⏵ coffee break ⏴
After hearing Clarke’s suggestion, Aurora sets up a new cafe close to the apartment complex, and sends out notices to individuals with mandatory coffee hour times listed for them to come to Corrine's Cafe and make a few friends.

While the note does state that it is mandatory, there will be no follow-up from Aurora nor the companion bots to ensure those who receive notes do show. Given this is Aurora trying to take suggestions in mind and see how successful they are among the citizens of Etraya, however, following directives may not be a terrible idea.

It's up like a modern-day, smaller cafe. One walks in through the front door, and is greeted by a companion bot behind the counter who offers a wave of their hand and a friendly “Welcome! Let me know when you’re ready to order”. The menu offers lattes, mochas, espresso, black coffee, several different kinds of teas, and a few drinks that are a little odd to find in a cafe; ale, canned sodas and coffees, numerous bottles of wine, but only pinot noir.

Soft music plays in the background, impossible to place but it sounds as if it may be based on tracks that were popular in the early 90s.

Tables and booths are set up to seat two to four, with packets of sugar and small containers of creamer set out towards the middle. There are charging stations set up at every table, which may seem strange considering phones and laptops aren’t widely available, but Aurora’s doing her best. There are also a few bookshelves full of the classics, a few historical fiction, and several written by H.P. Lovecraft.

Each seat has a placard in front of it, with a name, and a ‘fun fact’. One might say “Hello! My name is Joe, and I like to paint!” Another may say “Hi, I’m Jill! My sister died tragically in front of me and I’ve never gotten over it.”

⏵ new horizons ⏴

Several of the new bridges found in Etraya now have signs posted just outside of them, and on those signs is a QR code that the earpiece’s HUD can scan. Scanning this with the HUD will bring up a scavenger hunt, listing several items and circling areas where they can be found.

Some of these objects will be obvious: find Corrine at Corrine’s Cafe - the companion bot who runs the counter, find a delicious meal at Bangsan Market, break into S.T.A.R Labs, or find room 87 at Point Blanc Academy. Some will be less obvious, like locating a bat, becoming friends with an archer, find a pink shirt, open bagged milk without making a mess, or get a drink at the mutant-friendly pub. Please feel free to make up your own items to find around Etraya!

⏵ NOTES ⏴
Welcome to our mid-month mingle!

Please feel free to use this to explore Etraya, put up wildcard prompts (you don't need to use the above!), or use the open prompts to assist in jumpstarting cr.

This mingle covers the period from May 17th to May 31st. Our next mission (and next mod log) will not go up until June 7th.

⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

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[how resilient. and somehow managing to still clean up after himself -- a bit, anyway.]

Not freaked out; concerned. Too many people your age are being forced to go through repetitive trauma. I'd like to have a word with Echo about why it's necessary.

[he's only speaking the truth. nothing about him says fearful, maybe a little curious mixed with some concern, but it's all through micro-expressions that are hardly noticeable to the untrained eye.]

Do you have someone here that you can go to?

[anyone to supervise him at all?]

[ Junior folds his arms, rubbing at his own shoulder. he doesn't have anyone here, but if he says that this man will probably feel responsible. ]

I can handle myself.

[ that's a hard sell given what he looks like right now, but everything is free here, he just needs to find some clothes that fit him and a shower. ]

I don't doubt that.

[Junior isn't Hannibal's responsibility, but there's a lack of order around here that irks him. the only control established is that of Echo's, otherwise everything is unpredictable. if he could pull the plug on that machine, he would.]

May I ask your name?

Junior.

[ there are some feeling there. not guilt, but something close to it— he was named after his father, but his father's gone, so that means he's not actually Junior anymore, is he? ]

Yours?

[ he hasn't lost all of his social skills, he still remembers a little about how to interact with adults. ]

[not so much the little feral animal now that food is in him, it seems.]

Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

[no, he is not shaking the kid's dirty hands. he offers a small smile instead.]

Am I making the correct assumption in that you are not injured?

[all of the blood is dried, and he had just said he'd come back from the dead. but he doesn't know what that entails. does it mean waking wherever he died, or did he find himself in the hospital again, as all of them do upon arrival?]

[ Great, a doctor. Of course a doctor would be the one to find him scavenging like a rat while covered in dry blood. ]

Got a few scratches, but the like, the fucking drill wound is fine. If it wasn't for the blood I'd have thought it didn't happen.

The drill?

[something he had luckily skirted by, and not even heard of. well, hearing was possible. he'd overheard many screams while trapped inside that maze.]

Was that a common trial that many went through?

No idea.

[ Junior takes a moment to try to figure out if thinking back on it bothers him. He decides it doesn't. Too soon for him to have any particular feelings about it, or he's too stunted to feel much these days.

He shrugs. ]

It looked like the kind of trap several people would be forced into. I don't think I was the only one— I went from one area to the next and I was suddenly strapped to a chair, back to back with another person also strapped to a chair. And there were drills coming directly at our chests. I could only move towards the drill or try pushing the other person towards the one coming at them.

Kill or die, I guess? This other guy was way more freaked than I was. I've died before and I knew I'd come back, so I chose die.

[what a crude way to die, but not one he wouldn't want to watch unfold. there's no art form to that, the only intention for it was clearly to test someone's strength or will to live. what will someone do when faced with death? for a child to conclude it was better for him to die simply because he'd experienced it before is-]

That was very noble of you.

[ Junior gives a little shrug. ]

I didn't think of it like that. It just kinda sounded like the best option? If we didn't do anything we were both gonna die, if I fought and he killed me I was gonna be pissed forever, and if I killed him he was gonna seek revenge for sure.

This way I'm chill and he's on my side.

Noble and calculated, then.

[a wry smile. there is little that truly amuses Hannibal, but Junior's clearly thinking further ahead than most.]

Have you seen him since?

[ the part of him that seeks adult approval is very pleased this man he just met seems to think positively of him. ]

Nah, I asked him to leave my knife and enough food for a day or two. I figure he made it out way before I did.

For your sake, I hope he did, if your default is to eat junk food in the aisles of grocery stores.

[maybe he should advise Echo to provide beginner cooking classes for the children, because he certainly isn't taking on that responsibility.]

I never feel like cooking after getting tortured. It's a character flaw.

[ now that he feels safer he's okay being snarky. ]

[never feel like cooking after getting tortured. the kid's vocabulary is odd. there is a twinge of something in Hannibal's expression, though it is indeterminate. he's died before, now he's sacrificed himself, too. it's rare that someone so young is forced through so much, but he's noticed it a lot around here.]

You say that as though you've been tortured before. Is that the case?

Before here? I guess? Mostly psychologically.

[ It's weird to think about it like that, but Chucky did scare the shit out of him. Sure, it had felt very liberating at the time, but now he just feels weirdly icky about it.

Maybe it's the dry blood. ]

It sounds made-up, but there was this doll possessed by a serial killer. He said— he gave me the knife, taught me how to use it. Killed me with one.

[ He's editing out his own wrongdoings, but he figures they're somewhat implied in there. Plus, he's not lying. Chucky killed him with a butcher knife, or at least, he remembers being thoroughly stabbed with one and then showing up here, so he must have died. ]

[that sounds like something straight out of a horror movie. this young man must have a lot of mental fortitude. his eyes narrow just enough to be noticed -- a calculated expression. there's no other change in features aside from that, a cool exterior that he often takes on with patients.

he wonders if Junior liked it, the killing. he isn't so sure about the doll, but, well -- they're all on this planet and people with supernatural abilities are roaming the streets. may as well add a possessed doll into the mix of histories he's heard.]

Killed at the hand of your enabler. Were you relieved when you found yourself here?

Not really? I figure this is hell or purgatory or something like it.

[ There's no way he was selected to save anyone, let alone a whole world. If he died it shouldn't even count as his world anymore. ]

It very well could be.

[it certainly annoyed Hannibal that there is no butcher to his liking and the selection of meat is hardly anything he'd pick out normally. he's going to have to begin hunting again, at some point. for both swine and other animals.

he has a habit of leaving his earpiece at home, wrapped in cloth and tucked away in his drawer. he has no reason to use it unless he is checking the network for new information and prefers it stay in one place. if Aurora happened to listen to what he was saying about her half the time, well...]

But, if it were hell, I would think it would be worse. Our lives have been made mostly comfortable here, if not for those 'renovations' that had to take place.

[ Junior shrugs. He did just get killed painfully, but then maybe his hell is this guy's purgatory. The way he dresses this is probably his first time shopping in this kind of store, maybe that's a kind of torture for people like him. ]

I wouldn't call it all that comfortable. [ What with the maze and the dying and the near starvation. ] But anyway, it just started, I guess it'll be easier to tell if it gets better or worse, or like, worse in cycles.

I would argue that life was never supposed to be that comfortable to begin with. Here, we are not required to pay for lodging or food. For some, that may be a weight off their shoulders.

[he tilts his head, eying some of the stocked items beside him, then his gaze shifts back to Junior.]

But I don't agree with it. I'd like to go home, same as most of the others here.

Edited (lmfao @ myself ) 2024-06-03 00:35 (UTC)

Not me. Only way I go home is if there's necromancy involved or I get drafted into the skeleton war.

[ that's a joke coming from a boy who is way more online than he should have been, but there's... something mushy behind it, a weird sadness he's very deliberately ignoring. ]

[he did say most, but he can sense that Junior is trying to make light of his own situation in order to avoid it.]

Well, your circumstances are very different.

[there's a pregnant pause as he studies the teen, deep maroon eyes boring into Junior's own.]

If one had a chance to choose to stay alive, why wouldn't he? It's not a choice people are privy to very often.

[ Junior has no problem meeting Hannibal's eyes, at least up until he asks his question. and then he's back in that car, hearing the crash, seeing his mom's body broken, her face through the windshield.

he squeezes his eyes shut, stepping back, much like he'd done then, except this time he doesn't scream, he just freezes. ]

[well. Hannibal wasn't planning on stepping on a trip wire per se, but clearly Junior's mental state is more delicate than he wanted Hannibal to believe. he'd been speaking to the boy fairly matter-of-fact, and without a file to base his information off of and Junior's flippant avoidance of his own trauma, he couldn't have known this would happen now.

but it does. and he's used to it. Junior isn't a patient, but there is an immediate shift to his tone of voice and behavior. putting his basket of groceries on the floor, he takes only two strides to stand before the boy, placing a gentle (but solid) hand on his shoulder and leaning down so he's eye level.]

Junior. You're not there any more.

(no subject)

onlychildsyndrome - 2024-06-07 03:18 (UTC) - Expand

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