MAY MINGLE

[etrayamods]

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⏴

Comments

[westcoasts]

( he hums a vague noise of agreement, one that notably says nothing and is entirely, wholly avoidant and dismissive of how often clint manages to break either himself or his stuff — he's only human, and his bow's a stick with some string. 'highly durable's is not a descriptor either ordinarily carry.

he re-emerges at the top of the stairs with nothing in his hands, and seemingly nothing extra on his person, and gives her a flat look at the question about valuables. )

Last time I had valuables, I did what I thought was the smart thing and hid 'em in my basement. ( it was smart only up to the point where he made the decision to tell barney where it was and what it was. smart — still smart? — enough to tell barney he could take it all if anything happened to clint. not smart enough to realise that barney would take it all regardless of what happened to clint.

nothing to hold against him, mind — some of it, clint had owed him, after all.

(valuables! a guy like him! that's funny.) ) Think you've gotten me confused with one of them rich Avengers, Storm. ( anyway. ) It's a corkboard. Had some stuff I was working on.

[agoddessonce]

Rich people aren't the only ones with valuables. [ She gives him an amused look. Back when she was just a resident of the mansion, she'd hidden gold and other stolen goods in different parts of the institute. It had come in handy when Xavier's assets were stripped bare by the government, and they needed some quick and under the table capital. ]

Besides, valuables are... subjective. It could be important to you, and you wanted it here for whatever reason. Sentinment won't buy you anything, but it is not bad. Especially here, where money isn't even a factor.

[ She finally takes a look where he says she must, and finds a corkboard. It looks empty. ]

Nothing of note here, except the board itself. What was it that you were working on?

[westcoasts]

That's why I asked Aurora for my bow. She said about providing comfort, and I told her that my bow does that. She took some convincing.

( his valuables — technically, the money had been valuable, although it wasn't and isn't something that clint assigns value to. valuables in the HAS FINANCIAL MERIT OR GAIN was never something he'd had, not something he's ever been able to grow accustomed to having or caring about and, of course, he is sentimental. that's the problem. clint is all feelings.

he steps beside her to admire the empty corkboard. nice. it's fine, he was going to start from scratch anyway. his kitchen side and lounge in the aurora-provided apartments have developed an assortment of sticky notes, newspapers taken from the kwik-trip, and handwritten notes about etraya, about the island-slash-city, and about aurora. )

—Nothing that matters here. 'S just how I keep track of things. ( perhaps not especially shocking, given the landline attached to the wall. ) Least it saves me emptying it off.

[agoddessonce]

What sort of things? If I may ask. [ Ororo didn't do this much - every home she'd made never lasted particularly long. Even the mansion, which tended to be the longest she would stay in at any one time, tended to... go up in flames every couple of years. She's learned to live simply - so that she had less to bring with her any time the wind brought her to new places. ] Photos, perhaps? Notes?

I may pick up the habit, if we will be here for an unforeseen amount of time.

And as long as comfort seems to be part of the apparent criteria for requesting things... I suppose I ought to think of what I can ask her for. If I can ask for anything, that is. I'm unsure about this points business.

[westcoasts]

Yeah, she didn't really elaborate on what the points thing meant. I asked her if Kate's building cost points, and she said no. Should've asked if the damn dog was worth points too.

( it's grumbled in such a way that says he's not actually all that irritated about it, even if he still can't quite believe that kate got his (their) dog.

but back to the actual question—
(he doesn't point out that they've already been here for an unforeseen amount of time. all the time they're here is "unforeseen".) )

Had a map, photos — had a polaroid camera back home, I don't really like... ( technology. fancy technology, anyway. there are hints of that in the way that the apartment's arranged, in the relative simplicity. in the phone attached to the wall. the tv, the dvd — not bluray, not anything overtly modern — player. ) Having to find a printer to download photos from my phone. ( plus, polaroids have that handy space at the bottom where you can write stuff. ) Sticky notes. ( push pins and string to link it all together.

nothing fancy, but it worked. ) Always found it easier than trying to type stuff out on a laptop. ( not to say he doesn't, not to say he can't — he does, has and can in his time with the avengers, with the thunderbolts, but it's not his preference. he'd never graduated school, dropped out somewhere handy to fifteen, didn't really do a whole lot with computers.

(if his handwriting's bad, his typing speed's not much better—.) )

[agoddessonce]

[ He sounded and looked like he lived very much in a simpler way than she's used to. Even on Krakoa, and later, Arakko, a lot of their bio-tech was still tech. Arakko was earthier, had touches of old and ancient culture that's untouched by modern-day Earth standards - but still more advanced than a corkboard filled up with sticky notes and Polaroid photos. They had to be, if they wanted to be the capital of Sol.

He lives simply, then. And was very sentimental, if those were things he missed and if being upset over Kate Bishop having a dog he wanted was anything to go by. ]

Well... It seems you'll have no problems with printers here. Maybe you can use your points for a Polaroid, it would be good to use and make some new memories with.

[ She looks at the board again and wonders, idly: ] But... a map, you say? Maybe we can retrieve one for here. With the sudden new buildings and rivers, it might be smart to keep a record of what has changed over time.

[westcoasts]

( clint's life — not his personal life in the sense of romantic entanglements, those are almost always a mess — but his life outside of that is simple. his life isn't neatly divided, not really; the avengers are his friends, they're his family, they're (almost) all he's got, and when he doesn't have them, he's—.

well, he had his neighbors. rooftop barbeques and beers, the almost-only socialising clint does outside of superheroing. where some of them have lives ("lives", clint's not really sure who he'd point at for that), he spends a lot of his downtime training. the rest of it, sleeping. the rest of that, if he's got a lot on his plate — coffee. so much coffee.

she mentions using points for a camera and— hey. that's not a bad idea, actually. he grins at her, quick and wry and self-aware. ) If I've got any points.

—And look, I mostly want to see if the other apartments are empty, there's only about 8 in total, then there's some stuff in the basement. ( no, wait. ) Might be some stuff in the basement, I guess. An old costume or two, y'know, things like that.

( but as to her point about keeping records—.

he heads towards the door and pulls it, holding it open with a foot. ) I started making some notes when I got here — got some supplies from the Kwik-Trip. Stationery. Don't have a board, so it's mostly over my kitchen and one of my walls in the apartments near the hospital.

[agoddessonce]

[ They can walk and talk! So she does just that as she follows him to and beyond the door, looking over to the stairs and the other apartments that await them below. ]

Well, when we find out about the points, perhaps we can cash them in for another board in addition to a camera. There is no need to sacrifice a perfectly good wall. [ She smiles briefly. She'd like to know about her points too, but that's something to figure out at a later time. ]

I can assist you with bringing any notes and records you've made, if you like. Once we are done here. [ What information has he documented? That feels like something important to share and know. ]

[westcoasts]

It's not about to fall down just 'cause I stuck some paper to it with pins, Storm. ( he answers, tone very much the verbal equivalent of a shrug. more than anything, perhaps, it says that clint isn't all that precious about belongings, not really, not when it comes down to it. it's people, first and foremost, and though he's come to like the apartment he has — in actual bed-stuy, not this WHATEVER on an unknown planet in an unknown universe — it'd taken him weeks to bother to unpack after moving. it'd taken him months to bother even thinking about arranging it in any kind of fashion beyond 'I'll just put this here for now because for now this is where it goes'.

some of it was circumstance, but some of it—. some of it's simply because clint has never really stayed in one place long enough to bother setting down roots, to bother feeling like somewhere is home rather than the people. ) And I'm not about to spend points on something I can just make. A board's just a sheet of crappy wood or cork, and it's gonna be covered in things. It doesn't need to look good.

( he steps into the apartment nearest his and, much like his, it's near-enough empty. it lacks almost any personal touches — perhaps due to a comparative lack of familiarity on clint's part and in his memory, but who's to say? — but the layout is much the same as his. he spends much less time lingering, much less time dawdling — all he's after here is to make sure there's nothing personal of his neighbors sitting out for anyone to find. anything like that, he'll take and keep safe. )

—And I don't want to be too reliant on Aurora.

[agoddessonce]

[ Oh, no, she was just teasing-- but she knows her humor doesn't always land well. This is why she reserves it for people who know her. She spends a moment or two lamenting that this little adventure they're having in Etraya is the type that doesn't involve other X-Men, but instead other Avengers (and there are so many Avengers...), ones who don't really know her personality, her fighting style... Maybe that was the true test here. She needs to branch out to her peers more. ]

That's wise. [ - is all she allows herself to say for the moment, since... well, he's right. And he could do as he wanted, record how he wanted. She's just here to help investigate, to peer around for anything strange and out of place. There are some empty picture frames and empty shelves - things that ought to have personal touches, but are left untouched. ]

So? Anything of note you want to keep?