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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Arguing with Bruce was a bit of a right of passage, wasn't it? Barbara hadn't done it with the newest one, hadn't done it with anyone here yet. Damian shouting at her while in an emotional tailspin notwithstanding, as she hadn't yelled back. She hadn't even yelled at Dick. But fighting with Bruce wasn't exactly surprising by any means.

Barbara sipped at her coffee as he spoke, considering what appeared to be sincerity, even if his overreaction had made her a little more patiently wary, making her approach this more the way she might have with Steph or Cass in their first, or worst, years. Even at their worst, Jason, Bruce, Damian, Dick himself at times, they were all worth biding her time through it.

And she doubted this Dick was as done with that battle as he sounded.
The universe never let someone martial themselves so simply as flipping a switch. ]

I would like that.

[This Bruce and Dick clashed over strange things that Dick wasn't even sure the other Bruce realized half the time, because they often spoke in concentric circles where Dick listened but he wasn't always aware if Bruce did. It took Dick a little bit to figure out Damian, and they were working on their communicating. Dick would get it soon enough. He might get knocked sideways with a few more low blows, but he was getting better. Then with Grayson, it was odd and easy all at once. He felt at home talking to his counter. He trusted the other, how could he not-- maybe he shouldn't, but it made no sense not to.

That's what had flipped the coin so drastically. When they sat there, drills pointed at their chests -- Dick knew he'd die, even temporarily for the other Dick. Maybe that put things into perspective for the time being. It was all he needed for now. The rest would come. Did it guarantee anything. No. Life was never guaranteed. ]

Me too, so, I owe you an explanation, but you're not going to like it. Do you still want the truth? I will tell you my story with the other Babs, her story, all of it if you want. Some parts will be painful, I imagine, thinking about another you having to deal with a different kind of life. She's no less wonderful or amazing, but has a very different life.

[ Barbara studied him with slightly serious expression,
lifting her mug to drink more of her coffee while he spoke.

From a step forward to a step back; she hadn't been expecting that.
She has to wonder how exactly it bled through the last nearly four weeks,
and that was the first thing he wanted to talk to her about after a month. ]

If you'd like.

[ It's mild, and she has to wonder both what those differences are and why it was so important to him first to balk entirely and now to just want to drop it in her lap. ]

Um, that's not the question. It's your choice. I - avoided it before. I'm not excited to tell you. I will tell you if you want. I want peace between us, and friendship.

[Unsure of what it takes to earn her trust after being rude to the point of walking away-- like he's so very good at. Dick came back and was will to not walk away this time. He was sitting here stating that the truth wasn't easy, but he was willing to sit here with her if it was what she needed to fill a hole of curiosity that was important somehow.

Dick could understand. He isn't so very curious about the life of the other him, but there are lives he's interested in. It's a tempting thing. ]

[ Barbara seriously does not know what to make of the tack he's decided to take with this conversation or how exactly he's rearranged all of it in his head. How and why is this the topic he decided to start with? It's been a month. It's bizarre and even worse than that, the phrasing and implication toward his reading of her character behind it are atrocious. She'd call it downright insulting if it weren't because he seems genuine about it. Which only makes it worse, because somehow he's decided he's committed to this bit.

But if he's bound and determined to do this rather than start again? They'll do this. ]

Why would "I"-- [ And, yes, Barbara lifts one set of fingers to make quotation marks on that. Yes, that implication of erroneous presumption about her on his part is there and not hiding itself, as she parrots back the implications of his words only. ] --want to force you to give up information you don't want to give up and call it friendship?

Especially after the last time we spoke, you spent it dropping analogous details about your world and then chastising me for asking about them or talking about myself. Both.

Edited 2024-05-23 12:35 (UTC)

[Fixing broken problems in his head always goes a lot better than it does on paper, or rather in person as most cases tend to be. Dick can dig himself into very deep personal holes and he thinks classic circles for ages around how he might go about pulling himself out, but when he finally does the thing he's been fixating on-- it has a wonderful habit of blowing up. Mostly, that's because he forgets the human component to it, the counterpart, the need to be polite and a human back.

Attacking a problem with another set, doesn't help-- but Dick is still horrible at figuring that out, and while those who tend to know him swat him around until he gets it, those who don't stare at him until he has to figure it out for himself.

Feeling the weight of Barbara's words, the strength of her judgement. Dick begins to crumple. This was not what he wanted, by any means. Now it's his turn to stare downward. He chews against his lip and inhales deeply. ]

I- no. That's not what I meant. I'm sorry. I believe I've already fucked this part up.

[another small breath, switch and his dark brown eyes look up again.]

Listen. I was a mess of emotions when we were last hanging out together. I- I was lost. I'm still working on a lot of things, and I apologize for doing this one inappropriately. I know what I did was wrong, a lot of it when we were together last. How about I say... I'm here for you, instead of all the rest, and I...mean it. not in a weird forced information way, just as a person.

[ Barbara is starting to realize she's going to have to approach this the way she would with Steph or Cass from years back—the uncontrolled emotional swings. The weirdly transparent manipulation seems to have no presence of being chosen on purpose or recognized in action. She notes that she is the person who could, uncontestedly, be called the most manipulative of this family.

So, so much more than Bruce even at times.

But Barbara can be gracious. Behind Dick, she's the next easiest person to get along with in this family for several reasons. ]

If we're starting over, I owe you an apology, too, for what I said the first time we met. I don't expect you to be anyone but who you are—and, admittedly, I don't know who that is. Just like last time made that clear for you about me.

So, let's actually start over.

[ Barbara's hands drop to the wheelhandles on her chair, inching herself a little more forward under the table, and then she held out a hand to him across the table. ] I'm Barbara Gordon, and Batgirl, and Oracle, and I'm planning to fight for all the worlds here, and I am going to win. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mister—?

[ There's a general lilt there, left on her last word, making it a question ]

[There's nothing here that's done to manipulate or be anything other than forthcoming in various ways of bad communication. Dick is genuine and not great at it. He'll get there. It's a lot. Listening to the way she flips her own tactics forces him to take a deep breath and relax.

Pushing his shoulders against the back of his chair, he nods. Oracle. Huh. His was a machine, and he's wondering how she can be oracle. It's a question to ask about, eventually.]

Grayson, Dick. Nightwing, and current keeper of Gotham in my world since Bruce is pretty much retired. It's good to meet you too. I'm planning on fighting for all the worlds too, if that's somehow the real plan. I'm still not sure what they want us to do. They could be playing with our minds for all we know and have no influence over the universes.

[ He nods, but doesn't shake her hand, and that's fine.
She pulls it back and picks up her coffee while he responds. ]

There is a plan.

[ Hers. It started weeks ago.

And the labyrinth gave her untold hours to turn it over in her head. Refining it. ]

But it'd be fair to give you a warning first—if you connect 'Barbara Gordon' and the third name I gave you, with anyone who is not my immediate family, anywhere that is not private and both of you have verified is 100% bug-free, I will put you in the ground. Because that name is about to be everywhere here. If it happens, make no mistake, I will find out, and it will not be pretty, and none of them will stop me.

[ Given his need to keep things simple, she does.
Her expression is still save for the dead seriousness. ]

Do you understand?

[[ooc: sorry, i missed the handshake thing. he would have taken it. I'm a little out of it today. pain and period all in one. yay. that's so my bad. urhg. ]]

[The handshake was there, it was slightly delayed but it was firm and yet kind, as he hoped things would be. Listening, he tipped his head in interest.

As Barbara went into her spiel about Oracle, Dick grew more and more interested. They'd sheltered theirs because it was too dangerous, too easy to hack into, too easy to use-- the power so easy to abuse, to manipulate. They agreed. This. Dick wonders. How can he not, especially with the threat.]

I- I have a question. What is Oracle to you, how can you be Oracle. I'm confused. I mean, we created Oracle, a computer to stop Crane, but then deactivated it. It was too dangerous.

No.

[ It's simple and straight. ]

I'm not telling you anything about it unless you agree.
And even what I can is a small fraction of what it is.

[ She holds up a hand before he can take it personally. ]

It's the same for all of them. It always has been. It has to be that way.

[ Oracle has so many of the secrets that could end so many lives,
and the kind of connections that could end worlds in the wrong hands. ]

No, I mean, yes. I agree. I'm sorry. I should have said that first. I won't say a word unless it's people that know and it's completely secure.

[He's still completely at a loss, so whatever it is, is what's going to be. Dick's not offended by it. He's learning to back off and let life happen here. It's going to be easier. His brain is slow in figuring it out, but the control he really enjoys having is hard won.

It's a battle, but right this second, the smarter part of his brain wins. The silent side.]

[ It'd be nice to say she relaxes then. She'd never raised her voice a single octave either time, yet the severity was there—the commitment to something much bigger than anything here. To the fact, she could come right over this table, straight from this chair, if she had to.

She doesn't do either. She considers Dick. ]

Okay. [ Though it's not entirely. It's an acknowledgment of his acknowledgment. Barbara will never feel comfortable exposing herself (and all of the people Oracle protects through herself), to someone she has no proof of her ability to trust. Most people never learn who she is. This is a leap of faith. A choice. ] Why did you need a computer to stop Scarecrow?

[It's probably wise of him not to mention how that while Babs was Oracle's keeper, she was afraid of using it. She didn't want to hold that much power. It was too much information for one person and then when she did use it, it was hacked. There was her fear personified.

Thinking that something else is coming, he takes a second. ]

Oh, Batman built most of it and he used it with Barbara to help track and keep Crane from his plan at the time, getting him off the streets and in to Arkham the first time. Then NSA slapped fines all over it and it was shuttered. Too many private rights to be violated.

[ Barbara is still waiting when he finishes.
Sipping at her coffee, slow and calm. Focused.

Waiting long enough, she realizes he's not figuring out how to say more.
To explain the more complicated parts of this offending program.

Her brow wrinkles very subtly. ]

It was a tracking program?

[ The 'just' is implied, but not cruelly.
She's simply expecting more. ]

[There are facts that Dick misses, but he doesn't always know everything. He's not always in the loop-- it tracks with how Dick became more and more obsessed with finding and delivering his own form of vengeance, and how he tried to distance himself from Bruce in greater leagues toward the end of their 'partnership' as Batman and Robin.

Oracle was a complicated program that Dick didn't have the knowledge to explain completely, but he did his best sitting there with coffee in his hand.]

It's more than that. Barbara was afraid of it even when I begged her to use it last. It was the ultimate AI... spy. It could watch people, anyone, anywhere around the globe, listen in, know what they were doing. That type of power was dangerous, especially if somehow it got into the wrong hands.

[He paused, not knowing how much he should tell her, how much he should leave to his own knowledge. Dick erred on the side of caution and waited for anymore questions instead.]

[ Barbara listens, and with the information he chooses to give her, she starts doing what she always does: piecing it together in her head, finding the flaws, labeling the blind spots. There are comparisons and contrasts she can make already, but she's focusing on the other picture first. After Dick finishes, but before responding, she flags a waitress walking past their table with a request for a refill on her next time around.

Then, returned to him. And the conversation directly. ]

Neither of you were certain you could keep it in your own hands?
[ Also. ] Why was the NSA involved? How did they find out about it?

[Still fingering his mug, taking too much time over his coffee Dick tries to piece together information he knows. It's not a lot more than he's already told her. He knows that Barbara put together everything with Bruce and that it took Oracle to catch Scarecrow the first time.

The NSA got involved because they wanted to know how Crane was apprehended and Barbara was the Commissioner? Dick wasn't even certain about that. How did they get into it. That's the only guess he has. ]

I imagine because it was used through official police channels and they got the information. I don't know the direct intel there. I know it happened. I know they shut it down, but Barbara kept it up in case it was needed. Then when we did use it again, Crane hacked it with insider knowledge and a photo of Babs from Lady Vic. Bitch still hates Babs and I for being indirectly responsible for her boyfriend's death. Don't ask me how it was done, I don't know that much. It just was. Barbara destroyed it completely as soon as she knew.

[Taking a breath, Dick closes his eyes. There's pain there, grief for what was, what could have been. A lost love, a part of his life that he'll never get back. The moment batgirl was created and then later lost to become something more as commissioner.]

Huh.

[ GCPD.

That's definitely not any of the handful of predictable answers she thought might answer that. But that makes sense. If Barbara is a cop, and she built it. Somehow, with Bruce. Above the board. Both built and destroyed it. She's in the middle of teasing a question from that thought when she's surprised by the crassness just slid into there, and her consideration of him sharpens for that beat before fading back to mild attentiveness again.

It's a lot to consider, but also, it was also incredibly short-lived.

Built impressive, used only twice, then demolished. It's almost ... sad. ]

Yeah.

[There's not a lot more to say. It was what happened. Dick was still obtuse as to letting Barbara in on what the other Babs did. He'd tell her if asked directly, but he hadn't been, so he found no reason to offer up the information.

Right now, things seemed alright. Dick happened to use harsh language when it suited him. It came and went and he never much thought about it. It was a part of his everyday, and being in the city around people who used that type of language daily didn't really help. ]

Argus came in at the end and helped out. They work with the force now. It's a better system than it was.

The thousand-eyed monster.

[ It's the barest mumble, attached to the further ripples of differences everywhere, before Barbara flips to a polite smile and a genial thank you for the waitservice bot that has finally made it back around to them. It's a small pause for the top-up on her coffee, and for it to get more than two or three feet from them. ]

And that was that?

The end?

Edited 2024-05-26 21:38 (UTC)

[Tipping his head, Dick considered her muttered breath and wondered a little about it, but decided not to ask. He didn't really have to worry about that in his world currently. Things were working well enough and Argus had saved things when the police force had all but gone rogue. ]

With Oracle, yes. That's that. The titans and I left Gotham shortly after Crane was put away again.

[ Barbara is trying her best not to let some part of her twitch every time he continues to say Oracle. At least every time as of this point, has not been using it while in implication of her answering to or having the name. It's a grace she's giving it, but it still runs a hundred nails down chalkboards.

The uncertainty. The public location.

He stops without adding anything else to it, and Barbara could say she was surprised, but she isn't. This is their third conversation, and she remembers each of the other down to the granular seconds and details no one's mind keeps even just hours later. Behavior is deeply predictable at that point. She picked up her new cup, considering testing whether it was still too hot. ]

Hmm. Your turn, then, it seems.

You were going to tell me things that I couldn't repeat to another soul, I guess? How you and your person became something I only knew as a computer?

[It doesn't dawn on Dick not to say it. It's not like he's offering up state secrets to anyone here because it's a thing that doesn't exist in this world. It was public police knowledge in his world, and it's been destroyed. It's not a person, identity, codename.

Now that he's discussing her, it's almost as if he switches gears and his mind moves into alter realities. This place still knows their secrets. He's got not grandiose ideas that it wouldn't. Aurora/Etraya stole them, and did who knows what while they were naked and unconscious. It saw their wardrobes, and non-wardrobes. They are still under watchful eyes no matter where they are or what they're doing. Dick hardly believes that anything is sacred.

Still, it's good to be careful and he understands that, has always understood that. It's his job to know that. ]

Right. How can I be who I am?

[ It's such a strange question, isn't it? Especially for someone whose concept of Oracle is a deconstructed computer program only used twice. Was something alive if it was for only that long? (She didn't think the AI of her own algorithmic brain scans would like that thought.) Either way, the NSA would be pocket change compared to who all might come for her if the world knew everything she'd already done and continued doing up to the day before getting here. Barbara leans back in her chair and shifts her cup to one hand to free the other.

She raises a finger. ] Eidetic memory.

[ Another. ] Genius level intellect.

[ A last, but with a well meaning smirk added. ]
And an utterly unstoppable can-do attitude.

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