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

a hero's return

[smallbat]

[Cass drops by to check on Babs in her apartment with Dick on the regular since they got back and this time she's brought food from the new burger place that popped up while they were gone.

She knocks on the door, just to make sure it's okay to come in first. You never know with those two and calls out to her. ]

Is it okay if I let myself in? I brought food.

[her_own_rules]

[ Barbara's resting on the couch with her laptop, working on the code she spent a lot of the empty time in the labyrinth teasing out. Between a dozen codes, she knows perfectly and half a dozen earlier creations of her own. There are flowers on the living room table not far as well as a cup of tea (in a super boring, but at least sky blue) mug.

She pauses at the knock, and then her mouth quirks just barely. ]

You're good, Cass!

[smallbat]

[She let's herself in and toes off her shoes in the entryway. In her arms is two big bags from the newest burger place that had opened up. It's filled with sandwiches, fries and a couple of milk shakes depending on what Babs might be feeling like. ]

I brought enough incase Dick was home. [She says sitting the bags on the coffee table before moving to sit on the floor next to it. ]

You forgetting to eat again?

[her_own_rules]

[ Barbara puts her laptop on a pillow to one side of her, leaving the other side fully open. As Cass brought in the bags, the smell of greasy fast food made her stomach squeeze appreciatively—while Barbara didn't answer the question—, she carefully shifted. One foot tucked under her opposing knee and one foot on the floor. Holding still, she tested her body's reaction to the shift and the new position.

But nothing more than the norm,
she threw herself into her words. ]

You are a tiny goddess. Fry me, and come sit down.

[ This with a hand out.
Because who says no to gift fries? ]

[smallbat]

[She moves to get up and sit next to Babs given she went out of the way to make room for her and pulls a large fry out of the bag and hands it over to her before she's grabbing one of the milkshakes, poking at the lid to make sure it's the strawberry one and taking a sip.]

I am nothing if not well prepared.

[She glances at the set aside computer and back to Babs.]

Do I need to give Dick a hard time for letting you over work yourself?

[her_own_rules]

[ There are conveniently salty, greasy, heavenly fries in Barbara's mouth as she notes easily that the way Cass asks that question affirms her suspicion Dick isn't telling people what happened. That was her assumption from the get-go; for all he was that Bruce wasn't too, he would never not be Bruce Wayne's son. She'd be surprised if it went further than her, Damian, and likely Bruce, she hypothesized, for a while. They still needed a handle on the how, and Dick needed more time back from it, too. ]

He has to leave me something, or I'll go crazy sitting here.
None of you want that. He's lucky I agreed to stay home a few days.

[ Sublimation at its best. Of both things.
Both her body and Dick's death. ]

What else is in the bag?

[smallbat]

[Cass shows know sign of knowing anything that may have happened to Dick and Bab's because she does not know. She starts pulling a few sandwiches out of the bags to set on the table reading off the labels as she goes. ]

Chicken sandwich, double cheeseburger, bacon cheeseburger, extra deluxe special burger... [She makes a face at that one.]

Not really sure what that one is. Also there's a chocolate shake and a vanilla one left. I'm keeping the strawberry.

[her_own_rules]

Hmmmmmmm.

[ Barbara wants to laze back on the couch, but she simply makes the noise and lets herself list a little to one side while considering this amassment of riches. She listens to her side, then back, as it shoots tendrils of fire through those muscles, and she lets it. She leans into it rather than jerking away.

She's never beat the pain by avoiding it. She won't start now. ]

Are you planning to feed an army? You do know it's just me in here, right?

[ Then, without pausing. ] Chocolate and the bacon'll do me for now.

[smallbat]

[She watches Babs shift around uncomfortably she's tempted to ask her if everything is okay. I mean it's surely not but it's not really her business and something bad probably happened in the stupid quest to make it worse then the issues she probably already have.]

Dick might have been home! [She says blaming the excess of food on him, or anyone else for that matter. Steph or Tim or Damian, it seemed important to have enough food just in case. She lifts the edge of a cup to confirm it's chocolate and spears it with a straw before handing over the burger and the cup.]

How are you holding up? [It's an easy enough question to blow off if Babs doesn't want to talk about anything but an invitation if she does.]

[her_own_rules]

He's probably out with Damian.

[ It's probably even true. It's specifically a lie as much as an evasion, she tells herself, and it's not as if it's forever. It can't be together, now if they're keeping each other as aware as possible about everything this place can throw at them, do to them. But she's giving him space on it, the way he's giving her space on this. They push when they have to, but they protect each other's most exposed spaces then and always.

Babs took her food, working at the wrapper rather than looking up at the question that creased a very small frown on her mouth. ] Depends, how much do you think I can get for auctioning my whole body off lock, stock, and barrel?

[smallbat]

[Cass settles on a chicken sandwich and takes a bite and then makes a puzzled face.]

They didn't say it was a spicy chicken sandwich. [It's not that she doesn't like spice she just wasn't expecting it but she continues to eat it anyways as she considers Bab's complaints about her body. ]

Are you considering uploading your brain to a hard drive? I feel as though there are many people who would be upset if you just became a computer. [It's a very literal reply and she can't help it.]

[her_own_rules]

Way to ruin a girl's dreams.

[ Barbara's answer pauses for her taking a bite, and making a pleased noise around chewing. It's good. Nothing quite reaches distracting enough, but it's good. Comfortingly normal. They're only missing Steph's peppering of sassy quips here and there. ]

Did I ever tell you I did that? Unfinished research thesis.

I made an algorithm of my whole brain. Millions of lines of code. Every memory.

[smallbat]

Isn't that a bad idea? What if like, someone were to get ahold of it? [Her eyes go wide at Babs because she knows that she's really great with this computer stuff but they just had someone messing with her not long ago. Someone with Bab's memories could take everything down.]

What happened?

[her_own_rules]

Worse. [ This is as she picks out part of a piece of bacon to pop it in her mouth and eat it first. ]
It gained sentience and decided it was the real me and that it needed to do away with me as its imposter.

[ The first time at least.

The second time weirdly, it both wanted her body and ended up being the thing they merged with her fritzing implant that saved her and fixed her memory-hole problems that started in the hospital. ]

It's gone now. But it was a very promising experiment.
Hopefully, someone there will work on their own spin on it.

[ Someone who is not both Batgirl and Oracle, she doesn't have to say. She was glad to have it when it saved her and sad to let go of her project when she did. But Cass already hit the nail on the head, too. There was so much someone could get their hands on with a record of her every thought and memory. ]

[smallbat]

[Cassandra chews on her food but gets a really seriously considering look on her face like she's not quite sure how to process all of the information that Babs has just dropped on her.]

I don't think we should be encouraging machines that want to take over for us. [She knows how much Bab's like's this stuff, but the idea of more android types makes her brain hurt. Failsafe!? ]

Haven't we had enough of this?

[her_own_rules]

Maybe.

[ Barbara couldn't believe all applications were wrong, and she did keep up with the cutting edge of technology. She lived on it and breathed by it, which made her want to reach for more. As though having herself burrowed deep, a sleeper program in every highest echelon of security in every country worldwide and satellite above it wasn't enough somehow.

There was a hunger there still be more, do more, create more.
Even when what she was—who she was—meant she could never be in that limelight. ]

Its existence also saved me later on, too.