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

( taking the glass in hand, he eyes dick there. eyes the bottle he keeps for himself and listens to the little toast he says for them. rather than say anything, he just slowly takes a sip of his drink, letting his gaze wander around the kitchen as he does. hm. )

[Taking another swish, Dick hands the bottle back. He knows it wasn't his to begin with and he plans on replacing it when next he heads out to the little bar they have in town now. It's got some pretty fine spirits, and Dick goes often enough trying to make connections in this strange little place-- people that aren't a part of this little bat-party he dropped himself into the middle of.

Following Bruce's gaze. Dick can feel a buzzing question, but he doesn't want to push.]

Did you and Damian get into it?

Not exactly.

( looking to his empty glass he holds, he gently goes and sets it down on the countertop there. gives himself a minute. )

I don't know how to help. Not sure I can. ( licking over his lips. ) It's better he figures that out with his brother.

No? Then what.

[His voice was still soft, gently edging along the conversation-- hoping to get Bruce to at least get the words out. There was at times a catharsis in speaking pain. Dick wasn't sure he fully supported it, but he'd found that it worked a time or two, more so in times like this.

So, he allowed Bruce the space to speak if he wanted, and tried to encourage him to be the person he had been, because it was obviously working. ]

I think if you keep doing what you were, and just be here that's all he might need. He's hurt, and teens push when they hurt.

[There's a pause when Dick thinks about what he knows from dreams and conversations, and where the lines are between confidentiality and helping Bruce. ]

I don't know Damian, but I know he's a fighter and he's been through a lot of death and hell. I think he .... he will always feel the need to sacrifice himself for others, especially Dick who he feels gave him....basically everything. He idolizes him to an amazing degree.

That... I don't think that lessens his relationship with you. It's a different relationship? So, be here when he needs it. He will. It's never one or the other. It's both. He needs you both.

( dryly: ) I wouldn't know.

( because bruce stopped being a child when his parents were murdered in crime alley.

another shot poured, he's lost count of how many he's had now. five? that sounds right. maybe six... regardless, he should stop, he knows. he's not yet fallen into the coping means of alcohol when life starts to become difficult than he's used to it being. one day he'll get there. maybe. but for now, it's a simple indulgence for the moment. something he's a little surprised he hasn't done yet since his arriving here and being bombarded with... everything.

he watches the way the liquid swishes around in the glass as he holds it. contemplates dick's words. then down shot number six, possibly seven. licks over his lips and stares ahead. he's definitely starting to feel the effects of it. )

I guess we'll see.

( setting the empty glass down, he starts to make his way out of the kitchen. heads for the living area. )

[There's no reason for Dick to relay once more the part where he lost his parents too. It's not his childhood he recalls. He was raised by the man Bruce is now, pretty much-- except add British. How's that for the perfect storm. Is there any wonder Dick kept running away in the beginning. Then Bruce shoved weapons in his hands and pushed him time and again so he'd never break. That, or left him alone, alone with the same thoughts of vengeance, darkness, shadows. He was more violent than his Bruce ever was. He has no idea of this one. He'd take everyone right up to the edge of death, and he let Zucco die, let him die as if it were by his own hand. No, he was no judge of what a real teen should be. No one held him through nightmares, or watched him sleep. No one sewed him up beyond himself or Alfred.

Dick went back and forth between love and hate. Love, hate, vengeance, they all walked fine lines, didn't they. Where does one really cast the first stone. Dick had no clues, and he wasn't going to tell anyone else what to do anymore tonight. He was tired.

Tapping out for a little bit, he shrugged. He leaned against the counter when he watches Bruce walks away and ponders if he should follow. Chances are the other doesn't want company. Dick knows he's not fond of it when he's in a mood. It's not a bedroom, however.

Giving Bruce a few moments by himself, Dick emerges and stands there. ]

Would you rather I return to my room, or stay.

( he's dropped himself down on the couch. turned the television on and lets a random black and white movie of some sort play. he's not really paying attention to it, it's just there for background noise. he's hunched over some, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes fallen shut. he doesn't need to look up to know dick is there. he can just... sense his presence. helps to be trained in that. )

You live here. ( words he murmurs. ) You don't need to ask me where you want to be.

[It's a true toss up. There's a part of Dick that wants to provide comfort. He's not even completely sure why at this point. He knows he should leave Bruce to stew in his own misery, but Dick has been there and has felt at least part of that deep pain, the way it pulses against a person's core. It might be completely different from Bruce, because all he can see is the outward signs. The eyes, the pinched bridge of a nose.

Quiet steps take Dick to the couch where he sits next to Bruce, he leans against him lightly. Touch is comfort, even if it's a thing unused to. Bruce of course, can take it or leave it. All Dick can do is offer himself as here. Period. ]

( the moment he feels the other there beside him, blue eyes softly flutter open. land on the television there with the black and white movie playing. it's merely something for him to focus on while he sits there. silent. letting the other's weight lean against him.

a duck of his head, fingers card through dark strands of hair at the nape of his neck, bruce letting his hand fall away then to rest against his leg. no. he's not used to this. but he also doesn't want to push it away either. not all of him does, anyways. )

Was he much of a father to you? ( he asks then, softly. ) The other me.

[Sensing the motion rather than seeing it, Dick wonders if Bruce is going to jump away. Dick braces for it, but then the motion doesn't happen and his whole posture relaxes. It's been what feels like forever since he's invited this sort of contact and been able to sit with it for a few minutes at least.

Not wanting to disturb it, Dick stays silent until he's spoken to. He glances to the side and watches the play of shadows from the TV on Bruce's face. He can't help a small laugh. ]

You're not him. He's British, and old. I met him I guess when he was a little older than you, not much. He was never father. He was Master Wayne, Bruce when I got to be an adult. Alfred did the raising part, Bruce trained me to turn my need for vengeance into a weapon to hunt who he wanted me to.

[It's time for him to run his fingers over his lips as he thinks, drawing them back and forth in an old habit.]

He did what he could for me, raised me the best he thought he knew how he says now, but he didn't hug me, hold me, tuck me in. He didn't come when I had nightmares. I had to be stronger than that.

( no, he’s not him. he doesn’t even have a child- doesn’t have dick grayson just yet in his care. it’s just him and alfred. possibly just him, depending how things go back in his gotham. a thought he once again chooses to ignore.

gaze drifting from dick, it lands back on the television and he’s quiet for a moment. )

Do you resent him for that?

[It's never easy to think about home and what's happening right now. Dick keeps hoping that whatever happens is a big cosmic joke and eventually after they're done being tested they'll be released back to the moment they left. He's not facing this duel for universe theory.

His mind might dwell, but he doesn't want to accept it. At the question, Dick chews on the inside of his cheek and lets out an exhale.]

Honest? I used to. Deeply, for about six years I didn't talk to him. I left and didn't want to go back. I was angry, so angry. Then I realized that I was running from myself as much as him. I am responsible for my own actions now. I know he didn't know what he was doing, he wanted to save a child from the system, try and give me something to help with my pain.

[Dick sighs.]

Was it right? No. Did he know, no. Should I resent him for ignorance....I can't. Not anymore. The past is done, we learn from it. The important thing is to take lessons and not make the same mistakes.

( silence falls over them as bruce mulls over what dick says. it's hard for him to imagine when he doesn't have any kids under his [bat]wing back in his own gotham currently. makes him wonder what mistakes he'll make, how much he'll stumble with them, but. it doesn't do much to really worry about that now. for all he knows, he might be the different one who doesn't end up with a dick grayson or damian wayne. it's hard to know when he's just not there yet.

leaning back on the couch, he sighs. stares to the television again. )

I don't really know what I'm doing right now.

( so he can relate to that with dick's own bruce. )

[For a little while, Dick wonders if Bruce is trying to see himself in what Dick's described. Already, Dick knows that the man he's sitting next to is nothing like his mentor. They both may not have known what to do, but there are certain instincts that he knows Bruce has that his mentor didn't. He's caught the amount of affection that Bruce has for Damian, and knows well and good the amount that Damian has in return.

It's no wonder. They are both a stubborn pair, but easy to care about. ]

It's okay. You don't have to know. I don't think anyone ever does. It's what you do that matters, and you're doing good. He appreciates it, I can tell. It's different already.

[Dick wishes he could soothe nerves further, offer more touch, but with their bodies already touching he isn't sure that more would be welcome-- It's a strange feeling either way. He merely lays his palms down in front of him and leans a little heavier, offering complete support. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

MAY MINGLE

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