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

[furiousfists]

[ Adaine feels an instant wave of relief when Riz sits across from her, instead of some stranger she has to pretend to she's interested in making small talk with. Sure, she knows it's sort of against the whole point of this "getting to know you" exercise to sit with someone she already knows, but it's infinitely preferable to her than talking to a random stranger. Especially given the writing on her card.

And besides, they are still getting to know one another, as Adaine suddenly realizes that Riz is from a point in the past where her father is still alive. ]

Oh, that's right, you don't know!

[ She sits up straight in her chair, leaning forward with a crazed excitement in her eyes. ]

It was awesome. I killed him in one hit!

[ It would appear that Adaine's feelings definitely align on the side of celebration, rather than shame or regret. ]

[stresstokens]

[ Thank god for Adaine and her willingness to just straight up tell him how she feels about something without being put-off by him having to ask (and frankly, without him having to dig much; Adaine has always been refreshingly open with her emotions when push comes to shove). That leaves Riz open to grin openly at Adaine and hold one hand out for a high five. ]

Hell yeah!

[ There is something that should be disturbing and off-putting about Adaine's glee about putting her own father into an early grave. He thinks that if his mother were here, she'd be looking a little horrified, like this isn't completely normal. But pitting your daughters against each other in a lifelong game of chess before torturing the hell out of one and then trying to do it to the other isn't normal. He offers her a vicious grin. ]

Fuck that guy.

[ He probably deserved a worse death than he got. The feeling of horror seizing his chest as he realized that Adaine had made a sacrifice play to get them out of that horrific fight on Leviathan is still raw within him, the petrifying knowledge that Adaine's own father would put her through unspeakable things without a hint of remorse. Riz wouldn't have minded killing him himself, but Adaine deserved a moment of righteous fury to exact her own revenge.

(It does mean that two of the Bad Kids killed their own fathers, which is a weird commonality that he decides not to think too hard about. Adaine's celebrating it, so they're celebrating it.) ]

What happened?

[furiousfists]

[ Excitedly, Adaine launches into an explanation. She starts with the backstory, how they'd gone into the Nightmare King's forest, gotten separated, and each been forced to confront their deepest fears. She doesn't go into the exact details of everything that led up to that— she's not about to drop the bomb of "Kristen died and by the time we found her body, she'd been dead for 800 years" without being able to explain further.

She sticks to what's relevant to the story at hand, telling Riz about her own fear journey, stepping off a cliff into the water, glossing lightly over talking to her older self— though she doesn't talk about the subject of that conversation— and then finding herself trapped in a prison orb, face to face with her parents, Aelwyn, and Killian.

She doesn't tell him the details of her messages with Aelwyn, wanting to preserve some dignity for her poor sister, even if she's not here. But she tells him how her mother commanded her to tell them the Bad Kids' plans, and how she refused. She tells him how her mother left, with Killian in tow, headed deeper into the forest to complete the ritual to bring back the Nightmare King, leaving her father and Aelwyn behind to deal with her. She tells him how her father threatened to "fix," her (complete with air quotes), and how he ordered Aelwyn to read her mind, but Aelwyn protested, until he threatened her with physical violence, at which point she relented.

She paints the story to put Aelwyn in the best possible light, given the circumstances and what importance this moment had in repairing their relationship. She doesn't tell Riz everything that occurred with her and Aelwyn inside her mindscape, but tells him that she was able to convey to Aelwyn how much she just wanted her sister back, and convince her that their parents were in the wrong for pitting them against one another.

She tells him how Aelwyn retreated from Adaine's mind, telling Angwyn that she didn't have the information he was looking for. She tells him how Angwyn then tried to shoot a magical attack at Adaine, but it was counterspelled by Aelwyn. She tells him that Angwyn then turned his ire onto Aelwyn instead, which she tried to counterspell, but he counterspelled her counterspell, and hit Aelwyn with a lightning bolt.

Looking down at the table, Adaine clutches her hot chocolate mug in both hands and takes a deep breath, hating even the memory of seeing Aelwyn knocked back by their father's attack. ] I was so angry... I was furious.

[ But then, a wicked, feral grin crosses her face, and she looks up at Riz once more. ]

That's when I knew I had the perfect opportunity, to test out the new spell that Ayda had written for me. [ She raises her right hand into the air, performing the verbal and somatic components to cast it. Her first gleams with silvery arcane light, as she proudly announces, ] Adaine's Furious Fists.

[ Rather than destroy this poor, unsuspecting coffee shop, Adaine dismisses the spell, and the arcane energy disperses harmlessly into the air around them. ]

[stresstokens]

[ Riz listens with rapt attention, trusting wholly in Adaine's ability to tell him what he needs to know to explain the story without giving away too much of the future that could compromise Riz's own timeline's future (one day, it would be nice if Principal Aguefort were to explain timelines to them, but the man has never had a cogent thought in his life) and setting aside any such fears to do what he has to do in the moment: be a good friend to his friend who had very recently committed righteous patricide. He's perched on his knees on the chair, elbows propped up on the table, every inch of his laser-sharp focus directed at Adaine in a way that he knows others find unsettling at the best of times, but that Adaine has only ever seemed to find natural.

(He deliberately doesn't wonder what he will face, in the Nightmare Forest. His greatest fear is being unprepared. Doing any preparation will be a futile effort.)

When it comes to Aelwyn -- well, he'd seen her, after she was rescued from that horrific prison. Even someone as filled with the rage of justice as Riz can forgive what she'd put them through easily enough. How he feels about Aelwyn is immaterial. The only thing he really cares about is how Adaine feels about her, much like he'd only judged the aforementioned patricide as far as Adaine feels about it, in that vicious, mercenary way that teenaged friendships so often go. ]

That's awesome, Adaine. Not that you guys had to go through all that - I'm really sorry about that part - but that you kicked his ass the way he probably hates most.

[ With her fists. Never mind that it was a spell at the end of the day. He can practically hear that posh accent that all high elves seem to have, going on and on about how brutish that way of fighting is. ]

So now you and Aelwyn... you guys are free from them for good, aren't you? [ A way forward, unmoored by their horrific parents. (Maybe she should punch Kristen's parents too. Riz wisely keeps this thought to himself.) ] She's on the same page, right? That it's good that he's dead? [ He stops, corrects himself: ] They're dead?

[ He can't imagine they could have left their mom alive, after all of that. ]

[furiousfists]

[ Adaine's about to answer that yes, she and Aelwyn are on the same page now when it comes to their parents, but at Riz's suggestion of her mother's possible death, a bit of the wind is let out of her sails. ]

Ah, no. My mother's still alive, that we know of. She's... [ She stops, considering how to say this in a way that won't spoil the future for Riz. ] We left her behind in Sylvaire. As far as I know, she's still there.

[stresstokens]

Well... at least she's not your problem anymore.

[ Does she deserve to die too? Yes, Riz thinks. Probably. Her father was worse by quite a few degrees, but somehow that makes the person who would stand by and let it happen all the more loathsome. But it probably doesn't matter if she's dead or alive, as long as she can no longer exert control over her two daughters.

As awful as Aelwyn has been, Riz saw the way she looked after they broke her out of that prison. He'd have a hard time holding anything against even his greatest enemy after that. ] And now she knows what you're actually capable of.

[furiousfists]

No. No, she's not.

[ They've got bigger problems now. Potentially universe-ending problems. But, Adaine doesn't want to think about that now. She just wants to sip her hot chocolate and enjoy some time with her friend Riz. ]

Any theories yet what the next mission might be?