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

[unionized]

[So there is. Uh. Very distinctly no pneumatic glass in this church. Honestly there's very little glass at all, though what remains of it does certainly form some rather pretty and multicolored windows. And it turns out it's a very different experience to be aware of the slums beneath the plates and to actually stand in one — there are so many elements of the environment and architecture that just hit wrong in an uncanny valley sort of way, with the loose boards scattered around and the aged wood showing all its imperfections and the flowers growing right up out of the floor, for Shiva's sake.

Disrepair like this — where a structure still stands like a testament to an old memory of some glory days past — is utterly antithetical to everything his father built Shinra to stand for. For all that the old man had coveted the ancient paradise he believed had once existed, his goals for it had been anything but nostalgic. Always forward-thinking, always new, always how can we use it.

He doesn't even know how one uses a space like this. Aerith seems to know, at least. Evidently it involves standing...in the flowers, letting the growth...touch you.

Nothing grows in Midgar if it isn't behind glass. Flowers are things that come in arrangements, carefully-cultivated to weed out imperfections because nothing but the best will do.

This, by contrast, feels like a place where it's perfection that's weeded out, by comparison. Strange to think how Shinra boots might simultaneously be too clean and yet too dirty to tread on these worn old floorboards.]

So this is what they brought for you.

[His tower. Aerith's church. The image in his mind seems oddly grotesque, trying to place the two of them side-by-side, somehow. Maybe that's why he doesn't move just yet, lingering in the doorway as if in a rare moment of uncertainty that this might not be a part of the world that he owns, after all.]

...I'm not here for a fight. I assume that's what you're really asking.

[anciently]

[ He doesn't move, and neither does she. They make quite a pair in their standoff of sorts, perhaps waiting for the other to blink.

She won't admit it (yet), but things between them aren't exactly the same as before the labyrinth. The needle has been moved, if only by a hair. ]

Yeah. [ Gaia - their Planet - is not here. This church doesn't rest on its earth, its flowers don't soak up the lifestream. Because of that, she's the closest thing there is on this world to a fraction of the Planet...and so is he. Were she to focus, to follow the thread, she might feel a gossamer something connecting them - and the rest from their world - in a way not shared with the other residents of the city.

It's...disarming. Maybe - maybe - comforting? To, in some bizarre ways, be less alone here than she can often feel back home. ]

I sure hope not. [ But she wouldn't talk about any of that with Rufus Shinra. Her tone is firm - a warning - but not exactly harsh. ] So. Why did you come?

[ Because she's curious, if nothing else. ]

[unionized]

[Ostensibly, what brought him here was an idle whim at scanning one of the codes for the scavenger hunt, and simply being surprised by what came up as a prompt. Now that he's here, however, in a place that feels just enough of home to sit right in the uncanny valley of unnerving, it's becoming clear that the hunt was always a pretext for something bigger, something he didn't want to try to put words to.

He does, however, take a few steps into the church, determined to combat the unease in the same way he always does: with action, decisive and deliberate. The floor doesn't fall out from under him and he isn't set instantly ablaze, so whatever traces of Gaia might still cling to this place evidently haven't seen fit to condemn him — yet.

Why did he come? At first he knows what he thought was the answer. Then he doesn't know at all. And then he knows, and it feels like lead on his tongue.]

...When was the last time you spoke to Tseng?

[I work within my directive, Tseng had said. No doubt he's still keeping an eye on Aerith in one way or another — surely for personal reasons as well as professional ones — but whether she's spoken to him is a wholly different consideration altogether.]

[anciently]

[ He makes the first move, stepping further inside, and she remains unmoving, stretching out restless fingers at her sides. It feels - wrong to stand by and let a Shinra (let alone the Shinra) enter when she'd had so many unwanted intrusions in the past, but Aerith does permit it, watching him like a hawk.

The question visibly catches her off guard: eyebrows lift in surprise, then scrunch up into confusion. There's a pause in which she turns over a few possibilities as to why he'd ask, before eventually she replies: ] ...Since close to when I first arrived. [ I kinda told him to keep away. ] Why?

[ Why would Rufus ask, why would he care? Something still largely shrouded in the unknown begins to twist in her stomach. ]

I didn't run into him in the labyrinth. [ She adds slowly. You're the only one from home I saw; lucky me. ] And...not after. Yet.

[ "Yet." Because, for some reason, she does feel compelled to suggest that she's planning on seeking him out. It's...been long enough that she's been able to work through some things, and-...well. She has her reasons. ]

[unionized]

I thought he might've — [The thought just sort of stops a minute, not quite a hitch in his breath so much as just seeming to need a moment to find the next word.] — sought you out.

[His steps only carry him so far; there's still a healthy distance between himself and Aerith, between his boots and the flowers. But he's inside, properly, for all that he might stick out like a very posh sore thumb.]

He's done that, hasn't he? Visited you. ...Before.

[anciently]

[ The mystery continues. Just as odd as the words themselves is Rufus' demeanor: seemingly more unable to find his footing in this conversation than he's ever been, at least in the few times they'd spoken. Aerith regards him with continued wariness, though, still without enough information to understand, she merely shakes her head. ]

He hasn't. [ A surprise to Rufus, apparently, but not to her. ...Or, it wouldn't have been, were it not for this interaction.

What happened out there?

The question earns a nod, though: curt, and following a pause. ]

Yeah, back home. [ But surely that's not news. ] He'd come by my mom's house to try and get me to go back.

[ Someone had to convince her to return of her own will, after all, or so they believed. Some of them, anyway. ]

And...to check on me.

[unionized]

Mm.

[He does that, he thinks to himself, and then dislikes the notion almost as soon as it's crossed his mind. Why? It makes sense. It's in everyone's best interest. Isn't he here, himself, trying to make sure that all the representatives of Gaia are on-side? Why wouldn't he want them all to be in alignment?

Grasping for something to focus on instead, he surveys the surroundings of the church once more — falling apart, everything worn, plants literally growing through it.]

You weren't at your mother's house when he eventually did convince you to return, though. I was told you were retrieved from Sector 7.

[anciently]

[ Aerith continues to watch him through partially-narrowed eyes, observing what...definitely seems like a new side to Rufus. New to her, at least. He might be called fidgety, from the way he seemingly looks at every square inch of the church; she isn't familiar enough with the man to know what this might be suggestive of. ]

...Right. I went back to try and find a little girl, once we heard the plate was coming down.

[ "Being brought down," to be precise. The destruction of that day is...still all-too vivid. ]

That's what I was doing, when he 'convinced' me. [ Troopers at the door, and a child in need of rescue. If that had counted as her consent, it's a flimsier thing than she'd guessed. ]

[unionized]

When he evacuated you, you mean.

[Because the plate was coming down, wasn't it — because his father gave the order and the Turks carried it out, and yet there the Ancient was in the midst of Sector 7, running into the danger instead of away from it. Not that it made any difference to the hundreds and thousands who didn't get out, who weren't evacuated in time. The acceptable collateral damage, for the sake of laying the whole fiasco at the feet of Wutai and AVALANCHE.

No one tried to stop him. Not the board, not the rank and file, not the Turks. Not even Tseng.

That's his responsibility, now.]

I imagine he would've said just about anything, if it meant getting you out of the sector in time.

[anciently]

I'm sure. [ "Know that your options are limited." Tseng, who had always seemed so straightforward, and yet equally difficult to read. The man who'd come to Elmyra's house so often to check on her and try to convince her with words, and not force.

The day the plate fell, he'd had a more lucrative opportunity. Aerith believed that he'd keep his word and ferry Marlene to safety, and he had. ] Out of the frying pan and into the fire, right?

[ Because where she'd gone next had been right in Hojo's hands. Much as she tries not to dwell on her time spent in captivity, it's impossible to carve out his words from that encounter from her memory.

There's another lapse, and she bites the inside of her lower lip. ]

...Why're we talking about this, Rufus?

[unionized]

[Why are they talking about this. Why does he feel the need to talk to begin with, even? It's not as though he's ever had a problem keeping his own counsel before, or sorting through even the most tumultuous of thoughts on his own. It's just that there's something about it that feels like a splinter lodged in his skin, subtle and mostly easy to ignore, save for when he moves the wrong way and it stings —]

...Because you made a bargain with him. So make one with me.

[He's supposed to be here for a flower, isn't he? Or maybe that was always just a pretext.]

Something you want from me, in exchange for something I want you to do.

[anciently]

[ Again, the eyebrows lift, and her expression is nothing but pure surprise as she re-assesses him. Immediately, her mind begins working, what could he possibly want, but there's no reason for guesswork. So, Aerith blinks, shifting into more of a guarded, but curious stare as she crosses her arms and replies: ]

...I'm not making any promises, but I'll hear you out. [ They'd been willing to deal with him back in Junon, after all, so why not consider it now? ] But tell me what you want first. Gotta know what you have in mind before I tell you my demands.

[ At the very least, she's certainly not going to get a lowball offer in exchange for something more demanding. ]

So...?

[unionized]

Check on him. When you seek him out.

[It's subtle, maybe, the implications of that — because seeking him out and checking on him could very easily sound synonymous, but for the fact that he seems to construe them differently. And maybe he does; just meeting with Tseng could mean any number of things, could afford any number of outcomes. What he wants is to choose which one she aims for.

He pauses, reflects. Lets the request hang in the silence a moment.]

What do you want for it?

[anciently]

[ If she's been surprised to this point - and she has - it's nothing compared to what his answer evokes. The guarded replies, lingering animosity...it all melts away to pure, disarmed confusion. A dozen questions spring to mind, adding to the current, impressive pile, but...she doesn't voice them. Merely watches Rufus with a contemplative expression. Almost soft. ]

...Okay. [ No need to say any more. Reaching out to Tseng is overdue anyway, and while she's at it, she'll do what she can honor this request.

When he asks again for her demands, Aerith chews the inside of her lower lip, turning the situation over in her mind: a delicate thing, like gossamer, that needs to be handled with care. ]

Come back here sometime. [ She says finally, meeting his gaze, if he'll look her way. ] Within a few weeks.

[ Better to stipulate the time frame, lest he wriggle out of it by waiting months or longer to return. ]