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

[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.