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

[keepitgoing]

Oh yeah? We have Thor. Like, the actual Norse mythology guy. Only he's actually just an alien from outer space that everyone thought was a god. Loki's his brother, too; he tried to help a bunch of aliens take over the planet way back when.

[good god it's an obnoxious teen boy battle]

[equivo]

[ If only Krouse had yet learned about his universe's own, personal space aliens. The upside is that this means Peter scores a point that Krouse doesn't currently have a counter for, marked by the raise of his eyebrows and genuine surprise as he processes all of that. ]

Not the first pantheon the conspiracy theorists predicted, but okay.

[ Very Stargate. ]

We've have a supervillain who was going to shoot the moon out of orbit. Was building this giant gun for it when she got caught.

- sorry, I'm circling back. Two different kinds of aliens?

[keepitgoing]

... Whoa. A moon? That's definitely a reason to put 'super' in front of villain...

[Actually, he's had a moon thrown at him. Or rather, at a group of them.

But he's not Spider-Man, he's Peter Parker.

So he nods, offering a sheepish confirmation.]

Lots of kinds of aliens. My planet actually got half of all life wiped out on it by some purple jerk-off who thought it was the cure for universal hunger or something. [He shrugs.] We just — poof. Crumbled to dust for five years. But the Avengers and the people who worked along with 'em, they got us all back.

Sounds like you're not unfamiliar with stuff like that, though.

The supervillain thing and all.

[equivo]

[ Krouse is fairly jaded about the scope of disasters, or so he likes to think. It's a good quality to have with the looming apocalypses of so many different worlds hanging over all of them, an everpresent threat that squats like a bilious elephant in the midst of everything else.

But he's taken aback by half, in a different way than he was by aliens. He sits back in his chair, fiddling with the handle of his coffee mug as he gives Peter the look of someone who knows they should be saying something considerate, but not what that something in. ]

We've lost a few countries, but not...Jesus. And that happened to you? You were just - gone for five years, and then you were back?

[ Another resurrection, but the scale - he's spun his coffee mug most of the way around, he notices, and reverses its course. ]

The Avengers did that? I've heard some other people mention them before.

[keepitgoing]

[Peter affirms with a nod, though he doesn't look too devastated on his own behalf. The truth of the matter is, he's not even remotely sure how to process that part of his life; the sensation of dying, of being the sickest he'd ever felt before collapsing into dust, of knowing they'd failed and people he cared about were likely dying at the same time — and then, to resurrect into an all-out battlefield... Yeaaah. It's a lot, and he can't even make sense of his own thoughts and feelings about it.]

Yeah. I was born in 2001, but I was still 16 when I came back in 2023.

We had to get special notes on our IDs, and a bunch of our high school friends had already been going to college for a while... Life just kind of went on without half of the world. It wasn't great, I guess, but... I don't know. I couldn't even imagine how to keep going knowing half the people you care about were dead.

[It's really... awful.]

[equivo]

[ Their situations aren't identical, but Krouse has a strange, almost completely unfamiliar sense of recognition as Peter describes the alienation of being removed from his life and tossed into a world both like and unlike his own. A world where you don't quite fit, and you have to live with knowing that everyone who cared about you has mourned and buried you already. ]

I'm sorry. [ He means it, quiet and earnest. ] I have no idea what you'd be supposed to do with that.

I mean, yeah, you came back, but...five years. [ He shakes his head. ] All the things you missed, and everyone who missed you. Where would you even start?

[ Something occurs to him, late enough that it'd almost be embarrassing if it wasn't so serious. He sieves an exhale through his teeth. ]

Here's hoping they put people back when they brought them from, I guess. Not something you want to go through twice.

[ If they put people back at all, but this is grim enough as it is. ]

[keepitgoing]

[He shakes his head, smiling a little.]

It's alright. At the end of the day, people are tougher than they look. Even with everything that's happened, everyone's moving forward and doing their best with what they've got. We're all patching up, catching up. Billions of people on Earth who by all laws of nature shouldn't be able to do that, they can now.

That's kind of amazing, isn't it?

[equivo]

[ It's funny how Peter saying that is evidence that it's true. It is kind of amazing that he can believe that as he demonstrates it, holding onto that optimism in spite of everything he's described. Krouse matches his smile. ]

Yeah. I guess it is.

[ Maybe a better world is possible, as long as it's somewhere else. He doesn't mind the idea as much when he has someone to attach it to. ]

You know, maybe you should see if you can tell that story to Aurora? Like an extra credit assignment. If I was handing out the points, I'd say that goes towards proving your universe's deservingness. Just a thought.

[keepitgoing]

[He snorts, shaking his head.]

I think she already knows everything she needs to. Besides, there's something worth saving in every world. [He throws a hand up weakly, a small measure of exasperation in the gesture.] I mean, how the hell is this 'Echo' supposed to choose between them? Every person I've met here is proof that there are things and people worth protecting in every single one. C'mon.

[Translation, in current year lingo: bffr.]

[equivo]

[ There's something on the tip of Krouse's tongue, telegraphed by the bitter skepticism that tightens the corners of his eyes. When he thinks better of it, he seems to have to make an effort to ease back from it, something more regretful left behind in the residue. ]

Yeah.

[ Even if there's not always much, there has to be something. Someone. ]

Would you look at us. Turning a coffee mingle into philosophical meditations. I practically feel European.

just puttin some bows on threads to make way for more ✨👀

[keepitgoing]

[It's fine. MJ's got that look sometimes, too; she's always been more of a realist than Peter. It's hard to say if him being polar opposite of that is entirely just personality — there are times where it's a survival mechanism, in the line of work he's in. Maybe it'll be extremely helpful here in Etraya, where things can absolutely get more bleak the longer they're stuck in it.

With a laugh, he shakes his head before taking a sip of said coffee.]

Just change it out for tea and we're really doing something here.

[It wasn't so bad, though. This whole mingle set-up? Peter's happy to have the company, for however long it lasts. It's been a while since he's just sat and talked about whatever... so. Worth it.]