metamods: (Default)
meta moderators ([personal profile] metamods) wrote in [community profile] metamemes2022-03-04 04:33 pm
Entry tags:

TEST DRIVE MEME #02




TEST DRIVE MEME
Welcome to [community profile] metaheroes! As the game is invite-only, please bear in mind that new players must have an invitation from a current player to apply. Interested players who do not know anyone in the game can reach out to the mod team HERE to request an invite for the March app round. These invitations will be processed the day before reserves open. However, no invitation is necessary to play on the this test drive.

Threads from this post can be made game canon if players agree upon it. To facilitate this, this log has no new arrival prompt. Please see the PREVIOUS CONFLUENCES for general ideas as to how characters may have arrived. New characters will be arriving with the March 27th arrival log.

For players who do not want to thread out an arrival, they may backdate their characters' arrival to a previous Confluence. These characters were not picked up by the transportation spell used by the Alliance. These characters will have been living on their own for the last few months, so please address this in the 'Brainstorming' section of the application.


01. METASTRAVAGANZA — everywhere.
Things haven't been the same since Confluences started again. The last two months have been more exciting than the last twenty years! The skies are full of new heroes, the day is saved and threatened by unfamiliar faces, the media is having a field day trying to report on every single new face while companies try to snag them for brand deals.

But not everything in this world centers around costumed combat. Today is a perfectly normal day and you're tasked with the most dangerous mission of all - leading an every day life. Maybe you go to a perfectly normal job to maintain your secret identity - or maybe you've already abandoned that, living full time as your metahuman self.

The sun is shining, and even in the early hours of the morning, parties in the DOWNTOWN STREETS of those CITIES STRUCK BY THE RECENT CONFLUENCES are disrupting the reconstruction efforts that have gotten well underway. These parties celebrate meta efforts to save the day! The streets are full of booths selling food and hastily made knock-off toys of the newest heroes who haven't yet put a copyright on their costume.

But not everyone looks so thrilled about this celebration. Many people look disgusted at this celebration of metahumans interrupting their commute to work, muttering under their breath about what a pain in the ass metahumans are and how much destruction they've wrought in these few short months.

Meanwhile, school-aged metas board the bus to LOFTY HEIGHTS META SCHOOL, hidden somewhere in the sky. There, in-between learning about grammar and punctuation, they are trained to use their new abilities ... Notably, when powers training arrives, the new arrivals outshine the metas native to this world. Very few seem to have any powers on par with the new comers.

Later in the day, the Student Council holds an assembly dedicated to the responsible use of powers. They award any students who have helped save the day with accolades — as well as detention for skipping class to help out as an unlicensed hero. Whoops!

Maybe you should just skip today.


02. SEEDY UNDERBELLY — central city.
Central City is a hard place to live. The city is in almost constant peril, with constant power vacuums in organized crime and city government being filled by worse and worse people. Despite having the Guardian Alliance stationed at its center and doing their best to uplift the people and their citizens, the city suffers from a corruption so deep that it seems to be baked into the very concrete.

The Alliance does what it can to make the city a better place but it's a bandaid over a bigger wound. Because the nigh constant metahuman-centered destruction is the source of so many of Central City's problems - meta organizations are often the last resort for its people. Still, the Alliance makes sure to keep heroes on hand to punch muggers as well as run soup kitchens. Their healers provide healing free of charge, and many of their psychics are trained therapists who use their powers to soothe the citizens' many traumas.

But the real power in the city is held by people like FRANK KAFKA, a crime lord with a finger in every pie. Both guilds leave Kafka to his own devices because he officially possesses no metahuman abilities and he avoids any dealings with them. Tonight, his goons are running their favorite extortion scheme with a twist. A group of them marches through a run-down street, shaking down vulnerable families and businesses for protection money. If an individual resists, the gang threatens to bring the spectre of newly created metahumans down upon their head. Though Kafka himself is not present, his goons will give up his location under enough pressure.


03. NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM — excelsior.
With how often the city is destroyed, one wouldn't expect the MUSEUM OF EXCELSIOR to get much in the way of priceless artifacts, but the museum's basement vault is one of the most well guarded facilities in all the country. Practically impenetrable, it stores every conceivable relic of value. But today, thanks to some villainous meddling, there's a lapse in their security that aligns perfectly with the planned time for the changeover of an art exhibit, affording some enterprising thieves a chance at millions of dollars in priceless artwork.

Heroes affiliated with the Guardian Alliance are asked to patrol and keep these relics safe, while the members of the Society of Villainous Reformation are called upon to pay favors forward by getting in their way. As the untested new kids on the block, player characters draw the short straw and are sent in pairs to complete their task, regardless of whether it's to steal these artifacts or guard them.

Villains, now's the chance to get rich quick! Heroes, protect these treasures from falling into the wrong hands!


04. DINOTOPIA — excelsior.
Confluences are back.

And that means new unaffiliated supervillains are running rampant in the streets, causing the kind of directionless, clumsy chaos that the Guild typically frowns at. A little mischief is good if it serves as distraction for a heist, but this is...

Well...

This a very large velociraptor with human arms standing in the middle of Excelsior. If anyone asks, he calls himself DINO DAN. But why would you ask when he's busy transforming people into dinosaurs - or partially into dinosaurs - using his aptly named Dino-Ray? The people of Excelsior are used to a lot of chaotic shenanigans, but this is a little much even for them. The newly transformed dinosaur-people are losing themselves to their instincts and charging at bystanders. Of those that retain (or regain) their senses, some appear strangely delighted to have this new experience, while others wail in horror at their lost humanity.

As heroes line up to stop him, he'll tell anyone who listens about his displaced rage and the revenge he seeks on an unfair world that let him turn himself into a dinosaur. Not surprising, out of an Excelsior local. However, confronted by metas who can stop him, Dino Dan hooks the Dino-Ray on his belt and grabs a second ray-gun. Anyone he shoots with this one disappears with a comical POP!

Those unfortunate enough to be hit by this ray will find themselves standing in a land before time, right beside a research station. Those clever enough to pull out their cell phones will notice that they still have reception, and rule out time travel.

In addition to clippings of ancient and extinct plants, characters who venture inside will find a half dozen prehistoric humans have apparently been displaced through time and held captive in Dino Dan's remote island research station. If that wasn't obvious enough, his research notes suggest the use of time travel — though like all other dimensional travel, it stopped working in January.

Characters may trigger a trap in the research station and find themselves also temporarily transformed into reptiles, or they may take it upon themselves to rescue the poor folks this mesozoic maniac has been holding hostage! Whatever the plan: if he's causing havoc in the city, that has to mean there's there's a teleporter in his lab to get back. But there's no shortage of Guard T-Rexes blocking the path.
mostdangerousbird: (026 i’ll admit i was never wrong)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
I can act like “lots of people” if you really want me to, but this seems to be keeping me un-smited so far. And I got free food out of the deal.

[ In short, lots of people are idiots, and he is not. ]

Semantics, I think. If you’re old enough and powerful enough, people will worship you as a god or close enough anyway. I’ll take your word about the triumvirate. I know more about the Greek pantheon.
corpuslingua: (40)

[personal profile] corpuslingua 2022-04-21 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
Fathers can be like that. It's better to get away from some of them.

[She would know.]
kid_flash_found: (Default)

[personal profile] kid_flash_found 2022-04-21 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
I never knew mine.
mostdangerousbird: (011 sweet you rock and sweet you roll)

Hi lazy I’m Marie

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
[ Okay, so maybe Tim asked because he wanted a better look at that fabric. He doesn’t know fabric, but he knows what is and isn’t possible under his Earth’s normal rules. That shawl shouldn’t be here.

Whether it’s tech or magic remains to be seen - Tim’s much more interested if it’s tech. He doesn’t know what he’d do with it, but there are probably interesting applications.
]

Yeah, I know. My old one went AWOL, so… I’m sort of stuck right now until it warms up.

[ More like Tim went AWOL and left his jacket on his other universe, but just because the other guy has a fancy cloak doesn’t mean he’s Skyfallen - and that wouldn’t mean he got to know Tim was either. ]

Change it how? Are you a sewist or tailor?

[ Start with the obvious. The friendly guy with the cool clothes is making a sales pitch for his booth.

Tim pays quickly, palming his debit card for the tap so it’s never seen.
]

whocares: (of something broken)

[personal profile] whocares 2022-04-21 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
a guy should be so lucky

least you ain't totally living on the moon
whocares: (from cold blood and bruises)

[personal profile] whocares 2022-04-21 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
And what's that to you? You ain't no cop.

[ he's already checked what the cops wear in this town, so he knows ]
nepotis: (Harry TASM2 183)

[personal profile] nepotis 2022-04-21 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
no. I know I've had an easier life, all things considered. but I'm trying not to take it for granted now.

[ Now that he's cut off from his family's fortune and living out the rest of his (short) life stuck in another world. But things went to shit before he got sucked into a Confluence, so who knows what would have happened if he'd stayed in his world. ]
wordiness: (008)

omg get out

[personal profile] wordiness 2022-04-21 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
[ billy either doesn't notice tim's vaguely sketchy motion (probable) or doesn't care (also probable) as he pays for his own purchase. unlike tim, he doesn't bother to hide the alliance card they were all given, smiling and exchanging a few words with the vendor before accepting the little bag the necklace is given in. he drops it into a second, larger bag he was already carrying, then turns back to tim with an apologetic glance. ]

No, I'm a witch. [ it's the term he's settled on in recent years, and it fits as well as anything else does. ] And a reality-warper. You can call me Billy.

[ his smile brightens again, a little amused in the quirk of his lips, and he nods toward the rest of the booths. ] Should we see if we can find a shirt or something? I'm also dying for boba tea, so hopefully one of these places has it.
the_caped_crusader: (pic#15390908)

metastravaganza

[personal profile] the_caped_crusader 2022-04-21 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
I do.

[ oh look, that person is bruce, standing in front of you like he's almost been expecting you. ]

Truth be told, I've kind of expected you to show up sooner or later.

[ see? detective. ]
wordiness: (027)

PUPPY

[personal profile] wordiness 2022-04-21 12:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ he wasn't celebrating because he was shopping, but he probably also stands out a little, given the shawl he's wearing over his shoulders-- which appears to contain a lazily-spinning galaxy. what can he say? he likes statement pieces.

he glances up as he's addressed, though, and his eyes zero in immediately on the puppy. there's an obvious moment in which he struggles to keep back the gasp or the crooning noises anyone with a soul uses on a puppy, but he finally manages to swallow it down and lift his eyes to dick's face instead. .. oh. handsome. ]


Um. [ he blinks, then reaches into the depths of his shawl--probably into a pocket, but maybe into hammer space, who knows?--and pulls out his phone, scrolling through the apps to find the map and bring it up. ] Actually, I did see one a couple of streets over, but I can't remember how to get there now. [ then, because he can't help himself: ] What's your dog's name?
mostdangerousbird: (029 didn’t recognize u w/o the handcuffs)

No I’m trying to get IN

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
[ He doesn’t miss the card and is a little concerned, honestly. Tim’s tried so hard to not be noticed. He turned up as Robin, so he left the hotel as Robin and changed elsewhere to be just Tim at the market, buying safe “Tim” things as discretely as he could.

And now, a reality-warping Alliance metahuman is right here, and he wants to ask so many questions (leading with “did you do this?”) but he can’t. Even if he didn’t give his name yet, he’s in civvies.
]

Hi Billy.

[ Tim’s a little dumbstruck by the offer and open smile. ]

Do you normally just offer to magic people coats out of shirts?

[ He takes a step in the direction of the nod - he will go if Billy goes. ]

I saw someone carrying what looked suspiciously like Vietnamese coffee with tapioca a few minutes ago.
wordiness: (009)

ok we'll table getting out for now

[personal profile] wordiness 2022-04-21 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
I mean.. sure? [ he shrugs, swinging the bag a little as he wanders slowly through the crowded street, keeping only half his attention on their quest for a shirt or boba tea. ] My abilities are a part of my daily life. It would be pretty selfish to just use them for myself, don't you think?

[ maybe he's done the superhero thing too long, but honestly, it doesn't hurt him to do a little magic for a stranger now and then. and.. well, little distractions like this help with the daily lonely longing he feels for his husband and family. he really, really wants to go home.

after a quiet moment, he turns a glance on tim again, brows arching, expression a little teasing. ]
So do you have a name, or should I guess?
wordiness: (025)

[personal profile] wordiness 2022-04-21 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[ the enthusiastic yank's familiar, and god, he's really missed her. when they eventually get to leave this place, he needs to spend the rest of his visit to earth with his friends.

he grins, unable to help himself or hide his glee, and offers her his left hand so she can see the ring. ]


It was absolutely crazy, Kate. So the Kree and Skrull formed this, like, alliance, right? And they wanted Teddy to be their emperor since, I mean, look at his pedigree. [ he comes to a stop in a line for boba. ] But I couldn't go at the time, because I'm human or whatever. Terran, at least. So we had a Vegas wedding before he had to leave! You were all there, we did it in something like thirty minutes?

[ he blows curls off his brow with a whoosh of a sigh. ] And then there was this whole thing where his disguised grandma manipulated the Alliance into attacking Earth--long story--but we figured it out, she was dealt with, and then we had a huge wedding with everyone we know and now we live in space.

[ he mimes explosions on either side of his head. ] Sometimes I don't understand the lives we all lead.
mostdangerousbird: (023 but you know that she’s watching)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
I don’t know enough about you or what you can do to say.

[ The decision on whether or not it would make Billy selfish seems entirely too big for someone who’s known him for 2 minutes. ]

It might take you six hours to reweave the shirt. It wouldn’t be selfish if you didn’t have that kind of time.

[ Billy’s already more interesting than the stalls, but Tim is somewhat steering them towards a stall in the distance that has quite a bit of black and loud 8-pack Crayola colours, just pure primary and secondary colours. ]

Well, now you have to guess. Consult some kau chum, maybe toss a few runes. Are you a witch, or not?

[ He grins. ]

Here’s a head start: it’s not Rumplestiltskein.
wordiness: (028)

[personal profile] wordiness 2022-04-21 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
Probably closer to six seconds. It depends on how indecisive you are about what you want it to look like.

[ the saucy response makes him laugh, and he lets himself be steered toward the display in question. there's enough black and red there that he might do a little poking around of his own, but yikes, that bright yellow.. hideous. ]

Well.. I could probably divine your name if you really want me to, but that's probably not the kind of thing I'd want to do in the middle of the street. [ he scoffs, mock-offended. ] And it wouldn't involve any runes. Please, I'm not Asgardian. [ he's not actually sure if asgardians use runes in their magic, come to think of it. loki never seems to need to. ]
mostdangerousbird: (001)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
Why would it matter what I want it to look like?

[ He may have some competition for the red and black, from the way Tim keeps looking at a Henley that’s been customized with black and red patches in a very punk style. No, he’s here for boring clothes. Where are the polos?

He stops, holding a black tee with red trim.
]

And does it matter what the shirt looks like? And hold on, why are you willing to change a shirt into a coat, but divining my name would cause too much of a scene?

[ Tim is now thinking of how Zatanna’s magic works, with loud backwards incantations. But she’d have to do the same for the shirt as the name.

PS. Yellow is a good colour.
]
robintohood: ([RH] First mistake)

[personal profile] robintohood 2022-04-21 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
[Jason remains on the rooftop but his hands are visible and aren't near his guns to show he's not going to attack]

Nah. They needed to be out of the way before they got hurt. I appreciate it. Though you gotta watch yourself too.
ikols: like i do (they don't give a fk about you)

[personal profile] ikols 2022-04-21 03:28 am (UTC)(link)
But it is not semantics, it's literal.

[ He wouldn't bring it up with just anyone but the allure of talking to an intelligent person about it is ... strong. ]

All pantheons are real, all gods exist, no one need argue about it. All creation myths are true within their own right ...
mostdangerousbird: (007 where’s your life gone?)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
It’s literal - depending on your definition of a god. Which… means it’s also semantics. Monotheistic religions have the God, and their definition tends to be a bit more specific than polytheistic religions, which have a looser definition of godhood that falls somewhere around the definition of a metahuman - some superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over humanity in whatever way. I add immortality into the mix. I - wow, I didn’t realize I had opinions on this.

[ Tim looks sheepish and rubs his neck. ]

I wasn’t doubting your existence, and I haven’t contested that you’re Loki. You match the figure, after all. I just don’t know how I feel about creation myths in the face of science.
ikols: queen shit-queen shit level (misfit-misfit in trouble)

[personal profile] ikols 2022-04-21 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not worshiped because I'm awesome at what I do and can trick people ... although I can, admittedly. Very well, in fact. My point is, I am a deity and it is really not that complicated.

[ Hmmm ... ]

Do you prefer the term mythoform? That sounds suitably science-y for you, Tim.
mostdangerousbird: (022 try and give me some room)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
It isn’t complicated. You’re a deity; ergo, you’re deified. I don’t know why you’re trying to say that you’re not. Are you also the god of splitting hairs to annoy people named Tim?

[ But he’s not being mean about it. There’s an undercurrent of hair-splitting is my job And a growing sense that Loki has talked him in a circle that Tim can’t quite see. ]

That sounds like anthropology.

[ Ew, soft sciences. ]

I think I prefer god, even if it’s less precise. People don’t ask what that is.
ikols: AS YOU DO (just trying to norse it up a bit)

[personal profile] ikols 2022-04-21 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
I'm complicating it for you so it's easier to understand by your definition of "yay, science". A moment ago you called me a confused immortal, you didn't accept I was a god.

[ He does split hairs, many and varied. ]

I've not called you a limited flesh-sack, which is rather the equivalent.
mostdangerousbird: (035 coupla fools run wild aren’t we?)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ And now Tim is genuinely perplexed. ]

I … didn’t call you confused? I said I only believed in gods once I met them.

[ He gestures at Loki. ]

Case in point.

And maybe I’m comparatively limited, but I don’t think that you can call a vertebrate a flesh-sack. Especially not when you are one - or look like one. It’s weirdly visceral.
ikols: i promised you i'd bring (think of all the horrors that)

[personal profile] ikols 2022-04-21 04:51 am (UTC)(link)
No, you said immortals styled themselves after "small g gods", that doesn't sound like a sane sort of person. Assuming a role for the fun of it is what actors and lunatics do.

Vertebrates. Tim, the hairs are now so split they have ascended to a separate plane of reality.
Edited 2022-04-21 04:51 (UTC)
mostdangerousbird: (006 leave a bad taste in your mouth)

[personal profile] mostdangerousbird 2022-04-21 05:13 am (UTC)(link)
There’s lots of different reasons to style yourself as something else. It doesn’t make you crazy or a theater kid.

[ Tim has bristled at this stance that Loki’s taking, and he gestures with the empty corn dog stick to punctuate his words. Even just as Tim, he almost never gets to be the Tim he wants to be anymore. ]

You act like ascending to another plane of reality is hard. We live in a multiverse, and that’s not the point. You’re the one making me split the hairs by calling me a limited flesh-sack when you know I’m going to argue that. Anyone would.