metamemes | TEST DRIVE MEME #02

TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Then you have nothing to worry about, do you?

I think we both know that's not true. Too many things, really.

[ he shakes his head. ]

Considering my end, I have very little to worry about.

You're not at all worried about Thor?

[ he is, but he's not going to admit that. ]

Thor will be fine. He'll have his Avenger friends and whatnot. I have no doubt he'll have everything well in hand.

[ and he'll move on. oh, sure, he'll mourn and whatnot, but he'll be fine. loki has seen that for himself. ]

When Loki died in the Siege of Asgard, Thor scoured the Earth searching for some hint of his brother. I wasn't there, obvi, but I assume that grief had completely consumed him. Despite the fact Loki orchestrated the Siege in the first place.

Eventually he found me in Paris, no memory of my previous life. He could've left me there. Left the realms without a Loki. Most of Asgard thinks that he should've killed me. But Thor was desperate to have me back. I still don't understand why, honestly.

Anyways! Just felt like telling that little anecdote for no reason. I'm sure your Thor is fine, he must not be as foolish as my brother.

[ that sounds very nice and he can't help the bitter pang in his heart. he has no regrets, but sometimes he wished — no. he rather have a universe where thor exists than to feed his envy. ]

I've died before. He's managed just fine.

I died before that too. And I'll die after I return to my realm as well. That one was particularly hard for him, or so I've heard.

Dying is what we do best.

Mmm.

[Different tactic! He speaks casually, as if this just popped into his mind.]

What is your Thor like anyhow? Since he's not stupid as mine.

[ he frowns for a moment, though it's not directed at loki. ]

Foolish at times, but more grounded considering our . . . losses. Still annoying optimistic and reckless, too friendly for his own good. Incredibly stubborn. Comes up with ridiculous ideas to face enemies.

[ he trails off for a moment, his expression tight. I'm here. ]

But he did accept me as myself.

[He sounds... younger than Loki's own Thor, in a way he can't quite describe. Or maybe it's because this Loki and his Thor are the same age, as opposed to just how incredibly ancient his brother seems compared to him.]

What does that mean, in your case? Our universes are different enough, after all.

[ they are the youngest out of their counterparts. ]

It frustrated him to realize I changed. That I could change. He wanted things to be the same. Like in the past.

I suppose that's why Thor's so fond of me.

[He's not bragging about it either. In fact, he almost sounds bitter.]

Without change, we would not be Loki. But it's easier for him to view my change as a return to what once was.

[ he sighs. ]

It's what he's always wanted. He is the nostalgic type. With blinders on.

He should turn himself back into a child then. See how Asgard treats its hero then.

[Who is he kidding, they'd all baby him and then force Loki to fix it. The thought's still funny, though.]

[ a low grumble. ]

The oaf would probably have a lovely time.

[A thought crosses his mind.]

Not if he kept his memories and no one else was the wiser. It'd be fun at first, yes, no responsibilities to worry about... but not so fun when he could no longer lift Mjolnir. And even less fun when everyone refuses to listen to him!

I'd also make him younger than I am. So that I'd be taller for once.