TEST DRIVE MEME #02

[metamods]

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.

Comments

[ikols]

[ Billy doesn't need to text, he can drop in whenever and Loki will never really be mad. ]

We have steak once a week, if you want to come over for dinner. Perhaps you could meet him then, over sampling my honeyed roast potatoes.

[wordiness]

That could be fun. I'll bring a good bottle of wine. [ he's not planning to stick with the guilds either, so he may as well take full advantage of their monetary generosity while he has it.

not that, these days, he really needs a job, strictly speaking. he could probably make anything he needed.. but on the other hand, he knows for a fact that he's going to need to keep busy here. ] Does he know anything about me?

[ikols]

No, I haven't mentioned many people. I told him David was part of a gang I ran with as a teenager which is largely accurate, but since none of the rest of you were here it seemed surplus to requirements.

[ Overwhelming Peter with too much, too soon, has been something Loki has been avoiding. ]

I did mention Verity Willis, my best friend, in case she turns up. I should probably tell you about her too.

[wordiness]

[ he turns an intrigued look on loki, taking in his profile with interest. ]

I'm actually incredibly interested to learn about someone you call your best friend.

[ for obvious reasons, but also out of general nosy curiosity. ]

[ikols]

She can't be lied to, it gives her migraines of a sort. Everything Verity was ever told of magic or fairies or unicorns, it hurt her as a little girl. Cue me, for whom all these things are every-day, and she delighted in getting to know me.

[ There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the jist. ]

She's a New Yorker. Dyes her hair red, tattooed up both arms, big clunky glasses ... you would know her if you saw her.

[wordiness]

[ he winces, the idea of getting sick every time someone lied to him deeply disturbing. after all, while he and teddy try very hard to make sure their marriage is one in which they honestly communicate, they still fib to one another about harmless things, and god know most people lie now and then, often casually in their day to day lives. ]

It must have been difficult for her to get to know people growing up. How did you even meet her?

[ yes, he sees the irony of someone historically known as the god of lies befriending someone that he can't lie to. ]

[ikols]

We were at a speed-dating event, and before your imagination can run wild I was staking out Lorelei. I just so happened to sit down at Verity's table and she immediately saw through my illusion.

[ Clever girl, also dangerous to Loki in a way, but that had been part of the joy in befriending her. ]

Then I moved my apartment across from hers.

[wordiness]

[ his lips press thin to keep him from laughing, and once he has his face under control, he smiles sweetly. ] I don't know what you mean, I absolutely wasn't imagining that scenario. [ loki at speed-dating. loki trying to connect with.. who usually goes to speed-dating? people that don't know how to meet other people, he supposes. ]

That must have been a surprise for both of you. Also, that's definitely stalking, Loki.

[ikols]

Is it stalking if they like you and want to see you again? Is it really?

[ The twinkle in his eyes says he just enjoys stirring the idea. ]

Or am I just doing them a favour?

[wordiness]

[ he pokes him in the ribs with his free hand. ] Still stalkery. I guess it worked out, though, if the two of you wound up as good friends.

[ unless loki's just.. describing her as his best friend when she feels differently. but he likes to think it's mutual. loki is charming, after all, and there's a lot about him to like. ]

[ikols]

[ He gives him a look, free of the teasing and threaded up with genuine interest. ]

We have become good friends, have we not? It worked out for you and I, too.

[wordiness]

Were you stalking me?

[ ... well, maybe it did kind of start out that way, considering loki's convoluted plan back then. he had to know enough about billy to set all that up, after all. ]

[ikols]

... I did sneak into your room, once. But! That was before I really knew you.

[ He's going to hold up his free hand as a Don't Hurt Me! gesture, bringing Billy's hand in his up for an apologetic peck on the knuckles. Besties! Friends!! ]

I was a little creep back then, I admit it!

[wordiness]

[ he purses his mouth a little at the admission, but accepts the kiss to his knuckles with a huff. ]

That was definitely creepy. Good thing you grew out of it. [ literally. loki definitely wasn't this tall back then. ]

Anyway, you and I are friends, but it's.. different. [ he wouldn't act the same way around his other friends. ]

[ikols]

Ah, yes, [ his grin softens into a lofty expression, ] I'm special.

[ Grooming back his hair, he tosses it and somehow manages to pose in the morning sunshine as they walk. So special!! ]

[wordiness]

[ rolling his eyes, billy elbows him in the side. ] I take it back. You're the worst and I don't love you at all.

[ that's a lie and they both know it, but it's Fine. ]

[ikols]

Love me? Oh!

[ Laughing, Loki turns to face Billy and walks backwards, waving to any and everyone on the street. ]

Did all of you hear that? This man loves me! I am loved! Hello, yes, ma'am? I happen to be loved and you are not —

[wordiness]

I said I don't! [ blushing wildly, he lunges after loki, reaching up to shove both hands over his mouth. ] Oh my God, why did I ever ask you to walk me back.

[ he releases him to poke a finger in loki's chest. ] Have I mentioned you're a menace?

[ikols]

Mmrphh mrphm, mrphh.

[ Hands over his mouth, he licks Billy's palms by way of a reply. ]

[wordiness]

[ his blush deepens, but he huffs. ] That's not gross, you know. [ still, he releases him a moment later, tugging the neck of his sweater back up his arm again. ]

I don't know if I should meet your boyfriend with you there or not, I'm not sure if you'll behave.

[ikols]

Peter's a darling, but he ... fears he is not enough. I don't know how to reassure him.

[ Loki doesn't really help his own case, case in point. He rubs the back of his neck as they walk, approaching the hotel. ]

[wordiness]

Not "enough"? Enough how? [ he curls his hand in the crook of loki's arm. ] Enough for you?

[ he gives him a sideways look. ] I can't wait to tell him that you've never been like this with anyone else as far as I know.

[ikols]

Please do talk me up, I really haven't bothered to stick around with anyone before and I feel like it's an achievement. Well, except for Sigyn, but she's long dead and lost.

[ He shrugs, patting Billy's hand in his arm and steering them through the hotel atrium toward the bar. ]

I get the sense Peter hasn't had anyone around either, not long-term after his girlfriend.

[wordiness]

No.. it would be hard to get over something like what happened to her. [ he presses the arm beneath his palm. ] And he's not used to dealing with gods. Immortals in general, I guess. [ people who've lived a very long time, or will live that long, look at things from a different perspective. ]

I'll be sure to let him know he doesn't have anything to worry about.

[ikols]

Thank you, Billy.

[ He even magically pulls out the stool for Billy at the bar, on his best behaviour whose existence was recently doubted. ]

When did you and Teddy get together?