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TEST DRIVE MEME #02
TEST DRIVE MEME
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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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
no subject
[ he slips his hands into his coat pockets and breathes, a tuft of barely visible breath following his exhale. why is it still so cold in april??? ]
Even if you're my Robin, you're man enough now to make your own decisions. I trust you.
no subject
But you aren't going to tell me how or why you made your decision?
[ Tim suspects the answer is no. ]
no subject
That's easy. I don't trust them.
no subject
That's a given. Anything specific, or is it just that it's too good to be true? Welcome to our world, here's everything you could need to be our front line.
no subject
[ he smirks, too, passing tim a sideways glance. but then on a more serious note... ]
But you're not wrong. And that they're tied to government here doesn't give me hope that this isn't some sort of public facing Checkmate or that Atomight isn't just this world's version of Captain Atom.
no subject
It probably is; I don’t think there’s a government on any earth that wouldn’t abuse the situation. And then… the Society of Villainous Reformation. I don’t even need to go undercover to find out that’s a front, but I want to because it’s so blatant. I just want to know how far they’re willing to pretend. What’s the contract look like? “We promise we won’t rob banks no mores”?
no subject
[ he's looked into them. read about their rules. it wasn't exactly hard to find, considering there were recruiters everywhere at the diadem, like they were scouting college athletes or something. ]
In fact, they seem to have pretty strict rules about casualties and non-engagement with Alliance metas. What I'm wondering is what it took for all of them to decide that it was a better idea to just stay petty criminals.
no subject
[ Bruce just has to crush the fun out of everything. Tim can do a great petty criminal/art thief. ]
I'm going to stall out the two months and then make a decision. I'm going to the library after this. It's easier to ask questions once you know more than the pamphlets.
[ He doesn't want to buy books about the Alliance, Society, or related topics on their debit card, so he'll read them at the library over the next few days. Luckily, he reads fast. If he has to, he'll engineer his way into a college library. ]
no subject
[ that was a long walk, wasn't it? since i totally forgot about their food. but they eventually make it to the small cafe and bakery he had mentioned earlier. after they order, bruce sits down with his black coffee and croissant. ]
no subject
[ 'scuse you, Bruce. Tim knows how to research. ]
... I'm going to have to use a microfiche archive to keep this offline, aren't I? Does anyone even have microfilm anymore?
[ Tim orders an americano and an egg sandwich, so that should clear up any confusion about whether or not he actually wanted a danish. ]
no subject
[ she's one of the first people bruce talked to after leaving the diadem. they're close to being neighbors even. she left an impression, for sure. ]
And you know they do. But to save you some time, you might want to check the digital archives first.
no subject
[ The coffee arrives, and Tim sips his carefully. ]
Maybe. On the library's computer. I'm not searching for anything that isn't boring on the phone they gave me. I looked up where to buy socks this morning.
no subject
You know you can just get socks from the hotel, right?
no subject
[ Tim shrugs. ]
I'm filling my search history with randomness. If you gave me a phone, I would assume you had it so loaded with trackers that the screen was tracking camera lens.
no subject
[ he says, pulling a burner iphone from his pocket. ]
That's why I got another.
no subject
[ Laptop, upgrades that he can do himself, a phone. If Bruce is this... settled in, then this is not going to be a quick visit. ]
How long have you been here?
no subject
[ he breaks off a crispy edge of the croissaint before lightly dipping it into the coffee. delicious. ]
Oh, and try not to get yelled at by Linda from accounting if you max out your card too quickly.
no subject
[ His voice goes up at least 3 steps by the end of the month. Bruce has been here four months, and he's eating a croissant. He's not even angrily eating it. It is perfectly heartless to sit there calmly eating baked goods when they're in this horrible trouble. ]
Don't get in trouble with Linda in accounting, got it. I can get some stuff secondhand.
no subject
Things are complicated. We might be here for a while, Tim. If I were you, I'd settle in.
no subject
[ He does his best to match the nonchalance. Settle in. Easy. He has two months to figure how, and a safety net of joining the Alliance if he can’t manage it.
Tim is determined to manage it well. ]
Do you have anywhere to be? I have a lot of questions.
[ But he doesn’t ask and, instead takes a huge bite of his sandwich. Oh no, how can he talk now. But seriously, he needs Bruce’s phone numbers for memorization, and to know what surname he should use, whether he should pretend he’s never heard of Bruce Wayne, etc. Actually, leading with the last one may simplify things drastically. ]
no subject