TEST DRIVE MEME #3

[metamods]

TEST DRIVE MEME

A confluence is defined as the convergence of one or more forces. A Confluence, capitalized, is the converging of one or more supernatural forces.

Confluences have been mild ever since the Godfall Event occurred in the 1980s. The older generations tell their children of the confluences they remember as children, the earth-shaking events that transformed the landscape of the world (and the people) every time they occurred. Now they're largely inconveniences. An explosion of experimental ALIEN NANOBOTS here, a magical LIGHTNING STORM there, nothing particularly disruptive to day to day life.

ONLY SHOOTING STARS. CENTRAL CITY.

Awareness hits you in a rush. As does the sound of a town’s EMERGENCY ALARMS WAILING.  Just as you begin to register the sound, you realize how quickly the towering skyscrapers are coming up to meet you. You may throw your hands up to shield yourself from witnessing your own grisly demise. Not to worry - THREADS OF MYSTICAL ENERGY rush up to meet you, grabbing for limbs and catching you before you make landfall.  A NET MADE OF STARS has come up to cradle you, giving you a much gentler entry into this world than most others have received thus far. A smattering of exhausted looking people holding staves and wands peer up at you and attempt to smile, though they appear to be much more focused on keeping you held aloft.

Correction. They’re keeping MOST of you aloft. The mystical net made of stars doesn’t seem quite large enough to cover the entire sky. THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE FALLING. Perhaps you’re not spared the fall, plummeting through the gap in the net and straight into someone’s living room. Or car. Or straight into the sewer systems.

DIADEM HOTEL

You're not going home anytime soon. Hopefully, the LUXURY HOTEL they've put you up in will ease that sting.

The DIADEM HOTEL is usually reserved for the obscenely wealthy. Its rooms are enormous, the beds quite literally enchanted to offer the perfect night's sleep, and the food would usually cost your life savings just to sample. But given the circumstances, the Guilds feel its the least they can do to aid your transition into this world. EVERYTHING is complimentary, and everyone gets an ALLIANCE CREDIT CARD to spend on entertainment, clothing, and whatever other necessities they might need. The cards have an obscenely high limit and there doesn't seem to be an expectation for you to pay it back... though if they catch you abusing it, their accountant will be coming for your head.

There's a shopping center immediately across the street. It has an impressive array of outlets that cater to your every need. Food, clothing... and swords? If you can think of it, it's for sale. Although anything clearly supernatural or metahuman seems to be at a minimum and offered under the table. You can grab clothing made to withstand any superpower and a surprisingly mediocre Taco Bell order while you're at it. There's a Super Cinema in the shopping complex across the street that's showing the highly anticipated DROP DEAD GORGEOUS movie, a thriller wherein a fictional beauty queen accidentally swallows a fragment of the Necronomicon and becomes the world’s most powerful necromancer. Oh, and her boyfriend transforms into her chainsaw.

CENTRAL CITY isn't exactly the nicest place in the world. Wander too far from the shopping district and you'll find yourselves thick into territory controlled by the local non-meta crime syndicate... but maybe that's where you want to be. Maybe you're here to see just what this world is dealing with. If you're going to be stuck here you might as well make yourself useful, right?

Or perhaps you're NOT the heroic type. Maybe this is simply scoping out the competition.

Regardless, it won't take long for TROUBLE to find you. Test out your new powers, do a little thieving, stop a few muggings - this is your time to use as you see fit.

MAY FLIES AND FLOWERS. EXCELSIOR.

EXCELSIOR has just opened its very own BOTANICAL GARDEN! The facility is roughly the size of a city block, a modern monolith of steel and glass, specially equipped to prevent birds from flying into the many windows. There’s plants from all over the world growing inside, different rooms hosting rare and exotic specimens from different climates. Each mini-biome has animals native to the regions they mimic, of course - not a great many of them, but you’re likely to see some insects and birds flitting here and there.

To better protect the guests, all animals inside are man-made creations - be they mechanical or genetically engineered for a single purpose. The most notable of these projects is a MECHANICAL BUTTERFLY enjoying its first test flight. Researchers hope that these butterflies can be introduced into nature to aid the waning bee populations. These butterflies, beautiful creations spun from delicate metal wire, can be found in nearly any of the ecosystems present in the Botanical Garden. Aside from being hardy and efficient, they’re also equipped with a CHEMICAL ENHANCEMENT that makes the pollen they collect twelve times more potent. Everything’s getting pollinated in here! Best hope you don't have allergies.

This SPECIAL POLLEN also has the side-effect of making anyone in the vicinity feel quite lonely or loved. Theorized as a way to make dates more intimate, no more consideration was put into the ethical ramifications of subtly altering people’s mood for commercial benefit. It’s Excelsior, after all, hopefully someone warned you they view ethics as optional.

Should you have come to this beautiful slice of nature alone you may find yourself OVERWHELMED WITH LONELINESS as the flock fly overhead. Yet this loneliness comes with an edge of courage. Perhaps you’re emboldened to approach another lonely heart and ask if they would care to accompany you. 

If you’ve come with someone you all may find yourselves feeling much more WARM AND AFFECTIONATE towards them. Such a pretty place, such great company - let’s spend some real quality time!

WORKING ALL ANGLES. SUNSET FALLS.

Be you hero, villain, or unaligned - socialite KATHERINE WEST has a request for you. Miss West appears to be quite distressed. The weirdness of Sunset Falls has put her dear father in a bit of a pickle and she’s looking for strapping heroes (and villains, and unaligned, really anyone with two feet and a heartbeat) to help out. She states that she’s no metahuman and so she can’t offer you a team-up, but she can offer you a shoutout on her Instagram page.

The TASKS she’s issuing seem simple on the surface. Safe enough that you may be swayed by her sweet smile and the 15 million followers who might take a shine to you.

HUNT SOME WOLVES.

A shame she didn’t mention that these wolves are WEREWOLVES.

A pack of werewolves has been wreaking havoc in the PARK. They come out at night to grow their pack. Nearly a dozen locals have been conscripted by this infectious bite.

Luckily, there is a POTENTIAL SOLUTION! This particular brand of lycanthropy can be cured if you grievously wound them with a SILVER WEAPON. A quick google also tells you that curing the ALPHA – or killing him – will end the curse for the whole pack. She’s twice the size of a direwolf with jaws like a steel trap. 

Granted, killing them is the faster solution. There is a slight hitch in that plan. These wolves REVERT BACK TO HUMAN FORM upon death. It might look weird to find a bunch of bodies in the park so you’d best be prepared to clean up after yourself.

There’s always the risk you’ll get bit and JOIN THEM. Should this happen, the transformation will come on suddenly and painfully, your body distorting under the light of the moon. The ANIMAL INSTINCTS will come on just as powerfully - you’re part of a pack now, and you’re out on a hunt. Hopefully some kind soul can hit you with silver or take out your alpha, because you won't turn back on your own.

HERE KITTY KITTY.

Miss West has tasked you with finding all of the town’s TREED CATS. This one is an easy enough task, right? For the last four months there's been an absurd amount of cats getting stuck in trees.

Well, it seems two months of storing AMBIENT CHAOS MAGIC has made these cats more unpredictable than usual. Chaos magic isn't something you want to mess with, especially not when it's held in purrsnickety paws. It's easy to snatch them from the branches if they don't know you're coming, but if you approach under their watchful eye you'll begin to find the rules of reality start to bend. The ocean becomes a sky full of fish, and the grass beneath you a warm carpet warmed by a sunbeam. Your thoughts and feelings suddenly seem to be able to influence this space - so careful! You wouldn't want your worst fears to suddenly manifest.

Now would be a really bad time to remember that dream where all your teeth fall out.

DANCING SHADOWS.

This one is fairly simple. All Miss West wants is a PICTURE OF YOUR SHADOW. She gives you her best camera and asks you take the very best shot you can.

The ambient mystical energies of Sunset Falls are known to be chaotic. The LINGERING MAGIC of the spell that snatched you from the sky is ignited. Your shadow begins to glimmer faintly like the night sky itself. If you catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of your eye, you could swear you spy your shadow smiling back. Its eyes appear to be bright, burning stars.

These stars grant it a RUDIMENTARY SENTIENCE. And with it, liberation! No longer is it bound to your feet.  Your shadow-self wants to live it's very best life and that means doing whatever impulsive thing strikes its brand new consciousness. CAUSING MAYHEM, infecting other shadows with its newly gained brilliance. Before long, the town is OVERRUN with dancing shadows. While their antics don't affect the physical space, if you glance down at the ground in pure chaos.

The magically inclined among you may want to work together to bind your shadows back to your feet. It's not good for a person to be split between planes like this. It's not good for the world, either, as the ground seems to give an ominous rumble every now and again. Catch your shadow and pin it under your foot!

WILDCARD.

Metaheroes takes inspiration from all walks of comics. Take a look at the CITIES to get an idea as to what day to day life is like in the other cities. Perhaps you've encountered a supervillain (or hero) who needs to be thwarted, or a metahuman with unusual powers creating bizarre effects. You can also take a look at the MISSION BOARD to get your start as a professional hero, villain, or vigilante.

Comments

[atypical_echo]

"Maybe you could try for both our sakes?" Mark asked. At least he was starting to push his own emotions back down, to pull them out of the loop. It was something.

And even as he did that, he felt the ability seeking again, reaching. Reaching for Damien and what he felt. Because fool as Mark was, he couldn't deny the curiosity he had over just what might be going on in Damien's head.

[heydrb]

"I don't know how," he practically growls. "This– it- it's different, okay? And I don't know how to use it yet." Give him a damn break, Mark, it's been like two days, max.

[atypical_echo]

Fair point on the not having control yet, but Mark... Well, he guesses he has to be the experienced one here.

"You... you have to find the things that make sense, that you can understand the why of. The anger? That's definitely mine. And the loneliness, though I don't know why. So what of it is yours?"

[heydrb]

He frowns, just the tiniest pinch of his brows as he tries to make sense of what Mark is telling him. To... focus it like that. What makes sense? Honestly? Nothing right now.

"You sure? About the lonely...?" Because that's a place Damien lives inside of every day. Still. He tries to pinpoint something more specific. But being, well, Damien, it doesn't jump out in a way he'd like it to and he gets frustrated, lets out a soft grunt, "I don't know, I– this isn't...." he shakes his head. "Call it whatever you want... I know you have no reason to stay, but... I really don't want you to leave." he has no idea how you put that into a single, feeling-word, but... there it is.

[atypical_echo]

"I'm fucking miserably lonely right now, to a point that makes me think of 1810, and I can't control it and I just feel it but I don't know how to make it stop," Mark rambled because that's what he does when he's stressed.

But damn, he can feel the frustration mounting, and the wanting Mark to stay. And that frustration feeds into him which is of course what leads to the next comment, said with a sharp edge.

"And that's different from your normal reaction to me how?"

[heydrb]

"Maybe you just... feed it the opposite. Sure, you can still feel lonely in a room full of people, but..." he shrugs. "burns less. Maybe a," he gestures vaguely. "botanical garden isn't exactly the best place to try to combat it."

The edge of that strikes him. Maybe because he can feel it as much as he can hear it in his tone. Like sharpened steel. "You asked." his own tone is flat.

[atypical_echo]

"Yeah, but going out into public while I'm empathic really sounds like a mess too," he points out, especially since they're both terrible at this right now.

Weird how he doesn't assume Damien would be away from him if he went outside.

"Yeah, I guess I did ask. Hell, this might be the best time to ask you plenty of things, get to the bottom of shit. But that's not fair. At all. Which is fucking frustrating because I'm trying to be a good person here."

[heydrb]

"That's almost like you inviting me to go someplace with you, I think?" He can't let that go missed, of course.

He shakes his head, "I know you're not that much of a Boy Scout, Marky Mark." he chuckles lowly. "Why would you pass up the chance?" He knows, a little too intimately right now, that he can't shield anything from Mark even if he wanted to. Despite that, he doesn't move an inch. He can't, because there could be a chance of someone getting it. Really, really understanding him for once.

And what has Damien ever wanted more than that?

[atypical_echo]

"I'm really not inviting you to go somewhere with me."

Because that needs to be stopped right now, even if it's what he wants and oh boy realizing that has to be giving a bit of a feedback to Damien too. Why does he want the guy? Is it because Damien wants him? Fuck this is a headache.

"Oh fuck you! I'm a good person. I didn't mean to mess up your powers!"

Because to him, that's what it means, that's what Damien's calling him out on. He doesn't think of it from the understanding angle.

[heydrb]

"Right." He can't stop the tiny lift at one corner of his mouth at that. Or maybe it's that hum of want that he can tell isn't his own. This loop is... dangerous. But Damien isn't leaving.

He lifts his hands in surrender. "Didn't say you were a bad person. But you really want me to believe... that some part of you isn't dying to be petty right now? Turned tables and all that." His eyebrows arch slightly in question.

[atypical_echo]

Oh, it's very dangerous. Super dangerous. Damien can feel the attraction after all. And he hates how it resonates with something old in him, something he wished wasn't there.

"Of course some part of me wants to be petty. But the thing about being a good person is not stooping to that level."

He makes a mistake here, steps in to try and punctuate the point by poking Damien in the chest as he says not. Which is mostly stupid because he should be trying to get away from this flow of emotion, not moving toward it.

[heydrb]

As Mark moves forward into his space like that. It's a wave of tension. Anxiety. Anticipation. It mixes so, so easily with the attraction and the desire and–

"Even good guys have bad days," his voice drops quieter, the kind of the that implies intimate conversation meant only for the two people involved in it. "Ask me." The first thing that comes to mind. Whatever thing he really wants to know. Anything.

[atypical_echo]

Oh yeah, he can definitely feel all of those. Makes this feel like a moment and dammit it is not allowed to be a moment. His breath is almost catching in the intensity of it all.

What a time in his life to have fucking given up drinking, because right now he could use a dulling of his emotions thanks.

"Why are you so obsessed with me, Damien?"

[heydrb]

The amusement strikes first, because all he can say for a moment is, "Did you just Regina George me?" he snorts softly, shaking his head.

But everything after that is just a tangled, knotted mess of confusion and uncertainty, desire and desperation, of panic and loss and regret. It's so much of everything, it just becomes a blur of nothing.

"I don't know... which is kind of a stupid fucking answer, but I... I don't know, Mark. There's just..." The discomfort is a sharp spike in the middle of the rest. He's not used to being this honest, ever. But it's that even sharper edge of desperation that seems to push him forward. "I think there's just... a certain kind of...lost? and lonely that fits together in a certain way. I guess I thought..."

He scoffs a little and shakes his head, a swirl of bitterness. "Well, I guess it doesn't really matter, does it?"

[atypical_echo]

"Don't you quote Mean Girls at me," he says, poking the man in the chest again.

In a way, though, it's lucky that the emotions are too complex for one thing to well up in Damien, that it's not easy for Mark to pick it apart. But he can feel the general shape of it.

The bitterness leaves a bad taste in his mouth though.

"You don't want me, Damien, you want the way you think you can fit me in to your life. And that's... that's not healthy."

And it hurts too, maybe a little. Can't help the swell of disappointment in his heart. Even the guy obsessed with him doesn't want him for him.

[heydrb]

"It's a quotable movie." He shrugs.

He shakes his head, "No... no, you're right it's not– but I don't think I know how to have a healthy relationship."

Oh.
That was... technically the right word. Technically. But it colored all kind of connotations onto it in a way he isn't sure Mark would appreciate.
Shit.

[atypical_echo]

Yeah, it was. And if this was literally anyone else, he would absolutely go ahead and suggest they go see if it existed here and watch it because yeah, fucking classic.

"Well, there you have it, huge therapy break through so you can move on," Mark noted, trying to quash the strange pain in his chest. This was not productive and he didn't want Damien feeling his disappointment. Which was probably already too late, but whatever.

"You know what," he found himself saying, that panicked, rambling edge overcoming him, spreading into his voice and giving energy to his limbs. "I just remembered I have something to go do right now. A meeting. Yeah. A meeting."

Not only clearly a lie in the moment and how it's said, but in the emotion too. He's running. If there was one thing Mark was always good at, it was running away.

[heydrb]

"Didn't even need your sister for it, look at me go." His tone is flat again, though. Because he can already tell where this is going.

And there it is.
The absolutely terrible lie to get out of this.

"You're a shit liar, and I don't need empath abilities to know that."

[atypical_echo]

He wants to say he's not lying, but fuck, they both know that already. They can both feel it, and Mark hates that he can feel it, and hates that he's hurting. Someone shouldn't be disappointed that their stalker isn't really into them.

"What the hell else am I supposed to do right now, Damien? Stand here and deal with... with all of this? I'm having one of the literal worst weeks of my life, and you know that I've been through enough for that to be a very serious statement, and I don't know that I can handle all of this right now. Handle knowing that you put me through all of that for... for nothing."

[heydrb]

It's not for nothing!

It screams in his veins, reverberates in his chest, and there's no doubt there's some kind of... emotional recoil for it that's mostly frustration or anger or something more desperate than both.

"You don't get it... nobody ever fucking gets it," he laughs, humorless and self-deprecating. "You were supposed to." he pushes against Mark's shoulders, not all that roughly but enough to make him sway a little. "You were supposed to, but you felt it then and you're feeling it now and you still. don't. get it."

[atypical_echo]

Okay, that was overwhelming, and Mark staggers a bit at the intensity of the emotions assaulting him. That, mixed with the shove, definitely makes him stagger back. Good thing he catches himself, barely keeping from tripping over his own legs and falling.

"You don't get it either, Damien. You don't... You don't get it. You're in your own fucking pity party and you're not growing and it doesn't matter because you didn't care about me, only about my power, the thing about myself that I hate the most. You don't get it. You don't get how horrible that is. Because it makes you like the AM under Wadsworth!"

[heydrb]

"No, it's not like that! It was– I'll give you that- it was, in the beginning. I've been looking for someone like me, who can do what I do, for years, Mark. Way before I met you. Way before I ever thought about living in Boston."

They're cycling off of each other, the anger, anxiety, who knows what else, but it makes his mouth keep moving anyway. "Your power meant... I had a shortcut to the thing I was looking for, for so long. Because you'd copy it, you'd mimic it and finally, finally somebody could just fucking understand how it felt. I wouldn't have to be alone."

He presses further into Mark's space at that last comment, "Take it back..." his voice is low with a warning edge to it. "Take it back... I am nothing like that bitch."

[atypical_echo]

"You're right. You're fucking right. Because when Helen got out of Tier Five and was going to kill us all, Wadsworth came and put herself in danger to save us. So yeah, you're not like her. She's trying to be better."

And Damien, well, Mark might just be trying to hurt him right now. Because he hurts more than he imagined and he doesn't want Damien to feel it because of empathy, he just wants Damien to hurt.

"And you? You only wanted me because you wanted to be seen. Well I see you Damien. Was it fucking worth it?"

[heydrb]

He almost relaxes at first, but then he barrels into the rest of it at ninety to nothing and it does. It hurts because the emotional loop between them be damned, the absolute vitriol and venom in Mark's voice just then are thick and sharp and it cuts deep.

"Is that so bad? Wanting to be seen. Wanting to be... known, understood?"

[atypical_echo]

"No," he admits, sighing. This was just a bit of a mess. His heart hurt because Damien's hurt and his hurt too. Dammit, he was starting to cry. This was the worst.

"No. No it's not, but you can't force it, Damien. And now I understand you and I'm still not happy."