TEST DRIVE MEME: MAY EDITION

[metamods]

TEST DRIVE MEME

A Confluence, capitalized, is the converging of one or more supernatural forces. Typically, a Confluence only occurs in one place at any given time. Typically.

These are not typical times.

Most of the Starfallen will arrive in Excelsior, Washington, slipping from the sky one by one, needing to be helped as they come floating down. To many citizens in Excelsior – individuals who are far from fond of metahumans – their arrival is a sign of bad things to come. It’s always a sign of bad things to come. This time, however, the bad things don’t come in the typical sequence. Instead, they’re dealing with a problem when the Starfallen begin to unwittingly arrive. What’s that problem? Plants with a rather problematic taste for flesh.

While Excelsior is hoping for spring to actually stick on the horizon, they’re warding off plants left and right. At least none of the plants seem to be able to spit fire – uh, yet?

In the midwestern part of the country, a huge barrage of rain has begun to settle over the land. Rain like this isn’t normal. Stormfronts usually keep moving forward, but this isn’t. And while rain isn’t a bad thing, this rain … is a deluge. A flood upon floods. Some Starfallen individuals will be showing up in the middle of this, arriving in both Little Love and Central City. Hope they can keep their heads above water!

Making matters worse is that everything seems a bit – planned? No, that’s not the right word. Like it’s all happened before. Or happening again. People all over are definitely noticing a strange uptick in déjà vu. Most worrying is how it seems to be happening everywhere.

EXCELSIOR

Ah, Excelsior – the city that doesn’t ask “why” something should be explored, but how quickly it can be explored. If only someone there had developed a swift measure to deal with a sudden influx of killer plants! The good news is that these plants haven’t killed anyone – not yet, anyway – but there is all the time in the world for that to change.

As the Starfallen arrive, they’re unlikely to notice the plants, and instead will see technological marvels all around them. Although Excelsior isn’t fond of Starfallen, they like the idea of welcoming them and getting them the hell out as quickly as possible. This philosophy results in all of the Starfallen being guided down to the ground, with further instructions awaiting them once they’re on two feet. (Or four. No one’s judging!) But once they land, they’re likely to notice that things aren’t the way they’re meant to be.

After all, someone in Excelsior failed to ask “why it’s bad to create an incredibly unlikely strain of plants that is genetically inspired by snapdragons, the flowers from those plumber games, and piranhas,” and instead went ahead with “how quickly can I do it?” Their experiment proved to be far too successful, aided by cutting-edge bioengineering technology.

Even though all Starfallen are encouraged to depart for the Midwest after they receive their teleportation devices, it’s apparent that the people of Excelsior need help. Right now, their chilly reception can easily be written off as a symptom of what’s happening. Dealing with newcomers at a time like this? Preposterous! People are injured from wild, flesh-eating plants. Obviously!

So, kind Starfallen – whether you’ve just arrived or came by when you heard word of the Confluence of trouble – will you give these dour folk the hand they so desperately need?

THE MIDWEST

Elsewhere, both Little Love and Central City are experiencing a flood of problems. Most of the problems are the result of the flood. While Little Love is known to be the quieter of the cities in this Confluence-ridden world, it finds itself dealing with a torrential downpour that it’s never seen before. Meteorologists quickly note that this is unnatural. All the way from Kansas to Illinois to Michigan there is rain, rain for as far as the eye can see. Flood warnings have no end in sight, and the people in these cities have asked for help from outside. If this rain doesn’t stop, all summer crops will be at risk!

The source of these problems? A Confluence. More specifically: a five-year-old girl who was born in Little Love just got news that her father died in an accident. Combine that with the incoming Confluence and the girl unwittingly unleashed her sadness upon the land.

Anyone investigating would learn that the rain began in Little Love, right before it began to spread upward and outward from the little town. Soon, Kansas, and then the entire Midwest, would feel the impact of her grief. Even when she sleeps, it doesn’t go away – her pain is a constant, after all. Finding her is key. No one can truly prevent a child’s grief, but perhaps they can help her realize her impact on the world and get her newly-arrived power under control.

DIADEM HOTEL

Whether you’ve gone to investigate the rather moist trouble or you’re just looking for some shut-eye, you’ve got a place that’s waiting for you. Need to clean up some plant-induced wounds? It’s time to hit the LUXURY HOTEL to ease any concerns.

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 for just a small taste. 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 outlet shops 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 a film called BARKS OF THE DEAD, a story about a zombified dog who protects a small family during the zombie apocalypse. Despite its taste for other dogs’ brains, this dog is fiercely loyal and will do anything for its owners.

EVERYWHERE: DÉJÀ VU

Less obvious and more innocuous are the strange stints of déjà vu all over. At first, it might seem like it’s a familiar thing you’ve seen before, but then you’re certain that you’ve ordered those chicken tenders before. Wait, you haven’t even been to this city before, much less this restaurant.

The feeling of déjà vu isn’t just that. Whole days will begin to feel like they’re repeating – surely they’ve solved that rain problem? Or the plant problem? Didn’t you hear that it happened?

Anyone keen to take notes might want to – assuming you haven’t just gotten that you did and they’ve been lost to time.

CLIFF NOTES.

➢ New arrivals will be appearing in Excelsior, Little Love, or Central City – with the bulk of them arriving in Excelsior. Their arrival will be expected and handled by a number of odd pieces of technology that help them as they fall from the sky itself. None of the locals will be happy to see the arrivals, but they’ll be so frazzled that they won’t be able to give them their usual chilly welcome. Vicious plants are on the loose and it’s not a meta’s fault. This might be meaningless to newcomers, but anyone who’s old hat at this will know that Excelsior can cause its own problems just fine, thank you.

➢ Arrivals who land in Little Love or Central City will arrive to a lot of rain. This much rainfall can impact the climate, daily life, crops – you name it. Arrivals will also be very, very soggy. If they’d like, they can ignore the trouble in favor of getting answers or heading to the hotel. No one’s obligated to lend a hand.

➢ Current Players are welcome to treat this as a bonus event. These events are canonically happening within the game but can be largely ignored if you'd prefer to use the month for personal plots. You can tag into the TDM, reference these prompts in network posts, or use them in your own logs.

➢ As for the time stuff, feel free to treat it as a wobbly time event! Mess with memories, get a character caught in the same day, or even just make someone feel like they’ve suddenly acquired precognition as a power. The sky’s the limit!

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.

Comments

display name: Stephen Strange

[rehandle]

[ There are a theoretically infinite number of people this could be. Even discounting the number of Tony Starks to exist on any one iteration of Earth at any one time by merit of family name and bad timing or overzealous appreciation, there's the multiverse. And outside of that multiverse there are the nexus worlds like this one, dragging people in and churning them out, creating branches of selves and cross-multiversal timeline diversions...

It will not, of course, be any of the theoretical infinity. It'll be exactly who he knows it's going to be. ]

Stark.

[ Let's just see what happens, shall we? Easy. No sudden movements. ]

[ingeniar]

[ Well, there's only one wizard he knows with that name. Except the last time he spoke to said wizard was years ago, on Titan, shortly before he became a pile of wizardly ashes. ]

Strange. Long time no see.

[rehandle]

[ Well, that's inconclusive, and in hindsight what was he expecting? It stands to reason that any of the Tony Starks who are The Tony Stark have a decent chance of having met a Stephen Strange. Long time no see could be anyone.

If it is him though (it is, inevitably it is) this does give him something. The original post is too chipper for a dead man, surely, even if that dead man's Tony, and if he's taking being here in his stride he's not actively in the middle of saving the universe. Lang isn't back yet. It hasn't begun. He remains dust in the wind. ]

Yeah [ That much is true for him no matter what. ] Been a while.

[ingeniar]

You're as talkative as ever. How's the magic game? Do any interesting bat mitzvahs lately?

[rehandle]

[ It occurs to him, late, that There's A Spell For That™️. A log he's keeping of numbers, how many from their multiverse then separated out into component universes. All he has to do is run it again, a magic report, home in on their universe...

One more than last time. ]

You're set up at the Diadem?

[ingeniar]

Sure, I'm just waiting for the catch.

[ No such thing as a truly free ride, after all. ]

[rehandle]

The catch is you're stuck in another universe with no permanent way back and they'll be trying to recruit you to their guilds every day that you're living on their dime.

Enjoy it while it lasts and call it compensation.

[ingeniar]

I'm not joining anyone else's boyband. I'm semi-retired. Semi-officially.

[rehandle]

Good to know you're over meta registration as a concept.

Remaining unaligned won't win you any popularity contests, or assistance with fulfilment of any basic integration needs. You'll also technically be breaking the law.

[ingeniar]

Don't tell me Mr. "Don't Bother Me Unless It's Important" actually joined a team.

[rehandle]

That's Dr., actually

No. Just thought you should know what you're signing yourself up for if you decide to formally break ties with government-mandated supervision.

[ingeniar]

You're concerned because we're dating.

[rehandle]

What

[ingeniar]

You're dating me. Well, not me. The other me. It's flattering, really. I didn't know you had those sorts of feelings. Mazel tov, though.

[rehandle]

Let me guess, you've been talking to Jason.

[ Who else, really? And if Jason can be This Way, Stephen can dump his true identity in Tony Stark's lap without a second thought and that's just what he gets. ]

You might want to vet your sources next time.

[ingeniar]

[ Jason.. Jace.. it checks out. Still. ]

Are you saying you don't like-like me?

[rehandle]

[ What is happening right now ]

Did you hit your head on incoming? There's supposed to be a contingency for that.

[ingeniar]

I just appreciate the concern. Even if it's just because you want to get into my pants.

Seriously though, I could use some intel. Preferably somewhere that's not run by 15 year old chatroom nerds.

[rehandle]

[ This is it. This is the worst timeline edition of this conversation and he never even saw it coming.

And it still somehow isn't enough to keep him from the most masochistic action he's taken all week. ]

Are you alone? I'll send an Uber to the room.

[ If by Uber we mean rupture in spacetime. ]

[ingeniar]

[ It could absolutely get worse. ]

I'm getting a latte. Give me a few minutes.

[ He could move quicker, but he likes messing with Stephen. So he takes his time before ducking out of the coffee shop and into the alley next to it, then drops Stephen a location pin. ]

[rehandle]

[ It affords him a couple of minutes for decision-making. They should be spent deciding how much he's going to say, what he's going to ask - instead he spends them deciding which room is least likely to have views of the spacecraft parked in his yard, or at least to avoid a spontaneous meeting with it's inhabitant. They'll have enough to talk about without Nox and his very specific brand coming on the scene.

When the location pin drops he's in the study, and that'll have to do. The portal opens into a room with book-lined walls and plush antique seating - nothing quite as grand as the Sanctum but certainly of a similar vintage.

Does Stephen Strange live in a haunted Victorian manor house? Of course he does.

The man himself stands waiting by the open tear in reality, dressed down in jeans and a tee with some vaguely wizardly cardigan thrown over, not having bothered to try and act like he's busy with anything else. All his energy devoted to not looking nervous. ]

[ingeniar]

[ It's somehow pretty much what Tony was expecting, right down to the cardigan. Standing in the alley with an iced latte in one hand and his phone in the other, he gives Stephen a long look through his shades before he wanders into the portal and goes from downtown to Stephen's study in the space of a few steps.

Back on the long flight to Titan, they'd been pretty distracted with the business of fighting Thanos, and then just surviving Thanos. Not much time for casual hangouts. The jeans and tee are an interesting nuance that Tony hadn't expected, humanising the man who sacrificed his life to save him -- and doomed half of the world.

Tony himself is worn down, grey around the edges, still hasn't regained all of the weight he lost while starving on Nebula's spaceship. He takes a noisy sip from his Frappuccino as he looks around the study. ]

Cute.

[rehandle]

[ Sunglasses. Smart. Stephen, without even that meagre shield, waits him out, gaze steady until Tony steps through and sends his attention to the room. Then there's a small chance to observe for himself.

This isn't the first time he's seen Tony since it happened, but it's the first time in this world. The first time in a long time. He doesn't look well. Not unwell exactly - just that there's lingering evidence here of how close he came to stumbling death-first into a failed timeline.

Stephen's jaw briefly sets around a swallow, and then the portal's closing off the window to Central City and they're alone with not much more than the outdoor twittering of local birds and the Cloak hanging back in the corner, for the time being giving them space if not quite privacy. ]

Mn. It helps the brand.

[ You know. Wizard house for wizard gigs. It's spoken blandly enough that it might almost not be a joke except for how having made a joke in this specific context suddenly sits strangely with him, which in itself frustrates him, which results in an abrupt, heavy sigh.

Small talk doesn't work. Straight to it, then. ]

Where do you want to start?

[ingeniar]

[ Stephen doesn't seem particularly pleased to see him. Tony has the impression of walking into a room too late, like he's interrupting something. He doesn't like that feeling.

He drinks some more sugary iced coffee and wanders over to the nearest armchair, reaching out to touch a fingertip to the soft leather, as if testing to see if it's real. It's easier than looking at Stephen and all the complicated problems he represents. ]

The last time I saw you was on Titan. Right after you handed over the Time Stone without a fight.

[ Despite himself, he can't resist looking over at Stephen to see how he takes that, his own jaw set on a frown. ]

You want to explain that?

[rehandle]

[ Without a fight, finishes Tony, and he carefully holds onto the breath he'd been drawing in ever since the last time I saw you. There's a measured neutrality in his expression, carefully cultivated, but the strain of this conversation pulls down the corners of his mouth all the same.

He can feel it happening, so speaks. ]

We tried the fight. You'll remember where it got us.

[ Nowhere. And Tony set for dead.

It also isn't the point. A sigh to bring himself back to heel, glancing briefly down at the nothing in particular sitting on one of many side tables as he prepares himself to answer the question. ]

It's how it had to happen. [ And, self duly steeled, he looks back up to stare Tony right in the tinted sunglasses, unflinching and searching and maybe, in the tension around the eyes that not even the most concerted effort can iron out, just the smallest bit sorry. ] They needed you.