metamemes | TEST DRIVE MEME: MAY EDITION

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TEST DRIVE MEME: MAY EDITION

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( his head tips back, looking over to dick. raises a brow under the domino mask. )

Everyone's. You don't want people listening in while you're dressed like that an' I'm like this, do you?

( if jason was out of uniform or dick was in, it'd be easy enough to talk about them without actually talking about it. but a masked vigilante and a kid isn't a good combo, and jason--probably could have geared down, but he hadn't. )

I'd prefer if no one listened in on any of my conversations, but I have a feeling that's not always possible here.

[ He's thinking primarily of the Guilds, but there's no knowing who else is out there. The attitudes toward Starfallen are mixed, and he has no doubt it means he'll have to watch his back, Robin or not.

Of course he doesn't know any of the Bats are here and their love language is planting bugs everywhere so... ]

Jacket you're holding onto has, at my last count, two trackers on it. No bugs. I like to remind R to keep his nose out of my business, but I let him follow me all he wants. Sometimes. Makes him feel better.

( his mask is also equipped with it's own commlink, one he knows tim knows how to hack into when he feels like--but one jason has also gotten equipped with shit to interfere with tim's tech if he does opt to break in while jason's busy and doesn't want robin-ears listening in. )

[ Dick frowns but doesn't try to ditch the jacket or pick through it to find the trackers. He just files that alias-- "R"-- away. Something to talk about at this supposed safehouse. This guy must have a strong network to have this kind of gear and to have someone he willingly allows to monitor him. ]

Better about what?

Joker's here.

( at least he was, and no one has seen proof he isn't around anymore. he'd targeted tim, before. and tim won't acknowledge it but jason knows damn well how much that must have fucked him up. and if he is still around, either he's going to find one of their crew or they're going to find him. it won't be pretty regardless, which tim's well-aware of.

jason turns down into a small alley full of closed food trucks. at the end, is a FOR RENT sign posted on a small shopfront, with a window to the right of the door broken in. )

'sides, tracking people's his love language. And who am I to deny him that?

[ That's like a splash of cold water to the face. Dick takes a sharp breath. Damn it.

This just leads to more questions than answers, but Dick is keeping his mouth shut until they get to the safe house.

He's not surprised at the sight of the run-down shopfront and closed food trucks. There's little pockets like this in cities all over the world. And across realities, apparently. ]

You have some weird friends.

[ As if Dick counts himself as normal. ]

No one in our field's normal. But Robin--this one-- 's my little brother. ( fingers wrap around the door knob, giving it one firm yank up before he's pulling the door open. for a safehouse, it's shit. there's the broken and boarded window for one, how easily the door opened for another, but there's a couple wires on the inside of the door--one down at ankle height, one at jason's shoulder height. one for him to duck under and another to step over. )

An' being the nice big brother I am, I figure if it helps him feel better an' doesn't get in my way, may as well leave it.

So you're a softie deep down?

[ Dick steps over the wire and barely has to duck to get under the other. The safehouse isn't anything impressive, but the broken window and flimsy lock mean he can ditch pretty easily if he needs to.

Pieces are starting to fit together but it's still not quite there. The guy knows his name, knows about his line of work, and knows about his gear. But he doesn't seem to know that he's Robin. Though, perhaps his little brother goes by Robin here. He doesn't think it's a coincidence but nothing is quite lining up. ]

I'm not an idiot. Easier to keep 'em after I find 'em so they're easy to take off if I need to, rather than need to spend time feeling up my shit for new ones.

( except he's pretty sure tim knows he knows where they are and plans accordingly. because it's tim. but they can dig into that later, because jason's making sure the door shuts behind dick before he's reaching up and pulling the domino mask off of his own face. it doesn't do jack shit for him anyway; jason hasn't had much of a secret id since he was fifteen, and he doesn't hang out with the bats often enough out of their gear to make it really matter.

if this dick grayson was under someone else not bats, it wouldn't matter too much if he knew jason's face. discounting second jason. who's similar enough but not identical.

when he gives a flick of his wrist, the domino mask compresses into a thin red bracelet, which jason throws around his wrist. )

I was the second Robin. The one with the hoard of trackers--was the third.

[ While that makes perfect sense, Dick is not dismissing the underlying sentiment of "I love my brother and let him mother-hen me for his own mental well-being." It humanizes him and makes Dick a little less wary until.

Robin. There it is. He's familiar with the concept of legacies-- though it's mostly confined to the Flash for now-- but Robin isn't a legacy. It's him.

Dick frowns. ]

I'm sure you think you're explaining things clearly but I'm not following. Are you guys hardcore larpers or something?

[ He knows that last part isn't true, but bad jokes and jabs are his way of coping with discomfort. ]

Robin was yours. Still is for you. B handed it down to me--without your permission, it became a whole thing. But you got over it eventually. Or my you did.

( sucks to lose your nickname to some streetrat, but shit happens. )

We're up to five Robins by my count.

( he's not justifying the larpers comment with a response, because dick knows damn well he isn't. )

[ Dick frowns, shaking his head slightly. He's good at reading people, and this guy isn't lying. But it doesn't track. ]

One, B wouldn't do that. Two, if you did join the fold, why be "Robin"? There's not a shortage of superhero names, you know.

[ Because he's still too young to understand the impact "Robin" has. And Robin is part of who he is. It's even a tribute to his mother. Someone else going by Robin is hard to swallow. ]

Because Batman will always need a Robin. He gets sloppy in the field without one.

( more violent. more reckless. jason wasn't there after he died, but he's heard stories. and bruce has had tim or damian ever since. he won't dig into the bruce wouldn't mess; jason can think of a lot of shit he thought bruce wouldn't do, but did anyway. )

You're just a brat now--what, twelve? Thirteen? You think you'll want to play sidekick to B for forever? And when you move on--how do you think B's going to take it?

[ Dick's not sure that Bruce would be 'sloppy' but he would be less effective without someone like Robin. ]

Fourteen. And, no, of course I'm not going to be a sidekick forever. He's training me to take over, so why should he be worried about me "moving on?"

[ Dick and Bruce can read each other on an almost uncanny level. But there's always a blind spot for each of them. Bruce is bad at figuring out the source of Dick's emotions (and dealing with them properly), and Dick is bad at reading Bruce's intentions (not knowing that him becoming Batman is Bruce's fear.) ]

And, again, I reiterate: why "Robin"?

I didn't pick it. Guy told me to get into his car and called me Robin.

( a little more complicated than that, but jason can't help but tell stories about bruce as badly as possible. )

You'll figure it out eventually here, so, spoilers: my you's twenty six, he's mostly moved to Blüdhaven--Central City here--and he goes by Nightwing these days. He's dramatic and doesn't shut up, hard to miss.

Edited 2023-06-19 23:55 (UTC)

[ Dick just levels a look at Jason that says "doubt." He's not going to take some guy's word for it when Dick has years of firsthand experience living with Bruce. Maybe he's telling the truth, but he could also be lying by omission. ]

Right. Sure.

[ At least the second half of his statement, as bizarre as it is, makes more sense than Bruce just randomly picking up another kid and calling him Robin. ]

Interesting description. As long as he's not my evil twin, I think it'll be fine.

[ Nightwing? Not Batman? A small part of himself is relieved, but another part of himself feels trepidation. ]

You still haven't told me your name.

It's Jason. Jason Todd. And he's--fine. Usually. He can be a dick, but that's a multiversal constant.

( even for tiny, fourteen year old dick grayson. granted, they're all like that. it's a robin thing. )

He put on the cowl, for a while. Not by choice, by necessity. ( another halfstory about bruce wayne. not one he wants to go into, that was a shit period in time for him. first his thing with tim, then the incident with dick and damian. . . ) B'd better not be training you up to hand over the cowl, it ain't you. Not even this you. You've got better shit to do than get stuck in a legacy role that doesn't suit you one bit.

( he doesn't need to know dick for longer than two seconds to know that. )

Ha. Ha. Never heard that one before.

[ Dick presses his lips together into a thin line. He does not like that Jason clocked him like that. ]

You met me ten minutes ago. Maybe you have a head start with the basics, but you don't know me.

But we have been face-to-face, and I've caught enough off of yours to know I've hit the right notes.

( smaller dick is less subtle with his responses; the way his lips twitch, the frowns, when his breathing pattern changes. jason hasn't said anything the rest of them don't already know, but he knows a lot of this must be--new, to someone so damn small. )

You're better than him, Dick. Always have been.

[ He crosses his arms, defensive and uncomfortable. He's usually so much better at hiding his emotions.

He snorts. ]

Yeah right. I have years to go before I'm anywhere near his level.

[ He is, of course, thinking strictly in terms of skill. ]

Not like that.

( in a one-on-one fight, they all lose against him. he doubts that's changing until bruce fucks himself up bad enough he can't fight. but-- )

You'll figure it out eventually.

[ Dick just sighs. What's the point of bringing it up just to be vague? ]

You said five Robins. Who are they?

( it's hard to explain, and way too feelsy for jason to. he's read dick enough for today, probably. a hand raises, fingers extending out as he counts them off, )

You, me, Tim, Steph, and Damian. Steph isn't here anymore, but she had been. Tim's--around. Two of 'em, mine and one that's around your age. There's a smaller me, too. Damian's--here. One of 'em. He's older and angrier.

[ Dick's eyebrows go higher with every name listed, and the realization that most of them have doubles is... a lot. ]

That's... a lot of people.

[ He went from being the only Robin and the only kid Bruce took in to being part of an entire legacy. To say nothing of the fact that they know his secret and know more about him than he does.

Dick shifts uncomfortably. ]

Are they all cool with me?

[ Does he need to worry about someone throwing a knife and actually trying to hit him? ]

I'm the one who's had the rockiest relationship with Dick Grayson.

( he could go into the arkham incident. into the numerous fights. but none of that is useful nor relevant--well. unless they're taking into account jason's apparent inability to not fuck up with tiny little robins. but that's a later problem. easing worries is first priority, especially given--everything. this is all a lot for a fourteen year old to adjust to. )

Everyone loves you.

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