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

[deadthenred]

Yeah, actually. [ He looks at her, when he says that, but he doesn't sound like he's flirting. Bucky hasn't picked up a girl in a bar in the past seven decades. He sounds tired. Or sad. It can be hard to tell between the two.

But he draws his lips to the side, an almost smile, just to be polite. Just to seem polite. ]

Apologies for being typical.

[redhourglass]

You don’t seem typical.

( her tone is difficult to read — a mix of serious and flirtatious, the look she gives him sidelong far more piercing than it ought to be for just a pickup in a bar. it’s not even just the arm that makes him strange. if he’d been putting a pickup line on her, he’d have a stock response ready — “my next girlfriend” or something equally cheesy.

he wouldn’t look like she’d just kicked him. )

You miss her. ( a guess. educated, maybe. raising her glass, she tips it to him, careful not to let her eyes linger on his hand. instead they play across his face. ) I’m Natasha.

[deadthenred]

I miss a lot of people, but yeah. [ Bucky nods. He compartmentalizes, like he's been taught. So the part of him that misses things is locked away, a lot of the time. And in a way that means he misses them more.

When she says her name, his mouth turns. What a coincidence. But none of that is her fault. ]

James. But everyone calls me Bucky. [ He doesn't tell her that she never did. ]

[redhourglass]

( maybe she ought to have seen it coming. how many arms like that in the world, even in a high-tech place like this? (still, his arm doesn’t look like bucky’s. not really. not the way she remembers it, but it’s been five years.) but she’s surprised anyway, drink paused in mid-air for a second longer than would be normal and her eyes flicking to his left arm.

plenty of time for him to notice if he is who he says he is. )

Family name? ( her voice is calm, even if nothing of the rest of her is; it’s writ in the way she carries sudden tension in her shoulders, something in her eyes that seems raw.

beyond the arm — it could be bucky barnes, though maybe not the one she knows. there’s something about him… a sketch. a song from the same album, but still different. more likely he’s related, even if that’s equally impossible. bucky barnes had died five years ago, snapped out of existence by a mad titan. )

[deadthenred]

I guess. Got the name from my father. [ He's James Buchanan Barnes, Jr. ] But he always went by Jim.

[ That was how he got to be called Bucky. At least he thinks that's probably how. It happened back before he can remember, and there's no one to ask about it anymore. ] My middle name's Buchanan.

[redhourglass]

( shit. natasha sips her drink, eyeing him over the top of it with a look that she hopes comes off as the sort of interest a woman might toss at a man at a bar and not … scrutiny, suspicion, confusion. james buchanan barnes. no chance there is a second one of those running around with a metal arm.

and he might have known her. or if not her… the same way this is not the bucky she knows… )

Long way from New York, aren’t we? ( her russian is smooth, quiet; no hint of rust. she keeps up on it, speaking to contacts over there. bucky barnes had been on ice in russia long enough to pick up some of the language — at least the one she knew. )

[deadthenred]

[ Bucky doesn't like Russian, but he could get by even before spending the slim parts of four decades murdering for the KGB. He still dreams in the language, sometimes, the nights he can actually sleep. ]

Not that far, if you have the right transport. [ His Russian is a bit more formal than his English, a bit more carefully pronounced. But why is she talking about New York? He raises an eyebrow. There's no way she could know about— ]

Is this a psy-op? [ He switches to English, the language he thinks in, because now he's thinking. This is exactly how someone would try to screw with him. A few different scenarios run through his mind, before he finally puts together what this must be. ]

Shit.

[redhourglass]

( it’s not the accent she’d be expecting him to have, not if he was the bucky barnes that she knew. definitely not a native speaker - or not someone who speaks it often. still, the confirmation is enough to have her flinching, a minuscule movement that she smothers quickly enough with a sharp look at him. it’s dawning on him now. her, what she’d asked.

she intentionally looks at his arm, then back at his face. )

You tell me. ( shit is right, exactly what she’d just thought, and she tips her drink towards him in a mock ‘cheers’. ) Believe it or not, this isn’t even the weirdest thing to happen to me today.

( a smear of chlorophyll over one shoulder probably confirms that. )

Gonna clue me in?

[deadthenred]

Sure. [ It's a stunted answer, reflexive. He's still putting stuff together, but obviously she just came through the Confluence. That's why he came here. ] You probably get it as well as I do.

[ Alternate universes. He should've seen it before, because how many versions of Jason Todd has he met so far? But Natasha has always been a blind spot, for him. He's gonna need another drink. ]

How did you know about New York? [ Where he lives, currently, in Tony Stark's tower of sexual wellness. ]

[redhourglass]

( somehow it’s not really comforting that they’re both on the same page — minus the obvious advantage that this bucky has for knowing where it is that they are. )

I didn’t. ( she’d been bluffing, sort of. call it an educated guess. ) Where I’m from, Bucky is from New York. Figured it might resonate.

( the true test had been the russian; the winter soldier spoke it, she’d heard him snarl at her in it before he shot her and the man she was guarding. )

An old girlfriend? ( she keeps her tone neutral; new york hadn’t been personal, necessarily, but this is. )

[deadthenred]

[ It's strange, that she calls him Bucky. Natasha never did that, even after Leo'd twisted up her mind. But she wasn't calling him Bucky, was she? ]

I'm not from anywhere. [ He shakes his head, then looks away. Like maybe it'll afford them both some privacy, since even with his sleeves down and his hair in his face, he suddenly feels exposed. But he'll answer her question. ]

We were partners.

[redhourglass]

Neither am I.

( at least, not anymore. russia had been home, maybe. a home she barely remembers, beyond the four walls of the red room. new york is home enough now; it’s where she lives. where her family is, or was. maybe in the end she’s realized that’s what makes a home — not a place, but the people in it. and the avengers had taught her that.

partners. she can read between the lines there. tilting her drink to one side to let the liquid slosh around, she studies it for a long moment, then nods. )

You two are close? ( it’d been on the tip of her tongue to say ‘we’ .. but she doesn’t know him. not really. )

[deadthenred]

[ Sure. Bucky grew up on army bases with a single father, and so they never stayed any one place for long. Part of him has always wondered what it's like to belong to somewhere. He hasn't felt any kind of belonging in a while.

It takes him another second to answer. He realizes he can hear himself breathe. ]

I think so, yeah. [ Not as close as he wanted to be. His head tilts, as he tries to figure the words. ] She can be a tricky person to know. But I think I got the important parts.

[ He gestures for the bartender to bring him another drink. ]

[redhourglass]

( natasha can’t help it — she huffs a laugh under her breath before she can smother it. tricky to know sounds like her, the sort of thing steve or clint might say — and it’s almost comforting to know that this other natasha isn’t so different after all. variations on a theme, or something like that. )

You probably only have half of it. ( but it’s meant to be a gentle tease, her smile wry. )

Where does this leave us? ( she’s not his natasha — can’t be, even if she wanted to be. she’s missing the memories for it. but does that make them strangers? somewhat more than strangers? awkward acquaintances?

hell, they’re halfway to drinking buddies already — particularly when she orders her second when he does. )

[deadthenred]

Could be. [ There are whole chapters of Natasha's life he wasn't there for. ] But I have the benefit of experience. [ Deep down, he's convinced they're made of similar stuff. Except he sees all the good in Natasha he can't find in himself, like the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box.

The bartender brings him his drink first; whiskey neat. ]

I don't know. [ There's no protocol for this situation. Not in any of Fury's files. With a raised eyebrow, he adds: ] I'm still not sure this isn't a psyop.

[redhourglass]

( she snorts, waits for the bartender to return to their drinks and retreat out of earshot before she answers. picking up her glass, she tips it to him — eyes him over the top of it with a wry half-smile. )

If this were a psyop, I'd be trying to convince you it's not. ( it's clear that she means more to him than he does to her. bucky barnes back home is gone. dusted out of existence by a mad titan. another name on the list that natasha reviews each and every morning. another person lost.

and every second she's here, he stays gone. him, yelena, sam, all of them. her shoulders stiffen and natasha drops her eyes to her drink again. damn. )

Guessing I can't just click my heels together to go home.

[deadthenred]

[ He can see, from the way that her eyes fall, that something's stung her, but he doesn't know if it's him, the simple fact of being here, or the plant goop, or something else far away. Maybe a mix of all of them, maybe something else entirely. He can't read her that well. ]

If it was that easy, I'd be wearing heels by now.

[ At least it's a reference he recognizes. ]

What year was it, for you?

[redhourglass]

I can see you in the red sparkles.

( the banter... feels good. feels easy to just toss quips at him, not because she knows him — but because he doesn't seem phased by her beyond the fact that she's wearing someone else's face (or — maybe it's not even that, because bucky from home looked different for her, too). at least she can control the flow of conversation, even if she can't magically wish them home. )

2023. Five years after Thanos. ( the name alone isn't classified, and she's curious if it'll even mean anything to him. she swallows around the lump in her throat, the one that always comes when she thinks about those they'd lost. ) That's how the news reports on it, anyway. 'AV,' after the vanishing. You?

[deadthenred]

[ Bucky inherited Fury's old files, so he knows the name. But he doesn't know what she means by it— the news reports, AV. His mouth quirks.]

2020. [ Well, it was more complicated than that, but that isn't a lie. ] Just cleaned up a big mess with the Serpent Crown over the Atlantic. Lots of tentacles. [ A pause, more out of awkwardness than comedic timing. There's something she's not saying, about Thanos. ] Too many tentacles.

[redhourglass]

Never heard of ‘em. ( but 2020 isn’t far enough in the past for her to be truly concerned. maybe it’s a threat that never materialized in their timeline — bruce had been adamant about time-travel fuckery in the past few weeks. timelines, multiverses, the whole nine yards. honestly, after weeks of being in close quarters? she’d tuned him out.

maybe she should’ve have. )

So, should I get used to this? People knowing me, but not knowing me?

[deadthenred]

If you've never heard of Atlantis, you probably don't gotta worry about it. [ Though a world without Atlantis is strange to think about, even though no one on the surface knew they were there until the war. ] There'll probably be people from your timeline, but further back or forward.

[ He frowns again, and takes a sip of his drink. ] Which can make it hard to tell for sure.

[redhourglass]

Great. ( sourly, in a deadpan that implies that it's not great at all. her part of the timeline was probably the worst bit, though maybe she's biased. the taste of five years of ugly loneliness can do that to a person. ) Can't wait.

Rumor has it there is no way back. ( she watches him close out of the corner of her eye, judging for a reaction. )