metalogs | ANTARCTIC CIRCLE

Entry tags:

ANTARCTIC CIRCLE - JUNE EVENT

ANTARCTIC CIRCLE

Monsters are nothing new to this world. While they were thought to be nothing more than legend in the pre-confluence days, the first modern kaijuu attack was recorded in 1954.

Everything people knew to be true was challanged time and time again, but it has been decades since a threat showed itself. The Guild System has kept things manageable, peaceful even. It has afforded metahumans a sense of peace and a place of belonging in a world that once viewed them as disruptive and dangerous.

And so when the reports begin trickling in about a threat manifesting at the South Pole, the senior most members of both guilds head out under cover of night. They're certain they can deal with this quickly and quietly, without placing the burden on the new metas who never asked to be brought to this world.

But when they return at dawn, battered, broken and near dead - the decision is pulled from their hands. The usual theatrics of the guilds are pulled aside as the government officials muscle their way in, taking control of the Alliance command center. Within less than an hour the message is splashed across every screen, interrupting whatever people may have been doing prior.

EMERGENCY GODFALL PROTOCOLS ARE ACTIVE. ALL ABLE BODIED METAHUMANS ARE EXPECTED TO REPORT INAT ALLIANCE HQ REGARDLESS OF ALLEGIANCE. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. THIS IS A COSMIC LEVEL THREAT. WITHOUT INTERVENTION IT WILL BEGIN AT T-MINUS 72 HOURS.

STRATEGY MEETING—

You’ll find no one is forcing you to attend this strategy meeting… but most of the metahumans gathered here don’t appear to have any real power to speak of. Many of them are scared civilians. One can levitate rocks, another sneezes fire. All the major guild members are in critical condition, but most are expected to pull through.

They won’t say who isn’t.

The only person left in any kind of condition to help is Chaos Gate, who holds out her arm to display the reason why: one of the Sunset Falls blossoms has bonded to her. And though she’s singed and had been exposed to risky levels of cosmic radiation, the flower itself is fine. The intel the guild leaders brought back is enough to form a plan.

The entity is from another dimension, as is the flower. And so it stands to reason that people from other dimensions would be likewise immune. Even if they aren’t, upgrading existing anti-kaijuu weaponry is their best shot at stopping the threat in its tracks.

Any metahuman who is technologically inclined is called in to lend their skills to adapting the existing anti-kaijuu technology. This is your chance to shine if you’re not much of a fighter. You have twenty-four hours to get these machines ready for combat.

They give you the rundown of the technology that powers the robots. Multiple minds working in sync, meta-energies syncing up to replicate your existing power set on a massive scale. However, as they're powered by metahuman energy, doing this for an extended period of time will be incredibly draining, so it’s recommended for each robot to have a dedicated team of pilots to trade duties. At minimum, two people are required to operate each robot.

Additionally, memory-sharing is a known side-effect of this technology. It’s strongly recommended that no two pilots during active combat be from the same world - better still if you’re complete strangers - as its possible to completely lose yourself in these memories.

You can use this time to find partners or teams - and maybe stake a claim on the coolest-looking robot, if you feel like it.

MOVE OUT —

At dawn the following day, you’re sent off. Though the atmosphere is one of hope, Chaos Gate drops her usually flippant smile to lay down the facts: you may not come back alive.

But if you don’t go? Then everyone dies. The seers couldn’t say for sure whether you’ll succeed, but those that glimpsed futures where you never left at all made it clear what that led to.

Sync up with your fellow pilots and deploy yourselves, or jump into the med bot following behind. Feel the brush of another mind against yours and the power that comes from controlling an enormous steel giant. Take this time to experiment with the powers and abilities in the real robot, not the simulation you only had a few hours to train in.

ENGAGE —

There are five kaijuu in total. Their bodies roughly shaped like a tortoise, a dragon, a phoenix, and a tiger - with the final one an unknowable mass of flesh and tentacle, protected behind a barrier. Each of them measure roughly eight hundred feet, and are leaving massive damage in their wake. Scattered across the corners of the globe, they’re moving towards the South Pole where the largest beast lays in wait. The closer they are to this destination when you engage them, the more reality seems to be break and bend around them. Space and time are fragile here; there may be some odd effects, things like gravity and time rolling backwards. These creatures bleed cosmic radiation, so it’s recommended that you try to kill them as quickly and bloodlessly as possible. This may be difficult as while they’re in possession of breath attacks, they’re more keen to engage in hand-to-had combat.

Each of them is also spawning smaller copies of themselves, which seem to be moving towards the coastlines - towards major cities, specifically.

Those who believe themselves to be better suited to battling the monster directly can engage the kaijuu outside of their jaegers. But anyone exposed to their irradiated blood will catch a doubtless disorienting glimpse of infinity, and anyone who gets wounded is likely to fall into the ocean and be lost in the chaos. Do this at your own risk.

Those who aren’t piloting can also join medical or maintenance crews, which will be teleported out to any robot crews that require assistance.

Mercifully, once the four celestial beasts are slain - their ringleader seems to lose its power. The barrier that has been protecting it has fallen. And with no defenses of its own, it goes down easily. Reality returns to normal. And exhausted but victorious, you give the signal to be teleported back home.

You can sign up to strike a final blow here.

AFTERMATH—

It’s a brutal fight. Maybe not all of you made it back. Once the threat is clear, recovery teams are deployed to try to reclaim and revive any bodies lost in the surf.

Back at guild HQ, you’re welcomed back as heroes. The civilians are eager to know their new saviors - identifying yourself as such is sure to thrust you into the spotlight. Much of the fight has been live-streamed and so your great bravery or cowardice is public knowledge.

Deeper inside headquarters, blue-skinned representatives from the underwater nation of ATLANTIS are shouting at suited lawyers. The kaijuu blood in the water has made their home largely uninhabitable, and the combat has destroyed much of it. Are they going to get the same rescue that the surface world did? You’re welcome to volunteer to visit the rubble that was once their Antarctic settlement and rescue the seal-like selkies from the bloodied water.

IN SUMMARY...

Giant monsters have appeared. Their mere presence is warping reality. Smaller clones of them are heading towards coastal cities.

The heroes of this world are no match for it. The government has chosen to enact the Godfall Protocols Act, meaning all metahumans are expected to report in to stop a potential apocalypse. Not everyone has to go and pilot the robot, others can stay to defend the cities from any potential dangers.

Player characters will be hopping in giant robots designed for two or more pilots. They can read each other's minds to operate in perfect sync. An unintended side-effect is memory sharing. You can get lost in these memories. Any action taken in memory will be replicated by the giant robot.

After the defeat of these monsters, everyone is brought back to Guild HQ for a heroes welcome. You can sign up for your character delivering a final blow here.

If you want your character to protest the Godfall Protocols and/or to try to disrupt anything going on, please report your actions here.
The Atlantean people are begging for help as the robots have destroyed their Arctic cities and the blood in the water has harmed their selkie civilians. Player characters can go search for these selkies. Please report selkie rescues here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Strategy Meeting

[ As much as she'd love to get a look inside the schematics of a giant robot, a computer science undergrad isn't technically qualified to mess with the inner workings of a Jaeger. That said, Doreen has super strength and is extremely qualified to do some heavy lifting. She's all over the place, carrying an absurd amount of heavy equipment and spare Jaeger parts over her shoulders, with extra tools curled into her tail. She's even wearing a welding mask, partly for the look of things, and partly because she can actually help out with welding if she needs to.

If you requested any parts or equipment - or hell, just a bottle of water - she'll pop up next to you (even on the scaffolding, she's a great climber!) with a grin, looking slightly out of breath. ]

Hey there! You needed this?

During the Action

[ As much as Doreen wishes they could talk things out and negotiate with the small-fry Kaiju, find some common ground and come to an understanding, well... these guys aren't listening, there's no time, and sometimes in an intense crisis situation, you just have to punch. The squirrel army is on standby back in the city, in case these guys make it into town and they need to do some civilian search-and-rescue with some demolished buildings, but hopefully it won't come to that.

Doreen throws herself into the assignment with gusto, leaping at the smaller small-fry kaiju, using her claws and knuckle-spikes to climb up their craggy backs Shadow of the Colossus-style (their hides are too thick for her to pierce, so no worries about psychedelic kaiju blood) and then trying to KO them with a full-strength punch to the head. Her success rate is about 50/50, Doreen spends half her time getting tossed into the ocean or onto the docks, but she always bounces back.

Want to lend a hand? She's always down for a team-up! ]

Aftermath

[ Ooookay, the fight is done, and she... she needs a breather. Yeah. Doreen is drenched and pretty banged up, and while there's some blood on her hands from the knuckle-spikes, none of it is kaiju-blood. She's just gonna sit on the docks for a while to catch her breath before she heads to the medic tent to get some disinfectant and bandages, if anyone needs her for Atlantis clean-up, it'll have to be after she's had a nap! ]

[Otto, for his part, is completely fine! While he'd joined the repair crews teleporting in and out of various robots, that role mostly kept him out of the fighting proper. By the time he was needed, the damage had already been done. A part of him wonders if he might not have done more good elsewhere - he can fight, even if he doesn't enjoy it. But he's not a superhero or a solider, he's a scientist. There's nothing wrong with acting like one, right?

He's lingering now to help with the clean-up. The actuators were specifically designed to handle dangerous materials, and now there's plenty of that floating around. But, seeing a familiar head of red hair sitting on the docks, he decides he can take a short breather. She may hear him coming before she sees him. Walking on the actuators is a luxury he rarely allows himself, as worried as he usually is about scaring people, but he's definitely overdone it with his back today. Frankly, he needs the help.]

Squirrel Girl. [It sounds ridiculous, he has an expression like he feels ridiculous saying it, but she's in costume and Otto does understand the importance of these things. So "Squirrel Girl" it is.] Is everything alright?

[ Yeah, she definitely hears that clanking approach. Doreen pauses in the middle of wringing out her tail and gives Otto a wave. She looks... well, okay, she looks like she spent half the afternoon fighting monsters the size of small houses, and the other half fighting the ocean (there's still some kelp sticking to her boots). Tired and banged up, but not injured, apart from some light bruises and torn leggings. ]

Hey Otto! It's all good, I'm just taking a breather before heading back, and...

[ ... and then she notices that she's been waving at him with a hand that still has it's claws fully extended, including the solid three inches of triangular bone sticking out over the bridge of her knuckles, which are still crusted with blood from popping the spikes out in the first place, and Otto's a worrier, which means.. yeah, it's probably time to do some damage control. ]

... Don't worry, that's not kaiju blood, it's mine! Wait, no, that sounds worse. It's fine! It's just the knuckle spikes, I haven't retracted them yet because I want to put some disinfectant on 'em first. I'm good!

...did you always have those?

[If she'd had them extended during that ghost fight, he hadn't noticed. Probably because her arms were just entirely coated in ectoplasm!

He takes a few actuator-aided steps closer - Doreen has him pegged, he is a worrier. But she truly doesn't look injured aside from her knuckles. Where, he guesses, she'd had to pierce through her own skin to extend those spikes. Otto's not squeamish; if he ever was, he lost it when he had to treat the electrical burns spreading over half his body all on his own. Still, he doesn't like that mental picture.]

Let me get you something. It'll be faster than standing in that line.

Oh, yeah, the knuckle spikes are a thing, I just don't use 'em on the regular. They're good for climbing, though. The claws are great for climbing trees and opening pop cans.

[ She flexes her fingers and retracts her regular claws, which go back to looking like fingernails, and then carefully stands to her feet, flicking the last of the water out of her tail. Oof, she's definitely gonna be sore in the morning. ]

... Wait, that's nice of you to offer, but won't you just be standing in line then? Do you have disinfectant in your pockets or something?

No, but I'm starting to think I should.

[This is pretty low-grade, as far as these things go, but Otto still remembers Spider-Man showing up with that bullet wound. What on earth would he have done if he hadn't found that first-aid kit? Maybe he could build some compartments for emergency supplies into the actuators? They're already bulky as it is, though...

Something to think on later. For now, he rises up on the actuators again.]

Don't worry about it, I'll be right back.

[He's got a very long reach. He was not actually planning on waiting in line!]

Hey, wait, are you... are you cutting in line?!

[ WHO KNEW THAT THIS WOULD BE THE BEGINNING OF OTTO OCTAVIUS'S DESCENT BACK INTO SUPERVILLAINY...!

... then again, it's arguably for a good cause? Kinda? That probably makes it okay in the long run! ]

... Could you also grab some bandages, or like, really big band-aids?

It's for a good cause!

[He calls back over his shoulder! Yes, he's cutting in line! Or snaking his way in there to grab some supplies, at least - the way he figures it, she would have gotten them anyway. This only saves some time.

It's just a minute before he returns, everything held neatly in one big claw.]

Do you want me to do it?

[He doesn't think she'll be able to bandage her own hands very effectively, but for all he knows she's got a little medic squirrel somewhere in there.]

I can handle the disinfectant, but it'd be great if you could help with the bandages. Usually Tippy would do it, but she's stationed in town with the rest of the gang right now.

[ Her best squirrel friend is absolutely not participating in any kaiju fights, especially not near the ocean!

She takes the bottle of disinfectant, and after a moment's hesitation, just pours some over each of the spikes in turn before quickly retracting them with a wince. ]

Frig dangit that stuff stings I hate that part!

[ That's honestly the closest she gets to swearing. ]

... Okay. Okay, I'm good. Bandages are go.

[Otto watches this display with amusement.]

You really do have a squirrel doctor! [He'll take her hand and start wrapping up her knuckles. He's practiced at simple first aid like this by now.] Well, I'm glad you have someone. I've had to patch myself up, it's never fun. And the actuators have a horrible bedside manner.

Yeah, Tippy's the best. She doesn't have a license, but she's great with bandages.

[ This is said with a fond grin. They've been together since Doreen was a teenager, and they've been through a lot! ]

Back home, Nancy would help out too, but... [ but if she thinks about her best human friend she's gonna get homesick again, so NOPE ] yeah, very glad we're not doing this alone. I'm surprised at the actuators though! They're all business, huh?

They're nothing but.

[Otto frowns, remembering that machine-like focus. If he listened to them now, would they still be pushing for the reactor to be rebuilt, even two universes and several months later? He expects so; it was their purpose.

He doesn't want to think about this now.]

I'm glad to have picked up that much first aid, in any case. It's come in handy. The last Spider-Man showed up here with a bullet wound in his side.

[ ... Whoops, feels like that might've struck a nerve. Good time for a subject change, even if it's a grim one! ]

He what?! Oh my god! Was he okay? I mean, probably, I can guess as much from the context, but did he get to a hospital or something?

[ It's hard to imagine Spider-Man getting shot. The one from her universe is... ok, she isn't sure how old he is, but he's been webslinging since Doreen was a kid. Hell, she had Spider-Man merch growing up. She knows logically that he's just a dude, but someone like that can't just get shot! Does he even have a healing factor? ]

Doreen Green | MCU | ota!

aftermath

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

strategy meeting

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

During the Action

never before has this icon been so relevant

I aim to please

no subject

no subject

no subject