Can You Do It In The Dark?

[frenchkissed]

Who: Eddie Brock frenchkissed, Peter Parker tinglesense, and you!
What: Meddling kids lead to an entire city of people losing their powers.
When: Jul 20 — Jul 31
Where: Excelsior!
Content Warnings: Potential violence, identity issues
Opt-Out: Don’t be in Excelsior during this event!

CAN YOU DO IT IN THE DARK?

An investigation headed by Eddie Brock and Peter Parker results in not only a city-wide blackout, but hundreds of metahumans losing their powers!

In the days that follow, those affected by the blast will be forced to contend with what it means to exist without their powers. All the while, bad guys will be looking to take advantage of the situation and move in on vulnerable areas within Excelsior. People who are used to relying on their abilities will need to find new ways to fight back.

In the end, all powers are restored, but not without some hijinks along the way.

RUMOR MILL —

Everyone loves a good urban legend. There's the story of Bloody Mary, the vanishing hotel room, the one about the tall, slender man who dresses in a tuxedo, that story about the abandoned bunker beneath Excelsior that no one can get into, the one filled with untold riches and gold... Naturally, some stories are more far-fetched than others. Some die off as whispers in the night, while others get entire forums dedicated to them. Leave it to bored teens take it upon themselves to go urban exploring in the dead of night, or hokey paranormal YouTube reporters saying they've found the clue that everyone's been missing.

Maybe you even went poking around yourself, having caught wind of these rumors and wanting to see the land of legends for yourself.

Unfortunately, most hunts lead to dead ends and boring drives home. There's nothing to see, really. The bunker doesn't even exist. It's all just a thrilling goose chase to pass a boring evening.

...

But if it did exist, shouldn't something more practical than a mountain of gold lie inside? Eddie Brock seemed to think so.

If nothing else, these rumors sure are a conversation starter.

Stranger Than Fiction

Unsurprisingly, like most rumors, there's a hint of truth to this bunker of gold story. With Spider-Man's technomancy powers and Eddie's investigative prowess, the two are able to find the source of all these rumors. There's no untold riches, but there is a treasure trove of strange, old technology.

However, investigating this space quickly goes awry when Peter's technomancy accidentally brings something to life.

Upon being powered on, a machine rapidly begins draining the power from the city. One by one, skyscrapers flicker out, televisions go dark, refrigerators stop humming. The entire city is steadily plunged into darkness, silence. Like with most power outages, most wait for the lights to flick back to life. Here, there's no such luck. Waiting for things to right themselves won't yield any results.

Once that realization sets in, it might be best to help those who really need it. Beyond the crying, frightened children and the teens who can't bear to part with their computers, there are those for whom the darkness holds unseen terrors. Be there for those in need, for those afraid of the dark, for those who've gotten separated from their families and can't find their way back on their own.

No power also means no computer systems, which means no credit cards. And who carries cash these days? No, in times like this, it makes sense to go back to the old bartering system.

Someone on the street is hawking four flashlights and a can opener in exchange for some batteries. Someone else is looking for what he can get for two cans of tuna and a roll of dimes. Get in there and make a deal!

Or... you could get in with the good crowd and begin looting stores. But, no, you're heroes! You should stop the looters! Ignore that little voice telling you otherwise. Instead, join up with those organizing shelters for everyone and working to get people out of the city as quickly as possible.

I Don't Want To Be You...

Just as people are beginning to work through this city-wide blackout, the real trouble begins. Not long after this loss of power comes, well, a loss of powers. All the juice in the city has to be used to fuel up something. Instead of a super-mega death ray, or some other magnificent murder device, the machine in question sucks away superpowers.

Metahuman abilities, extraordinary talents, basically, anything that makes a metahuman different from their average human counterpart, is drained away and trapped within. Of all the devices for Spider-Man to stumble into...

How this power loss manifests varies from person to person.

A keen observer might notice the correlation between someone's emotional attachment to their powers and just how difficult it is for them to be taken away. Someone who has a strong connection to their powers, for example, might go through immense pain when it comes to losing them. On the other hand, someone who never wanted powers in the first place might not even realize they've lost their abilities until it's too late.

Like the power outage before it, simply waiting for your abilities to return to you won't be enough. Even if you leave the city premises, your powers won't return to you. For all intents and purposes, this is who you are now.

Punch, Kick, Bite... Fight!

What better time to contemplate your identity without your powers than in the face of danger? Ne'er-do-wellers exist in all shapes and sizes, and some take it upon themselves to take advantage of this chaos. While powers might have been the preferred method for taking care of trouble, knives, fists, and guns still work just fine. Hoodlums and robbers roam the streets, wielding all sorts of makeshift weapons. They'll corner anyone in an attempt to see what they can get.

Chief among these miscreants are Lola and the Gang, a once quiet gang of Pink Lady and Greaser-types armed with brass knuckles, switchblades, and cigarettes.

Chances are you'll smell their brand of smokes before you see them rolling up six deep and ready to brawl. Hand over everything you own and they'll leave you be, but put up any resistance and it's time to scrap.

Of course, you could try to talk your way out of this, but their patience for talking is small enough to flip your lid. So make like a tree, and get to fightin'.

Even if you don't encounter them, there's no telling what number of con artists, thieves, jokers, and jesters you'll encounter. Be sure to keep your wits about you!

Topsy-Turvy

With the recent spur of Confluences, more metas have made their home in this world than those who crafted this device had ever accounted for.

Eventually, both in part to a team of dedicated scientists and due to the device's own shortcomings, the device containing all of the powers in Excelsior will combust. Powers, neatly contained like orbs, are sent bursting through the sky on their hunt for their rightful owners.

These orbs, somehow, know where they're meant to go. They're far from sentient, but they know their homes and they know they're meant to be there.

Things rarely go as planned, however, and these power orbs are eager to get into anybody, or any body, they see. Once they're free, chances are you won't make it far without taking an orb straight to the chest. Within moments, the new power is absorbed into your body and, congrats, you're now capable of super sonic hearing! Or acid spit! Or the ability to have pockets that never get full! Who knows what you might end up with.

Along with the new dose of powers comes an image of their rightful owner, something that the orbs brings along with them—a mental portrait of someone you may or may not have met before. You could do the right thing and help these wayward powers get to the right person, or you can take your new abilities for a spin and try your hand at being a god for a day.

Be careful, however, because these powers won't stick around for long. They've got a home to get to! The last thing someone needs is to try out their new flight abilities only to lose them mid-air.

AFTERMATH —

With the device in shambles, power steadily returns to the city and, though it may take some time, all superpowers end up returning to the right people. There's no clear indication of who this technology belonged to or what its original purpose was, but surely Reddit, Facebook, and Conspiracy!YouTube will be in a tizzy trying to figure it out.

IN SUMMARY...

• Peter and Eddie stumble onto a device that wipes the city of its power and all metaheroes within it of their superhero abilities.


• During the blackout, gangs attempt to take hold of the city.


• Those who leave the city will not regain their powers, but those who enter the city will lose them. Eddie and Peter will also be asking for help from any mech-heads, scientists, tech specialists, and anyone else who might know how to turn off the machine.


• When the machine is destroyed, powers don't immediately go to their rightful owner. Characters might cycle through as many as ten different powers before their rightful abilities are returned to them.


• Ask any questions here!

Comments

Questions!

[frenchkissed]

Post questions here!

Re: Questions!

[portolan]

Do magical items retain their powers? Balthier has a uh whole store of those.

Re: Questions!

[slowmotionbuscrash]

Is the power drain continual or a one off? IE if Tommy isn’t in Excelsior when it happens, but heads there afterwards? If it something that will continue draining for hours or days, or is it missable?

[helpdesk_hero]

Regarding the topsy-turvy powers I've got two questions.

1. Is it possible for people to get only part of another person's powers. David's got multiple powers, so would it be possible for one person to experience say his technopathy and another person run into his energy projection or one of the two aspects of his psychic powers?

2. Can characters experience random powers that we handwave as NPC hero/villain powers?

[doctopoda]

Having shit welded to your body isn't really a superpower, right?

Tech Team Sign-Up!

[frenchkissed]

If your character wants to be involved in undoing this mess, respond here! Scientists, tech nerds, and mechanics are wanted in particular, but anyone can sign up to try to turn the machine off and get things in order!

Re: Tech Team Sign-Up!

[codicies]

Around day 3 or so Dylan will be coming into Excelsior with a backpack full of supplies & improvised weapons to find his dad. He won't be much help as far as tech goes but he'll make a fine gofer if you need someone to scavenge for parts & supplies.

[tinglesense]

Obviously Peter is a big part of heading this up since his techno powers are in tact, but he's not powerful enough on his own to take out the machine or this wouldn't have happened PLEASE HELP HIM

Re: Tech Team Sign-Up!

[somepig]

Signing up Spider-Ham for this.

[planetary_bonds]

Yusei was definitely watching Eddie's stream, so he's definitely going to attempt helping out! He's an excellent mechanic if you need him to build something on the fly with what you have, but you might also catch him slipping some of his blood into things - he's trying to see if his shiny momentum blood powers might be able to be used to hold things together until the actual power can come back on.

[doctopoda]

Given their conversation on the stream, Otto is absolutely on his way to help fix this pretty much from the outset! He's obviously got a lot of engineering and A.I.-related credentials, and also will presumably be keeping his robot arm shit since them being gone might make his nervous system collapse? So he might be one of the most capable people left in dealing with anything dangerous.

[nerdylilspidey]

Yet another Spider down to help out, if more folks are still needed!

Dylan Brock

[codicies]

(this is all intro, you can skip this part and go right to the prompts if you want)

[ Whatever had happened in Excelsior, Eddie was stuck in the middle of it — and Venom was radio silent.

Dylan had been in a similar situation before, when he'd watched Knull throw his dad off a skyscraper on live television. He'd been locked away in a bunker then. This time, Dylan wasn't going to sit around.

"you know what fuck this. i'm coming to find you."

Eddie hadn't been discreet about his research on the bunker, and by snooping in his room Dylan managed to piece together its approximate location & where its entrance might be. He'd still have to do some walking and exploring, but he knew the general area where he'd have to look.

Dylan took the day to prep. Back home, when he was locked in Rex's bunker, there hadn't been much to do but read, and there had been more than a few survival guides. From the sounds of it, crime had spiked, meaning it'd be harder to come by things like food, water, and first aid supplies, among other things.

He still had that credit card, and Little Love had a hunting supply store that suited his needs just fine. Except they wouldn't sell him a gun.

So after his shopping trip, he scoured the farm for things he could use as weapons. He settled on a sickle, a machete, and a baseball bat.

Dylan was awake for a good chunk of the night, but eventually managed to sleep for a couple hours. And early on the second morning of the blackout, he activated his teleporter to take him into the city. ]

Prompts for encountering this scrappy-looking kid:

A: Early morning in Excelsior —

[ Dylan had expected his powers to disappear once the teleporter blipped him within city limits.

He hadn't expected it to hurt so much.

Suddenly it was like every muscle in his body got a charlie horse all at once, and it took all his strength not to immediately collapse into the street. He leaned heavily on his baseball bat like a can, wincing as he managed to limp himself into an alleyway between two apartment buildings where he could safely collapse to his knees behind a dumpster. He leaned back against the brick building, taking steadying breaths as he tried to wait for... whatever this was to pass.

He bites his tongue to keep quiet, but a few soft whimpers still escape. ]

B: Midday, on a nearly empty street —

[ It wasn't lost on Dylan that a kid running around with a backpack, a bat, and farming tools was conspicuous as hell, so he opted to try and stay out of sight as he searched for the entrance to the bunker. As he searched, a voice suddenly caught his attention. ]

"Not so tough without your powers now, huh?"

[ Dylan peeks out from the alleyway he'd ducked into. A group of tough-looking guys with knives are huddled around... someone, Dylan can't see who, but they've got the person backed up to a wall. The guy who looks to be the ringleader continues speaking. Mystery victim is clearly getting jumped.

While they're occupied, Dylan could take this opportunity to dart down the street without them seeing him.

But, well...

A Brock is a Brock, after all.

Dylan hides his backpack under a pile of garbage, then grips his baseball bat tightly as he charges for the ringleader and cracks him square on the back of the head. With a cry, the guy falls to his knees, dropping his knife and bringing his hands behind his head in pain. The other greasers all turn to glare at Dylan in fury, brandishing their own weapons. They're all taller than he is.

Dylan grips the bat tighter and takes a fighting stance. ]

(ooc: feel free to take control of the greasers in your own tag)

C: Afternoon, elsewhere in the city —

[ Lunch break! Dylan's got a meal replacement bar & a bottle of water. He's relaxing on a bench under an awning, one strap of his backpack wrapped around an arm as the rest of it rests beside him on the bench.

He spots someone down the street a ways. They're a little too far to see clearly, but it doesn't look like they're doing too hot.

Dylan reaches into his backpack, pulling out another bar and gesturing with it in the person's general direction. ]

Hey! You hungry?

D: Evening, underground, close to Ground Zero —

[ The day had been long, exhausting, and so far fruitless. Dylan's hot and sweaty, and the bandages on his hands & arms from an earlier fight are already starting to slip off. He'd found a few underground tunnel locations, but none of them seemed to be the right one, and it's looking more and more like he won't find the bunker today.

It's getting late. At least Dylan could probably take shelter down here. Just gonna explore a little farther.

His footsteps are wet little slaps on the damp floor, echoing in all directions, until... is there another sound?

Dylan stops. Somewhere in the distance he could hear voices. ]

Hello? Is anyone down here?

E: Wildcard

[ Supply your own starter! ]

D

[doctopoda]

[Oh, there certainly is another sound.

The heavy slamming of the actuators into the packed-earth floor of the tunnel is loud and fast, quite the din in these echoing tunnels. Otto's moving as quickly as he can go, for once with no regard for not looking like a rampaging supervillain. It's dark and sweltering, the city is already in chaos, and he still hasn't managed to locate Peter and Eddie. He needs to find them.

It's hard to hear much over the sound of his own movements, but he does pick up on a voice - not quite close, but nearby. The thudding noises stop immediately.]

Who's there?

[Here in the dark, Otto can see well enough through his cameras. The only lights currently on his person are those of the actuators themselves, two bright white points hovering high in the darkness.]

lunch break!

[eatsnutsandkicksbutts]

[ Doreen's still pretty unsteady on her feet; she didn't think that a missing tail would impact her balance this much, but it turns out that losing a dozen vertebrae in one go can really mess you up! She's wobbling her way down the sidewalk when she spots Dylan, and his offer makes her grin, albeit lopsidedly. ]

Actually, yeah, that would be awesome if you don't mind. Trade you for some trail mix? I've got a bit left.

[ She reaches into her utility belt, and pulls out a handful of mixed nuts and pretzels from one of the pockets. There are some dusty, crumbly bits in there that suggest she's near the end of her supply. ]

Peter Parker | MCU | ota

[tinglesense]

LOSS OF POWERS - CLOSED to Eddie Brock

Early on, after the chaos of losing power and then losing powers, Peter finds himself alone. He knows he should go back and try to work on the machine, get to to turn off, all of that. But for now, he has other things to worry about, too.

His Spider-Man powers aren't working, which is annoying as hell, but he can use the webs. Only…this is a total miscalculation. He doesn't have the right combination of strength and flexibility to do this. Not far into the swing, he loses control of it and has to let go. Unfortunately for him, he's really high up into the arc when this happens, and it sends him into freefall. HELP.

PUNCH, KICK, BITE…FIGHT?

Peter is well aware that he doesn't have the right power set to be out here fighting crime. But he can't get over the feeling that he should be helping. This is his fault, after all; he's the one that woke up the machine in the first place.

Leave it to people to be without power for like a day before they start acting like jerks, huh?

So either way, Spider-Man is out here trying to stop a couple looters. No big deal, right? Except…he has no powers to fall back on, no fast reflexes, no tingle thing, no nothing. Well, he can still fire webs, since that's all tech anyway.

But he's completely out of his depth, even with only two people up against him. He takes a hit to the face because he gauges his reaction time wrong and everything seems dizzy.

Help a guy out?

TOPSY TURVY

Losing his powers was excruciating, and he can still feel something like a physical pain in their absence. And the orb that settled into his chest? Well, it did something. It takes him awhile to figure it out.

First, there's the double thing. Another Spider-Man appears, faint but sure, running off in another direction. Peter can't get a handle on it (but it's an illusion; it can't physically interact with other people).

"Whoa, what?"

The other thing is that sometimes, this new ability — the ability to affect others' perception — can cause other people to not see him. So then he's invisible. Only how does he turn that feature off?! He's not sure.

So you may see either Peter or Spider-Man just POOF pop back into visible/noticeable existence only a few feet away!

DESTROYING THE MACHINE

[ I don't have a specific prompt here, but if you're on the team that is helping destroy the machine, feel free to have a convo with Peter about it here! He never loses his technomancy powers, so he's helping take this thing out, since…you know, he's the one that accidentally woke it up!

Also feel free to just throw a wildcard at me or find me on plurk at boywonder if you want to hash something out o7 ]

[frenchkissed]

The world is falling apart around him and, yeah, now would be a really, really good time for Venom to come out of hiding. Eddie doesn't feel him lying dormant in his bones, or coiling around in the squishy spaces between his liver and his lungs. He doesn't feel Venom at all.

And, look, Eddie is sorry about all the times he called Venom a parasite. And all the times he said he looked 'too gooey'. And the times he refused to let Venom eat the neighbors. He's taking all of that back, every single comment, because there's some dude falling out of the sky, and he could really use some help here, bud.

Nope? Nothing?

God, okay, Eddie's just going to have to do his best on his own. Which means hurling his body forward like a linebacker and positioning himself to catch the twink hurling towards the ground. He's not a physics major, but weight times gravity equals a bad time for him, and breaking Peter's fall means getting hit with a metric ton of weight, which sends him to the ground.

Landing on a squishy dude has got to be better than landing on the ground. If Peter ignores the groaning, he might be able to see that there's really not much of a difference.

"...Ow..."

Eddie Brock + Venom

[frenchkissed]

( prompts will be here as they come to me. if you have anything you'd like to do specifically, you can PM me or reach out on plurk! )

OTA!

[frenchkissed]

Throwdown

( eddie's stumbling around the heart of the city because everything is a mess right now and he really, really needs to pull it together. his mind is about in a million places at once. he can't feel venom, he can't feel his toes, and there are so many people running and bumping into him that he can't get his thoughts together. what he needs is a quiet place to just sit and think. he needs to think of a way to fix all of this, and help people, and contact smart people who're probably way more qualified to fix a giant, super, mega, soul-stealing machine than he is.

before he can act on anything, he just needs to sit down and make a plan.

so, looking for any sort of refuge, he tucks himself into an empty alley by the dying light of his mostly broken cell phone and he sits on a fire escape with his head in his hands. no, he's not panicking. he's just... thinking... loudly... with a lot of weird breathing. )

A real tough guy, huh?

( eddie looks up at the gang approaching and then around at the empty alley. like, yeah, he's the only one here, but he doesn't know what would have given them that impression; he couldn't look less tough right now if he tried.

this is how he's going to get his ass kicked? like this? now? here? really? )

Street Vendor

( out of one mess and into another, eddie finds himself back in the thick of things when he decides that it's actually sort of important that he have a phone right now. his is all but destroyed by now, and he'd settle for a payphone, honestly, if those were still a thing.

so he asks someone to borrow their phone, and they ask how much it means to him. eddie's got a pocket full of paper clips, shreds of loose-leaf papers, and some gum. that's not much to anyone. he's got his shoes, and those are worth a little more. trading his shoes, his literal shoes, for one phone call is a little steep, but desperate times, desperate measures.

later, he's going to approach someone in an attempt to remedy this. )

Yeah, weird question, but you wouldn't happen to have... like, shoes, would you? Spare shoes?

( and, god, what's he going to have to trade for those? will you accept payment in gum? )

Mo' Powers, Mo' Problems

( just when the machine is destroyed and eddie believes that things can finally go back to normal, he finds that, a, venom is still nowhere to be seen, b, he's taken an orb straight the chest that sent him flying, and, c, metal is following him. all metals. weird metals. water bottles, soda cans, strangers' cell phones, batteries, knives—which he had to duck for, because that one almost took out his eye. he can't seem to avoid the way his skin is apparently magnetized, which is a nightmare. it has to be the least useful power he's ever seen. )

No, oh my God. Stop. Stop. Stay... Stay. Right there. Stay.

( no, not you. he's talking to the trash can that's been following him for half a block now. with some focus and skill, he'd might be able to turn this power into something pretty incredible. instead, he's talking to garbage.

alternatively, maybe you find that you're also drawn to him. not you, really, but the metal inside of you. braces, piercings, the metal caps on your fillings, all of it being pulled towards eddie without his knowledge. it's unfortunate. how does he stop this— )

B Sides

( eddie is off having his own fun adventures, meanwhile venom gets trapped an orb for a week only to go flying into some random stranger's body by the end of it. he's not happy. being trapped in a machine was terrible, and now being in some random idiot's head is also terrible. no offense, random idiot. )

who the hell are you?!

( he could begin the process of bonding by drilling himself into this person's brain, but he's going to try to keep it surface-level for as long as he can. by their nature, symbiotes bond, but bonding with someone incompatible to them is deadly, and venom should probably avoid murder for as long as he can. still, so long as venom is with you, you've got access to all sorts of cool things. but you also have a cantankerous alien in your brain complaining about anything and everything. )

Sephiroth | OTA

[unkindled_madness]

I. Power loss
[Sephiroth has not spent a great deal of time in Excelsior, but he knows at least one person here to whom he needs to make amends, of a sort. Well, he doesn't feel he owes an apology for anything done by a person who wasn't really him, but if there was more stabbing, that could be detrimental to a friendship.

He's still in the streets when the power first goes out, but it doesn't alarm him. Midgar had its power outages, too, from time to time, and anyway he can see well enough in the dark.

But when the machine comes for his powers? That's a different story. He isn't even aware of all of them, but some of them are so intrinsic to his identity that he's used them in subtle ways for years without ever realizing it. Having them torn from him is quite probably the most physically painful thing he's ever experienced. It overwhelms his senses, and he would have collapsed if there weren't a wall nearby for him to crash into instead.

As it passes, anyone observing him, or who's seen him before, might notice that his face looks... a little different. There's nothing drastic, and it would be hard to describe, but something about his features is just a little off. A little plainer, maybe. Less like his mother, though he wouldn't know it.]


II. What are colds?
[Whatever's happened to him, leaving the city does not prove an effective way of curing it, so Sephiroth opts to return, reasoning he'll find the cause somewhere. He needs to restore himself to normal, and he intended to be diligent to that end.

What he hadn't counted on was exactly how abnormal this experience would be for him. A few days into this, and he's... not doing well. His body feels so much weaker than he's accustomed to, not just in terms of physical strength, but his endurance is shot. He doesn't bother to sleep the first night, and it leaves him exhausted. He's developed... a runny nose?? And for some reason, he's growing stubble for the first time in his life. He doesn't understand that.

Moreover, he's not a man of material wants, so he has nothing on him worth bartering. He isn't a hero, he has no moral reservations about theft if it suits him, but the handful of thieves picking over the corner store don't seem appreciative of an obvious meta moving into their territory.]

I don't care what you're doing, I just want something to eat.

[He's still a big man, but he'd probably cut a more intimidating figure if he were armed. Or if he didn't sneeze immediately after this statement. Does he really have to fight these people for soup?]

((Feel free to hit me up at yinza if you'd like to plot anything more specific!))

II - They're A Virus Of Course

[helpdesk_hero]

[The city has been... strange since the power went out. For a bit David had floundered about things, broken down by the pain and grief of losing himself again. But that sort of thing, especially with Laurie to help him stay sane, hadn't stopped him from acting. In the end, David knew just how to deal with emergency logistics.

What did it say about the lives of mutants that he knew so well what to do with emergency logistics? Probably not a lot of good things about the history of mutant kind, actually. But hey, you dealt with what you had to deal with. And you kept moving. Which, in this case meant getting supplies.

And getting supplies meant the corner store. He'd pay them back later. He wasn't entirely expecting the thieves though. Nor was he expecting to come in behind a familiar, silver haired form. One that made him jumpy.]

If I were you, I'd give him something. Easier than starting a fight.

[Physically David looks fine when he steps in through the open doorway. Hell, he looks like he's taken everything here in stride, just walking in the streets like your usual between classes young college professor, with the button up and the tie, and the slacks. Better, he'd found, to be underestimated.]

I'll say please if you want.

David Alleyne | OTA

[helpdesk_hero]

I - I Don't Want To Be You | Closed to Laurie

Life comes at you from out of nowhere sometimes. Sometimes it comes for someone is hanging out in the kitchen of one of their best friends, working together on a meal and chatting about the awkwardness of ending up randomly assigned to living with an ex-maybe-boyfriend who maybe someone broke the heart of. Sometimes it comes with the lights flickering out and the fridge making a pathetic noise as it dies in the middle of a cooling cycle and...

And pain lances over and through David, agony like being torn in ways he doesn't know how to put into words. Maybe there aren't words for it. Last time, because in the moments after he will realize there was a last time, he'd slept through the loss. Last time it hadn't hurt. This time David was lucky enough to drop the knife he was chopping with on the counter before he fell to his knees from the pain. No, not from the pain. From the void.

From the emptiness.

"No," he voice said, cracking, panicking, "no, not again."

II - Stranger Than Fiction | OTA

Disasters happen. This is a fact of life that happens in worlds with superheroes. No one has to like it, but they have to accept that sometimes this happens. This was one of those time.

At least David knew what to do in disasters. Once his head was on straight he'd done the only thing that felt right. He'd gone quickly home, gathered what emergency supplies he had available to him, and made for the streets. People needed help, and organizing folks was something David was used to. How that had turned into him helping to manage a shelter set up in the ground floor lobby of one of the high rise businesses in town he didn't know. Perhaps it was confidence in the face of an emergency and not having his phone available.

The calm was why he was put in the front actually, by the fading light of day, to help organize new arrivals.

"Hey," he said, raising his head as someone came in. Given they were between him and the setting sun it wasn't easy to tell who it was. Could it be a new arrival? Someone in need of medical care or food? Or just one of the others that had been helping at the shelter back from a supply run? He couldn't even tell.

"Hold on, I can barely see you. Who is it?"

III - Topsy Turvy | OTA

There are lights in the sky. Beautiful lights, like roving orbs meant to mimic the stars perhaps. It's been a long fucking bit of time since the lights went out, since the void came and took back over that place in David's chest, the place he could feel his powers. So much had happened, was happening. Excelsior, the city of technology, of light, brought down low. And now, above it all, were orbs of light.

David, out looking for more medical supplies, was moved to stop and stare. Stop, and stare, and try to duck away when one of the orbs started to sink toward him and then darted right for his chest. He cursed, trying to dodge, only to be struck by it, even as he unwittingly barreled right into someone. His whole body felt like it was briefly on fire as he tripped and started to fall. Well hell, what a night this was turning out to be.

[Topsy-Turvy OOC: List of David's powers you could get is here, including getting psychometry and psychomimetry separately. Message me if you have questions/ideas. Psychometry is likely to overwhelm someone without mental shields because literally everything they are touching would give them knowledge, clothes included.

Otherwise feel free to reach out to me at churbooseanon to plot something more specific.]

I (obvi).

[fridgeflower]

Laurie (a not-great cook) is doing her part by rinsing vegetables, and she curses as the lights go out, reaching up to turn off the taps with a frustrated click of her tongue. She's about to find a rag to dry her hands, to figure out the next best course of action, when there's the clatter of the knife, and--

"David! Oh, my god."

She might reflect later that there is some weird ripple through things, but the phenomenon hits her more like anxiety than pain, and she can easily attribute that to her friend falling out in the middle of her kitchen. She rushes over, hand between his shoulders as she crouches down beside him. She assumes he's cut himself, naturally. Tough luck that Josh isn't home.

"Are you okay? Let me see."

clint barton | mcu | ota

[arrowsguy]

STRANGER THAN FICTION

( he's out when the city's suddenly plunged into darkness. it seems to happen so suddenly that clint doesn't even notice until he nearly walks into the darkened storefront that he was sure had just been lit up a few moments earlier.

he steps back and looks around, confusion sliding into concern almost immediately. )

Oh shit.

( there's a low rumble of chatter, of people realizing what's happened and he rubs at his ear like that's going to make it better. reaching into his pocket, he pulls out his keys and the small flashlight that someone once gave him as a prize for entering a sweepstakes back in new york and that he'd never used before.

he clicks it on and it works. )

Well, that's some luck. ( he turns the flashlight onto the street, finding people moving around. someone catches sight of his flashlight and they point at it.

how much you want for that? the man asks and clint looks down at this tiny flashlight and then back up. )

Uh, it's not for sale.

( kinda thinks he'll need it. the man scoffs and says give you fifty bucks for it. )

Oh man, come on. That's too much. Just — no, it's mine.

( the man scowls but does move away especially when clint reaches behind him when the man steps closer to him. )

Jesus, this is gonna be a good night.

PUNCH KICK BITE FIGHT

( he's had about five people try and buy his little piddly flashlight off him in the span of a few hours and each time, he's refused.

but when he turns the corner into a dark alley this time intending to cut through to try and see if he can find anyone that needs help, he runs right into a group of people that...probably don't need flashlights.

they're smoking, the light of their cigarettes illuminating their faces and clint just sighs because he knows this isn't going to be a good conversation. he clicks his flashlight off and puts it into his pocket. )

So, I suppose it's going to be too much for me to ask you all nicely to move aside so I can pass? Got no issues with you.

( they don't move, they don't let him pass. clint just sighs. )

Right.

( that's how it's going to be. he waits a second and when one of them makes the first move, he throws up an arm to block it and uses the momentum to send them into the wall, staggering one of them. the rest start to converge. )

All right, let's go then. Don't say I didn't warn you.

WILDCARD

( if you'd like to do something else that doesn't fit above, throw it at me! )

( punch kick bite fight )

[dothelokimotion]

[ from the shadows, a few knives hit the thugs with deadly aim. red eyes flash in the darkness, making them quiver. ]

I suggest you depart. Before I change my mind.

Balthier | Final Fantasy XII | OTA

[portolan]

I. Roguish Nature

[ Balthier has more or less been dealing with power loss since he got here. It’s been months since he grabbed for the Mist, but the sense that he’s something less here has never entirely left him. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t notice the last of his powers slipping away, especially since the dull headache that sits in their place could just as easily been from staying up all night to maintain a concealing illusion on the shop. The last thing he needs after the cauldron situation is thieves and idiot kids getting ahold of a storeroom of magical goods.

Then, somewhere around dawn, the illusions starts to flicker. He can tell because people start trying the door again. He tries calling it back up, but when he reaches into the place he finds his magic there's just -- nothing. Just to be sure, he attempts to throw his headache onto one of them. Nothing.

There are a few things he needs to see to, but after he heads home to regroup and eat, he'll emerge with a good-old-fashioned pirate gun from home and potions in his side bags. He's back in his outfit from home, something he's never worn here, but he could sure use the boost of confidence at skills he hasn't touched in months.

It doesn't take long before he comes on a gang of three or four assailants mugging someone. ]

Less than a day and the whole city thinks it's ready to play miscreant and rogue. The worst kind of theater.

II. ~Magical~ Dumpster Fire

[ No one from the guild ever came despite the plea he fired off before his phone died. Before he left, he did think to take magical items with him as a defense, but they were rapidly losing their powers too.

Still, pirate is as pirate does, and Balthier wasn't going to leave a room of formerly magical and alien items unguarded. Using good old-fashioned locks then a barricade of as much furniture as he could push in front of the door, he sealed the entrance to the storeroom before heading out.

In retrospect maybe not the best move, as he's now frantically trying to get the doors clear while dozens of power orbs swirl around. Some are impatient and going into the wrong objects, while others are flying in and out of him and whoever is trying to help.

He's successfully moving a heavy chest when an orb enters his chest from the back. ]

Scions, hells, and skies above, not now.

III. Wildcard

[ Feel free to throw something else at me, including power swap with Balthier, or hit me up on plurk if you want to discuss. portolan. As always will match brackets or prose. ]

shop

[doctopoda]

[Otto has seen Balthier since the blackout started. He knows he's doing about as well as can be expected. Still, it's been a couple of days and he happens to be in the neighborhood, so he decides to swing by and make sure the shop's still secure. Lots of crime on the street lately, after all.

There's a distant thudding noise as he makes his way down the street - something that Balthier may recognize after seeing Otto fight. He pauses outside where he knows the shop is, and peers up at what appears to be a completely unremarkable abandoned building.]

Balthier?

[He remembers the illusion powers, but where exactly was the door...? He reaches out to touch the wall, halfway just curious to see what that's like.]

[planetary_bonds]

i. barking up the wrong tree

[There's quite the collection of miscreants around a certain tree. They're sneering at something caught up in its branches, and picking up items that have apparently dropped from whatever it is.

There's...a boot? A wrench, and a screwdriver? A flashlight with something odd and shiny oozing from its battery port, and...a vial full of...

Rainbows? Huh?

Whatever the hell those things are, they're clearly being stolen. And the owner of those things is apparently what's in the tree. On closer look, it's a human body, draped over a branch at least six stories up. The clothes are covered in leaves, and there's several broken branches above them, like the person had fallen from above. It's draped across the branch so limply, like they're dead. How unfortunate.

...On even closer look, the person isn't dead. They're just sleeping.

Yusei, what the hell.]

ii. wake-up fight

[Okay. Okay. Yusei's awake. Somehow. And gotten back most(?) of his things? He doesn't really care about losing the boot that much, and he could probably get another screwdriver, but the rest of his things are slightly more important than that. But he's clearly looking like he'd drop asleep again at any moment, and his haggard, dishevelled appearance makes him look like an easy mark for even the most reluctant of looters.]

Heh. Well, aren't you down on your luck?

That's nothing new to me.

[Yusei, you barely look like you can throw a punch right now. Don't - Yusei, no. Somebody stop him.]

c. wildcard

[feel free to plot with me at emexceedschangezearu if you wanna, or come up with some funny powerless/powerswap shenanigans on your own! or if you want to join him in techsquad that's fine too.]

ii

[doctopoda]

[Otto's long since grown tired of trying to make himself seem normal and approachable. That's not helpful in this mess. So he's already walking along on the actuators, hovering somewhere around half-again his regular height. Seeing this going down, he slams one into the ground.]

That's enough. Move along.

Otto Octavius | OTA

[doctopoda]

i. blackout

[Otto is already on his way to the tunnels when the power goes out. It seems obvious that this is related to whatever Peter and Eddie ran into down there.

He spends a lot of the day down in the tunnels searching for them. But the city descends quite quickly into chaos, and Otto's a well-known meta in his neighborhood simply for how visible he is. People want his help. Very quickly, he ends up stuck in the streets instead. At least he's managed to turn this one street into a safe and organized zone - there's people gathering supplies together, others working to reunite separated families and tend to minor medical needs, and Otto himself at the heart of it, standing tall on two actuators to keep an eye on everything.

Seeing someone new enter the scene, he comes thudding over, lowering back down to the ground when he's a little closer. The bright white lights of his actuators are cranked up to full, acting as makeshift flashlights. They reflect coldly off his glasses.]

Do you need anything? Here, take some water.

[An actuator offers a water bottle!]

ii. the walrus

[Outside his tiny sphere of influence, though, there's much worse going on than lost children and a lack of air conditioning. 

Otto's gone out to try and prevent violence, mostly. Looting's less of a priority to him than the muggers. It's ugly, but it's also opportunistic; often, the mere sight of him is enough to frighten people off.

And then there's those like Otto himself - those with particularly stand-alone tech that they can rely on in a pinch like this. Those who aren't exactly using it as an opportunity to do good.

There's a jewelry store, its front window shattered. When Otto goes to check it out, a flash of blue light shoots out from inside the building, and suddenly one of his actuators is frozen to the ground, encased in a large chunk of ice.

The man who emerges is tall and broad, nearly a match for Otto himself. He's got a laser gun, a genuinely strange helmet with what looks like tusks on it, and an incredibly large and bushy mustache that sticks out from underneath it.]

This is my town now! With all you heroes depowered, it's time for the Walrus to ascend!

Oh, dear god.

[Otto tears first one actuator, then the other free of the ice. This is the dumbest thing he's ever seen? He's gonna fight this guy.]

Don't be ridiculous. Put that down and get out of here!

[And then the ice lasers start flying and the tentacles start tentacling! Probably a car is thrown. Get involved or get to cover!]

iii. spider-man, spider-man

[Otto barely noticed the absence of his own powers. They're meager; he so rarely uses his ability to camouflage anyway. But once he comes to understand the nature of the glowing balls floating around, he figures he'd better go out and try to locate his own.

Unfortunately, he's almost immediately impacted by one at complete random!]

Oh, that's...odd.

[He tries to take a step and stops up short. One of his lower actuators appears to be stuck to the ground.]

What...? 

[Trying to tug loose, he rips a chunk of concrete out of the sidewalk! He tries to pull it off his claw, and ends up getting it stuck to his hands instead. Oh god, why.]

iv. wildcard

(( hit me up at lluosogrwydd if you want to plot out something else! ))

i.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth isn't well-known here, but he is easily identifiable as a meta. It's not just the hair; his eyes are glowing faintly in the dark, and at least his night vision doesn't seem to have left him. He stares a little at Otto's approach, still unused to encountering others who stand out more than he does. Would you call the man inhuman, or are those some manner of prosthesis? They almost look like something Scarlet would design.

It's distracting enough he accepts the water without protest. Seems rude to ask straight out though.]

...things seem remarkably organized here.

Doreen Green | ota!

[eatsnutsandkicksbutts]

Power Loss - closed to Otto!

[ After that cryptic 'this is absolutely 100% about to turn into a horror movie' stream from Eddie, there was no way that Doreen wasn't gonna run to Excelsior and try to help out. The catch was that she had to pester Otto for a teleport pickup, because good intentions are one thing, but paying hundreds of dollars to fly cross country on a freelance programmer's budget is another!]

Yeah, but what I'm saying is that there is a non-zero chance that the underground mystery AI could be a giant robot dinosohmygod-!!

[ The power loss hits Doreen like a truck the second they teleport back - actually, no, she's been hit by a truck before, and this hurts more than that did. Her knees buckle, and in an instant her tail is gone, her buck teeth are normal length, she has fingernails instead of claws, and worst of all, the squirrel perched on her shoulder is just squeaking at her rather than actually voicing concern. The full horror of that will take a few minutes to sink in, but in the meantime Doreen's having a hard enough time just catching her breath and staying upright. ]

What... what the-?!


Lootin'!

Look, I get it! This is really scary, and your first instinct is to take what you can and make sure that your people are safe, even if that means doing some smash'n'grabs. But you're hurting your own community by doing this - seriously, if you're gonna loot, save it for the big box chains with insurance coverage instead of the mom and pop shops - and once the lights come back on, you're just gonna be the jerks who stole from people and made things worse. So what do you say? How about we go to one of the shelters? They have food and medicine, and I bet someone's managed to get a generator up and running by now.

[ Superpowers or not, Doreen isn't just going to stand by and let someone smash in a store window and rob the place. Luckily, the two looters in question are so baffled by her 'come to the light side' speech that they're at a temporary loss for words, and haven't started punching yet, even though she's blocking their way. They glance at each other, and one of them shrugs. ]

"Actually, we just wanted a 4k TV set. But we might as well take whatever you've got too, lady!"

[ Welp, looks like this is coming down to punching after all. Doreen just barely dodges the first punch ("Come on, I have some trail mix and a bottle of stale water, this sucks!"), and manages to land a good right hook on the first guy before the second one comes at her from behind. The speech approach works better when she can dodge properly, and has super strength! Want to help out? She could probably use a hand here. ]


Speedster time!

[ A few days later, Doreen gets hit in the chest by a purple orb, and it's been such a garbage week that she just thinks 'well, this might as well be happening.' She doesn't expect the sudden mental image of Tommy either, but after she tries jogging to the nearest shelter encampment and almost zooms straight into a wall, it isn't too hard to put the pieces of this together and figure out what's going on.

Later on there's a blur, and Doreen is suddenly skidding to a stop in front of you (or maybe several feet ahead of you, she hasn't quite mastered superspeed yet!), looking out of breath but very excited. ]

Hey! Hey! Have you seen... I dunno, someone with a squirrel tail? Maybe someone chatting up a bunch of squirrels? Oh, or maybe they figured out how to do the Chestnut Alpha maneuver, have you seen someone who looks like they're made of squirrels?


Wildcard!
[ PM me or hit me up at sonopants if you'd like to do something else! ]

power loss

[doctopoda]

Even if it is, it's only going to try and kill - Doreen!

[Otto's general pessimism about the motivations of A.I. - look, he has four good reasons - is immediately forgotten when Doreen collapses. He doesn't know about the power loss; either it hadn't happened yet when he left the city to pick her up, or he simply hadn't noticed. The lack of his own small Confluence-based powers is nothing to him. It's the actuators he relies on, and they're still here, just as attached as always.

He reaches out instinctively to catch her, an arm offered for support and an actuator curling around behind her. They've teleported back to his apartment, so at least it's empty. No threats in here, not even either of the Peters; it's dark and quiet.]

Are you - oh, god.

[It's not so dark that he can't see the sudden lack of a big bushy tail.]