metalogs | CONFLUENCE 03

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CONFLUENCE 03

THUNDERSTRUCK

This time there was warning. Any being with precognitive abilities finds themselves brought to their knees a few hours before the event, plagued with a hazy vision of chaos and fear. There's not enough detail to say what is to happen, but at least they have the where and when.

Excelsior, Washington.

The people seem annoyed when they are told to evacuate. After all, Excelsior was built to last. This is a city exempt from the unpredictability of nature. They have weather control systems set up to ensure nothing disrupts their research. This a city built upon scientific advancement, with every inch of infrastructure reliant upon it, and they are confident that they are safe within its borders.

And even without the stubborn minority, the Alliance knows there isn't enough time for a full evacuation. But still, they try. They call upon every available hero to race toward whatever chaos may be about to drop over the city. The Society has sent a few faces too, more quietly. Whether to help or hinder is anyone's guess, as there's whispered encouragement to do both.

The city isn't anywhere near empty when the air goes very still. Everyone and everything pauses and looks skyward as a few drops of rain begin to fall, and the artificial sky fades to reveal roiling clouds.

The Confluence begins.

ITS RAINING (SUPER) MEN

Rain slashes sideways as the skies darken, taking unnatural colors with every flash of lightning. It's beautiful and awe-striking, but knowing that somehow this bizarre phenomenon is the calm before the storm keeps anyone on the ground from enjoying it. Even the those who lack self preservation in the scientific community don't want to investigate the cause of this.

There's a flash of light and a boom. Those still caught in the streets waiting evacuation brace themselves.

And then people begin to fall.

If you are one of these people, you awaken to find yourself hurtling towards the ground at breakneck speed. You come into awareness just in time to register you're about to make impact with the ground, or a car, a building, whatever is underneath you. The impact pulverizes the surface strike, leaving a sizable crater, and as you pull yourself up you find yourself unharmed. Yet there's energy crackling in the air around you. If there are bystanders near you they whip out cellphones to capture the occurrence for their followers or for scientific posterities, crowding around the craters a buzz of excitement. Some of the more fearful ones simply turn and begin running in hopes they can beat the storm.

CRYPTO OR CRYPTID

Confluences give people powers. That's part of the deal. And while those of you who just fell from the sky are discovering your new gifts, others are also suddenly uncovering their own brand new talents.

Excelsior isn't exactly known for natural superpowers. Most of its heroes are self-made geniuses, armed with metasuits or other augments. Those that do have powers got them from scientific accidents, transforming due to experiments gone wrong or accidentally tumbling into toxic waste. They have emergency medical protocols ready for that - not for random people on the street suddenly gaining abilities.

Newly empowered townspeople may jump in to help deal with the evolving chaos, but their lack of control of their powers makes them a bigger threat than whatever threat they were trying to stop. Others will shamelessly take advantage of the chaos to live their villainous dreams, robbing stores and taking revenge on their shitty bosses, landlords, or exes.

The reserve members of the Guardian Alliance spring into action. The heavy hitters are elsewhere, trying to deal with the loss of power and getting the city back online, and so you're left with the rookies trying to keep pace. Many of them are inexperienced and unable to keep up with the raw power and ruthlessness of newly awakened metas. Fantastic, an aerokinetic and one of the newer recruits, seems to be the only one even remotely holding his own.

It's clear they need your help to contain this!

The storm doesn't peter out after the new arrivals have all landed, either. The panic and chaos below seems to fuel it to a second peak. Clouds roil, electricity snakes, and the thunder builds into a deafening crescendo. Then with one final, blinding burst of light, everything goes dark and quiet.

The power is out.

More than just the power — Excelsior is out. The powergrid has been downed, its internal networks corrupted, anything that makes the city function is completely fried, that last surge of the storm apparently having acted as an EMP blast. All of Excelsior's internal systems are now offline. The lights are all out.

Vehicles are stalled out in the streets. And then comes the first crashing boom of a falling hover car. There are more still in the air, but anyone who might be in a position to save them will have only moments to do so before they smash apart on whatever or whoever is unlucky enough to be stuck below them.

And it's not just that. Hospitals are now without power.

VLOG SQUAD STRIKES BACK

In every disaster, the best and worst of human nature can be found. The best shines in every outstretched hand and combined effort, in every life saved. The worst is a gaggle of young adults that live together in the city's least favorite content creator house, known with equal parts irritation and secondhand embarrassment as The Vlog Squad. It seems five of the eight streamer/vlogger/influencers have developed meta powers, including one with the power to record, edit, and broadcast with her mind. The entire group made an on-stream pact to become (non-guild affiliated) supervillains, and their views are skyrocketing.

One of them jumps off a building to demonstrate how he can put holes in everything below him.

Playlist, the ringleader with a sizable following on Youtube and TikTok, has the ability to Freeze, Rewind, Fast Forward reality. Be unlucky enough to be caught in her gaze and find yourself frozen in place, talking in reverse, or zipping around faster than you can control. Good luck getting someone to understand you when you sound like a chipmunk.

Then there's there's the second in command, Filter, an up and coming Instagram star. Filter's powers seem to be tied to their phone. If they get a picture of you in the air - welcome to anti-gravity, you're now stuck floating like a balloon until someone can get you back to Earth. If they slap a sepia filter on an unflattering photo of you, you're now encased in stone until someone drops a compliment. Each filter does something a little different and the unfortunate effects are yours to find out.

The rest of their squad is less notable, both in terms of power and in terms of following. There's a young man who can project his voice for miles around. A young woman who can compel people to dance to the beats dropped by her literal soundcloud. There's one unfortunate fellow whose only real power seems to be to turn people's heads into emojis for 30 seconds.

They're targeting known heroes, but will settle for property damage if it means getting attention. New metas may find themselves accosted by a unpleasant young adult with a camera, mockingly asking if they plan to become heroes. No matter the answer, the result is the same - they'll mock your choice and reasoning and try to get away with a cruel prank.

POWER RESTORED

The power is restored. With it, a belated message makes it to guild and society phones: the guild says restrain the Vlog Squad however you can and await authorities.

Meanwhile a very different message hits the airwaves. Mechanima's digitized voice comes across official channels, torn between amusement and annoyance. He says deal with them, don't care how you do it, but start with the broadcaster.

Once that's done, the guild places a call back to its headquarters to bring everyone back with a teleportation spell. The spell reaches out for whatever metahumans it can find in the area and pulls.

All the metahumans who were involved in the Confluence — new arrivals and old — to a white training space that has already transformed into a luxurious waiting room.

Atomight arrives quickly and makes the following announcement:

Thank you for your help out there. The casualties would be so much higher were it not for those of you who risked your lives to save strangers. To those of you grappling with your new abilities, please rest assured that this room will give you a much needed reprieve. We have staff on site who can work with you to gain control of you new abilities, and nullifiers if you find it's still too much.

You are the third set of newly powered individuals this confluence has brought. Though many of you are native to this world, others among you have come from far off universes. To those of you who have been flung far from home, we'll put you in connection with the others. Many of them are here today and can advise you of what your new reality is here.

We of the Guardian Alliance are committed to doing everything we can to get you home, and to give you some time to get your feet under you. And as this may be your home for a while longer, I wish to formally extend an invitation to those of you who wish to use your powers to defend the innocent to join us.

They hand out cellphones to all present. Once everyone gathered has been looked over and attended to they're directed to the Diadem in and handed a credit card.

Later into the night, another message comes across those phones. The Society of Villainous Reformation formally extends an invitation to all those villainously inclined. Reply for more info.

IN SUMMARY

New arrivals are falling from the skies. They're unharmed despite what should be a lethal impact. People in the city also begin developing superpowers upon landing.

Players are free to create their own powered NPCs for these encounters and can use them.

A notable group of online content creators called the Vlog Squad have developed powers and are terrorizing the city and are livestreaming every minute thanks to their powers.

The Vlog Squad has declared on camera that they do not intend to join any guild and are already showing signs of disrespecting the code. For those already committed to guilds, this means:
Atomight will ask player characters in the Guardian Alliance to deal with them peacefully.

Mechanima demands that members of the Society of Villainous Reformation deal with them — whether this means incapacitating them, forcing them to join, or killing them is their choice.
If anyone wants to engage Mechanima or Atomight, HERE is a top level where we will summarize their responses to PC questions and comments. Please also reply to this comment with what your character plans to do with the Vlog Squad. We encourage you to make posts on the OOC comm plotting out conflict and responses. You may also use this top level to ask event-specific questions about the effects on this page! (Please refer general questions about the setting to the FAQ, and refer any player plots to the PLOTTING page.)

VLOG SQUAD ENCOUNTERS

For each event with a clear antagonistic NPC force — such as the Vlog Squad, in the February arrival — interested players can pitch their characters' encounters with those NPCs. Whether characters are heroic and suited to the role or not, the aim is the group effort of pitching in, so we highly encourage collaborating on these encounters. Once enough NPC encounters have been submitted, we'll determine if and how the trouble has been addressed, and select one of those encounters to be the final, conclusive one in the game. Everyone else's encounters will also have taken place, but may have been temporary stopgaps in addressing the conflict rather than a conclusive blow. For this Confluence, we are asking that submissions be finalized by 3/5.

How it works:

Reply to the relevant top-level comment with an encounter and/or questions about the encounter. The mods are happy to go back and forth with before locking in exactly what a character or group of characters does. Any conversations between characters and NPCs will most likely be happening prior to combat unless specified by the players.

The mods ask that players present two options. In one version, the character or group of characters kills, immobilizes, or otherwise apprehend the villain(s). In the other version, one way or another, the villain escapes or overcomes the character or group of characters. Players who wish to have a specific spot in the timeline (near to the beginning or near to the end) should make this request explicit, and the mods will make efforts to accommodate this.

The mods will RNG the results for the final encounter. For all other submissions, the escape/overcome option is selected. Open calls for collaboration which result in multiple player characters contributing to an idea or solution (see: Kamala Khan's solution to the Cerberus fight) have a much higher chance of being the final encounter, as we want to reward player collaboration and innovation. Please be sure that after everyone has weighed in you return to the top-level comment to report exactly what is happening and who is doing what.

The mods will reply to player submissions with a brief outline of how all of the run-ins go, whether it's a fight or a slapstick series of hilarious accidents that involves the character(s).

Request NPC encounters using the following form —

EXAMPLE—

Character(s) involved: The Iron Giant and Hank Hill
Details of the encounter: Hank will ride in Iron Giant's hand as they search the city for the Vlog Squad, eventually spotting them in a public park. They land explosively in the middle, throwing all of the squad off of their feet while the Iron Giant sends out a signal to scramble their livestreams and begins trying to catch the offenders up in both hands. Hank will try to tackle at least one of them.

How might the villain escape or overcome the player character(s)? Playlist slow motions Iron Giant and they easily duck its grasp, and Filter leaves Hank floating upside down as they make their escape.

How would the player character(s) kill, immobilize, or apprehend the villain? Iron Giant grabs Playlist before she can slow it, then picks up and captures all but Emoji; Hank throws a branch and beans that guy right in the head. Iron Giant gathers him up too, and they turn them in to the first batch of emergency responders they find.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A. hallelujah it's raining Gwen

[ As Gwen plummets from the Excelsior skies, she gets a certain song stuck in her head. It's a real tapper, and appropriate for the situation, she thinks. "Mama mia, here I go again," falling from the sky in a strange new world. As she pulls herself out of her crater, she tugs her cowl off, wringing out the rain soaked fabric and shaking free her blonde locks. Time to get a good look around and figure out where she's ended up this time. Same universe? New universe? She pauses, looking around for the edge of the panel and not finding it. ]

Hmm, nope. Not back in a comic book.

[ What? ]

B. cryptocurrency

[ New powers! That's been there, done that for Gwen. She'd even gotten used to some of her new-new powers during the last Confluence in Little Love! So when wannabe villains start looting stores, she draws her gun, shouts a quick, ] Gimme a net! [ and then fires. Indeed, just as she said, a net shoots forth from her gun and tangles up the villain who's trying to run from her, who then trips and falls onto the ground.

Gwen, looking pretty pleased, steps over to grab the purse the thief had stolen and return it to the little old lady they took it from. ]

Here you go, ma'am.

[ The retiree is so grateful that she insists on giving Gwen a reward, which hey! Gwen's not about to turn away free money. The lady reaches into her purse and hands Gwen a twenty dollar bill, which Gwen thanks her for and then goes to stick in the pockets that definitely weren't in her costume before she landed here in Excelsior, but that she's super grateful for now. Leg pouches are useful and all, but sometimes you just want pockets!

Except, as soon as Gwen shove the twenty dollar bill into her pocket, it immediately spits out... a tenner and two pennies. ]

What the %$#@? [ Did she somehow just bleep herself? How did she do that? ] How the heck did my pocket make change?!

C. dia-don't you dare

[ Back at the hotel, Gwen gladly accepts the phone and credit card, changes into more casual clothes, and decides to hang out in the lobby while she sets herself up on all this world's social media and gig-economy-for-heroes sites. Don't mind the small four-legged great white shark who's sitting by her feet, his big goofy tongue panting as he happily watches the hustle and bustle of people go by. Gwen is trying to get him to pose for pictures, but he's a little too easily distracted. ]

C'mon, Jeffie, you're killing me. How are you going to become an instagram star if you don't know your angles?

(open to one roommate only)

[ By the time you get back to your room, Gwen's already made herself at home, claiming the bed nearest the window. Or rather, it's more accurate to say that Jeff is the one who's made himself at home, rolling around on Gwen's bed until he's formed himself a neat little nest of blankets and pillows. He's a shark who knows what he likes, and what he likes is getting comfy.

When her new roommate walks in, Gwen's on the hotel phone, ordering room service. ]

Yes, two steaks please. One medium-well, and one extra rare. I mean still bleeding, if possible.

[ She looks up at the person who just walked in, placing a hand over the receiver. ]

Hey, I'm ordering dinner. Do you want anything? My treat!

[ She isn't normally the type to offer to pay, but she's feeling extra generous today. Probably because she was just given a credit card with no limit. ]

X. cards gone wild

[ want something else? hmu @ millennialfalcon! will match prose/brackets. ]

[Don't mind the small four-legged great white shark? Don't mind? How could he mind the little bugger, he's far, far too cute for that.

yusei is, unfortunately, a sucker for small, cute creatures. why else would his deck look like that. this means that when jeffie is inevitably distracted by yusei walking nearby with a tuna sandwich from the hotel's cafe, yusei is immediately suckered in by the little shark...dog...thing.

It's just that. His face is just, you know, like that. So he's just impassively staring down at this adorable little shark dog with an expression that strongly implies he's about to kick it. He's not moving or anything, and is holding himself extraordinarily stiffly, but still. He's very captivated by your stupid dog shark creature.]

[ Did somebody say "tuna sandwich?"

The second Jeff gets a whiff of his favorite food, he scampers up to Yusei, caring not a bit about his stiff demeanor, and leaps up to put his little clawed hands on his knees, trying to get at that sandwhich.

Unfortunately for both Yusei and Gwen, when they arrived with the Confluence, Jeff's leash and harness didn't come with them. ]

Jeff, no—! Down! Down!

[ Gwen leaps out of her chair, trying to wrangle her pet shark away from this anime-looking stranger. ]

I'm sorry about him...

[Regardless of how successfull Gwen is at wrangling her pet, the most it gets out of Yusei is an impassive blink. It's almost unclear what his reaction to it is, until...]

He's cute.

[...ah. That. That probably means this whole thing is ok. Probably.

He glances at Gwen, at Jeff with his little clawed hands on his legs (thank god for those orange baubely knee-pads), and at his own sandwich, before back to Gwen. With his free hand he points to the sandwich, then to Jeff.]

May I...?

[ Oh, thank Cebulski, he's not upset. ]

Sure, if you want to. Just know that he's going to want the whole thing. He's kind of got a bottomless pit for a stomach.

[ She's seen him eat an entire 18" pizza and then still beg for more. ]

It's fine.

[And finally, there's a hint of a smile on his face. It almost looks mischevious, for the few moments that it's there. A credit card identical to the one Gwen was given is taken out of one of his pockets, glinting briefly in the light.]

I can always get more.

[Then he's immediately distracted by small, ravenous shark footsies tapping impatiently at his kneepads. He kneels down, preparing to rip the sandwich into bite-sized chunks - although that is putting said sandwich in immediate range of hungry shark, so perhaps the consideration isn't necessary.]

[ Yeah, Yusei can forget about those bite sized chunks, because as soon as the sandwich is within reach, Jeff goes for it, chomping down on half of it in one bite.

Gwen admonishes him, wishing she had her spray bottle. ]

Jeff, no. That was rude! You've got to wait, remember?

[ Jeff looks at her with his shiny black doll's eyes, but he does seem to understand, sitting back on his hind legs and waiting patiently for Yusei to feed him the rest of the sandwich. ]

[Yusei doesn't seem to mind - the action gets a chuckle out of him, at the very least, and he reaches over to scratch the top of Jeff's head.

Yusei, no. That's positive reinforcement.]

I see you weren't lying about the bottomless pit part.

[ Jeff enjoys the head scratches, his shark skin feeling ~~completely smooth~~ sandpapery. Happy as a clam, he wags his little shark tail, which whaps Gwen's shins, but she doesn't seem to mind. ]

Hah, yeah. It's like he was genetically engineered to have a pocket dimension inside his stomach.

[ But no, he was just genetically engineered to have legs. ]

[Good thing Yusei's got those thick riding gloves on. But even then he can feel the rough texture of the shark's skin as he moves his hand down the side of Jeff's face, past the gills, and down to the chin.

Why yes, Yusei is giving him chin scratchies to encourage Jeff to look up at the sandwich he's holding, yes he is. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy getting teased with the rest of the sandwich, yes Yusei is holding it up higher so you have to raise yourself on your hind sharky legs to get it, yes you are!

This is totally a insta-worthy pic, just saying. Look at that cuteness.]

I'd say that for a lot of creatures. Although this guy definitely has the mouth to make good on that.

[oh my god. he's absolutely smitten, isn't he.]

[ Jeff falls for the goading hook, line, and sinker... Though maybe fishing metaphors are in bad taste here. Anyway, up he goes on his hind legs, balancing precariously as his eyes zero in on the rest of the sandwich.

Gwen, never one to miss an opportunity, circles around to get a better angle for her shot and captures this perfect moment. ]

Ohh, yeah. This is going on the 'gram. [ To Yusei, ] What's your handle? I'll tag you in the story.

Gwen Poole | OTA!

A. hallelujah it's raining Gwen

B. cryptocurrency

C. dia-don't you dare

X. cards gone wild

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