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- !confluence,
- !event,
- a certain magical index: accelerator,
- marvel comics: carol danvers,
- rtmnt: donatello hamato,
- rtmnt: leonardo hamato,
- ✗ archie hopper | once upon a time,
- ✗ augustus "gus" porter | the owl house,
- ✗ aurican | dragonlance,
- ✗ hitori gotoh | bocchi the rock,
- ✗ raine whispers | the owl house,
- ✗ roy harper | dc comics,
- ✗ six | generator rex,
- ✗ vision | mcu
CONFLUENCE 020
What: A Confluence! + Part II of the Downburst plot
When: The beginning of July
Where: Primarily Arcadia & Excelsior, Washington
Content Warnings: Just a little of Fantastic's fascist ideology
A Confluence, capitalized, is the converging of one or more supernatural forces: it encompasses all occurrences that cause sudden, unnatural change in this world.
The Starfallen only arrive during Confluences. For this Confluence, the sky over Excelsior, Washington opens up after a ripple rolls through the clouds, seeming to cause a visual glitch for anyone who’s watching. The glitch itself looks more like an adjustment to reality than anything, and time – if but for a moment and nothing more – stops. Everything stops, and then it starts again.
It’s that stoppage in time that makes the arrival of the Starfallen easy and safe. Rather than forcing the people of Excelsior to contend with their new arrivals, they find them suddenly on the ground, standing as if they were there the entire time. How did that happen? How did they get here? It’s unclear.
The effects of this flicker in time won’t be immediately obvious. As the newly arrived Starfallen take in their surroundings, they’ll notice that the rather advanced city they’re in is experiencing a bit of trouble. Large, carnivorous plants walk the streets and people are chasing after them one by one. Moving in and out of the scene is a rather dashing-looking man – one they’ll soon learn is named Fantastic. He’ll stop by the Starfallen once or twice, flash a smile and offer some help, but he’ll otherwise be occupied.
Well, that aside, time for you – one of the many new Starfallen – to adjust to your new surroundings. Welcome to Excelsior and welcome to an era of political turmoil. Don’t worry about the time dilation that may have occurred. That’s the least of your worries.
A safe “landing” of sorts means that the newly arrived Starfallen will need to look up to get the full scope of where they have arrived: a city with tall buildings, flying cars, and visuals that make it seem as if it’s further in the future than it is. Technological progress and prowess is the name of Excelsior’s game; it’s just too bad that this progress sometimes comes with its share of hiccups. In this case, those hiccups are the dangerous plants roaming the streets and causing problems. These plants had been a problem very recently, and it seems that any weed whacking only temporarily dealt with the issue at hand. That, or whoever made them in the first place wasn’t put off of their experiments.
Or … maybe something else is afoot?
After all, it’s rather surprising that someone as enterprising and industrious as Fantastic is roaming the streets to stop the problem at hand – but then again, these plants are rather troublesome!
Aside from his occasional greetings and offered help to the newly-arrived Starfallen, he’s otherwise occupied. In his stead, several rather official-looking individuals will be approaching the Starfallen once they recover from the time stoppage. They’ll offer the newcomers a mobile device as well as a teleporter, along with a place to stay in a state-of-the-art facility named Arcadia. After all, Arcadia is meant to be there for Starfallen – a safe haven when they might otherwise be caught up in the chaos around them.
No one is obligated to go to Arcadia, but it appears that anyone who’s newly arrived will be given their teleporter with the intention of forcing them there. Once they’re given freedom to move on their own, there is a good chance that they will be teleported right into Arcadia proper against their will. Upon arrival, they’ll find that their teleporter is now glitched. A guard, upon spotting their arrival, will greet them and apologize if they can’t go anywhere else. “Our system has been buggy lately.”
At least they’re trying to keep the Starfallen away from the plants?
➢ Everyone arriving during this Confluence will be given the same story: that Fantastic and the Alliance have been working hard to provide a safe home for all Starfallen because the world itself views them with a great deal of animosity. Just recently, a man hypnotized a number of Starfallen in order to force them to cause harm to others and themselves – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
➢ Once someone who’s been forcibly teleported to Arcadia either accepts their place there or manually leaves – by exiting through one of the gates on foot – they’ll find that their teleporter is working. Somewhat. From time to time, it’ll just drop them right back into Arcadia even if they intended to use it to go elsewhere. Like Dorothy always said: there’s no place like home.
➢ Despite the rather forcible welcome, Arcadia is … rather nice. Constructed in collaboration with the people of Excelsior, Arcadia is an odd mix of modern-day and historical architecture, leaving it to be a beautiful view for anyone to witness from a distance. All aspects of Arcadia are pristine, and it’s apparent that this structure is meant to be safe and protected. Each Starfallen who chooses to take a room will find that their quarters are designed to their liking: they’re allowed to choose anything and everything they want.
➢ There are a few … quirks when it comes to Arcadia. There are suns emblazoned throughout, as well as guards standing post. These guards are equipped with strong armor and power nullifiers if anyone tries to fight them. Finally, the entirety of Arcadia gives off a sense that it’s resonating with magic – with this being the strongest near its lowest level. That level is, of course, blocked off to anyone who may dare to enter.
➢ If Arcadia seems a little … empty, that’s because it’s been shunned by the current population of Starfallen. Thanks to their antics and ungrateful tendencies, they’ve decided that they’re too proud to take what’s been offered to them. Instead, they’re causing problems all over the country, and Fantastic is working tirelessly to stop their mayhem. Surely this is all there is to it, right? … Right?
Right around this Confluence, Fantastic begins making frequent television appearances in order to try to assuage any worries that the people he’s promised to protect might have in the wake of the chaos following his rise to power. What does this mean? Well, a lot of bloated speeches that no one wants to listen to, as well as countless television programs interrupted so that he can ensure that everyone hears the sound of his voice.
Even with his frequent messages, his message largely remains the same – so here are some notes.
➢ Fantastic always apologizes for the chaos happening everywhere. While he hoped that he would be able to bring order to the Alliance and use his new opportunity to help others, it appears that some bad actors have attempted to frame him in a bad light. These bad actors are not limited to the Starfallen – while he doesn’t name Atomight or Mechanima, it’s apparent that he is likely referring to them.
➢ After all, Fantastic inherited Atomight and Mechanima's messes. The biggest and most recent "mess" is just about everything in Central City. Everything. But he mainly means Jinx's destruction of the city on Father's Day – which is an event that could only take place with Mechanima's intervention. Had the city not been placed under an unwanted quarantine, Fantastic would have been able to intervene and help.
➢ When it comes to Mechanima, he reassures the citizens of Central City that he is doing everything in his power to restore its autonomy so that Alliance processes can proceed as normal. Otherwise, it appears that all Alliance operations have been moved to Excelsior for the time being. He alludes to the “problem” being solved by some heroic Starfallen there, so there is no reason to keep it under quarantine … but some villains just can’t help themselves!
➢ Overall, Fantastic alludes to countless problems. Guards who are just trying to protect reticent Starfallen are being attacked without provocation. Many people are speaking out against Fantastic and even calling what he’s doing a “regime.”
➢ The more Fantastic appears, the more he seems desperate – frazzled. At first, it seems like an act: him appearing desperate to win viewers’ hearts and minds. But soon he’ll seem less calm and collected, like he’s aware that he’s lost control (or never had control in the first place). He won’t admit this outright. He’ll never admit it. No, he’ll always smile. Always seem pleased to help anyone, even the Starfallen who hate him for some reason. Always.
➢ Welcome to the midway point for our Downburst event! This Confluence is meant to double as a means for all of our new players to integrate into the middle of an event. We reused some assets from the most recent TDM in order to help, but if you would like any additional help keeping your TDM threads canon, please hit us up below!
➢ No players will be forced to place their character into Arcadia if they don't like the bizarre and not-at-all-biased intro to this world – their teleporters can merely glitch out if they so choose. After all, it doesn't seem like anything is going as planned.
➢ Even though this batch of Starfallen have just arrived, they will be followed by Guards as if they've been here all along. Isn't it fun to suddenly be under unwanted surveillance upon arrival?
➢ Incoming players can check our prior event log for more information about Arcadia and the Guards in detail.
Metaheroes takes inspiration from all walks of comics. Take a look at the CITIES to get an idea as to what day to day life is like in the other cities. Perhaps you've encountered a supervillain (or hero) who needs to be thwarted, or a metahuman with unusual powers creating bizarre effects.
Arrival
She shrieks and cowers as it approaches her, unsure of where to run to or what to do in this strange new place. So when Carol graciously blasts the plant away with a burst of energy, Hitori is huddled down with her head in her hands.
It takes her a moment to respond to Carol's question, but when she does look up she's visibly trembling and she looks like she's about to throw up.]
U-Um... Y-yeah, I-I think I'm o-okay...
[She does not think that. She isn't sure if she's ever been less okay in her life, actually.]
no subject
Hey, it's okay. Really these things are just a nuisance we're gonna be fine.
[Carol does not actually know that they're going to be fine, and she in fact has no idea of the power level of this plant invasion for all she knows these could just be the baby ones they're starting out with or something.
However, it's important to seem cool calm and collected in these situations to not freak out the people who may be less experienced so here she is, pretending like she has any idea what on earth is going on here.]
Did they get you, are you hurt?
no subject
I-I'm okay. S-sorry for worrying you.
[She is kind of awe-struck by the sight of this woman floating down to greet her. She's never actually seen a flying person before today - but apparently this city is chock full of people with superpowers.]
U-Um, s-sorry. D-do you know where we are?
no subject
[Carol lands in front of her and looks down at her giving her a smile to reassure the girl who is clearly not quite so used to all of this mess. He glances around to make sure there's no immediate threat of plants clocking the next closest one a good bit away but charging up a blast in her right hand to hold incase it comes this way.]
I don't, but I'm sure we can figure it out. You must be new too. Do you have any powers for these?
no subject
S-sorry...
[And then she immediately feels foolish for doing so. Her incessant apologizing is probably getting on this stranger's nerves - so when Carol asks her a question, Hitori is quick to jump on an answer, anything to change the subject.]
I-I am new. I-I got some kind of power, b-but I'm not really sure that I can use it to help here...
[There's a brief pause, as she looks sheepishly at the ground. Even in this place where everyone ends up with superpowers, she didn't end up with one that would make her useful to anyone.]
I can make a loud sound, w-with my mind. It doesn't really bother the plants.
no subject
I bet that's really cool. Not everyone's powers work on the same things, I bet I'd be useless on something that's good for! It's why it's good to work in teams.
[She should really take note in that advice, recently, she's tended to go off alone too much on her own so hopefully in this new world she can remember it.]
I guess the plants don't have ears huh? [She adds with a silly smile to make it obvious she's trying to joke, even if she's bad at it.]
no subject
And anyway, the idea of having someone stronger than her to help when she's attacked by monsters does seem like a good thing to have. Especially if she's going to be in a place where monsters occasionally attack.]
I've n-never been on a team or anything like that before - but I-I am in a band! A-and that's sort of similar, s-so I understand what you mean.
[In a much less life-or-death sort of way. Over the past couple of months, she and her friends have learned to rely on each others' skills and compensate for each others' weaknesses.
Speaking of life-or-death, Hitori nervously looks up the street where another plant creature is meandering in her general direction.]
U-Uh, w-would it be okay if we went somewhere else? M-maybe inside, where it's safe?
no subject
[She's right too, they could get out of here. Carol looks around for some sort of building to tuck into out of the way. It's a lot of indistinct skyscrapers that give no indication of whatever they might be being used for. Which is of course, very useless.
She turns to look the direction Hitori is and notices the source of the anxiety and blasts it back further for good measure although it continues to come at them. ]
Let's try going this way. Keep an eye out for somewhere we can pop in and I'll keep an eye out for the plants, deal? Like a team.
[She tries to keep Hitori calm as they start going the opposite way of the plant, she seems young, who knows how young, and like this is a lot and Carol doesn't want to freak her out more.]
no subject
D-deal.
[Hitori happily (but cautiously) follows Carol wherever she leads. She'd really rather not be left alone in this weird place with a bunch of creatures that want to attack her, after all.]
I-I'm Bocchi, by the way. [A slight pause, as she reconsiders what she just said. What if this cool superpowered woman doesn't want to call her by her dumb nickname?] I-I mean, my name is Hitori Gotoh, b-but my friends call me Bocchi.
[But, like. Please call her by her nickname. She likes having a nickname.]
no subject
Bocchi, I'm Carol. [ She notices the stuttering and tries to calm her a little bit. ] Don't worry, I'm sure the plant thing is temporary, and we're gonna get it taken care of.
[She charges up a photon blast and sends one in the direction they are headed at a smaller plant.]
no subject
N-nice to meet you, C-carol. [That's a lie, there's nothing nice at all about today. But at least Carol seems to be doing a good job of making it less horrible.] H-have you dealt with situations like this before? A-are they usually temporary?
[She certainly seems nonchalant about the monsters, maybe she's some kind of... super gardener or something.]