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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.
TIME FOR TAKE 2
not anymore.
instead it hardly feels like there are enough hours in the day. there is always something new happening, always something weird and stupid, and—eda cannot ignore it. not when there have been a steady influx of witches arriving from the demon realm as of late.
first amity, then gus. who might show up this month?
except things have steadily gotten much worse. investigating new arrivals isn't as simple as it once was and this month, it means subjecting herself to exploring arcadia. as much as she didn't want to take a single unnecessary step around this place, it was pretty much unavoidable. she had to check. what if she didn't? what if someone slipped through?
what if someone got stuck with the alliance against their will?
yeah, eda cannot take that risk.
she feels a little more than vindicated in that idea when she walks right into the newest witch to arrive. alright, well, not into. they happened to blindly try to strike up a conversation with her while she stood underneath a shop awning, futzing with her phone. still, same thing! same thing, same thing!
eda knows it's raine the second they speak.
she knows that voice, knows it in her heart and in her dreams. )
New here? Are you playing coy with me, you silly ol' witch?
( proudly exclaimed as she turns around, instantly reaching out to loosely wrap her fingers around their wrist. her voice sounds forced, definitely a little hammy, but eda has always been good enough at improvising. mostly.
she flaps her other hand in the air, trying to look annoyed. )
You've had me waiting for ages.
( only this guard is still a little too interested in them. or right up until eda locks eyes with him, immediately trying to intimidate him down. )
Hey! Bug Eyes over there! Eyes on your own work!
( the guard finally looks away. he doesn't leave, but he looks away. )
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When Raine had seen the person with the big gray hair, it had stopped them in their tracks, sending a pang to their heart. Could it be Eda? In this place, at the same time as Raine? What were the chances?
Really, they should keep away. If it was Eda, they had a charade to uphold. And yet, almost as if on autopilot, they find themself stepping toward the person, and before they know it, they're saying words.
And then the person turns around and it's as if the world stops for a moment.
It's Eda.
Eda's face and Eda's voice and Eda's hand on their wrist.
But they don't have time to be awestruck. Their logical brain tells them Eda's clearly playing at something, and in a split second, they decide it would be better to play along than rebuff her for now.
They're out of their depth here, and they do trust Eda. They give her a big smile. ]
Sorry it took so long. I was held up.
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every muscle in eda's body feels tight and tense with anticipation. she barely knows what to expect out of either raine or the guard here, but she can only hope that this will be a somewhat undramatic encounter. she can only hope that raine won't be too overwhelmed to play along.
it's a hope that's rewarded because raine picks up after her quickly.
gently, she rubs her thumb against the skin of their wrist in a comforting gesture. )
Yeah, getting followed around by a BIG DUDE who looks like he MIGHT MANHANDLE YOU tends to interrupt your day.
( eda half-remarks, half-yells with the intention of making sure that she's heard by the guard. while he presented far worse dangers than 'manhandling', eda thinks it sounds like the better thing to say.
she makes a show of mock offense, tugging raine closer to her. )
Maybe we should go somewhere . . . classier!
( then she leans in, very carefully whispering: "be cool. we'll talk, but you're in a lot of danger right now".
because if she's going to expect raine to follow her lead, she needs to at least begin to warn them about what they had found themselves thrown into. )
no subject
However, seeing Eda being this serious while warning them about danger is... disconcerting, to say the least. Because when Eda gets serious, things must be truly dire.
They give her a little wink and plaster on a smirk. ]
Why don't you show me what you have in mind?
no subject
while she hadn't been expecting anything different, it's still a considerable relief to have raine easily falling into step alongside her. partially because eda feels more at ease knowing she has someone as skilled as raine at her side but also because she doesn't know what she'd do if they didn't.
just simply seeing them makes her insides feel like they've been filled with firebees. she might explode someone if they put their hands on them. )
I'll show you anything you want, handsome.
( confidently said as eda takes this opportunity to press a kiss against raine's cheek. she would say it's for the benefit of the guard, but it's also because eda has never been one to ignore a golden moment when it presents itself.
she tugs raine along.
"hold your breath," she says under her breath before activating a glyph to render the two of them invisible. with her hand still tight on raine, she leads them away from the guard's prying eyes. )
You showed up in time for a whole mess, Rainestorm.
no subject
They could hardly deny that seeing Eda again, back then in Bonesborough, had done something to them. That they'd enjoyed sneaking around with her, saving people from the coven guards' clutches. But they never expected anything to come out of it.
Of course, Eda's probably playing it up for these guards right now. So Raine plays along and follows in her step, and when asked to hold their breath, they do so, wondering at the invisibility spell.
Once Eda talks, they breathe again and give Eda a wry smile. ]
Y'know, I haven't been here long, but I kinda got that impression.