DOWNBURST: FINALE

[metamods]

Who: Everyone!
What: Downburst Plot Finale
When: Late July into August
Where: Primarily Arcadia & Excelsior, Washington
Content Warnings: Body horror (the broadcast), comic book violence.

 

DOWNBURST FINALE

Arcadia has failed. The housing area that was built to try to move all Starfallen into has been publicly outed as something - more sinister. A significant portion of civilians are mortified; they trusted the Alliance to keep people safe, and while the Starfallen may not be from this Earth, the Alliance is meant to keep everyone safe, not just their own. Protests begin, pushing to get Fantastic dethroned for the horrid things he has been pushing onto them.

➢ This log covers from July 26th, the date of Fantastic's broadcast, through August.

➢ Arcadia still stands. The Alliance will be gutting the area below that was built for the Battlements of the Shining God's rituals, but what to do with Arcadia after is. . in flux. It's a perfectly good housing district with a lot of work put into it. It'd be a shame to destroy it entirely.

➢ For characters seeking out NPCs in relation to the event, there will be a comment below for NPC engagement.

➢ For any questions pertaining to this log, please hit the mod question thread below. We'll be hitting these up on a quicker schedule than regular engagements, to help ensure that plots related to the event are able to be wrapped up quickly.

THE BROADCAST.

The broadcast begins with Fantastic standing in front of a podium, frazzled and looking towards the camera man, then towards someone standing off to his right just out of the camera's view, and then - down towards the paper in front of him. He opens his mouth, as if to begin reading off the script, but instead swipes the note cards off the podium, and raises his hands up above his head,

"I don't know what's wrong with you idiots! We built you everything you could've ever wanted, and you dicks just refuse to use it! It's almost like you want us to do this the hard way! Look at all the bullshit I've put up with for you, all the crap I've done to try and make it easier and – no! Nothing! You came here, you ruined everything, and now you insist on–"

His voice cuts off suddenly as his hand raises up to his mouth, eyes wide. The air around him crackles with unearthly energy, and the camera pans out, looking at what Fantastic's wide eyes are focused on.

The woman standing center stage is less a person and more the idea of one. She could be very tall or very short. Beautiful or ugly. Your mind cannot truly comprehend what it is you’re looking at, and so the best approximation it can make is light itself condensed into physical form. Stare too deeply into the crackle of energy around her and you see universes birthed and decay, accompanied by the certainty that you are watching your own possibilities die with them.

The Shining God.

"What a disgrace you are," she says, her words ringing through your skull. It doesn't matter how far away one is, how much distance is between them and Fantastic's broadcast going live in Excelsior, her voice feels like it's coming from right beside you. "Snipped branches trying to root themselves into trees. I suppose my sister always did have a fondness for the impossible."

She walks towards Fantastic, who stands there with the microphone still in hand. One slender hand reaches out and touches his golden cheek.

"And you… you were the first mistake made in this world. You were meant to be nothing. No one. Ordinary and unnoticed… It was clear it was a mistake to change your fate, even to achieve my greater good… you are living proof that one should only follow the path set out by fate. I shall take responsibility and grant you one last chance to play a role in this story beyond that of the jester," she says, her hushed tone a mockery of comfort. "You can end these aberrations for me. Then I shall be able to manifest and right these wrongs."

She turns to look at the audience, black holes where her eyes should be. The woman smiles as Fantastic screams and twists, his body slowly disintegrating to incomprehensible concepts, light and dark, color and contrast. The human mind cannot comprehend the existential horror thrust onto the form before them, and it is only worsened by the transformation.

The metahuman doubles over with a scream that degrades to a shriek, avian and horrible. Feathers burst from his skin and he grabs frantically at them, trying to pull them out. It’s no use, it only seems to accelerate the transformation, his shaking arms becoming scaled. Claws rip forth from his fingertips, and as they score the skin he lets out a crackling noise that doesn’t sound as though it could be made by a human throat.

And then the wind picks up.

What's left of the fallen hero lurches forward, movements awkward and jerky. He reaches for the camera as several nearby civilians yell and run, and destroys it with what once was a hand. The broadcast cuts off just as abruptly.

DOWNBURST

Reports come out then. Twitter is inundated with reports of hurricane force winds ravaging the city. With the reports soon come blurry photos of what people are calling monsters, sentient black holes. The pictures of them come out distorted, like gaping holes in the space time continuum made sentient. It’s only when approached by one of the Starfallen that they properly congeal into tangible form, often taking the appearance of something - or someone - all too familiar.

Maybe an old foe slain. Maybe a nightmare that once was. Maybe themselves, if they had given in to their worst impulses.

Yet this does not appear to be an intended feature of the monster. Rather, it appears that the Starfallen approaching them forces them to settle into a form they can fight rather than an intangible, destructive void.

They aren't always echoes of things the Starfallen are familiar with. Some of them are too weak to maintain the destructive void state, and instead form shapes of their own.

NOTES.

➢ Any teleporters that weren't working well before are suddenly no longer on the fritz – given what's just taken place, it's apparent that all hands are needed, either in dealing with the wind-based monstrocity of Fantastic, or the monsters that have started appearing all over.

➢ Anyone who wants to fight Fantastic can give it a shot, but monsters will begin to appear on the scene, budding from the black holes. They will be formless and dangerous at first, but slowly take shape around the scene as Fantastic begins to break down the building to its very foundation in an attempt to free himself into the city of Excelsior.

➢ The monsters may take the form of generic beasts, but they may take the form of something or someone specific to the Starfallen that approach them.

➢ The monsters themselves come with a whole slew of status effects, depending on which one is encountered. Here are the monsters themselves:

➢ An amphibious-like creature that moves both like a froggy-inkblot. Under the right light, there is a chrome-like metallic sheen to the frog. Desperate to seek out a body of water, they'll be blindly moving toward anything that might be detected as being full of good ol' h2O – including humans. Once wet, their skin will be toxic to the touch, giving a psychedelic waking dream to anyone who encounters it. How this manifests depends on the person. It could be great – or really terrible.

➢ A many-winged raptor bird. These birds dive bomb from the sky like cannonballs. When scratched by their talons, they force whoever's touched to only speak the truth.

➢ An oversized rodent that looks like a guinea pig with a lion's mane. Trying to focus on this creature will cause headaches. If taking it on, there will be two separate potential effects if bitten by its jagged teeth. The first is the ability to speak orders into being – and the second is the desire to follow all orders.

➢ Large swaths of bee-sized hummingbirds. When swarmed and stung by these hummingbees, someone will be hit by an insatiable hunger. Without food, someone will struggle to access their abilities unless they've eaten a full meal within the last ten minutes.

➢ Dog-sized raccoons that slip into the shadows when approached. If coaxed out, they use eye contact to force people to swap bodies around them. Because bodyswapping is a great way to cause chaos and allow them to escape.

➢ All of these effects can last a few hours or a few weeks, unless someone has an ability that can reverse them.

DISCONNECTION

Accelerator, Huvrye Tirvio, and Balthier manage to corner the beast previously known as Fantastic after he manages to cause massive amounts of destruction throughout Excelsior and Arcadia.

Using their combined abilities, they slow him down enough to capture him - and it's only moments after Accelerator manages to get his hands on Fantastic's body to feel the tether between Fantastic and The Shining God that it severs entirely.

The jerky movements cease. While still breathing, Fantastic's body becomes unresponsive.

Chaos Gate arrives upon the scene moments after it ends. She touches down upon the floor and breaks into a sprint, dropping down next to the entity that once was her boyfriend.

"... Sawyer?" Her gloved hands cup his feathered face. "Look at me. Hey… hey, the good guys won the day. You did it. It’s time to get up. Make your shitty little speech."

The creature only stares at her blankly.

The mageling bites her lip, her hands shaking but holding firm. She continues trying to reason with him, to spark some recognition yet receives nothing. The man that was Fantastic is now a husk, little better than an animal. Eventually she breaks away, getting to her feet and stumbling back.

"This isn't what I wanted," she whispers, horrified. Oblivious to the fact that cameras are now rolling, the press eager to capture the moment. "You said - you said, wouldn’t it be great if things were a little more exciting? And I thought - I thought that it’d be fun. Like the old comics, like the stories the old guard tell… I didn’t… I didn’t know it would be this…"

Her hands curl into shaking fists and drop to her sides. She swallows tightly and clenches her eyes shut, then raises her chin defiantly. She reaches out and grasps the birdman’s shoulder, turning to face the cameras and whispers three little words.

"No more Confluences."

And then they both disappear.

AFTERMATH

➢ The support for the Battlements of the Shining God rapidly wanes in the weeks following the event. Witnessing the Goddess herself and all her callous cruelty to a hero - maligned as he may have been - resulted in many who had tentatively aligned themselves quitting on the spot. Many turn up dead, others run to the Guilds for protection.

➢ Atomight, rescued from his tiny prison, is left with his life’s work in shambles. His return to leadership results in the government declaring the Guardian Alliance to be a rogue agency. Though one it’s hesitant to move against. While many members stay, others quickly leave in fear that this will disrupt their careers, as public support is at an all time low.

"This is a chance to rebuild," Atomight says at his first press conference. "To ensure that those among our ranks are here to make a better world, and that our organization is focused on that goal and only that goal."

Despite this, there is a call for Starfallen to be appointed to leadership positions within the Alliance. Evidently, they are here to stay. And had they been allowed to be forced out, their world may have been consumed

➢ With Atomight back in charge, Mechanima finally relinquishes his hold on Central City. A bulletin goes out to the members of both Guilds, informing them that they can expect things to return to normal once they have finished the cleanup… though they agree that the Battlements of the Shining God are dangerous and must be taken care of. Mechanima seems to believe them too dangerous to let live, and welcomes all to join his hunt.

➢ And just as the world accepts the Starfallen, promising to unite and support new arrivals in a way they had been failing to for some time, the Confluences stop. Seers suddenly report being able to see a clear future again, no longer distorted by the shifting destinies of Starfallen. It is a temporary cause for celebration, as being able to clearly predict the future could have presented many disasters. However, many soon report that they do not see a future. Only blinding light.

➢ Chaos Gate and Fantastic are both missing.

➢ And though the future of this world is now easy to see, the Starfallen find themselves experiencing a number of odd after-effects.

➢ Time seems to slip through their fingers. Some may find themselves experiencing portions of the same day over and over again, like deja-vu. They may slide easily through their own timelines, an adult one day and a child the next. These effects will begin small and increase in intensity, culminating in the next Test Drive Meme.

➢ Likewise, their reality seems to be something amorphous. The memories from home seem to stretch and blur - canon points become fuzzy, memories from the past or the future may leak in. Memories from other worlds entirely, lifetimes they never lived, blending with the ones they did.

➢ Their dreams are also more vivid. Not just because the Dreamers of the Willow Maiden make the rounds, offering pillows to guarantee the most restful of sleeps, but because their dreams feel much more like reality than the waking world. The Starfallen are linked, and dreams may bleed into each other.

Comments

Tim Drake | Young Justice | open | tw child abuse, potentially other triggers

[overlyprecocious]

The man and woman that the black holes coalesce into in front of Robin don't look scary. They're not insanely fit, they don't shoot lightning from their fingertips, they aren't laughing mad like the Joker. They're just people. They look like they've never even been in a fight.

Tim - Robin - Tim. Freezes.

They aren't real. He just watched them form out of black energy. The likelihood that it was a new kind of Confluence that brought his parents here is - low. Not zero. Unlikely. They're probably not his parents, but they look like his parents, and they're pissed. It's hard to tell just from looking at Janet - she's better at hiding it, sharp edges and tension in the jaw - but Jack doesn't bother hiding it. He grabs Tim by the arm and yanks him in close, and they're probably not his parents but Tim can't fight him anyway. That's his dad (not his dad) and that's his mother (not his mother), acidly asking him if he thinks this is appropriate behavior for their son to be engaging in.

[robintohood]

Jason had been fighting off the monsters when he sees the black holes form into two figures before Tim. Jason doesn't recognize them but he knows Tim recognizes them from the way the teenager freezes.

Crap.

Jason runs as fast as he can to reach his younger brother but the "man" has already grabbed Tim by the time Jason gets to them.

"Robin!" He shouts.

[overlyprecocious]

"Hood?"

As he turns in the direction of the voice calling out his name, Jack-not-Jack tightens his grip on Tim's arm, and Janet grabs his face, firmly holding it so he's forced to look at them instead. "Is that the street rat you thought you could replace us with? After everything we've done for you?!"

[robintohood]

Jason realizes who the two figures are supposed to resemble and punches "Janet" in the face, trying to get her to let go of Tim.

"Funny thing about rats. They tend to keep coming back," he growls.

[overlyprecocious]

Just because a logical part of him realizes that these probably aren't his parents doesn't mean it doesn't feel like Jason just punched his mother, and the logical part of him is very much not in charge when he finally struggles against Jack's grip. Unfortunately, instead of trying to get away, he positions himself between Jason and the beings currently wearing his parents' faces. "Hood, don't!"

[robintohood]

Damn it. Jason really doesn't want to have to fight Tim. The teenager is getting too caught up in the illusion.

"Robin, look at me. You know this isn't right," Jason says seriously. "They wouldn't get in the middle of this."

[overlyprecocious]

“You don’t know for sure!”

He glances between Jason and his parents. His mom is holding her hand to her face where Jason punched her and his dad throws Tim an absolutely furious stare.

“What if it’s them?”

[robintohood]

Jason shakes his head.

"Robin, it's not," he says. "Those things... I don't know how but they shapeshift. It's a way to drop your guard."

[overlyprecocious]

“But… they could be…”

He glances back at Jack, who grabs hold of his arm firmly again.

[robintohood]

"Hey," Jason says firmly but not angrily. He sees how apprehensive Tim is. He needs to be convinced instead of just physically pulling him away. "Look at me. We're brothers, right? I wouldn't be doing this if I thought you were safe. We're family and families don't hurt each other like this."

[overlyprecocious]

As if to punctuate the point, Jack tightens his hold on Tim’s arm again, digging in painfully. He doesn’t want them to be real. If they’re really here, then everything gets so messed up and so much more complicated than it is now.

“- How sure are you?” is what he ends up asking, because if he decides to trust Jason’s instincts over his own on this, then Jason had better be very sure.

[robintohood]

"Completely sure. I swear on my life," Jason says, steadfast. "I know we didn't have the best start. I'm a fucking mess and I've fucked up so many things in my life. But you're Robin. I was Robin. We should be looking out for each other."

If he could just appeal to Tim emotionally and not just logically, perhaps Jason has a chance to save him.

[overlyprecocious]

" - Okay." Despite the part of his head that's screaming at him that he's a horrible son for even considering this, Tim finally executes a move that has him removing himself from Jack-not-Jack's grip and diving in Jason's direction.

[robintohood]

Jason in turn pulls Tim closer to him and then puts himself between Tim and the fake Drakes.

"Run. I'll take care of this and join you soon," he says.

[overlyprecocious]

“What if they’re really my parents, though?” he can’t help but ask, letting out that what if once more.

[batsymbol]

Bruce is out as Batman during the chaos. Excelsior is a little more his turf, supposedly, and so it was easy enough for him to get to the heart of it all. He's zipping around in the Batmobile — engine angrily growling as he runs through monsters getting in his way, but takes himself away from whatever fight he's currently in when he catches sight of Tim— Robin a little ways from him.

The wheels of the Batmobile screech to a halt and Batman gets himself out of the vehicle, cape flowing behind him as boots heavily hit the pavement with each long stride he takes towards the scene. He doesn't know who these people — these things — are nor does he know the history of Tim with his parents. All he knows is that Tim is being grabbed and yelled at and he seems almost unable to do anything which, that alone, is concerning to Bruce.

"Let him go." It's low, it's annoyed, it's very much Batman in the way he says it.

[overlyprecocious]

The arrival of Batman should be a relief, but right now, in his current state, it almost feels like an extension of a nightmare to Tim. He remembers TJ telling him about the time his dad found out about Robin and pulled a gun on Bruce, and he half-expects that to happen right here. Instead, Jack twists his arm and directs his heavy scowl towards Batman.

"I'll deal with my son the way I see fit!"

[batsymbol]

His concern falls on Tim first and foremost, especially when it's revealed that it's his (supposed) father there twisting his arm like he is. That alone gives him a second or two worth of a pause before Bruce's eyes narrow at the mistreatment of Tim there. Strange things have been happening around here and there's a good chance this could be one of them.

"I'm not going to tell you twice."

[overlyprecocious]

"And I won't tell you twice that you have no right to march into my son's life like this and act like you're his father. Timothy is my child!"

Tim just shakes his head at Batman, quietly trying to communicate to him that getting involved is only going to make this worse.

[forceforlight]

With everything going on, Dick lost track of Tim. Only for a few minutes, but that's enough time for this to happen.

He's conscious that, as many issues as he personally has with Jack and Janet Drake, this is probably them taken to an extreme. And Tim still loves them. So when he runs over, he simply grabs "Jack"'s arm, digging his fingers into the right spot to cause his hand to go numb and drop Tim's arm.

"Bad psychological phantom. No touchy."

[overlyprecocious]

"Nightwing!"

This is all happening pretty fast, and he finds himself torn between the instinct to follow Dick's lead on this and the instinct to stop the attack on his parents. As a result, he ends up staying frozen in place even once Jack's arm responds realistically by dropping.

"You stay out of this," Janet snaps. "Timothy is our son!"

[forceforlight]

It's barely an attack, honestly. Dick could so easily have broken "Jack"'s wrist rather than pinching a nerve to make him release Tim. Which is partly why he then uses the grip on the phantasm to push him back, away from them both.

He still notices the 'freeze' response in Tim and puts a hand on his shoulder, pulling the teen back. "Tim," he says through gritted teeth. Wonders, for a moment, how angry he's ever seen his own Dick Grayson. "He doesn't like being called by his full name, but you know that. But that's what his parents would do, so that's what you do.

"Also. You may think he's your son, but he's MY brother. And since only one of us is real? That means I take precedent."

[overlyprecocious]

Tim finds himself following Dick’s lead, letting him put himself between Tim and his parents-not-parents, and immediately feels awful for doing so. Even if they’re not his parents. (Are they? They still don’t know for certain.)

“How dare you - “ Jack starts to say, and Tim finds himself interrupting: “Don’t! Just - please don’t.”

[forceforlight]

Dick raises his chin, looking Jack in the eyes. Jack's maybe a little taller than him (especially as this is the Drakes from Tim's perspective, and parents are always larger in the eyes of their children). "How dare I--what?" he asks, voice deceptively calm, though Tim might detect the harder edge of anger underneath. "Stop you from laying hands on Tim like you have some right to harm him? Protect him from the fact that you only care about the way your little family looks, and not actually about the son you're supposed to care about?"

[overlyprecocious]

"Nightwing - Dad, Mom, just - don't fight, okay?" Tim finds himself asking, which is not likely to be effective, but still. He hates this. He doesn't want to see Dick and his parents rip into each other, which is a problem, especially since Jack's rolling up his sleeves like he's getting ready to turn this into an actual fight.

"We'll discuss this later, Timothy," Janet says. "Now stop hiding behind that - man."