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

C

[purplexing]

[Any sense of trying to lay low and unnoticed had gone entirely out the window and effectively blasted out of a cannon into space for how much of a light show Donnie had been putting on. There'd been nothing inhibiting their powers, and with the sheer amount of creatures that had been sent at them, certainly no reason to hold back.

Donnie straightened from his crouched position once Leo made his appearance, having just thoroughly flattened another monster himself.]

Scoff! Like that can ever happen! Anyway, I stopped keeping track somewhere after a hundred.

[Counting those swarms by individual units is totally fair too, right?

[effiomsfavorite]

[Huvrye has been making a point of going after the flying monsters - he has experience in aerial combat, the monsters aren't fast enough to keep up with his augmented speed, and if he runs into the twisted beast Fantastic has become, so much the better.]

[He does keep an eye out for people he knows - to get the noncombatants out of the melee and to back up those who can fight - and Donnie and Leo are easy enough to track through flashes of purple and blue. They converge, and he makes his way over to them and hovers.]

Status report.

[It's out of his mouth before he can think about it. As much as the portals and twisted creatures make this feel like a fight from Lasardhi, it's not, and he's not General Tirvio to these two. He shakes his head and tries again.]

Are you two okay?

[faceguy]

Oh, just a hundred? It's been aaages since I passed that.

[It's fair, because Leo is using it to pad his numbers, too (though he's definitely padding them a lot here).

And he'd love to keep this banter up, but Huvrye shows up, asking them for a status report (seriously?). At least he amends that a moment later.]

All good here, Huv. [He knocks a creature aside with the hilt of his sword and then finishes it off with a quick slice.] I think we can handle a few monsters.

[Certainly a sensible conclusion, given how well they've been doing so far - except right about then, another one of those black hole monsters rises up, closest to Leo.

So far they've taken the shape of things Leo isn't too concerned about - the worst are the krang zombies, and even those he's been able to finish off without too much headache. Now, though, the form the monster starts to take is decidedly different. Still warped by the krang, sure, but bigger than the average human, broader, tougher...

Wearing a red mask that will be very familiar to both Leo and Donnie.]

You can just go back to what you were- [He starts to say, but his voice dies in his throat when he turns to look at what's shambling toward him. Leo freezes entirely, eyes locked on the form of his brother, not normal but controlled, a ferocious krang zombie.

This can't be happening.]

[purplexing]

[Donnie opens his mouth to call Leo's bluff when Huvrye arrives on scene. He doesn't seem too thrown by the initial...well it's not a greeting but he catches onto the slip once Huvrye shakes his head and tries again.]

All green. We got this.

[He's on the same wavelength as his brother there. It's been a while since they've really gotten to go all out, and even when on they'd separated they hadn't necessarily been fighting alone the entire time.

Of course when one of those black hole things crops up by Leo, Donnie does get a little concerned. After all, once he'd figured out what those things were doing, he'd hate to see Leo's mindset get knocked back into those traumatic nightmares.

His grip tightens around his bō as he prepares himself, ready to hurl himself at the first sign of something pink and squishy he sees.

What appears only wears part of that, the rest of the form that solidifies, all too familiar, save for the horrifying fleshy bits that should not be there. Donnie's rooted to the floor, mouth hanging open in disbelief, and the only question running through his head is: Why?]

[effiomsfavorite]

[He's gonna get grief for that slip-up later, once all of this dies down - he knows Leo and Donnie too well to think otherwise. Still, they're doing okay, and that's what matters.]

[Huvrye doesn't miss the creature near Leo, and it has his full attention as it grows - bigger than either teen, but nowhere near too big for him to handle - and takes shape, turning into-]

[Another mutated turtle, half-covered in pink fleshy growth, with a red bandanna over its eyes. It's a form Huvrye's seen before...in the family photo Leo had brought from home.]

[My big brother had to save me, and they...they turned him into this thing. Infected him with some kind of goo, and they had control of him.]

[Oh, no-]

[Huvrye lands abruptly, putting himself between Leo and the monster (because this isn't Leo and Donnie's brother any more than the Corrupted are still people, and he can't think of it like that if he's going to win this fight).]

It's one of the monsters. It's not him.

[He'll keep them out of the fight if he needs to; the problem is, he doesn't want them caught in the crossfire, but he doesn't know how they'll react to this.]

[Odds are he'll find out soon enough.]

[faceguy]

[Leo's eyes stay locked on Raph (Raph?), even when Donnie moves, until the moment Huvrye lands in front of him, effectively blocking his view. He immediately panics, wants to push Huvrye aside and go to Raph (Raph??), try to snap him out of it (they did it before, they can do it again)-

It's not him.

Leo is still frozen in place, the cognitive dissonance whirling in his head. This isn't his brother, that wasn't a confluence (was it?), these are just more of those weird black hole monsters. And yet it looks just like him, and what if it is him?

It's not him, it's not him, it's not him-

Leo jerks like he isn't sure which way to go: towards Raph(??), or away from him. If he should try to help (help who?), or if he should run.

(And Donnie's seeing this. Donnie's seeing this, and Leo doesn't want Donnie to have to see this, to have this, too, burned in his memory.)]

...It's... it's one of the monsters.

[He repeats it like he's trying to convince himself.]

[purplexing]

["They caught him. ...We got him back. It wasn't easy but- we got him back, he's okay."

Donnie had suspected there'd been more to it but he hadn't let himself actually think about what had happened in between then and Leo's saying everything worked out.

And now he knows.

He wishes he didn't.

While he's dimly aware that Huvrye and Leo are speaking, Donnie's attention is still very much fixed upon the creature wearing Raph's face.

It's not Raph, but it is, or it had been at some point- that realization twists in his gut and he's not sure if he's mad at Leo for not telling him or if he appreciates that his brother had been trying to keep some horrors unknown-

Wait where did he go

"Raph"'s deceptively bulky form doesn't slow his movement but that should be no surprise to them. The creature virtually vanishes before them, only to reappear off to the side, angling around Huvrye as it barrels towards the two turtles with a monstrous screech.]

[effiomsfavorite]

[Neither of the teens are okay. This shouldn't be a surprise, but Huvrye's heart still twists when he hears Leo repeat his words like he's desperate to believe them.]

[The Shining God is responsible for this - this whole situation, and this monster and the effect it's having on Leo and Donnie specifically.]

[Huvrye is going to kill a god over this. He doesn't know when, or how - he just knows he will.]

[And then the creature moves-]

[The monster is fast, but so is Huvrye, and he augments for strength and speed and puts himself between the monster and Donnie, grabbing one of the monster's outstretched arms - if it could even be called an arm - and using it to hurl the creature down the battlefield.]

Both of you turn around.

[He may not be General Tirvio here, but that's still an order, forcefully delivered with an expectation of obedience. He's going to put this monster down; they don't need to watch him do it. Not while it's wearing their brother's face. They don't need those nightmares.]

[faceguy]

[Raph is fast - Leo has always known that, no matter how big Raph is, he’s a ninja like the rest of them. In some ways the Krang even enhanced his abilities.

It’s not a happy revelation.

Leo reacts too slowly to help Donnie, but it’s okay because Huvrye gets to him first. Leo watches as the thing wearing his brother’s face is thrown away from them, and part of him wants to run after.

Turn around.

The order jolts something in Leo. He knows what it means, realizes what Huvrye is going to do, why he’s being told to turn away.

He’s torn.

He has to help Raph.

But that isn’t his brother.

They aren’t confluences, he keeps telling himself. That’s just a monster. It’s not Raph, it can’t be…

He reaches out and grabs Donnie’s arm, then pulls him in close. He doesn’t care how Donnie feels about being touched right now, Leo has to protect him from this.

He turns them so they aren’t looking directly. He hopes this is right. They can’t be wrong here.]

Don’t look, Dee. Don’t look at it.

[purplexing]

[Donnie had still been trying to process what he was seeing, even as the creature came hurtling towards them. It'd be an easy thing to verify but he's completely forgotten about his goggles, the revelation practically smacking him senseless.

He sees red and it's not Raph- Huvrye's wings, and there's not Raph -it feels like he literally has to shove the pieces together in his head to connect what's happening and even then it feels like pieces are scattering when Huvrye orders them to turn around.]

Wh-

[He nearly jumps out of his skin at Leo's touch, but once he registers it's his brother he doesn't try pulling away, practically pushing against him as though between them they can shut out the wrong things.

It's not Raph it's not Raph it's not Raph it's not Raph it's not Raph]

[effiomsfavorite]

[Huvrye spares a glance at the turtles to confirm they've followed his order - good - then turns his attention back to the monster. They don't need to see this.]

[The monster roars, an awful, guttural sound that shouldn't be able to come from a humanoid throat, and charges towards him. Huvrye flares his wings and takes off towards it at speed.]

[It's fast, but he's faster.]

[It's strong, but he's stronger.]

[He skims low, taking it out at the knees and knocking it facefirst into the pavement. He pulls up sharply, opening a palm as an alchemical array forms around his hand.]

[The first charged shot is a deliberate glancing blow, threaded through a hole at the top edge of the monster's shell as it hauls itself back to its feet. The shot hits the meat of the shoulder and the monster bellows at the impact. Huvrye ignores the noise in favor of what he can see: wisps of black rising from the injury. Leo and Donnie bleed red; this thing bleeds shadows.]

[He'd known - he'd seen it form - but he'd owed it to them to confirm, and now he had: this thing isn't their brother. He lifts a hand again, three concentric rings of alchemy forming.]

[The second charged shot obliterates the monster's head. It collapses to the ground and dissipates into shadows, fading.]

[Only once it's gone - which takes moments - does Huvrye head back to the teens and land next to them.]

It's gone. It wasn't your brother - I checked.

[For what little comfort that provides, if any.]

[He doesn't try to reach out to them, doesn't try to touch them; he doesn't know how they'll react, or if they even want to see him right now. It hadn't been their brother, but it had still been wearing his face, and Huvrye doubts that memory is going to fade anytime soon.]

[faceguy]

[Leo hears Raph- the thing roar, and he very nearly looks, but Donnie pressing against him effectively stops him. He wraps his arms around Donnie tight and holds on, like they're drowning and only clinging to each other can stop it.

It's not him it's not him don't look it's not him don't look don't look-

And then it's over, just like that.

Leo takes a second and then raises his head, looking up at Huvrye. It wasn't your brother - I checked. Leo has a guess what he means by that, and he appreciates it because that means it really wasn't Raph. Just a monster with his brother's face. Wearing it like a mask.

Like some mockery.

Leo's expression contorts in anger, and he drops one arm from Donnie, curling his hand into a fist.]

She took Raph's face... That... that stupid god took my brother's face!

[He feels like he's going to shake apart. Why would she do that? Just to mess with them? Just to mess with Leo?

Is this how Accelerator felt when that room took the Sisters' faces? Leo's starting to understand why he wanted to kill whoever made it, now.]

That wasn't her memory to take. And she just took it! Raph doesn't deserve that, he doesn't- It wasn't his fault, it was...

[Leo deflates, his hand falling to the side. He's angry at the god, he's angry at himself, he wants to cry and scream and hit something really hard. All the fun he was having fighting the monsters is sucked out of him and all that's left is something ugly.]

[purplexing]

[He's not watching, but he can still hear what's going on. That awful sound that has no business coming out of his brother, the disturbing noises of the fight, however blessedly short, that ensue.

He's shaking, his thoughts still swirling, and even when Huvrye tells them things are finished, Donnie can't possibly just relax. He can feel Leo tense, and when he dares look, it's not an expression he ever likes seeing on his brother's face.

And it's not like he isn't angry too, and he hates that it's tearing Leo apart even more so because of things Donnie hadn't even known and even though Huvrye's fixed this immediate problem Donnie doesn't know how to fix any of this or make it better. He doesn't know where to direct this frustration and for as mad as he is, he's still more horrified by what he'd seen happen to his brother. It wasn't him, but it had still happened, and Leo's words just confirm it.

Leo goes quiet again and all Donnie can think to do is throw his arms around him and hold onto him tightly, keep him together just as much as he's trying to keep himself together, a little Hamato bubble trying not to burst for everything in this world that keeps poking and prodding at it.]