metaverses | CRISIS ON INFINITE DREAMWIDTHS: EVENT END

Entry tags:

!event end

CRISIS ON INFINITE DREAMWIDTHS: EVENT END

AT THE END OF THE WORLD

The sound isn't unlike thunder when the universe begins to crack apart. Loud, thrumming thuds that tear the sky and the fabric of reality. The nexuses are being stomped out, engulfed back into the void one by one.

Characters may be in these nexuses as they're slowly engulfed by the cracks. Some may be saying they're final goodbye's to old friends, new friends, or simply watching as the apocalypse descends on whichever world they're in.

And then, just before they're about to fall into oblivion - they're snatched away.

IN CENTRAL CITY —

Outside The Alliance HQ, Chaos Gate and the Silent Mystic stand with their eyes tightly shut, hands linked together as one. Above you the sky has turned a deep crimson. The crack is a yawning chasm as buildings are torn apart brick by brick, falling into the abyss.

If something isn't done soon then you're all dead.

This world is a nexus and this can't be changed, but it can be pulled from the 'between' it has fallen into, and restored to its proper place. This will require an enormous amount of energy. The mystics bid the gathered to join hands: they ask you to remember their world, the one they left behind and tether this world to it. Your strongest memories may bleed out, giving the people around you a glimpse of who you are, what you were.

The universally displaced are here with you. This is a last mingle opportunity. The comm will remain open so people can continue to play any threads they didn’t get a chance to during the run of the event. They too can join hands and share their memories, but as they are not tied to this dimension, when it’s restored they will either return to their own worlds or the nexuses they left behind.

CONNECTION —

Everything goes dark.

It feels endless, swallowing your sight as well as all sound as it closes in. Slowly, glowing threads begin to appear, tying one person to the next, then to the next, and so on. Only those who are linked to Metaheroes are tied with these golden glowing threads. The threads flow down to their feet and then shoot up towards the sky.

There's a boom, different to the thunderous cracks of before. The sky rushes back into place, day and night speeding by as it hurries to realign itself to the proper date and time. It's dizzying, for a moment, before it begins to feel grounding. Right.

The air feels different. Fresher, somehow. The sky is brighter; the world seems fuller, like it has been allowed to become what it should have been all along. A cheer goes up. The people are elated, relieved to see the sun again.

Players may be troubled should they have ventured into other worlds. They have seen the nexuses that have fallen to ruin, know how they too once felt exactly like this.

THE WORLD CONTINUES TO TURN —

The world has been restored to its proper place. Interdimensional communication is coming through again. The Guilds, exhausted as they were putting fires out across the non-meta cities, are relieved. Perhaps this is finally over.

With the return of interdimensional communication comes the return of interdimensional travel as well. This technology has been used in this world before; it was only with the advent of the recent powerful Confluences that it all went dark. Now that it’s back, the Guilds start to make plans immediately. It will take a little time to organize everything, but once they have a system in place, it shouldn’t be too difficult to locate everyone’s home universes and return them there. They set a tentative date for September 4th to start trying to return everyone home.

That being said, the government is none too happy with any of this. The Guild Systems were put into play by two metahumans who wanted the best for the world, as a means to protect them from those who would do them harm. Years have been spent slowly wrestling control from those two and now there is an opportunity.

Behind the scenes a storm is brewing. If they can spin this to blame the Unaligned then perhaps they have no more need for the Guilds. The Society is a thorn in their side that they’d like to finally be rid of, but they’re essentially untouchable. The Unaligned, however, are flagrantly breaking the law. Constantly putting themselves in the spotlight, making it all too easy to yank the rug out from under the metahuman leaders.

How wonderful for them that these strangers from away have made such a wreck of the trust in the systems that protected the metahumans of this world.

Mechanima is all too aware that things are about to go to hell. The Society is welcoming all metahumans, regardless of moral alignment, to join them. It is heavily encouraged among the rumor mill that the Unaligned should start reconsidering their position.

As the days go on, things begin to change across Meta.

Excelsior has become vehemently anti-metahuman. While this outrage may pass, they’re passing new AI laws in rapid succession. Limitations on what AI can and can’t inhabit. Limitations on robot bodies, on mechanical prosthetics, on the research that can be done into what gives things the spark of life. Magic is essentially forbidden within the city. Any abilities that can be mistaken as magic are treated as suspect.

Sunset Falls is worse for wear. Yet the people remain as grateful as ever to the metahumans who stepped in to save them. That gratitude outweighs any fear that they could have caused this - Sunset Falls has disasters all the time that have nothing to do with interdimensional weirdness. They continue to be unbothered by the metas among them.

Central City, having witnessed all the off-world metas stepping in to save them, is oddly grateful for this - but they haven’t forgotten what happened. The disappeared are among them again and are unharmed despite their sojourn through the universe, but the fact that it happened at all is cause for concern. Confluences are a problem. They want answers, they want solutions.

Little Love remains untouched and unchanged.

I DREAM A DREAM SO PRETTY —

Two days after the apocalypse is averted, every off-world meta will find a pillow lying on their doorstep. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live - one of these pillows will find its way to you.

If you’re quick or wary enough, you may be able to catch a glimpse of the being that placed it there: a figure clad in blue robes. They’ll appear seemingly out of nowhere and lay the pillow down before vanishing into dust. Should they happen to notice they’ve been spotted, they’re clearly started, and lay a finger to their lips before departing.

Atop the pillow is a note: an invitation from the Dreamers of the Willow Maiden. You would have undoubtedly heard of this group: they have a presence in this world, though their reputation’s benign. They’re oddballs and weirdos, but ultimately harmless. They believe in the power of a good night’s sleep - literally.

If the note is to be believed, then the Willow Maiden herself has requested an audience with you, and this audience can only be granted in the world of dreams. Should you accept this offer, the note explains, all you need to do is lay your head upon this enchanted pillow. Sleep will come to you quickly.

Your dreams will be extremely vivid. There are recurring themes bleeding through them: your greatest accomplishment juxtaposed with your greatest failure. The moment you could have acted but stayed still. Highschool embarrassments. Falling. Flying. Here in your own dreamscape, you’ve got more control than anywhere else; you feel as though you can do anything. But beware: these dreams grab for you, both the nightmares and the fantasies. It can be easy to lose yourself and forget what exactly is real.

Luckily, the dreams grab for others as well. Sleeping metas may find themselves involuntarily wandering into one anothers’ dreams. Visitors to a dreamscape don’t have any powers outside of what they normally would, but they can reach out to the dream’s host, should they want to.

If no one else arrives, don’t worry. She is patient and waiting, and doesn’t mind that you stumble. Fall too far into the abyss, and she’ll reach out her hand to steady you.

THE WILLOW MAIDEN —

As you find your way out of the haze of your subconscious with uour allies at your side, the Willow Maiden greets you. She is a massive tree nymph, long-limbed and wooden. She is curled against an enormous tree, looking like a statue. At your approach, she lifts her head from the crook of her arm and extends a hand in greeting. Her smile is warm and motherly. You may feel distrust, but that feeling of safety and protection that guided you home radiates from her.

“You from a far away land, come to this world and made its own.” Her wooden lips don’t move, the words echo through your soul itself. “I can do little for you now but issue warning. Danger is waiting in the dawn, in the shine of her sword. You won this battle, your strength and the strength of all those you have touched has saved you… but she is coming.

She is coming.

“My time is short… your words cannot reach me as you are now. Carve yourselves a new future. One in this world and all others. Dream, and in those dreams, you shall become more powerful than even she can stand. My gift is the gift of new life, new lives, new futures… I have shielded you from her gaze until I could no longer bear it and now… I must rest. May the next time we met be true conversation.”

The Willow Maiden lays her head back down on the curve of her arms. Within moments, she’s asleep.

You wake. Not with a start, but as though you’ve been gently roused from a deep and restful sleep. The dreamsharing effect lingers, and can reoccur off and on throughout the month of September, but you will not find your way to the Willow Maiden’s realm again.

IN SUMMARY.

The fourth wall ends in a near apocalypse. Characters will have a chance to say goodbye while the metaphorical walls are closing in. They will be pulled back from the brink at the last second.

Through the collective effort of metaenergy, Metaheroes will rejoin the multiverse, tethered to the worlds which playable characters come from.

As a result, there's tentative optimism that characters will be able to go home

Anti-meta sentiment is growing across Excelsior, and within governing bodies. Government officials will begin looking to blame Unaligned heroes for various crimes and disturbances.

It's a good time to pick a side. Or don't.

Amidst all this, The Willow Maiden invites players to Meta's first dream share event. The dreaming effect lingers and characters may find themselves intermittently sharing dreams throughout September.

However pleasant this is, however cathartic - it doesn't change that things are tense in the waking world. The Willow Maiden's warning will ring in your ears, too: who is coming?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, he couldn't have been more than fifteen.

[Are fifteen year olds cool? The suit was very cool, at least.

As the younger Doreen takes off, Otto settles himself down on the other corner of the bed, watching the screen openly now. He arches his eyebrows when she refuses to dunk on the alternate; he gets what she means from context and he is here to dunk.]

Doreen, it's lime green and yellow. He isn't even hiding his identity. Of course, we couldn't, but why bother with a costume at all in that case?

[He does not know that 616 Otto can just take off the tentacles.]

[ She's trying to be nice! Her first costume was basically a sweatsuit with a furry vest and armbands on top, she has little room to talk! (She was fourteen and her mom made the costume, she has way more room to talk.) ]

Actually, uh... about that.

[ HOW TO APPROACH THIS... ]

Take this with a grain of salt, especially since I never met the guy and my trading cards don't work anymore, but I think he might've had more options in that department? I get the feeling he liked the notoriety, he wasn't big on going incognito. I mean. Bright green and yellow costume aside.

[Otto's brow furrows. He'll be jealous that this other him can just take off the arms and go be a regular person later, but right now:]

Then why is he...?

[He can't be driven by the same factors Otto was at all, if that same connection isn't there. Was he just...like that from the start? But then, the youngest Peter said something similar about his version, didn't he? How he'd always been off.]

Hm. [He chews that over for a second. But, he doesn't want to sit here and brood in front of Doreen.] Well, that does help me understand how he almost married May Parker.

Sorry, who?

[ SORRY BUD, she barely knows who Peter Parker is (the Parker Industries guy? The photographer from that one newspaper? Doreen's 20, she doesn't read the newspaper!), let alone May Parker! But... the name does sound a little familiar.... ]

... Wait, wasn't she Howard the Duck's old receptionist? They almost got married?! Man, that would've been wild. Maybe she was into bowlcuts?

She's the aunt of a kid I almost took on as an intern once. He was working as a photographer, at the time, but he was brilliant. I was very disappointed that it didn't work out.

[That's fine, he already has a cover story all set for why he's interested in the Parkers. It even has the benefit of being true! Otto trusts Doreen as far as his stuff goes, but he's not in the business of spreading Peter's secrets around.]

I never really knew her, in my world. It's just strange to think about. [.....] Howard the Duck?

Man! This whole multiverse thing is crazy, I think there's a photographer at the newspaper back home with the same name. Funny if it's the same guy, huh?

[ sometimes you almost trip over the truth without realizing it! ]

Yeah, Howard's a duck person. About this tall [ she gestures to her hip ], works as a private detective back home. Don't call him a ducktective, he'll get really annoyed. He ended up in our world the same kinda way we ended up here, and he's been mad about it ever since. With good reason, I guess, this'd be even weirder if we got stuck in a universe where humans weren't the default species.

[ The Doc Ock on TV finally seems to notice that he's being filmed, and advances towards the camera until he's knocked offscreen by some webs to the face! ]

Pfft. Serves him right.

[Otto snorts at his alternate, somehow both irritated at the man for going after a reporter, and scornful that he didn't see that web coming. At least pay attention!]

That would be strange. Have you spoken to Spider-Pig at all? He's like that, but a pig - I feel bad for him, being here with all of this.

Oh, yeah, he's great! I talked to him for a bit, turns out his universe has a version of me that's an actual squirrel.

[ she sounds genuinely thrilled about this!

On-screen, Spidey goes flying (the reporter seems to have found a safe spot to hide in an alleyway), followed by Doc Ock... who also goes flying back, this time with two giant blobs of webbing gumming up the claws of his actuators. ]

Ohhh snap! That's what you get!

[ Doreen may be reluctant to dunk on his appearance too hard (although the bowlcut is prime dunkage material, she will admit), but given that this fight happened like ten years ago, and she remembers Spidey winning, she is happy to heckle the actually villainous Doc Ock from the sidelines like they're watching a wrestling match. ]

Does she have the magical ability to speak to humans?

[He's joking, that would actually imply some potentially creepy worldbuilding!

Otto muffles a laugh behind his fist. There's something almost cathartic in watching some evil version of himself get his ass handed to him. It's as if, just for a minute, Doc Ock is another person entirely, someone he can root against without drowning himself in self-loathing.]

Every time! His dodging is awful.

God, I hope so, but that raises a whole lot of weird questions about what kind of looney-tunes logic that universe runs on! Not magic btw, [ she pronounces it 'bee-tee-double-u' ] I didn't get zapped by a wizard or some- OHHH AND SPIDEY COMES BACK WITH A CHAIR!!

[ He literally did, the fight has continued along the street, and Spidey just smacked one of the actuators aside with a chair from an outdoor cafe! ]

Hey, uh, you ok with the commentary? Changing the channel obviously didn't work, but if yelling about it is making things weird, I can stop. I'm pretty sure I remember going out for a walk and then trying to get into the sewers after this, so this memory is bound to change or end soon.

[Otto laughs out loud this time.]

No, no, it's alright. I don't mind. God knows he deserves it.

[Of course he has no idea what prompted this specific fight, but in general? He does. But anyway, let's not dwell on that!]

What were you trying to get into the sewers for?

God, I don't even remember. We went for a walk, and I think MJ saw a light down there or something? Maybe I thought I saw a Ninja Turtle. Whatever it was, my parents weren't happy about it afterwards.

[ Canonically, some time travel nonsense with Kang the Conqueror happened down in the sewers, but Doreen doesn't remember it because of a whole closed time loop situation. That's not important, though. You know what's important? SPIDEY VS DOC OCK ROUND TWO: FIGHT!! ]

What do you think the odds are of the tentacles getting tied in a knot, Looney Tunes sytle?

[Otto cannot even imagine being the parent of a young superhero. It's bad enough just being an adult adjacent to several of them. But he doesn't say so.]

Do they have A.I...?

[It's thoughtful, half-rhetorical; he doesn't really expect Doreen to know. From Otto's observations, he's beginning to think that if they do, it's less advanced than his own. Of course it's difficult to tell from this vantage point, but they don't entirely seem to be moving in the ways he'd expect.

In which case:]

If they don't, I'd give it good odds. Must've happened a lot early on.

[ Doreen's parents have nerves of steel; they had to wrangle an energetic little kid with a tail who could jump onto the roof at a moment's notice! ]

I'm not sure! I assume so, but it's probably a radically different setup than yours. I heard somewhere he could use 'em even when he wasn't wearing the things.

[ that doesn't seem to be doing him much good in this fight, though. Currently, two of the tentacles are webbed to either side of an alleyway. ]

I have no idea why he's bothering with this, if he can just take them off.

[If Otto could take his off? God, just imagine how much better life would be! Maybe he wouldn't be doing any of this superhero nonsense at all.

(Of course, it's not like anyone's forcing him right now. He probably would've, eventually.)]

Mine can remain functional if I'm unconscious, but they...have a mind of their own, in that case. I wouldn't call it me using them. [He doesn't want to think about that.] Never should've let himself get lured into that alley in the first place. Close quarters aren't great for us. Too easy to duck under them and punch us in the face.

[He's only a regular human guy! Any of these blows from Spider-Man could easily kill him, if the hero weren't holding back - Otto's quite certain that his own version was, at least.]

Everybody needs a hobby, I guess?

[ Doreen shrugs. Doc Ock uses the other two tentacles to yank a fire escape down on top of Spidey, but honestly, Spider-Man probably takes a fire escape to the head every week, this is like a Tuesday for him. The Doc gets some webbing to the face for his trouble, obscuring his dorky goggles. ]

Oh, dang! Right in the face!

He's going to get himself killed.

[He says it like it's obvious. Not that Spider-Man will kill him, of course not, but - well, look at Otto. You spend all your time pulling dangerous stunts like that, it's gonna catch up to you eventually.]

Ah! That's the worst - you get a strand of that stuff in your hair, it's gonna be there forever.

I know, right? It doesn't wash out! It evaporates after a couple hours, thank god, but in the meantime it just sticks in your fur! Hair! Whichever. It's like chewing gum, but worse!

[ this has turned from Dunk on Doc Ock Hour to Webbing Rants! Doreen has butted heads with Spidey once or twice (for good reasons, mostly!) and has a LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THAT WEBBING. ]

And even after it's gone, you still feel sticky.

[Granted, some of that was probably that Otto didn't have access to a shower for basically that entire period in his life, but he'd at least tried to clean off in the river. Sometimes.

Look when four hyperfocused A.I. are directing your life and also underneath it you're horrifically depressed, a lot of self-care falls by the wayside. We don't gotta talk about it!]

I always assumed he had some sort of small device he shot it out of. He does not.

Oh god.

[ That gets a wince! ]

I think I heard about that from one of the other Spider-Men that was here. The, uh... taller one? [ She means the one from Amazing Spider-Man, but she's just mentally labeled them Short Spidey, Medium Spidey, and Tall Spidey. ] And you think my universe is the weird one! My dude has gadgets, not... weird webbing-veins or something!

[ At this point, kid-Doreen and MJ head back to the bedside table and start looking for the remote. Doreen's griping about how they didn't even see Iron Man, and they should go to the roof to get a better view, but Monkey Joe is making the more sensible argument about not breaking into off-limits areas of the hotel. ]

At least they can't break?

[It's a weak defense; Otto's also a little weirded out by the weird webbing veins. Lucky Peter's got that healing factor, because he can probably never let a doctor look at him again.

A pair of actuators track the young Doreen's movements, until eventually Otto himself turns to look.]

God, your parents must have gone grey early. I can't even imagine. [otto you've adopted like three or four superpowered teens here already]

[ ok but when's otto going grey, that's the real question here ]

Oh yeah, my dad totally did. They're awesome.

[ This is said with obvious fondness; Doreen was a good kid, but not an easy one to raise! Kid Doreen, for her part, finally switches off the tv and starts getting ready to go, tucking her tail into her pants and disappearing into the closet to find her sneakers as the memory starts to fade around them. ]

I guess you can't run out of webbing fluid if it's in your... you know what, I'm not even gonna finish that sentence.

[It's invisible in his icons but I have to believe he's a fuckload greyer now than he was immediately before the accident.]

That's probably for the best. [let's never discuss his weird web situation again!] Though I do worry about the Spider-Men here running out in the middle of a situation. I know they're used to it, but these things are difficult to predict.

[ the web situation is hereby IN THE VAULT ]

They have to pack extra cartridges for their gadgets! Maybe they need utility belts or something, I dunno if that outfit has any pockets or what.

[Otto shrugs. He doesn't know that much about it.]

One of many reasons I'd never run around in spandex. [Other reasons being pretty clearly visible from how stupid his counterpart looks!] I've actually been thinking of building some small compartments in the actuators to carry things.

CRISIS ON INFINITE DREAMWIDTHS: EVENT END

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)