CRISIS ON INFINITE DREAMWIDTHS: EVENT END

[metamods]

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?

Comments

[doctopoda]

This was only a couple of years into his career. I hope it hasn't gotten worse for him since.

[It's difficult to imagine that happening...but, then, it's hard to imagine why people have so thoroughly turned against this Peter back in his world. But, at the question, he draws his focus back to their current surroundings. Or past surroundings, as the case may be.]

I had an agreement to bring him to Harry Osborn - not the same one who's here in this world. [Does Peter know Harry? Otto doesn't want to cast blame on him for another version's actions either way.] In return, he gave me the tritium I needed to power my machine. After that, I went back to the warehouse I'd been hiding out in...

[As his past self sets out over the buildings, the scene starts to blur and fade. Otto still remembers the trip, of course, but it hadn't been so important as the fight. Quite uneventful, really.

Except - he'd been so focused on how awful he was that he hadn't thought much about what happened after until right now. The scene around them begins to darken as he realizes - ]

...and I never left it again. This was the day I was meant to die.

[His last afternoon alive, and that's what he did with it?]

[tinglesense]

He didn't seem all that worse for wear when I met him.

[ He knows that some bad things happened to both of the older Peters, but they seem…pretty well-adjusted? He would have liked to talk to both of them more about what it was like when they started. Peter himself has only been Spider-Man for about three years, including the time he's spent in this new Confluence world. ]

Oh, Harry exists here too?

[ He does know the other one, though only a little.

It's still wild to think that Norman and Harry exist in both other Peters' universes, but the Avengers don't. They do in one other Peter's universe and they're sort of called something else in the youngest Peter's universe.

He can't even think about cartoon pig Peter most of the time.

He listens to the rest of what Otto says, filing his question about Harry away for later. He's aware that other Harry isn't fond of Spider-Man. Why is that universal?

He looks up at Otto with wide eyes at the end of it. ]

W-what? Seriously? I…

[ Well, that's heavy. He struggles a lot more with that than his own death things; that's just how he is, more concerned with others anyway, but also rather well-versed at repressing his own shit. ]

Hey, Otto? I'm glad you come to our world instead. That you didn't have to die.

[doctopoda]

[For his own part, Otto was far more upset about Peter's past death than he is now at his own supposed one. It's a little disconcerting to realize, but...frankly, at least in his case, he's sort of inclined to agree with Strange. Changing that fate probably wasn't worth the price.

But what's done is done. These days, he's actually sort of happy to still be around. He smiles at Peter.]

I am, too. Thank you, for what you did.

[He's thanked him before. He'll doubtless do it again!

Around them, the memory is shifting back into something coherent: into what Otto had been describing, in fact. It's night now, inside the remains of a broken-down old warehouse. The building's half-collapsed, parts of the floor open to the river. Otto flinches as he realizes just where they've found themselves, taking several instinctive steps back from the platform's edge, away from the water. It puts him nearly back-to-back with his past self, his own actuators turning curiously to look at the others.]

Ugh. This place. [Glancing at Peter, he composes himself.] It exists in your world too, in even worse repair. When I found myself there, I suppose I thought you had somehow knocked me out and taken all of this away. Ridiculous, really...but I certainly couldn't have guessed the truth.

[A sharp whistle. He turns almost in unison with his past self to look at the girlfriend, still chained up against a metal beam.]

[tinglesense]

You would have done it for me if you could.

[ It sounds pithy, but Peter means it. Otto at his crazy angriest wouldn't, but the man in front of him now certainly would. Otto isn't a bad guy, even if he did some pretty bad things. But Tony Stark used to sell weapons of mass destruction. He can't imagine what even Captain American must have had to do back in WW2. People aren't all good or all bad. That isn't how people work. But if he had to weigh it, he'd probably count Otto among the good ones. Ultimately.

He can feel the dim pull of his spider senses, backing away from the edge with Otto, but he's not actually in danger here. ]

The truth was pretty crazy, to be fair. Man, you just showed up and like BAM, angry robot arms guy, and—

[ He turns around at the whistle, too. ]

Who's that girl?

[ Is Peter about to reassess that Otto isn't a bad person thing? No, not really. All of this is over and unchangeable anyway, and he's already made his decisions about Otto. Maybe if Mary Jane hadn't lived through this part, that would be different, but the only person who dies here is…

No one, actually. Otto was supposed to die here, but he didn't now. Peter has no idea what that means for that future, but he's hopeful about it. He has to be. There's enough despair already. ]

[doctopoda]

Schrodinger's girlfriend. Her name was...Mary Jane, I believe.

[Thus the whole "I should have killed your girlfriend" thing on the bridge.]

I'm afraid we were never exactly properly introduced. Honestly, I don't even know why I still had her here at this point -

[The two past figures have a shouted conversation across the warehouse:

"You got what you needed for your little science project, now let me go!"

"I can't let you go, you'd bring the police."

Otto rolls his eyes. At what point during any of that were the police really a significant issue? Not to mention, anyone still standing near the machine is probably going to be dead in twenty minutes, so it's all a tad moot.]

That wouldn't have -

["Not that anybody could stop me now that Spider-Man's dead."

Otto glares at his past self. God, he's irritating, how on earth was Peter that pleased to see him again?]

Well. She's going to get out of it just fine. She's a real firecracker - Peter got her down, told her to run, and she tried to sneak up on me with a two-by-four.

[Obviously it didn't really work, but he admires the attempt! Anyway, maybe he'd better just focus. Otto turns away from the scene to look over his machine. Right now, it doesn't look dangerous at all; it isn't even on. But this version's not quite like the original. The A.I. - Otto - they'd remembered how Spider-Man nearly got to the emergency shutoff on the original, and so simply decided not to include any such feature here. If anything's gonna kill him, when he finally goes back, it's probably that.]