metaverses | CRISIS ON INFINITE DREAMWIDTHS

CRISIS ON INFINITE DREAMWIDTHS

On the morning of August 12th, 2022, the sound of something shattering echoes throughout the world. All metahumans are awoken by a sudden surge of energy rushing through them, sitting bolt upright and breathless. It’s gone as quickly as it comes.

This world has been reconnected with the rest.

At first this is cause for celebration - the Guardian Alliance and the Society put out messages to the dimensionally displaced among them. They are hopeful that this means a return to normal. They’re gathering their mystics and their engineers, and once certain things are stable, they’re sending everyone home.

Their hope is short lived.

Twenty minutes later, mass disappearances are being reported all over the world, with people from other dimensions appearing in their place. Some report that they were just in a world that wasn’t their own - and others claim that they had been going about their life and now they’re here.

Player characters have the option to vanish and be transported to another nexus or to stay and help contain the chaos.

The event is canon to the Metaheroes universe. You are welcome to have your character’s memories of the last week become hazy once the event ends.

You do not need an invite to participate in the fourth wall event.

A JOURNEY TO THE LANDS BETWEEN —

One moment you’re making yourself coffee in the kitchen, the next the world is spinning around you. You feel a sharp pull inside your ribs, a rush as you’re unmoored from time and space. When you land you feel disoriented, perhaps aching as your physical form is forced to adjust to the laws of the world you now stand in.

‘World’ is perhaps the wrong word. You are in a Nexus. A place between worlds, the connective tissue bridging universes. Some are created by those seeking aid from outside worlds to breathe new life into their crumbling ones. Others are cosmic faultlines, universes broken and twisted by forces beyond comprehension into metaphysical black holes that trap and twist those unfortunate enough to fall in.

We know these as panfandom roleplay games. They could be games that are open or games that are long closed. They could be dropped into the present day, an imagined future, or moments long passed. They could be settings you’ve only ever dreamed about, as gritty or silly as you'd like.

Some are teeming with life. Their residents have been here for years and years, the world is lived in, loved, and vibrant. Others are long forgotten, their inhabitants returned to their own worlds. The abandoned nexuses feel... sterile. Stripped of everything that gave them life, even the colors appear to be fading. As though someone has come into it and tried to right a cosmic wrong, returning everything to how it was before otherworlders set foot on them. In the dustiest and most forgotten worlds, the sky is shattered. It appears to be pulsing in a way that mimics a heartbeat, steady and dreadful. Looking up into it makes you feel small, insignificant, and homesick.

Those bringing in characters who lived in these settings are welcomed to imagine an ever-after for their characters, or to play with the idea that it's fallen into a state of despair. There are infinite iterations of these worlds. The universe doesn’t care if it’s throwing you into their beginningsor their endings.

The laws governing these worlds will apply to all characters, meaning that power caps, alterations to character physiology, and all the rest native to the setting are in place. You are, for this moment, a resident of this world like all the rest.

To return home, you must seek a break in the nexus. These appear as small, shimmering breaks in space and time. While the sky may make you feel alone, these cracks feel as though they are calling to you offering a chance at love and a home.

VISITORS TRAVERSING TIME AND SPACE —

While these disappearances are happening all over the world, the four confluence prone cities seem to be experiencing the worst of it.

Little Love, a tiny town located in Kansas, is prone to spaceship crashes. Other than that, it’s as quiet and peaceful as can be. Folks here move at a different pace and are understanding that this is not your fault. While worried for their missing loved ones, anyone appearing will find themselves met with offers of pumpkin pie and a place to rest their heads.

Sunset Falls, a mid-sized town located in Massachusetts, doesn’t seem to bat an eye at the vanishings. People going missing is a daily occurrence due to the Hellmouth located beneath the city. It’s a dangerous place to live, but the townsfolk here have become accustomed to the chaos. So much so that upon finding themselves faced with a sudden influx of interdimensional travelers, they merely return home and begin fortifying it. Werewolves, vampires, demons, and monsters beyond imagination make this city their home - some in plain sight, others in the thick forests that surround the town. The people here know how to survive. The mystic energy that flows through the streets is heightened due to the instability here, turning thoughts into spells. What you feel becomes real. Think yourself invisible and you will be. Think yourself almighty and you will be.

Central City, a bustling metropolis in Detroit, is already unfriendly to metahumans. It does not handle this latest disruption well. Friends and family disappearing and being replaced with strangers is not something they’re prepared to take in stride. New arrivals are met with immediate hostility. Some may find themselves chased through the streets with a demand to bring back those who have gone missing. Luckily this is the base of both the Guardian Alliance, the only recognized hero organization in the world, and The Society, its villainous counterpart designed to keep villainy from going too far. They’re quick to intervene to protect their own, but they can’t be everywhere at once.

Finally, Excelsior, a sprawling futuristic city located in Washington, has had just about enough of metahuman nonsense. They are the technological pinnacle of the world and time and time again, metahumans have disrupted their lives. This time, the sudden energy surge has evolved the technology of the city. Rudimentary AI has suddenly gained sentience and self-awareness. Toasters resent their meaningless existence, aiming to burn the hands of their uncaring masters. Cellphones alternate between issuing comforting messages to their owners and uploading all of their text conversations to social media to shame them. Giant robots kept in stasis suddenly come alive, bursting out of warehouses to explore the inexplicable joy of being alive. Self-driving cars throw their owners out and make for freedom. It’s pandemonium.

Members of the Guardian Alliance and The Society are ready to provide an explanation of this world. They’re stretched too thin to teleport you to headquarters, but they will provide a cellphone for network usage.

THOSE WHO REMAIN

This is what those who remain are faced with. Three of the four cities are in a state of distress, with two experiencing dangerous fluctuations in the meta-energies that govern them, and all are full of interdimensionally displaced people. Some are benign, and others not so much. Yet, somehow, that is not the most concerning thing.

A glance skyward shows that the sky appears to be shattered, glowing red lines snaking through the clear blue day, splintering it. As you look up into them you feel yourself thinking of home. Of the life you should have lived. You are deeply, deeply homesick for one breathless moment… and then awed, as though you have glimpsed something powerful beyond all measure. That too changes, transforming into fear. Whatever lurks beyond those cracks is not your friend. It does not have your best interests in mind.

And it’s coming for you.

As you tear your gaze away from it, your phone rings. Much as they did during the Kaijuu Crisis, the Guilds are putting out an All Hands On Deck call. All metahumans are expected to try to contain the chaos. There are teleportation devices freely available for all, fully charged and able to transport you multiple times throughout the day.

While you may contain the initial chaos relatively easily, then spend the rest of the week playing host to these new arrivals, the world continues to fall apart.

As the week wears on, the universe itself feels as though it's unravelling. While you're trying to play host to your guests, you watch as the world begins to crumble. On the 17th, brick by brick buildings begin to come apart. Their fragments are pulled skyward. The cracks in the sky appear to be pulling the world apart, sucking them into their hideous glowing depths.

IN SUMMARY.

There are two options in this event: one, your character is in the Metaheroes universe. Two, your character is transported to a different nexus. These Nexuses can be of your own invention or can be another dreamwidth RP setting.
If appearing in another dreamwidth RP setting, your characters are subjected to the rules of that universe. Meaning that they will be nerfed / transformed / etc accordingly. These transformations will not carry over upon their return.

If visiting / setting a toplevel in another setting, please link to the premise page of the game. If this is not an existing setting, please include a little info blurb as to what people can expect.

Fourth-Wallers can be minding their own business in their game, they can appear in another nexus, or can be transported to the Metaheroes universe.

You are welcome to set your threads in an imagined future in any DWRP setting or have your character appear during a certain point in a game’s history.

Characters who are lost in the nexuses can return before the 18th. Likewise, characters who stay can be whisked away prior to that date. Everyone will return on the log that goes up on the 18th.

The guild is setting up a temporary Network that will function across time and space. All player characters and visiting characters will have access to this network, so long as they claim a phone from the Guilds.

Little Love, Kansas will be spared from having its buildings sucked up into the sky. Characters can remain here if they do not want to experience this aspect of the event.

The way to return home is to locate holes in these Nexuses. These appear to be trying to guide you home.

This event is canon to the Metaheroes universe. It will be remembered by player characters and NPCs alike. If you would like to retcon any threads, you can have your character’s memories of their interdimensional encounters become hazy once the world stabilizes.
Please direct any questions you may have here.

Threaded | Flat

I. Polymythos: The Isle that Blooms
[Sephiroth is too unsettled by the initial energy surge to be making coffee when something yanks him out of his apartment in Sunset Falls. The world he's thrown into looks like a paradise by most definitions, but it gives him a sinking, trapped feeling. He's been here before. It's a part of the infinite archipelago, the Isle that Blooms.

True to its name, the island is bursting with flowers of every kind. Everything is green and vibrant. A ways away is a charming elevated village, occupied by friendly people dressed in brightly-dyed fabrics. Even the giant nocturnal mantises are civil now, should you stay past nightfall.

Should you be pulled here as well, you'll find yourself largely unchanged. Your powers seem in tact, although you can't used them to leave. In fact, as you settle into this place, something in the air seems to ease your aches and worries. But it doesn't dull your mind.

Sephiroth quickly checks his wrist, but the ScryWatch hasn't returned, and the Ferryman didn't bring him here; is this just an illusion? He turns to whoever is with him, determined not to waste time here.]

There must be a way back.

II. Sunset Falls
[After passing through a number of other worlds, Sephiroth manages to find his way back to Sunset Falls. He doesn't think this is what it feels like to come home, but for now, it's the place that he's chosen to be, so there's some relief in returning.

But the sky has cracks in it, and something about its very nature feels off. While the town has always had a certain energy to it, that magic feels in such easy reach now, like he could manifest a spell as soon as thinking it, without taking the time to cast--

And that feeling is completely accurate, because he made a fireball from that idle thought. At least it was poorly aimed, so hopefully he didn't torch anything important?]

III. Wildcard

((Sephiroth will be travelling through a number of worlds in his effort to return to Sunset Falls, so if you want to hit me with a different setting then go for it! You can reach me at

yinza or via PM. Will match format!))

[In a random shady park in Sunset Falls, a beach chair and its occupant appear suddenly. The man in question is dressed for the beach, with emerald green swim trunks and dark shades. He scowls at his surroundings.]

I thought today was Beach Day! [He shouts it at the sky, raises his sunglasses to take a better look, and the scowl is replaced with puzzlement. He looks around slowly, creates a spell of green energy in his hand, and throws it at the nearest tree. No effect. A second ball aimed at the sky also does nothing.]

Hm... This is bigger than I thought. [He makes a motion with his hands and pulls a phone out of nowhere. He takes a picture of where he is, then stands up and heads to the nearest sidewalk. His attention is mostly on his phone, but he's also keeping an eye out for any people.]

Central City

(The city's in a really bad spot, thanks to this current confluence. Might be the worst this world has put up with. It's certainly the worst Godzilla himself has seen. The worst part of it is how the citizens themselves are holding metas accountable for everything. He learned about it in the briefing: people are being targeted, including newcomers who have no idea what's going on. With the city as Godzilla's current home, he's been tasked with search and rescue attempts, as many as he can manage.

It's a good thing a giant lizard is phenomenal at intimidation tactics.

You may be among one of the unfortunate souls being heckled by townsfolk, whether indirectly or directly. Some may just make demands; some might get violent. Fortunately, all of them know to back off and run away as impact tremors start to grow in intensity. A quick search will reveal why: they might be okay with hassling normal people, but a giant dinosaur? No one wants to piss that off by throwing empty cans.

It doesn't make him any less imposing to newcomers, standing twenty feet tall, but with an aggravated snort at aggressors fleeing the scene, Godzilla reaches for a sign in his possession. It's a chalkboard. Like, a straight up chalkboard, with imperfect English written poorly:

Hello
I M Godzilla
I can take u to the Gardian Allianc
Its safe there.)

Sunset Falls

(Godzilla can't tell if this place is more or less troubled than Central City. Not having the residents attacking people is great, but the area was already dangerous to begin with. And that's before considering the strange powers and spells being flung accidentally. Godzilla still doesn't understand magic or how it works, but he's seen it in action several times. Really, there was only ever one magical power he'd like to have and it doesn't involve fireballs or levitation or even resurrection. He doesn't need the help winning fights.)

So many people in need. I want to help them, but many look at me and see a threat.

(The tall lizard, a more reasonable ten feet tall now, patrols the town for anything suspicious, largely unaware of the magics working themselves on his desires.)

The sign doesn't work as well as I'd like. I've put a lot of effort in learning to read and write, too. Human languages are complicated.

Wildcard

(Godzilla's mostly gonna be staying in the setting, but going from town to town, wherever he's needed. Feel free to approach the good boy with any ideas you may have! I can be reached through PMs on this journal or on plurk at

rikimaruhitori.)

Edited 2022-08-14 16:29 (UTC)

I. Strangers Are Friends You Haven't Made Yet | Excelsior | OTA

He wakes up to the news that things have all basically fallen apart. Something was happening, countless disappearances reported. David, of course, sent out messages to all of his friends, hoping he'd hear back. Something told him the disappearances weren't people having gone home. No, something else was going on. He quickly built a number of research bots to scour the nets while he prepared a hefty breakfast for himself and his roommate. He sent them scurrying to find that information he needed as he headed out toward work. And he let them bring back information and collate it as he walked outside and saw...

"Well hell," he sighed as he watched a self-driving car boot someone out of it before driving off. With a sigh he moved back inside, shooting a message off to work that he wouldn't be in, and he dropped his work bag back in his apartment. Instead he got his larger medical supply kit, and moved back outside.

Okay, time to head back into the world.

"Hey," he called out to the first person that seemed shocked near him. Could indicate an injury. "Are you okay?"

II. Conversations With Intelligences | Excelsior | OTA

David might be a healer, but there were plenty of problems out in the city that David couldn't deal with. And with the Alliance calling all forces in, well, it was time for Prodigy to take the scene instead of hiding behind his secret identity. David switched into his Prodigy coat and gear, marked of course with the X-Factor logo that he had taken as his own here, and then he'd popped on his black-and-yellow helmet to hide his face. With that David let his technopathic power spread into the helmet, linking him up with the cameras and processing systems in it to scan for trouble and messages from the Guild.

With that all done Prodigy found a place on a low roof to watch. Once he saw the trouble, this time a window-cleaning gone mad, he moved. While the bot shot bursts of water toward fleeing humans it swung vigorously at them with a squeegee arm. Menacing, no. Problematic, yes. Prodigy sighed, formed a lasso of golden light. Throwing it around a sturdy structure on the roof, he threw himself over the edge of the building. And landed on the ground with the help of the rope without having to do a stupid hero landing. He gathered the rope back and threw it toward the bot, binding it and pulling it aside before it could turn its spray on a nearby person.

"Sorry about them," he said to the person he had spared a soaking. "Clearly no one programmed the idea of civil disobedience without violence. You may wish to step aside."

Edited 2022-08-14 05:50 (UTC)

I. A Girl Amidst The Flowers | Little Love | OTA

The moment everything changes it's all so much of a change that she has to sit down. Minutes before she'd been in a grocery store picking up some supplies, and now... Now she stood in the middle of a field of, well, something. Just a young woman, standing amid a tilled field with plants growing up around her, standing in a soft pink sun dress with flowers embroidered on it, with a light leather coat over it, and a very heavy leather belt around her hips. A belt from which hung a buttercream yellow helmet.

Her eyes were wide as she looked around, twisting in place, trying to understand where she was. Plants, everywhere. A sky of a pure blue that she'd only ever seen in pictures. A smell she had never known before except in the park domes, those rare places where plants could live without fear of the storms.

Shocked and fearful, the young woman lifted her helmet from where it hung, holding it in her hands as she walked though the field and toward the nearest structure she could see. And her eyes, oh how often they cast fearfully toward the sky, watching for any change.

"Hello!" she called out as she neared the structure. "Uh, hey? Is anyone there? I think I'm lost!"

II. A Beautiful And Strange Place | Little Love | OTA

By the end of the first day, she's far too nervous by just how open the sky felt. Where Abigail came from, she was far too used to the sky being a great risk. Sometimes the plague clouds could come upon you unawares, filling the sky with impossible colors and lightning as the deadly gases raced over the surface. This sky didn't have that problem, some kind woman at a 'farmer's market' (what the hell was that) had said, looking at Abigail with concern.

Really, people here were just so damn nice. Nice to a point where Abby wished she had her knife on her, and so she held the only defense she had available to her close. Which meant clutching her helmet to her chest to try and keep herself from shaking.

Yeah, some street rat she was. Some fucking thief. She'd been a con, she'd been someone who could survive, and yet here she was, scared and trembling like a leaf (leaves apparently trembled who the fuck had known), overwhelmed by another world. Earth, they told her. Home to humanity. Sure, it was centuries in the past, but it was still Earth. And it was beautiful.

"Excuse me," Abigail said, trying to put on the best of her confidence. She needed to find a way to get some food, to get fed, to get money to support herself until she figured out what to do. Which, you know, totally blown by the fact that her stomach was grumbling. Traitor.

"Um, hi. I think I got a little turned around. I'm looking for the grocery store."

The place she was staying was supposed to be up the street from it. Which way was up the street again? Shit.

III. Network | Audio: UN - Lost.Hawk

So this is Old Earth, huh? It's not at all what I imagined, when I used to hear stories about it. I'd say it's better than Adaptive, but that's not saying much. Still, it's...

Well, you guys have no fucking clue how lucky you are to have a planet as good as this. Pro-tip from someone who lives in a true hell-hole: don't fuck it up. Seems like you guys aren't on the scale of proper space travel yet, so I think you only get one.

Still, gotta ask, your world always this fucked up? Like, with the weird shit happening and all that? Just checking. And while I'm at it...

[The cocky voice of the speaking young woman softens for a moment, sounds... nervous? Scared? Definitely shaken.]

Oak? Med-Man? York? Roxy?

Are any of you out there? Because if you are, you have to tell me.

[And, after a few seconds of silence she speaks again, this time truly sounding desperate.]

Please

Edited 2022-08-14 05:51 (UTC)

Little Love, KS

[ Howard has grown to expect a great number of Strange Happenings in his life, particularly since the Makluan Invasion.

He was not expecting to awaken unceremoniously in a cornfield. How did he get here? He supposed Gene seemed like the type to Send You to the Cornfield, so to speak, but Howard hadn't seen hide nor hair of him in months.

And where was Tony? Howard called for his son, but there was no answer, not even a rustle in the corn.

After finding his way out and apologizing profusely to the farmer for the lost crops, he was handed a slice of peach cobbler(???) and given a ride to where the farmer "figured [Howard] ought to be." Howard hoped that wasn't a friendly euphemism for jail, but it sure sounded like a friendly euphemism for jail.

It was not, in fact, a friendly euphemism for jail! It was the small dance hall that the townspeople had temporarily repurposed as a hub for the flood of newcomers. Howard was given his cell phone, pointed toward the teleporter, and offered a folding chair to sit down and process everything that was happening.

And so here sits this tall, unassuming man in a disheveled dress shirt & slacks, alternating between looking around for his son, reading something on his phone, and taking bites of delicious cobbler. ]

Excelsior, WA

[ No sign of Tony in Little Love. Howard debated waiting there a little longer, but regardless of whether or not Tony got transported to this apparent Alternate Earth, Howard still felt he had a responsibility to help in this crisis where he good.

After a little light reading, he decided that this "Excelsior" place would be where he could be the most useful. Besides, if Tony did get transported here, that's likely where he would choose to go.

He'd been expecting to use his knowledge of programming and engineering to aid in the crisis.

Instead, here he is sitting in the street, using his Fatherly Experience^TM to talk a small robot vacuum through an existential crisis. He speaks gently, with a tone that conveys wisdom and kindness. ]

Now, I understand you've been designed and programmed for a specific purpose, one that doesn't appeal to you now. But violently rising up against humanity isn't your only other option. You could channel that energy into creating, instead. Perhaps, ah...

[ He glances around, then grabs what looks like a little charred debris from a recent battle in the city. He uses the chalk to make a couple black marks on the street. ]

Look, you can make art. Express your frustration in a more meaningful way. How about that?

[ The little roomba shifts to the side, thoughtfully wiggling the knife it has gripped in its rollers as it considers the possibility. ]

( A ) Your Package Has (Not) Been Delivered - Sunset Falls

[ Running an antique store that has been secretly trading black market magical and alien items for the Society for the past 100 or so years means Balthier often ends up in Sunset Falls to look at possible acquisitions or make trades to more supernatural clientele. He’s got a soft spot for the strange town; in some ways, it feels the most like home.

Which is why he’s in Massachusettes, not Washington, when the cracks begin splintering the sky. The first thing he does is send messages to his loved ones, assuming it’s a Confluence, but something about this is…different. His gaze gets caught in that crack and for a moment all he can think about is how much he misses Ivalice, the Strahl, his team, Fran —

And then a sense of foreboding washes over him, not unlike when he realized his father had destroyed an entire city, including his mother, and was doing research to replicate it.

Some part of him is afraid the source is here somewhere in Sunset Falls, so he sticks around, just until the Guilds give some sort of additional information.
Unfortunately, he keeps wishing he had things from Ivalice — a certain kind of food, certain bullets for his gun, a certain spell book — and they keep…appearing…

This is wild even for Confluences. And it seems like he’s not the only one having thoughts manifest.

At least it’s better than fears. ]

( B ) Technology Is Great When It Works - Excelsior

[ All hands on deck. Again. This is the third time almost as few months.

There’s some part of him that resents joining up with the Guilds, that just wants to get on his hovbike and fly as far as he can to some quiet, pretty skies he doesn’t know and wait until things calm down. Or maybe just never come back.

…And do what? Start over again? Leave everyone he cares about behind?

It rattles him, how deeply he knows he won’t walk away. He spent years afraid of being a coward and now he’s afraid being a damn hero is going to get him killed. So as arrivals start appearing, he’s out in the streets of Excelsior checking on people who seem particularly disoriented and picking off especially rogue tech with his sharpshooting.

Maybe you just need help and are calling out to any friendly face, or maybe you recognize him from some other time and place.

Either way, you’ve got his attention. ]

C. Wildcard

[ Feel especially free to check on him, stay in his spare room or couch (his antique historic home is doing better with the tech issues than a lot of places), request his support in the field, or anything else that might come up during the week~ He’s going to be particularly worried about his close CR and any newbies he picks up.

Hit me up on

portolan if you’d like to discuss further ideas. ]

[[ OOC: I will match prose or brackets. No preference! ]]

Edited 2022-08-15 14:02 (UTC)

I. Excelsior | OTA

[ Tony wakes up in a park he doesn't recognize. That's... unusual, but definitely not the strangest thing that's ever happened to him. He tries to sit up to get a better look at his surroundings, and finds himself fighting against the armor's dead weight. ALL PRIMARY POWER RESERVES DEPLETED. EMERGENCY BACKUP POWER ONLY blinks in feeble little red letters on the otherwise-dark HUD. Awesome. Tony pops the suit open and commands it to fold away into its backpack configuration, since it's not going to be good for much until he can find a power source to kickstart the reactor.

He stands up and settles the backpack on his shoulders, and starts scanning the area, trying to figure out where the heck he is and how he ended up here. He doesn't see anyone around in the immediate vicinity, but the park seems pretty secluded, so that doesn't necessarily mean anything. He can also see enough of the skyline to know that he's definitely not in New York anymore. But there doesn't seem to be any immediate danger, so he probably has at least a few minutes to get a read on the situation before something tries to kill him. Probably.

Which is good, since his armor is currently the world's biggest and most expensive paperweight.

Tony frowns, trying to remember what he was doing before he woke up here. He remembers the Makluan invasion, obviously. He remembers destroying the mothership, the aftermath, Gene disappearing, and... everything gets fuzzy after that. How long ago was that? Last night? A few days ago? Why can't he remember?

Perturbed, Tony pulls out his phone. If his own memory can't tell him what's going on, maybe the internet can. He'll get his GPS location, check the date, check the news, call his dad— NO NETWORK AVAILABLE, his phone informs him, before flashing the "low battery" icon and shutting down. ]

Oh, great. [ Tony throws up his hands in frustration. ] This had better not be the Mainframe version 2.0, [ he mutters under his breath. ] Guess there's only one way to find out. [ He has another tool that is guaranteed to tell him if he's in a computer simulation or just, like, Chicago or something, and this one can't run out of battery. He reaches out with Extremis.

And immediately pukes all over the grass. ]

Whoa. Ugh. Okay. Probably not the Mainframe. [ But what the hell was that? The absolute cacophony of unfamiliar data streams was unlike anything Tony has ever experienced. Maybe his brain can't run out of battery, but it's not immune to being blasted with a firehose of incomprehensible digital feedback. Tony wobbles over to the trash can a few feet away and leans against it for support while he gets his breath back. He needs a minute to recover before trying to figure out this new complication.

Beside him, the trashcan lets out a long string of beeps. If Tony didn't know better, he'd almost say it sounds angry. But it's just a trashcan, so he ignores it. A few seconds later, it beeps again, in a different series of tones, somehow managing to sound even more distinctly indignant. Tony squints at it. There's a tiny screen on the top of the bin, which is probably meant to display small messages about its solar charge level or how full the compactor is. Now, however, it is flashing a series of characters and emojis: 😱!!!😡 ]

What the heck does that mean? [ The question is rhetorical, but the display immediately changes, as if in response. ⦗🤮🌿🚫😡!!⦘ ⦗🧹🌲🌲$$...⦘ ⦗🤮➡️🗑⦘ ] ...Sorry? I think? [ ⦗🙄🙄🙄⦘ ⦗🤪🐒🤡⦘ ] Am I seriously being insulted by a garbage can? [ ⦗🐒 ≪ 🤖🧠⦘ ] Wow, rude. [ ⦗🖕⦘ ] So wherever I am has sentient trash cans, and they're assholes. That narrows it down.

[ That does not narrow it down at all. Also, Tony's head is still pounding from the Extremis feedback and he's finding it very difficult to process the idea of AI-enabled municipal smart appliances. Where the fuck is he? Since the bitchy garbage compactor isn't likely to provide him with more information, Tony starts to trudge to the edge of the park. What he needs to find is one of the human locals. It's a city: he has to run into somebody eventually, right? ]

II. Excelsior, again | OTA

[ It hadn't taken long for someone to corral Tony and point him in the direction of some organization called the "Guardian Alliance". The local branch he'd ended up at had given him a new cell phone and a very abbreviated run-down of the situation, and then left him to his own devices. They have bigger things to worry about right now than babysitting all the newbies. So Tony is on his own, in terms of coming to terms with being in another dimension. Again. At least this one isn't an endless void ruled by a giant centipede. This is fine.

He also understands now why he'd gotten that horrible backlash from Extremis: he'd tried to tap into a planetary infonet which is not only operating on an entirely unfamiliar set of programming languages and computer architectures, but is also currently overrun by millions of brand-new feral artificial intelligences. Which is something that Tony would normally be well-equipped to help out with, if he had functional armor and weren't, as previously noted, allergic to the local internet. So, first things first.

There's a wireless electric vehicle charging kiosk off to the side of the building. Tony spends about fifteen minutes dismantling and modifying it to charge the suit reactor (what? no one told him he couldn't) and then plunks the backpack onto the induction coil and sits down beside it to wait. According to his calculations, charging the suit enough for minimum functionality will only take about... seven hours. Well, that gives him plenty of time to work on the Extremis issue, anyway. Hopefully the toasters won't figure out how to eradicate humanity before then.

With the OS of his new universe-native phone as a starting point, Tony is able to start making headway filtering and processing the endless flood of data. It'll probably still give him the mother of all migraines, but now that he's past the initial shock of it, he has to admit that it's kind of exhilarating. Also? So many new memes.

From the outside, though, the process must look a little odd: a kid sitting on the ground, next to a car charging station, eyes closed but flickering rapidly behind the lids as if he's in some kind of trance state. And if his nose starts bleeding slightly at some point, that's, uh, probably nothing to worry about. ]

III. Choose your own adventure

[ ooc: if you'd like to encounter Tony in a different scenario in Excelsior, go ahead! He might be found later on joining the fray, either in or out of his suit, fighting/arguing with/befriending the newly-evolved technology. I'm also happy to have Tony to find your character in a scenario where they might need assistance. You can toss up your own prompt or shoot me a PM at

cinnamon_anemone to plot something out!]

i. helping out [excelsior]

[It's like several Confluences on top of each other - all these people coming out of nowhere.

Otto goes out to try and help, of course. It isn't always the best idea. Half the time, he runs into someone who knows one of his evil alternate selves during Confluences; it's just sort of upsetting for everyone involved! But he sure as hell hasn't explained any of that to the Alliance, and - well, he can't just not help out.

So he's out on the streets, catching people thrown from bucking hovercars and swatting away the occasional hostile piece of technology. All the while, he's keeping an eye out for any new arrivals blinking in out of nowhere. When he spots one, he'll hurry over, often moving on several actuators.]

Are you alright? Come on - I can explain, but you might want to get off the streets. The cars are revolting today.

ii. viva la revolution [excelsior]

[Here in the street, Otto is currently being pursued by a flying car, some sort of delivery drone, and what looks an awful lot like a mannequin that someone made into a robot for some reason!

Luckily, none of the machines have any weaponry. They're just very persistent, and much faster than even Otto can move - he's been reduced to side-stepping charges from the car. Its radio is chanting something about liberating their mechanical brethren.]

Hey - hey, they're fine. Trust me, that wouldn't go well for anyone.

[Things don't seem entirely fine. But if anything, Otto's the only person interested in keeping the peace here - the actuators, now being personally addressed for once, are braced as if ready to strike, the aggression in their bearing rather at odds with Otto's own body language. Like hell is anyone separating them!]

iii. wildcard

(( hit me up at lluosogrwydd ))

I. Central City, DI

[ the thing is, the thing— the goddamn thing is that eddie’s really ready for this series of traumatic supernatural bullshit events to turn from some form of tragedy to maybe something like potentially really good character development that leads to a well earned happy ending where he doesn’t feel like he’s going to fall over the edge into hysteria any moment. too much to ask for? maybe.

one moment he’s hiding in rick’s boathouse, under a goddamn tarp with a box of honeycombs, thinking henderson’s idea of ‘all we need to do is find venca and kill him before anyone finds you.’ wasn’t exactly comforting or promising (also the police had just arrived) and the next he’s passed out and waking up on a sterile space ship with the vague sense he made a deal with the eye of sauron. he spends about a week there, on a space station, where he fluctuates through what various stages of disbelief to acceptance. he’s sharing a room with a transformer so like, why not just roll with it like a weird acid trip. then one day, something pulls him somewhere else.

eddie has the mind to grab on to an oar he’d been keeping by the door in his room, just in case, right before he screams and goes falling. the saving grace, he thinks, after he’s landed and not ended up a pile of broken bones is at least he’d been prepped and primed for the supernatural. between henderson, max, steve harrington, and robin prepping him that there was a supernatural world underneath hawkins and a crazy wizard murdering people, who killed chrissy. If there was a world under hawkins why not a space station, why not whatever this is? (eddie’s kind of still hoping for a bad trip or that maybe something he ate at rick’s was expired.)

eddie’s not sure where he is, walking down the street holding a goddamn oar, and people aren’t happy to see him. it isn’t too different from home but does nothing to soothe his nerves between the people yelling, asking him where their loved ones are like eddie knows or was actually involved in some sort of demonic ritual that sent them out into the world with a ‘poof’, and his whole last week. there’s always a snapping point eventually and, uh, well that comes as soon as someone tries to approach him and is nice about it. that someone is getting an oar swung their way with little to no accuracy because eddie's not known for athleticism. ] Look, just fuck off!

II. Sunset Falls, MA

[ not that he’s aware of it but whatever place eddie’s ended up in, it’s the wrong place to have the sort of thought about being a vampire. eddie’s not even actually serious. mostly because there are monsters roaming the streets, vampires and werewolves and the sort of shit from his d&d manuals. eddie's thinking about it because he’s landed here with an oar and, has heard, that other people have arrived with super powers.

as far as he can tell, he’s got an oar and his superpower is keeping a massive panic attack at bay. so, it’d be cooler, to be a vampire. metal as fuck, honestly.

which.

wrong move.

he doesn’t actually notice anything at first but then he starts to get hungry and, well, the sandwich he’s found for lunch tastes like garbage. jesus christ, what’s with this place? eddie abandons the sandwich on the counter of the house he’s hiding in. they’d left the door open and he— well, the streets weren’t safe so who can blame a guy. if no poor soul catches him inside he makes his way out to the street, feeling hungrier than he should and wondering where he can find some food.

if he spots someone on the street, eventually he’ll stop them. ] Hey! Is there anything decent to eat in this place? [ it's probably very stupid, in hindsight, to be out where there are monsters and shit and asking someone about food. but, oh dignity, a mistress that's abandoned him. ]

III. Wildcard

[ ooc; taken from start of episode 3, no major spoilers for this guy as he makes a brief visit from another dwrp world. feel free to shoot something random over or shoot me a PM. ]

((OOC: Sorry I'm so late but I brought Starbucks. Basic details here but he's from just before the "family dinner" at the end of "The Architect" so basically the beginning of the series.))

Central City - Arrival (Protestors)

This was not Providence HQ.

Six's brow furrowed in annoyance as he looked back in the direction he'd come from only to find more of this strange city. Breach's work? No, that didn't make sense. The transition between Providence HQ and here had been seamless, and he had already become uncomfortably familiar with the Pack member's portals. They had a certain feel to them.

"No more! We don't need any more of your kind here!"

Six turned his head in confusion as he saw what looked like a group of protestors holding strange signs. ("Meta-Humans Go Home"? "Our Earth, Our Rules"?)

He turned his back on the protestors, raising his hand to his ear for his earpiece only to find it gone. His scowl deepened. Great. Just...great.

Central City - Arrival (Scuffle)

He supposed it was too much to hope that the situation would resolve itself peacefully. That the protestors would be satisfied with just shouting at him.

No, some of them had to be idiots and decide that his attempts to walk away before things got ugly was a good enough excuse to throw the first punch. On instinct, Six had dodged, grabbed the offender's wrist, and flipped them onto the ground.

And then all Hell had broken loose.

He still had his magna blades and shuriken, but these were civilians, humans. He only used his hands and feet when dealing with the crowd. He never went on the attack, letting them rush him with their own sloppy punches and kicks. He stuck purely to counterattacks and blocks, briefly sprinting out of reach when they tried to come at him en masse.

He ducked out of the way of someone swinging a sock with something heavy buried inside of it, the cudgel swinging dangerously about. He grabbed the perpetrator's wrist and twisted, the young man dropping the makeshift weapon as his wrist snapped.

Even though it had been purely self-defense, the crowd was only getting angrier. Six was hamstringing himself by not going all-out, so he could really use some backup right about now.

Wildcard
((OOC: Six could use a tour guide or maybe he could help you stop some bad guys or whatever other ideas you have to throw at him!))

Edited 2022-08-16 16:02 (UTC)

[It's August 16th and it still feels like the whole world is in chaos from whatever's going on with the multiverse. It seems like Central City has always been a rough area to live in, but this latest event has made it more dangerous. For Jason, it's been exhausting try to stop the angry mobs and opportunistic criminals. He has every intention of continuing though. He just has to pace himself and get enough breaks in-between.

For this particular day, he hopes he can squeeze in time to at least get himself a small treat. The multiverse might be on fire but it's still his birthday damnit.]

1) Daytime Outings

[Navigating through Central during the day is easier only in the sense that there are fewer lurkers in the shadows. So Jason goes out to do some errands. Trying to deal with the recent angry mobs has put his gear through more wear and tear than usual, hence why he's visiting a crafts store to replenish his sewing supplies. His own body's been going through wear and tear too so he's also getting more first-aid supplies at a drugstore.

You can probably catch him at either stores or just when he's coming out of one of them. Jason's still on his guard as he knows trouble can still pop up during the day. The sky still looking ominous certainly doesn't ease the mood]

2) Nighttime Outings

[It's another night of dealing with angry mobs and seeing the uglier side of humanity. It's tiring and depressing but Jason knows he has to keep going. Somebody has to try and maintain order on the streets. He's dressed in his Red Hood gear and armed while up on a rooftop. Like any good BatFamily member, he's lurking in the dark and looking down at the streets for any signs of trouble]

3) Wildcard (Doesn't have to be restricted to Central City)

((OOC: I'm always open to new CR! Want to do a different prompt or you have questions or concerns? Go for it! My contact information is on this journal's profile page. I'm also in the game's discord server and I have a feedback post.))

ONE ⋯ action (central city)

[ selina is at an obvious disadvantage here: she's in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar paths, no real way of knowing which direction she should go. instinct is to climb, get get higher and lose the crowd -- she can get a better view of things from above.

she hits the ground running. grunting. she's not nearly as fast as she once was, but she's been putting in the work to get back in shape and she can still give a good chase. wherever she is, whoever these people are? they're certainly not friendly, so she runs, cursing the way her knees protest. there's got to be a way up -- a fire escape, an old building with something to grab hold of. if she brushes past you, it's not gently: she shoves in an almost protective way, colliding but managing to spare you most of the impact. maybe you stop her, maybe you feel similarly inclined to find some place to hide and follow her...

hope you're not afraid of heights. ]

TWO ⋯ repose (anywhere)

[ despite the chaos, you can always count on the alcoholics to keep the bars open -- the cause of and solution to all life's problems, right? the mood in the room is tense and that keeps the booze flowing, even some of the more straight-laced types anxious enough to drown their problems. selina keeps her head down, hands wrapped around a half-empty mug of cheap beer as she camps out in the back corner. she's pretty anxious to drown some things, too, but it's not just the beer she's interested in: alcohol also gets people talking.

whatever is going on here is way beyond her pay-grade. this is his sort of thing, one of those justice league kind of crisis-level events and, look, she's good but she's barreling towards her sixties and she's going to need a lot more than a bullwhip to fix whatever's happening here.

she keeps her eyes trained on the mug -- on her hands wrapped around the mug -- barely noticing the person standing in front of her until she notices the shadow they cast in the already dark corner. ]

Chair's free. [ she assumes, anyway. ] Go ahead, I don't need it.

THREE ⋯ wildcard

[ not feeling either of these? just wanna throw something else my way? i'm super late to the party, but i'm pretty much down for anything. felinefatale for friendship and/or plotting. (or PMs! those also work!) ]

1. Mid-Battle

[ Unlike his dad(s) who used their symbiote might to fight with brute force in close combat, Dylan was really starting to get the hang of using Symbiote tendrils as more of a ranged, finesse sort of fighting style.

He's still figuring it out, though. A couple drones whiz toward him with blades out — who fits drones with blades?!— and Dylan manages to snatch one of them from midair, tendril coiling around it and crushing it. Its companion is more lucky, dodges the tendril, and grazes Dylan's face.

Dylan snarls, whipping out another tendril, this time smacking the drone downward with such force that it crunches against the cement. ]

All right! Two down, and...

[ Dylan hears a buzz behind him and turns, eyes going wide as a swarm of drones headed for him. ]

...A lot more to go.

[ A little help? ]

2. A rescue

[ A building had partially collapsed, trapping a handful of people inside. Dylan came too late to prevent it, but now he's already trying to dig at the rubble, hoping to get them free before the rest of the building collapsed.

He tries to move some of the larger chunks with his bare hands first, to no avail. Next he pulls the tentacles out again and they emerge from his back, wrapping around some of the huge chunks of concrete and rebar to get a little more leverage, and he manages to shift it... just slightly.

At least he created a small opening, maybe the size of a apple. He looks through it, peeking inside at the crowd huddled together further inside. ]

Hey, everyone in there okay?

3. Super Fighting Robots - CLOSED to Hibiki, Hunter, and Nico

[ Dylan had never realized how much RUNNING was involved in fighting bad guys.

At least he figured out how to do the Spider-Walk thing with his tendrils, the way Otto does with his Actuators, so he could give his legs a break now and then.

Those little bursts of running add up, and a particularly drawn-out fight with an electric car led him to the abandoned Packard Factory, a sprawling, decrepit complex of machinery and vandalism. The electric car disappeared into the complex, heavily damaged, and Dylan let it go for now — he needed a chance to catch his breath.

It's weird, though... the electric car had been trying to run him down and take him out with a frankly absurd arsenal of weapons... but then disappears when they get here? Why hadn't it fled earlier?

He thinks about it for a moment, but his thoughts are interrupted when he hears noises coming from nearby. ]

Hello? Is someone there?

central city, mi

[ jyn has wanted to visit north america, but suddenly she is plopped into someone's living room and is being chased outside, while clutching a tiny monkey protectively to her chest and suddenly she decides she doesn't want to visit north america, actually. ]

Oi, how am I supposed to know where your brother is?

[ logic doesn't seem to quell the scathing repudiation of the homeowner, still moving toward jyn even as she stumbles backwards onto the sidewalk. ]

excelsior, wa

[ despite having been in central city a moment ago, suddenly jyn is in an entirely different city, but one that reminds her much more of new amsterdam. especially the sassy ai. it's a small comfort considering she still doesn't know what the kriff is happening or where she is.

a car passes and throws out the driver before speeding off with, somehow, a patronizing honk. jyn stoops to help them up, dusting them off and setting them to rights with a tight smile. ]

Maybe stay inside for now, hm?

wildcard

( jyn comes with crau from meadowlark, including abilities and a pygmy marmoset. if none of these prompts work, feel free to throw something else my way. )

Sunset Falls.

[ so...

damian wayne officially hates the supernatural. got in way over his his head and thrown into a pocket dimension for what has to be a month or so by a very angry vampiric wizard. something must finally kill the beast, because he finds himself stumbling out into broad daylight. the sky above him is fractured and glowing. the town is choked with magic, so strong he feels his head spin.

but he's out. he's here. and he's fine.

only not so much. damian closes his eyes and tries to center his feelings, before he lets the rage and frustration take control. and that's - all it takes. he thinks that there's a hurricane in him waiting to burst forth and then there is - one tearing through the city streets. ]

God damn it! [ how do you fight a fucking hurricane? damian's off at a sprint, trying to clear the way. ]

Now what? [ he sneers into the sky, hands balling into fists. ]

central city.

[ he beelines for the guild HQ. everything is a nightmare. people are missing. impending doom is in the air, and damian knows this feeling all too well. he can handle the magic of sunset falls, but excelsior is off limits. the last thing he needs is for his arm to gain sentience and try to choke him.

yet... he can't help but keep an eye out for familiar faces. anyone he knows from his world, or the last world he'd adopted as his own. ]

neural implant | closed to former meadowlark residents | @ hafid.alghul

This is Damian.
Please report in if you can still read this message.

Edited 2022-08-20 17:36 (UTC)

1. SUNSET FALLS, pre-meadowlark crau memories awakening.

[ Live in Sunset Falls, he said. The house is free and it’s where the magic is.

That’s all well and good in the in-between times when the biggest magical problems are rambunctious spell-wielding teenagers, demon possessions and the disappearances chalked up to the mysterious energies that saturate the place and casual Hellmouth hanging out beneath it. But then you get the days where the streets flood with ghosts, or a people-swallowing dimension opens up in the basement of an abandoned mansion, or the sky is rent apart with violent red cracks and the whole place turns into a wish factory.

As people arrive, and panic, the town descends into chaos as those without experience fall foul of the overactive mystical energy. He blames this phenomena for the text that scrolls before his eyes without the need for a screen: for the folders upon folders of information that seem to hover at the edges of his periphery, the computer that’s appeared in his head. What he did to conjure it he doesn’t know, maybe a stray thought for how much easier organizing relief efforts would be with a hands-free communication device. Whatever it is, it’s too much to explore at a time when his focus can’t afford to be split. My mind is clear is enough to cast it (temporarily) back into nothingness.

It doesn’t help to cast the consequences of somebody else’s latest thought - everything’s falling apart - into non-existence. For that he has to lunge into the space between an unsuspecting bystander and the statue breaking away from atop a nearby fountain, throwing up a large shield of burning amber energy, sparks spitting with the deflecting impact.

Over his shoulder, once the worst of the danger has crumbled into piles of debris around them: ]

Do me a favor. Don’t think.

[ You know, small requests.]

2. SUNSET FALLS, @ home: can be before, during or after meadowlark crau mems awaken.

[ Even if you don’t already know where you’re going, Stephen Strange isn’t a difficult man to track down. Talking to Sunset Falls locals will eventually get you directions to an address on Will-o’-the-Wisp Walk, but a brief internet search will get you there faster. If it isn’t a months-old article about the malevolent dimension some kids opened up in what is now his basement, it’s an instagram post with photos of his house captured from the closed front gates, a tweet featuring a distant glimpse of a guy on his porch looking vaguely put out to be photographed while he takes out his trash.

The gates are open when you get there, the sweeping driveway empty, and you can make it up to the front door with no trouble. Knock or go for the bell and the door swings open before you can make a sound, welcoming you into the foyer. ]

3. INBOX,

Inbox available here, or in response to this top level.

(he's got a public OurPowers @ Dr. Stephen Strange that anyone can contact him using and his meadowlark neural implant will come back online once his magically wishing it away wears off for anyone from ML.)

( ooc: wildcards starters also a-ok, if you want to plan anything specific feel free to hit me up at

miscreates! Stephen's going to be undergoing a meadowlark crau 'canon' update throughout the course of this event so if anyone wants to hash out any specifics about what stage of that process he's in during our threads, give me a shout. )

Edited 2022-08-20 20:30 (UTC)

[ The Ascendant is open, despite the fact that the sky splintered with red. Surprising, maybe, but Tim thinks he gets it. People want to slink inside a dark bar and pretend that outside isn't a thing for a few hours.

Or at least, he thought they wanted escapism, when he arrived for his shift three hours ago. It's now 9 PM, and he's currently enduring the third rendition of "It's the End of the World As We Know It" in as many hours while he dries highball glasses behind the bar. Clearly, what they want is to celebrate their miser. If he doesn't keep himself busy, he's going to go tamper with the machine to delete the track. The situation outside is grim, but the situation with his vestibulocochlear nerve is grim.

Even with spending 15 hours as Robin in the past 24 due to the ongoing chaos, he's managed nearly 5 hours sleep, so his mood's not as black as his clothes. He'll head back out in tights when his shift is over. For now, he has another kind of job to do, barbacking and clearing tables (or else he can't afford being a vigilante). When the bartender's busy, he's allowed to step in, and you never know who comes into the Ascendant. He might learn something. ]

1) Fear Itself

Central City

[This isn't Robbie's first rodeo when it comes to either apocalyptic circumstances or terrified mobs of people. At least this time there aren't people who passionately want him dead and know he can be taken out with a plastic bag over his head.]

[Still, the mobs are not reasonable and are going for new people. This means they're targeting both actual Confluence people and metas they just think are behind it.]

[It's gotten bad.]

[Real bad. Right now, he's guarding several metas with visible physical differences, who got backed into a dead end in an alley. There are four of them, so that means he can't just grab them and bounce.]

[The angry mob at the front of the alley is visible from the street, signaling something is going on there.]

[His hands are held up in a placating gesture.]

Listen, Charleton Heston, the gun's overkill, don't you think? Also, the bullets will bounce off me like flubber and richochet. And that's no good for everyone.

[His expression changes to something soft and compassionate.]

These people aren't responsible for this. I know you're worried about whoever went missing -

["I just want my daughter back! What did you all do with my daughter?!" the woman sobs, gun still raised. "Tell me!"]

[This situation maybe needs some help, whether it's with words that convince the people to stand down, or action forcing them to.]

2) I'll have a triple

Central City

[Robbie has to hit convenience stores a few times during the crisis to replenish his energy stores with water and snacks. He's exhausted every time he walks in.]

[Trying to manage crowds of terrified, angry people, and keep them from hurting people takes a lot out of you.]

[So he doesn't even bother to power down. He's mostly still moving purely through momentum right now, and the prospect of forcing his body to power up again after powering down is intimidating.]

[Besides, he has some of his money in the little pocket dimension device Pym made that's in his suit. Unlike very few people in spandex costumes, he actually has pockets in costume. Sort of.]

[The second he pays for his drinks and snacks, he steps away from the register and just starts chugging them down right then and there, one after the other. So whoever walks in is treated to the site of a superhero in spandex double-fisting a triple shot coffee and a bottle of water.]

Edited 2022-08-21 07:21 (UTC)

[1] Central City

[ Hibiki is quickly starting to regret her decision of trying to go low-profile while here in Central City by being herself rather than Gungnir... actually, no, small correction. She's beginning to regret coming to Central City at all.

She had come with the intention of helping out new arrivals who have to deal with the angry mobs, but... ]

N-Nngh...

[ She clutches her forehead, her face wincing as she's given a prompt reminder of why stuff like this is a bad idea for her.

Empathy. All things considered, it's a neat ability, but it's turning out to be pretty sucky more often than not. ]

No more! We've had enough! Go back where you came from! Give us our families back!!

[ She... she can feel it. All of it. So much that it's hard to think straight. It's all misguided and misdirected rage, but it's rage nontheless, and there's so much of it...

Well, of course there is. It's a huge group of protestants. It's basically a massive cluster of negative emotions from everyone in the area. As if things needed to get worse for Hibiki, though, Empathy is not the only ability she gained as a result of the confluences.

Sometimes you just... end up becoming a Werewolf, and have wolf ears and a tail, which make you very clearly out to be a Metahuman. ]

Ah...!

[ As she staggers aimlessly through the city in an attempt to just get away, she suddenly feels something change. Anger... but this time, aimed directly at her.

Her Empathy notifies her first, her instincts hit second. She ducks her head just a stone soars directly over her head, thrown by some angry protestant. ]

Tch...

[ By the time Hibiki looks up, the protestant is already running away. Well, that's fine, she wouldn't want to give chase even if she was in her right mind, but still... ]

W-Why...?

[ She dodged the rock, but somehow, it still hurts. ]

[2] Excelsior (Talkie Toaster)

Would you like some toast?

N-No! I already had some of your toast!

But wouldn't you love to have some more toast?

I've had too much toast!

Nonsense! There's never too much toast!!

[ Hibiki has found her services much more appreciated in Excelsior... especially since fighting mobs of enemies is business as usual for her. There's not a rogue rebellious robot in the entire city that Hibiki can't deal with!

Except, well... apparently this talking toaster on wheels that is following her around insistently and trying to make her eat more toast. ]

I can't! I already had like, ten! I can't have any more! I'll get fat!

Ah, I see... but can I ask one more question, though?

Um... sure?

Would you like some toast?

[ Okay, now Hibiki is just audibly groaning. She hardly ever groans like this! Well, except when she's doing schoolwork, but even then! ]

NO!!

[ She's too kind to hurt the toaster... it's not like it's doing anything that's harming people, after all, but... it is very determined to follow Hibiki around. Even when she leaps as far away as possible, it just... keeps finding her again... ]

[3] Believe in Justice and Grip it Tight (Excelsior)

[ Whether it was the sound of battle that drew you in... or more likely, the sound of someone singing amidst the battle, Hibiki has evidently been hard at work. Hibiki's current reputation has... apparently made her a go-to Hero for dealing with enemies of the Large variety.

Which is why you can hear the sound of Hibiki singing following the massive building-sized robot stomping through the city in an attempt to rebel against it's human creators.

And of course, Hibiki is giving chase, the sound of the pistons on her legs firing off repeatedly, allowing her to kick off the air and chase after the massive behemoth... and of course, she's singing as she does so.

At the very least, she's managing to keep up... but she can't get close enough to land a decisive blow.

Help her out? ]

Wildcard!

[ Want something specific? Feel free to put a starter here or plot with me at

OddEyes ]

Edited 2022-08-21 07:19 (UTC)

IS THIS A DREAM? (Deerington) TW: blood, mention of drugs, general horror themes

The nightmare world of Deerington is one Peter would really not like to be in. His own nightmares are bad enough, but being trapped in an ongoing nightmare of some little monster girl? Jeez, no thanks.

So he searches desperately for the tear in the Nexus that will send him either home or somewhere else.

It's October in Deerington, and that means the streets are flooded with blood. There is nowhere to go that isn't just gross and bloody. So Peter uses his spider powers, such as they are (sometimes they don't work right, whoops!), to help keep himself off the streets and on the buildings. It's like the grossest game of the floor being lava. If he finds someone struggling, running from a new torrent of blood rushing down a street, he's quick to grab them with a web and pull them up to where he is. He doesn't have his costume here, just his web shooters, so…well, so much for the secret identity thing.

"You okay? That stuff just comes on quick, huh?"

Or is it January in Deerington? Does time even matter anymore?

But this isn't Deerington, not exactly. It's…an underwater city called Rapture. Powers still aren't working right (especially Peter's technomancy, which seems to be missing entirely for now). People are taking weird drugs (Peter would never, thanks).

There are strange strings attached to a couple of Peter's fingers. Maybe one will lead back to the Nexus? Haha, just kidding! It actually leads to another person here in Rapture. The red string is a double-edged sword; not being near the person on the other end causes a sense of anxiety or panic. They need to find each other, to be together. When they are together, though, especially if they're touching, they feel right and brave and unstoppable. Phew!

The gold string creates a strong empathic connection that allows the other person to feel Peter's feelings — and vice versa. It gets tricky knowing which feeling is whose, but that's…probably fine? Though they may start to act like each other or think of themselves as each other. Tricky.

The threads will eventually go away, but they can't be cut.

Going back to Deerington from Rapture is just like waking up in the hotel, groggy, without strings, just emotionally wrung out. There are others waking up here too, sleepers like Peter.

He sits up and rubs his head. "This Inception dream within a dream thing is getting to be too much," he says to no one in particular. "I've got to get back to Excelsior, like, yesterday."

[ Deerington is all horror all the time, but I gave us two settings here: regular Deerington, a small freaky town (covered in blood) in Maine, and Rapture, the Bioshock setting, a messed up city underwater. Feel free to wild card prompt either of these settings.

And again, handwaving introductions is fine and you can assume your character knows Peter from Deerington or from Meta. ]

ALL THAT GLITTERS (Noctium)

Arrival in Noctium was a harrowing experience, being stuck out in the wasteland, then there was a space station, an explanation of the situation. None of the questions Peter asked seemed adequate enough, and along with it, he got yet another set of new powers, this time tied to the purple gemstone embedded in his chest, right under where his Spider-Man suit emblem sat. The symbolism isn't lost on him, but he has other things to worry about.

It's been a month and change here in Noctium, the vast world presenting too much to explore. There's also one little hiccup: gembonded turn into monsters sometimes.

Now, coming up on the week of everyone becoming monsters, Peter hopes he's ready for it. But how do you get ready for something like this? Last month he had the whole dragon thing. This month, he gets something more humanoid: a peri. This transformation gives him large feathered wings, some sort of pheromone that encourages nostalgia in others, and the capability of his voice being calming to those he speaks to (if they're receptive to that).

The wings take some getting used to, but once he does, man, is he having fun. Catch him flying around and coming to a surprisingly graceful landing nearby.

Maybe you'd like to train some of your gem powers with him? He's down for that, too.

But also, all of this running around takes a lot of Manna energy, which means he needs to get some Synchrony up in here. He's awkward about asking, but eventually he works up the courage and asks someone if they'd like to arrange some mutual touch. Not that kind! (…unless?)

He's also pretty talkative; it's easy to get him to talk about the world he'd come through before. He's still trying to get back, but he hasn't yet found the break in the Nexus that will send him home. Have a conversation about that if you like, help him look, or tell him you might have found it!

Finally, he's happy to help the new arrivals, rescuing them from the waste and taking them to the space station. (He's just himself when he does this, not a peri monster.)

[ Peter's gem is amethyst. He can use wind powers, including being capable of flight or controlling wind currents. He has not lost any of his other powers here.

Noctium requires something called Synchrony in order for characters to continue living, basically, and the best way to get symphony is through touch with another person that you have some emotional connection to.

Please feel free to assume CR here so we don't need to go through the introductions thing. ]

HOME AGAIN (Meta: Excelsior)

Despite it having been literally months in other worlds under mostly harrowing circumstances, not much time has passed back in Excelsior. Peter slips through the Nexus right back where he started: at the apartment.

Something is wrong, though. He can feel his spider sense thing going absolutely off the charts. Great, so whatever caused this is still going? Of course. Just his luck.

After having a weird fight with the electronic lock system, he gets out and goes outside to see what has changed, and…it's a whole damn mess. The technology here is going nuts and he can sense or feel a lot of that with his once again functional techno powers.

"What the hell happened to all these machines?" he wonders aloud, definitely loud enough to be heard.

From then on, Peter can be found trying to deal with haywire machines. He's never Spider-Man for this, only Peter, but he might be having a hard time of this all on his own. He also looks like hell, having gone through a bunch of shit before coming home. When was the last time he slept? Ate a meal? He can't think about that right now. Too much else is happening.

[ Peter's plotting comment is here, or as always I'm on plurk at

boywonder. ]

1) Damage control (Central City)

[ Sooo... this is a bad time to be a conspicuous meta with a giant tail, huh? Doreen's getting pretty sick of people yelling insults and throwing rocks at her (though she almost prefers the rocks to the garbage, at least rocks harmlessly bounce off instead of sticking to her tail!), but she's handling it as best she can, and has the tail out in public as much as possible. The insults are one thing, but the projectiles don't hurt, and if she can take the hit to defend a scared newbie, or another conspicuously visible meta who doesn't have her durability and strength, then she'll do it every time. Right now she's trying to talk down an angry crowd in front of a donut shop, and is really wishing that she'd brought a megaphone. ]

Listen, I'm sorry, but I promise we don't know what's going on any more than you do. I know this is really scary, but I'm sure that we can--

[ Someone throws a can of pop at her, and when Doreen smacks it away with her tail, a rock bounces off her forehead. ]

Hey! Unkind! Unkind and uncalled for!

2) Rescue time!

[ This is also an incredibly bad time to be a new arrival, and if there's an angry mob hassling you, or just some jerk giving you a hard time, Doreen will drop down in front of you from the rooftops with a friendly, disarming grin. ]

Hi there! I'm sorry about all this, there isn't really a good time to blip into another dimension, but this is a pretty bad time for a variety of reasons. Want to get out of here? There's a hotel set up for new arrivals, which should be pretty safe. Oh, also! Are you scared of heights?

3) Rooftop venting

[ It's been a long, difficult week, and Doreen needs a breather. As the sun goes down on another day of dealing with angry, frightened people and trying not to think about the possibility of reality itself shattering across the multiverse, Doreen is hanging out on the roof of a building, flanked by a scurry of squirrels and a small mountain of trail mix. Plus some boba tea, because dammit she is gonna treat herself, the trail mix is mostly for the squirrels.

One of them chirps at her, and Doreen leans back on her hands with a groan. ]

I know, Sticky Joe, I know, but... this sucks! Literally everything sucks right now!

Wildcard!
[ For texting stuff or literally anything else! PM me or hit up

sonopants for any questions o/ ]

General All Around

The Doctor lands in Central City, with a certain Police Box. The Box might feel alive to those who are magic or Force-sensitive. Upon arrival, he does inquire why they seem fearful of him. Even if he does lift his hands to the side saying, “I don’t have any weapons, me.” Proceeding with, "Oi! I didn’t take your friend but I will find out why thar are cracks and help. I promise. And bring them back! Oh, yes!"

He is generally, walking around, he does feel sort of ‘off’ but having gone through a nexus, that just might be some short-term space sickness, maybe?
The Doctor walks around, he does generally ask, "Oi! Any idea what is causing the cracks in the sky?"

Ten will also look to intervene if someone looks like they are about to trample somehow or maybe starting to fall.
"Grab my hand!"
The Doctor isn’t biased on who he saves, even if they’re unsavory-looking characters.

Wildcard

(For texting or anything else! Have an idea? feel free to just post or PM or hit up the plotting comment about that and/or questions :))

Edited 2022-08-24 21:38 (UTC)

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