OCTOBER STATE OF THE GAME

[metamods]

STATE OF THE GAME

THIS MONTH

01 October 2023
⚔︎ STATE OF THE GAME

07 October 2023
⚔︎ TDM

20 October 2023
⚔︎ RESERVES OPEN
⚔︎ ACTIVITY CHECK-IN BEGINS

25 October 2023
⚔︎ RESERVES CLOSE

27 October 2023
⚔︎ APPLICATIONS OPEN

27 October 2023
⚔︎ ACTIVITY CHECK-IN ENDS

31 October 2023
⚔︎ APPLICATIONS CLOSE

⚔︎ LITTLE LOVE is quiet. Not the eerie, something is wrong kind of quiet, but the kind of quiet that feels relieving. Like the world has been set right, and everything is going to be okay. There's a small little farmer's market going on downtown, where locals can sell their crops. It is nearing the end of the season, however, so you'd best get them before they're all gone for the year.

⚔︎ CENTRAL CITY - There's a new gang in town. Calling themselves the BLUE SABERS, they walk the streets of Central City at night causing mayhem and havoc wherever they go: marking up walls with spray paint, kicking over mailboxes, stealing purses from little old ladies - and while Central City is home to some of the most powerful heroes in this world, they can't be everywhere at once. They might need a little assistance. The Alliance is calling for help getting the ID of the leader of the gang, whereas the Society has opted to put out a hit on their life. They don't appreciate people stepping on their toes, after all.

⚔︎ SUNSET FALLS - Something spooky's making it's way through Sunset Falls, just in time for October. It seems like it may have a ghost problem on it's hands! Things are flying off shelves, lawn chairs are getting knocked over right when someone goes to sit down on them, homework is turning up. . . well, not eaten, but ripped up enough to try and make it seem like a dog decided it was their meal of the day. A bottle of shampoo might get contaminated with hair dye. How did that happen? Someone'd better to get to the bottom of this.

⚔︎ EXCELSIOR - The power has turned back on, which is a relief. It seems like whatever had been effecting Excelsior's metas and it's power grid has been fixed, but the city is still experiencing some lingering effects: the subway railway has been trashed and needs repair, as does a lot of it's more advanced tech. Excelsior's residents are working hard to get everything back up and running, but they could always use an extra hand.

HOUSEKEEPING

Hello, Heroes!

⚔︎ Given the low level of applicants for this application round, and how closely it's scheduled to the TDM, we have opted to skip the confluence log for the month of October. We will be adding some extra flair to the TDM to make up for this! Our new characters have received their arrival information on their welcome notice.

⚔︎ As noted in the STARSTRUCK event log, with the events of Godfall forever changed, as is the world of Metaheroes! We'll be working on changes through October - please rest assured that no changes have happened yet and you will be notified well in advance of them occurring! We'll be prepping updated pages through October, as the world starts to shift to accommodate the changes it's gone through. If you have any specific questions, feedback, or even suggestions you would like to see implemented as we prep for Arc 3 of the game, please feel free to post them under WORLD CHANGES. This can also be used to provide suggestions.

A few teasers:

➢ All Unaligned metahumans are recast as "neutral", meaning they are arriving in this world and agreeing to be normal citizens. The Alliance and Society still exist, but are no longer associated with any government bodies and work independently to govern those who take up the mantle of hero or villain.

➢ Neutral metahumans are under the protection of Frances Starling. IDs are provided by Frances. You are a normal citizen, and it is considered illegal for you to display any metahuman capability.

➢ Legal permission is, hesitantly, given to the Alliance. They aren't affiliated with any direct government branches and avoid contact when possible, but the Alliance still tries to remain civil with them. Allowing Alliance members to have a legal "pass" to display their capabilities was the middle ground they were able to settle on.

➢ Villains do not have legal permission to use their powers, but its usage is sanctioned by The Society. The Society is known to ruthlessly hunt down any villains that refuse to abide by The Code, and the government and Alliance view them as an almost necessary evil.

➢ Starstruck lives. He is a member of the Alliance, and aims to help all metahuman kids coming into their powers adjust to their new lives. Despite the fact he should be in his early 50s, he still looks no older than he had in 1985. He wasn't meant to exist in this time period, after all.

➢ The hero who had been known as Fantastic doesn't exist. Sawyer Douglas, however, still does. Estranged from his parents, the twenty-five year old works at a bookstore out of Sunset Falls. His girlfriend, a young woman named Katherine West, can frequently be found sitting on countertops in the bookstore drinking iced lattes while he works.

➢ All those who interacted directly with the Starfallen will recall the original timeline, as well as their current one. The Guild Leaders are the ones ones who remember it with the most clarity.

➢ With this said, history is largely the same for the Starfallen. However, for good or for ill, the public animosity that was directed at them is a general feeling towards any neutral Metahumans as Neutral Metahumans tend to be villains hellbent on ruining life for everyone else.

➢ History is largely unchanged. Rather than the Godfall Protocols being enacted, Atomight and Mechanima created the Guilds independent of the government. They are more proactive in maintaining and recruiting any metahumans who want to use their abilities, and they are (almost all) willing participants.

➢ Those who end up using their abilities and failing to join the guilds - whether the intention is good or evil - may find themselves forcibly recruited. Or, far worse, may find themselves targeted by those within the human government who are eager for their own Suicide Squad.

➢ The metahuman population has tripled.

⚔︎ There are going to be new NPCs in various roles within and outside the guilds! We'll be updating these pages over the course of October. If there's a archetype of hero or villain you'd like to see, please put any suggestions under WORLD CHANGES.

⚔︎ We're going to have one more event for 2023 which will be posted in November. We will, however, still be putting up intro logs with things for new and old players to play with, as well as TDMs as scheduled. This is both a breather for the mods, and for the players. There won't be any more large mod events in 2023.

⚔︎ That said, there is always room for PLAYER PLOTS! If you want to follow up on an event, investigate the setting or interact with a NPC, you can also hit up SETTING ENGAGEMENT and NPC ENGAGEMENT respectively.

⚔︎ For the October application round, any current player can extend one invitation. Players planning to invite someone this round should comment below with the player's information!

⚔︎ This game has an unofficial DISCORD SERVER! As a reminder, the moderators will not be monitoring the server's contents. However, players who have issues in the server are still welcome to bring their concerns to us at MOD CONTACT, just as they would with Plurk.

DROPS

The following characters will vanish in the coming Confluence:

James "Logan" Howlett, Thea Queen, Tony Stark (616), Roy Harper, Korg, Dana Tan, Bart Allen, Jinx, Tony Stark (Avengers Academy), Rain Whispers

Please coordinate with the mods if you would like to claim some or all of their belongings.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU —

Welcome, new heroes! Please use the form below to introduce yourself and start plotting if you'd like:

<b>Player Name & Pronouns:</b> <b>Preferred Communication:</b> Plurk, Discord, DM, etc. <b>Character Name & Journal:</b> <b>Guild Affiliation:</b> Is your character susceptible to being swayed into membership? Or will they take the hard path and stay unaffiliated? <b>Character Motivations & IC/OOC Goals:</b> What does your character want? You can list short term and long term goals, but also emotional needs that aren't being fulfilled. What do you want to do with them in game? What ideas do you already have? <b>Plot/CR Hooks:</b> What kinds of things does your character get up to that might throw them in the path of someone else's plot, or that you would like other players to engage with? What role does your character play in their canon plot? What role might they play in others' plots, and what would it take to get their attention? Are they an antagonist, a researcher, a tech whiz?

Comments

INVITES.

[metamods]

QUESTIONS & ENGAGEMENT

[metamods]

Re: QUESTIONS & ENGAGEMENT

[definecat]

Sleeper can't really hide their nonhuman status without a load of effort, and is basically always using their shapeshifting metapower. Does that mean they will be hunted if they don't sign up?

[metamods]

Sleeper is fine as long as they stay in their cat form! No one will be any the wiser. However, if they're caught shapeshifting, they'll be hunted down. If there's a route you'd like to go with this, let us know.

[levelshift]

Is Katherine still part of the Society? If so, what are the whole vibes there, since she was worried about what Mechanima would do to her for breaking the Code? If not, does this mean Accelerator needs to go hassle Mechanima for another job?

[metamods]

Chaos Gate is not part of The Society anymore, and is now neutral. Accelerator will still be able to act as her assistant, given that Mechanima will still want to keep an eye on her. That also means keeping her out of trouble! Since Accelerator has a teleporter, keeping up with assistant duties, such as taking care of her cats in Sunset Falls, shouldn't be too difficult.

[levelshift]

o7 Since she's neutral now I'm guessing he'll mostly be keeping an eye on her and taking care of her cats, and any crimes he commits won't be coming from her but the Society in general?

[metamods]

That's right! Crimes assigned to Accelerator will be coming directly from Mechanima more often than not. However, he may also get called in for a few fetch quests (ha!) here or there from the Baron.

[levelshift]

Cool! Sorry for coming back with more questions - I don't think another NPC thread is needed, I just wanted to doublecheck that Chaos Gate saying Mechanima would tell Accelerator to kill her is indeed the case? And would this order continue post-Starstruck (namely that if she goes off the rails again she needs to be taken out)?

As well, what kinds of crimes would Mechanima be assigning to Accelerator? Similar stuff that Chaos Gate did (e.g. minor felonies), or would he assign more serious crimes? I'm mainly wondering about violence towards other criminals, which I'm fine with, just need to know what I'm working with for threads and stuff.

[metamods]

The order would kind of continue post-Starstruck! Mechanima would revise it to press that Accelerator should only kill her if he's given no other recourse.

As for the crimes, they'd be pretty minor felonies. If you want to expand into more serious crimes, just let us know and we can work something in for you!

[levelshift]

Good to know, thanks! Haha he'll hate it, that's great.

I think that's something I'm interested in exploring this in the near future after Accy has a bit of a break. More serious crimes could be fun to loop his cr into in different ways, so I'll let you know when I want to be mean to him again.

Re: QUESTIONS & ENGAGEMENT

[wereall_addicts]

A question re: the Blue Sabers.

The kind of mischief they're getting into reads as young kids just getting into shenanigans. Is that the case?

And if so could Team Leverage possibly intervene in terms of finding a better outlet for their energy and maybe spin some of them off into a community program? I can't see them turning them into the Alliance or the Society (they're not narcs) but they would want to stop the rolling of little old ladies.

[metamods]

Hey there!

The Blue Sabers will need more convincing than the community program being available. While the crimes themselves are fairly innocuous (save for a few poor old ladies liberated of their purses), the gang members themselves are notoriously difficult to catch. They're not going to trust anyone that approaches them, and they'll be difficult to deal with if someone manages to get one of them alone. Team Leverage will have to be particularly careful about how they'd like to go about this, especially as not to alert the Blue Sabers. If the Blue Sabers catch on, they'll begin to avoid anyone who approaches them, and even try to sabotage someone that they've caught wind of trying to corner them!

Team Leverage will need to play the tenacity card to get anything solid worked out. Would there be any way that they'd go about this?

[wereall_addicts]

Okay, so. I definitely don't think they'd try to rush it? They were all criminal kids once trying to figure themselves out, so if it takes time to build trust they'd try and do it. I feel like there's two options as they get to know them.

1) If the members of the Blue Sabers don't enjoy crime and are doing that because they don't have another options, they would try to provide other options.

2) If the members of the Blue Sabers do like crime, Sophie at least doesn't particularly care about the graffiti or the more victimless crimes? It's mostly knocking over Nana that they'd want to divert them from. So honestly she would just try to teach them to be a better class of criminal and have them pick more deserving targets. >.>

Caveat: If there is an adult at the center taking advantage of these kids, I feel like they would want to deal with that, but if it's just kids, then yeah.

[metamods]

As any gang, there are a mixture of both: members who do enjoy the deviant lifestyle of their rebellious crimes, and members who are caught between a rock and a hard place. If Sophie starts tries divert them, she'll be putting herself under the watchful eye of some of the higher-ups, as well as creating tension within the ranks of the gang itself.

Those that don't like causing the crimes are getting pressure from those that do, and it'll put a wrench in Sophie's overall plan to try and divert them. They're also afraid of of being labeled as traitors, and don't want to be put in a rough position. She will start to get some dirty looks and a few snide comments from some of the bolder members.

She won't be able to discern if there is an adult taking advantage of them from her current perspective, and the gang members are quite loyal and won't get into the more serious crimes that the gang may or may not be doing, or those at the center of it.

As a note, Jason is working on this as well! We wanted to let you know in case you'd like to join forces, or cross paths!

[wereall_addicts]

Noted, thank you! They reached out so we are working on that now.

Will be back if we have any additional questions for getting started.

[purplexing]

How about clearly non-human people, are they still going to be side-eyed out in public? It may not be using abilities out in the open but I'm curious given it's kind of hard to be "normal citizens" when the green is kind of a giveaway.

[metamods]

There are numerous types of metahumans - and while mutant ninja turtles may not be commonplace in the world of Metaheroes, it's generally accepted that physical differences are unavoidable for metahumans who do have them. There won't be any extra side-eyeing from the general public, unless clearly non-human people use abilities that normal humans wouldn't have in public.

IE, Donatello walking around the street won't get any strife. Donatello using his Ninpo would.

[purplexing]

*thumbsup!*

Re: QUESTIONS & ENGAGEMENT

[faceguy]

I haven't totally decided what I want to do yet, but asking in advance: Leo moved to the Society due to the whole Fantastic thing + the Central City lockdown, but if he were to move back to the Alliance following the world changes, would he suffer any negative consequences for being a big ol' flip-flopper?

[metamods]

Given that the three leaders of the guilds are aware of how the world has shifted, Leo wouldn't face any immediate, large negative consequences. Atomight remembers the Fantastic incident, he won't blame anyone for wanting to leave during that time period, nor would he think twice about others coming back to the Alliance.

Some lower level Alliance members may side-eye Leo for his decision to flip flop between guilds. He may also have Society members giving him a harder time when they spot him on the streets, but at this point in time, there will not be any large consequences.

WORLD CHANGES.

[metamods]

Re: WORLD CHANGES.

[codicies]

Has school attendance changed? Are "neutral" meta children still allowed to attend lofty heights & use their powers there?

[metamods]

Anyone of school age is allowed to practice their abilities within the school grounds and under supervision. If they venture outside of them, there will be punishment based on the intention and use of that power. School is there to ensure that they have control over their powers, and learn how to use them responsibly. The administration takes that very seriously.

[welcome_summer]

Mayuko had/has a liaison with the Alliance (low to mid level) who was crucial for helping her find a place within the organization and adjust to Meta-Earth in general. Although I'm seeing more established characters mulling enrollment, someone like this could be a relatable face, to assist with the increased push for recruitment.

[metamods]

Thanks for the suggestion, we've got it noted!

Silliest Question Ever I bet (now properly placed)

[helpdesk_hero]

With the Alliance no longer being government sponsored/supported is the whole hype over Metahumans diminished? Is there less merchandising?

Only asking because David has developed a hobby of collecting knock off action figures of heroes and villains he personally knows, and I'm wondering how the change will impact his collecting.

[metamods]

The hype has diminished a little. Given how the meta population has tripled, metahumans are less unique, and therefore a little less exciting. However, the big names (Atomight and Mechanima, for example) still have quite a bit of merch, and anyone who's stuck out likely has some knock off figures available for sale somewhere.

They're not advertised like they had been back when the government had been sponsoring them, but that's not going to stop people from developing toys of their favorites.

Hello, cat and kittens... I'm back, iced pumpkin cream chai tea latte in hand

[heartofthedream]

Player Name & Pronouns: Amanda, She/Her
Preferred Communication: wanderlustlover | Disco: wanderlustlover | DM's open



Character Name & Journal: Jean Grey | heartofthedream
Guild Affiliation: Neutral
Character Motivations & IC/OOC Goals: Jean comes from current comics in this previous spring, and is a bit surprised to be back here, and will find herself a little bereft to be down some allies and 1 boy scout husband/1 semi-feral boyfriend from when she was last here a year ago. But there's a new bunch of favorite people from her world and friendships/partnerships she can't wait to get started on with the cast this lovely game has now.

Current Short Term Goals
→ Hug Ororo, Carol, and Gabby
→ Super Ladies Apartment/House
→ Catchup with the people still here from her time
→ Follow the voice that called to her during her arrival to Sunset Falls
→ Start getting up to date with a) the year she missed & b) the new timeline

No super longterm plans yet...

Plot/CR Hooks: Jean is a combination Heart of the Dream/Team & one of the scary X-Men powerhouses. While I madly loved all her icons and had to put down the top one for my return, she is not currently wielding the Phoenix title/costume tho right-now comics currently is playing with Phoenix things again. Jean, in her own words, knows she can (1) obliterate something/someone to its/their molecules with little effort, can't (2) ever outrun killing billions, that she is (3) always the phoenix even when she isn't, and that none of those echoes are who she wants to be in her every "now" choice.

She considers her greatest weapons love and kindness. She wants a world worth loving, fighting for, dying for, and living in, where people work together regardless of any species genus/divides of any kind. She's a great work partner, and she has a penchant for adopting people, whether as friends, colleagues, or those who are in need of mothering at any age.

I love writing everything, want to write everything with everyone already,
and am so excited to be throwing my hat back in the ring here again;
come at us, bro. Let's do great things together.

[codicies]

I don't have any specific ideas right now, but Jean was a comforting and encouraging presence in Dylan Brock's head briefly in the back half of King in Black so it'd be cool to find an excuse for them to meet face to face.

[heartofthedream]

I would love to play with fallout things from King in Black.

That sounds like a delight! They should absolutely meet up.