metaooc | NOVEMBER STATE OF THE GAME

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!state of the game

NOVEMBER STATE OF THE GAME

STATE OF THE GAME

THIS MONTH

01 November 2023
⚔︎ STATE OF THE GAME

03 November 2023
⚔︎ CONFLUENCE LOG

10 November 2023
⚔︎ EVENT PLOTTING

15 November 2023
⚔︎ EVENT: HARVEST MOON

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

25 November 2023
⚔︎ RESERVES CLOSE
⚔︎ APPLICATIONS OPEN

27 November 2023
⚔︎ ACTIVITY CHECK-IN ENDS

30 November 2023
⚔︎ APPLICATIONS CLOSE

⚔︎ NEW ARRIVALS - You find yourself hurtling through time and space, awareness coming to you in brief snatches of light and color. By the time you're aware of what's happening, you realize the ground is rushing to meet you. Lightning crackles and thunder booms, and you grit your teeth and brace for impact.

Only it doesn't come.

Vines shoot up from the earth to catch you, gently grasping your limbs and gingerly lowering you to the ground. Above you the sky is a riot of light and color, purple lightning streaking across the sky. Everywhere it hits seems to come alive.

Not seems to, it does. A bolt strikes the statue of Little Love's town founder. The cows painted on the dairy bar window rise to their hind legs and tapdance across the glass.

"Oh, this one's a big one, somebody better call the Alliance." a large farmer says, cap in hand as he watches the chaos unfold. He turns his attention to you and the retreating vines, offering a sympathetic smile and a gesture towards the building behind him. "Ya'll better come on inside now, this could get real messy."

Before you can take a step inside, you find yourself suddenly standing somewhere else. It's best described as a waiting room - a vast, open space with a table laden with food and a sign there to help yourself. There are pamphlets lining the walls and calm music playing. Before long the doors on the far side of the room open and Starstruck walks out, offering a comforting smile.

"Sorry for the rough landing! I'm sure you have so many questions - I'll do my best to answer. And what I can't, I'm sure Virgil can figure out."

⚔︎ EVERYWHERE - The Starfallen will find that the metahuman population of this world has significantly grown - though no one appears to have noticed the change. The ripples from the changes in the past have finally settled, leaving the world... flourishing in a way that it was not before. The air itself feels charged with possibility, and there is a sense of protection that was not there before.

⚔︎ LITTLE LOVE - The confluence has created a number of unusual problems. Graffiti, chalk drawings, and statues have all come to life and appear to have developed some kind of hive mind, and it's looking to expand to every surface in town. Colorful murals are popping up everywhere, full of chaotic, sentient scribbles that are determined to cause a ruckus.

⚔︎ CENTRAL CITY - More metas means more chaos. The Guardian Alliance and The Society can be viewed as two sides of the same coin, but that doesn't meant they're not still on opposing sides. Some of the younger members of The Society are putting out a call to properly disrupt the status quo - rob the banks, the rich, politicians, anyone who looks at you funny. There's a bonus prize for whoever ends up with the biggest score.

⚔︎ SUNSET FALLS - It's time for Magna Cucurbita's yearly appearance. The Alliance's Silent Mystic has begun with the ritual set up, and is requesting assistance from all who would be willing to lend a hand. Those who offer their help will be brought to pumpkin fields, corn fields, and orchards just outside Sunset Falls. They will be offered harvest masks that transform into something deeply personal which best represents the wearer.

Multiple pairs will be chosen at random, and have their hands bound together with twine woven from straw. They will be directed to walk together through the pumpkin patch, eat an apple from the orchard, and walk into the cornfields. Once in the corn stalks, they'll need to kneel and tell each other their greatest desire, regardless of if it's possible or not. Their desire must be truthful, or the ritual will not be completed. The stronger the desire, the sooner they will spot Magna Cucurbita circling around them wearing his suit embroidered with pumpkins. When he is appeased, he will disappear through the corn, leaving behind the scent of pumpkins, bonfires, and ripe apples. Participants will be able to return to the festival after his disappearance.

When the ritual has been completed enough times, the first snow of the season will begin falling.

⚔︎ EXCELSIOR - More metas? No problem. A lab Excelsior is offering testing to help you understand your new powers! Though... it sounds like some of its patients have dropped off the face of the earth shortly after their appointments. Maybe they went on a nice retreat? But given timing... well, what's the likelihood of that?

HOUSEKEEPING

Hello, Heroes!

⚔︎ Firstly, to explain some of the core world changes - thanks to your efforts in the past, Starstruck lived and the Godfall incident did not occur. What does this mean? Well, for starters, the native meta population steadily grew throughout the decades rather than withering. Confluences - surges of different forms of energy that resulted in storms and the creation of new metahumans - have been a staple of the world for decades. Though, they did not bring new Metahumans through until January 2022. The Starfallen are still unique among Metahumans for this reason.

⚔︎ The Guilds were formed independently of the government and now exist as a barrier between metahumans and the forces that seek to exploit them.

⚔︎ The Willow Maiden has significantly more power than she previously did thanks to your efforts.

⚔︎ The player's impact on the world remains intact and all Starfallen affiliated NPCs retain some memory of the original timeline. You are not all starting from scratch!

⚔︎ Page updates for the world changes have been completed. We've done some work to simplify documents, make tracking easier, as well as help explain in-verse functions. Below is a list of things that we have updated, and corresponding links.

➢ Updated the NPCS page, removing NPCs that will no longer be in play while adding new ones.

➢ Updated the FAQ, changing network functionality to just OURPOWERS (other social media is still available, but we prefer to keep them from being used on the network comm), updated the cult information, changed unaligned references to "civilian". Updated housing information, as well as added information regarding Arcadia. Changed some verbiage for the guilds.

➢ Updated the PREMISE to include recent in-game changes.

➢ Updated GUILDS to include in-world changes, as well as changed out unaligned to civilian and added relevant information. Removed the need to comment on this page with characters' guild choice, given that information is available on the taken list.

➢ Updated the Navigation code that goes on the bottom of every post, removing old unused links.

➢ Updated LOCATIONS & HOUSING, to include an editable excel document for players to edit as they would like, as well as included the new housing block available to new arrivals.

➢ Removed the MISSIONS post. This will be redone as a monthly mingle, going up within the confluence log.

➢ Removed the TEAMS page. There will be a slot for this information on the missions monthly mingle to use as wanted.

⚔︎ As a note: we are switching back to our original summaries of NPC conversations with NPC Engagements rather than fully threading these interactions out. This will help ensure we're able to get all relevant information out quickly so players aren't waiting as long on mod tagbacks. If players prefer to thread out these interactions, please specify that on the initial NPC Engagements comment; if able, we'll adapt to fit preferences.

⚔︎ 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 November application round, any current player can extend two invitations. 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:

natasha romanova, steve rogers, oliver daye, ragnor fell, theo price, willa lisieux, duke thomas, gojo satoru

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:

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Re: Excelsior. If Bruce were to catch wind of this (or say he knows of an NPC meta having gone missing after this that maybe he knew through his street racing or w/e) and investigate this, what would he end up finding? Or how should I go about getting him involved in looking into that? c:

I'm wondering the same thing 👀 Depending on how this is supposed to be investigated would you be interested in some cr?

They could always come across one another somehow. Bruce is still very much in his I Don't Work With Others era but that doesn't mean he can't encounter others out and about like him.

Sure! I can see what Accy can dig up through the Society. They don't even necessarily need to work together or anything, conflict might be interesting too - if someone/people are doing inhumane science experiments on metas Accelerator will probably be more intent on killing whoever is behind the kidnappings than bringing them to justice. c:

There are whispers in metaspaces all through Excelsior about disappearing young adults. They're the ones who would absolutely be in the crowd's of Bruce's street races. He'll notice a young man with iron skin passing out missing persons posters in the crowd, looking for his sister - her body is made of quicksilver - the last he heard, she had an appointment with a doctor to see about making her skin less toxic to the touch. Given she still lives at home, her disappearance is... extremely worrisome.

He has an address that she had provided to him before leaving for the appointment, but it leads to an old abandoned pharmaceutical building. It does look like someone had recently been inside of it and had cleaned out the reception area, as well as utilized one of the rooms, but aside from some trash left behind in a garbage can(a needle, latex gloves, several paper towels covered in a metallic substance) there won't be too many clues to track down.

Bruce might be able to get information by tracking down doctors associated with metacommunities, following the trail of some of the missing metahumans, or seeing what he can find at the building. Let us know what path he'll try, and we can provide further information!

He'll check with what he can find in the building first. See if it's possible to find any surveillance footage in or outside the building, fingerprints in the room(s) or on surfaces, footprints, hairs or fibers. Also around the building. If there's tire marks, paint chips, etc. You know. The usual stuff Batman would look for with his little flashlight and all.

Despite the building being abandoned, Bruce will find significant evidence of activity. There are security cameras tucked into the cracks in the plaster, though most of the footage on those appears to have already been wiped. Their cleaners have already been in and thoroughly removed any traces of themselves, however the security footage from the other buildings provides a little more.

Several masked men can be seen exiting the building carrying what appears to be a coffin, loading it into the back of a hearse. One may think that he's already too late, were it not for the fact the fact that the coffin begins to shake violently, as though whatever is in it is trying to get out. An small amount of the fluid manages to break free before the lid is shut again, weighed with the weight of her captors, and the doors are slammed shut.

They don't pay any mind to the liquid on the bumper, slowly dripping itself onto the ground. They drive away and the trail, though several days old at this point, can be tracked.

If you guessed Bruce will follow the trail, you would be right. Where does it take Baby Batdad?

Luckily for Bruce, the fates see it fit to pair him up with a partner for this route. It will lead him right to where Accelerator is investigating.

Volunteering Diana for the Magna Cucurbita ritual!

What happens if Ororo offers to bring winter without needing to do the ritual? Unsure who she'd bring up the idea to - maybe the silent mystic? :)

Ororo is welcome to offer!

The Silent Mystic will note that, while he appreciates her offer, they would not want to upset Magna Cucurbita by overtaking his ritual. However, the Silent Mystic would appreciate Ororo's assistance with lessening the storms that are bound to hit the upper East Coast in the coming days. The weather reports state it will be severe, and he's concerned it will damage the low income housing buildings closer to the coastline.

She is currently (stubbornly) unaffiliated, but will definitely go ahead and assist with tempering those storms into something less severe to spare the housing on the coast. Will she face any consequences for that much public display?

She will face consequences, and the Silent Mystic will warn her as such: showing her abilities publicly, even if using them for good, is likely to gain the attention of unsavory individuals. He will encourage her to join the Alliance, but he won't push too hard. Just let her know that: if she does help, if she continues to not align herself with one of the guilds, she's likely to find herself in a situation where she's no longer given the choice of what to do with her metahuman abilities. The guilds will ensure she has that choice, and provide protections therein.

If Accelerator was to look into the missing people in Excelsior from a Society angle/using Society connections would he find anything?

Accelerator will find that some of the Society's newer members have gone missing. All people native to this world who gained power as a result of confluence, all of them with abilities that altered the structures of their bodies. The Society is doing their best to dig in to this mystery, though they are not having much luck.

What they have determined is that there is a network of these so-called clinics. Metas are lead to these abandoned locations, captured, taken to one location - and then appear to disappear from there entirely. They've already scoped out the first location and determined a number of secondary ones, however many appear to be decoys.

Once he expresses his interest, Accelerator will find himself dispatched to one of the less promising secondary locations - a recently closed funeral home on the outskirts of town. One that specializes in safely and humanely disposing of hazardous metahuman remains. At first glance, the funeral home appears to be abandoned, however there are signs of recent activity.

Accelerator is free to begin the investigation on his own, but he can also wait for bat-ckup.

I'm not sure who will be present at this point, but Accelerator will at least investigate, so what will that result in?

While the building appears to be empty right now, it's obvious that this is a frequently used stronghold. They are not nearly as careful in cleaning up evidence of their crimes here. The scent of decay and formaldehyde linger here, perhaps expected of a funeral home, but it's far too fresh to be anything but recent.

There are coffins (empty) and an embalming room (abandoned), but neither are terriby suspicious. It's the back office that will raise eyebrows to those with trained detective instincts or supernatural senses. While your footsteps in other rooms are solid, your steps here sound hollow. but Some deeper digging will yield a hatch in the back office, hidden underneath the desk. The floor is scraped raw from where the desk has been dragged across it time and time again. If you listen carefully, you may even hear the faint sound of music coming from deep underneath the ground.

Player Name & Pronouns: Amit (he/him/his)
Preferred Communication: Plurk:

flamebird, flamecanary on Discord!

Character Name & Journal: Bette Kane/Flamebird

feathersandflames

Guild Affiliation: Bette’s always wanted to be part of a team, so I see her being easily swayed into being part of a guild, at least at first. The fact that it’s government-affiliated is probably going to rub her the wrong way in the long run, at which point it’s possible she’ll go civilian, but all of that really depends on how game interaction goes!

Character Motivations & IC/OOC Goals: Currently, in the comics, Bette’s kind of coming back from an extended time in comic book limbo (her last three appearances have been in 2014, a single appearance in 2017, and a single appearance in 2023.) Through this extended break, we've learned that she switched from her Hawkfire identity to going to West Point at her cousin Kate Kane's behest, wanted to start using the Flamebird codename again, and did just that in her 2023 appearance, where it looks like she's trying to get Titans West up and running again...even if no one else wants it. Bette's greatest desire, really, is to belong. It's true that when she first became Flamebird, she did it to catch Nightwing's eye, but she's grown a lot since then, and she genuinely wants to be a hero, while leaving her past behind her. Given that, a lot of Bette's drive is going to be proving that she actually can be a force for good, and isn't someone who needs to quit or isn't fighting for anything. I'd also like to see Bette form some connections with the Batfamily, especially given that she's been on the outside of them for so long, while being related by blood to two of them (though she isn't aware that her cousin Bruce is Batman.) Emotionally, all Bette really wants is a place to belong, and friends. Though she's always been the athletic, popular, rich girl (being a professional tennis player and rich kid helps), there's a part of her that still feels alone, and she's going to be looking to build friends within the superheroic community. Short term goals include getting Bette situated in her new surroundings, exploring her new superpowers (she has gained a low-level sort of pyrogenesis through the confluence, so she can throw fire balls and fire blasts, and has some small degree of immunity from fire, but that's about it), and figuring out if she's finally found a place where she belongs.

Plot/CR Hooks: Ugh, god. Bette's one of those people who throws herself into danger without thinking, and though she's nearly died from it, she still somehow managed to pick herself up and go flying into danger again. She could easily bite off more than she can chew, maybe be working the same thing on the opposite end of another character, or something. I'm honestly open to ideas. Bette loves a good team-up situation! She's friendly, but snarky, and while she might judge you for choosing those shoes with that outfit, she's far less judgmental when it comes to people's personalities and who they are. (Though she does eye-roll hard at brooding.) As far as other people's plots go, she has that standard sort of Batfamily/Titans training, though it's been pointed out that she's fairly good with computers and electronics (though nowhere near Oracle-level good). Hit me up for general plotting and ideas, I'm happy to throw Bette at anyone and anything!

Hello, hello! Glad we’re in a game together now after all this time!

Jason’s in a funny position currently as he’s got a truce with the BatFamily and actually has good relationships with most of them while also being an unrepentant crime lord in Central City. Since this is post-movie Jason, he doesn’t have a reconciliation like in the comics. I’m definitely down for Jason to have more BatFam CR and see where it goes!

This might be relevant to Bette’s interests.

Also, are you okay with making our TDM thread game canon or fresh? I’m open to either way!

Hey there! Thank you! I am too! Was very, very excited when you tagged me on the TDM!

And yes, that is 100% relevant to Bette's interests; what a cool idea!

I would love it if we could make our TDM thread game canon! I'm enjoying the thread and this weird little who's a bigger outsider/what's my secret identity dance they've got going on and would hate to lose it!

Excellent. We'll count it as canon then.

This version of Jason isn't familiar with a lot of the BatFamily and keeps learning about new ones so that feeds into his feelings about being an outsider even though he's got good relationships with most of his siblings so far and Descendant is essentially a family affair.

It's been pretty entertaining to have him keep being curious and poking what's everyone's connection to what.

Sounds great to me!

I can't imagine what that must be like for him, though. Hopefully having Bette around will help quell some of those feelings, since she's also sort of got that outsider status, though for different reasons.

I love him connecting the army thing to a branch of Bruce's family!

lol Bette you sure you want to be part of the Batfam because the MetaBats are definitely going to reel you in whether you want it or not

anyway what up, Timmy's having a traumatic canon update this round but what up new cousin

Oh, she definitely wants to! Hopefully she doesn't regret the experience, haha. (I doubt she will, though I feel like she's probably romanticized a bit what it would be like to be closer to them than she has been!)

Ahhh, traumatic canon update - horrible for the characters, so much fun for us!

Welcome! I've written with you a bit with my Dick Grayson on Bakerstreet, so glad you came to join us!

Ahh, thank you! Can't wait to throw Bette at Diana. :)

With Martha being from the Arkhams and not the Kanes in Bruce's Gotham, this might make for confusion between them......

Oh yeah, that's definitely going to throw Bette for a loop! She's already barely close to her Bruce, but knowing there's a world where she might not even exist and be related to him is going to be some fun stuff for her to wrestle with.

Sorry, Bette. It's very much just him and Alfred. :c

I think that - weirdly, but ultimately - the fact that this Bruce isn't related to her is probably going to be easier on her in the long run. She's aware that her Bruce doesn't exactly have a favorable opinion of her, so having a Bruce around whose opinion she doesn't have to worry about as much will be kind of nice for a change.

Everyone just has opinions about him instead while he doesn't know who any of you are. c:

That can't be easy for him to deal with, stepping into a situation where there's people who've had years of various kinds of history with him! It's funny, through her conversation with Jason, Bette's aware that Batman is here, and that he doesn't recognize anyone, but she's never known that Batman and Bruce are one and the same, so finding Bruce and having him just be like, "Cousin who?" is going to mess with her in so many delightful ways.

Yeah, Martha being an Arkham makes it unlikely he has Kate or Bette for relatives unless they're some alternate version but I honestly don't think we'll get any info regarding that for baby batdad so. Just another one of those "from a different Gotham" things.

Hey, I'm Bugly, and I play this feline-shaped puddle of sentient ooze (One of Venom's kids) who has more ties to the Bats than they really know what to do with having become partners in the symbiote sense with Animated Jason Todd. They also help out with the crime-lording and looking after stray teenagers.

They basically are going to try to keep anyone J1 considers family alive if they happen to be around, but claim it's really not their thing.

Hey Bugly! It's nice to meet you! I'm so beyond blind on recent Venom stuff - the last time I read anything, really, was when Flash Thompson was Agent Venom. (It's been awhile, clearly!) I'm excited for Bette to eventually cross their path!

Sleeper actually worked with Flash during a recent Carnage plot, but they're basically poor Eddie having a surprise pregnancy even though Venom isn't supposed to be able to spawn after the Life Foundation kids. They don't have a permanent host, although they've worn a few people around.

Basically, Sleeper is what happens if you let Venom actually parent the spawn and have good influences and things like feeling loved when you're a wee ooze. They mostly stay almost cat-like because they're less obviously a symbiote that way, and also able to look after Eddie's (mostly) human kid that Anne hid from him until Dylan came looking for him.

hello!

and welcome, bette, to the chaos that is.. the massive amount of gothamites lurking around meta causing chaos and mayhem wherever they go.

i'm jessi, and i've got comics!jason here who has been in constant fights with animated!jason, for jasonreasons - while also getting into mischief with other bats and dragging other bats out to take breaks for their own good. so, normal batdrama for the most part.

he's current canon so he'll be familiar with bette, and given j1's announcement of her existence in game, may come around to sus out what's up with her

hello jessi, thank you so much! I've seen your Jason around bakerstreet before and love how you play him! very excited to be in a game with you and see what develops between these two, especially since Bette's already met J1! (Honestly, very spoiled to be in a game with two fantastic Jasons, he's my absolute favourite of the Robins!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

NOVEMBER STATE OF THE GAME

INVITES.

QUESTIONS & ENGAGEMENT

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Re: QUESTIONS & ENGAGEMENT

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New Player! Bette Kane | DC Comics

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Re: New Player! Bette Kane | DC Comics

Re: New Player! Bette Kane | DC Comics

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