CONFLUENCE 24
A Confluence, capitalized, is the converging of one or more supernatural forces.
There don't seem to be any people falling from the sky this month. The Seers view it as a sign that the New Year is going to be a peaceful one. So, for the first time in two years, the Guilds can throw a celebration.
In commemoration of the hard work from both sides, they opt to hold a shared celebration on neutral ground. Sunset Falls is, as ever, the perfect place to do so. The Willow Maiden is still dreaming deeply and though most of the town is blanketed in a fine coat of snow, the meadow in her forest is warm and lush. There are wedding tents set up on either side, and the middle of the meadow appears to have been claimed by civilian metas and human allies who aided in the efforts.
The Alliance and The Society have set up both of their usual holiday setups in this space. An anti-gravity dancehall has people dancing in the sky. And as the Starfallen are the only reason anyone is still here right now, those who haven't picked a side are also welcome. Francis Starling has set up a small lounge between the two spaces - something she isn't finding much humor in.
Each side is elaborately decorated. The Alliance has its more humble and relaxed aesthetic, and The Society has its usual ostentatious presentation. Some magicians have conjured an enormous clock, ticking down the moments to the New Year… which is a day later than when the rest of the world celebrates it. Who can say how this tradition started, other than that time travel sucks?
There's alcohol for the adults and juice for the kids. A magically refilling buffet table. Desserts that appear with a thought. It's a miracle that everyone got this through the year, and the Guilds have spared absolutely no expense.
There are party games, some as basic as Pin the Tail on the Donkey. And other far more elaborate - high contact sports where the super strong can go all out. Hide and seek turns into a cerebral game of cat and mouse.
There is a fortune-telling booth set up in the far corner of the meadow, nearer to where the Villains tent is than the heroes. Chaos Gate sits behind it, watching the party unfold with a slightly guilty smile. It is, after all, her fault that things got so wildly out of control... but at the same time, one can't deny that the world is more interesting. Perhaps even better for it. Characters can approach her and for a small fee (mostly a drink ticket, though she'll take whatever you have in your pockets, even if it's lint) they can be assigned a constellation.
This constellation doesn't correlate to any known star you've heard of. When asked, she says it's unique to you. It's not just your star sign, it's the star sign that all the celestial bodies across all worlds created when you were born. Whether she's kidding or not is hard to say, she is collecting drink tickets after all, but she thinks that as the Willow Maiden's head priestess, it's her right to slack off when her boss is sleeping.
You can ask questions about your past, your present, or your future. Each person only gets three, so think carefully about what you want to ask. If you're stuck and in dire need of guidance - she's right here for you. She'll answer with her limited omniscience.
With that said, there is a side-effect of having your fortunes read. As this is chaos magic, being perceived puts everything in a bit of flux - you'll have an unfortunate side-effect for the next week or so. Your horoscope for each day is suddenly far more accurate. These can be quite serious, or quite silly. Such is the danger of asking anything of Katherine West.
STARS FALLINGJust as the exuberant gathering of heroes and villains countdown to 1, and the screams of Happy New Year die down - something begins to streak across the sky. Unlike the distant shooting stars, this is… close. Far more reminiscent of one of the Starfallen abruptly appearing and tumbling toward the Earth.
For a moment, the partygoers can only stare at it. Wondering if perhaps the Seers had missed something. A few flight-capable heroes move to take off to intercept the falling thing, anticipating that this is a Starfallen and that tonight's festivities are about to be disrupted by their disorienting arrival - only for one of the Seers to hold out a hand to stop them.
Unlike the Starfallen, the object is burning up as it falls.
"Well, it's been a while since we've seen that," Mechanima buzzes, mask switching from a giant question mark to a firework. "I suppose we're all a bit paranoid about space debris being people these days. Let's get back to the party, shall we? I don't want to remember this tomorrow."
And though some return to partying, others… don't. Atomight, Mechanima, and Frances all look notably perturbed and when approached with questions, don't have answers. The best they can offer is that wayward spaceships aren't uncommon, but the last time they saw anything like this - the Starfallen were the result.
Chaos Gate herself looks notably… disturbed. If asked, she says this is an all too familiar sight. Two years ago, she was standing on a farm in Little Love feeling the world shift as things that were never meant to be here fell to Earth. And this feeling is the same.
Stars continue to fall through the rest of the night.
Come morning, those within the Guilds will be called to base. The phenomenon happened the world over, and though there's no indication that anything made contact or damaged anything - that's more concerning. While the usual missions are there to request, there are new ones to investigate what happened.
And for once, these are not limited just to the metahuman cities. Whatever happened, happened everywhere.
MISSIONSThe headquarters of the Guardian Alliance are easy to find. It’s located in one of the taller and more ornate skyscrapers of Central City
The first floor is something of a public space. There’s a small museum dedicated to the Alliance’s most famous exploits, standees of famous heroes for tourists to snap selfies with, and even a little gift shop! For metas, though, the real business starts upstairs. You’ll have to check in with a receptionist, who will unlock the elevator to HQ proper. There’s not a lot of visible security beyond that, but you still get the feeling that any kind of trouble here wouldn’t end well for the troublemakers.
The Guardian’s Club is the central hub of the headquarters. It’s an open and sunny lounge area with shining white walls and floors. The furniture is modern, in bright primary colors, and there’s a high ceiling that allows for people of any size, or those who just want to fly around for fun. Off to one side is a large games area - the main attraction is the large pool table, but there’s also some board games, co-op video games, a snack bar, and even a DDR machine. Bonding with your fellow heroes is a great thing!
Outside of this area is where you’ll find the mission board. It’s a modern touchscreen display, on which Alliance members can tap their member ID, input mission preferences, how many they intend to take out with them, and receive a mission.
Where the Guardian Alliance’s headquarters gleams, The Society’s headquarters is much darker. The two buildings are actually quite close to each other. Entering here, you’ll find a similar reception desk where your credentials must be verified before going into the headquarters proper. Security here is far more visible, with clear cameras on the walls and buff guards, often with visible powers such as rocky skin or hands that crackle with lightning, posted nearby. You have to imagine, though, that the real safeguards here are the ones you can’t see.
Inside the Society Lounge, the furnishings are classy in a far more toned-down sense. The furnishings are dark wood, with chairs and long couches upholstered primarily in reds and violets. Here, there’s a full bar! According to the sign posted above it, however, any disorderly conduct within the Lounge will be swiftly dealt with.
The mission board is a sleek electronic display posted on the back wall of the lounge. It’s quite high-tech, updating itself regularly. You can use the touchscreen to request a job. After inputting one's member ID and the amount of people they intend to take along with them, it will assign out tasks based off of what it thinks they will be able to handle. But be careful; who gets assigned what is all public information, and it sure would be a shame to fail.
Please fill out the form and post it below our MISSION REQUESTS header.
CHARACTERS INVOLVED:
GUILD: What guilds are the characters affiliated with?
REQUESTED DIFFICULTY: Easy/Medium/Hard
REWARD REQUEST: Is your character after money, or a specific item?
LIMITATIONS: What do you not want your character to get assigned? Please note we are happy to offer new missions if our initial offer doesn't work!
➢ Welcome to the first Confluence of Arc 3! We've outlined what can be expected throughtout the month STATE OF THE GAME for January.
➢ All Starfallen are invited to a lavish New Years party - taking place on the evening of January 1st, as due to some temporaral shenanigans that is actually the start of the new year.
➢ Players can have their fortunes read by Chaos Gate, who is set up. They get three questions and she will answer with what appears to be some limited omniscience. Doing so may result in your luck and overall reality being a little bit wonky throughout the next week.
➢ As the party goes on, a starshower will begin. Though nothing dramatic appears to be happening just yet, players can be sent out on investigative missions to see just what happened. This is happening the world over. It also is happening in space itself - space exploration is now on the table.
➢ Any missions will feed into the January event, as well as any fortunes or questions asked.
MISSION REQUESTS.
Re: MISSION REQUESTS.
GUILD: Alliance
REQUESTED DIFFICULTY: Medium
REWARD REQUEST: nothing in particular in mind, money is fine
LIMITATIONS: nothing that involves Leo facing his worst fear/nightmare, he's had enough of that haha
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He can't offer Leo a lot of money, but he can offer him connections in the city for just about anything his heart desires. Real estate, cars, illegal tech - you name it, he can help put it in your hands.
The challenge of this is getting him out of the city unseen and unnoticed. Oh, and ensuring that his death is adequately faked. This may involve an elborate scheme and hoax, as this man is a dead man unless the world thinks he's six feet under.
Let us know if you're interested in this one, and how Leo would approach it!
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Getting Rath out of the city should (hopefully) not be much of a challenge for Leo; he still has the disguise watch he used to disguise his own appearance and now that his portals are stronger he can use those and his ninja skills to slip past anyone who may be on the hunt for Rath.
Faking a death is a bit more complicated. Leo is a teenager who knows very little about things like faking a body or rigging an autopsy, so his idea is to fake Rath's death in a way where no one would expect to find much in the way of a body in the first place.
That is, with an explosion! A small one! Minimal property damage, he promises!
Leo's plan is to rig Rath's car to explode, in a place public enough to be noticed but not so public anyone will be caught in the blast radius (probably in one of the warehouse districts). At the moment the bomb is about to go off and take the whole car up in flames, Leo will portal Rath safely out, disguise him and whisk him out of the city. If Rath is really as well connected as he says, surely the D'Amicos won't be surprised that one of his other "acquaintances" might want to take him out, right?
Leo plans to commission his brother Donnie for the bomb because he's the only one Leo knows who can rig up something like that for him.
Cars and illegal tech are all well and good, but Leo would mainly like some info on the D'Amicos from Rath. Most importantly, if he knows anything about Elena D'Amico.
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He's hesitant to share details about what he knows of the D'Amicos, outside of what he's written in his expose. It will take a little bit of verbal convincing to make him think that it's safe to share with Leo, but he'll break down and tell Leo a well-kept generational secret: there is a member of Elena's family who is no longer alive, and Elena, as well as Elena's deceased mother, blames Atomight for the incident.
The details of this incident are vague, and he doesn't have any regarding who the deceased person was, their relation to Elena, nor why they blame Atomight. But it becomes clear that Elena has an extreme hatred for Atomight specifically, and intends to carry out her mother's original plan of killing him for what he did. This is partially why she joined her family with the D'Amicos - their mutual dislike of metahumans (or in Elena's case, Atomight specifically) gives her family more power in their quest to take him out.
Re: MISSION REQUESTS.
GUILD: Alliance
REQUESTED DIFFICULTY: Hard
REWARD REQUEST: Storm's just trying to be helpful especially with the introduction of space-related affairs! but she won't say no to monetary reward to save up for nice housing :)
LIMITATIONS: Nothing too life-threatening or debilitating please, but I'm alright with her getting moderately banged up as she is not invulnerable.
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It appears that not all is right in the wake of the starstorm. A supercell seems to be forming in Houston, Texas, and it could significantly delay any attempts at launching into space. As Storm nears the city she will easily be able to determine that this is no ordinary storm, though there does not appear to be a conscious creature causing it... and what's worse, there's a compulsion to claim the source of this power as their own. Any Starfallen on the scene may find themselves determined to reach the epicenter and claim the item for themselves. While it lacks sentience, it does appear to be drawn to the Starfallen. They will note its path is shifting ever so slightly.
Evacuating the city is a must. From there, Storm and any allies of her choosing will need to act fast. The supercell is gaining power rapidly and could easily destroy the entire city Wizard of Oz style.
Let us know if this works, and what plan they will enact to save the city and stop the storm!
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She'd be leaving the evacuation of the city to any other heroes (Starfallen or native) that are on the scene!
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Whoever claims the item will feel overwhelmingly compelled to hide the stones. However, they can be persuaded to hand them over. The native metahumans of this world do not appear to be affected by them, so Alliance staff will be on standby to help quarantine them.
The team will be celebrated as heroes for their efforts!
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GUILD: Society
REQUESTED DIFFICULTY: Medium!
REWARD REQUEST: Permission to shadow a more established Societan during a future job or something
LIMITATIONS: N/A
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The mission itself is straightforward on paper. Donnie is to gather intel on what the falling stars are. He's given multiple areas to search within the United States - the primary focus being in Nevada, Florida, and Alaska. Donnie can pick any location of his choosing, and the request is to map out the area of impact and bring back any samples if he's able to find them. It appears that thousands of stars fell that night, and more are still coming down.
With this said, he's being asked to look for a needle in a haystack. The objects are most likely no larger than an inch and truthfully, Mechanima does not expect him to find a sample. What he wants is to see Donnie's diligence and capacity to problem-solve.
With that being said, if Donnie agrees to this mission - he'll find he has no trouble locating a sample. As he nears the impact sites, any fragments will begin to emit a bright golden glow, shining like the sun in the dark crevices they've tumbled into. Unfortunately, whatever they've embedded themselves into - sand, snow, or stone - will form into a golem and Donnie may have to put up a fight to claim it.
Let us know if you would like to take this mission, whether Donnie will be bringing any back-up with him, and what he'd do when faced with these shining shards!
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Sorry, this got super longDonnie's no stranger to intel gathering, and so upon mission acceptance he'll get right to work. That the mission came straight from Mechanima himself has Dee jazzed- a chance to show the head man himself what he can do?? Yasssssss!!
He's going to head out to Nevada first, and with his favorite esper in tow. The glow is not something he'll expect, and while it does make finding whatever it is he's been sent to find much easier, the particular light is all too similar to something he's become intimately familiar with. If there are any similarities, maybe his goggles will pick up on the readings? -however seeing something begin to form around this glowing fragment is hard to ignore so he'll have to assess things later. It's probably safe to say that between him and Accelerator, they'll make short work of any golems.
He'll tell Accelerator what he thinks the thing is upon their initial encounter, stopping himself just before he goes and tries picking the thing up because he'd already been scolded by the esper once before. Still, readings only give him so much, and while he knows Accy won't be happy about it, Donnie has this need to know and figures there's only one sure way to find out if this shard is what he thinks it is, so ultimately he'll try picking up the first one they find.
Depending on how that goes and his suspicions confirmed, he'll still want to make sure they manage to glean whatever fragments they manage to track down because having god bits sprinkled everywhere is probably something to be concerned about, but he'll store any more in a specially transmuted container with sections since he's not sure how they'd react when they are in contact with one another. Accelerator can reflect any radiation so if that is a problem he can safely handle stuff for them.
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We love long hereDonatello's thorough planning is well rewarded. Everything goes off without a hitch, and before they know it, they have achieved victory over the golems and can claim the stone fragments. There are five in all.
The stones seem to be drawn to Donatello, and he may feel similarly drawn to them. They glow bright and brighter still the closer he is, and with that brightness there is an urge to reach out and touch them, however once in containment this is drastically reduced. Accelerator may feel a much weaker pull.
The glow eventually fades and they simply look like ordinary stones. One would not think them capable of bringing much of anything to life, but - Donnie is right about what they are.
Once the mission is completed, Mechanima will send an extraction team. It's up to Donnie and Accelerator on how honest they want to be about these objects and how much they feel like disclosing.
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Makes noteThe boys will have concerns, certainly. Accelerator's more concerned about the fact that the things react and seem attracted to Donnie and doesn't want him potentially being experimented on because of it. They're both in agreement that they should probably at least inform Mechanima about what the objects are but will be holding back on certain details. Because if there's a bunch of these things, that's plenty of cause for concern, especially if they'll be bringing things to life. ...and also Donnie still wants to score high on Mechanima's list shhhh.
Donnie can at least truthfully say that he's observed similar readings before through his goggles, enough to suggest a potential origin. He might hold a couple of the objects back for study.
...what happens if he does touch one?
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Mechanima is notably not enthused about the idea of any of these things being outside where the Guild can monitor them, but Donnie isn't breaking any portion of The Code by keeping one or two so he will leave it be. So long as Donnie doesn't go apocalyptic, that is, something that he says with a smile that says its a warning. Don't get in over your head, kid.
If Donnie opts to touch one of the fragments, he will find it begins to dissolve into his skin. Any equipment monitoring it will note that the particles appear to be dissipating inside of him. He will feel a little rush of power - but as one who has already touched a fragment of a God, a single tiny sliver is not enough to boost his power.
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except Leo and Accy. At least he does mean to follow through with studying them, and maybe he can work out some kind of device that'd help make it easier to track down others.Dissipating particles...that's...probably concerning and a little disturbing. Time to look at blood samples c_c;;
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And as for that bloodwork - nothing seems even remotely amiss. Which is strangely perhaps not the most comforting thing to see after a mysterious space rock dissolves into your skin. Notably, no other metahumsn or Starfallen who touch the rocks will report anything about them dissolving.
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...oh, that's not weird or anything for sure.
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Re: MISSION REQUESTS.
GUILD: Alliance
REQUESTED DIFFICULTY: Medium
REWARD REQUEST: Diana would like to start up an Athenian Women's Shelter if her fame level increases enough after this mission.
LIMITATIONS: I would prefer Diana not have to straight up kill anyone! Would be great if it could be related to her earlier mission with the robots, because I'd like to pick up that plot thread, but am extremely flexible!
no subject
While the copies of Atomight and Starstruck are no longer wreaking havoc on the Bay Area, there are dozens more worldwide causing chaos and mayhem wherever they go. Silent Mystic has been seen in Italy causing roads to upend themselves and fold over vehicles trying to make their way through the country. Baron Von Borzoi has been barking up the trees of several cat shelters, which is far below a dog of his status. A speedster with the Alliance named NITRO who is generally stationed close to their headquarters has been spotted in Europe snagging pizza boxes from unsuspecting civilians just trying to get their lunch, causing a massive shortage of pizza in every city he zooms through.
Their motivations are unclear, given a lot of the chaos they're causing at this point is more just... chaos than anything else.
Signs point to their origins being close to where the original trouble broke out, so she may want to investigate the Bay Area when she isn't trying to stop the androids from destroying public roadways, terrorizing cats, and hoarding pizza.
She may be able to find that there was a young man who majored in robotics at a prestigious university in Excelsior, who was kicked out of his program for getting a little too into creating replacement heroes, should they lose those they currently have watching over Earth. His family had run a small but very popular restaurant in San Francisco before their lease was purchased out by a large chain restaurant, and they were unable to lease out a new building.
This may explain the motivation for the first attack, but doesn't explain anything to do with what's currently going on. He has also gone a little underground; one of his closest friends reports he hasn't been seen since before the first attack committed by Silent Mystic.
A shelter is within reach for Diana, if she's able to find their creator and take them out!