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meta moderators ([personal profile] metamods) wrote2021-12-31 06:01 am

LOCATIONS & HOUSING


SETTING INFORMATION
This page provides players with information about the modern alternate Earth on which Meta Heroes is set, including details of each of the four major U.S. cities where mod-run events will take place. In addition, this page will be used to record details of characters' housing, whether those accommodations are Guild-arranged or independently acquired.

Player characters may choose to reside in Arcadia, or spend their own personal income on private housing. Subsidized housing can also be provided by the guilds as requested. ICly, characters will default to residence within Arcadia unless otherwise requested.

To update a character's housing, players can simply adjust their listings HERE.

To add or update a character or npc business, players should comment to this page. Please write the business' BUSINESS + CITY LOCATION in the SUBJECT LINE fill in the following form:


OVERVIEW
Meta Heroes takes place in an alternate modern Earth that has been plagued with supernatural events called Confluences. Spurred on by the surging and converging of various magical and physical forces, these Confluences create short bursts of extreme existential chaos that can have disastrous effects.

For a long time, these events phenomena were volatile and frequent, and in that time they were also been responsible for development of a number of metahuman abilities. Since the start of these phenomena in the early 20th century, metahumans have influenced this Earth in myriad ways — good and bad. Those metahumans have gone on to have children, and grandchildren, the population of metahumans has risen — and with it, disasters caused by their untrained powers. Over time, the frequency and intensity of Confluences plummeted. However, as of January 15, 2022, the world has entered a resurgence. Confluences have returned to their original intensity and frequency, but with a new quirk. Thanks to rifts in the fabric of space-time, these disasters are now also drawing people in from other worlds.

Fortunately, these days, the world has the Society and the Guardian Alliance — guilds of superheroes and supervillains who made a pact in the 1980s to mitigate the collateral damage metahumans' altercations were causing. These Guilds provides their psychics and psions with the resources to predict where and when Confluences will occur. They then pass the anticipated time and location to all of their active members, that they may gather the new arrivals, offer a recruitment pitch, and return them to the base in Central City, where they can be supported.


METAHUMAN RELATIONS
Much like other real world discrimination towards marginalized identities and social minorities, the treatment of metahumans can vary based on individual experience and local culture. Due to matters of interest and comfort, players choose how to engage the potentially discriminatory attitudes that their characters may personally face. For more information on the major cities and their general cultural attitudes towards metahumans, read the city descriptions.

Though Confluences have happened for decades, until recently, metas were a sufficiently small population that most people had never met one personally. Their cultural novelty and otherness means metahuman affairs make popular content on social media and in other forms of mass entertainment. In addition to OURPOWERS, the in-world answer to Youtube, Reddit, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook that makes up the network, influencers and internet culture fill their feeds with all things meta. In her monthly gossip segment, RUE MOORE HAS IT, popular internet personality Rue Moore airs heroes' and villains' most salacious secrets.
NOTE! Discrimination against metas is not intended to be a wholesale replacement or replication of any form of real-world discrimination. Players are welcome to engage with issues of real world discrimination and marginalization as they apply to their individual characters. We don't want to close them off as avenues for players to engage when the game is set in an alternate modern United States. However, to avoid any perceived obligation to engage these topics, these aspects of the setting will not be made an essential part of any mod-run game event.


Despite the world's willingness to consume them as entertainment, discrimination against metahumans occurs in a variety of forms. Metas who possess certain types of powers — those that are highly weaponizable or those that involve inhuman appearances — often receive the brunt of it. However, depending on how they use them, any meta who exercises their powers openly might be met with the general population's awe or fear, which may feel dehumanizing even when positive.

For these reasons and more, most metas choose to hide their identities in their day-to-day lives. Those who assimilate, either by passing for human or by avoiding relying overmuch on their powers, receive passive acceptance from the general population and should have no trouble integrating into their new communities.

Over time, support groups have cropped up, offering a place to air their grievances as well as various social supports to metas who have been victims to discrimination and dehumanization. These groups are especially concerned with the plight of those with non-human appearances. In addition, both guilds help their members achieve this, often through the use of holo-tech that can alter a character's appearance and size (real or perceived), as well as augment highly dangerous powers.

LITTLE LOVE, KANSAS
A rural farming town of roughly five thousand people, Little Love is the very definition of tight-knit. The residents of the "land where love lives" look after each other and treat every person there as part of their extended family.

The mayor, Robert Eastern, invites metas who settle down or visit to meet with him at City Hall, where a bronze statue out front depicts a battle from the Godfall Incident. This self-professed superfan will explain that it's here because the nation popularly accepts that Atomight, the world's most powerful meta, was born and raised here. Though the charming mayor and the rest of his local government pride themselves on open and transparent efforts to make the world a better place, anyone who digs will find no shortage of secrets and skeletons in closets.

Something strange is always happening, but most of the town's weirdness is mild. The locals can trace the strange happenings back even before the first Confluence, though it caused a sharp uptick in the frequency of oddities. Every other week, something crazy seizes the town, be it sentient corn taking over the city or the swim team turning into reptile monsters and losing their chance to qualify for regionals. Guild members assigned to Little Love may need to fight the occasional bout of super-powered locusts, but that's a small price to pay for a little slice of paradise.

The locals like their slow-paced lives and keeping to themselves. This little town prides itself on their quiet nightlife and quieter police radios, so they generally treat metahumans well. As long as they don't draw attention to themselves, the people of Little Love won't look twice. Anyone causing a ruckus, on the other hand, won't be welcome long.

The guilds purchased a number of local farmhouses to house their members. These historical buildings have been renovated to ensure that they can withstand most any superpower and handle whatever tech is used. Each of them have four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Residents are encouraged to make use of the acres of farmland attached to the building, which is perfectly suited for raising livestock or growing crops.

BUSINESS DIRECTORY
LOCATIONBUSINESS NAMEOWNER
TYPE & LOCATIONBUSINESS NAMEOWNER
TYPE & LOCATIONBUSINESS NAMEOWNER


CENTRAL CITY, MICHIGAN
Central City is where it all began. Since the first Confluence targeted the city, it has been attacked by just about anything and everything imaginable. No other city has had as many Confluences Central City has. As a result, it boasts the largest population of metas in the western world.

Considered the birthplace of both heroes and villains, Central City is full of conflicted opinions on metahumans. Some view them as the solution to every problem, others see them as the cause. As such, attitude towards metahumans is best described as begrudging tolerance.

However, given that the local government has all but checked out, with politicians focused on lining their own pockets instead of the wellbeing of their city and acting only when they need to secure votes, metahumans are often the only help this city has. Corruption has seeped into every sector. Public officials' focus on maintaining the image of the city rather than its people has led Central City to become both the murder capital of the world. As a result, life in Central City is best described as gritty.

However, it's also one of the nicest to look at! With so many buildings destroyed so often, the ongoing rebuilding efforts afford the opportunity for incredible freedom and artistic creativity. The city is considered to be an architectural marvel. One such installation is the Headquarters of the Guardian Alliance, stationed right at the heart of the city. Though the Society has a presence here as well, they lack any formal bases.

One of the most lavish parts of Central City is the DIADEM HOTEL, a 5-star hotel generally reserved for the obscenely wealthy. Its rooms are enormous, and the beds are quite literally enchanted to offer the perfect night's sleep. With a world-class chef planning menus that could bankrupt a small country, this hotel is the epitome of luxury.

For characters settled in Central City permanently, the guilds own housing in the wealthiest sector of the city. These luxury apartments take up entire floors of a gothic building which, despite their exposed brick industrial aesthetic, have every amenity imaginable, from smart appliances to complimentary personal training. Player characters are four to a space, each with their own bedroom and spacious en-suite bathroom, so at least guild members can relax after trying to contain the city's violent crime or competing for turf with other villains.

BUSINESS DIRECTORY
LOCATIONBUSINESS NAMEOWNER
Karaoke Bar & LoungeDescendant Bar and LoungeJason Todd
EntertainmentThe OpheriumLoki Odinson


EXCELSIOR, WASHINGTON
This city of the future was the birthplace of the flying car, the holodeck, artificial intelligence, and true cybernetics. The greatest minds call this rapidly growing metropolis their home.

All new Starfallen arrivals will open up on the outskirts of Excelsior over a housing complex called ARCADIA. Designed from the ground up as an AI-generated housing unit, it's run by an AI named Virgil who's interested in offering a safe space to native and Starfallen metahumans (regardless of Guild affiliation). Arcadia is a castle-like structure that's high-tech in nature—albeit with a little magic tossed in. Each occupant of Arcadia can design their domain to their liking, and even adjust on the fly as needed. As long as someone isn't partaking in illegal activity, Arcadia is a place for all metahumans to live freely. The door to Arcadia is located in the heart of Excelsior in a building labeled as such, though this door only acts as a quick teleport from the city to the complex on the outskirts of the high-rise city. If someone wants to go to Arcadia proper to get inside, they can do that, too.

Residents of this city often ask themselves if its possible do something, not whether or not they should. The city of yuppie start-ups is as perfect as an insta pic, and just as filtered. The city government (and the multinational tech giants which influence it) will throw funding at innovative ideas without any oversight, granting innovators unprecedented freedom to discover.

As a result of this, advanced technology that can't be found anywhere else in the world is commonplace here, and rarely thoroughly tested. Sometimes it's even a little amoral, which often plunges the city into disaster. The Alliance keeps its hands full dealing with experiments gone wrong, and metahumans living in this city will find that the biggest threats these science-folks have to face are - well, themselves...

While the citizens are grateful to be saved on the daily and the city used to be indifferent towards metahumans, attitudes have changed in 2022. They city is best described as hostile towards metahumans, seemingly incapable of gratitude or self-reflection. Of course, when one or two of them get a bug in their ear about wanting to test their research on those with superhuman abilities, they might find themselves liable to give those metas a second look...

The sophisticated and chic citizens of Excelsior are largely independently wealthy young innovators who enjoy a thriving nightlife when they aren't trying to eat each other trying to be on the edge of the cutting edge. The city is full of gleaming skyscrapers of glass and steel that give the impression they're reaching for the stars — likely because at least some of them are working on private space travel.

Settling here is costly, but Excelsior is uniquely luxurious in the lifestyle it offers. The chamber of commerce has subsidized housing for guild members in the form of futuristic highrise apartments in the city's signature steel-and-glass space-age architectural style. Each unit of four bedrooms shares a living space and kitchen, but each bedroom has both a private bathroom and personal workspace attached, ready to be outfitted for the resident’s personal needs.

BUSINESS DIRECTORY
LOCATIONBUSINESS NAMEOWNER
TYPE & LOCATIONBUSINESS NAMEOWNER


SUNSET FALLS, MASSACHUSETTS
At first glance, Sunset Falls is nothing but another shady suburb. Not nearly as large as the other cities, it lacks any immediately distinguishable threats. The people here seem to be upstanding citizens, friendly if a little eccentric.

But nobody goes out after dark, and once the sun sets, anyone would understand why.

Ambient mystical energy flows thickly through the streets because Sunset Falls sits in the crossroads of three leylines and a Hellmouth. Magic here is extremely potent and unpredictable. Each day spent within these woods is both an act of bravery and a question: will this be weird, or will it be terrifying? Life here is dangerous. While the people are pleasant, if a little quirky, danger really does lurk around every corner. Metahumans here will find themselves with no shortage of supernatural problems to solve... or cause.

Of all the Confluence prone cities, Sunset Falls is perhaps the most inviting to metahumans. In a town this weird, even those who can’t pass for human are enthusiastically accepted for who they are. Metahumans with connections to the supernatural may have an easier time developing a rapport with the townsfolk, but anyone brave enough to live here will be considered part of the community after just one bad full moon together.

The guild-assigned housing here comes in the form of old Victorian homes. Supposedly, no one has lived in these houses for decades — but lived might just be the key word there. Most are modest four bedroom affairs with quaint kitchens, creaky stairs, and paintings that seem to make eye contact. They feature a bathroom on each floor and fathomless walk-in closets. Each one has a basement primed for engaging in the occult arts.
BUSINESS DIRECTORY
LOCATIONBUSINESS NAMEOWNER
Sunset Falls
Info
Sunset Falls Public LibraryNPC-owned
A dirty old bar protected by chaos-wards, literally impenetrable unless you portal/phase in. A haunt for sorcerers and magical types. The Bar With No Doors"The Club"


OTHER LOCATIONS
LOFTY HEIGHTS META SCHOOL
LOCATION: UNKNOWN
In a time before the guilds, when metas were just entering public awareness, authorities and media commentators both eagerly shirked a very important question: what do you do with a teenaged meta? When there weren't many — just Amphiboy and the mech-riding Steelblade, who might or might not have been a young woman — it was easy to wriggle out of addressing the ethical implications, but as more and more heroes and villains targeted their rivals at their most vulnerable, schools became a battlefield.

It took three wrecked schools for the guilds to step in. They called together a number of big-name metas specializing in technology and magic. A few notable villains crashed the meeting, owed to a vested interest in (their own) children. After several days of heated debates, frantic scribbling, and pledges for donations, they came up with the a plan: a school for meta teens, where they could train their powers under the tutelage of other metas.

To keep meta students safe, Lofty Heights keeps its location secret. Not only does it relocate frequently, but this flying school stays airborne at all times. Only staff members and seriously vetted bus drivers learn how to reach the school, and all staff members are Guild-associated. Even students are kept in the dark — buses travel special routes to collect meta students and reroute to a secure location out of sight, where they use wormhole tech to teleport up to the school and fly students in.

On top of a standard curriculum, classes offer students a chance to safely explore their powers and learn to control them. The goal of the school is to prepare these teens to lead normal lives. Report cards focus on the academic elements to avoid outing meta students to their non-meta parents. On top of the basic instruction on controlling powers, students set on a path towards heroism can undergo additional powers training under the auspices of afterschool programs like sports and theater.

Because of the school's mission to teach meta children to use their powers responsibly, any misuse of powers on school grounds will lead to disciplinary action. This can involve detention, as well as some of the most boring lectures on "great power" and "responsibility," blah blah blah.



NETWORK | LOGS | OOC | MEMES

PREMISE | SETTING | GUILDS | FAQ | RULES
TAKEN | CALENDAR | ENGAGEMENT | NPC ENGAGEMENT
RESERVES | APPLICATION | MOD CONTACT | PLAYER PLOTS
HIATUS & DROP | CANON & POWER UPDATES

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