AndyC

MARVELS: Streets of New York

Gonna try to Elektrapost tonight! Question time! If you could pick a second character to play, who would you go for? My pick would go to Hellcat.

@BoomBadaBing

Since Danny was set aside in favor of the Webslinger, I'd probably pick up Iron Fist to complete the tag-team. Apart from that, I think Cloak and Dagger would make for a fun bit of variety, or Ben Reilly if we don't have our fill of Spider-people.

MARVELS: Streets of New York

"Anyone--*coughcough*--anyone still up here?" I call out, my voice barely audible over the roar of the flames, the crumbling of wood and masonry. My eyes are watering and my lungs are burning from the thick black smoke that makes it almost impossible to see. Since the whole place is comin' down anyway, I'm not exactly careful when I run into a wall or a door, and I crash through them without much of a care.

Looks like that pale-ass undead fella was good to his word- I'm not seeing anyone else up here, an' I don't see any evidence he hurt anybody. Still, I wanna be thorough while I'm up here; gettin' left in a burning building's a bad way to go. Not to mention leavin' a civilian in harm's way would be bad for H4H's rep. Better make damn sure the coast is clear before I--

"G'ahhhh!" I yelp as what look like a pair of hairy brown hands drop down from the ceiling and onto my face. I'm just about to bring my hands up and crush them before I realize it's 'Mister Mittens,' that kid's stupid tarantula.

"I swear," I growl as I stomp towards the fire exit at the end of the hall, holding the big hairy spider in my hands--not tight enough to hurt the bug but just enough so it can't get away again, "When this is over, you an' me are gonna have ourselves a--"

The floorboards creak underneath my feet, in a real un-assuring kind of way.

"....awwww, shit," I manage, as the creaks become cracks, and the cracks become a deafening crash. The floor gives out from under me, and I fall.

And I fall.

And I fall.

And I fall.

The whole damn building starts comin' down, and I get bounced around like a pinball in the debris. I go ass-over-head again and again, smashing into concrete beams and smashing through rebar. Everything's fire and rubble and smoke and dust and so much noise, an' the only thing I can focus on is keepin' this stupid goddamn tarantula from gettin' smashed by all of it.

Eventually, the falling and the tumbling and the crashing come to a stop. I'm so spun around I can't tell which way is up...until a piece of old iron pipe clangs against the back of my head, and I decide that 'up' is where all this shit keeps fallin' on me from. That helps me get my bearings, and I start digging myself out.

"Well, we couldn't save the building," I mutter as I dig with one hand, keeping Mister Mittens gently but firmly in my grasp with the other, "so at best I'm only gettin' paid half rate for this gig. Still, could be worse- don't think we lost anybody, human or arachnid. So an ugly win's still a win."

Once I get enough of myself dug out from the rubble that I can push with my legs, I climb out into the pitch-dark of what must be some kinda sub-basement. Funny, the floor plans the landlord gave me for Spring Water Flats didn't include any sub-levels...

"Ahhh hell," I grumble as I pull out my phone and see the screen is completely shattered. So much for that protective case Danny was insistent I spent the extra money on. "Guess I'll have to wait til I get back to the office to check the files. Still, maybe the flashlight still works. I'd like to at least be able to see where the hell I am."

After a few moments of dumbly fumbling around with the sad remains of my phone, I somehow manage to get the flashlight going. "Now what's going on down here," I wonder, "I just got done shakin' down one shady-ass landlord. If I gotta do it again, I'm gonna be--..."

The flashlight's beam catches a couple of big red plastic objects. Gas cans. So much for this bein' a case of faulty wiring.

Someone burned this place down on purpose. Bringing the beam around the rest of the sub-basement, I start to see why.

"Sweet Christmas...."

Having spent plenty of time on both sides of the law, I've seen my fair share of drug labs. Enough to know the difference between a couple of rednecks cooking in the back of their trailer and a professional operation. And enough to know the difference between someone trying to make a new kind of high, and someone trying to make some real serious shit.

Most of the lab equipment has been burned or wrecked, and there's plenty of empty spaces along the walls, shelves, and counters. Whoever was in here, they must have left in too much of a hurry to leave without a trace, so they grabbed whatever they could take with them an' then torched everything else. What's left of it, though, is way above the pay grade of your average drug operation. I see a few uncomfortably familiar logos on the scorched machinery.

Oscorp.

Roxxon.

Advanced Idea Mechanics.

Even some Stark Industries equipment-- hell, I think I recognize some of this stuff from Dr. Burnstein's experiments that gave me my powers.

"Damn," I say under my breath, "This is some big league shit, Mister Mittens. Whatever these guys were workin' on, we're gonna need to find it an' shut it down. 'cause this is the exact sorta thing that might just cause half the damn city to...."

My flashlight catches something in the middle of a pile of charred wreckage. A broken shard of something, something....orange....

"...explode..."

The perp doused this whole place in gas to burn it. But he didn't just use a match to start the fire.

That shard right there, and the other bright orange shards around it...

...that's a Pumpkin Bomb.

MARVELS: Streets of New York

Looks solid. The Electric Nachos are APPROVED.

MARVELS: Streets of New York

I think the fire event is basically done, so my next post will tie that one up. You're free to move past it if you want.

MARVELS: Streets of New York

I don't think Rivals itself is a great model for an rp but side games of different capabilities but the same world as this one would be fun. Ruby and I once had a game focused heavily on retelling the founding of Krakoa so I think specialised yet not street level still works.

@Ezekiel

Indeed: before we settled on doing street-level NY, one of the other concepts we pitched and discussed was a dedicated X-Men game. Like this one, it would be a more focused game with emphasis on interaction and collaboration. Ultimately we went with this one because it was easier to keep a consistent scale- the Mutants are all over the place when it comes to power levels. That said, if we do start branching out into side games, I think this would be the easiest one to implement.

MARVELS: Streets of New York

I must say the new rivals reveal is making me wish I'd floated the idea of playing a still-under-the-thumb-of-kingpin Emma Frost I had as a concept before thinking it might not be street level enough.

Not that I'm not set on Gwen but such is the curse of the ADHD writer.

@Ezekiel

I feel like Emma would be way out-of-scope for this game, being an Omega-level telepath and all, but I would be down to jump into a game styled after Rivals if that becomes a parallel game to this.

Also, if this more old-school, fast-paced, short-form style of RP sticks around, I wouldn't be against revisiting the core concept later on to expand beyond street-level stuff, as long as we can still manage to keep people interacting.

MARVELS: Streets of New York

Morbius tightened his grip on the woman and turned his glowing crimson gaze toward Luke.

"Ah, yes." he rasped, his voice raw from the smoke but still laced with that wry, unshaken arrogance. "Because clearly, I thought to myself 'Why merely feed in the shadows when I could dramatically incinerate my meal in front of a crowd?'" He adjusted his stance, shifting the woman slightly in his grasp to better support her weight. The fire was worsening, embers cascading from the ceiling like dying stars. They had no time for this. "We both know I'm not the type to like my meat well-done, I am attempting to save this woman, not drain her." he continued, irritation creeping into his tone. "But if you’d rather we argue until the building collapses around us, by all means, please, continue with the threats."

His eyes flicked toward the nearest compromised wall. It wouldn't hold much longer. He met Luke's gaze again, his brow furrowed. Cage was a professional, much more experienced in saving folk from burning houses than he was. He didn't doubt that the hero for hire could probably save the woman and make it back in time to go toe-to-toe with him.

"If you truly wish to help, then I suggest we move. Now." He held the woman up with one arm, the other hand slyly extending the claws just in case Cage leapt in for a punch.

@Half Pint

Ahhh, hell. Now that I'm thinkin' about it, I remember hearing stories about some kinda 'good vampire' runnin' around. What was the name- Morbid-something? Moebius, like the artist? Something like that.

So either I'm making threats at probably the only not-evil blood-sucker out there, or this guy's a regular-evil vampire pretending to be the not-evil one and hoping I can't tell the difference. Either way, I'm probably gonna come outta this looking like a jackass.

"Man," I shake my head, "You're lucky I ain't Blade. Hold up!"

One of the corners begins to buckle, and the roof threatens to cave in on us. I rush forward, bracing the structure as much as I can to keep a good ten tons of concrete and duct-work from crushing us.

"Nnnngh!" I grunt from the strain. Ten tons isn't even half of what I can press on a good day, but I'm already gettin' worn out, and the air's gettin' thin from the fire and smoke. It's even harder since I'm trying to do it all with one hand.

I've got my phone in the other, pulling up the H4H app, and more specifically the floor plans of this building from the database Danny's tech guys compiled for us.

"Okay," I say through ragged breaths as I hold up the collapsing ceiling, "There's a fire escape at the end of the hall, leads to the back alley. Should be able to get people to safety without drawin' too much attention to yourself. I've cleared out the lower floors, but there might be a few more folks up here. Don't open any closed doors-- don't wanna cause a backdraft."

A chunk of concrete breaks free and crashes hard into the floor. I feel the floor start to give way under my feet, and know that the rest is gonna start coming down any second.

"An' hey," I call out to the vampire, "You see a bigass tarantula crawlin' around on your way? You leave that little creep to me-- that one's personal."

MARVELS: Streets of New York

After a unanimous vote, Spidey is APPROVED.

MARVELS: Streets of New York

@Courtaud the Punisher is APPROVED. Welcome aboard!

MARVELS: Streets of New York

<Snipped quote by AndyC>

*heavy breathing*

(I jest. Perfectly happy with my Living Weapon.)

@Eddie Brock

You have no idea how hard it's been for me to stick to the "No GMs playing the A-listers" rule. That said, I'm having fun with Mr Cage, so I'm all good.