etcelsior | sure, jan

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping into MASK OR MENACE? Want to dip your toes into the setting and get a feel of whether your character will fit into it? Or maybe you're just cruising and want to play around? Then you've come to the right place!

Pick any of the following scenarios below or feel free to make up your own, but don't be afraid to throw yourself at anyone's thread, either!

And remember to have fun!

01. Your memory is hazy and you might feel increasingly frustrated or anxious, or maybe you're excited as soldiers march past, barely glimpsing you. One second you're somewhere underground, the next you're enveloped in blue light, and suddenly you find yourself directly under Flordia sun's bright and burning glare. A female soldier steps toward you with a wide smile on her face and directs you to a car, ready to debrief you. You realize you are not the only one, surrounded by equally confused or eager faces... and you're all sporting a digital tattoo on your wrist.

02. Welcome to Cape Canaveral, where the smell of the ocean is in the air and locals are more than pleased to see new imPorts roaming their streets. They wave, they cheer, they ask for pictures as politely as they can. The more inhuman you look, or if you're wearing a costume, the more likely locals are to approach. Hey, enjoy the moment! The popular malt shop is offering you a free drink if you need it.

03. The technology in this world is certainly something. The cars are clearly modeled after popular 50s cars, but they hover several feet above the ground as they drive down the street. There are digital jukeboxes in restaurants, motorcycles also hover through traffic, advertisements can be seen on a digital projector on the taller buildings. Even kids on skateboards appear to drift a safe ten feet off the ground while playing!

04. Wherever you are, you can hear the loud revving of an engine, distance at first before you finally see it: a hovercar bursting around the corner, going beyond the maximum speed limit and just barely making its sharp turn. It doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon, not with two police cars trailing it... and uh oh. Those skateboarding kids don't have much time to get out of the way as the car comes speeding down the road. You've been brought here for a reason Hero — so you better act fast.

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2 - i.

[ This must be what going mad feels like.

He remembers saying it back on Canton. It feels like another life by now, so long ago, and so much has happened since. It had been a facetious comment borne of incredulity at the time - but now it comes back to him, lodges in his brain. It feels so much more real. Is this the kind of thing River sees? Are these the visions that swim through her brain and hijack her senses at the behest of the Alliance?

Did they get him, too?

She talked about needles though, she kept mentioning them. Needles in her head and in her eyes, conjuring up for him her half-useless attempt at an older brother a tableau of horrific scenes. Scenes like that only fit now with the concept of the Alliance in his mind because they've been welded together by too much experience.

Simon looks at the mark on his wrist. Studies it, willing it to give up its secrets. He doesn't remember needles, but then, he doesn't remember much at all.

And then there's a woman from out of nowhere, asking him so excitedly for a picture that he accepts without thinking, posing awkwardly even as he tries to tell her that she's got the wrong person and he's nobody, and now that his brain has caught up he really wishes he could take that agreement back because if that painfully awkward photograph gets into the wrong hands... ]

Wait, please, I--

[ The woman beams at him and scurries off, pleased as you like. He reaches out a hand as if to stop her, but she's gone in a flash. Simon sighs and lets his arm drop lamely back to his side. ]

... Well that's fantastic.

2 - ii.

[ Eventually, Simon comes to the conclusion that he's never going to reconcile what's happening right now with the reality he knows - that he has become surprisingly comfortable with, despite everything. He makes up his mind to find Serenity.

Assuming Serenity is here. Assuming it ever was. And, this one being the biggest, assuming the crew haven't already left him behind.

But first he's going to need data. Something to extrapolate from. He has to know what's happening in order to get out of here. So he'll stop someone, anyone who doesn't look like one of the natives, and ask as politely as he can: ]

Excuse me - can you tell me what's going on here?

[Kaylee was quite sure she was seeing things at first- especially because she was aware of the fact that there were people who were near-duplicates of each other here- but the awkwardness, the unsureness makes her certain.

So she sidles up to him, with her usual smile like the sun coming out.]

Aww, c'mon. Doncha like bein' a celebrity?

[ The familiar voice, her familiar accent startle him at first - for a moment he's half convinced she's not real, some kind of mirage. Could he be hallucinating her? If the Alliance went prying through his mind to find someone to set him at ease, this is undoubtedly who they'd choose, who'd have the greatest effect...

It's possibly the most ridiculous thing he's ever thought, though, that when she smiles - no algorithm could get that so right. Not even his imagination.

That shouldn't convince him. It doesn't, entirely. But it goes enough of a way. ]

Kaylee..!

[ A smile of relief breaks out across his face. ]

Hey, you. [That's said with a lot of fondness as she gives him a nudge.] Not fond of the adorin' public?

A little more... confused as to how I came by one in the first place, to be honest.

[ It might have been a little less threatening were he and River not top of the Alliance's list of People to Have Violently Murdered As Soon As Possible. Speaking of which... ]

Have - have you seen River? What happened?

... I ain't seen her, no. [That- puts a bit of a damper on Kaylee's good mood, for sure. She hated the thought of Simon and River being separated, after all they'd been through...]

Well, uh, the long 'n short of it is we got took though time and space. Back to Earth that was.

[Lost-looking people were the reason Jennifer kept coming to these events. She knew what it was like to be lost, to be alone, to not know what to do- and since Jaime had been kind enough to step in and help her, she wanted to pay it forward. So she grinned mischeviously at the well-dressed man.]

Well, where do you want me to start? The superpowers, the celebrity status, the 'where am I' part?

[ He's all but ready to launch into an explanation of how his memory is fuzzy, consequence he suspects of some kind of cranial trauma - to instruct her to start at the beginning. It seems like the most logical way to go about this. Especially since she seems somehow to have expected his confused inquiry.

But then he looks at her face and all the words in his head die en route to his mouth. ]

I-- wait. Kaylee?

[That... is met with a few moments of blank stare. The name sounds vaguely familiar, she's seen it on the network a few times, but...

Oh, she's still staring. Right.]

I'm not... sorry. You must have me mistaken for someone else, I think.

[ ... Wow. That's... Just give the boy a minute to get his head around that. She's not Kaylee. Now that she says so it seems obvious - the face is strikingly similar, they could be twins, but that's not Kaylee's cheer and buoyancy shining through. ]

Wow, I - sorry, I - you... you look just like someone I know.

[ Mal would hush him for that. He'd be right to. Simon's a little late, but he inwardly hushes himself. There's no sense in giving up more than he has to. ]

Could you... start at the beginning? Does this happen a lot?

It's okay- they say everyone in the world has a twin, right?

[She gives a little laugh, but isn't good at hiding her nervousness. Weird things happened here a lot, sure, but this was new.]

Ah- well... do you mean the running-into-people-who-look-like-someone-you-know part, or the suddenly being whisked from your home to an entirely different place part? I know the latter happens here roughly once a month, so you're not alone.

Edited 2015-02-01 22:16 (UTC)

[ Here's a promising looking kid. Scrawny, about five feet tall, with a backpack that sounds like it's full of scrap metal given the weird noises coming out of it. He pauses, looking up at Simon with a quizzical expression on his face. ]

Uh - it's sunny? I'm out for a walk?

sure, jan

simon tam ( firefly / serenity )

i.

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ii. bc yolo

oh god

:3c

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