sure, jan

[maskormods]

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.

Comments

hahahaha

[lyingheart]

Annie simply waited until it seemed like he'd trailed off conclusively to a non-ending. How that could be conclusive was a mystery, but she seemed content to accept this silence of an indication that speaking might be worthwhile.

"The Porter. The one down in Cape Canaveral tends to be called the Porter, capital P. The other three are porters, too, but only the one at the Cape pulls us in from other universes."

She shifted her weight, adjusting how her messenger bag hung over her shoulder. "A couple hundred of us aren't from around here. A couple hundred million making up the population of this country are. Welcome to the military managed minority."

This was probably why no one appreciated Annie's version of a welcome. It never sounded all that welcoming.

[siriusly]

As she spoke, Manabu's countenance shifted from its uncertainty to a more focused attention, still with shades of surprise. How much of a coincidence was it to find someone who knew what he was talking about, let alone more on the subject? He wasn't David, so he wouldn't have been rolling odds on it.

And actually, her candor was much more assuring than most would find; Manabu was used to the type. It may not have made her immediately more trustworthy, but he certainly felt compelled to hear what she had to say more than a moment ago.

"So you're like me?" he prompted, turning himself a little in her direction. "And the officers gave you a folder, too? With all sorts of ridiculous information..."

[lyingheart]

She inclined her head forward in a small nod. "Ridiculous, often. True too."

Powers were probably the most bizarre thing listed next to the scant medical history. Different people found different degrees of information presented. Her own file had been relatively sparse. "I had a folder when I first arrived last year. The physical copy is what you can keep or destroy on your own. There's an electronic copy we don't have access to kept on military servers."

Now that copy has managed to get two imPort hackers in trouble and working for the government, and had a partial leak before, in ways where the people leaked themselves could point out not everything was true. Freddie had been valuable in highlighting that such an event could happen. People didn't need to be part of the Hornets to be discontent with the way things were.

She finally looks his way, studying Manabu's expression and body language for a few seconds. "Are you familiar with what that means? You don't seem overwhelmed by the motor vehicles." What kind of technological background did he come from? She knew what she'd said about electronic copies would have made zero sense to her when she arrived, and for some time after. Better to suss that out now if this conversation was going to last.

[siriusly]

"No, that's not too surprising..." He glanced at the folder again for a moment, considering what she said. "And it's not surprising there'd be things recorded in more detail. In secret, too, I guess..." Confidentiality wasn't terribly suspicious...except for the part where nobody mentioned Manabu was privy to his own information.

"But how could they get much more than what's on me?" He frowned, his hang starting to move toward his pocket. "The SDF doesn't exist on this planet...or...universe." He shrugged weakly at that. "It doesn't seem like there'd be much to find..."

[lyingheart]

With information collectives like Kat's FAQ available on network, Annie felt no need to go into details of what people refused to believe. She understood the instinct. Half the time Annie was sure she only believed the bullshit around here because it was so insane it had to be true. Machines that knew details that it shouldn't? Computers stored enough passive and active information as it was. Wouldn't a computer-like construction that spanned universes be capable of something even greater?

She could clear one thing up from the start. Given how often she hears people railing at the government for what wasn't their fault, versus the valid reasons that were...

"If you mean the government when you say they, 'they' didn't get anything about you through their own efforts. Everything in that file is generated by the Porter, as far as we know. The Porter is a human discovery, but not necessarily a human invention."

[siriusly]

"Eh–?"

Manabu's brow furrowed. Not man-made? For how he'd been raised and how much he'd seen, that statement didn't make much sense right away. But he gave it a few seconds thought as he tried to make sense of the idea.

"So, like...alien technology, then?" he mused, only sounding vaguely convinced as he added on. "Some form of old, forgotten equipment from another society?" That didn't sound as far-fetched.

[lyingheart]

She shrugged. Making any definite claims was premature, even her own of it not being man made. That it wasn't from this particular era she did believe was fact, but more than that was only the same supposition the rest readily fell into on the network.

"It might be. Lachesis was a foreign entity that used the device to transplant people from a destroyed universe into this one, then left it running afterward. Which is why we're here... if you were curious. The government doesn't want us, per say, but they can't stop us from happening... or leaving."

She glanced down the street, vainly hoping to catch sight of the bus. She had no luck. It was still too early for the strange sight to come rolling their way.

[siriusly]

Wow. She was close to getting over his head very quickly, he realized as he listened. His hand lifted to scratch at his scalp just behind his ear. But the wrap-up made sense...sort of. Rather, it still left much to be desired and didn't tell him much else he had already guessed.

When she looked away, Manabu sighed, slumping back in the seat. His fingers idly curled at the edges of the folder, dragging up the contents and back down while he looked out toward the other side of the street.

"I suppose I've been in weirder pinches before, but...Well, they never panned out into something permanent, like this one is supposed to. Or...that's what a lot of people are saying. I'm just not sure about that."

[lyingheart]

"Something like permanent?" She was surprised enough at the idea to look back to him, the emotion evident in her features. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

[siriusly]

"Huh?"

He looked over, exchanging the glance for just a beat. His mouth twitched as he felt a wave of self-consciousness, obliging himself to duck his head a little.

"Eah, only that...it'd be more likely here than the other places! There's all these notes about residency and occupations and swearing-ins and things, right?" His hand patted the folder on his lap. "That's the first time I've ever gotten such a response to just...suddenly arriving somewhere I wasn't supposed to be. It feels like..." He looked aside, fishing for the rest of that thought. "Like I was almost expected, this time around. Even though I wasn't! Probably..."

He looked back, his mouth twitching into a sheepish smile, and shrugged.

[lyingheart]

"... You're part of a pattern. In that sense, you were expected. You as an individual aren't... but this place is used to handling people like us." Displaced, without asking. Once they were even displaced by permission. Years ago now, but it was still something that was curious to Annie.

"Though if it's any comfort, there's a decent number who don't stay for any longer than three months or so."

There was a very, very small number that stayed displaced for years.

[siriusly]

Manabu laughed weakly, rubbing the back of his neck. "Oh, I don't know about that! I think my platoon would be pretty ticked off for me missing even a day without word...that much time would be a bit of a disaster. It might be better if I didn't know how long it'd take, otherwise it'd sound like it was my fault for staying so long!"

[lyingheart]

She shook her head, curling her fingers around the strap of her bag. "Time here and where you're from aren't running at the same speed. All indications are that when you're pulled back home, it's to the same time where you were taken away. Your platoon wouldn't notice an absence. In theory."

Though that had her curious, largely wondering what brand of military something he was. "Are you from some sort of military group?"

[siriusly]

His eyebrows shot up at that talk of stopped time – in theory. What, like the tear in time he fell through before even joining the SDF? But that landed him on a planet he at least knew...facing someone he certainly knew and missed terribly. What did that say about his chances of seeing a familiar face here? He couldn't help but feel a strange mix of dread and excitement at the idea. So much so that he almost missed her question, and he wound up doing a double-take when he realized it was out there.

"Ooh, ah...yes," he replied, slowly getting back on track. "I'm a member of the SDF. That's...That stands for Space Defense Force."

He lightly tapped at the emblem on his jacket. "This is Sirius Platoon...we're stationed on a train called Big One."

[lyingheart]

"... A space train?"

With a lacking name as far as creativity went, but Annie didn't really care about those details. For once she looks fully interested in what he's saying. Space Defense Force - whose space, what space, under what boundaries, that didn't really matter. She wouldn't have a context for understanding it. Space itself was the place people here tried to go but sabotaged each other for attempting to reach first.

"How does that work?"

[siriusly]

He gave her a wincing kind of smile. "Well, I'm...It's really complicated how it all works, so I'm probably not the best guy to explain that part." Unless he completely misread her and she was pretty up and up about technology, but his batting average with that kept him erring on the side of caution.

Not necessarily a bad thing; he liked his work, liked talking about it...it was something he understood well enough, compared to his current situation.

"But where I'm from, people can travel from different planets on board trains that move through space. There's a lot of them, since there's a lot of places to go and people to get there...so there's guys like me who work to make sure everyone's safe, and take care of trouble if it comes up."

[lyingheart]

"Trains, not spaceships?" What made the difference? Trains were something she'd learned about here, but the way they operated seemed odd when considering them as bullet space trains between planets. "Everyone who talks about space here seems to think ships are the major form of any transportation up there."

She indicated skyward, literally pointing with her finger. You know. That up.

[siriusly]

His mouth quirked up a little on one side.

"Ships wouldn't fit nearly as many people, and not as comfortably," he replied, careful to try and not sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was, as far as he was concerned. "Wouldn't you rather be able to sit comfortably and move around easily, instead of being strapped to the seat in a smaller space?"

[lyingheart]

"Having never traveled in a spaceship, I have no idea what the comparison would be. Most those from space don't speak about the ships they have in this world as being the standard for travel within space, but... I don't know." She pressed her lips together, imagining what it would be like to be stuck for more than a matter of hours in something like the bullet trains between cities.

It made her skin crawl.

"Can trains derail in space?"

[siriusly]

He nodded. "Mm, it's possible. That's part of why there's the SDF. If something like that happens, Big One or one of the other platoons are dispatched to pick up passengers and make sure everyone is safe."

His explanation there was much more sobered, less enthusiastic. He almost had to be; there was nothing thrilling about a train ride gone awry in general, but he'd encountered and endured some pretty intense stuff in some of those cases.

"I guess it's like anything," he said softly, looking out toward the street, the passing cars. "Going somewhere can be dangerous, even if everyone's doing there best to make it safe."

[lyingheart]

"... Someone's best isn't always good enough." She kept her voice even, her tone relatively calm. The thought of a derailment is space is terrifying. She's not sure how well she'd handle another one here if she were on the train at the time. Most likely by shutting down the parts of herself that stop and try to think and relying on training (ha) to get her through.

It would have to be trains.

"Trains are more down to earth here. They're one of the faster ways between cities, if you're planning to avoid the smaller porters."

[siriusly]

He smiled vaguely, his eyes following one of the buses slowing at the light. "I wonder if I should be grateful for that much. Staying on one planet makes it easier to get found by people looking, so–"

He stopped short, quickly recalling what she'd noted before. He let out a breath. "Or not, I suppose. They might not know, huh?"

He glanced down at the folder in his lap. "Maybe it's better that way."

[lyingheart]

"For us, or for them?" She found the answer tended to work both ways. Going back wasn't always a great deal for the people who'd inevitably head back to their homeworlds - as far as she knew, no one had an option of staying, no way to anchor themselves here - but more often than not, it was where people wanted to be.

Was it simply easier having no one know to miss you? Probably is. Less complicated that way. Memories faded just as fast once back in the "right" place.

This really was just one long wrong turn for most people involved, and one that would be fading from memory whenever they did go back home. if they had one remaining.

[siriusly]

"Ah, well..." He had been thinking mostly of his team, but her prompting made him consider it a bit more.

"I suppose for both me and the platoon." And his mother. Yikes. "If I'm not actually gone for any amount of time, then I'm not late for work! And if something were to happen here, at least it wouldn't trouble anyone who knew me."

[lyingheart]

She gave him an odd look, guessing at what kind of trouble he might be worrying over. he seemed used to showing up in unexpected places without being announced or necessarily informed, he was used to working as part of a military group, and used to space travel.

Who the hell knew what kind of trouble that didn't leave you expecting? For that matter, who knew if he was even human. Outward appearances meant very little among imPorts.

"Are you someone who tends to have a number of things happen to him unexpectedly?"