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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ You chose the wrong person to rob, honey, that's her fake wallet with her money and cover ID and credit cards. It is a pain when you're broke and a spy and Nikita is going to be wanting that back, tyvm. Or anyway - the cover is. ]

— Hey! Stop!

Edited 2015-01-31 03:44 (UTC)

[ Well damn, there's a complication. She'd counted on having more time to get the hell out of dodge before being noticed. But okay. Sabetha can work with this. (Or at least, she likes to think she can work with this.) At Nikita's yell for her to stop, she moves around the corner and into a nearby side street, doing her best to blend in with the groups of people milling around there as she tries to increase the distance between them.

Thief vs spy, who will win. ]

[ She skids to a stop at the crowd, scanning with both pairs of eyes: spy's and cop's, for Sabetha as well as for possible partners. The kid's good, Nikita barely registered the touch, and as amusing as it is to be robbed, and as easily as Danielle's identifications can be replaced, thieves are people of interest. They're strictly Known Quantities: pliable with money or favours, access to the city's seedy underbelly. They're eyes and ears where she can't hack satellites or street cameras. For one with no standing network it's a good place to start. ]

[ She lets a reasonable amount of time elapse before giving chase again. ]

Hey, you!

[ Truth be told, when Sabetha realises what the contents of the wallet are—identification, some cards she can only hazard a guess at, and is that paper money? All in all, quite useless, at least to her. A thief who's used to a world where money is precious metal and jingles pleasantly in people's pockets is at a bit of a loss when it comes to certain twenty first century advancements.

It's about this point that it hits her, more so than the initial lecture upon her arrival did—she's out of her element, in more ways than one. What she needs is more information on how this place works. Once she has that, she'll have a game plan, and she'll have proper marks. Stealing away people's plastic cards isn't much use when you've no idea what they're for. Evidently the woman she'd stolen from was more adapted to this place. And she'd noticed sooner than was usual for Sabetha's quick fingers. Not a target after all, perhaps.

Sabetha slips in between a crowd of shoppers as Nikita begins to chase after her, and as she draws nearer, Sabetha moves alongside her and replaces the wallet much in the same way she'd taken it to begin with. If it's back, no one can rightly say it was gone in the first place, can they? A question for the philosophers.

She steps back, arms folded. The crowd moves away and they're out of earshot of all passersby. ] It seems that wasn't worth the effort in the first place. You can have your cards and paper.

[ The words are a challenge, maybe. Or an improvisation. That's something the Gentleman Bastards excel at. ]

[ It's both irritating and relieving to have her wallet back completely intact without any exertion of skill on her part. No, Sabetha gave it back, and deliberately. Cards and paper? The joke is there in the back of her mind, American currency not good enough? Instead, she flicks through the cards in her wallet, lingering on the larger notes for measured seconds longer than the others (these are important), pockets it, and glances over at someone using a coin purse at a nearby hotdog stand. If this thief is worth her salt she'll follow Nikita's eyes, and if she steals again she'll get something out of it, even if it's pocket change. Because the truth is: Nikita'a not invested in legal or illegal. They have very little to do with right and wrong. ]

You're lucky I'm not going to take you to the station. [ she keeps her tone brusque, but low, not loud enough for a stray passerby to hear ] What are you even doing on the street, young lady?

[ Give Sabetha weakness to exploit. ]

[ Sabetha does follow Nikita's gaze, noticing the coin purse and the decisive jingle. She makes no move towards the stand, not trusting that deliberate look nor the chances of palming it inconspicuously with somebody deliberately watching, but she files it away as a reference. So some people evidently do use coins; relieving, and something she'll make use of later. But it's only one known factor in a city full of unknowns, which hardly helps. She acknowledges it when her eyes flick from the coin purse back to Nikita's, a silent affirmation.

She bites back several comments at the "young lady", instead fixing Nikita with an amused look. She matches the volume of Nikita's tone, but her own is all nonchalance with an edge of sweetness. ] The station? Where you'll tell a fascinating story about your possessions reappearing in your pocket as if by magic? That sounds like an excellent bit of theatre.

[ With that said, the sweetness fades into a more subdued politeness. Sabetha knows how to act, and she knows how to seem demure, even if she's normally anything but. In this instance, it's really more to gauge the reaction she'll get. ] As for your question: gaining my bearings. Arriving in a strange new city is a shock to anyone's senses.

[ Mission accomplished, and Nikita moves to the meat of the matter. The kid's got fire, and she's partially right too, if it weren't for simple fingerprinting technology. Sabetha's either from a time where it hasn't been invented (if something like that was in use thieves would be the first to know about it), or she's got some way to change her shape so that she doesn't need to care about leaving prints. ]

[ Cards and paper. She sympathises with being out of depth, but Sabetha'll adapt with or without Nikita's help. ]

Shock enough to lift my wallet? [ she carefully matches Sabetha's own amusement, then softens the edges of her mouth and tone into something more maternal ] Look, if you're in trouble - or someone is making you do this —

[ She trails off. ]

sure, jan

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omg excellent

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