etcelsior | sure, jan

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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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[He smiles at that, putting an arm around his shoulder and giving a quick little bro-hug before he pulls away once they get closer to the city proper. His tone lowers a bit as he talks again.]

Glad you didn't try to live alone.

[A beat.]

Probably would've burned the place down trying to cook ramen.

[ The bro hug is nice. He's almost relaxed after that, like everything is normal and nothing hurts. And then Tadashi just has to make that poor wording decision. Hiro freezes up completely, abruptly blinking back tears. The calm brought on by having his brother here and alive again is awful fragile, especially when you say things like that. You monster.

Hiro swallows multiple times to try and get past the lump in his throat. But he still can't keep his voice from wavering badly. ]

Y-yeah. We don't ... don't want that.

...Hey...

[ Okay, so something he just said struck a bad chord with Hiro, and Tadashi isn't sure which thing it was. Surely Hiro hadn't actually burned something that badly trying to cook had he? Oh his god what if he had and gotten hurt, crap.

He bends down to get eye-level with him with that comforting brotherly hand on his shoulder, apology knit in his brows watching Hiro. The kid looks like someone just died. ]

... What happened?

[ Gee, I wonder. He'd kind of subconsciously figured out that Tadashi doesn't know the big spoiler of his own movie, but this is his first time realizing it. And realizing at the same time that he doesn't want to tell his brother. Maybe... Maybe if he doesn't, Tadashi will still be alive. That's how it works, right? ]

You don't know. [ that's all he can seem to manage to squeak out. His mouth has gone dry. ]

No, that's... Kind of why I'm asking.

[ The want to fix whatever happened to his brother is burning in him and he can't fix it if Hiro doesn't tell him what it is. How is he supposed to know? He just got here and they've just found each other, haven't even gotten to the house Hiro stays at yet. It'd be impossible for him to know, really. ]

I can't know unless you fill me in.

[ Tadashi 's right. He can't know if Hiro doesn't tell him. So... All he has to do is not tell him, right? Easy. No problem. ]

Nothing. Nothing happened. We just - [ He has to search his memory for the last safe point he can possibly tell Tadashi about. ] - we had the expo, right? And Aunt Cass was gonna treat us?

Right, and everyone left.

[Okay, good, he remembers that. Did something happen to Aunt Cass??? He's trying not to get ahead of Hiro, let him talk it out himself and work up to whatever... this is that's got him so worked up.]

I had to tell you something so I pulled you aside.

[He will however spare him the dignity of reminding Hiro his fly was down the whole time.]

[ thanks, bro. You're a pal. He nods slowly - he can work off that for a starting point. Now for the rest. ]

We talked. And - and after that, we heard the fire alarms go off. In the expo hall.

What...

[Oh. Okay, so it was the fire comment that got to him. He files it away for things to never joke about again even before he knows where this story ends.]

Most everyone was already out, right? I mean, the expo was over and most of us left...

[ Hiro swallows. Trying to make his voice firm for this next part because this is important. ]

Yeah. Everyone got out. I had to start a semester late though. Really - really disappointed.

[ Strange how that doesn't look like disappointment on his face, though. ]

[He notices. And he wishes they were already somewhere less crowded to talk about this. He gently gets an arm around his shoulder and starts guiding him somewhere quieter. He keeps his voice even; he's got to be the strong support in this talk and he will, dang it. ]

So everyone got out but you had to start a semester late. What happened with the school?

[ Quieter is good. Better than trying to do this in the middle of the street. But Hiro isn't getting any less agitated - if anything, Tadashi's unconditional brother support is making his heart ache even worse. Lying to his brother, even for something like this, isn't easy. And already there's holes popping up. Because of course the expo hall burning down wouldn't stop classes; only the expo itself, and Tadashi knows Hiro cleared that. Think, Hiro. ]

I ... well, Callaghan was the one who got me the scholarship, right? He was the one who set the fire. To steal my microbots.

What.

[Years of experience tell Tadashi that Hiro is leaving something important out, but that statement right there is enough to get his thoughts to stop in their tracks. Way to know exactly what to say to stall his brain. He kneels down, wanting to be absolutely dead sure he heard Hiro right, looking his face over for any lie in that. Callaghan wouldn't, he's... He's a professor, he's Tadashi's mentor, closest thing to a ... Maybe not a 'father-figure' per se, but something similar to that in his own life. And one of the smartest men Tadashi's ever met...

... Which means if he did want that, he could find a way... He swallows past the lump in his own throat, his brain working in the opposite direction now, fire and potential conversation forgotten.]

Why would he steal your microbots? You were going to enroll anyway, that... That doesn't make sense.

[ Success for Hiro!! Kind of. Usually, when he lies, his eyes go all over the place, like he's searching for whatever he's saying next. But that part is the truth, so he meets Tadashi's gaze firmly. Almost angrily. Unlike Tadashi, he didn't have that mentor relationship beforehand; all he had was some idolism that quickly got overridden by this jerk accidentally killing his brother. No love lost for that man whatsoever. Just because he no longer wants to kill the professor doesn't mean he can't still hate him.

Hiro sets his jaw stubbornly. Now he's upset AND angry, good job. But at least the anger isn't directed at Tadashi this time. ]

There wasn't a good reason. I'd have given them to him if he asked! But he still - he didn't even care that he - [ And there go the eyes, because the thing on the tip of his tongue was "killed you"-- ] destroyed the expo hall. Krei had apparently gotten his daughter killed and he wanted revenge. I guess he thought it was still possible I'd change my mind and give the bots to him.

Edited 2015-01-31 17:40 (UTC)

[He's still watching his brother carefully. This is big. Not only because this was someone he was going to look up to for advice and guidance in school, someone he knew Hiro had admired already - but also that was a lot of hard, hard work and ingenuity destroyed for someone's own selfishness. And stalled him starting what he'd worked so hard for. Callaghan wanting revenge put some of the disagreement between he and Krei into a stronger context and it made sense; Callaghan had never really spoken much about his daughter and always in the past tense when he did.

His shoulders slack as the pieces start fitting into place, looking down and away from Hiro. It's hard realizing someone you looked up to could fall that low; more reason for Tadashi to be a better person for Hiro. When he looks back at him, he's all apologies and regret in his face. He knows there's still an integral piece missing that Hiro won't tell him, but he figures they'll talk about it given enough time. He makes a mental note that Hiro didn't say if Callaghan actually got out or not. That'd make sense why he'd be delayed starting school... ]

I'm sorry I don't remember it. [Time displacements and all. He gives his shoulder a little squeeze. ] Thanks for telling me.

[ The breath all rushes out of him in one relieved exhale. Everything else he can more or less stick to the truth on, as long as he ducks around that one thing. He won't even have to lie about the time gap. Right, he can do this. For once in his life, he'll protect his brother instead of the other way around. ]

It happens. A lot of people end up like that. With - with friends or family coming in missing pieces of their memory or just plain ol' getting pulled from a different spot in the timeline. And eight months isn't that bad compared to some of them.

Jeez, can't imagine how rough that'd be. But eight months.

[He's already a little lighter (if subdued, the shock hasn't quite hit and he won't let it until he's alone) and leading Hiro back to the main street. They've got somewhere to be!]

If I hadn't tried a few things already, I'd say I fell asleep watching one of your movies.

[ Oh right, they were walking back towards the house. Hiro drifts ahead a bit again so that he can keep them moving in the right direction. ]

If you haven't hit yourself already, I can help with that. But it's not a dream, I promise. And it really has been that long for me.

No, no, thanks I. Tried that. A few other things too.

[Like accidentally punching another guy who apparently knows it happens?? Wait eight months, does that mean he missed Hiro's birthday? Nooooo. But he really did try a bunch of things, a mental checklist of every movie he could think of that had a similar situation, including that awful Matrix movie. Thing made no sense, even if it looked kinda cool.]

Least there's stuff here to keep you busy. What were you buying anyway?

Didn't work, huh.

[ Wow, Tadashi. You're a winner already. Hiro brightens at the subject change - engineering is always his favorite topic, after all. ]

Soldering supplies. For work.

Nope. Looks like you're stuck with me.

Okay, I'll bite. Where do you work.

[ He sticks his tongue out a bit. God, now that he's past the whole "oh shit I have to lie to my brother" part, he's almost giddy. Talking with Tadashi about engineering projects! Something he thought he'd never get the chance to do ever again. ]

StarkTech. It's not too far up the road - Tony's got a sick lab. And there's other geniuses there, and I bet he'd hire you too. You'd be a little slow compared to the rest of us, but you can work hard to keep up, right?

[ He tries to keep that "he'd hire you too" part casual, but he can't hide a note of excitement in his voice at the thought of it. Working with Tadashi on engineering projects: ALSO something he never thought he'd do again. ]

Had to work hard to keep up with you, didn't I?

[He musses his hair a bit. There's no malice or jealousy in that, just up front observation. Maybe he'd been jealous when they were younger but what'd it matter? Hiro was smarter than him in a lot and Tadashi was smarter than him in other things. It worked out.]

What all do they do there? It's gotta be something good if it's keeping you in one place.

[ Hiro doesn't even fuss about the ruffling - he's too happy now. ]

All kinds of stuff. It's pretty free range as long a we've got some kind of project. Me, a programmer, and a biologist came up with a vaccine that reprograms our nanites to ward off false memory implantation. It's kind of been going around. And then I'm making helper bots to help me out in the lab.

Nanites?

[He glances down at his wrist. Oh right, the things in his wrist when he woke up. Good to know they can do other stuff, maybe he can do something else with them.

He is proud though. Look at his lil bro, using that brain of his for something big and important and helping people.]

How big are the bots?

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oh my god you pun monster

fire puns are easier than dead puns tbh

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