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

[wonk]

...if you say so. Um, we should probs get off the thing. Street.

[Roxy frowns. Kanaya's eyes are filled, not blank, which means she's not a ghost. Time bullshit is the only other explanation, unless she was secretly a god tier, but then again she'd have come to LOPAN with Terezi. Time bullshit it is.]

So, uh. What exactly do you remember? From the session.

[glowsferatu]

[ the session. well, that's a good sign. it means they arrive safely enough for a reunion. ]

Nothing, actually. I'm sure we must have come from separate points on the timeline.

I still have a year until our arrival. Rose, as well. [ which is to say "btw your daughter's here too." ]

been meaning to icon this panel since forever. finally did it for this tag.

[wonk]

Rose's here? [Fuck. Fuck, that's even worse.] Is she okay? You're keeping her safe and everything, right?

[Roxy is not tearing up just yet, but she's close.]

[glowsferatu]

[ ah. so, maybe it isn't a good sign at all, and kanaya can feel her stomach drop from the extremity of roxy's reaction. she presses her lips together to mask her own, and puts both hands on roxy's shoulders, leaning down to meet her eye-to-eye.

she wants to ask, but at the same time is too afraid to. whatever it is, it will have to wait until another time, when kanaya can prepare herself for whatever she might hear. ]

Roxy, it's fine. She's perfectly safe, and I've done everything I can to ensure she stays that way. You needn't worry at all.

[ but uh, only because i fudged the timelines to leave out recent game events so i'd be able to to reasonably tag tdm threads... hahaha... ]

[wonk]

[Roxy takes a shuddering breath, and then another, grasping Kanaya's own arms for support.] Fuck. Fuck, I'm sorry.

I just. Shit gets bad. Idk how many spoilers you want, I think there's some kinda rule against that stuff anyway. But it's pretty bad, back home. And also a year in the future for you, I guess.

[She takes a step back, and really looks at Kanaya.] So you're what, fifteen?

[glowsferatu]

[ "shit gets bad." the exact thing she didn't want to hear, but also the thing she dreaded would happen. sometimes she hates being right, especially if that means the shit getting bad is in rose's direction.

the change of topic is welcome, but she can't bring herself to look roxy in the eye, gaze lingering on the pavement. ]

I've been out of the timeline for...a long while. I'll be eighteen in May.

[wonk]

[About halfway through Kanaya's sentence, she realizes she should have said seven sweeps, but then Kanaya mentions her actual age and, well, guess she's been here long enough to pick up on human time measurements.]

So in like a month—wait, it's like January here or something. In like four months. And you've been here for three years.

So do you come from like a doomed timeline? Because you definitely looked the same age as the rest of us when I saw you.

[glowsferatu]

[ she's grown out of talking about sweeps, it doesn't matter to anyone here except for her and karkat, they'd only look at her like they don't know what she's talking about. still, she made note when her eighth wriggling day passed, even if no one else noticed. ]

It's four, actually. I was still thirteen when I first arrived, I've only been back since. [ and bothered calculating the math to when it would have changed her birthday to. ]

She reverts us on return. Everything, from age to memories. When I'm exported again, it will be just the same as when I last arrived. She does this specifically to avoid our appearance here dooming the native timeline, from what I've been able to discern.

[wonk]

[That's...a lot to think about, and Roxy doesn't respond for a few seconds. Kanaya's explanation is complex — it seems simpler to just spawn a new copy in this universe and upload memories to it instead of revoking and reinstating changes, but on the other hand it's also a more morbid explanation.]

She — is there an AI in the machine or what?

[glowsferatu]

[ she's heard that theory before and dismissed it outright, it runs counter to her experiences, raises more questions than it answers. ]

It's complicated, her exact nature. Lachesis functions as a machine, but not strictly as one.

Imagine her as a god in the machine. It's the most accurate picture we can really establish, even after this long.

[wonk]

Fuck, and here I was all ready to hack the shit outta that thing. [She's only half-joking. So, like, on the us-Lord English scale, where's she?

[glowsferatu]

Well, I've never seen him here before. But if she can bind numerous gods, even Death herself, I wouldn't rule her out of being beyond him.

You'll get nowhere trying to hack her.

[wonk]

Welp. [She snorts.]

Meant the douchiness scale though. Like if she's gonna start blowing stuff up because somebody told her she can't draw worth shit.

[glowsferatu]

[ she gives roxy a long, confused look, completely distracted from the question at hand. ]

...Did he do that?

[wonk]

...okay, fine, I can't exactly establish causation.

But John talked shit about his terrible manga art when he was like, a dumbass teenager and now he's a dumbass teenager who is also the Hulk with time roaring powers blowing shit up, so.

[glowsferatu]

I had heard rumors of his origins in the dream bubbles, but... To know this is at the heart of the trouble that has upended our worlds and lives for years?

That's just embarrassing.

[wonk]

Tbh. [Roxy's voice becomes dry.] Our ultimate bad guy is shitty alien fuckboy Hulk.

Idk, sometimes I just gotta think about that. Remember how high it is on the list of dumb shit in our lives.

[glowsferatu]

Our lives are saturated to the point they could reasonably be defined by dumb shit. It's just really typical that the initial catalyst would fit within that same category.

[wonk]

Obvs Sburb got misnamed. Just call it Dumb Shit The Video Game instead.

So, like, now that we're in comic book superhero land, do we actually like save people from burning buildings and stop world-domination plots and stuff?

[glowsferatu]

The burning building happened once. But in total, the lot of it is greatly exaggerated.

You might accept it as a chance to live on a more modern, living Earth. As long as you don't take it as only that.