Mask or Menace | MODERATORS (
maskormods) wrote in
etcelsior2015-01-30 02:34 pm
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.

MegaMan.EXE | Mega Man Battle Network
[Being in the real world is a bit of a head trip.
It's not unpleasant, just. Incredibly weird. His body feels strange, even if it's technically not too different from what he's used to, just slow and heavy and not quite responding right. His brain is having all kinds of trouble trying to keep up with all the stimuli - not to mention suddenly having a sense of smell that exists beyond mere pre-programmed reactions to gas and chemical sensors. It's not helped by the fact that the world is so cluttered. He knew it was full of people and animals and buildings and things, but he wasn't quite expecting it to be this bad. For someone used to the vast, open expanse of the Internet, reality is downright claustrophobic.
It's all giving him a bit of a headache.
It might not be so bad if Lan was here. A safe, grounding presence to help him deal with this...everything. Even just having some kind of connection, something that MegaMan could reach out with and know Lan was on the other end, would be a godsend. The two of them haven't been apart from each other for more than an hour or two in years and that conspicuous absence is grating on his psyche in a multitude of ways.
He's still in his frame, at least for the moment (the Porter had some trouble handling "artificial general intelligence made of digitized human DNA" for some reason), and that apparently qualifies as a costume as far as the locals are concerned. Add in the fact that he's pretty clearly a preteen and you've got a recipe for getting swarmed with kids wanting to talk to "the superhero our age." He's really not up for dealing with this level of over-stimulation, mentally or physically, but. He can't just blow them off. That would be rude.
Give him a legitimate reason to politely disengage and you'll probably earn yourself a new little blue friend.]
WILDCARD ROUND 1
[Even if Hub was only a year old the last time he was human, it's still far more experience than an ordinary NetNavi would have with a physical body - muscle memory and sense memory are powerful things. As such, MegaMan's acclimating relatively quickly to his new mostly-human body, long-disused parts of his psyche slowly waking up to deal with smell and taste and an autonomic nervous system once more.
It's not a perfect process. A Navi's neural network is hardly a one-for-one analog of the human brain, after all, and he's been MegaMan.EXE for much longer than he ever was Hub Hikari. There's still quite a lot to get used to. He might not be being blindsided by two new senses, but he's still getting far more input than he's used to handling even from the three he's "always" had, and it tends to steal his focus; being subconsciously comfortable with breathing doesn't mean he's used to it being A Thing He Must Do To Survive. It all adds up to MegaMan being not so good at the whole "consciously controlled breathing" aspect of being human, and when one of his strongest sense memories is of himself dying of cardiac arrest caused by a congenital heart defect, occasionally forgetting he needs oxygen means a lot more than just getting dizzy or having a coughing fit.
MegaMan's learning this the hard way right now, huddled somewhere out of the way and clutching at his chest. He's not particularly paying attention to what's going on around him at the moment, all of his focus narrowed to just taking deep, steady breaths and trying to relax.]
...it's not an attack, it's not an attack, just breathe...
WILDCARD ROUND 2
[Anything goes!]
wildcard 1
Well, it won't do any harm to make sure he's okay, right?]
Are you okay? Do you need help? Is your-
[-wait, humans don't have moirails, so of course he won't have one nearby. And they don't have lususes either... well, she'll just have to be vague.]
Is there someone you need me to find for you?
[Feferi waits for the answer, looking slightly worried and very grey.]
no subject
Her inhuman appearance goes right over his head for the moment. He's a NetNavi, he's used to this sort of thing.]
I-I'm fine. It's just a...a memory glitch. I'll be okay.
[Not entirely accurate, but it's really the only way he knows to describe what happened. Being an AGI in a human body is weird.]
Sorry for worrying you.
no subject
Feferi mock-frowns, then lets it smooth out into a more concerned expression.]
Are you SURE you're fine? You don't seem it! You were gasping like a stranded carp and I don't think that's healthy for humans.
[Well, then again it could be. Human physiology, how does it even work? She smiles back, though, cheering up.]
I'm not busy, so you're not causing me any trouble if you do need help.
no subject
Thank you, but I'm okay now, I promise. [Even if he is still trembling a little.] I'm just, uh...I'm still getting used to the whole "breathing" thing. That's all.
[Because that's totally normal, right.]
Two /slams into this 8D 8D 8D
Well, that wasn't something Colorman particularly cared to find the answer for. Rather, he was going approach the crowd of children and shoo them in the way he's best at. By causing chaos.]
You're gonna suffocate blue boy~! He's gonna die, and then you'll all be criminals and the heroes will come catch you and lock you up! Heroes like me! Kyahahahahaha!!
[He'll use his newfound superpower to encase a few of the children in balls of glass, and that's when they freak out and start running and screaming. O o p s. But it got the job done, right?
Though he was human, Megaman may find his not-so-helpful rescuer somewhat familiar...]
/gleeful shrieking
What is wrong with you? Those kids weren't doing anything to deserve that! You could've hurt them!
[Moving away from the psycho clown guy now. Even if this is just a really, really creepy coincidence, he does not want to be anywhere near this person. Besides, somebody has to make sure the kids in the glass balls get out safely.]
I WAS SO EXCITED WHEN I SAW MEGAMAN ON THE RESERVES
[If they were learning that this slightly tilted colourful teenager was bad, then he was doing a good job.]
Besides, you looked like you were drowning in that sea of kids. I couldn't leave a fellow Navi in danger like that, could I?
[That grin says yes, he totally could have, and only "rescued" Megaman from the kids for ulterior motives.]
OH GOD I hope I'm not dissappointing
He immediately turns around - no way is he leaving his back exposed - and drops into a defensive stance. Still not bringing out his buster just yet, but he's got his right arm held level with his chest, ready to snap into position and fire at a moment's notice.
He keeps backing away slowly. That grin does not make him feel comfortable in the slightest.]
Funny, I sure don't feel safer. You're not very good at this hero thing, are you, Colorman.
[Seriously if this isn't Colorman he will eat a beetank.]
That's what I should say because how do minor characters
[He claps as if to congratulate Megaman on his revelation. Well done!! Colorman doesn't do anything else though; not even shift into a battle stance. He doesn't really have a bone to pick with the blue Navi. He's just being his usual irritating self and making himself a nuisance for anyone he knows.]
Being a hero is boooooring! Causing chaos and mayhem is more fun!
[He grins maliciously, and then points over to the children in glass balls.]
By the way, those glass balls don't have holes~ And I remember hearing that humans need a certain something to live... Hahahahaha!!
2 | WELL HELLO
At least this one is one he actually knows, this time. He's not forgetting Megaman any time soon, considering how much Netto visits. ]
Stop that. Give him space. [ His voice is clipped and relatively soft compared to the chaos around him; he still doesn't have to raise it to get people to move aside. It's a skill.
The loud noises, the people, the jostling; it grates on his ears, but he's had a while to get used to it. He moves people aside or scolds them and gets them to move.
The crowd clears, at least enough to give Megaman a substantial amount of breathing room. ]
Imports are popular here. As you've experienced already. [ His tone is slightly amused. ] You should find somewhere quieter. Being here makes your head hurt. Yes?
[ He's not as distinctive as Colorman, but the blue coat is possibly an indicator. And he can't change his voice, though it sounds different here.
Oh, and yellow eyes. That's not really a normal human thing. ]
OMG you have no idea how exicted I was when I saw that reserve
Besides, he's still stuck in his Navi frame, judging someone's relative human-ness would be a little hypocritical at this point.
He pipes up now and then as people are shooed away from him, trying to help without ruffling too many feathers: Yes, I'd really like some space right now, I'm sorry, I'm not really feeling well. The moment he gets a decent amount of space he can't help letting out a sigh of relief.]
Thanks. I wish someone would've warned me, I'd have tried to find someplace less...busy.
[Even if everything about the real world feels "busy" to him.
He side-eyes the man when he mentions his headache. He's not entirely comfortable that he seems to be so sure he has one (wariness levels rising!), but...]
...it does, yeah. I'm not used to all this.
[It's not really something he can deny. His latent memories as Hub might have made it a bit easier to acclimate, but between his new body, the accompanying sensory overload, and the utter alien nature of the real world, he really is in desperate need of a place to just sit down and process for a while.]
I WAS JUST LIKE "MEGAMAN EXE RESERVE? I'M SO THERE" and here we are
[ His speech is stilted, like he's reading off some internal script, or parsing his words carefully. Even his own voice sounds odd to him, and it's throwing him off.
He notices the side-eye -- Megaman is easy to read. All open. He laughs, just a little, though it comes off as more of a huff. ]
Being a navi in a human body is more difficult. I would have preferred to stay as I was. It's too loud here. Everything is more...vivid.
[ He tilts his head briefly, a quick little movement that's utterly at odds with the stillness of the rest of his body. ]
It gets less crowded as you go out. Stay away from the stores, at least. Should be fine then.
Want me to show you? [ The unspoken line: Do you trust me enough? He wouldn't be surprised if the smaller navi didn't. ]
no subject
Because wearing that coat, calling himself a navi...even that voice, now that he thinks about it. It's Magicman. It has to be. The moment the realization clicks is obvious, because his entire demeanor shifts, stance and expression exuding a mess of emotions. Shock. Confusion.
Fear.
Megaman takes a step back, but that's about as far as he gets before he just freezes, torn between his survival instincts screaming run and his combat instincts yelling not to expose his back to an opponent. A deadly opponent, one he's fought before, barely won against before, except he didn't really win did he because Magicman got back up. He got back up and he reached out and he--
He had--
Magicman had--
Not again never again please please I don't want to die again--!]
no subject
Not sheer terror.
He takes a step back in return, attempting to give him a little more space; his head buzzes with analysis, trying to find the source of the problem.
It doesn't help his headache, but nothing is helping his headache right now, so they might as well have a party.
In his face there's nothing but sudden confusion, and worry. ]
Ah--
I'm-- My apologies. I didn't mean-- [ His tone is as disarming as he can make it; he holds his hands up, like a barrier. Attempting to show he doesn't mean harm.
'What did I do' seems like a very silly question to ask right now. ]
Are you all right--? [ His voice is actually a little shaky. Garnering such a strong emotional reaction unexpectedly is startling. ]
2
Break Man steps in, even if he's about the same height. Better to get this guy away from this situation... besides, he had to satisfy his own curiosity. It gets the kids clamoring because of the second imPort who looked to be their age, but thankfully he's much more willing to be rude than this guy is.]
Leave him alone, will you? I need to speak with him.
[Either way, he starts steering the Navi away from the kids over any protests.]
wildcard 1 HEEEEEEEEEY
No.
It's that it takes him but a single instance to recognize the huddled figure as Megaman.
Yes.
Under the clamor of the cityscape, with the roar of traffic and the shouts of children and the bustling of the crowds outside the relatively deserted sidestreet, perhaps the uneven scuff of boots on pavement or the flapping of ragged, brown cloth around somebody's ankles would go unnoticed. Especially when the one he's approaching is ignoring his surroundings (really, Megaman? dropping your guard like this? disgraceful) and quite focused on... ]
Megaman.
[ Forte stops, eyes staring down from above the lip of his cloak. He tips his head slightly. At first glance, he'd assumed Megaman had somehow retained his proper data form, what with the blue bodysuit but no NetNavi would be making those oddly desperately gasping noises, chest falling up and down shakily. Odd. Why? He'd damaged Megaman badly before; he hadn't made these noises then.
(To Megaman's eyes: this boy is likely unsettlingly familiar, even if he lacks his trademark finned helmet.)
A bug, maybe? ]
... 'Attack?'
[ No, seriously, are you bugged. Is biologically possible for human to get bugs? ]