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

[microbrobotics]

[ Probably a smart move, especially given the metal embedded into his door. But once it's all up and into place, Hiro relaxes. Whatever energy it costs him to get things up in the air, it doesn't seem to take nearly as much to keep them there. When he bumps into a stray actuator, it slides back into place like an icon snapping back to its spot on a computer. The power comes with some amount of memory in terms of saving a particular setup, in addition to his own excellent spatial capabilities, so in a place as familiar to Hiro as his own room, it's easy to just leave everything where it is.

He slips past Tadashi and flops onto his bed. Face tilted up, a warm smile on his face as he considers the 'minis. Hiro drifts one of the in-progress bots closer so that he can take a peek at it. Looks like he's in the process of replicating that hovertech onto the bot's back so that it can fly around his three-dimensional workspace. ]

Yeah. Real well. I miiiight have stolen him from your lab and taken him on some adventures.

[tadeadshi]

[He shifts to make room as Hiro flops by him, his paperwork staying close by; he's not about to risk losing it in this mess. But this is familiar. And then the Baymini is within reach and he carefully takes it to look it over. His fingers deftly work it over while his head gets that weird humming, headachy feeling again, the same one he got when he was looking at the new phone he was given. He understands how Hiro's put this together after a few minutes and looks back to him. He's not entirely sure the hover on the back is wise (shouldn't it be on its feet?), but then again he's not clear on how hover tech works here. Hiro probably knows more about what he's doing with this.]

What... Kind of adventures. Because I don't remember building Baymax for adventures.

[microbrobotics]

[ Hey whatever, it's just a prototype. This particular design decision seems to have been made due to space issues more than anything - the motor is a near copy of a hoverboard's, possibly actively cannibalized from one. He'll have to either miniaturize the tech or make his bots bigger to get them on its feet.

And oooh boy. Time to tread carefully again. If he just pretends everything was Big Hero 7 rather than 6, then maybe he can swing this. Also: he never expected to have to explain himself to Tadashi about his "upgrades" for Baymax. ]

Uh. I also might have made him armor and taught him karate?

[tadeadshi]

You... Taught a prototype medic bot to fight.

[He's bristling a bit -- he never intended Baymax for anything like that -- but he's trying to keep it cool and under control. There had to be a reason. Ask questions first, gauge temper after. He takes a deep breath.]

Why.

[microbrobotics]

[ Oh. Tadashi's kind of mad, isn't he. He should have expected this reaction, but with that whole dead thing going on, Tadashi's reaction was always an abstract "what would your brother think?" rather than an actual "how mad is your brother going to be." He closes in on himself a bit. Some of the equipment in the far corner of the room is quietly resettling itself back on the floor. ]

I - look, it was the only thing I could think of. I kept one of my microbots after the fire and it started malfunctioning one day. Baymax sort of ran off without me and I had to follow. We found Callaghan making tens of thousands of them in an abandoned warehouse - and he attacked us. The police didn't believe me and I didn't want to worry Aunt - anyone else, so I made sure we were prepared next time.

[tadeadshi]

I could've--

[He stops himself there. Rubs at his face aggravated and sets the mini down between them. This is... This is something else. Saying Callaghan set the fire to steal his microbots and now that he tried to kill Hiro... and then taking Baymax and using him for the antithesis of what he was built for.

It's a little much to process in one day, what with the waking up in another universe to top it all off. When he speaks again, his tone's even. Almost quiet, like he's confused more than he is angry; he's a fairly equal mixture of both.]

We could've figured something else out. I could've helped build something different.

[So why didn't I? There had to be a reason he didn't.]

[microbrobotics]

[ Because you were dead. That's the reason, but like hell Hiro's going to breathe a word of it when he's done so well so far. More of the equipment in the room quietly settles, until the only floaters are the small halo of Bayminis above their heads. He does not want to risk losing control and accidentally impale his brother. Not a good way to start things off.

Hiro's quiet for a moment. Both because he has to think of how to phrase it but also to get a grip on himself emotionally. ]

I'm sorry. I wasn't - I wasn't thinking. You didn't know I had Baymax and I couldn't tell you, and by the time you and your friends found out it was too late. The second encounter didn't go any better than the first one. Baymax called all of you to come help, and Callaghan threw a shipping container at us. If Baymax hadn't been armored, we'd all be dead.

[tadeadshi]

[He considers all of that. Really listens to him and rest his elbows on his knees, face in his hands while he thinks. This was not covered in Big Brother And Role Model 101. Hiro was trying to something right; he'd tried the 'proper' avenues first and when that failed, go about it his own angle, like Tadashi would've told him to.

He finally sighs and turns to face him, one leg draped over the bed. He's still mad, but thinking it over? He's mad at himself for having not done something else to help.]

Hiro...

Look, if. When we leave here and I go back to eight months ago? I promise I'll do something different. We'll figure something else out.

[Preferrably something that doesn't get his little brother almost killed or either of their life's work used as a weapon.]

[microbrobotics]

[ That comment goes through him like a jolt of electricity. Do something different? Is that even possible? Everyone he's talked to made it sound like these timelines were immutable, even that anyone going back would completely forget their time here ... But what if that wasn't true? What if there was even the slightest possibility of changing things? This Tadashi hasn't died yet. Maybe, if Hiro warns him now ...

His voice comes out in a whisper. More emotional than is probably justified for just "dealing with Callaghan." ]

You - you think that's possible? To change events like that?

[tadeadshi]

Mm, I dunno.

[He shrugs, filing the anger away for some other time. He'll deal with his frustration when Hiro doesn't sound like he's about to cry for some reason.]

It'd depend on the tech they used to pull us here and how they work, laws of world hopping, that kinda thing. But it might be.

[microbrobotics]

[ Hiro's mind is racing. Even a chance would be worth it. Even if Tadashi's some kind of alternate universe that Hiro never gets to see himself - it's worth it for that other Hiro, right? To spare a version of himself all that pain and agony he went through. Is there anything else that would change? Callaghan would still steal the microbots ... But Hiro only went after him because of Tadashi's death. That leaves not only Krei dead, but also ... ]

-- Abigail. [ He blurts out the name without thinking. ]

[tadeadshi]

What?

[He'd taken to looking at one of the finished Bayminis - Hiro had almost replicated him perfectly in design, a few things lost to scale but he expected that.]

Abigail? [He knows he's heard the name but he can't place it...]

[microbrobotics]

[ That didn't make a lot of sense out of context, did it? Hiro forces himself to slow down, retrace his steps. ]

Callaghan's daughter. She's the key to all this. Why Callaghan stole my bots and tried to kill Krei in the first place. If - if we went back to the expo hall immediately, before the alarms go off, we could grab the transmitter before Callaghan does. And then we reassemble the portal the same way he did, except we go in there first and retrieve his daughter. He doesn't go to jail, Krei doesn't lose his lab, and nobody - [ dies ] - has to lose anything.

[ ... Okay, maybe that didn't make any more sense IN context. ]

[tadeadshi]

[So that's why his classes were delayed. Being in jail would do that. But he has to back up a little bit--]

Wait- You mean Abigail Callaghan, his daughter that died? What portal? Fill me in here.

[You now have Tadashi's complete attention. There's waaaay more at stake here than he originally thought. What was future-timeline him doing that all of this happened???]

[microbrobotics]

Krei built a portal, but it was unstable. And Abigail was the test pilot. So she went into this interdimensional thing but didn't come back. Callghan thought she was dead ... That's why he said that stuff about Krei cutting corners at the expo. He was already planning to find a way to get his revenge on Krei.

[tadeadshi]

[His face slacks with disbelief but there's no lie he can see. He shifts to lean against the headboard, still facing Hiro.]

And you're saying that-- eight months from my time, you know she's still alive through the portal.

[Wow okay so both Krei and his mentor are pretty despicable. His pool of "respectable, worth-admiring adults" is growing smaller by the topic.]

If I go back and do something different, that risks her... Right? Unless we do what you said.

[microbrobotics]

[ Not a single lie in all of that, nope. Or even him dodging around the truth. Earnest and thinking fast, as he is when his mind working overtime on something. He's so desperate to find another angle on this one.

After a moment, he nods.]

Krei probably dies too. He's not a real nice guy, but he doesn't deserve Callaghan shoving him into another dimension either. Abigail was only alive because she was in a ship - and I'd have been toast too if my suit hadn't had an oxygen supply.

[tadeadshi]

[He watches Hiro carefully. Taps his thumb against the side of his chin while he thinks.]

It would be you that gets us roped into some supervillain revenge plot.

All right! [He picks his feet up onto the bed and crosses them, leaning over to give him a playful shove.] When we finish whatever it is we're supposed to do here, we'll figure out if these ports let us do what I think they will and figure out a game plan from there. Whaddaya say?

[microbrobotics]

[ He can't help but laugh at that. A little teary, a little desperate. For the first time in months, he's feeling some real hope. ]

Yeah. Yeah, that sounds amazing.