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etcelsior2015-01-30 02:34 pm
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.
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[X might be artificial, but he definitely reacts human enough. He reels back, eyes wide with shock; he's even got a hand pressed to his chest.] An AI? But my scans showed you were human! What- what happened to you, are you all right?
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The machine that brought me here placed me into a human body. It's...hard. Getting used to it. [ A computer consciousness trying to make sense of a human body, more or less. ] Sound, light. More senses.
Everything is more vivid here. More overwhelming. I have to breathe. I can hear my own heartbeat.
[ He sounds rueful. ] Even my own voice. That sounds strange to me, too.
I can access some of the abilities I had. Even like this. So I'm not completely...stranded. But the physical world is...there is a lot.
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hiding his mild breakdowns over everything ever being different a lot bettermanaging okay. ] I don't know. The machine wanted it. Presumably easier to manage.[ He has no idea-- X, what are you doing.... ] It...it's fine. I'm already getting used to it.
It could be better. But I have to make do with what I have.
[ They've already cut him off from someone very, very important. Compared to that, this is just kind of kicking him while he's down.
It's not that he doesn't care. It's just...too much, all at once, and he doesn't want to think about it too hard because everything might just collapse. Emotional vulnerability is embarrassing. ]
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It's definitely not all right! Are you sure? There's got to be some kind of accommodations they can make, at least to make the transition easier. You said you have light and audio sensitivity issues? Maybe- [CALIBRATIONS????] -oh! I could get you some sunglasses! Some earphones also, that might help block out some of the noise.
Wait right here, I'll be right back. Don't move!
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I have a headache, but it's fine, I--
[ --and there he goes. ]
Ah...
[ He just kind of bemusedly shakes his head. Well, he can't exactly say anything, can he. ]
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It takes him a little while to get back (he got stopped for pictures and he couldn't say no, but someone pushed a ten dollar bill into his hand for it which he would've refused except he realized he had no money to get sunglasses and earphones and whatever with) but when X returns, it's with a smile and a shopping bag. And he produces a pair of truly hideous novelty sunglasses, perhaps not realizing what a horrible thing he's just bought.
(He liked them. They're colorful. There's a bird on it!)]
I'm sorry, I couldn't find any earphones I could afford, but I did get some earplugs, so those might help.
Oh! And I think I heard you mention a headache as I was leaving, so I got... [He fishes out the bottle.] "Tylenol." You should only take two. Oh wow, that's a lot of complications if you take more than two...
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He just kind of stares at the sunglasses, gingerly taking them. Even for someone so expressionless the general feeling is that he really doesn't want to put these on.
Maybe he can pawn them off on Colorman later.
Magicman is, however, cursed with politeness, so he puts them on. Everything is a little more manageable in his field of vision - much less bright - but...but they're such terrible sunglasses.
He wears them anyway. ]
Ah...thank you.
I don't think the Tylenol will help all that much. But the effort is appreciated.
Human bodies are complicated. The way they interact with medicine, even beneficial ones, is....even more complicated.
If you're all this helpful..back in your own world. I wonder why people would be scared of you.
OH MY GOD THANK YOU YOU HAVE JUST MADE MY NIGHT SLKJADF
And it makes him look up from the bottle before looking away.] It's not- me. In particular. It's reploids in general. There have been some problems, some unrest...some viruses. A lot of reploids have done a lot of terrible things, and...humans are rightly afraid of all of us for it. [He used to think they were ridiculous, full of hot air. Those cults who hated on reploids for no reason.
That was before Mavericks, however. Now, he wonders if he'd even be able to face the same accusations.
Deflated, X drops the bottle into the shopping bag and offers it to Magicman anyway.] Here. Just in case.
THE SHITTY SUNGLASSES COMPELLED ME, I HAD TO
Humans have done terrible things. [ Human history is basically one long game of 'who can fuck each other up better', as far as he knows. That, too, is simple fact. ] Like anything. Systems can be exploited. [ Doesn't he know it. ] Netnavis can affect the real world in many ways. Sometimes bad. But people don't hate netnavis.
Humans, and reploids.
You're not partners. Not equal? [ He sounds curious, again. It sounds like fiction; a world where humans fear the technology they live alongside. Of course, even in his own world, it happens...but it's a vocal minority, more than anything. Netnavis and humans need each other. At its core, that's what Net Society is built on. ]
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But it's not. And a lot of Mavericks- they're insane. Some of them want to destroy everything, and then some of them just want to kill all humans, and any reploid that defies them.
He'd worried about this, in the beginning. He'd worried if technology was progressing too quickly. Dr. Cain had wanted to build his own reploid right away and X had been nervous, but he'd assisted him because he'd wanted to make his friend happy.
Now, he wonders if he should've refused.]
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If you want to make sentient beings. You should be aware of the responsibility you have for their lives. You can't shut them down once you think it's gone far enough. [ During the early days of netnavis, there had been a lot of experimentation.
It stopped, eventually. There had been reminders. Netnavis aren't toys to be played with; they are people. Partners. They can do things that humans can't; humans can do things that they can't. It works out. ]
Maybe I'm missing something. Why did people create reploids? To help alongside them?
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They would have. It's just that this terrible virus happened, and... [and it supposedly started with Zero which X will never believe, not completely] It would've been fine. Reploids understood their responsibilities to humans. [Even if Lumine claimed that they weren't infected, that they'd just decided to go Maverick, to turn against humans. It just doesn't make any sense, but he couldn't stop thinking about it.]
It's really complicated. I don't think humans -not all of them- would want to destroy all reploids, but at this point it's not even an option. With all the wars, we outnumber human beings, and even though there are many of us still trying to protect humans and civilian reploids, it's...gotten bad.
-I'm sorry. This isn't really a good conversation for a first meeting. Maybe we could talk about something else?
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[ They sound similar to the three laws he's somewhat familiar with, if only because they appear in robot fiction. ]
...
Difficult topic. I understand. [ Simple facts, stated in blocks. ]
Would you like to ask anything? About the place I come from.
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Yes. Netnavis and human beings grow and learn from each other. Netnavis help humans perform tasks that require use of programmable devices. Humans help netnavis in other ways. Help them to grow mentally.
Humans have a responsibility to treat us as equal beings. Netnavis have free will. They can leave or rebel if they feel their treatment is unjust.
We are friends to humans. And partners. Each half is capable of doing specific things.
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So it works out pretty well, usually? I suppose there's some abuse of the system, that can't really be avoided.
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[ Even criminals treat their navis well. At least, the ones he knows - and the one he's operated by. ]
But it works. There were...ethical issues. Before. But that was a few generations ago.
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It sounds like a very beneficial partnership, at any rate! How did the concept of Netnavis start, anyway?