etcelsior | 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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Jaime stares at her with some surprise once she drops down in front of her, slotting into the small list of spider-related heroes. All right, he thinks to himself. Kid-Spider, Girl-Spider, Man-Spider. Got it.

"Man, you're the third Spider I've seen around here. We've got some catching up to do."

Technically, there are three Beetles too, but two of them being dead kind of puts a wrench into that one.

"Anyway, no problem. Thanks for yanking the car outta the way in time." He reaches one hand out to offer her a handshake. "I'm Blue Beetle."

She accepts the handshake; after all, it's not like she has any reason to not, especially after that save he pulled. "I couldn't just let them get run over by some speeding jerk."

At the same time, though, May can't help the surprise in her voice. "Third? Really?"

"Really, really. Have none of you met up yet?"

For the moment, he's assuming they're from the same world, but it won't take long at all for him to begin assuming that they're from alternate universes. Before, he would puzzle over it a little more, but now?

Well, he's had enough experiences with alternate universes to be able to figure out when they're in play, and just how confusing they can be for everyone wrapped up in them.

"No, we haven't. I'm going to have to change that." Especially on the highly probable chance that one of those is her dad. Then again, if different dimensions are involved here, it might not be the case.

"I take it you've been here for awhile?"

"A while, yeah," Jaime admits with a wry smile. It'll be coming up on a year in a few months, and that's not something he particularly likes thinking about. If someone told him that he would have been here for this long on his first day, he would have gone into denial, but here they are.

"Few months short of a year, now. And I'm guessing you're new?"

May nods. "Fresh out of the government held inter-dimensional kidnapping device, so to speak."

She sets her hands on her hips, as she thinks. "Nearly a year? I done the whole 'visit another dimension' thing a couple times before this, but nothing that's ever been for a long term like that."

It sounds like a really great way to end up grounded for the rest of your life, to her.

"You'd be surprised at how many people have said that to me."

One of them being Spider-Man -- the little one. Jaime tilts his head up to look at the sky with a quiet laugh, and shakes his head. "Or maybe not. You probably know a few people who could say the same thing personally."

He may have had some admittedly limited contact with alternate universes before now, but he's stopped shy of actually visiting any. He's glad for that. As little as being dead in an alternate universe bothered him, it sure isn't a world he'd fancy visiting.

"Either way, if you got any questions, you could find worse people to ask."

And better. But Jaime's probably one of the more polite folks she could ask, at least.

Jaime definitely has that going for him, beyond having helped out a few moments before. Not being given any attitude for needing some help is a nice change from how some heroes can act!

"With the costumed set? Definitely." Especially when groups like the Avengers or Fantastic Five are involved, since they're the ones with the fancy equipment to make things like that possible in the first place; not exactly the norm for her. "Can't say it's something I do on a regular basis, though." While she's definitely helped out with things on that sort of scale, May really does try to focus on the 'friendly neighborhood' part of the Spider-act, even if it does tend to get a bit out of proportion (by a lot).

"Since you've been here as long as you have, any tips?"

"Tips, tips, tips..."

This always happens. He offers help, but it's hard to think of anything off the top of his head without some specific questions. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other as he tries to categorize what the important bits are.

"Well, there's a FAQ that you'll be able to find on your communicator -- a girl named Kate Bishop found it. Otherwise? ImPort events are basically a magnet for trouble, so you'll either want to stay away, or stay prepared. If you wander around in public all suited up, you'll be totally swarmed by crowds or the press sometime, 'cause they're way into us, and if you decide not to register, you'll really wanna hustle out of there."

"Kate Bishop's FAQ, got it." If it was the first thing he had to suggest, it had to be something worth remembering, and finding, right? At the very least, the fact that there was a FAQ was worth something.

"What sort of trouble? Because if it's the usual kind with that comes with the whole 'costumed hero' thing, I'm used to that." For better and for worse, even when it involves the more crazy things like snake gods. Or clones, which is something May actually does still have to get used to, because that's something still waiting for her when she gets back.

"If it's more the political kind, not so much." Running for president of the high school student council- and jumping out of the race relatively last second- isn't exactly preparation for anything like that. While the Avengers- and definitely the Fantastic Five!- probably have to deal with things like that, the bonus side of being a reserve member and not actually on the team is not having to deal with it (and all the paperwork they seem to expect, too.)

"I don't have any worries about being swarmed by crowds, though." Since she's already seen that the Blue Beetle can fly, May doesn't feel guilty about webswinging up onto a roof. It's probably better to be having a conversation off the ground, anyways.

"Well, that's lucky for you."

Jaime can't say the same. Sure, he can - and does - just fly away, but he always feels a little bad about it. That, and he's got to get used to the crowds sometime. Wally was right; he can't be a friendly hero to the masses and run away at every junction. They'll just think he's a regular Batman at that rate.

"The trouble's stuff like attacks. Bombings. So yeah, regular superhero stuff, if that's the way you want to look at it. If you go, you might wanna end up keeping your uniform with you."

It's not much fun, but that's what they've got to work with. Isn't life as an imPort grand?

"It's not that I won't stick around if I have to, I'm just usually not doing things that last long enough for me to end up stuck in a crowd of people." She doesn't even know how she'd deal with it if she ended up surrounded by a bunch of people wanting autographs or details on her life, anyways.

"Bombings. Great." She already keeps her uniform with her whenever possible, so it's not that big of a concern. That still leaves a new question, though... "If these events keep getting attacked what makes them keep hosting them?"

"Because they're idiots?"

Okay, maybe he shouldn't have blurted that out right away. He tries to be professional in the suit, and he's Registered, which means that he should probably tone down the open disdain for the government... a little bit.

He relents for a second and shrugs. "People say that they're using us to lure out trouble. I'm not saying that that's what's happening, 'cause I don't know, but it sure is a possibility."

sure, jan

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