etcelsior | sure, jan

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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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[He hesitates, because god, what do you say to that? I'm sorry cannibals locked you in a train car and tried to eat you? There's something about her demeanor that makes him think that his condolences, however well-meant, won't be taken the right way.

Next best thing?]

Allll right, then. Well, it'll be my treat. Count it as a welcoming present -- also, you don't get a lot of cash to start off with, and you're probably gonna need it for more than just burgers.

[They're cheap burgers. True to his words, once they turn round the bend, there's a little soda shop. It looks true to its roots with a jukebox and everything, but it sure smells good.]

( She probably wouldn't, it'd probably be totally cool, but there's nothing wrong with just leaving cannibalism to the side. And kicking it away, ninja style. I mean, have you ever seen a ninja get in trouble with cannibals?

Exactly.

In this instance, however, Tara doesn't actually kick it away. She spots the hesitation, and offers a sympathetic smile. )

Hey, sorry. It's just-- I gotta joke about it, y'know?

( A moment of baffled surprise. )

That's really cool of you, Jaime, but you don't have to do that.

( Ugh this kid is nice. She's glad he hasn't been apocalypsed. )

At least, I gotta get you a burger sometime. Fair? ( And she raises her hand, awaiting a solidarity fist-bump.

Come on, bro. )

No, no, it's cool - I know some people who've been through similar things. I'm sorry that you guys had to go through it, though.

[Maybe not cannibalism, per se, but monsters, scarcity, the works. He thinks about Armin's clash with the Titans, thinks about Bart looking down at graves and saying meat.

No, this isn't his first collision with someone less lucky than himself. His eyes drop down to her outstretched fist, and he cracks a grin before bumping his fist into hers.] Fair. Once you got cash.

( A smile and a shrug. ) Shit happens, right?

( You know, just to apply a touch of gloss to the situation.

YEAAAH see, you can always trust someone who understands the fist bump. Brian? Hadn't gotten it. That should've been the sign. )

All right. Let's jukebox it. ( Because let's be honest, this place looks cool. ) Do they put cherries on their shakes, too?

Oh yeah, the whole ten yards. This place is super legit when it comes to all this old school stuff. They even got something called an egg cream on the menu, but it sounds kind of nasty.

[He has no idea what's in it, but he thinks it's nasty anyway on the basis that it has both the word 'egg' and 'cream' in it, and it's supposed to be a drink. Nooo, thank you.

(It's actually just chocolate milk and soda water, but he's never bothered to find out.)

They're whisked away into a charmingly old-timey booth and given menus. Instead of jumping right into things, Jaime lets Tara get her bearings, at least a little bit. They'll have plenty of time to update her on how this world works -- the good and the bad. For Tara, and for people like her, he suspects that the good rather outweighs the bad.]

If by "kind of nasty" you mean "foodpoisoning: the deluxe edition."

( Blergh. She'll pass. This is so weird, though - sitting in seats that aren't all busted up, a table that isn't splintering. Hell, a table at all. She doesn't even look at the menu, just running her fingers along the table and then smoothing the menu out flat. It feels so... unreal, really. Not simply because "hello, new world" but because normal things don't exist any more. Or, at least, the frame of reference has been reset: normal is having a rotating watch when you sleep, expecting to take out walkers on a daily basis and peeling strings out of hardcover book casings to use as yarn for stitches.

Normal is knowing that most of the people you know are probably dead, and the new ones you've met along the way probably have their days numbered, too. It was knowing that you might lose your life on the way to pick up groceries. )

I never thought I'd see anything like this again. ( Nodding to a plate of curly fries wandering past in a waitresses' hand. )

I'm starting to get that picture. Your world, it...

[He's gotten the picture. She said walkers, and undead, and whether they're one and the same, they've certainly taken over humanity. If she's stumbled into cannibalism, then food is scarce, scarce enough to resort to extreme measures. He doesn't have to be a detective to be able to connect the dots.]

It's been overrun by monsters, right? The undead, or the walkers, or whatever? So all of this -- [he gestures at the rest of the bustling restaurant, complete with cheery waitresses and businessmen on their lunch breaks and families with small children and couples and everything else that makes up humanity] -- is weird to you?

Monsters. Walkers, biters. Corpses. I don't think anybody's up and used the z-word, but... yeah.

( She watched horror movies with her friends, before they presumably became monsters, too. She acted like they never phased her, but later she'd be creating blockades around the house, much to the dismay of Lilly's stubbed toes.

At that, she offers him a wry grin. )

Pretty sure egg cream would've been weird even if the world hadn't gone to shit.

( But the floating cars, interworld travel and superheroes are totes fine. No problem. )

Personally, I'm thinking tonight is going to be spent having a ridiculous bubble bath.

( #thuglyfe )

Not a bad plan.

[Curiosity temporarily quenched, once they've placed their orders (burgers, fries and a coke on Jaime's side, because seriously, why mess with a tradition as fine as that one?), Jaime gets right down to business.]

Anyway, I bet you're still wondering about your people back home. Good news is, when you're here? No time is passing back home. We've got people who've been ported back and forth who've told us as much, which means that anyone you're missing, won't be missing you.

[That had come as a tremendous relief to Jaime - and it's why he's not punching and kicking and screaming to get back home, frankly. He put his family through this once already, and he's not keen on doing it again.]

Bad news is that they have no idea how to port us back, so unless you're randomly ported out, you're stuck here with the rest of us.

( Tara is trying to figure out what to order, and logically she gets that these options will still be there tomorrow... but given that the world went to shit and now she's ported into another one, she has the feeling the delicious burgers could always not be. What if there are no burgers ever again?

Burger, with the works, curly fries, chocolate shake. "With one of those pickle spears." Awww, yeah. She should probably be careful about eating too much rich food too fast... oh well. Problem for future Tara. And possible future Jaime. )

Oh, cool.

( Her eyes are doing the oh god what thing, a little bit. Wide eyes of mild trauma. Part of it is just wondering... would the others miss her? Had she been one of them long enough to make that impact? Or were they all getting used to people being gone?

Okay, back up, Chambler. )

So... basically this could all be a weird coma dream?

( hahaha ha ha but what if it is though )

Real life could all be a weird coma dream. I'd like to think that my subconscious isn't this weird, though, [he says with a tiny smile, hoping to be reassuring. The thought had occurred to him before, even in jest, but no coma dream lasts this long - and with all of these different people around.]

I know it's kinda hard to wrap your head around at first, but it's the truth.

Oh, dude. My subconscious is definitely this weird.

( Never do mushrooms when you're camping. Your girlfriend will tell you she actually has a boyfriend and that will seem light and chill compared to the rest of your life, but still. Mushrooms: things never go well.

Ahhh, but is this her milkshake and Jaime's coke turning up? Excuse her, she is just... wrapping her hands around the drink, not even drinking it yet. It's cold, which seems like some sort of miracle. Drinks just aren't cold any more, not unless it's winter. And dairy products? Only in the form of long life milk, and she's not sure if there is any milk out there with life quite that long.

She plucks the cherry from on top of the shake, holding it between her teeth as she tugs off the stem. She takes her time chewing it, enjoying the burst of flavor and the rich sweetness, as she mulls things over. )

So, we turn up, time is stopped back home, until we get back-- if we ever do.

( Tara's acting like she's taking this all in stride maybe more than she actually is. ) Do-- I mean, do you have your people here?

( because it's not fair, if she gets some sort of easy break and they're all trapped. That's not fair. )

Sort of. My best friend was here for a while, but she got ported back home. [In case he sounds a little too gloomy, he's quick to amend:] Which is a good thing! My home's fine; she's way happier there, anyway.

[Jaime Reyes: from one of the few happy worlds out there. They have problems, but when he thinks about home, he thinks about cozy kitchens and boring classes, about him and Brenda and Paco messing around after school, about wide, deserts, and flying, about coming home to his mother and father and sister, safe and familiar and warm.]

Couple other people from home have turned up, too. So yeah, if you're asking if your friends might show up -- they might. They might even be here already.

( That makes her perk up, a little. )

Yeah?

( Of course, 'cause if the people back home don't know... they if they were here already, she wouldn't know, right? Kinda makes her brain hurt and invites a wave of relief at the same time.

She relaxes a little, and finally indulges in some of that milkshake. ) Jesus Christ. I forgot how good these were.

( Hallelujah, etc. Glancing down at the shake, and to Jaime, and back down: ) Is there a list you can check, or something?

Yeah, actually, there is. [Jaime fishes his communicator out of his pocket with the practiced ease of any 21st century teenager with a cell phone he practically lives on (and yes, he's on it more often than is probably healthy), and clicks on the power button. He takes a sip of his coke with far less relish than Tara does before toggling to the correct page and nodding.]

Just lay the list of names on me, and we'll take a look. [He pauses, staring down at the screen for a second. Zombies, he thinks to himself. Tara's from a world of death. Almost carefully, he looks up and says,] Something else you should know about this place. Sometimes the people who arrive are dead back home, like -- like this is their second chance.

[He slides the communicator across the table for her to look at instead.]

I don't wanna bring your hopes up or anything, but you might want to, um. Broaden your search a little.

Or maybe it's our second chance. ( Quietly, staring at the device and not quite daring to touch it yet. A chance to keep Lilly and Meghan safe, to do all the things she should have done at home and that she failed at. To protect Alisha, to destroy Brian before he destroyed the lives of so many people.

To try and keep peace. If she could have gone back in time, she never would have backed up Brian. But maybe, maybe there could have been a way to join the Prison Group peacefully. To make the family she has now without losing her old one. Slowly, she reaches for the device. )

Does it come with Angry Birds, too?

( Forgive her for being a jackass; Jaime might be able to notice her hands are shaking. )

I'll fill you in on the gaming industry a little later, [Jaime says, and his voice is carefully gentle. Those shaking hands are a sure sign that he had guessed correctly. How could he not have? In situations like hers, where she's all but dying of joy at a simple milkshake, how could she not have lost someone? But he doesn't know who she lost, or how much.

A lot, he guesses.]

Look, Tara, if you wanna look at it in private, I can show you how and you can take a look at it once you're at your place.

[He'd want to, if he were her. Anything less than seeing his loved ones' names on that list would make him cry. Then again, seeing his loved ones' names on that list would be a surefire way of making him cry too.

He cries easy. Good thing he's never had to rough an apocalypse.]

Um.

( Jesus Christ, Tara. Shaking herself, Tara nods, rubbing her hand down her face. Lilly could be alive. And Meghan. Dad, Bob, Hershel, a whole list of people she never met that mattered to all the other people in her life.

And then there could be all the people she never wants to see again. Tara carefully slides the device back to him. She doesn't cry easy, she just has puppy eyes of trauma. )

That'd be good. Thanks. ( A little hoarse: let's try that speaking thing again, shall we? ) Do you wind up showing new kids the ropes often?

Okay. I'll show you after we eat, [he says, tone deceptively light, like he doesn't know perfectly well that she's falling apart inside at the mere idea of it. He hopes he hasn't just given her false hope, but she'll find out sooner or later, and it's better now, when everything's still sinking in, than a cold rush of shock as soon as someone mentions being dead over the network.]

Every now and then. I was pretty freaked my first day here. [He doesn't seem to mind admitting to that too much. Why would he? Anyone would feel a little ill at ease trapped in a new place without any familiar faces in sight. He pockets his communicator.] Might as well help the newbies on their first days, right?

[They're all stuck here together. If they don't make the most of it, then what do they have?]

You got it.

( She's grateful for the reprieve. She's not sure what will be worse: seeing their names, or not seeing them. Either way it'll be a punch to the gut, with a follow up for good measure. The possibility seems too much to hope for, it is too much to hope for, and if she wasn't thinking she could be crazy then that's definitely the territory she's in right now. )

Really? 'Cause I'm totally calm.

( Totally deadpan is the same thing as calm, right? Oh, child. Tara nods a little, the sheepishness a dead giveaway to all the tangled up, sheepish, confused, what the fuck emotions bubbling away. )

Might as well. ( And she huffs, laughing quietly. Incredulously: ) Somehow the good guys always swoop in.

[He feels bad for her. He had at least been a little prepared for this eventuality. He's no stranger to the existence of alternate universes - had collided with an unsavory one quite a while ago - and all of this, the superheroes and the intrigue? It sucks, but it's part of the job. People like Tara don't exactly have the frame of reference he does.

He's not entirely sure what she means by the good guys swooping in, and his eyes dart towards the window, as if expecting someone in a bright suit stopping a robbery of some sort. It's not an uncommon sight around here.]

Sorry, what?

I, um. Back home, some shit went down. The worst kinda stuff.

( Is that guilt Jaime might be able to hear? Guilt and regret and all sorts of things stirred up.

Tara's eyes are fixed on her milkshake as she stirs it with her straw. )

But afterwards, Glenn found me. He coulda left me-- I mean, he should've, probably. Most would've. But I got found by a good guy then, and I got found by a good guy this time.

( Her smile is a bit embarrassed. ) It's dumb.

Oh.

[That's actually pretty flattering, but at least in this case, he's not an altruistic soul taking in a woman in the middle of an apocalypse. He's just a guy who felt uneasy about the lady swinging around her rifle in the middle of a very ordinary day.]

Nah, I don't think that's dumb. I wouldn't call this - [he spreads his fingers out in front of him, gesturing at the absurdly normal diner] - swooping in, exactly, but I'm glad I could help. [He smiles.]

Not saying that we don't have our fair share of psychos, 'cause we do, but we've definitely got more good people here than bad.

[He had gotten to Tara first, but he knows for a fact that many of his friends would have done the same. It's just the way they are. That's why he likes them.]

( Glenn wasn't entirely altruistic, he needed the help and she had a gun full of bullets, but he didn't have to forgive her or keep her around, either. Glenn was good people. )

Hey, you got me a milkshake. It brings me to the yard, dude. I'm counting it as swooping.

( And she snorts, the accompanying eyeroll just of course you do. )

Nice. ( A beat. ) Are there stats on the good-to-shitstorm ratio, or... do we just have to wing it and hope we don't wind up hanging with the wrong crowd?

If I had exact stats for you, I think I'd probably fall on the bad side of things. I mean, I pay attention to the news and stuff, but I'm not psycho about it.

[He keeps closer track than he lets on, but he's no Batman. He's seen firsthand how horribly wrong that can go. Besides Batman, anyone who would present Tara with a graph of imPorts good and bad and where they fell on that scale would be pretty creepy.]

We get to wing it, and trust our gut. Hopefully it'll be right at least 90% of the time.

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