etcelsior | The power is in your hands

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The power is in your hands

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 someone else's thread, either!

And remember to have fun!

01. Your memory might be a haze still and you might even feel frustrated or anxious by the sudden news that you are no longer in your own world and that the Porter scientists and military cannot send you back. You don't get a chance to linger long in the underground Porter lab, but something is clearly amiss; light patches on the floor indicate something else used to sit in that spot in the room. Parts of the wall, floor and the tables look as if they have been refurbished in the past few months -- something happened in here some time ago. Something big.

You're ushered out quickly and then suddenly, you're enveloped in a faint blue blue light before you find yourself under the bright Floridian sun. Another soldier steps toward you with a smile, directing your attention to a car near a large gate. She mentions she'll be debriefing you soon, handing out a brown folder and a pamphlet. You don't see the digital tattoo on your wrist, but it's quickly explained on your way over to the car as you realize there are other confused faces nearby, all holding files of their own.

02. The city of Heropa is what one might expect from a small, bright and cheery place. The locals are friendly enough and local shop owners might offer a free drink to help cool you down in this awfully nauseating heat. Some of the locals might thank you for always lending your service to the nation and others might not say anything. In fact, some people might back away from any imPort who quite obviously looks like they aren't from around the neighborhood. Once in a while there's a look of disdain on someone's face and hushed voices. Something about "the outbreak" and "the government's gotta crack down on their medical files". "Some of them can't be right in the head" says another.

03. De Chima, Virginia, is a large city with a healthy economy, and though it's quieter, there are just as many citizens awed at your presence. Heavy winds have people grasping at their newspapers and constantly brushing hair out of their faces, but that doesn't distract them from crowding you in excitement if you're obviously from a different time or world, or just let it slip that you're a newcomer. Children and young teenagers are especially likely to ask for an autograph and a photo.

Some locals seem less enthused to see you. They never make an approach, but they can be overheard scoffing and muttering something about cameras. "Who do they think they are?" or "I don't like it... it reminds me of the government corruption back in the eighties." What could they be talking about?

04. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania, is normally known for being a little more on the apathetic side, but there's been tension in the atmosphere lately. Nobody will outright state what it is that's rustled their jimmies, though you might find a newsstand with articles on recent and aggressive vigilante behavior within the city. "ImPorts: loyal to the cause of their own?" reads one newspaper article.

People are not as friendly in this city and go out of their way to avoid walking down the same sidewalk as the more obvious looking imPorts pass through. Local cops say nothing, but they scowl at those imPorts and utter something about "no badges" and "acting like authority figures".

05. Nonah, North Carolina, is the liveliest of all cities. It's loud, busy and there's some kind of energy in the air that gets everyone buzzing with excitement. Anyone who they come to determine an imPort is bombarded with all sorts of offers; job offers, advertising gigs, spokesperson for advocating children stay in school, etc. Anything and everything! You name it. Shops offer discounts for food and clothing, whatever they need. People flock in droves with questions, but they all say the same thing. Thank you for your service to this country, Hero. You saved a lot of lives. Wow, feels great to be a hero, doesn't it?

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Yeah that's not likely to happen.

[Billy manages a smile, and it's actually not as awkward as usual; he doesn't make friends so easily but Gansey is really charming, and it's not hard to reach out and shake his hand. He seems a couple of years younger than Billy, but that's okay. It's not like Billy Kaplan is really a grown up.]

I'm Billy. It's nice to meet you too. Here, this way-

[He inclines his head a little, to indicate the direction.]

Well, I don't really work with them much, but I know about them in theory. I think Doctor Strange gave me a book about them, it's somewhere in a pile back home. Mostly, wild magic like that is sort...attracted to me? There are places it's easier to work lots of power, so I figure that's probably a ley line thing.

[ Gansey falls into an easy stride beside Billy. The truth is, his hunger for this kind of conversation far outweighs anything he feels for food. He's already forgotten the attitude of the soldiers. A scientist would've been helpful, but now that he has a magician by his side, he's more than happy.

He's also already hip-deep in this conversation, and he talks to Billy as if they've been discussing the properties and effects of ley lines for years. ]

Oh, yes, there's no doubt about that. They make everything stronger, so long as they're active and awake. The Ghost Road connotation isn't for no reason. I understand it's very helpful for psychic energy, too.

[ But he looks at Billy, smiling, and clearly interested. ]

But that's not what you're talking about. Wild magic. What does that mean, exactly, for you?

Well, there are a lot of different...types, I guess, of magic. And magicians and witches sort of hover around different kinds sort of based on what they're like? Like healers! They're really organized and selfless, I guess, I can't fathom it because-

[He pauses for a moment, shakes his head, to try and organize this conversation better. He knows he can sometimes make no sense at all.]

And I've had friends who are really disciplined and learn everything from books, but I'm not really like that. Anyway.

Wild magic is just what I call the stuff that happens around me. Like chaos magic?

[ Healers. Actual healers. Gansey feels a thrill, and of course, he's an immediate believer. He's seen a bullet pass through Adam as if it wasn't even there. He's seen Ronan pull things from his dreams. There is no question in Gansey's mind that magic is real, absolutely real, and Billy's explanation simply expands his knowledge of it.

Chaos magic.

He wonders if that's how Billy would describe Cabeswater, and at once, he's struck with the desire to take him there.

Which they can't do. Not yet, anyway. ]

That makes sense. How it works depends on the person. You don't seem all that chaotic to me. [ He smiles at Billy, but nods, keen for him to go on. ]

Does that mean that you can sense where the ley lines are? You can feel them, like...

[ He searches for the right word, and still isn't sure that he's got it. ] Like magnetism, I suppose? Or a form of it.

I could probably figure them out if I thought about it.

[Billy's M.O., really. I haven't thought about it, but now that I am....]

I'm not chaotic but my magic is? Like, sometimes it just does what it wants, even though I put all these rules in place in a spell.

[It's actually really annoying.]

Most little spells work out okay, though.

But there are spells that don't.

[ Gansey's head tilts, and he regards Billy with interest. There's something about him, about his manner, that reminds Gansey forcibly of Adam. Maybe it's his uncertainty. Maybe it's just the turn of phrase. He doesn't know, but it strengthens his desire to be friendly. ]

That's not surprising. The magic that I've seen has very specific rules, and they're easy to get wrong. With terrible consequences, in some cases.

[ Noah. And Adam. Don't focus on it. ]

Would you call yourself a witch? [ Sometimes the blunt question is the best one. ]

Oh, me, I'm-

[He doesn't call himself a witch, really. Though his mother is one and technically he can be a witch, he guesses.

He's not supposed to say this. Loki wants him to keep mum on it, but its not like people don't know, and it's going to come out anyway.]

I'm the demiurge?

[It's a philosophical thing, it exists outside of just his own world, he knows that, and he suspects that it might actually mean something to Gansey.]

[ The demiurge. Not just a demiurge, but the demiurge. There would be absolutely no disguising the interest on Gansey's face, even if he wanted to. His expression is far from the polite smile he'd been trying to entreat the soldiers with; it's open, interested, and delighted in a way that shows genuine investment in all of this. This is the real Gansey, the one that people don't see unless they find that point of interest with him. Billy has managed it with remarkable pace. ]

The creator. At least, in a Platonic sense.

[ He thinks about that for a second, before giving Billy an apologetic smile. ]

I don't usually parse classical philosophy at this hour of the morning. I take it that for you, it's a literal term, not a spiritual one.

[ Is Billy calling himself a god? Gansey doubts it, but that's certainly one of the connotations of that word. ]

I always imagined chaos as a force for destruction, not creation. But I suppose it's both, really, when you think about it.

Yeah, sort of the multiversal nexus of magic.

[Billy makes a small face, like this is an embarrassing notion, and maybe it is.]

Well, I can do both? I guess. The goal is to not rewrite the rules of reality unless absolutely necessary, which so far, so good. It's a pretty literal thing, why the universe chose to bestow it on a neurotic Jewish kid from the upper west side is anyone's best guess.

[He just keeps his magical nose to the ground. Simple spells only around these parts. Where people might see him, anyway.]

So.

What do you do?

[ Gansey watches Billy while he talks. He watches not only his expression, but his body language, the way his shoulders move and the way his head shifts, the way his features twist the way Adam's do when the topic's not a friendly one.

This boy has just explained he has the power of a god, and it embarrasses him. Gansey wants to laugh outright. The universe is a remarkable place. ]

I'm hardly the expert. But I think, perhaps, that the Universe bestowed it on the best man for the job. It's no coincidence that you have that power. None whatsoever.

[ Nothing is a coincidence, in Gansey's book. He gives Billy the sort of smile that's friendly and hopeful -

And, given what they just discussed, his answer to that question is particularly honest. ]

I've spent the last seven years searching for the tomb of the Welsh King, Glendower, who I believe to be buried along a ley line in Henrietta, Virginia. A number of months ago, my friends and I were able to wake the ley line, and since then, things have been very interesting.

[ He lifts his eyebrows. The smile is still there. ]

I'm no magician, myself. I hope you won't hold that against me.

[The blush is rapid and aggressive but Billy still smiles, awkward and kind of hesitant. He doesn't hear that often from people outside of, say, Loki, who says that sort of thing more with a dismissive quality (they're friends but Loki likes to pretend he's above that sort of thing) and from Teddy, who, naturally, is required by boyfriend law to think that sort of thing.]

Thanks. I don't know if I believe it but it's nice to hear just the same.

[And then a pause, because-

That sounds very slightly absurd, but who is Billy to judge other people's worlds? His own world contains Deadpool, for crying out loud.]

Why is this king buried in Virginia?

[That's just a question, not Billy disbelieving, because god knows Billy has not a leg to stand on with the "weird stuff that happens" front.]

Oh, I'm not-

My boyfriend, he's not a magician? Or my brother? Or most of my friends. So really. I don't judge.

[Wow, Billy, awkward.]

[ Gansey takes boyfriend and brother and files them away. ]

That's good to know. Are they here?

[ Either one of them, really. And as for that other question... ]

No one knows where he is. That's the reason for looking. You'd expect a Medieval Welsh King to be buried in Wales, naturally, where he could be properly honored and treated as a national hero. That's how it ought to have happened.

But his enemies were close at hand, and so it was necessary to take him far from them. Virginia is, admittedly, quite exceptionally far - but that's where the ley line comes in. It could have been any ley line, of course; but the one in Henrietta has peculiar connections to him, which I've only discovered over time. My search for him is what brought me there, in fact. Did you still want to eat?

[ He says this because they're passing a little Italian place, and little Italian places have a way of beckoning Gansey inside. He loiters beside it, amiably waiting to Billy's cue. ]

Teddy - that's the boyfriend - he's here. Tommy isn't.

[He looks at the restaurant, and sure, it's nice. Billy could do with some Italian food, really. Carbs really do it for him, he won't lie.]

Wait, are you saying you came here on purpose?

Or you mean to Heropa?

[Because if Gansey came here on purpose-

Well, that would be different.

The inside of the restaurant is kind of dark, but comforting, too, in a way. They get a booth, and Billy takes a look around. No one really nearby, that's good.]

So, okay, what got you going on Glendower?

No, not at all. I mean to Henrietta.

[ Gansey's eyes lift to the city around them, to the city that has the familiar smell of Virginia trees, but not that quintessential feeling of home. No. This little excursion could not have been more unplanned. ]

This was very far from my choice. I need to get back as soon as I can.

[ Which he recognises is no simple matter. That's already very clear. Sliding into the booth, he pulls a menu over. He barely looks at it, though, because that question is one that weighs on him. He looks up, assessing Billy.

If there's anyone who might believe this story, he thinks, it's this boy. ]

Seven years ago, I died.

[ A little pause. All things considered, that's probably not the best way to start any story - even a true one. ]

I stepped on a nest of hornets. I didn't realise it at first. By the time I did, it was far too late, and they were everywhere. On my arms, in my clothes. In my ears. Everywhere.

I'm allergic, you see. They stung me over and over again, more than they would have needed to. I died...

And then I heard a voice. It said: 'You will live because of Glendower. Someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not.' And so I lived, and since that day, I've been looking for him.

[ Gansey has been in touch with his own mortality since that day. He knows he's been given a second chance at life, and so he intends to make it count. ]

[He frowns a little, but not because he doesn't believe him, but because he's thinking about it. And he does believe him. In his experience, people don't make up that sort of thing.]

Exchanging lives like that isn't elementary magic. Bringing people back to life is a tricky business.

[Billy should know, considering he's....done it. Twice. Once on accident. Both times it was a disaster.]

It's pretty commendable to keep looking, but-

....like, are you sure it wants to be found?

[ Gansey has leaned forward a little, the menu forgotten. What had happened to him has never been a secret. He's told all his friends, and they'd all reacted in various ways.

But none of them had been like Billy. None of them had talked about it as if it was a technical issue that they could deconstruct. What a fascinating perspective. Gansey has the curious feeling of being both in this conversation and observing it, filing it away in his mind to make notes on later. ]

He.

He wants to be found. It feels as though he does. These last few months, I keep getting closer. I find things that would have delighted me at the start, and now they're disappointments because it feels so close. Both closer and further away than ever.

[ Gansey frowns as he says that, as he articulates it. His fingers flicker, curling in on his hand. ]

But I need to find him, Billy. I've come far. I can't give up on him now.

Hm.

[He considers this, and maybe it's that simple. Maybe he does want to be found. And Billy understands the need to find him.]

Well.

I can probably help you out. I don't know how yet, but it can't hurt to have the demiurge on your side.

[ Gansey's smile is sudden and bright. They've only just met, but Billy doesn't seem bothered by that, and really, neither is Gansey. All his friends had come quickly into his life. Ronan, Adam, Noah, Blue. All of them in turn.

Why not Billy, too? ]

It can't hurt. But I'll not call you that, if you don't mind.

Being in a completely different reality might hurt, though. I don't have to tell you, I really do need to go home.

Yeah, please don't call me that.

[Seriously, Billy would not appreciate it. He nods a bit.]

Unfortunately, crossing dimensions around here is basically not possible. So you might have to tough it out and wait.

[ Gansey's jaw tightens. Unconsciously, he runs his thumb over his lip. ]

That's what I was afraid of.

[ And it sets a coldness inside him. Henrietta - home - has never felt further away, and that's crushing to Gansey. He doesn't let it show on his face. He's careful to keep that clear. ]

After all it's what the nice gentlemen with the guns said, and who could ever disbelieve them?

I suppose you're going to tell me the wait will be a long one.

Well-

It might be.

Some people are here years.

[That's the bad news. Billy's at a year and a half; he knows people have been here for much longer than that. He still feels new, in a lot of ways.]

But some people don't stay long at all. There's no telling why or how.

[He draws a little doodle with his finger, out of nervousness, on the menu.]

We really try not to think too much about it.

[ Years. For a moment, Gansey looks as ill as he feels. Years, away from his work? That’s intolerable. Not when he’s so close. Not when the cost has been so high. He can’t stop now. ]

I’m not sure I have that luxury.

[ He sits back in his seat, staring at Billy. Then the moment passes, and he takes that feeling and he puts it away – packages it to the back of his mind, and instead he focuses on what they’ll do about it. Gansey is not good with situations beyond his control. He needs to find a way to get a grip on it. ]

This Porter is the thing, isn’t it? You’re convinced it doesn’t draw its energy from ley lines, and yet it behaves in ways I associate very much with ley lines. Time means little to it. Space is just another calculation. So where does it get its energy from? What is it? Do you know?

[He fidgets, then, and the waitress comes by to get their order, and Billy orders something full of carbs and protein, and also a soda, and lets Gansey order before he answers that.]

It has a goddess, I guess.

Well, that's what we kind of figure she is. She doesn't really...wake up or anything.

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The power is in your hands

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