Mask or Menace | MODERATORS (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
maskormods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
etcelsior2015-08-22 08:10 pm
maskormods) wrote in etcelsior2015-08-22 08:10 pm
Entry tags:
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?
Malik Al-Sayf | Assassin's Creed
Normally, Malik doesn't mind crowds, in fact he often enjoys walking in them because he knows how to be invisible in them. Between a lifetime spent learning how to do it and being seen as a lack of a threat due to his missing arm (a foolish thing to ever think about him) he's enjoyed the luxury of anonymity when travelling for a great deal of his life.
Until here.
The children aren't the problem, children notice things that adults dismiss and teach them to ignore as they grow older. Malik generally doesn't mind children, it's when they point him out and their parent's aren't hushing them for pointing and gawking at an obviously unfortunate man and instead smile and gesture at him in a way that has them skipping over with papers and pens and flashing lights that blind him for a moment while they babble and ask questions that bothers him.
That there aren't enough tall buildings to climb and use to avoid them is another point of contention that has Malik slowly building a growing hatred towards this 'America' place. So it is while he is concentrating as hard as he can on finding somewhere safe to hide that the world suddenly washes over in dulled colors aside from the few vivid blazes of blues, reds and white that are both people and locations. It only lasts a moment, his concentration breaking at the shock of it but a few of the red blazed people remain.
He moves towards a wall, palm pressing in to his eye as he tries to get the strangeness to go away. Eagle Vision is not something he was prepared for to be piled on top of him today. It's when someone bumps in to his left side that he finally snaps.
"Pay attention!" he half hisses in sudden livid 12th century arabic at the poor fool who's finally broken the dam. "Damn fool, do you have salt for brains?"
04
Malik's managed to find modern clothing that doesn't irritate him that he can manage to get on or off with only one arm, and while he's got his own boots on still he blends in well enough with the general population to not be on the receiving end of too many glares. It's easy to pull the hood on his coat up and tuck his head down and move with whatever crowd has gathered, listening in on conversations and lifting an occasional wallet from a pocket. He drops back and only takes a couple of the small numbered bills or a few of the large coins, if there are any, in them before just as artfully slipping back forward and putting the wallet back in to whatever pocket or bag it came out of.
He doesn't actually understand that the bit of plastic in his own pocket has the equivalent of far more money than he's seen in one sitting, let alone that it's currency.
05
The small horde of touch-happy citizens swarming the Assassin probably don't know that they're aggravating a still healing wound every time they tug at him or tap his left shoulder for attention. Apparently being from over 900 years in the past and missing a limb had him a target for a few rather overly eager sorts, but enough had been enough.
"Which part of stop touching me are you unable to understand?!" He finally snaps, shoving at the poor citizen with some strength. "I do not even want to be here! Would you want to be harassed when you were over 6,000 miles and 900 years from anywhere looking like home by people who have no sense of personal space?!"
Someone should... probably step in before he makes more of a scene.
5 - mind an OC?
"Ah- excuse me, excuse- please, if you don't-"
It's not that she's more comfortable in crowds; far from it, without her group of friends, she feels as adrift as a dandelion puff. But when someone's getting to the point of lashing out at others for his own discomfort?
She manages to shove her way to the front, catching a bit of attention of her own. With a coat that looks like it's straight out of some sort of renaissance fair, her own status as an 'imPort' is clear.
And honestly, she doesn't mind.
"There you are - I've been looking all over for you! Come on, we've got to catch up!"
Her voice is loud - deliberately so, to carry, and emphasize the underlying let's get out of here. The staff she promptly swings forwards - just barely avoiding hitting anyone (and is that deliberate, too? it looks more a matter of chance than anything else, but she seems to know how to use it) - assists in clearing a path,
Not at all! :D
"Why do you think I was trying to get away?" He grumbles, sticking close and letting her clear the way through. These people are officially worse than the beggars of Jerusalem and Acre combined.
no subject
At least he's not thinking she's one of them - which is convenient enough, it'd be hard to lead him through if he wasn't at least willing to move.
no subject
"...I would rather not. They keep prodding things that are still healing. I just want to find clothing that fits in and somewhere with food I recognize."
no subject
She keeps at a brisk walk, looking for a sheltered area where they can hide from the crowds. There's a few stubborn ones, but her purposeful movements seem to have some sort of effect.
For now.
no subject
It certainly doesn't explain why it's all so expensive though, modern people are strange.
3!
Similarly, she's seen enough imPorts come and go that she doesn't immediately recognize when one is from a place and time close to her own origin—very close, in this case. She's on the way to a particular shop that specializes in chain mail repair for renaissance faire patrons when she recognizes a dialect of Arabic she hasn't heard in quite some time. Wheeling around, she spots an angry one-armed man whose appearance isn't as familiar as his manner of speech.
Probably she shouldn't stare in surprise, but then she's never excelled at manners.
Re: 3!
"What? Never seen someone missing an arm before? Need a picture?" He snaps, fixing her with a glower.
Its probably a lucky thing the black outer layer of his robes hides most of the telltale cut of the whites beneath. He resembles nothing more than a cross between a very harassed raven and the scholars of Jerusalem.
no subject
Maria snaps her mouth shut, halting the instinctive reply in English. There was no reason for her to feel embarrassed when she hadn't been staring at his missing limb—had barely noticed it, in fact—and therefore no reason to act like a chastened schoolgirl.
"I haven't heard someone talk this language," she said in halting Arabic, recalling everything she'd learned from her time in the Holy Land. "Most imPorts are from far away—and the future."
no subject
"I have noticed. I know Latin, if that is easier. My english is... I read it better and that is barely passable." He sighed, rubbing his hand over his face. "I do not... I know how far from home this is but not the years."
no subject
Good lord, at least four languages between them and they couldn't communicate properly? No, she wouldn't allow them not to. Maybe there was no real connection between them other than place and a general time, but it was more than she'd had in a year now.
"It was 1191 when I was taken, and it is 2015 now," she says. "My name is Maria."