etcelsior | 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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[ Gansey turns to her, startled, but delighted. All of a sudden, he bursts with laughter. He is by no means laughing at Kitty - he's laughing becaue this is wonerful. A world where the belief in magic is actually written into the history books. His head shakes, and his eyes hold the warmth he'd found. ]

A magician! And to think I was labelling you a skeptic. I'm really very sorry, Kitty. I was entirely wrong.

You believe in magic. Have you experience of it? Please, tell me that it's not just something that's confined to your history.

[ Oh.

Oh, well. This is - awkward. She smiles when he laughs, and looks interested when he apologizes to her, but that smile grows a little weaker as he goes on. Please tell me that it's not something in your history, he says, and she can't help the bubble of bitterness that rises up in her, nor can she help wishing so ardently that magic was nothing more than a thing of the past. And here's this boy overflowing with enthusiasm.

She tucks her hair behind her ear, and she tries to look more positive. Less miserable. ]

I've...quite a lot of experience, actually. Yeah. But the thing is that in my world...magic is something that's limited to the wealthy and powerful, and they use it to ensure that society doesn't change. That commoners like us are kept docile and obedient. And magic in our world is derived from a truly wicked source.

[ A breath. More positivity. Just coming into this world is traumatic enough without having your hopes dashed. ]

You...haven't got experience? You just want to believe?

[ Her face is a picture that tells so many stories. Gansey is not a fool. He sees her smile weakening, and just as quickly, sees her hiding it. There's something wrong with all of this, with what she's saying.

Like it's a struggle.

A wicked source. Gansey doesn't think of it that way. Magic, to him, is not wicked. People can be. The intent is what matters, the purpose. But then he thinks of Neeve, and what Blue had seen in her, and perhaps there's something of magic that is wicked. ]

Oh, no. That used to be the case, that I was waiting to see it. But I've never had trouble believing, and now, I've seen plenty.

[ Cabeswater. Ronan. Adam. ]

But I've not known it to be limited to the welathy. To people who are open to seeing it, maybe. You speak of it like it's a commodity. It's a great shame if that's the case. It shouldn't be.

No. No type of strength - whether it's magic or military or anything else - should be used to oppress the vulnerable. Under any circumstances. I do agree. And magic has been made into that sort of tool.

[ There. That's diplomatic enough. So she goes on to something a little bit more blunt: ]

If you want to find magic, and spread magic, you must be careful. In the way that...the people in this world who invented the atomic bomb were careful. It is a power that can destroy and ruin lives. Societies. I wish, truly, that magic hadn't ever been loosed in our world. That whoever it was who first thought to capture and bind a spirit had instead simply...stayed in bed that day, found something else to occupy him.

[ Gansey's expression is nothing but serious while she speaks. The easy humour and charm he'd shown at first have melted away, slowly, and there's all but no trace of them now. This is important. He refutes none of what she says.

Once, he'd been naive about the spread of magic. He'd wanted to find the ley line, and been delighted by what it uncovered. Then he'd gotten closer. He'd begun to understand the risks, and then in the end, he hadn't wanted to waken it after all.

And wouldn't have, if Adam had not, very literally, taken that into his own hands. He knows exactly what Kitty's talking about. Which is why he sighs, and gives her a far more unhappy sort of smile. ]

Sometimes, staying in bed is the problem. Not every outcome can be controlled, much as I would like to try.

[ He takes a breath. ]

Which is to say, it's rather too late for that. There is no going back for me; there's only forward. About what I told you before - all of it was true, the historical account and the evidence I've found. It's also only half the story.

I believe Glendower is in Henrietta because I was told he is connected to the ley line there. Because he is buried upon it, and the reason I could not find it is that the line was sleeping. Now that it's been woken, I'm closer to him all the time. I thought you'd think me mad if I told you that.

[ A little shrug - and, for good measure, a quick smile, not cheerful or happy but firm. A smile to prove this conversation isn't upsetting to her. (It is, of course, but...She won't have Gansey believing that it is.) ]

I've got a very firm policy of not believing someone's mad until I know them well. Particularly here. We all come from completely different worlds, and I don't know the rules of yours, and you don't know the rules of mine, and madness is all about context, anyway.

[ Anyway. She lifts her chin, considering that. ]

But...I do have to admit, I don't really understand any of that. What's a ley line, and how can it be asleep?

[ That's sensible, and rational, and altogether reasonable. This is a girl he could get along with, even if it's already clear to him that he's more fond of magic than she ever could be. ]

Ah. I've gotten ahead of myself; I'm sorry.

They're lines of energy, mystical and magical energy, which cover the earth. They're connected at various points, but each line is like a store, a suppose. And people with the, the inclination towards it can feel it, and draw energy from it. People like psychics. Or ghosts.

[ Or dreamers. ]

They're also called corpse roads, or dragon lines, or --

Actually, there are numerous names, I won't bore you with that. The point is, they're lines of energy. But they need to be touched to be truly active. Before our line was active, no one had touched it for a long time. Centuries of history had piled up on top of it, burying it. That's the same all over the world. You don't know how much is sleeping until you think to wake it.

[ She listens to that, a little bit reassured by just how different that is from her world. She's never heard of anything of the sort in all of her studies of magic. So that's something cutting off his sort of magic from her own, wicked sort. ]

Where's the energy come from?

That might depend on who you ask. There’s a wide range of scholarly material on the subject.

[ Gansey has read most of it, and owns a reasonable percentage. The problem with this sort of work is that concrete answers are not easy to find. But then, if they were, finding a sleeping King would not take seven years and counting. ]

It has to be said, we’re dealing with conjecture and theory, here. [ He talks while he walks, barely looking at the streets ahead of them. A passing glance is all they get, and the occasional pause to excuse himself when someone’s near enough to be in his space. ] There are magics that you’d term as more occult, I suppose, for lack of a better word. But the energy of the ley line doesn’t create such things; at most, it could be used to fuel them. That’s how I’ve seen it done.

My belief is that it comes from the Earth. It’s a part of the Earth, a natural phenomenon. You might as well ask where magma gets its energy, or where gravity comes from, or why the moon affects the tides. It’s just that we know what we’re looking at where those are concerned. With magic, we’ve been in the dark so long that we’re blinded by the light.

[ And that further reassures her. She likes this version a lot more. There's no guarded hints that this magic might be from living things, no insinuations that at its heart it draws upon the exploitation of the vulnerable. Gansey is informed, and he's informed about a story that's very different from the one she knows. That's...reassuring. Because she wants to like him. He's so charmingly nerdy. ]

And so are you a pure theorist, then? Or do you use magic yourself?

The power is in your hands

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