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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And you're a little boy.

[ She says, her head craned back, a satisfied little smile on her lips. And then, haughtily: ]

A hint, since you're new. Don't assume you know what anyone can do.

Not from where I'm standing. [Look how tall and manly he is.]

If you wanna stop my assuming, you can fucking show me, tiny.

[ And in response, she takes a few steps back.

This is such an incredibly bad idea, Kitty. You can't outfight him. If he's not someone who depends on his powers, there's no way you can topple someone that much bigger than you. ]

Go ahead. Make the first move.

[Ronan does not, strictly speaking, have a problem with hitting girls. Ronan does have a problem with hitting someone without provocation, though. For all he talks big, he doesn't know that this girl can really defend herself, and she hasn't done anything bad enough to make crushing her into the pavement satisfying for the few moments he has before his conscience catches up to him.]

[It would hurt him as much as it would hurt her, except it wouldn't at all, and that's precisely the point.]

[He hides it in scoffing disdain.] You're not even a challenge. [Not even worth his time, right, that's the problem.]

[ That is exactly the answer that Kitty was hoping for, because: one; he really does look tough, and when it comes to fighting Kitty is really good at either murdering the other person or running away and only mediocre with the middle ground of just-fighting-nonlethally; two; it speaks to a little bit of softness under that ridiculously aggressive exterior. And Kitty wants him to be soft. She wants everyone in the world to be soft and get along. Squishy interiors and hearts of gold are really lovely to find, even if they're not so common as fiction would have you believe.

Of course, she's maybe a little bit too aggressive in pointing out said heart of gold. ]

Meaning you don't want to hurt me.

[Ronan's heart is only gold insofar as acknowledging how very very soft gold truly is. But as far as he's concerned, it's as worthless as pyrite. He uncrosses his arms, brings his hands together to crack his knuckles. Now he has to fight her. She asked for a fight. She seems to want one.]

[That doesn't make it any less bad, but he's used to being bad. He's terrible. That's just the kind of things he does. Everyone can be ashamed of him later, and he can privately agree.]

Never said that. [He's sizing her up. He knows he's stronger than her. Maybe if he just gave a good wallop to her shoulder, it'd knock her down and wind her enough without really doing any serious crippling damage. He has a friend who was on the wrong side of a punch, once; he knows what fists are capable of.]

[All these thoughts are fever-quick and immediate; Ronan's been in enough fights for them both.] I just like things to be interesting. You gonna make it interesting?

Edited (words words words.) 2015-08-24 02:46 (UTC)

[ Okay, so...Not a good decision on her part. Well, okay. She has a few options. First option: make it a little too interesting for him and pull out the gun that's in her purse. Way too much escalation; not something she's going to do. Second option: run away or apologize. Not discarded quite as quickly, but...discarded. She has her own pride too. Third option: fight clean and see how much damage he's actually willing to do. Not actually all that bad an option, all things considered; it'll give her a measure of him, and Kitty can certainly take punishment: she's had her nose broken once, when she got into a nasty fight on the schoolyard over the patriotism of the Czechs, so this isn't something that'd be that hard to endure.

Fourth option: fight to win as she's best able.

So she straightens, looks at the stand of trees behind him. And she frowns, lowers her fists, and then walks a few steps forwards, her brows furrowed with concern. ]

Hold on, there -

[ And then, if he falls for the third or fourth-oldest trick in the book, and turns to follow her gaze, she'll take her pointy little elbow and drive it hard into his middle. ]

Oof-!

[Ronan does, actually, fall for it, but it's not due to stupidity so much as not taking her seriously as a threat. Ronan fights with raw strength and power, no tricks or underhanded tactics. He didn't consider that, but he's a good enough fighter to catch it before it gets him in the rough.]

[He catches her elbow in his hands, which are strong and solid like a vice-grip. She still manages to get him pretty good, knocking some if not all of the wind out of him, but not enough to really fuck him up too badly. Which means he's got her elbow, and he's kind of pissed off now. Well, moreso than the usual baseline. Pissed off enough to do something with it.]

[He sees an open dumpster not a few yards away from them.]

[He begins walking toward it, pulling her along with him.] That's your- [He lets out a little choked gasp. She really got him good.] That's your power?

[ Oh - Oh, she sees where he's dragging her, and she is having none of that. She yanks hard. She's stronger than she looks, but unfortunately he's exactly as strong as he looks, so it gets her nowhere - she needs something better to avoid that particular humiliation. Because as it stands, he's pulling her along way too easily. So she digs in her heels and growls up at him: ]

My power is incredible accuracy when I punch idiots right in the fucking cock. Which -

[ She demonstrates the trajectory her free hand would take. ]

You holding onto my elbow like that really gives me a lot of leverage, so you might want to brace yourself -

[Ronan snorts, like she told a mildly funny joke that he has to appreciate. Which is really the worst thing about this, that she's funny and respectably tough, she has a good sense of her anger and she knows not to be afraid of Ronan's bluster.]

[In short, Ronan both likes and respects Kitty Jones, and it's kind of killing him. He doesn't know how to deal with this. Oh, wait, he definitely does. He's going to toss her in a dumpster. That's how he's going to deal with it.]

Good point. [And then, because he's big and she's little, and he's very strong, he hefts her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.] Stay still, or I'll fall over and you'll get a mouthful of asphalt.

[Which would also be an ideal way of dealing with this situation, honestly. He continues to lumber toward the dumpster.]

[ She's not sure how he scoops her up so quickly. Suddenly she's face-down over his shoulder, and very securely so. She gives a cry of fury (less charitable souls might label it an 'irritable squawk' or, perhaps, a 'peevish squeak') and pounds his shoulder with her fists - ]

You bastard! You rotten bastard, put me down -

[ She tries her knee next, trying to drive it into his chest, but her leverage is all wrong. ]

You shit -

[ And so, last resort, she twists her head and arches her back to get her head in line - and then she chomps down hard on his ear. ]

Jesus Christ! [What the fuck, this girl is completely crazy. It's kind of awesome; a crazy he can respect. Which is, in turn, completely awful, and something to be rectified.]

[Something to be rectified later. For now, Ronan is bit on the ear, jolts to far to the left, and makes good on his promise to fall the fuck over. He's strong, but not that strong.]

[Unlike his threat to pile-drive her head into the gravel, though, Ronan actually twists wildly in an attempt to save the girl a broken nose via asphalt sandwich. He kind of rolls over in the air, so her weight effectively pins him to the ground. Better than giving her an unearned concussion.]

[From underneath her, he growls,] Get the fuck off me.

Edited 2015-08-24 12:13 (UTC)

Absolutely not.

[ That comes out as a pant; she's a little winded from fighting him and the sheer abdominal contortions necessary to deliver that bite. And - okay, maybe a bit of it is adrenaline, as well; maybe some small part is because this is sort of ridiculously fun. True to her promise, she positions her knees and shins at the joint where his thighs meet his pelvis, where he can't get leverage to push her off: she might be skinny, but she was skinny on the schoolyard and knew then how to use her weight effectively. And she leans up to push her sharp elbow against his throat to keep him from sitting up.

Not terribly hard, though. She doesn't really want to cause him pain. The fact that he took a hard tumble and broke her fall - that's not lost on her. ]

You were going to throw me into the bloody trash. You're not getting up until you promise to buy me a coffee in apology.

What? [He understood her, of course, but what? That's so easy, she's not trying to make him squirm at all. That's fucking weird.]

Whatever, sure. A coffee. Let me the fuck up. [He could push it, he knows. He could still use his strength and some dirty moves to beat her, but then it would get real ugly, and that just doesn't seem worth it. She hasn't earned a real, true knock down drag out fight from him.]

Yeah?

[ That seemed...too easy? Maybe? But if he's agreeing, he's agreeing. And if he goes back on his word...Well, then she just won't get coffee, and she'll have the fact that he made a deal with her to hold over his head. And the fact that he broke a promise. That's good enough for her.

So she holds her elbow there another moment, then climbs off him. For good measure, she says: ]

I've got expensive tastes. Be ready for that.

Fuck. [Ronan growls as he gets up, dusting himself of with a sneer.] Okay, you freak. What's your name.

Kitty.

[ She pushes her hands through her hair, trying to shove it back into some semblance of order. ]

What's yours?

Ronan. That's Chainsaw. [He points to the raven, who caws to introduce herself.] Where'd you learn to fight, prison?

[ A slightly impressed smile flits across her face, because - well, she's trying to act haughty right now, sure, but having a raven named Chainsaw that knows its own name? That's sort of really cool. She compensates for that smile by tossing her head with extra contempt. ]

I'll have to start liking you a lot more before I tell you the answer to that question. What about you? Let me guess - I bet you've got siblings. And I bet they're smaller than you.

[His thirst for violence momentarily sated, Ronan almost comes off calm. His movements and thoughts are slow and decisive as he works through then without the easy answer, the inevitable road leading to his next fight.]

[Fair is fair, and technically, she won.] Nah. Never fought my younger brother. I'm just not a fucking pushover. Your loss. [But he's rubbing his wounded ear with a grimace.]

[ She sniffs, and tries very very hard not to sound concerned when she asks: ]

I didn't break skin, did I? When I bit you.

[Luck for her that Ronan doesn't need the sound of honest concern to mock someone for it.] Oh, suddenly you care if you give me rabies?

Ugh. I just don't want to deal with how much weirder your lumpy head will look with only one ear.

[Ronan scoffs in humored disdain.] Bet you say that to all the guys you bite.

You're actually completely correct. I've now said that to every boy I've bitten. [ But that bit of glibness comes perhaps a bit too quickly; she reconsiders, thinks... ] Or - well - to fifty percent of the boys I've bitten. No, hold on, thirty-three point three repeating percent. Anyway -

[ She shakes her head and then turns to point down the block. ]

There's a coffee shop that way. I want a bee sting latte. Come on.

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