etcelsior | Lies a place that few have seen.

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 there's only one rule in Test Drive Meme Club: have fun!

01. The city of Heropa is what one might expect from a small, bright and cheery place, where locals are friendly enough and local shop owners might offer a free drink to welcome you to their fair city. Some of the locals might thank you for always lending your service to the nation, while others might not say anything -- but if you have something nasty to say, better not say anything at all, right? This month has been a rocky one, and locals are beginning to eye imPorts with renewed scrutiny; if people like them can get superpowers, are imPorts really that special, after all? Some people usher their children away from anyone clearly not 'from around here,' while other natives may be brave enough to directly approach obvious imPorts and ask their thoughts on the war with Russia and what the imPort ambassadors are planning to do about it.

ImPorts are a divisive issues, even in pretty Heropa.

02. 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 very presence. Look at you! Organic wonder! Science and technology are the lifeblood of this city, so you're likely to come across a good many locals taking your picture with the newest of devices. The imPort craze is at an all-time high, and you may find yourself cornered by overzealous imPort fans, media wannabes and opportunists alike, shoving cameras in your face.

Their questions are likely to be fairly mundane, however; get ready for an interview about your taste in romantic partners, personal underwear choices, favourite foods, and more!

Also, as the Halloween craze is reaching a fevered pitched, more and more children are running around in costumes of their favorite imPorts! Do you recognize any of these masks? Perhaps one of these costumes mimics YOU!?

...

Isn't that kinda creepy?

03. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania is populated by a whole lot of people who are having awfully bad days. With the emergence of locals with superpowers, many seem to have latched onto their new supercharged identities with an incredible amount of gusto. As your character walks down the street, they may find themselves accosted by a large man in his mid-20s, dressed in an ill-fitting spandex suit of orange and yellow. As he thrusts his finger into an imPort's face, the spandex rides up, turning into more of a crop-top, which he duly tugs back down before shouting, "You're not the special ones anymore, imPorts! Feel the wrath of Heartburn!"

Stupid name aside, he does seem to have superpowers as he breathes a large plume of fire. His aim still isn't great, though; it could hit the imPort in question, or be sent in the direction of a nearby local, or even a particularly flammable building.

What will you do, Hero?

04. Nonah, North Carolina, is the liveliest of all cities; loud, busy and there's some kind of energy in the air that gets everyone buzzing with excitement. This fine day, pumpkin spice seems to be in style, to the point at which you happen to be crashing an open pumpkin spice festival. From drinks to sweet treats to some other things that really, really shouldn't be pumpkin spice flavoured (pumpkin spice flavoured vodka, anyone? It tastes like regret!), everyone seems to be in the mood for the upcoming season.

Taste test a few samples and take in the hustle and bustle of the city, everyone! And hey, if just gorging yourself isn't enough, why not try your hand at the pumpkin carving contest going on? The competition is fierce!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Heropa
[ There's so much to say about this situation. For a moment there, Leo thinks he's high, but he hasn't touched a drop of candy in ages. After being dropped off by the government, he is currently carrying his file and his motorized roller-blades while he stares at the house he was told he could live in.

nah, fuck that.

He quickly spins around and goes exactly the opposite way because fuck all of this, fuck all of that, fuck everyone and everything. This is still too much for him to handle, and this is still too much for him to bother caring about. Right now, he wants something else: a smoke. After he pats his shorts and realizes he has no cigarettes with him, he will approach the first person (adult or child, he doesn't care) and call them ]

Yo! Got any smokes?

De Chima
[ The Black Lion of Shinjuku won't mean a thing in this place. Not that it meant much back home, but Leo likes to believe it did, if only because the gangs respected him. Sort of. But not being known isn't what bothers him. What truly bothers him is the fact that NO HUMAN is disgusted by him, that no human sneers when they see him, or call him disgusting or freak. They speak to him naturally, they want to have an actual conversation.

And that is freaky as hell.

And thus Leo responds the only way he ever learned: with a scoff and a taunt, a nasty smirk and disdain. He has no other way to respond, he wouldn't know how. This whole thing is actually pretty gross because Leo always wanted this and yet, he didn't - it's a conflicting feeling, wanting to be given "rights" and then, when you do have them, you don't trust them or believe them to be real. And even if they are real, you hate them because up until now, disgust was all he had.

He was in the middle of flipping off some guy who asked him if he had "a sweetheart" when he seems someone dressing up as... whatever the hell it was? Looks like a Dracula?]

What the fuck...? Why are people wearing idiot clothes?

Nonah
[ Leo came from a pretty big, yet rather small city. It's big because it's the last city in his world, the biggest one and the only one that still contains humans (and their aberrations, the Halves), but compared to this world, it's very small. It's only the size of Shinjuku after all (it IS Shinjuku).

So Nonah is HUGE to him.

There are so many people, so much noise, so many HUMANS. Which is surprising in itself, honestly; how did they not go extinct yet? They looked the same dumb idiots, they sounded like the same dumb idiots, hell, they acted sort of the same, if only with the exception of actually being excited for meeting a Half. Then again, they call Leo a "hero"; they probably don't get what a Half is. It's still a rather young world, though, and it's not dying just yet, so maybe that's why.

Give it a couple of years and they'll see it how it'll bite them in the ass.

But even if Leo is bitter and salty and cynical about humans and their dumb lives, he isn't going to refuse free food. Except he should have because he is going to regret it; people are offering Leo stuff, so he will take it but nearly EVERYTHING tastes like pumpkin spice. Even when he actually stole alcohol to wash away the flavor, the vodka had some in it.

So watch him spit it all out ]

Fuck!, what's wrong with you assholes!?!? Gimme somethin' decent!

[ Yeah, that human, human+ divide sure can be a weird thing. Non-humans aren't exactly the best sign in his world, but they also tend to look significantly less human and more alien than Leo does. So while Micchy does notice the eyes and the unusual markings he, like most of the natives of this world, opts not to really make comments on them.

He does look a little puzzled by the question, and he turns to glance at the kids excitedly running down the street in various costumes. ]

Mmm... some sort of event? Isn't that why people wear costumes where you're from?

[ Taking a stab in the dark that this guy isn't from this world, but he's only basing that off the fact that all the natives he's met have looked pretty solidly normal human, so he's trying to keep his wording vague enough that he could be implying Leo's just from another city. ]

Lies a place that few have seen.

Leo || Fire Candy

De Chima