FROSTED TIPS ARE IN

[maskormods]

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?

Unfortunately, tragedy has struck today. It seems like the entire Heropa PD is parked out of a local, popular grocery chain. A huge crowd is amassed in the parking lot despite the best efforts of officers to get them to leave. They whisper about excitement and shame, and you don't have to ask if you just listen in a bit...

"What do you think he'll do to the employees? He sounded so serious..." "He really wants that pussy, huh?" "If I left my man for cheating on me, I'd take the damn cat, too!" "How does he think taking her and her coworkers hostage is gonna make her change her mind about him being a bad boyfriend?" "My wife is pregnant, please - if I don't get her favorite deli sub I might as well not go home!"

Domestic disputes! Tragic. The police aren't too sure how to handle this hostage situation, claiming the man only has a box cutter and isn't actually waving it around at the moment, but...are you an imPort? They'd really appreciate the help, okay. Get in there and counsel the unhappy couple. Or not!

02. De Chima, Virginia, is a large city with a healthy economy, and though it's quieter than Heropa, there are still large numbers of citizens to be 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 remains high here, 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, favorite foods, and more!

03. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania has had its ups and downs since imPorts started reappearing. Several imPort heroes have put focused efforts into cleaning up the streets of this somewhat infamous city, while others have swooped in to help the criminal industry thrive. More so here than the streets of any other imPort city, the battle between good and evil looks more like a war of escalation than a heroic tale. That might make the less than warm welcome imPorts are given in the city a little more understandable. The emergence of locals with superpowers is hardly helping. While some of these individuals have turned to crime, many locals seem more inclined to defend their native powered drug dealer than help the non-native hero bring them to justice. Who are you to tell them how to live?

Spring has sprung, and flowers are popping up—in the form of seven-foot sentient musclebound daisies! A local criminal known as Flower Power has set them on the city, and they're going on a rampage, but a number of citizens have taken advantage. Do you go after the bushwhacking blossoms or the local looters?

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. To be American is to be part of a melting pot, and that there’s more money to be made by the thriving local industries hardly hurts.

Natives may gather around new arrivals and ask both personal and broad questions about life as an imPort, what they are looking forward to, what their favorite article of underwear is. A few night clubs offer free entrance - just this once! And they are bound to notice that a man has taken up a spot in a local street, eating pancakes off of a fold out table and holding up traffic. Many people are taking pictures and more interested in whether or not this is performance art than ushering him out of the way. He does have an extra chair and table, however, and will welcome and feed company, especially imPorts.

Comments

[andtherevolution]

The crowd's eyes glittered with curiosity as they watched his speech, and as soon as he finished there was a fresh round of whispers as they were split between awe and skepticism. Can he do it? Well why not? There was a Lucifer, and a Loki, and a Persephone, too, so why not?

Utena ignored their debate, distracted by the sinking pit in her stomach. Her arms fell to her side again, and all she could think of was the Student Council back home. They were all promised amazing power, and were willing to use one of her dearest friends as a prize, a mere object, to achieve it. Great power... what did it mean?

"And what happens to the people who get it?"

Her voice is quiet, but while her volume may not have been enough to cut through the crowd her tone certainly did. It was cold, with a hint of roughness to it, and she no longer looked at Woden so much as stared past him.

"Do they just become stars or what? What happens when somebody becomes a god?"

There was a harsher edge now, and while it lacked the fury from earlier in the conversation, hints of it have resurfaced. It's not quite directed at him, though his posture, his tone, have certainly egged it on. Woden was just unfortunate enough to suffer a head on collision with her past.

[craftpunk]

"From me, or in general?" he asked, but his voice was a touch less...dramatic. Less of the projection and drama that he'd had before. If anything, when his hands fell to his sides, the way his shoulders rose like he carried a burden... Woden knew what would happen, and what it meant. He knew what the end of this would be, didn't he? But that was why he did what he did, why he'd be the villain, a role he'd handily accepted as his.

"People like you? You'll have no problem. My girls -- the Valkyries -- they'll endure," or he hoped they would. That was the point, wasn't it? That they would continue long after he left this realm. A spark of his godhood infused in their suits to give them a bit of the power they had. "At least if I have my way."

But...

"So you have nothing to worry about, if that's your worry. They become real stars, like you've never seen."

[andtherevolution]

That wasn't Utena's concern. She wasn't looking for more stardom or power than what she got when she arrived here. However, the way he phrased it made her think. Endure... endure...

"Endure what?"

Her voice became louder than before, but its harsh edge was replaced by a hesitant curiosity, and she no longer looked past him. Utena looked straight at him again, and her focus was no longer on the past, but on the present and a potential future.

"You said they'll endure, but... what happens to the rest of you guys? The ones who are already gods?"

Can a god really be forgotten so easily?

[craftpunk]

"We'll die," he spread his hands. "People move on, everything's great, and society keeps going," that was the plan, anyway. The great plan, the one their past selves had crafted, and it was still working to even now. The fact that they came back to a society that still functioned was enough. Or it was supposed to be.

Woden, however, was broken in his own ways. He didn't care about that. He cared about living, he wanted to survive and endure past the inevitable -- or at least for as long as he could. But that...that was a gamble, against literal centuries of precedent. He wanted more than just that. He'd do what he could to ensure there was something left.

"But we only have so much time to ensure that you'll have that." Ah yes, he was so magnanimous. What a persona to have, he could draw them in, but they'd all figure out eventually, when they looked close, just how vile he was.

[andtherevolution]

Now that got a stir from the crowd. No longer content to let Utena do the talking, they spat out their own questions, and drowned out each others' voices in their eagerness to hear from the new god.

"Woden! How much time do you have left?"
"Are you only looking for Valkyries, or-"
"What about the other gods?"
"What else do you have to offer, Woden?"

The barrage continued, and Utena drew back, distracted by the sudden surge of sound. She couldn't get a word in edgewise with this crowd, and even if she could, she wouldn't want to ask her questions in front of them anyway. So she retired to the edges and pulled out her device, and returned to the contact list.

we'll talk later

She didn't bother with punctuation before she hit send, satisfied that it would get the point across. If Woden's interested, they can continue this later.