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etcelsior2014-05-30 06:02 pm
maskormods) wrote in etcelsior2014-05-30 06:02 pm
Entry tags:
dancing moms
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 anyone's thread, either!
And remember to have fun!01. Your memory is hazy and you might feel increasingly frustrated or anxious, or maybe you're excited as soldiers march past, barely glimpsing you. One second you're somewhere underground, the next you're enveloped in blue light, and suddenly you find yourself directly under Flordia sun's bright and burning glare. A female soldier steps toward you with a wide smile on her face and directs you to a car, ready to debrief you. You realize you are not the only one, surrounded by equally confused or eager faces... and you're all sporting a digital tattoo on your wrist.
02. Welcome to Cape Canaveral, where the smell of the ocean is in the air and locals are more than pleased to see new imPorts roaming their streets. They wave, they cheer, they ask for pictures as politely as they can. The more inhuman you look, or if you're wearing a costume, the more likely locals are to approach. Hey, enjoy the moment! The popular malt shop is offering you a free drink if you need it.
03. The technology in this world is certainly something. The cars are clearly modeled after popular 50s cars, but they hover several feet above the ground as they drive down the street. There are digital jukeboxes in restaurants, motorcycles also hover through traffic, advertisements can be seen on a digital projector on the taller buildings. Even kids on skateboards appear to drift a safe ten feet off the ground while playing!
04. Wherever you are, you can hear the loud revving of an engine, distance at first before you finally see it: a hovercar bursting around the corner, going beyond the maximum speed limit and just barely making its sharp turn. It doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon, not with two police cars trailing it... and uh oh. Those skateboarding kids don't have much time to get out of the way as the car comes speeding down the road. You've been brought here for a reason Hero — so you better act fast.
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She notes the particularly colorful metaphor, calling for the bartender to pass her some kind of writing implement. Once he does, she yanks a napkin out of its holder, sketching a roughly circular shape upon the paper. "Amestris. Our homeland." She continues to the top and left of the circle, drawing a much, much larger country that extends off the edges of the napkin. "Drachma, the larger country to the north."
"History never says what caused it, but our two countries have been taking potshots at each other for more than a century. At this point, they hate us because we're there."
"The only reason there's been less all-out war is," and she begins to scribble something that looks vaguely like triangles all along the border between the two countries, "the Briggs mountain range. Treacherous and high, snowy year-round. Difficult to cross, except for right here," her finger points to a spot at the circle's very top.
"Briggs Pass. The weather's still lethal if you're unprepared, but you could march an army through the valley here, if you wanted."
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Joker doesn't really get nationalistic pride. Sure, he's part of the human race and that's all awesome and shit, and he's loyal to the Systems Alliance, but he wasn't even born on Earth. He wasn't born in a country, he never pledged allegiance to a flag, and he sure as hell didn't get the logic behind bombing the shit out of each other over imaginary lines on a map or something when everyone involved is human. Humans made first contact when he was a small child and were united under one banner by the time he was old enough to remember; in-fighting between countries looks a lot more petty when viewed from a galactic scale.
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"Put that tongue of yours to good use for once and go tell the Drachmans that. They're the ones rattling their sabers; we respond to force with force in kind. Perhaps you'd like us to lay down our guns and open the gates of Briggs so they can march right through?"
"We've had a non-aggression pact for over a decade, and they still find creative ways to test it. Patrols wandering just off course. Stray shells in their artillery drills landing on our side of the border." She scoffs, jabbing a finger again at the point she'd indicated before. "My men have better discipline than those cowards. You won't see us pushing the boundaries of our word, but if they give us full reason, we'll annihilate them."
"If you have a problem with us defending ourselves, you don't have the stomach to be a soldier."
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He's dealt with enemies that couldn't be negotiated with before-- the kind of enemy too alien and unknowable to reason with-- and he's seen what happens when people can't let go of past wrongs and take the way out that doesn't involve heavy artillery. But she's talking about other humans. Not even other species, but good old asshole Homo sapiens.
"I'm not saying that these guys aren't assholes, and I never said a damn thing about not defending yourselves. Also? Letting the stomach thing slide. What I am saying is that they probably have a list of grievances against you just as long as yours is on them, and clearly whatever half-assed treaty you guys wrote up isn't really fixing anything. Maybe it's a sign you both need to go back to the drawing board on that one."
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Her finger jabs a no-nonsense jab at the crudely drawn map. "Look at the size of our two countries. Drachma dwarfs Amestris. Do you really think we'd be foolish enough to start all-out war? Whatever cities my Northern Army took would be impossible to effectively garrison with our manpower."
She sits back in her chair. It's true that Amestris' history was stained with blood, and as she'd learned fairly recently it's far more sinister than simple border conflicts and mere territorial disputes. The Ishval genocide, the border wars with Aerugo and Creta, all serving the conspiracy at Central. But her long vigil against Drachma is different; her army was the only one without a bloodbath to its name in the centuries their country has existed.
"There are peoples and countries who have good reason to despise Amestris; I won't delude myself to think otherwise. But Drachma is a warlike nation using its size and manpower to bully its neighbors. Little more."
(ooc: really enjoying this interaction btw! did you app Joker? I didn't realize apps were closing so soon so missed this month's period with Olivier :( )
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"I'd make a size doesn't matter crack, but I have the feeling it'd fall flat on my audience."
Olivier doesn't exactly look like the kind of woman who appreciated that kind of humor. Which is a shame, because Joker is full of jokes like that. He would say that it's part of his charm, except that's probably not the right word for it.
(ooc: So am I! I actually missed the app period too, but I'm planning on getting in next month.)
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She shrugs. "Tell that to the men in their estates arguing politics. All they care about is size."
She may have just turned your joke right around, but with her deadpan expression it's impossible to tell.
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"You've got a lot of experience with overcompensating rich assholes?"
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To save his life, really, but this man doesn't need to knowk that.
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It's one of those things he would've taken a picture of just to look at whenever some bureaucrat was pissing him off and he couldn't do anything about it.
"Your old man must've had a lot of pull if he had a herd of politicians trying to kiss his ass."
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"When he could hold a sword better than he could a dinner fork, he was an accomplished general. That goes a long way in a military state."
She glances over at him. "I'm curious. Do you talk to your superior officers this casually where you come from?"
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Shepard also hadn't minded his mouth, which is pretty important when it comes to dealing with Joker. Other captains hadn't been quite as amused, but had also recognized that Joker was too damn good at being a pilot to let go because of a few smart remarks, and had tolerated him solely for that reason.
"Also, you're not technically my superior officer."
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She glances back at her drink, taking a sip. "I don't fraternize with my men," she says as she puts it down. A single laugh, sharp and short. "They're too scared of me."
Again, it's hard to tell if she's deadpan joking or straight-up serious.
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She's a scary lady, he can see why some guys wouldn't go out of their way to make small talk. Probably wouldn't have deterred him if he was under her command, though, because Joker had met more than his fair share of scary ladies and had definitely been a smartass at all of them.
"Shepard liked to get to know his crew, and since there were a lot less of us on a ship than there would be in your fort, he had the opportunity to. And, anyway, me and him go back to the start of his command, so, y'know, I get a little more leeway than some of the others. Plus," he puts a hand over his heart, "I'm just so charming."
This could possibly be some definition of the word 'charming' that everyone is not aware of.