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etcelsior2017-09-24 10:02 am
maskormods) wrote in etcelsior2017-09-24 10:02 am
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I PUT THEM TO BED, NOW THEY ARE DREAMS, AND WE GO --
T E S T D R I V E M E M E
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 ON THE TEST DRIVE MEME!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. Many of the locals might thank you for always lending your service to the nation and their local troubles, while others might not say anything -- but if you have something nasty to say, better not say anything at all, right? That's just the Heropan way.
But despite the relatively small size and mostly easy-going population, this here is not a city immune to the urbane ways of the world. And Heropa, like the rest of the world, adheres to the calendar of this universe. You, fine imPort, have just happened to land squarely on SING LIKE YOU'RE IN A MUSICAL DAY! Wowee! Locals and tourist natives alike will conspire to cajole you into singing your GREATEST WISHES and CLOSING ACT songs. And, oh, you don't feel like singing? Then BEWARE of anyone spritzing a sweet-smelling yellow perfume at you -- that's a lasting vestige from the crumbled HEAVEN SCENT corporation, still on the market, and it will COMPEL YOU TO SING. Even if it's for a few minutes, you'll be singing a few bars. It's nothing personal, the locals just want you to feel like you belong.
Happy Sing Like You're In A Musical Day!
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! Those words have meaning here. 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 or recently published PLoS papers. 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. Some of them MAY ask if you personally know the De Chima Ambassador, Sam Merlotte. Beware if you answer in the affirmative; anything from personal questions about romantic chances to bedroom habits to dietary queries might come up!
If you wander the clean streets beneath those chrome and glass skyscrapers, you'll come upon the limited greenery clearing that De Chima possesses. You'll see a live demonstration in the middle of small Newton Park. A live demonstration! Of what, you ask! Of the start-up company DeCRYPTO CANINE! You'll find a fenced little area in the park fitted for a low-rise stage. On that stage are lots of dogs -- terriers, labradors, dachshunds, huskies, even a great dane or two. Around the collar of every one of these dogs is a glowing blue band encapsulated in a silver framing. When the demonstration begins (at the push of a big red button on a remote control), the glowing blue changes to yellow, to green, or to red -- all depending on the dog.
"Communication with our good canine buds!" Says the woman on the stage with the microphone and the remote. "DeCRYPTO CANINE translates blood pressure and adrenaline into mood, and mood into limited speech! At long last!"
Who let the dogs out? This woman, because she opened the fencing floodgates and these dogs ran to greet the waiting audience. Wagging tails -- green! And a computerized voice says "YOU ARE NEW HELLO I SMELL YOUR BUTT NOW WE ARE FRIENDS".
Whimpering, lowered tails -- yellow! Concern! "YOUR CROTCH SMELLS BAD. ARE YOU SICK."
Tense shoulders, hunched posture -- red! "BAD MAN BAD MAN BAD MAN!"
What will these dogs reveal about you?
03. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania has carried a reputation for ups and downs ever since imPorts began reappearing again, just those few years prior. Several imPort heroes have put focused efforts into cleaning up the streets of this somewhat infamous city, while a handful of others had 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 -- but that war waging is taking a turning tide thanks to the order and regulation established by Ambassador Petyr Baelish. Locals know him best for his library and his hardline on containing the criminal element. Trustworthy guy, they'll tell you. But one man's leadership isn't enough to clean up a troubled city in a year's time; everything from the classic bank heist to brutal bloodbaths can happen around the corner. You have to keep your eyes open and your mind sharp when you live in Maurtia Falls.
Case in point: the two cars screeching down the bust, bustling streets of this noir-styled city. A green car and a red car, both sedan styled, dodging and weaving through midday traffic like they had learned to drive at a bumper car rally. Not too far behind is the wail of several police sirens. You know that the police are too far away, that these speeding vehicles might make it to the off-ramp freeway and get home-free -- what do you do about it? Huh, hero? What do you do?
NOTHING
Just go about your business. Crazy day, huh?
CHASE THE GREEN CAR
Going 79 MPH in a 35 MPH zone, that'll be some chase. Careful about the other vehicles, parked cars, pedestrians. But when you catch up to the fleeing vehicle, beware: the lady in the passenger side is armed. The lady in the driver's seat is armed. The guy tied up in the trunk is not armed. These sunglass-wearing bounty hunters will fire at you, they are armed and dangerous. They are mean. They will not humor your shit. And they are hauling tail trying to...
CATCH THE RED CAR
If you pursue the red car first, you will find a very angry Bonnie and Clyde type couple with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds and jewels in their backseat. They have a bazooka.
04. Nonah, North Carolina, has its own unique rhythm; it is 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. They probably already think they know what Ambassador Miles' favorite article of underwear is -- and it's probably a kinky assumption. Whoops!
If you prefer to dodge the unsavory bustle, take a walk downtown into the heartbeat district. There you can find the throbbing nightclubs and dazzling haute bars. And as a newly arrived imPort, you're invited to the VIP lounge of the hautest bar in town: THE TIPPING POINT. It is a very fancy affair, however, so if you're not dressed to the nines, you WILL be taken care of and given a designer suit or cocktail dress to borrow for the evening. All you have to do in return is smile for the cameras! And there WILL be cameras, along with B-List celebrities hobbing at your elbows. Lucky night for you if you're JUST at the legal drinking age, but not quite there -- this lounge doesn't card. So sit down, take your gin and tonic, and smile.
they need chaperones or they just start pummeling each other immediately
Hermes just barely manages to avoid summoning her Stand right then and there. (Yes, this happens literally every time they meet.) Instead, she... sort of adopts a similar pose, forearms resting on her thighs, like the standing female equivalent of the manspread to say 'don't fuck with me, bro.']
It's not fate, you went to the fucking Shop n Save around the corner, asshole. [Everyone goes to that Shop n Save, Pucci. She literally cannot let any instance of this 'fate' bullshit slide. The paparazzi surrounding them look uncertain at the turn that this conversation has taken.] You gonna tell these people what they want to hear about Sam Whoever, or are you gonna start giving them some bullshit?
unlike canon people can't just ignore stand battles
pucci holds his pose, eyes locked on hermes. truly, hermes coming here was a test, though of what he wasn't sure. perhaps he could reach her with the Good Gravity Word without the fucking Joestar girl always around. seriously fucking joestars though.]
You know the butterfly effect, I'm sure? It's common enough, the thought that even the gentlest displacement of air from a butterfly's wings can become a destructive storm across the globe. [he stands straighter, but you know, still posing. if anyone's curious he bought cherries, tonic and what looks like a box of pasta.] Perhaps even a simple brushing of paths can lead to something grand, or something terrible.
But you understand, don't you, Hermes Costello? If you had taken a different route that day we wouldn't be here. [don't you just hate that he read sports maxx's memories.....]
EVEN MORE CASUALTIES THAN THERE ALREADY ARE IN CANON
Hahaha just kidding.
It's a familiar pang of guilt-- if she'd just done what Gloria said, if they hadn't fought that day, hell, if she'd just left a few minutes earlier or later-- but the priest doesn't really give a shit about that. He doesn't give a shit about Gloria at all. Using her sister like that, to make a point about his morality, or just to dig at her when there's too many people around to just punch him in the face... what a smug asshole.]
Shut up! We're here because of the stupid Porter, so don't give me that crap again! [She does, eventually, learn that not everything that happens in Cape Canaveral has to do with Pucci.] You don't know shit, so don't talk to me!
i was going to try to make an excuse but once pucci accidentally gravity impaled a guy so...
[the really fucked up thing, honestly, and there's a lot of fucked up here, is that pucci truly felt for hermes. losing a sister? losing her to the whims of fate, to a simple mistake you couldn't possibly know the ramifications of? yeah, he got that. or he got it as much as a fucking messed up asshole like him thought he got it, which might be closer than comfortable for everyone involved.
so when he looks at hermes his expression is sincere. he actually, legitimately seems to mean every word and really that's the worst, I'm sorry hermes.] There's peace in accepting it was inevitable. Grand schemes for revenge, did they bring you happiness? Are you more whole now than you were before?
Costello, happiness is knowing it is all as it should be. Even you struggling against it all, even the words you'll inevitably spit out in defiance of this truth, it's all true and right. I truly hope one day you'll know the peace of acceptance. It's the first step to attaining Heaven.
no subject
I'm glad you said that, cause it proves you don't know a goddamn thing.
[For a second, the way the priest had been talking had been too familiar, had matched up too closely with the thoughts that had haunted her for years. Why did everything happen the way it happened? Why did that stupid argument, and stupid luck, lead to Gloria thrown away in the gutter like a piece of trash? Hermes had spent a long time dwelling on this answer, and she's really comfortable sharing it with Pucci, right now, since he's so curious.]
Things went down the way they went down because some scumbag thought he was hot shit. You're saying that it was 'true' and 'right'... yeah, I'm glad you said that.
[The paparazzi literally do not exist right now.]
It just goes to show how fucked up you are too.
no subject
pucci sighs softly, in that sort of way that meant he was expecting something like that as a response. still, he wasn't completely expecting it. frankly, and sadly, the fact hermes didn't immediately shout dismissal meant something to him. maybe she wasn't as far as he initially thought.]
You never answered my question, Hermes. Have you found happiness with his death?