etcelsior | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kylo's been singing against his will for some time now and he's getting almost frantic- a strange, bubbling kind of hysteria rising up as he sees Solo.
Who else would it be? What further tortures are left in this nightmarish fever dream? He laughs, eyes unblinking wide, and points his crackling saber straight at Han in accusation.

So he's here?
he appears
Kriffing Father of the Year--

Have I not laid this down to rest?
I stood and faced the hardest test
I burned a hole into your chest
And watched you fall

Come, stranger standing in his place
I am the failure you must face
My turn to darkness your disgrace--

Those aren't tears pricking at his eyes. Of course not. That would be absurd.

And all that pain-- it was for nothing
at all

Oh.

Well.

Kriff.

Han lets out a long, slow breath, looks down the line of the 'saber to his kid. To his boy. (To the man who watched him fall.) It's near enough that Han can see how the red beam crackles, so unlike Luke's lightsaber—unstable, a hunk of junk held together by spit and duct tape and the Force. Funny how the Solo men find themselves attached to hunks of junk, right?

"Stang, Ren." He breathes this out in a tired sigh. "Don't drop a bomb like that on your old man." When in an internal emotional crisis, make a terrible joke or a witty quip. That's Han, through and through. "Whatever we did—Whatever I did? That hasn't happened yet. You aren't even born yet, not for me or Leia or even Luke, but, kriff, Ren—whatever it is, you gotta tell me so I can fix it. So I can make up for it."

There's probably no making up for that, but he has to try, right?

"At least let me try." It sounds like he's pleading.

Kylo's almost vibrating with it now- the confusion, the terror, the hurt and the hollow, yawning chasm of regret- Han's face is so much younger but his eyes haven't changed.

"He's dead," he bites out, grip tightening still further on the hilt of his saber. "You have no son to 'make it up' to."

...and there. The rhyme is coming. He can feel it coming.

Here's the future that awaits you...

As a child he'll venerate you
try his best to imitate you
mindlessly regurgitate you

But deep inside
it germinates
The darkness calls
and captivates

His power will intimidate you
Need for guidance irritate you
Brokenness exasperate you

His fear and rage
contaminates
Our family
disintegrates--

Though abandoned he awaits you
Needs you til he starts to hate you
Begs his heart to amputate you

You see?
I had to terminate you!

"I do." Common sense dictates that Han should get moving, before something terrible happens to him, like get a lightsaber through a vital organ or something. But he stands his ground, anyway, like he will thirty years later, pleading with his son (taller than him and Leia, when did that happen, how did that happen) to come back home. "He's right in front of me."

He's being either impossibly brave or impossibly stupid. He's not sure yet which it is, but he's kind of leaning towards the latter here.

Is he intimidated? Well, yeah, the Force is a very big concept to wrap his head around, even now that he's trying to fit it into his worldview after years of dismissing it as hokey mumbo-jumbo. Is he irritated? Debatable. The singing's irritating, fine, the singing is always irritating thank you Heaven Scent for plaguing his life even after you've folded hard, but the lyrics hit hard.

He runs his teeth over his lower lip. "I get it now, though. Sort of. This—Force thing." He's trying, okay. "I know better now. I'll do better here and now than I did, Ren. Or than I will, where I'm standing." Time travel is giving him a headache. "Just—put that down, so we can figure something out."

He wavers, visibly- his chest heaving, the spitting, crackling blade almost lowering-- but it's rage that struggles free of the tangle of emotions first.
How dare this man be here at all? The injustice of having gained nothing from killing Solo - not even his permanent absence - and worse, the damage he suffered for no reason... the way his father loved him even as he plunged hate and fire through his heart...

Too late!
Too late!
I lived it all
The suffering, the hate, the fall,
Every day you should have stayed,
Every choice I ever made

Too late!
Too late!
I can't forget
The past that hasn't happened yet
What is there left to figure out?
What do we have to talk about?

Look at me! I know you know--
You lost Ben Solo long ago.

I PUT THEM TO BED, NOW THEY ARE DREAMS, AND WE GO --

it's where we belong daddy

we live in this trash compactor now

we are this trash compactor now

no subject

no subject