we're all reponsible here

[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 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.

Comments

[diociopath]

[A convincing cover, he thinks. If this city is really full of people who care about playing at heroics, it would make sense they would assume he was up to no good in a place like this and check up on any suspicious looking person in an alleway. This night had the perfect conditions for criminals to operate under, after all.

But he was no average thug. Although he was up to no good, the deed itself couldn't possibly be obvious to a stranger, and it was not the action of a common criminal.]

Quite well. Evenings like this are ones I find to be the most pleasant.

But it's rather dangerous to be stalking these streets alone, no? You ought to show more caution.

[At least it sounds genuine.]

[affectate]

[Something something caution something -- well, he isn't wrong, the undistracted part of her mind thinks idly. "Stalking the streets alone" late hasn't exactly proven beneficial to her in the past. ... But, on the other hand, her first death back home opened up a whole new world of opportunities. She wouldn't have gained the confidence to start practising magic, or a friend, or many of the things she has now if she hadn't died back then. Who's to say what will happen if she does it a second time?

But all of this is irrelevant, because even though she thinks those thoughts and her mouth speaks some of them, her heart and her eyes are both connected to her stomach. Bread won't fill her up. Not even a full meal would. But she can tell, even in the poor lighting, that it's a nice loaf.]

I enjoy the evenings as well; because I am unused to a sky with such little cloud cover, the light of the sun frequently harms my eyes. I am hardly concerned with such things as living or dying, but to inquire after the safety of a woman that you have only just met... Your concern is rather kind as well, Sir! Yes, I am certain that you are a kind person.

[diociopath]

[God, that just gets the most amused chuckle out of him.]

I wouldn't think of harming you, that I can at least assure you.

[Although that's mostly because Dio only bothers to fight back against people who he thinks are worthy of fighting him, or are a threat; otherwise he just disregards them entirely. Unless Elaine proved herself to be someone worth the effort, he really wouldn't harm her.

Still, out of arrogance or not, it's better than actually being dangerous???]

Though I must ask; is it my company you're after, or something else?

[The slightest gesture with the hand containing the loaf. He knows, Elaine. He knows.]

[affectate]

I am aware! If you intended to cause me harm at all, Sir, then it is likely that you would have done so by this point. Such is the transparency of humanity. That is why I can say with certainty that you are kind!

[At least as far as immediately concerns her, which is all that actually matters without her friends here. Then, there are no kind people.

But she actually does look a little awkwardly embarrassed at being found out, like -- well, a kid with their hand in the cookie jar, to use a cousin.]

Ah! It is that -- the loaf of bread in your hand appears very well baked! I was simply surprised by its quality.

[diociopath]

It appears a gift bestowed upon me by this world allows me to find it quite easily.

[And it's the stupidest power he has ever heard of. Quite frankly, when he found out, he was really angry about it - the more people he encounters with awesome new powers, the angrier and more bitter he'll become.

But until then, he'll turn people into bread and attempt to feed it to other people to alleviate his frustration. So, in his first step of actually doing this, Dio outstretches his arm and offers it to her.]

If you're comfortable with accepting a gift from a stranger, you may have it.

[affectate]

[It occurs to her immediately, with her upbringing, that there is a chance this bread is poisoned. Arsenic maybe, or scraps of metal to shred up her throat and stomach or sawdust to make her sick -- she's heard the poor would eat things like that. But, on the other hand, the other hand that might explain her repeated childhood illnesses even better than her terrible immune system, she's being given free, delicious-looking food.

Naturally, there's only one thing to do.]

Ah, Sir, it simply would not do for me to hoard such a gift! If I may have it, then I do insist that it instead be split between you and I. Please consider this the birth cries of our friendship!

[diociopath]

[Goddammit, just eat the people bread for his amusement already.

Still, it's not like he can't talk his way around it. His unwillingness to split it might seem suspicious, but he'd rather not have her do it than eat something his digestive system can no longer process.

He'll still try to convince her though.]

I'm afraid my biology no longer affords me the luxury of bread. I can only sustain myself on blood- I am a vampire, you see.

Any regular food simply won't do. My body is incapable of processing it.

[affectate]

Ah, I see... how very dreadful, Sir!

[She buys it no problem. It really is. Living forever is cool and all, short of all of her issues with it, but he can't even eat?]

If I were to saturate a loaf of bread with blood, Sir, do you believe that it would be within your abilities to eat it then?

[diociopath]

[The things he does for elaborate, inhumane pranks.

Dio raises both arms in a shrug, but he gives a nod either way.]

A perfectly acceptable workaround - although you would be hard pressed to find someone willing to simply give it away, I'd imagine.

[affectate]

I would gladly offer some of my own, but I do require as much of it as I may keep within my body...

[A beat. She crosses her arms, deep in thought - ]

In that case, Sir, would you like to kill someone for their blood?

[diociopath]

Hoh?

[Well, that's a surprising thing to say. Has he really met someone he can ally himself with on his first day here? Someone becomes far more interesting the more willing they are to say something like that, after all.

So with a rather amused tone more than anything;]

You'd allow such a thing?

[affectate]

Whether these humans live or die is hardly any concern of mine. I will save those that I am instructed to save, or that I myself feel the desire to save. However, Sir, all lives hold equally little meaning.

[Her gaze shifts from the bread to make eye contact, since -- well, she's been talking to him for a while, and she's been pretty rude.]

It is life itself that has no meaning -- you are one person existing in one city within a country, itself within a continent, that finds itself located on a planet. That planet itself is quite small, of course! Earth is the fifth largest mass that may be considered a planet, of eight -- Jupiter, for instance, in terms of mass, is two and a half times larger than the other seven combined, and is still only one-thousandth of the Sun's size. It would take one thousand Jupiters to match the mass of the Sun, Sir! It would take approximately three hundred and eighteen thousand Earths to do the same.

... Ah, but I digress, although I suppose that there is still relevance to be found. The solar system in which our planet lies composes only a minuscule portion of our galaxy, which itself is only a small part of the group of galaxies in which we live, and so on until the edges of the universe which contains us is reached. However, even that is not the end! There exist multiple other universes outside of the singular one which you call home -- and all are doomed to vanish as if they scarcely existed, come God's awakening from His dream. That is the human existence, Sir. An infinitesimal, trifling speck, sustenance for the vast darkness merely steps beyond you.

As a result, I scarcely find reason to concern myself with the morality behind murder.

[diociopath]

[The implication that he's insignificant doesn't sit well with him at all. But it's important to maintain his cool in situations like these, as losing it would be detrimental. He died, but he's here now and he has more room to continue his plans, whatever it might be, since he didn't factor in showing up in an entirely different universe.

So he ignores the urge to get mad, and simply responds with a nod.]

In that case, it seems I will break bread with you after all, once it is suitable for consumption.

[affectate]

[She watches his face carefully, smile blithe and blank. She isn't really looking for a change in expression or some subtle cue that she's pissed him off, really -- that's just how her face looks. It's hard, she thinks, understanding people's feelings, but if she watches for a twitch of his eyebrow or dilation of his pupils and connects that to what she knows, scientifically, maybe she can get a grasp on her new "friend."

Too bad she can't see for shit.

But she claps her hands together! Exciting!]

How lovely, Sir! It has been some time since I was last able to eat alongside a friend. You truly are very kind!

1/2

[diociopath]

[Kind, sure. Whatever she wants to believe!

In any case, time to grab a snack.

THE WORRRRRRRLD.

Time is frozen.

It's during his eleven seconds or so in his own little time stopped world that he leans out from the alleyway and snatches some random bystander with his free hand, fingers digging into their neck and dragging them like a ragdoll.

With just a single finger he manages to rip their throat open and get the blood pouring, at which point he breaks the bread in two and douses his half in blood. To his credit, he doesn't do this to Elaine's half.

But that's because he's feeding her people bread and it's funny enough already, plus she might not eat it then.

He then lets go of the corpse, although it stops falling in midair and hovers just above the ground, completely still.]

[diociopath]

[Once time resumes, it's a sudden shift in scenery before her. He's holding out one half of the loaf in his hand that isn't soaked in blood, while holding his blood soaked half with the other - the corpse briefly drops all of a sudden to the floor, like it appeared out of nowhere and in mid-fall as it did.

How mysterious.]

Here you are.

[affectate]

Oh --

[Whoa.

She doesn't scream, because she wasn't raised in a barn. Her first thought after time resumes and the corpse drops bloodied to the ground (where did it come from? Did it fall from the sky? That would be convenient. She barely even blinked.) is that she recognizes that kind of technique. The sudden change in scenery couldn't be anything but a temporal blip, brought on by this man's Causality magic. Which explains the corpse, too -- he snatched it from somewhere else. Of course.

How nice. They're more alike than she thought. He doesn't feel tainted, but that doesn't mean anything when she doesn't anymore either.

But now, having (in true Elaine fashion) convinced herself of something totally opposite the truth, she's particularly glad to break bread, so she takes the loaf and pinches some off to eat.]

Thank you very much, Sir! I must admit that the sudden appearance of this corpse did surprise me, but I am grateful all the same that you were able to feed yourself so easily.

[diociopath]

I'm nothing if not resourceful.

[He imitates the action, picking off a piece to eat, although it's much larger just by virtue of those goddamned hands of his.

He speaks again once he's finished chewing and swallows the first piece.]

How is it?

[Does it just taste like regular bread? Or weird somehow? He's so curious.]

[affectate]

[It's ok, barahanded friend. She's similarly polite enough to chew with her mouth closed, carefully taking in the taste of the bread then swallowing -- and then she speaks.]

It's delicious, Sir, thank you! Ah, but I can not say that I have any recollection of this particular taste... what sort of bread is it? I believe that I would like more in the future.

[diociopath]

[Delicious...

So it would be easy to force on people after all, if he felt like it. The fact that he can turn a fully grown human into a loaf of bread that doesn't seem suspicious in the slightest...well, he's definitely heard of stranger stand powers, honestly.

Dio offers a quirk of his eyebrow in response, plucking a piece of bread off of his half of the loaf again.]

Wrrryyyyy....

[Then he pops it in his mouth.]

[affectate]

[It's easier now that she knows for a fact that it tastes good. She's free to be voracious now that she knows it isn't poisoned or otherwise disgusting. Yes, she'll have to keep this man on call. He makes good bread.

Or does he find it? Either way, much less delicately, she rips off an even larger piece and just shoves it on into her mouth. Her chewing's fortunately still quiet, and she still maintains herself with the poise and grace that's expected of her. Because she was not raised in a barn.

But she blinks when she hears him, head tilting to the side. She can't have heard that right -- which she asks after when she gets that chunk of bread down.]

... Rye, Sir? Such an odd pronunciation! You do not appear to have an accent otherwise -- the pronunciation of the word is "rye."

[She looks back down at her half-eaten loaf.]

Although this certainly tastes like no rye that I have eaten...