etcelsior | we're all reponsible here

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we're all reponsible here

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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You'll love it, I swear! And they have different kinds of sauces and vegetables you can get with your burger. If you don't want a burger, you can get chicken wings! Or something called nuggets. There's so much to choose from...!

[ The question throws her for a split second. She takes a bite out of her burger and ends up shaking her head. ]

Russian? That's a person from Russia, isn't it? But no, I'm not.

[He laughs again, but then stops. Is she serious about not knowing what chicken nuggets are? He thought she was kidding, but if she's not sure what a Russian is either, he has to wonder.]

Oh. Sorry. The name threw me. Never mind.

[He pauses, trying to think of a polite way to ask why she's never heard of chicken nuggets or one of the largest countries in the world.]

So, are you new around here too?

[That seems as diplomatic as anything.]

It's Russian name?

[ She's curious; she's never heard that before. It's just the name her father gave her, but maybe once upon a time when humanity thrived in her world before titans, there were a lot of these Russian people and lots of Sashas. ]

You're an imPort, too? [ She blinks, surprised. ] And sort of! I haven't been here long, so I'm still getting used to the layout of the land.

Yeah. I think it's short for Aleksandra. Or Aleksander in guys. At least where I come from, but that place is a lot different from here.

[And he nods. He's not sure if it's such a good idea to bring attention to the fact that he's a) an imPort and b) a Russian, but he's kinda desperate for some allies here.]

Well, I just got here today, so you're already ahead of me.

There are boys named Sasha?

[ That's actually kind of funny. She adjust her grip on her hamburger which is getting soggier the longer it has to stay out in this Floridian humidity and isn't eaten. ]

Honestly, this land is very different than what I'm used to. I don't know how much help I could be.

Yeah, Russian nicknames tend to end in "a," even if you're a dude. My dad's was Pasha.

[He uses the past tense with practiced ease.]

Really? What's it like where you're from? ...They don't have chicken nuggets, I'm guessing.

[Which really is pretty tragic.]

[ Pasha, she echoes silently due to food in her mouth. That's rather cute when she thinks about it.

But aren't the Russians supposed to be their enemies in this world? She doesn't understand the political context behind it at the moment. ]

Not as much food as this world has. And a lot of the technology doesn't exist, like those carri — cars. [ She quickly corrects herself, glancing at the row of parked hover cars. ] We still uses horses if we need to travel.

And the clothes are different.

[ It's not a bad thing, but modesty is still expected to a degree where she's from. Girls don't wear shorts or skirts where you can see their undergarments or butt cheeks peaking out. ]

[Yeah, Jayden is confused on that point, too. Especially since the Powers That Be expect him to fight the Soviets without any context, nor do they seem to care he's Russian himself.]

Wait, you don't even have cars?

[Okay, he might need to reassess his decision that his own world is the shittiest of them all. He would not like to have to get around those cramped Boston streets on horseback.]

Is that the only way you get around? No planes or trains or anything?

[ She wipes the corner of her face when she realizes there's a smidge of relish on it. She stares at her thumb for a moment before licking it lean. ]

Mm! [ Sasha glances back at Jayden. ] Horses and carriages if you had to travel across a large stretch of land. 3DMG, too, but only those in the military use it and it's not useful when you're traveling through flat land.

[As they turn a corner, Jayden spots a sign for the famed Burger Hut. He approaches the entrance in his usual plodding saunter, and holds the door open for Sasha to enter first.]

3D what? WMDs?

[He can't have heard correctly. That gives him an odd mental picture of people wearing 3D glasses and traveling via explosion shockwave.]

[ Oh, that's right; most people haven't heard of her military's standard issued equipment and it's still jarring to her to remember this tidbit. She doesn't have it on her right now, so it's difficult to motion with her hands how it appears. ]

Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear. 3-D-M-G. [ She sounds out each letter slowly. ] It's the military's gear. It's got grappling hooks, hand grips, and a propeller to help move through the air. It's all gas powered.

[He looks at her closely and repeats the letters.]

3-D-M-G.

[There's a slight trill on his r in "three," a remnant of the Russian accent almost entirely lost to his muddled American affectation. His brows furrow slightly, trying to picture it from her description.]

That sounds awesome. And kinda dangerous.

[And like he totally wants to try it.]

[ It's a curious thing; she's not certain if she imagined the accent or not. For herself, she masks Dauper's localized accent perfectly. Though Ymir would chide her for it after all this time, Sasha is unable to break that particular habit just yet.

They're coming up closer to the restaurant and she points with her free hand its entrance. ]

Operating it isn't too hard once you've been trained. [ She grins. ] It is pretty awesome. Being able to sail that high and fast is exciting!

Edited 2014-07-06 08:30 (UTC)

Wait, you're in the army where you're from?

[He's not sure why he hasn't put it together before now. Maybe because he has a specific idea of the kind of girls who would join the army, and Sasha isn't it. But maybe that's an unfair bias on his part. Things on her world sound really different, so he can't be one to judge.]

[ Finishing off the last bit of her hamburger, her pace slows for a moment as in her distraction she tries to explain her enlistment in the military. It's odd that it's considered odd here for anyone under eighteen to be in the army. ]

That's right. Ah... [ She stops then, standing at attention. Her left arm goes around the back and her right presses against her chest, a fist curled right above her heart. ] Sasha Blouse of the Survey Corps.

[His eyebrows shoot up – but not because he's skeptical. He just didn't expect her to be so... official all of a sudden. It's impressive, really.]

That's cool. Seriously. I don't know anyone who even wants to join the army, but things are kind of weird right now in my country when it comes to that stuff.

[He enters the restaurant, immediately enticed by the overhead menu. He stands there, brow furrowed in deep concentration, trying to decide what to order.]

Do you like it?

[Does anyone like being in the army? Maybe that was a stupid question.]

[ "We're not good people anymore," says Armin back in the basement where what remained of the 104th huddled together, trying to block out the horrible screaming and crying of the men Levi and Hange tortured.

It's a far cry from what she imagined her enlistment to be. Sasha wants to do good and she thinks she has, but lately things haven't been so black and white. Maybe they never were.

Sasha's brow furrows. ]

Well, it's not a matter of liking it. [ But she doesn't hate it. She never would have forged such wonderful friendships or made precious memories if she had never joined. ] It's duty, after all. Someone needs to protect the civilians from the titans.

[That's probably about all he can expect for an answer to a question like that. Jayden intends to tell her that he respects her choice, that's a lot of commitment and such, except her final statement throws him for so much of a loop he forgets all that entirely. He tears his eyes from the menu to too her in the face, confused.]

What's a titan?

[ She grimaces slightly, gory memories flashing in her mind's eye. However, she maintains her composure to answer him. ]

Titan are mankind's enemy. [ Save for one exception. ] They're giant monsters who devour humans for no reason and they're incredibly dangerous.

[He starts to laugh, because he thinks she's joking. But he looks at her face and she's not laughing, so the mirth fades from his face.]

Wait, for real?

[ Some of the colour drains from her face at his laughter. It's no laughing matter and he doesn't seem to grasp that. It's not his fault of course, not if he comes from a titan-less world, but her voice is quiet and filled with traces of fear. ]

I'm not joking! Titans are dangerous! Especially the unpredictable ones! If you ever ran into one it's better to run if you can't fight it!

[She's certainly not kidding. Her world definitely has giant hideous people eaters. Or at the very least, she believes it does.

Jayden wonders for the first time if he's talking to a crazy girl.]

Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. We just don't have anything like that where I come from.

[ She feels bad for her reaction and earning a couple of stares in their general direction in the process. She gulps.

It's better he has this conversation with her. Jean would probably rip him a new one. Connie might not be as tolerant either given what happened with his village. Armin might be... but he lost his hometown to a titan invasion, just like Eren and Mikasa.

Sasha lived peacefully and ignorantly, like Jayden, though by no fault of their own. Well, mostly. Sasha feared the world beyond her village, hence her ignorance. However, titans were not common in her area while growing up. ]

A world without titans is better off. [ As strange as it is to her. ] You definitely never want to see one.

I'll count myself lucky.

[She doesn't seem crazy, just full of conviction. Jayden's a little envious of that, actually: knowing what side to be on.]

Where I come from, people just fight each other.

[He might sound a little bitter, but it's the righteous indignation of someone not caught in the fray of war. He knows better than to think they have anything in common, if she's really faced these titans, monsters he can't even picture.

He looks away, realizes it's his turn in line, and steps up so he can put in his order. He pays and steps off to the side, waiting to have his number called. Her words replay themselves in his head, and he wonders just how bad things are for her in her world.]

[ Sasha sticks by close, gaze extending to the floor in quiet discomfort before she glances back up at Jayden, now with a touch of guilt in her expression. Right... she's almost forgotten that if people aren't fighting titans wherever they're from, the enemy is humans.

It's too far off from her world. She hadn't known someday she would have to face the monarchy and be part of some plan to dismantle it. It all seems beyond her and her capabilities. ]

Humans shouldn't be fighting with each other.

we're all reponsible here

we are actually unsure "where" aot takes place :[

pffft they're inside totally safe walls, who cares what's outside them? ;)

only heretics apparently!

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jayden's about to learn his world doesn't have the darkest timeline once he hears about sasha's

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fyi i just want to say i am loving this thread ;;

ME TOO and so sorry for slow on it

NO WORRIES and i'm glad :3

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