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etcelsior2018-12-15 11:19 am
maskormods) wrote in etcelsior2018-12-15 11:19 am
Entry tags:
walking in a winter wonderland
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.
Although even Florida can get chilly during the winter, a relative heat wave is sweeping through, resulting in an impromptu Beach Body Competition sponsored by a local gym. ImPorts who are the buffest of the buff all the way down to the super skinniest (competing in separate weight classes, of course) are likely to be urged to join in for some fun in the sun and the extra attention they garner from native fans.
Those who just aren't interested in competing might be called in to judge another competition down the beach: a youth sand-sculpting contest! Only one team can walk away with the grand prize of a laser tag package, but can you bring yourself to be harsh on those wide, hopeful eyes?
02. De Chima, Virginia, is a large city with a healthy economy, with large numbers of citizens waiting to be awed by your very presence. Look at you! Organic wonder! Synthetic wonder! Whatever you might be, 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.
With Christmas coming, the producers behind a guerilla new reality show are hard at work getting new footage—starring you! Areas of the city with the most foot traffic have been absolutely blanketed in mistletoe. If you happen to pass beneath a sprig, you might find a small camera crew jumping out of nowhere, urging you to give the person next to you a smooch—and thanks to the strange radio waves coming out of the unit on the executive producer's wrist, you'll feel a little compelled to do so!
...except the compulsion isn't that strong, so those who don't kiss on the first meet can easily break out of it. Your next choice: give the camera crew a piece of your mind, or ask the would-be kissee out for coffee? They are pretty cute...
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. 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, and hostility against imPorts can spike. The emergence of locals with superpowers is hardly helping...
The downtown mall is tilting the balance solidly toward welcoming to imPorts with a Winter Welcome Festival. All the storefronts and many temporary kiosks occupied by local vendors are holding special sales, and newly arrived imPorts are given a coupon book to make the most of them. The food court has some free goodies for participants to mix and mingle.
Unfortunately, a local rogue with the alias of Klone Kringle is here to spoil the fun. After a small boom echoes throughout the mall, everything dissolves into chaos as dozens of copies of a man dressed in a polyester Santa Claus costume begin looting the retailers! The guns they wield that shoot snow and ice might not be lethal, but they can certainly slow you down (and give you a cold). Will you be the hero and help take down Kringle(s), or will you seize the opportunity to do some theft of your own?
04. Nonah, North Carolina, is the liveliest of all cities; loud, busy and there's always some kind of energy in the air that gets everyone buzzing with excitement.
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah have passed, Christmas and New Year's Eve are coming up, but what about holidays from home? This weekend, the Nonah Cultural Center is hosting a one-day event during which attendees can share stories of their traditions and celebrations (whether they are related to winter holidays or completely different ones) and sharing them with others, either on a small stage with a microphone or in individual recording booths, so that these tales of cultural traditions can be preserved for others to learn about. ImPorts from worlds that are not variants of Earth are particularly encouraged to attend. Small refreshment tables will also be open to those who speak.
05. Jeopardy, Nevada by all rights shouldn't exist. A glowing neon city smack in the middle of the desert, the only reason it's still here is that the central nuclear power plant has tapped half a mile down into a subterranean lake for its water supply. So though the desert around it may be barren, the occupants of this small city are happily self sufficient. Those weird figures you see out of the corner of your eyes? Don't worry too much. Probably just weird radiation after effects. Jeopardy has a lot of those.
Saturnalia is just around the corner and Jeopardy is in full festive swing! The seven-day marathon of festivities includes a parade, with a ((cw: arachnophobia)) very special float from the Web Mistress's church; a day long city-wide paintball game; an attempt to break the world record for largest bingo game with everyone playing in dead silence; and a feast!
The final feast, of course, comes with the main event: ritual sacrifice. Of course, no one actually wants to do anything quite so base, in 2018, so the sacrifice is more metaphorical than actual: the kids of North Jeopardy High have spent three months building a giant chocolate Santa tied up in ropes to be slaughtered and fed to the city at large! Bon appetit!
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She huffs and turns her attention to looking for people that might be trapped and not just stubbornly waiting things out. An attempt to launch herself into the air is met with resistance. Her body feels heavy and it's almost as if the Void struggles to lift her.]
Ugh... [Stardust chimes in as she groans.] «We should really try avoiding those blasts.»
[She grumbles a response before blinking away after another Klone, tackling them and smacking them facefirst into the floor.]
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That's right Guardian, give it' to 'em!
[As he hollers, he keeps tossing knives and relying on his footwork to keep him out of the line of fire, until it doesn't and he gets pelted directly in the face, knocking him to the floor.]
Please tell me you didn't see that.
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She gives the Klone a quick kick, just to make sure he's down, before grabbing up his gun. Here's hoping it was just a point and shoot sort of a gun and no trickery to it.]
See what? [She looks over to see him on the floor and laughs before shooting one the Klones trying to get the drop Cayde.]
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Nothing, no-thing. Just a clever ruse to bait them into position.
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Making quick work of the remaining clones is easy enough, with a gun in hand. And eventually, some authorities show up to finish cleaning up the situation.]
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[He pats himself down until he finds the stash of candy canes he's procured as a generic holiday gift to new acquaintances. Unfortunately, they've taken some damage with his pratfall. It's not the fanciest Vanguard reward but it'll do for now. He presents them with a flourish]
Happy Dawning, Warlock.
[You Receive: Cracked Candy Canes. - These pre-Golden Age confections have seen better days, but still taste minty fresh.]
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Had... [She mutters, as the officer walks away.
She turns back to Cayde as he offers up the cracked candy cane and blinks.] Er, yeah, thanks. Happy Dawning, Vanguard. [She takes it and stares it for a moment before pocketing it. A snack for later, perhaps.]
So...how long have you been here?
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Pre-Collapse culture is real weird sometimes, I tell ya.
[He shakes his head and adds:]
About a month? How long have I been gone? Did Ikora and Big Blue send you to find me?
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Uh... [Does he not know what happened to him? Or perhaps he just doesn't remember.]
Well, you uh... «It's been a little bit, but no.» [Stardust quickly chimes in as he hovering over Ludovica's right shoulder. She nods in agreement, thankful for the Ghost saving her from an awkward situation.]
They don't even know you're gone. [Stardust is quick to add.] «Which seems to be an effect of this place. It's as if it is in some sort of time bubble.»
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I knew it! It's gotta be the Vex. I mean, I'm right aren't I? I'm right. Time bullshit, some kinda Pre-Collapse sim ... I mean I'm no Osiris buuuut it all seems pretty Vexy to me.
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No, I'm fairly certain it's not Vex related or even time bullshit, as you put it. I think -- from what I've gathered off of the network -- were in another dimension entirely.
[She pauses, staring at him for a moment as she tries to decide if trying to explain multiverse theory is worth it or not.]
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That's ... probably bad?
[He's by no means an expert.]
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[She pauses before adding.] Though by probably bad I mean bad for us, it doesn't seem like it makes any difference back home if we're here or there.
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[And hey, he won't miss that thing Petra needed him for.]
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Aside from super heroing, what is there to do around here?
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[He thinks a moment before snapping his fingers]
Ice-skating. That's what it's called.
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Ah, city stuff.
I take it having more cities means people are more focused on stuff within them.
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[He wiggles his fingers.]
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Although, less so the library and more, you know, out there. [She points upward.]
There's so much to see and do -- so much lost information -- a lot of fights to pick.
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I feel you there, believe me. I guess it's like my buddy Shiro says, scholars and explorers have a lot in common.
There is a moon base, if you wanna see what Luna was like before the Hive got to it.
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We can't all sit in dusty libraries all day.
[The mention of a moon base clearly intrigues her.]
A moon base, huh? Sounds like its worth a trip. [Stardust bobs in the air as if nodding in agreement.]
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How right you are. We gotta get a feel for who we were, what we could do—what we can do again.
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I feel like I'm still figuring that out.
Anyway... [She looks around to see that the mall has returned to business as usual as if the attack had never happened.]
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