etcelsior | walking in a winter wonderland

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test drive

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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Heropa
[Walter looks about as uninterested in the beach body contest as one can. He's even wearing a turtleneck and a jacket despite the heat wave. However, he's got the perfect sort of slightly-intimidating, slightly-paternal vibe to be picked out as a judge for the sand sculpting contest.

The official judging hasn't started yet, so he's just walking up and down the beach, casting each of the half-formed sculptures a critical eye. He pauses before one of the many castles, scrutinizing it more closely. It's not the best on the beach by any means. It's not as decorative, there's some leaning going on in some of the towers, but by god these kids are trying. It's one of the largest castles here, and it looks like there's more planned. But the team has stopped working since he arrived, looking up at him wide-eyed like they're about to be reprimanded. Perhaps a fear of teachers is universal.]

There's a distinct lack of moats on this beach, I've noticed. If you dig a canal from the ocean to here, it should fill up with water quite nicely. Though I suggest you strengthen your structures first. There's still time yet.

[The team start bustling to work, assigning different children to fix the castle and dig the moat. Satisfied, Walter walks back up the beach to where onlookers and encouraging parents are milling around.]

De Chima
[Unfortunately for Walter, the combination of the suggestive radio waves and his own desire to blend in mean that he's inclined to go for the kiss without thinking it through. Fortunately for the other person, he is an extremely polite man. Instead of kiss on the mouth, he takes the other person's hand and gives it a soft, chaste kiss on the knuckles.

But even this is enough to make him realize that something's wrong. His expressions quickly flit between shocked, embarrassed, confused, suspicious, and then... very angry. He drops the other person's hand and glares into the faces of the reality show crew. His voice is level but furious.]

That's highly inappropriate.

Jeopardy
[He hasn't been to a real Saturnalia celebration in quite some time. This one definitely has the spirit; but the infusion of modern traditions, and the Jeopardy flair to them, are a fair bit disturbing. He's almost impressed.

The Santa effigy is particularly eye-catching. He looks around and spots a fellow gawker nearby. He jokes:]

I'd hate to be here around Easter.

Wildcard
[Open to whatever! Walter is also a magical creature in disguise, so he might give off the vibe of something dark or unpleasant to any magically inclined people out there.]

[Sabriel's not entirely sure what Easter is, but she's mostly just relieved that the sacrifice doesn't involve anyone dying. 'Ritual Sacrifice' had brought up unpleasant mental images and even worse memories.]

I think it's in... questionable taste. But it's less unpleasant than killing something. [Or a person.]

It's a bit garish, yes. But ultimately I think it's harmless... People like to maintain their traditions, and turning it into fictional violence is a good compromise.

[He sets his hands in his pockets and gives the choco-Santa another appraising look. He's worked with a lot of man-eating monsters, so he's also grateful for the fakery of this.]

Holidays often tend to become friendlier as time passes.

Perhaps. It's still strange- this town celebrates holidays other cities don't. [And it's probably worth investigating, but she's just a guest now. Better to be polite and just observe the festivities.]

And I still don't understand why they're so fond of spiders- I mean, they're not bad animals, but it's strange.

It's a strange city in general. There are a few holidays that are celebrated around this same time, but Saturnalia is not one that most people remember.

[He chuckles.] The spiders are a mystery to me as well. But I don't plan on attending services to find out.

Nor I. Did you know, no imPort had any memory of this town existing until recently? But everyone else says it was always there.

... No, I was not aware of that.

[He thinks about this for a moment, glancing around at the town.]

I'd imagine it would have something to do with the Porter, don't you think? I think I've heard that it can affect memory among people that are brought here.

Possibly. I... apparently was here before, but I don't remember. But making everyone forget a town seems rather pointless.

Hm. Who knows... maybe this town is of note, but there's no one left that still remembers why.

[He gives the effigy Santa another nervous glance. He coughs and changes the subject...]

You've been here before?

In this world, yes. Several people say so, but I have no memory of it.

How strange. Was there anything interesting you've gleaned about that time? If you care to share it, of course. I just can't imagine what that's like.

I- knew people. I worked with a team, but honestly, I haven't probed too deeply into it.

I can't say I blame you. It's a tad unnerving. How would you describe your experiences in this world, besides?

Considerably less dangerous than what I was doing before I arrived. [It's said with a sigh of relief, and a little guilt.]

You sound glad to have some reprieve of it.

I am. But I also know I'll have to return to it eventually.

Yes, I suppose we all will. That just means that we have to make the best of the time we have.

Yeah, [he agrees, watching the weirdness with a sort of too-stunned-to-snark expression.] I mean, I guess it's not the most violent tradition out there, but I don't get the point? If they wanted an excuse to eat chocolate, they could've just called it Chocolate Day. I'd be down with that.

[Chocolate has always been a favorite food for him. It's the more childish part of him, maybe, or perhaps he's just got a sweet tooth. But despite his love of it, seeing people tear a Santa effigy apart puts him right off of it. What even the hell.] Is this weirder to you than the flying cars they have around here? It is to me.

[He smirks.] They're two very different sorts of weird. But I would agree, this is much worse.

At least with technological advancement, it feels as though we’re moving forward.

The flying cars are a weird that makes sense. You can see why somebody would sit down and make a flying car. I don't know what the reasoning behind the Santa thing is.

[He shrugs, helplessly, as the chocolate is handed out. Speaking of technology, now that he's got the communicator-smartphone thing (does it have a name? He should look that up) he does the only thing someone his age can do under the circumstances and snaps a picture of it. If nothing else, it'll be good to have visual aids when trying to explain this to people later.] Teleporters in exchange for 'ritual sacrifice'. I can live with that. Still weird, though.

Well, it’s likely based on real ritual sacrifices that may have happened in the past. In it's own way, this is progress too.

Just... messier. [He flinches as he watches a child bite into a piece of chocolate shaped like Santa's gloved mitt.]

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walking in a winter wonderland

Walter Strickler | Trollhunters

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