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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!
jeopardy
... Until it becomes clear that she's readying herself to attack the parade float. ]
Stop! [ He calls out, voice small but clear, with the authority of someone who's used to giving orders and having them followed. ] Look. It's just a display. It won't hurt you.
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She blinks, momentarily stymied. ]
Uhh... I knew that.
[ Quick, act nonchalant! ]
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You're not from here, are you? And I don't mean in the way that none of us are from here. You're really from someplace different.
Someplace dangerous.
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Speaking for yourself, kiddo?
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I know what war I've been fighting. It's a whole universe away.
[ And also over now, thanks to Ender. Bean had been preparing for the inevitable flashes of power upon returning to Earth, but he never anticipated that the Earth he would return to wouldn't be his own. ]
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[ As merciless as the Horde was for the most part, cadets didn't usually see active duty until they were in their late teens at the least ]
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[ He hesitates for a moment before deciding there can't be any harm in being more specific. ]
I commanded fleets of ships. Remotely.
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Hmmm. You must be very talented that they'd let you do that.
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It's what we were trained to do.
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[ It's feigned interest. Catra doesn't really care, but she figures a tiny supersoldier is someone she wants on her side. ]
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[ A simple answer for a simple question. ]
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[ Says she who hails from the Horde. ]
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The International Fleet isn't know for coming up with the best names.
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[ And then, he'll clarify, since she probably doesn't know that nickname. ]
An alien race called the Formics. They're like giant insects. They tried to invade Earth, generations ago.
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[ So maybe Catra is technically an alien too. ]
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[ It's obvious she's an alien, just look at her. ]
Technically, this planet is also Earth. Just... a different one. The history is different.
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[ Alas she's not really well-versed in science-y stuff. Or mystical stuff. ]
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Theoretically, every decision we make can go either way. [ He gestures with a hand. ] You can go left, or you can go right. In one universe, you go left, and time moves on from that point. You go home, you're safe, everything's fine.
[ He sweeps his hand across to the right. ]
In another universe, you chose right. You get in an accident on the way to the store. You're hurt, or killed. The universe moves on without you.
An infinity of tiny decisions, each leading to their own infinite timelines and dimensions.
Do you get it?
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She figures these things go vaguely in the same category.
What she's emphatically not going to do is brood over the wider implications of that. So she shrugs. ]
Yeah, sure, I think so.
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Does it matter?
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No. Probably not. Each universe is just as real to the people living in it.
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[ She pauses. ]
I'd say no need to worry about it, but then again, we're... here.
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Yeah. It's not like one universe's problems were enough. Now we have to solve another one's too.
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