etcelsior | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Honestly, it depends on the spell. Weather magic generally needs to be whistled though.

What about magic where you're from?

Fair is fair.

Magic differs from planet to planet like I said. Earth magic cannot be performed without a Magi Circle as far as I am aware. It is binding of your own energy to focus the spell through. Like opening a window. Once you awaken your Circle it never fades. It will remain on your skin for the rest of your life until you die or you lose the ability to focus magic.

I see. Not unlike a baptismal Charter Mark then.

Do mages cast spells through words or gestures in your world?

Speaking a spell is how one directs the magic with their Circle, but I have met one Earthling who no longer needs words, only thoughts. She's a lot more powerful than I am.

I've noticed that gestures tend to go along with speaking of the spells, but I've never heard it's required. It's just speaking with your body at the same time, I guess.

I see. Well, spells do need to be aimed most of the time.

How is magic from other planets different, though?

I have been to planets of sentient plants that thrive on the magic specific to their worlds but Earthling like myself cannot process the magic. I had to wear a protective charm the entire stay, or else I would begin to transform into the plant-life there. The planet's magic was very specific to the planet itself. The effect of other magic was weak and only in short distances.

Then there is Seela, a planet made entirely of gaseous people who can transform themselves into whatever shape and density they wished through the magic of their world. They didn't need to speak their magic or their thoughts. It all traveled through the collective thoughts of the people.

The planet Jiordi was more similar to Earth's magic, but the types of magic were divided by patron animal spirits that the people communicate with. They can use the magic associated with their patron animal, but nothing more.

That's amazing. Did you go to all those worlds on a spaceship?

Of a sort. If you are familiar with the type of spaceships that Earthlings use, they aren't the same. Vavallani ships are run by magic and Turisian space stations are more teleportation hubs than ships although they do look like them. But you can't get everywhere by teleporting so the ships go where the stations can't.

Well, if they work by magic, that explains why you don't need to worry about them breaking the way technology does if you cast a spell near it.

The annoying part is dealing with ship maintenance as you have to study all the spells necessary for upkeep and recharging the magical core of the ship's engine to ensure that it doesn't lose power in the middle of space with no stations nearby.Active magic like that is finite just like anything else. Once all the energy is gone, you have to refill it somehow.

I prefer teleporting.

I assume it's faster too. So there's no magic in between worlds, just what you bring with you? [This is magic. It's always been easier for her to understand than technology.]

That's what the Turisian stations are for. They key into the magic in the surrounding area and use it to help fuel the teleporters without damaging the fabric of the reality and upsetting the balance in that region.

But it can take decades or centuries to find the right frequency or form of magic that complements the region enough for that. Some regions aren't compatible with teleportation magic, either. No matter how more efficient they are, the stations aren't always the most practical transportation in the area. I still hate them.

Really? Why?

The ships I mean. I am still learning with this typing based communication.

And I find traveling in them tedious and time-consuming. I hate having to wait.

I see. You'll like the city Porters then. You can go from any of the Porter cities to any other, right away.

They do make being confined to this version of Earth more convenient. Airplanes are fascinating to see in action, but I doubt I would want to ride in one. I heard they can take hours to get anywhere.

I've never ridden in one either. But a short flight might be interesting, I think.

Maybe. The only planes I saw before coming here were relics and debris, scattered around outside the settlements. They look so fragile and poorly protected.

Really? Ancelstierrian planes are made of metal. We have paperwings in the Old Kingdom, but those are made of paper- and they're made to ride the winds, so they need to be light.

The planes are made of metal, but if feels like it's not enough protection if you are flying through the sky. At least the ships have magical protections on them. I'll never understand how humans managed to fly in planes.

Because they didn't have magic, I think.

Human Magi are fairly uncommon. I don't know if anyone was trained in using magic in the time Before.

Do you use magic to protect the paper wings from being damaged by the winds?

Before what?

They can withstand the wings fine- they're heavily enchanted. But they don't do too well in a crash.

Before the Invasion. Technology was different before then, from what my Pops says. Bigger and smaller.

Invasion of what?

(no subject)

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