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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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Sabriel turns, looking fearful for a moment- then relaxes as she reaches out with her Death sense and felt nothing. Still alive. Sabriel looks back at Connor, mostly to make sure the child is all right. Not being dead or dying didn't preclude needing medical attention. Or a healing spell.
Then she turns her attention to the red clad men- and the nearest one shouts as she tackles him into a snowdrift, placing a single mark for immobility on the back of his neck before moving on to the next one, looking back at the- android, to see what he was doing.
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Gone.
He doesn't come back. Except... he doesn't leave, either. If Sabriel leads anyone else out of the fray, Connor will be there, unobtrusively helping lead people away.
It's towards the end of the conflict that he reappears. He's nowhere close to the center of the conflict, and he goes directly to a hidden nook between a storefront and where it joined the wall--and he coaxed a little girl out of it, pointing back the way he'd come. She doesn't take more than a step or so, for reasons that are immediately obvious: her bare knees are bleeding from cuts, as though she'd fallen down on some of the glass littering the area. Connor stops, then scoops her up in a bridal carry, clearly prepared to whisk her away. A healer's services might be useful here, but Connor's new. He hasn't really gotten to a point of realizing 'healers' exist.
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She points out the exit to the teenagers, then turns to Connor, giving the girl a reassuring smile and an assurance that they'd find her parents.
"Once we get somewhere safe, put her down- and then back away," she adds hastily, remembering what happened the last time she cast a spell near him.
"I can heal her knees."
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The place they are now is still part of the active conflict zone. They're going to have to go nearly all the way back to the police line before they reach anywhere that counts as 'safe', and Connor immediately starts walking, keeping an eye out for Kringles.
He stops when they reach a quieter area, starting to lower the girl onto a bench. To his surprise, she clings to his neck, refusing to let go.
"No!" she cries.
"Excuse me. If I put you down, then my friend here can--"
"No!" she insists, burying her face against the front of Connor's jacket.
She is very small. More than small enough that he could pry her off if he tried, but... he's pretty sure he shouldn't. Eyes a little wide, Connor sends Sabriel a glance. Help, he definitely doesn't say.
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Sabriel rests her hand on the girl's head. Her voice is gentle and reassuring, the same tone she used as a prefect to comfort frightened new students at school.
"It's going to be all right. You're safe now. My friend needs to sit you down so I can patch up your knees, and make them stop hurting. Then we're going to find your parents."
As she speaks, she keeps here eyes on the girl, casting an occasional glance at Connor.
"My friend and I need you to be brave. Can you do that? Just sit down for a little while and I promise, you'll see magic."
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Connor tilts his head, offering her an encouraging smile. "She will heal you with magic," he confirms. At least--this is what he's been led to understand. If it turns out this world's twisted logic will choose now to correct itself, of all times, then he'll probably have more than one issue on his hands.
The little girl thinks it over, before reluctantly nodding. Connor steals a glance at Sabriel, and when he eases the little girl onto the bench, she doesn't resist.
As soon as this is done, Connor takes three large steps back, moving behind Sabriel. He's trying to be unobtrusive, but the little girl's eyes widen, and she looks afraid, turning huge eyes on to Sabriel.
"... What're you gonna do?" she mumbles fearfully.
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It's a fast spell, and as soon as the light fades, the bleeding has stopped, with unbroken skin beneath the blood that had already escaped, and she gestures to Connor, trying to show that it's safe to approach.
"There- that wasn't scary, now was it? Now lets find your parents."
Once Connor gets close enough, she turns to face him. "I'm sorry, I don't think you told me your name?" It seems rude not to ask, at this point.