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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After losing Poe's jacket on the Supremacy and the officer's jacket in the mines of Crait, all he had was the borrowed long sleeve shirt to protect him from the cold. While Finn might have shivered, though, the temperature didn't register in the slightest. Earth was beautiful up here, and he was grateful for the rare occasion he could actually enjoy a flight.

And yes, he was very impressed with Poe's balance.

"I've got nothing to hide from you, Poe," he said easily, watching the trees and buildings zoom by. Though, he could see how a power like that could get annoying pretty fast and looked over to him. "But if it happens, I think punching you would just make it more awkward."

Finn suddenly realized how easily he just took that news. This place was doing weird things to him. It was a little disconcerting that they could be taken away and brought back with new powers, though.

Poe felt a very sudden flood of affection fill him, almost completely bitter-sweet. Bless Finn. Bless sweet, loyal Finn that wore his heart on his sleeve and wanted nothing else but to save his friends and keep them together. He had the sudden urge to reach out and touch his face, and it took all his will to hold back. There were so many little things - little motions, little touches - that were second nature to him. Eight months didn't dim them. It was like Finn had just been here yesterday--

Except he hadn't. And this Finn may as well never had.

You've got to move the hell on, Poe.

"Well, long as you're forewarned." He couldn't promise the same. There was a hell of a lot that he wanted to keep from Finn, at least for now. At least for a little while. He just hoped his power didn't ruin it, first.

"BB-8 here is a power, too. We don't talk about whether that means he is real or not because that conversation goes dark fast, doesn't it, buddy." BB-8 agreed in a mournful whistle. "It does mean that he deactivates if I get more than a kilometre away from him, though. So don't get worried if you're hanging out and he suddenly powers down."

How was a droid a power? Finn frowned down at BB-8, having not thought that hard about a droid's existence before. "You're real, Bee. I'm sorry you're tied down like that," he said, patting the dome a little gentler even if he was sure it made no difference to a droid.

Look at him, trying to comfort this little mischief maker. Though it made no sense why they had been tied together like that, why the droid wasn't here on his own merits. At least they were together, Finn supposed.

"I guess all this stuff about powers is real, though," he thought aloud to both of them. "I didn't really believe it when they handed over the folder." It was how the First Order operated to gain compliance, after all. A lot of truths (his name, his designation) and a couple of plausible lies. Then snowballing from there. That was half the reason he was glad these two were here. He could believe Poe and BB-8.

"Yeah, I didn't believe the folder when I got it, either. But they're real, alright."

The city was quickly vanishing behind them, swamps beneath them instead. It was the long way, to fly all the way back to base one, but Poe always liked being able to talk while up in the sky. Just made things easier, somehow. Private.

"Your last set was - uh - interesting." Like being able to duplicate himself into 10 Finns at once. "What'd you get saddled with this time?"

He wanted to ask what his last powers were and not know all at the same time. If this other Finn really was a different version, he didn't want to start off here trying to compare himself. That one can be saved for later.

"One is a weird sort of healing ability." The folder described it as an exchange of injuries and illnesses. The ally is healed while he gets hurt instead. But best not to go too deep into all of that, ~~especially since the mun was still thinking about it~~. "The other's teleporting. I haven't tried it out yet. Don't really know where to start anyway, but I probably shouldn't figure it out up here."

Edited (i can html) 2018-12-18 00:40 (UTC)

"Healing is definitely useful. And teleporting?" He shot an honestly surprised look back. "That's a new one. I mean, not totally new - that's basically what we do every time we use the porters to get between cities, but. Don't think I know anyone who can just do it."

He turned his head and flashed Finn a grin. "Well I mean, you could try it. I'd catch you."

No, Poe. That's a terrible idea, Poe.

He sputtered a laugh at the thought and... actually considered it a little bit. "It's not your abilities I doubt, Poe, but that's probably way too much faith in mine." Or was it? There aren't any obstacles for him to potentially get stuck in up here. And if he got the elevation wrong, Poe could catch him. Hopefully.

Nah, it's still not the greatest idea.

"I don't know if I can go as far as the Porters, but I can bring people along, I think. Once I figure it out. They probably gave it to me because I'm used to running away so much, they thought they'd just make it easier." Then he paused and blinked. And laughed again. "Okay, yeah, your power is a little weird, man."

He hadn't really meant to say that but at least it was funny. He was over and done with running now. Just hadn't meant to put himself down like that in front of Poe.

Poe arched an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, running away and straight into Star Killer, huh," He said, vaguely amused. Sure, he'd met Finn running away from the First Order, but that was kind of totally reasonable. But as soon as they'd met back up, he'd wanted to run straight head first into danger.

He gave a sympathetic look, though. "Yeah. My power sucks, trust me. It's worse on the natives, though. I know way, way too much about the guys in my squadron, now. Velcro gave me a ten minute long lecture about the kind of BDSM she's into. Which, while enlightening, was approximately two hundred times too much information."

He just gave a small smile and said nothing to the first thing because that's not exactly what it felt like. He ran to Starkiller for Rey, that's all. He almost ditched the Resistance, too. Twice. But Poe did have a point. Actions spoke louder, surely.

But then there were all the times he failed and- Later. This planet was potentially the first ever downtime he really had, so he promised himself to digest it all later.

Poe might as well have blasted through his sudden depression, though. Finn barked a loud laugh. "Okay, but- But you were the guy who stuck around and listened for ten minutes." Must have been really enlightening.

"Look, you don't ignore a woman who's carefully deconstructing a machine gun, that's just impolite." But he was grinning again, Finn's laugh utterly infectious.

"Besides, how else am I suppose to rib her about it, later?"

"At least there are upsides," he teased, shaking his head with a laugh.

Then caught something out of all that. "Wait, she's in your squadron? What squadron?"

Edited 2018-12-18 02:43 (UTC)

"You know, the one I got assigned to after boot ca--" He stopped dead in the middle of his sentence. No, Poe, he didn't know. He wasn't there. You didn't have to run off to boot camp right after finally getting somewhere, after confessing, after agreeing to be something. You didn't then have a dumb, stupid fight over text that meant you didn't talk for a week while you dragged yourself through mud and dirt and pretended like you didn't care.

Or you did.

But not with him.

He turned a slight shade of green, swallowing.

"Sorry. I uh - I joined the Air Force, here. It's not the same as home, obviously - they barely have anything that can break orbit. And I don't fly combat. I'm a test pilot. But uh - but it's a decent job, all things considered."

Oh- He- Finn opened his mouth to apologize but wasn't sure if that was appropriate. Or, really, he didn't want to make a habit out of this, forcing himself to feel bad over something out of his control that would crop up over and over.

But he didn't know why Poe had that sick look just from the slip up on both of their parts.

"... Sounds like something you'd enjoy," he eventually said, torn between wanting to bring the mood back or talking this out. After an awkward glance to BB-8, Finn quickly realized he couldn't really stay quiet about it. "You know, maybe I am a different version or something, but I'm still me, right? What if- How about you just fill me in. That way, I'll just... know. And we won't have-" What? Walk on eggshells for reasons he didn't totally get? So Poe didn't have to pretend he was different anymore? "It won't have to be like that."

Poe's eyes were locked on the horizon, seemingly concentrating on where he was going rather than Finn. But he took just a little too long to answer to seem natural.

"... I don't know if that's going to make anything easier," He admitted lowly, his brows furrowed. "I don't think I could catch you up, and it wouldn't be - it's not going to be the same, anyway. You were here for months. We got maybe - what? Three days, back home? And you spent two days of those thinking I was dead."

That didn't mean Finn didn't want those memories. But, again, it would just lead him to compare himself, wouldn't it? That would be one hell of a spiral. The rejection to his idea still kind of hurt, though. It was probably a bad suggestion but he wanted those months.

"Maybe you're right. Obviously, I want my own experiences... but at the same time, I kinda feel blind." It wasn't Poe's power that made him say that. Just his own stupid mouth. He still wanted to argue the point a little bit, though. Maybe he wasn't comparing his different selves right now, but others might. Poe might. He gave a heavy sigh. "I just-... I don't want you to-... I know it's different here and hearing things second hand isn't even close to the same, but you and presumably everyone else already-

"Wait." He shifted away, looking at Poe with wide eyes. "Wait, what? How do you figure three days?"

He was all to happy to grab onto that subject change and cling to it like he was drowning.

"Well I mean - I might have lost some time wandering in the desert, but - everything happened pretty damned fast. So I think that's about right?"

Though something occurred to him suddenly. Finn had come in from very close to his timeline before, but that didn't mean he did this time. So he shot him a look. "What - what's the last thing you remember?"

They hadn't known each other for just three days. Jakku, while still incredibly fresh in his memory to the point that he could practically taste the sand, wasn't three days ago.

But Poe mentioned the General and Skywalker, that they were here from the past somehow. The Porter didn't seem to obey any laws of time, so maybe even they were- "What's the last thing you remember?" Maybe he should answer and not throw the question back, but he also had no idea where to begin. "I think I-... I might be from your future."

Poe blinked at him, and then suddenly was struck by incredible feeling of relief.

"Wait - you are? Finn - you were in a coma when I got pulled here. Does that mean you're okay? You came out of it? Is everyone else okay? Did the evacuation get away before the First Order showed up? Did Rey find Luke? Did she come back?" The questions come way too fast, that brief flash of hope completely setting aside everything else.

Suddenly, Finn was struck with a taste of the pressure Poe was under about knowing things the other didn't. Things that were too hard to just say. He couldn't keep this to himself, though. After all, he was on the other side of the argument just a few seconds ago.

But how could he tell Poe about their messed up plan, the failure with DJ, all of the people they lost, Skywalker-? How could he just sit there and tell him all of it like it wasn't a massive deal?

The entire time he thought it through, Finn just sort of gaped at him and moved his mouth like a fish, trying and failing to find the words for it. He had taken too long and couldn't just leave Poe hanging in suspense.

"We-... Um..." Right, okay. He spoke slowly, deliberately, trying to think it all through. "I woke up. I'm okay. They fixed my back, but I never got to-" All of the medical personnel had been a little too busy to tell him how he got back together. What were the other questions? "Rey found Luke... But he, um-"

He licked his lips, really wishing Poe hadn't seemed so damn hopeful for a minute there.

Right. Fuck it. He looked away and spoke calmly, almost like to an officer because it was just easier. "We didn't get away in time. A lot of people died. A lot of it was my fault." Because it had been his plan, right? Rose's, too, but she didn't know the schematics and details like he had. And Poe was wrangled in, just believing him blindly. "Skywalker's dead, too."

He somehow felt better back on the Falcon surrounded by the last twenty or so people left of the Resistance.

Poe's face fell, before his expression hardened and he let out a breath. Then he shook his head and turned his attention back to the horizon.

"Finn, you were in a coma. I really doubt you can take responsibility. We knew it was going to be damn close. We were already scrambling the fighters when I got brought here."

There was a long pause. Skywalker was dead. Everything he'd been trying so hard to achieve - what he'd been caught and tortured for--

He pushed it all down.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have asked. No one every feels good learning about the future. You survived. I'll take that. That's enough."

"I- I came up with a plan. It was stupid. We all knew it was stupid. I managed to mess it up even worse. Skywalker wouldn't have even-"

He didn't know why he was trying to put all the blame on his shoulders for this. Well, it was the first chance he had to think about it, for one. For another, he didn't want Poe to hurt more, for himself to be the bearer of his pain. It was better for Poe to be angry and place blame than try to reconcile something he hadn't even seen yet. Right?

Shouldn't have said anything.

He let out a breath through his nose, bowed his head against his propped arm, and just stayed quiet for once.

"Finn, your plan destroyed the Starkiller," he reminded him, voice a little hard. "And look - I love you - but I know the General. She would not have signed off on anything that she didn't think had a good chance of working. So stop trying to blame yourself."

The ground below them was changing over from swamps to forests, though Poe barely noticed.

"Just - don't worry about it. Put that on the list of shit we just shouldn't talk about. Neither of us can do anything about it while we're here, and trust me, you'll just drive yourself crazy if you obsess over what is happening back home." The pot said to the kettle. "... I'll get there eventually."

"But she-" No one signed off on it except Poe. But Finn was torn. Between the easily admitted affection and the order to put it away, he was inclined to do just that. How could he ignore it, though? How could he pretend he hadnt just told him that?

There were more selfish reasons he didn't want to press, though. He couldn't lose Poe immediatetly after coming here. He didn't want to. He also felt it too hard to give that affection back, like maybe Finn didn't really deserve it. From what he learned so far and all of the unknown still left lingering and everything back home, that was probably true.

He couldn't tell him to forget it. He couldn't apologize. Finn just reached out to hold on to Poe's arm, still afraid of losing him and worried that maybe it was for the best but not enough to just let it happen. Physically holding on made him feel a little better.

Poe kept his eyes trained on the horizon, but when Finn touched his arm he raised a hand and placed it over Finn's with an encouraging, reassuring squeeze. He didn't believe for one second that any of it was Finn's fault. Was he bothered by it? Of course. Would half formed visions of his future full of dead friends keep him up at night over the next few weeks? Damn straight it would. But the last thing he wanted was for Finn to feel burdened by that.

A selfish part of him was just so incredibly relieved that Finn woke up back home at all.

He gave Finn's hand another squeeze, his own far too warm for the chill of the air around them. (His blood always ran just a little too hot. ) But then he forced himself to let go and grip the carpet instead.

If he was going to get through this without breaking, he needed to keep more distance than instinct would allow him.

"I think you'll like the base," he murmured, trying to force the conversation. "I built it, but - you never actually got to see it."

Without Poe's hand, Finn somehow felt even colder than before. He took his own away, and held BB-8 a little closer, not even trying to make it not look like a hug. His eyes trailed away to watch the horizon again, the trees passing by beneath them.

He didn't want to give up on trying to talk, though. "You built your own place." Poe had roots here, settled. Finn felt like an intruder. "That's pretty cool. What makes it a base?"

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why did i make starkiller two words? i'm the worst star wars rper

no YOU'RE perfect lol look at this now we've both been dragged

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