time to put your face on

[maskormods]

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.

The current craze sweeping the city and social media is getting people on their feet: the Camp Midnight Challenge! Based on a popular video game, the goal is to get the funkiest, silliest, most eye-catching dance sequence on video—with a twist! Successful completion of this challenge requires getting an imPort to join in a duo dance that incorporates their powers! Swarms of eager teens, tweens and would-be BlueTube stars are out and about on the sidewalk looking for newcomers to join in. If they spot you, you better come up with a good excuse or put your dancing shoes on!

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.

Today in De Chima, there's the unveiling of a brand new invention in the convention centre park! With a simple scan, it will print out your Closest Love Match of the other individuals present, along with your percentage of compatibility and a free coupon to get lunch with your new date if you match 90% or higher!

A little odd that it seems that nearly every couple has 90% or higher, isn't it? What's the probability that the scanner is broken?

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...

Local resistance to superheroes has made the city a popular gathering place for experimental engineers and scientists whose methods are misunderstood by the establishment, aka 'mad scientists.' Today, the latest creation of a former food scientist who used to work for Yell-O Desserts, is rising up in gooshy style!

From the canal that bisects the city rises a giant, gooshy, uh....thing. The blob slowly begins to ooze through town, growing larger as it consumes anything it comes across, absorbing it into its gooey depths. It's slow, but relentless, and doesn't have any obvious weak spots. Will you attempt to fight back and arrest its gelatinous progress, help the slow runners get away or make a break for it yourself? Or maybe see how good a dessert it makes?

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.

This month there's the release of a hot new movie about imPorts themselves, though in order to evade copyright, it seems that the imPorts on screen are simply amalgamations of several different imPorts through the years instead of staying faithful to one true story. They've got everything! Action! Romance! Death! Desire. It's a whole load of hooey, in other words, but it's hooey with a big budget. What this means, however, is that even the newest imPorts are being roped into this red carpet affair. Even if they're simply passing by on the street, an eager reporter may well step up to you, saying, "Oh, are you an imPort? Please, you must come in! No, I insist!"

If you succumb to their pushy ways, you'll find yourself in a gala, likely unprepared and underdressed for the flash of the cameras and an endless torrent of questions about what you want to do here as an imPort, whether or not you feel you'll find love in this place, whether or not you fear an inevitable port-out (despite the fact that you may have just gotten here!) and will be plied with food and, if you're of age, with plenty of booze.

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.

You're in luck! You're just in time for Jeopardy's traditional Valentine's Race!

The premise of the race is simple: hogtie your lover, throw them over your shoulder (or back, if needed), and carry them from the bank of the train station (it's actually not a train station, it's a non-functioning movie set that's been turned into a museum, but it's still called "the train station.") While the tradition says "lover," as long as the person you tie up has consented to it, it's allowed!

At the end of the race, the Mayor gives a short speech about love, and movies, and tradition. She's also baked thousands of Valentine's and heart-themed desserts for all participants and audience members! They just happen to all be... shaped like the actual heart organ, rather than the symbol.

Comments

mf!

[pullsheavendown]

[It's a familiar figure that Vanitas might spot making his way down the street—not toward the commotion, at least not at first. Roxas is just on the way to the grocery store, because he wants to buy some frozen pot pies, not because he wants to fight a monster. But life has a way of getting in the way.]

Whoa!

[Turn a corner, nearly get run over by the feeling crowd, spot the blob monster—just another day in the life. When he recovers himself, he summons Oathkeeper in a flash, because that looks like something he'll have to deal with. Blizzard magic may do the trick and freeze that thing...if he's lucky.]

[darkcharge]

[ Oh it's a figure that Vanitas is rather intimately familiar with. The problem is that Vanitas doesn't particularly feel anything. Not in his heart. Or is it their heart? Even the keyblade and the way the other holds it is wrong. All wrong.

But that doesn't really matter in the end. It's enough for Vanitas to stop what he's doing ( or lack there of ) and go after the blonde. Or at least cut off the exist so Roxas is trapped between Vanitas and that devouring blob thing. Maybe even give him a slow clap for actually using his head by utilizing blizzard magic. ]

[pullsheavendown]

[Magic isn't exactly his forte—not this magic, anyway—but it seems to work well enough, freezing a large swath of blob and giving anyone who's still around more room to flee. So...what does he do now? Probably Sora would know, but Roxas isn't Sora. He doesn't have the hero's instincts.

Luckily, the sudden clapping is enough of a distraction from this minor dilemma. Roxas spins around, frowning; he doesn't recognize the figure in the helmet, but there's something about his overall look that doesn't say friendly

Uh, thanks?

[darkcharge]

[ No recognition. Not Ventus. So who is this brat, exactly? Clearly connected to Ventus. Maybe in the same way that Vanitas is connected to Sora. Affected by each other. ]

Now I'm just waiting to see what you do next.

[pullsheavendown]

What do you care?

[He lowers his Keyblade but doesn't dismiss it. The blob could come back to life in a second and he might need it, for all he knows. Or maybe it's something about this guy—whatever the reason, he's on edge.]

Anyway, I was just going somewhere. Let one of the heroes take care of this; there are plenty of them around.

[darkcharge]

And you're not one of them? One of those heroes?

[ Call him semi-impressed. Someone just walking away from it to let someone else handle it? Cold, man. ]

[pullsheavendown]

Nope.

[He feels a pang as he says it, even though it's true. Everyone wanted Sora to be the hero, not him, right? And there are other people like him here. He shouldn't feel bad about wanting to just go on his way.]

Why, what are you? The hero police?

[darkcharge]

Who? Me? Not even close.

[ Vanitas just gives a shrug. But ah is that guilt? Now what is there to feel guilty about? ]

Just call me curious.

[pullsheavendown]

Okay, curious.

[He glances down at the frozen blub chunk. It's not moving, so it's probably safe for now, and there's no other reason to fight...he lets his Keyblade shimmer away. Time to go, then.]

Bye.

[darkcharge]

Not so fast.

[ Because in the end, Vanitas doesn't have his answers. So he makes an attempt to cut off the blonde kid. He needs to know. ]

You have his face. But you're not him. Not even close.

[pullsheavendown]

[Roxas is plenty fast, but that's in combat, when he wants to be. When he's just standing around near an edgy guy with poor social skills? He's not so hard to catch off-guard.]

What? [...] You know Sora? I know I'm not him.

[darkcharge]

[ Sora... So the kid does know Sora. Well that is pretty much a given huh? ]

I know him. [ But why, exactly, would this kid think that he was referring to Sora as a look alike? ] But it's not him I'm talking about.

[pullsheavendown]

What? That doesn't make any sense.

[How could this guy know Sora but not be talking about him? Roxas knows that if they shaved their heads and Sora stopped smiling for ten seconds, they'd be identical.]

[darkcharge]

What? Do you think Sora's really been alone all these years?

[ Vanitas throws his hands out. ]

There's always been another.

[pullsheavendown]

[Yeah, all right, that...that makes even less sense. Which means this guy is probably messing with him? Judging by his expression, it should be obvious that Roxas doesn't believe him at all.]

Yeah, right. Who are you, anyway?

[darkcharge]

[ Oh Vanitas doesn't answer. But he does start walking around Mr. Frowny. ]

How about I tell you a little story instead? It involves Sora, myself, and my brother.

[pullsheavendown]

[Slowly, carefully Roxas moves with him, never turning his back. He won't be surprised again.]

Sure. I like stories.

[darkcharge]

[ Yeah, being cautious is probably a good thing. ]

You see, a long time ago there was just my brother. And he wasn't very strong. Couldn't take his master's special type of training.

[ Their master, really. Xehanort is a brutal teacher. Vanitas won't deny that. It's no surprise that my brother fell. ]

Instead of letting things be and abandoning him, the master took his keyblade to my brother's heart. His heart fractured and I was born. That's not the end, really. You see my brother's broken heart came into contact with another.

[pullsheavendown]

[A brother, he says. Roxas is listening carefully, but he has a hard time connecting it to any of his experiences; it's only when whoever-this-is talks about a Keyblade being taken to someone's heart that his eyes go a little wider.]

Oh yeah? How come it wasn't just gone?

[darkcharge]

A heart can survive a lot, don't you know? The master thought he could collect something from my brother's heart. It doesn't really matter.

[ Sort of. Drawing out the darkness to enable Ventus to actually be able to use that power. ]

What matters is that another, young heart touched my brother's and filled in all those cracks. The kid's heart responded to my brother's own and made him whole again.

[pullsheavendown]

[Like he should know anything about a heart.]

Lucky him.

[darkcharge]

[ Lucky him indeed. ]

But here's the problem. After my last parting with my brother, his heart never returned back to his body. Apparently the little heart that repaired his was far too good of a place to stay.

[ Vanitas stops pacing. ]

So let me ask this again. Why do you have my brother's face.

[pullsheavendown]

[Uh. Okay.]

That kid—you mean Sora?

[He frowns, genuinely perplexed now.]

I don't. I have no idea what you're talking about.

[darkcharge]

Bingo. The little heart that my brother took so much comfort in was none other than Sora's.

[ There it goes, though. The glass that covers his face. He looks irritated all the same as he approaches. Closer. And closer. ]

I know why I look the way I do. So who. Are. You.

[pullsheavendown]

[Roxas stiffens, a small noise of distress and surprise escaping his lips. It's a small sample of what he really feels, so much that he can't express because what is this and how is it possibly?.

He shakes his head, ignores the question. And then both Oathkeeper and Oblivion are in his hands, two flashes in quick succession, and he charges forward, ready to strike. There's no hesitation, because he knows it isn't Sora. Can't be.]

Who are you?!