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etcelsior2019-01-25 09:32 pm
maskormods) wrote in etcelsior2019-01-25 09:32 pm
Entry tags:
time to put your face on
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.
no subject
What's a Star Wars?
[He couldn't tell if it was her colloquial way of terming his upcoming GOD WAR, which surely had a parallel of some kind, but if it was then Ishaq liked it quite a lot.]
What's a mummies? What's a jazz, and why is there all of it? I'm understanding about three out of four words you're saying, I thought we were speaking the same Common.
[He snapped his fingers, his dark eyes widening with renewed enthusiasm. The clouding torment writ across his face faded before the usual sunshine he typically embodied.
Ishaq cast Comprehend Languages.]
Okay, okay. Continue.
[He said but with like, a Jersey accent now.]
no subject
English. I'm speaking English.
Okay, buddy, what Pantheon are you from? You don't look Norse but I don't know who else of the old world Pantheons wouldn't fucking know what Egypt is.
[ Gently ignoring the questions about Star Wars, Mummies and Jazz, because not important!!! ]
no subject
Don't suppose you're familiar with the Raithir pantheon? I'm assuming mine's on another plane of existence than the ones you're used to dealing with. I thought maybe there was only one material plane, but I'm not all that familiar with the fey lands, so maybe... Maybe not. Maybe a divergence of my known world. A divergence of a divergence, but not one too alien. You still have humans in your world, obviously.
[He pointed at her ear.]
no subject
[ She sounded calmer, at least, now that she was starting to realise that they had just been talking at crossed wires for the last ten minutes. ]
Uh - yeah. We have humans. I thought that was all we had, but then I met a fucking medusa and a minotaur and some faeries, so, you know. Live and learn.
What are you supposed to be? An Elf? Is the Raithir Empire a Lord of the Rings thing?
But this- I mean, we're on my world. Earth. Or, well, some fucked up timeline version of it, anyway.
no subject
[He could see more the more her watched her, in the curve of her face. The way her eyes flashed. When Takara had still been on speaking terms, on dreaming terms with a younger Ishaq. She had always been so beautiful to him, even when she was incomprehensible and beyond human form. Even when she was further away from him.]
I see it more like a mirror placed in front of another mirror. Maybe every reflection is just a step further away from its sourced world. Maybe yours is ten, twelve, fifteen reflections away from mine. Maybe that is why I have known your name, and you are still halfway steeped in death. Even that is... Familiar.
no subject
This world is pretty close to mine. All the country names match up, anyway - except, you know, the fucking USSR, because that's a thing literally anyone needed. But that's...
[ A version of herself? A god?
A death god?
It wasn't an inaccurate concept - "halfway steeped in death". She just didn't like it.
She sighed. ]
Okay, so. Half elf god from another world with another Pantheon that isn't one of ours.
With a complicated history with a person who isn't precisely me.
I'm gonna say right now that if you start treating me like an ex you've never had, I'm not going to be afraid to deck you. Can we just - I'm not her. Okay? Whatever she did to you, that wasn't me, I don't know you from Adam.
Unless you're going to finally give me your name and it turns out to belong to some asshole I know, in which case maybe we should just fucking mud wrestle or something to get it out of our systems.
no subject
[WHAT WHAT +8 DECEPTION MODIFIER!!]
You catch on quickly, and that is reassuring, because as it stands you're the only reflecting thread of a connection I've really got here, and while I've always had a knack for making friends, well. Like you've said, this world is closer to your own than mine. I'll need a little guidance. If you're willing to help me out I mean. [His soft smile sharpened, his chin jutted out. Ishaq took a step closer to her, his hands at his side.
His tattooed hands. Sun inked on his right, moon on his left. A devastating eclipse of a man.]
Oh no, no. I know. You're better than her. You're more mortal. That is everything, Takara, you have every saving grace she couldn't possibly possess.
[He offered his right hand, for a second coming of introduction.]
And it's my pleasure to meet you. I'm Ishaq Duvainor... of the Host Radiant.
no subject
[ She glanced down at his hand a little dubiously, but eventually took it, giving it a shake. ]
I am mortal. I think. Pretty fucking mortal, anyway. doesn't mean much when your friends can bring you back from the dead, though.
It's -- [ She paused. "Good" wasn't exactly true. ] -- interesting to meet you, Ishaq.
So uh. Is Host Radiant your pantheon, then? Because that's a weird name I've never heard for one before.
no subject
[He wondered if she came back in the same way. He had no pre-death Takara to compare, after all.]
The Host Radiant is my following. My community is somewhat persecuted, they try to keep as confounding as possible. Weird names are simply the currency in such circumstance, are they not?
[Yeah for CULTS.]
no subject
Anyway, yeah. Don't try it, I don't fucking recommend it.
[ There's a large part of her that wishes her friends had just left her there. ]
Persecuted following, huh. So, a cult. [ Despife her lack of knowledge on a lot of godly subjects, she had been trying to research the Egyptian pantheon. Isis had a major cult in the Roman Empire.
So had Jesus Christ. ]
Well, I'm sure you'll scrounge up more worshipers. These things tend to escalate.
You know what's fucked up, though? I didn't even believe in God, let alone Gods, before this. Well, before the whole demigod thing I mean. Now I've met more of them than I could shove into a clown car. [ And then preferably off a cliff. ]
no subject
[She seemed caught on another parallel, with the river. He wouldn't push, but he noted it.]
Ah -- well. I suppose I came from the opposite perspective. Believing that the gods of my world would be invested in mortal affairs for the better. Instead I alone lead my followers to their own self-empowerment. Or perhaps the knowledge of belief remains, but the faith has withered.
Does that make sense?
no subject
Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. But also probably left you pretty fucking disappointed. You're the first God I've ever met that's ever actually given a shit about mortals.
[ And honestly? She wasn't totally sure she believed that he did, either. Not that she felt like he was lying - he actually seemed pretty honest, especially when talking about his beliefs in mortals - but because it just seemed very implausible, to her. If he was a God, he had some kind of ulterior motive.
That was just how Gods worked. ]
no subject
All of him became magnetized.]
I did suffer a great disappointment, yes. [He said, his chin tilting down, his smile soft. Reminiscent.] But shortly after that, a great awakening.
Tragedy and renewal so easily go hand in hand. One might think of them as easy companions.
no subject
Yeah, trust me, I know all about the phoenix rising concepts. [ Very wryly. ] Not so sure I like the renewed version of me, if I'm totally honest, but.
[ She paused, shoulders falling as she glanced around. ]
At least it seems relatively peaceful here. Are you the only god here?
no subject
So her worry, if it were anxiety, would seem misplaced to him.]
You needn't be, I think. You've got a certain... fire inherent to you, I can tell. A fire easily turned inferno. [He leaned in a little closer, his voice soft.] I've always been good at seeing potential.