etcelsior | ONE TWO CHA CHA CHA

Entry tags:

test drive

ONE TWO CHA CHA CHA

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, Florida 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.

Unfortunately, tragedy has struck today. It seems like the entire Heropa PD is parked out of a local, popular grocery chain. A huge crowd is amassed in the parking lot despite the best efforts of officers to get them to leave. They whisper about excitement and shame, and you don't have to ask if you just listen in a bit...

"What do you think he'll do to the employees? He sounded so serious..." "He really wants that pussy, huh?" "If I left my man for cheating on me, I'd take the damn cat, too!" "How does he think taking her and her coworkers hostage is gonna make her change her mind about him being a bad boyfriend?" "My wife is pregnant, please - if I don't get her favorite deli sub I might as well not go home!"

Domestic disputes! Tragic. The police aren't too sure how to handle this hostage situation, claiming the man only has a box cutter and isn't actually waving it around at the moment, but...are you an imPort? They'd really appreciate the help, okay. Get in there and counsel the unhappy couple. Or not!

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! 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.

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. If you let yourself get cornered, beware! Anything from personal questions about romantic chances to bedroom habits to dietary queries might be come up!

03. Maurtia Falls, Pennsylvania has had its ups and downs since imPorts started reappearing. Several imPort heroes have put focused efforts into cleaning up the streets of this somewhat infamous city, while others have 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.

As your character walks down the street, they may find themselves accosted by a large man in his mid-20s, dressed in an ill-fitting spandex suit of orange and yellow. As he thrusts his finger into an imPort's face, the spandex rides up, turning into more of a crop-top, which he duly tugs back down before shouting, "You're not the special ones anymore, imPorts! Feel the wrath of Heartburn!"

Stupid name aside, he does seem to have superpowers as he breathes a large plume of fire. His aim still isn't great, though; it could hit the imPort in question, or be sent in the direction of a nearby local, or even a particularly flammable building. What will you do, Hero?

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. You may find yourself in the midst of a few closed-off streets for some occasion or another - whether it be a food cart festival, no-car day, or something else! - and surrounded by the hum of people, the waft of food being served on the street, and plenty of attention

Look there -- someone's demoing a VR roller coaster! Won't you give it a shot?

Outside the barricades closing off those streets, you're still likely to attract attention. Natives may gather around new arrivals and ask both personal and broad questions about life as an imPort, what they are looking forward to, if they're looking for a sidekick. A few restaurants will offer a free appetizer (with the purchase of an entree), and you may be offered product samples from local businesses! Just be sure to speak to an agent before signing any endorsement deals.

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.

Despite the weird constant hum and the creepy cultish bingo, Jeopardy is usually a pretty calm place. A safe place. But not today. Today, someone has released a couple hundred tiny praying-mantis-like robots into the city, and the place is in chaos. Shops are closed up early because though these little destructive creatures don't have bullets, they do have some weird arm appendages that like to just crunch everything in existence. Like a locus swarm of cockatoos, anything made of wood or plastic is being crunched up and left for scrap. But at less than six inches high apiece, rounding them up is proving extremely difficult. Luckily, the mayor in her wisdom is giving out titanium nets to any imPort who wants to help round up the trouble makers. And, in the spirit of the city, she's offering the imPort that catches the most robots a free meal for two in the swanky Radiation Galley - Jeopardy's top tier, five star restaurant.

Get catchin', imPorts!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She's always been too clever, too smart, too observant. Shaun can't even be surprised that she's put it together. Hell, he knows he's been staring at her like he's seen a ghost. Because he's seen a ghost. A ghost with superpowers.

That doesn't make the words hurt any less to hear out loud. But he isn't going to lie to George. Never to George. So Shaun nods, swallowing thickly against a tightness in his throat before he trusts his voice.]

Three months ago.

[He's quiet a moment before he adds, and the tone of his voice has gone cold and sharp-edged,] I killed the asshole responsible.

[One of them anyway. It hadn't helped. It wasn't enough. It will never be enough because it won't undo what happened.]

[She'd expect nothing less. She nods, slowly, carefully, then steps forward, reaching for his hand.]

I'm here now.

[It was never supposed to be her. She knew she didn't plan on outliving Shaun by very long, but she was always going to outlive him. This wasn't in the plan. This is all wrong. This is...

This is the reality they have to work with. And she won't help Shaun by freaking out about it.]

Come inside. I'm real, and I'm not going anywhere.

[It is all wrong. It's been all wrong since the moment he pulled the trigger. She wasn't supposed to die. He wasn't supposed to know how to go on without her -- and by now he's figured out that he can't. Not really. He's been treading water, but Shaun is realistic enough to know that is temporary.

Except, George is here. And real. He reaches out to take her hand in his, fingers wrapping around hers securely. He needs to hold it together. George doesn't need him falling apart on her. She's been here on her own too long already. They're not meant to be on their own, neither of them. Shaun nods.]

Yeah. Okay.

[And he will follow along inside, letting her lead the way.]

I've missed you so much. [He murmurs the words softly, like they might be a secret. They're not. But they're only for her in this moment, even if no one else is even within earshot.]

[She tugs him closer, wrapping her free arm around him.] Same. [The difference was, she never thought she wouldn't see him again.

She fumbles open the door to her apartment. The second she has the door closed, she presses her lips to his, clinging tightly to his shirt as she pours six months of loneliness and the pain of knowing he's been just as lonely into their kiss.

But now they're both here, and they're both alive and together, and the rest they can deal with.]

[There's something desperate in the way he kisses her back, like all this time he's been slowly starving to death for her. Maybe that's not entirely far off. His arms wrap around her tightly, pulling her closer until there can't possibly be any space left between them.

She's alive. Alive and so warm and so solid and soft in his arms and he knows this isn't his imagination, some trick of his fractured psyche, because his imagination is nowhere near this good.

George being alive here changes everything. It may not be the world he was born into, but this is the first time he's felt like he's home in months. And if they want him to play super hero or whatever the fuck the point of it all is, he's more than willing. It's a tiny price for having Georgia back in his arms.

Maybe it already helps him feel more like himself, because he breaks the kiss -- though doesn't quite break away from her lips entirely, to murmur,] So. No new boyfriend I have to scare off, right?

[He fully expects it to get him hit.]

[Indeed, she shoves his shoulder, though not so hard as to actually make him let go.]

You are such an asshole. [She catches his lips in another brief kiss, then adds:] I’m not sure if I’m more offended by the idea that I could fall for anyone that isn’t you or that you apparently think I wouldn’t have immediately communicated that before we started making out. I mean that’d be a pretty damn big lie of omission.

[Shaun has never in his life been happier to be called an asshole. It brings tears to his eyes, even if for now he manages to keep them from falling. It simultaneously stretches a smile across his face, and he hears himself laughing, almost not recognizing the sound as it escapes his lips. Shoved or not, his arms stay around George.]

Yeah but I'm pretty irresistible, so...

[His arms tighten around her and this time he pulls her closer and ducks his head to bury his face in soft strands of short, dark hair. A few tears slip free at this point, but there's no help for it.] I love you, George.

[It's not something they say that often, except in the way they say it a million times a day in their own language. Being too gushy with each other would raise too many eyebrows and not be very them anyway. Shooting insults and casual, otherwise meaningless touches has always had to be enough.

Except when it isn't. Except when you've just found out you're dead and your brother's been trying to live on without you. She clings back. She can't blame him for the tears. She'd be crying if her stupid eyes would let her. She just shuts her eyes, pressing her face into his chest.]

Love you too, Shaun. Always.

[Rare enough but god the last words that she'd managed before the virus started getting the better of her, before there was nothing but gunshots and blood. Well. It bears saying, for this moment anyway. Shaun holds her like he never plans on letting go.

Eventually though, he steps back, only far enough to be able to touch a hand to her cheek, urge her chin up enough that he can lean in and steal another kiss, one that he lingers in a long, long moment.]

So. I was told there'd be shitty instant coffee. [He begins,] We've... got a lot to catch up on.

We do. And I can catch you up on this place.

[It's not much of an exchange. But if she frames it like a straightforward exchange of news and information, maybe she can keep her distance. Maybe she can stay collected and focus on the facts. Maybe.

She keeps hold of his hand as she tugs him into the kitchen. She knows logically he's not going to vanish if she stops touching him. She can't take that risk.

The kitchen is something of a disaster zone. Georgia has never been much of a housekeeper or a cook, and it shows. The table's covered with papers and note cards and weapons. The sink is filled with dishes. It's probably better not to look in the fridge at all. It's just sad.

But there's a kettle and some packets of instant coffee sitting on a relatively clear space of the counter. A bit of a waste for someone who isn't actually interested in drinking coffee, but she never could bring herself to go without it. Having it there made her miss Shaun. Having it gone would make her miss him even more.

She starts the kettle and takes a can of Coke from the freezer, then clears a pile of papers from a chair for Shaun to sit in.]

Ready when you are.

Good. I'm gonna need your origin story. Lab accident? Radioactive spider?

[He says the words lightly enough, but he means it. He wants to know about this place, what it's been like for her, if she's been okay here in this weird as hell comic-book-disaster of a world.

Shaun does not protest at all when his hand is kept because his thoughts run in parallel lanes to George's. This can't be a dream. He's been in a slow motion shatter over the past few months. If he opens his eyes and this wasn't real, he'll break completely.

But this reality holds, and he takes the cleared seat, watching George and her Coke and smiling despite himself. But okay. He nods.]

After the ranch... fuck, George. Everything went so wrong.

[So wrong. But okay. The facts for his newsie sister.] Buffy is dead.

[Shaun looks up.] Someone attacked our convoy when we were on the road, tried to take all of us out at once. Thing is... Buffy'd sold us out. She was feeding information out. She didn't know to who. And she didn't know what they'd actually do with it. After Eakly, after the ranch, she put it together and cut them off. I guess they decided that made her, and us, loose ends. They got Buffy, but they missed us and Rick. That didn't stop them from reporting our deaths to the fucking CDC while we were still breathing. I don't know how the hell we made it out of that without a "better safe than sorry" head shot or three. But we did. Rick too.

[Somehow.] After that... we did what you do best. We chased the truth.

[She goes quiet. Someone who didn't know her well might think she was taking this all very calmly. Shaun does know her well. Even through the sick, terrible feeling that's sinking in with her words, she can't help but feel giddy about that. She's missed him so much and no amount of bad news can take her joy at their reunion away.

Still, it is a fuck of a lot of bad news. She takes another sip of Coke to steady herself, then looks back up at him.]

Did we find it?

[Shaun does. He knows her well enough to know the wall of calm and professional she puts up when the world throws something heavy like this at her. He knows George, and he knows she needs to know all of this, despite the pain of it. He knows she'd never forgive him for sugar coating any of it, knows how much the truth matters to her. After all, she's died for it, in the end.

He nods.]

Yeah, we found it. The whole big conspiracy to keep people afraid enough to return the country to some moral state of bullshit. They murdered you for it, George. [A breath. His hands shake so he clenches them into fists to stop it. It almost works] We traced it to Tate -- Ryman's fucking inspired choice of a runningmate -- but before we could lay it out for Ryman, we were ambushed. They got you with a dart full of activated virus.

[It hurts to touch the memory, and the anger and terror and despair flood back like they're brand new and never left.] Rick got out with the files. You and I stayed in the van and you got one last post out. Before I... before I had to...

[There'd been so much blood and so much silence, everything too red and too quiet and too final.] ...Ryman's security team showed up a little while after, and Steve -- he's a good guy, you know? A real good guy -- helped me get to Ryman and Tate. Tate went all James Bond villain speech about it too. Then he injected himself. And I killed him.

[Georgia Mason is known, among other things, for staring the truth in the face and demanding others do the same.

Even she isn't cruel enough to force Shaun to finish that sentence. THey both know how it ends. How it always ends.]

Oh, Shaun.

[She puts her Coke down and walks around the table so she can drapw her arms around Shaun, clinging to him, not quite falling into his lap, but close. She somehow thinks he'll be okay with it.]

I never fucking liked that guy.

[Usually being right feels better than this.]

[Shaun looks up as she walks closer to him. He looks less like he's seen a ghost by now, but there's still that faint tinge of disbelief in his gaze, like he's sure he'll blink and she'll be gone. That is fading too, bit by bit, as time goes on.

He wraps his arms about her, tight and secure, and she may not have climbed into his lap, but he pulls her the rest of the way, holds her close. He ducks his head, leaning against her, ear to her chest. Like this he can her each beat of her heart and he has never in his life heard a sweeter sound.

A laugh escapes, surprising Shaun, at what she has to say.] Yeah. Yeah he really really sucked.

[And Shaun regrets only being able to kill him once.]

[She presses her lips to his hair. It's nice to hear his laugh, even if it's a lot more broken than she's used to. She gets the sense he hasn't laughed much lately.]

I always thought you'd be the one to leave me. I never thought--

[She swallows, and holds him tightly.]

But we got the truth out? We did our job?

[She always believed the truth was worth dying for. That didn't mean she wanted to demonstrate that belief. She never wanted to be a martyr.

Would getting the truth out make it worth it? Not for Shaun. She's not sure if it even makes it worth it for her. But she has to cling to what she still has. She did her job. They told their story. It's not much, but it's more than nothing.]

[Shaun never thought about it either. It was always so clear that he'd be the one to push too far, take one too many risks. He'd never considered a world without Georgia, how he'd ever live without her there. He still doesn't know, if he's being honest. But he doesn't say that, instead he nods at her question.]

We did our job.

[He agrees, and lifts his head to look at her. It wasn't even remotely worth it. Losing George... It would never be worth it, but it was what they had.]

The truth is out. The facts are out. Tate and whoever the hell backed him don't get to buy some fucked up fear-and-faith based nation with the blood they spilled.

[But Shaun still curls up in the silence of his apartment every night, nearly convincing himself he can hear George's voice in the quiet.]

[There's still more she needs to know, but she knows how much it'll hurt Shaun to talk about. How much even telling her this much has hurt him. Or maybe he just hasn't stopped hurting since he lost her.

She brushes another kiss against his forehead.]

And now you're here. With me. In a fucking comic book.

[Every little touch eases some of the pain, settles some of his broken pieces ever so slightly.

And now he's here. With her. And he doesn't care if it's a comic book. Georgia is here. It's almost startling how very little else matters because that one fact is true. God he's missed her so much. Shaun's arms tighten around her, and he smiles, honest to goodness smiles at her.]

Comic book doesn't seem so bad. I mean... I got rescued by this hot super hero. [He lifts his chin, brushes his lips to George's.] No spandex though. I feel sorta cheated on that one.

[That gets a little chuckle, and she whacks his shoulder lightly.]

Shaun! [She's missed him being a jerk.] You wouldn't even know what to do if you saw me in spandex.

[Hearing George laugh, even that small little chuckle, has to be the most beautiful sound that he's ever heard. So he lifts an eyebrow, a high and incredulous arch.]

Give me and my imagination come credit here.

[The weight of what they've spoken about still hangs in the air, but there's no way even that can dampen how ecstatic Shaun is that she's here and alive. So it's easy to smile, to fall into familiar patterns that he's missed so much.] First, I'd get a picture. As evidence for any potential exposé -- journalistic integrity and all, you know. And also maybe for personal reasons.

[She can tell what he's doing, but she can't blame him. She's missed him, but she knew she'd see him again. He didn't think he'd ever get this again.

His joy is infectious, but that doesn't stop her from rolling her eyes, tucking her head against his again.]

In what universe would I allow photographical evidence of any spandex experimentation to exist?

[She presses a kiss to his jaw.]

Even for you. You'll just have to satisfy yourself with the real thing.

[He never expected actually being able to hold her again, see that familiar exasperation (the kind where he can feel her eyes rolling at him, even if her sunglasses mean he can't really see it). He's missed it, missed her.

His arms tighten around her without his fully realizing he's doing it.]

Your ongoing vendetta against fun is noted.

[Shaun turns towards her, nuzzling his way in to touch a kiss to her cheek in turn.] But... I'm okay with the real thing. So okay with it.

[If it's a dream after all? He doesn't want to wake up.]

[It's not fair that his every word makes her heart twinge a little more. She left him. Not on purpose, of course, but she still can imagine how much it must have hurt. She has imagined it, every time she thought about inevitably losing him.

She runs a hand over his shoulder.] Shaun. [She drops another kiss to his temple.] There's a lot we need to talk about. You know that, right?

[Shaun is soaking up each little touch, simple and small as they may be. They mean so much, and he doesn't have the words for any of it. Bit by tiny bit it eases some of the ache that had taken up permanent residence in the hollow where his heart used to reside.

But he focuses on her question, and he nods.]

Yeah. I know. Whatever you need to hear, George. Whatever you need to tell me.

[He's here for it. But all he really needed to hear, to know, is that she's alive and okay and here.]

ONE TWO CHA CHA CHA

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)