etcelsior | DANCE MAGIC DANCE

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test drive

DANCE MAGIC DANCE

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.

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! 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. 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, a company that manufactures tech-based educational toys—"Where Science Meets Fun!"—is running a demo of its latest project, Quincy the QuizBot. Filled with information taken from the curricula of many grade levels, Quincy is whirring through the streets to conduct pop quizzes! Answer a question right, win a prize, ranging from a coupon for a free soda at the local fast food joint to a $100 gift card, based on difficulty!

Except...something's gone wrong with Quincy's programming. An hour or two into the demo session, he starts to approach passersby and demand answers. "WHAT IS THE SQUARE ROOT OF 47284? CAN YOU LIST THE PHARAOHS OF EGYPT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER? ANSWER-ANSWER-ANSWER-ANSWER!"

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...

Despite the lack of gratitude that's in it for you, you may want to step in once you see a very, very sad supervillain wandering Maurtia Falls' streets. Dressed in a cape that appears to be a large swath of fabric purchased from a nearby sewing store, galaxy-themed leggings and no shirt is a man who runs right into your vicinity before striking a pose and yelling, "Everyone, stop before me and my wrath! I am Mister Mars, and provided you give me what I ask for, nobody needs to get hurt!"

At which point Mister Mars snatches an old woman's purse, loudly laughs in her face, and begins to float upwards. By the time he reaches the height of the tallest building in the area, he's beginning to look slightly panicked as he fails to really be able to move anywhere but up. Meanwhile, the old woman has begun shaking her cane at him and screaming quite an assortment of alarming expletives.

Maybe you should help one or the other out? If not, just lean back and enjoy the show.

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.

Today there's a big lemonade stand on one busy sidewalk, staffed by a group of industrious kids. Aww, isn't it sweet? Wait...is that a cookie stand a little ways down, also run by elementary-to-middle schoolers? Heck, the entire block is full of kid-run mini-businesses — a gathering of pint-sized entrepreneurs! And they have their eyes on you, hero, because as a celebrity imPort, your pockets are full of $$$, right?

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!

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[Pyrrha chuckles at the admiration. Though "Quirk"? She'll ask later.]

No, no, that's all training right there. I've been training since I was young, so I know how to handle certain things quite well. I do have a... Quirk... if that's what you call powers?

[As she listens, Ochako's mouth begins to slowly for an "oh" of reverance and admiration. So that just a moment ago wasn't park of her quirk? Holy shit, then she's just got some crazy good atheltic skills, it seems like.]

Mm, that's right. The abilities that manifest when we're five - that's our Quirk. Is it called something else in America?

[She keeps having to remember she's not back home, and there's a ton of different terms and the like here. It's a bit of a culture shock, actually, trying to get everything right and be respectful. Ochako's barely been outside most of the providences, let alone outside of Japan as a whole.]

Honestly? I've never been to... America. In Remnant, our abilities are called "Semblances". It's... somewhat complicated.

[Remnant? Is that somewhere in Europe? It sounds like it, and Ochako is trying to pulls the stores from her memory of world geography to try and remember, but to no avail. Maybe a question for a another day - sort of like how she can understand most people here despite knowing very little English and like...no European languages at all. Hrm.]

Ah...I guess it's different all over the world then. What is your qu--eh, semblance, if you don't mind my asking? Oh!! Sorry, my name is Ochako! Or, eh...um. Uravity is my code name! [Which should she use? Hm, probably doesn't matter - this girl seems trustworthy.]

Pyrrha. They prefer I’d be called “Huntress”, though. I feel like someone else uses that name, though.

[Shaking her head, she decided to entertain Ochako’s question, her hand glowing black as her shield moved to latch onto her bracer.]

Polarity. Magnets, basically.

[She remembered poor Ruby’s confusion.]

[Huntress? Hot damn that sounds awesome, and the more Pyrrha goes on, showing off her abilities, Ochako seems to lean in with a bit of a sparkle in her eye. This girl is cool - how lucky that Ochako got to meet her today! She's already starting to feel a little better, and as they walk up to a vending machine, Ochako fishes through her pockets for her coin purse.]

Whoaaa!! That's amazing! Mine is gravity - I can make myself, people, or objects float - no matter how big or heavy they are - by touching them. See-- [She gives the machine a gentle pat with one hand, and it quivers a bit before it starts to rise a few inches off the ground.] And I can release it any time, like this. Release.

[A quick grip of her hands together, all five digits touching, and the machine plops back down on the ground harmlessly.] If I use it too much though, I get sick like that. I've been working hard to get use to it, though!!

That is... actually pretty amazing! [She hadn’t seen anyone physically manipulate gravity like that before. Usually, it was with effects from specialized Dust. But a physical power? Nope!] I feel you’d be an amazing hero with a power like that! Just overcome your sickness and you’ll be unstoppable!

[It felt nice seeing someone in awe at what she can do and not, like, her achievements and sponsorships. It was... comforting, especially after what she had went through before getting here.]

[Aaaaaaaaaaa.]

Eheh, it's nothing, really...but thank you. [She's turning red, a definite improvement from how green Ochako was earlier. She fishes through her coin purse and puts in a coin, too distracted to notice that the coin just clinks uselessly back out the opposite slot.] You're very kind, Pyrrha-chan. The training is hard, but I really want to help my p--ah. I want to help people so I'm willing to do what it takes. My classmates are really strong, and everyone is working hard to be the very best they can, so I can't slack off either.

But you! You must already be working pro, mm? You're so strong, and cool - I bet you're a wonderful Hero already!

Oh, nonono! I-I’m still training. I mean, back home I was quite the star. I won my home’s tournament four year in a row and everything, but I’m actually a first year student at the academy I’m in.

[That’s discounting all the trouble she’s been put through - thank you, Ozpin - but you could probably tell all of that doesn’t mean all that much to her.]

But, you wanting to help people, that’s an admirable goal. Kinda remind me of another girl I know...

Haaah?! Really?!

[Four years?! Holy shit. If her academy's anything like UA, then it's probably the same as the Sports Festival or something, so being a four time champ is a pretty big deal! Ochako made it far herself in her first year a few weeks back, but inevitably lost in a matchup again one of the toughest people in her class. She was...sour, for a little while, but now? Going all out like that, and not having Bakugo go easy on her felt really...freeing, actually.

She never did get a chance to thank him for the amazing fight, though he'd probably never let her. Or tell her off ~~like a true tsundere~~.]

I'm a first year myself at UA, but you seem older than I am. Is it some sort of private school or academy? It must be so different where you're from, Pyrrha-chan. [She's been...pushing the ginger ale button a few times now, why isn't anything dispensing?] But it's a Hero's duty to help the populace!! I-I will be honest, I...do want a decent government pay from a good Hero agency, but...it's mostly for my parents. They've been struggling for a while now with their business, and...

I'd like to lessen some of their burden, you know? It's the least I can do, with the power I have. The same goes for everyone.

It’s an academy. Where I live, there are four major ones. Mine’s called Beacon...

[Oh. Heroes were like that? And trying to help her family with this? She’s putting a lot of burden on herself. She seems so determined, though.]

I’m sure you’ll be able to. You seem more than capable to do anything!

[Aaaaand she finally realizes something.]

...it’s taking an awful long time for the drink to come.

[It's a burden she's willing to bear. The burden of anyone who takes on the title and occupation of Hero. It's like she said, it's the duty of a hero to serve and protect the community - the money is only a byproduct. Though it may be her overall goal, to earn enough enough money for her precious family to take it easy and be secure and happy, but...at the end of the day Ochako wants to help people.]

Mm!! Well, I have a lot of people supporting me! My classmates - my friends - and all the teachers at UA. I'm really thankful to be learning with them. [Tap, tap, tap...is the button broken? She peers down, then blinks.]

Oh, it didn't take my change... [Doot doot, let's try again. Into the slot it goes...and kerplunk down the coin slot it appears.] Wha--it's not taking my yen! Is it broken?

[Ochako...it's dollars in America........ 2.00 doesn't mean 200 yen, it's two dollars...]

Ah, it... might not take your money. This is America, right, so they might have a different type of coin instead. I... wish I knew what it was...

[Think, think...]

Oh, that's right... I know the bills are called 'dollars' but I don't remember what the coins are called.

[And even if she did, what good will it do? All Ochako has on her are yen in her coin purse. I-I mean, she does...have a debit card in her wallet, but that won't work for a vending machine. Besides, that was supposed to be for emergencies only. She doesn't have the funds to spend frivolously regardless of what type of currency it is.]

Maybe there's an exchange somewhere close? Are you familiar with this area, Pyrrha-chan?

Somewhat. I think there’s a bank nearby we can head to. Hopefully, they can exchange for both of us.

[Different countries is one thing. Different worlds?!]

[Ochako sighs, shoulders slumped and head hanging. Ah...she can't catch a break even for a minute, can she? It's been like this since she arrived here in this bizarre place. At the least her nausea seems to have completely gone, but not having money, or communication...that's going to be an issue.

The one silver lining is she made a friend.]

Mm, hopefully we can get there easily... I don't like the atmosphere of this place much.

[Pyrrha felt bad for Ochako. It wasn't fair to pull someone away like this, especially someone who feels like she does.]

Don't worry, you're not the only one. Do you have any of your friends here?

[Ah...that. Ochako smiles, but it's definitely frayed, like she's been worrying about that for a little while now. She has so many questions, more worries, and it's hard not having her support chain here to lift her up. She can remain carefree and lighthearted, but even she has her own limits, and they've always been like a wall of encouragement and guidance.]

None that I know of...yet. I only just arrived maybe a few hours ago. I still don't really understand how, either, but I can't contact them, since my phone won't get reception in America. [Actually, though...maybe she could send an email? Or a text!! If there's wifi, she can at least send a chain email out. It's worth a shot, and she's pleased to see there is wifi in the area - probably from one of the surrounding shops and businesses that offer it free - and shoots off a group email to her class.]

Hopefully that works...just to let them know I'm safe.

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DANCE MAGIC DANCE

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