HANG TEN

[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.

WOOF WOOF! This Friday is National Take Your Dog to Work Day, and everyone seems to be out with their pooch, enjoying the summer sun! (At least until they start to sweat and have to make a beeline for someplace with air conditioning.) However, the thing about superheroes is that their work can take them anywhere, and with the Top ImPort contest leading the news, EVERY imPort is a hero in the minds of the public!

Got a costume on? Here's a corgi. In line for an iced coffee? Come kiss this old lady's schnauzer. Allergic to dogs? Have a Claritin...and then brace yourself as this Great Dane tries to sit on you. And be sure to smile! Can you imagine how many likes a pic of the coolest new imPort cuddling man's best friend will get?

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.

Many events are taking place in Nonah, North Carolina for this year’s Midsummer festivities. Regardless of age and gender, flower wreaths of many sizes and colours adorn the heads of both natives and imPorts. If you’re without one, you can expect to have a multi-coloured wreath pressed into your hands, silken ribbons hanging at the back. Unfortunately, they’re not a One Size Fits All; your wreath could be too big to fit properly on your head and could be worn as an awkward necklace of sorts, or your wreath is a little on the small size. Small enough to be worn as a bracelet. Be warned—the flowers are a big part of the celebration, it’s best not to damage them, or the natives might hold it against you until the next Midsummer event.

Now, what’s something that pairs nicely with flowers? Strawberries! That’s right! It’s the strawberry harvest! Grab a basket, grab a friend (or venture off alone), and take a walk through one of the many strawberry fields found in the city parks, see what you can find to claim for a tasty, healthy snack. Or a gummy treat. It’s going to be hit or miss, you might get away with filling your basket with real delicious fruits or you might end up enough strawberry shaped gummies to give yourself a cavity or two.

If you’ve had plenty to drink, as what Midsummer event would be complete without day-drinking, and you feel like joining the natives for a bit of a frog dance around poles wrapped in colourful ribbon, hop on over and be prepared to not only join in on the dance but the singing as well. “The small frogs, the small frogs, are funny to look at. No tails, no tails, they have no tails. No ears, no ears, they have no ears.”

While these lyrics may be innocently sung and everyone looks to be having a grand ol’ time, the more times the words are repeated, imPorts might begin to take notice of certain bits of themselves changing. Perhaps your skin has begun to turn green? Perhaps the lyrics are no longer words but a series of croaking, as everything around you grows taller and taller. Or wait, maybe that’s just you beginning to shrink...

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.

Welcome to the Midsummer festival of Jeopardy. What is affectionately known by natives and imPorts alike as the ‘Spider Church’ of the city has set up several charmingly on brand festivities for all to partake in to celebrate the solstice. Church members throughout the city are easier to spot than normal, adorned in black linen tunics with glistening, rainbow colored webs stitched on them. They are handing out information about the church and inviting everyone to their weekly bingo nights as normal, but also hand out black and purple flowers as people pass by.

The first area likely to catch the eye is the free food festival taking up nearly all of main street, with spider themed foods at every booth and food truck. Spider-themed varies between each vendor, with some being silly like fake chocolate spiders in ice cream cones or deep fried dough sprinkled with ‘spider eggs’ (clumped white sugar), to much more literal ones like fried cricket tacos or yogurt covered ants. Experience something new! Or stick to the dyed black lemonade and candy flowers, take your pick.

In town center, right in front of the church itself, is a large Spider May Pole. Much that your traditional may pole, it involves lots of ribbons streaming down around a large pole, just for this one the ribbons are called ‘legs’ and a large spider body sits atop the pole. There is dancing competition happening all day, with the last ones standing winning the grand prize of being the Spider King and Queen, who then get to sit on the central float of the midsummer parade scheduled to take place at sunset that evening.

After the sunset parade, bonfires are lit throughout the city. Members of the church solemnly gather the flowers and festive decorations of the day and burn them in the fires, wishing for a glorious rebirth of summer from the ashes. There are also s’mores stations and lots of drunken singing to celebrate, if the ritual burning is a little much for you.