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etcelsior2020-07-25 05:52 pm
maskormods) wrote in etcelsior2020-07-25 05:52 pm
Entry tags:
ON MY WAY
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.
Welcome, everyone, to the sugar fueled festivity that is National Hot Fudge Sundae Day. The celebration is taking place on two closed down city blocks, with a market in between them selling all the pun filled souvenir shirts and stuffed ice cream cone toys, fudge bottle body pillows, and every kind of craft fair knickknack in between, that you can imagine. The powers that be in Nonah have clearly tried to divide the celebrations up into the ice cream and ‘normal’ food sides, but this is America. They can’t tell you what to do. Go try those meat and potato ‘fudge sundae’ monstrosities or cover your ice cream in wine from an adult beverage cart. Dip your deep-fried cheese in hot fudge. Disgusting food choices are in the constitution (somewhere).
But on the pure ice cream side, there are certainly enough choices to make ‘real’ food not super necessary. In addition to your normal food flavors that range from the tame you’d see in any ice cream parlor, or the slightly more hipster flavors like ‘lavender’ or ‘bacon maple,’ there are existential flavors. Yes, inspired by some previous imPorts, these flavors induce a specific emotion in the person while they eat it, which lasts up to about 10 minutes after the dessert has been consumed. These range all over, from ‘full cell phone battery’ to ‘the bitter-sweet satisfaction of vengeance against your sworn enemy.’ Maybe try a ‘puppy love’ and ‘first day of autumn’ twist covered in fudge for a true moment of contentment. It’s all in your hands. Careful though, things like ‘moment you first realized your parents were only human’ or ‘pain of failure’ are also available, though obviously not as popular. Hopefully, you don’t create an emotionally devastating mix out of curiosity (or a prank on another imPort).
In addition to ice cream, there are all kinds of family fun activities to pick from. Traditional carnival themed games have been set up, with the normal employees yelling at the crowd to attract attention. Throw a ball in a milk can, get a goldfish in a an (empty glass) ice cream cup! Pop balloons with dulled darts, get a sprinkles themed pair of sunglasses. This is Nonah, though, which means hard work deserves a reward. The bigger prizes for big point getters are a little insane: genetically modified fish that can breathe air, stuffed animals the size of a minivan, a free years worth of ice cream (to be taken home all at once now). There are also some bounce houses and slides that kids and adults alike can enjoy, just no ice cream allowed inside the rides
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 Church of the Ancient Webmistress' annual cookie sale! To raise money for a variety of community organizations, card tables line the street where the church is located, and boy, do these baked goods look delicious! Cookies, brownies, pies and more are all for sale for very reasonable prices--and to help out such a good cause, you're definitely going to buy some. Right, hero? The watching crowds certainly expect you to set a good example (when they're not busy purchasing tasty treats themselves.)
It seems there's been a mistake, though--mixed in with the cookies frosted to look like spiders are, er, a tray of someone's special brownies. Edibles, as it were (though everything here is edible--and delicious!) Just try to keep it together, okay? After all, there are kids here, and you're a role model! Or possibly not, but if you end up feeling the need to stare at your own hand for an hour, maybe find a side street. Or at least purchase some extra munchies to support any number of charities.
no subject
Your mother told me about you.
[ He ultimately decides it's better if he sits down for this conversation, and moves to sit beside Jin Ling on the bench. He isn't sure how this whole thing is going to go-- he doesn't really know anything about Jin Ling other than that he grew up without his parents. Not knowing what to expect certainly makes him nervous, but he rationalizes it by thinking that he's navigated scarier waters than this before. ]
This world is... strange. People come and go, and sometimes they return. And when they return, they often don't remember being here before. [ Wei Wuxian didn't. He assumes that's the case with Jin Ling, but he can't know for sure. ]
What's more than that, the people who are brought to this world come from many different points in time. [ As is probably obvious from the fact that Jin Ling is the age he is, and Jin Zixuan is, well, alive. ] From my perspective, your mother and I haven't been married yet, and she is still pregnant with you. Her time point is, from what I understand, shortly after my... death.
[ That word is hard. Everything about this is hard, but he pushes through because it's important. ]
You were here before. Back, before I arrived. Your mother told me she met you. I thought... I thought I would never get that chance. But now here you are.
no subject
The thing is, it'd always hurt that he'd been an orphan that his parents had been murdered and that he'd never know them. But it had become almost a background noise in his life before he found out who had really been behind their deaths and then the would had been ripped open and felt fresh now.
And now... he tries not to focus on it. ]
I don't remember...
[ How could he not remember? He looks back at the other. ]
Are you glad?
no subject
He has only just met Jin Ling, and already he has earned form Jin Zixuan a smile that's wider and brighter than anyone outside of A-Li ever gets to see. ]
Am I glad? Of course I am. You're my son, whether I know you or not. I would, of course, like to get to know you, while we have this chance.
[ In the back of his mind, he recalls the conversation he had had with Jin Guangyao here, after he had confessed to all his misdeeds. How he said he truly cared for young Jin Ling, and how he had hoped Jin Ling would have the opportunity to meet both his parents in this world, if not in their own.
Seems like he got his wish, albeit after he departed. ]
no subject
He turns his head away and lifts his hand to rub his eyes with the cuff of his robe. Crying is not the first impression he wants to make.
Jin ling struggles to think of something to say anything but every time he went to open his mouth the lump it grows and he has the temptation to grab his sword and flee from this, from these big emotions that no one had ever taught him how to deal with. ]
no subject
Oh no!
He's only just begun to speak to his one and only son, and he's already screwed things up somehow. Jin Ling is crying... Was it because of something he said? What did he do to make this happen, and how can he make it stop?
His hand hovers over Jin Ling's shoulder, unsure whether a comforting hand would help or harm matters. ]
A-Ling? Talk to me, tell me what's wrong.
no subject
Nothing's wrong.
[ But that ... wouldn't suffice. ]
I just could never imagine what your smile was like or your voice or anything.
[ he does reach for his sword, the sword that matched the one that Jin Zixuan had as well. His fingers grasp at it the way he does whenever he's trying to calm himself down, though he stops short of clutching the sword like he's hugging it. ]
And you're nothing like Jiujiu or ... [ there's a little hardness when he adds.. ] Xiao Shushu. I don't know how...
[ And then he realizes how honest he's being and how much he admitted so he snaps his mouth shut and sets his jaw. ]
no subject
The last time he had seen Jiang Cheng, it was when he first arrived, and the Jiang Sect leader had coldly and calmly filled him in on the details of his death and of Jin Guangyao's betrayal. The last time he had spoken to his half brother, he had resolved himself to seek modern treatment for the mental illness this world had told him he was suffering from. Something that he would have never had the chance to do back home. Something that, if their would were different, could have prevented a lot of pain. Whether or not Jin Zixuan resents Jin Guangyao for what he has done is... a complicated matter. But he knows that his half brother cared deeply for his nephew. And he can't resent him for that. ]
You don't have to know anything right now. We have time to figure everything out. Together.
[ They have no way of knowing how much time they're going to have before the Porter decides to send one or both of them home, but they can use the time they have to get to know each other as best they can. ]
Where are you staying? Your mother has a house in a city called Jeopardy, along with some members of the Lan Sect. I intend to move there properly, as soon as your mother and I are officially wed.
no subject
Together...
[ Jin Ling echoes softly and he starts to actually relax a little bit. Perhaps he doesn't need to be so angry that he had been pulled away from his life into such a strange place. There's a chance to know the two people that should have been the most important people in his life -- and in away they still had been with their absence. ]
I have been assigned to a room in Nonah.
[ It isn't such a terrible place even if all the furniture is oddities to him and the kitchen? That is something. ]
It must be strange to meet me and you haven't even wed... [ he shakes the thought off. ]
The house has been mentioned.
[ He hasn't specifically been nudged into moving in just yet. ]
no subject
[ He's heard that many imPorts are housed with a random assortment of other imPorts, and he's not sure how he feels about his son and heir staying with a house full of complete strangers. ]
I was lucky enough to be given my own apartment in Heropa, South of here, which is fine for me. [ It does mean that he's had to learn how to do all his own cooking and cleaning, though. ] But once we are properly wed, I intend to move in with your mother in Jeopardy.
[ He slowly removes his hand, not sure exactly where else to put it, but finally settling on dropping it in his lap. ]
It's... strange, yes. But this world is full of many strange things. Meeting you is a strangeness that I am happy to have.
no subject
I think so but I haven't met them...
[ Jin Ling says and he hadn't really tried to, maybe he'd actively been avoiding it because living with people that he didn't know is a really weird idea on top of all the other changes to his living arrangements on top of that. There's so many places to learn, the different cities and all they have. Places unlike the locations at home with nothing in particular familiar to hold as a landmark. Still, now there are people that if he lets them could be his landmarks instead as he tries to figure this place out and where he belongs in it. ]
I...I'm glad to meet you.
[ The words are hard to say, but words that mean a lot typically are for him, maybe it hadn't been all Jiang Cheng's fault he ended up that way, though. ]
I just don't know how...
[ He doesn't know how to be a son or how to deal with an adult figure that cares about him and isn't like one of his uncles and someone who is so important too. ]