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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
he doesn't know how to respond to this. whatever's behind that porthole is obviously focused on wangji-- though he makes no sound. if he were still johnny topside, he might use his words and thank the man. as it stands now, he's just bewildered and doesn't even know what to do; a strange feeling for a being that was created to perform a single purpose. he's still being bombarded by flashbacks of the brief celebrity he enjoyed when he first found rapture, on top of it all.
it's a ridiculous notion, but the idea of simply walking into the ocean and back to ryan's city crosses delta's mind. he found it once before. he could find it again.]
no subject
Only to find the guy disappear into a dark alley. No thanks or gratitude was necessary. He just doesn't want people to get hurt by accident when he wave those drill for hands.
Wangji peers into the dark to see a glowing helmet]
Those people meant no harm. So try to be careful if they crowd around you again.
[Even though they're strangers, he shows concern...and he doesn't expect Delta being able to speak. In regards, he's wearing a helmet]
Are you all right?
no subject
the groan peters off; wangji is mostly right. it's not the helmet that's stopping him speaking, he can't speak at all. they tore his vocal chords out.
he looks from his drill to his free hand, then back to wangji, and... nods.
yeah, he's fine. a disaster was averted.]
no subject
That's good. I'm glad you're all right. If the people crowd around you again, try not to hurt anyone by accident or else you might get caught for injuring innocent people. I believe in this place, the government wants you to be a hero and you can do good by protecting others.
[After some thought]
You...you are a registered hero, right?
[Does this require some explanation on his part? Since he doesn't mind explaining]
no subject
delta didn't think he'd feel wistful for sinclair's voice to guide him. can the man even still see through the camera on his helmet? all this new technology is hard to parse when, despite having his free will back, he can barely think straight.
at least he knows what the registration thing is. the injections. so used to people injecting things into him he doesn't want, but having to take it anyway. it didn't feel like and EVE or plasmid he's ever had.
he holds an arm out, wrist up, showing the REGISTERED note. it was better than the trouble of trying to do anything other than what the suited people were pushing him towards, trying to get the dirty mammoth out their pristine halls. he has no wrist to be covered by the suit, so it shows on the thick diving fabric. delta is his suit. a hero though? he doesn't think so.
maybe they have little sisters up on the surface. that's a horrible thought.
(wouldn't it be easier if he could speak to communicate this properly? oh, well.)]
no subject
But he is sentient and he seem to understand him. The nanites they injected in all arrivals has done its job to auto-translate for him into the same common language wondrously as such is the advancement of technology in this world. Where Wangji is from, it's fairly medieval, ancient, and rural in comparison.
Wangji reads the "REGISTERED" note. While he is not used to speaking and reading the common language of this place, he's learning quickly and he somewhat understood what it means since the communicator translate for him.]
So, you are a registered hero. That means you have a duty to protect civilians too. I think that's what the government people told me and explain to me back at the base.
Did they explain anything to you when you woke up in this world?
[Maybe the nanites connecting to his communicator in Delta can help him speak? Text? Provide subtitles perhaps?]
no subject
he seems to be on the same wavelength when it comes to the communicator, though. he had it shoved into one of his diving belt compartments and digs it back out, cautiously poking it a few times. keypads aren't out of his area of experience, neither are things showing up on screens.
it takes him a while to type, but eventually he manages to get the basics in and holds it out, showing the screen. just like a pen and paper, just more technologically advanced. he can hardly be surprised by tech when rapture had what it had, can he?
the text reads simply:] ALREDY FREED FROM PROTECTOR CONTROLL
SHULDNT B HERE
no subject
He's pretty sure the military personnel has explained to him quite clearly when he woke up, so he assumed the other has gone through the same process.
The communicator is more advanced than he though as it translates the text for him]
You shouldn't be here? I suppose this is all a mistake. Maybe you should return back to the base where most of us wake up in the first place and ask them more questions.