ON MY WAY

[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.

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.

Comments

[eyediot]

Because she threatened and very nearly killed me if she saw me while she was awake.

[curriculum_fictae]

Oh, yes. She was much happier about you sneaking around, I'm sure.

[eyediot]

In my defense, I ran the idea by Basira first and she agreed with me.

[curriculum_fictae]

Well I don't like Basira either.

[ He's punching that address into his GPS. ]

[eyediot]

...Right.

[God, and here in his time, Martin had been gunning to find Basira as a friend. And isn't that novel. He's not being used as a satnav to find this place. If Martin wants to punch that in, Jon won't say anything.]

Look, it... Melanie's fine now? She... says she welcomes me around as a friend. So... It worked out.

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Well. Martin doesn't know about that capability, does he? Doesn't know any of it really.

He sighs a bit and starts to walk. ]

Glad she's friends with you, then.

[eyediot]

[It only came at the cost of her nearly killing him, her blinding herself, intense therapy, and now Georgie hating him. Not sure if worth it?

Jon eagerly follows, still the heavy pack and the dog under one arm starting to squirm restlessly.]

I-i don't know what you want me to say, Martin. It's-- I told you not much of what happens is good.

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Probably not. But. Martin seems nearly surprised by the fact that Jon is following? Somehow. ]

... Mm. You did say something like that.

[eyediot]

I did.

[Well. Considering how he greeted Martin, it shouldn't be so surprising.]

...Did you want to know anything else? I can. I can answer most of it.

[Anything to keep Martin talking. To keep conversation going, because if he doesn't, he feels like Martin will walk on and leave, or disappear, or... or something bad.]

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Martin walks quietly for a moment, thinking. Does it seem like he disappears for a moment? It is a bit misty today ... But then he sharpens up again like nothing happened. ]

Do I really want to know?

[eyediot]

I-i guess it depends on what you want or... Or not want to know about.

[curriculum_fictae]

W-well - I mean, if it all ends happily then that's not so bad. I can take nearly anything else.

[eyediot]

[He hesitates for half a step, just in the way his foot hits the pavement before it's normal stride again.

Guuuuiiiiiilt.

But he can't tell Martin that he brought on the Apocalypse.]

Y-yeah... You. I mean, it wasn't..pleasant, but you did good, Martin.

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Martin suspects nothing, for now. Though he does duck his head disbelieving. ]

That'd be a first.

[eyediot]

Mm.

[So that's not the route to go. He'll figure it out, somehow.]

From what I know, you played Peter right up to the end and turned on him, so. So I think you did good.

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Sorry, Jon. Martin's going to be quite difficult from this canon point.

He rolls a shrug at that. ]

And? He shoved me into the Lonely at the end. Don't see how that's a win.

[eyediot]

And gave me a path directly to him.

And you.

[curriculum_fictae]

Is - is that a good thing, Jon?

[eyediot]

It is. Because--

[Shit, puppy, calm down. Jon shifts it again, trying to keep up.]

Because I took out Peter. An-and I found you.

[curriculum_fictae]

Right. And - and I'm something you want, I guess.

[ He still doesn't believe it. Can't believe that this ends with them as - what, boyfriends? Really? ]

[eyediot]

Yes? You.. Yes.

[Traveling alone and distracted and hurting, then months isolated and only in contact with people who hate or were traumatized by him, barely making any headway in a positive relationship with Daisy of all people. And desperately wishing Martin was around only to be rebuffed any time he tried.

It really gave him some clarity of who he cares about.]

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Is it so different now? Martin's busily rebuffing him now, it seems. But ... but the cracks are wider already; he isn't so far gone to the Lonely and his plan just yet.

More miserable and raw. But more responsive too. He can't help but look back a bit at him, his expression aching. ]

Why?

[eyediot]

...Because I went months without you around. And realized... I-i realized how important you are.

[curriculum_fictae]

[ Martin slows to a stop for a moment. His voice is very small. ]

R-really?

[eyediot]

Yes.

A-apparently, according to Georgie, I. Talked about you a lot when she let me stay with her.