TRICK OR TREAT

[modormenace]

TEST DRIVE MEME
MENACE WITH YOUR MASKS

01. HEROPA, FLORIDA 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.

You'd think they'd have learned not to hold it by now - but there's once again there's a herd of zombies shambling towards the annual Mister and Miss Corncob beauty pageant. Right in the middle of the swimsuit competition, too! Have you ever wanted to fight zombies while wearing a bikini or speedo in the fall? No? Well this is your life now. Put on a good enough show and the judges might just award you some extra points!

And of course, the ImPorts in the audience are rushing up to help you. Better not get upstaged!

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. 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.

It's nearly Halloween, and the annual city parade and costume contest are underway! You've got one, right? The locals just love it! If you don't, well, that's okay — just for imPorts, there's a special costume rummage bin at the start of the parade route. You’ll find someone all too eager to help you - in fact, they're so eager they've already picked something out for you.

Hopefully none of that gear actually works. It’d be crazy if your rocket boots suddenly kicked off, or that prop flamethrower shot some real flames!

03. MAURTIA FALLS, PENNSYLVANIA has carried a reputation for ups and downs ever since imPorts began appearing. 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...

Unfortunately Halloween in this city means a sharp jump in crime. Masked criminals are everywhere right now.

It feels like there’s a bank heist happening every other minute. Perhaps you’re rushing to heroically stop it and free the hostages, or maybe you’re the one wearing the mask looking to make out with a couple million more than you had before.

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.

In the middle of the city's biggest park is an autumn tradition — a corn maze! Of course, it's not real corn, since there hasn't been time to grow it. But craft supplies store Mikey's is sponsoring a maze built with genuine imitation corn, and hundreds of locals have already enjoyed getting lost inside! Curiously, few of them have come out the exit, and those who venture in will discover the maze is twistier and deeper than they ever could have anticipated. Somehow, it's bigger on the inside, thanks (no doubt) to some dastardly villain's powers. Will you try to navigate a way to the exit, forge your way through the stalks, or have a nap?

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.

Those weird radiation effects seem to kick it up a notch in the month of October. The world is awash in bright and unnatural colors that have nothing to do with the neon and your ears seem to be faintly ringing. You may find the air bizarrely charged today, the people are acting even stranger than usual. The weird figures in the corner of your eye are more prevalent, seeming to inch closer, and closer, and closer...

But that’s probably nothing, right?

As the clock strikes midnight the weirdness crescendos. Suddenly people are gaining traits from their costumes. Those fake vampire teeth are real, and no amount of shaving is gonna get that fur off your face Mr. Werewolf!

06. The HEROIC HALL has just opened! It’s a state of the art combat dome in De Chima. Engineered by the best and brightest on the planet, its futuristic holograms are as real as they come. There are safety features in place to keep things from getting out of hand, and they usually work. Usually. But any scenario you could possibly dream of is at your disposal to use. There are a number of pre-programmed options for you to choose from, ranging from the mundane like saving a cat from a tree, to the extreme such as stopping the apocalypse. There are even convenient scripts so you don't have to come up with your own zingers, and every session is recorded so you can watch your own greatness!

Uncertain? Well, the hot ticket this month is SCENARIO 21. Have you ever wanted to save the world without dealing with those pesky stakes? Here’s your chance! Scenario 21 features the greatest hits. An all powerful villain hell-bent on ending the world, a (poorly programmed) love interest held hostage, and a (equally poorly programmed) mentor who believes in you! Of course can’t do this on your own, this script was written for two! Find your new teammate and save the world together!

Once it’s over, don’t be surprised if you’re approached by the eagle-eyed talent scouts that refuse to take not interested as an answer.

Comments

Lorna "Polaris" Dane | Wolverine and the X-men

[shelterednomore]

Maurtia Falls

[Lorna is quite innocently walking into the bank with every intention of seeing what's needed for an ImPort to open a bank account when she comes across this scene.

When the masked robbers instruct her gruffly to 'stick 'em up' and tells her to get over to where the rest of the hostages are, she complies...sort of. She raises her hands up and starts walking in the direction of the hostages, but there's a low humming sound right before the robbers suddenly find their guns floating in the air out of reach.

That takes care of that problem, but not of the robbers who managed the basic math of realizing that four on one was still a fight in their favour. She steps in front of the bound hostages. Fighting is so not her forte, but it's not like she can expect any help from tied up people.]

Stop! Just...leave. These people didn't do anything to you.

[Apparently it hasn't occurred to her that this might be a little more effective if she aimed the guns their way. They're closing in on her. Help?]


Jeopardy

[The green glowing lake really should have been Lorna's cue to stay far away from this place, but she'd regarded it as an oddity of this place and left it alone. Throughout the evening, she's heard a couple of offhand comments about radiation after effects, and she's decided by this point that she'll just stay until the end of the party, and then not come back unless there's some dire emergency. And possibly get checked by a doctor and request some iodine pills.

But for now, it seems rude to leave so early, when there are people here having a good time. Considering that there are plenty of residents who don't look like victims of radiation poisoning, perhaps it's fine as long as one doesn't drink the water.

She mingles politely until the stroke of midnight when she accidentally bumps one of the wings from her woodland fairy costume against a wall and it hurts just as much as it would if she'd bumped her funny bone against it instead.]

Oww!

[Glancing back at her wing, her eyes widen with alarm when it twitches, very much attached to her back.]

What in the world?!

[She doesn't know if it's polite to ask, but she really wants to know if she's the only person experiencing some unexpected changes, so she turns to the nearest person.]

Um...excuse me, this might seem like a strange question, but are you finding you're a bit ah...different than you were just a few hours ago?

[The wings on her back flutter nervously, as if for emphasis]


Heroic Hall

[Lorna has never truly learned how to use her powers combatively. She's competent enough with them, yes, but for actual superheroics? She has no idea of what she's doing. Which was exactly why the Heroic Hall had some appeal. She will need to learn these things, and holograms seem like a good way to develop her reflexes without risking serious harm to herself or anyone else.

She's making a face at some of the scripts, though, and turns to the person who's entering the scenario with her.]

Is it just me, or are these scripts really cheesy? I'll give them credit for personalizing them, but...they don't really expect us to say stuff like this, do they?

[It seems like the sort of thing that would have been aired in the sixties or seventies.]

@ Maurtia Falls

[divaricate]

[ Wanda knows that hair and eyes mixed with that power anywhere, even if this Lorna is significantly younger than the one who was here some ... three years ago. Either way, the surprise and happiness of seeing a version of her sister is also mixed with the fact that they're kind of in the middle of a bank heist and people are in danger.

So, once the people are closing in on her, Wanda reacts with some scarlet magic fired at the robbers, pinning them back against the wall. ]

Nope, not today, boys, sorry.

[ Wanda's accent is southeastern European. She's also probably an age discrepancy to Lorna too, as Wanda is in her mid-30s (she looks very early 30s though, because she was dead for five years; it's a Long Story). ]

Any chance you can turn their weapons into twisted paperweights?

[ The question, being, of course, to Lorna. ]

[shelterednomore]

Wanda!

[She would know those powers anywhere, and even subconsciously realizing that her accent is different and that she looks a bit older than the mid to late twenties Lorna remembers, she's still absolutely delighted to see her sister's face.]

Oh, I'm so glad to see you! But if you're here too, does that mean more people from Genosha are as well?

[In the midst of her enthusiasm she remembers something important. The guns. She raises her hands, and with another murmur of magnetic pulse, the floating guns crumple in on themselves, utterly useless to anyone as weapons. Unless, of course, one wanted to throw them at someone.]

[divaricate]

Not...quite; but I do know about a Genosha. Similar-but-alternate universes happen a lot here. I've also been here almost five years, so there's that too.

[ In groups of three, she starts to slowly teleport hostages safely outside, while she stays inside still, keeping the criminals, um, comfortable. :D ]

[shelterednomore]

[Lorna is silent for a long pause. While Wanda teleports the hostages outside, she pulls the guns over so that they're sitting at her feet, just in case the robbers happen to get free while Wanda's attention is on getting the hostages to safety.

The idea that universes can be similar but different is a lot to take in, but Wanda's accent, the age difference, and the fact that her powers are teleporting people all support her claims. Besides that, considering Mojoworld, and this place, it's not any more difficult to believe. It's just a lot for her to take in.]

Is crime a problem here? People seem to be fairly happy to see people with powers around here, so I'm guessing yes?

[divaricate]

Crime especially in this city, yeah. I'm an assistant district attorney in Heropa, and unfortunately my job even there is busy. You get a bunch of people with powers in a place and things can get heated especially those who aren't too happy with us, that's when the real friction can happen.

@maurtia falls

[bleedformeplz]

[Get a bank account, they said. Don't worry, it's easy, they said. They failed to mention this certain bank enjoys a good heist.

Lorna, meet said 'tied up' person. Himiko cheerfully complied to the robber's demands and joined the rest of the hostages. It wasn't her forte to play 'hero', she was more bystander, an observer. Added bonus, the way they tied her was easy access to her blades in hand. The robbers failed to see this high school girl a threat.

When the guns took to the sky, Himiko whistled impressively. The only problem she saw was...]

Hey, noob greenie.

[Yes Lorna, you.]

Might want to try aiming those against them.

[shelterednomore]

[Having grown up around formality, the term 'noob' doesn't make a lick of sense to Lorna, but she does at least realize that the other girl is referring to her with "greenie". Given her outfit, hair, eyes, and lips, the nickname is an accurate one.

She doesn't really want to hurt people, per se, but she also doesn't want the robbers to beat her or the hostages up, so she brings the guns down so they're floating in front of her, letting them cock with a quick 'click' noise.

The only thing she can think to say is something she's read in a novel, when a police detective confronted mobsters.]

Get on the floor, hands on the backs of your heads! Now!

[She can only hope she sounds intimidating enough. Her voice isn't exactly booming and fearsome. The sight of the guns floating in front of her and them not wavering does slow the men to a halt. She really doesn't have any confidence in her ability to take them in a fist fight, so she pushes the guns a few inches forward. With some mumbled obscenities about 'fuckin ImPorts', the robbers finally get to their knees, and lie face down as instructed.]

Thanks for your suggestion, miss.

[She starts going to untie her, and senses the metal there.]

Oh...um. Do you need my help to get out of those? It seems like you've got that under control.

Heroic Hall

[hot_handed]

[This was a mistake. Katsuki has no idea why he thought testing out the new simulator would somehow be better training than going out in the real world and stopping some villains. But here he is, stuck with someone who took the whole green aesthetic even further than a certain classmate.]

No one's stopping you from blowing 'em up, Nori.

[shelterednomore]

[Is blowing them up some sort of slang from his world? Or does he mean that she should blow the scripts up for real?]

Well, my powers don't involve blowing things up, unless it's through electromagnetic overload...but you're right. They can't make us when they're not even paying us to stay on script.

[She offers her hand out to shake. Might as well make proper introductions before they start.]

Anyway, hello. My real name is Lorna Dane. Or you can call me by my hero name on the script, Polaris. Whichever you'd prefer.

Heroic Hall

[drivesadesk]

[The lizard person who is apparently going to be her scene partner looks at the lines and grins.]

What, you don't think 'Stand down, evil doer, or face the mighty magnetism of...Polaris!' works for you?

[He's not even touching the fact that they're making him literally hiss the entire time. The snake and reptile puns are fine, but he's not drawing out the 's' sound every time he utters it. He'd get tired of that after like...five minutes.]

Yeah, I was going to ignore mine and just make something up off the cuff.

[shelterednomore]

[The lines they'd assigned her were bad enough, but she definitely can't blame him for going off script. His were so much worse.

She laughs at his assessment of her scripted dialogue.]

I think I'll do the same. Especially the parts where I'm supposed to describe exactly how my powers are doing things.

[Because seriously, who does that?]

If I'm supposed to be fighting a bad person, giving them details about how my powers work just seems like a stupid idea.

[drivesadesk]

Yeah, at least mine doesn't make me talk about my actual powers too much. My lines just seem really focused on making sure everyone knows I'm a reptile.

[Which...he's pretty sure everyone already knows that from the moment they see him, assuming he's looking like his natural self.]

Jeopardy

[wreaking_havok]

I don't know I quite like them.

[Because she asked, he answered honestly and whatever is in the air here he isn't sure about, but he has to wonder if he's just imagining her. The wings are definitely a new addition though. But he doesn't seem to mind them.]

And I'm okay so far. But I'm starting to worry now.

[shelterednomore]

It would be one thing if they were always like that, but...

[She gestures at her newly grown wings, and much to her dismay, there's some glowing and sparkly green dust flying off of her. She's now a living glitter factory.]

This all happened less than ten minutes ago.

[Considering that lake, she's now very concerned.]

I really hope that's not radioactive.

[wreaking_havok]

I stand by what I said, they look cute.

Though I'm not sure if I'm not as unaffected as I thought by just imagining you like that.

[He Really hopes he's not imagining her or mistaking her for Lorna when she's not. But he didn't think there could be many green haired women that were like her.]

Radioactive doesn't usually bother me. I'm lucky I guess.