IT'S TIME FOR DIPPING STICKS AND...

[erewhile]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Are you thinking about apping to to Cape & Cowl, but you want to get a feel of the setting and how your character will fit in it? Then you’ve come to the right place! Pick any of the following scenarios below or feel free to make up your own, and don’t be afraid to throw yourself at anyone’s thread, either!

And remember to have fun!

1. As you exit the Porter Building, the ambient noises you heard, so faint back inside where you found yourself at the center of glowing platform alone – save for the black screen and the female voice who greeted you – erupt in every direction. Every corner you look is bustling with people and cars and bicycles; people going about their everyday life, unaware you’re one of them: an imPort.

2. Or perhaps your bizarre behaviour or appearance catches their attention. Maybe it’s the communicator you picked up before leaving. Either way, several Cityzens headed your way come to a full stop immediately, each one eyeing you differently. Some looks outright afraid, others seem intrigued, and then there are the others whose surprise fades quickly and they carry on past you without as much a second glance.

3. Confused? The Network seems like a good place to start with soliciting information. There appear to be three functions for you to access: AUDIO, VIDEO, and TEXT. Make some friends while you’re at it!

4. Maybe you’re just thrilled to be here and help. The night time is a great time to scope out the underbelly of the City and its criminals. There’s always something going on in its more troubled corners: breaking and entering, drugs or arms trafficking, an attempting kidnapping... the list goes on. The question is: what will you do, Hero?

5. Make up your own scenario, if you wish! You may have discovered the Porter has granted you the ability to make it hail cats. Or that your power of super speed is gone entirely. Maybe you’ve noticed the Statue of Liberty’s sporting a new look. It’s up to you!

Comments

[invoking]

It's a lot to take in, I know.

[ Although he knows Sharon has a better temperament and competency than he will ever have, his concern filters through without a second thought. It's a universe completely different from theirs, he would hardly be surprised or offended if there was something Sharon didn't understand. ]

That machine is called Lachesis, or the Porter, and though she wants us to "help" the City, she hardly helps herself with the situation.

That's right. [ He nods, eyes scanning the streets for a taxi. ] I'm not sure how, but that machine is able to tamper with our own abilities or give us new ones altogether.

[auntyquated]

Lachesis?

( Sounds positively Greek to her. What else he says is enough for her to purse her lips, tamping down on any desire to call for Eques to see if he'll still respond to her. She wasn't sure if she could at all. Now wasn't the time or place to make that determination. )

There's no way to know for sure?

( To be sure about those abilities, not as much the means to which those abilities were given. Unsettling, and surprising, if they're powerful things, that the only apparent cost is this abduction away from ones rightful place.

There will be more questions than she's even aware of so far, things she'll need to take in stride. Her grip on the pamphlets shift, and she breathes in nice and deep, then out nice and slow. Alright. )

Have any of our mutual acquaintances found themselves in a similar situation?

[invoking]

[ Before he can respond to her first question, her last is like a cold knife to his side. He grimaces and averts his gaze, gold eyes no longer bright with curiosity or surprise, but dulling with deep-seated melancholy and discomfort. ]

No. Despite the machine having been in operation for five years now, we don't know much about her or all of what she's capable of.

... No. Oz and the others haven't been in this world.

[slightlyoffchilt]

[There's a quiet lull on Chilton's end of the camera, the settling horror (and fascination) building to a silent impact. That's soon broken by the whimperings of children -- and soon the scamperings of children -- because what the fuck did everyone just witness.]

Undeniably useful.

[Chilton cleared his throat, forcing himself to speak. The shock of the physics-defying healing was what disarmed him.

The gruesome display in of itself was a bit more titillating.]

How did you discover that? Under what circumstance, I mean -- was it just intuitive?

[holyknights]

[...ah. Oz is so excited to see him, Elliot can feel the second-hand embarrassment rising...

His frown deepens, partly out of embarrassment, and partly out of frustration. Maybe for someone like himself, being stuck in this place wasn't so bad (though it still made him angry—he didn't belong here, dammit), but to think that the others were stuck here, too... It really pissed him off! Even if Oz acted like it was nothing, it just wasn't right.

On the plus side, the fact that Oz is so enthusiastic about the dog is a good thing. It was slightly less embarrassing when he talked about the dog needing a friend. (But only slightly.)]

He's probably waiting for someone. Are you sure you didn't scare them off?

[auntyquated]

( Ah. That explains his disbelief. Poor Gil; with him and Oz as they are, it's difficult to imaging an extended additional separation being something he'd be fond of.

Which leads to another curiosity. Gilbert hasn't been unaccountably missing back home, and certainly not from what she most recently recalls.

Something else to ask after when they're away from obviously prying eyes, or overzealous ears. )

How unfortunate. ( She means that much sincerely, even as it's a blessing of it's own (time moving here, perhaps not home? an inversion of the way time seemed to flow out of the abyss compared to inside) in one sense. It's also a little deflating, but she mustn't let it show. ) You must have been lonely.

( For all this unstated time; irritated, whatever else on top of it, but clarification must wait for now.

An unoccupied cab heads up the street, having turned onto the road off a sidestreet angling North West. )

[enabeled]

I can handle a bit of sugar. Particularly sugar that you don't approve of. Just makes it taste even better.

[enabeled]

This block? [ He raises his eyebrows, indicating a vague circle with his fingers. ] No, actually. Never been to New York. Definitely never been to this one... but I like what they've done with the place.

[slightlyoffchilt]

I forbid it. You have strict dietary needs -- we never faltered, at the hospital.

Until you ate all that medical cream.

[enabeled]

The novelty will wear off eventually, I'm sure. Always does, so you strike while the iron's hot.

With ice cream, I mean, not the freedom... so much. What's not to appreciate -- no rules, no doctors, no wife... gosh, who doesn't want all that? Get it? [ A pause. ] Everyone should feel it at least once in their life.

[enabeled]

You can't forbid it when it isn't up to you. Loosen up, Frederick, before I think you have nothing better to do.

And I imagine... that you of everyone would know that the arthritis cream bit had nothing to do with the flavor.

[ He already thinks that. Defiantly he's going to eat it more. And hold the side of his head in mild brain-freeze pain. ]

[osreborn]

Chief of Staff. Not bad. We could stand to have a more... [ What's the word he wants... ] insightful one of those again. Been a while.

Competent, of course. Are you competent, Mr. Chilton?

[ Not at all patronizing. ]

[retconman]

I don't exactly have hard numbers for you. And they aren't exactly "quests." Think more in the vein of "incidents you very abruptly are forced to deal with."

[slightlyoffchilt]

Look, and now you've gone and hurt yourself. Just like last time.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Yes, I -- of course I am. I have a doctorate.

So that would be Doctor Chilton.

[enabeled]

That was the point.

Last time.

We all end up suffering a little for the things we want.

[osreborn]

I didn't ask, Dr. Chilton. Wait, next time, unless I give you permission to correct me.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Or suffering quite a lot, for things we never desired.

It would've been so seamless, had you not rejected this identity.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Wait until -- ? [A beat.] Yes. Of course, Mr. Osborn.

Are you very involved in the hospital? If I may ask?

[enabeled]

So you admit it.

Dr. Bloom was telling the truth after all. Not that I expected less from her, but... no denying it now.

[osreborn]

Involved enough. I have other obligations that require my time, but I supervise when I'm not needed elsewhere.

[indentcision]

Look who's talkin'. I've been here longer than you, ugly, got just as much a right to it.

Bet Renee can catch you up. If she hasn't already.

[slightlyoffchilt]

No point in denying it now. Really. You're still a murderer, Abel.

[enabeled]

So are you.

You facilitated the murder of the little nurse, didn't you -- what is that called, "to aid and abet?"

[slightlyoffchilt]

That doesn't really count, because you can't prove it. Isn't that so?

Must be frustrating.