maskormenacelogs | WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

WHO: ImPorts!
WHERE: All four cities.
WHEN: May 18-25
WHAT: Mayhem strikes as people get trapped in elevators, have to help out drowning, spoiled party people, rescue escaped zoo animals and have a ball with some unwanted song and dance. Have fun, everyone!
WARNINGS: None anticipated; let us know if this should be updated!

MAY 18 - 25
STUCK IN AN ELEVATOR
THE LOVE BUNNY
DE CHIMA

Wherever you happen to be in De Chima, as long as there's an elevator around, it's fair game. Are you visiting a friend in an apartment complex? Visiting a set of offices? Getting your teeth checked out? Or maybe there's a really rad, hidden comic book store you heard about on the top floor of the highest building in town! Whatever the reason, in the lobby, you'll see someone who looks like she's cosplaying, and having an absolute blast doing so. It's not entirely clear what she's cosplaying as, but nobody would dress like that on an everyday basis, right...?

If you write her off without thinking much about it, that wouldn't be much of a surprise; she's as innocuous as they get. She's a young, blonde woman - probably a teenager, though it's hard to tell - with her hair pulled into high pigtails, bangs pulled back with a headband with two bright pink bunny ears perched atop her head. The rest of her outfit is just as outrageously pink, a tight corset over a white t-shirt, a pleated pink skirt, go-go boots and thick black leggings with a bright pink wand (complete with a plastic bunny head attached to the tip) clutched tightly in one hand. Honestly, she looks to be a bit of a wreck, but that's only to be expected from someone young flexing their costume making skills for the first time.

It's only after you glide past her and onto the elevator that you realize that something's wrong. Halfway through your ascent or descent, the entire thing shudders, the lights flicker, and the gears slowly grind to a halt. The speaker in the elevator comes to life, somehow, and a bright, cheery giggle fills the elevator.

"Stop in the name of love! You've been caught byyyyyyyy... The Love Bunny! Cute, right? Just like me! I wish you could see how cute I am, but that would defeat the point, so you'll just have to take my word for it. The world's become such a dreary place, hasn't it? We spend so much time staring down at our phones that we never take the chance to look at each other, and find our one true loves!" She sighs, a dreamy, faraway sound. "Oh, but don't worry - I don't expect you to have to kiss. All sorts of love is beautiful, even if romance is the pinnacle of all love. I'm not letting you out, so you might as well try to get along! Toodles!"

If your characters don't manage to get out by the one hour mark, the speakers will come to life once again, this time with a distinct pout in the Love Bunny's voice. "Oh, poo, you're no fun. But I'm a hero, not a villain, so it's not like I'd trap you in there forever. Go on, and live your sad little loveless lives - just know that I'm rooting for you! Bye-byeeeee!" And with that, the building's electricity will come back to life, and your characters will be freed once more.

MAY 18 - 25
MUSICAL MAYHEM
The Copacabana Conductor
Maurtia Falls

Feel that fascinating rhythm moving to your feet? Feel your ass gyrating to that titillating beat? The answer is yes, yes you do. Whether you wanted to or not. The normally dangerous streets of Maurtia Falls have taken on an even more treacherous edge (for your dignity, at least). It started with a sudden, sharp up-tick in what appeared to be street performers. Then a couple acapella flash mobs. Some questioned whether acapella flash mob is even a thing, but who knows? Maybe some particularly deranged imPort brought the craze with them. The strange man skipping around in spandex with hand-drawn musical notes all over it seems suspect, especially since he's always clutching that tacky little recorder close to his chest, but it’s hard to tell these days. The middle of the month always has so many odd new imPorts arriving.

Towards the middle of the day, the news has changed from reporting these sightings as some strange performance art in the city to declaring them a clear act of super-powered malice, accompanied only by - you guessed it - the shrill piping of a recorder, inducting all around them into spontaneous song-and-dance. ImPorts with particularly good hearing may hear a shrill voice cheering, "there's no day but today for this!" or "enough of the classics; it's time to get thoroughly modern!" or, particularly irritatingly, "All I ask of you is to stand up!"

The fact the news anchors sing this report just underscores the present menace (you know what we mean). The majority of people seem to be performing their day to day while acting out numbers based on famous musicals, but any tune and dance sequence people can manage (or not, as the many petty thieves singing to Oliver! horribly screech as you pass by) is fair game, from country to pop to Klingon Opera.

Particularly news obsessed imPorts may notice that all this musical fanfare was first reported happening near the Maurtia Falls City Stage Theater. Investigators better be ready to put on their best Javert, however, as there’s no avoiding facing (and joining in) the music as you get closer to the heart of the problem.

MAY 18
ZOO(TLOOSE)
Doctor Dolots
Nonah

Police sirens aren’t that uncommon a sound, unfortunately. However, the occasional lion’s roar and outraged peacock squawk piercing through the familiar noise is a new one. Hover cars have surrounded the Nonah zoo, as much keeping the gawking public out as they are trying (and often failing) at keeping the loose animals in. Only imPorts are allowed to pass the tape line to approach the unusual threat. Known unregistered and even vigilante or villain imPorts are given the side-eye, but not questioned (what, are they going to give the tigers nightmares?), but registered imPorts are giving a bit of a heads up by the local civil servants. They aren’t sure if it’s a victim or the cause, but a lieutenant heard loud sobbing from inside the cave of the black bear enclosure before he was forced out by a crowd of vengeful lemurs. Anyone that doesn't want to have to directly deal with Nonah’s finest and head into the zoo itself still has plenty to do, however. Only a fraction of the animals have successfully been kept inside.

Behind the tape and in neighboring areas of the city everything is, well, a zoo. Animals are running everywhere. Elephants are competing with orangutans for fresh boiled peanuts, while otters have taken over public restrooms and are having the time of their lives playing with the automatic toilets. There has also been a disturbing team up of lions, tigers, and polar bears, while cheetahs race past them towards the most appealing prey of zebra, moose, and people.

It will be better for imPort public image to capture rather than harm the animals, but at the end of the day the choice is yours.

MAY 25
WATER WORLD
Marina
Heropa

Sun and fun often bring shouts of delight, but the cries ringing out over the waves are from panic. The equipment keeping the Oceania party platform and artificial reef has malfunctioned due to the excessive weight — social scenester Evan Caulfield's party has way too many guests to celebrate his 25th birthday, it seems! A few nearby pleasure craft approach the site of the sinking soiree, but they just don't have the capacity to bring everyone aboad.

Word quickly reaches the shore, filtered through social media from all the selfies attendees are taking — #sinking #help #thewetlook — and emergency services urge any heroes in the area to come and help.

The scene is chaotic, but just off the shore, a tall, muscular Hispanic woman in her early 40s climbs to the top of a yacht and shouts to get everyone's attention. Decked out in a bright wetsuit that could be a superhero's costume or a fashionable diving outfit, she pumps a fist into the air. "Come on, everyone! We've got to come together and save these people!"

With that, she dives into the water and starts swimming freakishly fast toward the disaster site. She never seems to come up for air, but when she does surface to aid the bewildered partiers, she does a great job making sure they don't go under.

Well, hero? What are you waiting for?

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That is what she said.

[ Along with some nonsense about romance. Was trapping two strangers in an elevator really someone's idea of a helpful match making trick? Absurd.

In a single stride, Yusuke crossed over to the elevator's control panel. Lit by the red glow of the emergency light, he pushed his hair behind his ears and began poking at the buttons, none of which are responsive. The emergency call button clicks uselessly, but none of them light up. ]

I think...that we should just wait here. If the elevator's stopped working, maintenance should be notified soon, if they have not already.

[ He lets his bag slide off his shoulder, and delicately places it on the floor. They might be here a while, so there's no use in carrying it. ]

I've forgotten my manners. My name is Yusuke Kitagawa. I'm sorry we had to meet under such awkward circumstances.

[ Sansa is doing her best not to think about the romance part and what it could possibly mean at the moment. Honestly, it puts her a bit on edge but she hides it as she moves to watch him while trying to make it seem like she isn't hovering. Which feels like a nearly impossible feat in such a small space. ]

There is no button we can use to make it move? Is there any way to call her back and make her listen?

[ This is certainly not how she imagined her day going. ]

My name is Sansa Stark and, really, you don't need to apologize.
It's not your fault. [ She hopes. ]

None of the buttons are working. I've tried them all.

[ Yusuke steps back to lean against the wall of the elevator, and lets himself sink to the floor, defeated. ]

I am not very technologically inclined, unfortunately, so you are welcome to try. But I think we may just have to wait.

I am not used to things like this.

[ Sansa admits with a slightly defeated look of her own. Then she turns, scanning the small space before moving to lean against the wall to his left where she sinks down slowly to sit as well. ]

We don't have things like elevators back home, not like this.

Really? Mine is mostly the same, in terms of technology.

[ There were mysterious phone app portals to alternate worlds, but nothing like the Porter here. He turns to Sansa with a smile, genuinely interested. ]

What is your world like, then?

Edited 2017-05-20 23:50 (UTC)

I have heard people describe it as medieval whenever I tell them about it.

[ Sansa offers a small smile in return. ]

We don't have cars there. Everyone uses horses to ride on or to pull a carriage. Right now I live on a farm but I grew up in a castle.

And I thought I had a hard time adjusting.

[ This is as good a time as any to pull out his sketchbook, he figures, it's not like he's going anywhere fast. Yusuke reaches into his bag and and pulls it out, along with a few pencils of various shapes, and whatever snacks he has stashed in there. Green tea pocky and coffee flavored caramels. ]

It sounds romantic. Like a fairy tale. Probably not to you, if you grew up there, but I've always wondered what life would be like somewhere like that.

[ There's a rip of cardboard, as he opens up the pocky and extends it out for Sansa. ]

Would you like some? I think we might be here for a while.

I've tried my best.

[ There might even be times when she almost fits into this strange world but she is pretty sure that her speech and mannerisms give her away at times.

Then she looks at him again when he comments that her world sounds romantic. ]

I used to think it was.

[ She looks down at the pocky with a curious look, grateful as well for the distraction. ]

What is it?

It's just a biscuit stick, with frosting.

[ He listens to what she has to say intently. The novelty of other worlds, even more different from his own than the one he found himself in, still held his interest. ]

You used to? Why do you say that?

It sounds delicious, thank you.

[ She is careful, almost dainty, in taking one of the sticks before settling back. ]

There has been a lot of fighting back home lately. It can ruin the romantic feeling of almost anything.

Hmmm.

[ Yusuke mulls that over as he chews. Almost everyone here he had spoken to at any length had been part of some kind of problem back home. A war, a rebellion, a world threatening supernatural phenomena. He was no different. ]

Sansa, do you think there's any rhyme or reason to who gets brought here? So many of us have suffered through battle, or injustice, or abuse. Are there any imPorts leaving behind an ordinary life?

[ Sansa takes a little bit of the frosted biscuit as he ponders their different situations. The question he asks is a good one and is enough to have her pausing as she thinks about it too. ]

If there is, I haven't heard about it but I haven't been here that long either. At least, not enough to talk to everyone to learn about their lives.

[ Yusuke sets the box on the floor between them, she's welcome to help herself. ]

Neither have I. But the stories I've heard so far have some broad similarities.

[ There had to be someone here that was normal, for lack of a better word. But he sure hadn't found them. ]

Perhaps it is certain traits, the Porter is looking for. Resilience? Would you call yourself that?

Maybe they feel a person living an ordinary life wouldn't be able to survive whatever is happening here? Especially since they are giving everyone powers?

[ She hasn't met anyone yet that had powers before arriving, not as far as she knows. ]

I suppose that I would. [ She has been called a survivor before. ] Are you resilient?

Or expanding them.

[ Well, she has now! Yusuke had powers back home, although they had only revealed themselves within the last year. He had to go to an alternate world to use them, though, but now, it seemed they would work anywhere. ]

I like to think I am, at least. Things had gotten a bit... unsavory back home, for a while, but I made it through.

[ He's being modest. Fighting all manner of gods and demons to prevent a world-imperiling disaster very much qualifies him as resilient. ]

Expanding them?

[ She gave him a curious look and an opening to further explain his answer if he felt so inclined. She wouldn't push if he didn't want her to. ]

May I ask what happened? If you don't want to talk about it, I understand.

I had the same, or similar powers back home. Now I have constant access to them, where before, there were conditions that had to be met.

[ Yusuke doesn't have a problem talking about them. It was a little unusual, given that he and his friends' activities were a secret back home, but there was no point in hiding it here. Nobody had ever heard of them, as far as he knew. ]

It's a bit of a long story. I got caught up in some supernatural vigilantism, and it got out of hand. We were not expecting to have to save our country's collective subconscious from a wrathful god, but that is where we ended up.

You're lucky, then. At least in having the same or similar powers now, then it probably wasn't so much of a shock for you coming here and being told you would have some.

[ Sansa hasn't really discussed her powers with anyone beyond her two brothers but, even then, it had really only been in passing. There is something about the young man trapped in the elevator that makes it easy to talk, though... ]

What was the wrathful God trying to do exactly?

The rest of it was plenty shocking, I promise you. How about yourself? I take it your abilities are new to you?

[ Yusuke was the sort who was more likely to watch or to listen than talk about himself. It was his artist's instinct, to examine people, places, ideas from all angles, let them reveal their true selves to him instead of projecting what he wanted to see.

He believes there is a beauty to be found in every person, and every feeling. If she wants to share, he is glad to listen, but if not, he won't press. ]

He wanted to remove the chaos from humanity's hearts. And with it, our rebellious spirits, our ability to choose between right and wrong. Without our imperfections we are merely playthings to be strung along.

Yes, they are. I didn't have any kind of powers back home, so this whole thing seems strange to me.

[ For Sansa, it had been a matter of survival when it came to not talking about herself. The Hound had often mocked her over her actions and how she would talk without saying anything, often just repeating the words she was told to say instead of anything from her own head. Mostly because her head had been filled with dark thoughts and ill wishes against those who kept her captive and killed her family.

Folding her hands after she was done the biscuit, she let them rest on her lap while listening to him. ]

Removing the chaos doesn't sound so bad but I can see why you would want to stop it. Why would he want to change everyone like that? So he could control them better?

What did they give you? If you don't mind sharing.

[ Yusuke sighs, reaching again into his snack box. Though the battle against Yaldabaoth was months ago, it was still fresh in his mind. They all very nearly died - it was a proud, if not exactly pleasant memory. ]

The way I see it, the chaos inside us is essential. It is our flaws that make us human, and our unending quest to conquer them gives us purpose. That god wanted humanity to be perfect. But perfection is a lie, and mistakes are part of a full life.

They said that I will have wings which would be interesting. Also the ability to create armor or to turn my skin to armor, I'm not sure yet. Then some sort of ability with my voice.

[ She glances down at the box of biscuits, then gives him a curious look and waiting for a go-ahead before she would get herself another one. ]

But do you ever get tired of all the fighting and the killing?

[ Yusuke listens, eyes wide, and pushes the box closer to Sansa. Wings and armor would be new to him, of all the people he talked to here, nobody had mentioned anything like that. ]

We never hurt anyone, not for real.

[ Not people, at least. He sighs. Here, it must sound silly to anyone who hadn't been there themselves. ]

We...infiltrate minds, and fight the demons held within. Force them to change, so they stop hurting others and can atone for their sins. It was difficult, but I could never tire of it.

Oh.

[ Sansa feels slightly awkward for a moment, almost like she has said too much, and she clears her throat while glancing down at the box that is now sitting closer to her.

Then she looks at him again. ]

And you can do that to anyone? No matter how terrible?

[ Take it. He's about to just put it in her hand! ]

As long as they are truly terrible, or have awful things they have yet to atone for. It won't work on someone who is simply annoying.

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turned_to_steel - 2017-06-05 00:51 (UTC) - Expand

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lempereur - 2017-06-05 04:14 (UTC) - Expand

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