maskormods: (Default)
Mask or Menace | MODERATORS ([personal profile] maskormods) wrote in [community profile] maskormenacelogs2017-05-18 12:47 pm

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?

candor1: (Jedha . ceño)

2. HA! Finally figured out how to get around Cassian's ABSOLUTE REFUSAL to sing!

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-21 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kay's comm pinged at him. …Or rather it had been accidentally transmitting. And now the channel opens back up with Cassian's disembodied (safely not in Maurtia Falls) response:]

Kay?
reexamined: (009)

<3 !!

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-22 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
[Unfortunately, the musical number continues, and he still has no idea how to stop it. The words just keep happening, along with different tone and volume levels adjusting themselves- ]

Watching a vegetarian being told she just ate chicken, or watching a frat boy realize just what he put his-

[And then he hears his name, coming from his communicator. He quickly picks it up.]

Cassian?
candor1: (Yavin andiamaje . agudo)

[video]

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-22 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
[the transmission switches, on Cassian's end, to video. Either to encourage Kay to do the same so Cassian can get visual confirmation. Or just for Kay to be able to see Cassian's raised eyebrow

Debates a couple of things to say—

please finish that sentence
please never finish that sentence
do you need me to come check for magnets on your cranial shell casement


But decides just to start with,]


Are you okay?
reexamined: (009)

[Video]

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-22 12:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Cassian, I can't control my vocabulator-

[Kay whines as he switches to video, shows he's fine visually. But then he's right back to whatever musical spell he's under, and back to singing cheerfully.]

Being on an elevator when somebody shouts "Hold the door!"

"NO!"

Schadenfreude!

"Fuck you lady, that's what stairs are for!"
Edited 2017-05-22 12:14 (UTC)
candor1: (Yavin . pic#11408870)

[Video]

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-22 05:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[This isn't even Kay's idiom. …If there being some continuity in, perhaps…

Could he have been hacked?]


Hang on, Kay. I'm with you. I'm not disconnecting this line. Just opening another.

[He was throwing open channels and search windows to see if there was any other chatter that might give him a clue who might be—

…had to instantly turn down the volume as was greeting not so much with chatter but… cacophonous symphony.

Both of Cassian's eyebrows shoot up.

He digs more. Official, sublegal, public and private sources alike.

He sits back down, slowly, from where he'd been starting toward the door.]


…Do you want the good news or the bad news?
reexamined: (013)

[Video]

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-22 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[He wants to ask for the bad news first, but instead he says in an unusual tone:]

Straight-A students getting Bs?
candor1: (Jedha . atrapado . mirando)

[Video]

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-22 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
…Right.

Well. The good news: It's not just you. You're not malfunctioning and haven't been hacked. It seems to be a city-wide phenomenon throughout Maurtia Falls.

[collating the pattern had been easy; that was the origin of all relevant transmissions including Kay's. …And there was a news anchor giving a report—well, an aria—about it, for confirmation.]

My guess would be a phenomenon related to somebody's powers. The bad news is—

[and he does grimace, and a bit of old pain his eyes, 'cause no matter how non-lethal and even (if one ignores the violation aspect) funny this might be, Cassian hates saying these words, having them be true, especially to his family]

—I can't do anything to help. You'll have to wait it out.

[He had no doubt this would be temporary. The logistics of it being indefinite were much less likely than… the thing itself.]

…I can stay on the line if you want. …Or not, if that's…

Don't suppose you can find a way to enjoy it? Tabulate data on who's singing what?

[Speaking of schadenfreude. Not that Cassian knows that term, but he's added looking it up to the multitasking queue.]
reexamined: (010)

[Video]

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-23 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ Unfortunately, the song doesn't feel like giving up, so while Cassian's giving his explanation, Kay still can't help himself, and continues to sing in the background regardless. He's still listening though.

The news that he isn't being hacked is such a relief. He didn't think it was likely, given that he knows he would have at least felt it a little before he completely lost it, but then again, is this completely undetectable change in his ability to control his body really a good thing? By comparison, maybe. Overall, absolutely not.

He figured he'd have to wait it out. There's nothing he could do otherwise.

He just wishes Cassian wasn't on the phone to hear and see all of it. There's a breather in the music here for him apparently, as apparently several people behind him have taken on repeating the chorus rather than him having to do it, and so he can actually talk again for a brief second: ]


Does this look like it's something I can enjoy?

[ And, unfortunately, it's Kay's turn again: ]

The world needs people like you and me, who've been knocked around by fate. 'Cause when people see us, they don't want to be us, and that makes them feel great. We provide a vital service, to society! You and me, Schadenfreude! Making the world a better place to be!
candor1: (Jedha . cubrir)

[Video]

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-23 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
[Further eyebrow-raising. Cassian had been about to offer to log off, remove himself as a witness, but that bit seemed... applicable. Sorry, Kay, some follow up now required.]

What is this... song, anyway? Is this coming to you spontaneously?

[Or did Kay partake in entertainment forms sometime?

The participation of strangers is probably more disturbing if not.]
reexamined: (014)

[Video]

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-23 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ In the background, the singers say one last line of spelling out schadenfreude by letter, and the song ends, finally. ]

While I'm sure you'd love to hear me say I knew exactly what I was singing, I've never heard that song before. Even if it seemed appropriate, at times.

[ Kay doesn't believe much in coincidences. But that's the only thing stopping him from pinning the song choice on exactly that. ]
candor1: (Yavin . retrato . conocer)

[Video]

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-25 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[Cassian's studiously not reacting to Kay's backup. Though spelling the word out is very helpful. It mercifully gives him something concrete to do in transcribing the rapid delivery of letters then properly searching for the word on the 'net.]

Um… well… it suggests a Terrestrial [by which he means this-planet-specific] origin. Should I… um… keep you up to to date with my research or would you rather be filled in later?

[Or seek compensation, or never speak of it again]
reexamined: (011)

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-25 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
There's something else you could do for me.

[ His tone suggests that what he's about to ask for is not actually a real request. ]
candor1: (Yavin . andamiaje . enfrentarme . sonreí)

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-25 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
[Well… but maybe it could at least be helpful to just let him say it. Cassian braces for impact.]

Okay.
reexamined: (004)

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-25 04:30 am (UTC)(link)
Come here.

[ Embarrass yourself. ]
candor1: (Yavin . andén . Draven . general)

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-25 05:01 am (UTC)(link)
[…okay. Anticipation incorrect. Cassian had been prepared for cursing.]

Um…

[Ugh.

Cassian heaves a sigh.]


Will that really help?

[Wouldn't be the first time he's had to dance for a higher cause.]
Edited 2017-05-25 05:11 (UTC)
reexamined: (011)

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-25 02:45 pm (UTC)(link)
No. I just wanted you to say you would.

[Kay's tone actually sounds a bit cheered up now.

He's interpreting that sigh of resignation as a yes, that Cassian would, if Kay really demanded it. That's enough.
]

candor1: (Jedha . duna . disimular . sonreír)

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-25 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[Interpretation correct.

Cassian's response, to anyone else, could read as sarcasm re: the prank.

But to Kay, it's genuine appreciation for letting him off the hook.]


Thanks, Kay.

[There is a part of his mind that's interested in the experiment. But it doesn't have a chance against the rest of him, that point blank refuses to sing.]

…So there's more data. The terrestrial word—

[not going to say Schadenfreude, less because he hesitates to wrap his mouth around it—anything coined with human speaking apparatus automatically easier than anything not—except Krish, for some reason—probably catharsis—but more in case it trigger Kay to launch into a reprise]

—isn't you after all.
reexamined: (004)

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-25 03:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know what you mean.

[He does, actually, but there's enough that can be left up to interpretation that he could ignore what Cassian means and not have it be a lie. It's a compliment, but not the kind of compliment he'll openly acknowledge. It wasn't praise of his intelligence, of his ability to calculate, or anything he is proud of. It was of his empathy, something he wasn't even supposed to have. Some humans are embarrassed about things that make them less human. Kay's embarrassed about things that make him more.]
Edited 2017-05-25 15:36 (UTC)
candor1: (Yavin . retrato . conocer)

[-> private]

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-25 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Of course you don't.]

Don't worry about it.

[Cassian hesitated.

It seemed like it might have passed. Or Kay was just in remission. Cassian didn't want to accidentally start him singing again.

But… fair was fair.

He resets the security setting of transmission.]


About to tell you something top secret. Never to repeat. You got that?
Edited 2017-05-25 18:42 (UTC)
reexamined: (005)

[private]

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-25 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
[The moment has passed... Or, the right words might just need to trigger a song. Who knows. Either way, when Cassian says top secret, Kay makes an effort to dodge away into a less populated alley.]

Go ahead.
Edited 2017-05-25 18:44 (UTC)
candor1: (Yavin . andén . olvida)

[private]

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-25 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[Cassian shut his eyes for a moment. Yavá, why was he doing this…

Because, Kay, that's why.

Resignedly, not even knowing what his voice would sound like singing… (Literally never)

Under his breath, Cassian did a few lines of BoSS Code's Signal Your Surrender.]
reexamined: (011)

[personal profile] reexamined 2017-05-25 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kay's quiet, watches and listens to this very vital information with such intent. He even waits a few more seconds after Cassian finishes.

But when K-2SO speaks up, his photoreceptors flicker for a brief moment.
]

Thank you, Cassian.

[He sounds so absolutely fond right now, one might wonder when he picked up on the ability to be so.]
candor1: (Yavin . andamiada . esquema . sonreír)

[personal profile] candor1 2017-05-26 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
[Worth it, then.

Cassian gives his own equivalent of the flickering photoreceptors in a lopsided smile.]


Got your back.