TEST DRIVE MEME #0

[capitalm]

A TIME VORTEX has opened in downtown LA! Some magic folks have been contacted to close it, but they haven't gotten here fast enough for the vortex not to spill out a HECK TON OF DINOSAURS – all kinds of dinosaurs of all kinds of sizes. There are theoretically gentle herbivores among the fierce predators, but they are all pretty pissed off about their sudden, startling relocation, and a lot of them have spikes.

(The vortex is both temporally and spatially unstable, which is why the dinosaurs emerging onto the streets of LA are constrained neither by specific prehistorical era nor geographical location.)

What you do is up to you. Here are some suggestions, though:

Fight some dinosaurs. You might be trying to herd them back to the vortex, or just trying to stop them by any means possible.

Flee or hide. If you're lucky the dinosaurs won't work out how to open doors and you can spend your entire thread hiding behind the bar in a Starbucks with some other hapless civilians without having to confront any of them.

Try to capture the dinosaurs on camera. If you can get some really good photos you might be able to sell them to the local paper in order to supplement your elderly aunt's meagre income. Or just use them to get a bunch of notes on Tumblr, either way.

Take advantage of the chaos to do crime. The forces of law enforcement are preoccupied with all these prehistoric reptiles.

Or pretty much anything else you think your character might be doing. Any location in LA is game, although there's no real need to meticulously look them up – you can just assume a generic street, rooftop, store, etc. (You don't have to look up the dinosaurs, either.)

If you have a character who you'd like to assume is part of a team, but that team hasn't been named or brainstormed OOC yet or anything, feel free to indicate in your opening post that you're assuming your character is operating alongside others and encourage others to tag in as if they are part of the same team! Or just handwave it and assume they got caught without their usual teammates or separated from them. Whatever way works best for you.

Events from this test drive are not automatically assumed game canon, but individual threads can be if you and the people who you thread with end up mutually wanting to keep them.

Comments

[hellacold]

Jon has been fighting dinosaurs all day, stopping only to search through the rubble for sturdier weapons than his claws--currently he has a sand-filled mannequin hand on a post stuck through his belt loop--and he didn't bring a water bottle, mostly because he didn't have room in his black leather jacket. His black leather jacket is, actually, not optimal workout gear for downtown LA, even in the winter, and he is, consequently, extremely warm. This has led him to his current position outside a coffee shop (he has not yet located a drugstore), squinting through the window to see if they have water bottles. Perhaps they'll give him a cup of water without having to buy anything--was it LA or New York where you don't drink the tap water? It's probably filtered if it's a coffee shop--for fighting the dinosaurs. He has his wallet if they don't, and they probably have granola bars or something. He did bring a protein bar, but he ate it ages ago. If it weren't for his healing factor, he probably would have passed out by now.

A nice girl seems to be taking a picture of him through the window; he gives her a smile, momentarily forgetting his mouth and nose are covered by a black bandana. Instead he raises his arm in greeting, incidentally showing off quite a lot of dried blood on his fingers. He is not so much concerned with this as with whether or not it is legit for superheroes to go into coffee shops during missions.

[missinterference]

He would see the nice girl (gal, one might say; and she thinks herself very nice) begin to frown at him. She disappears briefly, and then reappears with a stack of freshly-opened paper towels and a bottle of hand sanitizer.

"Flora Poste," she says upon exiting the coffeeshop. "How do you do, Mr.--? Hold out your hands, please. Is that your blood? Have you been tested for bloodborne infection--? Never mind. The black leather is fetching, I must say, but for all you lot enjoy the aesthetics it is a chore to clean. Your dry cleaner must have strong words for you."

Dinosaur attack or no, Flora's clothes are of course perfect: vintage pencil skirt, cardigan set, sensible pumps. She had applied fresh lipstick while she was in the ladies' room. (Why waste a good mirror, after all?) It was with reluctance that she parted from Flickr--but here, this poor boy practically begged her for help, which nobody else is capable of providing so well as she. All this frantic running-about, just because of some giant animals ruining the city! Do they not have disaster plans in Los Angeles? Aren't they used to this sort of thing by now? Honestly.

[hellacold]

Jon blinks and holds out his hands--no Stark man in all their illustrious history has ever been able to resist the command of a well-intentioned lady who seems to know what she's doing.

"Longclaw," he says. "I think my powers keep me from getting sick--some of it is dinosaur blood."

Feathers, apparently, can bleed a lot, if you slice through the rachis, which is patently unfair as it doesn't seem to slow down the dinosaur very much and consequently the blood gets everywhere. He'd thought the black would hide the stains, at least, but her mention of dry cleaning worries him--Sansa would be upset if he'd damaged her handiwork permanently.

As she is in possession of his hands, she might notice they do not currently have claws, long or otherwise. In fact, the nails are bitten rather short.

[missinterference]

"Ah, yes," says Flora. "I have never been sick a day in my life. Though that is sheer obstinacy on my part, and well-preparedness. There." She relinquishes him. "I must call you 'Longclaw' I suppose. The codename could be worse. You must be very tired and thirsty. And hot, in that jacket. I've asked the barista to bring you out some water--there she is, thank you," she adds crisply, as the terrified teenager rolls out a couple of water bottles and dashes back for shelter.