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maskormods) wrote2013-12-23 08:09 pm
INFORMATION
These pages are being preserved for reference but are no longer active and will not be updated. Please visit modormenace for all current game information!
The world that imPorts find themselves in now is not unlike our own world... with some differences. Yes, it's 2019, but technology has in many ways advanced beyond what you might be familiar with; a quick body scan at the doctor's can assess your health in less than a minute, teleportation technology is being perfected (though not yet ready for mass market), and cosmetic surgery can be as easy as swallowing a single pill or receiving a single injection. In other ways, you may feel like you've just stepped back into the 50s; prices are low, people are driving Thunderbirds (albeit, some of them hover) and can legally smoke indoors, and the political atmosphere at times seems ripped right from the newspapers of the Cold War days. The social atmosphere, however, is refreshingly modern. Beyond, even, how things are in the real world of 201X.
Still... this is America, although the cities you'll be living in aren't ones found on any regular maps. They're unique to this universe, as are several other cities across the US and countries across the world. You can relax, though; there won't be a geography quiz. Characters will find out more about the lay of the land the longer they stick around.
The locals are friendly — at least as friendly as locals usually are. ImPorts are not disdained here, and you will find most people accommodating to your situation. Historically there have been imPorts here even before you arrived, though they're not here any longer... it seems they made a good impression while they were around.
For further reading on the setting of Mask or Menace, see...
LOCATIONS & HOUSING
MAJOR FIGURES
HISTORY
WORLD & INDUSTRY
EDUCATION & CULTURE
You arrive via the Porter (well, a Porter) in an underground laboratory in the government's Cape Canaveral military. It's as clean and cold as you might expect, but otherwise too dark to observe in-depth. You'll find, by the time you regain your senses and consciousness, your wrist will have already been imprinted with your digital tattoo, which is visible and glows in the room's dim light. The woman manning the machine that brought you here will give you a brief peptalk spiel, but it's not her job to debrief you; once she ports you up to ground level the soldier that picks you up to take you to your new home will do that part. If you care to look, you'll probably notice the base is enormous, topside. It must be even bigger underground.
The soldier that picks you up will give you a file folder containing your profile; your name, your powers (new or familiar), medical history, your new job, and your new address -- how they got this information in the first place is unknown. She also gives you a handheld communicator, similar to an iPhone in appearance, and explains the basics of using it before you're dropped off at your new house in Heropa, a town about twenty minutes drive from the Cape Canaveral base. At the end of the week, there will be a Swear-In Ceremony where you officially swear your oath of devotion to the military... or not.
Good luck from here on out, hero.
The tattoo, you will quickly notice, is not ink -- it almost appears to be projected onto your skin... but it's definitely a part of you. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't feel like anything, really, and luckily enough it's invisible in the light; only when it's dark will you see the faint blue glow it casts. Assuming you stay the course, it won't change from its steady reading of REGISTERED HERO... but if you don't, your tattoo may reflect your new status in society; the technology simply adjusts itself. Still, no matter what it reads they can't find you through it, so it isn't as if you're being watched constantly... keep your wrists covered in low light if you're concerned.
REGISTERED HERO is the default. If you comply with the government and basically live as a normal citizen, whether or not you "enlist" as a superhero with the military, it will read the same. There are more ways to serve your country than putting on spandex.
UNSETTLED HERO is the reading you get if you don't swear your allegiance to the military. You are not penalized for making this choice, per se, but there is a stigma and appropriate consequences attached, most notably a loss of military protection and, if you don't work with the government, you don't receive their benefits. Unsettled heroes are stripped of or do not receive their dog tags.
VIGILANTE is what it will read if your character chooses the alternative route of superheroism: vigilante justice outside of the government's protection or control, thus outside the law.
CRIMINAL is what it will read if your character goes beyond the pale of vigilantism; for the tattoo to reflect this status, greater crimes must be committed. This is the reading that thugs, thieves, and murderers earn.
AWOL is the hardest one to get away with but the easiest to avoid. This is what your tattoo will read if you leave the country without government sanction or disappear in the middle of an assignment without notice, and it's the only tattoo status that notifies the government's system when activated. Characters that have gone AWOL may be subject to disciplinary action upon their return if the military can find them.
FLUID INFORMATION
THE AMBASSADORS
MAURTIA FALLS
FORMER AMBASSADOR
CURRENT AMBASSADOR
DE CHIMA
FORMER AMBASSADORS
FORMER AMBASSADOR
CURRENT AMBASSADOR
NONAH
FORMER AMBASSADOR
CURRENT AMBASSADOR