cursedcontent | TEST DRIVE MEME #1

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

A Blood Offering

You wake up cozy in bed at the Saturn Motel. As you observe the room you may realize that it looks a little dated. Or, perhaps from your point of view the lamp and TV are wildly futuristic. Or, like Goldilocks, it may seem just right: close to the world you just left behind. Either way, you just had a very strange dream (see the arrival scenario) and now you're here. And you're not alone: there's a bed next to yours and someone else is waking up just like you are.

You can chat for a while if you like, but if you try to leave you'll find the door is firmly locked and no amount of kicking, punching, or hitting it with an object will do you any good. Instead, there's a letter on the nightstand which reads:

"Good morning and welcome to your new home!

You may be wondering why you're trapped in this room. Fear not, the door will open easily if you offer a bit of blood. More than a few drops but not enough to be a serious wound. A handprint's worth will do, let's say, and it only needs to come from one of you.

I'll let you sort that out yourselves. See you on the other side.

Sincerely,
The Mayor"

And indeed, a handprint's worth of blood pressed against the door will unlock it and let you out into the world. Do you volunteer your own blood? Do you take it from the other person by force? It's up to you! But there's no food in here, so you better figure it out eventually.

Roller Rink

As a celebration of your new lives here (and an apology for the whole blood offering thing - they were just testing something out, really) the Mayor has invited everyone to the Crazy Eight Roller Rink for a private, after-hours party.

Attendance isn't mandatory, but it is heavily encouraged so that you can meet your fellow Cursed and know who's in on the whole secret. It'll help you down the line at some point if your Curse gets out of control and you need someone to wrangle you.

As a reward, everyone who shows up and completes at least one lap around the roller rink (you must be wearing skates, but you can crawl the lap if you can't get the hang of them) will receive a free walkman with a mystery tape inside. The color, style, and mystery tape your character gets are up to you.

Mallrats

Everyone loves the mall! Right? Right! And this group of newcomers is lucky enough to be here for the White Pines Mall Grand Opening celebration! Feel free to walk around the mall and partake in sales galore, check out the attractions, or just get to know the layout of the place.

The Mayor has given everyone a gift card for $100 that can be used anywhere in the mall as long as they attend the Grand Opening.

They also strongly suggest that you familiarize yourself with the mall and its layout, just in case you ever get stuck there for a while and have to compete with others for food and resources. But that probably won't happen.

Extra Info

The test drive meme and the IC intro log will have the same prompts, and threads between two accepted characters can count as game canon.

The first prompt is flexible: technically you're supposed to be with one other person, but if you want to do larger groups that's fine.

Rooms at the Saturn Motel initially contain two beds for the prompt, but upon leaving and returning characters will find that they all have their own rooms with one bed. If you want a roommate, someone better be ready to sleep on the floor or snuggle up! The room doesn't have to look exactly like the reference image as long as it's not too fancy and suitably dated.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Speaking of people who are awfully good at this, here's Steve Harrington, who's never met a sport that didn't like him. That includes rollerskating, which is barely a sport he thinks but it's the principle of the matter.

He's long since completed his one lap, now he's just skating because what else is he gonna do? Take his Walkman and leave? Well, yeah, okay, but maybe he's actually enjoying himself, and he can't help himself when he sees the poor man clinging to the barrier while somehow also having the time of his life. ]

Here. [ Steve skates up with a walker, like what you'd find on an ice skating rink to help people practice and stay upright. ] Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy. I learned in like, a week one summer to impress a girl. No sweat.

[ Local youth a hero, a friendly angel walking the earth. Rolling the earth. That's one to think about. Stede will not remember to think about it.

He invests his thought process in registering that he is, in fact, being offered some help by said local youth instead. Color him pleasantly surprised, because he sort of just thought that he'd finish out his little one-man party and that would be that on that. Everyone's dealing with a weird time right now. ]

Oh, fab. Thank you. [ A nice thing about a practice walker is that it's very straightforward. Stede can get what it's going for. This is so much easier than dragging himself along? ] Wow. I know we're all going round the same circle anyway, but a little range of motion really makes a difference! I feel like part of the gang already.

[ Steve has absolutely no idea where this guy came from, and he can't help the way a bemused sort of laugh comes out of him. Who even talks like that? ]

Yeah, you fit right in.

[ It's not really a lie. This place is full of all sorts of them, all pulled from different places, all trying to make sense of what's going on with them. And not everyone's having a good time on the rollerskates, so, you know, Steve's not lying about that, either. ]

I'm Steve.

[ He figures, hey, he's already here, he might as well help the man make it around a lap. ]

[ All the work it took getting used to climbing ropes and ladders on the Revenge, just to be back at coordination square one with these skates. Truly life is a never-ending series of weird little hurdles.

This one is not horrifying and seems to really be fostering a sense of teamwork, which is nice. Stede's never one to complain about getting a "you fit right in."

If he ever meets the Mayor, he'll keep that in mind as a talking point. It'll help his other criticisms go over. ]

Oh, I'm Stede. Listen to that, we almost match! [ They could be part of a really weirdly specific club. ] Do you have a lot of stuff like this back home, then?

[ He pulls a hand from the walker exactly long enough to make a circular little "basically this entire building" gesture. ]

Yeah.

[ Steve smiles, a bit awkwardly at the comment of nearly matching names, unsure about what to do about someone being so excited by something like that. Especially when that someone is a grown man. But, hey, to each their own, right? And Steve's working on being a bit more accepting of people.

So he gladly carries on to the next point of conversation, which is a lot easier to talk about. ]

This? The roller rink in Hawkins is pretty lame, honestly, but the rest of it's pretty much the same. Do you, uh ... Not have one of these where you're from?

[ Somewhere not America. Canada, maybe. ]

[ Stede tries to picture what a "lame" version of a roller rink looks like, in the specific not actually trying to picture it way that any middle-aged man tries to figure out Kids These Days.

How lame could it be if there's still rolling in the rink? Sounds fake. It must be subjective. ]

If we had one, I'd already know how to do this with flair. I'm afraid it's a bit ahead of my time. [ By exactly how long, he doesn't know and won't bother researching. ] Might take it home with me, though! I think the crew would love this if we found the space for it.

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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