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

Do they? [She's got no idea who they are, but she'll take Peter's word for it.] I wonder why that is. [Nancy browses through a few of the cassettes herself, trying to see if anything sounds interesting. She has a few in hand already, and turns to Peter.]

Are any of these good? [She hands him The Smiths, Sisters of Mercy, and Oingo Boingo. She points to that one.] I liked the name. Bit silly, innit?

( they is deliberately vague — not anyone peter's come across here — but more everyone peter ever meets in space. like, yes, he knows technology has come a long way from ribbons and plastic, but he likes it. he likes the process of finding a cassette, finding the right location and the right when in space to be able to (re)record his favourite songs. it's a sentimental process in more ways than one, and the inevitable trips down memory lane are as close as he wants to get to actual time travel. ) A sad case of a superiority complex, ( is his answer then, half-mumbled and semi-distracted.

but then she asks him if any of the tapes she's holding are good and he turns to appraise her findings. ) Ye— ah. ( the smiths are one of those that he can only listen to so much of. sure, a lot of it's more tongue in cheek than some people like to think, but after a little while, there's only so much nobody loves me and I'm so lonely a guy can take. he taps the tape, and says— ) Maudlin, ( beat. oingo boingo, another tap— ) Acquired taste. ( sisters of mercy— ) Yes.

...Right, [she frowns slightly. Not a great answer, but he's distracted. She'll forgive him. Besides, he's helping her with all of this music.]

Right, okay, Sisters of Mercy then. [She slides the other cassettes back.] What else is good? I mean, what should an eighteen-year-old woman like here? [She looks at a copy of Aladdin Sane and frowns slightly.]

I can be quiet, if you want to browse on your own.

( she puts the other two tapes back and asks what else she should like, and peter shoots her a pointed look, blue eyes meeting hers for just a moment. he remembers being her age, remembers doing his very best to pretend that he didn't care what others thought of him, remembers doing his very best to ensure that others didn't like him because it 'totally didn't matter' and 'wasn't important', but it had been a lot easier said than done. )

There's no 'should', ( he answers, plucking the two tapes back out. ) The whole point, ( he continues, ignoring her remark about being quiet, ) is that you can listen to anything you want to listen to and it doesn't matter who you are.

( belatedly though, he notices the cassette she'd been frowning at and he eyes it himself before quite suddenly telling her— ) —try and find The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust.

No should, [she repeats, frowning just slightly. She likes Peter. He doesn't seem to judge, and took the time to explain things to her. She was so far out of time and it was good to have a friendly face she could speak with.]

I like that, quite a lot. It makes sense, when there's so many options.

[She keeps Sisters of Mercy, but starts to look for his next recommendation.] Is that a band? Or a book?

( peter's found himself displaced in time once or twice, and whilst it's never his favourite experience, it's only ever been something he's experienced as an adult and after being through enough weird and wonderful experiences that he can put it — roughly — down to just being another day that ends in 'y'.

what he can remember, though, is being a teenager-slash-young adult-slash-totally not as grown up as he believed himself to be at the time in space, light years from home and with nothing to return to. everything was strange and unfamiliar, and he'd been desperate to prove himself. to take control of his destiny rather than have himself pulled about by chance.

(his ego had been wild.)

whilst he doesn't think the same of nancy, he gets the feeling of being displaced, of having to try and think quickly on your feet so that you're not letting people know that you don't know half as much as you're pretending you do.

or maybe that last bit was still just him. )

It's an album by Bowie. It — kind of — tells a story. ( he gestures at aladdin sane. ) You can listen to that one after you've listened to Ziggy.

—But it doesn't really matter what I think is good. Half the fun is finding something and not having any idea who or what it is, and taking it home because you like the name or the picture on the front.

Alright. [She keeps Aladdin Sane in her small pile, and Ziggy once she finds it.] So it's a bit like an opera, yeah?

[She looks at him and nods, considering.] Alright. Then- [She picks up The Smiths again.] I could do with something a bit sad.

[She was, though she did her best to hide it, a sad girl]

I just don't want to waste money on something I'm not going to like.

That's why you've got radio, ( he tells her, before gesturing in the direction of the cash desk, next to which is a neat display of packs of blank cassettes, advertised at the bargain price of, like, $3.99 or something else stupendously era-appropriate.

(it's one banana, michael, what could it cost?)

he thinks he remembers reading that recording music off the radio was illegal back when he was a kid, but truthfully, he's not sure if that was a fever dream made up by an overactive imagination or if you could totally go to jail for pirating music from radio stations. earth laws are not his strong point. )

You hear a song that you like, don't know where to get it or just— ( he shrugs ) don't love it enough to spend actual money on it, just wait for the DJ to play it again.

( up until the last few days, recording radio waves broadcast deep into space was the only way peter was able to curate his collection — space was great for a lot of things, but there's not much that can hold a candle to earth music. )

—The Smiths are more about loneliness than sadness, ( he adds belatedly, shooting her a glance. )

[Look. Illegal things are a way of breathing for Nancy. Legal things are much more rare. That whole breaking rules thing.]

Oh! That's so lovely. Like hearing a song when you walk past a window, but there is a chance you'll hear it again. And I suppose, it's a good way to sample what's out there.

[She looks over the track listing on the back of the cassette. Loneliness, huh? She bites her lower lip. The song names are odd, but, so are most of them she's seen. She thinks about home, about Bill, and how profoundly alone she could be, even in a room full of people. She wondered if she was even missed.

She puts the album in her basket.] What is a DJ?

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

but what if I said also the mall now that they are bros?

also yes

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject