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

The more that they said the less it made sense to V. Illnesses just weren't that serious where he was from as long as you had the money to buy treatment. Hell, his 89-year-old rockerboy boyfriend who had just a rough lifestyle as he had looked in his early or mid-40s. He'd watched a 158-year-old man get strangled to death by his own son - if that hadn't happened, who knew how long the emperor of Japan would have lived? He had the money to last for as long as he wanted.

Well, maybe it made some sense. Cyberpsychosis had a fatal prognosis if the NCPD or MaxTac got involved - which they often did - and there was no real known cure. It was heavily stigmatized as well. Somehow, though, V felt that this wasn't even remotely in the same ballpark. If AIDS caused something violent then he imagined the tone of this conversation would be rather different.

Regardless, V seemed to withdraw into himself a little as they both figured out how many years Mercury had left. It was grim to think about, and he hated that he could relate to this complete stranger about that specific feeling of knowing you will die but not knowing when. It was so fucked that they were standing here talking about this man who had died in one timeline and was alive in this one - was there some version of Johnny or Kerry there standing in some other version of Night City talking about him in the same way? Remembering the day he stormed Arasaka Tower and failed to make it out alive? Talking about how it hardly mattered the outcome - he was fucked if he did, he was fucked if he didn't?

He hated this.

"This is so fucked," he said softly. "We're talkin' about this guy and when he flatlines like it's some casual fuckin' conversation."

V stopped the mindless movements he had been performing, his hand curling into a loose fist resting atop the cassettes.

"He's not even dead yet."

It wasn't like an accident, either, or some other kind of violent happenstance. Wren had read Sound of Thunder like everyone else in their AP English Literature and Composition class and understood the dangers of causality in a situation like this. But even if they were tempted to break the timeline - what could they do? Even if they'd had healing superpowers, they'd have no access to those now. They'd gotten good grades in the sciences but were hardly a professional pathologist. You could... warn him he was dying? He already knew that.

V's words startled Wren out of their own thoughts, blinking up at the guy with mild surprise.

"... You're right. Hell - maybe he doesn't die in this universe, too," Wren said after a few moments to think that over. "It isn't like there's superheroes here, maybe that's another difference between this world and mine."

Maybe he wasn't even sick. Maybe he was but he lived long enough to get the treatment that would significantly improve lifespan and survival chances. If there was at least one major difference between worlds, one couldn't count on everything else being the same across the board, either.

"Screw it, I'm gonna get both tapes."

V wasn't looking at them, not even when they looked at him. He wasn't even thinking of possibilities of trying to save. If there was anything V had learned in the miserable life he'd wasted, it was that things would always end in tragedy. So maybe Freddie wasn't sick here but would rather meet some other tragic end. Or, maybe Freddie lived and some other band would face a tragedy that normally didn't.

Why was he here? He didn't want to be. He just wanted to rest.

"May as well, they're free to you," he said, glad for the shift in conversation. "No point in havin' money if you don't spend it."

He paused a moment to look at a tape of a band he'd actually heard of - Megadeth, for those curious - but had never actually listened to, then glanced up as Wren's comment about their home registered, and then looked to Wren.

"Did you say superheroes?"

Edited 2022-09-01 03:17 (UTC)

It was probably a good thing V asked that last question because otherwise Wren was about to launch into a small lecture on resource management and not being certain if they'd get any other funds to live off of here. Asking about capes though did kind of take precedence.

"Yeah?" Wren said first, like it was the most obvious thing, like V had asked about New York City or firefighters or the concept of basic algebra. Looking back up at V, Wren frowned slightly. "... Masked vigilantes? Some with powers that help them-? Are you kidding is my world the only one that had those?"

Though V would love to argue about money, the idea that someone literally lived in a comic book was so much more interesting to him. Money was the struggle he'd had since he was old enough to be aware that he was hungry. Superheroes, though - that was novel. Were they the same as in comic books? Spectacular people with agents who were so much like rockerboys in terms of fame and political power, contracted to and paid by corporations to push their agendas all in the name of "good"?

So their response - as if he'd just asked a stupid question - put V off a bit, at first, then he considered the entire exchange he'd just had about Queen and Freddie Mercury. He considered how there was what V would consider no technology when, in his home, his arms literally had been replaced with limbs that could turn into swords. He shook his head.

"Can definitely say I don't got those back at home."

Good thing, too. Borgs were enough of a hassle in corporate hands. He couldn't imagine superheroes actually existing and being the enforcers for companies with bad intentions, or even picking a side in one of the many gang wars. He could only imagine the destruction it could cause, the people who were killed as collateral damage. People like him when he was a kid, and his mom.

"Sounds like a hot fuckin' mess. No offense."

((Continued in IC Intro Log!))

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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i can edit to wrap up thread since apps are being judged, if you prefer - plurk @coopyey :>

Nah it's a funny question XD (also imma add you if that's okay! @oncemorewithfeeling is me)

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