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cursedcontent2022-08-20 11:49 am
cursedmods) wrote in cursedcontent2022-08-20 11:49 am
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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.Roller Rink
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.
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.Mallrats
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.
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.Extra Info
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.
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.
2!
D-do I look all right?!
[That doesn't mean she'll be nice about it.
She straightens on shaky legs, one arm flinging out to find balance. She almost topples instead, and has to snag the strange man's arm with both hands to pull herself together.]
How...how does anybody find this "fun"? I'd rather get p-pelted with erasers.
no subject
It is fun if you are good at it. [ Again—like ice skating. Probably why he's having an okay time, at least, compared to most of the other people here, even if he's not particularly proud of his performance. He was hardly a figure skater back home, but he could at least do enough to not look as awkward as he knows he does right now. ]
It is hard to get used to. Do you need help to go back to rail?
no subject
D-don't rub it in! I already know I'm garbage at this! [Honestly. Did he expect that to sound encouraging?
His offer has her looking to the railing. Sweet, sweet sanctuary. She could just give up.
Her jaw squares, her grip tightens. She turns her focus back to the track ahead.]
No. [Fukawa says firmly.] I'm n-not going to fold like some wet napkin. I have to finish.
[She pulls herself back up, slow and steady. There, feet under her hips, chin up and ready to go. The odds may be against her, but she has a mission. There's only been one whiff of a potential clue so far. It's waiting for her at the finish line.]
I'm g-going to get that stupid walkman. No matter what.
no subject
[ Vasiliy straightens up and takes a step back to give her room—he gets the sense that the girl's probably going to wipe out again in the immediate future, but it seems just as likely that she will be offended by help if she does. Some people have to learn on their own.
Still, he at least offers some advice: ]
Turn the foot you're going to push with out little bit. The toes should not be forward completely. You push and then come back down and go forward. Like ice skating.
no subject
Um. Like this? [She tries a little push, and whoa whoa whoa!
Though her hands fling out she doesn't tumble this time. Only scoots ahead by half a meter.]
Okay, so that's...j-just keep going like that? [Which sounds very final, and she's not ready to fly solo yet.]
Wait! Don't — I won't get the hang of it just like that! You better...you b-better stick it out with me to the end! [He's gotta be twice her age. Maybe? Hard to tell. Still, there's got to be some sense of chivalry in him. Obligation says he can't abandon a young girl in need. He'd look cruel if he tried.]
I'll even split the prize with you.
no subject
Okay. Another step. You are going to move forward; that's good. You want to move. Just grab me if you lose your balance.
[ He's not talented at this, per se, but he's managed to more-or-less master staying upright. Besides, he's 5'7. By today's standards that's apparently pretty low to the ground, a change in perspective he'll never be thrilled about. ]
no subject
Fukawa takes turns casting her owlish eyes his way and then to the track below. In theory it all sounds quite easy. Gravity nags at her every move and yet with his guidance, she's staying afloat. It's slow going of course. She's got no natural proclivities for sports of any kind. All that innate grace went to her other half — some inexplicable, psychosomatic split keeps their talents separate. She writes, Syo fights. She stutters, Syo soliloquizes. It's the sort of anomaly a neurologist would wet themselves over.
There's a near topple to the left and she has to snag his arm again. Fukawa wishes desperately she could bridge that gap. Maybe someday, if there's any experts on the subject left. For now she's got to put all her faith in this total stranger. He's shown her an awful lot of grace, considering she's done nothing but be a total pest.]
S-sorry. [That should probably be a thank you instead. She grits her teeth and tries a different tack.] This is probably really boring to you, isn't it? It's all kid's stuff. D-do they expect us to just wait around playing games while they fix this...c-"curse" shit?
no subject
Skating is not only for kids. I think this could be fun if you practice. It's fun on ice.
[ Again, a pang of nostalgia, the memory of ice-coated branches overhanging the frozen pond in Gorky Park, laughter and conversation in his own language, the burn of Moscow's winter cold on his nose and cheeks, little children taking the sorts of wobbling steps she's taking now. ]
Maybe they are not fixing it. [ A dangerous, almost seditious thought, one he doesn't intend to go any further with. Who knows who's listening? ] I think we have to.
your info page says he has an accent, hope this is okay?
Fukawa pulls a face that belies several doubts.]
I'll take your word for it.
[Although — all right, it's hard to parse with this mysterious auto-translation sorcery going on, which is something she both does not want to think about and cannot stop thinking about, but he does have an accent of some kind. It would be easier to tell which if they were speaking Japanese. It sounds sort of European? Nordic, German? Russian? Something stoic and northerly, nowhere near percussive enough for the Mediterranean. Maybe he's got a history of long winters with little else to do but strap on a pair of skates.]
Y-you're probably right. [It's not a comforting idea, but it's a likely one. If nothing else, Fukawa has learned that relying on outside forces to fix anything was a fool's tactic. They're the ones in this mess, so they'll have to be the ones to climb out of it. Still, the addition of the supernatural puts a potent wrinkle in that. The stunt with the door keeps giving her goosebumps, the image snapping back into mind on an hourly rotation. Then there's the anachronism of the setting, the bizarre spread of captives, the oblivious locals. That stupid shared dream.
How are they expected to contend with a force so nebulously defined? She's drawing nothing but blanks. If she had been a sci-fi or fantasy enthusiast maybe she'd have better theories.]
I still d-don't know what to believe. Or what they're even talking about. Have you seen anything weird yet? [She shoots him a quizzical glance.] I don't feel cursed.
yes! he definitely does.
This place seems normal. Only arrival was weird. And the door lock, with blood. ...I think we are in nineteen-eighties.
[ He knows they're in the Eighties, because the first thing he did upon waking up in an unfamiliar place—after hunting for styptic powder for his hand—was locate a newspaper. It's not the first time he's woken up in a different time, but it is the first time others have been there with him, which leads him to wonder if he didn't die in his sleep despite that initially seeming a likely explanation given the events of his paused-and-resumed life thus far.
Seeing a wall of replicas of Gorbachev's face moving in sync across a dozen TV screens in a store window at the mall also helped grind in the point. ]
Excellent ty ty
Fukawa's eyes narrow and turn back to her feet. There's a clumsy rhythm going now, she's been able to let go of his sleeve and so does not need to watch herself so close. She just needs a second to review. There's a grunt of dissatisfaction —] The eighties. [— before she takes a slight pause. Let her mull the implications over.]
This is so r-ridiculous. Maybe...it's some kind of simulation? [She looks to him for affirmation.] We could have had our consciousness uploaded into a program, our memories tampered with. It would explain how they're p-pulling all this bullshit off.
no subject
Maybe, but that does not seem likely. I think we are really here. Where I am from, technology is not so advanced. 2018.
no subject
And t-time travel is?
[How does he figure that? Technological trickery was ten times more likely than getting flung across time and space. And yes, there were a lot of abnormalities to account for, she wasn't forgetting that (like she ever could), but such things could easily be explained if they were hooked up to a virtual reality. Anything could be coded in. It would only take the click of a few keys and voila! A ghost, a time-traveler, an autotranslater in your head!
She'd even believe this was a kooky cult holed up in some secluded sanctuary, dressing the place like it was the good old days and snatching outsiders for indoctrination. Maybe the weirder stuff was just subliminal suggestion? Hypnosis? Straight up brainwashing? Again, all more plausible than the alternative. To jump right to H.G. Wells and skip Philip K. Dick seems downright insane.
Then she realizes the implications of everything else he said. Her skating slows as she bobs her head back, totally agape.]
N-no it's not. [What in the world?] It's 2014! And technology is close enough! Th-there's AI with personalities already!