cursedcontent | TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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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.

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It'll need to be more than a papercut.

[Just to drive that point home. She's already decided she'll be the one to do it, and now it's just a matter of the right tool. It only takes her a few steps to catch her reflection in the mirror, and while she quickly looks away from it, there might be an answer.]

We can break that.

Okay, well, in my defense I've never needed to like, measure or gather any amount of blood. I just doubt there's a knife or something in here.

[ Eddie looks to her, then the mirror. Then back to her. ]

Okay. Yeah. That works.

[ He yanks the pillowcase off of one of the pillows on the bed he'd woken up in, balling his hand into a fist and wrapping the fabric around it to soften the blow. ]

What's your name, by the way? I'm Eddie.

Wanda.

[She replies easily enough, but she does look a little alarmed when he starts to prepare that pillowcase. If she had her magic, she would just shatter the mirror--but if she had her magic, she would have already blown through the door.]

Wait. You're not going to punch it, are you? [He doesn't seem to be anything beyond a normal person. Probably not a good idea. Then again, if there's blood, well--] We can try throwing something at it. See if that works.

[ Eddie freezes, staring at her like a deer in headlights. ]

Well, yeah, I was gonna. That... That sounds a lot smarter, though. I'm not exactly known for my punching skills.

[ He isn't thinking straight, clearly. What happened to the Eddie who ran away from danger? Unwrapping his hand, he tosses the pillowcase back onto the bed and tugs the bedside table forward so he can unplug the alarm clock. ]

You wanna do the honors?

Neither am I. It means we have to be creative.

[And if she doesn't have her magic, she's defenseless. Even taking the alarm clock into her hands, testing the heft of it, she can feel the lack of strength in her biceps. She's a squishy magic user, have mercy.

But she'll try.

She's clearly not a football player either, given the awkward form as she steps closer (but not too close) to the mirror, holds the clock with both hands, and launches it forward with a grunt. It's more noise than it is damage--the mirror cracks, and the clock breaks into all of its individual components and rains down into the vanity sink with a hell of a clatter.]

Maybe we can break a piece off.

[Don't mind her sounding a little breathless from that little expenditure of strength.]

I mean, being creative is way easier than being athletic. I can be creative.

[ Even though he's watching when Wanda throws the clock, Eddie still winces at the sound of it, bits and pieces falling into the sink below and onto the floor. The mirror is relatively unscathed, only a crack splitting it but not shattering it. ]

I kinda thought mirrors were more breakable than this. Lemme look.

[ Eddie begins picking away at the pieces of alarm clock now in the sink, trying to spot something sharp enough to cut with. Unfortunately for him he feels it pierce his palm before he sees it, and he hisses as he retracts his hand. A line of blood blooms from the gash in the center of his palm, and he holds it out to grimace at Wanda. ]

Think this'll be enough? 'Cause it hurts like a bitch.

Careful.

[Too little too late, Wanda. She frowns at the sight of his blood, not happy about it, but what's done is done. Her lips press together before she nods over to the door.]

Do you think you can manage a handprint with that? Give it a try.

[ Eddie sucks in another breath and nods as he squeezes his hand into a fist, letting the blood pool in his hand until it starts to drip down his wrist. First thing he's going to need to do when they get out of here is find something to clean this up with. ]

This better work. Or I'm gonna bleed all over the carpet just to spite them.

[ Unfolding his hand, Eddie stares at his bloodied palm as he strides toward the door again, clenching his jaw. He reaches out to press it against the wooden surface, closing his eyes and waiting. For what, he's not sure. A latch to click, a deadbolt to unlock, maybe. But he doesn't hear anything, so he tries the door.

It opens as though it were never locked at all. ]

What the hell is this place?

[The sight of his blood makes her grimace, though not because of the blood itself--it's the act, and that they have to play this game to get out of this room to begin with.]

Wait.

[She doesn't know what's beyond the door (a lobby?) but she thinks they better handle the blood, first.]

Let's clean up your hand before anything else. Come here.

[Wanda's going for that pillow case he'd grabbed earlier. Sorry, housekeeping.]

[ Eddie steps back from the door, leaving it open a crack as though it'll lock itself again if he closes it. Hey, he doesn't know how this place works. He just had the misfortune of waking up here. ]

You're probably right. Shouldn't we disinfect it with something, though? Not that we've got a lot of supplies.

[ Whoever brought them here (the Mayor?) probably doesn't have their well-being as a priority, he knows, but if they want them to play along with this stupid game, the least they can do is make sure they don't give themselves an infection in the process.

Right?

He follows her toward the bed, holding his hand out flat for her to take a look at. First aid isn't exactly his specialty - maybe if it was, he wouldn't be here right now. ]

I hope you know what you're doing, 'cause I don't.

[He answers his own question about the disinfecting. Wanda glances at him before briefly taking his palm, careful not to get blood on her hands, and peers at it for a long moment to make sure there's nothing left in the cut.

She releases him as she nods to the sink.]

Rinse it under water. All I can do is wrap it up until we find a first aid kid or something.

Yeah. Better than nothing, I guess.

[ So Eddie heads over to run water over the cut, grimacing at the pain. At least the bleeding has slowed somewhat, but that doesn't mean he can't still get a nasty infection. That'd be just his fucking luck. He dries it carefully with one of the hand towels in the bathroom, leaving a red streak through the fluffy terrycloth. Whatever, that's what bleach is for, right?

When he returns to Wanda, he holds his hand out again, but there's something else on his mind, too. ]

So... Can I ask what you were trying to do back there? With the door?

[A pillow case isn't exactly sterile, and who knows how the cleaning service is here, but it's better than nothing. Wanda folds it over a few times before wrapping it around his hands, eyes flicking up to his at his question.]

Doors don't tend to stand in the way of my magic.

[Might as well be upfront about it since they're in a place that demands blood to open doors. Not too strange, right?]

Something here is preventing me from using it.

[ Eddie just hopes the bleeding will completely stop and he won't lose his hand from the first trial this place has to offer them. He might be getting a little paranoid about that, now. He scrunches his nose up as Wanda wraps it up with the pillowcase, meeting her eyes as she speaks. ]

Oh. Huh.

[ Despite his deep appreciation for the worlds of science fiction and fantasy, Eddie was never the type to believe any of that shit was real. It was just that: fiction and fantasy.

Then a cheerleader levitated up to his living room ceiling and he watched all her limbs snap before her eyes were sucked into her skull. And that's not even half of the shit he's seen since then.

So sure. Wanda could very well have magical powers, for all he knows. That El girl was supposed to have powers, too. ]

What kinda magic? Like... telekinesis and shit? Sorry, this is all pretty new stuff for me.

[By virtue of experiencing other universes now, she isn't insulted. Maybe he's not from a world where there's magic or heroes or forces beyond nature that can take out half the population within the blink of an eye.

She's not about to say chaos magic to someone who is blissfully ignorant about its existence, though. Wanda smiles wryly as she finishes up his hand.]

Like telekinesis and shit. Got it in one. Do I sound crazy?

[She's been a little crazy, now and then.]

Or am I fitting the theme, here?

[ Eddie inspects his hand once Wanda's finished, though he's not exactly sure what he's looking for. It's going to have to be good enough for now. ]

Nice. I always thought that'd be cool to have.

[ He waves his hand horizontally from side to side and shrugs. ]

A few weeks ago I would've definitely said yeah, you're crazy. But I've seen some shit now that makes telekinesis seem as normal as being able to whistle. So did you get made in a lab or something? That's what my friends said gave their friend powers.

[The question is innocent, but something in Wanda's expression sharpens. He doesn't know, of course, couldn't imagine if it's a friend of a friend, but it takes Wanda a moment too long to respond.]

Something like that.

[A volunteer for an experiment that woke up something within her.

She's quick to move on.]

We should get out of here now that your hand's wrapped.

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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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