TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[cursedmods]

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

A Blood Offering

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Comments

[astrologics]

Ship, actually.

( peter doesn't stay still very well, and though he occasionally dreams about settling down, maybe having a kid or two, he's not sure if it's on the cards now. it's never felt quite right, and the idea of staying in once place just feels odd, like he'd be missing a piece of himself. )

Heard of London, never been. I'm from Colorado, America, originally. Grew up in the 80s, so this is a bit like coming home.

( it's weird — so far, peter's spoken to a lot of people that are thrown by it, by their situation, by the era they find themselves in, but for peter? it's actually not that bad.

it's almost a pleasant distraction from everything else that had been going on. )

100 years which direction?

[maritorious]

[Does she need to say she's imagining a pirate ship in the sky? No. No she does not.]

That's incredible!

Well, I've never been to America. So we're evenly matched, I suppose.

100 years in the past. It's 1838 where I come from.

[astrologics]

You're not wrong.

( it is incredible and peter loves it, most of the time. )

How are you finding it?

( it's not that he doesn't feel for the people from the (relative) future that have suddenly found themselves in the 1980s, but it's a lot easier to adapt to the past than it is to try and figure out what the flark technology is. )

[maritorious]

Very very confusing.

And much more convenient. But very confusing. People have been very kind, at least. You must be feeling right at home. If not a few years off.

[astrologics]

Yeah, well, you find yourself with any questions, feel free to send me a message.

Couple of years, but I can pretty much walk into any shop and buy everything I begged my mom to buy me when I was a little kid, which is weird.

Did you go to the party?

[maritorious]

Thank you. I greatly appreciate it, sir.

But it must be nice, in a way. To get that satisfaction.

At the roller skating rink? I was! And let me tell you, I'm not very good at this roller skating thing.

[astrologics]

Peter, please. Or even just 'Quill'.

Honestly? It's mostly just weird.

Ha! No, I was just asking because -- did you get the Walkman?

[maritorious]

Thank you, Peter. You can call me Nancy.

I suppose. Unfortunately, I cannot relate at all.

Oh! I did! I've got something from a man named Mac Fleetwood, though sometimes there's a woman that sings, too. I quite liked it.

[astrologics]

Fleetwood Mac. They were a group. Counterintuitively, the woman's name is Stevie and the lead guitarist was a dude named Lindsey.

Anyone shown you the music shops yet? There's a lot more where that came from, and Earth music is the best in the entire flarking galaxy.

(I'm not biased.)

[maritorious]

Really! I've met a man named Lindsey before, but never a woman named Stevie! I like it, for a girl.

No, they haven't. Would you mind terribly showing me? You seem to have a lot of knowledge of these cassettes.

What is flarking?

[astrologics]

( ...





)

How old are you, Nancy?

[maritorious]

Eighteen.

[That is definitely bordering on middle age.]

[astrologics]

Great.

Flarking is space-talk for fucking.

( and now he's got that out of the way and is absolutely, 100% certain that he doesn't need to mind his language in any real way, he can answer her question— )

I'd love to. This is the BEST era for music, past and present.

[maritorious]

Right, that makes sense.

Really! That'd be wonderful. Then maybe, whenever we get home, I'll be able to remember them for my brothers. I used to sing for them quite often.

[Nancy, honey. There is no home. Any way you slice it, you've been murdered and you can't exactly come back from that.]

[astrologics]

( quill: aKshulLy you can come back from being murdered, ask me how I know.

(but psychologically, it's not a great experience.) )

I made mixtapes for my friends.

( slight delay, then— )

A mixtape is like a homemade collection of songs.

I always think of music as the poor man's method of time travel.

( well, not really poor man's method because quill wouldn't be who he is without his collection of music, wouldn't have had half the experiences he's had without it, but it's not quite the same thing as literal time travel. )

[maritorious]

[Saved by common sense, she was going to ask what a mix tape was.]

I could see that. Takes you to another part of the world, another time.

I'd like it if maybe one day, you'd make a mixtape for me. When we're friends.

[astrologics]

( quill: quietly, casually adopts nancy 😭 )

Hey, I'm only gonna do that if you make me one in return.

Them's the rules.

[maritorious]

[Yes good. She needs a decent dad.]

If you show me how, I will.

Just a fair warning, I'm not very good at following rules.

[astrologics]

Don't you worry, it's as easy as pie.

But if you don't follow these rules, you won't get a mixtape and I won't get a mixtape, and then we're both going to be missing out on some shit hot music.

[maritorious]

Alright, I'll do my best. I do want to hear some shit hot music.

That's a good thing, right?

[astrologics]

It's the best thing.

[maritorious]

Then this time, I will follow the rules.

Just for you, so don't think this is going to be a regular thing.

[astrologics]

Just for me, huh? Then I pinky-promise this is the only time I'll ask you to follow the rules.

(You know what they say, right? Rules are made to be broken.)

[maritorious]

<font face="courier>What makes a promise a pinky-promise? Absolutely are. Bit more fun that way, too

[astrologics]

Uh

It means you can break the finger of whoever breaks the promise.

I don't think anyone actually does that though.