TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[cursedmods]

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.

Comments

[stevieboy]

[ That's sort of the problem. Steve isn't sure. He survived the demobats. He survived facing Vecna. He'd remember dying, wouldn't he? He's made it through way too much to just die in his sleep or something like that, but that doesn't mean he didn't.

He stares back at Billy, less intimidated and more ... Sorry. Guilty a little, too, maybe. ]

Yeah. You're dead.

[otherbitches]

Yeah.

[ Dead. He's still trying it on for size, like a jacket he isn't sure he likes the cut of. It's just sort of crazy, but the whole thing was, and he sort of wants to yell about it, but his thoughts trail over to Max and Sue instead. But he still hasn't clocked there's time missing between them. Steve might have a sharper jaw and he's not wearing a sailor suit, but there's still no reason he didn't come straight from Starcourt. Right?

If Billy woke up in a sailor suit, he'd find something else to wear. ]

Yeah, I guess so. [ Back home at least. Here he's...

He slips around the barrier, skates hitting the wood with a smooth, easy glide. He still has his cigarette because as far as he's concerned, he can smoke wherever he likes. But it's pretty douchey to flick the ash at Steve instead of finding the ashtray on the barrier's end. ]

Well, welcome to hell then, Harrington. Wouldn't be hell without you I guess.

[stevieboy]

[ In a really, really strange way, there's something comforting in it. Billy is still Billy, but Steve knows Billy and he doesn't know this place. There's a saying about that, he thinks, knowing devils and something. Billy's definitely that devil, but this definitely isn't hell.

Steve snorts a bit and brushes a piece of ash off of his shirt. ]

Hell is in Hawkins. This isn't anywhere close to that.

[ Though the curse thing makes him wonder. They've thrown that word out a lot, Vecna's Curse, and even Steve isn't stupid enough to notice that they have a track record of things manifesting when they focus too much on it. ]

This is like ... Diet Hell, at best.

[otherbitches]

[ Billy skates backwards, takes another draw from the cigarette as he does so, sullen and heavy-lidded eyes staring down Steve Harrington. He wants that cassette player. His other hand comes up and flicks his St. Christopher medallion with a soft ting. ]

'Diet hell.' That's purgatory, man. Didn't you ever go to church?

[ And it's been years and years for Billy, but it's a distracting thought, that the priests and saints got it wrong. Purgatory and hell are just a shitty little town like Hawkins, run by some crazy Mayor. ]

You sure you didn't die? Maybe some of those big panes of glass fell down, chopped your head off. You didn't even notice. [ And that would be something. All those dopey kids crying over Steve's headless body while Billy's starts to rot. ]

[stevieboy]

Unless I was in pre-Hell where they sent me to work at Family Video, then, yeah, I'm pretty sure I didn't die.

[ Maybe that means Billy didn't actually die, either. If they're both here. Steve doesn't really know how it might work, because there's no way a dead guy should be skating around and there's no way Steve should just be able to wake up in a weird new place. But there also used to be no way that monsters lurked beneath Hawkins, so. First time for everything. ]

You always been this obsessed with the idea of me being dead?

[otherbitches]

[ That pisses him off, and the little flare of anger is real, stokes the flame in his chest like coal to a forge. Jesus Christ, it's like Billy can't get a fucking break. He's mostly left Harrington alone, only made the occasional snide comment if he saw him in the mall with his stupid outfit on. Apparently that was mild enough because Max never drugged him again. He's never apologized though, for busting his face open. Never acknowledged he would have kept going, and who knows what would have happened to Steve, had Max not stopped Billy.

But the anger feels weird, a little too sticky in his throat. Something about curses. It threatens to bubble all over the two of them, but — he's readily distracted and his eyes narrow. ]

You worked at that dopey ice cream shop, dipshit.

[stevieboy]

[ Steve rolls his eyes. He’s not even sure why he’s still talking to Billy. He’s definitely not sure why Billy’s still talking to him. If this were anywhere else, Steve’s sure they would have seen each other and kept their distance. ]

Yeah. I know. [ Thanks to Billy and some Russians, Steve’s brain might be a little scrambled, but he’s not that stupid that he can’t remember the humility of Scopps Ahoy. ] Then that thing destroyed the mall and now I work at Family Video.

[ But he guesses Billy has no reason to know that. Another prickle of something twists in Steve’s stomach. ]

You’ve been dead for almost a year, man.

[otherbitches]

[ So, Billy’s still a little shell-shocked. From the hive-mind monster, to dying, to mayoral decrees, to sitting here in purgatory with Steve Harrington, who could just be a figment of his imagination. He doesn’t know all that much yet, but he knows there’s some scifi bullshit afoot, folks complaining about the lack of technology or confused about the existence of lamps. But, when he saw Harrington, he figured… they’d be swiped at the same time. That makes sense.

He’s still skating backwards, his foot doing a little side to side to keep him moving. And then it — slips. And he crashes backwards onto his ass. ]

Fuck.

[ The cigarette also hits the ground, but he plucks it back up because he’s gross and not about to let it go to waste. There’s a vague embarrassed flush on his face, because his body remembers he cares about appearances and looking cool, but his brain is whirling as he pushes himself back up into a stand. ]

Fuck. Really? That sounds like bullshit. [ He guesses Steve does look different, now that the possibility is there in his brain. Hair styled just a touch differently, a little older. Steve was always older than him, but now he's even older than him, and the thought makes him —

Makes him laugh. A little unhinged in the middle of the rink. Nothing to see here, folks. ]

[stevieboy]

[ There’s a moment where Steve thinks that this is his opportunity to get back at Billy for a few of his own humiliating moments. He thinks about how easy it would be to call Billy something awful and leave him there, maybe try and skate over the cigarette before it can be picked up. It’s how Steve would have reacted years ago, when he had Tommy and Carol goading him on. He’s not that much of a dick anymore (he thinks), so he shakes it off.

He does wonder what the hell is wrong with Billy, though. That stupid laugh is unsettling. ]

It doesn’t really matter much right now anyway, does it?

[ Steve extends a vague olive branch by holding out his hand to help Billy up. ]

[otherbitches]

[ Billy smacks the hand away. Gets himself up with a wobble and finds his balance. He's still snickering. Laughing about it. A year. A whole goddamn year! A normal person would have a deluge of questions to ask. And Billy has questions, sure he does, but he doesn't jump to ask them, turns to skate forward, eyes away from Steve Harrington now. ]

Sure it does. [ He says to disagree, skates a little further. Asks the one question he has to ask. ]

Max and Sue? He — ? [ He doesn't fully voice the question. Can't really figure out what he wants to say and how to say it out loud. Harrington probably doesn't even know anything about Billy's old man, why would he? But the house was never peaceful. And after a whole year? The biggest target, Billy, was gone. ]

[stevieboy]

[ He huffs out a breath, figuring he should be glad that Billy didn’t didn’t try and pull him down. And for a moment Steve thinks it’s the end of it until Billy speaks up.

The question makes that guilt bubble up inside Steve again, because, yeah, he was sorry that Billy had to endure what he did, but he was guilty that he couldn’t save Max. He’d been so vigilant. Wouldn’t let her out of his sight for too long, stuck close by, then, what? He just let her put herself out there as bait while he was stuck in the Upside Down. ]

He left. Max and Sue moved to the trailer park. Max - [ Steve isn’t going to try and open that can of worms. Not right now. He has to at some point, he knows that, but this isn’t the place for it. ] - Misses you. Or thinks about you, but I think she misses you in her … Max way.

[ Honestly, Steve’s not even sure if he should have said that much. He regrets it as soon as he says it but doesn’t everyone want people to still think about them when they’re gone? ]

[otherbitches]

He left.

[ It's not a question. It's a statement, and he says it to try it on for size, to see how it fits into his idea of his old man, unless Steve is lying to him. Which he'd done before. No Max in the Byers house? Why should he trust anything that comes out of Steve Harrington's mouth? Especially when it sounds like that. Like little Maxine Mayfield is missing Billy at his grave. Or urn. Or wherever they threw his body.

He laughs, upright again, skating smoothly, blows smoke to the side toward Steve's face. Because fuck him. ]

Sounds like bullshit, man. Don't bother lying to the dead.

You can fuck off now; I want a cassette player, and that's all I wanted to know. [ Well, he's lying about that. Not about the cassette player. He's dead and stuck here and having something to listen to seems like a worthy cause. ]