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cursedcontent2022-08-20 11:49 am
cursedmods) wrote in cursedcontent2022-08-20 11:49 am
Entry tags:
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.
no subject
"It's Queen. Freddie Mercury? Brian May-?" okay this is clearly going nowhere. Scanning the setup, Wren manages to spot one of those listening stations built in and loads up the first Queen song they find before holding the headphones out to V. Of course the song they find first is 'Another One Bites The Dust' - not on either album, but it's a solidly popular song.
v's response is literally cursed content
V followed them over to the listening station (he knew he'd eventually get used to all of this but he was really starting to miss his agent) and took the headphones (and his audio suite, at this point) so that he could listen. There was no denying that the song was definitely a bop but V wasn't sure he'd classify it a banger, and it showed.
"Not bad, definitely an improvement to some of the shit I've heard since getting here," he started as he pulled the headphones off. "Sound pretty corporate though." While that likely wasn't an issue for most, it was clear by the way he said it that he was one of those types that preferred music to feel like it had soul to it.
that kinda phrase kills a man in seven days it does
But 'corporate'? Corporate?
"What, if it's not live it's soulless? The second anyone else hears about a band it's sold out? Corporate?" Wren repeats, incredulous and definately more offended than the situation really calls for. "What kind of bullshit corporate is where you come from?"
let him dig his grave, just push him in
"Don't matter if it's live or not; if it's popular or not. Lots'f corporate artists perform live, even the, uh, corporate bands," he said carefully.
He knew that it was repetitive but he couldn't really give off that he was from somewhere else. He didn't know what consequence there was for alerting the White Pines natives that there were other worlds but he didn't want to be the one that let it slip and he had no clue if the person he was talking to was displaced like he was or not.
"Just sounds formulaic. Made specifically to be catchy and sell records. Radio fodder."
Getting ready to ngl 🙌 also love the un
It helps that some people stick out more visibly than others.
Someone with a cooler head could explain here the trials and struggles of the band, of Mercury's battle against AIDS and continuing to make music up until the very end, and 99% of the time Wren is the person able to keep their calm when others can't because nobody else can be relied upon to not be a shithead in their experience.
Right now all they can manage is a lean in and a low angry hiss of "Are you a fucking robot or something?"
Even this is an unfair question - Wren has known sentient robots who are capable of appreciating the music of Queen.
asfdasjf thank you; i love yours too, clever use of the moniker
"You always an asshole or you just bein' one 'cause I don't think your favorite band's hard?"
It didn't help that the tattoos he had that were most immediately visible surely did look like they inked out joints that could have been of a mechanical nature if one was familiar with that sort of thing.
"I'm not like those 'borg motherfuckers constantly teetering on the edge of cyberpsychosis 'cause they don't want their fuckin' flesh anymore."
He wanted to say that he was also not an ai, but he had no fucking clue what he was anymore and he was doing his damnedest not to think about it because he was confident it would make him fall apart.
thank you ;;
Thankfully before they could make a supremely stupid decision that they had time and time again judged others for doing, V's words trip them up just enough that Wren's own anger manages to trip up trying to understand.
"-What's cyberpsychosis?"
It sounded like some scare tactic on the nightly news for people who spent too long on the internet according to their parents.
no subject
He was waiting for their response and was mildly thrown by the way they grew distracted. His posturing lost some of the bravado and his gaze shifted away from Wren. This was a problem that V didn't know all that much on, really. He'd heard of the carnage that cyberpsychosis could wreck and he knew that there were occasions MaxTac had to be called, and he knew what he'd learned from talking with Regina on it, but he was ultimately just a hired hand meant to disable them so that Regina could try to work on a cure.
"It's an illness. Don't know what causes it, exactly, but seems linked with people who install a shit ton of cyberware or turn themselves into borgs. They start killing everyone."
He seemed like he had another thought he might add to what he'd already said but ultimately closed his mouth, keeping that thought to himself. He was smart enough to find a correlation between possible depersonalization and psychosis but he certainly wasn't trained in any sort of capacity to actually talk about it, so he wouldn't. Besides, that correlation implied that he was at least partly on the way to it himself, and he really hated the idea of that.
have I been waiting for a chance to say "like robocop?" no comment.
They didn't recognize all the words V said, but with a moment to think and the context clues of what they could understand they were pretty sure they were able to piece it together, brow furrowing a bit as they mentally worked through it - and then those tattoos got a second look.
… Wren's powers had vanished, but what had happened to other people who might be more than human? Wren couldn't be the only one dragged in here.
"... Like RoboCop?" Wren asked after a moment of somewhat awkward silence, just to make sure they were on the right page.
yessss gooooood - i'm fuelled by all cyberpunk (genre) references
"Like RoboCop?" The look he was giving them and the way he asked as if they might be a few cards short of a deck suggested that this might be another difference between their own homes.
"Why would a comedy be anythi--"
And he stopped, his expression shifting into actual consideration. He thought over the plot of the movie and, of course, the corporation that had funded it. It was a comedy in his home specifically because of how unlikely the plot was where the was from. Corporate-owned police creating a monstrosity that was suped up on tech going wild and ravaging the general populace? It was the perfect propaganda ploy. The fact that the movie was so fucking old was why he'd never really considered it in context, but with cyberware being somewhat new at the time, well, it was such good marketing too...
"...Yeah, actually, kinda like RoboCop."
no subject
"Sorry, for - I didn't mean to imply that," Wren said, terribly uncomfortable but wanting to be clear. Sure they'd meant to insult V's taste in music, but not to the point of actually hurting him. "Besides, I've met sentient robots with perfectly fine taste in music, so that must be a failing unique to you."
... It was a joke. Wren watched V out of the corner of their eye while shuffling through tapes to see if it landed.
no subject
"You don't know what you don't know," he offered in place of direct forgiveness. There wasn't a lot of room for apologies where he was from - people tended to shoot to kill before they'd apologize, and those that didn't would ghost and abandon.
"Yeah, well, God had to humble me somehow, I guess," he responded dryly. His reaction to their joke was rather subtle - his face was still close to resting bitch face, but the corners of his lips turned up slightly and he couldn't hide the way his eyes lit up (a trait he would likely come to hate moving forward).
"Suff that's real polished like that's just pretty typical of a band with a shit ton of money behind it, which usually means they're some corpo band. Or that it was written by an AI, I guess," he explained, moving to start looking through tapes to see if he found anything he recognized. The AI artists were all corporate projects so that technically fell in with being corporate but he felt it was worth the distinction.
no subject
Which they weren't about to start doing now.
"Really, AI? No, that one was - I think the bassist? And sure it sounds polished it was on their eighth studio album, they'd been playing for a decade at that point. Hit plenty of uphill struggles before they hit success, even through-" Wren paused mid-sentence, looking up from the tapes suddenly to look around the store. Looking for anything that had the date on it before catching a calendar over one of the registers that had the year on the top of it.
"... Jesus. Jesus. Freddie Mercury's still alive. He hasn't told anyone he's dying yet."
no subject
He glanced back at Wren as they made the realization that Freddie Mercury (apparently it was one of those names that required both first and last) was alive. That certainly got his attention. It wasn't uncommon for rockerboys to be killed in Night City - they were political figures as much as the politicians were, and so pushing the wrong agenda could get them in trouble if they were too popular - but by the sound of it, he had died by some sort of illness rather than an assassination. That was rather strange - for eight studio albums they had to have been doing well, and if they were doing well they'd have money, and money could solve almost any problem.
"Dying? From what? If the band hit success he shoulda been able to take care of whatever was affecting him."
It was clear he meant no offense but was genuinely confused by the idea of an illness being what ended up killing him.
no subject
"AIDS doesn't have a cure - it barely had a treatment then - now, I guess," Wren said. Hell, even in Wren's time they're only finally starting to make strides with it and have it not be an instant 'you've got ten years maybe' death sentence. "It's also really heavily stigmatized. Fans suspected he was sick and he told his inner circle but otherwise he just said he was overworked and pointed out he'd been doing Queen nonstop for like twenty years. There's this one song -"
Wren was talking while looking through the catalog of available music, what the store had, did some math and let out a sigh.
"... That's not going to be recorded for two more years... it's called The Show Must Go On. Brian May wrote it and said later he told Mercury he was worried he wouldn't be able to do it that's how sick he was. But apparently Mercury said 'I'll fucking do it, Darling' and knocked it out in one take. ... He died the next year."
no subject
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."
no subject
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."
i can edit to wrap up thread since apps are being judged, if you prefer - plurk @coopyey :>
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?"
Nah it's a funny question XD (also imma add you if that's okay! @oncemorewithfeeling is me)
"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?"
<33
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."
no subject