cursedrp | IC INTRO #1

IC INTRO #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

All the same guidelines from the TDM still apply. You can continue your TDM threads here or start new ones! And of course, you can start making your own prompts in the log or network communities at your leisure.

Our first event will be going up in about a week!

Please do not add character tags to any posts just yet, we'll add them to this post manually.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[They might be strangers, but ever paranoid about who can be safely spoken to they did kinda make a point to memorize all the faces they saw around the motel, okay.]

No it's - uh, they're both albums by the same band. 'A Night at the Opera' from '75 and 'A Day at the Races' from '76.

What?

[Her nose wrinkles, then she looks closer. There — the same name on each, simply "Queen." Fukawa frowns. There's a tingle of familiarity but doesn't think she knows this band. The name is so vague, though. She could be confusing it with any number of things. After a second she scoffs, waving the inquiry off.]

Well, h-how the hell would I know? This is all ancient history, and it's not even my history. I know stuff like M-Michael Jackson, or Madonna, but I can't be expected to keep track of it all. They don't even have Matsutoya Yumi here.

[Not that she's a super fan, but even her generation could rattle off five of her songs without thinking. She folds her arms and scowls at the columns of cassettes, the rows of vinyl.]

Just flip a coin or something. If it's the same band you'll p-probably like either one just fine.

[Okay well of course Wren's eyebrows shoot up at the 'ancient history' thing. This girl looks about Wren's age, and even if their love of Queen mainly stems from it being a favorite of their dad they'd hardly call it 'ancient history'. It's enough to keep them from lashing out at a perceived insult.]

... Yeah probably - hey out of curiosity - I, uh, saw you. At the Saturn Motel. Me too. What year is it where you come from...?

[It may or may not be an insult. Depends on how lenient you are with hyperbole.

At the abrupt call out, Fukawa cycles through several states of shock at once. First a squawk, stiffening shoulders. Then a grimace — right, she shouldn't be spouting off suspicious crap at the first person who talks to her, this could have been a local for all she knew. The last is a begrudging acceptance, slumping, gaze shifting to the side.]

I s-suppose it's hard to miss the f-filthiest hag in the place. [Judging so far, at least. The only one who's got her beat on the dirty and desolate front is Daryl. She hasn't changed out of her ripped up uniform yet, and she could certainly use a shower. And detangling.]

It's 2014 for me. Why? Are you t-trying to find someone from home?

[ Wren had already seen Daryl, so thankfully for Fukawa even if her clothing is worse for the wear she doesn't get the worried 'do you need me to find a social worker' treatment there. ]

No, it's - I guess I'm paranoid about keeping secrets, alright? So we're told to keep one, I'm overly cautious about making sure I know who I can talk to it about.

[ Years of having a secret identity will prepare you for that kinda thing, as it turns out. ]

... 2014 though? Seriously??

[Such a blessing to finally place second in the Stinkiest Human contest. If only her classmates could see her now...]

Well, s-so am I! You just caught me off guard, that's all. [Nevermind that it was probably a response to her hag comment. She's still feeling foolish enough about nearly blowing her own cover, and taking things personally has been her specialty since day one. ] What did you have to be so paranoid about? Where you c-caught up in some scandal?

[They don't look the type, but then appearances were deceiving.

She squints at their incredulity. If they're that familiar with the situation, surely they've met people further along or farther back than she. There's a guy running around in buccaneer frills for god's sake.]

Yeah? What's your problem? D-don't tell me you're from this era.

[ ... Yeah Wren is just going to, uh, not answer or even acknowledge the scandal question. Nope. Clearly they're just too preoccupied about the year. That's definitely why, and not that they have anything at all to hide. ]

No, but - it was 1999 where I was from. When I was from?

[Well now she's going to assume it's an extra juicy scandal. What a scoundrel you must be.

Later, though, because that is indeed just far enough behind to be weird.]

Seriously? [Was she talking to someone who still used dial up? Fukawa scoffs.] N-no wonder you're so interested in these old fossils. You're the closest one to this era by far.

[Dial-up and no experience with a smartphone. Sure cellphones exist and Wren has used them but doesn't own one themself. You still had to use the keypad to send texts and press each number multiple times to get the right letter.]

Does this mean I get to pull rank and tell you not to talk to your elders that way?

Wha— [Have the tables turned so quickly?!] N-no? Wait, no, the only thing that counts is how old we are in this moment!

[HUFF, HUFF. Fukawa squares up to her competition. This is a matter of grave importance.]

I'm nineteen. And there's no way you're a day older than that!

Edited 2022-09-11 22:36 (UTC)

[ Wren raises their eyebrows, looking Fukawa over like they don't quite believe that. ]

Nineteen? Really?

[Excuse you????]

Yes! Really! [Her fingers crook with the force of her ire, along with that spectacular curl in her lip.] Wh-what? You think just because someone's f-flat-chested they belong in middle school?

[Do not answer that.]

[ There is a significant pause as Wren considers the benefits versus drawbacks of going into the over-sexualization of girls who 'develop' early and how tying breast size in with age is just problematic all over but is that a conversation to be happening here? No it is not. ]

No. You just seem very ... youthful.

[ 'Insecure'. ]

You're right though I'm still just eighteen. Well. I'm not sure how that counts here... I was like a week out from my nineteenth birthday at home.

[Insecure is an understatement, and Fukawa could do with several conversations on this topic and all that branches off of it. Age has little to do with maturity after all: you can grow and learn, or simply persist and pick yourself apart. Every insult that's ever been lobbed at her has nestled too deep in her skin to dislodge, and now she pushes barbs of her own into the festering wounds.

But these two are strangers, and there's no use getting into such messy territory yet. At least she's appeased for now. "Youthful" can be flattering. Between looking like a child and looking like an old hag, the former is definitely the better fate.]

Well, you've sure got sh-shitty luck. Now you have to celebrate it way back in the past with a bunch of weirdo strangers. [She huffs, hugging at her middle. Her eyes flick between the albums again.] Is th-that why you're looking at these? An early present for yourself?

IC INTRO #1

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