If you'd like to apply to Snowblind and would like to test the waters first or get a sample set up for your application, this meme is for you! We've even provided some prompts for you to use if you want (but feel free to make up your own). Here's how it works.
✭ Reply to this entry with a character you're considering apping into the game. You can include the name of your character and the fandom in your subject line. ✭ Comment around to others on the meme, whether you're in the game already or not. ✭ Now you have a sample ready for your application! ✭ So go reserve and apply when reservations and applications are open. ✭ Seriously, do it.
Network Prompts
ONE: DRUG PUSHING What luck! You've found a bottle of medication...only, oh, it looks like it's a prescription for one of the other people trapped here with you. You have a lot of power in your hands now: you could do the right thing and give it back without a fight, demand a worthy trade to see how badly they want it, or auction it off to the highest bidder. They're not the only ones who could use a painkiller or an antidepressant, after all. If you don't need it for yourself, you're sure to be able to fetch a high price (or bank some high gratitude points) for it from someone.
TWO: CHECK YOUR RECEIPTS After a long day of traveling, you reach into your bag to scrounge up some dinner but you find that all of your food has gone bad. Everything, including the rations you stocked up on just yesterday, is covered in a thick layer of mold. Even the packaged nonperishables are somehow spoiled. Your whole backpack reeks of rot, and nothing edible has been spared. Maybe you can restock tomorrow, but what if you're not the only one whose food has been tainted? And what about the meal you had for lunch just hours ago? Your stomach turns. You'd better take to the network to get to the bottom of this
Action Prompts
THREE: WRITING ON THE WALL You've just settled into a building for the night with your traveling companion when you notice a message left somewhere on one of the walls. It's signed by a username you don't recall ever seeing before. It tells you discoveries and facts about the town you don't think are really real or should be followed. Tells you that they're heading in a direction they're convinced has the exit, and urge you to follow their lead. One of you thinks it's worth consideration. After all, why would anyone leave a message like this if they didn't mean it? But there are risks involved in chasing the assertions. Do you have the resources left to try?
FOUR: CORPSE PARTY Just before lockdown, you and your traveling companion are about to seek shelter in the nearest building when you spot a huddled figure nearly buried in the snow. When you get a little closer, you see that it's a person wrapped tightly in a blanket. Neither of you recognizes them, but you can't be sure; the blanket covers their face. They seem to have succumbed to the elements, but it looks like they're still breathing! You manage to drag them into the building with you with seconds to spare. Good job, you've saved somebody's life! But, as you pull apart the blankets to check on your new companion, you realize that they're not a "somebody" at all... And you're locked in with it until morning.
Well, so much for all the food I had with me. It doesn't look like something anybody should be eating right now. I had some a couple hours ago and it seemed fine then. At least I'm not writhing around on the ground or anything. Has anybody else been having the same problem?
[Start by making observations, gathering information, reasoning things out from there. And while the situation wasn't dire, it was important. Without food nobody was going to be lasting pretty long here.]
I guess it could be some kind of extremophile, though it would need to be able to survive cold and heavily irradiated environments, on top of displaying widespread and rapid growth. All in all, it seems pretty unlikely.
[Not impossible, but unlikely.]
All of this is just one idea, anyway. If anybody has anything else, we should try to figure this out.
III
Hey, come take a look at this.
[Why is Phi checking under the desk? Better question is why wouldn't she be checking under the desk. It'd be stupid to miss any obvious clues by not being thorough. And hey, it does seem she's found something, after all.
A message, written under the desk. Phi isn't looking at it right now, instead pointing to the name it's signed by.]
[It's spoken hesitantly from over Phi's shoulder as Luna leans in to get a better look. Granted, she hadn't been trapped in Norfinbury as long as most others, but it never took long to get used to the more prolific users on the network. This wasn't one of them.]
It could just be from someone who isn't in the town anymore. But... why would they write this somewhere so hard to find?
[She runs a finger along and under the lines of the message meticulously. Something about jumping the bands of the spiral - in essence, a shortcut.]
They could have been worried about it getting erased. But as far as we can tell, the interior walls of buildings aren't cleared.
[All those messages from Alphonse and his group were a testament to that. Not just the messages. Directions, drawings, symbols... even small crude maps. All sorts of things were left on the walls, helpful and pointless alike.]
Hallucinations have happened to the people here before on a few occasions. They could have been seeing or hearing something that they thought they had to hide from, or perhaps they felt they had to write down before they lost their mind entirely.
[It's a horrifying scenario said in just as timid a manner as normal. It's an option, if a wild one, but maybe it could at least get them both thinking.]
[Oh, she's already doing plenty of thinking. It's just going in several directions at once. She's heard about different psychological and mental effects from different sources all around town; not looking forward to experiencing them.]
Hmm... it's a possibility. They could have been worried about hiding it from someone other than Admin.
[Hm. Maybe there's another way to approach this in the meantime.]
If nothing else, we can at least pull up the network and see if we can cross-reference the name from there.
[Or, y'know, see if anybody else has heard of it.]
There's also a few people that I know of that have been here... well, as long as anyone can remember, really. It's not a guarantee, but they would have the greatest chance of recognizing the largest range of names...
[She's already pulling her tablet out, starting the long trek back to the oldest entries on file with the network.]
Still... if the "spiral" is talking about the path of the town, then that would mean there might be a... a shortcut of some sort, right?
Not a bad idea. If you give me their names I can send them a message, see if they recognize it.
[She's pulling out her own tablet as well, first activating the camera application to take a picture of the message scribbled on the wall, then flipping over to the private message function.]
But yeah, it does seem that way. Assuming, of course, that it's accurate.
[The delusions that Luna mentioned bring up another possibility, after all.]
[Phi works on the message first - it'll be easier to copy and paste the same one over and over to all the different names that Luna's given her.]
It could also be that what they thought they saw isn't real. You said so yourself - hallucinations have happened to people here before.
[It didn't necessarily have to be anything malicious, just wrong. And in either case, it would be a bad idea to waste time and resources on something that ended up not actually being there.]
[Yeah, that does seem like a sort of odd response, and certainly from someone who has a different set of information. Phi finishes sending off her first round of messages before putting her tablet down.]
I haven't seen any hallucinations yet here, myself, so I can't say for sure. What about you Luna? Have you seen any?
[There's no edge to her voice, but it's still a slightly pointed question all the same. She's not sure if a robot should be subject to the processes that would create hallucinations - normally that would be considered more of an organics thing. But Norfinbury has done odd enough things already - like cutting off her access to the morphogenetic field. It's still worth asking.]
[She has no idea how, but that's a complicated subject to address given that she doesn't know what Phi remembers just yet.]
Th-that's not why I brought it up, though... The only time that the spiral itself has really ever been mentioned consistently was when someone was, um... trying to communicate with people, for lack of a better term.
I remember reading a little bit about that. "Walk the spiral," "find the center," that's what they said, correct?
[Of course she'd gone digging through the network for any important information that could be found as soon as she had a few moments. Not all of it had been clear without any context, but enough for her to keep up when stuff like this was brought up.
If one assumes that all this is true, however, then yeah, a potential shortcut to jump towards the center would be pretty important. Especially with that other bit of information she saw: over half of their time was up.]
[Dug has paused in the middle of doing...well, exactly that. More precisely, he's been rolling around in his own spoiled food. He springs to his feet, wagging his tail a little.]
My food has also got spoiled. I am going back to the big kitchen because I am hungry and all my food has got spoiled.
Gonna assume some passing familiarity, if that's okay!
[... oh right this is the dog isn't it. Well, she explained the bomb to Quark, she can at least have a go at explaining this. Especially given that last bit.]
Wait, wait! If you go back outside right now you'll never make it back in time for lockdown. You'll freeze. Just- just stay where you are. You'll be able to get some more in the morning.
[He does look uncertain, though, as he glances away toward the door. His ears droop, but then he's turning back toward the camera, tail wagging hopefully.]
It doesn't matter how fast you are. You'd have less than an hour.
[Not to mention the whole fact that anywhere that provides food would probably be in the process of forcing them out right now. But that's probably not a concept she'd be able to explain to a dog.]
[Oh boy here we go. Although she's admittedly a bit impressed he knows how many minutes are in an hour.]
Yes, but it's less than an hour. More like... three-fourths of it. So that's forty-five minutes. And a minute isn't that much time by itself. We've probably been talking for more than one, already.
Then...I should go quickly! Right now! Before we talk for more minutes!
[He grabs up the bag in his mouth, rotten food spilling everywhere. Dug turns in place, trying to see if there's more stuff he has to get, and turns to look at the camera again. The tablet! He should get that.]
[Dug skitters for a moment more, coming up on the tablet like he's going to scoop it into the bag, but --
Stay. He knows that command. Right on cue, he plants his butt on the floor, motion abruptly ceasing though he still holds the bag's strap in his teeth. Dug ducks his head, drool dribbling down the strap.]
Phi | Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
Well, so much for all the food I had with me. It doesn't look like something anybody should be eating right now. I had some a couple hours ago and it seemed fine then. At least I'm not writhing around on the ground or anything. Has anybody else been having the same problem?
[Start by making observations, gathering information, reasoning things out from there. And while the situation wasn't dire, it was important. Without food nobody was going to be lasting pretty long here.]
I guess it could be some kind of extremophile, though it would need to be able to survive cold and heavily irradiated environments, on top of displaying widespread and rapid growth. All in all, it seems pretty unlikely.
[Not impossible, but unlikely.]
All of this is just one idea, anyway. If anybody has anything else, we should try to figure this out.
III
Hey, come take a look at this.
[Why is Phi checking under the desk? Better question is why wouldn't she be checking under the desk. It'd be stupid to miss any obvious clues by not being thorough. And hey, it does seem she's found something, after all.
A message, written under the desk. Phi isn't looking at it right now, instead pointing to the name it's signed by.]
Have you seen this username before?
3!
[It's spoken hesitantly from over Phi's shoulder as Luna leans in to get a better look. Granted, she hadn't been trapped in Norfinbury as long as most others, but it never took long to get used to the more prolific users on the network. This wasn't one of them.]
It could just be from someone who isn't in the town anymore. But... why would they write this somewhere so hard to find?
no subject
[She runs a finger along and under the lines of the message meticulously. Something about jumping the bands of the spiral - in essence, a shortcut.]
They could have been worried about it getting erased. But as far as we can tell, the interior walls of buildings aren't cleared.
[All those messages from Alphonse and his group were a testament to that. Not just the messages. Directions, drawings, symbols... even small crude maps. All sorts of things were left on the walls, helpful and pointless alike.]
Even if it was, this isn't that well-hidden.
no subject
Hallucinations have happened to the people here before on a few occasions. They could have been seeing or hearing something that they thought they had to hide from, or perhaps they felt they had to write down before they lost their mind entirely.
[It's a horrifying scenario said in just as timid a manner as normal. It's an option, if a wild one, but maybe it could at least get them both thinking.]
no subject
Hmm... it's a possibility. They could have been worried about hiding it from someone other than Admin.
[Hm. Maybe there's another way to approach this in the meantime.]
If nothing else, we can at least pull up the network and see if we can cross-reference the name from there.
[Or, y'know, see if anybody else has heard of it.]
no subject
[She's already pulling her tablet out, starting the long trek back to the oldest entries on file with the network.]
Still... if the "spiral" is talking about the path of the town, then that would mean there might be a... a shortcut of some sort, right?
no subject
[She's pulling out her own tablet as well, first activating the camera application to take a picture of the message scribbled on the wall, then flipping over to the private message function.]
But yeah, it does seem that way. Assuming, of course, that it's accurate.
[The delusions that Luna mentioned bring up another possibility, after all.]
no subject
...Accurate?
Do you think it could be a fake?
[Not that Luna would put it past a few people here to mess around like that for the sake of a few laughs. But it still strikes her as odd.]
no subject
[Phi works on the message first - it'll be easier to copy and paste the same one over and over to all the different names that Luna's given her.]
It could also be that what they thought they saw isn't real. You said so yourself - hallucinations have happened to people here before.
[It didn't necessarily have to be anything malicious, just wrong. And in either case, it would be a bad idea to waste time and resources on something that ended up not actually being there.]
no subject
[It's said as though that alone should be enough of a sticking point, forgetting completely that Phi hadn't had a part in the lucid dreaming.]
no subject
I haven't seen any hallucinations yet here, myself, so I can't say for sure. What about you Luna? Have you seen any?
[There's no edge to her voice, but it's still a slightly pointed question all the same. She's not sure if a robot should be subject to the processes that would create hallucinations - normally that would be considered more of an organics thing. But Norfinbury has done odd enough things already - like cutting off her access to the morphogenetic field. It's still worth asking.]
no subject
[She has no idea how, but that's a complicated subject to address given that she doesn't know what Phi remembers just yet.]
Th-that's not why I brought it up, though... The only time that the spiral itself has really ever been mentioned consistently was when someone was, um... trying to communicate with people, for lack of a better term.
no subject
[Of course she'd gone digging through the network for any important information that could be found as soon as she had a few moments. Not all of it had been clear without any context, but enough for her to keep up when stuff like this was brought up.
If one assumes that all this is true, however, then yeah, a potential shortcut to jump towards the center would be pretty important. Especially with that other bit of information she saw: over half of their time was up.]
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II
[Dug has paused in the middle of doing...well, exactly that. More precisely, he's been rolling around in his own spoiled food. He springs to his feet, wagging his tail a little.]
My food has also got spoiled. I am going back to the big kitchen because I am hungry and all my food has got spoiled.
Gonna assume some passing familiarity, if that's okay!
Wait, wait! If you go back outside right now you'll never make it back in time for lockdown. You'll freeze. Just- just stay where you are. You'll be able to get some more in the morning.
go for it!
[He does look uncertain, though, as he glances away toward the door. His ears droop, but then he's turning back toward the camera, tail wagging hopefully.]
But I guess I could wait just one night.
no subject
It doesn't matter how fast you are. You'd have less than an hour.
[Not to mention the whole fact that anywhere that provides food would probably be in the process of forcing them out right now. But that's probably not a concept she'd be able to explain to a dog.]
It'll be safer tomorrow.
no subject
[He's got to think about this.]
That is sixty minutes, yes. Are you sure that is not enough time? Sixty is a lot of minutes.
no subject
Yes, but it's less than an hour. More like... three-fourths of it. So that's forty-five minutes. And a minute isn't that much time by itself. We've probably been talking for more than one, already.
no subject
Then...I should go quickly! Right now! Before we talk for more minutes!
[He grabs up the bag in his mouth, rotten food spilling everywhere. Dug turns in place, trying to see if there's more stuff he has to get, and turns to look at the camera again. The tablet! He should get that.]
no subject
Didn't I just say you wouldn't be able to make it back in time? Just wait until tomorrow morning!
[Goddammit. Okay, she's dealing with a dog, how did you get a dog to stop what they were doing?]
Just stay, stay!
no subject
Stay. He knows that command. Right on cue, he plants his butt on the floor, motion abruptly ceasing though he still holds the bag's strap in his teeth. Dug ducks his head, drool dribbling down the strap.]
But I am hungry now.
no subject
[Right on cue, there's a rather undignified but obliging growl from her own stomach at that point. Phi pulls a face.]
But you'll be able to eat all you want tomorrow, I'm sure.
no subject
Are you going to the big kitchen also?
[In other words, where are you going and can he latch onto you for a traveling companion?]
no subject
Well, that kinda depends on which... "big kitchen" you're talking about. I'm near the school, but I know there are a few others around town.
[She's not sure she should be encouraging this, but...]
Do you know which one's nearest for you?
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