Test Drive

[snowblindmods]

TEST DRIVE MEME

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: LISTEN, DOLLFACE It's no secret that dolls have been the talk of the town, lately. People have been finding them all over Norfinbury: some rag dolls that seem particularly relevant to the Prophet, and some that are unsettling without the apparent connection. Still, it's surprising when you found a doll that looks like another one of the residents. You turn to the network, feeling unsettled, unsure what this could mean. Maybe you aren't alone, or maybe someone has a theory? Come to think of it, you're pretty sure that someone else mentioned finding something similar. TWO: TIPTOES.EXE IS HERE Sometime today you find an SD card that downloaded an app to your tablet. It's titled HIDEANDSEEK and has the picture of a doll as its icon. When you open it, it seems like it's a game to play against a digital opponent: a doll. The game appears to have two stages. In the first stage, the doll hides, and you need to travel around the house (is it just you, or does the layout of this house seem to always be the house you're in when you open it?) to find the doll. In the second stage, you need to hide yourself from the doll, and listen for its movements so it can't catch you. If it does catch you, it will be holding a knife. The screen goes red and the game crashes for the rest of the night. Somewhere on your body, a gash appears. It's nothing fatal, but maybe you should talk to someone about this on the Network. Action Prompts THREE: STRANGE THINGS DID HAPPEN HERE The house that you've found seems promising in terms of useful items to take with you, so you and your traveling companion have spent all day scouring the house for items. At first, everything's fine. Neither of you find or feel anything out of the ordinary. Lockdown approaches, you go to sleep without any additional trepidation...but an odd creaking noise fills your dreams. It gets louder in your ears until you can't stand it anymore and snap awake. When you open your eyes, it's there hanging just above you, swinging in a nonexistent wind: a doll with a broken neck, a noose tied around its neck. It looks just like you. FOUR: LOOK BEHIND YOU Maybe you're not unsettled by dolls--and maybe neither is your companion--but one thing is for certain: this house you've been locked into for the night has an odd, oppressive feeling to it. Maybe it's just because it's full of dolls, though they all seem ordinary enough. Nothing strange happens at first, but as the night goes on...you finally notice: wasn't that porcelain baby doll on the other side of the room the last time you were in it? Didn't you turn that other one to face away from where you were sleeping? The more the night goes on, the more obvious the movements become--sometimes, you even swear you hear the pitter patter of little feet. But nothing ever happens when you're watching. Maybe it's just your imagination. Or maybe, you realize in frustration, your traveling companion is trying to scare you. But is your paranoia worth the confrontation if it is? And will you even believe them if they swear their innocence?

Comments

Cassel Sharpe | The Curse Workers

[theurgy]

[1 - network - @sharpe, video]

[For a second, the feed just shows a teenager with messy black hair and dark bags under his eyes, and then, once he's sure the tablet is recording, he sits back, holding up a doll. It looks very suspiciously like whoever replies. Cassel clears his throat awkwardly.]

Looks like we're ticking off the horror movie cliche list. I found this—[He lifts the doll up by its arm and shakes it slightly.]—in one of the drawers. If we've all got voodoo dolls lying around town and someone finds mine, do me a favor and take good care of it. Read it a bedtime story and tuck it in every night.

[So, Cassel goes for stupid deflection and joking when he's uncomfortable. Good thing he's obvious about it.]

Anyone want to catch the new kid up?

[1 - action]

[Cassel makes for a pretty relaxed traveling companion, for the most part. At least, he's good at faking it, although he has a tendency not to let his pack out of his sight and a propensity to sleep with his back against a wall. Still, considering the options, he's a decent person to get stuck with. He's not usually obviously on edge or twitchy. Except for tonight.

They're locked in a house with way more dolls than he can count, and while they're a little unsettling, Cassel isn't particularly freaked out by them. Sick to fucking death of hearing about dolls and seeing dolls and thinking about dolls, but he just ignores them. Sometime after lockdown, though, he starts to hear things. He's read more than a few stories about people hallucinating in these houses, but actually experiencing it is something else. It's like something tiny is scamping across the floorboards. Too small to be a child, but obviously only moving with two feet.]

I was wondering when the creepy hallucinations would start up. I was feeling left out.

[It's a stupid, sarcastic quip, delivered with his usual smile, but he doesn't talk much after that. Every time he hears something move, the hair on the back of his neck stands on end and he feels like something is watching him. There's nothing moving. Nothing he can see. Out of a desperate desire for something to do, Cassel digs a candy bar out of his pack, and when he looks up, one of the dolls, the one with the curly blonde wig and frilly pink dress, is sitting in the middle of the room, staring right at him. He starts, heart in his throat, and shoots an annoyed look at his companion.]

Hey, come on. Knock it off.

action!

[thunderbitch]

[ The best way to not be afraid is to ignore what is making you afraid, right? That's Dakota's philosophy. She's the master of not showing fright, and she's the master of ignoring the little pitter-patter of whatever the fuck it is that's in the house with them.

The first time Cassel speaks up, Dakota carefully pulls her feet up off the floor onto the couch under her, and continues to read the obviously terrible smutty romance novel she'd picked up in the house they'd explored earlier. Vincent jitters on the couch next to her, and only stops squeaking when Dakota reaches to rest a hand on the metal casing protecting his wings. She doesn't say anything for the moment, doesn't even look up from her book, thoroughly intent on ignoring the problem. Cassel can deal with it.

You know, until he speaks up again. Dakota slowly lowers her book, staring at Cassel with an unamused expression. As usual, she's mostly monotone: ]

Knock what off.

i just realized i fucked up my numbers yolo

[theurgy]

Moving the doll.

[He says it automatically, accusatory, but he's studying her. She didn't move, he's sure of it, but... he can't shake that creeping dread, an itching paranoia that she's lying. It's something he can't quite logic himself out of, so after a second, he looks away again, watching her from the corner of his eye. So much for seeming laid back, Cassel.]

[thunderbitch]

[ She goes back to reading - but only for a few seconds. His not-so-subtle watching gets her to put her book back down, raising her eyebrows at him. ]

I didn't move the damn doll. It probably moved on its own. You've been here long enough to know this place is fucked up like that.

[ She doesn't seem to be... particularly bothered... ]

[theurgy]

Yeah, right. I know.

[He half mutters it, then sighs, stretching his long legs out. He does know that this place is fucked up, but he has trust issues with a capital "t". She could be screwing with him for any number of reasons, he thinks, even as he tells himself she doesn't seem the type. So, he shifts his attention to the doll, instead. There's nothing even that weird about it, but just looking at it makes his skin crawl, and after a second, he stands up, striding across the room and snatching the thing up. He tosses it in a closet, where it hits the back wall with a thump, then closes the door much harder than necessary and then flops back down next to his pack.

Usually, he'd tell himself he's being childish, but who knows if a doll could murder him or steal his soul or something here. Besides, there's no way he'll miss Dakota going to the closet. He shoots her a smile.]

Are you sure you didn't move it? I'll take that over the Chucky rip-off.

[Cassel is back to being totally! Not bothered! By any of this at all. Or trying to pretend, at least.]

[thunderbitch]

[ Dakota is very, very good at pretending like she doesn't care. She's had practice. Privately, though, her insides are all twisted up - she's scared, mostly of the doll, mostly of the fact that nothing she does here seems to be under her control. She'll not be going right back to where she started.

Both of them are totally! Not! Bothered! By this. Absolutely.

Dakota lazily turns her head over to look at Cassel, and at her feet, Vincent buzzes. The little scarab robot twitches, and then flies over to the closet, sitting on top of it. ]

I didn't move it. [ Dakota tells Cassel, dropping her book in her lap. ] Though I'm vaguely flattered you think I could move so silently and stupid quick that you wouldn't have seen me snatch it up and put it in the middle of the room. It probably walked there on its own, you know.

[ Sniff. ] Vincent will watch the door. [ Or she assumes that's what he's doing. She can't communicate with him, anymore. Not here. ]

[theurgy]

[It doesn't make any sense, and he feels extra stupid when she lays it out like that, all sarcasm, but the thought won't leave his head. It's driving him nuts trying to figure out how she might have done it and trying to convince himself that it isn't logical.]

Vaguely flattered. [He clicks his tongue, feigning disappointment.] I was going for delighted.

[His gaze shifts to watch the beetle, shell catching what little light is still in the room.]

Does he have some sort of... alarm?

[He feels silly even as he asks, but he doesn't know how her weird tiny robo beetle works.]

[thunderbitch]

[ Is that a hint of a smile on her face when he snarks back at her? Maybe. She's not telling. ]

He used to. [ She really, really misses his voice in her head. Dryly: ] He'll squeak when the door inevitably opens. At least we'll have some warning before a doll brutally murders us both.

[ She picks up her book again, flicking through the pages. ] I might as well skip to the smutty part of this before I get offed by some shitty plaything. Maybe you'll get lucky before the night is through.

[theurgy]

Inevitably. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

[Just what he needed! He wedges his pack down between himself and the wall, and leans against it as a makeshift pillow. He's thinking that he kind of wishes he had a book when she hits on him, and he lets out a soft huff of a laugh.]

You really want to make it easy for that doll to murder us, don't you?

[thunderbitch]

One hell of a way to go, right? [ Dakota winks at him. ] Really, though, you're going to sit on the floor after a pretty girl just implied she'd make out with you? Maybe you deserve the doll death.

[theurgy]

I'm trying to hold onto my virtue.

[Which is long gone. Whoops. He's grinning at her though, tone teasing, because he's almost one hundred percent sure she's not serious.]

You know you're playing right into the horror movie cliche, right?

[thunderbitch]

Right, I can definitely tell you're full of that. Sooo full of virtue. [ She is one hundred percent not serious. She kind of likes that he can tell. ]

Am I? I've only ever seen one horror movie, and I lost interest halfway through.

action; this is going to go so well

[mrcreamsicles]

[You know what's fun? A healthy case of paranoia, a house full of dolls, and little noises scampering around. And maybe dolls aren't puppets, but they're puppet-adjacent, Davesprite would argue, and that's more than enough with everything else going on. So while Cassel is free to do what he will, he's wedged himself in a corner where nothing can get behind his back and buried his visual attention in his tablet. He's good at ignoring the weird shit around him when he wants to. Speaking of which, hallucinations do make an easy way to dismiss his surroundings. Cassel making note of them only gets a vague grunt of acknowledgement, and under the circumstances one could be forgiven for thinking Davesprite is someone quiet and unpersonable.]

[It's not until the 'knock it off' that he bothers to look up, first to Cassel, and then—]

Jesus fucking Christ!

[He jolts up so hard and fast he smacks himself back into the wall. He makes a birdlike squawk at the impact, but he keeps himself right there anyway.]

When did that get there?

i'm ready for it

[theurgy]

[Davesprite jumps so violently that for a second, Cassel thinks he's faking it, and doing it badly. It's impossible to read him with those sunglasses, and it makes every instinct Cassel has scream not to trust him. Still, Cassel can't fight his sense of unease—not at Davesprite, but at his suspicion, which is verging on paranoia. His response is just a hair harsher than usual.]

I'm serious. Stop screwing around.

[mrcreamsicles]

[He focus flicks back to Cassel, but only partway. He doesn't know how that doll got there, she he doesn't want to look away from it, especially when Cassel's got his attention more on him instead of the actual problem.]

The hell are you talking about? I didn't see that there before. Are you messing with me?

1; @Pandora; hi Jenny

[titanette]

It looks like me!

[She sounds surprised and intrigued, but not upset.]

I'll take care of yours if I find it, I promise. Will you take care of mine?

wink wink WHAT'S UP

[theurgy]

Yeah, no problem.

[She is way more chill about this than he thinks she should be.]

You sure you don't want yours?

just impulse-apping hbu

[titanette]

Oh!

[It's like the thought hadn't occurred to her.]

Can I have it?

STILL TORN ON WHICH APP ROUND I WANT TO APP THIS NERD IN RIP

[theurgy]

[Cassel is offering because he wouldn't trust anyone with his doll, whether there's proof these things are dangerous or not, so her reaction makes his eyebrows tick up.]

Free of charge.

[And then he shoots her a smile.]

Actually, how about we make a deal? I'll give you yours, and if you find mine, you let me have it.

[titanette]

All right.

[She's never made a deal with anyone before. THIS IS SERIOUS AND IMPORTANT. She holds out a very pale hand towards the screen, curls her fingers like she's grasping onto something imaginary, and moves her arm up and down.]

I know that deals are sealed with handshakes, but I can't shake your hand, so I'll pretend.

[theurgy]

[He still gets struck, sometimes, by the weirdness of it—it's strange seeing bare hands so casually in general, but no one at home would ever, ever shake hands without gloves. It's just over a tablet, sure, but still. Weird.

Honestly, pretending to shake hands at all is silly, but she's just a kid, so Cassel humors her, mimicking the gesture with his own gloved hand.]

Just as good as the real thing. I'm Cassel.

[titanette]

I'm--

[She hesitates.]

I'm called Melanie, but the tablet said I could pick my own name when I registered, and so I told it to call me Pandora.

[theurgy]

You're a fan of Greek mythology, huh?

[Kind of a dark one to pick, but hey. He devoured horror novels as a kid, so he can't really judge.]

[titanette]

Oh, yes. I like all stories, but Greek myths are my favorites. Do you know all of them?

[theurgy]

[He smiles again, much more genuine this time.]

Definitely not all of them, but we studied a bunch of them in school. Prometheus was one of my favorites.

[He's totally fine distracting some kid with a conversation like this, honestly.]