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: YOUR COOPERATION IS APPRECIATED When you wake up, you find that a new application has been downloaded to your tablet. It's titled "SURVEY" and is exactly what it claims to be--although there's no explanation to why it's appeared or what it is for other than the note that claims the survey is not opt-out and that your cooperation is appreciated. And more troubling, the questions become more sinister the farther in you answer. Such questions as, "on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your stay?" and "have your needs been met in a timely manner?" become more akin to, "if you had to chose between the two, would you eat your hands or your feet to stave off the hunger?" and "are you sure you are not the last one still alive?" Perhaps someone on the Network would like to discuss what this could mean--and if there are any consequences behind finishing or refusing to take the survey. TWO: NOT SO HELPFUL AVATARS Every tablet has the option for a customizable avatar that will talk to you and keep your tablet in order. Maybe you set it up, maybe you never checked it. Either way, it keeps popping up unrequested and being sort of... Odd. Flickering, talking in strange, mechanical voices, offering advice that's unhelpful at best and actively harmful at worst... Maybe it's even telling the entire network some things you've been doing you'd rather everyone didn't know. Time to call tech support. Unfortunately, the best option is other people on the network. Good luck. Action Prompts THREE: SPIDERS IN THE WALLS Somehow you or your travel companion injured themselves. A quick call to the admin fixed this, but now you can't help but be gripped with the burning curiosity of where the helpful spiders she deployed have gone. You saw them scramble toward the vents, but by the time paralysis wore off they'd completely disappeared. Only now you can't stop thinking about them. Where do they go to? How can they be trapped or followed? You swear you hear little mechanical pattering inside the walls. Maybe you can find some sort of tool to help you break into a vent around the house. Or maybe your companion can convince you to rest before you hurt yourself. FOUR: SCHOOL DAYS You've ended up in the elementary school. Maybe you're grabbing more food, maybe you're exploring. Either way, this place is creepy; the atmosphere is the sort that gets the hair on the back of your neck rising (potentially metaphorically, if you don't have hair or a neck). It's not long before strange things start happening. The sound of running and screaming children, doors slamming in far off or nearby hallways, pianos playing... What's going on? It's hard to tell what's really happening from what isn't happening. Maybe someone who's also exploring has some idea.

Comments

Dr. James Wilson | House M.D.

[oh_negative]

3

[Wilson tests out his hand, flexing his fingers in suspicious amazement. Good as new. No pain, no scar, no nothing. In his experience, when a hand gets crushed like that, you just, well, you don't have a hand anymore. Not that he's complaining; he's glad to have all of his digits in working order again, but...]

This doesn't make sense. [He's still transfixed by his lack of horrible injury, but his companion has been similarly healed. Suddenly, Wilson stands up, shaking out his arm like he's testing whether or not his new hand will stay attached.] This isn't... It's just not possible. This goes beyond--well beyond--medical miracle or whatever you'd like to call it. Even the most advanced surgical robots aren't capable of this kind of work. Not even... [He blows out a puff of air.] Not even close.

[He does a quick survey of the room. Where exactly do those little spiders come from, anyway? And how do those tiny things replace a whole body part like that? He squints at the base of the walls, looking for any kind of small hole or crack that they might have slipped into.] We need to get to the bottom of this. I don't trust those things, hand or no hand. [He wiggles his fingers at his companion.]

[rubikscomplex]

Yeah, welcome to my world for the past three months.

[House rolls his eyes, knowing how this is going to go. It they could catch one of those goddamn spiders...]

Got any sticky tape? We could cut off a finger, see if one runs out. I mean, it'd be a bitch if they got caught before you were healed. But all in the name of science, right?

[oh_negative]

[Wilson opens his mouth to protest, but... Damn. That's not a bad plan. He sighs.]

Always with a flair for drama, House. Let's settle for a cut or something that doesn't involve actual detachment.

[He digs through his pack and fishes out a pocket knife and a glue stick. He holds it up with a "this is the best I've got, lay off" look.] Think this will do?

[rubikscomplex]

...Nope!

[But he'll make a grab for the glue stick all the same.]

They don't come out for minor injuries. I don't make the rules. I just know 'em.

[oh_negative]

[Wilson swipes away the gluestick before House can get ahold of it, but flings it across the room in the process. It clatters to the floor. He gives house a Look.]

Alright, fine. But there has to be some middle ground between "minor injury" and "severed finger."

[rubikscomplex]

[House just raises his brows and spreads his hands. That's on you bro.]

You think I'm dramatic, the chick running this joint flipped out and shut down the entire emergency medical response for more than a month just because some guy hacked her server. Which... come to think of it is basically like raiding a sorority house's panty draw. This town's being run by a party girl with a vindictive streak.

[oh_negative]

[...What, House? What? Wilson purses his lips and decides better against engaging with that. There's no point. It'll just further derail the conversation.]

All the more reason to get our hands on one of those... [He waves his hands around. What would you call those things?] Bugs. We might be able to figure out how those little things do what they do. If the medical response goes down again, at least we'd have a shot at helping anyone who gets hurt.

[ecks]

[Ecks sits on the bed and watches him, yellow eyes peering out from a mass of fabric wrapped around her head. She hasn't unveiled herself yet; there was no time between when she came inside and when the accident happened, no inclination after the spiders paralyzed them and her sudden companion began going on about medical impossibilities.]

Not possible at all?

[Her voice is near monotone, but she's curious. Doctor House has told her things about medicine without magic, and she'd begun to believe it was actually viable. If it can't even fix a smashed hand, though....]

You should wash out the blood stains. If you do not wash out the blood stains they will set.

[Spoken from experience. Her own trousers still bear dark stains that speak of her having sat in a pool of blood.]

[oh_negative]

Well. [He blows the air out of his lungs. Maybe he's exaggerating a little.] Salvaging a hand is possible, sure. To this degree, though? [He holds up his hand, which bears no evidence that anything had happened to it at all.] Even the best surgeons leave a scar, not to mention it's difficult for bones to heal in perfect alignment after they're shattered.

[He shakes his head and looks down at himself. Oh, wow, Ecks has a point about the blood. He hadn't realized what a mess he was.] Ah. Good idea.

[Timidly, he peels off his coat. Somehow, he's gotten lucky and the blood as only seeped onto the cuff of his dress shirt. The damage isn't too serious. He spins around, looking for his backpack.]

Hmm. Using my drinking water for this seems... wasteful. Do you think the sink will work? [In his experience, that answer is no, but he's still new here. Maybe he'll luck out again.]

[ecks]

[She unfolds herself to come watch -- that is not so very bad. Not for how smashed his hand was.]

The sink probably will not work, but there is usually water in the toilet tanks. Duster says that lemon juice and salt removes blood but I do not have lemon juice and salt.

[oh_negative]

[He grimaces. Washing his clothes in the toilet doesn't seem like a great step up. He makes his way over to the bathroom anyway, just to check if he has any better options.] I don't imagine we could find those things in this place, anyway. Lemon juice and salt seem just useful enough for the admin to not want us to have them.

[Sure enough, the sink is a no-go. Frowning, he lifts up the back of the toilet to peer into the tank.] The blood's still wet, at least, so maybe water will be enough. [It won't be, but, you know. He's trying to stay optimistic. He gingerly dips the sleeve of his coat into the tank.]

[ecks]

It won't be.

[She doesn't say it with any malice; she's just being realistic and would not like for him to be left thinking something that she knows is untrue.

While he's busy with that, she'll start poking around the bedroom. He's left an impressive bloodstain in there, but she mostly ignores it in favor of opening and closing the dresser drawers, clearly looking for something.]

What is your name?

[oh_negative]

[He sighs. Blood slowly swirls through the water, turning it pink, but if anything he's just making his sleeve worse. He pulls it out and tries to brush the water off with a hand. He just leaves tiny spatters of watery blood on the floor. Great.]

James Wilson. [He says this as he returns to the bedroom. He lays his coat over the bed to let it dry a bit before putting it back on.] Wilson is fine. Or James. Whichever you prefer.

It's nice to meet you, er...?

[devoutish]

Yeah, and we've got little machines swimming around in our blood.

[It creeps Alfie out, too. Like, a lot. He spares Wilson a glance from over on the couch.]

If you don't trust that, right, it only gets worse.

[oh_negative]

[Wilson pauses for a moment to consider his hand again. Hm... It's true that the little spiders have done nothing but help him when he wasn't able to help himself. It's unsettling, that's true, but he's in no position to argue. He'd be down his dominant hand if it wasn't for those things.]

It'd be good to know where they come from, at least. [He crouches down near a particularly suspicious-looking dent in the wall.] How many do you think there are?

[devoutish]

[Based on how quickly they had come running...]

I think they're all over the fucking town. Yeah? Millions.

[He doesn't get up from the couch, but he watches Wilson.]

They come out of the vents.

[oh_negative]

[Wilson's eyebrows shoot up, but he nods. That does make sense.] Millions, huh? So do you think there's a whole, I don't know, small tunnel system under the ground for them?

[He shudders at the thought of millions of creepy little mechanical spiders skittering around below their feet.]

[devoutish]

I tell you there's machines in your blood, and you're still interested in this?

[Maybe nanomachine parasites are common where this guy is from.]

Hello~ (it has been so very long please to bear with me ps I have one icon)

[brainyfellow]

[Rest assured that your confusion is shared by your companion, Wilson--by this particular fellow who is similarly looking at what used to be a very large open wound in his arm, now seamlessly closed sans stitches, not a speck of blood left to be seen.

Foreman's gaze snaps up when Wilson speaks.]

I've worked with neurosurgeons who can't stitch this neatly. They could stand to learn a thing or two from those little... [Confusion spreads on his face, uncertainty.] Uh, not to sound like an idiot, but did you see what those were? They looked like spiders.

OMG FOREMAN it's all good i have nfi what i'm doing either LOL

[oh_negative]

[Wilson runs a hand through his hair.] They did, yeah. Interesting choice. [He inspects his hand again.]

And I'm not sure I'd call this stitching. There's just... Nothing. Like nothing was ever amiss in the first place. How do you think they did that?

[averytinyparticle]

Those things? You mean the robots, Mister--I mean Doctor Wilson? I dunno if you should go after them, they'll probably get mad.

[Not that he's speaking from experience personally, but he has witnessed some of the complications that came of other people trying to pursue them. Didn't exactly work out as planned.]

[oh_negative]

[Wilson bites his tongue, nearly forgetting he was in the company of a child. It's easy to forget that Quark's only ten... Especially when he runs around telling people that he's twenty.]

If they're robots, I'm not sure they can get angry. But you're probably right. They only seem to come out when we're grievously injured anyway, and that's not something I'd like to repeat any time soon.

[He turns to Quark, motioning to him.] How are you feeling, by the way?

[lacecase]

Whaaaaaaat? Oh no--you should, like, totally be careful with that hand now, like, what if it gets hurt again or something? That would totally be super duper awful!

[Ginger reaches for his formerly-injured hand and puts it between hers, an imploring look on her face.]

Really, really awful! And spiders kind of, like, freak me out...

[oh_negative]

[Wilson gives Ginger a warm smile and pats her hands with his.] I'm sure if either of us get hurt again, those little things will come back and fix it. I appreciate the concern, but my hand will be fine.

[Or, well... Maybe that's not what she wants to hear if those spiders creep her out. Nice work, Wilson. Your bedside manner is slipping.] But I promise to be careful. [He tries to change the subject to get away from the spiders.] So, um, are you okay?

[lacecase]

Oh...if you say so!

[Ginger looks thoughtful as she finally lets his hand go, and toys with the warm red scarf wrapped around her neck.]

Am I? I mean, I think so...but you're the doctor so, like, you'd know way better than I do probably!