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: HUNTING SEASON You wake up in the morning to find that a new application has appeared on your tablet. It's labelled "SCAVENGER HUNT" and when you open it, you find a long list of items that, if the title is anything to go by, need to be collected. At first, the items seem rather innocuous; things like bottle caps, napkins, Scotch tape, mittens. As the list continues, though, the items become a little more interesting. Where are you going to find "one pint of type O- blood"? How does one collect a "cry for mercy"? Does the "human sacrifice" need to be human? Most importantly, what are you supposed to do with these items once you've collected them all? Maybe you should check your list with the Network. Some folks might be willing to pool resources. TWO: ONE, TWO, SKIP A FEW Sometime yesterday, you noticed that a timer placed itself on the Network. Contacting the Admin about it provided no explanation, of course, and nobody's tablet buddy seems to have any answers. It started from zero and began counting upwards, seconds ticking away like lightning, but nothing was happening, so there was nothing to be done. Suddenly, however, you can't help but notice the count stutter and jump upwards to 99 hours in. And then, at 100, it stops and vanishes. As far as you can tell, nothing's changed, but it's disconcerting enough that you can't get it off your mind. Maybe someone else on the Network has some theories. Action Prompts THREE: WHAT WE DO WITH THE SHADOWS You and your companion decided that, for whatever reason, this house was worth investigating. It took something unorthodox—like moving all the furniture to one place, illuminating certain segments of the room, reciting a message, or maybe something else—but by doing it, it seems you've invited another guest. It's a shadowy figure with no face and no discernible limbs, and it goes wherever you go, lingering behind you just so that you can only ever see it out of your peripheral vision. Your companion can see it well enough, though, and sometimes it follows them instead. It doesn't seem to be hostile, but can you know that for sure? Either way, lockdown has already fallen, and you're stuck with it through the night. FOUR: WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? You’ve just gotten comfortable for the night with your traveling companion when something odd happens. You hear an animal. A dog? A cat? A bird? Maybe the sound is coming from outside, or in the other room. Maybe you feel it brush or flutter past you without anything being there. Or maybe you even see it…just out of the corner of your eye, as it darts around a corner. You feel like maybe it’s trying to alert you to something, somehow. Or maybe you just really want to see if you can coax it out. Careful, though, get too close too quickly and you may aggravate it. As phantom as the animal may seem, the claw marks you receive for your trouble feel very real.

Comments

[exequies]

[He'll take the croquet mallet for 500, Alex. Literally take it, as in he doesn't ask when he removes it from House's pack and gives it a little swing or two.

All the other man's ribbing gets in response is a grin and a giggle. If House wants to really insult him he'll have to try harder than that.]

I was thinking an arm's dealer, actually.

[rubikscomplex]

[House visibly bristles when Undertaker just takes his mallet.]

Find something else to swing, Scarface, and put it back.

[exequies]

But I'm doing it for science! Isn't that what you wanted~?

[He's not putting it back, and instead just twirls the handle through his fingers.]

[rubikscomplex]

[That's a weapon in a stranger's hands, and House has had bad luck where those are concerned. The fact that the other man is bigger than him and in far better shape for not having been here so long only compounds how wary the doctor is.]

I said hug it for science. I'll swing shit around. Wouldn't want you breaking a nail.

[A pause as he puts on a mock thoughtful expression.]

Actually, that'd probably be hilarious. Keep going.

[Reverse psychology???]

[exequies]

I decided on a compromise. Wouldn't want anything untoward happening to my poor old self, since I know you're enjoying my company so much.

[House has good reason to be wary, though Undertaker isn't holding it in a particularly menacing way. No more so than the natural state of someone who looks like they walked off the set of A Christmas Carol as sponsored by Hot Topic does, anyway.

Unfortunately, he's ridiculously dexterous even with said nails, so House's speculation is for naught.]

We'll see, won't we? ^Hee Hee~

[And with that he goes about trying to get a good shot at the shadow's 'head'.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House takes an unconscious step back and tenses when the other man begins swinging and... does absolutely nothing to the shadow. The mallet passes through it like there's nothing there.]

Regular physical objects don't affect the weird crap around here, poindexter. Or did you miss that on the guides? Our own bodies or the metal from the houses do.

[exequies]

Do you believe everything you read?

[He knows, but it's sort of fun to watch the mallet go through it's head a couple times without harming either. Until he gets bored of it, or his curiosity's been satisfied at least.]

But fair enough.

[Surprisingly, he also drops the object back onto House's pack once he's finished.]

[rubikscomplex]

Golly, gee, willikers, of course I believe everything I read. People wouldn't put lies on the Internet! That'd just be mean.

[His tone is absolutely dripping with sarcasm, and he slides over toward his pack as soon as Undertaker drops the mallet. House picks that up and holds it defensively as he looks at the other man.]

[exequies]

[Undertaker watches him, still with his smile even if he's being insulted again. He seems to be thinking, or perhaps studying the other man now instead of their shadowy friend. It's brief, however, and once House has his weapon back, Undertaker just plops himself back down next to his own pack. Unzipping it, he rifles through it's meager contents until he pulls out a ration.]

You have an interesting sense of humor, you know~ Though you could work on knowing your audience. Still, potential.

[rubikscomplex]

[It's only once Undertaker sits down that House relaxes marginally. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bottle of Vicodin and pops a pill before pocketing it again. House shifts to holding the mallet more like a cane, leaning on it to the right.]

Well, me and Mr. Shadow only just met. I'm still feeling him out.

[exequies]

[He snickers a bit, unwrapping his food before taking a bite. Which causes him to pull a face and briefly stick his tongue out with the corner of the ration stuck to it. But he eventually begins eating without further complaint; it wasn't inedible, just bland.]

I'd venture a guess and say he's not a fan of knock-knock jokes. Any jokes involving limbs, or having a mouth.

[Pause.] How will you know if you're getting a chuckle or not?

[rubikscomplex]

The nose knows. Incorporeal chuckles have a certain scent. [House taps the end of his nose for effect.] And, well, y'know what they call a guy with no arms or legs lying on a porch, right?

Matt.

[He looks pointedly at the shadow and sniffs deeply.]

Yeah, no. Doubling over for that one, dude.

[exequies]

[It isn't worthy of a true laugh, in Undertaker's opinion. But it still gets a small snort from him before he takes another bite of his ration.

At the very least, the other man's absolute silliness is something he can appreciate.]

I always liked the one about Phil, personally.

But I see, I see~ You must have honed your nose quite remarkably, then. Or is that just your special gift?

[rubikscomplex]

[The guy with @ofcorpse as his username would like that one.]

It's the special gift handed down through the generations. So my mother held Le Nez de Choses à Savoir, so I, her only son, should hold it. It's a bitch walking past graveyards.

[exequies]

[He can't be unpredictable all the time.]

Goodness! I didn't peg you as French.

But don't ghosts usually haunt the places they've died? Hardly anyone ever kicks it inside of a cemetery~ I should know, ^hee hee.

[rubikscomplex]

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

[As French as French can be! It is one of the languages he knows, but it's fun pretending he doesn't really.]

And it must be different worlds, bro. All the dead assholes liked to hang out at the local graveyard like some corpse party. They had propped-up comedy nights every Thursday and Saturday. You could smell it a mile away. Or I could, anyway.

[exequies]

[Undertaker himself speaks it quite well, and is totally oblivious to that SONG LMAO HOUSE.

Congrats, that actually gets a head thrown back cackle out of him, after a brief and shocked little pause. It's alarming for anyone who isn't already used to the sound of his laughter, too.

But thankfully it doesn't last more than that one peal, before he manages to regain control of himself.]

So that's how it works, hm? I'm almost jealous.

[rubikscomplex]

[Jesus Christ, this guy is like a banshee. House can feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing up, and his grip on the mallet's head tightens for a moment. He's blinking a little when the guy speaks up again. Luckily, he regains his own poise quickly, shrugging.]

It's a gift. And a curse. All I can say is I've learned to live with it. My burden.

[As the other guy seems to be staying put finally, House drops down to a knee, rubbing for a moment at his right thigh with the heel of his palm. That only last a few seconds before he's setting his mallet aside to rummage in his pack and pull out a stethoscope. He places the eartips in, and then holds the chestpiece against the wall, listening for anything through the ever-present buzz of static in the walls.]

[exequies]

[It's one of his many charms.]

Hmm. [That's all he replies with as that vein of conversation runs dry, not from disinterest but simply an appropriate point to pause. And he just knows House wants him to stay wide awake instead of doing something sensible (like sleeping), so when he pulls out his stethoscope he cocks his head again. A quip dies before he can utter it though when the other man moves to... listen to the wall?

After not even a moment of watching him, Undertaker's head thunks itself one-ear first against the plaster nearby. It causes his hat to fall off, but that's secondary to the effect.]

What're we listening for? Voices? Rats burrowing in the walls?

[rubikscomplex]

Well, the walls told me to go east once.

[As they do. At the moment, they're only registering the low hum of static. Undertaker may be able to hear it, albeit muffled.]

Also, monkey see, monkey do, much?

[exequies]

Really? That's awfully helpful of them.

[It sounds absolutely insane, and many people would question it. Undertaker himself doesn't know if he believes it, but it's amusing to hear a phrase like that come out of an otherwise perfectly rational human being.]

I was hoping I might startle you again, actually. Guess I'll have to try harder next time.

[rubikscomplex]

I hummed a song they liked. [It's absolutely insane. Which... granted, some of this crap isn't outside the realm of what House might normally do just for kicks, but this is a little bit farther on that stretch. This is what four months in Snowhell does to a rational human being, Undertaker. Beware.]

And gee. Aren't you fun? Make yourself useful and try different things to move the spirits if you feel like moving around.

[Really, the main thing he needs to do to startle is pick up a weapon...]

[exequies]

[That would give away his more sinister tendencies, though. No dice.]

I suppose...

[He seems to ponder for a moment or two, though whether it's to actually help or just come up with some other way to be annoying isn't clear. Eventually though, he raises his hand and curls his fingers into a half-fist before he raps on the wall.

Shave and a hair cut--]

[rubikscomplex]

[There's a long pause of nothing, and then...

--two bits!

Instead of coming from the walls, it's from House, though. You can't just leave that knocking pattern unfinished. He grunts and takes off the stethoscope, putting that away.]

Aren't you from some bullshit Victorian era? How do you know that?

[He doesn't actually know when 'shave and a haircut' started up, but there are so many other anachronistic things about this guy.]

[exequies]

[The long and short of it's because his canon is pop culture referencing trash and it's timeline is deeply screwed up.

Undertaker just gives a small shrug of his shoulders and feigns a semblance of obliviousness. He doesn't give any real answer to it.]

Mysteries~