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

[jumpthegun]

[John rolls his left shoulder unconsciously. He's not quite as good masking it as he closes off a little bit, stance becoming more guarded. Stephen's already indicated he knows the Sherlock Holmes 'stories,' but being directly reminded that they contain details of John's life is paranoia-inducing.]

Were you at fault, then, doctor?

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen would be a filthy liar if he were to say he wasn't fishing for just that reaction. He should probably feel bad about that. Maybe he will in a while. If he's bothered by the return question, it only shows in a moment's pause.]

Yup.

[Hey, he does still have a couple of twinkies. That'll work.]

Believe it or not, it wasn't the end of the world.

[jumpthegun]

Mm... you find other things to do, I suppose. [John had found Sherlock when he'd had his psychosomatic limp and tremor.] End of an era, though. How recently was that?

[thewarningafter]

Are we leading up to a psychiatric evaluation as well now, Doctor Watson?

Last year. It happened last year.

[jumpthegun]

[John smiles wanly.]

I'm a trauma surgeon, Dr. Strange, not a therapist. I don't do psychoanalysis. Just observe.

And what you went through was fair traumatic and recently, at that. I'm sure you've picked it up, but this place isn't gonna make things easier. Try not to freak out too much, yeah?

[thewarningafter]

Sure. The same way Sherlock just observes.

[He can't help it -- he chuckles at the implication that this, this place, is what's going to freak him out. And alright, maybe he had a brief panic in the first few days when he realized he couldn't tap into his sorcery anymore, but this is just another challenge, just another puzzle to solve. Whatever the thing under the town is, it's no Dormammu.

It's important to keep telling himself that.]

Thanks for the advice, but I think I'm gonna be okay.

[jumpthegun]

According to Sherlock, I see. I do not observe. Him, he doesn't need to try to psychoanalyse you. He just knows.

Bloody irritating sometimes.

What've you seen that's worse than this, though? Because you have seen worse, and I'm guessing it's more than the crash if you're gonna be that blasé about it.

[thewarningafter]

[Why did he choose twinkies this is the worst]

Well, it was probably that time I ventured into another dimension to have it out with Cthulhu Junior.

[jumpthegun]

[In Stephen's defense, there's not a lot of choice when you find food. It's food. Take the calories where you can.]

It can't actually tell if you're being sarcastic at this point. [This is what his life has become.]

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen grins, pleased as Punch by the confusion.]

Could've been the car crash, too. It was a bad one.

[jumpthegun]

So, you really did meet Cthulu. How was that, then? [John pretends at only mild interest. It was something worse than the car crash. That's clear enough to him. It would have to be to outpace the horror of Norfinbury.]

[thewarningafter]

[He sees right through your mild interest, John, even if he is busy choking down fake angel food cake. Stephen sits back against the wall where he was when this whole conversation started and takes the moment in which his mouth is full to give John a good, hard look as he decides just how much to tell him.]

Dormammu, actually. The Dark One, Lord of Chaos, Eater of Souls, all that...stuff.

[jumpthegun]

He sounds like he'd be fun at parties. You were stopping him eating souls and lording over chaos? That really does sound like a hell of a career move.

[John goes to sit back down where he was before, as well.]

[thewarningafter]

Well, I think that would depend on what kind of party it was.

[This is fine. He can joke about Dormammu because it is perfectly fine.]

What can I say? I found religion.

[jumpthegun]

A lot of men do when they just about die. So this 'religion' gave you some sort of powers, then?

[thewarningafter]

Technically it was the months of study and practice that gave me the ability to transcend the limitations of the material plane. You have seen some things here, haven't you? Weirder things than me, if you actually believe any of the things I'm telling you.

[jumpthegun]

I've been killed and come back to life, been mind-controlled by what may actually be an eldritch horror, had a few chats with a dead Russian AI and other dead people, discovered that, apparently, the multiverse and time-travel are real and possible, and have now met a man with my best friend's face.

I said I didn't know if you were being sarcastic, doctor. I meant it.

[thewarningafter]

It was my face first. I called dibs.

[He's never going to be able to prove it, here. He doubts that he even really wants to. What difference does it make? It's probably better to be a sarcastic asshole than a delusional one.]

I'm just messing with you. Always did enjoy Lovecraft a little too much.

[He's never liked Lovecraft.]

[jumpthegun]

[Yeah, no. We're just going to leave off discussing it because in the back of John's mind, he's wondering if this means they're running out of templates. The Admin had said they were running low on supplies. Maybe they just... used one of the existing bodies? If that's how this works.

Or it's even worse and this is like Captain America, where John knows the man as a movie character. And actors have more than one role in their careers, typically. Not thinking about it. Nope!]

Mm... Still doesn't answer what you've seen that was worse than that car crash, doctor. [But it's late.] Question for another time. If you're all right with your hand, we should probably try to get some sleep and hope the dolls quit moving.

[thewarningafter]

[Best they do drop it, actually, or Stephen might be forced to try to explain the theory of transdimensional echoes he read that one time, and they'd be going in circles all night.]

Let's just hope I didn't kick off a doll blood feud. Can you have a blood feud if you don't have blood?

[If he makes it into a joke that means the dolls won't actually get up in the night and kill them in their sleep. He adjusts his blanket and gets as comfortable as he can on the floor.]

[jumpthegun]

I'm gonna say no.

[And hope it's true.]

Good night, Dr. Strange.