snowblindmemes | Test Drive

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test drive

Test Drive


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?

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[Like you can talk about "unsettling," John Watson. At least it's not the other one he's stuck overnighting with, the supposed Sherlock Holmes who looks like Stephen's evil twin out of a comic book. ~~No one tell Stephen that he's the one who looks like an evil twin.~~

He gives up on pretense for the moment and cracks open an eye to give the other man an incredulous look.]

Like hell you are. What are you playing at, here, anyway? Because let me tell you, it's already getting old.

Right. [John glances up from his tablet.] So, the alternatives here:

1. There's a data ghost in the house mucking about with our perceptions because that's what they do.

2. I've got telekinesis and am moving things about without moving.

Or 3. I'm just about the stealthiest bloke on the planet, able to run and move things while you aren't looking and you can't even hear me moving.

Which are we going with, then?

[That's all perfectly logical. It's also not anything Stephen wants to hear.]

If you've got telekinesis, I've got some choice words for the assholes who brought us here.

[And now he's sulking, but at least he's considering John's point as he shuts his eyes again. Option three can probably be discarded out of hand, given that it didn't stop happening after they'd both settled down in place. Option two is still on the table, though it'd make Mr. Watson the only person in town with that kind of ability intact. Option one is beyond his current ability to assess and confront, which is why it frustrates the hell out of him that it's probably what's happening.

He's silent, at least, for a few moments. Good job, John.]

When you say data ghost, do you mean a digital impression of an actual consciousness, or is it just a cute way to talk about hallucinations?

I think we'd all like to have words with them.

[John's quiet, as well, after that, and has almost gone back to the network when Stephen speaks up again.]

I mean digital impressions, neural patterns that have been mapped and stored on servers here that seem to interact with the environment and us now and again. Probably through the nanomachines inside of us.

You think it's one of the former residents trying to commune with us through our blood.

[That's a grossly simplified and over-mystical way of putting it. He understands what Dr. Watson is actually saying; he just doesn't like it.]

Say it is just a matter of perception. How about you tell me what you've been perceiving since we got to this house?

[John's brow shoots up high. He's decidedly not a mystically-inclined person. He wouldn't think another doctor would be, either. Although, with a name like 'Strange'...]

I think some neural patterns in a system that's slowly being corrupted are acting up in unexpected ways, Dr. Strange. I've been seeing the dolls in here moving about. That one that was on the desk earlier is on the table across the room now.

[Wow, John, he comes from a proud line of perfectly normal Stranges.]

I noticed that one, yeah.

[He doesn't catch the look from the other doctor, his eyes still shut against...well, everything.]

If we accept this hypothesis, that still leaves the question of whether the phenomenon is mental or physical. You and I saw the same doll make the same move. That's not consistent with a diagnosis of individually altered mental states. Either the damned things are actually moving, or your data ghost is planting identical thoughts in our heads.

Or you're telekinetic and a pathological liar to boot. I'm not ready to take that one off the table just yet.

[Is he joking? He says it like he might be joking...or like he might not.]

[John huffs.]

God knows the first thing I'd do as a psychic is screw around with some random bloke I've never met but a day ago.

I'd not put it past them to plant identical thoughts, though. We know the NIMA system and the MN in our bodies are connected to a degree. Mr. Miller said that's how someone who'd never seen Angel's wings hallucinated it for the... thing in the morgue. Because she'd seen them before that knowledge was somehow transferred through the system.

[Whether it was a joke or not, Stephen lets out a low chuckle at John's response. The rest is a lot less amusing, though, and the smile dies from his lips.]

No knowing whose hallucinations are whose, then. And no knowing what else might be bleeding through.

[This isn't quite within the realm of his expertise, and not just because they're talking about a technological problem rather than a spiritual one. What he wants right now, more than anything, is access to the library at Kamar-Taj. Even though the technological aspect is beyond the scope of the collections, he's sure there would be enough there for him to piece a solution to this problem together with more than guesswork. At least his neurological background is relevant, even if they're dealing with medical advancements far beyond his time.]

That is, not without experimentation.

[Finally he opens his eyes again before dragging himself upright to sit against the wall, one hand absently pawing his hair to one side to get it out of his face. He's starting to have an idea.]

[He's seeing hints of his best friend in this man, even when they actually don't seem all that similar beyond the surface level of appearance and personality.]

What did you have in mind?

I'm either going to move one of the dolls, or I'm not, and then you're going to tell me whether I believe I moved it.

[It's not the most rigorous study design he's ever come up with, and regardless of the results it won't prove much of anything. He's itching to do something, though, and he's already striding across the room to the doll on the table before he pauses and looks back at John.]

This is the part where I need you to close your eyes.

... You want me to read your mind?

[John has a few problems with this study design, Stephen. But he'll close his eyes. From the faint glow of John's tablet, his expression is still highly skeptical.]

[Well, when he says it like that.]

I want you to tell me what you observe.

[He's going to have to move around for this, whether he moves the doll or not, because he's not particularly stealthy himself. The moment he sees John's eyes shut, Stephen strides over to the table to pick up the doll they'd been looking at a moment ago and carefully set it face down before taking a bit of a stroll around the room. He ends next to Dr. Watson, shaking hands shoved into his pockets.]

You can open your eyes now.

[John mentally tracks Stephen around the room with his hearing. He can feel the other man looming beside him when he tells him to open his eyes. John blinks a few times before looking around.]

The doll's moved. Was that you?

[Well, at least Dr. Watson seems to be seeing what's real as well as what they're both probably imagining.]

Yeah, but tell me how it's moved. What change do you see, specifically?

[Once more, that American accent is jarring when John could see that being something Sherlock would say.]

It's... face down?

[Once more, Stephen is oblivious to the weirdness. It's only weird when he has to look at Sherlock himself.]

...'kay.

[He's beginning to share John's doubts about this experiment. That doesn't mean he's going to stop, though.]

We'll try it a second time. I'm going to do something different. Or maybe I'm not.

[John sighs and closes his eyes again.]

This is a bit silly, isn't it?

[He's already striding across the room again, trying and failing to see how this is not, in fact, very silly. There's got to be some way to get actual results, some way to see what the thing manipulating them doesn't want them to see, but with only human eyes to look at the problem he almost can't help the barb that slips out in frustration as he picks up the doll once again.]

I could try to make it sillier for you, Doctor Watson, but considering I'm already talking to someone who claims to be a human literary device --

[He isn't sure what happens next. There's a flare of pain as the muscles of his hand spasm, but he could swear he feels the doll twisting in his hand. There's a loud crack followed by a louder crash when the doll hits the floor, porcelain shattering on impact. Stephen clutches at his hand as blood wells up from a narrow cut.]

Shit.

[He even snaps like Sherlock when he's feeling frustrated. But that cut off gets John opening his eyes. At first it's to glare angrily at Stephen. When the doll drops, and the other man exclaims, though, John is up in a flash and over to him.

John pulls a blood-stained bandana from his pocket and wraps it around Stephen's hand.]

Keep the pressure on that. What just happened?

[John will barely get a chance to get the bandana around his hand before Stephen pulls it away to grip it in his other hand again. His hands are shaking worse than they have all evening, and he presses them against his own body in an effort to still them.]

Muscle spasm. It's nothing.

[It wasn't nothing. Stephen feels a wave of revulsion roll through him as he looks down and sees the doll's broken face is still staring balefully up at him from the floor. He can still feel the memory of it -- but the input his brain gets from his hands is hardly reliable, is it?]

That doesn't seem like nothing, doctor. [John gives Strange a hard look before kneeling down to pick over the pieces of the doll. He turns the glow from his tablet light over the face to get a better look.]

Well, I imagine we're both going to be dreaming about the Bride of Chucky tonight. [He stands up and uses his boot to sweep the mess over and under a dresser as best he can.] Finished experimenting? I've got hand sanitizer and some ibuprofen for the pain

Are nightmares common after encounters with data ghosts?

[Stephen privately thinks that can't be worse than his normal dreams. That'll be an experiment of its own, won't it?]

I thought it moved in my hand.

[There. Admitting that's better than addressing what he suspects actually underlies Doctor Watson's concern. He doesn't need that concern. He needs the hand sanitizer, and he wouldn't say no to ibuprofen, but he doesn't need the concern.]

Nightmares are common here, Dr. Strange. [He imagines that's direct enough about what the other man has to look forward to. Although, with the way his hands are, John's willing to bet he has his own trauma that's already lent itself to less that pleasant dreams.

John glances over and up at the other man when he admits to feeling it move.]

Well, that's different. [He moves over to his pack and rummages for the sanitizer and bottle of ibuprofen. John brings both over to Strange, presenting them without comment, expression mild.] How did it move?

Touche.

[He lets out a mirthless chuckle. Ask a stupid question....]

It felt about like you'd expect it to feel if something you'd thought was a doll started struggling in your hand. Like it was a rat.

[He eyes the bottle of ibuprofen, allowing himself a moment of internal debate over whether it's worth struggling with the childproof lid to save himself asking the other doctor to open it for him. No, he decides; it's going to take goddamn forever to get the stupid little tabs to line up, and he'd rather ask help than have it offered in pity.]

I can't open that.

[But he'll take and use the hand sanitizer, which is more manageable. His own expression is mild, though he keeps his gaze on his own hands as he works.]

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up to you whether Stephen's sorcerer-ness is out in the open here

We'll go with no for now.

wow, Stephen, it's Dr. Watson, not Mr. Watson

I was wondering about that. XD

nothing more than a brain fart

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