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]

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

It's... face down?

[thewarningafter]

[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.

[jumpthegun]

[John sighs and closes his eyes again.]

This is a bit silly, isn't it?

[thewarningafter]

[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.

[jumpthegun]

[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?

[thewarningafter]

[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?]

[jumpthegun]

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

[thewarningafter]

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.]

[jumpthegun]

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?

[thewarningafter]

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.]

[jumpthegun]

[John opens the pill bottle, nodding along, and taps out a pair of the ibuprofen. He offers them to Strange.]

May I ask, was it a car accident? [After a beat he adds his reasoning because he's not a mysterious dick who assumes people can just follow his logic like Sherlock.] You're a doctor--a surgeon--we're very careful about our hands. You wouldn't be playing any sport that could do that to you. Not an accident at work. One hand? Maybe. Both? Unlikely. So, not work, not sport, balance of probability says you drive a car if you're American. One of the best sources for organ donations in the world, car wrecks.

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen trades the bottle of sanitizer for the pills, but ends up staring at John as he finishes dry swallowing them. The hand at his side tightens, but with effort he keeps his expression nearly neutral.]

You do hang out with Sherlock Holmes.

[He steps away to go to his pack, wanting to dig out something to eat before the painkillers hit his stomach too hard.]

I'd diagnose that shoulder wound of yours, but I'd be cheating. And you shouldn't say accident, it implies there was no one at fault.

[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.]