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: GIFT BASKET You wake up to find a new application, BASKET.EXE, has downloaded itself to your tablet. The icon is of a cheery pink wicker basket adorned in a bright ribbon and full of eggs and treats. If you click on it, no program appears to immediately load, but then an egg-shaped chocolate in a cheerfully colored wrapper will appear in the corner of your screen. "Eat me?" it asks in an unassuming word bubble. Should you click on it, your tablet goes dark. A cryptic message appears on the center of your screen in red text: Thank you for your contribution. Or maybe it reads: Progress has been saved. Or even: It will be our secret. Whatever the message reads, you feel a shiver pass down your spine, and then your tablet returns to normal. The application has disappeared. TWO: THE RESURRECTION Maybe you've died before or maybe this is your first time, but just like with any other revival, you awake in your body bag, and have to suffer through the task of crawling out into the morgue. You know you'll need to figure out what it is you've awaken to: how long you've been gone, where you are, if anything has changed about you or anyone else. But before you have a chance to do anything to get your bearings, your eyes catch onto something strange. There, on the door to the drawer your body had been stuffed into, someone (or something) has left something. It could be a drawing, or it could be a written word, but whatever it is, the sight of it fills you with a sense of loss. It's familiar, though you're not immediately sure how or why: something that symbolizes something important you've lost in your past. But who would leave this here? And who could know? Action Prompts THREE: RABBIT FEET It's been a long day of traveling, and you and your companion are glad to be reaching your final destination for the night. Someone's even built a rabbit out of snow outside of the door to make the place more inviting. Only...as you get closer, you realize that the tall, white figure is much too detailed to be anything made of snow. The slender figure has a body that could almost be human if not for the way that the limbs attach to the torso at odd angles, and the rabbit face has dark, hollow slits for eyes. It carries a small basket in delicate fingers. It waits for you. It waits for you to get closer, closer. It waits for you to try to get inside. FOUR: SKIN DEEP The day has been rather uneventful, so you wonder why it is you can't sleep. Something is eating at you, poking at the back of your brain, telling you that you're missing something. You look over at your companion and then you see it--something shifting beneath their skin. And then you look down at your own arm, and you see it there, too. An egg has been planted into your skin. And not just one. You wake your companion at once--they need to see what you see. But when you illuminate the situation with the lights from your tablets, you can't see the eggs anymore. You're left to wonder if it was really real, or if your imagination was getting the better of you. But what if it was real? And what happens when the eggs hatch?

Comments

Mycroft Holmes | BBC Sherlock

[holmesice]

Four.

[He prides himself on being calm and collected. In the face of danger, he would remain a bastion of poise and rationality. The very epitome of a disguigushed gentleman. A fine example of the kind of man who occupied a minor position in the British Government.

He saw that ghastly thing in his skin, made a strangled noise not unlike a cat being stepped on, and nearly fell off the bed.]

What in blazes? Did you--did you see--

[It was impossible, but he had seen it. Maybe it was combination of the lack of sleep, or the tedium of this place, but he had seen it.

He didn't seem to be getting any reaction from his companion, so he reached over for his umbrella, which was at its usual spot next to his bed. He promptly began jabbing it across at his companion.]

[jumpthegun]

Bloody hell!

[John grabs for the tip of the umbrella and tries to yank it away from the other man. He gets so little sleep as it is. He really doesn't need Mycroft joining in the 'Wake John Up at All Hours' game.]

What?

[holmesice]

Did you see it?

[Mycroft loses his grip on the umbrella, and it's yanked away. That's hardly any matter now.]

There was an--a round object, like an egg--right there, in my arm, maybe more than one, and I saw one under your skin too--

[He realized how insane this all sounded. Without another word, he grabbed his tablet to illuminate his arm.

Nothing there.]

That's...ridiculous. I just saw it.

[jumpthegun]

[He sighs, resigning himself to sitting up and reassuring Holmes the elder.]

It happens, Mycroft. There's probably nothing there. Just- wait, did you say eggs?

[It's so absurdly specific all he can think of is Davesprite's obsession. Blinking owlishly, John sets down the umbrella and reaches for his tablet. He checks his visible skin for signs of anything, but as with Mycroft, there's nothing.]

What kinds of eggs? Like spider eggs?

[holmesice]

[Mycroft sat back a moment, trying to calm his reeling mind. Sherlock often spoke of his mind racing out of control. He himself has always been better at keeping his considerable mental prowess under order. But on occasions such as these, he suffered from a rebelling thought process. He rubbed his forehead.]

They were considerably larger in nature, Doctor Watson, somewhat akin to the shape of a chicken's egg, were it buried deep underneath the skin. I realize what this must sound like--

[Mycroft wasn't prone to wild theories nor flights of fancy. He was just as baffled as could be. Perhaps he had been dreaming, but it seemed so unabashedly real...]

[jumpthegun]

[John runs a hand over his visible skin this time, feeling for anything unusual, but again, nothing. It's unsettling, to say the very least.]

Yeah, no. This happens. It just happens sometimes. [Which probably isn't terribly comforting.] Nothing's there, probably. Some of the houses, they have weird things that happen in them. There was one where it was like... I dunno. It felt like I was walking through cobwebs constantly, but there wasn't anything there.

[ecks]

[While his initial outburst didn't wake her, being jabbed with an umbrella certainly does. Ecks comes awake in the very sudden way of one who never quite entirely accepts that she is safe at any given time, twisting in place to grab the umbrella and jab it rather sharply back in his direction before she even fully registers what's going on. Despite the darkness of the room and her sleep-addled disorientation, she'll make a pretty good bid at directing it into his solar plexus.]

[holmesice]

OOF!

[Mycroft falls back on the bed, solar plexus attacked. He's stunned, slightly, and blinks at the ceiling, all thought of the eggs forgotten for a second.]

Was that really-- [He coughs.] --necessary?

[ecks]

[She keeps hold of the umbrella, tense and listening as she assesses the situation.]

I am not certain yet whether it was really necessary.

[But she takes the opportunity to get to her feet and put a little more distance between herself and him. Her sudden wakefulness is unsettling, but if he posed a threat she's fairly certain he's been neutralized.]

What happened?

[holmesice]

[That gets a glare, and another moment to compose himself. He sits back up on his bed.]

I saw--I thought I saw...something under our skin.

[He grabs for his tablet, and illuminates his arm. Nothing there.]

I...It was just there, I saw it.

[He realizes his must sound insane. He wondered if this was what it was like to lose one's sanity.]

[ecks]

Like a parasite?

[If he sounds insane, she doesn't seem to notice -- she will, in fact, take his statement at face value. She holds out a moment longer, then tosses his umbrella onto the bed and runs one hand down the other arm, over the scars that join her patchwork skin.]

I do not feel anything under my skin that is not normally under my skin.

[ninjainviolet]

[ Jabbing a ninja while she's sleeping is not the best of ideas--as Mycroft will soon discover. Barely awake and acting on instinct, Sheena leaps out of bed and is immediately in a fighting stance before her senses kick in.

Seeing Mycroft, she sighs and sits down. ]

Oh, it's you. What the hell's going on? Why were you jabbing me with that thing?

[holmesice]

[Mycroft immediately freezes and stops his umbrella attack, his eyes wide and fully expecting to be kicked in the face for a split second. Another second passed and once his companion realizes it's just him and sits down, he allows himself to breathe again. He drops the umbrella on his own bed.]

I know what this must sound like, but I saw...something...under our skin. Like--an egg. A chicken egg, to be exact.

[ninjainviolet]

[ Sheena's in the middle of covering a yawn when he answers, and the effect is immediate. Gone is her sleepiness; she's now wide awake and alert. ]

Never mind what it sounds like. Where did you see it, exactly? And how big was it?

[ Yep. Taking it seriously. ]

[holmesice]

[Good. It was a Very Serious Matter.]

Forearms, closer to the elbow. The 'eggs' were about two inches in length, by my reckoning. And buried about halfway in, as if they were under the skin.

[ninjainviolet]

[ If only he knew how serious.

And to prove she's listening, she searches her arm as he speaks. ]

I'm not feeling anything. [ She grabs her tablet to get some light. ] Could they have moved?

[ And she starts running the light over his arm to see. ]

[howdull]

[The only thing worse than having to deal with Mycroft, was having to deal with Mycroft in Norfinbury where his brother had to actually do physical labour and not rely on his network of people to do things for him. To add insult to injury, Sherlock has somehow managed to find himself travelling with his older brother.

He's actually awake when he's talked to, but he doesn't want to engage, so he ignores it until he's prodded with the umbrella.]

Sod off, Mycroft.

[holmesice]

[Mycroft frowns, and goes for another few jabs. Because he was a mature adult and this was the proper way to force someone up, certainly.]

Get up! There was something under--

[A pause as he realized how ridiculous this sounded.]

--just get up and let me have a look at your arm, Sherlock.

[He reaches for the tablet to illuminate his own arm, and stares for a long moment as he sees...nothing.]

cw: mention of drug use

[howdull]

[Sherlock doesn't want Mycroft looking at his arm, he doesn't know how far ahead his brother is and he'd rather not deal with the potential lecture that seeing relatively recent track marks might spark.]

Why?

[He huffs.]

Let me make a deduction, you think you saw something. You didn't, hallucinations are common here.

[holmesice]

[The implications of looking at Sherlock's arm isn't lost on him, but his little brother's reaction makes him mildly suspicious. He places his own tablet down.]

I saw--

[A pause to collect himself, his voice rose with venom, irritated that he was being accused of seeing things. But annoyingly enough, Sherlock was right. It was gone. What else could it be but a trick of the light, a trick of his eyes, or a trick of this place?]

I'm not hallucinating, I saw it. Some kind of egg-shaped object.

[howdull]

[He finally sits up, and it's probably obvious that he looks smug even in the darkness, his voice practically dripping with it. It's not often that he gets to have one up on Mycroft, so he'll enjoy it while it lasts.]

Yes, Mycroft, that is generally the definition of hallucination. An auditory or visual occurrence experienced as if it were there, that is not there. You seeing it does not make it any more real.

[excellentpoliceman]

Oi! Leave off.

[It's a gruff growl as Lestrade bats the umbrella away and rubs at his eyes.]

What are you shouting about?

[holmesice]

Look at your arm. Look!

[Mycroft wastes no time and grabs his tablet, illuminating his own arm.

Annnnd...nothing there. He paused, baffled, unwilling to accept that his own eyes were wrong.]

Impossible. It was just there.

[excellentpoliceman]

[Lestrade frowns and holds up his arms, looking at them in the darkness before he grabs for his tablet to check.]

They're my arms, Mr. Holmes. What's your problem?

[Can you not have your prissy, bureaucrat problems at 2 AM?]

[holmesice]

[An irritated sigh.]

There was something there, shaped like an egg, underneath the skin--

[Because that sounded plausible and sane. A pause to collect himself.]

I'm not dreaming--I saw it.