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: IT GAZES BACK Aside from perhaps a lingering feeling of unease, it’s been a quiet day. Maybe the quiet is why you feel so suspicious. Still, with nothing to stop you, it’s not a tall order to get some sleep. After all, you probably need it. It’s the staying asleep part that proves to be the trickiest...because more than once, you wake up from the light of your tablet. Not only is it turning itself on...it’s turning itself on and recording. It’s strange...but stranger still is that when you play back the videos you find the angle of the camera move until it falls on your sleeping body--no matter where you had your tablet placed or where you found it when you woke up. Maybe it’ll feel a bit more comforting to try and sleep again if you find out you’re not the only one experiencing this problem. TWO: SURVEY SAYS At first it seems mostly like a stroke of bad luck when your tablet glitches and goes dead. After a few seconds of getting nothing but a blue screen, a loading icon appears in the center, and it appears you’re back up. Only, everything is empty. Just like when you first woke up here however many days ago, you find that it won’t let you rest until you insert a username. It may seem like a good time to change the one you had set for yourself before, if it isn’t something that you’ve been particularly happy with, but that’s when things start to get odd: That username doesn’t belong to you. The error message continues to come up until you put in your existing username, at which point the tablet welcomes you back, and asks you for a moment of your time to answer a few questions to improve your continued experience. “No” isn’t an option. And the questions, though they start off simple enough, quickly become stranger and stranger. Tell me what action has caused you the most shame in life, it asks. Or maybe, I like the taste of your skin, which isn’t even a question at all. It seems to be a different experience for every user, which you’ll discover if you talk to others about it who report similar findings once the survey caps out at twenty questions and thanks you for the enlightening dialogue. Your tablet is back to the way it was before it crashed, as if nothing has changed. Action Prompts THREE: I AM IT AND IT IS ME A room full of mirrors is not exactly your ideal place to stay, but there’s not much escaping it once lockdown hits. Other than the obvious, after all, there’s nothing too inherently creepy about your own reflection. At least, there’s nothing creepy about your reflection so long as it acts like a reflection. At some point, when your traveling companion is turned away from a mirror, you’ll notice a second pair of eyes on you--because their reflection didn’t turn when your companion did. It stares, too. Stares, and smiles knowingly, like the two of you are sharing a secret. Alert your companion to what you see and they’ll turn to find nothing that appears more than an ordinary reflection. But the hairs stand up on the back of your neck because now, all of a sudden, you can’t be too sure what your reflection is doing when your focus is elsewhere, either. FOUR: PREPARE FOR ASSIMILATION The first thing you notice when you wake up is that, if you weren’t already, you’re huddled very close to your traveling companion. The second and possibly more pressing thing you notice following this discovery is that the two of you are so close together because you’ve been confined in a room the size of a small closet with no discernible entry or exit point. What it does have are a lot of dangerous looking parts. And it’s warm--but warm is quickly turning into searing, unbearable heat. Nothing moves or changes at first, but once the both of you are awake the walls around you begin to spin. Slowly at first, at a languid crawl, but gradually faster. You aren’t told so much as somehow know that this is the assimilation room, and it’s your task to escape, one way or another. The question is...how, exactly? Or is this all just some kind of test?

Comments

Catherine Chun | SOMA

[arkproject]

    > NETWORK ONE

[ Catherine clicks on the voice function, no video, and immediately launches into a complaint with a distinct note of annoyance. ]

Hello, is anyone in here? It's really rude to keep watching me sleep, you know. You could at least introduce yourself!

Here, I'll go first. My name's Catherine. [ Her tone is a little exaggerated, like she's speaking to a kid, or someone of limited understanding, maybe. ] If you're having trouble with your visual pick ups, I could see if I could help. Acting like a stalker is creepy and unnecessary.


    > IN PERSON

There's a lot of things for Catherine to adjust to when she arrives in Norfinbury.

Others might need to acclimate to the surroundings, to the limited resources, to, well, the oppressive atmosphere or the snow. Catherine doesn't really care about any of that. It is, frankly, a huge step up from where and when she'd come from, where she was facing down what was likely a permanent deactivation on the ocean floor of a decimated, post-apocalyptic planet in an abandoned scientific installation, surrounded by corpses and AI-infested pseudo-organic robots.

No, Norfinbury's alright. That part's pretty fascinating, actually. It's this whole having a physical body business that is weirding her out.

She's part organic tissue, part mechanical-- that much she can tell already. The rest takes some experimentation. She can be found wandering around, literally stumbling at first as she gets used to having a humanoid shape, hesitantly attempting to eat something and making a wrinkled expression at her initial attempt.

"Bizarre," she announces to herself, not noticing an audience. "I have taste receptors now? Those are incredibly difficult to program." She sounds half-baffled, half-impressed.

in person

[toerr]

Perhaps it's fortunate that Catherine's wound up with someone in a similar circumstance. The boy with the metal dome for a head can't possibly be human--though he's certainly acting like he is one. He watches her become accustomed to her new body with a relative shyness, staying a few feet back. Still, he speaks up and makes himself known (or at least, more obviously known than before) when she speaks.

"Program? What do you mean? You couldn't eat anything before?"

His curiosity quickly gets the better of him, and he moves out from where he'd been halfway hiding, cautiously approaching to get a better look at the state she's in.

"Are you okay? You seem...disoriented."

Though, if she did just wake up, it's ultimately not too surprising. If anything, she's being shockingly cavalier about the whole situation.

[arkproject]

Shockingly cavalier might as well be Catherine's middle names. "I am disoriented," she says frankly, then spots the... dome-headed person (?) nearby. Her eyes widen briefly. Oh. Is this another scan that doesn't know they're a scan, or something like that? He clearly isn't human, but he isn't clear on why she would be questioning herself eating something, either.

Hmmm. Catherine really isn't good at this. Oh well. Best just be blunt.

"I couldn't eat anything because I don't have a body. Well, normally. My consciousness is housed in my cortex chip, which is probably in here somewhere." That probably doesn't actually explain things very well, but Catherine plows on nonetheless: "What about you? Do you eat like that?"

Look, she might as well ask.

one

[theseuschip]

[ As soon as Simon hears the voice coming out of the tablet his head is swimming with relief. He’s never been happier to hear Catherine, even Condescending Catherine. And this moment is up against stiff competition, seeing as every time he docked Catherine at PATHOS-II it was like an oasis in a desert. She broke. Or shut down, but it looked permanent, and it was his fault.

She has time to finish talking while he freezes and then scrambles to figure out how to answer her, even though it’s incredibly simple and intuitive and he would have known how to do it a minute ago. He still barely registers what she’s talking about, except that it’s not even close to what he considers their primary concern right now. Which is normal. ] Catherine? Catherine! [ he grips the thing like this will make sense somehow if his face is closer to the screen. ] How are you— this doesn’t have a cortex chip.

[arkproject]

Oh! Simon!

[ She actually sounds excited for a moment-- relieved, why would she be relieved, this asshole keeps yelling at her and shutting her off like she's, well, a program instead of a person. Seriously, now. And he's arguing with her about cortex chips?

Okay, so she's pretty miffed at him, and resentful, but he had faithfully carried her all over PATHOS-II in the wasteland that Earth has become, and.

And there's not really anyone else left that she could expect to see here that would know her. Simon isn't so bad. She can focus, and put all the prior stuff aside for now. ]

So you are here. I thought it would be odd that I would wake up in a different infested wasteland without you. I'm not in the computer, Simon, [ she explains with what she considers commendable patience. ] Are you? Was that you watching me with the camera?

@godsend, audio

[termineur]

[ There's some interesting phrasing going on, but- it's one of those nights again, he can tell. Gabriel got up after the second time his tablet was shining right in his face. ]

Hey, Catherine. I'm Gabriel. I'm not in the tablet, though, okay?

Has yours suddenly been wandering around, too? It's kinda par for the course in this place.

[ Besides, if he was stalking you, he'd be way more slasher-villain about it. ]

[arkproject]

I know you're not in the tablet, [ she says in exasperation, and then sighs. ]

Yes, it has been, and activating its visual feeds on and off. I'm wondering if it's just confused. I work on robots, [ she says in a gross simplification, ] so I thought I could try to fix it, but it looks like it hasn't achieved enough intelligence to respond to my auditory cues.

They've all been doing this?

one; @totheark; text

[0thingsonmymind]

some times itis
nec ess ary

but thereis noone in
tab let
on ly
on

[arkproject]

No, it's definitely not necessary. It usually means they're malfunctioning.

Is there a reason you're typing that way?

Spencer Reid | Criminal Minds

[doctoral]

    > NETWORK TWO

This is exactly why I don't trust technology, [ he mutters to himself as the vid feed switches on, Reid painstakingly attempting to start a log on his tablet in a Notepad app since he can't find any pads of paper immediately on hand.

Right, okay-- addressing the network. ]

Has anyone else gotten a survey? [ He sounds matter-of-fact, almost brisk. ] I didn't notice any signifying characteristics in the linguistic analysis of the questions asked, and when I attempted to vary my answers and straight out lie, there was no indication of a conscious response, implying a program rather than a sentient entity operating the questionnaire.

[ Reid possibly has a stronger tolerance for an anonymous individual asking him disturbing questions than the average person. He only wishes Garcia were here to trace it somehow. Still, he can do his job. ]

I'd be interested in accumulating an overall list of questions and prompts we obtained, to compare versions. Does anyone else remember what we were asked?

Also, I find it somewhat alarming we come equipped with Geiger counters. Are we really likely to suffer from radiation exposure? [ He has about a thousand thoughts bouncing around in his head, as per usual, exacerbated by how very out of his comfort zone he is here. Reid reacts by trying to reframe everything in contexts he can understand, and this whole post is a large effort toward that. ]

    > WILDCARD - PROMPT ME WITH SOMETHING?

@quark; video

[averytinyparticle]

[That is...a lot of information to take in. Quark gives himself a minute to be sure that he's got it all straight, and then chooses to work his way backwards.]

Unfortunately, yeah, but I'm pretty sure that it's only a huge concern if you go to this area here. [He pauses to pull up the map that one of the others had made, and makes an indication to where the radiation zone is before sending it over.] I've heard there are radiation boxes in supply over there that help, but I wouldn't recommend staying for longer than necessary.

[As for the stranger question...]

I got one of the surveys, too. I don't remember everything but I do remember it asked what type of situation would devastate me the most in the future, if I'd prefer to lose my eyes or my teeth, and, um, am I sure that I'm really alone right now.

[doctoral]

[ Oh, it's a kid. Reid will try to... simmer down a bit. He'll try. When he gets anxious he gets worked up, and things he doesn't understand always get him both anxious and worked up. This is the epitome of things he doesn't understand. The actual creepiness doesn't bother him, it's the fact that his entire frame of reference has just exploded to pieces and he has no way to contextualize anything. ]

That's very helpful, thank you. [ Maybe if he sticks to professionalism he can start to adjust-- except, his whole attention practically narrows to a pinpoint as he receives the map. ] There's a map? Can I alter this? No, wait, better question-- is there paper?

[ Please give him paper. Please. He'd also like a ruler, but he can make do without. Just, please, let him draw some maps that aren't on a computer. ]

@harrypotter // video

[heartshielded]

[Signifying.... linguistic.... indication.... accumulating....

Most of these words go straight over Harry's head, but he makes a small guttural noise before pushing forward with replying anyway.]

I got a survey, too. [A long pause, before he adds:] What's a... Geiger counter?

[doctoral]

[ There's a pause before Reid answers, too. A kid. A young kid. Reid is not good with his kids, but he feels a strong professional responsibility to look after him, and only wishes JJ was here to do the kid-handling. Damn.

He intentionally adjusts his five dollar word usage, but he doesn't sound like he's dumbing anything down, at all. He still speaks directly, matter-of-factly. ] It's something that measures how much radiation you're being exposed to. If it's green, you should be okay. [ Useful advice to give, at least. He hesitates, then asks more carefully, ] Did you answer the survey?

@babygirl; video ((I lied new icons later I really want to tag you))

[firstandfavorite]

I don't know what to tell you, boy wonder, other than the fact that this? All of it? It's a big whole recipe to give me the heebie jeebies.

[Reid's disdain for technology is expected. It's who he is. Now, Garcia, she loves it. But right now, it's only making her more frustrated. Because she should be able to figure something out, right? It's, like, her thing. But this is wrong, something's wrong with this. She can't hack into these servers and she misses her babies and her whole setup and maybe ultimately it's her that's the problem and oh God she's spiraling.]

This is different, right? It's not just me thinking this is mega crazy. Like, belongs in a sci-fi novel kind of crazy. This isn't like any kidnapping that's ever happened before that's rooted in reality?

[Stress. Stress. She needs a stress ball. She needs a little kitty-shaped toy that squeaks when she presses it.]

SCREAMS I forgive you

[doctoral]

Garcia?

[ Reid thinks his brain is starting to catch up to reality, and then-- Garcia? ] Where are you? [ he asks, incredulous. ] No, this is-- reality has taken a vacation. I can't believe you're here. You're going to give me cognitive dissonance.

You're not supposed to be here when disturbing kidnappings happen.

[ That's Reid's way of saying he's extremely concerned for her. He's not feeling all that sanguine about his own chances, but at least he thinks mentally he can withstand whatever occurs. He's pretty much primed to stare creepy unexplained nonsense in the face. Garcia is supposed to, well, stare it in the monitor. The whole team is silently on board with that idea. ]

Harry Potter | the magic wizard books

[heartshielded]

[ooc note: since it's absolutely a possibility, 4th-walling is absolutely fine! just keep in mind how much damage you'll be doing to the poor boy by doing so.]

NETWORK TWO: @harrypotter // video

Is it- normal, for these to ask so many questions?

[He honestly wouldn't know. Dudley has never allowed him on his computer, and while Harry has snuck on regardless from time to time he hasn't spend anywhere near enough time on them to tell what's normal. Especially not from something as wildly advanced as the tablets.

When he speaks again, his voice is hushed and shy.]

Will anyone else know what I answered?

ACTION THREE

Harry had been hesitant to go into a house full of so many mirrors - he isn't exactly ashamed of his appearance, but he doesn't feel very comfortable seeing himself from every angle on every wall, either. Still, it was the place they were near when lockdown came, so it's where they're staying tonight.

He notices his companion's reflection looking at him rather quickly, but his lips purse slightly as the only sign of it. Uncle Vernon would throw a fit if he heard Harry talking about reflections moving and staring when they aught not to, things that were strange like that were simply not acceptable. And Harry wasn't about to risk upsetting his travelling partner - well, let's be honest, his caretaker - if they turned out to be of the same mind.

Instead he only shows any hint that he's noticed by the way he twitches and bristles every so often, staring into one of the mirrors behind them... but at the same time, his own reflection occasionally smirks at them, or makes rude gestures both at them and at himself.

@godsend, video

[termineur]

[ Gabriel figured the username was a fan or something, but seeing the boy on screen- ...well, they had Batman, why not Harry Potter? He has to stare for a minute or so before he schools his expression and actually responds. What a weird day this has been, even for Norfinbury. ]

No, it's not normal. These things crashed or glitched out or something. And for the answers- I don't think so? But we never know with these things. I got some weird questions, too. Some gruesome stuff. So don't think we'll judge you over it.

...how old are you, Harry? Are you by yourself?

[heartshielded]

[How did he know his-

Oh. Right. He'd set it as his username, that's probably why.

(It's slightly easier to explain than the random greetings he gets by name back home... which never stop being weird.)]

I'll be eleven in a month or two. [The Dursleys sure don't remember, so he may as well say it whenever he gets the chance.] I don't think anyone's been close enough to come pick me up...

[Or at least, no one he knew, but he's an awfully shy boy. It isn't so much that he's afraid of strangers, as much as he's afraid of bothering them with his existence.]

@hotstud_xxx; text

[rubikscomplex]

[Oh, my god, it's Harry Potter! House isn't a major fan, but you can't... exist in the English-speaking world without at least hearing about the books or movies. Well. Time to mess with the new kid.]

completely normal
they post the answers along with the associated usernames at the end of each week
that should be... tomorrow!
hope you got something good, pots

[heartshielded]

[House, please.

Harry is visibly startled by the message, and his face turns bright red. Immediately, he switches to text.]

But I'll get in trouble! It asked me about my cousin Dudley, I'm not supposed to talk badly about him! How do I stop it from showing everyone??

[Does it cross Harry's mind that the Dursleys wouldn't know? Of course not; in his panic it doesn't occur to him that he's very, very far away from them.]

Trevor Holden | Travelers

[trvlr0115]

(( OOC: I obviously do not have this precious old man's voice down just yet, but I think if I don't get this posted now, I'll never get around to it. I'm rewatching the series, this month, so hopefully I should have a better handle on him once apps roll around?
And also I'm having absolutely no luck finding screenshots for icons so everything's going to look really off and never match any tags ever so sorry in advance for this mess. ))



TWO | Network | Audio

[Oh. Well these are unusual questions. Do social networks usually ask this kind of stuff?

It's easy enough to play dumb. To respond and even overshare with completely fictional scenarios. It's not the first time, after all. But it still doesn't sit right. Even without that one question that's brought so much trouble to his teammates.

So once it's up and running like normal, Trevor's first instinct is to see whether he can't get to the bottom of this. ... In a roundabout way, of course.]

Wow! That was something. Has anyone else's tablet been malfunctioning recently?

I wonder if the Administrator's been losing some of her files.



FOUR | Action

[Waking up first? That happens. Waking up next to someone else? It's not exactly an unpleasant thing. But waking up this close together, and unable to move away?

... It's certainly not how they'd gone to sleep, and it leaves Trevor a bit concerned for his companion.

As soon as they wake, he needs to offer reassurances.]

Okay. You're up. Now, this might look alarming, but, what we have to do is stay calm.

Machines this size should have a switch or a handle on the inside. A failsafe in case someone closed the door by mistake. Can you look for something like that, behind me? I'm sure you can tell I can't turn around.

@hotstud_xxx; text

[rubikscomplex]

doubt it's evie having problems, bro
more likely whatever rogue ai wants to personalize your next horrorfest
hope you gave it some fun answers
personally
my biggest fear is the entire dallas cowboy's cheerleading team breaking in
and taking turns letting me do jello shots off their midriffs

Éponine | Les Miserables

[knowsherway]

@jondrette; network; one

[ Eponine is unused to such technology, as it is nonexistent in her world. But the chance for undisturbed sleep is such a rarity that she manages to doze off almost immediately. Staying that way, however, proves more difficult, so those who might be awake and paying attention to their tablets will see a video feed of a girl in tattered clothes with unkempt hair and a wide-eyed expression. ]

Oh, and what is this? How rude of you to keep me awake, and how curious to find images of myself on such a thing.

[ She seldom gets to see herself, unless it's a reflection in a window or a rather murky puddle, so this gets her attention, even though she'd rather sleep while she can. ]

It is not much to look at, but I knew that even before now. Surely there is someone else to look at besides me.

[ Not that she doesn't appreciate the attention, but there really is very little to look at. She's not pretty; in fact, some would call her ugly. But she continues to peer at the tablet, as if awaiting some sort of response. ]

Action

[ This place is so strange, and nearly everything in it is unfamiliar, and the way that the people here talk is equally odd. But Eponine is accustomed to landing on her feet, strange people and places aside, but this room in particular is leaving her feeling more than a little unsettled. ]

Do you see that?

[ Eponine is pointing at one of the many mirrors in the room. ]

I saw- [ She stops and blinks, because it feels to her that her eyes are very much deceiving her. ] Look, just there. I saw in that mirror someone staring and smiling. Do you see it?

I think this room is very strange.

[ Which is to say she does not like it, and is more than a little scared of it, which she won't be admitting so plainly. ]

Action II

Eponine doesn't make a habit of lying close to other people. There's rarely anyone nearby to lie close to, for one thing. Everyone in her life has their own business, herself included, so any time spent near another person is only in her head when she's imagining a happier life for herself.

Now, however, she finds herself pressed against another person, and it's because the room around them is so small, there's no room for anything else! "What is this?" At first, the warmth was welcome, but it's turned into nearly unbearable heat, and then there's the spinning the walls are doing. Eponine claps her hands to her head, as if that will help with the dizziness, but it fails to accomplish anything meaningful. "I do not like it, and I think we should go." But how to get out?

"Do you see a door?" If her companion does, it's a wonder, because she can't spot one at all.

@librarian; one; video

[cahooted]

[Flynn's own feed isn't very flattering either; he gets to watch himself sprawled out until he gets too cold, then balls himself up in a bundle of carpet and blanket layers, completely entangled in bits and pieces of clothes. He's snoring quietly, drooling into the pillow.

Great. He scowls at the tablet, then at the room because whatever ghost is doing this probably thinks they're hilarious. But hey, there's a network response and apparently he's not the only one suffering tonight.

His own hair is sticking up and he rubs his tired face before he responds.]

Hi. Is your tablet acting up, too?