Application: Dr. Claire Saunders (a.k.a. "Whiskey"), "Dollhouse"

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

((I'm taking Claire from the end of s2e1, "Vows;" obviously there are spoilers for the last couple eps of s1, where we learned a bit about her history.))

Claire Saunders was running out of excuses.

Imprinted phobias be damned. She drove, crying and shaking and white-knuckling the SUV's steering wheel, as far as a tank of gas would take her in the general direction of "away from the Dollhouse." She finally stopped for the night at a rundown motel on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Claire has no pop culture references, or she might have noticed the place's resemblance to a key set in "Psycho." Never having seen any Hitchcock, however, she opened the door of the motel, to find not Norman Bates, but the Hogwarts Sorting Room.

"What the..."

Maybe her flight from the Dollhouse was just a hallucination. She'd heard the Attic described as 'like a nightmare you can't wake up from;' surely the kind where you run and run and never get anywhere would qualify? Unconsciously Claire rubbed the scars on her forehead and cheeks, half expecting Alpha to leap out of the shadows with a blade.

She braced herself, put a hand against the writing desk to stabilize herself, and noticed the application. Curious despite herself, she picked up the quill.



State your full name.

"Currently? Dr. Saunders. Claire. Claire Saunders. Before that? I went by "Whiskey," when I wasn't busy being - number one. Before that...I don't want to know what my name was before that."

1. What is your favorite cheese? Why is it your favorite?

"Hmm. Do I have a favorite cheese? Did Topher bother with anything that detailed? Whatever. Swiss seems appropriate. Full of holes."

2. Who would you kill first, Barney or Carrottop?

"I'm a doctor. "First do no harm" and all that. Well, technically I never took the oath, but I feel deeply bound by it nonetheless."

3. What time is it where you are?

"It's "right now." Where I'm from, there's only ever "right now." Actives have no conception of the future, you see, and the past - the past can be taken away from a Doll at any time. For better or worse."

4. If you were Albus Dumbledore returned from the dead, which member of the Order of the Phoenix would you sexually harass? How would you harass them? If you are Albus Dumbledore, please answer as if you were Sirius Black.

Claire thought of her last encounter with Topher, her sick, doomed seduction scene, and laughed and laughed - a grating, slightly hysterical laugh - then took a swig from a silver flask.

"Next question."

5. If you are pushing to be in:

A. Slytherin - please state the clever, witty name of the bar in which you bartend, in the dark.

"The Infirmary. I'm not really programmed for clever or witty."

B. Gryffindor – Debate whether Harry should ultimately end up married to Fred or George. Use examples from a variety of world mythologies to bolster your argument.

"Marriage isn't exactly my department. The whole idea of permanency is not exactly my department."

C. Ravenclaw – You guys are supposed to be smart. Explain why my desk is inundated with paperwork at all times, even though I’m constantly disposing of it.

"You work for a major corporation engaged in a shadowy conspiracy to rent out the products of highly unethical bleeding-edge medical technology? Just a guess."

She pushed her hair out of her eyes. "I can give you the best bit of advice I've ever gotten. All those reports you so diligently write up every day, conscientiously including every detail of anything likely to produce problems down the line? Nobody reads those. Just let it go. Live in the now."

D. Hufflepuff – Prove you are not useless.

That laugh again.

"I'm fully qualified in a variety of medical fields, from first aid to major surgery. I've also got quite a nice line in computer skills, strangely enough. Though I've also got a whole raft of phobias designed to keep me stuck in place, but I am - I was - working on that."

6. Offer a bribe to the members of this community so that they will not squib you. Items used in bribery do not necessarily have to belong to the person offering the bribe. Do not threaten us rather than offering a bribe. A threat indicates you either don't really want to be here, or don't have enough sense to answer the question properly. The hat will automatically squib you, regardless of other votes, if you do.

"Lollipop?"

She reached into the pocket of her sensible skirt and produced a handful of colorful candies.


"Hello? Is anyone there? I filled out your little form here. Just one question: Is any of this real?"

I have read the hogwarts_hocus faq, and understand it is a crazy, cracktastic sorting community and RPG. ___Dr._Saunders__
I have read the hogwarts_hocus rules and agree to abide by each and every one of them. __Dr._Saunders__.
I agree to be a good sport and not get my knickers in a bunch. _Ha._No_promises._
One day, marmalade Rossum will rule the world. ___Dr._Saunders__

Comments

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

Claire raised an eyebrow. "A little funny. Funny ha-ha, or...?"

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"Funny like ... okay, I'm aware this is going to sound crazy, and with some of the people here you could probably chalk it up to insanity. When you meet Beowulf, it's easy to tell yourself he's just a really looney guy who's convinced himself he's a Viking Age king. But there've been people here I knew really well, and I knew they weren't crazy. One of them, before he got here, used to be on a spaceship. Another one used to live in medieval England."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

She frowned. "Okay, not crazy - I'm willing to go with you on that. But could they have been - brainwashed is such a loaded term - could they have been ordinary people made to believe deeply that those were their true identities?"

Claire knew very well it was certainly in the realm of possibility. How likely it was to be the case that this place was stocked with wayward imprinted actives? Harder to say.

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

Chance squinched her eyes shut tight. The very thought made her head hurt -- not that it wasn't a reasonable question. "With Beowulf, sure, I could say that. The others ..." She thought about it. Robin, maybe. These well-known people, it would make a certain amount of sense. But -- "A nineteenth-century naval surgeon. A little girl from the Spanish Civil War. The identities are obscure and don't fit a set pattern. And I just can't come around to thinking the person who convinced me I wasn't crazy or hallucinating can himself have been brainwashed."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"Okay. I'll admit, those would take an awful lot more historical research than has happened in the cases I've seen before." She shrugged. "Still, it'd be awfully nice to have a look at an MRI of your Beowulf's head...Hell, if he really is from the, what, 6th century?, a MRI might answer some evolutionary questions."

vote: Ravenclaw

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"You could probably arrange that. Just tell him the MRI machine's a monster." Chance smiled faintly. "You're a Ravenclaw, all right."

Re: vote: Ravenclaw

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"Let me guess - Beowulf's MRI would show a one-track mind?" Claire chuckled. "Ravenclaw. Is that a good thing?"

Re: vote: Ravenclaw

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"Not good, not bad. It's a pattern. Ravenclaw's the house for scientists and thinkers." That, and Homsar. "For the record, you'll probably have a harder time locating an MRI around here than getting Beowulf to let you do one. Medical magic doesn't seem to involve imaging for diagnostic purposes. Don't ask me what they do use. Electricity's iffy, too. The computers work. Some other stuff works, televisions and things in what they call the Muggle Studies room. I have the impression these had to be modified in some way in order to work at all, though. So if you've got a cell phone or a Blackberry or something, and it's gone dead, don't be surprised."

Re: vote: Ravenclaw

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"Interesting," Claire said. "I've got a cell phone, yes. What I haven't got is anyone in particular I feel like calling on it - anyone who isn't connected to my job in one way or another. So it shouldn't matter so much."

And maybe whatever kills the phones will also kill the GPS, so that the Dollhouse will have a harder time tracking her.