Application for Yin from Darker than Black

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

The sun stretched her shadow over the hard wood desk. Her eyes never left the application that rested on said desk, unblinking, whilst her hands rested by her sides. The dictaquill had stood to attention five minutes ago, and still awaited use by the newcomer. She had read over the questions multiple times, to the point where they soon lost meaning. Her eyes traveled lazily to the quill, no visual response broke the mundane expression on her face, such lack of emotion reminiscent of a dolls painted face. She reached out and plucked the writing implement from its ink well, and hovered it over the application. Excess ink fell from the quills tip and splotched the piece of paper, thankfully tarnishing the pages margin, rather than obscuring the questions further from their already beclouded phrasing. As she began answering, for lack of a better verb, the application, her body was angled in a most peculiar way: as if to touch the wood, would send her skin to blister.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Student Application #1974489 State your full name. Yin. 1. What is your favorite cheese? Why is it your favorite? I do not often eat cheese. 2. Who would you kill first, Barney or Carrottop? I do not have the clearance to kill anyone. 3. What time is it where you are? I do not know. 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. I do not understand. That is illegal, is it not? 5. If you are pushing to be in: i.) Slytherin - please state the clever, witty name of the bar in which you bartend, in the dark. The Syndicate. ii.) 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. I do not have the experience to answer this question. iii.) 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. As events never cease, neither does their documentation. iv.) Hufflepuff – Prove you are not useless. I am a Doll. I have the technique known as Remote Viewing because of what I am. 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. I offer this packet of cigarettes.

  

From a disguised pocket in her purple dress, she withdrew a rather browbeaten packet of cigarettes. Yin did not smoke, so what use where they to her? She placed them on the desk, next to the application, then turned her back on it all-together. She stared through the arched windows behind her, taking the time to not understand it, as it was against her programming.

 

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

Comments

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"A doll? Is that why you're so informative?" I ask sarcastically. Seriously, I've seen more informative applications from posters.

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

Yin faced a native of this location, her sightless eyes boring into his throat. "Yes, I am a Doll." Sarcasm was lost on her, but the tone did sound familiar. "I am programmed to answer directly. If my answers are not satisfactory, perhaps ask a new one of me." He tone was soft, but glacial.

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"Doll? Programed? Do you mean like an android or something different?" I ask. God, I know they tried to program us at Wammy's, but it didn't get like this.

Edited for Mun's epic grammar fail.

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

Yin's eyes never drifted away from Mello's throat. Her eyes had not blinked in a while, which could be a testament to her self-control, but just before she spoke, her eyes closed and opened again in the most lethargic way, they it could shame even the most laziest sloth. "I am not an android. Because of Hell's Gate, and acquiring my abilities, I have lost all degrees of emotion. That is why they call me a Doll. That is why I am programmable."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"So, you were human?" I ask flatly. God, what would Wammy's do with that 'Hell's Gate' thing. "And, what were you programmed for?" Do I really want to know?

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

The direction of her stare did not change. "I am still human," she said with humdrum. "I am programmed to track contractors, dolls and others to whom my employers wish under surveillance. But they need to be near water."

[mello-n-choco.livejournal.com]

"Near water? What use is that? How many people stay near water?" I ask. When the fuck did water become a way of tracking people. "How do you track them with water?"

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

She looked toward a short, portly creature with skin that had begun to sag around its eyes, and white hair to grow from it's large pointed ears. It caught her gaze and they exchange a short, unspoken moment, before it bustled off to collect what she had wished for. "Wait," she murmured expressly to Mello. She drifted toward the desk and stood before the chair. The creature came bustling back with a brass bowl held aloft above his oblong-shaped head. Water sloshed against the sides, droplets raining down as he hurried to acquest to her muted appeal. The creature placed the bowl in front of her and then left the two to attend to other students.

She stared down at the surface of the water, it was dark against the brass of the bowl but it reflected the scene nevertheless. She stared at her own face. "The surface of the water is reflective. Like a mirror, or piece of glass. It is the world, reversed. It is a sight all its own." She dipped her hand into the water and spread out her fingers once they touched the base of the bowl. Nothing happened so far as others could see, but she had acquired an incomplete blueprint of the layout of Hogwarts. As all this happened, a clear blue agglomeration had formed along a wooden beam that ran the length of the Sorting Room. It looked as if it were staring down at the two of them, or rather, the black markings on what could be interpreted as the head, were facing them as Yin continued to explain.

"I send out Spectres that locate that which I seek. Water is my medium in which this is possible. The water could be large sums, like a river, ocean or stream. Or it could be the water in a bottle, or a glass, or the moisture ring left behind a cool containment of water." Her eyes never left her hand within the bowl. "Rain is not as helpful as one would think, however. Too complex and too interrupted for any clear sight to beheld," she murmured more to herself.

[carriesapurse.livejournal.com]

A disembodied voice began to speak. It was masculine, this voice, and chipper, almost singsong.

"Over the hills and far away ... Teletubbies come to play!"

Heralded thus by his invisible and insubstantial Narrator, a large purple beast burst into the Sorting Room and lurch-skipped toward the newcomer.

It stopped in its tracks just two lurches away from her.

"Eh-oh!" it said, waving. Its voice was also masculine, but oddly strained. Were it possible to lisp an utterance sans sibilants, Tinky Winky would have lisped it.

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

She stared at the creature, feeling in no position to call it peculiar. Her expression did not shift as she was unaware of her feeling something towards anything. It went unchecked that she was fighting against her programming. "Hello," she murmured in a soft monotone.

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

Dr. Saunders swallowed down a gasp.

"You're a Doll." She'd been waiting for this, Claire realized. "Did DeWitt - Rossum - send you here after me?"

Edited.

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I am a doll." She looked at Dr. Saunders with the same blank stare she had given all others whom proceeded her. Her stance never shifted and her hands stayed stationary by her sides. "But I know not of DeWitt and Rossum," she clarified in a soft humdrum. "So, I have no objectives to collect you."

Re: Edited.

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"If they programmed you at the Dollhouse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollhouse_%28TV_series%29), you'll know only as much as you need to complete your engagement," Dr. Saunders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollhouse_(TV_series)#Recurring_cast) said.

"If you really were the tabula rasa you appear, you'd have spent considerable time trying to work out which was the business end of that quill, and what to do with it once you got that far. So the question remains: What are your objectives here? Someone must have given you at least one."

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

Yin stared at Dr. Saunders. She didn't comprehend the rash paranoia or the disbelief in what she were saying. She had never been doubted before, and if she knew any better, that fact that she was would have insulted her. "But I do not know of the Dollhouse. To take in what you said, however, if I were programmed by this organisation, then I would not have the knowledge of such biological tampering, and thus have no recollection, or conscious knowledge of my objectives. Which would then render your questioning me pointless." She lifted her head slightly, seeing through Dr. Saunders than at her. "My only purpose is to aid the Syndicate and, by extension, BK201."

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"Catch-22," Claire agreed with a nod. "What is the Syndicate?"

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

"The Syndicate?" Could this be confidential information? "The Syndicate is a global organisation that has been focusing all its efforts in stabilizing the planet's status and eradication of Hell's Gate. They employ both Contractors and Dolls to erase sightings of their affairs that ultimately help naive citizens to the existence of Hell's Gate and the disappearance of the stars." She paused for a time, and then gave a more truthful answer, a breach in her original programming. "Fifty years ago the Syndicate was originally formed to prevent the prophecies of the Mitaka Documents from coming true, but after many years, and gaining power amongst many quarreling organisations, they lost sight of their original goals." Even if this was too much information, the Syndicate would send in Contractors with the ME technology to wipe this woman's memory of such events. There seemed no expressed harm in explaining, after all, she could swear she saw actual stars on the growing night sky. Or had she been seeing things?

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

Dr. Saunders bit her lip thoughtfully. "All right, that's further out-there than anything Topher could dream up. If you're part of an outgrowth of Rossum's Dollhouse technologies, your masters have got much bigger concerns than anything I was aware of mine having on their plates - certainly more than just me disappearing on them. Though they have that love of secrecy in common, that's for sure."

She sighed. "Do you know where you are, what this place is, or were you brought here unawares like I was?"

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

Yin looked over at the application. One may ascertain a level of thought was happening in her mind, but one would never be sure as her expression never changed or faltered in its simplicity and vacancy. She angled her body to Dr. Saunders again, not meeting her gaze. "I know naught of my situation, or location, to the matter of my appearance here. We are ... alike?"

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"We're...similar, I think. My guess would be that we're products of the same sort of technology or process, applied to different aims. My employers wipe their Actives' personas, then imprint temporary, made-to-order personas for the entertainment of high-paying clients. It sounds as if such a process has been retooled for crisis management, where you're from."

She looked around. "This place is called Hogwarts. It's a castle in Scotland, and it houses a school to teach magic. A few people come here intentionally, but more often new student candidates just find ourselves in this room, answering those questions." She gestured toward the parchment.

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

Yin gave her version of a nod, which was a pause. "Those questions are peculiar and aimless," she said bluntly. Her mind was too measured to understand what magic was, but school triggered lost memories at a house, playing a piano with an older man explaining musical notes to her. Snow was raining outside the windows back then. "What is it that I am to do here?"

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"They're meant to reveal something of our character, I think. Even if only how we respond to the peculiar and aimless." Claire gave a small shrug.

"The only objective I've found for us here is 'to learn magic,' though that's an awfully broad goal for what strikes me as a very loosely run school. Some people self-identify as teachers, and I've seen the occasional class held, but nothing like a regular schedule or curriculum. I've concluded we're meant to design our own, using the school's resources and applying ourselves up to our individual levels of ambition."

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

Having no clear direction was a clandestine fear for Yin. She had always been told what to do, and to use her abilities to get that done. Could she be a free-thinking entity all on her own. Dolls weren't known for their free-will, the Hell's Gate had made sure that all Dolls lost that on becoming what they were. Breeching protocol and programming was a surprisingly liberating philosophy if ever Yin had thought. But it was far too ingrained at the moment for her to tamper with it. "Indeed. How long do I need to stay here?"

[ilikemyscars.livejournal.com]

"I gather you're locked in here until this application process is completed. That means we students have to vote on which House you should be assigned, based on these interviews, and...ahh...a final decision will be made." No need to get into the Hat business at this point. Claire couldn't even begin to explain the Hat, and frankly preferred not to think about It if she could help it.

"Once that's done, it seems you're free to stay or go as you wish. The Houses are associated with character traits: bravery, intellect, usefulness, loyalty...I'm not sure what Slytherin is exactly; bartending in the dark isn't much of a clue. Do any of those seem more or less apt for you, in your opinion?"

[shiny-mech.livejournal.com]

"Hi!" Kaylee said with a bright smile. "You're a doll? I don't think I understand."

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

"Because of the phenomenon known as Hell's Gate, I acquired abilities at the cost of feeling emotion. I am a Doll because that is what they named those of us with psychic abilities, and because of a devoid of feeling, we are the easiest programmable entity," she said softly, tone flat, and eyes staring unblinkingly at her throat.

[shiny-mech.livejournal.com]

"Um.. oh." Kaylee shifted uncomfortably. "So you can't feel nothin? Seems like that's a lot to give up. Has anyone told you about where you are?" she asked, figuring that being helpful might alleviate some of her discomfort.

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

She made no attempt at a response, her strong silence and unyielding aura playing a mute point to the aforementioned loss at feeling emotions. Truth be told she could not remember a moment in her life where she knew emotion. Vague memories crop up, but they were so distant that she could not even taste feelings like Happiness, or Anger.

To the questioning of whether a nice enough stranger had come to her, asking if she knew of anything outside of knowing herself, she responded glacially in her soft monotone. "No."

[ugly-old-hat.livejournal.com]

"Come on now, smile! You're at Hogwarts!" The Sorting Hat appeared in a cheerful cloud of multicolored smoke.

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

She had been told this once before, in fact, it was by a peculiar and rather hormonal girl. She took her two index fingers, pressed them to the corners of her lips and pushed them up. Her face puffed up as she forced a smile to appear on her mouth. Her eyes remained lifeless and heavy-lidded. She stared at the hat, not even taken aback that it could talk. "Hogwarts?" she mumbled through the forced smile, her fingers still in place.

[ugly-old-hat.livejournal.com]

"That's better. It's a start, at least. You don't have to use your fingers, you know." the Hat replied, although it seemed satisfied enough with the effort. "Hogwarts is the Greatest Place on Earth! A place of wonder and possibility. And you are one of its lucky students, which is a reason to smile!"

Edited. Fickle mun. Sorry!

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

"Oh," she murmured. It seemed to take a moment to register but she lowered her fingers, and as soon as she did, her smile vanished behind the emotionless set to her lips. But as the hat continued, she found herself finding his antics familiar. It was against her programming to be feeling so, but soon and unbeknownst to even her, the slightest of smiles pulled the corner of her mouth as the hat continued, even her eyes got lighter.

Re: Edited. Fickle mun. Sorry!

[ugly-old-hat.livejournal.com]

"Just keep working at it, and you'll be smiling in no time." The Hat bobbed enthusiastically as it declared, "There's even charms that might help you perfect that smile, and here at Hogwarts, you can learn them all! But before you can start learning, we need to Sort you!"

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

The prospect was an intriguing one, alas her programming kept that intrigue at a base level, but where there were books there was space to improve upon herself. Such a thought was another breach to her programming. It was unknown to her, but something in the air was tampering with her biometrics. Time would tell if this will be a good thing or a bad thing. "You need to sort me? What kind of process is that?" She enquired.

[ugly-old-hat.livejournal.com]

"It's an easy process, since we're doing it right now," the Hat explained. "It's important that all new students be Sorted into the right house, so that they can began the grand and magical adventure of learning!" The Hat managed to look as thoughtful as a Hat could look for a moment, its crown creased as it clenched its straps in concentration. "And I do think I know which house will be best for you. . .yes, I'm certain of it, because I am Sorting Hat the Wise! Yellow is an uplifting color, and will help you work on that smile."

[goshikkurorita.livejournal.com]

Yin nodded, the shadow of her previous smile lifting the corner of her lips. "Thank you for your interest." No one had ever taken the time to talk to her proper. Maybe this could end up being a liberating experience? Could she truly become her own person once again? Could she shed the skin of being a mindless Doll, only doing that which she was instructed? Time would tell.

Hufflepuff!

[ugly-old-hat.livejournal.com]

Your bribe has been accepted!

Welcome to Hufflepuff!