[network|video] @hotstud_xxx; NIGHT 79/DAY 80 [open] [cw: allusions to death/horror/injury]

[rubikscomplex]

Night 079
[House wakes with a gasp inside his body bag, panics, and claws the thing open, struggling wildly as his mind is filled with images of plague doctors and a monster machine. The memory is painted red with blood, and he can feel his heart pounding again, pumping as he sits up to see absolutely nothing. The room he's in - god, he hopes it's the hospital morgue... or no. No, he really hopes it isn't the hospital morgue. Wherever he is, it's either pitch black or he's gone blind after falling unconscious... screaming and choking on his own blood. A cold sweat breaks over his entire body.

It's a moment of processing that before he swings his legs over the side of the slab he's on and slides off carefully so that he can shove the body bag the rest of the way off. It's only then that it occurs to him that his leg has not hurt the slightest bit through his thrashing or movement.

He puts his weight on it, and it holds. When his hand moves down tentatively to feel over his jeans where there should be a familiar divot, a complete absence of muscle, there's nothing. It's whole. It's healed. He's healed.

And he laughs, puts his hand against the nearby metal wall and takes a step, then another. He's walking - walking, not limping - and then he's jogging, and then he's running, fingers against the wall as he makes a circuit until he slams into the slab and collapses over it, wheezing, laughing, tears and a choking sob only just held down. What the actual hell? He lies there until the hysteria dies down, knowing he's panicking and confused, but he can walk. He can walk!

The only thing that would make this better - he reaches into his pocket, but there isn't the familiar pill bottle there. It's with Haurchefant. Goddamnit! His fingers find the tablet, clumsily feel over it, but before he turns it on, he stops.

If he's cured, Haurchefant might give him his meds, but what about the rest? So much of this had been to get Clayton to give them back. People are going to just start taking them if they think he doesn't need them anymore. And he does need them. The pain isn't there, but it could come back. It almost certainly will come back. He can't risk other people having his drugs.

He's going to have to fake it. Fake the goddamn limp. House could cry. Well, isn't this perfect? Healed and he's going to have to keep pretending he's a cripple... at least until he can get out on his own. The door he'd passed is locked, so that means it's night. He'll need to wait until morning. Well, then. That gives him plenty of time to jog, to enjoy and to find some suitable replacement 'cane.']


Morning 080 - Open to All
[House is up the stairwell and out into the chapel area when he tries to make a call out. Never having used the audio commands for the tablet and not actually being able to see to select something private from the menu, his efforts to make the message private don't quite work out. This isn't the morgue. He knows that much now. He still doesn't know where it is, but the video feed when it comes on will show pews and stained glass. There's an intense need to get out and for once, House isn't going to ignore that.]

Contacting Haurchefant Greystone and Clayton Epps. So... lesson of the day: don't sleep in the morgue. That was exciting. Really hoping you guys got the full video feed on whatever the hell that thing was. Guessing it was the NIMA... and plague doctors? More robots? They looked human, but hell if I know. No idea how long I've been 'dead,' but I can't see my tablet, either. Or anything. I'm guessing that's temporary, but someone wanna help the blind cripple find a cane and get out of here? I could really use my meds. And food. Anything you could do to, y'know, help. That'd be great.

Comments

voice @haurchefant

[silverfuller]

[Haurchefant watches and rewatches the video but he can't seem to hear anything. Is the tablet broken? He gives it a quick shake then starts shouting.]

HOUSE!

["Ser Quinn" is forgotten in his moment of frenzied worry.]

BY THE FURY! What happened down there!?

[rubikscomplex]

[House pulls a face at the volume and turns the tablet around so that it's facing away from him and gives a view of the chapel.]

That's a 'no' on the 'saw the video feed,' then? Pretty sure I saw the NIMA trying to revive a bunch of corpses, though.

[And possibly died choking on his own blood and bleeding out of every orifice.]

[silverfuller]

[When the tablet is turned away Haurchefant falls silent for a moment. Is House even speaking?]

Why do you not answer?

[rubikscomplex]

Dude. I just said...

[He remembers that noise, the strange sound just before the monster/machine had appeared. Did it screw up his tablet? Well, that's just beautiful. House turns it around again and stares down at it, blue eyes unfocused. He mouths slowly and gestures.]

Can you -[a point at the general direction of the screen]- hear -[a point at his ear]- me? [And a final gesture to himself.]

@totheark, text, private to House and Haurchefant

[0thingsonmymind]

when itis fixed
when youcan see video audio a gain
tell me

ihave some thing to
show

[rubikscomplex]

[And here's the other one.]

Talking. Do it, kid. I can't see what you're typing and you're mangling the text-to-voice. Or type better. I'll contact you once I'm with the elf. Pretty sure there's nothing wrong with my tablet.

[0thingsonmymind]

itis fine
no one else has prob lems

*The small child was able to understand him. Are you not as capable as a her, House?*

@haurchefant

[silverfuller]

is aught amiss?

"text" - @claytonator

[dr_unconscious]

[Clayton doesn't care that this is obviously supposed to be a private message, doesn't care that he should probably keep stuff about the pills under wraps--doesn't hardly think about the fact that he can't even hear what House is saying until after he watches the message several times over. He's alive! Oh thank god, he didn't kill him forever. He can make it up to him for killing him in the first place. Still a chance! Clayton's so happy he could weep. He is weeping. Probably best that this ends up in text, then (and better yet that House's tablet can read it out to him, which Clayton doesn't even think about because he doesn't realize House's problem in the first place).]

Tablet's speakers are broken, didn't catch any of what you just said. Try "voice to text" next time. Also try making sure your filters are working.

Glad you're back. Church?

[rubikscomplex]

[House hears a chime that signals a message, but it doesn't play. He cocks his head to the side.]

Yeah, okay. I'm guessing the genius is you, Epps. I'm blind. Audio. It's a thing. Use it.

[He'll figure out how to turn on text to voice if he has to, but really, Clayton. You're inconveniencing him.]

@Enoch, threadjacking voice

[warriorscribe]

His tablet can't play sound anymore...

[He settles himself next to Clayton, playing back House's message for the other doctor's sake.]

He said he's glad you're back. [A pause, where he lets the relief sink in, slumping slightly. It's been so hard to sleep, after hearing about that...about what Clayton had locked himself in the bathroom for...] To be honest, so am I. Are you all right, other than...ah, the things you've said?

@quark; voice

[averytinyparticle]

Mr. H! You're okay!

[Well, he's alive anyway. Alive again. And now most certainly receiving a response from someone who wasn't one of the two he was hoping to contact. Of course, Quark is--or was, anyway--in the same building in Clayton on night 78 when this was all going down, so maybe it's not too surprising to House with the broken screen.]

[rubikscomplex]

[Oh. Crap.]

Please tell me you're with Epps, kid.

[Because otherwise this is a public message and that's going to be annoying.]

[averytinyparticle]

Um...no...I actually left. I'm by myself.

[Sorry for accidentally bad news bears.]

@determination, video 80

[despiteeverything]

You're back!

[There's no small measure of relief in their voice, and maybe some disapproval. Eleven is not old enough to understand what the word "hypocrisy" means.]

What were you doing down there?

[rubikscomplex]

Well, the kids down the street triple-dog-dared me to sleep in the graveyard, but this was the closest I could find.

[House sighs, annoyed that he'd accidentally made this public.]

I was testing a theory. Turns out NIMA's a big, ugly monster worm machine. Who really sucks at efficiency. I was literally already in the morgue.

[despiteeverything]

NIMA? What does that have to do with anything?

[Not to say the monster thing doesn't catch their attention. It absolutely does.]

There was a monster? I thought... they couldn't get inside after dark.

@TW; text

[maskintape]

[ Even Tim wouldn't be enough of a douche to text a blind guy when he has other options.

MASKY, ON THE OTHER HAND-- ]

you it Found
ni ma
?
where
tell us do not tell @clayton ator he is a Liar
keep it secretsafeOurs

[rubikscomplex]

[Masky, even text-to-voice can't handle your shitposting. House squints as the mechanical voice reads out some real words mixed in with garbled nonsense.]

Yeah, you're either Masky or Hoodie and I can't exactly read right now, kid. Try typing without random spaces or words run together? You're screwing with the AI.

Also, little late for the not telling Epps thing. You noticed this was a public message? It wasn't meant to be.

[maskintape]

??
we do not know maskyhoodie
or ai
we know epps he is a liar you should no t ha ve told
should not speak hear his lies
it is not Safe
why can it you notread
have you For got ten

Private Voice | @Summoner

[ninjainviolet]

[ She's not showing off, House, but she has a suggestion and doesn't want to embarrass you. ]

Have you ever trained yourself to move around in the dark?

[ She's gonna give you some of your dignity back, Doc. ]

[rubikscomplex]

Well, I mean, it was part of basic doctor training - find the stethoscope and diagnose the heart arrhythmia and rash in the dark, but that was years ago.

[ Is it obvious enough he's being sarcastic? ]

No. I've never actually been planning for the day I go blind and we have this amazing thing where I come from called electricity. Flip a switch, voila! Let there be light. I like to think of it like basically being god after 6 PM.

[ninjainviolet]

[ He'll hear a sound of frustration. ]

Ninja are trained to operate in any light levels--including darkness. It's just a matter of honing several skills you already use.

Because what do you do when the lights go out?

@CaptSteveRogers; voice

[starsandtights]

[Doctor House is back. Thank God. Steve doesn't have to live with that on his conscience. Steve takes a few moments to breathe deeply, head swimming with relief, before sending a reply.]

I'm very, very glad to see you're back with us, Dr. House. I'm sorry for what happened to you. I'm sorry... I'm sorry I didn't get the word out faster, about what happened to Rydia. ...She's back too, just. So you know.

[He clears his throat.]

Have you figured out where you are?

[rubikscomplex]

She was gone? [Yeah, he... might have been a little preoccupied last night freaking out for both good and bad reasons to actually listen to the network, Steve. Sorry about that.]

Huh. Guess she wasn't kidding. Seriously, I think that chick is a masochist or something, dude. Might want to keep an eye on her.

[So says the man who had himself tied up in a morgue.]

I'm in the chapel. Getting directions from other people. I do have a question for you, though. Had a bet going with someone. Are you actually blonde?