[log] Just Gotta Get Out [closed]

[rubikscomplex]

Characters: House, Al, Joker, Steve, Jade, and Rhys/holo!Jack
Location E15 - Building 130 (the Pharmacy)
Date: Day 097, Evening and through the Night
Summary: A very unlikely group of people get stuck in a building together for the night. At least least four of them have a decently good reason to want to punch one of the others.
Warnings: All warnings that come along with Joker, House, and holo!Handsome Jack

[One could say that the Norfinbury Hospital Pharmacy is one that's decently-sized. It must have once also had a small section for food, but the shelves are empty now save what few items can be found. Occasionally there's even medicine. Of course, to say that it's decently-sized is considering that usually only two or three people are in it at a time. Six is pushing the limit, especially six people who really don't have any business being in each other's vicinity.

Al is the first one there, taking the day to investigate his new surroundings, but the others trickle in slowly, some more worn than others from a long march.]

Comments

[harlequinofhate]

[The Joker pulls open the door to the decrepit structure and snarls to himself at what he sees.

People.

Freaking, of course. He'd thought he'd heard voices.

What sort of sick joke is it to move him somewhere else in the middle of the night and have him run into people?

He pauses in the doorway and looks out into the deep shadows of the ice tunnels, momentarily considering just taking his chances outside.

Eh, oh well.

A croud means a potential audience at least. Who plays to an empty house?

He pulls the door shut and walks into a corner to tug the hose from his shoulders. Once he sits down he draws a deck of cards from his pocket and starts silently playing solitaire. He's quiet, seemingly focused on his game, but his attention is actually firmly upon the other people bustling around the building.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House's own vent endeavors are an effort to look busy while he observes. He doesn't expect he'll actually get much out of the exercise, but people tend not to bother you if you have the appearance of focus. What he observes here is a guy with green hair and what looks like clown face paint. He mentally sorts through who it might be, but when the cards come out, there's his answer.

Interesting.

Worrying, but interesting.

He leaves the other man alone for a while, pretending to go on with his own work and glancing over at him now and again. There's a vent near where Joker's sitting, and it provides an excuse to go and harass him.]

Move your foot, White.

[The command is issued lazily as House points down to the vent with his screwdriver.]

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker looks up and doesn't move his foot.

Well, here's a voice he recognizes. The interest in vents only confirms his suspicion.]

They're just gonna fix it when you're not looking, Doc.

[He lays down another card, still not moving his foot.]

[rubikscomplex]

But it's that thrill I get making the spiders rebuild the web. The Admin won't talk to me anyway. Thought I could use the vents to spell out 'let's talk.' Might as well, if they're watching. Left my boombox at home, and I can't find their window. What's a guy to do?

[His cane lifts and comes to rest on one of the cards that's the obvious next move in Joker's game. This is an incredibly minor power play between the pair of them, but it seems important for establishing how the rest of this evening is going to go.]

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker looks at the cane and grimaces.]

Excuse me, Doc, your cane is on my card.

[rubikscomplex]

'Scuse me, White, your foot is on my vent cover.

[starsandtights]

[It's a crowded pharmacy, but Steve knows nearly everyone; Jade, at least, he recognizes from the network. But this guy he doesn't recognize. Steve eyes him curiously for a moment; the face and the hair are—pretty strange-looking, OK, but then again Rydia's got green hair, and on a scale that includes a giant goat-monster and an animated skeleton, what the hell is 'strange' anymore, anyway.

Steve clears his throat as he approaches, to get the man's attention.]

Hey there, don't believe we've met. Steve Rogers.

[He bends down a little, offering his hand to shake.]

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker looks up, his expression simultaneously puzzled and amused. Nobody back home who knew him would ever dare shake his hand.

He silently laments the fact that he no longer has a lethal buzzer or a needle of venom.]

Don't think so.

[He reaches out with a hand wrapped in a purple dress glove and accepts the offered handshake.]

I'm Jack White.

House

[rubikscomplex]

[Finding the pharmacy already occupied is irritating. Finding the pharamacy already occupied by Al is eye-roll worthy. House doesn't do much more than grunt a greeting if Al tries to say hello. His attention is on the vents here after the excitement of movement.]

Option A
[You might find him playing with the vent covers, unscrewing them, stacking them neatly on one of the counters. He'll respond if spoken to, but he doesn't actively engage anyone, just shuffles around, cane thunking against the floor.]

Option B
[Or you might find him much later in the evening when he's retired for the night in the corner that's the farthest away from everyone else that he can possibly get. It doesn't matter that he's missing out on warmth. There are too many people here that he isn't comfortable with. He wants nothing to do with them. He's sitting down, leaning back against his pack, which he has wedged into the corner. His cane is within easy reach, and he's reading over the network for the day, a set of reading glasses on.

If approached, he tamps down on the urge to bristle and just raises his eyes toward the person, tone and expression bored.]

Find a different aisle, dude. This one's taken.

Option A!

[starsandtights]

[Steve eats his dinner and catches up on the network, but his gaze keeps getting drawn to Dr. House. What is he doing? Steve is hardly House's biggest fan, but—jerk though he may be, he'd compiled the most useful map of Norfinbury and made sure updated versions were always available, and he was doing good work studying MN contamination. He's obviously quite intelligent, and when he's not stirring up fights with people, he seems to be working hard on their whole... Norfinbury problem.

Steve can't figure out what the hell he's doing with the vent covers, though.

After a bit he gives up, swallowing his last bite of food and pushing himself wearily to his feet, making his way over to the doctor.]

...OK, House, I admit I'm stumped. What are you doing?

[rubikscomplex]

[He gives Steve a dull look.]

Pulling off vent covers and stacking them. What's it look like?

[Why yes, he'll go for the exceedingly unhelpful answer, in spite of knowing what Steve means.]

Rees

[headjacked]

[ Hey, you know what's terrible?

This. All of this.

Rhys ducks to the side as soon as he enters the building, as if a 6'2" noodle cyborg can have any degree of subtlety. Especially when he moves his eyepatch aside and his robobits light up. It is a little eerie in the dark.

His built-in flashlight is less cooperative, flickering as he adjusts his shoulder. This hurts. This elicits the tiniest of whimpers. This also elicits teasing from the holographic asshole in his head. ]

Shhhh, I've got this.

[rubikscomplex]

[ Oh, hey. House recognizes that guy.

Fuck that guy.

The doctor is presently arranging his collected vents on one of the counters like a house of reinforced metal cards, tablet screen on and probably giving him a ghastly appearance with the lighting from below. ]

What exactly do got, Rhysie?

[ Might as well just get the confrontation done and out of the way so that they can ignore each other for the rest of the night. ]

[headjacked]

[ There's a definite deer in the headlights moment that rapidly shifts to disgust. Absolute(ly) disgust(ing). There is nobody in Norfinbury he would want to spend the night with less, and he is including the robot spiders in that.

Well, okay, maybe. Maybe not, but. It's close. ]

Get bent, Greg.

[ As Rhys turns to claim some part of the pharmacy as his own for the night, Jack materializes in front of him. Arms are crossed.

"Wha-what, you're just walking away? From HIM?" ]

What do you expect me to do? [ A quiet hiss that isn't actually that quiet because Rhys' voice carries. A shame. ]

[rubikscomplex]

Voices in your head getting louder?

[ House returns his apparent attention back to the vents, placing the next level of them. ]

[headjacked]

[ "You walk away and he wins. He keeps winning. That what you want, cupcake?"

Goading House isn't the most practical decision, no, but Jack is bored as shit. It's easy to go stir crazy in his position. It's even easier when Greg is the potential target. ]

Shut. Up!

[rubikscomplex]

Was that to me or him, Rhysie? [Still pretending to mostly ignore you, bro. Yep. House's cane is hooked on the counter, ready to grabbed and used, if need be, though.]

[starsandtights]

Pardon?

[Steve pokes his head out from behind a shelf. He's holding a bottle of fish oil, trying to decide if he wants it or not.]

Oh. Hey, Rhys.

[headjacked]

[ "...uuuuugh." ]

-- ghhhgGHHHH -- HHHN-- [ A half-groan, half throat clear as Rhys tries to hide the momentary vocal hijacking.

It's... yeah. ]

Steve.

[ The most ineffective of brush-offs as he brings a hand to shield his face. He scurries away and collides into a shelf. ]

later in the night;

[headjacked]

[ Rhys has essentially superglued himself to an unoccupied wall, distancing himself as far as he can from the clusterfuck he (technically) created. He's curled up tight, tablet in his face and shoulders scrunched. Every now and then he grabs his cybernetic wrist and pulls it close, flexing the fingers and twisting the wrist like he's making sure he still can.

He knows he's goofed.

He knows "goofed" is a massive understatement.

He knows it's only a matter of time before the Justice League descends. Right?

God, he almost wishes Jack would show his cowardly blue face, just so he'd have someone deserving to take it all out on. Nobody here is deserving. Not even You-Know-Who. ]

@hotstud_xxx; text; private

[rubikscomplex]

[ After the paralysis had worn off, and he'd watched to make sure Joker didn't try anything, House had made his way to another corner of the pharmacy, making certain to put several aisles between himself and Rhys. He still has a medical interest in the man. ]

request your mn levels
admin'll probably refuse, but whatever
were your robot bits repaired fully?

[headjacked]

[ He's back-and-forthing with Angel when this pops up. The username alone makes his stomach flip-flop. Rhys puts off reading the actual text until he's done talking with Angel, and.

It's... not entirely what he expected? What he does expect will undoubtedly come later, he's sure of it.

There's a major delay, but eventually, a response. ]

okay

[ In response to the question, Rhys attaches a picture of his shoulder where the skin meets metal. The angry red from the cold is old news, but the skin-webbing between the organic and synthetic? That is new. And also gross. ]

[rubikscomplex]

[ It will probably come later, but at the moment, House is being anti-emotional. There are too many emotional people here. ]

interesting
have you tried picking any of that off?
does it feel like real skin?

[headjacked]

Yeah

it does

bled a little too

[rubikscomplex]

well, don't die
you might grow your arm back

your port thing
what the hell is that?
i whacked it and you went the full jack