[network][Day 138|video|@hotstud_xxx] You Get What You Need [open]

[rubikscomplex]

[There's no pithy commentary from House as is more common for the introductions to one of his piano sessions. It's also on video at the moment because House... can't figure out how to change it to just audio. He really hates this particular effect. So, anyone in Snowhell who has yet to actually see Dr. Hotstud House will get a view of him. He's a haggard, middle-aged man who's looking closer to just plain 'aged' after more than three months in Norfinbury. He has the tablet propped up where the sheet music would usually go, and keeps his eyes down or closed as he begins to play. He mouths some of the words, brows furrowed and body swaying to the music.

He runs through that. And then, because he's not going to be able to play and 'talk' to people at the same time, he moves into another tune before stopping and checking for responses.]

Comments

[devoutish]

I've never been. She came to England before I was born. Fell in love, had us kids.

[Fell in love with a gangster, and then the kids became gangsters. What a heartwarming tale.]

[redrooms]

[Well, being a Jew in Russia, especially during World War II, isn't the best fate. Being in Russia at all in his future isn't, so Natasha is glad in a way.]

London is beautiful. It was a good choice.

[Not that much of Europe escaped the war unscathed, but hey. There's no way she's going to talk about it.]

[devoutish]

Mm, yeah. Only home I've ever known.

[redrooms]

That isn't such a bad thing.

[Belonging somewhere, she means. She's not sure she's ever considered anywhere "home".]

[devoutish]

Not in the fucking least. I'm never leaving.

[If he ever, you know, makes it back.]

[redrooms]

[There's a slight pause.]

If you ever visit America, I guarantee you'll have a better experience than this.

[devoutish]

I'll make a vacation of it someday. New York, Chicago.

[redrooms]

San Francisco, too. They're going to build a bridge in the late thirties. The longest suspension bridge in the world, for a while. It's worth seeing.

[And she has a major soft spot for San Francisco, shh.]

[devoutish]

California?

[He's getting the state right, isn't he? You guys have SO MANY.]

Bit hot for me, I think.

[redrooms]

Yes. The heat isn't so bad. You'll like it, trust me.

[devoutish]

How many degrees of not so bad?

[redrooms]

The ocean keeps it much cooler than you'd think.

[devoutish]

What's that, then - twenty-five, thirty?

[redrooms]

Around twenty-five or thirty is the hottest it usually gets in the summer.

[devoutish]

That is very fucking hot.

[redrooms]

New York is about the same. I'm sure you can tough it out.

[devoutish]

I'll make a point of visiting in the winter.

[redrooms]

Your mother passed down an affinity for the cold, did she?

[She says it lightly.]

[devoutish]

Even if she had, this place would have ruined it.

[redrooms]

This is the kind that settles down into your bones and never quite leaves.

[devoutish]

Not far from how she talked about Russia in the winter.

[redrooms]

She wasn't wrong. It depends on where you're sitting.

[devoutish]

It was a rural village. Small, poor. No heat in the winter.

[redrooms]

Miserably cold, then.

[She gets it. She spent enough of the beginning of her life scrambling for food and shelter. Still, even after her defection and all the terrible things she experienced there, there's a part of her that will always love Russia.]

[devoutish]

Miserable in many ways.

[There's just a hint of something challenging in his voice.

He wonders how much House told her.]