snowblindrpg | [log] Shimmer [closed]

[A standard single-story house with a kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, and bedroom. All of the doors inside the house have had their handles broken off. They can still be pushed open, but none of them close properly, not even the bathroom. The broken doorknobs can be found in a box under the dining room table, but they've all been snapped in half and are unusable.]

[The cold cuts into House; it cuts down to the bone the way only a days-long blizzard in New Jersey might. House pushes himself up from the bed he'd commandeered. His blanket is wrapped full around him, and he's curled up into a tight ball. He's still shivering, and looks around for Wilson's shape in the pre-lockdown hours.]

Holy crap, it's cold.

[Hope you were wanting to be awake now, Wilson.]

[Wilson really didn't want to be awake right now, especially after he had just gotten to sleep. House's voice jolts him back into consciousness. Yes, House, it is cold, which is making sleeping nearly impossible.

He doesn't bother sitting up, and instead just remains huddled on the floor in the corner he claimed.]

So cold that you're reduced to stating the obvious. [Even his sass is falling flat at these temperatures.] Is it just me or is this more frigid than usual?

Brain freezes at -30 and below. [He's shivering as he uncurls enough to sit up and pull out his Vicodin. House pops the top, then dry swallows his morning dose. It's a long moment of consideration to double up to deal with this and the way his leg is aching with phantom pain.]

Last time it was like this we were locked in for three days. Get up and eat. We'll need as much time today as possible for travel and it won't be much.

[Wilson groans, but he knows House is right. It's not like lying on the floor shivering is worth sticking around for, anyway. He sits up and rummages through his backpack until he unearths a semi-frozen fruit cup. Living on school lunches was cute for about a day.]

Last time? [He says this through a mouthful of icy pears. Wilson has had it up to here with pears.] Oh, was that the, um, repairs thing?

[Enjoy the fact that you have fruit and not cheetos for breakfast, Wilson. House isn't hungry, per usual and doesn't have the energy to pretend right now and eat anyway. He just pulls out his tablet and starts flipping through it for any new messages.]

No. It was when we were trapped with personalized anomalies banging at the doors and windows 24/7. I was blind and detoxing. Hell if I remember much of it.

Oh. [Whoops. Maybe he shouldn't have asked.] Are you sure we should risk traveling in these conditions, then? Getting locked in sounds a lot better than getting locked out.

[And don't think he doesn't notice you not eating, House. Wilson fishes for another fruit cup and tosses it to House.] You need to eat something. What happened to stealing my food constantly? I'm pretty sure that was a primary pillar of our relationship three years ago, too.

[It's probably better never to ask here.]

Number one rule here: If you can move, move. Get locked in long enough you start going literally stir crazy. Super not fun.

[He's managed to avoid it so far and would like to keep it that way. As for the fruit cup, his hand does snap up on reflex to catch it, but there's a grimace that he can't hide quick enough looking down at it. House covers it quickly. He doesn't want to eat, but he wants to deal with Wilson's 'concern' even less. If the other man hasn't picked up on the fact that House is generally eating less than normal he'd be surprised, though. Even Wilson, Dr. I Care, would pick up on that. House has his excuses lined up, at least, as he pops the top of the cup and begins choking down the food in small bites.]

Gee... must be out of practice. Didn't think you'd miss it, but damn if you aren't right. Next bag of chips you pull out are mine.

[Well, that's reason enough for him. When it comes to the laws of the land here, Wilson's in no position to argue. He hopes he will never be in the position to argue.

He stands up, finishes his breakfast, and starts to pack up camp, which doesn't take more than a few seconds. It's not like there's much to pack up. He's pleased that House isn't arguing with him about the food, but he has a feeling this will be a long-term issue, nothing that can be fixed with just one fruit cup.]

Normalcy is good, even if it's annoying normalcy. If I ever find any chips, you'll be the first to hear about it.

[He slings his backpack over his shoulder.] Ready when you are.

[House rummages in his pack after finishing his own little fruit cup and pulls out a pair of plain blue mittens, a red gingham bandana, and a pair cloth napkins. He holds all of it out to Wilson.]

Protect your face and ears. We need to find you a scarf.

[Says the man wearing a very fluffy, very pink scarf. It's hobo chic!]

[Wilson briefly balks at the idea of running around looking like a strange napkin bandit, but he takes the offered items without even a little bit of sass. If it's this cold indoors, he doesn't want to think about what it'll be like outside.

He ties the bandana over his nose and mouth, and manages to stuff the napkins into his beret so that they flop down over his ears. He's sure he looks incredibly silly, especially with the mittens to top it all off.]

Good God, I look like a French train robber. Did those exist? [He gives House some sweet finger guns and says, in his very worst French accent:] Honh honnhhh, I'm here to steal all the wine and cheese from here to Independence!

[Okay, that earns him a grin from House.]

Well, while you do that, Louis, let's walk. Also, you suck at accents. Do Solomons at him sometime, though. He likes it when people try. So vain.

Ah, yeah, I've heard that's the hip new trend. [Wilson tries his hand at it, and it goes about as well as his French accent did.] "Alright, mate, yeah."

[He repeats this a few more times as he heads for the door. When he opens it, the subsequent blast of cold air paralyzes him mid-yeah. He's all but frozen in the doorway for a long moment, shuddering as his body tries to acclimate to the fresh hell that is thirty below.]

Ho hooo, boy. [Wilson ties his bandana a little tighter, which of course does nothing. He steps into the snow.] Wow.

It's beginning to look a lot like the Snow~po~calypse! [You're welcome for the singing shout, muffled behind House's thick scarf, Wilson. He's wrapped it up around his head quite thoroughly to protect his nose, cheeks, and ears.

And off they go with House giving Wilson a small shove out into the freezing world. Almost immediately, though, he can see there's something wrong outside. The distance is hazy, almost shimmering like a mirage. And then, he spots a house that definitely shouldn't be there. Its style is entirely New England, and it's out of place for what House knows of the map.]

You see that?

[He grasps Wilson's arm for attention and points toward the building that isn't there.]

[Wilson stops short as House grabs him, squinting out into the field of snow. Was it always this hazy? Maybe it's a side effect of the cold...]

See what? I can hardly see anything... [But then he looks again, and there is something there. His stomach drops.] Is that... A bus?

[Interesting. Also problematic.]

We're hallucinating. Tablets worked last time that happened.

[House let's go and undoes a few buttons to reach into his coat and pull out his tablet. He switches it onto video and points it toward the house/school bus in the distance. It's a moment before he replays the recording angling the tablet for Wilson to watch.]

It's turning up here. Take a vid with yours.

[It's all about perception, isn't it? It doesn't occur to House that hte hallucination might be catching.]

Oh. [House's nonchalance is slightly comforting, though maybe it shouldn't be. He makes hallucinating sound normal. Great.

But Wilson complies. He fumbles through his own coat for his tablet and starts recording. His screen displays an overturned city bus lying in the snow, which fills his gut with dread he hopes House can't detect. House wouldn't remember the bus. It's not worth getting into.

He shows his screen as he takes a look at House's... And then his own screen changes too. The building House had seen now flanks the overturned bus. That wasn't there a minute ago. What?]

I see the house now. It's next to the bus. [Sure enough, the house isn't just visible on Wilson's tablet.] Do you see it too?

[Very suddenly, House can see the bus, as well, and that's unnerving.]

It transfers. Great. [His tone says 'definitely not great.'] Put your tablet away and don't tell me anything else you see. Just remember it. We'll compare once we reach shelter.

[You can remember everything you see from the next six-to-eight hours, right, Wilson?]

[A standard two-story house with an attic. The first floor has a kitchen, living room, and dining room, while the second floor has two bedrooms and a bathroom. The attic's roof has collapsed and can't be accessed at night. During the night, footsteps can be heard in the attic. "@winston, third day. Someone is in the attic." is written on the wall in pink gel pen. "ALPHONSE ELRIC, STEPHANIE BROWN, FREYA CRESCENT, GREED, EDWARD ELRIC, BIFF, RHYS, DAY FIFTY, TRAVELLING SOUTH-EAST" is carved into the wall. "SHEENA FUJIBAYASHI, ZELOS WILDER, DAY 058, HEADING NORTH" is written on the wall.]

[Hange barges in ahead, not entirely sure if the house they've found is real this time. But the door feels solid, so that's promising and- oh. Huh.

Well that's definitely going into the notes. The second they're inside, it's like all of those looming shadows, the hazy image of an open landscape, the slithering arms that crawled across the ground, it all just vanished. Without bothering with anything else, Hange rushes to look out the nearest window, and a massive blurry figure bends down into view. Yep. Still very much there.

But very much outside, and that's what matters. Trying not to look too out of sorts, Hange steps back from the window.]

Whatever that was, it seems that it can't come inside. Or that we don't experience it while we're inside? Could be some kind of signal interference... [Still mumbling but with tablet now out, Hange begins the usual scan of the house's walls to try and ascertain their location.]

Edited 2016-08-16 01:23 (UTC)

Whatever what was? What did you even see?

[ it wasn't that he didn't see anything strange, but the things he did see... there was nothing that could have come after them. everything was still, and everyone was dead. it was raining instead of snowing, and in the distance the trees reached far into the sky.

yeah. that whole thing again.

but of course, it was too cold to stop and discuss it—way too cold. worse than usual somehow. so once they're inside the house (a real one, thank god) and the images finally vanish, he rubs at his eyes, trying to blink away the confusion. it's not working. ]

Nothing real.

[The voice is mildly irritated and sounds from the kitchen area.]

Forget about it. And don't take pictures.

[Wilson's head pops out from the kitchen. He looks a little surprised, but he offers the pair a wave.]

Oh. Hello, there.

[That's a whole flurry of voices that Hange wasn't expecting. Starting with Levi's, actually. Not that Hange forgot he was there again, they weren't that engrossed yet, but mostly it just seems bizarre that he didn't see what they did.]

You mean you didn't see any of that? The grass, or those tall things following us?

[But there's an interruption. Someone else is here; this must be a popular area. Hange's about to ask why they shouldn't take pictures when a man appears out of the kitchen. At first, they assume it's the same one who spoke, but then this one speaks, and the voice isn't the same. Two people? Hange puts on a smile and starts to approach.]

Hello! [And then a little louder:] Why shouldn't we take pictures?

Edited 2016-08-18 08:39 (UTC)

[ "again?" rude, Hange.

in any case, if he's surprised by the two extra voices, he doesn't show it. he tilts his head when Wilson speaks because his voice sounds familiar, but ends up simply turning back to Hange. ]

I saw grass. [ he doesn't really want to talk about what else he saw. ] Hallucinations?

[House isn't getting up from the spot at the table he's claimed to go through and reorganize his supplies. You people can come to him. He just raises his voice to be heard.]

Because then everyone starts seeing the crap you're seeing instead of it just being in your head.

[Wilson glances at House before leaving the kitchen and walking over to offer a hand to Hange and then to Levi.]

I'm Wilson. Nice to meet you both. It's true, about the hallucinations. Apparently they stack. Grass doesn't sound all that bad though, if I'm being honest.

[Hange's guessing these two found this information out the hard way. They, for one, haven't been paying much attention to the network yet today.

There was more than grass. We were being followed by large shadows. Are being followed? Anyway.

[Hange shakes Wilson's hand and then launches into a series of further questions.]

Do you think these are just random images, or could there be any meaning in these? What have the two of you seen? Does the spread only affect the network?

[ ...yeah, he still doesn't want to talk about what he saw other than grass. maybe if he's asked directly, but if they're hallucinations then it doesn't really matter that much, right?

...right??

regardless, he shakes Wilson's hand when it's offered. hooray, new friends. ("friends.") ]

I talked to you on the network a couple weeks ago. About the radiation.

[ "hi, I'm Levi, nice to meet you!" is what he would say if he had any social skills. sorry, Wilson... then again, you have plenty of experience with that type, don't you? ]

[House doesn't really care about pleasantries, so he just barrels through replying to Hange.]

We're not being followed, and neither are you. I just saw trees and some buildings that aren't real. Lucky I just recorded the trees.

[Nothing terrible, really. It's been an inconvenience, though.]

Spread's only affected the network so far. Who the hell knows if it'll go farther. And chances are we're getting flashes of the town mixed with crap from our own worlds. The houses I saw looked more like something out of Princeton than anything we've seen here.

[Wilson will... just figure out Hange's name later, he supposes. Oh well, at least Levi is politer. Except he's not. Wilson can't catch a break.]

Oh, right. Nice to meet you in the flesh. Was it... Levi? [He says it like "levee" because he's just going off of his username.]

I suppose sharing the hallucinations over the network won't hurt if they're just memories from home. It might be an interesting learning experience, honestly.

[Hange is mildly amused by the mispronunciation, but that's Levi's problem. There are way more pressing things to attend to on their end.]

So our own personal memories are being transmitted through the network? That's... sort of troubling. [As is, perhaps, the fact that Hange's personal memories apparently include being followed by massive shapes.] But the real problem isn't that, it's how difficult it makes travel. It took us a while to find a building that actually exists. Hopefully this goes away soon. In the meantime, it might be wise to stay put. Or at least to travel slowly.

[It's unclear if Hange is still talking to House, the room at large, or their own thoughts at this point. Until, that is, they turn their attention very suddenly to Wilson.]

Sharing would be interesting, but if everyone shared their hallucinations at once, and all of those hallucinations transferred to everyone watching, I don't imagine the overlapping of images would be very good for anyone.

[ ...oh, well. good try, Wilson. he quickly corrects him, more offhand than irritated. probably best not to be an asshole to a doctor in a place like this. ]

It's more than troubling. [ a sidelong glance at Hange. ] People don't need to see the kind of shit we've seen. Especially not if they'll hallucinate it when they're outside. Running from them seems like a good way to get lost and freeze to death.

[ arguably better than being eaten, but let's not go there. ]

It's like the jeans, idiot. [House calls. He's happy to correct if Levi doesn't.] He's Levi, not 'Levee.' You've seriously got dikes on the brain, dude. The other one's Hange, since we're doing introductions. And they got it about right. They don't need to be seeing buses and houses that aren't there.

Use your brain.

Is everyone just going to stand around or come and sit down or something.

[Come to him. He's lazy... and also busy.]

[This house, covered in snow, is dark and cold, but better than outside. The snow presses in on the windows and makes the roof creak and groan whenever it shifts, but it seems to be holding up alright. It's a standard, single-story house with a living room, single bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and dining room. The house is sparsely furnished, unfortunately with mostly metal There's a back door leading off into darkness, but it isn't locked.]

[It's night, well after lockdown, and House is shivering, actually deigning to huddle close to Wilson to share warmth. Hange and Levi might be there, as well. But in any case, he gets a ping on his tablet and he checks it to see Quark. To see that Quark is going to die. He tries to advise the kid on things he can do, but it's not going to work. They both know it. It's futile. It's worthless hope, and so he turns his fury on Luna, the woman he'd tasked with protecting Quark. The one he'd threatened if she didn't.

That leverage is gone, and apparently, so too, is her actual ability to do anything. If his furious typing and darkening expression hasn't roused his companions, House throwing his tablet across the room and then pulling away to stand and pace might. He pulls out his bottle of Vicodin and pops two of the pills. He doesn't care that it's two he won't have for tomorrow. He needs them right now. He needs the whole freaking bottle right now. His heart is pounding in his chest and his thigh is burning with pain.

He stumbles and has to catch himself on the wall with a low, snarled swear.]

[It's something one gets used to, being in the Survey Corps: sleeping lightly, keeping an ear out for noises. It's not something Hange's always great at, but on this particular night, they're not exactly sleeping soundly in the first place. The sounds of increasingly agitated screen-poking and the harsh reverberation of tablet-on-wall just guarantee that there won't be any rest for a while, at least.

Hange sits up, though they're still huddled underneath the table cloth they've been using as a blanket. They slide their glasses down onto the bridge of their nose, squinting into the frigid dark.]

Something happened. [Not bothering with a question. Whatever it is, it seems serious.] Something we should know about?

It doesn't matter.

[The words are snapped.]

Quark's dead. He's dying.

[House uses the wall to steady himself as he limps back over in the dark and feels around until he finds his cane. The tablet is still on over in the corner where he threw it casting at least some light.

Once he has the cane, he uses it brace himself as a more familiar, a more hated gait returns for his pacing.]

Edited 2016-08-23 14:50 (UTC)

[Wilson quietly makes his way over to House's tablet and picks it up. He'd suspected Quark was in trouble, but he knew better than to ask. That, and... Wilson has never seen House like this before. Angry, sure. Upset, it happens on occasion. But this is different. Since when does House react this way to people dying? Especially in a place where death itself has decided it doesn't want to play roughly 30% of the time.

It's not that Wilson doesn't understand. He knows the feeling too well, in fact. Maybe Quark will come back, or... Either way, they're helpless, and Wilson doesn't know what to do about it.]

At least with the weather like it is, he'll go quickly. [He's taking a shot in the dark assuming Quark was locked out somehow, but it seems like a fair bet.]

[... Oh. Well, that's... It's probably for the best that Wilson intervenes first. Hange's never been the greatest at consoling people when friends and family die. That's never been their job, and probably for good reason. And somehow, they doubt that "he died for the cause of humanity" really applies here. In all likelihood, Quark is dying because he was trapped outside, possibly led astray by these rampant hallucinations. If he were being attacked, there would be no time for House to have gotten the message.

It's not as if Hange doesn't care about this. Quark seemed like a bright child when they met on the network Hange's first day here, they even talked about unorthodox storage solutions. But after spending so long watching comrades be killed one after another, Hange's developed a sort of barrier between their own focus and the harsh reality of death, one that even the tragic loss of a child can't quite get through.

And besides all that, perhaps there's a ray of hope here.]

There's always the possibility he'll come back, as well.

Yeah. Thanks for the weather update. I had no idea how quickly hypothermia would be setting in. But that's what I got you for. All the vital information. [But where Wilson only receives a relatively light verbal smack for stating the obvious, Hange is not quite so lucky. On the tablet, as House rounds on Hange, Wilson will see not only the conversation with Quark, but the one with Luna, as well.]

And spare me the freaking platitudes. 'Oh, he might come back.' He shouldn't come back. None of us should come back. This isn't some dream where it doesn't count in real life. Unless you wanna tell me it is. Let's hear the latest theory. It's a supernatural monster hiding under the town and eating everyone's souls, corrupting the Admin, throwing the ghosts of residents past at us.

Except good news! The Admin says there never were any residents in this freaking town. We're the first. How the hell does that work out, unless she lying out her ass?

[He's rambling, tangenting, mind running off in a hundred directions without focus as he tries desperately not to think about Quark, picture him in the snow somewhere. House is completely helpless. He's been completely helpless to stop any of this, fix any of this.]

Edited 2016-08-25 14:31 (UTC)

[Wilson says nothing in response to House's sarcasm, nor does he say anything when House turns on Hange. What's there to say? Besides, as hard as this is to watch, House needs to just wear himself out. There's no comforting him now, so sorry, Hange, you get to be the sacrificial lamb. House needs someone to be angry with, and it will be better for everyone in the end if that someone is not Wilson. Wilson will let House burn himself out now, and then worry about cleaning up the mess later.

In the meantime, Wilson does take the opportunity to glance at House's tablet, which only confirms his decision to let House rip Hange a new one. At least then he's not taking it out on Quark and Luna. God, what a mess.]

[ now's probably not a good time to ask "who's Quark," huh?

he doesn't know House that well yet, either, but based on how House just bit Hange's head off, he can gather that silence is probably the best option here—the fact that Wilson's not talking is pretty telling, too. watching people deal with the death of their friends was something he was very familiar with long before coming here, and while he'd never claim to be an expert on comforting people through their grief, he knows that sometimes you just have to let them be pissed off. House... seems to be that type of person.

sooo yeah, he's just gonna... let House be mad, and grab his own tablet to see if he can figure out what the hell is going on. as if he anyone ever knew what was going on in this place. ]

[At this point it would probably be smarter to keep quiet and let House fume. That... seems to be what everyone else in the room is doing, and Hange is nothing if not smart. But right up alongside "comforting the bereaved" on the list of things Hange isn't great at is "leaving well enough alone". This will probably end in disaster, but that might as well be the tagline for Hange's life.]

It isn't a platitude here, it's a real working concept. I don't know about should or shouldn't, but I doubt that's our decision to make anyway.

[The rest of what he's shouting... mostly sounds like nonsense. Isn't the prevailing theory that most of this isn't real? And when did the Admin say there weren't any previous residents? That part's interesting, but Hange can at least recognize that now isn't the time to talk theories.]

It's only a small hope, I guess, but that's all we have here.

I don't need hope. [That's snarled.] We hope we'll get out. We hope this isn't all pointless. We hope there's something at the middle of this freaking maze and not just the goddamn mousetrap. The only thing we have here is hope, and it fails.

That asshole was dead for almost two months. [House jabs a finger at Levi. Hello, Levi.] Is that what I'm supposed to hope for. He'll come back just in time for all of us to be devolving into freaking anomalies? For this whole town to be static. I've already seen what he looks like as one. [This time the finger is stabbed in Wilson's direction. Hello, Wilson. Surprise with this new knowledge?]

I'm sure as hell not gonna hope any of the kids are around for that.

[Wilson averts his eyes as his plan catastrophically fails. House is right. He's always right. Maybe... Maybe it would be best if Quark were to stay dead. It's not like there's much to come back to. Hoping that he will anyway is just selfish.

But there's something much more troubling in House's tirade.]

What do you mean you've seen what I look like as one? As an anomaly?

[House freezes momentarily, then just doubles down, waving his hand.]

What else would I mean? We all got personalized ones. I was blind until the last day. I saw you. I saw you in that conglomerate down in the server room, too. And now you're here. How? Because we're anomalies before we form into people. That's why you're here.

[That's his theory, anyway.]

Edited 2016-09-08 03:42 (UTC)

[People forming into monsters? That's not new. Monsters forming into people? Also not entirely new. And anyway, they were just discussing this with House less than a week ago on the network. So as for the shouted theory, Hange has nothing to add or subtract.

As for the other bit...]

It hasn't failed yet. [It's more mumbled than anything. Even Hange's starting to realize that House is just blowing off steam. It's something they see a lot, back home. People unable to deal with the realization of how utterly hopeless their situation actually is. If Hange was being honest, that soul-crushing realization has gotten them a few times, too, but, well. Hange is hardly ever honest about that.]

Hope isn't pointless, it's necessary for survival. [Again, mumbled. If House wants to keep shouting, then so be it. Maybe he'll wear himself out?]

[log] Shimmer [closed]

Building 76

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Building 97

Day 148; about midday; for Levi and also anyone else

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ACK! I so did not realize it was my turn here! Apologies!

Building 124

Night 149

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