[EVENT] Lavender's Blue [open]

[snowblindmods]

Characters: anyone and everyone
Location all around town
Date: Night 180
Summary: Kill the sinners or run for your lives.
Warnings: Horror, potential gore and death. Please note more specific warnings in subject lines!

close we will live, dilly dilly
and when we die
both in one grave, dilly dilly
close we will lie

Comments

[exequies]

[He takes the stethoscope, placing the buds in his ears and the chestpiece against the wall behind him. The crackle instantly becomes audible like a phonograph that's been scratched beyond recognition, or a radio tuned to an unmanned station. He isn't as familiar with the latter, but it's still a somewhat familiar sound.

But Undertaker doesn't dare listen for too long. His hearing is all he can really rely on, and he needs it to listen for any would-be intruders. After only a few heartbeats time, he removes the buds from his ears and hands the stethoscope back.]

I haven't the foggiest what this means. [But it was extremely odd.]

[rubikscomplex]

This whole place has some connection to the static. [House puts the stethoscope away and hunkers down again, voice soft.] Couple of guys blew up a house, caught it on video. The air came alive with static for a couple of seconds and the house rebuilt itself.

[exequies]

[Reaching one hand up, the long-haired man rubs at the root of his nose with his thumb and middle finger. All of these impossible sounding events were giving him a headache, especially with their current situation layered on top.]

I'm starting to wonder if any of this is real. [Logically, he knows that some of it must be. But which parts?]

The only forces capable of that that I can think of are supernatural in origin.

[rubikscomplex]

Join the club.

[Welcome to the wonderful, existentially dreadful world of doubting everything you know and see around you, Undertaker. House is a frequent visitor; though, he tries not to linger given the fact he wouldn't be able to function if that's the world he stayed in.]

You wanna talk supernatural, go have a chat with the vampire. My money's on a machine--Artificial Intelligence. This isn't gonna make much sense given when you're from, but everything we've seen so far can be explained by computer programming and a rogue program within the network system. Our bodies are filled with little computers--that's what these nanomachines in our blood are. And humans are basically biological computers. Artificial intelligence and robots are designed to do things humans do, just faster, more efficiently because they're usually limited to a set number of tasks and functions. Humans? Well, we can't outperform a well-designed computer on whatever it was designed to do, but we can do a million different things. Not well, but we can do them.

What's the next step in computing, then? Bridging the gap between humans and computers, enhancing out bodies with computers. The nanomacines inside of us are fighting off the radiation in the atmosphere here. We'd all be dead without them. And the things that can bring us here? Well, there's precedent for that in science and technology, too.

[exequies]

[It's a very complex idea, but he can grasp the basic idea behind it. If he thinks of his tablet as the computer, as a stand in for a real one. Then, would that make the reality they're experiencing like the different 'apps' able to run on it? Or the occasional 'download' he's received from other people here?]

So when things like this happen... is that someone tampering with the computer like you say, or downloading information into us?

[rubikscomplex]

Something like that. Someone or something is affecting the environmental parameters and some of the people here. Were you here when we had the static and the eyes?

[He doesn't think so, but better to check.]

[exequies]

No. I only learned about the eyes after the fact.

[Checking back on the network, he'd only missed it by a few days it seemed. Though that does bring up a good question.]

It seems to be a reoccurring theme, doesn't it? Queerness with eyes.

[rubikscomplex]

Yeah. It's getting more than a little play in recent weeks. But we've been told not to trust our eyes. Winter went eye-happy the last time we heard from her--Russian AI. Even before that, we had Andromeda. Her eyes glowed, too. Not sure if that was a general AI feature or if that's specific to her.

[exequies]

And now all this Prophet business happens. I suppose I was right in being suspicious even before they sent their disciples out to kill us.

[Because that's what he's assuming this is all about, right now.] I wonder if the ones they gave a seal are more powerful than the rest?

[rubikscomplex]

[That's a troubling notion.]

Hange, Kanan, and Freamon. They're the ones with the seals. Doubt they're any more powerful. [Christ does he hope they aren't. Thanks for the additional paranoia fuel, bro.] Norfinbury doesn't like giving us anything that'll actually help.

[exequies]

[His mind works viciously, sometimes.] We'll find out rather quickly if they are, I think.

[Though speaking of paranoia, he cuts that last sentence off a bit abruptly and goes still. He thought he'd detected the faintest scrape of movement somewhere towards the room's entrance.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House's own ears are keyed to noises, and he goes still and silent, as well, attention turned toward the door. The doctor hold his breath, waits for someone to enter or the sound of someone retreating. More than a minute passes, and there's no further noise or movement. House breathes, but he waits another five minutes before speaking.]

Get out. You're a distraction. I was here first.

[A distraction that might lead people to him. He can't trust this man to remain still and quiet. Not to mention the chance of someone catching the glow from their eyes is doubled like this.]

[exequies]

[He would brush it off as a rat, but there weren't any in Norfinbury. A slight glance House's way after several moments tick by has him pursing his lips, because he was right. He'd probably overstayed his welcome and the urge to move and secure another location was much too strong.

Wordlessly and perhaps surprisingly, he pushes himself back to his feet and silently navigates his way back through the room. He's careful not to trip the jump-rope trap as he goes, and the only tell that he's left is the faint whine of a door hinge as he moves it just far enough to slip back out and into the night.]