[log] fuck [closed]

[devoutish]

Characters: Alfie Solomons, Emily Kaldwin, Gregory House, John Watson, Royce Melborn, Tifa Lockhart
Location: building 120 and building 101
Date: evening of 190 to morning of 192
Summary: when you see "House" and "Royce" in the same log you know it's gonna be a party
Warnings: ear removal

Catch-all for EVERYTHING - death, murder, torture, yelling, etc. Top-level and tag as you see fit.

Comments

BUILDING 120

[devoutish]

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. Fabric has been removed from the back of the couch. There's a large blue smear on the wall.

[rubikscomplex]

[House arrives with lockdown nipping at his heels, the incessant beeping from his tablet beginning to wear thin on his nerves. He really doesn't need the reminder not to die in some idiotic way, but he needs to get to the hospital, and quickly. When he makes it to the house, there's a momentary relief. He opens the door, stomps the snow off his boots and steps in, using his tablet as a light.

And then he sees the signs of someone else being here, hears the sound of movements and, perhaps, voices. Okay. Okay, this is fine. There's no way he didn't just let everyone in the house know he's here, but he can just... quietly slide off to an unoccupied room and tell them to go away. The paranoia after his encounter with Bucky and his conversation with Alfie is running high.

Maybe you'll catch him sneaking away.]

[powersouls]

[Tifa steps into the front room to see who's come to join them, and her expression shifts from curious to half panicked when she recognizes him, her voice a slightly frantic whisper.]

House?

[She's already imagining the hellish time she's going to have convincing Royce to steer clear, because there's no way House is getting to another building before lockdown.]

[rubikscomplex]

[Well, on the bright side, it's one of the people who doesn't want to kill him. On the not so bright side, Tifa being here means Alfie and Royce are, too.

Fuck.]

No. It's Santa. [He keeps his own voice a low, sarcastic whisper and glances back at the door, wondering if he should risk it. More than likely, staying here is going to leave him in worse shape than just dying in the bitter cold. But he has plans, damn it.]

Keep the elf and his boyfriend in their corner, and I'll stay in mine tonight. Which rooms are empty?

[devoutish]

[Alfie is sleeping when House arrives, but it won't be long before one of the others tells him about their unexpected visitor. He makes his way into whatever room House has holed up in - clearly tired and sick, but still alert.]

Ah, look who's come to see us tonight. Hello, House. And here we were just talking about arranging a meeting. What luck, eh?

[rubikscomplex]

[Go away, go away, go away, Alfie Solomons. House hadn't been planning on sleeping at all tonight with the people in the house, so he's wide awake and staring when Alfie enters into the kitchen. The doctor is sitting at the kitchen table, and immediately stands when the other man enters, picking up the croquet mallet he has sitting by his side.]

Well, 'Lucky's my middle name, boss.

[bywolves]

[ Royce hears the news that House is in the building with them, and doesn't know, really, what he wants to do. He won't kill House. He doesn't want to do that, and he doesn't want to be stuck in the building with a dead body. Doesn't want Emily to be stuck in a building with a dead body, not again.

But that doesn't mean he can't fuck with House, which he plans on doing. Whichever room House moves to, Royce lurks near, hood up. He knows House is going to try to bait him, and he almost welcomes it. He doesn't start any conversations, but he's always in the room with House, always out of arm's reach, silent and only half-visible in the shadow of the house, with the exception of his glowing eyes under the dark depths of his hood.

He's watching. ]

[rubikscomplex]

[House tolerates Royce being there for roughly half an hour before he picks up his mallet and rests it prominently on the kitchen table in front of him. He's terrified of being in the same room with this man, but you might not be able to tell it from his tone when he speaks, just the tense lines of his body.]

Gwen, Melengar, Ratibor, Blackwater, Brideeth. I know who the first one is. Are the rest bullshit fantasy town names or bullshit fantasy people names?

[empireofrats]

If you go that way, they'll find you. [Hope you didn't forget what it's like to look at a ten year old girl holding a notebook under one arm. She stares at House for a long moment without saying anything else. Then:]

You look older.

[rubikscomplex]

They'll find me anyway. [Well, at least there's a kid here. That might stave off the worst of things.]

You look fatter.

[No she doesn't.]

I thought you hated me. Some reason you're trying to help?

[devoutish]

[Alfie is pleased as punch about House's presence - he'd just been vaguethreatening him with a visit, after all. But when he isn't bugging the guy or searching the house (not the House), he generally sticks to either the living room or one of the upstairs bedrooms. He'll sleep on the couch - or, if it's big enough, maybe even on the bed with the girls.]

[rubikscomplex]

[It's much later in the night that House dares to venture out of the safety of the room he's blockaded himself in. He needs to use the bathroom, and as much fun as it is taking a piss in the corner, he'd prefer the toilet. The house has been quiet for the last while, so he's assuming everyone went to bed.

He puts his pack in the closet and just takes his hand sanitizer with him. House steels himself before he pulls the chair he'd wedged under the door handle away, and steps out onto the second floor landing. His shoes are off, and he moves as quietly as he can over to the bathroom. It's a few minutes later that he's done and sanitizing his hands. All right. Now to just get back where he came from. Everyone seems to be asleep. Thank god.

House opens the door to the bathroom again.]

[bywolves]

[ And he'll find Royce and Alfie standing outside the bathroom door. Surprise!

Royce has his hood up, eyes glowing faintly as usual, not visibly armed. But you can absolutely bet he's got all of his sharp items on his person somewhere. His arms are folded across his chest. He doesn't say anything - he'll let Alfie say hello, he thinks. ]

[devoutish]

[Alfie is here as Royce's support and back-up, and for once, doesn't consider himself to be the leader of their little menacing posse. But when Royce doesn't say anything, he takes that as an invitation.]

Evening, House.

[There's the hint of a smile on his face. It's not a nice smile.]

[powersouls]

[Tifa stays by Emily's side until the little girl falls asleep, at which point she slips out of bed and then closes the door very carefully behind her. She's still furious, and she thinks she will be for a while, but at least she doesn't feel like screaming herself hoarse at Alfie and Royce anymore. She needs to talk to them, though, to figure out what the hell they were thinking, so she sets through the house to find them.]

[devoutish]

[Alfie can be found in the living room, hunkered down on the couch. At first, he looks like he might be sleeping - his eyes are closed, and his hat has partially fallen over his face. But he looks up, alert, as soon as she enters the room.]

Tifa.

[powersouls]

[As soon as Tifa finds him, she suddenly has no idea what to say. She frowns, crossing her arms over her chest almost defensively. There's a long pause as she tries to decide where to start.]

Why would you two even think of doing that?

[bywolves]

[ Royce is in the kitchen, because he's just casually reverting to old habits. He's heard the song several times now, and when Tifa finds him, he's jammed himself up on the counter in a corner, tapping his fingers along to the rhythm.

He hums it quietly when she approaches, pausing where there's static. ]

[powersouls]

[Well that's... vaguely unsettling. Hadn't they mentioned music before? But that's something to focus on later, she thinks.]

Royce, we need to talk.

[rubikscomplex]

[After the debacle in the bathroom, after sending out a message to the network, and after getting his wounds cleaned up, House sits silently in his bedroom. He's not planning on sleeping tonight. Even with the riddles Natasha gave to him calming him down, the doctor is still too on edge for that.

He's half-expecting Royce or someone else to break down the door with an axe and come after him, either because they hate him or because the Prophet has a grip on their minds. Layered on that now is the sadness from whatever the effect of the song is. House keeps track of it like he ordered Kid to in his notebook. It's unlikely this is actually going to help, but it's something to do.]

[devoutish]

[A couple hours after everything goes down, a quiet shave and a haircut will be knocked out onto the door of the bedroom House is holed up in. Hi, bro. Guess who?]

[empireofrats]

[A long while after House is locked away, the floor creaks with walking, but the feet sound too soft to be Royce or Alfie, or even Tifa.

Not a peep is uttered. But a moment or so passes, and then a folded piece of paper is wedged under one side of the door, getting crumpled between furniture. Strangely, it isn't a drawing this time, but a letter, stamped with one or two bird stickers, written in childish script with an obnoxious gel pen:] I'm still mad you ripped my drawing, but I'm sorry Mister Alfie & Royce did mean things to you. Kesara said it's okay if people get what they deserve. But I felt bad they did mean things to you, so maybe Kesara is lying.

If you can fit nice and mean inside of people without blowing up, Mister Alfie and Royce have nice and mean inside them.

Thank you for the prosesed chicken.

Emily

[empireofrats]

[It takes her a nap to reboot in safe mode for error fixing. Her nap, however, is longer than a regular nap and more like a short sleep.

But then she is up, seeming better. Less terrified and more generally jittery, but also hungry and thirsty. She eats the last of House's chicken nuggets on the bed with "Anton," the stuffed cat.

Afterward, she ventures carefully out to look around if no one is in the room before then.]

[devoutish]

[Alfie has a terrible night's sleep, and is still groggy by the time morning rolls around. He's immediately irritable - but when Emily pokes her head into the room, he does his best to tamp that down.]

Hello.

[bywolves]

[ Outside her room, she'll find a bottle of water and a slightly bruised pear waiting for her. If she makes her way to the kitchen, she'll find Royce still there, jammed in the corner up on the counter. If she looks, she'll see him staring at the ceiling, distant - in his hands is a small whale made of paper that he's running his fingers over.

He doesn't say anything to her. ]