[log] Event: Howl [open]

[snowblindmods]

Characters: everyone
Location: The sort of location M.C. Escher wishes he'd thought up.
Date: nights 211 & 212
Summary: I hunt for you with bloody feet across the hallow'd ground
Warnings: potential for violence, death, and psychological horror; please note in subject lines if any specific warnings come up!

like some child possessed, the beast howls in my veins
I want to find you tear out all your tenderness

Comments

[rubikscomplex]

[He takes her hand in a firm grip. He doesn't like holding hands, but this will have to do for now.]

I see your death price wore off.

[ecks]

You hear that my death price wore off.

[By now the correction to the version that's literally true is a joke, so she smiles after she says it, baring her teeth in an expression that's almost entirely unlike the more natural smile she's been learning.]

I'm afraid. Stay with me.

[rubikscomplex]

[... is she making jokes? Why? House gives Ecks a Look that she can't see.]

Don't try to be funny. And I'm holding your hand. Just point toward any creatures you see. We need to get the lights.

[ecks]

The lights in their mouths.

[She ducks her head, disappointed that he did not like her joke. Her eyes are blankly scanning, though, always, and she stiffens after a second, her gaze burning downward through the floor.]

Down.

[rubikscomplex]

[House sighs and looks around for the nearest drop off point, then starts walking toward, it, pulling her along.]

Gravity's gonna change on us somewhere along the line. Be prepared for that. Have you had to deal with it here, yet?

[ecks]

I fell earlier.

[She already told you that, Sciencedad. She keeps her face turned toward the creature, which is coming closer and closer to being directly under their feet.]

I think that it is a snake. It is a snake but it is not a correct snake.

[rubikscomplex]

Falling covers too broad a category. I thought you meant you tripped. Be more specific. [Only specificity will do, Ecks!]

What's not correct about the snake?

[House doesn't realize that the snake is mirroring them, which is a problem that will probably become apparent when they reach the edge and it comes up to meet them. Maybe. Possibly.]

[ecks]

The snake's mouth is on the wrong end, and it does not have any eyes.

[She cocks her head, watching it writhe along beneath them upside-down, getting out ahead of them now. As they near whatever edge House has chosen, she watches it curl seemingly in the abyss, twisting its front around upright to face them, hooking its body over that edge. Embedded all down its spine are wet, blinking eyes]

Oh. There are the eyes.

[rubikscomplex]

[House freezes.]

How far away is it?

[Orientation shift means that thing might have beaten them to the edge. It's about 30 feet off.]

[ecks]

[Imperial measurement system, what is that? Ecks struggles for a moment to think what he will understand based on the discussions she has seen the humans here have about measurements.]

Five or six human body lengths.

[rubikscomplex]

And it's moving toward us. When it gets close enough, I want you to go for its eyes. Distract it. I'll grab for the light. [It's a strategy that's mostly worked up to this point.]

[ecks]

You cannot see it?

[It's coming right at them now, and Ecks tenses though she doesn't let go of him yet.]

The light is on the wrong end. The mouth is on the wrong end. You have to get the light from the back of the snake.

[rubikscomplex]

[He doesn't want to do this and doesn't bother to answer her question.]

Fine. When it's just one length away, let go of me and attack. I'll run for the other end.

[That should... probably work.]

[ecks]

Acknowledged.

[She can't see the ledge, can't see the ground at all, but she has faith that Doctor House would not guide her too close to dangerous terrain when he intends her to let go of him.

She stalks toward it even as it slithers toward them, gripping his hand tightly -- then tighter still before she lets go altogether and darts forward, hands clenched into fists. The snake is an enormous thing whose girth makes it waist-high even as it remains flat on the ground, eyes embedded all down its back. It's for the nearest eye that she aims, bringing her fist down hard. What Ecks doesn't see is the seam all down the snake's side, extending from where its tail splits into a mouth at the very end. The seam ripples, baring teeth. The entire snake is a mouth, and the light shifts behind those teeth.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House sees it, finally, when its virtually underfoot. He doesn't stop to be worried, leaving Ecks to punch its.]

Jesus Christ, what the hell?!

[That's really the only appropriate response to what happens next in House's opinion. Because that's a lot of mouth. That's too much mouth. That's an amount of mouth that makes no practical or biological sense. How does it even digest its food? there's no room for a stomach. There's no room for anything except teeth.

He sees the light sliding back and forth down the creature's mouth-body and tries to time grabbing it right. House latches onto one of the... lips, and hopes that's enough to hold it still while he grabs.

Or he's probably not going to have an arm after this.]

cw eye trauma

[ecks]

[There's room for a lot of teeth, though. The creature screeches as Ecks's fist lands squarely in the middle of one of its lidless eyes, both ends of its body thumping against the ground -- and its mouth opening wider as an unearthly shriek emanates from within. Then it snaps shut again; if House hasn't grabbed the light and gotten his arm out, it's going to start thrashing to throw the pair of them off...and to try to separate him from that arm if he's too slow. All the while, Ecks clings to it as best she can, punching at the eye again and again until she is covered in its blood up to her elbow.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House takes his chance on that scream, going as fast as he can. his fingers close around the light and he's pulling back and out as the mouth clamps shut, catching his sleeve and beginning to chew through it, trying to draw him back in and screw it.]

Light! Take the light!

[He shifts it to his free hand and all but chucks the light at Ecks' face. It's only a second later that hand is working to yank his arm free as the creature shrieks and starts to spasm and crumble.]

[ecks]

[Ecks fumbles at it with blood-slicked fingers, getting a grip on the light just as the creature's body knocks into her legs and sends her tumbling over top of it to land hard in a heap on the other side. She tries to roll out of the way of its convulsing length, but it's the rapid disintegration of its body that saves her from being crushed under its weight as it rolls over top of her.]

...I have the light.

[rubikscomplex]

[House is just ripping his arm away as best he can when the creature just... disintegrates. He stares at where it had been and his sleeve, and then turns his attention Ecks. That was... intense. Not that she can see the fearful expression painting his face.]

Pocket it or eat it or whatever you're gonna do with it. It's yours.

[He'd pulled it out, but it's for the Prophet. House knows that as surely as he knows he's meant to help her. He also knows that that freaking mouth thing just about took off his arm and he's going to stand here and try not to completely lose it. Because they're going to have to keep doing this tonight.]

[ecks]

[This is good and this is right, but Ecks isn't entirely sure what she is meant to do with it other than keep it. She sits up and tucks it into a hidden pocket, fingers lingering over the flap for a moment as she stares thoughtfully into the void.]

That was a successful effort, but we need to find another.

[rubikscomplex]

[There's a momentary silence on House's end where he stares at her incredulously. Unfortunately, Ecks is right.]

You're the one who can see them, poindexter. Point to the next one.

[He'll so this as many times as he can before losing Ecks somehow. While every new and terrifying monster is awful, there is a strange sense of accomplishment in working in tandem with the golem like this. It settles something inside the doctor, at least for a time.]

[ecks]

My name is Ecks. It is not short for Poindexter.

[She does as he says, though. It's hard work, and dangerous, but she feels more right about it than she has about most other things that have happened here. Eventually they will lose each other in this place, but until then they will gather as many lights as they can.]