[log] Noisy Black, Part One [closed]

[snowblindmods]

Characters: anyone who signed up for the Noisy Black event
Location: an office building
Date: Morning and Day 260
Summary: You wake up in a room.
Warnings: nothing of note for this part, please note any specific things that happen in the comment sections of your posts

Sinners Top Level
Converted Top Level

Comments

[mrcreamsicles]

[His hands clench tight on the bars. He wants—what? To yell at him? It's not going to do anything. He could keep explaining it, but why should he believe House doesn't know exactly what he's done? People have told him not to trust him, but he did, and having that thrown back at him is a deep, aching wound. He thought he could help him to some better mindset than where he was.]

Don't talk to me.

[His voice is resigned. He moves over to the far side of his cell.]

[rubikscomplex]

[He doesn't talk. He starts to sing.]

It's a small world after all,
It's a small world after all,
It's a small world after all,
It's a small, small world.

[And he will continue to sing the song at top volume until someone successfully stops him.]

[mrcreamsicles]

[Oh for fuck's sake. Davesprite looks back over again, snapping,]

What the hell do you want from me? You already shat all over our friendship. You want to tell me again that I'm a dumbass for trying anyway? Because I got that part by now.

[rubikscomplex]

I didn't do anything. I've always been like this. So what changed? Is it because you were dying? Is it because it got more personal this time with the troll? You didn't seem to mind as much when I was poking you about the dog girl.

Is it because I'm not groveling on my knees, begging for forgiveness? The tablet thing worked. It accomplished a goal. We got amazing results. I feel like crap that people died. There's exactly nothing I can do about it now and all of them are alive again. So, I don't plan on curling up in a ball or crawling to them and telling them how really, truly sorry I am. Like anyone even wants to hear that.

Is it because I browbeat Strange? Hey, Strange! Sorry I took advantage of you having verbal diarrhea. Dick move on my part, bro! It was pretty freaking hilarious, though.

[mrcreamsicles]

[Davesprite outright leaves the side of the cell he was at to stumble across the gap to the side adjacent to House's cell. His voice drops to a quiet hiss.]

You dug up personal, private shit about him, and even if people aren't going to care, it's still something he's kept on the downlow for a reason. Even if you do keep quiet about it, you still took advantage of Strange's loss to do something that would hurt somebody else in the process who never even hurt you. That's fucking low.

And it's not just you getting people killed; it's that you wanted to use me for yet another experiment when I was dying. That you couldn't even think about how freaked out I was to stop and leave off and consider anything else you could have said. That you didn't apologize for anything until I called you on the experiment thing. You spread my personal issues around too, House. I know you had a loss making it all worse, but it was still your brain and your fingers doing it. Would it really, honestly kill you think about how that hurts people and fucks up their trust and why they might want some kind of acknowledgement about that? And I'm not talking a pat, sarcastic gesture, I mean actual, honest self-reflection.

I mean, fuck, dude, I kept defending my friendship with you until then, and now you act like I'm the one being unreasonable.

[rubikscomplex]

[House stares at Davesprite as he speaks, but there's an actual roll of his eyes at the complaint about the death experiment. He does actually lean in and keep his voice low.]

First of all, you shouldn't be defending a friendship between a 47-year-old man and a 17-year-old. It's creepy. Second, digging up personal shit for later use is, again, something I've been doing since before you were here. You're mad because it's your bestie now. I did this to you, kid. Third, and maybe this'll come as a shock, but I suck at comfort. You want a doctor's shoulder to cry on, go talk to Watson. I was... [He looks down, grimaces.] I was trying to... make it mean something. I didn't want you to die for no reason. That's just... crap. If you're doing an experiment, it has some meaning.

And I didn't apologize because you weren't hurt with the tablets. It wasn't relevant.

[He doesn't know what to say about revealing Davesprite's personal issues. It was a dick move, but maybe something he would have done, anyway.]

[mrcreamsicles]

I meant for the other stuff, House. But you clearly don't care about that, so what am I complaining for, right?

[He sinks down to sit on the floor, awkward and uncoordinated. He doesn't want to keep standing up right now.]

There's never going to be meaning to a freaked out teenager dying in the snow.

[rubikscomplex]

What do you want from me? You want me to apologize for something I don't feel sorry for? It's information. I know the consequences of sharing crap like that out... [He trails off. This is too public a forum to be this vulnerable.] I've been away a year. Talk to me when we're out of here, and I'll tell you about it.

[mrcreamsicles]

Stop taking out your misery on everybody else. Stop treating people like pawns.

[Easy, rote answers. He sighs out slow. A year is a long time, and though he'd like to argue and be mad still, he can't deny the weight of what a year can do.]

I'll listen then.

[Maybe. He doesn't want to, partly, but the thought of really losing a friend entirely hurts enough that he knows he will anyway.]

[rubikscomplex]

[Well, those two things aren't happening. House sighs in honest frustration.]

That's like telling A-Rod not to hit home runs. But fine. Let's talk later. And focus on a point further out when you're walking. Set goals. Short ones. Take one or two steps, then increase from there. Don't set the bar too high for what you're trying to do. Make sure you're not turning your feet in too much. If you have to go a direction, point your toes out. Mostly you're trying to keep your feet straight. Practice just standing still first, shift your weight from side to side and get used to the sensation.

[All that said, House pulls away and just sits back, falling quiet.]

[mrcreamsicles]

[Who the hell is A-Rod?? He doesn't sports.]

[Advice is advice, though, and after a moment of weighing it, he pulls himself upright to start practicing again. He's going to need to learn before anything worse comes along, or at least make some progress.]

[He doesn't say anything else.]