[log] Noisy Black Part Three - Mingle [closed]

[snowblindmods]

Characters: characters participating in the noisy black event
Location: An office building.
Date: Night 261 - Day 262
Summary: Conversion and exploration.
Warnings: body horror, body trauma, medical horror, psychological trauma, forced IVs/forced feeding, note specifics in subject lines please

Sinners
Converted
Exploration

Comments

[rubikscomplex]

[Again, Mycroft might imagine that his suffering is at an end as the guitar solo plays in House's mind, bright and clear. He mouths the chords and gasps as his fingers twitch behind his back, trying to play along.]

Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me...

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen lets out a shuddering breath as the last cords die away in his ears.]

Any way the wind blows....

[It's a whisper, barely audible even to Stephen. He falls silent, breath hitching now and then, but something in his chest feels lighter.]

[rubikscomplex]

[But House hears it in his head and the track shifts. There are tears in his eyes and maybe that was supposed to be the end, but there's one more song, one more thing to pull him up.]

I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime

[His voice hitches as a shudder of nausea wracks his body from withdrawal.]

And bad mistakes ‒
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen stills further, head lifting. His mental track had gone silent, but the music picks up, falls into place under the pained voice from the other cell. He lifts his voice again.]

And I need just go on and on, and on, and on --

[rubikscomplex]

We are the champions, my friends,
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end.
We are the champions.
We are the champions.
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world.

[House gulps down a breath each lyrics, the guitar and drums playing in his mind over the break. His voice is getting weaker, but he's not going down without finishing this one. This is the anthem to fight to.]

[thewarningafter]

I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls.
You brought me fame and fortune, and everything that goes with it.
I thank you all.
But it's been no bed of roses,
No pleasure cruise.

[It's getting harder still to understand his counterpart, but Stephen knows this song, too, doesn't need to hear it in order to listen to it. His voice has never entirely stopped feeling raw since -- since when? -- but he doesn't care, this is right, this is the heart of him being let out.]

I consider it a challenge before the whole human race,
And I ain't gonna lose!

[rubikscomplex]

[Stephen's key might be slightly off, but his words are clearer and just the connection with music is enough. He can hear Wilson in his mind, telling him that he needs people, he needs a team, he needs interaction. What he needs right now is to fight.]

And I need just go on and on, and on, and on!

[thewarningafter]

[He's fourteen and he's in his bedroom with his shitty old cassette deck, volume turned up even though Mom will yell. Twenty-five and he's beating back exhaustion in the dark of morning in the cramped apartment he shares with three other students. Thirty-seven and he's home in his flat, celebrating --

Forty and he's here and he refuses to die.]

We are the champions, my friends,
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end.
We are the champions.
We are the champions.
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions of the world

[rubikscomplex]

[And House is a 16, sitting in the locker room after a lacrosse game. They'd lost. He knows his dad is waiting out in the bleachers for him to critique every play he'd made through the game. He knows his mom will just try to smile encouragingly and tell him it's Dad's way of trying to help him. And there's a new song that comes on the radio that one of the guys has blaring over the sound of the showers, the latest from Queen, the DJ says. By the final chorus, everyone in the locker room is singing along.

House is 18, his first year of college, his first year away from his father. He buys the record and plays it until the vinyl's scratched to hell and he knows every place it's going to skip. He's 24 and he buys his first electric guitar. He learns to play it along with the rest of Queen. He's 30 and he buys his first grand piano and learns to play it there. He's 41 and Wilson comes over after Stacy's left. They drink and eat Chinese food, trade barbs and listen to rock music until well past 3 A.M. House thinks about how much easier it is with Wilson than it is with Stacy, the woman who crippled him... The woman he loves and hates at the same time. It's only a few months ago, and he's pushing Stacy out of his life this time. For her own good. One of the few selfless gestures he's ever made. Wilson is there again to drink and listen to Queen. House plays the song on repeat, and falls asleep drunk on the couch next to his friend.

He's not giving up this time. He'll tear through whoever it is directing this if he has to.]

We are the champions, my friends,
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end.
We are the champions.
We are the champions.
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions!

[thewarningafter]

Of the world....

[It's not in the original version, but hell with it. Stephen heaves a breath that's half laughter, half sob of pain. For the first time in what feels like an age he feels almost ready for whatever might come next.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House is too disoriented to say much more beyond that, but something in him settles a little easier as shivers and nausea wrack his body. When he's rested, he thinks, he'll be able to talk more. He'll be more coherent.

And he won't break.]