[network] @hotstud_xxx; text; Night 266 [closed]

[rubikscomplex]

[He's not sending this out to the wider network. Hell no. But House will be sending it to those who participated in the tablet experiment:

Alphonse, America, Beckett, Billy, Castiel, Davesprite, Enoch, Joker, Mycroft, Sherlock, Stephen, Rhys, Quark, and Kunsel. He'll also be sending it to a few people who filmed for those people who were hurt or killed, Ecks, Dorian, and Brian. Angel, Karkat, and Kid are also included in this filter because of Reasons.

House still has that conversation with the Joker swirling around in his head, and maybe this is an attempt to prove to him just how different they are, or maybe it's how he's going to win back Davesprite as a willing minion. He's going to hold onto those as internal reasoning. Spite and practicality.]

making this short and sweet
so none of us has to talk to each other any longer than we want
think we can all agree it's been a crap week
something happened before all of this prophet bullshit went down, though
clearing it off the slate now that i'm not literally insane

some of you died or were hurt because of my tablet experiment
we got good information
we did it by sacrificing nine people
you're all grown ass adults except for the under 18s in the crowd
and they've all dealt with crap people twice their age haven't had to
you make your own decisions
but it was my experiment
if i had it to do over again
i'd probably do the same thing
but i didn't want any of you to die
or be hurt
and it sucked balls being insane after

sorry

[And that's all you assholes are getting. House is fully aware that he's already opening himself up to enough criticism and crowing here. But it's done, and he's not going to think about it now as he hits send. He can't afford to push everyone until they break. He's discovered in a very visceral way recently just how much he needs them.]

Comments

@standardissue; text

[deus_ex_phs]

Knew what I was getting into. Maybe not the details, but I had plenty of warning for those if I'd wanted to back off. What happened on my end wasn't your fault, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Though maybe I'd take a few more precautions.

[rubikscomplex]

[Good. That's one person he doesn't have to deal with being angry at him. And a useful one to keep. Moreso than some of the others beyond their use as guinea pigs.]

cool
you should try hacking andromeda's account

[Just a suggestion.]

[deus_ex_phs]

[Kunsel's priorities get a little skewed when it comes to getting information. He really does think his injuries were worth it.]

That might not be a bad idea. Though in the spirit of precautions, I think I'd want to wait until I have a larger shield available, in case my tablet explodes again.

@featherydouche; text; private

[mrcreamsicles]

[Davesprite's answer probably doesn't come until sometime the next day, but when it does...]

you kind of suck at this huh

[Simple observation. It's not the most elegant kind of apology, nor was the one he made the night he revived, before the worst things went down.]

im too tired to really argue about it
but you said you went back didnt you
or saw your future
however that works
did you still want to tell me about that

private

[rubikscomplex]

[He does suck at this. House isn't going to respond to that part. It's a fact and he's not particularly ashamed of it.]

i got shot
get shot
whatever
husband of a patient

private

[mrcreamsicles]

[He looks at that for a long moment. It's certainly nothing good, but it's utterly lacking in context, and he's not sure what the point of telling him is. It can't be just for sympathy, can it? What happened to them all seems worse than just a gunshot.]

what for

@guardian; text;

[phaseshifter]

Did you *mean* to include me in this??
(I'm not going to rip the frick out of you or anything for it, I just thought you'd like to know you effed up on the filter)

[ because this HAS to be an accident, geez ]

[rubikscomplex]

wasn't an accident

[He's not explaining. Deal with it, Angel.]

[phaseshifter]

Oh

[ w............ell ]

Then sorry for assuming you were that incompetent. :P
(No apology was necessary for me, though. I mean, I wasn't even a little hurt)

@Mnemosyne; text

[bookofnope]

Didn't we have a bet? Because I happen to have some wine. Not campaign, but it'll do.

[rubikscomplex]

pretty sure you were ten kinds of on-board for this, becky
what are you talking about?

@Kid, text, morning 267

[equal_shots]

[Kid had planned on waiting to contact House. Give himself a chance to think, make sure he's making sense when he calls. Instead, here he is with a message to reply to.]

I understood precisely what I was doing when I did it, at least in regards to the experiment. An apology is kind, but unnecessary.

However, I needed to speak with you. I just was [House will here be greeted by "...", indicating that @Kid is typing.

Typing. Not sending.]

private

[rubikscomplex]

[House switches to a more private line for Kid. Because he's the most complicated here. One of the most complicated.]

if you're about to apologize for the prophet bullshit
forget about it
i'm trying to
just don't come near me
i'm in a new area we accessed through the tunnels
stay away from that
you're fine
and you're a depressed teenager
i gave you a push
yeah
you pulled the trigger
i handed you a loaded gun

@carcinoGeneticist; text; private

[quadrangle]

[Like Davesprite's message, this comes the day after; he hadn't wanted to deal with it sooner because of Reasons of his own. Still doesn't, in fact, but... ugh.]

WOULD YOU HONESTLY HAVE NOT DONE THE SAME THING IF YOU'D BEEN SANE AT THE TIME.

private

[rubikscomplex]

[Well, he's feeling honest at the moment and Davesprite is already a wash.]

probably wouldn't have pressed as hard
but
yeah
that's what i do

@dorianpavus, text

[whiteknightnecromancer]

[The username on this is simply poor timing and sure to make this better, right?]

Since you are unrepentant and not out for our blood and misery: how do you feel about some suggestions for the next round of experimentation?

I noticed a few things about the pattern of casualties and I think we can test the autonomy of those cloaked people. It seems more fun than waiting for the city to throw more horror and death at us.

I am pleased your previous difficulties seem to have abated for the time being.

[This apology definitely gives Dorian some insight into what his doppel might have liked about House.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House does a double-take on the username, realizing he'd actually input the old one for Dorian without even thinking about the new one needing it. But this isn't the Dorian he knew. And yet... he still has promise.]

yeah
i'm glad i'm not loony, either
what patterns and what did you have in mind?

@dickcheese, text

[headjacked]

[ Rhys types out a lot of different responses. Mostly jabs that feel painfully unfunny. Turns out spending time in a torture cult softens you to fellow victims, who'd have thunk it? ]

This is a weird look for you.

But. Appreciated. In an equally weird way.

[rubikscomplex]

don't worry, pal
i'm going back to my old colors asap
these ones make me look fat
and i've been watching my figure

Text @Enoch

[warriorscribe]

[He almost types "this isn't like you", but...well, they've all been through a massive nightmare. And despite his help in breaking through the brainwashing, talking to House still makes him nervous, which, in his state, saps the energy from him. At least he's noticeably better than he was in Alfie's post yesterday. Full sentences, actually holding his tablet instead of dictating to it - that's his writing pattern, not his speech pattern.]

I appreciate the thought. It wasn't your fault, though, for me - I woke and saw my friend under attack, nothing more.

[rubikscomplex]

[House fully expected that response from Enoch.]

yeah, well
it sucks that you died, anyway

@whatisthis; audio

[godsspeed]

[ Castiel is... not especially impressed by this apology, but it is a serviceable one, and he's never had a very expressive voice to begin with. His tone is as neutral as ever as he responds. ]

What did we learn from this, exactly? I don't ask this to be flippant. What with... not being myself in the aftermath and everything that happened between then and now, I think we could stand to review.

The existence of the cloaked figures, the absence of the spider automatons, the camera feed Quark found, the Admin's voice. You mentioned someone named Xu while I was dead, but I can't find them in the publicly available data. What else am I missing?

[rubikscomplex]

[House takes a moment to collect the records from Jia and send them to Castiel as a variety of video, audio, and text clips.]

that's everything on xu
she was a nima practitioner nurse
probably one of the people who knows the most about the system
but also super dead
and since we found that death tape
we probably won't be able to find anything else on her

we also found out that we're deal with quantum computers
which basically mean that you can have things existing and not existing in multiple states at the same time
like those cloaked figures
i'm guessing we had trouble interacting with them
because they were there and not there at the same time

@gravedigger; text

[harlequinofhate]

Seriously?

I've faked more convincing apologies than this to random shmucks on the street.

[rubikscomplex]

[Nngh...]

it's not fake
that's the point, clown

[It might not be terribly apologetic, but it's sincere.]