Video; Day 295

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ If you're going to jump in the deep end, might as well go full monty.

After weeks of texts, rare audio and even rarer video, Will is voluntarily instigating a public video communication, and he's not here to observe social niceties. ]

All of you currently howling for House's head, threatening to murder him or otherwise getting up on your high horses, stop and take a look at your foundations. Because they are fundamentally flawed and risk crumbling out from under you.

I've spent hours and hours reading about this place, reading up on all that's come before and I get the sense that some perspective has been lost. These experiments, despite being repellent, painful and emotionally traumatic as they have been, for all of you, have almost always yielded results, that have guided you forward and provided context for our circumstances here.

[ He pauses for a moment to give his words a moment to sink in. ]

If you -collectively- start to take the position of playing God, judge, jury and executioner against the people who consent to perform and participate in these experiments, whether it be through some misguided sense of morals or personal feeling, you risk shutting down the one and only source of information that you control in this place.

Think about that for a moment. You will be voluntarily giving up the last vestiges of agency in this place.

[ Again, he took a moment to lower his eyes, giving himself a break from the camera and a breath as he gathered his words and continued. ]

It is all too easy to cling to our morals in the belief that they give us agency over our lives. But in this instance, that agency is an illusion. Worse it is a luxury that we cannot afford.

This place challenges our very moral fiber, and I understand that some of you are hanging on to what you imagine is your core self by the skin of your teeth. Believe me, I understand how that feels. I understand how frightening it is to feel yourself sliding beneath the water, afraid to breath in what comes next and the instinct to struggle against it.

[ Boy does he understand that struggle and what it means to lose and be changed. ]

But if you're struggling against one another, you're struggling against the wrong threat and you're at risk of losing sight of an important fact.

[ Another pause, this time he reaches up and plucks his glasses off his face with one hand, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles of that same hand, before replacing the glasses. ]

The morals of this town changed, irrevocably when those missiles dropped and I suspect that they had changed long before then.

@Admin or whoever is listening - Tell me I'm wrong.

Tell me that the morals of this town hadn't taken on a life of their own before the missiles dropped. And tell me that if we stop pursuing the information gleaned from these barbaric experiments, that we won't become irrelevant and the plug pulled on this session?

[ He doesn't expect a response. It's a bit of theater, but also used to push across his point. ]

Some of you want House' dead for what he did with Sherlock Holmes. But a murder simply to -what- assuage a sense of injustice, how is that death anything but pointless? This entire place is an injustice, and murdering one another with no purpose truly is an abomination against any agency we might have.

However, you give me an appropriate experiment to be executed along with his murder and I'll bring him to you; hell I'll do it myself if it would be easier.

[ He may be weathering a shitty look from House but if that's the case, Will's ignoring it. ]

Otherwise, knock it off. We don't have time for our own hysterical nonsense.

Comments

@godsend, video

[termineur]

[ Gabriel looks more exhausted than usual, but there's also a smile on his face. Will's earned his respect very quickly. ]

Wow. You said it better than I could. Don't think it's going to convince anyone new, but it's always worth a try.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Probably most of them are looking like denizens of various levels of Dante's Hell these days. But he appreciates the communication. ]

I live a life of perpetual hope.

[ Wry comment is wry. ]

action

[rubikscomplex]

[House isn't terribly pleased with Will getting him drunk and extracting the information he wanted so he could do this. It was clever. He can't fault the man for that, but he's annoyed with himself that he fell for it. And he's irritable in general from the withdrawal. He's barely kept down the light breakfast he had this morning and just the thought of eating dinner makes his stomach turn. When Will finishes his spiel, House pipes up.]

I'm already on my way to an interesting experiment, Graham Cracker. I don't need help. Or is that part just to get the bloodhounds off my back?

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ He should feel like a horrible person and go sit in the corner and think about what he's done.

Unfortunately that sort of conscience took a powder around the time he agreed to mount Randall Tier on a saber tooth tiger skeleton. Since then he's been living with people's' various degrees of annoyance with him.

House has the added benefit (?) of also looking like the 9th ring of Dante's Shit Hell, so Will isn't taking his sass personally. At least, not yet. ]

I'd rather get the bloodhounds off your and consequently my back. We have things to do. Beyond that, if you want to die in an interesting way, I'm not going to try to stop you, but make sure it's useful.

We don't have time for you to be laying about, bemoaning you're dead.

@totheark; text

[0thingsonmymind]

they donot
list en

*It'd be nice if they did, though.*

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

That's unfortunate. It would be helpful if we were all pulling in the same direction.

@jwatson; audio [cw: discussion of suicide/depression]

[jumpthegun]

[And here's one of the people who's here to rain on your pragmatism parade. John can appreciate this sentiment to a point--he would prefer people not run off and murder House--but Will is taking it much too far. His tone is very unamused.]

So, you're advocating we condone desperate and depressed people committing suicide multiple times to get at answers that aren't even worth it? This experiment House and Sherlock did... there's nothing useful about it. It's just horrifying. None of the answers people have sacrificed themselves for have been worth it. Because some of them don't come back, Mr. Graham.

And if you try to drag someone off to be murdered and experimented on, I swear to god, I will do every single thing in my power to stop you.

@totheark; text

[0thingsonmymind]

thatis not
true

weknow that
na no ma ch in es
host
s e l f
not body

we know a bout
mo rgue mon st er

[cw: discussion of suicide/depression]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Yeah, he was waiting for this one to come across the tablet. Oddly enough, as he sits and listens to Watson's tirad, all he hears is the grief, rather than the accusations.

With that in mind, he is careful to keep his own tone neutral and professional. ]

I disagreed, Dr. Watson. The results of this experiment provide support to the supposition that this, what is happening to us, may be a manipulation of the mind and perception, as much as an actual kidnapping in the traditional sense.

And I would caution you against suggesting that your friend, Mr. Holmes, and the other individuals who have taken these risks, are non compos mentis.

Unless that is your official diagnosis?

@magenta2; audio

[himalayanyeti]

...Mm, here's the thing. I hear you, and you have some kind of point, probably, but I really hate House. If he doesn't come back from bein', say, strangled with his own scarf, just to name one of the many ways he could possibly die, that's fine. If he does--which, um, we all do, if you haven't noticed--nothin' to lose. It's a personal thing. Might cool a lot of people off.

We've got feelings 'n shit, believe it or not.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

If that is your answer, then you're not really hearing me.

Hate House if you want, hate anyone you want, but don't lose sight of what is trying to kill you here. It isn't House.

Killing him for no purpose, killing anyone here for no purpose is senseless and stupid. If you want to cool off? Go lay in a snowbank, there are plenty of them around.

@Ecks | text

[ecks]

murder is typically an unacceptable act because most thinking creatures do not want to die. If a thinking creature chooses to die, murder is acceptable in that instance.

-Acceptable reasons for murder:
Defense of self
Defense of others
If the person you are murdering sent a person to murder you or another person

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

Agreed on all points, for most situations.

This whole nightmare is not most situations.

@duster, audio

[bywolves]

[ In a dry, mostly monotone voice: ] You're not the first person to say something like this and you're probably not the last. You'll probably get the opportunity to say it again, actually.

Not going to have much luck, either. Lectures are self-righteous and irritating even if you agree with what the person's saying. [ A beat. ] And I seriously doubt House did anything to Sherlock he didn't want done, either. Sounds like a nightmare of a combination.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

And hello to you as well.

If it needs to be said again, and again then perhaps it should be said again and again.

@thebigc; video

[onlytwothings]

[ For all his mixed feelings about House and the experiment with Sherlock, the last thing he wants is to see House murdered. Again. ]

Well said.

[ There's a pause before he continues. ]

And thank you. It most likely won't sway anyone to either side, because there are quite a few opinionated people here, but-

[ And in this case, opinions combined with high emotions can lead to bad things happening. He appreciates that Will is speaking up, if nothing else. ]

video

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Wilson's voice is one that Will finds immediately soothing and so his slightly rankled feathers settle down.

He's also aware that Wilson is House's friend -thank you network stalking- and so he puts on his good manners. ]

I'll admit, bit surprised at just how vehemently people are divided on this issue and on the subject.

Is it like this at home as well, Dr. Wilson?

@carcinoGeneticist; text

[quadrangle]

[He's exhausted and it would show if this was anything other than text, but it isn't so it doesn't. Even so—]

YOU'RE DOING A LOT OF DEFENDING FOR SOME RANDO WHO HASN'T EVEN BEEN HERE, WHAT, A FUCKING WEEK? RECENT EVENTS NOTWITHSTANDING.
DID IT EVER MAYBE OCCUR TO YOU THAT SOME OF US HAVE PERFECTLY VALID REASONS TO DESPISE THE FUCK OUT OF THAT ASSHOLE COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF ANY CONSENSUAL EXPERIMENTS. NO? I THOUGHT NOT.
AND FOR THE RECORD CONSIDERING THE PEOPLE INVOLVED THE EXPERIMENT AND ITS IMMEDIATE EFFECTS MAKE A LOT OF SENSE ANYWAY SO WHATEVER, COUNT ME UNINVESTED. I'M JUST WONDERING WHAT FUCKING HOOFBEAST YOU HAVE IN THIS PARTICULAR RACE.

text

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will reads the block of characters, covers on eye and reads it again, covers the other eye and reads it again, then shakes his head and types a response. ]

I tried to stick with you, but after the second sentence my eyes began to bleed.

If you want to yell at me, do it on audio like everybody else.

@featherydouche; text

[mrcreamsicles]

thats a whole lot of words to say murder plus murder doesnt equal less murder

text

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

I was feeling verbose.

@hexappeal, voice

[sleight_of_fate]

Honestly? Sherlock was looking for the body days ago, was planning this for a while. Not thrilled with House enabling him, but honestly? It was gonna happen anyway, so at least it was...how do you want to put it? "Medica!ly supervised."

It was still a fucked up idea and I don't know that it was worth it, but I have a feeling it was gonna happen no matter what.

voice

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Thank you for confirming what he had suspected. It does provide a little genuine relief as he navigates some of the more emotional responses to this situation. ]

From what I've read, it doesn't sound as if we have a lot of options that don't fall in the 'significantly messed up' category.

@PetertheGreat, audio CW: suicidal ideations

[zunesareawesome]

If anyone's doing the body swap thing again, I want in.

[Because after what's just happened, realizing that nobody else was randomly immortal but him, he could only expect that someday, in actual reality, that the same thing would happen. That he'd outlive everyone and everything he cared about and become completely awful. And worse, if they did get out of here, he might retain his actual powers. Which would be horrific if he became anything like his dad. This really and truly may very well be his ticket out of that kind of future.

Then, if he could just inhabit some new (hopefully good-looking) body, he'd just be like everybody else. He'd be a regular human, and no longer half-Celestial.]

audio/action

[jumpthegun]

[While Peter will see John approach looking about like he's ready to punch him, everyone else will just have John's voice over the tablet.]

Give me your tablet, Peter. Now.

@bucky; text

[advanced]

[He doesn't know this man, but there's something about this whole speech that gets right under his skin.]

I don't think you understand agency.

@librarian; text; Evening 295; private

[cahooted]

I like you.

[Flynn glances at the sent message for a moment, then realizes how utterly weird that must look, so he hurriedly types on.]

Not on a personal level as we clearly don't know each other well enough to warrant any such statement, I just mean, that was such a good answer.

@librarian; video; Evening 295

[cahooted]

[All of this is... a bit much. The speech. The murder pragmatism. The reactions of some people here that genuinely leave him speechless; and he can't even being with Peter's. It's not until much later that he replies, after the fallout with his friend, after he feels like he's settled back into his own head again.]

Found the ultimate truth, have you? You know, for someone who's berating others on playing judge and jury you're doing a great job of that yourself. Just because you had your morals corrupted it doesn't make morals wrong.

It just makes you corrupted.

video; Evening 295

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

You'd get more than a few people who agree with you back home. [ He couldn't and wouldn't deny that truth. ]

But even I can see the difference between a death brought on by a consensual experiment with the intention to draw us hopefully to a way out of here. And a murder committed as an act singular revenge, or simply because you don't like someone.

@theiceman, audio, private, Morning 297

[holmesice]

[He'd seen the post when he came back, but he'd been too upset or too busy traveling to respond, plus he didn't really see the point in announcing his return publically. People would find out eventually anyway, and if his assassins cared about his state they'd have contacted him about it, which they didn't.]

'Hysterical nonsense.' Interesting choice of words.

Perfect expression

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ It can't feel too good when the assassins don't phone home. ]

Thank you.

[ His dry tone suggests he suspects that Mycroft is not being complementary with that statement. But the expression of 'gratitude' may lure the other man into clarifying his intention. ]