@w.graham; night 299 - video [ Let reports of questionable life choices continue! ]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[OOC - CW: Mention of self harm]

[ Good evening fellow snobos, it would appear that the reports of questionable life choices continues to roll in; Rhys started a trend.

It is another video, coming from the user name w.graham and featuring that same gentleman. It’s hard to tell if he looks worse than before, because he tended to look terrible in general. What is different is he looks a bit more exasperated than he had the last time.

As he takes a breath to start speaking, the voice of one Gregory House, comes across first, calling from somewhere off screen. ]

Don't forget to call them snowhellions! And remember it's Hotstud first! Then Graham Cracker.

[ Will just sighs and rubs his hand over his face, before he gets started. ]



Good evening.

House and I have a couple of new discoveries we've been tracking over the past week or two and inspired by Rhys, we thought we'd share...

First things first! If you change something in a place, freaking tell me. I maintain the building guide and map, people. Contrary to popular opinion, I'm not psychic. You move crap, paint new symbols, or smash in symbols tell me. And get before and after pics. I don't need a conversation. Neither of us wants a conversation, just where, what, and pics or it didn't happen!

[ Will pauses for a moment, his eyes casting towards the direction the voice is speaking, and he’ll inquire, with polite sarcasm. ]

Done? [ There is a pause and a slight narrowing of his eyes, before he remarks in a flat tone. ] As a doctor you know that’s a physical impossibility.

[ A pause, an eyebrow lift -the rude gestures were getting more creative here- and Will shook his head and turned back to the camera. ]

I’ve been told to keep this short, so here goes. We also discovered in building 217 that a combination of blood and fire will result in instant cult membership. [ Here Will rolled up his sleeve, exposing his forearm, complete with healing laceration and the prophet eye burned into the skin above where he’d sliced himself open.

After giving the audience a good view he lowered his arm and took a breath, only to be interrupted again. ]

Don't let Graham Cracker sell you on the platinum membership, folks. The fees include your first-born child, two pints of blood, and a patch of skin. And that doesn't even get you access to the topless lounge. But if you're really in for it, just drip some blood, light a little fire, and you’re good to go. Matching brands and everything.

Did you want to do this? Because I can turn this camera around and... yeah, that’s what I thought.

In building 213 we tried a little tyger, tyger burning bright at night. For those of you who have just arrived, that is the building where Winter died. Apparently if you set the walls on fire, it makes them scream. Like a woman, or a child and the screaming only lets up once the fire wanes.

I think we should light a fire somewhere else. Test this more thoroughly; we’d need a lot more wood though.

Or some bodies.

And this is why people don't wanna be friends with you, Graham Cracker.

Okay back to what matters. Woman or child makes me think Winter or Sam, take your pick. Also the knives stuck in there still won't come out but I couldn't taste anything interesting on 'em.

We do have record of the screaming, if anyone wants to listen for themselves.

Finally the pool in building 216 is a bust. We cracked open the eyes at the bottom, I tried to get a read on the scene, but came up blank, and Mr. Oral fixation over here tried tasting the paint, nothing.

About the only evidence we could nail down was that the symbols look like they were all done around the same time, at least, and same color, but no way to tell if it was more than one person.

[ House's disembodied voice is still coming from somewhere off screen as he takes the wrap-up. ]

Anyone else wanna share? Already tracking the magic brigade over at the high school so we can skip that.

[OOC: House is all comments in blue
Will is all comments in purple
Responses will come from both of them! Assume House is audio only, unless otherwise noted in the comment header! ]

Comments

@whatisthis; audio

[godsspeed]

[ Admittedly Castiel hasn't had it in him to pay much attention to the network recently, but this is... sort of hard to ignore. ]

It seems very unwise to intentionally brand one's self with the cult's markings. You've found a reliable way to start fires, though? [ That seems like the more important thing to him. Kindling isn't something he's seen around in great supply here, much less flint and steel or matches. ]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

It wasn't intentional, more a consequence of over active curiosity.

[ Combined with two people who are very good at egging on each others' less than good life choices. ]

Ammonia as an accelerant and striking two metal surfaces against one another to generate a spark. Not sure how much ammonia still exists.

[rubikscomplex]

Not much. I've got a splash left.

@Spoiler; audio

[spoileralert]

Is that, uh... the same as House's? I mean, I assume you guys compared, right?

[rubikscomplex]

Matching tats, babe. All the cool kids are getting them.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ He is so grateful that House behaved in answering Steph. ]

Matching. Ignore his cool kids remark.

@theiceman, text

[holmesice]

Temperature.

Interesting.

Temperature matters here, computers need to be cooled off, for obvious reasons. I’ve wondered for some time if the cold here isn’t necessarily the result of a nuclear winter, but somehow artificially managed. Burning nanomachines, i.e. burning blood, has an effect, clearly. What if the Prophet cult is actually some kind of program or a very poorly managed misunderstanding of how the nanomachines work? That all the deaths and pyres were some kind of mad attempt to stop the glitches in the nanomachines/system that we’ve been experiencing.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ They may not be on the best footing but Will can appreciate the thought process. Especially as he's had similar theories. ]

I agree, though I don't know if we have definitive proof. [ Though he and House had discussed a possible test for that. ] The evidence I've seen so far seems to want to support a theory of some sort of programing, population control, rebellion and the nanomachines being at the center of it all.

But it's just theory at the moment.

@godsend, video

[termineur]

You two are traveling together? I'm surprised neither of you have died so far.

[ Gabriel looks amused, but he's glad they're testing these things out. And that Andersen's back. It's good to have more people heavily invested in trying to unraveling the mystery of this place. ]

Looks like you've got a real initiation to the town, though.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

You're not the only one. [ Wry comment is wry, but also heartfelt. Some of the discussions he and House have had? It's been a near thing at times. All in the name of SCIENCE. Or so they would insist. ]

There doesn't seem to be a good way to simply ease into all of this. So, jump in both feet first. Or you know ... [ He lifted his branded arm. ] cult scars first.

@librarian; video

[cahooted]

... tasting the paint?

[Look, someone's gotta ask the important questions.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

I'm going to let Sir Licks Alot field that one.

@hexappeal, voice

[sleight_of_fate]

I always knew House wanted to be like me when he grew up, but do we have to separate you two? Because I'm starting to think we need to separate you two.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ He's giving the tablet a look, which really doesn't do much since Rhys can't see it. ]

Says the man who deliberately pissed off a ghost.

@gravedigger; voice

[harlequinofhate]

HOLD IT ONE DANG MINUTE!

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

You'll have to specify an it to hold.

@PetertheGreat, audio

[zunesareawesome]

You realize that we're all probably gonna die because of you guys.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

I'd like to point out that we're not the ones getting shanked by ghosts.

@thebigc; video

[onlytwothings]

[ Have a Wilson facepalming at the two of them. He's been reading the responses thus far, and he has one thing to say: ]

I'm just going to agree with Rhys. The two of you need to be separated.

[rubikscomplex]

Or you could come join us. Don't worry, you're still my favorite.

@Enoch, voice

[warriorscribe]

[Well, he might as well.]

Many of the rooms in the high school...it's as if they aren't there. It's pitch black beyond the doorway, and light is swallowed up. There's no air to breathe...I held my breath and entered, with Rhys holding a rope I tied to my wrist.

[He's working on the tablet as he speaks, the soft tapping of registered touch, and then a video appears - a recording of this experiment. It begins normally enough, with Enoch stating his intentions to hold his breath while Rhys anchors him outside with their makeshift rope. The video then lurches a little while he ties the tablet to the rope, and then it dangles upside-down from his wrist as he ties the rope to it. It's a little disorienting, but not nearly so much as when he steps inside...and everything goes blacker than pitch and silent as space. There's nothing for about two minutes, until sound and light abruptly return as he steps back out, one hand over the other on the rope guiding him forward, and he finally gasps in a breath. He flips the tablet up into his hand and ends the video.]

I couldn't feel the floor beneath my feet, I couldn't even hear my footsteps. I know I was upright and walking on something, I wasn't falling or floating. And the darkness- [His voice tightens a bit, words hesitant.] -it clung to me as I left.

[This group was all about the crazy experiments yesterday. At least Enoch and this Rhys didn't get stabbed.]

[rubikscomplex]

[Huh...]

You should have Beckett go in and try, if he hasn't already. Or Rhys. The one who got stabbed. Or Stiffi if she's hanging around, since she's less stabbed than the other two guys.

[Just take the ones with the eyes already inscribed on them.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will listened attentively, his expression thoughtful. ]

Like a void, completely devoid of anything. Except, not sure what to make of the darkness clinging to you.

Did it ... I mean, how did it fall away?

@rephaitemercy - Day 300 - text - private

[tablewithoutpity]

I hope you will forgive me the intrusion. I have been in this place just barely short of two days, and yet somehow I find I have memories of a conversation with you, involving matters of luck and faith and trust and love. Does this conversation merely exist within my mind? Or do you share this memory?

Day 300 - text - private

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Had this message come in a day before, Will wouldn't have thought anything of it. Today, he looked at the user name and the memory of a conversation that felt like weeks ago, came surging to the forefront of his conscious mind.

That timing didn't line up with what the message said, but after a couple seconds chasing his own mental tail, Will decided to just go with it. ]

Now that you mention it, which should probably concern me more than it does. [ But given the nature of his mind to begin with, let alone his mind here in Norfinbury, Will didn't let the slipping of his mental gears disquiet him the way it might have in the past. ]

Trust, love and the capricious nature of gods and self awareness. If I am remembering correctly.