snowblindrpg | As Sharp as Knives

I'd go with thelma & louise, but I'm honestly worried we'd come back to Rhys and Wilson missing, Ecks looking confused and Hannibal preparing a five course meal.

[ Hannibal could get creative when his feelings were injured. ]

I'll check with him and give him the option. Can we do this in one day or are we going and staying overnight?

All those ideas you just wrote down, I'm taking notes and I'll review the reading material.

[ He would too. Will genuinely was hoping that participation from the group as a whole might help shake something loose. ]

Edited 2017-12-22 03:40 (UTC)

[That's a horrifying thought, and House is happy to let the other man tag along if it means avoiding that.]

overnight
we can get down there in half a day
but if we wanna do any kinda searching
that'll shave off too much time to get back

[And what's the point of going if not to look around, poke, and try a few different things?]

couple more ideas if you're taking notes
on the data ghosts i've seen around town:

- cat in the cat lady's house
probably can appeal to said cat lady
who is different from jia xu
who was also into cats
we found where they'd bricked her into the walls with a program called "cat feet"

- teacher person
kid named kesara had some interactions with them
graded all the papers in their house that were left unfinished

- mom and kiddo who committed murder/suicide in their house
and wrote up on the walls that they were getting out that way
before the cultists could take them

- dog at the damn fire house that barks incessantly

- @katethegreat
one of "sam the prophet"s buddies
one of the kids would be best to talk to her

- not actually a data ghost i talked to
but whoever the hell owns the clown house
the joker and clownette should try talking to them
that place is creepy as hell

I am taking notes.

[ He was too, because as had been the case since the beginning, House had picked up immediately on what Will was considering executing on and the diagnostician was helping to coordinate it in a way that would make more sense to the community. Will would have been stumbling along with phrases like technological seance, which would probably have confused matters more than it helped. ]

I should have tried to interact with the dog when I was at the fire house. Too new to everything to have even considered it.

you'll want to ask others which ones they can come up with, too
beckett, stiffi, elric
they'll have some of the best info

[ And just in that moment, it dawns on Will that he's devising a strategy that will require him to be sociable.

Which is why he goes radio silent for a long enough period of time that it is probably noticeable. ]

[Better you than him, Will.]

houston?
come in houston?

Just pondering what the over/under looks like for my failing to clearly explain myself, piss off key people and end up scuttling what might be a useful experiment before it even begins.

so get your bf to do it
he's good with the mouth words

[ Huh.

That honestly hadn't been on his radar, but now ... ]

Not the worst idea I suppose.

one downside is he's virtually a complete unknown
apart from anyone who remembers "giac"

I'm not sure he's ready for prime time.

[ It wasn't that Hannibal was incapable of stepping up the mic and charming an audience at the drop of a hat. The man was a brilliantly social, anti-social personality.

But Will knew how Hannibal liked to work. He liked to have all his threads carefully folded into his fingers, so he could draw on them as needed. Hannibal was still gathering his threads here in Norfinbury and might not yet be ready to show his hand. ]

Any chance you'd be willing to help me out with this?

Your method may not coax birds out of trees, but you're more articulate than I am and have a lot of the key notes already at your fingertips.

you do realize the last town-wide experiment i proposed got nine people killed
i mean
sure
you wanna open up, though
i can jump in

[ Wow House, when you commit you really commit. ]

I have to admit that I'm hoping to avoid deaths in this particular instance.

[ Hoping to avoid, but there was always the risk. Ghosts were ... unpredictable. ]

we weren't planning on it with mine, either
make sure you're prepared for it going to hell in unexpected ways

I think this is where I admit that I'm starting to have serious second thoughts.

[ Second. Hell, he was probably on 8th thoughts by now. ]

don't
i said be prepared
not don't do it
it's a good idea
what we did before was a good idea
if i had it to do over again
i'd still do it
the info we got from it was good
you can't second guess yourself
this isn't that kind of place
think of it like dreams
you didn't hesitate killing me then

Edited 2017-12-24 21:14 (UTC)

[ Will went quiet for a bit after that last text from House. He remembered exactly what the older man was referencing and Will had absolutely no idea how to approach discussing it.

He'd have been more than happy to never discuss it, if given that option, but House did like to poke at bruises; see what made the patient squirm. ]

That was a dream.
And the options laid out in front of me made that decision a clear cut one.
I wasn't about to let you get tortured again or force you to kill someone deliberately.

This situation isn't so clear cut, but I understand what you're saying.

it was a dream
why do you care?
nothing in there was real

[More of the raw emotion and vulnerability were real than House would ever be willing to admit. And this is the more interesting conversation at the moment since Will admits he understands the point, even if he's arguing the details.]

you don't think i've ever killed someone in a dream?

'Nothing in there was real'.
Is that what you truly believe, House?
Or is it what you want to believe?

Our dreams come from inside of us; the good and the bad.
All the creepy, crawly little spiders, come out and spin their webs at night.
Then the day comes and your logical mind ignore the gossamer webs, but they're still there.

If a part of you didn't feel inside that dream, if you were a killer, you would have struck without hesitation the moment the Kid showed up. Kill them all, save yourself.
But that's not how you work, House and a part of you is aware enough of the strength of your dreams to be unable to dismiss your actions in them.

At least in this place, where you have no way to know what is consciousness and what is not.

pretty sure you don't have to be "a killer" to kill, graham cracker
i do what's necessary in the given circumstances
dreams don't have physical consequences

[Not that fear of reprisal is particularly holding back any murderous instinct. He'd had his chance with the Joker. No one would have faulted him. He'd had his chances with Royce. No one would have faulted him in the effort to avoid being murdered. But he hadn't taken either opportunity. He'd cowered with the Joker, and he'd attempted to just get away from Royce rather than actively attack him.

He doesn't like admitting that Will is right in his own way. And the ex-profiler isn't working with a full set of information, which means House can cherry-pick what to share to make it seem like he's right. Mostly.]

what happens in them doesn't impact the real world
you wanna argue about psyche and metaphysical bullshit, that's fine
but me murdering someone in a dream
when i'm aware it's a dream
doesn't have the same effect of me murdering someone in real life
which is why i'm not flipping out at you for murdering me not once, but twice
thx for that, btw

and fyi
caressing me while you murder me is some srs mixed signals, dude
and i think your bf might be jealous

Edited 2017-12-27 21:51 (UTC)

Where do you think the idea of 'murder' is born, House?
Not manslaughter, not self-defense, not what a soldier does on the field of battle.
That spark of an idea; an urge, a drive to destroy or to create.
Where do you think it's first conceptualized. A dream.

[ Dreams where powerful things for Will. He had wrestled with them almost all his life. From the waking horrors that filled his every day, to the terrors of the night, when he lost complete control of his 'filters'.

But he knew House would never let himself be drawn into that level of self awareness. At least, not in a way that was visible to another human being. That wasn't how House worked. ]

You forgive me for murdering you, but get missish about 'mixed signals'?
And we're talking about the magnets in my internal compass being a little turned around.

ideas are not actions

[He's had this internal debate with himself, so he's confident of that, at least.]

if they were i would have gotten so much action in high school
ideas form in dreams, yes
but unless you act on them
they mean nothing
and even if you do act on them they can be complete bullshit anyway

[He's not bitter the ketamine treatment doesn't end up working out for his leg, you're bitter.]

murder is what i expect from you
tender caresses are just weird

[And they make him feel weird because those two things do not fit neatly together for him. Stop it, Will. It's weird.]

Edited 2017-12-27 23:27 (UTC)

[ Curled up safely in a maintenance tunnel, Will chuckled softly as he read House's response and then typed one of his own. ]

Speaking of mixed signals, you're giving off some of your own, House.

[Well, if Will is going to default to the joke, House is going to follow him there so he doesn't have to examine any of the feelings associated with... all that more closely.]

oh, pls
you know i prefer my boys jewish

[ Sometimes Will liked to look innocent, while laying out a lure. ]

Not exactly what I meant, though you're mancrush on Wilson is adorable.
Rather, you're trying to argue that it was all just a dream and doesn't mean anything.
Yet you're making a fuss over how I acted in the dream, which shouldn't bother you if the dreams don't matter.
So, which is it?

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