[log] It Goes Like This [closed]

[rubikscomplex]

Characters: Gregory House, Hannibal Lecter, and Will Graham
Location: Building 333, Building 320, Building 322, and Building 317
Date: Day 312, Day 315, Day 316
Summary: House, Hannibal, and Will traveling and searching around Residential Zone 3.
Warnings: Typical House and Hannibal-related warnings, child death/dismemberment, PTSD, discussion of torture

Comments

Day 312 - Building 333

[rubikscomplex]

[An A-frame house. Going inside, there isn't any furniture left in the living room, kitchen, or loft area, although the toilet and shower still work (cold water only). Tally marks have been dug into the wood paneling on the wall of the loft, numbering twenty-seven. A large window makes the loft a good area to watch the door of the house with.]

Day 315 - Building 320

[rubikscomplex]

[A normal-looking house with a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom. The attic is covered in nails hammered violently and haphazardly, making traversing it difficult. Step back, and it's clear the nails are hammered into symbols of the prophet. There are faint scuff marks like the nails were pulled out at some point, but the nails are undoubtedly still hammered in.]

cw: PTSD

[rubikscomplex]

[This needs to go away. It needs to go away right now. House stands in the attic, staring down at the nails in the form of the Prophet's eye symbol. Every part of his body is screaming as he's carried back to another attic with eye symbols. There had been manacles there, though, and the feeling of whips across his back until he'd been sobbing.

Anyone entering into the attic at that moment would see the doctor simply standing and staring blankly ahead, breathing shallowly and gripping the head of his cane so tightly his knuckles have gone white. Luckily, House is able get a grip on the episode in relatively short order and translate it into action. Manic, obsessive action.

He'd found two more boxes of nails down in the house. Those come out along with the other box he has and his hammer. If Will and Hannibal weren't aware of House getting up to something earlier, they will be thanks to the ringing of the hammer up above as House drives one nail after another into the field of other nails and around them, aiming to obscure the symbol that they form.]

cw: PTSD

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ It was true, Will had been going through the house, finding nothing but boxes, upon boxes of nails. He had been considering pick one up, when the first of the hammering began.

The house was startling in the otherwise quiet air of the falling night. He waited it out, thinking perhaps House was just testing the walls or something. But it continued, became a steady cadence that suggested House was weidling the hammer with deliberate focus.

Exchanging a look with Hannibal, Will headed up into the attic to investigate.

He stayed back, at first, simply watching. As House shifted around, exposing the Eye depicted by the nails and also his steady work to ...

Curious. ]

You have a specific result in mind? Or are you working out sexual frustration through pounding nails?

[rubikscomplex]

[House pauses for a moment, looking up and back at the other man and raising his brows.]

Total sublimation. You and Lecter got me hot under the collar that first night we met up. Just haven't been able to get it outta my head since then.

[If Will is going to give him the option of a crass joke, the obvious answer is to go with the crass joke.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

We're not your type. [ Will said simply, but otherwise he didn't challenge the coping mechanism.

Instead he walked a little closer to the work House was doing, moving carefully around the nails. ]

Do you expect some sort of response to this?

[rubikscomplex]

I'm AB-positive. I take every type.

[Blood pun jokes! It's a wonderful world. He does sober enough to actually answer the real question here as he returns his attention to the spread of nails in front of him.]

It looks like someone tried pulling the nails out up here. Probably to obscure the symbol. I wanna see if we can obscure it an have it stay that way if we put things in. Or if the spiders'll clean that up, too. Or whatever's servicing things out this way.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will briefly considers a receiver joke, but decides to shelve it and focus on the nails. ]

Why would the spiders clean up a Prophet symbol?

[rubikscomplex]

Good question. Evie doesn't seem to have full control over them in this area. Wonder why she didn't have video on the high school? That's kinda weird.

'I can't see far enough.' It's something she said to me in a dream. At least I think it was her. She can't see the whole town. And even if she could, she's not seeing the same things we are.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

I wonder who does have control of them then. [ Will said pensively, also in a rhetorical tone. After all, if they knew the answer to that question ...

He watched House for a moment, then nudged. ]

This is still a long shot, and doesn't seem to afford us anything in particular. [ He observed in a non-judgemental tone. ] You're committing a lot of possibly very useful resources to this.

[ Why? ]

[rubikscomplex]

[House just grunts noncommittally at the first comment. He only has vague theories at the moment and no way to prove them... or even disprove them, which is what he'd like to do. Narrow the field a little to bring more clarity.

At the second comment, though, he pounds a nail particularly hard and ends up bending it, along with wrenching his skinned shoulder. He breathes out slowly, not looking up at Will.]

They're nails. We'll find more of them.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will watches quietly, taking in body language, as well as tone and in the end the entire situation.

When he speaks, his voice is deliberately non-confrontational, even as he references a time when House had scolded him. ]

You fussed at me when I crunched up a piece of tinfoil. [ He pointed out. ] I have never seen you waste valuable materials.

You're more careful than that.

[rubikscomplex]

[It's apparently House's turn to snap tonight. His voice is higher pitched than usual, a defensive snarl.]

Maybe I don't feel like being freaking careful tonight. I got a hammer. Wanna test that, Graham?

[It's not the first threat that House has leveled at Will, but it's one of the more honest ones. A part of him wants to throw the hammer at the other man for no apparent reason, and it's frustrating.]

Day 316 - Building 322

[rubikscomplex]

[What was once a house has been reduced to only a former living room. The long-cold fireplace serves as a focal point around which long arcs of eyes have been drawn on the floor.]

[rubikscomplex]

Jesus fu-!

[House staggers away from poking at the fireplace when his cane uncovers a set of bones. It shouldn't be surprising. He's seen this sort of thing in the pyres in the Industrial Zone, but the reaction is visceral, instinctual, and it's only once he's had a moment to actually process what he's looking at that he understands his own reaction.

Tiny bones held together with twine. This had to have been a child. Maybe ten at the outside? There's also some kind of cloth. He steels himself, then decides he needs something a little stronger than grit as he reaches into his pocket for his "placebo" pills. House dry swallows a pair of them and breathes out slowly before shuffling forward again and using his cane to slide the bones and the blindfold from the ashes.

His voice is tighter than usual as he raises it to draw Will and Hannibal's attention.]

Got a couple of hands and a blindfold, Graham Cracker. Wanna do your thing and tell me what happened to the rest of the body?

cw: for Will's brain being extra atrocious and a child ...

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[OOC: Will's vision is complete IC speculation, pulled from Will's interpretation of the evidence he's ICly encountered. There is no OOC support for anything he "sees". ]

[ House was ... vocal, but he wasn't given to startled obscenities; even ones that were quickly cut off.

Will had been over with Hannibal when the other doctor gave his startled exclamation, and he paused sharing a glance with the psychiatrist, before slowly breaking away and moving towards the fireplace. ]

Somehow I think we both can make an educated gue ... [ He began, the words stopping in mind breath as his eyes landed on the hands.

Will wasn't inexperienced with violence towards children. He'd navigated that case with the family annihilator, and what she had done to the children in her thrall; what she'd caused them to do to their own families. Especially the younger or older siblings.

It still came as a hard blow to see the small hands, too lean through the digits to be mistaken for a small adult, and the twine.

The blindfold.

He didn't have to close his eyes. The pendulum swung right in front of his fixed gaze...

A girl with dark brown skin and short hair is putting down some sort of video recording device, grinning at it. She looks to be an elementary schooler, perhaps a fifth grader. She jogs backwards to where a soccer ball waits, and, after making sure to face the camera recording her, she performs a few quick tricks with the ball. She bounces it from her foot to her knee to her head and then back, catching it behind her with the heel of her shoe and then kicking it off into the distance. There's a distant human figure, some adult, watching, hidden among some far off trees. They're hard to make out, but they're there.

[The sound is a bit distant, as if recorded from far away, but it's audible. It sounds like a small girl is crying in a muffled way. An older woman seems to be trying to soothe the child.]

I know, baby, I'm sorry. I can't believe they would-- [The woman's voice rises in anger, but she checks herself, returns to her previous soothing tone.]

W-we need to take her to th-the animal doctor! [The child's voice, plaintive and broken with crying.]

[The woman doesn't answer, and it's a few moments after this the video turns on. It displays from a high corner of the room, explaining the distance in its audio recording. The woman and child--Sparrow Langley--are in front of a large bird cage, the woman keeping the child held tightly in her arms.

The bird cage is open and silent, because the little sparrow that was once inside is dead on the floor, its neck snapped. There's something odd about it, though--why is its blood blue?]

The smell of burning wood, the intense heat of it filling the small space, lifting the stench of unwashed bodies. The air tastes of discontent, but also of the sort of blind resolve that comes from the mob mentality.

They have the child. ]

It is time.

There is no certainty, but we've been watching for long enough and there is no time to waste on being certain. [ His voice is a hard hiss, taking on a cadence that does not sound like Will's own.

He walks forward and kneels down, reaching to touch and lift the blindfold. ]

Her wrists are already bound, as are her ankles. She keeps crying, I'll give her something to cry about, but remove her ability to cry at all.

[ He threads the blindfold through his fingers in a purposeful way. ]

Of course there is a protest when she screams "Hold them back! Hold her down!" [ He slashes his hand towards House and Hannibal and perhaps this is when they note the ashy fingerprints on their arms; there is certainly one on Will. ]

Tweet tweet little birdie, your sacrifice will be our salvation. Model you properly and into the fire you go, burn and cleanse it all away. I said hold them ... never mind, more blood is always a good thing!

[ And here is where it goes off the rails. As Will spoke, his hand was going into his pocket for the pocketknife he keeps in his coat as he comes powering to his feet with a predatory swiftness belied by the careful way he usually moves. ]

[rubikscomplex]

[It's pure instinct. House doesn't actually mean to do it, much like his exclamation. There's the flash of a pocketknife--a scalpel, a butcher's knife, a fire poker--and he reacts. The doctor takes a step back on what is ostensibly his 'bad' leg and brings his cane up sharply in a blow meant for Will's arm. His only goal is to disarm the ex-profiler. He can figure out what to do with him after that. Right now, there's just getting the blade away from him, away from his sight. He's not going to let them stab him again.

House was a lacrosse player in his youth and he's always retained the general skill with practice, so his aim and the power behind it are better than might be expected from most regular cripples.]

[tablewithoutpity]

[Hannibal's mind is quick, which means he notices how House steps on his "bad" leg while also analyzing Will's position, the way his body is held, where his center of gravity is, how he's holding that knife.

Then he acts, every motion quick, direct and efficient. A blow to the wrist to try to disarm, a blow to the solar plexus to stun, and a grapple to pull him off balance and bring him down to the ground hard enough to keep him there but not so hard as to do permanent damage.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will is unaware of House's mis-step. Of course he's always known the man was playing some sort of game with his cane, so it wasn't as important a reveal to him.

Were he in his right mind (or just in his mind) Will would appreciate the fact that House went relatively easy on him with the blow from the cane. That blow distracted him and were it the only strike, he might have held onto the knife.

But Hannibal's blow is more efficient, causing the ex-profiler to make a small cry as the knife drops and goes skidding away into the shadows. The strike to his solar plexus does the job, Will is felled without any further retaliation on his part, hitting the floor hard enough to drive the remaining air out of his lungs.

Unpleasant, but certainly not as permanent as it could have been. Hannibal's hand to hand skills are incredibly effective. For that matter so are House's cane skills. ]

[rubikscomplex]

[House keeps back once Hannibal goes into action, just holding his cane at the ready to whack Will again if he needs to. It doesn't occur to him until the other man is on the ground that he just made a mistake.

Crap.]

Well, this is fun. Snap out of it, Graham. You need me to start singing at you?

[tablewithoutpity]

[Hannibal followed Will down to the ground, kneeling over him, one hand firm on the back of his friend's neck, the other gripping Will's arm to ensure he didn't reach for the weapon. He glanced up at House, his eyes sharpened by the violence.]

Has this happened here before?

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ It was always deceptive, Hannibal's urbane manners, his calm soothing presence. A civilized man, until the moment when he was anything but a child of civilization. The way the man could flip a switch and become a deadly predator.

The doctor's hand pressing down on the back of Will's neck, nearly encompassed it. It was a hard call, to determine if Hannibal could snap the ex-profiler's neck with that one hand; the grip was such that it might just be possible. ]

[rubikscomplex]

In a dream. [A pause.] Not while we were awake. Not to this level. When we first met, he said he wasn't sure if I was real. But his hallucinations don't sing.

[tablewithoutpity]

Even the most sane of men would doubt their reality when faced with this place. Will's relationship with reality has always been more tenuous than most.

[He lessens the pressure on Will's neck, just a little, to give his friend a little more room to breathe.]

Are you with us, Will?

Day 316 - Building 317

[rubikscomplex]

[Judging from the outside, this was definitely a house, but going inside, it seems to have been converted into something like an infirmary. There are a lot of metal tables neatly arranged in the living room and kitchen, and the bedroom has a mattress lightly-stained with blood: it seems like someone at least tried to clean the thing up as best they could, and even flipped it over so the cleaner side is on top. The toilet and shower still work: the shower even has hot water. Makeshift shelves have been attached to one of the walls.]