[log] Band on the Run [closed]

[rubikscomplex]

Characters: Gregory House, Hannibal Lecter, Will Graham, Beckett
Location: Building 288, Building 274
Date: Morning 331, Day 332
Summary: House, Hannibal, and Will wake up after the Pit. Then they meet up with Beckett.
Warnings: Typical House and Hannibal-related warnings

Building 288
[Entering this building turns the Geiger counter yellow. This looks to be an old family restaurant: the name on the front reads LILY'S PLACE in faded letters that were probably brightly painted long ago. Inside it seems like there's still food here! ...But putting the Geiger counter near the food turns it to red. Looks like this place is fine for staying the night in, but you'd better not eat the food.]

Building 274
[This building is covered in prophet symbols. The top floor, where the skywalk connects, contains one the size of the entire floor on the ground, and judging by the way the floor looks, it's clear walls were torn up to make room for it. In the center is a pile of ashes and wood, like a well-used funeral pyre.

Follow the staircase down and you find the remains of an office building, though the three accessible floors all look similar to the top floor, with a giant prophet symbol on the floor and wood and ash in the center. There are human bones and teeth in the various former fire pits, but they've been buried respectfully beneath the ash.

...There's a working public bathroom on the ground floor, though! Also, all of the prophet symbols have been scribbled on ridiculously, given eyelashes and scribbled over in chalk, so maybe it's a bit less ominous. One of the symbols has had the scribbling removed, and instead an X has been drawn over it in red oil paint.]

Comments

[rubikscomplex]

[House wakes up feeling very, very old. All of the injuries he'd collected in the Pit seem to have stuck with him. His face is a throbbing mess with two black eyes forming thanks to his broken nose. He has a matching lump and dark mark along his jawline where Stephen had taken a swing at him. There are welts with some scabbed over lacerations on his arms and shoulder from RGBV's three bites, and he still has the bandage on his left forearm from where he'd cut himself thanks to Peter's intervention.

He pushes himself up after a long moment and looks around, blinking.]

Please tell me at least one of you went in the pit.

[It's a lot easier to pretend to be blase in the comforting presence of the dark and cold. That light and warmth are now associated with more sinister things isn't fantastic, but it is what it is for House. Too many terrible things tend to follow anything resembling respite.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will also woke up feeling old. It had been that sort of experience. Though he had not collected quite as many bumps and bruises as House.

Laying on his back, eyes still closed -he didn't feel like watching the ceiling spin- he responded to the doctor's question. ]

Not I said the fly.

[rubikscomplex]

[House growls quietly under his breath and pulls off the pack he apparently slept with on, and takes out his tablet. He finds Vanitas' message first and frowns.]

Take off your clothes. I need to check something.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Alright. That got his eyes opened and he sat up slightly to look at the older man.

Which... ]

What the hell happened to ... how many people did you piss off and how did you manage to piss off that many people in that short an amount of time??

[rubikscomplex]

I ran into a wall.

[That's all you're getting for now, Will.]

Less talking. More undressing. We need to check you for red marks.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Battle of wills between the emotional five year olds.

This should go well.

Will, rolled stiffly to a sitting position, but he made no move towards undressing. ]

I'm not getting naked for you, at least not without a hot shower somewhere close by. How many "walls" did you run into? Are those ... bite marks?

[rubikscomplex]

[House is pulling off his own jackets and pauses only briefly at the question. He wants to get this done quickly. It really is freezing.]

Fine. Check me over. Red spots, like inflammation. And I'll tell you how many if you get undressed.

[tablewithoutpity]

[Hannibal woke to the other two bickering. He sighs pushes himself up, and wanders into the restaurant's kitchen. If they want him they can find him. Meanwhile, he begins going through the drawers and the cabinets.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House and Will do a lot of bickering. The doctor waits for Will to go talk to Hannibal first, though. He has to put on his clothes again... and defend his studly honor in the face of Beckett's scoffing. There's also mentally preparing his walls after Will had a poke at them. So, it's a little later as they're getting close to lockdown ending for the night that House approaches, just standing in the kitchen doorway without coming in.]

I'm surprised you didn't go in. Thought you and the abyss were, like, grade-school buddies, Doc.

[tablewithoutpity]

What can I say? I make it a point not to throw myself into the unknown.

[Hannibal is curious, of course, but his curiosity is more the sort that would have pushed someone else in and seen what happened, not jumped in himself. Besides, he promised Will he wouldn't, although he's not about to tell House.]

And you? With your affinity for experimentation with little regard for your own life, I would have expected you to take the leap.

[rubikscomplex]

It was all tied up with other things.

[Ecks wrestled him down and restrained him. House looks more than a little annoyed at this.]

Interesting room. You see the kids who jumped are sporting new marks? Looks like the rest of us might be on the menu for whatever the next 'system error' is.

[tablewithoutpity]

[Hannibal is amused by that look of annoyance. Will is horrified by House's death wish, but Hannibal finds it...almost endearing.]

I noticed that. Do you believe the marks are protective in some way?

[rubikscomplex]

Protective in the sense that people who had Prophet eyes on murder night wanted to kill everyone else who didn't have 'em, maybe. [House shrugs without thinking about it and winces. He starts to reach up to rub at the bite mark Will cleaned out and patched up, but redirects to scratch lightly at his stubble. There's an effort to avoid where Stephen punched him.]

That wasn't so bad. They cranked up the heat, and we could run around wherever for the whole night.

[It was terrifying, and he never wants it to happen again.]

Didn't even count in the obits for the twenty or thirty people who got killed. Admin just reset things.

Building 274 - OTA

[rubikscomplex]

[They're really only passing through here, grabbing Beckett and moving on. But House can't help a sense of foreboding as he mounts the stairs up to the floor where he and Will had chopped up the body and set it on fire. The lingering marks from the scratches they received for that little romp are twinging in remembered pain. When he reaches the top floor, House dithers. There's really no other word for it. He circles the main pyre in the center of the room, pulling the cane off his pack to poke through the ashes, distracted.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Though Will participated in their movement discussions, for the most part he trusted House and Hannibal with the logistics and followed where they lead. Perhaps not the wisest course of action, but he had faith that neither of them were interested in leaving him outside to freeze to death.

It took him a moment of standing inside the building, on that fateful floor, looking around at walls that were familiar, before the memory of those scratching hands locked him in to his location. Will frowned pensively and mused. ]

I wonder what would happen if I sliced through my prophet brand here.

[rubikscomplex]

[House looks up at him, considering it for a moment.]

You'll bleed. Profusely. Apart from there, I'm guessing they'll want some words, too.

[He gestures vaguely around at the air.]

Beckett talked to them for, like, half an hour and got an extra Eye App for the trouble. We don't have time for you to play around right now. You can do on our way back down.

[And he is actually onboard with that. This is a controlled environment. He can stitch Will up. They can even sanitize the blade before he does it.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ It certainly wasn't the worst idea they'd ever had. Will's expression said as much, though he also accepted the fact that the timing wasn't right to try something now. ]

Wonder what they'd like to talk about. Interesting that in all the ghost collective, we didn't hear from any of the rabid cult members. Samantha, yes but she was the only one, wasn't she?

[rubikscomplex]

How sorry you are they died, how hard you're trying to fix things. Be sweet and most of 'em go for it. I tell you that medkit I pick up over in the clinic house came after I chatted at the air for ten minutes?

[While Will and Hannibal were enjoying the hot shower... and each other.]

No one said they were cultists, but it is interesting none of them were active. Especially after we'd just got done with your little display.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

You want me to small talk ghosts? [ If Will tone sounded ripe with disbelief, it was because it was ... ripe with disbelief. ] I can't even small talk humans.

[ Seriously, he was going to need a script. Though House brought up a good point and another good reason to try something on that floor again. ]

When I acquired my new companion. [ Will reached back to rub at his nape, his expression pensive. ] You realize, I try another Prophet positive action ... it's possible I'm going to end up further down that rabbit hole than is safe; for any of us?

332 - building 274 - OTA!

[bookofnope]

[He'd made good time, Beckett thinks, all things considered - the lost day, the bloody Pit, the doubts he goes to sleep with every night and wakes up with every morning. Rhys is back with them, in a way, and he knows Enoch, Angel, and Brian would all have seen him, and one of them are happy thoughts to be lugging along across the skywalk. Bizarrely part of him is looking forward to being distracted by company - company he's not really invested in, one very complicated relationship with an obnoxious doctor aside. But it doesn't have to be complicated. They can make it simple. Just direct their attention to an exercise in complex suicidal daring.

Just like old times, right?

He comes in through the roof, calling out House's name as he enters the building, just to make sure no one mistakes him for an anomaly or an unwelcome stranger. Not that any stranger would be welcome considering their standing plans. But rather than continuing down he lingers next to the funeral pyre. That wasn't here last time. More experiments maybe, or maybe someone being sincere. It's hard to tell sometimes, in Norfinbury.]

Rest in peace, [he mumbles, mouth twisting on the word.] No, I don't think so.

[rubikscomplex]

He definitely wasn't resting in peace. Just pieces.

[House comes up from the stairwell, raising a hand in greeting to the vampire.]

Took you long enough to get here, Fangs. We've been waiting.

[bookofnope]

Do you have any idea how many times in my three hundred years I have heard that joke?

[He is weary, House. Weary. But he raises a hand in return, only half turning from the ashes.]

I've had to cross town, and there was a pit. Who stopped you from jumping? Graham?

[rubikscomplex]

Ecks. [Unfortunately.] Graham Cracker was busy doing the mental breakdown jazz for a while.

[One version of it. House's had just been more... outwardly active than Will's.]

[bookofnope]

[Beckett can't help it. He grins widely at the response. Look at all the teeth.] Good girl.

[Isn't it the best thing, watching children grow up to Have Enough of Your Shit?]

I take it he's finished with that, since you're on the move with this plan.

[rubikscomplex]

[It's irritating watching them grow up, Beckett. Ugh!]

He finished with it down in the Pit. [House flicks his hand dismissively. You either get over these things, obediently follow along anyway, or he leaves you behind.] You got any new tats for yourself?

[House starts scanning Beckett for signs of red. If he is infected or whatever this is, that could be... problematic. Although, House does want to see.]