Event: Consolidation Theory, Part One and Two

[snowblindmods]

Characters: red-marked characters
Location: ???
Date: Morning & Day 353
Summary: You wake up in a cell.
Warnings: general horror warnings; please note in subject lines for anything specific that comes up

Consolidation Theory OOC Post
Part Two OOC Post

Comments

A (cw: mentions of amputation, lobotomy)

[jumpthegun]

Robert Miller.

[John's voice is, perhaps, eerily calm, to people not used to dealing with him in a crisis situation.]

It's David, right? [He recognizes the accent.] Mr. Miller works for Eve, the Administrator. I know it's difficult and sounds ridiculous, but you're going to want to calm down, David. Yelling at him isn't going to work. We've dealt with him before, and it doesn't move him. He'll likely come back and tell us what they'll be doing to use in a little while.

Until then, can you find any sort of gaps in your cage? Have you felt along all the edges, checked the floor? We'll want to keep busy, gather as much information while we're physically able to.

[Because John's memories of something like this are hazy, from an alternate future, but he remembers flashes. His arms and legs replaced by prosthetics, a rod through Sherlock's head.]

[jmencalisse]

[David's first impulse is to tell the calm controlled Anglo voice where to shove it but then the calm controlled Anglo voice knows his name and that at least makes him pause long enough to listen to the rest of John's explanations.]

I'm not trying to move his fucking heart, I'm informing him what is going to happen to it when we get out of here.

[It's also making him feel better in his general state of impotent rage, so.]

And who the hell are you? I know your voice.

[He's pretty sure he's come across it before but he's not paying that much attention to people he doesn't actively talk to.]

[jumpthegun]

John Watson, sir. [He has to bite his tongue to stop from offering his rank and company. This place with the people screaming and the intense emotion is taking him back to Afghanistan.] Threatening him won't have any effect, and he's unfortunately out of reach for the foreseeable future. Like I said, I know it sounds ridiculous, but yelling and shouting isn't going to actually help us or change anything.

[jmencalisse]

['Sir'? His eyebrows shoot up, what is this, are you mocking him?]

Well, nice to meet you John Watsonsir.

[He kicks the barrier once again but at least he stopped yelling?]

Right. I saw you on the network. You told people not to talk.

[jumpthegun]

[John's going to ignore the attitude for the time being. It's unproductive. John doesn't want to encourage it by sniping back.]

Some people listened... a lot of them didn't. Did you have anything taken from you? Or is it only the lines for you, not the red eyes?

[jmencalisse]

[Unproductive is David's middle name (or maybe it's attitude. or maybe asshole.) but this is a fucked up situation and something in Watson's straight-to-the-point questions helps him to swing over a little more into cop mode now. He props his arm up against the barrier, trying to catch a glimpse of John.]

I did not talk to the book guy but I have the red eyes. What do you mean, taken?

[jumpthegun]

[Being on the same side as David and a cell or two down, that's going to be a major challenge.]

Angel, Tess, Sherlock... they all described a sensation of burning when they gave away information about themselves. I'm not sure what it means, but I'm suspecting we'll be finding out here. [These things have a way of coming back to haunt you here.]

But I think we might be able to do something to at least make it inconvenient to move us out of these cells or for anyone to come in. Did you ever see that movie "Home Alone?" It's the one with the little kid who puts together a bunch of traps for some robbers when he gets left at home by accident when his family flies off to somewhere on holiday.

[jmencalisse]

[That gives him pause.]

I had the burning sensation. I thought it was just the lines being infected.

[But moving on to more pressing matters.]

Yeah, I know the movie. [And suffered Gabrielle devising creative traps for him all over the house for the next three months but that's not something he's gonna share with a hallway full of bullshit sci-fi cages with potentially crazy people.

The notion of a plan however makes him perk up.] What do you have in mind?

[jumpthegun]

Just an easy slip trap. The toilets have liquid soap you can pump out. Maybe smear it across the front of the cell. Even if they're mind-controlling us up and out, we'll trip ourselves up. Maybe it'll break the control? Might also trip up anyone coming to fetch us.

[There's a pause.]

Can I ask when you had the burning sensation, though? Did you tell someone without the lines something? Or did they take hair or anything from you?

[jmencalisse]

[That's... huh. Alright, he's impressed. Ish. He likes people who think on their feet.]

Well, it's better than sitting around and doing nothing.

[Which is probably the only reason he even considers answering John's questions, really.] Yes, I told them things about me. I don't know why. I thought they might be able to help. I'm not a doctor, I don't know much about this... stuff.

[jumpthegun]

[He'll try not to be too overwhelmed by the complimentary thoughts. John's used to living with minimal praise and jumping straight to practical application, at least. It's nothing elegant like the schemes Sherlock might come up with, but it will do.]

I'm sorry that happened to you, David. I tried to warn people, but it was too little too late. [He sighs.] If it comes up again, no matter how much you feel like you should, maybe try holding back as hard as you can on sharing any new information about yourself? Even if it seems harmless. If people are really keen, then they can wait a little while for weird effects to resolve, right?

[jmencalisse]

[He shrugs even though he knows John can't see it.]

It wasn't that bad, I mean the burning. They weren't asking personal questions, they were trying to help me figure out the lines. The rest just happened. Felt really weird.

[There's a pause.]

Never thought I'd have to make that effort. I do not usually talk that much about myself.

[jumpthegun]

Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to be confined to the burning. [That's only ever the start of these sorts of things. Hopefully, David will at least keep his light.]

And this place has a way of affecting people. We don't act ourselves all the time. Please keep that in mind when anything happens in here. If we see people we know.

[jmencalisse]

What does that mean, you think these lines will kill us after all?

[He's kind of surprised they haven't already, honestly. They look like the freakiest blood-poisoning disease ever.]

[jumpthegun]

I don't think it'll be the lines that kill us directly, no. But if we go mad and attack people, they'll be well within their rights to kill us in self-defense. Or vice versa if they start attacking us. It's happened before.

[jmencalisse]

[That's fucked up.]

Nothing we can do about it?

cw: reference to self-harm/suicide

[jumpthegun]

There's a possibly permanent solution, but until we know which way the chips are falling on who's attacking who, I don't recommend it.

[David might be able to pick up what John's implying here. It's a very unfortunate implication.]

cw: reference to self-harm/suicide

[jmencalisse]

[There's a short pause.] Nice. This town never fails to deliver.

Guess we should focus on getting out of here then.

[jumpthegun]

As best we can, yeah. Keep an eye out. Something's gonna change. We need to do our best to catch it when it does.

[That's really the best they can do for right now.]

[jmencalisse]

Alright.

... I guess I got a floor to soap. Sit tight.