Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Four and Five

[snowblindmods]

Characters: red-marked characters and their new friends
Location: ???
Date: Morning 354, Morning and Day 355
Summary: A quiet morning and a confusing morning, or maybe they're both, or maybe they're neither.
Warnings: gore, psychological horror, warn for specifics in the subject lines

Part Four OOC Post
Part Five OOC Post

Comments

cw: injections

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen's gaze goes immediately to House's wrist, and then to the other when he fails to spot a bracelet there. So. Injections, but not labeled like "patients." His eyes widen when he catches what House is doing to himself, but Stephen swallows down his protest. Looks away.]

I don't suppose you found a door.

[rubikscomplex]

Yep.

[Focus on the physical, on the here and now. Don't get locked up in your own head.]

Electronic lock, and I haven't seen a key card. The one time Miller's ID might be useful, and Thomas had to go and leave it in his other pants.

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen lets out a short, high, painful little bark of laughter.]

Of course. Of course they wouldn't let you loose if there was any way out.

[rubikscomplex]

Nothing's ever easy. So, those bracelets you've got change at all between now and when you first got 'em? Might give us a clue if Miller's actually planning to change the parameters for the next round.

[thewarningafter]

[Embarrassingly, Stephen hadn't thought to check that. He does now, squinting at the label, muttering unfamiliar names under his breath.]

It's the same. Maybe it's a different parameter he's going to change. Or maybe he's just shit at the scientific method.

[rubikscomplex]

My money's on that second one. [House falls quiet for a moment, just looking at the man in the cell. They're not friends. They don't even like each other. But this is the second time they've been trapped in hell together. The older doctor rubs a thumb across his forehead, one of the few areas on his face that wasn't specifically injured.]

You know how this goes. We wait for the connection to outside. That's how the game works. We get the connection and we try to get out before they make us kill each other.

[thewarningafter]

[You missed the singalong this time, House.]

Assuming you aren't the sum total of the outside 'help' we're getting.

[This is what worries him, when he's lucid enough to worry instead of to retreat entirely from the situation. It's not following the right pattern.]

[rubikscomplex]

We're not. There'll be a link to outside. Tablets, a video feed, something. I have Quark checking with his Sparrow App for anything. America should be- [Oh, screw it.] America's got a hacking app he's checking with, too.

[thewarningafter]

Since when?

[Why wasn't he told about this? He's on the shadow network, isn't he; what other secret club does he have to join in order to get these kinds of details? He blows out a breath; nods to himself. Tries to convince himself of what House is saying.]

That's the pattern so far, yes.

[rubikscomplex]

Since always. [He's choosing to answer that 'since when' as regards to the pattern, but that may not be entirely obvious.]

I'll let you know if I find anything. Try not to die before we get out.

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen narrows his eyes. Right, ask America directly...if he ever has a chance to talk to America again.]

Well, if they haven't managed to kill me by injecting toxic antibiotics into my hippocampus yet....

[That's actually a thought. He's not sure if they did inject anything into his brain itself.]

[rubikscomplex]

Cool. Sounds like you're set.

[He turns and starts to walk off, but as he does so, he whistles loudly.

It's "Killer Queen."]

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen lets his head drop back against the wall as he listens to House's whistling getting farther away. He sucks in a deep breath, slowly and deliberately letting it out again.

Screw this. Screw all of this.]