Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Six

[snowblindmods]

Characters: the marked, the unmarked, and their rescuers
Location: ???
Date: Morning 356
Summary: Time to get out of here.
Warnings: gore, psychological horror, warn for specifics in the subject lines

Part Six OOC Post

Comments

[rubikscomplex]

[He's seriously considering just leaving it. Someone else will probably get to the Joker. Except the number of people who will make an effort to get to the Joker is probably a list of two. Three at the outside, if Hannibal is feeling curious.]

Gimme something to work with, Kujo. You wanna talk about Harley, maybe? Your little clownette. Run into her, yet? Think you'll ever get your hands on her again? Survey says 'unlikely.' Guess you'll have to make do with me. Think you can catch me?

[harlequinofhate]

[Harley...

Harley?

Hate. Love. Kiss. Kill.

Joker slowly moves towards House, towards the tiny pinprick of something external that is piercing through the fog of madness.

Then he lunges towards the doctor like an animal.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House jerks back again, slamming back against the wall this time. Not good! He tries to slide to the side, through the walls of the imagined cell. If the Joker's quick enough, though, he'll have time to catch the doctor.]

Joker, come on. You don't start twigging, I'm seriously gonna start making out with the clownette. She kissed me once, you know? [This isn't something he should be telling Joker, but it's to elicit a strong emotion.] We made out when everyone was turning into anomalies. Guess she didn't want whatever you were.

[harlequinofhate]

HAHAHEEEHOO!

[The Joker feels a jolt of rage and slams forward, through the walls of a cell that's not really there.]

Kill you!

[rubikscomplex]

[Yeah, we're running now.]

Kill the static, bro! It's way more of a little bitch!

cw: self harm

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker stops running and peers around. Static, static everywhere...

In his brain.

In his blood...

Kill the static...

He drops to his knees and slams his head against the floor.]

cw: self harm

[rubikscomplex]

[House hears the crack of knees and... pulls up to a halt. He turns and sees the Joker abusing himself and struggles to parse out why. Except he knows why. Because he's trying to get whatever's in his head out.

It's going to be a bad idea to do this. He should leave the guy, but then someone else is going to have to deal with him... and possible shank him while the shanking is good. The doctor turns and approaches the psychotic clown again.]

For the love of god, you're dramatic! Would you stop and get up?

[If this doesn't actually stop him, House will try to move behind Joker and hook his arms under the guy's pits to halt him.]

cw: self harm

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker feels the blood streaming from his nose, but the noise isn't gone. He can still feel the static buzzing between his ears.

He manages a hiss.]

In.

My.

Head.

cw: self harm

[rubikscomplex]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... it's in all our heads, buddy boy.

Stop it.

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker squeezes his eyes shut so he can see the darkness in his own mind better.

Whatever's been happening down here drove him sane then back around the loop to madness again and he feels nauseous.]

HAHAhe-

I've gone completely quackers.

[And he lunges in House's direction again, but something within the Joker is starting to emerge now that he's walked out of his cell without realizing it: lucidity. There is a faint glimmer now.]

[rubikscomplex]

[House feels a headache, so they can match. He lets go and dodges away from the Joker when the man lunges for him again.]

You've always been quackers. It's when you aren't I start to worry.

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker stumbles and clutches his head again, peering at House from between his fingers.]

....Why are you in my cell?

[rubikscomplex]

You're not in your cell. There never were cells. It's just Miller screwing around with our perceptions. [He gestures to the empty, moldy room around them. Most people have already left to escape.]

Injuries seem real enough, but outside of that, it's all been in our heads.

[harlequinofhate]

[Joker clutches the sides of his head and scowls.

There are shapes starting to take form in the static.]

You mean this whole thing was Miller frying our noodles!?

We must have just been beating the snot out of each other down here!

[rubikscomplex]

Considering I remember one of you biting and bleeding all over me, yeah. We beat each other up. And you guys with the lines beat yourselves up. Dunno what you wanna make of that.

But, yeah. Miller. He of the space heater-hoarding. Guy pissed off the Admin enough she sent in the cavalry, apparently.

[harlequinofhate]

[A peel of giggles.]

KYAHAHAHEEHAHA!

That's a good joke.

Gotta give it to ole Miller, he got us good, eh?

[He claps House on the shoulder.]

Get me the heck outta here.

[rubikscomplex]

[For a given value of 'joke,' House supposes. He knows the Joker has very different ideas about how comedy here works. He can see the humor in the horrifyingly absurd. Which is, really, something to be envious of more than anything. The doctor starts when the clown smacks his shoulder, but it's not aggressive or accompanied by nails sinking into his coat, so it will do.]

One escape, fresh and hot, coming right up!

[Better to get Joker out of here while he feels like getting voluntarily. He gestures for the other man to follow and starts toward the exit to the maze of tunnels. They'll be unconscious and returned to their respective locations above ground before they can actually find the way out on their own. But at least they can feel like they're doing this themselves.]