snowblindrpg | [log] I Think We're Alone Now [semi-open]

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[log] I Think We're Alone Now [semi-open]

Characters: Anyone in the Bunker!
Location: Bunker, Building 326 (high school), and Building 317 (hot shower house)
Date: Day 404-409
Summary: Goings on in the bunker post-event, and travel outside for House and Will. Brought to you by this cover.
Warnings: Please add them to subject lines, but likely body horror discussions, examination of vomit.

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You wear a pink scarf and a pencil cap. I'm not sure I trust your fashion sense. [ It wasn't a serious critique. They all wore what they needed to in order to be warm.

Stepping to a better location Will hiked up the light, trying to angle it so that it shown down into the open cavity of the man's chest. ]

Can you get a sample that will have integrity? [ They weren't exactly in the most sterile of environments here. ] Everything feel normal?

[ Yep. These were the types of conversations they had. ]

[House tilts his head as he pulls up a little with what he has in his hand to look at it under the light.]

Definitely lung. It feels tough. That should hold. Outside isn't gonna give us much, but I can cut into. Let me just get this piece out. [He turns and reaches for the scalpel himself so that Will can keep the light where it is. House uses that to cut off one of the lung lobes and draw it out. It's dark, shriveled, about what you'd expect from a corpse that's been gone this long. The doctor sets it carefully on a rag he's laid beside the corpse and makes a shallow, delicate incision. He's trying to avoid puncturing all the way through as he lifts the sides.]

I've got intact lung here and... something inside it that's definitely not lung. [There's a frown in his voice.]

[ This is how they spend their evenings. What was probably more telling was the fact that both of them were completely engaged by the autopsy. Who needed tired rom/coms when you had dead moldy bodies?

Will came closer, peering around House's arm to look at the lung. ]

Can you tell what it is? Maybe an infection of some sort?

[This is fun!

It's House's idea of fun, anyway. This is much more engaging then drawing eyes on everything and trying to find cursed Prophet Eye dolls. And it's a hell of a lot better than most rom-coms. He can live with some of the classics, but he'd always been the horror fan. Wilson's the one who likes to watch movies that make him go all teary-eyed.]

Maybe... [He reaches for the tweezers and uses them to peel back a piece of the lung while he holds it down with the scalpel.] Definitely damage going on, but this looks like something else. [House glances up at the dead man's face. There are flecks of dried something on his chin.]

It's not blood. Could be some kind of vomit.

[ That was it; it was fun.

Will followed House's description, frowning pensively as he looked from the corpse's chin to the bit of lung. ]

It's odd. [ He mused softly. ] Outside this bunker, we have evidence upon evidence of brutal, horrific murder ... slaughter, even. Yet most everybody in here appears to have died of some natural or accidental cause.

[Now that Will raises the point, that is a curiosity.]

This place blocks Wi-Fi reception, I'm thinking. Or power. Maybe lead shielding? And whatever natural cause this schmuck died from, the nanomachines couldn't stop it. It's possible it could've been radiation sickness... [It's difficult to tell, but vomiting would have been a symptom.]

Raises the question of why our nanomachines are still working to a point, though.

[Hmm...]

Maybe the Cult couldn't get in here for whatever reason. The data ghosts couldn't, and they said it was some kinda sickness, itself.

You're assuming that these bodies had nanomachines in the first place. [ Will pointed out, studying the man laid out before them.

After a moment, he looked at House. ]

What is a key component of any experiment? Observation. What if the bodies in this bunker were originally here to observe, whatever was going on in Norfinbury. Whether as a result of what went wrong, or whatever caused the never ending nuclear winter out there, they got trapped in here.

[That is an assumption, and House pauses to consider whether or not it's valid.]

I wonder what would happen if...

[Nope. No.

House shuts his mouth so quickly, his teeth click and he narrowly avoids biting his tongue. His thoughts had wandered toward the experiment with Sherlock so easily. What if they tried transferring their nanomachines into these corpses? Would there be any kind of notable difference? Could they twist around the requirement of killing themselves if they pulled blood out of that fleshmound in the building to the east? How hard would it be to drag a body out there? Should they do it anyway? Ask the Admin to check to see who the body even is?

The dark ideas swirl in his head and while House doesn't particular fear judgement from Will for having them, he's a little ashamed at how easily his mind had turned that way. Draining Sherlock's blood 250 mL at a time had been agony. He'd wanted to almost throw up by the time he was finished. Even with the experiment being a resounding success, House can't feel entirely comfortable with the part he'd played in it on a human level, if not an academic one.

He'd done what he had to do, then.

House realizes he's been quiet for too long and swallows before continuing, tone carefully casual as he goes back to examining the lung and the substance within.]

We should check if that mound of flesh thing east of the high school has nanomachines in its blood. Maybe we can reanimate one of these poor bastards.

[ The fact that House starts, but then stops himself, catches Will's attention and he waits with obvious expectation, eyebrow arching when the doctor doesn't explain. That was ... odd. Usually House would go ahead and blurt it out, no matter how outrageous.

Well with a few exceptions, but those were usually tied to personal conversations rather than topics about this town. ]

Do you have anything to transport the blood in?

[ He does not think this was Plan A. In fact, he's fairly certain this is Plan C ... maybe D. ]

[House is well aware that Will knows that something is up.]

I've got a container we could use, but it'd be easier just to carry the microscope over there. Or we could just go for it and drag one of the corpses over there.

[This is definitely Plan D, but House can elaborate on it on the fly.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[log] I Think We're Alone Now [semi-open]

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection; suicidal ideation; body horror

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection; suicidal ideation; body horror

cw: graphic description of autopsy/dissection; body horror