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

[rubikscomplex]

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.

Comments

[motherserpent]

[Oh, finally got a healthy respect, has he? Tess eyes House, catching the direction of his gaze and letting out a little snort.]

Don't say that word; he knows it. Roy likes chickens.

[rubikscomplex]

You're the hen. They taste better. I'm just the cock.

[In oh so many ways.]

Are you gonna tell him not to bite me?

[motherserpent]

Don't bite him, Roy.

[She sits down on the sleeping bag she'd been laying out, propping her weight on her arms and gazing up at House.]

I'm not crazy anymore, by the way. I mean, I'm just garden variety crazy now, not paint the walls with your blood crazy. It was good timing, I think. But I will let him eat you if you pull out any more of his feathers.

[rubikscomplex]

Tempting, but I'm trying to declutter my life, not add to it. Is it just you? Graham's around with me.

[He relaxes and steps farther into the room, but he keeps a wary eye on Roy.]

[motherserpent]

This is the part where the women's travel guides tell you to say you've got a big, burly boyfriend lurking around somewhere -- but no. Just me. Other me wasn't real keen on running into anyone, strangely enough. Something to do with getting my ass murdered by the Joker when I tried to garrote him.

[rubikscomplex]

I mean, you've got a giant-ass floating snake. He fills in for the big, burly boyfriend.

Also, never try to kill the Joker. I tried to just cuff 'im once. I got murdered, too.

[motherserpent]

Yeah, learned that one firsthand. But that's fine, I'd rather just not murder anyone anyway.

[rubikscomplex]

Tch! Coward.

[His tone clearly sarcastic.]

Anything else you felt like doing that you're not anymore? I remember being promised a tattoo on my face.

[motherserpent]

[She groans.]

You realize I was coming on to you when I said that, right? Big fucking Mark like that, right where everyone could see it. Scandalous.

[rubikscomplex]

...Is it like the god-equivalent of a hickey?

That'd be pretty hot.

[motherserpent]

I hope not, considering I put one on my kid.

It's kind of like a contract. A lot of god stuff is basically contracts.

[rubikscomplex]

So, it's scandalous to put a mark like that on your kid? I'm getting some mixed messages here, mistress.

[motherserpent]

I mean, it'd be weird to put it on his face. It's like --

[She frowns and makes a little tutting noise as she thinks how to explain.]

It's a promise that I'll protect -- him. You. Anyone I put it on. But it's also, like...advertisement. Like a claim; you don't protect anyone you don't see as being yours, you get it? So if I stuck a big Mark on your face I'd be saying that's the first thing I want anyone to know about you.

I mean, if you want my Mark on your face....

[rubikscomplex]

Does this mark actually make me yours? Not here, I mean, but if we were back where you're from. Is there some magical binding bullshit where my soul would be bound to yours, or something?

[motherserpent]

Yeah, you'd be fatebound as shit. Like -- it's not one to one causation, but it'd sure as hell contribute. Fate's a bitch; normally I can barely even talk to mortals without it happening.

[rubikscomplex]

Lucky Fate screwed off here.

[He eyes her for a long moment, contemplating. A mark from another 'cult' god is probably the last thing he needs in his life, but he's curious.]

Can your mark cancel out someone else's?

[motherserpent]

Seriously, it's kind of been great.

[Fuck fate. Tess doesn't even know yet that fate is a person and she still hates her. She gives him a thoughtful look in return.]

Like the Prophet? Ish. It'd be the more recent claim, and mine's a Mark of protection, which means something kind of different than hers.

cw: mentions of self-harm; skinning

[rubikscomplex]

I just want you to cover it. I don't care what it means. I keep cutting it off, but every time I die it comes back. [A pause.] Pretty sure I'm carving it into myself and forgetting.

[As you do. House taps his chest over his heart.]

It's here.

cw: mentions of self-harm; skinning

[motherserpent]

Jesus.

[She grimaces at the thought. That sounds like par for the course, though.]

Let me see.

cw: mentions of self-harm; skinning; branding/scarring; starvation/disordered eating

[rubikscomplex]

[House turns away from Tess and Roy briefly to undo zippers and buttons. The doctor starts shedding layers. By the time that he's down to just a T-shirt, Tess will see how unnaturally thin the doctor is. House is a lanky man at the best of times, but his particular brand of taking control--eating far less than he should--shows when he turns back to her her and lifts his shirt to show the outline of his ribs poking through on his chest.

More to the heart of the current matter, there's the symbol of the Prophet carved deep into his skin over his heart.]

I'd've done the strip tease, but I only do that when there's music playing.

cw: mentions of self-harm; skinning; branding/scarring; starvation/disordered eating

[motherserpent]

[Tess doesn't need the godly health-vision to see how fucked up this guy has gotten. Everyone here is unwashed and too skinny, but that doesn't look like the consequences of limited resources to her -- that looks like outright starvation. She's already frowning deeply before she steps in to take a closer look at the Mark of the Prophet.

Still, she tries to pick up the joke.]

And here I left my kazoo in the other pants. Is this painful now? Any, like...weird temperature shifts on that part of your body, heart palpitations since you got it, that kind of thing?

cw: mentions of branding/scarring; torture; mind-control

[rubikscomplex]

[It looks to have been made with some sort of blade. The scar doesn't look newly fresh, but it only looks to be a few months old, at most.]

Nope. I fooled around with a cult and all I got was this lousy scar. About the only thing I know it does is glow on the screen when you film it with the Eye App turned on, on your tablet. [He's quiet for a moment.]

And when we were trapped in the torture tower I had to draw eyes. I felt compelled to draw the eyes. Beckett did, too. We were the only ones who were marked before we got in there.

cw: mentions of branding/scarring; torture; mind-control

[motherserpent]

...Yeah, that sounds like a thing.

[She shudders a little. She isn't even going to touch the 'torture tower' moniker.]

I'm not getting a signal from any of the Marks I've left around town, but if this thing only reacts to certain environments and signals maybe mine will at least provide a little interference. And hey, if nothing else it'll look better when I'm done. Like a cover-up for a tattoo you got when you were drunk, yeah?

[She lifts a hand to hover in front of his chest. No need to keep him standing around shirtless in the cold.]

It won't hurt.

cw: mentions of branding/scarring

[rubikscomplex]

Babe, I wouldn't care if it did at this point. Just cover this crap up. I have to stare at enough of 'em on the walls.

cw: mentions of branding/scarring

[motherserpent]

[Tess shrugs and puts her hand on the mark. Her fingers are cold, but other than that it's pretty anticlimactic. She tilts her head in concentration, gives a harder push, then retracts her hand.

Congratulations, House, you now have a Rod of Asclepius stained on your chest over top of the scar like a cover-up tattoo...but the snake has feathers and the rod is a radio tower. Modern gods are a bit extra.]

Don't say I never did anything for you.