[log] New Year's Mingle [open]

[rubikscomplex]

Characters: Anyone in the Bunker
Location: Bunker
Date: Let's go with January...
Summary: Mingling in the Bunker
Warnings: Add to subject line!

[All of the rooms within the Bunker have been opened. The latest, Room 19, contains computer parts. They'll need to use those, the soldering gun and other equipment in that room to create some sort of interface with the last locked door in Room 4. There are cables to connect up to the tablets, so maybe that will help, as well. And they still have other computers in Room 24 and 26 to use.

There are other things to be about, as well. The Bunker is, as ever, cold, slightly glowing, and moldy. And there are plenty of other rooms to check in on.]

Comments

cw: mentions of amputation

[rubikscomplex]

A - Room 23
[The real action might be in Room 19, but House's experience with electrical equipment begins and ends with home circuit repair and screwing around with amplifiers for his electric guitar. You call tech support for this kind of crap in his day and age. He'll leave the computer stuff to the computer people unless some sort of code or puzzle they can't hack their way past turns up.

In the meanwhile, there are viable medical supplies in Room 23. He'd told Gray he'd start moving them into the room where they're piling all the other junk. It's slow-going, but it's at least something to do with himself other than contemplate his lack of hand, his missing toes, and the end being imminent. At least they can't see the damn static cloud light in here. He's gathering some supplies into a blanket when he hears someone enter the room. House flicks the tablet he's using as a light over in that direction.]

Make yourself useful. I'm getting all the gauze together first.

B - Room 01
[House isn't sure there's really much to do in the kitchen, but there are electronics and those seem... useful? Whoever comes in will hear him muttering darkly before there's the sound of something metallic striking another metallic something.]

Oh, c'mon! What are these things made of? Unobtanium?

[House is holding a blender and has clearly just failed to smash it open.]

B

[sharktrash]

[ It's been a while. ]

[ Well, maybe not that much of a while. Last Squalo saw House in person had been when they were cleaning one of the mold infested rooms. The second last time was him repeatedly kicking the guy on the floor. It's... progress? ]

[ House gets a rather flat look as Squalo walks in and sees him performing... hell, it might actually be an experiment, he's not about to pretend he's knowledgeable in this. Despite his apparent shallow annoyance, he takes note of the missing hand. ]

[ His voice, on the other hand, comes out practically cheerful. ]

But will it blend?

[ yeah. you were literally asking for that. ]

[rubikscomplex]

[That voice is familiar as someone dangerous, and House half-turns, raising the blender, fully prepared to chuck it at Squalo. Except he doesn't seem to be doing anything. For now. And someone with two hands--sort of--might be useful. The doctor lowers his arm.]

I'll plug it in. You get your dick out, and we can check. I'm in the mood for a cocktail, how 'bout you?

[sharktrash]

[ That probably wouldn't do him too many favors. ]

[ Need a hand, House? ]

Let's try your tongue first. At least the community won't lose anything worthwhile then.

[ Squalo are you saying your dick is a gift to the people ]

[ Except he's sort of wistful about the idea of a cocktail because it has been like half a year since he's had a decent drink aside from some questionable wine he'd somehow dug up with Xanxus. And now even food was getting impossible to find, great. ]

In a perfect world. Best I can scrounge up with what I've got is a rations smoothie.

[ Which is... not exactly appetizing, to say the least. ]

[rubikscomplex]

You think my tongue can reach the bottom of a blender? I mean, I admit it, guilty as charged. I'm a sex god and women love me, but I'm guessing you'd actually get closer with the other thing. Unless you're saying you wouldn't?

[Wanna compare the package to the depth of the blender, buddy? No? Probably for the best.]

Anyway, I heard some people are doing a food run. Maybe we'll have some real fruit or whatever one last time before we blow this popscicle stand. Personally? I wouldn't use anything that's been sitting in mold for who the hell knows how long. I'm impressed all the basic equipment still works, though.

[He glanced down at the blender.]

I was thinking we could use the parts for... something.

[sharktrash]

Let me remove that for you and we'll see, huh?

[ He's got a few knives on him. He's not taking out any just yet. House may be annoying but he's not exactly a threat, especially in this state. ]

Probably a good idea. [ Not using moldy equipment, that is. Not that it's a lot of help either way. ] Yeah that's very elaborate. What, you can rearrange this into a bomb or something?

[ He's really not big on electronics and parts. They had a team for things like that. ]

A - Room 23

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

Gladly. [ Will said in a wry tone. He didn't even ask for a please at this point; he knew better. ]

But besides gauze you need to tell me what around here is still worth grabbing?

[rubikscomplex]

[House pauses in stooping for an unrolled strip of gauze and grabs his tablet up from the floor, instead, shining it around the room.]

Think I saw a couple of syringes still in their packaging. Only the ones in the packaging... watch out for stray needles, otherwise. I don't have a tetanus booster handy. Leave any meds if Strange didn't pick them over when he first opened this place up.

[He shines his light in Will's direction before adding:]

You check out the new server room?

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Wincing as House practically blinds him, Will frowned and shook his head. ]

I don't know anything about computers, so I'm not going to take up space better allocated to the people who do.

[ Heading over towards the the draw House had vaguely motioning towards, Will lit up his own tablets and began to scan for any stray needles, as well as pick out what packaging still appeared intact. ]

Did you take a peek?

[rubikscomplex]

[He does see the wince and drops the light down to Will's feet. When the other man turns on his own tablet, House returns to his gauze collection efforts.]

Glanced at it when I was heading over here. Looks like the server room for the hospital. Hell if I know what goes on in there. Figured the resident code monkey's'll work it out. If they don't... we're just doomed. [Mock-ominous tone is ominous. Mainly because it's... true.]

Speaking of doomed, I'm still wondering what happened in here, really. I mean, the black mold of death clearly happened. But this room looks like someone ripped the place apart. Maybe it's where they were keeping Miller?

Night 438-Morning 439, room 19

[warriorscribe]

Entrance, early night 438

[Enoch is feeling absolutely awful by the time he makes his way into this room, the effects of the mold and persistent nausea make for a very unfun time. For a while, he just sits against the wall, having just barely moved over enough to allow someone else to enter, an unholy mess of bodily lethargy and a mind screaming for him to breathe more, why do his lungs feel like they can't hold enough?

When he catches his breath, when it doesn't come so shallow, he can't sleep. He picks up his tablet from where he'd dropped it beside him on the floor and starts going through the piles of things that have been sorted, looking at the ends of everything and testing them in the connections available in his tablet. It might not actually do anything, but it's something for him to do. He looks kind of like an idiot, though, just shoving things at his tablet that might even just be wires not connected to anything.]

Climbing, late night 438-into morning 439

[It doesn't last him long. After some hours of trying to sleep and failing, still feeling mostly miserable, he gets up and starts exploring the space itself. Eventually, he starts trying to scale the equipment, though he's promptly reminded his body isn't what it used to be, and his first attempt to climb up something that isn't terribly tall in comparison to the park structure he climbed when he first arrived ends with him falling flat on his ass.

Graceful.]

Finally making a discovery, morning 439

[It's only after he's explored the top of the servers that he realizes there were ports on the server that he never checked out. Returning to the piles of parts, he finds a suitable wire and does so-...and finds his tablet acting as a monitor for it. And what he finds there...]

There's-...Helel, capture this screen immediately! [The tablet chimes in response, though he doesn't look to see whether it actually succeeded in taking the screenshot. He's too busy trying to get the attention of anyone else who joined him or who was already there through the night.]

Look- look here! Quickly, I don't know how long my tablet will last!

[And on his tablet, they'll see a program meant for opening doors.]

morning 439

[rubikscomplex]

[House is a new arrival this morning, poking into the final room in the Bunker now that he's moved the medical supplies over from Room 23. He's actually a little surprised to find Enoch of all people pointing excitedly at his tablet. House is fairly useless with the tech here, but he knows more than Mr. Bible Studies, at least, and hobbles over. His jacket is pinned up over his missing hand and he's got a bad limp on the right side where he's lost some toes thanks to Beckett's anomaly.]

What?

[He squints at the screen, seeing some kind of program.]

We need to get Rhys and Angel.

[House knows enough to know they're going to be much more efficient at doing anything here. But, well... first.]

You tried poking around on that screen at all?

[warriorscribe]

[Oh, House looks like he's in bad shape. Enoch winces as he watches him move, but doesn't say anything - it would only annoy him and House is a doctor, and would be able to look after himself better than Enoch ever would.]

I tried using it; it says it's disconnected.

[He looks back in the direction of the piles of stuff on the floor. A lot of it looks delicate, and his hands are shaking from lack of sleep and food.]

We'll certainly have to get them. Even if I knew what to do with most of these...

[rubikscomplex]

[Enoch assumes a great deal in thinking House takes care of himself particularly well just because he's a doctor.

House follows Enoch's gaze to the floor.]

... Did you clean this place up?

[Because it actually looks a hell of a lot more organized than when he'd poked his head in a couple of days ago.]

[warriorscribe]

[Well he assumes House will try to keep himself from dying, and that means taking care of his injuries as well as he can.

He shakes his head, in response to the question. The actual response comes a moment longer than it should have been.]

I don't know who did, but it was organized like this when I entered...last night? It's hard to tell time in here.

Day 440; cw mild injuries I guess; ota

[phaseshifter]

[ When Angel and Rhys get the door unlocked, they run straight for it without even thinking to alert anyone. Progress is exciting! As is getting out of bunkers without having to, like, die. Seriously. Always a plus.

Unfortunately, the opened door doesn't offer freedom. Or hope. Or much of anything, actually, and after a quick back-and-forth between rooms Angel races back to the newly-opened one.

The trip is a lot noisier than it was the first time. Mostly because Angel is yelling in a very un-Angelly kind of way. ]

Son of a BITCH!

[ She's attacking the sealed door with a forearm-sized shard of glass. The glass doesn't break, so it's obviously made of Weird Strong-ass Norfinbury Alloy Bullshit, but it doesn't damage the door either. Not that that stops her from continuing to try and carve or pry her way through, even as the glass starts cutting into her hands. ]

Let us in!!

[ She can either be interrupted mid-tantrum or found off in the room with the bunk beds later, quiet and curled up and nursing her damaged hands. RIP, Angel's poker face. IT HAD A GOOD RUN. ]

[rubikscomplex]

[House had vaguely heard the shouting, but he'd been preoccupied with his own things. The door being open had caught his attention, but the mold had already felt like it was clogging his lungs, so he'd limped along to the bunk bed room. He'd see about it after taking a break.

Finding Angel in the room, curled up, but not asleep, has him raising his brows. He sits down on a bed next to hers.]

Taking it we've got another bullshit run we need to make for another keycard.

[phaseshifter]

No.

[ She just sounds... dull. Not in the usual "ooh I'm Angel and I'm packing away my emotions like I always do when things go badly" kind of way - it's a deeper level of deadness. ]

The computer says the electronics have been removed. By the town for scrap, maybe, or by Miller when he was here. It's just closed. Permanently.

[ She doesn't look up or even move at all. Why bother? ]

[rubikscomplex]

[House is silent for a long moment, letting that news wash over him. He's mostly... annoyed? They went through all that trouble, all this crap, and they get a permanently locked door? No. No, that's bull. He's not accepting that for an answer. It's not in him to accept that they'll just never have the answers on the other side of that damn door.]

Huh... and you think that's the only way through? That program unlocks doors, right? Pretty sure there's more than one around here.

[phaseshifter]

There's Squalo's baby. The coffin door. Dunno if the program could be transferred off the computer and taken out there, or if there's annything there to plug a tablet into anyway, but if someone feels like wasting their time going all the way out there to find out they can be my guest.

[ Bitter? WHO'S BITTER?? ]

morning 442; closed to the SOB SQUAD™

[phaseshifter]

[ Angelnomaly promised to return, so. She has. She's good like that, even if she's a little late because she might have spent a day or two trying to bury herself in the snow walls because she's AWFUL and HIDEOUS and she SUCKS and she TOTALLY GOT XANXUS KILLED PROBABLY AND MADE SQUALO SAD and she FAILED TO STOP THE POWER PLANT THING and tl;dr everything is basically the worst.

Man, the last few days have sucked. For her. It's probably just been business as usual in the bunker. What could possibly have happened in the few days she's not been stalking the place?

WHAT

COULD POSSIBLY

HAVE GONE WRONG??? ]

 

 

[ Anyhoo. She can see a few figures outside the bunker as she approaches. Not too clearly - her vision really isn't as great as it used to be now that she has nO FUCKING EYES - so she calls out in advance as she gets nearer. Just to give them time to run if they're people who might be scared of her. Look how considerate she is! ]

Helloooo? Um, it's me. Angel. Is it, um - am I ok to approach?

[ Man, she hopes so. An uplifting conversation is just what she needs right now! ]

[sharktrash]

[ GUESS WHO WAS SORT OF WAITING FOR HER TO COME BACK HOWEVER ISN'T EVEN ACKNOWLEDGING HER RIGHT NOW??? ]

[ That'd be Squalo, sitting outside by the wall in the goddamn snow, clutching a tablet, looking all but ready to die on that very spot. Was he actually crying? Who knows. It's entirely possible. ]

[bookofnope]

[Well goddamn. Not going off dramatically and actually waiting had actually worked. Beckett would spend more time being flabbergasted if he - well - if he had more time.

He's got work to do.

He ignores Sad Squalo - Sadlo? - and marches out into the snow to meet the approaching anomaly. There's probably going to be nausea and blood soon, not to mention hideous glowy poisoning, but what the hell, they're all going to die. He has other problems. His main problem is the constant wheel turning in the back of his head, the constant, constant struggle to remind himself, imperfect copy. She isn't Angel.

So they can use her.]

Hello, Angel. Come on in.

[phaseshifter]

[ HEY. WHAT. WHAT? WHAT. WHAT. ]

What?

[ Seeing Beckett is... complicated. Because he's Beckett, and she loves him to pieces, and it's been forever. But he's not the Beckett that was down in the room with her. He hasn't been changed. He's a copy, and while that doesn't make him lesser it does make him kind of an unknown.

But it's Beckett, though. And he's inviting her inside the bunker. She's not allowed there in her current state, so maybe it's a trap? Maybe they've got one of the remaining rooms open and they're going to shut her in there forever and --

-- and then she spots Squalo, and she's pretty sure he's freaking crying, and suddenly it doesn't matter all that much about whether this is a trap or not. ]

Why is - what's going on? Don't get too close. Don't touch me. Is - is he alright?

[ She floats her way inside, confused and distressed in equal measure. HEY GUYS? GUYS?? WHAT THE EFF? ]

[headjacked]

[ Rhys hangs back in the bunker, arms wrapped around his increasingly-thin frame. He only gives the returners a cursory glance, but quickly double-takes and flinches back when Angelnomaly floats in first.

Well.

Finding her was easier than they were expecting. ]

Oh! You're... u-um. Hi. Angel. You're looking --

[ Awkwawrd hand-motions. ]

Like that. Still. Heya.