[ He usually wouldn't go out of his way for someone of House's... particular character. BUT. He was the one who had theorized and seriously considered this in the first place.
So, telling him the end result of that unfortunate search would only make sense. He scratched their backs. It's time for them to scratch his.
...He'll keep this brief if he can. ]
Hey. That microchip theory? We looked into it. Nothing. Came out clean. I thought you might wanna know.
[Oh. Thank. God. Having to deal with people and those injections has tested the limit of House's will in terms of managing his ever diminishing number of pills.]
have to get food, but i'll head south after how much is there?
[Is that a lack of gratitude? Or any acknowledgement of the fact that the last time they talked House was snarling at him? Not at all.]
you ask @AK to joinyou.join us we will join the club
[ referring to facetious remarks made in oldass threads without any context at all is perfectly normal human behaviour, right? Especially out of the blue like this. Nailed it. FUCKING NAILED IT. ]
[she worked hard to dredge up the energy to reach out to him, so she hopes he'll actually answer instead of just hanging up again like the morning before.]
[of course, a very loud part of her just wants to ignore him, but the rest of her insists that he can't get away with insulting her and then just hanging up. Plus, there was something odd about his voice, at the end...]
...Doctor.
[she keeps her voice steady. Controlled. Careful.]
[There's a long silence where House considers not answering. He doesn't particularly want to talk with her, especially given how crowded the shed is. But this is one point where he does actually feel some obligation.]
text the room's crowded, fuzzball what do you want?
[Well, he's not required to be any politer than normal.]
[ Congratulations, Rhys. You've hit House in the middle of his first hallucination. This may be for the better or for the worse depending on how much you like seeing a man in agony. ]
Stace?
[ There's precisely one person outside his parents who calls him that, so that must be who it is. And this must be the hospital after the initial surgery. He can feel the needle for the morphine - 20 mg/hr... inadequate - stuck in his arm. Where Rhys is riding high, House looks like an absolute mess, slumped against the wall. ]
How the hell do you think I'm doing? God! [ He breaks off, drawing in a short breath and squeezing his eyes shut. ] Tell them to up the dose.
Hey, Mr. H, I searched Shelley's house last night. There was an SD Card hidden in the wallpaper, I only found it after cutting some down. It gave me an application that has this interactive keyboard that projects out onto other surfaces outside the tablet, but it also came with an audio message. I think it should be in the public data now, but I'll send it to you, too.
[Quark attaches a link to the message so House can get there more conveniently.]
I don't know how much it helps, but I thought I'd tell you anyway since you asked me to go look. I guess Shelley's kids got tired of her memory problems.
[This is a surprisingly welcome bit of good news.]
Nice job, kid!
Check the wallpaper. Something else to remember. [That's half-muttered to himself.]
Headed down to the ice tunnels now. We can check over by the retirement home we found down there again. Might be something in the area we missed last time. There was some sort of humming in the place. Wonder if it might be Derricks'. I'll keep you updated.
[And then another thought occurs to him... given what a good little minion Quark's proved to be so far.]
Where are you heading next? Back to Epps and Enoch?
Now see Rhys jump into the frame, joined by Dumpy. The ten-second loop of Shake It Off by the Goddess Swift begins to play, with Rhys accompanying on... not one, but two bottles of vicodin. Being used as maracas.
There is dancing. There is nonexistent ass shaking. It is quite a performance. ]
[This is perhaps the least snarky that Beckett has ever sounded within House's hearing. Instead his tone is carefully neutral, as though he'd much rather be doing this by text. Which he would.]
[House sounds like he has an incredibly bad cold when he replies.]
There are monsters banging on the windows, I've had to listen to Hale sobbing about her sister all day, and I haven't had my meds for more than 48 hours. Make this quick and interesting or I'm hanging up.
I didn't want anyone else to take your medicine, Mr. H, so I just got to the pharmacy and I have them for you. Where are you right now? I'll head your way first thing in the morning.
[He still sounds sickly, but not as horrible as before. Getting ahold of his meds from Haurchefant has helped immensely, but he's still recovering from the withdrawal and... partial starvation and dehydration.]
I'm in the clinic. Probably staying here for a while.
*Tonight's video features snow, rubble, and what appears to be a home decor store. The shelves are basically empty, but damn there are a lot of them. Lots and lots of aisle of...creepy. Most of the video is quiet, but sometimes footsteps (other than Brian's) can be heard and at a few points giggling (?!) happens. The source of the giggling is never seen, but when its heard the picture has mild, rippling distortions. Those happen sometimes for the extra footsteps too. Brian's normal distortions also happen. Thankfully none of those ripple.*
[House doesn't have many new and exciting things to offer, but he does have a short film of the school showing the piano and then the graffiti he and Jim put together.
[Well, that gets an honest to goodness smile of amusement. Too bad no one is around to see it... except maybe the spiders. House just smirks as he reads through the 'report,' snorting when he gets to the fake cat and lightning bolts.]
grade: b- future reports should:
include photographic and/or video evidence of objects used, method, and setting as an appendix
include date and time of various experiments
include atmospheric conditions (e.g., approximate temperature and weather) at the time of the experiment
*Tonight Brian and Jade are touring a small book store, an accessory store and a large library.
The bookstore's shelves are mostly empty (surprise, surprise) but there are a few books still there. They mostly seem to be fictional and range from novels to picture books. None of the books have dates or prices on them. The building itself is dark, as there are clearly not enough windows to light everything. There's a back room that's locked but Brian doesn't spend much time at it once discovering the door can't be opened.
The accessory store was once brightly colored but is now worn, damp and slightly moldy. There are still some scarves, bags, costume jewelry and other accessories in the store but most of it seems ruined.
The library is large, consisting of two floors and has sections that one'd normally expect in a library and a few study rooms. There are also some lounge areas, including a children's libary and a teen's library, both of which have beanbag chairs. At one point Brian cuts open a beanbag chair in the teen's library but there's only normal beanbag chair stuff inside of it. Occasionally there are tables and chairs that look like they once had computers but, like everywhere else, the electronics have been removed. The library, like the bookstore, is mostly empty of books. The books, and few magazines, that exist are once again void of dates and suggested retail pricing. The magazines also lack address labels. There's also a section for movies and video games but it's completely empty.*
Night 94
*Much less of interest this day as most of the area seems to be snow and rubble. (Brian thankfully doesn't send ALL of their rubble wanderings, just bits here and there. Enough to get the idea that there isn't much else to be found.) The only building the pair find is a storage unit that is sadly lacking in lighting. Brian explores it by tablet-light and discovers only illegible and/or crumbling books.*
Night 95
*More rubble, more snow, and eventually a return to the building from the night before. Brian and Jade go through the storage unit again and gets much of the same results. They do find a book cover that looks interesting, something about miniaturization in technology...but the book itself is completely missing.*
Night 93 [There's just the inside of the hot water house looking pretty boring apart from a brief view of Quark who's standing by the door looking anxious.]
Night 94 [It's a view that will be familiar to anyone who's entered the ice tunnels. Just a shot of the inside of Building 58. There's a shot of Ginger and Clayton in the little house along with House.]
Night 95 [The video cuts between the ice tunnels and the pharmacy, then a basement with an old firewood stove. It's extremely dark in here, and House's penlight is the only thing to show that the stove is there. He gets a few shots of the inside, but it looks to be empty.]
[House switches his voice to text on for incoming messages because he'd really rather not have a conversation that Joker's going to overhear. He watches the video a few times through before responding.]
interesting the video not the ghost what do you mean one gave this to you? where?
[But Kunsel's a man of his word, even if he's unhappy about it. A picture follows the text, and there's all the proof that House will ever need that he didn't tell a lie. His face is fairly ordinary, no major scars or blemishes. He's even managed to keep it fairly clean-shaven. His hair has been recently trimmed, thanks to scissors Cloud found before they got separated. Still a bit of an untidy mop of light brown, but it looks like he's kept it somewhat clean.
He's got his eyes closed, though. Never made any promises about that, after all.]
[Oh. Great. Just what he needs when he's apparently on truth serum. At least being precise seems to help cut down the unnecessary spilling his guts moments.]
Yo, I've got your stuff. Everything Steve listed and your scarf and your pills. I'm still downtown but I can bring it to you if you let me know where to meet you. [America sounds exhausted, but much more serious than he's basically ever been on the network, not counting the times he was furious on behalf of someone or something.]
[House stares down at the message, a part of his heart skipping a beat. His pills. They got his pills and it's the 'I'm your country, you're my citizen' guy who might actually give them all back.]
out of the two possible options you are my favorite country right now
have to pick up food at the school but heading down to the tunnels after that i'll meet you down that way
[Great. Awesome. He's going to tell a third person he doesn't want to about things.]
told him i'm suicidal, depressed, and going to use the revive mechanic to find answers or screw with the admin until they stop reviving me he got real worried the bastards would shut the whole thing down gotta say i would've thought you'd be down for lobotomizing me
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