thewarningafter | IC inbox for Snowblind

thewarningafter

@beyonce

You've reached Dr. Stephen Strange. Leave a message and my secretary will get back to you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

thewarningafter

Don't knock it, I worked hard to get this martyr complex. And good, keep it that way. It doesn't even matter here and the kid doesn't need to be harassed about it.

[Guess who has zero faith that House will continue not bringing it up.]

Of course you are. This couldn't possibly be easy. I'm trying to get back to the residential area to pick up my cloak, but I can come back south for you if that'll hurry things up.

From:

rubikscomplex

sure thing
dad

[So suspicious, Stephen!]

no go get your cloak
i don't wanna have to run back through the pass like this
and we need to get into those sealed buildings
i'll be working on that
this isn't urgent

From:

thewarningafter

Mhmm. So you're definitely not going to change your mind about this in the week it'll take me to get back here and throw a tantrum when I hold you to it.

[ He has a point about the pass, though. It'll take that much longer with House along. ]

You can save me a day if you stop in the bus station just north of the gate and check whether the vending machines have real food in them.

From:

rubikscomplex

have i ever thrown a tantrum?
about something that wasn't drugs?

i'm almost out of food, anyway
i'll check the machines

From:

thewarningafter

Well, there was the time you spent several days hunting down every typo I made because you were ticked off that I'd included publicly available information about you in the census. And that time you tried to sic Alfie on me for the Vicodin -- didn't work, by the way, he and his buddy very conscientiously refused to rob me. Something about baseline respect for the value of doctors who aren't assholes? Something like that.

From:

rubikscomplex

being petty isn't a tantrum
and i didn't sic solomons on you
you're just a super nervous guy
you should take something for that anxiety, doc

From:

thewarningafter

We're not even in the same building yet and I already regret agreeing to this.

From:

rubikscomplex

hey
you can say no
i'm not holding a gun to your head
and funny story there
you know how people sometimes gain memories when they die?
it's really freaking annoying

From:

thewarningafter

Not the first time I've heard of it, but probably the first time someone's called it annoying. How long were you -- what's the, uh, what's the time span on the memories?

From:

rubikscomplex

about a year
and it's annoying because i figured out how to cure my leg
but wilson and legs
were surprised that i wasn't using a cane
he was from at least five years ahead
she was from at least four
ergo the treatment failed

also
i just go shot by some patient's husband
so that was a bitch

From:

thewarningafter

That's terrible. I'm sorry, I know what that's like, finding something you think will work and then it doesn't -- it never works, and suddenly you're a soldier in a war you didn't know what was happening -- not you, me, I'm kind of reading in my own experiences here and that's...not helping.

At least you know the gunshot also failed.

From:

rubikscomplex

okay, soldier boy
let's put a bookmark in that until you're feeling less chatty

and he wasn't shooting to kill me
he just wanted me to suffer
i think
i had a whole hallucination thing
it made sense

From:

thewarningafter

[Yes, please, they can just not talk about that.]

Oh, well, if it made sense in your hallucination.

From:

rubikscomplex

don't be an idiot
i don't always consciously process things
i probably saw his wife's obit or someone told me about it
and i made the connection
i knew who he was from her diagnosis
i don't usually get repeats on my cases

i knew he put a bullet through my neck
even though i wasn't conscious for that
i also figured out i was hallucinating while i was hallucinating
we had a case before the guy came in
i was working through it
but things weren't adding up
i was losing time
knew the test results the second my team did
it didn't make sense

From:

thewarningafter

Uh huh. Look, I'm aware that people process information in dreams, you don't need to explain that to me. It's just usually when you wake up that you put it all together into something that makes sense -- what's going on in your head during sleep isn't exactly thinking.

You know how many times I've figured out how to get us all out of here in a dream? And somehow it never works when I wake up.

From:

rubikscomplex

maybe what's going on in your dreams isn't thinking
kinda wonder if that extends to your brain for the waking hours, too, sometimes.

anyway
the point is
i got shot
it hurt like a bitch
and there wasn't even anything good that came out of it in the end

From:

thewarningafter

And yet you're the one asking me for help. Yeah, I know, I'm a brainless do-gooder or whatever else you're going to call me this time.

And I'm sorry you got shot. Really. Never been through that myself but it's not exactly on my bucket list, either.

From:

rubikscomplex

i said sometimes
if you were a brainless do-gooder all the time
you'd be as annoying as elric or watson
you're selfish, too
i like that
flaws give you character
beyond self-sacrificial moron

you've died plenty of other ways, though
getting shot is probably one of least unpleasant things to ever happen to me after this place
don't add getting your tongue cut out to the bucket list, either

From:

thewarningafter

Gee, thanks. Glad I passed your litmus test; I'd hate to think I wasn't entertaining you. And I wasn't about to. I've had enough dismemberment without getting specific enough to try the tongue.

You asked how I felt about garroting, once. It's not a favorite, it's -- it's too slow. The slow ones are the hardest. Shooting might not be so bad if they shot the right part of you, but getting shot in the neck....

From:

rubikscomplex

oh, get over yourself
it's a compliment

i was out for the neck
chest hurt enough
ever seen "reservoir dogs"?
now mr. orange had it bad
i'm also pretty sure that guy had twice as much blood as any human being i've ever seen

From:

thewarningafter

You were just saying that you like that I'm not over myself.

Mhmm, twice as much blood and half as many ears -- no, that was the cop. The other cop, the one they knew was a cop. You'd be surprised how long it can take a person to bleed out, though.

From:

rubikscomplex

i admire that you have flaws
they still make you a whiny asshole

and no
i wouldn't be
although, most of my bleeding patients are doing the whole bleeding thing way faster then they should be
admittedly
that makes them more interesting, i find