IC inbox for Snowblind

[thewarningafter]

@beyonce

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

Comments

[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.

[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

[thewarningafter]

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

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

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[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

[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....

[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

[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.

[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

[thewarningafter]

I used to pick my patients by who was the most interesting, too.

[rubikscomplex]

and then you stopped being a doctor
so you don't have patients anymore

[It's a low blow, but he feels a 'lesson' coming on.]

[thewarningafter]

[Wow, House, not everything is about you.]

And you got stranded in a snowy wasteland, so you don't have patients anymore either.

[rubikscomplex]

i've treated people here
have you?

[thewarningafter]

Not for cuts and bruises, no. I've helped a few patients, though. You know, psychopaths...addicts....

[rubikscomplex]

[There's a delay in House's reply because, okay... he walked into that one. But there's a question that raises and he's just going to skip past being Stephen's patient.]

you're not treating the clown
so which psychopath is that?
gray?

[thewarningafter]

Yeah, he asked me to --

[Stephen abruptly hangs up. Doctor-patient confidentiality, House, for crying out loud.]