155 DIAGNOSIS

[vicodincrutch]

 Shouldn't we as a society and community be more worried that there are countless exotic pets that may be carrying unknown diseases in the City?

Maybe it's late to voice this opinion. I had a lapse in judgment. I believed that everyone would do the right thing and let them go. My bad.

Comments

[Video]

[pinokosthewife]

Huh! You shound like Doc.

Well, my dragon doesn't sheem shick. Pinoko's sure if he shtays clean and eatsh right, he won't be any trouble.

[Video]

[vicodincrutch]

I am a doctor.

[Dramatic sigh and eye roll. So rude, House.]

I have a list for you: cancer, lupus, Crohn’s disease, post-polio syndrome, epilepsy, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis... All of these are conditions and diseases that happen to people who "look fine" but people would choose a root canal over any given day.

You're free to dismiss logic as you please. I hope that your little friend eats all of his veggies.

[Video]

[pinokosthewife]

[She blinks, then pouts. So condescending, House!]

What are we shupposhed to do? It'sh not like we have shotsh to give dragons. We don't even know what kind of diseases they can even get! 'Shides, if you're sho worried, you could give him a check-up!

Who knows, maybe he has worms. [Back-sassing is a go-go.]

[Video]

[vicodincrutch]

[But but but Pinoko, he's being helpful! His head rolls to one side.]

You don't have shots to give dragons yet. I would be worried if there was a sort of disease they carry that we don't know about.

Or. You know. People shouldn't have things they aren't meant to have.

[Video]

[standing_alone]

I'd be more worried about being mauled, actually.

[Video]

[vicodincrutch]

That's valid. Even small things can kill you. Better stock up on bandages and ointment, consult your physician and see about getting blood put in the bank.

[Video]

[standing_alone]

I think I'll be alright. [Being a First Class SOLDIER has its advantages.] I've been given enough enhancements [read: Mako] to survive even a brutal mauling. [It had taken an army to take him out, after all.]

I just worry about others.

[Video]

[vicodincrutch]

[House is going to read enhancements as steroids or plastic surgery. Maybe even male enhancement. You're welcome, Zack.]

How about a handler's manual. You know. Don't shake the scaled kitty. That sort of thing.

Now is a fine, fine time to voice it.

[Video]

[standing_alone]

[...oh House. Never change.]

I don't think anyone would shake them. [Would they?] I'd be worried about them not reading their moods right. [And consequently pissing the dragons off on accident.]

I haven't known anything like what's in the City right now. [He prefers his dog.]

[Video]

[vicodincrutch]

[At this point he may never change. Hooray?]

Yeah? We all gotta learn. It's a kamikaze lesson. Learn as you go. If you don't you keep making the same mistakes.

[Matter of fact is his tone.]

[ action ] because i said so and because ilu???

[dr_conscience]

[Naturally, the past couple of weeks have been marked by the same kind of wary tension that follows any of their fights - curse-induced or otherwise. But this is something Wilson can deal with, something they've handled before. He combats it the same way he would any of their issues: with normalcy. Normalcy in this case being catching up with House at the doctor bro-pad after work, bottle of one of the more upscale beers available in the City in hand.]

Just another day scolding the network?

[ action ]

[vicodincrutch]

[House is more than content to sit with the laptop open ready to drop truth bombs. Another day. The daily pace of life is still working out starts and stops. Curmudgeon extraordinaire now has new eyes to investigate every meaning of Wilson sass.

BUT the bro-pad fort prevails.]

Tell me you didn't keep one out of a burning desire to call it Puff or Pete.

It is negligent.

[ action ]

[dr_conscience]

No. Oddly enough, I did not feel particularly compelled to keep a pet dragon.

[There's a second beer on hand, proferred to said curmudgeon.]

Though I do have to wonder how "exotic" is defined in a community of people from entirely different realities.

[ action ]

[vicodincrutch]

[Beer. Nice. House takes it and he holds it up as a toast.]

That's because you suffer from a condition that is known as having a brain. The afflicted have these things called thoughts, logic and foresight.

[That last one is tricky. Boy oh boy.]

Should we take a poll? I'm sure that many are self-important enough to want to tell this information to a perfect stranger without knowing the reason.

[All those caustic words sometimes make the beer taste better.]

[ action ]

[dr_conscience]

[There's a little nod as Wilson likewise raises his bottle back. Air-cheers.]

Terrible burden, brains.

[And he goes ahead and grabs himself a seat, a raised brow at the commentary as he chimes in with his own emphatically delivered irony on the topic.]

Indiscriminately soliciting opinions from the entire populace at once, who have no greater ability to answer the question than the person asking it? Sounds like exactly the sort of thing the network is made for.

[ action ]

[vicodincrutch]

Maybe they are only good enough to eat.

[Sluuurp of a drink, good stuff. The couch groans a little between the weight of the two men. It's sturdy and comfortable. After all, their pad is furnished with not one but two doctor paychecks.]

It's a glorified chatroom at this point. I ask, some answer. I tell, then there's debate. I try to educate....

[House rotates his wrist to go etc, etc.]

[ action ]

[dr_conscience]

[Just a little snort of a laugh, punctuating his swallow of beer.]

Well, that's a noble endeavor. And one way to pass the time when you're stuck in an alternate dimension.

[A little lopsided quirk of his mouth, with a shrug.]

Though there are worse things than a glorified chatroom - at least it has its uses. Communication, announcements, fostering a sense of community - forced as that may be. And, one way to check for curses.

[ action ]

[vicodincrutch]

It's that or I take up making national monuments out of Popsicle sticks.

[There is enough time it would seem.]

Community. When was the last time you really felt a sense of community that was not in this apartment?

[In House's book two people can be a crowd so...]

[ action ]

[dr_conscience]

If you ever decide to take it up, I'll help eat the popsicles.

[Of course there is only so much surprise he can muster up for that response.]

It does help some people to feel like they're less alone, having that open line of communication on hand. There are those who consider isolation to be a bad thing.

[ action ]

[vicodincrutch]

That would mean that you've become a patron of the arts...and free labor. I accept.

[Another hearty sip of his beverage.]

Isolation is a bad thing with the ticking in your hear. Bouts of isolation bring clarity. Sometimes.

[Like wandering in a graveyard or the Hall of the Missing. May a well be the same thing in these parts. House says nothing more on that.]

I think that the network makes people lazy. Emotionally and physically.

[ action ]

[dr_conscience]

Sometimes.

[He even gives a nod as he concedes that point. Nothing more needs to be said on that, as far as he's concerned.]

When it's overused, sure. Seems to serve as a means to educate the masses, though. Of course it goes without saying that it could never take the place of charming in-person interactions like this.

[There's no beer on the network, nor can he convey the smirk he's wearing right now as well. Not that he doesn't mean it, but what's beer without banter?]

[thermonuclear_birdbrain]

I don't think diseases can live in me -- unless they can live in fusion fire.

[vicodincrutch]

You'll just spread chemical burns. Congrats about that.