( 004 » ENSEMBLE ) decay

[reveriemod]

» WHO? EVERYONE
» WHEN? August 1 - 31
» WHERE? the entire station
» WHAT? Characters begin suffering mysterious and varied symptoms. (More info can be found HERE.)
» WARNINGS? illness, body transformation, loss of limb, general body horror, blood, gore

0 0 1 » STAGE 1

Characters start suffering from a light fever. They’ll feel tired and achy, more inclined to bundle up in a warm sweater (if they have one) and drink tea or have chicken soup in bed than anything else. Unfortunately, the food fabricators still don’t provide the best comfort food.

Admittedly: some people are more affected than others. Some don’t seem to be affected at all.

0 0 2 » STAGE 2

For some characters, the fever will go away and they will feel fine for a brief period. It was probably just a cold, right? And then new symptoms set in: something dark and black spreads from their heart toward their extremities through their veins, making them stand out strongly. It hurts a little, or maybe a lot and no one knows what causes this or what it is that is spreading so darkly through their veins.

For some other characters, the fever will also go away and they will feel fine for a brief period before different symptoms set in: something hard starts spreading beneath their skin, making movements just a little more difficult for affected areas. The pain of this ranges from light discomfort to severe.

For yet other characters, the fever grows worse. They experience hallucinations of their extremities turning to dust, just the way it looks when someone arrives on or disappears from the station. They lose sensation in their extremities during those hallucinatory episodes, so if they reach out to touch something with a hand they think has disappeared, they’ll feel nothing. If they try to walk and then hallucinate their legs disappearing, they’ll stumble and fall to the floor.

0 0 3 » STAGE 3

For some characters, the blackness spreads and brings additional symptoms and worsening conditions with it: their skin starts to rot and fall off, toe or fingernails or entire toes or fingers might rot and fall off, wounds open that ooze a black and foul smelling, thick fluid dripping without looking to stop even if pressure is applied. It’s painful, and the open, infected looking wounds will not close, however much characters try to treat them.

Slowly, these characters’ bodies seem to rot and decay while they still live. For non-organic characters, it’s as if their wires are melting down, metals merging together and seeping through components.

For other characters, the hardness spreads and brings additional symptoms and worsening conditions with it: some of their joints may no longer move at all, their skin turning hard and impenetrable. Characters will also their sensory perception of affected limbs/surfaces, becoming unable to notice when someone touches them on an affected area. They may also lose any other sense if the infection spreads to their eyes, their ears, their mouths. Moving is slow, difficult, painful, until it becomes practically impossible. The noises their joints make seem robotic.

Slowly, these characters seem to turn into something else. Something hard and metallic, something unfeeling and impenetrable. Something inhuman?

For those who were still suffering from the fever, it seems like there is finally some good news: the fever lets up - but then affected characters find first their skin and increasingly the entirety of their body turning translucent and insubstantial. It will start with their skin and spread to the tissue beneath. One moment, they are able to see their own organs working, their heart pumping as their ribcage turns see-through… and a while later, well. Have you ever watched someone’s heart disappear? Now’s your chance.

It might reappear for a moment, as though flickering in and out of existence. It might disappear entirely. Slowly, these characters seem to fade from existence.

0 0 4 » STAGE 4

The tables turn as characters’ bodies gain ground in the fight to return back to normal, but some changes disappear sooner than others and some might even seem to be permanent.

0 0 5 » INVESTIGATION

What is wrong with you? What is wrong with everyone? What caused it and how can these symptoms be treated, halted, reversed?

Is there a cure or is it possible to at least understand what’s going on?

Comments

iii

[possidetur]

( she'd been concerned upon seeing him in the holiday, wondering what had happened or what was wrong. what, specifically, was wrong given that they all seemed to be afflicted by some disease.

it isn't until vanessa is closer that she sees the knife, his shaky action as he moves the knife along it. she's horrified, momentarily forgetting (ignoring) the fact that her own body is slowly rotting away as she crouches beside him, hands resting on his -- the one on the arm he'd been cutting into )

What did you do?

( she can't understand what she's seeing -- a metal looking arm, skin that doesn't feel like skin-- )

[onlydoubts]

[ Bodhi hasn't quite brought himself to look up despite the familiar presence. his eyes are still trained on the thin, jagged line made by the knife on the shiny metal. there's more of it spread over his body, hidden underneath the jumpsuit.

he shudders when her hand goes to his arm. not out of the touch itself, but the lack thereof. ]

I can't feel your hand right now. Even the knife -- [ babbling, which might not make sense. he raises his good arm to scrub his hand over his mouth and meets her eyes. ]

Couldn't feel a thing.

[possidetur]

Bodhi-- ( but vanessa doesn't know what to say. there's pity in her expression, sadness. she's tried being hopeful but with the state that her own body is in she feels almost resigned to the fact that she's going to die. perhaps they all are.

still, it isn't a thought that vanessa ever verbalises nor wants another to think. she gives a squeeze of his hand even though, as he said, he couldn't feel it )

Is it only this arm?

[onlydoubts]

[ looking at her, he doesn't see that she's suffering the same effects. it doesn't mean she's not dealing with anything - or that it could be hidden. with difficulty, he shakes his head, and pulls slightly at the collar of his jumpsuit where more shiny metal can be seen, creeping up towards his neck. ]

It's all over. [ Bodhi says quietly, fear making his voice tremble. ]

What about you? You're not -- [ a vague gesture at his arm. ]

[possidetur]

My affliction is different.

( she releases his hand, offering her left hand into view. the blackness has spread to each of her fingers, only a small patch of her hand near her thumb remaining untainted.

and then vanessa indicates to the back of her neck where a bandage sat. not that it had made any difference, not stopping the spread or helping the wound to heal. there are others but they remain firmly concealed under her jumpsuit )

It spread like a disease. Wounds began opening-- ( rotting. she can't bring herself to verbalise it. perhaps he already knew if he'd seen it on another. she wasn't alone )

[onlydoubts]

[ Bodhi stares down at her hand, making as if to take it but thinks better. it's jarring, as much as the cold copper of his arm. he goes from the bandage, down to his arm.

swallows thickly, finding his voice hoarse when he speaks. ]

It looks like rot. What the hell's going on here, with us?

[possidetur]

Some kind of infection?

( as much as that answer made sense, at least in terms of vanessa's own condition, how could you be turned to copper? what infection did such a thing, or even worked so quickly? )

I don't know how it could affect us in different ways.

[onlydoubts]

I suppose. It started with a fever, which is how most infections begin -

[ his thoughts are similar ones. what could do this? copper doesn't grow through a person like this, but. ]

Neither do I. Which fits with everything else here, nothing makes sense.

[possidetur]

Perhaps expecting sense is too much.

( she would consider it to be a strange thought but there was so much strange about this place, even the people in it )

I know Alucard is examining this. We'll be okay.

( she had faith in him even if she wasn't certain if she'd died )

[onlydoubts]

[ it's not something that he quite agrees with, that they'll be alright. the other things that had happened, they hadn't changed their entire bodies. not like this was seemingly doing.

Bodhi awkwardly pulls his knees to his chest, with a loud creaking noise from his joints. ]

This shouldn't be happening. [ he says after a moment, and then continues quietly: ] What if he can't, though? What do we do then?

[possidetur]

( she adjust slightly to sit with him, facing him. her hand reaches out to take his, this time the non-copper hand )

I don't know.

( and it pains her to say it, to have to verbalise the fear that they could very well die here, from this. it had been something that they'd known all along but now-- )

We cannot give up. There must be some answer.

[onlydoubts]

[ without a word, Bodhi takes her hand - the feeling of actual skin contact is a comfort when there's none on the copper hand.

no, she's right. Vanessa is right. they can't give up, even though it seems... useless. swallowing thickly, he nods. ]

You're right.

[ they could still die, but it wouldn't be out of not trying to figure this thing out. ]

[possidetur]

I hope so.

( he seemed to have such faith in her, such a belief that she was right. vanessa hoped that she was, almost not wanting to let his faith down )

Are you able to stand?

[onlydoubts]

[ right now, it's difficult to keep to that faith and hope. but he wants to believe in the hope that she has, so even that small part of him that does - that's enough, for now.

when Bodhi thinks of it, he doesn't want to die like this. he swallows, nods. ]

I think so.

[ with a deep breath, he's trying to manuever himself onto shaking legs that are none too happy to take the weight. ]

[possidetur]

( vanessa moves first, resting her hands on him, willing to take his weight to help him. she was slight though their similar heights should help.

she's quiet, waiting until he's stood and semi-stable before she moves )

Do you recall our first meeting?

[onlydoubts]

[ standing, he tries not to put too much of his weight on her once they get moving, but keep it balanced.

force, he hates this, though. how even the most simple tasks are this difficult. Bodhi nods, at the question. ]

You were looking for something, yeah?

[possidetur]

( vanessa gives a nod, adjusting her hands so that their walk is more comfortable. she was thinking of the observation deck, somewhere where they'd seemed to speak frequently )

I was and I still am. The library is somewhere that could enlighten us to much here.

[onlydoubts]

[ it shows how badly he's been, that he hasn't thought to give notice of something that he and Jyn had worked long and hard at figuring out. given the station's status, he doesn't think anyone will be upset. ]

We got it open, you know. I didn't say earlier because of -- [ vague sweeping gesture ] But we did manage. If you want to go there, now.

[possidetur]

Perhaps once we're recovered.

( though vanessa did wish to see the library she wasn't certain how much she would appreciate with how she was feeling -- and how he was )

Though I would be interested in knowing how you gained access.