reverielogs | ( 004 » ENSEMBLE ) decay

( 004 » ENSEMBLE ) decay

» 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?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Jun had been trying to help with this whole epidemic. He'd volunteered as a sort of clinic worker, but honestly he was no nurse, and even less of a doctor. Still, he had to do his best, right? It was the right thing to do, even if he was healthy himself.

Seeing the man fall to the floor, that blackness consuming him that had been consuming numerous others, Jun approached carefully. Frankly, this was all pretty gross and he was 17 and not used to gore, so he was a little queasy.]

...Can I... help you?

[Jun held a hand over his chest, a tense expression on his face as Chronos, a clock-faced automaton-looking creature, loomed over him.]

I have some healing magic. It hasn't been able to reverse the effects of this disease, but it might ease the symptoms for awhile, while others work on curing it...

( it takes jim a few seconds to focus. for a second, all he sees his blackness but once he blinks and shakes his head, the man comes into view and jim licks his dry lips while he tries to follow what he's saying. healing magic, help, ease the symptoms. )

That's the funniest watch I've ever seen.

( he points his now three fingered hand to the automaton and then lowers it when he has no power to keep it aloft anymore. )

What's the magic entail?

[Not looking so good, but still good enough to crack jokes. Jun gives a little laugh, mostly out of sympathy because good lord the guy looks bad.]

Ah, that's Chronos.

[What does the healing magic entail??? That's. A tough question. And maybe more tough because Jun actually is pretty scientifically minded most of the time, but it is hard to explain magic. Hence the term... magic.]

Uhhh, well. It usually helps to heal wounds... Maybe it could get your ah. Your... fingers... [This is a REALLY STRANGE conversation, even for him.]

Chronos.

( jim repeats the words before he picks his hand up and gives it wave. hi, chronos, i'm jim, nice to meet you. )

My fingers?

( oh right, he'd lost those. )

That might actually be nice. I don't think I'd look very attractive with a few nubs.

[More explanation might have to wait for some other time, really. Chronos thankfully doesn't seem to react much to the greeting despite the er... loss of fingers. The clock-face tilts slightly to a side, curiously, but it isn't as if it can speak.]

Oh my... This illness is really... awful. [He frowned, but tried to keep his composure. Gore was still very new to him and he wasn't LOVING it.]

I'll do my best. At the least, it might make you feel a little stronger. I-I hope for the best...

[Since he looked a little... weakened. Either way, Jun waved a hand at Chronos, who responded with raising a hand toward Jim, bathing him in light which is MEANT to restore HP. Whatever that entailed in this kind of situation.]

( jim really has no idea what to expect from this offer. for a second, he thought it was just a lot of talk in an effort to try and make him feel better but that clock thing actually starts to do something to him.

he closes his eyes and lets it happen because where's the harm in it? the light is warm and bright but it does seem to restore something. his veins still run black and his fingers are gone but he doesn't quite feel like he's going to keel over and die anymore. )

Huh.

[Jun frowns as he watches, looking him over a little when the heal doesn't do as much as he'd hoped. But how was he supposed to know? It wasn't as if any of his friends had ever lost fingers. Or gotten a terrible illness like that.]

That's the best heal I've got. Sorry it didn't... bring back your fingers. I didn't expect it'd completely heal your illness, but I had hoped, at least-

[This was really awful. How was he supposed to combat something like this?! He's only 17!]

How are you feeling, though?

No. No, it did help. I know it might not look like it but I feel better.

( not great but he doesn't feel like he's just going to die right there anymore. in fact, he manages to get himself to his feet, unsteady, but stable once he's up.

he avoids looking at his fingers. or lack thereof. )

How'd you do that?

[Jun is still a little disappointed that he couldn't do better, but that was a good start! And it gave him some things to think on in regards to the sickness.]

Oh, it's the power of my Persona, Chronos. Er... it's magic, I guess? Or... it's my wishes given form, thanks to Chronos. It's kinda complex, I think.

[Jun was usually more scientifically minded than this but Personas are WEIRD. It's hard to attach science to them.]

I'm glad it could help.

It did. Thanks.

( how long it's going to last, jim doesn't know but he's glad to at least be able to get back to his feet without feeling like the world was spinning out of control. )

I'm Jim. What's your name?

( had he asked that? jim doesn't think, just thinks he'd gotten the name of the clock. )

So I can remember that I owe you one.

Jun Kurosu. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance... Jim.

[Jun bows his head in greeting, trying to remember his manners at least. Even if just calling someone their given name was a little uncomfortable for him. Still, it was the only name he was given!]

You don't owe me anything though, sir. I volunteer at the clinic, and it is my duty to help those in need to the best of my abilities.

Yeah, but I really appreciate it. Even if it didn't take care of everything, it helped.

( jim can't help but peer at the Chronos once again before shaking his head, wonder evident on his black veined face. )

I'd ask where I can get one of those but I doubt the station is just giving them out to anyone who asks nicely.

Oh no, Chronos is my Persona! I've had him since before I came here. There are a couple of people on board capable of using them, though. Not all of them with healing spells, though.

[He laughs a little at that, kind of a sympathetic sound. He really does wish he could share!]

But really. You don't owe me anything. That you are feeling better is enough for me.

What about some questions?

( if jun's going to insist he doesn't owe him anything tangible, maybe he'd share some more about the chronos and personas because jim has no idea what those means and now that he can focus, he's curious. )

What's a Persona? I've heard the word but not in the way it sounds like you're using it.

Oh, I'd be happy to answer your questions.

[Jun wasn't used to teaching yet, but he did want to be a teacher. A little.]

Ah, yes! Personas as I use the term are spirits- Gods, Angels, Demons, and other such beings, which a person houses in their psyche as part of their personality. And for some people, Persona Users, they are able to summon these entities in order to make use of their power.

The ones I've accessed here are only Chronos- who usually prefers support-type magics, such as healing and buffs, and Fenris- a powerful fire-type Persona with offensive magic.

So, Chronos is...a God?

( or a demon. or an angel. really, any three of those was enough to make jim's eyes widen. his gaze skimmed over to chronos again, a little more sharply than previous, before he looks back at jun. )

So, you summoned this Chronos? And they agreed to help you? Or do they not have a choice in the matter? They're summoned and you're their master now?

( jim wants hope it's closer to a symbiotic relationship, one where they help each other but he's seen civilizations where it's master and slave more often than not. )

Yes, the Greek God of time.

[Jun smiles at that. Honestly, he couldn't say for certain if he was The Actual Thing, or simply a representative of it. Personas were rather nebulous.]

He is me, and I am him. Er... so like. He's part of my... soul? Or something like that. And it's less that I summoned him and more that he has manifested.

Sorry, it's a little weird, I know.

It's definitely weird.

( but jim was honestly fascinated by the whole thing. how something that powerful could take up residence (was that the right word?) in what jim assumes is a regular human being. )

And you were born like this? Or was this something you were trained to be able to do? I can't imagine taking something or someone that powerful into your...soul would be easy.

[Jun laughs at that. At least the guy was acknowledging it.]

Hm... Well. It's not a very nice story... [It was probably easier for the others. Jun never thought of himself as particularly strong.]

When I was young, there was an evil entity that fused with me and became my Persona. He was volatile and wicked, and isolated me from those I cared about. Eventually, my friends defeated me... and him... and freed me from his control, and I learned to utilize Personas of my own volition.

But the others learned to do it on their own. [He tugged nervously on an ear as he frowned. He hated thinking about Nyarlathotep, but he couldn't pretend it never happened, either.]

So there must be some kind of innate aspect to it, right?

Yeah, because I really don't think my body would react well to some...evil entity deciding to make me its home. There's a lot of awful crap inside me right now.

( after the radiation and now this, why anyone would want to co-habitat his body was beyond him. )

So, does Chronos, does he have his own thoughts? Like his own mind, I guess?

I think you've certainly got enough going on in you right now without... that.

[He's sure other people would be able to handle it better than him, usually, but this disease was terrible. The poor guys was already losing his fingers over it. And Jun wouldn't wish Nyarlathotep on anyone.]

Well, Chronos did speak to me upon meeting me, but he's been quiet ever since. That said, a Persona does tend to read their user's emotions, and tends to reflect that. He doesn't feel like he has any differing thoughts from me, at the least.

This could be because I feel like shit but that sounds so cool. I know that, if I were a little more clear headed, I might worry about sharing space with someone else but it sounds really cool right now.

( bones is a damn good doctor but having something like this on the enterprise would be incredibly helpful. jim doesn't want anyone to die (unless it's him) so something like this would prevent that. )

I'd probably piss him off though. He'd want to leave my head before we even became friends.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( 004 » ENSEMBLE ) decay

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