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

"We've all been trying." The elevator lets them off on Deck 5 and he nudges at Matt to get him moving. "If you haven't noticed, this place fights back."

"Did you try asking nicely or did you just shoot at the lock?" Matt couldn't help but quip as he staggers forward and starts walking towards the medbay.

He shoots Matt a glare ineffectually and lets out a rough sigh. "When Karen and me first got here we were trying to open doors. She fell into one and got hurt." Yes, he means into. "After that, a paper showed up telling her every door has a different code and we stayed up almost a week straight putting codes in until the church opened. So, I guess, a little of both."

"She fell into one?" Matt reiterates, surprised by the phrasing and also not quite able to picture how that would have worked.

"Sounds like someone's playing with us," he muses with a sigh, clenching his teeth as he slows down when they get to the entrance of the medbay. It's unsurprisingly busy - Matt's not the only one having a bout of... clumsiness, it seems.

"Look it's- no big deal. I can just wrap it up," he says, not wanting to get in the way of other people needing help and care.

"Right through. And got stuck," Frank confirms seriously, then nods at Matt's assessment. That seems to be the consensus around here lately. He takes in a sharp breath at the overflowing state of the medbay,, his hand alighting on Matt's arm before he can remind himself why he's keeping his hands off. He's not babying okay, just... supporting. "Why don't you sit down and I'll do it." It's not really an offer he's going to let Matt refuse.

Well, he can tell that Frank isn't messing with him. Matt has questions, but he's not even sure where to start. His brows furrow as his head drops. Fine, they can take care of his immediate problem first and then if he can formulate the words in his mind properly, he might ask a question or two about falling through doors.

Shuffling over to the nearest chair, Matt slowly sits down and holds his injured hand out. He's letting Frank look after him without protest. Go and buy a lottery ticket; this might never happen again.

He frowns when Matt becomes complacent. That's never a good sign in his experience, but he doesn't hesitate to take the other man's wrist gently in both hands, turning it over in examination. It reminds him again of the injuries sustained when he couldn't feel his extremities and he sighs, wanting to reinforce that Matt can come to him for help, but how can he? The man is as stubborn as they come so he stays quiet too as he cleans out the wound and wraps it firmly but with enough give, focused singularly on his task and glad not to have to look at Matt's face. Even with those glasses, he could be infuriatingly expressive at times.

"I, uh, have hair clippers," he says dumbly, not sure where it came from. But then he's reinforcing, "If you want a cut."

Matt sits in relative silence just letting Frank tend to him. He's putting on his poker face even if it stings. He thinks he might feel pain more acutely than most people, but as far as the injuries he's sustained over his tenure as Daredevil, it's next to nothing.

Frank's suggestion has Matt lifting his head and his eyebrows rise. He reaches around behind his neck with his uninjured hand and grasps at his hair, combing through the strands with his fingers. Is the blind man actually unconsciously worried about what he looks like?

"Do I need one?" he asks, sounding self-conscious and uncertain.

Frank considers that, looking over the man's hair as he tries to work as fast as possible. Believe it or not, he actually has picked up on how sensitive Matt is. That's why he kicked him extra hard back in the day. The thought brings the slightest curve of a smile to his lips. God, they're fucked up.

"Not yet, but maybe in a week or two. Just puttin' it out there." It would help Frank to have a set time to check in, a time when they're agreed to see one another. Every three weeks or so isn't torture, right? "Unless you wanna be a space hippie. That's none of my business."

His nose wrinkles at the thought and he sniffles. "Okay." They've come a long way from fighting each other every step of the way getting shot in the head to trusting Frank with something sharp close to his head.

"Where did you learn how to use hair clippers? Were they just lying around the station?" Why is space black? What is black? Where do babies come from?

He wraps the other man's hand tightly, but not too tightly, examining it again to make sure it'll hold.

"In the service. When you're gone for long deployments you learn how to be your own barber... and everyone else's." And that's what he's taken to thinking of Reverie as, no surprise there. Matt can't see it, but he's wearing a new uniform, very similar to the old one but this one is made for him. Black coveralls with his name (well, "Castiglione") embroidered into the chest. "They were in my bathroom one morning. Just like the lilies, and my knife. And Max..." So yeah, it just showed up. Is that really the most unbelievable thing here?

"Right." He imagines that Frank's picked up a few valuable skills on tour. The marine is honestly a lot more useful to have around even on a 'space station' than a city boy who feels nauseous at the slightest disturbance in the gravitational fields holding them down.

"Things just show up?" And dogs? Matt's not sure what to make of that. If this is some ridiculous 'game' as he has been told once or twice, it seems strange to have some of these supplies just show up. But he's still reserving his judgement about what they're doing here, why they're here and how they're going to get home until he finds out more.

"Were you hoping for any of those in particular? Or asked someone, or something?"

Frank doesn't particularly care if Matt is useful or not, he's tasked himself with keeping him safe either way. If there comes a time they have to fight their way out of something, he knows Matt will pay him back in spades. And if not, it's not like he's ever done anything for the glory.

"Things just show up, whether you want 'em to or not. But yeah, I wanted a haircut. Elektra thinks it's an experiment. That we get stuff, or stuff happens to us and there are some sick son of a bitches taking notes somewhere." Once he's satisfied the dressing won't come loose, he lets go of Matt's arm and taps his shoulder to let him know he can get up if he wants. Though they both know he'd prefer if Matt took it easy for once in his goddamn life. He's not holding his breath, especially not with this place practically busting at the seams as it is.

"You didn't think maybe you wanted to go home instead? They might have dropped you back off," Matt can't help but joke, not really thinking that Frank didn't necessarily have a place that truly felt like home anymore.

"You know I-... I'm okay with not leaving this place." He stays sitting, holding his injured hand in his uninjured one, biting down on his lip. Matt knows that's not their 'mission' or however Frank wants to see it. They're supposed to all want to go home. And where Matt can help them work further towards getting back to where they came from, he does to the best of his ability.

Still that doesn't change the fact that he has mixed feelings about the idea.

Frank rolls his eyes at the suggestion. If only it were as simple as mind over matter - and even then there were times on this station he would have failed, when it had utterly gotten the best of him. He blows a breath out through his nose, relieved when Matt doesn't immediately move to get up and flee the medbay.

"What are you talking about?" He sounds like Karen, talking about being stuck here forever. Frank isn't about to let that happen to either of them, though of course, it's hypocritical. He'd stay behind in a heartbeat if it meant they both could go back. "What happened to the City's hold over you, huh? You've gotta get back there, what if some dirtbag needs a lawyer again?"

It's his version of nervousness, making his mouth run unchecked. He can't accept defeat, not from Matt of all people.

"Plenty of lawyers in New York City," he mutters. That's not the heart of the issue though, is it?

"If we go back to where we came from, to when we came from." Matt swallows. "She'll be dead." That was his reality. And he knows how selfish it sounds, that he wants to stay here, that he'd suffer through whatever's happening to his body right now and he'd so willingly give up his city just so he could have another night with Elektra.

But he's had enough nights without her.

"Tell me you would want to go back if Maria came running around the corner right now."

"None who would take the Punisher on now that you're here," Frank reminds him. It's something he won't ever forget even though Matt ditched him soon after. He still kind of feels sorry for Foggy even if it worked out for that guy in the end.

"No one's dead. We're all going back, together. Alive." Frank isn't budging on this, his eyes flashing in warning. But then his whole expression crumples, devastation indeed hitting him like a punch to the guts when Matt says her name. That's all it takes, even now. Even after he let her go. "Maria doesn't belong here any more than we do. We're getting back." It's sharp, pointed. Matt doesn't get to use the memory of his family against him, not like that. He's waiting for the day the station tries a trick like that on him as it is, he doesn't need that kind of cruelty from Matt Murdock after everything else they've been through.

You watched her die, he would have snapped. And Frank didn't even know the rest of the story. But he's not ungrateful for Frank's assistance on that rooftop.

It starts to feel like a mistake, opening up to Frank like that, so Matt just clams back up and moves to stand. He doesn't know what the station's capable of, doesn't realise how callous it is to say something like that. He just knows that he doesn't want to live his life without Elektra. He could. And maybe a part of him had moved on before the Hand brought her back to life. But he doesn't want to. Not now when he knows that he can have her here and she doesn't remember all the traumatic things that had happened to her.

"Yeah." Matt swallows again and starts back towards the elevator. "Thanks for playing nurse."

Frank grabs roughly at Matt's opposite arm, trying to force him to stop. He can't chase him around like this every time he says something Matt didn't like. But he also hasn't told him everything, maybe he needs to now.

"She told me. About what you told her. Coming back to life, dying at Midland Circle. But you're both here. You're both breathing. It means something so don't fucking walk away from me right now."

Especially not after namedropping his late wife. Frank swallows but slowly releases Matt, his fist balling at his own side instead.

"My friend Alex. The station tortured him with his wife and son, their voices. Their picture. If this place—" If it touches the memory of Maria? Of his kids? He's not sure he'll be able to hold it together. He certainly couldn't blame Alex for coming apart after that. "If she comes here, it won't be her. And I need you to remind me of that if it happens." He sets his jaw, knowing what he's asking. If he wants Matt to trust him he has to do the same, right? It isn't easy for him, but here he is laying it out anyway. Because it's important, it might be the most important thing there is the way he says it.

Matt stills, gritting his teeth, and while he breathes out audibly through his nose he doesn't say anything at first. The only thing them both being here and her not remembering any of that has meant to Matt is that they're not from the same place and he'll never get her back once they get home. And a small, angry part of him will never stop having that selfish inclination even if he knows - he knows - that she's not necessarily good for him, and they just aren't meant to be.

There are people alive back home that he needs to be going back to. It's not like he doesn't know any of this. He just has fleeting moments of throwing his toys out of the cot screaming about what he thinks he deserves, which is a hell of a lot more than what he's got left when he was beamed out of New York.

And the moment comes and goes when he thinks about Frank and what Frank deserves. If Matt's honest he would let Frank have time with his wife even if he knows Maria isn't real. He deserves five decades more with her. What's another five minutes for love and grief and closure?

It's a difficult thing to ask of Matthew. Harder still for Matt to agree.

"If it's not her I would tell you."

He notices the other man's internal struggle and doesn't know what it's about, assuming it somehow has to do with Elektra again. What Matt couldn't know is that Frank got his closure. Seeing Maria again would just tear that wound open afresh. Either way, the agreement is met with relief, some of the tension draining out of Frank's frame as he nods gratefully.

"Thank you." He means that. He's getting used to the prospect of them needing one another here, and if he can get Matt to understand this simple thing he's scared of then maybe there's hope for them being a team yet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( 004 » ENSEMBLE ) decay

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sorry for gut punch

yikES!!!!

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