EVENT: HOSPITAL EXPEDITION

[asgardmods]

Who: Anyone!
What: Hospital Expedition Time!
When: Day 70
Where: The hospital and surrounding grounds.
Rating: PG-13 for potential scariness

Warning: This log includes reference to and optional effects of psychotropic medication. Those intensely bothered by such things should be cautious or steer clear.



After The Doctors found the hospital, an expedition was organized. Those who signed up in that post or who just want to tag along will be heading out on the morning of Day 70 (April 20, ICly). After a 3mi/5km or so walk, they'll find themselves at what looks like a mostly modern hospital and outbuildings, surrounded as a compound by a tall wire fence. The fence is now full of holes, and it's obvious that the buildings haven't been used in decades. There is very little graffiti or other human-caused damage to the place, but weather, animals, and neglect leave it pretty worn down anyway.

Inside, the buildings are mostly empty of medicines and things. There's some broken-down equipment and a few bits of both modern and herbalist medication here and there but not much. The records room however is pretty much intact, besides the wear on paper from sitting in a non-climate-controlled room for 30 years. The records date from the native's reckoning time of 376-385, and are mostly not very informative, but reading through a bunch will reveal how the greyness progressed as a "disease".

Emotion left first, so through 376 and 377 the records state that people just seem to be mysteriously losing all personality and are somewhat lethargic, just going through the motions for no apparent reason. By 378 people are losing colour, and the hospital turns from a specialty hospital to a quarantine zone. People are brought there the moment they're diagnosed, and while it seems the conditions at the hospital were humane, it was crowded and generally not a happy place.

By 383 the staff have been replaced multiple times as they too get sick, and the conditions at the compound were degenerating by sheer number of patients vs number of healthy staff. It got dirty and the food rations were a bit tight, but it wasn't any sort of horrible place where people died. It was just overcrowded and understaffed, for the most part. There's notes about how any animals or even inanimate objects that come into contact with the sick also lose expression and colour.

The last of the records will be notice that there's no more room in the hospital and no successful treatment or cure, so everyone is going back to the city and shutting it down, by order of the gods. Essentially, the entire city is doomed to go grey, so they'll turn the city walls into the quarantine zone to try to protect the rest of the world.

The one other interesting thing in the records might be that in all of the individual patient records, one file (that seems like it was very thick) is missing. There's also mention in the general notes of "the Queen" being sick -- one of the earlier patients, even. Most record of her has been blacked out, however.

Aside from records, there's only one other interesting to be found during the day. A large room in the old laboratory building seems strangely personal inside, having couches, tables, and stacks of basic board games lying around. If the door to this room is closed, it will automatically lock, and within a few minutes anyone inside will start feeling... funny. Perhaps as an attempted treatment for the emotionless lethargy of the disease, the room is equipped to be air tight, and a dosage of an odourless, colourless, mood-improving gas released. The effect should be no more than a case of the giggles and a sharpening of the characters' sense of colour. The room will unlock after ten minutes or so of the gas being in effect, and the symptoms should wear off in an hour or two.

Beyond that, there isn't much to find besides a general spooky feeling. The attic storage floor of the hospital may contain bats, and there's signs of other animals nesting (rabbits, etc). The creepy atmosphere should make for interesting exploration though -- especially at night. Anyone inside after darkness falls should stay there. There my be the sounds of nearby wolves outside, but running into any is entirely optional and won't happen inside the buildings.

Each Doctor will be leading his own team, so if your characters will strictly be sticking to their team, make sure you note that in your starter or wait for your chosen Doctor to set things up for his team. You're also welcome to have your characters explore free-form with their friends or with strangers, so don't worry too much about structure! Have fun and go wild!

Comments

[seventeenpills]

Let me see...

[Hisao set his initial record down outside of the piles, wanting to hold onto it in case he needed to reference back. He started reading through the other records at speed, figuring out the layout fairly quickly and deciding where he needed to look to find the most pertinent information.

He was quiet for maybe ten minutes as he shuffled papers, his expression intense.]

....damn.

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Damn? Damn? That was it? That was worse than saying a lot more Hisao! Satella thought to herself as she got closer, a much more intense look on her features.]

Well? What is it?

[seventeenpills]

Well, in the later half of three seventy seven... there's just a lot more cases of the same thing. You can see the name of the person who brought the patient in for admission. It seems like this sickness or malady or whatever you want to call it was breaking up families all over the place. Mothers taken from kids, kids brought in by parents.... just... damn. I don't know.

[He just found it upsetting. He had feelings, even if he wasn't about to speak to how strong those were in front of the pretty girl he didn't know so well.]

But one thing is for sure - by this time, it wasn't one or two cases. I have at least thirteen here from that year. There might be more. There probably are more.

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Truthfully, Satella had expected worse from his reaction. But considering they were from vastly different situations, she could see how this would have been very grave to him. Nonetheless it still posed a threat and how it began to spread rapidly.]

It doesn't seem to have a particular target judging from your findings...An all around epidemic maybe? But then how did the environment start to change then?

[seventeenpills]

I don't know. And we may not find the answer to that here in these records - it IS a hospital, not an all purpose kind of laboratory. Let's jump forward a few years and see if we can't find something more.

[For all he knew, this was something different. He had to remember to keep a level head and approach this scientifically - he could almost hear Moutou in his head: "You have a hypothosis, no ability to experiment, but you DO have the works of others to lean on. Make sure to study those thoroughly and then find a way to confirm their findings."]

[queenoftheforlornheart]

Right...

[Satella wasn't a researches, a genius in her own right, but this definitely wasn't her field. For now all she could do was assist.

She went ahead and crossed past one of the doors in the room and came back a few minutes afterwards carrying two file cabinets, then left, and came back with some more.]

I believe that was one of the storage rooms. I don't know if they will have anything of use, but it doesn't hurt to check.

[seventeenpills]

[Wow - she was hefting those things pretty easily - Thor's house power of strength was pretty impressive. He sat there a little wide eyed for a moment before starting to open some drawers.]

Right, let's see, here...

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Satella simply sat back and let him do his thing. For a few moments she paced until she found herself staring out a window looking thoughtful.]

It must have been horrible... seeing the environment change slowly into a colorless wasteland...

[She was mostly thinking out loud at the moment.]

[seventeenpills]

It would have been pretty tterrible.

[He took a sampling of folders from a few drawers and started to leaf through them, making some distinct piles as he went, his expression kind of bleak. About thirty minutes later...]

It looks as though the cases of Personality loss are related to it, yes. This set of files is from three seventy nine - People who had lost personality also started to lose color. They started to appear grey as well as listless and unresponsive.

[He poked the next set.]

These are from three eighty. The hospital staff are now starting to be admitted with symptoms of the same.

[queenoftheforlornheart]

I wonder if it was contagious, or if the suffering and eventual lethargy simply began to spread...

Which makes me wonder... If the gods wish to have the world recolored through interactions and living a healthy life? I wonder if they tried asking the natives to try the same when the world began to change, or what kind of counter measures they attempted during the spread.

[seventeenpills]

I don't know - these files don't mention anything about the Gods in specific. I mean, vague mentions here and there but nothing concrete.

[He turned his head back down to the pages on the table.]

Hospital staff started to become infected, so, it seems as though it WAS contageous. And quick spreading. It seems like anyone with symptoms was brought here... There are more records for the next year then the previous by far.

[He pointed to the stacks - the later year he had available at this time was much larger then the previous.]

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Satella narrowed her eyes and looked over the ones Hisao was browsing through.]

This is upsetting... but it brings another question to mind. Are otherworlders immune to these effects? Is that why we were brought here to fight this outbreak?

[seventeenpills]

That's one thing I CAN answer. See, the bracelets we wear have something to do with that - if you take it off and lose it for too long, you become just like one of the natives. You lose your face and emotions and drift around the city on autopilot. A couple of people have mentioned that happening to them. It seems like whatever magic keeps the bracelet working, it makes us immune to the greyness.

[He paused.]

....or at least heavily resistant to it.

[queenoftheforlornheart]

Wait... So people brought in to this world have lost their colors too? But if you say they've been able to re-tell the story... then that means that they've gained their color back correct?

[She looked at him curiously.]

[seventeenpills]

Yeah. From what I understand, friends or other people who knew them were able to clap the bracelet back onto them and that reversed the effects. But that goes to show the importance of never leaving your bracelet anywhere someone could move it or where it might get stolen or lost.

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Satella touched her bracelet with concern and gave him a single nod.]

I'll make sure to keep that in mind.

[seventeenpills]

Make sure that you do - Though, if it came down to it you're pretty distinctive so I think I could find you to put it back on your arm if you misplaced it. Or I'd at least try.

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Satellizer nodded, looking out the window for a few moments.]

I think we should head back home, or set up our safe spot if we were going to stay.

It's beginning to get dark.

[seventeenpills]

Darn...

[He looked out the window. She was right. He was even having to squint to keep reading. If only he'd been able to get here faster. How frustrating.]

Well, I don't really want to try taking records out of here - for one, I wouldn't want them to get lost or damaged. Secondly, there are other people looking for answers and they should be allowed to find them the same way we did. I don't really want to stop researching but I AM leery of starting a fire in here...

[He paused, thinking.]

...I wonder if the light from the bracelet screen is enough to get by with.

[He touched the gemstone, opening up a new window.]

...what do you think?

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Satellizer looked outside, eyes narrowed.]

I don't particularly know... But I myself am not too comfortable with this world as of yet.

Mayhaps it'd be best to head on home for safety.

[seventeenpills]

....yeah. Yeah, you're probably right.

[He frowned, organizing the files into neat piles and looking for something to weigh them in place with.]

I want to come back tomorrow or maybe the next day. I want to read more of these and see if I can't figure out some more stuff. You don't have to come if you'd prefer not to though - I know where this place is now so I think I can get here on my own.

[He found some large pieces of plaster from a crumbled wall and used them to weigh the files in place.]

[queenoftheforlornheart]

It's fine, I might venture back here myself so company would be appreciated.

[Satellizer organized things neatly before looking back to Hisao.]

Ready to go then?

[seventeenpills]

Yeah... yeah, I am.

[He was sounding a little defeated, though. Not only was he not looking forward to the halt in his research - the walk home was looking less and less appealing the more he thought on it.]

Let's go, then.

[He started to walk out of the room and down the hall. The night was coming on relatively quickly and this place was looking spookier by the minute.]

[queenoftheforlornheart]

[Satellizer nodded and left the room at his side. Her alertness was in full swing and she made sure to keep an eye out for anything that might jump at them on their way home.

She had a lot to think about and a good long bath will do just swell to help her out.]

[seventeenpills]

[The old flooring crunched under his feet as he made his way down the hall and out into the waiting room. He could hardly wait to come back.]

I think next time, I'm going to come earlier and I'm going to bring more provisions and some kind of light source. I really don't want to leave until I know everything.

[He sounded so determined - The lives of these people were weighing on him more than he cared to admit. He felt he almost owed it to them to read their stories and know their names and maybe he could fix things in this world and honor them in some small way by doing so.]