[network] @jwatson; Quantum Nursing [video] [Morning 160]

[jumpthegun]

[The static has died down today, some of the fear and paranoia creeping away with it. There's a message that needs to be sent out and John feels some... obligation - connection? Jia had spoken to him in the dreams. It feels important to share her story. His expression is grave when he speaks up on the video.]

For everyone I haven't spoke with, yet, my name is Dr. John Watson. I'm presently in Norfinbury Hospital with Ms. Tifa Lockhart, Mr. Alphonse Elric, and Quark. Following an application that Ms. Lockhart--Tifa--received some time ago, and that Dr. House supplemented with something else found in the hospital, we were able to locate the final resting place of Ms. Jia Xú, a Nurse Practitioner who lived in Norfinbury one hundred years ago.

Quark was very brave and entered into a small room on the first floor's southeast corner. Please be aware that there is a dead body in that room. It was holding an SD card that recorded the final moments of Jia's life. We've added it to the public record and it's attached here. It is graphic, horrible, and not fit for anyone with a weak stomach.

[John attaches the files from the SD card.]

Briefly, Jia was murdered by one of the patients here. There was an epidemic that somehow overloaded the NIMA system and left them with only 'iodine.' That's typically used as a topical disinfectant in a clinical settling like this, which falls in line with what I saw when I- [There's a brief pause.] For those who read my casebook, you'll be aware that I was suffering from a form of dual reality at one point. I was both existing in Norfinbury itself and in the hospital here while it was experiencing a flood of victims. I couldn't see anyone's faces, but the patients were wrapped in gauze, presumably due to some wise-spread skin disease.

Jia also says in her final message that the patients were beginning to exhibit strange behaviors. The man who murdered her did not respond to any of the physical retaliation she inflicted on him while trying to fight him off. At least one of the actions she took should have moved him. He had no affect and his motions were jerky and stretched out.

To those who might have seen clips of Jia before or who might have met her in their dreams like I did, I'm very sorry. She got this information to us, though. I'm not sure how we can use it, yet, but we have it.

Comments

[warriorscribe]

But the way his motions stretch the way they do, and how perfectly he acts without his sight...

[He shudders. Even if these machines work through their own bodies, they need those bodies, don't they?]

There was intelligence behind that, that was nothing merely broken.

[Not to mention, it's starting to feel more and more like...well, possession. And the thought of something else controlling his body to attack the ones he cares about again...]

[jumpthegun]

I've heard other people mention it might have been a virus in the system? That's something... you can build computer viruses so that they'll carry out certain command functions once they've taken hold of a system. I honestly couldn't tell you if that's happening here or if it's just some trauma in his brain.

[warriorscribe]

But then who built it? And why? What would anyone have to gain from destroying this place? The NIMA? It's still here! It wasn't taken.

[He's running through this riddle under an obvious burden of stress, which is...really, the one good thing to come of his situation at home. He had to put clues together through some of the most soul-crushing dark times he's ever been through, and if nothing else, it's keeping his replies coherent and, hopefully, at least somewhat relevant now.]

[jumpthegun]

[John's in the same boat, in some sense, where a lot of the time that he spent on cases was incredibly stressful and ended up with him sleep-deprived and upset. Certainly not to Enoch's extent, but it's helping him manage.]

I dunno. To hear Mr. Miller talk, he'd probably say the Russians. Maybe the Chinese? They're the typical 'threats' in my day, at least. Maybe they were trying to steal Andromeda? Or get at whatever tech is here that's hidden?

[warriorscribe]

[For a moment, the feeling he might start crying is replaced utterly by bitterness that brings a hard clarity to his voice. People that try to force him to turn fatally on his allies are the lowest of the low, in his eyes.]

I don't trust Miller's distrust of anyone for a moment. He forced us to try to kill one another in the name of "healthy competition"! Someone who thinks others will be so quick to hate often has too much unwarranted hate, himself.

[jumpthegun]

[It's not something that John can really disagree with.]

No. He's not a very nice man, and I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him for most things. I really don't know who would do this, though. We've only got so much information. I could ask Eve, but I'm not sure she'd tell us, or that we could fully trust her word on it, either.

[warriorscribe]

[His emotions aren't the most stable right now. Bringing up Miller and, by extension, all he's done, is burning through the mental strength he's got left for the day through his anger. Such an ugly emotion, it exhausts him so quickly for how much he hates feeling it, and it often burns itself out in only moments.

He's quiet for a bit, finally overcome. When he speaks again, it's so much smaller than the frantic, strained rush he started with.]

Trusting Miller's word means distrusting Winter's, for being Russian. I'd much rather trust Winter. I would trust things he has to say about the town, but never about other people. If Eve truly oversees him, then...you're right about her, too.

[What about her obvious pain during Miller's trials? Was it an act? Or was Miller acting against her will?]

[jumpthegun]

I don't trust Winter, either, but it's not because she's Russian. [He doesn't trust any of these people very much beyond what they've proved they're willing and able to do, Enoch. 'Trust until trust is broken.' John can only carry that so far, even when trying to honor Jia's memory.]

We're playing pawns to some sort of power struggle in this town, Enoch, whether it's between Mr. Miller and Eve or those two and Winter... or someone else, as well. I don't know, but I don't care for it.

[warriorscribe]

I want to leave... I only want to leave...

[It's almost to himself, the way he goes even lower, not so much projecting the small amount he needs for the mic. He recognizes from repeated experience over countless years the way his thoughts are folding in on themselves and he focuses on the conversation again, trying to push his way through it.]

If they are, then... What do they want this power for? Why fight over this wasteland? Why fight at all? There's no one else left but the spirits.

[He wants to believe someone here is innocent. Someone here has a good heart. Someone here wants this town to be restored.]

[jumpthegun]

We all want to leave, and we'll get out of here, Enoch. We'll do it together.

And I think the people here what to control whatever machine or force can bring people with magical and godlike powers here from other dimensions.

[warriorscribe]

Powers that they immediately suppress...

[A by-now familiar sound to anyone who's stalked his audio communications for any reason: the sound of him sliding down a wall, sinking to lean against it.]

I'm sorry. Being here has worn on me. I'm...not quite myself right now, I think.

[jumpthegun]

It's all right, Enoch. Are you with anyone right now? Frisk and Toriel?

[warriorscribe]

Yes, I'm with them. I wouldn't leave them, in their state.

[Neither are at the point of being unable to move for themselves, but he isn't leaving them alone all the same. He's latched on to them, for good or ill.

He doesn't tie it back into what Watson is likely asking - he won't trouble them with his state of mind. They have enough to deal with, and making others worry for him doesn't feel right to begin with.]

[jumpthegun]

Maybe just try to huddle up with them for a bit. It sounds like you're all in a bit of a state.

[warriorscribe]

I... Perhaps I should. I'm sorry I'm not of much use in unraveling this mystery right now.

[He wants to help, but it's hard to do with a heart so raw. Back home, he would have had the luxury of pausing and collecting himself over the course of a few days (interspersed with literal pausing if he needed it and Lucifel was willing to help), but there's too much here happening too quickly and his immortality-trained perception of the amount of time he has and needs is worthless to him here.]

[jumpthegun]

It's all right, mate. Take a little time and you can come back to it. Don't reckon we'll be solving everything all at once, yeah?