[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

@itsybitsy; audio

[redrooms]

[Natasha hates all of this so much.]

Can you tell me more about the room the body was found in, or the body itself?

@Enoch, audio

[warriorscribe]

Oh, Lord above...what medicine makes a man move like that? It looks more like the work of demons than tiny machines!

[He composes himself with a shaky sigh.]

Oh, poor Jia. She was trying to help them all...

@quark; audio

[averytinyparticle]

Uh, yeah. It was really small, so nobody else could fit in there. I felt around as much as I could, but it seemed like it was just the bed with the body and nothing else. It was dark--too dark to see anything properly, even a tablet wouldn't light anything up.

[And this is the worst part--it's clear by the hesitation in his voice.]

She was still breathing.

[redrooms]

[Well, okay. First thing's first here:]

Are you alright, Quark?

[jumpthegun]

[He hadn't wanted Quark to have to answer, but here they are.]

My mini-torch wouldn't pierce through the dark, either. There was something unnatural about it. There was also a cat meowing. It's part of what led us to the place where we could break through the wall.

@milkevoli, voice >> private to Watson, Tifa, Alphonse, Quark

[brokethefirst]

Given what happened when other systems overloaded in regards to medical emergencies... maybe they experienced something similar. There was already mention before that our supplies are limited, if I remember correctly. Perhaps that just means we're... lucky.

[There's no joy in the vague guess. It's all said somberly, a tinge of exhaustion in her words. What a horrible, horrible video.

There's a beat before she slips a filter to the four relevant parties.]

Are the four of you okay?

[jumpthegun]

It's no medicine I know, Enoch, but it's something like what we've seen in the other videos, the jerky motions, like he's being puppeted. It makes me wonder if that might not have been the start of some sort of malfunction with the nanomachines if the NIMA system was overloaded and things were only just starting to come online. Something might have been broken irreparably.

And she was. To know she died like that... It's terrible.

[averytinyparticle]

Oh...uh-huh, I'm fine. Thanks.

[He mostly means it. At least, he wants to mean it. But it's hard to really feel okay after seeing those things.]

It was just...the thing with the eyes...

[That was the worst part. Actually, the whole thing was pretty bad, but the dead body itself didn't have as big of a shock value for him.]

Anyway, she was like a skeleton with the skin still attached. That's what it felt like.

private; voice

[jumpthegun]

We're as all right as we can be. Between that and the static, yesterday was just a bit not good. How are you doing?

[redrooms]

[Natasha is pretty much physically incapable of feeling sick from something like that, and even she thought it was heavy.]

I know. I'm sorry you had to see that. You did a good job.

[redrooms]

Was the cat meowing the entire time? Did it seem like the sound was moving, or localized in one spot?

@Ecks | text

[ecks]

the man looked possessed.
who recorded the video?

[jumpthegun]

It was meowing while we were searching for the right place. Tifa was able to use her Cat Feet program to lead us to the right area, then the cat and some paw prints that appeared on the wall led us to the specific spot. It stopped meowing once we'd broken through.

@makeme; audio

[coyoteking]

Skin disease? Or radiation exposure? Maybe there was a bomb here, then.

[averytinyparticle]

I did what I had to do.

[No way was he going to chicken out when everyone worked so hard to find that place. As scary as it was, he's really happy he was around to help. Even if the results were unexpectedly gruesome.]

When I found the SD card in her hand, she grabbed onto me, but then she just passed it over. She stopped breathing, after that. I couldn't find anything else with the body, and I checked to see if I could go past the bed, but it was up against a wall.

[redrooms]

Interesting. The hospital and the school seem to be hotspots for this sort of activity, don't they?

video

[jumpthegun]

[John doesn't feel like typing, so you get video, Ecks.]

Something wasn't right with him, that's for sure. I'd guess the nanomachines inside of him were malfunctioning for him to be able to take that level of damage and not be bothered by it.

I dunno who recorded the video. It's very likely surveillance from the hospital, itself.

private; voice

[brokethefirst]

I'm... [Fine? No. No, she knows she isn't, and she knows that Alphonse can see this. So she lets out a sigh and tries again.]

I'm very tired. But there's things that still need to be done, despite that.

I... imagine Alphonse told you about what happened a couple of days ago. I guess I could have been there with you otherwise, but we all got separated rather quickly.

I'm sorry.

audio

[jumpthegun]

Maybe... but there would be ongoing issues with the skin irritation if there were a constant source of radiation in the area. And we know there residents of Norfinbury went underground into cryostasis. At least Mr. Miller and Eve did. Jia should have been suffering the same effects as her patients if it were a constant environmental source within the city.

[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]

There were lot of people in them on a regular basis. I'm not surprised. I'd expect most of the large public buildings or places where people gathered would have the most echoes.

@expostfacto; voice

[whatjupitercouldnt]

[Admittedly, this isn't the first time she's seen something diseaselike display disturbing systems. Whatever feelings the video inspires she keeps to herself.]

Do we know whether the text report was the same one that she was writing when she died?

[It's not the most important conclusion, there's still a lot of important information here either way, but it could allow the two files to shed a bit of illumination on each other.

And then, because yeah, Quark was involved.]

Everyone's already covered asking if you're all right, so I probably don't need to add to be sure to take care of yourselves.

[Except clearly she is.]

[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.

[redrooms]

If I ask you anything that you'd prefer not to answer, please tell me.

[He's obviously tough, but he's still a kid.]

Did her skin feel strange? What did her breathing sound like?

[redrooms]

"Echoes". That's an interesting term for it. And what do you think they are, exactly?