snowblindrpg | [EVENT] Lavender's Blue [open]

[That's someone she recognizes. And even if they haven't had the most pleasant of histories, that hardly matters right now. Anybody she recognizes is - or at least could be - helpful. Especially when she has multiple priorities here.]

Hey! [It's as loud as she dares it to be, preferring to close the distance than be loud right now. Though even then she makes sure to stop a good distance away.] Where's Quark?

[She doesn't have much in the way of weaponry, but she does have a corkscrew on hand, with the sharp end sticking out between her fingers.]

Edited 2016-11-20 05:23 (UTC)

[Charles almost doesn't stop, but he recognizes the voice, and then she says the second part. He pauses and looks over at Phi, but his eyes are wild and he's clearly not in a trusting mood.]

Quark? [He keeps his voice low, too. He eyes her corkscrew. He himself is brandishing the hatchet.] I don't know. He and Charlie- Shit. [He holds up his arm, which has a clearly visible cut on it, down through the coat sleeve. It was bleeding earlier, but it's mostly stopped.]

They turned on me. Don't trust them.

They're attacking others too?

[She doesn't even sound angry, just more resigned, and certainly uneasy. She's got a good glimpse at his eyes too - glowing, like hers. Her grip on the corkscrew relaxes significantly.

Doesn't stop her from muttering under her breath.]

Dammit, not again.

[It was lashing outwards rather than on himself, but something in this place still had gotten to Quark, just like Radical-6 did.]

Edited 2016-11-20 06:02 (UTC)

[Hold on a sec.]

I'm sorry, what? Did you just say again?

[Phi takes a deep breath and lets it out of her nose slowly, frustratedly. Now really isn't the time for this conversation, but there really isn't a good time. Still, it'd help to not be sitting ducks here.]

Come on, we can talk while we move.

[This isn't exactly a request. Phi goes over to press herself against the nearest wall without waiting for his input, listening for movement on the other side. So long as he follows though, she'll eventually add, quietly]

Has Quark ever told you about Radical-6? Or the Nonary Game, for that matter?

Edited 2016-11-20 07:00 (UTC)

[As much as he instinctively hates being told what to do, Charles can agree that that's the best idea right now. He doesn't plan to stop moving if he can help it. The more you move, the harder you are to find. The easier it is to escape. He joins Phi.]

He's never mentioned whatever that is, and I remember hearing something vague about the Nonary Game. Somewhere way back in the network, probably. I don't think it was Quark, though.

I believe I saw House mention it at one point. He must have heard about it from Quark or Luna.

[It was during the repairs that Quark was a part of, which is why she saw it at all.]

It's only a game in the loosest sense. It'll take too long to go into all the details now, but the important thing is that both Quark and I were players in it. Luna was a participant as well. There were nine of us, total.

Radical-6, meanwhile, is a viral infection that's destroyed three fourths of the world's population in our version of Earth. All of its effects are psychological. Radical-6 changes how its victims perceive time, and many of them also develop the strong urge to commit suicide.

As part of the overall project behind the Nonary game, all of its participants were infected with Radical-6. Certain members of the group were more strongly affected than others. [She grimaces.] Quark was one of them.

[Possibly because of his age, possibly because he was born after the infection had spread and been mostly eradicated... she could only guess why.]

Edited 2016-11-20 08:50 (UTC)

[Charles takes that in as they start moving now, darting behind buildings and talking in low voices.

It's all very familiar.

Two-thirds, three-fourths, those are similar numbers. A virus that took out most of the world? Yeah, he knows all about that.]

So did you guys have a war, too? Obviously somebody was trying to wipe you all out. [And got themselves by accident in the process. It's the current leading theory in his world, anyway.] We had something like that, too. No suicide, though. This was just like... like a lung melty thing. Made people cough themselves to death. [Was that gross? Who cares.

He guesses he technically has it, (unless the nanomachines cured it?) but so does everyone else where he's from. Genetic immunity is the only reason the world didn't end. There are only a handful of people on the planet that were never exposed, or at least tested for the immunity, and they probably live in constant fear and isolation. Kind of like this.]

I'm pretty sure this isn't like your Radical-6, though. For one, nobody's trying to kill themselves, just other people. Unless you mean that when your world had a plague, the people who weren't infected tried to kill the ones who were? [Which makes no sense, from a pragmatic standpoint. It's a problem that would clearly sort itself, to put it coldly.]

Sounds pleasant.

[Huh. So yeah, Charles gets points for having survived in similar circumstances as Quark. It's a bit gross, yeah, but she's not exactly squeamish.]

What we're seeing now is definitely different, yes, but still, uncontrollable violent urges that are pretty highly against their normal behavior? I can't say it isn't familiar, even if the circumstances are pretty different.

[She sighs. Looks like the next area's clear - no signs of anyone having passed through.]

We haven't been able to really confirm how Radical-6 was created or got out, though we at least know where. And what happened afterwards? [Another grimace.] Yeah, pretty much exactly what you said. In the midst of the outbreak, someone got the idea to blow up every antimatter reactor on earth, essentially creating a nuclear apocalypse in the hopes of destroying the infection and preventing its spread. Reports said it was a small group of desperate people suffering from Radical-6, but there's other theories too.

Keep in mind I found out most of this information secondhand though, so you'll have to forgive any inaccuracies.

[And she'd barely had time to ask questions or process it, dammit Akane.]

I'm more inclined to blame the fucking machines in our brains than a virus, but yeah, the point stands. It's mind control one way or another.

[Part of him is glad he's apparently somehow immune to this, too. Another part of him is not glad at all. At least if he was under the influence, he wouldn't have to run for his life from his best friend.]

Well shit, at least we had the decency to have the plague after the nuclear apocalypse. [Did he just make a joke? Maybe he's not as scared as he thought. Or maybe he's more scared.] Bombs in our case. You know, war. Seems like a really stupid way to try and get rid of a virus, though. You can't find a cure for radiation sickness.

And anyway, it's not like I'd know you're wrong. This stuff must've been a while ago though? Since you don't remember it yourself?

[That was a joke, and she actually snorts at it briefly.] Well, that would be where the other theories come in. Theories involving a terrorist organization called Free the Soul that believes humanity is corrupt and needs to be cleansed and replaced with clones all of the same person.

[She pauses, briefly, chewing on her next words and how much she really wants to say.]

My own situation's a bit more complicated than most, but that's what it amounts to in the end, correct.

Edited (I'LL GET THE RIGHT ICON EVENTUALLY) 2016-11-21 06:23 (UTC)

"Free the Soul"? Quark said something kinda like that to me before he came at me with a knife. Not about the clone stuff, though. That sounds like bullshit.

[Not that he's doubting her that the theory exists, just that anyone would be stupid enough to have that as an actual plan. Like really??]

Anyway, he said something about freeing me from a sinful container or something.

[Phi's silent for a moment. When she does speak, her voice is grim.]

It sounds a lot like what he said when he was affected by Radical-6. He said that he had to get out of his body, and that once he died, his soul could escape.

[It's been leaving her with a lot of thoughts about what kind of disease Radical-6 was actually supposed to be. Nothing she had much evidence for, though, so it's not anything she brings up.]

I've been wondering for a while now if the nanomachines or... whatever is affecting us here is likely using our own memories and experiences as a template.

[He guesses that sort of shit makes sense for something supposedly designed by a crazy cult. But still, he'd rather not think about it too hard right now.]

If I had to guess I'd say yeah. Back when I first showed up- [ugh he doesn't want to talk about this-] some people got kidnapped and made to play weird games or whatever to "fix" the town. It's complicated. Anyway, at the end of that, this big fucking monster showed up, but instead of the monster we all saw people we knew. Each person saw something different. Like it was filtered to our brains only.

[EVENT] Lavender's Blue [open]

B Obviously

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: suicide mentions for the next few tags probably.....

keeping that cw for suicide up and also gross plague stuff??

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject