Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Four and Five

[snowblindmods]

Characters: red-marked characters and their new friends
Location: ???
Date: Morning 354, Morning and Day 355
Summary: A quiet morning and a confusing morning, or maybe they're both, or maybe they're neither.
Warnings: gore, psychological horror, warn for specifics in the subject lines

Part Four OOC Post
Part Five OOC Post

Comments

A

[fiftheclipse]

[By now, Junpei has an idea of what had gone on last night. But that's it-- an idea. He still isn't sure who had done what to who. What he himself had been responsible for. How many victims there were.

So there's a moment of shock when the next person walks by. When it's someone he actually cares about.]

... Shit. Not as rough as yours.

[rubikscomplex]

You should've seen me after that medical conference back in '99. Half my teeth are implants, bro. [They're really not. He leans on the wall outside of Junpei's cell.] You gonna stay in there, or what?

[fiftheclipse]

... They're gonna have to be, now.

I mean, I don't have much choice, right?

[He probably shouldn't punch that barrier again, especially with someone on the other side, but he still wants to show it off. ... That bowl from earlier is still pretty close by. He kicks it, then, not hard enough to get much air-- just enough that they can both watch it bounce right off when it hits that space between them.]

It's only you and the static guys that can get through there. I gotta stay put until someone takes it down again.

[rubikscomplex]

I'm not walking through anything. At least it doesn't look like anything to me. Describe the building we're in.

[fiftheclipse]

Wait, what?

Uh.

It's a cell block. White walls, a bed, a bathroom. ... Something's going on behind us, since the meals came in through that back wall. I dunno where the opening went...

But then right here, there's this.. I mean it kinda looks like a forcefield? But it acts like glass. Only, it won't break.

Then if you get through that door at the end of the hall, there's an operating room. Hospital beds, and IVs, and.. it's awful.

... Isn't it the same for you?

[rubikscomplex]

Nnnnope! [House pops the 'p' and leans up against the wall outside the cell.]

It looks like you guys are standing around in mold-filled, water-damaged cells for no reason. This place is seriously dank, bro. No dice on getting through the door at the end, either. Electronic lock.

[fiftheclipse]

Mold...

That can cause hallucinations, too, can't it? I kinda remember there were studies that showed it's the real cause of "haunted houses" and all that.

We've been here longer than you. With that anisomycin to mess with our heads, maybe the cells were like you say, and we just can't remember.

It doesn't explain being locked in. I think that's related to our lines. But it could still do something to our perception. Maybe it only makes itself invisible? Like a defense mechanism so it doesn't get removed. Because the whole place looks clean, to me.

[rubikscomplex]

Yep. Mold's not usually this selective about who it affects and in what ways, though. If it were all about suggestibility, Miller would've needed to suggest what your surroundings were in the first place. Did he?

[fiftheclipse]

No. All he told us was something was wrong and he was gonna fix it.

Or, well, one thing might've been a suggestion.

[He moves a bit closer, after all, to show off the hospital bracelet on his wrist.]

The only thing on here anyone's recognized so far is the anisomycin. I thought it seemed strange-- if they wanna mess up our memories, why use something that's supposedly got all these risks to work on counteracting, when we've already got other drugs that do the same thing with no side effects?

... What if that's not real? What if we only got these bands to freak us out, and the stuff they injected us with was different?

[rubikscomplex]

Maybe you have those kinds of drugs when you're from and where you're from. Might be they aren't a big thing here and Miller's not using the nanomachines for... whatever reason. Might be they're too corrupted or the Admin's actively blocking him, somehow, from doing that.

I wouldn't be surprised if Miller pumped you full of some random-ass cocktail. Last time I checked, they don't teach medicine in Coding 101.

[fiftheclipse]

Isn't he working without the Admin's knowledge? Maybe using them would set something off. Let her know about it.

[Wait. That and coding...]

Unless it's not medicine at all. Maybe it's more nanomachines, only running a different program. Clashing with what's keeping us stable... Those could be selective.

[rubikscomplex]

She already knows he's doing something. Or at least she has to suspect it if she's not getting ahold of him while this is going on. Could be extra injections of nanos. Were you experiencing any symptoms after you were injected like the MN Poisoning we've seen? The acute kind. Dizziness, nosebleeds, nausea.

[fiftheclipse]

Two out of three. Not the nosebleeds, at least in my case. I thought I was running a fever, too, but that might've been part of the hallucinations.

[rubikscomplex]

[House considers that, then steps closer to Junpei in the cell. He raises a hand to check the young man's forehead for a fever.]

Were there other cases where people were getting nosebleeds?

[fiftheclipse]

[That's.. weird, for a second. But, right, this guy is a doctor... He won't back away, then. While the symptoms before may remain a mystery, it should turn out to be pretty obvious that he's not sick right now.]

Could've been. I heard some of them throwing up, so I know I didn't get the worst of it.

[rubikscomplex]

No fever now. Skin's not even clammy. [Hmm...] I'll ask down the block. Anything else you can give me to work with? Anything Miller told you before the injections? Anything you saw or heard?

[fiftheclipse]

Yeah. Didn't think so. We don't need some stupid virus to deal with on top of all this, anyway.

Nothing useful. The hospital bands weren't there in the morning, and nobody came to put them on us, so that's another perception thing going on. ... Maybe it's kinda weird that that changed before the shots. But if we're seeing different rooms, there's nothing to say they didn't do something to us before we woke up, as well.

[rubikscomplex]

Perception, but all of this is being driven by something. Maybe the nanomachines in your blood are different? [House taps his lips.] We need to start comparing samples from people when we get outta here. I haven't looked at anyone's blood under a scope in months. Might see some changes by this point.

Were you anywhere near the hospital when you got pulled down here?

[fiftheclipse]

No, last thing I remember was the building with the hot water.

[And so many blankets. And Steph. And-- ... Huh. He can't actually remember going to sleep. So why doesn't he remember being taken?]

I can head there once we're back, though, no problem. You're thinking we compare ours to each other? They'd probably look the same if it's just the programming they swapped around, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the concentration's higher in mine. We should see whether there's any difference with the red eyes, too.

[rubikscomplex]

Yeah, I'm expecting concentrations of the specks to vary. That's what the nanos show up as. Microscope's in a house near the vet--Building 117. It's near one of the entrances to the maintenance tunnels entrance.

We've got six variants:

One, has their light, no lines.
Two, has their light, lines, but not red eyes.
Three, has their light, lines plus red eyes.

And then those three, but without their lights. Quark's your with-light, no lines variant. I know Strange is missing his light and he's down here. Think Magenta's missing his light, too, no lines.

[fiftheclipse]

[Alright. That covers the people without lines, so he just has to work out who fits where with the eyes, and--

Wait.]

Light?

We're still gonna need one more person without it. How do we figure that out?

[rubikscomplex]

People know if they have their light or not. Just ask around. The ones who lost it know they did 'cause we had a chance to get it back and they didn't take it.