Mission: Bad Science Saves the Day

[initiates]

Date & Time: Mid-Day, 3310 | Present Day June 14th-16th
Location: Andersfeld, in the (far former) state of Alaska. (Also known at one time as Anchorage, Alaska.) | Back in Exsilium, those manning the Transport Pads, or working on developing the antibiotics and administering them to the ill throughout the city. Yet others will need to hop-scotch through time gathering sufficient supplies to save lives.
Characters: Volunteers to alter medical research, people working on antiobiotic cures, people distributing appropriate cures, and those who are doing minor missions into the past to retrieve adequate supplies to treat the sick in the present.
Summary: Transports are asked to help save tens of thousands of lives, first by traveling two years into the past and altering scientific research. Second, by helping with the manufacture and development of antibiotics or other cures, once the mission is complete. Third, by distributing the cure to the affected parties. Fourth, by going on pointed supply missions solo, or with up to two other people, in order to get enough supplies to save people in the present.

Whatever your character decides to do, the weight of saving lives is on their shoulders, unasked, and perhaps unwelcome. What will they do when faced with this decision?

Warnings: Illness. Freezing cold. Possible death. Drunken scientists.

In Andersfeld, the snow falls in thick, fat flakes, winds blowing in gusts up to 60 kph. Everyone is bundled up against the weather. Spirits are generally low, if not outright alcoholic. Safety lines and lights guide those brave enough to venture outdoors from building to building.

For the Transports with a six hour window to alter a future that will kill over a hundred thousand people in three weeks, it's a dangerous and necessary bravery.

In Exsilium, the success of the mission to Andersfeld is felt as soon as scientists notice the virus responding to antibiotic treatments. It becomes a race to finding the most effective means of combating the now bacterial infection, and of mass producing any working cure for distribution.

Some help with the production.

Others hurry to cart the supply out to the places hit most heavily. Yet others work directly with administering the antibiotics, in most cases, via an IV line. Those less heavily affected will be granted ridiculously large antibiotic pills, needing to be coaxed down spasming throats.

Those who need action, or who are no good with the sick, are asked to make countless small trips through time to secure the supplies needed to produce enough of the cure to save the tens of thousands who are ill but not yet deceased.

And for those too ill to assist, now is the time to rest, heal, and get better. In a world like this, one never knows what surprise might next lie in wait. The Transports and the Initiative have thwarted total disaster for now.

Mostly.

Comments

[velveteened]

( oz has never seen her around, not the city (not that he's had much time for exploration lately) nor the hospital, and he brightens at the unfamiliar (pretty) face. variety in people is hard to get when stuck in a room of a hospital, after all! he's not so sick as to need the life support, but he's still wan and pale and exhausted, coughing weakly when he hears the squeak of the cart and the girl pushing it into the room.

that doesn't mean he doesn't try to summon a smile for her, though. )

Is that right?

[nothing]

That is right.

[ Automatically her gaze flicks to the records nearby, for the sake of clarity. She had yet to make any mistakes, but this patient is... evidently requesting confirmation. A logical thing to ask of a volunteer, Rei thinks. After reciting the room number: ]

Oz Vessalius, scheduled for initial treatment.

[ There's no time for anything else. Rei places a pill on the bedside table. It's. Enormous. She'll begin pouring a glass of water while Oz does or doesn't contemplate that, though, to a very precise mid-level. ]

[velveteened]

( oz watches her double-check a little bemusedly. he hadn't intended to make her second-guess herself or anything, but she at least doesn't seem bothered by it. in fact, her hair and demeanor has him reminded of echo despite himself, though for all he knows the similarities could end there. )

I see. Thank you for checking! ( since he'd sort of made her do it. ) And -

( for the treatment, he's going to say, but then he catches sight of the pill and pauses. that's. maybe that's something else. )

[nothing]

You asked.

[ It's a verbal shrug. No need to thank her for a day's work. No need to thank her for anything, really. What matters is eliminating the contagion, and her focus is narrowed on this to a pinpoint. When she presents the water, Rei blinks at him and the thing he didn't ask for. ]

Please take your dosage.

[velveteened]

( rei probably wouldn't enjoy the look of abject horror that flits across his face, but it is nothing if not comical. )

That's the pill?

[nothing]

[ Ah. Hesitance. It isn't something she readily understands in this case, being raised on quite a strict medication protocol, but she might make the attempt. There's the smallest eyebrow raise at his expression. Probably his condition getting worse. ]

Is there a problem?

[ What could have come out as confrontational merely sounds calm from her. ]

omg notifs!!

[velveteened]

Isn't it too big for someone to swallow...?

( his tone is almost contemplative, though he does at least pick it up and hold it out in front of his face, perhaps in hopes of it looking smaller from that perspective. it doesn't particularly help. )

fiends

[nothing]

... Pills impossible to ingest would have been discarded during production.

[ A confusing patient, to be sure. After that mouthful (HA HA), she inclines her head a bit. Which could give the fair impression of looming. ]

If you do not try, you cannot get well.

>8(

[velveteened]

Even if you say that...

( being loomed at and scolded and forced to take giant pills, will today's horrors never cease! he grimaces, but he's aware that she's right and he's being difficult. the odds of choking to death, which would just be ludicrous after everything, are probably not that big. )

Well, how can I say no when you put it like that?

( he finally reaches out to take the glass of water from her. maybe bravado can save the day. )

[nothing]

[ This is acceptable. Calmly but expectantly, she waits. ]

Tilting your head backward will ease the process.

[ Coughing up the pill would mean they have to repeat it, possibly with a delay and likely with less cooperation. ]

[velveteened]

( he drinks a little of the water first to cool his sandpapered throat, and then it's time to face the pill.

but first, a deep breath.

and then he finally does put the pill in his mouth, hesitates a moment long enough to make a face at the taste of it, and then make the metaphorical leap with a gulp of water.

and makes more faces as it goes down because wow are you supposed to be able to feel it all the way down your throat? )

sorry! :c

[nothing]

[ Now, then. That's certainly done. Having observed the strange gravity of it all, she offers no words, just readiness for whatever the boy has to say himself. She idly wonders if he will be able to. ]

no worries!

[velveteened]

( he downs more water before doing anything else, grimacing at that whole ordeal - really, future medicine is so strange and different from books on the four humors he'd read for studies - but only for a moment.

and then goes for a complete change of topic. )

I don't think you ever told me your name.

[nothing]

[ She is patient, but has no reason not to rearrange items for the next room as he drinks. The question doesn't interrupt her task. No, there isn't any significance to her name in a situation like this. Still, since it's requested, she replies. ]

Rei Ayanami.

[velveteened]

Rei, then.

( if he's intending to go somewhere with it immediately, he gets delayed by starting to cough. when he recovers, he adds - )

Thanks for your help, Rei.

[nothing]

[ This does give her a second's pause. ]

... No thanks necessary.

[ It's something given so freely. Another would have taken her place, after all, had she not been here. It was different, the first time she told anyone such words herself.

She lets the subject shift. ]

Is there anything else?

[velveteened]

Still, you really did help me.

( she really does remind him of echo. it's sort of comforting, really. )

No, that's all.