Day 196 : Start of the "Sickness Inside" plot

[bastionpc]

Who: Nathaniel (NPC) and everyone else who wants to be involved
Open: Open
When: Day 196
Where: Near the monument --> Out on the Skyway
What: Nathaniel needs a radio tower. He's enlisting the help of others to get said radio tower
Format: any
Warnings: Dead body discovery in the radio tower threads. Mentions of throw-up when Zulf joins the Okumura group.

This is the post for everything related to Day 196 of this particular event. The starter is in the comments, and important threads will be linked here as they are made.

Important threads:

START: by the monument

At the radio tower and the surrounding area

Regrouping

Meanwhile, at the Bastion...

Comments

[yinyangfox]

[ Seimei appreciated the attempt at open dialogue with the birds and nodded to Yata, who relayed the message in terms more easily understood by the birds. Of course approaching the food meant discovering the nature of it. Some people were not all that impressed. ]

Ah! Human remains. Very unfortunate, but at least now we understand the large food source. [ He shrugged lightly, dismissing the food entirely. It wasn't that disgusting, really. It was nature taking its course and he appreciated natural scavengers. And yet... ]

I wonder what killed them. [ The onmyoji mused, leaning forward and taking a few steps closer. ] I have no intention of taking your meal, but would you mind terribly if I took a look at it? Unless of course you could tell me what happened? [ He asked, addressing the nearest Pecker. ]

[notduchess]

... Explains the meat-reek.

[ Duke sighs. It's gross, but not terribly new. The knight looks about for an easily acquired stick. ]

Well, with all the eating, it's a bit hard to tell... But it looks - and smells - fairly recent. Which... is troubling...

[bastionpc]

[The Peckers relent, since Seimei is asking nicely, and one of the smarter ones has pointed out that humans wouldn't eat other humans anyway.

As for where the body came from, it's a mess of chattering, with only brief thoughts like "we found it like that!" "They were all dead before we got here!" "We didn't kill them!" and things like that.

Also, one of the smaller Peckers is going to swoop down to land on Duke. Because Duke is clearly the perfect perch.]

[earthandpine]

[Rosethorn has followed in the direction of the birds, and she draws up short when she sees the corpses.]

The birds have been at them, so it'll be harder to figure out cause of death. Don't touch them. Not till we know that.

[yinyangfox]

"They said that they found the bodies like this already and they were not responsible for killing them. There is that, at least," the onmyoji relayed, bowing politely in greeting when the lady came about. Though their interactions were few, Seimei respected Rosethorn greatly.

"The decay is not very far in. The corpses are rotted, but hardly desiccated. Perhaps a poison?" he remarked, folding his hands into his sleeves obediently as not to touch anything accidentally.

"Were there any wounds before you started eating?" he asked, addressing the birds again, dark eyes following the younger avian heading for Duke, lips quirking in a vague smile. It pleased him that the creatures were gradually adapting o their presence and less inclined to violence. There was hope for the world yet, perhaps.

[notduchess]

Duke gives a sigh and a look in the direction of the bird that promises retribution if there is any pecking or droppings, but otherwise ignores the creature.

"If it is a poison, it would have to be something that wouldn't make the pecker's sick. They'd stop eating it then, right?" It makes sense to the knight.

"... Is a stick to turn the body over too close to touching?" Duke was thinking that the side against the ground might not be eaten, so some possible more clues. The knight indicates hip and shoulder with the stick, to indicate how the flipping was planned.

[earthandpine]

Rosethorn frowns. She can't say she'd be happy if they knew a cause of death, because these are still people who lost their lives, but she would feel a lot more comfortable. "How long have they been eating here? Long enough for any poisons to make themselves known?"

She looks to Duke, nodding. "Just be careful."

[bastionpc]

[TALKING BURDS HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS

But they confirm that it's only been a day, and there were no wounds.

One pipes up and mentions 'the sickness', but the Peckers seem unconcerned about it. Mostly because it's a disease that affects humans and windbags, not Peckers.]

[notduchess]

"A day?" Duke eyes the body with some more unease then. They were a day late in collecting someone off the skyway?

The knight has one stick under the body's shoulder when that one bird pipes up with sickness. Duke stops then. "Sickness?" And only a day dead of it? "That means we should leave, doesn't it."

[earthandpine]

Rosethorn's mouth tightens, teeth gritted, as her fears are confirmed. "It does," she agrees grimly. "It also means we're all going into quarantine when we get back if I have anything to say about it."

She hates quarantine. Every second she spends there is time she should be spending researching a cure.

"Give me one minute." Moving forward, Rosethorn holds out her hands to Duke for the sticks. She wants to move tattered clothing aside, maybe go ahead and flip the body. Anything that will give her a better idea of what symptoms to expect should they wind up facing an epidemic in the Bastion. Just a quick look, and then she's running to warn Colin and the others. They discussed the possibility recently. Rosethorn may never forgive herself if someone dies because she didn't prepare for this even after considering that it might happen.

"Yanna preserve us," she murmurs.

[yinyangfox]

Seimei continued to relay what the birds had said, listening attentively to Duke and Rosethorn all the while. He had seen plague in his time, though it was usually reasonably well contained and excluded anything and anyone not human - or not quite human, in his case. As such, his concern was muted. He worried about others, and the idea of Kaoru or Hikaru becoming sick because of something he brought home with him was out of the question.

"Marvelous," he muttered with a sigh, gazing irritably at the corpse before casting his eyes to Duke. "If it is not the world blowing up, it is disease, famine, or the simple stupidity of ourselves. I am certain quarantine will be thrilling."

[notduchess]

The problem for Duke is that magic is a cure all for most things - while the knight didn't specialize in disease, there were those who did, and made such things easy to clean up. Here? That's a bit more of a problem. Have the sticks, Rosethorn, Duke doesn't need them.

Duke is ignoring you, Seimei, because the idea of quarantine was not one that the knight was looking forward to. "... I think you might want to stay here." Excuse Duke, little pecker, but it just occurred to the knight that you have probably been eating that dead sick person. And it's a bad idea to be that close to you.

[bastionpc]

[YEP

Sorry Duke that bird has been eating something that carries contagions that affect humans. But it can be easily shooed away, at least?

There's not much to see of the body, even if it's only been dead a day or so, there are a lot of hungry Peckers, and they want to eat before it becomes rotten. But there seem to be no injuries to the body, outside of what the Peckers have done. The one noticeable thing is that the person had been dehydrated and hungry, before dying. Loss of appetite and desire to drink water are possibly symptoms of this disease.]

[yinyangfox]

"Well, there is no use troubling over it now. What is done is done and if its a disease communicable by air, we already have it - by touch as well, thanks to your friend there," Seimei murmured, gesturing vaguely to the Pecker. He didn't blame them - most animals didn't understand disease between species.

"We really should burn all the bodies," he remarked after a moment of thought, eyeing the Peckers and wonder quietly if they too would require extermination. They obviously weren't infected by anything but they could be carriers. Looks like its time for an ultimatum.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, but as this sickness you speak of is obviously very dangerous to...the wingless ones, we have to put fire to the bodies. You are also possibly dangerous to us. If you travel a little farther--," he turned left and right, trying to get his bearing before pointing in another direction, "--that way, there is quite a lot of area we have not tread yet and there should be food. But we have to get rid of these, so please go somewhere safer for now," the onmyoji asked, though his tone stayed particularly cool. He would kill every last one of them if necessary. The needs of the many outweighed the desires of the few.

[notduchess]

"I was almost going to ask what would stop them from eating it after we burned it, and then I realized you didn't mean the char it to a crisp sort of burning, but something closer to cremation.

Although this was another thought. "... Anyway to shove bits of skyway in different directions? I mean, its floating here, and I have some wind spells. .. And a rather large force one, if I get it to focus its hits, we could probably knock this away?"

Or the knight can use them on the pecker colony. Sorry little shoulder bird friend.

[yinyangfox]

"Incinerate it and blow the ashes away? I can accomplish this easily enough. My shikigami harness the elements. Fire and wind are hardly complex by their standards," the onmyoji remarked thoughtfully, folding his hands behind his back and leaning over the nearest corpse curiously.

"Between you and I we could feasibly clear out the area. Being as we have already put ourselves at risk and the lady has run off to explain the situation, it would be sensible for us to avoid unnecessary contact with the others. At least until we know we are not infectious...or infected," he remarked, gazing pointedly at Duke.