Melting Clock: Quarantine

[cityship]

After Sam Henderson's announcement, the Contagion Containment and Treatment lab was going to get busy. Anyone suspected of being affected by the mysterious affliction would be brought here, and put into one of the large bubbles that would keep any potential contagious diseases in - and the patients themselves. Once in inside, they wouldn't be able to get out again until the Medical staff had cleared them.

And before they could do that, they needed to find out what was causing this - and why.

They had a lot of hard work ahead of them.

[[ooc: Just start your own sub threads under the main threads, guys! And if you're happy to have anyone tag in, put "Open" in the subject line. If you've already got plans for who you're threading with, put "Closed" instead.]]

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[cityship]

Interviews and the arrival of new patients wasn't the only thing going on in Contagion - sometimes, other discussions were taking place.

[[ooc: Aaand this is pretty much for any other threads you'd like to have. Patients talking to each other, Medical staff & investigators talking to each other, visitors, you name it.]]

[open to anyone]

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

Kon was sitting at the bottom of his bubble, under his red lights, back to anyone that may have happened to peek in.

This situation bugged him. Wasn't it bad enough he had stuff happen like becoming genetically unstable, being stuck at 16 for a while? It felt like his whole world was full of glass tubes and unzipped DNA and prodding doctors and being cooped up. Now he was back in a tank again, back in a medlab, back to being poked and prodded while someone figured out what was wrong with him.

It made him cranky, being cooped up like this. It made him cranky to have something wrong. It made him even crankier to think about what was going to happen next. He was losing time. It wasn't at a rapid enough pace to panic yet, but it was still happening in spurts and jumps.

The problem was he only had so much time to lose.

[open to anyone]

[projectkr-e-16.livejournal.com]

Superboy wasn't entirely sure why he was here. He had heard what had happened to Kon and the others, but he didn't know any specifics. He was curious and there wasn't much else going on so he wandered into the medical bay and eventually found himself facing Kon.

He didn't really say anything though. He didn't know what he could say. He just stared at the... suddenly younger looking boy.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"So, I may not exactly be able to share my worldly wisdom with you like I promised," Kon said, when he finally noticed Superboy there. "On account of the fact I'm losing it all."

[stupidnecklace.livejournal.com]

History seemed to enjoy repetition. Though the setting had changed, Kon was still being held up in a fancy, organic laboratory, and she could only stand by. It sucked.

Still, it didn't exactly prepare Tana for how much younger Kon had gotten. Closer to what she remembered, which she didn't mind (selfish as that was). "Hey, Kid," she greeted quietly, half-expecting a Jeka-like blow up. "I thought you could use a little company."

[callmethekid.livejournal.com]

Less blow-upping, more Kon being a boneless pile of bored teenage boy in the bottom of his bubble. (Hey, that was a lot of alliteration there).

"You don't have to worry about me, Tana. Not like I've never had scientists and doctors making my genes dance the centrifuge Samba before. They'll put their giant heads together, figure out what this is, and I'll be fine before you know it, maybe even without being barely legal for ages this time."

There it was. The brave face. Isn't it familiar, Tana?

[theboywhowaits]

This entire situation had been the sort of insanity he had come to expect, after the Doctor had dropped out of the sky in his magic blue box and swept his fiance away for the first time. But really, it was different, in it's own way. It was one thing to meet insane aliens and defy the laws of everything on a daily basis. It was another thing entirely to try to treat them, and to not know how or why they were sick in the first place.

"Mr. Kent?" He crouched down so he wasn't towering over him. "How are you feeling?"

Definitely younger, even since he'd last seen him. Probably in his mid teens. He held back a sigh, trying to figure out what could have caused this sort of thing. Rewinding time, it just didn't make any sense. Not without a TARDIS or something to cause it.

[so-pregnable.livejournal.com]

"It's Kon-El. Kon, for short. No idea where you got that name from."

He'd already forgotten being named Conner Kent, living with Ma and Pa.

"And all this?" he twirled a finger around. "Total party. I'm loving it. Lov-ing. It. Who doesn't love being sick with some mysterious disease and trapped in a giant hamster ball?"

[battorch]

To say that Tim was worried about Conner was an understatement. And even calling it that was generous. He was more than aware of his friend's lack of chronological time, and concerned about how far back this was going to go-- as well as how fast. Would it stop? He didn't want to risk that. He'd have to keep an eye on this, on Conner...

Tim approached his friend's bubble silently at first, not wanting to say anything for a moment. He simply crept in, feeling a certain amount of dread. But the conversation itself shouldn't be too bad. Hell, maybe he could help Conner out, somehow, by talking to him. Figure something out, or else... Well, he'd just have to hope, for the time being.

"Hey," Tim said, deciding to make his presence known then. He wasn't going to insult him by asking him how he was or anything though.

[callmethekid.livejournal.com]

Kon'd been rubbing the back of his head, his hand keeping part of his head in shadow. Now he pulled it away, and...

The fade was back. When Kon turned around to look at him, it was with a much younger face than when Tim was last in the room.

"Hey."

A pause and then he admitted awkwardly, "Hate you break it to you, Rob, but I think I might be forgettin' you soon. Impulse, too. I'm losin' it."

[telekinetic_badass]

He probably should've been here sooner to visit. Especially since he was only over in a different wing of the medbay for a while. But he did finally manage to make his way over, and tapped his knuckles against Kon's bubble.

[callmethekid.livejournal.com]

When Kon turned around it'd be apparently exactly how much time he'd lost. He was a fresh-faced sixteen now, a lot of the angles gone from his features. His hair was now a fade haircut, and his body was swimming a little in his old clothes, the t-shirt and jeans a little too baggy for someone with all his lean muscle. He'd had to tighten the belt a lot to compensate. He looked squirmy and uncomfortable too, as if he was used to spandex rather than rough cottons. (A result of being used to practically living in his costume).

"Nerts," he said, standing up. He now had to look up at Julian. He wasn't exactly a shorty, but he wasn't a looming giant. "Did I really lose that much height? "

He didn't remember much about himself, but he remembered being taller than Julian on the ship at least, with his six-foot-something self.

(open)

[8wings.livejournal.com]

Anwei had taken over two terminals near the back of Contagion, and was running both monitors in split-screen mode. Her eyes were a dancing blue blur in their sockets as she read four different sets of information at once, trying to find a way to get the numbers to align.

Her first run-through on the data was not very promising. All of the affected seem to be human, part-human or humanoid hybrids (which also described the majority of the crew). All seemed to be regressing in time, forgetting their past – but not forgetting their time spent on Stacy. Their bodies were regressing along with their minds: she could see the hair of one of the men in the contagion bubbles coif itself without anyone touching it. And there wasn't any obvious group that the affected all belonged to, that might account for their being like this. Whatever 'this' was.

She put her eyes in parallel and just glared at the screens for a moment, willing them to give her an answer. Some weapon they'd all trained with, some part of the ship they'd all visited, something they'd all bought on XaXing. Something.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

It's not that Howard's forgotten yelling at Anwei. It's just that he's ceased to care. So he sidles up to her terminal and leans against the wall as if he's dropping in on any coworker, rolling and unrolling the edge of his gloves.

It's totally creepy how Anwei's eyes move independently. Like a chameleon. A toothy, self-absorbed, prissy little chameleon. Just because he's 'over it' doesn't mean his opinion of her's much higher.

"What've you got over here? I've got nothing. I was going with 'bumped on the head' but now I'm leaning towards 'evil alien earthworm with mind control powers'." He's brought his clipboard over so he can share notes.

[8wings.livejournal.com]

She was fairly certain that Howard's gloves and mask were unnecessary - there was no sign of any organic or nanotech contamination so far - but she certainly understood the sentiment of 'better safe than sorry'.

"Not a large enough sample base to get anything definitive - which is good, I suppose, especially if this turns out to be non-contagious." She looks at him with both eyes, and firmly keeps her right eye from straying over to try and read his clipboard.

"And it's only an evil alien earthworm if it's somehow tunneling backwards through time and bringing them with it - I mean, they're visibly losing mass into nothingness! Or gaining it! I've never heard of a parasite that did that. I need to find out if we can track their movements; see if they were exposed to some sort of, I don't know, time flux? Whatever you would call it."

She turned both eyes to her screens and scowled again. "And of course, any conclusion I do come up with needs a little asterisk, and the note 'But it could be magic'."

[encourage]

Something that so far didn't seem to be providing itself. "Coming up with anything?" Sakura asked, data pad and a notebook held under her arm. The variables they were dealing with were problematic, being that there were so many possibilities. Still, focusing on the trees at the cost of losing the forest meant needing to focus on what few consistencies they could find between those affected.

Which was difficult enough. Some property of Stacy? With the ship's claim to be working for everyone's better interest (after a fashion), this didn't make sense. Not to say trusting Stacy made sense in the first place, but out of all the creative ways she could think to turn people into either puppets for her manipulating -- or the Dalgig -- without any sense of a stop being set in place yet, this whole process was too chancy.

Another individual? So far no one had mentioned any odd confrontation with someone on ship. Plenty down on XaXing, if the best way to check that was comparative reviews between people's regurgitated memories, if they'd remembered something that turned out to be significant. It was also possible people hadn't been infected at the same time and that the rates of reversal were tied in to either their time of exposure to whatever caused this time regression rather than having been through the same area in the same timeframe. All of which was getting caught up in details yet again. "Has everyone here so far been interviewed, as far as you know?"

Re: (open)

[needs-release.livejournal.com]

Sam had never been so busy since taking this position. Obviously, physicals had been taking a back seat to finding out what has been happening. It'd been a week since he'd slept, and about the same since he'd fed. But he was pushing himself, perhaps a bit longer than he ought to.

They'd gotten a pile of data, and it was time for his appointee to do what she'd been brought on to do. His ponytail was a bit loose and unkempt, his necktie as well. His top two buttons on his shirt were undone, and it was also untucked. He looked a like he'd been working without rest for quite some time, and it could be seen in his eyes.

"Make my week, Anwei, tell me you've got something for me," he said breathlessly as he stopped at her elbow. His hands rose to his ponytail to inspect its condition with his hands. Since he knew it was a mess, he pulled the elastic tie out, and started to fix it.

[open to anyone]

[hatngartersnake.livejournal.com]

(http://s607.photobucket.com/albums/tt152/clayinIcons/?action=view&current=serious.jpg)

Jeka was certainly worried about how she was apparently aging backwards -- not that she remembered it, aside from having some very confusing memories about having hair and arms and being desperately unhappy about it -- but she was trying to maintain a positive outlook. The technology on board Stacy was quite advanced, and there were people who could utilize a wide variety of magic, surely they could come up with some way to solve the problem. She'd already volunteered to help however she could, and for now that was all she could do.

Re: [open to anyone]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi had wandered in to see if there was anyone he knew here -- maybe to speak to Howard if he wasn't too busy. But there, in one of the bubbles was... a snake?

"Hello," he said. "I'm not a member of Medical, but is there anything I could do to make you more comfortable?"

[open to any/everyone]

[pretty_lethal]

Having finally returned to just being herself-- the two previous Rachels having become one once again-- Rachel was neither sulking at the bottom on the bubble nor raging, yelling, or banging against it.

Of course, she was certainly still pissed.

Leaning against the side of the bubble, she was glaring at nothing in particular while she thought. If she could somehow find a way out of there-- which she kind of doubted-- that'd be great. She wanted away from everyone, so she could go do something, at least. Maybe figure out what the hell was happening. She remembered splitting in two-- but now she couldn't remember why she had done that. So even she had to kind of admit that something was wrong here.

Basically? This sucked.

[encourage]

She wasn't sure there should be a general sigh of relief in seeing Rachel as one collected person, let alone when it indicated another leap backward through her lifetime. After all, there had apparently been a way to rejoin the two together through some acquiring process Marco hadn't been so sure about.

That point was moot, at least for now. Pending there weren't any other lurking moments in her past that would be manifesting in such a divided way. "Glad to be back in one piece?"

[after returning from Trojan Horse plot]

[bonnypiperlad]

It's not until after the battle with the Ohm that Jamie finds himself in Medbay. Despite Kaya's help with his arm, it seems like a good idea to get checked out anyway. Besides, as much as he doesn't care for the place, he'd never hear the end of it from Lash if he didn't go.

Consequently, he now finds himself the proud possessor of an arm sling, and with some extra free time on his hands. On his way out, he happens to glance over towards Quarantine. He hadn't realized Rachel was still there, although he supposes if there were two of her it could be a problem. He only sees the one of her, though. Maybe they've managed to fix her...but then why is she still in a bubble? He frowns slightly, but the expression is gone by the time he reaches the part of the room they're keeping her in.

"Rachel? Have they not let ye out yet?"

[closed, and bendytimed to the day before Quarantine ends]

[lives2annoy.livejournal.com]

Marco hadn't noticed it himself, but over the night he'd had a rapid change, the last few years falling away until he'd stopped at thirteen years old, and had just started fighting against the Yeerks not that long ago. Not that he was going to keep fighting the Yeerks. He'd told Jake, before he'd woken up on Stacy - that mission was going to be his.

Figures that right when he was about to get out of that insane mess, he ended up in an even more insane mess. (How's that for irony, Alanis?)

[encourage]

(Better than the rain on your wedding day.)

Rounds right now in Quarantine were a bit like watching family movies in reverse. If, for one, Sakura had ever seen a family film in her life, and if, for another, any of these people were family in the first place.

... Rounds right now in Quarantine were a bit like something she'd never seen before, with faces and forms that changed in startling (if interesting) ways. People might occasionally wish they could catch a glimpse of someone at a different age, normally older authority figures when they'd been much younger, but Sakura was quickly finding that she really wasn't comfortable with these glimpses into people's pasts.

For one, it wasn't their past anymore. For another, it was an all too evident sign that they weren't figuring things out quickly enough -- they were losing time in the most literal sense.

Passing by Marco's bubble, she hadn't expected as obvious change as the one she was confronted with when she looked up and over. She had half planned on seeing how he was getting along, as well as to check his deaging progress. "Marco?" How old was he now? If she had to guess, she'd say around genin age. Assuming he'd follow the same aging patterns as someone from her world. Most people appeared to be, so far. He'd definitely lost the signs and hints of a young male entering or currently going through puberty. "How're you feeling today?"

Re: [closed, and bendytimed to the day before Quarantine ends]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi wasn't sure how old the person he was looking for now was, but he stopped at one of the bubbles -- the boy in this one bore more than a passing resemblance to Eva.

"Marco?" he asked.