trans_9 | Melting Clock: Quarantine

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Melting Clock: Quarantine

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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Sakura looked up from her data pad with a polite, understanding smile. Or at least what she hoped was still passing as one. "Dr. Henderson prefers that we take greater precautions over leaving anything up to chance. We appreciate you coming in, miss. I'm Haruno Sakura."

She bowed. As far as they'd noticed so far, this didn't seem contagious. It was hard to know for sure, but just in case this woman wasn't affected, it stood to reason not to chance spreading something to her that Sakura had herself been exposed to already. "What's your name?"

Karis folded her arms defensively, "Karis Reynolds. What's all this about anyway? I feel perfectly fine. I'm not sick."

"People have been experiencing selective memory loss, as well as physical regressions. If you haven't noticed, that's actually fairly normal. Memories gained on-board the ship seem largely unaffected so far. You are here, on the other hand. Someone must have suggested you stop by?" Karis Reynolds wasn't pulling up any records. Sakura blinked, asking neutrally, "How do you spell Karis?"

"Selective memory loss...?" Karis frowned. She didn't think she'd suffered from that. But then again, how would she know? She shook her head, putting a hand to her temple.

"Kay-A-Ar-Eye-Ess. Karis."

Sakura input Karis again, leaving off the surname. A record came up this time, but for a Karis Needleteeth.

Who was normally a zombie, and if Sakura was remembering back to her podpop cycle correctly... "Selective in that it's only memories from home. Starting with whatever you should be remembering now, working backward from there. In a way, it's more like a loss of time. People regress mentally and physically together." She glanced down at her data pad, then back up to Karis. "This is an odd question, but do you remember meeting me before?"

Karis furrowed her brow. That sounded weird. What could she have possibly forgotten from home? Nothing important, surely? She shrugged. "Well, yeah. Why?"

She did remember her. She thought. Some of the stuff since she'd arrived on the ship was a bit fuzzy, but still there.

"At the time I met you, you looked significantly different." She tapped her data pad. "For one, you're listed as a zombie."

Sakura checked the pad again, verifying the additional note. "And based on our first meeting alone, I can verify that as having been true as of a little over four months ago."

"...what?"

Karis felt her stomach twist itself into a knot. A zombie? No way. She'd never been a zombie. She was alive. As alive as the day she was born. She certainly wasn't undead.

"No, that's wrong. Check it again."

She leaned over to try and get a look at the datapad, "See? Karis Reynolds-"

"I'll check again, Ms. Reynolds. I don't believe I'm making a mistake, if that's a possibility." Tapping in the same name once more, she kept her expression neutral. She moved the data pad enough for Karis to see the record search this time, turning up a singular name: Karis Needleteeth. "If you're on file at all as Karis, it's not under the name Reynolds."

Though she cursed herself for being so incredibly insensitive. What possessed her to think informing someone of their future -- and for the moment, past -- state as a member of the once-dead, twice-walking was a good idea to handle so blithely? She could imagine what Tsunade would have to say about this, at the top of her lungs.

"Part of the signs and symptoms of people affected by this disease is the loss of years of memories from back home. Whatever made you the way you are from what I remember, and what's on file, happened in your past. Only right now, that past is your future." She paused. "The illness is moving people backward through time. You're literally younger now than you were a month ago."

"I can't be getting younger. That's... that's impossible."

Karis paced back and forth for a moment. Her name wasn't Needleteeth. And she wasn't a zombie. She wasn't undead. So why did the ship think she was both? Why did people think so? It seemed impossible

"I don't believe this."

"It's pretty impossible sounding, isn't it?" She sounded sympathetic, and she was. She was also frustrated at this being possible, and being so evident all around her. Karis might not be able to conceptualize her own changes, but Sakura could -- and so could whatever person (or persons) had sent Karis on her way to Quarantine. "It doesn't make it any less true, or real. I know it's hard to believe, especially when you can't remember the things that'd make it make sense. I'm still asking that you try. You were convinced enough to come down here. There is something going on, and we're working to figure out exactly what it is. We'll need your help to do that."

"But... I don't want-" Karis bit her tongue. Shut up. If what she had was contagious, she'd infect half the crew and then where would they be? She had a duty to her crewmates. An obligation. She slowly let her shoulders drop with a sigh.

"What do you need me to do?"

"We're setting everyone up in a contagion unit." Sakura smiled, small and apologetic. A moment latter, she's cool, gesturing for Karis to follow her down a ways to an open unit. For all the world, they looked like large, opaque bubbles.

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Melting Clock: Quarantine

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