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.]]

Comments

[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?"

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel glanced up at the girl as she approached, and kind of shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah," she admitted, and her voice was decidedly more earnest than her gesture was. She remembered being divided on the ship, now, but it didn't really make sense in her head now-- the memories didn't add up. It was strange to deal with, to say the least.

"Sorry about attacking you I guess," she said, after another moment.

[encourage]

Sakura smiled, waving a hand in front of her face. It was a gesture of dismissal, moving past something Sakura had already shelved for herself. Nothing personal.

Personal was what mattered.

"It's fine. These things happen," she said, hand falling back down to her side. "You deal with them when they do. Is there anything I can get for you?"

[pretty_lethal]

"Guess so," Rachel agreed, shrugging. That had been a weird situation and now that she'd gone past that, and now that she was more rational again, she understood it. At least Sakura seemed to, as well.

"I'm fine," she said. She didn't really want anything (outside of getting outside the bubble), to be honest. "Just kind of bored. I take it no one's really got any answers yet?"

[encourage]

"Nothing concrete. We're still putting together the interviews like the one I had with you to find the common factors. Right now, it's looking like something happened down on XaXing to spark all of this off." It left out the other uncertainties, like if this wasn't from XaXing, if it was ship generated or any of the countless possibilities that had been tossed around thus far. "On the bright side, it doesn't look like it's contagious. If that gets approved by Doctor Henderson, it means we can let people out of the bubbles soon."

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel nodded to that. Fair enough, she guessed-- it was beyond frustrating and she really wished she could do something about it, but she wasn't exactly sure she could (actually she was pretty sure she couldn't).

Of course, the fact that they might get let out soon was much better news. "Great," Rachel said, and meant it-- "I'm about ready to never come back here again. So at least if something awful's going to happen it'll be in my own space." It was a bit casual, yes-- but she was taking it in stride.

[encourage]

Casual to a degree that surprised Sakura -- mostly from this group of people. If maybe she shouldn't, from Rachel, or from Marco. Intensely private people who were sprung into a war at an age they apparently weren't supposed to be sprung into anything. Weird, but only from a shinobi perspective. They had been civilians.

Tragic, really.

"I'll be happy to call off the bubble-living situation. There's a certain amount of invasiveness in this profession as it is. Now it just feels like sanctioned voyeurism."

Precisely because it was. She smiled, if she wasn't amused by it. Not that much. "Who's here for you?"

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel half snorted at that, leaning against her bubble as she looked out at the other girl. "Yeah really," she said. "We don't really need it any more, right? So a bit more privacy would be nice."

She paused for a brief second at the question, though, and her eyes narrowed a little bit. Who was on the ship, for her, she took it to mean-- she didn't really want to get into it. "Not many people from our world on the ship," she said, mostly truthful until she added the qualifier: "You know, Marco and his mom."

[encourage]

Sakura watched Rachel, keeping her thoughts to herself for now. "Just about right," she said, looking back over her shoulder toward the exit out of the wing that held Quarantine. "If you're not contagious, then we don't need to keep you here. We'll be keeping tabs on everyone either way, which is why I ask about who's here for you."

Because there was no point in beating around the bush. "Should you get young enough, it's a tossup between you trusting anyone of our staff enough to stay with them, or in Medical itself, or staying with the people you're familiar with."

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel nodded. "And I'm pretty sure I'm not, or else at least a few other people would have it by now." There'd been a fair bit of physical contact when she was split, after all, so if it were something that simple. Though honestly, she was feeling a bit lightheaded now-- but she doubted it had anything to do with this.

"I'm fine with staying in my home, thanks," she said, a bit bitter. They'd have to make sure what'd been said about Marco's mom was true, though-- Rachel still wasn't sure the woman was free. But she, Marco and Ax were fine on their own.

[encourage]

"Kaya and I would be in there with you, at the very least." Referencing even further back, to when they'd started bringing people in. "So at least that puts one fear to rest, for now."

She accepted Rachel's statement without comment. "Good. One less thing to worry about. As long as you trust the people you're staying with." Sakura kept her tone light. "That's generally important."

[pretty_lethal]

"Yeah, there's that, at least." 'Course, Rachel wasn't feeling great any more, but it was probably nothing, so she kept it to herself.

"It's fine," she said to that. "I'll live."

[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?"

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel was, for one, bored out of her mind. Plus, a part of her was even getting a little bit concerned about the whole de-aging or whatever it was. She could remember some of the stuff she might end up going through again.

"Yeah," she said, frowning just a little bit, and glanced up at Jamie as he came closer, giving him a quick once over, noting especially the sling he had his arm in. "Between me being 'dangerous' and then getting actually sick, apparently I'm not quite ready to be let out, yet," she said, rolling her eyes. She was just getting over the sick thing, actually. But she sure as hell didn't consider herself 'dangerous.'

"What happened to you?" she asked.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, well, you'd not seemed particularly dangerous to me, just a wee bit upset." Jamie admits. Even if that other version of her was supposedly more violent, likely she was just upset as well, he figures. He can't really say that he blames her completely, either. "I'm sorry to hear ye were ill, though."

He means it, especially now that he's met Nice Rachel. There was something about that side of her that made her more approachable, somehow. Maybe it was that feeling that she needed someone to look after her, which he doesn't really get with Rachel normally. It's hard to say. But, looking at her in the bubble, he realizes he's starting to think of her as a friend, and worry about her accordingly.

At her question, however, he automatically glances down at the sling, then looks back up, shaking his head. He really doesn't need the thing, in his opinion. "Aye, well, we were sent on what we thought was to be a mission to defeat a small group of Ohm, but there were a lot more than we had been led to believe. Our team took some damage. Kaya fixed me up, but they want me to wear this for a few days just to make sure I don't strain my shoulder again."

[pretty_lethal]

"Yeah, well, that was complicated," she said, frowning. He'd only seen the one half of her, after all. So he probably didn't really get why she'd been 'dangerous' at the time. "But whatever, it's over now." The weird divide and the sickness alike-- neither of which made complete sense in her head any more, but there wasn't a lot she could do about that. She just had to wait for whatever came next. Still, she did appreciate the sentiment, while she was frustrated and stuck here.

She nods at his explanation of what had happened. Figures, there'd been some kind of battle. "Sorry I missed it," she said, frowning a bit. Maybe she'd have been able to get in on the action, somehow, help out and kick some butt. "But I'm glad you're okay." She shrugged as she said it, almost nonchalantly-- but she meant it. "It'd have sucked if you'd gotten hurt badly or something."

[bonnypiperlad]

"Och," Jamie replies, just as nonchalantly as Rachel did a few moments earlier. "It'll take more than a wee space battle to take a McCrimmon down."

He goes to tuck his thumbs behind his belt, meaning to draw himself up proudly, but realizes when the one arm doesn't want to move that that won't really work properly at the moment. So he doesn't bother, letting his free hand swing freely.

"Ye should have seen it, though. It was not like anything I'd ever seen before. Mind ye, it's not as though I've been in too many space battles - not ones I could do anything about, anyway."

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel smiled at that-- she could appreciate the sentiment behind it. She herself wouldn't let something like that take it down either, after all. "Of course not," she said, with a small wave of her hand, almost dismissive.

"Fair enough," she said, her eyes a little bright. She hated being stuck in the bubble, so she listened in instead. She'd not been in many space battles per se, but still. "It sounds pretty awesome."

[bonnypiperlad]

"You'd not have thought it when we first got there. Mind ye, we were supposed to be there just to lend support. The Megazord's not very fast."

It's actually a small miracle it was there at all, if you ask Jamie. Engineering had managed to pull off the upgrades to make the Zords space-capable just in time. He glances around for a moment, looking for a chair or something to sit...ah, there's one. Well, if he can sit, maybe he can distract Rachel from her own situation for a time.

"Did ye want to hear about it? I could go over things if ye do."

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel nodded to that. Made sense, anyway. After hesitating for a moment, she leant against the wall of her bubble, and said, "Sure, why not? Tell me about it if you want." It'd be a pretty decent way to pass the time, right?

[bonnypiperlad]

Hopefully it will be. Jamie does like to get into his stories, however, and they tend to come complete with lots of hand gestures - and he's not about to let some wee sling stop him from telling the tale.

At any rate, he describes the battle with the Ohm, from the attack from the Shrikes that started out as small waves and grew larger, to the appearance of the Firebugs and the Leviathan. There's a fair bit about the Rangers and having to protect Lord Zedd during the fight as well, which may or may not be confusing, depending on how much Rachel knows about the ship Power Rangers and the enemy from Billy's world.

He finishes with what he knows about what happened to them, although he doesn't go into too much detail about the actual injury he sustained to his arm, figuring Rachel'll be able to figure it out from how he's described the battle. Finally, though, he says, "And that's about it. I'd not have thought all of us would have made it back, given what happened."

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel didn't have all the information, no, but she could figure out enough from context that it didn't matter much. Instead, she just listened to the story that Jamie was telling her, letting him tell it however he wanted. She was interested, despite her apathetic exterior to the story. And she did hate that she'd been stuck here during it all, even if it wasn't the type of battle where she could actually help.

"No use thinking about that though, right?" Rachel said, to Jamie's final assessment. "Sounds to me like you kicked enough butt that it worked out."

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, that's true." Rachel has a point, after all. It may have been a tough fight, but they got through it. His arm will be fine soon enough. And Rachel...well, with luck they'll figure out what's wrong and they be able to let her out of that thing. Jamie lays a hand on the outside of the bubble, pressing against it for a moment before shaking his head.

"Och, I wish ye weren't stuck in that infernal contraption, Rachel. If it were something contagious, the Doctor or I would have caught it by now. It's not fair, I'm telling ye."

[pretty_lethal]

Rachel managed a small smile at him, at his gesture and words. "Yeah, it kinda sucks," she admitted, but she shook her head. "Whatever. They'll probably let me out soon. There's no problem any more, anyway."