sixthiterationlogs | [EVENT] The Simulation Ends

[EVENT] The Simulation Ends

WHERE: 6I Fountain Park & Elsewhere
WHEN: April 1
OPEN TO: ALL - Mingle
WARNINGS: N/A

In the snug circle of an old park, a fountain sits burbling beneath a broad, midday sky.

Once-neat paving stones have buckled and cracked from the slow nudge of wayward roots. Benches stand covered in lichen and rust. Three paths push into the underbrush like the spokes on a wheel, the encroaching forest creating lush tunnels through the dark.

But the fountain stands singular and pristine, brightly splashing in open rebellion of the deep, muffled sounds of a place long ago gone to seed. A vibration hums through the ground, there and quickly gone, and the water in the fountain trembles, lapping against the high walls of its cool, pale reservoir.

Far, far away, in a place that isn't really there, people begin to blink out of existance.

It is the first of April.

It is precisely ten o'clock in the morning.

[Please see event details and guidelines here.]

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The village has been strange most of the day. The normal people who should be around aren't. It's quiet, eerily so, and it's enough to make Beverly abandon her normal routine in favor of going to check on her housemates and then everyone she knows and can find. She makes it back to the house, just managing to push open the door and step inside before everything shifts around her.

And then she opens her eyes to cold water. It's not the first time she's done this, nor the first time she's seen anyone else do the same, but it's been so long for her that she has to fight the urge to inhale in surprise. She kicks hard, reaching for the surface. Eventually, she manages to find air, breaking through the water and gasping for breath as she clings to the edge of the fountain. A moment passes before she pulls herself out of the water again. She doesn't have a backpack this time, but she's got a new wristband and her scrubs are a different color. That's... new.

The other weird thing is that her hair has grown out and it's two different shades. Blonde at the bottom and red at the top. Her old dye job's been growing out wrong. Somehow.

It'll have to wait, though. She needs to be sure no one needs medical attention. Or help getting out of the fountain.

So she stands again and sucks in a deep breath before she starts looking people over. "Excuse me, I'm a doctor. I need to make sure no one's been hurt by our sudden reemergence. Just let me give you a quick examination and you'll be good to go. And if you happen to see anyone who needs medical attention, would you mind sending them my way?"

"Well, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure getting you into some dry clothes is more important than that," Kira answers, barely looking up as he writes down her scrub color and thinks a moment on the name. He's only starting to wear thin on his that's nice but it's cold as balls conversations, and he'd worn thin on most politeness by the age of eleven.

Having quite literally been in her shoes a couple of hours ago though, he sighs and tries again. "What I mean is, we have a couple of people working on that already, and you're welcome to help, but I really think you should go change first. It seems like everyone's belongings are still in their houses, if you had one."

His second glance turns into a third--his blanking on the name might have had something to do with the hair. "And once this is all over, if you want help trimming that down, I've got a kit."

Her eyebrows arch a bit, but he does have a point. At the same time, she's not in the mood to just run off if someone else needs help getting out of the fountain, too. There might not be time. So rather than address that or the fact that it is cold out, she squeezes some of the water out of her hair to give herself five seconds to ask an important question.

"I take it the entire village hasn't popped out of the fountain all at the same time, then?"

She'll deal with the cut and color later. It's the least important thing right now. If she does have time to run for some clothes, she can at least get herself warm and grab some towels to help anyone who might surface after her.

He doesn't immediately check the watch; even at home, he hadn't worn one, and it's been so long since he had a phone, he's more in the habit of checking how close the sun is to the trees. But he has checked it, reminded each time by the bands on everyone's arms. They haven't seemed to suffer any by coming through the fountain with them.

"Every quarter-hour or so," he judges, matching up the time now with the last group. "Plenty of time to grab a coat." Tilting the journal toward her, he shows her the names he's gathered already. "I think we've got about half the village by now, and Ravi was first out with me. If anyone's hurt in the next batch, we can spare you long enough to keep you getting sick; you can grab something out of the inn storage if your house is too far."

That is plenty of time, oddly enough, and the surprise briefly shows on her face. She nods once in response. At least they've got Ravi. He can take care of anyone while she's gone. They were lucky to have a medical professional out first.

"All right. Thank you. I'll be right back."

Her house isn't far at all, so at least she won't be gone long. When she does return, she's changed clothes, wrapped up in a coat, and has a few dry towels folded over her arms. Her hair is dry by now, as she's spent most of the time away getting that dry so she really wouldn't catch cold. And here she is back in no time and ready to work.

"Do most of the people seem to be coming through relatively unharmed?" she asks next.

Kira isn't surprised to have her back; he's been to the inn and returned with another batch of towels, occupying himself now with shaking them out in the air. There's a layer of dust over everything, and no one's day is going to improve with a dead moth or spider in their hair.

With a firm shake, he drops the towel to halves along its edges, folding it back up to put in his makeshift sled. "I dinged an elbow on the thing rolling out of it, but I haven't seen anything worse than that. Hasn't that always kind of been the case, with the fountain?"

When he'd arrived, his stitches had been replaced with new scar tissue, weeks compressed to moments.

She does the same with hers, making a note to wash them as soon as she has a real chance to do so. It's like none of their cleaning efforts actually did anything or something's grown a lot of dust in a short time.

"It has, but this is the Observers we're talking about," she points out. "It wouldn't be out of the ordinary for them to change the rules at the worst time. I'd rather be prepared and not be needed."

Since he has a closet full of hoarded supplies for a very similar reason, he can't fault her logic. "We should send someone to see if the spring is still there," he points out, casting a look in what he thinks to be its general direction. "Ravi said the canyon's gone, or at least, no one can see the walls over the trees anymore."

Once that fact was established, he'd put his glasses back in his pocket; the long hair is enough tickling and weighting on his face for today. Any more change and he might actually let slip some composure.

"I don't know about the fountain, but something's definitely changed."

"This isn't the first time they've changed the environment," she points out matter-of-factly, "and it likely won't be the last." For now, she leaves off the theory that everything's been just an extremely complex holodeck simulation. Best not to go down that explanation line until the crisis at hand is over.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of volunteers once everyone is sure their friends and family have all come through. I wouldn't mind doing a little exploring myself."

Mark already has Kira well on-board with that, though he's heard his first simulated copy didn't take the theory all that well. At this point, he'll take anything over time-and-dimensional-travel, and the specimen room he'd checked out with Karen had introduced uncomfortable medical experiments to the mix.

Every day could be a crisis of some sort, if you were bad enough at compartmentalizing.

"You're right; I'm not sure it's even the first time they fixed something." He's read a lot of notes over the last few months; not all of them stick in his head as much as fluorescent blood vial rooms or Mark's version of The Matrix. "It's just--boxes of new supplies, buildings covered in dust, and this--" he thrusts out his hand, showing off the wrist band. "Feels like the game changed."

"It definitely did," she agrees fervently. "We just don't know the rules yet and that's the most worrisome thought of all."

Knowing the Observers, they'll find out at the worst time what those new rules are. These people aren't the type to ease them into anything. A crisis will hit and it will hit hard. The only problem is whether or not they'll be ready for it.

"On the plus side, my garden seems to be exactly as I left it, so at least we've got something in the way of herbal remedies if we need them."

For all its usefulness, for all his time spent with Mark and the simple plants that used to cover his kitchen at home--he hasn't occupied himself with gardening since his arrival. Maybe it was just the weather, or the lack of pots he was so accustomed to. "So the garden's tended but the houses are filthy," he notes aloud, looking around the overgrown park again.

A puzzle for later. "Anything in that garden to punch up what we're already eating? Nobody seems hurt, but I definitely feel like I need a few vitamins more than I did yesterday."

With the adrenaline of necessity wearing off, he's starting to feel how heavy everything hangs on his frame, and he wonders if what they really need is more to do with fat than vitamins.

She offers something of a helpless shrug. "Everything's in the right place and it seems to be at the same stage of growth." Eerily so. And the sight did nothing to quell her holodeck theory.

"There might be a few things that will work," she muses, her mind already thinking back to her garden. She'll have to make sure it's all actually okay to eat and not just looking like it's the way it should be, but she's fairly sure she can find something to help out a bit. "Are you feeling any specific symptoms? Fatigue, nausea? Or is it more general?"

(no subject)

3ofswords - 2018-05-01 17:14 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

ethnobotany - 2018-05-04 03:05 (UTC) - Expand

Raleigh had only come through a few minutes ago (and just after Beverly's group, even) so he's still overwhelmed at the whole goddamned thing. He'd known something was wrong about the village to begin with, even more so when he'd stumbled into the Drift a few weeks earlier, but this is not what he'd expected.

He thinks he's no worse for the wear other than shock but having been in the PPDC as long as he had, he's used to the routine checkups that happen as soon as you dock back into the Shatterdome. He doesn't really know Beverly other than to know her face and know she's a doctor and that's enough for him to submit to the exam.

"Think I'm all right other than a little shell shocked at the situation," he says. "But if you want to give me the clean bill of health, I'm good to let you do it."

By now she's changed clothes and gotten herself more dry than damp so she doesn't risk freezing to death or catching cold. She's also found some towels that are more or less clean enough for use by the fountain. So she's taken up her doctor's duties again to make sure no one else comes through hurt or gets sick in the aftermath.

Her lips twist wryly at his words. "I think most of us are feeling the same," she agrees, though after passing him a towel so he can start drying off, she moves to give him something of a field exam. It's not much, but she can take his vitals at least and reassure them both that his body at least sounds normal.

"You look good to me," she says after a couple of minutes of checking him over. What she wouldn't do for a good medical tricorder right about now. "I would suggest getting into something else and drying off as best you can. From what I can gather, everything should be in our houses exactly as we left it. The Inn, too. So you should be able to find something dry to change into."

"Good thing that's the case," Raleigh says, toweling himself off the best he can. He's worried about Sansa, though, so he'd rather figure out where she is before he goes off somewhere he might not be able to find her. She's tall and easy to spot but he doesn't see her in the crowd of people who are milling around the fountain at the moment.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have seen my wife, have you? Sansa Stark? Tall, long red hair? I don't really want to go tracing off to the house without knowing where she is and that she isn't injured. I don't want her to get lost or anything."

He's not going to leave her behind, especially when all of this is sheer chaos right now.

The name "Stark" makes her think of Ned, but she shakes her head. She doesn't think she's seen anyone matching that description yet. That doesn't mean that Sansa hasn't come through, just that Beverly might not have seen her.

"You can ask the young man over there," she suggests, indicating Kira. "He seems to be keeping better track of who's come through than I can at this point. I'm guessing he was one of the first who came through. If I see Sansa, I'll tell her you're looking for her."

Kira's someone that Raleigh knows even if it isn't well. Kira's been here from the beginning, like he has, and those of them that had arrived that first day tend to know one another on sight even if they don't interact on a daily basis. It makes sense he'd be taking inventory; he's been here to see everyone arrive.

"She's got to come through at some point," Raleigh says, though he thinks it's more for him than for Beverly's sake. "She's got a ton of family here. More family than anyone else has. If anyone has something tying her to this place, it'd be Sansa."

"She will," Beverly says with conviction, though this is also more for Raleigh's sake than her own. They don't know that everyone will come through the fountain like they have. Given how many already have, it's a good bet that Sansa will as well. And hopefully she will soon, so Raleigh doesn't have quite as much to worry about.

"In the meantime, it would be better for you to get dry and into another set of clothes," she points out gently. "The next group won't be here for another fifteen minutes or so and there's no use in you getting chilled in this weather."

"You're right. I would sit here and freeze to make sure Sansa was here but she's not going to want to take care of me if I have a cold," Raleigh says, laughing a little.

"Do you think I could help you with triage? It won't take me long to get changed and I want to be useful instead of sitting around and worrying. I'm no doctor but I can at least help get people over to the hospital if I have to."

The idea of having help with triage is almost a relief to her and she nods fervently. "That would be a huge help," she admits wryly. "I think there are more medical people here, but just having someone else to help check on people and make sure no one needs any extra medical attention would be a lot of help."

Even if he just sticks around to find out if anyone has any aches or pains and shoves them in her direction would help.

Being in group 16, the second last group to be transported, Steve had himself fairly worked up before having found himself in the fountain once more. First Mary (group 3) had disappeared, then a couple hours later Danny (group 9). He'd made it to the main village from their house in the one closer to the lake where he continued to find others missing and their number decreasing at an alarming rate.

Finding himself in the fountain barely even registered, nor did the length of his hair, that he had a beard or that he was in a different color of scrubs than he'd arrived in the first time. Once surfaced, he'd made it to the edge and was up and out of the water in record time with his eyes scanning over those present, he was mainly looking for Mary and Danny, but also for all the other familiar faces. Spotting Beverly he quickly made his way to her, barely suppressing his panic, and reached out to touch her arm to get her attention.

"Tell me that everyone else is already here."

As soon as Steve makes his way over to her, Beverly hands him a dry towel. It's about the cleanest dry thing they have available at the moment and she's been passing them around since she popped up out of the fountain herself. She doesn't shake off his hand on her arm, understanding the touch as one of comfort.

"Most likely. A large number of people has come through before you. If you want to find out specifics, I'd suggest you talk to him." She indicates Kira off to the side. "I think he's been keeping track."

Her gaze returns to Steve and she looks him over. "Though now that you're here, I'd like to take a couple of minutes to give you a looking over. It won't be long and then you can look for anyone you need to." The Observers might have been good about healing most people or sending them through with only a few scrapes and bruises, but she is not taking any chances that they might change their minds.

Taking the towel Steve absently dries his face and hands before running it over his hair as they talk. It ends up draped around his shoulders and forgotten about. As he's making himself marginally drier, his focus is completely on her, and then to the man she indicates. He's about to walk away, and does in fact take the first step in his eagerness, when she's speaking again.

"No, no I'm good," he says waving off any concern over his own well-being. "I really need to find them." Although there's not much he can do if they aren't here, but he's not ready to address that outcome yet.

A look back to Kira tells him that the other man is busy talking to someone else at the moment and while Steve wants his attention he knows he's not the only one concerned about loved ones. He may be impatient and not happy about it, but he has enough self-discipline to wait his turn. In the meantime his eyes keep flicking over the crowd. "Are you missing anyone? Did they all come through? There aren't many left back... Wherever we were."

Given that he looks okay and he's not acting injured, at least by human standards, Beverly settles for giving him a pointed look rather than forcing the issue. She isn't pleased with not being able to actually examine him, but he doesn't seem to need anything either. Regardless, he's still talking to her since Kira seems to be otherwise occupied for the moment.

"We might be missing a handful now, but they seem to be coming every 15 minutes or so. I would assume that the entirety of both villages will soon be through, though given it's the Observers..." She shrugs, indicating that anything could happen. The Observers could easily bring everyone through only to split them up again. Or they might leave some behind. It's impossible to know for sure, though she figures that's why Kira has been keeping track of everyone who's come through. It's a good idea.

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[EVENT] The Simulation Ends

beverly crusher | group 8 | ota

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