OPEN MINGLE: Search for the Cure

[anti_nonsense]

Who: Anyone involved in the cure development effort! Or poisoned people, last-minute volunteers (and voluntolds), nosy people, whoever!
When: D5 onward. Efforts will continue through part of the moon visit.
Where: Medical tent, the laboratory in the Supervisor Grove, the Big Top, and more!
What: Working together to develop an antidote! This is an open mingle log, so feel free to make your own toplevel and tag around! Most of the actual work doesn't need to be played out on-screen, but this is a chance for participating characters to meet, chat, or interact while working!
Warnings: Potential for medical squicky stuff, testing on (undead) animals

After a public call to action over the radios, several people have volunteered their skills and resources for the cause of curing workers afflicted with the Prince's poison.

Over the next several days, they meet at various locations to collaborate on a cure. In the medical tent, affected characters and their symptoms are examined through medical, magical, and spiritual means. A file on a desk there is also used to consolidate information, and volunteers may go there to report their findings or to look over reports of what others have learned.

Lambert has volunteered use of the laboratory he and Sans share in a spare trailer in the Supervisor Grove, so that individuals with knowledge of chemistry, herbs, or potion-making may attempt to concoct helpful solutions. From D7 onward, he’ll move the equipment to his cabin on the moon, where work can continue through the visit.

A portion of the big top has also been roped off and may be used as a working space. Trying out some weird spell or ritual? That might be a good place for it, away from the delicate lab equipment and sick people.

Of course, those are only the main bases, and people may take their work to wherever they find suits them best.

When enough progress has been made, there will be a need for practical testing. Foster has made use of his necromancy to procure them some undead rats (ranging from normal-sized to weirdly gigantic) to test on. For later-stage tests, some brave volunteers may be needed.

For reference, the characters in leadership roles are:

Oversight: Peridot (+ Mari, Herbert)
Magic: Strange, Rita
Medical/Chemistry: Herbert
Herbs/Potions: Lambert
Spiritual: Ginko
Anyone is welcome to join the effort at any point. Completed cures will be administered at a later time, during the vacation on the moon.

Comments

[kingsroads]

Said mind control works, as Strange moves his hands away from whatever piece of lab equipment he was fiddling with. Once he blinks away the spell, he can't help but give Lambert a bit of a frown. Party foul, you could have asked!

Still, he did ask a question, so Strange is going to answer. "I am. I've been trying to coax the stone covering into working with me all morning." And, based on Strange's frown, it hasn't happened. So, time to change tactics for a little bit.

"I've an idea though. How much do you know about the act of enchanting an object? Imbuing something not magical with magic itself or magical properties, for example."

Because that's something Strange doesn't really know about. He does know how to break spells, after all, if he could enchant some of the equipment or some of the liquid into breaking spells as well, that could help. Somehow. He's not entirely certain yet. If Lambert has any ideas, he's not too proud to hear them out.

itp let's bullshit video game mechanics

[whattaprick]

"That's probably because it's not natural stone," Lambert points out. "Your magic works by talking to the elements, right? Maybe you need to speak a different language."

Strange probably shouldn't listen to him on that, though, because like fuck Lambert knows what he's talking about, and also he's pretty sure Strange will do whatever he wants regardless of the commentary from the peanut gallery. Moving on, though, since Strange has asked a question he can actually answer:

"Just a little. Witchers can get smiths to brand runes on their swords. Just simple stuff -- add more power to your swing, that kind of thing." Because of course, if Lambert has any sort of knowledge in that department, it always comes down to weapons, or how to use it in a fight. "The magic concentrates on the symbol and the branding binds it to the metal."

[kingsroads]

Strange frowns...then swears slightly, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he talks. "It's stone caused by the Prince. I'd have to adjust to that element, try and find some point of common reference between the two of us."

What that would be, he's still not sure. After all, Strange wasn't caught and wasn't changed the way others were. Maybe he could draw upon both of their statuses as fae-changed, but even that is a tenuous stretch to begin with and oh wait, Lambert's answering his question, change of thought.

"I do know how to break enchantments," Strange continues, letting himself get a bit puffed up as usual. "What if I figured out a way to imbue some of the medical equipment with that power as well?"

[whattaprick]

"What are you going to do, kiss a scalpel?" Lambert asks, skeptically. Then he thinks about it. That does actually sound like something Strange would do, come to think of it.

"It's not the worst idea you've ever come up with, but you might want to make sure you aren't accidentally enchanting it to take someone's limb off instead. Don't know if the body parts are replaceable if you break them while they're stone."

[kingsroads]

Strange scoffs...but then his expression shifts to a frown. He's considering this. He's 100% considering putting his mouth on some nastyass scalpel for the sake of magical experimentation and English magic and whatever bullshit he's coming up with to justify this.

"I was thinking of simply enchanting bandages or a mortar and pestle with it, but a scalpel? That isn't a bad idea."

It's an awful idea.

[whattaprick]

"Denied." Lambert rejects, flatly. "The last thing anyone wants or needs is a enchanted scalpel making incisional biopsies."

As it happens, however, there is a mortar and pestle on the table, which he eyes consideringly before he grimaces. Spend enough time with Strange and even the crazy ideas start looking reasonable.

"Have you ever even done something like that before?"

[kingsroads]

"I haven't," Strange admits. But really, this doesn't seem to be a problem in his mind. Yeah he technically doesn't know how to enchant objects but why not give it a try anyway! He can do this!

As Lambert views the mortar and pestle with a grimace, Strange views it with excitement. There's no harm in trying.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Strange asks, as he walks over towards the counter. He's totally gonna give it a try whether Lambert wants him to or not.

[whattaprick]

"You could accidentally enchant it to beat in the skull of anyone who tries to use it," Lambert answers instantly. It doesn't require much imagination to come up with a nightmare scenario for objects imbued with magic. He's seen it too many times to be surprised at what new and exciting ways magic can fuck things up.

"If you break it, you'd better replace it," he says, and lifts one clawed finger to point at the door. "If you're doing it now, do it outside. Last thing we need is to break anything around here."

[kingsroads]

Idly, Strange puts his hands in his pockets. He's about to go on a rant about how he knows what he's doing, greatest magician of the age and all that, when his fingers brush against what he wanted to give to Lambert in the first place.

Oh, right. He came here for a specific reason. Reaching into his pocket, Strange pulls out two blue rose petals.

"I forgot. I've something to give you. These aren't from the Blue Rose itself, but from Syrlya. He has taken on a few changes related to the rose. They seem to have a trace of that magic, though whether it exists within the petals or it's left over from the use of the rose, I do not know."

It's magic. Magic is odd. Still, Strange shrugs, "Perhaps it could help."

[whattaprick]

Lambert blinks, but he automatically reaches a hand out to accept the petals anyway. He's arguably used stranger ingredients in witcher potions, but all the same, he feels it has to be said --

"You harvested part of Syrlya?" Lambert asks, just to be sure he heard that correctly. Like, just to be clear, that is what Strange said, right? Two petals isn't much, though, and he frowns slightly.

"Was this all you could get?" Hey, if you're going to start picking pieces off your own coworkers, might as well go all the way!

[kingsroads]

"I asked nicely," Strange grumbles. Harvested sounds...well, people don't harvest things from their housemates, even if their housemate is technically a plant. "And there wasn't that much touched by the Rose growing from him that I could use. The easiest thing to obtain were petals from the rose at his neck."

He's pretty certain there are vines around his arms now but Strange isn't going to be the person to try and figure out a way to get those out. Let's not mutilate his friend.

[whattaprick]

"All right, you asked nicely ... for a piece of his body." Sorry, Strange, Lambert is just going to find ways to make this sound worse. Also, Syrlya is a plant, so harvesting is totally the correct terminology here.

"There's not much I can do with only two petals, so if it looks like we can use this for whatever we come up with, you're probably going to have to go back and ask him for more," he warns with a frown. "Just how much magic is in these?"

[kingsroads]

"Plenty." And Strange turns to look at the petals with the intense sort of stare that means he's viewing the magic. "Unsurprisingly, most of the magic is the Ringmaster's and Syrlya's. But there's just enough in there that's the same magic as the Blue Rose that it's worth an attempt."

He can't help it: Strange mentions the Blue Rose in reverent tones. He's still amazed by the sheer power that thing possessed and still entertains daydreams of what he could achieve if he wielded the Rose for only a moment or two.

But, back to the problems about the petals. "As terrible as this sounds, it'd be best if we asked for a cutting. We could keep that growing and use as many petals as needed. However, I'm hesitant to ask as I've no idea if getting a cutting would be painful or not." How do plant people work, we just don't know.

[whattaprick]

Lambert, not having gotten to see much of the Blue Rose besides it being jabbed through the Prince, doesn't have much of an impression of it beyond a potentially deadly weapon, so he'll have to trust Strange's opinion on that. On the matter of cuttings, though...

"If he can grow it back? Yeah, that'd be ideal. Lauren can use magic to make plants grow, so if we can get that going..." He shrugs. "It's worth a shot. It's not like we're twisting his arm -- worst thing he can say is 'fuck off.' Just ask nicely."

[kingsroads]

"He's my roommate," Strange grumbles. Obviously, this 'ask Syr to lop off parts of himself' bit is more a point of contention for Strange than it is for Lambert.

"And Syrlya isn't just a plant, he's Sylvari. Somehow that's different."

Somehow. Don't ask Strange, he doesn't know the ins and outs of Syr's species.

[whattaprick]

"He just told me that his mother is a tree and she has them like fruit. Close enough," Lambert answers flatly, with exactly zero sensitivity and tact for other species.

Cupping the petals in his hand, he steps over to one of the desks to find a wide-mouthed glass bottle to drop them into. "We'll find something else if that doesn't work."

Some people would say that with determined optimism; Lambert mostly manages grim optimism.

[kingsroads]

...let's go back to that first part because what. Strange just stares at Lambert for a moment like he can't believe this (because he can't! What the hell?) Hot gossip about your coworkers continues as he just gapes at Lambert's response.

"She had them like fruit? Did Syrlya...fall off a tree or something like that?"

[whattaprick]

"What, you didn't hear about it?" Lambert snorts. Of course, he has little idea that Childermass confiscated his radio at that point, but it seems precisely the sort of nerd-ass thing Strange would lose his shit about.

"He said Sylvari are born from pods. Guess that makes him some kind of a pod person, then."

[kingsroads]

"Obviously I didn't hear about this, otherwise I wouldn't be so surprised!" said in a tone of voice that blatantly implies 'no duh.' "When did he tell you this?"

Strange is still a little gobsmacked, just at the idea of people born from pods from a tree like a fruit? Did that mean Syrlya had to photosynthesize or pollinate? He hadn't given much thought to tree biology before, but now Strange can't help but find himself thinking more and more about how Syrlya actually works and functions and slightly creepy questions like that.

[whattaprick]

Those are going to have to be questions that wait for when everyone's a bit drunk altogether, clearly. What else are drinking bonding moments good for?

"Over the radio. When I asked how old everyone was." When Strange got yelled down for being an asshole. Oops.

[kingsroads]

"Well that explains why I had no idea," Strange continues, with a grumpy little frown. "Childermass took away my radio after he thought I had made an ass of myself."

It's odd. Strange has no idea whether he should be thankful Childermass kept him from burning even more bridges or annoyed that he was treated like a child in the first place.

[whattaprick]

"Is that what happened? I thought you were being a little quiet." It reminds him of Strange's ill-timed call not so long ago, prompting a smirk of his own. Although the timing hadn't been ideal, it'd still worked out in the end, so now it's just funny in retreospect.

"Was that when you pissed him off, too?"

[kingsroads]

"I pissed him off when he gave me my radio back," Strange grumbles, knowing full well that he isn't helping his case in the slightest. Good job, Jonathan Strange, you keep messing everything up in new and amazing ways.

He sulks, leaning against one of the tables and coming dangerously close to knocking something over. Based on Strange's cagey little frown and downright sulkiness, it's obvious he hasn't apologized just yet.

"At least Peridot and I are on good terms again."

[whattaprick]

"What, didn't manage to cock that one up?" Oh yeah, that's the look of someone who still owes an apology, all right. But Lambert won't press it.

"I'd say I'm surprised she's not holding it against you, but grudges seem more like Lapis's style. Might want to avoid hanging out near large bodies of water for a while ... Siobhan isn't around to save your ass now."

Though Lapis is technically bound by the same rules any other Carnival member is, well. Lambert's pretty sure Strange's survivability in water isn't her primary concern.

[kingsroads]

"Unlike the rest, Peridot actually explained things instead of judging me outright." Not that Childermass or Sans could know anything about Lapis's backstory but hey, point stands.

"And I do know the basics of swimming now," Strange admits, with a little grumble. Of course, he only knows the basics because Yuya taught him that in Greysol. Add in a few sporadic practice sessions before and after that whole manor debacle and...well, Strange knows how to tread water. That's a first. And that's probably all he's going to end up doing for a while.

"Besides, if she makes puddles everywhere, I'll simply flee through one of those. And before you say something, that's pragmatism, not cowardice."

Strange knows that Lapis could straight up kick his ass. But he also knows that, at least in the context of Peridot and Steven, Lapis is straight up whipped (come to think of it, every gem seems to be straight up whipped in the presence of Steven). Hopefully those two will help mitigate any severe damage.