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]

"Because I cannot hold the rat and cast my spell at the same time," Strange explains as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. There's an awkward pause before he continues and grumpily admits, under his breath,

"Besides, the damn thing keeps trying to bite me."

Equal parts practicality and annoyance.

[mylastchance]

He frowns, looking to the undead rat again. His first thought is that it isn't really a rat. It's undead. At this point it's nothing but an animated shell, anything that made the animal what it was now gone. That's sort of a pointless thing to mention, but it's wrong for Strange to ask people if they've experience with rats when what he's dealing with isn't even really a rat at all.

His second thought, is to wonder why the rat would be biting at all. Was it simply scared? Could an undead rat feel the same instinctual fear a living rat like Stanley could? He wasn't sure. The other answer was that the rat just didn't like Strange. It could also just not like being held. Perhaps as an undead beast it could only act on aggressive impulses, that would line up with his own experiences with undead creatures, but since such things worked different on different worlds he couldn't necessarily assume that was the case here. If it wasn't something specific to Strange then it was likely the creature would bite anyone who crossed it, not just Strange, and an affinity towards rats would make no difference.

After thinking all this and staring silently at the creature for sometime as he did so, Lauren finally turns back to Strange with a suggestion.

"Do you have leather gloves?"

[kingsroads]

As Lauren stares at the rat, Strange turns back towards it, muttering something under his breath: it isn't a spell, it's an exhortation, just please stop trying to bite me and I'll get this stone business settled, it's not that hard, you don't have to keep biting.

At Lauren's question though, Strange looks up, briefly distracted from the rat plea.

"I don't have any on my person. But this is the big top, it wouldn't surprise me if someone left a pair of gloves in the back." Either for work purposes or handling animals purposes. Gingerly picking up the rat cage, Strange starts to walk towards the offstage area of the big top, assuming that Lauren's going to follow him (because of course he would).

[mylastchance]

Unfortunately that's not an assumption Lauren picks up on, so he just watches Strange walk off feeling even more confused.

[kingsroads]

Strange gets near the back of the big top before he realizes huh, Lauren isn't there.

"Well come on!" he yells, like it's Lauren's fault that Strange didn't say 'follow me.' "It's easier if we've two people looking for the gloves."

[mylastchance]

Well, he never agreed to help Strange look, but he guesses he doesn't mind. Or at least, he wouldn't have minded if Strange had actually asked instead of ordering him about. So, he's just going to pretend he's fine with it, though he doesn't pretend away the annoyed look on his face. He's also not pretending it's okay to borrow someone's gloves without asking, but then again he couldn't think of anyone in performance who would actually mind lending their gloves to someone for a few minutes so maybe it was okay.

Either way he follows Strange and begins to reluctantly look for some gloves.

[kingsroads]

Strange has none of those compunctions. Borrowing someone's gloves for a moment without telling them? He's fine with that! Accidentally bossing Lauren around instead of asking nicely? Doesn't cross his mind! He also starts looking for the gloves but ends up rummaging through more people's stuff than Lauren does.

They've been searching in silence for far too long. So Strange, a man who lives off of the sound of his own voice, starts talking.

"How have things been, by the way? I know the petrification is...trying, but what about aside from that?"

[mylastchance]

His first instinct is to ask why Strange wants to know. Strange isn't petrified or sick from the Prince's poison. He and Lauren hardly know each other. There's no reason for the man to care about Lauren's well being. Of course then Lauren realizes that Strange probably doesn't care, and the question becomes unnecessary. This is what people call 'small talk.' The inane idle chatter of everyday life that always manages to trip Lauren up. They're conversations people have without actually communicating anything of value. They are pointless, and a never-ending source of annoyance for someone like Lauren who has trouble even with meaningful communication. He considers answering, 'fine' and having that be the end of it, but if Strange wants to have a conversation there's something else on his mind he's more than okay with talking about.

"Did you really think that they wouldn't try to bite you if you kept on handling them over and over again?"

[kingsroads]

Well that's not an answer to his question. Strange frowns for a moment, before he continues rummaging through other people's stuff, trying to find anything remotely close to leather gloves. This trunk doesn't have any, so he moves on to a different trunk, still talking to Lauren as he does so.

"I've only started handling them. I think they're suspicious." Of what, Strange doesn't clarify, though he has a long laundry list of reasons why rats and mice might be suspicious of him which he'll explain if asked. "Besides, I'm trying to see how my magic affects the stone on the poor devils. You'd think they'd realize I'm trying to help."

[mylastchance]

"We're the reason they're stone in the first place." He answers back with an aggravated huff. It's not something he blames Strange for specifically. It's not even that he's against using the undead creatures for cure testing. He does wish there was another way though. Undead anything makes him uncomfortable, and petrified undead creatures even more so. It just sounded cruel, turning undead creatures to stone just so you could manipulate them with all sorts of possibly unhealthy magic. He saw the necessity of it, so he kept his mouth shut. That didn't mean he wasn't still a bit angry about it. Still, it wasn't like that was Strange's fault.

Lauren actually has a pretty good idea of where some gloves might be, so he digs through someone's bag before pulling out a pair and handing them over to the magician. "Just try and be gentle with them."

[kingsroads]

"I'm always gentle," grumbles Strange, who isn't as gentle as he thinks and has a tendency to blaze through things like a bull in a china shop.

"Besides, I asked you to hold the rat, didn't I? I can certainly enchant it myself if needed, but it's easier if someone else keeps it from squirming."

It's all said in a matter of fact tone. Strange is fine with rats, when they're not trying to bite him. It's the 'small animal trying to make a break for freedom' aspect of enchanting a rat that he's going to have a few problems with.