[open] itt: the Inquisition needs an occupational health division

[faithlikeaseed]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Myrobalan Shivana
RECIPIENT: Everyone!
WHAT: Standard nerd data request: Extra-tired version
WHEN: Toward the end of Phase I of the ~mysterious illness~
WHERE: Wherever you may be
NOTES: Nothin' currently. Feel free to threadhop at will!

Evening, Inquisition.

[Myr actually sounds tired, which means he's exhausted enough not to cover it up.]

I'll spare you the preamble--something's going on and you're either affected by it or not. We ought to put together a list of who's got it and what's happening to them so we have a better picture of this thing--before, mm. ...All right, no befores. [No sense upsetting anyone with speculation.] Just--we oughta.

I'd offer myself for making the list but both my scribes've come down with the thing--but if you want to tell me what you know I can remember it until someone can take it down from me.

[A long stretch of dead air, followed by the sound of somebody startling out of a doze.]

...oh. And if you're looking after someone with th'--whatever-it-is--remember to look after yourselves, will you?

Might make sense to come up with some kind of--rotations, or something, to make sure no one's going to burn out. Don't know what that'd entail but it's a--it's an idea.

Comments

[winterwinds]

I can help with recording things, if you'd like. I'm a fast writer and I've been told my penmanship is entirely readable.

[faithlikeaseed]

Great! Great. Could you start a list now? --Two lists. Two lists. Take names down on one and what we know about what's happening on the other.

[thunderproof]

Myrobalan Eustace Shivana, when's the last time you slept?

❰ despite adalia's lack of sleep, she sounds as perky as ever. also distressed, a bit, but mostly perky. ❱

[faithlikeaseed]

[If he could, he'd be staring at his sending crystal in incomprehension.

That name is two-thirds his and one-third how the hell did that get in there.

Then he makes a muffled noise like a laugh.]

Eustace. Dad'll be proud.

Just now! Don't worry. 'm fine. How're you holding up?

[utulien_aure]

What exactly do you need to know?

[One of the tall elves, and thus affected, though that might be more clear from this clipped, slightly stressed tone of voice than from his naturally slightly too-bright eyes.]

[faithlikeaseed]

[He's passing familiar with Fingon's voice, though he can't put a name or description to it yet.

He's a little worried that means he's forgetting things.]

Names of anyone you know who's got it, serah, and what's been happening to them. Especially if it's anything different from the--extra energy and not sleeping and fever, and I think someone's mentioned they're turning blue?

...And if you know anything that helps with the, ah, symptoms. Might be good to know, too.

Private

[circleprodigy]

[Hi, here's another member of the 'too weary to pretend we're not' club.]

You sound as energetic as I feel, of late. Even with rotations, my usefulness might be limited. [And isn't she thoroughly irritated about that.]

Private ∞

[faithlikeaseed]

Wonder how many of us it is in Research. [There's a sad laugh behind the words.]

Who've you been chasing?

action.

[elegiaque]

( The sound of voices stirs her—

where the fuck has she dozed off now. This is mildly less disconcerting than when she'd woken on Galadriel's shoulders, but at least she'd been more immediately clear why she was there upon consideration. She listens, then abruptly, and to Myr directly and not her crystal— )



Who've you observed affected?

[faithlikeaseed]

[On some level he'd registered the sound of her breathing, enough that he doesn't jump out of his own skin when she speaks to him.

The chapel is not the best place to be conducting surveys but the thought had come to him in prayer and the idea of going somewhere else was exhausting. So here he is, and there Gwen is.]

Sers Coupe and Ashlock, Cade, Serah Reyes. Cosima and Serah Church by whatever the hell it is they've been doing in the kitchen, and now Adalia. I've rumors of more.

Anyone you know come down with it?

[ipseite]

Myrobalan,

( in an unusual voice, for her; tightly-controlled and on the thin edge of losing the grip of it where she is ordinarily so steady, mild as cream as she's not long ago been described, )

I am coming to match the very shade of my dress. It is,

( not the first fever to take something from her )

disconcerting.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Beneath his breath,] Sweet Andraste singing, [it's the tone that's alarming; even exhausted he can catch that.] --I've got to imagine. I'm sorry, madame.

It's not availed to any magic you know, has it? [From the sound of it, no, but. Thoroughness is a ritual.]

[private]

[arlathvhen]

[ Beleth doesn't sound much better than Myr, though probably better than she had been, not too long ago. ]

I can't swear to it, and I'd rather not alarm the rest of the Inquisition, but I think there might be something going on with the other division heads. At first, I just thought that maybe, well--I haven't been winning any productivity awards, maybe it was just me?

But it's less that they're productive and more like...they don't finish anything. Instead of getting three reports, I get six half-finished reports. Which means...I need to finish six reports.

Or get other people to finish them.

[ Though it feels like most are either in this strange manic state or exhausted from trying to keep up with them. ]

private

[faithlikeaseed]

[The understatement--whether it's deliberate on Beleth's part or not--wins a tired laugh out of him.]

Andraste's grace, I'm sorry, Beleth. Sounds like it isn't just you--I know for a surety that Ser Coupe's got it and, [what would be a "there, you see?" gesture at his crystal,] Madame de Cedoux is turning blue herself.

I'd offer to help with the reports but then they'd be half-finished and half-gibberish.

[crowncitizen]

Count me as one of the "who's got it." It really, really, really sucks. I haven't slept in like a week. Or two. Or something. I don't even know anymore.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Well, that's a problem.]

Maker's name--I'm sorry. And nothing's helped for the sleep?

[provenforce]

I have it.

[ Rey sounds tense, which is not entirely usual for her, not that Myr would know that. ]

I'm-- I've been having trouble focusing, I think. I think I broke a clock.

[faithlikeaseed]

[The more of the rifters report having symptoms, the less surprising it is.

Still hurts to hear.]

Beginning to sound like it's you and most of the rifters, serah. D'you have someone native you know you...can go to, if it gets too much?

[laurenande]

[Galadriel has passed through exhaustion into irritability and fever. Despite her manic, disjointed nature even she has recognized that something is amiss.]

Have you a scribe at your disposal?

[The voice should be familiar, if a far stretch more haggard then when last he heard it.]

I fear I must add myself to your list. I am...deeply unwell.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Worse and worse, though he'd been forewarned of Galadriel at least.]

I have, lady--you'll be added to the list.

I'm sorry--I'm so sorry, [he's said it often enough just in the past half-hour the futility of it's starting to lodge in his throat and choke him.]

I wish we knew more. I wish we could do something for you, for all of you.

[byblow]

Hello. This is Warden Alistair. I feel fine—

[ He is getting SO MUCH WORK DONE and it is absolutely useful and coherent work that definitely hasn't involved tearing pages out of valuable old books and pinning them all over the walls and circling things and connecting them with string and drawing so many things on a map that it's no longer possible to tell what it was he was trying to draw. ]

—but I'm sort of blue-grey right now. If it keeps going I might match my armor—not to complain. It might be an improvement, honestly, on my general... me.

[ That is not interesting. This is interesting: ]

Have you ever heard of Low Vetera?

[justice_is_blond]

Alistair.

[nadasharillen]

I can't write and I don't have it but...

[But it's more magic and more affliction and people she cares about knows and Nari sounds somewhere on the edge of tired hysteria herself in the face of it.]

Do you need food? Runners?

[Anything?]

If I don't... I need to do something.

[faithlikeaseed]

[There is a relief in Nari sounding like anything rather than raw misery. Even if Myr would not admit that.]

I--Maker's name, yes, we need so much but I'm not--

I can't think straight enough to organize any of it. Beleth's going to, though, I think. Ask her.

--But maybe in the meantime if you see anyone turning blue and too distracted to take care of herself, make sure she's eaten something recently.

[He bites his tongue on "are you all right" because he knows I need to do something too well.]

[purered]

I'm afraid I'm also afflicted by this. It's...

...It's manageable for now, but it won't be forever. Are all the symptoms universal? Like being on a strong stimulant?

[faithlikeaseed]

["But it won't be forever." He does not like to hear that, even if it's true.] No, I--suspect it will only get worse, if you continue without any sleep.

So far as I've heard--that, and the fixation and fever. And the blue skin.

How long ago did it start? [He should be asking everyone this but he's only patchwork-attentive to what's going on. Too much.]

[lightninginabottle]

Oh, is that what this is? See, I didn't even think 'disease.' I just figured this was par for the fuckin' course around here. I was halfway resigned to just being a color-changing monstrosity for good. First it's pink, now it's blue, maybe next I'll wind up green again if I'm lucky--

--who am I kidding? If luck were on speaking terms with me I wouldn't be in this backwards shit-dump to begin with. This planet is the technologically-bankrupt hellhole that time forgot.

[He's going to regret this screed terribly once he's finally recharged on sleep. But it's been a few days.]

[faithlikeaseed]

[This is.

This is a thing.]

That's my home you're talking about, serah. [There is a bite behind the words he can't hide, not as tired as he is.] Though I'm sorry to hear it isn't treating you well.

You're one of the latest here? [There goes the theory it's got anything to do with longevity.]

[shotgunsakimbo]

[He's trying not to sound aggravated, but this getting grating now that's he's got some awareness.]

You better be taking your own advice there, Myrobalan.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Damn you, Reyes!!! you and your power of noticing things

He gives a weak laugh.]

If I were someone else I'd be hounding myself for not doing it.

I'm eating, at least. Half's better than none?

private.

[dashing]

Cosima is unwell.

( AND SHE'S REAL MAD )

private ∞

[faithlikeaseed]

She seemed it, from the crystals. And--whatever's happening in the kitchen.

Maker's name, Herian, I'm sorry. [He has a taste of what that must be like. He's not happy about it.]

Private

[overharrowed]

I confess, I'm slightly concerned that so many people are literally turning blue but only mildly put out about it.

At the risk of sounding hypocritical later, I haven't been perfectly well myself, but I think it's merely fatigue. I'm not having focus issues, I'm sleeping a normal amount and I am certainly not blue.

All of which is to say I'm happy to help take down names now, and assist in investigating further. Has anyone yet suggested a quarantine?

private ∞

[faithlikeaseed]

Trade you for the slightly concerned, [Gallows humor, because where else would you do it.]

Sounds like by the end of this we'll all be collapsing one way or another. Any odds on it being a Venatori plot somehow?

--But anything would be a help now. I've got--Maker's breath I don't even know her name, someone--making a list but we'll need copies and I'd not be surprised if names got dropped in all of this so having someone else listening can only help--check 'em past each other once we're done, uhm. [He realizes quickly that's all coming out scrambled, stops, and makes himself breathe for several seconds.]

No. No one has. D'you think it would help? I...suspect it's not catching, [he's reluctant to give evidence on why, yet,] but if you think it's possible... Might be prudent.

If we can keep them corralled.

[tar_minyatur]

[ Elros waves tiredly at the crystal ]

Thought it was just my normal sea-longing at first but...

[ He gestures at himself ]

Going vaguely blue, quite literally! Can also confirm that Maglor, Maedhros and Fingon of the Rifter elves are affected.

[faithlikeaseed]

[There's a delay here where Myr's clearly turned on his crystal to respond but he's gotten distracted putting one and three together and it's taking him so much longer than it should. Finally,] Assuming then you're Elros and that's your kinsman I was speaking to earlier--thank you.

Anyone who's not affected know and able to help the--the all of you? [What are words.]

[justice_is_blond]

I think a rotation would require manpower we simply do not have with the numbers seemingly afflicted.

[His voice is calm, because unlike Myr he's got a lot of practice covering up for being tired.]

When someone has the list, can you share it with the infirmary, please?

---> private

[faithlikeaseed]

[Anders is offering help, not being contrary, Myr reminds himself before he replies.] Still. Won't hurt to try and set something up. Can't be everyone is killing herself over an afflicted friend.

Will do.

[There's a break as he switches to private.]

Healing doesn't work on it.

You should know. I tried what--little I can do it and made things worse. I'm not going to try again.

private

[sulena]

( and someone might just sound grossly tired themselves. )

I am-- very frightened if I am to be honest of the effect this... thing is having on the affected. ( it isn't often she's open of her own feelings and fears but she does trust Myr, and this is rocking her to her core. ) I find myself at a lost of what to do next. Little seems to be helping Prompto nor his friend, and I fear the effect magic might have on something we know so little about.

private ∞

[faithlikeaseed]

[And since it's not often Saoirse sounds like this, that's cause for Myr to worry even more.

At least now there's so much of it's begun to blend into one ceaseless fear he can...manage. Somewhat.]

It--doesn't help. Magic doesn't. [He should probably tell the actual healers this. He'll--get to that.] It makes it worse; I tried something I knew for fevers on Simon and it--didn't go well. I'm afraid to try again.

["I'm sorry," he would say, but it's feeling increasingly hollow. Instead he musters all the hope in him and takes a breath, offers a prayer to the Maker.] We'll find a way to help them. It's frightening--it's terrifying--to think of what might happen to them in this state but we're about the Maker's business here in the Inquisition. He'll see us through.

Have you...been sleeping at all yourself?

[justnice]

Do you think it's catching?

[faithlikeaseed]

[Quick, Myr, based on all the evidence you've got and absolutely zero training at this--]

I don't. We'd more of us be down with it by now, if it were. Should go all right with you, if you've not been staying up all night or started turning blue.

[He does his best to sound reassuring!!

it's not very effective.]