MISSION: WOODHURST

[futurologists]

MISSION: WOODHURST All characters, established or new, will receive a form of this dossier to their devices. Thus, consider all information hereon as ICly available to all characters. Please direct questions here. Refer to Woodhurst locations for mission areas. The Bounty Board for Woodhurst will have extra side-missions for your character to take until the end of the mission, which is currently slated for early April. WOODHURST BRIEFING The mission will take recruits to Woodhurst, a suburb of the larger city Wakefield, located in an alternate version of New England. The year is 1993, and for all intents and purposes, it closely matches the world we're familiar with... except for one thing. The Bristol virus, named after patient zero Adam Bristol, has begun to appear in the population. Transmitted by bodily fluids and with no known cure, the virus causes: Encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain Sunken eyes and sallow skin Varicose veins Irritability followed by intense, heightened aggression Decreased stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamus, leading to uncontrollable hunger Finally, complete loss of individuality and sense of self, with violent, cannibalistic tendencies Estimates put approximately 1% of the population (approx. 2,500 people) in Woodhurst as infected, but the number is quickly growing; the disease is highly contagious, with sufferers originally indistinguishable from the regular population. It takes 3 to 5 weeks for the infected to descend into pure animalistic hunger, but they can pass on the virus at any time. Doctors have also discovered the existence of asymptomatic carriers within the population. PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Stop the virus from spreading. While it's unknown if a cure is at all possible, the most important end goal is to protect those who remain uninfected from the spread of the disease. Should the virus be allowed to make its way outside of Woodhurst, the universe would quickly and surely descend into madness, finally collapsing in on itself when it no longer has any humanity left on it. SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: Eliminate the virus entirely. Whether this is through finding a cure (which includes rounding up the infected and administering it to them) or killing all of the infected, eliminating the virus is the only way to ensure complete stability of the timeline. Should this not occur, recruits may find themselves visiting again later. OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE: Discover the origin of the virus. While the virus can be traced back to patient zero, little is known of its actual origin. If its source is found, ALASTAIR can be sure it will not pop up on any other worlds. WOODHURST OVERVIEW Until just a couple months ago, Woodhurst -- like the rest of this universe -- was, by all accounts, mundane. When Adam Bristol showed up to the mall in a frothing rage and bit six people, however, everything changed. The Bristol virus quickly spread, and has been directly responsible for multiple deaths in the area; those in the latest stages of the disease don't hesitate to kill in order to sate their hunger. Those who escape with their lives will soon find themselves unlucky as well. The virus is transmitted through all bodily fluids, and being bitten by a hungry Bristol sufferer is highly likely to infect you as well. If not infected, you might still not be safe -- you could be an asymptomatic carrier, infecting your friends and teammates while remaining unaware. Of course, being bitten's not the only way to contract the disease. Even innocently kissing someone who has come into contact with a sufferer can spread the virus, so be careful. While those native to this universe usually reach the latest stages of the disease within 3 to 5 weeks, the slightly different biology of Audentes recruits gives them a little more time: if they are infected, they have 6 to 8 weeks before they descend into insanity. Of course, they'll realize they're infected much sooner than that, and waiting for the inevitable insanity isn't much better. The disease will progress as follows: 1-2 WEEKS: The disease begins with an insatiable hunger. At this stage, characters will find themselves craving meat in particular, although they will also crave any and all food available to them. At this point in time, they will have no increased aggression, cannibalistic desires, or personality changes (aside from being hangry). 3-4 WEEKS: On top of their hunger, characters will begin to feel crabby and irritable, possibly even lashing out in violence. Their skin will begin becoming pallid, with dark circles forming under their eyes. Of course, if you're trying to hide it, it's nothing a little make-up can't help. 5-6 WEEKS: By this point, characters will begin to feel a ravenous desire to attack and consume. They may be still in possession of their mental faculties, but they'll be able to feel their sense of self slipping away with each passing second. Thinking about anything for extended periods of time will become difficult, and eventually, they will find themselves obsessing over the uncontrollable hunger. They will still have their sense of morality, although they will begin to have difficulties listening to it. 7-8 WEEKS: By this point, characters will be lucky to have short periods of sanity and lucidity. They will be overtaken by pure animal instinct and the desire to satiate their hunger by whatever means necessary. At this moment in time, there is no known way to deal with a sufferer aside from death. One way to make the symptoms subside, however, is human physical contact. Oxytocin released by non-violent physical contact with another person seems to dull the hunger and bring them back to sanity, albeit temporarily. For those who don't wish to kill and are less physically capable than others, this is the only way to subdue a Bristol sufferer, although it comes with many risks. When touching a sufferer, you run a high risk of being bitten or killed. In many cases, it may be better to just run. This is neither a safe nor long-term solution, but it does relieve symptoms for a short period of time. Because of the danger posed by sufferers, everyone has been encouraged never to travel alone, and to stay indoors after sundown. Even if these conditions are followed, there is still a slight chance of running into one of the infected. Nearby police will attempt to subdue and possibly kill any who attack during the day, but in lesser-populated areas or at night, you're on your own. Might want to invest in some night-vision goggles! Woodhurst, as opposed to some of the other mission locales, is largely unfamiliar with the concept of interdimensional travel outside the confines of science fiction books. For this reason, characters will be expected to keep their involvement with ALASTAIR on the down low. While you can tell the citizens, none will believe it, and trying to convince too many people will lead to unpopularity within the city. What does this mean? Audentes will be posing as newcomers moving into a growing city, spread out in apartments and houses across Woodhurst. They will need to dress and act according to the universe's standards; this means anyone incapable of appearing outwardly human on their own will receive a cloaking device, which, when activated, will make them appear human to the people of Woodhurst (and, if you choose, to their other team members as well). Backstories aren't necessary, but they are encouraged to ward off nosy neighbors. ALASTAIR will be able to place characters into temporary jobs such as a hospital worker, police officer, etc. using their government connections as long as they have good reason to be there; if you're interested in doing this, please contact a mod! As we have received many requests for police work, we are capping police at 8 people (10%) - currently 8/8.

Comments

(frozen comment) INFECTION SIGN-UPS

[futurologists]

Please sign up on this entry.

QUESTIONS?

[futurologists]

[p66]

Do all temporary jobs require mod approval or is it just the government related ones? Sorry, I'm a little confused.

[dishearten]

1. how will the infection affect powered characters/magical characters?
2. how will the infection affect characters that are resistant to disease?
3. if someone had a very unordinary companion (a wolf, perhaps) could they get a cloaking device for their wolf... and make them a really adorable dog for this mission?
4. if we compared woodhurst to a common time, would it be around modern capacity?
5. I SEE SKYSCRAPERS ARE THERE SKYSCRAPERS what kind of population are we talking? is it a metro area? is there a subway system?
6. Back to the cloaking devices, do other members of Audentes see through them, or will they see the disguised version also?

[competing]

1. will the virus affect animals/animal familiars that audentes brings with them?
2. will the cloaking device also affect general size? like if someone is 8 feet, will they be shrunk down...? similarly, will saffron the lion cub get his own cloaking device to be a lil kitty cat...
3. will backstories be constructed by the audentes members themselves, or like the roommates assignment, can they be assigned by alastair higher ups?

[ex_mettacrusher33]

Just making sure: since it transfers via bodily fluids, it'd be impossible to infect someone without them, correct?

[predomination]

1. Would being a professor at a technical college/etc. be considered a job with mod approval? I wouldn't think so, because it's not really an authoritative job, but I wanted to be sure.

2. If we have an extra journal for "human" versions of characters, will be able to have that journal able to access the comm?

3. EDITS FOR A THIRD QUESTION. Would manufacturing a "safer" alternative to physical contact have much use- such as a vaccine that delivers the same amount of Oxytocin with the knowledge that it would only work in the short term?

[grunehexe]

I wanted to ask about the presence of the CDC/similar entities in this Bristol virus outbreak! If the virus has already been assigned a name and patient zero has been identified, is the CDC present in the town with a lab or occupying the hospital, and would characters be able to infiltrate them in order to get a pipeline in to what the gov. is aware of about the virus?

[slushfund]

just one... re: the cloaking device. hiruma is human, but looks unearthly (pretty shocking even in his own canon). i'm wondering if he'll have one too, or if he's good to go without? i'm cool with whatever, though it would be hilarious if he has to get one. jKNKJKGNERK

[friendlykillingmachine]

1) Does the physical contact have to be human? Or will sort-of-human do?

2) Are slap bracelets legal?

[grunehexe]

Though it's a suburb, does Woodhurst have a bus system/public transport? Or do characters who can't drive need to call a cab or hoof it?

[strictdiscipline]

helloooooooo i have a quick q:

is the bristol virus limited to humans only or can animals also get infected (with either the same strain or something slightly different)?

[racking]

if i wanted to have part of shiro's cover be that he's a graduate student, would it be feasible to assume there's a wakefield university nearby?

[dishearten]

Hi mods,

When will we know who made the infection draw? I would like to be able to plot it in advance so knowing sooner rather than later might be helpful.

[scarredhorns]

#1: For the casino, since it's following Native American Reservation laws, would it be possible for people to work there if they're at least 18? Could they gamble, too? (I imagine alcohol is still restricted to those 21 and up.)

#2: Will the casino feature live entertainment, such as bands, singers, etc, and would Nyuu be able to get a job as a singer there? I know it's been mentioned that questions like this should be reserved for jobs that give characters authority over others, but I wasn't sure about this.

[competing]

hello mods! after lance and sonia's discussion (here), we were wondering what any attempts at creating tranquilizing concoctions (injected via syringes and possibly darts) might yield? sonia is going to make it through access to the labs as a med student and use a whole bunch of stolen syringes, which lance will then hide in bouquets and deliver to audentes as a delivery boy.

Re: QUESTIONS?

[(Anonymous)]

Is it possible for the log to go up a few days early for the mission intro?

3 days is not a lot of time to make it ac length and I don't want to wait three days to tag so it'll count either.

[steler]

So let's say, hypothetically, that your character was really good at crime. If your character decided to use their talents for said criminal behavior, at what point would one need to start imposing IC consequences on their amazingly executed yet still illegal escapades? Would it get tougher to get away with crime after the quarantine (because heightened security) or easier (because the cops have bigger fish to fry)? And I guess, would ALASTAIR themselves send you a stern look or something?

Also apropos of nothing are there gangs/mafia/underground whatevers present in Woodhurst already? You know, in times of crisis, when the police have their hands full, you really create a need for alternative power structures.

[conqueress]

Hi, mods! You answered about pet cloaking devices above, but I now realize I may have misinterpreted ... so just to double check, could Drogon be temporarily shrunk down for this mission, in addition to any cloaking? If she brought him there at the size he is normally, he'd probably fly off and end up causing forest fires whenever he hunted.

[competing]

hello again mods! this is more just me being confused about geography, but i noticed that this page says that woodhurst is part of wakefield, but the locations page says that wakefield is a whole separate city? or am i misunderstanding suburb...

[thinhammer]

this has kind of been answered but i just thought i'd make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN. so, about that physical contact temporarily alleviating symptoms thing.

naruto's shadow clone technique means he can create copies of himself that are completely identical in all ways to the original and are just as tangible until he chooses to disperse them, at which time they poof out of existence and return all experience to the owner, but no physical damage transfers. could he use this technique to make non-violent contact with the infected citizens safely, as even if he's bitten the clones wouldn't transfer the infection back to the original naruto? and, of course, would it actually work?

i hope that made sense orz

[webdesigned]

would it be possible to create a detector that can isolate the virus even before symptoms start to be displayed? how long would mods want that to take icly if it is? I imagine it will be helpful later on in the mission though having it after a certain point might nullify it practicality, but it was something I thought Peter would focus on!

[predomination]

1. In the CYOA part of this latest post, if your character WOULD NOT be part of any of the options due to maintaining cover, do we still need to submit what they're doing, just in case the RNG gods are unkind? (i.e. the hospital is gonna be hopping, so stuff COULD feasibly happen there during all of this)

annnd I'm not sure if this should be asked here or the bounty board page, but to save your inbox, I'll ask here and can c/p the questions over there if you'd like

2. For the "I'm a Creep" bounty, do we just need to submit a thread of us getting at least one sample to fulfill the bounty or do we need multiple threads, since it's ten samples.

3. If our character works in the hospital and has easy access to samples, does that count (so long as we submit a thread of the character working towards the bounty at the hospital) or do the samples needed to be HUNTED DOWN IN THE STREETS... probably not that dramatic, but hopefully you get my gist.

(frozen comment) LOCATION SUGGESTIONS

[futurologists]

If you have a suggestion for locations, please submit it here! You can submit as many as you like, but the total coins you will receive is 10 coins for 2 suggestions. The due date for this is January 23rd, 23:59 UTC. Please fill out this form:

<b>NAME:</b> name of establishment <b>DESCRIPTION:</b> describe it here! be as descriptive as you want

(frozen comment)

[endeudado]

NAME: Wolfwoods Resort Casino
DESCRIPTION: Wolfwoods Resort Casino is a hotel casino in the outskirts of Wakefield on an Native American Reservation (gambling laws, you know how it is.) A complex of five casinos, the resort covers a vast area with more than 300 gaming tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and poker and have more than four thousand slot machines. There are several restaurants within the casinos, among them a Hard Stone Cafe. Wolfwoods has several thousand hotel rooms and a two-story arcade for children and teens. Since the breakout of the Bristol virus, security has tightened, but that just means their new deals are to die for!

ROOMMATES

[futurologists]

Sign up here if you would like to be randomized into housing with roommates! Players may also make their own arrangements, this is just if you'd like it to be randomly arranged. Characters will be housed with 2-3 other characters, depending on how many sign ups we receive.

The due date for this is January 23rd, 23:59 UTC. Please fill out this form:

<b>CHARACTER:</b> <b>PLAYER:</b> <b>PREFERRED CONTACT:</b>

[paintjobs]

CHARACTER: Knock Out
PLAYER: Zee
PREFERRED CONTACT: buttadventure