futurologists | MISSION: WOODHURST

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have some questions regarding trying to combat the virus!

Given the rate of how quickly the virus attacks a person's brain etc, how feasible would it be to try a super small dosage or trying to kill the virus in a test tube and combine it with something to make a vaccine that way?

Alternatively, if someone tried to combat the virus by inflicting another similar virus that is a little less lethal, how badly would that go? In some fiction there are some diseases that someone can combat if they have something else, which is the frame of mind she'd be going with on this. (and no, none of this is ethical lbr)

(basically these are all fumbling ideas of trying to prevent if a cure is too much of a struggle oops)

Hi! We'll break this out a little, since you'll probably be interested in both:

VACCINE: We absolutely encourage this! The only catch is that it would take some time to develop and spread amongst the citizens and recruits, so everyone who signed up to get sick still has the opportunity to do so. A vaccine can be developed using either a living or dead sample; naturally, the first would be easier to find, but more risky to handle.

Just as a reminder, a vaccine will not help those who are already infected, as it is strictly a preventative measure, but it may help free up resources for a cure as well!

CURE: A cure will be more difficult to synthesize, but not impossible in the future. We'll be addressing this more clearly on the next log, so stay tuned.

In both cases, teamwork will be critical, as no one character will have the resources or know-how to accomplish this -- so we ask that any plots be open to all characters! We strongly suggest that interested players create a post on the OOC comm for plotting, which we'd be happy to plurk. We can also help answer any questions and provide direction as necessary.

Also, unfortunately, there is no lesser virus that can combat the Bristol strain.

Thank you for this, mods! I know there will be a few people who will want to get in on this, so I (or someone else I've been already chatting to regarding this) will get an OOC post up to invite as many people in as we can. This is great information to work with, thank you! Team-work best work

I figured re: the cure it would take a lot longer, I was more curious to see how tackling it with other viruses would go... because since when has science been 100% humane I guess weeps.

I just have one question for now! The information will take a while to circulate (perhaps up to 7 days to be fair here) but there is a lot leaning towards the drugs in the hospital not being safe -- would they be able to take tests of the drugs? and if yes, how successful would that be?

Actually edits this! Sorry, one thing that came up when I first brought this up is if we have test subjects for the vaccine. As it isn't likely to work right away, should we use npcs for the start or would this be able to coincide with future rngs?

I'll try and get other people's input for questions as well, as I imagine it'll be easier to tackle if they're all in one place.

Thanks again c:

Edited 2017-02-12 01:06 (UTC)

It will take considerable manpower, time, and stealth to test every drug in the hospital! With this in mind, they ultimately won't find anything out of the ordinary.

As for the vaccine, anyone can volunteer for it, but OOCly it will need to be an NPC or someone who has signed up to get infected because of the risk involved. If a character does decide to test it, please make sure they PM us so we can give them the proper info we're giving to all our infected characters!

I put up the ooc post here!

Thanks for the heads up on that too, they'll hopefully have some helpers to check the drugs that are mostly needed first to tackle it in an orderly fashion... best to be safe than sorry when they aren't sure.

I made a note of that on the ooc post, plus mentioned that it'll take a few weeks to reach that point anyway! Thanks again mods c:

MISSION: WOODHURST

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