unknownseas | WEEK 4

Another trial, another week, and still you're probably running lower on answers than you'd like. And on people - you lost three since last Sunday. By the end of this week, you'll have been here for nearly a full month, yet still the days crawl on.

You wake up Sunday, again with no memory of Saturday, but this time with a simple message on your devices: You may resume requesting items, if you like. Enjoy. Guess it really was just a stealth motive after all, but at least it's being communicated that it's over! That's something, at least.

And when you leave your rooms on Sunday, there's another new area to explore! This one is... certainly more ambitious in its construction than the last one, to say the least. But hey, you have a pretty neat place to host parties, if you feel so inclined! That's... fun...

Hey, you gotta find the fun in situations like this where you can! Silver linings, right?

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 4! Remember to turn in AC here, threads for regain coins here, and if you feel so inclined you can visit Angel's office hours over here! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Better than I was l- ...On Friday, I guess. Sorry about all of that; I know you said it's okay, but still.

[...The leech continues to give not a fuck about this conversation. Dinnertime.]

Ehh. [ She waves a hand dismissively. ] It's no big thing. ...I mean, it is, but I get it, sometimes you just gotta break down and spill your guts for a night.

[ Slowly...looks at the leech, just with her eyes. That little guy sure is going, huh. ]

Yeah, something like that.

[...He is absolutely going to town, yep. That said: oh no.]

...He's not going to attack you, you know.

I could kind of tell. After enough adventuring you kind of figure out what's going to jump at you and what's just...

[ Reeeeeaches out a finger...maybe to poke him. ]

...kind of going to sit there.

[He has been poked by many things, including Jasper. Poke away if you like; he squishes!]

Yeah, they tend to be a little more aggressive in groups. Right now he seems pretty okay with being fed and being kind of gross, and otherwise not being burdened with intelligent thought.

[ Della Duck: pokes a giant leech with no issue, cannot look at fish without almost hurling.

Your fave is problematic. ]

He came outta the vending machine, didn't he. [ OF COURSE. ] He got a name?

James.

[Because why the fuck would he be called anything else.]

Not like he really cares. He doesn't seem to register a whole lot, they're pretty simple creatures all told.

[ James. What a normal fucking name for a giant leech. Honestly she loves it. ]

Not sure how to bring this up with him, but they aren't really this big where I'm from. Is that something you're used to?

Oh. No, he's absolutely mutated a bit.

[Just saying!]

There's this virus that's ripping through people at a hideous rate where I'm from. A lot of people have died. These guys thrive off of it, though, and so we were studying them for a while so we could try to figure out why.

Oh. [ Yikes! ] Uh... Jeez, William, shit. Was that what you were working on before?

[ There are so many levels of That's Rough Buddy going on here. ]

I've been on a bunch of different projects. That was one of them.

My life's work is actually centered around rewiring the human immune response, though. Promoting enhanced healing so that people can hold on a bit longer and not immediately bleed out and die from severe trauma, and also helping them to fight off infectious diseases that we don't otherwise have a cure for.

[Well, from the sound of it he at least really likes what he does.]

[ After like twenty years of it, you'd better hope he does. ]

That's...actually remarkable. How was it going? Was there... You know, progress with the whole virus-thing or...immune system?

My work was also done with viruses, actually. Repurposing the way they work to assist the body rather than destroy it, reprogramming people from the inside. It's actually proven highly successful. Hasn't been implemented large-scale, of course, but it'll get there.

With any luck, we'll see decidedly less of that other virus making the rounds after my own work has been released.

I sure hope so. No wonder you spent so much time on your work. That sort of thing... It sounds beyond important. Like, curing the common cold being small stuff important.

There absolutely was a reason I stayed behind to work on it.

[You know, after Al kind of vanished into the aether and probably got shot.]

I don't really regret prioritizing my work. That sort of thing is why.

[ Probably. Who knows with that guy. ]

I'll say. You, your wife... You guys are changing the world.

Of course we are.

[Perhaps he can be forgiven a bit of arrogance about that, because like. Yeah.]

I've had to give up a lot to get there, but I honestly won't say that it hasn't been worth it, either.

...I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I... I never realized just how...important you are, I guess.

[For a moment, it looks like he isn't too sure what to do with his face at that before he settles.]

I guess that's understandable - most people don't really know virologists by name, you know? It's not the most glamorous profession out there.

If we're being honest, it actually took me a little while to figure out what a virologist actually does.

[ She's. Della's min-maxed some of her skills, okay? ]

...I...guess that's fair too...

[DELLA...]

I knew you were a researcher! I got that from the...ologist part, I just mostly hear that and think of like...geologists or psychologists and I took classes on and off at a liberal arts school, this really isn't my forte.

[ della stop ]

WEEK 4

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