video; un: toxicodendron | cw: medical discussion

[greenpower]

All right, listen up.

[Why is this always so stressful? Oh right, because she'll be talking to people. People she doesn't know already, at least for some of them. That's never her favorite.

But she arrived in the third wave of orbers and she has both information to share and catching up to do and unfortunately talking to the rest of the crew is the best way to do that.]

I've got some information about what ghost matter is doing to people, and presumably what it would do to us if we use our powers more than twice.

[Which they'll have to take Viveca's word for. ]

Some of this we already knew. People have to use their powers to be affected. It's only using our powers that seems to provoke a reaction. When that happens, ghost matter attaches itself to whatever it is that sparks that power, and suppresses it. That used to be all it did and people would naturally recover when they left the affected area. Now it creates an autoimmune response, with the patients' own bodies attacking themselves.

The good news: it doesn't kill you immediately.

The bad news: basically everything else. After infection, patients can last a few months, degenerating over that time. What starts with fatigue escalates until their bodies finally give out on them. The symptoms are pretty diverse, which isn't entirely surprising considering autoimmune diseases can really be a crapshoot that way. There are no curative or therapeutic treatments, only palliative. The local medical community seems like they're getting pretty desperate about the whole situation.

So don't fuck around too much with your powers. Got it?

[She pauses, considering what else she ought to add. It seems like it would be abrupt to end the feed now. Oh, right—]

I landed a job at Naephus' Planetary Hospital and figure I'll follow this lead as far as it goes. I've got a couple of theories about treatment and preventative care which should hopefully get me a little more project access if I can get the hospital interested in them.

Otherwise if anyone else has anything to add, I'm all ears.

Comments

video | un: batclown

[slapsticks]

[ Here's Harley, jumping up and down with uncontained enthusiasm. ]

Oh em gee, babe, you are the sexiest doctor this galaxy has ever seen! Look at you, getting down to business and diggin' up answers! And sharing with the class? I'm so proud!

[greenpower]

It helps that at least some of this is stuff that actually interests me.

[She's not what you'd call a fan of this whole power suppression situation.]

And you know I can still wow them with my actual credentials.

[slapsticks]

Damn right you can, you're only thee most brilliant biochemist that ever lived! [ Does Harley have a significant frame of reference for that statement? No. Does it matter? Not when it comes to hyping up her girlfriend.

She does, however, sober up as the jumping gets tiring and the rest of Ivy's findings start to sink in. ] Hey, so you're definitely safe from that whole incurable degenerative illness, right? I know the orb is supposed to protect you but I don't know how much faith I'd put in that.

[greenpower]

I'm pretty sure that's not true, but your girl does know her science.

[Which is fairly humble of her. Do you know anyone else who's developed a formula for reviving prehistoric plant matter? And like who in Gotham is better at this shit than she is? Man-Bat? Please.

Harley's concern is touching, though, and softens Ivy's response.]

As long as I don't use my powers, it should be fine. Which is admittedly pretty hard for me, but so far so good. And hey—[attempting to be comforting.]—with my immune system, this whole thing could be overcautious. Not dying from diseases and toxins and shit that kills other people is literally one of my powers.

[On the other hand if ghost matter really could hijack her immune system, maybe it would kill her that much quicker? It's hard to say, and the thought has crossed Ivy's mind. She's not putting it in Harley's though.]

Audio; un: 苣屋

[dispassioned]

That backs up what some of the orphanage kids said about what happened to their parents.

[Nice to know for sure the government or the hospital wasn’t just bullshitting them with their explanation. Not that he has trust issues or anything.]

[greenpower]

At least so far I haven't seen anything to suggest the medical side of things is insincere.

[Does that mean there isn't plenty of room for other people to be bad actors? Oh, absolutely.]

[dispassioned]

It’s better than I expected. The orphanage system seems legitimate, too.

[greenpower]

Those are words you don't hear often.

[dispassioned]

Pretty much never, in my experience.

audio; un: felix

[swordandshield]

You know the fun part is that the Federation is still making those ghost matter weapons, right? And they do the same thing when used. So out there in the other stretches of this galaxy, the Federation is using these weapons to hit criminals with powers and take them down.

Like I said, fun right?

[greenpower]

I wonder how it acts outside of its home environment. Is there a risk of it propagating to other planets, or does it dissipate?

If it doesn't dissipate, they could be killing a lot more people than that in the long run.

[swordandshield]

[Well, that made it even more fun to think about.]

No clue. Didn't hear anything about that. I just know that the Federation refuses to stop making the weapons despite the fact that they know it does this now.

At least no one else has access to the things.

[greenpower]

[Leave it to Ivy to make things even worse.]

For now, at least. Weapons like this, there has to be a black market for. And it sort of sounded before like there is a black market for—we just don't know where they're going.

[swordandshield]

Right, right. Bracken and Fyna. Only, they're not selling the weapons on the black market. No one is.

text | un: lion cub

[heyciri]

So that's what the orb is suppressing for us.

Is there any chance it latches on to parents for some powered children?

[greenpower]

I can't rule out much entirely, but I haven't heard of it happening or seen a mechanism for it.

[heyciri]

I guess I'm just confused when I'm hearing kids at the orphanage are powered, but their parents are the ones who died. If the trouble is kids under twelve not having enough control that they might. Or if being born here changes how powers work, or don't, from birth.

[greenpower]

If the kids have power, it could have been inherited from their parents.

[heyciri]

Yeah, but they didn't have any incidents growing up, their parents just end up dying? Or parent. Whoever they had.

voice; un: ade37

[landing_lights]

[ Oh, that is not good news. Not at all. ]

I'm guessing those who can't control their powers don't get a pass?

[ Christ, is he going to have c'nataat and this ghost matter slugging it out inside of him? For all he knows, it might already be happening. C'nataat doesn't exactly let him know when it's healed something or tweaked his DNA. For all he knows, it's already burnt through both power uses healing paper cuts. ]

When did this change happen from non-lethal to lethal? Could the orb have changed how it works?

voice; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

Hard to say exactly at what point something counts as using our power. It can happen when you use a power accidentally or that's out of your control.

[And oh, she already has seen some of the proof of that.]

On the other hand, I don't think it triggers the ghost matter if the power in question is—let's say passive?

Probably better to say on the safe side though.

text ↪ un: うちは

[blackfire]

（ that is... not entirely unlike how the mangekyō sharingan affects the body, ameliorated only by a transplant of like eyes. the way she speaks on the attack of the immune system...

it does not trouble him, not truly. but it does make him wary. ）

Thank you. This is useful information.

Have you had a chance to meet anyone directly affected?

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

Not yet. I'm hoping to get a little more access since I got the job. For the time being, I just got a walk through one of the wards where they're trying to keep the patients comfortable.

[Which was, unfortunately, about all anyone seemed able to do for them at this point.]

[blackfire]

I see.

I believe there would be some value in knowing what measures they are taking. Should any of our own become affected and we are unable to undo it with the orb or otherwise, knowing what helps or does not to alleviate discomfort may be necessary once we are returned to the Ximilia.

[greenpower]

Alleviating discomfort is about all they can do, and even that's not much as far as treatment goes.

I'm just getting started though. They've got to have somethings they're at least working on.