text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

Sooooooooooo

[That is not an encouraging number of o's, is it? Frankly, a rather ominous number of o's to start a text message with.

Problems with this whole thought-to-text communication set up. Hopefully it doesn't set a tone or anything.]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news especially when things seem to be going so well on everyone else's side, but not all sunshine and roses.

Short version: Even if we can get the anti-matter formula to stick (which we're still working on, promise), it will only neutralize the ghost matter still in the atmosphere. People who are already infected get fuck all out of it aside from the realization that they'll be the last ones to die of infection. Currently, the "conduit" aka the orb is the only thing keeping them alive and without them, their condition runs its course the same as always.

Which is, you know among other things, a pretty big incentive for Zandr not to give it to us when all this is over.

Just.

Throwing that out there.

Comments

text; un: geraniums

[rootlessly]

Once the ghost matter is gone, people will be able to use their abilities again, right? There might be a solution to the illness that wasn't possible before. Whether or not Zandr is willing to give it to us, we shouldn't take the orb until we have the chance to look into it.

text; un toxicodendron

[greenpower]

It is possible that people will be able to use their powers to heal people once the ghost matter isn't a factor anymore, definitely.

So if anyone has something on that, it'd be a good time to speak up.

[Not touching whether or not they should stay to give people a chance for research yet. That's something she'd like to get the temperature on before she starts going off.]

Text | un: belova

[laviny]

So are you saying he was lying and we'll have to fight him or that our doctors and healers need to find a treatment?

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

I'm not saying either of those things. If I were saying those things, I would have

Said those things.

But you have to admit that thousands of people will die is a pretty good reason to lie.

And you know, something people might like to know.

text, un: strange

[rehandle]

[ Of course... of course. ]

Where did you get this from?

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

Zandr. Straight from the horse's mouth.

He's not telling me he won't give us the orb, but he did disclose that information.

txt; un: mccoy

[homeostatic]

Oh good.

...goddammit.

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

Yeah, that was a real mood killer.

text; un: y.mikotoba

[softshoes]

Well, what on Earth am I supposed to tell Emerton now? I promised we would be able to help.

text, un: strange

[rehandle]

[ It'll be very easy for things to start falling apart just when they need to keep themselves together after this news, hope ripped out like a rug. Only it's not a rug but a tablecloth and the trick has been executed perfectly: cups and plates and cutlery not moved an inch, the path forward unchanged. They'll have to get the cloth back on there somehow but it's not an insurmountable problem.

Yujin's stranded in the middle of important work. He shouldn't be left to navigate the aftershocks of this alone. ]

Neutralizing ghost matter will protect an entire galaxy and fundamentally undermine a corrupt regime. It's no small help, you haven't misinformed him.

All this means is we have another problem to solve once this is done. For as long as Zandr's contract holds, we have time.

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

What the guy above said. We are helping.

And we are giving them, like, a ton more options. If there's anyone who hasn't been able to doing healing shit because of the ghost matter before, they'll be able to now.

[rootlessly]

We're still helping. And we'll help the people who are sick right now, too. We can't give up now.

text: Lockwood

[recklessenough]

[ He's reviewed Yujin previous text, which had been excellent work and initially Lockwood didn't have any contribution beyond 'job well done!' Now, with Ivy's additional information, things have gotten a bit less straight forward.

This really would not be the way Lockwood would normally go about introducing himself, but things are moving quickly, and his gut tells him they are losing a window of opportunity. ]

You've done a brilliant job, Sir under very difficult circumstances and are to be commended. I regret that my next question may be a difficult one.

I recognize that my relatively new addition to the crew may mean that I am missing valuable experience with our hosts, but given the lives at stake, I feel it should be part of the discussion.

I know of Viveca and Degar's wishes regarding Emerton's prior involvement with the crew. But given your interactions with the man, how do you feel he would react if he were told? Is it possible, that if his memories could be recovered, there may be further information he's not aware he possesses that could help the people doomed to perish if Zandr's plans go forward?

text | un; 20/20

[hindsights]

It was really going too well, huh?

So we need another conduit or a better cure and if those don't pan out, I don't see Zandr handing anything over.

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

He implied he would when I asked him, but considering what's at stake and his powers I wouldn't blame him if he dipped with the orb until we had a better solution.

voice ↪ un: unohana

[kenpachi]

That is quite unfortunate to learn.

（ casualties are often inevitable in situations like this, and while she appreciates the overall altruism of the crew she also has no wish for such things to stand in the way of the completion of their mission. on cirawei, it made sense to use the time they had to finish the job — but if anyone had stood between her and the orb at the end she would have struck them down without mercy, either.

she feels the same here, though she is not nearly as close to the issue as she would prefer to be. the restriction of her shinigami powers is... unfortunate in this instance, but perhaps once they perfect the anti-matter it will pose less a barrier. ）

I have not made my way there as yet but I do intend to come to Nuhiri to assist as I may. Do you have any recommended reading for the journey? I am not familiar with the creation of anti-matter, but I am a quick study.

voice; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

We can use all of the good ideas we can get.

[It's not exactly Ivy's area of expertise either. It's not without some crossover, but most of that interaction is in the area of what ghost matter does in bodies and less in the ions and positrons of it all.]

I'll send over what we have on hand so you can get up to speed, and see what I can dig up on particle physics.

text — un: kestrel

[realists]

Is there any way to aerosolise the anti-matter into the atmo to create a rain or is that asking too much of unstable particles?

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

That's the sticking point at the moment. They're so unstable, they have to be stored at absolute zero to keep them from exploding.

Early tests have been encouraging sure, but they don't last as long as they need to and there's the question of how to scale it up.

I have been thinking of bringing up some kind of liquid matrix, though, so if we can get it to that point aerosolizing it would be realistic.

Voice | un:Wei Wuxian

[singlelogbridge]

[First, a sigh, then—]

That's certainly going to make things complicated. Do we have a number on how many people are currently infected? [A smaller number doesn't make those lives any less valuable, but he'd like to know what they're looking at all the same.]

voice; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

Safe to say it's in the thousands. It would be hard to get an accurate count, though. Not everyone chooses to go to the hospital for treatment and stay with their family for the end.

text; un: felix

[swordandshield]

Great. The guy can teleport anywhere he damn pleases. If he wants to keep it, he can damn well keep it away from us. I'd say let's keep a closer eye on him, but he could literally disappear at any time he wanted.

He better keep his damn promise. If we have to stay here for another three freakin' months just to find a cure for this thing life is going to suck a lot for us when this all goes to shit. No offense to anyone who wants to stick around- [looking at, like, literally all of you] -but it's not going to be easy to come up with a cure while we're on the run for treason.

Someone remind me to grab some teleportation grenades when we get back to the station. Why the hell didn't I think of that before?

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

For what it's worth, he doesn't seem like he's going to vanish with the orb at any minute, but we should all know it's on the table.

He might be trying to get sympathy.

[Why else mention it? On the other hand, Ivy doesn't really exude sympathy.]

text; un: Sabriel.Abhorsen

[bindsthedead]

I know some healing magic. If Zandr can counteract the ghost matter and allow us to use our powers freely- and if the crew is willing to take the time to wait for us to do so, rather than return to the station immediately-

There might be a way to save these people.

[But in her head, her father's words echo. Everyone and everything has a time to die.]

text; un: toxicodendron

[greenpower]

How much time are you thinking of here? Just so we're all on the same page.

un: lion cub

[heyciri]

In theory, someone else could contract the orb as a last resort to ask for them to be cured, couldn't they?

Is it possible to do to the ghost matter what happened before? Mutate it, or whatever it is? Or render it null?

[greenpower]

I know I'm sort of the new kid in school here, but the orb asks for a price in return for things like that, right?

I'm not saying we couldn't do that, but anyone who does is going to have to be willing to give something up.