[ march i log: we need medicine ]

[barrayarmods]

Who: Everyone
What: New arrivals, desperate times, whispers down the hall.
When: March 1st - 18th
Where: Barrayaran camp / Cetagandan base
Warnings: TBD

Quick links:
Riverfall
Barrayar: Plague / Camp / Missions
Cetaganda: Plague / Base / Missions



welcome to barrayar.
It's the dark of night when you come to in the foothills. Snow on the ground, chill winter wind whistling -- in fact, it's dangerously cold, and all you have is the clothes on your back.. A steep mountain range towers just ahead, its peaks illuminated by the light of two moons. Whatever you last remember, it isn't how you got here, and you feel oddly jetlagged, slightly queasy.

And you're not alone. There are a few other people close by, all looking equally lost and confused. But before any of you have a chance to figure out what's going on, the soldiers arrive. There's a war on, they say, and you unlucky bastards have just been dropped right smack in the middle of it.

With March comes some relief. The first few days to a week are still bitterly, dangerously cold, but the weather starts to pick up gradually over the course of the next couple of months. It only gets barely above freezing, but after the last month, it might as well be a summer's day.

riverfall
The party last month definitely boosted morale, and certainly brought the outsiders closer to the villagers. They're noticeably friendlier toward the outsiders afterward, although they still give the exotics and their accompanying ghem soldiers the evil eye.

Given the village's covert assistance with the war effort and the fact that the Cetagandans found enough data to include the village in its regular patrols, Riverfall has become sort of a middle ground between the two sides. Coinciding visits don't happen every day, but they can provide opportunities for the two factions to secretly meet. Of course, this always carries a risk…best be sure not to be caught by either side's soldiers. Thanks to Negri, the Barrayarans roughly know the patrol schedule.

barrayar
Temperatures are still pretty low by the time March rolls around, and the first week is considerably cold, but it's steadily getting warmer as the month goes on. By the second week, it's just warm enough to start taking baths again -- and boy is there ever a queue.

On the 2nd, a small troop of soldiers arrives, led by Prince Xav Vorbarra, Olivia and Sonia's father, and Piotr's aide-de-camp Captain Ezar Vorbarra, a distant cousin of theirs. They bring with them a load of relief supplies fom Beta Colony, improving not only their food and medicine situation, but some to pass on back to the Riverfall villagers in return for their help. Anyone lurking around at night might see Ezar talking to Negri from time to time as well, and Sonia seems to be getting up to some kind of mischief where Ezar is concerned.

Prince Xav gives Piotr a very helpful tipoff -- there's a Betan biochemist waiting in the occupied district capital, Vorkosigan Vashnoi, to rendezvous with him on his way back off Barrayar. Xav can't stay long; he needs to find another way off-planet, and Doctor Micah Niadem has been laying low in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, but the risk of their presence being detected grows with every day. It may be easier and safer to smuggle them back to the camp than try to get them back off-planet for now -- and besides, their expertise in astrophysics might prove useful. But Xav hasn't yet been able to make contact through the soldiers occupying the city, so Piotr sends his own scouts.

Piotr, with Xav and Ezar as advisors, is trying to come to a decision about what to do about the Cetagandans' wormhole project. There's no telling what the Cetagandans really intend to do with the wormhole device, but disrupting or destroying their project would mean no way home for the outsiders, and…Piotr no longer feels that to be the most honorable option. That, and the idea of this technology in Cetagandan hands does them no favors. But their intelligence on the project is limited -- Byerly will prove to be a useful intelligent asset, certainly, but Piotr is looking for more informants. Any outsiders willing and able to make connections with any exotics sympathetic to the cause would certainly be appreciated by the General.

plague
Early in the month, some of the villagers begin to get sick -- it looks just like a particularly nasty cold at first. It quickly worsens and spreads to the camp, and by the 7th it is evident there is an outbreak of the Barrayaran flu, an influenza variant that has mutated over the last several centuries. Barrayarans have built up antibodies against most strains, but this is a particularly virulent strain, and with a population that has neither vaccines nor modern medicine, it can be fatal. The recent cold snap and limited food haven't exactly fortified anyone's immune systems, either, and in the first half of the month, about half the population of the village and camp come down with the flu at some point.

Although the virus isn't spreading much more quickly than your average flu, it's still a nasty infection, and the symptoms are difficult to effectively treat without proper equipment of facilities. Some of the relief supplies brought by Prince Xav include surgical masks and gloves for the people working triage to protect them from the airborne illness as much as possible. The supplies also include some analgesics and synergine, but hardly enough to go around. Fevers, aches and chills, coughing, vomiting -- they treat them with what they have once they run out of relief supplies. And for the most part, those with the flu manage to pull through and recover -- but if the flu turns to pneumonia, there's almost nothing they can do at that point. Thanks to the tireless efforts of villagers, soldiers, and some outsiders, the first half of the month sees only a 10% mortality rate between the village and the camp, resulting in only 23 influenza-related deaths.

Sonia is among the first to get sick, but she sweats it out in five days or so and manages a full recovery. Olivia, on the other hand, falls much more seriously ill. Piotr takes great care not to get sick; the camp is already incapacitated as it is.

camp
Camp morale is still buckling under the weight of crisis after crisis, but the arrival of Prince Xav and the improving weather have done a lot to lighten the mood. Xav and Ezar coordiate to distribute the relief supplies even as the flu ravages the camp and village, never a dull moment . Olivia and Sonia haven't seen their father Xav in over two years, and it's a long-overdue family reunion. Piotr welcomes the return of his friend and aide-de-camp Ezar, and Sonia seems to be getting into some kind of mischief with her cousin. And in a quiet moment here and there, Ezar can be seen talking to Negri.

By the morning of the 1st, Byerly Vorrutyer will have abruptly disappeared from camp.

Piotr is trying to keep military operations running as much as he can while half the camp tends to the sick or fall sick themselves. They'd found the traitors, yes, but Piotr's anger is far from satisfied. The food shortage had derailed their power supply strategy, and it's only further pushed back by this current crisis, so large operations are off the table. But Piotr has never underestimated the value of psychological warfare in this war. He has a few conveniently available corpses for hacking up and planting in the Cetagandan base just to shake things up a little, and anyone who can lift a sword without coughing is qualified. Xav does not approve.

missions
The medical assistance provided by the outsiders doesn't go unappreciated, nor without effect. Not every day is a success, but they manage to keep the mortality rate relatively low.

The infiltration missions to plant the severed body parts mostly go according to plan, although Lakshmi and Nash run afoul of some guards. Between the outsiders and other Barrayaran squads, they manage to plant several body parts, and in doing so, inadvertently spread the Barrayaran flu to the Cetagandans.

The outsiders scouting out Vorkosigan Vashnoi manage to stay undetected by Cetagandan soldiers, although they run into exotics on the other side. They manage to get some information about Micah's location, but very little…thankfully, Byerly passes on to Miles much more specific information the exotics were able to obtain.

Here are the unabridged mission results.

cetaganda
The snow piled up around the base starts to gradually melt over the course of the month as temperatures rise. The new wave of exotics are processed and very gently prodded like every group has been, but they've been treated with the same level of civility. The Cetagandans are generally exceedingly polite, but they are becoming a little less patient with the exotics after the recent bouts of violence and escapism.

Despite the Barrayaran flu sweeping the base, military operations must carry on. Zahal might have lost his informants in the Barrayaran camp, but he knows they've been struggling, and wants to implement some more aggressive tactics to hit them while they're down -- and more than that, the dead body parts of his own soldiers scattered around the base have had their intended effect, rattling and aggravating the ghem-General -- even more so when they realize that this was the means by which the plague spread to the base. Whatever organized strategy Zahal starts to pull together is immediately disrupted by the rapid spread of the virus through the base. With Cetagandan soldiers dropping like flies, military operations all but come to a halt on the base.

However, Cetagandan intelligence gets wind of a Barrayar-allied astrophysicist from Beta Colony, a planet renowned for its cutting-edge technological advances, particularly in the field of wormhole science; they may be able to solve some of the pieces of the puzzle. The Betan scientist is apparently hiding out in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, the capital city of the city. The virus has spread there too; Barrayarans and Cetagandans alike are facing the outbreak, although the native population seems to be faring a bit better. The Cetagandans need help bringing medical supplies, so while they're at it, the ghem-General dispatches a few teams to try and sniff out the scientist's location. Meanwhile, in the R&D labs, some of the exotics who have been promoted to lab assistant are helping the Cetagandans to make some advancements, and they're finally let in on some more details about the project.

plague
A few days into the month, some of the soldiers start to show cold-like symptoms -- and then the outbreak of Barrayaran influenza spreads rapidly throughout the base. Unlike the Barrayarans, the Cetagandans have no antibodies for this strain, and even their advanced immune systems cannot defend them against a totally new pathogen. They are infected even more quickly than the Barrayarans and their symptoms escalate rapidly as well, resulting in an alarming mortality rate. Cetagandan soldiers are falling sick left and right. Triage starts in the medbay, but they have to quarantine off another wing of the building just to make room for the rapidly growing population of infected ghem. The airborne virus is spreading through the base at an alarming speed -- save for Byerly, no one on base has ever been exposed to it. The symptoms are severe and while the Cetagandans have plenty of equipment, they have neither an antiviral nor a vaccine for the Barrayaran flu. High fever, vomiting, dehydration, respiratory and sinus problems run rampant, and though they have plenty in the way of synergine and analgesics, the Barrayaran flu quickly leads to pneumonia in most Cetagandan patients, and with their immune systems so completely unprepared, most patients with pneumonia die within 24 to 48 hours. The triage assistants are, at least, provided with surgical masks and gloves and antibacterial gel by the bucket load to protect them from the airborne illness as much as possible. By mid-month, nearly two thirds of the base has been infected.

The medical staff scrambles to put up a quarantine while also working on a vaccine for the uninfected population on the base. Byerly, being the only person on base who has ever been exposed to the Barrayaran flu, offers a blood sample -- potentially containing antibodies to this strain. Some of the Cetagandans' testing methods are a little ethically questionable, but they're trying to work fast. They're able to develop a working vaccine with a projected effectiveness of 70%.

Toward the middle of the month, Amai catches the flu and is laid low for about a week. Diya and Zahal take great care not to catch it -- Diya seems particularly absent lately.

base
Paranoia of infection hovers over the entire base, but some of the Cetagandans are concerned with another upcoming event: the arrival of the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche. What the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche actually is or does seems to be rather vague to the exotics -- she seems to play some role in genetic politics -- but it's known that she's haut, like Diya. The Cetagandans are scrambling to prepare for her arrival with considerable worry about resolving the flu epidemic before she touches down. The Cetagandans are about as close to cultural panic as they get right now. Diya received personal notice from the Handmaiden of the Star Crèche herself.

Starting on the 1st, Byerly Vorrutyer joins the exotic ranks as an undercover agent, looking not only for information but to potentially recruit exotics sympathetic to the Barrayaran cause.

Meanwhile in the labs, the Cetagandans have been letting the exotics get a little more hands-on with their research. Natasha, York and Symmetra have risen a bit in the ranks and are brought in on more specific projects. The ghem ladies are, surprisingly, now looking for volunteers to work in the gene labs too -- personnel shortage, of course.

missions
Even though a few of their own fall prey to the illness, the exotics' medical assistance does wind up being quite helpful, particularly with development of the vaccine. Meanwhile, eavesdroppers are doing their usual business and digging deep in places they shouldn't -- particularly where Amai and Diya are concerned.

The exotics that accompany the Cetagandans to Vorkosigan Vashnoi manage to stay undetected by Barrayaran soldiers, although they run into exotics on the other side. They are able to get some very detailed information about Micah's location, which Byerly passes back to the Barrayarans via Miles.

Here are the unabridged mission results.

Note: Negri and Zahal are available for threads by request only. Please hit up Madi or Ammay respectively for you want threads with either of those NPCs. You can also request a thread with Village Speaker Yakiv Gura if you want, in which case hit up Madi.

Comments

daryl dixon | barrayar ota.

[pigsfeet]

a. SURVIVOR | barry camp.

Daryl starts the day feeling slightly groggy, which is strange, but not unheard of. He's been lit this early before. He struggles through the first few hours of dawn, getting breakfast, checking the camp over, avoiding the bathing tent (line's too long), and checking his traps. He's not really paying attention, he's done this thousands, millions of times, when he realizes how woozy he really is.

The trap pulls short, and he fumbles the fine, hard twine he used to set it, and his wrist catches in the snare. It pulls tight, and blood blooms in the line the snare cuts into his caught hand.

Shit. He hasn't screwed up like this since he was a little kid. What was he, twelve? He can almost hear Merle laughing over his shoulder. Daryl swears, and realizes he hasn't brought a knife. How the hell is he going to get himself out of this without making it worse? Shit, shit.

b. MAN VS WILD | barry camp.

The illness hits camp pretty heavily, and Daryl does his best to avoid it, sneezing and coughing when no one's looking. They haven't got time for anyone to lay down on the job, especially not him. He tries to help out where he can, carrying supplies around and chopping wood for the fire, little, stupid chores that need doing anyway.

It's late in the day when he finally, finally overdoes it. You might catch him retching, groggy-eyed and yellow-faced into the bushes. He hears someone approach over his shoulder, and turns his head to glare, waving them away. "Get lost!" He's not in a good mood.

c. KICKING AND SCREAMING | barry med tent.

Finally, somehow, someone gets him into the med tent, where he spends his time coughing and retching on his side while he sweats and twitches. Anyone tending to him will be treated to a glare.

"He needs help," Daryl says, nodding in the direction of the poor soul on the cot next to him. "M'fine."

B

[komarran]

Duv's not surprise when he realizes the man trying to hide how sick he is happens to be Daryl. He had that air about him, that desire not to show any weakness and get what needed to be done, done no matter what. It's with a heavy sigh that Duv approaches and is not one bit deterred by the initial hostile reaction.

"You should join the others in the med tent," he says dryly and watches the man expectantly. What did he think he was accomplishing by hiding his illness? He was going to make it worse at this rate and with the level of medicine available here it was better not to tempt fate.

[pigsfeet]

It's lucky, he thinks, that he hasn't eaten much today. Daryl doesn't have much more to vomit up, and ends up dry heaving for a moment, two, until he can gain his composure. It's a good thing for Duv that he's tough enough to ignore petty insults, but at the moment, it's kind of annoying.

"You deaf," Daryl says, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "Told you to get lost."

[komarran]

He waits patiently for Daryl to finish his heaving, standing off-center behind the man. He can let the man have some dignity while he's sick.

"And I told you to go to the med tent," he returns, still staring at him.

[pigsfeet]

"Yeah," Daryl says, standing up straight. His gaze is glassy, unfocused. "You gonna try'n drag me there, professor?"

Even through the haze of illness, Daryl sounds highly skeptical. It'd be an outright challenge to another man, but with Duv, Daryl doesn't think he's hot-headed enough to try something.

[komarran]

"If you're going to make me, yes," he answers bluntly. Because whether Daryl likes it or not, Duv would prefer if the other man remained quarantined with the rest of those sick.

That said, he plans to be cautious in his approach. He steps closer to Daryl, ready to help the man stand should he appear to be shaky.

c.

[littlemissfutility]

Beth's noticed that Daryl's been under the weather, and she's tried on occasion to get him to slow down a little--but it's Daryl, one of the most pig-headed men she's ever met. He shrugs off that bandage around his wrist, glares at the idea that he might be sick, and only walks faster from trap to trap when she suggests that she and the others can take them over.

But when she finds him fumbling through knots he knows by heart, looking bleary-eyed at his work like he's never seen it before, she decides she's not taking no for an answer. He's already cut himself open once. She's not letting him get himself killed trying to tough out a virus.

"C'mon," she tells him, reaching for his arm. The surgical mask she's been wearing to help with the other flu patients hangs from one ear. "You need to lie down."

[pigsfeet]

Daryl squints at Beth through a curtain of dirty hair. Something in her tone immediately rankles; it's the indignant sense of authority she seems to think she's got over him. It's also probably the headache ringing between his temples.

"Lied down enough," he grumbles. "You ain't a nurse."

[littlemissfutility]

She doesn't have the first bit of authority over him, and she knows it. The only person who can make Daryl do anything is Daryl himself. But if he puts his health at risk, he's putting everyone at risk--his hunting's put a lot of food on the mess tent tables.

"I'm more of a nurse than you," she retorts, tugging his arm. "You're gonna get pneumonia if you keep this up."

And that's starting to look like a death sentence here. That's the real problem, the one she doesn't want to have to think about or say aloud.

[pigsfeet]

Daryl leans up against a nearby tree, and unsuccessfully tries to make it look as though the tree isn't the major thing keeping him upright. "What about you?" His voice dips into a curious hiss, a challenge if there ever was one. "Putting yourself right up in their goddamn faces."

The sick people, he means. He understands her willingness to help, but she's got as much chance of getting killed as him, in his mind.

[littlemissfutility]

She lets him go, mostly because he already half-wrenched himself out of her grip when he moved over toward the tree, and crosses her arms.

"Somebody has to help them." And if she doesn't, then she'll have to live with the guilt when they die. Beth can't stand around, knowing she could help them, even just a little bit, and let things happen how they will. "But this isn't about me. I'm not the one who's sick."

[shri]

"You are hardly that." She sighs as she comes up beside him with the tray she's been instructed to help with. "And he, will be seen too and soon by the staff appointed to him."

Which is breezy, dismissive, she's not having any of it as she lays out the medical gear. She's spent far too much time in this medical tent of late, and where she's gotten better as everyone else gets worse, at least it's useful.

The last thing she sets out is a bowl of water and a clean cloth that she drops into it and soaks it before she squeezes out the excesses. "Roll flat, please." It's this side of an order but she said please at least.

[pigsfeet]

Daryl has not, in truth, been cared for like this before. No one has ever sat over his bed and ministered him health, never given him medicine. He doesn't know what to do with it. The vulnerability sits poorly on his shoulders. He can't stop the tension rising in his shoulders.

"What're you gonna do?" He really ought to know, but he hasn't been paying attention, fool that he is. He'd been weaving in and out of consciousness since the shitty nurses showed up.

[shri]

He looks like a wounded animal, curled up in the blankets like he thinks she's going to strike him as she shifts closer. The cloth laying flat at the side of the bowl, her fingers cool and damp as she comes back to him, briefly brushing against his forehead. She'll check his temperature in a moment.

"Firstly," she reaches over him, gently to the pillow behind him. "I'm going to ensure you're comfortable. Tell me if that's too hard to endure."

Even so, she waits, she makes it careful slow, so that nothing she does is a shock or likely to surprise him. Her voice low and quiet as she goes to move.

[pigsfeet]

He flinches away from her hand on instinct, eyes glassy but narrowed with suspicion. It's stupid, and he immediately kicks himself-- mentally-- for it. She won't do anything. Why would she? But the idea sticks in his mind. No one ever comes at him with softness.

He shifts away from her slightly, less out of genuine fear than to nurse his wounded pride. "M'fine," he mutters. "Said that already."

[shri]

"And it continues to be not true."

No, no she wouldn't do anything to him, and she does worry a moment maybe she wasn't being soft enough - her hands are no noble womans, if they ever had been. Rough with a lifetime of work.

But no, not that, she's sure he wouldn't say it or if he did it would be his own kind of teasing. Her mouth pressing closed in a disapproving line. "We were on such a good record of honesty, Huntsman. I am not going to hurt you, but I must have you better sooner rather than later."

C

[dendarii]

"I can see that," draws Miles in response to his protests. "And I'll help him too. But you need to drink this first."

The tea he offers is ... pungent. Kind of unpleasant. He's going to be stubborn about it, though.

[pigsfeet]

The tea smells terrible, so Daryl trusts it. For whatever it's worth, he won't back down from the implied challenge. He reaches for the drink and takes it all at once, lightly burning his tongue in the process. He doesn't take his eyes off Miles the entire time, tensed and waiting for... something.

[dendarii]

Really, Daryl. Miles is glad he's not fighting, at least. "It's not poisoned," he says with that same sarcastic tone. "It's a tea to settle your stomach."

[pigsfeet]

"You a doctor?" Daryl says, ignoring the sarcasm. It doesn't matter. Miles has none of the silent calm and gentleness of Hershel, and Daryl misses the man suddenly, with the sort of unexpected weight only brought on by illness.

[dendarii]

"Do I look like a doctor?" He's just the man with the herbal remedies, Daryl. He shakes his head. "I've lived through this shit before. That's all."

a

[latkje]

Nash is still getting used to the the routines of this place and taking stock of its perimeters. That's how he comes upon Daryl, caught in his own trap. Well, that and he followed the sounds of swearing, as one does.

He lets out a low whistle. "Do you need help?" It's not really a question— the man is obviously caught in some kind of trap.

By instinct, Nash reaches for his own knife, the one he keeps on his belt, and then remembers that they haven't let him keep it.

[pigsfeet]

Daryl stares dully up at the new guy as his blood reddens the snow beneath his wrist. "Own damn fault," he mutters, and grabs at the stake in the ground his hand is anchored to. He begins to wrestle the long wooden peg, trying to pull it out of the ground in its entirety. "Wasn't paying attention."

Translation: Nice to meet you too.

[latkje]

"I didn't know we were supposed to look for traps. That would be the point of setting them, I'd expect." He doesn't know it's Daryl's own trap. It would be rude to assume, wouldn't it? "It's a nice piece of work though," he continues, from the same distance. No point in giving help that's unwanted.

[pigsfeet]

Daryl snorts, and sets about removing the peg. He's done it before, when he's had to reuse traps he made to set them up for later, but this is a first when he's this old and this groggy. "Piece of shit," he mutters. "You ain't gotta worry less you're a rabbit."