Player Plot: Get Down With the Sickness

[vonspielburg]

On May 1st, a special announcement was delivered to everyone's mailboxes from the old man who runs the arena. A rich donor has commissioned the capture of a behemoth for the Monster Arena, and to herald this exciting new arrival, he has issued a prize package of 50,000 gil and two elemental-type crystals of the slayer's choice to anyone who can defeat it single-handed. Of course, if a team wanted to go after it instead, that would also be acceptable. However, in doing so, the prize is reduced to 25,000 gil, and must be split among the victors.

Five days after doing battle with the Behemoth, regardless of whether a victory was secured or not, all participants will come down with a cold, that will rapidly worsen into the flu. This sickness is highly contagious, and will affect anyone who has a Crystal. In other words, regular citizens can't catch the disease, but all Heroes of Light can.

The effects of the illness can range from comical to serious, and may even cause death if you so desire. However, characters who die from the sickness and crystallize will not be healed after their week-long hibernation. They'll have the symptoms all over again. A cure must be found, before everyone falls victim to this debilitating disease.

Participation is optional. Some characters just won't get afflicted for some reason. In fact, characters who are active in being Heroes of Light (working at the lab, slaying monsters, rescuing villagers) and who don't engage in social activities, mundane jobs, or other activities that their foe considers to be a 'waste of time,' may find themselves oddly immune. If you want to know if your character qualifies for immunity, go ahead and ask, but know that those who would pass the test are few and far between. However, if your character fights the behemoth, they'll catch the sickness no matter what. So if you don't want your character to get sick, they'd better not go to the Arena.

Feel free to use this post to designate which of your characters get sick (or won't), fight the behemoth, or do other activities relating to the plot. If you have any questions, respond to the 'Questions' comment. Have fun!

Comments

QUESTIONS

[vonspielburg]

Re: QUESTIONS

[fearlessherosheart]

How long does the illness last? Normal cold/flu length or is this a 'we need a cure before the symptoms go away'?

Re: QUESTIONS

[vonspielburg]

The cure will be needed to make the illness go away, yup!

[mindofathief]

Duster here probably won't get sick, but he's a borderline case. Barkeep is definitely getting sick.

I'm thinking that Duster should throw a slumber party at the Observatory shortly after the Behemoth fight so the infection can spread further. Of course, he'd suggest it as a way to recover from the recent event, not to make things worse.

[goddessofthesky]

Zelda is getting sick and would totally be down for this idea!! She'll make everyone sweets!

[mindofathief]

I think he'll send out a letter this week and hold it right after the Behemoth fight, maybe today if I have time.

[goddessofthesky]

YAY

[fearlessherosheart]

Welp, Tazendra is doomed. She doesn't need that much of an excuse to solo a Behemoth. She's just going to get cold/flu-like symptoms which make using any of her physical-based classes hard. She'll still be participating in other events, but more as a pure mage (and have other people being all 'go to bed').

Nanami will probably be fine, since she would actually stay home if she got sick, making it hard to get AC.

[jadethenecromancer]

I think Jade's work would get him immunity, especially since he doesn't socialize much unless there's a reason for him to do so.

More importantly, looking for a cure sounds like his kind of job! While he's technically only trained to perform autopsies and questionable experiments, most of Jade's life was spent absorbing every bit of knowledge he could and as a result he's pretty knowledgeable about medicine. Enough that he could whip up an antidote with little warning in a canon sidequest. Plus he has Alchemist, so that might help, too.

...Of course, while his abilities aren't lacking, his bedside manners are another matter entirely. And he will poke people with needles if given the opportunity.

[vonspielburg]

I'll sling a private Plurk to you and Santa to detail what you'll be able to find on a sidequest. Mwah ha ha ha.

[zodiac_brave]

Santa will get sick, and will refuse to go home and rest because he doesn't want to infect his housemates.

He'll help search for the cure. He's not qualified to do lab research, but he'll hit the library and is perfectly willing to trudge through the wilds miserably to find medicinal ingredients.

[vonspielburg]

I'll send you a private Plurk with some preliminary research results, then!

[grandsummon]

As one of the heroes working at the hospital, Yuna will probably be very much involved with treating others! She will probably eventually contract it as well, closer to the end of the month... it's only a matter of time when you're around it all day and night, probably.

She'll gladly take patient accounts and diligent notes on cases that come to the hospital at the very least, to provide to those working on a cure. Anything she can do to help, she will!

[silencesfate]

If it's alright, Minato will be working with Yuna on this!

[grandsummon]

Yes, of course! When you stay awake for long periods of time over working yourself it's best to have a buddy. The buddy system is the #1 way to prevent you from falling face down into your bowl of Chocobo Puffs!

[bright_and_blue]

I think I'm going to leave Johnny and Sparks out of this, but Graham will be going after the Behemoth, so he's got no choice in getting sick. I may have Ed come down with it too, since he hasn't been sick in over 50 years, and he needs to be reminded how much being mortal sucks.

[shinra_dog]

Johnny, take care of Reno. <3

[shinra_dog]

Both Albel and Reno will be getting sick for the event! However, since Reno will be going on Barkeep's underground mission, I'll need to coordinate exactly when he'll be sick... Perhaps after the Sewer Quest so he'll be a sicky for the end of the month.

Same with Albel for Lunar Gate and Sephiroth. But Albel wants to fight that Behemoth for sure. I figure he'll do that a little while after he gets back from Lunar Gate and then can easily confront Sephiroth in the five days before getting sick. He'll be in worse shape for being sick longer.

Edit: Albel might fight the Behemoth after Sephiroth because OMG STRESS MUST STAB THINGS. 8D

Both boys are stubborn and will refuse doctors. >.> Have mercy.