Event: Flu Season

[applesaucemod]

Ah, October. A time of crisp weather, beautiful foliage, pumpkin spice lattes—and the flu. Make sure you get vaccinated!

Of course, vaccinations can't keep you safe from everything. Especially not a capricious, omnipresent entity that has, quite recently, been treated to the highly entertaining sight of someone struggling with illness for the first time in their life. Oh, dear. Someone's been giving the Rift ideas.

On the morning of October 2nd, those rifties who would never consider getting vaccinated against paltry human illnesses--because why would they need to?--will find themselves awake to a new level of personal hell: the flu. It will instantaneously infect any entities who are generally immune to such things, leaving them snotty, achy, miserable, and completely powerless to stop what is happening to them. What is this?! Are they dying? Oh god, the pathos.

Symptoms will persist until October 4th. Get plenty of rest, stay hydrated, and maybe investigate the wonders of chicken soup. Probably don't go see a doctor. Clinic doctors will be very confused and unhelpful about your weird anatomy, and The Doctor will probably be really gross and contagious.

Definitely don't consult WebMD. No good can come of that.

[OOC: Post here for initial reactions or start your own threads using the tag Event: Flu Season. Characters who can be affected are: the Doctor, the TARDIS, Zagreus, Aziraphale, Crowley, Desire, Ascended Daniel, Gabriel, Lucifer, and Rashad. You could probably also make a case for various other non-human/not-quite-human folks. No one's gonna tell you you can't have the flu, okay. Go nuts.]

Comments

[rae_of_sun]

Sunshine frowns. Okay, so he's sort-of-dead, in a way that suggests illness wasn't what got him there. But he's also just... coincidentally and independently ill? She considers how potent a disease would have to be to infect the non-traditionally deceased, and then she considers the fact that he might be dispersing it all over her goddamn public bakery as they speak.

She already has a broom in her hands to deal with the inedible cookies now decorating the floor, and her grip on it tightens. The urge to prod Daniel with it is pretty strong, even though a) she can tell just by looking at him that he's not especially corporeal, and b) it's not as if she's going to be able to feel out some kind of potential plague with a broom, and c) even if she could, the only real result would be a plague-covered broom.

"Are you contagious?" she asks, eyes narrowing. He'd better not be. Gods, what are they going to do if he is? She's brought some weird clientele into the bake shop, but that hasn't been a problem so far because even the weirdest ones have at least been paying customers. It's going to be a lot harder to excuse this visitor if he's nothing but a walking health code violation.

[peacefulexplorer]

"I don't - think so?" he offers, frowning at his manufactured form in mild irritation. "Never mind the fact that I shouldn't be sick - shouldn't be capable of it, really, not how I am now, um."

He realizes Sunshine is looking at him with an expression he can best classify as 'suspicious'. He holds up both hands, palms out, in some sort of defensive gesture that would really have no bearing on her actions whatsoever if she chose to evict him in any way.

He misses being corporeal.

"No one I've run into has exhibited symptoms, if that's what you mean," he says politely.

[rae_of_sun]

"... Okay." That better hold true. Sunshine begrudgingly puts the broom to work sweeping, not prodding. "Because this is a public bakery," she explains, just in case he's missed that detail. "You can't just..." she pauses to flap a hand at him, "spread whatever you have all over the place."

Now that the initial indignation and suspicion has worn off, it occurs to her that she's been just a tad harsh with this sickly ghost version of Daniel. Granted, he seems pretty well-adjusted to... whatever his exact situation is. But still. "Are you, um... okay? Aside from..." she makes a Daniel-encompassing gesture with a dustpan.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Yes," he says with another regretful look at his uncooperative manifestation. He can feel everything he is vibrating at an unbearable frequency, as if superheated into feverish unrest. "I, ah, really don't mean to spread. Or, er, show up at all, really."

Sadly, as seems to be its inclination, the Rift is set on making things difficult. In a multitude of ways.

"Aside from the Ascension and the current 'energy' state and the sickness and the death?" He looks at her, insubstantial eyebrows raised.

He shrugs.

"Pretty okay."

[rae_of_sun]

Cut her some slack. Talking to vampires is weird enough (if you don't count Spike, which is pretty easy considering where her universe sets the Other bar); talking to the ghost of a vague acquaintance is a whole new game. Sunshine winces as she dumps the cookies into the garbage for reasons that are only partly related to the displeasure of seeing good food go to waste, then turns back to her undead guest.

"I'm sorry," she says, leaning against the broom. "My, uh... I don't think my brand of magic-handling lends itself to... this kind of problem." She doesn't think she can transmute him into a more solid state (the thought of attempting it is pretty kali terrifying, actually), and even if she was confident about her abilities to access Nowheresville, it's not like Daniel is there and in need of fetching. This whole thing exists well beyond the scope of her experience.

Well, it's not as if Daniel came here for her help. It doesn't even seem like he came here on purpose.

[peacefulexplorer]

"No, that's - it's fine. It's complicated." He's touched she would think to help, or offer, but as unique as her particular construction is, he doubts she would be capable of reversing his current state of being. There's only one route he knows, and energy-to-matter intraconversion is, at least for now, simply beyond him.

The sick thing, though. That's new. He has little doubt he could do without it, but he's not really sure how to reverse that either.

"With any luck it'll just be a Rift thing," he says bracingly. "Those fade after a few days."

The hesitant ...right? goes unspoken, though not entirely un-implied.