And I'm faded away, you know [open]

[provenforce]

WHO: Rey + Open, Daenerys + Open
WHAT: Two very different rifters end up with the same symptoms with varying results.
WHEN: Over the next 7-10 days
WHERE: the Gallows, Darktown
NOTES: The ladies are in comments below, if something is broken and you want to yell at Rey about it feel free, Dany may also be stealing blankets to give to poor people.

Comments

Rey

[provenforce]

i. The early days (1-3)

Rey isn't a particularly pessimistic girl, so the persistent good mood doesn't seem that peculiar. She's more open about greeting people as she walks by to work on her projects, and her smiles are larger and more frequent. Her projects around the Gallows are getting completed much more quickly, and she is mostly in excellent spirits from things getting fixed and her long list of tasks getting smaller. Anyone who approaches her might not find anything amiss, if anything they'll find she's eager to see if they need anything fixed in their quarters or offices.

ii. The mania sets in (3-6)

After a few days of hyper productivity, it starts to get harder for Rey to focus on what she's doing. She goes from one project to another, never quite finishing what she's done, and in some instances leaving something in more of a state of disrepair than when she started in on it. People will find that they come back to their offices and doors are completely off their hinges which had been a little squeaky before, or Rey will have completely disassembled an old clock that needed just a small tune-up.

Padawan has taken to following Rey at this point, when usually if Rey was working Padawan wandered and did her own thing or slept in Rey's room. The mabari whines at her mistress occasionally which Rey usually dismisses with a

"I'm fine, Padawan. I just need to focus."

The dog may start looking to outward sources for assistance.

iii. fever and sleeplessness (6-10)

Having almost entirely abandoned many of her projects around the Gallows Rey now spends a lot of time outside in the courtyard, swinging her lightsabers around and moving from one practiced form to the next, or just walking around without her usual layers of coats. She's too warm, and she knows at this point that there's something wrong, but she doesn't know what to do about it. She's never been sick in her life, so she wonders if this is some kind of effect of the shard in her hand.

More than once during a time when she can sit still she finds herself holding her ignited lightsaber in her hand, staring down at the shard on her left palm, wondering if she'd be able to burn it out.

2.

[mal_adjusted]

She heard the whine of a dog first, as she walked through the courtyard, and then a familiar voice. She connected it with someone she had asked advice about ... well, family things, and turned her head just as the young woman was telling her dog that she just needed to focus.

What. Precisely she seemed to be focused on was completely dismantling something that looked kind of valuable.

"Aaaaah should you be doing that here? In the cold? I ... would think it would not be good." Another pause. "Hello. And hello dog."

[provenforce]

Padawan turned in circles around Mal, hoping that Rey would listen to another human, since clearly she was ignoring the dog.

Rey was currently dismantling one of the gas lanterns in the courtyard, her coat laying on the ground as she worked. She glances up as Mal talks to her, putting down the pair of pliers she's holding and patting her side.

"Padawan, stop bothering people! I'm sorry, she's been acting weird." She smiles, though it looks a little forced, sweat beading on her skin despite the cold. "And this is fine. I'm a maintenance worker, and this lamp-- it's going through gas too quickly, there's a leak in it or something. I can fix it. I'm fixing it." She's really not.

[mal_adjusted]

Mal stared at Rey, then down at the dog, who was giving her a pleading look to help. How did the dog do that? She had no idea. So she focused on the girl instead and the mess she was making a mess of things. She didn't know a lot about technical things but this did not look like it should be ... doing that if she was fixing it.

"Uhm. I don't think. You're doing it right. I ... you don't look like you should be doing it. You're all ... clammy."

[provenforce]

"I'm running a fever and I can't sleep," Rey says, almost casually. She knows she's sick, at least peripherally. "But if I can't sleep I should try to be useful in some way." There's some logic to that, but unfortunately every time Rey finds one thing in the lamp that needs to be fixed, she gets diverted and keeps deconstructing it, looking for the origin of the leak. She could have bypassed it easily, if her mind wasn't so scattered.

Shaking her head she puts her tools back in her belt, stepping down from the ladder she's up on.

"I'll need to fix that later."

[mal_adjusted]

"...so running a fever and not sleeping means you go to work and do a crappy job at something that could set someone on fire. Yeah. Okay. That seems like a good idea." Her tone suggests otherwise. She rolls her eyes and then jerks her chin a little.

"You need to come with me. I'll take you to my roommate. He's a healer."

[provenforce]

"I turned the gas off first, I'm not an idiot," Rey replies, a little indignantly. She can hear it as she says it though, the lunacy in what she's been doing. But she's been so restless, that she hasn't known what else to do. Sitting still just didn't seem like an option to her.

The other girl's mention of a healer made Rey pause, she pressed her lips together, looking at Padawan who was wagging her tail in agreement with the sentiment that yes, she needed to go see a healer. After a moment she nods her head, somewhat jerkily.

"Yeah. Okay. I-- you're right."

[mal_adjusted]

"Are you sure? You kind of seem ... really out of it." Like, dangerously out of it, sort of thing. Someone that Mal would not want to mess around with fire, kind of out of it. Her pale green eyes narrowed, before she huffed out a breath. Then she nodded at the dog. "Right. We're going. Don't let her wander off to try and fix anything, okay?"

She jerks her chin, moving with a determined walk to the healing tents, tossing open one particular tent that she knows that Carolus likes to use.

"Car - I got a patient for you - Oh. Good, you're here too. Sam." She jerks a finger over her shoulder at Rey, "This girl has a fever and is doing dumb things."

[el_tybs]

It was coincidence that he was with Carlos when Mal shows up. With the recent increase of patients he had come over to Car's tent, making sure that he had a ready amount of supplies and was handling the load alright.

He sighs lightly at Mal's explanation, turning around to face them fully. "You'll have to be more specific on 'dumb'." He pauses though, leaning slightly to look over Mal's shoulder better, recognizing the girl as someone who at attended that party for him and Kirk - another Rifter. "Fever you said?"

[provenforce]

Padawan practically herds Rey along behind Mal, because a few times the scavenger spots something that she thinks needs to be fixed and almost veers off path. When they get to the healing tent Rey recognizes at least one face, smiling at Sam when he speaks.

"It's really not that bad. I'm sure you've seen worse cases." Maybe people suffering milder symptoms than Rey who are coping less effectively, but Rey grew up working in extreme conditions. She could likely go longer than some others before realizing she needed to quit.