001 ☪ open } { it's robot flu season

[hackedhistory]

Who: Zari Tomaz + YOU
Where: The dorms.
When: Over the sickness event.
Rating PG
What: Zari's caught the robot flu and she dislikes it strongly.

[Starters in comments.]

Comments

[hackedhistory]

They don't. But plants scrub the air. They take our wasted carbon dioxide and make oxygen out of it. If we don't have them to make oxygen then eventually we're going to run out of oxygen, and ... die. Probably.

[The Circle of Life, in a nutshell. It probably won't be that dramatic, but it's definitely worrisome.]

[foundafamily]

[Oh. So that's something to be more concerned about. He almost feels sort of bad about worrying about getting fruit for more moonshine now.]

...Not that I trust her or anything, but have you said anything about all that to Astoria?

[This seems like a bit of an issue.]

[hackedhistory]

Not yet.

[Because she's still trying to figure out if she can determine the cause of the sickness.]

I'm normally the kind of person who doesn't bring up an issue unless I have a solution.

[foundafamily]

[He scratches his head.]

Even if the crazy witch lady might be able to help with a solution? I don't really know much about it, but the running outta air angle seems like it might be important.

[How do you even solve that?]

[hackedhistory]

"Crazy witch lady" kind of implies that she might not be thinking clearly. And given the technological advancements of this place ... if she's relying solely on magic she doesn't have then I need to build a solution.

[And she might not have the materials to do so.]

[foundafamily]

[Firo's not usually one to accept problems passively, but sickness is sickness; he hadn't thought much about anything they could do aside from ride it out. Either they make it or they don't.

So he's curious that, whoever this lady is, she might be able to take on whatever's going on here.]

You can do something like that? Are you a doctor or something?

[hackedhistory]

No. And I'm not an engineer either. But we can't rely on magic for everything? And I certainly don't want to have to rely on her for everything either.

[Zari may be religious, but when it comes to people, she's not one for blind faith.]

[foundafamily]

[He rolls his eyes.]

Oh, we can't? I had no clue.

[He moves on to inspecting another piece of fruit and twists it off its plant. When he continues, his tone has lost the sarcasm and is more serious.]

Was just curious where exactly you're gonna start. There's another lady here who's a doctor back home, but I don't know if she's dealt with this kinda thing before.

[And for his part, gangstering unfortunately doesn't have too many skills that transfer to whatever the hell is going on in this place.]

[hackedhistory]

[She gives a small shrug.]

A doctor could at least help identify if there's any consistency in symptoms. We may not be able to cure the disease, but we may be able to manufacture something that could make things easier.

[foundafamily]

[He nods and tries to keep a tight smile on his face. Seeing all sorts of diseases ravage his neighbors in the tenements hasn't exactly filled him with confidence about relief for sickness. But it'd be embarrassing to get too worried--he's probably tipped his hand too much already.

Jokingly:]

People'll always come up with something, but whether it works is another story. I don't know what time you're from, but some people thought peppers'd cure the Spanish flu.

[He was a young kid back then, but he remembers stuff like that being all over the place.]

[hackedhistory]

Yeah, I'm from 2042, and we still haven't cured H1N1. That flu is a beast.

[To say the least. IDK maybe canon will joss me for this later, but medical advancements didn't really seem to be on ARGUS' priority list unless metahumans were involved.]

[foundafamily]

[She's from around Hank's time, then. It's a relief to see not everyone in that time is as strange as that guy.

He makes a noise that's something like a laugh.]

More than a century, huh? That really fills me with confidence.

[hackedhistory]

You'd be surprised how much people fight the push of progress sometimes.

[She's looking at you, antivaxxers.]

A lot of times it's two steps forward, five steps back.

[foundafamily]

[There are quite a few things that come to mind to bolster her point once she says it, though his mind doesn't jump right to sickness.]

I guess that's one thing that'll never change... But with medicine too? Seriously?

[The flu isn't a particularly hot-button issue for him, but he knows people who would've killed for a cure for TB, for example.]

[hackedhistory]

Well, some medicine is getting better!

[Which is a good thing. But at the same time -]

But at the same time, the illnesses get smarter too. As our medicine evolves, they evolve, so people still get sick.