Newsflash! Chicago Quarantined!

Captain_Chaos Mon 06 Sep 2010, 4:35 am

NewsNet - Nov 21st 2058 wrote:Breaking news: The City of Chicago has been quarantined, repeat; Chicago has been quarantined! In response to possible instances of a "new, wildly mutated strain of VITAS" the federal government has closed off Chicago into a containment zone. Barriers are being built and no-one is allowed in or out until the amount of exposure can be verfied.

If confirmed, no measure would be too extreme. The public may remember the VITAS plague (Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome) turned up in India in 2010. It spread so quickly that in less than a year it had claimed nearly a quarter of the worlds population.

More updates as they become available.

There are times when each of us should stop, reflect, and even God forbid, pray. This is one those times.

Miranda Wed 08 Sep 2010, 4:28 am

My father told stories about the friends he lost to VITAS, and how most of the Japan-a-corps made gas-masks part of the dress-code.

Do we know if this new strain of VITAS is like the original and Air-born?

Dr. D Wed 08 Sep 2010, 4:32 am

Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome
Vectors: Aerosol
Incubation period: 12 hours

Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome, commonly referred to as VITAS, first appeared in 2010 in New Dehli, India. Within three weeks of the initial outbreak VITAS-I had spread across the world and was taking considerable toll on all continents especially Asia and Africa where medicine was far behind the times. The second outbreak of VITAS came in 2022 in the year following Goblinization and the Year of Chaos. Though not quite as deadly as VITAS-I it caused the downfall of most of the governments of Africa that had managed to survive the initial outbreak.
VITAS-III appeared in the late 2040's, though it has not been as deadly as the first two for one reason alone -- magic. With the mystical knowledge the world now possesses, VITAS's effects can be reduced or even eliminated. Rather than killing the 25% of the world's population as occurred during the first outbreak or 10% as in the case of VITAS-II VITAS-III has a relatively low kill rate and is kept alive primarily in poor areas of the world where many people live together in a small area.
Symptoms appear within twelve hours of contraction. These include fever, chills and vomiting. Vitas has been treated successfully using zeta-interferons.

vanguard Wed 08 Sep 2010, 5:31 am

first we have to deal with magical bugs that don't exist and now we hear about a viral outbreak that hasn't existed for decades. It really seems as though there are a lot of bugs in this system.
I just hope that it doesn't spread to Seattle that would ruin my day.

alice Wed 08 Sep 2010, 3:20 pm

vanguard wrote:first we have to deal with magical bugs that don't exist and now we hear about a viral outbreak that hasn't existed for decades. It really seems as though there are a lot of bugs in this system.
I just hope that it doesn't spread to Seattle that would ruin my day.

What are you talking about? VITAS is a plague that showed up with the first signs of the awakening and seems to keep mutating and coming back

it's scary dreck! I mean the first time it came out it was devastating to the global population, but modern medicine and magic seem to keep getting better at dealing with it, or maybe humanity as a whole is getting more resilient to it

2010 VITAS-I .......... killed the 25% of the world's population
2022 VITAS-II ......... killed the 10% of the world's population
2040 VITAS-III ........ relatively low kill rate and is still contagious in poor areas of the world
2058 VITAS-IV ........ hopefully just The City of Chicago

Macushla Fri 10 Sep 2010, 4:24 am

What frickin' shame. I aint no religious type but i do hopes that the casualties of the quaratine are at a min. I wonder what caused this particular outbreak. Maybe some of the other cities can take precations but not the kind that border on the stupid side.

Drifter Sat 11 Sep 2010, 3:01 pm

Macushla wrote:I wonder what caused this particular outbreak.

Same thing that caused every single outbreak of every plague since 5000BC. An infected individual entered the area. Herd immunity doesn't kick in to squash outbreaks till at least 75% of the population is already immune. Can you say 'vaccinate' anyone?

On a completely unrelated note: no really, complete non-sequature: no reason at all why this jumped into my head at this time: How active is the Universal Brotherhood in Chicago?

vanguard Sat 11 Sep 2010, 5:43 pm

probably a lot less active now that the city has been quarantined. I do think that they did have major branches in that area. Not sure if they got hammered as hard as the ones here though. It might be worth looking into.

Twixed Sat 18 Sep 2010, 4:34 am

I looked back in the news a bit, and the quarantine was sort of foreshadowed or prophesized if you will by one Jason Two-Spirits, a professor of magic. A little over six months ago, Two Spirits went to Chicago and kept telling anyone who would listen there was "approaching danger." He even went on "Good Morning Evanston" Generally people just thought he was crazy. I am attaching an excerpt from his interview with host David Bryant.

Excerpt from the 2057 Transcript of Episode 324 of 'Good Morning Evanston' wrote:
TWO SPIRITS: Let's assume for a moment that you are convinced something terrible is going to happen and that you only have one year to prepare. What do you do?
BRYANT: How terrible do you mean?
TWO SPIRITS: Something so terrible that out of everyone you know only one or two will survive.
BRYANT: Gosh Jason, I'm not sure. Maybe I would start by getting booked on a couple of interview shows.
TWO SPIRITS: You miss my point. There is only one answer - you would do everything you thought might help. I am in such a position, and if there is a chance that I can reach even one person by agreeing to perform on your little circus I will do it. I will do whatever is necessary to save you whether you like it or not.
BRYANT: And I sure do appreciate it. But when you say "whatever is necessary" what exactly do you mean?
TWO SPIRITS: My statement seems clear enough.
BRYANT: I mean, how far will you go? There are those who believe that you are a dangerous man who should be locked up before your delusions get the better of you. Personally, I think you are a harmless old man looking for attention.
TWO SPIRITS: Within one year a cataclysm will destroy this city. And if we are not prepared, the entire Midwest will be in grave danger. Most are deaf yo my warnings, but those of you who understand will find a way to contact me before I am silenced. Help me save the future.
BRYANT: Ohhhhh-kaaaaaayy... We have been speaking with Jason Two Spirits, Owl Shaman...

Outside of minor divination, no modern mage has ever come close to truly predicting the future. Could his Owl totem really been talking to him? I guess we'll never get to ask him since he was in Chicago when the quarantine went up.

NightFire Sat 18 Sep 2010, 4:39 am

I can confirm the UB had offices and recruitment centers in Chicago. But ever since the feds came down on them, all known offices have been vacated and are defunct.

Drifter Sat 18 Sep 2010, 3:55 pm

Twixed wrote:Outside of minor divination, no modern mage has ever come close to truly predicting the future. Could his Owl totem really been talking to him? I guess we'll never get to ask him since he was in Chicago when the quarantine went up.

Don't hold your breath. First, add up all the times some crackpot has predicted doom. Then, calculate the time average of something bad actually happening. I calculate a 1% chance of any given crackpot being 'right' just by accident. I point to the fact that not a single crackpot is ever willing to commit to the nature of the 'doom'. I am suspicious that Jason was not even able to get himself out in time.

Then there's the dark side. He could have caused the outbreak or knew the person who did cause it. Any assasin can perfectly predict when his target will die.

Still, he picked a fun name and was willing to insult a vid host on camera. Anyone know the significance of 'Two Spirits'?

vanguard Fri 24 Sep 2010, 6:53 pm

There is a very long list of possibilites with a name like two spirits. It could refer to his general tendency to only use a certain two elemental spirits, prehaps he even has more than one shamanic totem. I am not a shamanic mage and have never heard of anyone having multiple totems but if his powers of clairvoyance are as powerful as he claims i am not willing to fully rule anything out. Of course it is also possible that he is crazy as all others believe him to be and the nickname two spirits came from his favorite particular mixed drink.
There are more explanations for a title like two spirits but none of them seem particularly likely and aren't worth enumerating. Even the examples I have given are probably long shots at best.

Dancer Tue 28 Sep 2010, 3:55 pm

Historically speaking
"Two Spirits" is a Native Americans name for a specific type of person

These individuals were sometimes viewed in certain tribes as having two spirits occupying one body. Their dress is usually a mixture of traditionally male and traditionally female articles.

Two-spirited individuals perform specific social functions in their communities. In some tribes male-bodied two-spirits held specific active roles which, varying by tribe, may include:

healers or medicine persons
conveyors of oral traditions and songs (Yuki)
foretold the future (Winnebago, Oglala Lakota)
conferred lucky names on children or adults (Oglala Lakota, Tohono O'odham)
Nurses during war expeditions
made pottery (Zuni, Navajo, Tohono O'odham)
matchmaking (Cheyenne, Omaha, Oglala Lakota)
made feather regalia for dances (Maidu)
fulfilled special functions in connection with the Sun Dance (Crow, Hidatsa, Oglala Lakota)

Dark*Star Fri 01 Oct 2010, 4:29 am

Wasn't there something about those Ant-spirits existing in addition to a shaman's normal spirit-thing?

Granted, I know about as much about magic as anyone who's mostly made of metal, but I just thought I remembered something about that. Seems kind of relevant to the two-spirits discussion...

- ☪

Longinuss Fri 07 Jan 2011, 6:20 am

So any news on how tight the quarantine is?
No fly over? Fly ok, no foot or vehicle access? Entry permitted, exit not so much? Or is it just called quarantined but still has it's Disneyland turn-style out front?

NightFire Fri 07 Jan 2011, 3:32 pm

Well we started to speculate over here

Drifter Sun 16 Jan 2011, 4:58 am

OK, I can understand the quarantine for a really virulent infectious disease. If forecasts showed 90% casualties across the continent I can even understand the huge dollar loss associated with closing off a whole city as big as Chicago. Better to lose a city of 10 million than a continent of 2.5 billion.

What I can't understand is the communications blackout. Why can't we talk to sick and dying people again?

And usually with a quarantine you start a screening process to let healthy people out and let properly attired CDC types in to start working on mitigations and a cure. Why the complete isolation again?

Either someone sucks at their job or else something doesn't add up with the cover story.

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