A Good Intention

4th Floor Hallway
Silver nodded as Crisp related who her next appointments were. "We'll see Mister and Missus Grace then," she says. "But I feel that I need to go into specifics about the state of Cornmeal when I looked in on him, a mere four days into Stage One, so you can brace yourself and not react badly if the same has happened with the Graces." She steps in front of Crisp and looks steadily at her, her eyes compassionate. "As I told you before, I found Cornmeal deeply into a very advanced version of Stage Three, and this only four days after diagnosis with Stage One. I fear that the illness has become much more aggressive, and that mental effects have become characteristic of it. I'm not telling you this to scare you, but to prepare you so that if the Graces are aware and functional, they won't be panicked by either of our reactions. I have this Y-bar in case one of them has advanced dementia and I need to keep them at a distance, so please stand behind me." She turns and walks to the door of Room 502 and knocks sharply on it. "Mister and Missus Grace, it's Doctor Silver Rose and Nurse Crisp from the hospital," she says loudly. "We're here to check up on you."

Hotel Lobby:
As Llumina went into the lobby, she wouldn't have long to look before finding a few doctors. Two were wheeling in couples of gurneys for other doctors to use while another was sitting in a chair and leafing through papers. The hotel receptionist was gone for the moment, as were any hotel staff. Before she got a chance to get their attention though, a groaning growl resounded down the hall. A new doctor came barreling down the hallway, pushing an occupied gurney hurriedly along in a panic. The patient on the gurney was covered in sores but seemed oblivious to them as he struggled against the gurney's restraints.

Just as the doctor with the gurney reached the lobby, one of the restraints gave way and the struggling patient began to wildly flail at the doctor. While he didn't succeed at hitting the doctor, the patient did upset the gurney and cause it to fall over. That seemed to cause a second restraint to break and the patient continued to struggle against the third strap. The doctors in the lobby all began rushing over to assist with the patient.
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1st floor hallway:
The nurse seemed rather confused as she pulled her hoof away from the sharp point she'd encountered, but she continued on down the hallway rather quickly as a new sound came from the lobby. Sounds of groaning, snapping, struggling, and a crash.

Her glance at the notes would grant her little new knowledge, but dispersed a great many of the rumors she'd been hearing. It would seem that the sickness started as a cough, that spread into a rash. Then sores that grew, busted, and bled along with any orifice until the victim died. The pictures had showed a different pony in each stage of the infection in a more or less worst case scenario. That meant the rumors of the infected literally coughing up organs or their bodies melting were both false.
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5th floor, Room 502:
The two nurses didn't encounter any other staff from the hospital on their way up to the fifth floor, though there was a hotel staff that could be briefly scene ducking into a closet with a cleaning cart. Perhaps there was something happening on a lower floor? Either way, the trip to the fifth floor was otherwise uneventful and when they arrived there the hallway was clear. That wasn't to say though that it was quiet as several of the rooms had coughing fits coming from them. Luckily room 502 was close to the stairs and there didn't seem to be in the same situation.

When Silver knocked on the door, it was rather quickly replied to a weak but clear "come in, the door is unlocked". Inside, Mrs. Grace could be seen laying down on the couch with the TV on, a thick blanket covering most of her form, and a large bowl of lightly steaming soup laying nearby. "Hello again Nurse Crisp, I'm feeling alright, but Morn's not really looking to have gotten any better," she said from her prone position.

"Silver, with you being the... doctor, would you mind checking on Mr. Grace while I examine Mrs. Grace," Nurse Crisp asked while making sure to casting her eyes to the Y-bar when her face was away from Mrs. Grace.

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OOG: Don't worry about short posts, something is almost always better than nothing. Also, I'm back so hopefully regular updates can resume.

As Llumina walked into the building once more before she could talk to one of the many doctors around she saw that the stalion on the gurney was acting violent and as soon as one of the straps broke she saw everyone trying to get him under controle. "U-um... Excus" she said but seeing that everyone was trying to restrain the pony she sat down and watched not really knowing what to do. She keeped a safe distance though knowing that if he completely broke from the straps he could come right at her at any moment. Her tail was still wet making the ground slightly slipery. This needed to be so or else her tail would dry up. Her magic would keep the water around her tail (the little droplets on it not leting any geting evaporated) But there were some few drops that would fall on the ground. She moved onto carpet to make it less dangerous for everyone "I guess i cant get any doctors attention for now."

Purple shakes her head trying to get her mind off this disease, her tummy rumbles "Ahh.... I need to eat* she said to herself. Runs back into the lobby to see the crash but can't help in any way, she runs past them towards the kitchen.

Room 502

Silver smiles at Missus Grace as her eyes sweep over the prone mare and her blanket, and then around the edges, seeing if she can see any sign of the same full-body sores as Cornmeal had, fairly certain she won't but wanting to be sure all the same. She then nods to Crisp and tucks the Y-bar such that her barrel largely conceals it from easy view as she walks to the room where she assumes Morn is. She taps on the door and turns the handle, lowering her bar and using it to push the door open with the v-shape of its prongs facing the room. That she looks completely absurd and paranoid doesn't concern her as much as the risk that if she gets jumped by a patient, the risk of infection would be unacceptably high. "Mister Grace? It's Doctor Silver Rose, here to check on you," she says as the door opens.

Hotel Lobby:
The patient continued to struggle for a few minutes against the three doctors, managing to actually rip the face mask off one of them before the infected began coughing again. It didn't take long after that for the coughing to more of less leave the patient in a quivering heap that struggled to breath while the doctors strapped him back on the gurney. Once he was secure, the doctor who'd originally been pushing the gurney thanked the other doctors and proceeded out of the hotel.

Now that they weren't having to deal with an infected, one of the doctors who'd been in the lobby originally finally turned their attention to Llumina. "You should be in your room miss, is there something that one of us or a hotel staff could get you?" If she was watching carefully, she might have scene a small purple blur skitter towards the dining area and kitchen.
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Hotel Kitchen:
Given her size, Purple wouldn't have any trouble at all getting around the tangle of bodies in the lobby, though there was a rather curious and abnormal looking pony sitting a bit off to the side. Still, in the kitchen Purple would see a skeleton crew of ponies working on a few meals or washing dishes with some powerful looking disinfectant. There wasn't a lot of conversation going on between the cooks and each one sported all the standard infection preventative gear. That still didn't mean that a couple of them didn't occasionally turn away from their work to cough a couple of times before walking over to one of the many sinks to re-sanitize.

The smells of the soap and disinfectant were almost enough to complete snuff out the foods scent, but what few traces managed to work their way around the hospital like smell were tantalizing. Most seemed to be different kinds of soup.
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Room 502:
Silver's cursory glance wouldn't reveal much as the mare was rather snugly tucked under a blanket, but her head and the hooves that were exposed looked clear.

As she opened the door and announced her presence, a formerly stern and rigid voice called back in something of a weak mockery of what it used to be. "Don't leave the door *cough* open long, it let's in a draft," the stallion said from his prone position on the bed. The stallion had a couple thick comforter blankets on top of him virtually erasing all details about his body, but there was no denying the life and thought in his weary eyes. There was another bowl of soup and a cup of water on the nearby stand that looked to be largely untouched.

If/when Silver removed the covers to conduct her inspection, she would see the clear signs of stage 2 on several spots along the stallion's body, and in the largest of these, there looked to be some apparent bumps that would quite likely lead to the stage three sores. Just as the inspection would be ending, Morn would fall into a short and violent coughing fit and when it ended he fixed Silver with a stern gaze. "I'm not getting better, am I?"

Llumina blinked almost out of a trance. "O-oh! S-sorry, Yes it would seam that the doctors outside need some assistance in bringing a patient to the hospital. They are located in the pool area.." she trailed of seeing that spot, She blinked and rubbed her eyes with her wings "Oh i am perfectly fine at the moment!" she said trailing off starting to walk towards the dining area. ".. Ok i MUST be going insane" she said taking a peake inside the dining room.

Purple walked slowly across the floor to find to the closest soap "I'm not a big fan of soup but it seems to be the only thing around" she muttered to herself, she climbs up, onto the side where the ponies are cooking, being careful not to be spotted, she goes up to each soup and tests to see if it is cool enough to eat.

Room 502
Silver obediently closes the door after her before she's fully cognizant of automatically responding to an authoritative voice telling her to do something, even though that voice is now frail and fading. She flips her notes to a blank page as she gently lifts the blankets away from the stallion. "Based on the progression, Mister Grace, I'm afraid that you're not getting better," she says. "With proper care we can try to prevent you from getting worse, but you're not getting better until we find a way to reverse the progress of the illness. I'm certain the best minds in Equestria are working on it, but at the moment this is a war where stalemate is victory." She smiles a little sadly. "I wish I had betters news, sir."

Dining room:
The dining area was fairly large and almost entirely empty as Llumina poked her head inside. Numerous tables and chairs filled the area, but most were empty with their white table cloths bare and all the chairs pushed in tightly. There was only one table that had a pony sitting at it and they seemed to be reclined in a some what high backed chair with their back to the pony, so Llumina would only see the very top of the pony's head. The spots of dark red blood that broke the otherwise pristine surface however would more than serve the purpose of informing her that something was indeed wrong.
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Kitchen:
While most of the pots would obviously be far too hot by sitting on still 'on' burners, there were a few large pots that seemed to have been set to the side to cool slightly and settle. The first one that Purple would try seemed to be some sort of potato soup with a thick broth, the second proved to be something of a more general vegetable soup, but before she could get down from that one, one of the cooks suddenly broke out in a harsher than average coughing fit. The noise drew the attention of the other cooks when it didn't stop after a moment and just the first of them took a couple steps towards the doubled over pony, he suddenly fell forward. One feeble hoof that vainly reached out for something to grab onto to stop the fall only succeeded in grabbing onto the steaming pot of soup, pulling it over. The coughing pony probably would have screamed if he hadn't been too busy coughing so much and so hard.

The other cooks were quick to respond, one rushing off for the first aid kit, another going for doctors, and the rest rushing over with towels to try and dry off the victim. What happened next though was something seemingly similar for the little spider pony. The coughing pony sudden kicked one of the cooks back, forcing the pony to crash into a stove and collapse in a heap. While another of the cooks went to check on that one and the others went from trying to relieve to restrain, the formerly coughing pony seemingly began trying to bite the cooks.
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Room 502:
"Tsk, how long did it take ya to rehearse that line miss?" The stallion replied bitterly and with a harsh expression. "You can sugar coat it all you want, but this isn't the kind of 'war' that's won by fighting. No, those best minds will be figuring that out real soon if they haven't already and you know what'll happen then? The next best course of action, they'll starve it out. We'll be left in here, this whole hotel will be condemned and the sick will be left in to die where we can't infect any others. You might not believe me, but I seen what happened when someone who tried to sneak out got caught. They beat him till he wasn't struggling and drug his broken ass back in here," the stallion went on with that bitter tone.

"Me and the missus are goners, but you, you've got that fancy preventative gear to keep you safe. So you and that other nurse, do yourselves a favor *cough*" the stallion's rant got interrupted momentarily by a harsh fit of coughing for a few moments. "And get out before the gates are closed," he added wheezily when he was able to.

"Uhm Silver, I've finished with Mrs. Grace's exam. If you're finished, I'm ready to go on to the next patient," nurse Crisp called through the door to at least momentarily break the tension.

After that break, Mr. Grace's hoof shot out to grab onto Silver, his expression far different from the bitter old stallion that had been speaking just a moment ago. "Please, don't tell my wife the truth. Let her be happily ignorant," he pleaded not as a bitter stallion begrudgingly accepting his fate, but as a pleading and scared citizen who'd just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Room 502
Silver gives him a sadder smile. "At this point, Mister Grace, I don't need to rehearse it; I've had to say it so often that I've memorized it." She sighs. "Very well, if you don't want anything sugar-coated, you're on the cusp of Stage Three which involves multiple bleeding sores all over your body; I had a case today where the sores covered nearly seventy-five percent of the sufferer and this after a very short progression, an abnormally short one. I honestly don't think it matters what gentle lies I tell your wife; she'll know soon enough."

She uses her horn to gently pull his hoof away from her, trying to avoid any breach of her suit. "I'll lie for you, Mister Grace, but I wish you hadn't asked me to. I think your wife will be far more terrified if she has no idea than if she has time to steel herself. As to the panic quarantine..." She sighs, with a touch of disgust. "I hope you're wrong. It would be foolish to take any medical staff off the line in a futile attempt to isolate a disease still evolving and poorly-understood. But I'll see what I can do. Drink plenty of fluids and rest; I wish there was more you or I could do."

Silver gently patted his shoulder and covered him again with the blankets before exiting the room and shutting the door behind her. "I'm finished, Nurse Crisp but we need to have a word on the way to the next patient." She looks to Missus Grace. "Missus Grace, your husband is in Stage Two but with proper medical treatment, his illness shouldn't get any worse. As soon as we're done with our rounds, we'll send someone along to get him started on the treatment protocol."

Llumina spotted the Marks of blood and she knew that if she got any closer to pony she would be risking her health. And so she moved away from the dinning room area heading to her room sins she thought it would be safer.

Purple fall back as the pot falls "Ahh!!" she lands on her back looking a bit like a dead spider, she pulls herself up and looks over to the coughing stallion "Oh my" her face contorts into a surprised and scared look, then slowly backs up knowing she could not do anything to help due to her size but still really needed to eat so she runs to the other pot and uses her magic to grab a small drop of soap before leaving the kitchen to drink it.

On the way to room 214:
As Llumina walked back to her room, she would be passed by some doctors, fewer hotel staff, and no guests of the hotel, even though it wasn't hard to tell where the were. The chorus of muffled coughs that worked their way through the doors and walls practically flooded the hallway and echoed in the stairwell. When Llumina exited the stairs on the second floor, there was a group of three ponies all standing before a door. Now while the fact that they were standing in front of the door instead of trying to get in, rushing up or down the hallway, or trying to move a sick pony out might have been something of an eyebrow raiser, what could really draw attention would be the red bio-hazard and yellow warning tape they were setting up on the front of the door.

This also wasn't the common looking group of doctor and/or hotel staff either. One pony appeared to be a fully body hazmat suit that completely sealed them off from the outside world aside from a small visor they could see through. Accompanying her were a couple of guard ponies who were also in full hazmat suits but theirs appeared to be armored with swords strapped to their sides. For the moment, their attention was solely on the door and not on Llumina.
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Back in the lobby:
As Purple leaves the kitchen, the cooks are still trying to deal with their fellow cook and appear to be having some success, but their fate would turn to a mystery as the door shut again. In the lobby, Purple could see that the spill from earlier had been cleaned up, with the pony who'd been strapped to the gurney taken off somewhere. The doctors who'd been there also weren't anymore, though the receptionist was back now and looked a wreck. Her mane was a mess and her coat looked a little frazzled along with her bloodshot eyes and twitchy demeanor, she looked on the edge of full blown panic. Her head however was down and appeared to be reading something that did nothing to help her calm down.
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Fifth floor hallway:
Mrs. Grace thanked both ponies as they exited the room, nodded, and reassured them both she and her husband would adhere to the instructions the professionals had given her. As they exited the room, nurse Crisp looked a bit troubled and worried as she made a few final touches to her report, but she forced the expression from her face when she looked towards Silver. "What was it you wanted to talk about Silver?" She asked concerned and already sounding slightly dreadful at the likely prospect of it being bad news.

Fifth Floor Hallway
Silver takes in a breath and sighs. "I'm afraid, Nurse Crisp, that it would be best if I took the rest of your patients and you got yourself back to the hospital. Mister Grace mentioned to me that enforcement of the quarantine around this hotel is starting to become... draconian, for lack of a better term. He reported seeing a resident attempting to leave being beaten and dragged back for confinement, and if another doctor or anyone else has reported seeing dramatic symptoms like severe mental impairment or sufferers being covered in sores only days after diagnosis, the guards keeping the quarantine might become overly obstinate about letting you out with a visible wound. I feel it's best to press hard now, before any kind of organized response can be implemented. I might have troubles as well, of course, but of the two of us, a doctor in a full closed-circuit isolation suit that hasn't been breached has a greater chance of wheeling a pass from the guards than one who's visibly injured and could be imagined to be infected. I, after all, can be safely hosed down with caustic chemicals to sterilize my suit; you cannot."

She sighs. "I realize that what Mister Grace says could be a rumor, or the product of his imagination, but on the very slight chance that things are as bad as he claims, I have a responsibility to get the only pony I cannot absolutely know is infected somewhere safe. You have a better chance if you're at the hospital; I'm safe here for the moment. I know that medical ethics constrain you but I also don't want to have you on my conscience if you need treatment but are prevented from getting it because you're trapped in a hotel full of ill ponies and empty of sophisticated medical resources."

Llumina raised an eyebrow and walked slightly close to them but she still keaped her distance. "What happened? Did someone die?" She asked trying to take a peck of what was behind the door. She looked around at the doctors wondering if she should be even here and another thought passed through her mind. How the hell was she supposed to go to her room now?

"I'm glad they cleaned up in here" she spots the receptionist and sees the wreck she is in and what seems to make her so "I wonder what has happened" she said quietly to herself, then she claims up the closest wall to the receptionist to look over the notes.

2nd floor hallway:
The two guards seemed startled by Llumina's question as they hurriedly turned around and started to reach for weapons, but the doctor laid a hoof on one of their shoulders to calm them. She stepped forward then to address Llumina with an accented voice. "No, zee patient in dis room has been moved to dey hospital, but zee room iz still hazardous so ve've closed it off to keep zee staff out. Now ve must be going, have ah good, day, und stay zafe," she said before nodding to the guards and the trio began moving past Llumina. Before the group could even reach the stairs though, a light thud could be heard coming from the door they'd just sealed, though they seemed to be paying it no mind and continued with trying to leave.
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Lobby:
Despite how it seemed to continue to unsettle the receptionist, she was paying far too much attention to what she was reading to notice Purple as she climbed up the wall and looked over. On the desk was actually a newspaper with a rather large and bold heading that read DEADLY SICKNESS CONTINUES TO SPREAD, DOZENS ALREADY DEAD WITH HUNDREDS INFECTED. Below it was the commentary that was a bit too small to read from Purples distance but there were some small subsection titles that could be read and all were accompanied by pictures. One said something about the sickness causing a pony's limbs to fall off, even pegasi wings and unicorn horns. Another claimed something about the sickness spreading through magical contact. And yet another spouted something about a whole city block being put under special quarantine measures.

If Purple would want details though, she'd have to get a little closer.
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5th floor halway:
Nurse Crisp listened as Silver spoke, and past the occasional weakly protesting 'but', she seemed to reluctantly agree. When Silver was done, Crisp's head hung low and her expression seemed at war with itself. Eventually she started to grit her teeth and appeared to steel herself as if she was about to launch one hell of a rebuttal, but when her injured hoof tried to plant itself firmly, it twitched to a fresh spark of pain that all but wiped out the fiery determination that'd been building.

"Al-...alright Silver, I'll pass off my duties to you, but I'll make it up to you someday," the injured nurse said as she passed over her clip board which still appeared to have another 4 patients to check up on before the day was to end. The next of which would be a group of 3 even, the Mix family, consisting of a mother and father each confirmed to be in stage 1 and a child with potential but unconfirmed stage 1 symptoms.

"Thanks again Silver, when this whole mess is done with feel free to stop by. I live on rubble range street, near the waterfall," she said before turned about and walking down the hallway towards the stairs.

Startled by the noise Llumina yelped slightly. "H-hey! Hold on i think i hear a thud from the room you guys just shut off to. Are you sure there is no one in there?" She said suspicious now she slightly backs away from the door just in case something came out of it and such.

"I need to get closer..... but how?" looks around to see what she could use to get closer, her eyes are drawn to a lamp hanging above the receptionist "perfect" she claims to the highest point possible and jumps knowing her small size will let her glide most the way, when she lands she uses her web to hang above the receptionist.

5th Floor Hallway

"There's nothing to make up for Crisp," Silver says sincerely. "I'm pleased to do my duty, and pleased to see you off to safety and good medical care." She takes the clipboard from Crisp and puts it in the side pocket with her own before she steps closer and gives the nurse a light one-legged hug. "I'll see you safely out and on your way and then I'll see to the Mix family." And she would follow Crisp down to the ground level to make sure she's able to pass and go on her way before moving back up to the floor with the Mix family and knocking politely on their door. "Mister and Mister Mix?"

((I'll return around 11 PM PST on Monday Feb 22))

OOG: Sorry about the delay everyone, I actually got pretty busy this weekend too.

2nd floor hallway:
"No no, you must be hearing other room, jus do not be going in that room," the doctor said without looking back as they continued to depart. No sooner had the door to the stairway shut after them than another soft thud definitely come from the walled off room. True to the doctor's words though, it was far from the only sound as bouts of coughing could be heard faintly throughout the hallway.
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Hotel Lobby:
Purple's antics would continue to go unnoticed as the receptionist remained starring at the paper. At this closer angle, she could make out the actual articles and would find most of them to be various wild stories and further elaboration on those wild stories. A lot of it however was disturbingly vague and lacked much detail or accountability. Even the main article failed to give a specific number on those sick, how many had died, or if any had died at all. There wasn't however any stories it would seem that would account for the strange behavior she'd seen in the hallway or kitchen.
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The Mix's room:
After Crisp's departure, which included a hug, Silver wouldn't hear any form of reply from the Mix's room to either her knock or the call out to them. The door was unlocked.

Llumina was really sceptical now. She got a little closer trying to see if she could hear anthing. She moved her head closer to the door and perked her ears to see if she could pick up sounds from only that room. "We will see about that" She said to herself as she waited to hear the noise again.

"Well none of this is helping" Purple said a bit too loudly then she claims back up to the lamp and looks around to find a way down, she uses her magic to swing the lamp to get a speed bost when she jumps then she jumps for the wall but doesn't make it, she lands on the floor neer it "Och, that was a mistake"

The Mix's Room

Silver frowns at the lack of response before quickly reviewing her clipboard. "Well, they shouldn't be unresponsive at this early stage," she murmurs before she sighs and tucks away the clipboard, bringing out the y-bar. "Mister and Missus Mix, I'm coming in!" she announces. "It's Doctor Silver Rose, come to check on you." With the y-bar extended, she uses the prongs to push the door open and lights her horn, narrowing its focus to a beam that she can maintain and sweep back and forth as needed. In addition to the obvious benefits, she knows that focusing the beam into the face of another pony will blind them, but also have a momentary stunning effect. Some part of her prays that the Mixes just didn't hear her, but her experiences so far have made it necessary to prepare for the worst.