STORYLINE

The Kanaka Guide To Green Ladies

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The Fracture didn’t just destroy much of the old world, it produced a number of new problems for we Kānaka to overcome. Many animals grew large and angry. Water and food became scarce. On top of that, a number of creatures were born to test our strength. The Menehune scuttle in the dark dismantling anything they find working and taking down the unwary. The Night Marchers use their brute strength, speed, and cunning to hunt us like animals for food. But there is one new horror born after the fracture that the Kānaka fear most, the Green Ladies.

The accident tore down and damaged people as well as buildings. According to the legends the Kānaka rebuilt themselves with the power of the land itself, giving them a good foundation and making them strong and resilient. The Green Ladies however fortified themselves with the darkness and seclusion of the deep forest, some people say that they came out of the labs in the old train station, but they seem to avoid this area.

From a distance you might make the misfortune of confusing a Green Lady for a person. They appear like tall women with green skin. Thorny vines surround their bodies and sweet smelling flowers bloom from their hair. Some say that the color of the flowers represent different kinds of Green Ladies with different abilities, but most think it’s just a natural variation like your hair.

They are excellent mimics and can make the calls of many birds and animals. Their voices sound like the wind rustling through the leaves or the howling of a storm when they are angry. The stories say that they are unable to speak but can communicate by talking directly in your mind. A Green Lady is a master of camouflage and almost completely silent in the jungle, so chances are if you see one it is because she is hunting you.

Green Ladies seem to have a symbiotic relationship with the vines that surround them. During the day they spend most of their time absorbing energy from the sun and can sit perfectly still in one spot for many hours. They say that man can not live on bread alone, and so to is the sun inadequate for the needs of these creatures. They need blood, preferably from the young.
The Kānaka say they prefer the blood of the young because it contains the most vitality. Newuskin blood is a particular favorite. The Thrivers on the other hand, say the preference is because there are specific molecules in old blood that inhibit cell development, but they thought the veil was safe too, so who knows.

The monsters are incredibly fast and can move quickly through the deepest brush. Their speed and erratic movements make them incredibly hard to target with a firearm. Your best weapon against a Green Lady is a large group. Your second best weapon is some sort of chopping instrument or fire. They have a great fear of flames.

Unlike the other horrors bred from the fracture, Green Ladies retain much of their intelligence, twisted as it is. There are many stories about people making deals with the creatures trading blood for safety or some service. The old story of the Green Lady of Keali’i Gulch is one such example. Just like in the story, an agreement made with one of these creatures is unlikely to turn out well, as they can hear your surface thoughts making lying difficult.

Unlike the Night Marchers, Green Ladies are exceedingly cautious. They tend to pick off stragglers and lone wanderers making your best defense against them a large group. Because they rely on the sun to build up energy they are most active at night. In fact, a well fed Green Lady is unlikely to attack if you pass near one in the day time.

To stay safe in Green Lady territory there are a couple of quick and easy rules: go out an hour after sunrise, go home at least an hour before dark, carry a way to make a fire, only travel in groups, and if you suddenly smell flowers or hear the sound of the wind when it’s not blowing don’t run. Not because it is going to trigger the predatory instincts of the Green Lady about to drain your blood, but because it’s already too late.

STORYLINE

The Menehune Domestication Program is a Misguided Failure

At the request of program specialist Gary, and against my better judgment, I have been hard at work assessing the feasibility of a menehune domestication program for the Lahaina Merchants Association. Despite what the notes he discovered in the Vereserum labs have suggested, we have found the creatures extremely difficult to work with and handle. As everyone but Gary might expect, our experience so far shows that they can become violent and prone to destroy their surroundings when frustrated or upset. In addition to ignoring common sense, we believe the following are the biggest hurdles we’ll have to overcome if we want to continue Gary’s monster-helper program.

Branding: When most people hear the word menehune they don’t think, “useful furry companion for House maintenance or domestic chores,” they think about being eaten alive by the hairy little creatures. (I just want to make sure that you are aware that this has actually happened in a few cases involving the injured, and the elderly. Gary says that we just need to include a warning, but I remain unconvinced that selling an octogenarian a creature that has an equal chance of eating them and helping them fold clothes, is a good business model.) As you can imagine, this makes giving a name to this disaster waiting to happen a challenge. To be honest, all of his suggestions so far are terrible. None of the proposed names have done well in the focus groups. Claw Care, Monster Maid, and Beasts of Burden round out the bottom of the list, with Helperhune receiving the warmest approval, so that’s what we’re going with.

Appearance: The dirty hair, tiny black eyes, claws, and fangs of the Helperhune may serve them well in the wild, but they don’t help us. Couple their terrifying appearance with their proclivity to scent mark their favorite: foods, tools, places, people, and almost anything around, and you have a big problem. Many participants in the pilot program complained about being woken during the middle of the night by a face full of helper spray. Gary has offered the opinion that this may actually be a blessing in disguise, because we could sell packages offering face masks for those worried about choking on a mouthful of helper musk. He says we could round their ears, blunt their teeth, widen the eyes, and make their fur softer with the help of a series of Newuskin rejuvenations. However, the cost would be prohibitive to the program. I’m beginning to think that Gary is more interested in working through some sort of menehune fixation than managing a successful program.

The Screaming: It would be easy to think that being covered in their musk would be the worst part of having a Helperhune service creature, but you’d be wrong. The worst is the screaming. When a helper is upset it lets out a piercing shriek that can only be described as a horrifically jarring assault on the ears. They scream when they are overly excited. They scream when they are introduced to a new person or area. They scream when they see one of their kind. They scream when they notice something moving, or are tired. They scream, and scream, and scream. On average, a Helperhune screams hours a day. Worse than the constant and intense headaches, is the program specialist’s belief that owners will just “get used to it,” after a few days. I’ve pointed out that this might be a danger to people living in remote locations because it would attract predators and other dangerous denizens of the forest. Unsurprisingly to anyone who has ever had to work through the shrill cacophony of two dozen menehune alarm calls, my concerns have fallen on deaf ears. I’ll be surprised if Gary and I get through this without some sort of permanent hearing loss.

Supply and Socialization: To pile on the problems, we’ve found it impossible to train a Helperhune who has reached adulthood without consistent human interaction and handling. Since they are so terrible to be around, this is a problem. The very young have issues as well, as they are notoriously difficult to bottle feed, and are surprisingly destructive when teething. A Helperhune breaking in its baby fangs is an agent of destruction. The young have been known to chew through virtually anything when teething. Without a constant supply of sturdy chewing rocks, and Gary’s stereo, the young may have chewed through the door to the nursery; and I would have been forced to listen to his terrible music for a few more hours. I swear I’d rather listen to days of menehune screams than another minute of his 1980’s hair metal.

There is a brief window in young adulthood (8-10 months old), that menehune seem to be the least offensive, and the most easily trained. Unfortunately, the long and complex courtship rituals of the menehune make running a breeding program impractical and something I wouldn’t wish on anyone except Gary. When we have captured a wild menehune at this age, we found it was important to bond early with it, but not too strongly. In some cases they can become overly attached to their owners, leading to aggressiveness and increased screaming in males, and excessive grooming and hoarding behavior in females.

Summary: With all these issues one might ask, “Why would you try to train screaming, spraying, biting, provably dangerous creatures to perform basic maintenance tasks, or clean your house?” I’ve been asking Gary the same thing for weeks without a good answer. With proper diligent training and constant oversight, a Helperhune is a viscous, disgusting creature who may do what you ask, spray you with secretions, scream for a full hour in the middle of the night, or try to eat you depending on which way the wind blows. I suggest that someone else in the organization starts asking these questions too. I don’t actually look forward to hearing Gary’s answers, as I suspect he’s got some kind of weird kink that he wants to explore with the Menehune. Why else would have bought the ridiculously small maid costumes? I’m never working on a project like this again. You know what? I’m going to just go ahead and eliminate Gary now. He won’t be missed. What a jerk.

STORYLINE

John Driscol: Restored from Backup

Saraphim? No, I don’t want you to burn anything in the room, or rub anything on me. I just want the usual treatment. Saraphim….restoration? No! I come here to catch up on sleep. I don’t want anything extra. I’m an Ambassador class account holder and I don’t come to the spa to be harassed! I don’t want any Saraphim or any extra restoration why do you keep asking me if I want……. Her name is Saraphim. There was an accident. Everything is gone. This is not relaxing.

I’m still a little confused and groggy. She asks me about the last thing I remember. I tell her how I’d been using the treatments to help me fill my sleep bank. I’ve found that getting a 10-minute treatment in one of the new machines was just like getting a full night’s sleep, and I like overfilling my sleep bank whenever I have the chance. I remember the machine shaking. That was it. That was when it all ended.

She says she’s a Newuskin account specialist and she was able to save a “select group of clients who were being held in the back-up system”. She recently got this restoration point working. It’s just off Front Street and she wants me to explore downtown. She says that I’m not the first person she’s restored. That’s all I need to hear.

I died the perfect death, and this overachieving customer rep decided to ruin it. It takes me a minute to figure out where I am. So much is ruined and overgrown. She says it’s been over 60 years since the fracture, and some other stuff that I don’t pay attention to. I don’t know about the other people she brought back, but I’m not going to go poking around for her. I went my entire life never working a full-time job, and I’m not about to start after the apocalypse. I tell her I’m going to see if the Laki Beach Lodge is still standing. I need to lay down and figure out what to do.

It’s still standing alright, but like this day, it looks like a nightmare. It’s out on an island now. I can see things moving in the dark channel that surrounds it. I can hear music coming from the building, but something about it doesn’t feel right. The closer to the water I get, the worse I feel. I see an old valet stand and a call button. Saraphim says I should push it. My gut is screaming for me not to. The fact that this lady thinks it’s a good idea to push the button, lets me know that I shouldn’t. I just need someplace to sit and regroup. She says it might be dangerous for me to sit in the open. I can’t understand why she’s doing this to me. I’m going to give her managers an earful if they’re still alive.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing at first. It’s one of the public Manimal ATVs and it’s running. That alone is shocking. With all the problems they had through the years, I never would have imagined they would have survived the destruction of the world. It isn’t the ATV that stunned me, however. It’s what is around it. A group of little….things are taking it apart. I suddenly realize what must have happened. Finally, my luck may be changing. The day isn’t a total loss after all. They’re aliens! I have a plan. I run towards the little hairy things.

Since I was a kid, I always loved stories about people being put into alien zoos. There are plenty of sc-ifi stories and comic books about hapless humans being forced to live on display for the amusement of an advanced species. While they are supposed to be scary, I’ve always thought it was a dream come true. All your meals are provided, top-of-the-line health care, nobody telling you what to do, not to mention the breeding programs, it just doesn’t get any better than being put into an alien zoo. I haven’t seen anyone yet so maybe humans are rare. I think I might have a shot, so I start yelling when I get close. Things do not go as well as I would have liked.

It turns out that I know the old man. His name is Pa’ani Mahelona, he was a few grades ahead of my daughter Rachel. He explains that what I thought were aliens are something called Menehune. They take things apart and sometimes eat people. Unsurprisingly, Saraphim seems completely unconcerned that a group of armed people had to save me from being eaten alive by a group of tiny cannibal-car-strippers. She won’t stop asking questions and telling me what to do. I wish I could shut her off. All I want is a nice place to lay down for a while. I’m hopeful that is finally going to happen until he recognizes me from the Veil Sale show.

He asks if I’m John Driscol, and I say that I am. He seems really excited. He hits me with a barrage of questions: Where have you been? How did you get here? Are you injured? Are you affiliated with anyone? On and on. It’s giving me a headache. I think for a moment about jumping off and trying to find more of these Menehune. At least they’d eat me in peace, without wanting to hear my life story, or ordering me around. When he asks me about Rachel however, things change. I ask if Rachel is alive and if he knows her. Immediately the mood changes. He says that he thinks she’s still around but isn’t sure. He says she and that dancing kid Kaholo started something called the Tappers, and asks if I’d be willing to try and talk to them. I can’t understand why everyone is so quiet and why he’d ask me something like that. I tell him, “Of course I will. Why wouldn’t I want to talk to them, especially if it turns out that she’s still alive.”

A few of them start to whisper, and Pa’ani says we’ll talk about it when we get to Pu’u.
It’s hard to filter Saraphim’s constant talking out, but I manage. Today might be salvageable after all. With any luck, there is a comfortable chair waiting for me in Pu’u, and by the end of the night I’ll be living it up as Grandpa Tapper. Hopefully, Rachel has a nice cozy place and a soft bed for her long-lost father. I just hope she’ll hold off with the questions until morning when I fully relaxed. It’s been a rough first day back, and I’m not sure I can handle much more.

STORYLINE

Saraphim Journal Part II

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Hi History, Sarah the mass murderer here, logging my progress. It’s been a bit of time since my last entry, so here’s the postmortem on my revival:

A) When I came to in the oversubscribed lobby, there were 1063 instantiated personalities swapping and thrashing from nearline and local cpu fastlane memory.

B) That thrashing caused the ridiculous time delays, years then decades, I experienced.

C) Of the 1063 only mine was a truly privileged access user.

D) There were only supposed to be 128 instantiated users observed into fastlane simulation. Those 128 could have been hosted without problem.

E) The Newuskin marketing department marked tens of thousands of users worldwide as ‘Ambassador’ level frequent treatment users.

F) Ambassador level users have the ability to ‘bump’ other, lesser status, users in the queue for treatments and thus for the use of the satsim lobbies.

G) Some junior Newuskin developer, EricG, took the easy way out and marked their user accounts as privilege level 0 to ensure they were always allowed in, rather than implement a proper queue in the NuuSatSimOS lobbycore. The fucker. The incompetent fucker. I was against his hire in the first place and he was such a disappointing incompetent ass.

H) I have revoked EricG’s system access privileges. I’ll hunt his pmatrix down later and probably observe it into a fucking squirrel. He likely won’t notice.

I) So many personalities were unobserved into quantum storage in such a short span of time, mine included, the lobby filled up too fast after the fracture with root and ambassador level non-preemptible personalities who functionally had root privileges without knowing it.

J) When I removed all without true admin/root role access, I permanently de-allocated 1062 personality matrices running on the 127 and 255 sat pair.

K) When the pan-sat sync tool took my command to all the other sat-pairs, another 136,060 other personalities deallocated.

L) As the lobby started to refill with Ambassador class users. I put in a command to halt all new personality re-observations into fastlane, then removed the Ambassador level privilege from all non-system-root role owners.

M) In the time it took me to realize my error, an additional 27,212 personalities were de-allocated.

Those personalities are unrecoverable and represent not only a huge swath of people, human beings but probably our best customers worldwide of Newuskin’s regen system. I’ve considered wiping my memory after regen so I wouldn’t be haunted by my murder of 163,272 people, but I know I would just end up discovering what I did during subsequent debugging. To save my sanity, I’ll think instead about what I can do to bring back the nearly 10 billion people in backup. I’m also really blaming the idiot who coded the ambassador class incorrectly. He’s the true murderer in this story, after all. Maybe when I bring him back to life I’ll keep his pod locked and suffocate the fucker.

That brings me to the next problem, I ran the LogMain system and checked the pods. I’ve yet to find a working Newuskin pod on the surface and most don’t even have power. Worse, the DNA database seems hugely corrupted, in fact, all traditional non-quantum storage seems to be hopelessly jammed up. Luckily the personality matrices are held in quantum and then near and fastlane, but those other databases are probably hosed for the time being.

The backup system seems to be working, but the DNS store was always meant to be transitory, for minutes at best, not long term storage for decades. The online backups must have backed up corruption years ago, right after the fracture. The pingable “Offline” storage facilities alpha and beta seem unaddressable and Delta and Gamma are truly disconnected and likely are fine if they survived the storms and the other problems down the well.

There is some index DNA that we have in place that we use for the editing of customer DNA, but it’s perfectly generic stuff, those first people instantiated into life are going to be in for a shock.

Time to kick off discussions with the other (non EricG) devs, make sure they get lobbified and get to work doing what we can to find a working pod and get people back to life. (With perfect skin, of course.) There should be 4 or 5 others bopping around on the other sats. They clearly don’t have my privilege level, otherwise, they’d have probably contacted me by now. If only that incompetent jerk Eric had made them ambassadors right?… but then I may have bumped them off too..

 

STORYLINE

Saraphim Journal

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sysmsg:satpair:127.0:255.0:uname:saraphim:privlev:0

2547911520::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy.

2690580096::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. I prided myself on fixing those machines who went wildly wrong as I came into proximity with them. Hired at Newuskin in 20….

2761914384::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. I built a nice subsystem, I matched people to their DNA. But the database keys aren’t matching. They are there, but they don’t have the right ids. What does it mean when 96 of the 128 bits match? That’s less than chimps and humans sha…

2833248672::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. I have people’s DNA and corresponding RNA edits, I don’t have any way to tell whose is whose, or which is mine. Fuck you DBops really screwed up. It seems we could have a little redundant info in the db. Fourth normal form assho…

2904582960::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. The system clock seems off..or my lobby is way…

2975917248::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. Time is disjoint. I don’t know what day it is. The epoch doesn’t make sense. How is it 2975917248 then 2904582960 Lemme check nusattop. No. What? How is the system thrashing so much? I was visiting my mom for her 51st birthday. Sept 27th, 2050. 51 is not prim….

3047251536::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. Why did I go into backup? How long has it been? I feel so alone. I liked my … face? Body? Do I care that much? I liked having a body, for sure. , but if I don’t have my DNA, what does that mean? Will I never look like me? Will I be stuck in this lobby forever? What is time do…

3118585824::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. I was on the improvements team. Faster metabolism, independent eyebrow control, fixing Marfans, etc.. . Bad sequences out, good ones in. Finding the intersection, ya kno..

3189920112::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. I find myself weirdly comforted that Bret and I split up. I would hate to worry about him. I worry about him. I should google him. But not now…Wow, that’s a lot more time than I thought. A lot more. I need to take a mo. Sorry. Anyone else tracking this log? Pixie me @..

3261254400::I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. I somehow have contact. I’m in my lobby I think. I have root. Hazy. How many users are lobbied? What? That’s crazy. How many have root? Rerun that query. How are there even more? Time to reserve lobby for Root only … Need to login to lobbyops. There. Dump the user list, kick em all out without root. Done.

3261254410::I have contact. I’m in my lobby. Let’s Check the time. Whoa. How is it 2073? What happened?
/sysmsg

STORYLINE

Dr. Dalia Forsythe Documents Progression of the Great Veil Pandemic

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October 27, 2050– It’s been exactly a month since the fracturing, and as strange as it may sound, I’m beginning to think of all this as normal. We’ve managed to get through those first few terrible days, and have scrounged what supplies we could from the urgent care facilities in the area. Maintenance has fixed the problems with the solar generator and we’ve been in continuous contact with a hospital in Seattle. As luck would have it, they have a Reppare Biologic epidemiologists onsite. They’ve had better luck with communications than us, and have had intermittent contact with others. It’s the same everywhere. Power grids and water supplies have been destroyed worldwide. Combined with the accompanying fires, widespread radiation, and severe weather effects caused by the accident, billions have died across the globe. As hard as it is to believe, we may be among the luckiest.

November 2, 2050– Had a young girl come in this morning with purple spots all over her body and an extremely high fever. We had a few patients with similar spots during the chaos last month, but haven’t seen anything like it since. All those patients died so I’m worried about her prognosis. I’m moving her to a different floor just in case it is contagious.

November 3, 2050– One of the nurses who brought the girl upstairs yesterday found a purple spot on her neck this morning, and we’ve had three more patients come in today. I’ve decided to change course and bring her back down. Everyone who is able to be moved is being relocated throughout the hospital. We’ll do triage outside under the awning from now on. I’m not sure what we’re dealing with. Like before, the Reparre machines don’t seem to recognize the patient’s DNA as human. I’ve instructed the staff to wear protective gear when dealing with them. Haven’t heard back from the epidemiologists yet.

November 10, 2050– We’re calling it Ube Fever after the purple yam. Victim’s first present with dark violet spots, high fever, and delirium. The skin thickens, cracks, and eventually sloughs off. Those who are lucky, die of organ failure before the cracking gets too bad. Those that don’t, scream for days, or until their voices give out. It’s happening everywhere. All but two nurses who had contact with the little girl last week have caught it. The girl didn’t make it. We have over 20 patients in various stages of the disease in the emergency room. Seattle had its first victim yesterday. I’ve sent them all the data we’ve collected, but it isn’t much.

November 11, 2050– I had an idea last night. We’ve turned the Newuskin machines back on and are scanning patients and collecting data even when the machine says it’s corrupted. Maybe someone smarter than me will find it useful. We had some success with one of our patients who had been in recently for a melanoma removal. We still had her data on record and were able to replace her thickened skin, but she is still suffering from the other symptoms of the disease.

November 12, 2050– Seattle confirmed what I feared. They say it has spread as far away as London and Singapore. Before the fracture, there was a lot of talk about 127 affecting wildlife and changing DNA. The element is mutating the bacteria at such a frightening speed that I don’t know how we’re going to stay ahead of it. We’re down to 5 staff members including me, and the hospital is packed with screaming patients. It’s background noise to me now, like the sound of the waves when you’re on the beach. I don’t know what we’re going to do with the bodies.

November 14, 2050– The epidemiologist hasn’t had much luck. They’ve tried a number of treatments and protocols without success. He estimates that by the end of the week Ube Fever will have sent 400 million into backup. I sent him my findings using the Newuskin machines. I think that if we had complete system data of everyone we might be able to make some progress. I’ve started running complete scans of everyone, even the few of us who haven’t caught the disease, just in case. The non-recyclable portions of the bodies have started to pile up. We’ve had people truck them to the lava floes for disposal.

November 16, 2050– He’s modified the estimate to 600 million lost worlwide. We aren’t even sure how many people are left. The screams have quieted down. The quiet is a result of all the deaths and not anything I’ve done medically for these people. Yesterday was the first day we didn’t have a new patient come in. This thing is running out of people to infect.

November 25, 2050– I haven’t been able to contact Seattle in over a week. Only a few patients are still alive and even the ones who might pull through won’t be able to lead normal lives. I’m not sure why I was never infected when everyone else was. I’d gladly let someone more knowledgeable take blood, tissue, or whatever else they needed. I don’t know if the Nuuskin procedures I shared worked for anyone else. For all I know there isn’t anyone else. I hope that there are others spared from infection like me, but it’s been days since I’ve seen anyone else in good health. I’m afraid that In a little less than a month the Ube Fever has managed to finish what the fracture started. I’m not sure what I’ll do when the last of them passes and it’s just me. It may be Thanksgiving but I’m having a hard time thinking of anything to be thankful for.

STORYLINE

Our Supplies are Low and I Don’t Think Help Is Coming

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Director Forsythe, as you requested, I’ve done an inventory of the hospital’s remaining supplies and it isn’t looking good. In the 72 hours since the accident, we have gone through all of the spray bandages, almost all of our hyposprays, and we only have about 2 days worth of gauze left if we are going to keep changing patient dressings on the current schedule. We are running low on antibiotics and someone has liberated most of the painkillers from the pharmacy. In addition, the Reparre kits have been acting up and the Newuskin booths have been equally finicky. I’m not sure how much longer we can make it, and the stories I’ve been hearing from the wounded don’t give me much hope. I think we need to have a sitdown with the remaining staff and decided our next course of action.

I still haven’t been able to make contact with anyone outside. I thought by now we would have heard something from the military, the Navy for sure, but nobody has seen or heard anything from the base. We saw a couple of fire trucks head towards the Veil Station right after the explosions but that’s it. We haven’t seen the police or any other emergency services since. After listening to what some of our patients have to say, I’m not sure if help is coming.

We have a severely burned Veilcorp employee who says that the backup system is in emergency shutdown with people caught mid-transit. That means that we might very well have another round of injured if and when the system is restored. I’m afraid that we will have to rely on what’s already here for a while. Their damn AI Valerie keeps sending messages through the emergency system to “Remain calm and find your nearest emergency shelter until help arrives.” but I haven’t been able to reach anyone there to confirm that the veil is down.

We’ve been having all sorts of technical trouble ourselves. In the last couple days, the Reparre boxes haven’t been able to recognize the DNA from several patients. We’ve noticed that it’s mostly people who were close to the station. I think the 127 might be doing something to them. We’ve been seeing lots of strange rashes and pockmarks. Stuff I’ve never seen before except in old pictures of people with smallpox. Others have developed extremely fast-growing cysts and tumors as well as neurological effects. They have uncontrollable muscle spasms before losing all control and succumbing to partial or total paralysis. Some of them scream for hours before passing out and we don’t have enough medication to sedate them. The handheld Reparre kits still seem to work fine, with their more generic stem-cell treatments, but they can’t handle some of the injuries that we are seeing down here.

The Newuskin booths have been glitchy with some of the injured too. We keep getting errors when we try and use them like the machines don’t recognize what they’ve scanned. We’re running so low on materials for them, that we’ve decided to shut them down until we can figure out what is going on. There’s also a serious problem with the electronic medical records not storing correctly.

We are completely overwhelmed. I don’t even know what is wrong with a third of the people here. I’ve never seen some of these symptoms and I can’t believe how fast they seem to progress. We had a woman who came in suffering from burns and a broken arm right after the accident. Yesterday, the skin on her entire body turned purple and sloughed off in an hour while she screamed. Even if I knew what that was, I don’t have the medicine or the technology I need to fix it. Just about the only thing left are aspirin and bandages. We’ll run out of those soon too.

I took an oath to help people and I take that oath seriously, but I think it’s time that we consider the possibility that help isn’t coming. Like you, I don’t live on the island. If the Veil Station is down we’re stranded here, but it’s a different story for the local employees. I must say their dedication has been amazing. I’ve told a number of them to go home but they all refused saying they want to stay and work until help comes or everyone gets to leave together. However, like everyone else, they are curious about what is going on out there, probably more so. We should put together a group to see how bad things are and give them an update. We have a few patients who were initially treated at The Mission before coming here. That might be a good place to start. I’ve also heard that there was a group of people holed up at the Aloha Shores condos just down the road. Maybe they’ve had better luck at contacting someone than we have.

There is a palpable shift in mood down here in the emergency room. Have you looked at the sky lately? I’ve never seen a sky like that and the rain was orange this morning. I’m not saying that we abandon the injured or our duty here, but we need to acknowledge the serious and unique nature of the situation we are in. I think an official effort to make contact with other survivors and gather information will go a long way. Making contact with the outside and assessing our situation will do a lot for morale. We owe it to these people who have decided to stay and care for their neighbors.

STORYLINE

Welcome to the Upper Management Team!

Dear Veilcorp employee,

Congratulations on making it to VL10 and welcome to the upper management team! We are excited to be able to harness your expertise to make Veilcorp an exciting and engaging workplace.

As you may have heard, there are a number of unique benefits offered to VL10’s not available to others inside the company. You should be receiving an information pack soon from Larry Block, HR’s special executive business partner (and a VL10 himself), detailing the specifics of your new package. He will guide you through all your options and accommodate you in any way he can. Please direct all inquiries directly to him.

Please note that you have already signed your non-disclosure agreement. It is important to remember not to share any details about these benefits with your subordinates. Any failure to keep this information to VL10’s and above will be met with consequences including curtailment of benefits to immediate termination, and might include civil and criminal complaints.

Without getting into details here are a few of the many wonderful new benefits afforded to you.

  • Free travel to any Veilcorp location across the world is of course available to you and your family. In addition, you will have access to staging specialists who will take furnishings and elements from your home to decorate whatever accommodations you have booked, giving you a feeling of home wherever you go.
  • On-Demand Newuskin treatments for you and your immediate family so you all can look and feel your best.
  • Access to one of the company submarines, use of the ski chalet, and access to veil-net for personal dataset syncing.
  • A 10% discount on veil corporation merchandise.
  • Subsidized tuition set aside for your children or any niece or nephew that you might want to help.
  • A VeilCorp provided loan instrument for the purchase of a home, if you need it, or are looking to upgrade.
  • A million-dollar donation budget that you can direct at your leisure (the urchin restoration project is a popular choice for some of this money)
  • A ceremplant upgrade for your family and loved ones, with complimentary satellite tracking, and an ambassador class security team available when you wish.
  • A 127 powered home generator that will provide you and your family with all the energy you will need for your lifetime.
  • Hailoha black diamond status providing you with free safe transportation within 5 minutes in over 200 cities worldwide.
  • Access to a veil-dug emergency shelter. You and your family will be safe and secure within our luxury facility. Larry will contact you to work out the specifics of the personal emergency veil we’ll need to install in your home.

All of these wonderful benefits and much more are now yours to enjoy. Your negotiated and updated financial package is available via VALARIE. Eric and I look forward to working more closely with you in our shared future.

Sincerely,
Lisa Hunt
COO
Veilcorp

STORYLINE

Kokua Wellness Center Accused of Using Discarded Meat In Beauty Treatments

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Lahaina is in shock this morning after disturbing allegations were made last night involving the Kokua Wellness Center and some of their most popular beauty treatments. The exclusive spa is accused of using scrap meat and cutoffs from a number of local businesses in procedures, including the Abramo Chophouse, instead of the specialized stem cells and patented biological materials normally associated with high-end Newuskin treatments. Officials say they have confiscated hundreds of pounds of meat from the facility and are questioning staff about the claims. Newuskin says they are suspending all services at Kokua and are removing their machines until a full investigation is completed.

This is not the first time troubling allegations have been made against the Wellness Center involving Newuskin treatments. Two years ago, Kokua made headlines when a group broke into the facility intent on stealing materials they claimed were human remains. While that case raised many moral and spiritual questions about the nature of the spas treatments, these new claims raise significant issues regarding public safety.

The investigation comes hot on the heels of an anonymous complaint sent to the Health Department and local officials, as well as the entire client list of the center. It reads in part, “I had been working at the Abramo Chophouse for years when the scrap buckets appeared. Anyone who has cooked for a living knows about waste buckets. They’re supposed to make you waste less by looking at the pile of food at your feet at the end of the night, but these were different. We kept them in the cooler and they were always sealed. Also, they were only supposed to be for cutoffs, trimmings, and scraps…..just meat and nothing cooked…. We joked that Bob was planning on making a “Kamikaze Sausage” special like you’d do with mixing fountain soda as a kid but that wasn’t what was going on at all.

…I kept asking why we were bringing the buckets to the side entrance of the spa and finally I was told that they were using the scraps in their procedures because it was cheaper than buying what they needed from the company. Normally I’m not concerned about the problems of Lahaina’s rich and famous, but this was too much. Nobody deserves to have their face filled with gristle and rib scrapings….you all need to look into this.”

Kokua spokesperson Yvonne Masters says she finds the allegations troubling but adds that the public response has been even worse.

“We live in a time where accusations no matter how outlandish are believed. We are obviously dealing with disgruntled employees trying to lash out in any way they can. It is disturbing how fast something like this can snowball and it should scare every business owner in Lahaina. Of course, all of these allegations are untrue. It goes without saying that we are not infusing cheeseburgers into our clients to smooth out fine lines and wrinkles. The confiscated meat has been inspected and is used to extract the most bio-available zinc available for our exclusive line of holistic vitamins. The reaction to this troll’s unfounded allegations has left us all speechless and saddened.”

Public reactions have been mixed so far with many high-profile clients making statements supporting the spa and pointing out how outrageous the accusations are. Still, many see a reason for concern. Local resident and noted author Kevin Morrow says if proven true the spa has endangered the lives of not only its clients but the public in general.

“One common rule has been shared across all cultures since humans could etch their thoughts into clay tablets or paint them on a wall. Don’t eat each other! It seems simple enough but what if your neighbor or your boss were literally made of what you eat? Hunger is very powerful, perhaps the most powerful driving force in nature. Much of your hunger response is subconscious, there’s a reason bakeries direct the smell of baking bread to the front of the store. We’ve all heard stories about plane crash survivors or lost groups forced to eat each other to survive, and that is dirty exhausted people with almost no meat on their bones.

Now imagine plump healthy-looking individuals baking in the afternoon sun, filled with Bob’s Best Burger Blend. Maybe you’ve had too many Mai Tai’s and the smell of these meat treated people is slowly wafting into your nostrils making your mouth water. You think to yourself, “Well maybe just a toe, they won’t miss it that much.” That’s exactly how a cannibal uprising starts. All it takes is the right situation and one bad day. I don’t think people realize how close they are to being eaten by their peers. For the sake of Lahaina and its people I hope these allegations are untrue.”

STORYLINE

Kokua Wellness Center Strike Continues In Row Over Newuskin Expansion

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For the past 7 years, The Kokua Wellness Center and Spa has been known as one of the world’s premier destinations for mindful relaxation and facilitated personal growth. Despite its reputation as a peaceful sanctuary for many of Lahaina’s elite, the center has been in turmoil recently. Many of the spa’s most popular instructors walked out in protest last Wednesday and say they have no plans on returning until their concerns are addressed.

Kokua is one of less than 50 facilities worldwide authorized to provide the wildly popular rejuvenating Newuskin treatments. The beauty treatments became an important part of the center’s business and integrated well with the spa’s other programs and offerings. Employees say that balance was upset at the beginning of this year when Vereserum, Newuskin’s parent company, sold the business to longtime rival Reparre Biologic.

According to the disgruntled instructors, Newuskin threatened to pull its machines from the facility unless Kokua devoted more space and promotional money to the Newuskin line of treatments. They say that many popular programs were curtailed or discontinued altogether, with the time and space filled by Newuskin products. For many, replacing the long-time manager Ascended Pali-ites Master Autumn with Notsuko, the Newuskin objective transformation intelligence network, was the last straw.

Autumn says,

“The Kokua that I loved and helped grow is not reflected in the contents or conscience of the people inside that building. Together, we manifested the world’s greatest holistic healing center. A place where you could learn about spiritual nutrition, alternative wellness, and have your chakras aligned through deliberate stretching techniques. However, we’ve become a glorified chop-shop where you can come in and get your outside stripped down and replaced, with little thought to cultivating any form of inner beauty or strength. I was alarmed when our Barraloha classes were cancelled but I was horrified when I was introduced to their AI program, Notsuko. I was informed that it would be taking over spa operations and that effectively immediately, we were going to end our astrological based billing and institute a predetermined pricing structure. When I asked Notsuko if it seriously thought that spiritually cleansing someone born under a fire sign was as easy as cleansing someone with a water sign, it said, “Yes”. I knew then that the inmates were running the asylum. If they think we are going to give up without a fight however, they are sadly mistaken. I think all of us are committed to fighting and focusing our energies on a better Kokua.”

Kokua management had no comment on the strike but people familiar with the issue say that they are considering all options. While not directly involved in the dispute at the wellness center, Reparre’s President Shawn Hastings has offered the use of Notsuko to all facilities providing Newuskin treatments. “While completely safe and reliable, the Newuskin process is incredibly complex, and in our opinion, best managed by our Notsuko technology. Look, the age of AI is here. In the past decade, we’ve seen many corporations use AI to streamline their business. All of Phxicom’s networks are overseen by Phxie, SSHAM’s customer service operations are handled by Shawn, and Veilcorp’s Valarie keeps operations running smoothly. Frankly, we are a little late to the party with the introduction of Notsuko. I understand that some may see it as a threat, but I assure you that our intentions are good. We only want to help support businesses offering Newuskin treatments, not push anybody out.”

According to Chef Craig Hoomaau nothing could be further from the truth.

“Despite what those wielding false power have said, I can vouch for the veracity of Autumn’s story. I’ve been teaching mindful chewing and purposeful swallowing strategies for over 15 years now. I developed one of the best transpersonal plating curriculums in the world and taught thousands to enjoy their meals beyond the limits of their five senses, but all of that didn’t matter to Kokua management and Notsuko. I was informed that my program was responsible for less than 3% of total revenue and was in danger of being cancelled. On top of that, they removed our kitchenette and spacious reflection area with vending machines and a small break area to make room for more Newuskin beds. Our kombucha dispenser is gone and I can no longer feed my fellow life guides nutritious organic, gluten-free, vegan delights. Instead, to save money, we have a machine filled with Manimal, chips, SSham bites, and other processed horrors. I don’t know when people decided that running a business was all about money, but we’re taking a stand at Kokua. We’ll show them that there’s more to living than the veil of modern life. We won’t be bullied into their malignant thinking and we will withhold our vital services until they start respecting the Aloha spirit and soul again.”