The Trouble with Tribbles

[asouthron]

Well, good ol' Doctor McCoy has been on Tu Vishan for only a few days and has already started a ecological epidemic with the help of one fuzzball called a tribble. The fail can be read here (Potential spoilers. Comments will be marked accordingly).


What's a tribble, you ask?

Excellent question! It's a small furry creature that comes in a plethora of colors. It has no real face or limbs to speak of (think sea urchin), but it can emit a trilling sound that affects the nervous system and makes everyone go "KYAAA~! <3" Over it. True facts. (For more information on these buggers, click here)

Well, what's the problem then, right? It's cute, it's soft, and it makes a great pet! These fuzzbags are born pregnant and reproduce asexually like horny rabbits on speed.

Not good.

Starting July 16th tribbles will escape the confines of their icy prison (aka the Star Trek casts' refrigerators) and begin to spread out from the Fire Sector into the rest of the city. The playerbase will have until July 30th to figure out what should be done about this epidemic.


What does this mean for Tu Vishan and its residents?

A lot, unfortunately. Or fortunately? Perhaps... The most immediate effects will be an imbalance in Tu Vishan's natural ecosystem. Tribbles come from a climate that is excessively hostile, forcing a high population turnover in order to keep the species alive. Without extensive predators to cull them, they multiply at an obscene rate and can overtake an ecosystem in a few days. Basically, tribble EVERYWHERE. In every nook and cranny of Tu Vishan's shell.

These little buggers will further exhaust food supplies, as they will pop up in the damnedest places like grain silos! They love those and inhale everything and anything edible.


What can the citizens do about this?

It is up to the players what ultimately happens to this pesky menace. Will they be completely exterminated from the surface of Tu Vishan or will there be steps made to contain excessive breeding and allow them to remain in harmony with the current ecosystem?

They could certainly become a new source of food (Is that tribble stew I smell? How delightful!) or material (My, that's a lovely tribble scarf you've got there!) or ointment for the manpain in all of us (Trilling tribble ball is your friend. Tribble ball will never judge you. Tribble ball loves you! Give it a good hug!)


Organization

McCoy will be helping to contain, not erradicate, the tribbles. He will need help from his fellow bleeding hearts to help quarantine what they can and unfortunately cull what they can't until the species is under control.

There will be a PSA on the network at the beginning of the event to alert residents to the problem and its solutions. What your characters do (or don't do) with that information is up to you!

I will set up two basic threads in this post for those wanting to contain and those wanting to eradicate the tribbles. Keep in mind these aren't the only options! If you have alternative plans, ideas, suggestions, please post them as well!


Long-term Consequences

These are some likely outcomes with the conclusion of this event:

* More stringent regulations on exotic imports
* Laws restricting unlawful breeding of exotic animals
* New environmental and ecological protection regulations
* BASICALLY A LOT OF RED TAPE AND DEATH GLARES AT MCCOY

Comments

Containment

[asouthron]

Comment here with the characters interested and any ideas, suggestions, comments to help contain the tribble population.

[backinakidflash]

After finding an escapee on the street, taking it home and feeding it a lot because the darned thing was so hungry and he knows how that goes, Bart will have contributed to this problem considerably.

BUT. He's a speedster, so once someone lets him know OH MY GOD STOP FEEDING THEM YOU IDIOT, he can cover a LOT of ground very quickly in the tribble roundup.

Re: Containment

[lookedtothestars]

We should import a Klingon.

Since it only mentions human nervous systems on Memory Alpha, the Kryptonian contingent might well be able to help collect the various tribbles.

Jor-El might also be able to help put any containment system into play if there's any decision on that end that would need science or engineering based help if he's got the surprise superpowers under control by that point, oops.

Re: Containment

[brokenweapon]

I'm all for Jason getting buried in a tribble-lanche. And he can parkour up into places they may have inexplicably reached to fetch them and keep them contained...

[imaginate]

One word: forcefields.

They also come in lethal but Kyle would generally be for letting them live.

[neverginger]

Ten would be really interested in studying them to see if they can be neutered/spayed? With the volume of them, it's probably not feasible to get all of them, but he's not against having a cute little tribble pet as long as there aren't 80 million of them.

[escarabajo]

Jaime's Scarab will be able to spot the little buggers wherever they're hiding, and he can fly and probably gather 'em up too!! If worst comes to worst he'll be able to help exterminate but THEY'RE CUTE HE'D RATHER CONTAIN ;;

Re: Containment

[fuzzyelf]

Kon and Kurt would both be for containment.

Kon can use his TTK to keep them in place for a while and transport them.

Kurt can teleport them to places and reach those places that are harder to get to.

[langsyne]

Scott says the tribbles are too cute to be killed off, even if they are a pain in the ass.

He's not really any help ICly though, since all he can do is....summon giant swarms of bugs to do his bidding. Unless you wanted your tribbles covered in bugs but why would you because that's gross.

I GUESS HE CAN HELP BUILD CONTAINMENT CAGES OR SOMETHING? Sob, playing useless characters since 2010.

[dungfu]

They WOULD EAT HER ENTIRE FUCKING FARM she's so going to start shoving them elsewhere and try and bite Bones in the ass for bringing them in.

Containment

[urbanmagic]

Traci wouldn't mind helping out. She's no bleeding heart but if told to keep them contained she's been known to create barriers. So long as they aren't causing actual harm like attacking people, she won't likely kill them.

Re: Containment

[the_other_eight]

As soon as what's going on is told to the public Pepper will be creating a group to contain and study the little buggers (In as humane a way and atmosphere as possible). She'll be having them look for anything that could be used to make the tribbles a harmless part of the turtle ecosystem.

[pandoricas]

RORY will be helping... somehow... of course he will be confused as heck but he also guesses since he's stuck here he might as well try to do something.

Containment

[demon_brat]

... oddly enough, Damian would probably support containment plans.

Even if his support may, at times, be a flamethrower for the tribbles that they are not going to keep.

[chiot]

Gavroche is good at finding secret spots since he has about a zillion of them around the island. He'll gladly around up the tribbles, and might even try to take just one of them because holy crap cute pet.

Re: Containment

[mopirates_moproblems]

Cinna feels a sense of kinship with the tribbles. Ftr.


Would like cinna on twam LET'S KEEP THEM FOREVER and james on team KILL WITH FFIREif thats ok?

Re: Containment

[magicalpadawan]

I've got a magic-user/Trek nerd who would be MORE THAN WILLING to help. :D With containment that is, because holy crap she wants a tribble bb.

Re: Containment

[everylittlegirl]

Hayley will help contain them if asked explicitly to do so by someone she likes.

Costigan will help with containment after he's out of prison. >>

Extermination

[asouthron]

Comment here with the characters interested and any ideas, suggestions, comments to exterminate the tribble population.

Re: Extermination

[alphatar]

FEED THE DRAGONS.

[doesthemath]

FEED THE SWIZARDS.

[faceofbeau]

Jack's got a Torchwood stun gun with a kill setting, but that'd be taking it pretty slow. He is willing, however! And used to pest control for MUCH larger and more dangerous pests!

[ihope]

Lex is of course going to try and find a way to somehow make a buck out of this disaster. If that means he'll have to offer to take dead tribbles off of someone's hands only to sell the meat or fur as some high quality product, so be it.

And he's totally going to bash any little fuckers who start swarming him, because they're vermin and too cute to be of use. It'll be slow going but... yeah, he's somehow contributing to the extermination!

Re: Extermination

[saved7]

You would think that cutting them in half one at a time would be kind of slow going, but Miria can do this really quite fast, I'm just saying.

[storm_warning]

One word: Lightning.

Instant toasted tribbles, lbr.

Though, on the containment side of things, Ororo could work in conjunction with Jack Frost to lay some serious blizzards down?