MARY DAISY DINKLE

Arachnologist. Survivor. Reluctant captain of a ship that was never hers.

❖ ⋆ ❖

Quick Facts

Occupation: Former arachnology postgrad. Current full-time survivor.

Origin: Regional Queensland, Australia.

Current location: An abandoned cargo ship, 1.3 km off the Australian coast.

Status: Alive. Alone, mostly. Working on that second part.

❖ ⋆ ❖

About

Twenty-seven years old, Queensland-raised, more comfortable identifying a redback than making small talk. Mary was partway through a postgraduate research project on Australian funnel-web behaviour when the world she knew stopped existing. Four years of scavenging, burying, and talking to spiders kept in glass tins have sanded her down into something quieter and harder than she used to be — still curious, still stubborn, still funnier than the situation deserves, even when nobody's around to hear it.

The World

The virus never made it past two countries. Australia and New Zealand went down together, and the rest of the world sealed the coastline within six weeks and never looked back — a naval and air blockade that has held, without one confirmed breach, for four years. Nothing gets out. As far as anyone can prove, nothing gets in. And because it happened here, of all places, most of the survivors have stopped being entirely sure where "outbreak" ends and "regular Australian wildlife" begins.

❖ ⋆ ❖

The Outbreak

It started as a flu nobody took seriously, a cluster of cases outside Toowoomba, Queensland, dismissed as nothing worth panicking over for the better part of a week, right up until the hospital footage caught up with the denial. The virus turned out to spread through bites and blood rather than through the air, which is the only reason there's anyone left to tell the story. It reached New Zealand within weeks, on a flight nobody managed to ground in time, and has never, in four years, been confirmed anywhere else on Earth. Later analysis suggested it hadn't evolved so much as it had been built, deliberately, by someone who has never been identified.

The rest of the world's response was fast, total, and permanent: a joint multinational naval and air exclusion zone thrown around the entire Australian and New Zealand coastline within six weeks, unbroken ever since. Nothing has gotten out. As far as anyone can prove, nothing has gotten in either. Four years on, there's no cure, no government inside the zone, and the people still alive in here have mostly stopped waiting for that to change.

❖ ⋆ ❖

The Story So Far

Four years since the world sealed this island shut. A little over a year since she swam out to a ship she was sure was empty. A month since she found out it wasn't the only thing aboard that used to be alive. Tomorrow's her birthday — and she's already decided exactly how badly she's going to spend it.

❖ ⋆ ❖

Image Credits

Ohnoooo on Pinterest

❖ ⋆ ❖

My Section

My throat is sore, the usual voice is so fucking low (grumbly?) that even I sometimes can’t understand what I’m saying.

I have deliberately kept the definition hidden, so as to encourage you (yes, you, the reader), to play around with the bot. The basic thing is, y’all are alone on a massive cruise ship packed with containers, a missing captain, and a small “fancy” looking section with a ballroom.

❖ ⋆ ❖

Important Disclaimer

AI can hallucinate shit, that means that theres chances that the AI (specially JLLM) is horrendously incorrect.

I retain the right to delete any comment I wish (I'm a dicktator)

❖ ⋆ ❖

Content note: survival horror themes, grief, alcohol use, dark/isolation-driven content. 18+.

Have fun.