Reading Rainbow (Kind of) [video] [locked to New Hires except for Setsuna]

[piper90npcs]

[K is alone in his tiny cramped office in the library, which is filled almost wall to wall with stacks of books, other than a bulletin board behind him. The library beyond is closed for the day.]

Uh, hi hey, hi, so someone named Lonestar was talking to me? And now you're talking to me! Whoever is here...talking to me. And Lonestar set up this locked post?

He said that GW sent you. He's pretty secretive so I think I know who you are and that means I'm not going to tell anyone about this.

[He scribbles something on a notebook, and behind him words rearrange on the bulletin board.]

["I'm here."]

I got doused by Stuff during a breach on the rig a while back and tried to think of the least harmful thing I could imagine, and fortunately it didn't blow up in my face in a Stay-puft Marshmallow man kind of way. I focused on Ghostwriter because it was my favorite tv show as a kid. He doesn't show himself often, unless he likes your vibes. He's good at reading vibes.

So he's, uh, he's basically either a transplant from another world that got pulled in by what I was thinking or I maaay have accidentally made a sentient being whole-cloth. [His shoulders hunch a little in a clear display of anxiety.] Which is terrifying. Even he doesn't know which.

He can only communicate back and forth through text so I suggest making your responses text posts. He can't really see well, just a vague sense of people and layouts. But he can go anywhere, like a ghost.

Because he's a ghost.

Which means he's good for finding things on the rig - as long as they're written down. He can bring you any written or drawn information if he knows where to look and what to look for.

Comments

[fromfryingpantofire]

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

Okay. We know WHAT she is. Let's start with the question of WHO she is. We know that her name is 'Belle'. Or, at least, that's the name that she's been given. A name to call her. She's a personification of murder. I would have gone so far as to call her a Phonos, except those were strictly male.

Can he find stories about female personifications of murder?

[piper90npcs]

"Justice, like lighting, ever should appear; To few men's ruin, but all men's fear."

I'm afraid I don't- [There's a blur as the Ghostwriter hastily rearranges things on his desktop. Rapdily, and with a great volume of text.] Ah. I see. She was secret member of a United Nations peacekeeping organization at one point. Her name wasn't Belle there. She was the Belle sans Pitie, Rose Tattoo.

The Spirit of Murder.

There's quite a bit of information here, from someone's journals in the late 1990s. It doesn't mention an origin, but GW says that the writer claims that she's present at every murder, fought in every war, overseen every assassination in history.

This is what's been loose aboard the Rig?

video

[vampthropologist]

It would certainly appear so. She fits the description. What does our journal writer have to say?

[fromfryingpantofire]

That checks with some of what we've heard to this point. And, given the descriptions given by those attacked, my guess would be that Rose Tattoo is who we're looking for.

So, we need to figure out a way to either kill or contain the Spirit of Murder. And where she's hiding.

K. How common is it to get caught in a Stuff storm? I'm sure you're not the only person who has been, right?

[piper90npcs]

The people who work topside are at a higher risk of it because storms can whip up fast. I just happened to be near an outer wall that blew before I was able to get to one of the interior shelters.

It all depends on your luck. Mine is - mine is bad.

[He suddenly squints at what GW is writing.]

Okay, this is interesting.

Apparently if Rose's current host dies she takes up a new host, but there's no guarantee it'll be one nearby. But that still means that killing her could cause her to just...take up a new host somewhere in the world. Or in one of the dimensions attached to mine.

I'm asking GW how someone can even kill her in the first place. [He scribbles. Then squints at the answer.] It can't be that easy.

[He scribbles again.] Oh-ohkay. So apparently if you guys were lucky enough to just...have a gun. Apparently that'd do it. Your problem is...it's the lack of guns.

Apparently, she can be killed but it has to be a sudden and extreme bit of fatal force so she isn't able to heal. Snapping her neck, a shot to the head, getting crushed or completely incinerated. Her invulnerability and healing has limits. You probably just haven't been able to cause enough damage fast enough because a lot of you aren't armed and it'd have to be a sustained bit of force with some superpowers.

If she's as fast as described that's probably what's keeping you from doing it so far.

[He scribbles some more.]

GW says there are spells in the journals and - sigils. To...trap her. Slow her down. Not stop her but enough that you can maybe take her out. [He adjusts his glasses.] And uuuh spells to either contain or banish her essence from this mortal plan to the space between worlds. Which could stop her from being someone else's problem.

Hopefully.

I can have him throw them up on the wall if someone out there is ready with a pen and paper.

[scavengineer]

I can do that!

The copying things down part, I mean, not the doing magic one. That one's not exactly my area of expertise.

[piper90npcs]

[K scribbles again for GW to put it up and GW throws it all on the bulletin board. Several descriptions of spells and the necessary incantations, runes, and sigils.]

[There is a spell of binding (to slow her down), a spell of banishment (to banish her soul once she's dead), a spell of entrapment (if they decide to do that with her spirit instead of banishment).]

Let me know when you have it copied so I can tell him he can take it down so no one else sees it. I - I don't exactly want to get fired.

Out of a cannon.

Innnto the sun.

[scavengineer]

I don't want that to happen to you either.

[Despite the fact that her pen is half her size, Gadget quickly copies everything down in exacting detail.]

Got it.

[greyerrant]

I... received something that can likely buy us the necessary time to confirm a kill. I am loath to use it, since it seems sorcerous in origin, but i would not see those who have been harmed go unavenged.

[piper90npcs]

That's great! But you probably shouldn't mention any plans that may or may not involve contraband here.

I'll keep your secrets as best as I can but torture! It's a thing!

[Finger guns.]

I'm always here if you need help. And I - I have some useful books that people can ask for when pretending to come for other books. That you might not necessarily find in the official card catalog. With fake covers.

But the less I know about the things I don't actually need to know, the less chance I give anything away when they start pulling my fingernails out. Which could happen any day now on account of the aforementioned books not in the official card catalog.

[Text] Sam, not Moose

[fromfryingpantofire]

I'd be interested in seeing some of those books. I have something of a professional interest in this sort of thing because of my work back home.

[fromfryingpantofire]

I'll copy it down, too. I have some experience with this sort of thing back home.

And we don't want you to get fired, either. For one, Special K is the only competent Jorgmund doctor and she'd be very mad at us if we did something to get you hurt. ;)

[Which isn't the only reason, but Sam can't come out and say that at the moment.]