piper90npcs: (Richard Washburn)
piper90npcs ([personal profile] piper90npcs) wrote in [community profile] piper902021-01-14 07:28 pm

Jorgmund Emergency Announcement

[In the middle of the night, when even the night watch shifts should be pacing through the dorm area, there’s a peal of noise from the communicators impossible to ignore or sleep through. It’s clearly an alarm of some sort, like tornado alerts back on Earth. It goes on for solid three minutes, long enough for everyone to move on from being woken by it to loathing it, before a message shows up on the communicators-

-and the doorways out of each of the dorms are sealed with a semi-translucent forcefield.

On the communicator screen, Richard Washburn shows up and straightens his tie.
]

Hello, employees. Believe me, I’m not any happier about this midnight interruption than you are, but we’re currently in a state of – mild – emergency. I don’t want anyone to get overly excited, but until the situation is resolved, you will remain in your dorms. Depending on how long this takes, all activities scheduled for tomorrow morning have been suspended.

The reason for this is that we have an intruder in your living quarters. We have this footage from a few weeks ago.

[A new image shows up on the communicator: a security camera video of a Santa Claus with a line of the highest executive-level parents and their small children waiting to tell him their wishlist. A little girl in pigtails and a sparkly t-shirt of a Christmas tree hops up onto his lap.

“Ho, ho, ho!” Santa says, and he boops her nose. “Aren’t you a peach? Tell me, little one. What would you like for Christmas?”

“I want a big plastic spider!” the girl says excitedly.

“A creepy little child, aren’t you? Well, that’s just swell, because that’s my favorite flavor,” Santa says, and then – blurry on the security camera footage – transforms into a mass of black goo, latching onto the little girl’s face and suctioning to stay on. The child’s mother screams and yanks her daughter away, and the footage shows pure pandemonium as some parents lunge forward to help the mother with her daughter while other parents snatch their own children and start running. In all the chaos, the black goo vanishes.

Washburn flicks the footage away and reappears on the screen.
]

Thankfully, there were no fatalities in this incident, and after we couldn’t find any evidence of the attacker, we assumed that it was a freak incident of the Stuff. However, there was recently another unsuccessful attack on a teenager by this same creature posing as one of the tutors on the Rig, and then again on another thankfully unharmed child disguised as another child, and then on another child under the guise of a children’s television show host named “Mr. Rogers”, and tonight-

[He takes a deep breath, annoyed, as if this is somehow the Hires’ faults.]

-tonight we found a security breach to your floor, and we have good reason to believe that the shapeshifter is posing as one of you.

We know this: we know it poses as figures appealing to children, so for obvious reasons, you won’t be allowed anywhere near any Jorgmund staff whatsoever until this is resolved. We know that its ability to disguise itself is relatively seamless. And we know that it preys on minors.

If you can determine who among you isn’t at all appealing to children, we can consider releasing you from your dorm and discussing next steps to search out whoever’s been replaced.

If this starts taking long enough that it jeopardizes the Jorgmund’s mission, we may start taking more drastic measures to ensure that we aren’t harboring any imposters.

I’ll keep you updated if you keep me updated.
trialbyliar: (Default)

[locked to new hires]

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
[Kokichi is on the loose.

Which is to say, he tends to sleep in random hidden spots around the Rig because the dorms are super exposed and he's a paranoid little shit. But hey, it's working in everyone's favor right now, because he is free of lockdown and is immediately getting to work. Between illusion magic, a magic disguise choker, and generally being a top-tier sneak, he's bunkered down in an unattended security guard station and started going through camera footage. It's an enlightening experience.

He leaves the lights off. Better if his location isn't immediately recognizable when he hops on the comms. His face is only lit by the glow of various screens as he adopts an unconcerned smile.]


This place sure does keep things interesting, huh? Another murder monster already! How exciting!

[He hates it. But this is his brand, so he's all smiles and easy confidence.]

Of course, there's no way I was gonna get caught up in a lockdown like that. And I've some stuff to deal with out here, so you losers are on your own. But hey, have fun with it! It's a game of suspicion! Those are my favorite.

[Leaning over to double check someone away from the comm, Kokichi gives a thoughtful little hum.]

Buuut it wouldn't be any fun if there was a bloodbath and the game ended too soon, so I'll give you guys a hint: The breach occurred about two hours before the alarm went off. The Babadick had to have snatched someone up in that time. So if you've got a solid alibi for those two hours, now's the time to share it!
71lines: (042)

[personal profile] 71lines 2021-01-15 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
You're worse than trash, Kokichi.
trialbyliar: (pic#14449518)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
You mad?

[Worse. Than. Trash.]

Why? I'm helping you guys out, aren't I? Or are you just pissed because you don't have an alibi and this makes you more suspicious?
71lines: (018)

[personal profile] 71lines 2021-01-15 05:46 am (UTC)(link)
Awful quick to try to throw blame onto others, too.
trialbyliar: (Default)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 05:51 am (UTC)(link)
I'm not the one that might be an imposter. You still aren't explaining why you're so upset by a chance to narrow down the list of suspects.
googledox: (002)

video

[personal profile] googledox 2021-01-15 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
Precisely how did you acquire this information?
trialbyliar: (pic#14449515)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
Ahh, I shouldn't reveal too much. After all, one of you is the imposter, right? It'd be pretty dumb to share info that might end up helping our culprit.
googledox: (002)

[personal profile] googledox 2021-01-15 05:52 am (UTC)(link)
Then it's effectively useless. You could be the intruder yourself and may be trying to throw us off the scent.

It's convenient that you were caught outside of the dorms.
trialbyliar: (Default)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
Use that big alien brain. I mean, by that logic, Dickwash himself could be the intruder and this thing is using his authority to keep all the scary powerful people out of the way. Or it could be Dan, lying about how the monster works to throw everyone off. I don't see you pestering them for their sources.
googledox: (193)

locked to Kokichi

[personal profile] googledox 2021-01-15 06:17 am (UTC)(link)
I had considered those prospects, but if we're able to clear everyone it will be more evident that one of the executives has been replaced.

Or in the process of using the various methods we've suggested, an inconsistency in Dan's behaviors or abilities might become evident.

So that leaves you and your mystery source.

If there was ever a time for you to drop that cloying act of yours, now would be the time.
trialbyliar: (pic#14449512)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 06:31 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh, "cloying". How harsh. But I guess this means you're finally learning to distrust people a bit!

[That, and as much as he wants to play his cards close to his chest, it doesn't help anyone if they completely dismiss what info he can give them. And it is locked just to Brainy now, so any shenanigans linking to this knowledge would be easier to track, so...]

So I guess you deserves a teensy reward.

[And his flips his comm around, the view instead panning onto an array of security cameras lit up bright in the dark room. He focuses on one, where he's got one video paused – the blurry shape of a human woman entering the dorms area, with a timestamp at the bottom marking roughly two hours before Dickwash's alert.]

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passifloraincarnata: (with wounds i cannot mend)

Re: [locked to new hires]

[personal profile] passifloraincarnata 2021-01-15 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
[Once again, Setsuna no-sells all these antics and zeroes in on the part of the conversation that might actually prove helpful to someone.]

Thank you, ... Kokichi, was it?

If you find out anything else, don't hesitate to pass it on, okay?

[She is, notably and visibly, no longer in a dorm room. If she weren't clearly using the comm tagged to her ID, she wouldn't really be easily recognized as "Setsuna Higashi" anymore, either, with her pink hair, ruffled red dress, and various other aesthetic changes.]
trialbyliar: (pic#14449520)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
[He's very quick to narrow in on those details. But he's also quick to play dumb.]

Wow, a magical girl?? [He's a nerd, he knows that aesthetic.] Are you here to save us from the monster? Where are you right now?

[Just...subtly digging for info, nbd.]
passifloraincarnata: (communion wine has stained me red)

[personal profile] passifloraincarnata 2021-01-15 06:14 am (UTC)(link)
I'm on my way to wherever you are, hopefully.

[She gives him her best reassuring smile, but doesn't give him an inch beyond that. Two can play at that game, Kokichi.]

And I'm just here to help as best I can. I can't do any good for the rest of us if I'm already outside the dorm areas like this and doing nothing, after all.
trialbyliar: (pic#14449525)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 06:34 am (UTC)(link)
Huh? So you're not in the dorms helping with the monster?

[He plasters on a shocked expression, but he's thinking quickly. Assuming she's cleared by virtue of not being in the dorms – which he won't entirely trust, but it's better than nothing – then at least he's got an additional piece on the board to work with.]
passifloraincarnata: (with wounds i cannot mend)

[personal profile] passifloraincarnata 2021-01-15 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's a flicker of guilty doubt that crosses her face, just for a moment, then it passes, determination overcoming it. Determination and an odd certainty.]

You aren't, either, are you? So that makes us partners in crime, doesn't it? For now.

... anyway, if it can pretend to be other people, especially if it can convince the people it meets that it's who it wants them to think it is, our best bet is finding the person it's pretending to be before it catches another victim.

And since it can't vanish the body to anywhere like the other side of a mirror, that means the person it attacked is still here, on the Rig, somewhere. Outside the dorms.

[She hesitates, gritting her teeth, before shaking her head slightly.]

... probably. I hope. Anyway, I can cover more ground out here than most others, more quickly. I'll be more use to everyone doing this than trying to guess whether any of us that I've been ... too ... preoccupied to have met, yet, are who they say they are.

[A pause. Then she turns the magical girl sincerity up as high as she can - which is pretty high, since she means every bit of her appeal.]

So, Kokichi, would you be willing to lend me the aid of those screens of yours, wherever you are, and tell me where to start? We'll save so many people's lives if we just work together.

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googledox: (090)

locked to new hires, including Kokichi. For once

[personal profile] googledox 2021-01-15 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
Kokichi has provided me his source and it is actually verifiable.

Since everyone has absolutely no reason to believe him, it seemed prudent to validate the information.

For the record, I do have an alibi for that period.

[A pause. There is a slight blush of darker green on his cheeks.]

Robbie does as well.
trialbyliar: (pic#14449518)

a mistake, clearly

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
Ooh, how scandalous. And it's a rock-solid alibi, huh? You were together, both awake and active, that whole time?

[Sorry Brainy, you don't deserve this when you're actually trusting him for once.]
googledox: (102)

Re: a mistake, clearly

[personal profile] googledox 2021-01-15 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
We were cuddling, get your mind out of the septic receptacle.
Edited 2021-01-15 07:08 (UTC)
trialbyliar: (pic#14449517)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-15 07:16 am (UTC)(link)
Cuddling? How indecent!

[He's laughing. At least someone can find something to laugh about in all this.]
ragefeathers: (So don't be afraid)

Locked to Kokichi;

[personal profile] ragefeathers 2021-01-19 02:25 am (UTC)(link)
Alright, so what have you got? I'm gonna be hunting this thing and I need all the edge I can get.
trialbyliar: (pic#14449513)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-19 03:55 am (UTC)(link)
Eh? Why should I trust you with that info? I mean, you do know there's a monster lurking around wearing someone's face, right?

[Welp. This is already shaping up to be a disaster.]

You're gonna have to prove your innocence first! Do you have an alibi?
ragefeathers: (I could keep you warm)

[personal profile] ragefeathers 2021-01-19 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
Oh sweet Mother.

[ She's trying to keep her shit together. Don't get mad. Don't get mad. Don't get mad. ]

Stacia cleared me and I cleared Stacia.
trialbyliar: (pic#14449521)

[personal profile] trialbyliar 2021-01-19 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
And I'm supposed to just believe that without proof? For all I know, you've already murdered poor, sweet, gentle Stacia!

[Okay, now you know he's full of shit.]
ragefeathers: (But the rest of my pack)

[personal profile] ragefeathers 2021-01-19 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
Give it a fucking rest already. We don't have time to fuck around right now.

[ Her anger is bubbling closer and closer to the surface and she needs to keep her shit together. ]

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