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piper902021-01-14 07:28 pm
piper90npcs) wrote in 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.
-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.
Re: [locked to Stacia]
Can you expect them to show me respect when I don't tell them they should? When I, in fact, deliberately conceal that information?
Re: [locked to Stacia]
[ She runs a hand through her hair, clearly still seething a bit about this. ]
It just pisses me off, okay?
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
That's fine. Hell, it's reasonable considering what you know. Be pissed off about it, keep venting to me when you want to smack them instead. But is there another way you can approach the situation? A way you can think about it that dulls the sharpest edge of the rage to a tolerable annoyance?
[It's probably her responsibility to turn this into a learning experience, right?]
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
[Ooh boy, that's. Good to know. Fuck, she should have guessed.]
All right, that's fair. Let's try another thought: what are ways you can use that Rage? And -- here's the fun part -- what ways can you use it that are productive?
You don't have to answer right away, you can think about it. What's something you can ask me that will confirm that I'm me and not some gross child-eating goo monster?
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
[ She'll try, anyway. ]
...Rank and deed-name? You haven't told anyone besides me that, right?
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
["I'll try" is the best answer Stacia can expect of Kenzie. She moves on to the new topic.]
I haven't, but we aren't testing information other people might have on me, we're looking for information that some semi-psychic monster might have forgotten to pull out of my head.
[She lowers her voice further -- she's been speaking softly, since she's sharing a room with Jack, but trading secrets means taking extra precautions.]
Athro, Nothing-to-See-Here. Just to confirm.
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
[ Kenzie pauses, considers. ]
What was my pack leader's name?
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
[No one but the two of them knows the names of Kenzie's pack members, and since it's not about Stacia's own identity, it's possible that the Babadon't wouldn't have picked it up.]
Her name was Gabriela, Deeds-Above-Words, and you do credit to her memory.
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
Thanks. What about you? Don't you need to clear me?
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
[Your rhya will give you praise for using your brain and you will like it young lady!]
Where did I find Lilly?
[Correct answer: In a dumpster, eating a pizza, surrounded by rat spirits. Lilly was always going to be a Bone Gnawer.]
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
In a dumpster eating pizza. Chilling with a bunch of Rat's kids.
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
Bingo.
If you're going out to hunt, it may be a good idea for me to stick around here. One of us should stick around in case the babadon't tries to eat someone else, and I don't think they're gonna let me out even with a cleared identity.
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
[ This is why Kenzie lets other people do the planning. She's impulsive and aggressive. Good at doing very few things which are almost all violence. ]
Hold down the fort, then.
Re: [locked to Kenzie & Stacia]
[That's the best thing you can wish an Ahroun, right?]