Jorgmund Emergency Announcement Part II

[piper90npcs]

[That horrible alert sound goes off on all their communicators, and after three minutes, Richard Washburn shows up on the screen. He clearly hasn’t sleep, although he’s just as clearly doing his best to hide that fact.]

Good early morning, hires. Unfortunately, it seems like there’s been very little forward progress on identifying which of you is the shapeshifter, and just as little progress finding the body of whomever it’s impersonating. We’ve spoken with some of our foremost scientists and they believe with a significant degree of certainty that this Stuff creature can only impersonate child-friendly figures.

Some of you have petitioned me and have made compelling cases that no child would ever want anything to do with you, and as such I’m clearing you for release for an internal mission to find the body of the person who was replaced by the impersonator. The following people are cleared to leave…Mr. Price, Mr. Winchester, Agent South Dakota, Agent Washington, Ms. Burnham, Ms. Kerrigan, Alia, Agent Tucker, Mr. Loken, Ms. Haynes, Guts, and…Mr. McDonald.

Hopefully they’ll be alive still.

For the rest of you, it’s been pointed out to me that there are ways you may be able to examine each other and determine who among you is a shapeshifter, and that you may need to demonstrate powers or look at each other in person. As such, while the living quarters as a whole remain locked, you are all released from your dorms and may mingle with each other.

The higher-ups have gotten impatient with this entire thing, so if you haven’t identified the imposter in the next…[he checks his watch]…two hours, my hand may be forced and I may need to utilize your collars to see if we can use discomfort to force the creature to reveal itself.

Please continue to keep me updated.

Comments

[passifloraincarnata]

[Setsuna's answer is immediate, and certain.] Heavy enough they'd have to be very strong to carry all of it for long without strain. It looks to be almost twenty kilograms' worth of candy, if not more.

... a little over a third of the weight of the average adult human body weight, at best.

[Don't everyone thank Cure Passion for that extremely helpful but extremely morbidly concerning fact all at once, now.]

[She frowns, invisible to the feed, as she's facing the candy, not her comm.] Does that even help us at all?

[zerg_rush]

[Kerrigan knows what a kilogram is, Setsuna. And what hauling a dead body is like.]

It means the thing knew the sack would at least hold a child. It's a lot easier to explain a bag over your shoulder than an unconscious kid. It scrapped that plan when it couldn't get out the suspicious stains.

[She holds said suspicious stains up to the camera. Everybody look at the gross goo!]

The black stuff smells rotten. [Wait.] I mean literally rotten, not just bad.

[It reminds her somewhat of the zerg Creep...but she'd prefer not to think about that, and instead she addresses the people waiting in the dorms.]

We still have to search the kitchette, but is there anything you guys want us to take a second look at?

[passifloraincarnata]

Shout out if anything in the refrigerator's turned into a fungusmonster from residual evil corruption at this "Babadon't"'s hands, I wouldn't mind facing a comfortably familiar threat, for once.

[Setsuna doesn't wait to hear if there's any last-minute feedback about their efforts thus far; she nods, respectfully but business-like, to the two soldiers, then turns her head, comm feed following her gaze, towards the door leading out to the gardens.]

I'll see whether there's a lady, or a tiger, beyond this door.

[Some logic puzzles are the same across all worlds, it seems. Setsuna opens the door - by punching the doorknob off, if it isn't easily or already unlocked - and strides through, making her way towards the gardens, braced to pull herself up short in case she faces any obstructions.]

[zerg_rush]

[On her way to the kitchenette, Kerrigan swings by the remains of the chest and helps herself to a handful, popping a peppermint into her mouth. As she turns away she steps on a chocolate Santa, and oops, wouldn't you know it, pivoting on that foot to turn around crushes chocolate into the carpet. Gosh, how careless of her.

She idly offers her candy-filled hand to South as she heads in to rummage through cupboards for clues, and maybe for a really big container to fill with candy. She's not even particularly enthused about sugar, but she is all in on any sort of petty revenge on Jorgmund.]

Dirty sponge, clean sink.

[Her voice is a little indistinct around the mint.]

Who wants to do the trash can?