piper90npcs: (Richard Washburn)
piper90npcs ([personal profile] piper90npcs) wrote in [community profile] piper902021-08-23 05:20 pm
Entry tags:

New Mission

[After a night weathering a Stuff storm, the rig has stopped, the way it has before when there's a mission. But it's different this time. Now that the Stuff rains have slowed and stopped, there are sounds of violence outside. Shouts. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire.]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm afraid I come to you under dire circumstances. Due to topographical limitations, the rig has been forced through one area in the valley.

Unfortunately, this area is inhabited by a small village. These people don't understand the importance of the rig, it's very necessity for humanity. We need your help with evacuation, especially since it might be more...forceful than usual.

These people can be given much safer shelter in the Livable Zone and we need you to keep that in mind if evacuation resorts to violence. You are being ordered to subdue any resistance, keeping in mind that while this confrontation may not be ideal, they will be brought to safer areas to live.

It's for their own good, you see.

Which means that if there are any New Hires that refuse to follow orders, discipline will unfortunately be necessary.

[He actually looks vaguely uncomfortable at that.]

You'll be receiving your orders shortly. Please standby.
onequartershark: (13)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-24 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
So, how many of them is the company preparing to shoot if they don't comply?

[ Carolina is ice fucking cold. ]

You know, considering I'm sure you haven't had time to surgically implant lethal shock collars in all of them.
onequartershark: (13)

(For context, this is after Brainy)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-24 06:39 am (UTC)(link)
While we're being granted use of lethal force, how many of us are considered acceptable losses to "discipline?"

[ She looks straight into the camera, so her image's stare skewers right into Dickwash. Fucking squirm, asshole. ]
Edited (Timing notes lol) 2021-08-24 06:42 (UTC)
onequartershark: (14)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-24 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
How serious of a crime is stopping this rig? It's such an important rig. It's so necessary for humanity.

[ She's calm, but there's increasing venom in every word. ]

It's serious enough for mandatory relocation and use of lethal force, after all. I think it's pretty clear where the company stands on this. It's pretty clear how the company has always stood on this.

[ She echoes his own words back at him: ]

No more games, Mr. Washburn. No more pretense.

[ You're here, fucker. You're in this. There's no way out of facing what you're doing as part of this. ]
onequartershark: (14)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-24 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
[ Got you. ]

[ This wasn't calculated, not at first. Carolina was just gunning to hurt him, to pour out her anger and months of built up powerlessness on this spineless pencilneck, the most reachable target. ]

[ But then things started moving, and here she's found some kind of crack, just wide enough to squeeze into. No idea what's on the other side. She has to make a call. ]

One hour then. We'll talk.

[ Carolina has taken a long time to come to know who she is, and to rebuild that person into someone she wants to be. And that someone can give no other answer. ]
onequartershark: (14)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-26 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ After some less deliberation, more notice giving, Carolina arrives. There's a solid chance she's about to be attacked, but... there's an equally solid chance she's not. ]

[ It's dangerous to attempt to answer this in good faith, but Carolina has: She has come alone, and unarmed. ]
onequartershark: (13)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-28 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
[ Carolina doesn't know what she expected, but this seems to be falling soundly into "not an ambush" territory. She'll take it. She'll also eye the clicker with steady wariness, but it doesn't make her shift. That was expected, regardless. ]

I'm sorry about your wife.

[ And she actually is. Her own father was destroyed by such a loss. At least he still seems to care for his surviving family, which is more than Carolina could say for Leonard Church. ]

I don't know how much you know about me, Washburn, but let me tell you something important that took me a very long time to learn.

[ No combativeness. Her temper has had some time to cool, and more context is pouring in. She's starting to think she might understand. ]

The people who matter in your life, really matter, do not want you to be a disposable monster for them.
onequartershark: (10)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-28 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
I... Yes?

[ She seems a little surprised to be asked. Carolina's arms are folded, but her fingers loosen. ]

Probably. I won't lie to you: being here in the first place instead of home is not my favorite, but if I was going to be here anyway...

[ She shakes her head. ]

I didn't need to be shock collared like an attack dog to get me to help protect innocent people. I try to just do that now.

And I think there has to be a way to do that without turning all of us into this.

[ Her posture loosens up. Carolina gestures with one arm between the two of them, but also outward: This rig, this company, this whole toxic mess. ]
onequartershark: (14)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-28 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ She watches him, sees where his eyes land, feels another sting of disgust at the memory. ]

[ She didn't know Brainy on a very personal level. She hasn't been the most sociable or trusting person on this rig. But still, she knows the answer. Carolina lets out a long, considering breath. ]

Brainiac Five was trapped here with a bunch of strangers, and built a system to try to keep the rest of us safe. He saw a bunch of innocent people whose lives were in danger, and in the end he gave his trying to protect us.

I think he would have, if the company hadn't decided to be what he had to protect us from.
onequartershark: (13)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-28 07:18 am (UTC)(link)
And one of the people who might have been the best equipped to find a way to fix this without rolling over a town.

[ She won't let him retreat back behind the screens of justification that Jorgmund is all too happy to roll out. But also, she doesn't need to break him. He's already broken: this is a scared wreck of a man whose only comfort is probably the belief that he's had no choice. ]

[ She sees the paper then, and it knocks the other thoughts away. ]

...Is that what I think it is?

[ Oh god damn. She straightens, trying to downplay how important this might be but only barely managing. ]
onequartershark: (14)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-28 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
Shit.

[ There were so many ways this could have gone. Carolina hadn't believed she could get this much. She's scary. She's good in a fight. She's not good at people and never honed anything she'd need to persuade someone to flip like this. ]

[ ...Right? ]

[ She reaches out to take what she still can't believe she's being handed. They're real. They're in her fingers now and they're real and she has them. ]

[ Carolina pulls her eyes away from her impossible prize, slips the paper and fob into a pocket, and looks at Dickwash. ]

We'll use this.

[ That's a promise. Good job, pencilneck, you finally took a risk to do something right. ]

We'll take any time you can give us, but you need to get out of here. You hurt a lot of people on this rig more than I can ask anyone to forgive.
onequartershark: (13)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-28 07:53 am (UTC)(link)
[ She nods, curtly. ]

I made a lot of decisions I'm not proud of, once. People died because of them. I hoped I might be one, for a while.

But if I had, we wouldn't have had this conversation. I wouldn't have had a chance to be someone else.

[ She looks toward the door. There are several people she knows are anxiously waiting for her to get back out there in one piece. It also just makes it easier to say this, facing away. ]

I was really young when I lost my mom.

I lost my dad too, it just took him a lot longer to die.

I don't think your kid deserves that.
onequartershark: (12)

[personal profile] onequartershark 2021-08-28 08:05 am (UTC)(link)
[ That does draw out a faint, not necessarily reassuring smile. ]

I guarantee it.

Go do what you need to, Washburn.

I have work to do.

[ With that, Carolina turns to go report to her cavalry. ]
poor_unlucky_girl: (neutral)

[personal profile] poor_unlucky_girl 2021-08-24 03:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jennifer gasps hearing the horrible news and, like the smart young lady she is, she asks:]

Excuse me, why can't we just welcome them on the Rig if that is a concern? They could help us!