whethertheyshould: (pic#14368871)
[personal profile] whethertheyshould
I've done some asking around, and if you're wondering why you were targeted or bitten by the, ah, the so-called 'cherubs', I've pretty much narrowed it down to you being in love. I don't know if trying to not feel loving feelings helps, however. I would say it couldn't hurt to try, but I think what hurts a lot less than that is simply avoiding the areas where they are gathering, which is in the hallways.
ownperson: (pb; purple talking neutral)
[personal profile] ownperson
Alright, locking this because if the guys in the other rooms are being anything like us there's messes we don't need the corps seeing us fuckin' making, or worse, but whatever, point is:

[ South holds up a colour printout of all the current Hires faces, with all the teens and younger circled, but numerous others' faces crossed through with Xs:

Guts
Kevin Armstrong
Breq Mianaai
Ronald McDonald
Alia
Dan Sagittarius
Agent Washington
Agent New York
Agent South Dakota
Sarah Kerrigan
Aiden Price
Lavernius Tucker
Carolina
Agent North Dakota
Nora Valkyree
Sam Winchester
Brandon Saint John
Rune Saint John
Garviel Loken
Mackenzie Haynes
Rogue ]


We found a fuckin' doozy. Gonna guess the crosses mean we specifically weren't what this thing was fuckin' looking for in a target for copying.

Like we said earlier, we also found Santa's sack in the shower like the thing was trying to wash it out and a whole lot of candy it probably dumped from it. The closet in here was missing a medium uniform and the locks in here are all fucked, but like... carefully fucked. And... that's it? [ she looks over at Kerrigan as if to confirm, then back at the camera ] So far, anyway.

What the fuck's everyone else found? Assuming we haven't been the only team actually getting shit done.
piper90npcs: (Richard Washburn)
[personal profile] 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.
piper90npcs: (Richard Washburn)
[personal profile] piper90npcs
[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.
tarnishedavenger: (Default)
[personal profile] tarnishedavenger
So, we've got a load of new people, and that means it's time for me to do the only thing it feels like I get on these comms to do anymore: AMAs.

For you new people, I find it helps when we get together and explain a little bit about ourselves, any powers we have, and our skillsets. That way we know what we're starting with and what we can build off of. So, please, come and introduce yourselves and be willing to answer questions.
pathkin: (004)
[personal profile] pathkin
FYI I've cut Setsuna's comm off. I got notice of suspicious activity that happened during a time she was out cold in the Infitmary. Seems like our unwelcome guest on the rig was smart enough to snatch at least one comm instead of wrecking them all.

That comm is now completely cut off from the network so it no longer has access.

We should maybe take this as a lesson for the future, given the possible access unwelcome parties can have. Everyone should keep an eye out and make sure everyone walks away with their comm from any altercation - or make sure the comm is now least busted parts. Because if they go missing, I can cut them off. We've apparently got crafty bad guys willing to make use of any comms they can snag.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, you've all apparently got some planning to do to take out you know who.

Time to get crackin'.
piper90npcs: (K)
[personal profile] 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.

[AUDIO]

Nov. 22nd, 2020 02:20 am
71lines: (013)
[personal profile] 71lines
So, after Catra's birthday surprise, I kind of got to wondering. I mean, I'm nineteen. [She'd been eighteen when she first arrived here, but... Well. She hadn't announced her birthday, nor had Jorgmund advertised it for her.] Catra's twenty now. I guess that means Adora's nineteen or twenty. How old are the rest of you?
trialbyliar: (pic#14449512)
[personal profile] trialbyliar
[Someone has spent the last few hours holed up reading through everything on the network. Everything. Every post on both the public and encrypted networks, every comment, every introduction. He might have made notes if he'd had any paper, but for now he's just keeping it all in his head. And it's a lot.

But finally, he gets around to making a post himself. The new face that pops up on the comms is young, though the exact age is hard to determine – one of those baby faces that could be anywhere from like twelve to eighteen. He seems thoroughly unimpressed as he sits back to stare down the communicator screen.]


Wow, the corporate hellscape was pretty bad, but apparently there's a murderer on the loose, too? You'd think they'd at least switch up the genre this time.

[Who is "they"? Well, that's what he'd like to know.

But his expression abruptly changes, all childish excitement and wonder. He grins down at the communicator, nearly bouncing with excess energy.]


But how cool! A special network secret from Jorgmund? It's like we're spies! I'm sure with everyone working together, we can get out of this whole mess!

[Aw, how nice. Unfortunately, that optimistic energy suddenly disappears as the smile drops off his face, replaced with a sly smirk.]

Is that what I'm supposed to say? You're all pretty naive if you really think this network is any safer than the other one! I guess that's how so many of you have gotten picked off by just one killer, huh? What, did you just skip up to this mystery lady like "heeeyyy, you totally won't peel my face off, right?" and expect to be best friends?

[ bitch that's rude ]

Aaaanyway, I guess it's pretty standard to introduce ourselves on these things. Pretty rude of you guys to not even bother meeting people properly in person, but whatevs!

[He leans back in his seat, sizing up the communicator like it's an actual person prostate before him, and spreads his arms in a theatrical gesture.]

I'm Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader. I'm sure we're all gonna be the best of friends!

[A cheery smile, completely shameless as he tacks on at the end:]

But that's a lie. You should probably know I'm a liar.
credit_not_blame: (Scorn)
[personal profile] credit_not_blame
Guess who spent the night overthinking instead of sleeping? That's right, it's this bitch.

[Stacia usually looks sleep-deprived and annoyed in the mornings, but she definitely looks moreso today. She muffles a yawn behind her hand.]

I've got some new information, and some follow-up questions regarding it. I'm gonna summarize what I think is important too; if you disagree with my assessment 1) bite me, 2) add it in yourself.

Our problem is a murder-y redhead with tattoos and fetish gear and the ability to pull weapons out of her ass and know how many people you've killed. She's obviously some kind of supernatural nasty who may have been popping up on the Rig to do murders for a couple years. Her name might be Belle, and we got a weird story about how one brother killed the other over her because she was hot, but also invisible. She seems to be working her way up the org chart in finance, but she's not adverse to killing and torturing outside of it.

As for the new stuff: I received a series of texts from a mysterious and unknown source the night Robbie, Rogue, Saturday, and Data were attacked; which is how I knew shit was going down. This source told me where they were and that they were being attacked, and when I asked if they could give me anymore information, I got some...I don't know, Shakespeare?

I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd—‘La Belle sans Pitie
Hath thee in thrall!’

So my follow up question is: has anyone else seen any weird writing anywhere? Because our mysterious and unknown source is not answering my texts.
xrater: (10)
[personal profile] xrater
[Alia appears on the video. She's in a bathroom, wearing a low-cut red dress and wiping make-up off of her face with the steaming hot water in the sink. When she speaks, though, it's all business.]

So, I've done some poking around. Jorgmund employs multiple wireless networks, some with secret nodes, and different security features for each. I guess that they don't want the sanitation crew using up all of the bandwidth that the President would be using.

I'm dispersing my findings via a briefing document hosted on my robot network to reduce load on Lone Star's network. Each of you gets one copy that will delete itself after you've read through it once, so remember at least part of it. Just scroll to the bottom or restart your comm unit to purge. Some of this comes from gossip I've overheard.

[She pauses, then leans in and dabs at a little black speck between her teeth with a paper towel. Peppercorn. Alia continues like she hadn't stopped.]

Others from more solid surfaces. I've seen a few unsecured medical and financial reports and a good bit of security investigations. Some things just required a bit of finger walking, totally unsecured, others were a little more technical work. I'll spare you the explanations.

Accept Data Pulse? y/n )

It goes without saying, nothing interesting on my cameras. After that last recording of Planker, he sat there for 3.7 hours, then went to bed, slept for three hours, woke up, got dressed, and went to work. From the sound of things, we can expect a new obstacle course soon. If you've any questions, I'll try to answer them, but I have work to do in the lab.

text;

Oct. 12th, 2020 05:47 pm
breq: (Default)
[personal profile] breq
How sure are you that these communications are secure?

[ Breq is not at all going to be taking her communications for granted. Not here. Not anywhere. Not from people who could steal her away from Nilt without so much as tripping any alarms. ]

I understand things have been a bit confused lately.

[ Understatement, to put it mildly. ]
pasthole: (Default)
[personal profile] pasthole
Alright. I'm back.

Don't ask me where I went. I'll save us all a lot of time by saying I have no fucking idea? I would be more disconcerted, but shit just happening for no reason is a wheelhouse with which I am passing familiar so I'm ready to move on.

What I do know is they processed me as a new hire, again, and any system communication referring to "Karkat 2" is in fact about the same long-suffering asshole you have already come to know.

Please don't send shit to my old inbox because I won't be able to access it.

Actually wait. Do send your shit to my old inbox. A fertile plot of soil conditioning can grow from everyone's unwanted inane comments. We can use it to feed our anemic and spineless earth vegetables. God knows they don't bite hard enough to get any protein.
tarnishedavenger: (Default)
[personal profile] tarnishedavenger
[Armstrong hates to do this after so many people have introduced themselves in locked channels, but they at least need to put on a show of meeting for Jorgmund's sake.]

So, we've got a few new people here since the last time we did something like this. Time to get introductions done and over with. Just list your name, powers, if any, relevant facts, and, if you feel like it, answer reasonable questions that people have. We'll be able to function together more effectively if we know more about each other. Keep it sensible and try not to wheedle out any dark secrets.

Or, you know, old people can tell people why Taco Tuesday is the best.
parannoyed: (012)
[personal profile] parannoyed
[Wash is quickly learning that Jorgmund isn't the hardest to lie to. One of the benefits of working with middle management in a corporation instead of army leadership, he supposes. They bought that the egg stasis containers Wash tampered with were hit by acid spray during battle, and they even bought his excuse for why they failed the mission objective, why he hadn't acted as a "corrector."]

[Nobody died, after all. Wash pointed out that he'd gone into a conflict where they hadn't even assigned a field leader and walked out with everyone alive. And aren't the New Hires a very expensive and difficult to replace asset, as well? Or else they wouldn't have the shock collars to ensure their compliance.]

[Jorgmund had agreed with his assessment and told him his performance was adequate, and that his assessment of the situation was correct.]

[Then they'd shocked him, told him they expected better than "adequate" in the future and that he wasn't supposed to follow through on a correct tactical assessment unless they told him to.]

[Wash can tell they're trying to soften all they're doing with faux benevolence and nice words with everyone else - why call them "New Hires" if not to make what they're doing seem normal and reasonable? He wonders if they're dispensing with that faux softness with him because they know he's competent enough to see right through it - and because they have an extra bit of leverage to ensure his total obedience regardless of what they do to him. It's a daunting prospect, having to work with people that think there's nothing he'll say no to and who know there's more of chance he'll never fight back than some of the other New Hires.]

[But for now, at the very least he gets to keep both his life and the implant, and now he has to focus on continuing to keep them. To do that, he needs this group to be able to meet their mission objectives (and he doesn't dare risk sabotaging that again). And to do that they need to get their act together. It's not their fault that last mission was disorganized and sloppy, it was Jorgmund's for sending a bunch of brand new agents out there with the regulars, with unfamiliar equipment, and having not even met yet.]

[But it's still a problem that needs to be resolved.]

[It'll also be a lot easier to perform to expectations when they're not randomly getting almost-murdered.]

[After the self-executing encrypted code executes (something he won't tell Jorgmund about on the off chance the resistance here is effective enough to actually get them all out, but will keep in his back pocket if needs it) he gathers intel first, quietly lurking and reading.]

[Then he introduces himself like someone who's used to walking into different situations and immediately bossing everyone around, as ones does (if you're a Freelancer, at least). His voice is clipped and a little stiff, but occasionally dips into dry and sardonic.]

I'm Agent Washington. I may have run into some of you on that mission with the aliens...

[A pause.]

From Aliens.

But otherwise I'm new here. I need a sitrep and an overview of your defense plans so I can recommended improvements.

Also, who's in charge here? I know Jorgmund hasn't appointed anyone formally - because I asked - but you had to have made some kind of decision informally.

[Because the alternative is total anarchy and who lives like that??]

Then again, that mission in Pilton was a disaster, so if you haven't chosen a leader internally, why not?

[Look at Judge Judy all up in here.]
xrater: (10)
[personal profile] xrater
So, we have a bit of a decision to make here. I have my preferences, of course, but they may not line up with yours and since they might mean some... dramatic life changes for us, it would be best if I asked you.

Some of you may know many of the security cameras don't work. It's a longstanding problem. Some of you may know why they don't work. (If you don't, the less you know, the better.) I can fix this issue so that the security cameras on the Rig work. All of them. Everywhere. However, with the limited functionality of the computers I'm allowed to use, I can't keep them selectively blind. They'll either work for both Jorgmand and us or not at all. In addition, once I've informed Jorgmund that the problem's been fixed, there's no plausible way for us to go back to enjoying the relative privacy we've had so far.

So, in short, we'd have eyes and could rely both on Security and ourselves to spot anything... amiss, like our attacker moving into action again. But there would be no more blind spots, we'd have to be more careful, or find a way to engineer glitches that won't raise suspicion.

That's option 1.

Option 2 is simple.


Download aliaworkshop062.gif? y/n

[The image is of Alia's workspace, largely spotless and polished to a near mirror-sheen. For those with lots of hope and a fertile imagination, no, this isn't her attempting the one finger selfie challenge. Repent for your sins. No, instead it's a few small robots. Some mechanical worms about four or five inches long, something that looks like segmented snake, and a metallic spider the size of a large tarantula. Only five total.]

Apologies for the low quality image. Jorgmund's communicators are rather substandard. For the past several weeks, I've been allowed a small budget to build useful machines and advance Jorgmund's scientific knowledge. As you can see in the attached image, this is what I have available so far. The other options are either too loud or too large to fit into the ducts without issue. I could build more, easily, but I've used up my allotted budget and couldn't put cameras inside of them.

We can send these on patrols, inspecting various rooms, point them at specific suspects to track, or set to watch specific areas where an attack or an escape may occur. I can explain their use to the R&D heads as field testing, if need be.

With these active, we would maintain our privacy but, as you can see, we would be limited to only five more sets of eyes in addition to our own.

Personally, Option 1 feels like the best choice, but I'm not going to take such a step without consulting the rest of you.
garmr: (pic#13331548)
[personal profile] garmr
[Guts’ voice will be jumping in at the crack of dawn, and he’s pissed.]

If you don’t wanna die in this stinking metal heap, then listen up.

Adora found Setsuna and Tenten after someone tried to kill them. They'll live, but they're in bad shape. Real bad. The guards were useless, as you would expect.

They were attacked in one of the locked halls while we were sleeping, around the west side of the Rig. No one knows who did it, so keep your eyes peeled. Don't wander around alone if you don't have to.

Unless somebody’s got any better ideas, we should mount up a night watch until the bastard is found - in shifts and in pairs. Any of you that can fight and have a sharp eye can chip in. Don’t expect many of us to be getting much sleep, anyway.
toinfinity_andbeyond: (14)
[personal profile] toinfinity_andbeyond
[While Woody needed some time to come to terms with speaking to big people, and more time to test the waters as to how they'd receive him, Buzz has already overcome the hurdle of making first contact, and has longer term plans to set in motion. Woody's comfort keeps him from introducing himself right away, but once his pal has calmed down a little, Buzz doesn't wait around.

His introduction video arrives as encrypted as possible and labeled "for New Hire eyes only," in case anyone was in danger of opening it in front of an employee.

The video is being shot from the communicator installed in Buzz's forearm, and the Uncanny Valley of seeing an action figure speak is unavoidable, well, that's a shame.]


Greetings. I am Buzz Lightyear. I come in peace.

That's a space toy joke.

[He's trying his best to maintain good Space Ranger bearing, but though he's not consumed with anxiety at breaking the non-contact rules the way Woody is, he's still a little nervous.]

As you may have gathered, I am an action figure. [sure it's obvious, but it is the tiny plastic elephant in the room he has to acknowledge.] Under normal circumstances I wouldn't have made myself known but . . . Jorgmund didn't leave me much of a choice. Therefore I've decided to introduce myself and clarify my, uh. Unusual circumstances.

[Gosh he's already embarassed by the masquerade he's going to have to keep up.]

Due to a nonfunctional feature of my model, Jorgmund currently believes I am under the delusion I'm a real Space Ranger. I'm not. They also believe I am loyal to their agenda. I'm not.

[He has to be vague. Brainy would be implicated immediately if it were known that his demo switch no longer worked. This channel may be secure, but not secure enough for him to risk someone else's secret. He can pretend the switch never worked in the first place, and that the drama surrounding it during his interview has been a clever lie of his own all this time.]

If I'm right, this deception may be useful in covert operations against our captors. Therefore I am apologizing in advance for anything . . . mind blowingly stupid I say or do in front of everyone to keep Jorgmund convinced I'm too deluded to question even their substandard ethics.

[If he sounds formal, well, he's being formal. He thought for quite a while about how to make this speech, and longest about how to end it.]

I understand it may be . . . unsettling for some of you to think of a toy as alive. I will do my best to be considerate. I don't know how it feels to be a person. [He thinks he does, because he thought he was one once, but since he never has been, he must not actually know.] But I think I want to see this world saved and all of us safely home again as much as anyone else here could.

[Even with all this planning he still looks a little awkward and uncertain as he picks his closing statement.] This is Buzz Lightyear, out.
bringinghopewithme: (springtime on EVERY CONTINENT)
[personal profile] bringinghopewithme
[After doing everything he can to verify he's locked this correctly, i.e. asking Stacia to check if he did it right, Bunny presses forth with testing Lonestar's claims.]

Well I haven't been interrogated or tortured any more than usual. Do we trust this thing or not?

[EDITED The next day comes an additional video message -]

I realized two things. Some of you rightly guessed I lied about stealing keys from Jorgmund. Some of you pointed out Jorgmund might somehow be smart enough not to take obvious bait. Well -

[He holds up one paw, and twirls a keyring around one digit.]

It's not a lie anymore.

It got me into a closet and now we have - [He re-angles the camera to show: a metal hammer, multi-bit screwdrivers with a wide range of interchangeable bits, an adjustable wrench, a tiny screwdriver set for delicate work, and a small soldering iron.]

Anyone thinks they can do something useful with any of this, come see me. I'm keeping them hidden and I'm not telling any of you where until I know for sure who talks too much and who doesn't.

September 2021

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