wheyoftheadept: (Default)
[personal profile] wheyoftheadept
[nb: if you are not trapped in the hell town, you can't see this, per mods]

[Saturday's image, when you open the video feed, is faintly green-tinted. This lends a yellowy look to the bright-red stripes on her short-sleeved shirt. She's also wearing jeans overalls, with shorts that end above the knee. It looks like a ten year old's outfit - because it is]

Hi. Hello? Is anyone else out there? I'm with three of us - besides me there's Loken, Kerrigan, and, uh, Guts.

[The camera pans over to the meanst sonuvabitch-looking three-legged junkyard dog you ever saw. Its eyes are unnervingly human.]

Guts is. Not quite himself at the moment. He's still in there, just - did anything like this happen to anyone else? If there is anyone else? Something more then this place dressin' us up funny an' trynna make us read off a script.

And does anyone remember how we got here?
wherenoonegoes: (Annoyed)
[personal profile] wherenoonegoes
Appearing onscreen is a tall, gangly man who already looks fed up with this entire situation. He's not happy, and for that matter neither is the dragon behind him.]

Hi. Figured this is as good a place to introduce myself as any. I'm Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, Chief of Berk. The dragon behind me is my best friend, Toothless.

Just to get it out of the way, yes, I have heard every possible joke you could make about that. None of them are funny.

Normally this would be the part where I'd say I'm happy to meet all of you, but my wife gave birth to our daughter two days ago. So while I can certainly think of worse possible times for all this, this one is still pretty high up there.

[LOCKED]

If there are any Legionnaires here, however? Disregard that. I [Toothless nudges Hiccup] We actually are happy to see you.
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.
bringinghopewithme: (eyeroll)
[personal profile] bringinghopewithme
Stacia, Armstrong, I need to see both of you in person. On the double. Five minutes ago. Anyone else with a real good sense of smell, you come see me too.

[On the camera, underneath his oak tree in the garden, Bunny has a little bit of that dead-eyed stare that comes from being reminded how thoroughly shackled they all are to the most banal form of evil. Mostly, this is just businesslike, direct. Calmly urgent, after his furious meltdown in the Executive wing got him nowhere good.]

Everyone else: Sam and Dan and I tracked what attacked Tenten and Setsuna into the Executive wing. I smelled it there recently before the suits caught us and kicked us out.

[There's no real reason to bring up their Punishment. It happened, it hurt, he hates that he dragged Dan and Sam into it, but they all knew it was likely to happen. And if anything they learned can help prevent any further damage to the kids, it'll have absolutely been worth it.]

I couldn't identify the species, but it's supernatural, and old. Older than me. Some variety of predator. Given we tracked it into areas we're not allowed to go, and it spent a lot of time wandering around there all leisurely, it either looks enough like a suit that they gave it a pass, or it can walk through walls. If I had money, I'd put it on walking through walls. I'm not ruling out both, though.

But don't worry. Jorgmund's bringing in - [he scoffs, and rolls his eyes hugely] dogs to finish tracking it.

I'm still racking my brains to see if any memory of what it could be falls out, but if any of that rings any bells for all you, I'm all ears.
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.
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.
pasthole: (12)
[personal profile] pasthole
[ Someone makes a post. It's deleted again too quickly to read, but it was definitely riddled with redactions courtesy of the network's filter (which seems to be working today.) A few minutes pass. It happens again, the post is longer and strangely grey, but it's similarly mangled and it's already gone. A third attempt is made, much the same, then... nothing.

Several more minutes tick by. Measured. Thoughtful. Ominous. Will the OP try one more time?

Then it appears: a monstrosity of grey capslock lurches onto the network and this one sticks. The poster's name is apparently Karkat Vantas, and his profile picture fails to yield a face, only a symbol. ]


A lot of unbelievable garbage has happened to me in the last twelve hours, but this? This is it. That anguished sound you hear is the cry of the long-suffering humpbeast that is my patience, its back brutally broken at last by the weight of this final desiccated plant stalk!

I am no stranger to completely stupid communication tools, but this one? This one is truly something special. I am in awe! Do you know how long it took me to get some semblance of control over my text? Do you? I assure you from the bottom of my inflamed bile sponge that you do not!

I was lulled into a sense of false security, naively believing this could not possibly get any worse. I went to post a message! Wow what a moron I must be to have ever supposed that would be easy! Gather round everyone, time to initiate the latest rube to join the idiot carnival! He thinks he can speak his mind without a snotty line of code ripping out his teeth one by one and shoving them right back down his ignorance shaft, what fun we shall have!

Thank you, Jorgmund! Thank you so much for this useless trash, and for this insult to injury! I am so glad that not only have I been kidnapped by aliens, but now I can't even make contact with my fellow captives without first assuming the most deferential posture of insipidity so as not to *dare* offend the grub-soft gander bulbs of an audience of *presumably* fully-moulted adults! I am ecstatic to know that this is the priority here when this entire world is apparently in shambles!

There's no need to take any time out of your jam packed schedules of huffing each other's nooks just to punish my earlier misgivings! My confidence is so inspired I could just choke myself right here and now!


(( OOC: Feel free to use or not use the network's filter as you please, its wild inconsistency can be convenient and a way to drive Karkat up a wall!
Warnings (mostly that Karkat is a loud jerk) and a link to opt out of his capslock nonsense are in his permissions. ))
wheyoftheadept: (Default)
[personal profile] wheyoftheadept
[Anon text, under the name "Quaestor."]

Hey. I can't be the only person who didn't give my full attention to the briefing when I got here; since some information has been recieved recently via a local source about what exactly the fuck is happening in this place, I thought I would compile what I learned here, and people could chime in? Just seems sensible to swap notes; not on our secret squirrel shit but in the general "what is happening and why is it happening to us?" sense.

Locked because my source wasn't supposed to be talking to me about some of these things.

In bullet points, what I've learned:

Read more... )

Sorry if this is old news or difficult to understand. I'm not great at organizing my thoughts, and I figured even if a lot of people know this already, this could be a place to start figuring out what this place's deal is. I have some experience being forcibly bounced around different realities, and the local rules and politics always end up more important than you'd think.

Sorry about the cat.

[So far, everything has gone smoothly, except. Right here, at the bottom. There's a little animated gif of a startled cartoon cat that keeps jumping and rolling backwards, in an endless loop. If she tries to delete it, the program crashes.]

[video]

May. 7th, 2020 02:06 am
greyaria: (047)
[personal profile] greyaria
[Emily isn't wearing the ugly blue jumpsuit. She is instead wearing ugly blue scrubs, and judging by the background, she's in the Infirmary. And she's smiling. Emily is always. Smiling.]

Is there anyone out there with an injury or chronic medical condition that was untreatable in your home universe? I have robotics lab and medical access now. Come on by and we'll see about sorting that out! Or just come by for a checkup! I don't discriminate!

[She should probably set expectations properly, huh? Her good cheer goes from disconcerting to almost normal as she adds her caveat.]

The equipment is, hmm, vintage and I don't promise I can fix everything, especially if your biochemistry is out there compared to humans, but it seems like I'm from the future [she makes wiggly finger gestures, which are apparently supposed to signal...something] relative to quite a few of you, so that's an extra few centuries of medical knowledge. Might as well put it to good use!
partiallysquirrelblood: (Default)
[personal profile] partiallysquirrelblood
Hey pals, Doreen here. I noticed a little confusion about some parts of the situation? Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of confusion to go around, but in this case, I think at least a few of us know what's going on? We just thought everyone else had figured it out by this point.

Sorry about that, but I'm going to try to make up for it.

[She picks up one of the paper plates.]

Pretend this is the world we're on.

[She puts the plate on the table, moving the camera around so it's facing it.]

Now, if anything we've told about this place is true, this is probably Earth.

Robbie and I? We're from Earth. [Another plate on the table.]

Sticky Ben? Yep, Earth. [Third plate on the table.]

Phosphophyllite, Armstrong, Kevin, Gadget? Earth, Earth, Earth, Earth. And another bunch of Earths for most of the rest of us, too. <[Plates just go all over the table.]

I know some of you are from other worlds. They're important, they're where you live, after all, but they're not super-relevant to my point right now. You might want to pay attention just in case, though.

Now, you're thinking, dang, Doreen, that's a lot of people from Earth. You might be wondering why I used so many plates if we're all from the same place.

The thing is while we might all be from Earth, we're not all from the same Earth. Hence all the plates.

See, everything, Earth, the sun, the stars, and other planets? They occupy a thing called the universe. But? There's more than one universe. Universes where life didn't develop, where it developed differently, where the laws of physics have ceased to make any sort of sense, where none of us have powers, where all of us have powers, where our moralities have been entirely flipped, where you decided not to have that donut last week...etcetera.

And in each of them, Earth, or whatever planet you're from, does or doesn't exist. This is what we call a multiverse. And in some cases, it's possible to visit or even be stuck in one of these alternate universes. Which is pretty much what happened here.

I hoped that cleared some things up. If it didn't, I'll try to answer any questions you have. Can't promise I'll be able to answer all of them, though. I'm not an expert in multiverse theory or anything, this is basically just stuff you pick up when you become a superhero.
tarnishedavenger: (08)
[personal profile] tarnishedavenger
[During a lull in the party, Armstrong taps out a quick message to the network. Not that private one, he doesn't trust it. They can answer whenever they like, so long as he gets an answer. The trick would be wording it.]

So, we're all in this for now. You've had your welcome cake, but you can't meet everyone in a party, no matter how hard you try. But, since we've all been encouraged to sign up with Jorgmund, I figured now would be a good time to get some introductions done. Talk about any specialties we might have.

Share information that we feel comfortable sharing. This isn't to pressure anyone or to force out any dark secrets.

[Not where watchful eyes can see, at least.]

Besides, I prefer doing this to making a cute information sharing game.

So, please, make your own threads within this post to keep everything organized.
pathkin: (Default)
[personal profile] pathkin
[The screens of the New Hires flicker with a text message. The image of a starburst briefly flashes on the screen, alone in an empty sky.]


[The screen that pops up changes the way the network interface usually looks. It makes it a bit more surreptitious, so that pencilneck looking over their shoulders would think they're using an innocuous data entry program. There's also a panic button in the corner that they can hit to shut their connection down early.]

[The program makes their comms connection even slower, since the network's already running at terrible speed, but at least it's discreet. And resources have been devoted to at least making the panic button shut down fast if they need it.]

[The post is a text post, and where the posters name should be it says: ┖⍟ϗϵ₮αℜ]

Evening, ladies and gents and variations thereupon, the name's Lonestar.

None of us have all day and I'm not the type for melodrama about how big brother's eyes are watching, so I'm going to keep this to the point. I'm a New Hire like you and want us to get out of here as much as most of you all likely want to leave

With these internal shock collars, getting free is most likely going to be difficult. And a long-term, coordinated effort. But to coordinate, we need ways of communicating Jorgmund can't see.

I've created this program to let us encrypt and filter our conversations away from Jorgmund. It just auto uploaded and self-executed to your comms but you can quickly uninstall it any time if you need to be extra cautious.

[A link appears on the screen to some kind of drop box type interface, containing a file.]

That link will let you download the installation file so that it can be saved and dispersed by any New Hires to any future kidnapping victims even if I'm found out and killed.

Locked posts will have a small signifier noting they're locked, an innocuous interface that mimics a notepad application Jorgmund has on our comms, and a panic button to cut off the connection and boot you out of the interface in case a Jorgmund staffer is looking over your shoulder.

However, while it can encrypt our conversations, it can't mask overall network usage so we'll need to keep maintaining non-locked conversations about whatever inane topics make for good public discussion. The resources the encrypted posts use are minimal, so as long as unlocked traffic occurs, it should be able to mask our more discreet conversations.

[That means they must shitpost like their lives depend on it.]

I know that you have good reason to not be inclined to trust me, but the only reason I'm hiding my identity is so any potential snitches can't report me to Jorgmund so I get "fired."

Possibly out of cannon.

The encryption will let any of you go anon, too, in case people want to play spy and drop something useful that Jorgmund would get in a snit about. As much as it'd be helpful to all hold hands and sing happy songs, we don't know if anyone here might brown nose and snitch for their own benefit.

Anon posting and replies can only happen in locked post because Jorgmund doesn't have it enabled on our normal network posts.

Oh, also, there seems to be script for a swearing filter on normal network posts. In locked posts, you can say "fuck" all you want.
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