piper90 | Entries tagged with catra

This is Carolina. I've been asked to make a... public service-slash-safety announcement.

[ Carolina looks tired. Carolina also sounds tired, her voice is as dry as the Sahara. From how her eyes keep flicking downward, she's evidently reading something aloud. (And, on occasion, squinting judgmentally at the choices of whoever wrote it.) ]

It has come to the attention of management that certain individuals were... particularly enthusiastic about our recent Mandatory Fun Team Building Activity.

[ She pronounces the capital letters. As for the activity: It was paintball. There were winners. There were losers. There were tears. Carolina is very much among those who may have won a little too hard and has the bruises to prove it.

So do some other people.

She continues, still mostly monotone. ]

While employee participation in Mandatory Fun Activities is compulsory and enthusiasm is encouraged, management wishes to remind you that it is our goal here at Jorgmund to win together. Unsportsmanlike behavior, excessive force, and - [ She hesitates for just a split second, clenching her jaw as she obviously swallows the desire to argue ] - bending of the rules are not welcome in Mandatory Fun and may result in corrective action.

Those who have demonstrated a need for corrective action today already know who they are.

[ She gives the camera a long, significant, withering look. ]

This concludes the public service-slash-safety announcement. Have a pleasant day and...

[ She doesn't roll her eyes, but it's a very near thing. ]

...remember we're all here to make this better, together.

((OOC: This post is intended to refer to a big, stupid, chaotic game that is described through what characters say/what kind of shape they're in/what they complain about afterward. Improvise, imply need for corrective action, find ways your character got to sit out and laugh at everyone else, etc. Have fun with it! ))

tr1xx

[ The comm. recording the video is set to hover mode, showing a short girl in a too-big coveralls balanced on the balls of her feet on a seat, knees up and bouncing idly. She can't be more than seventeen, and you'd be forgiven (if not by her) for assuming a little younger.

She looks, for all intents and purposes, like a perfectly average teenager. Her most distinguishing feature is the distinctly non-Jorgmund assigned mechanical rabbit ears that peek up from her head, fastened to a ring that doubles almost as a hair-tie, keeping her long blonde hair up in a ponytail. One of the ears twitches and turns towards something off-camera before facing dead ahead again.

When she speaks, it's with a distinctly Scottish accent. ]

So this is a shite situation. Sure I'm preachin' to the choir there, but seriously, what the fuck? Thought I'd been captured for a second there and well, guess I have, just not by the bastards I thought I was. Ach. I cannae believe I'm sayin' this but I think I liked it better when I thought the Union'd got me, least then I mighta been rescued...

[ But nope. No rescue here. Just an evil corporation and a shock collar. No teammates, no Nugget, no Ether, no Holon, no nothing. She groans, throws her head back dramatically, then sighs and composes herself. She's supposed to be adaptable, right? So... she better start adapting. And fast. ]

Anyway... hullo! [ she waves ] I'm Cammie.

Nice set-up ye got. Looks like a real solid encryption. 'Course, I'm hardly familiar with the code structure here, not yet anyway, but if you've managed to go undetected this long... well, whoever's responsible musta done a damn good job.

Speaking of, if any of ye do ken a thing or two about how tech and all that works here, hit a girl up. I see ye've all got somethin' going on here [ she's done some of the reading, though there's more to do ] and technology's really what I do.

[ She points up at her ears with both fingers and they wiggle back and forth. ]

Designed these myself, for example. They do basically all ma hearin' for me, so please don't go sneakin' up on me if I don't have 'em on. Not unless ye want to get reflexively punched in the stomach by a seventeen year old girl.

[ She flashes a grin, then stops recording and slumps. Ah, fuck. ]

princesspower

...I was supposed to be going on a road-trip!

[ She sounds... angry. Or maybe just irritated. ]

Have I been gone? Tell me if I've been gone!

[ Canon update time! ]

princesspower

[ Adora fidgets with her communicator, staring at the screen, her brow furrowed as the video feed starts up. She's in a bed in the infirmary, with some bandaging on her head where she's was previously bleeding from the scalp. She looks tired, mostly. ]

Hey everybody. I just - I guess I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let myself get taken out like that. Everyone had to deal with that because of me. I screwed up. I won't let it happen again. Uh - I guess that's about it.

bananaclip

I've been here a little while and I've read back a lot of the stuff on the network.

Some of you are smart enough that you'll figure out who I am immediately but, I have to ask — really? Really??

You get on this network and you talk about your old lives like no one you know from back where you came from is going to show up and ruin everything for you.

And you talk like you don’t expect these Jorgmund people to hold some of that stuff over your head, either.

I’m sorry, but I’m a lot more private than that. You know? I’m smarter than that. I’m not willing to ruin everything by talking too much.

PS – Anyone who guesses who I am gets one of those shitty beers from the cafeteria dumped over their head. Mind your business.

wheyoftheadept

[Saturday looks like hell. She's showered, at least - her hair is wet and there's a towel around her neck, but her visible skin is covered in scrapes and bandages, and there are bags under her eyes.]

Hi, guys. Just got back from - well, I'm gonna be real honest here and tell you my own memories are a little fucked. Jorg pulled me right outta medical to run escort on some civvie caravan. We ran into a Stuff storm. They tell me it's been like two months?

[She runs a hand through her hair, wearily.]

What have I missed?

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.

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

[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.

heterochrocatic

Oh for ████'s sake.

[ Catra is usually kinda grumpy, but this post is extra grumpy. ]

I go through all that ████ and I still get dropped back here. ████ you, you ███holes.

[ Catra does not look much physically changed, oddly, but there's been a shift in her bearing and the way she holds herself. Kinda subtle, but it's there. ]

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

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.

wheyoftheadept

[Saturday is sitting up in an infirmary cot, swaddled in bandages - including her throat. The tablet is hovering in front of her, near her head, and her heavily bandaged hands are obscured in her lap. She's focusing fiercely on whatever she's got there, and appears to be typing.

In a moment, the distorted voice of Alexa reads out what she's trying to say. The speakers on the table are just good enough to hear it, though it sounds reverb-y and echoed.]

Hey. Just wanted to join the sickposting club. It's really fucking boring here -

[The robotic way Alexa breaks 'fucking' into two distinct syllables briefly cracks her up]

- and I can't talk or even use my hands that much. Also Alexa keeps correcting my grammar. Doctor says I am gonna heal up though, one hundred percent. So, what did I miss? And does anyone wanna come keep me company?

heterochrocatic

[ Whoever is using Catra's comm is standing at the foot of her hospital bed. Probably one of the medical staff or some other Jorgmund pencil pusher. Catra is sitting up, still bandaged but much grumpier than usual (or just as grumpy as usual?). A pair of nurses, along with a couple of other Jorgmund employees are crowded around her bed, one of them holding a plate on which sits a small, sad looking cupcake in which someone has stuck a very lonely candle. The fellow holding the plate, a rather selnder man with too-large glasses and too-cheery disposition, speaks. ]

We want to congratulate Catra on her continuing recovery and wish her a very happy twentieth birthday from all of us at Jorgmund. We understand that it's been a bit of a rough time for some of you lately, and thought this might help raise morale. All together now.

[ The group launches into a slightly off-key rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You' and Catra seems to sink down into her bedclothes, as if it might help her disappear from this plane of existence. Having no such luck, she is forced to sit through the song. ]

Go ahead and blow out the candle, Catra.

[ Catra looks like she would rather do anything except blow out the candle. Maybe even go toe-to-toe with the killer again. In spite of this, she leans forward and gives a half-heard puff of breath, which extinguishes the candle. Styrofoam plate is carefully balanced on her bedside table, and the glasses-wearing guy, no doubt from HR, takes the comm. ]

Go ahead and leave Catra some birthday wishes. I'm sure that hearing from her fellow employees will be just the thing to help her get back on her feet as soon as possible.

[ The comm is deposited into Catra's lap. She stares at the camera, then plants her face in her hands. ]

I swear if ant of you say anything...

parannoyed

[Important intel on he and Dave's attacker has been shared, important theories have been theorized. And after Wash rested and then nearly collapsed in pain the few times today he tried to move (to get a little healthy movement going to keep the swelling down or go to the bathroom instead of dealing with the indignity of using a bedpan), Wash has been forced to take on a slightly higher dosage of pain killers, alongside being given a little alien tech device on his temple to help manage it.]

[Now after sleeping most of the day, he's awake. And loopy from the combination of tech and pain killers.]

[He's managed to get his comm on and in float mode.]

[And now he's whispering to it.]

Hey. Hi. Hey little buddy, wake up. So I can say hi to other...buddies.

[Special K, the nurse who's a better doctor than Dr. Glotfelty, is teaching a newer nurse and she smiles when she sees Wash whispering to his comm. She urges the timid-looking student nurse closer. "Don't worry, Judy. Only like two percent of the big scarred tough-looking guys on the rig are Plankers. The others like Wash here melt like buttah the second you're a tiny bit nice to them. Like buttah. Don't they, Washing Machine?"]

[Wash gasps dramatically and flings out a hand for a high five.]

It's my favorite nurse. Up top! Hit your hand on my hand. Hit my hand! Do it!

["He likes high fiving a lot when he's juiced." Special K's smile is sweet and genuine as she gives him a little high five. Then she adjusts his bed to help him sit up better. His torso is a scarred mess in the places where the bandages don't cover.]

Special K. Hey. Hey. Heeeey.

["Heey. I'm here, Wash, what do you need?"]

Hey. Can I have an extra pudding?

["What are the magic words?" she asks.]

Nurses are underpaid and undervalued.

["See why I like this one?" Special K asks the student nurse, as she gets a pudding out of a nearby fridge and a spoon, and opens it for him. "Looks like only chocolate right now, Washing Machine."]

That's fiiiine. It's all good in the hospital hood. I am unto the chocolate like the...the Mayans who were all about the - the chocolate.

["Alright, have your treat, I'll see if we can get you some late lunch since you slept through breakfast, okay? And then we're taking a crack at changing your bandages and your surgical drain."]

[Wash breathes out a low whisper.] Noooo.

[Special K whispers back, "Yeeeesss.">]

[Wash whispers back.] Nooooooooo.

["You've got a half hour of whispering to your friends on your little buddy, okay?" Special K says, with a sisterly tousling of Wash's hair. He leans into it despite himself, clearly grateful for the basic kindness from someone.]

[Wash is still whispering.] Fiiiiine.

[He turns to his comm, eating his pudding.]

Heyooo.

The nurses are so nice here. But you know, I've been in sooo many Medbays and they're usually kind of nice? Nicer? Than other...people. They were even almost nice in the Medbay in prison and nobody was really nice there.

[There are a few secrets, a few things locked up in the vault of his mind even while high as a kite, but he's definitely a little more loose lipped than usual.]

Hey. Hey, can you guys - can you see these guys floating around? [Wash swats at the air with his spoon.]

["What guys, Wash?" asks Special K.]

There's shadow people in the air, like...floating?

["Mild hallucinations are sometimes a side effect at your dose of morphine and the setting on the cortical stimulator," Special K says, showing something to Judy on his chart. "What are the shadow people doing, bud?"]

They're just like...all up in my grill. [Wash turns to the comm, to the rest of his rigmates, his voice filled with mild outrage.] Are you guys - are you guys seeing this? Rude.

heterochrocatic

[ Much like poor Tenten, Catra is broadcasting live from the infirmary. In fact, if you squint you'll probably be able to see which bed she's in to relation to Tenten. The poor woman has been bandaged to hell and back, her head wrapped in dressings, though there's enough visible for it to be clear that whatever happened to her, it was necessary for that big, poofy mane of hair to be shorn away in order for it to be treated.

At least she's not missing half her face. When she speaks, her voice is rough and croaky. She's still recovering from whatever it was that happened to her a few days back. ]

I guess I'm alive. Don't everyone celebrate at once.

[ The jab is accompanied by a weak smile. ]

What'd I miss?

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.

bothbarrels

Hey, there. For those I haven't met, I'm North, and I have a companion AI on board. His name is Theta, and he wanted to get on the network and ask a question. I told him I'd let him have most of the air time, so...

[ He gestures in the air at the hologram that's hovering near his shoulder. ]

Hi, everyone. Uh...North and I saw a cat when we were out the other night—actually, we saw a few of them. And I kind of wondered if anyone has seen any dogs around. I really like dogs. But I didn't see any when we were out. I thought...maybe someone has one they keep as a pet?

I can't pet it, but I thought maybe if I pretended to play with it while North was playing with it, it'd kind of be the same thing. I hope so, anyway.

71lines

[Well, someone's seen better days. The harsh fluorescent lighting of medical already fails to do anyone any favors, but for someone in Tenten's condition, the negatives are probably a little more accented. The right side of her face is covered in fading yellow and green bruises and almost-healed cuts. The left is simply bandaged over, like a mask. Beeping sounds in the background confirm what the awful looking paper gown and the pathetic pillow under her head hint: she's still undergoing treatment.

She reaches up with a hand and adjusts the screen she's viewing on. Her comm was destroyed, so she's using Medical's screens to broadcast. Whether or not this is allowed might be in question, but sharp eyes might spot the reflection of someone in the room with her in the highly polished surfaces around her.]

Lady Fifth. [Her voice is still off. Words slightly slurred. And her eye isn't quite focused on the screen, more like she's staring through it. Those must be some hefty painkillers.] 'm ready for debriefing.