piper90 | Entries tagged with ian malcolm

[There's laughter in the background as Sam starts up the video. Sam has a long-suffering look on his face. There's a card on his desk, along with a box of...well, they're Jorgmund chocolates. So probably not great, but chocolate, at least.]

[The main reason for the look, though, is the t-shirt in Sam's hands. The t-shirt is big, but probably still a bit on the small side for him to wear. But the front of it has his Jorgmund employee ID picture printed on it with hearts surrounding it.]

[He looks over his shoulder, rolling his eyes.]

Laugh it up, you two.

[He sighs, turning back to the camera.]

So. Did anybody else get any weird gifts from persons unknown? Or am I the 'lucky' one?

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. ]

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.

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.

whethertheyshould

[ This video is posted at about 7:00 in the morning by a haggard-looking Malcolm. He seems to fumble with his device a bit, peering at the camera as he determines whether it's truly turned on. Then he sets the device down on a stand and begins to speak. ]

Ah, good morning. I've been looking over the available information we have on the murders and I've, ah, I've picked up a pattern that I'm not sure anyone else has mentioned. If they have, I've simply missed that post, but I what I have noticed is that most of the victims worked in Jorgmund's finance department. Uh, furthermore, the rates of pay and roles within the company continually escalated as the murders went on.

This pattern is so exact that the most recent stabbings seem like some kind of anomaly. I wonder if we should warn the CFO that he seems to be targeted, should this pattern continue.

[ Not that he has any love for Jorgmund, but he doesn't want to see someone get mercilessly stabbed, no matter how much of a capitalist they are. ]

(( ooc: this post was made with permission of the mods after asking for any available clues that Malcolm might have picked up on. ))

fromfryingpantofire

[The video comes up on a back corner of the library, where Sam's set up a little research table of his own. Not that there's much there. For all that they have a 'library', it's really not all that interesting. Definitely none of the things that he's used to being able to find.]

[Though it is at least a QUIET section of the library. Nobody much comes back there. Of course, if it was anybody other than Sam, they'd find that corner to be nearly devoid of wifi signal.]

[How does Sam have signal? Nobody knows.]

So. I know that there are a few of you here who aren't too keen on the whole idea of the supernatural and magic and things that don't make sense to the rational mind. And believe me, I get it. If I hadn't grown up with this sort of thing, I'd probably be right there with you.

I also get that we don't know for certain that what we're facing IS something that's supernatural. After all, there are other explanations for what she can do. Some of us have powers that we never had at home as an example.

However, if she is, there are a few things that you can carry that may help either ward her off or fight her off. None of them are heavy and we have access to at least a few things that would work.

[He reaches off screen and brings out a salt shaker from the cafeteria.] Salt. Table salt will work just fine. My brother and I buy a lot of Morton's back home.

Anyway, salt has been an ingredient in purifying rituals for millennia. It's often used to ward off evil spirits and cleanse an area of bad...juju, for lack of a better word. Back home, spirits can't cross a line of salt, so a quick and easy ward was just to pour lines of salt across any entrance to a room. Shooting rock salt into a spirit would disperse them, too.

There's stuff that works better when it comes to spirits, but I don't have access to the supplies I need for them. Salt is nearly as old school as blood, though, so it should do you in a pinch.

Second. [He reaches off to the side again and comes back with a firestarter.] This one is a lot more difficult to get hold of, so this may be something more to look for when we go on missions. Iron. Again, just about as old school as it comes. There are a lot of things that are weak to iron, including the Fae. If you have the ones from the right stories, at least. A good length of rebar that can be wielded like a sword or a bat is great. Again, good for dispersing a spirit, though it won't get rid of them entirely. It'll buy you time to get back up, though. So, again. Useful.

The third isn't really useful for ghosts or spirits, but if the salt doesn't work, then maybe this will. [Out comes a water bottle.] Holy water. Mostly works for demons. Won't kill them, but will cause harm and may burn them. Again, good for buying you time to get away and get help. Luckily, I was able to pick up a rosary on the last mission, so I can make as much as we may need. I tend to also throw a handful of salt in for a twofer.

As far as I know, we don't have access to any, but another good all around weapon against the supernatural is silver. I'd suggest keeping it away from those among the New Hires that might have an allergy to it, but there are a LOT of supernatural creatures out there that are weak to it. Again, purifying qualities that have been in use for a lot of centuries. And another thing to keep an eye out for on missions.

[Sam settles the items in front of him.] I'm not going to say any of this will keep you safe. That's not a promise I can make, especially since we don't know what, exactly, our enemy is. At best, I can say that they might be able to help. At worst, they're inert and you're no worse off than you were a moment before. At this point, though, I think we can use any edge we might be able to get.

[He folds his hands, leaning forward on the desk.]

Any questions?

smallmediumwelldone

Good evening.

[There’s a woman speaking, tone clipped. The corporate jumpsuit hangs off her small frame, and her hair is swept up into an old-fashioned bun. Or so it seems - she’s standing a bit away from the screen, and it’s tilted at an odd angle.]

I am given to understand that this is how to contact my new coworkers? My name is Beatrice Brewer, at your service, and I assure you I am quite qualified. I am - was - an apprentice of the fifth circle in, ah, a collection of magi, have experience in a thrilling variety of crises, and am quite keen to get started on - [a heavy sigh, more notable for the fact that someone observant might catch that she doesn’t breathe] - this situation.

[There’s a long pause.]

Drat, is this bloody thing even on? Dreadful place, what sort of dog and pony show are they running, honestly. Stuff? Stuff? Of all the names?

whethertheyshould

I'm sure you're all aware, ah, of the perilous nature of the situation we're all in here. The question becomes, if we're unable to do anything but comply, what is the nature of our compliance? Does Jorgmund really think we're going to give everything our all at all times with the methods they use for securing our compliance?

I'm not good at doing that.

In any case, I suppose some introductions are in order. I'm Ian Malcolm. I'm your local chaotician, which means I am pretty good at predicting when things are about to go wrong.

I'm sure I just painted a big red target on my back but at this point I'm finding it hard to care.