Keeping Watch

[garmr]

Who: Everyone who signed up + YOU?
What: Guard Duty
Where: Infirmary and Living Quarters
When: Soon after Setsuna and Tenten were attacked; this will last the duration of the murderplot
Warnings/Notes: References to the attack and its aftermath.


ROSTER + MISSION DETAILS
Get a partner, pick a location/task, and go to town. This is a catch-all log for your nightwatch and general guarding activities.
 

WORD-OF-MOUTH
Guts would have come to each volunteer in person to give them the lowdown (details are in the link above) , feel free to handwave that as needed. He'll be used to keeping track of these kinds of things, but won't have anything written down. So no typed out instructions or schedule from him. He will give a talk in person to let them know when their turn is and a heads up for upcoming shifts. Volunteers will be directed to get the next person in line once their shift is up. The rest will be up to them. 


WEIRD EVENT RNG
Some optional Odd Events to encounter in the middle of shifts, either as starters or mid-thread interruptions. Feel free to just pick one, use the RNG, or go with your own prompt.

1. MECHANICAL QUIRKS
Misfired fire alarms, ritual chattering, weird noises and smells in the vents. If you're unlucky, an oily fluid finds itself leaking right on your head. The Rig never fails to remind the New Hires of its eccentric, creaky charms.

2. REMNANTS
A skittish swarm of paperclips, a rowdy pair of staplers, a disembodied shadow-hand pulling itself accross the floor as it leaks printer ink. These are the hidden survivors of Stuff storms from the past, eking out a secret existence in the crevices of the Rig.

3. IT CLEANS WHILE YOU SLEEP
Something tiny dutifully rolls itself through the halls of the Rig. As it gets closer and closer, it reveals itself to be the round body of a rudimentary cleaning robot. It is awfully similar to a roomba. You might find one with googly eyes on it, or perhaps decorated with 37 pieces of Jorgmund Flair. A pair of bots might be found bumping into each other with plastic butter knives. A valiant fight to the death, for sure. It certainly explains the modicum of cleanliness on some parts of the floor.

4. LIVING GOO
That old chicken stew or lump of oatmeal from the Mess Hall looked nasty enough before it started slithering around of it's own accord. The tiny, rubbery gelatin that escaped the R&D lab only looks marginally less unpleasant to deal with - though it may not neccesarily be aggressive so much as incredibly springy.

5. GHOSTS
Distant Voices. Vague figures. Hollow wisps of Jorgmund's past employees that got chewed up and spat out by monsters. Their mutterings are more intelligible than the usual mechanical chattering in the vents. An astute observer may be able to differentiate the individuals - that one an engineer, a soldier, a member of their special ops. They wander the hall, continuing to live their unlife intangible and ignorant of any of the living people around them.

Comments

OTA!

[garmr]

1. Living Quarters
a.
Despite his size, Guts is stealthier than one would initially expect. In the dim lighting of the Rig at night, he might be difficult to notice until he is right next to his partner. Surprise! It's a whole lot of Jorgmund uniform at eye level for most.

"You ready?" he asks, spotting the other body in the dark. His footsteps had been awfully silent, somehow. He raises his comm to illuminate a bit of the hall with its light.

b.
Even 'off-duty', Guts is awake far more often than he should be. A fully-rested night is a thing that escaped him since arrival to the Rig.

Occasionally, he manages to let himself rest for a few minutes at ungodly hours of the night. He'd be standing on two feet, reclined against the wall of the tiny habitation room with his arms crossed. His chin rests on his chest, an oddly vulnerable state for someone who was usually extremely alert.

Even in that moment, he has placed himself away from the door at the most advantageous angle he could find. Out of sights and difficult to spot until you walk inside. The paranoia is a thing of habit. He had mentioned to the others to wake him up should anything arise, but never really approached how he should be jostled out of sleep.

c.

While asleep, there is also a single object of interest on his bed. It is an egg-like stone sculpted with misaligned human facial features. For the most part, it is a regular inanimate object. If you are particularly lucky, the Behelit might peel open one of its eyes to get a look at you. Unlike the gray stone, this part of it appears to be made of flesh.

2. Medical
Between eating and training, Guts finds little use for himself beyond picking up any openings in the Infirmary to keep a watchful eye over Emily's patients. He feels out of place with all the sterile grey technology around him, but the activity felt familiar. His place there invites comparisons to some imposing watchdog sitting at the foot of the bed, relaxed but alert. All too aware of strangers getting close.

He really isn't much of a conversationalist, occupied with his own thoughts and with the strange medical equipment around Setsuna and Tenten. Patient and quiet. As time passes, he'll eventually turn to his partner.

"You can head off if you want. Don't got much to do for the next couple hours."

3. WILDCARD
Feel free to rope him into any RNG prompts or other reasons he'd be meeting up. 👀

B! >:3c

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday hadn't come in to wake Guts up. Just the opposite, in fact. She's religious about grabbing rest when she can, like a good soldier, and she knows he hasn't been getting nearly enough. Which is why the look on her face when she sees him wedged into a corner behind the bunk like a broom is equal parts relief and exasperation.

"Fuckin' hell, man, you're not gonna be in your twenties forever," she mutters, and takes the thin pillow and blanket from his bed. The she climbs the bunk frame and starts delicately tucking the cushion behind his head, and the blanket around his shoulders.

"You could at least lie down and get a proper rest," she's grousing to herself when she notices he's woken up.

>:0 !!!!!!

[garmr]

Guts is awake the moment she speaks, subduing the jolt back to consciousness when he realizes its Saturday talking. He's still surprised to find the thin pillow touch the back of his head and blanket plopped over his shoulders.

"Huh..?"

He looks up at her, grasping the pillow in one hand. The thin blanket looked a little small and pathetic draped over his frame - especially compared to his own cloak - but he still adjusts it so that it sits a little more comfortably.

"It's fine... I dozed off for a little while already."

Re: >:0 !!!!!!

[wheyoftheadept]

"The hell you did." She calls him out cheerfully after a moment's hesitation, and drops back down to the floor. "You don't sleep enough and that's a fact. You're not the only fighter here, you don't do your buddies any favors not taking care of yourself."

For a moment she glares, arms crossed, and then her face softens. "At least lie down and close your eyes for a bit. You're not gonna get jumped if I'm here, right?"

a.

[bothbarrels]

It's not often North encounters someone taller than him—only by an inch, in this case, but Guts does manage to startle him, there in the dark.

"Ready for what?" he asks after his heart rate spikes from the shock of it.

Meanwhile, Theta's hologram abruptly snaps off. Whatever light they had from him is now gone.

[garmr]

Guts has a scowl on his face once he realizes he's bumped into the wrong guy. North was too tall to be the man he was looking for.

"You shouldn't be wandering around by yourself at night," he growls, displeased. Under slightly worse circumstances, he might have not recognized North as a new guy and reacted more aggressively.

[bothbarrels]

"I didn't realize it would be a problem," he says, displeased at being spoken to so sharply. "Is it dangerous at night, or something?"

2

[greyerrant]

"No... watching over the children is important to me. Astartes do not have progeny of their own. " Not in any traditional way, but explaining the grisly rite of harvesting gene-seed and the brutal methods of implantation are low on Loken's list of things he wants to discuss with Guts at any point anyway. They both have so little that's pleasant in their life.

[garmr]

"That some kind of monastic principle, or..?"

Guts stops himself. He respects Loken enough to stay the hell away from questions about missing parts. That's none of his business, anyway.

"...Forget it. You don't have to answer that."

He looks away, back to the jumbled latticework of cables near the beds. He's cool with more contemplative silence, like before.

OTA

[bothbarrels]

North has had many years by now to get used to this; Theta can't seem to rest, and North has to find a loop to walk in order to lull him to sleep. So he exits his room, expecting things to be quiet and calm.

The environment he finds when he leaves his room is not particularly that.

North's good at pretending things are just fine, though, and at making it out like the things and people around them are meant to be entertaining.

The cleaning robots he runs across first, for example. Theta whoops in excitement, seeing them preparing to fight, and North stops to watch.

"Do you think they have AIs in them?" Theta immediately says.

"I don't know," North replies. "You think you'd want to be stuck sweeping carpets all day, Theta?"

"Not really," Theta admits.

[hallelujahjunction]

"...the fuck even are you..."

Dan's just started his shift, and he hasn't met his partner yet - he's not even sure who it is, because a name is honestly kind of useless if you don't know nearly anyone on the rig to start with - but he's already encountered his first bit of weird bullshit in the form of a roomba zipping around with what appears to be a small music player on top of it, cheerfully repeating a tinny, muted version of what appears to be "Truly Madly Deeply" by Savage Garden remixed to be nothing but the "swim with you in the ocean" bits over a beat Dan recognizes as...tropical house? Christ, the people here have weird taste.

He's following it around, poking it with a broomstick he swiped from a storage closet, when it makes a quick sprint away from him and towards another (bedazzled?) roomba in a way that clearly indicates these two portable vacuums are about to battle to the death in front of some person Dan doesn't know. He gives the new guy a quick wave.

"Hey. Is it your shift too?"

[bothbarrels]

North watches the man poke the robot with a broom for a few moments, wondering what he's getting himself into simply by being out this evening.

"Oh...no?" he says in response to the question. "I'm just...out and about."

Re: OTA

[rootinest]

The voice is friendly but the friendliness is slightly offset by the fact it's coming from a vent, which is normally a place you don't want voices to come from.

"Hey now, pardner, you do know it's dangerous to be out alone, don't you?" says the voice. "We're supposed to use the buddy system right now."

Do you need a vent buddy, North? Have a vent buddy.

[bothbarrels]

North looks around for a moment.

"Did you hear that?"

"I did," Theta says. "I think it came from over...there?"

North, of course, can tell which direction Theta's indicating without needing to see him actually point. He moves in the direction of the vent.

[vampthropologist]

A
“That,” Beckett announces, a tinge of despair in his voice, “is disgusting.”

That is a greyish pool of goop, shot through with yellow veins and lumps of greeny-brown dumpling, which is currently glorping gently from side-to-side across the hall. It is too large to step over or move around, and furthermore, horribly, is clearly moving under its own power. Beckett has seen many horrific things in his life - limbless living bodies turned to insect hives, charnel pits awash in blood and organs, elder ventrue in the nude - but he’s never seen anything this purely and simply gross. If he could puke, he’d want to.

“Dear god,” he says weakly, as bubbles boil to the surface and pop, belching the stench of rotted meat.


B
Beckett is watching the ghosts. It’s the absolute dead of night, and the rig is as silent as it ever is. Only the creaks and groans of its metal carcass hauling itself through the wilderness echo through the halls, strangely regular, like the thousand pulses of some great composite being. He’s standing at an intersection of five halls, somewhere below and to the side of the sleeping quarters. Around him are watercolor impressions of chaos; muzzle flashes, uniformed figures pounding frantically at wall panels, a woman’s distorted face, screaming. He’d come upon the scene while doing a little extra reconnaissance, and has been trying to work out what’s happening ever since.

“I think they’re acting out some sort of attack or incursion by the - Stuff,” he says to you absently, once he’s aware of your presence. Calling it the Stuff clearly pains him. “Do you have any idea what this might be?”

A

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia is capable of puking, but she is refraining in case vomit is what the lump eats. She gags and pinches her nose shut, grateful that she's in Homid rather than anything more sensitive to smells.

"Nope," she says, backing away. "I am not touching that. No way, no how, not happening."

Re: A

[vampthropologist]

Beckett is backing off with her. "I suggest an alternate route, then, because I'm not touching it either."

The viscous slime starts to slorp towards them, as if it can hear them. Each movement releases a waft of sulfurous stink. Beckett covers his sensitive nose, growing pale.

"Failing that, I think fire might do the trick, if we can make some."

ota

[parannoyed]

3.

[Night watch outside the Living Quarters was boring for most of their shift, but now Wash stares at the Roombas, dueling each other with their butter knives. Forget that air of uptight intensity Wash had put out since he got here. He is engrossed.]

[He's still occasionally looking around scanning for threats, but the dueling roombas are ridiculous and he hasn't watched a good fight as a spectator since project Freelancer.]

Bet you two pudding cups the blue one beats the green one. You can tell it's out for blood.


wildcard.

Do you ever wonder why we're here?

[Even though he's talking, he keeps his voice low. Those two girls in the Infirmary through the door they're guarding are still healing and need their sleep.]

Not here here, as in guarding the Infirmary. We're doing this because there's a murderous psycho running around that needs their face ground into the deck. I mean in general.

[Another pause.]

I keep wondering about whatever made us wind up in this dimension. The specifics. It could've been Jorgmund but if not, what kind of random cosmic bullshit did the Stuff really do?

[He's normally not this chatty but it's night time and really quiet. He's not used to being around people like this anymore, but he knows when you are, you're supposed to, you know. Talk. Like a human person.]

wildcard

[turntex]

[Dave has been, miraculously, relatively quiet, a fact Wash probably doesn't know him well enough to appreciate just yet. There are moments when one can catch him mumbling something to himself, like he can't handle complete silence, but so far he hasn't seemed particularly chatty.

He doesn't seem like someone too concerned with decorum either, though. Where Was is standing at the ready, he's sprawled sitting against the opposite wall.

It's hard to say for sure with the shades, but he does seem to look up at the direct address. His head lifts minutely, at least.]

Calm down, Plato. It's three twenty-seven in the morning, that's more of a late afternoon kinda question.

[parannoyed]

[Wash yawns a huge yawn.]

It's 3:27 am and I haven't stood a proper night watch since I was earlier in my military career. Missions where I was running on 0 hours of sleep, sure, but a night watch is another thing entirely.

[Going 48 hours on no sleep is fine when you can actually, y'know, keep moving. It's all the standing still. He is very much not a standing-still kind of person. Freelancer agents were often not a 'hunker down and keep guard' kind of group.]

It doesn't have to be...would that be physics? [He has no clue about the finer points of it.] It could be as simple as 'caveman vs. astronaut.'

wildcard; spoOkY GhoOstS

[garmr]

Hell if I know.

[Guts' response is short and clipped. He wanted to see if Wash could be trusted with a delicate position like this, not be friends with him. This was probably the first thing he'd said their entire shift beyond their brief introductions.

He's leaning back against the wall, arms crossed. Although the position seems relaxed, he's all too alert. The silence and boredom don't seem to phase him at all.]

[parannoyed]

[Wash has stopped being good at talking to people so his reaction to someone responding to a rare attempt at almost-friendliness with dismissiveness is for his voice to get practically arid.]

Chatty.

[He settles in to lean against the wall and crosses his arms, too. Not in imitation, more "God this is going to be a long night."]

3.

[hallelujahjunction]

[For want of more interesting things to do, Dan's taken it upon himself to play referee to every roomba death match he runs across. This isn't Dan's first time taking watch for a group, but usually he's either outside where he can enjoy the fresh air, or in some place that doesn't care if he chainsmokes his way through the hours. This - standing here with a broom indoors waiting for something to happen - it's not that Dan's not taking it seriously, but it's hard.

He expects that keeping himself awake by interfering with the Roomba Olympics is really doing everyone a favor, if only because it's preventing him from completely checking out. He's running up on another batch of sparring robots when he sees another hire watching and spectating. He stops, grinning.

Only thing better than screwing with robots is someone to shoot the shit with.]

I'll never pass up a good gamble. You're on. The green one's got moxy.

3.

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday has been watching the fight just as raptly, her sense on autopilot, and come to a very different conclusion.]

Nah, my man green's just biding his time, gettin' blue all revved up and stupid. You wait - aw yes, Green, go go go!

[Green pitches suddenly into a wild spin, tiny wheels screeching against the peeling linoleum as it charges. Blue falls back, for a moment, and Green moves to press its new advantage]

Kick his ass, Green!

OTA

[just_rogue]

1 "Stuck on you."

Rogue had been patrolling the halls for almost an hour when she found the first spill. It was glowing and green and looked like something she'd rather not have people walking right into. She looked around and secured the door to stop people from just walking in while she worked on a way to get the mess cleaned up.

She couldn't tell where the spill came from but she thought it might be from right over-

As she reached for the handle, the train lurched and sent her into a sprawl on the floor, her left side landing down in the green goo, from below to knee.

"Damnit!"

She pulled to get herself to her feet and nothing happened. She pulled again and nothing, she was stuck. The glowing stuff must have been some kind of adhesive and she'd called right into it.

"Of all the rotten luck." She muttered. "Hey! Hey! Anybody out there?"

Maybe someone would be passing by that could help her find a way out of this mess.

4

"Uh! No wonder folks ain't eatin right here." Rogue heaved a little bit when the wave of scent from the fridge caught her. Well, there was no two ways about it that needed to be cleaned.

She pulled out a bowl of something and sat it on the stainless steel table behind her. And set to work cleaning and scrubbing and moving things around to generally spiffy things up. But when she went to put things back she noticed the one plate was disturbingly empty.

"Now where'd that gray stuff go?" She looked around, wiping her hands off with a towel when she heard something clatter. She whirled in time to see a slithering mass of gray, it might have been Salisbury steak once but that was clearly no longer the case.

"Careful now, Ah ain't sure what that is, but best ta not get to close."