Babadon't Room Crawl

[piper90npcs]

[OOC: Please tag in to the assigned room. There will be at least one NPC tag to the thread per day. Remember that your characters can still use the network to communicate findings or questions to those still in the living quarters.]

Once word is out that the victim was dragged to the Rewards Lounge, the hires who’ve been cleared head are given permission to enter that rare knock-off paradise. Somewhere along the line, someone suggests splitting into groups, an idea that gets all the more appealing when they see that the Rewards Lounge has at least five suites to investigate, perhaps in case Corporate ever decided to enlist a stable of bootlickers and snitches to feed them intel on the other hires in exchange for feather beds and middle-shelf scotch.

It becomes clear that the intelligence they got was likely correct: there are streaks of black goo along to doorframe to the lobby room between all the suites.

Comments

[ragefeathers]

[ Mackenzie stalks in through the door, bristling. If she had hackles, they'd be up. Every inch of her is on alert, it feels like. Part of her finds herself wishing Stacia was here--the other Garou is the one person she feels like she can trust to watch her back. She looks around the room, then heads towards the record player--she doesn't need the same two seconds of music playing over and over in her head. ]

Come out, come out, where ever you are...

[ She mutters, half to herself. ]

[greyerrant]

[Loken is silent, a knife he had cached away at some point in the various chaotic incursions on the rig in hand as he... Watches McKenzie's back, clearly and naturally falling into combat discipline as he enters a high stress situation. His eyes dart between the beds, the jacuzzi, and the bathroom door as they are the most likely places to conceal hidden assailants.]

[fuckingaqua]

[ Tucker, in keeping with his usual style, does not remain silent after his own initial quick sweep of the terrain. If something's hiding in here, it's hiding in here, and it knows they're poking around already anyway. By his level of dedicated reasoning. ]

Sweet digs. [ He's seen grosser. He's lived in grosser. ] Could be sweeter, but whatever.

[ Tucker makes to grab the wastebasket and dump it on the nearest bed, ostensibly for the sake of rifling through the contents. Security reasons, of course. Not to cause minor trouble to be cleaned up later on purpose. ]

[ragefeathers]

[ Mackenzie turns off the phonograph, then turns towards the mini-bar. She opens it and rifles through the contents for a moment, surreptitiously pocketing a few small bottles in her jumpsuit. Like hell is she not stealing from these assholes. She stands, stretches, then moves towards the mystery door in the kitchen, where she jiggles the doorknob briefly. ]

Who gives a fuck if they're nice?

[ Rattle, rattle. She sets her shoulder to the door and shoves, trying to see if she can force the door open. ]

[greyerrant]

[ Loken stays quiet, letting the other two talk out their nerves, his own focus intense as he prods the wood and cloth structure above the jacuzzi tentatively with his knife, probing for any kind of trap or living form before he shoves it aside, still suspecting their opponent is hiding somewhere. ]

[fuckingaqua]

What, you never made casual conversation before? I'm not getting paid to fuckin'... [ Oh he didn't plan out finishing that thought before speaking, uhhh. ] Stealth Force One this thing.

[ Tucker crumples the torn paper pieces into one hand, then drops to the ground to make an under-the-beds survey. Two beds, weird vibe, Simmons would be crying about Mimics or whatever. But execs are probably just into group things. ]

Kids these days. Jesus.

[piper90npcs]

[The mystery door doesn't budge - it seems more secure than the other doors in the Rewards Lounge - and it has a lock that requires a keycard to open.

The jacuzzi, on the other hand, stinks of rot once the cover is taken off, and the water inside is ice cold, black and full of strange clumps, some of which appear to be wads of hair.

The mini-bar is just full of alcohol.

There's nothing in the trash except those torn papers, some used kleenexes and a pen that's run out of ink.]

[ragefeathers]

I'm not a kid, asshole. I just think your small talk sucks.

[ Kenzie frowns when the door refuses to budge. She wants to get through there! The simple solution would be to get big and furry but she doesn't want to do that if she doesn't have to, yet. She takes a step back and calls over shoulder. ]

Hey, big guy, gimme a hand with this door!

[ She grunts, draws a leg back and delivers a firm kick just next to the lock to see if she can force it open. ]

[greyerrant]

A moment, Mamzel. I believe we have found something. Some... remnant of our foe. Or his victims.

[ Loken fishes a clump out with his knife, careful not to touch it, and sets it on the floor, saying to Tucker. ] Find something to bag that in. I must assist her.

[ He nods to Kenzie and says. ] I'm going to attempt to breach. Be ready to follow.

[ He focuses his significant physical strength, and attempts to shoulder barge through the door, obviously used to this kind of room clearing though normally he has powered armor and a chainsaw sword on hand ]

shoutout to my phone for not copy-pasting my whole tag 2021

[fuckingaqua]

[ He should've let the robot girl "you guys are basically Power Rangers" statement rest. Gross shit duty. This sucks.

Tucker shoves the torn paper bits into a pocket and starts poking around for something appropriately baglike or container-shaped, rolling his eyes. ]

Might have to settle for a thermos, dude. We're looking at some real Campbell's chunky corpse chowder to stuff in a pillowcase. No way I'm dripping that back down the hall.

[ Lacking an option he finds satisfactory, not wanting to look all that hard, and/or just being less than willing to let his assigned teammates out of his sight while they attempt something that could be dangerous, Tucker grabs the wastebasket again and begins the awkward process of trying to scoop the clump into it in one piece.

It's a sad day when using a used tissue as a makeshift scooper is the lesser of two evils. ]

[piper90npcs]

[The clumps of hair are long and coated in the rotting black goo.

The door, however, remains unmoved. It doesn't look like brute force will work to getting through it.]

[ragefeathers]

[ Kenzie growls in annoyance when the door fails to give under the insistent pressure from both herself and Loken. She gives it a last thump and then turns away to start looking over the rest of the room. Maybe the key is hiding somewhere here? She moves to check over the kitchen, opening drawers and cabinets to see if she's missed anything. ]

That stuff smells foul.

[greyerrant]

Correct. [ Loken assists Kenzie searching various nooks and crannies for the key, overturning any objects large enough to possibly hold it ]

[fuckingaqua]

Tell me about it. That's gonna be stuck in my nose all week.

[ He sets his bucket o' hair on the ground and uses his device to get a couple of pictures of the hot tub situation, for the network updating post. Maybe some other group will see it and solve the whole mystery. Weirder things have happened. ]

I'm gonna check out the bathroom. If nothing's waiting in the toilet to murder us, maybe we can jigsaw together some of this gross trash paper and see if there's anything good on it.

[ Clues or hot gossip accepted. ]

[piper90npcs]

[Kenzie's efforts will be rewarded: a lanyard hiding in plain sight above the sink contains a key card and an employee ID for an "Edgar Quintero".

There's nothing murderous in the bathroom, but there are more torn papers in the wastebasket.]

[ragefeathers]

Sounds good.

[ Kenzie calls over her shoulder. Ah! She grins toothily as she finds the lanyard hanging over the sink. SHe plucks it up, waggles the key towards Loken. ]

Score. Let's see what we got. Hey! I'm gonna open the door!

[ That last bit is called over to the bathroom, so Tucker gets clued in on the plan. That said, she scoots past Loken's impressive bulk and swipes the keycard before shoving the strange door open. ]

[greyerrant]

[ Loken has the knife ready in case there is something nasty behind the door, standing so he can safely engage without injuring Kenzie should something leap out at them ]

[fuckingaqua]

Okay!

[ Tucker will add these torn papers to his growing collection and step back out to the main room, just in case they wind up needing an extra dash of backup. Easier to start doing this paper assembly on a bed, anyway. ]

[piper90npcs]

[There's no enemy on the other side of the door, but there is a very nice hallway that looks less like a tacky hotel and more like a tech startup, with several many-windowed offices with glass doors, and a large open area with cubicles that a discerning eye could tell from the tacked-up family photos belong to the relatively elite employees on the Rig. There's a water cooler, a kitchenette, and so many bobbleheads and candy jars.

There is no black goo or stink.]

[ragefeathers]

What the hell...?

[ Kenzie mutters, half to herself. The lanyard is hung around her neck to keep it out of the way first, then she takes a few steps into the office space and starts to look around. The werewolf casually swipes some candy here and there as she goes. She's not quite sure what she's looking for, especially since there's no stink here, but that doesn't mean there's nothing. She opens office doors, peers under desks, and rifles through cabinets. ]

I feel like there's gotta be something here.

[greyerrant]

Sometimes an office is just an office. Find actionable intelligence on our erstwhile masters.

[ Loken realizes he is unlikely to find the babadon't here. But a forgotten key card to the armory or other access might be possible, which will help with later struggles. He searches for that kind of thing. ]

[fuckingaqua]

[ Oh, sure, office workers are allowed to have pictures of their kids. That's discrimination. He doesn't know exactly what kind of discrimination yet, but it is.

Tucker opts to take a couple of minutes to finish climbing Single-Minded Dumbass Mountain. Which is to say, he keeps his ears peeled for signs of trouble with his teammates while he hangs back, and tries puzzling together some of this torn paper to see if anything worth finding is on it, instead of going down the cool new hallway. Just in case.

No one wants to be the dude who fucked everything up by forgetting about some paper that was in the trash one time.

Plus, you know. Maybe it's a phone number for one of the 400 Pams in accounting and she'd be interested in some clearly-outlined-as-casual hookups. He misses fun. ]

[piper90npcs]

[Most of the offices are locked. The one that is open has bean bags, a couch that's clearly a futon, and a little plastic baggie that has a travel toothbrush and dental floss. Whoever works in this office clearly is married to the job. A whiteboard on the wall has Parking Lot in the righthand top corner. The computer is password-locked, but there's a crumpled up piece of paper next to the rolling desk chair.

Tucker's papers, pieced together, seem to be a to-do list - but something liquid and dark, maybe computer printer ink, was spilled on the paper and rendered several words illegible.

To-Do ████ 12.10.2020
- ████ laundry
- select first targets
- investigate potential costumes
- ████ ████ ████
- ████ janitor schedule
- ████ ████ and ████ in garden
- change rooms]

[ragefeathers]

[ Kenzie stoops to pick up the crumpled paper and casually uncrumples it to see if it contains anything useful. As she does so, she plops down into the computer chair, then frowns over at the whiteboard. Hm. She wakes the computer. ]

I don't think anyone is that obvious, but...

[ She asides to Loken, then punches in Parking Lot as the password, just to see if it works. ]

[greyerrant]

[ Loken naturally falls into position of cover for Kenzie, and comments, ]

The competence of our captors knows no beginnings, so they just might be that foolish.