>>201273
Morning Burns. Or afternoon or evening. I take it your in someplace actually safe currently and discussion with a coroner or doctor of somesort. And someone you know decently enough to comment on their personality.

Also you're probably in another world from another comment. Or very very far away from your home. Or your last comment was a ruse.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/29(Tue)23:02 No. 201285 ID: 212869
File 127787774690.jpg - (240.79KB , 777x777 , 07-85.jpg )

...Yeah, it's definitely them.

>>201285
What do you mean, 'them'?

so what happened to you after the ship exploded? may need to restrain her when she get's up she saw something bad.

Oh come on, Burns. We haven't even tried to hit on you yet.

Aaaahhh! Jump cuts! Pieces of story flying every which way!

Oh hey Burns. How've you been?

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/29(Tue)23:21 No. 201299 ID: 212869
File 127787886223.jpg - (242.98KB , 777x777 , 07-86.jpg )

Pipe down. You're going a mile a minute. One sec.

"That's all I needed. Thanks."

"Oh, anything for family."

That guy creeps me out.

It's a good thing I was watching him finish up the surgery. Imagine if you'd opened your mouths in someone else's hands.

>How's Kitty, is she ok?

You can probably see for yourself.

>ETA on when she'll be back on her feet?

Don't know.

>Oh hey Burns. How've you been?

How do you think I've been? Shitty.

>so what happened to you after the ship exploded?

We fell down the shit chute. That's what happened.

How much do you guys know? Let's start from there.

>>201299

Let's see... Kitty ended up in a research building with horrible creatures wandering out, that are apparently capable of attacking other people's minds.

There was a lot of fire. And horrible organic things.

>>201299
She woke up in an underground facility filled with eldrich horrors, one of which we had met before. She explored for awhile, then came across something that hit her with a powerful psionic attack that tried to destroy her identity.

Her last coherent thought was "It is not Piaculum".

okay, from what we know we ended up in a facility. kitty woke up around the same time tannon was fried crispy. from what we could tell a malevolent supernatural being was warping the place. the fact that you and kitty were changed by an even more powerful being is the only reason you weren't mutated as well. we tried to get out but our guide mutated mid way and she was cornered. she jumped down the hole and died and lost time until just now.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/29(Tue)23:42 No. 201308 ID: 212869
File 127788012690.jpg - (200.78KB , 777x777 , 07-87.jpg )

You woke up and there were... things and more things, huh?

>tannon was fried crispy

Tannon is over there. Still studying those lean man samples.

...You guys weren't paying attention again, were you?

>not Piaculum

I'm pretty sure what we're dealing with is Piaculum.

>our guide

Guide? What guide?

GOD DAMMIT! what the hell is going on? we saw tannon's burning corpse. are we time traveling? are we dreaming? was the entire facility a dream? ugh, if i had a head it would be in pain...

>>201308

Wait... time travel IS possible. Are you in an underground facility with some massive drops?

Okay Burns.

Burns.

Start over. Explain from when the ship was attacked.

>>201310
We never saw his corpse. Kitty thought he was in the burning room, but apparently he wasn't.

Let me give you a better summary of what we experienced with Kitty. We woke up in a box in some makeshift cold storage, crawled through a vent, found some dead bodies... then a giant muscled man with a hooded mask appeared and punched through a wall to grab a survivor. Kitty punched IT through a wall into a very, very deep pit. Then we wandered a bit, found some fleshy abominations, and then discovered the survivor- Blair, who told us that the whole facility's staff were turning into fleshy abominations. Apparently it could happen at any time, and only fire seemed to stave them off. The huge muscled man from before is called the "warden" and was collecting survivors for some unknown purpose. Ahh, but he said that Tannon got caught in the lab 5/6 fire so maybe he was lying at that point. Man, most of our info we got from him!

How did Tannon survive being blasted by the TAV while you were on the boat?

>>201308
Hey. YOU recap this time. What happened since the boat was blasted?

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/30(Wed)00:53 No. 201329 ID: 212869
File 127788443122.jpg - (230.18KB , 777x777 , 07-88.jpg )

>a better summary
Okay, that makes a little more sense.

>giant muscled man with a hooded mask
>the warden

Yeah. We know him. It. Whatever he is, now. That used to be Solomon. We think. He was the head of security. What happened to him is anybody's guess.

>Blair
So that's where he went to. I don't know what story he told you, but he's the one that turned on us. Cost us most of the people we had left. He set off one of the gas chambers. If he told you Tannon was dead... I'm not sure if he believed it, or not. I'm not even sure if he was one of them, at the time. He was already nuts.

>Explain from when the ship was attacked.
We were the unlucky ones, amazingly enough. Tannon and some other survivors made it to shore. Apparently he knew the guy in charge here. Sims, I think?

Makes sense. If you remember, Tannon told us this was our next stop. We had a few fun conversations about that... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A couple months before I woke up, the Empire's boys brought in this thing they called the Lean Man. It came out of the TGC. The Coalition ended up moving on to the other nations on my continent. The Empire had humanitarian missions going on in the region. Or, that was their diplomatic answer to what they were... nevermind, I'll just confuse you.

Bottom line, the Empire brought this thing back with them. People started getting into fights over it, forming factions and accusing one another of being imposters, and the like.

I woke up a couple weeks ago. Apparently, Kitty had done the same, earlier, although they had to put her down. So, they were ready for me. I spent the next week in a cell.

Long story short, these things started coming out of people, trying to imitate us. Tannon got me out. I can't really give much of an explanation beyond that. We've been running, this entire time.

Now, we're on Block 2. Honestly, we're in the thick of it. Piaculum are all over. They tried to get in a couple times. Felson and Heyit. We let Felson in, until we found him impersonating Missy. We had to kill both of them. Heyit, we just burned alive. I don't know if he was human.

We found Kitty hanging off an exposed girder in the main shaft a few hours ago. I'm not sure how long she was down there.

Now, there's just the five of us. Mary, Redding, me, Kitty and Tannon. Either one of those two could be one of them. I'm almost sure of it. But there's no way to test for it. That's what Tannon said.

>>201329

I think if we touch them, we might be able to find out. But that has it's own risks.

>>201329
Just keep an eye on them and burn them if they turn. We want to get people out of this alive if we can.

Are Piaculum supposed to have psionic or reality-warping attacks? Because what we encountered certainly did.

no, it's not Piaculum, it's another being of great power though. perhaps Zalgo, or maybe Xom. and we have seen the lean man before. we called him the slender man though. same difference really. and yeah. touching them with us may be the only way to guarantee they are real people. besides, it's not like they could call someone who wants us in.

>>201329
Kitty said it's not Piaculum. Right before she dove into the main shaft to keep from being caught by a giant fleshbeast. Her mind was... affected somehow. Something about her identity being subverted.

If Blair was already one of them, then... the warden isn't allied with them. I hope the big guy isn't actually dead, in that case.

Ohhh, the Lean Man eh? I almost forgot we found some papers about that kind of thing. Written by Sims. We actually got a lot of the information you just gave us from that... but forgot. Do you know where the body is? If my intuition is correct, the staff here have been experimenting with it.

...ever considered that the Tannon with you could be the impostor? The "Blair" we met could have been telling the truth about him dying in the fire, despite being an impostor as well. I think they steal the memories of those they mimic. This probably means that they can mimic Kitty now.

>>201340
well they found us in her gut so we know this one is real.

oh, and start with tannon.

oh so we're fighting off The Thing I see. Lets see, if the movie has any indication about how these creatures work is that each and every part, even if separated, are connected. Including samples of fresh blood. If heat is applied to the fresh blood, then you might start a reaction in the host of this creature. It may or may not work, depending on how based this scenario is on the movie. Hell, for all we know that thing really actually could be The Thing.

>>201308

You better be pretty sure, because Kitty has a hell of a lot of experience with Piaculum up close and personal.. If she says not Piaculum I'm inclined to take that seriously. Remember she threw herself down the main shaft on this assumption. The entire main shaft.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/30(Wed)13:57 No. 201457 ID: ebe67f
File 127793145392.jpg - (190.13KB , 777x777 , 07-89.jpg )

>Zalgo, or maybe Xom
Who?

>we have seen the lean man before
Well, it did bust out of the cold locker.
>the slender man
So... you saw it and then gave it a new name, or...? Or did you see it before now, or what?

You're starting to confuse me, voices. And I'm the one who's actually been awake for all of this.

>ever considered that the Tannon with you could be the impostor?
I honestly have no idea. But he was the one that got me out, and we've been together ever since. Sometimes alone. If he had wanted to take me over, he would have. We've all been paranoid of one another. No one trusts anyone, anymore. I have to believe I can trust him.

Tannon has actually become the most hated person here, due to how he's always acted. My association with him has caused some problems, too.

Redding and Mary basically only hang around one another, now. Sim was chased off a week ago, before the incident with Blair, for being so chummy with Tannon.

>I think they steal the memories of those they mimic.
Why?
>probably means that they can mimic Kitty now.
...Why?

>You better be pretty sure
Well, judging from how she described them to me, this is them. From the sound of things, there may be another force at work here, though. Can't say I understand things like that, though.

Only Kitty did. And apparently, I can't rely on you voices for information. Just baseless speculation.

>>201457
Hard information has been kind of hard to find here. Right now the best we can do is speculate. Kitty should have some stuff in her clothes that might give someone some insight, she also found a weird occult symbol thingy with a torso nailed to the middle of it. And some references to what she saw when she was in the engine of that ship. Which would imply that either this thing was there and saw it or it's a mind reader.

Both of those are some rather nasty options. Because either you have something that can't just survive the engine but actually live there or something that can read your mind. And from what I have heard of the piaculum they're not mindreaders, they probably could survive in that engine though. So lets hope for the mindreader option.

If you don't have anything else to do you should probably check up on Mary and Redding, don't want them to do anything crazy now if they figure they have been outnumbered now that Kitty has showed up.

Christ, don't associate all voices with idiocy. There's a bunch of us in here. About a village's worth. Thing is we got a bunch of village idiots. It seems we have a... plague

But no seriously, if you want to establish trust, get blood of everybody and apply intense heat to it. These creatures HATE fire and we could check to see if another thing from another world that we know of, or at least something similar, crept into yours.

probably the only thing left to do, is tell the truth. fess up that you kitty and maybe tannon could be immune due to not exactly being human. they may freak out but there is little they could do, and once they start asking why you aren't turning into a monster you can inform them that a different being, something stronger, already changed you, so the lean man holds no power over your body.

oh and we have seen him before all this, didn't know he could dimension hop.

>>201457
They need to be able to steal memories if they're going to act like the one they're imitating. It's difficult to impersonate someone for long without at least a basic knowledge of how they act.

As far as imitating Kitty is concerned... I was just saying that to warn you ahead of time in case she shows up out of nowhere before she's supposed to be alive again. I bet they can't imitate her amortal qualities though, so you could just test it like that. Ask her to bend something, maybe. That gives me an idea. If you ever get suspicious of Tannon, you could ask him to do something related to his special qualities.

Y'know if these things really are piaculum then perhaps Kitty was just referring to the thing that was invading her mind? Meh.

Alright, let me grab some more information for you. Kitty found some sort of... main manifestation of some kind of horrible fleshbeast, and this is what it said:
The self is by its own will and shall destroy that which denies it.

I know you, Cynthia.
Cynthia, who was denied and destroyed that that denied her, in whom I am well-pleased.

You serve yourself well. You serve me.

Oh yeah, she picked up a few things... Did Kitty have anything in her pockets? An electrical component, and an eye with the optic nerve still attached?

>>201457
Fact: Kitty said "It's not Piaculum". While there almost certainly IS Piaculum here, there's probably something else at work as well.

Fact: WE have encountered a few of these entities before, albeit not these specific manifestations of them.

Fact: Whatever is going on here is either taking over people's bodies and minds and mutating them, or is mimicking their bodies and minds. There are no other viable explanations as to how they could impersonate others well enough to fool their compatriots.

Speculation: Tannon may have been compromised.

Fact: Kitty is the only one whose identity is established unquestionably. To be perfectly frank? Until we know that we can tell the difference that includes you.

Speculation: If it takes over bodies, then Kitty's amortal status likely protects her from it.

Fact: If you find a second Kitty wandering around then it is obviously a duplicate, and shows that it is duplicating people.

Now:
Ask somebody to hold on to us for a minute, go do something, then ask for us back.
We will remain silent and monitor the person's thoughts. If we find out anything then we'll let you know when you retrieve us.

Also, by the end of this, Redding will commit suicide by explosive if he isn't infected, and if he is his smile will go really wide before tendrils start popping loose from his mouth. In fact, you may not have to do my blood test theory if you get Redding to laugh, though the blood test will likely be more accurate. Solomon Spade, the warden, if he is actually against all of those who are infected or similarly gathering them like Ace was, probably detected something about Redding that wasn't right before he became the warden. That or Redding caught him slowly becoming the Warden before Solomon turned. Hrrmm, nevermind.

Mary is... well I don't recall any Marys or similar named beings the last time crazy mutants and a pointy mask showed up. Ask what her last name is. But that's funny Mary helped Redding kick Sims out, the letter earlier made it seem that Sims respected Mary very much. Here, lemme try and see if I can recite information we've gained through a point of veiw or not. If you don't acquire this information, me or one of the other voices can relay it using traditional means of talking it out.
>>163420

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/30(Wed)14:52 No. 201500 ID: ebe67f
File 127793472236.jpg - (184.82KB , 777x777 , 07-90.jpg )

>Ask somebody to hold on to us for a minute
Ha.
>We will remain silent and monitor the person's thoughts.
Uh huh.

>check up on Mary and Redding
No one is allowed out of view of anyone else, anymore. We're all barricaded inside Block 2's storage chambers, together. We're always in reach of the flamethrowers they use here to melt the ice when they're mining. They're our only real weapons.

>get blood of everybody and apply intense heat to it
I'm not sure why you think that will work, but I guess I can ask Tannon about it.

"Hey."

"What."

"I was thinking. Bullets don't slow these things down much. They can tear themselves apart, and even that doesn't kill them. Only fire seems to really -

"Your point."

"Do you think testing tissue samples from everyone with heat would -

"You have watched me run tests on Lean Man tissue for the past week. I have exposed it to acids, strong bases and heat, and not once has there been an abnormal reaction."

"Oh... right."

"Your animal mind is succumbing to emotion. Control your lower impulses."

So... no.

I guess we can all just sit here speculating, all day.

I guess you got here just in time, though. We were about to make a push for Block 1.

I apologize, I just thought maybe something else from another world we have knowledge of could work on something similar to it. I'll stay away from applying other world knowledge to this one. Trying to help though. It's all I really want to do. :(

Alright, Block 1 is where in relation to the exit? Or have you established another goal beyond getting out?

>>201500
How fresh was the tissue? I think I know what this is. If that tissue wasnt fresh, then it wouldnt react. If it was fresh it should have reacted, violently.

[Does this scream "The Thing" for anyone else here?]

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/30(Wed)15:40 No. 201534 ID: ebe67f
File 127793761566.jpg - (123.08KB , 777x777 , 07-91.jpg )

>Block 1 is where in relation to the exit?

As far as it can be. Block 1 is the bottom floor. Here, I'll show you.

This is the main shaft. It's where we found Kitty. I spotted her hanging off a girder, from this reinforced window. It took a while to get to her. Had to unfasten this window and climb across the wall. Wasn't fun. We didn't find any eye, or transistor on her, if she had something like that.

We're in block 2, about a kilometer below the surface. Block 1 is right under us. That's where they took the sample they brought back from the Confederacy.

Due to the damage the whole complex has taken, the upper levels have been sealed off. No one can get past block 50, thankfully. That means we're sealed up inside, along with the Piaculum. And whatever else is here.

Every nine hours, there's a five minute surge that knocks out all the locks, from block 10, down to block 1. All the barricades become unlocked. We're going to make a run from here, down to block 1, the next time that happens.

This main shaft runs through the entire complex, from top to bottom. It's the only way to the top, and to the outside. I've been keeping watch, and making sure none of those things have been trying to climb up. So far, nothing.

It's strange. It's like it's more interested in what's here, than trying to escape. And we can't allow it to leave. Imagine if Piaculum was freed, into the rest of the world.

Once we get down to block 1, we can raise the main platform all the way up to block 100. Otherwise, everyone would have to climb up the walls, which I don't think even I could do.

So, that's the plan. We leave in a couple of hours.

If you have something you want to do or ask, you need to bring it up, now.

>>201534
Wait... Lean man, may I hazard a guess as to it's origional description? Tall dark suited, vaguely Caucasian features, exceedingly flexible and shows limb morphability in the ability to spontaneously add or subtract strange 'branch-like' limbs from his torso or 'natural limbs.'

Seem to have a fascination or dazed reaction to bright lights? Leads formerly frantic victims away in a kind of calm stupor upon taking their hand after which they are never seen again (at least not as a whole?)

If any of this seems to match then we know this entity (or entities) as 'The Slender Man'. Most of our knowledge about him is as a kind of fairy tale (he fits well in the category of malignant fae) or story told to scare children from walking away with strangers.

We don't really know how to beat him, but it seems to avoid direct observation by crowds (even surveillance equipment) almost instinctively. Never heard of any morphological imitative (doppelganger) properties however, that's a new one.

Ask for Mary's full name. If Tannon has written any of his research down, now would be a good time to ask Tannon if you can look over it so we could avoid asking him a bunch of question that would likely strain both you and Tannon's patiences.

Double check the reserves and conditions of the flamethrowers, just in case these monsters are sentient and capable of tampering with these things in the case of Mary or Redding being an impostor. Then I suggest you all pray to your makers or luck gods. Kiss a lucky charm too.

One more thing, is it possible that documents could be in the room your in or have you checked around already?

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/06/30(Wed)21:07 No. 201648 ID: ebe67f
File 127795726171.jpg - (211.36KB , 777x777 , 07-92.jpg )

>The Slender Man
That sounds nothing like what I'm talking about.

They called it "lean man" because it vaguely looked like a person, but emaciated, with arms, legs... everything, even its head, way too long and thin for the rest of it.

I suppose I didn't tell you the rest of the story about that. It was confiscated from a team exiting the same artifactum I found you in.

>Mary's full name
Her last name is Smith.

>If Tannon has written any of his research down
>documents could be in the room

Some of his bullshit is here. It's the only thing here. I call it bullshit because it's obvious the only real conclusions he's making, he's keeping in that Acruen brain of his. The notes are a show for Redding and Mary.

They see the three of us as freaks, since they're aware Tannon has some working relationship with Kitty and me.

If there's nothing else, I'm going to check on our equipment, and take a nap before the surge hits.

Mneme!CRITTerXzI 2010/06/30(Wed)21:16 No. 201655 ID: c4c313
File 127795780999.jpg - (227.75KB , 771x796 , Amigara.jpg )

Zalgo is a fear engine constructed from a gamer's vengeful spirit. Xom is a minor deity of chaos and uncomfortable smiles. You know I really think this could be

>>201648

>> They called it "lean man" because it vaguely looked like a person, but emaciated, with arms, legs... everything, even its head, way too long and thin for the rest of it.

ohhhhh SHIIIIT

> They called it "lean man" because it vaguely looked like a person, but emaciated, with arms, legs... everything, even its head, way too long and thin for the rest of it.

I'm going to make a small joke here and say... Mushio?

Anyway, I can see why Tannon didn't like it when you asked that question. It compromises his bullshit if Mary and Redding are paying attention to it. It could have been a sly remark to shut the fuck up before you anger the two much more irrational people here because you exposed information he didn't put down.

Alright, I'm not entirely sure what else to ask. If you've double-checked the flamethrowers, I think we're good to go and burn some fuckers. Lock and Load and similar condemnations of doom towards our opposition. Well, when everything goes and unlocks that it. Just get Mary and Redding between you and Tannon so the Blair incident doesn't happen again and we get surrounded by those goddamn things like we did with Kitty.

oh, and i suppose swing kitty over your shoulder.

>>201648
>It was confiscated from a team exiting the same artifactum I found you in.

Lovely, just fucken lovely. I love military intelligence, because storing 'inert' heinous monstrosities anywhere near artifacts of untold power from the same site is ever a 'good idea.'

Hell, who even thinks meddling in this kind of shit is a good idea in the first damn place? I mean what could they have wanted to study it for aside from "oh hey, let's lock it in a room with some livestock and see how fast they disappear?"

>>201718
true, if it was found in the same place then it may be reacting to us.

Wait wait wait. You are going up the central shaft? The one Kitty fell down? The one Kitty threw the Warden down? Which means the Warden is going to be at the bottom of that shaft. Alive or dead I don't know.

Kitty beat the shit out of that fucker, caught it off guard. Wailed on his chest with everything she had. Said it was like punching steel. Bashed him through a wall into a very deep shaft. After she was brain attacked by whatever the fuck she had the options of fighting it, running into fire, or jumping down the pit. She lost it and jumped down the shaft.

Fuck, you can't let them all know that the Warden is down there. They'd know something strange was going on.

Shit. Tannon. Fuck, he's not trustworthy. Fuck.

Ok, here's the plan. You know the Warden is down there. Nobody else does. Hope for the best.

if blair was already corrupted when we saw the warden attack him then that means he would sorta be our ally. don't want to be near him but he may go after monsters first.

>>201741
He's likely not our ally, he'd be collecting them for further corruption or something. Like Ace. He's an Captain Ersatz, I doubt the guy is any less evil than Ace was.

Vvvvoices! Mixmatching things we know with this situation will get us nowhere, and does nothing for our relationships here! Since we'll be scampering down to a likely scary place with these folks, Burns, might you kindly please tell us what Mary and Redding are like? Your opinion on them? We've heard of Mary before. She seems to have been the head of the 'Personnel Care division,' and looked into how others in this place were doing emotionally and mentally. You might have found that out, but I thought you might want to hear just in case. And at the start of all this, Redding and Solomon apparently got into a fight. As if Mr. Red wasn't suspicious enough.

Hmm, Kitty found a personal letter addressed to Mary before. If the doppelgangers DON'T know all the memories of a person they're impersonating... we might be able to use this inside info to figure that out.

On the other hand, if she DOES know all her memories... and has perfect recall... we could ask something that a normal person would have a hard time remembering. I assume Tannon is able to tell when someone is lying just from looking at them... Hmm, I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not. What do you think, Burns?

Something else.

When you extracted us, Kitty's psyche was kind of left in a precarious state. We're still not sure whether we're seeing things that she hasn't encountered yet, if she's in some sort of dream state, or whatnot. But I think you should try to put us back with her once you've gotten what you need from us. I mean, we know she's going to be physically fine, but, amortal or not, her mind might be vulnerable.

Assuming she's dreaming. Or seeing the future. Hell, I'm not really sure what we're seeing either.