Rata Mall - Main Thread

[CaptainMeme]

I hadn't realised the game had started, sorry! I'll get on this in the morning

[CaptainMeme]

Having been skulking in the corner for some time, Jia Xing suddenly moves to the center of the room and claps her hands twice. Her manner of speaking is rather irregular, repeating herself seemingly at random, and had no sense of consistent pace; some words would be drawn out when they shouldn't be, others would be crammed together like they had to all be spoken at once.

"My my. My my my my my. Busy busy busy busy little little little beeeeeees we have here, don'twe? heh heh heh."

Clap

.

Clap

.

"IFICOULDHAVEYOURATTENTIONPLEASE."

Clap

.

Clap

. [/i]Clap[/i].

"This this mall is offlimits yes it is, yes it is my friends, how are you here? How am I here? heh heh heh. Maybethequestionis, who who who are you here? Yes yes yes. That seems like an immmmmportant question."

clapclapclapclapclapclapclapclap

"Perhaps perhaps peeeeeerhaps we should in-tro-duuuuuuce ourselves, heh heh heh. Whowantstogofirst?"

[CaptainMeme]

Jia sits down, cross-legged, on a table, grinning ear to ear at Johannes.

"heh heh heh. A merrrrrrchant, eh? And and and this mall willbeyour heaaaaadquarters, yes yes yes? heh heh hehhehehehehehHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA"

It takes her some time to get her breath back from the fit of laughter, before she continues to talk.

"Pointless pointless pointless POINTLESS POINTLESSPOINTLESSPOINTLESSPOINTPOINTPOINTLESS. It it it mustbeso beeeeeeaaaauuuuutiful in your empty little little little head, yes yes yes it must."

Her eyes narrow as she glances from person to person, taking a moment to look each one up and down, before her gaze comes to rest on Carla.

"You you you seem like a smart smart one, yeeeeees. Some some lost things are more impoooooortant than moneymoneymoneymoneyMONEYMONEYMONEY."

The sentence ends in a wail, which tapers off almost as soon as it started, Jia suddenly staring glassy-eyed over Carla's shoulder at nothing in particular. It seems she is done talking for the moment.

[CaptainMeme]

Whispers To CaptainMeme

If you sent me one I didn't receive it!

[CaptainMeme]

"heh heh heh. Sooooounds like youguyshad some fun fun fun. The hardware store was was was booooooooring."

Jia looks over at the bank.

"are are are we staging a robbery, yes yes yes? Heh heh heh. That that that sounds like like the mooooooost funI'llhave in ageeeeeeeeees"

Go to Bank

[CaptainMeme]

"I had a fun fun fun fun fun fun fun time, heh heh heh. Fun fun fun fun fun. Itwas was even more fun when a truck truck truck crashed through the wall."

Jia grins at Casey.

[CaptainMeme]

"Dr Lacey Higgs, by order of the Galactic Peacekeepers I find you guilty of interfering with a Type I Civilization and sentence you to death."

Shoot Dr Lacey Higgs

[CaptainMeme]

"Requesting any and all assistance! I mean humanity no harm but these players are both AL Drones."

Defend myself with the wok while attempting to get other players to help

"Don't let them take this"

Toss the gun to Groza

[CaptainMeme]

Inspect arm

(if I can do in combat?)

[CaptainMeme]

Back down, if the others are happy to

"Primate, why the hell didn't you give the codephrase?"

"I want everyone in this room to show their upper right arms. No exceptions. If anyone refuses, I will attack."

[CaptainMeme]

Withdraw from combat

Inspect everyone who does as they do

[CaptainMeme]

Inspect Ariel and Talitha

(@ambic I'd like to automatically inspect everyone who raises their arm if that's okay?)

[CaptainMeme]

Alright, while we wait for others to raise their arms for checking. We may as well do this.

Regarding Harry's jacket, I believe Harry did that to himself for the same reason Jia tried to shoot me. He thought I was a recruiter for a Hive Mind and was trying to expose his arms out of fear of being chipped.

So he was partially right, I am a "kind" of recruiter, in a manner of speaking. This was known to Casey, Carla and Terry, but I am not the one you were looking for.
Let me explain.

As you can no doubt see from my heterochromia, I am a mutant. I have a healing serum that I can use to treat people. The base of which is formulated from my own cells and can be used as a powerful panacea. If my cells join to an afflicted person, they will endure a short seizure through the bonding process and will emerge to be cured of all ails, and are treated as my patient.

My role:

I am a Mutant Doctor trying to assist the remains of society. My goal is to assist as many possible remaining players, by means of a Healing Serum made from my own cells.
If I am alone in a room with a player I may attempt to treat them with the serum. I have a syringe in my possession that I can inject people with. Not all players are able to be healed. However, I may try to convince them to let me administer it to them. There are up to 5 players can be treated.

Note: I *may* attempt to heal a player with other people present. But was warned this may draw unwanted attention.

My win condition required me to successfully treat at least one player having them become my patient.

1. You must successfully treat at least one player.
2. Survive by any means necessary. (With or without any patients who will win with you.)

I was able to cure Terry (Battlemage) of his addiction to drugs/alcohol in the Cafe. He volunteered and then the moron jumped into the freezer insisting it lead to a brewery. In the Barbers I was able to treat Harry of his greed for money.

I did ask Primate for assistance, and he did insist on trying to calm things down. I will say, the way Jia phrased it sounded like a non negotiable situation, Judge, Jury, Executioner so I initially thought she'd be unwilling to listen to reason having already decided to draw, aim and fire.

For the record I also am carrying bandages, anti radiation pills, and steroids, of which I can use to assist the everyone in the mall.

"Something doesn't add up here. And I know I might be following a lead that doesn't concern me, but I want to get to the bottom of this, because your claimed identity is eerily close to what I'm looking for. I could believe that it's a red herring, but I want some clarifications."

"So first, you say you were able to cure Terry of his addiction to drugs and alcohol. So why was he then so determined to get to the brewery that he thought it was worth triggering four skulls and risking death for?"

"And second, you say that you were able to treat Harry of his greed for money. But I'd already informed Harry of the Drone situation and warned him to be incredibly careful in one to one situations. Why would he allow you to do this? Especially since you mentioned this is done through injection, which is *exactly* the same way Drones create new Drones."

[CaptainMeme]

oh boy I missed a lot

[CaptainMeme]

"Alright, back off Doctor. I want my answers before you do anything more with this woman."

"Harry, a man burst in when we were in the Bank together. Tell me exactly what that man said prior to his death."

"Someone else, keep an eye on Talitha and particularly under her arm. Do not let the doctor near her until she wakes up. I want to ensure they don't have a way to conceal this."

[CaptainMeme]

If I attack Lacey, it prevents the action until I back off, right? And I'll have 24h to back off before the attack actually goes through?

[CaptainMeme]

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BANK."

"And second, you say that you were able to treat Harry of his greed for money. But I'd already informed Harry of the Drone situation and warned him to be incredibly careful in one to one situations. Why would he allow you to do this? Especially since you mentioned this is done through injection, which is *exactly* the same way Drones create new Drones."

Good question. Whilst I am free of my affliction now, I do not endorse this *over-enthusiastic* approach to medicine. *gestures at yvonne*

"So as not to mince words, you were attacked and had this forced upon you?"

[CaptainMeme]

This may be extrapolating too much, but I put way too much time and effort into doing it to not do it now.

Jia suddenly gets a glint in her eye, as though she's figured something out.

"I notice my questions have been dodged for the most part. This doesn't add up at all. And I think I have some idea of what would..."



"HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS CASE"



"In phase two, the drone is with too many others and gets no chance to strike. But in phase three, they find themselves alone in the cafe with a very appetising target, who they then proceed to inject and convert. The person we knew as Terry is soon no more, and in their place is a drone completely under the original drone's control.



"I believe the drones have some interest in something in the secret lab, so the original drone then sent in Drone Terry to test combinations. Obviously, the life of this drone was unimportant, and our good friend ended up somewhat more crispy than he went in."



"On using more combinations, I believe the original drone was able to find the correct combination and enter the lab, finding the cloning bays and the time machine."



"This drone then dragged Terry's corpse into the secret lab. Something then happened - I am unsure what they were trying to do in the lab, but it could very well have involved a clone of some description. That's the missing piece in the story. The drone then escaped up the laundry chute and into the fashion store."



"I'll admit, this is fairly contrived. But I believe the drones have found something to conceal their glows, and the most obvious location for this is the fashion store."

"From here on out, it's fairly obvious. Harry was cornered and assaulted last round, converted to a drone. After I confronted them and missed, they used the concealed arms to bluff their way out of it. Our original drone then went all in on her story, converting someone

in front of our eyes

and "putting them in the recovery position" while applying the concealer."

"Our villain - the 'Mutant Doctor'."

[CaptainMeme]

"Not to interrupt your, uh, whatever this is,"
Jia gestures at the clobbered man.
"But, I would like to point out that the good doctor here has still not answered my question about why, after she 'cured' Terry of his alcoholism, he was still so determined to get into the brewery that he literally killed himself trying to do so. And why our good friend Harry here was supposedly cured of the want of money but was still carrying around a gold ingot? It's strange that the only demonstration we got of this cure working was *after* she claimed to be curing people."

[CaptainMeme]

Pick up pitchfork

[CaptainMeme]

Raise my arm and roll up my sleeve if I have one

(will respond to everything in a few, it's been a busy day)

[CaptainMeme]

Whisper Talitha

[CaptainMeme]

Attack Mark

"I have no intention of following through with this attack if he shows his arm and there's no glow. But we need to force it now. I would appreciate assistance if he refuses."

[CaptainMeme]

(I need to sleep irl pre-deadline so queuing up actions)

If Mark shows his arm voluntarily or through being restrained, inspect it. If there's a glow go through with the attack, otherwise back out.

If Mark doesn't show his arm, confirm attack.

If I'm alive at phasing, go to the fashion store

[CaptainMeme]

Render Mark Unconscious

[CaptainMeme]

Inspect Mark's Right Arm

[CaptainMeme]

Hit the light switch

[CaptainMeme]

Jia calls out into the darkness.

"Everyone, arms up, sleeves rolled up again if you have them."

[CaptainMeme]

"Thoughts and prayers, people. This thing is getting mighty inaccurate but I think trying it before the dynamite is a good plan."

Shoot the Frankenmage

[CaptainMeme]

Run for cover

[CaptainMeme]

Walk up and stab it with the pitchfork

[CaptainMeme]

Examine its right arm

[CaptainMeme]

"I agree in theory with the travelling in groups. I would also recommend travelling in groups of at least three, but given our current situation, that seems difficult to accomplish."

"I am still unsure of where exactly to go from here and of what I'm missing. My current approach will be to assist in defence wherever necessary."

Jia turns to Harry.

"As much as I dislike your theory, I think it would be foolish not to consider it. Particularly in my case it is beginning to look like what I am searching for doesn't actually exist."

[CaptainMeme]

Jia, do you mind sharing exactly what you've been sent here to achieve? I just wonder if the wording of it could shed any light.

(Am I allowed to quote my role PM @ambic? I can paraphrase if not)

[CaptainMeme]

"I'm a member of the Galactic Peacekeepers, sent to Earth to root out and destroy the Augmentation League. I am aware that one member of the League is present in this Mall. My goal is to eliminate all Augmentation League presence in the mall."

"The Augmentation League works by converting humans into AL drones. This is done by drugging them, then inserting a microchip into them. Once a human has become an AL drone, they are completely under the control of the League."

"There are three ways to identify AL drones. First, as you're aware, they have a distinctive green glow under their right arm. Second, they carry syringes for injection and microchips for conversion. And third, they lose their memories prior to becoming a drone."

Jia sighs.

"Dr Lacey's claim seemed so close to what I am looking for that it could not be coincidence, but I have confirmed that no living player has the glow, and Harry has retained his memories from the bank, which was prior to the moment he was attacked by the Doctor. I also verified after the fight that Terry did not have the glow. The only remaining possibility is Casey, but I see no reason why he would have killed himself if so, let alone had such an item as a lie detector. I also have reason to believe that the AL have (or had) some interest in the lab, and the ability to get in, so his getting the password wrong essentially clears him."