The Thing (5/19 Alive) - GAME OVER, RESEARCHERS WIN

[gardenphilosoph]

"Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be. Right now that may be one or two of us. By spring, it could be all of us."

---

Welcome to a variation on the classic werewolf game, inspired and based off John Carpenter's 1982 film 'The Thing', itself a remake of the 1951 classic 'The Thing From Another World'. This will be a werewolf game with two sides - the Researchers and the Thing. Roleplaying would be nice but is not mandatory, though you still have to choose an in-character name, just to avoid using profile names. Days will last approximately 48 hours and Nights will last approximately 24 hours. As usual, voting and lynching happens during the day and attacks happen at night.

ROLES

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THE RESEARCHERS

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The Researchers: Your job is to stay alive and defeat the Thing. Every day you must discuss among yourselves and choose a Researcher to lynch, by tying them to chair, dousing them in gasoline, and setting them alight. If a 50% majority is reached, the day is ended early and the lynching takes place. If no 25% majority is reached by the end of the day, the mob cannot gather enough numbers and no one is lynched.

The Doctor: You have the ability to protect a single player other than yourself. By watching over someone, the Thing will be forced to avoid them. Every Night phase, you may PM me with the name of one character you wish to protect from death. You do not want to make your position known however, or else the Thing will certainly attempt to take you down right away. During the day, you play things out as a normal Researcher.

The Rogue: You have stolen the facility's only flamethrower and have the ability to torch someone with it each night. You will and must kill the Thing by any means. It is up to your own judgement as to who the Thing is, but if you make your actions known, your fellow Researchers will certainly kill you for taking their lives without trial. During the day, you play things out as a normal Researcher.

THE THING

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The Thing: You are an vicious alien creature with the ability to assimilate and imitate other organisms perfectly. Every night you have the ability to pick one Researcher to kill. The twist is that you have a chance to assimilate the person, but with each night that passes your chances grow smaller and smaller. When there are multiple 'Things', you still only pick a single player, but you may PM each other to talk between yourselves as to who you pick. The original Thing will then PM the decision to me. If you attack a player who is under the watchful eye of the doctor, your turn is wasted and no one dies from your hand..claw, or tentacle. During the day, you play things out as a seemingly normal Researcher, though you try to force the lynches asway.

• 1st Night: 100% chance to assimilate, 0% chance the researcher dies
• 2nd Night: 50% chance to assimilate, 50% chance the researcher dies
• 3rd Night: 25% chance to assimilate, 75% chance the researcher dies
• 4th Night: 12.5% chance to assimilate, 87.5% chance the researcher dies
• 5th Night & all Nights Following: 10% chance to assimilate, 90% chance the researcher dies.

RULES

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Votes and unvotes must be bolded and in red, or they will not count.

Metagaming is frowned upon and PMing other players is not allowed, unless you are part of the collective consciousness of the Thing. If you urgently want to pass on a message to another player, you may PM it to me with the name of whoever it is directed to, and it may or may not reach them.

You may claim that your role is this or that, but this will usually result in a quick death, whether by lynching, flamethrower, or slimy clawed tentacle.

Players who don't participate for two days consecutively will be autolynched.

No editing, no quoting my posts. Three strikes and you're out.

When you die, you may choose to write a short epitaph that will be visible after your death. This is completely optional.

The game will start on a Night phase. This is to serve as a confirmation and roleplaying round, while the Thing picks its first 100% assimilation.

In-character discussions and roleplaying are recommended, but not mandatory. To play, you must however create a character by filling out the following information.

Name: Only a last name is necessary, like Childs, MacReady, or Palmer.
Occupation: This must make sense in the context of an Antarctic Research station. The most common examples would be biologists, geologists, oceanographers, physicists, astronomers, glaciologists, and meteorologists, as well as a slew of maintenance staff, such as engineers, doctors, and culinary staff.

PLAYERS (5/19 Alive)

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1. Aemoh: Lawson the Meteorologist
2. Andre Fairchilde: Andre Fairchilde the OSI Special Agent
3. Fleeing Coward: Electronic Scoreboard/Computer
4. Freshmeat: Anya Von Stradheim, MD the Doctor
5. TehSheen: Smith the Engineer
6. Lostlittlebear: Lee Chang the Security Guard/Mercenary - Lynched Day 1, Thing
7. Billtodamax: John Joneson the Explosives Expert - Devoured Night 2, Researcher
8. YimmytheSneak: Lars McPherson the Assistant Chef - Lynched Day 2, Researcher
9. the Bookworm: Lovecraft the Aspiring Horror Novelist - Freak Accident Day 3, Researcher
10. Zombieninja: Mr. Jorgenson the Psychologist - Lynched Day 3, Researcher
11. cd4: Dr. Jones the Geologist - Murdered Night 4, Researcher
12. Rakkoon: MacDougal the Biologist - Lynched Day 4, Researcher
13. Random Person: Battley the Astronomer/Astrophysicist - Freak Accident Day 4, Researcher
14. Lex-kat: Elizabeth Albricht the Survivalist - Devoured Night 5, Researcher
15. Dr. Bath: Kurt Golding the Physicist - Murdered Night 5, The Thing
16. Mordokai: Johann Anderson the Computer Technician - Lynched Day 5, Researcher
17. Elder Tsofu: Pär Örjansson the Chef - Murdered Night 6, Researcher
18. Dirk Kris: Lindsey Lake the Oceanographer - Freak Accident Day 6, Researcher
19. Mustiado: Carter the Janitor - Lynched Day 6, Thing

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The First Night

The Thing starts on a 'Night', though the only role that gets to do it's job is the Thing at an 100% assimilation rate. By day time, another one of you will be part of the collective mind of the Thing. Therefore this night serves mainly as a confirmation round, plus a round for the Thing to pick an ally.

Roleplaying is encouraged and recommended, but far from mandatory. You can edit your posts, though it should be avoided if possible.

Remember, votes are red and bolded. If you don't do this, a zombie mime-tranvestite will crawl through your bedroom window and harass you.

Have fun! Or don't...you're being killed off by a grotesque alien mimic.

[Lex-Kat]

Elizabeth Albricht, the young Survivalist steps into the base, stomping her feet. She pulls down the hood of her coat. Yes! It's beautiful out there. This is going to be a great vacation!!

Don't you think so, Lindsey. she smiles at Dr. Lake, the Oceanographer.

((That's how we do it, right? Point at the characters, not the player??

Otherwise, it's Dirk Kris.))

[Elder Tsofu]

Örjansson prepared some chicken soup, smiling faintly as he did so.
What a day, what a day.
He'd had quite a few assistants during his time on the base - but this last one was something special.

Looking over to the heap of blankets in the other end of the kitchen, he wondered if Lars had thought it through when he was dared to take his bath "Mattis style" by rolling in the snow outside the base.

*chuckle*

What is it?!

Oh nothing, nothing...

Well, he might not be the best assistant (insisting on hanging around when Pär prepared the canned meals), but at least it didn't get boring around here nowadays.

*chuckle*

*reminds Lex about that it is night and most people don't like being lynched in their beds*

[Lex-Kat]

Oops. But, I'm practicing not editing, so I'll leave it alone.

But that is the right way to point in this game, right? The character, not the player.

[YimmytheSneak]

A brooding Lars set out of the kitchen in hopes of getting this cooking business off his mind. It was maddening. Every canned dish his employer created was better than the last!...In a strange preserved sort of way. Aluminum poisoning, that must be it. He was driving us all insane with aluminum poisoning...Lars rounded a corner and headed to his quarters.

[rakkoon]

Snoorrrre, snore

MacDougal dreams of green pastures, deliciously warm haggis and a sheepskin blanket. He briefly wakes up and thinks to himself "Well, at least I have the blanket".

[cd4]

Dr Jones headed to the weather station to check on his hunch. "Yep, there was a snowstorm brewing. At least with the supply plane delivering our supplies yesterday we don't have to worry about whether it can make it through this snowstorm." He thinks to himself. After that he heads off to his room to rest for the night.

((Sorry for taking the scene setting out of your hands but it just came from setting up my character. If you want to change things feel free.))

[gardenphilosoph]

But that is the right way to point in this game, right? The character, not the player.

I prefer it that way, but as long as it's red and bolded that's what matters. Might be most helpful if it's both, like Albricht the Survivalist (Lex-kat).

Anyways, day time will be beginning soon - the night's ran for more than 24 hours. I got confirmations from all but 6 of you. I'll shoot those 6 a PM as a reminder, but hopefully they're still in.

[gardenphilosoph]

The First Day

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The pale, bitter, warmthless sun dawns on the outpost, illuminating the frostbitten metal and spartan architecture of the lonely research outpost. Outside cold winds blow, threatening the stranded researchers with vicious snowstorms or the destructive nothingness of an Antarctic whiteout.

Unable to communicate with the mainland, the nineteen stranded researchers have only one option - find and kill the monstrous Thing amongst them. Only then they can be safe. Only then would it be right to leave this frozen hell.

---

It's daytime. You can vote to lynch a player. Daytime will last for approximately 48 hours, or if a 50% majority is reached. At this point, that's 10 players. A 25% majority is needed for a lynching to take place at all. At this point, that's 5 players.

Since the assimilation rate for the first night is 100%, you know that two among you are Things now. From this point on, you'll be unsure of their numbers. Their odds of assimilating people get lower every night.

---

"I know I'm human. And if you were all these things, then you'd just attack me right now, so some of you are still human. This thing doesn't want to show itself, it wants to hide inside an imitation. It'll fight if it has to, but it's vulnerable out in the open. If it takes us over, then it has no more enemies, nobody left to kill it. And then it's won. "

[Zombieninja]

"Well if we are stuck here we can at least make things a little more livable" Dr. Jorgenson announced, pointing at Dr. Lindsey Lake(Dirk Kris) as if to signal her to come scavenging with him.

[lostlittlebear]

Chang yawns as he wakes up to another day of guarding against... absolutely nothing. He doesn't believe in this "Thing" - too many years in the Chinese State has warned him to be wary of things government workers tell you. Clearly this "Thing" is some cover up for illegal experiments that the government doesn't want people knowing about. Either way, as a security guard with no access to classified information, there's no reason for a government operative to target him.

Being poor and mediocre is bliss. That was probably the only one of Mao's sayings he had agreed with.

He eyes the scientists as they walk by for signs of suspicious behavior, more out of habit than of a genuine fear of intruders.

Something about Dr. Lindsey Lake looks strange - perhaps she's had a rough night?

[billtodamax]

From down one of the corridors of the abandoned building, comes a cry from John Joneson.

Watch out! Rocket on the loose, rocket on the loose! He calls, running down the hallway after his run away rocket.

Careful Chang Lee! He calls out, as the rocket narrowly misses the security guard.

Joneson hurtles down the corridor after it, only to see it crash at the other end of the hall, exploding harmlessly in a ball of blue sparks.

Sorry! He calls back behind himself.

((Lostlittlebear for the blatant attempt at a wagon start. Not much of a reason.))

[Mustiado]

Carter trundled down the hallway, pushing his trusty cart with him. Even if he didn't have to take orders anymore, it certainly calmed his mind to continue to clean. He grinned to himself, his gap toothed smile widening as he heard Orjannson calling down the hall after him, screaming for someone to handle these pans.

At least he got to choose what he cleaned now.

(Uppity umlauts.)

[Lex-Kat]

Elizabeth yawned and stretched as she woke up. It'd been a long ngiht.

She shivered and rubbed her hands together before finally throwing the covers off and getting dressed.

After putting on her favorite pink thermal long johns and fur slippers, she went to the kitchen to see if there was anything to eat.

She waved friendily to Pär Örjansson. Do we have any oatmeal?

Then there was the explosion. She got up and ran to the scene. What happened? she asked John Joneson (Billtodamax) excitedly.

There was something about the man that she just didn't trust. And now she knew what it was. He was dangerous.

Cast

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1. Aemoh: Lawson the Meteorologist
2. Andre Fairchilde: Andre Fairchilde the OSI Special Agent
3. Billtodamax: John Joneson the Explosives Expert
4. the Bookworm: Lovecraft the Aspiring Horror Novelist
5. cd4: Dr. Jones the Geologist
6. Dirk Kris: Lindsey Lake the Oceanographer
7. Dr. Bath: Kurt Golding the Physicist
8. Elder Tsofu: Pär Örjansson the Chef
9. Fleeing Coward: Electronic Scoreboard/Computer
10. Freshmeat: Anya Von Stradheim, MD the Doctor
11. Lex-kat: Elizabeth Albricht the Survivalist
12. Lostlittlebear: Lee Chang the Security Guard/Mercenary
13. Mordokai: Johann Anderson the Computer Technician
14. Mustiado: Carter the Janitor
15. Rakkoon: MacDougal the Biologist
16. Random Person: Battley the Astronomer/Astrophysicist
17. TehSheen: Smith the Engineer
18. YimmytheSneak: Lars McPherson the Assistant Chef
19. Zombieninja: Mr. Jorgenson the Psychologist

[billtodamax]

John grins wildly at Albricht.

Just a test! He says happily. I stayed up working on it! I didn't expect so many people'd be in the halls at 2 am! He says.

He looks around at the crowd of people gathering.

It's... it's not two am, is it? He asks Albricht. Coulda sworn it didn't take me that long to make this thing.

[lostlittlebear]

Chang groans, heading towards John.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop playing around with fireworks! I swear - I nearly shot you that time. If you want to blow stuff up do it AWAY from me."

[billtodamax]

Hey, now, that's not fair! I could barely recognize you! He says, grinning. It's not like it woulda done much if it had hit you anyway. Anya could have patched you up easy.

[Lex-Kat]

Elizabeth rolls her eyes. If you're going to play with your toys, take them outside. Preferably far far away from here.

She goes back to what she hopes is a nice hot bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar.

Cast

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1. Aemoh: Lawson the Meteorologist
2. Andre Fairchilde: Andre Fairchilde the OSI Special Agent
3. Billtodamax: John Joneson the Explosives Expert
4. the Bookworm: Lovecraft the Aspiring Horror Novelist
5. cd4: Dr. Jones the Geologist
6. Dirk Kris: Lindsey Lake the Oceanographer
7. Dr. Bath: Kurt Golding the Physicist
8. Elder Tsofu: Pär Örjansson the Chef
9. Fleeing Coward: Electronic Scoreboard/Computer
10. Freshmeat: Anya Von Stradheim, MD the Doctor
11. Lex-kat: Elizabeth Albricht the Survivalist
12. Lostlittlebear: Lee Chang the Security Guard/Mercenary
13. Mordokai: Johann Anderson the Computer Technician
14. Mustiado: Carter the Janitor
15. Rakkoon: MacDougal the Biologist
16. Random Person: Battley the Astronomer/Astrophysicist
17. TehSheen: Smith the Engineer
18. YimmytheSneak: Lars McPherson the Assistant Chef
19. Zombieninja: Mr. Jorgenson the Psychologist

[Fortuna]

Battley storms in.

"Which of you touched my telescope? I spent hours calibrating the blasted thing yesterday, and now I find that someone has gone and knocked it out of alignment! Lee, you've fiddled with it before, I know you have. Own up!"

((OOC: Sorry for the late arrival, I was away over the weekend. Also, please don't be too harsh on my character: he just hasn't had his coffee yet.))

[Aemoh]

*points at Battley(Random Person)*

((For the day 1 random. I was thinking I'd toss in one line RP thing, but I don't really have it in me to even do that so... ))

[Elder Tsofu]

She waved friendily to Pär Örjansson. Do we have any oatmeal?

Shrugging a bit Pär hands over a bowl of the oatmeal.

These people sure ate a lot of rubbish for being intellectual - food which wasn't food.
When Elizabeth had asked for it the first time he'd been on the verge of suggesting that the snow outside did as much good - and the best part: you could just send Lars out with a shovel to fetch it by the wagon.

But as it was now he'd put in an order, but he hadn't yet told Mr. MacDougal that it had been at the cost of this sending of haggis. But Pär intended to send for some with the next plane, so hopefully (with a bit of dodging) there would be no damage done...

*boom*

Damn that mad second-rate fireworks merchant Joneson!
Well, at least he's blowing up the hallways and not Pär's kitchen - he'd rather not have a reprisal of the incident with the "sprängda ankan".
(Swedish/English - Sprängd Anka/exploded duck - the foodstuffs real name is cured duck in English)

Lars, take Lovecraft's breakfast to his room - it seem like he was up all night thinking of scary things in the dark... again...

[Freshmeat]

Dr. Von Stradheim woke up at the sound of an explosion down the hallway. No doubt John Joneson was playing with his explosives again. She could only wonder what use an explosives expert was in Antarctica (or in any research station for that matter) but then again, she'd witnessed her share or goofball decisions by the National Research Institute. Like constructing a computer specifically to keep track of scores, for example. What was up with that? Was chalkboard technology too unreliable or something?

As she stood up and got dressed, Anya hoped Johann Anderson didn't spend all night trying to fix that computer again. It was a waste of his considerable talents. Her bedroom walls were already covered with a multitude of pictures of him to remind herself of that fact every day, but there was always room for more. She licked her lips while staring at one of them in particular and then went to the cafetaria to get herself something to eat.

As she walked down the hall, lost in thought, she bumped into Kurt Golding (Dr. Bath), whom she glared at with slight suspicion. He smelled a little strange today... like he needed a bath.

[Mordokai]

"Why won't you work properly, you stupid machine!?!"

The screaming could be heard throughout the research station, as Johann threw the wrench against the scoreboard (Fleeing Coward). He was trying to fix the damn thing ever since his arrival and it still refused to cooperate. He tried everything, doing it by the book, doing it outside the book, he tried being nice and nasty... nothing worked. Somebody proposed using the dynamite and dammit, Johann was starting to think that being a good idea.

"Bah! I need a drink!"

With that, he set his course for the kitchen. He was only halfway there when he heard the voice of Dr. Stradheim. It was enough to make the man go pale. He may be just shy of seven feet and strong as an ox, but dammit, that woman scared the daylight out of him. Turning around and tiptoenig away as quietly as humanly possible, he decided that getting drunk could wait for later time.

[YimmytheSneak]

Lars did his best to place his snow shovel into the "snowbarrow" with a rather loud racket and a great scowl across his face. Grasping the tray with Lovecraft's food, Lars stomped off down the hall, tracking snow and mud past Carter(Mustiado) on his way toward Lovecraft. On his way he thought briefly about changing his title of Sous Chef to Slow and Grumpy food Delivery man.

[gardenphilosoph]

Just a reminder that it will take at least five people (25% of the surviving population) agreeing for a lynch to occur. At the moment, no one has that. Alternatively, you can also vote for a no lynch.

[Elder Tsofu]

A smell of pure terror spreads through the building.
Slow and menacing it creeps up and lounge at peoples noses from behind, grabbing their poor sensory organ by the throat.
Everyone knows what it is, but don't want to believe it - but cannot deny it for long.

Örjansson is preparing pea soup with pancakes.

Quite alone at the origin of the smell Örjansson dips a spoon into the greenish liquid. A sigh of happiness soon follows.

Peas had been banned from the base the same day as he introduced them, but it didn't prevent Örjansson from trying to prepare a real Thursday meal from time to time.
This time it had been hard to get the peas on the plane (with people double-checking his orders etc.), and he had been forced to try using their Swedish name and hope they would look it up in a dictionary.
But it had worked.

Hitting a ladle against a large empty cauldron while bellowing "Food is on the table!", Örjansson summons the luckless inhabitants of the base.

[lostlittlebear]

(OOC: Huh, I didn't know that - no lynch it is then. By the way, bandwagoning was unintentional - I didn't look at the post above me before randoming. Also, could I clarify if OOC sections like this are allowed?)

Sighing at the usual mess in the base, Chang relaxes, brushing aside the scientists' complaints. Taking up his usual position at the front door, he draws a cap down over his eyes, soon settling into a sleepy stupor in which he passes most his days.

"Call me if you need me."

[gardenphilosoph]

(OOC: Huh, I didn't know that - no lynch it is then. By the way, bandwagoning was unintentional - I didn't look at the post above me before randoming. Also, could I clarify if OOC sections like this are allowed?)

Yes, roleplaying is no longer mandatory, so out of character talk is fine.

[billtodamax]

Dammit Örjansson, peas again? None of us like them, you crazy idiot. Complains Joneson, as he nevertheless gets himself a bowl of soup and some pancakes. At least learn how to cook them!

[Mustiado]

Lars did his best to place his snow shovel into the "snowbarrow" with a rather loud racket and a great scowl across his face. Grasping the tray with Lovecraft's food, Lars stomped off down the hall, tracking snow and mud past Carter(Mustiado) on his way toward Lovecraft. On his way he thought briefly about changing his title of Sous Chef to Slow and Grumpy food Delivery man.

"Damnit, you overpaid slice and dice! Just because you play with knives all day doesn't mean you can track mud all over the base!"

Fuming, Carter set his cart's brakes and started violently soaking his mop with water to clean the mess.

((Changing my point to Lostlittlebear AKA Chang Lee. This'll be an expensive lesson for him to learn, but the chances are too good of him being an accomplice to ignore the fact that a no lynch simply gives our enemy more time to spread. The only ones who win when we refuse to lynch are the wolves.))