Welcome to the Program

[airlockedmods]

Good Morning, Champions. In the interest of maintaining healthy sleep patterns, a day/night cycle is in effect. Your presence is expected in the cafeteria in exactly one hour.

[The voice comes through not a large speaker, but through the device that's attached to each Champion's arm. Further investigation of the features of the device will reveal a list of profiles, a mini-map, and a list of rules. The hallways are shiny white and silver, with running lights along the floor and lights on the ceiling, and at the junction of the hallways is a sign with a knife and fork icon and an arrow pointing down the hall.

Welcome to the Excellence Program, Champions. Time to get to know your teammates.]

Comments

[tasteslikesurvival]

Unless it's to assassinate all of us, I doubt it. [Kurumi doesn't mean to sound so rough but the idea anyone wanting to kill her is almost laughable. Well. Maybe not the desire to kill... the ability to plan so much is new.]

[cyan_maid]

[Oh - she's not alone. Jane's eyes flicker over to the other girl before she looks back towards...whatever it is she was looking at. Probably the funny device in the center of the room.]

But that's the thing with assassinations. They don't care who gets caught up in the crossfire, so long as they eliminate their target.

[This coming from the girl who's not unused to letterbombs.]

[tasteslikesurvival]

[She doesn't know about that. Assassinations in movies seem pretty cut and dry.]

Assassinations, maybe, but it looks more like a kidnapping to me.

[cyan_maid]

[That makes her bristle just a bit. An assassination, at least, was understandable. Thwartable. A sudden and abrupt kidnapping? Not so much, but Jane shakes her head a bit. No, we're not jumping to conclusions. This has got to be some sort of elaborate assassination - surely it must be!]

Well...that remains to be seen, doesn't it? Unless you didn't just wake up here, too.

[tasteslikesurvival]

Of course I just woke up here.

[But she's fairly certain that assassinations have nothing to do with her.] I'm also sure that I was far away from anything related to assassinations or whatever.

[cyan_maid]

[Oh boy, you're gonna be pleasant, she can tell already. Jane frowns, letting out a huff of a breath through her nose.]

I wasn't exactly putting myself into the line of fire, either, but you can't blame a girl for being cautious.

[tasteslikesurvival]

[She's actually pretty pleasant. She's just Stubborn. Kurumi will sigh and back down, at least.]

Nah, I can't. Sorry. I'm just... I don't know anyone who would still be around to do things like that.

[cyan_maid]

[ - Oh. Well, that's not expected. Jane finds her own hackles lowering a bit, too, despite herself.]

Ah...well...it's just something that happens to me an awful lot at home. Believe me, there's plenty of people who make rent by trying to kill others - though I wish they wouldn't.

[tasteslikesurvival]

I can imagine. It's just I was with other people before I woke up. If it is an attempt kill someone then.. [She can't blame Jane for bringing it up. The idea that her club might be in danger just is something that makes her very tense.]

[cyan_maid]

You were with other people? And...you haven't seen any of them here yet?

[I mean, her Dad was in the house, but not even on the same floor...her Dad should be fine, right? He's always been a tough customer. Jane finds herself lightly biting on her bottom lip, eyes narrowed in thought.]

[tasteslikesurvival]

Yeah, I was camping with the club. [In an RV together, at any rate.] I haven't seen them and they're not listed as 'champions' either.

[cyan_maid]

["Listed as champions"...that's something to look into later, for sure, because that sounds super weird.]

That's...very strange. But, do you suppose, perhaps they...weren't taken?

[tasteslikesurvival]

I think so or at least I hope so.

[cyan_maid]

...I'll keep my fingers crossed that it's just us, and not...any of the people we care about, at least.

[If this girl is so concerned about her club, they must mean quite a lot to her. Jane can understand that - if her Dad was in danger, she wouldn't know what to do. He can handle himself, of course, but still.]

[tasteslikesurvival]

...Yeah. Small blessings, huh?

[She would be worried about more people but, ah. Her friends were the important ones.]

[cyan_maid]

Small blessings indeed. And if they are alright - which I'm hoping they are - they might be trying to come and find you.

[You can only worry about so many people at one time.]

[tasteslikesurvival]

Now I'm just imagining Yuki trying to find a rocket to find me.

[And she'd try, too.]

[cyan_maid]

[Jane chuckles softly.]

I can imagine my friends trying to build a rocket to find me - rockets aren't out of the realm of possibility, if we're really in space.

[tasteslikesurvival]

I don't think mine could build one but they definitely could try to find one, I bet. Anything's possible if we're in space of all places.

[cyan_maid]

If we're really in space.

[Still not convinced of that one yet.]

[tasteslikesurvival]

We could be in a desert for all we know.

[cyan_maid]

Exactly - we could be out at sea, underground, on a mountain...but they're just making it look like we're in space. We don't know for sure!

[tasteslikesurvival]

That's a weird thing to try to trick us with but that's more likely than us being in space.

[cyan_maid]

It's a weird thing to build a giant metal thinamajig and kidnap people and put them in shiny footie pajamas. At this point, I'm assuming weird is going to be the norm.

[tasteslikesurvival]

We could all be stuck in an RV, all twenty of us. That would've been weirder.