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

[karappo]

[Once you start running with it you'll never be able to stop running, I'm afraid.]

Yes, yes like that exactly! I suppose that explains why they made your title simply "Scorpion" instead of...Champion Spy, or something. It would ruin the illusion, non?

[immaculacies]

[That's fair, honestly. Completely stone-faced, she looks down at her P.I.P and begins to page through the Champion profiles.]

Then... At least nine. Probably ten.

[HELPFUL]

[le_mat]

It'd be worrying if I wasn't.

[in4apounding]

You think so?

[She considers the title again for a moment.]

I suppose it DOES sound sort of negative. But it's so detailed compared to all the others!

[lmafo]

Don't go selling yourself short there, Jamie.

[ But anyway. ]

You have no idea why you're here either?

[playthedamncard]

[If he prayed to any gods, he'd be praying for some strength right about now. Obelisk, give him strength?] And I'm just a poor schoolboy.

[photoshooter]

Heh! No kidding. I've got a friend that would love your stuff.

[Swear off that canned stuff, Ignis, this is the real deal.]

Prompto. Prompto Argentum. I'm not really a champion anything--oh, you mean like on those profile things, right?

[His attempt at a smile drops off entirely. >:/]

Well, I wouldn't trust anything those things say.

[stillstands]

[Good talk, team.]

Right... [Actually, that's... something she can understand. She understands the situation back home and at least knows how to deal with immediate issues that arise there. This? This is something else entirely.]

Better a bad situation you understand than one you don't. I think we might all be in the dark here, though.

[unhappylittletrees]

Nnnoo, I just woke up here. And I'm guessing you did too?

Uh... [How does a teenage girl not know about Halloween???] It's that one spooky fall holiday?

[quadjumps]

It isn't when you hit me on the head with a damn book, asshole.

[ this is a great start ]

[le_mat]

Seems like it. Assuming none of this is faked our situation is almost too much to accept.

[hellahighwater]

[ Who is this twitchy loser? Chloe raises an eyebrow at him. ]

You haven't heard of Battle Royale. Okay, guy, sure. The thing where a bunch of kids are put on an island and told to kill each other? That's this.

[playthedamncard]

It didn't mind being prodded, but when I actively attempted to take it apart, it reacted almost instantaneously.

It's definitely fused to these bodies, though. Into the flesh, and who knows how far up the arm it really goes. Taking it off is not something to try without intense medical supervision.

The design is a little...archaic. And if it were merely for checking our vitals, there would be easier ways to do it than to thread wires into the bloodstream. There's a small clash in aesthetics here that I don't know what to make of yet.

[lmafo]

[ your large spiky blue man cant save you here kaiba ]

Aw, it's okay. I hear there's good money in selling newspapers.

[ A wink. ]

[playthedamncard]

Advances in that area of technology are increasing by leaps and bounds every month if not every week. To gather many people unexpectedly and trap them within a virtual world? You'd need money, power, but it's doable.

[theundertaken]

Nooooo, no. This is pretty weird.

[Shit, poor kid.]

My name's Max. I just woke up down the hall. [He gestures vaguely back the way he came.] Same jumpsuit deal.

[photoshooter]

Huh.

[Well, it's definitely a less absolutely horrifying hypothesis than YOU'RE IN OUTER SPACE.]

Okay, but I definitely didn't sign up to beta test any new VR game, as totally awesome as that sounds. Do you think someone seriously just, like, kidnapped us as lab animals for their sweet new tech?

[in4apounding]

No? Should I?

[Geography is admittedly not her strong suit.]

Which kingdom is it a part of?

[stillstands]

[.

But still. It is better than just aimlessly wandering around, poking in random rooms.]

... It wouldn't hurt to see if there are any hidden passages or doors.

[Look, she's... moving a little way out of the doorway now. It's like coaxing a skittish cat.]

[hellahighwater]

[ Alright, this guy just comes up and starts talking to her, sure. Chloe frowns at him, an edge of suspicion in her voice. ]

What's so intriguing about it? Max Caulfield is my best friend, of course I'd be a champion of her.

[le_mat]

Then just monitoring us is out. Maybe it's used to inject us with drugs? That would explain us all sleeping and waking up at the same time. Or wire directly into our nervous systems... though I'd think closer to the spine would make more sense for something like that.

[playthedamncard]

[just wait until he dramatically pulls the impossible out of the dirt through the power of friendship magitech aaaaaaand he's walking away now. That was fast.] Why do I even bother...

[hellahighwater]

[ ... Alright, this one's insane. ]

Usually that's, oh, a bad thing? Why the hell would you want to fight to the death?

[in4apounding]

Really? I don't think I've heard of any others.

[theundertaken]

Sure, but if they wanted to walk among us, they'd have to take on our forms. Maybe with holograms? Or maybe they're shapeshifters.

[oh okay this is a tangent we're going on]