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

[immaculacies]

[Is this—a dream?

Manaka has never dreamed before, so she doesn't quite know what it's like. Still, it seems like the only explanation there could be for this: lying in a room she doesn't know, with a strange device wrapped around her arm, and her mind feeling hopelessly dim and limited. It feels like it takes forever just to look around and take stock of her surroundings—nothing at all like the way she should be able to instantaneously absorb much larger amounts of information.

She must be—separated. From the world. That's the only thing that makes sense, but still, that leaves the question of how. In her head, Manaka runs through all the scenarios she can think of that could possibly account for that, idly playing with the buttons of the device attached to her as she thinks. None of them make a terribly large amount of sense.

Maybe this thing is dampening it? Oh, but it seems it has more information to offer her, beyond just a cryptic order... Manaka pages through the information available, taking it in dimly, until the sight of her own name makes her abruptly stop. It's strange. This profile is strange. Bits and pieces of it are correct—her name, her age, weight and height, even her "profession." But the most important parts are wrong, so much so that it makes her wonder if she's the "Manaka Sajyou" they intended.

Mother? She doesn't know anything about that.

Upbeat? No one has called her that once in her life.

And that repetition—Saber, Saber, Saber...

Is that the person she's going to become?

It's as if she's looking down at her reflection in a faceted surface. The image that stares back at her is in pieces, correct in fragments but impossible to see as the same whole. In some sense, it isn't an unfamiliar concept to her; she's well aware of the kaleidoscope of possibilities that underlies the world, and each and every person in it. But she very deliberately has turned her eyes away from all of the possible "herselves" that exist, and that more than anything causes the right-but-wrong profile in front of her to disquiet her.

But—that feeling. A feeling...

Isn't that good?

When she stands from her bed, she holds onto that anxiety like a person twists their fingers around something precious they found buried in the dirt. The hallway outside her room is long but somehow feels far too short, like she should be able to see farther than she can. Know farther. She gropes and paws her way along the wall with one hand, as if her inability to "see" was a deficiency of her eyes and not something else entirely.

If her situation concerns her, though, it doesn't show in her manner once she reaches the cafeteria. She merely sits down at one of the tables with her hands folded in her lap, as blank-faced and motionless as a doll.]

Hallway

[in4apounding]

...are you okay miss?

[Things Penny currently is: confused, scared, lost, weaponless. Things she is despite all the above: inclined to help people. So a girl literally feeling her way down the hall? Is going to get her attention.]

[immaculacies]

[...She hadn't noticed anyone in her peripherals. How very novel. Manaka glances in the direction of that voice, breaking her laser-focused forward stare with a blank expression.]

...How am I meant to answer that?

[in4apounding]

...with yes or no, I think? Usually.

[That's a trick question, isn't it. Maybe she should rephrase it?]

Do you need help, I mean?

[immaculacies]

No. [Along the wall, Manaka's fingers curl harder against its surface.] At least, not any help that someone here could give me, I think.

[in4apounding]

Okay. What kind of help DO you need? ...have you seen many other people here?

[immaculacies]

I don't know.

[She doesn't. She doesn't know how to explain to someone just what's wrong with her. All that's happened to her is that she's seeing thing through the eyes of a normal human; trying to explain the difference would be like trying to explain color to someone who only sees in black and white.]

Ah. [The other question is a little easier. She hefts the arm bearing her P.I.P, holding it in front of her body as she meets Penny's question with one of her own.] How many is "many"? This thing mentions other people—about two dozen of us.

[in4apounding]

Um... probably more than five? That seems like a lot, for a place this size.

[She looks a little surprised as Manaka holds up the PIP.]

Does it? I hadn't looked that closely-

[Taking a second to click through some of the options-]

Your name is "Manaka"? ...Are you REALLY a mother?

[immaculacies]

Does it? [Manaka looks away from Penny, eyes scanning over the doors that line the hallway. She hasn't counted exactly how many there are, but—] But it looks like the space here is used very efficiently.

[Because that's the issue here?]

Yes, that's right. [Though, the issue of her motherhood...] I don't know. Not that I know of, but if it says I am, then maybe I will be.

Cafeteria

[newcycle]

[Korra's seen some people, but they were usually moving and feeling some... sort of emotion. In fact, when she sees Manaka, she assumes that maybe everything was too much? She could sympathize with people wanting to shut down, even if that wasn't her natural response to things.

But she has to try to help, even here.]

Hey.

[she waves]

Everything alright?

[immaculacies]

[At that wave, Manaka glances upward, though her reaction is slightly delayed. She cocks her head at Korra, but otherwise, her expression doesn't seem to change.]

People keep asking me that. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to answer.

[newcycle]

Well, it's pretty stressful! [she motions outward, and then offers her best Avatar Smile.] And I don't blame anyone for not being sure what to think right now.

[immaculacies]

It's not that I don't know what to think. The answer is obvious, isn't it? No matter how they feel, if someone is here, by nature that means that something is wrong. Either the question means something else, or there's no point in asking it.

[She says all of this in a flat, emotionless tone that matches her expression.]

[newcycle]

Well... it's more about, you know, your mental state. Yeah, objectively something is "wrong." But you don't have to be... Or, well, uh, your reaction. Or lack of.

[explaining linguistic cheats is not Korra's specialty, but she is trying to approach this with some patience.]

[immaculacies]

...I don't like it, but I don't have any reason to be upset. That's all.

[newcycle]

How can you not have a reason to be upset?

[she's confused-- didn't she just say that something was wrong, in general?]

[immaculacies]

It doesn't really matter to me, whether I'm here or somewhere else. It's just a fact that I'm in one place and not another.

cafeteria

[hellahighwater]

[ Chloe...isn't that great with kids? But damn if this one doesn't look like she's pretty shell-shocked with all this. So she just kind of...approaches, waves a hand in front of her face hesitantly. ]

Hi there, uh...anybody home? [ ...Okay, serious-up, Price. ] You must be pretty scared, huh?

[immaculacies]

[The movement of her hand catches Manaka's attention, and for a second, all she does is blink, nonplussed. At Chloe's question, though, she looks fully up to her face, expression remaining as blank as ever.]

No. [Her answer sounds so matter-of-fact, it would hard to doubt its honesty.] I'm just waiting for whatever we were asked to come here for.

[hellahighwater]

[ ...Are kids just like this nowadays? Wow. And her mom thought she's been hard to connect with, at least she shows emotion. ]

Ohhhkay. You just looked kind of shut off. In shock?

[immaculacies]

Do I? But this is how I always look, I think.

[hellahighwater]

[ That's even less reassuring actually thanks ]

That...so... Well, just... As long as you're not...you know, freaking out?

[immaculacies]

[NO PROBLEM]

No. I'm not upset, so you don't have to be concerned with me.

[hellahighwater]

Cool. [ ..........

screw it ] Why, actually? We've...kind of all been abducted, anyone'd be hella freaked.

[immaculacies]

You're right. But... The truth is, it doesn't make any difference to me. There isn't anything tying me to the place that I came from.

[Not yet.]