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

[le_mat]

Could have been more violent. Guess killing us for investigating would be too easy.

[He fiddles with his own, brow furrowed. That seventh rule makes it clear that just killing them wasn't the goal, after all]

[playthedamncard]

We are allowed to investigate as we please. Barring the details of the other rules. At least now we know that by 'tampering' with the device, they mean do just about anything with it that isn't its intended use.

[le_mat]

[Akira nods, hmmm-ing to himself]

How quick was the security on it? Did you find anything out?

[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.

[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]

This datapad gives us information we need, or the people in charge think we need. Wiring it into the spine would be useful for the nervous system connection, but less convenient for us. It would also make any kind of relaxing more difficult. [You, he's liking you just a little bit for bouncing ideas off of.] It is possible it could be wired all the way up into the brain. We don't currently have a way to tell.

[le_mat]

Wiring that far up with no clear scaring though... I don't want to believe that'd even be possible, but all the skin even around the screen is clean. Like it grew in naturally.

...

[He bites his lip and stares down at it. Even if they were asleep long enough to heal it shouldn't be so clean. Skin grafts? Micro surgery was starting to be a thing but this, this is too much. This is spell level clean.]

[playthedamncard]

Hn...it's definitely a concern.

If this is a simulation, that'd be easy to take away the visible damage. If it's not, then I don't have an immediate explanation. It might depend on how long we've been out.

[le_mat]

Simulatuon...

[there's a bit of both disbelief and consideration in his tone. Such technology didn't exist. But as far as he knew the technology for the PIP and other things here didn't either. Not outside the Metaverse. Yet here it was]

I didn't even think of that.

[playthedamncard]

I've dealt with holographic technology and virtual worlds extensively. I don't find it outside the realm of possibility that this is all simulated.

[le_mat]

[he eyes Kaiba for a long moment, not hiding the fact that he's looking for a hint that he's being bullshitted. Apparently finding nothing, he pulls out a seat across from Kaiba and sits, elbows on the table and gaze fixed. We're doing this.]

Okay. So say this is a simulation. Would there be tells?

[playthedamncard]

It depends on what kind of software, what kind of engine would be running. If this is a test-run or if the flaws and bugs have been worked out. Right now the only tells are merely circumstantial--many people from all walks of life suddenly waking up in some form of space station nobody's heard of with no memory of getting here. These things strapped into our arms, they could be a way to help interact with a virtual world and to keep us tethered to it.

But beyond the circumstantial, then there are always going to be limits to a virtual world. Places the players aren't allowed to go--although in a contained space like this must be, we may not run into the issue of 'invisible walls'. Limits to what you can do--such as items detailed in the rules. [With a brief lifting of the PIP.] Perhaps fiddling with this is something they've discovered might corrupt or break the game, disrupt a player's connection to it. There may be glitches that occasionally make something display or act oddly or outside of parameters.

Unfortunately, so far, the simulations I have been in have been extremely apparent, either from a shifting landscape or by virtue of being a fantasy world. Even NPCs might have enough of an AI that you may not run into the issue of repeating dialogue or the hard end of a dialogue tree. We're going to have to do plenty of experimenting, see just how detailed this all is. Do the books in the library contain readable data? Do the games in the game room all allow you to play them? I find it hard to believe someone would get the rights to an extensive movie library, but given this whole act might be illegal to begin with... [A shrug.]

Someone has so far gone through an incredible amount of trouble to make this seem real, even for a science-fiction bend. If I'm wrong about it being a simulation, I will graciously apologize for my error. [no he won't] But from personal experience, it seems not just a possibility, but the most likely possibility thusfar.