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

[challengesfate]

[It's not like anyone's in here reading!]

That's...likely, I'll agree. But I would rather know my enemy than leave myself in the dark.

[Come on we gotta FIGHT to get the heck out of here right obviously we'll have to overthrow some giant sinister apocalypse dragon right]

[photoshooter]

I'd rather find a way out and a phone to call my friends! Why is all my stuff gone?

[He's taking this great.]

[challengesfate]

[What's a phone?

No really, what is a phone? She'd ask, but...you're getting kind of freaked out there, soft boy. Lucina holds her question back, emerging a little more from the other side of the stack.]

I wish I knew. My belongings have been taken as well - likely by the people who brought us here. [She glances away, eyes narrowing a bit.] In that regard, you are not alone.

[photoshooter]

[Not alone, huh? Prompto feels more alone than he has in years, separated from Noct and Iggy and Gladio and totally helpless.]

I can't even summon my gun. How did they manage something like that?

[challengesfate]

I...can't say. I don't even know what a gun is. But if you summon it through magic, and you cannot use it...perhaps there is no magic here?

[Because, okay, sure, they have books that can launch fireballs at people, summoning something should be...possible, right?]

[photoshooter]

I... guess. Maybe, wherever this is, it's too far away for it too work...

[The thought is chilling. Just where exactly is he? How is he supposed to get--

Wait.]

...You don't know what a gun is?

[challengesfate]

No, I don't. Is...that a problem?

[She asks it pretty innocently, like. Be serious with her, is this a thing she needs to know.]

[photoshooter]

It's not a problem, it's just...

[Weird? It's super weird. Even in Lucis, where guns are super not in vogue, people have at least heard of them.]

Uh, a gun is a weapon. A long-range weapon. It's made of metal, and it fires a... well, I guess you wouldn't know what a bullet is, either. It fires small metal, um, projectiles about this big-- [He holds his thumb and forefinger apart to show her.] --and it can do a lot of damage instantly from far enough away that you won't get hurt, unless whatever you're fighting's got guns, too, and then you just kind of have to get to cover and hope you hit them before they hit you.

[challengesfate]

[See, the way Prompto is describing this foreign concept for her? It's making sense, and it's detailed, and he did consider the fact that she wouldn't know what a bullet was and told her about that too. So the relief that emerges in her expression? Completely honest. She's even smiling a little bit.]

I see! It sounds sort of like how a bow and arrow would work - ranged weaponry is hard to counter without returning fire in kind. Thank you for explaining it to me.

[Can she...edge away from the shelf a little more? Are you gonna be okay with that soft boy?]

[photoshooter]

[Nervous little punk boy seems less nervous now, yes, and doesn't flinch when she moves. He even laughs a little.]

It's kind of like a bow and arrow, I guess, but way more compact and easy to use for people like me. People who didn't train all their lives for fighting, I mean. I can't just pick up a sword and mow things down like my friends.

[challengesfate]

[Ah, so, there's swords in his world? Okay, that makes things a lot easier.]

You're right, it isn't easy. I train constantly in swordsmanship myself. [A pause.] Though...without Falchion, I don't know how well I can keep up with it.

[When she's close enough to do so - and she's been moving pretty slow, because let's not make this guy bolt again, he's damn fast - she holds out a hand towards him.]

My name is Lucina. What is yours?

[photoshooter]

[He remembers, suddenly, someone else offering him a hand after he made a fool of himself, and the laugh he laughs is more of a breath as he takes that hand and finally stands upright instead of hiding.]

Prompto Argentum. Sorry about the whole, ah, running and screaming business. I thought I got captured by the enemy or something.

[challengesfate]

[Her handshake is firm, yet gentle, and Lucina lets out a puff of laughter herself. What a silly situation this is, in a metal building with strangers and finding themselves frightned by each other. Surely this can't get any worse.]

It's alright. You startled me as well - and while I would normally feel the same, no enemy I know could possibly have a...fortress like this.

[photoshooter]

[Surely things can only look up from here!]

Yeah, I mean... [He looks around, rubbing the back of his neck.] It kind of looks Imperial, but I've never busted a base with a library in it before. So I really don't know what's going on.

[challengesfate]

[Obviously everything will be sunshine and rainbows!]

Well...we are in a library, are we not? Perhaps there is something here that could explain something. I...do recall the voice saying we needed to be in the cafeteria, but it did not say we needed to go immediately.

[photoshooter]

[Friendship will definitely save the day and nothing will hurt, ever!]

It did say we had about an hour. Think that's a long enough time to make a search? Like, maybe if we find the reference section there'll be an atlas or something?

[challengesfate]

An atlus would be as good a place to start as any.

[Ready to rifle through the stacks, Prompto?]

[photoshooter]

Okay! I'm not totally a library guy, but usually they keep the reference books right out in front, right?

[Let's go find a book!]

[challengesfate]

I...think so. It's been a long time since I've gotten to be in a library.

[Apocalyptic hell dragons don't really give a shit about the education of the last of humanity.]

[photoshooter]

[He's light-footed even when he's not terror-sprinting, so in almost less than a bounce and a skip, he's found the shelf for reference books. He squats there, walking his fingers across the tops of the books as he reads their spines, head cocked to one side.]

Mmm... dictionary, encyclopedia... uh, spaceship repair manual? That's a new one.

[challengesfate]

[Gosh, he sure is a bouncy young man, isn't he? Lucina's admittedly a little facscinated by it. Not a lot of people are naturally quick-footed like that - a couple of her friends were, sure, but not everyone. She kneels down next to him to take a look for herself.]

...The others I've spoken to keep mentioning that word. "Space ship". But...I'm still a bit confused. Ships are for the water, and space is...[She waves her hand around in the air, gesturing to the empty space around them.] It's a term. Isn't it?

[photoshooter]

What--oh! No, what they mean in this case is outer space. [He waves a hand, too, though only in an upwards direction.] You know, where all the stars and planets are, out past the atmosphere. So a space ship is supposedly a vehicle for traveling out there, except they're really not supposed to exist in real life. I mean, as far as I know.

[challengesfate]

...So...it's still the sky, but...further out?

[What in the world could even go that high]

It's never been in any stories I've seen, but...would they be in the "sci-fi" stories?

[photoshooter]

Yeah! Or sci-fi movies, or video games... things like that.

[challengesfate]

...I'm still not entirely clear on what "movies" are, besides moving portraits. But..."video games"?

[Oh my God. Prompto, are you prepared to deal with actual jrpg medieval princess?]