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

HALLWAY

[challengesfate]

[...That is probably the weirdest question she's heard so far - and that counts her own questions about things that, from the people explaining them to her, she should supposedly know.]

I...do not live here. And...can I assume you do not, either?

[theundertaken]

No, I live in Florida. Name's Max.

[He, uh, offers a handshake? Let's have a semblance of normality here!]

[challengesfate]

[HANDSHAKE! She knows what that is! And Lucina will gladly shake his hand.]

Mine is...Lucina. [It feels kind of awkward to actually say her name, but really, if her father was waiting around the corner and heard her he wouldn't connect the dots, not yet.] I'm afraid I have never been to any land called Florida before.

[theundertaken]

Not even to visit? We get a lot of tourists.

[But yeah, okay.]

We're also where they launch the space shuttles, so I guess I'm sorta in proximity to space stuff? But not in any real way. Like, I'm not really a candidate for alien abduction, probably.

[challengesfate]

I'm afraid I have never gotten to take trips for pleasure.

[But, uh. All that other stuff is just sort of going right over her head?]

They launch...I'm sorry, space...shuttles? I don't understand.

[theundertaken]

Space shuttles? [He blinks, but seems to get over any surprise pretty quick.] Uh...okay. It's like...do you know airplanes?

[challengesfate]

[Shakes her head.]

No.

[theundertaken]

...okay, forget airplanes. Not important. A space shuttle's basically just a big metal tube that people sit in, and then they make an enormous explosion underneath it to send it all up into outer space. Like, the stars and stuff. [Gestures to a window.]

[challengesfate]

An explosion? But wouldn't that hurt the people inside the tube, especially if it were metal? The metal would melt...

[theundertaken]

Nah, it's...I don't know, titanium or something. Lots of science. I mean, people die sometimes if there's accidents, or back when they were figuring out how to do it. But they haven't lost a shuttle since the eighties.

[.......]

Like, twenty years.

[challengesfate]

...I am fairly certain such a thing was not possible for my home a mere twenty years ago.

[And yes she is counting the twenty years before she was born.]

[theundertaken]

What, like. What do you have where you're from? In terms of like, technology.

[challengesfate]

Um...hm.

[How does she answer this question. Lucina is legitimately drawing a blank. She brings a hand to her chin, brow furrowed, and thinks pretty hard about it.]

...We have...horses, and wagons? And boats, but I've never been on one. Oh, and, we have catapults, and bows and arrows, and...swords, and axes, and staves and tomes. But I wouldn't really consider the last two as "technology".

[theundertaken]

That's just staffs and books, right? [drawing on that fantasy genre knowledge]

[challengesfate]

Yes, that's right!

[Oh Gods someone is understanding her, this is so great, this is fantastic.]

Staves use healing magic to mend wounds, and tomes are conduits for thunder, fire, wind, and dark magics. I've never used any of them myself, but I've seen them many times.

[theundertaken]

.......so real life magic. In the real world.

[challengesfate]

Is there supposed to be some other sort of magic?

[theundertaken]

I don’t know, where I’m from all we have is fake magic in fiction. Or magic tricks, but that’s all sleight of hand.

[challengesfate]

Aah.

[You know, after talking to like...a few people, she can kind of see that in some realms, magic might not be a thing.]

It is very real where I come from. My aunt is a healer...and both my mother and brother are well-versed in the usage of tomes and spells, among other things. I've never had the aptitude for it.

[theundertaken]

Sounds super useful, though! We’ve got a lot of stories about it - I guess even though it’s never been real, we like to think about it.

What do you do instead?

[challengesfate]

I use a sword - and I had it with me until I woke up here, or I would show it to you, if...you wanted to see.

[Gosh he's taking the magic thing relatively well, at least he's not telling her she's wrong]

[theundertaken]

Oh god, of course I wanna see a sword. I went to a renfaire one time, but that's pretty much it. Except for the swords they sell nerds, but those ones aren't really...real swords, right?

...you probably don't know what that meant. But yeah, I wanna see a sword if you...find it. Or something.

[challengesfate]

I can assure you that Falchion is very real. And when it is returned to me, I would be happy to let you see it.

[What's a nerd is that a kind of infantry]

[theundertaken]

Cool! I can't believe it has a name and everything. Does everybody do that?

[challengesfate]

Does everyone...what? Have named weapons?

[For a brief moment, Lucina finds herself smiling.]

Falchion is a special case. It's a sacred weapon blessed by Naga, and the blade itself chooses it wielders throughout the generations. But my cousin Owain would argue that every weapon deserves a name to draw out its true potential.