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]

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.

[theundertaken]

...see, where I come from, a naga's like a centaur but with a snake instead of a horse.

[challengesfate]

Really?

[Centaurs are probably a mythical thing, but...I mean...Fire Emblem also has Pegasi and transforming people-dragons.]

I don't know if she has any relation to snakes. Her name has just always been Naga.

[theundertaken]

Huh. It’s weird what stuff is common or not between different.....dimensions? I should probably be freaking out more about this.

[challengesfate]

I'm actually quite appreciative of how much you've taken in stride. It's...reassuring, somehow.

[theundertaken]

I’m probably just in shock or something. There’s a lot - I mean, I guess my only option is just to totally lose my shit, and that won’t help. You’re doing pretty good keeping it together, too, the space thing’s gotta be a lot weirder for you.

[challengesfate]

...I'm...not unused to the idea of other realms. That fact is not strange. But the "space thing" is definitely one among many foreign concepts to me, you're right.

[theundertaken]

We've got a concept of other dimensions. Or...realms. But that's all just stories or weird scientific theories nobody's proven yet. Definitely nobody's ever gone to one as far as we know.