won't you take me to flavortown

[theoversaw]

[At the end of that one hour (that seemed so much longer than just one hour could be), hopefully everyone's gathered in the cafeteria. The doors to the other side of the space station open to reveal two figures, a man and a woman. The woman is dressed in sharp business clothes, tapping away on some kind of a device that looks similar to but sleeker than a smart phone. The man with her has a circle beard and bleached blond hair, shorter but thick with muscle, wearing a checked button-up shirt with a gold chain peeking through the collar and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He scratches at his non-dominant forearm (which, nonetheless, is bare).]

Welcome, Champions, to the...

Champion Excellence Program.

Yeah, the Champion Excellence Program. As you may have noticed reading the rules, there's only one way out of here: Rule 7. But just in case going home isn't enough for you, we've decided to add an extra incentive.

[The woman barely looks up from her phone, like she's doing a headcount of the Champions.] The Champion who successfully proves their Excellence by murdering a fellow Champion and escaping punishment will receive an all-expenses-paid space cruise to the Vegas Quadrant.

[The man gives his companion a deadpan look and then looks at the Champions.]

Any questions?

Comments

[challengesfate]

Do you think we will ever have the opportunity to speak with them? Beyond just...having them come in and tell us something that makes little to no sense.

[theundertaken]

Dunno. What would you say to them, you think?

[challengesfate]

...To start, I'd be asking a lot of questions and...hopefully be in a better state of mind to understand them.

[Just. Endless questions for incidental annoyance but mostly for learning.]

[theundertaken]

...should've followed up on Blaze's deputy mayor thing. That makes him the mayor, right? This doesn't seem like, uh, normal mayoral duties.

[challengesfate]

Are...we in his territory, then? For a mayor not to know the goings-on of his land...that would make him ill-fit to rule.

[theundertaken]

Can you be mayor of a spaceship? There's not even anyone else here...probably.

[challengesfate]

To be frank, I don't know. Perhaps being a mayor means something different in space - [She lets out a single laugh, hollow and disbelieving.] At this point, I honestly would not be surprised.

[theundertaken]

Could be. You'd think he'd call himself the mayor of here, if he was the mayor of here. Sounds better than "overseer".

[challengesfate]

Maybe he is...but, we're part of something larger than just this.

[theundertaken]

You think so?

[challengesfate]

...Ah, perhaps I didn't say that right? I mean, perhaps this place that we're inside is just one part of a larger country or land which he is mayor of.

[She is sadly not smart enough to catch onto being a part in a metaphoric whole.]

[theundertaken]

Oh. Well, yeah, that could be it. Usually mayor's just for a city where I'm from, but I don't know how you define a city once space and space stations start getting involved.

[challengesfate]

I imagine it could be very different, in that case.

[Welcome to Space, where it's all made up and the points don't matter. That's right, just like the lives and emotions of real kidnapped people - they don't matter.]