the mock mingle

[airlockedmods]

[An hour ago you woke up in a bed that wasn't yours, awakened by a chirpy, feminine voice coming from the device on your non-dominant arm. The voice cheerfully requests that you exit your sleeping quarters and to please make your way to the the main deck of the ship for a debriefing on your circumstances.

It was around this time you might have noticed the clothes you last remember wearing are gone and replaced with this little number. If you take a moment to check out the Personal Identification Program on your arm, you'll find a touch screen with a few icons that lead to a series of 21 profiles and a series of apps that lead to note-taking functions and a number of customization appearance screens. The profiles all contain a photo of each Champion, their name and title, their age, species and world of origin.

As you stumbled out of your chrome-y quarters (into an equally chrome-y hallway), with every step the floor lights up under your feet, illuminating the dark ship a little at a time. On one side of the hallway are a series of mechanical doors with screen pads embedded on the walls next to them. A quick flash of your PIP will open them for you without hassle. On the opposite side of the hallway are a long string of windows showing nothing but vast amounts of stars and the deep, dark blackness of deep space. Once you reach the end of the hallway you'll find a large central living space with 20 other people, the same people from the profiles, either there already or filing in along with you. Floating well above everyone's heads in the middle of the room is a large computer screen. Once everyone piled in, the screen blinked to life and the same voice from your PIPs greeted you in the same peppy tone from before.

The voice introduced herself as the Champion Excellence Control Environment or C.E.C.E. before welcoming you to the Deep Space Champion Excellence Program, explaining that you were selected for this program based on being the best in your particular field in your particular world, hence the title of "Champion". In this program you will be expected to live communally together here on the ship for as long as possible. The ship is fully-functional and fully-stocked for an extended stay.

Oh? You don't want to stay and participate in the program? That's alright, there's an easy fix to that! All you have to do is kill one of your fellow Champions and not get caught. That is easy enough, right? Right.

When the debriefing is complete, the screen dims but doesn't turn off completely. If need be C.E.C.E. is available to answer any more questions you have throughout the week. For now, you're free to explore the ship as you like. There's the communal dining hall, a zero gravity room, a kitchen, a holo deck, the central living area and the personal quarters everyone woke up in.

Go make some friends, dears, you may be here a while.]

Comments

kitchen

[damnfourthemerald]

[Mai isn't the only one with at least a passing familiarity with freeze-dried space food. The ARK was advanced enough to have some fresher items and things that lasted for a good while, at least through space. A lot of healthy items, to be sure.

But Shadow pauses when he sees her mixing it all together in various ways. It's...interesting. Don't mind if he comes a little closer to see what she's throwing together.]

Is that even going to taste good?

[strikemonster]

That's not the point. [Would you dare someone to eat something that tasted good? C'mon, Shadow.] It all tastes bad. The least you can do is make it more interesting.

[damnfourthemerald]

They're supposed to taste at least vaguely as advertised. It might not taste all bad. Just...rehydrated. [He grabs one of the emptied packets, reading 'General Tso's' printed on it and sniffing the remnants. That is a little bit of a face he makes at that.]

Why bother making it more interesting if all you're going to do is eat it? [p r e s u m a b l y]

[strikemonster]

I've been eating Kerurumin my whole life. At some point, you realize it's never going to taste like it's supposed to and it's always going to have bits that don't rehydrate. You get sick of it, but there's only Kerurumin to eat in Zone 25.

[Mai mixes another packet into what she's doing. She's not even going to eat this one right now, it's just to keep in her room for emergencies.]

Would you rather force yourself to eat the same food you hate every day, or would you prefer to at least make life slightly more interesting?

[damnfourthemerald]

...You might hate the slightly more interesting thing even more. But I guess it would be a change of pace.

[strikemonster]

That's usually the point. Nobody tries to make Kerurumin taste better but Morita-senpai.

[damnfourthemerald]

And does Morita-senpai ever succeed at it? [how do other languages yes he's just assuming 'senpai' is part of the name] If we have spices here, that can always help.

[strikemonster]

[I MEAN IT IS AS FAR AS MAI IS CONCERNED.]

She says she did. I don't think spaghetti was improved by peas. I also don't think there's spices here, but I could be wrong. I didn't check when there was hot food.

[damnfourthemerald]

[Suggesting whether spaghetti with peas sounds good or bad would be also suggesting personal preferences and we CAN'T HAVE THAT.]

At least it isn't all just these packets. Still, if there's a hydroponics lab, or an arboretum, or a greenhouse of some kind, that might net us something fresher...

[strikemonster]

There doesn't seem to be, but I get the sense this ship is much larger than the area we've been allowed to explore. [She glances at the corners of the room.] Besides, there's no access to the obvious area where whoever brought us here is keeping our belongings.

[damnfourthemerald]

It would have to be to even stay up in the air. [Get to space and then stay floating in space, semantics.] There must be a control room, an engine room, a docking port for supplies and crew, air recycling, water treatment, waste disposal, and so on. They don't want us touching anything important.

I'm not even sure I would trust these people to actually store our belongings anywhere. [He rubs one of his wrists, bare, reminded that somehow they've altered his physiology so that he isn't burning himself up from the inside out with unchecked power.] Might be studying them instead.

[strikemonster]

Some of them, maybe. I doubt there's a need to study Mr. Stinson's suits, though. [Unless she misunderstood and he has a giant robot mech or something, but seeing as he's the Champion of One Night Stands, she doubts it.] Or my bowling ball.

Cece mentioned being given our things back if we behave. It's possible we can gain new areas of the ship through good behavior too.