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

[almightyconflagration]

C.E.C.E

[After the message McBurn yawns loudly.]

What a pain.

[Strange that he doesn't seem to give a damn about killing someone. But then depending on what sort of people these "champions" are, he might actually find it more interesting here than back home.]

Central Living Area

[Well, hopefully no one was wanting to sit on the couch McBurn is on, because he's taking up the whole thing and lazily looking at the profiles. His own profile would list the following: Name: McBurn, Champion of Fire Handling. Age: ?, Species: Mixed (part human/part ???). He looks human other than the strange hair and eye colors though. Good luck guessing what the ??? is.]

Wonder if any of these can last more than a minute.

[He means in a fight, but feel free to misconstrue this for something else. Wouldn't be the first time something he's said could have some weird connotation because he's not one to say a whole lot.]

Other

[McBurn has an issue where he does get bored a bit too easily, so he'll be able to be found in any other location throughout the day. He'll certainly fiddle around with things in the holodeck, grab some of the food in the kitchen and generally roam around.

Central living area

[humanitarianherbalist]

[The Griffin walks up behind him as he speaks.]

I definitely could. I would be more worried about any of my opponents.

[almightyconflagration]

[Now McBurn actually looks slightly interested, though it's a barely there reaction. Not like he hasn't dealt with large monsters before and won.]

Same. Not much can take the heat I put out.

[humanitarianherbalist]

[He tilts his head.] Is that literal, or metaphorical? [His tail taps on the ground a bit.] If literal, perhaps we have even more in common then.

[almightyconflagration]

[As an answer, McBurn will just make a fireball appear in his hand. Strangely enough, it doesn't appear to burn him in the least bit. He tosses it in the air a slight amount and then it disappears when he catches it. The motion is not unlike a child playing with a ball. It also doesn't appear to be magic.]

Literal.

Why do I suddenly feel they're going to end up fighting each other in the zero-g room

[humanitarianherbalist]

[The Griffin's eyes might widen for a moment, but then simply follow the motion of the flame.] I see. [There's a look of excitement in his eyes. His tail curls up at the end, and the spiked tip starts glowing.] It's quite literal for me as well.

Because they obviously both like fights?

[almightyconflagration]

[Now he's looking a bit more interested. McBurn has met others who are mixed like him, but no others quite the same as him.]

So fire just makes you hot as well then?

Living Area

[stitch_in_time]

Quick word of advice, most of 'these' still have ears.

[Probably a fight. Hopefully JUST a fight. But this isn't a situation where the Doctor's going to take chances.]

[almightyconflagration]

Spare me the self-righteous nonsense. You see, if there is someone I could not have to hold back against I might want to actually stay here.

[stitch_in_time]

My point is, some people might take exception to that kind a' talk and decide on a preemptive defense.

[Can we not provoke violence here, maybe.]

[almightyconflagration]

Not my problem if someone does something stupid.

living area

[waitforit]

Buddy, if all you can last is a minute then I feel sorry for you.

[ WHAT... DO YOU MEAN EXACTLY, BARNEY... ]

[almightyconflagration]

I was speaking of the rest of you. Not worth it to get hot when it won't last.

[And these two probably are going to be speaking of totally different things.]

[waitforit]

Trust me, I'm all about lasting. My one night stands don't mean we only go at it once, what up!

[ Annnd there's the hand up for a high five. This is totally what you meant, right? ]

[almightyconflagration]

{oh, he won't be returning the high five. Instead he stops looking at the profiles for a moment to free up his right hand. A small ball of fire appears tere and McBurn starts toying with it.]

Before you consider touching me, I should mention that getting hot is also literal for me.

[And now he's tossing it in the air a bit and catching it as if that fireball he made was nothing more than a child's toy and it isn't burning his hand when he does this. He doesn't seem like he's making a threat either since he's still speaking in the same bored sounding tone he's been using the whole conversation.]

[waitforit]

[ Holy shit well, good to know who can kill him if he wanted to, Barney did not ask for people with freaky powers, dang. ]

Woah, hey, no need to get all flaming, dude. [ Barney backs up, his hands drawn up in surrender. ] Unless you like, are, in which case, more power to ya, dude.

Still, that fire thing is pretty awesome.

[almightyconflagration]

[McBurn looks slightly less bored when Barney comments about the fire thing being awesome. One thing that will pique his interest is when someone thinks better of him rather than considering him an unnatural freak of nature that shouldn't exist. Of course he knows full well that tends to quickly change once they see his true nature.]

Can't really say I care either way. It all boils down to who can take the heat and if they can't then it's a waste of my time.

central living area

[strikemonster]

[She doesn't want to sit on the couch, but she sure does want to stand on the back of it to inspect higher. Sorry, McBurn, shorties gonna climb.]

It's already been more than a minute.

[Surely he meant "playing this game" and not "in a fight." That would be stupid. This isn't single combat.]

[almightyconflagration]

[He looks at her a bit annoyed as she climbs up on the couch. Sheesh, even Renne knew not to get close to him the rare times that they saw each other.]

Who cares about that stupid murder someone to get home thing. I'm more interested if any of you "Champions" are worth my time.

[strikemonster]

[Mai looks down. Champion of Fire Handling. A nice way to say "Champion Pyromaniac," she assumed. Personality as unpleasant as Ryuichi, it would seem.]

Then the important factor is: with or without weapons and abilities? [An important distinction.] I'm much more formidable with a weapon, for example.

[She says this with dead seriousness and the knowledge that absolutely nobody's going to believe a five foot tall girl that looks like she weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet can take anybody on in a fight, weapons or no.]

[almightyconflagration]

[He believes her, but mostly because a couple of his fellow Enforcers were child assassins. Of course a child still isn't going to match his unnatural abilities and he knows it.]

Do you see any available weapons here? If that C.E.C.E. chick is hiding a secret cache away somewhere please do enlighten me.

[strikemonster]

Since you don't care about going home, I'm sure the simulator can make anything you want. [Mai waves in the general direction of the holo deck, but she's looking up at the ceiling.] Abilities might be more difficult, seeing as whoever brought us here so kindly dampened them.

[That had been an annoying thing to figure out. Physics actually worked now. Who had time for that??]

[almightyconflagration]

If that was enough I would have been satisfied with archiasms back home.

[airlockedmods]

[Unless you have a question she's just gonna sign off now.]

[almightyconflagration]

[No questions, he just wanted to see if ambivalence rather than indignation would get a reaction. Feel free to sign off!]