Welcome, Participants

[mockmods]

Good morning, Participants. The time is now 7:30 AM.

[Where were you before this? Doesn’t matter, you’re here now, in an unfamiliar bed, surrounded by unfamiliar people, with a slightly-too-cheerful automated voiced chiming over a PA system to wake you up. Your pockets are empty, save for an unfamiliar smartphone type of device that comes alive under your touch, displaying, among other things, a map, a series of profiles, and a list of rules.]

It is understood that you may have questions; please be patient, and gather back in the Common Room in one hour. The Assistant will be present at this time to answer your questions. In the meantime, please feel free to explore the Facility at your leisure.

[The doors to the dorm areas are freely open from the inside, though you’ll find that it takes your electronic id to regain entry once you’ve left. Otherwise, it’s as the voice says, and you’ve got an hour to explore your new surroundings and get to know your fellow kidnappees.]

[Welcome to the Facility.]

Comments

common room

[thisass]

[ She shakes it. ]

Awfully professional for a demon, aren't you? Chloe Frazer, nice to meet you. Apart from the kidnapping business.

[eudaimonikos]

[He visibly winces a little at actually being called a demon, but he recovers fast.]

Well. Hell's a bureaucracy, you gotta at least learn to give a good presentation. Being kidnapped's a new one, though. Don't suppose this is some fun human tradition I haven't heard about?

[thisass]

Nope, unless we've all signed up for the strangest American fraternity-slash-sorority out there and don't remember it. Little concerning that they managed to take you in, though, I won't lie.

[eudaimonikos]

Understandable, but it might not be that bad. I was already on Earth before this, and my kind aren't nearly as powerful there. I think it's to keep us from just, you know...

[He gestures vaguely to indicate "fucking around with humanity".]

...interfering. Whoever did this might be just as fragile as any human!

[thisass]

Oh, I see. Fair enough, then. I'm not exactly in the best shape of my life right now either, in fairness.

[eudaimonikos]

No? It's very hard to tell.

[is that a compliment or an insult]

[thisass]

I'm hiding it decently well, then.

[ She sighs. ]

Prolonged firefights and jumping between moving motor vehicles can land a girl a fair number of cuts and bruises. Luckily, most of the small ones have healed by now.

[eudaimonikos]

The human injuries I'm used to seeing are...very obvious?

[And oftentimes caused by him, but ANYWAY]

Sounds exciting, though!

[thisass]

It sure was something. Stopped a civil war, though, so I can check that off the bucket list! Ha...

[ She sighs and rubs her shoulder. ]

You don't want to hear me list off my aches and pains, I'm sure. What's your take on this whole... scenario?

[eudaimonikos]

I think it's fairly clear that we're meant to start murdering each other for the entertainment of some third party! I'm not unfamiliar with this sort of setup. The Assistant sounds like a plant to act friendly while engineering our suffering up close, but I guess we'll find out more there in - what, half an hour now?

[He checks the time on his phone. Yeah, close-ish.]

Now, as for who's responsible, it's definitely not one of mine. Your typical demon would just torture us directly. Well. Torture you all directly.

[thisass]

[ Chloe nods, instinctively also checking the time on her phone in response. ]

I guess we'll see for sure, but seems like a pretty good take all around.

[ She sighs. ]

Can't wait to see what lies they tell us about why this whole thing is being done. What do you reckon, some kind of science fiction humanity advancement deal?

[eudaimonikos]

Makes sense, they've got the whole research and testing angle pretty well laid out. Even if any conclusions you could draw from this are probably well-established - we know humans will kill each other under duress.

'Course, they seem to be drawing people from all over. Maybe it's a transdimensional science thing.

[thisass]

Transd-- why, not, there's a "species" bar on the damn profiles, makes as much sense as anything else.Can't imagine it's very different in other... dimensions, though.

[eudaimonikos]

Nah, that much is probably the same everywhere. Hey, maybe they wanna see which dimension's gonna come out on top! Like some kinda Hunger Games thing.

[thisass]

Like some kind of... oh, the American film, right. Do you suppose everyone here is from a different dimension, then?

[eudaimonikos]

No, I know we're not. Janet's my friend from home. Janet, the Janet?

[That title that's descriptive only to him and her, basically?]

[thisass]

Right. The type of fun science nickname you can say in mixed company. She's not human either, I assume.

[ she pulls the smartphone out to pull up her profile ]

They do make it very clear that she's Janet, don't they?

[eudaimonikos]

She's a Janet. They're all named Janet. But Janet is the best Janet.

[obviously!]

[thisass]

Well, can't say I know any Janets to argue with you.

[eudaimonikos]

You don't need to, I'm right. Once, she picked my boss up by the throat and threw him into a concrete wall so hard that it cracked.

[Michael giggles a little.]

Real high-ranking demon, too!

[thisass]

Well, damn. Go Janet. I haven't met any other demons yet, but that is awfully impressive.

[eudaimonikos]

It was! So cool. I really don't see why they put the two of us on different teams, that's not at all how we roll. [...] Actually I guess that's probably the exact reason. I just don't like it.

[thisass]

Ah yes, the team thing. Odd thing, isn't it?

[eudaimonikos]

At least we're not launching directly into the Stanford prison thing?