DAY 00

[thecomputer]

[Good afternoon, Citizens!

Your consciousness blurrily returns as the transport tube your comatose body was stored in opens up, admitting you access to an unfamiliar room. One wall is covered by vertical tubes, one occasionally sliding open to admit another confused person. The wall across from you has a sign saying "PROCEED TO CENTRAL HUB", with an arrow pointing at a red doorway in the corner. The wall to your right contains an unlabeled, dusty, and poorly-lit hallway with blue walls, floor, and ceiling. You can't see the end from here.

Somewhere on your person, you will find a thin, smartphone-sized object that wasn't there before. One side of it is lit up with a red background and a number of disabled menu items. Most of the screen is taken up by another message saying "PROCEED TO CENTRAL HUB".

What is this place, anyway? And who are these people stumbling in through the transport tube array?]

[[Beyond the three prompts below, anyone may start their own prompts to mingle or go off and do their own thing or whatever else they want!]]

Comments

[ossifragant]

[...Well, if you're expecting him to disagree...]

I suppose that does get the point across nice and quickly. Nothing like a little pain to remind yourself you're still breathing.

[schrodingers_man]

[ "Still" breathing, yeah, we'll go with that. Yomiel finally stands up and dusts himself off. ]

Name's Yomiel. Interesting place we've found ourselves, huh?

[ossifragant]

[He puffs out that ridiculous collar of his nodding.]

Call me Greed. It's certainly something, isn't it? Can't say I've seen technology anywhere near this sophisticated before. I could never have dreamt up this stuff.

[schrodingers_man]

Seems just plain "off," doesn't it? I don't mind, though. I'm used to working on the cutting edge of technology.

[ossifragant]

It seems more "futuristic" than cutting edge to me, but maybe that's a difference in the countries we come from.

[At least one person being familiar with the sort of technology in this place does manage to put him somewhat at ease. It doesn't help Greed's major problem, which is not knowing what he's going to do here or how he's going to escape (and he is going to escape, there's no prison in the world that can hold him) but it does lead him to wondering how it's all possible.]

I take it your story is the same as mind. You were minding your own business, and then suddenly you find yourself waking up in a cramped tube without a clue as to how you got there.

[schrodingers_man]

Something like that.

[ More conducting business than minding just his own, and he's still thinking this is probably the end result of said business, but it's probably not a good idea to share that. It doesn't explain why these other people are here anyway, unless.... ]

The word "Temsik" doesn't happen to mean anything to you, does it?

[ossifragant]

Can't say it does, sorry. Is that the name of a country?

[His knowledge of geography is severely out of date and he never did have a chance to fix it.]

[schrodingers_man]

No. It's something a lot smaller than that. It's not really important, I just thought it might be involved.

[ossifragant]

Who knows, maybe it's still related.

We don't know who's responsible for bringing us here, after all.

[schrodingers_man]

That's true. Are you missing something important?

[ossifragant]

Mm.

[The sound is noncommittal, but there's the barest trace of a nod.]

You could say that. I'll find how it's gone missing, that must I can tell you right now.

[schrodingers_man]

I'm missing something important myself. I don't know how they took it from me, but it'd be pretty dangerous in the wrong hands. Sounds like it's the same for you.

[ossifragant]

It certainly seems that way.

Whatever's going on, I plan to get to the bottom of it. What was stolen from me, well... it's not something easy to snatch away.

[schrodingers_man]

...Something inside you?

[ossifragant]

[...That's.... a little eerie.]

Sort of. It's a part of what am I, but not inside me exactly.

[schrodingers_man]

[ Just be glad he's not a spoopy ghost any more, he can do a lot worse than a little eerie. ]

Maybe it is related after all. That "Temsik" thing I mentioned, you could say I usually keep it close to my heart.

[ He taps his chest for emphasis. Close to his heart, inside the pulpy mess that used to be heart, close enough. ]

[ossifragant]

[That would be another creepy thing they have in common, in that case! Though Greed isn't exactly a ghost.

But he follows the meaning well enough, nodding.

...no, maybe something inside of him was taken after all. In a very literal way.]

...and it's one of those things a person couldn't just casually take, isn't it?

[schrodingers_man]

[ All kinds of creepy things in common beyond just their fashion sense! ]

Definitely wouldn't be easy.

[ossifragant]

[That's... really interesting. Huh.

He's not sure what to make of it.]

So that's at least two of us who have lost something that should be extremely difficult, if not impossible to take. What the hell is going on here?