WEEK 1 - Online

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (1)

monday (41) survivors It had been three days since you had awoken. The ship was still quiet, except for the low hums of enigmatic machines with no apparent purpose. You awake, like usual, to dim lighting and poor rations. Perhaps being on the ship had grown monotonous — it was, perhaps, amazing how little anything seemed to happen in space, a final frontier of malaise. That monotony is crushed by a voice echoing through the narrow hallways. Reformatting . . . Reformatting . . . Reformatting complete. The Pygmalion is online. Welcome, travelers. Please assemble in the meeting room. Your presence is mandatory. Silence falls once again. A minute or so passes, and the lights around the ship finally brighten, the walls looking more alive and more unfamiliar — as if you must relearn the ship's interior once again. The robots on deck begin to make rounds, nudging and pushing at the ship's passengers to make their way to the meeting room. You hear the doors behind you lock. It seems there is only one path to take. ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[bloodbiter]

I feel I would need to know what building you're speaking of to judge correctly.

[chiseler]

How do you not know what that is? It's one of the most famous skyscrapers in the country. 102 stories tall--[Current home to Mount Olympus]--right in the center of Manhattan? [A pause.] Where are you even from?

[bloodbiter]

I am from Bamarre, and I have never heard of this Manhattan. Is it a village?

[chiseler]

[He actually laughs in surprise, if only because Manhattan's...the furthest from a village. Sorry Addie.] If you count a place with more tall buildings than you can count and over a million people a village, sure. It's more of a city. Biggest part of New York City.

What's Bamarre?

[bloodbiter]

I see. That's interesting... A city within a city. What is it like, other than highly populated?

Bamarre is the country I come from.

[chiseler]

Busy. You think being stuck in one place with this many people is bad? Imagine a much bigger space but with the same kind of feeling. [He frowns slightly like he's considering something.] Can't really say. Didn't spend a whole lot of time there myself, but I can't say I've ever heard of Bamarre either.

[bloodbiter]

I don't think the volume of people is the part of this that's bad, but... I understand what you mean. There must be an incredible number there.

Where do you typically reside, if you didn't spend long there?

[chiseler]

[It is when you don't know why you're all here. But he leaves that alone because he really, really has to think of how to respond. He hasn't lived at Camp for years, and he spent a good chunk of time on the Princess Andromeda. He's traveled a lot, but in terms of residence?]

I've been traveling a lot my whole life. [It's mostly true.] Can't say I really have one place anymore.

[bloodbiter]

You have? May I ask why?

[and so continues her endless nosiness curiosity]

[chiseler]

Guess you could say it comes with my job. [That's. That's definitely one way of putting it.] But I don't mind. Sitting still too long isn't really my idea of fun either.

[bloodbiter]

And what is your job, then?

[chiseler]

Slaying monsters. [It's only part of the truth, but it's good enough.] They've got a tendency to go after guys like me.

[bloodbiter]

[and just like that, he has her attention in a way he hadn't before]

Really? We have something in common, then. What sort did you typically do battle with?

[chiseler]

[...how to explain...he recognizes a captive audience and he doesn't think he'd like to lose that so soon.]

Typical stuff, you know? Dragons, minotaurs, scorpions, leucrotae...cyclopses...stuff like that. Not many people do that, I've heard.