unknownseas | Introductions are in order...

When the hour has passed, and everyone is gathered into the Meeting Room, the door shuts and locks with an unassuming soft click. The overhead lights darken, though there's still some light in the room - complete darkness is hard to get with the windows there, even if the ones in here are a little more tinted than the ones in the rest of the facility.

The video screen taking up the wall in the back also turns on, displaying a fairly simplistic design, static and unmoving. A voice, male, clears its throat over the speakers.

"Greetings to you all, and welcome."

His voice is methodical and even, and even through the slight distortion filter it's been put through, those of you with a Europe can recognize his accent as some kind of European. German, maybe?

"You may call me The Professor, and I will be overseeing this experiment. Do not be mistaken - you are not currently my students, you are my test subjects. Lab rats."

Well, that answers that, at least.

"In order to reduce contact, I will personally be monitoring you from a secondary facility. Do not worry, there are members of staff on-site to take care of any immediate needs or wants you may have."

Not that you've seen any, of course, but...

"By now I imagine you're familiar with your situation, at least somewhat. If you have not yet, please read the rules, and... well, I will go ahead and open the floor to questions. I'd ask for you to be orderly about it, but... having observed some of you, that seems like a foolish hope."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My intentions are in fact more complex than "stick 25 people in a room and give them the option to kill each other."

I suppose there's no chance of you just saying what your intentions are, then? It's not like anyone here can do anything with the information, so it's pretty pointless to keep it to yourself like this.

[ there's a heavy sigh, and he mutters something. ]

In simple terms, omitting several components that would mean nothing to you either way but mean a great deal to me, I want to see what you do with the options I've presented to you.

Hey, you've pulled me away from the most critical mission of my life. And from the sound of things, I'm not the only one. [ Hi, Anna. ] What are you a professor of? I can't imagine anyone with a real degree could be stupid enough to think we wouldn't want a good explanation for that.

[ She smiles, because the petty barb wouldn't be complete otherwise. ]

Psychology, actually. I'm acutely aware of the things you all probably want.

Mm-hm. So if you didn't want to put up with us pressing you on the subject, why even open the floor to questions at all?

I'm here to allow you to ask questions. If you ask questions I cannot answer, I will tell you that I cannot answer them. If you think any of you have annoyed me, I assure you you have not.

Right, right. The sigh is just for show.

[ But okay, she isn't JUST talking to be annoying— ]

You're probably not going to tell us the how of us getting here either, right? How about how you plan to put us back?

I possess the technology to bring people here, and the same technology can be used to send you back. Do not worry, Tsunderrorist.

[ ... it's probably weird, hearing that title said without any humor to it. ]

[ It would be, except— ]

...Okay, that's not exactly... Never mind. I have a follow-up question, but first, what does that stupid name mean?

[ Rin is blissfully unhip to the anime tropes kids are into these days. She's been wondering about it for an hour now. ]

[ there's a slight pause. ]

You'll have to hold a moment, actually, it was a suggestion-

[ the sound on his end disappears entirely - it looks like he hit the mute button on his mic. a few seconds later. ]

It's a portmanteau of the words "terrorist" and "tsundere," which is a type of stock character from Japanese animation. I assume you're familiar with the former word, though.

[ what ]

I'm not a stock character—

[ She's a human being!! This is an outrage!!! ]

An interesting accusation of the two to deny.

[ ugh!!! ]

Don't try to be cute. Anyone who calls me a terrorist has already made up their mind about me.

Anyway, I wasn't asking if you could put us back at all. I want to know where and when. Like I said, my circumstances are time sensitive, so I don't have any reason to cooperate if you can't put me back at the exact same point in time and space.

I wouldn't worry about that. The technology I have access to allows me to do that, yes.

Introductions are in order...

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