Round 1 [new characters and round announcement]

[utopiamods]

You're falling, and you can't remember why. It's a sickening feeling that makes your insides lurch; the darkness and the vertigo combine, and all you can think of is a story you heard once, somewhere.

- I remember now. It's a simple story that everyone knows. A legend of a Princess, the Demon Lord who kidnapped her, and the Knight who fought to save her.

The Demon Lord had kidnapped the Princess countless times, but every time the Knight bested his challenges and rescued the Princess.

No matter what tricks and ploys the Demon Lord used, the Knight would always triumph in the end. This was because--

The world tilts on its axis one last time, and the dream slips from your mind as easily as it arrived. A new voice intrudes on your sleep.

"Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. This tramline terminates here; all change. Next stop: Academy Main Entrance. All change."

Sunlight streams through the windows of the long carriage, making the seats almost uncomfortably warm beneath its waking passengers. The air is muggy and thick, the atmosphere deeply tired. Your nausea settles, slowly. The last of the dream fades.

"We have arrived at Utopia. Repeat, we have arrived at Utopia Academy. Could all passengers please leave the tram, as it is terminating here."

The tram pulls to a stop outside the academy station, and the students onboard are ushered off and directed to the front lobby of the school. They can't miss it; there are signs up pointing toward the main entrance, reading "New student orientation" in big, bright letters. If anyone should care to move off the path, try exploring somewhere else, a teacher will conveniently appear to shoo them back toward the lobby, assuring them that "all your questions will be answered inside".

The lobby is big and spacious, looking more like a university or perhaps a fancy international hotel than a high school. Stood around are any number of students in the uniform of the school. Some of them even look awake. There are several receptionists at the desk towards the back of the lobby, but for now they seem busy with paperwork.


[ Note: the round announcement will go up in a thread once you've all mingled. ♥ ]

Comments

[utopiamods]

Once everyone has mingled a bit, a large flat-screen TV set into one wall clicks to life and a cheerful-looking woman appears on the screen. When she speaks, she's so chipper you might just feel your teeth starting to rot.

"Good afternoon to our new students here at Utopia Academy! Thank you for choosing to enroll with us for this, our first semester of the new year. Our battle system is the best in the world, set up for you, our students! I hope that you all had a fun journey here, and that you've all made some new friends! You're going to need them soon, so keep them close, okay?

"Now, I'm going to explain the rules for you. Make sure to listen carefully, and remember, you can find all of this and more in the Exaclan manual!"

She goes on to outline the Exaclan system; the video is the same as the one the that all the previous arrivals got to see. Once she finishes, the screen goes blank and the following appears:
PLAYERS FOR ROUND 1:
C.C.
Edgar Roni Figaro
Edward Elric
Euphemia li Britannia
Haruka Kuchinawa
Huashi Sun
Lyra Silvertongue
Mikoto Minagi
Rapunzel
Russel Tringham
Scott Pilgrim
Utena Tenjou
Yuki Yagizawa

[myownfuture]

And now Yuki was a Player? Was every round going to be like this?

Not only her, but Kuchinawa also... This would be interesting.

Reiko looked around. She supposed she might as well go find Yuki and make the vow with her.

[isur2ndprincess]

Yuki stared at the board in horror and in shock. She had to be a Player? She had to fight the others? Also, there were other people on the list whose names she didn't recognize. That means more people were arriving and had to fight in this game.

She looked around for the other princesses, they might want to have her as a player.

[formerly_known_as_prince]

"It's wrong to own people!" Utena shouts at the screen, suddenly very angry. Her pale fists are clenched and she's so rigid she's almost shaking.

She knows that she knows this and she knows that she knows why she knows this but she doesn't actually know why she knows this or at least can't remember, although now she knows why she can't remember why she knows this Rumsfeld would be proud..

[princesspowerful]

Molly looks over to the girl who was yelling. "It's just a game," she says back, weaker than her usual pep. She looks tired, shaken, and maybe too young to be here, "If we play maybe we can go home."

[cheesetwo]

"Own people?" C.C. replied coldly, standing nearby the young pink-haired girl. "You think that this little game of theirs is anything like actually owning someone?"

[monkeystail]

Scratching her neck, Huashi swayed back on her heels. So she was a player this round. With a frown, she stared around the crowd, wondering who to attempt to vow to... Maybe she'd ask Ichi? Even if she still didn't trust the woman, Ichi had a sword, and a sword Huashi was familiar with. It would be a good start, at any rate.

But she'd probably also have to ask random people. She wasn't sure she wanted 'random people' around. But what else could she do? She had to, as far as she'd understood it, play, otherwise she'd lose tokens, and getting into less than zero would just make it take even longer to get memories and upgrades... Scowling, Huashi planted her fists on her hips and looked around, wondering where and how to start.

[leftthesafetyon]

Meryl was facing the same problem- she wasn't sure who to trust, and it was beginning to become a nuisance. She needed to build trust with people, and the game seemed like the easiest way to do it. She approached the first person she saw, and tried to start up a conversation.

"It's a pretty weird system, but you get used to it."

[discarded]

Miwako stared up at the screen in confusion. How could a place like this really exist? They were expected to fight? If her mother knew about this, there was no way she'd be allowed to stay...

She looked to the strange-looking girl standing nearby. "Um... is this... is this real?"

[loyal_liar]

So she was a player for this? Well... She'd have to find weapons then. And since she didn't know anyone here... She didn't intend on claiming to 'own' anyone, but she'd have to play along if she wanted to get her memories back and figure out what in the world was going on. And she would definitely protect everyone she could.

She pulled out the glove she'd gotten from her bag and put it on. Now all she had to do was convince people that despite all appearances, she could actually fight. Lyra wasn't big, but she was nimble and not at all fragile, despite all appearances.

"Hey!" Lyra began turning to everyone she could see, asking each of them some variation on a single question. "Do you want to be my weapon?"

[greennotgold]

"Ah, I already have one," Fletcher replied, holding his hand up to the necklace partly embedded into his skin. "Sorry... Are you, um, one of the Players this round?" She must have been one of the new names he didn't recognize.

[trollofthree]

According to the board, there were only two people he knew selected as Players, and they were both princesses with knights of their own. If either of them asked... but they wouldn't, of course, and he would rather find someone who was going to fight.

So when, for the second time in two weeks, a girl confronted him with an offer of ownership, he stopped, grinned, and accepted in good cheer. "Sure!"

See, wasn't that easy?

[earlofpudding]

Did somebody say fully integrated virtual network including several layers of tactile, empathic holograms? Because that was where Lloyd stopped listening. Everything else the woman on the screen was saying just wasn't as important. The entire campus was fitted out with something like that? Now this really was starting to sound like one of his dreams~

Lloyd did a turn around, scanning the building they were in for what he would assume were projectors. He couldn't spot anything obvious. Aha, these people were good at hiding them. That had to be it. "...now how would a glove trigger a tactile hologram? Hmmm." Better question. "How did they even construct a tactile hologram?"

Forget all this nonsense about some game. The man in the labcoat was going to wonder about the tech even needed for this silliness. Surely it could be put to a better use.

[discarded]

"What's a tactile hologram?" Miwako asked the man. She supposed she could have guessed from the context of the words, but she was overwhelmed by all of this. She still had no clue...

[valleycat]

Kitty looked at the screen, none of the names looked familiar, except for Utena who she has met earlier. Where exactly was she, she thought, and why was she taken? If anyone was going to kidnap her it would be because of her powers but here she couldn't use them for some reason.

"What's this game, like, all about?"

[bitofafiction]

Sherlock raises his eyebrows at the player list. Euphemia, Yuki... he could look for either of them. Or he could take a chance on someone he doesn't know as well—one of the newcomers, perhaps. He hasn't quite decided yet.

(When he looks at the announcer, why does he feel cold metal in his hands? Leave it.)

[themerryway]

Euphemia wanders to the lobby, apprehension in her gait, her smile. She's in there just in time for the list to appear, and before she reads that, she notices all the new students; yes, the introduction... it feels far too long ago that she herself arrived here, confused and disoriented, to be greeted by the woman on the screen.

Then, she turns her attention to the list. And promptly stares.

"Me? A player?"

[awildcatappears]

Mikoto... doesn't have the slightest clue what any of this means.

"A player?"

And she was pretty sure that wasn't her name. And she didn't recognize any of the names listed either. Needless to say, this wasn't Fuka Academy and she... didn't know where her brother was. She was just with him! After all that searching... and finding him... for nothing.

[dreamcandies]

She watches the screen with her head tilting to the side. She's not listed as one of the Players this round... leaving her as one of the 'Weapons'?

"This is weird." Her disapproval, do you hear it.

[cheesetwo]

C.C. stared at the monitor. Player? So she has to play this little game of theirs? That sounds like such a pain...

But a name catches her eye. Euphemia li Britannia? Charles' dead daughter... The one that Zero killed.

"Interesting," she remarked out loud.

[defender]

Shoujou hadn't anticipated this.

"Not a Player this round, either." He stared up at the list of Players. Of the names on the screen, only Haruka Kuchinawa seemed a likely candidate to be his Player. And even so, Shoujou wasn’t really sure if that would be possible. With no Iwahijiri, the student council had no cause; the only binding force between the student council members was El’s influence – and Shoujou was never really quite sure what went on in Kuchinawa’s head anyway.

True, the other trash could probably be manipulated, especially since few of them found pleasure in Exaclan anyway, but Shoujou did not want to rush into alliances – nor did he have any intentions of having his Weapon used without good reason. His only motivation to accept a Player was use of the school facilities. He could, perhaps, find some use in his Tokens (at the very least he would need to restore the more irritating lost memories), but that could wait.

He was not especially pleased about the situation, but there were worse alternatives.

“What now?” Shoujou muttered, scanning the crowd of students for a face he recognized.

[aureus_veritas]

Ed's eyes narrow. Things obviously just went from bad to worse. He had plenty of issues with all the information he'd just been given, though he doubted any amount of protesting would faze these people. With an indignant snort, Ed folds his arms over his chest.

"Wonder what happens if we refuse to do jack shit," he mutters, mostly to himself.

[firstlady]

"Ah. Already?"

Kuchinawa had to close the book he was reading. He stared at the screen. He blinked once. He blinked twice. His name was still there. He told himself he would rather not fight unless it was absolutely necessary. And now the game made it absolutely necessary that he did.

He sighed. There were other things that he would rather do. But now he had to find a weapon. Fortunately or unfortunately, El was not there to decide for him. Seeing as Yuki Yagizawa's name was on the board as well, it would probably be best if he didn't lose immediately.

[waddles]

Weapons and players...

"What a terrible game." Rafiel murmured softly to himself as he watched all those unfamiliar names scroll up on the screen. It was so much to take in at once, really, such technology as well as the fact that he was bound to this place with no promise of freedom... an unusually fascinating cage but one nonetheless.

He didn't even have his wings to carry him up and over these walls... though he wasn't sure why. Perhaps that was one of those lost memories the girl had spoken of, knowing only that he couldn't but not why he had lost both his ability to fly and to change into his natural form. With a sigh, he turned upon the crowd that surrounded him and gazed out upon their faces with feelings of trepidation.

"Is waiting all I can do?"

[wasabisandwiches]

All in all, Cécile concluded, it could have been worse. As it was, it seemed vaguely similar to some military training exercises, which splashes of the improbable thrown in. She couldn't say she was happy to be here, but there were, at least, good points: tactile, empathic holographics? How did those work? If she was going to be allowed to experience them, she could study them... and oh, she looked forward to that.

She looked forward distinctly less to the battle and weapons system. She thought she understood most of it alright, but she wasn't fully certain-- much like piloting a Knightmare Frame, she imagined it was something you simply had to try once. She blinked, looking a little startled, as she found herself incapable of remembering how one actually did pilot a Knightmare Frame. How did you... turn one on...?

...Well, maybe she was just-- experiencing some strange aftereffects of whatever brought her to this place! She must have been drugged, after all--

She smiled a little nervously before turning her attention back to the screen, and then to the other people in the room.

The best thing to do in this situation was to talk to the rest of the people in the room and try to figure things out, she imagined. Who to approach first?