Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Jean)

Jean didn't have to wander for very long as Ralph had been chasing him down since he'd left the restroom. The cheery man quickly relayed the same information to Jean that Harvey had told the other three victors; That the application process would be finished after the winners for each round had been decided several hours from now. Furthermore, he would be allowed to either leave the building and return at that time, or stay in the waiting room, where he would be able to watch the remaining matches should he be so inclined. Ralph took special care to mention that there was a variety of refreshments by the door.

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Incandescent Laboratories: Exterior (Amber)

"What makes you say that?" Jack inquired, somewhat surprised that Amber had chosen to meet him outside. "There was always the chance that either or both of us could lose, but you made it, so I'd say we're in good shape. Just make sure you stay on top of things."

The man turned to the laptop resting on his crossed leg and entered a few keystrokes, then rotated the screen to face Amber. On the screen was a portrait of Jean, along with numerous paragraphs of his personal information. Several of them detailed his former gang involvement and all the criminal charges made against him during that time. "As long as you're here, check this out. That Jean guy has a record. It looks like that's all in the past, but you can never be too careful. Here, take this with you." Jack held out a small bottle of pepper spray. The corners of his mouth twitched from his efforts not to break into a smarmy grin.

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Instance 2 (Sven, Gideon, Adrian)

"Spare me the rhetoric." The kneeling proxy spat. Sven obliged, tearing it apart with a barrage of digital lead. And like that, Sven was left alone on the forested side of the arena.

***

Warrior fired a single shot at Mage's captor, landing squarely on her longsword. It wasn't much, but it should keep her distracted for the second it would take to finish off Gideon, who would no doubt be preparing an attack of his own. Maintining her momentum, Warrior completed her 360 degree turn and once again faced the felled proxy. She swung her arm to point directly at him, but found her arm stopped. The barrels of her longsword had slammed into Gideon from the side. He had gotten too close. She desperately tried to toss her attacker away, but without a blade of her own, she had nothing to counter his with. Gideon's attack found purchase in Warrior's head module, destroying the proxy immediately.


"Much obliged, partner." Team Mom thanked Gideon for helping clean up. With Warrior gone, the pool of applicants had been narrowed down to five. Mage was the last enemy proxy remaining. There was a small plink as her captor leveled the longsword barrel on her head. The girl fidgeted for a moment but quickly fell still again.

"Sorry princess. Nothing personal."

"No. No..." Mage mumbled. Team Mom fired her longsword, putting a long overdue end to this match. Or at least, it would have if her gun hadn't been damaged by Warrior. "I'm sorry." The girl finished, then cackled maniacally as an explosion ripped through both of their proxies. Of course, there had to be four victors, and as it happened, Team Mom's proxy was closer to the blast. In the wake of the explosion, only Mage remained, unscathed.

"Hoooo, boy. How about that, huh?" She grinned, looking over at Gideon. "Let's call it a quid pro quo."

"CONGRATULATIONS! The winners of the second selection round are... Adrian Albright, Gideon Falk, Madelyn Giordano, and Sven Moskorov!"

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Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Sven, Gideon, Adrian)

With the match concluded, the winners were met with much the same scene as the first round's victors. Once again, the person who made the final kill received the most attention. Meanwhile, a man approached Sven and extended his hand.

"Hey! It's me, Cecil." He smiled widely, closing his eyes. "Thanks for avenging me back there."

As Adrian exited the simulation, he rolled himself around to where Gideon had been seated. "Nice. Looks like we both made it." He said with a lackadaisical grin. Before he could continue, however, a middle-aged woman came up behind him, bent down and wrapped her arms around his torso, wheelchair and all.

"You certainly did! I'm so proud of you, kiddo!" She beamed. Adrian scratched his cheek as his face reddened.

So the dick has a record, interesting thought Amber as she read over the information on the screen.I'll have to keep a close eye on him
"Here take this with you." she heard Jack say. looking up she saw a small bottle of pepper spray in his hand.
"Of course dear, let me just make room in my purse for it." Amber said as she mimed reaching into a bag on her far side, before pulling her hand back up with her middle finger extended. "a******. I'll assume that since your making jokes, we dont have anything on Penelope or that other woman, Vivian was it? Do you at least have the emergency beacon?"

"Ah yes."
Sven took the hand in bro-style and pulled Cecil in for a chest bump...
"Avenging somebody was probably the last thing I wanted. It was definitely a crucial error on my part. I don't play support that often, haha."
...
"Ah, this may sound weird, but does this place serve toast?"

Jean followed the man who introduced himself as Ralph without saying much, content instead with simply listening to the debriefing that his guide provided. The mechanic's easily tilted nature subdued by mild inebriation - A sober Jean would have quickly dismissed the guide's attitude as annoyingly saccharine - he found little to reproach in Ralph's demeanor. The man seemed genuinely amicable and was generally pleasant to interact with. Perhaps they would get along.

Once arrived in the waiting room, Jean gave the space and the other occupants a once-over before plucking an apple from a nearby table. In no particular mood to explain to his boss why he had been absent from work all morning, the mechanic plopped down in a seat with a view of the tv screen and resolved to spend the rest of the day there. Talking with the other winners would likely only prove to be aggravating to all parties involved, but he could at least hope for some entertainment from the upcoming simulations. Content for the first time that day, he remained silent, save for the loud munching emanating from his space as dent after enormous dent appeared in his apple.

Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Jean)

As Jean entered the room, Vivian glanced over at the door. Her eyes narrowed as she inspected him tentatively, then turned her attention back to the screen. Penelope continued to mope in her corner, likely having failed to notice anyone had entered the room at all. Naturally, Jean paid them no mind, grabbing a snack and settling in quite comfortably. As he bit down into his prize, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that the apple was an S-tier honeycrisp. Delectable. It wasn't long before the screen began broadcasting the second round.

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Incandescent Laboratories: Exterior (Amber)

Jack returned the bottle to his pocket with a shrug before fishing around and pulling out a small device in its stead. "I always thought 'emergency beacon' was a pretty cumbersome thing to call it, but here. Now get the hell outta my car."

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Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Sven)

Cecil returned Sven's chest bump with gusto. "Toast?" He asked, scratching his chin. "I wouldn't know, man."

"There's toast in the waiting room!" A man called to Sven from the hallway. Several people stopped talking and looked at him. "Just saying."

"Yeah yeah." Amber said as she took the beacon and placed it in her pocket. She then left the car and returned to the Incandescent and made her way towards where she saw the others had been heading before she left. Oh good, there's cookies and punch by the door. She helped herself to some of the punch, and then she prepared a second cup and grabbed an apple and made her way over to where the angsty Penelope was sitting, which was luckily on the other side of the room from the dick.
"Here Penelope dear, drink this," she said as she offered the second cup of punch to Penelope, "You should be excited, you won."

Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Jean, Amber)

Penelope turned to Amber with an almost comically steep frown, her eyebrows scrunched farther than should've been humanly possible. "Easy for you to say. Your victory wasn't built on the back of Jack's shattered remains." She pouted. "And I don't want your pity punch." The young woman slumped down in her chair and crossed her arms, which pushed the collar of her sweater high enough to cover the lower half of her face.

"Whatever." Amber said as she shrugged and drank the refused punch. "Hmm fruit punch. But dear you do realize he is alive and fine right? It's not like he is actually dead. Besides he's a big boy, he'll get over loosing. Now why don't you cheer up and go get some of the cookies and punch by the door." Amber sighed, "Look Penny," she said as she pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled some numbers on it. "This is Jack's cell phone number. Why dont you text him, if you feel so bad, and apologize or something." With that she handed Penelope the note and went back to get more punch.

"Ay! Thanks.
"I'm sure you're going home soon, so I'll leave you be. Late."

Sven threw on his coat and walked out toward the waiting room.

"You won, but there's still more to go. You won't make it very far."

"Gh!"

It was over. He didn’t know how, and it didn’t make much sense, but they had won. He had won. Gideon Falk had made it through the first round. And he could not have been happier. With a resounding “whoop!” and an accompanying pump of his fist he leapt from his chair, nearly colliding with the simulation headgear that had just barely been retracted. This was it. This was a new beginning. And he had the cool cat in the wheelchair to thank for it.

“We sure did, little buddy,” he answered the now-smothered Adrian. It was then that Gideon managed to put two and two together. Adrian. Wheelchair. He knew something had been up in the simulation; now it was evident. This kid had learned to walk in there. What a boss. Gideon smiled wide, though he kept his discovery to himself. He could congratulate his partner later; there were other matters to discuss at present.

“Hey man, did you know that Cleric was a girl?”, he asked, looking around the room to try and identify the person who had fixed his broken mech and given him a fighting chance. “I can’t figure out why she was disguising her voice like that before.”

Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Jean, Amber)

Without turning her head, Penelope fixed Amber with an unamused stare. However, she reluctantly took the slip of paper from Amber anyway. "Don't get any ideas. This is just so I can apologize." Averting her eyes from the woman sitting beside her, Penelope's attention fell on the screen that was now displaying the second round. She felt like she'd been in the simulation for hours, but in reality, the selection process was still just getting started. "I wonder what the other winners will be like." She thought out loud.

Seeeeggggueeeeeeeeeee

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Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Gideon, Adrian)

The woman released her stranglehold on Adrian and rubbed her chin. "Youths are so imaginitive. Nah, it wasn't anything so outlandish. I just pretended to be Cleric. I thought you already knew, actually." She shook her head and looked up at Gideon. "Anyhow, name's Andrea Albright. Nice to finally meet you in person, Gideon. Please keep an eye on my boy here. He can be a handful." Adrian groaned slightly and planted his face in his hand.

The trio had little time to talk. The staff were considerably more on the ball this time around and were quick to clear out the room and shuffle the winners into the waiting area. Just before the victors parted ways with the other applicants, they turned around to see off their friends and family. Andrea, Cecil, and a group of three others waved back before taking their leave. With that, Adrian, Gideon, Sven, and Madelyn entered the waiting room.

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Incandescent Laboratories: Interior (Everyone)

Upon entering the waiting room, Madelyn immediately set her sights on the refreshment table. She wasted no time swooping over and helping herself to some toast.
Adrian decided to approach Jean, recognizing him from the parking lot. "Oh, hey. You made it too. Congratulations." The boy said as he wheeled himself over.

A wary eye was kept on the new arrivals as they entered the room. If they were as unpleasant as the lot of buffoons that he had been stuck with during his own selection process, then Jean wanted nothing to do with them. He was surprised to recognize, however, that the wheelchaired boy from the parking lot was riding into the room as one of the winners. Though the mechanic had been watching the screen on and off since the second simulation had started, he hadn’t noticed any proxies particularly struggling on their feet. Had this boy really learned to walk in that short time? Just who was this kid?

More surprising than the fact that the boy had won, however, was the fact that he had chosen to approach Jean. The mechanic kicked himself. In his enjoyment of the excellent apple that was now only a handful of seeds in his palm, he had let down his guard and his scowl. There was no telling who would talk to him now.

Still, of all the people to be approached by, the cripple boy was far from the worst candidate. His wheelchair was as impressive as ever, and Jean was admittedly itching to get a closer look at the device. The chair’s occupant gave Jean yet another “congratulations” as he drew close, which the mechanic acknowledged with crossed arms and a subtle - yet very present - nod. Jean said not much more than that, opting instead to quickly look the boy over and, more importantly, look at his method of transportation. A few moments of curious gazing later, Jean was on his feet, examining the wheeled machine while a rare, impressed look grew on his face. Though the mechanic had his suspicions back in the parking lot when he first saw the chair, he was fully convinced now. Only a handful of mechanics in this city were skilled enough to accomplish a custom build of this calibre, and all of them had distinct styles. From the way the bolts were tightened to the arrangement of the hinges, there was no mistaking it.

“How on earth did you convince Albright to build this for you, boy?”

Text <Adrian Albright, Gideon Falk, Madelyn Giordano, and Sven Moskorov 2nd round winners, c if we hav anything on them> Amber typed into her phone <BTW gave P ur cell #. >

Looking up from her phone she noticed the new set of winners had arrived in the lounge. She was more than a little surprised to see that the young man in the wheelchair had made it. She was about to rise and go over to congratulate him when he started a conversation with the "dick".
It'd be rude to interrupt She thought besides I dont want to try another conversation with dick yet anyways
Noticing that one of the other winner was over at the refreshment table, and that her own drink was empty, she rose and approached.
"Hi I'm Amber. Congrats on making it." Amber said to the woman as she rose her hand for a shake.

Proximity - Prologue: Concluded