Incident #1 - The Devoid Dormitory

Concetta DiGeranimoJun takes out her phone again.

"I’ve just the one photo from when we swapped numbers."

She shows Ainsleigh the image, and Chloe and Sia as well, if they’re interested.

Chloe turns to Ainsleigh and smiles kindly.
"I do happen to have quite a big memory yes," she says with a smile and a little proudly. "I am not a very great artist, but I actually do know my way around computers more than most other people. It's like we speak the same language. "

Chloe laughs a bit, probably being quite awkward as it is, as people probably don't understand her own injoke.
I could give it a try....


"Oh..." then she looks at Jun introducing herself. "Well met. I am Chloe. I am from room 317. And yes... I am certainly willing to try to create an image. Maybe if I get a printer!" Chloe snaps her fingers. "Yes! That might actually be a good idea."

Ainsleigh chuckles. 'So you're majoring in COBOL and waiting for the year 2038 to strike it big? In any case, I feel that you may be describing the steps with an implied "magic happens" in the middle. So are you planning to assemble a composite for printing?'

After leaning in to see the image on Jun's cell, Sia continues to the office to face the tribunal of witch hunters who are going to interrogate her on the matter of missing people. She opens the door and looks in.

The group is ushered through the glass doors of the building's office. The full length blinds are closed, but you can see the lights are on inside. Inside the office the group is met with three fellow students. Two male and one female, all looking a bit worried, sitting in office chairs. The room is large, but with the desks, filing cabinets printer-copier, and now seven students and Paul, it's starting to get a bit crowded. To make matters worse, a portly security officer exits one of the two other doors revealing a bathroom, the other door is marked as Paul's personal office. He looks around the room at everyone with a dull, bored expression and says, "This everyone then? Let's get started. Son, let me sit there. My knees aren't what they used to be." The student gets up and lets the officer sit at the desk.

"Alright, so each of you claim up unti this morning, you had a roommate, despite what the records show, and somehow these kids packed up all their stuff and moved out while you were sleeping?"

The three who were here already nod.

"Right, so lets start going over it. Name, room numbers. What you remember about last night. Where did you go, where did your roommates go?"

"Um, Mex, 412, whatever story GeneCortess makes up."

"Wallen 605. Whatever YulleyBear makes up."[/b]

"Nina Ramay. 508. I went out, to Greek Row too. My friend Qadira and I went together. We invited Sheri but she said she was meeting someone. I didnt get back until almost 3 because...well, it was a fun party. I swear when i went to sleep Sheri was in bed asleep. She had a rug under her dresser and bed frame. There is no way a tiny girl like her could move the furniture to get that out without waking me up. I wasn’t drunk or anything and I'm a very light sleeper."

With that the officer turns to the rest of you waiting to hear what your stories are.

Sia raises her hand and interrupts. "Excuse me. But, I never claimed to have a roommate. i was told to come to the office because I am listed as having no roommate on your records."

Jun recalls the party. She had no interest in attending, but with much of the campus going one way, it was a perfect opportunity for Jun to explore the lake.

"Jun Diana Ama. Seven Eleven. I was doing ‘a Greek thing’ meself that night," she says without clarification. This was neither the time nor the place to come out with it: I’m a demigoddess. A water nymph. I crave a good swim now and then. It relaxes me.

They’d tell her not to go. They’d warn her of drowning. And then would Jun tell them that’s impossible?

"That is to say, I’d a late workout. I thought Concetta might wish to join me next time, her being an athlete herself. But I woke to a knock, and her things were gone.

"I thought perhaps I’d said the wrong thing and she might’ve requested a room change, but that can’t be it then. I’m not sure what it can be.

"But it can’t be we’re daft, isn’t that right?" Looking to those who spoke of roommates, she says, "It’d be different had just one of us reported a missing roomie who appears nonexistent. But six or so…?"

Ainsleigh raises an eyebrow upon hearing about the one exception to the pattern, but does not comment, and instead waits until there's a pause between others' statements, steps forward and speaks up.

'Hello. My name is Ainsleigh and I'm a single occupant. Room 207. Before now, my room was shared with Sarnai Myagmar. Yesterday I spent the evening in front of my laptop in an attempt to sort out the students' organisation activities. As far as I could tell, Myagmar was looking forward to a date scheduled for the evening, and left the room around nine o'clock. I stayed up for maybe a couple more hours, then logged off and hit the bed. In the morning, he was gone along with all of his things.'

"COBOL?" Chloe tilts her head sideway just a little. "Cute... No... I am first going to test if my idea with Emma works... Then you describe your roommate with as much detail as you...

Override:
Probability that someone else has pictures of missing roommate: 99%
Probability of obtaining those more effectively.... Analysing... 83%... 82%... 75%... Records of roomies are missing... 60%...

... or we could just ask around and see if anyone else has a picture? But we better to it fasts, odds are fading by the second."

Chloe just jumps from one idea directly to another, as if something in her mind had suddenly given her another idea.

"But if they don't, we can still try and... oh look! Policemen!"


Chloe steps to the police officer as well.

"Hello! Good morning mr officer sir. I am Chloe Coleman and I live in room 317. My roommate is Emma Davidson and she is also missing. She went to a Greek Row party, but I didn't join. My... she makes a quite obvious quote-signal with her fingers as if the next word should be taken figuratively. " 'batteries' were quite low. So I went to rech... sleep. My sleep cycle went by undistrubed and this morning not only Emma was gone, but so was all her stuff."

Sia looks around at the crowded room and shrugs. "If there's nothing more Than confirming my room number, 719, I'd like to be excused now. I need rest and time to study for my classes tomorrow." She moves for the door and opens it to leave.

"All right i guess so. He says dismissively to Sia.

"Now, the rest of you, we're going to send maintenence in a little later with mold testing. There are already carbon monoxide sensors in your rooms, tied into the smoke detectors. They'll check and make sure those are working too. The maintenance guy is just in call today so it will be a few hours until he gets the equipment together and gets here. If you aren't comfortable staying in your rooms the college has arranged for rooms in another facility tonight. Given that you are all on different floors, I don't hold much stock in the environment being the issue."

"I think we might have had a ring of identity theives. They hacked the computers, got in, took advantage of you kids and not knowing how college works and took...well...whatever they wanted to take, and left. Not sure as to how exactly, but that's my guess."

"For now, if you see any of them, call security. Don't approach them, but if they approach you, don't run. I don't they are dangerous since they didn't hurt any of you when they had the chance.

"I'm good letting you all go now unless you have further questions?"

"Counceling services would also like to talk to each of you. They won't be in until tomorrow morning, but if you need to talk to someone now we do have an on-call counselor. And I'm here if ANYTHING comes to mind."

Jun takes in the harsh truth (or most plausible explanation): ‘Concetta’ was not whom she’d appeared to be.

She looks to the others. "I guess we’re flatmates for the night then. I’ll head to me room to grab some o’ me things. I’ll see you soon."

She takes the stairs instead of the elevator, as usual. She packs a night gown, a dress, a towel, and other necessities. But before heading out, she looks at the door not far from hers.

She hadn’t a roomie. Claimed not.

Jun considers a moment… and she knocks on the door to room 719. @RageRed

Fully expecting a visit from someone after announcing her room number for everyone in that crowded office, Sia comes to the door, peeks through the security viewers, and opens it to find Jun. Not bothering to don her black wig, she brightens up slightly that it isn't one of the many annoying school bureaucrats or badge bullies.

"Oh..hi. It's Jun isn't it. I must apologize. Our first meeting was so awkward and frustrating, with having been awakens so early on a Sunday morn, for all this odd business of vanishings. Please. Come in. If you'd like?" Sia steps to one side an gives a casual gesture of one hand to indicate a presentational waving in. "Could we start over with a proper introduction, please? I am Anastasja Emeraude Abschied, but friends can call me Sia."

"Welkom in mijn ruimte. Mijn echte thuis is Amsterdam." She says in perfect native Dutch.

"Thank you, Sia. No apology’s necessary on your part," Jun replies as she enters. "It was unsettling to hear o’ people just… disappearing like that. I think the lot of us weren’t sure how to process it all."

At the end of the proper introduction, Jun only understands the word ‘Amsterdam,’ but she gets the gist of the Dutch words. "I’m Ama Jun Diana from Kildare, Ireland. Me father’s from Japan, me mother’s half-Greek… and I speak what, thirty words total in both o’ those languages?

"If I were taller, I’d fit the dumb jock stereotype, wouldn’t I?" Her pleasant smile crumples slightly to a look of frustration. "The dumbest part of all is I still miss her," she confesses. "I hardly knew me roomie, but I got all these ideas about how we’d have coffee. She’s on the swim team—said so, I mean—and I had this… thought in me head."

She looks about to cry, though it’s not Concetta she would cry for. She bottles it—she didn’t come to Sia’s room to bore her with her regrets.

"It doesn’t matter," she says in a tone that suggests it does. "Concetta, whatever her name is, really, played me like a harp. All the roommates did… that’s the bit you missed.

"You’re fortunate not to’ve had one, Sia. They disappeared on purpose. It was a ring of identity thieves, and on the night o’ that so-called ‘Greek’ party, the thieves made their move and escaped."

'No questions, thank you for your time,' answers Ainsleigh, then turns half to Chloe, half towards the door, ready to leave. 'Since we're now free to go, how about you show me those images in case I might recognise your roommate? I bet you have a notebook at hand too, and once the image is ready we get it to the nearest available printer. Oh, are you planning to stay at the dorm or take on the offer of an alternative housing?'