Incident #1 - The Devoid Dormitory

Closing the door to the hallway behind them as they enter the room, Sia moves over to her bed and sits down; offering Jun a seating choice either beside her or in the chair at Sia's study desk. Jun will quickly note Sia still has on the oversized hoodie with the sleeves draping to cover both of the pink-haired teen's hands and that her black bra is visible now with the hoodie unzipped. On the desk is an open sketch pad and drawing tools. On the pad is a detailed pen and ink drawing of a freckle-face young female with large glasses.



"Dumb jock? Why would you think such a thing of yourself?" Sia shakes her head slowly. "Are you really buying into Mr. Bauer and the guard's BS about identity thieves? Nonsense. More likely, all those missing people are being used as lab rats in Bauer's microbiology mad scientist lab and you were all knocked out with some type of gas through the ventilation system while it was all done." Sia shakes her head. "I don't trust these people. This place is so restrictive and uninviting to me. I'm not sure how long I am going to continue to subject myself to the general maleness of this school. Its suffocating."

Chloe lets all of the information sink in for a moment. There is a lot going on to process.

Then she responds to Ainsleigh
"If I am going to alternative housing..." for a moment she seems silent, thinking, weighing odds, ".... Which sonds totally exciting and a chance to meet more new people! But then I would require some equipment out of my room anyway. So, I would need to go to my dorm first and can pick up my notebook as well. I am quite sure everyone would need to collect some personal stuff, clothing and the likes. So how about I go collect notebook, clothes, charging cables and the like and we meet again here in...." there is a moment of silence. "About seven minutes and twenty four seconds?"

With that Chloe makes a rush to the stair case. Only to come to a complete stop and turn around.


Protocol interruption: Be polite, Chloe.


Chloe walks back to Ainsleigh. Her thoughts of collecting her stuff out of her mind for a moment. And with a chipper voice she asks.
"What are you planning, Ainsleigh? Do you stick to your dorm or will you also take the alternative housing offer? It would be fun to have several cool people around!"

'I wasn't fazed by the events enough to bother picking another place to rest my head, but since we seem to already be involved in this puzzle together, I'm open to being your company for the duration, if you want. But no strong opinion either way. Do keep in mind that the day is far from over though, so your seven-minutes-and-countdown proposal would be problematic.'

Jun’s eyes are drawn to the ink image. If not for her being on a pad, the image could pass for a grayscale photograph. "She’s beautiful. Reminds me of…" Her eyes follow the ink lines that fade to white in the right places to form the hair. "If the hair were curled…" She doesn’t finish that sentence either. Her eyes linger on a freckled cheek…

Jun finally sits on the bed. She laughs when Sia calls the school ‘too male.’

"Right, me first week in two words! I’d been in girls’ schools all me life. I come here to join the wrestling team, and it’s eighteen boys thinking I exist to ogle them and shout ‘go Cocks!’ …short-form for cockatrice, to inform you.

"Dumb jock was meant as a self-deprecating jab. But I felt some truth to it’s soon as I heard meself. I’m either fooled by Concetta as they said or fooled by them as you said."

She thinks a bit, stuck on Sia’s use of the word ‘confining.’ "It doesn’t have to be," she says with genuine optimism. "What I mean is, Willowveil’s always going to have it’s Cocks, and I can’t reverse whatever happened—whether Concetta’s victim or perpetrator.

"But it doesn’t mean I’m to sit in me tall tower, awaiting me rescue from a knight in shining badge. Gas or thievery, maybe whomever tampered with me room left a breadcrumb or two. I was about to head to meet the other victims—or victims’ roommates if it’s as you say. But, I think I’ll get a better look at me room first."

She remains seated on the bed for the moment, so her hostess can get a word in.

"Yes... you are right. I got a bit focussed on one thing that I missed checking my internal clock. But right you are, day is a long time going still. I'll be right back with my notebook! Like 5 minutes and... nevermind."

Chloe goes to her room, gets her note book and returns to Ainsleigh at the agreed place and time.

"Now, how about we find a quiet table to work at."


Once they settled down, Chloe opens her notebook. And without pressing any buttons the notebook already shows up a message
"blu tooth connected... downloading from memory banks..."

Ainsleigh's phone beeps indicating a new reply on the BBS

In the five or so minutes of waiting, Ainsleigh checks the phone and writes a quick reply, and then later - when the image finished downloading into the laptop - takes a look, trying to recall the face and name.

'This is entirely out of the blue, but how do you feel about music? I've got a hunch that you might be the sort of person who either dabbled in MIDI or as a kid or dabbles in synth arrangements still. But I could be entirely wrong, of course.'

"I like music," Chloe answers. "I remember that I was big into boy bands as a child..."

With pressing any keys, a picture created from Chloe's memory appears.

"That is Emma"

Jun contemplates the fact that this woman was nude. "I can’t say I’ve seen her. I’m not sure how society feels about nudity. Me grandmother once had a BFF who felt quite strongly about nudism and male oglers. She’d have the man shot dead." She leaves out the part where it was her grandmother who did the killing.

Jun rises from the bed. "I’m named for her, actually. But me stance is more forgiving; same as yours," she adds in reference to the look-but-don’t-touch rule.

"It was lovely chatting with you, Sia. I hope you find this mystery woman. I believe she’ll be quite flattered by your work."

Jun moves to the door, intent on investigating her room.

Sia stands sees Jun out. "It was really nice meeting you, Jun. Drop by whenever you'd like. We could exchange digits, if you'd like?" Sia tugs her cell out of the hoodies' pocket and holds it in her fabric covered hand.

Ainsleigh stares puzzled for a second, then smiles a bit. 'You make it sound like you haven't listened to anything for years. But I get that your answer was an attempt to gently point out how off-target I am with my so-called hunch. Because yeah, I was thinking of offering to join me in my quest for returning into music, but it seems our tastes are so different that this would not be an enjoyable prospect.'

"O’ course!" Jun holds her phone out, and lets the devices do the rest.

Ainsleigh does recall seeing the girl Chloe calls Emma in passing. They don't recall actually speaking to her, maybe an awkward "hello" passing in the elevator or hallways. No classes with her for certain.

---

In Jun's room she begins the search...

---

'Hmm. Maybe I recognise this face after all. Just . . . not someone I have seen a lot. Though I'm thinking, if you managed to somehow make an image of a person you've seen before, can you make another one based on descriptions and iterative adjustments until he looks close enough to real life?'

Jun starts with the vent. She’s not sure what to look for. A discoloration? An odd device inside the vent? She’s have to stick her phone on with the video recording and torch active to see deep within.

After that, she checks her drawer where she keeps personal affects. She’s got a yearbook, and there’s a lovely image of her and Addison at Debs. She and her ex are slow-dancing and smiling. And the bookmark to this page is an old photo of her maternal grandmother, Calista, the once-favored nymph of Artemis herself before her father guised himself as his own daughter and… Zeus was horrid. Jun had met her grandmother last year. She wanted to know… was it true? Was it possible a nymph could bear a mortal daughter who birthed an immortal nymph? The gills, the aromatic sweat, the perfectly smooth skin… all that was explained by her. And what could she do for Addy but wish her the best, leave her to love a mortal to age with her…? If anyone touched the yearbook or the Polaroid…

After that, Jun moves to valuables. How much was in her wallet? She isn’t sure. Some euros, a few pound notes. Dollars are all numbers with zeroes as she hasn’t paid cash for anything since arrival. Americans prefer plastic, she thinks. The Starbucks card is new. She doesn’t expect that’s missing.

Her wardrobe is kept in a particular order. Color codes. Statements. Swapping positions of outfits would be like moving blue above green in the rainbow. What idiot would miss that?

Finally, Jun moves to the tech. She’s not savvy in this area, so if the technology is all that was tampered with, would she notice? @Greel