Incident #1 - The Devoid Dormitory

Before either girl can move there is a knock at the door. "Jun? It's Paul, the R.D. I'm here with Maintenance to do that room check i told you about this morning."

Jun replies, "I’m afraid that won’t be necessary. I checked me room for tampering, and there’s been an interesting development. Sia and I chatted a bit, and…"

Jun had her reasons for revealing her truth to Sia. Sia reciprocated. But her secret is hers to reveal, including the magic.

"…well, short version’s that I mean to share information with the others who’ve lost roommates. But I mean to sleep in me own room, and I’ve personal items about."

She gestures to the unmade bed, which still displays the full page yearbook photo of herself and her ex-girlfriend paused in embrace on the dance floor. Her underwear drawer is still open.

"Nothing’s missing. I even checked me vent. So, that’ll be a no-thank-you on the maintenance. I mean to sleep here tonight. But after I change into a more presentable outfit, I’ll come to the alternative housing for the meeting." From her tone, it’s not clear whether Jun assumes there will be a meeting, or insists.

"The school still wants to do a mold and carbon minoxide test. I understand the desire for privacy, but this is a Health & Safety issue. The entire building is potentially at risk. You can stay in your room, unless we discover a real problem. We only need ten minutes and then we will be out of your way."

Jun doesn’t see the point in arguing, especially if she’ll later try to convince Paul to ‘believe in magic.’

"Ten minutes? Me shower’ll take fifteen." Jun puts her yearbook away, throws the sheets over her still-not-really-made bed, and grabs a change of clothes, a small bag and a towel. "I’ll expect your man’ll be done before I’m back."

She squeezes past the men. From her few shed tears, Jun gives off a pleasant aroma of dewdrops on spring blossoms.

Her breath is also aromatic after drinking that water Sia gave her. Realizing this, Jun doesn’t say ‘excuse me’ or even exhale as she passes the men.

She’s actually rather miffed at the intrusion, but the way she tries to keep her composure and walk tall as she daintily storms off, her gait is that of a fashion model on the catwalk.

"The only health and safety issue here is strange men forcing themselves into the girls dorm rooms, to do only Heaven knows what really, and calling it something its not." Sia retorts, as she leaves Jun's room as well and heads toward her own room.

"You...you were welcome to stay and observe? Was that not clear? We dont want to...you know what? I don't care. Let's just get this over with Lawrence. I'll stand here and keep the door open. To his word, Paul stands more or less outside Jun's room proving the door open while the maintenance man Lawrence enters with his tackle box and step ladder. The two girls hear the ladder getting set up and scoot around as Lawrence works.

Jun turns, deciding it best to watch. The shower can wait a bit.

Sia is nearly to her room by the time Mr. Bauer steps back into the threshold of Jun's door. She turns to glance back up the hallway, as her sleeved hand grasps the door knob and she slides the key into the lock. "Are you good?" She calls to Jun. "I really want to get to my sketch pad while the images are fresh in my mind."

"I’m fine," Jun says, though she obviously is a bit flustered.

She feels about as awkward as she probably looks as she stands in the hall to wait. But from Paul’s reaction to her attempt to escape the awkward situation, now she feels even more awkward about showering.

The maintenance man, Lawrence, is looking around briefly as though taking stock of the room. He seems satisfied with his quick inspection and unfolds a white towel he had stored in his back pocket. With a little work he spreads it out on the now empty bed. It looks very clean. He then puts his plastic tackle box down on the towel. He opens the box and retrieves a spray bottle, some cotton swabs sample collectors and an electronic device.

"Miss, I'm going to shift the furniture away from the wall a smidge so i can test the wall for mold but i will put it right back." and without really waiting for an answer he heaves and the end of Jun's bed slides half an inch out from where it was. He starts with the spray bottle spritzing the wall behind the bed. Then he grabs a cotton swabs and rubs it in the area he sprayed, snips the end with a pair of wire cutters from his pocket so the head falls into the collector tube and disposes of the detritus in his tackle box. Next he takes the device, a small red handheld dohicky with gray screen and a metal ball on a 4 inch rod and presses it against the wall. The machine beeps and he removes it and wipes it off with a Clorox wipe from the tackle bix. He then heaves the bed back into place with a grunt.

He repeats the process everywhere in the room that furniture is up against the wall, at and under the sink, and in the empty closet. Each area gets its own swab, of which he seems to have an endless supply, and a poke from the device. Jun can start to pick up the faint chemical smell of whatever he is spraying. It isn't exactly caustic, but given her preference for fresh and natural, it offends her senses a little

With the swabs taken he is pushing his ten minute promise. His next task involves the smoke detectors. He scoots the step ladder noisily underneath the device, which is positioned above the door so it is out of sight for anyone outside the room. He produces a screwdriver from his pocket and fiddles with it for a moment. Next he produces a small vial from his pocket, about the size of a chapstick.

"Pardon all, but if it's working right, this things about to make some noise." Everyone hears a small hiss sound then an ear piercing chirp. The chirp repeats twice, pauses, then twice again, repeating this pattern for a few seconds while Lawrence fumbles a bit putting away the vial. Then he does something and the detector stops blaring. "Welp, I'm giving that thing the all clear. The mold stuff looks clear too, but they'll want the lab to verify everything. I think your room is clean of contamination miss. I'll get out of your way now."

Lawrence packs everything back up and is ready to go in just under his promises 10 minutes.

"Hmmm, well there wasnt a planned meeting exactly. But i could arrange it if you need to speak with those affected? If you want to stay in the temporary housing,
it is almost set up over at the psychology sleep labs. We have a room for each of you where they usually run sleep studies. Or we will have them shortly. Just waiting for that call. Nina was pretty adamant about going when we spoke an hour or so ago."

"I can come to the alternative housing, just to talk. From what I learned… I’m not the victim. Concetta is. Her and the others… it’s even possible Sia and others in single rooms had roommates, but don’t remember them.

"I’m hoping to talk to the girl Concetta met at the party. Sia’s making a sketch. Then we can perhaps find her, find out whether she remembers me roommate existed."

Jun is afraid to say too much now.

"I’m getting ahead o’ meself. There’s a lot to process… how about I freshen up, and you text me a time and place."

Jun thinks an RA would have her contact info on a list, but still, she offers Paul her cell phone number for convenience.

Returning to her room, locking and dead-bolting the door, Sia grabs a bottle of water out of the mini frig and sits down at her desk with her drawing supplies. She summons up her recent memories from her connection to the hair band and begins drawing out the blonde and the guy Concetta had interacted with at the party.

"Okay...? How is Sia making a sketch of a person she never saw who met a person who doesn't exist? Sia didn't speak up when I asked if anyone knew...Concetta or the other supposedly missing people."

"Do you know how police sketch artists work?" Jun pauses, but doesn’t actually wait for an answer. "Neither do I."

Ainsleigh returns to the dormitory, saying bye to Chloe when the two part ways at the staircase, and walks towards room 207.

Once she has the base of both sketches drawn out, Sia moves her chair over to the door leading into the hallway and uses it to add an extra barrier against unwanted intrusion, by wedging the back against the door knob. She then takes a long swallow of the water, pulls the desk about to her bed, sits down facing the desk, inserts her ear buds, pulls up and starts her playlist, and continues with the inking and stippling with her grey scale markers.

Paul and Lawrence turn toward the Southwest stairwell, the closest one, but then Paul taps Lawrence on the shoulder and points the other way. The pair change direction and go to the Northwest stairs instead.

After making their way down to the sixth floor, they knock on 605, Wallen's room.

"Hey Wallen, it is Paul. I have Lawrence from maintenance with me. We need to do those Health amd Safety checks i mentioned this morning. Shouldn't take but 10 minutes."