INTRO MINGLE

[dormheads]

week zero: mingle

remaining students: forty-two.

A buzzing alarm wakes you bright and early. You blink your eyes blearily, greeted by the sun's rays peeking through the blinds of a window. It's 7 AM, and it feels like you definitely went to bed way too late last night. Oh well, up and at 'em! Time to start your day! Except...

...this place looks unfamiliar. You're in a room with other people who are also waking up. Outside of the window is a large, sprawling school campus touched by the start of warm autumn colors. In the bathroom is--wow, another door through which are two more confused people in a similar room. Suite mates! In addition, if you go exploring within your dorm, you may find special access to a certain room. Though as you wander about, make sure you take a glance at the rules that are posted at each building.

Welcome to Wiwaldi Academy!

Outside on campus, the air is crisp. In the morning, your feet will crunch over a light frost and fallen leaves. The rest of the day is mild, but sweater and jackets may be needed in the evening and during the night. The sky is bright blue and empty except for an occasional stray cirrus cloud or two. It seems like fall is on the horizon.

🦋 ☀️ 🍁 ❄️

In each room, students will find their own laptops with a welcome screen:

Thank you for joining us at the beautiful campus of Wiwaldi Academy! All classes officially begin on Monday. Students are encouraged to enjoy leisure time on campus this weekend. Please be mindful as new additions to the campus are in construction, and these are off-limits to students until completion.

The icon in the top right corner corresponds to your dorm: Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter. Even though you are all sorted by a particular dorm, please don't hesitate to meet and mingle with one another! You all will have plenty of opportunity to do so on Saturday during the Sundae Orientation. An ice cream bar will be on the campus lawn between the dormitory buildings from 12PM onward, and everyone is invited to come meet and mingle while playing introductory games.

Don't forget to think about your EXTRA CREDIT! It's a chance for you to get ahead on your work. You wouldn't want anyone else stealing your extra credit for themselves, so keep all extra credit assignments under lock and key.

From all of us here at Wiwaldi Academy, we wish you great success on your future endeavors!

Signed,
Principal Bear

Near their desk is a backpack filled with the following:

- an acceptance letter (the envelope is clickable)
- school supplies (notebook, pen, highlighter, binder)
- a framed photograph of a man and his dog
- a smartphone
- a school jacket
- a personalized mug
- a little pack of konpeito
- a cashmere scarf
- one (1) voucher

On their smartphone, they'll find an email with the subject Extra Credit Assignment. The contents of the email provide the details of said assignment.

🦋 ☀️ 🍁 ❄️

Welcome to the Intro Mingle and the start of our game, everyone! Feel free to use the Saturday orientation as prompts for your top-levels. If you have any questions, you may use the Discord #questions-for-mods channel, or DM your mods (Dana, Francy, Anna, and Jan) directly. If you don't have all of us added, just let one of us know, and we'll create the mod DM for you.

A friendly reminder is that IC Profiles are not ICly unlocked yet. Please also stay tuned for Something Else on Sunday at 12 PM / 3 PM EST.

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Comments

[illuminance]

Oh. Demacia. My kingdom.

[goalsides]

Oh. [...oh, royalty...okay. this is maybe not the right assumption but it's the one he's taking now.] Guess that makes sense then.

[...and now he's even more curious?] What's it like?

[illuminance]

[ ... she smiles. ]

It's bright, and beautiful. The light shines on our lands, and our people take care of one another. The strong protect the weak, and the dark is kept at bay.

[goalsides]

[sort of sounds like a fairytale, but he doesn't say that. instead there's a brief smile.]

Sounds nice. A little different than where I'm from. [...] Do you ever get to go outside the walls though?

[illuminance]

Oh, yes. I travel beyond the walls frequently for my work with the Illuminators.

[goalsides]

[lux keeps saying words that keep making him want to ask questions. like okay, so she's from a kingdom, there's armor, there's a whole light theme going on here.]

So what you're saying is that being here is really, really different than your kingdom.

[illuminance]

Precisely.

... Though I think everyone is feeling just as in the dark, here.

[goalsides]

Yeah, maybe. But it makes it a little easier to ask questions. [common ground and all.]

Have you recognized anybody here?

[illuminance]

No. I don't think anyone from my home is here.

[goalsides]

Weird...[that's more mumbled than anything but he shakes his head.] It just makes you wonder how many worlds people come from and how we got here...and how many of them don't have phones.

[seriously who gave them phones. he just wants to talk.]

[illuminance]

Probably for the better.

[ ... ]

It feels as if half the people I've asked for help with it weren't familiar, themselves. [ which she thinks is a little bit funny, honestly. ]

[goalsides]

[...and yeah, this is where he grins a little with embarrassment.]

Yeah, well...this is a model that I've never seen before either. I've never had a touch screen. [learning...on the fly.]

[illuminance]

There are different kinds?

[ how do you make them do things if you can't touch the screen... ]

[goalsides]

Yeah. The kind we have fold in half, so you have to open them to get to the buttons to do anything. I don't really use mine that much though.

[but now he has this and admittedly it's very fascinating.]

[illuminance]

[ she looks down at her phone, squinting at it and trying to imagine it but foldable. ]

I guess that would make them easier to carry with you...

[goalsides]

Or just put it in your pocket. [taichi is unaware that womens clothing usually lacks pockets no matter what.]

If they gave all of us phones, they probably want a way to contact all of us at the same time and make it easier for us to message each other. Seems kinda weird if we're supposed to be at war or whatever.

[illuminance]

[ lux, wearing only armor over a skin-tight bodysuit: wtf are pockets... ]

... I wish they would hurry up and contact us, then, if that's what they gave them to us for.

[goalsides]

[there's a noise of agreement and also annoyance.]

I dunno. The last time this happened we didn't get answers for like a few weeks or something. [more...less...time was really weird and he has a general sense of it but not much.] But if classes start Monday they have to contact us before then.

[illuminance]

You've been through something like this before?

[goalsides]

Not the dorm war part, no. That one's new. But this isn't the first world I've been to without warning and without knowing why.

[illuminance]

[ is this just a thing that happens to people... ]

May I ask what happened last time?

[goalsides]

[well. about that.]

It's a pretty long story...[and also not really one he wants to go into right now!] But we got back home in the end.

[illuminance]

[ she doesn't mind. ]

Then we'll just have to hope this venture ends the same way!

[goalsides]

Yeah. It has to. [he refuses any other option. but...that line of thought is depressing, so he looks at lux's phone again.]

I can show you how to text if you want. Just to be ready for whenever they send their first message.

[illuminance]

That would be wonderful! I'd hate to be caught unprepared.