[ AUDIENCE: ALPHINAUD ]

[dormheads]

Comments

[departea]

Luke and Chad told me about that, since they heard about it during trial.

[ chad and luke squinting as everyone talked about their apps in front of their salad ]

[arcsplainist]

Aye, it had come up. And here I was worried I would be asking you questions you've already been flooded with.

[departea]

Nope! So you can... ask away.

Although I'm not sure if I'll have a lot of answers.

[arcsplainist]

If I may speak plain, I could not expect you to.

[ He'll go ahead and place the document upon the tiki bar table for her to see. ]

We had been whisked away elsewhere entirely, stumbling upon these and half of a map only after we had made our escape. Why do you think that is?

[departea]

I don't think the map is that weird. You can probably get one of those at any petrol station.

[ she'll lean over to read it, frowning. ]

But this is... odd. I didn't even do a paper application, it's all electronic. So someone went through the effort to print this out, too...

[arcsplainist]

[ ... ye olde trying to understand that sentence... ]

And that someone wanted us to find these. This may be forward of me, but it does leave the impression that the dormitory leaders have something to hide.

[departea]

It's fairly forward, yeah. And rather untrue.

I have no idea what any of the scribblings are about. It doesn't even seem to know how many siblings I've got.

[arcsplainist]

[ ... huh? ]

There is no truth to them?

[departea]

No.

[ she points at where it says 'death experience' ]

I've had a near death experience, sure. But this is an odd way to phrase it. And I didn't write about it in my school application.

[arcsplainist]

[ He thinks for a long moment. ]

'Tis not as though any of this would damage your good image, either. It makes little sense to make such things up.

[departea]

I also want to know how they even got copies of these.

We're really not joking when we say applications aren't accessible to those outside the admissions office, even you're own.

[arcsplainist]

Many impossibilities have already happened, Sally. Nevertheless, it still does not bode well that it happened at all.

[departea]

No...

And you guys did nothing differently that day?

[arcsplainist]

Insofar that I am aware.

I... only recall going about my business, only to appear before a home, our school grounds nowhere in sight. And that is where it began.

[departea]

What is this, an extreme kidnapping?

[ what ]

[arcsplainist]

"A kidnapping within a kidnapping", as another put it. Even stranger, it felt as though we were gone for days, but upon our return, only mere hours had passed.

[departea]

Is that so...?

Maybe you were drugged with something.

[arcsplainist]

Drugged? You could not possibly mean that.

[departea]

I'm trying to think of a reasonable explanation here.

I know that when the school pulls you from where you're from, time stops. Maybe the opposite happened?

[arcsplainist]

Hm... Do you suspect we were pulled to a different world?

[departea]

If not that, then maybe something similar... but it's difficult to say for sure.

[arcsplainist]

It would be a plausible explanation, as the flow of time 'twixt worlds is an ever fluctuating thing... but you are right. It is impossible to say, as we do not know the manner which we were brought there.

[departea]

And the only way to know for sure is... something I'd prefer not to happen again.

[ she

doesn't want more people to get kidnapped to who knows where? ]

[arcsplainist]

Quite. It... was truly awful—I can only pray others will never have to experience what we had, and I do not feel doing so is worth discovering the hows.

[departea]

... I'm sorry. For whatever it was. I won't make you talk about it.

[ but she'll pat his shoulder again. ]