"Being weird, cubist and probably dangerous is their thing, is what I meant?"

"Yeah, maybe," he shrugs.

… Okay, well, Rachel shrugs too and then continues eating. And then she's done.

"I think I'm gonna go back to my room and keep reading the– binder thing," she says.

"Yeah, the binder thing. I have a meeting with my group in like half an hour, so, uh, good luck?"

"Thanks," she says, and then departs and goes to her room.

Her room is exactly as she left it!

So she continues to read through the binder.

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR GOVERNMENT!!

The unusual nature of the City of Angles means a more unusual approach to government. Like the old world America, we are a democracy — however, our branches of government differ.

• THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTATION!!
  • Immigration: Acclimation, Housing (if available), Job Placement (if available)
  • Growth: Geneological Studies, Census Taking, Sociological Data
  • Health: Psychological Services, Welfare & Insurance Systems
• THE DEPARTMENT OF RESOURCES!!
  • Economics: Financial management, fiscal policy
  • Acquisitions: Annexation & redistribution of newly arrived resources
  • Public Works: Power, Water, Communications
• THE DEPARTMENT OF SAFETY!!
  • Police: Law Enforcement
  • Justice: Courts, Legal Development
  • Security: Quarantine, Mapping
• Assorted cross-departmental task forces (Disease Control, First Action Response Team, etc.)

She is somewhat curious about the acquisitions section! Also the public works section. Also all of it, really, but she can guess how a lot of the other stuff works. Is there any more information about the individual sections?

Yes there is! She can find quite a bit of information on all of the items, in a very Excited!! And!! Not!! Information!! Dense!! Presentation!!

… She's not sure the acquisitions thing sounds quite as wonderful as it could, but she supposes they are in fact in some city that has only one-way travel to it, and they probably lack in various resources, so. That's. Okay. She supposes.

What time is it now? Does her schedule point to her having another meeting today or some other group activity or is she going to have to go look 'round manually to see if anyone's loitering and planning on chatting, or will she literally be in her room the whole time because everyone's too traumatized to talk?

There is nothing else in her schedule, today she was supposed to have a short introductory lesson before the more intensive course starting the next day. Whether she'll manually see if anyone's loitering or stay in her room is up to her, though.

She will in fact go look and see if anyone's loitering.

And where will she in fact go look?

Around the reception part, if there's seating there? And then over… poolwards?

Reception part has the receptionist. Poolwards has two people, not obviously hanging out with each other, looking kinda lost.

She will go up to one of them! Or if they're near each other, she will see if they possibly both want to talk to her at once.

They are not in fact near each other. One of them is a twenty-something man that's almost the stereotype of the nerd: thin, thick-rimmed glasses, combed hair, button-up shirt, a nervous look on his face. The other is an old lady drinking some tea, quietly.

… She thinks the nerdy guy is probably in more desperate need of some help, if he doesn't fright when she goes to talk to him. "Hi," she says, approaching.

He does startle, then looks at her. "Hi," he says uncertainly.

"I'm Rachel," she says. "Are you… uh, stupid question – how are you coping with all this?"

"okay."

"… Do you want to talk about it or something?" she asks.

"I don't... I don't know?"

"We could talk about something else for a bit? See if that… helps or something?"