She sees her neighborhood. It's entirely normal, with absolutely nothing amiss, except for the fact that nothing is moving. There's a car there, if she squints she can even make out the driver, and it's not moving. There's a bird in the air, also frozen. The clouds are still in the sky... but they're very still in the sky.

Nothing's moving.

Whaaaaat.

Okay. Uh. Sure. This is… a thing.

She gets up from her chair, bringing her phone and headphones with her – she has seen movies, and for all she knows this might be important. She doesn't care that she might be hallucinating or dreaming, she would rather be doing that and feel slightly silly but also be genre savvy rather than potentially get hurt when she could have done better!

… Kinda leaping to conclusions here, sorta, but there are frozen things outside her house! This is not a normal occurrence.

Then she walks over to her door and opens it, really hoping that her hallway still doesn't contain some horrible monster.

It doesn't contain some horrible monster! Mostly because the place on the other side of her door is not, in fact, her hallway. It's a small office with a computer from the nineties and a bunch of books on psychology on the shelves. There's a window behind the desk where the computer is, and no other door visible.

… Oh. Of course. Why should she expect that the rest of her house is here just because the outside of her house is here. That would be silly.

She looks around the room anyway, and sees if there's anything stupidly incongruous outside the window. Or anything of interest. Or anything not of interest, even.

Nothing stupidly incongruous outside the window. A fire escape, a city that is not her city on the other side, one that's not frozen.

...well, it's not frozen because there aren't any people or cars or birds or anything there. It's also dusk.

… Okay.

She thinks she'll just… go back to her window and open it and look outside, to see whether the rest of her house is visible from that side.

It's... not, really. With her window open, she can now see that the outside of her house is miniature. The car is actually much closer than it looked before, she could scoop it up if she propped herself on something. The sky is optical illusion, and the other buildings are papier maché.

Seriously.

Of course it is.

This all makes so much sense.

Anyway. She currently seems to have a choice between two windows if she wishes to leave her house, one of which leads out to a small, weird box, so she decides to head over to the other window. Does that look more unreal now, as though it might collapse on her or something, or can she just open the window and get out?

She can just open the window and get out, yep.

Well, first, she'll actually be smart and make sure she's prepared for some treacherous adventure in a weird world – what's the weather like? Does she need to fetch a sweater or coat or something?

There... is not a weather to speak of. Everything's still and the same comfortable temperature and there's absolutely no wind.

Oookay. She will go fetch a hoodie off her chair, in that case, and… is there anything else she can access easily that might be of use?

She's got her phone, headphones, self, clothes, hoodie… And she's going out into some weird, potentially horribly treacherous place. She can't think of anything obvious that she should grab before she goes…

Perhaps she should, like, just go around taking photos, so she can make her way back. That might be a good idea.

She decides to do as such. Out the window and down the fire escape she goes.

There is: a street.

The street is empty of cars and people, but it has buildings on both sides, and stretches on into the distance in both directions, far beyond what she can see.

Ooh, fun. Anything interesting either way, or does she get to pick which way to go, possibly leading to her tragic defeat at the hands of some evil foe because she chose left over right (or vice versa)?

There are different buildings either way but no other obvious differences.

Well! That's nice and helpful of this thing.

She takes a photo of either way but ultimately decides to turn left, because she's right-handed and she doesn't feel left gets enough attention paid to it.

(Yes, it was indeed an arbitrary choice. When she inevitably gets attacked by a monster, all the people watching the horror film or whatever can scream at her for picking the wrong direction; she doesn't care.)

There are: buildings. Several of them, variously incongruous, with tall glossy office buildings side-by-side with an empty lot surrounded by a spiked fence, across the street from an old-fashioned bakery, in very different styles and colors.

Still no people? What's the office like – does the fence have an open gate so she can go in and have a quick look around or something?

It's rather curious that they're such different styles, though.

The office building's glossy, with mirrored windows, and the fence does not have an open gate.

Ugh. Well, she's not sure how well she'd scale a fence – especially since it's spiked and therefore just a tad hazardous, so she thinks she'll go look at the bakery quickly. Any fresh goods, open sacks of flour, price tags? Maybe a machine or two because the façade of the building is actually just misleading?

The window shows a very normal-looking bakery, with perfectly fresh and tasty-looking baked goods. It just so happens to be completely devoid of human life.

The sign says 'Open,' though.

Okay, well, she'll keep this place in mind for later if she finds herself starving in this dream, but for now she'll continue along the street, taking photos to keep track of where she's going.

She doesn't expect it to get to being hungry, though – she'll probably find some weird talkative not-person or an evil monster first.

No weird talkative not-people or evil monsters yet. Just more buildings.

Well then she'll continue to walk.

If she loses the weird ominous feeling, she might even put an earphone in, but since it doesn't seem to be abating yet, she'll hold off on that.

It might not abate for a while. Especially when she notices, in the distance, an office building suspiciously similar to the one she passed.

… And if she gets closer, how suspiciously similar is it? The buildings around it, too – are they the same as before?

Yeah... yeah, pretty suspiciously similar. One might be tempted to call them "identical."

… Then if she continues in a similar direction to how she went before, does she, perhaps, come across the same tower again?

Yeah. Yeah, she does.

… And if she retraces her steps from this tower back along the route that previously led to the office with the door to her room, are said office and her room still there?

It does take exactly as much time as it did the first time around, she's been walking for a while, but eventually yes, it's there.

Yeah, she expected as much.

She decides to continue exploring, maybe going into a few buildings, since she seems to be trapped in a fixed area – even if it is rather huge. Perhaps she'll go back to that bakery.

The bakery is there, waiting for her, with tasty-looking goods visible through the window.

Are there any bags in which to place said tasty-looking goods? So she can grab some now and continue walking around?

She's not planning on eating them yet – she'll need to get a bit more than slightly peckish to decide to eat the mysterious food – but it'd be useful to have them around, especially if this place has some sort of hidden ways in which it reacts to people. For all she knows, the bakery will disappear in an hour, never to be seen again.

There might be, behind the counter, but they're not visible from the outside.

Well, she will go into the store and look for some bags, then.

And hopefully not be eaten by some lovely monster.

The inside of the bakery is—different. More specifically, it is not the inside of a bakery: it is a dining room, with rather expensive flatware and lots of freshly-prepared food served on the table. Actually, there's freshly-prepared food on the floor, and on the chairs, too. There's a lot of food.

… Is there enough space on the floor that she can safely walk around without getting food on her shoes? She'd really rather not get food on her shoes.

Yep.

Oh, wonderful.

Is it literally just food everywhere in this room? Even if she checks under the tables? And are there any doors that she could go through, perhaps to explore some sort of fun labyrinth?

She's really quite amazed by this place. If it weren't for the ominous feeling, it'd be quite enjoyable just exploring it.

It really is everything you'd expect of a fancy dining room, plus much more food than that. And across the room from her is, yes, another door.

Then she will go over to the door and open it.

A meat-packing facility! Without any meat. Or... any anything, really, other than the underlying structure.

Also the floor is lava. Literally. It is. Made of lava.

Okay, wow no. She backs away from the room rather quickly – lava is hot, in case people didn't know.

What the hell is this place?

Now that she backed away, it is a dining room.

A dining room with a stupid amount of food and a door attached to a building with lava for a floor. Yes.

She will just retrace her steps, grab some food if it looks non-crumbly and potentially like she can hold it without making a mess (like some bread, possibly), and then walk out of the building and select another one. The bakery was apparently not a good idea.

Unfortunately the door that ought to lead outside now leads to a school cafeteria, with lunch trays in the open, on the floor, scattered about as if someone had looted the place.

Oh.

Well. Hopefully she won't need to get back to her bedroom anytime soon.

She walks around the cafeteria, checking to see if that's the only alteration to this place – can she get into the kitchens that are presumably attached to the cafeteria? Are there any other doors here?

There are doors to what's presumably the kitchen, and she's coming from a door that might normally lead to a hallway.

… You know, she might just quickly re-open that door to see if it returns where she expects it to go, at least right now. Does it?

Yup, still the dining room.

Okay, and what's through the door to the kitchen? She's prepared to jump back if it's something horrific or dangerous.

Just a regular school kitchen, completely looted of anything useful.

… Is there another door in the kitchen? And what's out the windows of the cafeteria? Do they open, would it be safe for her to leave through them?

There are in fact two other doors in the kitchen: one recognizably leads to a pantry, the other apparently leads outside. As for the cafeteria's windows, they seem to be welded shut.

Okay, well, she will go out the door that leads outside, since that seems to be her only exit route right now.

It's almost like this place might be trying to lead her somewhere. She's really not sure she likes that.

Wherever it's trying to lead her is not, apparently, outside. It's actually a surgical operation theater, deprived of anything that could be carried by a single person. There's also a... ticking sound... coming from somewhere.

… Is it a clock? Is it a bomb? Is it a clock attached to a bomb? Is it an evil clockwork monster?

She will slowly walk in the direction of the ticking sound if it is not yet evident. She's sort of curious, despite knowing this is the point in the story where everybody shouts for her not to find the source of the ticking.

That'd be all fine and dandy if the ticking sound had a source. As it is, it seems to be coming from... nowhere, everywhere. The sound doesn't change at all, no matter where she's standing. Her brain is trying to interpret it as being very far away in whatever direction she's looking, but this probably only means it's being received simultaneously and equally by both ears.

Okay, well, in that case she shall attempt to ignore it. Any other doors in this room?

Yeah, two more doors out.

She picks the one on her left! She is, again, prepared to jump back if there is lava or something.

A house's hallway, the walls covered in photographs of various different families from various different points in time. There are five doors, not including the one she's coming from, and regular house hallway decoration: a couple of tables, paintings, a partially-eaten corpse, a chair...

There's also someone else there! At the end of the hallway, a child, sex indeterminate. It doesn't have the right number of arms and legs and eyes and noses and teeth and heads, except she can't really determine what number of those it actually has. A spatial distortion effect surrounds it, making it impossible to comprehend what's there; the child is upside down at the same time as it's not, and there are seven different facial expressions on its face simultaneously. Looking at it is like looking at a kaleidoscope, if kaleidoscopes had been made by creatures living in nineteen-dimensional space.

Also the child is screaming and is made of fire. It looks at her and screams some more.

She thinks… she will slowly back away from the scary monster.

She's really not sure that this is the best course of action, especially since it seems like a child, but it seems at least a little twisted. Possibly or probably dangerous. Especially because it is made of fire and screaming.

Maybe slowly backing away from the scary monster is not the best idea, because it flickers and is now halfway across the hallway, without having crossed the intervening space.

And still screaming.

Running! Turning and running it is, attempting to make as little noise as possible.

And being totally terrified.

Totally terrified is, probably, a reasonable thing to be. Especially when the door catches fire.

Not towards that door then.

She runs towards one of the other— Wait, nope, there's only one other door that doesn't contain fire or the monster child. She runs towards that one.

Please say it's not as bad as the monster or the fire.

The other door opens to a room identical to the one she just left! Except it's upside down.

And the fire child is now in the same room as she is again, having burnt down the door and flickered into it.

And so it has doors in similar places that she can presumably run to and open?

Please?

She could, except since the place is upside down if she walks in she's gonna be walking on the ceiling and won't be level with them.

How tall is the room? She'd expect maybe a foot or two difference in height, c'mon!

More like four or five.

So she's trapped. Unless she can… can she climb onto them? Her upper body strength isn't super amazing, but she might be able to pull herself onto—

Yeah, no, that wouldn't work.

She turns around to face the monster, her expression becoming quite downcast.

"Why are you upside down?" a boy's voice comes from behind her.

And suddenly gravity's reversed.

Well then, she's just going to fall, isn't she?

She'll try to duck her head so she doesn't hit it too badly.

A boy catches her!

"Hi," says the same voice that asked about her being upside down.

She tries to get away from him, not feeling the slightest bit comfortable being caught by him, no offense. She looks a bit scared, really.

He lets her go, and looks up. There is a kid on fire there.

"There is a kid on fire there," he points out.

"Yes there is and I was trying to get away from it and then this room was upside-down and what is this place I was okay until the lava and then the fire—" she babbles, then cuts herself off, noticing what she's doing and instead just backing away from the two strange things.

Well, the boy doesn't look particularly strange. Just like a boy.

"Come, if we run away for long enough and hide the kid'll forget about us." He takes her hand and starts pulling her toward one of the doors.

But he's a stranger, so she would seriously rather he not touch her so she pulls her hand away.

She does, however, follow him. Leaving a bit of distance between them.

He doesn't seem bothered by this.

On the other side of the door he leads her through is a movie theater, and he continues walking briskly and leading her wherever.

She continues to follow, trying to keep track of where she's going.

She's not sure she likes this dream.

It's pretty hard to keep track. The boy leads her left, right, up, left, left, down, left, right, right, right, right, right, right again, until they reach a kid's bedroom. "Under the bed!" he says.

She… is not super happy about this but does in fact get under the bed.

He puts a finger on his lips in a 'shh' gesture, and waits.

… Yeah, she was already going to be sh. She's terrified of the monster, she's not gonna go telling it where she is.

Waiting, waiting, waiting.

She waits.

Quietly.

Not sobbing, because that would be a noise.

The kid made of fire enters the bedroom.

She still does not scream.

It would be a worse idea to scream than to just crouch here, prone and trembling, so she does not scream.

The kid looks around, then exits the bedroom.

… Rachel's just gonna wait here until told to do otherwise.

A while still.

And then: "Okay, we can get out."

"… Are you sure?" she asks, still sounding a bit terrified.

"Yeah. Kid'll be distracted now, forgot about us."

Then she'll get out from under the bed and stand up.

"… So what the hell is this place?"

He tilts his head. "It's the Sideways. Didn't you notice the weird rooms and geometry?"

"I noticed the weird papier mâché thing or whatever that was outside my bedroom window showing the street outside? And I have no idea what the Sideways is – care to explain?"

She might be moving from frightened terror to frightened babbling again.

"...oh you're an import. Yikes. Um. You're not on Earth anymore. Welcome to the City of Angles, this is the Sideways, a space between spaces, and not where most people live. Uh, I should probably take you to the city proper so the Department of Orientation can do whatever it does to help imports."

"Oh, lovely, so this might not just be a dream? How brilliant I brought my phone and earphones with me, then, because I seem to have lost my house when I went into a dining room and the door didn't go back out onto the street behind me."

"I'm pretty sure it's not a dream, and you probably shouldn't get back to your room. I'm sorry."

"… Is there a particular reason?"

"Why you shouldn't get back to your room? Sure; it's in the Sideways. It'll get twisted and weird and Picassos are going to show up all the time."

"… Oh, you mean, don't go back there and stay long term? Wait, what sorts of ways does it get twisted – like the rest of this place?"

"Yeah, Euclidean geometry is not a thing that's super respected, here."

"… So you just mean, like, physically? Because some of those rooms definitely didn't seem like they were twisted geometrically, just like they were… weird alterations."

"What do you mean?"

"There was a room with lava for a floor. And a dining room with lots more food… everywhere."

"Yeah, we also took six consecutive rights and somehow did not end up where we started, and the room I found you in had weird gravity, and we passed a couple of rooms where I'm pretty sure I saw ourselves across the hall, so..."

"… Yeah, I wasn't contradicting you on the geometrical twisting? It's just, I asked you what was being twisted, you mentioned that it doesn't obey typical geometry, and then I was clarifying if that was the only way that my room would be twisted. I mean, I don't know how the hell my room got here nor whether it would obey the same rules as the other buildings here…"

"Oh! Okay, no, not the only way, it can totally be twisted in other ways, like maybe your computer would become a very big computer-shaped bird of prey, or your bed could become a stack of books about sleeping disorders..."

"I have no idea how that first thing would work. Could possibly work. Unless the computer-bird also got wings and you were being loose about 'bird of prey'. But anyway, how do we get out of here? I think you said that was possible?"

"You don't need to know how it'd work, this is the Sideways, things don't need to make sense. Anyway, yeah, possible to get out, we just need to find an exit!"

"Things… kinda need to make sense if you're going to start labeling them with words such as 'bird of prey' and 'computer' which are at least somewhat mutually exclusive, but sure." She rolls her eyes. "Do you have something more specific in mind than just stumbling around until we fall out of the Sideways and into the Normalways or whatever?"

"...you'd know what I mean if you'd seen one. They can totally not make sense and still be called bird of prey computer." He shrugs. "Anyway, yes, I do, stumbling until we fall out would be very counterproductive and probably get us killed. We need to find shallower places and follow them until we reach an exit."

"This is– metaphorically shallower, right? And should we maybe get going?"

"Uh... Metaphorically in the sense that the Sideways is a huge metaphor, sure," he shrugs. "And yeah, let's go."

He leads her out of the bedroom and looks in both directions of the hallway outside. No Picassos in sight. He saunters off in the direction they didn't come from.

She follows.

"… Funny, I wouldn't have expected a metaphor to feel so substantial."

"Most imports wouldn't have," he agrees. "Actually, even most mappers don't." The next room they visit is a pretty ordinary dentist's office, with instruments on display. The boy opens a door that ought to lead to some storage closet and instead finds a hallway from an apartment building, with several doors and an elevator at the end. He slows down and hmms softly, tapping his lips as he studies the doors. "I'm Sadde, by the way. What's your name?" 

"I'm Jessica," she says, smiling at him. "This place is really weird, though – do you know anything about how or why I got 'imported'?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, it's just a thing that happens, the City imports buildings and all the people in them. Usually not into the Sideways, though. ...at least I think. For all I know ninety percent of imports could be coming to the Sideways but they die too soon after to tell their story and are never found... But surely more people would've run into the bodies by now if that were the case, never mind." He reaches one door that's exactly the same as all other doors, and knocks on it. Seemingly satisfied, he tries to open it, and frowns when he finds it locked.

"Lovely," she says, and then frowns when he frowns. "What's wrong? Like, presumably that the door is locked, but why do you not expect it to be locked, I mean."

"Doors aren't usually locked in the Sideways. And this is the right door. Oh, what's that?" he asks, looking at some point behind Rachel.

She turns around to look at whatever that is, moving over to the side of the hallway so she can keep him in her peripheral vision.

And the door clicks open! Sadde's holding lockpicking materials in his hand, which he... surely took from his pockets, yes?

"Ta-da!"

She looks back over at him. "I didn't realize you had a lockpick," she says.

Bad feelings. Bad feelings abound.

"You can't walk around in the Sideways without this kind of thing," he assures her, and opens the door.

(Did the doorknob change? Surely not.)

On the other side is a regular-looking apartment with regular-looking furniture and regular-looking rooms. Sadde goes check a room that proves to be the kitchen and says, "Ooh, good, there's food here, I'm kinda peckish."

"Cool," she says. "I'm not hungry right now."

Rachel reminds herself that she needs to smile normally. She's slightly stressed on account of being an import, so that gives her some leeway, but she is totally fine.

Sadde himself looks absolutely at ease. He starts making himself a sandwich.

Rachel looks at ease too! She's totally at ease. Outwardly. Mostly.

She'll just lean against a wall, making sure to keep Sadde in her line of sight.

Om nom!

She continues to wait.

She might get out her phone and see about pretending to read something, like a book, but she'll probably still keep mostly focused on him.

Then he's done eating!

"Okay, so, there's a trick to this. The deeper you are in the Sideways, the weirder it gets. So, the more normal stuff is, the closer you are to the surface. An apartment coming from an apartment building's hallway is good! But it never gets completely normal, and if everything's too normal for too long you should suspect it's actually not normal at all."

"Okay, but if everything looks super normal, what kinds of not normal is it actually? Just, the fact it doesn't fit in with the Sideways as it should be, so it's therefore not normal by virtue of that alone, or does it have hidden not-normal properties?"

"Usually hidden not-normal properties that aren't readily apparent." He starts exploring the other rooms of the apartment.

"… Does the other option seriously count as being not normal, because really, it seems like it's not actually hazardous to be in a place that's too normal unless it does something weird like freezing time to keep things 'normal', but then I don't consider that normal."

She realizes how she just phrased it and then clarifies, "Anyway, I realize that my definition of normal isn't necessarily what this place uses."

"I didn't understand much of what you said," he calls from within a bedroom. "I—ooh, okay, fire station, this is a nice change, come on."

"Oookay," she says, going into the bedroom and following him.

"I mean, in what ways might they not be normal if they don't have the hidden not-normal properties."

"When a bathroom door opens into an empty fire station, I'd call that not-normal," he shrugs. "The gravity thing earlier was not-normal. Sometimes places are covered in gore for no apparent reason. Or the floor is made of lava, that's a personal favorite."

Looking around the fire station woo.

"Yyyup, I already encountered a room with a floor of lava, think I told you about that," she says, then looks around the fire station a little, mostly following and keeping an eye on the slightly weird stranger.

"Did you? I suppose you might have."

The slightly weird stranger looks very interested in the fire station!

How wonderful.

"Are you looking for anything in particular?"

"Yeah!"

"Care to elaborate?"

"Trying to find places that are normal. Like, things you'd expect to see in a fire station, especially rooms that ought to connect where they do."

"… This sounds like it's gonna take a while if we go one direction and have to keep checking that we're going 'shallower' by doing a probably-not-too-concrete check of how 'normal' a place is."

"It could take a while," he admits, "but I'm good at this. Aha." He opens a door that leads to a stairwell.

"Is there any particular reason that a stairwell is a good sign?"

"It's where I'd expect a stairwell to be!" he says, and climbs up.

She follows him up.

There is: the second story of a fire station!

"Okay, now here there'll be the locker room... Yes!"

"Okay, so, is this just good because we're in a normal part, so we're closer to finding how to get out? Or is this good because fire station locker rooms automatically have exits or something?"

"The former, but I think this particular locker room probably has an exit. Help me find it."

And then he does pretty much the opposite of looking, and starts casually wandering about, not paying attention where he's looking.

"… Sure," she says, going ahead and looking around for some portal or something. "What does it look like? Weird tear in midair, weird shimmering portal, black blob, maybe a hovering arrow with a label saying 'exit'?"

"Oh, no. You know when you're looking at something and then you notice a thing from the corner of your eyes and when you turn to look there's nothing there? That's what it looks like."

"I've got to say I haven't really encountered that much, if like, ever? But okay, thing at the corner of my eye that isn't there when I look at it, sure."

"Yep! It helps if you're not really looking at where you're looking so more stuff can get your attention when it's weird."

He continues walking around—it's a rather extensive locker room, and oughtn't have fit in that fire station—somewhat aimlessly and slowly.

Rachel will try to do likewise, also keeping her eye on Sadde… out of the corner of her eye.

Perhaps she'll notice something. She doesn't know.

Sadde continues behaving... well, like he's been.

Perhaps she'll notice a thing out of the corner of her eye that looks like an exit?

This might take a while.

It might! Sadde doesn't seem to mind, though, and even hums happily under his breath.

She doesn't hum. She does continue looking.

...slight movement just over there...

… And if she looks directly at it, does it disappear?

"I think I saw something," she tells Sadde.

Yes it does!

"Ooh! Where?"

"Well, it was approximately here," she says, pointing off in the direction she saw it.

She turns away from it to try to put that area in her peripheral vision again, also keeping Sadde visible. Does it reappear?

Yup!

"Yeah, that way," she says, continuing to point at it.

So he goes that way, straight into a wall—

—and vanishes.

Oh, well, of course he does, why would the doorway be obvious.

She walks up to the same point on the wall, tentatively, and tries to walk through it.

And Sadde's waiting for her there! They're behind a shopping mall in what looks like a nice, expensive suburban area.

"Welcome to the Suburbs!"

Okay, well, walking not quite through a wall: weird.

"Cool," she says, looking around. Still keeping Sadde in her line of sight, mostly.

"We'll need to find someone to take us to the City proper for orientation, though, it'd be a long hike and we'd probably end up lost forever."

"Yeah, okay, I'd also vote in favor of not getting lost forever." 

"Getting lost forever is an operational risk of living in the City," he shrugs. "It's why most people are terrified of going anywhere. This looks like a mall, maybe we can find an officer and report the Sideways entrance and you."

"Okay," she says, following him if he starts to move. "Anything I should know about this city? The life, the people, the government? … And do people get 'imported' from all over the world, or what?"

"Only the United States, so far." He starts leading her into the mall. "And... there's a lot you should know about the City, and I couldn't hope to fill you in on everything by memory. Um, the government has three main Departments? The Department of Orientation, the Department of Safety, and the Department of Resources. First deals with imports, second deals with Picassos and Sideways stuff, Resources deals with making sure everyone has basic things like food."

"… Picassos? I think you mentioned them before but didn't specify – are they the weird monsters like that enflamed kid?"

"Yeah. They distort space around them and look like they're cubist paintings, with many pieces in many different places that only have a general impression of having a shape. You can get quite the headache trying to understand what you're seeing."

"The art movement?" She nods.

"Yeah, the art movement. It's really—freaky. And here's a security officer, hi Mr. Officer."

"Good afternoon," he replies bemusedly.

"So, my friend here just got imported into the Sideways and I ran into her there and we just left. By the way, there's a Sideways entrance behind this mall."

The officer goes white and his mouth moves a bit, silently, like a fish out of water. Then he snaps his jaw shut and says, "Stay right here, I'm calling the DoO and the DoS."

"Will do."

Rachel turns to Sadde. "… He looked worried, should I be worried or something?"

"Oh, he probably thinks we might be infected with cubism. Plus the Sideways is terrifying and having an entrance right behind a shopping mall is bad for business and kinda scary."

"… Infected with cubism? I don't think you, y'know, mentioned this at any point as a risk, nor do I know what cubism even is?"

"Cubism is the name of the thing Picassos have. If you get too close to one of them you risk going cubist yourself, and buildings can go cubist sometimes and then it's like a piece of the Sideways in the city."

"Ah," she says. "But isn't it pretty obvious that we're not Picassos? Or is it something that stays dormant for a while and you then suddenly come down with symptoms and they have to quarantine a whole section of the city, maybe put practically everywhere on lockdown, because someone might have possibly spread it anywhere?"

"The second thing. Like, the symptoms don't usually take a long time to appear, but they may not be totally obvious all the time, and only the DoS is prepared to deal with them."

"Ah," she says. "So, it's possible that I'm infected with cubism? … Does that mean it's possible you're infected or that he's now infected, too?"

"No one knows enough about it to guess at that," he shrugs. "But I've been around the Sideways enough that I'd know if I were infected. I think."

She nods.

An announcement cuts through the shopping mall: "A potential Picasso threat has been detected. This is an evacuation call. Please proceed to the exit in an orderly fashion according to the drills. A potential Picasso threat has been detected..."

"Ooh, looks like the DoS is here."

"Wonderful," she says, sighing.

A man in a suit approaches them, flanked by two officers holding flamethrowers.

"Are you two the ones who got imported into the Sideways?"

"Uh," says Rachel, eyeing the flamethrowers. "Are those really necessary?"

"Standard procedure," Sadde says. The officers don't react. "Given the unstable nature of Picassos, it's really the only way to get rid of 'em. And she was the one who got imported, I'm a native."

"And what were you doing in the Sideways, young man?"

He opens his mouth, then closes it, and furrows his brows in concentration. What was he doing in the Sideways?

"Hi there," she says, smiling a bit pointedly. "I'm new. I have no idea about any of this, but apparently I just got 'imported', I found him, and then he led me here to be processed by something in the city. Any chance I could get more of an explanation than… well, that?"

"The Department of Orientation will take care of you. Well?" he asks, looking at Sadde, who shrugs helplessly. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know what I was doing in the Sideways."

"...and you just happened to run into this young lady and find your way out on your own?"

"Yep."

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"Have any family?"

"Dead."

"In the Sideways." It's not a question.

"Yes."

"I believe you two should come with me."

Still new. Still has no idea what's going on. It's hardly like she's going to say, 'no, I'd rather not go into the city to talk to the governmental organization'.

"Okay," she says, looking at them a bit tiredly.

One of the flamethrower-wielding officers walks behind the two and the other stays in front of them, and the suited man starts leading them out of the mall. "I'm Mr. Stevens. Can you two show me the entrance to the Sideways?"

"Sure, that a-way," Sadde says, pointing.

Outside the mall there are two large black trucks with the initials D.o.S. painted white on the side and six other officers.

Well, since Sadde seems to have already pointed out where it is, Rachel doesn't have to.

… The whole security thing is a little bit– over the top? Maybe?

After the location has been appropriately marked, the two of them are separated and each is sent in the back of a different truck, with four officers accompanying them.

… Okaaaay.

And are any of these officers up to smalltalk? You know, to make the whole importation process seem less like she's going to be convicted for some horrible offense?

Not really. They're quiet and at attention and look like they're one second away from using their flamethrowers even with their colleagues there.

Oh.

She'll just sit here quietly then.

There are, at least, windows. The ones on either side of the truck are painted over, but the ones behind and in front of it are clear. So she'll be able to see it when the nice suburban area suddenly and without warning shifts into a maze of a city.

And she will… continue to sit there quietly.

And eventually, after a very large number of sharp turns, zigzagging paths, and even looping ways, they pull over. The back of the truck is opened and she's asked to leave it.

She gets out and looks around, but doesn't dawdle if they in fact want her to hurry up into some horrible building for interrogation.

Not that she expects them to, of course, no, they seem like such a friendly governmental organization so far.

She is in fact taken into a building, with all the typical interrogation building things, like very well-lit but otherwise featureless hallways, and several identical doors. In fact, she's shown into one of them to a room with two chairs and a table. They're not particularly brusque or rude, they don't even touch her.

Okay. She'll go in and sit down.

And they'll leave her there.

… Did they take her phone? Because she has her phone on her if they didn't take that.

They didn't take anything! But there's no signal there.

That's fine – she wouldn't expect signal on account of not being in a regular city in regular America.

She's just planning on playing a game.

If they take long enough, she might put in her earphones and listen to some music. It's not her fault she was transported here.

Yup, they'll take long enough.

Music. Games. Not worrying about them or the weird city.

You know, she's actually calmer than she would have expected.

No she's not.

She hops out of her seat and moves over to the corner of the room, somewhat unsure about why that seat feels unsafe.

Is it better over here?

Nope, not particularly.

What about in another corner? Or if she crouches down, or if she gets under the table, or something?

And how bad is the lack of safety?

Not quite a lack of safety, and not too bad. Just something... reminiscent of the Sideways.

… Does this room have the typical interrogation-room mirror-window thing?

Nope. Not that she can see, anyway. Just featureless white walls and the light and the chairs and the table.

She thinks she'll just… stand up by the chair, then. So she can sit down if she wants, but she can also run to the side if she gets some sort of warning of further impending doom.

No impending doom. Just... Sideways. Sidewaysy. Sidewaysier...

The door opens. A smiling man walks through, and raises his eyebrows upon seeing her. "Hello. Have I made you wait too long, Ms...?"

"I'm sorry, who are you?" she asks, trying not to seem too disturbed.

"I'm Officer Green, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm very sorry for taking this long to come. We've observed you, and determined you seem to show no signs of early-onset cubism, so we'll be releasing you to the Department of Orientation for your, well, orientation." He continues smiling.

And she continues feeling Sidewaysy.

If she takes a step towards him, does it feel more Sidewaysy?

Yep.

"Okay," she says. "And is there anything important I need to know for this?"

How much more Sidewaysy does it feel when she gets closer? And if she gets closer again, does it happen yet again? What if she walks sideways around her chair instead, just to make sure it's not some other direction thataway-ish?

He will eye her confusedly when she starts moving apparently at random, and it is consistently Sidewaysier when she's closer to him, but doesn't seem to get as Sidewaysy as the Sideways. "Not really. We'll just take you to one of the D.o.O. buildings and you'll watch classes and—how old are you?"

It's not at random. She was the other side of her chair from him, she walked towards him, she moved sideways to go around it, and then she continued to walk towards him again.

Admittedly, it was a bit… stilted while she processed the weird feeling… but still, not random.

"Eighteen," she says. "… Why? Checking if I'm a minor, or…?"

"Yes, if you were a minor the Department would place you with a foster family, but given that you're not, you will instead be able to apply for job placement."

"… I assume I'll be told more about the sorts of jobs while I'm at the initiation thing?"

She's a bit hesitant to walk closer to him, but she does.

Sidewaysier!

"Yes, you will. I still haven't caught your name...?"

"… Is this just for legal documents, or what?" she asks, trying not to sound too suspicious.

Honestly, she must sound like some sort of convict or something.

He shrugs. "Just politeness. You'll have to fill out a form later at the D.o.O. building. It's okay if you don't want to tell me." And he gestures outside, and starts leading the way out.

Yeah, no, she doesn't want to tell the creepy guy, sorry.

Outside she goes.

He leads her to a black D.o.S. car, this time without all the burly officers.

Sadde's nowhere in sight.

… Perhaps he's just already been processed? Or he's just taking a little while longer?

Either way, he's not anywhere around, and the car starts driving away without waiting for him.

She'll just wait in it patiently, then. With her phone and earphones and all.

She really doesn't have much on her, does she.

Apparently not!

And eventually she'll arrive at the Seaside Sandy Shores Motel, not seaside at all, and apparently taken by the City in the 60s and deemed to fit among towering brick structures taken from an inner city slum. The driver tells her to tell her story to the receptionist and drives off without waiting to see whether she'll walk in or what.

… How wonderful.

She goes inside and sees what's there. Is there a receptionist, as to be expected? Does the receptionist give her the horribly creepy vibe?

Yep, a receptionist! No horribly creepy vibe. No vibes, really, except for bored and tired.

Then she goes up to her, says hi, explains that she's a new arrival, and tells her story! Just thrilling, isn't it. (No.)

The bored lady asks for her full name, as well as full names of immediate family members, and details such as medical or psychological needs and requirements, and what her occupation is.

… The lady can indeed have Rachel's full name, since this society doesn't seem super evil yet. Full names of immediate family members, those too, okay.

As to medical and psychological needs and requirements, she has none that are relevant, as far as she knows.

Occupation… well, it was school. She doesn't know what it is now.

Does she have any relevant occupational skills that might direct the job placement people?

… High school education, pretty much? She likes math, English and… uh, she might like some sort of governmental work if it's available?

(She likes helping lots of people. She also like fixing systems where she can.)

Very well. The lady gives her a key to a room in the hotel, a form with a stamp, and a laminated card, and tells her she'll find pamphlets in her room explaining about orientation and a selection of clothes about her size will be sent up soon. She also says the Burger Buffet Bonanza™ is free if she presents her laminate.

She takes the key, says thanks to the receptionist, and then she goes to her room.

Does she spot any people on the way?

If she makes her way straight to her room, nope.

She does indeed make her way straight to her room!

… And then she looks through those pamphlets and at that form because really she's quite lost here. Then she might get some sleep.

The form contains the information she gave the receptionist, parroted back to her. There's a Burger Buffet Bonanza™ pamphlet with a menu, one Department of Security pamphlet titled 'Know your symptoms!' which is very threatening with the possibility that anyone or anything might go cubist and how to recognize it (flickering movements, disconnected thoughts, objects that don't make sense, geometry losing its Euclideanness), one "map" of the City, if it could be called that, and one final Department of Orientation pamphlet explaining that the City is happy to welcome new imports, they will be Oriented and Orientation is optional to adults but still strongly recommended, they will receive their schedule as soon as it's done, at the end they will be Placed somewhere so they can start their New Life in the City, full of Excitement and Opportunities.

Lots of capital letters, wonderful.

Does it give her any more information about cubism? Because 'turns into a scary monster that may or may not be on fire and lives in the Sideways' is sort of about all she knows, and she has no idea about… any of that, really? Can objects go cubist? Can animals go cubist? Do they even get animals as imports? (Presumably that's not actually answered on the pamphlet…)

Buildings can go cubist, but smaller objects or animals aren't mentioned anywhere. The pamphlet says one can catch cubism from being in the Sideways or interacting with anyone else who has cubism, that if one sees cubism symptoms in anyone else or oneself one should call the D.o.S., not panic, and try to stay away from the cubist subjects if they are not oneself.

… What's the map of the City like?

Weird, and somewhat spiral-ish, and fuzzy at the edges. It's divided into districts, but not a lot of detail into any of them is provided. Apparently the city shifts and changes enough that it's best to have an electronic up-to-date map and this is just a general overview of the physical layout.

Oh, well.

At least that means it doesn't totally shift around.

She looks around the room a bit since she seems to have finished reading the welcome material, then takes a look out the window. Anything interesting?

Inner city slum buildings, mostly.

She might just go to sleep, in that case. It's getting quite late, it was late when she got imported, and she doesn't know precisely when they plan on doing things tomorrow.

And in the morning: someone knocks on her door.

Fortunately, she gets up at a reasonable time, so she opens the door fully dressed… in yesterday's clothes, since she actually forgot that she was going to get some clothes and so she went to sleep and didn't even think about that.

"Hello?"

It's the clothes! And a timetable! Carried by a helpful-looking person with a smile.

"Thanks," says Rachel, taking them.

Is that all…?

Yes, that is all. The helpful-looking person saunters off.

She shuts the door, puts the clothes on her bed, and then goes to look at the timetable!

The first meeting with her group will be in Conference Room 2, which is just a repurposed hotel room, in two hours.

Brilliant.

She thinks she'll take a shower and change into some of the clothes she just got, then… she'll probably go look at the food thing? Presumably they do breakfast and not just evening meals.

The Burger Buffet Bonanza™ does in fact do breakfast!

Things like egg and bacon and hash browns, or like cereal, or both? (Or do they literally do burgers and nothing else? She doesn't know what the standards are like here, so…)

More like egg and bacon, and even more like the Burger Buffet Bonanza™ Breakfast Burrito.

Yyyyum.

She thinks she'll go for egg and bacon, yeah.

Then she can have the Burger Buffet Bonanza™ Breakfast Eggs and Bacon.

Yum.

Is there anybody else there? Anybody who maybe looks… friendly?

The place's fairly devoid of anyone who is not her and the bored workers, late enough that D.o.O. employees have already had breakfast but early enough that it's not unreasonable that the other traumatized imports would still be asleep.

Okay, well, she'll sit down somewhere and eat her food, apparently rather quietly since there's nobody else around.

No one will have appeared by the time she's done with her food.

Then she will… walk around a little bit to see if there's anything interesting or of note. Like other people. Somewhere in the hotel. Who don't seem to be completely broken or something like that.

Well, that probably depends on where she wants to look. The hotel has a few common areas, like the pool, a bar, the lounge...

She'll look in the lounge first. And then after that – uh, pool? Do they sell swimwear or something?

Lounge: is empty!

Pool: has a bar! And at the bar...

… sits a teenage boy, approximately the same age as Rachel!

He seems a little bored.

In that case, she will go over that way and say hi!

"Hi," she says, smiling and trying to seem positive without being creepy or alternatively disturbing his maybe-depressed attitude, who knows, he just got imported. "I'm Rachel."

"Matt," he says, turning to face her.

At the bar there is: a bored bartender! He will not engage with them unless they order things, and will try to pretend his life is interesting and meaningful if anyone looks at him.

Wellup. "So," she says. "New import?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah."

She bites her lip a little, trying to think of a conversation topic. "Where are you from?"

"Oregon."

Apparently he's not getting more specific than that.

"Ah, cool," she responds. "North Carolina, here."

He nods.

… Rachel decides she's going to get a drink, in that case! Hi, bored bartender. Any chance she can have… water or something? Does she need some sort of currency, or does this come under the whole orientation thing?

Under the whole orientation thing. Here's a water.

Matt would like a milkshake, please and thank you. Vanilla, if that's an option.

They do not have milkshakes. Sorry, kid.

Some sort of soda, then?

Sure, they have Sprite and Coke and this one grape soda that doesn't exist back on Earth.

Sprite, please!

Sprite it is!

Yum.

Rachel rubs her eyes a few times, still a bit tired apparently. She takes a sip of her water, and then asks lamely, "Looking forward to orientation?"

He shrugs. "Not really, but hopefully it won't be too bad?"

"Yeah, I mean, it's a… decent sized city? They probably get lots of people through, so it can't be too bad."

"… Yeah," responds Matt.

… Twiddling thumbs it is! Seeing as neither of them seem to have a conversation topic.

Fun.

Perhaps the smiling man dressed in a white suit straight from the sixties with a pair of sunglasses hanging from his collar and a nametag saying "Hello, My Name Is (Hollister) And I Am Here To Help!!" attached is a conversation topic! Or wants to start one, at any rate, since he walks up to them and says, "Rachel Stephens and Matt Hughes, right? Hollister Avenue, Orientation Officer. I’m your camp counselor, as it were. Fancy seeing you out here so early! Y’know in the years I’ve been in this gig, I’ve never seen someone come poolside this early? Usually they sit in their rooms until their session’s up!"

That is a lot of words.

"Um," says Rachel.

Matt just turns to face him and… blinks.

"...you are Rachel and Matt, right?"

"Yep," says Matt. "I am Matt, yes."

"I am also Rachel. And you are apparently Hollister… Avenue?"

She probably sounds extremely stupid, doesn't she.

"I didn't realize it was that weird to, uh, not just sit in my room?"

"Oh, no, not weird at all! It's a fabu idea, just fabu."

She nods slowly. "Um, cool," she says a bit unsurely. "So, is the actual orientation thing starting soon, then?"

"Yes! ...didn't they give you the schedules? I'm sure they were supposed to give you the schedules..." He starts patting his pockets.

"No, uh, I did get a schedule. It said we were meeting in Conference Room 2? Soon-ish. I was just a bit… confused."

She really does seem rather confused. Poor thing.

Matt looks at her kinda sympathetically.

Gosh, is he quiet.

"Oh, yes, the D.o.O. is very disorganized. But you know what, we don't need to go to that boring conference room, we'll just hold our meeting here! I'll be back in a few."

And he darts back into the building.

Rachel looks at him until he disappears from view, then turns to Matt.

He looks back at her.

"Well," she says. "He sounds. Um."

"Yup."

He returns a few minutes later with a tall, muscled man with a scared, haunted look on his face, and a woman of average stature, with an average face and an average hairstyle, looking very much like she'd be much obliged if she could wake up back in her place already, thank you very much.

Hollister starts arranging the plastic chairs in a rough circle, and says, "Come on, come on, do sit."

Matt and Rachel both get up from their seats at the bar and move over to the plastic chair circle.

They do in fact sit.

The large man does, too, but the woman needs some prodding to do so.

"Okay, so, that's Jayden and Sarah," the guidance counselor identifies the two new arrivals, "and these are Rachel and Matt. Together, you’re Group Four. And you know me, I’m your good buddy Hollister. Welcome to Orientation! Let’s hear it for Group Four, people!"

The other two don't cheer.

Rachel… smiles at the attempt, but also doesn't cheer.

Matt seems a little confused by Hollister's behavior.

Yeah. He's definitely a bit 'um'.

He clears his throat and moves on.

"For the next few days I'll be teaching you fine folks all about the City of Angles," he said. "That's angles, not angels. Common rookie mistake, but you, you're not common rookies, right? When we're done you'll be rip roarin' ready to go and start your new lives! Like Rachel and Matt here. They came right out of their rooms and decided to enjoy the pool, isn't that right? It was all their idea that we hold our first session out here, instead of that musty conference room. Good thinking! Let's hear it for Rachel and Matt!" This time he tries to start the applause himself.

Matt: still seems confused.

"Um. I was actually just trying to find where some people were?" says Rachel.

He clears his throat again and moves on when no one else seems to join in on the applause.

"Even better, then! Meeting people, a key skill you have to have to do well in the city. It's the reason I'm in this job! I'm a people person. I like to get people things they want, things they need. Hook-up Hollister, that's what my friends call me—and I've got a lot of friends. Like you! I'm here for you, to make sure you're ready to go, to make sure you're happy. Best way to do that is to get to know you, really know you, as people. So we're going to start out not by cracking open one of those boring three-ring binders and getting right into the lessons, like the Department wants. We're gonna get to know you." Pause. "Jayden? You want to start?"

"Huh?" Jayden says, startled out of his thoughts.

… Rachel would probably rather crack open the 'boring binder' since it presumably contains information they should know.

But okay. She can just… look through it later, maybe ask for a copy or something if she needs it.

"Let's get to know you, Jayden," Hollister repeats, leaning forward into Jayden's personal space to show how much he cares. "Tell us about yourself. Who you are, where you're from, what you want out of this city."

"Oh. Well… if I gotta. Name's Jayden," he says, despite having been called by name already "I'm… be honest here, may as well be given the situation I'm stuck in, I'm just some kid from Sacramento—I'm not a kid, I mean, I'm twenty-one, got the card to prove. Raised by my aunt until she went, then back to my moms. Learned tough after that. Uh, but I'm not really lookin' for any trouble or… lookin' for anything. Nothin' specific. A job, I guess. They get you a job if you sit through this thing, right?"

Twenty one, he says. Twenty one, he does not seem.

Exciting stuff here. Not that she's sarcastic or anything, no.

"That's the plan, my man," Hollister promises, oblivious to whatever Rachel may have picked up on. "I mean, they'll try. Things can be tricky. But you? I think you'll go places. I barely know you but I've got a good feeling, you know? Right here. Gets me right here."

"That's your stomach," Jayden points out.

"Here," Hollister corrects, pounding on his chest over his heart. "Sorry. I missed breakfast. So, how did you get to the city, Jayden?"

"I was just down by the corner store with my boys, you know, just hanging out," he says. "Summer, you know? No school, nothin' to do. Anyway, went in to get somethin' to eat, and I was busy payin' for it when BAM! everything went weird an' the whole store got moved to this crazy-ass city. Took me and the poor old bastard who runs the place with it. ...where's he now? Mr. Fong. He doin' okay? I was figuring I'd meet up with him when they said new folks go to Orientation, but..."

Hollister looks a bit uneasy. "Ah... well... some adapt better than others," he explains.

…

That sounds a little ominous.

She'll just… sit here quietly until Jayden's totally done with his introduction and-or she gets called on.

Matt seems a little bit bored? Maybe slightly confused.

He continues. "I saw his file when I was reading up on you folks, and... Mr. Fong, it's cool, it's cool, he's getting the treatment he needs. He'll be able to accept the transition eventually, don't you worry. The Department of Resources may even let him work in his store again! He's like family to you, huh?"

"Naw, I just know him, s'all," Jayden says, with a rolling shrug. "Doubt I got any family here. And if they're right, and there's no way back... well... damn. There's no way back, right?"

"I really hate to bear bad news, but no way back, that's right, correctamundo," Hollister replies. "It's harsh to say, I know. But people have been looking for decades, and nobody's found a way back to Earth yet. That's why we've got Orientation, so you can learn to embrace your new lives fully in all its excitement!"

"Mmm."

"Anyway! Rachel, Matt, and Sarah, let's get to know you. Which of you wants to go first?"

Sarah does not want to go first.

Rachel would… rather not go first of the second lot!

Matt would even more rather not go first of the second lot!

… It would appear that Rachel will in fact go first of the second lot, in that case.

No going back to Earth. Well. She assumed as much. She's not sure if she was actually told that outright.

"Sure," she says. "I'm Rachel, I was a high-school student – senior – and I lived a really boring life full of boring meaningless fun, since I was only in high school." She pulls a bit of a face. "I'll miss people – my parents, for starters, people I knew at school, that sort of thing – and they'll probably miss me but they'll get on without me and I think I'll be able to get on without them. … Oh, and I was imported into the Sideways, that was fun."

His eyebrows shoot up, and his mouth opens and closes a few times soundlessly, like that one officer in the mall. "...the Sideways?"

"Oh yeah, it was great fun." She gives him a bit of a look. "Would you like me to go into detail?"

"No! No, um, I'm sure it's a great story but we don't wanna get derailed, right? Right." He turns to Sarah, apparently trying to change the subject from that. "How about you? From your file, it says you're from Georgia...?"

Sarah and Jayden look confused at the sudden shift, and Sarah looks down at her feet. "I... I want to go home," she mumbles. "Please. I have a family, I have children. They need me..."

Hollister gets his confidence back, back in his element. He reaches over and puts a hand on her shoulder, adopting his most comforting voice. "I know this is hard to accept, Sarah," he says, "but you're here, now. There's no going back. But I promise you, I swear to you, your family will be fine. You don't need to worry. Right now... what you have to focus on is your own life. It's a new day, a new start! What you do with it is entirely up to you. ...ah, just, it can't involve going back."

"But, but my husband, my children..."

"You've got a loving husband and good kids. I read your file. They're going to be fine—and so are you. You're a strong woman, Sarah. Wife of a pastor, pillar of her community, supporter of charities and champion of the homeless, yes...? Some people, when they come to the City, they're complete unknowns. But your works echoed even here! We've got reports from people who came to this city before you that know who you are. Do you remember Yvonne?"

"Yvonne? Here? Are you sure? I just saw her a month ago," Sarah says. "We've been working at the city shelter together for the last year. She was getting back on track after losing her house..."

Rachel in fact does look somewhat sympathetic at this.

The poor woman seems so lost.

"I know, and her orientation records had your name in them as a possible point of contact," Hollister says, with a grin. "See? You're not totally alone here. Listen, she's working out in the Suburbs at the mo', but I'll put in a call and see if she can spare some time to visit. Okay?"

Still unsure, Sarah offers a tentative little nod.

Which Hollister takes to be a gleeful nod of assent. "That's the spirit!" he says, removing his hand from her shoulder to offer her a thumbs up. "Okay, and, Matt, I think it's your turn!"

"Um," he says. "There's not really much to tell? I'm Matt, I was also in high school, I'll miss people, I got imported, they'll miss me – I sort of and sort of don't hope – and, uh." He thinks for a moment. "Yeah. I think that's about it."

Aw. Poor kid.

Not even trying to be optimistic. So sad.

(… She's not sure why she's in a bitchy mood right now, but apparently she is.)

"Don't you worry, Matt, I am absolutely sure your family and friends will be taken care of. Now it's your chance for a new beginning, in the exciting City of Angles!"

"Yeah," he says.

… Apparently that's all he's going to say.

"… Okay, so should we maybe learn some stuff about this exciting City?" asks Rachel, trying to seem helpful (but really actually just wanting to do some orientation rather than boringly explaining their very generic life stories, thanks).

Sarah looks like she's not quite ready for that, yet, and even Jayden looks a little green around the gills, so Hollister says,  "Right. Okay. I think we've all got some culture shock, and really, that's totally reasonable. Personally, I think the standard orientation course throws you into the deep end too soon, you know? There's no rush. I've got binders you can bring back to your rooms and study at your leisure. We can pick up tomorrow, nice and fresh. And today? Just focus on resting, relaxing, getting used to things. You need anything, anything at all, I'm staying in room 3F. Just down the hall from Sarah's room. Okay? Okay. I'll drop by with your binders in a bit. And hey—I'll find you all swimsuits, 'kay? Enjoy the pool." And off he goes, shaking hands with a dazed Sarah and a suspicious Jayden before making his way back into the building.

"Uh..." says Jayden eloquently, and Sarah shakes her head slightly and starts making her way back inside, too.

Binders. Cool. Hopefully he'll get them to them at some point. Apparently the whole group thing is a 'no'.

She looks over at Matt. Any chance he seems up to talking?

Not really! Maybe. Maybe not.