An invitation to a party appears on various university billboards inviting people to the Kappa Alpha Frat house located in the mostly finished Castle Commonwealth mall on the edge of town. The notice instructs people to follow the access road at 67 Lost Nation drive and enter through the back door and promises that signs will be posted to guide people to the party itself.
"There is a third type of wall. Theme parks and gated communities use walls to control access but they aren't really trying to trap people or keep out anything dangerous."
"That is true..." she agrees thoughtfully. "Hadn't really thought about those. Haven't spent much time in either..."
"I just found the one I went to loud... Couldn't actually make it onto any of the rides..."
They reach the landing for the ground floor. Alice guides them out the wing with the bike racks.
To the left there are some pools a little ways away with a small building next to them. To the right there's a baseball field. Beyond the pools is a greenhouse. Beyond the Baseball field there's an orchard. In between there are a trio of buildings in the distance and there are other smaller buildings peaking out around the edges of the greenhouse and the orchard. The path around them is made out of large concrete tiles and branches to go around the building they just left and towards each of the mentioned structures.
The minute Rex hits the open air there's a distinct, unpleasant sound of bones cracking, breaking and reforming. And then a large dog bounds ahead of them, eager and exuberant, sniffing around.
"Rex," Joss groans good-naturedly, shielding her eyes with her hand to scan their surroundings. "I'm curious about that greenhouse," she states.
"Did we not cover that yesterday in the 'magic is real' talk?" Joss sounds honestly perplexed. "I feel like it would've come up when we were discussing packbonds?"
"Note to self: more sleep, and make sure when explaining things everything is clarified. I'm pretty sure- oh, Rex's tail will occasionally be on fire. It's perfectly normal, he's not hurt by it."
"Alright. Rex has his dog thing, you have a magic detector, and Tamaris can make things, or duplicate things. Anything else I should be expecting?"
"Not unless we find the others, and I need their permission before I say any more- oh, Tam's kinda got a healing thing, but like...she won't unless you give her permission. Half-angel, half-demon, even she doesn't know the full extent of her powers yet."
"That makes sense. Healing is potentially very useful. If there's no negative side effects, please tell Tamaris it's alright to heal me if circumstances prevent me from doing so."
"Same. If I'm unconscious I'd prefer to get healing or medical treatment all other things being equal."
Rex has recovered some of his enthusiasm and is ahead of them, running back and forth to sniff at things.
Abruptly he stops, head up and alert, looking into the distance.
"What do you mean, 'other people'?" Joss asks, even though nothing's been said.
"Was there anyone else here when you two got here?"
"There wasn't anyone around when we arrived. I think that someone might have been there before us and eaten a bit from the buffet. There wasn't anything obvious like dirty dishes but there were signs."