"One of the houses in the grounds," Dan waves a vague hand. "There's a several on the grounds, in fact seems to be a few clusters of them. There was...a dozen or so? In the cluster we were in."

He glances at Arla who nods.

"Kitchen-diner, living room, laundry, office, several bedrooms, a few bathrooms, I'm kind of assuming all the houses followed the same pattern, but I could be wrong."

"That sounds nice. I wonder why there's space for so many people?"

Arla clicks her tongue. "It reminds me some of those...drawings and stuff. Of habitats on the moon. For the case of us destroying our environment enough that the earth became unliveable."

Rex whines quietly and slinks back to beside Joss.

"It does fit, doesn't it."

"It doesn't seem like there's enough of us here for that. Maybe we're just the first to arrive though."

"I mean, theoretically, this is just one of six compounds?" Joss says, resting her hand on Rex's head, scratching his ears. "Maybe more people went to the others?"

"There's also the fact that they appear to be relying on signs on college notice boards. Not necessarily the best way to attract people."

"Yeah, there's still definitely something we're missing, if this is meant to be an ark."

"Although young adults at college are probably a good group to grab if your aim is to build a civilisation."

"Yeah, the adaptability of youth with less dependence on support networks than younger children."

"Less potential fertility problems as well if you want population growth."

"But this doesn't explain why someone's gone to these lengths. Or who. I certainly hadn't heard of any risks to earth. Or of any projects that would allow for immediate interplanetary transfer. ...I suppose it could...potentially be a massively complex virtual environment, but I'm pretty sure it isn't."

"It's entirely possible that our presence here was not the act of anyone from Earth."

Zahn links with Alice to exchange thoughts then looks over at Rex with the intention of forming a telepathic link.

"I suppose that is always an option..."

Joss taps the side of Rex's head lightly, and very subtly points to Zahn.

Rex looks up to Zahn, head tilted slightly, ears perked forwards, their eyes meeting.

Yes?

Do you know if these new people know about magic? What is it ok to tell them? The words are accompanied by confusion and the sense of flailing a little.

One of them is, her friends don't know. And Joss says there's something strange about the boy, she kinda can't sense him.

He pauses, shifts closer to Joss and-

We prefer to not make it common knowledge. And dropping the Reaper in it wouldn't be good, should be her choice whether or not she reveals what she is. But- But probably wise for them to know magic is a thing?

If delicacy is required I think I'll leave it to Joss. Alice would but she doesn't understand the situation well enough.

Joss makes a quiet, almost amused sound as Rex woofs out something that might be a laugh.

"We gonna continue our recce?" she asks Alice and Zahn. This isn't a conversation she wants to have exactly here.

"Up to you, I'd like to see more but it's not urgent considering they've already done some of the exploring we planned to. I think Rex will be disappointed if we go inside right away though."

Rex barks and bounds off before anyone can make him do that most heinous thing.

Joss laughs. "Yeah. I should possibly go for a run with him if you guys wanna head back in?" (She gives Zahn a significant look that says she'll fill their new friends in when she gets back.)