*Meeting The Other Noobs. *

"So, 'Personal Middle Names Family' is it? Nice to meet you, I'm sure you can read my nameplate so don't worry too much about it, we'll get to know one another soon enough. You're the newest arrival at the dorm, first one today in fact, but we've had Two-hundred-three since last month, so we're a bit packed. Now, if you don't mind I'm going to just take you up to your room and give you the key, then come back down to oversee cooking lunch, we're always busy cooking around here..." Gilda says, and you go upstairs.

The tower proves to be massive, shaped like an immense H with two corridors of 9 rooms on each floor in the uprights of the H and a common room in the middle that connects to the four spiral staircases and two sets of elevators that go up and down. The building is ten stories (each one four meters tall except the ground floor, which is eight) tall from top to bottom with every story except the ground floor basically identical. The ground floor has all the janitorial, kitchen, craft room, and so on facilities of the building. The Ground Floor also houses the two giant 'Auditoriums' of the building, which is where the actual 'orientation' sessions occur.

In your wing of the tenth floor, there are presently 7 other lodgers. The "Wing Mistress", another Green Clearance individual named [Cornilia Clementine Contralto the 2nd], who lives here permanently, and 6 others. One is a punk rocker type with a purple mohawk and nose ring, called [Jane Landy], the second a shy and retiring individual with long brown hair and glasses called [Julia Safron Reanolds], the third and fourth are two butch girls both with copies of a shirt that has an interlocked trio of ♀ symbols on the front, declaring their sexual orientation and relationship preferences for all to see, by the name of [Debby Danica-Downing] and [Melody Harper]. 'Deb' as Miss Danica-Downing prefers to be called, is a black girl who talks with an east London accent, while Melody is of Irish-American decent like yourself, and speaks with a stereotypical Wisconsin accent and syntax. The fifth is an older lady called [Sally Monica Havens], who is constantly writing in her journal, 'composing a novel' so-she-says, though dressed very conservatively you notice that her pixilated hand bears a copper ring on where the left ring finger would be... The last of the seven is presently out of the building somewhere, but the Cornelia tells you, "Oh, yeah, Christina, try not to worry too much about HER." The antipathy in her voice is palpable, and everyone else nods agreement.

Across the common room in the other wing are five gentlemen, one, [Andrew McAndrews], looks like an elderly pirate captain and is the resident Wing Master for this floor. His four lodgers are much younger. One, (barely an adult and wearing a pair of headphones,) is called [Marcus Leroy Black]. He's an African kid, scarcely 18 you'd guess, though judging age is hard in this world. The second is a guy who looks like he could have starred in '300', (except that he's got elf ears,) named [Argent Rose], a total beefcake that the other men's eyes follow enviously. The third is dressed in a hyper-tech space suit and is called [$#¡^@ π], who doesn't seem to speak English like the rest of you. There's a betting pool going on about if he's an alien or just a weirdo. The fourth is an Arabian gentleman called [Mikhail Youseph Waziri], he's middle-aged, but still vigorous, and makes no bones about the fact that he's gayer than a Pride Parade in Las Vegas during Mardi Gras, wearing a pride flag shirt and rainbow shorts.

Your room is pretty spartan: there's a plain red bed, a double chest, inside which you find all the gear you were promised and your red sash, two torches to keep the monsters at bay, a crafting table, and a stove "to heat the room in the winter" Cornelia explains. The room also has a 1-meter square window with a glass pane in it looking out onto the long drop down into the rear courtyard of the newbies' dorm with a red banner for a curtain. The door is made of Spruce and has an Iron Lock, that secures it, as does the chest, to which you have the keys. You are ready to head out looking for a job, but just then the bell sounds for lunch...

[ALERT: this chapter was published prematurely: if you have reached this chapter before it got its 'edited' note using game mode you will have to reset your game for the full update!]