[Alice and Marcus]

“Hey, come back here!” Alice shouts as Lauren went after Ryika. Lauren didn’t stop however, and Alice turns to look at Bran and Marcus, “Goodbye for now!”
Alice flies after them, but loses sight of Lauren.
She pouts and then mutters to herself, “I guess I should check out my room now.”

Alice opens the envelope and read:

Dormitory building: C
Room: 108
Room type: Double
Roommate: Reina Reeves

*WOOOOSH*
A massive gust of air spins past Alice, throwing her hair into her eyes and nearly blowing the paper out of her hands.
After realizing he didn’t know where the cafeteria or dorms were, Marcus had literally jumped after Alice to ask. He would have asked Bran, but Bran seemed... distant. Gone even.
“Do you know which way the cafeteria or dorms are?” Marcus rumbles as non-aggressively as possible.
“Umm… I can go fly up and see where they are,” Alice replies, slightly unnerved by Marcus’s sudden appearance.
Marcus waits patiently on the ground, staring up at her.
“Do you want wings as well? I could probably do it,” Alice responds.
“Sure.”
“Okay! What would be a good color...I know, pink!” Alice says enthusiastically.
“...how about black or white instead.” Marcus pleads.
“Nope!” 
Alice imagines pink fluffy wings on Marcus’s back.
“Please change the color. Please.” Marcus sighs as he looks at the set of pink wings.
“But they look adorable!” Alice says, staring at Marcus with wide eyes. 
“I don’t like the color pink.” Marcus tries.
Alice then imagines Marcus flying in the sky next to her.
Marcus begins to regret asking Alice for directions as he shoots up into the sky.
“Hey look! I think those are dormitory buildings over there!” Alice points to a set of four buildings.
“Can you set me down and remove these?” Marcus was nearly beyond words. Alice was some sort of special existence. A rare, whimsical thing. Like some sort of ethereal spirit in how literally nothing could impact her. 
“Let’s gooo!” Alice flies towards the set of buildings and propels Marcus with her.
“...I just wanna eat something...” Marcus mutters under his breath, putting a hand over his eyes as he’s whisked away toward wherever the hell this girl wanted.
“Oh, so you want to go to the cafeteria instead?” Alice asks cheerfully as she stops them, and redirects them towards the main buildings, presumably where the cafeteria was.  
Marcus glances at her sadly. He was afraid to say anything. God knows how much worse it could make things.
“What’s your favorite food? Mine is meat!” Alice remarks happily. 
Marcus doesn’t respond.
“Huh. I guess you don’t want to eat anything anymore,” Alice then drags Marcus along with her over to the dorms. 
Marcus doesn’t respond.
“Do you know what building you’re staying at?”
Marcus doesn’t respond.
“Why aren’t you talking, are you injured somewhere? Oh no! We should probably take you to the infirmary as soon as possible!”
Uneven, broken laughter quietly resounds.
“Yeah, you sound like you bonked your head somewhere,” Alice comments, concerned, rushing them both to the main building again. 
“I’m, perfectly, healthy, haha.”
Alice looks at Marcus, confused, “Back to the dormitories then!”
She takes Marcus back to the residence buildings and drops him off on the roof, “Have fun! And I hope I’ll see you again!” 
Alice flies off again to her own building.
Marcus finally responds, after he was confident Alice was out of earshot. “...yaaaaaaaaaay...”

---

Elsewhere, Lauren begins to feel an odd yet warmly comforting feeling of camaraderie.