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[h2][url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-IMM6OlbDIc]Interlude: The Non-Comformist Oath[/url][/h2]

[h3][i][sub]”I promise not to repeat things other people say!”[/sub][/i][/h3]
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Eli negotiated the end of his pencil between his two molars. His brow furrowed, he reread over his notes, again and again. Atop the page was the header, [i]”The Most Memorable Six Years of My Life”.[/i] 
Underneath, his notes. 

Wyrmwood Forest was his immediate focus. It was foolishness from the staff, really. [i]Hey, I’m here to remind you that this forest with the really cool name is off-limits. I'm not going to tell you why it's off limits, though. I'm just reminding you of its existence and strongly advising against going there. Don't go there, by the way, wink wink.[/i] He figured there was a grey area between “honest mistake” and “deliberate trespass”, and that's where Eli was keen to operate. 

The third and ninth sections of the library, too, seemed a pressing matter. He figured he’d spend quite a lot of his time there, after all, so uncovering the secret of why those sections were so closely guarded was certainly a pressing matter. God, listen to him. [color=783de9][i]Uncovering the secret. Certainly a pressing matter.[/i][/color] What was it about unfamiliar situations that turned him into Ms. Marple? 

His last major point of contention was the headmaster’s final warning of safety. [i]Warning of safety,[/i] he repeated inside his head. A Freudian slip to the self, revealing how he truly felt about that message. It was certainly odd for the headmaster to emphasise that. Like assuring your dinner party guests the food was perfectly unposioned. All he could think was, [i]which poison?[/i]

[color=783de9]“Nightshade,”[/color] he mumbled beneath his breath, running his finger along the dorm list to find his name. Did they seriously name their dorm rooms after deadly poisons? [i]Nightshade[/i] and [i]Hemlock?[/i] Looked like he was going to be bunking with the Trueloves and the Valentines in Nightshade Commons. Eli cast a glance to his side, smirking at the irony of such romantic names, before he remembered he was alone. 

Yeah. He should probably fix that.

So, while everyone filtered into one dorm or the other, Eli turned the charm up. He clasped his hands behind his back, teetering up and down on his heels as he idly strolled along the hall, humming Ella Fitzgerald’s [i]Blue Moon[/i] to himself. He looked lost, he hoped. Approachable, but in a condescending, supervisory capacity, like a lone child in a supermarket.