hotheadwarmheart

OK, first thing's first: where am I?

You're in the Kingdom of Auradon. More specifically, you're at a school called Auradon Prep; you may have seen the sign out front. Yes, we know the sign is kinda full of itself. No, we're not allowed to change it; we already asked.

Why is this place so empty?

The short version? Magic. The slightly longer version is that someone- we don't know who- got a hold of a genie's lamp and wished everyone away. So yeah, you know that old saying 'be careful what you wish for'? This kind of thing is why it exists.

How did I get here?

The short version? Again, magic. The slightly longer version is that in an attempt to fix the wish that sent everyone away, two different spells clashed. Instead of bringing back the people who belong here, the resulting magical mix up started bringing random people here from a bunch of different worlds and times, and you happen to be one of those people.

OK, so how do I get home?

At the moment... you can't. We're all sort of stuck here at the moment for better or worse. So, yeah, sorry. We're working on it, though.

Who's in charge here?

That would be King Ben, and his fiancé Queen Mal. There's also Lord Sylvando, the kingdom's Official Morale Officer. Ben's usually wearing blue, and you can recognize Mal by her purple hair and fondness for leather. Sylvando is generally pretty hard to miss if he's anywhere in the vicinity, and tends to dress like a jester.

OK, since I'm stuck here, where will I be staying?

You'll be sleeping in the school dorms. They're divided up into boys' and girls' dorms, with the former having a lot of blue plaid and the latter being heavy on the pink and frills. We don't think anyone will care which side you settle on, regardless of your gender though. Each dorm room has two beds, but there aren't enough people here yet that we need to double up if we don't want to. Any room without a mark on the door is currently fair game; once you've picked one, let Mal know and she'll mark it as claimed, with a purple circle in the upper right hand corner. Doors with a purple X instead belong to people who've gone missing, so don't go in them even if they're unlocked.

OK, that covers shelter, how about food?

The school kitchens and associated pantry, fridge, and freezer are open to everyone. Someone will generally make meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but feel free to use them to fix yourself something if you want. Also, if you can't eat certain things for cultural or medical reasons, please let Sylvando know, and we'll make a note of it.

What about the world outside the school? What's going on with that?

At the moment, we don't know. The area around the school and castle is all blocked at the moment; we're working on clearing a path out though. At the moment, we haven't heard anything from anyone who might be outside them, even the guy sent to investigate the Isle.

But I've got magic/super powers/cool technology that would let me fly over or teleport past any obstacles blocking the paths!

Unfortunately, that's not going to work here. For some reason, no one seems to be able to fly higher than four feet of the ground, whether they're using technology or their own powers, which isn't enough to get past what's blocking us in. And any kind of teleporting is limited to too short a range to be useful for that either. Also before you ask, anything that would normally let you travel between worlds doesn't work at all. So yeah, sorry.

What about any other powers or technology I might have?

Other than those few things, we haven't really run into any problems with people using their powers or technology, which I'm sure will be a relief to some people. Any communication devices you might have probably won't connect to the local network, but you should have been given a phone that will so you can communicate with the rest of us more easily.

You mentioned something about an 'Isle'; what's up with that?

That's... complicated. See, about twenty years ago King Ben's parents brought a lot of different kingdoms together under the banner of the United Kingdoms of Auradon. Which was great as far as that went. But while they were doing that they banished anyone deemed a villain or associated with the villains to an island off Auradon's coast called the Isle of the Lost, which they turned into a prison, sealing it off with a barrier that also blocks magic. Suffice to say, it's not a nice place, for a lot of reasons. Before the magical mix-up, they were trying to help people from the Isle who were innocent come to Auradon for a better life, but... yeah most of the population suddenly vanishing kinda threw a monkey wrench into that plan. If anyone's on the Isle currently though, the offer does still stand.

That whole mass banishing thing doesn't make the 'good guys' in Auradon sound like very nice people.

Yeah, like we said, it's complicated. Ideas about good and evil tend to be really black and white here, which has caused a lot of problems on both sides. It's something that the locals'll have to work on, probably long after we've all gone back where we came from. They are making progress though from what I've heard. And King Ben and Queen Mal are both pretty cool. Sylvando, by the way, isn't a local; he's one of the Missrecalled too.

Missrecalled?

Yeah, that's what they're calling those of us who were brought here from other worlds. Not the catchiest name, but it fits.

Why is everything so creepily clean and perfect?

Yeah, Auradon is just... like that, probably because they're trying to be the opposite of the Isle. You don't need to try and maintain that level of neatness if you don't want to though. Just don't go deliberately making a mess of the public areas either; we all have to use them, and things are crazy enough without going out of our way to do things that'll annoy each other.

So now what do I do?

Pretty much anything you want, within reason. If you're willing and able to help out around here somehow though, whether it's with path clearing, manning the information booth, or just with regular chores, everyone'd really appreciate it, but you're not obligated to. If you need some ideas though, I'm sure people'll be happy to suggest a few things.

I still have some questions and/or didn't bother to read this far!

Ask around; people are generally happy to help. Though you might just get directed to read the info sheet if you ask about something already covered, with varying levels of exasperation depending on who you ask.

We'll issue updated versions of this paper if and when we find out more information, so... stay tuned, I guess?