Locations

[whimsicalism]

LOCATIONS

The general air of Ira Academy is one of sterile near-perfection. The floors are so spotless you could eat on them if it wasn't against the rules. There's no flecks of dust even on the highest bookshelves. Even if the outside of the building feels like an old fashioned boarding school, the inner halls have been converted into something more modern. The walls are often painted white, with simple flooring. Even with a literal flock of sheep-like robots wandering the halls (the 'Little Brothers'), it feels empty and not exactly a place anyone should want to send their children to.

FLOOR ONE

Dormitory

The east wing of Ira Academy is dedicated to the student dormitories. The separate rooms are sparse but each includes a small bathroom with a shower. Along with a single bed, there's a small nightstand with a digital clock. There's also a small wardrobe filled with several outfits for use. This includes two sets of Ira's Academy uniform. The uniform consists of the following: a white dress shirt, a burgundy jacket, and black slacks or a black skirt. Both the skirt and slacks can be found be found in the wardrobe, the Principal doesn't particularly care what version of the uniform is worn after all. There's also a baggy t-shirt with gym shorts for physical activities as well as a set of clothes from your character's home. Additionally there’s a pair of cotton burgundy pajamas with the Academy’s logo embroidered on the shirt.

There's also a laundry basket with a note saying that the Little Brothers will pick up the laundry at exactly eight in the morning and return it at noon. Additionally, each room will have a key and lock. Make sure not to lose it! The rooms are sound proof, in case of murder outside them--ah, loud study sessions.

Next to the brightly polished brass number next to each room is a small device. It's a number counter set into the wall. Above the counter is another brass plate that reads simply: Demerits. Each counter currently reads '9999'.



Room Assignments

1. Yasu
2. Yuta
3. Dylan
4. Dewey
5. Jeanne
6. Emma
7. Sonic
8. Hunter
9. Carrie
10. Reika
11. Rosalinda
12. Ava
13. Koishi
14. Thomasin
15. Anya
16. Adorabat
17. Valmont
18. Luz
19. Kuro
20. Fret
21. Edward
22 (?). A functional janitor's closet for the Little Brothers.


Reception

A large room meant to impress visiting guardians. The ceiling is very high, lined with A large portrait of the Prefect standing next to the Principal is visible near the door to the auditorium. Strangely, while the Prefect is facing the viewer the Principal isn't. He's sitting in an armchair with a high back, facing away to probably stare menacingly into the fireplace. Only one of his arms is seen just barely visible.

A large flat screen television is set into the wall, with a small DVD player attached. For now, it just seems to replay various 'lessons' narrated by various adults about various topics. From the importance of studying, to how you should flush the toilet, to the proper way to tie a tie... these various speakers seem very enthusiastic at least? Hopefully you can find some DVDs soon.

Several moderately uncomfortable couches are set in a semi-circle in the center as well as several equally moderately uncomfortable chairs. A round table with several animal magazines.

Auditorium

A large auditorium with far too many rows of seats for the amount of students enrolled. A podium is on the stage with the Ira Academy logo. Normally the auditorium is locked, apart from announcements.

Playground

Flanked by the two wings of the Academy, the playground is a large outdoor space but with the large iron fence blocking the exit it might feel a bit cramped. There's a large blacktop area with a small shed for equipment like jump ropes and hula hoops. The playground equipment is right on top of the blacktop. On the bright side, it looks like it's never been used? It should be safe... if you don't fall.

The view outside is just as bleak as it is inside, though. The sky is dreary, day or night, and just outside the iron fence is a road next to a steep cliff face. The whole Academy seems to be right on the edge of the cliff. If you manage to get over the fence, though? There's even more Little Brothers to drag you back. It's not safe for students to be outside the flock, after all!

Audio/Visual Room (AV)

A handwritten sign declares this room as the 'Student Council' room, where you can meet with the Prefect one on one. It's filled with the equipment to send messages throughout the Academy but unfortunately for any pranksters, right now it's locked whenever the Prefect isn't there. The sign lists her hours as 6:59 AM to 6:59 PM.

School Store

The store might be small but it's quite crowded. The shelves are lined with various items for the taking. There's some items that might seem ordinary in a school store (pens, paper, little erasers in the shape of Little Brother) but some seem more useful, too. Flashlights? Check. Phone chargers? Yep! There's even some USB drives if you ever find a computer. There's one problem: everything seems to be very... cheap. There might have been budget cuts.

The strangest thing, though, is a vending machine in the corner. It only takes the strange coins that show up in your dorm room.

Cafeteria

The cafeteria takes up the western wing. A large industrial clock hangs on one wall, constantly ticking. The long tables are set up with low benches. The very air smells vaguely of pine scented cleaners. Faint classical music is always playing over the speakers here, even after curfew. A poster is on the side of the wall with meal times and a blank spot for the menu. It seems the Prefect has given up on trying to write out meal plans for everyone, thank goodness.

Kitchen (K)

The kitchen is always open for those trying to scrounge up some sustenance. It feels small compared to the rest of the cafeteria even though it probably would be considered somewhat big on it's own. A large industrial fridge and freezer (don't lock your classmates in there--or do) are constantly restocked. The cabinets are filled with healthy canned food as well as some boxed foods. Not to mention a couple bins of veggies and fruits. The massive ovens are functional, as is the microwave. There's no stove, unfortunately.

There's a designated chef, even! A Little Brother with a white apron and a white chef's hat is always at the kitchen to put together a healthy meal of Bland Mush and Bruised Apple for you...or you can make your own meal. Little Brother is a helper.

Classroom

The cramped room is probably the most normal looking room in the entire academy. Various educational posters featuring Little Brother are scattered across it's walls. A large blackboard with different formulas of some sort are scrawled over the southern wall. Plenty of bookshelves with textbooks and teaching equipment are against the walls, too.

There's enough desks for all of you to sit down comfortably. There's no labels for your desks but you seem to know where to sit down. Weird!

A teacher's desk is near the blackboard with a nameplate labeled 'Mr. L. Brother' on it. A Little Brother robot with big eyeglasses and a tie seems to be assigned as the teacher here. Someone seems have to put a large apple on his desk. Wait, no, that's just wax.

Music Room

It's time to make some beautiful music. Chairs are stacked in the corner for use. Colorful carpet tiles are scattered across the floor to make things a bit more like home. A large classical piano is set out in the middle of the room. Several colorful bins of more simple instruments (cowbells, triangles, etc) are set aside against the western wall while some brass instruments are set up against the eastern wall.

There doesn't seem to be a music teacher, though.

Gym

A large room meant for physical activities. There's some basic equipment stored in the storage closet: various sports balls, some scooter boards, nets for soccer and badminton, ping pong tables, etc. Strangely these all seem rather new! There's some mats you can lay out to practice more active sports, too.

Of course, there's some basketball hoops, too. A bronze version of the Ira Academy crest is in a small trophy case, alongside with various other trophies. Like the cafeteria, classical music seems to be playing all the time in here. Hope you like Chopin.

Decontamination Room

The Academy itself may be a stern, sterile place, but this room has an almost medical sterility to it. The door itself seems to feature an airlock, and there are vents placed at uniform intervals along the top of the tempered glass chambers.

On the far wall, there are two emergency eye rinsing stations, a biohazard disposal receptacle, and a closet containing several paper gowns in case anyone needs to quickly replace damaged or dangerous clothing.

There’s another, sealed door at the other end of this room, though try as you might, it can’t be opened. The plaque above it reads “CONTAINMENT CENTER.”

First-Aid Station

While no substitute for a proper nurse’s office, this first-aid station looks like it was designed with addressing unexpected ailments. There’s not much furniture in this room, just a couple of armless chairs with no upholstery and a single examining table.

The equipment to deal with any minor injury can be easily located in the cabinets along the walls. Bandages, cream for minor cuts, ice packs, gauze, and ace bandages are the easiest to locate. Suturing materials and scissors can also be located, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a scalpel.

Lounge

The area between the decontamination room and the first-aid station is a landing lounge. There’s a softly glugging water dispenser providing both hot and cold options as well as a stack of paper cups next to the tank. Various single-use teabags are boxed next to the dispenser next to a low coffee table with a stack of magazines on it.

There’s also a wall-set fish tank on the back wall. The pump and lights are on and the tank itself is clear, but there don’t seem to be any fish inside. As of W1 Monday, spectral jellyfish can sometimes be seen floating there.

Next to the fish tank, there are stairs leading to the second floor.

FLOOR TWO

Science Lab

This large student laboratory could easily pull double duty as both a chemistry and biology center. There are even a few pull-down posters of astronomy, though it's easy to get the sense that physics and related subjects aren't often covered in this particular room. Long lab tables fill the room, and the room has a sterile, chemical cleaner smell that doesn't quite dissipate. The left-hand wall is completely lined with windowed cupboards containing common lab equipment like beakers, pipettes, and basic microscopes, with a single top-row shelf containing a few reactive chemicals. A complete skeleton model(?) the size of a preteen human child hands by the lecture desk. As with the decontamination room downstairs, there's an eyewash station and biohazard disposal bag.

Beginning Week 2, Dr. L. Brother, an additional teaching-oriented unit, will hold practical, basic hands on projects, teaching students chemical reactions through baking soda volcanoes and the like.

Art Room

Connected to the shop room. The sliding room divider panel is halfway open and makes the two rooms resemble a dumbbell. Instead of individual seating, a circular tables large enough to seat a small group are spread out across the room. In addition to the various paper craft, drawing, and painting supplies stored here, there are also a couple of standing easels and - most impressively - a pottery wheel.

It might be surprising that a place to exercise your creativity exists in a school that also seems dedicated to eradicating it... until closer inspection reveals that, though there are dozens of projects hanging on the walls, there are only four or five unique subjects entirely. Every painting is one of a few pieces recreated over and over again, every clay project the same teacup.

Workshop

Connected to the art room. The sliding room divider panel is halfway open and makes the two rooms resemble a dumbbell. This is a center for small metal and woodworking projects, though you won't find the materials or tools big enough to make anything larger than a birdhouse. This side of the room smells faintly of wood and metal, and while the space probably has enough ventilation that neither fumes nor particles will harm you, it's uncomfortably hot. A kiln that can be used for pottery projects from the art room is in the front corner.

Meditation Room

If the other unruly children have made it impossible to focus on your studies or filled you with a murderous rage, you can always visit the meditation room to cool off. This is a closet-sized space with no windows and sparse lighting, though there are candles available if you trust yourself with an open flame. Floor cushions are also provided, though whoever stocked the room must have had a very lax definition of "comfortable."

The walls in this room are plastered with placating, vapid posters with sayings that wouldn't be out of place coming from Inspirobot. In fact, this one, which is certainly hanging on the wall by the door, did.

Sensory Deprivation Room

Isn’t this just the meditation room…? No, it’s host to a real saline-pool sensory deprivation chamber. Strips of RGB lights line the floor and ceiling of this relatively dark room. In the center, a dimly lit white pod with peaceful liquid just slightly larger than the average bathtub. Step inside the pod, close the lid, dim the lights on the nearby control strip, and lose complete touch with the outside world. Although...sometimes there's never anything quite as horrifying as being left alone with your own thoughts.

There's also a small closet in this chamber containing zip-up full body bathing suits for everyone for use in the tank. Wearing one of these suits is required to step inside.

FLOOR THREE

Library

The library is easily the focal point of the third floor. It takes up the entire east half, and the ceilings of the third floor are easily two to three times the height of the ones on previous floors. This allows the stacks to be massive, and a ladder is required to reach the upper walkway and railing around the upper half of the book shelves. For the first time in the Academy, it's possible to read something new and exciting instead of being stuck with stuffy textbooks! The assortment is eclectic and while there is a small fiction section, most of the fare is relegated to other domains. There's a huge section of coffee table sized art books containing photography, recreations of paintings, and depictions of 3D art in glossy book form. Self-help and how-to tutorials take up the entire north wall, ranging from how to start an indoor garden to how to navigate the untimely death of a loved one. People who are interested in learning about communicating in other languages will find a wealth of resources on the opposite wall. There are no monster classics or familiar horror titles on the shelves.

Unlike most libraries, you're still unlikely to find any accessible computers, laptops, or tablets here. However, certain multimedia items like DVDs and CDs (though nothing as advanced as a BluRay disc) can be taken out of here and watched in the reception area downstairs--if you haven't sworn off movie nights after what happened the last time.

Covering the entire place on your own will probably be impossible. Maybe two or three people doing their own separate investigations could even begin to fully search the massive space. That is, if one of you doesn't take a break into one of the many pillow-filled nap corners.

Laundry Room

The Little Brothers have probably been doing a great job keeping everyone with a steady supply of clean clothes per the instructions on your laundry baskets. It seems like this is where they've been doing all of that washing!

There are eight washers and eight dryers stacked up along the walls in here, with a shelf above them containing all relevant care products like detergent, softener, forbidden fruit gummies laundry pods, and bleach. Spare laundry baskets and a rolling cart filled to the brim with linens wait to be processed next. There's one light overhead that always flickers, no matter how long you leave it on.

Detention Room: Threat Level 1

This is clearly a place meant for punishment, but it doesn't seem to have seen much use in a while.

Three of the four walls are covered in lined chalkboards. One has been filled entirely with the phrase I WILL DO AS I AM TOLD written over and over. The fourth wall is completely covered in competing screens, all of them playing different informative clips of dangerous, undisciplined children getting their just desserts or helpful, obedient children being rewarded.

Several desks with lap restraints, like amusement park rides, fill the center of the room, preventing anyone who's added to a seat here from getting up unless released. On a stool in the back corner sits a conical cap with the word DUNCE written across it.

Walking Labyrinth

If the art therapy, meditation, and sensory deprivation available to you on the previous floor weren't enough to calm your troubled mind, maybe this indoor walking labyrinth will do the trick.

Unlike the typical outdoor labyrinth, this one has a much deeper path paved out, with half walls lifted up along the sides like a miniature maze. The high ceiling prevalent across the entire third floor also makes this room feel oddly enclosed and intimidating, despite the serene landscapes and blue skies painted on each of the towering walls. Actually, when compared to an outdoor labyrinth... this one feels more disorienting. If you start on one point and walk along the path to the end, you'll have plenty of time to think about what's so creepy about this place.

Mysterious Locked Room

At the moment, there's little indication as to what this door, located next to the vending machines, leads to. It's fairly ornate and looks more like the door to the library than the door to any of the classrooms or more utilitarian centers of the school. Maybe you'll meet someone who owns the key soon?

As of mid-week three, this room is obviously Nanami's private bedroom. It is usually locked during the day, but you might be able to convince someone to give you the key, or maybe she'll let you in for a chat?

Vending Machines (VM)

The addition of these vending machines, located next to the locked room, seems a little strange. Why would the Academy bent on eliminating its students free wills be interested in installing something like this?

The vending machines are a small junk food oasis when compared to the bland, nutritionally complete food in the cafeteria and kitchen. It's possible to select an assortment of bottled (non-alcoholic, you naughty children) drinks and bagged single-serve chips and candy from each of the machines - though only one of each variety is available per day, it seems.

FLOOR FOUR

Nurse’s Office

Just in case you get into trouble that the emergency first-aid situation downstairs can’t solve, the nurse’s office is here to cover a wider variety of illnesses and injuries - particularly sickness. Of course, if the problem is too severe, you still have to manage to get the ailing patient all the way up here…

In addition to a wider range of injury treatments and tools, including a couple pairs of crutches and rubbing alcohol, there are also a few more…old-fashioned medical solutions in the cupboards, including bottles of ipecac and castor oil and a jar of live leeches. Despite some of the outdated supplies, the room is sterile, and the three cots even have privacy curtains for those who want to sleep off their stomach aches.

Dance Studio

Though it lacks the high ceilings of any of the third floor rooms, the dance studio still looks magnificent and austere. The hardwood flooring is polished to a dull reflective sheen, and the wall-length mirror panels on all sides allow dancers to inspect their form from any angle. The same sound isolation installed in the dormitory rooms has also been put in place here, as any noise from inside the studio–from stomping feet to music playing over the speaker system (instrumental selections only, with the same bent toward classical and big band that you’ve seen everywhere else)--are muffled from the outside when the door is closed.

Abandoned Dormitory Room

While the lettering next to the door has been scraped up and wiped away, there are still faint ghosts of the writing left behind: “Senior Prefect’s Room.” If you've managed to peek into the other mysterious dorm room on the third floor, these quarters look very similar, though the room beyond the door is a little bit bigger and its contents are… a mess. It lacks the meticulous order and categorizing that’s become commonplace around the school. The paper waste bin on the writing desk isn’t even fully emptied, and a stack of girls’ interest magazines is hidden under the class notebooks. A beauty vanity missing its mirror sits next to the wardrobe, the drawers of which are half open and missing most of their contents.

Botany Room

Though the name of this room might lead one to believe that it’s all dedicated to growing and experimenting with plants, the main chamber of the botany center is more like a museum. Dead and dried samples of several plants–many of them exotic, extinct, or poisonous–are pinned behind thick glass in display cases on the walls. Some may be familiar to you, but some appear to be from faraway or even nonexistent lands or from times well before human existence. Small cards with written information on all the samples sit beside each case. It would be nice if these were useful, but…break into the glass and the samples crumble into dust, whatever’s been used to preserve them giving up its old work.

It isn’t all just for observation, though: There’s also a small adjacent indoor greenhouse/grow room for some of the more common plants depicted here. There are currently sprouting dahlias, datura, oleanders, pansies, daisies, lilies, sage, and bleeding hearts.

Butterfly Garden

Adjacent to the botany room, this seems to be the destination for many of the fully grown plants that make it out of there in one piece. Like many rooms before it, the Butterfly Garden is a peaceful distraction. The fake glass paneled walls give the illusion of calming sunlight (though just like any other light in Closetland, it’s ultimately artificial). Butterflies–and some moths–flit through the air and around your head. Closer examination reveals that they are projections.

FLOOR FIVE

Pool

Putting aside that this varsity pool might be better suited for the ground floor–if hotels can do it, why can’t the Academy?--this four-lane swimming pool might be the best way for the non-athletic to get in some exercise. A small shower and changing area with full privacy for each is located adjacent to the pool room. A better selection of athletic swimsuits than those available in the sensory deprivation room can also be found, along with a small selection of longer beach towels.

The Little Brother who acts as a lifeguard during class hours is completely shorn, somehow…the robotic features are much clearer without all of the sheep wool shapes to hide them. While the lifeguard is on duty during the day, a nearby sign warns swimmers to engage at their own risk with no lifeguard on duty.

There’s no jacuzzi or sauna areas here, though. Those can be dangerous, the sheep explains. But maybe you'd like to play Marco Polo?

Soda Fountain

Wow, what a swell place! Though the hastily obscured sign by the door suggests that this was once the Detention Room: Threat Level 2, this section of the floor has been hastily repurposed.

It’s hard to imagine this mid-century chrome paradise being installed in the school when Father ran it. After all this time, stopping to have fun and enjoy a root beer float might be beyond the students. Perhaps this little oasis comes too little, too late. Even if it does little to soothe the hurts of the past month, you can still come here to relax and enjoy some ice cream and carbonated beverages or listen to music that, while all of the lyrics are garbled nonsense, is still more invigorating than the instrumentals on offer across the rest of the Academy.

There’s something a little…foreboding…about this room, however. Its reflective polish feels artificial and surreal nestled into the school like this. It looks, on the surface, like a soda fountain created entirely from imagination based on photographs and half-understood stories. From certain angles, it even looks more like a swanky hotel bar than an American teenage hangout. It is the dollhouse version of a soda fountain.

Little Fears Room

This room, more than any other you’ve encountered in the Academy thus far, is difficult to describe and its purpose equally difficult to discern. In defiance of the general lack of modern tech elsewhere in the building, this room is filled with several stacked monitors. Several of them seem to be showing video feeds from the holding cells down in the containment center. The monsters within pace like zoo animals and sit despondently. None of them seem particularly happy with their lot in life.

A strange contraption occupies the center of the room, whirring with electricity. In some ways it resembles an automatic stenotype or the sheet music feed on an automatic piano. It rolls through long reams of paper with unintelligible puncture marks along it, calculating something on its own section of display screens.

Student Council Room

Say goodbye to the A/V room! The newly remodeled student council office is finally available, just in time for its existence to mean very little in relation to its original purpose given the sudden change in circumstances.

There are two independent desk spaces set up in this office. One, slightly larger and given more bells and whistles, appears to have been designated for the Senior Prefect. This desk has been angled slightly to better face the other, which, while smaller, has haphazardly been given more space, as if rearranged after the initial decorating took place.

An extremely overpopulated bulletin board contains postings regarding school event planning. While many of the documents on the desks appear to be some kind of mindless busywork, there may be something new to add to the information you have about the school once you go through all of the common knowledge.

Records Room (Rec.)

This unassuming room positioned next to the student council room is little bigger than a closet, and the frosted glass pane inserted in the door hides its contents until the room is entered. Inside, all of the bulbs are blown out, and the lack of windows or permeating light make it difficult to find what you’re looking for.

Inside, The expected filing cabinets are here, each one sealed with a combination lock. Almost everything is coated in a fine layer of dust. The inbox and outbox trays balanced precariously on top of the card table serving as a main work station look like the paper rolls used in the Little Fears room.

Just what kind of records could the Principal have been keeping here…?