After a dreadfully long adventure of ascension and descension with no cohesion, the elevator ascends up to the final floor, as the fifeith button is now green to indicate that it had been chosen at last.
At this point, the only students left in the elevator are Rohan and Dexter, who stand side by side in silence, mourning the loss of their precious time.
The elevator pad slows down as it arrives at the final door near the top of the shaft, and it comes to a full stop. The door dissolves open, revealing the entrance to the hallway past the vanishing white particles.
Rohan stares at the exit, and with a voice fueled by dread, he asks his brother: "What time is it?"
Dexter blinks twice, and he activates a hologram from his Connect. His eyes focus on the projected screen, and he then closes the hologram and turns to Rohan.
He responds, "It's four ten."
Rohan takes a deep breath, and slowly lets it out, knowing he has not a full hour to find his dorm room and get accustomed to it. He nods his head, and drags himself out of the elevator, yawning.
He quietly commands back, "I memorized the directions...follow me."
Dexter frowns, and he sighs, knowing his brother was exhausted from feeling pulled and pushed. He follows out of the elevator, leaving it empty.
Rohan and Dexter walk near side by side down the hallway of the top level, surrounded by the white walls as they make their way towards their destination.
The hallway seems to be shaped circular, the walls are bent, and their path is constantly moving with the slightest turn. While the building itself is rectangular, it seems the interior is designed more circular, or at least the halls are designed in such a way.
Rohan keeps his attention ahead of himself as he walks down the long hallway, which seems to have corridors diverging along the far wall, which lead down to the end of the building, all of them still well lit as every space of the interior is illuminated. He keeps his hands at his side as his posture is slumped, as if he lost the energy to assume formality.
There is also nobody in the hallway, however there are muffled voices coming from behind the doors, as it is clear nearly everyone else was already being treated to whatever experience they were given by their room.
Dexter looks around the hallway with a smile, still amazed at the quality of what usually was the lowest part of universities. He turns to Rohan and says, "I can't wait to see the rooms here! Imagine if they were actually just white tin boxes with mattresses on the floor, and this was all just a great lie. That would be kinda funny, but would probably suck more, but I mean yeah. You know?"
Rohan lets out a sigh, hearing Dexter's attempt to bring conversation between them, as he hadn't spoken since they began their walk. He simply nods his head, and replies in a quiet voice, "Sure."
Dexter loses his smile, and he lowers his head after the heavy shutdown. He figures it best to just keep quiet, and perhaps strike a conversation later.
The two approach another divergence point where a corridor branches off of the main hallway, however this time Rohan turns to his right, and begins walking down that exact corridor, which indeed does have an eventual end where there even seems to be a window showing the outside world.
Rays of cyan light breach into the corridor, projecting streaks of light that the two approach as they walk down the corridor, which Rohan in front, trying to guide the two to their room after everyone else had done so. Along the walls of the corridor are many closed doors as well leading to other rooms, for it seems the corridors are what directly leads to the rooms. Light voices come from them, indicating that they're being used, with many of the voices seeming excited, although their words aren't clear.
Rohan takes the lead as he holds his hand out, allowing his Connect to project a holographic screen of his SAT app, which was on his dorm room page. He stares at the map to see that it has changed, for now that he is within close proximity of the destination, the three dimensional map no longer needs to display the whole building.
Instead, the hologram simply displays a three dimensional map of the one corridor they walk down, providing a small humanoid model in place for Rohan, which even has a walking animation that mimics Rohan's movement.
The holographic model walks down the corridor just as Rohan and Dexter do, following the yellow trail that runs all the way down to the end of the corridor before the trail takes a hard turn, and leads straight into the wall. More specifically, the part of the wall that the trail seems to lead to is a highlighted green part that's shaped like a door, as it seems that the ultimate destination is shown in green rather than yellow.
He lets out a soft sigh of relief as he quickly reexamines the ID he has, making sure that is the correct one. However, since the map is directly linked to his personal information, of course it would be correct, as the quick check was only to reinforce his confidence that he isn't walking to the wrong room.
Dexter follows behind Rohan as he looks at the window and then at the many doors, knowing soon they would stop on their own. He turns back to Rohan, and peers past him to sneak at the holographic screen.
Rohan continues walking for a few more steps as he approaches the end of the hallway, only coming to a stop once he gets to the door at the very end by the window. He then turns to his right, and looks back at his screen.
He then looks up at the door to see that there's a holographic sign on the door itself towards the top and center, indicating the ID of the room, although the sign is quite small so as to not take up all the attention. Upon glancing at the holographic sign, Rohan observes that it reads 'A50X20.'
Rohan looks at the ID on his screen, which matches the one on the sign, confirming to himself that he found the right room. He steps towards the door, to which a small red light shines out of the door itself and beams itself into his holographic screen like a laser, seeming to scan it for a few moments, as it begins the initial connection process. This process wouldn't be necessary again after the first contact, but for the first time, the door's systems would need to get correctly accustomed to the signatures provided by the Connect.
The red light suddenly flashes green before vanishing completely, and the soft sound of a ding rings from the door, indicating that the setup process has been completed as a success. Promptly after the process is complete, the door dissolves open into a burst of nanites to allow for entry into the room. Rohan steps back as his Connect's holographic screen closes since it was no longer needed, and Dexter turns to the room as well, ready to step inside.
Rohan stares at the room from the outside for a few moments, and he then walks in. Dexter follows slowly after looking down the hallway one last time, ready to immerse himself in his new home.
Rohan opens his mouth in complete awe as he enters the dorm room, as he stares at what appears to be more of a hotel room than a dorm. The room is surprisingly spacious as it even seems to have doors leading into other smaller rooms, still being all part of his personal area.
The dorm room has white walls and is shaped cubically, without many excess walls to obstruct its interior, and thus maximizing the amount of usable space inside for the two to take advantage of. Of course, it isn't just an empty room however, as it already is filled with a great amount of furniture to start with.
First off, in the dorm room are two beds, composed of a comfortable white mattress and a sleek silver frame that hovers off the ground by a few feet, similar to the beds that they had back home. The beds are beside each other, their long sides facing the door, however they're separated by bedside tables.
The bedside tables only consist of the tabletop itself, which hovers up to the level of the beds, standing by with perfect stability next to their beds for optimal use and being initially free of anything, for it gives space for the residents to decide how to use them.
Opposite from each bed is a white desk with smoothed edges, which too are simply composed of a tabletop much like the bedside stands, which hovers up several feet and sits nearly against the wall.
In front of the desks are chairs with a leathery black cushion and sleek matte black frame, which both hover up a few feet to meet the perfect height of being easy to get on and high enough to use. Of course, since both the desks and chairs hover, their heights are completely customizable, for the heights they are at first are nothing more than presets.
Next to each bed on the far sides of the room are also closets, one for each side. The closets appear similar to the one that Rohan had grown up with in his old house, however the difference is that they aren't in their own small rooms thus lack any doors to them, but instead stand out in the open. They are also both white, and they're taller yet slimmer than Rohan's, making them ever more sleeker than his.
Beside the closet on the far side of the room from Rohan and Dexter is a medium-sized window, which shows a beautiful view of the world outside the dorms and even campus, for the altitude of the room allows for a great distance of land to be covered in view of the window.
Dexter's eyes light up with excitement, and he instantly pulls his bag off his body, which simply detaches from his back like a chunk of metal being pulled off a magnet, and he throws it at the nearest bed to him. He then sprints deeper into the room, eager to explore the room and discover what qualities it contains hidden inside its vastness.
Rohan turns his head towards the white wall between the two desks and notices a small glossy black panel which seems attached to the wall between the two, which intrigues him. He walks towards the panel, his backpack still stuck to his back, and he observes the body of the panel for a moment, unsure of what exactly it is, as it's about the size of his hand.
Curious, Rohan gently taps the panel with his finger, and to his surprise he triggers a hologram to project out in front of him, displaying a two dimensional screen, however black rather than the podium menu's white background, which seems to load a menu, similar to the one from the podium of the elevator pads, however this time there's only blue buttons on one column rather than rows, as there aren't anywhere as many, and the buttons are even larger than they were on the podium's menu.
Each of the buttons are labeled with a title in black font, such as 'Air Conditioning,' 'Emergency Call,' and 'Soundproof.' He then notices an option titled 'Cover,' which tinkers his curiosity, and he finds himself motivated to press it.
He gives into his desires and presses the button, however the menu didn't change, as the only difference was that the button becomes green. He hums to himself, confused with what was supposed to happen, and he turns to his right as he worries he may have possibly sent a false alarm.
However, his eyes widen in surprise as he notices that the other half of the room that he entered from is simply not there for him, as instead there is a basic black wall separating him from the other side of the room. He blinks twice, and slowly steps towards the black wall, confused.
He extends his arm towards the black wall, and watches as his hand phases through, as though being consumed by the darkness. He feels his hand move, although he couldn't see it, as though there was a barrier he had formed.
He then pulls his arm back, and luckily enough it was completely intact. He moves his hand again, watching it as now it was visible to him, and he then lowers his arm. He looks at the black wall, and upon a quick visual analysis, he promptly recognizes that the wall isn't made of solid material, but instead is a holographic projection, as he notices a soft illumination coming from the wall, indicating that it's made of light.
Intrigued by the wall, Rohan contemplates momentarily on its existence, ultimately figuring its purpose may be for privacy, which was a rather intelligent choice as a feature since the majority of students would be roommates with strangers. Even though his roommate isn't a stranger by any means, he acknowledges that the wall could be beneficial to use for them too.
He turns back to the holographic menu and presses on the Cover button again, and watches the black wall vanish in the same effect as a holographic screen from his Connect being relinquished, revealing the remainder of the room that had just been blocked off, and once again allowing him sight of the other bed and parts of the room.
Rohan smiles at the cool feature, but his attention breaks as he hears Dexter yell, "Oh my god there's a bathroom! This is the best! We don't have to share it with anyone!!"
Rohan turns to the source of Dexter's voice, which was coming from one of the doors. He then locates Dexter's turned body, and approaches him, still figuring out the space he would spend his resting nights in. He stands behind Dexter, and smiles, asking "Can I see?"
Dexter steps to the side, somewhat embarrassed for hogging the view, and he nods his head. He responds, "Sorry, sure, go ahead."
Rohan nods his head, and he enters the room. He looks around to see what Dexter had just exclaimed about, a bathroom, and a beautiful one too. There is only one set, but that was to be expected, and he knows it would suffice as there are probably other bathrooms on the floor anyways if both of them needed it at once, but the possibility of running into such a predicament was unlikely to occur.
The surprisingly large personal bathroom has clean white walls and smooth white floors which softly reflect the warm yellow light that illuminates it, and seems to be rectangular in design, as it's longer from the door than it is wide, but that isn't to say that it's slim by any means, for that would be an incorrect analysis.
Rohan turns to the long sink table which seems to run along the entirety of the left wall with several silver faucets, although no visible bowl, as though the sink is expected to not need one.
Sitting against the wall and over the sink is a long and perfectly clear mirror, which itself gives off a soft light to make seeing through it easier.
Rohan then turns to the right side of the bathroom, to which he finds the white glossy toilet against the wall. He's surprised to see that below the solid seat making up the toilet, there appears to be armrests by the side, and even a footrest, as it's shockingly luxurious, making such a normally uninteresting activity far more comfortable.
There isn't any sort of toilet paper or anything of that sort, for such primitive mechanisms were utterly useless to have, for the toilet managed such problems itself.
Rohan turns to the corner of the room, to which his eyebrow is raised in initial confusion, for at first, he seems to find that there is no shower in the room, even though the rest of the bathroom appears to have more than what's necessary. However, he does notice a rather suspicious open space in the corner of the room, for it seems there's a large square area that simply has nothing, for it's far from the toilet and on the other side of the sink, being almost useless.
At first he contemplates that perhaps it's just additional space to keep the simple shape of the bathroom and allow the sink to be extended as much as it is, albeit unnecessarily given how long it already is before passing the toilet, however he comes to realize that such space is a common indication of a hidden presence.
Rohan slowly approaches the empty corner of the bathroom, his blue eyes contracted to a curious glare, as he walks past the toilet and towards the corner. He knows that there simply couldn't be anything, for it just didn't make sense given the rest of the bathroom's quality.
As he steps deeper into the corner, he nearly jumps as a hologram suddenly projects from seemingly nowhere, as he's unsure of where the source is due to the nearly invisible projecting light, for all that he can see is the light of the screen in front of him.
He shakes his head and brings attention to the rectangular hologram, finding that it appears to be a sort of menu, which hovers right in front of his body at the perfect height for him to easily tap on it with either hand.
Rohan reads the menu to see that there seems to be a horizontal meter near the top of the screen, which has a gradient with the far left side being blue and the far right side being red. Below that meter seems to be a number indicated close enough to likely be related, which reads: "105° F."
Well below the number and in the center of the screen is a single green button, which has the following text in white font: "TURN SHOWER ON," confirming to Rohan that it is indeed a shower that he is standing in, albeit an incredibly subtle shower, for it's impossible to tell from the outside when it is not in use.
Slightly below the green button isn't exactly a button, but it's a faint gray text still present on the menu, made to explain rather than operate. The small text reads, "NO PRESETS PRESENT." The text indicates that while the shower currently has no presets, there's a high likelihood that there is meant to be, only meaning that there's more chances of Rohan being able to optimize his morning showers better.
Below the green button towards the bottom are several other blue buttons that make up the rest of the menu, all also with white fonts. There are various buttons with diverse titles such as "BEGIN AS LOTION," "BEGIN AS DRYING," "MAKE PRESET," and many more.
Rohan smiles softly, impressed by the advanced shower, for it's far greater than what he had at home, so much so that he hardly recognized what it was, and only did because of the technological news he consumes.
He steps back several feet, and watches as the holographic menu vanishes, as it senses that he's no longer by the shower, showing even greater intelligence. He then turns around, and begins walking towards the exit of the bathroom, having mapped out everything that there seems to be, although he's sure that there's much more for him to explore.
Rohan returns to Dexter before stepping out of the bathroom, letting out a soft sigh as he's content with his living quarters for the time he'd spend, for he knows that it would be more than good enough, as it's even potentially better than his own home's systems. While of course his home is still a fond memory, he can't help but acknowledge the advancement that this new dorm room has to offer.
Rohan smiles, and he judges "This room looks more than perfect! We should be more than fine for a few years, even if we stay here for all. Honestly this doesn't even seem too different from other apartments, at least the ones we'd be able to afford. I saw you already claimed your bed so I'll take the far side."
He then turns to face the beds in the room, and gives off a soft sigh, as he realized they had yet to do what they went to the dorms for initially, for it was most clear they were meant to set up.
He asks, "How much time do we have?"
Dexter awakens his Connect to view the home screen, to which his eyes widen. He looks up at Rohan, and answers, "Uh, four forty five."
Rohan blinks twice, and he immediately pulls his backpack off his back, detaching it just as Dexter detached his, and throws it on the bed closer to the window, for it's the one that Dexter hadn't chosen with his own bag, as if rushing to unpack, or at least do the best he could just then.
His eyes widen as he immediately realizes how late it was, and how their next activity was imminent while they were still casually exploring their room. He nearly had forgotten that the two were exceptionally late to their dorm after the conundrum in the elevator, and had taken his time leisurely to explore the room when he could've easily done it later.
As he remembers the schedule for the first day, he's reminded of the fact that the next activity is at 5:00 P.M, only fifteen minutes later, and that activity would be in a completely different building distant from the dorms, one that they had never went to, meaning there were many variables to cause additional delays on top of their late start.
It is only the first day and one of the first activities, so the prospect of being late sends shivers down his spine, as he wanted to try maintaining a good attendance for his whole stay at the college, and so this rough start wasn't promising.
Rohan turns to Dexter and hastily states, "We need to go, we can't be late for this, and I don't even know where the main hall is. If we're lucky, there should be some people heading out right now, hopefully. We'll unpack everything when we get back, but for now we have to attend this!"
Dexter sighs, and he nods his head reluctantly, agreeing "You're right, it'd be cool if we could spend more time here but we can't be late."
Rohan nods his head, and he replies "We'll have all the time in the world later. Follow me."
With that, Rohan runs to the exit door of the dorm, and Dexter follows close behind. Rohan opens the door and runs out, with Dexter running out of the dorm room as well.
Rohan turns to the door, and he raises his hand, causing his Connect to project a hologram of the dorm room page of the SAT app in front of his hand. He then finds a newly added set of buttons in the page, such as a direct copy of all the buttons that were on the black panel he used earlier, and a few more unique additions with one being: "Lock Door."
He presses on that exact one, and the door materializes in front of him, likely locking and preventing anyone without authorization from entering. He takes a deep breath, and turns to Dexter, and they both nod their heads to one another.
Rohan relinquishes his Connect's hologram, and the two walk down the hallway with hasty steps, anxious to still make the meeting in time without needing to sprint all the way openly, for they didn't want to conduct themselves too chaotically.