Realistic or Modern rose-colored glasses [LORE]

[laburnum gold]

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• nav.
• inspo.

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  ROSE-COLORED GLASSES.
  — lore
  
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  CS — LORE —IC​
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  eyes — crows — obelisks​

  
  

  

  
  
  

  htgawm — hannibal — riverdale — WINGS​

 

[laburnum gold]

• i.
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• tour.

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  PLOT.
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  A group of freshmen come into this gorgeous old university that offers them the picture-perfect college experience. They'll live together, go to class together, and become adults together. Away from the eyes of their parents, they'll get their first taste of independence at Iris and Candor.
  
  As they start their year, they realize that ICU is far stranger than can be warranted by just old money weirdness. Centuries-old cobblestone buildings don't explain secret rooms - well, they do, but not ones that everyone's adamantly not talking about in the 21st century. A filthy rich student body doesn't need to walk around campus exuding the low hum of electricity. It's not just the upperclassmen; it's the professors and administration too. You can tell who hasn't been on campus long by the lack of danger around them. Even the nicest students feel like they're half a second from snapping. Snapping what is up in the air.
  
  This all comes to a head barely a week into the semester. The first weekend at ICU always sets the mood for the rest of the year. The campus-wide party starts in the evening (or sooner, if you're into the idea of a darty) with clubs providing food and performances on the green. The final show of the night is the towering bonfire right when it's darkest.
  
  A glimpse and a whisper is all it takes. Why would anyone slip away to go into the wooded park at the far edge of campus? Drugs maybe. What kind of stupid rich kid drug is called "pupils of the sun," though?
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  There are no colorful Harvard chairs or sprawling NYU campus, but Iris and Candor's infamous Tower looms in the distance and you know this place offers something you'll be hardpressed to find elsewhere. Thinking about other colleges is pointless, though; everyone in this tour has already committed. In a couple months, these people will be your classmates, roommates even.
  
  Despite being summer, the campus is still bustling - the sounds of music and laughter are a low thrum in the air. You trail behind the group, eyes dropping on the pickup volleyball game in the middle of the grass, and it's like you stepped into a movie instead of getting a glimpse of what will, improbably, become your reality.
  
  Getting in meant the school thought you were special. Everyone they admit is talented. The student body is filled with prodigies, celebrities, and leaders (plus the people rich enough to keep up). The best of the best rubbing shoulders and competing against each other. You can't believe you got in.
  
  Striding through your group, a confident woman nods at your tour guide before turning forward and meeting your gaze dead-on. The overwhelming feeling you get from her is something sharp, not from the angles of her cheeks or the collarbones shifting under her shirt, but from the too pointy ends of her smile. She keeps her eyes on you she passes by, smile turned into a smirk.
  
  Despite the afternoon sun, you shiver.

 

[laburnum gold]

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  CAMPUS.
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  Iris and Candor University is located at the edge of the small but bustling city of Candor, Pennsylvania in its large Pandora Park. It offers a wide swath of grassy knoll for the college students to picnic on and enjoy its pavilions at their leisure. Campus is set on a hill at the back of the park when fields give way to copses of evergreens. This entrance to the school is the West End and noticeable for its looming archway and crow statuettes. From this point, it takes a twenty minute walk to get to town - a fun way to waste time on the weekends rather than a necessity for students. ICU was built with the thought of providing everything and the insular community it created resulted in numerous eateries, diverse housing possibilities, and necessities ready-for-order. Regardless if school is in session or not, ICU always has people on campus.
  
  The West End entrance leads people along a leisurely cobblestone path dotted with flower beds, antiquated lamp posts, and the occasional thick tree around a wide plot of green grass where school events and other congregations are held. The more easterly it gets, the higher the ground slopes. On this hill is the central point of ICU: The Tower. The tower is twelve-stories tall, easy to spot from anywhere in town, nevermind campus. Within it are nearly all of the school facilities: classrooms, professor and admin offices, study spaces, etc. set amidst shelves of books and other resources. It is open twenty-four seven and acts as the hub of campus besides the aforementioned green.
  
  Past the Tower, on the East End, are the buildings that make up for what the Tower can't provide. The gymnasium, amphitheater, clinic, eatery, security department, and other amenities are located here. It was purposefully placed nearby the tower and housing.
  
  The south side of the school is referred to as the quad. All the residence buildings are located here, separated as they are. It is the only section of campus able to be driven into from town. The closest to the road are two dorms that then split into two wings to house freshmen specifically: Iris and Candor with Spring and Summer, and Fall and Winter as their wings respectively. Down the road are the upperclassmen houses, ranging from the austere to the fanciful.
  
  The north side of campus has no name. It is densely wooded and ICU has nothing of note built or held there. Due to this, it is a popular place on campus for illegal and illicit activities.

 

[laburnum gold]

The RA: Duke Ingram​

There's not much to know.

When you got your room assignments at the beginning of August, he made a group chat for everyone in the hall. He's not super active or overtly friendly on there, but he usually answers any questions pretty quickly. He's in his second year, he's a well-known photographer, and he's a communications and media major with a Japanese minor.

The first time you saw him was when you moved in, and he was handing out IDs, maps, and orientation schedules with a tired customer-service smile. You get the feeling that he's a busy dude, and (hopefully) that that means he's a pretty chill RA.

 

[laburnum gold]

The Dean: Yifan Iris​

Dean Iris is definitely the less approachable half of ICU admin. There's nothing about her that's mean, but she doesn't have the same amount of time in a day to stop and chat with students like Don Candor does. Any time she's spotted on campus, she's focused on getting to somewhere else. If anyone wants to talk to her, they have to be able to keep up with her. It's pretty funny, actually.

She does a lot more of the behind-the-scenes work, so you don't really know anything about her. The first time you saw a picture of her, you recognized her as the woman you saw during your tour.

Definitely the less approachable one.

 

[laburnum gold]

The Don: Elihoreph Candor​

Don Candor is the campus favorite. Even Dean Iris's favorites will agree.

Even though you don't know him, you feel like you do from all his speeches and the personable way he presents himself. There are tons of pictures of him on school social media hanging out with groups of students on the green. You found a popular account documenting his daily suits - he seems to favor yellow.

He does a lot around campus, but he's most affiliated with the Crows which makes sense since his family established the group. The Crows are like charismatic mini Don Candors in the making, and the way they flock around him is the cutest.

 

[laburnum gold]

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  THE TOWER.
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  If there's anything ICU is known for, it's the Tower. It's the oldest building on campus and in town. The antiquity is all in its architecture and not in its resources. The tower is the top priority of the school to maintain and update - rightfully so, as its reputation is what draws most of their applicants. The building is self-sustainable, open 24/7, and has an enthusiastic staff of student employees and actual adults.
  
  Standing at twelve-stories high, the Tower is not strictly a tower. Its first three stories act as an ornate base that juts outward pentagonally. They're casual floors; first acting as a library for fiction only with large loungerooms and various multi-media resources, and the second and third being for references and periodicals. Every four floors, there are mezzanines dedicated to study rooms. It's miraculous to find an empty one, even early on in the semester - most people reserve them as quickly as they can.
  
  The fourth and fifth floors are dedicated to the sciences and the STEM majors are very familiar with the offices of their professors in the front, the classrooms past that, and the shelves behind. The sixth and seventh floors are for the humanities, while the eighth and ninth are for the arts. The tenth and eleventh floors have been turned entirely into administrative offices. If anyone wants to change their major or talk about financial aid, they would come up there. The twelfth floor is for Dean Iris and Don Candor. They don't get a lot of visitors - Dean Iris is almost always too busy to talk if you don't make an appointment weeks prior, and if you actually see Don Candor in his office, he's actually doing business.
  
  At the top of the Tower is the cupola which houses a large bell. It doesn't ring much, and when it does, it goes off at a random time with a random amount of rings. No one knows who rings it or why, but people like to think Don Candor does it and that's how you know he's in his office. (It is uncertain if this is true or not.)
  
  The basement of the Tower is where the archives are located. Anything delicate or ancient is placed down there for safekeeping. It is rarely visited for how musty it is. There is some space under the basement used for extra storage.

 

[laburnum gold]

The Advisor: Percival Manco​

On your schedule, you see a class that's simply labelled: 4EΩ Seminar. Percival Manco. Tower 510. F 1:00-2:30.

Looking him up, you see that he's the head of the psychology department. He's a prolific writer, and researches morality versus human desperation. Besides that, there's not a lot about him.

His reviews on RateMyProfessor are okay. Both the positive and negative ones say that he's weird and hard to predict: sometimes walking out on class five minutes in and other times interrogating students on the reading. The best ones say he'll inspire you; the worst that he'll wreck your GPA. The only thing you could say for certain is that he has a habit of being randomly unavailable.

 

[laburnum gold]

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  FIRST WEEK OFFICIAL SCHEDULE.
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  Saturday, Aug. 29 - arrival. all day.
  
  Sunday, Aug. 30 - orientation.
  1:30PM - 3:00PM - RA led discussions
  3:30PM - 4:30PM - campus tour
  5:00PM - 7:30PM - convocation ceremony and dinner
  
  Monday, Aug. 31 - Friday, Sept. 4
  first week of class.
  
  Saturday, Sept. 5 - first saturday. (sunday unofficial)
  sat. 6:00PM - on the green. food stalls and entertainment
  sat. 7:00PM - scarecrow
  sat. 8:00PM - bonfire
  (sun. all day - recovery)

 

[laburnum gold]

Mary Shelley​

Duke's friend(?).

The first time you saw her, she had already whisked your RA away back up to your floor. Since then, you see her visiting his room intermittently. You don't know what their relationship and her actual name is, and it's been a week.

You kinda wanna know why she's Mary Shelley in Duke's contacts, though. Her vibe is weird, but not classic lit weird. She has an inscrutability to her, and not in the regular manic pixie dream girl way. She just doesn't seem fully there.