The School
Level Classification
Difficulty | 1/5 | While the level poses some danger, any immediate necessities are easily supplied. However, more extraneous items must be sought with risk. |
---|---|---|
Entity Count | 2/5 | While native entities are common, they can be easily avoided, and foreign entities are an unlikely encounter. |
Chaos Gradient | 1/5 | Beyond the occasional broken light and missing ceiling tile, the level is relatively stable barring the occasional non-linear hall. |
Basset-Frazier Index | 1.333/5 | This level is safe to get through, but living here is ill-advised due to limited occupied space. |
fig 1.0 The School, the upper floor.
Description
The School is a high school building, being separated into two floors. Wanderers will almost always enter on the lower floor. Anyone unfortunate enough to enter on the upper floor must find a staircase leading down as soon as possible. The School can be described as a "Rest Level", functioning as a safe, habitable level where one can stock up on food or Water. Dangers and extra supplies may be found on the upper floor, but at the expense of the safety of the lower floor.
Throughout both floors, water fountains may be found, which dispense fresh water. These fountains are completely safe to drink from, though it is possible that they may dispense Carpet Fluid, or other anomalous substances. It is advised to test the fountains before drinking or collecting. Both floors of The School are dotted with security cameras. These cameras are on, indicated by a dim red light, and are never seen moving. It is unknown where and how these cameras are accessed.
The School as a whole functions off of an internal day/night cycle. During the day, food is endlessly stocked within the cafeteria twice a day. During the night, all lights will shut off, leaving the building in pitch black darkness, only being illuminated by the dim red glow of the security cameras, other emergency lights, or any personal light sources brought from other levels. The day/night cycle matches that of baseline reality, each phase lasting 12 hours. One full day in The School lasts 24 hours.
The Lower Floor
fig 2.0 The School, a stairwell leading to the lower floor.
The lower floor is a finite space, containing office rooms, a small cafeteria, an auditorium and various miscellaneous rooms. These include: janitor closets, meeting rooms and testing rooms. Wanderers will typically end up on this floor when entering the level, specifically next to a stationed security desk. Four distinct exit doors can be found near the corners of the building, though they are anomalously sealed shut, and impossible to open or destroy. The floor is tiled with speckled white tiles, and the walls are usually a pale beige color, occasionally being decorated with black and red wallpaper.
The lower floor is primarily comprised of four hallways, connecting to make a rectangular area. Inside the rectangular area is the cafeteria and the auditorium. The cafeteria contains a few rows of benches to sit on with accompanying tables. The food here is anomalously restocked twice a day. The food itself is quite sub-par, being what you'd typically find in a public school. It is unknown where the food comes from, as the kitchen does not actually produce any food itself, but the appliances are a reliable source of warmth. The auditorium contains a large stage and a few hundred seats, ascending in height as you get farther from the stage. For the most part, the auditorium is barren and empty.
On opposite sides of the floor are the office and the lounge. The office contains several office rooms and some tech in them. Though, majority of the tech found in these rooms are nonfunctional, especially the computers. The lounge contains sofas, various board games, and weight training machines.
The Upper Floor
fig 2.1 A sign depicting the Students.
The upper floor can be accessed by going up one of the four stairwells found on the lower floor. The upper floor is an infinite labyrinth of hallways and classrooms, styled similarly to the lower floor, with speckled white tiles and pale beige walls occasionally decorated by red and black wallpaper. These hallways are sometimes non-linear, and can take up the same space without intersecting, or loop into entirely new areas. It may also be possible that backtracking will lead to a new layout, though this is not likely. The upper floor's classrooms contain several supplies. The classrooms themselves contain what you'd normally expect: rows of desks, a board, shelves or cabinets, etc. Staircases can be found roughly every 300 meters that all lead back down to the lower floor. Inside some halls and classrooms, windows can be found. These windows are blinding, and showcase nothing of the outside, only a white blinding light. During the night, the windows are a pitch black, showing nothing but a black empty void.
The upper floor contains two major threats. The former and more drastic is the floor's metacognitive effects on a person's mind. Being on the upper floor for extended periods of time will cause mental deterioration, similar to those experienced on The Halls, but can sometimes be more severe. Most common effects include: extreme emotions, thoughts of violence or suicide, functional and cognitive decline, and effects to your vision and hearing. You cannot directly die from these effects, but they may impede your ability to stay agile or alert while on this floor. Mental deterioration has been observed to accelerate considerably during the night. The other threat on this floor are the entities. Smilers have been sighted on this floor, however only during the night, and have been found mainly near or inside deviate rooms, such as rooms missing ceiling tiles, or rooms with destroyed or damaged doors. A native entity called "Students" can be found roaming the halls during the day.
Communities
Special Procedure Guidance Movement
The Special Procedure Guidance Movement (SPGM) is an organization found in The School. They are the only permanent human settlement on the level. Due to the limited size of the lower floor, large scale communities are not possible. The upper floor is impossible to live in due to its degrading properties. This organization is split into two sectors, the Deltoid sector and the Asteroid sector, each fulfilling a different role in the organization. The SPGM is made up of wanderers who have since given up on their escape from the backrooms. They took the opportunity to settle down on this level and call it home, due to its extreme safety. Their goal is to help guide wanderers through on how to move on and help provide supplies and hospitality to any wanderers who may need rest. This group originated as a small group of three close friends who happened to enter the Backrooms together, but since then, the organization has grown.
SPGM Deltoid Sector
The Deltoid sector has seven permanent members, who never leave the first floor. At least one personnel is stationed by the security desk to welcome new wanderers, but no more than two. Three more personnel are stationed in the cafeteria, looking over the food and providing it to oncoming wanderers. The last two are stationed by the stage in the auditorium, guarding the exit.
SPGM Asteroid Sector
The Asteroid sector has six permanent members, totaling to 13 members in the entire organization, across both sectors. This sector is made up of an expedition team, and regularly make trips into the upper floor of The School to retrieve extra supplies for availability. This allows oncoming wanderers to collect a few supplies as they come in without having to make a journey upstairs. The Asteroid sector rarely gets new members for their team as the occasional accident occurs. Some of the older members claim their expedition team was a lot larger. These older members are also researchers. They do more than just search for supplies upstairs. They study the Students; all known information on these entities are thanks to these veteran researchers of the Asteroid sector.
Access
Entrances
In The Cavity, you must find a ladder, that leads down into The School. You will come down from the first floor ceiling near the security desk. You may rarely be taken to the upper floor.
Overcoming the hallucinations of any sector of the Paranoia Museum will lead to The School.
Exits
The backstage of the lower floor's auditorium is devoid of light. In order to leave The School, you must pass through the curtains of the stage without a light source. Here, once you are fully enveloped by the darkness of the backstage, you will be taken to Your Home.
Alternatively, you may rarely phase through the windows found on the upper floor. Using this method during the day will take you to Boundless Retail. During the night, you will be taken to The Darkness instead.