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[FICTION] Tales from Port Astor | The First Port Astor State University

     Port Astor State University is the premier higher education facility in the State of Jefferson, and every year, tens of thousands flock to the City of Secrets to "begin their futures". Most prestigious of all is the post-graduate program, the Doctorate of Applied Metaphysics & Philosophy, which is by invitation only. While many openly desire to enter the program, few could even begin to explain what the exact criteria of admittance are, let alone what is actually taught within.

    The program itself traces its lineage back to the university founders, who ran a small college out of the original university building, The Old Stone Hall. It began as an almost chapel-like structure of rustic cobble, but over its life grew into a bizarre and sprawling web of eclectic neo-gothic stonework, contemporary wood and cement, and other, harder to describe styles not seen before by any of its students.

    This was the heart of Port Astor Academia, until the December of 1931. During the Quarantine, the Old Stone Hall vanished, along with nearly the entire original campus. The official records of both the University and City state that a fire broke out after a gas-line exploded, but no one in the local area reported any sign of ash nor smoke, let alone any explosions, but all did agree on seeing an odd orange light glow and hang in the sky for a short time, all in the area of the Old Stone Hall. 

    Regardless, the original campus was gone. To this day, all that marks the location is an old plaque, and an empty lot that has remained vacant ever since, with the University refusing to discuss any plans of development, and repeating nothing more than the official line for nearly a century.

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