I USED TO DREAM THAT I WOULD MEET A PRINCE

[checkingin]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The initial arrival rooms, the main lobby, all over the place.
When: May 7th
What: Feed me, Seymour

ARRIVAL.

you wake up when you hit the floor in a dark room, and the air is knocked out of your lungs. the carpet is threadbare, worn with use, kind of dusty. and you're not the first person to endure this crash landing. nor will you be the last.

once your vision rights itself, you can see the well-lit hallway through the doorjam straight ahead of you. not to say there’s monsters in the shadows, but something propels you towards that door and out into the bright hallway beyond.

and once outside your room, you can hear it: the steady thrum of rain outside.

MAIN LOBBY.

there's a staircase at the end of the lengthy hallway you tumble out of. grab your suitcase and follow the dull green exit signs on the ceiling until you reach the disappointingly bland stairs that lead you down to the ornate old fashion hotel lobby.

to your left is an richly crackling, rather excessively smoking fireplace, to your right is a lobby desk. straight ahead are three large sets of doors, all three of them thrown wide open and welcoming. and outside the few (curtained, permanently dark) windows is the continually steady hiss of rain. once you leave the hallway you wake up in, you won't be able to return.

welcome to the hotel.

FRONT DESK.

though there is a bell and a plaque designating the desk to be the main desk, the customer service desk, there are currently no staff members behind it. none shall answer your calls, either. there is, however, a pad of paper and a pen neatly aligned with the desk edge. you know. for notes.

terribly sorry for the inconvenience.

SCREENING ROOM.

on a long pull-down screen, a silent version of alice in wonderland will be playing on loop. at the back of the room, between the neat rows of fold out chairs, mounted on a wobbly table is the old-timey projector, and mounted on the walls are some rather old speakers that warble out "terrifying" old music.

along the curtained windows is another long table, with a large bowl of chipotle cheese popcorn corn and a large hot drink dispenser full of hot water, with a few cups and some old looking packages of apple cider mix.

DINING HALL.

is tragically, painfully empty.

OTHER.

the ballroom is currently open, and the grand doors unlocked.

there is no main door leading to the outside, good luck trying to find one.

the doors to the courtyard are unlocked.

ROOMS.

you've a room key with your assigned room number on it. all the new guest residences will be located on floors one and two. while there is an open elevator in the main lobby, and the buttons light up inside, the doors will not close. all in all, you'll be better off taking the stairs.

while they're the same stairs you undoubtedly came down to get to the lobby, the door to the endless hall everyone woke up in will not reappear between the main floor and the subsequent residential halls.

there are twenty rooms per floor. feel free to get to know your surroundings; or your neighbors as they trickle in around you.

EXISTING GUESTS.

are you dreaming of omlettes and regretting complaining about the constant pancakes and weak ass coffee yet?

Comments

Loving your Brock! <3

[bondedgryphon]

Zhaneel is no stranger to being judged and flushes at the look the stranger shoots her and her stumbling manner. It's a flush of embarrassment that colors her neck and cheeks at the admonishment and drops her gaze from his face to the floor. She looks over the scattered popcorn and is already dropping to her knees to gather up what she's spilled before he finishes speaking.

"I hardly meant to drop it," she murmurs through her curtain of hair, not looking up at him. It doesn't take too long to gather the spill from the floor and she pushes back to her feet, hand braced against the wall. He's right... stupid bird... She hadn't expected the remark, not for it to sting as much as it had. It was just like being back in Urtho's army... constantly dressed down and made to feel about six sizes smaller than she was. Living in the Sixth Wing had been hell, but it was a hell she'd lived everyday and sadly come to expect. Why should she have expected any different here? The self-doubt and self-loathing hit her hard and fast and when she speaks next, she never looks up at him, focusing on a section of carpet between them instead.

"There is water in abundance, but no food beyond what people saved from their meals..." Some had candy and some had other goodies stashed away, it didn't matter so much where the food had come from... just that it was limited.

But he's so mild right now!

[ukase]

Brock couldn't help but be completely unimpressed with this woman, though he didn't deny that she may, at some point, have usefulness. He wasn't entirely interested in burning the first bridge that he had come across, but it was rather difficult not shaking his head and taking her down a few more pegs when he smelled weakness. He had self-control, and he gripped it to keep from going too far, though he had no problem seeing the redness spread across her flesh.

"We hardly mean a lot of things, which means it's better if you just don't," he drawled as he shut the door to his room and tucked the key into his pocket. He swaggered closer, hands resting in his pockets and looked around the floor to make certain she hadn't missed a piece. That would be just plain wasteful.

"And are their meals, or are we on our own to fend for ourselves?" He would have brought money, but did he have the correct currency? "Where's the nearest town?"

Which is one of the many things I love! Zhaneel is going to be triggered so bad!! XD

[bondedgryphon]

She doesn't need to be in his head to pick up on the general feel of disgust being directed her way and it does nothing for her confidence. She never looks back up as he moves into the hall and walks toward her, knuckles going white as she grips the edge of her tunic.

She felt for the world as if she was standing before Winterheart, her Wing captain, and was being corrected for flying her circuit too slowly. Not just corrected, but corrected publically for all the Wing to see. She feels him looming over her, even though they are close in height, and shrinks into herself physically and mentally. Any moment she's expecting the shouting, or a swift cuff and the pain that followed. She doesn't even know this man, but the pattern is too easy to fall back into.

"They... they served us breakfast while food was being provided... it was the only meal, but there was more than enough to feed you for the course of the day if you took some to eat later."

It's the last question that finally brings her gaze up, though she looks loathe to answer. She swallows, throat suddenly dry. "There... there is no town that we know of..." Her hands shake slightly where they grip her tunic, "None have been able to leave the hotel... All ways are barred or unable to pass..." Nope. She hadn't wanted to be the bearer of that news. She didn't know this man from any other stranger, but the air of authority and danger was unmistakeable.

E~xcellent

[ukase]

He was waiting for her knees to start shaking and her shoulders and back to bow forward, and there was definitely a part of him that would enjoy it, but most of him was just exasperated. The first person he meets in wherever he was, and she couldn't even have a stiff spine or mild grip on her life in the face of someone scrutinizing her behaviour. He had seen abused twelve-year-olds with more of a stiff upper lip. This possibly was his own personal Hell, if he believed in that sort of thing (he didn't).

The only possible bright spot in all of this was that she would probably give him any information that he asked for without too much thought. That would serve his advantage, even if he knew he would have to verify it all again with a different source. Of course, she seemed far too naturally cowed in his presence to have this all be an act. He was definitely willing to take what he could get.

"And yet you just said that you've been without? Breakfast suddenly stopped or what?" He set his hands on his hips and studied her again now that he was closer. All he could think was 'whipped'.

He met her gaze without even blinking, and he took his time digesting the news. No town. No leaving the premises. He frowned and looked up and down the hallway slowly, considering what little he knew. "So this is actually Hotel California or a creepy Disney haunted house then?"

Brock, you're in so much trouble when Tasha finds out about this! :| (But I love it!)

[bondedgryphon]

You would not be the first to find enjoyment in tormenting her, Brock, and you'd possibly not be the last. Zhaneel didn't manage confrontation well because she'd been made to believe from an early age that she wasn't worth anything and that she deserved to be treated as such. Was it an enjoyable way to live life? God, no, she hated it as much as she hated herself; but she didn't know how to stop it.

But he was right in several regards... she would tell him anything she could about this place, but not because he intimidated the fuck out of her... because she couldn't imagine why not to tell him what she knew. She nods her head, glancing briefly at him through the fall of her hair. When he catches those golden eyes, there is any degree of fear there... like a caged bird frantic for escape.

"Yes, it stopped... the food had been showing up without problem and a few weeks ago it just stopped. The water is continuously available, but no food."

Her brows knit together slightly at his next words. "I don't... I don't know those places... But some of the others have claimed to see ghosts here." She swallows, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "I... I did not experience it, but there were several that did."

But he's being so mild!

[ukase]

It didn't seem to fit the bill for being in this strange place to not allow them to leave, have no town nearby to collect provisions, feed them one meal a day continuously for however long and then suddenly cut it off. So far, he couldn't make much in sense in the information that she had provided, but her fear made it clear that she was not holding out on him. The truth was as she saw it, which depending on what she was doing, who knows what it actually might have been.

"So this explains why you're stuffing your shirt with popcorn, huh?" It didn't actually explain why aside from the fact she was hungry. Normal people would have confiscated whatever the popcorn had been in or brought something larger like a pillow case. They had those in their rooms after all. "Did you fight anyone for all of that?"

Of course she didn't. Knowing his luck, she was actually an escaped mental hospital patient too loose with her medication. "So if you didn't experience it, it's not real. Or all the people that say so might actually be figments of your imagination."

And it's still delicious!!

[bondedgryphon]

Zhaneel had no reason to lie about what she knew, but regrettably there is certainly the chance that what she knows isn't what's going on. This doesn't mean you should discount it either, mister!

When he brings up the popcorn she had stuffed in her shirt and what remains there now, she flushes and looks back at the ground again. "Y-yes... It's not that I even like it, but it's better than not eating." And she'd wanted to leave some behind for others and using her shirt seems sensible at the time; don't think she wasn't sorely regretting that decision now. She wasn't expecting to get shit for it. Hell, she wouldn't be wearing clothes at all if it hadn't been made clear that she really should.

Then her gaze darts up again, golden eyes slightly widened as she shakes her head. "What? No... no, of course not..." She couldn't imagine why she would have. Everyone was pretty willing to help one another here, so why would she have fought for the popcorn? If another needed it more than her, she'd have let them take it. Even now she intended to offer it to anyone that wanted any.

And then she stiffens, brows knitting as she shows the first hint of backbone, frowning. "While the ghosts might not have been real, the people are..."

[ukase]

Well, he would give that it was better than not eating at all, but she still looked and acted like a scared cat jumping at any noise. Her usefulness was quickly waning in his mind, which meant that he probably just needed to get what he could out of her and be done with it. Clearly he needed to go in search of popcorn himself with this place on starvation lock down, if that was actually true.

He gave her the once over again, picking out details and discarding others. "So no one fights here, huh?" That was too bad, but it meant that it was going to be easy to stir things up when the time was right. People wouldn't have their guards up if they were all cheery and working together, assuming that he couldn't get them to fall in line as necessary. "You got some names of people so I can ask after them to verify your story?"

At the hint of backbone, he snapped a foot out to slap it loudly on the floor. "But you haven't seen ghosts, so how could you know the difference without the ability to compare?"