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

[ingrantitude]

"How far do you honestly think, SHIELD is willing to go? There's a truce in place, with me - but the way things are going here with food it's always a good idea to have a trump card up your sleeve and be prepared for people to split into factions at any time.

I'm a realist."

And he sounds more then a little bitter, "...nothing lasts forever."

[ukase]

Rumlow smirked and set his hands on his hips. "Yeah well, your truce with SHIELD doesn't include me, and the sooner we get some information passing between us, the sooner I get to work doing what I do best," he said, his tone brimming with confidence. Yeah, the Triskelion dropped on him; he got better, and revenge was in the cards against SHIELD.

"No, nothing does. Change is good." For some. Others who fell behind the curve could just get swallowed up.

[ingrantitude]

"Hear me out for a moment." Ward held up a hand, "They have enhanced people. And we don't know what enhanced they have or for that matter if Coulson has more enhanced that he hasn't brought to the table. It's better to wait until we know exactly what we're dealing with."

He pauses, "We could turn the whole hotel against them then."

[ukase]

"Enhanced how so?" This kid wasn't giving him much to work with, and it was starting to grate on his nerves. He certainly was not interested in standing out in the bloody open where apparently anyone could walk by while he fished information. "Coulson, huh? I like dead people."

Three against however many wasn't helping him here. "And how many are in the hotel? I want numbers, not whatever pussyfooting you're doing."

[ingrantitude]

"They have abilities." Ward says, "I know of at least two. Maybe three people with abilities. The kind of stuff you'd only see from people like Banner."

"As far as I know there's just Coulson, his protege, and his lab tech. Coulson - can't get more enhanced then coming back from the dead right? And his lab tech-"

Fitz can take it.

Fitz will understand.

"...They ran into a bit of trouble in Puerto Rico and something happened to him. He won't talk about it but the little shit broke two of my ribs."

[ukase]

"Because we need more than one green rage monster in this world," he replied dryly. 'Abilities' was kind of all encompassing; he liked to think he had abilities that he honed and was about to employ fairly soon.

"He came back from the dead." Ah, that explained a few things. Fury had to know; had Pierce? No, the wily old bastard would have wanted that tech or whatever else was involved to do that. Immortal HYDRA agents and all.

"So you were witness to what happened to him and his abilities?"

[ingrantitude]

"That's not all."

He snorts. He was treading on dangerous ground here, "Coulson's protege shot me. But the two of them tricked me out into the open and I saw it for myself."

He'd have to leave Fitz a weapon. Or tell Kara to keep an eye out for him but with HYDRA here - especially someone as dangerous as Rumlow -

Yes. Kara.

He'd tell Kara to keep an eye out for Fitz. Back-up as it were and he'd keep an eye on her.

The thought of having a clear enemy is so refreshing he smiles, warm but not friendly. Friendly when it came to HYDRA meant threat. Even as he swooned ever so slightly.

"...God I'm starving."

[ukase]

Rumlow regarded Ward for a long moment, considering what he had been told, but he was mostly considering what he hadn't. He mulled it over quietly, still listening to the words the flowed passed him. He made a few connections of his own.

Avoidance behaviour. Throw out words here and there, change the subject often to confuse the subject. Give enough information to be interesting but not enough to be useful. Jump around. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.

He wasn't born yesterday. And shit the little menage et trois was down to masturbation again just like that. Not even the offering of a goddamn cigarette or a slap on the ass. At least he knew he was still back to the old motto of doing things himself was the only way to make certain it was done right at all.

"You're full of smoke and mirrors, but when you want to deal, let me know. Until then, stay out of my way, pup," he growled, grabbed the handle of his suitcase and moved to walk away.

[ingrantitude]

"What do you want in deal?"

Ward spread his hands wide, twisting to look at him, "Everything I told you is good. It's good intel, and you have allies here."

He'd make a grab if he weren't sure that Rumlow could break him into six pieces and mail them to a different part of the hotel if he felt like it.

"You don't think I don't want a piece of Coulson? I was a prisoner, behind a SHIELD badge for most of my life. Now I get stuck here? If you've got an idea to make them suffer by all means do it but I..."

"...I dunno, the way SHIELD turned it around? Suddenly deciding that out of everyone they're the good guys? Making it look, like they're the saints in this whole picture when they were harboring us? Hunting down HYDRA cells. You caught up? Seen the news? Seen how they're on the lookout for HYDRA like it's some kind of terrorist organization when you and I both know that the whole point..." His mouth twitched, "You should hear him, talking about the greater good and how he had to help people but he killed Garrett. Blew him to pieces with Fury's goddamn blessing and he still wants to be called a good man after that?"

He's unaware of how his voice has risen five or six octaves but he lowers it, "...Things change. Especially here. You want to sit on your hands go ahead but eventually, you know they'll out you. It happened to a guy from a different time and a different place and if you're here - who knows if SHIELD hasn't added to it's ranks? If there aren't Avengers here?"

Ward might appear slightly unhinged at this point. Slightly, ever so slightly. He may not be Natasha but he can play both sides - it just takes more of a toll on him. He stopped, realizing just how tired he was of playing the double game and how he'd desperately wanted them to leave him alone.

He sags, "...Keep to the truce I have going until they make a move. and they will, you know they will."

But what if they didn't. What if they don't. He stops, reflecting on that but if Rumlow's here that means HYDRA is here and HYDRA is dangerous.

"But until then, you could gather allies here, intel, recruit people to the cause who might be willing to join a new head - a better head. someone who can...fulfill Pierce's legacy. People who might have answers. And then - you can have the satisfaction of showing SHIELD off as the rotted corpse it is to anybody who might believe it. They spat on HYDRA and called the mission - the real mission wrong. They need someone to control them."

He licked his lips, expecting - fully expecting the other man to hurt him, "Don't you want to show them the truth if the occasion calls for it? In the long run, why not drag them down before killing them all? There's got to be a time for it and god damnit if I don't want revenge."

"Especially since that kid, that boy broke me after his goddamn girlfriend shot me. He got earthquake powers. You really want to be in here if he goes off? Without figuring out a way to stop him?"

He has to at least try and take charge and him walking away...after outing Skye and the rest of them despite trying to throw false information. He can't raise his arms to do the full salute, and it leaves the worst taste in his mouth as he does so - but not knowing where the other man is coming from is dangerous. "...Hail Hydra."

[ukase]

Rumlow slowed as he walked away and then allowed his feet to come to a stop as he looked over his shoulder at Ward. He didn't know the kid, but he was getting a good sense right away as the bombardment continued, but he'd be playing a part for probably as long as Ward had been mistakenly born into this world. However, he listened because only a stupid leader didn't, and he had long ago prided himself on the fact that he wasn't stupid. Cunning, shrewd and untrusting, but he wasn't stupid.

So he turned to face Ward again, his jaw working silently as he watched the song and the dance, picked it apart in his head but said nothing just yet. He let this kid get it all out, expel all this bad air and maybe take a fresh breath of one to calm all this bullshit down, the need to spew nothing solid at him and expect that he'd be thankful for it.

He held up his hands in fists, not pleased in the slightest to be doing this in the middle of the damn lobby. Well, he worked with what he had. "Listen up and listen well, pup," he said firmly. He lifted one finger. "One, outside of Coulson's name, you've given me jack shit. I want names of these 'protege' and 'tech' if you consider them so important." He lifted a second finger. "Two, I will make them suffer. It's my job, and I'm very good at it." A third finger. "Three, don't even think about lecturing me on how SHIELD operates on a noble level. I know how SHIELD works, and HYDRA had still been dry humping them for years and they didn't even know it."

He dropped his left hand, the one without any fingers raised, so that he could grab his suitcase handle and slowly stalk his way over to Ward. He stared unflinchingly at the kid, studying his expression intently for a moment. He raised a fourth finger. "The best defense is a strong offense. I ain't sitting on my hands for them to rally and realize I'm here. My current anonymity works in my favour. Your truce means nothing to me."

He shook his head as he raised his fifth finger. "Five, we all have boo-hoo stories, and I'm not interested in yours. You aren't interested in mine. We serve the ideal and the mission," he said firmly and slowly so that every word had a chance to permeate to the corners of Ward's brain. "You are either HYDRA or you aren't just yet. And if you aren't, you haven't been told the ideal properly. That will change for everyone here."

He smirked as he dropped his hand and he was fully willing to whip this piece of shit into the floor in a second. Well, he was certain that Ward was very well-trained and excellent in combat. "And you know the way to take out threats? Get a damn good weapon and know how to use it."

[ingrantitude]

Take note.

Take note of the ideal. Take note of the lessons. Take note of the difference between a true believer and someone who has never believed in anything and never been taught anything. He wished Cal was still here because he was sure that the man would have stood on Skye's side. He could do this.

If you can keep your head when all about you, Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too... His grandmother had loved reading him that stupid poem.

He had Kara to think about.

He had Skye and Fitz to think about. He'd done what he could for Skye to try and throw suspicion off of her and this...

This is what being a leader is. Making the right choices and if I'm at his right hand, if I can prove myself...then when the time's right I could stab him in the back. And how satisfying would that be?

But this time...If he could find one person on Coulson's team that he could trust... Later. That's for later.

"He didn't. Garrett didn't."

He throws everything he has into being believable, every skill, every trick.

"That kind of...of dedication. It's enviable." he draws in a deep breath and looks down, "It's admirable. I mean Garrett was never really HYDRA. He wanted to screw people over. The old fool wanted to live forever. You make it seem like there's more to it then what I believed."

[ukase]

Rumlow would not fail, nor did he have the ability to falter. That was the way that he wanted it, and even as the Triskelion fell all around him, he had never stopped believing that he would be shoving his way out of the rubble, picking up his gun and walking away from the forty-first floor to finally and beautifully put a bullet in that meddlesome Maria Hill's forehead.

There was nothing but the mission and it didn't stop for him just because he was in some fake hotel probably actually in a coma somewhere. In drugged up, it continued. STRIKE and Pierce had understood; they had been even in their will and methods. He would not fail, and he could never falter.

He smirked at the words, shrugging his shoulders and giving Ward the once over. "Garrett wasn't the only one then," he replied coolly. "But men who believe or on the verge of believing can take the step forward still."

He lifted a finger and waved it in the air. "Everyone has their fears, pup. For some, it's dying. For others, it's losing something." He slowly turned away again. "That doesn't make them any less loyal. It just means they have to get more personally invested to protect that fear and hide it away."

[ingrantitude]

He almost makes a joke. Almost. Do I really have to say it? It sounds so X-files. but there is a lot riding on this. This man is a danger to the hotel and he's not listening to him about the danger that enhanced people pose.

So he keeps himself serious, keeps himself focused and throws himself into his character. Sign up. Sign up and go straight to Kara, tell her his plan and try and....try and help.

You should leave it the hell alone. The last time you tried to meddle... He didn't have a partner who explicitly trusted him.

"...You're talking about conquering fear."

He inhaled and remembered being locked away and how he hadn't been afraid of it because he was so sure he could keep his promise to Skye.

"There's no way to do that."

[ukase]

The problem with this situation was that he knew that Ward knew things and aside from pushing the guy over the front desk and interrogating the information out of the man, he suspected that he wasn't going to get it in one long-winded blurb. It was going to come in bits and pieces, not in any order, and he'd be left finding the thread.

With Coulson here, with unknowns with apparent powers, he didn't have time for that. His window was limited because right now, he couldn't even trust that Ward wasn't going to immediately rush off and squeal his name in the hallway. There was too much dancing going on to assume anything else.

Rumlow give the kid a patient look. "Primal fear, no. That's ingrained," he agreed. Fight or flight would always have a hold somewhere in a person. "Never bet on something being an impossibility though, pup. A man is only limited by what he's willing to do and his imagination."

He tilted his head. "So, are you ready to give me names yet? Who is the tech with the earth powers? Who is Coulson's protege?"

[ingrantitude]

That last part made him think of Garrett and he had to swallow down pride.

"...Her name's Daisy. we used to be on a team together." He inhales, "She's nothing more then a girl but Coulson loves her. He's compromised when it comes to her."

"The other one's name is Fitz. Leo Fitz. He picked me up and threw me. Broke Daisy's arms. But he's my friend. I can keep him in line." or if not him, he could try and get to him and explain ...the seeds of the plan that was forming.

"He'd be a valuable asset to try and recruit sir. If you don't mind my saying so."

[ukase]

Daisy, huh? He tilted his head slightly as he considered that name, but there were so many people associated with SHIELD that it would be impossible to know them all. What was important was that this 'Daisy' was a line to Coulson, who was potentially dangerous to HYDRA and its rather lacking operations here. That was going to have to change.

He also knew that Ward was lying. He said nothing about that because it confirmed that the guy was in the wind and not worth the effort to spit on the floor. Nothing more than a girl... what a crock of shit given the earlier information.

"Is Coulson the only one compromised by Daisy, Ward?" He raised an eyebrow.

He possibly could believe the tale about Fitz, but he'd have to look into the matter personally. Like always, if he wanted to get something done right, he had to do it himself. Just do it and everyone else fell in line or were swept aside.

"How many people have you recruited in your career, Ward? We all get tickled about doing it." He smirked. "So how many do you have under your belt as recruited to the good cause?"

[ingrantitude]

"I was until she shot me."

He's on firmer ground here, slightly, "...It's my fault that Garrett's dead truthfully it-"

Deep breath. He's not going to leave you alone until you give him what he wants.

"...I was in love with her and she broke me. It was supposed to be a simple job but I let myself get compromised by all of them. Coulson and his team - and - Daisy." Cal had let that name slip often enough. Stupid as hell, "She was just this hacktivist, but Coulson took a liking to her. They thought she might be special - I can only imagine what a shock it was to discover Fitz was the one with abilities. Garrett was...ascending. He had just taken the formula that brought Coulson back from the dead. It was ..." monsterous "Beautiful. He would have been an asset if I'd gotten him to strucker in time but ...She compromised it and me."

It's like sinking into slime, like wading into muck and grime but he's never been afraid of that. He's a politician's son, a politician's grandson.

"I split off from the team when I joined with Whitehall, and when whitehall died I took over for Kara. I heard about what happened to Coulson's team secondhand. The people with the alien technology? It's been around for years. Whitehall was obsessed with it, he called them the Blue Angels. He believed in this legend, that they would come down from the heavens. Mumbo-jumbo magic bullshit - until I saw what I saw."

At the mention of recruitment he reached for a name, "Donnie Gill. He was SHIELD sci-operations, messing around with a freeze ray. It backfired and gave him ice powers. Whitehall and Bakshi took him over and brainwashed him."

[ukase]

Who cares whose fault it was that someone died; everyone was responsible for their own lives and it was a waste of time to consider blame on dead bodies. They were gone and not coming back, which just meant that it fell to everyone else to get the job down where someone's will and skills faltered. Life was tough; people got over it or were crushed by the weight.

Of course, he now recognized good information when it came flowing, and he gave Ward his complete attention as he drank it all in, sorting it out and prioritizing things. If there was a way to call out or something, he'd be sure to encrypt all of his messages, not that he expected a dingy old hotel had anything like that. He would just have to watch the little notes he left around the place then, mask his hand writing, not that anyone would probably recognize it.

"First rule of thumb, pup, never fall in love," he said dryly. "It gets you killed every single time." Of course, he was certain that Ward knew that by now if the information was good. A little piece of 'fatherly' advice or something. "Garrett was a big boy; he had a plan to follow, and I have no doubt he was doing just that. He failed and so we move on to the next plan."

Because there came Whitehall, and that was a mad scientist on Zola's level as far as he had ever heard it. He knew about alien tech shit, and HYDRA had been playing with some of it for years when they had unearthed it. World War Two was all fanciful of that stuff because of the Skull and Hitler, but he'd never been assigned to anything more than transport of stuff here and there sometimes. He wasn't interested enough to look in the cases that he was taking.

"And what did you see, hmm?" And don't go back to lying to him, okay?

"So one person, congratulations," he remarked sardonically. "It's not a competition, but you can tell the level of man's belief in how he relates to those around him, how many he could pull in to the fold."

[ingrantitude]

Dive in.

Swim in it.

And then... be prepared to make the sacrifical play. He's never been afraid of death but he'd be well placed to stab him in the back if he needed to and then...

Then Coulson would see he was worthwhile and Skye would see it. That they were fools to have scorned his help...

"Fitz shaking the earth. Just raising his hand and generating shockwaves." Hopefully give Skye enough time to kill Rumlow if it came down to it. Throw in one bit of surprise, "He knocked me down and threw me back. Those powers, whatever the blue angels did - it made him strong but I have a feeling he's keeping it a secret.

[ukase]

A part of him wanted to punch Ward in the throat. Really hard. Just to watch the man choke on the desperation of spinning shit like this. He would hope that it would take bitter too, like failure to the extreme and then maybe after a good kick to the teeth, the little bastard of Garrett's would smarten up.

Maybe. He'd reserve his judgement a bit. Not for long because he had things to do.

"Obviously not a secret if you're telling me," he replied with another smirk. So many of these people just needed to be taken in their sleep. Quick, easy, no dramatics.