checkingout | a gent of good intent who's content to be ( OPEN )

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a gent of good intent who's content to be ( OPEN )

Who: Everyone!
Where: The initial arrival rooms, the main lobby, all over the place.
When: March 3rd
What: Welcome, newbies.

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 a warmly crackling fireplace, to your right is a lobby desk. straight ahead are three large sets of doors, though only one of them is open to the public. 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.

terribly sorry for the inconvenience.

SCREENING ROOM.

on a long pull-down screen, a silent version of the phantom carriage 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 popcorn and a large hot drink dispenser full of hot water, but without any tea or hot chocolate packets around.

OTHER.

the ballroom is currently closed, and the grand doors locked.

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

the doors to the courtyard and breakfast hall are unlocked, but looks like you've missed the morning meal. sucks for you.

ROOMS.

you've a room key with your assigned room number on it. all the new guest residences will be located on floors three and four. 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.

it's late when the newcomers arrive, there's a good chance you'd been about to go to sleep (or just waking up, who knows, your mom's not here to tell you when to go to bed or get up). but if you're paying attention, you might hear the hustle and bustle in the lobby below; or maybe you're just drawn there because your gut told you to go join the commotion. whatever the case may be, go mingle!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

After talking with Tim, Capa had taken the time to go up to his room, explore what was in his suitcase, and marvel for a moment on a spacesuit that was clearly not from the Icarus. He was able to take a hot shower for the first time in many days. But his room was also terribly lonely. The Icarus was big, but not that big. There was always someone nearby, someone pounding on the door to get in the bathroom, someone playing their music too loudly or asking him to join in the exercise. Here, there was nothing but the silence of the indoors and the tapping of the rain outside.

He needed to get out.

Dressed in his normal "uniform," Capa stuffed his key in his pocket, held onto his tablet, and headed out of his room, not worried about privacy. Privacy was something he left back on Earth. While he sought out solace, he could never really guarantee it.

He was about to reach the stairs, though, when he felt another body pass close to him. He tensed and froze, even as he felt hands against his skin. That was the sensation that caused him to flinch, though, and he pulled away, darting away from the dangerous top step. "Oh...shit...you okay?"

It was a question with multiple answers. She took stock of him for a moment, sizing him up, analyzing him; he did not seem much like a threat. Leela was thinking of possible answers, though. Truth, they were not okay, none of them, if they had been taken like this. But that was not the question that was being asked.

"I am not injured," she said. Her voice was wary and she, too, had backed away until she rested against the opposite wall. "That would have been an unpleasant fall."

For a moment, he was too startled to really tell what she was talking about. But he turned his head, looking down the steps, and then nodded. "Yeah. It would have been." He stared at her again, much as he had with Tim, just taking in the novelty of actually seeing another person. But, unlike with Tim, it took him only a moment to orient himself and figure out that it certainly wasn't polite to gawk.

"Thanks for not letting me fall. I'm...mm...Robert. Or...Capa, if you want." He reached his hand out, finally remembering how to be a person with manners. "Did you come out of the weird room, too?"

"You are welcome," she said, shifting into a more relaxed posture, before testing his name, "Capa?" It was an interesting name, she was not sure his face was a Robert. Much.

Nothing was going to eat them right now. She heard nothing coming after them. No ill smell, besides the musty air, the dust. Nothing threatening, though she would not leave her guard down completely. That was impossible.

"I am Leela."

She glanced back in the direction she had come from, frowning.

"I have come from there, yes. It was not a pleasant experience."

"I've been through worse, but none of the other experiences ended up this way." He let his hand fall to his side before drawing it up again to pull his hair back. Capa hesitated, taking a step closer, standing on the top step. "Leela?" he repeated, trying it out. It was different, but not overly so. "I just arrived here, too. Better than the alternative, I suppose."

"I, too, have seen worse things than a hotel that will not let us out. I have not found the exit yet," Leela said, her expression pensive as she searched his face. "It could be worse, yes, we are not among the dead."

Yet.

She still did not trust this place.

He shrugged. Being dead didn't matter to him. He didn't have a death wish; that would imply that he didn't value his life. But he had accepted death a long time ago. This kind of second chance, stuck in limbo in an old hotel that apparently lost heat sometimes, was certainly not what he envisioned for his life.

"Have you been outside?" he asked, trying to steer the conversation into something less awkward and gloomy. "It's wonderful."

"Have you found an exit, then?" Her expression was wary, but nonetheless eager, so much so that she shifted forward a fraction, only to lean back. "All I have heard is rain, always rain."

"Yeah. Downstairs. It's not an exit, really." He nodded towards the steps. "It's out to a courtyard. And it's raining. There's no way out of the courtyard, but at least it's outside." Capa took another step down. "I was...going to take another look, actually."

"If it is fresh air," Leela said, a little bit of joy shining through at the prospect, "then I do not care if it is raining. I shall come with you, if that is where you are going. I have not yet been down there quite yet."

She had been exploring the upper parts and now this floor. An outside was less stifling. Leela had a feeling that was where she would spend most of her time, if she could. Perhaps it was not an out, but it was the closest thing to it. She would see and test it, perhaps.

She had a strange way of speaking that was finally getting through to the typically oblivious Capa. So as he descended the steps, leading the way, he pointed to the door that would lead to the courtyard, still wondering how to bring up something that might be delicate. "I was told this place was multidimensional, as...incredible as it seems. So, where are you from?" he asked, hoping that he hadn't just offended the woman. Especially when she seemed a little happier than before.

"I am a warrior, from the Sevateem tribe. My people were part of a survey team that crashed on an unnamed world. I am a descendant of the original inhabitants of that space ship, a human, but I am not from Earth," Leela said with a nod.

"I am very familiar with places that are multidimensional," she said as she followed him. "The Axis was one such place. At first, I wondered if I had fallen through a portal. But I do not think that is the case. I was never given luggage before."

What she said stopped him on the steps. He clutched the railing, staring at her as if she might disappear at any moment. But he regained his senses after a heartbeat and hurried to stand with her. "Can you tell me more?" he asked, his eyes wide. He had a million questions to ask her, and, once again, the rest of the situation had faded away.

"The humans of my time traveled far into the stars," Leela said, though she had watched him half with concern. "I have seen that they have colonized many worlds, also. Humans are not confined just to the blue planet they came from, but are everywhere among the universe. Mine did not make it where they wished to be, and became playthings, an experiment, two tribes created by a mad computer. There were warriors, my own tribe, and there were the Tesh, who were strong of mind and frail in body."

She walked on to the foot of the stairs, nodding slightly.

"We fought a war with them for many, many years. None of us knew the computer was mad and not a God, but it was fixed by a man called the Doctor. That was when I met him. After all were reunited and the tribes were seeking a new leader, they wished to name me. I chose to go with the Doctor, to travel all of space and time. We had many, many adventures."

Leela shook her head slowly.

"He was always in need of rescuing."

Far from illuminating the situation, Capa just felt more lost. He followed beside her, his feet thankfully still taking him towards the door that would lead to the outside. He pushed it open and leaned against it, feeling the chill again and allowing himself a grateful smile.

The action allowed him to take a moment to form another question from all the holes that he wanted to fill in her story. "What are the portals you mentioned before?"

"The Axis," she said, coming back around to it. "They are like doorways, all to other Gallifreys, the planet where I came to live after my time with the Doctor was finished. I think, the doorways could be programmed to go to other places as well, but we were looking for a Gallifrey that was undamaged by a virus." Leela turned her face into the cold and breathed in. The sigh that followed became her sentence.

"You step through one, and you are in a different timeline, a different dimension."

She moved away, exploring its edges, the places it was bound. The air was good, here, even if it was cold.

"This is not so bad, this place."

He listened intention, following her as she explored the perimeter of the courtyard. The rain was falling again, and he was in his second pair of wet clothes, but he would sacrifice it for a bit of the earth that he didn't think he'd ever get back.

"It's not," he agreed, the words coming out in a jumble. "What are they made of? Do you know? Were they created or...or were they just there?"

"It is Time Lord technology. I think, really, it is like a tear in a paper, held open by fingers, sealed shut again by the machines as if it were glued back up," she said, frowning. "I should explain more. The Time Lords are a race of people who have the technology to travel through space as well as time, it is they who set up these portals many, many years ago. I think, it was an attempt to monitor the other timelines, perhaps. Brax would explain it better or perhaps even the Doctor himself - he is a Time Lord - but I do not know where he is, now. The last one of him I saw was not my own Doctor. He was different, a hunter like I am."

Leela glanced at Capa for a moment.

"It is all right. Even I am confused by my own life sometimes. Time travel is a complicated thing and it would take the whole of the rest of my life to explain things properly."

He didn't know how he would look to an outsider. He made an effort to not gape, to keep his thought concealed. It was difficult, though, to not bombard her with more questions. They might be stuck here a while and he was starting to realize that she was just as stuck as he was.

"I would love to meet one. A Time Lord," he said. "That sort of technology touches on what I studied at home." He brushed water from his face, blinking against the rain.

"We are here," Leela said with a very nearly throaty laugh. "This is just the sort of place he would end up." She knew that if he did, if any of them came, it would get very interesting for this place. Could not the Time Lords best such a place as this? "Oh, yes, you may, indeed, meet a Time Lord yet."

She was fine with being wet, it did not bother her and she held out her hands to it, cupping them. One could tell much by rain. Did it have a tang? An aftertaste? Was it fresh? Many things from a bit of water. Leela sank into a crouch to contemplate this place from a different perspective. It was sealed off well and she could not see anything further. Just the ray and the grey.

"You may talk until the small hours of the morning with them. Some are better with answers than others, though."

"I don't mind answers. I can find out answers on my own if I know what to try. I'd really just like a discussion." He watched her experience the courtyard in different way, apparently with different senses. He stepped back, not wanting to be out of the way, and wrapped his arms across his chest. He was too slight to really keep warm on his own, though. Months of space travel would do that to anyone. But he had no longing to be inside, either.

"The Doctor does not stop talking," Leela said dryly, "even if you wish him to, if he comes, you will have a long discussion. If Narvin comes, it will be awkward and annoying for everyone involved."

She almost wished he was here, though. Or Romana. But they were not and she would have to make do. It was not the first time she had been like this, alone. It would not be the last. She sipped at the water, but it was just water. Ordinary, maybe too ordinary. Leela stood and shrugged.

"Rain," she said, pulling a face before she joined him, silent for awhile.

"You are cold. Shall we go inside and warm ourselves?" He reminded her of the Tesh, his thinness, and that of space colonists, who had spent many years in the black of space. She had seen them before. And he looked as if he could use many meals to make him stronger in body.

He glanced towards the door and then up to the sky, almost longingly. He doubted that the clouds cleared at night, either, so there would be no hope of seeing the stars. At least he would have his charts and his notes to keep him company. He didn't want to leave the courtyard, but he didn't want to leave her, either. She was fascinating and he wanted to listen to her a while longer.

"Yeah, we should." He took a few steps towards the door. "I'd love to hear about your adventures through these portals one day."

"I would have to begin at the very beginning," Leela said with a smile. "It could take a long, long time."

She followed, her strides those of a woman who knew where she was going nearly all the time. Leela glanced at him for a moment and knew that look.

"I will be out here often, even if I get wet. I cannot stand the indoors forever."

"I've been on a ship for a long time. Anything resembling earth is a novelty. And the rain...that's something special." He was encouraged by the fact that she didn't slap him down right away. He could have a conversation with her, which was something he was searching for.

B!

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