checkingout | 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

[That tends to be the way the Gladers live now, especially with the knowledge now that WICKED could tamper with their brains at any time.]

Honestly, I don't really know what it is either. Just some kinda transporter, it looked like a warped wall, I dunno. It was supposed to put us in the Scorch, but- this doesn't look anything like what I was expectin'. When you got here- was it like you were waking up?

[He watches the other for a moment before shaking his head. He's got no clue what this Scorch is or where this kid even came from. Talking about things he knows nothing about.]

More like I'd been asleep and thrown here.

[However, he'd ignored the pain.]

I take it you went through something similar?

Yeah. Like I'd passed out and then been dropped on my buggin' head. Guess I didn't expect that to happen when I went through it- stupid of me, probably.

[He pushes a hand through his hair, frowning.]

This doesn't make any sense, though. Why would WICKED send us to a hotel?

No one expects random acts to happen.

[He definitely didn't think that this would happen and it has. The kid definitely looks like he's out of his element.]

What's WICKED?

[Might as well learn all that he needs to]

[Newt eyes him skeptically. The world knows about WICKED, doesn't it? That's the impression he got from Rat Man. Everyone knows who they are, what they're trying to accomplish. But then, maybe they've swiped everyone's memories here too?]

World In Catastrophe, Killzone Experiment Department. Emphasis on experiment. That's what this is, it's gotta be. It's just like the Glade, only smaller. They're expecting us to find a way out again, find open air, whatever the hell that means. [They're already above ground. None of this adds up.] Only this time we don't have two bloody years to figure it out, they've only given us two weeks to cross the Scorch.

[Perhaps his world knows about WICKED. He, however, isn't from the same place that Newt's from. So names, places and other assorted things that the young boy is talking about is beyond Chris.]

I've never heard of that place.

[Though he's intrigued now.]

Why don't you tell about this WICKED and what it's put you through. Since I've never heard of them.

[But if something like that was behind it... then he'd definitely have to look into it.]

[As far as Newt knows, there aren't any other worlds, and he'll be hardpressed to believe it for a while. What little he remembers of the world, other worlds with life still registers as some kind of sci-fi to him. Not to say he wouldn't eventually believe it, but skepticism is all the Gladers have now.]

Don't know much about 'em except what Rat Man's told us. That they came together to find a cure for the Flare or some klunk. What I do know is they tossed a few dozens kids in a maze crawlin' with monsters and expected us to find a way out. Didn't care if we died, they just wanted to see how we'd bloody react to it all. They're studying us.

[The whole concept of Wicked was something that was beyond Chris. The hunter had never heard of that or even heard of this Flare that Newt was talking about. It was a bit of an agitation to not know about some kind of disease that may or may not be out there.

What kind of name was Rat Man while he's at it?]

Look, we've never heard of the Flare and our kids haven't gone missing. So I doubt that there's anyone here studying you. Not in this hotel at the very least.

You're kiddin', right?

[ Newt sounds completely doubtful. He'd seen the Cranks when they got out of the Maze, passed through destroyed cities, saw the effects of the sun flares. ]

This isn't the time to joke around. This is a test, it's gotta be. They want us to get out of here, just like we got out of the Maze.

Why would I kid about something like that?

[Unfortunately for Newt, it hasn't happened to Chris. Or to anyone that he knows for that matter.]

I don't joke around nor do I know anything about some Maze. So I seriously doubt that this is a test.

[He's quiet for a moment]

I don't know who did that to you but I don't think these people are the same. Otherwise there'd be an obvious way out and from what I've seen so far, there isn't.

The entire point of the Maze is that there wasn't an obvious way out! It's why it took us two years to figure it out.

[ Newt's frustrated, for sure. To have their time trapped in the Maze completely invalidated like this is so far from okay to him. He's not the type to start a fight, usually, but this is something he'd argue into the ground. ]

This is the exact same damn thing! This has WICKED's name written all over it.

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

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