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

[checkingin]

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!

Comments

[lesson]

"There's no reason to think they're not somewhere in here, too."

And he idolizes you, Harry — you're like a guardian he never expected to have, then never expected to lose (and did) but he loves his mother. Loves his baby sister, too, and with tumultuous, troublesome thoughts clouding his head, Eggsy begins to pace with nervous energy. Just briefly, because the conclusion he's trying to work out is pretty quick to smack him in the face.

"I should go look for 'em."

[youcantransform]

"Alright. I'll join you shortly."

He really does need to get out of these damned clothes; he feels like he's wearing a funeral shroud. One very quick last thing before he lets the younger man go, however:

"If someone asks what you are, what do you plan on telling them?"

Because as far as Harry sees it, they don't have a single reason not to maintain cover. Their kidnappers might know them extensively, disturbingly well, but not so their fellow prisoners. Not necessarily.

[lesson]

That's not a hard story to come up with. Merlin had stressed that everything was going to be safer for his family if they knew little to nothing about his actual new career, and he'd spent the plane ride back and debriefing in HQ thinking of his cover. And when he'd been officially knighted — offered the mantal, accepted, signed the paperwork, been given Harry's old house — and Merlin'd told him that the Kingsman shop on Savile Row was going to be his base, things had just clicked into place all on their own.

So this is Eggsy, dropping down to haphazzardly shove everything back into his suitcase before locking it up again, and dismissively flicking his hand while he tries to get his hand caught.

"Juvinile delinquent, picked up for car theft and taken pity on by an old tailor —" That's you, Harry. "— who gave me a job and this posh suit. Or I could be your son, I don't care." Nor does he have a care or the patience to lug his suitcase around with him while he runs pell-mell all over the hotel. "Can I leave this here?"

[youcantransform]

Harry is momentarily silenced, because Christ almighty, he cares.

Hasn't Eggsy been let down by enough fathers already?

"You may. And the standard cover," everything up to 'posh suit', the one he'd expected because it was typical of new recruits less the delinquency, "will be fine."

[lesson]

Yeah. Get let down by enough and you stop caring pretty quickly. Makes a lotta things a lot easier.

"Great, good," he splutters haphazardly, backing up to the door. "I'll come back for it, I promise." And with his hand on the doorknob, those deep seeded Harry Hart loyalties rear their head, and have Eggsy spinning back around briefly.

"You're alright, right? I can leave you and you won't —" Die.

[youcantransform]

And Harry Hart - covered in dust and dried blood, bruised and bleeding and feeling very much as if he'd just like to lay down and let the world pass him by for a few days - looks back at Lee Unwin's son, and nods.

"I'm alright, Eggsy. You can leave me."

He pauses. He doesn't want to keep him, but keeping their story straight is too important to skimp on.

"One last thing. A few people have seen me. Should anyone ask, and it is unlikely that they will, I was involved in a mass shooting at a church in Kentucky. Though telling people to mind their own business is as fine an alternative as it ever was."

The good lies are mostly the truth. Nobody needs to know he was the instigator and not a survivor. He nods at the door.

"I'll find you later."

And he sincerely hopes he doesn't find his mother or sister on his travels.

[lesson]

Valentine was the instigator. Harry is just wallowing in shame and blaming himself for things he couldn't control. That had kind of been the point of the V-chip, and is something they're going to address at a later point. But not now, not when Eggsy is jiggling his leg with the urge to bolt down the hallway and knock on every door for his mother.

"Church shooting, Kentucky, tailor, tell 'em to shove up their arses if they get nosey." He's got this. "Right, Harry. I'll be back in an hour."