sit yourself down, and meet the best inn keeper in town ( O P E N )

[checkingin]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The initial arrival rooms, the main lobby, all over the place.
When: February 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.

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 tall pull-down screen, a silent version of nosferatu 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 timey music.

along the curtained windows is another long table, with a large bowl that looked like it once would have held popcorn. but is now unfortunately empty. same for the large hot drink dispensers labeled "hot chocolate" and "coffee".

OTHER.

the ballroom and breakfast hall are currently closed, grand doors locked.

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

the door to the courtyard is locked.

ROOMS.

you've a room key with your assigned room number on it. all the new guest residences will be located on floors one & 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'd 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.

Comments

[64th]

[ that does make her feel better. in a strange way. Cashmere knows she would have done the same. it's how the Games work. ]

Don't get your hopes up. [ Katniss, as far as Cashmere can tell, has never known much of anything and probably would have brought the whole country down on accident and never even noticed. ] If the Games are over - what happened to Gloss? Is he okay? [ Cashmere is looking surprisingly vulnerable, so now might be a good time to lie. ]

[starspangled]

You worked for them? An agent?

[Well, that certainly makes a good case for Hydra being involved with all of this. Steve's jaw clenches for a moment, just long enough for that little muscle twitch. Yeah, they'd done that to him too. A couple of times.]

I know they weren't entirely wiped out. [A few rats didn't go down with the ship, as Fury had put it. But it was enough that Steve thought he could focus on another mission, more personal. His brows draw together.] Why?

[And he's suddenly sorry he asked, hands going to his hips.]

They're trying to grow another head.

[starspangled]

[Steve's eyes are fixed on him again, patiently waiting for him to explain without letting himself hope too much this time. When it comes, Steve feels this mixture of happiness and a punch to the gut that has Bucky Barnes' name all over it. His best friend is broken, but the pieces are still right there in front of him.]

Before the serum. [He makes sure his voice is under control before he speaks. Just the facts, without the pressure of anything else.] I was skinny and sick. You're remembering me before you went off to war.

[Before Steve followed him right into it.]

[hacker]

No, you're not asking the questions. I am. [ She advances on the desk. ] There has been what?

[hacker]

I can do you one better.

[ Because she hasn't let the tablet out of her sight since she found it in her room. She lifts it up, waggles it a bit to indicate, and then taps the camera flash to the 'constant on.' She keeps it pointed at the floor, so as not to blind anyone. ]

You think it'll help?

[hacker]

I've heard of it happening before.

[ That much, she'll readily admit. Tilting her head to the side in thought. There's something distinctly agent-y about the way she sits, knees spread, shoulders loose. No one should be this comfortable after waking up kidnapped, and something about it is very deliberate. ]

Makes sense. They hole us up here, re-wire the staff to act all Stepford. It'd be a good plan, if it weren't appallingly evil.

[ With that little commentary made, she can't help but point out: ] I'll tell you one thing: if he is brainwashed, we're in even bigger trouble than we realize. That's not easy to do; it's the kind of thing you save for the people who are really worth it.

[hacker]

Yeah. Sure, that.

[ Twitching her fingers, Skye shakes her hand out once Tauriel releases it. That has to be the weirdest hand-shake she's ever gotten, but she doesn't comment on it. Glances down briefly, but keeps her opinions to herself. There's an air of what the hell did you just say? in her complicit return of the phrase. ]

I'm beginning to get the feeling that the U.S. isn't the kind of place you could have traveled to, even if you wanted to.

[ She'll at least share that much. For now, it's all she knows. No how. No why. ]

Totally weird follow-up: you ever heard of a place called Asgard?

[hacker]

Not trying. Succeeded. They've got, like, two dozen more waiting to sprout.

[ As she continues her emphatic explanation, her expression deteriorates into something weirded out and a little disgusted. This metaphor is getting away from her. ]

Okay. Totally gross mental picture, but you get what I mean. They're not gone. Not by a long shot.

We started getting wind of a new up-and-comer, Daniel Whitehall. Except he wasn't new at all. This guy, he — [ Cut my mother to pieces, stole her life, turned my father into a monster. ] He served with Red Skull back in your day. Found a way to turn the clock back and make his geriatric ass—no offense, Cap—a problem for us all over again. He was chasing something called the Diviner, more alien tech for HYDRA to weaponize.

[taurohtar]

[Instead of asking for yet more clarification — Tauriel doesn't know what the U.S. is, unless perhaps she is referring to the United States she mentioned of before, although she did fail to specify which states had united, or even why they did so — she simply quirks her brow slightly and continues to watch silently. Skye knows the answer to her question, there is no point in Tauriel confirming it for her.

She tilts her head slightly, her brows drawing together once more.]

Will you describe it to me? [It is possible that she simply knows this place by another name, although she doubts it. Still, it does not hurt to ask.] Who dwells there?

[hacker]

Uh, humans. For starters.

[ Gifted or not, otherwise super-powered or not, that was always true. Except for whoever'd built that city below San Juan. ]

It's mostly big cities. You know. Cars, skyscrapers, that kind of thing. You saw the tablet in your room, right? Lots of that.

[oceanborne]

[ ...What? He's never heard of Panem? That's baffling, and more frightening than she even wants to admit to herself. ]

Panem is a country. It's... it was founded after the Dark Days, I don't know what the land used to be called. What's the UK? Where is it?

[ Maybe she hit her head when she fell in that room, because this all seems like a hallucination. People who haven't heard of Panem, and claim to be from other place? A hotel with no exits and no staff? There's no way any of this can be real. ]

[taurohtar]

I gathered it was a realm of Men, yes.

[Although most of the things she lists mean nothing to her, except for cities. Tauriel is familiar enough with cities, but cars, skyscrapers, those things mean nothing to her. Even tablet doesn't really register, until she realizes that Skye is most likely referring to the mirror that allowed her to speak to others in the building.]

You are from Asgard, then?

[hacker]

[ The temptation is there to agree. Take the opportunity for some self-indulgence and call herself an Asgardian princess or something. But that'd hamper the actual investigation of what's going on here, so she holds it back. ]

No. No, I'm from Los Angeles. Asgard's a different realm. It's—They live in a different universe, but they found a way to visit Earth. That must be what's going on here.

[taurohtar]

[Tauriel would not believe Skye was a princess, even if she told her so. She has known her fair share of princesses, and none of them are remotely like this human girl in front of her.]

Ah, I see. [She doesn't bother asking where Los Angeles is, she has a feeling it will simply be a similar answer as before: nowhere Tauriel knows.] How strange. Is it magic that they use? Are there any humans here from Asgard? I would much desire to speak with them.

[pronged]

[Excuse the confused look he gives her, he's just never heard of that kind of elf before.]

Uh, England. Where are you from? Is it Romania? I always felt like they have weirder shit there they let on with the vampires.

[hacker]

People from Asgard aren't human: they're Asgardian. And if they are here, I haven't run into them.

[ She shakes her head. ]

Chances are, though, they'll look, uh. Well, they'll dress like you. [ Awkward gesture towards Tauriel. ] We used to call what they did magic, but now that we know more, we know it's science. Technology. Really advanced stuff, even I don't know how most of it works.

[oceanborne]

[ It is a good idea, if for no other reason than it gives both Annie and her new acquaintance something to distract their minds. She nods eagerly at his suggestion, pleased at the development of her notion. ] Maybe take down everybody's names, where they're from, and... and anybody they're looking for?

[ His studious attempts to remain at a distance she's comfortable with don't go unnoticed, and it makes Annie a little more amenable to the question about where she's from. ] District Four, in Panem.

[ She would have left it at her district, but she's realized that some of these people have no idea where Panem is. It's confusing and kind of alarming -- when she thought this was an arena, it was so much simpler. But how can it be an arena if half the tributes don't know about the country they're not in? ]

[pronged]

[Ow that's his kidney.]

Oh that. Right, it's Potter. James Potter. The pleasure's all mine, really.

[sheriffing]

[Emma hasn't had nearly enough time with a supposedly dead man to digest it properly. What she had was a few minutes, followed by a rude interruption that forced all of them into action. She needs more than that; more time, more of an explanation, but she's afraid that if they do get one they won't like it. As happy as she is to see him, she knows that Neal was gone, dead and buried, and that the grief and the loss they all felt was real. There's no undoing what they went through, so technically, there's no possible way he should be here with them.

She just keeps coming back to the thought that he is, he's right in front of them - a little irritated at Killian and a little worse for wear, but alive. Even if this is some kind of curse, they already have more than they did before it was cast. Getting home might be a bitch, but if they can pull it off, then they'll all be better for it. This place is an unknown and it has her tense and dreading what's to come, because it's obviously going to get worse before it gets better. It doesn't feel like a trick, or a simple misunderstanding. Whatever's keeping them in the hotel is powerful, and every instinct she has is telling her that whatever magic brought them here is dark and dangerous - but this isn't their first time dealing with something like that.

If it's Neverland: the sequel, then they need to be smarter here than they were there.

For the few seconds that she lets them greet each other, Emma is turning all of it over, trying to find pieces that align with so many that just don't. She almost misses Killian's comment of extra, but her eyes narrow to it and she tilts her gaze in his direction, wanting details that it's too soon to ask for. What was all of that bullshit about Gold being a changed man, then? ]

Most people aren't from Storybrooke. Some are familiar to each other, like us, but most aren't even from the same world. And it seems like we all got the same crappy wakeup call, too.

[The only patterns so far are in how they're being dealt with, not where they're from.]

I'm guessing there's no sign of my parents, or Henry? Neal said he ran into Re-

[Gina, but Emma leaves that question hanging in the air, abruptly turning her attention from Killian to Neal. If there's one thing he needs to know, it's that things aren't the way they were when he died. They've made progress, defeated Zelena, and...]

Did she tell you about Henry? He remembers you, Neal. He misses you.

[It's news that might be as bad as it is good, but it's important. Things didn't work out the way they should have, and fighting Zelena shouldn't have cost Neal his life. He should have had a chance to be a father, to watch Henry grow up for the few years he has left of being a kid...but it wasn't for all for nothing. They did what they could to set things right. His son remembers him, and he loves him. He needs to know that.]

[sheriffing]

Yeah, this isn't exactly my first time falling through a portal. It's kind of becoming a pattern.

[A shitty one, but the look says it all. Of all the habits to fall into, why did tumbling into different worlds have to become one of hers? It seems like the second she and Henry are reunited, they end up getting separated all over again.]

I'm Emma. [Which doesn't say much, does it? In a place like this, they're a lot more than their names.] Where are you from?

[pajarita]

So this is what you're assuming this is? A portal? [well it beats the idea of it being another faction of survivors -- more capable and dangerous than the mountain men, and also inspired by fairy tales what with the no exits to this tower. it doesn't explain it better, but it sounds better, she'll give it that.]

[64th]

[ snarling usually does get her what she wants. most people don't bother to intervene, her outbursts generally followed by her getting fed up and storming off to be angry elsewhere. but he is right, and she huffs in frustration. ]

Okay. [ so he really doesn't know much more than she does, and between the two of them they might know less than they did before. ] Well. You looked suspicious. [ said the crazy woman who attacked the first stranger she saw. ]

[taurohtar]

[At least he has heard of them, though. That is a step in the right direction; most people either don't notice her ears or think she is pretending, somehow, as if her race is something people would aspire to become and would lie to others about.]

Mirkwood Forest. I have never heard of Romania. [She's come to realize it's better simply to be direct about all this sort of thing, if she tries to be polite or figure out what's going on, she'll just confuse herself even more.]

[sheriffing]

Fits with everything I know about them. Falling through, people being from different places, the lack of a clear way out. [She's not talking about locked doors and darkened windows as much as she is having no exit to match the entrance. Whatever portal was open before is closed now.

That doesn't mean they won't get another chance at it.] Why, what's your theory?

[withbread]

[ she's right on both assumptions. however, shaking him a little and snapping isn't a bad way to approach it. she doesn't seem to be a threat to him so he doesn't feel the need to defend himself in the face of being shaken and snapped at. he doesn't know what the hell is going on here, but it's playing by rules he's uncertain of. he doesn't think he can trust the redhead in front of him by any means, but she hasn't tried to kill him yet. ] Katniss She's about my height, pretty, brown hair in a braid. She's probably got a bow and arrow with her.

[ the idea of making allies isn't something peeta is opposed to and if this girl can help him and Katniss, he'll take that help. ]