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

[hacker]

Or wonder if maybe you didn't learn this kind of thing, and you were banking on looking cool.

[ Her lips purse, unimpressed, and she arches her eyebrows like homie is this a pride thing 'cause uhhhhhhhh. ]

You don't have to blame operator error on a weird door, okay.

[carjacked]

[ His brow wrinkles as he settles back to sit on his heels, shaking his head slowly at her super helpful contributions to his cause. Evidently he's not bothered by the accusation, he's still more offended by the door than her speculation. ]

Nah, nothin' like that.

[ He mutters, brushing it off and feeling around his coat like an idea just popped into his head. When he doesn't seem to find what he's looking for, his eyes flick to her again. ]

Hey, you got a flashlight on you?

[ In other words, he's the worst person to smacktalk if you're looking for a fight, girlfriend. He doesn't take the bait. ]

[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?

[carjacked]

[ Wow, that's handy. He blinks in surprise, weaving away from the lock a little and nods his head toward the hole. ]

Yeah, I think it's perfect. Shine it in there, let me see if maybe there's a keyguard, or somethin' jammed in there.

[hacker]

[ She lifts the tablet, aiming it over his shoulder to shine the light into the lock. There's not a lot of room, but it does a little good at least. ]

What if the tumblers are weighted? They do that on safes, right?

[carjacked]

[ The beauty of these old, enormous locks is that you could really see up into them. They're made for massive keys, made for their ornate display for ballroom doors and stuff like that, and when she shines that light up into the hole, he can almost even see out the back through the other side.

That's not what he's interested in, though. His lips part in disbelief and he can't stop himself from turning the knob, from giving the door a tug just to double check. ]

That's-

[ He says, stunned, dropping back away from the lock again. ]

The tumblers aren't weighted. Doesn't look like there are any tumblers. That whole thing is empty.

[ Can't pick a lock if there's no lock to pick. ]

[hacker]

So this lock ... There's no way to unlock it.

[ It's set in the lock position. The guy at the desk lied. No one's coming back. They can't figure out who brought them because somehow, the hotel staff is in on it. ]

[carjacked]

[ He shakes his head, shoving himself up from the ground and onto his feet finally. ]

There's nothing to unlock. It's- there's not even a lock there, it's just--

[ There's an obvious annoyance in his tone, a little disbelief, but mostly he almost seems offended. It's magic, it has to be. ]

[hacker]

We're trapped.

[ Reaching one hand up, she rubs it across her forehead, pacing away. Her hand drops to shut off the tablet light, a way to ground herself. ]

No phone or wifi, either. I've been trying to tap us into any network around, to get word out, reach out to someone, even get a lock on our location, but there's nothing.

Someone really wants to keep us.

[carjacked]

[ He puffs out an unhappy breath. He's not as technologically literate as her or most people her age, but he figured that whole network thing would be the case. You don't competently kidnap fifty people and then forget to take their cellphones or turn the router off.

He shakes his head slowly, turning all of this over in his mind. ]

What I don't understand is why?

[ What good's a dead guy, a couple dozen young adults and a magic-less queen from another realm? Is it some kind of spell, what is it?

It's not like she's gonna know, though, so he drags his hand along the back of his neck and doesn't wait for an answer. ]

Neal. By the way.

[hacker]

Skye.

[ She gives him a nod in return for that, just a little grim. Turning back to look at the lobby proper, she purses her lips. ]

And I can almost guarantee, the fact that they kept us alive means it's nothing good.

[ Whatever HYDRA (and she's still assuming it's HYDRA) needs this many people for, including Skye and Fitz, it has to be something big. And ugly. Possibly world-devastating, and they'll do whatever it takes to get compliance.

There's a reason, that is to say, that Skye hasn't touched the screening room yet. ]

[carjacked]

[ She says HYDRA, he says AFTERLIFE, together they can swim in the sea of being wrong. Either way, he huffs and shrugs. ]

Think you're prob'ly right about that, but there's not a whole lot else we can do.

[ Apart from go through their briefcases, unpack in their rooms, and wait for some answers to start tumbling out. Not like he's a huge fan of the idea, but he's literally exhausted all other options. ]

Thanks for the flashlight. Hey- Skye- listen, if you find out anything, will you let me know? If we're stuck here, might as well work together, right?

[hacker]

You might wanna think about upping the bar for allies.

[ Not to get all cynical (but she's a little cynical). Skye's got good reason not to trust every charming, capable guy she meets. Miles was garbage. Ward was a scumbag. Seems like more and more, you can't trust anyone these days. ]

We might be stuck here, but we don't know who else is in with us.

[ Wouldn't be the first time she found a wolf in the herd. ]

I doubt they'd go to all this effort locking us up just to leave us unsupervised.

[carjacked]

[ If he started setting a bar for allies, he probably wouldn't even meet that bar. Hell, he knows certain important family members wouldn't meet that bar. As far as standards go, Neal's are as low as 'cooperative' and that's pretty much it. ]

Turnin' on each other right off isn't gonna solve anything.

[ He says firmly. Yeah, okay, their kidnappers could be right here, right now, her even (!!) gasp, but he prefers not to think about it like that. ]

Nobody's an enemy until they're an enemy. I'm not getting into that whole twilight zone fiasco, no thanks.

[hacker]

[ It feels a lot less Twilight Zone, she wants to point out, when you've lived it. But that's not productive, and he's right. Begrudgingly, she must admit that working with the enemy towards a common goal beats rotting away in the creepy Hotel California. ]

Okay, okay. No Monsters on Maple. I get it. We'll share info and sing Kumbaya until we've got good reason to doubt.

[carjacked]

[ Hey, check it out, she gets the reference. Looks a little young for it, too, so he's impressed. Lips twitch up into a tired smile. ]

I think we better skip the singing. Judging from the way some of these people talk, I'm not so sure they could carry a tune if they had a bucket, but- yeah. The rest of it's good, prob'ly the best thing we can do right now.

[hacker]

Great.

[ She clasps her hands over her tablet, moving it in front of her and shrugging her shoulders. Ok. She's on board. ]

Well, you can see if there's any more locks you wanna pick, but I'm gonna check out the screening room. If it's the only thing open, there has to be something there.

[carjacked]

Good luck with that.

[ Though the words themselves may have sounded dismissive from someone else, Neal says them with sincerity. ]

Lemme know if you get something good.

[ In the meantime, he's just going to start going through cabinets and closets. Starting with the one just a couple of feet down the hall. Evidently it's a good enough goodbye for him, because with a nod he goes to do just that. ]