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

[warring]

[ this 'annie cresta' is proving quite cooperative. a moment's pause, and then lexa releases her holds on both annie's throat and limbs. instead, she's standing now and casting a tense glance down the hallway. ]

What is a 'hotel'? [ that seems like the next pressing question at hand. ]

[oceanborne]

[ Cooperative and completely harmless, that's Annie. At least, that's the image she's trying to project, and when the strange woman lets her go it seems like she's succeeding. She climbs slowly to her feet, turning to get a good look at her attacker -- and it doesn't surprise her, seeing that the woman is more like a girl. Teenagers are the central part of the Games, after all, and it makes more sense to see a young woman like this than some of the adults she saw in the lobby. ]

A hotel is... When someone travels away from home, it's where they stay. They'll get a room to sleep in, and some of the fancier hotels offer more services, and there's a staff to clean and cook and run the place.

[warring]

[ like a homestay, then, but far more impersonal. lexa nods in acceptance of that answer, though it brings up more questions than it solves. ]

We aren't underground. [ is it a statement? is it a question? who knows. but she's taking a step toward the window now, eyes narrowed off into the fog. the implications of 'not underground' come a moment later. ] These walls are flimsy. No structures built so poorly survived the war.

[oceanborne]

No, we're not underground. [ It's definitely a statement from Annie, and a relieved one at that. She edges cautiously towards the window as well, peering out. For all the rain and fog, it's still the closest thing to daylight that she's seen in at least a month or more.

But for as thrilling as the gloomy not-light outside the window is, her attention snaps back at the mention of "the war." ] What war?

[warring]

[ the war, is what war. unfortunately, it doesn't seem quite so common sense to this girl, so after a moment she elaborates. ] It was an exchange of thermonuclear missiles, just over a century past. [ yes, the grounder commander knows thermonuclear missiles. just because they live amongst the trees doesn't mean they're all of a sudden completely uneducated. ]

It has no name. It's the only war that matters by now.