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]

Sure. Everyone has a favorite. My brother won the year before I did. We're the first siblings to win. I'm good with cameras, and at the parties, and after the parties. Little girls have dolls of me.

[ is that not normal? ] You don't have celebrities?

[engender]

We have celebrities. [ He's just ... processing. ] So, the arena, filming it, that's like our Hollywood. [ In a sense. ] Where is it that you're from?

[64th]

Panem. That's the country. I'm from District One. We have twelve districts and a Capitol. The Capitol's in charge and the rest of us - well. We send our kids to die on television.

Where are you from?

[engender]

California. It's in the United States. That doesn't ring a bell, does it?

[64th]

[ she shakes her head. ] There's nothing outside Panem. Not anymore. What's it like?

[engender]

California as a whole is - liberal in a lot of places. Three major cities, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. There's a big Hispanic population. The terrain is diverse. It sits along the Pacific Ocean. Beacon Hills is in the North.

[64th]

[ that's a lot of words she's never heard before, but she's curious so she's just going to roll with it. ] Is it big? Do you like it? What's the industry? Fishing? [ what's anything like outside of Panem?]

[engender]

There are several industries. Hundreds. All different kinds of all different sizes. California is big, Beacon Hills, the town I grew up in isn't. It will always be home.

[64th]

[ now it's her turn to take a moment to process all this. he has a very captive audience. ] Hundreds? What do the other districts do? What do you do?

[engender]

I - [ Well. ] I went to school. I studied history. [ These questions... ] There are other states. They have districts, neighborhoods, towns, cities. If you can think it up, someone probably does it. Or, they're about to.

[64th]

[ look if you didn't want questions, Derek, then you should not have been so interesting. you only brought this on yourself. ]

It sounds nice. Really nice. What's the catch?

[engender]

The catch is like anything else. Businesses can be corrupt. There's crime. Fraud. But, there are also good people. Non profits that help. Environmental causes. There's good and there's bad.

[64th]

[ yeah whatever a non-profit is she's pretty sure they don't have them. ] Well it sounds pretty great. [ she gestures around them. ] Of course it's not this place but what could top a hotel with bad weather and no amenities?

[engender]

A hotel with worse weather and less room.