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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I... I think they're made with cameras and computers? I mean, I don't know how they really work. They use mirrors and... lenses and... yeah.

[ Woops, talking to a pretty, but old fashioned, woman was probably not the best tactic upon arrival. She looks as though she's walked right out of the Renaissance or the middle ages-- basically, like the Hogwarts ghosts. ]

It's just a... a flat copy of real life, I guess. Well. I mean that guy's wearing a lot of costumes? Er.

[The words he speaks are just as foreign as the moving pictures themselves, and it comes across easily in the way she furrows her brows. She can tell he is trying, that there is still some gap in language and in culture. She has yet to exactly pick up on his nervousness, too taken with the topic at hand.]

Costumes. Is it a play then, a great work of fiction?

[That is all she connect, something to relate to her world. So then there is not some creature roaming about much like the moving picture is. It somehow captures the movements as if the play is unfolding before them. Lucrezia looks back at the screen a little, to try and see if she truly does understand it.]

[ It's easy to forget that maybe, she really doesn't understand this stuff. It's like a wizard trying to understand Muggle devices. Sometimes, no matter how hard you explain, it doesn't work. ]

A play, yeah, sort of. It's just recorded, so it's not live, you know? A play you watch as it's happening, but this... well, it's a movie.

[ He finally gets up from his seat, sheepishly coming to stand beside her. ] And it uses light to put it on the screen. See? [ He holds his hand up enough to project a shadow on the viewing screen. ] So. It was... it was real at one point, but now it's... like a moving painting? [ Sorry, he's trying. ]

Oh! [Her face alights with something akin to recognition. At the very least she understands what she is watching. How the images are getting there are entirely a different story, but she understands that the light is projecting onto the screen much how the sun shines on the courtyard on a summer's day.

Lucrezia extends a hand in front of the projector to see the shadow, and she manages a laugh.]

How marvelous.

I mean, I don't know much more than that, we... we don't really use these where I'm from but I had to read about it in a book.

[ Muggle Studies. The bane of his very existence. ]

But yeah, the light puts the picture there. Er... like, you know. Light through windows -- shadows and all. Stained glass, maybe?

[ A shot in the dark, but maybe she'll understand that? ]

They have books on such subjects? [It is truly astounding, mostly because paper and print are still a prized commodity where she is from, but she can imagine some learning such matters, toiling away at a desk.

Lucrezia turns back towards the projector, not entirely getting his analogy, but thinking she understands the idea of the light.]

How is an image captured with light? [He clearly knows about this.]

Er, they did where I was from? Maybe there... could be some here.

[ He doesn't even fully comprehend how cameras work, and they have them in the wizarding world, just... enhanced with magic. ]

It's like two mirrors, and the light... well, I don't know much more, really. I mean, the light somehow transfers it onto film which is this glossy paper kind of stuff, you can see through it, you know?

Sorry. I'll ask around, maybe... someone can tell me?

[She puts a hand on his arm, thanking him silently with a soft look and gentle gestures.]

You have done well enough. I may not be able to comprehend something much more advanced than that. It is just a marvel to behold. My thanks for taking your time to explain it to a simpleton like me.

[ Just excuse him as he blushes, because that's a girl, touching his arm, and being nice to him. It's weird. ]

I wouldn't call you a simpleton -- I bet there's a ton of stuff that I don't know. Where... where are you from? I... I think we're definitely from different places, at least.

From Rome, in the south. But my father is from Spain so we are Spaniard. [Italy itself is not yet whole, and regardless of how Italian she truly is, no one regards her as Italian.]

Whoa. That's... I've never been there, only seen pictures in books and stuff.

[ You know, the Colosseum, the leaning tower -- clearly, he has a lot to learn. ]

I'm from England.

England! In the north then. [She hums.] I know little of the place, though some of the names are familiar to me.

France, at times, is either friend or foe. Foe currently, it seems.

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

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