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

[technologist]

Thanks.

[ More manners. It's a little flat, but it beats nothing. He takes the offered toolkit a beat after, then gives her a somewhat chagrined glance before heading into the lift and focusing on the front panel.

Which is about when he realizes he's been on autopilot, falling back on old habits. It isn't that he's completely useless with tech, now, but he's slower than he'd like — clumsy. He seems to hesitate as he's about to pull something out of the kit, uncertain, then he looks back to her. ]

Sorry— did you want to try?

[ As if it's only just occurred to him that she had the kit in the first place, so maybe she'd like to take the initiative. It'd probably be more convincing if it weren't for the hesitation beforehand. ]

[pajarita]

[don't mind her, she's basically leaning against the open elevator door with her arms crossed and her gaze pinned on him, waiting until he realizes she's there. he has the manners of an engineer - all take-charge and kind of rude with other people's stuff.

when he looks back at her, she raises her eyebrows.] It's not like I carry that around because they ran out of manicure sets.

[technologist]

[ Right, dumb question. He smiles slightly, weak and chagrined, then offers the kit back. Which is also dumb, frankly, handing it right back after he's more or less yanked it out of her hands hardly seconds ago.

Better being embarrassed about that than dropping it on the floor or mucking up the wires, though. Probably. ]

I'm still a bit— [ Shaken?? In shock?? Something. When he leaves the sentence hanging, it's more in the vague hope that she'll infer than difficulty settling on the right word. ]

[pajarita]

[she shrugs a little, her smile not unkind.] I get it. [she recovers her kit from his hands and steps into the elevator, locating the control box -- or trying to -- ew, old tech, gross.

there it is.]

So what's your name?

[technologist]

[ He's careful to step out of the way, easing back into one of the corners of the lift to watch. He doesn't lean against the wall or anything remotely cool or nonchalant; instead he settles his hands on his hips to avoid fidgeting, only to lift one and run it over his hair a beat later. ]

Fitz. [ And he's already run into a small handful of strangers, each with a more colorful story than the last, so just to get the basics covered: ] From Earth. And it was 2014, last I checked.

[pajarita]

Well, Fitz, I'm Raven. [and last she checked it was almost two hundred years after the last he checked, which is very...very strange.

she pauses in the unscrewing of the screws that hold the control panel together, and turns to look at him.] What's your theory on portals and time travel?

[technologist]

[ He gives a polite nod to the introduction, then chews on his lower lip slightly like he's mulling over the answer to the question. Confidentiality is kind of a big part of working for SHIELD, but he's not entirely sure how much of that applies now. ]

I don't think they're impossible. I've seen portals before, or at least the damage they've caused, so... you think that's why we're here? Portals from other dimensions, maybe.

[pajarita]

Probably -- I'm -- [bumping into a very solid, won't-budge screw so just give her a second. there we go.] A mechanic, you give me engines and I'll fix them for you. Give me a hundred thirty-two year old escape pod and I'll fix it -- the point is, I don't generally sit in a room with a blackboard debating the possibilities of the universe.

[here she looks back at fitz.] But it's gotta be something like that, considering how I'm from almost two centuries ahead.

[technologist]

[ The mechanic commentary earns a slight smile; sounds a lot like Mack, actually, which is both endearing and depressing in that friends-who-aren't-here-and-might-be-dead way.

The two centuries line catches him off guard, though. The surprise is obvious on his face, mixed with curiosity. ]

Seriously? But do you think it's— I mean, is it the same Earth, is the question. [ Actually, starting at the beginning: ] Are you from Earth?

[pajarita]

[she could tell, that it caught him off-guard, but at least he's not asking questions in a bothersome way. so she's more inclined to let out the sardonic little smile that flickers on her face.] Space, actually.

[she looks at him again.] But I am human.

[technologist]

[ Which is a more important clarification than she might realize, actually. He's about to ask if she's Asgardian when she cuts in with the answer. ]

But you were born on Earth, yeah? Or is it more of a—

[ The sentence comes to an abrupt stop, and Fitz glances to the floor while mouthing few words under his breath. Failing to settle on the right one, he looks back up, sounding mildly chagrined. ]

Um. The thing with the... cities. On other planets.

[pajarita]

Pff -- they wished. [she puts off the unscrewing for a moment just to answer.] No -- actual space, on a space station we just called the Ark. Mecha Station, if you wanted to be specific -- where the cool people lived.

[technologist]

What— [ Goodbye chagrin, hello slightly embarrassing enthusiasm. ] That's incredible. You lived on a space station? You were actually born there?

[pajarita]

[too bad she is used to being awesome hasn't picked up on that yet.] I did and I was, and it wasn't that incredible. Not at the end.

[technologist]

[ no awesome was the right answer That enthusiasm dims a bit at the implication. He's still curious, but there's at least an attempt at being more sympathetic and polite about it. ]

You didn't... [ Not that there's a polite way to ask this. But he can't help but think of the guy he ran into earlier, the conversation about his being inconveniently dead before being dragged here. ] Were you...

[ Please read his mind so he doesn't have to say it, ty. ]

[pajarita]

[there's no coming back from the dead in her world, so she definitely is not filling the gaps.]

Was I what?

[technologist]

[ Yeah it was like a one in a million chance anyway, let's be real. It's obvious she doesn't follow, so direct approach it is. He sounds a little unsure, though that's mostly because he's not sure he wants the "coming back from the dead" thing to be a pattern. ]

Dead.

[pajarita]

[was she dead. what sort of question is that? of course she wasn't dead, the dead don't come back to life and she would've remembered a gruesome pain. because if she ever goes, she imagines it'll be in all the pain.]

I don't know. [pause.] Why, were you?

[technologist]

I don't... think so.

[ That actually requires more thought than he was expecting, and his brow furrows in bemusement on the pause. The last thing he remembers is a temple falling to pieces around them, so. ]

But I could've been.

[ He doesn't sound incredibly bothered by that. It's a little deadpan, if anything. ]

You don't know— does that mean you could've been, too?

[pajarita]

Yeah, I guess. [not thrilled about it. not okay with it. she dies, then what happens to finn? and clarke and bellamy? (eh, murphy, whatever.) it leaves a sour taste on her tongue to think of it.]

Not the sort of afterlife I imagined, to be honest.

[technologist]

[ His silence is as good as agreement, and he looks a bit sorry for the suggestion as he lets his gaze wander over the broken lift. Not the sort of afterlife he imagined, either. ]

It's... there was this man, back home. He'd died, but it wasn't really... he'd slipped into another dimension. Except he wasn't ready to go, so he sort of— lingered.

[ Which probably sounds like a very, very random story. He pauses, then looks back to her and clarifies. ]

Maybe this is like that. Just something in between.

[pajarita]

[maybe. she doesn't say that, instead something different entirely:] Well -- I'm not ready to go. So maybe I'll follow in that man's footsteps.

[technologist]

[ ... which made him go insane, frankly, but the thought behind it registers, and her stubborn response prompts an impressed (if slightly shy, and awkward) smile. ]

( ooc: this is the lamest tag BUT DO YOU WANT TO WRAP THIS and say companionable attempt at fixing lift fails, part ways ?? I'm ok with continuing it also if you think the convo hasn't run its course! )