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

[kirking]

[Maybe they did just crash through the ceiling. If everyone here was from the same time, if they knew of the things he knew of, he'd be tempted to say that they were all beamed in here. And yes, he's dealt with time travel but he doesn't believe that a transporter can be used that way, to steal people from different times.

If it could, Scotty would be the one person who'd know about it.]

What do you mean, a portal? Like a wormhole?

[sheriffing]

Yeah, I guess.

[There are probably a few different versions of the same idea - getting pulled out of your world and dropped into another. Maybe it always works the same way, maybe it doesn't. The thing is, Emma's pretty sure they have to let go of the idea of walking out of here. It's going to take something more than that.]

There were ways to open them up where I'm from, it just usually took some kind of magic object to do it. And if there's one thing this place seems short on, it's magic.

[kirking]

[Well. At least now they've definitely solved the mystery of whether or not she could be his mother. Because his mom didn't believe in magic even a little bit. It's all science, Jimmy, that's what she always said. There is always, always a scientific explanation for everything. Just because we don't know it, doesn't make it magical.]

That's because magic doesn't exist. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[sheriffing]

Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree. I'm from a town full of fairytale characters, that's not debatable.

[Not to mention the magic that Emma should have, the kind that comes from true love and the hope that everyone will find their happily ever after. He can argue it, she'll just give him a roll of her eyes to match the sigh that comes from his certainty.

Seriously, they're stuck here and he wants to knock down that possibility the moment it's introduced?]

Different worlds, different rules. Get used to it.