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

[villainously]

( if it makes her feel better, he's not sure what they can really plan with so little information to go on. sleeping would be the wisest course of action, it's just that the pirate really doesn't sleep that well in the best of situations, evil hand stacked with spontaneous kidnapping really isn't going to bode well. he'll sleep around the time he can't move anymore, and that's not right now. if she can manage some sleep, she should...

but of course the sheriff decides to interrogate him more. unsurprisingly.

in a lot of ways, he feels like he's already told her too much. he hadn't wanted to tell her about this at all, it's just too late now and he could be a danger and she deserves to know. still, telling her his collateral? well, that could cause her danger back in Storybrooke. there's a reason Rumpelstiltskin didn't want it out... and he really doesn't want to see Emma at risk because of what he told her.

his reluctance is marked in his face. someone is going to pay for this secret getting out, and well, the only thing that really reassures him is that the Crocodile wouldn't go after his own son's true love, not without damn good reason. people cared about Emma; well, not too many people would care about Captain Hook suffering a little. if this blows back, it'll blow back on him. Gold isn't stupid enough to go after Emma without an escape route, and he's trapped as the rest of Storybrooke. )

You realize the sort of thing the Crocodile would do to keep this a secret, Swan. ( as in he's telling her something very potentially dangerous, and as strong as Emma is? he doesn't want her tangling with the Dark One, he's already seen one woman he loves not make it out of that fight. ) He's lying to his wife, the dagger she has is false.

( really, Hook isn't sure why anyone believed that Rumpelstiltskin would give away his power in the first place. they really don't know the monster very well, the pirate is sadly not that lucky. it shows his game to get his hand back was less a request and more blackmail, everything he didn't want her to know. he can't quite look her in the eye, because he's already gotten the lecture about her not being able to trust him. he'd just earned it back, finally had a chance at her heart, and he started it on a lie. he can only guess she won't react well, and can he really blame her? he's always taking one step forward, three steps back.

he wasn't making the right choices, even before an evil hand had been reattached to his stump. )

[sheriffing]

[There's a lot Emma could say to Killian's warning, because a dangerous secret is nothing new to her. Gold's gone from evil to a necessary one at times, because he's not just the Dark One, he's also Henry's grandfather. She's fallen into the trap of thinking of him as one of Henry's last connections to Neal - the one who can fill in blanks that even Killian can't. He's an ally when it benefits him and a thorn in their side when he wants a deal, but she was thinking, hoping, that his marriage to Belle would mellow him out.

Turns out that instead of helping him, it's going to end up hurting her. For her part, Emma's first thought is that the woman deserves better, and her second is that Killian knows that, too.]

Everything about him is false, I can't say I'm surprised that it also goes for his accessories.

[Belle would be, because she wants to believe he's changed. She wants to believe he's good; good if you grade on a curve, but better than he was. Take away everything else, and the least she'd expect is for him to be honest with the person he claims to care about. And for a moment, a painfully quiet one - Emma can't help but relate.

It was easier to believe that the newly restored hand was a peace offering than to call him out on another scheme. She should have, instead of letting him think he was going to get away with something, but the explanation he gave her was the one she wanted to believe in. It would've been nice to see Killian get back what he lost without having to sell his soul for it, but that isn't how Gold works. It isn't how Killian works, either.]

Don't you think you should have told her?

[Not for revenge, and not to piss off Gold... just because it was the right thing to do. Theirs is one relationship Emma is happy to steer clear of, but something like this deserves a little consideration. Killian knows better than anyone that the women in Gold's life are the ones who pay for his mistakes. How could he let that happen again?]

I know what Gold would do if the truth came out, but that's exactly why you should have said something. Belle's a good person, she should know who she agreed to spend her life with.

[Emma would like to know Killian for who he is, too, but one lie isn't the kind of thing that earns a comparison to the Dark One. She shakes her head to the thought of it and tugs her lip between her teeth, too disappointed to work her way up to being annoyed with him.]

You're better than this.

[He doesn't have to believe it, she assumes that he probably won't. Emma, on the other hand, can recognize progress when she sees it. He's made that, but setbacks happen. She's had those, too.]

[villainously]

( had he considered telling Belle? no. not even for a moment. he could make an excuse if he wanted, that she wouldn't believe him. and it's a good excuse, Belle likely wouldn't have believed him. that doesn't really excuse anything, though. he should have told the girl, instead of trying to manipulate a bad situation to his advantage.

he's used the information to get help finding the ice queen the first time. the second was all greed, and perhaps he'd deserved the punishment he received. a hand he couldn't control, and trapped in a situation he should have been able to see from a mile away as the wrong choice. Emma sees progress, well, he just sees that he's not so different from the lying, dangerous man the supposedly evil hand came off of, the one he's supposedly left behind. the one that was quick to take advantage of a situation to get what he wanted, and not think much about what it'd do to the people caught in the crosshairs. perhaps he would have done the right thing, eventually. . . once he'd gotten something out of it. which doesn't much sound like progress, now does it?

he'd have much preferred anger to quiet disappointment, actually. anger he understands, it's easy to be angry. disappointment requires a certain degree of trust and faith, disappointment comes from caring and not seeing what you hoped for. it stings worse than the many times she's beat him over the head, for one reason or another. how many disappointments does one man get before she decides he's not worth the trouble?

chances are already slim, considering the father of her child is back from the dead, the scant margin he had is closing, like a door shutting out the only light he has, and it's not a comfortable sensation. he can't really lose Emma, he never really had her, but he surely can lose the right to a chance. he disappoints her and battles for another shot and she breaks and gives him one and yet they always end up at the same place.

this isn't a time, or a place, for self pity. it's more important to focus on getting out of here, than it is to focus on the fact every time Emma gets a little closer, she finds she doesn't like what she sees. he keeps his eyes set on the carpet, not managing a response to being better than this. ) She'll know the truth when we get back.

( perhaps with his son in the equation the Crocodile will be forced back into line. Baelfire was the only one that ever managed to really curb him; Belle had never been able, even if she thought she was. the truth was officially out, and his chance of getting the dark one to aide him taking his evil hand off had completely stalled out, but there was more than one way to take off a hand. he just wouldn't use magic to do it. his jaw clenches for a moment, but he forces himself to meet her eye. ) Unless there's something more, you should rest. ( it's not exactly a dismissal; it's just easier to push people away before they walk away on their own.

saviors aren't the only one with that defense mechanism. )