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]

[ Cashmere's hand goes to her own chest, protectively. just checking. is Johanna telling the truth? absolutely not. if it was, well - it's a good thing she'd be dead because Cashmere would never live down being killed by Johanna Mason. ]

Liar. [ because the Games aren't over. they just started and there's no way any of that went down in the first 15 minutes. Cashmere tries to mentally place where Johanna was during the bloodbath, and can't. she just remembers running for supplies while the rest of the pack started tearing into people. there's doubt edging in on her voice, though. nothing makes sense in the hotel. she's willing to believe a lot to find an answer. ] What are you going to do, JoJo? Fight me looking like that? Any excuse to touch me, right?

[wickedlyable]

No, you're not worth the effort if you're not going to stay dead. ((She shakes her head, but the sneer slowly drops off her face as she actually looks at Cashmere for a moment. It's... really her.)) How are you here?

What do you remember before getting here?

[64th]

[ is this a truce? this place is fucking weird. ]

How are you here? [ but she's going to answer the other question anyway. ] The arena. You ran off with Blight. We were at the cornucopia. I was getting the supplies. And then I was here.

[wickedlyable]

You... what? The Games ended - not that you were around for it. That was... ((She trails off, looking faintly distant, then shakes her head.)) I don't even know how long ago that was.

You killed Wiress. I killed you. Then I got taken in and tortured by Snow for daring to help out little Miss Mockingjay.

[64th]

[ she wants to call Johanna a liar, but instead her throat tightens. it sounds plausible, it sounds real. would she have killed Wiress? sure. if the opportunity arose. Cashmere's plan in the arena had been to get the Games over as soon as possible. she didn't want to win, not if winning meant going home alone. Brutus and Enobaria, though - they wanted to win. why not help them? ]

You killed me. [ she's not offended but wow it's unsettling to be told that you're dead. ] What did you help Katniss with? It was all true, wasn't it? The rumors about the uprising were true?

[wickedlyable]

If it makes you feel any better, it was instinct. I wasn't out to get you. To be honest, I don't remember much. ((Partly because it happened so fast, and partly because the torture hasn't left her mind unaffected. She runs a hand over her head again before continuing.))

Yeah. The uprising is real. ((There's no point in hiding it from her anymore, after all.)) I was in on it, so was Finnick, so were a bunch of others, actually. I just hope she shaped up, because that girl knew nothing. I swear to god, it was so frustrating, I almost killed her myself.

[64th]

[ that does make her feel better. in a strange way. Cashmere knows she would have done the same. it's how the Games work. ]

Don't get your hopes up. [ Katniss, as far as Cashmere can tell, has never known much of anything and probably would have brought the whole country down on accident and never even noticed. ] If the Games are over - what happened to Gloss? Is he okay? [ Cashmere is looking surprisingly vulnerable, so now might be a good time to lie. ]

[wickedlyable]

I know, right? ((She scoffs harshly, turning away from the other girl for a moment to glance back at the mess on the floor. When Cashmere asks the question, though, she's stuck. On one hand, there's no point in riling Cashmere up - and loathe as she is to admit it, Johanna's too tired right now to engage in their usual back and forth. On the other hand, Johanna really, really doesn't like lying. Finally, she says shortly-)) You don't have to worry about him. One hasn't been affected by the rebellion. ((Both true sentences.))

[64th]

[ One hasn't been affected. Cashmere's not sure how she feels about that. They earned favor with the government by not rebelling during the Dark Days, and that favoritism is safety. still, she knows that unrest exists in One. even if they are too afraid or too smart to speak out and act on it. she doesn't know if she should be proud of her District for knowing how to survive or ashamed that they'd continue to kneel before the Capitol and forever surrender their independence to Snow.

Cashmere watches Johanna move. she's never seen her look so broken or weak, not even during the Games. so it's true that Johanna was tortured. Cashmere believes that. while they've never seen eye to eye, the two women don't typically lie to one another. honesty stings harder than anything they could make up. so she also believes that she's dead.

and when Johanna says she doesn't have to worry about Gloss, she believes that too, taking it at face value. ] Yeah? Okay. I- Okay.

[ she folds her arms across her chest. this weird, kind of nice mostly neutral is new territory and she's not sure what to do. ] I already tore my room apart. There's nothing.

[wickedlyable]

Fuck. ((She laughs a little quietly, kicking at the white dress on the floor. It's the one Snow had her dress up in, when they'd caked makeup over her bruises, fixed a wig over her head, and had her sit still while they took pictures of her as a glorious Victor.

Even here, where she's beginning to become sure he has no influence, he's still following her.)) So I'll have to clean this up, then.

Later. I'm... tired. ((She doesn't like saying it out loud. She hasn't really felt tired outside of the Games in a long while.)) That's such a weird thing to have to say.

[64th]

[ Cashmere shrugs. she's just going to leave her room trashed for a while. she's never been particularly tidy anyway. what's the point?

she doesn't pull her eyes away from Johanna, who looks so different from the last time they saw one another. she's been tough since she won, little but fierce enough that you'd hardly notice how Cashmere towers over her. right now though, she looks as young as she is. and yes - tired too. Cashmere actually feels sorry for her. ]

You're not really going to sleep, are you? This place is - [ not the kind of place Cashmere's going to sleep easy in. ] We shouldn't trust it.

[wickedlyable]

Fuck no. I'm not an idiot. ((Even if she's being vulgar, at least it brings some of the spark back to her previously lifeless expression.)) Next thing you know, I'll wake up in some other country without any idea of who I am. No, thanks.

I think I'll just sit a while and figure out how this tablet works. If there's nothing in the rooms that are monitoring us, then there must be something in the tablets. ((And it's something vaguely useful she can do while giving her wrecked body a rest.))

[64th]

I was beginning to wonder. [ Johanna is a lot of things, but she's not an idiot. ] But hey, at least you won't wake up dead, right? [ or maybe she will. considering... that's apparently what's happened to Cashmere. ]

As fun as that sounds, I have better things to do. [ like harass people about Gloss. or figure out her own tablet. ] I'm in 103. In case it becomes important.

[wickedlyable]

103. I'll keep it in mind in case I want target practice. ((It's the best attempt she can make at a joke right now. Hopefully, Cashmere won't mind too much at her lack of sensitivity, considering her lack of ability to even smirk properly right now.))

[64th]

[ Cashmere scowls. that was harsh. it's about what she would expect from Johanna. she many not understand where they are, or why, but she knows where she stands with the other woman. so she doesn't hate it. ]

Please do. I'd love to test my booby traps. [ the corners of her lips tug upward in a small smile. and with that, she goes. ]