master of the house, quick to catch your eye (OPEN)

[checkingin]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The initial arrival rooms, the main lobby, all over the place.
When: April 5rd
What: Welcome, newbies + happy Easter eggs.

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 an empty, ashy fireplace, to your right is a lobby desk. straight ahead are three large sets of doors, all three of them thrown wide open and welcoming. and outside the few (curtained, permanently dark) windows is the continually steady hiss of rain. once you leave the hallway you wake up in, you won't be able to return.

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. there is, however, a pad of paper and a pen neatly aligned with the desk edge. you know. for notes.

terribly sorry for the inconvenience.

SCREENING ROOM.

on a long pull-down screen, a silent version of the cabinet of dr. caligari 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 music.

along the curtained windows is another long table, with a large bowl of caramel corn and a large hot drink dispenser full of hot water, with a few cups and some old looking packages of hot chocolate mix.

BALLROOM.

the third set of grand doors have been thrown wide to reveal a brightly lit, festively decorated ball room. all across the polished wood floor, all over the tables and chairs around the edge of the room, under the curtains, in the corners, hiding in the shadows, and behind the doors, characters will find:

easter eggs.

plastic easter eggs filled with jellybeans and chocolates, real eggs dip dyed and rolled in glitter; foil wrapped chocolate eggs, sugar eggs with little diaramas in the middle. there will be novelty plastic easter bunny rings sprinkles about, and general little plastic childrens toys. there will be plastic and paper easter basket grass sprinkled all over, and upbeat ambiance music intended to excite.

by the front door will be basket for people to use in their quest to collect the hundreds of eggs scattered all over the room. a sign on the floor invites them to "take one" in curvy handwritted script.

but there's no sign to warn that — some of these eggs?

are going to explode in your face.

( event details. )

OTHER.

the ballroom is currently open, and the grand doors locked.

there is no main door leading to the outside, good luck trying to find one.

the doors to the courtyard and breakfast hall are unlocked, food is currently being served. a lot of it is candy.

ROOMS.

you've a room key with your assigned room number on it. all the new guest residences will be located on floors four. 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'll 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.

EGGSISTING GUESTS.

happy easter, kids.

Comments

EXPLODING EGG TIME IS GO. OTA.

[cisskabob]

Any time any of the previously locked rooms are suddenly unlocked, Cissie (like everyone else) wants to investigate. Sometimes it is disappointing, and sometimes it isn't. An Easter egg hunt is definitely not disappointing. She's lost track of the days here, especially with the last month's ghosts and how she basically hid in her room for ages. It's a little sad, not being home for Easter. Not that she had much of an Easter experience in the last several years, and she's definitely too old for egg hunts...

But not today. Cissie's learned to take any potentially pleasant activity the hotel offers and run with it. And today, she will happily act like the teenage girl she appears to be, and start filling that basket with eggs. She's never seen so man, and certainly not this many kinds. It's different, and fun, and the candy is a pleasant change from oatmeal.

Eventually she realizes that her basket is full almost to overflowing, but looking at it, she thinks she can fit a few more in there. It's not like there's a shortage of eggs, or that most of them are even hidden, but she's still enjoying herself. She spots an egg under the corner of a curtain nearby, and leans down to pick it up.

It feels different than the other eggs, but that's about all she has the time to notice as she begins to straighten up. The egg in her hand quite literally explodes as she's holding it. The next thing she knows, she's on the ground.

[ooc: Feel free to run into Cissie before she finds her exploding egg, too! She won't be the first to find one, but she won't have realized others are getting hurt. So she'll be egg hunting for a while, and enjoying herself. Also feel free to find her and fuss at her after. ANYTHING GOES.]

[withbread]

Peeta is doing some egg hunting as well. Actually, he's realized that something is going on and is in the thick of things. He hadn't minded the oatmeal and he doesn't have a sweet tooth, but he's far too 12 (and far too paranoid) not to gather up food in general. He's got a basket as well, picking up eggs as he goes when he goes for an egg that Cissie is already moving toward.

"Sorry, please, have at it," he gestures to the egg.

[cisskabob]

"Oh, sorry!" Cissie laughs, snatching her hand back. She's slightly embarrassed for getting so caught up in the egg hunting that she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings. Like other people, for instance.

She recovers quickly though, and picks up the egg--and second a few inches away--and offers it to him. "Here. One for you, one for me?"

[withbread]

Peeta shakes his head at her apology. It's not necessary. "Honestly, it's okay," he tells her. "I'm Peeta," he offers. He did promise Haymitch that he would do a little more socializing, a little more ally making. "I don't think I've ever seen this much candy, have you?" It's a bit of a lie on his part; there was a mountain of candy and baked goods in the Capitol.

He nods at her offer. "That sounds fair to me," he accepts the egg with a grin, putting it in his bag.

[cisskabob]

"Hi," she says, giving him a genuinely friendly smile in return. She's friendly by nature, but the festivities have put her in a better mood than she's been in... well, for about a month, at least. But she's not thinking about that now. "I'm Cissie."

She looks around them and laughs, shaking her head. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen this much candy in one place, either. And I've got a few friends who could definitely pack away the snacks when they wanted to."

...It's sort of a joke. Also partly true, when you're referring to someone with superspeed metabolism, but still.

[withbread]

For the first time in a while, Peeta is in a reasonable mood as well. He hates this place, doesn't trust anyone or anything in it, but this is food they can stock pile. He likes that. "I'm Peeta," he introduces himself.

"Have you tried it? The candy, I mean."

He doesn't comment on the friends being able to put away candy. In Panem, gluttony really only exists in the Capitol.

[cisskabob]

"Hi Peeta. It's nice to meet you," she says, and means it, giving him a friendly smile. She's seen him around, certainly, at breakfast or on the tablets, but it's always nice to connect with the others stuck here with her. She brushes her hair back from her face, and pulls an egg from her basket, opening it to reveal jelly beans.

"I tried a chocolate egg earlier; it was pretty good." She pops a jelly bean in her mouth and smiles as she chews, holding out the egg to Peeta. "The jelly beans seem good too. Go ahead."

[withbread]

He's seen her around as well, but he's been preoccupied and hasn't taken the time to actually meet her. He agrees though (and he's almost forgotten it) it is nice to connect with people, to see them face to face and to talk to them.

"I did pick up a chocolate one and I did like it." He gives her a curious look at the jelly beans. He hasn't tried anything like them back home. He takes one hesitantly, tentatively pops it in his mouth then smiles ever so slightly. "They are good."

LMFAO FUCK IGNORE ME PLEASE

[greenarrowed]

He hears the explosion and nothing else. Oliver reacts on instinct, of which have been so heightened since his arrival here. Like all of the relaxing he's done in the last two years is coming utterly undone. Whatever walls he's let come down, are being built back up.

Mostly.

He's not inhuman enough to turn the other way when he finds a girl on the ground, scorched and obviously hurt and it's Cissie, he realizes after a moment. Kneeling down next to her.

"Don't move. Not yet."

WELL DONE MELLY BELLY i saw nothing of course

[cisskabob]

There are a lot of thoughts running through Cissie's mind. Like what the hell just happened and ow and also damn it's been a long time since I was on the wrong end of an exploding arrow. Followed closely by why am I thinking about exploding arrows.

And then there's someone next to her, and she realizes who it is. Wasn't she just having a really good time? She's not entirely sure at the moment. But it hasn't been so long that she's forgotten her basic first aid, or maybe it's that some instincts don't entirely die away even when you retire from the vigilante life. In any case, she's slowly starting to try to catalog her injuries--her hand hurts, her face hurts, her head hurts--did she hit her head?

She just nods, slowly. "...Yeah. Okay."

i am ashamed

[greenarrowed]

He scans her quickly, notes the damage and the way she's breathing, blinking, the burns on her hands. It's bad but he's seen worse. Dealt with worse. She'll survive if they get the burns properly cleaned and bandaged and taken care of and he gets the impression from that she's well aware of that.

"Okay." Oliver says after a moment, sliding his hand under the back of her neck to help her sit up slowly.

"We need to get these cleaned. But you're going to be fine."

now i am shamed. so late. :c

[cisskabob]

Cissie lets him help her sit, and even leans a little into his hand once she's upright because wow, headrush. But nothing's broken, she can tell that much, and she might be bleeding and burned and hurting, but he's probably right; she's fine. She's had worse injuries, she's sure, even if it's been a long time since she's had to deal with them. A long time.

She might be a little shaky, but she takes a deep breath and tries to sit on her own, to pull away a little. "Right. Yes. Sorry. I'm fine."

...Why did she apologize? She doesn't even know.

LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[notafraidofyou]

[Tim feels kind of bad that he was really busy stuffing his face full of candy when Cissie got injured, so he's going to have to make up for it. Somehow.

...Probably by being extra obnoxious to her in recovery, but he's starting out being nice.

He sets her Easter basket down next to her.]

Uh. You dropped this. I put the real eggs in your minifridge because... you know. Gross. But the rest of them are here.

Re: LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[cisskabob]

[Cissie has at least left the ballroom, although she's starting to think she should go up to her room, rather than sitting in the lobby getting blood all over the chairs and probably scaring the newbies.

It's probably shock or something, but she barely notices Tim approaching until he's next to her. Her stomach does a weird little sinking flip at the sight of the basketful of eggs, and she blinks a few times before honing in on the important part of what he said.]

...Did you break into my room?

Re: LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[notafraidofyou]

[Wow, Cissie, way to focus on the totally insignificant details.]

I think you mean I saved you from a basket full of rotten eggs. This is where you say "thank you, Tim."

Re: LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[cisskabob]

Thank you, Tim. [She repeats dutifully. She gives him a somewhat worried look.] ...You stopped collecting them though, right?

Re: LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[notafraidofyou]

Uh. Well. I didn't... technically know what happened. Right away. But I'm okay. And you're gonna be okay, so.

[So he totally collected eggs for a good long while this morning, and has a massive candy hoard in his room.]

Re: LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[cisskabob]

[Cissie blinks at him... and then surprises herself by laughing. She couldn't even say what it was that was so funny, but something about the whole thing just... made her laugh.]

Yeah. We're okay. [She doesn't quite feel okay yet, but she knows her injuries are relatively mild. For what they could have been. She waves a hand at the basket.] Thanks for thinking of that for me. I... really forgot about it.

Re: LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[notafraidofyou]

See, that? Would have been tragic. I don't think candy is all that regular an occurrence around here. At least, it hasn't been so far, which is definitely a drawback of this place, as far as I'm concerned.

Re: LATER. IN RECOVERY.

[cisskabob]

[For the most part, Cissie has gotten used to this Tim, and the fact that he is not the Tim she's known since she was fourteen. His personality and temperament are different, and his age and appearance certainly help. He's his own person, and she's getting to know him for himself, to the point where she's mostly stopped comparing him to the Tim she knows.

But every so often he says or does something that is so not like her Tim that she can't help comparing them. Being this excited about candy? Is definitely one of those things. She can't help but grin a little and shake her head.] You really like candy, don't you?

I promised this ages ago, I'm so sorry

[lifewithoutrest]

(Sometime between Oliver and Tim?)

Helen doesn't know the girl. Perhaps she's seen her once or twice in the hotel, but that's as far as her recognition goes. At the moment, it hardly matters. She makes her way across the room to where she sits, crouching down in front of her with a friendly smile. Things seem to have finally quieted, and she finally has opportunity to check on the explosion victims she hadn't had a chance to earlier.

"I wanted to make certain you were all right." She takes stock of the young woman's injuries, someone's first aid handiwork, before reaching up a gentle hand. "May I?"

If she allows it, Helen will look over her wounds and make certain there aren't any stubborn bits of shrapnel still embedded in the skin.

no worries!! I've been slow and sick myself c:

[cisskabob]

[Sounds perfect!]

Cissie blinks up at her blankly at first, dimly realizing that shock might be setting in. She should probably get up and get out of the ballroom, but that requires moving, which honestly seems like an effort at the moment.

"Um, yes. Sure. I'm fine," she replied, almost automatically, once her brain catches up to her and she realizes what the other woman wants. She offers out her hand, not looking at it herself. She made that mistake before and nearly threw up--the burns throb, she can feel the pain, but it's somehow better when she's not looking at it. She's pretty glad she hasn't made it to a mirror yet; somehow she has a feeling she won't like what she sees when she gets to one.

<33 I swear I'm getting back to things now.

[lifewithoutrest]

Well, that certainly isn't a comfort. She's clearly anything but fine.

"I very much doubt that." It's said softly, with a kind smile, as Helen gently takes the girl's hand in her own to examine it properly, see if there's anything more she can do for it. "Can you tell me your name? I'm afraid we aren't acquainted."

She's hoping the question will prompt her to focus, keep her from slipping.

<333! no worries ever! I will backtag until the end of time. c:

[cisskabob]

Cissie winces--she can't help herself--when the older woman takes her hand; it hurts, and that's... not very encouraging. But at least she's feeling something, and she is starting to clue into things again.

Or at least, she's with it enough to know she's being spoken to and she should answer her, because not answering would be really rude.

"I'm Cissie. Cissie King-Jones. Um... Sorry, I don't know who you are either...?" Which is to say she recognizes her; she's seen her before, probably at breakfast or in the halls--she's a neighbor. That's right. "Your room's near mine."

Did she say that out loud? There's probably a better way to introduce yourself, but maybe exploding Easter eggs change some of the rules.

[lifewithoutrest]

Helen's smile turns briefly sympathetic, knowing how much it must hurt, but she continues with her task, pleased when the girl, Cissie, answers the question without too much difficulty.

There probably are better ways one can introduce herself, but considering the circumstances, it's more than fine. Helen nods slowly in response before glancing up at her again. "I'm certain we've seen each other in passing. I'm Helen. I'm a doctor, actually."

Hopefully, that at least reassures her she's in good hands.