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

Entry tags:

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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, that's enough to get him to step away from the one he's about to pick up.

"I thought this looked too good to be safe," he gripes. Once he's sure he's a safe-ish distance from most of the eggs he can see, he reaches a hand out to Harry. "I just woke up upstairs, if that's what you're asking."

"It is."

He reaches to close the distance for a handshake, firm despite his somewhat scorched fingertips.

"Harry Hart. Pleasure to meet you, though the circumstances are unfortunate."

Coulson keeps his friendly and gentle. Just in case the hand he's shaking is the injured one.

"Phil Coulson. And likewise. Aside from the fact that there's no front door, what can you tell me about this place?"

Coulson. He's heard that name mentioned before.

Could be coincidence, of course.

One way to find out.

"Far less than I'd like, though what I have I happy to share. First of all, though, it seems remiss not to ask - do you know a young woman named Skye? Or - Fitz?"

If he was in the same position, familiar company - the presence of fellow agents - would take precedence.

There's only the slightest sign of surprise on Coulson's face. He hasn't expected to hear the names of his team members and, for an instant, he feels absolutely paranoid that this whole thing is a HYDRA ploy. But he quickly suppresses all the turmoil in his mind and nods calmly.

"I do, actually. Why?"

"The both of them have been here for two months, now. Likewise a young man named Steve Rogers," he is not saying 'Captain America' for love nor money, "and another you may know arrived at the same time I did, a Grant Ward?"

Though there's clearly no love lost there, if Skye's responses to the man are anything to go by.

There's a lot to react to in that one explanation. Coulson's mouth falls open slightly before he shuts it again to get his mind straight.

"That's impossible. I just spoke to them a few hours ago." A pause. "Well, Skye and Fitz at least."

Harry smiles faintly.

"Then the first thing I can tell you about the hotel is how it deals with the passage of time. Or rather, how it doesn't. One of my colleagues joined me here on the same day I arrived, but he was from several weeks in my future at the very least."

Not that he really has a future back home, but. Same difference.

Wow. Time travel. For real this time. Not just a fake out like the one he experienced before.

"That's definitely something. I take it Skye and Fitz mentioned me." It would explain the name drop.

"Not directly to me," Harry admits, with the mild sheepishness of someone who feels he's committed a faux pas. "But there's an internal communication network here. Skye suggested to me that I use its history to catch up on what's been learnt, and your name was mentioned."

Ah. That's clearly something Coulson should do himself.

"I see." Though he's surprised Skye would have communicated without hacking the network into oblivion first. "If it hasn't been made obvious yet. You can trust Steve Rogers. I wouldn't trust Grant Ward."

Though Harry hasn't yet had much of the pleasure of speaking with Captain Rogers, he seems perfectly agreeable; Skye, he hasn't had any reason to take issue with. She's been helpful, friendly, kind, healthily paranoid and obviously knows her work.

"I appreciate the advice. Though by extension you're asking me to trust you," he says, in good humour.

Coulson huffs, smiling in equally good humor. "That's a fair point." There's really very little proof he can offer Harry at this moment. "He could say the same thing about me just as convincingly. I guess we'll just have to get to know each other better."

"That seems reasonable."

It's also the case that Skye and (more briefly) Fitz and Capt. Rogers have made a good first impression. He doesn't know about trust - that's a costly resource in a spy - but he's happy to cooperate.

"If I might tell you a little about the hotel? You've come here with a third monthly cohort of 'guests'. The building seems to expand to house newcomers, or else it reveals space that was previously hidden - the same trick that I assume is used to conceal the corridor we all entered through. We have yet to see the staff, though their presence is felt. Rooms are meticulously housekept, laundry done, and breakfast laid out on a daily basis - unseen."

Coulson likes to build trust when he can, even as a spy. He listens attentively then remarks, "creepy and needlessly elaborate for a kidnapping. Any ideas who's behind this or why this is happening at all?"

Harry tilts his head in a 'yes' to creepy and needlessly elaborate.

"Nothing on the former. But there have been, for lack of a better word, experiments conducted. The first month, I'm told that the temperature was reduced to dangerous levels. The second, we were subjected to two weeks of steadily escalating hallucinations of people we've known and - lost. Seeing ghosts, for lack of a better term."

He gestures to his own shrapnel-pitted face.

"If this is the flavour of the month, so to speak, then we're being let off lightly."

"I don't know. I really wouldn't take explosions all that lightly." Maybe Harry just got lucky and received a smaller hit. "The rest of these eggs could be booby trapped." That said, he crosses his arms, frowning slightly. "I hate to say it but it sounds like something an organization I know of could devise."

He'd be the first to admit he's understating the case by some degree of magnitude, but he knows actions speak louder than words; if he really thought it wasn't a big deal. after all, he wouldn't be out here rummaging through the remaining eggs with his umbrella, trying to minimise the harm to others. Harry does not take grenades lightly to say the absolute least.

But what Coulson says is interesting because it gives him the opportunity to fill a gap in his knowledge. Much has been said of SHIELD, in bits and pieces, but what has been only glossed over is--

"HYDRA?"

Coulson can't help but quirk his eyebrows at that. "Are we from the same universe?" After Skye's explanation, he's been prepared to accept the multiverse theory. "But yes. I'm talking about HYDRA."

Harry quirks a wry smile.

"No, I'm just a man with a tablet and a lot of time on his hands. Your colleague Fitz helped me to establish early on that our universes are quite divergent." But then he's curious. "You've had some experience with the concept before this?"

Because he's talking quite lightly about it now.

"Just checking. And sort of. We learned about the existence of aliens and other planets a few years ago. It's not the exact situation here but it still changed our view on the world." Finding out you're not alone in the universe can be pretty dramatic.

"Quite significantly, I'd imagine. I should think you'll adjust to these new circumstances easily enough. What I've had presented to me as fact was pure science fiction, previously."

There's a flicker of something behind his eyes - a brittleness in the stiff upper lip, a knot of fear under the smooth exterior - that he chooses to show. He's a civilian, after all. Even though the act is coming from somewhere more real than he'd ever care to admit.

Coulson quirks his eyebrows at that and he asks with some concern. "Are you holding up all right?"

He projects a little light embarrassment.

"As well as can be expected, I'd like to hope. This is all outside of my experience, and it has been an extremely long time since I last took an explosive device to the face."

He says it in such a way as to be heard as either completely literal or dryly sarcastic.

Coulson seems to be taking it as sarcasm. "I thought those happened every Saturday morning." Still, he reaches out to pat him on the shoulder. "You'll be all right. I'll figure something out." There's certainty in his tone.

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