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

[pickapuppy]

"That's not the case, Eggsy," is the only reply the kid will get in terms of shrapnel. It would always be tempting to start yanking bits of metal out of someone, that wasn't up for debate. But the fact that remained was simple; shrapnel reached incredible temperatures and pulling them out instantly would do more harm than good. Obviously something to be going over with Eggsy later when the dust has settled.

"For once you'll have to give me a clue on where your room actually is." He was good but even Merlin knows he's not that good. And the phrase was also buying him time on how to actually answer the second part. Greatly exaggerated? The correct answer to that would have been no shit if Merlin hadn't read the reports. There was more chance of England winning the world cup than there was for those reports to be wrong, yet there was Harry bold as brass and talking about it. "There's nothing to discuss when you're sat right there, Harry."

With that Merlin gets to his feet, already offering a helping hand if Harry wants it when getting up. Eggsy will know where they're headed, the kid was a complete chav but that didn't mean he was a stupid one.

[youcantransform]

On the contrary. If Eggsy wasn't a borderline Mensa candidate for all his swagger and projection, after all, he wouldn't have made it into Kingsman. Harry takes the offered hand mostly out of courtesy and lets Merlin provide a little leverage to help him to his feet. He straightens his cardigan with a brief, rather fussy sweep of his hands, then moves toward where he knows the staircase is.

"This way, then. I ought to brief you on what little we do know."

It's not going to last, he knows, but for now it's easier to behave as if they've simply been dropped into an unexpected mission environment. Easier to try to dismiss the fact that the lot of them have been, essentially, tortured for the last two weeks. And if he's still not sleeping properly, if he's still hearing whispers in empty rooms, that's nobody's business but his own.

Muscle memory, more than the advice of his eyes, takes him upstairs. He unlocks the door of his second-floor room and holds the door for Merlin, then moves through into the en-suite with the expectation that he'll be followed. The lighting is better there, after all, and they have the mirror and hot water in the tap. It'd be hard to notice for someone who hasn't known him for decades, but once he's out of the public halls the facade isn't quite so clean. A slight drop in his shoulders; a looseness in his spine which is more about exhaustion than relaxation.

[pickapuppy]

It isn't difficult to keep up with Harry was they make their way to the room, the taller male keeping a sharp eye on his friend and coworker as they do so. Harry seems to know where he's going but Merlin would put good money on the fact the other wasn't able to see very well. Once they got to the room and he got his hands on some tweezers, Merlin knows it'd be easily rectified. Shrapnel wounds looked worse than they were. Cooling them down and using loose, sterile dressings would have Harry on the road to recovery at the very least.

The room itself gets nothing more than a cursory glance. Most were cookie cutter layouts and Harry's was no exception to that rule. The only difference if any was the small fact that Harry had been there longer. Speaking of which, the instant Harry's shoulders drop is the moment Merlin allows just a bit of concern to show. Considering the whole thing with Professor Arnold, another explosion in Harry's face was shit and definitely going to be a blow both physically and mentally. Thankfully this one isn't enough to result in unconsciousness or a coma.

"Sit yourself down, Harry. I've got it from here." True to his word Merlin is already making a move for the nearby medicine cabinet, wholly intent on finding aforementioned tweezers. It's not like he's fussing, but then maybe Merlin is simply happy to see Harry upright after the whole death thing.

[lesson]

He's fast about fetching the bandages. Their in house "doctor" is younger than him and shorter than him, and has cut up bits of table cloth ready for bandages as she runs around like a chicken with her head cut off in lieu of what he guesses to be four or five more explosions. The two of them barely even speak, it's a simple:

hey I need —

take it.

and then he's back on the run (for it is a flat out run) back through the lobby and up the stairs. Unlike Merlin, Eggsy's spent about as much time as Harry in this god forsaken rat trap, and knows the quickest, most direct (read: only) way to his room. He's also smart enough to have put twelve and one hundred and ninety-eight together to get two hundred and ten. So he's there in less than a few minutes, and only knocking because the door is closed and he doesn't have a keycard.

[youcantransform]

That was quick. Frankly he's surprised he heard the knock before the sound of him trying the door regardless; maybe he's finally learned something. (Maybe not.) The possibility of it not being Eggsy seems infinitesimal, really.

"Let him in, would you?" Harry asks, knowing Merlin probably won't thank him for getting up now he's sitting down. He quirks an eyebrow. "It's only so often we can provide a live patient for a field medicine tutorial."

[pickapuppy]

Merlin wouldn't have thanked Harry at all for getting up once he'd sat down. The only acceptable scenario right now would be moving Harry back into the room once he's been cleaned up, and no alternatives would be considered so far. At least Eggsy knocks. The door may be locked, but the fact remained that Eggsy had knocked before trying to open the door regardless. If Merlin had been in the hotel longer and not feeling half as ruffled he would almost be impressed.

It only takes a few seconds to get to the door, Merlin not falling over himself to get there super quick. Whatever was going on downstairs was best left to those still down there, right now Harry was the priority and then the rest could be helped. That and the lack of information was a thorn in Merlin's side. They all knew that running into something without the details first was what got people killed. Merlin opens the door and gives Eggsy what he hopes is a reassuring nod, motioning towards the bathroom and making sure the door clicks closed behind the teenager. Harry is bang on the money; this will be a great chance to show Eggsy a few tricks of the trade.

"He's in the bathroom. Let's go get Harry sorted out."