Happy New Year, folks! The Hotel is settling into the New Year with little fanfare. Mr Bennet remains at his post behind the hotel desk and helps check guests in and out daily. The Hotel continues to hustle and bustle and nothing seems to be going too awry beyond the usual shenanigans. In fact, one might even call this the slow season for the Hotel.
THE FLOOR IS LAVA
That is until the second week of the month where the intercoms start with Mr Bennet's pleasant voice coming through.
"Hello, hello! This is just a small warning that one of our floors, the current 79th floor to be exact, has had a small... malfunction, I suppose, and will be affecting the other floors of the Hotel. No word yet from maintenance when this will be over, so stay on your toes, my dear guests!"
And that's it. No indication of what the problem is, or anything like that. It's up to you to figure out what's going on! And what is going on? Well, it'll become obvious very quickly when wherever characters happen to be in the Hotel, they'll soon start feeling a very obvious warmth on the floor below them. It'll increase the longer they stay standing in one spot until it's almost burning their feet.
The only salve for this will be hopping onto a nearby piece of furniture and getting their feet off the floor. It'll soon become obvious that the entire Hotel has been wrapped in a game of The Floor is Lava, including the floor turning into actual lava on some of the floors.
SAFETY SLEEPOVER
Of course, the Hotel is not cruel enough to make the entire Hotel unsafe and soon enough Mr Bennet's voice will come through on the intercom again.
"For those looking for respite from our current Hotel wide game," because clearly it's a game now. "We'll be serving tea and cake in the lounge on the ground floor. Maintenance has been able to fix the lounge for now so feel free to come by when you can if you'd like to rest. We have sleeping bags!"
As folks enter the lounge, they'll find that Mr Bennet is true to his word. The lounge has been converted into a giant sleepover, with sleeping bags lining the floor and a long table off to the side where people can eat their tea and cakes. Mr Bennet is near the food table, handing out pajamas, toothbrushes, and sleep masks to those who request them. There's some new doors off to the side leading to some restrooms, at least, so guests can change in private.
Though, one thing to point out is when Mr Bennet says there's tea and cakes, the cakes happen to be lava cakes. He thinks he's funny.
THE FLOOR IS ICE
It'll take about two days for hotel maintenance to fix the Hotel and return it to normal. So that's two days of living out of the lounge or hopping around the Hotel to get places. What a headache. Mr Bennet will make another lively announcement on the intercom.
"We are back in business, folks! I've just been given word that everything should have return to normal now. Though, there is a warning to make sure not to walk around barefoot for at least another day or so while the Hotel settles. Thank you for your patience!"
What that means becomes obvious soon as anyone walking around now will feel that the floor is especially cold. That's a bit better than the heat, at least, but still kind of a pain in the ass. Anyone who tries to walk around barefoot will find that their feet quickly start to freeze but any permanent damage is easily avoidable by putting on some socks or getting off the floor entirely.
Though that said, the ice does lead to some furniture sliding around and even with shoes on, characters might find themselves sliding too.
What a lovely end to the holidays.
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hotelcaelum2024-01-12 09:44 am
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That's why he doesn't know what to do with empathy when he's met with it, not with someone who can't know what it was like. Who isn't like him.
Easier to balk at it. He glances at the Uno card, the "1" practically burning in his vision.]
Who says I'm stuck? [A laughable question. Is he rooted down by his past, by the lab, by the failure of his family, by the loss of his only friend, all those years ago? Yes. But will he see it in that light now? No.] I told you - I'm angry. And anger is the perfect emotion to bolster action. And change. I'm never going to be under anyone's thumb like that, ever again.
[Trapped. Even though... he still is.]
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It's the stripped-down basics, one of the first things every young esper learns when it comes to controlling whatever ability they were born with. To be angry and overly emotional is to be a danger to not just others, but to themselves.
Henry isn't from River's world. He wouldn't comprehend those principles, not when his life was unquestionably violated by the government and espers in that world were rare and had no overarching community. To bring that up would be condescension and not even River is that shortsighted.
He slips the card back into the deck.]
It can be both. Stuck and angry. And believe it or not, I agree with you. Some of it anyway.
[The deck is split in half and it makes a rustling sound as he shuffles it between his thumbs.]
When we first met, you didn't like me on principle because I told you that I was a doctor, right? Cause doctors were probably one of the many assholes that made your life hell.
no subject
Still, Henry frowns, straightening. But he doesn't figuratively bite back.]
Doctors, scientists, researchers.
[There's an irony, then, that one of his "closest" here is an academic with a love for magical study... But that's fine, don't worry about it.]
One in particular, the head of that lab.
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[He stops shuffling long enough to look at Henry with a slight quirk on his lips.]
I can confidently guess that those doctors broke the Hippocratic Oath. I'd bet money on it.
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"Papa", as he'd have all the test subjects call him.
[Perhaps that clarifies the part where Henry had said there was a certain degree of manipulation to treat their circumstances as one big family. (And it worked, too, to a certain degree.)]
Why would something as small as an oath stop their pursuit of science? Knowledge? Moreover, power? Just one more thing for humanity to pretend at.
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Ugh. That's creepy as shit. Easy to manipulate and coerce younger minds to do that though.
Anyways, joking about that oath part, but I take it seriously on principle.
[He IS a real doctor. River keeps the conversation going, sharing something in return for Henry's small revelations.]
I think I told you that I'd talk about what training was like in my case, right? Well, ideally you're born into a family that has a history of it already, like mine. Mom's an esper, Grandma's one, and so was my dad. Pretty inevitable when I popped out. The family's prepared in any case. If you're not, there's usually at least one other person who's sending out a mind signal so that the single esper can catch on. It's like being able to sign into a wifi network after you find it.
From there, you're signed up to train in one of the facilities in your area.
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But he doesn't say that much. If it comes up, then it comes up.]
The difference a "community" makes.
[More and more, after arriving in this hotel, he has begun to wonder if he was born in the wrong world. If he would have been (happier) more suited to one where psionics existed in a larger number, or one with magic and fantastical things that would not so much as blink at his abilities. Or might have dealt with the darkness inside of him... differently.]
That's the difference between your world and mine. Psionics numbered in the teens at their highest.
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And they all belonged to the US and nowhere else? Yeesh.
[Though espers are found globally, there is a high concentration of them in East and Southeast Asia. River truly was fortunate; born into a family of espers and an ability that wouldn't hinder him mentally, he had all the support he could ever ask for and the exposure to the world's mysteries and supernatural to just accept it as a way of life.
He knows he's a lucky fool of a man, so at the very least, he can help in any way he can.]
Well, with our facilities, on the surface, they looked like after-school or community programs. So no conditioning-cult BS; we had teachers, we were students, and then we split off into groups based on our specializations. As you can imagine, I worked with our healers the most.
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[Tools to be used. Not a simple fact of life, like it is in River's world, where such a prominence would mean a community created to train and protect their own. (Even police their own, if what he recalls from Lucinda was correct.)]
And after your training was done? What then? You're free to do whatever you like?
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Generally? Yes. Most espers live “normal” lives but if there is a downside, it’d be that if the Collective gives someone an assignment, you’re expected to fulfill it. It’s to be expected in return for all the support and networking.
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And if they don't want to? Fulfill it.
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If it isn’t as serious, they’ll try to go down the list to see who else is available. There’s other factors to take into consideration like coordination, proximity, what’s culturally appropriate and feasible for the situation at hand… Stuff like that.
I haven’t really heard of anyone who outright refused. So either it hasn’t reached me or that’s kept under wraps.
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Lucinda told me she was practically the equivalent of an esper cop.
[No, she didn't say that phrase specifically, but Henry read between the lines.]
Clearly there are a few "troublemakers" that don't like being told what to do?
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Well... I guess the best way to put it is that Lucinda deals with people who are willing to make more ghosts than putting their own behind them.
[That's what she told him anyway; River's best friend is always so candidly morbid.]
She doesn't have to do that kind of work but she does anyway because she's good at it.
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And what happens to people like that? Lock them up, throw away the key?
[Or are they. You know. Dead.]
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Depends. The worst people are the ones who hurt their own so... Well, Lulu's morbid but she isn't going to blab about that kind of stuff.
[Which is as good as admitting that yes, some will end up dead.]
It's a crap answer, I know. Just in my personal experience, the Collective doesn't involve me in deeper matters compared to her. Maybe if she was still around, she'd be willing to talk about it.
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But it seems there's not much else to garner from River, a man who had the privilege of never having to deal with those sorts of issues.]
Right. Well. You really are privileged to not have to think of such things.