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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caelumstaff) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
hotelcaelum2024-01-12 09:44 am
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I… Perhaps it’s true, what you say. [That he’s kept pieces of himself held together, fragmented as they are, even if it’s cut his hands to do so.] But I hold steadfast to the less-than-flattering bits, as befitting of a man cursed to live as an undead.
[Why is it admirable to hold onto the things that are shadowed and ugly?]
My helping you… In fact, my helping anyone has only been a recent habit as of late. And I still will complain about it, from time to time.
[Astarion and heroics still never get along with each other, you know.]
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She lifts their hands a bit in emphasis at the rest of his words, before tugging them forward a step again. ]
You may think of me as a helpful maid, but until this hotel, I averted my eyes from everything but myself... in order to hold myself together.
[ Which she's even able to admit with the slightest hint of shame, now, where months ago, she might've just said it coldly and without feeling. Helping others, truly helping them in things that are not making their bed or washing their dishes, is similarly not familiar to her. Many times has she thrown people to the wolves (figuratively) (literally? 🧍♂️), but she thinks he'll understand that. ]
Now, watching you, it feels more like I may yet reclaim some humanity.
[ It gives her hope, the tiniest, little fragile shred. ]
It may be a fledgling feeling to you, but it did return one day, hmm? [ a beat, and then a little teasingly: ] Despite your begrudging nature.
no subject
Astarion frowns, still, but continues to his gait along the ice-laden hall, still hand-in-hand with her.]
I still say that I'm a terrible man to put on a pedestal, but if it means that you feel as though you might... regain something you lost, then it would be cruel of me to complain.
[And whie he is cruel, cuttingly so sometimes, this is not something he'd criticize. Not something he'd discourage.]
And perhaps it did return, if only because of the people I surrounded myself with. I would thank you not to say as much to that silly wizard, though. [Gale.] Tell me, do you feel as though you're well on your way to regaining a spark of humanity, Giselle?
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Perhaps I am having the same experience that you have had. Because I am surrounded by the guests, I am beginning to feel a bit more like my old self, yes...
[ It's just, she's more open to admitting it outright to him, rather than needing to keep it a secret, as he does from Gale. She's grateful, and she'd like to express it — she was always the type that didn't hesitate to put her feelings into words, before she was bound to the mansion, so in a funny way, even admitting this is a sign that the cold grip of her shell is receding, however slightly. ]
Since coming here, I've received gifts, I've been complimented. I've been scolded, I've been teased... but none of it has been an unpleasant experience. It feels like human interaction, again.
[ It's not as though she can suddenly return to the person she assumes she was long ago, bright and resilient and happy, but at the very least, she can acknowledge that all these small experiences add up into letting her feel like a person again, and not just the faithful, cursed servant of the house. ]
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But they can still change. Still be malleable up to a certain point. Maybe that's all that matters.]
Complimented, scolded, and teased. It's simply because here, no one sees you as part of the staff -- instead, just another guest.
[And perhaps, in the long run, that's not such a bad thing at all.
Up ahead, there seems to be a spot in the corridor free from ice, and so Astarion makes that their aim as they walk.]
How do you feel about that, then? Regaining even the smallest spark of what feels like... humanity?
no subject
I feel... happy.
[ It's said cautiously — tense with the expectation and fear that she will not be able to hold onto it for long. ]
But I am filled with unease, too. I do not think... [ She hesitates, just barely frowning in thought, wondering if it would burden him too much to say this. It always feels easier to be frank about these things in front of him, though. ] I do not think I could bear to lose it again.
[ Perhaps it's the first time she's been able to put a name to this dread she feels — a fear that any moment, she will get called back to the house, back to her service, and she will never see any of them again. She'll never feel like this again. She wonders if this is what he'd felt like, when he'd first escaped from his master and gotten the parasite — glad to experience the outside world, but terrified of things to returning as they were when it was all over at the same time. ]
And yet, I will be called back all the same, in time.
no subject
Just as she cautiously says it, Astarion, too, slowly brings them over to ice-free zone, which upon closer inspection appears to be a lounge area. At least there will be places to sit.]
I wouldn't want you to. Lose it, I mean.
[The things he finds for himself here, the connection with people he's already surprising himself with as those threads continue to develop, he's not certain what he'd do if faced with the possibility of never seeing them again. He merely chooses not to think about it for now, leaving those baleful thoughts for later. So, he can understand her anxiety.
It makes one hesitant to embrace the good things because the pain of losing them would almost be unbearable.]
You'll have no choice but to return if you're called back?
[He says, the frown on his features and tone very clear.]
no subject
As a faithful servant to the house, I am bound to it. I know all that takes place there, whether I would like to or not. As soon as a single ant crossed the threshold, I would know... perhaps it is that I have become a part of the house itself.
[ Her eyes open again, leading them over to one of the sofas. Briefly, her eyes flick to the side, catching his disapproving frown — and she refrains from showing concern or sadness, not taking pleasure in explaining her imprisonment to him. She doesn't want him to worry more, so it'd be better if she remained passive, she thinks. ]
Do you remember what I told you before? That the house was once in a dark, endless realm for many centuries. At this very moment, it is waiting there for its next master. It was after it had returned to that abyss that I received the invitation to come here in the first place...
[ Meaning that she had returned to complete solitude, before the invitation to this hotel came. It isn't simply that the mansion had disappeared once for hundreds of years, but that it moves in and out of the realm of the living as need be. Her general detachment and coldness are, perhaps, signs that she has spent an overwhelmingly longer time in that darkness than in the light. ]
But when it returns to the mortal realm, I imagine I will be pulled along with it.
[ That is to say, she has no intention of leaving the hotel of her own free will — she simply assumes when the house moves to greet its next master, she will be dragged back within its walls as per her contract with it. ]