hotelcaelum | Event Log #004

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Event Log #004

EVENT LOG
number 004

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Is she? His face flickers with mild confusion.]

How is that crass? It's true.

It's so... sweet. But ridiculous.

[ Sprezzatura Vaux doesn't make people happier. not for very long, at least. ]

[Now, he props up again on his elbows so he can look at her a little more levelly.]

It's not. It's true. [He repeats himself again, seeking her gaze.] I haven't felt like this in a long, long time. And it's all because of you. I don't see how that's supposed to be "ridiculous."

[ avoids his gaze ] I... it's... short-sighted. You are having fun now because it is all new to you, and I am not like these other people in your life before.

[Does she really think that? That he's going to grow bored one day because what they have will lose its luster? Maybe if he had permitted himself to delve into her mind more than just once, he would have known this already.

Even so, this assumption couldn't be farther from reality. This isn't something something that'll fade with time. He's taken it to the opposite end -- he's engraved her presence into both heart and mind and likes the shapes the scars have made. Indelible.]

I told you before, I don't intend to go anywhere. [She is... stuck with him now. Sorry.] I'm not just here because I'm having "fun." You understand me better than anyone else. I don't feel like it's only me against the world when I'm with you.

[ she does, because it always has been. which is why, as he argues her, this little pinch appears between her brows, and it stays there. ]

I know almost nothing about you. Or you about me.

[ and that's why it can be fun. because all the ugly bits have been shorn away. ]

[He almost says that isn't true. She knows about how he moved to a nowhere town, then was stolen away by the government and kept trapped for 20 years. She knows how he became trapped in that alternate dimension, and the entity they call the mind flayer under someone's? whose? his? its? there is no differentiation any longer his control. His determination to return "home". And now, even the attempts of teenagers that would set him on fire to stop him.

...But she doesn't know the rest.

How he struggled after he moved to Hawkins. The true horrors of the twenty years in that lab. His brothers and sisters, their bodies dead but their memories and powers existing still in his mind. Eleven's betrayal. The true shape of his body, malformed during his banishment in that other place.

The things he did, for four years, trying to claw his way back. The people who died. Horribly. The portal rent across the whole town...]

[This is the only time when it feels like treading on thin ice with Sprezzatura; the ugly bits are very ugly on his end, and he wonders what might shatter if he revealed everything. As for hers, he isn't concerned. He welcomes every bit of her -- likes the ugly parts, because he thinks he can slot them against his own.

A silence passes. Then-]

I wouldn't turn away from you, no matter how difficult you think you are. Do you think you'd give me the same chance?

[ she senses the shadow beneath the water.

she can't make herself move away. the undertow has her. ]

I couldn't say.

[Hesitation.

That just means he has to present one little fragment at time.]

Ha. At least it's not a "no."

[He smiles. It'll have to do.]

I think, though... that we should start with something simpler, but pretty important. I've been considering it for a little bit, now.

You should see what I really look like. Make sure you don't go running for the hills. [He jokes, but..........]

[ LICH FORM IS LOWBALLING IT??????????? ]

[ her brows furrow properly, now, nonplussed for the first few seconds. before memory reminds her: his shadow. that great, hulking thing that had nearly taken him. she'd narrowly managed to outwit it. it had been terrible.

she'd forgotten. ]

It isn't that bad.

[ is it? ]

[WELL.............. that depends on how much you like wet]

I don't think it is.

[HE'S BIASED]

But it's only fair that you see it eventually, right? I can show you now, if you want. An illusion, of course, since I can't change back willingly.

[ "change back", oh, that's a whole slew of implications there. she shudders despite herself, her academic's brain beginning to slot a few forgotten pieces together. the shadow, the hedging manner he speaks about it in, the immolation, the fact that he is named Vecna.

but hey! at least she's not thinking about licking his tears anymore. ]

I suppose I should see. And know.

Sure.

[Casual, as though this isn't something that might send her flying out the door and into the lava -- he hopes against hope that isn't the case. And yet he knows how visceral anything from that plane can be, himself included. He's used the fear it incites in others to his advantage more than once.

Well. Nothing to do than to try, and see how she takes to it.]

All right, so... look... right there.

[He gestures to the far end of her room, which is suddenly no longer her room, but the dark, isolated, cobwebby clearance of a ruined attic, entwined with strange dark vines. Little beams of moonlight sluice through the slats of the roof and the dusty panes of a window.

But it's not completely isolated, of course.

He ushers forth the illusion of "himself" in his true form, posed in a kneel as the many vines rise and latch onto Vecna's back. With a wet sound, they connect with his sometimes-pulsating flesh and lift him up high -- like a spider at the center of its web.

And like this, the mystery of Henry's shadow is a mystery no longer. His form matches the silhouette she would have seen back then. The tendrils, the larger frame, the clawed, almost gnarled left hand. He seems to be in a trance, like this, but his... everything prevents it from being a truly tranquil scene.

There's something to be said about the fact that he thought she'd take this better at a distance, rather than up close, anyway.]

[ every single inch of her goes utterly. still. she's frozen in place, down to the very blood in her veins. paralyzed by that very fear he's wielded with all the precision of a scalpel.

that figure is a lich.

Henry is a lich.

Henry is Vecna.

she'd flinch back, but she can't. she can't move at all. she can only breathe, coming faster and faster and faster as the scene plays out. ]

[That is not what we would call... an ideal reaction.

And he's watching her reaction carefully, too. Of course she'd be afraid, even when he's trying not to specifically strike fear into her; what sense would that make? But nothing about what he looks like is calming, or doesn't send the imagination wheeling. There's no hiding what that place turned him into: a monster.

And that's fine.

He just needs to acclimate her to this reality. Gently.]

...Do you want me to end the illusion there?

[ still perfectly unmoving, but her eyes snap to the side. to him. still a lithe, blonde man with a 001 tattooed on his wrist.

this whole time, she's been touching a lich? kissing, holding, being intimate with—?

her mouth works silently; she's not sure what she wants to say. her voice is frozen, too. "yes" seems safe. ]

[Definitely still him. He'd not jumpscare her like that. On purpose, anyway.

Fun fact, the Vecna hanging from his "web" still has a little 001 tattoo, too, in the same place. Though perhaps that's hard to notice from back here, on the bed.

He dismisses the illusion just to be safe, and it disappears in a wisp. Her room returns to normal.]

...No matter what I am, I'm not going to hurt you, you know.

[ >jumpscares literally every other character in the show ]

Why do you go straight to "hurt"? [ words suddenly pouring from her mouth ] You—you have no skin.

[She’s special.

And why DID he go straight to “hurt.”]

Well. You saw what I looked like.

[And yeah, no skin.]

That place changed me. Completely. All the creatures there are like that — cold, and smooth, and… [slimy, just say slimy] …slick.

There were—things attached to you! And you have no skin!

[Maybe he should just let this settle in her mind for a bit. Let’s not talk about his undead appearance.]

Being connected to that dimension amplifies my powers. It helps me reach out, even into my “home” plane.

[ she tries to imagine this voice coming out of that thing. ]

Like that? Mammon, you looked like spider. Is that intentional?

[She’s in for a surprise when she hears his lich voice someday.

He shouldn’t smile at the comparison, but it’s Henry, so of course he does.]

It just turned out that way, but I thought so, too. Fitting… like being at the center of the web, feeling every reverberation in that place.

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the way i'm still linking you even tho you're canon familiar

WET MAN

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