EVENT 01: Welcome to the Pentagon!

[unrequite]

WELCOME TO THE PENTAGON!

Picture a Las Vegas sized hotel, but with no casino. It's just very big. And there is no gift shop.

The Pentagon welcomes you...

You wake up from a doze seated in a firm lobby chair. Walked through a set of automatic sliding doors, bag in tow. Where did you get that bag? Listen, don't worry about it.

- All guests to the Pentagon arrived with a medium-sized standard rolling bag. It is filled with any items they would have brought with them if they had time to pack a standard rolling bag before they left. Weapons are okay!
- All guests may bring one living animal. The animal will retain any powers it may have as long as it is not worldbreaking.
- All guests will have their powers. They will not be allowed to use it to break the world. They may break other things, but they will be pulled aside by one of the receptionists for a Talking To. They may be barred from the hotel for the night and it gets cold outside the Pentagon!
- Guests are not limited to standard entry to the hotel. However, if they break hotel property upon entry, they will be expected to pay for repairs. Method of payment will come as soon as I'm not fuckballs tired.

Things to do:

- Check in! There is a handy dandy receptionist at the front desk ready to take your name and your reservation. Yes, you have a reservation! It's here, in this shared suite. You don't remember making that reservation? What a pity. Well, while we get you resituated in the system, I suppose you will have to make peace with your roommate. Please don't fuck up your relationship with your roommate, that would be so terribly awkward. If you would like to trade rooms, that is fine, but please notify the front desk with all involved parties with the details of the room change! Also, please allow one day for admin to catch up with bookings before you trade rooms! Try to be nice to your one night roomie okay okay

- Get breakfast! A free continental breakfast is served from 6 am to 10 am. Please come by for fresh food!

- Chill in the lobby! When it isn't doubling as the breakfast area, the lobby area functions as both a waiting room, a meeting place, and a chill seating area in case you don't want to eat your gas station hotdog at the gas station like a neanderthal. wow.

- Find your room!

Each suite has a:
- kitchenette (one pot, one pan, plastic silverware, paper plates and bowls. no food. that's at the gas station across the street.)
- microwave
- fridge (with drinks! you will have to pay for them if you take them. it's going to be Esspensive.)
- two beds (small, but very comfy)
- bathroom with bath and shower (with standard toiletries. if you need more, you can call the front desk! there are towels, but if you make a real mess, call the front desk for fresh ones.)
- toilet (no bidet)
- closet (3 hangers, one extra set of sheets, one extra comforter, two extra pillows, a small ironing board, an iron)
- shared side table (two drawer compartments, one for each bed; there are outlets for electronics)
- wardrobe (just one, but it's big! please share.)
- desk with rolling chair (just one! again, please share. also: a notepad with a cheap ballpoint pen, a phone, and a phone directory for standard hotel amenities)
- pullout bed couch (for more guests! this bed is far less comfy than the standard beds.)
- television (with standard cable and standard trash programming. nothing particular stands out about the programming.)

- book shop? ... There is a bookshop where the gift shop should be. Where did it come from? Perhaps it's always been there, in the same way the faceless staff of the Pentagon have always been there. There is currently caution tape over the front entrance. Although the entrance isn't locked, it is not advised to enter the bookshop early. Who knows what might happen (the people who were in the City knows what will happen no don't touch that—)

- gas station? across the street? The street stretches into the horizon. This place is flat. so very flat. but there's a gas station.

- fresh produce (limited, but good variety. may be slightly wilted.)
- standard basic groceries (including pet food for your Living Creatures)
- liquor section (we in the south now boyzzz)
- lotto ticket machine (?)
- chargers/small electronics
- wall o candy
- basic amenities and toiletries(fancier than hotel amenities but not by much)
- magazines!
- slushy machine
- coffee machine
- rolling hotdogs
- hot fast food
- car maintenance products. you know. for your car
- gas station guy. nice guy

How do you pay? the gas station guy will charge it to your room! Who's paying for your room? Erm. Tehe. pero

You can also go to the gas station guy and buy a bus ticket to Sin City for a vacay. Sin City is great! Lots to do in Sin City. Buses to Sin City leave every Wednesday evening — don't be late! However, after a month at maximum, you will be back in your room in the Pentagon. Guess the hotel likes you!

Other hotel amenities. This hotel isn't 5 star, but it isn't 3 star either! Standard fancy hotel amenities, such as a small gym, a pool and sauna, a well maintained laundry room, a small spa, and a business center with computers and print station also exist. The only amenity that does not exist is the standard fancy hotel restaurant. Make your food yourselves!!

welcome nerds. enjoy your stay!

OOC:
- I will make a receptionist thread. please feel free to add your character to the queue for a randomly selected room! if you would like to also have a conversation with one of our three randomly selected receptionists, please say so in your comment. thank. EDIT: room assignments are here! please add any new characters to any random rooms you like. if you change rooms, please be sure to update the spreadsheet. thank yoooou
- i'll make up how to make money and pay for stuff later. for now please don't starve just buy stuff it's Fine
- electricity works. there's local internet but search engines bring up very little about the area. gps does NOT work (for now)
- uh that's it i'm tired please tell me if i missed anything

Comments

[oathlantern]

It's nice to meet you, Mr. Kaveh. [Illuga takes his hand to give it a firm shake.] I've heard a little about Sumeru from Miss Nefer. You've been traveling from there?

[fussiest]

[ callused hands, kaveh thinks. ] Oh! Ah, yes, in a sense. In fact, it's a bit of a long story - a really, really long story, so I won't bore you with it.

[ but now with proper introductions out of the way, he feels like he's on far better footing. kaveh rolls up his sleeves with a pleased air. ] Anyway, you've been asking me what my favourite food is, but what about you? Allow me to make it for you. I don't want to take over your kitchen given that you've a plan for all this food for everyone, but while you're cooking for everyone else, perhaps I can make something for you.

[oathlantern]

[And that, Illuga won't pry despite his curiosity. At least, not now and not directly. He's from Nod-Krai, and they don't ask about your past.]

Then fatteh isn't just your favorite, it's like a taste of home. [Which only increases his resolve.] I like everything I've made so far, but I won't turn down a helping hand. There's still vegetables to dice and herbs to shred for lohikeitto. Would you tell me more about what goes into fatteh?

[fussiest]

[ a taste of home, huh.

kaveh's throat tightens at the thought. it's been a really long time since he's had that, hasn't it.

right! vegetables. kaveh can make that work. immediately, he takes the chopping board, fishing out a knife so that he can start sifting through what needs to be chopped and what doesn't. ]

Ah- wait. Before that, for the lohikeitto, what goes into that? I've never heard of that dish before, and I'd like to figure out which vegetables and which herbs needs to go into it. And how large the pieces should be.

[oathlantern]

Don't worry, I've already got them laid out. [Illuga has a whole system going here from years of experience needing to cook in bulk, trained by those Lightkeepers who used to man the kitchens of Piramida when he was a child.

He gestures to the chopping blocks with the potato, carrot, leek, and dill. There's cream set to the back of the counter as well. Illuga takes up the salmon fillets.] As for size medium is best, a little smaller than you'd put in a stew.

[fussiest]

[ right. potato, carrot, leek and dill. and it looks like the stew contains fish. kaveh nods, and then begins to examine the vegetables. remarkably, someone has gone in and picked out anything that might've even remotely resembled being wilted. kaveh suspects it can only be the young man in this room.

he takes to shredding and chopping the vegetables. it's easy work, and it makes it easy to carry on a conversation as he does so. ]

You really do have a system. I knew it from the way you've laid the kitchen out; it's the perfect number of steps from the vegetables to the stove, and then to the meats and back. [ says he, impressed, ] Are you used to cooking for others?

[oathlantern]

Mmhmm. Usually for my squad, but I used to help in the kitchen for everyone in Piramida. The city is a bit of a stronghold for us Lightkeeper's, so it's normal for people to eat from the cafeteria even outside the banquets.

[And he gets right back into the prep easily, while checking on another dish he has simmering.] It really just takes a bit of organization to do.

[fussiest]

This definitely seems more than just a bit, but...

[ a taste of home, huh. kaveh thinks about that. ] So that's what you mean by taste of home.

[oathlantern]

[Surely not. Illuga is just repeating the things he learned from those older, and wiser. Not all of them are still around anymore.]

Well, not just that. [He's careful with dividing the salmon to not accidentally shred it.] People from all over come to Nod-Krai. And when someone joins the Lightkeepers, a dish they used to enjoy or they're really craving is a small bit of happiness before facing the Wild Hunt again. It's... a reminder of where we come from and fight to protect.

[fussiest]

[ kaveh thinks about what it's like to lose a home. ]

For those that have left their homes - that cannot return... has Nod-Krai now become their home?

[oathlantern]

Not everyone who comes through stay, but for those that do... I think so. I'd like for it to be an even more welcoming place precisely for those who need to start again.

[Illuga peeks at Kaveh from under his bangs.] What's it like for you in Sumeru? I've never been.

[fussiest]

What is Sumeru like... [ there's a knot in kaveh's throat. ] How would one describe a piece of art, or a song?

[oathlantern]

I'm probably not the best person to ask, but... I guess I'd start with what it's about?

[ 1/2 ]

[fussiest]

[ ... ]

[ 2/2 ]

[fussiest]

[ kaveh laughs. it's not the first time he's laughed since arriving here, but it's the first time he's done so without crying. he's not sure when it became so difficult to laugh - but after a moment of self-reflection, realises that it's because he had been expecting home on the other end of that barrier after all. the sumeru of right now feels so much farther than the sumeru of two years ago.

but it really is silly for a mere memory - a memory that bolsters spirits and which keeps people going - to be something he avoids. and he is not the only one who misses sumeru. ]

Sorry, sorry. I'm not laughing at you - just... [ he trails off, then decides that hiding it helps nobody, and grins again. ] I've been wondering about the topic of home recently. After trying so hard to get back to the place where I feel like I belong, it's just so discouraging to be here, to feel like I'm back to square one. But just because I've changed doesn't mean that what I love about Sumeru has changed. I'll gladly share the stories with you, be them a piece of art or a song.

But the topic... well, it has to be this, right? The topic has to be 'love'. [ kaveh lets something wistful take him as he piles up the shredded herbs, then reaches for another ream of lettuce. ] Sumeru is a place of love. We loved it when the sunlight filtered through the branches of the canopy, a single thread of light bringing with it the scent of the Divine Tree. The way the Kulfiwallahs loved to call out to the single young men and women on the street, peddling their wares as a way for couples to find each other. The libraries and books, because we're a city of scholars - we have those piled high up to the ceiling, each one well-worn with broken backs and notes along its margins. Life there smelled like forests, and rivers, and old books, and freshly made pita along the street corners. It sounded like rumbling carts, and the laughter of children, and spirited debates in the square over one citation or another.

[ something catches in kaveh's throat. he clears it, and then gathers up the chopped vegetables into a basket. ] It's a place that I love and am proud of, and ought to celebrate even now. I haven't been back in some time, but I'm willing to bet that there is still no place quite like it.

[oathlantern]

[The laughter does get his brows to raise, but he waits for Kaveh to get through that with patient silence.

When Kaveh does, he spins a story of such warmth and affection that Illuga's smile grows the longer he hears it. His hands don't quite forget what they're doing, but he sneaks frequent glances to Kaveh as he listens.]

It sounds like a beautiful place. [Truly, Illuga could not say that anything less than genuine. Kaveh's love for Sumeru reminds him much of the Knights' love for Mondstadt when they've had the chance to talk about it.] I hope you get to see it again soon, Mr. Kaveh.

[fussiest]

Oh, I hope so too. Though I dread what they've done to the place, and if the old men over at my Darshan has finally pushed through that terrible reform they had been planning for stonework fundamentals. And of course: all my missed deadlines! I hope the vendors were able to find another architect to work with, and pay them on time.

[ with a sigh, kaveh pushes the basket into illuga's hands. ] Alright, the vegetables are done. What's next that needs idle hands?

[oathlantern]

Ah, thank you. Next would be...

[Under Illuga's instruction, the next couple hours flow easily from one dish to the next. He still makes idle chatter, asking after Kaveh and Sumeru and the stories he has while offering some about Nod-Krai but... very little of his own. Well, his story isn't pleasant and doesn't make for good small talk. Better to stick to his present and his determination with the Lightkeepers.

But the cooking does end eventually, and everything shifts to storing leftovers and washing dishes. But before that, he'll usher Kaveh to what's still out.] Alright, now that everyone else is taken care of it's time to eat.

[More than picking at samplings while cooking, that is.]

[fussiest]

[ time passes. illuga, kaveh learns, is a fine young man and handy in the kitchen. he's also a bit like the warm stew he's prepared for all of them. it's hard to kaveh to describe, but as time wears on, it becomes clearer and clearer to kaveh that 'a warm stew that seeps into the soul' is perhaps the only apt way of describing the care to which illuga places into the little details that make the people around him happy. a couple of hours speaking about sumeru would have scared kaveh just a few days ago, when the disappointment had been fresh and the realisation of his home being further and further from reach than ever hadn't quite sunken in. but today -

the knot in kaveh's throat slowly unravels. it turns out that kaveh had a lot to say about sumeru, a lot to sing about sumeru. a lot to draw about sumeru, if he had to be honest with himself. he realises that it has been some time since he's picked up a quill to draw anything that hadn't been a schematic of a bomb component. alhaitham is only across the hotel, but it makes kaveh miss him fiercely. he realises he wants to tell him these things, because not only ought they be said, but they ought also be said to the person who will, without a shadow of a doubt, understand.

illuga shuffles them out of the kitchen. kaveh startles from where he had been carefully arranging bread into a pleasing shape. ]

Ah - already? Hang on, I still need to brush - [ he's being ushered!!! kaveh grabs the brush and holds it up, a last line of defense!! ] - butter onto the edges! It could use a little more of a broil. Do you have any more of that dip you made earlier? The one for the crispy vegetables?

[oathlantern]

[Illuga knows fuck all about arranging the dishes in an aesthetic manner, and is simply content to let Kaveh handle that. But there's gotta be a limit given this has been a serve your own buffet.]

Mr. Kaveh, you've been helping me for so long now. Aren't you hungry? I'll check on the dip, but after all that hard work it's our turn to enjoy the result don't you think?

[fussiest]

Has it really been that long? [ a glance at the clock and kaveh blinks, very slowly. it really has, he thinks. goodness. ] Well, I suppose time passes quickly when one's having fun. Ah, I very much agree, but I want to make sure it browns just right... And I was thinking the dip can go in the middle of the bread arrangement, along with a few of the leftover vegetables. If we add a little more olive oil to the dip, it hit just the right notes to go well with bread. It'll taste almost like breakfast bread, where I come from.

[oathlantern]

But if we put the bread in again it might dry out. [They're past the point of no return there, but at least the dip is more doable.] How much olive oil? I can take care of that.

[fussiest]

A small teaspoon will do it. And don't worry. Water in a small ramekin will keep the inside of the oven just humid enough that it won't dry out, while the broiler on top will provide the crisp.

[ vastly enjoying himself, kaveh finishes up the final touches, and then back in it goes. ] Actually, it's even better if you cook tomatoes on the bottom rack. Then, you get properly dried tomatoes and bread with just enough give beneath the crisp. It's a trick I learned from my mother.

[oathlantern]

[Kaveh is taller and Illuga is too polite to physically push a basically-stranger.]

Alright. [He looks for the olive oil and the measuring spoon to start mixing the dip. He is listening, though, and taking mental notes.] How did I miss you putting the tomatoes in there?

[fussiest]

Hm? Oh, you were working on the salads, so I didn't want to bother you. [ and then, kaveh cringes with his entire body. ] Ah - you don't mind, do you? Sorry, if I've overstepped. It's your kitchen after all. I just thought it would work well if we had some properly dried tomatoes for tomorrow's lunch. It goes very well brushed on some bread with scrambled eggs.