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

ROOM 200

[unrequite]

[ There is no preamble! Both Sarkaz have unpacked and chosen their beds by now; they know what's up. What happens is this: Midnight walks in through the door, smiles at Logos tersely, then walks to the bathroom and closes the door behind him. And locks it. And goes to sit, shoes and all, in the bathtub. This is his initial reaction to realizing that Kaveh and Alhaitham are in the hotel. Not just any Kaveh and Alhaitham. Kaveh and Alhaitham smelling of the strange, thin scent of the city. Kaveh, leaning into Netzach's touch.

For most, this would be a joyous reunion. Midnight went in the opposite direction. He sits in the bathtub and sulks. He sits in the bathtub and closes his eyes and sulks so hard it creates a singularity of hurt around him, near palpable. Is he being irrational? Oh, very. Right now, though, he just wants to brood. ]

[nyoomer]

[ in all logos' years as a fledging of the convallis, and then the young upstart of the royal court, and then as the king of his people and an elite of rhodes island, he's never quite seen someone sulk nearly as much as midnight is currently sulking. if alive until sunset recorded an album called 'born to sulk', midnight would be on the cover of it, bathtub and all. the only thing that's missing is a floating tray with a glass of wine and break-up music playing loudly in the background from a stereo.

he allows this to go on for an hour or two before he picks his way past the linoneum tiles to stand by midnight's bathtub. logos slots himself against the rim of the tub, and cants his head. ]

Would you like for me to turn on the shower? It would suit your mood.

[unrequite]

[ Midnight simply stares into the middle distance. He thought he locked the door. It doesn't matter, he supposes. Doors sometimes aren't locked. That's how the world works. ]

I wouldn't prefer it. There are enough doldrums in my heart to flood this bathroom, I'm afraid. No need to add another drop to the sea.

[nyoomer]

[ narrator: you're in a story with characters played by c!. there are no such things as locked doors. ]

For those yet uninitiated, would you like to name such a sea? You seem to not be enjoying yourself navigating it alone.

[unrequite]

[ Logos' fourth skill: Open (the fucking door).

Midnight continues staring into the middle distance. This seems like a much safer option than literally anything else. If he moves his eyes, he is liable to burst into tears. ]

The sea is consequences. I've charted a path in myself. There is no "out", I'm afraid. Just the toss of a ship that preserves me from the waters below.

[nyoomer]

... goodness. I suppose all Vampire Sarkaz are equally dramatic in nature, regardless of their Kazdelian roots.

[ he is, in fact, thinking about du'qarael 'once i come back from the dead the wedding is back on' mcsanguinarch. it's not a very pleasant thought. ]

[unrequite]

[ A laugh. ]

Does that make me a vampire, then? I suppose that's something.

[ Mope, mope, mope. If moping could fill bathtubs, he'd be having a good soak right now. ]

I saw a familiar face. I made a few decisions for that face. Those decisions... were mine. Right or wrong, they were ones I made.

[nyoomer]

[ a thoughtful, musical hum, one without direction or tone. ]

And yet you seem to regret them.

[unrequite]

No. Regret has no part in my life. How could regret exist in a life lived in such perfect freedom?

[ Midnight rests his head on the tile. It's cool and soothing, in its own way. His eyes slip closed. ]

I do not make decisions I regret, but that doesn't make the decisions themselves free of consequence. I simply choose the consequences most suited to me.

[nyoomer]

[ self-harm in the way that all sarkaz engage in it, shackled to their decisions as if it were their mere burden to bear.

logos breathes out, long and slow. ]

I am disinclined to agree that you are suited to sulking in a bathtub. [ is what he says. then, without aplomb, he climbs into said tub, slippers and all. ] Make some room.

[unrequite]

— Operator? Uh—

[ Well, Midnight does make room, but only because they are both very large men and Logos is liable to step on his shins if he doesn't pull his legs out of the way. They only fit if they tangle their legs together, so that's how they end up: sitting in the same tub, legs sandwiched between legs, Midnight's head and shoulders jammed between the faucet and the wall. They can't last like this. It's so uncomfortable. ]

... I'm not sulking. I just need a moment.

[nyoomer]

Then, [ logos says, very reasonably, as he allows his legs to sprawl over midnight's, propping his chin on the heel of his hand in the way of bath tub models everywhere: ] go ahead and take your moment. Don't let me interrupt.

[unrequite]

[ With a look that hovers between cautious and ferociously sulky, Midnight tilts his head back to the tile and closes his eyes, letting out a sigh. ]

There is nothing to be done, Operator. All that's been done is in the past. The past is a dead thing. It no longer changes, grows, breathes.

[nyoomer]

[ says mildly, the lord of the dead: ]

Dead things do not cease to suffer; they simply lose the power to protest. Or, as it happens, sulk in bathtubs.

[unrequite]

[ A baleful pink eye focuses on the king of banshees. ]

... As a creature among the living, I am still beholden to the choices I made in the past. Are you here to argue elsewise?

[nyoomer]

No. I merely went along with your romanticism of the dead. Should I not have?

[unrequite]

[ ... ]

I am a thing of the present. Unless you mean to say I live in the past...?

[ ... Midnight isn't so far gone that he is completely incapable of self-reflection. Huh. ]

I simply... have to wait until my emotions resolve. If I thought of the past, the process would take far too long. I'm in the present, it simply...

[ ... Hurts. A bit. ]

[nyoomer]

[ a small, polite laugh. ]

Such things are not known to resolve on their own, particularly in bathtubs.

[unrequite]

I am quite singular in that respect, I understand.

[ Midnight has always been the one to listen to the woes of others, not the other way around. He doesn't need it. He's never needed it. ]

I've my own means of resolution. It works.

[nyoomer]

If it works, or have worked in the past, Operator Midnight, we would not be sitting together in this bathtub, patiently waiting for it to work.

Will you consider another approach?

[unrequite]

It requires patience.

[ But Midnight offers an inclined of his head with a slight eyebrow raise. Sure. Knock yourself out, Banshee King. ]

[nyoomer]

[ beatifically: ]

What are your thoughts, exactly, of ancient Kazelian rituals meant to bind the soul?

[unrequite]

[ ... ]

With all due respect, Operator, I have never once considered witchcraft as a viable solution to my interpersonal relationships.

[nyoomer]

Then, what are your thoughts on open communication and emotional honesty?

[unrequite]

[ ??? Did he get tricked into finally attending his therapy sessions in the psych wing ]

I wouldn't say there's much point to it. All that's there to say has been said, as far as I know.