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

Alhaitham + Kaveh 2 for 1 special

[justscribing]

[ the barrier came down with a noise best described as architecturally offensive, which kaveh took as a personal success.

this was not, strictly speaking, anything anyone asked him to do. in fact, a non-zero number of people in the City had asked him - politely, firmly, and once with a drawn diagram on the back of a pamphlet with some very strongly worded threats - to stop doing exactly that. but needs must, and the kaveh had found himself in possession of several components that were clearly not meant to coexist but had excellent potential if encouraged to do so. gently, of course. with style, because he wasn’t alhaitham. a power conduit here, a luminescent signage core there. a suspiciously cooperative canister salvaged from a transit terminal because they sure weren’t going to need trains if all this worked out.

the City, as it turned out, was very generous with materials, provided one ignored the implied warnings. or the overt warnings. or just warnings in general. but day five hundred and thirty seven into their entirely non-con stay in this backwater dredge of a city, and kaveh wasn’t particularly interested in warnings anymore.

the fact that something so inherently destructive was going to end as his magnus opus in the city didn’t sit well with him, but sometimes, needs must. for months, kaveh calculated blast radiuses and structural stress, and energy dispersion and collateral damage, and its potential to very efficiently tear past the seven different safeguards the simulation had thought would do something against particularly irate test subjects, as well as thirty percent of a city block that nobody lived in, and, if kaveh had it his way, it would have reached all the way into the next several dimensions, but given what he had to work with, he had to settle for just one. explosions, he had reasoned to alhaitham on day five of no-sleep and a diet of nothing but instant coffee crystals straight from the jar, were inevitable in poorly regulated liminal spaces that nobody wanted to be in, but ugly explosions were a failure of design. this was, from his perspective, absolutely the correct set of priorities. alhaitham had disagreed. alhaitham was, of course, wrong, but he usually was, so that was okay.

anyway, the bomb blew up spectacularly. it blew up in a luminously flattering way. that wasn’t so bad.

This brings our setting back to the resort. It has been no more than a few hours when about fifteen feet from the reception desk something rocks against the wall with months of pent-up rage. Perhaps a rage that could never be fully excised, not even with a bomb, but it is at least briefly cathartic for drywall and wood to burst like a pinata until there’s a gaping hole in the resort that, from the inside, doesn’t seem to lead anywhere at all.

Past the film of scattered dust crosses Alhaitham first, the edge of his cloak held over his nose and mouth as he crosses through the debris. He casts his gaze left first, and then draws a full panorama to the right. It’s bright. It’s (more) modern. It smells less like a stagnant museum preservation of human civilization. Okay, it smells like smoke and that’s probably just from the bomb. (narrator 1’s note: this was because kaveh hadn’t been allowed to add scented powder to the explosive materials, which he was still not particularly pleased about. but, again, needs must.)

He drops the edge of his cloak and crosses his arms before he glances back to the gaping hole. ] It’s no research lab, but you have managed to blow us into a new place. Congratulations.

[ kaveh emerges from beside the pumps, and shakes out his hand as if it had fallen asleep somewhere around the minute seven of bomb detonation, then sniffs, nose wrinkled, as if the fact that they’ve emerged next to a gas station to be extremely offensive. which it was. it probably had hot dogs. that’s not even real food. ]

Thank you. More importantly, did you admire the symmetry of the blast radius? I told you that my calculations would see to it that whatever mystery material the barrier comprised couldn't’ve possibly messed with it. Also, did you catch the gradient? I worked particularly hard on that. I just didn’t know if whatever light wavelengths that existed on the other side would portray it properly, but I suppose wherever this is isn’t so different after all. [ and then, in the exact same breath: ] Oh, no. Where is this? Why are there still buildings with the mirrors on it? Is this merely another section of the city? Was that just a city within a city? There’s such thing as a little too much irony!

[Alhaitham had initially attempted to refocus Kaveh away from the spectacle of the explosion to the direction of it, but it was day five of Kaveh eating instant coffee directly from the jar and in a relationship, you learn what battles to let go of for the safe of harmonious matrimony.]

I was expecting civilization to be in more dire straits given what we learned… [He gives Kaveh a once over and, assured he’s only a bit dusty and nothing more, returns to surveying the area. And the people staring.] There are some new faces. You should ask them your questions.

[Because Princess Alhaitham can’t, nor can the giant hole in the wall.]

Wait - [ kaveh whirls. he jabs a finger into alhaitham’s chest hole, because the wall hole is innocent. ] I was the one who spent all that time putting together that bomb! Shouldn’t there be a division of labour of some sorts? Isn’t that what a relationship is? If I’m doing all the hard work, then what exactly are you here for?

[Alhaitham is stone. He is the uneroded cliff face. His pec is slightly more mutable under Kaveh’s finger. His offering is dry as the dust settling around them:] Moral support.

Oh? Oh, that’s rich. Who in the wide universe would mistake you for being moral or supportive?! I’d have better luck finding a… a two headed shark to hold hands with!

[Please interrupt them, if only for an explanation about the hole in the wall.]

For Kaveh only because Ath is not threading with herself

[chronosynthesis]

Um. [Syrlya does attempt to wait patiently to give them some space after they just blew a fucking hole in the building, but when it's evident these two are about to get wound up he realizes a firmer touch is going to be necessary.]

Excuse me. [He clears his throat, makes eye contact with Alhaitham before turning to Kaveh because he doesn't much care for getting stared at like a science project.] I assume the explosion is your doing. Are you alright?

hi ath who is not threading with herself, it's me, c

[fussiest]

[ kaveh whirls!!! ... and because the person he is whirling upon is not alhaitham, the wind immediately deflates out of the righteous puff of his sails.

he cringes. it's a full-body gesture that starts at the miserable quirk of his lips, and all the way down to the shift of his toes. ]

Um, well. Yes, I suppose it is. Look, we're alright, and... you're alright, I take it? Everyone's alright? I really did try to limit the damage. It was only supposed to take out the barrier at a very pinpoint location, and the blast radius wasn't supposed to be nearly as large. I'm just glad that the light wavelengths here cooperated on the colours, so it should be too traumatising. You're not mad, are you?

[chronosynthesis]

Bewildered, more like. It isn't my building you just blew a hole through. [The people at the front desk might be mad, however. Or exasperated.]

May I ask, what "barrier" were you trying to take out...?

[fussiest]

Oh, you know. The barrier that separates the simulation from... [ kaveh trails off. he looks about, and then, with an extremely defeated air, wags his hand in the general direction of, well, everything. ] Actually, I feel like the biggest idiot this side of the planet. That explosion didn't get us very far. This just looks like more simulation territory, only there's a large building over there with mirrors on it, and the sky is no longer just liminal gray.

Also, what is that smell?

[abstractart]

[wow, there's a lot going on there!

it's been too long since he's seen either of them in person, at least the ones he knows-- and given that entrance, there's no question that they're the alhaitham and kaveh he was familiar with first. there's no need to check on anything there, to get any confirmation or answers.

so instead of saying anything, kaveh is going to find himself interrupted by a greenbean falling against him, arms wrapped around him, as if making sure he's actually here and solid over just saying hello. alhaitham isn't ignored, though; after a couple seconds, he loosens an arm enough to extend it to him like, c'mere. do it nerd.]

[fussiest]

[ for a moment, the world goes away.

not dramatically - no shattering, no collapse - but as if it simply loosens its hold, like a bated breath finally finding release. the noise of the place, the improbable hotel and the petrol station and the violence of arrival, all of it recedes to something distant and unimportant as netzach falls into his arms.

kaveh catches him without thinking. of course he does. his body knows this shape, this weight, this closeness, long before his mind can catch up. he pulls him in like a madman in mourning, because the only thought that matters is don’t let go. not yet. not again.

netzach is warm.

that, absurdly, is what breaks him. not the sight, not the timing, not the impossible grace of reunion - but the warmth of a living body pressed against his own. alive. solid. real. the kind of warmth that does not belong to memory or longing, but to the present, undeniable and unarguable. kaveh’s breath stutters. his hands tighten, fingers curling into the proof of netzach's being, the rough weave of his shirt and the scent of green things, of the leaves after the rain. the tears come before he can stop them, sudden and proud and utterly beyond his control, spilling down his face as if some part of him has been waiting for permission to finally give way. he bows his head instinctively to shield netzach from the worst of it. it does not, however, allow him to loosen his hold.

he has missed him. not abstractly, not gently - but with the kind of absence that hollows out the days and teaches the heart to ache quietly, so as not to disturb the world around it. he has missed him in the way one misses light, or music, or home. but he would know him anywhere. ]

Netzach. Oh, Netzach. You're here. [ and, with a jubilant, aching breath: ] You're really here. Oh, love, turn up your face. Let me get a good look at you to see what time's done.

[justscribing]

[Oh.

It shouldn't be surprising that wherever they end up might be to Netzach, given how it is he got out of the simulation in the first place. Kaveh gets to take the brunt of the moment, allowing Alhaitham more time to observe. Which goes from Netzach's face to his arm sticking out.

It takes a moment to register, but Alhaitham knows Kaveh needs this moment far more so he doesn't do more than pat Netzach's shoulder.]

[dissemblage]

[ Oof. Apparently, this is something that is covered in the instruction manual for the hotel, because Voir looks over at the mess, sighs, then excuses themselves from the front desk to walk to the employee room. They return later with some metal stanchions and rope cordons, which they begin deploying around the mess. ]

Everyone all right here? Nothing to see, please move along, everyone... As for you two, please stand out of the way with your luggage. We'll have staff come by to plug things up later. Welcome, by the way.

[fussiest]

Um.

[ kaveh looks. and then, with the guilt of a golden-furred dog who isn't quite sure what it's done wrong, only that it has, he takes a step to the side. ]

Ah. Wait- please don't welcome us here just yet! We were trying our best to get out! This doesn't seem very out at all!

[dissemblage]

Well, the door is there, if you'd like to be more out than you're in, but I think you'll find that there's even less out there than there is in here. There's a refueling station out there! Sometimes, there's even a bus. Here...

[ They kick aside some of the more egregious chunks of concrete, then stands out of the way so both Kaveh and Alhaitham can roll their luggage comfortably toward the rest of the lobby. ]

My name's Voir, by the way. You're standing in the Pentagon, a four star hotel in the middle of, as far as I know, nowhere.

[justscribing]

Luggage? [Alhaitham raises a brow as he steps sideways, glancing around.

The rest of that sure sounds like "simulation" but he dare not speak it aloud while Kaveh is in the middle of grappling with consequences.]

anyway hi alhaitham

[fussiest]

- and even the shark would be more supportive!

[justscribing]

I think I've been very supportive given I didn't confiscate any of your materials after your fifth time revising the explosion to be larger.

[fussiest]

And I said it once and I'll say it again: we didn't know how thick the barrier was! What exactly is the point of undershooting the target when we knew we didn't have enough materials for a second try! And didn't it work out in the end? It only took out a third of the city block, just like I said it would! Can't you just admit you were in the wrong?

[justscribing]

And what were you going to do if it didn't do anything except demolish the block? The unknown was always whether it could actually puncture the stability of the simulation.

for alhaitham, because c is also not threading with herself thank u

[fafo]

Well, I knew buses were a little too plebeian for you, but I also didn't think you liked grand entrances. [ aventurine pulls off the pale, pink frames of his sunglasses, and winks. he is standing next to the gas station, and misses his company-sponsored vehicle. that would have been useful, had he had designs to hop to the next planet over. but the explosion had taken any interest he had in playing tourist and held it right hostage. alhaitham had emerged with his arm upraised as if in lieu of bracing himself he were bracing against the world - and the flaxen gold hair that had spun out from behind that canopy of green had answered any of aventurine's lingering questions.

his smile is a soft lilt of a little thing as he waggles his fingers, one finger at a time. ] Hey.

All playercesting is to be handwaved for our sanity

[justscribing]

[Somewhere in Sin City, an Alhaitham is wondering where the hell his situationship went.

This Alhaitham at least understands that he is one of many possibilities among the universes, and that Netzach and crew had even met another Alhaitham and Kaveh, so it isn't so impossible that someone he doesn't know can recognize him. Thus Alhaitham doesn't question his lack of memory for this guy.]

Our options were limited. [Other people are coming here by bus?] And you?

ENTER KEY

[fafo]

And me, what? [ says aventurine with a little laugh. he slips his sunglasses into the breast pocket of his suit, then sidles past a good hunk of what used to have been the corner of the gas station. it's quite the blast. the ipc would have been interested in what made it, if it weren't for the fact that the ipc isn't technically here. and won't be. ] You know me. Flashy entrances aren't my style. I was shuffled onto the bus like everyone else. I'm curious, however - what was your other option, if blowing a hole here didn't work out?

[justscribing]

We would have remained stuck where we were, which I suspect is a different place from where you came from. [And yet he still doesn't yet address that he has no idea who Aventurine is.] Who else came on the bus with you?

[wordchain]

[ The explosion might have been cause for concern, the hole in the wall akin to an odd portal, but the sight past the settling dust takes precedence. Close behind Netzach, Yesod's steps quickly take him closer, towards the prospect of the reunion before them. It has been far too long, a single call too brief.

Yesod stays quiet at first, watching Netzach embrace Kaveh, hold one arm out to Alhaitham. It's enough, for the moment, simply to see them in the same place together again; he doesn't want to disrupt it.

He thinks of Kaveh's finger tapping against a screen as if to reach out across dimensions. His own hand stirs, preparing to complete the gesture, now that it finally can. ]

Kaveh, Alhaitham...

[justscribing]

Yesod. [Alhaitham offers him a nod while Kaveh is comforting Netzach. Or maybe it's Netzach comforting Kaveh.] Are all three of you here then?

[wordchain]

[ Remembering himself, lowering his hand, Yesod greets Alhaitham with a nod in return, though he is both pleased and relieved to see the other man in person once more. Aside from the fact that they have all engaged in varying levels of intimacy with or alongside the Alhaitham in Sin City, Alhaitham is Alhaitham, and he is someone whose company Yesod values. This Alhaitham, in particular, is associated with important memories. ]

Yes, we arrived together, on the bus that travels between this location and Sin City.

[ But it's rather noticeable that Midnight is currently nowhere to be seen... That will be something to address soon. ]

Were you able to leave the simulation directly?

[fussiest]

[ kaveh's heard turns on a swivel. and then, with a joyous cry, he barrels towards yesod, netzach in arms and all, so that he can give them both a bear hug. it isn't hard. they're both terribly skinny, and he has arm to spare

he might be crying a little into the pristine press of yesod's jacket. he has never done that before, but somehow, the gesture feels familiar - it feels like a miracle that this is something that he can do. ]

Oh, Yesod. This has - this has to be some kind of miracle! Are you well? In one piece? The two of you haven't starved?

[wordchain]

[ The gesture isn't a handshake, then, but the embrace extended to Yesod, too, enveloping him in Kaveh and Netzach and their warmth. His palm comes to rest against Kaveh's back; his expression softens. Kaveh and Alhaitham are here, unharmed, the barriers between dimensions no longer separating all of them.

To tell the truth, the emotions washing over him make it difficult to trust his voice immediately. The magnitude of Kaveh's joy, expressed so openly, touches him. ]

It's good to see you both as well.

[ In person, solid, whole. It eases the ache of missing their presence. ]

I imagine that this has a positive effect on all of us, as does the knowledge that we won't have a time limit to adhere to.