Hotel of the Lost

[bookblather]

The hotel lobby is broad and open, a big circular room with a fountain in the center stocked with gold and orange koi. A large handprinted sign propped against the fountain's rim reads DO NOT FEED THE FISH, but it is the only touch of humanity in the gold-and-cream marble room. The fountain is surrounded by small tables and comfortable armchairs in greens and golds, sitting on a forest green rug patterned with small cream figures that spreads outward until it reaches a broad walkway of cream marble tiles around the circumference of the room. Potted plants stand at regular intervals along the walls; they are live trees, though from a distance they could well be assumed to be fake. Between them hang the usual forgettable pieces of hotel art.

Double glass doors open onto the outside world, with the concierge's cream marble desk to their right and the gold sign-in desk to their left. About a third of the way along the circle from the concierge's desk is a fancy restaurant done all in green and cream, currently empty, complete with a large bar stocked with at least thirty kinds of liquor. Across from the restaurant is a gift shop stocked with the usual kitschy touristy items and t-shirts emblazoned with Washington DC, also empty. Across from the double doors is an elevator bank leading up to the rooms, with a marked door to the staircase beside it.

The portals are shifting....

Comments

Your Host for Today: Paige Ryan

[bookblather]

Paige was supposed to be going on a date, dammit.

Not that she was very interested in the date, but she had to go or she'd feel like she'd failed. What kind of woman just gave up on dating at thirty-two? Especially when her little brother was happily settling down with not one but two people. Paige adored Zack, she really did, and she was happy for him, she honestly was, but sometimes she felt like he was hogging.

Still. She was a woman, she was thirty-two, she had a reasonably healthy sex drive, so she would go on dates. That was just what women her age with reasonably healthy sex drives did.

Except apparently not tonight, because instead of walking into the restaurant where she'd planned to meet the gentleman in question, she found herself walking into the hotel she managed, her heels clicking against the floor.

She might have thought that she had just gone to work on autopilot, but the hotel was completely empty, not a staffer or a guest in sight. And that was not at all the kind of hotel she managed.

Paige planted her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at the ceiling. "Just what is going on here?"

Re: Your Host for Today: Paige Ryan

[janet_mohren]

Janet's heels clicked when she walked in Johnny's door.

She paused, still looking at the sheaf of papers in her hands, and took enough steps backward that she'd be back in the hall.

Still clicking.

Which might be normal in an office that had wood, tile, or linoleum floors, but Corlioni Enterprises had plush, deep-pile carpeting. Her heels should be sinking, not clicking.

She looked up.

"Oh," she said softly. This hotel was definitely not the offices.

Damn, the papers in her hand were time-sensitive, too.

To the distinctly annoyed-looking woman off toward her left, she said, "Excuse me?"

Your Other Host For Today: Kayleigh Ryan

[bookblather]

Kayleigh had just opened the stupid bathroom door.

She'd ducked out of class just to use the bathroom. She really had! Except now that she'd gone, the bathroom door no longer led to the drab halls of her high school. Now it led to the intimidating perfection of her half-sister's hotel. Which just made no sense whatsoever, and now Kayleigh was going to get blamed for skipping class when she absolutely hadn't meant to, it had just sort of happened like that.

She groaned under her breath, then decided that she might as well make the best of it. There was a trashy romance novel in the gift shop that she'd been meaning to read, so she went to the shop and began picking over the offerings in the book stands.

Re: Your Other Host For Today: Kayleigh Ryan

[l_corlioni]

L turned to get out of his car door. He could swear that was all he did. Of course, if that was all he did, he should not stand into a gift shop and not have his car behind him.

The teenage girl already in the gift shop reminded him so sharply of Terri that it hurt. Not much in looks, but in the way she looked irritated and maybe prickly. At least she looked like she belonged here.

"Hey, can you tell me where this is?" And how the hell he'd gotten here from his parking garage?

Duclos

[shipwreck_light]

She didn't remember most of her dreams. Not even when she was small, her mind quick enough to snatch to such things and keep them. Besides, after she came to live in her father's manor, her waking life was so much more interesting than figments of candy or mermaids which she could not keep.

But.

There was the one. It happened not long after Aetheon took her in.

She walked down the hallway, but the hallway vanished. She found herself in a ballroom lit by glowing blue lilies and crystal vases full of yellow candles. Some of the people there had webbed hands and eyes made of pearls, but most were human, like her, and just as lost. The pearl-eyed people nonplussed her at first because she could not tell where they were looking, but they were so calm and their voices so musical. They brought her to a table with some grownup humans who spoke with her as if she was herself a grownup. They swore and fed her dream candy made of red beans and flowers and saffron. Dream though it was, she could still taste it. Still see the woman in the victorian gown for fed it to her while the pearl-eyes batted around with new guests, trying to dance their way over to a translucent bar full of swimming lights.

She had always had a certain tolerance for the peculiar, but the dream helped a little perhaps.

Maybe part of the reason it stayed with her? Besides the newness of the manor.

A few years later, Drake, in his cups had said: "Yeah, sometimes you walk to the end of that hallway and you end up in a palace or a goddamn /field/. Then, you get drunk off your ass..."

"You get drunk off of your ass *before* that happens," corrected Sabine.

But, she wondered. She never asked him about it, but she wondered.

It went away after a while. It didn't speak to her in crossing that particular place in the carpet where she mentally marked off hallway from living room. Especially after she redecorated the place.

She was /not/ thinking about it after that evening's consultation with Nene (over lo mein and plum wine in Nene's bedroom, because... Nene).

So, of course that was when it happened again.

Alexandra Duclos walked out of her manor and into a hotel, crossing galaxies, dimensions, vast planes of timespace itself in what felt like mere inches beneath her heels.

Primarily, this served to annoy her.

She gave her surroundings a long, hard look.

And began to consider just what she could feed the fish.

Annoyed or not, Alexandra Duclos was not one to turn up an act of defiance.

Re: Duclos

[bookblather]

Oh, yes, she needed this nonsense now.

Miranda, who had just clipped in through the guarded doors of her apartment building after possibly the most heartwrenching conversation of her entire adult life, really, really did not need to be in a random location right now. She wasn't sure if she was more annoyed that it had happened now or that this wasn't the first time.

She gritted her teeth, and uncurled her hands from their fists. At least she no longer felt like crying. And the dark-haired woman in the corner looked similarly annoyed. She could use a kindred spirit about now.

With no further contemplation, she clipped her way over to the woman and said, without preamble, "This would happen today."

Pip

[shipwreck_light]

Nene was the best!

...wait. If Nene was the best, did that mean none of the other courtiers could also be the best?

Pip had to stop and think about that one. At the least, the absolute teeniest weeniest least, they could take turns being the best. Like sometimes she and Dad and Seine took turns with the electric blue Hyperbounce Mach 9 super-balls that cost a whole dollar and could trick the whole way across the lobby of Sky Plaza One. And the blame for making that happen.

Anyway, Nene was the best right now. Nene found her the song that Vassily's radio had played the night of Pip's last job. Even though it was really old! Nene put gun oil on her skates so they almost kind of worked on the carpet. And sometimes, Nene only pretended to punish her super-ball related antics.

Pip was definitely going to have thank Nene again for being the best. She would do so the best way she knew how- on her skates, her pocket music player on as loud as it would go, wearing ever quarter machine ring she could fit on her hands and with a pink scarf tied in her hair.

It occurred to Pip as she half-skated, half-slogged towards Nene's room that /maybe/ she should make sure Duckie had left Nene's room. Duclos had some weird thing about skates in the manor, nevermind an opposition to super-balls anywhere in her presence.

Of course, the thing was all of a sudden Pip's jet fueled gun oil skates took off. She felt it happen more than saw. There was berber beneath her, snatching back her wheels, but the smoothness washed in and she had to tighten up her knees to keep them from sliding out from under her.

Pip grinned.

Not only did she *LOVE* it when this happened!

But.

Before her glistened.

All the marble flooring she could ever want.

She restarted her song and took off with a delighted shriek, whirling and gliding over the (mostly) empty lobby.


(OOC: Pip has an ability that will allow her to read your characters' minds if she touches them. If you do not want this to happen, please feel free to arrange any touch avoidance measures you see fit.)

Re: Pip

[geena]

"Excuse me," Owen calls as the girl flies past him yet again. "E-excuse me! Should you really be doing that here? The floors look expensive and if you fall your certain to injure-- wait, does wherever this is have socialized healthcare?"

[sarcasticsra]

Acantha glanced at her watch. Winters was late, probably on purpose, because the bastard liked making her wait. That was fine, she supposed. She'd put up with it for now. (Not too well, of course. She wasn't about to let him get suspicious.)

It wasn't like she hadn't already figured or found out a lot about his plans. There was simply the matter of the major missing piece: the catalyst.

Sighing, she rolled her eyes and headed out of her office door; she had plenty of time to get a soda and get back. He probably planned to keep her waiting another ten minutes.

Except, as soon as she left her office, she found she was no longer inside the Time Institute. Once again, she was somewhere else entirely. "This time, I'm getting to the bottom of this," she declared, eyes narrowing shrewdly.

[jaime_hernandez]

Were it not three in the morning, Jim would be much more interested in how he'd wound up in a brightly-lit hotel he could never afford instead of leaving the back room of Spellcraft. Granted, getting out of working Black Friday sounded pretty good, but he'd rather get out of it by sleeping, not trying to figure out if he'd pissed off someone who could teleport him.

"Get to the bottom of what?" he asked the woman nearby. "Did you just show up here too?"

God, he needed coffee, preferably Alan's coffee. Definitely not Luis'.

[geena]

((OOC: I am now imagining you with both the hat and a false moustache on))

If Owen could ever bring himself to say that anything good has come out of the separation (and at this point in time, he can't, no matter how happy Elizabeth seems to be or how much freedom he now has), it's the unintended boost to his career. For four months, ever since they agreed that the marriage was over, beyond dead and done with, Owen has thrown himself into work, often staying at the office for up to fourteen hours a day. It's better than returning home to an empty apartment where he has nothing to do but think. Consequently, he is now looking at yet another promotion, this one with a possible raise.

It's another one of these late nights and the office is practically deserted. A few members of the janitorial staff remain, of course, but Owen is the only employee of the paper to still be at work. The only problem is that he's run out of things to do.

He's finished with his columns up through next month, and there's a stack of completed editorials in his outbox. He's responded personally to every letter, email, and even comment he's received, and at this point, it's just starting to get pathetic. He should pack up and go home, but, well. The thought of his apartment, dark and cold with no distractions, sends a shiver of pure terror down his spine.

Maybe if he gets a coffee, something will pop up that will demand his urgent attention. If he's lucky.

Lost in his thoughts, Owen isn't quite sure exactly when the corridors of the office turn into... this. He stops in his tracks, staring at the expansive marble and-- is that a fountain?

Loosening his tie, Owen squeezes his eyes shut. Great, he's starting to hallucinate from stress and lack of sleep. Just what he needs on top of everything else.

[sarcasticsra]

John is...he's not nervous. He doesn't do nervous, or at least that's what he likes people to think. He's perfectly calm and collected, perfectly confident.

Tonight is big, though. Five years for him and Owen, which marks his longest successful relationship. They have two children now. When he gets right down to it, it's everything he's ever wanted.

The ring box is a comforting presence in his pocket, and he touches it one last time. He thinks Owen will appreciate the gesture, but he wants everything to be perfect. Using the reflection in the glass, he touches up his hair, then pulls open the restaurant's door and walks inside.

Only...this is not Owen's favorite upscale Italian place. This is a hotel. John frowns, glancing around, stopping when he spots Owen--but takes a second to wonder why he looks different. He's a little harried, dressed for work, and seems tired. This is getting weirder by the second.

"Owen, hey," he says, approaching. "Do you know what's going on? I was trying to meet you at the restaurant, but..." He gestures around the expansive lobby. "I landed here instead."

[isana]

The days were getting cooler here in Dalriada, something Yuyan didn't appreciate at all. "Cooler" in Dalriada was basically winter in Feiyu Village, and while she considered herself reasonably disciplined in getting up early in the mornings, the cold made her want to do nothing but curl up under the covers until warmer breezes blew in.

She sighed, grimacing at the white puffs her breath made in the air, even inside. How did people live in this? But her swordplay wasn't going to improve itself, so she hitched the strap holding her blade a little tighter and soldiered out the door, ready to practice and warm her bones.

But when she stepped out, there was no bare dirt, no gray hills. In fact, Yuyan thought, this wasn't even an outside at all. There was a floor that was soft as velvet underneath her booted feet, surrounding a gigantic fountain that gushed an impressive amount of water. There were also trees and plants, but they seemed to be...arranged, somehow, and not at all naturally planted.

There were doors, leading outside, but the doors were made of impossibly shiny glass, and the outside looked nothing like the outside she'd been heading to.

"Oh, no," she muttered, "not again." Why did these things keep happening to her?

Frustrated, she made her way to the fountain and sat on the edge. As she unstrapped her sword from her back, she noticed that it was teeming with carp, all apricot and amber. Watching them calmed her a bit.

(OOC: Yuyan is clairvoyant, which means she can pick up memories of people by touching their bare skin. This also applies to others' personal effects. But it's controlled for the most part, so she won't look into someone without their permission.)

[bookblather]

The girl at the fountain, for all she was carrying a sword, looked more approachable than anyone else here-- she didn't want to interrupt any of the people having a conversation, and the teenage girl looked more sullen than anything else. So Summer approached her, tentatively, her purse clutched to her chest like a shield.

"Excuse me?"

Summer

[bookblather]

If Summer had been a normal woman, she probably would have been skipping. But she wasn't normal, and everything she had read in preparation for this had emphasized and overemphasized the need to be more than usually careful. So she walked sedately instead, her purse clutched tight under her arm, test results folded carefully back into their envelope and tucked into the side pocket. She couldn't wait to tell her boys.

Zack would probably still be at his desk. She pushed open the door to the bullpen, and found herself not there but somewhere else-- a hotel, she thought.

Oh. This again.

Well, maybe Zephyr would be here. He had been so kind last time.

Re: Summer

[shipwreck_light]

Alright. Alright. Alright!

So, if she remembered correctly...

(There had been a lot of Marrakech Moon involved in Zephyr /telling/ her any of this.)

...she had four to eight hours to ham it up with people from other dimensions.

Just like in the coolest, trashiest sci-fi porno ever!

Except there would probably not be laser guns. Phooey.

However, as she was strolling the arcade, sizing up her next victim, Nene came upon a slight, pretty redhead with the most endearing thousand mile state. Which, well. Those might not have been in short supply elsewhere in the extended cosmos, but she seemed to recall Zephyr talking about one who "tasted like sunshine in his nose".

Evokers, man.

And also that he'd said something about repeat drop-ins to these sorts of par-tays. The one Zeph got on about was named... June? No, wait. Summer!

So, she ambled over and gave it a shot, "Hey, you. Strictly outta curiosity, yer name Summer?"

[isana]

According to Ansheng's music teacher, the best time to play the zither was on a moonlit night, outside in a pavilion or a garden, and preferably near an old pine tree.

Unfortunately, given current circumstances, Ansheng was much too tired to play the zither in the evenings, and so, even though it broke tradition, the mornings were when he took it out of its canvas wrappings and went outside to pluck a few melodies on the silk strings before facing the rest of the day. It wasn't ideal--he preferred the evenings, if he had a choice--but at least he could play it, even if the nearest pine tree was a good half hour's walk from this fortress.

Therefore, he was quite put out when he opened the door and instead of Dalriada's familiar round hillocks and gray skies, what greeted him was the most alien place he'd ever seen. Pathways paved with marble that shone like glass. Actual glass doors revealed skies and people, but even more strangeness.

And there, in the center, sitting on the edge of an enormous fountain, was Yuyan, and while she didn't look at all shocked, she did look frustrated.

Ansheng rushed over to her side, trying to rein in his patience. "Do you have any idea where we are?" he asked.

Yuyan shook her head. "No. But don't try to get out. You'll just find yourself back here again."

"What do you mean, I'll find myself back in here? Are you saying that we're trapped? How--how can you be so calm about this?" His mind was reeling: here they were, the both of them, trapped in this strange nightmare place, and Yuyan's demeanor was as flat as her provincial southern accent.

She nonchalantly shrugged, which made him want to scream. "This has happened before, to me," she said. "I'm not happy about it either, but all you can do is wait. And sometimes you meet interesting people."

"Hmph!" Ansheng turned away, sitting on the floor and unwrapping his zither.

This was a far from ideal place, but playing music always helped soothe his nerves.

[shipwreck_light]

Nene had one initial reaction to seeing anyone unpack anything of good size- can I see it? Because, well, there was always a chance that anything was a rifle and that rifle might almost be as nice as her own.

She gravitated to Ansheng on her curiosity alone.

Stood /maybe/ a little too close as she peered into the canvas.

And quirked an eyebrow to find that an instrument down there, something like a guitar... wait, no. Something like a harp. Wait again- it was definitely its own thing down there. It had strings, so the glarey guy holding it could play string things on it. Bottom line.

"O hey, d'ya know 'Summer Breeze'?"


(OOC: Nene is wearing a suit and tie and has her hair back. It's entirely possible to misgender her if you would like to go that route, but don't feel obliged. Also, I'm sure she's talking about the Seals and Croft song, but ambiguous title is ambiguous.)

[isana]

The porridge Setsuko had eaten for breakfast sat in her stomach like lead. Why did Westerners eat such heavy food?

No matter. She had things to do today: brew tinctures and ointments, and perhaps study the book Wallace had given her on advanced herbology. But the first task on her list was to gather fresh herbs, so that the infirmary could stockpile them for the winter.

She stepped lightly out the door, basket on her arm, and then found herself not at all outside, near any field or meadow, but in yet another strange place. Yuyan was there too, again, but Ansheng had joined her, trying his best not to look at all distraught.

"Good morning," she said, greeting her friends. "Ansheng, I take it this is your first time experiencing this?"

He plucked irritably at his zither. "Don't tell me you're not at all fazed by this either, Princess," he grumbled.

Setsuko clucked her tongue, amused. "Ah, well. You do get used to it. And you might even find it enjoyable! Why, every time I've been here, I've met the most fascinating people. Isn't that right, Yuyan?"

"They are very nice," Yuyan said.

Ansheng harrumphed, returning to his zither.

Well, Setsuko thought, it was his first time here.

[kelsey_the_witch]

A sandwich, Kelsey thought. There should be some tempeh left in the refrigerator. That with lettuce and maybe avocado, and then she'd feel up to studying.

Of course, it would be much easier to get the sandwich if she'd walked into the kitchen instead of what looked like the grandest hotel she'd been in outside the vacation her family went on two weeks before she started college. And it would be easier to study if she had her books.

Two of three people sitting by the fountain looked friendly. She walked over to them, offering a smile. She hoped it didn't look too confused. "Hi, I'm Kelsey. Um, do you know where we are?"

[matteo_corlioni]

This time, at least, Matteo had an idea of what happened when he attempted to walk into his apartment and instead wound up facing into a restaurant. He didn't know how it happened, he didn't know where he was, but he had a fair amount of certainty that he was not insane.

He turned slowly to discover the entryway of a hotel. He'd stayed in a similar one with his family and Aunt Nic's in Milan the year before. Since this one had a sign in English by the fountain--idly, he wondered how many people actually refrained from feeding the fish--it ruled out that hotel.

"Well then," he said to himself, and shifted his bag on his shoulder.

[shipwreck_light]

"Yep. 's totally this again!" Zephyr interjected as he passed by.

Which was all well and good. Perhaps a shade more social than most people tended to get, regardless of whether or not the universe sneezed them into random hotel lobbies.

Except for the part where Zephyr had on faded black cargo shorts, a gray tanktop, one sock, and oh, a kopis and two dagger strapped up along his waist.

Huh. So he /had/ gotten used to wearing the new one after all.

(OOC: http://www.americanknifeandsword.com/kopis-machete.html?gclid=CJCh1ajMkrMCFbKiPAodgxEAyg and actually that is a small one.)

[blossomdreams]

(OOC: Susie is a ghost and I made her visible to everyone.)

Susie hummed as she floated through the halls of the Necromancy office. She had some new information for Albert about the recent appearances of bodies along the border of Amulet and Coven. She knew Daniel wanted the matter taken care of as soon as possible, but two weeks of late nights were taking of toll of everyone in the office. Albert was no exception. Susie hated when Albert fell asleep at his desk or had to break off another date with Chris. She hoped the information she found would be enough to end their late nights.

Susie pushed the door to go into the office when she saw a hotel lobby instead. She blinked as she took in the marble floor and the fountain in the center of the room. Susie knew it wasn't the Winchester Hotel. There was nothing blowing up or magic going past her.

If she wasn't in the Winchester Hotel, then where was she?

[bookblather]

A fucking ghost. Of course there was a fucking ghost. That was just fucking perfect.

Danny scrubbed her hands through her hair, adjusted the white tank-top she wore under her black jacket and flipped her dog tags outside it, then marched up to the ghost and demanded, "Okay, what the hell is going on here?"

Working off the assumption that this was probably magic in origin and the ghost looked the most reasonably magical of all, so probably knew the most.

Doralionne

[settecorvi]

The university of Pandemonium, like the universe itself, had a perverse sense of humor and more secrets than one could discover in a lifetime. Dor took the rare opportunity of her free Shunday mornings to explore, as any reasonable person with a drop of curiosity would. She told Ambrose or Quicksilver what she was doing, of course, which was what qualified her for the reasonable in addition to the curious.

She had discovered courtyards with cracked paving stones and the dust-coated skeletons of trees; she had stumbled across cramped libraries in languages she couldn't read that were notably not dusty in the least; she once had to cross a small brook that appeared to be, and on testing was indeed, liquid copper. Today she found herself in a green-and-cream lobby, which seemed fairly innocuous on the face of it. She pulled her gauntlets out of the pack strapped to her wheelchair's backrest in the event that it proved otherwise.

The growing crowd did not look like students or academics in the least. They were too well-dressed, for one. Pandemonium, for all its eccentricities, did not tend to dump her outside its boundaries. That left her with one very pressing question among the myriad occurring to her: Where in the blazes was she?

Re: Doralionne

[isana]

"How long does this take?" Ansheng grumbled.

Setsuko made a noncommittal sound. "As long as it has to," she said.

"Well, I hope we're not stuck here forever."

Setsuko found her patience growing thin. "I think I'm going to explore our new surroundings," she said briskly, and swept off the fountain. One never could really tell what sort of people ended up here at times like this. Setsuko saw some familiar faces, like the little girl with bright red hair that had served her and Roa drinks with blooming flowers, rolling-rolling-about at inhuman speeds, and then there was a woman, also with red hair, hanging in soft curls about her face, speaking to Yuyan.

And then, there were people she had never seen before, like this woman with dark short-cropped hair, sitting in a wheeled chair, of all things, and looking very thoroughly confused.

Fascinated, Setsuko made her way over. "Good morning," she told the woman. "You seem lost."

[sarcasticsra]

Maria carefully studied her appearance in the mirror. Tiny skirt, tight top, high heels, bangles on her wrist, a club stamp on the back of her hand. She looked every inch this particular idiot's target. Perfect.

This would be a good kill. It'd been awhile, and she was starting to get that little itch, that little impulse, the one she was generally very good at ignoring until an opportune time arose. Sometimes, however, you simply had to pamper yourself. It was only healthy.

Smiling at her reflection in the mirror, she glanced down when she felt a furry head nudge against her leg. Giving Spock an amused look, she bent down to scratch lightly behind his ears, then stood and grabbed her coat. Time to go.

The second she stepped out of her brownstone, however, she knew something had gone wrong. This was certainly not her street.

[l_corlioni]

L stared for a moment, then shook his head. Maybe it was just someone who looked a hell of a lot like Maria. Older by a few years, maybe his age, but otherwise identical.

At least "older" would explain the outfit. His uncle wouldn't let her wear that at seventeen.

He walked over to her as she came out of the bar and said, "Please tell me Uncle Torey hasn't seen you in that."

If it wasn't her, he was going to look insane. That fit the day, though.

Siebenkas

[shipwreck_light]

"Pip, I know you're happy with your new toys, but I believe Duclos would appreciate it if..."

Siebenkas himself didn't care if Pip wanted to skate inside. She couldn't exactly go very fast. She didn't exactly break more furniture than anyone else in the manor doing it.

But, then again, speaking of the manor, he himself had ceased to be there.

As had Pip. She whizzed past him, her laughter chiming all around the atrium, hardly grazed by the other voices.

Siebenkas sighed. Well, he was two out of three for showing up *with* pants as far as spacetime anomalies went. Albeit this time, barefoot.

He could deal with that.

The next time Pip zinged around, he offered his arm up for a stop. In catching it, she whirled him halfway around, shrieking "WHEEE" all the while. "This is /exactly/ what you wanted to be doing this evening, isn't it?"

"Yesss..." she admitted with a giggle.

"Alright then. Try not to mow anyone down without their consent, my little scamp." And with that, he kissed the scarfy top of her head and let her on her merry way.

He himself removed to the bar. A few people chatted away there, fewer still with drinks. The taps appeared quite unattended. He figured if no one served him in ten minutes, he would serve himself some nice scotch. A bar was still a bar and scotch hardly the first thing he missed about those.

Re: Siebenkas

[sarcasticsra]

Maria decided the bar would be a good place to retreat for now, until she figured out what had happened and how she had wound up here. This wasn't what hallucinations were like, that she knew from one of her many long nights in the library, and she didn't dream particularly frequently or in such stark clarity.

There were a couple people talking, and one man seated by himself--she took in everyone, noting their posture and bearing, and found his interesting. There was no one behind the bar, not that she particularly wanted any alcohol right now. Still, there were fountain drinks, and she would like one of those.

Shrugging, she walked behind the bar and found a glass. Let anyone object tonight. She dared them.

To the only man at the bar paying any attention to what she was doing--also interesting--she asked, "Would you like something while I'm back here?"

Claire

[blossomdreams]

Claire smoothed out her skirt before she checked her hair. After her week, she looked forward to dinner with Seth, Daisuke, and Choushin. She forgot how much work it took to make sure a place ran smoothly without any interruption. Though she enjoyed her position and it helped to have work instead of taking extra jobs from Daisuke or Alene at the hospital. She learned the hard way that she wasn't a healer.

Claire nodded when her hair was in place. She applied some lipstick and nodded at her appearance in the mirror. She stepped out the door and walked into a hotel lobby instead.

She wasn't suppose to be in the Winchester Hotel, but she didn't see any of Bernard's children at the front desk. The art didn't look familiar either.

Claire looked around with a frown. Where was she?

[shadowsong26]

Keta let out a long slow breath, gathering her thoughts. Six weeks. Six weeks since the accident, since Denill and her husband...

She pinched the bridge of her nose. Hiding down in the archives couldn't be her solution forever. Father still had projects, precedents he wanted her to examine, general history he needed her to go through. And there was that map Kellom wanted...

She'd get the map, then crawl out of the darkness. It had to happen sometime.

Finding the map took only a few moments--even before things had...even before, he had spend the bulk of her free time down here. She turned to the door back to the main wing of the palace.

...this is no architecture I've ever read about before.

"What," she whispered.

[bookblather]

Paige was almost to the restaurant to see if she could locate any staffers-- she'd seen at least two meals come out of the kitchen, and she could use some help-- when she strode by a woman who looked confused and had not yet had someone come and talk to her. Damn it. Paige put the customer service smile back on.

"Excuse me, ma'am, do you need any help?"

[shadowsong26]

Desshiri fled as fast as she could from the command tent. Andrell. Oh gods, Andrell defected I didn't think I'd have to see him again oh gods at least it wasn't that bitch Rema. She shivered and pushed open the flap to her tent.

The room she stepped into was large and airy and white and gold. Beautiful, and entirely unfamiliar.

Despite herself, Desshiri yelped and backed up a few steps, hitting the door she'd come in through.

[shadowsong26]

Riluke perched on the rooftop, watching the sun set into the water. Still no word out of Feredar from Isshiri, her other lines weren't biting, all she could do was wait. She'd done really well at cultivating patience, but she still hated waiting. Especially when so much was riding on her information. Whether Isshiri lived or died, and what he bought out of the city, meant war or peace. None of Riluke's own sources could answer the question.

The last of the golden light had died. She sighed and pushed her hair back over her shoulder and picked her way over the rooftop to slide in through the window.

The window, halfway through, turned into a door. And did not lead into her residence.

"...this is new."

[shadowsong26]

Morning.

He opened his eyes.

Still safe in Ri's basement. Thank God.

He'd never gotten out before--not that he'd ever gotten out of Kit's containment, either, but that was...that was different.

Five years living with Ri, starting to feel safe, with a fake last name. Mel Artwick was legally dead, so now he was Mel Lefret. And safe, no matter what Kit...

No matter what.

Mel closed his eyes and tried to blot those pictures out of his head. Time to get up. Breakfast. He felt around for his boxers, then went to the door. The lock was one that required human fingers, with human fingerprints, in order to open. It only took a few seconds, and he pushed through.

This was not Ri's hallway. This was not Ri's house. This was a fucking hotel.

And he was mostly naked.

I hate this nightmare.

[bookblather]

Kayleigh found the book she was looking for and was just heading out to find a place to read it when a dark-skinned man in boxers stepped into view, looking startled.

Okay, whatever. She stopped and blinked at him. "Um, hi?"

Charlotte

[bookblather]

Charlotte was fairly sure that she was not supposed to be in a fancy hotel.

For one thing, she was wearing sweatpants that hung very low on her hips, ragged bunny slippers, and an old UC Irvine t-shirt that had probably originally belonged to Miranda but had made its way into her father's wardrobe and Jack's before winding up with Charlotte. Oh, and she was bracing a basket of laundry on her left hip, because she needed to get it folded and put away before she went to bed. And she hadn't showered yet, so her hair was a greasy mess pulled back into a ponytail because she just wanted it out of her face.

She might have panicked, but the whole situation was just so surreal there was no way it could be real. A number of well-dressed women, a preteen on rollerskates, a girl with a sword and another with a beautifully detailed kimono, some mostly naked guy, a ghost of some kind, and Miranda, of all people-- it was her sister's presence that convinced Charlotte that this was a dream. Miranda was across the country and probably out with her boyfriend right now, not striding across the marble floor, her heels clicking businesslike as she did.

Charlotte shook her head, sighed, and put her laundry basket down. Well.

Might as well see where this dream went.

Danny

[bookblather]

Danny had just about had it with this bullshit.

Okay, yeah, she was really grateful to Ivy for explaining the ropes and Lars for forgiving her about the whole troll-blood mixup, but what the hell was this new police-force crap? She wasn't a fucking cop, she was a naval officer-- and not even that anymore, not since she was discharged into the reserves. Though she still wore her dog tags, because symbols of faith hurt vampires and Danny was all about hurting those sons of bitches. Or daughters of bitches, she guessed, although she'd yet to run across a female vampire. Maybe Ivy attracted those because she was gay or something, nobody would ever know.

Not that it mattered when there were enough male vampires in New York City that a girl couldn't walk home at night without fending off at least two. And now she'd shoved her way into her apartment building and wound up in a hotel that was so very definitely not her apartment building because she'd be paying a fuck of a lot more if it was. Danny glared unilaterally at everything there and announced, out loud, "The fuck is this bullshit?"

Re: Danny

[shipwreck_light]

"Dunno," Zephyr answered with a shrug. "Just kinda happens sometimes."

He flipped a shrug as he said that.

His kopis bounced and flickered in his hand.

Oh.

Whoops!

He snorted at himself and stuffed that back in the scabbard.

(OOC: http://www.americanknifeandsword.com/kopis-machete.html?gclid=CJCh1ajMkrMCFbKiPAodgxEAyg and that is a small one.)

Nate

[blossomdreams]

Nate quickly dropped off his book bag and jogged over to his shower. If he didn't move quickly he was going to be late with his date with Helen. She was back in town for a quick vacation before she had to go back to culinary school and he wanted to spend some time with her before she left. He quickly showered and threw on a white button up shirt, black blazer, and dress pants.

He combed his hair and use a quick spritz of cologne. Nate grabbed his wallet, phone, and checked his watched on his way on the door. He jogged downstairs and moved to walk out his building when he walked into a hotel instead.

Nate blinked and looked around in confusion. It was a beautiful hotel, there was no doubt in that, but he never saw it before. He gave a quick look to his watch and groaned. It he didn't leave soon he would be late and that wouldn't be good. He really wanted to see Helen.

Nate walked over to the nearest chair and sank down with a sigh. He pulled out his phone to check his messages. He hoped this place had a connection.