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

[kelsey_the_witch]

"I'm Kelsey," she said, offering a smile. "This looks like a hotel. You're not from a place that has anything like this?"

... Of course, Yuyan was holding a sword. Either it was a prop or the three of them were from a very different place than Kelsey.

[isana]

"A ho-tel," Setsuko repeated. "What is a hotel?"

"Is it like a palace?" Yuyan asked.

[kelsey_the_witch]

"It's a place people stay when they're traveling," Kelsey answered. "The nice ones are kind of like a palace in design--you know, richly decorated, incredibly expensive to build."

She had to wonder where they were from. Or maybe even when, if they didn't know what a hotel was.

[isana]

Setsuko nodded in understanding. "Oh, oh, so it's like an inn," she said. "Well. Most inns where we come from aren't nearly as nice. Not even the expensive ones."

"I've never seen one with a fountain," Yuyan chimed in.

Ansheng twanged his zither irritably. "So what you're saying is that we've come to an inn that's built like a palace."

[kelsey_the_witch]

"I've only been to one like this once before," Kelsey said. "They're not common, even where I'm from. Where are you from?"

[isana]

"I am from a country called Yashima," Setsuko said, gesturing to herself, "but these two come from a neighboring country called Huaxia. May I ask where you're from?"

[kelsey_the_witch]

Okay, not country names Kelsey knew. So she figured either from a long time ago or a different world.

That should probably faze her more.

"I'm from a state called California in the United States of America." She smiled a bit. "I think our cultures and countries are probably pretty different."

[isana]

"Ah!" Setsuko remembered a similar conversation, with someone called Sam. "Is this the same United States of America as 'South Carolina'? I've heard of that before, the first time I was here."

[kelsey_the_witch]

Kelsey's smile broadened. "It is. South Carolina is across the continent from California. It's a big country. So did you meet someone from there?"

[isana]

Setsuko nodded. "His name was...Sam, I think. He was a very nice man. How big is this country, then? Are we on the same side as California, or South Carolina?"

[kelsey_the_witch]

"I have no idea which state this is," Kelsey admitted. "The country is about three thousand miles long and... I think about fifteen hundred miles wide. It has more than three hundred million people."

[isana]

Three thousand miles! And more than a thousand miles wide! Setsuko couldn't even begin to imagine a land mass of such enormity. "How, how do you travel?" she asked, incredulously. "It must take a month to cross on horseback, or more."

Ansheng snorted. "Perhaps they fly."

[kelsey_the_witch]

"Actually," Kelsey said, "we do. There are machines called airplanes that can hold a hundred or more people, and they can go across the country or even across an ocean without stopping. There are also machines called cars that are basically horseless carts." She knew, intellectually, what it was like before cars and planes, but it was still hard to conceive of meeting people who didn't even know what a car was.

[isana]

Setsuko quite enjoyed it, seeing Ansheng's mouth fall open at Kelsey's matter-of-fact response.

"How do you make these...machines fly? Or go without horses?" she asked Kelsey, thoroughly enjoying herself.

[kelsey_the_witch]

So out of Kelsey's area. She called up as much as she could remember. "A liquid fuel, usually gasoline, runs into the engine and is set on fire to make the engine turn. The engine turns rapidly. In a car, it's connected by gears to the axles of the wheels, and it turns them. In a plane, it turns propellers, which are like round, twisted blades, to suck air through. Flying happens because the wings of the plane are flat on the bottom and rounded over the top. They cut through the air as the plane rolls, and because there's a difference in how fast the top and bottom of the wings have the same amount of air cross them, the wind underneath lifts the plane." She smiled wryly. "That's the best I remember."

[isana]

"So it's like...wood, almost, but in liquid form," Setsuko said. "And somehow you can harness this fire to make things move for you, is that correct?"

She turned to Yuyan. "That does sound a little like the engine on the Tantivy, doesn't it?"

Yuyan nodded. "There's all sorts of...well, gears, and axles, I guess, on that engine, but it's on a ship. And I don't think we've seen anything like that before anywhere else. All I know is that it makes the ship fly."

[kelsey_the_witch]

"What kind of ship?" Kelsey asked. "Does it look like one that usually goes in the water?"

[isana]

"It does, yes," Setsuko said. "A small one. And then there are these wing-like structures that go along the sides, that fan out, propelled by the engine, I suppose."

She shrugged. "We only fly at night, to avoid being seen. By day we're at sea."

[kelsey_the_witch]

Kelsey tried to picture it. It sounded very steampunk. "That sounds incredible," she said. "Are there many like it?"

[isana]

"Oh, no, not at all," Setsuko said. "There's really only the one, so far, and that's why we fly only at night."

Although there had been talks of fitting the Serafina with similar augments, but how one would do that, she hadn't the foggiest idea.

"But how is this different from your airplanes?" she asked Kelsey. "Yours can move so many more people."

[kelsey_the_witch]

"Ours are basically long metal tubes. They have really cramped rows of seats." Kelsey shrugged. "It's not the most comfortable mode of travel, but it's the fastest."

[isana]

"So you're all packed in, then?" Setsuko asked. "How long would it take to go from one side of the country to the other?"

[kelsey_the_witch]

Kelsey thought a moment. "About... six and a half hours, I think. It depends on exactly where you're flying from and to, but that's about average. How fast can the Tantivy fly?"

[isana]

Setsuko's eyes widened. "Six hours? That's a short time! It would take days if not weeks, for the Tantivy to cover that distance!"

[kelsey_the_witch]

"How is it powered?" Kelsey asked. "Steam?" Probably not a fuel that was in extensive use in Kelsey's time.