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๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐: ๐๐๐๐
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This month's patron is Odin the Allfather. Outside the back entrance of the hotel, down a little path to the side, you'll find a narrow, hedge-lined path that leads to a small clearing among some of the forest trees. There are a few benches on either side, an invitation to sit and think, or even to sit and talk, because while you're here, it feels as if you're not alone — though there isn't anyone to see past the other hotel guests who might be wandering about. At the center of the clearing is a moderately sized altar carved out of stone. The table of the altar stands about waist high and is large enough to place a downed deer... or lay a person on. The stone itself looks old, the edges worn smooth and that light gray now darker from being exposed to the elements over the years. The spots on top of the table, well, it wasn't uncommon to leave sacrificial offerings to the gods in the past, but it's probably best not to ask what the darker stains are if you don't want to know. There's a large slab rising up from the back of the table to stand over it, which comes to a point at the top. On the slab are carvings of ravens, wolves, something that looks to be similar to that frustrating black tree that appears if you've been hiking; though on this carving there appears to be a man hanging by one leg from one of the branches with runes falling around him. There's also a large แจ in the center of the slab and even if you don't know Norse mythology and any of its gods, you get the impression that it represents Odin. Why don't you try leaving an offering? โ |
ลs byþ ordfruma วฃlcre sprวฃce, wฤซsdลmes wraþu and wฤซtena frลfur, and eorla gehwฤm ฤadnys and tล hiht
(click to expand)
I. SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (ARRIVALS)
double, double, toil and trouble โซโช
The hotel bus shows up just after dinner on Saturday, May 1st, impeded from its usual noontime arrival by of a flat tire and a delayed flight from the United States. A load of new guests disembark — along with a group of high school (NPC) students, but so many you'd wonder how they'd fit into their ride. They're loud and rowdy, clad in robes common to British boarding schools, and they fill up the place quickly, never seeming to run out of energy or just stop chattering.
They also interrupt what's supposed to be a chill barbecue bonfire that evening. The hotel staff do the best they can to get the new arrivals settled, and also apologize profusely to their valued guests, who'd checked in weeks or even months before.
For those staying on the eighth floor, what's incredibly strange is that the students seem to have the same rooms as some of the other guests. And yet there's been no discussion of being double booked where the students are concerned. Those that have rooms on the sixth floor will note that the students do seem to gravitate toward that floor like they are staying on it. They even have keys for the different rooms, getting off the elevators chatting rapidly to their friends like this is completely normal. But after unlocking and opening the door to the room, they simply vanish in the steps that take them over the threshold. Or did you walk past a room only to have the door seemingly open on its own but then suddenly a student is just magically walking out of it into you?
The sounds of chatter and students running up and down the hallway at all hours of the night will also be heard even when there doesn't seem to be a student in sight. Or, is that thump and sounds of someone walking around actually coming from the bathroom in your room? Does the bed seem to dip like someone's just gotten into bed with you despite no one being there? The students are here for the duration, so you might want to find a way to cohabitate with your invisible guest. Or find someone who's willing to share their room with you, because any calls to the front desk for a room change will be answered with apologies, but the hotel is full booked so there is no room to move you to.
The week's itinerary follows that of the TDM:Throughout the week, people just randomly show up in the different scenic areas outside the hotel, but when they arrive at the front desk they have a room waiting for them despite the place supposedly being full. Though some end up being double booked... and won't realize it until their roommate comes banging the door in the middle of the night, or steps out of the shower. (Lalala.) Please see the Arrivals tab of our directory for the complete list and details!
- May 2, Sunday - FREE DAY
- May 3, Monday - Massage and Yoga
- May 4, Tuesday - Hiking
- May 5, Wednesday - Pool Party
- May 6, Thursday - Spelunking
- May 7, Friday - Chocolate Demonstration
II. HOO-HOO! BIG SUMMER BLOWOUT! (BONFIRE)
hygge means sitting by the fire with your cheeks all rosy โซโช
The following Saturday, May 8th, the hotel bus is late again. Or so the guests assume, since everyone in the hotel is busy and occupied with the summer blót, a feast for the Norse god of war, Odin.
There's a bonfire and face painting and singing and dancing, teenage boys and girls in Viking-inspired costumes (yes, they're still there!), and of course, free-flowing booze and lots of good food. The mead is particularly popular, for it's not only really delicious, it's also extremely potent, able to get even the broodiest of brooders loosening up and those normally unaffected by alcohol inebriated.
That's perhaps why nobody remembers new people arriving that evening?
III. TAG, TAG, TAG, TAG (WAR GAMES)
baby, tag, you're it โซโช
The hotel bus still hasn't arrived. Or has it? Everyone's nursing a hangover on Sunday, May 9th — or at least, something that feels like a hangover. Even the students are affected, mostly keeping to their rooms and requesting room service instead of going down to the restaurant for meals.
The quiet doesn't last though, because there is a disturbance in the Force on the sixth floor, and porgs start appearing by the dozen well before the day is over. They're cute... until they start screaming. That's not going to help with everyone's hangover at all, no. And they especially seem to like calling out to one another in the wee hours of the night.
The week's itinerary reads:Those who go hiking during and after the night of the new moon will report sightings of an old, blackened tree — but once you turn and walk away from it, it disappears. The tree also never seems to be quite in the same place.
- May 10, Monday - Pilates and Zumba
- May 11, Tuesday - Stargazing (because it's the new moon)
- May 12, Wednesday - Norwegian Cakefest
- May 13, Thursday - Hiking
- May 14, Friday - Lakeside Barbeque
During the lakeside barbecue, the guests will be handed out flyers for a game of outdoor laser tag on Saturday, May 15th, to be held out in the forest. The hotel staff has even already formed the groups and appointed team captains to save everyone the trouble. So it's time to gather around and strategize!
... Aw c'mon, don't be a spoilsport. What could go wrong with a game of laser tag?
A lot, actually. If you refuse, your audience of NPC students (management says they're too young to play) will grow hostile and start a smear campaign against you. Because they're petty like that. Did you want caricature mugshots of you posted on the bulletin board? Called names and pranked? That's the fate that awaits you.
And if you play, well, there's a chance that you're walking away injured — and you're not finding that out until well into the game. When did laser tag hurt? Apparently it does now. What are they using for these laser guns, anyway?
The outcome of the match will be OOCly influenced by several factors:
1. who the team captain is (teams can stick with their staff-appointed leader, or choose a different person, or have someone declare themselves leader, or even not select a captain at all)
2. how many in your team are playing
3. who are playing
4. what runes were selected for those who are playing
5. your team's overall strategy
6. good ol' RNG
Check out the Laser Tag tab of directory for the team assignments, and the OOC post for more details as well as plotting and the check in. The game will also result to some characters getting injured and requiring medical attention (if they play), though it's to the players' discretion where and how they get injured. The game will likewise be a memory regain opportunity for the Afterlife arrivals (and Julia).
The members of the winning team will each receive a Viking drinking horn with their names carved on it.
IV. WITHOUT YOU IS HOW I DISAPPEAR (MYSTERIES)
drain all the blood and give the kids a show โซโช
The laser tag mishap isn't the only thing that causes a ruckus in the following week. On Sunday, May 16th, the bus that's supposed to take the students and some of the guests back to Oslo is nowhere to be found, and the hotel staff will insist that they're not supposed to check out yet. If you get angry and insist on speaking with a manager, you'll find that their records will match with what the staff's saying. You're not due to leave until... a very faraway date.
The hotel is also suddenly littered with missing posters. At first it starts in the business center, for someone named Chewie, but as the days pass you will find more posters and handwritten notes on the bulletin board at the front desk. They're people you don't know... or do you? Why do you have a vague recollection of who they are?
(Remember all those people who tagged around the TDM but didn't make it? Yup, they're the missing ones.)
The hotel management assures that the authorities have been alerted and efforts are being undertaken to find and bring back the missing individuals, but a week passes with no visible progress. Investigations initiated by the guests will not yield any results, and excursions into the forest and the surrounding areas will only result in the frustrating black tree experience on the TDM. Those who pay particular attention to the tree will even start dreaming of it — though it seems to be worse for one John Constantine of the tree carving fame. Others might just get a cute shadow bonsai dancing like Groot, or maybe the tree playfully shaking its booty, but John's is more of the creepy variety.
The daily activities will continue as scheduled, but they'll be exactly the same as the first week, and by Friday, May 21st, all activities will be restricted indoors. Not as fun, because even with the movie room and the karaoke room tensions are already higher than usual in the premises. The students' smear campaigns are getting worse, targeting those who didn't participate in laser tag, those who stole from the bar or the gift shop, those who have been snooping around, those who have pets or have brought in hordes of animals, heck even the winning laser tag team isn't safe from being blamed for the series of unfortunate events.
Thankfully, things haven't gotten violent... yet. But wait, what are these whispers of a ritual sacrifice?
TO BE CONTINUED...
no subject
Then, she remembered that maybe she should be a bit more professional. Jesse cleared her throat. "It is. But, someone has to do it."
no subject
John could appreciate that kind of enthusiasm when it came to the bizarre, and he nodded, leaning forward as well, giving their surroundings a once-over for any prying ears. He spoke quietly, "My brother kept a journal back then, saw one when he was up on top of a mountain. Said it was real peculiar. When I saw another one in 1907, I stopped and watched, but I didn't really give it much thought. I figured if it ain't actively threatenin' folk, it don't really matter. Only found out years and years later what he and I saw was probably extraterrestrial." And still, it never bothered him.
no subject
"It most likely was." She nodded to confirm his theory. "People have seen them more and more since the fifties. There's all sorts of stories about if we've discovered something on the moon, or if its faked, or if its the government learning secrets from raids they did on Nazi Germany bunkers..."
She may have been a bit of an enthusiast about all of it.
no subject
"But I really doubt it was Nazi technology that bumped up the sightings, so much as folks're more prone to be lookin' up at the sky than down at their work these days. There're folks who probably had seen somethin' like it, but didn't have the terminology at hand to explain it. N'folk are reticent to disclose anythin' that'd make 'em look like a kook."
He snickered then and leaned back, shaking his head, "I sure as hell wouldn'ta been able to tell you what I thought I saw back then. But now that folk have better understanding of what technology can do, ain't averse to the idea of flyin' machines bein' piloted by creatures, human or not, you'll be seein' more folk comin' out to say they saw 'em. But that's from my perspective. You're the one more qualified to speak on it than me."
no subject
Jesse would insist on it every time someone was formal -- even if it was just being polite. She had nothing personal against the notions. Formalities were really just not her thing. Hell, usually talking with people like this wasn't. She'd changed quite a bit after becoming Director. And, she'd have to be more social if it meant learning what was really going on in this place.
"Or, if they had seen it, they gave it another reason. Religion or something. At least, that's the theory anyways." She smirked at his snicker. "There's plenty of files at my job that I haven't shifted through just yet. Who knows, maybe I'll find a record of your UFO."
no subject
"True. But given the amount'a folks from the future here, I'm sure we could assume the general set course of history for those of us from Earth, based on common historical factors. Nazis for example." He gave a halfhearted shrug to the concept. He was fairly certain that minus a few changes here and there, there was a singular rope of historical context from which cords and threads would spread. Not unlike the circulatory system. He had trouble describing it, but he was sure that timelines worked the same, branching out from a central hub.
"Religious folks'll see anythin' as a portent. Always have. But if you have a chance, you could check the files for UFOs that was seen in the foothills of the Rockies in 1907, over a cult compound. Ain't the weirdest thing I ever come across, but it ranks. Does your job branch out into things that could be extraterrestrials? Sightin's of little fellers in the woods like the Flatwoods Monster, for example?"
no subject
Part of her wondered if that was another reason why the Bureau suddenly took off. How much of those crazy conspiracies really are true?
"I might just check into that--whenever we get back home. There's plenty of files where I work that are just sitting in file cabinets waiting to be read." She glanced to the side in thought. How much had they forgotten that they documented. "Problem is, plenty of things are redacted. And, it does. Yes."
A pause. "The Flatwoods Monster?"
no subject
When Jesse questioned what he was talking about, though, he was more than happy to explain. It took him a moment to find a way to mentally summarize what happened, then give her that instead of every detail. "Back in the fifties, some country folks witnessed a fireball in the sky crashin' into the nearby woods. When they went in to investigate, they saw these creatures... Think about the shape of a spade on a pack'a cards. That was the shape of 'em from the head down. The flare at the bottom of the spade was coming out like... a skirt, I suppose. Point is, they had Project Blue Book come out there, and they dismissed it all as swamp gas and owls. It drove folk nuts."
He then backed up, and explained, "Blue Book was the official folks lookin' into claims of seein' extraterrestrials. So far, they ain't found a single thing they couldn't explain away as misidentification. Don't know if you had that."