THE TEST DRIVE MEME: MARCH - APRIL

[checkingin]

THE TEST DRIVE MEME

SO YOU WANT TO JOIN THE CREEPY HOTEL BRIGADE.

Well, welcome potential apper! Here we have the handy dandy test drive meme so you can get a feel for how your character might react to the game setting. This post can also be used to cultivate some of those required sample threads for the application.

Feel free to play any scenario you so please. However please note that TDM threads cannot be used for Activity Checks (for existing players) and will not be considered game canon unless transposed comment for comment into logs in checkingout. We also recommend avoiding playing the initial arrival, so that the intro log doesn't become repetitive and boring for you. Other than that, go wild.

Here's a few additional useful links:

PREMISE | THE HOTEL
TAKEN | RESERVES | APPLICATION

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.

No time for losers, because we — have waffles and pancakes and crepes and delicate bowls of ripe bananas and juicy oranges. We have bacon and oatmeal and cereal and milk; we have coffee (that's really hot and will burn you quite spectacularly) and tea (that, on the other hand, is miserably cold and bland). And we have orange juice (that might just kill you)!

Basically, every component one needs to start the day off right. Which is good, because this is the only meal ever served in the hotel. So come one, come all — get it while it's hot and try to pick among seats amidst the crowded circular tables, or stand along the wall. Bemoan the lack of hashbrowns or fight over the last fork. Mix, mingle. Have "fun".

DON'T YOU LOVE MY TASTE IN MUSIC.

What starts as soft, subtle musical notes wafting out of unseen speakers?

Yeah, that quickly manifests into blaring, loud, aggressively high pitched notes — so distorted, and reverberating so magnificently in the main lobby that even those impenetrable windows rattle in their frames.

And what's more, there doesn't seem to be an off switch anywhere in sight. Good luck finding one.

GOING DOWN.

Right by the stairwell in the lobby is an old timey elevator, the sort that really ought to be manned by staff to insure that it's in decent working condition and won't kill you. But it's usually not. And usually doesn't run.

But today, your ears are treated to an oh-so pleasant ding, and the doors will slide open, offering a ride to the floor of your choosing. Finally, no more calf workouts on the stairs, right?

...well, you probably should have taken the stairs, because three seconds in the entire carriage shudders, screeches to a halt, and refuses to move.

Then the lights begin to flicker.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE.

Don't see a scenario that appeals to you here? Make up your own. Get crazy with it! Good luck getting outside.

Comments

harvey bullock. gotham.

[wentalong]

[ Every component one needs to start the day off right? Blasphemy because there is one sacred item missing from this breakfast smorgasbord. ]

What the hell are you talking about, there's no bagels here!

[ This is a goddamn travesty and Harvey Bullock will not stand for it. True, there's a lot of things he will let slide but seriously? Seriously? Even he's got standards. He's waving his cup of coffee around (a little bit dangerously but he heard "complimentary" and that means as many refills as his caffeine craving needs) and continuing to heap abuse on this waiter in the hopes of... Of something. Something other than the guy just staring at him and smiling like some friggin' weirdo. At least in New York City oh oops Gotham City people eventually yelled back. You got a reaction. ]

No, I don't want to speak to a frigging manager, I want you to go back to the kitchen and find a goddamn bagel! I don't even care if it's cinnamon raisin or pumpernickel, just—

[ Dragging a hand down his face, he groans loud enough you'd think he's in severe physical distress — because this is a Big Damn Deal, screw you guys — ]

Augh. Wanna know what, just forget it. But I am going to take all of this bacon and screw you, pal. Bite me. [ Jabbing a finger at the waiter. ] On second thought, no, I don't want you that close to me, you're creeping me out. Sonova—

[ He's going to just abscond to a table as far away from this breakfast buffet of lies and disappointment as he can. With his coffee. ]

[uniform]

[ This is why, in hindsight, just taking his plate and eating someplace else that wasn't the breakfast hall would have been the better choice for the day.

Jim catches Harvey by the shoulder as he leaves, half-placating and half-this is too early in life for any of this. ]

Wanna leave half for the rest of us?

Toby Daye | October Daye Series

[errantdetective]

[There is only one part of this complete breakfast that Toby cares about, and that part is here and she can have as many refills as she wants. Coffee. Beautiful, way too hot but that doesn't matter so much as that it's there and giving Toby the caffeine her body craves. She pours some into her cereal bowl and more into her mug and goes to squeeze into a seat.

Don't judge her. What kind of thing that takes milk won't be better if it takes coffee instead? It's as necessary to her functioning as the human disguise she wove the second she woke up. No pointed ears for this changeling. They're blunted and round, just like any human. She may be trapped in a weird hotel, but at least she's not going to be the one who breaks Faerie's most important law.]

Carol Danvers | Marvel Comics (616)

[airforceful]

[If there's one thing Carol won't get used to, it's having her powers dampened so much. It's like being wrapped in pillows. Everything is too slow, too clumsy, not strong enough.

Which is why when she finds herself trapped in an elevator, her first instinct is, of course, to try and wrench the doors open with brute strength.]

Just give me a moment, I'll get this!

[wentalong]

[ Jim, don't touch him, that's really rude, okay. Shrugging him off violently, he glares at his very own asshat. You'd think if he'd be free of that annoying flavor of Boy Scout anywhere, it'd be in the Twilight Zone but nope. Noooope. ]

If you want more, ask Stepford Smile over there, I'm sure he'll be happy to get you more [ the rest is shouted over Jim's head at the waiter who gives a carefree nod and grin! ] AS LONG AS IT'S NOT A BAGEL.

[ Deep breath. Okay, indoor voices. ]

...If you want bacon so bad, you can have some but everybody else can take a walk.

Marco Campbell | Avalon High

[allusionsahoy]

[ Look, there is food. Marco is a teenage boy. As such, he's eating way too much food. His place is piled high with bacon and fruit, which he carries with one hand, while he carries a cereal bowl that's sloshing milk everywhere with the other hand.

Still, this is obviously not enough food for Marco as he's searching the buffet for something more. There aren't any waffles. Not even a waffle maker that looked kind of broken. Wasn't it a hotel rule to have a waffle maker? This food is great and all and he's definitely gonna eat his weight in bacon and drink enough coffee that he's friggen wired, but man does not live by oranges alone. Man lives by oranges and bacon and waffles. And really, it's so much easier to ignore the creepy hotel part when there's food you want in front of you.

So, still getting milk everywhere, he decides to pretty much just accost anyone he can find about the criminal lack of a waffle maker. Unfortunately, he's accosting people...while jamming food in his mouth. Hey, don't want the bacon to get cold. What he wanted to say was 'where the hell's the waffle maker?' Instead, what came out was.....a garbled mess. A garbled mess that he somehow thought was intelligible based on the way he swallowed his bacon and asked, ]

Well? Come on, it's not a hard question.

Re: Marco Campbell | Avalon High

[notafraidofyou]

[Fortunately, Tim is fluent in teenage boy appetites and languages that include having various amounts of unchewed food in one's mouth.]

There were waffles. You slept too late, dude.

[allusionsahoy]

[ Marco just looks CRUSHED. Because come on ]

That's not fair. We're stuck in a stupid hotel, of course I'm gonna sleep in late. It's not like there's much else to do here.

tom keen | the blacklist | 003

[parasitically]

[ tom keen is a good man.

once a teacher, a loving husband — he doesn't deserve to be stranded here. he had earned his place in life, undergone the trials that came with marriage, and the tribulations that went hand-in-hand with marriage to an fbi agent. he was happy, content with his routine; until the day tom keen was realized to be a lie, just another mask he had taken upon himself to wear in order to see his assignment completed.

tom keen never existed.

but now, in what he's heard called the rundown hotel california, tom keen is given a second chance. he takes it upon himself to show the network of guests he's an honest man, and only a very select few are privy to the truth. the facade is maintained, but if his background is called to attention, he's capable of an explanation. after all, he's one of the best at what he does — just ask raymond reddington.

the elevator doors close. it's occupied by another, but his attention isn't theirs. several feet down, however, this changes. the car pulls to a screeching halt. tom peers upward, but the elevator shows no real indication of having reached a destination. he pushes off the wall, glasses brought up the bridge of his nose. he's on his guard, prepared for anything, but he provokes conversation— ] That's comforting.

[ tom takes a step forward, pushing a few of the old buttons, decaying by dust and time. he watches the overhead meter that gauges the floor levels, caught somewhere between a rock and a hard place after a moment, he reaches for the dual doors, attempting to pry them open by his fingertips. with no luck, he glances at the unlucky customer facing the same fate just over his shoulder. ] You mind giving me a hand over here?

Re: Toby Daye | October Daye Series

[notafraidofyou]

[Tim is... staring. He likes coffee as much as the next sleep-deprived teenage boy, but that seems a little excessive.

...Whoops, he's probably being rude right now.]

Uh. I've never seen anyone do that with coffee.

[notafraidofyou]

[Sorry, man. You snooze, you lose.]

I usually got for a nap later on, since breakfast is the only meal they're serving around here. I don't want to miss it. [shrug] There're still pancakes?

[allusionsahoy]

Yeah, but those aren't waffles. [ details, dude ] Still, beggars can't be choosers, I guess. [ and so, he picks up a couple of pancakes (thankfully with the pancake tongs) and just drops them on the place covered with bacon. ]

It's not like this place has a kitchen we could use to make our own food or anything. [ wait a moment... ] I'm right about that, right? No kitchen?

[notafraidofyou]

They still taste great with a ton of syrup and butter, so. [shrug. same difference.]

No, not that we've found. So apparently the food is magic.

[hacker]

If you're sure ...

[ Skye has her doubts. ]

Just let me know when you're ready to tap out. And meanwhile, I'll control my urge to point out that I was the one who suggested taking the stairs.

Nicholas Rush | Stargate Universe

[lottawork]

[There is a man sitting on the floor in one corner of the lobby, comprised of math and coffee and unshaven beard and profound, profound irritation as he scowls, hooks one hand around the back of his neck, and applies a careful allotment of pressure against the contracted musculature there.

He is also, currently, writing on the walls.

He has not made a great deal of progress.

Possibly legible are the short number of bullet points scribbled beneath the dense numeric thicket into which he's been pouring all his labors, which detail quite succinctly:

-spatially locked
-temporally locked (or looped)
-extant subset of reality?
-resources- entropic reset
His present issue, involving the state of the building he is in and the perpetually inclement weather surrounding the building he is in and also the multitude of other people who are dispersed throughout the building he is in, is determining how a self-contained, self-sustaining system such as this one could possibly exist.

Very little is to be gleaned from the broadening, untidy mathematical scrawl that has begun to spill steadily across his scuffed section of wall, other than the fact that Nicholas Rush - he of the forced sleeplessness and caffeinated endeavors and repeated attempts to comprehend what he cannot conceptualize - is frustrated.

He cannot function optimally like this, in this poorly-determined state of structured uncertainty, a frustration now epitomized by the defacement of walls.

Rush leans his head briefly against his portion of wall, eyes shut in quiet, boiling exhaustion and discontent, and tries to wrench his mind from its self-destructive trajectory so it may concentrate on the problem.]

[errantdetective]

Then you must know people who get more sleep than I do. [Or aren't naturally nocturnal and attempting to live in a diurnal world.]

[carjacked]

[ It's the familiarity of the form that has Neal slowing to a stop midway through the lobby, faltering in his step until he forgets where he'd been headed in the first place. He takes in the thin and determined hand pressed against a neck hidden by shoulder sweeping hair, the thin outline.

Then the writing on the wall visible just off to the left of his head, writing that has the furrow in Neal's brow burrowing a little deeper, confused and in disbelief. It can't be, he thinks, but it's gotta be, right? ]

They got paper, you know.

[ He speaks up finally, neutrally, studying the man before him intently for a reaction. ]

[logistical]

[ How curious. Spock at first keeps out of the way, watching from one end of the corridor, but after a while when it's apparent Rush is going nowhere and only becoming more agitated, he adds a few notes here and there in neat print. Specifically, around temporally locked he writes "Unlikely." ]

[lottawork]

[The external voice - while not entirely unexpected, as one should assume that such a thing would occur in such an obviously public place - jolts Rush out of his very much internal process with an unanticipated level of violence. His hand tears away from his neck, whipping to the ground where it digs its nails in with ruthless precision.]

What the fuck.

[His head snaps ninety degrees to address the addresser in his periphery, attention sharpening, breathing tense.]

Do you make, [he hisses, now lacquering his alarm over with its familiar layer of guarded indignation,] a habit of interrupting someone else's work?

[He studies the interloper with brow-darkened suspicion, eyes narrowed. He is quite unobjectionable, completely unfamiliar, and wholly unremarkable.]

[lottawork]

[What is this. Is this considered acceptable in some academic circles. Rush doesn't care. His wrist jerks subtly at the intrusion, and he proceeds to favor the other man - assumption of species was never a fair process, and Rush will quite easily admit to himself, but he is not a diplomat - with a look of the utmost disdain.]

Anything else you would like to add? Since this is, apparently, a public forum, though I certainly wasn't informed.

[He lends quite a bit of disgusted emphasis to those final two syllables, punctuated by a deeply affronted glare.]

[logistical]

[ He clasps his hands behind his back and studies Rush with some curiosity, unaffected by the fact that the man seems to want to glare a hole right through him. Human, on the surface. No sense of restraint. In other words: sigh. ]

I was merely attempting to assist. This is a public space.

Mulan | Once Upon A Time

[warriorsoath]

[ There are a lot of things that Mulan can tolerate, she is quite a patient person. Even with this situation, as frightening and puzzling as it has been, it's been generally tolerable. Not pleasant, disconcerting, but she has been able to have patience with it, until now.

At first the music was a little soothing. She has not really ever quite heard anything like this before. ( But then again there's no need for elevator music in the Enchanted Forest.) But that quickly changes, what was soothing is now ear splitting.

Her head is pounding, with her face set in determination as she tries to figure out what is making that noise. Because it's lost all musical quality by now. What started out as a methodical search, has now turned a bit frantic. This has to stop, for her own sanity and the sanity of everyone else in this hotel. ]

There has to be some way to make this stop. [ Even if it means ripping speakers off the wall. ]

[carjacked]

[ There are about a dozen responses Neal would have anticipated, ranging from joy to terror, anger to relief, a whole spectrum of things depending upon what point of the timeline his father was from.

What the fuck is not one of those expected responses, and Neal's eyebrows shoot up almost comically fast. His hands come up in that woah, I'm not looking for trouble gesture that everyone who's ever lived in New York manages to perfect, but mingled in that offended afront is still that disbelief, still that surprise, hidden in the corners of his eyes and the part in his lips.

He's seen his father hiss out anger at everyone on the damn planet. Everyone, that is, but himself, and it comes with an unanticipated sting. ]

Depends, do you make a habit of snapping at people who're trying to help you?

[ He fires back, masking his conflicting emotions with disgruntled annoyance. ]

[carjacked]

[ As what can now be considered a veteran of Hotel California, Neal feels some obligation when it comes to helping new arrivals get oriented. This includes, apparently, bringing complimentary orange juice to headache-ridden warriors, and he settles a sympathy glass on the table before her. ]

'Fraid not.

[ He responds sympathetically, flopping into the chair across from her. He shrugs unhelpfully. ]

Good news is after a while it sorta becomes white noise, y'know?

Mr. Gold {Rumpelstiltskin} | Once Upon a Time

[magicsprice]

[Gold is no stranger to world hopping by now, but at least those trips had been planned and he'd expected them. Needless to say the man is far from pleased as he surveys the breakfast line up while leaning on the cane in one hand. His one apparent piece of luck in this forsaken building, having the cane readily at hand, especially given he actually needs it again here.

He's already tested the tea and found it lacking, thus he's settled for the coffee, debating on the rest of the menu and wondering if the rest of the food is just as hit or miss.

After a time he's filled the plate with pancakes, bacon and a banana. Carrying it and the coffee is a careful balancing act as he makes his way to seek out a table with an empty chair.]