C&C HOLIDAY JAMJAR ICE HOTEL HELL: AFTER-AFTER-AFTER-AFTER-PARTY

[bluffing-ruffle.livejournal.com]

WHO: That 'tag yourselves in' thing? Yeah. Let's do that again.
WHERE: The Gorsewick Hotel YOUR BRAND-NEW PRISON. :D
WHEN: Late evening of December 19th through 6PM December 22nd
WARNINGS: Time will tell, so for now, let's just cover our basics until more specific ones can be made: cursing, violence, drama, couples, etc.
SUMMARY: Everyone who attended the holiday dinner thrown by Remus and Miles is now trapped together in an icy hell for three and a half days. As the days progress, conditions worsen, growing incredibly severe. What, exactly, will several dozen people of all shapes, sizes, powers, and alignments do when forced to face their combined and potentially horrific impending doom...?
FORMAT: IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT! Long prose, action brackets, rapidfire dialogue, present tense, past tense--whatever floats your narrative boat!



OOC PLOT INTRODUCTION

As characters progress through the days ICly, any number of things can and will be going wrong. This is an experiment in balancing free-form play with guideline challenges, so it's set up a little differently. In order to allow players as much time as possible to play, we have decided to provide a way for all four days to be accessible at once rather than attempting/spamming with a new log every day. Play and tag around however you like--if you want to take each day as it comes, that is perfectly welcome; if you would like to move back and forth between them, that is also 100% valid as an option. Don't worry too much about perfect continuity timing, either--this is for fun, not science, so do as much as you want to!

Please also remember that you are not restricted to only tagging into something on the IC day; players may start, finish, or generally carry on as far beyond the 22nd as they want! If we still have people actively threading and playing around doing new things on January 13th, this log is not over and you are not late. Let's see if we can make LJ's comment limit weep for mercy!

Visual aides are provided for each floor on each day, with important reminders on the side, so that a quick memory jog is just around the corner if you need to check back on a detail; please comment to these floor-markers when making new threads so that people can find the action by day and floor. The hotel is laid out exactly as shown, including room arrangements, floor designs, frozen-through bathrooms, how far the snow explosions initially extend inward, and all that, so you won't have to worry about whether your made-up detail meshes with someone else's.

When starting a new thread, do so under the appropriate day/floor subsections, and please try to mark your initial subject title informatively to some degree so that people will know what they're looking for--whether it's open or closed, or what general time of day it is, or who's in it, or what it's about, or any combination of the sort. It'll really be helpful to everyone OOCly, since characters will more than likely be doing an awful lot during their stay... after all, where else are they going to go~?

Remember, this was primarily created an exercise in CR rut-breaking, characters learning how to work as a community (or, depending on how dangerous they are, how to better work against it), and lasting personal developments... so have fun and let's shake out those tired old RPing limbs! :D



SPECIAL DETAILS

The order of NPC cold-virus carriers is as follows, skipping places if necessary due to deaths before the appropriate turn.
The three tourists, the two housekeepers, the grandson, his grandmother, the bellhop, the husband and wife, the front desk clerk, and Edgeworth himself.
If someone kills the tourists along the way, it is to be assumed that the two housekeepers become the next reason people are falling sick (and it's possible that their killer gets it him/herself). In that scenario, if someone did not interact with the tourists, but did shake hands with the housekeeper, it means they suddenly become at risk of getting sick even if they weren't before. Should it happen to get down to Edgeworth-as-main-disease-spreader, please take note of the following: because of the effects his powers have on him, he has not been/will not be presenting symptoms, and it's very likely that a great many people will have been around him at least once...
____________________________________________

Nobody will/can actually be bitten by Lupin on the night of the 21st, as Ty has not cleared the making of new werewolves, although close calls, other injuries, panics, mob reaction/mob defense, and whatnot are welcome!
____________________________________________

AS OF 5AM ON THE 22ND, THERE WILL BE NO ELECTRICITY. NO LIGHT. NO HEAT. NO TV. NOTHING. JUST PITCH-BLACKNESS, UNLESS OTHER LIGHT SOURCES CAN BE FOUND/MADE OR YOUR CHARACTER CAN SEE IN THE DARK. MAKE FRIENDS WITH USEFUL PEOPLE PDQ OR RISK BANGED SHINS AND FALLS DOWN A STAIRCASE.
____________________________________________

There really will be no running water as of 4PM December 20th. That's probably going to translate to an awful lot of horrible-smelling people by the end of the plot. Combined with the need to keep close to conserve heat... well, I can only suggest that your characters pick up a clothespin or some cotton balls from the ground floor's housekeeping supply room before it gets too cold to go down there.
____________________________________________

Miles and Remus are obviously not getting their security deposit back when this is over, and the owner will be cashing in his insurance policy with a sigh before deciding to just open a small coffee shop named Beenz next time.


FAQ

I have ____ power! I can totally do _____ to the blizzard/force field! Hooray!
Nope--sorry! For the duration of the plot, when it comes to trying to break free, you can consider your powers pretty hardcore nerfed by the multi-layered and ultra-complicated nature of Remus' wild magic and the sheer force feeding into it from the storm. Attempting to meddle with either the trap or the blizzard will fail... and more than likely, backfire in fascinating (but not always safe) ways. Feel free to make up your own effects and/or explanation for why they don't function. And, yes... this includes all-powerful god-types, too. The only way anyone gets out is through death or, more likely, the end of the plot. :)

Also, while areas of the hotel can be made warmer or colder as PC actions are taken, the slide toward most of the space within suffering below-freezing temperatures and cold damage is pretty much inexorable. The same magical containment field keeping the huge walls and ceiling of snow and ice in place is also expanding to mingle with Edgeworth's power as they essentially begins leaking into the hotel itself, meaning that once something is frozen/snowed over, that's it--once the shower is turned into a block of ice, it's blocked in until 6PM on the 22nd. Power backfires apply to these situations the same way they would the barrier outside the hotel.

Obviously, if your power is superstrength and you'd like to throw a king-sized bed at someone or teleport up a floor or Ruffle the towel rack, that's cool, as that's not escaping the hotel.

It's not so bad. My character will just chill out and talk on the comms until they can get out.
Theoretically a good idea, but other than the 'chill out' bit--and there will be plenty of that, believe you me--it's not gonna work. HP magic causes problems with Muggle tech, and with something as powerful as that? Well. From the moment the field and blizzard strike, comm functions will be mangled. Their ability to send or receive messages will be very twitchy on the first two days, with the feeds coming in and going out pretty damn garbled or static-y. On the 21st, the few messages that come in/get out will probably become nigh-unreadable. On the 22nd, they will stop working completely until such time as the characters escape.

You... don't have enough beds. At all. Are you aware of that?
Yes. The floor plans were intentionally designed to make it so that even from the very start there are less than half as many bed spaces as will be needed. This number will shrink as time goes on and beds become ruined by PC/NPC actions or main plot events. I hope some of you like tubs, hallways, and couches.

Can I add plots in ways that aren't in the pre-existing design?
Sure! If a Weasley twin wants to turn a half-dozen people into giant canaries and set them loose on the remaining inhabitants of the hotel, go right on ahead! That's what you're all here to do, actually. Same for anyone who'd like to start a fight, hold a competition, roast an NPC, attempt to poison a person they don't like, etc. Not everyone will react to being trapped in an ice block with 60+ strangers for four days in the exact same way...

Oh holy hell someone just did something that's going to kill us all quick quick what do we do AAAAGH WHO LIT THE ENTIRE SECOND FLOOR ON FIRE WE'RE ALL GONNA BURN IN HERE!!!!
If something gets way, way too far out of hand, and can't be resolved by any other PCs, either Ty or Grimm can be contacted and asked to BS a plot-device end to it somehow. I don't foresee this actually being a possible problem in any way, but if it somehow is at some point or another, don't worry about it. We're all here to have fun. No panicking necessary. <3

Okay, but seriously. My character just got _____ injury/is sick/is dying.
Then you'd better hope there's somebody who can help them out in the hotel with them! Nobody and nothing comes in or goes out until 6PM on the 22nd. Mind you, we totally encourage all manner of dramatics, these included, but be prepared for any possible consequences to your actions :3

So it IS okay if I want to die, right?
Of course. Your character may die along the way in some fashion or other if you want them to; mind you, you'll have to clear it with the mods first. The NPCs can also all be offed along the way if you feel the need, with that being first-come first-served and with the acknowledgement that retcons or 'THE REAL TRUTH' scenarios may become necessary as a result. (You may want to hit up the OOC comm announcement HERE if you would like to kill one/some of them in order to give other players as much of a heads-up as possible.)

Someone's starting to sing Kumbaya. Or Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Or both. Badly.
Get ear plugs, punch their teeth in, or sing along with them. Your choice. I can't be held responsible for poor tastes in music.

You're a sick, sick person.
I know. :)

DAY/FLOOR LINKS TO PREVENT SLOW LOADING/BROWSER FREEZES AND CRASHES
Day One
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Day Two
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Day Three
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Day Four
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
Escape!
Here (4th Floor)

Comments

Dec 20 / Ground Floor

[bluffing-ruffle.livejournal.com]

Dawn, the kitchen/dining area

[notadartboard]

It was instinct for Sanji to maintain the food supplies in any situation. It wasn't the ship and it wasn't his duty, but around dawn (which no one could see from the windows) he woke up from whatever fitful sleep he had snatched and went down to the kitchen.

It was a good thing he had taken the time to wrap and store the leftovers, since the caterers weren't around to take them away. There was some food in the hotel's stock as well, but not enough to supply the number of people in the hotel for more than a day or two, at a rate of normal meals. Sanji took a moment to calculate, and then set about preparing breakfast in a way. It was going to be a meager breakfast, mostly leftovers with fresh coffee, but it would at least keep people from raging over being hungry.

And if anyone came into the kitchen, interrupted him, tried to steal food, or gave him shit about what he was doing, his foot was ready to find said person's ass real quick.

[mrbleedsalot.livejournal.com]

About half an hour after Sanji arrived in the kitchen, the door to the room creaked open and Zoro walked in, three broken broom handles somehow hanging off his hip. He seemed oblivious to how ridiculous the brooms looked, perhaps far too occupied with looking for any sake that remained. After a few minutes of scrummaging, he found one and poured himself a cup. When he finished, he placed the bottle down on the counter opposite Sanji and watched him, saying nothing.

He had positioned himself in a spot which allowed him to observe both entrances to the room without behind too far from either door.

[notadartboard]

Sanji glanced up from his preparations at the sound of the door, and his eyebrow twitched a little at who it was - mostly, at the broom handles. He almost felt bad for Zoro having to leave his swords outside, because now they were stuck there. His coat and tie were off, his sleeves rolled up, and there was a cup of coffee on the counter next to him.

"It won't be long," he murmured quietly. "Give me ten minutes or so."

[coldempress.livejournal.com]

Coffee. If there was one thing Himuro needed, it was coffee. She made her way down from one of the upper floors where she had spent the night and located the kitchens after poking around the dining area for awhile.

She had expected the kitchen to be deserted so early in the morning(at least, she thought it was early), so seeing someone else there made her pause. "Scuse me." She muttered, scanning the area for a coffee maker or something. She didn't want to intrude or anything, but she needed something to wake her up.

[notadartboard]

Sanji was on instant alert, even if she was a lady. "What do you need? I'm working on breakfast for everyone."

[wisestcamper]

Annabeth didn't care much for drinking coffee, but there was something rather appealing about the smell. It reminded her of her father and contentedly sitting at the breakfast table before school the last few years when she'd actually gone.

So the smell drew her into the kitchens, looking around with a yawn. She didn't sleep much in situations like that, her instinct to 'keep watch' always took over...even if there wasn't anything to watch out for. Aphrodite could handle herself, she wasn't sure where Nico was...

For once, she didn't have anyone to worry about. Not that it ever stopped her, of course. She paused just inside the doorway when she spotted Sanji...organizing and cooking?

"...Do you need any help?"

[notadartboard]

Sanji turned and offered a smile. "Miss Annabeth, good morning. No, I've got everything under control. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, tea, cocoa maybe?"

[shiromadoushi]

The first thing Bakura had done after becoming "awake" (it was a relative term, really) was check to see if Vector had tried to get a hold of him. Finding no messages on his phone, he blearily padded down to where the kitchen was to get some breakfast for Matsuka and Quatre. And himself really.

He paused, blinking a moment. Oh. Sanji. That made sense, actually. "Good morning...." he covered a small yawn before heading for the fridge. "Any of the fish left over?" Did the kitchen have a rice cooker? It should... all decent kitchens should. But this was America and most American kitchens were weird because Americans didn't have rice with breakfast. They had pancakes. Mmm. Pancakes. Desert for breakfast was always nice.

[notadartboard]

"Oi, oi..." Sanji didn't even need to see whether it was friend or foe, the sound of the fridge opening got his attention. He was being very protective of the kitchen today. "Get out of there. I've already got breakfast started." At that point he turned, and...oh, it was Bakura. "None of the tuna, no, but there's other leftovers. I want to use those up first before making anything fresh."

[incywincyhero]

Spidey'd had a rough night. Rather than take up one of the limited beds, he'd camped out in a fifth floor hallway in a web-hammock -- cosy, except for the part where his webbing only lasted an hour. The fifth time he went through the "sleep, wake-up, remake hammock, sleep again" cycle, his spider-sense hadn't woken him in time to remake the hammock before he got a somewhat ruder awakening.

Now he walked into the kitchen, bleary and rubbing the more bruised parts of his anatomy. Two steps from the doors, he perked up -- was that liquid ambrosia he smelled?

"Did someone make coffee? And if someone did make coffee, who are they so that I can worship at their feet?"

[notadartboard]

"Ah, yeah..." Sanji turned from his preparations to answer the newcomer. "There's a pot already made and another one brewing. Serve yourself."

any time between breakfast and dinner and overnight, outside the kitchen]

[notadartboard]

[the two attending Straw Hat pirates are guarding the door to the kitchen to make sure no one steals food. Sanji wants to have enough left to make dinner for everybody and save some for tomorrow. Risk their wrath if you dare, or come down for dinner at five-ish.

Spider-man will also be augmenting their forces and taking turns on shift]

12:01 am - 10:30 am, the lobby - DRAMATIC SNOW ERRORS!

[purmoncul.livejournal.com]

Sirius is still down by the front doors, still trying to do SOMETHING to help about everyone being locked in. Come the morning, he's laid down a circle using a couple of salt shakers from the dining room tables and has set up candles at the compass points. He doesn't seem to be...doing much, just sitting there inside the circle, frowning and muttering occasionally.

At about 10 in the morning, his candles go out and he smudges the circle. Using his wand, he re-draws some of the sigils, closes the circle again, and the candles re-light themselves. He opens his mouth, but before he can speak, a great column of storm fills the circle, blasting him straight up against the ceiling. He is damned lucky that the circle was made of salt and not something permanent, because the falling ice and snow smudge it enough to release the energy, but not before the front of the room is filled with a wall of the same impassable winter stuff as is outside.

After a long moment, a hand punches through a good ten feet off the ground, and starts scrabbling wildly around for Sirius to get enough purchase to extricate himself - or at least create an airway so that he can breathe.

He is going to need help. Quickly.

[shiromadoushi]

Bakura had been returning from washing up the breakfast dishes when he heard-- something. Had the storm stopped? Were the doors open? Had they just fallen in from the weight? (that was far more likely)

His curious exploration swiftly changed to a started exclamation as he spotted the wall of snow and the frantic hand and he rushed on over. "Hang on!" he called, trying to claw away the wall around whomever was trapped in the snow.

[professorlionface]

At about 2:15, a voice calls to him from the ceiling. "Any luck?"

SIRIUS HOW DID YOU SURVIVE YOUR YOUTH.

[rabhas]

Heine wishes he were more surprised by this. But sadly, he's begun to grow used to Sirius and the sort of occurances that seem to happen whenever Sirius is left unattended.

Heine will just be slamming over to start digging through the snow until he has enough room to drag Sirius out by the scruff of his neck like the puppy he is.

Re: 12:01 am - 10:30 am, the lobby - DRAMATIC SNOW ERRORS!

[reluctantlegend.livejournal.com]

Josh walked in just a moment after the wall of snow appeared. He was fairly stunned to see the wall there so for the first moments he just stared at it. As soon as he saw a hand grabbing at it though he jumped forward.

Activating his magic, flame wreathed his hand as he moved it around the area the other person was trying to get through.

"Just hang on a second!" he said. "I'll have you free in no time."

[slingshots]

...Well, she'd been just sort of hanging out over here, watching with a vague sort of interest. There've been lots of attempts in the time she's been here, and she's pretty much doubting that an attempt that involves salt where the salt isn't there to melt the snow will do any good. But! She has some faith in the powers people have around here, so watch she does.

Right up until that startling blast, anyway.

Then she's suddenly in action, looking a little alarmed and scaling the... wall of snow? There's stranger things to scale, probably. Maybe. Either way, there's definitely some digging from the outside going on here. Hang on, salt-and-wand guy!

[open] 2am, lobby

[professorlionface]

After running an inventory on the situation in the hotel, Hank settled on one of the rafters on the ceiling and pondered a possible solution. He stayed like this for about an hour before dropping back down to the floor and curling u in a corner to sleep at about 3am.

Lobby, 3AM ~ open!

[metamorphmangus.livejournal.com]

[Tonks stands in front of the door, looking determined. Her wand is pointed directly at the door. She mutters a few words and a flash of light bursts from the tip of her wand. The light, however, bounces back off the door and hits her instead, knocking her back into a wall.]

Bloody hell!

[professorlionface]

Hank, curled up in the corner, starts at the sound, then scowls, rolls over, and goes back to sleep. He's covering his ears this time.

An hour or two pre-dawn, the hallway in back of the kitchen

[donttasemebro]

[ooc: comment here before tagging in, if you're interested.]

By now it was very late; or very early, if you liked. Either way, there were only a very few people still awake, and Bruno had planned it that way. That meant less chance of someone getting hurt if this failed spectacularly. Which it probably would, he thought to himself with a nervous bite on the lip, but that didn't mean he shouldn't at least try.

And so, quietly as possible, Bruno slipped through the kitchen and gently closed the door behind him as he entered the back room, then stared down the hall towards what he could only assume was a back door for kitchen deliveries to come through. At least, that's what he had figured earlier when he'd gone scouting for alternate doors earlier and found this place, but now it seemed oddly more ominous. He gulped a little, but then steeled himself and marched down the hall. Might as well get his over with.

As soon as he grabbed the handle to yank the door open he knew this wasn't exactly going to be a walk in the park, because even the metal felt cold enough to freeze his fingers right off. But he was reasonably certain that the cold wouldn't hurt him (although, if pressed, he would realize that he couldn't really tell you why) and so yank the door open he did, and then he stepped out into miniature blizzard.

He only had a step or two to go through the freezing gale before he reached the wall of ice itself, and then he immediately got down to the business of doing what he came out here to do: to try to, literally, punch a hole through the frozen barrier with main strength.

Hey, he never said it was a good plan.

[ofthedream.livejournal.com]

Still unable to sleep, Ysera had left her room, 301, to walk through the hotel and try once more to get a feel for the barrier's magic. Both to get more in touch with her own power, and to avoid tripping over people sleeping in the hallways in the dark, Ysera shifted partially into her own dream, becoming only semi-tangible. She would pass through anyone she touched or who touched her. In this state she was both in her dream and in the physical world - and could more easily sense the barrier in both.

Looking as transparent as a ghost, Ysera walked through the halls from the fourth floor down to the first. Anyone she stepped on (or through) would feel the warmth of her where she touched, but may or may not notice her.

When she reached the lobby, she started a circuit of the interior of the building, staying as close to the outer wall as she could. As she walked, she probed at the barrier both in and out of her dream. Her circuit took her from the lobby into the dining hall, and then into the kitchen.

As soon as she entered the kitchen, she realized something was wrong, so she shifted out of her dream to pay more attention to the physical world. The kitchen was much colder than the lobby or dining hall, and she could hear the wind howling as freezing gusts of air scattered snow across the kitchen tiles. She frowned and walked toward the back of the kitchen, where the wind was coming from.

There was a door back there... and it was open. The wind was so strong the door was rattling on it's hinges. Was someone out there?

5PM-6PM - OPEN - Who wants to get warmer?

[ofthedream.livejournal.com]

Ysera has taken up a seat in the lobby on the angled sofa where she can keep an eye on comings and goings. She's also watching to see if anyone is making progress on finding a way through the barrier - so far, no luck.

But perhaps most importantly to anyone hanging around the lobby is the fact that she has tapped into everyone's collective fantasies of being warmer and has manifested a crackling fireplace against the wall between the Christmas tree and the front doors. There is no smoke and no smell, and it never seems to consume the wood; but it is most definitely warmer around the fireplace.

However, being this close to the barrier and trying to maintain the dream manifestation is draining on her. She won't be able to keep it up much more than an hour at this rate, but she's determined to keep it going to warm others up and lift everyone's spirits - and a cozy fire buffs everyone's spirit stat.