The Occupation of Room 17 (IC)

[Morrow den]

Another day has passed with the rays of light slowly fading over the horizon. The moon indicated to the busy port of Muskeg that it was time to rest. The locals made strides home with an excitement in the eye for they were ready to rest comfortably. However, many others had no such comfort in a land they were foreign. They scurried for the many hotels dotting different parts of the city and unfortunately many starting heading east to the “Brick Hole”. Some stayed at the Boomer Inn, notorious for its rowdy poker games, or if you wanted some scandalous fun The Lucky Flower Hotel was the spot to stay. But others merely wanted a quiet place to sleep for the night as such the Harper Hotel was a glowing beacon in the dirt.


The Harper Hotel had been in its past a factory of sorts what it was exactly forgotten as it was never properly finished for the job. It then laid abandoned for years until the turn of the century when the prominent Mell family bought the site and turned it into a Hotel. The rooms were extremely small with just a dingy lamp and bed to keep the soul company. However it was what you paid for as the price for a room was a mere 25 cents. The repressed few on the streets scurried to the Harper as to not be caught by the Back Alley Boys who had a liking for mugging foreigners. This night was a weekday and as such most of the rooms were vacant a welcomed event. One of the souls who had rushed to the Harper was a Mr. Lee Pickett, a musician in the art of the guitar, he was down to his last dollar but was still hopeful to make it in Hartford. As he approached the counter a man of regular size was there to greet him. The man was paper white pale with eyes that could would not break contact.

“One room please.” Pickett said with a smile. The man held out his hand for the 25 cents which Pickett obliged to and with that given a key. “Room 17 , second floor on the left.” The clerk said dropping the keys into Pickett’s hand. The musician made his way up the stairs to the second floor where he could hear mumbles from the hallway. As he entered his floor the man noticed a metal grille door swung open on the threshold between the stairs and hallway. An odd feature, but he assumed, a relic from a different time. As he looked up from the door he saw a small group of people in the hallway right at 17. Quickly he made his way over the room with just a guitar in one hand and a key in the other determined to hurry up and get into the room...

OOC BTW: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=440049

[Latvijas Otra Republika]

Uzupe walked across the grimy seedy hall, steadily fixed on the keen man rushing to his room and the gathering crowd around 17'. Non of this bothered him in fact, his smoky cigarette that created ghostly grey abstractions upon his eyelids helped ease any anxiety of strange crowds in corridors. The smoke lingered behind him, His cigarette went out, his feet stomped on it's red end and he wiped his mouth.

He fiddled nimbly with his pocket as he approached the crowd, stuttering his hand as he attempted to take his room's key out. Finally he forced it's rusty tip out.

"folks, excuse me, your in my way" he spoke in a raspy voice as he remembered the crowds and crowds of soulless faces in every train and train station he attended, just like this.

"What the hell." He backed away from the door in a vague sense of dread and a internal pain, quickly grabbing the stiff neck of the man who he had just followed.

"

[Ralioskener]

Jervais walked into Harper Hotel; the man was skinny, his hair was already mostly gray, and a very faint stubble had grown around his chin. He stared through his rimless eyeglasses at the man at the cashier.

“One.. one room for me.” Jervais said, handing the clerk his 25 cents. He clerk handed him the keys. “Room 17, second floor to the left.”

Jervais made his way up the stairs, his suitcase and gun case in one hand, backpack hanging off him, and the keys in his right hand. He nonchalantly marched past the door, and into the hallway where a crowd of people formed.

The hell is going on here?, the man thought to himself as a sign of confusion flashed through his eyes. He briskly walked towards the crowd, and spoke in a tired, slightly gruff voice.

“Scuse’ me folks, what’s seems to be the problem here?”

[Walabam]

Judy von Bismarck
0800 hours
Bismarck household
Brooklyn
New York City

"Good morning, honey. Time for you to wake up."

The smell of toast filled the apartment and Judy's nostrils as she was awoken by her mother. Judy smiled, greeting her mother with a kiss on the forehead. Judy smiled, knowing today was the day where she'd be able to live young and free. Her belongings were packed into her luggage, which was sitting at the corner of her bedroom. Judy hurried into the living room, munching hungrily on her toast.

As Judy ate, she looked around the apartment - the same apartment she had been living in ever since she was an infant. Tears welled up in her eyes as both good and bad memories ran past her mind. She looked at her mother, whom had been tidying up the kitchen, and to her father, who was dressing up for work - all this but a familiar sight for Judy for the past 19 years. Judy smiled at her father, before she chewed on the last piece of toast.

Breakfast was soon over, and Judy went to prepare herself for a very long trip to Connecticut. She grinned from ear to ear as she saw the acceptance letter from Yale University, delighted as ever. She put on a sailor middy and a pair of pants, before hugging her parents for the last time before she left. "I'll miss you, mama and papa," she exclaimed as the trio cried.

With her luggage in hand, Judy walked hastily down the stairs and to her car; a Ford Model A that had been given to her as a birthday present before she could even start driving. It was old and ugly to many of the people, but in Judy's eyes, it was the car of her choice. She unlocked the doors, setting her luggage down on the rear seats, before getting into the driver's seat and starting the engine. After a minute of pulling the choke and repeatedly stomping on the accelerator pedal, the car finally came to life, with Judy shifting into gear and driving off. It was going to be a long trip, from New York to Connecticut.

1340 hours
Outside Harper Hotel
Connecticut

"C'mon baby, I know you can do it!" Judy tried again and again to start her, which, fortunately already in Connecticut, but, unfortunately, had broken down. The car refused to start, and Judy heaved a huge sigh. However, she had noticed that she was right outside a hotel - Harper Hotel - which was great since she needed a place to stay temporarily before she could find a proper apartment to rent. And for 25 cents a night, what a bargain!

Leaving her car at the side of the road, locked, Judy carried her luggage to the reception desk, setting it down before proclaiming; "I;d like a room for the night, please". The receptionist smiled at her, writing something down on a few pieces of paper, before handing Judy a key. "Here you go, miss," explained the receptionist, "Room 17. That'll be 25 cents." Judy reached into her pocket, pulling out her purse and digging out 25 cents before setting the coins down on the counter. The receptionist nodded and slid the room key over to Judy, and she too, understood what it meant, picking up the key and her luggage before proceeding to Room 17.

As she climbed the stairs with her luggage, she noticed sounds of mumbling as she approached the level her room was on. Walking out of the stairwell, she could see a crowd of people crowding around the corridor of her room. "Erm," she mumbled, "what's going on? I'm trying to get to Room 17."

---

Kelsey O'Brian
0900 hours
Handyman's Room
Harper Hotel

A great way to start the day - with dainty jazz music! Or at least, that was what Kelsey had thought. It was just his second day at work, and he had already been overwhelmed by the huge amount of things he had to learn on his first day at work - mostly attributed to his inexperience as a handyman. He'd never changed a light bulb before, let alone meddle with the electrical circuits in the building. Plumbing, though, was one of his previous jobs, and he never had trouble understanding the workings of the hotel's plumbing systems.

Kelsey was notified of a light bulb that needed changing in Room 27, a storey above Room 17. Diligently and yet fearfully, Kelsey climbed the stairs with his toolbox, trying to remember the correct way to change a light bulb. Deep in his thoughts, Kelsey tripped on one of the steps, falling to the ground with his tools all spilling towards the ground. Kelsey grunted as he pushed himself up, laughing in a silly manner before he said to himself; "oh Kelsey, what a silly dick you are." He dusted himself off, picked up his tools, and proceeded on to Room 27.

Oh Kelsey, what a silly dick you are.

[Eisen]

Hans Muller

"We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost."

~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front


It was never lost on Hans as to who he was. The term "kraut" was nothing new at this point, and every time he spoke, he could hear the disgust in people's whispers. As time went on, however, these things died down. Now, people sympathized with the Germans, for a cause that made Hans feel no less ashamed of himself. Of all things, such despicable intolerance was something that Hans looked down upon, and seeing that his people were delving deeper and deeper into the madness, he could only hand his head lower.

These were the thoughts that ran through the mind of Hans Muller as he was transported through the roads of Connecticut, taking a taxi through Muskeg Point towards the Harper Hotel. When he did arrive, stepping out from the vehicle with two very large suitcases in hand, he cracked his neck; He had the unfortunate circumstance of having to tilt his head while cramped in such a small contraption. Tall as he was, the Harper Hotel loomed in front of him. Slowly but surely, he trudged his way in.

As soon he was inside, he waited briefly behind a small, thin, wisp of a man, with glasses. After some moments he stepped up to the hotel clerk, and in his best attempt at not showing his accent, he spoke in his incredibly deep, booming voice.

"I'd like to room for a few nights."

The exchange of money for key was made, and Hans found he was assigned to Room 13, and as such, the large man made his way, only to to find a crowd further down the hall. Curious, Hans made it over to see what the commotion was going on about...

[Sikagoa]

Nigil Dempsey Andrew Schmidt is driving a car along the road. He is late for his stay at the hotel. He parks his car in the lot and goes into the building gets his key to room 17 and sees a crowd of people...

[Morrow den]

“Oh brother.” Pickett said rushing to the door he ignored all talking from the crowd. “I’m sorry folks but you all have the wrong room I guarantee it. Now I have a very busy day tomorrow so I suggest you all go on now!” Pickett said with an annoyed tone as he launched the small key into the hole.


*Click*

The door opened to reveal complete darkness. This was a new shade of black, undesirable to look at and dreadful to the senses. A smell of metallic origin also accompanied the void the crowd was looking at. Pickett stared for a second at the room before regaining his senses.

“I won’t be out anymore until tomorrow. So if you all have a problem I suggest bringing it up with whoever the hell is in charge of here! Goodnight!” He said stepping into the darkness and slamming the door behind him. Within the second he closed the door a large thump smacked the door and with it came the noise of a guitar hitting the ground. It went silent for a few seconds until an another thump hit the door, as if a body had been forcefully pushed to it. All looked around puzzled and a bit scared as to what just happened.


Just after another figure came into the floor. It was Mark Underoak who had just received his key to the room 17. “Gosh I hope all of you aren’t at this room.” The soft spoken young man said.

[Walabam]

Judy von Bismarck
Outside Room 17
Harper Hotel

More people had started to pile in to the corridor as the time past, and Judy was thrown deeper into confusion, much like the others crowding outside the room. "This is some absurd management," mentioned Judy, as she set her luggage down. Before she could stand up straight again, she was shoved by a man, an unruly man, and had nearly lost her balance. “I’m sorry folks but you all have the wrong room I guarantee it. Now I have a very busy day tomorrow so I suggest you all go on now," said the man as Judy shook her head in disappointment. "Not a tinge of gentlemanly behaviour, I suppose!"

As if the crowd wasn't annoyed enough, the unruly man slammed the door shut behind him. It was, however, not before long that the slam was accompanied by the sound of something, or someone, being thrown against the closed door of Room 17. People in the crowd stared at each other in disbelief. Judy, being a curious one, looked at everyone before taking a step forward closer to the door, key in hand. "Okay, people," she said, "I'm going to use my key now and enter this room. Whatever happens...well..." Judy shrugged as she finished off her sentence.

[Necroniac]

Mason Richards

Mason Richards is not a very excitable man. Yet as the hotel clerk handed him his room key, he began to feel a terrible anxiousness, as if his life was in danger. Only one other time in his life had he felt this before. It was after he had woken up from his dreams, the one that inspired his novel. Flashes of that dream came back to him. The faces he couldn't recognize, the images that he couldn't understand, and a voice. A voice that still haunts him to this day, making it hard for him to concentrate, giving him headaches, and even periods of insomnia.

"Sir, are you alright?"

The clerk's voice snapped him out of his eerie reverie. "Yes, I'm quite alright. Just lost myself there," he replied as he picked up his luggage. Looking at his key, he saw that he received the key to Room 17, but he was positive that the clerk had told him that he was checked out to Room 25. Thinking that the man had made a mistake, he turned back to clerk who had disappeared in the short time he'd turn his back. Guess I'll stay at Room 17 then, he figured.

When he made his way to the hallway, he noticed the crowd of people standing around the day. As he walked towards them, his strides became shorter and his footsteps quieter, he realized that they all gathered around his room, Room 17. Just when he arrived, a woman was about to insert the key. At that moment, the voice once again invaded his thoughts.

[Vulkata II]

Alfred Dingham
Harper Hotel

A long train ride and Alfred wasn't inspired of writing a thing, a short novel about a murder on the train would need a full length novel and if he'd learned anything is that you never write a lengthy novel unless people know about you plus he needed another week's allowance. Shaking his head he'd pack his suitcase and waited to be dropped off the next station hoping inspiration would come, the train ticket in his hand only costed a few cents and there were 20 dollars in his wallet now.

Finally the ironed beast stop at Connecticut and he was forced to leave. Scavenging the nearby hotels or motels. The Boomer Inn was too loud even outside for Alfred and walked pass, The Lucky Flower Hotel had made him blushed once one of the "entertainers" gestured and greeted him to come inside. Walking pass all of them he had made it to the Harper Hotel and entered it.

Being greeted by the receptionist he was asked to give 25 cents, a score really and it appeared that in the outside the Harper could entertain him. Giving him the required amount he was given the key to his room, as he walked nearer to it he saw a crowd of people curious in it. Shrugging it off for a second he couldn't in the next as it was room 17, his room.

Tapping on the shoulder of a man he presented his key as well as a woman was trying hers.

"Pardon me but what's going on here? It seems as if there's more than one occupant in this very room."