welcome, new visitors

[modconcierge]

There isn't much fanfare for the new crop of visitors who have come in this month, but what they encounter is quite wondrous. Is it a cruise ship? Is it a hotel? Is it a tiny planet? No one can give them a straight answer, but all are encouraged to take part in the buffet, where visitors may find an assortment of foods both familiar and unfamiliar to them. There is an open mic night happening in one of the lounges on site, featuring staff and visitor performances. Or there are a handful of shops to browse if you're amenable to trading.

Visitors will find that the Hotel Multiverse at the Edge of the Cosmos between Canons (its official name) is very much alive beyond the bustling crowd. In fact, it might just be listening to you and anticipating your needs.

As for the rest? Well, that's up to you. You may as well socialize, right?

Comments

Re: Omori | OTA [Voice testing for fun, will match style]

[name_of_an_ancient_fate]

[Kirika's wandering the hotel, not sure of her surroundings. Before she knew it, she was suddenly in this place, with no idea how she got here. She doesn't really feel worried, though. She gets the feeling that this... is just temporary.]

[Besides, there's too much on her mind. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.]

[Anyways, she ends up following the movement of the crowd directing itself to the buffet table, wandering, pretending to look at the food. Even the strangest dishes she sees don't interest her, though. That's when she meets the eyes of a boy sitting at the very corner, pale like paper. Watching.]

[Smelling of sin.]

[Kirika just... stares at him. Curiously.]

The way this made my whole day <3 And this should be fun XD

[solitarynote]

[Her curiosity was met with the void of his own gaze.

Not hostile, a bit wary. Why was she staring at him?

Fine, two can play at that game.

Staring contest!]

this is going to be peak socialization T_T

[name_of_an_ancient_fate]

[The "staring contest" lasts a few minutes, during which she stares at him, unblinking. Two pair of empty eyes, staring at one another.]

[She finds it interesting that the boy's eyes are so dark. As if there wasn't any real life inside them, any "identity." Not unlike her own.]

[She loses, but it must hardly feel like a victory. It doesn't seem as if she'd noticed they were even having a competition. It seems as if, in general, she doesn't blink much.]

[Eventually, she walks to him, thinking he has the right idea by sitting to the side. Getting lost in the crowd is pretty dangerous.] "Can I ?" [She gestures to the spot on the ground next to him.]

The Peak! We’re climbing this mountain of social awkwardness to the top XD

[solitarynote]

[It was curious, he found, that her eyes mirrored his own. Not that he particularly cared to find the reasoning why. He was so used to the color and vibrance of other’s eyes that it was actually somewhat comforting.

She was right in that it wasn’t much of a victory - maybe because Omori hadn’t really considered it a competition. Bored, his gaze became slightly less intense, the void shrinking back.

At her question… the briefest of nods. Almost imperceptible. He didn’t seemed inclined to stop her from sitting.]

Re: The Peak! We’re climbing this mountain of social awkwardness to the top XD

[name_of_an_ancient_fate]

[His head only briefly tilts up and down, barely a nod, yet Kirika understands it easily, wordlessly sitting down in a position not disimilar to his own, a bit fetally.]

[This close, the boy's scent is unmistakeable. Peculiar in it's sheer pungency. She at first thinks he must've killed a lot of people in his life, but... it feels like more than that. It's hard to explain. She decides to leave it for later, when the correct words find her.]

[In the meantime, they both sit in silence at a vantage point of the lounge, watching the festivities that don't involve them at all. As she'd thought, this was the best place to observe the crowd. Any one of them would be easy work for Kirika if they were one of her targets. In fact, she makes a game of catching with her eyes all the plates of food left alone even for a moment; all the people leaving the room alone and vulnerable...]

[Somehow, this doesn't feel awkward to her.]

Also, TY for being patient as I navigate (mostly) silent protag ^^

[solitarynote]

[Somehow, her presence sitting next to him felt somewhat right. It wasn’t a picnic in a sunny meadow, but somewhere inside he felt relaxed. Whether Omori knew about that distinctive marker of scent that she picked up, he didn’t let on. Whether he knew himself was another question entirely.

It really was the perfect spot for watching - close enough to observe, far enough away to not be stepped on. And while she made a game of observing her targets, Omori simply existed. Eventually, he would grow bored again, idly rocking back and forth a bit, before his gaze settled back on her.

The area around them was background noise. She was interesting.

The boy took in the things she marked, the movements she watched, the way her eyes traced certain happenings like it was second nature. Like that same route feeling of a knife in his hands, gripped just so, was an afterimage of her own existence. He couldn’t say why though.

By now, his friends would have asked for her name. Echoes of potential conversations floated through his mind - Kel would have wanted to know where she came from, Hero would have introduced himself and asked questions with that inherent Charm of his, Aubrey would have bounced around excitedly, eyes shining… yet Omori was alone, so none of those possibilities became reality. Not here. The questions, faint and unspoken as they were, rose from the depths of the void.]

It's fine xD

[name_of_an_ancient_fate]

[It's probably, in the end, a good thing that Omori wasn't able to ask these questions. Things such as charm and excitement would have been lost on her. And Kirika doesn't know where she really came from, herself.]

[That doesn't inherently stop a conversation from starting as she finishes killing the last person in the hotel inside her mind. It's that moment when she finds the correct words for what she felt earlier. But that's for later.]

"What's your name ?" [She asks, perhaps bluntly.]

[solitarynote]

[If Omori knew how similar they were, that might have been some comfort. ‘Kindred Spirits’ or something. Or… it might have set him on edge. It was a toss-up - one he, thankfully, didn’t have to think about for now.]

[The bluntness of her question didn’t off-put the child either. It was funny, in a way, how blunt you could be, even when carrying around a knife. In answer, he pulled out said Shiny Knife seemingly out of nowhere and looked around. Gaze finally settling on the floor beneath them, he wrote out a name:

OMORI

All caps, a little wonky around the turns, but the speed with which he carved the letters showed his comfort with his writing instrument of choice. The lettering would remain for half a minute before disappearing, the floor beneath them seemingly repairing itself.]

[It wasn’t permanent. That was fine with him. Fitting, even.]

[Dark gaze sliding back to her. An answer for an answer, it seemed to say.]

[name_of_an_ancient_fate]

[For a moment, she doesn't answer the boy's expectant gaze; just stares at his carved name, fading away on the floor. As if she had to think about what her own name was.]

"Kirika." [She settles on.]

[solitarynote]

[The pause didn’t go unnoticed. Maybe Omori hadn’t written it clearly enough? He etched his name back into the floor, glancing at her, then ’writing’ another:

KIRIKA

After confirming, the child continued to make small scratches into the ground. They would fade, as the others had. Most of them nonsensical. Some of them whimsical. All of them had no explanation.]