Fandom ...But You Can Never Leave || Hotel California IC ||

[darkred]

0700 Hours
Checkout..

Waking up the next day was something very different. The Captain of Tech-Com, John Connor rolled off the bed and pushed himself up. It was time to check-out, but this vacation time didn't seem right. It just didn't sit well with him.

John grabbed the keys/cardkeys and his weapon, strapping it to his back and quickly eyed the Rooms on the way back to check-out.

However, the names on door four made him stop as he read "Tankman."

"Another military group?" That's interesting... Why haven't I heard of them before?"

John's eyes moved away from the door as two figures were heard talking down the hall.

Check-out must of been full right now.

John calmly slipped away his weapon and moved toward the check-out counter, noticing Tank-man and another soldier nearby.

DovahBeat Blaklyte Icee Seabiscuit ​

 

[Specialist]

Vitals: 100%

Time: 0700hrs

LOC: ???, ???

Interactions: OPEN


I get up- and nothin' gets me down

You got it tough, I've seen the toughest around

And I know, baby, just how you feel

You got to roll with the punches and get to what's real

Ah, can't you see me standin' here

I got my back against the record machine

I ain't the worst that you've seen

Ah, can't you see what I mean?

'Click!'​

The dry, riffing voice of Sammy Hagar coupled with the climax into the chorus came to an abrupt stop as the woman stirred from her sleep; reflexively reaching her hand up to her waist as she depressed a single button on the grey metallic box clipped onto the front of her right hip. When the music stopped however, the howling winds and grits of sand did not greet her. She didn't feel the rough grit of Afghanistan soil beneath her fingers as she slowly clutched her hands along the breathable softness of cotton sheet- cotton sheets!? Her eyes bolted open almost immediately as she moved to sit upright; breaking the camouflage with a soft 'hiss!' and reaching for her holster and knife sheath as she found purchase of both within her hands. Drawing them in a ready CQC stance across her chest, her tired eyes fought against the low-lit darkness of the room. 'A hotel room?' As she swept her gaze across the room, she couldn't manage to fight against her disbelief as she took in every detail.

The room was big enough for two occupants, at least that's what she could tell as she was situated on the leftmost bed closest to the wall. Across from her was a mirror, and from its reflection showed a bathroom on the other side of the wall she was closest to. Further toward the middle was an oakwood dresser; an upper compartment hollowed out so that a black CRT TV of unknown make was sitting perfectly inside it. Yet the most startling discovery was further right, beyond the two meter gap that separated her bed from the other occupant. Either it was the bulge of rearranged pillows under the covers, or something else she didn't bother to disturb. She placed the hilt of her service knife against the grip of the Wu-S in her right hand; before moving herself out of bed and quietly stepping over toward the door. Turning the knob and pulling it inward, the woman slipped through the gap and out into the hallway as the door shut behind her. She grabbed her knife back into her left hand, and took a brief moment to examine the long stretches of hallway that ran across either side. Dark oak finish doors, red fine carpet, the beige tinted drywall running along the sides of each partition. Further to her right the hallway terminated into an open lobby; the yellow-white of the sun shining through and landing against the strawberry bleached section of carpet where years and years of the sun's repeated assault had taken its toll.

The bodysuit-clad operative reached for that same device on her hip; unclipping it and holding it out like a smartphone as she clicked a button on the top. The iDroid's projector materialized a holographic 2D menu as she was greeted by its faint posh English accent almost immediately. "The map layout is unavailable; coordinates unknown. Error: relay to Command disabled. Retry?" Obviously this wasn't Afghanistan, but the notion that the iDroid wouldn't even be able to find her an interior map or even link her back to XOF was much more concerning. She had to get back to the Soviet CBC, or the Mujahideen were going to launch an attack and potentially compromise the Sahelanthropus. Quickly deactivating and securing the iDroid to her belt, the woman moved to secure her pistol and sheathe her knife as she made her way down the hallway. Voices, English voices grew in volume and intensity from her position as she approached the lobby. It made her feel relieved that she did not have to rely on having to interpret Russian for the time being, and it meant she could actually hold a conversation and get some answers- even if they were just hotel guests and staff. The woman rounded the corner into the lobby, and raised her right hand to rap twice against the hard oak trim.

 

[Icee]

TANKMAN and STEVE ​

Hotel Lobby​

darkred Specialist ​

---

As the duo approached the lobby, Tankman was the first one to notice another presence near them. In fact, he had sensed someone was nearby for a few minutes now. At first, he just felt like it was another guest passing by but as minutes went by and the presence persisted, he began to grow suspicious that the person wasn't just passing by. He stopped short, making Steve furrow his brow in confusion before turning around to face the person who was near them.

Huh. This man seemed to be wearing some sort of military attire but it didn't look like the attire that he or Bolt's opposing army wore. What was this? Some other force had come into the fray? As if the situation in the warzone wasn't hectic enough. A third party was the last thing he needed. The captain put his hands on his hips, glaring at the newcomer suspiciously.

"Is there a reason you're stalking us? Sounds like you're stirring up a fight if you ask me." the captain demanded. "If this is one of Bolt's latest tactics, he's running out of ideas. Or are you from a unit who wants to destroy all of us and take everything for yourself?!"

God, Steve just wished he could disappear at that moment. The shorter soldier could only facepalm to himself at his captain's behavior. This other guy probably was just like the other guests he met before. He probably didn't even know about the war! It struck Steve odd how Doe and Daisuke showed no knowledge of the war when he questioned them about it. Honestly, it had him suspecting that they might not even be from Newgrounds but so far this morning, he had been too tired and groggy to bring that concern up to his captain. Now wasn't the best time either. Steve knew how Tankman got when his suspicion light was turned on. Which it tended to quite easily. Sometimes Steve wondered if suspecting everyone that moves just came with the job of being a captain. Not that it was unreasonable of course. In war, one wrong move could get the whole unit killed - one could never be too cautious. But was this really necessary?


As Tankman was dead set on his interrogation of the other soldier, Steve decided to distract himself from his embarrassment and annoyance at his captain's behavior by glancing around the lobby. It was then he heard someone knocking on the door. Somehow the person had escaped Tankman's detection earlier. Or so he though, for Tankman spoke up again at that moment.

"Oh look who it is!! Another military unit!! Now I'm SURE this is some dumb idea Bolt stirred up to corner us while we were vulnerable! Wanting to have us taken out while we're getting a night's rest!!"

Tankman's voice echoed through the hall as he grew bold enough to draw his pistol from its holster, making Steve audibly yelp in sheer shock at the escalation of the situation.

"Well let me tell you, joke's on him!!" Tankman shouted as he held his weapon as if it were some sort of trophy, fingers ready and set on the trigger. "I'm not afraid to turn a hotel into a war zone!! So if you're looking to snipe us, let's rock!!!"

Now Steve really wished he could just fade away into one of the walls...

 

[DovahBeat]

Ukiah had checked into the hotel late last night, and only now was waking up.
He got dressed, pulled his dreads back into a ponytail, and stepped out the door to almost walk into Tankman's pistol. Luckily he halted himself before he could actually collide with it. Ukiah looked between the obviously military-type people, then focused on Tankman.
"You should be more careful where you point your bowgun, even if it's small, mrow." He chastised calmly, as if he wasn't the closest to getting shot just now. He put his hand on the top of the pistol and forcibly pointed it to the floor, where it would do a lot less damage if it were to fire.

Icee
Specialist
darkred

 

[Specialist]

Vitals: 100%

Time: 0700hrs

LOC: ???, ???

Interactions: Icee DovahBeat

​

-"Is there a reason you're stalking us? Sounds like you're stirring up a fight if you ask me."

She froze as the baritone bark of the man emanated from behind her.

"If this is one of Bolt's latest tactics, he's running out of ideas. Or are you from a unit who wants to destroy all of us and take everything for yourself?!"

..What the hell? The woman turned around, her bandana and red hair whipping around from the momentum. 'No to both?!' She shook her head from side to side as she cautiously raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, keeping them close to her chest as she looked to the other man. They were both dressed in strange black armored composite uniforms with silver trimmings and visors- clearly soldiers of some sort of armored column, or heavy weapons regiment that she had no recollection of ever seeing. The man continued to rant about this "Bolt", when he decided withdrew a service pistol from his holster, barrel aimed at the ceiling with his index finger on the trigger, as if brandishing it for the sake of establishing a dominant fixture. Normal soldiers wouldn't just do that- they'd waste no time in eliminating the threat. Why was he drawing this out in the way he was? As almost as if the intervention smiled upon her, one of the guests walked out of their room, straight into the man's path as he quipped and lowered it to the floor. Alright... now, she could try to talk.

She relaxed her posture as she pointed to her throat with her left index finger and shook her head. Then pointed to her mouth, then her throat, and shook her head before pointing to the junior of the duo and then pointing to the leader again. Then she pointed to herself and made a flat plane by folding her hands together, angling them in a slant against her head, and gestured her arms toward the area, with a shrug. As if to say, 'I'm lost here after sleeping, and you are too?' Whatever the interpretation the two drew from this, she hoped the man or his junior was a bit more sensible against his hyperaware nature given the fact she was trying to at least talk to them instead of responding with aggression. She was hopeful, but she was also prepared to dash away all the same.

 

[Blaklyte]

Doe cringed when Daisuke opened his empty eye, then quickly tried to hide his disgust behind a bright smile. He loved every inch of Daisuke, but he couldnt help but be very grossed out by the empty, fleshy socket that was where Daisuke's eye used to be. Despite facing far worse creatures and injuries on the hunt, he still freaked out looking at it. Maybe it was because of how used he was to seeing Daisuke with his fake eye in, though, he wasnt sure if he would ever grow used to seeing him like that. Doe looked away as he put his fake eye in, busying himself with cleaning up the room while Daisuke got himself ready.
Once Doe had finished getting packed and ready, he slung his pack over his shoulder and made his way towards the door.
"I'll meet you in the lobby, dont go fallin' asleep on me again alright?" He told Daisuke, giving him a playful smile as he left the room.

As he walked down the halls, he noted something... a little strange. There was no housekeeping staff. Usually in places like this you would see a few maids bustling around, knocking on doors, pushing a cart of cleaning supplies, but there were none. The hall felt... eerily quiet. Almost surreal. In the silence, Doe couldn't help but feel slightly anxious, as if he was being watched.

This feeling was quick to fade though, as he entered the lobby to find Tankman, Steve and.. two other people also in the room. Doe froze, watching as Tankman interrogated one of them. His eyes locked with Steve's before he immediately tried to back up into the hallway again. Doe would rather be left alone with his anxiety than be yelled at by that guy again. Maybe it would be better if he just sat in his room with Daisuke and wait for the commotion to die down a bit...

---

Interactions

Daisuke - DovahBeat
Steve - Icee
Mentions: Tankman, Silence, Ukiah

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Chapter One - Lost Call​

Where has he ended up this time, was what the teenager wondered to himself as he watched the seemingly endless stretch of grass fields and dirt roads before him. Fuck, he was miles away from civilization, wasn't he? Anxiously staring at nowhere in particular, Ivica tried to search for a sign, anything that could point him towards the city area! It was all in vain, and dark. It's already nighttime; He's never getting home in a timely manner at this pace.

This is why, when a building caught his attention, the vision was like a miracle. Not one bit of suspicion had crossed the youth's mind, after all, he was kind of in a tough spot, so why would he think that having a hotel in the middle of no man's land that was most likely not even Croatia anymore was too convenient to be true?? Is Ivica stupid? ...Yes. Yes, he is.

Every bit of common sense or self-preservation continued to fail him once he had walked inside. No one seemed to bat an eye at the weirdly gloom and tall figure in front of them. Very uncommon for him, or so it had been the past few months, at least... And yet, hardly a peep. Alright, no cosplayer or such excuse this time, he guessed?

Whatever, he mostly just wanted to use their phone.
Hopefully, it worked.

...It does not.

Unless a long endless beep meant that the phone was connecting. If only—No matter what number he put in; The amount of time he waited, nothing changed. Great! Not only was he completely lost on god knows where, but there was no way to let anyone know either. What an awful day to have left his phone at the school locker. Not that, he could have foreseen suddenly not being in said building anymore. At least not like this; Never like this. Resigned, Ivica was guided to his room instead, one that eerily looked like his bedroom? Not that he could ask about it, seemingly left alone as he had turned back.

Weird. But one night of weirdness was... bearable—Just as long as he was home in the morning; A barely slept night out of anxiety alone...

And so the sun had eventually risen. Early, much earlier than he would normally be awake to. Tiredness is the last thing in the teen's mind, however. Perhaps that too was an effect of the newly-bestowed nature? Not the time for it, walk back into the lobby and—No one is at the reception desk.

Perhaps he was too early? How unfortunate.

A grumpy, bored, impatient demon broods against a wall, tail swishing with violent energy. Or so that's what it looked like to everyone watching the tall entity covered in a coat look around the room. In reality, Ivica might as well be this close to a panic attack at the sheer thought of his family calling the police to report his disappearance. What would they even say?? Did they have any current pictures? Everyone must be freaking the fuck out! ...Or will. Again, it was very early.

He's been standing here since the actual sunrise. Perhaps that grumpiness was justified.

Chapter One - Lost Call​

Where has he ended up this time, was what the teenager wondered to himself as he watched the seemingly endless stretch of grass fields and dirt roads before him. Fuck, he was miles away from civilization, wasn't he? Anxiously staring at nowhere in particular, Ivica tried to search for a sign, anything that could point him towards the city area! It was all in vain, and dark. It's already nighttime; He's never getting home in a timely manner at this pace.

This is why, when a building caught his attention, the vision was like a miracle. Not one bit of suspicion had crossed the youth's mind, after all, he was kind of in a tough spot, so why would he think that having a hotel in the middle of no man's land that was most likely not even Croatia anymore was too convenient to be true?? Is Ivica stupid? ...Yes. Yes, he is.

Every bit of common sense or self-preservation continued to fail him once he had walked inside. No one seemed to bat an eye at the weirdly gloom and tall figure in front of them. Very uncommon for him, or so it had been the past few months, at least... And yet, hardly a peep. Alright, no cosplayer or such excuse this time, he guessed?

Whatever, he mostly just wanted to use their phone.
Hopefully, it worked.

...It does not.

Unless a long endless beep meant that the phone was connecting. If only—No matter what number he put in; The amount of time he waited, nothing changed. Great! Not only was he completely lost on god knows where, but there was no way to let anyone know either. What an awful day to have left his phone at the school locker. Not that, he could have foreseen suddenly not being in said building anymore. At least not like this; Never like this. Resigned, Ivica was guided to his room instead, one that eerily looked like his bedroom? Not that he could ask about it, seemingly left alone as he had turned back.

Weird. But one night of weirdness was... bearable—Just as long as he was home in the morning; A barely slept night out of anxiety alone...

And so the sun had eventually risen. Early, much earlier than he would normally be awake to. Tiredness is the last thing in the teen's mind, however. Perhaps that too was an effect of the newly-bestowed nature? Not the time for it, walk back into the lobby and—No one is at the reception desk.

Perhaps he was too early? How unfortunate.

A grumpy, bored, impatient demon broods against a wall, tail swishing with violent energy. Or so that's what it looked like to everyone watching the tall entity covered in a coat look around the room. In reality, Ivica might as well be this close to a panic attack at the sheer thought of his family calling the police to report his disappearance. What would they even say?? Did they have any current pictures? Everyone must be freaking the fuck out! ...Or will. Again, it was very early.

He's been standing here since the actual sunrise. Perhaps that grumpiness was justified.

 

[Icee]

TANKMAN and STEVE​

Hotel Lobby​

DovahBeat Blaklyte Specialist ​

---

Tankman was about to say something else when someone new suddenly stepped right in the path of his gun. The other person ought to be grateful that he didn't just pull the trigger out of reflex or things would have gotten ugly at that moment. Instead, he found himself with his gun pointed at the ground, gritting his teeth in annoyance at the cat-like newcomer.

"Ugh!!"

He couldn't help but let his signature complaint come from his lips as he backed off at the appearance of the newcomer with his messy dreads and markings that he didn't recognize. It almost looked as if he were from some sort of outside tribe. Weren't all those sorts of people supposed to be living in a jungle somewhere eating wild fruits or something? What the heck was one of those creeps doing here? And touching his gun no less?

"Who do you think you are, going off and putting your hands on someone else's weapon like that? You're lucky that my shooting hand wasn't twitchy or you'd have your hand all over the floor right now!!"

If the newcomer's aim was to calm the situation it only worked part of the way. It had snapped him from his trance but now his annoyance was directed at the newcomer. It'd be best for the newcomer to think his next actions carefully or else Tankman was liable to attempt to shoot again. That was one thing even Steve knew about his captain - Tankman was one to let his bullets do the speaking when it came to suspicious looking strangers.

Speaking of Steve, the situation with his captain had not only been embarrassing but it was starting to reach the annoying levels. While he did not make it near as obvious as Tankman did with his pistol, he couldn't help but keep his knife in his hand, almost as if expecting someone to escalate the situation. Honestly, he figured that Tankman was more likely to do so than the other guests. Either way, he wanted to avoid a long or potentially too violent altercation caused by the behavior. He remained silent, the knife gleaming in the light as he decided to distract himself by just so happening to glance in Silence's direction.

The female soldier seemed reasonably alarmed with Tankman's earlier threat and began wordlessly signing things. Steve could peice together almost immediately that the woman could not speak. Perhaps she was impaired or had endured trauma that made her unable to talk. He'd heard of some war injuries making soldiers unable to speak the same way or even ever again afterwards and he wondered if that was why this woman could not speak. Either way, he watched her signs and tried to figure out what she was trying to say.

"So, you spent the night here too? Well unlike my captain, I don't think Bolt sent any of you here. I talked to some guests yesterday and they didn't even know about the war." he replied. "It's probably silly to think but I don't think anyone here is even from Newgrounds. All of us probably don't even know each other, do we? I mean, this is a public hotel. "

Steve's words made Tankman temporarily forget his rage as he spun his head to face the second in command, pistol back in his hand and turned back toward the ceiling.

"What the heck are you implying, Steve? These people don't know about the war? Aren't from Newgrounds?"

He didn't believe what he was hearing. Surely Steve was mistaken. Steve tended to get wacky ideas from time to time and he could be absentminded. Oh, Tankman knew that Steve could be absentminded, alright. Afterall, Steve did lose an entire tank because he was stupid enough to leave a BE RIGHT BACK sign on it when he went to the restroom. Ignorance at its finest that he chewed Steve out for once he found out about it since that resulted in them having to spend the rest of the day getting the tank back from Bolt.

"These people are probably from somewhere else." Steve concluded. "The desert storm whisked us pretty far. We're probably not even in Newgrounds anymore ourselves."

"I mean, the news was weird, I guess, but I think you're just jumping to crazy conclusions, again, Steve."

Tankman refused to believe what it was that Steve heard with his own ears last night. It just couldn't be right. How could wandering to a hotel in the middle of their desert suddenly take them away from Newgrounds entirely? Perhaps the desert storm must just have them lost by a few towns. But surely just a few towns over would know about the war...right? Or were these people from somewhere even farther way where the war didn't even reach them? But everyone knew about the war, everyone except the people in the main populace of course. It's something they'd worked to keep hidden from the main town for a while now. Yet, wandering around the desert they should be able to piece something together, right?

"You're on something again, Steve. Let's just check out and get back to work already."

 

[Specialist]

Vitals: 100%

Time: 0710hrs

LOC: Hotel lobby, ???

Interactions: Icee
Mentions: Blaklyte

​

The woman's shoulders dropped as she sighed through her nose in relief. She didn't doubt the trigger-happiness of the Captain, and luckily, the unknown stranger and Steve had seen through to reason long enough for her to make her case, with Steve being the first to accurately deduce her predicament. Wasting no time, the operative unclipped her iDroid from her hip and held the device up toward her. She fiddled through the holographic panels for a moment before settling on a keypad display, and flicked her fingers through the letters in a blur. A moment passed, and the same posh-sounding British female accent emitted through the device speakers in a strangely humanlike text to speech voice. "My codename is Silence. I do not know Bolt, or New-Grounds. I need to get back to Afghanistan." As soon as the iDroid finished speaking, the woman deactivated it and clipped the device back onto her hip. Brief, and concise; though she knew these people couldn't possibly know much else of what she was on about. She didn't like spelling her thoughts out anyway, as it took too much time in otherwise mission-critical situations. Silence turned toward the lobby and strode over to the reception desk.

Sparing a glance at the windows to the right of the desk, she found herself staring out into the infinite blanket of arid desert beyond. No parking lot, no road, nothing but the occasional alien trees stretching into the sky; terminating in a starburst of green leaves that infused hints of color into the blinding horizon. She turned back to the front door and saw the exact same thing. No cars, staff parking, roads, adjacent buildings.. just a desolate desert in the middle of nowhere, populated by strange trees she had never seen until now. A strange sense of panic welled in her throat as she moved over to the desk, looking at the sign-in paper that had been placed next to a pen cup and a golden table bell. There she was, Silence written in an elegant cursive not of her own penmanship. As if someone abducted her in the middle of the night and whisked her away to a land she did not belong to. The woman took a moment to steady her breathing, looking over the rest of the roster. Steve, Tankman.. those two soldiers dressed in their armored suits. Then several others: Albatross, Lucario, Nanashi, Daisuke, John, and.. Sonic? She was penned under room six, and didn't see him up yet. Perhaps he was a late sleeper.

Her brow furrowed as she thought through her situation. Perhaps she was captured by those Diamond Dogs that Command had warned her were operating in Afghanistan? Was she being mentally tested? Probed to be broken like the rumors said? No, she wasn't having it. She eyed the bell, pursed her lips, and rang it once.

 

[DovahBeat]

"Then don't be trigger happy. Jumping to conclusions and pointing your bowgun at everyone isn't safe or responsible, mrow." Ukiah retorted, tempted to swat Tankman's gun out of his hands entirely. His own heavy bowgun was on his back, folded in its storage mode. It was take a simple flick and pulling it off his back to make it fully usable though.


Daisuke groaned, tempted to roll onto his side again and go back to sleep. He didn't look forward to Doe dragging him out of bed though, if he did that.
Instead he got up and gathered his things, grabbing his bag and putting his giant switch axe on his back. Then he joined Doe outside the room, almost bumping into him. "Doe? What's going on? I thought I was going to meet you in the lobby?"

Blaklyte
Specialist
Icee

 

[Icee]

TANKMAN and STEVE​

Hotel Lobby​

DovahBeat Specialist ​

---

This other person wasn't making a good impression on Tankman. It was one thing to insult him but go calling his weapons weird and wrong names and complain about them and it was a surefire way to start an argument with the captain. He glared at Ukiah, green eyes piercing though his visor as he pointed an angered accusing finger slightly at the other.

"First of all, you jungle weirdo, I might be considered "trigger happy" but try fighting a war for countless years for reasons you can't even remember anymore, watching men under your command die for your own actions and see how "trigger happy" you get!!" he spat. "Second, my pistol isn't some simple bowgun or whatever the heck you just called it!! I was one hundred percent serious when I said that had my finger twitched, your hand would have been everywhere on the floor right now. And don't think I won't hesitate to shoot you if you keep rubbing me in the wrong direction!"

Perhaps Ukiah's statement was valid. Tankman was always one to draw his gun before talking, something he displayed several times over. However, he had been serving in a war for years, dealing with Bolt and his shinanigans. It was to a point he barely could get a grip on what the enemy commander wanted out of this speal. One thing was certain, he wanted blood and Tankman wasn't about to let his men be that blood. He'd be the one to raise a gun before his enemies even so much had a chance. Call it trigger happy - Tankman called it saving his backside.

Steve, meanwhile, kept some distance from his captain. He knew full well that Tankman had been triggered and knew that anything he tried to say or do to deter him in this current state would just go the preverbal in one ear and out the other. Best to just leave Tankman and the other person to their own devices until one of them ended the argument. Besides, Steve knew Tankman was highly unlikely to actually shoot the guy in spite of how much he threatened it. Tankman wouldn't shoot unless he had a good reason and some petty argument wasn't a good reason. Well, getting guns involved over a stupid rap battle wasn't a good reason but Steve put that under exceptions. It wasn't like Tankman had much of a choice on that. It was either try to kill Rio or have everyone's backsides handed to them by a couple of angry demons. One of said demons being the woman he saw as a mother. Sometimes Steve wondered if Tankman would have avoided being caught up in Dearest affairs if he wasn't even on his side in the first place.

Luckily, Steve was stopped from going down a dark hole when he heard Silence's device start talking to him. Huh. So, she was just like the others. Didn't know Newgrounds, didn't know Bolt, didn't know of the war. Sure, people some distance away wouldn't know about the war but were there seriously this many people from that distance in this hotel? Or maybe they just had gotten luvky - or unlucky - to only interact with guests who had come from far away?

"Afganistan? I heard of some troops coming from there but it's a ways off from Newgrounds. More like....overseas or something. So how in the world would she have ended up..."

Steve was mostly talking to himself, doubting that the other would hear him contemplating since she seemed to be dead set on reaching the checkout. He was sure that was where he and Tankman would be heading as soon as the captain cooled his jets which was sure to pass sooner or later.

"Steve, are you ready to haul out of here? I'm done with the people here already."

Steve saw Tankman approaching. From the outside, the captain seemed amost happy but Steve could tell Tankman had his teeth grit in annoyance, fist clenched tightly. Clearly he was irritated by that other guest.

"Yeah. Let's get going."

Steve simply agreed with his captain as the two made their way to the checkout. Surely, checking out would be fine and they could resume their trek through the desert, as hot and frustrating as that journey was going to be.

 

[Specialist]

Vitals: 100%

Time: 0713hrs

LOC: Hotel lobby, ???

Interactions: Icee

Mentions: Blaklyte
​

Silence was in a slight panic. Perhaps a frantic impatience was more apt of a descriptor as she stepped back from the desk and adopted a pivoting pace that saw her turning in a series of sharp zags and circles as she wandered to help her think. She had only rang the faux golden bell once; the crisp ring of the bell striking the inner dome as the pitched noise reverberated through the desolate front lobby. Hearing footsteps, she pivoted in time to see the two soldiers in brisk approach as she waved them over before pointing to the outside window. They may be able to leave, but they would be going nowhere if they did, she surmised. The absence of vehicles and roadways confounded her to no end. Not even dirt paths, like the countless ones running along connecting providences like Da Ghwandai Khar and Da Wiallo Kallai, names prescribed by the Soviets following their occupation of Afghanistan.

Silence grit her teeth in frustration, beginning to become irritated at the waste of time preventing her from completing her mission. She wasn't a slouch, and she certainly didn't keep anyone waiting. Okay, so the hotel stay was nice for a change of scenery, but it was time to move on. Like, now. Should she ring the bell again? Did they hear it? Anyone at all? She growled in frustration, before looking up, pointing to both Tankman and Steve, then pointing to the desk; miming the action of writing with a pen with her left hand as the paper, then pointing to her head and shrugging her arms. Like her or not, it was obvious they would be together a bit longer than they wanted.

 

[theoscout]

Pack Matriarch, despite knowing it was impossible, felt a gnawing suspicion she was no longer in the Backrooms.


She sniffed at the walls, the carpet, the furniture indented in the places, raking through her experiences for insights into the level she had wandered upon. In the draining, changing, near lifeless expanse of the Backrooms, she had always treated location as an afterthought to priorities such as enemies and shelter, as they seldom found any levels that were safe enough to settle in for it to matter. And even so, those rare levels which didn’t harbour bloodthirsty predators nor humans who could attract them were seldom stable enough to maintain their continued existence within, often spitting them out into yet another meaningless coordinate in the infinite labyrinth. So the turnspit dogs would, again, find themselves on the move. Even worse, they could be on the move separated from their pack, which made them deathly vulnerable targets. The presence of your pack was the difference between life or death, and this was a fact the dogs had all accepted.


Though, today, Pack Matriarch explored alone.

As the well justified matriarch of her pack and also among the oldest, most experienced matriarchs to wander the backrooms, she had never done such a thing before. Leaving your pack to throw off your scent from predators was acceptable, she had done so before, but never before had she gone so far out and so alone into an area so unknown.
It was for the best, she had decided, but even now.

But, aforementioned, she was Pack Matriarch, and she had the stupid idea that her pack had somehow left the backrooms. And ideas, stupid they may be, could still be credible if it was Her who conceived of them.

How could she tell?

For one thing, the scent was all different. There were just too many humans. And unknown, biological entities, but she doubted that they were hostile given their proximity to humans, and by the fact that through her hours of exploration through the night, she had found no clues of recent violence. There was a very faint whiff of dried blood, so faint that if she weren't experienced she would have imagined it, coming from under certain rooms, but that was something synonymous with humans as well. You couldn't live in the backrooms without running into a fight eventually.
What's more, they were unfamiliar. They were far too varied to the monotony of the backrooms, the only comparison she could draw to were the rare entrances to the frontrooms the turnspit dogs never used. She didn't know why she hadn't brought up this connection earlier, the unfamiliar sensory overload of the frontrooms was plastered all over certain pieces of furniture, but beforehand she had merely assumed that they were things that some wanderers had the luck to pull through with them when they entered. Besides, this place didn't resemble the frontrooms, so she had ruled that out a long time ago.

So the question still begged.
If she wasn't in the backrooms, nor the frontrooms, then where the hell had the pack been brought to?


Pack Matriarch still moved slowly, but the constant eyeing every corner where she could dart behind should a stranger approach down the halls was growing tedious to her, especially after she had repeated this process the whole night to no effect. But now she did it with increased vigilance, as she had heard human communications from far away, likely on another floor. A human was someone she had no interest in meeting.