Lobby

1. `Entering any hotel, the lobby is the first thing you see. The first experience, the first amenity, you are treated to. So of course, it must make a good impression. A perfect impression. The quality of a lobby reflects the quality of your stay, if it is truthful in its presentation.` `The first thing you may notice about this lobby is that it is Beautiful- And the second thing you may notice is that it is Clean. It is so incredibly, beautifully, clean. So recently clean, you can still smell the chemicals in the air. For if a hotel was not confident in its cleanliness, in its trustworthiness, why would it decorate itself in white? The walls, smooth and devoid of sharp edges, are white. The small pillars that stand flush to them are white. The furniture that decorates the hall, plush chairs and long couches decorated with small, dainty pillows, are white. Their curling legs of black wood are without chipping or discoloration. They look untouched. Devoid of imperfection. Devoid of any previous signs of life. For is that, for a hotel, not perfection? To feel like you are the first one to step into its walls.` `The floor beneath your feet is marbled. Perfect white, deep black. No shades of grey to distract from the stark beauty. Between the clear, flawless white is a shade of black so deep, so true, you feel as if one wrong step on a patch too big would cause you to fall into it. A shade of black so absolute, you find yourself questioning if it is part of the floor's pattern at all, rather than an accidental spill of pure nothing. Little voids that swirl between the light, waiting to swallow you whole.`
2. [4:19 AM] `And that marbled floor of perfect black, perfect white, stretches on. And on, and on, and on- It goes so far. The room is so Large. As large as a cathedral, as large as a museum's top exhibit, as large as a grand hotel lobby Should be. As far out as the floor travels, the walls reach upwards just as high. Set into them, far above, are balconies. Do those balconies connect to rooms? Somewhere else? Can you see someone upon one of them? Maybe, for a second, out of the corner of your eye- But then they are gone, and you can't be sure you didn't imagine it. The sound of gently falling water draws your attention to the center of the room, where your eyes may rest upon a small fountain. Small, at least, in comparison to the scope of the room. Its central pool is still large enough to climb into, though that would be advised against- Where are your manners? This is a fine establishment, after all. The next three tiers, each smaller than the last, are held up by intricate sculptures. Animals. Carrying the weight of each other, and of the white marble pools, upon their backs. An elephant carries the largest burden of the second pool, crushing what looks like even larger, fallen creatures beneath its feet. Dinosaurs, with their skin rotting away and ribcages exposed. Wolves bow their backs, expressions pained. Stags rear upon their hind legs and spear the basin above onto their antlers, as smaller reptiles climb their straining bodies. Snakes curl around the pools of water, tightened, as if desperate to keep them from falling apart. To keep the water from escaping. And yet it flows onward. Through the beaks of birds of prey, soaking the sparrows beneath them. It escapes every animal, and falls, into the final basin. Clear, and beautiful.`
3. [4:19 AM] `The smallest pool contains the only two carvings that don't seem to be in agony. They stand atop the morbid, crushing tower of bodies, seemingly oblivious. Nothing on their shoulders to carry. The first small carving, only the size of a doll, is an androgynous and unclothed human figure. The second is a lamb. Its head bowed, drinking from the basin.` `Macabre or not, places as rich as this have an affinity for beautiful art. That is make even clearer by the paintings on the walls, framed in dark wood, abstract in nature. Dancing reflections of white and black, bursts of light, holes of shadow.` `Turn around, and you will find yourself face to face with a set of doors. Grandiose in their size, yet simple in design. Flanking the doors are two motionless, faceless white mannequins. Their heads are as smooth and featureless as an artist's wood figurine, their joints as smoothly articulated as a model in a storefront window. They wear pure white doorman uniforms, almost a bit outdated in design.`
4. [4:20 AM] `One appears poised and ready to greet guests. The other is posed in a manner that makes it look like it is attending to a luggage cart, despite the fact that the luggage cart in question is entirely empty. Both are utterly still.` `Using the fountain as a guide and looking to the left, you will find another set of doors, this time completely made of glass. An elevator. A second set of glass doors, a little larger and not too far down the wall, are labeled as the breakfast bar. On the opposite side, a large pair of doors almost identical to the exit mark the stairwell.` `It is utterly beautiful. Yet throughout every bit of glamor, every comfortable sofa and smooth marbled wall you explore, every gilded painting, there is still an ever-pervasive scent of… Chemicals. As if the room has been scrubbed, over and over again until it shined in such a glorious fashion. As if You had been cleaned down to your very pores with the same bleach, until it imprinted itself in your senses. It smells like a clinic- Like antiseptic, and hydrogen peroxide, and vague artificially scented soaps. It smells like something far, far different than the lavish interior it decorates itself with. It smells like a hospital, dressed up as a mansion.` `On the far end of the lobby, past the fountain, is the quintessential feature of any good hotel- The front desk. A stretched out polar bear rug sits before it, soft fur and a contented expression. You could almost think it was asleep. The hotel's counter is made of the same beautiful marble as the floor, no attendant in sight, but a silver bell in place to summon one. If anyone would come to its ring is an entirely separate question. A wall of pegs behind the counter holds rows of uniform room keys, though... It appears the only room numbers they carry are ones that contain three of the same number. 111, 222, 333, and onward. Odd.`
5. [4:20 AM] `Next to the keys is a large, intricate map engraved into the wall. So intricate, in fact, that it... Actually isn't very helpful at all. Places are labeled, yes- You can discern some key facts, such as the laundry room being on the ninth floor, and the restaurant being on the fourth. But as far as how to get to those locations, the way the map is laid out layers one floor atop the other without care for the eye of the reader. The stairwell seems to turn in directions that betray even the simplest logic. Inward, outward, some rooms even seeming to raise upward out of the carving. Yet when you place your hard to the stone, it is uniform. Perfect.` `It should make sense, lead you to where you need to go. But it doesn't. Bold lettering besides the carving declares MAP IS ONLY PARTIAL.` `Looks like you're on your own.`