[MINGLE] Glitches: Locked In

[sixthiteration]

The Inn is still a place that most of the villagers gather and, as such, a perfect place to conduct an experiment. Since it is a place of high traffic, it is not uncommon to see people come and go at all hours of the day and night; men and women come through to eat meals, to deliver game and simply to talk and catch up with others. If there's any bit of news or a new development within the village, it always spreads through the Inn like wildfire.

So what happens when the Inn is locked away from everyone else? What happens when the doors cease to work and the traffic in and out of the myriad doors is forcibly stopped for an afternoon and evening? Chaos? Panic? Both? Neither? That is precisely the hypothesis being tested today.

There are ways out, yes, but they're cleverly hidden. The keys are not in the normal, visible places they should be kept and each key fits a certain door. Additionally, those doors have to be opened in a certain order or nothing is going to happen.

How long will it take for the Inn to open up to the public again?


[Details can be found HERE]

Comments

Kira Akiyama | Mingle OTA | Lunch and the first key

[3ofswords]

It's another day in the canyon: rain dripping down windows, drafts seeping under doors, and every exit of the inn miraculously sealed shut. Kira had watched several attempts to rig them open, mimed conversations with people who couldn't get in any better than those of them trying to get out, and dissuaded at least one attempt to smash in the windows that keep the inn fucking warm and viable for being trapped in.

He's settled into an attitude of this might as well happen, things being as they were for the last year of his life. Trapped in his apartment, trapped in New York, trapped in a canyon: why not an inn with two appliances and a bar that's never stocked?

And if it might as well happen, he might as well cook lunch. Either the doors will open themselves up or they'll chop a hole in a wall: he'd rather wait one out before trying the other. Food will keep the natives from getting immediately restless, and bring them together enough to discuss the situation. "Come get your fucking protein," he calls out the kitchen door, once there are plates of eggs and fish set out with what's left of the greens. Now that the weather is turning, he--

Well, he'll have to get out of this shit before he trudges back to the peach trees.

Wondering what else he can scavenge out of the pantry, he drags in a chair to check the top shelves. There are a few old boxes, crusty looking bottles from old feasts that even the dog wouldn't touch. When he pulls one out of the way, a hairy spider in a thick web makes him click his tongue against his teeth, roll his eyes, but otherwise look away.

Then look back, because there's a dull shine of something behind the web.

One spider in a box and thorough rinse later, he's dropping a simple key onto the breakfast table. "Good news, I think we probably won't have to chop a hole in the wall; bad news," he jerks his head at the exit in the back corner of the kitchen, "this didn't fit the door over there."


[Please specify if you are replying to Kira, or simply putting your character at the breakfast table for others to tag; keep in mind this is a threadjacking situation!]

Kira

[markwatney]

The moment Kira drops the key onto the table, the situation suddenly makes complete, if irritating sense. This isn't the typical round of 'Try Not to Die' or 'Be Manipulated for Fun and Profit' — This is a more mundane sadism. It's a puzzle, and like too many of the ones I'd played in my misspent youth, the solution probably doesn't make any god damned sense. You just have to get it right to move forward.

"Okay, so what door does it fit?"

[3ofswords]

An element of Kira's own calm is Mark's presence--easier to keep level when you know you won't be the only one. It reins in his irritation for dramatics, the only good of which are those feigned, by him, for effect. Not every overreaction is low blood sugar, but the food will at least distract them for awhile; if it's another hour or two, he figures basic fire-minding and other chores might help.

Chores now including a hunt for keys.

Kira takes and chews through a bite of food before answering, coming out the opposite side of panic to: let me eat my fucking lunch. "No idea, yet. Figured I'd check around while we see if there are any more."

OTA

[chirrutsluck]

I. Discovery

After his usual late-morning visit to drop off the results from his snares and his bow-hunting, Baze heads back out again... or tries. The handle to the door won't budge. He tries turning it... tries rattling it... braces his not-inconsiderable frame against it and yanks... and the door doesn't budge even a centimeter.

He glares at it for a long minute before making the circuit to try every other door, and window, even those on the second story. Come make the rounds with him, or ask him what's up?


II. Hunting

After the first key is found, Baze makes a point of checking under every cushion, on the bottom of every chair, behind ever piece of furniture. He's used to small living spaces, but he is not comfortable being locked in and unable to get outside. So moving about, poking his nose behind paintings and lifting doilies from the tops of dressers, keeps him active rather than pacing restlessly.

Hunting

[71st_victor]

Johanna's not doing anything to help. She could, she knows she could, but having been a prisoner of one too many cages before, she also knows that when their captors want them to do something, they're going to. Besides, it's a little entertaining to watch everyone going around and fussing, or at least, it was until Baze gets to the point of pushing and prodding around her.

That's how it goes from entertaining to annoying. "You know, there could only be the one key, maybe it's just on a time delay?" she suggests, giving him a pointed look.

[chirrutsluck]

"And it could be that there are many and we must find them," Baze counters with a shrug, pushing up from where he'd checked under the chair next to hers and hiding the groan as his knees complain. "I would rather do something than sit and do nothing. Doing nothing will only make me grouchy."

ota

[seekingcrocodile]

Stuck on the outside

He's done with his fishing for the day and is on the way to the inn to drop most of the catch off there, and hopefully get some lunch before heading to the next task. The fish are in a net bag dangling from his hook and he's got a fishing pole in his hand. Once at the inn, he rests the pole against the building and reaches out to open the door closest to the kitchen, the one that's most convenient for dropping off the fish.

Only it doesn't open. The handle turns, but nothing. It's strange -- the door's not usually locked. Maybe it got accidentally locked somehow. So he tries another one. Same thing. He circles around the inn and then ends up back at the main door. Still locked. He bangs on it with the flat of his palm, loudly enough to get someone's attention, fish still dangling from his hook.

"Oi! Why is the door locked?"

Trying to get in

Now it's become obvious that all of the doors are locked, and the windows too, and that no one inside is responsible for doing this. But they still need to get out, and everyone else needs to be able to get in. Those inside are looking for a solution, and just because he's outside doesn't mean he can't try to help.

He's crouched down outside the main door to the inn, using his hook in an attempt to pick the lock from outside. He's having no luck though, if his sigh of frustration is any indication.

"It's not working."

Trying to get in

[chosenbytheocean]

"Um... What are you doing?"

Moana had been spending most of her time in the other village and had just arrived to check in on everything at the inn and the people she knew who lived in this area. The last thing she expected was to see Hook kneeling in front of the inn with his hook in the lock.

Locks were a newer concept to Moana who never locked anything and really had no idea what he was doing.

[seekingcrocodile]

"The doors are locked. I'm trying to get it unlocked." No one had paid much attention to the locks on the doors before, but the doors had also never been locked before. "Without a key, this is the best option."

OTA at the Inn

[fishermansweater]

i.

At first he thinks it's just the door jamming, but soon it becomes evident that they're stuck, behind a locked door that nobody locked, using a key nobody knows about. Finnick had only come in to drop off some fish and had lingered by the fire as has become his habit over the winter. He has other things to do, and he needs to get back to Annie.

Besides, being stuck makes shoulders tense and his skin prickle with that feeling he knows so well of being watched, tested, trapped. At least now, he can fight the trap. He's trying windows when the first key's found, and once it becomes clear there's a puzzle, he's eager to start searching.

He's thorough in the way he goes about looking through the main room, feeling around the mantle, looking up into the corners of the ceiling, and kneeling by the chairs to feel in their seats. He looks up at the sound of someone else nearby and stands up from where he'd been checking under a chair.

"Any luck?"


ii.

He doesn't want to give up. He doesn't mean to give up, and he never consciously decides to give up. But any thought of reasoning, of the careful search of the Inn for keys, vanishes from Finnick's mind the moment he hears the shrieks from outside.

"Annie!"

He dashes downstairs, without looking to see if there's anyone else on the stairs or in the way, and runs back to the front room. The sound of her fear, her pain, her what what what throws his own plight out of his mind, and Finnick flings himself at the front door, desperation making him ram his shoulder into the wood over and over again, drowning out Annie's shrieks in the thudding of his strong frame against the door. Eventually the burst of frantic energy fades and he finds himself pressed against the door, trying not to sob.

He shouts in frustration, slams a hand against the door and sinks to the floor, suddenly sapped of all energy. Finnick curls in on himself, wrapping his arms around his knees, and buries his face in his hands.

I.

[fromnowhere]

Like Finnick, Rey had deduced that there was more at play than just stuck doors and windows. Unfortunately, she'd been unable to turn up anything more than a single key, something that she couldn't find a lock to. When she hears the man ask about having any luck, she lifts the key from where she'd stashed it in her pocket and shakes her head.

"A key with no lock is useless."

She supposes it's better than being stuck on the outside of the Inn, though her restlessness is going to get the better of her sooner rather than later. She's a scavenger by nature and she's not sure what else a key is good for other than opening doors.

"I've looked for others, but I can't find anything. You?"

[fishermansweater]

"Where was it?" Finnick asks, his hands coming to rest on his hips and his brow furrowing just slightly as she pulls the key out of her pocket. This is annoying, and frustrating; he should be able to work his way out of a trap like this, surely. Spotting and avoiding traps helps tributes to stay alive in the arena, but it was never like this in the Games, trapped and trying to find the key to their way out. That has to be the point of all of this, right? Maybe they're trying to find the one key amongst many that will actually open the door? That seems like something the Gamemakers here would do.

He shakes his head at her question. "Not yet," he admits, rueful. It would have been useful to have Annie here with them; she's good at working out patterns, maybe she'd be able to see the way this works.

(Maybe he's just worried by the enforced separation, and wants to be near her.)

"If there's suddenly keys hidden around the place, maybe we just have to find the right one," he offers.

i.

[lastofthekellys]

It is darn near a rite of passage for the men in her family to spend time locked up. After arrest, after sentencing - sometimes for years. Yet for all that, Kate has never been locked up in her life. Unable to run, sometimes, yes, and the rumour of that slides down her spin, but never actually locked up.

This is nothing like a prison. No bars have appeared, there are no shackles or prison guards, it's all a luxury compared to what her da and her brothers and her cousins have been through. Yet, Kate Kelly-Sorellin really, truly, does not care for this at all.

"None," she tells Odair, and purses her lips. "I'm thinkin' of goin' down and checkin' the cellar, though. Maybe They've hidden some kind of key, or clue, there."

[fishermansweater]

Confinement is nothing new to Finnick. Not, usually, like this, stuck in the one building and unable to get out. (Except for when the victors had been shut into their village, the district locked down, the attempted revolt at the docks shut down and shot down.) More like this village as a whole, stuck in his fishery or in the city, unable to move between places without authorization that only came when he was wanted in the Capitol.

But Annie's outside, and he wants to go back to her, wants to get out of here and be able to provide for himself instead of relying on what's left in the Inn's stores. Not that he doesn't know how to make food last, but he doesn't want to be forced to be in here relying on people he doesn't trust.

Which is why it's a relief when Kelly tells him what she's thinking of doing. He's not sure she's got any better idea than any of the rest of them, but of the people in here, she's probably the one he trusts the most.

"I'm not having any luck in here," he admits. "Want some help down there?"

ii.

[chirrutsluck]

Baze has been searching for keys, himself, and he's not far from Finnick when he suddenly bursts downstairs and bangs at the door. Futilely, of course, but still. A for effort.

He hurries over himself to catch at Finnick's other shoulder, planning on pulling him back from the door, only to find Finnick slumping down now. He drops to a creaky crouch beside him, instead, shaking his shoulder gently. "Hey. Hey. Look at me."

kylo ren | OTA

[immunetolight]

Ren tries to avoid going to the Inn as much as he can but there are some instances in which he simply has to go. He can depend on at least one meal a day there, minimum, and he's decided to take his midday meal and go home with it. If he can get something to eat and leave before he's noticed, there's a chance he won't be seen by Rey; she seems to be enamored of the idea of interacting with others as much as he shuns it.

He has a plate that he's covered with a cloth to shield it from the rain and he tries one door, then another. Neither works. He tries one of the windows and it seems stuck, almost as if the weather has caused it to swell up and it no longer fits in the frame properly. These old buildings are useless and inefficient; Ren thinks they ought to be razed and replaced with something more like what he's used to on First Order ships. There's no individuality, yes, but at least everything works when he wants it to.

He abandons the plate on a table and starts working on the main door of the Inn in earnest, twisting the knob hard with his hand and shoving up against it with his shoulder. He's not small. If it's going to give, it should give under his weight even if he's not using the Force to augment his strength.

"Why won't you work?"

[fromnowhere]

People aren't something she's had a lot of interaction with; at least not good, somewhat trustworthy people. Good, somewhat trustworthy people in a place where no one can leave is an oddity, but she's not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and, of course, today is the day that she's going to get bitten.

Seeing Kylo there means she's simply going to watch - it's been days since she's spoken to him and she feels the lost of the Force more acutely every time they don't talk. His open way of ignoring her makes her hurt, but she supposes she can't blame him. She's not the cause of their being trapped, but she's a reminder of everything that he's missing back home.

In this instance, however, she comes into the room in time to see him throwing himself against the door armed with the knowledge that it won't open and she opens her mouth to say so.

"Because it's locked or jammed or--" She trails off. "A couple of people have found keys, but they don't do anything."

[immunetolight]

"It has to be some sort of trap designed by whoever is keeping us here. They want to torture us."

Ren knows it well. Isolate the victim, make them feel like their only recourse is to trust their captor for everything. He's used it himself before on others but when it's turned around on him, he doesn't care for it. Still, this isn't the time to ruminate on such issues.

"It's like a Jedi Master's puzzle. There has to be a key to unlocking it."

[chirrutsluck]

"I already tried that," Baze says. He's not quite as big as Kylo... but he's close. Pretty much only because he's a lot older, and doesn't have the same ability to keep on muscle mass anymore. "Pulling does nothing. Pushing does nothing. It is another of those stupid random things, like personal rainclouds or people going invisible." It'll either clear up on its own, or they'll find the clue to get them out, whatever that is.

[immunetolight]

"Personal rainclouds? Has that happened here?" It's a distraction from the task at hand but it sounds so ludicrous that Ren has to make note of it. It's a few moments' respite from pushing at the door, anyway, and it might give him some insight into the minds of those who hold them here.

"Whoever they are, they've figured out a way to cut me off from the Force. I doubt locking a door is hard for them."

oliver queen| OTA

[viridescere]

Oliver had been in the Inn to drop off some rabbits he'd hunted and to get a cup of tea before going back to his own house over on the other side of the village. He hadn't intended to stay very long, honestly, and while he's all right with company when the time calls for it he'd intended to spend a quiet day at home meditating and enjoying the rain. It hadn't figured into his plans to be stuck and he's in more than a little disbelief when he tries the door and it doesn't work.

He's been here long enough to know that the village likes to play tricks. He's been here for a few of them, here and there, and it's only his desire not to get caught up in them that keeps him searching out for the next one and the next. This one had snuck up on him - no one expects the safe place to attack them, after all, and the Inn is nothing if not a safe haven for most of the people who live here.

"I don't think it's just stuck," Oliver calls out, pressing against the door as he tries to jiggle it loose again. He's strong but he's not strong enough to get this door unstuck because it's locked in such a way that any leverage he's applying seems to be going nowhere. "I can't even break the door. It's just absorbing any force I put against it."

If he ever needed to be humbled at a later point in life, Oliver thinks this village has humbled him enough times to count for the future.

[girlwednesday]

Felicity had taken the walk as a form of exercise because it was the one thing that Oliver continued to press into her that they needed to do on a regular basis - train in all ways so they wouldn't get caught off guard. Sometimes it was attempts at pull ups on various branches, sometimes it was a run (she hated running) and sometimes it was a walk between villages to drop off or pick up supplies.

At the moment, she's standing there, staring at him as he throws himself at the door and she's honestly surprised to see it stay firmly in place. While it's true that they've been told that it's been stuck, she'd just kind of assumed that Oliver's brute force - the way he attacks most things - would handle it. She should've known better, given this place.

"So, now we're living here?" She says it mildly with an eyebrow up. "I'm sure there's a way out, we just have to find it."

Felicity Smoak, Queen of Oliver Queen and Stating the Obvious.

[viridescere]

"Yeah, I'm sure there's going to be a way out eventually. We just have to use our brains instead of my muscles."

Oliver doesn't mind using his head to work his way out of a problem but it usually works better if Felicity uses her head to work their way out of something. She is definitely the smarter of the two of them and he has no issues with admitting that to anyone who asks. In the current situation, since his brawn is doing them no good, he's happy to open the floor up to suggestions.

"Do you think the locking mechanism is jammed? We could try to pick it."

Clary Fray | OTA | Trapped Outside

[ithuriels_blood]

Clary had dressed in her shadow hunter gear with her twin swords and left mid-morning with the intent to explore. She was getting cabin fever but now that the weather was warming she dared to venture outside. She reached the edge of the trees, got turned around in the forest and then returned to the inn near 3 pm to find it locked.

"You have to be kidding."

She jiggled the handle a few times before banging on the door. "Hey! Let me in!" She had no where else to sleep and after inspecting a few other entrances, finding no possible way inside, she found a place to sit and wait for someone else to happen by.

Her sitting place was close to Kate's chickens. They seemed to feel Clary's distress because they walked over to her, making a great deal of noise, and began to demand her attention or try and sit near her. "I really don't want to play babysitter right now. I want to lay in a bed." She tried to shoo the birds away but they were having none of it.

She now wished she had brought some of her papers with her to sketch, how was she supposed to know that she was going to get locked out.

Clary Fray | OTA | Trapped Outside

[super_seal]

It's been a while since Steve was last in town. Once the weather started clearing up there was lots to do around the house he shared with Danny and Mary in the other village. They were at the point now however where he needed actual tools, hence his reasoning for coming into the main village, he planned to borrow the ax once more.

Coming around the corner of the Inn, Steve sees Clary sitting there with the chickens. A frown pulls on his features and he's about to walk by before he pauses, looking down at her. He's never been good at walking away when someone is in distress.

"Hey," he asks gently. "You okay?"