VALET.

[guestservices]

VALET

Today, when Lup is in her bedroom, she will receive a message on her typewriter.

Dear esteemed guest, congratulations on winning our raffle. The grand prize: a way out of this place.
No, not really. As if you'd be that lucky. Hope you're not afraid of heights.

Immediately after she finishes reading the message, a trap door opens underneath her, plunging her into the darkness. When she wakes up at the bottom (?), bones miraculously not broken, she will find herself in a room.

It's a room that she won't have seen before, small and dimly lit. Its appearance is utterly generic, almost empty save for the sofa chair Lup landed in, a coffee table; a lantern on said table along with a box of office supplies and YOU TRIED stickers; a box of keys; and a sofa chair across from her on the other side.

Lepus is lounging on the latter chair, the very picture of casual. They glance over at her.

"Congrats on not dying. This is going to suck for you, so let's get it over with."

They push the box of keys over at Lup, which will allow her to see that each key has the name of a guest at the hotel. Furthermore, Lepus tosses over a paper at her. It reads PARTICIPATION CONTRACT: ADDENDUM.

"Go ahead and sign it. You don't have much of a choice here, after all."

RULES

1. Once a week, the Valet will be called on to carry out duties on behalf of the other guests.
2. They will be able to do both of the following:

2A. Choose the keys of two possible targets. One of them will, at RANDOM, be selected; the Valet will not be informed of which one, though they may be able to determine once the relevant day has passed. If the selected target is targeted for death on Thursday night, they will be granted life at a later time.

2B. Choose the keys of two possible targets. One of them will, at RANDOM, be selected; the Valet will not be informed of which one, though they may be able to determine once the relevant day has passed. If the selected target is voted at trial to be executed, they will be granted life at a later time.

3. Note that these keys are replicas, cannot be removed from the room, and will not grant the Valet actual access to the guests' rooms.
4. The Valet is not to disclose that they are performing these duties. Discussing them with anyone other than authorized Hotel Staff will be considered breach of contract and will result in the death of MILES EDGEWORTH.

N̸A̵V̴I̶G̶A̶T̴I̴O̸N̷.̷

█ LOCATIONS █ STATUSES █ PROFILES █ AUDIENCES
█ REPORTING █ PRIVATE CONVOS █ MURDER

Comments

[evocationary]

[she laughs a little.] Okay, so less like Taako in that respect, but still.

[she's not bringing up the memories. that's a little bit of it, too.]

... Is that all people are? Useful or loyal?

[guestservices]

[...]

You don't always get the luxury of associating with people for other reasons.

[evocationary]

True.

[a pause.] A long time ago, my - my, um, one of my crew members. He told me about how my brother had said that people... got interchangeable. Like, everybody he ever met was just talking dust, because that's how it got, when we had to abandon every world we came across. A hundred years of that, you know? I don't... blame him, I guess.

I don't really think that way, though. It's hard, actually, I don't know if I'd call it a luxury? I don't know if empathy is a luxury.

[guestservices]

It's not. But forming connections isn't always about emotions, either.

[if one's willingness to connect with others was always proportional to their level of empathy, things would be very different.]

Relationships are a time sink. Cozy relationships—based on the notion of "liking each other" rather using one another—even more so. Practically speaking, not everyone can afford to invest in those.

[evocationary]

A - a time sink?

[she sounds absolutely incredulous about this. and kind of pained a little, too.]

You're talking about love and care like it's a transaction. That's... that's not how it works.

[guestservices]

Has it occurred to you that maybe we lead very different lives?

[evocationary]

I - well, yeah, I guess so.

[a pause, and then she just kind of sounds sad.] That sounds really lonely.

[guestservices]

[...

it doesn't seem like they know how to respond to that in a way that makes them comfortable, so they just shrug.]

[evocationary]

[augh

lup tries to school her expression into something less sad, because she figures it might annoy them, but she definitely is not doing a good job.]

I don't need you to stand by me, and I don't need you to be useful to me. [... that's it. just letting them know.]

[guestservices]

[...

tiredly,]

Then you're an idiot. Consider valuing yourself more.

[evocationary]

Eh.

[that's not an answer, lup]

[guestservices]

[they sigh.]