Get a room

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly wakes early in the stable room, maybe because someone is a restless sleeper who roams unconsciously all around the bed kicking and not waking up, or maybe just because someone has a way of pulling the whole blanket all around himself. However it happens, Feuilly has time to put on his clothes and leaf through the paperbacks before deciding to sneak back to the main building.

He leaves a note, of course. Breakfast? Whatever literacy may or may not be shared between England of 1403 and France of 1832, Feuilly is pretty sure that will translate.

Comments

[harryhotspur]

It's not too much later when Hotspur wanders into the bar in search of Feuilly, admittedly still a bit touseled. When he spies Feuilly, he heads straight over and drops promptly down in the chair opposite, offering in greeting, "I thought myself an early riser, but I am nothing to thee."

[tu_vas_triompher]

Bar had given Feuilly not only the bagel he'd asked for, and the coffee, but a little bowl of chopped fruit and a glass of orange juice. He's vaguely aware of vitamins as scientific and necessary--and on that principle nudges the fruit towards Harry.

"Oh, I found myself awake without a blanket, somehow. And with cold feet."

[harryhotspur]

Harry picks out a bit of banana.

"It is not much space," he says, as if this is the only thing to blame, and not his nightly flailing.

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Well, it's not," Feuilly agrees. "Do you want to look for something else? I'd happily, um. Serve as squire for your quest."

[harryhotspur]

Harry snorts. "I think livery would suit thee ill. But let us do so-- 'tis as fair a quest as may be found in this place, I warrant."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Safer than the Labyrinth, anyway." Oh, hell, that was probably an unwise thing to say. "Although--I mean--I've even heard stories about adventures in the Library--"

Ehh. He gulps down his coffee and nods. "So--if you want to ask the Bar for some keys, I think that's what people have done?"

[harryhotspur]

Of course he has to ask, "Labyrinth?" (The comment about having adventures in the library he ignores, because that is clearly impossible.)

"It is so simple?" he asks with a laugh. "Thou hast a strange notion of questing."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"The Labyrinth," he says as casually as he can. "It's just a sort of magical maze. --Why, what do you propose? Do you want to bring Duncan in here and ride him through the halls?"

...A pause while he considers this and tries not to laugh. "Or I guess we could just go looking. See what doors open."

[harryhotspur]

Harry does laugh "Nay but-- 'tis rare one must quest for a thing that can be asked. But we shall ask," he declares standing. "And thou shalt tell me of the magical maze after."

He marches up to the bar and returns a moment or two later with an oddly blank looking key in one hand, and a note from Bar in the other: See what you find.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly raises his eyebrows at the note. "I hope that's not ominous. --All right, um. I guess we start on the first floor?"

He's never been on one of these room searches. Will they have to knock on every door, or will it be evident in some way which ones are unoccupied?

[harryhotspur]

"All the better if 'tis," Harry says cheerfully. The Bar offered no further instructions-- or if she did, he didn't listen-- but he sets off for the corridor with great confidence.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly feels that he should have a lance. Or a steed. Or at least a donkey and a basket of food? Eh, well. Lacking these things, he trundles along behind Harry.

They soon come to the part of the building with rooms. He gives the row of numbered doors a doubtful look. "There isn't a list of, of room numbers or anything, is there? On the back of the note, or--?"

[harryhotspur]

Harry turns the paper over: there is indeed a list of numbers there.

"Ah, the first is just here," he says, nodding to a door just down the hall. He goes to it and tries the key, which turns easily. He pushes the door open.

It's... pink.

[tu_vas_triompher]

It is. It really is. Very pink.

Feuilly walks into it with a deep breath, prepared to be hopeful nonetheless. But he can't help but notice the gilded cherubs. "It's--bright?"

He could suggest repainting the...everything.

[harryhotspur]

On the one hand, the cultural association of pink with extreme femininity was really not yet established in Hotspur's time.

On the other hand, it's a garish monstrosity and he bursts out laughing.

"Why, 'tis a wall of glitter!" he cries. "One would wake each morning all besprinkled, like dew on the grass."

[tu_vas_triompher]

Oh, god. Feuilly brushes a hand along the surface, wincing. It doesn't come off, at least. "It also has cherubs. Do you--could you--do you think maybe a room without cherubs would be--"

They're looking at the bed.

[harryhotspur]

Harry looks up at the cherubs. Then back down at the bed. Then pointedly not at Feuilly.

"...shall we look to the next?" he asks.

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly is also not looking at Harry. Or the bed. Or the cherubs, now, which leaves the deep purplish rug to stare at. "--Yes. Let's."

[harryhotspur]

Harry heads back to the corridor and shuts the door behind him.

"This is a quest indeed," he says cheerfully once he has consulted the paper and set on for the next number listed. "Like an old story, we must face down horrors ere we find what suits."

'Horror' might be slightly too strong for the room that is revealed behind the next door, but lavish might do.

"Nary a cherub," Harry notes.

[tu_vas_triompher]

"That's true." The fact that Feuilly brightens at the sight of this room says a lot about the previous one. "And it's not--not glittery. Well, not in the same way."

It's perhaps a little claustrophobic, but Feuilly's been in worse. And he's not about to say anything about the bed. Which is round.

[harryhotspur]

But Harry feels it too, the claustrophobic sense of the roundness and the color, and says dubiously, "It feels as though the walls are-- looming."

[tu_vas_triompher]

"They're very--" Feuilly brings his hands in close together. "And a window might be good. Want to see what else we can find?"

[harryhotspur]

Harry nods. "Let us do so."

He heads back out into the corridor, and once there, it seems safe to say, "What use is there in a round bed..?"

[tu_vas_triompher]

Feuilly gives him a pained look that turns into strangled laughter. "I--maybe it's usual in some other world? That's all I can think. Because why would--why--"

No, actually, don't answer that.

[harryhotspur]

"If there is a reason, I do not wish to know it," Harry says decisively.

Onto the next, the next floor up. There are probably any number of objectionable features one could identify about this room, but really only one thing that matters.