Hotel Oblivion | What is time?

[apocalypsehow]

Diego had never wanted to go through the danger death mirror hallway ever again, but when the world was literally disintegrating behind you, what choice did you have?

The alternate white buffalo room looked much like it did the last time, buffalo's ass and all. Only it wasn't disintegrating which led to more questions.

"Let's never do that again," Viktor said, hunching over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"What, narrowly escape the apocalypse?" Allison asked.

Five	"It's kind of our thing, isn't it?" Five said, trailing behind the rest of his siblings.
Allison	Allison noticed the buffalo's ass hanging above the mantle. "There is something very wrong with that."
Lila	"Same suite," Lila explained, sidling up to her a little breathlessly. "Just ass-backwards." Get it? Get it, everyone?
Five	"No hyperbole there," Five replied, taking this as his time to note the differences in this room from the one they just fled from.
Ben	"This is some hardcore Alice in Wonderland shit," Ben said as he looked around the room.
Diego	"It only gets weirder," Diego replied dryly. He lost his fingers last time, guys!
Reginald	Reginald was the last one through the door, closing it behind him. "At last, the other side."
Diego	Whoa, wait. Something was wrong here. "Where's Klaus?"
Reginald	"Children, I'm sorry but your brother," Reginald sighed sadly. "I did all I could, but he didn't make it through in time. The kugelblitz has claimed its last victim."
Annie	"No," Annie murmured, turning to Reginald in quiet horror. (And like -- okay. Okay. She had started trusting him, in spite of her instincts, but the months of therapy largely centered around Annie's propensity towards...overtrust? That was starting to ping a little. Just a tad.) "Are you ser -- Klaus, too?"
Five	"No," Five replied, having zero trouble with being very suspicious of his father. "He was right behind me when I entered the tunnel."
Sloane	"We need to go back," Sloane said, and that was only partially out of her need to bring Luther's body back with them.
Reginald	"There's nothing to go back to," Reginald said coldly. "Children, there will be time for tears later. Right now, we have to keep moving." 'Moving' in this case, meant everyone had to go down to the lobby, which was back to it's unassuming self, no yellow lights or guardians around. "It's magnificent."
Ben	"You guys should have stayed here," Ben said, looking up at the ceiling. "This place is way nicer."
Diego	Diego gave him a disbelieving look. "We barely got out of here last time, remember?"
Ben	"But I'm here this time," Ben said. "And we've got numbers in our favor."
Annie	"Look," Annie snapped, because apparently bravado from Asshole Ben was what was going to put her over the edge as far as stress, just now. "Whatever it was we saw before, it was fast, and strong, and in no mood to fuck around. Whatever you guys do, do not ring that bell." She pointed, in case anyone needed clarification on which bell she meant. You know -- the bell that looked like it might actually summon someone helpful, and was just like, inviting you to ring it? That bell, over there?
Sloane	"I'll take my chances," Sloane said, immediately going to ring the bell with the fervor of someone who had zero fucks to give.
Annie	"Don't!" Annie might have been a lot more fond of Sloane now than she had been the last time physical restraint had been considered necessary, but she would still tackle her before letting that bell be rung. For now, she was settling for throwing herself between Sloane and the bell, hands splayed out defensively and her tone pleading.
Sloane	"Get out of my way," Sloane said, hands clenched at her sides.
Lila	Was it falling to...Lila? to be reasonable and use her words here? It really was the end of the world! "To take out this thing, we need to be in the right state of mind," Lila pointed out evenly, also positioning herself so she could interfere with any bell-touching bullshit.
Sloane	"State of mind? Do you mean, am I angry?" Sloane asked. "Yes, I am angry. I wanna kill whatever it is that hurt Luther."
Viktor	"Luther isn't the only one that's gone," Viktor reminded her gently. "We lost Klaus too. I'm angry, okay? We all are. We have to be smart about this."
Five	Five was more than willing to let them hash it out as he inspected the lobby, passing over the familiar yet unfamiliar marble floors full of clues in the direction of the revolving doors.
Diego	"Don't even try it, Five," Diego said. "Doors won't let you out."
Allison	"So, what we're stuck here?" Allison asked, frustrated.
Reginald	Reginald shook his head. "This place is a test, a trap and a means of salvation all at once." He kind of loved it.
Viktor	Viktor pointed at the plaque on the front desk. "Does anyone know what this says?"
Diego	"It says 'do not ring bell' that's what it means," Diego said. It led to finger chopping!
Five	"We get it, Diego," Five said, sauntering back from his little Sherlock Holmes impression. "Bell bad. What do we do now? Does anybody know?" Because his suspicion meter was going off like crazy here!
Allison	"Reggie?" Allison asked, lifting her eyebrows. "...Reggie?" Nope, Allison, Reginald was going to walk away with his little notebook, mumbling to himself. You dick.
Five	With no answers forthcoming from Reginald and people splitting up to recover from the loss of Luther and Klaus or... wander off for married people talks, Five latched onto the one available sibling who he could share his concerns with. "It's like the old man said," he said, glancing at where their father was pacing. "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times ain't gonna happen because I'm not a gibbering idiot."
Viktor	"We can't be sure he killed Klaus and Luther." Or maybe Viktor just liked to think they weren't locked in a lobby with a psychopath.
Five	"You serious?" Viktor, did you do some repression or something? "This is his modus operandi. We've seen this before. Have you forgotten how we all came together in the first place?"
Viktor	"Dad's funeral." Okay, this wasn't looking great for Reginald, he had to admit.
Five	"Exactly. He pulled this on your rubes before, and he's doing it again now." But not him. He was smarter than that by virtue of being a deeply, almost clinically paranoid old man.
Viktor	"Come on, Five." How in the hell would their lanky ass father be able to slice Luther up like that anyway?
Five	He was wily! "No. He lost the vote to come through the tunnel, and yet here we are." In the weird parallel universe where Diego lost some fingers.
Viktor	Viktor looked over at Reginald, who was still deep in his notebook. "Are you sure he could kill Luther?" Klaus, he understood. In fact, kudos to Reginald for not killing Klaus for real before this.
Five	It was fifty-fifty on him having accidentally done it and not realizing with the new revelations about Klaus' powers, though. "I think he could kill Luther, Klaus, and the rest of us without breaking a moral sweat." Which Five really would struggle with. Shocking, really. "And what's worse, I think Allison is involved." He glanced over at where Allison was helping Sloane clean her hands of Luther's blood across the lobby.
Viktor	"No," Viktor said immediately, refusing to even entertain that. "No, she was with Sloane in the tunnel."
Five	"I'm not talking about Klaus."
Viktor	"Luther?" That was even more ridiculous than Klaus. "No, she would never do that." Like, come on, a couple years ago they could have been attending Luther and Allison's wedding.
Five	"She's been unraveling since we got to this timeline," Five reminded him.
Viktor	"Yeah, she lost her daughter." Which, okay, yeah, Claire had been lost while they were in Maryland but at least there was the hope of the briefcase working then.
Five	"And she killed Harlan." Remember that part?
Viktor	"Even if you're right, I can't imagine they're just going to come clean if you confront them." Angry denial, is what Viktor imagined would happen.
Five	"I agree." Which was why he was going to make Viktor play good cop to his bad one!
Reginald	"Gather up, children." After pondering over his notes for a good five minutes, Reginald apparently had formed some sort of a plan. "Now that we've had a chance to catch our breath, the real work can begin."
Five	"Ah, the myth of the seven bells, eh?" Five said, walking over to where their father was holding court with his supposed 'plan'.
Reginald	"Exactly," he said, pointing at Five. "Somebody's been paying attention."
Diego	"Okay, so we find the bells and then what?" Diego asked.
Reginald	Oh, you poor imbecile. "No, no, no. The bells are a metaphor for this--"
Five	"The sigil." This was why he always got good marks on his reviews.
Reginald	"Correct, Number Five." Oh, Ben was seething for sure. "The sigil is the key to the seven bells. Once we find this symbol, we're one step closer to resetting the universe."
Sloane	"What do we do when we find it?" Sloane asked.
Regianld	Ah, yes. That was important, wasn't it? "I don't know."
Viktor	Viktor's eyes widened. "Excuse me? We're here because you said you had a plan."
Reginald	"I do," Reginald replied. "Up to a point." Classic.
Annie	"Oh my God, Stephen King wrote our plan," Annie murmured, already covering her face with her hands.
Lila	"Great," Lila commented, exasperated. "So we'll just stay in the hotel forever, staring at the walls and eating bad sushi." It wasn't actually that bad, for the record. She just didn't want to eat it forever.
Allison	"Finding the sigil is our only way out of here, and the best chance we have of resetting the universe." So, really, who cares if the plan was half-baked? It's not like they could go outside.
Five	"Funny how you and Dad are on the same page again," Five remarked. Because he was onto you two.
Viktor	Jeez, Five, be a bit smoother about the suspicion, okay? "Where do we start?"
Reginald	"We'll split into groups. I will go with Allison, Lila and Sloane," Reginald said. "Ben and Five with Viktor." Bet you were surprised he knew all your names, huh?
Viktor	Viktor shook his head. "No, we want Allison."
Five	"Ben for Allison. We've trained together, so it makes more sense if we take Allison." See? See him tone down that suspicion?
Allison	Allison snorted. "Yeah, no thanks."
Reginald	"Splendid idea," Reginald said, sounding oh-so-cool with that. "Allison, you go with the Umbrellas. Sparrows, stick together. Everyone take a different floor. We must find that sigil."
Diego	"Wait, what about us?" Diego asked, pointing between him and Annie.
Reginald	"You're a duo. No one wants to hear your verbal intercourse." Uh oh someone else must have seen the stairs after the wedding. "Now, spread out, leave no stone unturned, and meet back here in 30 minutes."

[NFI, NFB but OOC is always good. Taken from TUA 3x10 Oblivion and preplayed with knife_bender and defenderofdesmoines]