(Message) That Hotel is Sterling

[Yumyumcrow]

Step into the understated elegance beginning with our Lobby and Drawing Room. Enjoy in the warmth and beauty of the original architecture while being greeted by our caring staff. Notice the rooms are spacious, unique and keeping in time with Victorian furnishings. Every room offers a work desk or seek relaxation in the luxurious Italian marble bathrooms with huge jet tub. Treat yourself to high quality soaps, lotions and soft terry robes. After a restful night featuring our pillow soft mattresses, oversized pillows and triple sheets; enjoy our complimentary morning paper and delicious continental breakfast. Whether it is work or pleasure that brings you to us, your stay is sure to be one of comfort and splendour.

At least, that is what the brochure said.

It is 3.30PM and the understated elegance is a little stretched as a clutch of guests arrive. Maybe its a short staff day; maybe the number of guests is just that little bit too big. You wouldn't know it, of course. The staff of the Sterling were top quality and at the top of their game.

Annoyance and opportunity were the two sides of the same coin.

At least they have their suite sorted; they were still roughly on schedule.

A haughty couple - a plastic woman and a successful but ageing jock - bustle in front of them on the way to the lifts.

A Young Republican, all suit and tie with carefully tamed blond locks, decides to wait out the initial rush and places himself on a leather seat off to one side. He checks out the available journals and papers on offer.

And over to you, V-T. Not sure if any of you still wanted to infiltrate the bar staff but if you do, we can work something out West Star Avis Cayce Saber Sloth Tuesday

[Star]

"Okay."

He tossed the luggage on the bed.

"Show time. Avis. I need you to goldfish the bartender in case my play goes bad I can back out and disappear for ten, fifteen minutes. Tuesday, you peep this... coat of arms... in the picture and see if we can figure out what's important. If we can, and then lift it and slide a replica in? Then we can come back tonight and see what rat shows up for the Cheez-Wiz."

Okay, so that's a little bit more than just recon. Call it aggressive recon. Long fingers plucked a tube of hair gel and a comb from the luggage.

"I'll," he waved a hand at his clothes, "In the bathroom downstairs."

Hopefully? The ball cap, scarf, and Wayfarers he'd worn on the way in would keep anyone in that line from noticing.

Sorry, I was going to put the finishing touches on the plan in the other thread but saw this one had already been opened...

[Tuesday]

Eyebrows don't arch, but they do raise. All the way up.

Recon was normally less action and more looking around at people and stuff.

"How deep of a peep are you wanting?" Tuesday asks, pulling off the blue Halloween wig she'd planed on wearing once but somehow managed to wear a hell of a lot more off, scratching her scalp and dropping the wig on the bed. Surely just with a hair color change she'll be looking like a different women. "Normal Sight? Or something...er. Deeper?" Normal Sight'll allow Hazels glance and dance, anything else might need some more concentration. Which might be harder to pull off. Since Concentrating Plus Bar. And Peoples.

"Yeah I should do costume change number one." Which was just a change of cloths. She might even put the blue wig back on. Costume Change Number Two, was the one that would change a Tuesday into Wanda, the Geology Nerd. A frumpy brown pant suit bought from the thrift store. And a quickly bought long mousy brown wig, and some large, but completely fake, glasses.

[Avis]

Avis had walked into the Hotel looking like an extra from a French auteur's debut film, with heels, slacks, a black turtleneck, large sunglasses, a beret, and of course, the cigarette. It was the distraction, though. The memory that would stay in people's minds, and clog up their recognition once she'd changed into something else. Or that was the hope, anyways.

As soon as the luggage had been dropped on the bed, though, Avis was stripping out of her clothes. Hopefully it wouldn't weird Tuesday out, but Avis didn't see the need for modesty. Modesty was a lie, blah blah blah. There was no point in wasting time, and they should have been close enough that it didn't matter, anyways.

"Well, you know I love sushi," Avis threw back at Star, a smug smile on her lips as she fished out some slacks and a blouse from her bag of costumes.

Avis started to slip on her costume, thinking about the little geology code words she could make up for a little clandestine communication, when a song suddenly popped into her head. It was starting to happen more. Probably the result of living with two musicians.

"I--feel--the earth--move--under my feet," Avis sang quietly as she finished shrugging her top into place.

"I feel the sky tumbling down...I guess it's not necessarily a rock song, but it does make me think earthquake," she joked, fishing around in her bag for the central piece of her costume, a pair of large fake glasses, just like Tuesday's.

[Star]

"Ummm. Whichever Sight might ID what they're after? Not sure..."

Were his thoughts wandering?

Maybe. Maybe just a little, when Avis started to change. Heck, they may have even been wandering into The-Bar-Can-Wait-A-Half-Hour territory...

...until she spoke.

Confused eyes ducked under furrowed brows. Sushi? Was that a joke? Because they'd never had sushi. She'd asked about it, one time, a long time ago. But... Unless. Yeah. Probably.

"Guess we're even for karaoke night?"

He bobbed his eyebrows and offered the pair a little salute before slipping out.

"Seeya down there."

He'd take the stairs. That'd give them time to beat him down there, and maybe time to spin the newfound irritation out of the hamster wheel. Before the stairs, though, he stepped into the elevator, holding it open with a foot. Where... Yep. Every elevator has to display it's license, and that's super-handy if you're wondering who the owner and manager of the hotel are. Names noted, he stepped back out and made his way downstairs.

Ducking into the bathroom, he put the seat down and sat on the toilet, listening for the sounds of the elevator and two women.

Then took the roll of toilet paper off the spindle, set it on the floor, and punched it. Nope, nobody's irritated. Punched it again for good measure, then shaped it back into a roll and replaced it.

[Avis]

"Wait, what?" Avis called after Star, complete confusion showing behind the fake glasses. No one had sang Carole King. What was she forgetting?

"Do you know what the hell that was?" the Warlock asked, turning to the Unicorn for support and clarification. "I was just like, ya know, goldfish, sushi...it's not a great joke, but I didn't think it would strike a nerve."

[Tuesday]

Unlike Avis, Tuesday's 'wait, what?' is completely non-verbal.

Because Seriously Unicorn be confused.

"This chickadee has zeros clues. I thought I was funny too. I was ready to laugh and everything." admits the brunette, while shrugging off her jacket and pulling up the faded tee she'd worn on their way in. "Should I keep the blue wig for now?" she asks because they still have a job to do. Depending on Avis' answer Tuesday will either plan to put on the blue wig or leave it were it lay.

The faded tee's replaced with a nicer one, less worn, with less character. Then the Unicorn pulls on a grey corduroy blazer, and switches her sneakers for heels. Then a moment himming and hawing, the Unicorn realized she'd want hazels to glance and dance, she formed twin golden glyph, in miniature. The lenses settle upon her eyes, and she blinks as Fate's own Truth lights up in her eyes.

"Good to head down or do you need a minute?" Tuesday makes sure not to mention Star, and make it seem like she's just referring to the Warlock's own costume change.

  1 suxx Fate Sight

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-02-09 11:21:12		Tuesday rolls 5 to Fate Sight (Fate 3 + Gnos 2) (10 Again)		3, 9, 3, 2, 6		1 success

[Star]

Eyebrows and jawline.

True fact? They're the two largest contributors to a person's perceived appearance. Change those, and you can change the world. A square of toilet paper, carefully rolled and shaped and shoved into each outer gum added some weight and mass to the Angel's lower face, filling out the angular jaw. Hair gel slicked eyebrows thinner, and more angular. Eyebrows? Normally hidden. But he wasn't done with the gel. Finger-coming the mop into neat, tight back-swept lines finished it off.

Well, most of it.

No one was around to see the mirage; the rippling, translucent overlays of Everyone as a earth-brown glyph threaded through his clothes and warped them into an outfit to match the hotel staff's. And glasses. Funny that all three of them had brought glasses? Yeah. A little.

He practiced a friendly grin and eyebrow arch or three.

Where were the girls?

  Paradox, 4 Successes on mundane disguise, Alter Raiment

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2017-02-09 23:02:23		Star rolls 7 to Disguise (Wits + Sub) (10 Again)		10, 8, 5, 1, 7, 8, 9, 2		4 successes
2017-02-09 22:59:50		Star rolls 10 to Alter Raiment (10 Again)		10, 8, 5, 3, 6, 7, 6, 9, 3, 10, 7, 8		5 successes
2017-02-09 22:59:27		Star rolls 2 to Paradox! (Mana Mitigation) (10 Again)		4, 4		failure

[Avis]

Avis couldn't help but dwell on that moment before Star had left, an acidic feeling rising in her stomach as she stewed over what had been said, and what Star might have thought she'd meant by it. All that she could think was that he'd seen yet another phantom of the gulf that had cracked open between them, a gulf that they kept crossing and re-crossing, no matter how many times it was discussed. She blinked then, struck by a sudden feeling of interminable sadness, but as she did with so many things, she soon piled brick and mortar in front of it and walled it away. She couldn't afford to dwell on it. There was...something, apparently, that they had to do.

"Alright, well, we better get downstairs," Avis said with a huff, brushing a hand through her hair. "And lose the wig. It's too noticeable, and we're supposed to be boring dirt scientists, you know?"

It was too bad they hadn't had time to print out some intimidating information packets, or to make up giant binders full of technical jargon and geoscience graphs.

Oh well.

"Don't forget to act boring," Avis advised, moving to the door and holding it open so they could both walk out and head towards the elevators.

Soon, NotJack, would hear the sounds he'd been listening for.

[Tuesday]

"Are we doing science nerds now?" Tuesday thought that was a for Later. "In that case give me a sec." The unicorn dives into her bag to pull out her boring mousy wig and the large geeky glasses. Once they're in place, Tuesday rakes her fingers through the wig and and fixes it into a lose low bun, while leaving a few wisping strand out, then in a moment of inspiration she finds some pens and pencils and sticks them into her bun, and leaves one behind her ear. It feels weird with the glasses, but, here. She pulls the glasses up to res on her forehead, there. Now she can do the. 'Have you seen my glasses' thing.

Taking a peak at herself in the mirror Tuesday nods. One boring absent minded science nerd, instead of the fabulous unicorn, as ordered.

"Woot." a deadpan. This was the antithesis of everything Unicorn. "Also. I'm going with Wanda." stepping into the elevator.

Sage Nod. Not gonna forget the hardest part of this recon endeavor. "I'm the boringest bore that ever nerded. Or something." A shrug. The elevator doors close and the NotUnicorn pokes the button that'll lead them to the bar. "Also. Super shy. Since. Speaking....yeah." the manner in which she'd gained her signature rasp might have been the stuff of nightmares, but she'd grown the like how she sounded. Only it made her stand out. Just a little bit. "It's on the List. Talking without talking." Tuesday erred on the side of caution and decided not to mention Morse Code and Sign Language Out Loud as the elevator lead them down. Because NotUnicorn and Recon.