The Motel

What a terrible headache, Victoria thought to herself through the throbbing pain on the right side of her head. Half asleep, her body was numb and still tired from only sleeping a few hours. Ugh I could really use some pain relievers...but I guess it could wait till the morning. Thus she continued to lie there, trying to get as much sleep as she could before she would have to go to the airport in the early morning. However, between the anxiety of attending her first world conference and the annoying headache, Victoria wasn't falling asleep anytime soon. When she was at wits-end with the blasted throbbing, her need for medicine flashed her eyes wide open.

Above her wasn't her usual, rickety ceiling fan: it was an indigo sky sprinkled with stars all around. Panicking, Victoria pressed her hands against the surface beneath her. It certainly wasn't her soft bed at home that she loved so much. The hard surface was cold and smooth as she swiftly moved her arms upon it in a frantic motion.

With her right hand pressed against her aching head, she pushed herself up with her left to see the rest of her surroundings. Clouds pushed away, and the light of the full moon revealed that Victoria had been dumped at the bottom of an empty pool. It was winter so the pool was completely dry and hadn't been used for months. Victoria peered over the edge of the pool to see a completely abandoned motel: no cars in the parking lot, and not a single noise other than her own deep breathing and a quiet whistling of wind through the lone tree's leaves. Most noticeable was the large neon sign at the entrance that read Open 24/7 turned off.

Victoria sat back down, cross-legged at the bottom of the pool and thought to herself, her forehead resting in the palms of her hands. Is this really how the other countries treat newcomers? By playing such a sick joke on an already nervous wreck of a newbie? she thought to herself. ...No, they couldn't be this mean! I really don't know everybody but those I do know would not approve of such a cruel act. And I'm sure there are peaceful people who wouldn't allow hooligans to do this to me. It makes me wonder if there are any other new countries in the same poor situation...

She lifted her head from her hands and looked around the pool. Victoria saw nothing useful in front of her, but as she was starting to lie back, something behind her caught her eye. Her curiosity led her to the corner of the deepest part of the pool, towards something silver. As she got down on her knees, she realized it was a shiny, silver antique key. Hmm this is pretty, I better keep it on me just in case. While putting the key in her pocket, she sighed a breath of relief, for she had her self-defense fish in it that she would have used if anyone got rowdy at the meeting. Victoria also retrieved discarded twigs and pieces of cloth from the pool before she walked out to do some investigating around the motel.

Walking along the many rooms, Victoria thought about what a mess she's gotten in. She stopped in front of the main office, and peered into the window. Everything looked like it was just abandoned without a thought of being tidied up, like the desk worker just walked out without any care of what was left behind. Victoria went to the door and twisted the doorknob with ease. She looked at the abandoned papers on the desk: the most recent entries were of just yesterday. Yet there was no one in the entire building. While searching on the desk computer, Victoria looked at the map and letter she had received just days ago. The locations matched. This city is really where the meeting is? Victoria looked through the window to see all the buildings across the street empty, too. Who's idea was this?

Then, as she stuffed the map and letter into her pocket, the lights suddenly went out. And she heard a noise. Coming. From near. The window.

(( OoC: If you want to read what happened before this, it's in my application. It didn't make much sense to me to type it all again here. ))

It was clear that there was something not right here No, not at all. And not only because the beer was fucking disgusting. He didn't know where he was, but this wasn't the world conference, he knew that much for sure. This place was empty, eerie and downright suspicious. Lars flung the beer bottle against the opposite wall hard in frustration. It hit the wall with a loud crash and shattered, falling to the floor in shards. Damn it! With his government being a mess, he hadn’t been looking forward to the conference in the first place, and now this happened? Whoever was behind this would not get away easily.

After a glance outside the window it had been clear to him that he shouldn’t go out unarmed. Lars looked through every drawer and cupboard he could find. No matter where you were, in bars there were always people who tended to make trouble. However, it depended on the country you were in what the bartender had to defend himself against such people. Sometimes a knife, but in countries where firearms were legal- bingo. Lars’ hands felt the familiar shape of a gun, and he took it out the drawer. Suddenly he was glad it wasn’t illegal to own these things in all countries. Though the gun turned out to have no bullets in it. And no matter where he searched, he couldn’t find them either. Still, he held onto the weapon. It could be useful if the other didn’t know he had nothing to shoot with. And maybe he would be able to find some bullets elsewhere.

Grabbing the largest, sharpest knife he could find for good measure, he made his way to the door. Luckily it wasn’t locked. The empty streets were a little unsettling. There was literally no-one there. It made him wonder if perhaps he was the only one here. But that was not something to think about right now. He had to find out where he was, who had brought him here and why. He had to find someone, foe or friend, he didn’t care right now, he could handle them. He had a headache and was pissed as hell. That was not a mood you would want to bother him in.

Lars spotted a motel not far away. Like everything else, it seemed completely abandoned. Though there would be no harm in checking it out. When he came closer, he saw a light switch on in one of the rooms, and he quickened his pace. This meant there was someone there! He would finally be able to find out a little more of what was going on here. Finally settling on making a small sprint to the building, Lars neared the window. Though just when he was about to glance through it to see who was inside, the light went off again. Had they heard him? Other than his approaching footsteps, he hadn’t made a sound, and he wasn’t even sure if his footsteps could be heard inside. He looked through the window, trying out if he could spot anything. But in vain, all remained dark, and there was no way he could see through it. He gave the glass a small tap, making his presence known. It didn’t matter if this was a friend or an enemy. There was somebody in there, and Lars wanted to find out who.

Victoria's pulse picked up pace as she heard the tapping on the window. Was it the person who took her to this mysterious place? Was it someone else in the same predicament as her, taken to this deserted city? She needed to figure out who was out there somehow. Either way, she'd soon find out...when the window is broken.

At that thought, she picked up the nearest object suitable to do such damage, a stapler, and threw it with all her strength at the window. Victoria watched as the fully loaded stapler flipped through the air towards the window above the red leather sofa. As the stapler made contact with the window, Victoria ducked down behind the desk to avoid injury from any flying glass. Slowly peeking from the edge of the desk, she glanced around the room to see shattered glass everywhere. On the television set, water dispenser, now spilling water from the punctured plastic, and new looking sofa. Victoria looked up and saw glass all over the top of the desk, making her glad that she had ducked.

Then, she heard a male voice shout from outside, and she ducked back under the desk, with her defense fish ready in hand.

Lars was still trying to see something inside when he felt the glass shatter under his hands. Instinctively his arms flew up to protect his face from the flying shards. Lars fell backwards due to the force with which the window was broken and let out a yell. He landed among broken pieces of glass, getting cut in several places. A shower of shards rained down on him.

When Lars was positive that there weren’t any more shards coming down, he carefully removed the arms that covered his face. He took a look around to see what had caused the window to shatter. His eyes fell on the offending object. A stapler? Seriously?! Thank god that that thing hadn’t hit the window right where his face was, because then he would’ve surely gotten some glass into his eyes.

He got up and brushed off the glass, examining the damage. He mainly had a large variety of cuts on his hands from protecting his face. Though his face didn’t manage to stay completely unharmed either. Further more there didn’t seem to be much damage, his uniform was cut in some places, but the shards hadn’t managed to get to the skin.

He wiped the blood on his clothes and stepped closer to the window. Now that the dirty glass was gone, he could look inside more easily. Yet he still couldn’t spot any forms of life inside. Though he was certain that stapler hadn’t thrown itself. There was someone hiding in there. And that someone had managed to piss him off even more than he already was. He used to gun to break away the last pieces of glass that were still attached to the window frame. Then he climbed inside swiftly.

Gun in one hand, knife in the other, he scanned the room for any movements. He steadied his grip on the knife some more. It was in his right hand, since he was better wielding a weapon with that hand. And since the gun could only be used for hitting someone over the head right now, he deemed the knife a better weapon to defend himself. He had learned how to handle a sword quite well in his pirating times. And even though the large kitchen knife didn’t come anywhere near the size of a decent sword, it would do for now.

“Show yourself!” He demanded, still scanning the room for any possible enemy that could show up and attack him. Whoever it was, he was ready for them.

Victoria sat curled up under the desk, with her fish ready to attack at any moment. The problem was, she wasn't ready to attack, still frozen with fright as she thought about the danger she was in. Holding tight to her measly weapon and biting down on her lip, Victoria's small tears rolled down her now pallor face. All she could think about was wishing she was back at home, where the palm trees sway, the ocean sings, and the fish play.

And she definitely couldn't help but miss her dear beloved turtles, Corra and Seara, so much. She closed her eyes as she thought about her dear pets she had found not too long ago. It had been a hot, sunny day without a cloud in the sky. Victoria was lying under a palm tree on the white sandy beach when she saw something near the water. It was two Hawksbill sea turtle hatchlings that were the last ones trying to make their way to the ocean from where they hatched. They were smaller than the other ones that had already made it to the safety of the ocean, and they would soon be in danger if they didn't make it all the way. It was then that she saw a large bird ready to attack them. Immediately, Victoria pushed off from the palm tree and ran, barefoot on the warm sand as fast as she could to save the defenseless sea turtles. Victoria thought about how cute the little hatchlings looked in her hand that day until the sound of smashing glass brought her back to reality.

She heard someone breaking away the rest of the glass from the window, then a thump from someone stepping inside. Victoria put down her defense fish and looked in her pocket to see if anything else in there was useful. Well I don't think these sticks are going to do much damage, but I'd might as well keep them in hand just in case the defense fish doesn't cause a hard enough hit... There was then a moment of silence. It seemed like forever before she heard the man again, causing Victoria to drop the sticks and hold herself protectively tighter. She had no idea if she was going to make it out alive, tears began to fall again. Victoria wiped away the tears and thought to herself, Why am I acting like such a baby? What could be worst than being trapped like this? She attempted to look over but, she swiftly moved her head back into place when she was too scared of being caught. From the corner of her eye she saw a tall shadow on the ground, and Victoria, scared for her life, closed her eyes again, starting to sing very quietly.

"Sesel ou menm nou sel patri. Kot nou viv dan larmoni. Lazwa, lanmour ek lape. Nou remersye Bondye. Preserv labote nou pei. Larises nou losean. En leritaz byen presye. Pour boner nou zanfan. Reste touzour dan linite. Fer monte nou paviyon. Ansanm pou tou leternite. Koste Seselwa..."

The broken pieces of glass under Lars’ boots shattered into even smaller shards as he made his way further into the room. He was sure there was a person hiding in here somewhere. And judging by that stapler, said person wanted to injure him at the very least. Was this the one who had taken him here? Whoever it was, they weren’t showing themselves when he ordered them to. Wanna play hide and seek? Fine by him.

He made his way around the sofa, checking if someone was hiding behind it. Nothing. There weren’t many other hiding places in the office. The one which was most likely was beneath the desk. He made sure to make his footsteps as soft as possible as he made his way over to the desk. As he came closer he stopped in his tracks. Was that music he heard? He came a little closer and listened a bit better. It sounded vaguely like some national anthem. He didn’t recognize the lyrics, nor the melody in question, but almost all anthems had a certain sound to them that made them instantly recognizable as one. Lars searched his mind which country this song belonged to, but couldn’t think of it.

But wait. If this was indeed a national anthem, then the person in hiding was either another country or someone who wanted him to believe there was another country. The singing voice sounded rather afraid though, so Lars thought the first option was more likely. He breathed a sigh of relief. Some of the tension he felt was replaced by curiosity. Which country was hiding there? It wasn’t one of the bigger ‘more important’ countries. Lars would recognize their anthem right away. And they probably wouldn’t hide under a desk. Except Italy. Lars stayed on his spot a couple of feet away from the desk. He didn’t fancy a fight with a possible ally, and if the country in question was indeed scared they might lash out at him if they didn’t know who he was.

He cleared his throat loudly. “You can come out, I’m not going to hurt you.” He said in a more gentle voice than his previous demand. “I’m the Netherlands. Are you a nation too?” He hoped whoever it was would come out of hiding now. He hadn’t been in this town for very long, but he had the feeling it wasn’t very smart to continue wandering around alone.

The sound of Victoria's voice was followed by silence. The air felt stiff as she wiped away her tears and fixed her posture. She may be a small country, but no one was going to think of her as weak. Just as she was about to get up, the man cleared his voice and started to talk. His voice was softer and less menacing than earlier. Was this guy another country? Victoria sat back down and listened to what he had to say.

So the man on the other side of desk was the Netherlands? She couldn't remember him by his human name, but she's heard of him before. From what she remembered, he was from Europe, sharing a border with Germany and Belgium. Victoria was pretty sure he wasn't new to the world conference like she was, so the bigger countries couldn't be playing a prank on him. Did this mean that there were other countries here? The idea of something much bigger than some measly prank scared Victoria even more. But Victoria was pretty sure she could trust this man if he was who he claimed to be.

She picked up her fish and twigs, swiftly stuffed them into her pocket, and waited to hear if Netherlands was going to say anything else. When only the sound of their breathing was heard, Victoria decided it was time to reveal herself. She pushed off with her hands from the floor and her knees, and as she got up, THUMP! She hit her head on the bottom of the desk. It certainly didn't help the headache she already had when she woke up minutes ago back at the pool. She crawled out from under the desk again, and stood up, with one hand on her bruised head. Turning from the wall toward the rest of the room, Victoria was curious as to what the European nation looked like.

He was standing on the other side of the room, anxious. The man was tall, with questionably spiky light blonde hair, piercing green eyes, and a scar on his forehead. Victoria looked down and saw that he held a tight grip on a gun and a kitchen knife. Looking back up wide eyed, she put her free hand in her dress's pocket and wrapped her fingers around her defense fish just in case. Why did he still have those weapons pointed at her? Was he frozen in place, unaware of what was behind the desk when it was just a little defenseless island nation? Either way, Victoria had to let him know she was a country, too. Hopefully he would believe her.

"Um...hi. I-I'm t-the Republic of Seychelles...or just Seychelles for short. Y-you can just call me Victoria though. My home is in the Indian Ocean. N-near Madagascar, you know? She couldn't help but shake as she was talking not only because she was still looking at the gun and knife but it seemed to be getting colder and colder by the minute since the window was broken open. All she could do now was stand there and hope the man who went by Netherlands believed her. It's not like many people have heard of me anyway.

"Do you know what's going on around this city or are you just as confused as me?"

Lars waited for a while for the other to reply. But his ears met only silence. Just when he was about to say something again, he heard a loud thump coming from the desk. Well, at least that meant that someone was attempting to get out from under the desk. Not successfully so far, but it was a start.

Moments later a girl showed herself. She was tanned and wore her hair in two ponytails with bright red ribbons. He didn’t remember her from any previous world meetings. Though he had seen her before, Lars was sure of that. Probably on a picture sometime. Yes, now he remembered. He and France had been showing off their colonies to each other. Though he couldn’t remember which country the girl represented. When the girl looked at his weapons nervously, he lowered them a bit. But he didn’t put them away just yet. The girl may be defenceless, but their attacker certainly wasn’t. And as they still had no idea where the one who had brought them here was, it wasn’t wise to let your guard down.

Ah, Seychelles, yes. So that was the country. “I know where Seychelles is located. I had a colony nearby. Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.” Lars informed her. He had travelled there a lot in the seventeenth century. They had traded a lot there. And done some other things that wouldn’t be considered ethical in current time, but he wouldn’t elaborate on that now. Though he had still mostly a good relationship with the place, and a lot of people there still spoke Dutch. Or something that resembled Dutch at least.

He looked the girl over again. What had gotten into her to only wear a dress? That looked incredibly cold. It made her look all the more lost and defenceless. Who had the heart to knock down someone like that and drop her in a place like this? it was more than cruel. Someone like himself would maybe be able to make it somehow, but he didn’t know what would have happened to the girl if she hadn’t been found. Specially since this was probably her first meeting, which made her all the more clueless.

“Kingdom of the Netherlands. Lars Hofstee.” He introduced himself. “I woke up in a bar nearby, just moments ago. I probably don’t know more than you do. But now I found you, I do think we’re not the only ones dropped off here.”

He lowered his weapons and took a couple of steps in her direction. When he was close enough, he held out his hand with the knife. “You have to be armed when we go look for others.” He told her, not even asking her opinion on if she wanted to go with him. He wouldn’t be able to leave her behind all defenceless like this. Lars would have offered her the gun, really. But since it didn’t hold any bullets, the knife was a more effective weapon for the girl to defend herself. He only hoped she knew how to stand her ground in a fight.

As she awaited an answer, Victoria looked around the room and then back at Lars. He seemed to be nodding to himself reassuringly, like he recalled seeing her before. Which was weird because Victoria had never seen him in person before, but she simply ignored the fact and examined his attire. His coat and scarf looked certainly warm, reminding her of the cold air that seeped into the small room. She really wished she had changed into her warm pajamas instead of lazily going straight to bed after packing her suitcase last night. It's not like she planned on waking up in such a cold place. Her house was warm all year long. After letting out a slight shiver, she looked up to Lars's voice.

Victoria listened as he talked about his colonization of South Africa centuries ago. So that's how she recalled the country. He had colonies in Africa like Francis, so she probably learned about him from the French on her island and from South Africans on the mainland. Africa. Home. Always so nice and warm, and she would have much rather dealt with her home's economic issues than be stuck in this freaky, bizarre mess. Not to mention the temperature then was way below the coldest nights back home.

He also mentioned how other nations could be just as lost in this abandoned city. Why? Victoria thought to herself, but didn't bother asking out loud since Lars wouldn't know the answer.

"This can't be as bad as a war though, right? I mean, if there are all these other countries out there somewhere, we'd need to work together. We wouldn't be fighting...unless it's another group of countries doing this? Victoria mentally slapped herself for bringing that up. I don't know a single country in the world who would want to bring me into this to start a war. They must really be cowards if they do. She looked back up at Lars. They certainly would have a fight against that guy, he doesn't look like someone to easily beat.

When she looked up once more, Lars had a hand out towards her. In his hand was the knife he was holding earlier. Well it will definitely do more damage than my defense fish. At least I hope so. She was ready to use it if she needed to though: she had plenty of practice with a knife back home but never needed anything more than her defense fish to protect herself. Victoria let go of the fish in her pocket and took the kitchen knife, still holding her head with her other hand. Another chill went through her, much colder than ever before. Victoria wrapped her arms around her and shut her eyes. Opening her eyes again, she saw not a cool breeze from the window, but a glowing green fog.

"Um, let's go. Now." However, when they she went outside, there was no sign of the green substance. Since they were outside now, she thought they'd might as well look for other countries. Victoria started walking down the street. This place is just getting weirder...

Lars let Victoria take the knife and looked her over once again. Even with the knife she didn’t really look threatening. Lars inwardly cursed. Of all countries he had to come across, it was one who was as inexperienced as this. Lars knew he shouldn’t be judging on looks alone. Someone who looked innocent could become vicious when they needed to be. Matthew had more than proven that to him in WW2.

If this situation would be as bad as war? Lars honestly had no idea. His thoughts flashed back to memories of wars he had been through. The second world war being one of the worst of all. Being forcefully occupied by an enemy country, there really was no experience like that. Attempts at invading, fighting alongside his people for freedom, corpses dropping down all around him, bullets flying past. Until the stress and pain of the invasion, the death of his people, left him unable to fight no longer.

NO. This situation would be nothing like that. There weren’t any armies at their command. At the most just groups of countries fighting against each other. Which brought Lars to think about the next question to ponder about. What if Victoria was right? What if they were brought here by another group of countries. Maybe the biggest countries were planning on taking over the smaller ones? With the countries representative gone, they would have a perfect opportunity to invade. Though if that was the case, it hadn’t happened yet. Being a country, they could sense it if something like that was happening on their lands. And all Lars was feeling now, was the ache in his stomach. But he had that for the past months already due to his government being a mess. No new pains or aches. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening on his grounds. That reassured Lars a bit, though he’d have to see if it would stay that way.

“I don’t think it’ll be anything like war. Though it can be bad in it’s own way. There’s no way to say if it’ll be worse or not.” Some people would’ve felt the need to reassure a girl like that in this situation. Though Lars was a very direct kind of person. He just spoke his mind in nearly every situation. This was no exception. “If it’s another group of countries doing this, we’ll know soon enough. If all the other nations are dropped off here, we’ll find them. If there’s anyone missing, they could be the culprits. But we don’t know that yet.”

Lars didn’t see the green fog at the window. Though he did notice that the air became much colder all of a sudden. He nodded at Victoria’s request to go now and went outside. Lars walked out onto the streets, deeper into the seemingly abandoned town. There was no-one within sight yet, though Lars was sure there had to be others around.