"Halfborn…. Halfborn! - HALFBORN!" Halfborn's head hits Magnus's as he jolts awake.
"Goddamn it, Halfborn! We're here!" Magnus rubs his now red forehead. "Last time, I volunteer to awaken the sleeping giant…" Amir and Sam laugh at Magnus's pain while they grab their carry-ons from the overhead and follow the line of people off the plane.
"Oops… sorry, man," Halfborn rubs the back of his head with a grimace and rises from his seat.
"Yeah, yeah. Just get your stuff from the overhead and let's go! I can't wait to check out the hotel!" Magnus slings his backpack over his shoulder and makes his way down the aisle with a bounce in his step.
Magnus follows Amir and Sam out of the airport. What he sees makes him halt in his tracks - causing a disgruntled Halfborn to run right into him.
"Dude!" Halfborn shoves the dazed Magnus aside to join Amir and Sam, and eventually Magnus snaps out of it and follows his friends.
They were standing on a rainbow…. A RAINBOW. It was currently night out and every star in the sky looked as if you could reach out and grab them. The rainbow ground lit up the whole airport allowing the travelers to see at night. The group of friends made their way down the rainbow road to the black Cadillac Escalade that would be driving them to the hotel. Waiting for them was a pretty dark skinned girl with a sign that read "Al Abbas Party." As they approached the girl, she smiled and promptly shook Sam's hand.
"Sam Al Abbas I presume? I'm Dede Imani. I'll be the liaison staying with you for the summer!" Sam smiles back at Dede then turns the groups' way to introduce everyone.
"Hi Dede, it's nice to meet you! This is my boyfriend Amir, the guy with the long blonde hair is Magnus, and the tall oaf is Halfborn." Everyone exchanges handshakes with Dede as Sam introduces them.
"Doesn't liaison mean 'an illicit sexual relationship?'" Halfborn smirks at Dede as her face flushes red.
"Well… um… yes, in one way but…that's not what I meant…" Dede looks to the ground as her face grows the color of a tomato.
Magnus slaps Halfborn hard in the back of the head. "Really man!" Halfborn just laughs.
"What can I say? I have a way with the ladies." He winks.
Sam rolls her eyes at him. "Yeah a way that's gonna get you kicked in the nads one day…" Everyone laughs at Halfborn and now he's the one with the cherry red face.
"How about we head on over to the hotel now?" Dede asks.
"Shotgun!" yells Magnus as he sprints to the passenger seat of the Escalade.
"Hey, no fair man!" Before Magnus can jump into the seat Halfborn picks him up by his collar, drops him to the ground, and takes the seat for himself.
Everyone laughs at Magnus as they get into the back of the car and make their way towards the hotel.
Magnus walks in and out of the hotels front door for the tenth time. Sam, tired of waiting for Magnus to comprehend the buildings construction, grabs Magnus's arm and drags him towards the front desk before he goes to walk in and out of the doors again.
"I just… don't understand… it looks small on the outside… but it's like, a million times bigger when you walk inside… HOW!" Magnus looks around the interior of the hotel with wide eyes.
Sam halts their movement and grabs Magnus by his shoulders, turning his face towards her. "Okay, Magnus. Do you remember in the Avengers movie, when they got on that big flying ship and Nick Fury used the mirrors to hide the ship? Well, this hotel is kind of like that… just, on a much larger scale." She smiles gently at Magnus as he nods his head in understanding.
"It's like a Tardis! So this is what all the Doctors companions felt like when they entered the time machine for the first time…" Magnus muses to himself. Sam rolls her eyes at him and yet again begins to drag Magnus towards the front desk.
The hotel's interior looks like a warriors wet dream. There are huge vaulted ceilings lined with various weapons and shields. The floor is hardwood with exotic animal skins lining certain areas of the floor. A whole third of the right wall of the lobby is a burning fireplace with a giant wolfs head above the mantel. The columns supporting everything are these huge ancient looking tree trunks that have lanterns hanging all around them, giving the lobby a sense of mood lighting.
When Sam and Magnus get back to the rest of the group Halfborn makes his way over to Sam and whispers in her ear, "Hey Sam, your grandfather isn't like, the actual God Odin is he? Cause this place looks like it came right out of a catalog for divine Vikings." Sam just slaps Halfborn in the back of the head and moves to stand next to Amir.
"Welcome to Hotel Valhalla! Here are each of your room keys that allow you access to the building, your floor, and your own personal rooms. Do not lose them!" Helgi, the manager of the hotel informs them as they stand opposite Helgi and the old boat he is currently using as a reception desk.
Amir raises his hand with scrunched brows, "Ummm, this is a rock." he holds up his other hand with the "room key" in it. We all look to Helgi for a response.
"No. It is a rune, which has a magnetic device inside it, that is specific to each room." Helgi replies with a stretched smile. "Anymore questions?"
Amir raises his hand again. But Sam quickly whispers "later" in his ear and turns back to Helgi, "No sir, thank you though!"
"Not a problem! Dede, I presume you can take it from here?" Helgi asks.
Dede smiles at Helgi, "Yes sir!" she tells him, then motions for us to follow her. "This way to the elevators guys!"
When the group enters the elevator, the first thing that they notice is that there are no buttons, but a metallic circle where the buttons in an elevator generally reside. Dede swipes her room key in front of the metallic circle and it begins to rise.
"Welcome to floor nine-"
"MALLORY I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" A voice from down the hall cuts off Dede and a ginger girl sprints out of a room with a ceramic bowl flying out after her. The girl dodges the bowl with ease and runs into another room further down the hall. The group stands in the hall with confused and mildly scared looks on their faces.
A guy holding a DSLR camera walks up to the group from out of the lounge area next to where the elevator is.
"Don't worry, this is a normal thing for them." He says then holds out his hand, "I'm T.J. by the way!" His face lights up with a friendly smile.
Sam shakes T.J.'s hand, "Sam Al Abbas."
"Ohhhhh, you're Alex's cousin!?"
"Yeah… and judging from that yell I'm assuming she is already here" Sam says with a smirk.
Suddenly a blur of pink and green storms down the hallway and begins pounding on the door the ginger girl ran into.
"MALLORY I SWEAR TO GODS IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW I'M GOING TO SLICE YOUR HEAD OFF WITH MY CLAY CUTTER!"
Sam just giggles at the scene unfolding in front of them, "Hey Alex."
And with those two words Magnus's world comes to a stop, as who he assumes is Alex, turns around to face them.
Alex will be the death of me, is the first thought that passes though Magnus's head as he looks at her, or was it him? No, Sam said her/she pronouns when she was talking about Alex at the airport… Either way it's like Alex was perfectly sculpted by some divine being that knows exactly what Magnus's type is. She's tall and lanky with short green hair. Her eyes are two different shades of brown and she has a sharp nose. She's dressed in green skinny jeans with a black t-shirt, a pink hoodie tied around her waist, and a pair of rose colored high tops. Basically she looks like she could be on the cover of an Alternative Press magazine, and Magnus loves it. He continues to stare at her as she struggles to decide whether or not she should continue to go after her friend, or if she should confront her cousin. She lets out a sigh and silent curse as she looks up to the ceiling.
"Sam!" Alex goes for the ladder and walks towards the confused group of friends and a shell-shocked Magnus.
"It's nice to finally see you Alex! It's been so long!"
"Yeah well, when we're both trying to avoid our father it's hard to be in the same place at the same time" Alex says as a sly smirk forms on her perfect cheek bones, at this point Magnus has all but stopped breathing and is trying not to faint. "Who are your friends? That guy is T.J. incase he forgot to tell you, I wouldn't put it past him. And that girl you saw running from my room in fear is Mallory, who if she's smart won't show her face unless I'm no longer out here."
Sam laughs "Yea T.J. introduced himself… Oh! This is my boyfriend Amir!" Amir holds out his hand.
"Hello Alex, I've heard a lot about you." Amir smiles at her as she takes his hand and shakes it.
"Ah, and I you Amir" Alex smirks and gives Sam a thumbs up. Sam's face instantly turns red.
"Yeah, well umm anyway… this is Halfborn." Sam says quickly to move the attention away from her.
"It's nice to meet you beautiful." Halfborn says with his trademark grin.
Alex laughs at him, "It's handsome actually, well at least right now anyway. I'm gender fluid. Don't worry I'll be sure to tell you what pronouns to use next time!" Halfborn's face turns about as red as Sam's, and Magnus is still off in his own little world, completely entranced by Alex.
"Oh, um sorry man" Halfborn says awkwardly.
"It's cool, now you know, so as long as you use the right pronouns from now on we won't have a problem." Alex says with a threatening look in his eye. Halfborn gulps and nods his head. Alex's sly smile returns to his face.
Sam gets Alex's attention again, "And lastly, that guy back there staring into space like an idiot, he's my best friend Magnus."
If Magnus hadn't been watching Alex the whole time he probably wouldn't have noticed that for a second Alex's smile fell flat when he looked at Magnus. Alex then proceeded to up-down Magnus and Magnus's cheeks begin to redden at the action. When Alex realizes Magnus isn't going to say anything to him anytime soon he decides to speak first.
"Sup Cobain, I loved your song Lithium." Alex extends a hand towards the frozen Magnus. It takes Magnus a few seconds to register that yes, Alex is in fact speaking to him. And when he realizes what Alex says he smirks and shakes his hand.
"Really? Come As You Are was always my personal favorite"
Alex's sly grin extends into a full out smile. The rest of the group watch as the interaction occurs and Sam has a look on her face like she knows exactly what is happening right now.
Alex turns to Sam and points a thumb at Magnus, "I like this kid." Sam just laughs.
After that there is an awkward pause in conversation so Dede asks them if they want to check out their rooms real quick and then take a look around the rest of the hotel.
"Sounds like a plan," Halfborn says as he holds up to thumbs-up.
"As much as I would looovveeee to join you guys! I have to get back to breaking down Mallory's door and enacting my revenge upon her… but have fun!" And with that Alex pulls two room keys out of his pocket then after figuring out which one he needs, puts the other back into his pocket. Alex then walks up to the door Mallory is hiding behind and swipes the room key in front of it; the door opens.
"WHAT THE HELL! DO YOU HAVE A KEY TO MY ROOM!"
Alex throws back his head in laughter. "You bet!" And with that Alex disappears into Mallory's room, shutting the door behind him. Surprisingly no yelling can be heard in the hall.
"Thank Gods all the rooms are sound proofed…" Dede then begins to lead everyone to there rooms.
Magnus lets a smile crawl across his face as he can't help but think that this will be a very… interesting, summer.