ROCK 9: Neutral Milk Hotel, Part 1

''This article is about the Eidolon Playtest episode. For the location, see Neutral Milk Hotel. For other episodes, see ROCK #17 (Part 2), and POP #32 (Part 3).''  "'Up and over, we go through the wave and Undertow; I will float until I learn how to swim.' -King Of Carrot Flowers, Parts 2-3, by Neutral Milk Hotel"

Neutral Milk Hotel, Part 1 is the ninth episode of Eidolon ROCK and the twentieth episode of Eidolon Playtest Season 1. It covers the Alta Drive Jawbreakers resting, relaxing, and accidentally causing several fusses at the Neutral Milk Hotel.

Summary
Virginia Valentine deals in as a Beast, becoming a white cat with stained-glass colored spots. She now has the power to blend into her surroundings. Lady Luck ushers everyone inside the Neutral Milk Hotel, a clean but old-fashioned motel. Behind the desk is a scruffy-looking man named Josh who welcomes them. He explains that the Neutral Milk Hotel is for "world-weary travelers, whatever that world may be". It is named the Neutral Milk Hotel because it has a strict neutrality policy and a worlds-famous milk bar (plus continental breakfast).

As Chili and Virginia go to investigate the continental breakfast, a ferret jumps on Virginia, pinning her. Besides neutrality, another rule of the hotel is none of that "type of individual". Josh refuses to elaborate on what that means beyond it applying to Virginia specifically. Lady Luck convinces him to allow an exception, but he insists she take responsibility if anything happens. Josh calls out for Saturday and Sunday to collect their bags, a bellhop with no head between their shoulders and a head on the end of each wrist. Saturday and Sunday take Fortune Teller up to Room 122, accidentally dragging Cecilia Citadel behind them. Sabrina Bryan asks if this is normal, and Lady Luck leaves.

The Alta Drive Jawbreakers make their way to the breakfast nook. Harvey D. Godlove and Chris Masters make their way to the milk bar. Behind it is a young, bored woman reading a book. She grabs kumis for Harvey and chocolate milk for Chris. Chili and Virginia start eating salmon from the continental buffet. The woman from the milk bar brings over some milk for Virginia, and explains to Harvey that Josh is her dad (who worked for his dad before him). Chris asks why Virginia wasn't going to be let it, but before the woman can answer, Josh returns.

Josh comes over and excitedly tells them that the Neutral Milk Hotel also has features like an ice machine, a pool, indoor plumbing, and electricity. Chris takes out his PSP to impress him, and Josh asks if he can borrow it. He heads to an employee-only area and asks not to be followed, so Chris hides Ironspy inside the PSP. In the employee-only area, Josh swallows the PSP with Ironspy inside. He returns and hands Chris an identical PSP, but Chris can tell Ironspy and the original are still in his stomach. Josh says there'll now be a free PSP in every room, and they can see Saturday and Sunday leaving the employee-only area with PSPs in their mouths.

Harvey heads over to the front desk to find a way to slip Here It Goes Again inside the Josh's stomach to rescue Ironspy. Virginia and Chili also head over to investigate why Virginia was not wanted in. Seeing all three head to his desk, Josh rushes over from the breakfast nook to ask what they're after. Virginia lies and says they were trying to find what rooms they were in, and he reminds them its 122 and 120. Virginia heads upstairs to 122 and flops on the bed next to Cecilia. Sabrina is already asleep.

Downstairs, Chris tests the range of Ironspy by walking 100ft away from Josh. At the 101st foot, he feels resistance and can hear Josh express discomfort down the hallway. Chris shuffles awkwardly back to him and explains the situation, apologizing that they had gotten paranoid from repeated attacks and he had accidentally left Ironspy inside the PSP. This skirts the neutrality rule, but Josh lets it slide. Josh vomits Ironspy into a tray, Chris apologizes again and leaves.

As Chris makes it to the hotel room, he encounters Harvey sketching out an elaborate plan on how to rescue Ironspy. Sabrina asks everyone to leave. As Chris, Harvey, Virginia, and Chili step out into the corridor, they catch a glimpse of a woman entering a room. She looks suspiciously like the assassin who rode a motorbike. Virginia and Chili investigate her room by climbing onto the windowsill from outside. They confirm it is her, but can't tell anything else interesting.

Virginia and Chili start talking amongst themselves about what to do about the woman, drifting towards topics like Virginia's experience of cathood and Chili's experience of personhood. Suddenly the window opens and the woman angrily asks them to leave. After a back and forth, she realizes that Virginia and Chili were part of the group that killed her. The woman can't answer any of Virginia's questions about what happened and why she's here, and shuts the window and blinds on them.

In Chris and Harvey's room, they've been playing matches of Dissidia Final Fantasy on the PSP. Harvey's noticed something is wrong with Chris, and Chris eventually confesses he died during the fight with Houses in Motion. He had to give his intelligence to Lady Luck in exchange for resurrection. Harvey isn't sure how to feel, but trusts its fine if Chris says its fine. They fall asleep.

Back outside, Chili and Virginia investigate the edge of the carpark, where blackness seems to go on forever. They stick their head into the darkness and see a wide ocean expanse hundreds of feet below them in blinding daylight. They quickly head back inside, and Virginia goes to ask Josh where they are. Josh is unable to answer clearly, and in turn asks Virginia why she's harassing other guests. Virginia apologizes, saying it was an accident, and Chili covers for her. Virginia goes and asks the bartender the same question, who answers that the Neutral Milk Hotel straddles an unknowable number of alternate realities and universes.

Virginia and Chili head back upstairs, passing a Shade in a bowler hat heading down for breakfast. Virginia and Chili go to sleep in the room with Sabrina and Cecilia. In the morning, everyone is awoken with a phone call from the bartender. She explains that Lady Luck asked them to provide a 5am wake-up call for the guests. Harvey fills up his bag with as much food as he can from the breakfast nook as Saturday and Sunday bring Fortune Teller (and Cecilia) down to the car. Josh quietly takes Chris and Harvey aside, advising them that Lady Luck arranged for them to return to the Neutral Milk Hotel the following night. He also lets slip that Virginia is an Angel, and they cause nothing but trouble.

As everyone packs into the car to leave, Chris asks Virginia why she's an angel. She has no idea how to respond.

After-Credits Scene
A knock on a door. Lady Luck asks the assassin woman from before if she's considered her offer. The woman rudely declines, arguing she wasn't bought to the Neutral Milk Hotel as a show of hospitality, but out of hope that she'd pick a fight with the Alta Drive Jawbreakers. Lady Luck gives her another day to think it over, but she declines immediately. Lady Luck says the woman is then free to leave, but notices she hasn't. Before the woman can respond, Lady Luck excuses herself.

A knock on another door. Will Price answers the door this time. He's given Lady Luck's offer thought, but proposes a counter-offer. Instead of being resurrected with 48 hours to kill the Alta Drive Jawbreakers, Will offers to kill them the next night at the Neutral Milk Hotel in exchange for then being resurrected without obligation. Lady Luck notes its too risky and he does not have access to Take Me Out. Will answers that he'll grab a knife from downstairs when they're asleep, and that she faces none of the risk. Lady Luck says she'll think it over and disappears.

Appearances
● Cecilia Citadel // Fortune Teller

● Chili // Little Lies

● Chris Masters // Ironspy

● Harvey D. Godlove // Here It Goes Again

● Holly Wilson

● Joshua-Paul (First Appearance)

● King (First Appearance)

● Lady Luck // Poker Face

● Mary (First Appearance)

● Sabrina Bryan // Houses in Motion

● Saturday and Sunday (First Appearance)

● Virginia Valentine // Only The Good Die Young

● Will Price

Fanart
