One x One Infinite Hotel Lore

[NoodleNumies]

Main Idea

i say "inspired by the infinity train" but keep in mind that i haven't finished the show myself, and i came up with this idea on a whim after seeing only the first three episodes, so for all i know it could be completely different with only a slightly similar concept. if you haven't watched infinity train, don't worry, this isn't so based off of it that you'll have a hard time understanding without the source material >_<

the idea is that our characters wake up in the ground floor lobby of a seemingly endless hotel. they have very little memory of how they got there, if any at all, and their only choice is to pick one of the rooms to venture into. from there, the hotel rooms seem to almost be like a chain, where one leads to the next, and the next, and the next, and eventually you reach an elevator, which takes you to the lobby of the next floor up. these rooms can be anything, from empty bedrooms to entire inhabited universes; some are incredibly dangerous, and some are completely peaceful. before you enter your first room, though, you're given a number card a bit like a hotel key card, and you can't advance through the rooms without it. the card displays the name and basic information of whoever is in current possession of the card, along with a number that changes at random intervals, although nobody seems to be quite sure why.

nobody knows why they're there, or how to get out, and some have been trapped un-aging in that hotel for decades. others have given up completely and have just found a safe lobby to spend their lives in. over time, the humans trapped there have come up with their own type of hierarchy and way of living, and it all depends on the numbers on their cards. the one thing that they do know, is that the people whose numbers have reached 0 aren't ever heard from again, and whether that means that they get to leave the hotel, or that they die, nobody really knows, but that's the only chance anyone can see of escape, and some people are willing to risk anything to get their hands on a low-number card.

Other Notes

- the numbers on the cards go down by one with each player that gets eliminated. whether this means that they die, or they reached the fabled "top floor", or found some other way to get home, nobody is entirely clear.

- you need a key card to advance through the rooms, and you are only given one key card, but you can trade or steal someone else's to get a lower number.

- people whose numbers reach 0 aren't ever heard from again. maybe they got home, maybe they were taken somewhere even worse than the hotel. nobody knows the specifics of it, but it's enough of a pipe dream for everyone to strive to reach 0 as fast as they can in the hopes of going home.

- when you enter the hotel, you stop aging entirely, and the youngest to ever enter the hotel was 10 years old. this means that it's possible to meet a teenager who was born in, say, 1945. nobody older than 30 seems to exist in the hotel, either.

- the hotel upkeep is in the hands of the staff, or the bellboys -- androids who seemingly operate on a hive mind, and are forbidden from offering help to anyone who asks, but make regular status checks to make sure that you have a key card to pass to the next level. if you're missing your key card at any given time, they'll mark you as an "intruder", and it doesn't matter where you go or how fast you run, because every bellboy in the vicinity will be instantly after your head. for a physical reference of them, i was thinking of the androids from that sorta-ok sorta-shitty I, Robot movie that will smith was in, but all wearing red bellboy uniforms ... very uncanny valley
Is there any way, instead of using androids, we just use regular robots, like, a rumba looking one that vacuums the floor, a tall one with a scanner to make sure you have a card, or a boxy looking one that presses the elevator buttons for you? and they unravel and expand into different weapons against an intruder?

- when you reach a new lobby, the elevator on that lobby opens up, and you can use the elevators (located only on the lobbies) to visit any lobby that you've already been to once before.

- rumor has it that there's a group of people that target new "players" to steal their key cards, which circulate through a black market-type system where the lower the card number is, the more value it has, and you can trade key cards for various resources and objects, from food to supplies, video games, books, or even guns if your card has enough value to it.

- once you enter a room, you can't go backwards. this means that if your key card isn't on you when you find the exit door, you're trapped there forever unless someone who has an extra on them happens to pass by. this is particularly risky if you're in a dangerous room, but even in a peaceful room, you could easily starve or dehydrate if no food or water sources are readily available to you in that room.

- lobbies are all equipped with wifi*, and each lobby looks different, but every lobby is a peaceful area. you'll see a lot of people who have simply taken to living within the lobbies and setting up camps, towns, or entire cities as resting places for weary travelers. the ground floor lobby is the most bustling, known as "the hub", where you can find almost anything from player-owned businesses to houses for rent, jobs, trading posts, restaurants... it's practically a metropolis all on its own.
I think the mini metropolis you were talking about should be at least on the 2nd floor lobby- only because I want the beginning to be mostly confusion and stumbling your way through this mysterious hotel. I think starting in a kind of city would lead to too much information at the start (because people want to help), and not a very good world build. But for the sake of story, we can stay the first floor rooms are few and less random- truly revealing itself at the second floor rooms.

*There are no outside communications, but i mentioned wifi because the hotel seems to have its own wifi and system completely disconnected from the outside world - this is what makes a large part of the card trade industry, since with a computer or phone you can connect to that type of hotel-wifi and use it to contact other people in the hotel across floors. not every room has a connection, and sometimes the connection is spotty, but this feature gives a lot of room for plotlines to grow and deepen very quickly.

WIP