🔶 POV: Alex (Third-Person)
The Infinite Hotel awakens from a quiet, peaceful night.
Alex senses the travelers from the previous worlds long gone, their temporal footprints closing neatly behind them. With the multiversal ripples settling, the hotel prepares for the next shift.
A cosmic tremor runs through its extradimensional foundations.
A new world.
A new place.
A new guest.
The Infinite Hotel appears silently, instantly, flawlessly—
—on a patch of grassy land overlooking the rolling highlands of Scotland, surrounded by fog and morning chill.
Scrooge McDuck's estate.
But not the grand McDuck Manor of the future.
This is an earlier, modest estate—stone walls, patched roofs, wooden fences. A young duck's first claim at independence. Built with stubborn pride and literal sweat.
The Infinite Hotel's arrival makes no sound.
Yet one person notices.
🔶 POV: Scrooge McDuck (First-Person)
I was polishin' me boots.
A simple mornin'.Fog as thick as porridge.Cold enough tae freeze ye eyebrows.
Then I see it.
A hotel.
A whole hotel.
Right in me front yard.
"…What in the name o' me Number One Dime…?"
It wasn't there yesterday.Or the day before.Or EVER.
I walk toward it, cautious but curious.
It's tall.Modern.Glass and stone.Not a single part of it looks Scottish, medieval, or even Earthly.
My first thought?
Treasure.
A hotel that appears from nowhere?That means secrets.Secrets mean riches.Riches mean adventure.
And I'd just returned from me first big treasure run with barely enough gold to call it a success.
I needed a win.
So I marched right up to the door.
No fear.Never fear.
Fear is for folk who don't want greatness.
I pushed it open.
🔶 POV: Alex (Third-Person)
The door slides open smoothly.
Young Scrooge steps inside.
The lobby lights rise in greeting.
Infinite space stretches around him, geometric and warm yet incomprehensible. Scrooge pauses only one second—long enough for the human mind to break, but short enough for his adventurer's mind to ignite.
Alex manifests his avatar in front of the desk.
Ten feet, eleven inches.
Faceless.
Suit and tie.
Name tag gleaming:
HELLO, I AM THE INFINITE HOTEL.
Scrooge freezes—
But only for a heartbeat.
🔶 POV: Scrooge McDuck (First-Person)
"…Well now."
I tilt me head, squintin' at the giant stranger.
"That's a bonnie name tag ye got there. Bit odd that I cannae see yer eyes… or beak… or… face."
The giant tilts his head politely.
"Welcome to the Infinite Hotel."
His voice sounds like… a room speaking.Like the walls were talkin' through a man.
I adjust me coat and puff out me chest.
"Name's Scrooge McDuck. Adventurer. Treasure hunter. Future richest duck in the world."
He doesn't react.
Or—well—I can't tell, since he has no face.
"So!" I clap me hands. "This yer hotel? And it's on me land? That means somethin', doesn't it?"
The giant pauses.
"…No."
Blast.
"Well then—what is this place?"
He gestures to the lobby wall.
I look.
Rules.
Lots o' rules.
No fightin'.Weapons taken.No swearin' around wee bairns.Healin' injuries.Payment upfront.
I stroke me feathered chin.
"…This is either a place o' wonders—or a trap."
The giant speaks.
"It is neither. It simply… is."
Which is the most unhelpful answer anyone has ever given me.
But also the most intriguing.
"So what do I get fer comin' inside?"
"Shelter. Rooms. Food. Rest. Safety."
I narrow me eyes.
"No catch?"
"No catch."
A place with infinite space.Infinite food.Infinite rooms.
My feathers stand on end.
"Ye said Infinite, aye?"
The avatar nods.
A grin spreads across me bill so wide it nearly splits me face.
"Then laddie—"I point dramatically upward."—ye've just met the duck who's goin' tae explore all o' it."
The avatar gives no reaction.
But I swear the hotel itself hums in amusement.
Adventure awaits.
And Scrooge McDuck never turns down adventure.