Nicki took a breath, before nodding. "They've got to have one of those -" he paused, "like safe words right? Easy out if the whole thing becomes a little too much." He dropped his card at the front desk, offering to pay for Eliana's place too and smiled at her. "I won't be alone," he agreed. "And chances are, I'll be using you as a human shield. So all of this is on me."

"Safe words? I mean... I don't know if they call it that." Eliana couldn't help but laugh, "Or do you mean having one so I know you want out? Because I would say that is different." Pretty sure that should either of them be panicked or any of the sort that the people running the escape room would just let them out. "Thank you." Giving a nod of her head. "Good to know, will be sacrificed but don't get offended if I ditch out before you have a chance to do that. I move pretty quick."

"It's alright - their loss." Harley shrugged. Getting cancelled on always sucked, but most of them had good reason so he wasn't going to make a huge deal out of it. "I have a sign language interpreter booked for my tour - helps with audio hints and if a worker's voice comes over the intercom to give hints or directions - so I just have to find them before we do the room."

A smile tugged to the woman's lips, "You're right, their loss." Because if people couldn't keep their promises or at least not plan properly then it truly was their loss. Maybe that was because she was a wedding planner and she knew all too well how a plan falling apart could go. Nodding, "Okay, if you want to find them once you're ready I'm ready to go."

"That is my hope. Otherwise, you'll be hearing me scream in fear too," she laughed. "Jump scares are not my favorite."

"Guess we can at least go with they'll all be hearing us scream." If she wasn't going to be screaming on her own she'd at least feel a bit better to not be the only one terrified at someone jumping out at them. Now she only had to hope that wasn't the case. "No, they're not mine at all. I don't mind spooky vibes but jumping out at me? This is not the Legends of the Hidden Temple." she laughed, "I've learned I never would have survived that game without fainting at them jumping out at the end." Really she was pretty sure that show was partly why she loved escape rooms, it gave a loose interpretation of one.

That sweet spot between November and New Year's is the coveted winter wedding time. Like you said, the special feelings, that extra something that seems like it's in the air... it's irresistible. I get it, though, the running on full speed with no real reliability from the brakes (or, in my particular case, glitter) is amplified when your job is, in some way, impacted by the holiday season. In your case, it just makes it all the more appealing. Would you say this is your busiest time of year or do you have more couples coming to you in droves during another season? I'll waive whatever half-assery, so long as you bring a story or two that sounds like it could've aired on TLC. Snacks are guaranteed. Wine, too, if that's your thing.

It's definitely highly coveted, and we end up with a lot of people vying for a spot for us to plan their weddings. Unfortunately, as successful as we've been, there's only so much my co-owner and I can do in one weekend. Last thing we want to do is overbook and not give every ounce of attention to a bride ( or grooms! ) on their special day. I've had a few back to back wedding on the same weekend and let me tell you, nothing feels as good as falling into bed once you're able to head home for the night. And trust me, there is endless amounts of glitter on my end of the world too! The fact that some isn't permanently seared into my skin is impressive at this point. It depends? Some years the winter weddings are more popular, other years it all goes back to that summertime wedding in June. So as much as I like to say that there's specific seasons, it's really every season no matter what people or media tells you! I've got a few stories that might horrify and amuse you all in one go, especially if you're willing to provide wine for the storytelling. Then I expect to know what exactly is the craziest things that has happened in your place. People fighting over Christmas decorations or the last big Santa to put out on the front lawn, all of it.

I think being up to my eyeballs in a holiday-dependent business the last few months has only reconfirmed to me that this time of year is all gas, no brakes. Just about every major holiday squeezes itself into this back quarter of the year, and for what? For me to go into hibernation like a bear after New Year's? I love this time of year, but a girl's gotta avoid the burnout. This is my first rodeo trying to both capitalize on and enjoy the holidays like every other average Joe — consider this my formal plea to take part in Andie St. Aubin's first annual research project of how do you both enjoy and survive the last three months of the year. Participants will be rewarded with snacks and my company.

I won't say that I work in a holiday-dependent business but I often have couples who love to get married right around those holidays for added special feelings, that I understand that feeling of going, going, going. I've got two weddings that will be the weekend before Christmas, one the Saturday after Christmas and a massive wedding the Friday after New Years... it seems like everyone wants to do these around those holidays and it just hits a point where I feel like I'm running on full speed. Well the snacks and company sounds like a wonderful thing but my research project -- as much as I love a good project board and all details tucked perfectly inside, may end up being half-assed due to you know, weddings. I do love me some good snack though.

"I trust that there will be something spooky jumping out at any point here," Oliver said, glancing around again. "Maybe not a person but you know, puppets are really popular too," he said with an awkward laugh, running a hand through his hair. "You're a swing-first type, I'm a duck-first type," he laughed a little, following her along the hallway to one of the puzzle rooms for the game to start. He bit his lip as the dark room slowly lit up in a dramatic fashion. "First clue?" he pointed to a note on the table, and started reading it out loud.

"A person would be worse jumping out, but at the same time I enjoy the rush and adrenaline of what might be lurking. So, hopefully, at most it's something not someone." Eliana really didn't love jump scares but she also did enjoy, to some degree, the thrill and suspense. "Puppets? That's... definitely an option and a choice. Probably smarter than a person." she admitted, now wondering how puppets would fit in to some of the rooms. It always started off with the first clue, listening to Oliver read the clue, her mind starting to take in the meanings. "Okay, so that's going to lead to three possible ideas, which seems the most obvious -- is probably not the way to go."

"Oh?" Aisha quirked a brow, looking at the different room options available. She hadn't initially decided on fully committing yet, having come alone and not wanting to get paired with someone who wasn't fully invested. But Eliana seemed like good enough company, so she nodded. "Alright, I'm down. Just please tell me you're good at riddles as well! We both need to carry if we're going to make it out in record time," she grinned, a bit self-assured in her claim.

"Yeah, at least that's what they're saying." Eliana pointed out to the updated Halloween style posters. "I mean feel like we have to at least see if they followed through on everything." To see if things had actually been changed and lived up to the expectations that they were being sold. At the very least it'd be a fun time, regardless. "I'm great at riddles, I love playing all the different ones you can online when I have free time." she admitted, "But you know, I get these are a little more complex -- usually."

He'd come by looking to stock up on brochures for the Brownstone. He was always looking for ways to entice tourists toward the local businesses and fun quirks of Merrock. The offer to join Eliana in a room had one of his eyebrows lifting. He fidgeted with the keys in his pocket, feeling that knee jerk reaction to say yes. There were few experiences in life he would say no to, but haunted houses, mazes, scary movies . . . that was towing the line.

As the person turned towards her, she could see he was more so curious and seemed to be going back and forth on her offer. "I don't know how haunted or if they say haunted and it's more spooky." To her they were different things, haunted meant people jumping out and scaring you, spooky just meant trying to make a place as scary as possible to lose focus.

"It's more fun to work with at least one more person on your team then by yourself." Even if Eliana had absolutely done these by herself in the past. Escape rooms could be fun by yourself if you were really focused on more so beating your own time and seeing how fast you could put clues together, but for the Halloween season, a partner at least seemed like your best bet. "I definitely do, it's just me so we'll have to do it on our own but think we can manage." she said as she stepped forward, "We wait till they give us a room, I don't have anyone else coming." she said, "I'm Eliana, I don't think we've met before." While she had been there for several years now, it didn't mean she knew everyone.

"I'll have to look. That little shit is pretty fucking funny. Even more when he's punted like a football, that ego can't take it." And who would've thought, she'd be relating to an evil doll at that very moment. "Have you seen those videos of people dressing their dogs in Chucky costumes? Pretty sure I peed my pants the first time I saw it." Sav wasn't actually honestly expecting anyone to take her up on the movie, let alone herself. Planning to just pawn it off and be on her way but that didn't happen just then, "Oh. Okay, yeah. Dooo you want? I had one a couple minutes ago —" she asked, pulling out some gummies, offering up.

"It's absolutely hilarious, I found myself on a feed where they make all the classic Halloween horror actors small and do that shit and all I've done is crack up." Which helped when she wasn't huge on horror but could enjoy it from time to time. "Yes! They make Chucky look cute, even if they come running at you with a little knife in paw." Because really it'd be something she would do. "Mean no point in watching alone, right?" Raising a brow at the woman offered her one of her gummies, "You're not gonna fall asleep on me now are you?" she reached forward taking one and popping it into her mouth.

Darrius liked to think that he was good at this kind of thing -- that he would walk in, figure it out, save the day, and someone would treat him to a tall beer and a salty treat afterwards. Okay, no, sure, that wasn't really how the whole thing worked, a lot more went into it than just being smart, but... that didn't mean that the confidence wasn't going to give him at least a little bit of a boost. "That's either really good or really bad," he said as he made his way inside, letting out a laugh, "but I'm up for the challenge. I haven't done one of these in a while, I'm a little rusty... but I'm pretty sure we can figure it out."

"It could be both, great for making our minds really think, bad if there's anything that jumps out at me." At least Eliana was being honest, she wasn't someone who liked the idea of someone or something jumping out at her. Glancing up at Darrius she laughed, "Well that makes two of us, I haven't done one in a long time, like to wait till they switch things up because they can only hide clues in so many places." she said as they headed up towards the line. "We get 60 minutes to get everything solved, think between two that's more than enough time... I don't want to be the one on the wall of unsolved."

Who: Eliana Vagh & open!

Harley was supposed to be meeting friends at the Great Escape, and they were looking forward to it. They emailed ahead and requested an interpreter, which meant that they had to come at a certain date and time in order to enjoy it. But all their friends had cancelled at last minute, deciding to do it another night instead without realizing Harley didn't have that luxury. So they showed up alone. As someone approached them they assumed it was the interpreter at first, so they were caught off guard by the suggestion. "Actually...yeah, that would be great! My friends all bailed." Harley smiled at her. "I'm Harley."

For Eliana, she had the luxury of coming and going when she felt she needed a break at work. Perks of co-owning a business, and knowing that her things were done and unless it was the wedding itself she could carve out time for herself. Something she really encouraged because burnout was real. “Oh I’m sorry, nothing worse than looking forward to something and your friends bailing.” She shook her head but she was happy to let Harley join in with her because the more the merrier. Would be more fun than by herself. “I’m Eliana.” She introduced herself.