[Midnight Hotel] May catch-all

[gistful]

Characters: Anyone, everyone.
Date: Month of May, ‘2016’.
Location: The Midnight Hotel.
Situation: Catch-all post! Feel free to use this post for anything that happens within the Midnight Hotel during the month, using the subject header to label specific rooms or for specific people. See also the OOC note at the bottom.
Warnings/Rating: None thus far.

After the bustle of the last two weeks the Hotel seems oddly empty for a little while, with everything packed up and stored away. That feeling will be exacerbated by some of the Foreigner residents moving out over the course of the month, either to their own housing in Sky Sector or their own apartments elsewhere, and for the first time in quite a while the Hotel may have a few empty rooms.

It will, however, be full of flowers for a good part of May. Though originally provided by Xion in the public areas, Anton seems to be making sure every part of the Hotel, from public to private, has a bit of colour around unless specifically asked otherwise, such as for health reasons.

People may notice a bit of a glitch in the Hotel’s main doors. While ordinarily the exit sector can be chosen using sigils by the door, this month the pearl-white haze around its edges will putter every time someone changes it. Every now and then the glitch might cause someone to emerge in Sky Sector instead of their intended target—though the exit building will be different every time, as if the Hotel hasn’t quite decided yet where to settle its doors. Since it isn’t harmful Anton won’t bar people from using the switches, though he will recommend avoiding doing so; all this means is that the exit defaults into Central.

As a result, late at night when the doors aren’t being heavily used, Anton can be seen reviewing the wards around the entrance and trying to pin down exactly how the Hotel is, apparently, growing a new exit.

This month Anton will also be uncharacteristically emotional—though all this really means is that he alternates between being definably melancholic (prone to staring wistfully at sketches or a specific page in a dictionary) or unusually, and exasperatedly, entertained. The latter can be visibly attributed to the tablet newly propped up on the reception desk, displaying a picture of Anton, Skulduggery and that annoying bloke that was around last fortnight with his arms around their necks, pulling them down to his height. The tablet regularly announces times and tasks put into the tablet’s calendar for Anton’s convenience … and some of which aren’t to his convenience at all.

“Bing bing bing! This is your regular inspirational reminder of a delightfully important word: poop.”

“Boopity boop! Hey Anton, it’s two o’clock! You know what that means? That means it’s time to go be social. I know, it’s tough, be strong! You can do it!”

“Diddly do! Seven o’clock! Time to get laid!”

Though Anton will turn down these particular voiceovers so they at least don’t permeate the whole lobby, he still won't turn them off completely.

[ooc: The Midnight Hotel’s status page is available here, with the rules at the top and ongoing status at the bottom. PLEASE POST TO THE STATUS PAGE IF YOUR CHARACTER WOULD LIKE A ROOM, JOB OR AREA IN THE GARAGE OR ARE MOVING OUT. Anton will manufacture means of payment until Foreigners are able to properly offer recompense or choose to move out.

Comments

Mid-May, Jintou's room

[aquanimity]

It had been a week, no, more than a week, since she and Skulduggery had brought the kedan Jintou to the Hotel. Aqua had been giving him space in that time, to allow him the chance to grow used to the Hotel and his new surroundings. The longer he had to grow used to the idea that he was safe, the more willing he would be to speak of who had hired him to attack Xion, or so she hoped.

However, when Valdis' message went out across the network, Aqua realized she couldn't wait any longer. The muggings were continuing, and if what the woman had said about cultists with ties to Malicant were true, whatever Jintou could tell her would be all the more important. She had not directly experienced Malicant's influence, but she'd heard enough of it to know that his involvement in anything, direct or not, was not to be taken lightly.

She and Skulduggery had agreed that it would be best for her to speak to Jintou alone, when the time came. So Aqua now stood before the twin room Jintou had been given, a bit apprehensive about what she might learn.

She knocked quietly, speaking softly through the door, "Hello? It's Aqua. Are you in?"

[ironrule]

Anton Shudder was, in a lot of ways, very similar to Yunxu. He relied on an intimidating reputation to do a lot of the work for him, and that reputation was - as far as Jintou could tell - rooted in fact.

The difference was that Shudder was... well, friendly. Genuinely friendly. Not polite for the sake of being polite. Not charming. He rarely smiled, and when he did smile, he meant it. Actually, in some ways, that made him even more terrifying than Yunxu.

He definitely made you feel safe, though.

"Yeah," he answered gruffly. Really, it wasn't as though he'd be anywhere else. He couldn't leave the Hotel without Shudder, and Shudder was always busy. Where did she think he was going to be? "Come in."

[aquanimity]

Aqua stepped in, closing the door behind her. Jintou likely had guessed what she wanted to talk about; he'd survived more than a week in the care of the Hotel and Anton, and with the newest attack's revelations she needed answers.

"There's been another mugging," Aqua began, softly. "A message went out over the network about it. The attacker claimed to be aligned with a group that worshipped Malicant." There was no fear when she spoke the name: it was but a name to her, one of a dark entity, but a name alone nonetheless. "She also said that a deal had been made with someone in Keeliai, and that the Foreigners would pay for ending Malicant."

The mere idea that Xion could have been attacked by such a group chilled her. And if this mysterious 'someone' had ties to all the muggings, then no one was safe until they were brought down.

"It's been over a week since you've came here. We've kept you safe, and will continue to do so, but please," and there was just a hint of desperation there, one she couldn't hide, "please, tell me whatever you can. This has to stop."

[ironrule]

Malicant?

Unlike Aqua, Jintou was reluctant to say it out loud. He still remembered when only the first syllable could make lights flicker and the ground shudder.

"I - " Jintou stopped, cleared his throat. "I didn't know she hired them."

He didn't even know they still existed. He'd thought all the Malicant worshippers were just brainwashed, influenced by Malicant's power, high on Dust. With Malicant gone, shouldn't they have disappeared as well?

And she'd hired them. They were beyond dangerous, and she'd hired them anyway. Jintou felt a chill down his spine and stood up to work it off, pacing around the room with a nervous energy making his hands shake.

"She could have created them," he said. "The worshippers. She might be the reason they exist at all."

[aquanimity]

She. Again this mysterious woman, who had hired Jintou, who was sounding more and more like the one behind the muggings. But if she had hired... no, if she had created those who worshipped Malicant, then she was dangerous, and had to be stopped.

Aqua noticed the way Jintou's hands twitched as he spoke, the way he paced nervously around the room. Whoever it was, she scared him, badly.

"Who is she?" Aqua asked softly, gently. "If you can tell me anything at all, we can stop this."

[ironrule]

Jintou didn't stop pacing. Funny, really; he'd been trained not to show fear in combat. But this wasn't combat. This was... something else entirely. Something he'd nearly killed an innocent girl over, and something for which he would pay dearly if he didn't play his cards right.

He shook his head without thinking. "No."

Not a name. Not a description. No - nothing she could trace back to him. But...

"The muggings," he said after a moment. "The soul gems. Are they different?"

[aquanimity]

"You're afraid she'll find out you revealed information about her? That she'd come after you even here?" Whoever she was, Jintou feared her so much he wouldn't speak of her, not even a little, despite being in the safest place possible. In Aqua's mind, all the more reason to find her, and find her quickly. But pressing Jintou would do nothing.

But it wasn't a dead end, not when he asked about the soul gems. She hesitated for a moment. "Xion's is the same as it always has been," and the relief is evident in her voice, "but others haven't been as lucky. The more recent attacks... there have been changes."

And not for the better.

[ironrule]

Shit. She was getting better at it. Refining her method, whatever the hell that method was.

"What kind of changes?" Jintou asked slowly. He wasn't asking for himself; he didn't care. The Foreigners were the ones with the soul gems. He just wanted to prod Aqua in the right direction, get her thinking in the right way. "Are they different gems, or are they..." He paused. "Or are they cracked?"

Even that was probably too much, but whatever. Jintou was terrible at being subtle.

[aquanimity]

"Behaving... oddly. Like they were tampered with." Raine was one such victim, and her situation leapt to mind when Jintou asked about cracking. She fell silent for a moment, unsure if it was the right thing to mention, but relented. Careful not to mention Raine's name, she continued. "In at least one case, it sometimes fractures and repairs itself, but when the fractures appear, that's when it affects the Foreigner."

The soul gems were of great interest to Jintou, and Aqua wondered what he knew about them. What his angle was, with this line of questioning. Strange, she had come here to ask him questions, and found herself on the receiving end. But anything that might help was important.

She still needed to learn more about this mysterious woman, though. And if Jintou was focused on the soul gems, then perhaps....

"Is it possible that whoever hired you had a hand in those seven kedan who gained soul gems recently?" she asked.

[ironrule]

Jintou frowned. Huh? Re-fracturing? Was she still controlling the soul gems, even after she let them go?

"Maybe," he said absentmindedly, staring at the window. "Probably." Then he looked over at Aqua, blinking. "Wait. What?"

All of the air was suddenly gone from the room. Jintou leaped back onto his feet, stumbled to the side and nearly knocked over the vase of flowers on the side table. He caught it in just in time, slid it back into place, and spun to face Aqua. "She's done what?"

[aquanimity]

"You... you didn't know?" Milyn's broadcast had been public to all, even the kedan who bothered to check the consoles. That Jintou had missed such major news was alarming, though not nearly as much as his reaction to it. "There are seven kedan who now have soul gems, just like us Foreigners."

Really, Aqua hadn't thought terribly much of it; they were under Milyn's care, and with Milyn as the only kedan who still seemed to have the Foreigners' interests in her mind, Aqua trusted her. Yet Jintou's reaction was making her think twice about it. "Does it mean something, that they have soul gems? Is this woman... can she make soul gems?"

[ironrule]

"Apparently!" Jintou blurted. His heart was racing; he could feel it hammering in his chest. What if he had one? What if she'd slipped something to him without him noticing? What if there was an object he was carrying that, if he put it down absentmindedly one day, would result in his slow and torturous death?

... No. That was stupid. For one thing, he wasn't carrying any objects, and he'd already been in the Hotel for over a week. He was probably safe.

For now.

"No," he said. His voice was calmer, but his face was pale, almost grey. "I didn't know. It doesn't mean anything. Just - go away. Just go. She's cracked, it's all cracked, and I don't want to - "

- get anyone else hurt.

Jintou paused. Blinked. Tried saying that out loud. "I don't want to get anyone else hurt."

The words sounded weirdly Foreign on his tongue.

[aquanimity]

The outburst startled her a bit. She hadn't expected such an... intense reply to her question. Jintou was afraid, that was so very clear. The way his face drained, the vague sentences, everything. The idea of him having a soul gem frightened him, one manufactured by the woman who had hired him.

And he didn't want others to be hurt.

She let him sit in silence for a moment, gathering her own thoughts. He didn't want to talk, and she was loathe to press him further, but this was far too important. Aqua stepped closer to the man, and rested a hand gently on his shoulder.

"Then help me. Help me stop this. We can find her, and we can stop her. But as long as she remains free, the muggings won't end. You don't need to tell me her name, or what she looks like - I know that won't help at all - but... where did she meet you? How did she hire you?"

Anything at all, that wouldn't compromise his safety.

[ironrule]

Well, she didn't leave. But she didn't press either, not really. That was a relief. An oddly disappointing relief.

But that was the problem, wasn't it? That was why Jintou was so afraid. Sure, he was probably safe in the Hotel, but no one else was, and if he gave the woman who hired him even the slightest reason to think she was being threatened...

... it was really only a matter of time before she got back to him.

The touch on Jintou's shoulder startled him. He didn't shrug it off, though. Didn't encourage it, so she wouldn't come any closer, but he didn't shrug it off.

"I met her back when I was still with - " Jintou hesitated, clammed up out of habit, but the skeleton already mentioned this, didn't he? " - still with the Snakes. The gangs were giving us some trouble, and I was trying to find... no. She found me. She was our Lucid supplier."

[aquanimity]

Aqua hadn't expected that much from him. Just a location, not... not a history, a time when he'd met her exactly, a tangible lead. It wasn't much, but it was something, and more than she had realistically expected to get. She didn't know what Lucid was, or why the Snakes would have a supplier for it, but Jintou didn't need more questions now.

Surely she'd be able to find out about that without pushing him any further.

"Jintou." Aqua looked him directly in the eye. "Thank you. Really. And, I promise, you will be safe here. I won't let anyone come after you. I promise." She meant every word, speaking from the bottom of her heart. "We'll find her. We'll find her, and we'll stop her."

[ironrule]

Jintou nodded. He didn't believe it, not completely, but Aqua obviously did. For now, that would have to be enough.

It could be enough, couldn't it? The Foreigners weren't some hive mind with the same opinions and the same beliefs; they were as different from each other as the Families were. It had to be possible one of them would find the truth. It had to be.

"Shudder said the same thing," he managed. "And I haven't died yet. Keep that up, and eventually we'll have no choice but to take you at your word."

[aquanimity]

"Hopefully you'll find us to be trustworthy soon," Aqua replied, smiling gently. "Having those you trust; there's no greater feeling of safety." Such bonds were important, and even if distance came between them, it would always hold strong.

She rolled her shoulders in a stretch. "If anything new comes up about the soul gems, or the kedan who have them now, I'll let you know." It was a fair exchange, she felt. "You've helped, really. Again, thank you."

Aqua walked back to the door, pausing before she reached the handle. She turned back to Jintou. "Oh, yes, would you like something warm to drink? I can bring up a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, if you'd like. They're both very good."

[ironrule]

Helped. Right. Well, if they thought they could find a single Lucid supplier in all of Keeliai, more props to them.

He hesitated, staring. "I - " Why in the name of Eshai was she being so kind? This was completely unnecessary. She had what she wanted. Keeping Jintou safe was in her best interest, and in the best interests of most of the Foreigners. There wasn't any reason for... for this.

He couldn't even claim a false sense of security. They were trying to provide him with a real one.

"No," Jintou said eventually. "I'm fine. I'll get something for myself later."