[Midnight Hotel] Fourth-wall catch-all; 15-30 April 2016

[gistful]

Characters: Anyone, everyone.
Date: 15-30th April, 2016 (2017 in-game).
Location: The Midnight Hotel.
Situation: It’s the fourth-wall event and there’s a sudden influx of patrons! Feel free to use this post for anything that happens within the Midnight Hotel during the two weeks of the fourth-wall event, using the subject header to label specific rooms or for specific people. Regulars should feel free to continue using the non-fourth-wall Hotel post for pre-fourth-wall threads! See also the OOC note at the bottom.
Warnings/Rating: Mark your threads if content warnings become applicable, please!

Once more, it seems, the Dreaming has seen fit to lure in temporary residents. Luckily, the Hotel and its kedanese staff have done this before -- even accounting for the fact that it isn't exactly usual. If this goes on, they may start to predict the event!

It takes a day or so to sort things out, but once sorted the Hotel breaks out the same sleeping-bags as they had last time, and set aside as many areas of the common-room and even the lobby as sleeping areas. Any spare bed-rooms are also filled to the brim, though there aren't many of those these days.

The Hotel, like some of the other buildings around Keeliai, displays some occasional damage of the explosion-that-wasn't; in fact, seems to show it more obviously than most other places. Mostly it's cracks in frames or the smell of smoke in random areas, or some loose shingles; the worst that happens is the plumbing may be a bit unreliable until the wards can right themselves.

As before, Mr Shudder lets Foreigners without a soul-gem stay for free, as long as they follow the rules--which they are told upon entry. (Most notably, that's the 'no violence' rule.) Luckily, the new walk-in restaurant function means there's plenty to eat for everyone, and the cooking staff are on overtime this fortnight to make sure everyone is provided for.

Strangely, Mr Shudder himself is scarce for these two weeks. He does drop by in the evenings to make sure things are progressing well, but if anyone asks all he'll say is that some old friends have arrived and he and Erskine are helping them out elsewhere in the city. Anton will be around if anything untoward happens--but for the most part management is performed either by Anton's kedanese staff, or by Klaus von Reinherz.


[ooc: The Midnight Hotel’s status page is available here, with the rules at the top and ongoing status at the bottom. PLEASE PM ME IF YOUR CHARACTER WILL PERFORM A VIOLENT ACT. The Hotel is a neutral-zone and the proprietor is very strict as to acts of violence, and it will receive a response.

It will not be necessary for fourth-wall characters to officially check into the Hotel during the event.]

Comments

Have a Cat...and a Hound

[redlightgreenlight]

The cat thought he owned the place and Valdis was highly tempted to take the creature to Raine so she could lecture it on proper manners. At times, the cat seemed very polite, almost intelligently so, and at others it simply did what it wanted. She was sitting in a chair, reading the book she had recently acquired and keeping one eye on the fluffy animal.

Valdis mostly ignored the visitors, but the cat had different plans today. It leaped up onto a side table and sniffed at the teacup sitting there. Then a small, pink tongue flicked out as the cat licked the edge of the cup causing it to clink against the saucer.

[scryinghope]

There were a few people around the Hotel who were almost intrusive in their presence, though unintentionally so. They were just so large, or so old, or so filled with unbridled emotion. Luckily, this dimension seemed to damper the worst excess of what Hopeless could feel.

So Hopeless doesn't bat an eyelash when one of those people settles down in the commons, and instead goes around doing what he usually does, with a smile.

Until the cat decided his teacup belonged to it.

"You have a taste for tea, milk or honey, I see," he murmured with a smile, reaching out to let the cat sniff his fingers. It didn't quite feel like an ordinary cat, not that he could actually read animals' minds; mostly, he just had a sense that they were there. But he could almost feel thought in this cat's head. That was unusual.

This was an unusual place.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis looked up, irritated concern passing over her face as she saw the cat lick the teacup, but she didn't move. The fluffy creature's nose twitched once before he began sniffling the offered fingers. Valdis silently willed him to not bite, but she needn't have worried, for the cat simply began to purr and rubbed his cheek against the man's hand.

"I'll get you a new cup," she said softly, , "If you would like."

The cat looked at her with an oddly intelligent expression on his face, and, not for the first time, she wondered what it meant that the cat's eyes were the same color as hers.

[scryinghope]

"It's alright." Hopeless gave Valdis a smile. He knew her face, of course. She'd stuck in Ghastly's head ... and, of course, Anton's. Part of him was curious, about the 'hellhound' part, about what Anton knew of her background. The rest of him felt that there wasn't enough time for him to acclimatise and still be of help to Erskine.

He poured some more tea in the cup and shifted the honey and the milk closer, and asked the cat quite seriously: "Milk and honey?"

[redlightgreenlight]

The cat sniffed the cup again, then reached out a paw to tap the small pitcher of milk, the end of his tail flicking once. Valdis' eyes narrowed, focusing on the strange cat. He was certainly far more intelligent than any cat she had ever met.

"I'm not sure where he came from," she said, putting down her book, "But he does odd things quite often."

She still felt an odd sense of familiarity toward the cat, but she couldn't place him. Her gaze rose from the cat to the man.

"You're one of Anton's friends, aren't you?"

[scryinghope]

"Milk." Hopeless nodded as if it was every day that he spoke to a cat, and picked up the milk. Again, he hadn't caught thought--but it seemed there was thought there. "Meow when."

He looked up at Valdis with a gentle smile, the sort in his eyes. "Yes. I'm Hopeless. And you're Valdis. Ghastly mentioned you." In a ... roundabout way. "Thank you--for taking care of Anton."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis didn't find it entirely odd that a friend of Anton's would know her name, but his name was quite strange. At his thanks she shook her head.

"It's less me taking care of him and more him taking care of me."

She looked at the cat as she spoke. There was something strange about him, something unsettling, but when the cat mewed loudly, she looked up to meet Hopeless' eyes. Anton had saved her life more than once and she couldn't remember a single time she had helped him.

[scryinghope]

Hopeless stopped pouring the tea, but without looking down, borrowing Valdis's gaze secondhand to ensure nothing spilled. It was an eerie effect.

"Is it?" he asked, picking up a spoon and stirring the tea for the cat, still without breaking Valdis's gaze. "Anton needs to have someone to look after. After a while, transient acquaintances aren't enough. And he needs someone to be there as an oversight, so he doesn't push himself too far. You do that too."

[redlightgreenlight]

"I'm afraid that human bonds are still a bit foreign to me. I don't understand his...affection." She shrugged, looking down, "I feel it, I know it's there and it's reciprocated, but it makes very little sense."

The cat looked up at Hopeless as he stirred the tea, its head tipped to the side, regarding the man with an almost intelligent gaze. Valdis sat back, her gaze locked on Hopeless', a bit like a dog evaluating a potential threat. Except this man wasn't a threat and she knew that, but he still gave her an odd feeling. And apparently she wasn't the only one. Taking a breath, she felt that familiar pressure in her mind. The Void drawn by curiosity, was peering at the man through her eyes.

We see you. It hissed.

[scryinghope]

"Humans don't understand affection," Hopeless said wryly. "It's very nonsensical. But it's good, a lot of the time, and Anton is better at it than most." Anton knew where the lines were better than most people--or could at least see them more clearly.

The Void's words cut through whatever facet of this dimension which had been dulling its presence, unintentionally direct. Hopeless's eyes tightened, his pupils dilating ever so slightly, and he quietly put down the spoon. To Valdis, his scent might change--not with fear, just with adrenaline. Where before his emotions blended unobtrusively with the rest of the people in the commons, a result of the way he let them flow over him as background noise, now his own were a little more deliberately forefront. Firm, and unafraid.

"I see you, parasite," he said quietly, staring into Valdis's eyes, but through her to her ride-along. Despite his words, his demeanour remained relaxed, if upright, his hands folded on his lap.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Why do you think he's..."

Valdis heard it and confusion passed through her eyes. The Void only spoke like that when it knew that others could hear it and the change in Hopeless' emotional state indicated that he had indeed heard. Her eyes narrowed, had she been a hound, she would have been bristling, not at Hopeless, but focused internally, at the Void. The creature seemed quite surprised by the man's lack of suitable reaction and retreated, uncertain of what it was facing. Valdis closed her eyes and shook her head.

"It doesn't usually talk to people."

Anani abandoned the teacup, walking over to where Valdis sat and gracefully leaping into her lap. Valdis started, not expecting the cat to land on her, and almost shoved him off in dismay. But he simply licked hiss lips clean of residual tea and began to purr. She looked back at Hopeless.

"You're the mind reader, aren't you."

[scryinghope]

"I've a habit of knowing things," Hopeless said with a faint smile. One or two of the kedan nearest heard and their minds rippled surprise and uncertainty, and Hopeless said nothing else until they decided they'd misheard or misunderstood, and sidled off.

"He's better at it," Hopeless went on, answering the question Valdis had never finished as if the Void hadn't interrupted them at all, "because he understands the things that make genuine love so difficult are usually mirages, and can see the things that twist love into something awful for what they are. It's been a long time since Anton could be blinded by emotion."

Hopeless smile came more wryly. "He can still be taken by emotion, but he generally knows that it's happening. Most people can't say that."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis began to stroke the cat, smoothing down his fluff with absentminded gentleness. Anton trusted Hopeless, but she couldn't shake the wariness she had of him. She didn't particularly like that he could be in her head and she wouldn't know. At least when she was in someone's head, they knew, even if they didn't like it...not that that made it better.

"I wish I could agree with you," she replied, "But I'm an empath, I can feel the gist, I feel the fluctuations in its anger, I can feel Anton fighting with it."

She sighed, "Perhaps he isn't blinded by emotion, but it concerns me. I can't fight the gist for him, and if he loses...well, the gist has killed me before and I fear that the only way I could stop it, is the one thing I could never do."

[scryinghope]

"And you understand so much about emotion?" Hopeless asked with a gentle, if prodding smile. "Most humans have emotions. I've met people without emotion before, and they ... they're not the same. They aren't any more effective for not having them. Anton is better at love than most because of the gist--because he understands the sacrifices, and he understands when the challenges can't be let to get in the way."

Hopeless reached for the teapot and poured another cup without minding that a cat had just been using it. "You should be concerned," he said, "because he is having trouble. But he's had trouble before. Don't let your concern help you mistake Anton for not being good at what he is. He's been it for over five hundred years, after all."

[redlightgreenlight]

"Just because I feel something, doesn't mean I understand what drives it," she replied, "And I'm not human, not all your rules apply to my kind," A pause, "though it would be far easier if they did."

Like death, or power, or emotions. But even then, she wasn't even sure what she was anymore. Valdis sighed, Anani looking up at her with annoyance when she stopped petting him.

"I know that Anton is good at what he does, but as you said, he has been doing it a long time and he isn't immortal. Eventually..."

Small, sharp fangs dug into her arm, pinching the skin, but not drawing blood. Valdis gasped, almost shoving the cat off her again, but Anani abandoned ship before she could. Turning to face her, the cat coughed and hissed, almost as if he was scolding her for being so negative.

[scryinghope]

Hopeless hid a smile behind his cup of tea. Read the cat's thoughts directly, he couldn't do--but he could read body language, and could guess what that was about.

"I think what Anani means to say," he said, "is that you may be overthinking the present with fears of the future. People die, Valdis. Some will live for much, much longer than others, but people still die." Now there's an emotion on his part, one that rises above the background noise of the rest--aching sorrow, tinged with resigned acceptance. "Don't taint what you have now with fears of what's to come. When the future finally does arrive, it will make the aftermath more of a burden."