The Midnight Hotel January catch-all

[gistful]

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

The Midnight Hotel was among the few buildings which showed no sign of having been damaged by the invasion six months ago. That followed, of course; the Hotel hadn't even been present. But either way it stood out, and many of the kedan knew by now that the building, so different from the architecture of the rest of the city, was a safe-haven. Too many mistook it as a Foreigner safe-haven alone, but not all; even now there was usually one or two kedan present.

Some of them were gang-members, ones with whom Anton had forged closer relationships before the Foreigners' year-long disappearance or simply those who chose to visit in defiance of the general public's opinion.

Anton had taken great pains to give the Foreigners structure and normalcy. While the means of payment were, in some cases, not much more than an illusion, he gave as much in the way of purpose as he could. As a result there were now many Foreigners on staff at the Hotel, though of course the rules were still in strict effect. Anton himself was readily available at most given moments if needed for assistance, questions or otherwise.

There was also an oddity in the lobby: a construction in one of the corners where a long bank of three public consoles was being built. The Metalworkers responsible for its construction were generally taciturn and more concerned with their work than with interactions, but they didn't seem worried about being observed or by the close proximity of the Foreigners.


[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. Anton will manufacture means of payment until Foreigners are able to properly offer recompense or choose to move out, so you can assume they're 'paying' in some method.

If you have a specific job for your character to do around the Hotel (eg working the kitchen, security, house chores) please also note that so I can keep track of Anton's casual staff.]

Comments

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"Yeah, I've been staying in my room the last few days mostly. No one seems to know why I'm here, since the war with the archdemon is over, and the person in charge of summoning is apparently dead.

"Coordinating a force that counts among its ranks a power-armored engineer and a talking skeleton against some unfathomably powerful being would have been fun, I think. Too bad I missed it."

[highprofilerichkid]

"Guess she set up the Magical Hero Claw Machine to run on its own in case something put her out of commission during the war. And now that she's gone, no one knows how to shut it off. Or reverse it.

"But 'fun' is not exactly how I would describe it," he says wryly. "Maybe if there had been a lot more actual fighting and a lot less dream fighting and weird psychic battles of will. I hardly even needed to use the armor."

He can't deny it: a good old-fashioned knock-down-drag-out firefight can be fun. What can he say? He's an adrenaline junkie. But battles that take place in the mind, or in dreams, or in really any realm other than the physical? Nah. No thanks. Pass. Tony would rather have his ass kicked into next week in a physical fight than have someone messing around in his head.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"Hmm," Sonja replied. The thought didn't particularly appeal to her either. The moment got a bit quiet, and Sonja sensed that it might be time to end the conversation.

"So, I should leave you to it then. Thanks." She bowed awkwardly and started to turn away.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Oh. Uh, okay?" That was all rather abrupt. "I can bring it up to you when I'm done - or you can hang out, if you want. You're not going to be distracting; this is pretty simple stuff."

She may not want to stay, but Tony doesn't want to chase her out or anything. He doesn't usually mind having company while he's working. If he needed privacy, he'd work up in his and Gene's room.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

Sonja stopped short. "Are- are you sure? I just thought-" I thought I sufficiently proved how terrible I am and thought to remove myself from the vicinity.

She half turned, and took an awkward half-step back. "I-if you're sure, I mean I can just leave you alone." He didn't seem to be irritated or anything, but maybe he was just really good at hiding it. He seemed really polite. She was kind of interested in the armor.

"Where should I-" she half-asked, looking around the room at everywhere but the bench across from Tony.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Hey, if I can work with Pepper in the room, nothing can distract me," he jokes. "You're fine."

He doesn't seem to notice her indecision over seating because he's already turned his attention to the phone. He opens the back and pops out the battery, peers at it for a second, then sets it aside and starts working on the tiny screws holding the rest of the phone together.

"So where are you from? Some version of Earth? That seems to be the most common place people get pulled from - though mostly from alternate universes."

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

Sonja finally picks a spot on an adjacent bench and sits down.

"Ah, I come from Wars World, but 'earth' would probably not be incorrect. I'd wager that earth is such a basic nondescript word that most people would identify it as their native plane, given the automatic translation property of this place." That is, unless that home plane was primarily composed of some other element such as water, or they were birthed in the sun, or perhaps the world was composed of heavy metals? Unlikely, but possible.

"The same way that a culture generally just refers to others by that foreign nations word for 'people' or how you might categorize foreign methods of baking water and flour by that place's word for 'bread'."

[highprofilerichkid]

"Well, yeah, I guess so, but a lot of people come from an 'Earth' with a similar history. It's definitely the same world, but in different variations. Stuff like, uh, the Roman Empire and the French Revolution and colonizing the Americas and the World Wars... The big events are the same, but the details are different. And then there's people like Sokka and Katara and Zuko: they're all from the same world, and it's not the usual 'Earth.'"

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"None of those things sounds familiar to me, well, besides the 'world wars' part, but I think that might fall into the generic title thing again," Sonja said. She also silently noted this 'Zuko', whom she hadn't met before, was from the same world as Katara and Sokka.

"Zuko. Another 'bender'?"

[highprofilerichkid]

"That probably means you're not from any recognizable version of my Earth, then."

Though he hasn't been keeping a precise score, Tony's pretty sure that puts her in the minority. Not that that's a bad thing: in a lot of ways, it seems like it might be less jarring and confusing when you're the only one from your world. It can be seriously uncanny when you're talking to someone from another version of your world and you stumble across one of the differences.

"Yep. Fire." Tony's seen Zuko's firebending in action. It's very awesome. "Have you met Katara already?"

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"I've seen her practicing down by the river. She always looks busy, so I haven't had a chance to say 'hi' or anything. I have met Sokka though, the strange multidimensional jack-of-all trades."

Being some type of multidimensional being was the only way Sonja could figure out how you can be 'half' of six different things.

"He's nice. I don't think I made a very good impression on him."

[highprofilerichkid]

"He probably didn't take it personally. He's a chill guy," Tony assures her.

"I don't know Katara all that well either, but Sokka hangs out with me in the lab a lot. Or, used to." Ouch.

Now she's piqued his curiosity, though, and after a slight pause, he asks, "what did you do, anyway?"

He's got to know how the newbie managed to make a bad impression on one of the most easygoing guys on the turtle.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"Well I was kind of... spying. On Katara. When we met. It was very innocent! As far as spying goes, I mean. There was nothing nefarious planned, I just like having forward intelligence, you see. It makes it easier to meet new people when you have the upper hand. I mean, you know- when there are fewer unknowns."

Oh dear, that sounded much better in her head.

"Magic powers make me kind of uneasy."

Yes good, that one was kind of true and was more socially acceptable to justify deviant behavior.

[highprofilerichkid]

"...Okay, I won't lie, that's a little weird." And sounds, again, exactly like something Pepper would do. (For some reason, he finds himself thinking that a lot around here. Probably because many of the foreigners, like Pepper, are strange and alarming people.)

"But I know what you mean about the magic. It took me a while to get used to it, too. And Skul was one of the first people I met on the network, so... that was interesting."

Then he glances over at her and smirks. "How much reconnaissance did you do on me?"

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

Sonja tilted her head a bit at imagining a fedorah-wearing skeleton sitting at a computer, blogging.

"Skulduggery was the second foreigner I met, so I suppose that was a bit like pulling the bandaid off. After that its just been unsettling."

"As for you... well not too much," Sonja admitted. "Necessity and all." She gestured at the phone.

Skul blogging is a beautiful image that I will treasure forever

[highprofilerichkid]

"Yeah, the responses to my first network message were, uh... unsettling in just about every way possible. Better to get it all over with at once, huh?" He chuckles, and adds, "Though this place is pretty good at dishing out new surprises."

His smirk widens. "Oh, really? It felt like everybody knew who I was when I got here - it's nice to be mysterious for once. Unless 'obtuse' is the same thing as mysterious. Because I get that a lot." He's joking. Sort of.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"You get a lot of people telling you that 'obtuse' means 'mysterious'?" Maybe he meant that he gets called 'obtuse' a lot but he pretends it means 'mysterious'? That would be rather obtuse though. Did he get called 'mysterious' a lot but think it meant 'obtuse'? That would conflict with the first sentence, where he said that everyone knew him.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Uh, no— I mean... it was a joke," Tony replies lamely. He looks embarrassed.

It's always bad when he has to explain his jokes. And that wasn't even an obscure science joke! It just wasn't funny, apparently.

sonja is pretty sure she is right even though she is totally wrong

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"It might work better if you learn the proper definitions of 'obtuse' and 'mysterious', because then you wouldn't get them mixed up," Sonja offered.

[highprofilerichkid]

"I know what they mean, the joke was that..." Just cut your losses, Tony. It wasn't that good of a joke to begin with. "...Never mind."

He clears his throat. "Can you pass me that tray over there?" He points to a small dish of tiny metallic odds and ends that's on her side of the table. Yes, Tony, distract her with mundane tasks. "So... how are you liking Keeliai so far?" Forced small talk. Marginally better.

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"Uh, sure." Sonja looked around to make sure she was looking at what he was pointing at, and then passed it on.

"Keeliai is- well as far as involuntary prisons go, its nice."

[highprofilerichkid]

"Yeah, there are definitely worse ones. For starters, there's no giant centipede aliens here, and it's not an endless void. And I don't think it's a huge computer simulation created to trick us into giving up all our secrets."

Another joke, which also has the benefit of being completely true and based in actual experience. Tony pauses thoughtfully, then adds:

"...And now that I've said that, I suddenly like Keeliai a lot more."

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

Those were awfully specific examples. Has he actually been...? If so, Sonja marveled at how good-humored and well adjusted he was, considering his experiences.

"It's a tourist trap compared to some of those," Sonja admitted. "Still, if I would have liked to have some spending money before I got brought here. Maybe I'd actually be enjoying myself."

[highprofilerichkid]

(If anything was going to damage his good humor and well-adjustedness, it wouldn't be the centipede monsters and computer simulations, Sonja. It would be the time he was orphaned and critically injured in a horrible plane crash, and had to be kept alive with experimental, untested medical technology.)

"Not having money sucks," Tony agrees, with the indignant vehemence of someone who has never until now dealt with a budget involving fewer than six zeros. "Not having work to do sucks." He sighs and puts his chin in his hand and looks mournful. "I'm so bored."

[sonjaofyellowcomet]

"I miss video games the most. And my library. It was a very good library."

Reading and writing three languages wasn't helpful in a totally alien world full of other aliens.