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

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene could tell what Skul was doing, and he was only going to give out exactly as much information as was necessary, and not a whit more.

"All the battles I was a part of were won," he said, entirely neutral. They hadn't been won without struggle and pain and fear made real, but they'd been won.

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery nodded. "That's good. Won without scarring, I hope."

And no, he does not mean the physical kind. He's going to get you to tell him what happened, Gene, and the only choice you have in the matter is how painfully long the conversation becomes.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene smirked a bit then, a defense mechanism, like a cat puffing up its fur. "No battle is won without scarring."

You wanna dance? Let's dance, Skul.

[skeletonenigma]

"And yet," said Skulduggery, "you don't have a scratch on you. Which means you can't be talking about physical scars."

He's been dancing for over four hundred years. It's going to take more than clever comebacks to dodge his questioning, Gene.

[wrathfulkhan]

"None I like to show off."

You know what they say about assumptions, Skul. You make an ass out of yourself, and mumptions.

Also he's not going to admit he was mentally scarred in that battle. No sirree!

[skeletonenigma]

"No one likes to show off scars," Skulduggery agreed, nodding. "Not without an ulterior goal in mind, which, more often than not, unfortunately involves impressing someone. You've never been overly concerned with impressing me, so you can rest assured I won't be impressed. If, however, something happened which you need help interpreting or handling, I'd prefer to know about it in advance, whether I can be of help or not. The last thing you want is to be blindsided by someone else's disappearance."

[wrathfulkhan]

Quint and co. would disagree.

Gene was a little bit stung by the comment - and the implication that he couldn't handle it on his own, which he'd been doing fine all his life - and dropped his guard just long enough for a flash of irritation to show on his face.

"I don't need any help interpreting what happened," he snapped. "It was clear enough."

[skeletonenigma]

"Whether I can be of help," Skulduggery repeated, "or not. If you're confident what happened in the Dreaming will stay in the Dreaming, fair enough. If there's a chance it won't, keeping it to yourself does much more harm than good."

And there was definitely a chance it wouldn't. Gene's irritation alone was testament to that.

[wrathfulkhan]

"It will," Gene said, a little angrily, mostly because he had been trying his damnedest not to think about it, and it was still raw, very raw.

"It's over. Malicant's dead, and it's over."

[skeletonenigma]

Ah, to be that young again. Skulduggery once made a similar assumption mistake during the war, and it cost him his life. No reason not to be objective now, of course.

"It's never over," he disagreed. "Even if Malicant were dead, which I doubt, something else will take his place. Something else will test your patience. Something else will require you to fight. The only common denominator is going to be you, and you owe it to yourself to make sure you're up to the task."

[wrathfulkhan]

"I'll be up to the task. I'm fine. I'm fine."

Gene wasn't about to discuss this. Not with someone who left. Not with someone who said he'd be there, and left all the same. The people who knew about what happened already were the only people he cared to have know about the situation.

Solomon had left. Skul had left. And Gene was not about to make himself vulnerable twice.

[skeletonenigma]

God, he was more stubborn than Valkyrie was. Some neurosis ran very deep. Skulduggery watched Gene, weighing his options, trying to decide both which would work the most efficiently and which one he had enough patience for.

"Gene," he started. Then he changed his mind at the last second and inclined his head. "Alright."

Tony likely knew. As long as he remained in Keeliai, Skulduggery would content himself with trusting Gene and keeping an eye on things from afar.

[wrathfulkhan]

You sure you don't just attract the stubborn ones, Skul? Like moths to a very bony flame.

Gene looked like he'd been about to argue, and Skul could probably quite nearly see the bellicose train of thought slamming on the brakes and jumping the tracks as he attempted to account for this new information.

"...that's it?" he asked, a little confused. "You're just going to drop it?"

Not that he minded, of course. But having his wishes respected by someone in 'authority', even an authority as unofficial as Skul's, was...unusual. And unprecedented.

[skeletonenigma]

Ah. That sort of neurosis.

"Unless you're more comfortable with my persisting," Skulduggery said with a shrug. "You're here, and you clearly haven't lost your mind. For me, that's enough."

[wrathfulkhan]

"I was merely confused." And truth be told, he doesn't trust this one bit. It's not like Skul to drop a thread so quickly.

No matter what you do, you're gonna make him paranoid.

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery nodded. "Aren't we all."

He knew he was confused a good deal of the time, and his naturally gifted intelligence doubtlessly meant everyone else was confused a great deal more of the time.

There wasn't much in the way of small talk after a conversation like that, so Skulduggery settled for a companionable silence - the sort of companionable silence whereby Gene was perfectly free to leave with no hard feelings, but that company would be appreciated as well.

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene sat there for as long as it took for the awkwardness to stop being quite so awkward before getting up and mumbing a goodbye. If Skul wanted to say anything else, now would be the time.