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

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

Characters: Anyone, everyone.
Date: 15-30th April, ‘2016’.
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!

The Midnight Hotel is a magical place—which is fortunate, because Keeliai has magically doubled the number of patrons the Hotel is capable of holding. Where else is capable of catering to an extra fifty Foreigners? the kedan say. Where else would want to?

Unfortunately, for all the Hotel’s many qualities and all the proprietor’s many skills, he can’t conjure up enough rooms for fifty extra people on no notice.

The solution: giant slumber party.

For the next two weeks the ground-floor common-area and the dining-area beside the garage have been repurposed as sleeping areas. Blankets, sheets, pillows, bean-bags, sleeping-bags—Mr Anton Shudder has gone, quite literally, to town in order to cater to the new arrivals. No one is going to be uncomfortable, except by the prospect of sleeping so close to strangers—but there isn’t much to be done about that. The very few rooms still available have been reserved for those who well and truly require the privacy.

Catering is a little more difficult. Suffice to say Mr Shudder is outsourcing for a good part of the fortnight.

On the plus side, Mr Shudder is gracious enough to let those without a soul-gem stay for free. As long as, of course, they Follow The Rules, which are told to every newcomer nearly as soon as they’re welcomed through the door.

Although Anton does attend the festival, he can be regularly found throughout the Hotel for anyone who has questions or concerns. He will, most of the time, be dogged by a bouncy fellow with an indefatigable grin, and it won’t be uncommon to hear variations of the following conversation:

“Hey, Anton—”

“No.”

“You didn’t even—”

“No.”

“Excuse me, I was just going to say—”

“Absolutely not.”

“Anton, hey Anton, hey hey Anton?”

“No.”

And so it goes.

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The delight started in the back of Larrikin's throat as a high-pitched whine and burst out as some combination of a squeal and a whoop. He tackled her in a hug and spun her around, still squealing but now laughing at once.

"I knew it! I knew that impotence excuse was just an excuse!" The spin ended but Larrikin only yanked her in to hug her hard. "That makes you my sister-in-law!"

Raine realized exactly what she had said wrong about two seconds after she'd said it, blamed her tendency to ignore species in favor of simply referring to the hatchlings as children. Unfortunately, she hadn't the time to correct herself before she was yanked off her feet. "Put me down," she demanded, not quite shrill, and was a little unsteady on her feet once he had.

"I'm afraid I've given you the wrong idea," she said in a moment, when she realized that she was not getting out of the hug under her own power. "Ryder's not a human child. He's a hatchling, of the same species as the turtle on which we stand; he was very particular about his choice in parents, however." Had practically shoved her into the Hotel, in fact, which she was still thankful for.

Larrikin's body, quivering with joy and excitement, slumped as it deflated. "He's not a daddy?" he asked plaintively in her ear, or where her ear would be if there wasn't hair there, and pulled back, his disappointment written hugely on his face. "But he deserves to be a daddy! He loves taking care of people!"

Wait. Not a human child, and apparently he hadn't managed to have some bedly fun with this very attractive woman, but ... there was a child involved. "So this Ryder turtle hatchling adopted the two of you?"

Larrikin mulled that over and then beamed and hugged her again. "I can accept that! Does that mean you and him are still a you-and-him? Cos he's really earned a bit of joy between the bedsheets."

"He does very well at it," Raine said, a little dry now that her composure was recovered. As recovered as it could be while being enthusiastically embraced by a man who hadn't even introduced himself. "Yes, Ryder adopted both of us in turn. He took his time about it -- I was caring for him on my own for about a month -- but apparently Anton was worth waiting for. I don't disagree with Ryder's assessment, either."

She did feel a little bad for having evidently got his hopes up, but that vanished as soon as he hugged her again. "Let go, please," she said, firmly, not unkindly. "Anton is not the man I'm courting, no. He's a solid ally and a good friend, but no more than that to me."

"Anton is definitely worth waiting for," Larrikin said, his voice muffled again before he pulled back with a heaving sigh. "Oh, alright. At least Mr Handsome Man Krei still seems to be a good bet."

He patted Raine on the cheek. "Buuut if you ever need some tips for you handsome man, just let me know! I know all the tricks."

With a wink and a grin he finally stepped back and gave her some measure of breathing space, stretching. "And the quest continues!"

"I think," Raine said, with great delicacy, "that we can manage on our own." She was absolutely not talking about the intimate details of her relationship with this man. There was, in fact, no one she would like to talk about that with save perhaps Solomon himself.

She appreciated the breathing space, truly. Raine took a moment to look him over again, extended her hand in a slightly more formal gesture of greeting. "I'm Raine Sage; I'm a healer, primarily. Your quest to find Anton a suitable partner, I take it? Has that also lasted centuries?"

"The one and only Rover Larrikin!" He took her hand and gave her a surprisingly chaste and gallant kiss on the back of her knuckles, partly because it was barely a brush of his lips before he straightened up with a grin. It was a fun courtesy, rather than any seduction.

"You have no idea. I've known him for ... uh ... I dunno, four centuries? At first I was quite happy to have him all to myself, buuuuut ... " He shrugged, a sweeping shrug with arms out at his sides. "I got married."

Alright, so the marriage was a front for a party, but Larrikin also wasn't as interested in sex as he was in hugs and cuddles. He knew why Anton wasn't a hugger. He wasn't a hugger because it reminded him of his blood family, back when they all slept on the floor of a tiny hovel and Anton slept curled around the youngest of them. It was too painful. Whenever they had to share a bed and wound up in a compromising position, Larrikin got shoved out. Therefore, Anton needed someone he wouldn't want to shove out of his bed, and that someone couldn't be someone who reminded him of a younger brother like Larrikin did, and that meant someone Anton had never had before--a lover.

She raised an eyebrow at the gesture, but it was innocent enough, and didn't merit other comment. "A pleasure to meet you," she said. She hoped. "I'm sure I don't know most of it; Anton isn't much inclined to speak of his personal history, though he's been quite helpful with my queries about your world." A pause for thought, then, giving the idea slightly more consideration than she initially had. That long sounded like a bit more than a passing whim. Probably. "You seem particularly determined on this front. Why is that?"

"He doesn't like hugs," Larrikin explained, as if that was an affront that needed to be rectified. "He doesn't like hugs from his brothers and he probably doesn't like hugs from sisters, and since he claims he can't have children I have no idea whether he likes hugs from children. So I need to find him a lover so he can enjoy hugs."

It made absolute, perfect sense. If you were Rover Larrikin, or knew him well enough to understand his mind.

Especially when he ruined it a moment later by winking and slinging an arm over Raine's shoulders. "So you say you can manage on your own, but that's no reason not to get the goods when you've got the opportunity! Really. I know lots, and every couple has something they're trying to figure out. What's your pleasure, Madam Lady Healer Sage?"

"Not everyone is as given to physical affection," Raine pointed out. But, then again, the short list of people she generally wanted hugs from encompassed her brother and her lover, so perhaps Rover had a point. "But I... suppose that makes sense."

And then he had his arm over her shoulders, and that was tolerable enough, no worse than Zelos, but his line of inquiry had her losing the fight against the rising color in her cheeks. Absolutely not. "Raine," she said, firmly, "I get enough of that from him--"

The problem was, come to think of it, that there actually was something. Raine closed her eyes for a moment, sighed, and then proceeded as though she was not slowly turning pink. "...specifically, knots," she said, resigned. "He has a preference for being restrained; I have a preference for not hurting him with it."

"Ooh, one of the best kinds!" Except not, at least as far as Larrikin was concerned. Well, there was nothing wrong with it, but Larrikin had experienced too many times being tied up by people who didn't know what they were doing, and worse didn't care they didn't know what they were doing. That kind of took the fun out of it.

All in all he preferred being on the giving end, because at least then he could control the proceedings.

Larrikin held up a finger. "I'll be back in a jiffy, don't go away!"

With that he rushed out of the kitchen, picked the lock on Anton's room and rifled through his knitting bag before returning with a ball of Anton's wool. He pushed it into Raine's hands. "Show me what you're doing on the loose end."

Raine genuinely considered going away.

But learning was learning, no matter her embarrassment, and if the opportunity had been dropped in her lap she supposed it was irresponsible not to take advantage. So long as she could never bring up the fact of having had this conversation with anyone, ever again. Thus Raine was still in the kitchen when Larrikin returned, and she took the yarn from him with an expression of deep skepticism. "Is Anton going to be missing this later?"

Nevertheless, Raine stretched out a length of the wool and did as instructed, in simple, inelegant knots. "I already know I don't have the optimal skillset," she said, her tone dry. "This was not something I ever anticipated."

"I'll put it back," said Larrikin dismissively, waving his hand. Sans a few feet, but whatever. He held up a finger. "But it's important to know what you're doing in the interim. You took the wool without a thought, didn'tcha? Bad. Baaad." He shook his head sadly. "Material is just as important as the actual knots. What do you use usually?"

Since neither of them were tying the other up, the wool would do to show her how to actually tie the knots, but it also made a really good point for everything else.

"I spared it at least one thought," Raine said, not all that affronted. She sighed once more, eying Larrikin rather than the wool in her hands. "'Usually' is somewhat of an overstatement; we hadn't had much chance to explore before-- well. There was a magical accident, recently." Why was she discussing this with someone she'd only just met, again? "Previously, I had, ah, repurposed one of his ties, and I had meant to find something--" Raine broke off there, before she could audibly lose any more composure.

"Ooooh." Larrikin grinned, and this time it was a lazy, knowing grin. "So much more useful than their usual purpose, don'tcha think? If they're silk ties they'll be fine. Strong, without sliding too much once they're tied. Otherwise, thick cotton or even satin will do for the light stuff."

For all his teasing, Larrikin didn't dwell on the tease and went straight on with the necessities. The teases seemed to be some combination of habit and solidarity, more than anything else. And the magical accident? Psh. More reason to give them cause to have some fun.

He took back the wool, glanced around and grabbed a chair, sitting on the counter with his feet on the seat so he could reach the chair's back. "The first thing is to leave a bit of leeway," he said, wrapping the wool unbound around the top of one of the chair's back-rods. "See? That's too tight. Leave space for two fingers to keep from cutting off circulation. More, if the restraint's wet for some reason."

She'd gone mostly bright pink by now, a shade usually reserved for Solomon, but to her credit by the time she spoke again she'd resumed her usual level cadence. "I'll keep that in mind."

When Larrikin moved Raine followed, intent; if the more intimate details of her relationship were being discussed, and that was now unavoidable, she was going to gain as much as she could from the experience. "Understood," she said, mostly only to indicate that she'd heard. The greater portion of her attention was occupied observing and keeping mental notes. "That makes sense, yes."

"And you have to keep checking," Larrikin said cheerfully, unrolling a length of wool several feet in length and flicking open a drawer beneath him to pull out a knife and cut it on the counter. "Snip! Especially if he's been tied up for a while--really, the last thing you want is for him to get all stiff. Well, any part of him other than the obvious, I mean."

Larrikin winked and straightened out the wool. "Now. Wanna learn how to make a handcuff, or wanna learn a couple of safe and proper knots?"

He earned half a laugh from Raine, not quite outright. He was growing on her. "Of course," she said, with a short nod. "And-- hm. Unless you have somewhere pressing to be in the near future, both. The latter first." Finding Genis hadn't been an immediately important task, only a passing inquiry, and she herself had no appointments nor duties at the Guild at the moment. Perhaps, in fact, it would be fortunate in the long term that she hadn't succeeded in her initial quest.

"I can be anywhere pressing in a moment," Larrikin said innocently, and with the same knife cut another length of wool. "Snip! Alrighty." He handed one length of wool to Raine and deftly tied a knot in his and lifted it so she could see. "This is a reef or a square knot. It's for tying two ends together and it's really easy for beginners."

He turned it over so she could see both sides. "The knot sits flat so it's not a bulge, at least not the wrong type of bulge." With a practiced press he undid the knot so he could re-do it more slowly, so she could see. "Give it a try."

Did he mean something more by that? He probably did. Raine elected to ignore any innuendo in favor of the task at hand. She'd tied knots before, of course, and in the process had produced something that looked like this one, but never on purpose. She studied the shape of it, and Larrikin's motions as he re-did the knot, and when he had done returned to the length of yarn in her hands.

"I believe I see." She mimicked his motions precisely the first time, nodded to herself, then promptly undid and re-did it, with the wrong direction the second time. There was intent about it, though: Raine was looking to be able to identify why and how she was likely to misstep. This process she iterated a few times before stopping in the correct form, and looking back up to Larrikin.

"You're thorough," Larrikin observed, and gave her a smile that was almost a beam, but was somehow more genuine and appreciative than usual. "I like that. I bet your boy likes that too. Now, the French bow-line!"

He shook out the wool and showed her another knot. "This is a good one because it's got the extra loop, see? That stops the knot from tightening when it's pulled, so it'll keep your boy right where you want him without the knot doing some damage over time when you're both too busy having fun to watch 'em closely."

Her 'boy' was some four hundred years elder, but this was not a clarification currently worth making. Raine let that slide, instead smiled back. There was something about his smile, a shift in attitude perhaps, that made her glad for his approval, and that in itself was an odd thing. She moved on. "Thorough saves lives," she said, by way of explanation, and paid close attention once more.

She un-knotted her wool, pulling it between her fingers till she was satisfied it was smooth again, and repeated much the same process for this knot. She tested it with several tugs, was pleased when it performed as described. "Yes, I can see how that would be useful."

"That it does," said Larrikin cheerfully. "That's why Anton's so thorough. Although he can be thorough with killing people, but that can save lives too!" He shook out his wool again. "This one's a half hitch knot. Don't use it on his wrists--it tightens really easily and would wind up hurting him. On the other hand ..."

Larrikin demonstrated on the chair's back and gave a good tug. "It's great for tying him to things," he said. "He'll find it hard to get away from a bedpost or chair, if this knot's keeping him there."

"So I've observed." Larrikin would get no argument from her on the front of Anton's thoroughness. Raine imitated the knot, tugged, and was not disappointed. "Understood; nonliving objects only." There she paused, not yet returning her attention to Larrikin, in favor of straightening her yarn out again and reviewing, one by one, the knots they'd been through thus far. It was still new knowledge, after all, and would require study to be sure she had it solidly. And practice. When she came back to the half-hitch she repeated that, too, before looking up. "May I ask why, exactly, you're being so helpful?"

"Oh, is there a reason I shouldn't be?" Larrikin demanded mock-angrily. "Are you one of those healers who calls themselves a healer and then goes around experimenting on people? There was one of them in the war, you know. Not human. Called itself Doctor Nye, but really, it was just out to examine things."

Larrikin shuddered and then relaxed his not-anger with a flashing grin. "Everyone deserves to have some bedly fun without ignorance getting in the way. Or worse, hurting someone. Especially ladies. Ladies, like yourself, society likes to think are even less good at controlling their urges then the men. You know, with all that 'hysteria' idiocy?"

He made quote marks with his fingers and rolled his eyes. "The only reason ladies are ignorant is because men keep them ignorant. That's dumb. Nothing can be done right if half the involved party aren't given enough rope--heh--to work themselves."

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

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cw: mild kinky talk

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