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

[gistful]

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.]

Comments

[larrikinism]

"Of course it was me he was talking about, did you doubt it?" Larrikin demanded, not knowing exactly what Raine was talking about and not really caring, either. It was just nice to know he'd been talked-about, as opposed to Anton, who could go a whole day without saying two words.

"Definitions." Larrikin waved a hand. "Actually existing would be a great start. Anyway, where were you up to? Handcuffs! Handcuffs are fun! Wanna learn how to make rope handcuffs? Too late, you're gonna!"

[ruinsprofessor]

"I didn't know of you at the time," Raine pointed out, reasonably. "Now, though, I wouldn't doubt it, no." Larrikin was a bright presence, practically guaranteed to leave an impression on anyone he met.

She agreed, certainly, that existing would be an excellent start. "There are beings in my world which are embodiments of the elements," she added, for clarity, "and some people might take them for gods, I suppose." A beat. "In any case, yes, I believe you promised that instruction as well." Raine was smiling properly by that point; his enthusiasm was infectious.

[larrikinism]

"So I did, so I did." Larrikin nodded sagely, holding out the wool. "Now, for this you'll need rope--a tie won't be long enough. First, have him hold out his arms like so." He held his arms up, elbows tucked in and forearms even. "Then you centre the rope over his arms and wrap them around like so ..."

The handcuff instructions weren't exactly complicated, but they did have a few steps. Larrikin used the chair-back as an example, weaving his 'handcuffs' horizontally around the chair-back's pommels. He finished with a flourishing wave and saying, "And there you go! Grab your own chair, give it a try."

[ruinsprofessor]

Solomon could probably be persuaded to hold still. Raine applied herself to focusing and memorizing, falling silent while she did. "All right," she said finally, dragging over her own chair as instructed, and she set to replicating the indicated arrangement, with grave, single-minded focus. It seemed simple enough, and she discovered it was just about as simple as it looked as she continued.

When she was done she continued staring for another moment or two before nodding to herself. "I've no doubt some if not all of this will be very useful," she said, focus finally redirected back to Larrikin. "Thank you."

[larrikinism]

The way Raine set about doing things, with that kind of focus--ooh, it was gorgeous. Kinda reminded Larrikin of Dexter, actually. Really, really gorgeous. He was grinning when she looked up. "You're very welcome," he assured her with a wink. "I hope you delight your boy with all the sights, sounds and sensations learned here today! Any questions, my good pupil?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"I hope so, as well," Raine said, a little wry. At least the earlier embarrassment had faded, and she had fresh knowledge to show for it. "Why, though? Connection to Anton aside, you hardly know me."

She ran her hand along the product of her work, thoughtful. Compared detail with Rover's, looking for any flaw. "And while it's not strictly relevant, if you have any advice on keeping Skulduggery and Anton out of trouble, that might also be useful. Skulduggery in particular doesn't seem to be able to help himself sometimes."

[larrikinism]

"Eh." Larrikin waved his hand. "It's like I said before. Everyone deserves to be able to ask questions and get them answered honestly and not have everyone go--gasp!" He put his hands to his face in mock shock. "How dare you have a libido! How dare you like doing things in bed which I don't approve of and wouldn't see anyway! How dare you want to know more about those things!" He relaxed and shrugged. "It's stupid. This is my contribution to the fight against stupid. If people were more open about things we wouldn't have nearly as much trouble."

[ruinsprofessor]

"You have a point." She watched him, thoughtful, one corner of her mouth pulled up in half a smile. It didn't seem likely at first, but she was starting to see how, exactly, he and Anton worked. There was a certain matter-of-factness they shared, she thought. "It would be useful if more people were so straightforward."

Why did Anton never speak of him? He was a private person, it was true, but somehow Raine suspected a little bit more underlying.