Anton Shudder (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gistful) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tushanshu_logs2015-08-03 03:20 pm
gistful) wrote in tushanshu_logs2015-08-03 03:20 pm
[Midnight Hotel] August catch-all
Characters: Anyone, everyone.
Date: Month of August, 2015 (2016 in-game).
Location: The Midnight Hotel.
Situation: Catch-all post! Feel free to use this post for anything that happens within the Midnight Hotel during the month, using the subject header to label specific rooms or for specific people. See also the OOC note at the bottom.
Warnings/Rating: Mark your threads if content warnings become applicable, please!
After Erskine’s temporary promotion last month, Anton is back in charge with a vengeance. While he isn’t asking anything extra of his staff, and those who offered to help out in the interim receive a very nice thank-you note, there’s still a few things to catch up on. At least, Anton feels the need to catch up on them, with the result that it won’t be unusual in the first part of the month to see him persistently cleaning. Especially the dusting. While he's recovered, he might still need to be reminded not to push himself, and the observant may notice some persistent weakness in his grip as he carries things.
For much of the month Anton will also, without explanation, be wearing heels. They’re old-fashioned, very clearly actually old—several centuries old—and rather dandified, and he wears them as if he’s worn them every day of his life.
As the heat sets in, patrons will also notice a spider infestation at the Hotel. They’ll turn up mostly in corners, in closets, behind the fridges; places which are dark and cool and near the Hotel’s internal magical plumbing. Anton can be readily available for help in that regard, though he is just as likely to refer anyone having troubles to Erskine. The spiders are being dealt with -- one of those 'cleaning duties' Anton is trying to overcome -- but are being rather persistent, the little buggers.
Otherwise, much like the heatwave in August two years’ previous, the Hotel will be booked solid this month. The Hotel’s internal atmospheric wards will keep the Hotel at a comfortable temperature in spite of the highs outside, and many kedan are once again taking advantage. Like before, rooms are filled and double-booked, with spare linens offered for those who want to bunk down in the common areas. Anyone who isn’t a long-term resident, and is merely seeking a respite from the heat, has a limit of two days in which to stay before they must vacate the room for someone else.
That being said, the previous heatwave was when the Hotel was new, with gangs still testing the boundaries of the proprietor’s rules and kedan suspicious of the building. Before, there was some amount of tension. This year there is very much a feeling of camaraderie, with kedan quite willingly making room for families with small children, sharing food, shuffling around and taking the close quarters with good grace.
[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, JOB OR AREA IN THE GARAGE, OR ARE MOVING OUT. Anton will manufacture means of payment until Foreigners are able to properly offer recompense or choose to move out.]
Date: Month of August, 2015 (2016 in-game).
Location: The Midnight Hotel.
Situation: Catch-all post! Feel free to use this post for anything that happens within the Midnight Hotel during the month, using the subject header to label specific rooms or for specific people. See also the OOC note at the bottom.
Warnings/Rating: Mark your threads if content warnings become applicable, please!
After Erskine’s temporary promotion last month, Anton is back in charge with a vengeance. While he isn’t asking anything extra of his staff, and those who offered to help out in the interim receive a very nice thank-you note, there’s still a few things to catch up on. At least, Anton feels the need to catch up on them, with the result that it won’t be unusual in the first part of the month to see him persistently cleaning. Especially the dusting. While he's recovered, he might still need to be reminded not to push himself, and the observant may notice some persistent weakness in his grip as he carries things.
For much of the month Anton will also, without explanation, be wearing heels. They’re old-fashioned, very clearly actually old—several centuries old—and rather dandified, and he wears them as if he’s worn them every day of his life.
As the heat sets in, patrons will also notice a spider infestation at the Hotel. They’ll turn up mostly in corners, in closets, behind the fridges; places which are dark and cool and near the Hotel’s internal magical plumbing. Anton can be readily available for help in that regard, though he is just as likely to refer anyone having troubles to Erskine. The spiders are being dealt with -- one of those 'cleaning duties' Anton is trying to overcome -- but are being rather persistent, the little buggers.
Otherwise, much like the heatwave in August two years’ previous, the Hotel will be booked solid this month. The Hotel’s internal atmospheric wards will keep the Hotel at a comfortable temperature in spite of the highs outside, and many kedan are once again taking advantage. Like before, rooms are filled and double-booked, with spare linens offered for those who want to bunk down in the common areas. Anyone who isn’t a long-term resident, and is merely seeking a respite from the heat, has a limit of two days in which to stay before they must vacate the room for someone else.
That being said, the previous heatwave was when the Hotel was new, with gangs still testing the boundaries of the proprietor’s rules and kedan suspicious of the building. Before, there was some amount of tension. This year there is very much a feeling of camaraderie, with kedan quite willingly making room for families with small children, sharing food, shuffling around and taking the close quarters with good grace.
[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, JOB OR AREA IN THE GARAGE, OR ARE MOVING OUT. Anton will manufacture means of payment until Foreigners are able to properly offer recompense or choose to move out.]
Veering gently into spoiler land take heed friends <3
And so the despair and the guilt had begun creeping back in. The nightmares had worsened, despite Anton's continued, steady presence. His memory had started failing more frequently.
So if he radiated these things... well. He didn't mean to, Dove. Honest.
In fact, watching the spiders was calming, and watching them weave even more so. Erskine heard someone approaching, heard Dove's voice, and didn't let it stir the strange sort of peace he'd settled into. He liked Dove, even if they didn't talk often. She was even complimenting the spiders, look at that-
-a low surge of anger welled inside him, quick and then gone, at the mention of them being creepy. It didn't even register on his face.
"Very talented," he echoed with a slight nod. "Better than I ever was."
no subject
Forget the spiders.
She reached out to lightly touch his arm, her gaze gentle but searching as she waited in hopes that he would turn his attention to her. "Are you alright?" she asked, softer, so as not to draw attention from anyone else passing through the lobby. Something was more off--something more than just irritation or disappointment. Something very much worth her time.
no subject
The same as always, of course. I'm fine. It's nothing. I'm just tired. There's so much work to do. He could recite the platitudes by heart, without even having to think about them. Whether anyone still believed them or not... well. No one was paying that much attention, were they? Anton had a Hotel to run, and he'd missed almost a solid month of work. Anton was preoccupied.
Dove...
Erskine turned toward her, finally breaking off the concentration he'd had fixed on the spider's web. "I'm fine," he said, giving her a small smile. "It's nothing. I'm just tired."
The weight of it was crushing him, faster than it had been. He'd been ignoring it but he couldn't ignore it now, couldn't gloss it over or pretend it wasn't there. The guilt and the remorse and the loss were crushing him.
no subject
Her gentle grip tightened the smallest bit around his forearm as she passed a bit of her warmth to him. Her face went white.
Through the window of the soul, she felt it all, the crushing, suffocating weight. This was something that might be beyond her expertise, despite her high rank in Guardian. Her gaze went almost blank as his emotions overtook her for the few seconds she stared, until she tore her eyes away, lessening the connection by not looking for it. There was no shaking what she had felt, though; it was still stronger than her usual, unblock able read.
Horrified that he was in such pain, she shook her head, refusing to mind her own business-- really, it was for his own good, she thought. "Erskine... You don't have to lie to me," she told him softly, both calling him out and offering her support. Her touch continued to leak warmth into him.
no subject
Not a mind reader. Hopeless would have known it all the instant he'd been within a mile of Erskine, and Erskine had spoken with Dove too many times--albeit never in any great depth--for her to have just now noticed. Was it the touch? Or was she just now concentrating enough to notice?
His mind raced, and he shifted his gaze away, down to the floor. Anywhere that wasn't Dove.
Valdis. Valdis could sense emotions.
"You're an empath?" Erskine croaked, his throat gone dry.
no subject
She nodded, still searching his face. "Yes," she admitted softly, as if afraid he might leave upon the revelation. She still had him there for now, though. "I've known from the beginning that your smile wasn't...always honest, but..." But it hadn't been that bad until now. "...I didn't want to pry..." Her brow furrowed worriedly. "It's worse now..."
With everything else that had been happening on the turtle, she hadn't had a spare moment to think, let alone sort out what might be trivial problems for the others she knew. Her newly founded sensitivity to certain emotions, though, couldn't allow her to relax now that she had pinned Erskine's. Not when they were this strong and there were no immediate stressors that she could identify. Things had just begun to settle... so why was he feeling like this so much more profoundly now?
no subject
Was it worse, or was it just that he wasn't pushing it down as well as he had been? Wasn't pretending as well anymore? Either way, she... wasn't wrong.
He didn't know what to say to that. Dove was in the extremely unique position of knowing without knowing. Anton had taken Valdis aside and told her everything before she'd been able to question any of it on her own. That choice had been taken out of Erskine's hands.
He didn't particularly want this one, either.
None of this was addressing Dove's unspoken question, however, or that worried look on her face. Ravel closed his eyes for a moment before speaking. "I won't chastise you for not noticing," he said, unable to muster up a smile but at least able to blunt the edge of his voice with a little kindness. "I've been hiding it for a long, long time. Most of it, anyway. It's just... I'm having trouble hiding it, now. Ever since Anton started feeling better. I'm not sure why."