[Midnight Hotel] November catch-all

[gistful]

Characters: Anyone, everyone.
Date: Month of November, 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!

The Hotel’s processes are chugging along in November. Some absences due to Foreigners leaving means that the Hotel employees are fewer, and while nothing changes in terms of services, things are a little bit hectic. For this reason, some of the kedanese part-timers will be more prominent—particularly at the desk and in the lobby, and keeping the peace.

There’s also that incident with Ravel becoming a bunny rabbit, which puts a little extra strain on the staff, having lost one of their own … temporarily.

The kedan who know Anton well are tiptoeing around him a bit this month. Some of them witnessed him with China at the masquerade and there are some rumours going around the Hotel that the proprietor has a squeeze on the side. Those who actually mention it inside his hearing find out quickly not to do it again, and even on good days he’s tense and almost grumpy. The only times his mood lightens at all this month are when he has the care of the tiny white bunny Erskine’s become.

[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.]

Comments

CLOSED to SKULDUGGERY; EARLY NOV

[gistful]

Things are … tense. Anton knew they were tense. He managed well enough last month, but after dancing with China at the masquerade, they became more so. It still wasn’t until he almost snapped at one of the kedan that Anton realised he … really couldn’t continue this way. If he was starting to snap at his own staff, things were not well at all.

Which was why he left a message for Skulduggery to meet him there, at the Hotel, and arrange for someone else to be present at the desk so he could leave. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have actually at the Hotel. It wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have at all, but it did need to be had, especially given the grief both Skulduggery and Erskine had put everyone through because they hadn’t been willing to broach it for themselves.

That morning, Anton was even more taciturn than usual. And he didn’t smile.

[skeletonenigma]

Skulduggery had heard the rumours about Anton and China, but completely dismissed them without a second thought. If there was any truth to them whatsoever, it was because China had wanted something, and manipulated stranger's impressions to be sure she got whatever it was she wanted. That was fine. Well, no, it wasn't fine, but Skulduggery didn't see a point in wasting time tracking down the details.

Not until Anton asked him to meet him at the Hotel, anyway.

When Skulduggery arrived in the Hotel lobby, he was as impeccably dressed as ever, and - aside from being a living skeleton - relatively unobtrusive, waiting for Anton to signal he was ready.

[gistful]

Anton didn't see Skulduggery right away, which might give Skulduggery enough time and opportunity to assess Anton's state of being. For one thing, his stride was slightly clipped, as though he was prepared to shift his stance on a dime. His shoulders were drawn in, which was a warning only because it indicated Anton was trying to protect others by keeping the gist in.

His tone, when he spoke to others, tended toward short. He was aware of that, at least, because when he led off with being curt his tone consciously softened after.

When Anton did notice Skulduggery waiting there he turned the desk over to one of his kedanese helpers and went to meet Skulduggery. "Not here," he said tersely, and then took a breath. "Let's take a walk."

[skeletonenigma]

It wasn't Anton's bearing which was the biggest clue. It was the fact that he wanted to leave the Hotel. The last time he'd wanted to leave the Hotel, it was to punch Skulduggery and steal his hat, so Skulduggery was by necessity already on his guard. Given that he hadn't done anything lately, though, the only reason Anton would want to leave the Hotel was because he wanted to keep the Hotel a safe haven. Both for others, and for himself.

Skulduggery didn't think the issue was physical violence, despite Anton's hunched shoulders and curt tone. Anton was far too controlled for that. It probably had a lot more to do with Anton's state of mind - which was worrying all on its own.

He nodded and led the way out, then set the pace down the street outside, hat tilted on top of his skull and hands in his pockets. He all but started to whistle. Rather than whistling, though, Skulduggery turned his head toward Anton and prompted, "What is it?"

Anton | Morning of November 7

[edgeoftheknife]

Restless sleep is nothing new for Erskine. He's been an insomniac for centuries. Only this morning feels different and he can't quite put his finger on why.

It's early in the morning. He's been asleep, judging by the grogginess. Nothing out of the ordinary there--the wee hours of the morning are usually his best chance of catching some shut-eye. He's comfortable, a little more so than usual--did the bed get softer?--and he's warm, though he can't feel the bedclothes tucked up around him. Weird, but why look a gift horse in the mouth.

And then he turns and finds himself staring at Anton. And Anton is enormous.

Ravel tries backpedaling, flinging himself away in that groggy confusion and panic, but his limbs aren't working right. He's getting tangled up in his own arms and legs and the softness of the bed is working against him and he can't even shout because there's something wrong with his voice. It's not working. Nothing is working right. What the hell is going on?

Several minutes later, following one very intense and quiet meltdown, a tiny little white rabbit slowly climbs up onto Anton's chest. Sits right there for a minute, feeling the low heat of the gist beneath it. Doesn't look like that's going to do the trick, however. Anton is a soldier, and therefore can be an incredibly light sleeper, but the minuscule weight of the rabbit doesn't seem to be enough to jostle him out of sleep this morning.

The bunny has just about decided to try climbing closer to Anton's face when the world tilts. Shudder rolls over onto his side and the rabbit flops down onto the sheets, dazed but unharmed.

Well. This might work.

The rabbit sits very close to Shudder's face, mind whirring beneath those cute little sparkly black eyes. Debating. Then it sits up on its hindquarters and one little fuzzy white paw presses onto Anton's nose.

[gistful]

The weight of the rabbit wasn't quite enough to make Anton wake up, but it was enough that part of him--either him or the gist--was irritated by the innocuous weight. Hence the rolling. He wasn't normally a restless sleeper, unless someone tried to lie on him, at which point they (Larrikin) usually ended up on the floor.

The bunny rabbit was not large enough to be flung onto the floor.

The bunny rabbit's paw was, however, enough to register through the sleep. Non-lethally. Anton's face didn't scrunch. Anton didn't make face scrunches. But it smoothed to customary impassiveness as he went from 'asleep' to 'awake and aware there was a soft fuzzy thing pressed to his nose and who was normally responsible for that, Larrikin'.

Except, bed. Hotel. No Larrikin. Anton opened his eyes and there was a tiny white rabbit pressing its paw to his nose. A tiny white rabbit with, he saw, a collar and what looked remarkably like a soul-gem.

Anton blinked and then said, "Good morning?"

His voice came out slightly nasal, due to the aforementioned nose-squashing.

[edgeoftheknife]

Oh thank God.

He didn't really know if Anton recognized him, but at least the other Dead Man was awake and paying attention to him. That was a good start, right? Anton could find someone to help them figure this out and then Ravel would be himself again instead of this... fluffball. This tiny little helpless thing.

There had to be a way to change back. He wasn't going to be helpless and mute forever. He wasn't.

Erskine didn't even notice when he started shaking. The relief of having Anton awake and aware of the situation mingled with the lingering panic from minutes ago, that momentary descent into confusion and despair, and then the little ball of white fur was huddling against Anton's throat, just under his chin, trembling.

[gistful]

Between one blink and the next Anton went from having nose squished to having a tiny bundle of fluff vibrating against his throat. Anton might not have been versed in the inner emotional workings of small animals, but he did know panic and adrenaline when he saw it.

It would have been strange if not for the soul-gem; rabbits weren't generally intelligent enough to feel relief, were they? The action was inescapably human. It would have almost been enough to make him feel guilty about frequently enjoying rabbit stew, if Anton Shudder generally bothered to regret making small animals feel afraid.

This one was very definitely afraid, though. And very definitely wearing a soul-gem. And now Anton was paying attention the bed was, very definitely, lacking its usual second occupant.

A lurking suspicion was making itself known. Anton reached up to position the rabbit on his shoulder, where it could remain as huddled as it wanted against his neck (with his hand to keep it there). Once upright he could see the bed properly. He could see that it was very definitely missing Erskine. At least, a human-shaped form of Erskine. It was not lacking Erskine's nightclothes, mixed in with the sheets.

Anton gazed down at them and then around the room and, finally, turned his head in the bunny's direction--carefully so as not to make it fall off his shoulder. His tone was mixed doubt and incredulity. Even Anton Shudder could be flabbergasted, once in a blue moon. "Erskine?"

Midii | Early November

[unetrustworthy]

The young girl slipped out of her room early in the morning, as she always did. Careful not to disturb the family living in close quarters to her. They were not close, and while she was accustomed to close quarters living, it was easier to avoid unnecessary small talk that way.

She had her gift from Stork under one arm, balancing it and the remote along with a small bag. Quite the load for someone of her size, but she handled it with a practiced ease as she made her way down the stairs, to the Hotel Lobby. Pausing just long enough to glance at the calendar.

"November already..." she mused. Once upon a time, the thought brought about little more than apathy and minor acknowledgement of the fact that she was about to turn one more year older. She'd never celebrated her birthdays back home. Not really. But here, in Keelai...

A tiny smile made its way to her lips. She had plenty of money saved up, and they weren't in any immediate danger. Maybe, just this once, she should find something to indulge herself in. After all, she was about to turn Fifteen.

[jinzhong]

"Hey, Midii!"

Jackie caught sight of her as he was coming down the stairs. She looked a little overburdened, even if she didn't look like she was having much trouble with her load. "Want any help with that?"

[unetrustworthy]

Surprised by the sound of her own name, Midii jumped.

Any other time, and it would have been a nonissue. But, loaded as her arms were at the moment, that final jostle was enough to send...just about everything crashing to the floor. Including Midii herself.

"Ah!"

[jinzhong]

Aw, jeez.

Jackie scrambled to help her, first going to help Midii up off the ground. "Are you okay?"

[purered]

Klaus was many things - idealistic, honourable, and a tad naive at times. But there was one thing he wasn't and that was stupid. Something had gotten under Anton's skin. Or someone, if the rumours going around had an inkling of truth to them. He wasn't oblivious to Anton's dark moods, though he wondered what kind of history was between him and China that left him so ill-tempered.

But then again, it wasn't Klaus's place to pry. If Anton wished to discuss the details, that was up to him. What was up to Klaus, however, was that there was a friend who was miserable and Klaus had the capacity to lighten at least a few of his burdens.

So over the course of a few weeks, Anton may find small chores already taken care of. A few of the larger rooms might already have been dusted, or the many dishes could be found drying in their rack. The bathrooms remain spotless. In the mornings, he might find a spread of fresh fruits, vegetables, jam, cheese, and bread from a local bakeshop and a press of coffee. The afternoons might signal a light tap on his door and outside it a tray with tea and store-bought biscuits. Klaus had, mercifully, opted not to subject anyone else to his attempts at cooking for the foreseeable future.

One thing that would be odd, however, is that Klaus was rarely anywhere to be seen. If Anton were to be quick on the uptake, he might glimpse a bit of red disappearing around a corner, but for a man of his size and build, Klaus was incredibly light on his feet.

i am so sorry this is so late

[gistful]

Anton definitely noticed. Some chores being done, some areas being dusted. Klaus was, technically, a member of the administration staff; it wasn't against the rules for him to dust some of the rooms he was invited into. The public bathrooms being cleaned--well, that was in many ways a paradise. And the spread of breakfasts were a delight.

It was irritating. All of it. It shouldn't have been; Anton, under other circumstances, would have appreciated the gesture. He still did. But it annoyed him as well, for reasons that were irrational, but which Anton couldn't prevent.

In the end he decided it might best to ask Klaus to stop. Anton needed things to do, needed to occupy his mind, and that was especially true in this instance.

That was why, Anton went to his office door one afternoon, having judged that Klaus should be arriving soon, and waited beside it for the admittedly light footsteps--ready to spring Klaus in the act, and ask him in.

it's okay! i'm late too. let's make the late club

[purered]

"Ah..."

Klaus had come round the corner, a small box of pastries in his good arm. He'd been caught, and Anton didn't look pleased. It seemed his cunning plan had backfired spectacularly.

What was that saying about the road to hell being paved with...?

"Good evening, Mr Shudder."

[problematical]

A. closed to Anton

Volunteers at the Welcome Center had directed River to the Midnight Hotel and told her to speak to its proprietor. He might be able to help her find a means to pay for the room rental, they said, once the starter package of funds exhausted itself. Their old housings scattered through the various Sectors, it seemed, had long since been taken over-- no default Foreigner housing was provided any longer.

Nor were many of the familiar faces she'd hoped to see still present. She wished very much that Hawke was still around.

The lobby seems as good a place as any to find Anton, so River slips in through the Central Sector entrance and lingers along the wall, looking carefully over everything.

B. open to any

River seems determined to explore every nook and cranny of the Hotel within a week of her arrival. The kitchen, the garage, the hallways, the lobby. If this was to be her new Serenity for the stay, now that a room had been worked out with Anton, she wanted to know all about it.

Other people will quickly find she has a penchant for moving silent on bare feet up and down the hallways, showing up in doorways without announcement and eavesdropping. When she's not doing that, she's having conversations with herself, singsongs and snippets, and then sometimes she's taken a letter opener and is carving a very prim line of mixed Chinese and English characters various pieces of furniture.

A;

[gistful]

The lobby isn't bustling but it's a little bit active, in the way to make a Hotel loked lived-in and used, a community place, rather than a necessary somewhere on the way from A to B. Kedan moving from one room to another; a young man watching some kedanese children at the chairs in one corner; someone using the consoles in another.

Presiding over it at the desk was Anton, very tall and proper, but dressed like a funeral-director, if an old-fashioned one; waistcoat, tie, shoes, braided hair long down his back.

He had an edge of tension, uncharacteristic to him but perceivable to someone observant. It didn't stop him from working calmly and steadily, though River, if she gets close enough, that his numbers come from his pen more easily than words, and that in rare cases words are consistently spelled half-phonetically. (It's also notable that the ledger is a mishmash of alphabets.)

Anton doesn't look up at first, intent on finishing his sentence now that he's halfway through, but he attends to that with a focus his gaze still holds when he glances up to see who's come in.

[ooc: I am a-okay with anything River reads from either of my guys.]

[problematical]

There's something about Anton that is both very intimidating and very reassuring in the same breath, River decides, but not the kind of intimidation that comes from his physical attribute (though he towers a full foot above her). There's been a buzzing in the back of her head since she stepped foot inside, like how Kaylee once described a bad bearing in the compressor coils.

River stops moving in her circuit of the room when his gaze finds her, and the pitch of the buzzing changes.

"You spelled that one wrong. Your house needs maintenance, it's out of tune."

OTA

[michaeljangelo]

Mike didn't have a lot of belongings, especially now that he'd given Toph the sword once belonging to The Bookends. So there wasn't a whole lot to carry over the threshold of his new...home?
Could he call it a home yet?
He hadn't even seen his room yet...

Proto-home?
Potential-home?

His snout wrinkled at his lack of words, the only sign of emotion visible on his face. Mike's hands tightened around the walking stick he'd effectively turned into a bindle for his stuff.

This was going to be...exciting he told himself. Yes. Not weird. Exciting! It was all about how you framed an idea.

He's been in this building before. Climbed the outside more times than he could count. And it's not like he's never shared a room before either, or a bathroom. He could do this. It was going to be easy!

He took a breath, then a step, and entered the Lobby of the hotel as an official resident for the very first time.

Be careful, Midnight Hotel. You've just gotten yourself a nasty case of Ninja.

CLOSED to ERSKINE; POST-BUNNY;

[peacefullywreathed]

There were a number of pieces of Dead Men interactions Solomon had these days. Ordinarily, Solomon would ignore them. After a fashion, he still very much is. He's not out to talk about feelings, let alone with Dead Men. He is, on the other hand, very much out to humiliate Skulduggery for ... one reason or another. He probably deserved it for something.

It's only after Ravel stops being such a bunny that Solomon, in an unprecedented move, actually comes to the Midnight Hotel. He's barely been there since he moved out, but it's the one sure place to find Ravel, and Solomon doesn't think it's going to be easy to catch the man given the outfit Solomon forced him into during his ... bunnification.

Which is why Solomon waits in one of the armchairs in the lobby, amusing some kedanese children with shadow-puppets, until he feels Ravel's soul get near. That's when he excuses himself from the children with a smile and rises to catch Ravel's attention.

[edgeoftheknife]

Being a small furry creature had given Erskine a unique perspective on several things about being a human.

Using the restroom, for one.

The snuggles had been great--even the ones from unlikely sources. Like China. The sleep had been some of the best he'd ever had, or at least the best he'd had in a hundred years. Anton was a comfort but there was something about being tiny and fuzzy that somehow made sleep just that much better. Possibly the same principle that made people idly wish they were housecats, he suspected.

One thing he hadn't missed about being human was cleaning the Hotel's toilets. He didn't necessarily mind cleaning the Hotel in general, and he knew he owed Anton too much to ever give serious voice to such complaints, but God damn if cleaning toilets wasn't one of the lowest things he'd ever done in his life. At least when he'd had to dig latrines during the war it had been before the area was fouled.

He was just coming out of one of the common restrooms, jacketless, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows and the skin of his hands and forearms scrubbed so hard as to glow angry and pink (but clean), when movement caught his eye. Expecting to see another random kedan patron, he instead found himself staring right at Solomon Wreath.

Oh.

Erskine's steps slowed, stopping some ten feet away. "Wreath."

[peacefullywreathed]

"Why, Ravel, fancy meeting you here," Solomon said innocently, but since he wasn't too enamoured of being punched he decided business was the better part of valour. "I have some information you might find interesting. I just have some conditions in exchange for it. Do take a seat."

Mostly business. Solomon motioned toward one of the other seats and was only off by half a foot, and took his own seat again. The children made themselves scarce, giggling madly, but Solomon had already asked them to stay close. Ravel had, after all, threatened Skulduggery with carolling children. Solomon could help him with that.

"Information such as, for instance, the date of Skulduggery's birthday."

Klaus and OPEN; November 21st, early

[edgeoftheknife]

A) Klaus

Still a bunny. Two weeks later and he's still a bunny. He's been keeping track on Shudder's calendar down on the front desk... in between nibbling on the edges of the ledgers. And just generally being an adorable addition to the desk staff.

Anton is busy this morning, which means once again Erskine's been pawned off on someone. This time it's Klaus, which Erskine doesn't mind at all. Klaus won't dress him up in stupid little bows. Klaus won't dress him up in stupid little bows and then show him off on the network. The most Erskine will have to endure is more cuddling, and over the last couple of weeks he's become quite accustomed to cuddling. Cuddling he can handle.


B) OPEN (to characters 18+ that is) Links sort of NSFW

Sometime mid-morning, perhaps 10 o'clock, the door to the dormitory room on the third floor where Klaus lives opens. That gorgeous guy that skulks around the Hotel working for Anton? Yeah, he's the one who emerges, fully human. Except instead of wearing his usual three-piece suit, he's...

Well, he's naked.

Erskine is going to walk from the third floor dormitory down to the first floor lobby and into Anton's office. Completely naked. Dead Men don't care much about nudity anyway, and of all of them, Erskine has very little to be ashamed of. He will intentionally duck away from any underage characters, but if he knows you're an adult, sorry. You're getting an eyeful.

[purered]

He'd been woken up for what he mentally called 'bunny-sitting'. He didn't say the phrase out loud - Erskine had enough troubles without Klaus making terrible jokes at his expense. Still, it was early enough in the morning that Klaus was still in his pyjamas, slippers, and dressing gown with his red hair and cheek-floofs more wild than ever and a chin full of red stubble when there was a knock on the door and the bunny had been thrust into his hands.

He plucked the spectacles off his bedside table and pushed them up the bridge of his nose to peer blearily down at Erskine.

"Will you be alright here while I shower and shave?" He asked the tiny ball of fluff.

[edgeoftheknife]

The bunny was a little more alert than Klaus, if only by virtue of the fact that it didn't necessarily matter what time of the day it was to him. As a bunny he'd been napping like a cat, whenever and wherever he could manage it. It was the most sleep he'd had in a century and he was loving every minute of it.

So when he was thrust at Klaus he was alert enough at least to wiggle his nose once, for yes, the system they'd devised a couple of weeks ago. He could certainly handle being alone for half an hour, or whatever it would take for the giant to get himself together for the day. He could probably handle himself well enough alone for a lot longer than that, but Anton had insisted on finding him a keeper whenever he couldn't do it himself. The trend had only gotten worse after Erskine had found himself snuggling up to China, though he wasn't entirely sure why.

The usual veiled aggression toward China? Or something else?

But that was neither here nor there. Erskine sat back on his hind legs and peered up at Klaus expectantly.