[Midnight Hotel] Fourth-wall catch-all; 15-30 April 2016

[gistful]

Characters: Anyone, everyone.
Date: 15-30th April, 2016 (2017 in-game).
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!

Once more, it seems, the Dreaming has seen fit to lure in temporary residents. Luckily, the Hotel and its kedanese staff have done this before -- even accounting for the fact that it isn't exactly usual. If this goes on, they may start to predict the event!

It takes a day or so to sort things out, but once sorted the Hotel breaks out the same sleeping-bags as they had last time, and set aside as many areas of the common-room and even the lobby as sleeping areas. Any spare bed-rooms are also filled to the brim, though there aren't many of those these days.

The Hotel, like some of the other buildings around Keeliai, displays some occasional damage of the explosion-that-wasn't; in fact, seems to show it more obviously than most other places. Mostly it's cracks in frames or the smell of smoke in random areas, or some loose shingles; the worst that happens is the plumbing may be a bit unreliable until the wards can right themselves.

As before, Mr Shudder lets Foreigners without a soul-gem stay for free, as long as they follow the rules--which they are told upon entry. (Most notably, that's the 'no violence' rule.) Luckily, the new walk-in restaurant function means there's plenty to eat for everyone, and the cooking staff are on overtime this fortnight to make sure everyone is provided for.

Strangely, Mr Shudder himself is scarce for these two weeks. He does drop by in the evenings to make sure things are progressing well, but if anyone asks all he'll say is that some old friends have arrived and he and Erskine are helping them out elsewhere in the city. Anton will be around if anything untoward happens--but for the most part management is performed either by Anton's kedanese staff, or by Klaus von Reinherz.


[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

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis had seen Ghastly around, but most of the man's time had been spent working on Erskine's new project with the rest of the Dead men. When she saw him working with fabric in the lobby, she was curious enough to walk over.

"What are you making?"

[shopworn]

What he has appears like it mostly hasn't been sewn together yet; it's an assortment of purple fabric pieces, pinned together in a shape that, when he holds it up for her to see, might eventually become a garment. "A waistcoat," he explains, and puts it down again, smiling over at her.

"I should have introduced myself earlier. Ghastly Bespoke." He frees one hand from needle and cloth long enough to offer it to her.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Pretty," she said, examining the fabric and the pattern. Valdis looks up as he introduces himself, her own smile softer.

"Valdis." She took his hand, "It's nice to meet you, Ghastly."

[shopworn]

Introductions thus handled, Ghastly picks up the needle again, starting to put the pieces together. "It's for Anton," he says genially. "I think he's been wearing black long enough." It does suit him, yes, but so do other colors. And other colors have the bonus of not making him look like a funeral director.

"So, how long have you and Anton been related?" he asks next. He's familiar enough with what he's doing that he doesn't have to keep his eyes on it all the time, and so a significant portion of his gaze comes back to Valdis, openly curious. Pleasant, even.

[redlightgreenlight]

"I think he'll like it."

The man's deft hands continued to move as he spoke, and Valdis watched him, recognizing the mastery of his work. She closed her eyes momentarily at his question, then took the chair across from him, a small frown on her face. Her relationship with Anton had begun so strangely. She still remembered the fight between them during Malicant's reign and how he, well a mixture of him and his gist, had torn off her jaw. How she had tried to take his soul before coming back to her senses. Their talk at the Turtle's head after the battle...Evandau's death.

"It's a long and complicated story," she replied finally, "But if I had to pick one moment, I'd say it was when I told him I needed to kill him and he laughed at me."

[shopworn]

"I hope so," Ghastly agrees. He doesn't think Anton's tastes will have changed while he's not looking, but this city appears to have provided changes to any number of people.

A good relationship hardly seems something to frown over, so he has to wonder about that expression. "Long and complicated? Are you sure you don't mean Skulduggery?" Ghastly jokes, or tries to joke, but the rest of it is a little sobering.

Obviously they worked it out, but it's an interesting place to start. And it makes a backward sort of sense.

"So Anton talked you out of it, and adopted you," he sums up. He's assuming that Anton didn't punch her, even if it is sort of a customary welcome among them. "He also said you were a hellhound?" It sounds just like curiosity, no real fear or concern about it. Anton trusts her, pretty obviously, and she hasn't killed any of them. It's a good start.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis smiled, the expression sheepish. "My relationship with Skulduggery is far less complicated. I trust him, but he doesn't trust me."

Of course, the only reason she trusted the living skeleton was because Anton did. She shrugged at his last statement. "He was kind to me, he always has been and I hadn't ever known that before. Or if I did, it never registered."

Her life before Keeliai hadn't been kind, she hadn't kind either, but she had learned so much in her time here. Enough that she didn't ever want to leave. She took a sharp breath when Ghastly revealed that he knew and she felt an unreasonable flash of anger, though she quickly shoved it away. Anton trusted this man, and his tone was so different, accepting and unconcerned.

"Yes." She replied, "I am."

[shopworn]

"The list of people Skulduggery actually trusts is very short," Ghastly said, a little apologetically. That was just par for the course. Anton did, and that said something.

He wasn't, on the whole, surprised that Anton had been kind to her. It was the way of Anton. He intimidated by virtue of height and solemnity and magic, but anyone who had seen him with Rover Larrikin long enough had somewhat better a grasp of Anton's actual nature.

"If you'd prefer not to talk about it, I understand," Ghastly offered, since a three-word answer wasn't much of one for explaining. Maybe it was linked to how she'd said she hadn't recognized kindness before. "Some other part of that long and complicated story?"

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis wasn't surprised that Skulduggery's list was short, the man obviously had his reasons, and it's not like she would trust her either if she were in his position. Despite her misgivings, her smile returned.

"A different long and complicated story," she replied, sitting back in her chair and crossing her legs. "Essentially, I picked a fight with an Archangel and regained the soul that had been taken from me a bit over two thousand years prior. As you might expect, there has been a bit of a learning curve concerning emotions and morality. And my power, if unbalanced, can be very dangerous." She shrugged, "For the most part, my world sees me as something that should be destroyed. An abomination, if you will. Anton doesn't see it that way, perhaps that's why I named him what I did."

[shopworn]

Oh, angels and demons were things that existed in her world, then. Ghastly took a moment to readjust -- not a long one, as he was already well accustomed to the idea of extradimensional horrors -- and went on.

"That sounds... difficult," he said, diplomatically. And kind of concerning, really, but she was acting stable enough, and had apparently been here a while. Any of them could be dangerous, at any rate, if their powers were applied correctly. There was something else odd, in any case. "You named Anton? Named him your father?" Ghastly tilted his head, a little quizzically.

"You don't seem like an abomination," he added, almost an afterthought, the awkward reassurance of a man who didn't quite know what he was doing.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis looked at him, chin tipped down with one brow raised. "I appreciate the sentiment," she replied to his last, not quite convinced of what he thought. She certainly didn't think she was an abomination, not anymore at least. She took a breath, trying to calm her nerves, the man hadn't been judgmental so far, no reason to be tense.

"Anton's name is Faðir," she said, turning the focus onto the questions. "In my world, names are often 'gifted', but rarely spoken or translated. They change over time, the better you know a person, the more accurate the names becomes. There's a catch though, if you tell someone their name and they learn the meaning, then they can use that name to control you."

She smiled softly, "If that power isn't used wisely, then it is most likely a one time use."

[shopworn]

"Sounds like about the opposite of our world," Ghastly pointed out. He was assuming Anton had filled her in-- they'd certainly been related long enough. The word sounded just close enough to English that he had to concentrate to catch what was different about it. The last made him chuckle. "'Wisely' sounds like it would be not at all."

But, given what she'd said about unbalanced power... maybe. If that was the case, then he hoped Anton did know that name, just in case.

She hadn't sounded convinced about the abomination problem, though. Ghastly thought for a moment, hands stilling on his sewing, before offering, "You were helpful when you had no idea who I was, or what to gain from it. That's kindness, which most abominations don't quite have a handle on." In case she was wondering.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Kind of, yes," she replied, and then she shook her head, "Anton used it once. I'm not sure he knew that he was doing it, but I'm glad he did. The demon we were summoned to destroy had taken over my mind and Anton broke the demon's hold." She smirked, "After that, it was almost a walk in the park killing that creature."

It hadn't been nearly so easy as she had made it sound, something of which she was acutely aware. The battle itself had been tiring and difficult, but keeping her mind safe had no longer been an issue. Sighing, she closed her eyes.

"I see," she said, moving on, "So, how long have you known Anton?"

[shopworn]

The demon they had been summoned to destroy... right, Malicant. Ghastly had been filled in, at least somewhat, so he didn't even have to be confused. "Then it worked out for the best," he concluded. Of course it hadn't been that simple. Defeating magical enemies never was, and his expression held only understanding for that, but he didn't pry.

How long had he known Anton. That took a moment's thought. "Nearly three hundred years," Ghastly said, opting to round rather than calculate for accuracy. The Dead Men had mostly known each other since the beginning of the war, with a few exceptions. "I take it he's told you about the war?"