[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

[shroudofgray]

Yorda could be found over the next to weeks bustling around excitedly. Something new and strange has happened and it left the air around her buzzing with a sort of nervous anticipation.

She will be working double time, laying out clean sleeping bags, helping with the massive piles of dishes, and dusting.

She will also be paying close attention to the spread of decay from the salt. In places where it's particularly bad, she may sometimes be found just sitting and staring in that weird, unblinking way of hers.

OTA | Please see OOC note!

[lavoleuse]

((ooc: For anyone able to sense magical/psychic energy, Jo's leather satchel radiates energy. And not the friendly kind. The Cthulhu Mythos, ancient, Other, going-to-drive-you-screaming-mad kind of energy. Also, if you can look past the very scary things hiding in her satchel, Jo casts no reflection and has no shadow. She should appear kind of faded, to those able to see auras, etc.

Jo's hasty info post is here, excuse the mess. She can also perceive magical/psychic energy herself, so if there's anything she/I should know, let me know! :3 ))


[One of the newer arrivals to the Hotel is a petite young woman with long blond hair loosely piled on top of her head, with a couple of hair sticks poked through the impromptu bun. The effect is about as messy as the rest of her: her dress is old-fashioned, a sundress one might find in a vintage store, with a man's navy blazer overtop and too-large boots on her feet. The whole effect isn't so much shabby as ragged. She looks like she's been through hell. There's also a leather satchel slung across her body which she clings to as if it's a shield. Or as if it needs to be protected at all costs.

To a Sensitive the Hotel fairly glows with magical energy. She looks lost, yes, but she's also looking around the Hotel with barely restrained awe. It's full of magic and it's not the kind of magic she's used to. It's not the kind of magic that makes her want to claw her own eyes out.

Finally she collects herself enough to approach someone. Despite her appearance she is very polite, and smiles, and when she speaks it's in perfect English but with a heavy French accent.]

Excuse me. Can you tell me what world this is?

[ultimatepudding]

Yes, that's a pigeon in the hotel. A pigeon about the size of a pony, more or less. And he's currently looking for a kitchen, pecking the ground as he goes around, looking for, well, something, anyway.

"Cooo! cccccooo! Coo! (Where is the pudding? Have you seen it?) COoocOOcoo! COO! (Okosan DEMANDS the pudding be brought to him at once!)"

[[OOC: For all intents and purposes read the 'translations' as applying here, but said in a slightly different tone of voice, like a voiceover]]

OTA; MOST DAYS AFTER THE 16TH

[scryinghope]

After some of the initial emotions of arrival die down, Hopeless spends most of his time with the others--but not all. Even mind-readers need some distance, and with what's bubbling under the surface of the Dead Men's minds, sometimes that distance is ... pretty far.

The Hotel is a safe haven Hopeless never got a chance to experience. So he spends some of his 'alone' time there, in the commons, sitting in an armchair not too far from the fireplace. He can be hard to see--not because he causes people to not see him, but because he doesn't overtly draw attention, and when he leaves the chair he instinctively moves in peoples' blind-spots. He's not trying to avoid notice, now, but the fact that he does it so well might be noticeable on its own.

He can be found meditating, or praying on his prayer-rope; sometimes he's reading, or he's even making books--beautiful leatherbound and filigreed pieces of art, the sort monks used to create a few centuries ago. Or he's darning. Or he's playing with the tablet Anton keeps at his desk, abject fascinating written all over his face at technology clearly past his time.

Often, if it seems like someone else in the common-room is unhappy or annoyed, he might go over with a smile and something they'd appreciate--tea if they like tea, coffee if they like coffee, a cupcake if they like cupcakes. He doesn't stay to talk unless they want to talk, but a few little tensions around the Hotel are dissolved that way, without Anton needing to get involved. Sometimes it's as simple as going over and asking if they'd like someone to rant to.

Or, sometimes, he just watches with a cup of tea, letting the emotions of those around him reflect in him without letting himself engage. Sometimes, just being able to feel the movement of life and interaction can help.


[ooc: Hopeless is a mind-reader! He can't turn it off but he tries very hard not to look too deeply, and I'm playing him as if the Dreaming is futzing with things as needed, so if you don't want him to hear thoughts at all, just let me know. Permissions/full explanations are here.]

OTA

[leavelolalone]

Phil blinks and looks around himself a bit confused. He'd been talking to Fitz just a second ago about Ward's death and now he was here...wherever here is. He walks forward for a moment and then stops. "Okay this might not have been the weirdest thing that's happened to me this week, but it's still weird."

He then sighs and moves forward starting to explore his new reality.

OTA

[wearebothangry]

Bruce arrives with a bit more fanfare then he would have preferred. But when you go from being an eight foot tall green monster on a jet to a half naked man in a strange hotel what can you do, but duck for the nearest room and hope for pants. Once he'd managed to find something that would fit, Bruce headed back out to explore trying not to curl into himself in a quiet panic.

He'd been through something like this many times before, he couldn't let Ultron color his world forever.

[purered]

Klaus was not difficult to find when Anton left the hotel in his care. Klaus wasn't hard to find in general, being someone who liked people and liked socializing. ...And stuck out like a sore thumb at the best of times. There was a reason Steven and Chain handled intel and not Klaus, after all.

He had taken time off work at the flower shop so that Anton could spend what seemed like much-needed quality time with his friends who'd arrived. So Klaus could generally be found at the front desk, or in the lobby - generally checking on any newcomers with soul gems and making sure the new guests were comfortable and provided for.

He would be up early in the morning and generally around well into the night. In the few moments of respite, he could be found perusing notes, or making tea.

Michael | Open

[archistrategos]

Part of him was convinced that his being here was only a very vivid, albeit strange, dream. The explanation given at the Welcome Center didn't seem possible for it further challenged his faith. Other worlds, the Dreaming Plane, the manipulation of souls, perhaps it was simply too much for his mind to take in. But by the time Michael arrived at the Hotel, he had reclaimed his steadfast calm. He had shut off many of his angelic senses, the empathy, the darkness sensing, anything that might overreact to his new situation.

"Excuse me," he said to the nearest person, "Who runs this establishment?"

Kathryn Janeway | Open

[deltavoyager]

Kathryn Janeway wasn't one to take being kidnapped lying down.

Sure, she accepted the fact she was on Tu Vishan, that she had been brought here by forces unknown, that she wasn't able to immediately return home... yet.

And that "yet" was what drove her. The "yet", and the image of seeing Starfleet vessels on the viewscreen after so long in the Delta Quadrant. She had gotten Voyager home, she can do the same to herself, surely.

So, most days will find the Starfleet captain nose-deep in a book, still wearing her uniform, mug of coffee in one hand. She'd been in worse places than a sleeping bag on the floor, and, hey, this place had coffee. Real coffee, not replicated, or made from random beans Neelix found.

She's savouring this. It's almost worth the inconvenience of being dimensionally displaced.

Reception - OTA

[ten_zero]

The midnight hotel was busy with the sudden influx, and with Anton suddenly not being as available as usual. When Bisi isn't manning the desk she's off trying to help people get settled and tell them what's going on (which is a little hard since she's not too sure herself).

Ghastly Bespoke | OTA | later in the week

[shopworn]

So after things have settled down a bit, in some of those few periods where Ghastly isn't helping with Erskine's project, he can be found at the Hotel. Sometimes he's sitting with a careful arrangement of fabric in his lap, needle and thread working steadily to shape it-- he still knows how to work without a sewing machine, and however much time he has here, he'd like to leave something behind for some people.

On other occasions he'll just be meandering through, catching something dropped or about to fall with an outthrust hand and a quick burst of air. "Here-- got it?"

Open! From April 26th and onwards

[amonster]

[OOC: Feel free to have your character bother him at any time, from his initial check-in, his first night there, or any day after!]

It had been a long, tiresome day for Amon. He'd shown up on in some kedan family's farmlands far outside of the city; he'd been lucky that the woman kedan who owned it was a sympathizer to foreigners like himself, though other members of her family were much less keen of him, particularly because of his mask. After being given a basic rundown of where he'd ended up, and the imporance of the necklace he'd found on his person, he'd been sent on a proverbial wild turkey duck chase to and through the city of Keeliai. Two wagon rides, a trip to the welcome center, and a second basic rundown later, Amon finally appeared at the Midnight Hotel.

Though exhausted, the masked stranger tried not to show it, approaching the front desk with a bag from the welcoming center slung over his shoulder and a confident, if not intimidating, gait in his step. He wrote his name on the check-in sheet - 阿蒙 - before slowly noticing that his writing didn't exactly seem to match anyone else on the list's that he could tell... Well, they'd at least know someone new was here, even if they couldn't read his name. The language section after his name is left blank, as he doubted it would do much good.

On his first night there, Amon was far too frustrated and tired to make small talk. Approaching him would have ended in a rather grumpy dismissal, maybe even some sharp words. The following day, though, after a full night's rest, Amon would be in much better spirits. If he'd snapped at you the day before, he was now apologizing for his rude demeanor, and even politely offering a chance to sit and talk, to make things right.

Just please don't ask him that question about his mask again.