tushanshu | [console | video/action]

[Bright and early on the morning of the first, the Midnight Hotel's janitor appears on the network. For those who haven't met him yet, Erskine could best be described as beautiful (albeit in a manly sort of way) and when he speaks he's very obviously Irish. More interestingly, perhaps, is the fact that when he appears on screen he's upside down. And floating in mid-air. He looks... mildly exasperated.]

Well then. Just when you think you've seen everything, you go and wake up on the bloody ceiling.

[Yep, that's an exasperated sigh right there.]

Heads up--or down, as the case may be--that the gravity's gone a bit pear-shaped in the Hotel. By which I mean everything and everyone is upside down. Because turning people into fluffy white bunny rabbits and making them all spout the truth just wasn't enough, right?

[He pauses and eyes the ceiling--which is down, for him--suspiciously.]

Unless this is all in my head. Which would make some degree of sense, I suppose, but I think I prefer the other explanation. The one that makes me not crazy. Or less crazy. I'll take less crazy, at this point.

[[ooc: APRIL FOOLS! Please see the Midnight Hotel's new log for all the details, but the gist (haha) of this prank is that Anton and Erskine have turned all the furniture onto the ceiling of the Hotel with sigils. Residents have the option of having their shoes--and thus themselves--harmlessly affected or not, depending on player preference. Feel free to encounter Erskine in person, but be prepared... if someone shows up and isn't upside down, he might try to use his air magic to float them up to the ceiling to perpetuate the prank a little longer ;)

And no, not everyone is floating in mid-air. Erskine is flying to reach the console :) ]]

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[How are they supposed to work like this, Erskine? Did you think about that? DID YOU??? Of course, Adrien is unaware of his part in this whole plan, and instead arrives with a friendly, albeit awkwardly balanced wave.

He'll just roll with the upside down thing. It's just a thing that's happening now. Y.E.P. This is happening. ]

I'm almost afraid to ask about the rabbits.

[Hey, when your boss also happens to be your brother, one of your oldest friends, and your partner in crime, things just happen okay? Nevermind that it was Erskine's idea originally oops.

He looks down--up--from where he's floating in mid-air to reach the console and offers a little wave. Then, rather than try to tell the whole story floating like this, he gently raises back up to stand upside down on the ceiling near Adrien. And spends a moment focusing on smoothing his suit down. Despite the friendly demeanor on the network, in person he doesn't often make eye contact.]

Well, just one really. Me. I spent a couple of weeks as a very small white rabbit back in... November, was it? You'd be amazed how many people want to cuddle you when you're four inches tall and have enormous ears.

[That...that's something new. Adrien blinks, confused because "I turned into a rabbit" is not something he's ever thought he'd need a response for.]

Oh...wow. So that happens here? People just turn into animals?

[He'd be a cat. He'd so be a cat. ]

It has happened, yes. Haven't really heard of it happening other than than one time, though. I suppose I'm just terribly lucky. [An eyebrow arches, even though he's not quite looking right at Adrien. It's more of a 'general grumbling at having been a bunny rabbit' sort of look.] I'm choosing to think of it that way, at least.

I could have done without being accosted by the necromancer, but there's only so much one can do in self-defense when one is a very small rabbit.

[He supposes he has to be thankful he's never had to deal with an akuma that turned people into animals. Because he knows his with luck (it's bad, that much is in the very nature of his abilities) he'd be turned into one instantly. ]

Yeaaaah. That's pretty much one of the major times you never want to be accosted by anyone who can hurt you. Did you get out of it okay?

[He shrugs a little] I'm still in one piece. I even managed to catch up on some of my sleep. Bit of an aversion to salad these days, but I think I'll manage with that one.

[There's still not really any eye contact, but he does look a bit closer at Adrien himself for a moment instead of finding excuses to look anywhere but.]

Adrien, wasn't it?

I really can't blame you on that one.

[Adrien's begun to notice the lack of eye contact, but he doesn't push the fact. He's used to it with Marinette after all. ]

Yes, that's me. And you're Erskine, right?

That's right.

[For a moment he seems to be at a loss for something to say.]

Are you... making out alright, with the...? [He gestures around vaguely, to the upside down Hotel.]

[Adrien glances around them, chuckling a little.]

I'm fine. I have a climbing wall in my room back home, so I can handle it.

[That earns a couple of raised eyebrows]

You have a climbing wall in your room?

[He'll just try to brush it off with a shrug. He doesn't like to make a big deal of his family's wealth. After all, it's his father's empire, not his.]

My father's pretty rich. I think he wanted me to have a fun room.

[No. A fun prison. He wanted Adrien to have no reason to want to leave. He understands that much. ]

[Honestly, Erskine's no stranger to wealth. Most of the sorcerers he knew back home were at least comfortably well-off, if not exorbitantly wealthy. He himself had a fair bit of money stashed in various bank accounts, mostly due to his former turn as a gambler, some long (looooong) term investments, and one very generous patroness.

He even has a good chunk of juulan here in Keeliai, thanks to that former profession as a gambler.

But a climbing wall? That's... different.]

Yeah? What does your father do?

He's a fashion designer. A pretty big one.

[He does his best to try and sound enthusiastic about this. His father's empire has given him a cushy life, where he wanted for nothing. Nothing material, anyway. It's also meant his father simply wasn't there. It's hard to be excited about the thing that means you spend days without so much as seeing your sole remaining parent.]

A fashion designer. Ah.

[Not what he would have expected.]

And you're getting along here in Keeliai well enough?

I've had to learn to do things I wouldn't normally do back home, but yeah. I'm enjoying it, honestly.

[He'd much rather earn his living, even if it means laundry and cooking disasters. Better that than live in a gilded cage any day. ]

[Erskine chuckles]

You and me both. I can say with absolute certainty that I'd never cleaned a toilet in my life before coming here. I don't cook much either, but that's what I keep Anton around for.

I'm still trying to figure out the cooking thing. I'm not that great at it either, but I'm enjoying the challenge all the same.

Also, laundry is far more complicated than I thought it would be.

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