tushanshu | [ console | video/action ] we get to carry each other

[Hello folks, it's your friendly neighborhood gorgeous janitor. Except he's not looking so friendly, today. In fact, he's looking more serious than most people have probably ever seen him, here in Keeliai. When he speaks it's with a gravity that his words normally lack.]

Anton Shudder is no longer in charge of the Midnight Hotel.

I'm taking over.

[There's a pause, while he lets that sink in.]

Since Shudder has proven himself incapable of the running of the Hotel--or indeed, simple things like standing and walking, I find myself forced to keep him confined to a comfortable chair in front of the fire. With tea. And yarn.

He knits, did you know he knits?

[It should be noted that while the tone of the video has become decidedly less serious, Ravel's face has not.]

At any rate, I'll be taking over the day-to-day operations of the Hotel for the time being. Matters such as employment and pay will still go through Anton, obviously. Day-to-day functions should come to me, instead. Any present staff are encouraged to pitch in as you're able--God only knows you don't want me doing the cooking. Not unless the lot of you fancy grilled cheese or cold cereal.

[He pauses]

Was that it? Yes, I think that was it. Er. Carry on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

See? Exactly my point. The Hotel was asking to be taken over, in my opinion.

[It really wouldn't have been hers, weak attempts at joking aside. She also suspected there was far more to it than that. If he even was taking over. And if he was, it was for a reason he probably wasn't ready to share.]

Is this going to affect the rest of us in any way? Besides the cooking, I mean. I can deal with that.

My hope is that hardly anyone will even notice. We just need to keep things afloat until Anton's off bed rest.

...I would say "how hard can it be," but I've seen enough films to know that always ends terribly. But I have at least some degree of faith in us.

Have you ever managed a Hotel before?

I've managed a country full of sorcerers before, does that count? Although admittedly, when I was cleaning up their messes it wasn't... quite as literal as it is now.

I suppose that depends upon how many sorcerers are currently staying here with the rest of us.

[She...couldn't guess, to be honest. Midii didn't regularly associate with most of the other residents. Only the more publicly known faces, like Anton and, apparently, Erskine himself.]

Though I would think a whole country would be harder to manage than a single building. Sorcerers or no sorcerers.

You've no idea. Endless meetings. Paperwork. Sitting on a throne--an actual throne, if you can believe it. Having things handed to me all day. Sending lackeys to fetch me things. Tea whenever I asked for it. It was awful.

[He's trying really hard not to grin.]

But I managed, somehow.

[She actually managed to keep a straight face throughout all of that. Blinking twice, with no other signs of movement.]

...why wouldn't I believe you sat on an actual throne? I know they existed back then.

"Back then"? What, all of six months ago?

[It's getting really hard not to laugh now, thank you Midii.]

Or longer. Assuming you're from as far back into the past as I remember hearing about in school.

[Clearly, she was thinking more along the lines of the difference between her point in time versus when most others seemed to be from. Based mostly on the idea of thrones, sure, but it was enough for her to make an educated guess.]

Ah, I see. Silly of me to assume you're from the same time I am. It was 2013 for me, what about yourself?

After Colony 190.

[There's a long pause]

...I have no idea what that means, I'm sorry.

When you said 2013, that means 2013 anno domini, right?

[Just a guess, but it was the only other calendar time she had a reference for.]

That was the old calendar we used to use. I don't remember how long it went for off the top of my head, but I do remember that it stopped sometime during the mid to late 20th century. That was when the first Space Colonies were established, and the new era began.

Ah... yes, that's what it means.

[He's about to react to the whole "stopped during the mid 20th century" thing, because he's pretty sure it did not, in fact, stop during the mid-20th. And then-]

Space Colonies?

[She would have thought that was self-explanatory.]

They're exactly what they sound like.

Five different Lagrange points were set up around Earth's Orbit. The first ones to be successful in sustaining human life was actually L5, strangely enough.

[He rests his chin in his hand, nodding along with everything Midii is saying... up until he stops nodding and starts shaking his head instead.]

Mmm, nope. You've lost me completely.

I mean, I get space. And colonies and orbit and whatnot. I'm not really sure about the rest of that, though. We've shot some people into space--well, when I say we I mean my own reality. Landed a few on the moon. There's been talk of shooting someone off toward Mars but it's a pipe dream right now, as far as I know. No one lives up there.

Maybe not where you come from.

Where I come from...it was the safest place to live. There was no fighting up there. It was all on Earth.

[No fighting? Well, wouldn't that be a bloody welcome change.]

That... sounds lovely, actually.

But you said you'd had a gun held on you. Were you on Earth?

[She nodded.]

Yes. I was born in France, and though I was able to travel around a lot of the Western Eurasian continent...I never had the chance to go into space. Most poor families don't.

[Ravel presses his mouth into a thin line and nods back.]

Sounds about right. Some things never change.

Have you ever been up there?

[He did mention something about space travel--if not colonies--being a reality in his world as well.]

What, space? No, not me. Space travel only began about fifty years ago in our dimension. By then I was much too old to entertain dreams about becoming an astronaut.

[Now, granted, he didn't appear to be as old as he most likely was. But there was more than just that to cause Midii to look momentarily confused.]

Why would age make a difference?

[Space travel...so long as one were aboard a properly equipped ship, anyone (rich) from a young child to an elder could hop aboard.]

Well, not just anyone gets to go. You have to be a proper astronaut, young and fit and working for the government and all that--one of the big ones, the US or Russia. By the time space travel came around I'd been a soldier for two hundred years and was working my way into... politics, I guess you'd call it. Not exactly the ideal candidate here.

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unetrustworthy - 2015-08-05 01:57 (UTC) - Expand