how is this going to work exactly. what happens if character X gets whacked in one story but is still walking around in another.

and a million or so other questions come to mind, I know.

safe to assume that for the purposes of the anthology, most if not all of the primary characters have arrived at the hotel at the same point in time on a job or mission or personal vendetta. they have come to kill or abduct someone or steal something. or extract data from someone.

some will succeed, some won't.

on a metal plate in Arthur's office are scratched the following house rules,
if they qualify as rules.

everyone at the 9 gets what they need.
some get what they want.
some what they deserve.
some leave in a box.
some disappear down drain in boiler room.
some never leave at all.

I don't think it's unworkable if two writers choose the same primary,
but they would certainly want to cooperate
and communicate about where they intend to go with that
character.

ideally we will have one writer take on each of the characters.

if anyone wants to take on more than one, that's an option too.

anyway. shotgun rules. first dibs. stake a claim. either in the replies below the initial character post or alternately
drop a first paragraph or first draft or bits of lore in a new post altogether.
or all of the above.

I will be recruiting at least two editors or producers to help keep things sorted but my gut response is the photo negative overlay metaphor.

may be easier to visualize if you've ever been in a darkroom
but say you have dozens of photo negatives all shots of the same image
same room or garden or hotel lobby
but each with changes, alterations. some subtle some massive.. such that furniture and people are rearranged. animals appear and disappear.
massive jagged hole in the floor.
or a corpse or pool of blood appears in one negative but not the next.

now lay all the negatives one on top of the other.

speaking of, may add a few animals to the mix.

also realized I'm seeing this as a sort of video game in literary form in my head, a game where the operator slash reader gets to play the game from pov of any of the characters below.

at first glance a handful of the characters might seem unkillable.
Arthur, Balthazar, the proprietor for instance. Evangeline and the Horseman.

no one is beyond killing. I don't believe in plot armor.

note. I am leaning toward doing a story about Godfrey that will involve Evangeline. I've also got side story ideas for Tuesday and the Knife.

and maybe I should take on the Proprietor.