first name Enoch. or Ezekiel. maybe Ephraim.
aka Mr E
the lift operator. 70 yrs old but spry. blind in both eyes.
exceptional hearing and sense of smell.
cool cat. sort of an oracle.
impeccable manners.
he definitely probably has a sword in that umbrella,
which he uses as a cane.
Valentine knows everything that's going down in the 9.
but keeps his mouth shut unless asked properly and compensated generously.
there is only one elevator for the residents.
famously unpredictable.
doesn't always take you to the floor you asked
for. but maybe the floor you need.
maybe a floor you didn't know existed.
Emil O has proposed we play with the idea that there may be
hidden floors. or half floors.
there are multiple staircases In the 9 and they are all
precarious.
there is a service elevator somewhere in the bowels but only Malick,
Arthur, and Godfrey have access to that one. Moira and her minions too.
and Valentine.
ai art steered and muscled along by Edith.
For anyone currently involved with, working on, or having to do with the 9 story Hotel project. We are in the process of migrating the bulk of the work and community surrounding the Hotel to Discord from The Locals, since the Locals is harder to navigate even than Discord, I would suggest you join up. The server is fully populated and set-up for work, talk, and collaboration.
This is the discord invite, it is good for the next seven days, after which I will probably post another one:
Let's see if I'm not as dumb as I think I am. This is the Google doc link for FRACTALS, the Delphine and Balthazar story.
Little iffy on the first section. I think it's good for characterization and to set up some of the relationships, but maybe it could be streamlined or brought into the main narrative. Feels slightly more like the opening of a novel than a story but I'll let others weigh in.
Hope y'all dig it!
EDIT: I was talking with another writer and wanted to clarify something I should've mentioned above. (Trying to avoid spoilers.) The ending of this is purposely ambiguous, in that another writer could pick up with the next story from another character's point of view, Delphine could achieve either of the possible goals (or none of them), or anything in between. And it's kind of subject to change based on what the next story is or what the overall project needs from these characters. TL;DR: If the ending doesn't quite land with the project from a 30k-foot view, no worries, we ...
Newest Althea story, AKA The Room With the Teeth
https://open.substack.com/pub/cjstockton/p/biting-down?r=1ck2p&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
