Mauvaise Chance Apartments Office/Lobby

[needsaparrot]

The sad thing about the fact that Xander is behind the counter playing with Legos is not that he's a grown man who has AutoCAD on the laptop next to him, 3/4 of a degree in construction management, and a sign on the door advertising his professional services not dirty. Nor is it the fact that he's been doing it for three hours, or that the Ultimate House Building Set was supposed to be a present for Bridge, but he couldn't resist opening it when it arrived, just to, uh, check that all the pieces were there.

It's that he's currently building a scaled-down version of the former Echolls Mansion as it might look turned into a waterslide park.

What - it's an idea.
___
[OOC: Open for new tenants and old, passers-by, random aardvarks, and Canadians. No mimes, though.]

Comments

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

Having finally gotten into town after a random layover in Denver -- seriously, flight from New York to Virginia and she had a layover in Denver. Never going with cheapest airfare ever, ever again -- Robin found the apartment building.

She thought it best to tie the dogs out front while she was still checking on whether there was anything even available, which was why when she meandered into the lobby, she was leash-free.

"Um. Hi?"

[needsaparrot]

Xander looked up, blue Lego in one hand and tongue tucked into the corner of his mouth in concentration. "Hey, there. Welcome to Xander's house of, uh. Houses. Can I interest you in some snap-tite roofing?"

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

Robin stared. "Sure, if it comes with an apartment," she said after a second.

[needsaparrot]

"Of course. Apartment comes free with rental of competitively-priced plastic building materials." Xander set the Lego piece down, called up the available apartment layouts, then coughed. "The building's not really made of Lego. In this town that doesn't actually go without saying."

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

Robin raised an eyebrow, then studied the layouts. "Any, um, pet rules?"

[needsaparrot]

"No carnivorous dinosaurs, no demons that don't pass the Carson Aura Test for evilosity, no gremlins and no mimes. I'm flexible on the gremlins if you put down a small mayhem deposit, but no way on the mimes."

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

Robin was just going to stare for a second. She was vaguely reminded of the rantings of the homeless guy outside Ted and Marshall's building. "Oh...kay. I just have dogs. So I'd need an area big enough for a bunch of dogs. No, um, gremlins, though." She laughed, because if there was anything she'd learned, it was that crazy people liked it when you thought they were funny.

[needsaparrot]

"Good, the island's got enough without people bring new ones in. They mostly stay up at the school, though - I've never seen one in town."

Xander ran his finger down the layout, wondering - given the staring - whether he was inoculating her against the weirdness or just wigging her out so much that she wouldn't stay long enough to experience it. Posssssibly he should tone it down a bit.

"The basement apartment takes up the whole floor," he said, pointing to the screen. "Think that'd be big enough for you and your .... how many is a bunch?"

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

"Five," Robin said, looking at the basement layout.

[needsaparrot]

Xander blinked. "That's a bunch, all right."

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

"Three are big, one is midsized, and one is a chihuahua," she said, smiling a little. "I think I'm going to take it. Looks perfect."

[needsaparrot]

"Not a lot of sunlight, but lots of space to make up for it," Xander said, reaching under the counter for the rental forms. "So you a new teacher?" Classes had already started, but it wasn't exactly unheard of for somebody to show up late, or take over a class. "Or opening up a business?"

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

"Working for the media, actually," she replied, leaning against the counter. "I guess you guys have a radio station?"

[needsaparrot]

"There goes my next piece of advice, which was gonna be 'listen to the nightly news and believe about three fourths of it.' You joining the news team?"

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

"Supposedly. I got a transfer from the news station I worked for in New York," she said, nodding. "It's not that reliable? I'm coming from a pretty seedy little network."

[needsaparrot]

"Sometimes the broadcasters get, uh. Creative. And sometimes the reporters get drunk. Not that it takes a lot to make that happen."

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

"I get to report drunk?" The sheer glee with which she said this...probably did not bode well.

[needsaparrot]

"Around here it's pretty unlikely anybody'll notice."

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

Robin grinned. "Wow, it's like home already."

[needsaparrot]

"Where's home? I'm gonna take a wild guess and say not California." He was also going to skip asking which dimension, given the look that mentioning demons and gremlins had earned him.

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

"New York," she said, smiling a little. "But I'm from Canada originally."

[needsaparrot]

"Yeah? You should meet the head of security up the school. He's a hot Mountie."

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

She looked surprised. "...really? An actual Mountie? Here?"

[needsaparrot]

"Red suit, hat and all. I mean, he could be a fa--" Xander shook his head. "Nah - I can't even say, it, much less believe it. You meet him, you'll see what I mean."

[canadianpopstar.livejournal.com]

"Huh. I haven't seen one of those since I left home," Robin said pensively. She blinked. "Oh, wow, I haven't even introduced myself yet, have I? Robin Scherbatsky." She held out a hand.