fandomtownies | The Arms Hotel Lobby, Thursday [9/18/2008]

If you're too hungry to wait for service.

Who is looking around nervously.

Cal made a quick pit-stop at the hotel before heading into the diner, and then hesitated when he saw that it was Hoshi behind the desk. But then he figured there was nothing wrong with it, right? People probably just got rooms for an evening all the time, right? So what if it was from someone he had to see and look in the eye a lot?

"...Hi," he said, trying to sound casual, but, as usual, the attempt always failed.

"Hey Cal," said Hoshi, smiling. She was happy to see anyone today. "Are you here for the special? We've got three different types of udon noodles today."

"Uh, no, actually," Cal said, letting his eyes drift distractedly toward the special's board and wondering, once he saw curry, how Lacey would feel about him bringing in food from somewhere else. He shook his head, though. He wasn't here for noodles. He scratched his chin a little. "I'm, uh, actually here about a room..."

"You feel it too, right? Something creepy is going on out there today," said Hoshi, shuddering. "I was almost thinking of staying here tonight instead of going back to the dorms myself. You never know what you're going to run into on the streets."

Cal kind of stared at Hoshi. "Uh, well...actually, no," he admitted. "I haven't felt anything like that, but I've never really been known for having a sixth sense or anything."

His frown deepened, into something more of concern than nervousness. "You really feel that way? I mean, weird things kind of happen all the time here. What makes you feel something different is going to occur?"

"I don't know what it is, but I just got a bad feeling today," said Hoshi. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid. I've been known to jump at my own shadow, and I'm a bit jumpier than usual since Hinata went away for the weekend."

"I hope it's just paranoia," Cal said, brow creasing still with a frown. "Not that, you know, I want to call you crazy or anything, but I'd much rather it just be you than something really going down, you know?"

"I understand," said Hoshi. "I'd much prefer that nothing unusual happened. I like things to be nice and normal."

She opened the register (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pz2yiwm77W2B1lfvw8XhKAA) to see what rooms were available. "So, if nothing weird is going on, why do you need a room?"

"Same here," Cal agreed, and then shifted a little. "It's for tomorrow," he said, "and, um..."

He considered just being honest and dealing with the embarrassment. For about two seconds. Hoshi got all embarrassed when he jokingly talked about picturing the audience naked; he didn't even want to think about what it would do to her to have to think about the fact that her costars were renting rooms at the hotel. Besides, it made him feel...a little cheap. Almost like...

"I have guests visiting," he lied. "Just for that evening, you know, passing through."

"Oh, cool! Do you have family coming in?" asked Hoshi. "That must be nice. I'd love to meet them."

Not that she knew it, but she wasn't going to let Cal get away that easily with a lie.

"My friend's not very...outgoing," Cal said. "Just staying for the night. Shy. Especially after all I've mentioned about this place. You'd want to keep a bit of a wide berth of weird things, too, if you were him, right?"

"I understand. Hey, I'm the paranoid one, right?" said Hoshi, nodding in agreement. "You know, all of the suites are empty right now except for the presidential suite. I could give your friend one of those for the cost of a normal room."

She frowned slightly as she checked the list again. "I'm assuming that the Bridal suite might be out of the question, and maybe the Jello Dragon suite too."

"What the hell is a Jello Dragon suite?" Cal really couldn't ask it without laughing a little, especially since the thought of getting a suite for a regular price was something he could definitely be a-okay with.

"I guess the island got attacked by jello dragons once, and Miss Connell decided to use that idea for a mural she was painting in one of the suites. So that became the Jello Dragon suite. It's really colorful," explained Hoshi.

"Yeah, I think I'll pass on that one," Cal said. "My friend's trying to avoid the weirdness, not have it look over him while he sleeps." Yes. Sleeps. Ahem. Bridal suite was tempting just for the ~~lulz~~ amusement, but Cal would have preferred to remain unhit. Stripper pole suite was out of the question, although that was for his own proclivities, not Amber's. Which made him narrow it down to...

"Astronomy suite?" he asked, head tilted.

"I like that one," said Hoshi, smiling as she grabbed a brochure from the desk. "There's a floor-to-ceiling mural of the night sky in the bedroom. It's almost like sleeping outdoors. Plus you have all the other standard suite amenities like the minibar, entertainment system and hot tub."

"Hot tub?" Cal's attention was instantly caught, and then it faltered a little in a frown; his hormones were a bit faster than the reality of the fact that hot tubs weren't as good as an association for him as his mind wanted to first think he was, and his face went a little ashen. Amber would probably want to get use out of that, and the minibar, and he...

Maybe this was all just a horrible, horrible idea. "All the suites have that sort of thing?"

"I think they all do," said Hoshi. "They're pretty popular. Even some of the deluxe guest rooms have them."

Cal, clearly, was a man who put a lot of thought into a room for his friends to just hang out in for an evening, his face drawn with lines of deep consideration. A though had passed through his mind, about the fact that the privacy he was looking for was also inevitably going to be because of talks that needed to happen. There was still so much Amber didn't know, and it seemed that, maybe, if he worked it right...

It could change the whole angle of the night. But she had to know...

"You know," he mused, "I think he'd get a real chuckle out of the stripper pole suite, when you get right down to it. He'll hate me, but it's kind of tempting, you know?"

Hoshi chuckled. "It could be worse," she said. "You could book him into the Stripper Pole Suite and line up some female companionship for the evening. Not that I know where you'd find that, but I've heard stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Cal, being red blooded and technically male, couldn't help but be intrigued.

"Well, there was this one time I got to work really early and saw Gunther paying this woman as she was leaving his room," said Hoshi. "He didn't tell me anything, but I can pretty much assume what was going on."

"His maid comes really, really early?"

"And she wears a really skimpy uniform with fishnets and stilettos," added Hoshi with a smirk.

"Well, she doesn't want to get any excess amount of clothing dirty if she can help it," Cal informed Hoshi, "and I'm sure those stilettos really come in handy when it comes to dusting the really high up shelves."

"Definitely," said Hoshi, giggling. "If your friend requires the special maid service, I could talk to Gunther and let him handle the arrangements." It was probably not the full service her boss intended to offer, and Hoshi didn't want to think too much about what it entailed.

Grinning a bit, Cal nodded. "I think he'll be okay," he decided, "but I'll definitely keep that in mind. Go ahead," and he realized at this moment that had to be insane, but how else would he tell her? Just as he had to tell her about Callie in a story, he'd have to tell her about Hermaphroditus in a stripper suite, "and put me down for the stripper pole suite."

"Just for the one night, right?" said Hoshi. "It's a shame your friend isn't staying longer."

"Like I said," Cal nodded, "just passing through."

"Well, your friend is all set," said Hoshi. "Here's the room key for Stripper Pole Suite so you can give that to your friend. I'll make sure that minibar gets stocked before I leave today."

Cal looked hesitant for a moment, drawing in a breath as he forced himself to make a quick decision. He knew he wouldn't touch the stuff; it was bad enough that the room itself would remind him of the Sixty-Niners without having the alcohol add to the effect, but was it too cruel to Amber to put her through this without the friendly intoxicating embrace?

"...Actually, about that. You see, could you...not? My friend has this...problem."

If Amber needed alcohol that badly, she could leave and go to Caritas. He wasn't going to sit there and let her do that.

"Oh," said Hoshi. "It's no problem. My boss has a similar problem. Then I'll make sure that the minibar is emptied and locked. We've got a pretty tight system to control access to liquor so Miss Connell doesn't have any more problems."

"Thanks, Hoshi. I appreciate it."

"Just doing my job," said Hoshi, smiling. "Besides, I did say on the radio last week that I'm happy to hook people up with hotel rooms."

The Arms Hotel Lobby, Thursday [9/18/2008]

Room Service [9/18/2008]

Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

Re: Talk To Hoshi [9/18/2008]

OOC [9/18/2008]