fandomtownies | The Arms Hotel Lobby, Wednesday

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The Arms Hotel Lobby, Wednesday

Mary didn't feel like doing paperwork today. Instead, she pitched in to help out the housekeeping staff. She had a basket full of towels fresh from the dryer and was folding them. Except there was only one folded towel at this point. The rest had been rolled up to form a towel cake. It wasn't very efficient, but Mary enjoyed being a little creative.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel
Today's Specials:
Quinoa, Bacon and Blue Cheese Fritters
Broiled Salmon with Onion, Tomato and Lemon
Yogurt with Pistachio Brittle

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She could always use a break from rolling towels.

Lucky Mary, she was about to get one in the form of a somewhat disheveled man, wandering in with his head down, a hand over his eyes and a few days of stubble on his face. Under his breath, he was muttering a few obscenities to himself, mostly not loud enough to be heard.

... But at least he was more or less polite as he made his way up to the desk.

"Hey, uh... Excuse me?"

Nikolai had had a day.

Mary looked up from the towel she was rolling and gave Nikolai a warm smile. "Hello! How can I help you today?"

"Yeah, that actually comes with a story," Nick shut his eyes tightly, leaning his head back and turning his face toward the ceiling. "It's kind of a long one that involves a trip from Greece, and lost luggage, and me being on the wrong side of the country."

A beat. He... wasn't going to mention the airport security that he'd been chased halfway across Baltimore by. Hiding the fact that he'd lost his wallet along with his luggage was probably harder to keep to himself, though.

"Look, I just... need a room. I'm willing to work for it. Dishes or answering the phone or anything like that."

"Oh, yikes," said Mary, shaking her head. "Travel is so rough these days." She had hesitated many times when booking a trip to Las Vegas because she could never tell if she was going to end up in a different part of the multiverse.

"But I can definitely give you a room for the night. Actually, if you're interested, I am looking to hire someone to work at the front desk," she added.

"Yeah?" Nick frowned a little, really seeming to be interested in that ceiling, there. It was very... ceiling... like. Had lights on it and things. Fascinating stuff. "I don't know I'm going to be sticking around this place for long, I just have to get in touch with the agency back in LA, try to talk my boss into getting me a ticket back home."

Because that's how Fandom Island worked. Sure, Nikolai.

"Guess I wouldn't mind working here and taking that room in the meantime, though. Keeps me from sleeping on a bench somewhere in Baltimore."

"And it's really kind of awful to sleep on a bench when half the hotel is empty right now," said Mary, nodding. "You're welcome to stay as long as you need to. I could use the help. There are days when I'm so busy answering the phone that I can't get around to anything else."

"I can do phones," Nikolai decided, giving a nod that wasn't quite desperate, but given the day that he'd had, it very well could have been. "Phones and I get along pretty great, actually. You spend a lot of time on the phone, here? How much of the job involves actually... checking people in, being the smiling customer service guy, that sort of thing?"

Nick could behave himself and work in the hospitality industry, sure. He was just going to have to figure out how to do that without making eye-contact.

Mirrored shades, maybe?

"Most of the calls lately have been telemarketers. Annoying, but the phone needs to be answered in case there's an actual person trying to make a reservation," said Mary, frowning. "And the check-in process is fairly easy. There's a list from housekeeping that has all the rooms available. You just take the first one off the list and hand over the key. It can get busy when there's an event in town, but those are the days that I'll be working the front desk myself."

Eye contact? Mary generally didn't get a lot of that anyway. Most people, both male and female, were too busy looking at her chest instead of her eyes.

"Oh, thank god," Nikolai breathed. He still didn't figure he was going to be here long enough to encounter something like that... What was there on a little island like this that could draw a crowd? The Independence Day festivities were probably way more impressive in Baltimore, after all. "I mean... Uh... You have some kind of interview process, here? Or do you hire every unshaven tourist that stumbles in without a wallet?"

Mary chuckled. "According to my friend Danny, I have a soft spot for hard-luck cases," she said. "I actually gave away a bed once to a guy who said he needed one. I just didn't expect him to find people to help him carry it away."

"Huh... How's that for small-town hospitality," Nikolai mused, shaking his head a little and directing a smirk toward the floor. "I guess this is my lucky day after all. I'm Nikolai, by the way. Bartamian. Nick is fine, though."

If he was going to be working here, he supposed at least telling the woman at the desk what his name was would probably help.

"You'll find that most people on the island are very friendly and willing to help another person out," she said. "And it's nice to meet you, Nick. I'm Mary."

"Mary, huh?" Nick didn't look at her, no. But he did offer her his hand. Because it wasn't weird at all to be shaking hands with someone while purposefully avoiding their eyes. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Mary. Must be my lucky day, finding one such person so soon after tripping over this place."

Mary returned the handshake, still not bothered by the lack of eye contact. "After the day you've had, I think you were just about due for a little luck! I'll set you up in room 315. It should be pretty quiet. There are some others staying on the same floor, but they're further down the hallway."

"You know what, quiet is sounding better and better right now," Nick admitted. "Eleven hours on a plane and then I found my way here on foot... I'm about ready to see if I can combine showering and sleeping into some new extreme sport. But before I run off to try my luck as a merman, when would you like me to start?"

A beat.

"I'm probably not going to be any good to start tomorrow. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Maybe the day after?"

"Of course you're going to need a day or two to settle in and find your way around," said Mary. "I think I can manage on my own until Friday or Saturday, whichever day you'd prefer to start."

Another day to rest, and figure out what the hell was going on? Yeah, of course Nick was going to take it.

"Saturday, then," he replied, looking and sounding fairly relieved. "Thanks for this. I'll try not to break too many of your customers."

No. Really. He would give it his best effort.

"I'm sure you'll be just fine," said Mary. Most of the guests staying at the hotel had adapted well to the little quirks on the island. She just worried about how Nick would take it the first time a gremlin wandered out of the janitor's closet.

He'd probably have a staring contest with it. And win.

"The vote of confidence is appreciated," Nick chuckled, lifting a hand to rub at his forehead, arm mostly in front of his face while he looked around the room. "Looks pretty straightforward. People need a room, you give them a room. Keep the guest happy. They can't be any more difficult to please than some of the divas I've worked with."

"I actually miss getting outrageous special requests," said Mary, sighing. "In Las Vegas, it wasn't unusual for someone to want a jacuzzi filled with champagne. The most extreme request I've gotten here is to remove anything that uses electricity, and that wasn't too much of a challenge."

"... Electricity? Some kind of new-age save-the-world treehugger crap?"

It wouldn't surprise him, really, but it definitely had Nick curious.

"I believe that it was a gentleman who was not accustomed to modern conveniences, and the friend he was visiting did not want him to be overwhelmed," said Mary with a shrug. "Sometimes when people cross that causeway, you have no idea what they're leaving behind."

"No?" Well. Today seemed like it was going to be a day for being told by the locals that this place attracted a strange crowd. And, all things considered, Nick really wasn't in a place to disagree. "How do you mean?"

"Sometimes when people turn up, they're coming from Baltimore. But every so often you get someone who was last in London, or Paris, or even some desert that no one's ever heard of," said Mary, choosing her words carefully. There was no reason to explain that sometime the island moved around when Nick seemed so exhausted.

Yeah, there were some things about this place that Nick was just not going to be able to wrap his head around today. Moving islands were on that list.

It was a really long list, and would stay that way until after he could manage some sleep.

"Well, we're not that far from the airport," he reasoned. "I was in Greece, yesterday. I suppose a little culture shock is to be expected."

Mary nodded, deciding that she should had probably said enough. "Yes, it can be a little unsettling when you cross a lot of time zones," she said.

"And an ocean," Nikolai agreed. "I'll probably settle in quickly, at least. Compared to Hollywood, this place seems pretty laid back. Can't imagine me getting too overwhelmed during my stay here."

Mary tried hard not to laugh. She bit her lip and tried to picture her old boss, Ed Deline, in a Speedo because that was the least funny mental image she could come up with on short notice. "Yeah, I'm sure that this place is much less crazy than Hollywood. I'm from Las Vegas originally, and I can assure you that the pace is much slower."

But she wasn't going to promise that Fandom wouldn't be overwhelming at first.

It was probably for the best that Nick was very studiously looking at a potted plant at that moment. If he'd noticed that she was trying not to laugh at him, his pride could have gotten bruised.

"I'm pretty sure it'd be difficult to find a place that isn't slower than Vegas," he pointed out, amused. "Unless you have your own chorus line and a room of slot machines in the back that I should know about before my first shift, that is?"

"Nope, no chorus line or slot machines. I've talked about getting one for the lobby, just for kicks. A slot machine, that is. I'm not sure there's enough room for a chorus line," said Mary. "Also, it gets tiresome when everyone mistakes you for a showgirl."

"Have that problem often, do you?"

If Nikolai was actually looking, he'd probably notice the reasons why, if so.

"That's the problem with a Las Vegas wardrobe. It's just a little too over-the-top once you leave Nevada," said Mary.

Mary was making it very difficult for Nick to behave himself and not steal a peek. Now that he knew that she was apparently the sort to wear Vegas-appropriate clothing while not in Vegas...

He cleared his throat.

"I've probably seen crazier," he decided, shrugging his shoulders. "Hollywood. You get all kinds of costumes wandering around there, in different states of actually being complete. Movie sets are the worst for that."

The staff is always around to help you -- mostly because they're waiting for Mary to quit taking all of the towels.

Yes, the cake is a lie.

I'm actually thinking of doing one of these as a bridal shower gift, except the bride picked the dullest colors ever for the towels on her registry. So it's Pinterest to the rescue (http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=towels%20cakes) as I try to find ways to make gray look festive.

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The Arms Hotel Lobby, Wednesday

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