The Arms Hotel, Saturday

[gunslingerpose]

Nikolai showed up for his Arms Hotel shift today with a somewhat grim look on his face. After playing cabana boy last week, he was far less inclined to be patient with any gremlins that happened to enter the lobby today.

... Which might have explained the tall leather boots he was wearing under his jeans, and the way his hand was pretty much hovering by his face through his shift, practically twitching to pull his shades down if he saw anything small and green skittering across the floor.

Look, you deal with gremlins your way, and Nick would deal with them in his.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel
Today's Specials:
Arroz con Pollo With Apples
Oreo Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes


Nikolai was in no mood to go insane and act like somebody entirely not himself, today. Now, let's see how long that would last.

[Open- With extra OCD for any guest characters who might want to post to their hotel rooms today.]

Comments

Mod Your Service

[gunslingerpose]

For those of you who don't want to deal with a twitchy gorgon.

Talk to Nikolai

[gunslingerpose]

So long as you're not aiming to bite him, you should be fine.

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[sharp_as_knives]

"Hello." Hannibal may have smiled a little too widely, but he was making up in confidence what he lacked in shirt. (Maybe he should have left the pocket square out of the jacket? It might detract from his perfect abs. Ah, well; too late now.)

"My name is Dr Hannibal Lecter; I'm teaching at the school. Could you possibly answer some questions for me?"

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[gunslingerpose]

"Don't see why not," Nikolai replied with a lazy sort of grin. "I've been working here all of a month, but I can give it my best shot, at least. What do you need, Dr. Lecter?"

Nikolai was definitely not missing the fact that the guy was not wearing a shirt, here.

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[sharp_as_knives]

"I understand you have rooms here which can be hired out for parties?" Hannibal shifted his stance to let his jacket fall further open. It was good to be appreciated.

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[gunslingerpose]

Nikolai normally wasn't really into guys, like, at all. But that was one hell of a chest that was being bared for him, there. He bit his lip for a moment, and then he nodded, looking back up at Hannibal from behind his shades.

"Pretty sure we do," he confirmed. "I might have to get a hold of Mary, the owner of the building, to solidify a booking, but we do have banquet rooms. We can probably arrange to have our chef do the catering for you too, if you need."

Look, it wasn't like Nikolai knew competent cooks with unconventional tastes to see them.

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[sharp_as_knives]

"Ah, that was the second part of my request - I plan to do the cooking myself. I was wondering if kitchen access might also be negotiable? Or would you need to ask Mary about that as well?"

Hannibal never minded not being recognized, so long as he was appreciated.

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[gunslingerpose]

"I imagine just clearing that one with Gunther, the cook on-duty here, would suit just fine," Nikolai replied, looking thoughtful. "There are probably rules about making sure nothing gets damaged and the place is left clean when you're done with it, but I can't imagine renting out the kitchen being too much of a problem, just so long as it doesn't interfere with our own dining room and room service needs. When did you want it for?"

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal looked (sexily) thoughtful. "Our final class is on the twenty-first of August, so shall we say any time between then and the end of the month?"

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[gunslingerpose]

"Ah, you're one of the teachers up at the castle, huh?" Nikolai gave a little grin at that. (And, okay, at the sexy thoughtfulness, too.) "My commendations to you, sir. I wouldn't have the patience for it. If you like, I can give Mary a heads-up about it. If there's a day that works best for you, I can let her know. Do whatever I can to make renting the room easier for you."

It took some restraint for Nikolai to keep from ducking his head so that he could look at Hannibal over the frames of his sunglasses. That could only end poorly.

Re: Talk to Nikolai

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal was sure he'd mentioned he was teaching; maybe this nice young man with the pleasant smile had been distracted by his perfect abs?

Hannibal smiled back. "That would be very kind of you. Saturday would likely work best, if it can be arranged." He leaned in. "And I should need to see the kitchen facilities in advance, to know what I might need to bring with me."

Rooms!

[gunslingerpose]

A little extra OCD today, in case visitors to the island want to do roomposts today. Because why not?

Ino and Zack's Room

[puppy_fair]

The entire world was the sky. Below him, above him, to either side, all that Zack could see was cool blue, with white clouds drifting lazily by. He didn't know what he was standing on, though whatever was underfoot seemed solid enough to support him.

Zack was watching the clouds. In them, he could see faces. His mother's face, and his father's, older than he remembered them, and the clouds were telling him stories of their little boy gone off to war. Had he met their son, Zack? He looked so much like him, they could almost have sworn...

The faces were Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth, all wrapped up in a battle of the mind with one another. Who was a monster? Who was an angel?

What did angels dream of, Zack?

Freedom, Zack mouthed toward the sky, reaching up toward mismatched wings of black and white. Angels and monsters all dream of being free.

And which one are you?

A monster.

The faces faded, satisfied, as another came forward, obscured behind the helmet of the infantry. Zack wanted to reach up, to ruffle Cloud's hair, but even as he reached his hands toward the endless sky, dark clouds closed in and swept him away. Tseng barely spared him a glance, lightning crackling from his face.

Hojo, on the other hand, directed his attention toward Zack, and he laughed that laugh.

Zack woke up with a start and a gasp and tears on his face as the clouds ripped him apart, there in his dream.

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[intraspective]

Ino had been working, suit jacket thrown casually over the back of a chair, shirt sleeves rolled up to her elbows and her hair pulled back into a single long braid that looped over her shoulders like a shawl, as she typed and scrolled through reports, keeping up with the situations at home. Sleep was still something she never got enough of. Working was a productive use of her time.

And it gave her time to think and center herself. Zack’s sleep was uneasy, though she spared him little more than a glance as he tossed and turned. Part of her was afraid that, if she started looking at him, she’d never stop and that wouldn’t help her. Nor would it help her help him.

Not that he believed that was what she was trying to do.

When he woke with a gasp, though, Ino was by his bedside in a heartbeat with a worried, “Zack?”, falling from her lips.

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[puppy_fair]

Zack was reaching shaking hands toward her, wrapping his arms around the woman with the familiar face, the familiar voice, before he could even piece together a coherent thought. He'd been back there, even if only inside his own head, and he'd been going through Nibelheim all over again, and suddenly he was somewhere safe and warm and there was someone who knew his name and spoke it with some measure of concern. He yearned toward that concern. Tenderness was something that he'd almost entirely forgotten the feel of.

He was murmuring under his breath as he pressed his face against the warm, familiar shoulder.

"No, no, no..."

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[intraspective]

She could, and did, run through all the ways this could go wrong starting with the moment he realized what he was doing. That it was a Turk he was clinging to.

Her fingers gently smoothed his hair, her arms sliding around him almost automatically. It would have been easy, simple, to press a kiss to his hair. She didn’t.

It wouldn’t feel right.

“You’re safe,” Ino said, pitching her voice to be low and smooth. “You’re at Fandom.”

Not Nibelheim.

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[puppy_fair]

Not Nibelheim. Not Nibelheim. Fandom. He was safe, in Fandom. And for a moment, he almost let himself wonder if maybe that meant that he'd been dreaming all along.

He opened his eyes, pulling in a deep breath, and looked up at the wall directly across from him.

And then he closed his eyes shut again and clung a little more tightly to Ino.

"You got my hopes up," he murmured. "For a moment, I was hoping to find us sitting in our old room."

Then all of the worst of it would have been a dream, too.

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[intraspective]

"Sorry," she said, her voice little more than a whisper, but making no move to shift away.

Ino couldn’t really believe that he was still holding her, even though he knew all the nightmares had been real.

"That weren't my intention." She'd... just wanted him to wake up safe.

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[puppy_fair]

She was still warm. She was still real. And, perhaps the biggest help in that moment, she wasn't wearing the jacket that pulled the rest of her suit together. He could look at her and see something other than the Turk.

"A guy can dream, right?"

And cling to them? It wasn't entirely the same as embracing them, but it was close. It kept his head on his shoulders. It gave him a touchstone.

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[intraspective]

“Yeah,” she said softly, “a guy can dream. That ain’t never going to change.”

It was so strange, how familiar this felt.

And how different, at the same time.

Re: Ino and Zack's Room

[puppy_fair]

"No matter how much everything else does?"

There was something small in Zack's voice at that. Small and desperate, and with a few more cracks than he would have ever dared to let show. Even after Angeal's death, when he'd spent so much time sobbing brokenly on the floor, there hadn't been that same note of uncertainty lingering behind his tears.

The world had been needlessly cruel to him, then, but he had still been aware of parts of it that were still on his side.

Now...

OOC

[gunslingerpose]

I'll be here and there today due to Pride, but I'll get back to pings after I'm done watching pretty men, handsome ladies, and fabulous assorted other all being awesome down the main street of my hometown!

Re: OOC

[sharp_as_knives]

(According to the directory, the hotel has banquet rooms? Feel free to say they don't anymore, or they're booked, or whatever; I just thought the excuse of looking for someplace would give him a chance to get out of his office.)

Re: OOC

[gunslingerpose]

Sorry! I managed to miss this note! I'm pretty sure the banquet rooms are open for public use, but actually booking them should probably be run by montecito_east, since she's the one that technically owns the hotel.

That said, Hannibal is welcome to stop by and talk at Nikolai anytime. Especially if you're going to keep using icons like that. Guh.

Re: OOC

[sharp_as_knives]

No prob! I'll talk to her, too; thanks.

See, and I thought I'd never get to use these icons! I imagine they'll come out a lot less after Sunday (more's the pity)!