fandomtownies | Entries tagged with mary connell

Sure, Mary had made an extra towel animal here and there to add to the small menagerie that she kept in the lobby. This morning, as she sipped the hot chocolate that Gunther had made for her, she surveyed the number of towel animals that had appeared overnight. There were towel animals on every single surface in the lobby, and they were all things that she hadn't learned to make in that workshop she had taken at UNLV. As Mary paused to examine a towel pygmy hippo, Gunther congratulated her handiwork. "Oh, none of this was me," she quickly corrected him.

The Arms Hotel was open!

[Room Assignments | Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

After all her time in Fandom, getting the hotel ready for Parents Weekend was fairly routine for Mary. The rooms were all prepped, and the lobby was full of the usual fall decor. Mary had even splurged on a large number of pumpkins, some of which had been carved into jack-o'-lanterns by Gunther. (Mary chose to overlook the one that resembled Gunther's rival, Wolfgang Puck.)

So when Mary stepped into the lobby Friday morning, she was stunned to see the overnight transformation. Gone were the fall leaves, the scarecrows, the pumpkins, even the Wolfgang Puck jack-o'-lantern. In their place were tons of tulips, roses, and baskets of brightly-colored eggs. There was even a bunny weaving through all the flowers. "Even though it's the wrong season, it looks fantastic," said Mary to Gunther, slowly taking it all in. "I'm not all that upset about it… Hey, did that bunny just lay an egg?"

[Room assignments | Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

Guests checking into the hotel today might want to use caution approaching the front desk. On top of the desk were three gremlins, dressed in low-cut sequined dresses and performing a burlesque number.

In the far corner of the lobby, Mary was dressed in a hotel bathrobe and plush slippers. She was armed with a broom and keeping a wary distance from the front desk. "I can't believe I've made it this long without getting bitten only for gremlins to steal all my clothes!" she yelled at Gunther, who was hiding in the entrance to the kitchen.

Welcome To The Arms Hotel
We Cannot Guarantee That Rooms Are Gremlin-Free

redhairgoldheart

Mary was never drinking ever again.

She had to have had too much to drink out of the minibar last night, she decided, because that's the only way to explain how she went to bed in her regular suite and woke up in a Motel 6. The room was half the size of her suite, with paper-thin walls and a coin-operated black and white television set. Her king-sized bed had been replaced with two twin beds that also took quarters. The fluffy duvet had been replaced with a scratchy thin blanket. The carpets were dirty, and Mary didn't recognize the shower curtain in the bathroom.

There was no answer when she tried to call room service. When she made it to the lobby, she found a surly desk clerk with a television for a face who pointed her to a Waffle House outside. A short time later, Mary sat on one of the lobby couches with a to-go container of hash browns (scattered, smothered, covered, and chunked, don't judge her) and contemplated what happened to her hotel while she was out of it yesterday.

~~The Arms Hotel~~ Motel 6 was open!

redhairgoldheart

Hopefully the parents and other visitors lingered at the meet and greet for a while, because Mary had missed her original portal from Las Vegas and was running late (booking portals with a too-short layover in Timbuktu was a mistake). Fortunately, the staff at the Arms Hotel were able to rise to the challenge. The rooms were ready, the lobby was warm and inviting, and even Gunther had stepped out of the kitchen in a fresh white chef's jacket, ready to check in guests at the front desk if necessary.

But then Mary ran into the lobby, wearing stilettos and a skin-tight flesh-colored bodysuit covered with strategically-placed patches of silver sequins and pink feathers. "They lost my luggage! Do I have time to change? Why is my closet so far from the lobby?" she lamented, grabbing a white bathrobe and throwing it over her outfit.

The Arms Hotel is open. Please ignore all the sequins on the floor.

[Room Assignments | Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

With everything else done for the day, Mary thought she'd check up on her email in case she missed anything important. Of course, trying to find the important emails lately was like searching for a needle in a haystack. But lately, the contents of her inbox seemed to arise to a whole new level of craziness. "Gunther, please tell me you did not use my email address to subscribe to a mailing list about how to train gremlins to do chores!" she yelled over to the kitchen.

When there was no response, Mary left the desk and poked her head into the kitchen, where she found Gunther twirling like a ballerina while a gremlin wearing an apron scuttled away into the pantry.

The Arms Hotel was open, though room service would be temporarily unavailable.

[Room assignments | Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

As the staff was putting the final touches of autumnal decor on the lobby, loud repetitive banging noises came from the storage closet behind the front desk, stopping everyone in their tracks. One of the maids grabbed a coffee pot, another grabbed a broom, and Gunther scurried off to the kitchen, returning with a rolling pin. After all, they had seen one too many gremlins fall asleep in that closet and wake up feeling bitey. So they waited, prepared to strike, as the closet door swung open and a disheveled Mary rolled out onto the lobby floor.

"It took me a while, but I finally found the 'Happy New Year!' banner… Hey, what's with all the pumpkins?"

The Arms Hotel is open.

[Room assignments | Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

"I know we have a homecoming banner somewhere. Are you sure you looked all the way in the back of the closet?" Mary asked, her voice slightly muffled as she dug through a box of decorations. The housekeeping staff were gathered around her, looking warily at the janitor's closet where a banging noise could be heard. Gunther mumbled something in German as he placed the last of his pumpkins in place on the buffet, each one carved with a letter to spell out "Happy Halloween!"

[OCD-free since I just made it home and my brain is fried. Room assignments!| Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

For a special event weekend, it was relatively calm in the hotel lobby. There were no banners (a headache to get out of storage) and no extravagant fall decor. But hopefully guests were arriving hungry, because there were plenty of canapes. Gunther had outdid himself, apparently, and there were trays laden with canapes on every surface in the lobby.

One might observe that Mary, at her usual position behind the front desk, was sipping a glass of club soda and pointedly not toughing any of the food.

The Arms Hotel was open!

[Still plenty of rooms available! | Room assignments]

redhairgoldheart

Normally, Mary liked cleaning. It helped her feel grounded and gave her the satisfaction of a job well done. But today, as she tripped over yet another broom and nearly face-planted into the strategically-placed bowl of bananas at the front desk, she decided she was done with cleaning. If it wasn't for the pile of brooms blocking her from reaching the mini bar storage, she would be getting an early start to the end of the workday with a drink. For now, she had to settle for Gunther's coffee.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel!
Plenty of rooms available
Free broom with your stay!

[Room assignments | Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

The hotel lobby was tastefully decorated for fall, with baskets of (possibly fake) apples and piles of (likely fake) decorative gourds. As usual, there was a banner hung from the ceiling with a welcome for visiting parents and other weekend guests. Carafes of coffee, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider were waiting at the buffet along with mugs.

Maybe the only thing out of place was the woman with tangled hair and smudged mascara wearing a "Happy New Year" party hat. She stumbled out of one of the rooms adjacent to the lobby and looked around in confusion. "Okay, I know I needed to sleep it off, but I didn't think I slept that long!" said Mary, staring at the banner. "Oh my lord, Parents Weekend already? I'm going to need something to help me get through this." Mary grabbed a mug, filled it halfway with coffee, then proceeded behind the front desk to open the cabinet with the mini bar supplies. But before she could grab a handful of those tiny bottles, several blankets came flying out of the room she had just left. They wrapped around her, almost as if they were forming a cocoon, and dragged her back to the room. The liquor cabinet shut with a loud bang, and then the lobby was silent once again.

Welcome to The Arms Hotel!
Today's Specials:
Butternut Squash Stuffed Shells
Pumpkin Swirl Cookies

[Room assignments | Request a room | All requests so far have been granted!]

redhairgoldheart

The "Welcome Back!" banner was once again hung from the lobby ceiling, but it was the only festive touch. Mary's attention was focused on the thumping and rattling coming from the linen closet. She had already barricaded the door with a chair and was standing ready with a mop, just in case whatever was making all the noise managed to get out. Her guess was that the towel swans, after settling down over the past week, had gotten agitated with all the recent activity. Or it was probably a gremlin. Mary hadn't fought one off for a while, so she was probably due for it.

Welcome back to Fandom, indeed. Just be careful when you open your closet to put away your luggage.

[Room assignments | Request a room]

redhairgoldheart

Ordinarily, Mary enjoyed making a menagerie of towel animals for her guests to enjoy, especially on a weekend such as this one, Towel animals were cute and rarely failed to bring a smile to a guest's face. But this was Fandom Island, and it was inevitable that one day, the towels would fight back.

"I never liked swans anyway!" yelled Mary as she swung a broom at the towel swans that were snapping at her ankles and flapping their wings. "Gunther, help me herd them into the linen closet. We'll corral them in there until it ends, whatever it is that's making them attack." That was assuming that this was just an isolated bit of Fandom weirdness. Mary was clinging to that assumption.

[Room Assignments | Request a room. There are many, many rooms still available, even ones without towel animals.]

redhairgoldheart

Most of the hotel staff were gathered in the lobby, all work forgotten as they gawked at the person snoozing at the front desk. She looked vaguely like their boss, with her red hair in a messy bun being the only recognizable feature. But Mary was known for her distinctive wardrobe of tightly-fitted sequined dresses. None of the staff had ever seen their boss wearing a t-shirt with a lineup of nearly-naked men on it with a "Thunder From Down Under" logo or baggy oversized sweatpants. One of the bell boys finally came to his senses and went to the kitchen to get Gunther. The chef took one look at Mary, frowned, then went to the kitchen. He returned with a steaming cup of coffee (black, no cream or sugar) which he firmly set on the desk with a loud thump.

Startled, Mary's eyes flew open. "Oh, thank you, Gunther. I got in late last night and couldn't find my room key," she explained. Gunther's response was to raise his eyebrows, to which she quickly added, "I probably could have made a new key, but I was a little out of it. You know how exhausting it can be to travel by portal when you have long layovers in strange places. And I'm sure my key will turn up somewhere. It's not like I did anything silly like leave it behind in the stripper's… Um, yeah. I'll just finish my coffee and make a new key."

Gunther rolled his eyes. He mumbled something about bringing some breakfast out for Mary and retreated back to his kitchen.

[Open!]

redhairgoldheart

There had been some commotion outside Mary's door at 6 AM. She had opened her door and peeked out to find Gunther arguing with a guest about room service. Now that Mary was dressed and in the lobby, she was trying to figure out what had gone wrong. That didn't take her long, because Gunther brought her "breakfast."

"What happened to my egg white scramble?" asked Mary, lifting the cover and staring at the plate. There were eggs, to be sure, but there was other stuff mixed in the eggs that she didn't recognize. It turned out that Gunther's newest creation was a Guntherburger scramble with hash browns and topped with Gunther's infamous henri sauce. For breakfast. Whatever appetite Mary had to begin with quickly vanished. "I think I'll just stick with toast and coffee this morning," Mary said with a forced smile.

She needed to do something, and soon. Mary had once believed that no one could screw up a room service breakfast menu. Gunther had just proved her wrong.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel
Today's Special
The Guntherburger Scramble

[Open! The OCD is searching for Pepto-Bismal.]

redhairgoldheart

Mary was looking around the lobby nervously as she worked with the bell hops to hang a banner that read, "Welcome back!" She had cracked down on Gunther's food orders, blocking all his attempts to purchase more ground beef for his Guntherburgers. There was no need for him to keep ordering more burger meat when no one was eating them. He'd been a bit more reasonable over the past few days, even ordering fresh vegetables. Mary hoped he'd be back to his normal menu choices this weekend.

Her hopes where dashed when Gunther paraded into the lobby with a covered platter in his hand. He babbled something about getting back to his roots after the commercialism of Las Vegas led him astray ("Vegas does that to everyone, Gunther. Just be glad you didn't lose all your money," Mary mumbled under breath). He then lifted the cover to reveal a trio of bratwurst, smothered in sauerkraut and served on a hamburger bun.

Mary closed her eyes and counted to ten. "Does someone feel like doing a Sushi Station run?" she asked the bell hops, who both ran to get the take-out menus.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel
Today's Special:
The GUNTHERBURGER

(Take-out menus from local restaurants at front desk)

[Room assignments. There are still plenty of rooms available, including suites.]

vdistinctive

It was Columbus Day, a US holiday fraught with entirely reasonable controversy. Eliot was braced for just about anything coming into his diner Monday morning.

He found his kitchen staff calmly performing their jobs and chatting amiably about perfectly mundane things. The dishwasher asked the busboy about his evening plans, and the busboy's answer was perfectly reasonable, something about having a night in with his boyfriend.

It was the strangest thing Eliot had seen from them in months.

He watched for several moments before the cook looked up and noticed him.

"We thought you'd gone on the trip!"

The busboy and dishwasher exchanged glances, and promptly launched into an onion fight. The cook began singing Klingon opera. Poorly.

Eliot gave a long suffering sigh and went to go sort out paperwork in his office.

Today's specials
Fried chicken salad
Chili cheese fries
Oven-fried apple pies

Luke's was open ~~and OCD free~~.

redhairgoldheart

Mary might have worked through the night with the rest of the housekeeping staff to search for any rooms that still had shark damage (or worse yet, remaining pieces of shark). The hotel wasn't completely 100% recovered, but she hoped they had enough room to accommodate everyone staying for the weekend, as long as they didn't want any of the cheap rooms.

Once she had changed out of her sweats and returned to the lobby, however, she discovered that it was a mistake to have left Gunther alone. "I don't care if everyone else is putting pumpkin spice in everything. No one is going to eat a pumpkin spice burger!" said Mary, wrinkling her nose in distaste as she took in the plate the chef had brought her. "And there's no way you're going to leave that at the front desk with me." Looks like she was going to be ordering take-out from another local restaurant.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel
Today's Special
Pumpkin Spice Guntherburger!

[Room assignments. There are still plenty of rooms left, including suites.]

Navigation

Entries tagged with mary connell

Fandom High RPG