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It had taken Ruby a few days to come to terms with her new situation, though a rare show of practicality had won out in the end after a lengthy discussion with Sheriff Graham and the man she knew as David Nolan. She wasn't going to be leaving the Nexus any time soon, at least not for a permanent return to her home, and if she was going to stay in the hotel, money had to be made for the sake of general upkeep. Her skills were admittedly limited, though thankfully there was work to be had in the hotel for someone who had grown up in a world of customer service and food preparation. Getting a job in the bar had seemed an appropriate change of pace, or at least all the change she could currently handle in a world that had been turned inside out for the moment, and after she'd been accepted for the position she'd started almost right away.

In addition to being a decidedly and thrillingly more swank environment than she was used to, the clientele was definitely more diverse in that it was a room full of people she'd never met before. For all she lacked in knowledge concerning the outside world she was attempting to put forth enough effort in charming everyone to get by in terms of the standard awkwardness she had purely by being the new girl in a very strange and new environment. She'd been serving the same food and drinks to basically the same people for longer than she cared to remember, and if this was her first attempt at branching out, she didn't want to botch it up.

The small, round tray was steady on the flat of her palm as she sat a round of drinks down at one of the tables, smiling when the patrons paused their conversation to gesture their thanks, and then continued their conversation. Ruby continued on, too, tucking her now empty tray under her arm as she looked around for someone waiting to be served.

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"I can't guarantee that I could ever find that door again, and even if I did, it might be a completely different scenario," Fiona replied, her expression vaguely apologetic. "That's something for your door research. They're completely unpredictable. So yeah, they say you can get stuck on the other, but if I know anybody who has been, they haven't told me about it." Stuck in the Caribbean might not have been so bad, but stuck someplace like where Raleigh was from would get old really quickly, Fiona was sure.

"You never said where you were from," she pointed out. "Sounds like you needed a break anyway."

"Ahh," Ruby said with a nod. "I'll keep that in mind, thank you." Such knowledge would certainly temper her desire to start throwing open doors and see what waited for her on the other side. She'd spent so long waiting to explore the world that she felt a bit eager now that she was somewhere where apparently different worlds were accessible, but she had to keep in mind how dangerous blind exploration could be.

"I come from a little town in Maine called Storybrooke," she said with a smile. "I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of it. No one ever goes there, or leaves really."

"To be fair, I haven't heard of most places that aren't huge cities," Fiona replied. "Didn't exactly travel much before I got here." There had been times in the past when she'd considered small town living, mostly as some sort of pipe dream to do with the kids, but she'd never reconciled herself with the idea. She was too much a city girl.

"Listen, don't keep yourself from trying the doors on my account," she was quick to continue, noting how somberly Ruby seemed to have taken in her advice. "Obviously I'm not one to talk. I like to live a little dangerously. Just…buddy system. And if your buddy has magical powers that could potentially save your ass, even better."

"Magical powers? I'll have to endeavor to make a few of those sorts of friends, I guess," Ruby said with a grin and a slight arch of her brow. "I can't say I've ever met anyone with such abilities. I should really work on my poker face if I'm going to be around here for any amount of time, I think. There's so much newness and I feel like I'm just wandering about slack-jawed all the time."

She smiled at Fiona a bit more earnestly this time and gently twisted her glass on the top of the counter. "Thanks for being nice to me, too. Not that I expected you to be rude or anything like that but one always worries in a new place. I appreciate all of this," she said with a gesture between the two of them, hoping she didn't sound too terribly lame. "Not to, uh, make it awkward or anything."

"I pretty much always expect people to be rude to me, so ditto," Fiona replied with a laugh. "But that's not because of this place, so I think you'll be fine. Not that there aren't a few dickheads walking around, but you've got that whole sweet small town girl thing going on. People will love you, trust me," she added, pressing a hand over her heart for emphasis.

She glanced quickly out into the room and then motioned Ruby behind the bar. "Come on back here, I'll show you a few things."

"Aww, thank you," Ruby said. She hadn't expected to get a compliment out of all of that, though of course she was flattered Fiona thought she could be well-liked. She wasn't sure what the age difference between herself an Fiona was, she didn't suspect there was much of one, but Ruby earnestly felt like there was much to be learned from this one, even beyond slinging cocktails at the bar.

At Fiona's invitation, Ruby took her drink and stood, making her way behind the bar to stand next to Fiona and look around. She had a pretty good memory, it was a consequence of being a waitress for however long, so she hoped she'd do all right with bartending and drink recipes and the like. "Is there a recipe book, or do you have everything memorized by this point?"

"Most people don't want anything fancy," Fiona answered as she took half a step back and reached for the bartender's guide wedged beside the cash register. "A pour of scotch, a beer. You'd think with the clientele this place pulls, you'd have to learn some kind of crazy alien drinks or something, but for the most part the most complicated things I get asked for are, like, screwdrivers or martinis."

She handed the book over. "You can borrow it. I don't think I've ever seen anybody even open it up, so it won't be missed," she continued with a laugh. "My family's Irish, so I pretty much came out of the womb knowing how to mix drinks, but I've been looking on the internet for new stuff. Fancier, like that." She pointed to Ruby's glass.

"Thank you," Ruby said as she took the book, determined to look it over and at least get a start on the basics that very night. Some drinks were common sense, she supposed, though it would certainly not hurt to learn how to mix and pour properly, which would obviously take more hands-on practice. What was the point in going to an entirely new place if you couldn't bring back one new skill, right?

"Are there any regulars here?" She figured there might be a good chance of that, what with everyone being mostly stuck in the same place, but with all the doors and stuff she couldn't say for certain. At the diner it'd been nothing but regulars for the majority of Ruby's life and she'd scheduled parts of her day around knowing who would be in at what time and for what, but she was also aware that not everything functioned like Storybrooke. Thank God. "On that same note, is there anyone or anything I should watch out for while I'm working here?"

Edited 2014-02-13 09:51 (UTC)

"Lots of regulars," Fiona replied with a nod. "Actually, most of your business will probably be regulars, although the time they come in is going to vary. You've seen the schedule so you know we're open 24/7—That's because of the weird time thing with the doors. It might seem crazy for somebody to come in at 8 in the morning and want a shot, but where they just came from it could have been 8 at night."

Leaning back against the bar, she tilted her head, considering what other critical advice she could impart. To Fiona, this was just about as low key a place as you could get.

"Let me think. Oh, don't assume people are from Earth. Or human," she added, pointing a finger Ruby's way. "Most people are pretty cool about it if you make the mistake, but it gets hammered into your head pretty quickly."

Ruby nodded in understanding of all of this, thinking all the while that it was strange what sort of ideas one could get used to when they simply came to terms with the fact that the impossible was not only possible, but living in coexistence with you without any sort of real problem. Ruby, for as sheltered as she had been, liked to consider herself an open-minded individual and on top of that, one who never wanted to give offense, so she would definitely endeavor to handle otherworldly people with ease, for all that she might secretly be dazzled by them.

"If there are other people from other worlds, is there any danger here? Outside of the doors, anyway. I mean, I'd imagine since we're all stuck here together everyone is pretty civil for the most part but... I don't know, maybe I've seen too many horror movies."

"I don't know," Fiona replied with a shrug of one shoulder. "I mean, are you 100% safe in any public place? Somebody could walk into the grocery store back home and start mowing people down. I'd think the ratio of crazy to non-crazy is probably about the same as anywhere, and they've got security, at least."

Fiona had never felt particularly vulnerable at the hotel, but she was also aware that not everyone had her colorful background. She'd never even thought to worry for her safety until now.

"Don't go off alone with strangers?" she suggested.

Ruby huffed a laugh, grinning at Fiona all the while, and nodded. "All right, fair enough," she said with a nod. It was doubly amusing that, since growing up in Storybrooke, she'd never had the 'don't go off with strangers' talk from Granny, though Granny's talks were more 'don't go off with anyone' more than anything else. That certainly wouldn't apply here, would it? Not that Ruby was eager to be alone with any new strangers yet, but there was a relief in her newfound freedom, she had to admit.

"Well, what about fun, then?" She asked. "What do you do for fun here?"

"Aside from get drunk with Caribbean natives, you mean?" Fiona asked with a laugh. "To be honest, I don't spend a ton of time here that isn't because of work. They have parties every once in awhile. New Year's was pretty epic."

After a moment, she reconsidered this with a cant of her head. "But apparently not as epic as getting drunk with Caribbean natives, since that's where I ended up that night." She smirked. "They turned this big room in the basement into a club for Halloween, I wish they'd kept it. Not that I'm knocking this place," she clarified, pausing to motion to the Smoking Room, "but it's kind of, you know." She lifted her hand beside her mouth and added in a mock-whisper, "For old people."

Ruby laughed again, feeling mostly warm and comfortable for the first time since settling down in this place. She hadn't known many women at all like Fiona, but she liked her quite a bit already. She almost wanted to tell her so, but she clearly needed to work on her habit of looking doe eyed and grateful every time she found a potentially new friend if she wanted to not stumble about looking like a newbie forever.

"Well, to be fair to the hotel, I don't think there's much that can top getting drunk in the Carribean. Not that I've tried personally, but I do aspire to change that." She grinned at Fiona. "Cute natives?"

"Oh, totally," Fiona replied with a nod. "With bonus shirtlessness, even. Sadly, I cannot report more in-depth than that, because it's universally acknowledged as a shitty move to dump your buddy to get it on with someone else behind a palm tree, even if the natives are cute."

Fiona remembered a lot less about that night than she cared to admit, but she was pretty sure she would remember having screwed a native. Or anyone, for that matter.

"Generally, yes," Ruby said with a laugh, biting down on her bottom lip as she attempted to imagine what such a place would look like. She had a general idea from picture books and such, though to see such a place in person would surely make all the difference. "And palm trees perhaps don't provide as much shelter as some other forms of greenery. Shame, since they grow along side hot, shirtless natives."

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