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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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Ruby turned at the sound of a feminine voice, recognizing it as the rather adorable bartender that had been on for most of her shift. She bit her bottom lip and smiled gratefully, making her way over to where the other woman stood, her tray tucked in front of her beneath both arms now, as though she were carrying school books. This girl was so pretty and obviously much more at home in the environment than Ruby herself was, and Ruby felt a vague sort of admiration for the other woman just for that. Ruby could front or force confidence in herself easily enough, usually through assertive dress, though a job at the Smoking Room had called for something a bit more dapper than her waitress uniform from home. She thought she was maintaining pretty well, though a break would certainly be welcome.

"Thank you," Ruby said, then allowed herself a delighted laugh at the woman's next words, putting her tray down on the bar and leaning in on her elbows as she half sat on a stool. "Isn't that the truth," she said, pleased to meet someone so straightforward, and offered her hand. "Ruby Lucas."

"Fiona Gallagher," she offered in reply, and hastily dried her damp hand on the front of her blue-jeaned thigh before reaching across the bar to shake with a smile. "I take it you're still pretty new here. The Nexus, I mean, not just the bar. You've still got a little of that wide-eyed thing going on," she added with a wink.

"It's so lovely to meet you," Ruby said. At Fiona's comment Ruby gave a bit of a wince for comedic effect, though it quickly turned into a broad, if abashed smile. "Is it that obvious?" She said, sighing just a bit. "I feel so strange here. It's lovely, I mean, but I come from a small town where I grew up with all the same people. Right now I'm operating purely on the hopes that I don't look and/or sound like a country bumpkin."

"Nah, not at all," Fiona replied with a shake of her head. "Not unless country bumpkins have changed a whole hell of a lot since I last checked," she added, laughing. "And it's okay, being a little in shock. Almost everyone goes through it when they first come through."

She reached for an empty glass and tilted it Ruby's way. "What can I get you? We've got all kinds of beer if that's your thing, or I make a killer cocktail."

"I'd love a cocktail. Whatever you think is best," Ruby said, smiling as she moved to sit fully on the stool and watch Fiona make her drink. She'd had her share of cocktails in Storybrooke, though if there was something new and delicious to be had here, she would certainly be up for it. "I am glad to know I'm not the only one. Where do you come from? If you don't mind me asking, of course."

"Chicago," Fiona answered, and then remembered belatedly to add, "That's on Earth. You?" Ruby dressed like she was probably from some version of Earth, but Fiona had learned quickly that it wasn't always so easy to tell. The girl was definitely pretty enough to be from some other planet.

After a moment's contemplation, Fiona reached for a cocktail shaker and the honey.

"I've always wanted to go to Chicago," Ruby said immediately and brightly. "How do you like it there?" It was on the tip of her tongue to say something further on the matter when it sunk in that Fiona had specified that it was on Earth. She knew the Nexus was vast and that there were doorways to various places, and while the thought of venturing out into a place that wasn't even in a realm of existence she was aware of seemed inordinately frightening and thrilling, she hadn't quite mustered the nerve yet. "Have you ever taken one of these doors to go elsewhere?" She asked.

Edited 2014-02-04 09:35 (UTC)

"I'm kind of required to love Chicago," Fiona knowingly replied as she added strawberries to the shaker. "It's a thing. But I wouldn't recommend the Southside." She wasn't ashamed of where she'd grown up, but she held no illusions about it, either.

"I went to the Caribbean on New Year's," she continued, pouring in bourbon, ginger, lemon juice. "That was pretty fucking epic. You want to be careful, though. Walking blindly through doors in this place is a bad idea, not every door goes someplace nice."

"No?" Ruby responded to Fiona's advice about Chicago's Southside, her head tipping. It wasn't as though she would be going to Chicago any time soon unless she somehow found the door back to Fiona's world, and she wasn't quite feeling brave enough to go exploring on her own. Perhaps after a few drinks of whatever Fiona was making her. "That looks delicious, by the way," she said. "I have no idea what you're making, but I love strawberries."

"There's a door to the Caribbean here?" Ruby asked, her eyes visibly lighting up. "Girl, I grew up in Maine. I could use something tropical."

"It is called a Bourbon Street," Fiona replied as she poured the finished cocktail into a tall glass. She garnished the rim with a leftover piece of strawberry and slid it across the bar. "You looked like a girl who liked strawberries," she added with a smile.

"And yeah, there's a door to the Caribbean," she said with a nod. "Or, there was on New Year's, anyway. It came out on a pirate ship, though, so again. You gotta be careful. It's kinda like hiking, you should probably use the buddy system just to be safe."

And if your buddy happened to have crazy powerful magic, even better.

"It smells amazing," Ruby said, leaning in to take another breath of the drink, even though she'd been able to smell the sweet, fruitiness of it from across the bar. She took a sip, then smiled at Fiona, quite pleased. "This is delicious," she told her, her head tipping. "Have you been bartending here long?" Fiona was so pretty and thus far seemed nice and smart and all the other things that could make a nice conversationalist. Ruby could easily enough imagine her doing quite well.

"A pirate ship? Jesus," Ruby said on an exhale, though she found the idea of it fascinating, as she did most things new and adventure-seeming. "How did that work out? Was it dangerous?"

"A few months, I guess," Fiona replied, squinting into the middle distance as she tried and failed to calculate something more specific. "You've probably already figured out, time is a little weird here. I go back home a lot, and sometimes time has passed here and sometimes it hasn't."

Rinsing off her fingers, she nodded to the glass. "I can teach you how to make it if you want. If you don't know how to pour drinks, you should learn. They don't require any kind of license to bartend here, you just have to know how and the money's killer."

There was no one else at the bar at the moment, so Fiona leaned a hip against the back edge of the bar and settled in as she slowly dried her hands.

"As for the pirate ship, not really," she added with a faint chuckle. "There weren't even any pirates on it, which I thought was weird, but I'm not complaining. It was grounded on this island, so we ended up just getting drunk with the natives."

"I haven't braved going back home yet. I'm not even sure if I can find the door again," Ruby said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. She felt guilty, knowing that her Granny was probably at home and worried sick about her, but she was also quite enjoying her stay at the hotel. She knew it was selfish to at least not go back and check, but what if once she was home again she couldn't leave? "I guess I should know how doors in this place work a little more," she said. "I mean, if I go over somewhere, if I go home or to the Caribbean or whatever, is there a possibility that I could get stuck there?"

The thought of being a bartender hadn't occurred to Ruby, simply because it was something she'd never really done. She'd served alcohol in Granny's diner, but nothing as delicious or complicated as what Fiona had mixed up for her. It'd all been draft beer and sometimes whiskey or some other hard liquor out of the bottle, but never anything that required a recipe. "I would actually love to learn that," Ruby said, smiling brightly. "I served drinks at the diner I worked in back home, but nothing as complicated as this." She made a gesture to her glass and tipped her head, still smiling. "If you could show me I'd be forever in your debt, no joke."

"Well if I could find a door to the Caribbean and do nothing but get drunk and chill without pirates, I guess I wouldn't worry so much about whether or not I could come back," she said with a laugh. "If you ever feel like scaring up that door again, you should let me know. I'd love to go with you."

"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?"