(no subject)

[bonetown]

Every month, Alex usually came to the same conclusion.

Sure, she could stick it out at home and pay her rent in pennies or in showing off her ankles to her landlord or trying to barter away Jane's organizing (which, while it had worked, is one of those go-tos that kind of get exhausted after a while). Or, she could head back to the Nexus and pick up a couple of shifts at the shop where she got to people watch and they paid her. Not only that, but she actually got to serve customers and she'll tell you this, sometimes she kind of forgets what that's like.

Still, there's enough lulls that she doesn't get super stressed and this is one of them. She's leaning her elbows forward, people-watching with a dazed expression on her face as she tries to make up stories about them, wondering where they came from and what cool histories they have. "Spy," she says when a brown-haired man passes. "Gay porn," she adds, when a blond one heads the other way.

Every once in a while, she has to help people, but she always gets back to that same people-gazing position from the shop counter, kind of missing Max and Penny because they would totally be good at this game. They were way better at these sorts of things than Alex was because she always hit a wall when her brain tries to go a little more than ten miles per hour.

Whatever, she thinks. It's not like she needs to be smart to watch cute guys. That only takes your eyeballs and she's got two of those, thank you very much.

Comments

[vampire_shield]

Bella was laughing long before she rounded the corner, having heard the comments Alex was making. She'd bypassed her original destination - a run in her forest - and steered herself towards the other woman.

When she was close enough to be heard, and seen, Bella cleared her throat. "Hi," she began, "almost didn't recognize you without a hoard of zombies closing in on us."

[bonetown]

Alex brightens up at the familiar voice, doubly so when she realizes that it's a sparkling celebrity and she's pretty much in love with staring at characters from books that she can actually read. Read and understand? Way better, so she lights up to see Bella. "I mean, I could put on some blood smears on my cheeks," she offers. "I'm pretty sure it's not the chic thing to do, but I can start a trend."

[vampire_shield]

"Considering the number of vampires around here? I wouldn't recommend it," Bella grinned, "unless you're looking to add donor to your list of experiences here at the weirdest hotel ever."

She couldn't help but laugh with her. Alex's exuberance was pretty much infectious.

[bonetown]

"My blood probably tastes like ribs," Alex says in that disconcerted way that says she's half sure that's the most awesome thing in the world, but there's also the problem of, "Oh, and garlic mash. And maybe Thai. Maybe some Chinese. And like, a tiny bit of sorbet." She seriously had to stop eating one giant meal and then forgetting to eat for days.

[vampire_shield]

Bella thought that talking about how human blood tasted probably wasn't the wisest course of action, but the burn in her throat was muted, so she wasn't all that worried about it. Yet. She had a few bottles from Eric in her room if it got really bad.

"I'd have to check with the others, but I don't think it works that way," she smiled then cocked her head. "Did you eat all of that for lunch? You must have an iron stomach."

[bonetown]

"I like to think of it like a balloon," Alex says proudly, patting her stomach. "It just keeps inflating until I don't need to put any more away, then it kind of deflates. I mean, don't get me wrong, I hit the gym whenever Penny makes me, but I always make up for it later," she says with delight. "Thank god for my super-human metabolism in my tiny girl-child body."

[vampire_shield]

"I never really got into eating that much," Bella responded, but frowned as the memories continued to be murky, "at least I don't think I did. And I really, really don't think you want me talking about the things that fill me up that much."

[bonetown]

Alex wrinkles her nose because as much as she likes to read sparkly literature about vampires, she doesn't exactly need their food diary because it would probably make her want to stop eating for at least, like, forty minutes. And that's just worrying. "So what do you do around here?" she asks. "Do you work somewhere? Or just generally fight off zombies?"

[vampire_shield]

"Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy a good zombie fight," Bella laughed, "but that's about it. I read a lot, help my best friend Adam with some of the research he's doing about the hotel, and spend a lot of time in the replica of the forest around my hometown and run or hunt."

She snorted another laugh. "Exciting stuff, huh?"

[malachai]

Nick had just finished his shift at the gym, spending most of it doing his own workout rather than training others but, what the hell, it passed time. And since this place hadn't seen fit yet to send him back to his own hell, he'd enjoy the downtime.

Rather than heading back to his room, though, today he decided to stop in and snag a sports drink. They had too much sugar, but he'd lived in New Orleans his whole childhood and sometimes that had been the only way to beat the stifling humidity.

"Tell me you've got Gatorade here," he said to the woman behind the counter.

[bonetown]

Alex's eyes widen and she stares at the cute guy with a look that says that she might offer that she goes down plenty cool, but feels like that could also potentially get her in trouble with the law-folk, so maybe not that. "We've got sporty kind drinks in all kinds of colors?" she offers, bending over to start pulling out examples. "Personally," she says, leaning forward to confide, "I like the neon electric blue the best. Tastes like an electric blue is supposed to."

[malachai]

"Okay, you've piqued my curiosity," Nick said, leaning in and resting his hands on the counter. "What, exactly, is electric blue supposed to taste like?"

Nick really did try to not look into minds, but sometimes he didn't have a choice. Especially when the thoughts are practically screamed out. The thoughts in her mind had him grinning in spite of himself.

[bonetown]

"Like liquid paint? Or awesomeness," Alex replies, completely dead serious and believing it. She really should probably stop listening to what the marketing companies are telling her, but hey, they've introduced her to a lot of awesome stuff so far. "Here," she offers. "Try!"

[malachai]

"Then I almost have to try it, don't I? I mean, who could resist awesomeness? Though I'll hope against the liquid paint option," Nick replied with a wink and took the bottle offered. He downed half of it in a few swallows then paused to consider.

"More on the awesome side than the paint side," he concluded, still grinning.

[bonetown]

Alex watches him the way people look at meatball subs or other cute men or baby puppies. Her eyes are totally wide and fixated on how handsome he looks while he's drinking. "See? I totally knew it," she says, clapping her hands together with delight once she'd shaken herself out of her daze. "You look really handsome drinking things," she informs him with a serious nod.

[malachai]

Nick was very glad he had control of himself because he very nearly sprayed her with Gatorade when she likened him to a puppy. Thankfully, he was saved from revealing what he'd heard by speaking the thought aloud.

"Do I?" he asked then decided to see if she rattled. "Spy handsome or gay porn handsome?"

[bonetown]

"Duh, both," Alex scoffs because it's stupid to assume that you can only be one or the other when clearly he is both. "Wait, though if you're spy gay porn handsome, that means that other guys get to have you, which messes with my story. Although, I don't smoke, but I have to have a few ashtrays around, if you know what I mean," she says knowingly, regarding her whole gay porn obsession thing.

[centrally]

Wolf hearing means Scott can hear her assessments a ways off whether he wants to or not; he usually tries to tune out a lot of what he can hear and smell because it's weird and intrusive, but he can't always help it. It's odd and funny enough that he follows her voice curiously up to the shop, then pauses because it's not like he can just go in and ask her what she's doing. Well, he walks in the door and looks around for an excuse to be here — he's still pretty new, so it's not like he doesn't need to buy things as he settles in.

[bonetown]

Alex squeaks like a small mouse when another cute guy comes in, but this one looks a little too young for her, if by 'too young' you mean 'Mama's gonna get arrested and put in jail for looking at the goods', which is definitely not what she wants to go to jail for. She's always had her heart set on eating a place out of business.

She smiles and wiggles her fingers in a wave when she catches his eye. "Hi," she greets. "Can I show you something? Maybe something for your cute face, damn it, sorry, I'm not coming on to you. You're just really adorable."

[centrally]

"Hi," he greets, less enthusiastically, but still in a tone of trying really hard to be polite and not either make a face or laugh or both. "And, um. Thanks?"

He just doesn't know how to deal with this, sorry Alex.

"I was just looking for some chips."

Which, now that he says it — yeah, he could totally go for some junk food. The hotel food is nice and all, but sometimes you just want something crunchy and terrible for you.

[bonetown]

Oh crap, she's totally got those. "I have chips," she says, feeling like she's won a small battle because this is a paying customer and she has what he wants and he might even pay. She doesn't think this has happened back home since...well, May. "Any flavour? We've got pretty much everything, it's kind of awesome," she says with a knowing nod.

[centrally]

"Everything?

She's clearly got his curiosity piqued with that, and he takes another look around the store for a stand of those or something.

"Do you mean, like, ranch and sour cream and onion and barbecue, or everything?"

Hey, they're in a hotel in space with rooms that can go about anywhere. Maybe it'll even have alien snack food or something.

[bonetown]

"Wait," Alex says, face falling. "No, I don't think we have onion." So you know, maybe she can't classify that they have everything, because without onion, they fall short. "Okay, so let me try that again. I have about twelve flavors of chips down here, so it's way more than I'm used to seeing. I mean, I don't think I have space ring flavor. I kind of don't even know what that would taste like."

"Pretty much I have a lot of normal chip types, that's my version of everything."

[centrally]

He laughs, closing the distance to the counter so she can show him whatever and up close instead of several feet away, drumming his fingers on the surface absently.

"It's probably a good thing you don't have onion," he points out, since, you know, bad breath and all, and pulls a face at space ring flavor. "I don't know, either. And, uh, I don't think I want to. What twelve flavors do you have?"

[bonetown]

"Okay! So, we've got All Dressed, Barbecue," she starts, her words rapid-fire as she keeps going, "Ketchup, Pickles, Plain, Salt and Vinegar, Ruffled, Lime, Ranch, Chipotle, Bacon Cheddar, and something called 'Mystery Chip'." She gives the guy a long look. "I wouldn't pick Mystery Chip. Mystery never tastes very good."