Alana (athenacalled) wrote in olympian_rewind, @ 2010-09-15 19:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | alana kellings, polyhymnia, shiri eneas |
Who: Alana and Shiri/Polyhymnia
What: Bugging the swearing female-Adam
Where: Jube hotel
When: Sometime recently (not Tuesday)
Warnings: Light swearing.
Meetings were something that Alana generally disliked. So she kept them down to as rare as possible and short as allowed, making notes to follow up with people directly rather than wasting the group's time listening to a report that had nothing to do with them. The down side was that now she was staring at a legal pad with various notes and scribbles, trying to make sense of them and remember what the meeting had in fact been about.
This meant only one thing. It was time for a break.
Standing up, she went to the fridge that was large for a mini and pulled out some leftovers, popping them into the microwave to reheat as she turned on the TV and plopped herself down onto the couch. TV, or games? TV. Games took too much energy and thought. Grabbing the remote, the boss of the hotel started to channel surf, searching for something suitable to her mood. Maybe there'd be a rerun of MacGyver or something.
The boss of the hotel wouldn't be bored for long as a pale shadow was moving across the floors of the hotel. Shiri hadn't been inside it since the death of her father, but her visit wasn't some psychological conquering of grief or anything like that. Instead, she was inside of it and visiting to seek our its new boss and the employees were more than happy to point her out.
The muse smiled as she found Alana and promptly sat herself down on the edge of her desk and looked toward the television, “So, what are we watching?”
Alana twisted sharply at the sound of Shiri's voice. She hadn't heard her walk into the office, so zoned out was she. She'd taken over the old man's office since it wasn't getting used in any other way, but moved things around to fit her own tastes. Like not having the giant window right at her back. The only problem with putting the desk to the side of the large double doors for the office with the TV facing it was that sitting on the couch, she had to completely turn and look over the back of the couch to see the new admittance.
The mortal solved this by standing up, muting the TV as she did so, and turning to face Shiri with raised eyebrows. "I'm freakin' amazed you found a spot on that desk clear enough to perch. I normally can't even find a spot ta put my coffee."
Shiri grinned, “If I was not good at balancing, I would not have found this edge spot.” She didn't turn to face the mortal, instead she kept her eyes on the television. At home, she barely paid attention to the device but here, at the moment, it held her interest... possibly because it was muted. It reminded her of the silent movie era and reading the actor's lips. “So, what are we watching?”
"I was hopin' to find some reruns I knew, but I haven't found anythin' yet." She shrugged. "So what are you doin' here? Adam usin' the bathroom or something?"
“Maybe. There is one in his studio where I left him.” It was now Shiri's turn to shrug as she turned her attention finally from the television to Alana properly, “I just felt that he could use some time alone. I can be a bit of a pest with him sometimes.”
Alana smirked. "Girlfriend's? A pest? Never!" She snickered. "So I get a visit and girl time." She tilted her head toward the couch. "Feel free ta come over and grab the remote," she offered. "I needed a break before I tried ta call the chef and ask him about that whole bed bug issue that's been goin' around."
“Well, you are a lot like Adam, only you are a woman and swear more so I decided it was fitting to bother you...” Almost obediently she slid off the desk and strolled right over to the couch, plopping herself down to take up the remote. Maybe something worth... Wait. What did she say? “There are bed bugs in Miami?”
"Jube hotels run nation and world wide, and it's cropped up in the news some of late makin' people panicked and paranoid." Alana plopped down on the spot next to her. Then blinked, and turned to give Shiri a slightly baffled look. "How the fuck am I a lot like Adam?"
Oh good. No bed bugs in Miami then. She didn't want to have to start sleeping on tables with her mortal yet. Yet. The baffled look made Shiri giggle, “First, that confused look will shortly convert to resignation over my whimsical nonsense. Then you will continue on like all of this is perfectly normal.” There really wasn't anything on. Click. Click.
"I could hold on to the baffled look for a long time if I really needed to," she mentioned, even as she relaxed against the couch and turned to look at the TV. Bleh, there wasn't anything good, was there? Why so many commercials? "Besides, ya make it sound like visitin' someone when bored is uncommon or somethin'."
“I suppose but I am being nice and trying not to be overly strange for you.” It seemed only polite. Alana wasn't accustomed to her nonsense and ugh... there was nothing on. Shiri let the remote fall from her hand to the couch. She was done with looking. Television always failed her. “I could make it uncommon and strange for you if you wish.”
"I don't think that's needed. The moment I decide I need some more weird in my life, I've got more than enough sources. Wanna play Wii?" Picking up the remote, Alana swapped it to the proper channel.
Being a college student, Shiri had a masterful knowledge of game systems. “What game? It would depend on the game.”
"I got Wii Play and Wii Sports..." She wasn't much of a game person, and refused to put down the cash on more extensive games. The point was to break for fifteen minutes, not five hours.
Shiri couldn't help the inquisitive look that appeared upon her pale face, “You did not buy games outside the ones that had the word 'Wii' in the title?”
"I generally don't buy games period. Sport came with it, Play came with another remote." Alana grinned at her. "You wanna fork over the cash to buy another game?"
“Do you like those games?” If she did, then it made perfect sense not forking over more cash for another game. Shiri tilted her head slightly, the inquisitive mood flooding into her body now, too.
"Good enough to break away for fifteen minutes. I generally go with the boxin' and imagine the other guy with the face of whoever is pissin' me off at the moment." Alana shrugged.
Shiri grinned now. She had her own game to play. The question game. “Are you angry at someone right now?”
"I can usually round someone up." She bent and reached under the couch, pulling out the box with the controllers. "So you game or what?"
Aww, Alana was bad at the question game but that fact didn't wipe the grin from her face. Adam was bad at the game, too. The comparison held. “Uh huh. I can flail around a wiimote with the best of them. That is what my liberal arts education taught me.”
Alana snickered. "And ta think of all the time I feel guilty never goin' back to finish college..." She pulled out the devices and handed a set over to Shiri before standing and moving closer to be in better range. "Are you still in classes?"
“As long as I need to be,” Shiri confessed casually as she took the other remote and followed Alana, “I do not know what I will do with myself next year. So many of my friends will have graduated.”
"Simple. Wait for them ta get jobs than let them throw all the parties as you make friends with all the others who'll give ya twenty bucks for old papers from previous classes." The disc started, and Alana moved through the opening screens.
“If they do not move away...” Shiri had managed to keep Adam in Miami but she doubted she keep all her mortal friends. Sure, they were easily replaced. Even now people were there to take their places but she had enjoyed having eight gospel choir of friends... Oh well. “Do you think I could get away with selling papers?”
"Is it illegal? I mean, you wrote them, so it's your property. If the other people use 'em or plagiarize, that's their fucked up problem. Personally, it'd take more work ta rewrite someone else's paper than ta just bullshit your own, so if they wanna be fools 'bout it..." Alana could only shrug. She'd never buy a paper, but you could never underestimate the stupidity of freshman.
Shiri sighed a little, “The buyer would probably be caught and rat me out. I do not need judicial affairs breathing down my neck.” Being expelled would be bad. She needed that student visa.
"They could be a pain in the ass," she agreed. "If ya ever need a job, let me know..." Alana blinked, then glanced at Shiri feeling like a complete idiot. "Foolish question, but you can sing, right?"
The muse came to a complete stop, body and mind. Did this mortal just ask her if she could sing? Ask a muse if she could sing? A muse with the Greek word “song” in her name? At leasts she knew it was a foolish question, “Yes. Why? You said you only had these games. Have you decided to steal a copy of 'Rock Band' from somewhere?”
Yeah, and Vadimas should have been crippled and deformed. She had prefaced it with 'foolish question'. "Our previous lounge singer left us high and dry without warnin' and I haven't found anyone else that I'd be able ta stand listening to for more than a song. So, if ya ever need extra cash..."
The offer made Shiri giggle, “My academic advisor would adore that idea alas, it would probably gain me the attention of people who would like to make me famous and that is not one of my desires.” Despite her skin tone and brightly colored clothing, she enjoyed being a shadow on the walls of history, never being seen but always there in the back. But more practically, “And I do not think I would be suitable as a lounge singer. Outside my genre and all...”
"I don't know if it's in the genre of any of your sisters, but all we'd need would be mellow back ground music. But, I won't force ya. Just sayin'..." She let it hang for a moment. It was out there, and it would have solved more than a few problems. Alas, it seemed unlikely to happen. "Alright, so what're we playin' here?"
“You said you liked the boxing game...” It didn't really matter to Shiri. All Wii games seemed the same to her when it came to playing them with few exceptions – shake the Wiimote like a maraca until victory. It was one of the reasons she actually enjoyed playing them when she got around to it. “If you had a full harp, I would play that though for you...”
"We don't have one. ... How much would it cost to rent one?" Harp? That could work. If nothing else then as a fill gap for the time being. Not exactly what people had in mind, or what they would come to hear... But with a muse playing, maybe that would change. Letting her thoughts absently ponder this, Alana navigated them to the boxing.
Shiri shrugged, but realizing that Alana wasn't paying attention or looking at her, knew she would have to make her shrug more vocal. “I do not know. I have never rented a full sized harp. I do not even google how much they are to buy... too tempting. Adam would wake up and there it would be with my taking it out of the box.”
Alana snickered. "He'd probably just shake his head and go back to bed. If he ain't smart enough to know not to get between a girl and her interests, then he's more of a fool than I thought." She pressed for them to start the boxing, making sure she wasn't close enough to accidentally hit Shiri. "You find out how much it'd cost to rent one, and we can include that somehow into the pay. Hourly, plus whatever tips, and free drinks just before, during and right after. Employee discount when working on any food orders from within the hotel, as well."
Shiri blinked in confusion.... “Wait, am I paying you to rent a harp?” Alana's wording confused her and the perks had done nothing to sway her mind away from that initial confusion.
"We'll cover cost, but there's no reason for us to buy one. Most musicians have their own, and what the fuck are we gonna do with a harp? Leave it in the lobby for people to ruin?" Heck no. Her desk staff would have her head for it. The boxing was started, and Alana put her attention forth on that. "Now, if it's cheaper ta buy one than to rent it for as long as would be needed, and we still pay you the amount agreed upon based on you renting one, that'd just be extra money in your pocket, and an extra harp in your house..."
“Depends how long you want my services for whether it would be cheaper to buy one...” Assuming that there wasn't one sitting in a pawn shop right now. People pawned the strangest things sometimes, and sometimes those strange things wound up in her house – like her viola and her twelve-stringed guitar. The boxing may have started, but Shiri didn't give it her full attention. She gave it the same amount of attention she gave any Wii game, enough to flail her arms around which somehow made the Wiimote work better than precision moments. Besides, she felt no shame if she did lose... that Mii didn't look like her anyway. “I suppose I can agree to those terms, if Adam can eat and drink like I can, too...”
Alana shrugged, then waited as Shiri's Mii tried to recover from a blow. "We can work somethin' out. How often would you be interested in working?"
Waiting was folly, just like in a real fight, it just allowed Shiri's Mii to strike hers when the recovery did occur; it helped that Shiri never ceased to move her wiimotes, even while speaking, “How often would you need 'mellow background music'.” Somehow the quote marks could be distinctly heard in the muse's tone.
She should have seen that coming, but she'd thought it was the end of the round. Clearly, she didn't play against others often enough. "If we could get it on the major nights during dinner, that'd be best."
Talking to Alana was like playing with a Russian doll, just when one thinks there are no more dolls – just when Shiri thought she had no more questions she found a new one. She grinned at the thought and at the image of her Mii punching Alana's Mii in the face. She had her Question game back! “Major night?'
She'd have to see how long it lasted, as Alana was back in the fight. "Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The night most people head out for a date and nice dinner, or travel and don't wanna search through town."
Her good mood could be perpetual, she didn't especially care if she lost in the silly boxing game. Shiri considered the idea of playing a harp for a few hours on the weekends, weighing the pros and cons. “Adam gets to eat and drink for free, right?”
"... Within limits." Alana wouldn't get locked into something ridiculous because of some badly chosen words. From what she recalled, Adam could pack food away like any other college male Alana had ever met.
“What kind of limits?” Alana was talking to the goddess that cooked for him regularly, often all three meals a day. She was no longer surprised or taken back by his appetite.
"No gettin' drunk on the most expensive drinks, no ordering two dinners just ta have one to go home with..." She shrugged as she knocked Shiri's Mii out again. "Basically anythin' within reason... And tell 'im that I suggest he tip as well. We can't exactly cover that."
“Adam acting out of reason...” It was the only time Shiri ceased to wave around the Wiimote, not that it mattered as Alana had won the match, but it took the muse's whole attention to try to imagine it. All of it. She needed her hands still to try.
Seeing how the muse seemed to focus on that idea alone, Alana snickered to herself as she also lowered her remotes. Admittedly, he wasn't one to generally do it, but she suspected that he had his points of being less reasonable. Everyone did.
Nope. If Shiri was telepathic, she would beg to disagree. She even shook her head and placed the Wiimote down to her side, “How about I promise not to utter the phrase 'Just order and drink all that brandy. I will consider it my birthday gift.'” It was literally the only way she could imagine any of this.
"I have no idea how that'd be your birthday gift, but, fair enough." She set her remotes to the side as well, figuring they were done. She would need to get back to work at some point.
“Leave my hypothetical self-given birthday gifts be,” the muse lightly scolded, more in jest than anything else as she continued to watch the mortal. Did she think she was getting back to work? Shiri knew it wasn't time to go home yet so she couldn't help but think about how cute such a notion might be. “Now what?”
Alana blinked at her, then slowly raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean, 'now what'?"
Shiri replied with complete sincere earnest, “That game is over. Now what?”
"... What do you wanna do?" Alana knew what she could tell to guests about what to do in the area, or even just within the hotel, but that generally wasn't break filling type ideas.
Her question forced the muse to giggle. Oh, silly mortal. Silly Alana. She scooted close and then rested her head on the other woman's shoulder to glance to from the very tops of her eyes, “I am just being a pest since I am not going home yet.” The “And you're going to have to deal with it. Enjoy” went unspoken and implied.
"Ya see, that's normally the role that I fill." And thus she had a decent idea of how to deal with it. "You got a swimsuit?"
Did she? Somewhere in her house but Shiri glanced around the room for the moment. This was certainly not her house, “Not with me.”
"That was option one. The pool and hot tub. You could go out and buy one if ya really wanted, or if you're hungry you could swing up to the restaurant." Alana peered at the muse, trying to guess what other activities she could pawn off on her, versus how much work she actually had to do.
Nope. If Alana could phone a friend, Adam would easily be able to tell her Shiri had entered a social cling mode and wasn't going to be doing anything on her own. It helped that she was using Alana blatantly as a stand-in until she decided Adam had had enough him time. “But what do you want to do?”
Alana opened her mouth to start to answer, then paused, and snapped it shut as she considered her word choice. "What I should be doin' is gettin' back to work. What I want ta be doin'..." She considered, dismissed the instinct to say 'working with power tools', and chose something else. "... Round of laser tag."
“Ooh! Ooh!” The muse leapt up to her feet and spun around in the leap to ensure she was facing Alana, “That sounds fun! I am good at tag and pointing lights at people.”
"It's official, my work day is shot..." Sighing, Alana moved and walked toward her desk. "Alright, we gatherin' a team or anythin'? Reinforcements?"
Shiri did all she could to hide the wicked grin from her face at the word 'reinforcements'. If Alana wanted teams, she knew who she could call... At least one person.... one of her Marine friends was at the university now. He would be great at laser tag. “If you want. Or we could just play against each other.”
"If we can gather enough people, we can have our team against whatever ten year birthday party shows up..." And Alana knew who she'd see if was free as well. Chances of him accepting seemed fifty fifty, but who knew? Maybe she'd see if Julie was free as well...
Ooh, team of them versus ten year olds. Her Grecian nature couldn't help itself; she loved unfair advantages so very very much. “We could make some phone calls. See who can be here quick enough....”
"Got it." Settling into her desk, Alana started to close up the work that she'd be in and take care of wrapping things up until tomorrow, or at least many, many hours later. Next, to see what type of team she could pull together.
Summary: Shiri comes to the hotel to bug Alana. Alana needs a break, then gives up on trying to work at all in favor of Wii, then laser tag.