[of our own device]

Who: Hayes and Michael
When: Evening
Where: Morning Star

For the record, Michael had never claimed to be a nice person. That said, ever since her little meeting with Christine she'd been positively radiant with joy. Her amusement with the whole situation - and the hope that she would eventually have the very great honor of sacking the bitch - had left her in a good mood for days, and thus far, nothing had broken that good humor.

After waking up at about five in the afternoon, she'd gone through what was a morning ritual for most people. Showering, doing her hair and make-up, getting dressed (and even wearing something other than black or red for a change, which certainly contributed to the lighter appearance), and she headed out of her apartment by six. After an hour of walking the grounds, she headed over to the Morning Star Grill. She wasn't in search of breakfast, since she ate her meals in reverse. She got there along with the dinner crowd, and scanned the area for a place to sit. She smiled to herself when she saw Hayes sitting alone, and she sauntered over. "Good morning, Hayes," she said, her tone warm and cheerful. Yes, she knew it wasn't morning. Yes, she knew it was a very old, very lame joke. No, she did not care. "Mind if I join you?"

She didn't actually wait for an answer.

Who: Miguel and Michael
When: 6:30 AM
Where: Lobby

Michael had let the girl working the front desk shift that night leave early. Any guests coming to the front desk were aggravated and demanding, and Michael figured she had better be around to deal with that herself. She'd told the girl to go and get some sleep, and had then headed in the back room to change batteries of her flashlight. In the few minutes that had taken she had heard the bell ring, and when she went back to the front desk there was a man sleeping on one of the couches. This would be Miguel. She didn't have to wonder. She had been expecting an arrival, and she never forgot a face.

Michael had decided to let him sleep a while. Why not? He looked exhausted, and he'd have trouble finding his room in the dark anyway. She wrote a few notes behind the desk, got out his keycard (thankful those still worked, though it certainly would have been interesting if they hadn't), and kept quietly busy. A while after the sun had begun to rise, she walked around the desk and approached the sleeping man. She didn't touch him, but she did lean down from a few feet away. "Sir? Do you need a room?"

Who: Michael and OPEN
When: about 11:30 pm
Where: Ignite

Though she wouldn't have said so publicly, Michael thought Charlie had the right of it. When she got that memo in the morning, she'd been practically buzzing with excitement. This was only the second time she'd ever seen the hotel initiate a test, and she was fascinated by it. She'd had a hard time sleeping during the day, and she kept feeling the need to pour over the notes she kept on every individual in the hotel to try and determine who in particular it was that the hotel felt the need to push. She had theories, of course. Michael always had theories, even if she kept them to herself.

By the time she started her shift the hotel still hadn't calmed down. It wasn't chaos, but it was certainly lively. There were guests in all public rooms and chattering away in the halls, and Michael loved every minute of it. Almost immediately after starting her shift she'd taken a flashlight and made rounds of the hotel. Checking in on each public room and hallway, looking to see how things were going and if there was any situation in need of her attention. When she stepped into Ignite she saw that one of their longtime guests was walking unsteadily and talking a little too loudly. Drunk, she knew. That one was one she'd pegged as a future softie. She was a former teacher that had seduced a student and, as it happened, terrified of both darkness and solitude. Codependent, attention whore, poor concept of boundaries, hadn't evolved the littlest bit in the fifteen years she'd been there. She was all but begging another someone to come back to her room with her. Michael sidestepped that trainwreck and walked around the bar, leaning in close to the bartender to quietly give a direction. "That one needs to be cut off," she said. "And you may need to page Dr. Sherazi if she gets hysterical." Then she leaned against the bar and smiled warmly at a nearby guest. It was good to show that she was calm. This was all just a merry adventure.

Who: Christine and Michael
When: 9 PM
Where: Michael's office

Michael couldn't remember if she and Christine had ever seen eye to eye. She thought not. They had both started working at the hotel around the same time, and both at the front desk. And through the years Michael had earned praise and promotions, and Christine continued to seem downright allergic to personal evolution. Perhaps that was part of the problem. Christine had never seemed to respect her as a manager, and Michael just couldn't stand her for it. So, getting two complaints about Christine in one day was a little bit like Christmas. Definitely worth coming in early for.

At nine, the door to Michael's office was open and she was seated behind her desk, watching the last few traces of the sun disappear out the window. When it became dark enough, she hit a button to turn on the lights, but otherwise made no move. She wondered if Christine would be on time.

Who: Christian and Michael
When: Early morning
Where: Morning Star

Michael had been eating her meals in reverse for longer than she could remember. She supposed it wasn't particularly surprising - she'd been at the hotel for a long time, and most of that time she had been on a night shift. Oh sure, back in her front desk days she'd done filler shifts at all hours, but now she was a nocturnal animal. She'd wake up early in the evening and eventually have dinner before starting her shift, and after her shift she'd get breakfast and usually go crash. It was a good system. When she'd first started working night hours exclusively she'd tried eating breakfast at night and dinner in the morning, but eventually dismissed the idea entirely. She liked it better this way, and it was less work for the staff.

Maybe once a week Christian would join her for breakfast, and she was expecting him today. They'd had five check-ins in two days, and while it certainly wasn't a record, it was a lot. The last thing she'd done before signing off to the day manager was check her briefs, but she still had no warning of any new guests coming. That didn't mean there wouldn't be another check-in - stranger things had happened. Some people spent weeks or months leading up to their stay, but she had met those that seemed to have come in mere hours after their final turning point in the outside world. Those were always very interesting cases to Michael.

With a smile and a wave to those working in the restaurant, Michael breezed past them all and headed to her usual table. If they weren't busy she saw no reason to trouble whoever was playing host or hostess, and her table was free. Not that she particularly expected anyone to correct her, but it would have been amusing to see someone try. She smoothed the skirt of her simple black dress as she seated herself, and waited to see if Chrissy would show.