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xp_logs2009-06-28 03:02 pm
x-wildchild.livejournal.com) wrote in xp_logs2009-06-28 03:02 pm
AK/DM: Travel Hijinks!
The results of travel hijinks, and Forge not being clear about who was invited. Unexpected Laurie and Kyle is tactless.
Forge looked over at Kyle as he checked his phone. "Her plane landed an hour ago, but traffic here's always horrible. She should be here any minute." His anticipation was almost palpable, as if it had been months since he'd seen Crystal instead of merely two weeks.
"Dude, less Red Bull." Kyle was flopped sideways in a chair that could've held two full grown adults, with the remains of his whatever-meal-this-was on a plate in his lap. Time zone changes had totally confused him, and he'd given up, having announced that all his meals would be "breakunchner" until he figured out what time it really was.
Doug had merely raised an eyebrow at Kyle's declaration and continued to munch at his own meal, which he more simply had just referred to as "food", without the wacky name Kyle had decided to christen it with. Even allowing for the opulence of first class and the ability to get up and walk around the airplane, it felt extremely good to be on the ground and out from within the confined space. He shrugged at Forge wordlessly and leaned backwards in his own chair.
Forge looked down at a text on his phone. "Aha, and here she is! Hello, hon--"
He turned around to see, much to his surprise, the two blonde girls walking across the lobby of the Malik Dubai.
Laurie grinned at the three men waiting for them, pleasantly surprised to see that it wouldn't be just herself, Crystal and Forge on this trip.
"Hello, boys," she said with a grin.
"Greetings Forge, Doug, and Kyle," Crystal said, rather shocked to see the other two mutants sitting in the hotel lobby. She hid most of her surprise behind her greeting, showing the rest of it in a questioning look directed at Forge.
Unlike everyone else, Kyle's sense of tact and politeness had been left back at home, and was currently probably being fed to his cat. "Dude, when did we get a fifth person? I am not sleeping on the goddamn balcony! Forge, you said it was just Crystal and us guys!" He wasn't so much angry as annoyed. Now their vacation was plus one unexpected Laurie Collins, and she was so ... Laurie and she'd probably want the good bed and argh.
Laurie blinked, midway through untying the bow that kept her rather overly large sunhat attached to her head.
"I..."
Forge clapped a hand to his forehead, groaning. "Look, I'll... figure something out. I need to talk to Crystal. Can you guys take Laurie... somewhere?"
Doug's brain processed all the information and did the "sitcom hijinks" math in his head. As Forge drew Crystal aside, he sighed and pushed himself up from his chair. "I'll go ask the front desk about rollaway beds," he declared.
"Thank God," Forge sighed in relief. "Look, just... keep her and Kyle from killing each other, okay? I'll square this away. I owe you one." He clapped Doug on the shoulder before walking over to his girlfriend.
Thank you ever so much for that, Kyle. Crystal looked at Laurie, shrugging lightly, a bit of a helpless look on her face. "I am very sorry, Laurie, I am not sure what is going on," she told her traveling companion, still very much confused as to what was going on. "Do not worry, you are more than welcome here" and she almost dared anyone to contradict that statement. "and I am going to speak with Forge now."
Doug smooths things out with bedspace, and Kyle manages an apology that goes over remarkably smoothly with assistance from apology food.
Laurie had gotten her hat off now and was holding it in a somewhat nervous grip as she followed Doug toward the front desk of the hotel. "You don't have to do this, you know. I can just call Clarice at the mansion and get her to come port me home. I'm sure she'd be perfectly fine with it."
"It's fine," Doug told her with a slight roll of his eyes. He didn't have Kyle's annoyance or lack of tact. And getting Clarice to come all the way to Dubai just to take Laurie home was kind of impolite to the both of them. Especially Clarice. It wasn't as though 'teleporter' equaled 'personal on-demand taxi', and Doug didn't want to treat her as such. Besides, having one extra person along wasn't that large of an inconvenience.
"I guess," Laurie said, still somewhat unconvinced.
She wondered if she could get a hold of Eamon while she was here, maybe he'd drop by and they could get a place, somewhere that didn't have people that hated her.
"Maybe they'd have a spare room? I could always see, and then I wouldn't be in anyone's way," she said after a moments silence. The thought cheered her slightly, as at least then she wouldn't be forced to share a room with mister happy go rude Kyle Gibney.
"Laurie, seriously. It's fine. Stop fretting." Doug put on his best polite expression as he walked up to the reception desk. A few questions and a flashing of the RFID key to their suite on one of the penthouse levels, and Doug came back with a shrug for Laurie. "See, that was easy. They'll have a rollaway in the suite by the time we get up there."
"Oh," Laurie murmured, surprised that it had been that easy. "Wait, they didn't charge you? I mean, at all?"
"Even if they would normally, which I doubt, it's a grand opening, so they're likely wanting to do even more to impress people with how convenient and friendly their hotel is. Plus we're in a penthouse suite, so hooray for getting treated like high rollers." Doug smiled at Laurie. Besides, he didn't say to her, he'd been taught him how to subtly maneuver things to get his way in situations like this.
It wasn't necessarily that Kyle felt guilty, but he did feel like an ass, having seen Laurie rush off. And he really didn't want to be around anywhere near the rooms while Forge and Crystal had the apology-and-vacation nookie. So he hung around the lobby until the 'okay, I'm a dickhead' feeling overwhelmed the 'argh, fifth person' feeling, and then made a quick trip to the -huge-, well, he wasn't sure what to call it, because 'snack machine' didn't cover an automated vendor that took up a whole two walls and had everything from hot soup to ice cream. He didn't even need to decide on a choice - one of the selections was a small 'floral' basket made of slices of pineapple and mango and melon and strawberries. Perfect for "I'm an asshole" apology food.
He announced his presence with a 'Hi, I'm a jerk today." and a sheepish look on his face.
Had Laurie not spent the past long while trying to make up for her own 'jerkiness' she might have made Kyle sweat a bit on his apology. Given that she'd had her own moments of said behaviour, she instead smiled at him and shrugged.
"It happens," she noted, eyeing the basket he held. "Would that be apology food?"
"Dude, it's like, flowers made of fruit. How cool is this thing?" Kyle held it out towards Laurie. "You have got to see this wall of robot food thing. It's like a vending machine only it's the size of like a bus!" He figured in his head that wanting to show Laurie something cool was as good as saying "Yeah, I'm over my annoyance that you're here and have decided to make the best of it." only without having to be a sap and actually say so.
"Did you read the brochure?" Laurie asked, taking the basket and following alongside Kyle as he led them back into the hotel proper. "There's this entire floor of gym equipment, and they've got a pool! And one of those steam room thingies. It's awesome."
Doug watched the pair, thankful that the situation seemed to have resolved itself. He just hoped that the conversation between Forge and Crystal was going as well.
Forge looked over at Kyle as he checked his phone. "Her plane landed an hour ago, but traffic here's always horrible. She should be here any minute." His anticipation was almost palpable, as if it had been months since he'd seen Crystal instead of merely two weeks.
"Dude, less Red Bull." Kyle was flopped sideways in a chair that could've held two full grown adults, with the remains of his whatever-meal-this-was on a plate in his lap. Time zone changes had totally confused him, and he'd given up, having announced that all his meals would be "breakunchner" until he figured out what time it really was.
Doug had merely raised an eyebrow at Kyle's declaration and continued to munch at his own meal, which he more simply had just referred to as "food", without the wacky name Kyle had decided to christen it with. Even allowing for the opulence of first class and the ability to get up and walk around the airplane, it felt extremely good to be on the ground and out from within the confined space. He shrugged at Forge wordlessly and leaned backwards in his own chair.
Forge looked down at a text on his phone. "Aha, and here she is! Hello, hon--"
He turned around to see, much to his surprise, the two blonde girls walking across the lobby of the Malik Dubai.
Laurie grinned at the three men waiting for them, pleasantly surprised to see that it wouldn't be just herself, Crystal and Forge on this trip.
"Hello, boys," she said with a grin.
"Greetings Forge, Doug, and Kyle," Crystal said, rather shocked to see the other two mutants sitting in the hotel lobby. She hid most of her surprise behind her greeting, showing the rest of it in a questioning look directed at Forge.
Unlike everyone else, Kyle's sense of tact and politeness had been left back at home, and was currently probably being fed to his cat. "Dude, when did we get a fifth person? I am not sleeping on the goddamn balcony! Forge, you said it was just Crystal and us guys!" He wasn't so much angry as annoyed. Now their vacation was plus one unexpected Laurie Collins, and she was so ... Laurie and she'd probably want the good bed and argh.
Laurie blinked, midway through untying the bow that kept her rather overly large sunhat attached to her head.
"I..."
Forge clapped a hand to his forehead, groaning. "Look, I'll... figure something out. I need to talk to Crystal. Can you guys take Laurie... somewhere?"
Doug's brain processed all the information and did the "sitcom hijinks" math in his head. As Forge drew Crystal aside, he sighed and pushed himself up from his chair. "I'll go ask the front desk about rollaway beds," he declared.
"Thank God," Forge sighed in relief. "Look, just... keep her and Kyle from killing each other, okay? I'll square this away. I owe you one." He clapped Doug on the shoulder before walking over to his girlfriend.
Thank you ever so much for that, Kyle. Crystal looked at Laurie, shrugging lightly, a bit of a helpless look on her face. "I am very sorry, Laurie, I am not sure what is going on," she told her traveling companion, still very much confused as to what was going on. "Do not worry, you are more than welcome here" and she almost dared anyone to contradict that statement. "and I am going to speak with Forge now."
Doug smooths things out with bedspace, and Kyle manages an apology that goes over remarkably smoothly with assistance from apology food.
Laurie had gotten her hat off now and was holding it in a somewhat nervous grip as she followed Doug toward the front desk of the hotel. "You don't have to do this, you know. I can just call Clarice at the mansion and get her to come port me home. I'm sure she'd be perfectly fine with it."
"It's fine," Doug told her with a slight roll of his eyes. He didn't have Kyle's annoyance or lack of tact. And getting Clarice to come all the way to Dubai just to take Laurie home was kind of impolite to the both of them. Especially Clarice. It wasn't as though 'teleporter' equaled 'personal on-demand taxi', and Doug didn't want to treat her as such. Besides, having one extra person along wasn't that large of an inconvenience.
"I guess," Laurie said, still somewhat unconvinced.
She wondered if she could get a hold of Eamon while she was here, maybe he'd drop by and they could get a place, somewhere that didn't have people that hated her.
"Maybe they'd have a spare room? I could always see, and then I wouldn't be in anyone's way," she said after a moments silence. The thought cheered her slightly, as at least then she wouldn't be forced to share a room with mister happy go rude Kyle Gibney.
"Laurie, seriously. It's fine. Stop fretting." Doug put on his best polite expression as he walked up to the reception desk. A few questions and a flashing of the RFID key to their suite on one of the penthouse levels, and Doug came back with a shrug for Laurie. "See, that was easy. They'll have a rollaway in the suite by the time we get up there."
"Oh," Laurie murmured, surprised that it had been that easy. "Wait, they didn't charge you? I mean, at all?"
"Even if they would normally, which I doubt, it's a grand opening, so they're likely wanting to do even more to impress people with how convenient and friendly their hotel is. Plus we're in a penthouse suite, so hooray for getting treated like high rollers." Doug smiled at Laurie. Besides, he didn't say to her, he'd been taught him how to subtly maneuver things to get his way in situations like this.
It wasn't necessarily that Kyle felt guilty, but he did feel like an ass, having seen Laurie rush off. And he really didn't want to be around anywhere near the rooms while Forge and Crystal had the apology-and-vacation nookie. So he hung around the lobby until the 'okay, I'm a dickhead' feeling overwhelmed the 'argh, fifth person' feeling, and then made a quick trip to the -huge-, well, he wasn't sure what to call it, because 'snack machine' didn't cover an automated vendor that took up a whole two walls and had everything from hot soup to ice cream. He didn't even need to decide on a choice - one of the selections was a small 'floral' basket made of slices of pineapple and mango and melon and strawberries. Perfect for "I'm an asshole" apology food.
He announced his presence with a 'Hi, I'm a jerk today." and a sheepish look on his face.
Had Laurie not spent the past long while trying to make up for her own 'jerkiness' she might have made Kyle sweat a bit on his apology. Given that she'd had her own moments of said behaviour, she instead smiled at him and shrugged.
"It happens," she noted, eyeing the basket he held. "Would that be apology food?"
"Dude, it's like, flowers made of fruit. How cool is this thing?" Kyle held it out towards Laurie. "You have got to see this wall of robot food thing. It's like a vending machine only it's the size of like a bus!" He figured in his head that wanting to show Laurie something cool was as good as saying "Yeah, I'm over my annoyance that you're here and have decided to make the best of it." only without having to be a sap and actually say so.
"Did you read the brochure?" Laurie asked, taking the basket and following alongside Kyle as he led them back into the hotel proper. "There's this entire floor of gym equipment, and they've got a pool! And one of those steam room thingies. It's awesome."
Doug watched the pair, thankful that the situation seemed to have resolved itself. He just hoped that the conversation between Forge and Crystal was going as well.