Inn Space: Episode Two

Dursten walks the hallways of the Gran Nebulae

After a much more restful sleep, Dursten arose quite early. He still wasn’t quite sure, or comfortable, with the idea of becoming the new night manager for the Inn. “I’m not qualified for managing a hotel and casino, I‘m a scientist for fuck sakes,” Dursten thought aloud. “Maybe, they’re just so short staffed that they’ll take anyone with any form of credentials.” Dursten shook his head in a ‘yeah, that must be it’ nod. But Dursten still felt that he’d be more comfortable solving differential equations than dealing with a teary-eyed waitress complaining that the people at table two didn’t tip her because they thought she was being rude. “Oh well,” he thought “that was in a different life, maybe I should just go with the flow for now.” Dursten proceeded to get dressed and felt a little hungry, so he thought he’d go downstairs to that little cafe just off the lobby.

As Dursten made his way to the lobby, he immediately started to giggle to himself and thought “I wonder if that snotty bitch is working the desk again? I’ll bet she’ll shit in her Kosmic Krispies when she finds out I’m the new night manager. Teph asked me to stop there before I start tonight, can‘t wait to see the expression on her face when she finds out.” As he looked around the lobby, he was quite amazed at how big the Inn actually was. The lobby was a large glassed covered atria that was filled with every type of tree and plant that he could name, and then some. Through the glass ceiling you could see the three room sections that sprawled out in different directions almost enveloping the main foyer and casino area. From the struts and girding of the room sections were many gas emitters that spewed out different colours of gasses. The gasses were then illuminated by complimentary coloured flood lighting. This gave the effect that the whole hotel was embedded in an artificial nebula. “Neat idea,” he thought for every room within the Inn would have a better view of this effect. As he scanned more of the lobby, he noticed that the desk clerk was not working, so he decided to make his way to the cafe to eat.
On his way, he saw Buz’zee waving from the far end of the lobby. Dursten stopped, for Buz’zee started to walk towards him. “Hi, Buz’zee,” Dursten said as she got close enough.
“Hi,” she responded. “You going to the cafe? Let me join you we’ve got a few things to talk about.”
Once they settled and Dursten had his meal ordered Buz’zee said, “Look’s like it’s me that will have to train you. Numb’nuts Chris, that traitor, jumped ship and moved to the Quantum Inn. He didn’t even have the courtesy to work out his notice.”
“Well I’m sure you can show me what I need to know. Shouldn’t be a problem with him leaving. Should it?”
“No, that’s not what I mean. Chris has worked with us for quite a while and has played quite the little gigolo while he was here, until recently. He and Mel’lonza r’Ehuge have been an item for quite a while now. I’m sure he’ll try to snag her to work there, and maybe more staff to work there too. We have a hard enough time keeping staff as it is. Mel’lonza is just too good to go to that dump.”
“Quantum Inn, isn’t that one of...”
“Yes, it’s owned by Lehst’r, so I’m just hoping that Mel’lonza has more sense than to work for that prick” Buz’zee cut in. “Anyway, when you start tonight go up each room wing of the Inn just to get familiar with the layout. It can be quite confusing. You’ll really need to know it in case you get called to rooms for a zeb ho, or some other problem.”
“Zeb? Are they still using that crap? I haven’t seen any of that since university.”
“Yeah, since the commonwealth fell, more and more people seem to be getting hooked on it again. Sign of the times I think.” Buz’zee said. “A lot of these girls have gotten so hooked, that they try to sell themselves to big winners in the Casino, or pull other scams. It always becomes our problem, though, when the dork realizes that he’s been scammed, and we have to deal with the zeb ho. So, when your finished walking the floors up top, come meet me in the Dining Room, and I’ll take you through the rest of the paces then.”
“Sounds good,” Dursten said then added, “Before you go. Last night before I came into the Honk’n’Holl’r, I stopped at the desk. One of the desk clerks was quite curt. She’s tall, brunette, pale complexion, and has very pretty blue eyes.”
Buz’zee started to chuckle aloud, “I think your referring to our General Manager, Que’nesh Eba, she stayed late last night because front desk had a few problems last night. And, you were a little late, weren’t you. Teph gave her the heads up on you. So what were you thinking, a little chat about courtesy to the desk clerk?” Buz’zee was in full giggles now.
“Well, not really,” Dursten said in full blush, “I just wanted to see the expression on her face when she found out I was the new Night Manager. I had no idea she was...” Dursten and Buz’zee were in all out laughter now. Buz’zee got up from the table and waved bye and mouthed the word ‘later’ because she couldn’t stop laughing. Dursten, still giggling, turned even more crimson, waved bye in response to Buz‘zee.
Dursten ate his meal quietly, and decided he might as well start walking the floors early because it would waste some time before he had to start his shift. “Besides,” he thought, “this place is so big, what if I really do get lost?” Dursten headed off to the first room wing, but not before stopping at an FYI pod to get a floor layout. According to the pod, each wing had nineteen floors in three separate zones that branched out in different directions, but each of the wings were identical to each other. It took Dursten almost two full hours to complete the walk, for he was trying to notice where everything was. He thought to himself that there is a lot of little nooks and crannies that one could hide in if they wanted to. When Dursten completed his round, he went down to the lobby heading for the cafe. He was still early to start his shift, and the idea of a coffee sounded good to him.
Dursten was seated at a table and ordered his coffee. A few minutes into it, Buz’zee came up from behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and proceeded to sit down with coffee in hand. “I thought so,” Buz’zee said, “I thought Chris might try to steal Mel’lonza. She just came in for work and gave me her notice, but she refuses to say where she is going.”
“Maybe it just coincidence in timing.”
“No, I’m sure of it. She wouldn’t look me in the eye she just handed me her notice. If she was going anywhere but to the Quantum, she’d tell me.”
“Any way we can change her mind?”
“I don’t think so. I offered her a raise in wages, but that didn’t do anything. I think the girl is just head-over-heels in love with that pig dog Chris. And she knows what I think about his womanizing. It‘s just too bad, she really is a good girl, and a good waitress.”
“I finished walking all the floors like you asked, so I’m ready for you anytime.” Dursten said.
“Good. It shouldn’t be a very busy night. There is no conventions booked in, or any tours, so it’s pretty much just stick with me for tonight.”
Buz’zee was right, the night was pretty slow. She walked Dursten through the rest of the Inn, and all departments. She laid out his responsibilities and duties that are expected, and mostly, they had many coffees throughout the night. The cafe is the first area to shut down for the night, and Dursten was shown how to prepare the daily receipts for deposit to the desk and for night audit. Next was the Dining Room, which has an identical procedure for shutting down. The Honk’n’Holl’r Sal’oon closes next, followed by the Black Hole Night Club. The casino never closes, and has its own method of daily cash reporting.
Just as the Dining Room was closed, Dursten was paged to the room by Buz’zee, and she said “Bring four fresh coffees and an ashtray to the Dining Room,” over the pager. As Dursten got the stuff and arrived in the Dining Room Buz’zee said to sit down and join them. “This is a Dining room tradition,” Buz’zee explained. “When it closes, we get together in here BS a little, have coffee, and smoke! And don’t tell Que’nesh we do this. She frowns on smoking anywhere in the Inn. Oh, before you sit down Dursten, would you go into the kitchen and get Rosy Mi’Kwacken, and tell her the coffees ready.”
“Sure.” Dursten said and went into the kitchen. Once in, Dursten could not see anyone in the kitchen, but noticed a large ladder set up in the middle of the cook’s line. “Rosy.” Dursten called out, “Buz’zee said to come for coffee.”
“I’ll be right down,” she said from atop the ladder. “The damn vents are not blowing properly again so I need to wipe them down. No one else in this damn kitchen will do this. Drives me crazy!”
“So your saying this isn’t a Mickey Mouse hotel, but work here long enough and you’ll be fucking Goofey when you leave!” Dursten said quite loud to talk over the fans.
Rosy burst into laughter and said “A smart ass have we, I can play with a smart ass. I think we’ll get along just fine. Tell Mugs I’ll be right in”
“Mugs?” Dursten enquired.
“Yeah, Mugs, that’s Buz’zee’s nickname around the hotel. She always has a coffee going in all departments when she does her rounds. And all cups are fresh and hot. We don’t know how she keeps them all going at once, so she got the nickname Mugs.”
Dursten laughed and went back into the Dining room. Rosy joined Dursten, Buz’zee, and Mel’lonza at the table a few minutes later. But just as the Bullshit session was getting into full swing, Tolby the bellman walked into the Dining room carrying a knapsack. “Hi guys. I just came to see if you’d like a ride home Mel’lonza. I just got my scoot-jumper out of the shop. It’s better than payin’ for a hopper ride.”
Mel’lonza thought about it for a minute and said “Sure, some of those hopper hacks have been real dickheads lately. I’ll be a few minutes though I’m just finishing up.”
“Okay,” Tolby said. “I’m doubled right beside the loading dock, you can’t miss me.” Tolby turned waving bye at all of us and walked right into the next table. “OOps, didn’t see that there.” he said and then proceeded to go out in the actual direction he came in.



...............


Reality File:
-----Yeah, our bellman is clumsy too
-----Our dining room chef is the only one out of several people who work the kitchen that will climb a ladder to clean something out of reach. She does it to belittle her co-workers and it usually works. One of the guys usually, I mean might, get her off the ladder and finish it for her.
-----Yes, we really have bullshit sessions almost every night in the dining room, and we do smoke during them, us rebels
-----We don't acutally have a casino, but we do have video lottery teminals. We do get a lot of sketchy people trying to make a fast buck or make a 'sale' because of them. We spend a lot of out time monitoring them and evicting anyone sketchy
-----One of out training managers did jump ship and go work for the competition. We not a large city so all us in the business do get to know each other.

Real Correspondences: Really!
---Email One

• Memmo
• Re: Suspicious character
  
• Post In all Departments
  
• All staff and patrons are to be on the look out for this suspect lurking on deck, He has been seen fraternizing with kitchen staff. We suspect it has something to do with Sunday brunch. He is armed with only a knife, but no spoon or fork. So we have eliminated Room Service as a suspect area.
• 
  
• Report's are to be in your cubby holes by morning.
• Thank you and carry on.

Mugs

---End of Email One

---Email Two

Subject: Attention!!!

Dursten,

We must speak immediately, spelling now makes no difference.

K. has jumped ship and has given her 2 weeks notice, I suspect that traitor Chris is behind this revolt.

Also, The GM and CSM are at each other. Labour in the upper deck has soared to 27 %. I know not the solution.

We require your insight.

The upper deck will re-open on the first, but no new recruits have been brought aboard or trained in the proper manor.

They will not survive. The commanders word's were.

If you do not bring this under control in 6 days " I will shut you down again.

The offer is on the table.

I also cannot tip you for last night's fiasco. I should have tele-communicated with you at 2 in the morning.

Yes it was then I realized my f--- Up with the linen.

It is un forgivable and shall not happen again.

I must bite the bullet and punish myself by staying home today without pay from the commander.

I must go now and you will for-ever more not be relied on to handle late night infractions of the crew, you obviously can't handle the responsibility.

There for you are relieved of this duty until further A.M. communication's.

Mugsy

Forward: Re: Subject: Attention!!!
Hi Mugs,

So, the GM and the CSM are at it eh! It isn't going to be pretty when the damn thing opens again anyway. I don't even think Chef is staffed and prepared properly niether. I can't really see a solution, because the final product hasn't changed in concept or form. Unless 2 new food items on the menu and new serving aprons is considered a ground breaking marketing plan..teehee

So K. is leaving, damn. It took me almost 2 hours of 'playin' with spelling to get her character, Mel'lonza r'Ehuge's, name right. Tried every combination of big boobs I could think of for her moniker. And, for the traitor, I think we'll have to go down to the Q Inn one night and have a chat. That's three in total that he's tried to steal from us! I smell a round of Bar Wars comin on. Life of a write/editor (lol), go figure! Maybe, she'll be my first character kill-off for Inn space....

After work, Tolby the bellman offered to double skoot Mel'lonza a ride home and was hit by a......And Tolby is now bringing room services their silverware, but beverages are now being poured into plates with covers and a straw out the plate cover vent. "Well, they asked for a large pepsi," Tolby said deffensively and then turned and walked towards the kitchen away from Teph'lon Zoot, eventhough Teph was not finished with his reprimand. "Dohdeedohdeedhoh," Tolby murmured as he sontered into the out door of the kitchen.

.....Well, we'll see. Anyway, I hope Que'nesh Eba, er, I mean our illustrious commander doesn't stumble on this blog by accident, even if I am editing our emails. " Honk'n'Holl'r be damned! He's reffering to us! Off with his head I say!" tee hee.

cfn
Dursten

-----End of email two

My Vents:
----No vents today other than my holidays are almost over. Damn!

Notes To Readers
----Added one more section to the blog: Real Correspondences: Really! These are real emails that we've been sending back and forth about work. I've only edited real names, and removed the formal header information. As I mentioned in the intro, we have been playing this game for a while. We are just fitting the emails with Inn Space fiction (those that are in on the game anyway).

Ciaio
foxxfyrre