4Strange people came and went from the Inna de Poona resort all the time, so Lailani had already seen many different types of people in her relatively short tenure on the island.
Said people didn't normally have blue skin, though.
Or horns growing out of their head.
Well...there was that one time Mrs. Belrose met a cute French boy who'd just arrived…
But this was different. ...probably.
"...I'm sorry, could you repeat that, please?" She was currently working the early shift for the check-in desk (because money was money, and her station at the massage parlor "would be waiting for her when she was done here"), trying to remain professional at the frankly...the...um…
You know what? She was an alien. There wasn't a better word to describe the blue-skinned, horned woman standing on the other side of the counter.
"...is my translator malfunctioning?" the blue woman absently wondered aloud, briefly looking down at something on her waist, giving it a few whacks before returning her gaze upward. "I am looking for suitable lodgings to rest in while my stellar drive recharges," she enunciated, "Is there somewhere with minimal exposure to sunlight where I might stay?"
"...don't worry, I heard you the first time," the Polynesian girl assured the...otherworldly patron, "Just give me a moment to check." A few clicks of the mouse brought up a listing of all the rooms in the hotel, complete with certain features of each area to help match guests with the best possible experience. It was currently the off-season, so most of the rooms were unclaimed, save for a few taken by the small handful of permanent residents. After scanning through the listings she found a group of rooms that sat mostly in the shadow of the building. "I believe we do have some rooms available; is there anything else you require?"
The extraterrestrial woman rubbed her chin for a moment. "...are any of them climate-controlled?"
A quick glance. "They're all connected to the air conditioning, if that's what you mean?"
"I do not believe so." A shake of the head; a few locks of the woman's snow-white hair bounced off her horns. "I require something that can approximate an arctic climate."
Well, I suppose this is about as close as you can get this close to the equator?
"I'm...not sure we have anything that extreme," she informed the woman, a slight, nervous chuckle creeping into her voice. "If you'd like, there's a room across from the ice machine on that floor; you'd only need to go right across the hall for extra ice."
The horned woman rubbed her chin again, as though weighing her options. She sighed after a moment. "I suppose if that is the best your establishment can offer, then I will take it."
"Wonderful!" She quickly brought up the booking window. "Will you be paying with cash or card?"
"...'card'?"
Oh boy...this might take a while…
Hopefully, she wouldn't be in need of a massage after she was done here.
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Once the issue of payment was taken care of (uncut precious gems weren't the standard form of payment, but for all intents and purposes it was still "legal tender", as far as the Belroses were concerned.) Lailani had shuffled between her station at the spa and wherever else the management felt she was needed...whether she was actually trained for it or not.
By the end of the day, she found herself taking over for Nora, picking up the used towels and robes from the guests so they could be ready to use again tomorrow.
...the less said about the guests in 128 and their "leisure activities", the better.
She eventually made her way to the room that "Celeste Luvendass" was staying in, gently rapping on the door. "Miss Luvendass? It's housekeeping, can I come in?"
No answer.
She pressed her ear to the door...then pulled back and shook her head; the rooms were designed to damper sound from both inside and outside. Chalk that up to me running on empty. The "Do Not Disturb" hanger wasn't put out, so she knocked again.
Still no answer.
"…ma'am? Are you in there?"
Still nothing.
Leaving the laundry cart aside for the moment, she swiped her skeleton key through the reader, unlocking the door. She quickly turned the handle and gingerly crept inside. All the lights were off, but the switch was right next to the door, so she quickly flipped it on.
For all intents and purposes, the room looked practically untouched. The bed was undisturbed, there wasn't any luggage lying around, and apart from the hum of the AC system, there wasn't a sound to be heard.
It was actually kind of unnerving…
Gulping audibly, she made her way further into the room. No one had ended up escorting the alien guest to her room early (seemingly no luggage), but Nora had mentioned seeing her by the ice machine loading ice into a towel, so she hadn't left the building yet- and how could she? This room only had one window- as per fire safety code- and while she wouldn't have much trouble fitting through, the alien was clearly much taller in stature, among other bodily aspects that would impede her potential escape.
…what? Human beings didn't have horns on the side of their heads.
In any case, there didn't appear to be any signs of escape.
While most of the room's features resided in one area, the bathroom was obviously separated from the main area, and that was the only place Lailani hadn't checked. She'd seen all manner of people in their "natural state" due to her chosen profession, so the human body didn't wholly disgust her…but walking in on someone in the middle of using the toilet was still something she tended to avoid making a habit of doing.
She once again gulped audibly as she grasped the handle, hesitantly giving it a twist.
She needn't have bothered, since it swung slightly inward once she touched it.
"…hello?" she whimpered, easing the door further open. Just like the room outside it was unlit, but the light that spilled in showed that the bathroom looked equally untouched…save for the tub, which was filled almost to the brim with water.
And laying in that water, naked, was the alien woman, seemingly unmoving.
Needless to say, Lailani screamed.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"
I mean, wouldn't you react like that if you suddenly found a dead body?
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The alien woman also screamed.
Surprise! She wasn't dead.
After a bit of flailing from both parties (causing Lailani to slip in turn on the newly slick floor thanks to the recent addition of some water) and once Lailani's heart stopped trying to burst out of her rib cage, she asked "…um, what are you doing in the tub, ma'am?"
Celeste had been able to regain her composure quicker than the Polynesian island girl did, but the question still caught her a bit off guard. "I was sleeping…was that not already apparent?"
"…sleeping?" Well…it was possible. She'd already been nervous before checking in the bathroom, so her mind must have automatically assumed the worst. However… "…in the tub?"
"It isn't my ideal resting place-" Um, phrasing? "-but the climate controls for this domicile was ineffective in replicating Tendricide, so I was forced to improvise."
Something clicked in Lailani's mind. "You mean the ice machine?"
"Indeed. This vessel was filled with frozen water cubes earlier; it took several trips to acquire enough ice to rest comfortably in."
…it must have been an alien thing. Still, not the weirdest thing she'd ever come across guests doing.
128 was still the mental scar to beat, currently.
"Alright…but why were the lights turned off?"
"…did I not mention that I am nocturnal by nature? That was the reason I requested minimal exposure to sunlight while I waited for my ship to recharge."
"Oh, OK…so then you were just taking a nap?"
"If that is what you call the act of entering a brief, hibernating state to conserve energy on this planet, then yes."
Now that the alien woman was explaining this, it was actually starting to make some kind of sense.
Although...there was still one part of this whole situation that Lailani was still unclear about.
"But wouldn't you have rather put a bathing suit on first? You probably didn't need to be completely naked the whole time you were sleeping."
Celeste gave her a quizzical look. "…'bathing suit'?"
fin.
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Funny story: I tried writing a short fic with Abia and Venus originally, but I couldn't come up with a good angle for them interacting, so this happened instead.