#asburyopen

[alex-perry]

who: open to everyone

where: in front of the asbury hotel

Alex stood outside The Asbury Hotel, squinting at the revolving doors like they were his arch-nemesis. How many times had he been here this week? Four? Five? He'd lost track. At this point, the front desk staff probably thought he was lurking around the place for a heist—or worse, a Yelp reviewer.

He tugged at his perfectly ironed, oatmeal-colored button-down and checked his Tissot watch, even though he wasn’t meeting anyone. Okay, Alex, he thought. You just need to get inside, blend in, and no one will question why a random guy is inspecting the cornices again.

To be fair, this wasn't his fault! He was sent here to find out how the fuck The Asbury Hotel had managed to capture that effortlessly cool boutique hotel vibe, and it wasn’t like you could just Google “how to make a hotel look cool without spending the next Avatar movie budget.”

Spotting someone in front of the hotel, Alex saw his opportunity. He walked toward the person, flashing the most non-threatening smile anyone could muster. "Hey, are you heading inside?" he asked, voice an octave too high with fake casualness. "I, uh, forgot something in the lobby the other day." Which wasn’t necessarily a lie — he'd actually forgotten to inspect the ceiling beams up close.

[samfitz]

time: afternoonish location: somewhere on the boardwalk

"I got a spare ticket to New Found Glory next week. You down to, uh, relive some childhood nostalgia?"

[daphartwood]

for: anyone location: wonder bar, evening hours

At least once a week Daphne tried to make it to Wonder Bar with Chewy. It's one of her favorite things to do with Chewy, and Chewy was happy to get the chance to play with other friendly pups too. Even the people she met who came without dogs were pretty cool, so it was no wonder that the spot had quickly became one of her favorite places around town. She was a couple of drinks in as the thoughts of another tattoo come swirling into her head again. Chewy was very preoccupied playing with his plushie chew toy, happy to be out of the apartment for a bit. Without a second thought, Daphne turns to the nearest person to her. "Hey, could I ask your opinion on something? I'll buy you a drink for your troubles." She pauses for a second, before asking, "do you think I should do another horror movie tattoo? I can't decide if I should add another one to the ever growing collection," she nods to her arm, " or if I should switch it up and get something else."

[nancysandoval]

with: open to all location: an estate sale on pine street when: early afternoon on a sunday

Nancy feared that she'd missed out on all the good stuff, the creaky Victorian home already picked clean of vintage fashion and worthwhile jewelry. Dammit, she knew she should've sucked it up and not slept in for once in her life. Still, she wandered around, poking at random clutter with dull fascination (who wanted a dead woman's retro vacuum?), before finally spotting the one thing that could make this entire venture worthwhile: a bed. Well, she didn't really care about the tacky headboard plastered in velvet, but the mattress. Nancy circled around the bed, pressing down on the plastic-covered surface to test the springs. If she could replace the futon at her place... Her head cocked in the direction of someone entering the master bedroom, still eyeing the mattress while asking, "D'you think she croaked in her sleep?"

[dakota-perry]

Who: Anyone Where: Eclipse Cap: 4/5

The staff at The Stone Pony killed a highly anticipated festival weekend— "exceeding expectations" the corporate side worded through the floor management via email, pizza party incoming no doubt— but live venues and those that come tied to require instant gratification. Tonight energy on another and an End of Summer theme at Eclipse had the twenty to thirty or so group piled in letting their hair down, Dakota no different. Finding her way out the lively crowd for a refresher, the bar was less packed as before when Robyn started playing, locking eyes with the one person that didn't immediately react — "Don't tell me I found the one person ever that doesn't like this song..."

[galaxyrosxs]

who: open to everyone

when: any time, but preferably evening

where: sandoval dollar

Lavender scrunched her nose as she listened to the latest track that played over the speakers. Without checking who she was speaking with, she spun around and mentioned, "God the music here really sucks sometimes."

[hadleymorganrp]

Where: Sunset Diner, around 2am

Who: Open to everyone

An emergency call had pulled her out of the comforts of home at 10pm and into the vet clinic. It hadn't ended well, and every year that Hadley did this job, it never weighed less on her heart when she had to tell an owner that their pet was gone. Her mind was left too busy to even consider going back home and trying to sleep, and so she'd wound up at the diner two cups of black coffee deep into trying to shake off the evening. At this hour it was just her and one other patron up at the counter. "You know what's weird? I like my daytime coffee sweet as fuck, all the sugar and the flavoring, pale as hell. But there's something about coffee after midnight that just calls for strong and dark."

[turiya-collins]

for: open location: black lotus tattoo

Turiya popped up from the backroom, lunch in hand, eyeing the newcomer through her smeared mascara. "Diego is busy." And then, like an afterthought, "and Alexa just left." She paused. "You not looking for the 3PM, are you? Cause they ran off."

[emmaridley]

who: anyone

where: wonder bar

"Hey, this is going to sound really weird, but could you pretend to be having a conversation with me? And I know I'm essentially starting a strange conversation by opening with that. I'm just trying to avoid someone."

[cj-emhoff]

Who: Anyone Where: Asbury Hotel (Rooftop Cinema) Cap: 3/5

"Thought they were playing Mean Girls tonight—" CJ sighed out the menthol that surely wasn't allowed within whatever foot radius, the balcony's edge distance enough. Obligated to explain himself to the nearest ear why he'd stick around being the lone single guy smoking up a storm watching The Parent Trap with all the families and their little ones running amuck, "Love me some Lilo." he said through a light laugh. "Not ten year old Lilo though—you know, just uh, gotta get that out there."

[danielmndoza]

" — I'm sorry. I don't mean to bother you but I think your phone's going off? Bit of a migraine right now so I feel like I have superhuman hearing, or something. Feels like there's not enough caffeine in the world to counteract bad roommates."