Jugemu

[Carrion Queen]

"Off in three, two, one."


The lights in the room dimmed slightly and everyone, previously at their positions like dutiful toy soldiers, scattered as if a spell had broken. Camera operators swung their legs out of their chairs and stood up to stretch. A man with a headset was thanking everyone for the day. The people who had been observing in the audience started talking indistinctly, becoming a mass of quiet chatter where before they had been silent.

Ximena stood up from her chair and took her purse off the floor with her. She was dressed in high-waisted, black shorts that looked to be made of some kind of shiny material; a white, sleeveless button-up blouse; and a black ribbon tied into a bow at the collar of said shirt. She also wore small faux-pearl stud earrings and a black choker that looked to be the same material as the black ribbon. Instead of her typical high-pony, her hair was in a French braid. The black, patent leather high heels she wore gave her an extra four inches of height.

She walked over to the space where the on-air talent was now mingling and getting their things ready to leave, first shaking her head a bit to get rid of a smirk.

"Oh, excuse me, sir," she said with mock deference to a boy her age with a shaved head. "I know you must be very busy and heading to maybe your open house for a condo or whatever mid-sized law firm you clearly work at -- " she said, looking him up and down, " -- but I was wondering if you've seen my friend? He's about your height."

[Catche Jagger]

“Thanks for the interview, Stan.” Alan smiled as all around him began to scatter, getting up from his chair to shake the hand of the man who had sat across from him.

It was an interview on a local program, definitely no big deal, but you never knew who knew somebody else, and so Alan had been sure to remain on his best behavior the whole time, speaking in the way he’d been practicing, cutting out the more casual elements of his speech, enunciating, and cleaning up his language for TV. It seemed like he’d made a decent impression on the live crowd and the staff.

A few still gave him odd looks, but certainly not as many as would have even a few months prior. Alan’s hair hadn’t grown in too much since he’d shaved it, that’d need more time, but he had lost a couple of inches from around his midsection. He was also dressed about as well as he could manage for the time being, in a button up shirt, slacks, and a blazer. The shoes he wore, formal in style but also clearly scuffed up and shabby on closer inspection did give a sense that this wasn’t a role he was quite used to occupying, but he’d hoped the camera wouldn’t be too focused on his feet.

His brief interaction with the host was just concluding, when his guest in the audience came up to him.

“Lawyer? It’s that bad, huh?” Alan laughed, though he knew he still did need to get himself a proper suit sooner rather than later if he was going to keep this thing going.

“Well I don’t know if I’ve seen him, but I’m pretty sure that, if he’s anything like me, he’d wanna thank you for making it.” He allowed himself the moment of sincerity, glad to have a friend around while he stretched his legs in this new arena.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena scrunched up her nose affectionately. The tone of her voice communicated "Aw, of course. I wouldn't miss it." but the actual words that came out were "Aw, you wish. I'm here to scope out a sugar mama slash daddy."

She smiled sunnily with her eyes closed for a moment.

"No, you're a smokeshow and you did well. What are they calling us? You know, stunning and brave," she said making an OK sign at him.

Alan and Ximena had come out of the ordeal on the good side of the public and with favorable narratives. Neither of them had killed or were even tangentially responsible for a death. For Ximena, the only footage she appeared in depicted her draining all of her energy to try and save Raja. For Alan, she was fairly sure the only footage was of him as a bewildered bystander during Moose's death.

Even more, they had their further recounting of how they'd worked together to survive and risked their lives to escape the compound. Alan stayed behind to help save his friend from Ray and Ximena had encountered the Deerstalkers, stole from them, and then returned to pick people up.

They were polite, well-spoken, and gregarious (except for that incident with the Fox News van, but there was no good footage of that because the camera had turned into basically a potato). From top to bottom -- by chance, maybe a little by character, and a touch of good storytelling -- they were sympathetic. Ximena had released her account of the events as they had happened to her through a sparse press release, but had otherwise mostly kept her head down for the time being, deciding what to do next.

"Mmm! Wanted to ask something," she said, pulling out her phone and scrolling to her emails.

[Catche Jagger]

“Heroic is getting thrown around for some of us, though that one’s really stretching it a bit.” Alan sighed. He had already had to take on a few interviews, but most of those weren’t video recordings, just transcription or audio. Of course, he’d tried to be discerning in his approach to who he’d talk to and what about. Being an open book to absolutely everybody.

“Ain’t gonna complain about the compliments, though.” He sighed.

Alan wasn’t the only one that was touring around and making a clear attempt to make an impression within the public eye, with Astrid in particular making an obvious play for the spotlight among the group. Of course, she’d already made the move that virtually everyone on the interview circuit except for Alan had done by getting into some form of spat with the Fox News network. Of course, Alan didn’t much blame the others for taking their moment in the spotlight to dunk on a bunch of bigoted stooges, but in spite of what students on Twitter might convince themselves of, taking such confrontational political stances, mostly only begot niche appeal.

If Astrid was hoping to parlay this into something more long-term, like Alan was, she might benefit from utilizing a bit more tact. Further, if she was going to try being the public face of the survivors, her actions would reflect on all of them, which was something that Alan, unfortunately, did not trust her with. Speaking of…

“I mean, I’ve got a couple questions of my own, regarding your whole roommate situation, but maybe we should save that for another time?” Alan’s tone indicated that the remark should be taken lightly, but he was quietly for Ximena, and had been since he’d learned of her current living arrangement.

“So, what’s up? I’ve been getting real good at answering questions since we got out of that hospital.” He smiled.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena looked down, scrolling still on her phone.

She looked up when Alan had a question of his own.

"Ah," she said, making an expression that was somewhere between a smile and a grimace. She pulled on the black choker she wore like a nervous cartoon character pulling on their shirt collar.

"I know…" she said apologetically, matching his quiet tone. “We can talk about it later,” she said cheerfully, a little guilty, perhaps hoping that he might forget before “later” came, though the chances were low.

She moved next to Alan so that they could both look at the screen, but then a text from Stephen popped up.

"Whoa, private," she said, quickly putting a hand between Alan’s eyes and the screen, immediately flicking the message away, then pulling her hand back.

"Okay, here. So I don’t have an agent or a media person or whatever. I guess I should shop for one? Anyway, I’ve got this email from some streaming service asking about buying story rights," she said, tilting her head and looking at Alan. "But, like, we should probably go in together because, like… well, obvious reasons and stuff. You could probably get a say in casting," she said grinning.

[Catche Jagger]

Ximena’s decision to take a rain check on the discussion of her roommate would’ve been a bit more frustrating if she didn’t manage to make an entertaining show of dodging the matter for now. Still, Alan wasn’t just going to let it go.

“Alright, I’ll hold you to that.” He mused, also keeping in light spirits. After all, the situation was concerning, but not immediately dire.

Glancing over at her phone, Alan noticed the text from Stephen and he actually managed to relax a little. Stephen came off as a bit too much of a stiff for Alan’s tastes, but he was a genuine enough guy, and had a decent head on his shoulders. He wasn’t sure what was going on there, with Ximena blocking the phone, but it at least meant she was chatting with someone that wasn’t just him or Astrid, which was a plus.

“Aw come on. You’re not going to let me in on all of the hot gossip?” Alan teased, not so subtly peeking around her hand. Still, Ximena had already flicked the message away, and he gave a slightly disappointed sigh.

“Well, I could give it a go, though I’m not sure I know of anyone in Hollywood that could capture my… unique charm, particularly with my look out in the desert.” He grinned, rubbing his chin as he attempted to envision what kind of cleaned up version of himself would end up on the screen.

“Agent’s probably a good move, though you’ll want a lawyer first, unless the agent offers legal assistance.” Alan noted shortly after, having done a little research into the matter on his own.

[Carrion Queen]

"Mm-hm. That makes sense. Need a lawyer for reading and negotiating contracts and such and then an agent for --" she said, as the last minute caught up to her. She went bright red and put one hand up to her face, hiding her eyes.

"You come on!" she said quietly so as not to call attention, but with a creak in her voice. Ximena split her fingers so that she could peak at Alan.

"I'm, like, you know, like an innocent young maiden. You can't just trample the rose garden of a girl's heart, beast!" she said, re-covering her eyes, at least mostly aware her words were not making things less embarrassing, but at a loss for anything better. She cleared her throat, shook her head, and bit her lip, collecting herself. However, there was still a bit of pinkish hue to her cheeks.

"I mean, obviously we'll get super hot 25-year-olds to play the both of us," she said sounding a bit miffed. "Imma forward you the email right now."

With one hand she navigated forwarding the message to Alan's email and with the other, almost absently, she kissed the palm of her hand and then slapped Alan's shoulder with it.

"McDonald's on the way home?"

[Catche Jagger]

Alan hadn’t expected her to get quite so flustered over the message and had mostly been joking, but Ximena’s reaction had been rather telling. He really wasn’t sure that the shared, violent trauma they’d all endured was the best foundation to be working from, but at least Stephen was better than Astrid.

And so Alan simply sighed and rolled his eyes, giving enough of a smile to communicate that he got it without saying anything more on the matter.

“Alright, alright. I’ll look it over later, but they’d better be able to get somebody that can pull off my classic ‘do.” He remarked, checking his phone before laughing when he felt a slap against his shoulder.

“Sure, why not? Been a while.” Alan mused, starting to make his way out of the studio with her. “We’re still good for Thanksgiving, right?”

[Carrion Queen]

"It's a look," she laughed, and privately recalled that just on appearance and reputation she had serious reservations about him. "I hope it doesn't become a trend," she said, dropping her voice.

Ximena fished her keys out of her purse as they walked, then slipped her hand through Alan's arm to walk arm in arm. Her high-heels clacked with each step that they took.

"Oh. Yes. Astrid, Stephen for sure. Sent Claudia an invite but, you know. And Cecilia, if you want to maybe open up Duolinguo. Bring whatever you want, but let me know so we don't double up and end up with two green bean casseroles."

They got to the car and she let go and looked at him for a moment.

Ximena smiled and it was almost painful, somehow. She was grateful for him, but she couldn't say that out loud to him because like, ick, feelings. She knew he wasn't a fan. They weren't like how she and Raja were. She could just tell Raja that she loved him, and he would say it back because it was like saying that the sun had risen that day.

But even if you didn't say that the sun rose that morning, you still know that it did.

She knew and that was enough.

Ximena looked down, averting her gaze, and then opened the car door.

"Alright. Let's get going."

((Ximena continued in Time After Time ))

[Catche Jagger]

Ximena hadn’t mentioned Crispin, Alan noticed. He understood why, considering he’d basically dropped off the face of the Earth once they’d gotten out of the hospital, but it couldn’t help but feel like a bit of a slight against his former friend, particularly when Astrid would still be around.

Alan had thought, at various times, about possibly reaching out to Crispin, but always decided against it. He’d done his part, coming to him after their fight, making sure he had a way out of the game. If Crispin wanted to see him again, he’d do the legwork this time, make some greater effort.

Shaking his head, Alan dismissed the train of thought. No use fixating on the past where it wasn’t going to help.

Alan looked over at Ximena as the two of them arrived at the car. There was something thoughtful in her gaze, but almost as soon as he caught sight of it, her eyes retreated from him, and she suggested they get going. He knew there was something on her mind.

Concern crept up on him, wondering if it had to do with his fairly obvious feelings about Astrid, or if something else had come up that she neglected to share.

But it’d probably be best to let her have the moment to herself for now.

“Yeah.”