(no subject)

[11calls]

who: Alex Reagan and hopefully you!
what: An open log. There's a couple open prompts but if they don't work just add your own! And don't worry about styles. I'll match em.
when: The month of August.
where: Anywhere you want her to be that's not the mingle, honestly!
warnings: Not that I can think of at the moment.


I.

Despite everything else in her life, Alex Reagan happened to be someone who was a person of habit, and so where she could be found just happened to be habit as well. So, all too often Alex found herself working at The Coffee Shop rather than her office with the substandard coffee and the annoying interns. She was there almost every day with at least one empty cup in front of her, one full one and some sort of pastries there for anyone who might happen to want to stop by and visit, or for anyone whom she had a lunch date with. The table itself was largely taken up with two books and a notebook, along with her phone from home. She inevitably had one of the books open, even though both of them were on the same lines of things, even if vastly different.

Alex would either be reading from a book on learning Spanish and copying what she was learning into the notebook in small and frantic writing, as if her hand couldn't keep up with her brain, because well... That's basically what happened, even in things like this. Still, she was making a real effort to do it, and the book was deeply into, as Alex was hitting the harder parts of the beginner's section and there were lists of words that went along with it.

The second book is much older and still somehow less well-loved than the first one, and Alex had found it in the back of the library shelves. Despite having taken it out days ago, she was still dealing with the beginning pages of it, and if there was something that was guaranteed that would make her grumble, it was this. But still, she was determined to try and teach herself how to read Cruciform even if it killed her, which at this point it honestly just might do. So when someone came up to her, she was all too ready to sit either of them aside, and greeting the other person with a grin, especially if it was someone who she expected.



ii

The other way in which Alex was a creature of habit came with her walking her dog in the afternoon. Alex's pitbull was large and gray and more than a little friendly, which probably made sense considering Alex Reagan was his owner. Her mornings were normally running and rowing, but afternoon walks were more slow and leisurely and normally made by herself. Well, by herself as well as her playing Pokemon Go, even if no one else was. So, yes, she's walking her dog but she's also got her device out to let her know when there just happens to be a pokemon or two in the area that she's walking in.

Normally she collects one or two, and fights at a gym or so, and then goes about her business and comes home. Not today though. Today, Alex just stopped so suddenly that Apo's leash actually snapped taunt for a moment before the gray dog came back to see her, and Alex is just staring at her phone for a second. The dumbed silence only lasts for a second or two before Alex just yells like the child who she can come times be: "Oh my god! It's a Pikachu! It's a Pikachu!" Then without a preamble other than that, Alex just takes off after it, a giant grin on her face. She's never caught one before.

Comments

Closed to Strand.

[11calls]

So Alex hadn't been sleeping anywhere else than outside of their room, because she was keenly aware of just how dangerous the perception of such a circumstance could be. It's why she'd cried with their door shut, and applied make up before she'd put out the takeout for dinner on plates. Alex didn't cook of course, and the best way to prove that there was something wrong would have been for her to attempt it and end up burning down the house. It was something that she didn't want to do, so takeout it was. She'd sidestepped questions about Richard by talking about work for him, and then she had just pointedly ignored anything further.

It was way easier having a fight when you didn't need to worry about their being kids involved. Which was an odd thought for a woman who steadfastly never wanted to have them, but somehow still managed to end up with two of them anyway.

But Alex's body isn't that used to not sleeping anymore, she hasn't gone days without it since she'd been kidnapped so in the end, her body had just overcome her mind, and Alex found herself asleep on the sofa in their room. She'd put on one of his shirts, because well, she was sorry and she missed him and she couldn't help it before she'd fallen asleep, and when she had finally passed out, Alex had wrapped herself around the dog. She wasn't sleeping particularly soundly, but she was sleeping deeply enough that she didn't wake up when the door opened.

[nobasisinfact]

It hadn't taken Richard long (in Richard time) to come back. It wasn't really Alex he'd been mad at - or rather, it wasn't her in general, and he was still annoyed with the fact that she had used him as an excuse. The problem with being mad, however, was that there was no logical point to it. Alex had made no transgression, she'd simply acted as if she did and then used him as an excuse for doing it. And even when he was walking out he knew he would come back. Even if it took a month or a year, he would come back. He'd said as much when he'd walked out.

When he saw her, arms around the dog and curled on the couch, he made his way over, grabbing a blanket and carefully laying it over her. Then crouched by the couch, hand moving to pet the dog. Once he was settled, he moved to sit, back resting against the couch while she slept.

[11calls]

While Alex knew that it hadn't actually been all that long in Richard time (after all, their shortest fights lasted something like a week before he or she came back) but it still definitely felt like quite a long time to Alex. Honestly, there was some part of herself that was angry with the way that she was acting now, or had been acting before she fell asleep. It had taken her a long time before she'd fallen asleep, and Saturday night had involved Alex staying up all night crying. Relationships for Alex (at least the ones she'd had in the past) had never really made her feel this terrible. Oh, they could be bad when there was breakups, but this was different. This one made her feel like she had when Richard had left to see Charlie without a word: like there was a possibility that everything was over. Maybe she was being melodramatic (because she was Alex) but it had still hurt that badly.

After all, there had been the unspoken maybe. That maybe was like a shard of glass that had gotten inside of her, one that she couldn't get out, even when she was putting a good face on it and trying her best not to do anything stupid. Thankfully, it hadn't happened that badly but it might have been because Alex was worried about just how dangerous it could be. Which sucked. This entire thing sucked in her opinion, and she wanted nothing more than to cry at someone, but she didn't dare. So, in the end it was just this and poor Apo with wet fur.

When he petted Apo, the dog made a soft noise of being happy to see him, that might also be a bit of chiding for him being gone for so long. But the noise cut through Alex's dreams (nightmares) and she had started to wake up even before she felt the movement of him against the sofa. Jolting upwards in his shirt, Alex just blinked a bit, gasping before she noticed what it was that had moved the sofa. Then Alex just breathed softly: "Richard?"

[nobasisinfact]

Alex's stirring caused him to turn around, frowning heavily at her. She should have been in the bed. She should have been sleeping properly instead of dramatically trying to sleep on a couch, but that, unfortunately, was the ridiculousness that was Alex Reagan. If there was a dramatic, dangerous or annoying way of doing something, she would find it and make sure that she did just that. Richard knew that all too well.

When she stirred and turned to look at him he simply raised a brow. She knew what he was going to say, but, this time, he was going to say it anyway. "You should be sleeping in bed." Not 'I'm sorry', not a word about the fight at all, and if Richard had his way there wouldn't be. Not now or ever.

Closed to Lizzie.

[11calls]

This was harder than she expected, honestly. All of Alex's muscles were starting to yelp in protest as Alex held her body in the position that Elizabeth had put it in. Despite the running and now the rowing that Alex did, her body definitely wasn't used to this level of strength training. Nor was she used to this intense of a workout when it was so freaking hot. Of course, Alex had requested that Elizabeth teach her, so if her friend was going to do it, it was going to be done as Lizzie had been taught, which meant that when Alex was done here, there was the good possibility that she was just going to sink into the bathtub and not come out.

Doing another rep of the exercise, Alex just asked in a tone that sounded far to desperate, even for her own ears: "how many more of this do we need to do again today?" If it was many more, Alex was pretty sure she was just going to fall over into a puddle of melted Canadian with no bones left.

Re: Closed to Lizzie.

[wit_and_sword]

The work would've been harder, but Elizabeth only knew what she was taught, and the lessons in the Shoalin school were long and painful. When Alex asked to be her student, she considered it unfair to go easy on her, especially in light of what happened.

Then again, perhaps she also overestimated just how much training she'd had prior. So however sore she was, she could only imagine Alex was feeling worse.

"One more circuit, then we will take a short break." She meant to work Alex's muscles to failure. Then and a short rest were the only ways she would get stronger.

Once more, she lead her through the series of exercises. Themselves only a few motions at a time, but all meant to toughen and strengthen the body.

[11calls]

Right now, Alex wanted nothing more than to fall down into a rather large bath of ice, take a giant painkiller and possibly sleep for a week. Maybe, just maybe, she was too old for this shit, honestly. Biting down on the groan that she wanted to make (and instead it came out as a sort of suppressed whimper) Alex just closed her eyes for a minute. This was so much harder than she'd thought it'd be when she'd asked Lizzie to teach her. But then again, she'd never expected the full on temple this seems more than a little bit like a training montage in a martial arts movie that she was currently living.

Forcing her protesting muscles into the movement once more, Alex just tried to breathe through the pain like she would have breathed through some sort of nightmare. It wasn't working exactly, and she was pretty sure her arms were going to fall off, but she finished the circuit that Lizzie insisted upon.

Of course, she just dropped to a heap on the floor afterwards, but she did finish it. That said, it wasn't without a little bit of a whined, "I'm pretty sure you're trying to kill me, Lizzie. I know you, you definitely know faster ways to do it than this." Bad joke with a note of seriousness? Yep, that was all there.

[wit_and_sword]

The joke was a poor one, but given Alex's state, she supposed any joke told by her would be a bad one. "It is painful because this is the fast way. In Shoalin, it took six months total to build up our strength, and that was one muscle group at a time."

Her own body was feeling the strain, but having trained for years and in much rougher conditions, she was still better off than Alex. Knowing her friend was in no real condition to take the needed steps for herself. Elizabeth took her water bottle from its place and set it in her hand. "The body must suffer before it could become stronger."

Closed to Dorian.

[11calls]

When one met with Dorian, one didn't do it in a coffee shop normally. Instead, one typically did it in a bar. Not only a bar, but a bar that simply wouldn't do to not be dressed up in. Alex remembered that from the first time that the two of them had gone drinking after the whole anon post thing where they spoke of regrets and everything else. Of course, Alex's regrets had been fixed within a month of that post, but Dorian was still a friend who she liked quite a bit. He wasn't Nic, but not all of her friends needed to be. Sometimes you just needed that sarcastic friend who called you out on both being an idiot and of course, wearing not nice enough clothing to a fancy bar.

Which was why when she was there today, Alex was definitely dressed up nicely enough. Nicely enough that she had invited Richard and explained that she was going to hang with Dorian, even if he didn't appreciate the outfit for what it was. Or at least for all it was. But she was definitely dressed up when she came into the bar with a large grin, and made a beeline over to his table. "Hey!" Her voice is a happy chirp, before she slipped into a seat across from him.

[tevinteraltus]

To say the very least, Dorian's life was a amalgamous mess of awkward and poor life choices lately. Adding to that his realization that he'd been in the Quarantine for, officially now, a year with nothing to show for it save more heartache and regret and the bar was precisely the place for him. He was aware, and thankful for it, that while Alex did know him, she didn't know him well enough to recognize his self-destructive behaviors and attempt to correct them or some other such nonsense. Instead, she was perfectly happy to join him in his fairly regular drowning of his emotions, and hopefully not seeing that for what it was.

He at least looked fabulous doing it, but then again, he always looked fabulous. He wasn't drunk, either, as he'd only recently arrived himself, and had ordered them a nice bottle, not of wine, but of Italian Grappa, which was stronger, the only indication that something might be amiss. He smiled when she arrived at his table and inclined his head in greeting.

"Hello, Alex. You look ravishing this evening."

[11calls]

Of course Dorian looked fabulous. He was probably one of the best dressed men in Riverview, in Alex's humble opinion, but she expected that he knew that about himself already. Dorian was one of her favorite people (though to be honest, Alex had quite a few favorite people here) in Riverview, and se liked that confidence in him honestly. Wearing her blue dress, the two of them almost looked like they planned it, which was a thought that amused her greatly.


"Well," she said in response to the compliment, and gave him a little bit of shrug to go along with it, because she's being her. "I definitely couldn't let the sytlishness of you be corroded by me doing something like wearing jeans or whatever." Which was said in a tone that was entirely soft and teasing as she looked to the bottle in front of him. A brow raised a bit, when she realized that they were drinking grappa rather than the wine they normally did, and she just asked softly. "Everything okay, Dorian?"

[tevinteraltus]

And she would be correct, in Dorian's not-so-humble opinion, and he did know it very well, thank you. He always pleased to see Alex step things up in her wardrobe, as well, not because it complimented his own dress, which it did and it that pleased him, but because she was far more attractive than she gave herself credit for and it was nice to watch her embrace it.

"My dear Alex, I am rather accustomed to being tarnished by those around me, but with you, I am never at a risk." He did raise an eyebrow, though. "Well, perhaps with jeans." He rolled his shoulder at her question, though, trying and most likely failing to shrug it off.

"I'm perfectly fine. Have a seat."

Closed to Rey.

[11calls]

Alex was pretty sure that Rey was avoiding her now. All of the places where they had normally run into one another just in passing had been missed, and honestly, Alex was more than a little bothered by it. Especially when she felt so guilty for automatically taking Richard's side. Oh, she would have done it anyway, but she wished that she could have explained better why Alex herself tended to brush off his insults. Alex brushed them off, and sometimes she forgot in dealing with him, other people probably didn't have that experience, or the care to do it like she would. Richard Strand had one of his PhDs from Yale in being a complete asshole, but Alex herself didn't.

And she felt like an asshole right now. There was no other way to describe it. Alex knew that Rey had done what she'd done in an effort to protect her, and god knew Alex had done the same thing to so many of her friends. Maybe not in the same way, maybe not in such an overboard fashion, but Alex had definitely had given Nic's various girlfriends and boyfriends the shovel talk over the last few years, especially when it came to Geoff and MK.

So, she finds herself going looking for the girl to apologize and to hopefully try and fix some of their friendship.

For Simon

[11calls]

Alex was hurting. There was no doubt about that. She's been trying to hide it, which is something new for her, but given everything else in the house, it makes the most sense to. More than that, it makes sense to given everything that's going on. But she didn't sleep the night before, and she's definitely not sleeping after her conversation with Rey, so Alex is going down to the kitchen to the one thing that might just comfort her right now. If nothing else, it would make her feel less like a zombie than she does at the moment.

So, it's very late when Alex slips into the kitchen and turns on the light, filling up the electric kettle so that she can make coffee in the french press. Leaning against the counter, she just buries her face in her hands and waits for it to boil.

[interconnectedness]

Simon is nearby when she is in the kitchen, still in the shadows while she's working on making coffee. He watches her body language with a certain sense of frustration and anger. It's some amount of self-control that he isn't lashing out at the person who is definitely at fault for making Alex hurt -- he'd always known Strand was a danger in more ways than one. This is just the proof in the pudding.

"It's too late for coffee, Alex."

[11calls]

When he spoke, Alex jumped. She couldn't help it. Even after the month of having him live there (and the two of having Stan) Alex still expected to be alone in the middle of the night. It's left over from both being in her apartment and from being here too and living in communal housing. Besides, Alex is an adult, and she shouldn't need to feel like she's doing anything wrong making coffee in the middle of the night. (Even if Simon is right and it's too late for coffee.) "Jesus," her voice is a soft hiss, and she just placed a hand against her chest for a minute. "You scared the hell out of me, Simon."

There's a beat and she lowered her hands to rest them on the counter behind her as she looked at him. "It's never too late for coffee for me. But what are you doing up this late?"

[bestsir]

Studying was never really a social activity for Harry when he was at Edinburgh, and it still isn't now, not really. But sometimes the library is too quiet, and his own office too distracting, and the coffee shop has, to his surprise, turned out to be a happy balance between a pleasant hum of activity and a lack of things requiring his immediate attention (like a very demanding lizard who seems to be getting broody).

He sees Alex there often; sometimes they talk, sometimes they do their respective work in companionable silence, hers fueled by coffee and his by tea. Today is another one of those days; Harry has some reading to do on genetics (a subject that fascinates and frustrates him in equal amounts). He gets his tea and a small plate of biscuits, and comes over to Alex's table.

"May I join you?"

[11calls]

Alex is entirely social person, there's no way that she can't not be. Besides, if she's left alone in her office for too long, her brain tends to do the thing where it makes leaps instead of steps, and that's never really good for anyone. So, sitting and writing in the coffee shop when she's doing work for the news network, or sitting and working when she's supposed to be at work and has nothing to do but whatever she wants. It's probably a bad thing, but given that she's getting all of her work done, she supposes that no one can really give her a bunch of stuff for it. So she definitely gets the places being too quiet and whatnot.

Giving Harry a smile, Alex just gestures to the seat across from her, and she bunches up her books to make sure that he's got space for his own. Today is a cruciform day, which means that there's some part of her that wants to fling the book out the window, so honestly she's glad for the interruption. Despite knowing (or suspecting at least) that she's not going to remember what happened here at home, Alex is still bound and determined to attempt to figure out what it is that the Horn of Tiamat is saying for herself. Simon says (Simon says a lot of things actually) but he says that the Horn was for her, so she's bound and determined to make sure that she can understand as much of it as possible.

"Of course, you're always welcome! You know that." Looking to the book on genetics he's got, Alex just raises a brow a bit. "Genetics, huh? Wow."

[bestsir]

"It is very difficult," he says with a sigh. "The essential premises of heredity are perfectly comprehensible, but I begin to struggle when the discussion descends to the molecular level." He opens the book to the chapter that he's reading—an overview of DNA and RNA—and rubs his forehead tiredly before putting on his glasses. "How far our understanding of the cell and its mechanisms has come since my day!"

I

[thestarling]

The invitation had been open for about as long as he'd known her, but the odd hours Peter kept meant he didn't always make it there. Still, he was entirely too English to be able to avoid tea for long. And he and Alex were clearly very overdue for a conversation or two.

So he made a point of finding the time, work carefully arranged so that when he walked into the Coffee Shop to spot Alex bent over a book, Peter had no compunctions about just settling in across from her. He might not have mentioned to her that he was coming today. He got his amusement where he could.

"Refill?" It seemed like as good a greeting as any.

[11calls]

Alex definitely wasn't expecting Peter today. Honestly, after all the times that she'd needed to cancel on her friends in the last three years, her policy is that if someone has a life, then they have a life. Of course that doesn't mean that she's not really pleased to see him, and she gives him a bright and broad grin as she looks up from her books before closing the one on cruciform with a decided snap. (Look it's really hard and Alex hates it, but being as they have the book, she kind of needs to go with it and all of that. It's too much of a coincidence not to do it.)

"A refill is definitely always welcome, Peter, you know that." Because honestly, if Alex ever turns down coffee, she's been turned into a pod person (and not in the good podcast sort of way) and clearly is in need of some sort of assistance with that. "But it can definitely wait if you want to take a seat. It seems like forever since I've talked to you!" Alex just gestured at the seat in front of her with a grin, before she plopped her chin into her hand and gave him that questioning look. "How are you doing?

[thestarling]

Peter slipped into the offered seat without hesitation, though he did find himself shrugging a little at the question. "Well enough," he said, quirking a small smile. "It feels wrong to say, considering, but there are times I wish I had more to do. This place isn't exactly London." And he didn't miss the horrible things people could do to one another or the ethically-challenged practitioner occasionally trying to blow him up, but there was only so much time he could spend sitting at a desk waiting.

But he hadn't come just to whinge about his job to Alex. "What about you, then? You seem to be keeping busy." It wasn't quite innuendo, even if his smile had taken on a hint of mischief. He hadn't really had a chance to speak with her ever since the lanky bloke she seemed fond of had turned up, which meant he had quite a few comments stored away by that point.

For Strand

[11calls]

Alex had waited until his office hours were nearly over. Knowing from personal experience that anyone who comes in those last ten minutes probably really didn't want to be there, and their questions honestly weren't that important, she just knocked on his office door with a smile. Wearing a sundress, Alex also had on one of the silly floppy hats he'd bought her after the first sunburn she'd had of the summer since he'd been here. Because honestly. if he was going to buy the absurd things, then Alex was actually going to wear them, at least when she happened to be out with him.

The picnic basket, however, was not in view. No, she'd wisely left it outside of his office, and would grab it on the way out the door to the spot where they were going. It was a spot that Alex had put a fair amount of research into honestly, so never again let it be said that she wasn't someone who planned things in advance. Just because he didn't think she did didn't mean that it was true in the slightest.

Leaning casually against the door frame, she just beamed at him sitting at his desk, giving him that silly little smile that she had just for him (or when she was talking about him to other people, that happened too even though Alex was desperately attempting to ignore it. Sometimes when you were as expressive as Alex was, you just tended to give things like that away. Like now for instance.) Her voice was highly amused when she spoke. "Come along, Dr. Strand, I'm afraid you're being kidnapped for the evening. If your students have waited until now to come then clearly it's not that important."

[nobasisinfact]

It was lucky for Alex that when the door opened, Richard had looked up. Otherwise, she would have been greeted with the same disgruntled commentary that his students were at this time of day. The smirk that crossed his face wasn't so much joy at seeing her, he was, of course, pleased to see her, but it was more for the stupid floppy hat and sundress. It was, endearing would be the word others would use. Richard however, wasn't others.

"You look ridiculous." The declaration, of course, was ignored for his sitting down at his desk once again and working on papers. It wasn't abnormal for Alex to come into his office, so he assumed that she was simply being her annoyingly vibrant self and would end up on the couch, harassing him until they went home.

[11calls]

"Says the man who purchased the hat for me." Yeah, she may sound a little smug at that, as she crossed her arms over her chest. If there was one thing that Alex was certain of, it was of how cute she looked in the dress. The hat was one hundred percent completely for him, honestly. So he could just take the blame for that one all himself. this time. Smirking at him for a minute when he started to ignore her, Alex just swept into the room and moved over to his office chair, putting her hand on top of the papers that he was working on. Honestly, Alex probably should have done that last time, but her agenda then wasn't one that she'd particularly thought out other than the fact that she was just going to show up at his office wearing the lingerie that he'd ignored the picture of.

No, this was different in that it was planned, and Alex had worked fairly hard on it in her own Alex way, and she wasn't going to allow Richard Strand's famous restraint to work against her this time. "I don't think you heard me, Richard. You're definitely being kidnapped right now. So, no papers, no work and no sitting around." Her other hand gave his a bit of a tug, and she smirked at him. "Trust me, you don't want to not be kidnapped from here." Because honestly, the walls of his office were too thin for anything more than quiet conversations, and while she was well aware of Richard's policy of not having sex anywhere other than her house, she did in fact owe him a proper picnic, and Alex Reagan always tried to keep her promises.

Even if they were made when he was pouting about how annoying picnics were.