Closed: In another life, I would be your girl.

[11calls]

Who: Alex Reagan and Richard Strand.
When: Early on in the AU plot.
What: The same two people who go to bed aren't the same two people who wake up in the morning.
Where: Dome 300 (their dome)
Warnings: No idea yet.
Notes: Closed log.


They’re sleeping, the way they always do with both of them curled up in the sunken bed that dominates the bedroom floor of the dome that they’d been sharing for over a year now, barring the nights when she’d been kidnapped. But it’s not the same two of them that went to bed as it is when they wake up. Not by a long shot. When Alex wakes, it’s not to the sun shining in her windows. Before everything happened with the show, Alex did sleep quite late and needed to set several alarms so she could make work on time.

Right now the only alarm that she’s had is that her face is pressed against someone’s bare chest. Not an entirely unheard of thing happening but it’s not something that she remembers from last night where she had just come home from work alone and had gone to bed alone. Definitely gone to sleep alone and not wherever the fuck this happened to be that was definitely not her sunny bedroom in Seattle!

Attempting to throw herself backwards off the bed, the dim light from the Sphere catches her eye, and the wall around the bed catches her back and Alex can’t help but to let out a scream at both. It’s a true scream and not a sound that Alex actually makes very often, but it’s very her nonetheless. More than that, it's very loud in the small and enclosed space of the bed that the two of them were currently in.

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[11calls]

For a moment, Alex just stares at him, the shirt in one hand and the photo in the other. It's possible that she's just realized that she's naked. More than that, it's actually what happened and she stares down at her nakedness before she flings the photo at him. "You got the blanket! You leave. I'm trying to find some fucking clothing!"

[nobasisinfact]

He tosses the blanket to her and bends down to pick up the photo, frowning heavily at it. Someone is trying too hard, and it seems, someone is trying too hard to mess with them both.

"I assume this isn't your work." That doesn't make it something he can just accept. There's something odd going on here and he plans to get to the bottom of it.

[11calls]

“No. It’s not my work!” Alex is just going to find the first thing of pants-like things and draw them on quickly. There’s something going on here and she doesn’t like it but there is something in her gut that is telling her that for all of his bullshit, he’s not the one who is behind this. He’s too angry for him to be. “It’s got to be someone messing with us. Someone who knows you. Maybe this Warren guy. Because you can find pictures of me smiling all over the internet. There’s only two of you. I’ve checked.”

[nobasisinfact]

And now he wants to know why the hell was she looking him up. She clearly isn't a fan of his writing. He can feel a headache coming on, and can't help wondering where Coralee is and how she's taking this.

"I'm sure it doesn't need to be said that it's disturbing that you've been looking me up when I've never met you."

[11calls]

“I do know you! Are you fucking high?! I interviewed you for for my show? That’s why I was looking you up. I was doing research on you and your institute!” If Alex sounds insulted it’s definitely because well, she is.

[nobasisinfact]

He lets out a heavy sigh as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "I've no idea what institute you're referring to." He was a professor and a writer, not a chairman of some institute. The girl wasn't making sense and it was starting to give him a headache.

[11calls]

Alex just blinks at him for a very long moment and she shakes her head. “None if this makes sense. None of it. The Strand Institute. Your institute. I interviewed you for my podcast last month. You showed me the Torres tape and then you were an asshole. You offered to show me another tape and I ignored your call.”

[nobasisinfact]

"I assure you I have no idea what any of that is." Does this place have any scotch? This seems like a conversation that requires scotch.

[11calls]

“You’re a ghost hunter who doesn’t believe in ghosts. But you have a whole bunch of tapes that you can’t disprove. That’s why I interviewed you in the first place. I’m not a whore. I’m a reporter. And I don’t know who Thomas Warren is.”

[nobasisinfact]

"I'm not. I'm a professor who happens to be decently known for his writing." He doesn't feel it neccessary to tell her any more about his life than he has to, so, of course, Thomas Warren wasn't on the table for discussion.

[11calls]

Alex just looks to him quickly at that, and is relieved he’s wearing pants. But something catches her eye. “You’re wearing a ring.” Her voice is puzzled but not an accusation. “You told Robert Torres you were never married. But I knew you were lying then because your wife had been missing for nearly twenty years but I didn’t say anything because of your privacy.” And then Alex starts pacing. It would be a familiar sight if he was himself. “You’re supposed to be some alpha skeptic person. What year is it where you are?!”

[nobasisinfact]

"2017, and I've been married for over a century." Something was wrong in her world, something major. There's no way he would stop wearing his wedding ring or lie about being married.

[11calls]

Alex just stares at him, really looks and she frowns. “You do look a little older than when I met you. But this doesn’t make any sense.” Turning from him for a moment, Alex just looks out the window and traces her fingers over the coldness of it. “It almost looks like we’re underwater.”

[nobasisinfact]

"That's ridiculous. No one's been able to make underwater living viable."

[11calls]

Alex just gestures towards it. “Well take a look because I’m definitely not making this up!”

[nobasisinfact]

The fish are an odd addition as he looks out the window, but something catches his attention more than that. It's the little gold ball that seems to be attached to the back of Alex's ear.

"Have you always had that?" He's afraid he already knows the answer.

[11calls]

Alex just blinks at the question for a moment, before she reaches up and touches the space behind her ear. When she finds a weird growth of a thing, she just frowns sharply and twists to look at him. "I've never..." But then she moves onto her toes and looks at his ear. "You've got one too."

[nobasisinfact]

His hand instinctively moves to his ear and when his ring connects to the ball there's a slight clink. Feeling around it he tries to tug it off only to end up wincing in pain.

"I think it's embedded." He tries again, with the same result.

[11calls]

“Same with mine.” The frown is evident in her face and Alex just moves towards what she assumes is the bathroom and it’s full of his and hers products in various levels of use which makes her frown. Still she pulls harshly on the small golden globe and it doesn’t do anything. “Whoever is doing this is really committed to this bit.” Because she doesn’t just mean the gold thing.

[nobasisinfact]

Now that he was dressed, Richard was far less frazzled (As if anyone noticed). He began looking around with a frown before finding a bottle of scotch and some glasses. He poured himself a drink.

"It's possible it's some sort of experiment." He took a drink and began to browse the books. His handwriting was on the notes - odd. "If it is, I've no idea what it's trying to test - yet." He'd find out, of course, he would. Then he would get out of here and get back to Coralee.

[11calls]

“Who the hell has this kind of funding though? I mean that’s not exactly rational.” Which is something Alex can’t deny feels good to say to Strand. “I mean. The brainwashing alone for one or both of it is the sort of scope that you’d find on like deep web boards or something. Let alone the bottom of the sea or wherever we are.”

[nobasisinfact]

"Places can be modified." It's a fact, outside could be nothing but an old warehouse building made to look like they're under the ocean. As for deep pockets, he knew exactly who had those. "As for deep pockets, I know exactly who would have the funding to do this." Warren's money was more than enough to set up something this elaborate, and Coralee had already told him that the man wanted him for something. The question was why he added this girl.

[11calls]

"Maybe." Alex doesn't know if she agrees with that, because while technology is good, she doesn't know if it's this good. She touches her ear again, trying to dig the golden sphere behind it out by searching for any sort of differentiation where it meets her skin. She doesn't find one, but that doesn't mean that Alex stops trying to create one with her fingernail and a wince.

"The Warren guy you were talking about before? Who is he anyway? I've never heard of him, and I'd done my research on you really thoroughly before you finally agreed to meet me after I'd called you eleven times and talk to your publisher."

[nobasisinfact]

He reaches up to gently guide her hand away from the device. "Don't dig." His voice is a bit gentler though. The truth of the matter was that she's only a kid. If she's not working for Warren than she's as much a victim in this as he is.

"Thomas Warren is a very well known entrepreneur. He's also an obsessive monster who wants nothing more than to destroy my life."

[11calls]

Alex just frowns at him. “If they glued it on with like prosthetics or something there should be a way to find the edge.” It’s a logical thought from someone who is more logical then she otherwise normally would be. And besides she wants it off.

“Why does he want to destroy your life so badly? And why is he pulling me in to do it? I’m just a journalist for Pacific Northwest stories.”