The X-Project

Drunk Alex meets maybe-drunk-maybe-just-weird Marie-Ange (Spoiler: Just weird) at Gabriel's BBQ. Backdated to September 16.



Alex was sipping his drink as he made his way through the crowd, determined to get food for himself and Lorna. He wasn't quite paying attention to where he was going, of course - he wasn't drunk yet, but he was getting there.

"Oops!" He groaned when he walked into someone else. "Sorry, um...oh god I suck I forget your name I'm sorry." He recognized the redhead from the night he'd gone out the window with Sue in a bubble. But names escaped him at the moment.

"Forgot because too many drinks, or forgot because the last time we met there were explosions and bees and you would prefer not to remember?" Marie-Ange had a curious smile - equal parts amused and sly. "I know others who would prefer to forget the bees. I would prefer to forget the bees too, to be honest."

"There were bees?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow. "I must have blocked that part out, everything's kind of a blur after I fell a million stories in a bubble. Where were the bees?"

"Arthur found them in the wall." The explanation came with a "bleh" face - tongue out, nose screwed up. "It did make for a good cover story about why so many people ran out of the building. An infestation of bees would test the most stable nerves."

"Eugh." Alex had to agree with the "bleh" face. "What the hell were bees doing in the wall? I mean, besides confirming someone's idea for a horror movie."

"Again, Arthur's fault." Marie-Ange leaned against the bar. "He is luck personified, but both kinds. All of our luck people do that, but I think Arthur cannot control his. So the universe gave him, and us, bees." She sipped at her drink, and then shook her head. "I am Marie-Ange, by the way."

"I'm never standing too close to Arthur again." Alex shuddered a bit. "Marie-Ange! I knew that, really, I swear I did. Somewhere in my brain I knew that."

"The parts not eroded by alcohol, yes?" Marie-Ange said, with a genuine smile. "I would not expect you to know, it is not your job, and we have spoken once, and it was about break-ins and bees and perhaps on the journals but there are so many of us there. You are Scott's brother, yes? See, it is my job to know things, so I know, you are Alex, Scott's brother."

Alex chuckled, sipping his drink. "If you didn't actually live here his would probably be a creepy conversation."

Marie-Ange gave an almost-dark little laugh. "It is still creepy, I am just too pretty to be actually creepy." She patted Alex's shoulder. "You are too. Much too pretty to be creepy."

"Are you drunk or do you always act like this?" Alex asked conversationally. "Not judging, just curious if I should be making a more concentrated effort to never be on your bad side ever."

"Neither drunk, nor always." Marie-Ange's answer this time was bright and chirpy. "But very mellow, perhaps due to substances only legal in Colorado and California." She kept patting his shoulder. "You could never be on my bad side, I think you are a good side person. Green lightsaber, not red, yes?"

"One hundred percent green," Alex said proudly, making lightsaber noises. He was drunk, though even if he hadn't been he wouldn't have been too creeped out by Marie-Ange. She was fun.

"Remind me when I am sober, and I will see if I can sketch you as a Jedi, or as Han Solo and your lovely fiance can be General Organa." Marie-Ange nodded. "Or you could be the General and Lorna can be the smuggler, although Lorna has the evil father with the helmet..."

"Either way, I'm holding you to it," Alex informed her seriously as he finished off his drink.