(Untitled)

[wagglingfingers]

Oh, hey, Chicago. Alex Drake has briefly come out of hibernation, and really wishing that she had that hooker coat with her now. She's decided to venture out before she goes completely mad from spending too much time in her room in the Kashtta. (It probably doesn't help that she spent most of December wandering around the place and trying to refine

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[hey_capn_jack]

Passing through the Kashtta lobby just as Alex is, there is a crazymans.

Alex might be a bit more intimately acquainted with his brand of crazy than most.

J has more or less given up avoiding people, because it never fucking works, and half of them just end up caught in wacky teleportation hijinks whenever he tries. And yes, okay, so he hasn't had anything horrible happen in the last few days, but knowing Chicago that's probably just an indication that it's holding a fermata before the climactic cresendo at fortississimo.

So the instant he sees someone he doesn't recognize there's a moment where Oh GOD, please don't abduct me to Grant Park is written plain on his face, and then... he's just going to quiiiietly head in the direction of the kitchen. Hey, not everyone in Chicago is implicated in this madness. There's a chance this won't be awkward at all.

[wagglingfingers]

Alex doesn't actually recognise him at first, because, well, she's never met him in person before. She takes a few more steps towards the doors, then just sort of freezes and stares at him, her expression somewhere between shocked and terrified, thanks to a sudden flashback involving being trapped in a psychic coma with someone's memories. Or, you know, something like that. She wonders if she should say something to him, but 'hi, I touched something that belonged to you and saw your traumatic memories' really isn't the best conversation-starter ever, and Alex has used some pretty damn weird ones before.

("I got shot in the head and travelled back in time to 1981"? Also weird, Alex, just for the record.)

On the bright side, Alex has never abducted anybody to Grant Park before, and doesn't plan on starting now. (Again: winter, Chicago, cold.)

[hey_capn_jack]

Problem: the hall which goes down to the kitchen is also the hall that goes down to the morgue - and as much as it's probably just a holdover from when they had to store their bodies in the walk-in freezer, it's still probably not a good idea to examine that too closely - and as soon as J takes too steps down that hall, he hears a very specific string of profanities which suggests that something broke or maybe a corpse exploded and their resident undertaker-cum-medical-professional is going to be out for blood and brillo pads any moment. So, possibly J should just... not go down that hall. For a half-hour or so.

He ducks back into the lobby, leaning back against the wall beside the hall entrance in what's either a deliberate parody of stealth or an entirely accidental parody of stealth. He exhales - right. Looks like he's stuck with the new person or Owen.

New people are generally orders of magnitude more pleasant than angry Owens.

"New in town?"

[wagglingfingers]

"Erm." For once in her life, Alex is at a loss for words, and she blinks for a moment, dumbfounded.

"I've been here since August, I just...don't get out much." Probably because shit keeps going down whenever she does, though, on the bright side, she has yet to come across any Hummers. She tilts her head to peer past J and down the hall. "Is something going wrong down there?"

Because the copious amounts of swearing - using some words she only knows due to spending entirely too much time around coppers (the 1980s kind, not the 2008 kind) - sounds like a better conversation topic than, oh, anything going through her mind right now.

[definitivestep]

Sam has kind of been in avoid people and occasionally get very drunk mode for the past couple months. It doesn't seem to be working well for him, though, and he thinks he's either annoying or worrying Andy - possibly both - so he should probably make at least an attempt to wander outside every now and then.

Wander outside in a way that doesn't involve heading straight to the hospital and hovering around a certain room for a couple hours a day, that is.

He hesitates, when he notices Alex, but decides he should at least say hello, after a moment. And maybe hang around for a bit, to make sure she doesn't get into any trouble. He recognizes that that concern, given his life, would probably be hilarious to anyone but him. He doesn't much care.

"I can't imagine what about Chicago is interesting enough to drag you out in this weather." Okay, the sun's out. It's still very cold.

[wagglingfingers]

"Well, for starters, it's not the Kashtta." Alex has been roaming around the corridors as of late, poking her head into abandoned rooms, but there's only so much one person can take.

...and she needs more booze. Don't judge, Sam, and she might share with you.

"I thought I'd venture outside while it seems to be relatively safe, touch wood." Yeah, Alex, you just think that. Unfortunately, there's no wood nearby.

"What about you? What have you been up to lately?" Indulge her, Sam, you're the only non-Fitz person she's spoken to in ages. Alex misses conversation. (Alex should also consider becoming less of a hermit.)

[definitivestep]

Sam smiles a little at that, the expression less amused than it is sympathetic. Staying in the Kashtta for extended periods of time will drive anyone stir-crazy. It makes risking Chicago more than worthwhile, despite the abnormally high chances of getting hit by a car or stabbed by terrorists or...

He thinks he might walk with her for a while, as long as she doesn't mind. Just in case.

"I've been..." Sam pauses, and then swallows hard. He casts her a slightly faltering sideways smile. "Honestly, I've been at the hospital a lot lately. Just... visiting." For all the good it seems to be doing. Gene's not any closer to waking up, but Sam won't, can't give up.

He adds, after a moment, "There was also that... spaceship that crashed into the park..." Because, you know, he might as well mention something less depressing than the constant hospital visits.

[wagglingfingers]

"I nearly got eaten. Well, I didn't mean to, it's just that one of the monsters was making this sound, and..." She trails off, because she doesn't want to say that she swears it sounded like Molly, and monsters be damned, Alex would do anything to see her daughter again. Anyway, there's a limit to how crazy she wants to appear, even in front of someone who's just as crazy as she is. "Shoes are not an effective method of self-defense, for the record."

"Yeah." Alex shoves her hands into her pockets; Gene seems to be a tricky subject with them. Except it isn't, really, because he's the Gene from Sam's timeline, so she's leaving well enough alone. (All right, she might've visited the hospital. Once. Because she's Alex, and she has Issues.) "Bit ironic, that. Makes you wonder if constructs can have constructs. Layers upon layers, like some matryoshka doll."

...Gene is probably not some film noir-esque private detective in his coma, Alex, and Sam probably doesn't want to talk about it