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| Moving In | |
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| Participants | Alison, Alex |
| Synopsis | Alex moves in to some uncharted territory. |
| Location | The Manchester - Penthouse Floor |
| Time | January 3, 2016 |
| Posted By | Alex |
It sounds like a stampede… of humans. Whoever else is up on this floor is probably not going to be too much of a happy camper, considering the constant stomping and footsteps that keep happening. Even with the lush carpet, there's too much noise. That would be the constant yapping back and forth between moves, delivery men, fangirls, paparazzi and the manager of the building. The entire hallway is full of them. And it's all because of the man that's stepping off the elevator at this exact moment: Alex Masters.
Hollywood's Honey-Locked Hunk steps right off the elevator. "Mom. Relax. I know I've never been to New York before. I'm going to be fine. Dad, will you tell Mom I'm going to be fine?" Alex's voice is coming through loud and clear as he speaks into his too expensive Bluetooth earpiece. Whilst he apparently waits for his father to talk his mother down, he flashes a big ol' smile at the Tweener Fan Girl Huddle that comes rushing at him. Autograph time!
Alison, on the other hand, is just heading out for a day of doing nothing, but doing it in spectacular style, at least. She's grown used to the relative quiet around here, so all of the stomping about and whatnot has her a little befuddled. In fact, it woke her up in mid-afternoon, when she was still sleeping off the effects of last night. Now setting foot out into the hall, she blinks at the sight of everyone hurrying about. Paparazzi are recognized pretty much instantly, and her expression darkens - a rare sight for her. But they aren't here for her, so she opts for remaining casual, turning back to lock her door behind her, before she starts trying to weave her way through the throng for the elevator. "Excuse me, excuse me," she bids with weary patience. At least she's not a stranger to having fans of another in her way, so this is just accepted as par for the course.
~ Warning! Warning! Babe Alert! Babe Alert! ~
Alexander Masters is in the middle of signing an autograph for some brace faced tweener when his Babe Sense starts Tingling! His head whips around and he cracks a smile the moment he catches sight of Alison. Eyebrow raising and he has to look around the head of some photographer to see if there's a shimmy or sashay that follows Alison as she makes her way to the elevator.
"Dad?" Alex wraps up the last autograph and whirls back around on his feet. "I gotta' call you back. I just caught the Blonde Fever." A finger swings up to press the earpiece and hang up the phone, as he picks up the step pace twice to make sure he's a step away from the crowd of masses. "Psst. Hey Barbie." For better or worse, that oughta' get her attention.
Alison has alllmost managed to reach the elevator by now, after ducking and dodging with the best of them. Her travel is slowed a bit by trying to avoid going anywhere near the press, just on general principle. But if she can just make her way through, those few more feet, then there should be freedom ahead, right? She doesn't get the chance to find out so soon though, as Alex's greeting catches her attention indeed. She slows to a stop, glancing back over her shoulder with an arched brow, first at him, and then at the kiddies who are all about him. "Yeah, Ken?" she replies.
"You play along. I like that." Alex takes the next couple of steps needed to get himself up more close and more personal with the female that he's decided to give the honor of talking to him. He leans up against the wall like he's the greatest thing since sliced bread made of gold. "Listen. I know you're already thinking that I'm gonna' move in here and take over everything. That's probably why you're headed out now. To go complain about my sudden appearance and the circus that comes with me. But I just wanted to assure you, that as a neighbor, you get first crack at helping me break my new bed in." Alex flashes a big ol' grin at this moment. "How's tonight sound? I'm reasonably free." Wow.
Well, at least Alison seems more amused by this than insulted or angry. But not the sort of amused that would suggest she's falling for his charms. "You know what I'm thinking, hm? That's a neat trick." There's another glances towards the crowd before her gaze flickers back to him, watching him leaning there all God's gift. "Ooh, I don't know if tonight will work for me, sorry. You'd probably best just go on ahead without me." She cants her head to the side, offering him a faux apologetic smile.
"Oh come on. You can't tell me that you aren't flattered to be standing here talking to Alex Masters. THE Alex Masters. Star of all your favorite films?" Alex isn't even going to really listen to whatever her response is, because he's already too full of himself to realize that his charms may not be working. "It's okay. I know there's like a lot of chaos going on behind me. And you don't wanna' look like a groupie. Not with the paparazzi on my heels like they are. So, here's what we're gonna' do. We'll go out. You can show me the hottest clubs this wrecked city has, we'll get wasted and then we'll come back here and pick a door to stumble into." Grin. Again. "What time will you be ready?"
Alison gives Alex a more scrutinizing look, trying to figure out whether he's new to the fame-game or just really bad at it. "Look, Alex Masters," she begins, using his full name as if it's a single one, "How about you go deal with your fans and then try dialling it down a notch, and we'll start this conversation again. Oh, and you might want to talk to security about stopping press in the lobby." She eyes them warily. "They really aren't supposed to be up here." Still not overly serious about the whole thing, but dammit, this is way more serious than she likes to be. Even if her tone is more 'helpful suggestion' than actual disapproval.
Okay. That's two shoot downs. Alex Masters never goes for three. There's so many women in this world, there's no reason to keep wasting time on the one that's pretending she doesn't worship the ground he walks on. Ignoring the advice about starting again, Alex's focus becomes a little lost in the fact that the press shouldn't be up here. Thus the weird and confused look on his face. "Not supposed to be up here? Well, that's a lame rule. How else are they supposed to cover the greatest day in the history of The Manchester? That's right, the day Alex Masters moved in." Oh dear.
"I guess they'll just have to cover it from the lobby," Alison replies, very quickly coming up with a solution to that particular humdinger. Though she might actually prefer it if they covered it from the moon, or a distant solar system. But she'll settle for the lobby. "Look, just - don't go thinking they're your friends. The day will come when it'll sell more papers to watch you go down in flames." Again, not said meanly or with all that much ire. It's just the sad truth of the situation, and she clearly seems to have decided he must be new to all this.
"Fortunately, Alex Masters has no possibility of going down in flames. So I think I'll be okay." Alex's tone may be a little on the sarcastic side, since it's obvious that the press are always on the side of the stars. Which is why they're always covering them so diligently. "But, never let it be said that I'm unreasonable. If you'd prefer I keep my publicity opportunities down in the lobby, so be it. After today. This is just too exciting not to revel in it first hand." And there's a huge smile on Alex's face, since he doesn't seem to be worried about not being popular in the least. It comes with being so, well, popular.
Alison shrugs her shoulders, not inclined to drive herself crazy with a Cassandra complex here. At any rate, when he agrees to keep the press confined to the lobby, he at least earns a smile from her. She'll give him today, even, if only because she's going out anyway. "Cool, thanks. Anyway, you know what they say: always leave them wanting more." She runs a hand back through her hair, debating the wisdom of just making a quick getaway at this point. But perhaps there is a little something to him being irresistible, for she doesn't flee just yet. "So, I take it you're new in town? Or just moving on up?"
"New in town. Just flew in this morning, actually." It's probably a bit more obvious from the lack of the evil New York Accent that most people in this area are plagued with. Alex's is much more normal. Much more Los Angeles. And that's when Alex is looking back to see a couple of delivery guys struggling with his expensive sofa. Alex rolls his eyes and looks back to Barbie. "Actually, I'm more moving down than anything. My room back home is like twice the size of this place. But eh, I'll make it work." Alex shrugs a bit helplessly. "I've got like three trucks full of stuff downstairs. And I'm not even done shopping yet. This is going to be one crazy week."
"Well, I'm sure you'll get by somehow," Alison replies, maybe not quite as sympathetic to his plight as he'd like, but at least she's not punching him in the face like some of the more downtrodden might, when he starts complaining about having too much stuff to fit into his penthouse apartment. "Though if you're stuck, I'm sure plenty of people around here can give you the number of their decorators." Not that she's above such things herself, either, but she didn't handle the decorating on this one.
"Oh, I'll be in so much trouble if I don't let Mom decorate. Her and Dad are flying out next week to see the place and help me get settled in." Alex's voice fills with pride a little at the mention of his parents. They are, after all, his parents. And there's no reason that he shouldn't want his parents around. They're awesome. "But thanks for the head's up. This is just a pitstop for me, anyway. I'm sure once the ratings start pouring in, the studio'll spring for a house and I'll really be living it up then. My own house. My own… Masters Bedroom." Oh dear. He's going off into daydream land for a moment. Thus, the crazy smile and the slightly blank stare.
"Aw, that's sweet," Alison replies, entirely sincere in that observation. "Well, I certainly wouldn't want to disappoint you mom." Somehow, she is so much more into this conversation for the parts that are less about him being thunderously awesome and more about him being a human being. Of course, that doesn't last long, and her expression falls back into one of polite disinterest. "Yeah, guess you'll really be living the life." She's not even going to try to warn him this time. She's not his Yoda.
Color Alex oblivious, because he hasn't really been paying too much attention to Alison's tones or facial expressions since she shot him down twice. He's just been busy running his mouth and keeping up conversation. Can't say he's not one to talk, right? "Not that I'm in a hurry to leave all you wonderful Manchester people behind or anything. I'm just really psyched about the show." The honest-to-god giddyness creeps up into his voice at that moment and Alex doesn't even know it's happened. "I mean, I get to play a superhero. Can you believe that? Me? Saving the world, week after week. This is gonna' be so cool."
Alison gives a little laugh at that as he gets all pumped. "Yeah, that does sound pretty cool," she agrees, a little more enthusiastically as he stops being such a dick again. "Bet it'll be a lot of fun." Which, to her, is the real point in, well, pretty much everything. "And God knows this world could do with a bit of saving." It's said as more of a joke, but then, there's a lot of sad truth to it as well. "Filming it around here then? You'll have plenty of crime to fight then."
Alex even gets a fist to pump into the air. Because he's just that immature. "Yup! We're filmin' on location. Here on these mean streets. The studio heard about what was going on around here and figured that if we were gonna' bring Havok to life, we needed to do it somewhere people were familiar with. Somewhere that looked the part. A soundstage wasn't going to work for the gritty feel we're looking for." And there he goes, talking about work and probably sounding the most intelligent he has all day. "We're really interested in trying to get some of the locals involved too. Help out some of the communities that let us film there. Things like that. Especially since we're not trying to purposefully exploit anyone's plight." And now he's going back into kid mode. "And! If I'm lucky, maybe I'll get to fight one of those big ass robot dudes!"
Alison can't help but laugh again as Alex starts with the fist pumping and everything. This excitement is surely a lot more endearing than the swagger from before. "I don't think gritty will be a problem around here, no," she agrees wryly. "Don't know if you've been out of the area yet, but some of those places are really rough. Really, it's sad how far this place has fallen." And then she's sad for all of a second, before she's back to being amused by his antics. "Yeah, if you're lucky. Just make sure it's on screen, not in real life, hm?" Even she's not silly enough to think running into one of those for real could possibly be a good idea.
Alex smirks a little, his oblivious jerkiness probably shining through once again. "Aw, somebody's worried about the Great One. Don't worry, baby, I can handle myself. On screen, off screen and anywhere else." Oy, how does he switch from endearing to asshole so fast? He can't be that blonde, can he? Maybe he is, because he's already sliding up to bat with some more excitement. "Oh! Hey! I just got the sweetest idea! You know about the city, right? Why don't you come down and talk to the location guys sometime. Maybe you can give 'em some insight into the city. We kinda' need a local that'll show us around. Help us find the best places for my epic heroic moments." Grin.
Alison can't help but roll her eyes a little at his reassurances. "Yeah, I'll bet you can. I'll rest easy knowing you're safe," she replies wryly, as if it were really going to keep her up nights that this guy might go running around looking for actual Sentinels to fight. Method acting, right? She considers his 'sweet idea' rather casually, not jumping at the chance to be part of the television industry, but not dismissing it out of hand. "I've only been here a little while myself, but - I guess I could maybe offer some tips, I don't know." She shrugs, more indifferent than doubting her own abilities here.
Alex nods and even holds his hands up. "No pressure. I'm just saying that I know I wouldn't mind seeing you around the set every now and again." An honest to goodness compliment just came out of Alexander Masters' mouth and he doesn't even realize he said it. He's usually too busy drowning in his own bravado. And right now, he's just being himself. "Speaking of work, I should probably get inside. Before they just throw my furniture anywhere." Alex takes a step back, turning slightly towards his door. "If you're not busy later, maybe you can come over for drinks." He realizes how that may sound. "… In the living room. I swear." See? He's not all bad.
And the honest compliment actually gets a sincere smile from the woman. The offer is given more due consideration before Alison nods once. "Yeah, we can probably work something out," she agrees, still not making any promises, but at least putting a more positive spin on it. An eyebrow goes up as he offers drinks later, but then it's followed by a laugh as he clarifies. "That might be doable," she replies, as she begins drifting towards the elevator herself. Still not making promises, but again, she's at least leaning towards the positive. It's less about being standoffish and more about having no idea where she'll be later. Perhaps his living room, who knows. "Good luck with moving day and all."
"I'd say good luck with being beautiful, but you've got that nailed already. See ya' around, neighbor." Alex is already turning around and being swallowed by the group of fangirls that are still crowding the hall and blocking him from his door. "Okay! Who wants a picture with Masters of the Universe? Line up!" Oh brother.
This is going to be a long moving day.
