Thursday, Week 2, Ariadne Black's Second Date Part 1

Alan woke to an apparent lack of a crisis. His immediate reaction was suspicion. Chloe was asleep. No one was looming over his bed. Nothing hurt.

It was a weird feeling, given the last week and a half.

Alan got up and showered quietly. When he came back out, dressed and dry, Chloe was pretending to sleep. He let her, settled into the computer chair, and looked at the desktop.

Alan had barely spent any time on the Atlas Hotel's intranet. He checked what was available.

No surprises in the VP totals. A "BP" tracker reminded him that they existed, though it looked like no one had remembered to use them so far.

Laurel — VP 33, BP 53

Chloe — VP 29, BP 39

Natalia — VP 15, BP 26

Joan — VP 15, BP 17

Christian — VP 14, BP 25

Ariadne — VP 10, BP 25

"Chloe, have you checked the BP store?" Alan asked.

"Darn. Why can't I ever make you think I'm still asleep?" Chloe pouted. "Also, I did. None of them seemed worth it, yet."

"Yet?" Alan asked.

"Well, there was a Care Package thing that seemed like a waste. Shopping spree, basically. Random bonuses that Laurel told us not to mess with. A few meta options that looked like ways to piss off our Audience. A few cool options we can't afford, yet."

"Huh, what are those?" Alan asked.

"Swap out the host, reverse an elimination, or add someone to the harem. They are all interesting and terrible powers that we should not use lightly." Chloe shrugged. "Swapping the host and reversing an elimination are two hundred BP each. Recruiting someone is one hundred. We can pool, but we would need a real plan for any of them."

"Huh." Alan nodded. "Those all sound absolutely terrible."

"Well, there are times when you might want to recruit someone. Like, say, you find out your ex-husband is a serial killer and probably going to kill your friend before you get back to Earth."

"Um..." Alan was at a loss for words.

"Haunted Castle is one of the stranger seasons, I think. Or maybe every season is weird." Chloe shrugged.

"Yeah," Alan agreed. "Do you want anything before you head out?"

"I'm good. Have fun with Ariadne." Chloe kissed Alan quickly and left the room.

Alan noticed he was alone, which felt rare these days.

He waited for Ariadne to arrive.

—

Ariadne showed up with a pleased smile, dressed in a suit that managed to look surprisingly normal.

"Um, hi." Alan raised a hand in greeting.

"Hi. Tess stole classified files from the CIA and FBI. The kind that don't usually leak. Want to read them?" Ariadne asked.

"Yes, I do." Alan smiled. "Is that your idea of a normal date?"

"It's my idea of a low-key date," Ariadne corrected. "The FBI's got a farm in Maryland with two ordinary wolves and six zebras, to keep your Earth's only werewolves from going to the press."

"What?" Alan took the tablet computer that appeared in Ariadne's hand. "Werewolves are real?"

"Well, four of them are. Violet bit three girls, but they left Roswell because it had gotten awkward when they met Nathan." Ariadne explained.

Alan started reading with complete focus. The file detailed three incredibly confused lesbian protestors who had fucked up a fracking project in Texas.

"Why the zebras?" he asked when he was done.

"Honestly, I think the FBI got confused and thought the zebras were important, but the files don't mention that." Ariadne laughed. "They also think Nathan's a vampire, but they don't want another incident where they try to capture him."

"Is he a vampire?" Alan asked.

"He was just a goth, Alan. You aren't half-vampire." Ariadne giggled.

"What does the CIA have, then?"

"Well, they're guarding the tomb of Goliath, worshipping Dagon, and trying to sneak into the Garden of Eden," Ariadne smirked. "It would be pretty impressive if they had found anything except an unusually tall skeleton in Israel. No true Dagon has any affiliation with the cult in your CIA."

"You're joking." Alan gave Ariadne an intense look.

"Project Stargate was declassified after the hippies who went legit lost a covert power struggle. Brigham Young University's pipeline to the CIA remains robust, and nobody's noticed that they drifted from ordinary Biblical literalism, because nobody gets to audit them impartially." Ariadne explained. "Congress thinks the CIA has the real material, and the FBI cryptozoology task force is a joke, but the FBI is the only one with anything real."

"Okay, I'm down with this." Alan smiled at Ariadne. "What else have you got?"

"Plenty." Ariadne pulled a stack of files out of nowhere. "You won't believe the shit the Italians get up to."