for Stefan

[talesuntold]

Maggie spends the first part of the evening on her laptop, liveblogging in one chat window and using the other half of the screen to monitor threads on her section of the After the End Times forum. Maggie's good with people. She never minds a turn on forum duty, and as a beta on the site, she pays her dues just like everyone else who isn't a department head. It's a refreshing change, actually, to have an entirely merit-based system where her last name doesn't mean a thing.

As the first movie winds down, Maggie sets aside the computer, standing up and stretching. She did look around enough to take stock of the room. Almost everyone here is a regular. She knows all of their food and drink preferences, and she fully expects a couple to stay for half the week.

So of course it's the newcomer who caught her attention. He seemed amused by the movie, and she agreed with him on this one. Funny how a horror movies aren't scary at all when the world has turned into one.

Whoever invited him probably pointed her out to Stefan. Maggie got his name from the security scans at the door, but she isn't especially worried about strangers in her house either way. She tosses the remote to another Fictional, letting him take over and set up the next movie.

Stefan's the only one who needs to tell her what he wants, which makes him the logical choice for help fetching it. Maggie makes her way across the room, leans over one arm of the couch, and and introduces herself, probably unnecessarily. "I'm Maggie. Help me carry snacks from the kitchen?"

Comments

[stefanged]

Normally, Stefan wasn't much for crowds - even more so in this day and age, where people distrusted strangers far more easily. But his dear family friend, Zara Bennett, had been a regular at these film festival for years, and even a vampire couldn't resist his friend's incessant prodding and poking.

He remembers when these films first premiered, and watching them in the dark of a theater surrounded by crowds. The crowd's different here: more vulnerable. He could almost smell the fear - but the movie was far more amusing than he remembered, and he has to put a hand to his mouth to keep from laughing at inappropriate moments.

"Uh, sure," He says, blinking back surprise as he looks at her. "I'm Stefan. Zara's family and I go way back."

By which he means, he was friends not only with Zara but also her mother, her grandmother, and quite possibly every maternal ancestor that girl had for the past couple of centuries. Rising to his feet, he glances towards the door. "How long do these festivals usually last, by the way?"

[talesuntold]

Magdalene Grace Garcia at a medical convention is worlds away from Maggie at movie night. The last time Stefan saw her, she was in a flannel shirt, worn out jeans, and had her curls pulled back in a messy braid. Today she's impeccably dressed in an expensive suit, her hair straightened, jewelry carefully chosen, and even wearing heels. (Short ones. She can still run in them if need be. Maggie is going for gorgeous, not death wish.) The biggest difference, though, is in her demeanor.

In her own home, Maggie was relaxed and wholly sincere. Stepping back into the public eye as a representative of Garcia Pharmaceuticals is like stepping into a role. Her posture straightens. Her smile is more polite and fixed, though she does an excellent job at coming off as warm and interested. She pays close attention to everyone, analytically, judging their intentions and attitudes as much as their ideas and pitches. Maggie memorizes anything she thinks ought to be run past one of the research department heads, as close to word-for-word as she can. She's picked up enough terminology over the years that it isn't as hard as it could be.

The difference from her usual facial expressions is even more obvious when she catches sight of Stefan over someone's shoulder and breaks character with her first real smile of the day. She catches his eye and nods a greeting, hoping he'll wait a few minutes for her. Her smile only dims a little as she dutifully finishes listening to the summary of this doctor's research before making her escape.

[talesuntold]

Between the medical work and the fact that he still seems more interested in her writing than in her family's influence, Maggie is very much looking forward to more time with Stefan. Usually the two spheres of her life are completely separate. People forget to acknowledge the one she chose unless it's the only context they have for knowing her. When the two worlds meet and someone still values her as a writer rather than her parents daughter... that's rare and special.

Her hair is still down and straightened, but the dress she has on by the time Stefan gets to her hotel is soft and clinging and not a bit uptight and professional. Date clothes, if very comfortable ones.

She clears his arrival with the hotel staff rather than coming down to meet him in the lobby herself. This isn't the Agora, and privacy isn't as highly valued here. Maggie opens the door to her room with a warm smile and steps forward to hug him. "Hello, Stefan."

[stefanged]

Light Me Up – Ingrid Michaelson

Tonight, Maggie and Stefan were ostensibly setting up for her next movie festival. Ostensibly, because in true Maggie fashion, she had dropped hints that she wanted him to spend the night, and Stefan couldn't deny his instincts any longer. He felt something for her, and maybe it was time he told her the truth. Before either of them fell in deeper. Before he couldn't ignore why he wasn't aging any further, let alone why he often moved and resettled.

As they're organizing the list of movies to play, he leans over her shoulder and murmurs, “If you're taking suggestions, maybe we should hold off on all the Sherlock films.”

When he's a living mystery, it becomes a lot less fun to solve someone else's.