001 ━ [ holo ] / [ location: the sanctuary ].

[cametolife]

Ten o'clock sharp. Perfect. Today was the day Liz would be meeting with Congresswoman Whitaker for the first time. She'd contacted her office while still in Florida at her aunt's, wanting to actively take part in her community in a way that wasn't alien-related. It had been something of a long shot, being that Liz was just a junior in high school and not a college student who surely had more qualifying credentials than her, but to her amazement, the congresswoman had expressed near immediate interest in her filling the position. Something about a lack of applications. Never the less, Liz was grateful for the opportunity and nothing, not Max Evans or any of his alien drama, was going to stop her from getting her life back on track. She didn't need Max. She'd forgotten about Max.

Okay, she was still in the process of forgetting about Max, but she'd come a long way from walking way from him at the crash sight back in May. The new school year was starting and Liz was restarting herself. Back to being Liz Parker. Back to being--

...not in the backroom of the Crashdown. Last she checked, the stairs from her family's apartment did not lead down into some creepy, metallic room.

And here she thought she was alien fiasco free. Of course.

"Hello?" She ventured, seemingly unphased. If anything, she was more annoyed than she was afraid. There was fear-- there was always fear in these types of situations-- but Liz had seen them do worse. (Them, of course, being those she assumed were to blame for this.) She continued on, despite the lack of an answer. She hadn't really been expecting one right away. "I want to speak to Agent Pierce."

Still nothing. Alright. Liz moved off the platform to the floor, closer to the tablet that she had no idea was recording her right now.

"I know why you've brought me here. I'm not going to fight you. I'm willing to talk, but only to Agent Pierce. I'll tell you everything you want to know, but just him or I'm not saying a word about what I know."

Comments

[Voice---> Visual]

[smecker.livejournal.com]

Paul thumbs the 'visual' function on his tablet into life, although he doubts she'll be any more convinced by his face than his words. But it seems marginally more polite. Or honest. Something.

He takes a breath. "It's not any of that. Look, everything you're going through right now, miss, the room, the realizing about the bracelet, the certainty this is all a joke and at any minute someone's going to leap out and go gotcha-- I went through it too. Everyone else who's going to talk to you went through it.

"I realize that probably doesn't make it any more believable, but..."

Paul sighs. "Look, I can keep calling you miss all day, but I'm already old enough to be your dad and I'll pass on sounding old enough to be your grandfather. What's your name?"

[ visual ]

[cametolife]

It doesn't take long for Liz to spot the tablet, the bright screen as it switched to the visual function catching her eye. She wanders over to it, not yet touching it, but hovering near enough to see the man talking to her.

"Liz," she answers. "Liz Parker."

[ visual ]

[smecker.livejournal.com]

"Hi Liz," says Paul in the voice he thinks of his 'patient' voice. "Like I said, I'm Agent Smecker, and yeah, I'm FBI, not that it means a hell of a lot here. Ex-FBI, whatever. ...Paul, if you prefer.

"The thing I'm talking to you on? It's called a tablet. It's your key out of the room if nobody else has explained that yet. When you go through the door you're going to be in a building; outside the building is an entire city.

"If you can still make yourself believe it's all a prank once you've seen the city... then you've got greater control over your mind than I do."