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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 17:33:13 GMT -5
((Set veeeery shortly before Micaela's disappearance.))
The new secretary - or rather, the woman temporarily stepping in for her; Adrian had not yet replaced Melissa, in an unspoken period of mourning and respect for the dead - messaged Adrian Veidt a quarter of an hour past one to tell him that a young woman was in his office to see him.
"M. Baillon said to tell you," she said, her tone of voice strictly business. "A young blond woman, he said to say. If it helps."
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 17:46:54 GMT -5
Adrian asked the advertising director to please pardon him and leaned a little closer to the intercom.
"It's not Dan Dreiberg's roommate, is it?" he asked, with a note of dread in his voice over this possibility. "No, sir," said the voice over the intercom. "Did you get a name?" "No," the interim secretary said curtly. "Then why did you let her into the office?" Adrian asked. "She asked to be let in."
Adrian sighed. "Tell her I'll be up as soon as I'm out of the meeting."
(It was behavior like this that had made Adrian already decide that she was going to stay merely the interim secretary.)
He turned off the intercom again and looked up at the marketing director again.
"My apologies, Katherine. Continue?"
About half an hour later, the meeting was concluded and Katherine and her department instructed to make sure the Millennium ads didn't just seem like Nostalgia II: This Time, There's Chrome. Adrian immediately headed toward his office to see this presumptuous woman who'd talked her way in.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 17:53:57 GMT -5
There was a slim figure in a long fur coat and a loose-fitting purple dress in a rather classical style, a cloche hat with a jewel and feather on the side with the bow and a blond pageboy haircut standing at Adrian Veidt's desk with her back to him when he entered. She appeared to be sniffing her wrist - apparently looking through some Nostalgia samples that had been on the desk - her deep purple glove rolled down over her hand so that she could do this. One foot was tilted sideways; her t-bar heel was only resting its edge on the floor.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 17:56:40 GMT -5
"Can I help you?"
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 18:00:51 GMT -5
She turned, fur coat and floaty dress swinging, and beamed a perfectly-applied fuchsia lipstick smile at him.
"Adrian!"
Certainly sometime between seeing the figure at his desk turn around and between the time it had finished dashing to him and throwing its arms around his neck, in a waft of ultra-feminine Nostalgia, it should be patently obvious that it was not a girl.
It was, as a matter of fact, a highly recognizeable boy. Who was currently pressed against Adrian and curling his fingers in his hair in a highly intimate way.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 18:07:04 GMT -5
It was all he could do to not actually throw him off. Adrian instead very firmly, with a strangely dangerous-feeling gentleness, took Adrien by the shoulders and pulled him away, until he was holding him at arm's length and looking absolutely livid.
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?" he snapped, not shouting but instead in a harsh, controlled voice bordering on a rasp.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 18:09:37 GMT -5
Adrien's lips parted, pursed, and closed, and parted again as though if he'd been able to muster up a single sound, he'd have been stammering.
Indeed, when he started to speak, all he said was, "I - I - "
He was about as tense as was humanly possibly in Adrian's hands, heartbeat speeding, though he'd been light and carefree only moments before.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 18:13:20 GMT -5
"Did you come up here dressed like- oh, my God..."
He let go of him and abruptly turned his back on the boy, shoving a hand back into his own hair in frustrated fury.
"Do you know how many people could have seen you?" he shouted, rounding on him again.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 18:16:42 GMT -5
"Oh - but they wouldn't know who I am!" said Adrien quickly, to salvage things, making a very elegant gesture with his hand curved at himself and all of the layers of bright and ultrafeminine things he was wearing. "I came up here just like this."
Nevermind that Adrian wasn't looking; he shrugged off the fur coat, letting it fall onto the floor where it, in its heaviness, folded more than it crumpled, and stepping up to Adrian's side quickly put his hand on his arm to get his attention and delicately twirled.
The dress swung elegantly at his knees. It was shorter on him than it was on its petite owner.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 18:19:51 GMT -5
That dress- oh, Lord, it was Micaela's Meritites costume.
"Adrien, I- you-"
Adrian's damaged right hand tried to curl into a fist and instead merely twitched brokenly. This only worsened his anger.
"You stupid, careless- do you know what you- what would have-"
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 18:21:08 GMT -5
Adrien's breath hitched but not another sound came out.
"I - I - "
It was all very well for him that he didn't know Adrian had almost made a fist. His body was conditioned to deal with things like that.
"I thought you would prefer it if I - "
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 18:22:37 GMT -5
"If you what? Risked throwing away my entire reputation? Did you stop to think at all?"
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 18:24:13 GMT -5
"But your reputation - but if no one knew I was a boy, then - "
Every time he tried to start to say something, he cut off almost painfully on the last word, as though trying to force air out. One gloved hand hovered over the milky gray pearls draped over his hammering heart, fingers moving as though going to grasp at something, pitifully.
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Post by Adrian Veidt on Nov 1, 2009 18:26:37 GMT -5
"How dense are you?" Adrian shouted. He looked genuinely stunned at the extent of Adrien's carelessness.
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Post by Adrien Baillon on Nov 1, 2009 18:28:07 GMT -5
Adrien looked highly pained but didn't say anything. He was literally cringing at the things Adrian was saying to him.
"I thought - I thought - "
He trailed off, continuing to repeat that in a stammer for some moments before he finished in a very small voice, "I thought you'd like me."
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