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Alex Reagan is fairly certain that this just happens to be the smallest elevator in existence. She’s been a lot of places in the world, but the one at the Usher Foundation that leads to the archive is the smallest modern one for sure. It’s barely big enough for three people honestly and that normally doesn’t bother her in the slightest. While Alex has a fair amount of fear for the things that she’d discovered over the last few months (the hunt for example is the one that sticks out the most considering it’s why she’s here) but the Buried wasn’t one of them. Alex was the sort of person who turned her bed into swaddling nests and burrowed into them. Honestly that buried blanket nest is where she felt the safest.

No. The elevator itself wasn’t the issue here. Alex Reagan has ridden it more than a few times since she’d started working in the archives a month or so ago. While she would rather be out there being a reporter, Alex had blown out all of the credibility that she’d ever had when she’d told people that the things that went bump in the night were real. In the end Tannis Braun was right about how her skills would be valuable here investigating the validity of the statements. In some ways it was almost freeing—when she was working for Usher, Alex didn’t need to worry about pesky things like journalism ethics. Instead she could lie and make someone believe whatever they wanted in order to get their story from them.

In a way it was all kind of freeing.

So if it wasn’t the elevator itself, and it wasn’t the confined space that bothered her what didn’t bother her exactly was the man who she was currently sharing the elevator with. His size in it, with the foot of height that he had on her, the more bulk that he’d had on his frame (not that Alex was calling him fat by any means) instead it was just the way that he loomed over her and seemed far larger in the space than he actually was. And the fact that he was attractive and god was he attractive. Alex has said hello when she’d gotten into the elevator with him, and saw that he’d already pushed the floor for the sub basement level archives.

But the problem was that somewhere between the archives and the first floor, the elevator had just decided to stop. Not just stopping which would be bad enough, but stopping and losing all power. Normally the dark wouldn’t have been a thing, because Alex would have just pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight app or call someone even if her phone didn’t have great service here. That was part of the reason it was still plugged in at her desk. Artifact storage was only three elevator stops away, and Alex was delivering some information she’d had on a statement. But now here they were in the small and dark with the extremely attractive man she doesn’t know.

This is fine. This is all fine.

But Alex just gives a grin that she knows that he wouldn’t be able to see in the pitch blackness so deep that it feels like she could hold it in her hands like dirt. “Well, I guess this is one way to avoid that meeting with my boss.” There isn’t fear in her, just the bad joking tone that Alex makes to lighten a situation. The meeting with Tannis was supposed to be in half an hour and she was supposed to be meeting someone important to the Foundation.

The fact that it could be the person in the elevator never even crosses Alex’s mind. After all, that man had been described to her as being ‘Old Man Strand’ and this man definitely wasn’t old in the slightest.

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Well it could have been worse, "...Perhaps I could have you transcribe these then. Start with the eye and work your way to the buried - we have a lot of buried activity here."

"...There are a few that I could point out that might be of particular interest. It's been awhile since I've been here but they give you the basis of it. I could have you prepare reports on whichever ones you like? To get you up to speed?"

The suggestion does bring to mind something Alex hadn’t understood since she’d first been assigned to work with him down here in the archives below ground. Since he’d first showed her the first bodies from Pompeii that had been buried in ash and lava.

“Why does the Usher Foundation have such deep ties to the Buried, Dr. Strand? I don’t understand. “

"Who can say? Cosmic energy is drawn to multiple places. America is also strong with the hunt which seems rather natural." He shrugged before moving over to a worn desk and dusting it off with a hand. Frowning, he pulled a silk handkerchief out of his pocket and dusted it off with that before moving over to a second chair and working quickly on it,

"The Usher institute was founded by a number of families including mine. I can only assume that perhaps at some point we had a Buried avatar in our midst? But the ritual whoever they were set in place was stopped by Gertrude Robinson."

That had been what drove him to the Beholding to offer his service. He was a realistic avatar, not so enamored with his patron's faults. He wanted to see it succeed.

“Huh.” It’s clear that Alex’s brain is working a mile a minute on theories about why the Fears would feel drawn to different places and to different peoples and it makes a frightening amount of sense to her. Americans after all weren’t taught to fear open spaces; it feared closed ones ever since go west had been introduced. But for someone from a tiny island in Europe, it must have been terrifying.

“Gertrude Robinson?” It was a name that sounds vaguely familiar to Alex even if she can’t place where or why. But she knows that she had heard it. Or read it somewhere. Weird. But then again it made sense if she had somehow stopped something that was so apart of the Usher Foundation’s history.

"She was a former archivist at our sister institute in England." His features are passive, "She was fierce when it came to stopping the entities. Each avatar creates their own in an effort to appease their patrons, I can- Let me find that statement."

There was one from Smirke buried deep in the eye aisles. Moving past her, driven by scientific interest, he moves through the dusty shelves.

"Give me a minute. Unless you want to look too? It's a Smirke note."

Alex is already following him when he moves into the hallway, keeping her eyes open as she does so. Without thinking she pulls one pair of clean gloves our of her front pockets for herself and then she pulls the larger size that she’d started keeping for him in the back pocket of her jeans. “Here,” it’s automatic to offer it to him before Alex started looking.

His eyes widen in shock - it's...unexpected. Staring down at them he accepts them with a nod before he digs under three papers and finds it.

He is very good at finding things.

Holding it up to her, he doesn't look, "There might be a few others that are interested."

A pause. Then he looks up at her and adjusts his glasses, "What's the second entity you'd be interested in researching? The Buried and the Hunt are American centric.

Alex takes the files carefully from him, and she cradles them gently in her arms and against her chest for additional protection even if she doesn't know if it's something that she needs to protect. But Alex is aware from other statements about the things that Smirke had divined and perceived of the powers along with that circle of Avatars, even if she'd not met any of them personally.

No, as far as Alex is aware, she's only met one avatar, and that was one from the Hunt who tried to eat her when she'd chased the story. Honestly, Alex has all the knowledge about the Hunt that she ever could want, and it had cost her so much, almost and up to including her life. At the very least, the life that Alex had fought so hard for and wanted so badly. And now, she's here in a library in a basement that everyone seemed to have forgotten about.

"The Buried," the answer is instant, and it requires no thought from her about what she should be studied. "I mean, it's all around us, right? It makes sense to try and understand it, Dr. Strand. Should I be... I mean should I be doing the recording of these statements? I don't think anyone has considering how long it looks like they've been down here."

He hesitates. Elias would be angry - and Tanis would be as well if a third archivist joined their little...plan. Jon Simms was his holy grail, Tanis was the second, but Alex...

"Start with the Beholding and move through them. You'll need some equipment I can provide you with..."

He hesitates, "What I'm about to ask you is going to sound strange. Are you drawn to the idea of recording them? Do you want to? Want to?"

The question catches Alex more than a little off guard, that's for certain, and she snaps her glance towards him and away from the statements that she'd been looking down at. For a long moment, Alex just openly stares at him in shock; that was something that she'd not ever mentioned to anyone here before, because she didn't want to seem any crazier than she already was.

But here he was asking her directly about it.

It's only for a second that Alex considers lying before the sensation of being Watched rushes over her again. For the most part while Alex has been working down here in the archives, she'd been able to ignore it, or had gotten used to it and Alex doesn't know which. The feeling of eyes on her back had been something else that she'd become accustomed too, like the feeling of liking it here in the dark. But now, they feel like a spotlight, and it makes Alex bite her lip for a second.

In the end, there's nothing to do but be honest with the sensation of the Eye between her shoulder blades, and her boss standing in front of her asking. "Only some of them. Those are normally the ones that make Tannis appear from out of nowhere and he takes them away. I tried to record one on my recorder before, but it was like I had recorded twenty minutes of nothing."

"Because you want to know." He pauses, then smiles, "Be careful how that plays out."

Fuck it. And Fuck Elias. And the rest.

"...It needs a tape recorder. An analog one. Start with the beholding statements and work your way through them. I think you'll find them interesting."

He pauses, "...Some of them are strange but trust me. The analog statements will show you which ones are...unusual."

Something in him hesitates, "...We can discuss it over dinner?"

Alex can't help but to feel like she'd disappointed him in some way, and she honestly doesn't have the faintest idea of how. After all, she'd been truthful about what he'd asked her, and Alex had thought that she was doing a good job for him. Alex wanted to do a good job for him, and there's a frown and a feeling of being wrong-footed for a moment.

"An analog tape recorder. Got it." And it made sense because that was what she'd seen Tannis using when he recorded statements. Alex had had her recorder running the entire time that she'd been attacked, but only the block of time had shown up on the file. Things connected to the Entities couldn't be caught on digital, that kind of explains a lot actually.

But his question put all thoughts of figuring out what things meant behind her in surprise. Alex replies to him like she does far too many things: without thinking about it.

"Yes." Okay maybe a little bit overeager, just the smallest bit. "That would be nice. I'm kind of starving actually." But then she looks down at her clothes. "I'm kind of a mess though."

Ah hmn.

"I can drive you to your...living situation? If you'd like. I have a standing table at Le Bonviant.." He pauses, "Or we could order in. Get you set up down here afterwards."

There is no mention of her leaving, if that is the choice. However.

"Ordering in sounds better, actually." The grin that goes with the words is an easy one. "I mean, I've heard great things about Le Bonviant, who hasn't. But I didn't exactly bring clothing for that sort of thing in my two suitcases when I came in from Seattle, and I hadn't needed it before here in New York."

Alex had spent much of her social time in New York making friends of course, because she's Alex, even if she keeps more pieces of herself to herself nowadays than she used too. But those events had been casual, brunches and very crowded hole in the wall bars and the like. Not even the few nights of theatre or Opera that she'd been too had required Alex to be that fancily dressed.

"I mean, I'll definitely take a raincheck for it for another time though." When she could buy something appropriate and take all the time that she needed on her hair and makeup so she didn't embarrass him.

Intriguing.

He nods, "...Then we will plan for that. This is your first time in New York right? You moved here to join the institute?" gesturing for her to follow her he nods, "Take those folders with you. Do you have any allergies?"

He's whipping out his phone, heedless seemingly of if they get a signal all the way down here or not.

He does. He always does.

"...How are you liking New York?"

"I'd visited once in high school and a few times in college, but this is my first time living here. It's both weirdly the same and weirdly different than living in Seattle. I guess it's because we're all so much more tightly packed here in New York than we were back there."

Alex can't help but to stare at him when he'd gotten a signal. "Okay you have to tell me how you got a signal down here. I've been pretty sure this is where signals go to die. I get a better one on the subway than I do here, I swear." She laughs easily with him, maybe surprisingly so but Alex does.

"I'm not allergic to anything, and I do like it here. It's just different. I mean I'm used to seeing huge trees on the way to work, but now I see more tunnels. I guess I'd never really thought of myself as a tunnel person, you know?"

"I love tunnels. The sense of power and history in the city, it's layers on top of layers. You never know what you're going to see - like that movie, The Bone Collector?"

He taps a few keys, dodging the question of signals, "Do you like Pastrami? I know a deli that makes a fantastic pastrami on rye."

"I've heard there's a whole secret subway station that was lost forever ago and found again. All old and beautiful and tragic-like. I'd like to go there sometime." It would have been easier if Alex had been working for PNWS, because her bosses loved things like that, but it's too late now.

"I do like pastrami. It's so weird, Seattle's was definitely different. I call it the hipster influence. I mean, there's plenty of them here too," Alex, you are a hipster, stop. "But places like family restaurants and delis and stuff, they don't you know? They've been doing the same for years and they're going to keep doing them.

"Do we need to go up and get the food? I mean, I'm pretty sure everyone who I've spoken too has been lost down here at least once."

"Do you want to stay down here near the library?" It was strange he felt hopeful about it. That she was so engaging and so...human.

Offering her a hand, he smirks, "I thought he'd go and eat in my office."

His office looks like something out of sherlock holmes. Rich leathers and mahogany, The whole thing smells rich. Pulling out a chair for her he nods, "Should be here soon."

They are surprisingly high up and the air somehow feels more oppressive here. He doesn't like it.

"We could have stayed down there," Alex just says softly, looking far less at home in the rich leathers of his office than she had in the dust covered library in the depths of the Foundation that she was sure went way deeper than they seemed to on an elevator button. Looking down at her dust covered clothing, Alex's gaze moves to brush over the chair that he'd pulled out for her. It seems terrible to slip into it with this much dirt and what not on her, but Alex just does it after a second.

In the brighter light of his office, Alex realizes now that she's got dust on her hands, and on her face, and in her hair. The smudges of dark against her skin feel almost like they glow, like she's got a spotlight on her.

Hating the way that she sounds wrongfooted, Alex just asks: "do you have a restroom I can wash up a little in? I feel like I'm definitely going to wreck something in here if I don't."

It's odd really, the airiness of the office seems so out of place with everything that Alex associates with Dr. Strand. The leather and richness, yes of course, but the windows and the height? Absolutely not.

Even before he answers about the bathroom, Alex just says softly: "I think you're way more comfortable down there than you are up here. We can go back down, if you'd like."

Richard is sitting behind his desk sipping on the tea he ordered - it's one of his favorite Delis after all. When she says go back down he smiles, and then she says she wants to wash up-

"You seem fine. You seem like you've been working. Which is good. I think you look fine-"

And then she says go back down and he sets down his tea.

"You're okay with that?"

“Yeah. I mean why wouldn’t I be? I’m down there all the time.” Alex just shrugs a little bit and she gives him a small grin when he says that she looks fine. It’s a nice boost of confidence even if Alex doesn’t feel particularly fine when the two of them are in the richness of his office.

There’s no small part of her that wonders if anyone else has ever seen the inside of it. Somehow Alex doesn’t think so.

Picking up her coffee (because of course Alex is going to have coffee, some things never change) she just takes a sip of it before adding, “but we don’t have to if you’d rather stay down here.”

"I'd like to go with you."

Something human flutters in his heart, "I mean if you feel comfortable doing so. It's rare to meet someone who is so...engaged with study as I am."

He rises, picking up his tea, "Lead the way Ms-"

A phone rings and he stops. Staring at it, he frowns before tucking it away, "Let's go."

Alex's grin grows a bit, and she picks up her food container as well as the coffee as she rises to her feet. "I'm definitely comfortable down there, really, Dr. Strand. I promise." Her face is guileless, she actually really does mean it; she's not bothered by the depths down there at all, or the way that the earth closes in around them.

The archives is encompassing and enclosing and labyrinthine, but that's one of the reasons that Alex does actually like it. It doesn't scare her; it makes her feel safe almost.

But the frown on his face, makes her frown in return. "Is everything okay, Dr. Strand? And I mean, you can definitely call me Alex you know. Everyone else does."

"I'm fine. That was -"He sighs, "That was a contact from the other institute. It's not important."

It is in fact. It's extremely important but he is going to let it slide and take the punishment because Alex is so very interesting.

He smiles, and his smile is genuine, "Alex then." She likes being down there, she likes it.

Interesting.

"When I was younger I loved being in libraries. I love books. I would read for hours. Being...surrounded by knowledge. Is comforting. It's nice to see someone who shares that."

Moving back down, feeling comforting, he sipped at his tea.

"Do you like working for Tanis?"