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[crazyequalsgenius]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, RICHARD BROOK. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 158.427.1.39 *** RBROOK has joined 158.427.1.39 <RBROOK> hi, this is rich brook! leave a message and have a lovely day! :)

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[drowningman]

[Agents, plural. Too many in his opinion. But then again, Alan only trusted one person to negotiate on his behalf professionally. They'd been together since what had felt like the beginning of time.]

Don't mention it. [He leans forward, reaching over the computer in his lap to grab his whiskey from where it sits next to a corked, half-empty bottle.]

My first job as a writer was for a TV show. I felt like I had a lot riding on my success at the time, so I was invested in learning about how it all worked. It didn't last very long though - the show was cancelled a year later. I moved on to novels afterward, but some things always stay with you.

[He takes a drink, then sets the glass back down. Hands return to the keys and type away, eyes focused on the screen.]

So, where did children's television fit into your career? Bit of a leap from war, espionage, and drama.

[crazyequalsgenius]

[listen, it was all bullshit, and multiple agents seemed just the kind of detail to make it not quite sound immediately like bullshit. and it was, apparently, working like a dream.]

Well, the espionage one got cancelled after a season and a half - pity, because it was about this sleeper agent who didn't remember his missions, so he was literally living two lives. I really wanted to know where the writer was going to take it, too ...

But I'd just bought a new flat and I needed to keep the rent up, so I started taking any audition that'd match the pay. I landed two - the hospital drama and the kids' show. But they filmed at different times of the day, so I took both. What do they say? Chicken today, feathers tomorrow?

[he doesn't give a crap if Alan wants to type his way through this conversation and only half-listen to him. it means he doesn't have to make quite as much of an effort with some of it. the sleeper agent was some schlock he'd heard someone ranting about on the tube once - they were mad that it'd been canceled. it had been useless information, but thanks to his steel-trap memory, it had stayed anyway. Jim supposed everything was useful in some way if you waited long enough. What was the use in forgetting things if you might need them later? His brain was a metaphorical episode of Hoarders.]

[drowningman]

[As he's listening to Richard speak, he's tossing ideas into a notepad document on the laptop, throwing the metaphorical spaghetti at the wall, but eventually the typing slows. His eyebrows furrow tighter - a common occurrence between his tense RBF - and his typing slows, until eventually he stops and looks up at the guest on the couch.]

I'm not familiar with that saying.

But if it was just a gig to pay rent, how is that what stuck with you enough to want to carry it over?

[crazyequalsgenius]

No? It's kind of a fable sorta thing. Means that you'll eat well the first day - but then if you eat it all, all you have left the day after is the feathers you plucked. So you hafta plan accordingly. Make sure there're more chickens.

[there are plenty of little demonstrative hand gestures to accompany this explanation]

Which is why I took both shows. The drama and the storyteller.

[drowningman]

[Alan purses his lips in a tight-lipped grimace a moment. He couldn't tell if there was something deliberately inattentive or evasive happening here, or if this guy was just... vapid.

Surely not, if he was as... seasoned an actor as he said. But also people could have an ego bigger than their actual accomplishments, and he was no stranger to that. Sometimes he himself even felt guilty of such a thing.

In any case, he tries to hide his judgment behind his general surliness, grabbing his glass of whiskey to take another drink.]

Really soaking up Aesop's lessons, huh? [A joke, to keep up his own façade.]

[crazyequalsgenius]

[if he was coming across as vapid, it was Alan's perception of his performance ... and that worked for him. after all, you didn't want people to think you had the brains necessary to be a criminal mastermind, did you? He still picked up on the judgement, and gave a humorless little laugh]

No, not really.

[you're not funny right now, Alan, his tone and expression say, with sympathy. you're just bitter and moody and day drinking, like just about every writer who's ever worked for TV. but it's a throwaway moment, and he builds back up to his usual level of cheer]

The thing that made me keep both gigs was how popular they got. Storytelling gig was a lot less physically demanding than the drama, so it wasn't totally wiping me out ... and sad stay at home moms watch both, you know? I was getting a pretty good following. Kept me versatile, kept me busy. But then there was a writers' strike, and everything shut down fer a while ...

[he sighed, looking down into his own glass.]