S1, E4 | Selfish Pour

“Open the gate!” a man in a kevlar vest-topped uniform proclaims, shouting to a pair of men dressed just the same at the first sight of their guests. “Should I expect more people standing on the other side to greet us or not?” Jaime inquires, whispering to the man that she stands off to the side of, seeing the angry expression that consumes his face like a bad omen clouds a man’s sunny day, the voice he responds to her with both deep and reserved.

“Word travels fast in Athens. I’m willing to bet there will be more” Leon answers, keeping his hands at either side as the woman beside him nods, puckering her lips whilst her head briefly drifts toward the side. “Then if I were you, I’d try to smile a little bit more” Jaime retorts, leaning toward the man for a moment as she responds, only to look him in the eyes as his displeased expression slowly veers around to her, “if your community sees you with that scowl, they might think things have gone wrong.”

Sucking on his lips, Leon looks at the woman as her unbothered face begins turning its attention toward the gradually-parting doors that begin revealing the neutral zone and those that have awaited their return from the opposite side of it. Giving into the woman’s advice, the president of the nation he sets out to return to lets his visage warm into one of pleasure to be re-entered into his homeland, paying a reassuring look to those that line the road between two countries.

Collectively keeping their thoughts to themselves, people from both sides of the line of demarcation watch as the dark-skinned gentleman and his pale, blonde acquaintance venture beyond the national border, setting their direction on course with the land which they belong to. “What’s going on?” a woman calls out from within the crowd, standing near the front but being partially covered by a pair of women who equally wonder the same thing, just doing so quietly.

“We paid a visit to Ken Spence. Nothing more and nothing less” Leon responds in kind, allowed to do the talking whilst his friend follows along, simply wishing for their journey to conclude in favour of whatever planning that the Athens president had originally planned for. “Are we in trouble?” a soul questions aloud from a short distance behind the initial question’s source, catching the leader’s ear just as easily as the first pair of lips.

“No, everything’s fine. Why would you think that?” Leon asks back, looking in the direction of the question before his answer is obstructed by the asking of yet another inquiry from the opposite side of the street. “Why were you seeing their president!?” the third voice asks aloud, prompting both figures returning from their diplomatic journey to turn toward the opposite end of the road, only to set their sights back toward their left at yet another inquiry.

“Is that Jaime!?” a man asks aloud, stealing both leaders’ attention before prompting the woman in question to squint, looking toward the man that she travels alongside for clarification. “How the hell do you know her na-?” Leon queries back, stopping in his tracks for a moment before Jaime follows suit, needing a second to catch up.

“Why didn’t you tell us about your trip!?” a woman asks from only a short distance away from the man, also taking the Athens figurehead’s intrigue before yet another question is levied from the opposite side of the road once more. “Is there something you’re not telling us!?” the next quandary is presented before all further inquisitions become too drowned out to be heard at all, suffocated by the interests of one another as the dozens of voices asking for reassurance and information begin muddling together into a loud cesspool of nonsense.

Standing guard, the security detail that accompanies the pair back from Free Boston begin nudging Leon forward, snapping him out of his confused haze as he looks around the road, trying to listen into any question that his ear can separate from the rest whilst growing more confused about the information that’s overheard.

Giving into the behest of his hired professionals, Leon returns to his forward-journey whilst the members of the crowd that he and his contemporary pass begin collecting on the street, following the armed soldiers onward as their questions go unanswered. Following suit, Jaime checks her immediate surroundings whilst becoming level with Athens’ leader once more, unsure of where they’re going or what’s unfolding in her every direction, but knowing that a portion of it appears to regard her involvement.

= Athens of America is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards =

“Did you get a hold of him!?” Velma questions aloud, stepping away from one corner of the familiar suite to the one that’s already occupied, receiving a shake of the head from the man that she spots out. “They said he left about twenty minutes ago” Jay answers, hanging up the phone that sits atop the wall, prompting the woman who asks to let out a sigh as she hangs her head with hands on her hips.

“Shit. That means he’ll probably have crossed the neutral zone by now” Velma responds beneath her breath, thinking to herself for a moment before turning toward a man that stands at the door. “Go check around with some of your patrolmen to figure out where they are right now” the woman with a scarred left eye commands, watching the man turn his body toward the room’s exit before pausing at the continuation of her order, “if they can’t find out for certain, tell them to look for the fuckin’ mob that’s probably tailing them.”

“Understood” the man in heavy winter clothing responds, stepping through the door and rounding the short stack of concrete rows that surround the stadium’s suite section. “Everything’s going to be fine. Most people will be upset, but not crazy enough to harm either of them” Sidney remarks, standing in the opposite corner of the room from the man who’d just hung up the phone, “there’s nothing we’ll be telling him when he gets here that wouldn’t have-”

“Why the fuck are you even fuckin’ talking right now, Sid!?” Velma shouts, spinning around with a vehement anger as she stops the woman’s comment in its place, “you’re the whole reason this got out of fuckin’ hand in the first-!” Kept from finishing her declaration, the woman’s shoulder is pulled back at the heavy hand of the third party in this conversation, his pull yanking her back a pair of steps as he keeps her from continuing to speak.

“If you can’t keep your shit under control, then shut the fuck up and sit down, Velly” Jay warns, stepping between the woman and the much more self-disheartened subject of her aggression. “Jackson, we’re in deep fuckin’ shit because of this!” Velma retorts, half-heartedly smacking the man’s hand away from the side of her neck, “how many times do we need to tell this woman to keep her fuckin’ mouth sh-!?”

“Velly, I don’t want to warn you again. Get your shit together or shut your fucking trap, you hear me?” Jay calmly interjects again, keeping the woman’s anger at bay with enough composure to provoke her into spinning around out of frustration. “I know we were going to have to say something eventually, but I didn’t mean to say what I-” Sidney remarks, trying to take the opening to explain herself before voluntarily going silent, watching the woman who’d scolded her turn back for a second helping.

“You shouldn’t have-!” Velma begins to turn back with a raised voice yet again, a finger pointing in the other girl’s direction before Jay again steps in front of her, throwing his hand into her chest to shove her back and maintain the ground between the two sides. Kept from speaking, the darker haired woman again turns around and begins walking toward the side of the room she’d been pushed toward, allowing another break of sound to come over the renovated suite.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Sidney concludes, finishing her initial thought within the second lapse of hostility before hanging her head, prompting the man that had kept her from being yelled at worse than she would’ve expected to take over the conversation. “Listen, Sid. I love you, but Velly’s right” Jay replies, looking the woman in the eyes whilst speaking in a tone made for the indoors, “it’s getting to be a problem with how many times you’re spilling shit that shouldn’t be leaving this ballpark.”

“I know” Sidney replies with her head hung, nodding in agreement with the man that stares at her for a moment, continuing to survey her demeanour for a second before turning back toward the woman in the opposite direction. “And Velly, I love you too. But at the end of the day, you need to keep your shit together” Jay remarks, watching the stressed and vigour-filled survivor turn back toward him with hands on her hips, “I get that you’re passionate about all of this, but throwing word salad at each other at an unreasonable volume doesn’t help anything.”

“Fine” Velma begrudgingly responds without wasting a moment, answering the man’s comment the second that he finishes offering it, an eyebrow raised toward him after she spends a few seconds staring at the floor. Letting his eyes remain glued upon the woman without speaking, Jay continues to hold his stare upon her own as the words that he doesn’t say still find a way to make it toward her anyway.

“Okay, Jackson” Velma corrects, sitting with the man’s comments for longer than before and digesting them more genuinely as desired. Satisfied, Jay nods his head toward the darker-haired authority figure before letting out a deep breath and hearing the door his back is turned toward push inward. On alert, the three confidants set their sights upon the entrance to the room, remaining silent as the door closes behind the woman that follows their leader inside.

“What the hell was that all about?” Leon asks aloud, holding each hand outward at either side for a second before removing his coat, stepping further into the room as he tosses it onto a chair. “Perhaps we should speak in private?” Velma wonders aloud, watching the figurehead’s expression shift toward her without a word. Nodding her head toward Jaime, the scar-eye woman quietly gestures toward the guest that doesn’t fail to notice the silent shrug.

“Yeah, no... I have a name” Jaime remarks, putting her sarcasm to use as she cuts through the tension in the room, lifting both hands as she jokingly sways her head from one shoulder to the other, “but no worries, I’ll see myself out.”

“No” Leon quickly remarks, extending a hand toward the woman who’d followed him in as he turns toward her, his body’s direction shifting whilst the president’s face sets back upon the woman who’d propositioned the fifth soul’s departure, “you can say whatever you need to with her present.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Jay inquires, making sure the president- who now lets his face guide itself toward the only other man in the room- has all of his bases covered. “She had to be hounded out there just like I had to be. If there’s anyone that deserves answers other than me, it’d be her” Leon responds, rounding the corner to the makeshift kitchen before taking a kettle’s handle into his possession, “now... should I rephrase my question, or does someone want to clue me in on what’s going on?”

|

Hearing a knock at the door, Jaime pays the hand no mind as she ventures toward her kitchen, wishing not to be bothered as she unscrews the cap to a bottle of bourbon and reaches for a clean glass. Kept from doing so, her ear catches the sound of the deadbolt she’d locked doing little to keep from an intrusion beyond the hotel room’s entrance, allowing the figure who’d called for the woman’s attention to grant herself entry.

“I never said you could come in” Jaime remarks as she rounds the corner, recognising the face that wears a scar beneath her eye that had seemingly healed long ago. “The knocking is more out of common courtesy. The people in charge of Athens let ourselves in whenever we please” Velma responds, entering alone and being just as courteous as she had been upon knocking, closing the door on her way inside.

“I see Athens doesn’t have much room for privacy then, does it?” the two-time chancellor rebuttals, returning to her kitchen with sights set on a clean set of glasses nearby, taking one from the rack and beginning to pour. “Consider yourself lucky for the time being that Leon’s taking such fuckin’ interest in you then. Athens is the last place on earth to go for privacy” Velma responds, rounding the corner to find Jaime over-pouring herself, “most people are mandated to live with a roommate.”

“I’d assume that rule only applies for the common people though, right?” the new arrival responds, pressing her lower back into the counter whilst looking at the woman that pays her a visit, “you people in power play by a different set of rules like always, right?” Smiling without parting her lips, Velma’s grin carries itself toward the floor with the rest of her face whilst she sits with the question, her eyebrows eventually lifting when a retort is brought upon her mind.

“I’d imagine that you know what it’s like, don’t you? Being in charge of that town out west probably netted you perks that other people didn’t get?” Velma inquires, watching the scowl-filled smile that she receives do most of the initial reacting instead of the words that follow. “First of all, it was a republic. Call it anything less and I’ll break your kneecaps” Jaime warns, watching the opposite woman’s expression shift into one of contention, amused at the threat.

“Second of all, I got no benefits from being the leader that the rest of my people got. I had rations like everyone else and I had the means to make my own if I wanted more” the Angelino chancellor assures with a shrug, “my home was a mansion I’d bought before the catalyst hit. I’d fitted it with solar panels beforehand, and I stocked up on plenty of booze. Everything I had was stuff that anyone else could’ve gotten their hands on.”

“A mansion, huh? You owned a mansion before the tragedy?” Velma queries, taking obvious intrigue over that line of speech to the chancellor’s amusement, “how did you afford a mansion?” Crossing one leg over the other, Jaime sways her head gently as she lifts the glass to her lips, “for the same reason that people decided to prop my face up when we overthrew the local government after the fact” she confesses, speaking into the glass with an echo, “I was a rich, famous, white woman.”

“Oh yes, the hardest class of people to be” Velma replies, stepping forward to join the woman beside the sink, snapping up one of the empty glasses for herself before pouring a glass of bourbon for her own enjoyment. “How fuckin’ hard it is to be us with such dangerous jobs like doing the dishes, grocery shopping and dropping the children off at soccer privilege, oops!... I mean practise” she responds, pouring herself a responsible glass, “I suppose it didn’t take long to install you as their queen.”

“I was their chancellor” Jaime corrects, listening to the flow of liquor hit the glass that soon comes into the palm of the visitor, who turns her back to the counter and faces the same blank wall as Athens’ newest citizen. “I learned on the job. I was only chosen to be the person everyone rallied around because I was the most noteworthy person that survived” she admits, taking no shame in accepting the terms of her reality at the time.

“How did you make all that money while we’re on the subject?” Velma questions aloud, carrying a squint toward the distant corner of the kitchen that she soon carries toward the similarly-aged woman, “buying a house in California was never cheap to my understanding... Let alone a fuckin’ mansion.”

“I came up with an app for high schoolers that let them interact with each other in more-isolated chat rooms and settings. Stuff you couldn’t access unless you were in the area and had something like a school I.D code” Jaime answers, staring into the distance as well whilst her apparent guest takes another sip.

“I came up with it while I was in school myself and paid a classmate to develop it. Everyone kept using these different social media sites to talk to each other, so this just made it easier” she continues, turning to look at the scarred obstinate, who reciprocates the re-centred focus. “I just wanted to make it easier for my friends to invite me to parties” Jaime concedes, amusing both herself and the woman that shares her company, “anyway, I ended up selling it for a shitload of money. They kept me on as a spokeswoman after that until things went south.”

“Sounds like you made out like a bandit, though. Had a pretty cushy adulthood until the tragedy swept through?” Velma queries, watching the woman’s eyes fall, though her face remains aiming forward, “you got to ride that wave all the way to the big chair once everything fell apart.” Shaking her head, Jaime refuses such a notion before lifting the glass to wet her lips once more, licking the bitter liquor that sits upon the soft flesh of her bottom kisser as she retorts.

“My family was a fuckin’ mess” the Angelino native rephrases, continuing to shake her head whilst she formats her reply internally, allowed to do so by the enduring silence of the woman sitting beside her. “I should give them a little bit of credit, though. They weren’t always a mess, it only got bad after my father’s accident” Jaime corrects, eyes keeping to the corner whilst Velma remains quiet, looking at the side of the chancellor’s face whilst she speaks.

“He’d been a great man up until that, but it was just like something up there... snapped” she recalls, pointing toward her head amidst her pause, “he became an abusive shithead and my mother just let him walk all over her because she couldn’t see him as anything less than who he’d used to be.”

Her smile having faded, Velma looks toward the chancellor with only eyes of patience and curiosity, wishing to let the woman continue whilst beginning to sip from her drink once more. “Even after I bought the mansion, I couldn’t help myself but stay at home with them. I’d already closed the deal, so I didn’t see any sense in needing to flaunt the money even though I had it” Jaime remarks, always unamused by the prospect of opening her wallet for the purpose of a reaction.

“I was the only reason that man was able to keep the house since he couldn’t work. Of all the people that were safe to be in that house, it was me” she gloats, again lifting her glass for a sip as Velma watches on, not wanting to interrupt as her lips remain pressed together. “Yeah, I may have had the money, but shit never really was easy for me. In fact, I wish there were things that I didn’t have in hindsight” Jaime concludes, sorrowfully staring into her glass as she pauses, speaking beneath her breath with a disheartened expression, “starting with being chancellor.”

“I’m sorry, you wish you weren’t their leader?” Velma questions back, unsure if she’d heard the woman’s point correctly as she’d hoped to, watching the former Angelino look back at her at the reiterated inquiry. “I can only hope that my family made it back to Pearl Harbor safely, but I have no guarantee of that. The rest of my people fled to god only knows where, but the republic was levelled” Jaime responds, shaking her head in dismay as she downs a few sips of her drink at once, “I can only hope someone could’ve come in and done a better job.”

Suddenly lighting up with less discontent than it does amusement, Velma’s face takes toward the distance as her arms cross at her chest, the sound of her subdued laughter catching the room’s occupant by surprise. “What’s with the chuckle, Scarface?” Jaime queries, earning a louder laugh from the woman that she sarcastically asks, genuinely curious for an answer, but less hostile than her apparent insult would have some assume.

“I just find it ironic that Leon takes such interest in you” the dark haired woman confesses, smiling with an upward curl in her lip, cradling the glass to the side of her interlocked arms. “The four of us- him, Sidney, Jackson, and myself- are so proud to be in charge here. We’re proud to be who the people trust and to keep this place going. None of us would want it any other way...” Velma concludes, turning to look at the woman by her side, “...and then, here you are... Wishing for anything but that.”

Letting her eyes glide to the side that the rest of her head drifts toward, Jaime nods in agreement with the woman’s conclusion before again taking a drink, still yet to make it halfway through her selfish pour. “It’s a blessing and a curse at times” she concedes, allowing the true weight of the responsibility present itself from the perspective of a woman who’s seen it’s highest and lowest points, “you can be the reason people see a point in living, or the evidence that they need to conclude that there isn’t one.”

Falling, Velma’s eyes take toward the floor as she rocks forward and back gently, stirring with the woman’s conclusion before letting her arms pull away from the embrace of each other, her dominant hand lifting the glass to her lips to finish off what’s left of the beverage she’d poured. “Leon’s going to publicly explain why he went over to Free Boston after the sun goes down. Everyone will be in the parking lot across from the stadium, right down the street in that direction” the visitor explains, pointing her finger in the direction, “I hope you’ll find the time to make it there.”

Retreating for the way she’d come, Velma’s footsteps tap against the linoleum floor of the kitchen before finding the soft, subduing fabric of the carpet that the rest of the temporary residence ground is covered with. Without replying, Jaime watches the woman’s figure traipse beyond the wall and vanish from her view, only exiting with the sound of the door opening back up and closing once more, returning the chancellor to the silence of a company-less room without a drinking buddy to enjoy the rest of her drink alongside.

|

“Yeah” Leon calls out, answering the knock at his suite’s door as the sun begins to set over Boston, granting permission for his friend to enter as politely as he’d requested to. “Do you know what you’re going to say yet?” Jay inquires, briefly pressing his palm against the window in the middle of the room’s door whilst pulling it closed, only to pull the hand away and shake it through the air at the cold surface that’s just too much for his warm paw to bear.

“I’m going to wing it as I always do” Leon answers, wasting little time in responding as he takes the base of an iron over the wrinkles in a white dress shirt, making the piece of formal wear appear presentable in ways his typical garb just doesn’t fit the bill of. “People have more questions than I have answers, so I’m not going to waste time trying to come up with filler” the president continues whilst his friend nods, “they’ll ask their questions, I’ll answer them honestly, and we’ll all be in bed before an hour past sunset hits.”

“It sounds like you’ve got this all figured out then” Jay replies, watching the back of the leader’s head as it nods approvingly, the figurehead’s eyes continuing to take toward the clothing that he soon irons out to satisfaction. “Yes, I do...” Leon assures, setting the tool to the side as he pulls its plug from the same outlet that his kettle’s base would normally be hosted by, turning back toward the man whose presence is currently unexplained, “...so why are you here?”

“I think you know why I’m here” Jay responds without pause, watching the man with a darker complexion hang his head and begin walking toward the makeshift kitchen. “Sid” Leon replies instinctively, following the distinctive pattern of his suite’s floor as he ventures beyond the king sized bed halfway between the renovated bar space and the window of his room overlooking the one-time playing surface.

“We all love her, but she keeps putting us in bad situations” Jay remarks, watching the president travel to the kitchen area whilst he continues to speak. “I can keep Velly at bay, but I can’t argue that she doesn’t have a reason to be outraged over shit like this” the visitor continues, allowed to air his grievances freely whilst the suite’s tenant tends to the small amount of dishes awaiting a rinse in his tiny, metal sink.

“This is the second time we’ve had to address the people publicly because of something she said. It would’ve been a third had Ruby not held that runner back to wait for us” the well-travelled level head explains, a recollection that Leon can’t help but nod along with. “It’s bad enough that she nearly let the boats that passed through the river slip, but it’s another thing to keep causing a stir” Jay concludes, feeling like his point has been made as well as it can be.

“In all honesty, I don’t think you need to explain your reasoning to me as much as you think you do” Leon quips, speaking up only when he can sense that his visitor has exhausted his initial point of visiting. “And with all due respect, Leon, I think you underestimate just how much I do need to” Jay retorts, watching the president’s eyes gradually slide toward his direction at the rebuttal, silence provided toward the proclamation his subordinate makes.

“If we don’t start actively considering keeping a few things from Sid- only the stuff that we need to ensure remains confidential- we’re just going to continue leaving ourselves vulnerable to stuff like this” the trusted confidant warns, “as much as I guarantee that you see where I’m coming from, I know you’re not going to do anything to change it.”

“You’re right, I’m not going to change anything. I’m not entertaining the idea of icing Sid out from anything... highly confidential or not” Leon responds, seeing the man’s head begin to bow in light of his comment. “If Sid lets something slip, so be it. We’ll take it on the chin and clear the air with everyone as we always do” the president concludes, coming to the same solution that he always has, “I don’t care if she has a harder time keeping things under wraps. I’m as loyal to her as I am to the rest of you.”

“Have you ever stopped to consider that icing her out of some things may be as much in her best interest as it is for the rest of us?” Jay questions back, challenging the man’s thought and receiving a silent nod of assurance in return. “I’ve got no reason to hide anything from the people, and I’m definitely not going to start taking on that mindset now” Leon restates, seeing disappointment continue to fall upon his visitor’s face, “Sid’s weakness is not going to change me anymore than being put in charge of things around here did.”

Though his eyes still hold toward the odd pattern of the suite’s floor, Jay’s hands lift into the air in a show of surrender, gesturing to the man that he offers a concession to the man’s superiority. “Listen, Jay. I’m sorry that I won’t do what you want. But I understand where you’re coming from and I sympathise with you, I really do” Leon reiterates, watching the man’s face gradually lift to face him, affording the president a respect that he’d expect for himself all the same, “you know that, right?”

Pulling in a deep breath before letting it leave through his mouth’s loud sigh, accepting the terms that the president’s come to without yet vocalising it. “The unfortunate thing about it is that I do, Leon. I know you understand where we’re coming from, and I know you sympathise with it...” Jay confesses, letting his hands fall as he shrugs, turning back for the suite’s entrance with his reassuring answer, “...the thing that I hate is that the result wouldn’t change even if you didn’t.”

Leaning to one side, Leon’s eyes follows suit with the bottom of his jaw in hanging, taking displeasure in the manner which his friend leaves the room, walking off into the renewing night whilst he stands behind the kitchen, turning off the running faucet as the hot water continuing running down the drain. Going quiet, the air runs as cold as the steam that rises from the metal bowl he stands at does hot, both as silent and unresponsive as each other whilst the president embraces both, his thoughts falling away as he turns his attention toward preparing for the public address.

== Athens of America ==