Aeron Corcoran Lizard Woman

Monday mornings are rarely a complicated affair, at least she thought so, though there were many people she’d met who’d managed to make even breathing come off like rocket science.

Fancy that. 

Now, whether it was the barista or the intern that managed to skunk up her order that day, Aeron was peeved and really, she deserved a decent cup of coffee considering the service she provided.

This was the thought process that usually preceded a less than stellar workday.

Aeron Corcoran was often at any one time either the most beloved or hated person, depending on who you asked. And really, what they thought she believed. She made a point out of such subterfuge, and in her position it was crucial.

She was an a-, nope, she won't let that slip. You really can’t argue about something you can’t properly identify after all.

But that was a truth Aeron kept all to herself.

The oddities of the day likely started when she dropped her purse in the leg-space of her desk, and booted up her computer, typing in about seven different passwords bypassing various levels of encryption in near ottopilot.

Her morning routine, her coffee, her memory were all fine. It was simply what she found in her inbox. 

“Possible transmission from Exoplanet discovered” it was a newsletter from a HenryKneller@ZetharUnited.com, Aeron had no qualms about using her personal email on her work computer, and without any people looking over her shoulder, she decided to click through into the link.

In spite of the bizarre tagline the site was well managed, and seemed fairly clean.

Now if it were directed at anyone else she’d have brushed it off, it wasn’t difficult to be sent spam over email after all. While it might seem a little unlikely that the average person or group would know something like this about her, it wasn’t impossible.

She made a point out of unspecified behavior, and the thought that hu- algorithms over all, had become good enough to assume her statuses correctly was disheartening.

It wouldn’t do well for them if their A.I. had already outpaced them.

Aeron may have been a rather large creature, but any coffee could be too much coffee when contemplating something stressful.

She rang up her secretary, “Hey Zoe, could you fetch me some tea? Something herbal.” Unlike the intern, she found that Zoe at least seemed to know what she was doing.

Zoe also made good on her evaluation, nine times out of ten.

She was really lucky that most of ZetharUnited’s articles would fit right in with any other form of yellow journalism pertaining to Alien life. She was a mite bit less lucky to end up on their mailing list, as someone who tried to appear pointedly disinterested in the subject.

The trouble for her was that making a point wasn’t all that satisfying.

Aeron might’ve lacked the eyes, but there was a difference between killing and consequences, that with her experience was enough to convince her. Let’s watch them.

She could do that while also making a point to not validate their suspicion. Right?

Her curiosity would take up little of her time in the coming weeks, she was a busy lady afterall. She doesn’t put much more thought into it, the small hobby it was to contemplate the conspiracies of this- nope, can’t let that slip. And it would be another day sometime later when she found the note.

It had been thumbtacked right to her desk and was quite a bit larger than the stationary that Aeron preferred.

Her desk was of course covered in corkboard, which made pinning things to the desk not only feasible but irresistible. This had the intended goal of keeping Aeron’s head on her own shoulders in regards to varied tasks associated with her work, and really she just liked the smell.

She really couldn’t be judged for enjoying coniferous oils, right?

In any case, she tore the note in her haste to read it.

The cipher code of the paper in her hand was such that even with her memory and prowess, she couldn’t easily decipher it, or baring that, make out the type of cypher it was.

Fascinating.

She quickly palmed it into her purse, and acclimated to her work. She wasn’t about to let the boredom of her assignment undermine her. It could wait.

And it did until she could reconvene with others, it wouldn’t do to worry herself out of her work.

The trouble was that she could find little help amongst her more relevant colleagues, others of her unique persuasion were just as stumped as her when faced with the ridiculous note. 

“Maybe it’s layered? Would that be too complicated for gifted information?” one said upon reading it through. There was some debate regarding her odd addition, though discussion soon reoriented to more common events in the world.

Since the lot of them were supposedly ignorant of her hobby, none of them, if only not to admit to surveillance, suggested that still unlikely possibility.

She really didn’t mind their relative uselessness, though she kept mum on habit. Aeron was actually enjoying her hobby, and her coincidental investigation. Even without the input of her peers.

There were kisses and goodbyes, and she leaves their meeting space the same way she went in.

It was around then, when she thought to expand her hobby.

Play the game a bit, be the heel, it wasn’t that the note was uninteresting, she simply lacked an immediate way to solve it and she wanted to have a little bit of fun for once. And as it turns out, getting an interview with an internet based celebrity was as easy as a few emails and about one half of a reference.

Which was half of how a woman with a microscopic public presence ended up as a memetic gif-set from an alternative news site. The other was the apparently inhuman logic she showed in public.

They had apparently missed the part where she’d admitted to a play for play arrangement, she’d go on play around with an excessive “personality” and they’d have their nerds do a cypher break down on a xerox of her note.

There was still a pleasure to finding out how angry humans could get about her. Крап. It’s fine, she still couldn’t be mad at the feeling. Watching her episode, it was only the thirtieth episode.

Of all the things she disliked about that day, she’d found the recording room muggy with a dissatisfying hormonal signature. It was half why she’d gotten so visceral by the end of her interview.

The only reason she remembers the preceding question is the fact it’d been recorded. and her answer was well thought but in the moment.

“People aren’t generally all that worried about honesty. I’ve found that they simply want to be lied to about the things they care about.”

“You think you're different?” Henry asked, he did so many of the odd jobs on his site, it really was his baby.

“I am.” she wasn’t even referring to her nature.

“why?”

“Well, what do you care about?”

“Oh, I see, I see, you're a liar?”

“Well, of course. It’s really the only thing to do,” Aeron was trying for blatant honesty, but if she remembered correctly, her pantyhoes were really itchy. “Part of having any sense of self, an identity, in this world is having it sold to you again and again in new ways. In this way your site, your show aren’t a new paradigm.”

“Ain’t that truth in advertising? You are who you want to be, what you let in.”

“That’s quaint, but irrelevant. But then again you’ve invested a lot in your identity, haven’t you?”

“Let’s hope this doesn’t become fetish fuel.”

“If you can sell it, you should.”

She’d gone on with her life after that, she did stints for the fun of it on the site every so often just to bother Henry and his growing team of “hopeful misfits” or however they identified. She’d even started a bit of a tryst with her secretary, a dubious choice, but what she lacked in trust for the somewhat clever woman was made up in affection.

She wasn’t likely to find the sender of the note anytime soon in any case, it was likely to become one of those crimeless cold cases that the paranormal community was known for. Even in their care.

Aeron wasn’t all together worried though, her work had barely changed at all. Even with Zoe’s bumped up status in her life.

They were all getting along well enough together, as another entertainment for her while on earth.