tale set around when felipe dies, explaining why this Costa Rican family has the last name Everest. will need to rewrite Alex's character profile, cause I want her to appear her with ezra explaining to here the name.
Would be 1st person POV from Alex. She's talking with someone at Site-Σ who asked about when she last saw her brother. Whole tale is her recalling the convo. During Felipe's funeral, her and Ezra stepped aside to get some fresh air. While together, Alex asks Ezra about their last name, and he tells her the story behind it:
Their grandfather, Felipe's father, was a poor farmer in southern Costa Rica. He wasn't well educated beyond agriculture, but he was very interested in geography. One of his most prized possessions, beyond his children, was an old geography book that he would read every night. One of his most favorite topics was Mount Everest, as he found the idea of the largest mountain fascinating. He would always tell Felipe facts about it. That was the seed for Felipe's admiration of the mountain and the idea to change the family name to it. The original family name was Zamora.
Grandfather admired Everest because it represented the unimaginable: this unbelievably giant mountain a whole planet away from his small farm.
Felipe adopted the name cause it represented striving upwards (the 1953 climb would've happened when he was young)
Ezra inherits it as an obligation
Alex inherits it as a ghost
Felipe would've kept that geography book, and gave it to Ezra. Ezra might've given it to Alex here. It'd be more than 50 years old at that point. Worn pages, cracked spine, annotations from abuelo.
Alexandria isn't really in touch with her emotions, and I want the narration to reflect that. She focuses on the wrong things, remembers little details instead of the big picture. She didn't understand the importance of this conversation at the time. She didn't listen carefully enough, didn't ask follow-up questions. Ezra was trying to reach out to her here, but she didn't pick up on that. He was already unraveling here, and she hadn't the faintest idea.
Layout:
Walking at Sigma with a coworker (ask badooga for recommendations? this role isn't really important) (badooga brought up that site-sigma has outside walking areas with plants and whatnot, that makes for some good set dressing) (badooga also brought up that Tactical Math has its own quadrant of the building, so one way to include that alex avoids tactical math because of its ties to AWD organically is "let's take a different route, I don't want to walk in the Tactical Math area") and they bring up Ezra. they ask Alex about him, and she brings this up.
When Felipe died, Alex traveled down to Costa Rica to attend the funeral. She talks about the mountain road, the humid air, an old family house, and relatives that she barely knows. She feels like an outsider in her family. Not because she's been shunned by them or anything (they take every opportunity to reach out to her), she's just emotionally distanced herself from all of them.
She talks about the funeral/wake. No crying scenes! Relatives sharing stories, "Felipito," coworkers from AWD whispering amongst themselves. First real mention of Ezra, Alex remembers seeing him look overwhelmed and failing to hide it. She keeps watching him without interacting with him.
Then she spots the geography book on a shelf, open to the Everest page. Some aunt or uncle talks about how Felipe fought with them to keep it after abuelo passed, and this piques her interest.
Ezra leaves the gathering. Catch some air, smoke? I don't think Ezra would smoke. Maybe AWD people keep bugging him? Alex follows him outside on accident, not really meaning to. Neither planned to talk with each other or meet out there, and yet.
They have some small talk. It's awkward, they haven't spoken or seen each other in years. They talk about travel, the funeral, their work at the Foundation, and how long Alex plans to stay. I want it to feel like two people trying to remember how to be siblings.
Eventually, Alex brings up the last name. Why Everest?
Ezra explains the story. Recounts what I said above. Abuelo fascinated with geography, faraway mountain. Always told Felipe about it and how one day they would climb it. Abuelo never saw snow, never traveled, never climbed anything outside of the local mountains, but Everest captivated him anyways.
Felipe used the name as a nickname in university. He started using it on papers, then professionally, eventually permanently. "“He said Zamora sounded like where we came from. Everest sounded like where he wanted to go.”
Alex asked if Felipe really believed all that. Ezra says something along lines of "he wanted to." This needs to be a banger line.
Alex cautiously asks Ezra about AWD. Ezra's already stressed. Being Director is hitting him hard, especially right after Felipe's death. Hint at him self-isolating and becoming paranoid. He's incapable of separating himself from the Department. He needs to sound tired here, not villainous like he is later on.
Alex admits she stayed away from AWD on purpose. Not because she hated Felipe or Ezra, but because she was scared of what it did to them. She was scared of being consumed by that same gravity. Ezra doesn't argue with this. Maybe he just doesn't say anything at all?
I want some final, concerning line from Ezra. He shows some vulnerability, something that strikes Alex as out-of-character for him. In retrospect, at least. In the moment, she brushes it off.
And then we return to the present for the ending, which is… Idk
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