Chapter 324: Oscar Outing II

With another kid his age in this whole Academy Awards nonsense, Alexander wouldn't stand out much.

He could erase the scrutiny in a way.

Queries such as why is this kid participating in this prestigious event would become too few in between.

If a little girl was accompanying her nominated father, then this little boy was most probably just accompanying someone as well.

It was a bit on the simple side but it should hopefully work.

However, that simplicity becomes complicated when a third kid comes along.

It was doubly complicated when it was Drew Barrymore that was adding to the equation.

"Prince... char... ming..." Especially so, when she interacts with you in such a weird way.

Fortunately, this part of the red carpet wasn't media heavy already, so lace news about the E.T. Kisser girl's "prince charming" wouldn't be in gossip headlines.

"Hello... Miss Barrymore." Alexander greeted reluctantly while Old Sullivan on the side can't help but snicker. "What did I tell you, little Drew? Didn't I say that I'll sort everything out for you?"

"Hehe!" Dressed-up Drew did a double OK gesture to convey the fine-ness of this meet-up.

"Since when have you two been in correspondence." It was apparent that he was set up here, so Alexander could only interrogate.

"Only for a little while." Old Sullivan admitted without shame.

"I actually only got to talk with Grandpa Sullivan after I got your gift." Drew supplemented. "Thank you for the second gift to me, by the way?"

"Gift? I don't remember giving you one at all." Alexander turned to his grandfather because he was the usual suspect in this kind of mess. "Let alone two."

"You really gifted things to me, you know." Drew affirmed. "...in a way. The first one was given to me by a friend while the other was given to me by my godfather and Director Lucas."

"That's their gift." Alexander kind of knew where this was going now but he asked anyways. "How could it be mine?"

"Your first gift to me is that romance graphic novel that I told you about while the second one is the Creed Chaos System."

Sure enough. The cat's finally out of the bag and it was this weirdly, clever little girl that caught it.

"Hehe! I know your secret now, you liar of a prince charming!" Drew grinned triumphantly. "Alex Creed. Aleksei Kreid. Alexander Creed. That's all you, isn't it?"

"I guess you got me." He certainly can't deny anything now. Alexander could only ask. "What are you going to do with this information though?"

"Blackmail material." Drew nodded as if it was a matter of fact.

-----

Because of that... Alexander's already-tense Oscar outing was as tense as can be.

There were a lot of risks when it came to this kind of event... especially for an introverted recluse like him. With his secrets and all that.

The tumultous red carpet walk with Drew Barrymore was just the start since there was still the televised show to sit through.

It was mentioned that the Academy Awards has been losing ratings and ABC and some Academy heads may do something crazy about it.

Then again, things weren't as worse as it was in the future, so it should be fine.

With that said, Robin Williams kicked things off by haggling with Pricewaterhouse accountants to expose the winners then and there.

The Oscar ballot winners were right by their hands and a "yes" would have ended the event early.

A quick read-through of nominees against winners would have been just right.

In his opinion, dragging things out for hours with unnecessary fanfare was the wrong thing. It was an inefficient process for people that just want some fake-golden figurine.

Alexander hoped that this wasn't just some teasing bit, however, things wouldn't just go his way...

With that bombastic drumroll and showcase of film titles, Back to the Future included...

The narrator kicked things off with a gravitas-filled, "Welcome to the 58th Annual Academy Awards!"

Then, there were the other event hosts, with the Aerobics trendsetter Jane Fonda and M*A*S*Her Alan Alda as well.

Their "Good evening, all 1 billion of you..." line, although exaggerated, really gets one thinking.

There were most probably a lot of people watching tonight that they had to call on the linguistic services of Robin Williams again.

Through Fonda and Alda, along with William's "linguistic" imitation, the Academy sent greetings to the People's Republic of China... a fond hello to the people of India... hello to the French... special hello and congratulations to the people of the Philippines...

The "people" power in these countries was not to be underestimated. Maybe the Academy was hoping to spike up ratings with these special mentions.

Granted, the ratings and type of people tuning on were the least of Alexander's worries...

After a dig into how writers are the least appreciated, all the nominees were asked to stand so that they be honored...

Alexander's incredibly cold expression was not anywhere close to honored at all.

Curious Bob grimaced, Old Sullivan had his laugh, while the people nearby didn't know what to make of it.

Fortunately, the live camera was on wide and the focus was not on a little guy like him.

If anything, the focus of the cameras throughout the whole night was not anywhere near him at all.

What was he even worried about?

Even in the category in which he was nominated in, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, he didn't have many smidgens of screen time.

The Oscar of the current needn't spare for those split-screen nominee reactions, cause as it turns out when you're a writer who didn't really get voted to win, nobody really cares for you.

The treatment of creatively-fuelling writers aside, this tense thing became great out of nowhere and Alexander was all for it.

He even gave a minor applause for Back to the Future's rare win with Sound Effects Editing.

He had his priorities and keeping his anonymity throughout this high-profile event was the best win for him.

-----

Of course, this whole Oscar outing wasn't done yet and he had to meet these so-called curious Academy members that were on the lookout for him.

There are horror stories about these old folks being weirdly touchy and sexually harrassy... and Alexander can't really think of much reason why he was called out. So vigilance is key.

Then again, that was a bust again.

These curious Academy members were just old folks that were around Old Sullivan's age and knew him very well.

This whole fiasco, as it turns out, was Old Sullivan's bragging fest.

"Curse you and you're luck, Sullivan." were the lines that the old folks spurred out.

Their elderly peer's rise and the secret to his rise were too shocking for their old bones and hearts.

"Why did I have to be here again?" Alexander could only ask.

"Because you lost a lot of important sleep for a month." Old Sullivan reminded that this was one of his weird punishments again. "By the way, these old folks are old friends from my early Hollywood days. They're lofty now and I want them to lose sleep so they peg down their snobbiness a lot. Haha!"

Must be revenge for his disgraceful exit to San Fernando Valley. Alexander can't blame the old man for his pettiness.

And there you have it. The whole fear of being outed at the Oscars was just paranoia overdone.

It was a simple outing as can be...

-----

Even down to the last moments of it...

Steven Spielberg had to approach him to explain her goddaughter's earlier antics. "I apologize for anything weird that Drew has said to you. She just likes to kid around."

"I also apologize for being the one to blab your secret to her as well." The Jaws director grimaced at his fault. Drew wouldn't have known if he could just keep his jaw shut.

"Uhm... it's alright." Alexander didn't mind. What he was mindful of was the fact that someone like Steven Spielberg was strangely apologetic to him.

Then again, he kind of deduced the reason as well. The StevenSpielberg account in the system leaderboards is a dead giveaway.

Also, aside from the failed E.T. game, this film director actually has quite an interest in video games.

"Kuhum..." Spielberg coughed because he was kind of embarrassed. It just feels discomfiting to do this to a little kid. "I like your games, by the way. Especially the simple Dino Jump game. Something about that pixelated T-rex just calls to me."

Of course, it would. At some point in his directorial career, he's most likely going to make a film about dinosaurs. With him being most keen with the T-rex.

"Thanks." Was all that Alexander could say. This whole meeting kind of sprung up on him and he's just reacting as he could.

"If you don't mind me asking, for curious George that is..." Steven threw his Academy-averse friend under the bus, even though he was the truly curious one. "What exactly is your next game going to be about?"

"I really didn't have much development time, so I'm not too proud of it." Weird ask but Alexander still answered. "However, it's going to be about birds."

"Birds?" Spielberg didn't have much context.

"The flappy kind."

"So... flappy birds?" Spielberg didn't know what to make of this.

"Yep." In any case, Alexander affirmed that since without a doubt, his next game was going to be "Flappy Birds."

It was a simple game with simple gameplay but it becomes tense and frustrating even when it clearly isn't. Just like how this whole Oscar outing experience has been for him.