My Co-Worker is an Elf Girl?! (#thewattys2024)

Chapter 23 - It's Great That We Have a Common Language, Kinda

SAMARA'S APARTMENT - ANOTHER DAY
The cursor on Samara's laptop idly blinks. The marketing contest brainstorming document open on the screen is almost entirely barren.

Samara idly scrolls on her phone on a legally-distinct version of Twitter. Her feed is a list of posts with the hashtag "#elfcosplaygirl."

The posted photos are all cellphone pics of Remy walking about the city streets, twirling around with child-like wonder. Their super-zoomed-in, low-resolution nature makes her seem like a wandering cryptid from the Pacific Northwest.

Samara plays a video on her feed. It shows Remy running up to a random STRANGER.

REMY: "My lucky stars! Tis a real, breathing human!"

STRANGER: "W...what? What do you want?"

REMY: "I want a two-bedroom, two-bath household, a fair wife, and two and a half children to call my own! Can you show me where I may get those... and a job?"

The Stranger starts freaking out. They're clearly not equipped to deal with any of this.

STRANGER: "I...I can't help you; please go away...!"

REMY: "Wow! Humans and I can understand each other!"

Samara scrolls through the comments.

"wtf, who is this girl"

"anybody know her page? she's super cute"

"fellow ladies, what is stopping us from dressing like this?"

"this girl is living her best self"

"I am reminded of the sheer creativity of our homeless population every single day"

Samara pulls the top of her feed down to refresh. The page loads.

There have been no new posts, the most recent one being two days ago. Samara taps the bell symbol to follow the search and tabs out of the app.

SAMARA: "Nothing much I can do now..."

She lets out a sigh and opens up her texts. She seems to be working on a draft of a message.

SAMARA (reading to herself): "Hey Claire, I wanted to apologize for my harsh words the other day. Now that I have had time to cool down and think things over, I realized I overreacted. I am wondering if it is still possible for us to work together. I would be more than happy to..."

Samara scrolls through the rest of the text. Its length would put some research papers to shame. She lets out a frustrated sigh and proceeds to delete the entirety of her message.

A notification pops up on her phone. It's from a legally distinct version of Instagram. The post is a photo of Claire and her group members in an HMG conference room. They pose in front of a glass wall that has been covered with dry-erase marker scribblings as if they were in a period biopic warning the dangers of mixing friendship with greed. The post was made only a few seconds ago.

Samara stands straight up and fixes her clothes. She lets out her burdensome pride with an exhale.

OUTSIDE HOKIEN MEDIA GROUP - DAY
Samara ambles towards the entrance of the media conglomerate.
The wind begins to whistle an unnatural tune.
Sam stops in her tracks. The PERSON immediately behind crashes into her, spilling their iced coffee.