Chapter 8: Action background

A/N Part 1 AND WE'RE BACK! Ok, I am SO SORRY everybody for taking so long! I've been on a three month hiatus for two reasons. I've been busy doing other stuff, especially finishing university stuff, travelling, my blog, etc. The other reason is I'm kinda on writer's block… I knew how one particular scene was gonna play out, but I didn't know what was gonna happen between now and that scene. So I had to fix up a few stuff so that the writing didn't feel forced.

Also, if anybody is interested, I posted a detailed description of Jacq in a Tintin Forum. Go find it and check it out if you wanna (it includes how I came up with the concept of the character and all).

Thank you all for being so very patient, and please enjoy chapter 8!

The next morning Jacq woke on the ground with all the sofa cushions and a soft blanket. She gently opened her eyes to notice the sunrise out the window. Compared to yesterday, she felt much better than she had in a while. She twisted her body, stretched herself and then flexed her arms to touch her head, where she soon realized she had very soft hair.

It took a while for Jacq to notice, but she looked around and noticed that half of the girls were sleeping. The other half, including Sally South and Leo, were probably downstairs having breakfast and didn't want to disturb them while they slept.

So Jacq went to the bathroom to fix herself up. Whether her hair had gone back curly again or her make-up ran off, Jacq felt better than ever. Looking at herself in the mirror, her eyes had stopped looking puffy from all the crying and more beautiful from the make-up that the girls had later put on her. The eyeliner had run-off a bit, but Jacq easily fixed it with some tissue paper she found next to the mirror. Her hair was still soft, say a bit messy for moving so much against her pillow. Jacq brushed her hair and took another look at herself. She looked like a movie star. However, deep inside of her she felt like the first time she saw Tintin on that cruise ship. Jacq saw her reflection grin back at herself.

Suddenly, the door opened to reveal all the girls running with newspapers, calling all the girls to wake up.

"Get up, girls!" said Toni, "You're not gonna believe this!"

Xxx

After Tintin, Haddock and Snowy, now with all the ribbons taken off, arrived at the hotel to meet up with the girls, they were about to enter the elevator. Tintin was still thinking about last night and his experience. Did he feel something for Jacq?

"Captain," he asked his friend before he could press the button for the elevator.

"What is it Tintin?" said the Captain using another tissue to take off a bit of mascara still stuck on his eyes. He had finally taken most of it off, and began to look more like himself again, and less with the pretty eyes. Tintin asked after a big silent breath of air, "Do you think I should ask Jacq on a date?"

Haddock felt himself smile inside, "Aye, so you like her?"

Tintin started to sweat and shake again. "Yes, I mean… as a friend… you said that you invite someone on a date when you like that person. But I never… well, I did go with Miss Martine, but…"

Haddock pressed the button for the elevator and looked back at his friend. "What are you waiting for? Do you like her or not? There's a chance that Jacqueline likes you too. There's one way to find out! Just ask her out, lad!" He said with enthusiasm.

"Well, I've never seen you this excited before, Captain," said Tintin. Haddock was acting as if he were reading out loud a romantic novel.

Haddock thought back to himself. "Oh… I don't know… must be a phase I'm going through."

Tintin sighed and tried to talk about Jacq again, "I don't know. I never felt like this before. Why do I feel this way for her?"

Haddock put his hand on Tintin's shoulder and gave him some advice. "It's your first time feeling like this, isn't it? I've been through the exact same thing you did when I was younger. Well… when I was young. A part of me was excited, but another part was terrified. It's completely normal for your age." Haddock began to look back at his past, and all the women he has ever fallen in love with. He continued, "I suggest you should ask her out and find out. Whether she is the one or not doesn't matter. What matters is what you feel for her right now, lad. If you don't do anything, you'll never know."

The elevator doors opened and Tintin said, "Maybe I should… but not right now, though. We're trying to solve a mystery, and it wouldn't be the appropriate time." Tintin walked up to the door. He then turned around and said, "And don't mention any of this to Jacq. It should be a surprise for her, and I don't want to let her know that we're hiding anything from her." Tintin knocked the door to find Jacq with her hair and make-up done. She looked more beautiful than ever. Tintin froze in place as he saw her.

"Tintin!" said Jacq. "Good morning. Great that you're here now! Come in!" Jacq turned around, not noticing his expression. "Hey," she turned around and saying from afar, "Are you coming, or what?"

Tintin immediately said, "WAFFLES!"

"Eh… No thanks. I already ate. Maybe next time. Come on! Did you read it in the papers? We're not sure if it's real or not. It's been all over the gossip," said Jacq quickly glancing at him and going to the room to grab the newspaper.

In his head, Tintin wanted to say that she looked "beautiful", but then he thought "cute", then "sweet" and then thought of "waffles". He was beginning to lose his mind!

Tintin rubbed his face quickly before she could read his expression. He knew that if she saw his face, she'd find out that he's hiding something from her. Keeping a serious face and his emotions in check, he walked into the room and found the girls passing the newspaper to him. He and the Captain carefully read it. Their expressions changed as they read the newspaper.

In bold capital letters, it said:

IS VERMONT STUDIOS DONE FOR? SHUTTING DOWN IN ONE MONTH.

"GREAT SNAKES!" he said. He continued to read: despite the numerous threats, people involved in the film studio had reported these threats to the police. Rumors had spread that these people demanded the studio to be shut down as soon as possible. Mr. Bucks didn't comment, but people suspect he's considering to shut down the studio.

One of the girls, Jim, kept on saying, "It's pretty serious stuff there." He tried to continue the article, but with her screaming over him he couldn't concentrate. "It's about the Vermont case. There's more on the next page."

Tintin said, "I'm a journalist. I can read."

"Whoops. Sorry. Hi hi…"

They flipped to the next page and read more details. It didn't seem to say anything about who's suspected for throwing these threats. Tintin wondered whether it could have been the gangsters from that Casino. But if so, why would they want to threaten the company? And what did Mr. Maroon know about this that linked to the threats?

Tintin, Haddock, Snowy and Jacq decided to head to the police station to find out more. They ran as fast as they could to the police station and ask the victims some questions themselves.

Arriving a few minutes later, they saw some reporters waiting outside the station. Tintin said, "Crumbs. If we try to enter, they'll think we're getting a story for a newspaper. And if we try to approach the station, the reporters will try to interview us. How are we going to get some information?"

Then a familiar journalist/photographer went out of the crowd with a happy look on his face. That little journalist was the same guy who spread the story about Vermont, and the one who took the photo of them in Mr. Bucks's office. "Hallelujah!" he said to himself, "I got enough information to fill the story for tomorrow's newspaper. HA! I'll be getting my third raise this month!"

Tintin, Haddock and Jacq looked at each other with the same idea in their heads.

"YOU!" said Haddock pointing at the guy. He grabbed him by his shirt before he had any chance of escaping. "What do you know about these victims?"

"Please! Don't hurt me, Mister… is that mascara?"

Haddock pushed him against the wall, still infuriated that he still couldn't take off all of the make-up.

"We won't hurt you," said Tintin. They brought him away from the rest of the press just in case other people were to listen and get in the way. They took him behind the police station's building and began asking the guy. Tintin continued, "You were in the police station today. Please tell us everything you know about the case. Or at least anything you could figure out."

"Oh… you're that Tintin reporter! Yeah, I'm sorry about the taking the photos and all… If you want to solve a case, it doesn't matter. It's already solved."

"Answer him, you little twerp!" said the Captain. "And what do you mean the case is solved?"

"Alright! I'll start from the top. The victims were threatened in one way or another. A few of these people, about four or five of them, were blindfolded, punched and were told by someone to quit their jobs at Vermont if they valued their lives. Some received the threats by post, some received it through phone calls, and some found out from each other. Still, some of them haven't quit their jobs."

Jacq put her hand over her chin like a detective and said, "Yeah. I think I get it now. These rumors might be used as a tool to spread fear among people, and that's how they get them to quit their jobs." She then asked the kid, "Any ideas who this might have been?"

"Well, one of the victims had found a poker chip from the casino: The Pyramid."

"The Pyramid?" said everyone in unison. So that clue was leading somewhere.

"Yeah. And not just that person. One of the crew members happened to find the poker chip as well and knowing about the other poker chip reproted it to the police. So police speculate that it's the Fist Mafia behind all this."

"Who are the Fist Mafia?" asked Tintin.

"The Fists are perhaps one of the biggest most powerful criminal organizations in the city, if not, THE biggest and THE most powerful. No one knows much about them, but they do know that the Fists were hiding underneath the Pyramid based on some evidence and witnesses. Even if they can't find the leader of the mafia, they know that the owner of the Pyramid is aiding them. Now the police are off to ask questions the owner of the Pyramid, and possibly even shut down the casino until they find the leader of the mafia and the rest of the members of the organization. They're gone to interrogate the owner."

"They left already?" asked Tintin.

"Well, you weren't there, but some of the cops had left behind the back so that none of the reporters could interfere. But I showed them: I was out back and pulled out information myself!"

Haddock said, "You realize you're getting arrested for pulling out confidential information."

"Not if they don't know who leaked out the story! They don't even know my name. HA!"

Tintin was giving his usual expression again: that something that the kid said which felt wrong. The police solved the case quite quickly, or at least they did… it all felt too quick and easy. But why? Maybe it was a missing piece of the puzzle. Something that was right in front of them. And why couldn't Mr. Maroon fit in to this? Tintin asked the kid, "So they concluded it was the Fist Mafia who did all this? What would they have against Vermont and why would they want to do all this?"

"We don't know, but we know that they have links to various companies. One theory is that they want to get rid of one company to make another film company like MGM or RKO to grow. It's like two equally successful fruit companies: when you get rid of one competition, all the frits go to the other company. More fruits allow more trade."

Jacq asked one last thing, "And was there any mentioning of Mr. Maroon?"

"What? Nah. No mention of that director. And if you're interested, there's no direct link that I could find between the studio itself and the Fists, but for now we know it's the Fists who did this. Now let me go. That's all I could find." Haddock let him go.

Suddenly Jacq said in a flirtatious tone, "Well, geesh. I must say you're very talented to be able to pick up on that information. You must have done this for a long time." Tintin and Haddock looked at Jacq questioning her actions. Why was she acting this way?

The kid was looking at the pretty lady with the lovely face. "… Oh thanks. I have been practicing for a long time, Miss… Jacqueline, right?" He began blushing like a tomato.

"Yes, I'm Jacqueline Jones, but you can call me Jackie. And thank you for your help. We couldn't have done it without you, Mister… oh, I'm sorry. I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Mr. Fred Hunter. But you can call me Freddy."

Then she broke her act. "Ha! Now I know the name of the guy who leaked confidential information from the police."

"DANG IT!"

"Gotcha."

As the others let out a smirk, someone else secretly hearing them from afar thought to himself, "Ah. Clever girl."

Xxx

After letting the police know to watch out for Freddy, which would make Freddy to keep his mouth shut for now, they went to ask Mr. Bucks about any more information he had about his connection to the Fists.

"Now, now. Who is this? I said no interviews. Woah, kid! You look ravishin'," said Mr. Bucks who immediately noticed Jacq in the room. "Didn't know that was you. And your friends are here too… is that mascara?"

"Yes, and some eyeliner. It wasn't on purpose," said Haddock.

Mr. Bucks then immediately reverted to his upset state. "I've been getting numerous calls and numerous letters telling me that everyone's quittin'. And some other people quit for their own safety." He sat down in his desk again. "Sure, it wasn't everyone who quit. I had some people stay with us, but with some of the actors and crew quittin', we won't be able to continue some of our films. Everythin' is put on hold, and I'm beginning to get scared. The police is all around, and we don't have enough time to film or edit anythin' when so many people are filling out complaints or the cops are asking them questions."

"So is it true? Are you're selling the company?" asked Tintin.

"Nah, nah. That was some publicity sell… but I've been considerin' it. What if these threats are true, and someone ends up gettin' killed? Maybe it's best if I do shut it down. That must've been where the rumors started."

"No! Please don't!" said Jacq leaning in front of his desk. "You shouldn't give up! Not now! Not like this! Don't give up just because others are telling you to do it!"

Mr. Bucks tilted his head up at her. "Kid. I'm glad you're showing so much enthusiasm… Now I know how much it feels like to be in your place." Jacq sighed. Mr. Bucks continued, "Anyway, you're still here. I'm sure that if anyone comes to threaten you with a bullet to the head, you'll still be standing here and be loyal."

"Mr. Bucks, I will never leave this company if it matters so much to you," said Jacq.

"Neither will I," said Sally who everyone noticed when she entered the door. She still had her wig on, but she came to talk to Mr. Bucks.

"Oh… easy for you to say, Sally," said Mr. Bucks. "You won't be without a job. You still have other contracts with distributors and film companies. It's everyone else who might lose their jobs. Including me."

"Not so fast," said someone else behind Sally. It was Mr. Calvin in a white suit, and Simon who had brought him in. "I still might be able to help out."

Snowy thought, "Wow. Now almost everyone's been inside this guy's office! How many times have we been here, anyway? About three, four times?"

"… Really? Can you really do that?" said Mr. Buck whose face was lighting up a bit, yet a bit skeptical.

"I do. I saw the opportunity to help out when I read the newspaper." He lit up a cigarette and started smoking it. "You see, I'm on the pre-production of a film, and we're at the casting stage for the moment. It'll guarantee a success according to most of the filmmakers, perhaps an Academy Award. Its low budget and its possible hit at the box-office suggests that it'll make enough profit for both our company and your company as well. If it turns out to be a commercial success, I'll be willing to offer about forty per cent of the profit."

"Forty per cent?" everyone asked.

"That's right. I calculated it myself. Although I could also contribute from my own pocket if it's not enough."

"That's so generous of you!" said Simon.

Mr. Calvin finished half of his cigarette, "On ONE condition." He entered the office to press the cigarette against the silver cigarette dish.

"Blistering Barnacles," said Haddock, "There's always a catch with these business men."

"I'm not asking for much. Just a missing piece to complete the puzzle." He pointed at Jacq. "Her."

Haddock burned out steam and said, "You SICK little… Freshwater jerk! Iconoclast! Forcing her to do such a horrible thing! I knew a lot of men in my time, but YOU'RE just a sexist monster!"

"It's not horrible, it's -" Mr. Calvin's expression changed. "Wait, what do you mean 'sexist'?"

"You can't force her to marry you! She doesn't even love you!"

"WHAT? NO! I want her to be the star of the film! It's not an arranged marriage!"

"… It's not?"

"NO! I'm not forcing anyone else to be anyone's wife, much less MY wife! What made you think such a thing?"

Everyone stared at the Captain awkwardly. "Oh…" said Haddock. "Never mind then. Forget what I said." Perhaps Haddock was thinking too much about Tintin and Jacq's relationship so much that he really was in a "hopeless romantic phase".

"Well, back to what I was saying, we haven't confirmed the male lead, but we're hoping to have a big name actor. As for the female lead, I considered Jacqueline for the part, possibly to make her name big around the media. Her charm and acting skills might be enough for people to fall in love with the movie. The more we attract viewers, the better. Especially when they find out who her parents are, what she did in Bordwell, and that she's friends with very special people. Including the famous Ace Reporter."

Still unsure she said "… I don't know." Tintin looked at Jacq anticipated.

"It's an opportunity of a lifetime, Jacqueline. An offer you can't refuse. On top of that, you can help out with Vermont if it matters so much to you."

"I still need time to think about it."

"I tell you what? How about I invite you to my mansion for dinner and we discuss the film in detail. That way you can truly make up your mind about my little offer."

Jacq pondered for a bit. She then said, "Ok. I'll go to your house and we'll talk about it."

"Very good," said Mr. Calvin shaking her hand. "I hope you can see things my way."

Later, the group went outside walking across the now half-empty studio. Sally tried to adjust her wig before she spotted any reporters and left to the hotel again to tell the girls what had happened. Tintin then asked, "Jacq, I understand that you want to help Vermont Studios, but why did you say yes?" He stopped her from walking by standing in front of her. "Tell me you didn't give up on your dream to be a filmmaker."

"Tintin, you know me better than that. I'm not giving up my dream to be a filmmaker. I also have to think about Mr. Calvin and the studio. Mr. Calvin did seem like he wanted to help, but even so I don't know whether I'll accept his offer or not. Even if I do, I'll try to do filmmaking on the side. And if I don't want to act in his film, I'll politely refuse."

Tintin somehow saw her much more sure of herself. Like nothing could pull her down. He didn't know why she was acting this way, but he did admire her attitude. He had also impressed her with that stunt earlier that day. Jacq had always found a way to surprise him every single time.

"So!" said Roxie who walked in front of them. "I heard you were considered for Mr. Calvin's film." She said almost in disgust.

"Sorta…" said Jacq a bit uncomfortable near Roxie. "I don't think I'm going to take it."

"Right. You get everything, but you don't care." Roxie left and went past Jacq, hitting her in the shoulder. "Apparently you're too good to star in a feature." While she was walking away, Tintin just had the urge to scream at her.

A/N Part 2 So I'm doing some projects during this summer aside from fan fiction: be sure to check out my film blog Dani and the Screen at Glitterazi.

I haven't thought exactly what my next Tintin and Jacq adventure is gonna be about (maybe just Jacq filming her first movie just as a Castafiore Emerald kind of story), BUT I've considered an idea which I might or might not do: A Tintin Musical! Well, to be precise (eh? Get it?), each chapter has a different scenario within the Tintin continuity, like an event in one of the comics, or an event that happened in my fanfic (because I made it part of the continuity), and it'll feature an existing musical number from a musical. Like Thompson and Thomson could sing "If I didn't have you" and Tintin and Jacq could sing a duet like "So Close". I chose a few songs already (especially from Disney. I go mad for Disney), and for some songs I'll be changing the lyrics depending on the scenario, but if you want this to be even more possible, I'd LOVE some songs requests! Maybe if doesn't have to be from a musical. If fitting, it could be a pop or rock song or something (just give me the scenario and I can write that down). What do you think of the idea? What are some songs that someone like Tintin or Haddock could sing on their own? A song for Snowy, if you can think of one? REQUEST! REQUEST! REQUEST!

OH WELL! It's been over a year since I created my account posted How I met Tintin! Glad I was able to stick around for so long. And so glad I had so many readers. I wouldn't have been able to work without you guys! Please continue to support my fanfics and THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!

See ya in Chapter 9! Hope not to take too long!