Participants:
| Scene Title | Dirkese for Helpful |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | If that's when Dirk's trying to be helpful … well, Graeme's not pleased with it, really. |
| Date | March 10, 2011 |
It's afternoon, after Graeme's finished his day at work, and he's doing something today that he's been meaning to do for a while. Dressed in his 'teacher clothing', which today consists of nice black jeans, a light blue button-down shirt, and a black cashmere sweater. Enough that he doesn't feel uncomfortable as he walks into Studio K, looking around. The first passing person that he sees gets flagged down. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Kristen Reynolds?"
The first person that is flagged down isn't very helpful at all, mild mannered school teachers are the sort of people that starmakers eat for breakfast. Pointing in a vague direction that leads somewhere other than here Graeme is given directions that first lead to the janitor's closet. Second set given by someone that's almost in as big of a rush but a little more of a practical jokester have him finding the ladies toilet. It's the third person that's a little more helpful. "Back to the main lobby, ask the guard, and get a visitor's pass."
It's a hassle. It really is. But that's showbiz.
After 30 minutes of the run around, a petite blonde man steps into the main lobby of the building from a hallway that Graeme had been down before. He's dressed impeccably in a pair of dress pants, a button down shirt with a mandarin collar, and a pair of really shiny shoes. He doesn't go over to Graeme right away, though the Visitor tag on his shirt is noted. Instead, he saunters to the desk and converses with the guard for another five minutes before finally rolling his eyes and turning to face the teacher.
"Tweedle Dee here says that you're looking for Miss Reynolds, do you have an appointment?"
By now, Graeme has exhausted his supply of patience. And by the time that the blonde man comes out, his supply of being mild-mannered is pretty much exhausted too, though the southwestern drawl does soften the clip of his words. "You can tell her that someone she nearly drove over on the sidewalk two weeks ago is here to see her. I'd appreciate if you stop wasting my time, and make that happen." Graeme is confident that he is higher on the social ladder than the man that he is talking to, and it shows. There is confidence in his words, and confidence in his posture, which doesn't seem to show any signs of having tired for being sent back and forth for thirty minutes and having to wait around (and he has chosen to stand, the whole time). Endurance has it's advantages.
Only one of blond's eyes narrow and he offers a sharkish smile to Graeme. "Well in that case, you should follow me." Anyone who knows the executive assistant at all knows that the concession is made a little too easily, Dirk never makes anything easy. Ever. "I didn't realize you were so important, Mister…" His voice trails off as he dips his hands into his pockets and starts leading Graeme down a different hallway than the one he appeared from. "Name's Dirk, by the way, I have a few jobs around here." It's said with quite a bit of false pride.
However, Graeme does follow. Unfortunately for Dirk, he doesn't give his name. "Right then. And Kristen Reynolds is here today, yes?" There's a hint of that Graeme may well get very displeased if his time is being wasted. "I'm quite sure she will want to make time in her schedule to see me."
Unfortunately for Graeme, Dirk really doesn't care about wasting other people's precious time. "Well as long as you're sure she'll make the time to see you, Mister…" Again, he pauses, waiting for Graeme to fill in the name that's written clearly on the badge. He could read it but that would be a waste of his precious time. "You must be some pretty important exec or something, I mean, she doesn't just make time out of her day to see just anyone."
A snap of his fingers and a smarmy point toward the teacher are the first signs that Dirk remembers what Graeme provided as introduction. "Oh yeah, you said that she almost ran you over… riiiiiiiight." A narrow eyed sleazy smile is points up at the other man as Dirk turns his back on him and continues down the hallway.
The studio is built, quite simply, like a maze and it's just possible that Graeme sees a person or thing that he's seen before as Dirk leads him around chatting amiably the entire time. "So when was it that she supposedly ran you down?"
There's a look at one of the doorways they pass, and then Graeme sees the hallway Dirk originally came out from. "Cormac. Graeme Cormac." He stops in his tracks, and reaches, grabbing Dirk's shoulder to stop the young man from just going on. "Now, why don't we just cut the crap, and you show me where she is right now." The words are more clipped now, more New York and less New Mexico. "Oh yes, and by the way? I can keep walking far long after you tire of this, Dirk. Because you will tire of your little game before I do."
The helpful and friendly attitude that Dirk had been displaying up until this point quickly drops when the hand lands on his shoulder. As though picking something rather unsavory off his person two fingers latch onto Graeme's index finger and pluck the hand up, letting it drop once he's moved his body one step in the other direction. "Mister Cormac, I'll show you where K is when and if I ever get ready to. Until I know what this is all about, we're going to walk in circles until you get so fed up you either give me a reason to call the cops or you leave." His own endurance isn't really called into question as Dirk has about a million little motorized vehicles stashed in various spots to make his own life a little more comfortable.
Graeme takes a matching step to Dirk's. "Until such time as Miss Reynolds tells me herself that this is any of your business, it isn't," he says. "And if it comes to it, I'm quite sure I can find her office on my own." He has a good idea that it's down the one corridor Dirk hasn't gone down in said little circles. "I don't get fed up easily, really." He eyes the hallway, turns, and starts walking towards it.
"Right then, good luck~" Taking a few steps away from Graeme, Dirk makes his way back to the main lobby. There's a friendly wave of his hand over one shoulder in parting but that's all the decorum that the visitor is shown anymore.
Down that one corridor ends up taking Graeme past quite a few large double doors. They're labeled with large letters and locked, though there is commotion coming from behind them all and the red lights are on over the frame. Filming. Past those, there's an intersection with three branches, one to either side and one straight ahead. Of course there's never a sign anywhere when you need one and the halls seem somewhat devoid of life.
Down one end, Graeme can hear Dirk's voice as he's talking to what sounds like another man. An argument perhaps. Moments later a lanky black man shoves his way past the teacher and turns to stomp down the hall directly ahead of him.
For now, the easiest option is straight, and so Graeme goes straight, stepping to one side and then rolling his shoulders as he is shoved past, one raised eyebrow at the stomping but not much more care given. He's got time, no particular where to be until the fact that he needs to get back home in the evening, but that's hours from now. In the mean time, he's most interested in finding Kristen Reynolds, and he's holding onto his mental snapshot that has been put together from the few views that he got of her. His hands shove into his pockets, and he continues walking.
The hallway takes a sharp right angle at the end and extends about thirty feet before it hits a dead end. All along the corridor are doors and windows, apparently Graeme has found his way into teh sound wing of Studio K. The black man that pushed past him just a while go? He's sitting in one of the sound booths with a hedset on while a guitarist wail away on his ax in a sound proofed room. The teacher is ignored, if only because the thin man has his back turned toward him and the guitarist is really only paying attention to the music rather than what's going on in the hall.
Unfortunately, the room is locked and there's a red light on over the door.
One hallway down, two more to go. Graeme turns around, and when he comes to the fork in the hall, turns left. Which would have been right, when he had originally been walking. And at least walking around the myriad halls of the studio by himself is far, far less annoying than walking around behind Dirk had been.
This portion of the building is void of doors and windows, making it a little claustrophobic to traverse. When it lets out into a larger main area, Graeme will find it very familiar, the main lobby. Upon turning around again it becomes clear that this hallway is the one that Dirk originally appeared from.
Looking up from his paper, the guard raises his eyebrows to Graeme and lifts his chin(s). He's a portly fellow but by the thickness of his arms, it's evident that he's not just a donut eater. "You done?" With a grunt, he gets up off his chair with a clipboard and starts walking over to the educator. It's sign out time~
"No," Graeme says. He pauses, though, waiting for the security guard to walk over. "I don't want to particularly make your job difficult," he says, with a genuine smile much different than the one that he'd had on his face while talking to Dirk, "but I'm not done yet, and I'll be done after I've talked to Miss Reynolds." He turns around, turning to go back down the hall he'd come from, and this time down the hall towards where he'd heard Dirk's voice.
Shrugging and turning to go back down to his desk, the guard waits until Graeme has gone down the hallway a ways before picking up the phone and murmuring into it.
What Graeme finds himself in when he follows the hall toward Dirk's voice is what seems to be another lobby. It's smaller than the main one, but there are a few chairs lining one wall, some of them already occupied with people holding various books and files. At the reception desk sits that little blond man with a 'cat that ate the canary' grin on his face. "Mister Cormac~" he practically sings as the teacher comes into view. "Seems you were right, you can find Miss Reynold's office all by yourself." He reaches for his drawer and pulls out a black notebook that's filled with various sticky notes and loose sheets of paper and he flips it open. "Buuuuuut she's booked solid for the day. Aww." The assistant's lower lip juts out a touch in a pout and he makes a tiny little blee~blee~blee~ noise as his finger flicks at it.
That lasts for only a second or three before Dirk points to the chairs and the people in them. "Tell you what though, if you want to convince one of these nice people who have been waiting almost all day to see her to let you take one of their spots, I could fit you in."
Graeme doesn't particularly seem to care, and he ignores the people who've been waiting. There's a faint air of irritation about him, and he glances around for the door to Kristen's office. He glances back at Dirk again, and there's a slight smirk on Graeme's face, before he pulls out his cell phone, flicking through for pictures.
"You can tell Miss Reynolds that I have pictures from the night of the 25th that she would be … interested in seeing," he says. There's another glance towards her office, and Graeme rocks back on his heels, blinking a few times that seems to be more out of habit than anything else.
Rolling his eyes, Dirk picks up the headset on his desk and languidly places it on his head. He takes his time to adjust the mic to precisely the right spot, even going so far as to hit the announcement button his phone and blaring the little waiting area with "testing-one-two… testing.. testing.." Until the mic is positioned in a manner that makes his lovely voice come out crystal clear. Then he smiles, quite serenely in fact, at the people waiting in the chairs. "Sorry about this."
Three buttons are pushed on the keypad of the phone with the eraser end of a pencil. That same end gets tapped against the calendar blotter of his desk as he sings doot~dee~doo~ while waiting for the producer to pick up.
doot~dee~doo~
Finally Dirk's face lights up, she must have finally answered the phone. Whatever she's saying can't be heard through the small earpiece connected to the mic, but Dirk's face falls a little apologetically as his silence continues. "Uh huh… got it…" Then, instead of hanging up at the end, he holds the pencil to the end of his nose and crosses his eyes to focus on it. "K, yeah… There's a Mister Graham Cracker here to see you? Says he has some pictures or something?" Pause. "Uh huh… Okay then~ I will~" Dirk smiles brightly at Graeme and points to the chairs. "She said have a seat."
Graeme doesn't sit, though. "Cormac." In his hands, his pockets are balled into fists, and he walks over towards a slightly more out of the way place to stand than in the middle of the small lobby. He waits for a few minutes, before he walks back over to the reception desk.
A card is drawn out, a simple personal one, with name and cell number, and left on the counter, and there is an edge behind Graeme's voice when he leans on the counter. It is very, very different than as it's been so far. "You tell Miss Reynolds that I have photos she'd like to see. I will be back, or she can call me. I don't particularly care which. And next time, I don't want to be hindered by scum of the earth like you. Because right now I'm far, far more tempted to simply turn them over to the police. I doubt she'd like it if you were the cause of that, now would she?" A pause. "I'm sure the police would love to have them, though." Graeme doesn't wait for a response from Dirk, and there's grim satisfaction on his face from getting to call Dirk 'scum of the earth'. Not as much satisfaction as beating the crap out of him, maybe, but still; Graeme's temper is well and buried and not visible in his facial expression. He turns around, and at an even pace, casual and relaxed even, makes his way out of the building.
It could have gone worse.
