Participants:
| Scene Title | Media Industry Beware |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Graeme and Phillip meet. |
| Date | May 18, 2011 |
A Park
Elisabeth is not exactly at ease with all of this, but it is a gesture of trust. She texted Phillip and asked him to meet her, choosing a small, quiet residential park in which to have Graeme meet them. She's wearing a pair of comfortably worn jeans that hug her curves and a 3/4-sleeve soft pink top, her hair loose to her hips except for two locks on the side that are pulled back into a barette at her nape to sort of contain the wavy mass of blonde. She stands near Phillip, her hands shoved into her back pockets, rocking on the balls of her feet.
"So Graeme's specialty is sort of social dynamics. What might influence a group one direction or another. And uhm… I have a little bit of additional information that I think the three of us need to talk about when he gets here."
Dressed in business casual attire (blue-black with dark gray penstriped suit over a pressed oxford - unbuttoned and no tie), Phillip stands patiently with Liz, his demeanor relaxed, yet anticipating and curious of the direction the pending meeting with go. He listens quietly to Liz's assessment and questions nothing. Is just watchful and mindful of the environment and who may be watching or approaching them.
Coming to the park means walking the dog, and so when Graeme arrives, it is with Odin happily loping along ahead of him, a enormous Great Dane that Elisabeth probably didn't warn Phillip to expect. And given that Liz is one of those that the Great Dane likes and that Graeme has gotten to accept as friend, while Graeme is still fifteen feet back, the dog slows to a halt in front of Liz before headbutting her hip, gently but still playful, although wary of Liz's companion.
Graeme is a little behind the dog, dark faded jeans and a teeshirt, sweater from earlier having been abandoned despite the wet spring weather. There's a nod of greeting to Phillip when he catches up with the dog, and then a much more relaxed smile and nod of greeting for Elisabeth. "Hey there, you," he says, a drawl trailing through his voice as he reaches to ruffle the dog's ears. "C'mon, settle down, Odin. I know you like her, you great beast of a thing, but. Sit." With the command, though, the dog does sit.
As she watches the environs Elisabeth's blue eyes are shuttered, alert to possible dangers. Her head tilts occasionally as if she's listening to something only she can hear — which is entirely possible considering her ability — and as Graeme approaches she instinctively steps protectively between the two men's locations with her back to Phillip, her hand slipping back to her waist where the butt of her pistol is hidden beneath her blouse in the small of her back. When she IDs him for certain, her posture eases and she steps slightly to one side again, her hand falling to invite Odin for a scritch. She doesn't even have to bend.
"Hi yourself," Elisabeth offers with a small smile. "Graeme Cormac, Phillip Solomon," she introduces. "I think you'll both be able to bring something needed to the release of the video that we've been talking about."
Wondering what Liz was doing stepping in front of him, Phillip smiles to himself quietly. As things evolve, and he's given the opportunity and introduction, he takes a step forward, "Good to meet you." Phillip notes as he offers his hand in the greeting.
"Pleased to meet you," Graeme responds, after a long moment of pause and considering the other man. Handshake is accepted, Graeme's still considering, and then he nods. The dog is far, far more enthusiastic than the man, but Graeme's reserve is not necessarily deliberate or intentional. The messenger bag on his shoulder is shifted, adjusted. "Entirely on an aside, Liz, I have some stuff for you to take back with you, that was laying around the apartment pantry. Figured you'd enjoy having it more than I would, I barely go to the apartment anyway."
Elisabeth grins. "You're passing me food again?" she asks mildly. "You'd think I was starving, the way you keep doing that." Because she's betting that whatever was in the pantry, Graeme added to it. "Thanks," she says, though, amusement mixed with gratitude. With her hand still on Odin's head, she looks between the men and then deliberately mutes all sound around the small group. "So, uhm… I'm not entirely certain where to start here, except to let you two meet before things with Russo get going," she admits candidly.
Breaking the grasp, Phillip takes that step back and allows Liz and Graeme to conduct what ever business they need to prior to the reason Phillip himself is here.
When it comes back to that aspect, Phillip nods to Liz and takes the hand-off of verbalization as he then addresses Graeme, "I've many contacts in the entertainment industry which may translate to production of such ventures which can shed light on the current Evolved situation and their oppression of the government. Though I'm hoping you, or Russo may be able to expand or expound on the path of the plan."
Graeme nods, slowly, a bit of a laugh. The bag of food will get handed off at some point later. "I'm going to keep bringing her food," he remarks as an aside to Phillip. "It's not like any of it does me any good anyway." Then there's a grin. "Right. That makes sense. What the plan is, as far as I know, is to broadcast what has been prepared, proof of Humanis First," and there's a definite steel edge to Graeme's voice here, "involvement in the government, other things."
Then he pauses. "I'm still not as all the way up to speed on the details of it as I could be, though. I'm just going to be making sure that what we end up with meshes in the current media environment in our favour," he admits.
With an unconscious adjustment of his right cuff, Phillip states, "This exposure can likely go well, or very badly. I'm concerned that timing may be a significant issue. There will be competition with the news of the H5N10 virus. And could be swept aside as conspiracy and conjecture."
That's a possibility that Graeme's been considering, though not quite in the terms that Phillip put it. "Then we wait. There's enough evidence that it's not conspiracy, nor conjecture. What we have raises serious concerns that I do not believe people will be able to ignore," Graeme states, the drawl of his words at least partially consciously repressed as he has a tendency to do when he's speaking about things on which he's knowledgable. "But it would be in our best interests not to have to be competing with big news too much." He grimaces slightly. "We can afford to wait some, tweak details and wait for an opportunity."
"The counter to us waiting is that there are some people in clear and present danger at present. If we wait too long, those people run greater risk of injury or death because of the looming threats." Phillip states with a slight glance to Liz indicating that his concerns are primarily local.
Elisabeth has been listening to the men talk some and then she nods slightly. "The clear and present danger lurks in the fact that there is someone making forays into the H5N10 situation. But I think that perhaps working with the devil may work in our favor this time. She's suggesting that her ability could create a cure for the mutated flu. And if she's amenable, adding her into this may actually bring about what we want — which is people demanding to know why racists are running the government. Between placing Richard squarely as a martyr and perhaps setting this woman up as some kind of savior that government is sitting on and not allowing to do her research or something." She glances between them. "Could we make this look good together?"
Graeme looks at Elisabeth. "Devon called me this morning, asked me to go over. Dr. Brennan was there. Ms. Blite," and once again, Graeme doesn't seem to want to do the woman the respect of the title she's earned, "worked for him. At the Suresh Center. He seemed surprised by that she could … create the vaccine, the cure, or something. Didn't know her ability had anything to do with viruses. And he was not pleased with how she wants to deal with this, with her taking it to television rather than simply doing it, or something." Graeme's brows furrow.
Phillip is out of the present conversation loop, so he listens and takes mental notes. He lets things wind down before he comments on plans, making things look pretty, and so on. This isn't his normal ballpark and he's unfamiliar with the inner workings of what they're talking about.
Well…. the news that Blite works for Brennan and that he had no clue about her ability makes Elisabeth look thoughtful. "Richard thought highly of Brennan," she observes mildly. "Okay… leaving that out of this for now, because Phillip…." She glances apologetically at the man. "… his job and yours, Graeme, are getting the tape ready to play. Since the two of you have no reason for people to be following you, I suggest you go ahead and take a CD with you to meet Phil, show him what we have thus far, and maybe the two of you can talk industry logistics with this? Because that's way out of my sphere of knowledge at all." She looks at Phillip. "I think you need to see what we have and you'll be in a better position to determine who best could be approached about getting it out there?"
"I'm tempted to think well 'nough of Brennan," Graeme says, the drawl once more present in his voice. "I have the CDs that you gave me, though I know you said there was more, but this is enough to start with. They're not with me, they're in the safe at the apartment right now, but." He purses his lips.
"And then he can bring me up to speed on industry stuff. I'm almost nine years out of college, Liz, well, nine years out of full time and I haven't been in school otherwise since before the Bomb, and I never worked in it though it's where my research was, so I've got some catching up to play anyway." The messenger bag is pushed around his shoulder, and the canvas bag with supplies — smoked meats, jerkies, cheeses and other luxury food goods that if they hadn't come from the pantry even Graeme couldn't usually afford — is handed off to Liz, and then Graeme tilts his head towards the other man.
"Ready when you are." Is intoned from Phillip to Graeme in regards to their taking care of the business aspects of screening and deciding the best method of release.
"Good," Graeme responds, a bit of a grin on his face, and then he reaches down to absentmindedly pet Odin, pulling a dog treat out of a pocket. "Odin," he says, pointing at Phillip. "Say hi." The dog gives Graeme a bit of a look, tongue lolling out of his mouth in a lazy canine smile, but Graeme repeats himself, and then Odin's looking up, sitting up to attain the full height the dog is capable. The look the canine aimed at Phillip is definitely like he expects the other man to pet him as well. But then again, he's a dog. Even for an extraordinarily patient one, he's a much happier dog if he's the center of attention.