A Terminal-Wide Broadcast (open RP)

[23s_topreporter]

((Continued from here. Permission given by Max-mun to use him in the post.))Edison paced, mentally reviewing his hook. He checked his camera again; it was fine, as it had been twenty seconds ago. He ran over his hook again, decided it sounded like crap, and changed a few things. Then he realized that Max was getting impatient, and an impatient Max

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[c_macaulay]

Camilla didn't panic. She could have, but she didn't. Instead, moved by curiosity, she made her way to the part of the terminal she'd recognised in the background of Edison's broadcast.

She'd never met Edison. She hadn't even known he was here. She kept a blanket over the television in her room, in case Max should ever pop up. She'd happened to be walking for exercise and passing a bank of monitors when this broadcast aired.

"You're the one who was on the television, yes? Edison Carter?"

[23s_topreporter]

"That's right," he said, standing. There was something almost regal about the way she carried herself; that was interesting. "Formerly of Network 23." He grinned then, a bit humorlessly than he meant to, and added, "But you've probably never heard of it, have you?"

[c_macaulay]

Camilla waved a hand, a vague gesture of unconcern. "Oh, I'm sure I never have. I never really watched much television. That's not to say it wasn't a good show," she added politely. "I'm Camilla, by the way," while she was at the politeness. "Camilla Macaulay. What I want to know is how much of a threat you really think this virus is."

[23s_topreporter]

Didn't watch much television? Obviously, they weren't from the same time. He was beginning to think some of these people weren't even from the same world. Her echo, intentional or not, of his tagline made him grin, though.

"I couldn't say, really," he replied, apologetically. "I think Wesker's dangerous enough to be telling the truth about it, though. His kind don't tend to exaggerate." They don't need to.

[c_macaulay]

"Maybe he is and maybe he isn't," Camilla returned with that odd little one-shouldered shrug of hers. "Do you think it'll make any difference? I inhaled a cloud of poison gas and I'm still here."

[23s_topreporter]

"Really?" Edison asked. Stated. He wasn't sure which, in fact. Part of him wanted to know more, and he shot a sidelong glance at his camera. Part of him was trying to be skeptical. "You mean here?" And immediately felt like an idiot, because where else could she have meant by "and I'm still here"?

[c_macaulay]

"Yes, really. And yes, here. Honestly, if it were an actual way out don't you think some of us might be half-tempted by now?" Half-exasperated, half-amused, and deadly serious.

[23s_topreporter]

"I meant before you got here," he explained. Next question: Are you sure it was actually poison? Somehow, he didn't think that would go across very well. Whether it was or not, she clearly believed that it was. "Where is it?" he asked instead. "I've been all over and haven't seen anything like that."

[c_macaulay]

"I don't know. I haven't seen it since my run-in with the thing. Thank God. But yes, it was here in the terminal. It was green and it spoke -- " She realised how it must sound, and gave a hollow little laugh. "I'm sure it must sound insane, but I assure you it was real. And if that couldn't kill me, and the explosion didn't starve us out, who's to say anything's ever going to let us out of here?"

[23s_topreporter]

Edison nodded in a very neutral manner. "That does sound a little crazy, yeah." He paused, wondering if he really wanted to know. But he just couldn't let the question go unasked. "You're telling me this cloud was alive?"

[c_macaulay]

Camilla only shrugged again. She knew what she'd seen -- God, what she'd inhaled -- and if this man didn't believe it, that was his business. "Yes. It was alive. It told me rather a detailed story, in fact, one I don't think I could have made up if I tried."

Abruptly she tilted her head, eyeing him with sudden suspicion. "You're not going to air this, are you? Because I'm not going to talk to you if you are. I came here to ask you questions, not to give you material. Especially if you think I'm crazy, in which case I imagine I'll be the next one ostracised after that man you just served up to us all."

[23s_topreporter]

"What? No!" Edison exclaimed in total denial of the fact that he'd been thinking just that. But he couldn't help but bristle at the implied insult. "Look, Ms. Macaulay, I'm a reporter. Not a gossip monger. Wesker is dangerous. As far as I know, you're not. So unless you've got plans to kill us all, your business has nothing to do me."

And since he didn't quite believe her story about the living cloud of gas, he let the issue drop. "So what did you want to know?"

[c_macaulay]

"Just that. Whether you really think this man is a threat, or whether you're doing this for your own reasons. In which case you really ought to rethink. We're in a closed environment and we can't get out if we try -- a little sealed fishbowl. Have you ever seen what happens when a small group of people turns on each other? If you have, and I have, then you'll understand when I say that maybe, just maybe, we should be giving one another the benefit of the doubt here, instead of singling people out on television.Bright spots of color burned in Camilla's pale cheeks. She really was quite displeased. "We don't know this man. For whatever unknown reason, he's been brought here, like us. Which puts him in the same position we're in. And he likely doesn't know what brought him here any more than we do. Which might make him want to tell people he's got some kind of weapon. Something to keep him safe. God, if that new restaurant hadn't been discovered, we'd have ended up at one another's throats for scraps. Having some

[23s_topreporter]

"I just told you everything I think," he said, gesturing toward his camera. "Yes, I honestly believe he's dangerous. I've been a reporter for years; I've seen it all. But he scared me, when I talked to him. Hell, he scared Max, and Max is the last person who needs to worry about viruses." He was, of course, assuming she had met Max. It seemed almost inconceivable that anyone in the airport hadn't yet. He was Max, after all.

"I really do hope that you're right. I hope that he is just lying to us for some reason, and I'll even make a formal apology over the airwaves, in that case. But I can't believe it. Not after talking to him."

[c_macaulay]

If this man thought Camilla actually believed him when he said he'd told the camera everything he really thought ... well. Camilla's notion of the press did not dovetail with the high ideals the profession might espouse. The idea Edison might genuinely believe he was doing a public service didn't hold water with her. Insofar as Camilla thought about the media at all, it was with the sure conviction that they'd print or air whatever served them best: ratings, revenue, enough spectacle to keep an audience's attention. God knows they'd made a circus out of Bunny's death (though it had rather pleased her when the reporters had gone sour on Mrs. Corcoran). The fact she believed this saved her infinite amounts of time and concern -- why read papers at all? Instead she had the news from Gaul, De Bello Gallico, a couple thousand centuries past, infinitely more interesting and with its biases comfortably clear

[23s_topreporter]

She thought he hadn't thought about that? He'd spent a solid week thinking about that. "Or people might want to do something about it. Sure, there's a risk they might do something rash, but they're going to think about it, first."

Ah, hostility towards the press. How familiar. How comforting. He folded his arms and tried not to look like he was glowering. "You think it's better that he go around and scare everyone into submission? Individually? That they not know who to trust, who to turn to for help?

"This way, they know I, at the very least, am against Wesker. I'm the loudest voice now, and that makes me a rallying point." Another reason he'd chosen the mention standing by the ruined restaurant: It was somewhere everyone knew. "Now, maybe you're right, and they will decide they'd rather appease him. But at least now they have the choice."