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

Comments

[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 unspeakable weapon would rather confer a benefit in that situation, don't you think? So in that sense, you may actually be playing into his hands."

Didn't people ever think about things? Sigh.

[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.

This, now, with this reporter Edison -- she'd gone about it all wrong, of course. Without Henry to counsel her, determine her approach and plan of action, she'd simply marched up and given him a piece of her mind. Henry would have remembered you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And oh, Camilla could be honey when she wanted. Both the twins could, golden and smooth and sweet.

Too late for that now.

"If his goal was to scare people, you've just done it for him in one fell swoop. He doesn't need to spend time playing bogeyman to people on an individual basis, because you've already given him all the reputation he needs. Either way, you lose. Except now you've set a precedent by which we all lose." She brushed a loose wisp of hair out of her eyes with an impatient flick. "Now we're well and truly polarised. And have you considered maybe people might want to appease him? If he really has a virus that can kill them. Maybe they'll want to do his bidding. You may have provided a stepping stone for our first and only despot."

Camilla tended to think in imperial terms.

[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."

[c_macaulay]

Camilla's lips curved into a slight smile -- a very slight smile, but unmistakable.

"It makes you a rallying point? How interesting."

[23s_topreporter]

"Something funny?" he asked, returning with a smirk of his own.

[c_macaulay]

"What you just told me. 'I'm the loudest voice now, and that makes me a rallying point'." Camilla shook her head, still smiling. "You must be an educated man, Mr Carter. Do you know where the word 'dictator' derives? The one who speaks. And the Romans appointed their dictators in time of emergency."

[23s_topreporter]

"I'm a reporter, not a network executive," Edison informed her, rolling his eyes. Well, it made perfect sense to him. "Anyway, someone's got to speak out. We can't just sit back and let this guy do whatever he wants."

[c_macaulay]

Her eyebrows' arch steepened. "Can't we? Why not?"

[23s_topreporter]

Was this woman for real?

"You're kidding, right? You want him holding his virus over everyone's heads and making us into his personal slaves?" He let out a single, mirthless laugh. "Or maybe because you think you're immortal, the rest of us unwashed barbarians don't really matter?"

Edison was a reporter, through and through. He may have cared more about the truth than even his own well-being, but he still couldn't help but spin it. It was like an unconscious compulsion.

[c_macaulay]

Camilla gave an irritated little sigh. "He can only hold his virus over our heads, figuratively, if we elect to fear it. If we do not, then he cannot enslave us. And if he uses his virus, one of two things happens. Either nothing happens, and his bluff has been called; or we all die, and assuming he himself is immune to the virus, he has no slaves."

[23s_topreporter]

Okay, so they were in agreement, for the most part. Edison backed down to a more agreeable tone. "Look, you've clearly decided that you're not going to be scared of him, and that's great. For you. But some people need to know they're not alone before they can be brave. And maybe that's close to being mob mentality, but that's how people are. That's all I'm doing here. If Wesker hasn't talked to anyone else yet, they can be prepared for him. If he has, they know they're not alone."

[c_macaulay]

"If people aren't whipped up into a high state of alarm, maybe they'd find it easier to be brave," Camilla countered, still nettled. "What you've done is likelier to induce a panic than anything I can think of, short of Wesker commandeering the monitors somehow to announce it himself. Mob mentality is exactly what it seems bound to engender. Designed to engender. And once we've turned on the first scapegoat, as we get more and more angry and bored and tired of this place, who's next?"

[23s_topreporter]

"Then tell me what I should have done!" He took a deep breath and let it out through his teeth. "I'm not going to hide the truth from people just because they might be scared. It's thinking like that that's the reason the city where I'm from is sitting on top of a nuclear time bomb! People need to be allowed to think for themselves!"

[c_macaulay]

He did seem impassioned. Camilla was used to cool liars. Still, she meant what she'd said about dictators. It was awfully convenient. Rally the people against a common enemy; pick an enemy, any enemy; and Camilla didn't care what happened to Wesker personally, but when that first enemy is vanquished, another must be found.

"That's just it," she said evenly, irritated but unrattled. "People need to be allowed to think for themselves." If they're capable thereof, she might have added, but did not. In this particular conversation the point would be counterproductive to her argument. She did not want to help this man make a herd of them all. "So let them figure out things for themselves, and decide for themselves. If that man Wesker had planned to use his virus without telling anyone, wouldn't he have done so already? It's not a time bomb, but if it were, he wouldn't stand to gain anything by telling us about it. Let him go around making everyone else as angry as he's made you. Then let them hate him, if they like. But on their own terms."

[23s_topreporter]

Actually, it was a time bomb, what with that 24 hour time limit he'd mentioned. But Edison was done arguing. They obviously didn't see things the same way, and probably wouldn't.

"Fine," he grumbled, flopping back into his chair. "You think everyone should find out about him on their own. I think it's wrong to withhold information. Let's just leave it at that."