2012-09-04 Talking Shop

It's early morning. Almost ridiculously early by some people's standards, even if you asked an Amish or a soldier they'd tell you it's stupidly late in the day. In any case, the bullpen of the Daily Planet has a quiet energy about it this morning. The Bugle had a rather new-worthy piece run recently and Perry's on the war path for something equally stellar. 
Lois sits at her desk, sipping at a cup of coffee while she reads the Wire feed on her computer. Open on her desk are all her handwritten notes, and the playback device she uses for her livescribe pen has headphones plugged into it. One of hte earbud snakes up into her left ear. She's half reclined in her chair, chin resting upon her left hand as she's skimming the Feed, listening to her old recorded interviews, and eyeing all of her notes.
Along with the rest of the Planet's crew, photographer extraordinaire Jimmy Olsen is hard at work. Clicking away at the computer, he's working on establishing his layout for the pictoral profile of the invading Mole Men that the good guys so effortlessly defeated. All caputred in his own ancient film lens. He takes a short break. Coffee. Must get coffee.
Standing up and stretching, he starts to shamble down the hall towards the coffee robots, not realizing that he's yawning as he walks past the desk of one Ms. Lois Lane.
Violet eyes glance up as Jimmy yawns past her desk, and with a smirk Lois quips laughing sounding, "Better make it a triple, Olsen. You look like you had a good night last night." Her hand leaves off scrolling and clicking through news feeds, her chin lifting from her hand.
"Hey, I didn't know we were going to be on skeleton crew, Ms. Lane," Jimmy says, offering a half-hearted wave towards Lois. "Guy tries to have a little fun for the first time and months, and then the Boss calls." He pauses in his stride and glances towards Lois before doubling back towards her. "Um, speaking of the Boss calling, did Mr. Scott get in touch with you? About us partnering up on the Gotham story?"
Lois smirks, nodding and yanking out the earbud to toss on her desk. Her left hand collects her coffee cup as she rises to her feet, using the 'getting a refill' as an excuse to walk with Jimmy toward the coffee robots and away from the activity of the bullpen proper.
"He's got you on it too," Lois asks as she walks. The question is confirmation that she's on the story, but hadn't quite read that memo yet or wasn't given one. 
"Whacha got from Scott on that?" coffee coffee maybe a smoke too coffee coffee coffee.
"Kinda vague mentions about investigating corruption in the armpit of the United States," Jimmy says, his tone gloomier than typical as he tries to match Lois' pace. He shrugs his shoulders slightly. "On the plus side, I'm going to be getting some ATF training, which will help my pocket book considerably. I probably don't need to tell you, but being a newspaper man doesn't exactly pay what it used to." He grimaces, feeling like he's comitting treason even admitting that as he reaches the line of coffee robots, called such due to their precision measurement and ability to make just the perfect cup of joe. Or as perfect as automated coffee gets anyway. Jimmy takes Ms. Lane's advice and adds three packets of the specially blended roast, toying with the idea of adding an espresso shot but not finding the idea of a heart attack at 22 especially appealing. "Still, Gotham gives me the heebie-jeebies, but I'm not in the practice of turning down a job, especially for a new head honcho." He glances towards Lois curiously, arching a single brow. "What you think about Mr. Scott anyway?"
Lois, on the other hand, loves her expresso. Sadly, these robots just don't get it right, so she settles for a cup of straight black. She handles the machines with practiced ease as she listens to Jimmy's gloomy tone. There was a lot in what the photographer said, and so she has to take a moment to sort out where she's going to start. Setting hte robot to brewing is good cover.
"He's got a drive and a vision that I haven't seen in a while, and an eye for a story that's lacking in the CEOs of other news stations. So, I'm glad he's on board now instead of competition," Lois starts off sounding nice and polite. As she watches her coffee refilling her I <3 Metropolis mug, her arms fold over her chest and that defiant look settles over her features. 
"Though if he thinks for a moment he's going to drop the GBC logo on my Planet, he's got another thing coming," Lois adds, before she chuckles at looks at Jimmy.
"And Gotham gives me the creeps too. Just, be careful with your gear when we head over to see what we can find, okay? Her vigilantes like to fry camera phones to keep their pictures out of media hands." The voice of experience.
Jimmy grows pale at the very thought of his equipment getting zapped, even giving a shallow gulp. "Yeah...I will definitely try to avoid that if at all possible." He frowns as he leans agaist the coffee bar a bit; evetually a ding indicates that his mega-coffee is ready to go. He pulls it out and starts to mix in the sugar and cream, one of each.
"And yeah, Mr. Scott seemed nice enough, and he's better than just about any other media mogul type you'll find. I just...the Planet is just such a part of this city, y'know?" He frowns deeply. "It feels weird having Mr. Gotham come in and take over, even if he promises that totally isn't whats happening." He takes a short sip of his coffee, testing for hotness and deciding to let it sit for a bit more. "But I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. Again, paycheck, good."
Lois can sympathize with the zapped equipment. She lost her favorite iPhone to Robin's neurosis of no photos, and now she's got to use that schnazzy sPhone thing Stark gave her. It just feels weird. Her own coffee dings and she collects her mug to blow and sip at the dark liquid as she turns to regard the photographer next to her. 
"I'm pretty sure he's aware of the Iconic status of this news outlet. The Planet's a global name, with a massive readership. I'm certain he's smart enough not to try to get into a battle of the brands," Lois comments as she blows into her coffee a bit more. There's a smirk as Jimmy mentions his pay again. Photographers. Don't they know the power of the expense & reimbursal paperwork?
"So, no details, then, on the Gotham thing and what you'll be doing, exactly? Or just a very Perry sort of 'get with Lane and man the lens' kind of thing," Lois asks, pulling the subject back to the story at hand.
	"Yeah, if nothing else, he seems like a smart enough guy to not try to mess that up," Jimmy says evenly. "I mean, he wanted the Planet for what it is, not what he could make it." He sounds mostly like he's trying to convince himself as he tests his coffee again. Perfect, as he starts to take long, exhausted sips from it.
He nods his head at the question as he pulls his java away. "More or less. Most of what we talked about was the training I would receive, getting to know the audio-visual equipment, make sure I didn't break it." His tone reflects that he took that last bit as a touch of an offense; like he doesn't know how to handle a camera, video or otherwise. "But once all that training is taken care of, I think I'm meant to follow your lead and document what you discover."
He pauses long enough to take a few more gulps of coffee before he asks, "But yeah, as far as details go, pretty sparse. Got anything more concrete so I know exactly what I'm walking into?"
"Ever heard of Vic Sage," Lois asks, as she sips delicately at her own joe. Clearly, this cup of coffee is more pleasure than need. Her violet eyes regard Jimmy.
"I hadn't either. He had one piece, years ago, that stood out, but really he stayed pretty local. Anyway. He's a TV Reporter, producer sort of thing. He's gonna put the polish on what we find. In short, he's not sure what the capes in Gotham are. Some are saying vigilantes out to clean up the city. Some think they're the reason Gotham is as Suicide Slums as it is. Vic's wanting to find and follow the money; someone's funding the capes." Pause, Lois takes a breath and a sip. "I agree. I've seen some of their toys." She shakes her head, still awed over the car, the bike, that handheld EMP thingie that FUBARd her iPhone.
"As for us, we've got the pleasant joy of revealing the depth of the corruption in Gotham. It's the Hallaburt story times a hundred," Lois adds.
Jimmy furrows his brow slightly before he nods. "Mr. Scott mentioned that Mr. Sage would be our contact from Gotham. I think." He smiles sheepishly. "Honestly, it was a quick meeting and I tried to keep up but was...a bit distracted by the job offer." He shrugs and pulls out his phone, flipping through the things he wrote. "Yep, Vic Sage, reporter in Gotham, right here in digital black and white," he muses before stuffing his pocket back into his pocket.
"Yeah, talk about an easy target," Jimmy says with a smirk, before lifting his brows. "How about this idea: we find somewhere in Gotham where there /isn't/ corruption. Now THAT would be a story."
Lois laughs at that, moving to settle into her chair again. "About as elusive as Big Foot. You snap pictures of him, I'll start to consider Gotham having a 'bright side'," retorts the reporter. "The three of us should probably meet up. Vic's been by once. I'll see when he's free for us to make sure we're not going to step on each other's toes."
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