2013.05.22 - Selling on Wall Street

Mid-afternoon on a Tuesday. Normally, Dr. Jean Grey would be at the Xavier Institute, filling young minds with knowledge... while they gaze longingly out the window at the Spring sunshine and daydream a hundred things that have absolutely nothing to do with science. This day, however, finds her emerging from a well appointed downtown office building, wearing a stylish pantsuit, with a smart leather portfolio under her arm that, even now, she wrestles into the stylish handback she carries. Her whole appearance screams 'corporate presentation', to those that know her. She's not really the corporate type, truth be told. But, she knows how to play the game when research dollars are at stake, as they are now. There's a research grant she's aiming for, and she's just finished her presentation to get it. 
Stepping out onto the street, she glances around, looking for a friendly face she expects may be lurking, and deciding whether it'll be a quick car ride home that way, or catching a taxi to a pickup point. 
"How'd it go?" Scott Summers asks with arms folded as he leans against his royal blue Ford Mustang. He's wearing an off white cotton dress shirt, with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a pair of jeans. He'd told her he would be here to pick her up. How he managed to catch a parking spot is anyone's guess. Lucky day, one would guess. "I hope you showed them some of that Jean Grey charm."
Another afternoon, another business meeting. Again, Justin finds himself in the same part of Lower Manhattan talking with a company about a video conferencing pipeline. The project is finally moving forward, thankfully, since it seems to be taking forever to get the other company to actually move on anything. Walking down the street the CEO is headed for a coffee shop he knows is nearby, black briefcase in his left hand. He seems a bit rough around the edges, and far more alert than usual. He spots the blue Mustang and the man leaning against it, as well as the woman he speaks to, but isn't close enough to recognize who it is if he even would.
Jean chuckles softly as her eyes alight on Scott's languid form. She moves toward him and nods lightly in response. "Well enough, I think," she says, reaching up to brush the solitaire at her throat, sat in the V of the open neckline of her blouse. "The one or two that actually care about the grant listened. The others..." She gives that smile that indicates she knows exactly what they were thinking... and how to deal with it. "I'm sure they got what they wanted." Mostly. "So, we'll just have to see."
She's aware of the other people moving up and down the street, aware of many of their surface thoughts, though not all and she mostly ignores them. Thus, though Justin Hammer is a particularly notable businessman, he only blips on her radar when he takes passing note of them.
Scott nods, making a mushed face and tilts his head, "Well, hopefully we get something. No harm, no foul, I suppose." He would chuckle at her joke, but that's not really his style. Instead, his head turns to take in Justin Hammer. He can't help but feel like he recognizes him somehow, but just can't place that it's due to seeing him on CSPAN, CNN, and the like. "So where you headed, Miss Grey? You need that lift back to Westchester, or are you planning on staying down in the city for a while?"
"I should go back to the lab," Jean says, referring to the lab she maintains in the city, away from where it might endanger the students, "but all I really want to do is go home and relax." Public presentations always exhaust her. There's so much focus she needs to control and redirect. She doesn't consciously nudge anyone, normally, but she can't help but be alert to their general impressions. 
She turns slightly as Scott takes notice of Justin, following his gaze automatically. One of the side-effects of telepathy is a near perfect memory. It takes a moment for her to pull up the recall, but she does. Sending a soft thought into his mind, she tells him: ~ Justin Hammer. Hammer Industries. ~ 
The Hammer Industries CEO walks past the pair and the blue Mustang without much more than a glance toward them. His thoughts, however, are all over the place. He's generally at least slightly A.D.D. in his thought process, but today's worse than usual. It keeps jumping between the video pipeline, keeping an almost paranoid lookout and and annoyance or even hatred. He slows to a stop just past the car and pulls his cell phone from his pocket, checking a message he jut received.
"Justin Hammer," Scott says as he considers the name. "Defense contractor, right? High tech weaponry, that sort of thing." He nods a few times as it comes back to him. "I've seen him testify before the Senate Armed Services committee. Guys like that: Stark, Wayne, Hammer-Don't know how I feel about them."
"Well it's your call, Jean. I have to run an errand or two down here, but if you want to head back now I'd be more than happy to take you. I can push them back."
Jean gives Scott a wry smile. She can't blame him, really. "Some of them are better than others," she notes. "Everyone has secrets." As Hammer stops, she glances to him for a moment. And then back to Scott. "I wouldn't mind a ride," she admits. 
Hammer's surface thoughts are, to her thinking, a bit of a roil. The paranoia and the hatred particularly capture her attention, making her uneasy. She shifts her weight, which betrays that uneasiness easily to one of her oldest friends. 
Hammer scowls at the message on his phone. More annoyance in his mind, then a sudden, sharp focus. /Why did that damned mutant thug have to rob me?/ slashes through his mind before he types up a response and sends it. So that would explain Justin's paranoia, at least to Jean. He was robbed sometime recently, and it's still very fresh on his thoughts.
"Your wish is my command, Jean." Scott, of course, cannot hear Justin's thoughts in his mind like Jean can, so has no knowledge of what the corporate tycoon is thinking. Instead, he circles around the car and moves to get in."
As Scott gets into the car, Jean's attention snaps fully around to the tycoon -- mainly because she picks up that one errant thought. Mutant? Robbed Hammer? That... that's not good. Distractedly, she lays her hand on the handle of the mustang. Her need to know more wars with her sense of decency about scanning another's mind. Of course, she could just ask him outright... but that brings with it its own complications. 
The CEO's phone goes off again, whoever's writing back and forth with him is answering quickly. Another scowl, this time with a mumbled curse under his breath. He starts another response, thinking as he types: /Why the hell is it going to take two weeks to get a new driver's license? Call the governor if you have to, get this fixed NOW!/. Another paranoid glance around, and he sees the woman looking at him. He has no idea she knows what's going through his mind at the moment, so he just offers her a quick nod. /Yeah, keep staring. Maybe I'll do a trick or something./
Some CEOs are good guys, underneath it all. Jean isn't quite sure what to make of Justin. He strikes her as more of prick than anything else. But that could just be his mood rubbing off on her. As he nods to her, she clear her expression, changing it to one of professional interest. "You're Justin Hammer, aren't you?" she says, now, slipping her bag into the back of Scott's car. "You were on the news, recently... they called you a hero." The Hammer Building Hostage Crisis, if she remembers correctly -- and she usually does. Whatever her opinion on the incident may be, the outward impression she gives is that she's impressed with him, all bright smiles and wonder.
It's like flipping a light switch- one second Justin seems pissed off at the world, the next he's offering Jean a wide smile. The expression is pretty thin, though, even without being able to read his actual thoughts and emotions. "The one and only," he replies to her, taking a step closer and pocketing his phone again. "They keep saying that, but honestly it ain't true. I did what anyone who was in that situation would do, and nothing more." Hammer has pretty much convinced himself of this fully, so even as some of the events of the evening play back in his mind it still makes him out as a hero. Perhaps not as wonderfully as the news media did, but the darker tones of what happened are far more veiled than they should be.
Jean's green eyes glitter as she senses the dualism of his memories. Her own smile doesn't falter, however. She reaches out to offer her hand. "Dr. Jean Grey," she says, introducing herself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, regardless. Not everyone would do what you did, though most every hero I've ever met thinks the same way." Her eyes flick to his lips, his eyes, the tension in his face, reading body language as easily as thoughts and emotions. That his pleasantry rings false is no surprise, though perhaps somewhat understandable, given his paranoia and pique.
"Doctor Grey," Justin replies, taking the woman's hand and shaking it. "I've heard of you. Genetics research, right? I do a bit of biotech work at my company as well." That's one thing that Hammer does keep up on, scientists and their research, since he runs a tech company. A tech company that specializes in destroying things, but still a tech company. 
Jean gives an oblique nod of acknowledgement, smiling still. "I've heard that," she admits, "though I've not taken a close look at it." She's been distracted with other things. "I'm sorry," she apologize politely. "I certainly didn't mean to interrupt you, at all." 
Justin waves his right hand dismissively, the briefcase he has still in his left. "No, don't worry about it. I always like to take time out to talk with the brilliant minds of America," he says in his standard, just shy of obnoxious tone. "Trust me, it's a lot better than trying to sell ideas to companies that don't want to take a chance on new technologies. After all, I'm not a salesman, I'm an inventor." When he speaks his free hand is pretty much in constant motion, which is normal, but it's obvious he's not 100 focused. He's still glancing up and down the street every once in a while.
Jean recognizes the man's continuing paranoia. Speculatively, she opens her mind to absorb more of the thoughts passing around her, seeking if there is, in fact, some immediate threat. Nonetheless, she chuckles dryly to the man. "Indeed. I'm just out of a grant presentation. Selling ideas to grant foundations is no easier than selling to conservative companies, I'll wager." 
The CEO grins again. "Sometimes I think grants are the harder sell," he replies. "Though, depending on the research and potential applications, there's always private funding. While it-" Hammer cuts himself offf as he sees someone walking down the street in a dark shirt and blue jeans, similar to the guy that attacked him last night. Not that he could actually identify him if he saw him again- the only good look he got at his attacker was from down the block. Before that he was phasing in and out of sight, or something equally as strange. He clears his mind fairly quickly and picks back up. "It's not my main focus, of course, I'm still interested in the field."
The flash of the image of the man that attacked the CEO reaches Jean's mind. Phasing ability. That's fairly unique... but there's only a 50/50 chance in her mind that it means mutant for sure. Regardless, she can't help but glance over where Hammer looks, taking in the poor fellow that walks down the street. As there doesn't seem to be a direct or immediate connection, she turns back to him as he refocusses on her. She smiles. "It's a fascinating field, Mr. Hammer, I can assure you." She glances, now, to the car, where Scott sits patiently. "I'm sorry. I should probably get going. My ride is waiting. It was very nice to meet you, however."
"Oh, don't let me keep you, then," Justin returns with another veneer smile. "After all, I'm sure you've got important work to do. The world waits for no man- or woman." He offers a nod of his head and then turns back toward the direction he was originally walking. Once he's several steps away from Jean, his thoughts and demeanor return to their original state. Hurried, muddled and paranoid.
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