he said leave the politics to mad men.

[mightyfallen]

Who: Jack Benjamin, Nuala, Lex Luthor, and Adrian Veidt.
What: Jack meeting with each of the above, separately.
Where: Sobek Croix, Coin's End, and Spit Hearth, respectively.
When: Backdated to Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Givdi, Veerdi, and Sukkardi of last week, while fogspedition was gone.
Notes: In the interests of not spamming the comm, I'll be posting starter-comments to this post for each of the logs that need starting. IF ANYONE ELSE WOULD LIKE A JACK LOG, PLZ PM ME. :D
Warnings: Politicking?

It could be said that Jack is in a bit of a mood. The volunteer he snaps at on Mistdi would say more than that, given the chance, as would the barista who has the misfortune of putting too much cream in his Coardi-morning coffee. Those more familiar with his habits keep an intelligent distance – which he notices sometime Coardi afternoon and decides enough is enough. He has more important things to do than succumb to his own emotions. There's business to attend to, after all.

Comments

[mightyfallen]

The details elude him – nuclear power is no more commonplace in Gilboa than nuclear bombs, which is why they're still fighting wars with tanks, battling from trenches and across fields of barbed wire. Molecular power is a step removed from what he's even passingly familiar with. But the details aren't what interest him anyway, so much as the passion behind them, and that is very interesting.

"And you would offer it inexpensively?" he asks with a curve of a smile, ever the skeptic, altruism having never seemed to him so plausible a motive as profit. (Admirable, yes; believable, no.)

[defenestration]

The details of Adrian's energy research elude most people even in his own world, although the threat of nuclear annihilation is the constant threat that drives much of what Adrian does.

"Here, I'm afraid I would have little control over that, although I should hope those who do would be capable of seeing the benefits of providing their people with safe and affordable energy. At home?" His gaze moves away from Jack's for a moment, as he visualized all the work left undone in his absence, and the dream that motivates that work. "At home, Mr. Benjamin, it will be available for free. And that will be the key to society finally breaking the shackles of corporate interests, the key to ridding the world of poverty, of the nuclear threat, of the need for war."

[mightyfallen]

It's notable that, for all Jack seemed immune to Adrian's charms a moment ago, this dream of a perfect world draws him in infinitely more effectively – and reluctantly. His expression softens, but it's brief and quickly hidden again behind his usual façade, which is, in itself, more telling than he means it. (Why hide something inconsequential?)

"The day mankind runs out of reasons to kill one another, I will be truly surprised," he quips, but kindly. "But you may find more support here than you think."

From him, perhaps.

[defenestration]

Adrian has made a practice of reading facial tics and body language of, a useful skill in both the corporate and the criminal worlds, and Jack's momentary reaction doesn't go unnoticed. Neither does the fact that he seems to feel the need to hide that reaction. For now, Adrian doesn't know how to interpret either, but he won't forget them.

"I have hopes that once we no longer have any need for violence, we'll turn our energy to better things. A better society, perhaps even our own evolution." He smiles at the encouragement. "I'd be very grateful for whatever support might come my way. Ideally, with the right kind of support, not only can I make things better for the people of Baedal, but perhaps someday the research done here can be applied to what I've already accomplished at home."

[mightyfallen]

"I look forward to seeing what you come up with." That much sounds sincere, maybe more than anything else he has said (or will say) tonight. Sincerity doesn't suit him except in these fleeting moments between masks, and then he's off to bigger and brighter ideas.

"Where did you get your funding, before? Public, private, corporate, personal...?" There's a touch of slyness in his voice with that last option. Adrian isn't difficult to peg as the well-moneyed type, no more than himself, and as self-proclaimed king of the over-privileged, Jack feels he's allowed to tease.

[defenestration]

"I look forward to showing it to you," Adrian replies. His tone is utterly restrained and professional, but there's the slightest quirk of a smile on his lips.

The way Jack asks his question makes Adrian grin, and he gives a tilt of his head in acknowledgment of the fact that he makes no effort to hide his wealth. "Technically, it would be corporate funding, but the corporation bringing in the money belongs to me, Veidt Enterprises. Mostly it's our marketing branch that pays for the research." Marketing isn't all that Veidt Enterprises does these days, but since some of the pies Adrian has fingers in aren't precisely legal ones, he can be forgiven for being a bit vague.