Post by photog and protag on Nov 21, 2021 20:59:11 GMT -5
"What's this? The great Lucy has time out of her busy schedule to run errands?" David asked as a thin manilla envelope dropped onto his desk by his elbow. He pulled his head off his hand enough to turn and look at the lawyer in the door to his office and then straightened up when he saw in her hands the box from a fancy bakery on the swanky side of town. "Oh hell-o! I forgive everything."
"You forgive? Forgive what exactly? The libel suit I got dropped last week? The attempt for extradition I've been successfully fending off for the past month?" She asked incredulously as she lifted the box higher to a point where he couldn't see inside. He gave her a Very Serious sad look, complete with a pout and she just lifted her eyebrows and waited. He wasn't going to drop the act that easily though, and he turned fully from his photo-editing to straighten up in his chair to turn toward her with a serious look on his face.
"Ms. Patel, are you telling me that you require continued reassurance about you doing you're job?" He asked as he peered at her over his sunglasses with a mock stern expression on his face. He deepened his voice, did his best to keep to a monotone as he continued to speak. "I would have thought the trays of fancy cheeses that we have delivered to your office multiple times a day to be recognized enough. Or if not just that then the very expensive chocolate covered fruits, you know we get those imported straight from the most high tech greenhouse on top of the fanciest skyscraper in downtown Lumen."
She gave him a look that suggested the words 'impressed' and 'amused' had never crossed her mind at his impression, had in fact never even been a part of her lexicon before nor ever would be again and he took that as the victory it so obviously was. A grin cracked across his face and she rolled her eyes at it but there was a smile on her face. "Yes yes, very funny. Look, I'll let you have the box after you look at your assignment, but only if you agree not to open it until I'm gone. I do not need another."
"Do you need me to sign a contract in blood or is my word enough?" He asked as he picked up the folder but didn't open it yet. He weighed it in his hands, listened to the documents inside rustling, and eyed the very distinctive bulge of a lanyard with laminated card. It looked like he was finally getting his press pass back.
"I'm fine with a verbal contract if you are." She said and he winked.
"Deal!" He flipped the envelope open and immediately hung the pass around his neck after giving the card a cursory glance. He'd fallen prey to pulling on an'ID-10T' card before. He thumbed through the papers. There were four pages of information on the subject a video game called 'Phoenix Fantasy' that he vaguely recalled hearing talked about at some point with someone, a schedule listing the date, time, and locations of several places for photoshoots, and a the brief explaining which news outlet the article was for and the requirements for the article.
It seemed easy enough, if a little outside his usual wheelhouse.
"This is rather outside my normal topics." He said honestly as he shoved the papers back into the envelope and ignored the way she winced. He really wasn't the type to keep things neat and orderly, and there were more important things to worry about right now like doughnuts! Sure they would be the cooled remains of what hadn't gotten eaten by Lucy and her paralegals but the bakery name on the box was the kind of thing that was good even five days after.
"It shouldn't be too difficult, you're being asked to capture people's thoughts on the series reaching this milestone and the work being done to present it to others, not play it yourself." She didn't bother to pretend she hadn't read through the job beforehand and he gave her A Look before pointedly ignoring That Thing she was doing.
"My end of the deal's done, don't tell me you're going to not hold up your end now, Lucy. Imagine what would happen if word got out." He waggled his eyebrows as he stressed the nickname. She sighed and set the box down quietly on his desk, pointedly keeping it away from his latest assignment.
"As the company's lawyer, try not to have the cops called on you for once." She advised before turning to head back to her own work. No sooner was she three steps away from his cubicle and he dove on the box and wrenched the lid open to -
nothing but crumbs and a bit of jam stuck to the side.
"Oh that b-"
It was a beautiful day for trying to get a picture of a holographic display, which meant it was overcast but not dark and the weather had said there wasn't a chance of rain. It helped to raise David's spirits at this assignment, although truth be told the technical side of getting pictures for his article had proven to be enough of a challenge to get him interested.
He was outside one of the video game stores that had been on the schedule in the manilla envelope last week. He had already talked to the manager on duty and spoken a little with the cashier. He had shown them the letter giving him approval, his press credentials, and had waited a little while the district manager was called and his presence was cleared and he was allowed to unpack his camera and take pictures of the game displays inside the store.
It was the fifth of these that he had done and he had his routine down to a T. Step one: Take pictures of the display in case a new photo turned out better than what he had and step two: interview a few customers that agreed. He had been a bit surprised by some of the stories, he couldn't say he was super into video games the way a few of the people had spoken with were, but he kinda got it.
The world they lived in was complicated, and it was hard for any one person to change the things that needed changing. In this game some things were more simple, and the player's actions could change a lot in the world.
He got that.
What he didn't get was the weird hologram glitch he was repeatedly encountering with the displays.
It started with the second store. He had already taken pictures of one of the displays with his digital camera and hadn't been too pleased with the results when he looked at them last night so he had resolved to try a wider range of settings the next shoot. The hologram image of the hero, clad in blue and white built tall and thin in the style of today's heroes, had been there. And he had done what the previous display did too: said a few stock lines in response to interactions with actual people, struck a few poses, and so on.
Overall it was an incredibly powerful bit of advertising that David had mixed feelings about. On one hand: it was an ad, on the other hand: it represented something many people apparently loved and its creators had done their best to make it live up to that.
The problem that wasn't, was the extra.
David hadn't seen it until after he had taken a whole bunch of pictures in the previously mentioned lots of different settings. It had been a time consuming process since every shot was being taken four or five times with wildly different settings. Luckily holograms didn't complain when you made them do the same thing over and over! It almost made up for the hell of trying to capture their light when the sun was out being a Big Source of Light that had to be accounted for.
When he was done taking the pictures he had, of course, reviewed them on his camera and found a smaller, color-shifted knock-off of the hero in all of the pictures of a certain setting. It was maybe what some people would call creepy-cute? It was doll-like in a way that didn't initially trigger the creep factor but the way the mouth was stitched shut was kinda eeeeh. Most of the cute came from the way it had done its best to faithfully copy and replicate everything he had asked the hero hologram to do.
A talk with the store manager and a not-so-quick call to the game studio's PR person had revealed that the little guy was not in fact suppose to be there. David had chatted with the store manager about which store he was going to next while the clerk had disabled the faulty hologram. Apparently a new one would be sent out and all would be well.
Except the same thing had happened at the third store.
David had been more careful this time. He had taken a set of photos with the different settings then checked them on the preview screen. The little hero-wannabe had shown up again, same settings as before. High shutter speed, narrow aperture.
David had initially been at a loss but then the idea had wiggled its way into his head. If the hero's hologram would listen and react to direction, then maybe the little one would too?
It worked and had made the subsequent photoshoots much easier. That first conversation about it had been...weird though. When he told it that it wasn't meant to be there it had kind of huddled up, drawn into itself, looked sad. He hadn't thought it could do that.
Maybe that was why he thanked it.
The thanking it led to nicknaming it, and now the nicknaming led to (not-fondness because he'd known it for all of a few hours over three days) familiarity. He knew enough psychology to know that things that were familiar had a shortcut to the part of the brain that registered people as 'friends' and things as 'good' and places as 'safe' but...was there any harm in it?
So now he was at the fifth store and the end of his tiny tour between the stores and the day was overcast and grey. At this point David had already pinned down the best settings for photographing the hologram he was suppose to and they weren't the settings he could see the little guy on but his fingers made the setting changes out of habit.
Click!
There was only the image of the hero in the photograph, and- and it was fine. David's shoulders slumped, his camera bag was heavy.
He got on with his job.
"You forgive? Forgive what exactly? The libel suit I got dropped last week? The attempt for extradition I've been successfully fending off for the past month?" She asked incredulously as she lifted the box higher to a point where he couldn't see inside. He gave her a Very Serious sad look, complete with a pout and she just lifted her eyebrows and waited. He wasn't going to drop the act that easily though, and he turned fully from his photo-editing to straighten up in his chair to turn toward her with a serious look on his face.
"Ms. Patel, are you telling me that you require continued reassurance about you doing you're job?" He asked as he peered at her over his sunglasses with a mock stern expression on his face. He deepened his voice, did his best to keep to a monotone as he continued to speak. "I would have thought the trays of fancy cheeses that we have delivered to your office multiple times a day to be recognized enough. Or if not just that then the very expensive chocolate covered fruits, you know we get those imported straight from the most high tech greenhouse on top of the fanciest skyscraper in downtown Lumen."
She gave him a look that suggested the words 'impressed' and 'amused' had never crossed her mind at his impression, had in fact never even been a part of her lexicon before nor ever would be again and he took that as the victory it so obviously was. A grin cracked across his face and she rolled her eyes at it but there was a smile on her face. "Yes yes, very funny. Look, I'll let you have the box after you look at your assignment, but only if you agree not to open it until I'm gone. I do not need another."
"Do you need me to sign a contract in blood or is my word enough?" He asked as he picked up the folder but didn't open it yet. He weighed it in his hands, listened to the documents inside rustling, and eyed the very distinctive bulge of a lanyard with laminated card. It looked like he was finally getting his press pass back.
"I'm fine with a verbal contract if you are." She said and he winked.
"Deal!" He flipped the envelope open and immediately hung the pass around his neck after giving the card a cursory glance. He'd fallen prey to pulling on an'ID-10T' card before. He thumbed through the papers. There were four pages of information on the subject a video game called 'Phoenix Fantasy' that he vaguely recalled hearing talked about at some point with someone, a schedule listing the date, time, and locations of several places for photoshoots, and a the brief explaining which news outlet the article was for and the requirements for the article.
It seemed easy enough, if a little outside his usual wheelhouse.
"This is rather outside my normal topics." He said honestly as he shoved the papers back into the envelope and ignored the way she winced. He really wasn't the type to keep things neat and orderly, and there were more important things to worry about right now like doughnuts! Sure they would be the cooled remains of what hadn't gotten eaten by Lucy and her paralegals but the bakery name on the box was the kind of thing that was good even five days after.
"It shouldn't be too difficult, you're being asked to capture people's thoughts on the series reaching this milestone and the work being done to present it to others, not play it yourself." She didn't bother to pretend she hadn't read through the job beforehand and he gave her A Look before pointedly ignoring That Thing she was doing.
"My end of the deal's done, don't tell me you're going to not hold up your end now, Lucy. Imagine what would happen if word got out." He waggled his eyebrows as he stressed the nickname. She sighed and set the box down quietly on his desk, pointedly keeping it away from his latest assignment.
"As the company's lawyer, try not to have the cops called on you for once." She advised before turning to head back to her own work. No sooner was she three steps away from his cubicle and he dove on the box and wrenched the lid open to -
nothing but crumbs and a bit of jam stuck to the side.
"Oh that b-"
It was a beautiful day for trying to get a picture of a holographic display, which meant it was overcast but not dark and the weather had said there wasn't a chance of rain. It helped to raise David's spirits at this assignment, although truth be told the technical side of getting pictures for his article had proven to be enough of a challenge to get him interested.
He was outside one of the video game stores that had been on the schedule in the manilla envelope last week. He had already talked to the manager on duty and spoken a little with the cashier. He had shown them the letter giving him approval, his press credentials, and had waited a little while the district manager was called and his presence was cleared and he was allowed to unpack his camera and take pictures of the game displays inside the store.
It was the fifth of these that he had done and he had his routine down to a T. Step one: Take pictures of the display in case a new photo turned out better than what he had and step two: interview a few customers that agreed. He had been a bit surprised by some of the stories, he couldn't say he was super into video games the way a few of the people had spoken with were, but he kinda got it.
The world they lived in was complicated, and it was hard for any one person to change the things that needed changing. In this game some things were more simple, and the player's actions could change a lot in the world.
He got that.
What he didn't get was the weird hologram glitch he was repeatedly encountering with the displays.
It started with the second store. He had already taken pictures of one of the displays with his digital camera and hadn't been too pleased with the results when he looked at them last night so he had resolved to try a wider range of settings the next shoot. The hologram image of the hero, clad in blue and white built tall and thin in the style of today's heroes, had been there. And he had done what the previous display did too: said a few stock lines in response to interactions with actual people, struck a few poses, and so on.
Overall it was an incredibly powerful bit of advertising that David had mixed feelings about. On one hand: it was an ad, on the other hand: it represented something many people apparently loved and its creators had done their best to make it live up to that.
The problem that wasn't, was the extra.
David hadn't seen it until after he had taken a whole bunch of pictures in the previously mentioned lots of different settings. It had been a time consuming process since every shot was being taken four or five times with wildly different settings. Luckily holograms didn't complain when you made them do the same thing over and over! It almost made up for the hell of trying to capture their light when the sun was out being a Big Source of Light that had to be accounted for.
When he was done taking the pictures he had, of course, reviewed them on his camera and found a smaller, color-shifted knock-off of the hero in all of the pictures of a certain setting. It was maybe what some people would call creepy-cute? It was doll-like in a way that didn't initially trigger the creep factor but the way the mouth was stitched shut was kinda eeeeh. Most of the cute came from the way it had done its best to faithfully copy and replicate everything he had asked the hero hologram to do.
A talk with the store manager and a not-so-quick call to the game studio's PR person had revealed that the little guy was not in fact suppose to be there. David had chatted with the store manager about which store he was going to next while the clerk had disabled the faulty hologram. Apparently a new one would be sent out and all would be well.
Except the same thing had happened at the third store.
David had been more careful this time. He had taken a set of photos with the different settings then checked them on the preview screen. The little hero-wannabe had shown up again, same settings as before. High shutter speed, narrow aperture.
David had initially been at a loss but then the idea had wiggled its way into his head. If the hero's hologram would listen and react to direction, then maybe the little one would too?
It worked and had made the subsequent photoshoots much easier. That first conversation about it had been...weird though. When he told it that it wasn't meant to be there it had kind of huddled up, drawn into itself, looked sad. He hadn't thought it could do that.
Maybe that was why he thanked it.
The thanking it led to nicknaming it, and now the nicknaming led to (not-fondness because he'd known it for all of a few hours over three days) familiarity. He knew enough psychology to know that things that were familiar had a shortcut to the part of the brain that registered people as 'friends' and things as 'good' and places as 'safe' but...was there any harm in it?
So now he was at the fifth store and the end of his tiny tour between the stores and the day was overcast and grey. At this point David had already pinned down the best settings for photographing the hologram he was suppose to and they weren't the settings he could see the little guy on but his fingers made the setting changes out of habit.
Click!
There was only the image of the hero in the photograph, and- and it was fine. David's shoulders slumped, his camera bag was heavy.
He got on with his job.