08-30-2016, 06:34 PM
Gwendolyn was getting irritated enough to let it show. “Can we please get the sound right before we go live?”
she sent sweetly toward the sound technician along with a steely-eyed gaze that was anything but. The young man swallowed and hunched over the portable sound dampener system. Perhaps a little bitchy, but it wouldn't do to have footsteps and echoes come through from the other side. Nor would it do for any of her guest interviewees to sound like shit on a national stage on a day like this.
And even in this corner of the Capitol rotunda there were footsteps aplenty. CNN Instant News had claimed a section to set up a live sound stage. A few chairs were splayed out, sandwiched between statues of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence as a backdrop, completely isolated with a white curtain, it made for the perfect cozy set on which to report today's Joint Session of Congress. With one of the curtains still pulled back, Gwen watched people hurry past her on their way to the House chamber.
There went by a tall gray suit with an unmistakable high and tight military cut, flanked by two men in black suits and wraparound Land Warriors. Col. Track Palin. Military hero, former President and current Vice President of the United States. It had been a shock to the nation when President Dawson's running mate died of a sudden heart attack one month after taking office, and an even greater shock when he'd appointed the former President and his longtime campaign to the position. No one was even sure that it was even Constitutional since Palin had already been elected to two terms in office. Dawson said he'd done it (much to the chargrin of his own Party) to ensure someone didn't become President without going through an election, and that come 2048 he'd pick a new VP as his running mate. No doubt the Democrats didn't bother to challenge the appointment because they controlled the House and figured they'd just challenge it if Dawson died, and throw the Presidency to the Speaker of the House. Right now that was Oliver Holden.
Gwen motioned to her assistant, a pretty if slightly pudgy girl with a black pantsuit to match her dark locks. “Stacy – be a sweetheart get the VP over here!”
The girl snapped a nod and ran off.
Her earpiece buzzed. “Gwen – live promo in fifteen seconds.”
Gwen gave a purposeful wink to her right eye. That triggered her Lens Warrior, which projected a transparent, scrolling screen she could track with her eye movement. It began to display her prompt. She sat down and turned to the cameraman, took one breath, let it out and smiled.
“Go.”
“We're back, live at the Capitol with our coverage of history in the Making. They're calling him Magic Nick.” Because we're telling you to call him that. “ Mr. Wizard himself, Secretary Nicholas Trano of the newly founded Department of Powers will be addressing a Joint Session of Congress, in just Moments. You can't tune out now! Stay with me, Gwendolyn Petersen, here on CNN Instant News, where we Make News Happen.”
“And we're out.”
Gwen clicked off her Lens Warrior. “So which nickname is polling better? I'm not sure which one I like best yet.”
The producer paused. “We don't know yet. Mr. Wizard is polling better on 60 and older, but Magic Nick is going over better with the younger ladies. We're probably going to have a copyright issue with either of them.” Not that it would be an issue for Gwendolyn Petersen. Within a day half the country would be using one of the nicknames and no one would remember where it came from.
Gwen's assistant came scampering back. “Palin says he'll give you an interview after the speech.”
Ugh. She had probably six or seven minutes of dead space to fill before the speech began. “Speaker Holden?”
Her assistant shook her head. Fuck it. “All right, get our panel of experts online. We'll do it live.”
As such experts as there were. She turned back to the camera.
“And we're back at the Capitol, and I'm Gwendolyn Petersen as always. Joining us today is Rodger Kimpbell from the Centers for Disease Control, and...”
Her lens warrior spat out new information. Crap, her other panelist didn’t show. Smile. “Rodger, how are you today?”
“I'm excellent, Gwen,”
he replied.
That's a stretch, buddy. “Now, Rodger, based on your experience with these abilities and the research done down in Atlanta, what can you tell me about what running the Department of Powers will entail.”
The man blinked. Clearly he was an amateur on the national stage. “Well, obviously first and foremost they'd be responsible for making sure people with the Sickness which is a reaction to these powers coming to existence in an individual, these people are helped. But essentially he'd be expected have umbrella oversight over all the agencies that are involved with these abilities. Currently the Defense Department is overseeing all of these activities --”
Gwen gave a calculated raise of her eyebrow to the camera. “So you're saying there are military applications here, like we're going to be seeing people being used as weapons?”
The man tugged at his shirt collar. “Now Gwen, I'm not saying that at all, just that the Defense Department--”
Gwen cut him off. “Let's play this video...”
a video, projected digitally into the news feed, began playing behind her. “Here we see Secretary Trano apparently putting out a fire. Isn't that nice. But can't this power be used in a more destructive way? How is this new department going to strike the appropriate balance between liberty and security?”
The man's mouth hung open for a second and he blinked. “Uh. Well, Gwen we're just going to have to see what Secretary Trano says and hope he addresses this.”
Gwen flashed her pearly whites at him. She hadn't gotten anywhere near any really salacious material out of him, but she'd abused him enough for one morning. “All right, well we appreciate it.”
“My pleasure, Gwen.”
She smiled again. Of course it is.
Behind her the screen changed to the now-packed House chamber. “Any moment now, Secretary Trano will begin his address. As we just showed, earlier this week Magic Nick made headlines for putting out a fire with his use of the powers and made a passionate speech where he derided the Adcendancy Nikolai Brandon's claim to be a god, of course the longtime owner of Vulpesnet has been vehemently anti-CCD. There have been other reports of violence both committed by and committed against magic users, and as you all know there was an incident involving the Native Americans in Albuquerque...Any moment now he will begin speaking and hopefully shed some light on what we as a nation are facing.”
She hoped so. This was rapidly turning into some very bad and boring TV.
she sent sweetly toward the sound technician along with a steely-eyed gaze that was anything but. The young man swallowed and hunched over the portable sound dampener system. Perhaps a little bitchy, but it wouldn't do to have footsteps and echoes come through from the other side. Nor would it do for any of her guest interviewees to sound like shit on a national stage on a day like this.
And even in this corner of the Capitol rotunda there were footsteps aplenty. CNN Instant News had claimed a section to set up a live sound stage. A few chairs were splayed out, sandwiched between statues of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence as a backdrop, completely isolated with a white curtain, it made for the perfect cozy set on which to report today's Joint Session of Congress. With one of the curtains still pulled back, Gwen watched people hurry past her on their way to the House chamber.
There went by a tall gray suit with an unmistakable high and tight military cut, flanked by two men in black suits and wraparound Land Warriors. Col. Track Palin. Military hero, former President and current Vice President of the United States. It had been a shock to the nation when President Dawson's running mate died of a sudden heart attack one month after taking office, and an even greater shock when he'd appointed the former President and his longtime campaign to the position. No one was even sure that it was even Constitutional since Palin had already been elected to two terms in office. Dawson said he'd done it (much to the chargrin of his own Party) to ensure someone didn't become President without going through an election, and that come 2048 he'd pick a new VP as his running mate. No doubt the Democrats didn't bother to challenge the appointment because they controlled the House and figured they'd just challenge it if Dawson died, and throw the Presidency to the Speaker of the House. Right now that was Oliver Holden.
Gwen motioned to her assistant, a pretty if slightly pudgy girl with a black pantsuit to match her dark locks. “Stacy – be a sweetheart get the VP over here!”
The girl snapped a nod and ran off.
Her earpiece buzzed. “Gwen – live promo in fifteen seconds.”
Gwen gave a purposeful wink to her right eye. That triggered her Lens Warrior, which projected a transparent, scrolling screen she could track with her eye movement. It began to display her prompt. She sat down and turned to the cameraman, took one breath, let it out and smiled.
“Go.”
“We're back, live at the Capitol with our coverage of history in the Making. They're calling him Magic Nick.” Because we're telling you to call him that. “ Mr. Wizard himself, Secretary Nicholas Trano of the newly founded Department of Powers will be addressing a Joint Session of Congress, in just Moments. You can't tune out now! Stay with me, Gwendolyn Petersen, here on CNN Instant News, where we Make News Happen.”
“And we're out.”
Gwen clicked off her Lens Warrior. “So which nickname is polling better? I'm not sure which one I like best yet.”
The producer paused. “We don't know yet. Mr. Wizard is polling better on 60 and older, but Magic Nick is going over better with the younger ladies. We're probably going to have a copyright issue with either of them.” Not that it would be an issue for Gwendolyn Petersen. Within a day half the country would be using one of the nicknames and no one would remember where it came from.
Gwen's assistant came scampering back. “Palin says he'll give you an interview after the speech.”
Ugh. She had probably six or seven minutes of dead space to fill before the speech began. “Speaker Holden?”
Her assistant shook her head. Fuck it. “All right, get our panel of experts online. We'll do it live.”
As such experts as there were. She turned back to the camera.
“And we're back at the Capitol, and I'm Gwendolyn Petersen as always. Joining us today is Rodger Kimpbell from the Centers for Disease Control, and...”
Her lens warrior spat out new information. Crap, her other panelist didn’t show. Smile. “Rodger, how are you today?”
“I'm excellent, Gwen,”
he replied.
That's a stretch, buddy. “Now, Rodger, based on your experience with these abilities and the research done down in Atlanta, what can you tell me about what running the Department of Powers will entail.”
The man blinked. Clearly he was an amateur on the national stage. “Well, obviously first and foremost they'd be responsible for making sure people with the Sickness which is a reaction to these powers coming to existence in an individual, these people are helped. But essentially he'd be expected have umbrella oversight over all the agencies that are involved with these abilities. Currently the Defense Department is overseeing all of these activities --”
Gwen gave a calculated raise of her eyebrow to the camera. “So you're saying there are military applications here, like we're going to be seeing people being used as weapons?”
The man tugged at his shirt collar. “Now Gwen, I'm not saying that at all, just that the Defense Department--”
Gwen cut him off. “Let's play this video...”
a video, projected digitally into the news feed, began playing behind her. “Here we see Secretary Trano apparently putting out a fire. Isn't that nice. But can't this power be used in a more destructive way? How is this new department going to strike the appropriate balance between liberty and security?”
The man's mouth hung open for a second and he blinked. “Uh. Well, Gwen we're just going to have to see what Secretary Trano says and hope he addresses this.”
Gwen flashed her pearly whites at him. She hadn't gotten anywhere near any really salacious material out of him, but she'd abused him enough for one morning. “All right, well we appreciate it.”
“My pleasure, Gwen.”
She smiled again. Of course it is.
Behind her the screen changed to the now-packed House chamber. “Any moment now, Secretary Trano will begin his address. As we just showed, earlier this week Magic Nick made headlines for putting out a fire with his use of the powers and made a passionate speech where he derided the Adcendancy Nikolai Brandon's claim to be a god, of course the longtime owner of Vulpesnet has been vehemently anti-CCD. There have been other reports of violence both committed by and committed against magic users, and as you all know there was an incident involving the Native Americans in Albuquerque...Any moment now he will begin speaking and hopefully shed some light on what we as a nation are facing.”
She hoped so. This was rapidly turning into some very bad and boring TV.