Adrienne & Arthur | Meridian Enterprises

[x-longshot.livejournal.com]

Adrienne enlists Arthur for a little luck in exploring who she can trust in the top levels of her business empire, but soon finds that there are two sides to that coin.

It helped matters immensely that Meridian Enterprises main offices were actually in the same building her 64 Square office had been. Apparently, though this universe saw fit to send her to the shithole of a school known as Yale, it still recognized her good taste in office locations.

Except now she owned the entire building instead of just the top five floors. Or so the documentation she'd found on her computer had said.

Adrienne climbed out of the town car as Driver opened the door for her, stepping away so Arthur could slide across the seat and unfold himself after her. "Thank you, Driver," she nodded. We'll call when we're finished. We may be at Count Donutula's when we call. Ready?" she asked Arthur with a polite smile.

Sliding out, Arthur tipped the driver with a smile and then immediately gave an appreciative whistle at the glass monstrosity that loomed above them."Here I thought Mr. Mask was a fan of mine. Clearly he felt the world needed fashion instead."

"Hey, this place could have existed in our universe if I'd taken a couple different turns," Adrienne said defensively. Like not having Steven killed, apparently. "Wait- did you smile at him?" Adrienne asked as she led the way towards the building. "You smiled at Driver?! Why did you do that?! Now he's going to start expecting everyone who rides with me to smile at him and be nice to him. Or, Christ forbid, me." It was a joke, since she treated Driver very well and- since she'd never lost her company in this reality, they'd been together for almost ten years now.

He blinked. "I smile at everyone."

A couple passed on the sidewalk, and he smiled broadly and waved good day before turning back, completely unconscious about his actions.

"Are you cruel and unforgiving in this universe? Like, more a Sandra Bullock than your current Lorelei Gilmore?"

"I don't know who 'Lorelei Gilmore' is," Adrienne frowned, "but assuming you mean Sandra Bullock from 'Speed', then yes. Yes I am." She held the chrome-and-glass door open for Arthur and let him lead the way into the bustling lobby. "Any chance you can tell me anything about the security guard who's undoubtedly going to push the elevator button for us?"

"Well," and he turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "Is this some sort of investigator test?" He cleared his throat. "His clean pressed suit hints at an unhappy homelife with three cats and a -- no clearly I think he's probably a great guy. I had my mind wiped by my agents constantly and only put that gem together recently."

Adrienne suppressed the urge that kept presenting itself when she was around Arthur, which was to- playfully- whack him upside the head with her hand, knowing if she ever actually did she'd probably break her wrist thanks to his luck powers. "I meant like his name, but the cat thing is probably useful, too," she retorted with a roll of her eyes. She greeted the guard with a 'good morning' and in a well-practiced move managed to brush the sleeve of his coat with her fingertips as he swept past them to press the elevator button for them. Instead of Reading the coat as she'd intended, she found herself getting a Reading on the watch he was wearing since the fabric of the coat was touching it. But the end result was the same. "Thank you, George," she nodded as the elevator doors opened and she and Arthur stepped inside. "So... have elevators ever collapsed or stopped while you're inside?" she asked Arthur curiously as the doors dinged shut and she pondered which floor she should press for them to get off on.

"No to the first -- the world apparently loves me -- and constantly yes for the second. Isn't that how you get off elevators?"

It was a quick elevator ride despite the height, and the car happily announced that they had reached their floor without any stops for strangers along the way. They were greeted by a well appointed hallway that funneled into an art-deco inspired common area. There were the happy, chirpy sounds of people at work and phonecalls happening. A few people passed, but Adrienne's presence created a bow-wave of nervous smiles and glances before them.

Arthur just raised an eyebrow at this.

"I meant having it stop between floors," she answered with a smirk. Adrienne figured it was Arthur's luck that allowed them to reach her office without being stopped by anybody, and possibly that her office was the same now as her old 64 Square office had always been. That certainly made things easier. "Okay," she said when they were inside with the doors closed behind them, "so. How do you want to do this?"

"Well," he mentioned while inspecting a couch area that boasted a curious arrangement of fake fruit, "I got the impression that they would much rather not smooze with you. Do you hope to win their hearts and minds? Be all 'Miss Frost, beloved boss and thrower of pizza parties?'"

Adrienne laughed uproariously at that image. "I rather think not," she answered when she could speak again. "I have a reputation to uphold as a cold hearted mega-bitch. At least in public." Out of everyone she knew, Arthur could possibly understand that the best. She had her public image which she maintained at all costs, but then there was the private side that the people at the mansion saw. That was the thrower of pizza parties. But this Adrienne, this one might be an act, but it was a role she still felt it necessary to play in order to feel like her business empire was secure. She couldn't be friends with these people, couldn't let them in. "So no schmoozing. But I should probably know their names," she shrugged. "And unfortunately I didn't collect headshots with resumees for the staff; only the clients." She pulled a sheaf of papers out of her handbag and handed them to him. "I printed out an 'Employee Info' file I had on my computer with names and positions, but that doesn't help when I see people in the halls."

"So the real issue here is that you want to maintain an ice queen image while also pretending to know everyone in a [x] story building. Or are you just wanting to know who you can trust?"

"Mostly column B," Adrienne answered, "but also a little from column A; not gonna lie," she admitted good-naturedly. "It probably sounds paranoid to you, but my mutation's a secret again. That hasn't been the case for me in several years. I'd like to keep it as long as I can to see what I can do with it. Particularly in this global climate. So yeah, I don't really trust anyone here right now."

"Hrm," he articulated in response while casually leafing through the stack of papers before setting them aside entirely and seating himself on the edge of the couch. "My opinion is that you are overthinking this. You are the producer. You employee hopefully good-natured people to do smallscale jobs. Grips. Lighting. Catering."

He gave a little wave to indicate that she should just go with the metaphor. "There will always be people who will sell secrets or leak stuff. That's the cost of business. You need to make sure your close circle," and for this he pointedly helpfully to the page that fallen open on the couch seat detailing her seniors and shareholders without a second look, "Are the ones doing their jobs."

"Why, Mister Centrino, thank you very much for that insight into the cost of business. Because it's not like I haven't been doing this for almost twenty years," Adrienne pointed out, rolling her eyes at him. She debated flipping him off, but she probably wanted to save that for later. Because odds were not impossible that there would be an opportunity to do it later. "For now, I'd be happy with a little luck so I can figure out who's actually in my close circle."

A shrug. "And this is why you don't ask the actor slash survivalist slash stuntman for business advice. I'm not actually a luck pez-dispenser."

This was news to Adrienne. "How disappointing," she mumbled, though she didn't sound particularly disappointed. "So... you just came here to watch me pretend to know everyone, didn't you?" she asked, poising her flipping-off gesture at her side.

He leaned forward, hands on knees, and his expression completely ignored any of her changes in tone or body language. "I came because you asked me to, Adrienne. What I am and what I do is not predictab--"

A buzz over the intercom broke this speech as Adrienne's assistant nervously intoned, "Miss Frost? We... we have an issue in the Diamond Conference room."

Click.

"You're such... an actor," Adrienne smirked, deciding not to use the word 'bullshitter' at the last moment. She rose from where she'd been sitting on the edge of her desk and quirked an eyebrow at the intercom. "Where the hell's that?" she murmured quizzically. With a sigh, she opened the door to her office and ushered Arthur out.

It was easy enough to follow the crowd to said, thematically white and Old Hollywood themed, conference room. Behind the glass a group of expensively-suited individuals were looking very upset. The entire scene was very quiet, giving the clipped words that were inaudible through the glass a telenova feel.

Arthur had picked up a bag of mints from somewhere and munched in interest. "Well," he commented as several other employees turned to notice just who had joined their crowd, "That's a twist."

"That's quite enough gawping now, everyone, don't you think?" Adrienne addressed the crowd with a steely tone, sending them scattering quickly and guiltily. "Help?" Adrienne stage-whispered to Arthur, only barely managing to maintain her image of being coolly composed and capable.

"Well," and the sparkle in his eye should have been a warning. "It may be crazy, but..."

And before she could respond Arthur has handed her the mints and entered the conference room himself.

"Oh, Christ," Adrienne muttered under her breath, following him into the room. At least he was rich. He was an actor with all those reality tv shows. He had to be rich, right? If he destroyed her company by doing whatever it was he was going to do, at least she could sue him or something.

Arthur had moved quickly.

"As stated, it is fortunate that we at internal security quickly mobilized to get to the bottom of this issue. You all know why you are here. This is something that will be handled quickly and without compromise."

His tone and manner had changed. Sometime between leaving Adrienne's side and entering he had smoothed his collar and tightened his tie, and the new posture he adopted was every bit no-nonsense business shark. Gone was the smile and the dumb eagerness, replaced by the flat tone and scrupulous look employed by any number of crime procedurals when confronting a suspect.

The tension was palpable as the hanging accusation was only accompanied by a shuffling of papers and exchanged nervous glances.

"You," Arthur stated, signaling out a particularly nervous executive, "It is best not to keep Miss Frost waiting."

Gordon was always nervous around her. He'd been working in the IT department as internal security for Adrienne for over ten years and she had yet to break him of the habit of stuttering around her. Although she didn't try particularly hard, truth be told. "I-I... I was just saying, Miss Frost-" the nervous executive began, but was cut off by a young woman in a neat skirt and blouse.

"-I wasn't doing anything wrong!" she interrupted, looking at Adrienne directly and showing no signs of being nervous around her. "I wasn't selling the pattern to Signpost Designs! I was making inquiries with a friend who works there because I know they just signed a contract with a new sewing facility and I wanted to find out if the turnaround time for corset-stitching would be faster there than with our current factory! But they-" she gestured to the executives dismissively, "-are saying I've been engaged in corporate espionage! That I'm selling designs! I'm not! Really!"

Adrienne leaned forward and put her hands on the conference room table, seemingly casually. Arthur would probably know she was attempting to do her new trick — reading something while touching something else. It happened inadvertently all the time now, but she had yet to do it deliberately. Clearing her mind, she focused on Reading the watch the girl was wearing, hoping to learn the truth about what had happened. Several of the male executives also had their arms on the table and she willed her powers to activate on their sleeves or jewelry.

"Gordon? Your side of events, please?"

The man let out a buoying sigh as his eyes traveled between his executive boss and the stern-looking blonde man that hovered behind her. His fidgeting ceased, and it all came pouring out. "My teams caught a lucky break ten minutes ago on a server leak. We hardly ever catch intrusions this fast, but there was most definitely a handshake of confidential information and we had to scramble to isolate the exchange."

He breathed deeply, words slowing as it was all exposed. "Turns out that one of our interns has been sending files from our spring line to Signpost Designs. We're working to find any other breaches as quickly as possible and investigate the extent of the breach and how much information was lost."

Adrienne was listening to Gordon attentively when her powers suddenly kicked in and she Read Gordon's wedding band and a medical bracelet the girl had on her wrist. She also managed to Read two wristwatches and three class rings, giving her some information on nearly everyone in the room. They were department heads, apparently.

"Thank you, Gordon," she nodded curtly. "Thank you, everyone. Now, if you could give Miss Hale and I the room, please? Arthur, you may stay as well. I'll touch base with you all individually once I've... dealt with Miss Hale," she assured them.

Gordon relaxed visibly, and futzed with his phone. "Thank you, Miss Frost. I have already forwarded you all of the information we have. Should I put the building on lock-down?"

The other c-level suits in the room were less willing to share, and they all nervously passed by a frowning Arthur as they exited through the conference room doors. Shifting subtly, Arthur accidentally brush a control panel that dimmed the lights and engaged blinds to ensure room privacy from any lingering staff.

Miss Hale tapped a pen irritably, glaring daggers at the CIO as if he was holding her from an important exchange.

"Yes, please do that, Gordon," Adrienne nodded as the CIO was departing. "Arthur and I will make the rounds once we've finished here and make certain we won't be discovering any more breaches in security." Assuming Arthur wanted to play bad-cop and yell at the employees in the various other departments, of course.

Alone in the room with the girl, Adrienne pulled Arthur aside. "It would appear as if my CIO is telling the truth," she informed him quietly, and didn't bother to explain how she knew this to be true. "And Signpost is the label of my oldest and most hated rival, to boot. Now, she's only been here a week, so she doesn't know you don't actually work here as some kind of internal law-enforcement. Wanna do the honours of scaring the bejeezus out of her, threatening to bring the world down on her head and booting her ass out the door?"

It was good that Miss Hale was starting intently in the opposite direction, because Arthur totally broke character and pouted a little. His voice was a whisper, "I could... but is that necessary?"

Adrienne pouted back. "You don't want her to face a stupefying degree of wrath for this? What would you suggest instead?"

The man's shoulders slumped pitifully, and his pout level increased by at least five points. Still, he did not protest. Arthur simply turned back to Adrienne's employee, and as quickly as he had broken character he was back in the role of a hardass.

There were harsh words and large amounts of scenery chewing.

Fifteen minutes later, security was escorting Miss Hale from the building with promises of law suits. Further lucky breaks involving inopportune text messages, Cortana, and a broken heel resulted in her confessing everything with a little prodding, but later Meridian employees would find that their Keurig machine was now perpetually stuck on "descaling mode."

Adrienne had a rip in her hose, coffee down the front of her blouse and was having a great deal of trouble with one of her false eyelashes. She was back in her office with Arthur, the door closed as she tried to paste her lash back on with a makeup mirror and some lash glue. "Is this a powers thing?" she asked him curiously, since she'd never seen the other side of his powers in action before. "Am I being punished because I asked you if you wanted to be mean to that chick?"

"I have no fucking clue."

While this would have sounded hostile from most, Arthur sounded every bit as kicked-puppy as he looked. He had suffered no ill effects himself, but the cascade of ill luck was extremely hard to gloss over. He sighed defeatedly. "Jennie says that my powers may be tied to my confidence.Or those involved. Or the tide. Or, I don't know, the moon. Too many things happened at once in there."

Adrienne glanced in the general direction of the conference room, confused for a moment. That sort of scene had definitely not been an everyday occurrence, but the fact that he seemed so upset by it was strange to her. "Well, if what your powers are doing now means you're upset, I'm sorry," she told him sympathetically. She reached into the mini-fridge under her desk and pulled out a bottle of water and a beer and pushed both towards him, not sure if he wanted either but offering both.

"I didn't anticipate that firing someone wouldn't be enjoyable for you." And that had apparently been a large miscalculation on her part. She figured he would embrace the role and have fun with it. But at the same time, she reminded herself, she hadn't forced him to do it. There must have been some small part of him that had been able to justify accomplishing the task she'd offered to him, or he would have just said no, right? "She'll just go back to her job at Signpost," she informed him, trying to make him feel better. "It's not as if you're responsible for her being homeless and starving. Even if they do fire her, she got a significant payout beforehand for taking the risks to begin with.

"But if it makes you feel better," she added suggestively, "you can help me look through the CVs the HR rep is going to bring up and we can interview new people. Hiring people is much more enjoyable than firing them."

Arthur met Adrienne's eyes with the blank expression of someone who wasn't sure where to start. He opted to start massaging his temples instead. "I have a headache. Do you anything for that?"

He still rescued the beer, however. He wasn't made of stone.

"I don't, personally," Adrienne answered apologetically, and pulled her eighteen year sobriety chip from Narcotics Anonymous out of her pocket, flipping it over her thumb and tossing it his way. "I only do alcohol. Especially these days." But she hit the button on the intercom. Rogue was doing a therapy session, apparently, so Adrienne was short her personal assistant, but there were people to fill in. "Could you bring in a bottle of aspirin, please, my dear?" Adrienne said into the device, then turned back to Arthur. "I have no idea who's on the other end of that. I hope it's a woman. Or a hot guy. Or the 'dear' thing might be weird."

The device made a small buzzing noise as there was an affirmation. And then continued buzzing. Still buzzing. A frazzled looking young woman dashed, head low, into the office with the requested ibuprofen. She didn't look up as she stated, "I can't get it to shut off, Miss Frost."

Arthur cradled his drink and rescued the pill bottle before plopping down onto Adrienne's designer couch.

"That's alright," Adrienne assured the young woman with a polite nod. "Thank you." When the door had shut again, she turned back to Arthur. "Anything I can do to snap you out of this? she asked in a pleading tone, sounding a little like a mother with a child she couldn't get to stop crying. "Tell me. Please. What can I do? Do you want a puppy? I can get you a puppy..."

She got a sigh. "All set on puppies, unless you've developed a mutation for summoning them. That would be an excellent power. Crisis of infinite puppies."

The man smiled a little as that and took a swig. Facing up to facts, however, he choose to pull himself back up and hit the problem head on. "This is what I am, Adrienne. I bring a confusing mix of both sorts of luck to the table. All I want to do is help people. We drew that bit out with your ex-employee for what felt like too long. You could have just called the real security."

"I understand," Adrienne nodded, patting him on the shoulder. She wanted him to feel better. He wasn't one of her employees. She didn't have to be the ice bitch with him. She could be herself. So she wouldn't lecture him on telling her how to run her company, on what it meant to be a woman in a position of authority. She just let it go. "I won't put you in that position again." She smiled and cracked open a beer for herself, slipping out of her shoes and putting her feet up on her desk. "Infinite puppies. That would be pretty adorable, if rather messy. I do believe my dream mutation would be to summon shoes.