tampered | Log: Ongoing

Log: Ongoing

When; June 6, noon
Rating; PG-13? R for rock and roll?
Characters; Curt Wild

shiverandsing and Adrian Veidt

caughtthebullet
Summary; Auction winnings and what you do with them.
Log;

Adrian is prompt and ready at the entrance to The Palace, dressed in a finely pressed slate gray suit. Oh, with an accent of gold on the buttons and a purple tie of course. How he's managed to arrange his appointments, with winnings and without, is a mystery but not something impossible for the smartest man in the world. Well, at least his world so the media says, and whatever's left of it. Something in Curt Wild stokes a rush of nostalgia in Veidt, the days of Studio 54, old friends who would probably find a spot of kindred in the young man. At the very least, he only means to get to know Curt better, to see if he lives up to his own words. However low they can strike sometimes.

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Curt is not prompt. He's not particularly late, in Curt time, since it's less than half an hour after they'd agreed upon that arrives. He's made some attempt to pull himself together and not look like he just rolled out of bed, even though this is, in fact, the case and it still shows. He has on black leather pants, a tee shirt, and the only blazer he actually owns. His hair is tied back, but the front part is too short so it's all in his face anyway.

He's not 100% sure what he's doing here. The idea of auctioning himself off which seemed awesome last night suddenly seems pretty weird. But he feels like he ought to abide by his appointment and he hopes Adrian will prove interesting.

He walks up to the man standing in the entrance and just says, "Hey," because nothing else comes to mind.

Curt's appearance doesn't surprise Adrian in the least. In a way it's almost endearing but he says nothing of it when the other man approaches. Although there's a brief glance at his own watch, noting the minutes after noon, Adrian still doesn't mention it mostly because it matters little to him. That Curt Wild has arrived at all is pleasing.

"Mr. Wild, or do you prefer Curt," Adrian asks.

He gestures for him to enter through wide open double doors.

"Curt's fine. Unless you don't want to be called Adrian." Fair is fair. He goes inside and tries to stare without staring. Upon first glace it appears about as fancy inside as outside, and even though his time with Brian has made him relatively used to being in fancy places he can't help feeling out of his element. "Nice place."

"I don't mind it, Curt," Adrian replies.

It's an answer as any. He notices the staring too, and what's not to stare at? The architecture is professional, the interior tasteful, the items on display speak of culture. On the other hand, even Adrian knows the look of culture, the look of one man's reputation, can easily be cultivated from nothing more than a handful of his own ambition.

"I'd take credit for it, but it wasn't mine to begin with," he explains to Curt. How it fell into Adrian's hands is other story. "Is it different from your world? Is it familiar?"

Curt shrugs. "It looks fairly normal. I'm from Earth just like most people here seem to be. 1974, so I've gotten used to meeting people from the future." There's something a little bit mocking in his tone at that--it's not quite his world's future, as far as he can tell, but it's still an ironic situation for someone who's prided himself on being cutting edge.

"Mm, 1974. That was a good year," Adrian nods once. The mocking tone brings the corners of his mouth up in the slightest smile. Even Curt's attitude stokes nostalgia for him.

"We have an art salon in this wing where the local painters and sculptors display what they wish, there's a music salon farther down, mostly acoustic and classical fare. There's a ballroom for larger events, depending on who feels like renting the space," he gestures, remembering the original 'tour' he invited Curt to, but not even halfway down the corridor, barely a quarter into what the Palace actually has to offer, Adrian turns around to face Curt. "But somehow I don't think all of that interests you, at least not when you're held by the hand," he shakes his head, Curt strikes him as someone better accustomed to first hand experiences, "so what do you want to do, Curt? What would you like to see?"

Curt is slightly thrown off by this. He was expecting Adrian to go on with the tour a little while longer--not that he thought Adrian was much more invested in giving the tour than Curt was in going along, but he had been hoping for a little more time to get a read on the other man. As it stands, Curt doesn't really know what to make of him--or how to answer.

The truth is that Curt is beginning to realize he would really just like to grab a hamburger with someone relatively normal and listen to a few records and not see anything particularly novel or fantastical for at least a couple days. Unfortunately, nothing about Adrian seems very hamburgers and normal.

"I don't even fucking know," he says with a bit of an apologetic smile.

Sorry to say, Curt Wild, this man is a vegetarian, but he doesn't mind people who eat meat or watching people who eat meat or having to kill meat himself...all of this irrelevant to the situation at hand. He hears Curt's words and mulls over them for seconds, long enough for Adrian to avert his gaze and appear almost rude towards his company, but then just as quickly he returns his attention to the other man.

"You said you're a certified rock star. What's your background in it? I funded a few acts at home, still do."

Curt regards Adrian with new interest. He knows getting money generally means a certain degree of interference with his artistic endeavors, but he's not going to reject the possibility outright.

"Oh. Well, I had this band, the Rats. We put out two albums--one studio, one live, toured the US and even the UK, and I had a solo album. I was working on something right before I got here, but that fell through. Differences with the producer and the record label, and all that." Which is about all he plans to say on that score. "I'm not saying the sales were ever incredible, but, you know, people had heard of me. No one here has, though."

Adrian listens intently while maintaining a casual demeanor. He's heard that sort of tale before, the small start up growing into a bigger phenomenon. He's also most aware of the artistic integrity some musicians sacrifice along the way. He likes to think of himself as anything but that kind of investor. David and Mick would be appalled if he was...depending on the era in question.

"I'm sorry to say I haven't heard of you either," Adrian wouldn't lie, "but I'm open to learning."

Why else would they be on an outing after being won in a ridiculous auction? Not that Adrian has any plans to express ulterior motives. Not yet anyway.

"I'm working on some new material. I just really need to get a band together. I'd play for you if you wanted but...you need to see a live performance with a big enough audience, and then you'd get what I'm about or never would."

Curt takes some kind of ulterior motives as a given, but it doesn't really matter as long as it looks like the surface motives are going to be of benefit.

"What kind of acts did you fund?"

"Fair enough," Adrian concedes, able to empathize with the difference between a single room audience and something on a stage, in an arena. It's been a long time since he'd been involved in anything like that but Adrian hasn't forgotten the feeling.

"In the vein of the rock and roll label. I hate calling it that you know," he shakes his head, hands finding their way into his pockets now, "but it was a bit of everything. Anything with a good chord, anything with a good lyrics, anything that had passion and pride behind it. Something the artist himself believed in instead of pandering to a consumer market."

It's a mouthful but all of it is true for Adrian Veidt. Everything he's funded he's always tried to make sure it was driven by unbridled passion for a cause whether that cause was selfless or self-serving.

This gets a nod of approval from Curt. It's Adrian's apparent disdain of genre that really catches Curt's interest. Anyone can talk about artistic integrity but must critics and people in the industry are obsessed with classifying everything even if all that matters is that it's good music. Of course, in Curt's view, music being good doesn't necessarily have anything to do with it's technical merits. Passion, though, definitely passion.

"The thing about this place...everyone's from such different worlds and everyone's coming and going without warning, so I can see how it would be hard to build a real music scene. I mean, there's pretty much jazz thanks to the Blue Light, and some scattered stuff, but I feel like if something came together somehow--it could be really incredible. I mean, there's no music industry, but as far as the technology goes for creating and distributing music, everything's here. So people could just--"

This remarkably coherent formulation of what could easily be Curt's new purpose in life trails off into a vague hand gesture. He's been thinking about this for a while, but it's the first time he's tried to put it into words and there's a sudden intensity to his whole posture and the way he meets Adrian's eyes.

Curt's shift in posture and the subtle, or not so subtle, change in his eyes heighten Adrian's desire to see that passion fulfilled. To him, Curt's overall demeanor feels like the real Curt Wild, not the man he spoke to over the Network or the man he met at the entrance. It isn't all there is to the musician, hardly, but it's a start and one he wants to consider a good start. Adrian's own posture becomes even more casual though tinged with something catlike. Ozymandias is the one who never lets his guard down, lately the two are one and the same.

"Someone has to start it," that fulfilling scene, "with the right ambition," he remarks, tone alone suggesting there's no question that Curt Wild has the ambition. "You're free to choose who you want to work. I'll reserve my judgment solely for efficiency in the process."

"Efficiency?"

Curt isn't really sure what the heck it is he plans on doing, let alone whether or not any of it could be done efficiently. Sure he'd been a fixture of the New York scene for a while, but his only real influence was musical and the fact that a lot of people seemed to be ripping off his act, at least a little. He wasn't exactly a taste-maker, let alone an organizer. And while there's definitely some organizing called for here he's not sure he and Adrian are on the same page.

He can hear the slight amount of apprehension or even dubiousness.

"A working sound studio, proper technical assistance. Of course I understand if you artistically choose to record in low fidelity," Adrian explains. Somehow, just meeting Curt Wild once, he doesn't really believe there's any reason for this man to use low fidelity. If anything, high fidelity and volume will be the most precious elements second only to Curt's presence itself.

"Just like that? You're offing to help me put out an album without hearing anything?"

It's anything but a no and yet Curt is wary. Day by day he's getting more used to the City being a real place and nothing should be this easy in real life--every time it seemed like it was, there was a hidden price.

"I'll admit I have experience in the industry, enough to know I'm taking a chance on you, enough to know how to recoup," Adrian replies. "But we're in each other's company right now. If you have the means to show me what you've got then I welcome it," he raises his chin just slightly, wondering if Curt will take that opportunity. For the record--no pun intended--he has no other implications behind what it is he expects Curt to have.

"It's not like I brought my guitar--" but that's a delaying tactic.

While he's already said he's better in front of an audience, it would be a lie to say he can't play for one person, especially considering he's already played for Penny--the presence of the other birthday guests feeling pretty irrelevant at the time--but impressing a pretty girl is different than impressing a powerful man. Probably. Fuck all that. He's too stubborn to back down from a challenge.

"But I think I could figure out something."

His green gaze drifts downward to take in Curt Wild's entire form before tracking back up to his face.

"At your leisure, then," Adrian says, perfectly willing to wait until Curt can retrieve his guitar, until Curt feels ready to do it. It could take minutes, hours, days. Time is of little importance to Adrian Veidt, within reason anyway. He has long learned how to use it to his advantage.

Well, that certainly looked like a t.v. eye. Without any t's involved, but same difference. Curt tries not to show any particular reaction. He wants to see if he can get the other man to make a completely unambiguous advance, with little encouragement, and he's willing to play a long game--mostly because he has a lot of time to kill.

"Let me get my gear. Or later if you want." He shrugs.

No T here, in more than one sense. As for ambiguity, it's one of Adrian's specialties. Sometimes it gets him in trouble but it's never been a trouble to get himself out of it. In any case, he looks over the interior once then nods to Curt.

"You know where to find me," he says, putting that ball in Curt's court. But in addition, Adrian leans in as if to keep these words to themselves although the hall is empty. "I'll learn where to find you." If I have to, is the unsaid sentiment.

"All right. I really need to find a couple people, get stuff together and I'll be back."

It's seems smartest to do things that way, to wait until he's not slightly wrong footed, to wait until he can make an impression. Curt smiles a little.

"Anyway, I'm not too hard to find." Which is not the same as saying where he can be found, but true enough.

Curt's smile gains Adrian's in return. It's a way of complimenting him without actually saying he admires preparation as much as he admires the ability to pull through under pressure and without preparation at all. Ozymandias has accomplished both before with equally positive outcomes. If one were to define 'positive' as 'in Adrian's favor' anyway.

"I'll keep that in mind, and I'll keep in touch," he nods. This is true as well. Adrian doesn't necessarily require Curt tell him where he can be found. Part of the intrigue is in the mystery, part of the pleasure is one willing to be found.

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Log: Ongoing

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