And there's the Board meeting missed...

[agilebrit]

I'm cooking with grease now. *evil laughter*

Of course, now I have to figure out just how I'm going to do not!Pepper's scene where she attempts (unsuccessfully) to smooth things over with the Board. Because the scene is already from her POV, and then not!Tony and DocOC disappear into the operating theater with not!Harry, and we switch to them, because, um, yeah.

I'm afraid that the action will come to a screeching halt if I follow her into the teleconference room. But this needs doing. ARGH.

This may get into "show, don't tell" territory. Because I could skip the stuff at the teleconference and then just have Alex ask her about it later. HOWEVER. If I don't, if I go into the room and have the confrontation, then it sets up the players better for the denouement later, when not!Tony goes in, kicks ass, and takes names.

This might also ramp up the tension better for the thing with not!Harry, if I play it right, because not!Pepper could also be worrying about what's going on there while she's trying to placate the Board.

Hm. Yes. I just hope I'm good enough to pull this off...

Comments

[highlander_ii]

Is there some additional story-sub-plot-related action thing you can put into the teleconference scene?

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

The Board is actually part of the industrial espionage subplot that drives the main plot, if that makes sense.

In other words, the whole reason not!Harry and not!Perry got hired was for investigating the industrial espionage--but the stuff that happens to not!Harry is the main plot.

I think. Um.

"It ain't about you anymore, Jarrett." She put her hand over her face. "And it ain't really been since Ben got took the first time."

[highlander_ii]

is the teleconference room bit before or after not!Pepper's attempt to fix stuff? Or is that the actually 'attempting'?

the Board could offer some 'new' or 'interesting' information to not!Pepper that's either essential to the plot farther down the road, though not apparently so, or is a 'red herring' that isn't realized until way on down the road...

if it's a 'big talk-y scene', there's not a WHOLE lot to make it impressively interesting, unless the focus character is a huge smartass (aka: Harry Dresden) or it pushes the plot somewhere with an interesting 'tidbit'. I'm assuming not!Pepper isn't a smartass, so you'll probably have to go with the 'tidbit'.

Of course - this is me just tossing out ideas, I don't even attempt to do this writing thing for a living. I'd go broke, b/c I never finish anything. =)

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

It's the actual "attempting." Not!Tony is busy trying to save not!Harry's (un)life--if he waits until after the meeting, then not!Harry probably won't make it. Thus, not!Pepper gets to go face the Board and try to explain the unexplainable.

I don't think anyone would be a smartass in this scene, but there's a lot of angry people who've been (they think) blown off for the last couple of weeks. And this gets into the whole "cost" thing for not!Tony, because if saving not!Harry doesn't have some material cost to him (whether or not he recoups it later), then the scene doesn't have that extra oomph it needs.

[highlander_ii]

so is the meeting not!Pepper trying to convince the board to help not!Tony save not!Harry or is she wanting them to do something else?

You could map it out (not on LJ, of course) - write down what the board mtg is supposed to do, what's supposed to happen and why and where each of the characters should be after the mtg's done...

like: not!Pepper is pissed as hell and the Board thinks she's an idiot; not!Tony and not!Harry are here.... etc etc --

define the purpose for the scene to flesh out how necessary it really is...

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

This is yet another meeting that (the board thinks) not!Tony is blowing off. It's been rescheduled three times now (the first meeting, he was too hung over; the first rescheduling, he couldn't be bothered to show up; the second rescheduling, he'd been shot--along with four other people, three of whom were dead; and this time he's in the process of saving not!Harry's life and really just can't take the time to make it).

So, his board is already pissed at him, they've been making noises about irresponsibility and substance abuse and injunctions and no-confidence votes--and this is the thing that tips it into "Yeah, you suck as a CEO" territory even for the people who like him and might be on his side.

And this gives the people on the board who are engaging in some of the aforementioned industrial espionage just the excuse they need to start proceedings to oust him, so they can take the company in a direction that not!Tony has never supported.

So not!Pepper is stuck with the task of going in and telling them that he's not going to make this meeting either. This won't be fun for anyone involved--especially her. Because it's not like she can say "Hey, he's busy trying to cure a guy who got used as a live dialysis machine for a vampire and got turned into a vampire in the process. Oh, by the way, that guy is a werewolf too, and got made that way by tech someone in this company created. Who was that someone? He's, um, dead. I don't know where his body is. And the guy that not!Tony is trying to cure right now is the one who killed him. Purely by accident!"

Yeah, that'll go over well.