228/The Consequences of Blabbing to the Press

The Consequences of Blabbing to the Press
Date of Scene:	02 March 2020
Location:	Metropolis University Campus
Synopsis:	Captain Marvel visits Colette to discuss the wisdom of talking to journalists. They discuss galactic politics, sort of.
Cast of Characters:	Carol Danvers, Colette O'Connail

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Carol Danvers has posed:
Thankfully moving from New York to Metropolis is easy enough, it isn't like going to recover an alien spaceship crash landed on the moon for instance. Also Carol doesn't need the hypertube or anything like that.

Still she should probably do this errand which is why she finds herself in Metropolis later on Sunday after dropping Kian off at his new school. A tablet in her hands as she sits on the picnic table in the quad outside the library. She is wearing civilian clothes, jeans, an AC/DC concert t-shirt, and an aviator jacket. Ball cap pulled down obscuring her features as she waits for the young woman to come out. She didn't really want to make a scene in the library and this is a peaceful chance to catch up on reading the intelligence on Genosha she has had analysts stacking up for her.

The trace on the phone registered to Colette though should make sure she doesn't miss the young woman though.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    The weather could be worse - it's pretty pleasant for the time of year, but a bit overcast. Not a bad day to be sitting out of doors in the extensive gardens of Metropolis University. The quad outside the library building is fairly quiet on the weekend, but there's still a good few students hanging around. Enough people that Carol doesn't stick out too much, not so many it will be hard to spot someone in the crowds though.

    The location signal for Colette's phone has been static in the library for some time, but finally she's started to move. Precision isn't perfect, but it gives Carol at least a good window to be watching the door. Sure enough, before long the doors open and Colette appears. She's dressed in fairly typical student fashion, if perhaps a bit more expensively than most. Jeans, but good jeans. Nice shoes. A black leather jacket, not quite as exciting as Carol's jacket, but an expensive brand. She has a backpack slung over one shoulder that looks lade, probably with books. She stops at the doorway, chatting with a guy who is presumably a fellow student, but Carol doesn't have long to wait before the pair says their goodbyes, and Colette sets off across the quad, her direction of travel conveniently bringing her fairly close to the table where Carol is waiting.

    When she's about 20 feet away, Colette stops. She appears to have noticed Carol. She frowns slightly, and looks rapidly around before changing direction to come to Carol's table. It looks like this isn't going to be too much of a challenge. "Hey. Looking for me?" she asks when she's a little closer. "I was kind of expecting you."

Carol Danvers has posed:
Carol stops looking at footage from a drone surveying Genosha, pausing the feed when the geofence she put on the device stops moving. It is surprisingly accurate to a couple hundred feet when you are using Government Triangulation off cellphone towers as opposed to consumer find a friend technology. Plenty of heads up indeed.

She just quietly watches Colette speak with her classmate and then start heading over. The fact Colette noticed her shows pretty good situational awareness actually, Carol makes a mental note about that as well.

"Well you did make it a bit harder to look you up by having the reporter record the footage off your phone instead of sending him the file directly. That was really clever Ms. O'Connail." with that Carol glances to the tabletop by her and thne back to Colette "Join me for a chat?"

Colette O'Connail has posed:
Colette gives a short not of her head, and walks over to take a seat at the picnic table, across from Carol. "Not really. I told you my name. How many Colettes are there around my age in Metropolis? Twenty? Thirty? Didn't want it tracable by random weirdos if it ended up on the 'net though." She slings her back off her shoulder, sets it carefull down on the seat beside her and folds her arms on the table, looking carefully at Carol.

    "You're here alone. No trucks, no guys in hazard suits. So you didn't find a dangerous viral vector. No surprise. Different biologies, the chances were slim. Anything bacterial you'd have been knocking on my door after 24 hours. So this is because of the reporter guy. You want to tell me off about talking to the press. Well. You're probably right. It was dumb." She gives a shrug of her shoulders. "I didn't think it through. Didn't even check his credentials. He seemed like a nice enough guy though. Also, Daily Planet. Not an awful paper."

    She leans back, stretching her arms, and looks around again. "Well. Okay. Read me the riot act, then I'll tell you about how I believe a free press is a great balance for a shady trans-national organization that has insufficient public oversight and doesn't appear to answer to any elected body. Sound fair?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
"I've found that different biologies isn't always a sure sign that there isn't a real potential problem that couldn't be solved with some containment protocols." she looks up at the sky. "That said my suit didn't warn me about any dangerous pathogens or radiations, even if they probably wouldn't impact me the suit is careful so it was a calculated risk letting you and Red Star go."

She smirks a little at the sky still as Colette goes off about shady trans-national organizations and all that. "Trans-national organization that helped defeat the Red Skull back in WWII and helped pull the Avengers together when they needed to be assembled to deal with the invasion Loki started." it is said with amusement.

"But really if I intended to read you the riot act I would have had you picked up by federal agents and impounded to cool your heels, I figured it was better to just come chat a bit. Terry O'neil is a nice kid by the way, but he is an intern. He fetches Lios Lanes coffee for her."

She lets that sink in. "I did give him an interview with Captain Marvel though for the Daily Planet Pod Cast, so he may have a leg up now but when you gave him that footage.. honestly we are just thankful it wasn't the Bugle or there would be headlines about SHIELD hiding Alien Refugees who want our jobs and the menace growing... you seemed to care about that Bird though so I am pretty sure you wouldn't want that outcome?"

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette holds her hands out in a placating gesture, then places them flat on the table. "Not saying you guys haven't done good things. I'm saying I don't know what bad things you've done. Are you going to pretend you couldn't make an alien disappear if you wanted to?" She smiles a little - the amusement seems to be a two way thing, but she's making a point too.

    "Okay, let's be straight with each other. I've done nothing illegal. If you've done any research on my you know my family can afford good enough lawyers that pulling in federal agents for no better reason than to try to intimidate me would be a dumb move. So this probably isn't even an official call. You're mildly annoyed that you were blindsided by the rookie reporter with that video, and you decided to take time out of your day to talk some sense to me." She tilts her head to the side, thinking for a moment, then smiles faintly. "That's actually... nice of you. I appreciate it."

    Colette looks down at her lap and then starts fiddling with her bag, moving it slightly on the seat to even it up a little. Obviously giving herself a moment's thinking time. "I already admitted it was dumb. Well, impulsive. The whole thing was, to be honest. When Bird Guy fell into the sea I just ran in to pull him out. It was colder and the tide was stronger than I'd have guessed. Didn't think that through either, honestly it's lucky we both didn't drown. And then I walked away. Probably also dumb. So I was worrying. Yeah. But I felt... if people /know/ that reduces the risk of him vanishing into a glass box and not coming out again. But I could have handled that a whole lot better."

    Colette looks up again, nods her head slightly, shrugs her shoulders and looks away into the distance. "So. Sorry. But I had to do something. Sorry I didn't think it through. Not sorry I tried to apply some pressure."

Carol Danvers has posed:
"Well unless said alien is an invader or a threat by their very nature, SHIELD won't be vanishing any aliens as long as I am working there. It just wouldn't be right." she does nod though as if conceding part of the point. Even her statemen had some caveats after all.

"I did tell you that you could call in and mention the incident if you wanted to talk to me about it, I could tell you were clearly worried about Kian and you probably just wanted to make sure we didn't vanish him or anything Colette." she leans back planting her hands behind her on the surface of the table. "Also the whole rich family and lawyers thing didn't cross my mind, I genuinely didn't think about trying to strong arm you." amusement. "You're pretty young to be so cynical but I don't know your life. I will agree though it was impulse but your heart was likely in the right spot. That said Kian is fine and not even in SHIELD custody now. I had him transfered to a school where he should be able to learn about earth and also meet metahumans and other people with similar wierd lives."

She looks sidelong to Colette "And no I am not going to tell you where such a school is, and I would really appreciate you not siccing your cub reporter on it either. I can prove sign of life or that he is fine now but I'd rather not endanger a school full of kids like that... and if I am not misjudging you I don't think you would want that either. Am I wrong?"

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    The 'cynical' line gets a distinct smirk out of Colette. She rests her elbows back down on the table, leaning forwards. "Consider me relieved by your reassurances," she says with a nod. "We could both see that... Kian, right? Kian was not an invader. And you've had experience with aliens. You said so in that interview. Plus? Translator implant doesn't exactly sound like terrestrial technology. So, yeah. That makes me feel better, knowing you're there." A concession from the other side, too.

    "Okay. Cards on the table, Captain." Colette looks Carol in the eyes and holds it for longer than a second or two, for the first time in the discussion. "Polls say the two party system is a bust and we're going to have some billionaire or other as our next prez. One's publically anti-alien and the more moderate sounding one is talking about protecting Earth from alien threats. Nobody is talking about stepping out into the galaxy, about making allies. We're a small island in a giant ocean, and being isolationist is a crappy long term policy. So yeah. I do worry about what unofficial policy is towards a random alien visitor. Maybe... maybe it's because I unthinkingly risked my life to save his, I don't know. But I couldn't sit on my hands. I... wanted to make sure he'd be okay."

    Colette smiles, a little sheepishly perhaps, and leans back. "Still do. School, huh? Okay, no club reporter, I promise." The smile turns into a grin, a distinct hint of mischief there. "You have my word, I will say nothing about any schools for metahumans and aliens to the media. Satisfactory?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
"I appreciate that Colette." she looks back to the sky "And no the tech isn't from around here, it was from my first excursion into the stars... the various Galaxies are quite vast and I hate to say it but for all the beauty there is a whole lot of war and incredibly hostile alien species out there."

"I mean it isn't like humans have managed to be peaceful or accepting of their own kind... take that onto a huge intergalatic stage and surprisingly not that different. Just more tentacles and fangs in some cases." look who is cynical now.

"That said.. I know Tony personally and I think he will be much better than Luthor. I can at least influence and steer Tony in the right directions.... and to be honest he isn't wrong about being worried about invasions and alien threats. We are on what... invasion number 4 already in under a decade now... we do need better defenses." she smiles to Colette "But you are right we also need better diplomacy and exploration too."

"I'd say that might be you're future career but your current major doesn't lend itself as well to intergalatic diplomacy... something to think about if you are passionate on this or civics."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette gives a soft laugh at the suggestion of her future career as an intergalactic diplomat. It's a genuine, friendly laugh. She's obviously not /entirely/ cynical. "I was kind of planning on a quiet life. Something academic maybe. But who knows, hmm? Risking my neck to pull random aliens out of the ocean wasn't exactly on my agenda, either. "

    There's a lot more that Colette could say on the subject. Her knowledge of galactic affairs might even be wider than Carol's - though centuries out of date. If she wasn't hiding so much she'd be championing Earth courting the Martians as allies. She's not yet aware that, with a few exceptions, they are extinct. She bites that back.

    "Well, maybe you can persuade Mister Stark to read up about Meiji Japan then, Captain." Colette grins. From his public persona at least, Tony Stark doesn't seem like the kind of guy who's easy to steer. "They took an isolationist and defensive attitude to a world that seemed big and scary. They became militaristic. It worked for them, for several decades. A few more decades later they tried taking on an empire much bigger than theirs, and that didn't go well. If we don't cultivate allies, frankly Captain... Earth is fucked. Excuse my language."

Carol Danvers has posed:
"In my experience there aren't a lot of allies out there that don't respect the ability to defend yourselves. We are off to a pretty good start though with the Asgardians. They have a good amount of clout despite how .. mythic they seem on the surface."

She does nod though "You are right though, we do need diplomacy and not just defense but some outward diplomacy. It wasn't just the Japanese but the US as well at the start of World War 2..."

She mmms "You're clever though and passionate. I'm not entirely joking when I said you might want to think about not just going into academia Ms. O'Connail. The world needs bright passionate people if we want to see things change for the better."

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "Right. When Mister Stark calls me up and offers me the post as diplomat to the galactic federation, I'll know who to blame." The grin is a big one - this time it's definitely not cynicism, Colette's just having fun.

    The grin fades and is replaced with a shrug. "I honestly haven't made much in the way of life plans yet, Captain. It seems almost foolish to try. I don't imagine you saw... this. Your life. When you were my age. For that matter, two weeks ago I didn't think I'd be apologizing to a famous superhero about making her life difficult because I didn't entirely trust her to have the best intentions towards some poor alien guy."

    She runs a hand through her hair, brushing a few strands from her face, and lowers her voice a little. "I want to see him. Kian. Not saying I don't trust you /now/. I just... it would put my mind at rest. Can we arrange that?"

Carol Danvers has posed:
"Yeah I think I can arrange that. He feels you saved his life. I can arrange for him to be somewhere other than the school he is at so you can talk to him and see he is okay." she looks Colette over "I am pretty sure no one asks for aliens to fall out of the sky on them but you've handled this very well."

A smile as she pulls a card out and offers it to you, it has a SHIELD logo on it and a way of getting ahold of her easier this time. "Better than I handled my first alien encounter... though that involved explosions and then kidnapping.. not of the alien but of myself in that case so count yourself lucky. It also wasn't at your age.. I was like .. twenty six when that happened." which is honestly how old she looks now. Then again she hasn't really done much other than change her hairstyle since she showed up as Ms. Marvel in 2012, she certainly doesn't look eight years older.

"So before I leave you to it since it is a school night and you have you have comparative lit at 9am tomorrow, any other questions...?" yeah she couldn't resist that last bit. Mostly just messing with Colette a bit and not threatening her in any way, to much mirth to her expression.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette takes the card, studies it briefly, and slips it into her back pocket. She wonders, momentarily, if there's some kind of tracking device in it. Doesn't hurt to be a little paranoid when dealing with shady organizations. Of course she has no doubt that it would be a waste of their time - they've got her name, it's not going to be hard to find her. Still, just on the off-chance she'll be scanning the card and then sending the original on a very puzzling journey overseas. Just to mess with /them/.

    "I doubt any aliens would find me interesting enough to kidnap, Captain. Just to drop on my head. " She gives another warm smile. "No other questions, thank you. I mean I'd love to quiz you on your experiences of alien ethical philosophy some time, but I'm sure you have more important things to attend to. The Genosha crisis, keeping Tony Stark from declaring war on the Klingons, things like that."

    Colette picks up her back, slings it over her shoulder again, and gives Carol a nod as she stands to leave. "Thanks. I mean, for coming. And for not setting those scary federal agents on me." There's a knowing look on her face - her own mild revenge for Carol's own closing tease. "It's nice to know that cold, inhuman faceless organizations can have thougthful people behind them. See you later, Captain."

Carol Danvers has posed:
"Man I hope he doesn't decide to declare war on the Klingons... their proton torpedos are way better than his repulsor beam technology." she is kidding, but it is actually fairly true that most alien races technology is better than earths right now. They really need to play a lot of catchup.

All that has been happening though since the invasion in 2012, lots of alien tech to start to pick apart and reverse engineer from that initial start of the invasions which seem to happen every few years now.

"See you later Colette. Good luck with school seriously and send me a text with a good spot for a bird visit that won't be the central squad of MU."