[ well, he does have to get the good stuff when it comes to his club. it's one of the things he's known for. he could hear both Odin and Thor's voices booming at how poor spirits make for a poor host. ]
The advice I got was to make nice with you if I wanted a chance at it. [Never mind that his physical condition right now is at an all time low for consuming regular alcohol, much less anything that could be considered godly. He's not spilling that little detail and he's not overly concerned.] That was a while back, mind. Didn't have anything to offer. [He's so uninteresting let him scream that as much as possible thanks.] But I see you've taken some interest in attempting to shut down Freddie Lounds. Thought perhaps we could work something out in regards to that.
Do you have anything else? Usually some kind of paper currency is usually offered in compensation. What about Freddie Lounds?
[ not that she wasn't irritating and hit him the wrong way by exposing a lot of people that he (er) cared for, he supposed. (that's still a little strange.) ]
He can get things with money instead of selling out every little thing he has at his disposal? Shit, he's been hanging out with the wrong people for too long he actually didn't even think of that.
It's not the only thing he wanted out of this, so perhaps he'll cut himself some slack for not thinking about using money for its damn purpose.]
I have paper currency, yes. If you'd be willing to part with it for that then I'll be more than happy to lighten my wallet. Freddie Lounds is a more complicated discussion. If you're fine with cash, so am I.
[Note that he doesn't put a price limit on it, doesn't say anything about "within reason"—he's curious about what the charge might be.
Curious if the price is going to be extremely high and Freddie Lounds being more complicated is still the better "charge" to go with.
As weird as it might be to get mad at Freddie for screwing over people one cares about when one is not supposed to care, it's also weird to care about Freddie Lounds. Ugh. Ugh. UGH. How dare she do anything she does.]
[He's already done it, he thinks, but putting that out there comes across as...well.
Probably the same way it came across back home.]
No. Shutting her down would be more harmful than helpful, in the long run. I quite prefer her up and running as she currently is. So should everyone else.
Then why the offer? There must be something that leaves a sour taste.
[ people have paid for his services in a lot of ways--and they never quite got what they bargained for, to have someone approach him with the possibility of shutting down a media outlet entirely when all he really cared to do was discredit it was ... interesting. ]
[He bristles at the wording, hackles raised. But...well, Loki doesn't know, does he? Can't know. It's just a turn of phrase, not the insult it would have been from someone else. Still, there's a noticeable time difference in this reply and the others.]
There is plenty that leaves a sour taste going on from all sides. The offer was because I've grown unaccustomed to dealing in actual currency.
["This for that" never involved "let me open my wallet and throw my FBI pension at you to listen to what I have to say" if only because...well, he wasn't that high on the pay roll compared to everyone else, and it was never his money people found worth a shit anyway.
This making nice thing is probably not going so nicely is it.]
[ then there's two ways that this could've ended. either he wanted to see Freddie go down (and Loki wasn't going to deny that he definitely had the ability to do so, if he cared enough to do it), or he was using information as leverage somewhere. ]
So you wanted to swap deets for booze.
[ not sketchy at all, says the king of sketch. ]
Nothing else? It seems that whatever you were willing to give me would've led me somewhere else. So either you didn't quite want me to get there, or you did. Trust me, you can be honest here among the dirty cheats.
He stares at this. He's been trying for something all along and no one quite seemed to pick up on it. They picked up on plenty of good things but not the actual message—which, before, was helpful, if not irritating. He just couldn't say too much in her favor when he ran the risk of Yuri stumbling on it. Now that he's gone home...well, he can make up some bullshit if he gets another bait shop throwdown.]
The deets are a little different this time around. They are the somewhere else. It's sort of been out there for a while. I thought maybe a few people would piece it together with enough time and distance from her initial file leak.
[Biased, Loki called it. Yeah, that thing was fucking biased. In her favor.]
Unless your loudness about how anything she says will end up falling on deaf ears and the boy who cried wolf comparison and how she's her own worst enemy is staged and not sincere? Since we're being honest.
["""honest"""
It's possible one group of dirty cheats took it upon themselves to piss off another group of dirty cheats who pissed off everyone else first, right? And what is Baltimore if not some dirty, dirty cheats?]
[ i mean really. after that file leak, would anyone be willing to give her the time of day? he was more curious as to her source and why her source ever though it was a good idea to use Freddie to streamline something important. ]
But you're putting too much faith in the whole caring thing. Why should we all be caring about Freddie Lounds? Well, aside from her uncouth ability to uproot the privacy of those that have been forced to adapt across omniversal prospects, of course.
[ not that he hadn't thought that Will wasn't trying to say something, but more that it was out of his scope. but this does make him curious. ]
You spent time crapping all over her own post with anyone who'd go along with you. Is that not some form of caring denoting no need for faith, it's in plain view?
[Forgive him, he's not very used to the idea of Internet trolling. Or inclined to believe it's done out of sheer boredom or just to stir shit when people are involved that clearly have some ties to each other. Tattlecrime's comment sections were...not his favorite place to be, okay? Need some holy water in those threads, stat.]
[ while he didn't care all that much about what Freddie Lounds did, but there was a difference between "it's personal" and "this is bad journalism tsk tsk." ]
It was really poorly plotted. You think it's personal? It seems that way to you.
She leaked the file of someone you apparently go to dinner with and find to be pleasurable company. It seems reasonable that it would be somewhat personal, all things considered.
[did he mention he read/listened to/followed that entire file leak disaster if it was public
[Sorry buddy he follows every single thing that Baltimore does if it's in public. And they know it. Because he's told them directly.
...seems to be a little more surprising to the non-Baltimore crowd when he reveals it but so it goes. As long as it doesn't become an actual topic of conversation it'll be A+ all right.
Did he just get a freaking non-answer, is this what it's like talking to him, too? Boo hiss. "I had thought it was obvious there was something personal behind it" or something else totally shitty is tempting but he doesn't want Kara to find out that his idea of making nice is...probably exactly as poorly done as she might have guessed.]
[Maybe this was a bust. Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe he would have learned that his strategic word game playing isn't really that great by this point. What's the way out of this? Well, maybe it's about time to listen to the advice of confession being a good thing. Loki has, after all, already stated it's okay to be honest.]
Initially, I had thought that I might be able to get some of this supposed wonderful liquor while discussing not tearing into Freddie Lounds. Now I really want to go crawl into the whiskey bottle on the other end of the room.
[It's close enough to an honest confession, isn't it? There are lines that can be read easily. Perhaps meet up with the idea of the information presented being something juicy instead of can you not but don't make it sound like that because who wants to share booze with what could be taken as a scolding, get rid of two squirrels with one stone...basically being a sneaky, shady shit was in his plan. Because how else does one stick up for Freddie Lounds without getting down on that delightfully messy level, right?]
[ it wasn't really what he expected, but it sounds sincere nonetheless. there's an exaggerated sigh on his end and he leans his elbow forward on the desk, staring dully at the text. ]
Well, there's something to say about illegitimate info. You don't think that's burn worthy? She hasn't exactly been on par with the tabloids.
[He can't see it, but staring dully at anything to do with Will Graham isn't something he'd be surprised or insulted by. It happens frequently enough that he's just used to it at this point. People look at him in confusion, a mix of disbelief and shock, and more recently? He's gotten used to the dull look, broken record spouting the same unreasonable crap over and over, what did anyone expect to come from this conversation, why did they stop by, this is absurd, no one can help Will Graham when he won't let them, does anyone want to go for drinks, Will is doing the same shit again and it's all the excuse they need to have to take advantage of the nearest bar. Weeh weeh.
But the use of burn worthy on Loki's end has Will rubbing his face, wanting to curl up in that bottle more than he had just seconds prior. God.
...gods?]
No, I don't. And I don't think it's a great idea to tell her she hasn't been on par with the tabloids, either. That's a compliment. [Freddie isn't on par with tabloids because she's better than that basic shit, thanks Loki!] If you're referring to the "file leak" as illegitimate info, that's slightly accurate. If you mean in regards to her recent talks about the Porter, then I find that to be an inaccurate description and even less of a solid reason to "burn" anything or anyone. Skye's little broadcast hack included particular phrasing, the government doesn't know. They believe. "I have seen their files. They know no more than us." Kate Bishop's recent FAQ is similar. "Lachesis now controls the machine. Lachesis decides when we come and go. And most importantly, Lachesis is silent. She's keeping her lips zipped as far as we know. It's very frustrating, and there is a lot of red tape around it." Freddie uses words in her article that follow the same lines, that it's "possible" and "might happen" and "Sources speculate" and actually confesses that she finds confirmation in a lack of confirmation either way.
She's upset people and blinded them with their upset, but her latest article on the Porter is only different from what others have said because her name is behind it. We have some history to go on but the underlying theme in regards to the Porter and the information that imPorts have shared veers straight into territory marked with we don't know. She might not be on par with the tabloids, but she's quite on par with everyone else.
[Everyone's a bit SOL on the deets and tries with what they have, she's done the same thing! If they're gonna burn Freddie, they've got a few others to burn first. And no matter how much people might view her as a vile snake in the grass, a vulture preying on leftovers that might not be up for consumption just yet, Will is more than ready to put them all on her level. She makes that so much easier.
Though maybe no one will get burned that's not history that needs repeating, plz & thank.]
[ that's not exactly not a compliment. he's rather good at making things sound the way that he wants them to sound. he doesn't really find it necessary to get into a shot-for-shot analysis of where exactly what piece of information lead to what, or what part of what was bunk. this wasn't exactly the time for pedantry. ]
To defend her from some healthy journalistic pressure, nonetheless.
[ he's not exactly offended or sweating, but more openly curious. this is oddly telling, and there are some dots that he wouldn't mind connecting. ]
[No worries that he takes it as a compliment. He doesn't. He played most of the word-twisting games with Hannibal Lecter, if he's followed in his footsteps in anyway, it's not a compliment. Shot-for-shot analysis...well, he is a teacher. And his memory is so out of this world it's been brought up in court. Easy for him, his usual. And he's not replying to it, nope. He has nothing to say about twisting words.]
No. I would never work to prevent something healthy happening to Freddie Lounds. What she's done and the continued response is unhealthy. When people eventually dismissed the cries from the boy about the wolf, a flock was made into meal. What's healthy about setting it up so others get devoured instead of taking the opportunity and using that to everyone's advantage?
[Baltimore's views of "healthy" are twisted, too, though. Really, really twisted. And yeah, he's aware that some versions of the boy crying wolf end up with the boy getting eaten but that's getting omitted, thanks. As much as he appreciates the way everyone is eager to get on the same level with Freddie, he's not a fan of continued cannibalism wherever they may go.
Using people. Much better. Using people is healthy = dots connected!
He follows everything on any post Freddie Lounds makes no matter what it is and doesn't care to hide it. There's you again, Loki!]
The rest is easy. SIGH, come on now, why was the boy dismissed? If you'd like to hold a debate about the legitimacy of her tabloids, then we can go for coffee (on your $$$, btw). If she so wishes to post content without checking her anon sources and run off with her uncanny ability to turn everything into shock journalism, then she's up for critique, no matter how many "maybe"s and "possibly"s you'd like to throw in there to make her sound better. [ he's very self-aware of his own patterns in making some things sound more pleasing than the actually are—or more damning, for that matter. he won't deny it's part of what makes him dangerous. ]
I've been the downfall of many, but in this case I'm not the reason she'll fail, Will Graham.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
I didn't know I was the end of THAT grapevine.
no subject
As long as it's not cannibalism puns, it's all gravy.]
Think my grapevines are a little more specific than most. Is it really so surprising?
[There are worse things to be associated with, surely.
Like animal babies.]
no subject
Always comparable. What can the end of this grapevine do for you in terms of specific, possibly intoxicating, provisions?
no subject
[He wants the b
ooze.
He wants that to be the main thought, at least.]
no subject
Do you have anything else? Usually some kind of paper currency is usually offered in compensation. What about Freddie Lounds?
[ not that she wasn't irritating and hit him the wrong way by exposing a lot of people that he (er) cared for, he supposed. (that's still a little strange.) ]
no subject
He can get things with money instead of selling out every little thing he has at his disposal? Shit, he's been hanging out with the wrong people for too long he actually didn't even think of that.
It's not the only thing he wanted out of this, so perhaps he'll cut himself some slack for not thinking about using money for its damn purpose.]
I have paper currency, yes. If you'd be willing to part with it for that then I'll be more than happy to lighten my wallet. Freddie Lounds is a more complicated discussion. If you're fine with cash, so am I.
[Note that he doesn't put a price limit on it, doesn't say anything about "within reason"—he's curious about what the charge might be.
Curious if the price is going to be extremely high and Freddie Lounds being more complicated is still the better "charge" to go with.
As weird as it might be to get mad at Freddie for screwing over people one cares about when one is not supposed to care, it's also weird to care about Freddie Lounds. Ugh. Ugh. UGH. How dare she do anything she does.]
no subject
Why? Did you want to shut down Freddie Lounds?
[ and then possibly get booze for it. ]
no subject
Probably the same way it came across back home.]
No. Shutting her down would be more harmful than helpful, in the long run.
I quite prefer her up and running as she currently is.
So should everyone else.
[barks at deaf ears?]
no subject
[ people have paid for his services in a lot of ways--and they never quite got what they bargained for, to have someone approach him with the possibility of shutting down a media outlet entirely when all he really cared to do was discredit it was ... interesting. ]
no subject
There is plenty that leaves a sour taste going on from all sides. The offer was because I've grown unaccustomed to dealing in actual currency.
["This for that" never involved "let me open my wallet and throw my FBI pension at you to listen to what I have to say" if only because...well, he wasn't that high on the pay roll compared to everyone else, and it was never his money people found worth a shit anyway.
This making nice thing is probably not going so nicely is it.]
no subject
So you wanted to swap deets for booze.
[ not sketchy at all, says the king of sketch. ]
Nothing else? It seems that whatever you were willing to give me would've led me somewhere else. So either you didn't quite want me to get there, or you did. Trust me, you can be honest here among the dirty cheats.
no subject
He stares at this. He's been trying for something all along and no one quite seemed to pick up on it. They picked up on plenty of good things but not the actual message—which, before, was helpful, if not irritating. He just couldn't say too much in her favor when he ran the risk of Yuri stumbling on it. Now that he's gone home...well, he can make up some bullshit if he gets another bait shop throwdown.]
The deets are a little different this time around.
They are the somewhere else. It's sort of been out there for a while. I thought maybe a few people would piece it together with enough time and distance from her initial file leak.
[Biased, Loki called it. Yeah, that thing was fucking biased. In her favor.]
Unless your loudness about how anything she says will end up falling on deaf ears and the boy who cried wolf comparison and how she's her own worst enemy is staged and not sincere? Since we're being honest.
["""honest"""
It's possible one group of dirty cheats took it upon themselves to piss off another group of dirty cheats who pissed off everyone else first, right? And what is Baltimore if not some dirty, dirty cheats?]
no subject
[ i mean really. after that file leak, would anyone be willing to give her the time of day? he was more curious as to her source and why her source ever though it was a good idea to use Freddie to streamline something important. ]
But you're putting too much faith in the whole caring thing. Why should we all be caring about Freddie Lounds? Well, aside from her uncouth ability to uproot the privacy of those that have been forced to adapt across omniversal prospects, of course.
[ not that he hadn't thought that Will wasn't trying to say something, but more that it was out of his scope. but this does make him curious. ]
no subject
...?
.....!
No, no.
........‽‽‽‽]
You spent time crapping all over her own post with anyone who'd go along with you. Is that not some form of caring denoting no need for faith, it's in plain view?
[Forgive him, he's not very used to the idea of Internet trolling. Or inclined to believe it's done out of sheer boredom or just to stir shit when people are involved that clearly have some ties to each other. Tattlecrime's comment sections were...not his favorite place to be, okay? Need some holy water in those threads, stat.]
no subject
It was really poorly plotted. You think it's personal? It seems that way to you.
no subject
[did he mention he read/listened to/followed that entire file leak disaster if it was public
because
he did
all of it]
Is that conclusion wrong?
no subject
It's a fair syllogism.
[ but just that. ]
no subject
...seems to be a little more surprising to the non-Baltimore crowd when he reveals it but so it goes. As long as it doesn't become an actual topic of conversation it'll be A+ all right.
Did he just get a freaking non-answer, is this what it's like talking to him, too? Boo hiss. "I had thought it was obvious there was something personal behind it" or something else totally shitty is tempting but he doesn't want Kara to find out that his idea of making nice is...probably exactly as poorly done as she might have guessed.]
Fair meaning neither right nor wrong?
no subject
[ you can almost hear the dryness, despite the text. ]
Now, tell me- what do you really want?
no subject
Initially, I had thought that I might be able to get some of this supposed wonderful liquor while discussing not tearing into Freddie Lounds. Now I really want to go crawl into the whiskey bottle on the other end of the room.
[It's close enough to an honest confession, isn't it? There are lines that can be read easily. Perhaps meet up with the idea of the information presented being something juicy instead of can you not but don't make it sound like that because who wants to share booze with what could be taken as a scolding, get rid of two squirrels with one stone...basically being a sneaky, shady shit was in his plan. Because how else does one stick up for Freddie Lounds without getting down on that delightfully messy level, right?]
no subject
Well, there's something to say about illegitimate info. You don't think that's burn worthy? She hasn't exactly been on par with the tabloids.
no subject
But the use of burn worthy on Loki's end has Will rubbing his face, wanting to curl up in that bottle more than he had just seconds prior. God.
...gods?]
No, I don't. And I don't think it's a great idea to tell her she hasn't been on par with the tabloids, either. That's a compliment. [Freddie isn't on par with tabloids because she's better than that basic shit, thanks Loki!] If you're referring to the "file leak" as illegitimate info, that's slightly accurate. If you mean in regards to her recent talks about the Porter, then I find that to be an inaccurate description and even less of a solid reason to "burn" anything or anyone. Skye's little broadcast hack included particular phrasing, the government doesn't know. They believe. "I have seen their files. They know no more than us." Kate Bishop's recent FAQ is similar. "Lachesis now controls the machine. Lachesis decides when we come and go. And most importantly, Lachesis is silent. She's keeping her lips zipped as far as we know. It's very frustrating, and there is a lot of red tape around it." Freddie uses words in her article that follow the same lines, that it's "possible" and "might happen" and "Sources speculate" and actually confesses that she finds confirmation in a lack of confirmation either way.
She's upset people and blinded them with their upset, but her latest article on the Porter is only different from what others have said because her name is behind it. We have some history to go on but the underlying theme in regards to the Porter and the information that imPorts have shared veers straight into territory marked with we don't know. She might not be on par with the tabloids, but she's quite on par with everyone else.
[Everyone's a bit SOL on the deets and tries with what they have, she's done the same thing! If they're gonna burn Freddie, they've got a few others to burn first. And no matter how much people might view her as a vile snake in the grass, a vulture preying on leftovers that might not be up for consumption just yet, Will is more than ready to put them all on her level. She makes that so much easier.
Though maybe no one will get burned that's not history that needs repeating, plz & thank.]
no subject
[ that's not exactly not a compliment. he's rather good at making things sound the way that he wants them to sound. he doesn't really find it necessary to get into a shot-for-shot analysis of where exactly what piece of information lead to what, or what part of what was bunk. this wasn't exactly the time for pedantry. ]
To defend her from some healthy journalistic pressure, nonetheless.
[ he's not exactly offended or sweating, but more openly curious. this is oddly telling, and there are some dots that he wouldn't mind connecting. ]
no subject
No. I would never work to prevent something healthy happening to Freddie Lounds. What she's done and the continued response is unhealthy.
When people eventually dismissed the cries from the boy about the wolf, a flock was made into meal.
What's healthy about setting it up so others get devoured instead of taking the opportunity and using that to everyone's advantage?
[Baltimore's views of "healthy" are twisted, too, though. Really, really twisted. And yeah, he's aware that some versions of the boy crying wolf end up with the boy getting eaten but that's getting omitted, thanks. As much as he appreciates the way everyone is eager to get on the same level with Freddie, he's not a fan of continued cannibalism wherever they may go.
Using people. Much better. Using people is healthy = dots connected!
He follows everything on any post Freddie Lounds makes no matter what it is and doesn't care to hide it. There's you again, Loki!]
no subject
The rest is easy. SIGH, come on now, why was the boy dismissed? If you'd like to hold a debate about the legitimacy of her tabloids, then we can go for coffee (on your $$$, btw). If she so wishes to post content without checking her anon sources and run off with her uncanny ability to turn everything into shock journalism, then she's up for critique, no matter how many "maybe"s and "possibly"s you'd like to throw in there to make her sound better. [ he's very self-aware of his own patterns in making some things sound more pleasing than the actually are—or more damning, for that matter. he won't deny it's part of what makes him dangerous. ]
I've been the downfall of many, but in this case I'm not the reason she'll fail, Will Graham.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)