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tony stark | iron man

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WHO: LOVES MEN and LOVES WOMEN
WHERE: At a bistro by Stark industries.
WHEN: A day after this conversation
WARNINGS: None!
SUMMARY: Nathan Seymour and Tony Stark talk BIZNIZZ. And heroes. And television.
FORMAT: Whatever!

Oh, this was a nice place. Nathan came in, made some friendly smalltalk with the waitstaff, putting on his charm and getting smiles with a few jokes. Even flirting a bit with one waiter in particular before making his way to a booth - Reserved for Stark and Seymour.

He got himself a glass of water and set aside a folder with all the plans for Hero TV he had thrown together in just the night before. He really could knuckle down and get some work done, no matter what kind of image it was he gave off.

Humming to himself and sipping water, crossing his legs and just playing the waiting game.

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He wasn't far behind Nathan, he'd probably been sitting around for probably two or three minutes, before Stark showed up. Lo and behold, the gentleman did have pink hair. Well.

Not what he was expecting, to be honest. Well, it was, but he was still caught a little off guard. When he approached, he held out his hand. "Nathan Seymour, yes?"

"Indeed. Good to meet you in person, Stark." He put his hand out, shaking once. He was friendly - very friendly - but he could put on the business attitude when he had to. How else does one climb to the top?

Pink hair, pink eyebrows, pink eyeshadow, pink lipstick. He really worked a theme here, but damned if he wasn't going to be taken seriously.

"I was thinking we should get straight to business, yes?" Nathan said, pulling out the folder, organized, neat, succinct.

Tony was appreciative of the businesslike attitude. He was never one to judge, but there were some things that just made him uncomfortable. Business was the best way to eradicate that. He sat, and watched him pull out the folder.

"Sounds good, I'm interested to see what you have so far. This is something from your world, yes?"

"Indeed." He said, and shuffled out a few pieces of paper, turning them around and sliding them towards Tony - these covered the basics of how endorsement worked, regarding heroes.

He even looked up a celebrity to make a fitting comparison with - LeBron James, for this example - and sketched him in two scenarios. 1. As he is normally, with all his sports endorsements. And, 2. In a powersuit - with all the same endorsements plastered over it.

"You might've noticed the symbols and logos on Wild Tiger's armor, during his little introduction to this place - those are all his sponsors, back home. It works very much like any sport star would. Companies pay to put their name on their costume, so they get the good publicity from being associated with a true blue lifesaving hero. The hero, in turn, gets to save lives for a living - no need to have a second job under a secret identity and stress themselves out between the two!" A little laugh. "Which, I think I'm beginning to learn, a lot of heroes here do."

"The thing that the city and the government here could really get behind is that sponsor money could also be used to pay for damages and repairs caused during fights. Which also earns goodwill from people watching. Very much a win-win scenario!"

He paused for a moment, letting Tony read all the information, though Nathan suspected he hardly needed any time at all to speed through the papers provided.

"Shall I move on to describing the show itself?"

He looked it over, considering. "This could backfire," he said in thought. "How much do you know about the superhuman entities?" he asked.

He knew that in his world, there were ways that heroes made money. Heck, the Avengers stipend had always been rather generous, considering they also had free room and board. Unfortunately, it still wasn't that much money. He liked it in idea, but there was something that made him pause.

"Before we move on to the show, how do you vet candidates? I don't know how much of this place you've seen, but not everyone who looks like a hero is a hero."

"The way it was set up back home, we had the Justice Department - which, among other things, vetted and trained people for the position of 'hero'. Just as you can't become a cop or a firefighter without the proper training, the same goes with more large scale threats."

"Now, I don't think we could institute the Justice Department on the larger scale here, but something smaller just in relation to the show could work. Physical training, making sure everyone knows how to rescue someone properly, emergency medical procedures, and most of all, intent."

"Interviews, mixed in with the long-term training, and any previous experience - plus people who can vouch for them - should be enough to but together a fair judgment of whether or not they truly want to be a hero."

Nathan kept the attitude light and friendly, pushing out his ideas with confidence, rapid fire. Couldn't stutter or hesitate in a business meeting, after all.

"Now, anyone can lie during an interview, but there are ways to tell. If you'd like, we could further vet them by having a second person present who can detect those kinds of things - be it through superpowers, or just a professional bodyreader. Or taping it and letting them watch it. There's quite a few possibilities to make sure we get a true hero out of the candidates who try out!"

He thought about it for a moment, his hand coming up to rest on his chin, stroking it slowly as he pondered it. If they had the right candidates, it would be perfect. In fact, he had experience with this sort of thing anyway. His Initiative had been working along the same lines, hadn't it? The worrisome thing was if someone did make it through. It wasn't just the fact that it would be bad PR, it was the fact that someone in that sort of position could make a good headway, gain power, and then use that to do what they wished. Hell, they could even undermine any steps forward that the superhuman community had made.

"If we can get the right techniques, and the right people, it would do us a world of good PR wise, and be lucrative. I'm all about killing a few birds with one stone."

He leaned forward. "Let's hear about the show."

"Well, the show is becoming condensed from what it used to be where I'm from. It used to be a 24 hour, often live, network - when you couldn't show the heroes themselves, there'd be talkshows about the heroes, documentaries about heroes... you get the idea. My current thinking is an hour long show. The highlights of what the heroes did that day, combined with interviews, commentary... the whole package, really. People get to know their heroes, get to see them as more than just faceless people in tight costumes... to fall in love with them a little, really."

More papers being shuffled out. Bits about how to pay heroes while maintaining their secret identity. More details on the format of the show, Even ideal times to run it. He spared no detail.

"The hour long format also gives us plenty of editing time. While live broadcasts naturally get the highest ratings, until we've got the show working like a well-oiled machine, the extra level of control is good so we can present the best - and most entertaining! - face possible."

"To get viewers a bit more involved, to make it a competition, heroes have ratings. For every rescue, arrest, and so on... they get more points. At the end of a season, we crown a King of Heroes for the year, and then the season starts anew. It's a wonderful way to get people to get excited about their heroes."

He nodded slowly, reaching out to examine the pages brought before him. "An hour long show? Hm, it would be a better plan. Editing could be important, and give us time to react in the case of an emergency," he paused, looking over the papers a second time. His eyes moved fast, flitting from one page to another almost as quickly as they laid on them.

"If there is one thing I've learned in this city, it's that the unexpected can come up. No matter how much we plan, and prepare for it, it can still crop up. Different worlds mean different variables. Background checks and mind readers aren't always going to find everything. The time to edit and prepare could be the only thing between good PR and completely demolishing the work we've made so far," he explained.

"That being said, the idea is interesting. More than that, I like it. Just entrepreneurial enough to make me happy."

"It's good to know we both are familiar with the importance of good PR, Stark. Or Tony. May I call you Tony?" He goes on, straightforward as ever. And quite happy with how this meeting was moving. It was looking like he had just sold a big investor on the idea.

"I've already secured the rights to the name 'Hero TV', among others. I'm ready to move forward on it when you are."

"We could begin scouting for candidates and developing the infrastructure necessary for the show within days."

His eyebrows rise, but he says little, before calculating his response. It doesn't take long, but there is a very obvious pause. "A few days, hm? What if we do a promo special? I do still have the training facilities that I used to use for my Initiative, when they were here. Perhaps something interactive," he almost laughed as the idea came to mind. "American Idol for superheroes. Let's see who they want to be their competitors."

Hell, he would be negotiating for a cut of the profits next, not that he wouldn't be benefiting enough from the advertising and merchandise. How could he not capitalize on this?

"Sounds perfect! Just the way to sell the idea and get the name out before we get truly underway. I also have someone I'd like to nominate among the candidates... considering he already has the experience necessary, both on camera, and as being a hero." Of course he meant Wild Tiger - he felt it was so obvious that he didn't even need to say it.

"So - can I officially thank you for investing in this project, Tony?"

"That depends," he said simply, sliding his eyes from the papers to the man across from him. "Really, let's talk business now. It depends on what I'll be getting from it. Advertising only goes so far, but perhaps a cut? An official sponsorship," he paused, trying to come up with the best analogy.

His brain searched for the right analogy. A quick search, cross-referencing, checking his facts. "Something similar to the licensing Nextel has on Nascar, I think."

"Perhaps. Starktech Presents Hero TV? Maybe. Starktech's Hero TV. Starktech Hero TV. Hero TV, as brought to you by Starktech..." He went over each one of them, in his mind, and out loud, wanting to see how they rolled off his tongue. "A cut is certain, absolutely, but where and how are the essential questions. An official sponsorship is workable, if I don't have to shop this show around to other investors, that is. Otherwise, the name is going to get long."

"From there, we can talk percentages, the nitty gritty details, at least the start of them, before it gets all committed to paper. The all important gross profits cut, then down into licensed merchandise, and so on..."

For all his projected attitude and looks, Nathan knew how all this worked. Can't expect something for nothing.

His face split into a wide smile, and the serious demeanor almost melted. Not quite, there was still the hard cant to his eyes, the smile did not quite reach, but for all intents and purposes, he smiled at the other man.

"Mr. Seymour, I think we might be able to work on a deal. This could go quite far."

"I'm quite glad to hear it, Tony. And please, if I'm calling you Tony, I insist you call me Nathan." He saw the look flicker in his eyes. Even if he was restraining himself, Nathan could fill in the emotional blanks himself.

"Shall we pass on the number crunching and such to your people for the meanwhile, then, and just finally have lunch? I am starving."

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