2012-09-11 Fashion Or Charity?

"Ms. Mote would be happy to see you on Wednesday at 2pm. Does that work for you?" Edith's secretary has the perfect secretary phone voice, as she schedule's Kate's appointment. Getting the appointment to the Boss was as easy as syncing it to her smartphone.

When appointment time draws in, Edith's sitting on her plush sofa in her office, magazines newspapers and website blog pages spread out all around her. Her magnified eyes peering at all the news on super heroes. Idly her left hand reaches out to collect the cigarette burning lazily in its holder. The plastic clicks against her teeth as she inhales, then chews on the end a moment.

"Right this way, Ms. Bishop," says the middle aged woman with a polite smile when Kate arrives. She stands, wearing the latest in Michael Kohrs business wear, and leads the way to Edith's office.

"Come in, dahling," Edith sing-songs as the secretary double raps on the door. She opens it, half stepping into the office.

"Your two o'clock is here, E," says the clerk.

"Ah, yes. Well, who /is/ it, dahling?" Edith didn't read her calendar invite. The secretary is unphased.

"Kate Bishop."

"Well, show her in - don't just stand there," E insists, tiny hands tossing a newspaper out of the way.

And of course as Kate is shown in, Kate can't help but to offer the other woman a bit of a smile.

"Ms. Note. How good it is to see you. I hope I'm not imposing on you or drawing you away from anything important with this..."

And yet, even as that's said, the socialite moves over to take a seat.

"If I am, I'm more than happy to try and schedule another appointment when things would be more convenient for you..."

Edith waves her secretary away, even as the woman seems to ignore her in other to place some chilled bottles of water on the coffee table bewtween them. Before she steps out of the office proper, she unlocks Edith's smartphone and sets it in front of Edith with the alert screen showing the appointment reminder clearly visible. Edith looks down at it and frowns.

"If it was an issue, Janis would not have scheduled you," Edith says, her smile a heavy contradiction to the testy tones of her voice. "What do you want?" Edith Mote, doesn't believe in small talk.

The lack of small talk actually catches Kate off guard, as she instead sits up straight. And yet, despite that, her smile doesn't falter.

"Since you're cutting to the chase, I'll be honest with you. I'm not completely sure. I was hoping to be able to sound you out a bit before saying anything, but... Well, I don't know what you may have heard about me, or might have read, or learned from other sources, I'm highly involved in charity work. One of the reasons the brings me here is related to that. As you know, fashion week wasn't too long ago, thus the names of the designers involved are still on everyones lips, as are the designs. As such, one of the charities I help with is trying to capitalize on that to raise money. And one of the designers that had originally agreed to help had to back out for reasons they did not say, thus I'm trying to find someone else who might be willing to help..."

"Fashion for charity," Edith says, sounding out the words as she leans back on her sofa. It's a tad over sized, making it seem huge and her seem diminuitive as she reclines upon it. She taps the plastic cigarette holder against her chin as she peers at Kate. The sociate is sitting up straight. The designer is reclining comfortably. How inverted this seems.

"Who are the other designers? Who are the models? Who's the audience?" Each question gets asks with this disinterested sort of air, her bugging eyes shifting focus from Kate to the curling smoke drifting up off the end of her cancer stick. The scrubbers in this building must be good, because this office doesn't reek

With a single, almost measured motion, Kate pulls out her smart phone, and unlocks it, before opening up a document on it, which in turn she offers to the designer.

"If you want a copy of that, just hit the button in the upper right corner, and input either your number or an email address." is said before there's a slight hint of a smile on the socialites face. "The target audience will be... Interesting. There will be a main show, which will have the usual stuff, which is where we will hopefully be able to bring in the big donors. The models that have agreed to do it are on there, as well as the other designers. I'll admit that we don't have as many big names as we'd like, but the lesser known models and designers are all considered to be rising stars with a lot of talent.

"But in addition to that, there will be a second part. An online portion, where some of the outfits worn in the show will be sold online at auction for those that might not normally be able to afford things like this, or might want them but couldn't get them otherwise."

"Then I'm not the one you want. Go call Michael. He does that boring ready to wear stuff," Edith says, after taking hte phone, peering at the display, then offering it over again all while never setting more than her middle finger and thumb against the casing. Her left hand, not on the phone, waves about, making the ash on the tip of her smoke shudder precariously.

There's a simple nod at that as Kate accepts her phone back.

"I understand. As I said, I was hoping to be able to sound you out first before even bringing that up."

Then, the socialite bites her lip for a moment before continuing on.

"I guess the next thing might be a bit more 'off the beaten path' for a designer. But then again, given your reputation..."

Edith ppaah's loudly, wave-batting any uncomfortableness away with her right hand as she reaches forward, seeming near to risking faceplanting off the sofa, to tip her ash into the tray on the low coffee table.

"My reputation! Ha! They're so quick to call me designs too forward, and then they hope to get my fabrics. Pssht! Designers." Edith rants breifly before taking another hit from her smoke, eyes on Kate.

"What do you /want/, dahling? Tell me know, before I change my mind about you being a bother."

There are two ways Kate could do with this. Two very, very different things she could bring up. Either one could help. Buuuut...

"This isn't actually about clothes. Or your fabrics exactly...."

Then she shakes her head, as if changing her mind.

"Look... I was going to ask you what it'd take to possibly design something... Something that could help protect police officers and the like from the napalm at least if they're out there fighting these zombie robot things that apparently are filled with napalm that attacked that model contest in Times Square the other day. But to be honest, I have no clue where even I'd come up with the money for more than one or two of those depending on how much they cost."

Edith blinks, looking mildly... mild. "The FR483Z is what you're looking for. It's been on the market of a year, and comes in four colors. Several major metros are currently using it on their high-threat SWAT," replies the 'designer' as she once more leans back. "Is this all you wanted?" Another draw off her smoke.

The only other thing that Kate might bring up is something that she's not sure that she can trust this woman with. At least not right now. But then again, considering what Kate went through to get what she has...

"That's all for now. While I will admit that I do have a special project that I still might bring to you, I'll admit that I'm not entirely convinced that you're the best fit for what needs to be done."

Then though the socialite starts to stand up.

"Of course I won't say that you haven't impressed me. A lot. But unfortunately this other project is... Well, I won't lie. It's something that most designers, even ones with your qualifications and specialization would be likely to turn down."

Edith watches Kate stand, blowing out the smoke and waving it away impatiently as it partially obscurs her vision.

"JANIS!"

The secretary appears a moment later. "Yes, Ms. Mote?"

Edith motions at Kate. "Push a button on her phone. Print out the file," E demands before leveling a look at Kate. "I will look at your charity show, but I want a super-model," she states flatly, cigarette put back in her mouth.

Oooooookay. That was unexpected.

Kate blinks once at that, quirking an eyebrow at the designer.

"I'll pull what strings I can, but I can't guarantee anything. But... I should be able to get you a super-model."

Or so Kate hopes.

"And I won't ask why you changed your mind."

"I didn't say I was going to do it. I'm far too busy." Edith comments, arms folding over her chest. Janis holds out her hand for the phone, smiling softly at Kate, and when she gets hte device, she easily gets the files transferred.

"Janis, send her the write up for those two I like, the Commercial Girl and the Singer, yes? The one with the lights." Reason enough?

And yet Kate is still ends up smiling as she accepts her phone back.

"Maybe. But something tells me you're seriously considering it. And for now, that's good enough for me."

"Bah!" Edith retorts, leaning forward on her sofa to look for her tea set. No tea set? Edith drowns at Janis. "I'm really to busy, but sit and drink some tea... If I ever get tea." This last directed at Janie, who just smiles at Kate and moves to collect the tea set.

And as she's 'asked' to sit back down, Kate does so. Only as she sits, that smile fades away from her face and she starts to look more than a bit serious. heck, it might even be considered a bit grim.

"I take it then that you have something you want to say to me, or ask about if you want me to stay for now...?"

Edith clicks her tongue. "Yes, silly girl. Have some tea, make the trip to see me worth it, and maybe, maybe I'll find time to throw together a few mindless things."

"... Mindless things?" Kate repeats, sounding more than a little skeptical at that statement. But she doesn't push things. At least not for the moment.

"I... See."