Welcome to Gaia! ::

The door to conference room opened and admitted a young, green-haired man in his 20s whose exhausted face made him appear more serious than he wanted this meeting to go. In all honestly, Levi Drummond was a smart, ambitious man that the company boasted about - but lately it had been harder for him to keep up his work-a-holic pace when a certain General, handsome or not, had decided it was his personal duty to see him succeed.

"Hi, Jade isn't it? I'm Levi Drummond."

He stepped up to the opposite side of the table and leaned over before he sat, extending on his large, pale hands to her. There was even a hint of a smile at the corner of his thin lips.

"I'm sorry we kept you waiting, Mr. Askew had to excuse himself from our meeting at the last minute." If there was any story behind the absence of the senior member, Levi's face didn't show it. "But I'll continue on without him, it shouldn't be a problem."

The lack of faith in his ability, at such a young age, was something that Levi was unfortunately accustomed to. It was true that he did not have a lot of experience in the industry but, at the same time, the company he was working for was relatively new and had drafted him as a full time employee after several temporary positions. He'd proven his worth, and he would continue to, no matter how many threats a certain dark organization made over his well-being.

"Right to the point, I see," said with his best business smile. He sat down in the chair across from her and let the contours of the cushions relax his form, even if just marginally. There was a laptop open on his side of the table that he quickly typed a password into. In no time he had several tabs open - her youtube page, chart comparisons with other local media stars. He turned it half-way to facing her.

"Then I'll be entirely honest with you. I've been trying to prove to my label that the future of talent isn't just music or actors anymore - they are a dime a dozen, the oldest form of media this country has to offer." He pulled up the chart with her video views and compared them to another girl whose pretty face was shown above the numbers. "Your page consistently draws more viewers than this young woman, a vocal talent that Mr. Askew seems particularly fond."

From the look on Levi's face, he obviously didn't think she was anything special.

"I want my company to understand the way technology is changing. He has to sell this girl against every other pair of pretty eyes that picked up a microphone as a kid. You?" There was a calculating look lingering just above his polite smile, something in him that wasn't looking just at her, but all the opportunity he could see down the pathway he wanted her to take. "You don't have to compete with hundreds and thousands of child stars. You've sold yourself alone - who you are, your quirks."

The tall, lanky man leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, settling one ankle across the top of the opposite knee. Both of his hands spread before him.

"Maybe you don't need us, or don't think that you do, but the future of entertainment is changing and I want to make an effort to stay ahead of the curve by signing and promoting personalities like yours instead of wasting more time on dime-a-dozen talents."

"I don't need you to make a name for myself," he added with a bit of smugness in his expression, although he didn't seem to have taken offense to it. If it had been any other situation and the fact that, ultimately, he wanted her to leave the building with her signature on a contract, he might have pointed out the flawed logic in such an assumption. "I need people like you to begin building something I hope will one day be the future of this company, a media conglomerate that controls the fickle masses of Destiny City and maybe one day the entire East Coast if we're lucky. But as for me? I've already proved my own worth, that's why I'm sitting in this chair across from you."

The young, thin man lifted the base of his laptop and pulled a folder that had been sitting beneath it, slightly warmed by the heat it generated. It was unassuming, a generic manila style, but her name was printed in neat block letters along the upper tab. When he opened it, it was filled with all sorts of information he'd gathered on her - six months of ratings, her worst and best view spikes, and a comparison chart to other top youtubers both national and local.

"What I need from you is exactly what you already are - a strong, quirky personality. We would give you corporate sponsorship for doing the same things you already do, and then we would market you, set up events specifically tailored to bring the spotlight onto you locally. You wouldn't be just a youtube sensation - you be an entertainer." He pushed the envelope towards her so that it was splayed between them, then leaned forward with his wrists resting on the edge of the table, the fingers of his pale hands laced together.

"You get anything you want out of this, Jade. If you can dream it, we can do it and more. You're the first of your kind, the path isn't created for you to follow someone else's predictable footsteps - it's yours to forge, with our help."

"I wouldn't be sitting across from you now if I didn't know what it takes to get here and stay here, for that matter."

But there was a small smirk at the corner of his lip at her demands - both because he felt like he was winning his case and because she had asked him questions he had never expected. It made him confident that she was exactly what they were looking for, he just had to close the deal. Hook, line, now sinker.

"My opinion? I hand picked you myself for what could be the first and last chance to convince my partners that this is an avenue worth exploring. You're the one I chose." He leaned back into his chair, letting it rock back on its axis, and propped one ankle across the knee of his other leg. One hand idly trailed down the length of his tie, smoothing it against his lanky torso while he considered her words. "I think you have an intoxicating personality, at least in front of a camera, and it makes people want to hear what you have to say. People can't be taught that type of charisma."

His opposite hand drummed his fingers against the table top and that smug look faded just a fraction, making room for the serious tone of his voice.

"I want that. So if what you want is a taste of the lifestyle we want to give you, I'll personally show you." There was an intensity in his eyes that said it wasn't a bluff or an appeasement. He knew he could convince her to sign the dotted line.

It was hard to hide the smug smile on his lips as she asked for a trial run, but he managed it. This job had taught him that it paid to be personable and, at least while he was in his work mode, he could accomplish great things. There wasn't a second that he questioned his ability to convince her - not if she was as fond of parties and night life as he was. He could wow her into wanting his lifestyle, even if what he wanted them to achieve was something much greater eventually.

"It'll always be me and you, Jade. This project is my baby and you are the shining star." His lips did curl, then, giving her an almost playful, asymmetric smile.

"If a trial run is what will get you to sign then I can provide that. Pick a weekend and I'll make sure you don't regret it." As he spoke he jabbed a finger against the table, emphasizing his points and making sure his eyes remained trained on hers. This had to work - Plan B wasn't nearly half as promising and as an added bonus, she was attractive. He always did like to surround himself with attractive people.

There was a small, almost unnoticeable narrowing of Levi's eyes at her words - but his smile never faltered from his business best. It wasn't precisely charming so much as it was confident, maybe because his mind was working too furiously behind those lime green eyes to be 'relaxed' enough for charm.

Maybe it was because he was kind of an a*****e.

Regardless, he picked up on the way she phrased herself and found himself wondering if he was just reading it wrong. Was that flirting? Did she want to go out with him, specifically? He found himself reading that grin on her lips too intently, tracing the lines of it just a bit too much..

Business, Levi, business.

"I like a pushy girl," he said with a laugh, dropping his eyes and chalking his own words up to generic small talk. He dug a pen and pad of paper from the open briefcase at his side - then busied himself with scrawling what looked like an address and time across the top, complete with 10 digits. When he tore the page off of its booklet, he pushed it across the table at her with thin fingertips.

"That's my number. Put it in your phone." The smile faded to a smirk as the pen and pad were dropped back onto the desk, dismissed. "And meet me at that address on Friday. We've got a long weekend ahead of us, Jade."