Thought Carried Into Action

[Joshua Bernstein]

Meet and Greets were an important aspect of campaigning, in Josh's opinion. The need to see his potential constituents face to face, to be able to address concerns and to assuage fears and answer questions in a format beyond a debate (which many people saw as contrived) was one he couldn't deny. And besides, he enjoyed socializing and he enjoyed politics, which meant that Meet and Greets were a combination of two of his favorite things.

He'd had food catered, typical picnic fare: hot dogs, and black bean burgers, and coleslaw and potato salad. There were bottles of water and gallons of lemonade. And of course there was apple pie.

He wandered from table to table, making sure that everyone was comfortable and answering any questions they may have had. Some tables required extrication, as there were always people who wanted to dominate his time, and he couldn't spend the entire evening with any one person. Still, when he approached the table of a man he recognized from the court system (but whose name escaped him at the moment) he was in high spirits. The evening seemed to be going well, he thought.

"Evening!"

[Dr. Sean Neville]

In his second campaign for Josh, and Sean still couldn’t fathom why his partner had chosen him to be his campaign manager. Rather, he understood the younger man’s reasoning but he disagreed. They should have hired a real campaign manager, someone with knowledge and expertise in political management or advertising.

Still, the telepath tried his best. It wasn’t as though he was terrible at this job; he simply failed to qualify as an expert by any metric. At least they had some points in their favor: Josh was well-liked, Sean knew a lot of people and had been in this community for two-and-a-half decades, and Josh had a solid progressive platform.

They also benefitted from Russell’s sponsorship, which went a long way in paying for events such as today’s picnic meet and greet. When the campaign had ended, Sean wanted to take Russell out to thank him for his generosity.

While Josh circled around to introduce himself to everyone who had stopped by, the telepath confined himself to more behind the scenes work. Specifically, he manned the food table and engaged in conversation with anyone who chose to approach him instead of his partner, before gently pointing them in Josh’s direction.

Everything was going well so far.

[Edgar Alegría]

Meet and greets were the bane on Edgar's existence.  At least the meet and greets he was expected to attend.  They were usually swimming with meta's and over all very fake affairs, with the candidate pushing his agenda and making it seem positive when it was anything but.  He understood why they needed to happen, but he didn't necessarily agree.  Free food wasn't enough to get him to enjoy himself, but he was expected to be there so he was making the best of it but making small talk with fellow guests, and doing his best to remain civil and approachable.  What he really wanted was to go home and relax, or at least unbutton a couple of buttons on his shirt.  It had been a long day already, and this wasn't the way he would have chosen to end it.  Basically, he wasn't in the best of moods.

Edgar never even saw Bernstein approach, though he supposed he should have. His bottle of water was almost finished and he was hoping to leave soon when the man caught him with a greeting, causing nearly black eyes to look up at him.  "Evening." He responded more casually than the jovial man before him.  Bernstein wasn't a meta himself, but had a very pro-meta campaign and his campaign manager was an open telepath, someone Edgar refused to ever trust, and sincerely believed shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the campaigns.  How easily he could sway voters.  Disgusting.  

"If you've come to try and sway me, you're wasting your time. I'm afraid I have no questions this evening." He informed the candidate, allowing him to know before he even began his spiel that he would be wasting his breath on Edgar.  It was hard not to jab him or his campaign manager in the process, but truth was Edgar didn't feel like getting into it tonight.  He would if he had to, but with any luck Bernstein would take the hint and be on his way.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Josh was taken aback by the bluntness of Edgar's greeting. Although there was always a negative underside to politics, he still managed to expect the best when approaching other people. He certainly didn't expect to be told he was wasting his time by someone who had bothered to come all the way out to his event.

"Oh. Ahh. I trust you're enjoying yourself, then? If you're not here to be swayed."

Perhaps had he not been so flummoxed by Edgar's reaction he would have gotten the hint and drifted off to another table, but shock had taken over.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

As Josh’s campaign manager, Sean had three tasks – three areas of responsibility - at meet and greet events. Two of which were making sure that the event went smoothly from a pragmatic standpoint (that they did not run out of supplies, that they had a contingency weather plan, that any PUSE protests were dealt with swiftly but without aggression), and making sure that Josh, as the candidate, stayed focused on his platform, as well as remained accessible to those in attendance. As Josh’s partner, Sean had only one task, which overlapped perfectly with his third responsibility as the attorney’s campaign manager: to make sure that Josh was all right, both physically and emotionally.

Despite not being beside Josh during this event, as he had been needed elsewhere, Sean’s attention remained split between immediate tasks and his partner.

Thirty-six years of association with the younger man brought particular insight into his partner’s mental state through observation of his mannerisms. Sean’s telepathy also assisted in this task.

As such, he noticed that Josh’s confident and comfortable stride had been broken, and now he was stopped in front of a table with an unfamiliar face. He noticed that his partner appeared bewildered rather than engaged.

Although he could not interrupt, as he had to make his own rounds, he kept one mental eye on the situation, in case he was needed.

[Edgar Alegría]

Edgar could see the gears spinning in the other mans mind.  Not literally, of course, he wasn't an abomination like the man before him, but he could tell simply by watching the mans facial expressions shift ever so slightly.  

The event host didn't seem to get the picture despite what Edgar had just said.  That, or he was far too polite to simply bug off.  "The event is..copacetic, if that's what you're asking."  He smiled gently, attempting to be somewhat friendly though his guard was up.  It was always up around their kind.  "I wasn't planning to stay long, though.  Simply making an appearance." He explained, hoping to give off the vibe he wasn't really interested in chit chat.

[Joshua Bernstein]

Making an appearance. Well, that was something that Josh could understand. He'd done his own share of appearing at events, although he was someone who enjoyed the hustle and bustle and crowds.

"I'm glad everything's in order, then. You should talk with my partner," Blue eyes caught Sean's from across the room, and a smile flitted across his face. "If you need anything."

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean made eye contact with his partner, returning the smile and coupling it with a warm mental touch. That served the dual purpose of reassuring the younger man of his affection and effectively eavesdropping briefly, just enough to make sure that no altercations would break out. In one sense, the telepath felt assuaged of that, since Edgar did not appear violent. In another sense, the other man had that look about him, the look that smug people wore when they felt that they had the upper hand or were otherwise about to deal a devastating blow.

For that reason alone, Sean wanted to keep an eye on the situation. Unfortunately, the people with whom he was engaged had asked a question about the campaign, and so the telepath had to answer it, turning his attention from Josh and the guest to the two in front of him. Offering them his full attention, he smiled and began to detail Josh’s campaign platform, particularly regarding the civil rights proposals that he had made. Fortunately, he knew his partner’s resume as well as Josh did, which made it easy to spout off the attorney’s qualifications.

To Josh, he projected, I’ll be over as soon as I finish with these two guests.

[Edgar Alegría]

If he wasn't planning on staying long, why would he have any interest in talking to the man's partner? There was nothing Edgar really needed, but he allowed his eyes to trail in the direction that Mr. Bernstein's did, not really catching who he was referring to.  "I'll be sure to do just that." He told the man politely, pushing on a forced smile and giving a gentle nod.  "And who may that be?"

[Joshua Bernstein]

"Dr. Sean Neville. I'm sure you know him."

Everyone who had been in town any amount of time did.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

As promised, Sean finished with the two guests. It took a few minutes for him to go through Josh’s entire platform, since his partner was ambitious (and had interests and focus that far surpassed any authority granted to him as a member of the Pilot Ridge Town Council). However, the couple seemed interested, impressed by the attorney’s interest in environmentalism as well as his extensive background in civil rights law. The telepath did not ask them outright if Josh could count on their support, since that had never been a tactic he favored with politicians, but a cursory glean of their minds indicate that they very well might vote for him.

His partner would be glad to hear that surely. They could talk about that at home tonight, or wait until their next official campaign meeting, when the rest of the campaign team was there, including Russell who had so generously funded many of their events.

As soon as he had finished with them, and nobody else required his attention, he crossed the length of the picnic area to where Josh and the other man stood.

So as not to flaunt his powers, he came up beside his partner and placed a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “How are we doing over here, gentlemen?”