Omake: Hype Trainwreck
The ins and out of the PR department wasn't something Director Armstrong usually concerned himself with on a day to day basis. Sure he had to give frequent public speeches whenever something happened in Boston and the occassional interview with the press, but those events could be planned for and handled in advance. Besides maintaining good public relations more often than not fell under the perview of the Protectorate and Wards, and both Weld and Bastion tended to keep a good handle on things baring a few minor slip ups now and then.
Which is why it was a surprise for Armstrong to see O'Hannon the resident head of PR in Boston looking ragged and waiting for him when he came into the office.
"O'Hannon what do I owe the pleasure." Armstrong said while taking a seat at his desk.
"No pleasure I'm afraid just one giant fucking messes is about to explod in our fucking laps if we don't do anything about it." O'Hannon said skipping all formalities if he was swearing like a sailor already.
Armstrong sighed, "What is it this time Bastion say something he shouldn't near a mic or one of the Wards posted something confidential."
"The latter is close but not quite and I am sure you know what I mean by that."
"Let me guess Phase." Armstrong asked already knowing the answer, "What could she have done this time? We already banned video during the tours and the other Wards are running damage control if people start asking questions."
"It's more like what she has already done and continues to do, and I hate to admit it but part of it is because we fucked up in handling it." The PR chief said, "You remember her first tour right and the mess it caused my office."
"How could I forgot we got calls all night asking us if we were really drafting children against their will into the Wards. But I thought your department already handled it so why is it an issue now?" Armstrong asked.
"Because we only thought we handled it instead all we did was turn one problem into a different one. All we did was calm down the reporters but we forgot about the viewers those who saw the video and got interested. I hate to say it but that girl somehow got people hyped to learn more about her." O'Hannon explained.
"Hype? What is that." Armstrong asked confused.
"Anticipation, interest, followers, a catch all term for people eagerly awaiting something new and interesting, and Phase has it and its growing." The head of PR detailed looking increasingly frazzled obviously having had one to many coffees.
"And this is a bad thing because?" Armstrong asked not quite getting what the issue was.
"Well normally it isn't a bad thing, in fact most of the time in my profession it is a good thing. People get interested in the new hero we release a pieces of concept art for their costume, and when they debut they get a nice boost to their popularity to start with. But the issue is with Phase she unknowingly turned this against us, now instead of being interest in a new Ward joining the team they are interested in her situation and why she hates the program." O'Hannon said.
"Well I don't know what you expect me to do about it, I don't control the internet after all much less what people discuss on the forums. And besides we already banned recordings during the tour so there isn't much more we can do besides removing Phase from them entirely."
"Unfortunately banning videos seems to have only made the problem worse in the long run from what my department has seen so far. People caught on to the video of Phase telling the organization off and the ban immediately after and now seem to think we attempted to keep Phase from telling the public things we don't want them to know about the Wards. Which isn't necessarily wrong but sounds far worse when filtered through conspiracy theorists and forums on the internet. As for taking her off tours entirely forget it if we do that now it will only add gas to the fire. We may have stopped them recording but people still talk about what they see during the tours and they haven't missed how everyone walks on eggshells around Phase or that the tour guides keep giving her the evil eye. Removing her now will only convince them that they were right and something is going on, in fact the issue has gotten so bad that my department thinks that the recent increase in ticket sales are due to people wanting to see Phase go off on the other Wards or looking for evidence to report back to the forums. It has gotten so bad we can't even release the regular Wards status updates without the topic inevitably turning back to Phase." O'Hannon finished with a grimace.
"Again I fail to see why this is a major issue the internet will be the internet and we can't change that. Besides the PRT and Protectorate have survived worse hits to our reputation give it a another month and people will simply move to the next topic." Armstrong explained to O'Hannon.
"Normally yes that would be the standard way of doing things, we take the hit and move on and the hype dues down when nothing happens. That is if it wasn't for this." He said taking out his phone and showing Armstrong a video he had seen before while going over after action reports. It was of Taylor's fight in the electronics store, someone had apparently found the video from the security cameras and posted it in a thread about new capes in Boston.
"I'll get over the fact that you didn't let my department know about our most disobedient Ward's new past time leaving us scrambling to make plans incase the worst happens on our own. But this is a major problem if it gets out." O'Hannon continued.
"There is nothing tying Phase to the vigilante Ghost as far as anyone else knows they are separate people." Armstrong said attempting to placate O'Hannon.
"Are you fucking serious?!" He asked, "The 'new vigilante's' power is phasing and our new Ward's current name is Phase. You don't need to be a Thinker to put those pieces together let alone notice that they have the same hair and body type. Once people notice that if they haven't already then they will start questions on why a Ward is acting as a lone vigilante. At which point online conspiracies start getting actual attention and we have to answer some very uncomfortable questions. Or worse they start trying to ask Phase directly and we both know whatever she will say will in no ways make us look good."
"Fine I see what you mean and why it's a problem, unfortunately I have already checked our own rule book and there isn't anything official I can do about her hobby." Armstrong admitted.
"What do you mean there isn't anything you can fucking do? You're the god damn director!" O'Hannon exclaimed.
"Yes and as such there are rules even I have to follow. If I could I would stop Phase from going out there but she has us stuck in a technicality so my hands are tied. We can't do anything about her secondary identity until she gets a permanent one with us, which we can't give her until after she goes through power testing something she has been rather firm on not doing." Armstrong said back almost yelling at the PR chief.
"Fine." O'Hannon said taking a deep breath to calm down, "Then our options become to get her onboard as soon as possible and hope we can turn the hype she gathered in our favor if they see her willingly join, or transfer her to another department and pass the buck like Brockton did."
"Well we still haven't made any progress getting her to join the normal way but we are still working on it. As for transferring her not a chance, and before you say anything it isn't my choice. While we do have custody of her we still have to pass certain things through to her father and he has refused any transfers further out. Besides I don't want to mimic Piggot's brilliant strategy by dragging a third department into this mess." Armstrong explained.
"Jesus fuck this is a shit show isn't it." O'Hannon asked rubbing his eyes.
"Welcome to my world, it's like a trainwreck that you can see coming in real time but are helpless to stop and all you can do is sit back and watch your imminent demise." Armstrong said while pulling out a bottle he kept for whenever shit hit the fan and poring himself and O'Hannon a drink.
O'Hannon accepted the glass that was offered, "The only other idea I can think of is getting Phase herself to defuse the situation."
Both men shared a look at each other before bursting out laughing.
"God no, just look at what she has done with the Youth Guard imagine if she found out she had a group of people willing to hang from her every word. It would be a disaster for both us and the ENE, well more of a disaster then it already is." Armstrong said.
"It is a shame though." O'Hannon admitted, "If this is what that girl could do unknowingly imagine what she could have done if we got her to play ball. It would have been great I bet."
"Well to lost opportunities then." Armstrong proposed.
"If that's what we are drinking to you are gonna need another bottle." O'Hannon replied.
With that the two men tool a swig of their drinks before having to go back to their other duties, and trying to think of new ways to disarm the increasingly destructive bomb Boston's most frustrating Ward was becoming.
A.N: Well here is a new omake just something I wrote to get back into the swing of writing omakes now that my semester is ending and it kinda spiraled from there. So anyways here is an omake about the internet hivemind taking an interest in Taylor, and I might have messed up on Armstrong's characterization at the end there. Anyways as always let me know what you all think.
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