18. Burdened With Glorious Purpose.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works. If you recognize it from somewhere else, surprise, it isn't mine.
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Recap of the previous chapter —
Mark writes the short draft for the four original John Wick movies. He then meets his potential recruits with Evelyn and Kevin. He is about to use his character evaluation skill on them as the chapter comes to an end.
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~ Mark's POV ~
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Date: April 15th, 1990, the same day.
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Location: In the meeting room.
Time: 10:02 am.
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He then decided to use his «Character Evaluation» skill on them to check their Moral Score. It's a new feature, he unlocked from using the character evaluation skill on random people and causing it to evolve. A new feature of the unique he found out, the skill can evolve and unlock new sub-skills or perk improving the skill to a higher level.
From Vani's explanation, he understood it like a tally of the Karma people currently have. She explained to him how every human being starts with a 100 karmic value and for every misdeed they perform no matter how big or small; they lose some points or a fraction of a point depending upon the severity of their misdeed and intention while carrying out said deed.
In the same way doing good deeds with no ulterior motives or wanting a benefit in return can lead to a rise in Karmic Score. He used the names interchangeable, sometimes calling it Karmic Score, sometimes calling it Moral Score.
Mark himself currently had a Moral Score of 96.89. As of now, he has mostly stayed on the righteous path. And because of certain non profit organisation he ran anonymously in the background he was racking up a lot of good Karma.
'Vani, please use the character evaluation skill and display their moral scores to me.' Mark said in his mind, hoping for the best.
[Right away, Mark. Here are the scores.]
[Benjamin Parker - Moral Score - 95.81]
[Howard Stark - Moral Score - 72.26]
[Tony Kushner - Moral Score - 86.63]
[Joseph Rogers - Moral Score - 93.85]
[Margaret Elizabeth Carter - Moral Score - 98.92]
Mark's eyes widened when he saw the last score from Margaret. Usually, a person in their 30s has a score of 70 to 80 even if they are neutral or good by nature because even a small misdeed even if only mischievous in nature would slowly whittle away at the score and slowly bring it down.
And normally people in their 30s have said hundreds if not thousands of lies, did dozens upon dozens of mischievous deeds, some just for fun and some with an ill intent. But here he had three people in their 30s, with Ben being the oldest at 36 with scores in the 90s and Margaret's almost reaching 99. He was very impressed by their integrity and moral values.
Tony was another case of his own, he had all of their backgrounds investigated. He knew of his past quite and even as man set of creating a harem of his own, he couldn't condone cheating and betrayal in a relationship. Thankfully, he had changed himself and was trying his best to make amends.
After seeing the scores, he was assured now that if he can help them grow, reach their full potential, then they will surely pay him back well and become a pillar of support for his future mega-studio. The foundation stone of the group of prodigal writers he was trying to create.
They had signed their names and passed back the papers to him. He arranged them neatly and kept them aside. Mark observed their body language, seeing none of them in confusion or worry.
He started telling them more about himself with the intent on telling them his true name to foster as closer bond. "I was ten years old when I embarked on my journey to become a writer. I didn't think much about it at that moment, I just had a story that I wanted to tell. A boy on an adventure with an alien gadget strapped to his hand."
"But who would I tell? I didn't really connect with anyone at school, to me they were too.." Mark looked away with an expression of regret, as if he was recalling those memories. "Childish." "I know, sounds weird coming out of the mouth of a 10 year old."
"Thankfully my mom understood me, she always did. She understood my thoughts and where I was coming from. When I told my mom about this.." he looked up reminiscing the old days as he recounted the incident.
"She said, "why don't you write it down in your diary." And I did. One day she happened to find my diary, and maybe it was her curiosity at wanting to see what her son come up with but she finally read my diary. She read the first 2 chapters of ben 10 filled with a few childish drawings of my Aliens."
He obviously left his diary around her on purpose, so she would read it. But that's not the point. The story with which he was trying to win them over with was, so he continued.
"She was stunned by how good it was, it had a lot of mistakes. But the potential was there to be seen, in the story I had come up with."
"Realising that I had a gift she graciously took it upon herself to guide me, to help me improve and to hone my skills."
"I learned the basics of storytelling from her at the age of 10. You could all I am as writer most of it I learned from her, it took me a year with her help for research and editing to finally finish my first book. Ben 10: Hero Time. I was pretty bad at naming so I went with a simple name." He chuckled as he relaxed in his seat, "Actually I still am."
"Now, most people would have to stop there, and they will try to think of their next story. But I didn't need to, I already had it in my head. You see, by the time I had finished writing my first graphic novel, Ben 10."
"I already had the rough idea and even the inkling of a plot for my next three books - Knives Out; a suspense thriller, Jurassic Park; a scifi and Resident Evil; an apocalypse. And by the time I was done with them, I had 10 more, and now." He paused and leaned in to build up suspense and momentum.
"Now I have more ideas than I can physically imagine myself completing in the next two decades." He finished with an exhalation, stressing upon his gift, leaving them in awe of his monstrous talent.
"Some people may think of this as a gift and I would agree, but its not that simple. It's also very frustrating for me to just keep these beautiful stories just to myself and not be able to share them with the world. I felt like I was burdened, burdened with a glorious purpose."
"Like Mr. King who has been coined as King of Horror, I got a title awarded by the media as well but because of exploration of different genres and social commentary through my books, the title the media came up for me is bit over the top – God of Stories.
It's a bit too pretentious if you ask me and I have no god complex. Instead, I rather like the title my readers and fans gave me out of love and their fond exasperation of my introverted nature – The Elusive Spector.
The collective writers sitting there listening to him understood his pain and smiled hearing his reaction about the name he was being coined by the media.
They have all come up with a story that they thought would be great, would put their name on the map and their books on the shelf. But sadly they just couldn't put it to paper or couldn't do it justice.
The brilliant idea that they had in their minds just didn't come out that well when tried to write it down, their own inadequacies haunted them. But for Mark it was his time, he wasn't just a writer.
No, he was now a director and also a businessman and with it came many responsibilities that just couldn't be handled by one man alone while still pumping out quality content by the year. Thankfully though he had come up with a solution for his problem.
"But I have finally come up with a workaround for that, I don't have to write all my ideas into a coherent story myself. No, I could hire a group of writers to work with me."
"Helping me in writing these stories at a far greater speed, the terms and conditions for this cooperation are mentioned in this document."
Mark said, as he passed out 3 files to the writers. He then turned and looks at Margaret and Joseph, "Ms. Carter and Mr. Joseph, I have a small test for you. Here I have a script with me, I want you to go through it and tell me how likely it is for my film to impress the critics and win the box office."
Mark said, as he passed them copies of the Knives Out script. Both of them speed read through it. The room is filled with a comforting silence. Mark observed the writers going through the T&C. 'Hmm, they look like they are going to agree.'
He turned to Kevin, motioned him forward and whispered, "looks like they will be staying, Kev, can you please tell Jess and Mel to bring some beverages for our guests and future colleagues. I also want to introduce them to their future workmates."
Kevin just nodded and said, "Sure, I will let them know. Do you still want me to be there for the rest of the meeting?" He asks Mark at the end.
Mark replied, "No, that won't be needed, we have observed them enough. You are free for the rest of the day, just check in with the catering company by the end of today."
Kevin nodded and silently exited the room. Mark turned to Evelyn and told her to get the paperwork ready.
Evelyn opened a drawer and took out a file and handed it over to Mark. "Looks like the team is getting bigger." She said, with a smile, content to see Mark succeeding in his plan.
Mark smiled back, happy that all was going smoothly. Hopefully he can maintain this streak of good luck for a while.
After a few minutes, the three screenwriters had gone through the T&Cs and even discussed amongst themselves about the conditions they thought were somewhat unfair or could be discussed over again.
Due to seniority of age, Ben was chosen as the de facto leader of the three. He leaned forward towards Mark and said, "Mr. Spencer, all three of us, are in overall agreement with the T&Cs. It's just we have two small requests to make." He paused after saying that, looking to Mark for permission.
Mark didn't show any displeasure on his face and just nodded at Ben, in a 'go ahead' gesture. Ben was relieved that Mark was kind and patient enough to hear them out.
He said, "Mr. Spencer, we are grateful for this generous offer. But we think that we need a better compensation for when the books are adapted into movies or TV shows."
"Just getting a one time payment for something like a movie franchise that might go on to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars for you, while we only get a small fraction of that, isn't fair, sir." Ben said with a sense of trepidation.
Mark, listening to this, leaned forward and stared at Ben and the rest of the writers in silence with a blank face. An oppressive silence hung in the air.
After a brief pause, he said, "The standard handout or lump sum payment is done normally because nobody can guarantee the success of a movie or TV show. But I like your confidence in me," he finished with a grin.
He continued nonchalantly, "I wanted to provide you guys with a safety net, but I guess you want to go all in."
"Okay, you will be rewarded with a small share of the profit of whatever the books are adapted into - movies, games, TV shows, etc."
"But this share will be divided into an 80/20 ratio with me getting 80% of the profits and the other party i.e. you being given 20%."
"After all, I am the one who will be giving the overall idea and concept for the story and I will be writing the final version of the book that will eventually be published."
Ben didn't reply immediately, and just thought about it for a while. He turned around to discuss it with Tony and Howard as well. They all agreed that it was a fair deal.
They will be paid a screenwriters' salary that is 30% above the industry average and even get to work on novels together with Mark, who was already a world renowned author at just 20 years old.
They will also get to have their names be featured on his novels as co-writers and contributors. They believed, with Mark's guidance and support, they could go on to create bestsellers of their own.
Ben replied, "Mr. Spector, we agree to this adjustment, thank you for hearing us out."
"We would be eagerly waiting for our recruitment letters." Ben said at the end with a happy smile, glad that he could finally put his foot into Hollywood.
He was bored with his dead end job, and life was looking pretty dull, but finally this offer came like a ray of hope. And he had successfully captured this chance to turn his life around.
"Call me Mark, then. Mark Spencer, that's my real name. But I don't need to tell you that you can't tell anyone my real name." He said telling them his real name showing a bit of vulnerability to foster trust and loyalty.
"It's only for my family and friends to use; and as such close collaborators of my work I think we can call each other's friends." He said at the end with a friendly smile.
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{Author's Note: And done, here we see Mark use his CE skill and be amazed by moral score of his employees. He then proceeds to weave a tale about his gift/curse. It's just him being shameless and calling his plagiarism as a gift of creative genius.
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