(a scene)
INT. GOOGLE MEET. Two tiles.
Tile one: THE FOUNDER. Behind him, a blank white wall and a single plant. Tile two: THE COFOUNDER. Behind him, a blank white wall and a single plant. The same wall. The same plant. No explanation is ever given.
The Founder runs a safety-tech startup of immense stated virtue. He is wearing blue light glasses, the kind that make a man look like a hostage at Hogwarts. He has just finished a nine-minute opening statement about himself, followed by two platitudes and a personal story with no discernible connection to the agenda.
FOUNDER: ...and that's why I do this work. Anyway. Thoughts?
He goes on mute. He checks out completely. This is the ritual. In the reflection of the hostage glasses, THE CONSULTANT (whose turn it now is to convey insight) can see browser tabs being violently ripped through at incredible speed.
CONSULTANT: (talking, as assigned) ...so the go-to-market really hinges on...
In the glasses' reflection: the tabs stop.
The Founder has found a website. The site is a wall of bold, bright, screaming warnings. EXTREME VISUAL INTENSITY. DO NOT PROCEED. SERIOUSLY. It has the energy of a site that has been sued before. At the bottom, one line of copy: BLUE LIGHT GLASSES GRANT PASSAGE.
The Founder pauses. Thinks. His cursor hovers.
He pauses again. Longer.
He takes the glasses off. He looks at them. He looks at them the way a knight looks at his shield before the battle he has been warned, in writing, not to attend.
He puts them back on. He clicks.
The screen goes instantly, totally berserk. A cacophony of colors and shapes beyond any reasonable design intent. In the tile, the Founder's arms FLAIL. He launches, fully, off his seat and out of frame. The plant does not move. The plant has seen this before.
The Consultant sees the entire thing. The Consultant is the only one who sees the entire thing, because the Founder is on mute, checked out, exactly as he always is.
CONSULTANT: (without breaking cadence) ...which is why I'd sequence the pilot before the channel partnerships. Happy to pause here if there are questions.
Silence. The empty tile. The white wall. The single plant.
COFOUNDER: (identical wall, identical plant, no reaction) None from me.