Martha Busts Josh on Moose Meat eBay Breach
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Josh is intercepted by Martha as he enters the bullpen area, immediately establishing tension about an undisclosed issue.
Martha reveals Josh's Finnish moose meat gift has surfaced on eBay, violating protocol and catching him off guard.
Josh conceals who received the gifted moose meat, cutting off Martha's inquiry with abrupt resolution to handle it personally.
Martha dismisses Josh to return to his duties, closing the confrontation with unspoken suspicion lingering.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Feigned confusion masking flustered protectiveness and mild annoyance at the interruption.
Josh enters the lobby striding toward his bullpen door, halts as Martha intercepts him, feigns confusion over the eBay moose meat revelation, pauses evasively when pressed on the recipient, then pledges to resolve it personally before resuming his path.
- • Shield the intern recipient from identification and punishment
- • Quickly defuse the confrontation to return to crisis work
- • Staff loyalty outweighs minor protocol slips in high-pressure times
- • Personal intervention can contain bureaucratic fallout quietly
Firm resolve laced with pointed sarcasm, balancing courtesy with unyielding protocol enforcement.
Martha calls out to halt Josh's advance through the lobby, apologizes politely for interrupting his busy day, reveals the eBay breach of his recorded moose meat gift, presses firmly for the recipient's name, then dismisses him with cutting sarcasm about his 'real job'.
- • Enforce gift protocol compliance and identify the violator
- • Reassert authority over staff lapses despite broader crises
- • Protocol breaches erode White House integrity even in chaos
- • Personal accountability must be extracted regardless of rank
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The sous-cured Finnish moose meat gift, originally received by Josh via protocol channels, becomes the focal point of Martha's accusation as it's revealed to be auctioned on eBay by an unauthorized party (implied intern). It symbolizes quirky diplomatic excess clashing with rigid rules, exposing staff indiscipline and providing comic tension amid national threats.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The White House Lobby serves as the charged ambush site where Martha intercepts Josh mid-stride, transforming a transitional corridor into a micro-confrontation zone that halts his momentum and forces evasion. Its bustling openness amplifies the risk of exposure, blending everyday staff flow with bureaucratic tension for ironic comic relief.
Josh's Bullpen Area looms as his intended destination, visible through the lobby door he's approaching, symbolizing the pull of crisis work (leaks, terror plots) that Martha's ambush delays. It underscores the event's interruption, contrasting bullpen frenzy with this quirky protocol detour.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
eBay emerges as the scandalous platform exposing the moose meat auction, igniting Martha's protocol fury and Josh's evasion; it thrusts private staff indulgence into public bidding wars, fracturing White House discretion amid MS leak and terror crises for farcical irony.
The Finnish Office of Protocol is invoked via Martha's records as the diplomatic source of the sous-cured moose meat gift to Josh, now breached on eBay; it represents earnest international courtesy clashing with U.S. bureaucratic scrutiny, humanizing global relations through absurd fallout.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"MARTHA: "We have a record of your receiving a gift from the Finish office of protocol, some sonacured meat.""
"JOSH: "Moose meat." MARTHA: "Yeah, it showed up on E-Bay." JOSH: "What're you talking about?""
"MARTHA: "Well you know that's a no-no right?" JOSH: "I- yeah, I gave it to- [pause]" MARTHA: "Who?" JOSH: "Nobody. Sorry, Martha, I'll, I'll take care of it.""