xp_logs | Krypteia: New Dawn

Angelo arrives at the New Dawn exhibition with a small group of students, dropped off by Callisto (whom Nathan convinced to play chauffeur). Tatiana and Karolina are possibly slightly more enthusiastic about aspects of the exhibition than Noriko is, but she cheers up when Karolina suggests slipping away later in the day. Meanwhile, Angelo meets Mariana Machado, the founder of New Dawn, and has something of a philosophical discussion.

Parking was obviously not terribly feasible right on the edge of Central Park, which was why Nathan, once he had discovered that Callisto was heading into town that afternoon anyway, had figuratively batted his eyes at her on the subject of giving Angelo and the girls a ride. Traffic was particularly heavy, though, which meant that the dropping-off had to take place relatively quickly if one was not to provoke road rage. The girls exited the car with commendable speed, leaving Angelo to make the final arrangements concerning the picking-up.

Callisto, having disembarked to help Angelo to ensure that the girls weren't run over en route, was now back in the driving seat, drumming her fingertips on the steering wheel.

"So," she began expectantly.

Angelo slanted a glance at her, not sure what she was getting at. "So?"

Rolling her eyes, the brunette lifted a hand to gesture to the car around her. "When d'you need me back?"

"Oh, right... unless you want to stick around an' see the exhibits too, call it five?" he suggested.

"Right, 'cause this is even slightly my kind of thing."

Angelo shrugged. "Suit yourself, it was just an option."

Callisto blinked. She was used to a little more argument from people when she expressed reluctance to such edifying activities. I've been spending way too much time with Munroe and Nate... "Right. Well. See you at five then."

--

Angelo had told them to stay within the exhibition area and not wander off into the woods, but beyond that, he'd left them to spend the afternoon exploring in whichever direction they wanted. Alvorecer Novo had a number of booths and so forth set up, most of them describing the various eco-villages, how their inhabitants lived and what they produced (and how), although there were booths describing the movement's urban communities as well. Scattered here and there were artisans demonstrating and selling their goods, and specialists of various types were here and there giving impromptu talks - the researchers seemed to have attracted the largest crowd. There were a number of visible mutants among the Brazilians, but strangely enough, none of them seemed to actually be talking about life as a mutant in the New Dawn movement.

Noriko shuffled about the exhibition area, glancing idly at some of the displays but for the most part ignoring them in favor of watching the people. The whole thing was pretty much exactly as dull as she'd thought it would be, but she could feel the thrum of the city outside.

Tat was still staring at everything like it was the holy grail of information - she'd absorbed everything like a sponge, and her usual cynical attitude was absent. "Oh, wait-" She leaned back, catching a booth she'd probably missed. Maybe. Anyway, they could go look, right?

She looked back over at Noriko who looked, frankly, bored out of her mind. "Hey, doesn't that look cool?" She wondered if she was the only one geeking out over this whole thing, but at least it presented a possibility where it wasn't us vs. them.

Nori gave Tat a completely flat look before glancing over at the booth for a few moments and then returning her gaze to Tat. "No," she said. "Is very not cool." But she waved her hand at the booth with a sigh. "If is want, go. Look. Nori is stay here."

Tat looked over at the booth, then back at Nori. "No, I guess- I mean, this is okay." She looked away again. "I'll just grab one of their fliers." She breathed out with a puff of air. "So what would you rather be doing?"

"Anything," Nori said, cocking out her hip and resting a hand on it. "I is was hope to leave, go into the city. But Angelo is very aho." The word definitely wasn't English and from the way she said it it definitely wasn't polite.

"He just doesn't want us to get lost," Tat provided as she shrugged. "I can see why. I mean, it's not like New York is the smallest city ever." The groups of people were a testament to that, at least.

From behind a few feet away there was a derisive snort as their schoolmate walked back to them, her hands full of fabric bags holding her purchases. Karolina had taken to this atmosphere like a duck to water, so delighted to see organic goods made by hand and offered for barter.

The jewelry she'd found, the artwork, the clothing -- it was almost like going to one of the art shows at home. Her friends were going to be green with envy with the bohemian fashions that she'd found here. If only she had them here instead of her terrifying roommate and the other quiet girl. Karolina didn't trust her one bit-- people that uncertain would turn on you in a minute. "I can't believe you. Just go if you want to. What's Nori going to do? Swear at you in Japanese? She does that already."

Nori snorted, sounding almost amused, although she actually agreed with her strange, blond roommate - avoiding something you wanted to do because someone who wasn't even a friend didn't want to? Was pretty dumb if they weren't uchi, and she certainly didn't consider Tat uchi. "Can in English, too, if Karolina is want," she offered.

Tat's eyes narrowed as she glared at Karolina. "I can't believe you, either." She didn't elaborate, moving away from the two of them to head to the booth. Honestly, it was just- It's not like she was being stupid because she didn't want to just wander away and then there'd be a giant thing where they'd just miss one another. Whatever. Tat muttered under her breath before she flashed a smile to the man sitting at the booth, picking up one of the fliers.

Karolina rolled her eyes as Tatiana walked away, rainbows flaring around her with her annoyance. "I don't get her," she said to Nori, secretly pleased that they were on the same side here, "It's like she'd never been anywhere by herself before. God, do we look like babysitters?"

Nori tilted her head in the discrete gesture that those who knew her well had come to realize was the Japanese equivalent of a shrug. "Tat is very scare, always, Nori thinks. Bakemono... eh Monsters is everywhere." Holding her arms out in front of her, wrists limp she let her bangs fall into her eyes, mouth slightly open as she made a rather horrible rattling noise at the back of her throat before dropping her arms again. "Is dumb."

Karolina shrugged it off, playing cool in front of her roommate, "Yeah, well, it's annoying. Oh! You have to see this necklace I got!" Just that quickly she'd dismissed Tatiana. She dug into the smallest bag on her arm, coming out with a small drawstring bag. "It's handmade, all recycled materials and naturally harvested wood. Totally green and cruelty free. I was going to wear it out tonight." She glanced up at Nori, and hoped hard for a second before saying, "Uh, you could come if you want to. There's a concert that I'm going to with some people."

The bag was cute, reminding Nori of the little purses her mother made her use whenever they went out in kimono, but Karolina's next words totally distracted her from the brief reminiscence and she looked up, eyes bright. "Concert?" she asked, a smile forming on her face. "Away from...?" She nodded her head behind her, meaning Tat and Angelo and all of them. "Zetai!" she said, nodding her head emphatically.

--

He'd seen quite a bit of the exhibition so far, but there was quite a bit to see. The latest thing to catch his attention was a young man talking happily about the potential medicinal uses of guarana, which one of the Alvorecer Novo eco-villages was apparently deeply involved in growing. His talk was interesting enough, but it was hard to tell whether the small crowd that had gathered around him was more interested in that, or in the fact that he had a very visible feline-esque mutation.

In Angelo's case, he was listening to the talk. The feline aspects had got one interested glance, just because it wasn't a variant he saw very often, but after that it had been all about the lecture. He drifted over to join the crowd.

"This is Paulo's first time outside Brazil. You'd never know it," a lightly accented female voice said from Angelo's left, sounding fondly amused. The owner of the voice was a slender woman, perhaps in her late thirties, with thick masses of dark hair and a face that looked like it was used to smiling. "To think I was concerned about how the crowds might treat him as a speaker, in New York..."

"New York City's pretty good about visible mutants", Angelo said with a glance over at her. "Mostly. You get exceptions, but that's everywhere."

"I suppose in a more cosmopolitan area such as this, attitudes would be more open." It was obviously Angelo's own visible mutation that had provoked the conversation, but after regarding him keenly for a moment or two longer, the woman smiled and offered her hand. "I am Mariana Machado. I hope you're enjoing the exhibition?"

He shook hands readily with the founder of Alvorecer Novo, smiling back. "Angelo Espinosa, pleased to meet you - yes, it's very interesting. I'm actually here partly on business - I work for Elpis, you may have heard of us?"

Her dark eyes widened for a moment before her smile grew. "I met the head of your board, Mr. Rollins, at a conference recently. Your group is doing some very impressive work."

"Thank you", was the pleased response. "We do our best, for all we're still a young group. We were lucky to get Joel on board."

"Yes, you were. I had heard of him, before meeting him - he did some work in my part of the world some years ago." Machado's eyes moved over the crowd for a moment before she turned her attention back to Angelo, smiling again. "He was having a very interesting philosophical debate with some of the other conference attendees, I don't know if he would have mentioned it... one of the others was taking exception to the idea of addressing mutant issues in isolation. I must admit there's something to be said for looking at such issues in a more holistic way."

"There is", he agreed, "but there's only so much we can do. Our remit is to deal with mutant issues, and since most of our staff are mutants, it was a natural focus for us. It doesn't mean we won't help baselines at all, of course, but for it to be official there needs to be some connection to mutants."

"Not quite what I meant," Machado said, but there was no dismissiveness in her tone. Just interest, and a certain lively spark that suggested that at another time and place she might have been up for a real debate on the issue. "I should say I'm a mutant myself, Mr. Espinosa, although my ability's such that no one would ever know that unless I told them. When we set up our first community, I was much younger and perhaps more fierce than was entirely good for me." Her smile was charming, almost whimsical. "I was quite determined that mutancy would be seen as just one aspect, one difference. It doesn't mean that our medical personnel aren't fully aware that some of our people have particular needs, for example. But if you look at a person as a mutant first and foremost, and see their mutancy as the source of their needs, or problems... I don't always like what I see down that road. We're not a separate species, and it's a slippery slope."

"A few years ago", he admitted frankly, "I didn't think we were human, and that was after I manifested... but my manifestation came as a bit of a shock, and my doctor tells me I was probably still adjusting. Mutancy certainly isn't the cause of all the problems people have, but sometimes it can make them worse."

"Oh, certainly. Don't take what I've said to mean that I don't believe that the work groups like Elpis does is poorly conceived," Machado said. "The interesting thing about slippery slopes is that some can walk them quite... neatly. Others are not so deft."

"That certainly is true", was the regretful response. "I've had my own experience with separatists on both sides, and it's never been enjoyable."

Machado's expression was thoughtful as she regarded him. "Separatists... a very interesting way to put it."

"It usually applies to the mutant side, more than the baseline", Angelo clarified. "Anti-mutant baselines usually just want to kill us or at best lock us up, but the mutants who're against integration..."

"A piece of advice, from my many years of dealing with the subject." Machado sounded amused at her own wording, but her eyes were very kind as she met Angelo's. "There is, and has always been, a spectrum of belief among mutants as to our place in the world. The key is to find as much common ground as possible." Something beeped at her waist, and she reached into the pocket of her jacket, pulling out a cell phone. "And apparently my presence is required elsewhere - it was very good to meet you, Angelo. Perhaps we'll see each other later today?"

"I'd like that", he said with a genuine smile. "I'm planning to stay here for the rest of the day."