jaegeracademy | [ open ] Valparaíso, Jewel of the Pacific

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[ open ] Valparaíso, Jewel of the Pacific

Characters: OPEN to all!
Location: The city of Valparaíso, Chile.
Date/Time: The first weekend of March (1st & 2nd).
Summary: The first group of Cadets are finally released on the city of Valparaíso. With a curious city wanting to meet them, both Cadets and Staff of the Shatterdome itself will find plenty of people willing and curious to hear what it is they're up to - not to mention complain about the unapologetic ugliness of the Shatterdome.
Additional Notes: Cadets are expected to be in uniform and represent the PPDC at it's best. For more information and any questions, please refer to this post in the OOC community.

Valparaíso is a city with an old reputation, struck hard by the Panama Canal back at its completion, and struggling and rising to a place of cultural prominence since. Nowadays it remains an important sea port along the Chilean coast, though not as busy as San Antonio, and has helped foster artistic communities and a wealth of Chilean culture well worth recognition and appreciation on its own.

For such a beautiful city, the Shatterdome is both an honor and an eyesore. The Cadets from the new program are a subject of gossip and fascination, novelty selling them in the short term in ways that weren't sustainable over time.

For those who hadn't been able to spend time outside looking over the city, Valparaíso provided all kinds of sights and hidden gems, from murals on stairs to a hundred plus year old tram that runs the hillsides, museums paying homage to the 16th Century roots of the city, to statues and architectural structures and beaches galore. Free from the industrial efficiency of the Shatterdome for a short time, where will the Cadets and Staff find themselves today? The possibilities might not be endless in actuality, but they were a far cry more varied than the last two weeks had been!

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Any debate about the Shatterdome's effect on Valparaíso's aesthetic integrity was completely lost on Tenpou. It wasn't that the scientist was ignorant when it came to topics of art and culture - quite the contrary, actually. The problem was that he had terrible, terrible taste. Tenpou was an inveterate hoarder, and his "art collection" consisted of cheap, touristy knickknacks crammed into every available corner of his filthy apartment. He'd once seen an exhibit of modern art made from recycled garbage, so in his mind that was reason to hold onto years' worth of old newspapers and snack wrappers.

So that was how Tenpou had managed to acquire an "Authentic Product of Chile" Easter Island moai statue that was nearly as tall as he was. The massive faux stone head was made out of some sort of foam material so it wasn't particularly heavy, but it was bulky and unwieldy as he attempted to make his way through the narrow, graffiti-covered streets of the bustling historic market. Around him, vendors hawked brightly colored produce while sunburned vacationers sipped overpriced cocktails outside tourist trap cafes.

It belatedly occurred to Tenpou that he was quite lost, with no idea how to make it back to the bus station. Carrying the oversized statue in his arms like it was a dancing partner, he shuffled through the street, seeking a familiar face. Or at least a face that spoke English, or Chinese...

"Hey! Tenpou!" Hanji is tall, so she usually stands out in a crowd. Plus she's an American - she takes up a lot of space when she wants to. Her hand waves lazily as she strolls over to him and his statue. She pauses, adjusting her glasses, as if she's trying to decide whether she should be amused or just slightly horrified at the sheer level of tackiness the fake moai statue exudes.

"Where did you get that thing?"

She's pretty sure she knows the answer, if only generally, but it's always good to hear origin stories from owners.

"Hm? Hanji?" With the enormous moai tucked under one arm, he narrowly avoids knocking over an innocent pedestrian as he turns to greet her. Although his willowy colleague is almost as tall as Tenpou himself - taller, actually, since he has a bad habit of slouching, it's not just her height or the length of her waving arms that seems to clear a space around her. Hanji has a certain presence that's larger than life.

"It's a good thing you're here. I took a wrong turn at that open-air flea market, and somehow I ended up here..." Tenpou has gotten lost on the way to his own office on multiple occasions, so it's a familiar story. "But if you'd like to get a moai too, I'm sure I can retrace my steps and find that shop again. Since we have the day off, I thought I'd immerse myself in the authentic local culture."

Hanji leans back slightly as he turns, mostly to avoid the fake statue. It might be styrofoam, but no reason to get clunked by it. She stares at him, arms akimbo, an amused smile on her face. She knows all too well that Tenpou can get lost walking from the mess hall to his office, but he's got a good head on his shoulders. Mostly.

"No, no, that's fine! I was just curious. I haven't had a chance to check out all the wonderful souvenirs they've got on display for us tourists..."

Hanji reaches out to rap a knuckle against the moai. Yep, totally fake (although the fact that he was carrying it like a featherweight tipped her off).

"I've been wrangling cadets and exploring a little - it's a beautiful city."

"Indeed." Valparaíso's brightly painted houses and chaotic, colorful urban graffiti appeal to Tenpou's own eclectic tastes, so he agrees readily. The port city was a center of global trade before the opening of the Panama Canal rendered the old sea routes irrelevant, so for a hundred years it's fallen into a soft decline. Buildings slowly crumble beneath the relentless sun and salty air. The writers of Tenpou's home country are fond of drawing metaphors between spring flowers and the transience of human life, but he thinks that cities, the living products of human hands and human minds, can be just as fragile and fleeting.

"So they've put you on cadet duty, then? Better you than me. You're much friendlier, so they won't realize that you're planning to conduct questionable experiments on them until it's too late." He grins and gives her a conspiratorial wink. "Try to save a few of the new lab rats for me."

"Well, it's more like I volunteered for it," Hanji chuckles, "I like seeing how they adapt to the new place - it gives me an idea of who they are. Besides-"

She shakes her head, "-I get first pick. Better then letting you decide how we're going to use them."

She's joking. Mostly.

"And my experiments aren't questionable They're perfectly ethical! Human experimentation is more of Halsey's thing. She's the one who helped make jaegers worth building, after all."

It's all in good fun, even if the target isn't here.

"You shouldn't get so attached to pets you can't keep," he chided, only half-joking. If the new Jaeger Academy was anything like the one in Alaska, at least half of the cadets would be gone in six months. Some would be screened out thought relentless batteries of physical and psychological testing, while others would willingly withdraw when the training grew more intense.

"These cadets haven't even tried Drifting yet, and that's always the point where recruits start dropping out of the program. It's a lot easier for people to imagine themselves facing a 100-meter-high monster than it is for them to imagine letting someone else peek into all the dark corners of their minds." Tenpou had always idly wondered what it would be like to Drift with someone like Hanji: a like-minded colleague and intellectual equal. Would it be a more efficient way of communicating ideas, without all the barriers of normal conversation? Or would they find that they had their own secrets to hide?

"Oh, I'm sure they'll let me hang on to one," Hanji shoots back with a grin that's almost evil. Sometimes she really does enjoy the whole 'mad scientist' gig a bit too much. "They can't fail all of them..."

She's fond of the cadets, even if she only knows them vaguely. She likes people in general and her enthusiasm means people usually like her. At least until she starts talking about kaiju. Then they try to excuse themselves without being too rude. She sighs as the talk turns to drifting and lifts her shoulders in a shrug, "True, but that's part of the job they have to do. Everyone has secrets and it's hard to trust people with that, even if you're fighting together, right?"

She scratches her head, "...I wonder what it'd be like to Drift. I've never had to do it."

"I tried it once, in Dr. Lightcap's lab back in Hong Kong." The Pons system had been under development at the time, and the strain of attempting to control a Jaeger's brain-machine interface had nearly killed early testers. Rather than chance harming valuable pilot candidates, PPDC scientists had experimented on themselves and their lab assistants - Rangers weren't the only ones willing to risk their lives to fight the Kaiju. While he and Hanji have perhaps an unhealthy enthusiasm for cryptozoology, it's an obsession born from hatred. The only way they can fight is to understand.

"My assistant had recurring migraines for weeks, and the system overload caused by the poor connection damaged a very expensive piece of equipment. Caitlin and Catherine were cross with me for days..." Tenpou smiles, a little sheepish, and leans on his styrofoam moai. "You know, it's quite possible to get lost in your own mind. Since then, they won't let me near a Conn-Pod... sometimes I still think that I'd like to become a Ranger, though."

Hanji wouldn't describe it as "unhealthy". She's not free of bias, though, so she's probably not the best person to ask about her area of interest. ~~Because she'll talk your ear off about it.~~ She perks up when Tenpou mentions having tried it before and she gives him an appraising glance.

"What was it like? Looking into another person's mind like that?"

The idea of becoming a ranger has never really occurred to Hanji, at least not seriously. She enjoys her work now and she's not sure how learning how to fight in a jaeger would really help her (or anyone else).

"It's... very strange," Tenpou begins after a moment's hesitation. It's not that he doesn't want to describe the experience, it's that he can't. He speaks four languages fluently, but they all lack the appropriate words. The language of science seeks to avoid ambiguities, but human minds are by nature places of dreamlike ambiguity and half-formed philosphy. "You might try talking to Yancy Beckett about it if you're interested, though. Drift seems to come very easily to him."

Tenpou smiles with a slight hint of embarrassment. Hanji is a respected colleague, so it's difficult to speak the truth. After excelling at nearly everything he'd ever tried in life, Tenpou's utter failure at Drift came as a shock. "I'm afraid I'm not very good at forming connections with people."

"I might," Hanji muses, "But Drifting isn't really my area of expertise - even if it's interesting, in its own way."

She settles a hand on her hip and sways back on her heels as she considers him thoughtfully. He isn't very good at forming connections? She's never noticed. She always got along just fine with Tenpou. Then again, she's a bit of an oddball herself, even if she's a friendly oddball. Her face splits in a grin and she gives him a slap on the shoulder.

"Well, at least there's always the lab."

That's a hard sight to miss. Trust her, she tried. But it's hard to ignore a man she's vaguely familiar with lugging a giant moai statue that she doesn't want anyone to be seen with. She chases after him with her plastic bags of fruits and books.

She looks to the left. She looks to the right. Good, no one else that she recognizes is here.

"You are aware that you got ripped off, right?" Says the girl who paid an exhorbitant price for her stuff because she fails at bartering.

"...Francine?" It takes several seconds for Tenpou to root through the dusty file cabinets of his mind to find the right name, or at least something close enough to the right name. That's right, she's the girl who hates the color orange, as if a portion of the visible light spectrum were something one could hate. Judging by the way she eyes the styrofoam moai staue with undisguised digust, she can't have much appreciation for art. Tenpou sighs, but he heads in her direction anyway.

"I wasn't 'ripped off.' This is a priceless cultural product of Chile," he informs her, narrowly missing a passerby as he swings the foam statue under his arm. "Have you been shopping too? You definitely came to the right place. I saw a shop selling those little alpaca wool hats with the puffball on top, but then I remembered that it wasn't winter here in the southern hemisphere." Indeed, Tenpou's only concession to the balmy summer weather is to wear sandals (with socks) instead of shoes. In his lab coat and tie, he sticks out amid the t-shirt-wearing locals. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that."

She considers the prospect of cute alpaca wool hats until she realizes that she almost took fashion advice from someone who was wearing socks with sandals. Oh, the humanity.

"It's Franziska von Karma, Chien Chan," she corrects him. She wasn't familiar with Japanese suffixes, so for all she knew, Chien Chan was his real name and not a cute nickname. Besides, he already has a nickname. He's Slobby McSlob to her.

"The Moai is a priceless cultural product of the Easter Islands and it shouldn't be light enough for you to carry under your arm. That's obviously a fake." How can a man who's so smart about kaijus be so dumb about art? She doesn't narrowly miss hitting a passerby with a bag of fruit. She hits a passerby with a bag of fruit and moves on as if it never happened. "I know this because I handled an art counterfeiting and smuggling case once." More like she tagged along her brother's case like an annoying cartoon puppy, but details.

"It's Ten-chan," he clarifies with a sunny smile. "It's pronounced just like the number, so it should be quite easy to remember. You can even count on your fingers. As for the moai, Easter Island was annexed by Chile in 1888, and the island falls under the administrative jurisdiction of the Valparaiso region. Real moai are a protected cultural artifact, so naturally this is just a replica for my office. I wouldn't want to break any laws." Tenpou pulls a cigarette from his pack and lets it dangle between his lips.

"I believe you mentioned that you were studying law? You should always research the local administrative zoning legislation. Regulations and by-laws can vary quite significantly from one region to the next, especially when one considers the diverse historical and ethnic makeup of the country." With that, he lights his cigarette and takes a long, deeply satisfying drag. Tobacco always tastes better after he's had a chance to be a smug bastard. Tenpou is usually a very pleasant, agreeable man, but underneath that is a streak of pure, childish pettiness. Franziska insulted his taste in art and that wasn't something he could forgive easily.

Whatever he said about his name and the history of Chile is quickly forgotten after he talked about his plans for that so-called piece of art. "You're displaying it?" She coughs as some smoke gets in her mouth. "Where people can see it?" Possibly underneath piles of coffee cups, take-out menus and maybe, just maybe, things that are work-related?

"Like they'd let me in, with this polarizing uniform?" she scoffs. Earlier, she walked in front of the parliament, saw all the people dressed for work, and walked away. Didn't feel like she'd belong there anymore. "I won't have time to properly study law when this course is over." She furrows her brows so hard, she thinks she might cry. She blames the smoke.

"Stop that!" She quickly reaches for his cigarette, which causes the bag of books she was carrying to swing around. "I have a swimming test next week and all that smoking is bad for my lungs!"

Yuri didn't have any specific goal in venturing out on the town besides just getting away from the oppressive atmosphere of the base. Tough luck he still had to wear the uniform, but it'd feel less stuffy after he broke it in... Alright, no, it wouldn't; he knew from experience. He could pretend, though.

The uniform itself was getting a lot of attention, but it wasn't so bad. He'd just managed to score an apple off of one of the street vendors who had definitively had something to say about the overbearing ugliness of the dome, but Yuri could only guess at what with his only real clues being 'Shatterdome' and the brief, aggrieved look on the women's face. Regardless, she had patted his cheek and sent him off with the apple free of charge, and it was by far the best damn thing he'd eaten all week.

He didn't recognize Tenpou as staff, but he could recognize the signs of someone who had no idea what they were doing. He hastily finished off his apple and tossed the core into an unobtrusive bush, making his way over with his hand sin his pockets.

"Do you... Need some help with that?"

The PPDC uniform stood out for its dullness among the brightly colored fashions of Valparaiso locals, so the Jaeger Academy cadets failed to blend in almost as spectacularly as the imposing bulk of the Shatterdome itself failed to blend into the Chilean hillside. Tenpou had been in the army himself, and even though it had been a good fifteen years ago he still remembered the way it felt to be seen as a walking uniform, rather than as a human being. Even after joining the PPDC he'd refused to accept a uniform and rank, preferring instead to wear his own stained lab coat and curry-splattered ties.

"Thank you! That would be much appreciated. It's large, but it's not very heavy. I was planning to put it on my desk to surprise my lab assistants." He thrust the oversized sytrofoam moai into the cadet's hands with a sigh of relief and began to dig through his pockets for a cigarette. He'd gone almost a half hour without smoking and that had to be a new personal record. With his arms free, the "STAFF" badge danging from the front pocket of his lab coat was easy to see.

"By the way, I'm Dr. Tenpou with the department of cryptozoology, but you can just call me Ten-chan. And you are...?"

Yuri's eyes darted over him, wary and considering. Science type, for sure, so probably not a stickler for the rank rules, even though he still under the category of people Yuri should be calling 'sir'. And science stuff aside--which Yuri found by turns weird and uninteresting already--this guy was obviously kind of off the beaten path. Well, that was fine with him, as long as he could get a handle on what to expect.

"Ten-chan." He sounded it out musingly, the meaning obviously lost on him. "Long as you don't rat me out for it. Sir." With some shifting, he managed to get the thing under on arm, balanced on his hip, and could then look at Tenpou with an arched brow--definitely insubordinate. "Cadet Lowell. Yuri. If you don't mind me, saying, this thing's kind of overdoing it for a paperweight."

Yaichirou wasn't staring because that would be rude, but he had definitely been watching out of the corner of his eye. From a distance he could only see the drunken march of the moai statue and a pair of legs emerging from underneath it and he had been entertaining himself by imagining what kind of idiot it might be. He idly flipped through the stereotypical dumb American tourist, a pushover parent who bought it on their brat's command, some horribly misguided archaeology buff... and then it lumbered close enough for him to see the man responsible.

"Tenpou!?"

He didn't mean to call out and he regretted it instantly. The last thing he wanted was to be seen in public with that crime against art, and now he had ruined his only chance to escape with his dignity. Damn it.

"I... I didn't realize you were stationed in Valparaíso."

Despite his best efforts, he addressed the statue as much as Tenpou. In his defense it was too hypnotically awful to look away.

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[ open ] Valparaíso, Jewel of the Pacific

Historic District Tourist Traps

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Re: Historic District Tourist Traps

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