[ open ] Valparaíso, Jewel of the Pacific

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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!

Comments

[observationalhazard]

"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.

[paperbacks]

"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."

[observationalhazard]

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."

[paperbacks]

"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."

[observationalhazard]

"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.

[paperbacks]

"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?

[observationalhazard]

"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."

[paperbacks]

"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."

[observationalhazard]

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).

[paperbacks]

"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."

[observationalhazard]

"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."