2257/Exclusive Interview!

Exclusive Interview!
Date of Scene:	30 April 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	1357, April O'Neil

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Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"Isn't this wonderful?!" shouts Xingmay Xitua over the whipping wind from forty stories up!

EARLIER

As the Channel 6 news van made its way through midtown traffic, a shadow fell on it. Shortly thereafter, magnetic clamps gripped the sides and gently raised it up into the sky. A craned head upwards would reveal some kind of oblong yellow lozenge floating in the air with a clamp underneath it, glittering and moderne. Some people honked their horns, but the space the news van had occupied is immediately filled by a taxi.

"So nice to meet you!" came a woman's voice through the radio. "I'm Xingmay Xitua, and I believe you do news around here? I've been completely unable to get in touch with the Bugle and the Times isn't interested, so I'm going to give you the scoops!"

Of WHAT?

BUT HERE AND NOW AGAIN

"You can step around the corner here," Xingmay says, gesturing. "It's safe." That weird metal thing - a robot? a ship? - is positioned so she can get out and walk round from the back of the van to the building's rooftop. The van itself is positioned with dizzying precariousness, the floor inside tilting ten degrees forwards - that is to say - DOWN.

But it's held still! It's safe. Probably.

"Do you want a coffee? Something to eat? We should get started, but I'd love to show my appreciation," says Xingmay, wind whipping at her hair as she folds her arms and grins slightly too wide. "Get the camera rolling! Will you be able to transmit it live or will you have to record it? I don't know which is better - you're the expert - you tell me!"

April O'Neil has posed:
April and Vernon were both inside of th evan when it was brought up off of the ground and taken into the sky. Both of the News workers looked stunned and bewildered toward one another. The shared horrified looks and then both had looked out their windows to try to see WHAT was lifting them up... there was much else they could do but frantically banter back and forth with one another!

At least until the point where their Kidnapper spoke up over the radio and introduced herself.

"Shh shh shhh!" April said at the frantically whining Vernon Fenwick who looked horribly offended about being shushed but he complied.

When Xitua explained they could exit through the back, April shot up and went right for the back, crouched down and wiggling her way past all the gear in the back, Vernon was right behind her!

The two News workers exited the vehicle and stared in awe and bewilderment around them.

"Uh..." April started.

Vernon just blinked his eyes rapidly and looked at his counter-part in the yellow jacket. "We w-we can't go live without a direct hookup from the s-station, the best we can do is record."

April nodded and then pointed at Vernon. "What he said." The redhead replied.

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
Xingmay's face wriggles a little. But then the smile comes back. "Well," she says, "that's fine. You'll be sure to get it on the evening shows, right?" This to April.

Vernon is given a considering look, then April can see that he has been comprehensively ignored. "While your fellow sets up the camera, let's introduce yourself. I like your jacket," she tells April, "and I really wish I saw more like that. That's synthetic, isn't it? It's so barbarous to think that they're raising some large animal just to kill it and eat its bone and wear its skin. And that shirt!"

She points towards the logo. "What's that mean?"

Fortunately Vernon and co can step towards the center of the roof top. There isn't a helipad here, but you could possibly wedge one in - either way it's not likely that THEY are going to fall off, though it isn't clear if there's a roof access stairwell somewhere nearby or not.

After asking about April's T-shirt, Xingmay looks up towards the sky and seems to stare at nothing for about ten seconds.

April O'Neil has posed:
Vernon, when he was mostly ignored, just did a slight double take to the van and then went to retrieve his gear, he was rather used to people mostly focusing their attention on April anyway, he'd been rather focused on her the first week or two they'd been assigned together himself.

April's hands came up to touch her jacket by the open zippers and she held onto it gently. "Yeah, its not real leather." She told the woman, glancing down at herself. "Neither are my boots." She looked up then and smirked. "I just prefer to get the fake stuff, cause its actually more durable too. And yeah, don't like killing the animals if I don't have to..." She just realized she was having a weird conversation with a weird woman who was staring up at the sky.

April's blue eyes glanced up toward the sky as well, but she didn't see anything and just brought them back down to Xing's face. April took a step toward her. She glanced back to Vernon too who was pulling the camera up to his shoulder to get it ready.

"You didn't bring us all the way up here to talk about fahsion though, huh?" She glanced down at her shirt again too. "The logo is from an old movie, my father's favorite film. He got me this shirt a long time ago."

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"Exactly. Exactly. You get me perfectly," Xingmay says, not lowering her eyes for a moment. "You were close to your father? My father was from this planet too."

Her gaze returns to April and she smiles, raising her hands to clap once. "Of course that's a little less remarkable for you, eh? It's on now?" Meaning the camera, which she glances at.

"What I wanted to talk about is how I am going to fix things up around here," she says - before saying, "Do I address you or the camera?" A painted fingertip waggles back and forth. "Anyway, as I was saying: I am going to fix things up around here. I am sure we can all agree that Earth has many problems."

April O'Neil has posed:
April and Vernon exchanged glances after hearing Xing say these things and then they both went back to looking at her and Vernon did a thumbs up assuming that Xing would know that the camera was indeed On.

"Uh, yeah..." April said. "Thought I've personally met with people not from Earth before, and based on what they've told me... 'problems' aren't exactly restricted to Earth's atmosphere and everything within it." The Reporter said to the strange woman with a bit of disbelief in her voice.

April shifted gears though and continued quickly. "What exactly are you looking to... fix though? Because what you've already shown me is that you have a blatant disregard for public safety, by picking our News Van up in the middle of Manhattan traffic during the peak of tourist season... That kind of stuff is not the sort of change that the world at-large is really, you know, begging for."

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
Xingmay makes a dismissive gesture in the air. "Obviously, nowhere is perfect, but Earth is pretty imperfect, don't you think? It's pretty nasty, and people have made problems, and other people exploit those problems. I'm going to take care of it," she concludes with a clap of her hands.

Then she looks at April with a grin that becomes materially more brittle. "Isn't it? I thought it was daring and decisive of me. I've got a great deal to offer the world, you know; and besides which, I'm going to put you back down, if you are alright with that...?"

The brittleness of the grin fades slightly. More authentic. "To answer your question, I'd say we're going to start with points of material lack. Most of you have only the most elementary automatic services to assist you. I bet neither of you has a robot more advanced than those computer phones of you, eh? Maybe something to vacuum your floor?"

"So that is step one, though obviously I'll be helping out with the immediate matters, broken roofs and so on and so forth."

April O'Neil has posed:
"Roomba." Vernon muttered, which got a sidelong look from April who stared at him for a moment and he glanced back at her and shrugged.

April didn't reply to Vernon, she just looked back at Xing and shook her head softly. "It sounds like your heart is in the right place, but you're suffering from a lack of understanding how the planet, as a whole, works. You might want to meet with some of the other off-worlders who have gotten more settled-in with Earth's traditions and culture before you dive into helping. Have you... heard of the Justice League, by chance?" April would ask then. "I believe they have a number of members who are not from Earth. Superman, for instance, is one of Earth's greatest defenders and assets... he's not from Earth either. Perhaps you should seek him out for council on how best to do, what it is you're wanting to do?"

Vernon made a little noise then at April, a little whiney grunty noise and April glanced at him and then back to Xing, she sighed softly and rolled her eyes. "And we have Roombas. They are robots that vacuum our floors."

Vernon smiled nice and big then.

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
April speaks and Xingmay's face gets more and more brittle as her smile widens, before saying, "Well that's a wonderful thing to say but I believe you're assuming I'm not in touch with my Earth heritage in the slightest which is /extremely/ incorrect, and I think you're trying to push some kind of an agenda on me, a public-minded daughter of Earth who has come back in order to HELP the people of Earth."

She's starting to wiggle a little in place as she gets more animated. "I mean look at how you're talking about Superman, who I know about of course, you're calling him one of Earth's greatest 'assets'? Not one of your own family? I mean if I ever called someone in my family an 'asset' I'd get trodeshocked for rudeness. But that's another thing, none of you have trodes, do you? We're going to work on that," she says, before stepping forward -

And if April doesn't avoid it, she's getting one of her hands clasped in both of Xingmay's! (Her hands are uncomfortably cold, but not, like, abnormally so.) "But that's okay," she says. "We can fix this. Suction cleaning of your homes is the merest pen tip of what automatic labor can do to you. For you." Pause. "To you, but, that's a little rude."

April O'Neil has posed:
April would stand perfectly still and listen to the strange woman respond while only glancing over toward Vernon once near the end. She looked back when Xing took her right hand between her own and held it, she showed a small reaction on her face to the coldness by furrowing her dark eyebrows a little but she tried to hide the discomfort.

"All I meant is that the Justice League could help you do the job of 'helping' better, if not... they why would they even exist as a team at all to begin with?"

April glanced down at the woman's hands. "Why are you so cold?" She asked the woman then. "And... did you say tr-trode?" Now the redheaded reporter just had a confused look on her youthful face. "What is a Trode?"

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"To fight Spider-Man," Xingmay says. "Obviously."

"Because we're on top of a building and my circulation isn't quite the same as yours. Why, is it weird? No matter." Hands off the reporter.

"It's difficult to summarize... imagine the cellular phones you all rent from various technocrats and combines at exorbitant fees. The ones they make in Qurac out of Kandahari - what do you call them - rare earth materials. You know? Imagine if you had one that could go with you no matter what, made it so you'd lose weight while eating the typical Earth diet, AND had expansion ports. Does that sound like a good bargain to you? Does that not sound desirable? Something the world NEEDS? Something that all of you DESERVE?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April heard the Spider-man bit which just made her peer for a moment, Spider-man wasn't as visible of a hero in recent time as say a Superman or a Wonder Woman, but it did show that this strange woman did know some of Earth, at least.

"I'm sorry to hear that." She said about the blood circulation revelation. "At least summer's here a little longer, right?" She said with a faint and brief smile to the corners of her lips.

At the rest though, April just softly shook her head. "You're starting to sound like a Snake Oil salesman too, with a pitch like that. You know, the 'Cure All' that requires no life changing effort on the part of the ultra-lazy that want it all, without having to work for any of it?"

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"I know what a snake is, but I don't see where - oh, I see, I know what you mean," Xingmay says, nodding along. "That's not it, though. I'm not claiming that I, personally, am going to solve every problem - but I will certainly /help/, and don't you think it's important to have people know they have access to these kinds of resources?"

"You," to Vernon, "give me something to write on and something to write with."

April O'Neil has posed:
"Of course I believe that." April replied to the woman and watched her as she pointed at Vernon and demanded these things.

April just softly shook her head and reached into her jacket with her left hand to grab at her pen and notepad. "Here, I have stuff." She told Xing, pulling these items out she presented them to the woman.

"Look, this planet hs flawed, yes, but the majority of the people on it want to make it a better place where we can all be happy and co-exist. Sadly there's jsut a lot of bad eggs that try and force their own ideals and twisted agendas on others. They look for opressive power, rather than a widespread harmony."

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"Thank you," Xingmay says, taking the pen and holding it wrong as she starts writing on the pad.

This takes her a little while. It's on tape. It can be edited out. "Well it's a good thing I'm not one of those people, or you'd all be in trouble! Do I hold this up to the camera or hand it to you? It's an 'electronic mail' address for urgent business requests or solicitations from automation researchers."

April O'Neil has posed:
April reached up for the notepad after the woman finished writing. April would take the notepad and pen and then look down at the e-mail address written upon it. A moment later and the Reporter would look back up to the odd woman in front of her. "And you want this shared publicly?" She asked. "I mean... if so, then yes, we can put it up on the broadcast when this goes live. Don't have to hold it up on a piece of paper, that would likely be hard for people to read..." April had a rather perplexed look on her face, but she was trying to play along.

"And what exactly do you want people to e-mail you?" She asked then, nodding once toward Xing. "That part, you can say directly at the camera as though you're talking to your audience."

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"I want people to contact me if they intend to improve the level of automation on your planet," Xingmay says - handing over the pad afterwards, and then looking straight at the camera.

"Contact me if you intend to improve the level of automation on this planet," she instructs the camera, voice raising to the point where it may set Vernon's ears back a little. "Or if there is no other friend left to you in this cruel world. You'll have all the friends you could want soon enough - but soon enough might not be soon enough!"

"Edit that out," she tells April, and starts over.

"If there is no one else to whom you can turn for help. The universe is cold, but together we can keep out the chill."

"OK," Xingmay asks April, "Give me your honest opinion. Which one would make a stronger impression?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April seemed mildly amused by this action and way that the woman carried herself, she might even be very amused if she hadn't just been essentially kidnapped off of the road while headed back to the station...

"The second one, no question." She told Xing after she asked her that. "We'll cut it up and get it just right." She glanced at her cameraman, who's job was editing the Pieces together and he was pretty darn good at it too.

April slapped the note pad lightly against the palm of her other hand and then motioned to the News van. "All the editing equipment is back there. Though with this we can take it back to the Station and make sure its perfect. If thats all you have to say...?" She slightly tilted her head while looking at Xing now.

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"For now," Xingmay says. "Do you want me to take you to your television station?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April would shake her head as Vernon deactivated the camera and went to put it back into the van's back. "Oh, no, thats fine... Uh.." She glanced at her co-worker and then back to the woman. "Just... ya know, back down on the street. We'll make our way from there."

As sunny and chirpy as April tried to always be, look on the positive-side of things, she smiled at Xing. "Just don't drop us!" She said, jokingly. "Cause... its a long way down, right!"

This got a small glare from the older Vernon.

Xingmay Xitua (1357) has posed:
"I wouldn't dream of it," Xingmay says to Vernon.

SOON

The van is dropped off, after a little negotiation, in an open-air parking lot. "Have fun!" says Xingmay before rising into the cloudy sky.