6285/Stranger Tides: The Gathering Pt2

Stranger Tides: The Gathering Pt2
Date of Scene:	26 January 2019
Location:	La Jolla, National City, California
Synopsis:	Katherine signs on to Aspen's research team to investigate the odd ocean currents
Cast of Characters:	Fathom, Katherine
Tinyplot:	Stranger Tides

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Fathom has posed:
The word went out, starting with academic channels but expanding through word of mouth or people posting the info to various online places. A marine research vessel, the Paradise Found, out of Southern California would be doing data collection over the next few weeks for an ocean current study in the Pacific. Aspen Matthews heading up the project. She's a well known Ph.D in marine biology and oceanography circles. Others might recognize her name as having won a gold medal for the US in swimming in Paris in 2020, only to have her medal stripped for blood doping. The "America's Shame" cover of Time was a particularly painful memory. But one that is thankfully 8 years in the past now.

Aspen is at the marina where the boat is docked, overseeing equipment and supplies being loaded. She glances towards the parking lot every once in awhile, keeping out for the final member of the team, a woman who had expressed interest in the programming and and also had the necessary knowledge of physics. After some exchanges of phone calls and emails with resumes, Aspen had offered the position and drawn up the contracts. She gets back to work getting supplies loaded while waiting for the woman's arrival. Aspen picks up a box from the deck, taking it inside to stow in the galley, and the returns. She's wearing shorts and a cropped tank-top that reveal she spends a lot of time in the sun, and must lead a pretty fit life. She still has the swimmer's physique.

Katherine has posed:
It's interesting the way things work out. Katherine was just looking at seismic data of the oceans, at least of recent, and with limited information coming it... why it was fortuitious that an expedition was going out to the very ends of the seas that Katherine was interested in.

With some quick forgeries, a history of information drawn up, backdated scientific journals being created about physics, engineering and some programming skills. A tilt toward seismic readings with regards to ocean currents, and deep ocean plate movements, as well as some other minors in a few other things... Katherine created a resume certain to impress just about anyone. Of course, the forgeries had forgeries on top of them, other aliases created in moments, people with families, photos, virtual creations all, but real people now with bank accounts, transactions, one of the scientific reviewers really likes KitKats... the devil is in the details.

When arriving, then, Katherine shows up in her more business attire. Black slacks, a white bustier that's still rather ridiculous in its exposure, her hair pulled back, glossy pink lipstick more suited to a college cheerleader, and a decided lacking of shoes. Padding across the ground though, she is here to sign contracts and possibly inspect things - Aspen Matthews - Katherine's done her research and she smiles, waving to the woman as she is on the deck, "Permission to come aboard, Captain? Though technically, I suppose, you are not the captain, because that is really in reference to the person who was in charge militarily speaking, and since this is a civilian mission, the closest we'd have is a pilot. In honor of tradition though, we still often call them captain..." She reaches up at taps at her lower lip with an exceedingly well manicured index finger and the nails of someone who has a hard time typing on a keyboard.

Fathom has posed:
Aspen looks up from perusing a box's contents. Soup of various flavors, quick to prepare and helpful for keeping a healthy crew. If Katherine's attire surprises Aspen - and it might - she doesn't give much overt sign of it. "Katherine?" Aspen asks as she moves over to her side of the little gang plank that has been set up for easy carrying of the provisions. "And Captain works, but Aspen is just fine too," she says, an easy smile coming to the brunette's lips. Aspen has exotic looking eyes that are a light violet color, a very unusual color for eyes that most probably have never seen before.

"I was really happy to get your call. You seem perfect for the job. I would have been happy for two people that combined have your skill set," Aspen says as she welcomes Katherine on board the Paradise Found. The boat is fitted out as a research vessel, with two cranes and various booms, scuba equipment and dive cages and a machine shop where parts and repairs can be made.

Katherine has posed:
Climbing up on to the gang plank, and walking onto the deck via the gang plank, Katherine walks with an easy step like she was born to ships. Scanning over the equipment, Katherine turns to look at Aspen, smiling largely, "Oh? Well, we should have a whale of a good time." Katherine stops for a moment, before she starts laughing, her face getting very full of expression, as she's shaking with laughter, enough that she has to put her hands on her thighs and hold herself up.

Then she takes in a deep breath, sighing, and standing upright again. Looking right at Aspen, she is just smiling again, and in a serious tone says, "Whaling is prohibited by international laws, with exceptions only being made in extreme cases for religious purposes." And she walks up to Aspen to stick out her hand in greeting, "Thank you for allowing me to accompany you on this trip. It is tragic that you were not allowed to keep your olympic medal, but I believe that the awards you have garnered in your... 72 article commentaries, 317 reviews, and multiple original scientific papers since then have more than made up for any reputation loss. There are many of your peers who are simply ignorant of your swimming career." Hand still out to be shaken.

Fathom has posed:
The joke gets both a small smile and a soft groan from Aspen. Aspen is just starting to reach for Katherine's hand when the display of encyclopedic knowledge of Aspen's athletic and academic careers is given. The brunette's hand pauses partway there in surprise. If the Olympic incident coming up is a shock, the count of her academic contributions - is it really 317 reviews Aspen wonders - at least serves a distraction from where the prod to those memories might otherwise have taken her thoughts.

Aspen completes the handshake. "Um, thank you," Aspen says mildly. Realizing some additional commentary seems appropriate, Aspen adds, "Nothing to do but keep going forward, right?" Aspen releases Katherine's hand and then turns towards the boat. "This is the Paradise Found. I've been outfitting her as a research vessel for the last two years. Pretty happy with where we're at. Come inside the main work room, I've got the paperwork there," Aspen says.

Someone so familiar with Aspen's background would know there is no record of her before the age of 11, when she was one of the passengers of a cruise ship, the Paradise, that went missing for ten years and then reappeared and sailed into port. Those aboard not realizing ten years had elapsed. She ended up getting adopted by a captain of a different vessel who had also been on the ship. The name of Aspen's ship likely a reference to that original Paradise cruise ship.

Katherine has posed:
With the hands clasping, Katherine's are clearly ones that have never been anything but pampered. Soft, no callouses, fresh as a newborn babies bottom. And she shakes the hand enthusiastically, smiling the entire time, and staring at Aspen. She then mentions, "No, no, thank you. It is not every day that I am allowed onto a boat." And she then finally releases the hand only when Aspen does.

"Going forward. Yes. Unless you are a positron..." Then she's looking around, "It will be nice to be on a vessel with such outdated technology." And she takes in a deep breath, before turning to follow Aspen. "While we are going along, would you mind if I work on the machines? I greatly enjoy classic machinery."

There's no even hint of insult in her tone, she's genuinely excited, and is moving along to go over the paperwork. "Do you have any questions for me? I understand there are regularly questions in these kinds of interactions. 93.56 percent of the time, those questions are continuation of the resume based questions, to see who the person is and how they might work within the group. You have nicely colored eyes." The last comment is said in the exact same tone, no change in pace, as she continues to move along. "The ship's name begs the question, why would you want to find a walled enclosure? Perhaps you are... agoraphobic?"

Fathom has posed:
Aspen leads Katherine into the first room of the superstructure. The ship has a tall bow, great for cutting through waves, and the wheelhouse and structure giving anyone on the large deck in back some amount of protection from waves and spray. Inside is a large room set up as the main work area. Computers ring the room, made waterproof as best as they can be. Monitors hang from the walls up near the ceiling to save space. A chart table has an LED display on the top. There are work benches and racks of equipment as well.

Aspen's eyes widen just a little bit more as she listens to Katherine, but she does not seem overly put off by any quirks she is noticing. Katherine probably is only sniffing at the top five oddest people Aspen has known in her Academic career.

Yes, we're looking at you, Dr. Spencer of the University of Washington. You know what you did.

But Dr. Spencer isn't here, and Katherine is. "You will not need to be on the boat for all of our data gathering trips, but some of them. So it will help if we get along. June, your junior programmer, doesn't have the science background you do, but seems to know her stuff. She's been cleaning up my own poorly written code that handles data collection from some of the sensors," Aspen says.

The comment about her eyes gets a soft smile. "Ah, thank you. I get a few comments about them," Aspen notes. She pauses to look around the vessel then. "There was a ship where my adopted father, the Paradise, back when I was 11," Aspen explains, not assuming Katherine knows the story. "It was on my mind when I was thinking of a name. Which led me to think of the book Paradise Lost. Which would be depressing for a ship. But hopefully I find happiness with this Paradise, so I thought Paradise Found more fitting," she explains.

Katherine has posed:
"Ah, post 6th century understanding of the word paradise, or to refer to a garden, later an expectation of heaven itself." Katherine comments as she continues to walk inside. These engineering and sciencey folks tend to be awkward anyhow. While she looks around, her mouth opens as she's about to say something, then she smiles again waiting, and then adds, "This June then can work on the coding platform that you have. It is good that she ..." A pause, and then, "Knows her stuff." And continuing along she walks easily, barefoot, unconcerned about what's on the ground or where she's walking.

"Alexandria's genesis." Tapping her lower lip, Katherine then continues on, "Paradise Found is a good take on a classic understanding of the tale. It invokes a sense of connection to a greater power than oneself, while also giving individual hope and accountability. You cannot find something, unless you are acting upon it."

After that she smiles, "Do you believe that money can buy happiness? Do you believe that happiness is found in sharing your life with just one person? Do you think that happiness comes from being attractive?" She must have a subscription to Cosmopolitan magazine, or something. "I am incapable of losing things, and have a perfect and flawless memory. It is a symptom of my condition." She waits a moment, before chuckling a bit, holding up a hand with an extended finger to indicate 'give me a moment' as she chuckles a bit more, "Oh, I..." Then she pauses, "I did not say the joke out loud. My apologies. I am an engineer. It's a bit of a nerd joke. My condition, as an engineer. Do you get it? I would be happy to explain."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen did seem to get lost partway through Katherine's questions and comments. "I have never found someone to share my life with. Only people that my friend Tyler ended up giving nicknames like Jerky McJerk-Face. I seem to be a magnet when it comes to that," Aspen replies with a shake of her head. "As for the rest, no, having enough money to open up options is nice, but it's not happiness. All I really need is a shack by the ocean and a chance to swim and surf and I'm probably probably pretty happy. Though I do enjoy marine science too."

Aspen gives a wave at first to indicate she doesn't need the joke explained, but then seems to think twice of it. She may be at sea with Katherine for awhile, the more she understands of the quirky woman, the better. "Please, if you don't mind," Aspen says of the explanation.

Katherine has posed:
"Jerky McJerk-Face..." Katherine reaches up again and taps her lower lip, eyes staring off in a distance, "Oh!" Katherine starts laughing a bit more, her eyes bright and wide open, "Of course. Yes, I understand it now. The repetition is to convey extra jerkyness, and the Mc portion is derived partially because it is funny, there is also a long tradition of racial bias against the Irish, even though Mc, from Mac, is mostly a Scottish derivation that was given to Irish who came over to the scott's side while they were really the English." A slight tilt of her head, and she sighs, "That mystery is solved."

Then there's waiting, a moment, a bit of awkward silence before Katherine, blinks a few times, "You, yes, wanted me to explain. Understood. Engineers, are rather nerdy and remarkably smart individuals. We are constantly attempting to make jokes about how intelligent we are, often that comes from a low self-esteem, as most engineers are not very attractive. And, even myself, despite being remarkably attractive according to my online profile, I still have yet to ever have more than a single date. I often get deleted after the fact, and I do not understand why. I am funny, attractive, intelligent, and have an accuracy of my fashion choices within the top 3 percentile of anyone else that I can find on the internet."

She is still smiling, despite the topic of the conversation, and then she goes back to Engineers, "Engineers, since they have low self esteems, often make jokes about that put them in a good light, that are often considered arrogant styled jokes, and sometimes over other people's heads. At which point, the joke fails, and we, as engineers, explain, which of course ruins the joke. Which is exactly what an engineer does... someone has a dream to say fly, and we comment about how they will never fly it is merely an act of being flung by a propulsion system of some kind. Or they are being carried, by a plane, suit or alien spaceship. Was my explanation satisfactory? Or would you like me to attempt it again?"

Fathom has posed:
That still doesn't move Katherine into the top five. But Aspen comes away from the explanation with a soft smile. "I like you Katherine. I think we'll get along fine," Aspen tells the other woman. "I hope you get along well with June as well. She swears a lot. If that is an issue for you let me know. Otherwise it doesn't bother me. Bruce, who is going to be working on deck, seems mostly easy going."

Thankfully. Because they wouldn't like him when he's angry. That joke is never going to get old. Or if it does, Katherine can explain it.

Aspen takes a few minutes to show Katherine the computers. They are of decent quality for academic research. "We also have Cloud access. Cranston has funded us extremely well, so if you need more computing resources, we can get them. Though I don't mean to use up money just to use it up. We want to be timely on our results, but I don't mean to run their budget up higher than is warranted for what they are asking," Aspen says.

She then pulls out the contracts. Pretty basic stuff if Katherine reads it over. Salary, what the expectations are for her performance, legal coverage, that she understands the possible dangers of going to sea. The usual one would expect. "If you'd like to have a lawyer look that over, feel free," Aspen says. There's also a non-disclosure clause on the data and results. "The data is probably going to be largely released to academia, those parts which won't give away the competitive advantage that Cranston may decide they want to hang onto. But we'll get all sorts of data that is useful for much more than current studies."

Katherine has posed:
Pulling up a pen, and reading through the documents, her eyes move rather quickly left to right, and she's flipping through the legal wording rather briskly. "I do not require a lawyer. I am a certified legal expert, and have passed the bar exam in every nation that has an equivalent." She remarks, and continues reading the documentation, as she goes she settles the contracts onto some kind of hard surface so she can start crossing things out and making corrections.

Of note, she removes the salary amount, crossing it out and writing in 'room and board', and then she adds to some of the listed dangers of going to sea, but signs that portion anyhow. The NDA is pulled up and she reads through that, "You have limited protections with this Non-Disclosure agreement, though I am of no risk. I will not release any information to anyone else that is not released prior. I am here to understand variations in wave dynamics when compared to deep earth seismic activity, and anything else that I can discover along the way. It is very difficult to get an understanding of the ocean from the internet."

No truer statement has likely ever been spoken. And she continues to go through the contract until she signs everything. She initializes next to all of the changes and dates them. Her signature is just 'Katherine'. She's like Madonna that way, even when doing her resume her fullname is Katherine. And it seems to have all passed muster, people get their legal names changed to all sorts of things. "I refuse to be paid more than a place to stay and sleep. Knowledge is the only currency that matters to me. Do not worry, I will work hard and adapt to sea life incredibly well. Should I bring a bikini? Every movie I have access to indicates that would be appropriate attire to have along."

Fathom has posed:
"Whatever clothing you would find most comfortable," Aspen says. "I'm prone to them myself, so maybe there's some truth to the movies," the young woman says. And indeed, Katherine can probably even detect that there is a bathing suit being worn beneath Aspen's other clothing.

Don't blame her for how she dresses. She's just drawn that way.

"I do think it would probably fit in a bit more than your current top would," Aspen adds. "You may be popular with Bruce in that. Or in a bikini. Not that... oh I didn't mean he's a gawker. Just that he's the only guy on the team."

Aspen motions towards the next room. "Kitchen is in there. And beds and bathroom off to the right. Wheelhouse upstairs, engine room downstairs. I'm getting a new fuel pump installed before we leave, so there's time if you need to pick up anything. If there's any particular food or beverages you prefer, let me know and we'll pick some up." Aspen would have already checked for food allergies or specialty diets or the like when they first spoke, and accounted for it. "Any questions about any of it? We have a bunch of safety briefings to go through, but that'll take up a few hours so let's get anything else out of the way first."

Katherine has posed:
"I am currently dressed for success." Katherine mentions as she looks down at her attire, "This is what I was able to discern would be acceptable business clothing. My make up was created and designed by comparing hundreds of online how-to videos, matching my skin tone and complexion, and then finding the correct shades and tones, before making the change." Katherine seems to be just 'letting you know' as she doesn't really have a questioning tone or anything in there.

"I will have to spend a little bit looking online to determine the best bikini available for my particular proportions." And then she's looking around the ship as you indicate directions to places and Katherine nods her head. "If Bruce ends up being a gawker, that is fine. I do not mind. And I do not have any food preferences. I enjoy many things. Cookies, Hot Chocolate, Cake, Pie, Sandwiches, Pizza, jalapenos, olives - greek and black, green bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, red bell peppers..." She will continue unless Aspen derails her.

Fathom has posed:
Aspen will let Katherine go for a little while. Until she realizes that she seems to just keep going. It's almost like listening to Bubba go through the different sorts of shrimp. Minus the mention of shrimp. Oh wait, there it was.

"Don't have any shrimp cocktails to take with us," Aspen interjects, cutting Katherine off. "But we will do some fishing while we're at sea. Not that we'd be likely to get many shrimp but could take a net to cast if you like. But fresh fish is a nice addition to all of the boxed and frozen stuff."

Aspen smiles to Katherine and moves over to lean against one of the desks that is bolted to the floor. "So, welcome aboard the crew. Do you have any questions for me? About the research we're doing or... you know, some percentage of interviewees ask questions to get to know the environment or people they'll be working with. I'm sure. Though I don't know what percentage that would be."

Katherine has posed:
As Katherine is stopped with a mention of shrimp, she quiets and waits. Nodding her head to Aspen to understand the predicament with regards to food. "I do not eat much, I will be fine with whatever there is to eat. I enjoy the sensation of food being crushed by my teeth, and spread out across my taste buds." And then she thinks, tapping her lower lip for a few moments. "Thank you. No, I do not have any questions. I have found a great deal of information about you and your past online already, and it will all be rather exciting to be out in the middle of the water and gaining new knowledge of things that will only be deciphered and put to use years from now."

Tilting her head though, she offers, "It is suggested, by recruiters, to have questions prepared or to ask some questions while present. I have already done this and learned a great deal of information with the answers. Thank you. If you have no more requirement of me, then I will go. If you wish to have a 'girls night out' where we talk less formally, I am happy to do so as well. I enjoy playing games that require interaction. I am working on lying. So, poker, or Go Fish, are of particular interest to me."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen smiles back to Katherine. "I think maybe we could do a girl's night out before we leave for the first trip. Or a crew's night out, I don't know that we need to exclude Bruce. Poker would be fine, I'm not the best but I'll play, if the others like it. Or we could go hit a club or something. I'm not the biggest party girl by any means, but I don't mind going out dancing or having a few drinks now and then. Speaking of which, I don't mind if you have beer while you work, just keep it down to a level that won't affect your work."

Aspen moves over to Katherine and offers her hand. "Welcome to the Paradise Found. I hope it turns out to be a great experience for both of us," the violet-eyed young woman tells Katherine.

Katherine has posed:
"Crew night's out. I have read that many friendships begin with social events that celebrate the togetherness." Katherine starts off and then nods her head a few times, "I do not drink much. I consume mostly hot chocolate, water, and sometimes coffee. I have had soda, the bubbly sensation is fun. Though I do not drink alcohol, which is what your wording seems to indicate, though too much coffee could also impact crew duties, and if I were always making hot chocolate..." She pauses and then takes the hand and shakes it again. "It will be. Thank you. I will go and design a bikini now. It will be important to have appropriate attire." And she turns to start leaving the boat.