Cathrin's commute from the 'north side' to The Loop is a different experience.  The L-Train is packed, and nobody is talking.  Everyone is involved in their own world; a few papers, headphones everywhere, and some sleep.  The trip isn't long, but it is bumpy.  If you hand not hung on, you would have been in somebody's face quickly.

At the security desk, you get a picture ID, a prox card, a sheet with a floor/office number with who you meet next, and simple instructions to not attempt to enter areas you are not authorized to enter.  An escort to the elevator gets you to the 19th floor.  Your met by the Floor Manager and shown to an office.  Your login and password are on the desk in an envelope.

At 9 AM, you have your first team meeting in the conference room on 27.  A teammate goes with you and makes small talk until you enter a large room with multiple screens, a large table and conference hardware.  The room has about 10 people, but it immediately quiets down when Ms. Rousseau (the VP of Public Relations and de facto head of Marketing...and her name is on all the business cards) enters.

[OOC]
I'll let you take it from here.

The commute doesn't help in improving Cathrins mood. Not that she's in a bad one, but there's certainly some nervousness.

Cathrin uses the time until the meeting to set up everything at her desk, as far as possible.

She enjoys the smalltalk on the way to the meeting room and takes her time to glance around, to get a feel of the people present. When Ms. Rousseau enters her attention turns certainly towards her. Obviously curious.

Approximately five minutes before the meeting, Rei comes walking in. She wears a crisp dark blazer over a white blouse, dark skirt, and pair of black Jimmy Choo pumps with an apparent designer bag hanging from her right shoulder. She takes a seat to the right of the head of the table and takes a notepad and pen from her bag which she sets before her. She then engages in pleasantries with those she is familiar with before the meeting begins. She also notes at least one new face at the gathering.

Cathrin wears a grey blazer over a white blouse, dark grey pants and flat black shoes. Her brown hair is tied back to a ponytail. While she's obviously the new one here, she appears to be relatively relaxed.
There's a notepad and a pen lying on the table in front of her.

The room is full of people and there is a lot of side-talk, until Ms. Rouseau enters.  Then things settle down quickly.

A woman stands up and starts the meeting, "There are copies of the agenda in the middle of the table for those that don't have one.  We have a full meeting today, so please lets get started.  First, I would like to welcome Ms. Cathrin Helmholtz, all the way from Germany, and she is out new music director.  Welcome."

That is followed by applause.

At the announcement, Rei gives a smiling nod along with her applause. She says, "Welcome aboard, Ms. Helmholtz."

She then takes out an iPad and opens up the document with the agenda for the meeting.

Cathrin nods to the woman who introduced her with a smile, extending it to Ms. Rousseau after the applause.
"Thank you. Looking forward to working with you." She makes it sound as if she really means it, not just a phrase, including all people present in the room.

For now quite content with having someone else leading the meeting, she looks down at her notepad, then glances around to see who is next to speak up.

The meeting is far reaching and takes about an hour.  The each item is presented by a different person.  The meeting organizer runs the meeting like a military operation.  The agenda covers;
two news releases for new products (items scheduled for Facebook, various paid content releases in the second tier news outlets, and an announcement for the corporate web site that will be multi-media),
a news release in Quebec on a partnership (French and English),
two magazine marketing programs,
an update on philanthropic programs in West Africa (with information that will be needed for press releases),
and the arrest of a plant working in North Caroline for theft (currently un-addressed as it just happened a day ago).

"I know these items will be new to you Ms. Helmholtz, but we'll need you in all the meetings for the product releases immediately and you should have the information on the meetings and the mock-up materials in your Teams site already.  There has also been a request from HR to start to review the new employee welcome video and training materials as both have some audio.  The training materials are tedious, but short from an audio standpoint.  They have not requested a formal meeting or engaged my PMO office yet."

Quite a lot to take in for the first meeting on the first day. But also really interesting. Cathrin makes some notes during the meeting.

"I'll be there. And take a first look into the training materials." Being a new employee that makes sense, anyway. "Do you want me to talk to HR about the training material or do they have to make a request first?" Not knowing the standard procedures in here, yet, it seems better to ask.

Rei makes note of the arrest in North Carolina to check up on it later.
The rest she will review after the meeting to see if any adjustments or suggestions are needed.

She notes Ms. Helmholtz asking questions. A good sign.

"They have not engaged with the PMO, so we need to wait for the official request.  I'm betting we will assign a PM and your team only to the project, but we'll know more when they get us the level 0 review first.  You are welcome to start your review at any time.  Please keep track of your time as it would go against the project."

Cathrin nods. "Of course."
Right now there's nothing more she wants to ask, at least not while it's still the official meeting. She glances over to Ms. Rousseau for a short moment and then turns her attention back to the woman who is leading the meeting.

Rei maintains her laissez-faire demeanor.

The meeting goes on for about an hour.  There are other topics discusses (an update on some marketing research on one drug in France for instance), but that is all that falls into your area.  Immediately after the meeting ends, you welcomed by a handful of people and end up with at least five business cards.

[OOT]
Pausing here any character interaction.

[IC]
The remainder of the day is paperwork for HR, a short technology overview of do/don't security, a quick show-n-tell on the coffee machine, and time in your office to get things setup.  There is a company mug with pens, pencils, stylist and a welcome card on your desk when you get back to your office.  There is a virtual meeting tomorrow morning with the team.

After the meeting, Rei packs her pad, pen, and iPad into her designer bag of the moment. She then approaches Cathrin, "Bonjour, Ms. Helmholtz. I will be hearing all of your work for us when I do my personal reviews. From what I have heard of your works, I expect good things."

While Cathrin had only the pad with her notes to take with her, she wasn't in a hurry to leave, letting others file out of the room before her.
Noting Ms. Rousseau walking towards her Cathrin turns to her with a smile. "Glad to meet you, Ms. Rousseau. And thank you. I'll do my best."

For a moment it seems as if Cathrin is about to add something, but then just keeps quiet.

Rei then says, "I will be taking lunch at noon. Please join me."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:39, Fri 02 July 2021.

A bit surprised at the invitation Cathrin nods with a smile. "Gladly."



OOC:
Though it is a bit early for lunch now, unless the meeting lasted longer than an hour.

[OOC: Either the meeting was 1 hour which was repeated, or it was 2 hours.]

[OOC: I thought it was repeated, but I can be mistaken.]

[OOC: So it is 10 or 11 AM after the meeting? I need to know whether to amend my above invite for lunch for an hour to two later.]

[OOC]
Meeting ran like clockwork.  Right about an hour....

[OOC: I have edited the lunch invite above.]

OOC: Cathrins answer stays the same. The only difference is that she has the time to get settled in a bit before Lunch.

Rei arranges for a car to take herself, Hiromi, and Cathrin to lunch. As it is Monday, Mariposa is out, so Rei decides on Chicago Lunchbox.

Cathrin is at the meeting point in time - a bit early to be precise. If she's nervous, she manages not to show.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:32, Thu 08 July 2021.

As Rei never told Cathrin where to be, she locates her and asks, "Ready for lunch?"

As they walk down to the garage, they meet with Rei's younger sister Hiromi. Rei introduces her, "Hiromi, this is Cathrin Helmholtz, our new Musical Director."

To Cathrin she says, "This is my sister Hiromi. She's a student at Northwestern and my personal assistant."

Once at the garage, a sedan is ready with the driver. Hiromi sits up front with the driver while Rei takes the passenger side rear seat.

[IC]
Cathrin looks up from her notepad, smiles and stands up. "Sure." She puts the notepad into a drawer of her desk and is ready to go.

Upon meeting Hiromi Cathrin nods in greeting with a smile. She waits until Rei has introduced her and says:"Nice to meet you."

There's obviously the drivers side rear seat left for her, so Cathrin takes that place.


[OOC]
Sorry, made an assumption there

[OOC: That was the only seat left. It allows Hiromi to talk to Cathrin over her shoulder as you're sitting next to Rei.
I'll let our GM have a chance to add anything Hiromi wants to the conversation.]

[OOC] The assumption was about a meeting point earlier. Seat is fine.

Hiromi nods, smiles and offers her hand.  "The new music director.  Good.  We've been talking about that for a while.  I'm glad it all finally came together.  Your accent...not from Chicago I guess?"

Cathrin takes the offered hand for a handshake. She chuckles. "Glad to be here. And you're right about the accent, that's certainly not from here. I'm from Germany."

Rei says to the driver, "Chicago Lunchbox, Simon."

Rei then asks Cathrin, "How are you settling in here in Chicago?"

"Quite good", she answers. "It's vastly different, but interesting."

Rei nods, "Yes. The culture shock of America is something."

"I suppose it's similar when moving from France to America?" Cathrin says with a slight smile.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 08:20, Fri 09 July 2021.

[OOC: We paused our exchange in case Hiromi would want to chime in.]

[OOC]
Sorry.  Didn't want to interrupt, but I should just jump in.  I will from now on.

[IC]
Hiromi scoffs, "The physical move wasn't bad, remember how mom reacted to us moving here.  We still get warnings from Dad and Mom about guns and criminals.  'You're by yourselves.  Don't stay out late.' Yet in France, we would walk in at 2 AM after an event and neither of them would make a fuss.  I mean, yeah...things are different, but I guess they make more out of it than we do."

Rei smiles, "There are vast differences. The way American businesses treat their employees is abhorrent. We follow the norms of France as often as we can."

Then Rei says, "Mother tried to convince us to move to Tokyo to the Roussea Asia offices, but I refused. I wanted to go somewhere not France or Japan. Hiromi being able to attend Northwestern for a medical degree was what I used to convince them we would be fine here."

Cathrin can't help but grin at Hiromis words. Parents!

"Good to know", she replies to Rei with a smile.

"Is it really that bad? I got the impression that it's less safe in certain parts of the city than I am used to. But I've got no real experience, yet."

Rei shakes her head, "Chicago is no different than any other major city in the world. There are less than savory places within it just as there are in Paris or Tokyo."

"So it was just bad luck to arrive in Chicago basically in the middle of a fight or pursuit between metas", Cathrin says with a wry smile. "Good to know."


OOC:
Assuming "Meta" is no negative term but the standard word for, well, metas. Otherwise Cathrin would have used something else.

Also, I assumed there are not as many (known) metas in Hamburg?

Rei asks, "You arrived during the running fight between Interceptor-X and Diablo and Ghost I joined in on?"

Cathrin nods slowly. "It was in the news when I was on my way from the airport. Interceptor-X was mentioned. You were involved, too?" The way she is asking it's pure curiosity, not a hint of disbelief.

Rei nods, "I knocked out Diablo and disabled the boat and crew that was to be the escape for Ghost and Diablo. Interceptor-X then dealt with Ghost. Shortly after, they were taken into custody by the Chicago Police and the ACTPE."

"Nice!" Cathrin seems to be impressed. "I just hope they will be kept somewhere where they can't cause trouble for a while."

"What did they want, by the way, if I might ask? Are they just some troublemakers?" 'Or is there something more' hangs in the air, unspoken. There might be metas who just use their powers for doing 'mischief', but two of them working together just for that sounds unlikely, somehow.

Rei replies, "ACTPE took Diablo and Ghost and the Nazi relics and documents stolen were taken by the Chicago Police. My guess is that they were hired to steal them, but I have no idea for who or why."

"Nazi relics?" Cathrin frowns. "Maybe some crazy collector of such stuff", she muses and shrugs. There are still people believing that these times were good ones for some reason after all. "There are people paying a good deal of money for some of the old stuff, as far as I know."

Rei shrugs, "That is for the police to investigate."

Cathrin nods. Nothing more to add there.

"In your experience... are there more metas over here, in Chicago, as there are in, for example, Paris? I certainly can't remember a chase like that one happening over in Hamburg. Not in the news at least." Cathrin hesitates, then adds apologetically: "I'm sorry. Sometimes I'm just asking too many questions."

"There are definitely more superhumans here in the United States. There should be more in China, but this is where supers seem to have originated in greater numbers than any other nation. I have no idea why."

"Interesting." Cathrin leans back in her seat for a moment. It seems as if Chicago is even more different, and interesting, than she thought at first.

In reply to Dichlan (msg # 42):

[OOC]
"Metas", "super human", "the enhanced"...I've used at one time or another.  None are necessarily negative.  But we all know people that have say, "You Americans..." and we know that somehow they spelled 'American' with four letters.

The term "mutant" really isn't used, although there are mutants.  Doesn't mean that it won't change.  "Muties" I think I did use (maybe not in this game thus far...thinking...focus has not been on that) and that is negative for sure.

Having said all that...homophobic, transphobic, racist, and all other variations exist, but I'll never make it about the words (or try not to).  It can come out in the game, as long as we don't dwell on it and keep it up.

As to Hamburg, there are metas and you can generally figure that the number is a ratio to the population to any given area.  The ratio has never been established, but it is known (in the game) China has the largest number of metas, as that is proportional to population (India is not far behind).  Larger countries (tending to have more resources) will have a high ratio (Russia, US, EU in general, etc.) but still lessor number than China (more idle rich, more government experimentation, etc.).

Also remember a meta can run the gambit from being able to see things in slow motion (make a really good umpire...one of my all time favorite comics) to Superman.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:42, Tue 13 July 2021.

[OOC] Thanks!
And of course Cathrin didn't make it sound like an insult ;)
By the way, furniture makes good swear words for kids. Try "Klappstuhl" or "Chaiselounge" ;)

Maybe there weren't so many of the obvious ones, at least not active in a way Cathrin has noticed.

[OOC: In my own supers setting, population determines the number of superhumans, but most are relatively low powered with enhanced physical attributes the most common.
While China and India have a greater number of superhumans (with no hard numbers on supers in some nations like China and Russia), the U.S. has the highest number of extremely powerful superhumans with no known explanation in universe.
Several people and organizations have their own explanations that amazingly fit their own particular ideologies.
Funny how that works.]

Hiromi adds, "We had a conversation in class once and as far as anything authorities have seen, radioactivity/chemical exposure is a factor, but it can be just as detrimental as beneficial.  'Guided' exposure tends to create more beneficial changes."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:07, Tue 13 July 2021.

"Of course there have been experiments", Cathrin says with a slight frown.


OOC:
And now I wonder how German history books would talk of Blitzen and Comet :-D

Rei sighs, "At one point or another, every nation has attempted to create a super soldier. Anything can be weaponized with enough twisted imagination."

Cathrin nods. There is not much to add to that. At least if the conversation isn't supposed to delve into even darker territory.

Upon arrival, Rei tell the driver, "Take your lunch, Simon. Be back in two hours, please."

Once inside, Rei orders both appetizers, Fire Rangoon and Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls, The Viet noodle box, and an Orange Bang to drink.

Once at a table she asks, "Was it difficult for you to find a place here, Cathrin?"

In reply to Mindstrike (msg # 58):

"Captain America is hot," Hiromi says in a sing-song voice.

Cathrin orders the Crispy Chicken Spring Rolls, The Beefy Korean rice box, and a Tanny’s Thai Tea to drink.

"Not really difficult, no. Knowing where to look for affordable places beforehand was of big help, though." Just like in every town.

Rei seems a bit surprised, "You have family or friends here in Chicago?"

"My sister and her family live here", Cathrin says.

Rei smiles, "That's wonderful. Definitely gives you an advantage over when Hiromi and I arrived."

She then says, "We had no problem finding a place to live though."

"There are a lot of nice places. As a musician there are certain things a landlord should be willing to accept, though." Cathrin grins. "Practicing playing the fiddle can be annoying at points."

Rei raises an eyebrow, "Fiddle? As in Fiddler on the Roof? Are you not a classically trained violinist?"

Cathrin shrugs and smiles. "Classical training doesn't prevent one from trying different things with the instrument of choice. Fiddle and violin are not that different. I can play both, both ways."

Rei smiles, "Other than Tevye, I can't name any other fiddlers. I can name violinists such as Pierre Baillot, Mozart, Regina Strinasacchi, Strauss and his son, and Vanessa-Mae."

She then laughs, "Of course, all of them pale in comparison to the genius of Jack Benny, Larry Fine, and Henny Youngman."

"That's quite a list of violinists", Cathrin says with a smile. "As for fiddlers, I'd add John Sheahan and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. There are several less famous but also really good ones, though."

"I have to say, there are a lot of fiddle players in Chicago as it goes with the many Irish folk groups.  We saw a few at Reilly's Daughter a year back or so."

"Oh? I think that's something I'd have to take a look at, then. So far I've found an interesting place where a Mariachi band plays on a regular basis."

"Mariachi band? That sounds interesting."

"They're playing at Xaviers taqueria in Pilsen every friday."

Rei looks to Hiromi, "We'll have to come watch them sometime. Maybe bring mother if she ever decides to visit."

Hiromi just nods, "Big if...."

Rei shrugs, "If a significant art exhibit comes to the area, we might use that to entice her to come."

"True.  The Art Institute does have events.  I'll see what looks like something that would attract her for a weekend.  NO LONGER though...."  She laughs a little.

Rei's voice drips with sarcasm, "We're such daddy's girls."

Cathrin has to hide a grin at that.

[OOC: Looks like a good place to let this thread end unless anyone has anything else to add.]

OOC: I agree

[OOC]
No objections.

A new Jinniyah/Mindstrike thread?

{OOC: Jinniyah wants to just keep it in her thread, so that looks to be what we will do.]
This message was last edited by the player at 13:06, Fri 23 July 2021.

(ooc)
Just whatever is easiest. If this thread is finished, I do not mind here, there, or a new thread. It just seemed that since it is likely to be a very short encounter, a thread with only a very few posts would be just clutter. But honestly, whatever the DM and you prefer is fine with me.

[OOC: I can stretch out things sometimes, and Rei's job is to be a people person, but I'll leave it to you. I fed Bob an easy way to start the encounter, but it could go many places from there.]