08 / 11 / 11 - Jean-Paul, Ritter
=LG= Downtown - Los Gatos - California
Downtown Los Gatos is the typical eclectic mountain-town-turned-visitor-attraction. Trendy shops sit next door to those featuring local artisans and antiques. Mom and Pop knick-knack stores and cafes depend on the weekend recreationists, while more upscale restaurants and bars attract the local residents.
It's /field trip time/ at the Art Museum of Los Gatos, with one or another prodigiously overfunded summer programs taking their precociously oversugared tykes to learn about le arts. It might not be a great crowd for Ritter to blend into, but it's certainly a /distraction/. Jean-Paul sets Ritter to the task of stalking one kid in particular and then sits back to wait for someone to arrest him as a pedophile, or else the successful completion of his certification. Either/or.
It's probably not even a very good museum. The kind where it's mostly a bunch of local artists and then a few mediocre pieces by famous dead white guys. You know, just enough to be pretentious about. But hey, at least people are learning to ~appreciate~ art. Having been given the suggestion of /toning down/ what he normally wears multiple times if he really wants to fit in, Iago looks pretty boringly regular in jeans and a plain shirt (as well as inhibitor in one ear to keep him from doing anything cheaty). At least the nice thing about an art museum is that you have plenty of little descriptions and tags to pretend to read while inappropriately stalking small children. The downside being that children don't tend to stay still for very long in one place. So long as he avoids trying to offer any kids candy, he probably won't be arrested, right?
It's pretty damn local. Jean-Paul strolls along, evidencing a surprising curiosity for local artists, and keeps an eye on Ritter and his shenanigans. By the time the tour ends, Ritter has earned a bit of attention from the children in general as well as a glance or two from the adults forced to ride herd on the mob, but his particular target (and his target's attendant guardians) have not noticed anything particularly out of the ordinary. Waiting for Ritter to exit, Jean-Paul looks at post cards.
My those are some amazing local artists. Some of these things you could just stare at for awhile...pretending not to notice any glances thrown in your direction. Nothing to see here! (Although not /literally/ nothing to see.) Eventually, Iago strolls over towards the post-cards and somewhat obnoxiously comments as he looks over shoulders, "That picture has completely different colors than the real thing."
"Badly reproduced mediocre art? Say it isn't so." Straightening, Jean-Paul gives Ritter a glance over his shoulder, marks the inhibitor, and nods a direction out and away from the building. Bye, tykes! "Looks like you can pass the tailing portion, anyway, and you scraped together enough normal-looking clothing to blend in."
"I wish I could," Iago says with an exaggerated sigh. Woe is bad postcards. He leaves it at that, though, tucking his hands his in pockets and following the direction of Jean-Paul's nod out and away -- possibly to the relief of some parent. Byebye! "Thank you. I...will admit that was a bit of a surprise tail. Get a lot of tiny criminals, huh?" He glances down at his clothing with a wry twist of his lips. "Yeah. Excruciatingly painful as it was." He's probably kidding.
"The idea of basic stealth is that you are generally following someone who isn't expecting it," Jean-Paul says. He folds his hands at the small of his back. "But with children, there's a slightly higher level of watchful protectiveness than you will get from an adult shopper. Better test," he says, because 'better' means 'harder'. "Your mutation will give you a strong advantage, of course, when you're in the field."
Does Jean-Paul make a distinction between difficulty and challenge? "True, although I'd argue that it also depends on the parents. Less so, I suppose, with something reasonably contained, but...," Iago trails off with a lopsided shrug. Some parents just let kids do whatever they want. Like touch priceless artwork. Or mediocre artwork in this case. "Yeah. It's already been useful a few times."
YES, YES HE DOES. HE DOESN'T MAKE USER INTERFACE A PAIN IN THE ASS AND CALL IT BETTER. ...no, wait, yes he does. But -- never mind. "Of course," Jean-Paul says with the faint touch of a snort to his breath. "You've done well--" And he better not be wrong. "--in cover and blind spot exercises, as well. How comfortable are you at this level?"
Maybe that's why Carpenter is failed him on QA. Ohhh. "Comfortable?" Don't worry, Jean-Paul. No one would call you wrong. Oh wait. "Hell of a lot more comfortable than I was, say, the last time I tried to tail someone or sneak into someplace I wasn't supposed to be in," Iago says, though he scrubs his jaw thoughtfully. "I'd be lying if I said I missed my, ah, security blanket wearing this headpiece, but...Well, I shouldn't rely on it."
"You shouldn't rely on it, but you should make use of it," Jean-Paul says, firm, although perhaps contradictory given his emphasis on learning without it. "You should keep in mind your limitations, however, particularly where higher security areas or alert targets are concerned. There's a certain amount of throw what you can at it in the field, I know. I've been there. But be smart about what you can do. Don't get cocky."
Only a little contradictory. Learning to do without doesn't mean not learning to use mutations too. "Yeah, I get that," Iago says with a simple understanding. He's never whined (except maybe in jest) at not getting to use his mutation in tests. Glancing at Jean-Paul sidelong he nods seriously. "People get hurt when I get cocky."
Returning the sidelong glance, Jean-Paul takes a moment's measure of that serious expression before lifting his chin. "Hurt's just the beginning. You're better suited to stealth than a lot of the people who will be training it now, but don't let this push you into something better handled by someone with more covert training. Understood?"
"Yeah, well." Iago doesn't have much more than that to hurt just being the beginning. Still, he nods his head in agreement. "Yeah, you've got a lot of people on your hands that never had any intention of training it, so...Good luck with that." He's all sympathy, really. "And yes, understood," he adds, serious again.
Jean-Paul gives him a sort of resigned look, a really encouraging 'look at what kind of foolishness I have to swallow' look, and then says, "I'll shuffle the papers to put you down as certified, then, and make room on the schedule for some of the more hopeless cases. You'll be expected to maintain the certification, of course. I'll be retesting this one with particular attention, so don't neglect it."
Iago doesn't do so far as to pat-pat Jean-Paul on the shoulder, but maybe something of the thought can be read in his expression. "Alright. Yeah, as with all things...maintenance. There isn't as nice a saying about that like 'practice makes perfect' is there?" He shakes his head. Nevermind. "No neglecting, yeah."
"Maintenance makes...." No, Jean-Paul has nothing. He shakes his head, too. "Anyway, you have the right attitude. If you have questions, ask. /Do/ you have questions?" he adds with a glance, settling back on his heels.
"...Monotonous? That's not very encouraging." Ok, Iago has nothing either. "Hmmm." He mulls over questions. "Anything I could have done better to avoid a little bit of the attention I did get a couple times?"
Jean-Paul lists off a few suggestions, only maybe one condescending in its blatancy, while generally -- without saying it -- implying that Ritter did pretty good. "Like I told Zaza earlier, mostly it is a matter of awareness." He shrugs. "Anything else? Otherwise I'm going to take the shortcut back."
Well, if only /one/ suggestion is condescending, that's not so bad. "Right," Iago replies, drawing out the word and then huffs a short laugh. "Now who's cheating? Nah, go ahead and shortcut. Thanks again." He waves, though it looks an awful lot like a shooing motion.
Cutting short an aggressive bristle, Jean-Paul says, "Enjoy the long way. Try not to fuck up." He is super encouraging. He should give motivational speeches.
Everyone would be super motivated. "I will. Plenty of stuff to see the long way," Iago counters with a lopsided. He doesn't comment out loud fucking up, just smiles a might smugly and starts walking. Bye-bye!
BYE BYE.
B. stealth b. stealth b. stealth