1964-10-03 - The Visit
Summary: Vesper finds excitement at the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Kamala and Karnak worry about caste.
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
karnak vesper kamala 


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NYU isn't one building but several. The gaggle of science classrooms and labs occupy numerous structures around the expansive green of Washington Square Park. Vesper has to dash out of the biology building and full across the corner of the park for the fastest route to the chemistry wing. What's worth running over? The Nobel Prize in chemistry. She knows who won it.

Just happens that was her coworker and mentor for a while. The paper in her hand is crumpled. The petite French girl is hardly ever seen running. Mostly as it's faster to take another route she prefers to take advantage of that. But still… See her go!


Despite the fact that she's a newly powered Inhuman. Forget that she's got a robust homelife that she's dealing with. Even setting aside the fact that she and Hope are quickly becoming best friends forever. Even if Hope bails on her and returns to the future, boo. Despite all of these other things…

Kamala Khan is still a straight A student at NYU in her freshman year. Coming out of her chemistry class, she's got her books clutched to her chest as her glasses are perched on her nose. A cream covered sweater is teamed with a red ankle-length panel skirt, a pair of white tennis shoes beneath and a scarf around her neck complete the look as she's preparing to go between classes before the young woman is nearly barreled over by Vesper's running by.

"…what's going on?" The girl recognizes her fellow Inhuman, but knows she's a professor on campus. But she's running! That could mean danger. Danger means action. Action means.. Miss Marvel should be ready! The brunette moves to try to catch up to Vesper to try to find out what's going on.


Karnak, meanwhile, is walking calmly through the campus, as she's taken some lessons from the rest of the Royal Family in being more 'covert'. Her facial markings are still distinctive, but now she's dressed in a white blouse and green skirt that look almost flattering. Until one sees the rather grim expression on her face that makes most people not give her a second look. She arches a brow at Vesper's running and Kamala's chasing, and calmly switches her course, not running so much as angling to intercept the pair without changing her own speed.


The Gallic researcher darts through the grass at the speeds of a bounding fawn. It wouldn't do to be a deer's speed though she can easily reach that. Too many questions. Too many people hijacking her lab and its precious research. Her sunglasses wouldn't stay on at a full run and then they'd see she hasn't soft brown eyes at all. The halos of electric blue angels ring pupils crackling to orbiting plasma.

Kamala stands out in her red. Almost not stopping, Vesper stops. A skid on the grass halts her. "News from Stockholm." She waves the paper. "Dorothy won!" That alone should keep her pleased. Her face is a bit distant, turned upwards. Not that she misses Karnak, no. "Mademoiselles. Good morning. I doubt anyone knows the committee's choice yet. I caught it in all the babble." Her frown is set ever so slightly. "Hard to understand. It's noisy out there today."


"Is it the Avengers? Are they in trouble? Are aliens invading? Did the statues in the water come to life and start marching and I have to destroy the stone version of myself?!" Kamala is starting excitedly, all ready for a mission. And then Vesper has to burst her bubble with her own exciting news. The girl looks crestfallen for a moment. "Oh." she says, and then grins anew. "A friend of yours won? That is good news!" she offers cheerfully.

But then she feels a disturbance in the force - and it's in a skirt. Kamala is pretty sure she's in trouble after storming out of the lighthouse the other night because Triton was all 'know your role' and she's all 'no, I'm a teen, nyeh!' thing that she pulled, before blinking. "Oh, so you're delivering the news. That's cool." Sorta lame. But cool. But the nerdy girl can appreciate that.


Karnak blinks. "Delivering the news? What news?" She looks rather nonplussed for a moment, then looks over at Vesper, "I understand that is important in this society. Congratulations." She then looks back at Kamala, focusing more on her as she adds, with a bit of an edge in her voice. Not that she's necessarily angry, but more that she knows that's how to poke Kamala into providing the required information, "What. News?"


"News? I don't know if I can tell you the news, Karnak." Kamala says, tone sour for a moment. And is that a pout? The girl glances down. "I may not be a high enogh caste in society to you know.. tell you things."


Karnak arches a brow, "What are you talking about Kamala? First, I'm the curator of the Tower of Wisdom, so caste standings mean nothing to me. Secondly, if you wish me to use my status, I'm ordering you to tell me what happened." She looks at Kamala, and her tone softens, just a hint. "Now. Please?"


Kamala might as well have just been slapped. The girl looks hurt for a moment. And then she juts her chin up for a moment. "Like I told your brother. Just two weeks ago, I was just another teenage girl that was just attending college and looking forward to.. whatever life sent my way. And then one of you found me. I didn't go looking for you. But I was asked for help, and I helped. And I know I screwed up and ended up with my abilities. But I still wanted to help. But I'm not a chura (undesirable). I'm not military. I know that I have to watch what I say, but I'm not ready to be.. all follow orders or else. If I followed orders - I'd never left my house to help!"


Karnak looks… confused. It's an odd expression on her. "Wait. You shouldn't have to follow orders or else. I think we should be start from the beginning." She gives Vesper a nod, then tilts her head at Kamala, keeping her voice actually… pleasant? It's a bit weird, at least for those familiar with Karnak. "What precisely was said?"


Being in the middle of the busiest park around, good.

Going translucent is not so good.

Vesper isn't looking at anything or else she's really impressed by the brutalist architecture of a concrete building. Unlikely as she is from Paris. Her body and clothes slowly take on a pulsation of colour not quite distinct enough to pick out except up close. Only then it's possible to see grass through her shoes. The paper tumbles to the ground from fingers not solid enough to hold it. True to form, scribbled blue ink contains the Nobel chemistry prize for the year and a name. The quirk of her mouth tightens into a frown. Bleeding bright neon blue saturates her vision in pulsations that really do mimic Nexus' circuitry. She stops giving off that fuzzy murmur when she jolts back into herself, flesh hardening out of emptiness. "Ow."


"I thought it was all neat and nifty. Kings and Queens and all that. And then I found out I'm just a peasant." Kamala mutters, ready to continue, before Vesper suddenly forgets to phase.. or like her, she just walks into buildings sometimes. The young woman nearly drops her books, forgetting about her own issues for a moment as she is quickly moving to get to Vesper's side. "Are.. are you alright?" she asks in concern, frowning as she looking her fellow Inhuman over.


Karnak blinks at Vesper, then walks over towards the pair, not hurrying as she says towards Kamala, "It's… complicated. And technically, I don't believe you would fall in a lower caste in any case. After all, we don't know what your heritage is, in point of fact. Unless some testing happened that I don't know about." She hrms, "Kamala, we do have some rules. However, I do not wish those rules to unnecessarily affect you. And they do not affect how I see you." With that, she then looks at Vesper, and asks, "Have your abilities been managing themselves?"


"The city is arguing." French rarely intrudes so hard on Vesper's very good schoolgirl English. A couple years at Cambridge give the young lady an excellent command of diction and enunciation. Her puzzled expression is fueled by the beginnings of a considerable headache. "Something shouts so loudly, it hurts. I cannot understand what they are saying." A little shake of her head doesn't end up with her keeling over, a good thing, but she leans a bit heavier on Kamala. Not much to her, not after a lifetime of forcible poisoning. A few months in New York don't help her recover so quickly. "I thought maybe Hindi? It is hard, the phrases are so strange. 'Clear, proceed? Engage?'"


When Vesper leans on her, Kamala's arms move to support the frail Frenchwoman. While Kamala may not look like much, she easily supports the weight - hey, supposedly she can carry Logan on her back. "I'm not part of the families. I feel like Smith from Stranger in a Strange Land when I'm around. Like I don't fit in and I have to adapt to society. But I already have to do that here. And now. I'm an American girl but not a Catholic. And people don't understand my religion. So I have to hide it sometimes and play in the lines. And now I have to do it with Triton and the others. Don't say this, don't talk to that person." She frowns a little, her attention returning to Vesper. "I don't hear anything." she says quietly. "Hindi?" There's a little caress of the French girl's hair to try to calm her.


Karnak hrms. "That is… not quite the way it works among our society. Triton told you this?" She frowns, then shakes her head, "Kamala, this business with the castes, and Inhuman society. It is… a relic, more than anything, but it should not affect you. I will have a word with Triton regarding this." She then almost smiles, "In any event, as my student, you are apprenticing with a member of the Royal Family, and thus should feel free to speak your mind, respectfully, to anyone among us. Alright?"


Vesper shakes her head a little. The sweep of her dark tresses from the chignon fall loose, and she tries to push the free bits back. This is why running in a field is bad. "Hindi. Old. I do not know Sanskrit at all, but sometimes they sound close. It could be like that. The rest is just shouting." Her weight eases back on her own feet after a rueful smile at Kamala. "Sorry. You were having a conversation? My brother is probably not connected for me to find a signal to tell him about Dorothy or the waves. Why are you talking about castes?"


"Okay.." Kamala says quietly, releasing Vesper when she gets her footing back, but remains near, just in case she needs to assist again. "…I just.. all I ever wanted to do was help. To do good. I know you all are old. Probably older than humanity. But.. I'm still just human." Or so she tells herself, before blinking a bit owlishly at Vesper. "Wait. Dorothy? Waves? I think that was a tornado."


Karnak looks a bit wry, "So are we, much as we try to deny it." She frowns a little at Vesper, "Hrm. I wonder… we have been receiving Kree signals, as they have been incoming. That might be related to it."


When she starts to smile, Kamala glances down at her watch. "..I'm going to be late for class. Have to keep up my perfect attendance!" the girl says as she clutches her books and turns. "I'll see you later." Quickly she gives Vesper a quick hug because she's closer, before reaching over to give Karnak a squeeze and starts to run off.


"Kree." Vesper doesn't have an opinion on that except for the vague widening of her energy-shocked eyes. "Pardonnez-moi, mais…" English, it takes a second. "Why would Kree be on all the frequencies?" That's for Karnak to answer. She stoops to pick up her discarded paper. "Dorothy Hodgkin. She won the Nobel Prize. A woman did it! We are becoming a better society when women are acknowledged in science. Thirty years of hard work has a reward. Maybe one day we can think of it too. Not everyone is Reed Richards." A man, that is. "All the signals around here are very loud. I… oh, hurry!" She hugs Kamala back and waves.


Karnak is hugged, and doesn't implode! Amazing, really, as she frowns, "Wait, this message is coming on all frequencies?" She hrms, "Can you track the signal, and… well, it's a good thing for this society when women are valued for more than just reproductive purposes." There's no small amount of disdain in her voice at that, even for Karnak.


Vesper nods absently. "Yes. The waves travel well enough. Follow them back I suppose?" The idea forms while she says it, analysing the possibilities. "The ones that go tower to tower are not so direct. I will be gone for some time as I do. You may want to go for your lunch."


Karnak nods slightly. "Well, it seems that this is worth investigating. I'll get Kamala once she finishes with her class, so we can follow up on this." She hrms a bit, as if still pondering what Kamala was talking about with castes.


Too many people around to just act. She's probably still getting funny looks. Vesper nods at the direction of the chemistry building. "I will go there and head on my way. Where can we meet?" Locations aren't really an issue when a teleporting dog is around. Everyone else has to use normal means. Vesper is only marginally slower than Lockjaw, and gets the view on the way.


Karnak considers, then says, "Your office? We can discuss things there in relative privacy."


"D'accord." Agreement comes fast. Vesper points to a clock mounted on a wall. "An hour then, I will return if I can. Maybe an hour more. Getting there will be slower. Back will be faster."


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