1211/Music of Italy

Music of Italy
Date of Scene:	18 April 2020
Location:	Little Italy
Synopsis:	Alex Summers and Alexis Carr meet in Little Italy by chance, enjoy a meal together as friends by choice.
Cast of Characters:	Alexis Carr, Alex Summers

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Alexis Carr has posed:
    Darkness has settled over the city that never sleeps, and in Little Italy, that could spell danger from the mob, lovers walking about the streets, and the ever-present sound of music drifting through the air as Bella Ciao is played on a solo violin. A lone player stands, tucked into a covered alcove near a closed shop, guarded from the wind and any stray rain by a faded awning.

    The player is clad in dark clothing, a jacket against the cool weather, her long hair concealed beneath a violet watchcap as she plays. The violin case is open, and a little notecard inside says she plays for God and the Children -- in Italian, of course.

Alex Summers has posed:
    Really, Little Italy isn't a place Alex goes that often...but you know when you see one of those ads when you're hungry, and you go 'ooh, that sounds great' and then you're looking for some new Italian place that opened because you're really in the mood for good Italian? Well that's where he is, pretty much, wandering down the street in a light hoodie and jeans and sneakers as he makes his way down the street, peering around for signs of this Giorno's place he's heard is pretty good, but not too hugely expensive either. REally, he feels like getting a job should warrant a little celebration, and as Emma is off doing Emma things, he's on his own for tonight.

    He slows as he hears the violin being played, idly rummaging in his pocket for a handful of chance, including a couple bills, then drops it in the case as he gets closer...which is about where he could easily be recognized.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Buonasera, Signor Summers!" greets the girl chipperly, and one of her dark eyes opens up as she lets the final note of the folk songhang in the air, shuddering like a songbird about to take flight, and lifts her bow from the strings.

    "What brings you here into Little Italy, Alex?"

    Alexis Carr -- Allegra Caradenza -- gives a little grin -- and then cautiously peers about him "... no Miss Frost this evening?"

Alex Summers has posed:
    Alex jumps a bit in suprise, turning to look at Alexis, then grins. "Alexis! Hey, didn't even recognize you with your hair up like that!" He turns to face her more. 'No, just me, I'm on my own for dinner so figured I'd try this new place a few people and an ad have told me are good. Giorno's?" He glances up and down the street. "It's around here somewhere, anyway."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Ah, my clever disguise is working, then." Alexis gives a wry grin, and draw herself up a moment, to her meager stature and considers. "Giorno's? Yeah, it's about a block off and down an alley." she gives a smile, and grabs up her case, gently placing her violin inside of it, and the bow in its own case, before tucking it inside.

    "Need a guide? Little Italy can be a little rough if you don't know the back ways."

Alex Summers has posed:
    Heh, sure, sounds great. I'll buy you dinner even, if you'd like, I wouldn't mind the company." Alex says easily, watching Alexis pack up. "So you play the violin and the piano? Any other instruments in your reportoire?" he wonders curiously, as they starts heading down the street, following Alexis' lead towards said alley.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Ah, guitar? I picked a pennywhistle up, but it's a little flat." Alexis admits, "I also sing and dance." She gives a wry smile, looking to Alex as they walk. "Kinda known for being some kinda musical genius in a past life."

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Genius meaning a ton of practicing on top of a good musical ear?" Alex says bemusedly, raising a brow at her as they walk. "Guitar is cool too, I'm guessing more classical Spanish guitar and acoustic than electric and metal?" he wonders curiously. "I mean...sounds like you've got a lot of talent to have this many things you can do well musically."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "More classical and Spanish, Italian, tango, samba... Middle-Eastern... a little Irish and English Folk and Americana, but I can play a lot of Beatles and Billy Joel acoustically." Alexis admits as they walk a bit. She gives a little grin. "How about yourself, Alex? Any instruments? Or... y'know, hobbies?"

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Heh, not music." Alex says with a grint as he slides his hands in his hoodie pockets as he walks. "For me it's archeology, actually. I love digging in the dirt, finding little bits of the past. Putting them into place in history, that sort of thing. Just holding something that was created in the past, feeling part of it, it's pretty cool." He shrugs. "Also a huge Indiana Jones fan, growing up." He hmms. "I mean, other than that, I like a bit of everything...reading, video games, watching movies, same as anyone for fun stuff I do. Exercise? Weight training."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Archaeology's cool! I do love museums. There's a little one in the village near my grandparents that supposedly houses relics of Roman Martyrs." she replies with a wry grin, and she gives a slight grin. She takes a turn down an alleyway, where there's a little back-lit sign and short awning for the restaurant in question.

    Well, at least it has the name of the restaurant in question.

    "I feel the same way about my violins. My favorite was crafted in the early 1800's. It has a warmer sound than my 1769 or my 1945 violin, which sounds like it weeps when I play sad music."

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Oh? I'll admit I know very little about that, other than they've been trying to figure out what gives different violins their distinct sound qualities for a while now." Alex says, pausing to open the door for Alexis, then following her inside. It seems to be seat yourself, so he heads over to a booth and takes a seat, sliding in and waitings for Alexis to join him. "So...how are things going then? Are you busking for fun, or because you need to?" he wonders.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Ah. Well. I'm sure Emma would have some sort of snide remark about someone like me busking -- so I'll thank you ahead of time for *not* mentioning to her -- but mostly it's...habit." she admits she sits down, plucking a menu from between two candles.

    "I'd busk as an excuse to generate more income for mutant-related charities while my father was raising money for lobbying againt... very lame teenage rebellion." she gives an embarrassed smile.

Alex Summers has posed:
    Alex mmms, then smiles. "I won't tell her. She's just...she's been stuck in a place where she's expected to always act a little way, I think it's confusing and a bit shocking to her that someone like her might just...buck everything and lead rather than tolerate it the way you have." He tilts his head. "So...then, when did you change your mind about mutants, when you became one, or...?"

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Well... I lived with my grandmother while I was younger. She runs a school in the UK." Alexis explains, and she gives a smile at the waitress, ordering in perfect Italian, including a glass of wine -- which is denied, because she's not old enough for it. They laugh, "Worth a shot!" she says, and after Alex orders, she shrugs her shoulders.

    "She would take stuents in, regardless of their circumstances. The rich students paid for academy because it's /prestigeous/. The poorer students paid on a sliding scale, and we would fund their tuition and uniforms, pocket money funds and such." she explains. "... my father would always warn me about how mutants were all evil, and wanted to hurt us... but no one group is wholly evil or good... some still frighten me... but... I've known for a long time that I was. I just denied it for...oh... six and a half years."

Alex Summers has posed:
    Alex goes for the lasagna! Which he assumes is pretty good, authentic, and such. He could order spagetti and meatballs, but he can make that at home, after all. Lasagna, way more difficult.

    He nods slightly, leaning back in the booth. "So...did you meet another person with powers before you developed your own?" he wonders curiously. "And how does your grandmother feel about things? It sounds like she was pretty easy going about such stuff."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Alexis had ordered something seafood-y. And she purses her lips a moment in thought.

    "No, actually... Sam caught me offguard by being so caviller with his. I hadn't met a mutant until I moved to New York -- at least, that I know of." she replies, and rubs the back of her head. "And my grandparents don't know. My mother and father don't know. Though my father knows I'm dating a mutant... but thiks I was 'kidnapped and brainwashed'."

Alex Summers has posed:
    "It's not that common, considering how some people feel about people having powers. Or mutants, specifically." Alex admits. "The school is...really different. Very accepting." He frown sa bit. "...have you tried to tell any of them? Your grandparents at least, if they're less...um, upset by it?" He frowns. "Me, I didn't know at all until like...two and a half months ago or so. When my professor tried to kill me."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "I'd set a garden shed on fire by accident." Alexis gives a wry grin. She gives a small smile. "Sam is... trying to impress upon me how useful the school would be. I've met some of the students though and they seem.... capricious at best."

    And horrifingly scary at worst.

    "I'm still trying to figure out how to explain my living circumstances to my grandparents. I will tell them... some time."

    "So... two and a half months ago? And your professor tried to kill you?" she balks a moment "Not... the same professor at the school, correct?"

Alex Summers has posed:
    No, not that one." Alex says with a short laugh, shaking his head. "No, Empire State...you might have seen the whole accident they had at the chemilab annex there? That was...kinda me. And him." He frowns. "My archeology professor had a schizophrenic break from stress; he started ranting about how he was a living pharaoh, and he has sort of similar powers to mine." He holds up his hands, wiggling his fingers. "I absorb cosmic energies pretty much constantly, then my body converts the energy in my cells into...heat energy, I guess? When it comes out, it's hot enough it turns it to plasma pretty much instantly, so..." He frowns. "It's really destructive. He had a similar power set..."

    He pauses for a moment as breadsticks are brought for the table, sipping from his drink, then resuming when the waitress is gone again. "Anyway...I didn't know I even could do this. The professor, the one at the school, he's not sure what happened, but...somehow, this...guys, he locked away my powers when I was still a kid, the first time they came out. And I just didn't know they were there for all this time. So...now, full power, no control, right off the bat. Ability to accidentally destroy a city block." He snags a breadstick. "So looooots of training."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    Slender fingers pluck another breadstick out, and Alexis tears off a piece before bringing it to her mouth, considering.

    "That's pretty horrifying..." she replies back quietly. "Must have been an incredibly challenging time for you, finding out about the powers in such a manner, and then..." she trails off, frowning a moment.

    "I'm sorry, Alex. It doesn't seem fair to find out in such a way."

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Yeah. Well. Is what it is, I just gotta roll with it now." Alex says, snagging a breadstick of his own and breaking it off to dip in the accompanying little dish of olive oil mix. "I still have no idea how or why it was blocked out, and it's been...." He sighs. "Little crazy. I mean, Sam and the people at the school are nice, but man, the stuff they've been through is just nutso sometimes, their lives. I feel weird even complaining about mine."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "I've not heard anything other than Sam delivering Pizzas, and mentions about... extra training." she trails off a moment, and looks around "But it doesn't seem like a good idea to talk about it here." she trails off a moment, and gives a bit of a sigh. "If you think that's bad, I feel positively like a brat."

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Nothing specific, sure." Alex says simply. "Why I'm not giving too many details other than...well, me." He shrugs slightly, finishing off the breadstick. "I guess it depends what you're looking for, my impression was Sam was hoping to move in with you somewhere off campus anyway."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Well, I already have an apartment that he stays at quite often, curtesy of my mother and Dame Fiore back in the UK." Alexis admits, and looks down. "Which admittedly made Emma's offer tempting, if only to be truly on my own."

Alex Summers has posed:
    Alex hmmms. "...I can understand that. I wanted to be independent of my foster parents too, for different reasons." He washes down the breadstick, setting the glass down as he absently runs a fingertip along it. "I will say Emma has the resources to help you out with a lot of things that are troubles for you. And she does respect people who are competent and motivated. So it's not a terrible thing to try." He hehs. "Though I'm not entirely objective here, and I also just took a job myself with Sebastian Shaw for various reasons."

Alexis Carr has posed:
    "Sebastian Shaw?" Alexis raises her eyebrows a moment, and purses her lips a moment before she turns, the waitress bringing their meals. The lasagna is layered with meat and sausage and red sauce and cheese, while the seafood dish is beset with shellfish and fresh vegetables and a light sauce. It looks rather more rustic.

    "I will need a job, b ut I'm horribly underetrained in anything that's not music... and I don't beleive Emma is looking for an entertainer."

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Well, no. But considering the stuff she deals with, connections might be more important than having skills to start. I mean, if nothing else, you understand high society and galas and the like, that's something Emma might love having someone to help with, considering all the other stuff she does. She's a workaholic, she could badly use an assistant for some things if nothing else. And you'd get more experience in all the other stuff she does that way." He nods a bit. "Yeah, Shaw gave me an internship....kinda needed it. Wasn't looking forward to looking for a job after I graduate." He pauses as the food shows, then smiles. "Well, let's not worry about that for now, anyway...enjoy the food? So, what's your favorite type of music, then?" he asks, and the conversaion veers off into pop culture and music appreciation.

    Alex, no suprise, has a fairly eclectic taste.

Alexis Carr has posed:
    As does Alexis, who was able to rattle off Baroque artists, favorite conductors, a few Tango bands and crack a joke about how Great Britain makes up for its terrible food with their awesome rock bands.

    Turns out, the two at least have that much in common.