15268/Meetings and Museums

Meetings and Museums
Date of Scene:	30 June 2023
Location:	Old Gotham - Founders Island
Synopsis:	Roberto da Costa and Phoebe meet in the Museum of Antiquities
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Roberto da Costa

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Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    How can it be that one gets cabin fever when you live in quite possibly the largest house in Bristol Township, just outside Gotham City proper?

    Well. You also can be suggested to 'get out of the house or you'll have to put in extra time with physical training'... and even when you heal quicker than normal people, you don't really want to push it. Regular physical training with the Bat Family is intense enough.

    So Phoebe, jokingly referred to as the Wayne Spare Heir (by herself), had elected to go to the museum. She was wearing a nicer sundress with a light jacket over it -- in case of rain -- standing in front of some of the Egyptian artifacts, reading them to pass time. Her hair was wrapped in a nice, summery head scarf, the wide black choker meant to hide scars from a horrible vehicle accident plainly seen on her neck.

    Of course, security is nearby making sure that no one tries to crowd the young woman. And the only reason they know she's a Wayne?

    She used her membership ID with her name on it to get into a lecture on Early Punjabi Burials and Funeral Rites at the lecture hall.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa , the son of the giver of the aforementioned Lecture on Punjabi Burial rites, is wondering around the Egyptian exhibit looking bored, while 'helpfully' correcting the tour guides. Summer vacation apparently meant that you did not have to remain on the campus tied to office and lecture hall and his Mother had taken full advantage, meaning that their luncheon engagement had been moved and she had not let his assistant know but the Museum was interesting and the Egyptian Wing is actually named for his Maternal Grandfather a well-known but corrupt judge in Gotham. Roberto is the owner of Gotham's MLS team and has been dabbling in real estate but he not nearly as well known as the Gotham's First Family especially given that he bear his Father's surname and not that of his famous Judge ancestor.

    He is well dressed in a cream linen suit, boat shoes, and a deep pink oxford. He is wearing blue and pink paisley suspenders, a blue tie and a wicker fedora with the inverse pattern to the suspenders on the hatband.. He honestly seems like particularly well dressed tourist and the security seem to have no idea who he is either. He looks at his watch, and then leans in a bit closer inspecting the plaque on one of the displays. He sighs, "This translation is not correct, Mom is going to be so pissed."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You're correct, it's not." Phoebe replies, motioning upwards to the tablet. "I think they may even have the wrong tablet in place here. This is a dedication to a single person, rather than to the diety that shares the same name." she states, "It doesn't have the proper formatting for the god. But it could also just be calling a person a nickname." she states, a little lost in her own head before she turns and gives a smile to Roberto, standing primly with her hands folded in front of her. "I ah... I dabble in middle Dynasty translation as a weirdly specialized hobby." she explains, giving a bright smile.

    "Did... you say your mother would be pissed?" she inquires, her eyebrows rising up.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa folds his arms over his chast, placing a finger to his lip as he considers? "Nickname?" He nods considering, "Yeah, that does make sense and that would make it artifact 5379, not..." He nods and squints at the display, "5739... ho boy." He turns to consider you, "Hmm? Oh, yes, My mother is Nina DaCosta." He points to the lecture hall, where she is apparently still meeting with someone and the to the name on the exhibit, "Nee, Montes. She is the head of Archaeology at Gotham University." He bows coureously, " I am Roberto DaCosta, was raised by one of the foremost experts on ancient civilization and minored in Antiquities. Wanted to grow up to be Indiana Jones but then found out that wasn't really a thing." He shrugs. "Thanks for you help, what other dead languages do you speak?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "You're Roberto da Costa? I apologize, didn't recognize you with the John Hammond cosplay." She gives a small sidelong smile, a crooked, charming thing on matte lips. "Just came from her lecture, in fact. Some of the antiquities here are on loan from the Wayne personal collection -- what's left of it. Apparently Martha Wayne was a big fan of repatriating items where possible... that gets a lot of respect." she smiles, looking back through the glass at some make-up tablets with twisting cameleopards and hawks. "That one's from the Wayne collection, by way of picking it up in Boston from an antique dealer who thought it was cursed." she explains, and she gives a small smile.

    "Ah... two dialects of ancient Greek, a couple more dialects of Egyptian, Latin and Early Coptic." her dark eyes dart over to Roberto to gauge his reaction. Not often she can break out the Dead Languages.

    Her Portugeese is still almost as bad as her Spanish though.

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa smiles easily, "I am. Well, if you're going to steal, steal from the best." He tugs on the cuffs of his suit jacket. "You should see my Santa cosplay." He nods with a guileless charm. "You did? Was it good? I know Punjabi isn't a particular area of expertise but she has done some really compelling work recently. She tells me about it every third Friday." He chuckles, then considers, "That was kind, I know establishing Provenance and accountability was very important to Mama when she was setting up the exhibit. Everything here is with the permission of the Egyptian government, that's why no human remains. It makes sense she said she was working with Stephanie but I assumed it was research." Roberto stops and considers his eyes scanning back and forth, "I wonder, Mom did some work when she was in grad school helping to catalogue a collection, I wonder. I never considered." Roberto raises his eyebrows but shrugs, then laughs and says, "This is Sparta." in ancient Greek, with a guttural intonation, chuckling, "I'm more of a reader than a speaker, really. That's a nice variety. And Latin of course? Yeah, my strength is the Mediteranean, though I have friends who have an astounding faculty with languages so I don't get to bust the out that often." He smiles.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a pleasant smile. "Ah, with Stephanie Brown?" she questions gently, and looks up to the makeup pallet again, and makes a slight face. The only reason she knew it was from Boston, after all, is because Phoebe's the one who brought it back from Boston Commons.

    "There are still remains in the collection, not everything was considered good enough by the Egyptian government for display in their museum, and commoners don't typically attract as many people as Pharoahs... unless you're Ginger. Poor Ginger." she adds in a quiet statement.

    At his quote, Phoebe actually does give a soft laugh, smiling and looking down. "Spartan inflection's hard for me. It's more... up here," she points to her mouch, motioning towards the back "Where as a lot of Egyptian is down here," she brings her hand down to just above her choker necklace. "At least my understanding of it. Of course, other than a couple remote villages, a lot of the 'sound' of the accent was lost to Arabic.

    "Do you ever run into that issue, speaking so many languages, that sometimes you get confused which one you're using and end up asking someone to hand you that doohickey in Latin?"

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa nods and smiles at the name, though his demeanor shifts slightly, "Yes, she and my Mother are still close. Sorry, if she stepped on any toes, Mom can be quite insistent once she is onto something." He nods, "Yeah, Nina was not happy with sobriquet 'Ginger', for obvious reasons." Berto's Mom is pale skinned with bright red hair.

    Berto considers and nods, "Sometimes, though I don't use the old languages enough to get them confused, usually have to concentrate to remember them. It's usually, Spanish, Portuguese and English, that I mix up, depending on how much I'm travelling home."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "Toes? Oh, no, ah, Stephanie and I work together sometimes. She's practically part of the family, lives with my older adopted brother and all." she jokes, and she turns and offers a hand to shake.

    "I'm Phoebe Wayne, sorry," she give san embarrassed smile, "I should have introduced myself at the onset. Probably would have saved a little trouble."

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Roberto da Costa smiles and nods slowly, "Richard, interesting. I wasn't aware the Wayne family had grown but we really don't keep up. Congratulations. You know I leep wondering if Bruce will send out one of those Christmas cards with the big family picture." He smiles and then his eyes shift focus behind you and he gives a small wave, "Ola, Mama. Your meeting went well? This is Phoebe Wayne."

    Nina walks up and give Roberto a hug, "You do not need to dress like John Hammond every time you come to the museum, you love a costume." She smiles and straightens his hat, thens he turns to face Phoebe, "The new girl! Stephanie speaks so highly of you, thank you for locating the make-up tablets, cursed?!" She shakes her had a laughs, "Can you imagine?"

    Roberto smiles ruefully, "Actually, I can. Ms. Wayne attended your lecture, she was very interested in the Punjabi Burial Rituals." He nods encouragingly, and places the conversation so his Mother's back is to the improperly placed plaque.

    Nina brightens, "Were you? It is a fascinating topic, what interest you most?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "I think the only thing Bruce likes more than collecting children is collecting classic cars." Phoebe replies in a very rehearsed statement, "And I don't photograph well." she laughs, and she turns to give a smile and offer her hand "How do you do, Doctor?" she greets Nina, and she darkens a bit along her cheeks and ears. "I'm sure Stephanie embelishes some, I'm hardly out of the ordinary." she gives a smile, and she looks up into the cases again.

    "I can imagine someone watched too many Boris Karloff movies?" she offers as an explaination. Definitely not that the cosmetics palete was actually cursed and had to have someone semi-possessed unpossessed.

    "It is a fascinating topic. The subject of ancient burial is fascinating on its own, but comparing the spread of funeary rights and the reverence for the dead is especially interesting -- Gotham native and all." Phoebe states, moving just slightly away from the case to draw Nina with her.

    "Especially as old relgions broke away and others take their place, Sikhs preferring cremation over other types of burial for instance, while others still practice ancestor worship in some manner or another."

Roberto da Costa has posed:
Nina smiles and nods, "No, I totally agree. I have no doubt that growing up here is a large part of what influenced my interest in ancient cultures. Yes, the funeary practices teach us a lot about a people and they are so diverse, gathered largely by geographic concerns but with some surprising variability. That is what drew me to the Punjabi, the differences between their practices and those of the surrounding peoples." She smiles, "Berto, do you think Ms. Wayne could join us for lunch?" She smiles, pleased with herself.
    "Of course Mama, if she has the time, do you have the time Ms. Wayne?"