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The Living End is one of those Village rock and roll clubs that's perhaps tentatively waving at rapidly-changing times: the usual rockers and hot-rodders and other such youth set have still turned out for some California style folk and later, California Sound and surf as the evening's going on… for now the mike's open and youth are filtering in and out of the place: outside a mix of cruising, posing, and various festivities seem to be bringing in the spring. By one of the sideboards a few rocker girls are dutifully half-paying attention to pool games while someone back at the stage recites poetry to a light accompaniment of a guitar that may lack a 'D' string.
Dizzy's there among them, as people circulate around somewhat, she taking some rest after work and glancing toward the stage on occasion.
*
Kai dragged Elmo out tonight, then abandoned him in the crowd so he could take the stage. His D-string broke, and he can't afford to replace it right now. So he plays around it. He's doing the best he can with what he's got. Fortunately, he has some musical talent, so the strumming isn't entirely random or inept.
Into the mike, he's just letting words fall out of his mouth. "…lily white lies behind closed doors, a hand on your thigh, you sigh and shiver. Tears and pain, fear and-" He slaps the guitar to silence it, leaving his voice hanging in the air, "-this is… gay?" Oh yes, Elmo, he went there.
*
Elmo has just started talking with a guy about that part he wants for his Chevy, chatting in an unusually animated way for him. He's kind of listening with half an ear to Kai, then Kai says those things, and Elmo scowls terrifically while flushing. "I hate him so much," he mutters, and starts looking around for an escape.
*
Julie seems to be among those who are finding *that* bit of content a little over-the-top risque, really. The 'Gay' reference goes over a lot of heads, but Diz starts a bit as though it's an accusation. Covers for this by reaching for a slightly-rumpled pack of Chesterfields in a nearby pocket, and looking to her friends there. Just smirks and laughs a bit as one of the gigs there is rather bent. Apparently she doesn't smoke often. "Things that may not play in Peoria, that's this town," she says, her accent local, all of Brooklyn Italians.
*
Kai ends on that note and walks off the stage, seemingly oblivious to gasps or applause. He's all about the provocation. Besides, words aren't illegal, are they? Except maybe he ought to be more careful if he doesn't want to get rolled in an alley. Having put all that out there, he walks right up to Elmo and claps him on the shoulder. "You look uptight, man. Cool your jets, lets drink some juice." He pats down his pocket for his cigarettes and comes up empty. Spying Julie's Chesterfields, he steps toward her and says, "Hey, cool chick, you got a kick-stick for little ol' me?" Cue the dimpledest of smiles.
*
"Shut up, you're evil," Elmo informs Kai briskly. He apologizes to Julie on Kai's behalf, "Sorry, he's, just like that. Don't give him any, it'll just encourage him." He's flustered enough that the guy he was talking to shrugs and drifts off.
*
Julie laughs, a bit. Glances to Elmo and shakes out a reasonably-intact cigarette toward him, "Tell you what, I'll make it your problem, how bout?" Smirks, "Pretty steamy stuff for this place, that, but I I guess that's poetry and all these days." She gestures around, as though that explains it without critique. Greenwich Village, after all, where the interesting people are. Glances between the two.
*
"You love me," Kai tells Elmo as he plucks the offered cigarette from the pack. "Thanks, doll." He lights the thing and takes a needful drag, tilting his head up to exhale. Lines of tension eases from him. That little stunt might have just earned him a trashing once he steps outside. Best not to step outside. He grins at Julie and says, "Some buttons need punched. Elmo here would have me reciting Mary Had A Little Lamb."
*
Elmo performs an extremely expressive eyeroll complete with eyebrow harmony. "You need punched." He gets out a cigarette pack of his own now that there's no danger of them being stolen immediately. "Nice jacket," he says to Julie. "Work there?"
*
Julie hrms? Ohs a bit about the stencil-painting on the jacket, and says. "Sure. Well, last couple years, I did, anyway, it's my uncle Angelo's place out in California. I'm with mi familia in town again just lately, (she gestures toward perhaps Little Italy or the East Village) …might go back, possibly, but I ain't decided." Glances between the boys, and the girl remaining next to her. "They call me Dizzy. This is Jenny."
*
Kai laughs lightly when Elmo says he needs punched. "Cool your jets, daddy-o. You take life too seriously." He shakes his head and tells Julie, "This is how he treats me. Anyway, I'm Kai. Good to meet you, Dizzy. Hey there, Jenny." He finds a place to lean, draping himself lazily. "Elmo here's into cars."
*
Elmo listens with avid interest to Julie. "Yeah? You grow up here?" He too has a New York accent, but his is Jewish. "I'm Elmo. Nice meetin' ya, you too Jenny." He gets tenser and shoots Kai a halfway dirty look. "Yeah, kinda," he says as if admitting something, about being into cars. Maybe he just doesn't like Kai describing him as 'into' anything.
*
Julie smirks, "Well, you came to the right place, I guess, far-out clothes and all. Cali's really where it's at for that but we've always had our own thing going on around here. In season, anyway." Jenny gives her a look, which it looks like Diz is expecting. Adds, "Ah, just careful about the talk in mixed company, I guess, no one considers themselves old-fashioned, but some of these guys could take things the wrong way." That's to Kai, apparently about the poetry.
*
Kai inclines his head to Julie. "THere's a time and place, I get it." The he shrugs one shoulder, adding, "Wouldn't be the first time I've ended up having a heated discussion outside with someone who doesn't consider himself old-fashioned." He takes another drag off his cigarette, eyes lidded. "You're from Brooklyn, you said?" He was distracted, but he can pick up on her accent. His own is English.
*
Elmo lights up, takes a drag, and shakes his head with comically exaggerated rue on the exhale. "You don't know from time and place, Kai." He offers a cigarette to Julie, even though she has her own, 'cuz he's a gentleman, and waits for her answer, interested.
*
Julie nods to Kai. "Basically. Working in town not too far from here right now, though, most of the family moved over Bensonhurst after the war and they started closing shipyards and all, though, so whatever you count."
*
"I haven't spent much time in Brooklyn," Kai says. "I want to go to Coney Island, but you probably hear that a dozen times a day." At the mention of the war, or maybe the shipyards, he shakes his head ruefully. "It was a rough time," says the man who looks like he was an infant around then. "Coming home from the war and home's… well, it's not home anymore." He slants a sidelong look at Elmo. Flicking ash into a tray, he says, "You're so bad to me."
*
Elmo hesitates, looking back at Kai, obviously not sure if the elfin man is teasing him or not. He doesn't seem able to decide, and settles on, "Eh, you love it."
*
Elmo then gets distracted by the guy he was talking to earlier returning and saying something about a "hill holder", and goes to discuss the issue with him.
*
Julie hehs, a bit, says, "Hill-holders. Around here you may as well just get your exercise. Ain't worth the rebuild when something breaks with em, really. I got a Muncie and I wouldn't worry except maybe in San Fran." Whatever that is. Says what a friend called an 'Adept of the Mechanics.' On that theme she says, "Ain't nothing wrong with Coney, everyone says it ain't what it used to be, but it's still a beach strip."
*
Kai watches Elmo go off to do what Elmos do, and he smiles wryly. Maybe he does love it. He certainly doesn't seem to have any kind of grudge against the way Elmo talks to him. With a laugh, he says, "Don't say that around him. I don't even know what one is, but he's really into them. He takes a last drag off his cigarette, then stabs it out as he exhales. "It sounds fun," he says, "and besides, sometimes things change because, like, it's time, you dig? I'll see if Elmo wants to go." He then adds, "We're not a thing, get it, we're just friends."
*
Julie nods, thinking. Glances to her friend there, and says, "Well, we can only hope some of it's for the better, cause a lot of things are sure changing, whoever likes it." She refills glasses of yellow beer from a pitcher there, and offers Kai one of his own, "Anyway, times like these it sure ain't bad to have friends, right?"
*
Kai nods to the offer of beer with a quiet, "Ta." Then he smiles. "Things are going nowhere but up, cats, you dig me? The backlash and the government and the pigs, it's all death throes of a bygone time." He nods firmly to this, very much believing it. He raises his beer in a wordless 'cheers.' After a drink, he says, "Never hurts to have friends."
*
Kai nods to the offer of beer with a quiet, "Ta." Then he smiles. "Things are going nowhere but up, chicks, you dig me? The backlash and the government and the pigs, it's all death throes of a bygone time." He nods firmly to this, very much believing it. He raises his beer in a wordless 'cheers.' After a drink, he says, "Never hurts to have friends."
*
Julie nods. "Well, I dunno about death throes, just, you know, a lot going on, …Reds with the missiles all over, ice monsters from planet Asgard and all the rest on top of it being past time people started treating each other better and all that." Sips her own beer. It's the usual American sort of stuff, but not so bad for what it is.
*
Kai wrinkles his nose at the mention of ice monsters. "I'm sure Asgard's finest will deliver us from their monstrosities." He rolls his eyes. He then says, "Anyway, it's not so much like a planet as…" His gaze goes a little distant as he thinks about this. Beer is swallowed to help the process along. "Like, cosmic. Far out. It'd blow your mind." He sighs, then adds, "But it's dumb. Better to be here on Terra Firma if you ask me."
*
Julie ahs, nodding. Possibly taking that with a grain of salt given how many things are 'cosmic' to beatniks. "Never did get it, really. My friend there didn't explain a whole lot. Showed up while we was clearing some wrecks out from what they did to Brighton Beach, but she could pick up half yer average Ford like it was nothing." Adds to her friend sitting there. "Kinda disappeared a couple weeks later, some kinda serious cosmic business, I guess."
*
"You've got one for a friend?" Kai asks, and his brows lift in surprise. Focusing a more shrewd glance at Julie, he asks, "What's it like? You know, knowing one of them? Hanging out? What're they like?" Like he doesn't know. Deceitful little wretch, but hey, if there are Asgardians want to know who and where.
*
Julie hrms. Answers for Jenny's benefit as much as Kai's, it's almost like her friend was a touch jealous, somehow. "Well, she didn't say a whole lot there. I guess they get food delivered there, cause she felt bad about cleaning out the fridge and didn't know why there wasn't more the next day. Wasn't afraid to pitch in with some work, though, asked a lot about *us* so as to kinda stand out less. "I guess in her world I'd be an 'adept of the Mechanics.' " Dizzy seems to find that amusing. "As for where she come from, I guess there was some kind of big shakeup behind stuff like the ice monsters and whatever it had to do with the President being killed."
*
Kai nods slowly and says, "Sure, I could see that, Adept of Mechanics." He studies the contents of his glass as Julie mentions the ice monsters and the President's death. Something about that causes him to come over all circumspect. "It's a mess," he says quietly. Then he musters a small smile and lifts his gaze to Julie. "Does she like Earth?" He barely stops himself from saying 'Midgard.' It's a near miss.
*
Julie shrugs. "Really don't know how she liked it, what with kind of a mess back home. Guess she liked people enough, just, well, maybe she got homesick or whatever. "
*
"I know I'd get homesick for this place if I ended up having to live somewhere else," Kai says, "so I guess that's understandable. Just… wow. You're so cool about it. What's her name? Does it sound like one of those old Norwegian names?"
*
Julie ehs. "I dunno, I guess it was my first alien invasion, or really I got back just after, so I suppose anyone trying to help was OK by me. I guess maybe I shouldn't say what name she went by, some folks ain't so cool. Said she was the Keeper like it was her job, though."
*
"There's a lot to be kept, I imagine," Kai says. "This stuff is just so far out, I don't know the first thing to say or do about it except keep my feet planted on the ground and let the cosmos take care of itself." Technically, it's not a lie. He's all too happy to stay out of Asgard's business.
*
Julie nods. "Guess that's all right till yer cosmic comes gunning for your neighborhood. If those ice monsters had gotten a bit farther, it coulda been my Mama's place flattened, too." Sips her beer.
*
Kai nods grimly. "Right. It's not copacetic, coming down here making their problems our problems. It wouldn't break my heart of they all went back where they came from and never bothered us again." He pauses, then adds, "Most of them." A smile flits over his features. "Some of them are probably swinging."
*
Julie hehs. "I dunno, I figure this world needs nothing more than getting used to there being different people from all over. It's the Jet Age, people mutating or getting so they can sneeze down buildings, what's a few space aliens?"
*
Kay laughs, and he raises his beer to Julie. "You've got that right," he says. "It'll give the people sneezing down buildings something to do." He drains the glass and sighs happily. This, right here, is what he'd rather be doing than anything Asgard has to offer. Listening to someone who can't rhyme blurting out words on stage, talking to people. "It's all pretty wild. If you could have a super power, what would it be?"
*
Well, who knows what *that's* like, really. There's some irony, there. "Well, I dunno, I guess if I got to ask it'd have to be something responsible like I dunno, feeding people or something. Always looked up to Warbird, flying around like a saberjet, looking out for people and the country, though. Sometimes, well, you just gotta turn wrenches and make things work that way." Superpowers. Now, really.
*
"Groovy," he says when Warbird is mentioned. Kai approves. "That's what heroes do, dig? Help people, using what fate or genes or whatever gave them. I'd want to heal people." At least his goals don't stray too far from is abilities. "The little people everyone forgets." He laughs and adds, "But I'd never make it as a doctor, so superpowers it is."
*
Julie cocks her head there. "You mean you got some, or you just holding out for em?"
*
"I mean I'd have to have superpowers," Kai says languidly, "Because I'm not going to go to school, or get a 'real' job, or buy into the system. Besides, a little deus ex machina in my favor wouldn't hurt anyone." He winks. "But I think most people have a trick or two up their sleeve, whether they know it or not."
*
Julie nods, thinking a bit, as the evening's opening act, some strummy folk rock band, finally starts warming up across the hall. "Well, maybe it's all using what you got. Poetry's something, I guess if you do it right and say something with it. I figure people don't really get each other sometimes, then they wonder why they're throwing things at each other."
*
Kai grins as he says, "I hope I upset the right people tonight. Sometimes you gotta get shaken up to see what's what." He glances around. It's Greenwich Village. No one is so scandalized they're paying any particular attention to him. "Hmm, maybe next time I'll have to do away with subtlety." He nods then to Julie and says, "Ships in the night, chick. That's how it is. Sometimes you find someone who gets you. Sometimes."
*
Julie nods. "Well, there's a few more really longhair places around here, obviously. Here you get all types. Anyway, there's some other besides, but they ain't so literary: some folks just want to dance and hope the cops stay away that night, capiche? Best to bring your own hooch, though, just pay for something and use the glass."
*
Kai taps the side of his nose and says, "I dig. I should show them to Elmo so he can tell me he hates me again." He laughs, definitely not taking the twitchy fellow's words very seriously. "Ugh, screw the pigs, though. Getting into everyone's face about stuff no one should even care about, meanwhile we need heroes to do the actual protecting and serving."
*
Julie nods. "Well, I figure some of em's trying to be heroes while ….not getting other people. Others just trying to do a job, and some of em, well, I dunno, think they're the arm of the Pope or something."
*
Julie adds. "Some people, mind you, well, they're just born mean or get that way somehow, and they'll take what they can get to be mean with. Badges included." She sips her beer again. "That's what I figure, anyway."
*
"Paid bullies," Kai says. He shakes his head. "Worse, armed bullies." He sighs, but then perks up again. "Death throes," he says, "of a dying regime. It'll be our time soon enough."
*
Julie hrmphs, there. "Really not interested in being a regime, myself. Too much real work to do, not to mention living. I figure people that want to be a regime don't got no life of their own so they want to run everyone else's. Till then, well, Uncle Sam'll get it right eventually, just gotta stop people from thinking they can bully folks, like the Negroes and the mutants and everyone else. Italians is getting through it, if only people would stop thinking we're all in the Mob."
*
"Nah, me neither," Kai says. "Let's call it the death throes of regimes." He pats himself down for cigarettes, having already forgotten he forgot them. "You've got the right of it," he says. "We'll get there, and it won't be from asking politely." He sighs at that. "It'll get messy before we can clean it all up again."
*
Julie shakes out another from her rumpled pack of Chesterfields. "Well, I guess some's really trying to make it messy, maybe that's yer death throes. Me, I fix things, that's kinda how I am. What I do."
*
Kai take the offered cigarette. "Ta, chick." He lights up and sighs contently. "Too right," he says. "I fix things too, or I try to. Always did better making noise, making art. Thank God for fixers."
*
Julie raises her glass a bit, before adding some more to it. She paces herself, it seems, but, well, she's got to drive. "So it's just that beat poetry stuff, or more kinds of art than that?"
*
Kai waves a hand vaguely at the stage and says, "That's nothing. I play music and such, but mostly I'm into visual media. I paint, I draw, I sculpt. I've never tried to sell it or anything. It's just taking what's in here," He taps his chest, "And putting it out in the world."
*
Julie inclines her head. "Well, I guess you got the outfit for it, maybe you could be some kind of big time painter and all, too."
*
Kai grins and ducks his head. With a shrug, he says, "Nah, I don't know. There are so many good painters. I've just been playing around with colors, psychedelic." He ashes his cigarette. "One of these days I'll put up a mural that won't get painted over."
*
Julie hrms, "Psychowho?" She lights a smoke of her own. "I dunno though, could be some alleys around here they wouldn't mind a coat of paint on, anyway."
*
"Psychedelic," Kai says, perking up. "Oh, it's great. All these vivid color and abstract shapes. I did my living room like a moonscape with all these colorful… things. It's hard to describe. But if you stare at the walls long enough, it'll blow your mind."
*
Julie nods, "Heh, moonscape. Now there's some poetry. See, I bet just maybe we'll actually see what that's like. I think President Johnson really wants to go on with all that stuff. Speaking of things getting done. "
*
Kai gets a distant look in his eyes. "I hope I live to see that day. To see humanity come that far. And think of what getting there will do! No more wars, no more brother against brother. Because the Earth is going to be smaller and we're all going to be that much bigger."
*
Julie says, "End of the decade, they said. I figure even people who don't like poetry don't want the Commies getting there first."
*
Kai huffs a breath, smoke unfurling from his lips. "The Ruskies won't get there before the US. Americans love to win too much, and the Russians have a certain fatalism to them. Sure, they'll make a good show, but…" He smiles, adding, "And you can trust me on this. I've got no dog in this race. I'm not even from here."
*
Julie hehs, a little. "I kinda figured. You get some phrases kinda sidewise. Where's 'not here' that you're from, then?"
*
Kai waves a hand and says, "London." Which would explain the accent. "My parents speak Norwegian so they're why I sound the way I do. Things get lost in translation." Even Allspeak isn't flawless. "But I've been in America most of my adult life. I like it here."
*
Julie ahs, "Well, great thing about New York, that."