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It's been a couple days since the terrorist attack, and things around Mutant Town are a bit touchy. Its not that, for once, the mutants think they might be blamed — apparently Russia did it. But when tensions are up, they tend to be up here more then elsewhere. Still, the Eight Ball is a safe place. Even for those who don't blend.
And today, Josh does not blend at all. He's the picture of the All American Jock, the Golden Boy: but today it's literal, with skin of metallic gold. He's sitting in the corner, looking relaxed and peaceful despite tension. When he's showing, there's few places where he doesn't feel nervous, but this is one of them. There's a bottle of the absolute cheapest whiskey on the table, and a shot glass: and every so often he tosses a drink back, even if its more like gasoline then alcohol.
*
Jean-Paul does not blend. It's not so much that he looks completely human as that he looks like he could be ready to have tea at the Ritz. Plus looking completely human, the bouncer has stopped him and refused to let him in. Until JP is standing behind him in a millisecond and tapping him on the shoulder. Point proven. Stepping into the pool hall, he looks around, giving a small nod to those who look at him and catch his eyes before walking over to the bar.
*
Josh looks up from his drink, eyeing the newcomer for a moment — and then he pauses, his expression taking on a rather curious look, even as his head tilts. He can't immediately place why, but the man looks familiar to him. Deciding to figure out why, he rises, idly grabbing his bottle and shot glass, and makes his way to the bar as well. He takes a seat up by the man, and nods his head in a friendly fashion, "Hey, there." A golden smile is offered. "Have we met? You look familiar but I can't quite place exactly why."
*
Jean-Paul scanned the scanty display of bottles behind the bartender before ordering a whiskey by brand. Waiting for the drink, he looks over at Josh when he sits. "At the fair where your Capitaine spoke. You were tending to him." He studies Josh's face a moment before his gaze looks down at his hands. "An interesting color choice. Fashion statement or fate?"
*
There's a moment's pause, and Josh shakes his head, "I don't think that's it." But he shrugs, and nods his head, "I did what I could there. I couldn't save them all, but if I had pushed even a little more I probably would have fallen into a coma right there. As it is I barely made it back to my car before passing out." As for his skin, he lifts a hand up to run it through his hair and sigh softly, "Fate. If I use my gift to heal, voila. Gold. I don't especially mind except it makes wandering around town rather annoying. Its also what got me fired from my job, suddenly being gold. You'd think a hospital would appreciate a healer for a surgeon, but no." He sounds a bit bitter, but not as much as he used to.
*
"And so they would if the healer was human." Jean-Paul states, nodding his thanks to the bartender when the drink is placed before him. "Had I known you were in such poor condition, I could have taken you to the hospital as well. But done is done."
*
"I didn't need hospitalization; there's nothing they could do for me, not really." Josh shakes his head slowly, pouring himself a shot, and ducking it back. He winces a bit: gasoline is fun to drink. He sounds slightly buzzed, but only that. "And I'm not sure what kind of treatment I'd get at a hospital while gold. It's just a cost. The more I heal the more it weighs on me and I have to sleep it off… and Captain was not just hurt, but dead. Pulling someone back from that is especially… draining."
*
That claim gets a raise eyebrow. "You can bring the dead back to life?" Jean-Paul asks, sounding… dubious. To say the least. "If that is true, you could make a fortune. Or be locked up the American government for research. Or to heal their soldiers in combat as they send their troops out to kill people who won't bow down to them."
*
Josh nods his head casually, "Only if there hasn't been enough time for decay to set in — or if the body was put on ice quick enough. The cells of the brain may be dead, but they're still *there*. Its all still organic matter. It just needs to get jumpstarted, have its state reset. But if decay sets in, bacteria will have started eating the tissue and at that point there's not enough to *heal*." He shrugs, though there is a bit of a wince, "Besides, a lot of your body is alive for even days after you're dead. It takes awhile for all the cells to actually die. But… yeah. There's a whole range of situations and various types of kidnapping I'd rather avoid. I'm not powerful enough to be a combat healer on that high of a scale though: I might get through two or three then be in a coma for weeks."
*
"It would be best to downplay your abilities and not admit to being able to revive the dead." Jean-Paul suggests. "That kind of information could make someone quite wealthy by selling it - and you - to the highest bidder." He flicks a quick glance around then quirks a brow at Josh. Like someone in here, for instance.
*
There's a bit of a shrug, and Joshs hakes his head, "These are my people. We're all mutants here, brothers. No one is going to betray me here: if they do, the others would turn on them. Besides." His expression turns grim, "Healing is hard. Hurting is not. I'm far from defenseless. Worst case scenario… I have friends. And they know what to do."
*
Jean-Paul merely lifts one shoulder in a shrug. It's his life. "So you are the one the Capitaine wants to recruit." he says, now looking Josh over speculatively. "I can see why, if you did in fact bring him back to life. You imply you can harm as well as heal?"
*
"I don't know that he's even aware of that: well he probably knows I healed him, but I doubt he remembers being dead. Probably just blacking out." admits Josh, but then he looks…severe. Grave. "My power isn't healing: my power is control over organic matter. Healing is one application I can put that control towards: knitting wounds back together, regenerating lost limbs, that's all just different variations of controlling organic matter. I do that, Gold." He gestures to his face, "Healing takes really understanding the body. I'm a medical doctor, or was before they fired me, and since this… Anyways. Hurting is easier. I don't need to know even what I'm doing to just tell the organic matter to break down. That said, doing specific things that are harmful does take knowledge. Or do things like… put someone to sleep. Wipe short term memory— can't do long term memory, can't edit memory, but short term memory is stored in a certain place in the brain and I can just wipe that." he shrugs, "If I harm, I turn black. Its… difficult to get out of black."
*
"I see. A useful ability. And the Capitaine is a soldier. It is no wonder he would want a healer for his team even not knowing about the other." Knocking back his drink, Jean-Paul sets the glass on the bar and taps the rim for a refill. "Horrible stuff. But I wished to see how the Americans treated their mutants and one does not do that from afar."
*
Tilting his head, Josh tries to figure out Jean-Paul's accent. "French?" is his guess, since he doesn't especially know a lot about Canada, let alone Quebec. He gestures to his bottle, "That's worse, I bet. As for how they treat us…" He shakes his head slowly, "There's these lovely people, the Friends of Humanity? Few months back, massacred sixty eight people right here in Mutant Town. They burned the Sacramento Mutant Town to the ground. Officially the government tolerates us, unofficially, its only a matter of time before things get worse." He pauses, "Wait, what team?"
*
"Quebecois." Jean-Paul answers. Not to be confused with Canadian. His expression turns grim when he hears about the FoH. "Had I been here, they would not have succeeded. Or lived." In fact, he looks like he's considering hunting some down. Until he's distracted by a question. "Quelle? Ah, the team the Capitaine spoke of. The Revengers or some such. A fitting name considering what your country is doing."
*
It takes Josh a moment, "Oh, the french-canadians." He nods his head a little. He's, apparently, a little ignorant of geography, even considering Quebec is rather close. He hesitates, "And had I been here, I might have saved some. But…" he pauses, "There were a lot of them, you sure you could have stopped them all? What can you do— if you don't mind my asking? I know some of us consider it a bit rude to ask." He hesitates again, "Is this a mutant team? I mean isn't Captain America a human?"
*
"Oui." Jean-Paul agrees. "I am the fastest man alive." he states matter of factly. "They would not even have seen me if I did not wish them to. As for the Capitaine, as far as I know he is. He also mentioned someone called the Wasp but that is it so far. I told him I would consider it, depending on who is also on the teama nd if I can abide them."
*
There's some hesitation, uncertainty. Josh would like to help people. He's tired of the war, even if he thinks its needed. He's tired of punishing people. But… "Is this a government initiative? I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the government knowing what I can do, where I live." he says softly, throwing back another shot of rot-gut whiskey, "After all, you said it. They might decide to lock me in a room or study me, or something like that." He squints a moment, "If you can 'abide' them? What, you won't join up if someone is a jerk?" Pause, "Wait. Quebecois. You're that skiier." Recognition finally dawns on him, "Huh, Hi. Shit, you got kicked in the head worse then I did, and here I am wollowing in self-pity over my life getting turned upside down."
*
"Non. I would not associate myself with your government." Jean-Paul assures Josh. "Nor be part of anything they have a say in." This time he sips his drink, ignoring the quality of it. "Say rather if many are… 'jerks'." The recognition gets a nod. "Oui. Jean-Paul Beaubier. I would advise basking in anger instead. Use it to becomes stronger and determined."
*
There's a slight wince, and Josh shakes his head slowly, "I need more then anger. If I'm angry, … I've done things in anger about… this. I'm not feeling very comfortable with some of the things I've done. I found one of those Friends and… punished him." He doesn't sound regretful, just… uncomfortable. "He deserves it, he deserves worse — but I wouldn't let him die. But, still. It feels like a perversion of my gift. I need something… *more* then just bitter or anger." He sighs. But still, he offers his golden hand, "Doctor Josh Foley, though around here I'm more known as Elixir. You doing the basking in anger thing? You lost your medals, and all that nonsense about the other stuff—"
*
Jean-Paul's gaze flicks to the hand before he clasps it. "Elixir. A medicinal potion. Often beneficial but usually tasting extremely bad." Fitting, given he 'punished' someone without letting him die. "An amusing name to use. I go by Northstar when I do not wish to use my own name." One hand gestures dismissively. "That is all in the past. I have moved on and now I lecture on the evils of government oppression and imperialism."
*
"I take issue with that 'tasting extremely bad' part." Josh snickers, the sound trailing into a grin after a moment. His handshake is firm without being showy. "Northstar? Interesting name for a speedster. Why that? YOu're the brightest star in the sky? If we follow you we can always know which way home is?" More seriously he tilts his head, "Lecture where? I imagine between mutant and the other thing you don't get a lot of invitations to polite society."
*
"Indeed." Jean-Paul answers. All of the above. "I also emit a rather bright light when I wish to." Finishing his drink, he motions for a third. "Universities. Resistance groups. Many groups of leftists who oppose discrimination, imperialism and oppression.":
*
"You can run very fast — and emit light. I swear, mutations are strange sometimes." Josh shakes his head, but he's still smiling. "Ah, I hadn't realized even Universities had gotten that liberal of late. But… I'm a bit out of touch with humanity in general these days. Is there a lot of imperialism in the world, though? It seems all the old Empires are dead, and besides NATO verses the Warsaw Pact, countries seem to be getting smaller, not bigger. Though I suppose our treatment of South and Central America is imperialism run amok."
*
"Some of them. Not many. And sometimes I get invited to speak off campus so it doesn't need university permission." Jean-Paul explains. "And east Asia. Korea. And now Vietnam. The West might not be invading directly but they're turning them into battlefields in their war with China. Imperialism is still strong, it's just shifted to control instead of conquering."
*
Josh has to nod at that, sighing a little bit, "You'd think we'd have better things to do then wage wars over economic systems, or persecute mutants, blacks, homosexuals. I mean, there's aliens up there. Now's the time for us all to realize we're all… we have a lot more in common no matter what divides us. But, no. The world gets smaller every day and we fight neighbors still."
*
"It will merely add another class of people - from whatever planet - that they can discriminate against and antagonize." Jean-Paul states. "Not that they need antagonizing given their actions against us. But those in power don't think that way. They just say another group that isn't them and feel threatened."
*
"I mean…" Josh's voice is deeper: he's still not drunk — even though he's drank quite a lot if the bottle was full — but he's a bit past buzzed at the moment. "…before it was one thing for us to see illegal immigrants as 'aliens' and foreigners as different from ourselves. But we're all still human. Even us, mutants: you wouldn't believe how *small* the genetic difference is between a baseline and one of us. Trust me, I know. Its easy to pick out the mutant gene. To awaken it if its dormant or silence it if its active." He shakes his head slowly, "You'd think *aliens* showing up and declaring themselves to have formerly played god at us, before killing our President… would make us see eachother as brothers."
*
"You would think." Jean-Paul agrees, shrugging ever so slightly. "But those in power don't see themselves as 'human' along with everyone else. They see themselves as heterosexual, rich, white, males with power and everyone else… is not. To do otherwise means acknowledging us as equals."
*
"Of course, we aren't in any way equals." Josh wrinkles his nose a bit, "We're the future, they're the past. There's no way the mutant phenomenon is going to stay just a minority. Evolution will not be content with that. Sometime in the not too distant future— maybe ten years, maybe a hundred— everyone will be mutants. I imagine the socioeconomic system will have to change— and radically so— when there's someone like you and someone like me who is just… normal."
*
"And they will cease to exist. Which terrifies them." Jean-Paul says. "You answer your own question." That last gets a quirked brow. "You are saying you're normal?"
*
Josh stares at Jean-Paul for a long moment, laughing after the pregnant pause as he shakes his head, "No, no. Not now. The baselines are 'normal'. But in the future, when there's only us, when everyone is extraordinary, then I'll be normal. It will be unremarkable that someone can do what I can do. Maybe others will be able to do it, too. Hopefully. It'd make me sad if the ability to heal popped up only once."
*
"Being able to bring back the dead will never be normal." Jean-Paul states. "Someone able to eliminate diseases and illness will be in great demand." Glancing around the pool hall, he says quietly "Do keep in mind that not all mutations are beneficial or useful."
*
"Well, yes, I admit the *scale* of power I have seems to be.. a little astonishing, even if I have to touch someone to use it. But I know someone else who can heal. She was there, too. She helped bolster me, or I wouldn't have been able to pull much more then just the Captain back." Josh then considers for a long moment, "I can cure cancer, no problem: if you have a virus or bacterial infection, I can clean it out. But I can only work on an individual, person by person basis. I'm afraid I won't ever be able to stop, say, an epidemic or outbreak, not without practically killing myself in the process." That said, he nods his head slowly, "Its true, some aren't. But that, too, is the nature of evolution. Those that aren't beneficial are showing up now, early on, and its highly likely by the time everyone is a mutant, most will be. Besides, if someone has a mutation that isn't beneficial or useful.." He lifts his hand again, "I can suppress it."
*
Jean-Paul considers everything Josh just said then slowly nods. "I see. Hopefully, there will not be a large number of people who have your particular ability or some variation of it. I can easily envision a government of mutants, suppressing the gene before birth so that only those deemed 'worthy' are able to be part of the ruling class. They would, of course, be willing to activate it in those who pay enough, either in money or service."
*
Josh freezes in place, a sort of dawning horror registering on his features, "That is… horrible." He looks almost sick, in fact. "That said… I can't suppress an inactive gene. I can only activate a dormant gene, or deactivate an active one. At birth the gene is dormant. So the worst-case-scenario mutant tyrants would have to be on the lookout at puberty when … whatever it is … that naturally causes expression triggers. And deactivate then. Then again, I would see more likely some sort of academy system: I can't tell *what* someones ability is, and this scenario the government-of-mutants would want to know what the ability is. So you go to mandatory Mutant Academy, and if you're worthy— and if your ability is useful— you graduate and keep it. If not, your deactivated and a second-class or worse citizen. And anyone who doesn't attend is hunted down." He shudders.
*
"Or just the white heterosexual, rich male mutants are allowed to have power." Jean-Paul muses. "After all, when everyone is a mutant, all other differences will continue to be stand out as being not 'them'. That type of thinking won't change."
*
Shaking his head, Josh's expression changes to grim, "They'd still have to set up this whole program to wait for activation and deactivate. Still though, this is depressing. I'm going to have to let myself start getting drunk." He lifts his bottle and takes a deep swig off of it. "There has to be a way to not be… like this. To be better. The Brotherhood… no, they go too far the other way. There has to be a way to stop this. Even though its never really been any other way. Man, Jean-Paul, you are killing my buzz."
*
"The world is killing your 'buzz'." Jean-Paul corrects. "I merely state what is. But there are those who try to change it. To make things better. Humans, whites, even rich men. These are people we must ally with, help them gain power as well as ourselves. Form our own government to replace the corruption currently in power."
*
Blink. Josh stares at Jean-Paul for another long moment, "Form our own government? Where? Its not like the current governments anywhere are going to just give up some territory. Land is power. Well, nukes are also power, but power likes to define nice lines on land and they take their claims very seriously. Or do you mean you want to get elected here?"
*
"Replacing them in an election would be the ideal way of doing it." Jean-Paul agrees. "The less than ideal way involves revolution. All significant changes throughout history involved violence. To what degree is the question."
*
"That's what the Brotherhood is about." offers Josh with a softer voice, staring long and hard at his bottle, "They believe that the non-mutant world has already begun a war against our kind, and Martin Luther's methods don't work for us. The power disparity between mutants and baselines is such that the powers that be will not accept anything short of a revolution. They believe the baselines started the war— and this is a war— and now the only thing to do is to strike back. The problem is, that's bad press. That turns the baselines who aren't against us, against us. But is there any other way? Would joining this… Revengers? And fighting for everyone, prove the value of mutants? I healed a woman the other day: a reporter. She wants to do an interview with me. She'll hide my identity, we'll mask the specific details of my mutation— the gold thing, where I operate— but she thinks if she can write a detailed story of what a healer who was cast out… that it might change some minds. Would that help? I don't know. I want to do something. I need more then revenge."
*
"There are whites who support the negroes. Heterosexuals who support the homosexuals. Men who support them women. And humans who support the mutants." Jean-Paul points out. "These are the people who will fight for us politically. Some even in other ways. To consider all humans the enemy is a self-fulfilling prophecy, self-defeating and simply blind."
*
"Yet, how can you support them, and keep your people safe, at the same time? If we don't fight at all, we watch our brothers and sisters die. Women, men, children. I'm not sure anymore if fighting helps, but I don't see how not fighting is viable at all. " He pauses, then adds, "Its not that the Brotherhood or anyone thinks that 'all humans are the enemy', that's an oversimplification. Its that Humanity, capital-H, is the enemy. That doesn't mean every individual, but it means the organizations and structures of the species. The Brotherhood doesn't kill indiscriminately, they don't attack any human they meet. That's insanity."
*
"Quite simple really. I don't consider all mutants my brothers." Jean-Paul states. "Not any more than I consider everyone from Quebec a brother. And certainly not all those from Canada. Nor everyone who is white or male. Why should I favor someone who I don't know, who perhaps believes what I do not, merely because of what he is? Is that any better than white men favoring only white men?"
*
At that, Josh frowns, and… immediately his drunkenness simply vanishes. From his voice to demeanor to eyes. Its just gone. "I don't see how that helps or solves the problem in any way. It ignores the fact that almost the only strength a minority has when faced with a hostile majority, is unity. It is completely different then white men favoring only white men: they do so from a position of power and privilege. We stand together from a position of weakness, presenting true strength only when we stand as one." He shakes his head, "I would heal anyone who was in need that I saw, but if I had to choose between a mutant and a human— if I could only help one— I'd choose the mutant." Then again, the first person he saved at the fair was Captain America.
*
"Then you are little different from any other supremacist." Jean-Paul states flatly. "I will judge the worth of someone based on their beliefs and their actions. If a human sides with me when a mutant does not, my choice is clear."
*
Josh's mouth stands open, looking deeply offended. "Well, fuck you, too." And with that he stands up and turns to stalk away.
*
"Not likely." is all Jean-Paul says and finishes his drink.