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It's not a friendly place, at least for normies, unless they also happen to live in Mutant Town and have friends or family who are mutants. Of course not everyone who looks odd, is a mutant. Some of them are just /mutated/ which is close enough, right? Admittedly there's a lot worse looking mutated individuals than Leonard Samson, the good doctor is currently playing pool while waiting for someone to show up, or something to happen, or maybe just an opponent to play pool with. The Television is showing the nightly news, which of course mentions nothing about Mutant Town or any attacks upon it's populace by normals. It only mentions the news which is fit for public consumption. So it's practically useless.
As Doc Samson finishes up his run on the pool table the place starts to fill up a little bit more as people come in for their evening drinks, socializing, or whatever other reason they might have to come into the Eight Ball tonight.
Julie has been sitting at one of the tables near a corner with some of the neighborhood kids, the table scattered with various hot-dog and hamburger baskets, mostly sodas, and …math books and circuit diagrams. Dizzy seems to have been teaching a little class in something to said kids, a few obvious mutants, some at least not so obviously. "Awright, that looks pretty good, Ted, I think you finally got that thing with the figuring worked out, now everything adds up real neat, don't it? She glances at a slightly-oversized-for-her racer's watch worn with the face on the inside of her wrist, and says, "Awright, time for all of youse to get home before your Mamas blame me for spoiling dinner," she winks. "For next week, we're gonna do some circuit tests and a bit less of this wearing out pencils." The kids nod and give farewells with various degrees of orderliness, and Diz gets up to head for the bar, just holding up a finger to the barkeep, who returns a thumbs-up. She sort of nods to Samson, a bit of a new face, as she passes the pool table. "Howyadoin," she greets, in a local New York Italian accent.
Doc Samson studies the lay of the table, "Just working out a physics problem." He answers to Julie, turning his attention briefly in her attention for a moment to smile. "It's a bit trickier without the pencils and paper to work out the numbers but… an afficionado, or a good hustler, should have an instinctive grasp of such physics. So I am told." He lines up his last shot but ends up missing the second bank and scratching. Poof. Game over. If he were playing with anyone else. With a wince he shakes his shaggy head and chuckles at his own misfortune, "Clearly, pool shark is not in my repertoire of career choices." He moves to put the cue back up and then heads over towards the bar, pointing towards the taps and then holding up a single finger to order a beer. Settling into a space nearby enough to Julie to talk but not so close as to be invading her space Doc Samson smiles, "I saw what you were doing with the kids. That is pretty good of you. Not even the pretense of a local school in the neighborhood?" He asks curiously.
Julie shakes her head, there, she's having a single Schaeffer poured, herself, as she leans on the bar and looks to Samson, "Eh, that's kind of the problem, the school's *not* in the neighborhood and a lot of these kids kinda don't fit in. But, there's the community center, and these boys kinda took an interest in the trades, so I been kinda helping em catch up. She sighs, and takes out a cigarette case, which seems to be engraved with a pair of oblong googley eyes as some sort of company logo, offering one over. "Little more left topspin might have done ya back there, as physics go," she smirks.
Shaking his head with a polite smile and negative gesture at the offer of a cigarette, Doc Samson looks back over towards the pool table. "You're probably right, for me… it's more about just making sure I don't drive the stick right through the ball, the table, and anything else in it's way. I'll work more on top spin at a later date." He smiles in self-depreciating fashion as he looks down at the floor and rakes a hand through his long green hair. "Yeah I guess I shouldn't be surprised. If basic medicine isn't getting in, then education isn't going to get in either. I guess I will need to move a bit faster on that foundation and get it up and running with more urgency." Looking back over towards Julie he studies her for a few long moments, "Circuit tests. Electronics?" He asks curiously, "Is that what you're helping them learn?"
Julie shrugs. "A few basics, anyway, mostly stuff you'll find in a car or house wiring, you know, practical stuff, but we're working on a bit of radio stuff right now, cause that's kind of a fun way to learn some, and, if they can fix a radio or TV or something, then they got one, or can sell it, maybe get work." She lights a smoke for herself, and thinks. "So, I guess you're one of those strong-guys, right? With a foundation and everything."
"One of those strong guys with a foundation?" Doc Samson asks curiously, "I wasn't aware that I was part of a 'type'. The foundation is just a new idea I am doing after talking with Lorna about the dire lack of medicine in the area. I can help, so I want to help, that's pretty much the start and end of it." He pays for his beer and then takes a pull from the bottle, settling in he swallows the bitter amber liquid and then looks back towards Julie. "Electronics is a good skill to be teaching anyone. They're the way of the future for sure. Without them we wouldn't be trying to land on the moon and such. Let alone television, radio, telephones, and all the other instant means of communication that exist now." He offers his right hand as he introduces himself, "I'm Leonard."
Julie takes the hand there. Eyes light up a bit when Lorna's name is mentioned. "Dizzy. And, well, I known a couple of strong-guys, and someone with a foundation, I guess not both at once. You know Lorna? I been kind of worried about her, she's had a hard time lately. " She pauses. "Anyway, I kind of like good old mechanical, but yaknow, stuff comes up. No sense not knowing about it."
"We've met a couple times." Samson says at the question, "She gave me some pointers on where to find a friend of mine, or at least, a solid place to start looking and it's for her that I am making the foundation for honestly. It was primarily for medicine and stuff like that but no reason we can't expand it to include education as well." He relaxes comfortably into the bar, resting his side and a meaty elbow on it. "I'm a psychologist and psychiatrist with a pretty exclusive clientelle so my hope is that I can get some of them involved in getting this foundation going. I have /some/ money but not like some of my clients." He takes another drink from his beer, "Lorna needs friends. She needs people she can talk to, be social with, and stop feeling like the weight of the whole world is on her shoulders. She's going to be a challenge for sure but… I am pretty stubborn." He chuckles, "Mechanics is another good thing to get into if you're looking for steady employment though. People will always need their vehicles worked on."
Julie nods. "Yeah, she's had a hard time lately, and, well, her Pop's something else, kinda demanding, though. Always been kind of shy, but everyone likes her, pretty much." She takes in a bit more about this Leonard's charitable aims, and nods. "Done a bit of custom work for someone else with a foundation, he's been helping out around here, too. Hardest part is, I guess people trying to find a place in the world when everyone thinks they're some kind of wrong or scary or whatever, and this area ain't been the same since the shipyards and docks dried up."
"The way I see it, is we're all just Americans. We all need to stand by each other, doesn't matter what race, religion or creed we are. Unfortunately, I know that's not a popular opinion in some places but up here, in New York City I find it depressing that a city built by and for the underdogs and downtrodden can just allow this kind of thing to happen." Doc Samson shakes his head a bit and then finishes his beer, setting the bottle down. "Alright, so let's pretend I am successful and I am able to find enough support for the Foundation to get it up and running. We know that medicine and health care are lacking, education is non-existant, is it the trifecta? Are people starving too?" He asks seriously, concern in his tone and expression.
Julie shakes her head. "I think that part's getting better, anyhow, a lot of folks are just poor, but there's help that way. Even a couple little restaurants got going. Guess there's been more attacks lately, accordingly. People that got hate don't want to see this place do well, and all. Hard getting city services in here if they break something important, too. Kind of how I got this little class of mine: I cobbled up a generator truck when they didn't have power." She winks. "Some strong guy I know helped with that."
"Seems a fairly common power set, big, strong, hard to hurt. There's a fair few of us." Doc Samson says with a smile, "I'm glad you found the help you needed and yeah I've heard there was an attack recently but I wasn't here for it. Wish I was but at the same time… I am not sure someone like me would do a lot of good. I'd just amplify the violence since that's really the only thing I can do when attacked. Either shield something or someone with my own body or… use violence against the violent. It's not a lot of options unless I was willing to tear down a building to construct a barricade or something." He scrunches his nose a bit, "Think that would be a little bit overboard…" He looks around, "There is a diner, I know, but I meant more along the lines of groceries, like an actual store, convenience or otherwise, where people can buy food in order to cook meals at their homes."
Julie nods, "Well, if that's what you can do, people need it. A lot of the mutants here really don't got powers to speak of, and the bad guys don't ask too many questions anyway when they start shooting kids and families. Anyway, if you can protect people, that's real good. There's one heck of a neighborhood watch here once they get going."
That makes Samson laugh, "Tell me about it, I came into town the other day with an oversized gamma detector to try and track gamma radiation in hopes of finding a friend of mine and Lorna pretty much attacked me for the reason of: Wearing a labcoat, and having a van. We got it worked out in the end but that's a double edged sword. You can defend yourselves, but if done in the wrong way then the people who are attacking can try and spin doctor it and use it against you. That's another thing I am hoping we can do, is get some positive press involved on the area. Talk about the good stories, the regular people with or without mutations that are struggling here because of the racist bias against them." He considers, "Do you know of any community leaders? Lorna kept speaking of a Brotherhood but she made it sound like they were no longer around."
Julie nods. Ahs. "Oh, yeah, I guess that figures, that really musta rubbed her the wrong way. People been putting the bag on mutants lately, doing real bad stuff to them." She actually seems a shade suspicious herself all of a sudden. "Anyhow, maybe you'll see Coal Man before too long, he's kind of a community elder. Leaks coal dust out his eyes all the time. She hrms. "Don't know too much about the Brotherhood, really. Got some real radicals, I guess, but they'd crack down hard on anyone comes here trying to play Krystallynacht." Guess they been laying low for some reason, kind of gave those 'Friends of Humanity' a good smacking around of some kind, but something got pretty out of hand at some rally over in Queens. Ain't heard much since then. But it's been fairly quiet a while since."
"Yeah I've heard." And Doc Samson doesn't sound pleased with the idea either, frowning, "That's another reason I want to get the spotlight onto all the bad that's going on here. I have to believe that most people are inherently good. They just are afraid of the unknown, so the more they know, the more they see that mutants, and mutated individuals like myself, are just people like them at heart then there's a lot less to be afraid of. It's the same thing as if facing someone who is bigger, or stronger, than you. Sure, they /could/ probably beat you up or hurt you, maybe even kill you, or someone else. They don't though because they are a part of society and just want to live their lives like everyone else. It's the people who don't respect the rule of law and society who are criminals no matter who or what they are." He looks over at Julie, "Dizzy, I wasn't here to kidnap someone. I was tracking the Hulk. I've got to find him before he has another episode and kills or hurts people on accident. I am here to help, I am a /doctor/ because I want to help people. Not hurt them."
Julie ohs, at the last. "Oh, I get it. I guess he'd kinda stand out, even around here. I guess he don't make things easier, but yeah." She hrms. "I mean, most of the people I know are normies, so, I kind of see it. Guess they don't realize they can look like an angry mob to everyone different in one way or another, …I mean, especially when they's forming angry mobs or hauling people off to experiment on em." She sips her beer, there, "But I guess that's kind of the point of trying to do better. Just about everyone new in this city goes through something like this, …it's just harder when maybe your own family is part of it or something."
"That's the thing, if he's not having an episode, he just looks like a regular normal guy. That's why I needed the gamma radiation tracker." Doc Samson explains, "But that's all in the past. Moving forwards to the future is what we need to focus on. At least in my opinion." He considers, "I wonder what sort of pressure there is on the news to hide stuff that isn't sensationalist, there's got to be a way to get stories out that bring people together rather than driving us apart."
Julie nods. "Yeah, …ain't easy on reporters, either, if people gotta play it close to the vest, they're not gonna hear much from people got something to lose, you know? Maybe someone oughtta write a book, you know, tell the truth but everyone's fictional in there or something."
Doc Samson smiles wryly, "In this day of television and moving pictures, I worry that the book is going to lose it's power and if it is fictional… then there is no one to rally behind. So there needs to be at least someone, something, absolutely real so that it cannot be denied as a fiction." He grows more somber, "But… that's what we strive to do right, save the world? It's easy to do if it's some alien menace hell bent on taking over, or a psychotic robot who wants to destroy all organic life. Saving it from each other… that's going to be the real tricky bit."
Julie ehs. "Still stories about strangers, I guess, even if they're all exposed, and you know the people want mutants dead and all don't really care. It's for everyone else if you do, I guess. They still sell a lot of books, though: dunno if anyone'd take too much on TV seriously anyway."
"Well this is a really depressing subject to talk about." Doc Samson says after a few moments of silence, "We're both doing what we can as we can, so assuming that there's not a lot else we can do right at the moment." He smiles a little, "There has to be something better to talk about, or to do, like you can show me what you meant by topspin?" He gestures towards the pool table. "Otherwise… I was hoping to run into Lorna and see how things were but I am guessing she's out there being a one woman police force."
Julie smirks, and raises her beer a little, crushing out the largely-neglected smoke. "Awright. I guess we could go looking, or shoot some pool, Bet I could get her attention if she's out there." She takes up her beer, then, and slides down off the stool.
Finishing what little is left of his beer, Doc Samson pushes away from the bar. "So Dizzy, why Dizzy?" He asks curiously, letting Julie lead either towards the pool table, or the exit, her choice. "I am guessing that it's not a given name and I can't come up with a good name that would even nickname to Dizzy… unless it was something like 'Desire' but that would be more akin to being born /now/ rather than in the past." He chuckles and then he glances at the clock on the wall. Cursing softly under his breath, "Well a story for another day. It was a pleasure to meet you Dizzy, I'll be in touch when I have more information on what we'll be able to do. If you could start putting together some information on where we could put in a school without to much difficulty for the locals then I can start seeing about getting funding to purchase it and get things going. I'm afraid I have to call the night early however. I have an appointment with a client in an hour. They have late nights."
Julie laughs. "It's a little simpler than that, but, awright, another time, then. Good luck finding your friend, there. If I run into anyone who's the Hulk in his spare time, I'll letcha know, I guess."
"Don't worry, I know who he is when he's not Hulk'd out too." Doc Samson says with a smile, "Just if you see the Hulk… well I wish I had a way for you to let me know because I am one of the few who can potentially contain him. Have a good night." He offers a wave and then makes his way for the door and out into the night.
