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JP was back on the East Coast, outside, in the cold. At least it wasn't snowing, right? JP Bonaventure was a lot of things, but the least of these was reserved, approachable, and housebroken. House-broken-into was likely much higher on that list. Mutant Town made for a good place for someone like him to melt away among the other diaspora. His leather jacket was zipped up and he was without his car, or so it seemed at the moment. He talked about it a lot and really it was the reason he and Vic ever met back when. Two women walking down the street eyes him, clutched their handbags and crossed just afraid for maybe common decency? His response? Barking at them. Because that does wonders for his image. His hands stuffed further down into his pockets to keep warm, but he didn't follow them in pursuit. He did stop at the light because being hit on an icy road was not on his to do list.
Vic's attention is drawn by the barking. He comes down to Mutant Town sometimes out of habit: he goes to a mutant school, he has mutant friends, most people just assume he's a mutant. He's not used to barking mutants, though. Maybe the man can't help it? Then he peers more closely at the man. He walks up to JP, being as he's also on the street and not wishing for a redo on getting hit in the road. "Um. Are you all right?" he asks.
The barking Cajun turned with all teh fury of defending his street cred (not that he had any built up much in NYC but he wasn't afraid to start.) "You lookin t'start a problem , pa-…Delano?" That was a surprise. "Veeektor Delano, look who got outta da box." THe grimace became a grin and there was a wry, dimpled grin of amusement. "C'mon, I can use you. What'choo doin out here?"
Vic smiles, then laughs as he says, "JP, right? Yeah, they let me out on account of not dying after all." Then he arches a brow. "Use me for what?" He settles into OldVic's habits easily enough, the slouch as he stands, hands in his pockets (not concealing a piece this time), and the way he cases the street. "Just heading down to Eight Ball. Those pitchers of beer won't drink themselves."
JP slapped Vic in the shoulder without barking at him. "Had someone that way I was lookin t'doin business with, mm?" The scrappy greaser nodded Vic across the street turning on his heels and walking backwards. Someone almsot hit him as he stepped into the street prematurely. THey honked. He gave them the finger. Life went on. "How long yous been out? Who's still doin business these days?" When asked though what he needed Delano for there was that grin that came back with a squint to one eye, "What yous no trust me anymore? Maybe is just hte beer." It was never jsut the beer.
Vic winces as JP's nearly hit. Some wounds are still fresh even if they have already long healed. "I've been out for, yeesh, since June? The time flies, man." He has to think. He keeps up with this stuff but it still feels like it's happening to someone else. "Franko's in the auto business. Johnnie down on 53rd got out of laundering. Get this, he's getting married, if you can believe it. Says he wants to go clean for his kid. I don't know if you know Joe Brookmeyer, but he's in the pen again. Larceny." He shoulder-nudges JP and says, "Eh, I trust you, JP. It's the streets I got my eye on. Maybe you should, too. You're going to be flat as a cat if you're not careful."
JP loved VIctor for the run down. If he ever wated to know the lay of hte yard, he was hte guy to talk to. He'd never call Vic a stoolie, but if there was something goin on with someone it seemed to naturally find its way back to Vic didn't it? At hte word on Johnnie JP frowned. He looked to Vic with a very serious look, levity on pause, "Yeah then he's out and we ain't bringin em in." At the life advice about being hit by a car? Gearhead laughed patting his old buddy on the back. "They hit me in a dream they'd best be wakin up an' apologizin'. Joooooey got pinched again? Shit, not like I can shake a stick at that. Beein in few times. You livin round here then?"
Vic nods firmly. "Yeah, you don't mess with a guy with a kid." He grins, though he eyes the cars as they cross. "Yeah, Joey's not very good at what he does," Vic says. "I think he just likes being somwhere he gets a cot and three hots. Frankly, the food is the worst part of the place." He puffs up a bit as he says, "I'm living in the Village, man. Can you believe it? I'm going to school, getting all sorts of learning. I'm not going back to Atica, I'll tell you that for free."
JP took a deep breath and nodded. Tooooo close to home for him. Too close. The talk of the Village and school got a snort half of disbelief from him. "Yous find you'self a sugah daddy or somethin or just get real good at liftin shit that you took a whole apartment? You remember Sal used'ta do that. He used to talk about breaking into places for sale and puttin himself up. Crazy. Yous cannot get me goin back to school though. Why you doin that? You ran out of people's business here to be up on yous' goin to get historically nosy now?" There was a tone of admiration to that and could picture Vic rolling up on Shakespere going 'so about this Othello guy, did he used to date MacBeth's sister or what'sup?'.
Vic's smile just broadens, and butter wouldn't melt in his mouth at the mention of a sugar daddy. "I got the chance to go," he says. "And I took it. I like History, man. You learn how to do shit now by studying the way they used to do it before. You get, you know, context for stuff. Like these streets we're walking, you know how many people have fought and died just trying to get a better break? Now there's mutants trying to walk those footsteps, and if you know the way it went down before, you know how to prepare for when it comes this time. Dig me?"
JP squint to Vic and looked up and down the street, "I don' see no one helping out these people any, Delano. If there was help to be had you htink any of us life like this? Mmmmm non." It wasn't hard to get agreement out of the guy that thumbs his nose at authority. He generally never tells people what he's got up his sleeve but he slid the advantage to Vic, "You got a problem with mutants though yous best tell me now and you' pal JP'll give you a five minute head start…maybe. But bes' t'tell me now or we's gon' have an issue and I don' want an issue with you, Delano."
Vic shakes his head and says, "Oh no, I've got no beef. My sugar daddy's a mutant. Hell, my whole new family's mutants, yeah? Not the ones you're born to, but the ones you end up with. Nah, I'm the one where, if you've got a thing against mutants, you better say it to my face." He shoulder-nudges JP again. "We've got no issues, you and me, JP. I'm one twist of fate away from being one of these people. Long story. But if you're one of them, I've got your back."
JP felt that was sufficient enough grounds to out himself to an old buddy. "These people? My people man." he glanced sideways. JP wasn't one of the more obvious mutations that were out there but he was fessin up to it. "Actually… m'whole family. S'what got me into trouble in tha' firs' place, mon ami. Ain't no breaks out there for our kind. We make out own. Tha's fine. So yous got yo'self a suga' daddy? Where I get me one of them?"
Vic admits, "My grandpa's a mutant." He fails to mention just who his grandfather is. He chuckles and adds, "I didn't try to get one. He just came to me one night, and I wasn't gonna say no. Nah, he's actually really great." Vic's features all but glow as he smiles, thinking of that sugar daddy. "But I earn my keep. I keep things fixed up around the place, and I make a mean stack of pancakes."
JP arched his eyebrow. "Fella huh? Good for you. Look out for you'self first, Vic." Dide JP try to move up in the world? Naw, but forward? For certain. He grinned and laughed, "Hell I can make a pancake. We was jes' talkin about that. Would you believe we met a gal that never had no pancake before? Craziest thing. Now apparen'ly You' pal JP here has to learn what a latkes i. Don' think they's strappin cash though. Still, good food and good company is bein a hard thing t'buy."
Vic smiles crookedly. "Yeah." He ducks his head. He's got a fella. And there's relief in that small shift of expression. Not everyone is all that understanding, especially among the machismo-laden crime circles. "What? Who's never had a pancake? They're like the basic food. "Latkes are potato pancakes, man. Jewish people eat them at Hanukkah." His grandpa is Jewish too, but never mind about him.
JP had a very avant garde prison life that involved pushing people's buttons and waiting for them to say something about it. He wasn't going to judge Vic on that. he was focused on the Latkes. "Yeaaaaah they said as much. Somethin about learn the recipe when someone dies or somethin. She from Ukraine or somethin. I dunno. Cute tho." He looked over to Vic and then over his shoulder out of habit for concern of being trailed and into the place they went. "Man, Been thinkin about gettin a parttime gig here. Need access to a kitchen."
Vic grins when this mystery woman is called cute. "Yeah? She like you? You gonna ask her out or something?" He does the same, always casually casing the area, three hundred sixty degrees of awareness. The best fight is the one you don't get into. "I got access to a kitchen," he says. "But yeah, it's nice to have. Maybe this girl can teach you a few things."
JP hmmmmm'd to himself thoughtfully, "Tha' I dunno. Ri'now I'm worried about gettin ma'feet back under me. Who knows, maybe I take a page outta Johnny's book. Steal me a house, yeah?" Hell with his sister helping they might even be able to, though that would really go against his goal. "But then they know where t'come look fer me. Can' have that. You know anyone here? Hook a buddy up with a gig?"
Vic says, "Just make sure the guy you steal it from isn't packing," Vic says. He looks around, and he says, " Yeah, there's a guy called Gil who can breathe underwater. I don't know what he's doing in winter, but this summer, he was diving around the docks, picking off the shipping rigs and looking for stuff tourists have dropped into the drink. Last I heard, he was looking for folks to help him clean up the goods and get them on the street. I don't think the heat's caught on yet where this stuff's coming from."
JP chortled, "Depends how you mean that that might convince me t'stay, hell." He grabbed a chair and flipped it around and dropped into an unceremonious sit folding his arms across the back of the chair. He was very interested in this. "Hell I'll have to tell mon frere this one. He swim." He didn't elaborate on how but it seemed a qualifier. "Eeeeh what police dunno won' hurt us right? You okay by th's ound of it. Is good t'hear. Any of the guys get t'gether still?" Since he knew all the ongoings. he assumed Johnny? Not so much and good for him.
Vic shrugs a shoulder and says, "If it's something that got dropped, belongs to no one but the water, I figure. I mean if it's someone's insulin, be cool and give it back, but this is stuff that's been down there for months. It doesn't belong to anyone anymore. Don't even see as how it's breaking the law." He rubs the back of his neck and admits, "I only keep in touch with the old life a little, but I do keep in touch. Me and Al had a beer the other day. He's bent about Johnny, but he gets it. He's keeping the little Dickens in line." In this case, he literally means children thieves. I just come by once in awhile to make sure he's feeding them."
JP chortled, "VIc, I don't see how most things is breakin the law. Then again I don' look too hard neither." The grin warmed and shrugged, "I'll 'splain it to em if he wan'. Yous think I did time cause I had to? I got a lil girl, amn. Don' need her growin up wit' me on the run forever. not what I wan'. Not that her amma let me see ehr none but all the same, gotta have that chance. He need leave JOhnny-boy alone. Tell em JP come af'er em if he don', Hmm?" Vic was right, family was everything and JP wasn't at all about stickin a guy to explain that either.