Players:
April 29, 2010
Summary: Eris finds Alex at “Nowhere”. They have a short discussion in which Eris turns down the man’s advances.
Log Title: Almost Human
Rating: PG (L)
NYC - Mutant Town - Nowhere
Nowhere is a community bar, with a slightly old world feel. All of the tables and chairs are made of wood, though there are some couches in a slightly offset room with green fabric. The music varies, depending upon the Owner's music taste for the day. Beer and Liquor are both served, but are both carded for as well.
At the front of the bar, right as one walks in,is a large sign. "Superhuman friendly establishment. There will be no tolerance for disparaging remarks based on one's genetic status. Any fights will not be tolerated within the bar. The management holds no responsibility for where combatants are teleported."
Scene
It's evening, and finally Alex is out of that school, and in a nice bar, hunched over a tall Guinness. He's no mutant, but apparently he's a superhuman now, so may as well stay in a bar where accidentally flying into the ceiling won't be as frowned upon. "Beer, finally beer… couldn't take one more day with teenagers." He sounds thankful, and this seems to be his first beer, since he doesn't even sound tipsy yet.
A woman steps into the bar and looks around with interest. So this is mutant town? Far more populated than she had originally imagined. With the city being so large she decided to visit the one place she knows she can get information, the bar. Eris frowns as she surveys the croud. This place isn't quite as seedy as she'd hoped. She'll need to look for a different place to try and find the darker individuals in this little town. The woman walks up to the bar and taps on it, ordering a vodka stinger and glancing at the man at the bar next to her. "If it's that tough why stick around them?" She does not seem to be actually interested, just making an idle comment.
"Oh, I'm done with the kids, it was just temporary. Now I'm back to beer and R-rated movies." Alex looks over at her, his eyes going up and down to give her a once over. "And women, definitely women." He downs his drink in one long chug, then slides the mug forward for a refill. "How about you? What're you doing here?"
The woman makes a distasteful noise as Alex oggles her. "I have no time for children." She receives her drink and glances at him casually, "Children of any age." She takes a sip to check that the drink was mixed properly before she pays the bartender. "I just moved to this place. Who would have known an entire community of mutants would pop up somewhere." She ponders for a moment. "I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for yet, but when I figure it out I'll get it."
"That's gotta be the most classy rejection I've ever had." Alex laughs and starts sipping at his newly refilled glass, peeking over at her occasionally as he speaks. "I just started meeting mutants, never knew too much about them until recently. I used to think it was like some weird disease, but now I'm not really in a position to judge anyone for being different."
Eris sits on the stool next to Alex and scans the room a couple of times. She almost looks as though she's expecting someone. She glances skeptically at the man when he speaks. "A disease? The only disease I see around here are a bunch of primitive apes making a fuss over the appearance of gods." She shakes her head, "Mutation isn't a disease. It is the cure this diseased little planet has been waiting for." She ignores the disapproving glare the bartender is giving her right now. "But by the sounds of it, you're not one of the chosen, are you?"
"Well my skin is human. And I guess the rest of me was chosen from somewhere, but certainly not by God." Alex looks himself over, then just shakes his head. He doesn't seem to question her way of speaking, or her beliefs, he just sounds incredibly indifferent about it all. "I'd rather not be a mutant though, too much pressure. I've got enough pressure with what's going on with me now."
Eris quirks an eyebrow and turns to glance around the room once more. "Your skin is human is it? But you don't feel so much inside?" Eris is having a hard time following what he is trying to say, granted she has no idea he's an android. She stirs her beverage and holds it up, looking at the light as it filters through the green liquid. "There's no pressure when it comes to being a mutant. Just setbacks created by the majority. In time those setbacks will diminish and it will be advantageous to be a mutant. Even more so than it is now."
"There's only one person like me, I think. I'd be glad to show you what I am, where all these people aren't watching." Alex holds a hand up, then rapidly moves it left and right at an incredibly fast speed, a blur. "I've only been like this for a few weeks, but I'm not a mutant, so I guess you could say I'm a bit of an outcast now."
"A mixture of magic and technology did this to me, believe it or not. I don't know if the guy who did it was a mutant, but yeah. I don't even know what all I'm capable of. Sometimes I accidentally fly." Alex hunches over his drink, still seeming indifferent, despite everything that's happened to him. He apparently doesn't care much about telling some people either.
Eris is silent for a long moment, apparently thinking things over. "Well the man who did it to you. You know him? Or did he just arbitrarilly choose you?" She stirs her drink idly. Perhaps it was a government experiment. Mixing magic and technology to create something stronger than a mutant? "That sounds like it could be troublesome, accidentally flying. How do you find the mundane humans treat you? Now that you have an ability you may be hated as much as the mutants."
"I haven't had much of a chance to find out. I spent a few weeks homeless after my father was arrested, and now I've got all sorts of legal trouble, like me being legally dead. The government doesn't recognize me as a living being because they found the stuff that used to be my body." Alex holds up his glass with a slightly defeated grin. "So cheers to the mutants, at least people acknowledge they're alive. But he chose me because my father was a crime boss, wanted me to start fighting crime."
Eris is in the process of taking a drink when Alex mentions that his father was a crime boss. She inhales a bit of her drink and makes choking noises for a few minutes. It seems swallowing vodka and creme de menthe incorrectly is terribly uncomfortable. Once she calms down she glances around once more, slightly more on edge than before. "You are related to one of the syndicates? Which one? Here in Manhattan or elsewhere?"
"My father was in Hell's Kitchen. And don't worry, if someone's out to get you, they're out to get me too. I've got this thing in my head, like, an A.I." Alex taps the side of his head a few times. "It, well, forces me to fight crime if I try to ignore it. So I took out my father's entire organization, and now they're in jail. I'll be screwed eventually, if I can even die anymore."
Eris makes a mild noise of surprise. This one man took out an entire organization? Nothing she hasn't done herself, but to think that he was once human. The woman can't help but smirk. That should leave a power vacuum that'll take a while to fill. If she can find the right manpower she may even fill it herself. Even if this man is forced to fight against crime, she wagers he hasn't done so against mutants yet. "So the A.I. forces you to get in harms way? To do things you do not want to do? Perhaps there's a way to shut it off."
"Yeah, if I don't choose to do it myself, the A.I gives me the finger and does it anyway. That thing kicks total ass. I can't even figure out how to fly, and this thing will go in like goddamned Iron Man." Alex looks over the various drinks behind the bar, continuing to sip at his glass. "Hey, how many drinks do I gotta buy you until I get rid of that 'kid' status you gave me? I haven't been with a woman since I ended up in this body."
Eris frowns. Iron man could be an issue. Hopefully this man is exaggerating, but he could be telling the truth. "When you piss off as much of the underground as me, which you have, you learn not to take drinks from strangers. Also not to drink so much that you cannot defend yourself." She smirks, "Besides. You so sure the A.I. won't take over and stop you? Sounds like something they may have wired in. That is, if everything even still works." Pester pester. She just can't help herself.
"Hey, an A.I's not gonna stop me from screwing around with a woman. And my plumbing works perfectly thank you very much." Alex looks down from his drink, as if checking. "Actually, I think it works better than it used to. And hey, no one wants a passively defensive woman in bed. You look like a wild chick."
Eris shrugs. "How do you know that the A.I. won't stop you? Or if there's a crime it'll force you to take off." When he mentions that she looks wild the woman flashes a frighteningly vicious smile. "Oh you have no idea. But it's not the kind of wild that'll do someone like you any good." She chuckles and takes another drink from her glass. "What woman would want a man who can't even control himself?" She gives him a pittied look.
"I don't just sense crime. I haven't actually fought any crime since my father. I've been trying to stay in low crime areas. But damn, you really like the whole emasculation thing. Almost makes me wanna prove you wrong even more." Alex suddenly stands, grabbing his glass. "I've got plenty of control over myself, I've just got a few kinks to work out with this thing. It's only been a few weeks."
Eris rolls her eyes as the man stands. At least he's not going out to actively hunt for people who are breaking the law. In fact, he seems to want to avoid it all together. He shouldn't be too much of a problem. "Right, well what do you do when it decides someone is breaking the law who isn't? There are many things that may be legally questionable that aren't necessarily wrong." She looks over the man disapprovingly. "Yes well, you're not quite my species. Or you weren't. I'm not sure what you are now but you're not a superior."
"There's levels, I think it ignores low level crime. I've seen a bunch of jaywalkers and a few shoplifters and haven't tried to arrest them." Alex raises an eyebrow down at her, not quite leaving, just standing next to her for the moment. "What's it matter if I'm your species or not? I'm no one's species now. As long as I can keep up, isn't that good enough?”
Eris swirls the drink in her hand, not quite looking at the man. "Well, that's lucky for you I suppose. And perhaps for the shoplifters, hmm?" She glances up at him out of the corner of her eye. "When you were human, would you consider sleeping with a chimpanzee?" She smirks, "What about a Chimpanzee disguised as a human?" She shakes her head. "It is the same for me. I'm not going to degrade myself to the point of sleeping with something lower than me on the Cladistic tree."
"So now it'd be degrading too? You really know how to advertise and reject at the same time." It's hard to tell if Alex is complimenting or not, but after he downs his alcohol, he starts heading for the door. "But whatever, you can miss out on hot cyborg boning. I'm gonna find the largest sandwich I can find, then eat it."
Eris doesn't look back at him as he goes, but she holds up a hand to wave him off. "Yeah yeah. If I ever become terribly desperate I'll hunt you down." If she were still employed by her old boss she'd probably be hunting him down right now for reasons he would not enjoy. For now she'll leave him be. If he becomes too much of an issue she may have to do something about him. For now she'll just order another drink and keep an ear open for mention of any of the syndicates.
~ Fin ~
