Mariusz stood just outside the entrance to a bar called Shadow's Light, as the neon sign proclaimed the name of the establishment. Throughout the course of the afternoon and and evening he had heard several people suggest, some more politely than others, that someone like him might be a bit happier or might belong better at a place called "Shadow's Light" after asking around he had managed to find out the location of the bar and directions on how to get there. Now, here he was standing outside the entrance. Admittedly, the place was not 5th Avenue, Times Square, or Broadway but it did not seem to be too terrible of a part of town. Still, he did not feel too out of place in his brown three piece suit. After examining the door and sign a few seconds longer he pushed open the front doors and entered.

One thing was immediately apparent, this was very much a bar that was a mutant hangout. While Mariusz knew he was physically mutated it was quite obvious that he was not the only person in the establishment with a physical mutation. There were a few people that looked up when he entered, but none of them really spared him a second glance. He made his way over to the bar and found an empty seat and waited for the bartender to get around to him, his eyes scanning the various televisions and looking for something worthwhile in the way of sports on. That meant hockey, it was the only sport they played here in America with regularity that was worth watching and he had taken the time to figure out the local teams, since he would need to find another one to watch here.

"Ahoj, Miss," he said with a slight English accent, his feathers ruffling a little as he signaled to the bartender, "are the Rangers playing tonight," he asked omitting what he would have liked to add, namely that he hardly considered basketball, boxing, and the MMA competitions on the televisions over the bar to be sports. Somehow it did not seem that it would be overly diplomatic to say such things in a bar.

The bar was semi busy, busy enough where her Raccoon Chef had actually delivered a few trays of food himself. Melissa reminded herself not to do so again unless the alternative was the bar blowing up. Still it was nice to see the bar like this. Slowly More people were coming to the bar every week as word caught on. Her dream was around her, loud and drunk.

The man entering caught her attention right away and Melissa mused about a how him being a 6 foot tall bird man was not the strange part. No the odd part was the suit, as it as rare for the bar for anyone wearing suit to enter. Still money was money she thought to herself and people who wore suits usually had plenty.

Walking up to the bird man and he took a spot at the bar she shook her head. "No, sorry NHL is on lockout, they say the entire season could be lost" She said not caring to much about hockey, but knowing enough to carry on a conversation. You learned to pick things up in a bar and a basic understanding of sports let some people open up.

"My name is Melissa, can i get you anything else? We got a pretty good sports package here" she offered, setting a remote to the nearest tv before him. She had little idea why the NHL was on lock out but she assumed it was about money, it seemed a good guess.

"Shame to hear that," Mariusz said in reply to Melissa's mentioning that the NHL's season was on lockout. The Czech man had been looking forward to being able to watch the highest form of professional hockey in the world on a regular basis. In truth, it had been part of the appeal to leaving the Czech Republic to come to America when his father had been posted here in the first place. Now it seemed that he might not get to take advantage of that benefit. "I was rather hoping to be able to take in the best hockey in the world."

"My name is Melissa, can I get you anything else? We got a pretty good sports package here."

"I am Mariusz Kasparek," he said, introducing himself and offering the bartender a hand, should she wish to shake it. Handshakes were not usually the mode of introduction in the less formal environment of the bar, still proper manners demanded the hand be offered. "I would not imagine you happen to get the broadcasts of the Kontinental Hockey League here in the States, Lev Praha is playing tonight," he asked, not picking up the remote. He assumed that Melissa would better know how to work the televisions in the bar than he did. "I also imagine any chance of getting a Radegast Premium or Original is also unlikely, but I imagine you might have Pilsner Urquell."

"I can look, though we don't get much requests for that" She said not entirely sure they had any of that. She was not sure if they had anything like what he was asking for but grabbing the remote she attempted to look. She had never heard of any of the things she mentioned, but on the guide channel SHe found nothing of most of what he asked for but did manage to find Pilner Urquell. She had never heard of it either but if it made the man happy, she was cool with it.

"So i can get you a drink?" She asked, even as she scanned the bar, looking for anything that might prove dangerous, but the bar was quite. No fights, no overly drunk people and no fish mutant trying to crawl into the fish tank.

She smiled and failed to resist asking her next question but the bird like Mutant out of simple curiosity. "Sorry to be so direct, but can you fly with those wings?" she asked trying to make conversation and quite interested in the idea of flying under one's own power. Their was a certain allure to the idea of flight based travel that seemed majestic in her mind.

Mariusz accepted the open bottle of Pilsner Urquell when the beer was put down in front of him. Raising the chilled bottle to his lips and took a pull from the beer. A small taste of home in a land that was far from it. He allowed himself to relax just a little bit as the slightly bitter taste of the pilsner beer hit his tongue and slid down his throat. He was not really all that surprised to learn that there was no way to get the KHL on the television here in the States. That desire had been a bit of a long shot anyway and he had known that when he had asked. Still, now he knew for sure that there was no way to make that happen, at least here. He picked up the beer and took another pull from the bottle before setting it back down on the bar.

"Sorry to be so direct, but can you fly with those wings?"[/color]

"No need to apologize," Mariusz said, lifting the bottle to his lips and taking another pull. "You are not the first to ever ask that question, and I imagine that you will not be the last to ask it either. Yes, I can fly with my wings. I was led to believe that this is a ale house for mutants such as myself though I see very few in here that appear to be physically mutated. Still, I also fail to recognize any outward hostility from you or the other patrons. Nonetheless, I wonder if the mutant nature of this establishment extends to its bartender," Mariusz asked, taking another pull from the beer and arching an eyebrow in the woman's direction.

"I see, That must be intresting way to see the world. " she said of his abillity to fly. She had wnated to be able to fly when she was younger. "You were lead correctly, Almost everyone who comes here is a mutant and yes me and the staff are mutants as well." she went on with a smile. No one had a power to noteable and certainly nothing that would save them from a rampageing mutant with a strong mutation.

She looked around and certain no onee was paying them to much attention went on She did not want her actual power to be widely known in the bar, as police might realize what she was doing with her power. " Since you answerd my question i'll tell you, I can turn water into wine" she said her voice kept low.

"I built this place for our people so we would have a place where no one cared what nature delt you. Even anti-mutant groups no better then to try and do anything near this place." she said. They had had very littile trouble from such people mostly she assumed becuse even they knew it would be terribly dangerous.

"It certainly can be," Mariusz replied, sipping on his beer. He listened patiently as the bartender explained what her own mutant powers and abilities were. There was no hockey game readily available to watch and the Czech man had no real interest in the other sports that were on so conversing with the bartender was as good a way as any to pass the time. When she mentioned her ability to turn water into wine the feathered man nodded his head slightly. That would obviously be a most advantageous power for someone that owned and operated a bar.

"It is good that those that would seek to engage in prejudicial acts of vigilantism or hate crimes know enough to leave your establishment alone. Personally, I cannot see any reason why someone might have a problem with this place. A bar by any other name can still be drank in," Mariusz said, quoting Shakespeare but modifying the line just a little bit. "So, is there only one kind of wine you can access with your abilities or can you turn any water into any kind of wine?"

"I have no idea, but you see Mutant hate crimes commonly enough on the news. Ever since that Police brutality video, thing's seem to be heading south" she said shaking her head, not entirely sure why all the violence was needed, still talk in the bar had turned darker as of late and she only hoped it would not turn into anything much worse.

"Well i can make more then just wine, in fact if you would like to try one, i do have a few house brew's" she said with a smile. Her house brews tended to be strong but no one had complained yet about them. SHe enjoyed giving people tastes of her brews both becuse she was proud of work and because when they bought it it was pure profit, even the sales tax on the receipt was just to make it look legit.

Without FDA approval her special brews had to be kept on the low side and so most people just knew it as liquor she had gotten from out west, where she used to live. If he accepted she would take a bottle of tinted blue glass and pour a pair of shot glasses. "I hope it stays that way, the last thing i need is someone getting killed in my bar because some mutant or human chose to go a bit to far" she said more concerned with her bar then the actual Mutant rights debate. She did not understand why everything simply could not be talked out.

"Mutant brutality," Mariusz asked, turning his focus a bit more towards the conversation with Melissa. "What do you mean by police brutality video," he asked, taking another sip of his beer which was now about three-quarters of the way empty. This was the first he was hearing of any kind of police brutality towards mutants. Obviously, as a mutant himself, and someone that hobnobbed with politicians from time to time due to the nature of his father's work this video and event was definitely something that the avian mutant would need to know more about.

"I suppose I could be talked into sampling one of the house brews," he said after a moment, finishing the last of his Pilsner Urquell in one big pull. "We Czech's drink the most beer, per capita, in the world. Are your house brews some kind of beer or are they a different form of alcoholic beverage, like vodka or scotch?"

"It's been all over the web and View Tube, it was pretty bad" she said. Having seen the video it was hard to defend the police. She knew they were likely acting out of fear which was a shame in itself. "Police beat a mutant, the video is still on the web i believe" she said almost certain it was. She heard people talk about it all the time and about how tensions were rising between humans and Mutants from it.

"I do Whiskey pretty well" she said with a smile. Beer's were tougher for her as their was more in it and the achohol contents were much lower. Still she had never left a customer wanting and she was not about to now. She had not known that fact about czech's nor did she know if she had met someone from there other then the bird in front of her. Either way it was something interesting to try and remember.

"Why did the police beat a mutant," Mariusz asked, waiting for the next drink to be served. It would be one thing if the mutant was injured because they were resisting arrest or threatening others with their powers. It would be quite another, however, if the mutant had been singled out for abuse simply for being different from what were considered to be normal people. Obviously, if this was a nature of hate crime, or something similar then something needed to be done. Of course, that action needed to happen within the spectrum of the laws of the land rather than through some form of righteous vigilantism.

"Would a traditional boilermaker made with your house whiskey be too impolite to ask for," Mariusz asked. He thought for a moment before continuing, deciding on what kind of beer he wanted for the beer half of the boilermaker. "Depth charge the whiskey in a glass of English Pale Ale," he said, deciding he would have the drink in, roughly, the same manner as it would be offered in the United Kingdom.

"The cop's tried to stop her and she tried to run but once the subdued her they beat her pretty badly... it's all over the internet. You would think people would know better" she said shaking her head. It was a truly brutal video and one that was somewhat hard to miss online and even on various news programs.

"Mutant or not cop's should know how to conduct themselfs. She was a very visible mutant, maybe as much as yourself so i would be careful" she said keeping her voice lowered as to not attract to much attention. The last thing she needed was drunks reminded of that video.

She made the drink for him as he mentioned, knowing a littile bit about English drinking. She then took out her iphone and brought up view tube.
theultimatexmen.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=plots&thread=10198&page=1#153032VIdeo

"watch it for yourself" she Said showing him the video which already had enough hit's that she was sure people all over the country had seen it.

"Really," Mariusz asked, accepting the phone from Melissa and watching the viewtube video was it played, sipping occasionally on his boilermaker. "This is terrible, why did no one do anything about this," he asked, taking another sip of the drink. "Surely someone must have seen something wrong with this." As he was speaking Mariusz was careful to keep his tone low like Melissa's. He assumed she didn't want to advertise the fact that they were discussing the events of the video for some reason and he chose to respect those wishes.

"I don't know,, i would imagine the police are investigating the incident, but im sure you can imagine how much faith in that many here have. " she said. Many she talked to thought they would up with very little being done at all about the Incident and Melissa could only hope they were wrong. "I don't understand the need for such violence on either side. We should all be able to get a long, but people are scared of what they cant understand" she said shaking her head sadly. Incidents were not helping the `we can live in harmony` idea at all.

"Last night i had two idiots nearly get in a fist fight over it" she said which was true except she was not entirely sure the one mutant could make a fist with his tendills.

"Yes, I can certainly understand why mutants might have some reluctance to trust the police force to conduct an honest investigation in the wake of that rather despicable display," Mariusz replied, passing Melissa's phone back to her across the bar. "Still, if we lose our faith in the system then everything falls apart around us and we have anarchy and mob rule. That is no way for a society to function," the feathered mutant continued, sipping on the drink in front of him as the wheels in his head continued to turn as he began to consider the political ramifications of what he had just witnessed.

"High Tensions among the mutant population are certainly to be expected, but if we respond violence the cause of mutant equality will only be further damaged. What the community needs is a leader, yes," Mariusz asked, arching an eyebrow at Melissa as he polished off what was left of the drink in front of him.