Scene #6677:

Owner	Pose
Doctor Strange	Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts. It's an impressive title, bestowed only to one sorcerer at a time. They must prove completely their talent for bending and breaking the rules of reality. There are still a few that remain inviolate, however. In the case of this particular Sorcerer Supreme, it's food. Sometimes he conjures it up. Sometimes he goes out and eats, just to be around people. Sometimes, on one of those occasions where he feels like going out, he gets taken to the Bar and Grill. This wouldn't be the first time he's come here, and he never minds the detour. When you don't know what you want, this place is a great fallback plan. It's also a good spot to socialize with people you wouldn't otherwise meet. Strange is seated by himself at the bar, and it's hard to miss him for more reasons than that. He wears a rich, red, high-collared cloak. Beneath it, rough-hewn cotton robes of navy blue and wrapped cloth boots. At his hip there are a number of pouches of mysterious make and purpose, and his hands are so heavily scarred as to seem leathery. His attention is on a televised Multiversal baseball game.
Majima Goro	The Mad Dog of Shimano, Ex-Patriarch of the Majima Family, President of Majima Construction's at least got longer titles, even if they're not necessarily more impressive. And currently, he's in Kamurocho, tapping his head. "Nishida," He says, "I'm gonna try this 'Bar and Grill' bullshit." A timid Japanese man in a construction outfit stares at Majima, as they stand outside one of the portable offices outside Kamurocho hills. "Boss, that's just the door to your --" Majima steps over and slugs him. In a loving fashion. "I know what it IS, idiot! But they told me that if I was hungry, and I walked through a door wanting food bad enough, I end up somewhere else." "...Boss, are you sure they weren't just m-messing with you?" There's a long sigh. "..Listen. If they are, then I open a door a few times. No harm done. If they ain't, and I try to 'call them on their bluff', I look like a frigging idiot. So yeah. I'm gonna go at this one, whole heartedly." He puts his hand on the doorknob. "Arright, I could go for some Smile Burger, right now." He opens the door, to find, dramatically... His office. He closes the door. "...Arright, let's try that again. Maybe I'm just not hungry enough." Meanwhile, a few of Majima Construction's workers pass by, leaving work. "Yeah, No 1 Kyushu Ramen's got a two-for-one deal today, come on," They say to each other. Majima's brow widens. "What, for real? Forget this Bar and Grill place, that sounds deli--" His hand reflexively turns the knob. ... "... well, what do ya know," He says. He's still wearing a hard hat, but he's got his traditional snakeskin jacket and black pants as he looks around. "I'll go with it." He swaggers up to the bar. Nishida, elsewhere, stares at the door intently. This has just happened.
Doctor Strange	Strange flags the bartender down. "Lemme get a Coke and an order of kiymade pide, please." The voice is both undeniably American and familiar--it's the guy who described himself as the Sorcerer Supreme on the radio, that Doctor Strange guy. He certainly looks the part. Majima's entrance, or rather, the sound of /someone/ entering, draws his attention away from the baseball game. "Nice jacket," says the sorcerer, after taking a cursory glance at Majima. He doesn't seem to recognize the Mad Dog, although that's reasonable, given this would be their first face-to-face meeting.
Majima Goro	Majima Goro unceremoniously plops himself down on the next stool. Good eye facing Strange. Sure, he heard you can't fight in this place or whatever, but he's not suddenly stupid. "...so, what, I can get just anything? So if I'm askin' for, like," He looks to the bartender, his eye narrowin' a bit. "Arright. Just some kinda whiskey that's at least twelve years old, and..." He pauses. "...yeah, y'know what, if you got some Grade A kalbi beef that'd be good." Yeah. Sure. He's got the yen for this. He's good. That gives him a moment to address Strange. "I think it suits me. Been wearin' it since the late eighties. This a smokin' bar?" He takes a look around for an ashtray, thoughtfully. All the good bars don't let you smoke inside, anymore. It's crap. "...So, what, you're that Strange guy, yeah? Wizard or something."
Doctor Strange	"Thaaat's me. Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts." The bartender places Strange's soda on the counter. He then gets to work on Majima's request, calling back the two food orders to the kitchen while simultaneously heading into the back to get the Good Stuff. "This isn't the smoking section, if there is one," admits Strange. "But I won't tell if you don't." There is suddenly an ashtray in front of Majima. It wasn't there before. "Majima Goro, I take it? New guy?"
Majima Goro	Majima Goro looks down at the ashtray. The pack of HiLites comes out, and he puts his hands together to light it. Y'know, with a lighter. "...what the--" He shakes his head. Doesn't matter. "Yeah. Gettin' the hang of it, I think." His elbows lean on the table as he takes a long drag. "...I've known some small fish in a big pond crap, but this is somethin' else."
Doctor Strange	"It was a lot to get used to for me, too," says Strange with a nod. A few moments pass, and the bartender comes out with the Good Stuff. When someone asks for something of this nature, it's usually understood that they're good for it. As such, there isn't any of that 'one shot at a time' stuff. Majima gets a shot glass, and custody of the bottle, and whatever happens, happens. "Speaking of, ever seen this?" he nods towards the baseball game. One team is all skeletons, the other all robots. There seems to be as much violence mixed in as actual baseball. The batter, looking like something out of a 70s sci-fi serial, has just lasered the pitcher's femur off. "It's the Screaming Evils versus the Turbo Techies. Really the names they went with." "Wouldn't even be the 3rd weirdest thing I've seen."
Majima Goro	The shot is poured. Majima downs it. He is, in fact, good for it. There's a breath. An accepting nod. "Aiyah. That works." Another drag of the cigarette follows, and he blows the smoke out with a nod. Cigarette butt is tapped on ash tray. "Skeletons against...robots. Yeah, alright." He pours himself another shot, but doesn't drink it just yet. "Everythin' in this world just 'a fourteen year old kid got shouldertapped to decide things'?"
Doctor Strange	"..." Strange thinks that one over. It's possible Majima just means the world this game is being broadcast from, but that statement /does/ apply to a lot of worlds. "Yeah, pretty much," says Strange after a moment's thought. Their food is brought out. As if the speed of producing food from two completely different cultures in such a labyrinthine establsihment weren't impressive enough, it actually smells good, too. And when Majima takes the first bite of his kalbi, he'll find it's exactly what he ordered. Grade A! Strange's thing--kiymali pide--looks like an oblong deep dish pizza, cut in straight rectangular slices instead of the pie-chart kind of way. "Thanks," says Strange to the bartender as it's placed before him. He takes a bite, nodding silently in approval. "Some of the worlds are more off-the-wall than others. There's this one I've been to recently that's like... some kind of really biting satire of modern life. Like whoever the god of that place was decided it really needed to be made fun of. This... giant... 'Go Directly to Jail' hand--you know 'Monopoly?'" He squints briefly. "It poked me in the sternum and electrocuted me. Really, really weird place."
Majima Goro	Majima Goro puts his hands together, palm to palm, nodding once. He may be a thug, but he eats like a civilized person. Then he gives the beef a try. .. "...eh? This stuff's incredible." He hastily cuts another slice off, casually dousing his cigarette in the ash tray. He's got the rest of his pack. He's fine. Trying out the food gives him a moment to listne to Strange talk about the rest of the Multiverse. And gives him a chance to scope out the weird pizza the wizard got. Kinda expected 'kiymali pide' to be some weird eye of newt business, Majima won't lie to himself. Whatever. This kalbi's top notch. "...That's some American board game, ain't it?" He asks. "..but, ah, yeah, that sounds...pretty frickin' weird, won't lie." He takes a breath. "...giant hands. Well. I'll keep my eye out for 'em."
Doctor Strange	Strange nods. "We have a few good ones," he says of Monopoly. "That isn't one of them." Actually... has he ever once had fun playing a board game? Nnnno... no. He hasn't. Strange shakes his head and waves a hand dismissively. He takes another bite of his food. Clearing his throat after a sip of Coke, he asks a question. "So, where you from? I mean, I'm guessing a Japan, but uh... what year is it there? What's it like?"
Majima Goro	Majima Goro ...hnn. He takes another shot of whiskey. "Yeah. Japan. I'm from Kamurocho, a district in Kanto Prefecture." He pauses a long second. Fuck, right, American tourist type, basically. "Tokyo. Anyway, it's 2006. It's--how do I tell you what it's like?" He asks, having another bite of his kalbi beef. Yeah. That's good stuff. "I mean, ya don't got elves, zombie kids, wizards, or any of that crap. That help?"
Doctor Strange	"It does, actually... believe it or not." Strange nods. "Can't say I've heard of Kamurocho, though. Does your Tokyo have 24 districts or something?" A very well-traveled tourist, apparently. Either that, or someone with a very good memory. "Might be hard to believe, but there's a lot of Earths like that. 21st century, no magic, advanced technology, aliens, elves, or zombie kids. Mine is... one of the 'weird' ones. As I'm sure you guessed." He gestures to his cloak. Then to his pouches of magical reagents. "I share it with superheroes, three of which I work with on a regular basis. But, there's a lot of 'normal' ones. There's... not really a good word. I don't like 'normal,' y'know, but... better than 'mundane' I guess." He shrugs.
Majima Goro	Majima Goro continues eating his meal. He really shoulda gotten some rice with this, but he didn't figure it was gonna be a whole thing. Ah, well. "Eh? Nah, it's just part of Shinjuku. Some kid was tellin' me that usually it's called Kabukicho, so there you go. Far as I know, that's the difference. Yeah, magic ain't a thing." He said, glowing with weird fire in fights, but who doesn't do that? That's not magic, that's just what happens when you're hyped up in a fight. Everyone does that. Random punks do that. Barely even worth mentioning. "...Superheroes. So, some comic book ****. Eh, sure, why not." He leaves the whiskey for now. He's definitely starting to feel better. Yeah. This stuff hits the spot, for certain. "'sides, frankly, I'm happier without a bunch of magic crap. You can't go two blocks in Kamurocho without some punks itchin' for a fight, and I'd rather not be dealin' with 'em shooting lightning bolts outta their arses or some crap like that."
Doctor Strange	"Well, most of the time, at least where I'm from, it's just me and my guys against the magical douchebags. Iron Man, Spider-Man, Particle Man, Person Man," he says, throwing that last two in there just to fuck with him, "They don't really go up against any of that, except for circumstance. Usually, they have their hands full with other stuff. That'd be the... aliens, supervillains, so on, so forth." He's about halfway done with his pide. "It is..." He thinks back to the recent fight against Baron Strucker. And Lezard. "Definitely annoying when the other guy knows magic, too, though. So... you're not wrong there. Usually... usually it comes from the hands..." He lifts a trembling, scarred hand. Then clears his throat. "Anyway. What's the weirdest thing you've seen so far?"
Majima Goro	Majima Goro doesn't seem to flinch. Sure. Person Man. Why not. His brow knits and he has another cigarette, occasionally stopping to work on the last of his steak. Wait, huh, he said he works with three of 'em, and then listed four. That's weird. Oh, well, he's not gonna fall down that rabbit hole for absolutely no personal gain. There's a breath as Strange asks him the weirdest thing thus far. "Ah, yeah, that's easy. Here I am, beatin' some punk kid up, and his eye goes flying out of its socket. I ain't never killed noone, and I try to keep it that way, so I'm freakin' out a little..and the eye just goes right back in like a magnet from the ground, before the kid whallops me." He pauses. "...mostly cause I was a bit thrown off from his frickin' eyeball popping back in like he's pullin' back a yoyo.
Doctor Strange	"Oh, Touta!" Strange nods. "Yeah," says the sorcerer. "Yeah, the regeneration... It's a little... y'know. But-- he's a good kid." The sorcerer takes a sip of his soda. "I wondered if maybe you meant him when you said 'zombie kids.' But, again, there's a lot more of those than you'd think." "Don't feel too bad about getting, uh... 'whalloped.' Touta was in the MECC this year. So am I. Probably catch my semifinal match on TV, if you're interested in that kind of thing." He shrugs. "How'd you end up getting into a fight with him, anyway?" Majima had mentioned interest in sorcery over the radio--but Strange wants to figure out what kind of person he is before he offers any kind of tutelage.
Majima Goro	"Touta, yeah, that was his name. Kinda gotta try that again with him." Majima weighs the whiskey...and goes for it. He's fine. Big steak. Lots of protein. He can drink heavy. "...Eh, nah, it's fine. I ain't been hit like that since Kazuma did jack besides hangin' out with that niece of his." "Ah, yeah, that whole mess with the riot at the hospital. Since that kid in the green bailed on the fight we were gonna have, had ta burn the adrenaline on somethin', and he was bein' a whiny punk so...ya know." He explains. "Didn't go the way I wanted, but that's life. Just means I gotta get my head back in the game, neh? Gettin' soft without Kiryu around."
Doctor Strange	"Uh huh," says Strange, nodding. His attention momentarily returns to the game--mostly just checking the score. A few things stick out... Touta can definitely be idealistic, so 'whiny' more or less tracks. He doesn't much come across as a punk, though... and Majima seems to almost admit just looking for a fight. Prooobably not Masters of the Mystic Arts material. But, hey, he's not like, a dick, or anything. That's rare. "There's a lot of people out there looking for rivals. If that's the kinda game you're looking to get back into." He eats another slice. "Enjoy a good fight to get the blood pumping, I take it?"
Majima Goro	Majima is among the least viable people to become Masters of the Mystic Arts. It's probably for the best, honestly. "Yeah, nah. I got my true rival. But, y'know." He chuckles. "...There ain't many problems you can't solve by punchin' the right guy, y'know? And if I'm seein' anything in the Multiverse, that didn't suddenly stop being true." He points back up to the baseball game. "So in case you were gonna get all high and mighty on me over it, yeah. I made the decision to live fun and crazy, and I ain't turnin' back on that."
Doctor Strange	"Nah." Strange shakes his head. "Not really my style. The... high and mighty thing, I mean. The fighting isn't, either, but I know better than to think I can solve everything with a... handshake, or a heart-to-heart with someone. There's only a couple of things that piss me off, anymore, and I like to think they're pretty reasonable things to be pissed off about."
Majima Goro	Majima Goro tch. "...Yeah, I done the heart to heart talk, but I ain't ever done it with someone I ain't bruised up a bit first. Least, not in a way that matters." He looks pensive, for a long moment. "Anyway, point is, yeah. I like a good fight, I like booze, and I like girls. Live fast, die young, except somehow I made it to my forties." With that he finishes his steak with a final bite. There's a long moment. "...so what pisses off a Sorcerer Supreme, exactly?"
Doctor Strange	"Really? Your 40s. I guess that tracks, but... you made it there in better shape than I did." He points to his greying temples with a scarred, trembling finger. "A lot of things annoy me, but what pisses me off..." "I dunno how I'd put it, exactly, but there's one big thing. As I'm uh... sure you've noticed," says Strange between a sip of soda, "A lot of people in the Multiverse are really strong. And a lot of fights happen. What pisses me off is, when people use their strength with no regard for the safety of people caught in the way. Your bystanders, and stuff like that. I can fix it--I can fix everything, more or less. But contempt for the little guy really gets under my skin." What else? "The high horse thing... that actually kinda pisses me off, too. Tell a bank robber it's 'wrong' to rob a bank and see if that stops the robbery. You can be really sure of how right you are with a bullet in you."
Majima Goro	Majima chuckles. "Well, maybe get more exercise 'stead of sittin' round readin grimoires," He cackles, waving a hand dismissively. "Yeah, I ain't 'bout beeatin' up civvies that don't have anything to do with what's goin' on. Like, that one elf I hit with the bat back there? Yeah. He drew his weapon first. At that point, that's fair. Some guy just tryin' to make a livin? Yeah, leave him alone." He explains succinctly. "Pff. Bank robbin'. Yeah, that ain't exactly how yakuza do things. That's more an American mafia thing, way I understand it."
Doctor Strange	Ordinarily, Strange would take that last part as just making conversation. Ordinarily, however, he isn't talking to someone with an eyepatch, a snakeskin jacket, and steel-tipped snakeskin boots. The goatee he can't really condemn without calling the kettle black. It's a stylin' goatee. This guy... living live free and crazy, dressing like he does, enjoying a good fight. There's a... chance he /is/ Yakuza. That's neat. "Y'know, the exercise actually didn't start /until/ the grimoires, if you can believe that. Before all.. this," says Strange, gesturing to his very wizardly attire, "I was actually a neurosurgeon with a Lambo. Didn't really do much exercise other than to keep myself from getting fat. Just an... ego thing, I guess." "Are you yakuza? No judgement."
Majima Goro	Majima Goro chuckles a little. He pushes his extinguished cigarette around the ash tray a little. "Ex. Pulled out with my entire family a little while back for various complicated reasons." He pulls his snakeskin jacket a little wider. The tattoos make it pretty clear, even if you can only see the front. "Honestly, I don't care whether ya judge or not." There's a shrug, and he lets the jacket fall back over. "I picked my life of my own volition. But, ah, I guess wizard's a step up from neurosurgeon? Kinda complicated crap there to figure out." He offers. Eh, he's sobering. He can do another whiskey shot. Slow pour, and a downing. "But, yeah. Did 'bout twenty years."
Doctor Strange	"I think it's a step up," says Strange with a nod. "At least-- now I do. A lot's changed." Twenty years? That's a lot of time. Especially when you factor in that bit about having never killed anyone. "20 years in the Yakuza, and you've never killed someone?" It's not even asked in disbelief. Strange sounds impressed. "I never killed anybody as a doctor, which... is a good thing, but... I did have to kill some... crazy death cult guys. They wanted to, uh... give the whole planet to their god and lock everyone in eternal suffering...'" He grimaces slightly. "Didn't really take 'no' for an answer."
Majima Goro	Majima Goro nods. "...Not one." Memories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejxklDwvGx0 Anyway, he shakes his head. "It's not like you generally wanna whack a guy anyway. Bruise 'em up, but...yeah. Never done that sorta thing. Not like you need to. Dragon o' Dojima's most feared guy in Kamurocho even now and he ain't never killed anyone either, ya know?" He looks back up at the television. "'sides, if you're a big enough problem to need it, someone'll do the job for you."
Doctor Strange	At that precise moment, the skeleton pitcher has beaned the robot batter deliberately, which has caused an uproar, evidently the straw that broke the robot camel's back. The TV is muted, but Majima can tell this is one of those moments where the crowd is going wild and so are the commentators. The camera does indeed pan out to a stadium full of humans, skeletons, robots, and goblins alike, all whipped into a fury. The scene cuts to the commentators, a cyclops and a literal cloak-wearing vampire. "It still kind of bothers me, to be honest," admits Strange. "But... unfortunately, there are a lot of douchebag gods, demons, evil wizards, you name it, out there, who think Earth and worlds like it are theirs to screw around with, or destroy, remake, whatever. I even had the distinct displeasure of fighting a nazi wizard. Seriously. Those exist."
Majima Goro	Majima Goro ...hmm. He rubs his chin a little. "...Eh. Y'know, it ain't dressed up as obviously crazy, but back in the late eighties I watched the two biggest clans in Japan come just shy of an all-out war for the sake of a ten square foot empty lot in a side alley." He tilts his head. "All this place's done is get its weird crap up and in your face, rather than makin ya dig it up."
Doctor Strange	"Oh, yeah. It's great for weird. I'm honestly kind of excited for you--you're gonna get to experience all this stuff. And it's different for each person that gets brought into it fresh, because everybody has their own story. Like--your first time meeting Edison. I wanna be there to see that. He's, uh--he's one of my guys. As in, a Paladin, not a Master of the Mystic Arts. You already heard him on the radio, but man..." Strange chuckles. "I hope you meet him in person soon."
Majima Goro	Majima Goro ...taps his head. "Ah, yeah. Nishida was trying to explain that business to me. So y...you're kinda like a cop, I guess, or whatever." He hmms. "Yeah, somethin' weird bout historical figures. Had some chick who was apparently Nobunaga talkin' the other day. So, sure, whatever, time's all screwed up too." He waves his hand around again, eventually settling on a finger gun shooting out into space, before looking back at the empty plate. "Eh, whatever. We're cool here, but...y'know." He takes out another cigarette. "Just makin' it clear, business is business, 'case it comes up."
Doctor Strange	"Cops? What? God, no." Strange actually laughs! "We help the cops sometimes, and sure, we do our best to know what the law is on any given world, so we don't just... America our way in there. It's like this." "There used to be two very subtly named super-duper-factions that, between them, pretty much controlled everything. They were both kinda... shitty, in their own way. The Union wanted people to believe that it was about peace, justice, democracy, all that, but there were some /real/ dicks in that place." He finishes his Coke, and politely declines a refill. "They had more money than God, had a military full of people like you and me--and no kind of restraints set on what they could do besides a leadership structure and a little sticky note that said 'don't be evil.'" Strange gives Majima a flat look. "And to be honest, that probably got lost somewhere, because they made a /habit/ of going in and just killing whatever they figured the problem was, and then just leaving and letting God or whoever clean up the mess. It didn't start that way--but it became that way, because there were no standards and everyone was allowed to do whatever they thought was the Good Guy thing to do, with unlimited funding and infrastructure to do it." "The other guys, the Confederacy, necessarily became the 'bad guy' group, not just because of the Union's expert use of ideology, but because a lot of actual bad guys, like, no shit, Dracula and Darth Vader, were card-carrying members." Strange frowns archly at Majima, munching one of the last few slices of his Turkish food. "Now," he says, between bites, "There was a lot of mustache twirling, sure. Lot of tying damsels to train tracks. Can't defend that. Won't! But... you pretty much were trapped in an us-or-them situation. Which meant that worlds who wanted to govern without the Union bossing them around got lumped in with 'the bad guy group.' It was pretty much impossible for any kind of alternative--it'd just get smashed, because the Feds didn't want competition and neither did the Union." Strange chuckles. "Just that the Union would call them bad guys first, /then/ smash them. Anyway." He waves both hands in a 'that's beside the point' fashion. "Both of them basically blew up under their own weight. The Paladins, the Watch, and the Concord formed in the ashes, and it's done... /wonders/ for peace. There's no more war, just the occasional disagreement. And if people take it personal, they take it personal because of who, specifically, was involved, and what they did, not because 'muh country.'" That list bit is done in an exagerrated Southern American accent. "The Paladins, we're not the cops. We're peacekeepers. Not the same thing. We don't have any authority over a given world, and we don't want it. That's what the... actual cops are for. We fight crime, sure, if we're asked to. But we don't go around on Segways writing tickets or memorizing every law in the book so we can throw it at you. What we want is to help, and for our help to be available to anyone who needs it. We don't... punish, we protect."
Majima Goro	Majima Goro ... Alright. He was expecting a few things outta talking to a wizard, but this is some... ...perfectly normal levels of exposition, now that he thinks about it. Sure, it's the level of exposition where he gets nervous, and really feels like he needs to get his knife out for the impending incredibly difficult fight, but that never really materializes. So he settles back down. "So, on the upside, I've come in after a lot of the /really/ insane crap worked itself out, 's what ya saying." He adjusts his eyepatch a little bit. "Arright. Can't say even I'd wanna stick around on Team Dracula and Darth Vader. You gotta keep some legitimacy, even if I was still full-on yakuza, y'know? We got offices. It's a whole thing. Still, doesn't sound like I'd have a choice."
Doctor Strange	"And that's the problem. It just leads to moral... jerking off." He makes the hand motion. "'Majima says he's a good guy, but he's in Dracula's club!' Nobody actually talked to anybody. All just pure exposition and posturing. But yeah. It's a good time to be around. There's gonna be times when circumstances have us against each other. But we'll also be working with each other just as often." "These days it's less about who you're with and more about what you do and what you believe in. I think that's a step in the right direction."
Majima Goro	"...so, ah, like the real worl--like..ah. Like it was before I got involved in this. Anyway." He waves his hand. "I can get behind the whole shifting allegiances thing. Sure, whatever, that's how business works, like I said. ...yeah." That said, the lackadaisacal demeanour shifts a little, as he touches his eyepatch for some reason.
Doctor Strange	"Yeah," says Strange with a knowing chuckle. It's likely the use of the word 'real' that makes him so amused. "Careful. Don't wanna have an existential crisis." He finishes his last slice of pide, then wipes his mouth with a napkin that wasn't there before. It's kind of unclear whether that was him or the bar. He pays for his food, his drink, and leaves a tip. "You're an interesting guy, Majima Goro." That's definitely the word for it. They won't always be on the same side--they probably don't see the world in the same way. But, as Strange noted before, Majima isn't a dick, at least. That's rare. "Gotta get going--wizard business." "Oh--first chance you get, check out a Turkish place. You like kalbi, won't regret it."