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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 4, 2016 11:07:53 GMT -7
Edgar was very curious about this to say the least. When he checked the newspaper, he came across a small ad talking about someone by the name of Dr. Mallard and his “miracle cure” for super. This isn’t something new: ever since the number of super power escalated over the year in Emerald City, many people were worried about the potential harm if their love ones start to exhibit these strange powers. Many quack doctors had used this in order to sell these tonics that they “guarantee” to cure the hidden supers in their children, treating supers like some kind of a horrible epidemic that can wipe out the whole civilization.
In a way, he couldn’t disagree on that: normal law-enforcement are not well-equip when dealing with a criminal with super power. Already last month, multiple incidents had spread all across Emerald City that is the result of a super battling with each other. With this level of paranoia, people will see supers as something harmful, and would want to get rid of them anyway they can.
So when the ad talked about Dr. Mallard’s tonic appear in the newspaper, anyone with a wallet will swarm in the shop to buy this “miracle cure”. Edgar doesn’t like it: this might be a scam that prey on people's fear and steal their well-earned wealth, and with innocent people on the line, he needs to dig deep if he’s going to find the truth.
In order to do that, he need information. He decided to walk around the mall this Wednesday afternoon with some survey in hand, handing them out to any passerby while asking them if they've heard about Dr. Mallard's tonic. Hopefully he get some good result out of this. If not, well there's always tomorrow; at the very least he would like to know where they procure these tonics.
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Post by Samantha Lobo on May 5, 2016 5:49:37 GMT -7
Samantha meandered through the mall, shoving various passer-by out of the way, as her hands were almost full with dog toys.
She glared angrily at anyone who gave her a funny look for her odd items. So she didn't notice the man handing out surveys until it was too late.
She bumped into him and scattered her toys, "Jeez, what the hell!?" She barked, scooping up her stuff, "Why couldn't you-huh!?" She tilted her head at the paper he held, "Normalfication tonic?" She mumbled to herself.
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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 6, 2016 10:52:18 GMT -7
Edgar didn’t notice the small girl from behind him until he felt something collide with his body, making him drop a few of the survey on the ground.
“I’m so sorry, are you alright?” he turned around to see that she drop all kind of dog toys all over the floor, mixing with his survey. The amount of dog toys is way too much for one dog, so she must have at least more than three with this amount of toys for them. When he saw her pick up one of the survey he drop before, he instantly feel glad he bump into her; or actually she bump into him:
“Here, let me help you with that,” he said as he kneeled down and picked up some of the toys she drop on the floor, “I’m doing a public survey for a school project on Dr. Mallard’s Normalfication tonic, have you heard about it?”
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Post by Samantha Lobo on May 6, 2016 11:20:48 GMT -7
Samantha accepted the help without a complaint, simply grunting in approval as she hoisted the oyster back into hand. She would have still been angry, but that had all but vanished as she studied the servey.
She nodded, "Yeah, I've-I've seen this thing before," She neglected to say where she saw it before, "I don't like it," She growled, lips curling back as she frowned, "I don't like it at all."
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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 8, 2016 10:43:21 GMT -7
Her answer took him slightly by surprise: so far the people that he managed to give the survey to answer with either a shrug or non-responsive. He was started to feel like he had spent his day with no progress in his investigation. This girl, however, was the first one who seems to feel disapproving in the idea of the Normalization tonic. He took out his small notepad and pen before after finish picking up the dog toys:
“Oh? Would you be willing to clarify that, miss…?"
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Post by Samantha Lobo on May 8, 2016 11:02:45 GMT -7
Samantha shot a disapproving eye at the note and pen, of all the people to run into, she had to run into some sort of reporter!
She sighed angrily, "I don't like it because it's a stupid thing to do to supers." She growled and shuffled in place, as if to let off steam, before continuing, "If they were born with it, too bad, live with it! And with villains, they were probably going to be shitty people before they got powers!"
She looked almost personally furious, "Instead of trying to make them "normal", how bout we stop treating supers like monsters!? You know, maybe they'll respond to that." She had hunched over and pulled up her hoodie, what was visible of her face was darkened and pulled into a scowl, "That enough for you, huh!?"
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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 8, 2016 11:46:56 GMT -7
As Edgar took what the girl said down on his notepad, he could feel the hostility coming from her tone. He wasn’t sure if it was because of him being a reporter or the idea of normalizing supers that make her so upset. Well no one ever said being a reporter is easy: there are always people out there who view him as intruding in their privacy each time he took out his notepad and pen. Clearly she was having a bad day when she bumped into him and drop her dog toys, and being question about this topic really isn't making her day any better.
Though it rather hard to believe that some civilian out there actually feel sympathize with supers. Edgar understands that those supers don’t choose to become like what they are, it just happen. As a matter of fact, he was glad that some supers decided to use their power for the good of the people despite how everyone viewed them as a threat. But either way, that wasn’t why he’s doing this survey to begin with:
“Sorry, old habit died hard, being a part-time journalist and all,” he explained to the girl, “I’m actually investigating on the claim of these Normalization tonics to find out if this is another scam on innocent people out there, super and civilian alike. I’ve tried calling the doctor’s office, but they just put me on hold and never reply back. So I decided to ask around to see if anyone ever actually witnessed the tonic’s effectiveness first-hand.”
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Post by Samantha Lobo on May 8, 2016 14:14:42 GMT -7
Samantha shrugged grumplily, "Yeah, uh-huh, ok... " She mumbled gruffly, pulling the hoodie diligently around her, seemingly unwilling to let the man see how much this whole conversation about normalification was bothering her.
"I haven't heard one person talk about this thing, much less it actually working." She wasn't lying, this thing was probably just another scam, "Besides, who knows how superpowers work, much less how to stop them?" As far as she knew, nobody had any idea how superpowers formed, so how could they stop one?
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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 9, 2016 11:45:58 GMT -7
She had a point there; the tonic advertisement just sound a bit too convenient, especially when news about supers just recently pop in about the danger of these powers. With the knowledge of how supers get their abilities is still surrounded in mystery, he doubt that someone out there can manage to create such a tonic that can repress, or even remove those abilities. This sound more like a scam considering how the tonic was advertise and there's no report of such success for the public.
Still, Edgar doesn't feel like this is just a simple scam. It is not good to assume something like this without more information, especially for someone in his line of work. He need to get his hand on one of the tonic; perhaps he can ask one of the professor in his University to see what the tonic does to a human body once he got his hand on the tonic. In the mean time, he pulled out one of his business card and handed it to the girl:
"Thank you for your time and input; if there's anything that you find out more about this, would you let me know? Here's my personal contact information."
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Post by Samantha Lobo on May 9, 2016 16:33:08 GMT -7
Samantha's eyes flitted from the man to his card, before seemingly making up her mind and snatching it, stuffing it somewhere it the horde of toys.
A smirk crossed her face, "Oh, don't worry about it, I'm not kidding about not liking it." She heaved the toys to a more secure position, "See you around man."
As she exited the mall, the exited tips of mutts greeted her, the rowdy dogs having caused enough havoc before following her out.
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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 9, 2016 17:05:27 GMT -7
Edgar waved goodbye to the girl before returning to his passing out survey. At least today's effort isn't too much of a waste, he managed to get one person's honest opinion on the Normalized tonic. He hope that by this time, more people would hang out around the mall, and with that more chance to get people's opinion on the subject at hand.
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Post by Marion Mayes on May 13, 2016 0:07:04 GMT -7
Marion normally couldn't be bothered to fill out surveys, but today was special. He had sold off his skateboard, which meant that his primary mode of transportation was a no-go. So, he had decided to stay closer to home and try practicing some freerunning at the mall. Unfortunately, the place was so packed today that he simply didn't have the open space for it. He was hanging around until the place started to clear out, so a survey would be just the thing to cure the crushing boredom until then.
"What's this about? Oh, Dr. Mallard's... huh, well, I don't have any experience with it myself," Marion said truthfully. And that was probably fortunate, all things considered.
"But I have heard about it from a super I met in... uh... a chance encounter," he said, this time less truthfully.
Marion continued, "It doesn't do a thing to superpowers, I hear, which isn't really a big shock when you look at the scummy way they advertize it. But I hear it tastes like shit. More motivation for any super kids who have to drink the stuff to better hide their powers in the future, I guess. Maybe the peace of mind alone is worth it for the parents? I dunno, I guess it qualifies as a silver lining..."
He trailed off, practically forgetting the survey in his hands. Thinking about this sort of thing wasn't Marion's strong suit.
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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 16, 2016 11:20:25 GMT -7
The guy was very talkative, Edgar has to admit that. He wasn’t complain about it: finally someone give him the information that he was asking around for what seems like hours. The only thing that might put him off is the guy’s smoking. Edgar just need to endure the smell of smoke without saying anything to him; it would be very rude considering the guy’s willingness to answer the survey.
“Have anyone ever bought this tonic?” he asked, “I mean, from what you told me, there are some people out there who got duped by the advertisement. If its taste is as bad as you said, have there been any report of people getting sick from drinking it?”
Edgar also asked the guy if he could give him the name of the super he had a chance encounter with and what he looks like. This way if Edgar had a chance to meet with him, he can ask the super directly to verify the guy’s answer.
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Post by Marion Mayes on May 17, 2016 13:13:01 GMT -7
Marion shook his head, an uncharacteristically sad expression on his face. "Sorry, but all I actually know about the stuff is secondhand from that hero. It only came up in passing, like, once. And I wouldn't count on being able to track him down and ask him yourself. He fell in the last dragon attack."
This survey had looked like a fun diversion, but it had ended up bringing up some bad feelings, and it was a kind of risky topic in the first place. Marion decided to hurriedly disengage.
"Hey, good luck with your investigation, though. I bet there are a lot of people out there who would be interested in the actual facts. Keep it up!" Marion jogged away, making room for the next interviewee.
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Post by Edgar Pointdexter on May 18, 2016 19:35:39 GMT -7
Edgar waved at the guy as he leaved; at much as things goes, he is thankful of his input to the subject he's investigating on. He is, however, feel kinda bad that his line of question might have stirred some bad memory for the guy, seeing how his expression change suddenly. He hope he wasn't making the guy feel too uncomfortable with the topic; he was going to apologize if he didn't leave so quickly.
Edgar sighed; though the investigating had yield some useful information with the case at hand, with the little information he gain and poking at people's comfort zone, it might be time for him to halt the investigation. He will finished with at least one more person before he leave the mall.
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