♫004 - VIDEO

[socialactivillain]

Hello, imPorts. Some of you might already know me, but there have been a lot of new faces around since the last time I really put myself in the public spotlight. My name is Hartley Rathaway, but most people just call me Piper.

Since I arrived here a year ago, I've been deeply involved with several native-run charities—most notably Helping Hands, Open Hearts in Heropa, Aid De Chima, No One Alone in Maurtia Falls, and Color House in Nonah. Things like homelessness, hunger, and poverty shouldn't be an issue in places as technologically advanced and progressively-minded as our Porter cities, but they seem to be universal constants.

To step up my assistance in these causes that I feel so strongly about, I've decided to start my own organization, focused on imPort aid to the native communities in our cities. Ideally, we'll network with the existing organizations to get more imPorts involved in giving back to the communities that made space for us in their world, and focus on imPort-related issues that affect those communities, such as imPort-related crime and disasters.

So I'm here today looking for imPorts who are either willing to volunteer their time or money, as well as those who would be interested in seeking a career in this line of work. Paid positions will be limited, as our resources are better spent invested in the communities we'll be supporting, but I'm looking for some folks with previous history in public service, similar volunteer organizations, or office work.

Feel free to contact me here, or at my private contact.

[ He hesitates for a moment, unsure if he should end on that note or continue with his last request. Sheepishly, he goes on. ]

...Also, if anyone has any suggestions for naming this organization, that's really all that's holding me back from filing the final paperwork to get this thing off the ground.

Puns appreciated, but only good ones.

Comments

Re: i hate you i hate this i hate everything

[picksthenames]

I thought about ImPort Volunteer Exchange, but IPVE doesn't sound as good.

[dr_eldarov]

Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. To be fair, I was terrible with record keeping when I first started; some things simply take time to become proficient with. [He can't help but feel that being part of a big family had bolstered his organizational skills, too. Keeping track of everyone's coming and going in his head had made writing it down for patients an easy transition of skills.

Forgive him, he is from the very beginning of 1950, so his first instinct upon hearing the word gay is to freeze, visibly. Then, with some trepidation:] Back home, your life would have been in danger if people even suspected you were - I never really had confirmation, but I'd heard that was why some of my patients were attacked, especially at night - are you safe, here?

[Anatoly has... issues upon issues regarding this topic. But Piper seems like a nice young man and Anatoly has seen nice young men brought, unconscious and often near death, into the hospital with grievous injuries. Most were inflicted by people they vaguely knew, coworkers or friends who had turned on them, with a small minority of men being those their 'partner' had turned on.

He had been one of the latter, once, but he can't think about that, not right now. Maybe not ever. The idea makes his skin crawl.]

[socialactivillain]

[ Piper had sort of assumed from his general manner—not to mention his mentions of being discriminated against and not being up to date on current medical technology—that he was from at least a different time, if not a wholly different world, so he's not terribly surprised by Anatoly's visible reaction to him outing himself. His words after, though, make Piper more curious about him still. ]

I'm safe here. There are still bigots no matter where you go, it seems, but they're rarer, and less brave about it since there are better legal protections against it.

It helps that I can take care of myself, though, if it ever comes to that.

[ While it's nothing like the 50s, Piper did come out in the 80s. He's no stranger to gay bashing and homophobia, on an individual basis or institutionalized. ]

[dr_eldarov]

[A knot of tension - fear, really, if he wants to be honest with himself - loosens within him. Okay. Alright, so he's not quite as likely to have to treat someone whose only crime was... that. He avoids even thinking the word if he can. But he breathes a sigh of relief anyway, his humanistic tendencies outweighing his own prejudices.]

Thank God, on both counts. I suppose I need to go read up on the legal aspect of that sort of thing [again, he's not going to use the word] if I am going to live here, I just. I never thought there would come a day when there would be any such legal protections. Even Moscow wasn't willing to go that far, and they were considered the more tolerant of the big cities.

For the sake of not turning all my hair white: if you get hurt, go to a doctor. I cannot tell you how many people could have benefitted from earlier treatment but were to embarrassed over their circumstances to get help.

[Which is a laughably hypocritical statement. Anatoly himself never went to a doctor or asked for help, because that would be an admission he wasn't ready to make. But he was a young man then, foolish and self-important, and he had seen people die from poorly-done home care in the intervening years and wised up on at least some levels.]

[socialactivillain]

Things have changed more quickly than anyone could have expected, I think. This world is similar in a lot of ways to the one I'm from, but I'm from the 1990s, not 2017. Maybe not as far back as it sounds like you're from, but it's still been a lot different.

And I promise, I'm not the kind who's too proud to get help when I need it. Used to be, maybe, but again, things change.

[socialactivillain]

Well, IPVE could still work. I do want to put more emphasis that this is imPorts helping, not help for imPorts, though. Relief exchange does kind of sound like imPort aid.

[socialactivillain]

For which part? Donations, volunteering, or a job?

[socialactivillain]

Well, your jokes tend to not be funny.

I might use the logo and scrap the name, if that's all right by you.

[dr_eldarov]

It was January of 1950 where I was from. So things are slightly ever so slightly different, here and there. [Said with just a touch of self-deprecation. He's out of date and he knows it, but he's trying to improve, bit by bit. This topic might be one it will take longer to deal with, though.] I have spent more time reading up on how things work since I arrived than I think I have since I was in training to be a doctor.

Good. I have literal healing powers here, but I would rather not have to use them where caution could have prevented the original injury or when someone is clearly coming to me in lieu of a modern trained professional.

[pyrogue]

Gonna be off parole in a few days.

Lemme see... 'Port-Able? Wait, don't think that makes sense...

[socialactivillain]

[ Piper laughs. ] Oh, wow, no, it doesn't.

[zee_zatara]

Donations and volunteering, probably. I can do fundraising events too, of course.

[socialactivillain]

Well, there's a lot to catch up on in 57 years. [ Piper gives a chuckle at the self-deprecation, enjoying his dry sense of humor. ] I did the same when I got here, and I only had 18 years between home and when I arrived here.

You'll probably still find that pretty common, unfortunately. Some people either aren't used to modern medical care, or don't trust it for whatever reason. Healing powers in imPorts are an easier route for a lot of people, even when we're not in the middle of some disaster or another.

[pyrogue]

I miss the good ol' days, when punning was like our second tongue.

[socialactivillain]

I'm a little amazed the puns weren't back to our old standards when we were all under the same roof again.

[dr_eldarov]

There is. Admittedly I would be doing better if I were not so easily distracted by the internet. One interesting thing leads to another and then it's the middle of the night and I'm reading up on things not remotely related to what my original line of inquiry was about. [Not to mention the cat videos, but he wasn't about to admit that at his age he was still susceptible to cute things. He's an adult, damn it.] They really ought to have some kind of guide for imPorts who arrive from another era, some sort of book they can hand us when we get here to address the questions that come from being of another era.

[He doesn't know the word for it, but he facepalms anyway.] I am going to sound old, but I don't care: back in my day doctor's visits were expensive and it was hard to even find doctors in the part of Siberia that I grew up in, so it genuinely irks me that here, now, where doctors are common and more affordable than they possibly ever will be back home, people are passing them up. I cannot fathom what logic allows someone to skip over a professional with up-to-date training and instead makes them think someone as woefully out of date as myself is the better option.

This place will see me go completely white-haired, [he mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose.] Which is appropriate, as I have never felt so much like an old man in my life.

[pyrogue]

Yeah, you'd think that'd heat 'em up.

[trouvaille]

I'll compile some details for you - I can probably suggest some names who might be willing to donate generously from my freelancing.

video;

[heliophilic]

You place a call to the network, but don't call me? After everything we've done? You wound me, Piper.

[private]

[blackhat]

Depends on what you prove you can accomplish.

You have references I can reach out to? Funds to get up and running?

[socialactivillain]

Oh, I figured your help was a given.

[ He grins. ]

[likewise]

[socialactivillain]

The charities I mentioned can all vouch for the hard work I've done. And I've put enough of my own money to get things off the ground.

[blackhat]

I'll make some calls. If everything checks out I'll cut you a check for fifty grand.

I have an office in De Chima if you want to make a case for more zeroes.

[heliophilic]

Does that usually go over well? Forcing people to work for you?

video

[darted]

I'm just the gift that keeps on giving. [ Captain Cold will get an Antarctica dryness in her voice as a response. ]

But I could really use more content that's not upsetting all these imPorts for filming them.