"Hey! It's just me, mind letting me in?" Adam asked with a smile at the two guards out in front of the gate. There is a moment of silence that passes before the guard on the left speaks up.
"We don't like having any muties in our city." He said, his tone full of vitriol. Adam was immediately taken aback and was confused. He opened his mouth to speak but then was cut off when the guard on the left, left his post, walked over to the other one, and decked him across the jaw hard.
"Shut up and do your job. Otherwise I'll send you to waste processing myself." He said to the man who just insulted Adam with anger. He then turned to Adam. "Sorry about that, yeah, come on in. I'll signal to the other guys to open the gate." He said with a pleasant tone before he looked back at his companion he had just hit, shot him a dirty look, and then walked back to his position.
Adam was, understandably, confused. What was that about? For now though he just popped back inside his APC and drove inside as the gate opened. Doing his best to put that whole interaction out of his head.
Adam decided to head to ghoul town first, handle selling to Hobson before he offloaded the rest of his guns in Midway proper.
"Adam?!" Hobson said with some shock as he walked through the door of the private terminal and over to Hobson, bags on his back, ready to sell.
"Hey Hobson, been a minute."
"I'll say." He chuckled. "So they kicked you out of Midway too, huh? Tough break." He said with a shake of his head.
"No?" Adam said, confused. "I just came here first, why would they kick me out?"
"Ah…" Hobson said as the situation slowly dawned on him. "So you don't know what's going on in the city, do ya?"
"No, I just toured around the other settlements and came to offload the last of my goods. What's going on in the city?"
"They know, kid." He said slowly, leaning in a bit. "Everyone knows you are a clone." He frowned. Adam did too, but this was not very much of a surprise. After all, he had already gotten all the evidence he needed to assume this had become common knowledge in Midway.
"Im not surprised." He sighed. "But why is that a problem? Do they hate clones or something?" He asked with a small chuckle. Hobson, however, did not find it funny.
"No, Midway hates non-humans." He said seriously.
"I mean I am human, just a cloned one." Adam said back, as if defending himself.
"I'm not saying you are not." Hobson said with a sympathetic tone. "Im a human, just got rotting skin. But look at me, living in Ghoul Town, a shanty town built outside the main settlement cause they don't want any ghouls in the city."
"Are you saying… they won't let me inside?" Adam asked, shocked.
"No… I doubt it…" He said slowly as he looked out the door towards Midway which was out of sight. "You got a reputation, no matter what they think, they aren't going to stop the hero of Chicago from coming inside. But they might jeer you, stare, or worse."
"Is it… really going to be that bad?" Adam asked slowly.
"All I can tell you is I have heard some rumors coming out of the city. And they aren't exactly the kind of rumors you would want spreading about you."
"Well… thanks for the heads up… I guess…" Adam said, not expecting this sort of welcome at all. Was he going to be scorned because of his means of birth? He always thought Ghoul Town was a horribly bigoted way to separate humans and ghouls, but there was nothing he could do about it. But now that it might concern him… Regardless he would just have to go inside and find out. He knew there was something to expect now. Even if it was not exactly something pleasant.
"Alright well… I'm open to trading if you are." Adam said, deciding to put it out of his head for the time being and focus on the task in front of him.
"Now that I can get behind." Hobson said with a grin.
As per usual Hobson was not exactly rolling in caps, living in Ghoul Town limited his access to funds, however a number of other ghoul merchants also took note of Adam's wares and asked to buy in, which Adam was more than happy to do. All in all he made 3289 caps from the various vendors in Ghoul Town. Split 5 ways that was 658 caps, with one person getting one cap less. It was fine though, Eve could draw the short stick this time. After all, she was not here.
With some of his wares sold, he now had to head inside the main city and see what awaited him indoors. Adam headed inside, parking his APC outside the front door and leaving Sgt. Fyre to guard it, and found… nothing…
Well not nothing, everything just seemed normal. He had prepared for the worst, people with pitch forks and torches ready to throw tatos at him or something. But he was not met with any stares, or any booing, it was just another average day at Midway. Which, all things considered, was very nice to see considering Hobson's warning.
However it was while walking to the Mall to meet with Jay that he encountered the first bit of opposition to him being here. A man very clearly purposefully bumped into him and called him a mutie while continuing on. The scene was almost comical because while it looked like the man was trying to softly bowl over Adam instead Adam had stood like a wall and caused the man to bounce back a bit. However, undeterred, it did not stop his insult. Adam was not insulted by the affair, but displeased to see that there was, indeed, some negative energy directed towards him.