Seasons change ((attn: Fiona!))

It was the tom cat who caught the smell first, followed by the wolfhound. Both noses twitched at the odd familiarity. Odd, simply because they couldn't really place it. It was a rare day that they forgot a person's smell. The sparrow was the one who glanced up, tucking a meticulously preened wing back against its small body. The woman on the bench looked familiar, too.

She was watching them, or at the least, looking their way. Her style of dress reminded him a bit of Arielle's, though less revealing, and more artful. Out of the corner of his eye, the teenager rather liked those combat boots. Huh. But where had he met her? It wasn't like him to forget someone, like this. Random street passing? He'd have remembered the boots. Mansion resident? He'd know what she ate for breakfast, never mind who she was. Order? They'd been getting in new recruits lately, but Calley hadn't met them for them to seem familiar. Kabal? Heh! No, he'd know if she was Kabal, or anyone tied to the Labs.

A blurry memory of werewolves and underage drinking swirled in the back of his mind, but refused to come to the forefront. The brown-haired teenager shut his notebook, and slipped his pencil into its spiral spine for safekeeping. He reached around, and grabbed his Geometry book out from under the cat's nose. The feline slipped fluidly around his shoulders as the teenager rose to his feet. The sparrow fluttered up to perch on his head. The wolfhound gave a lazy yawn and, in a move that would horrify any true literary fan, clamped the manga between his jaws and trailed along at the teen's side as he walked towards the woman on the bench. Hands in khaki pants pockets, white T-shirt loose and a little too light, even for such a nice day. He had rather a few furry space heaters with him, though.

He gave an open smile as he approached, and stopped at what he hoped was a comfortable distance away. He didn't really know who this was, and not everyone in the city appreciated a mutant coming up to them out of the blue.

"Hello," he started simply, one hand scratched idly behind the wolfhound's ears, "I'm Calley. I'm sorry, but have we met before...? You seem really familiar, somehow. Have you stopped by the Mansion, or the Sanctuary, or something?"

His blush was probably answer enough.

"Err," the teenager said, trying to make his baby blue eyes just as innocent as possible, "not that I'm admitting to having been there or not, but... did there happen to be a werewolf involved? And a bone manipulator? And," he pointed one finger at himself, "a tiger?"

And now he knew where he was remembering her from. From out of the hazy, illegal liquor-sloshed memory emerged her face.

"...You aren't going to say anything to the Mansion teachers, right? 'Cause I kinda take classes there myself, now." Not that he really expected any great discipline to come of it; the Mansion's discipline distributions were a bit erratic. Emerald Lupin disemboweled another person? Give her a band aid and bring party snacks to her on a platter. Lizard Boy stopped a theft? Ground him and keep him under surveillance. Judging by those examples, the penalty for underage drinking and bar fights was probably a matter for the Wheel of Punishments and Candy to decide.

He tilted his head, and did not in any way attempt to change the subject. "You said you lived there a long time ago--why did you leave? You didn't go Order, did you?"

"Yep!" Calley answered her last question brightly, if only to make it abundantly clear that he definitely most certainly hadn't caught that awkward moment of sadness, earlier. "I'm a proud X-Trainee, as of a few months ago. Been on a mission, and everything."

His personal entourage was getting a little unnecessary; he could always summon them back if and when he got back to studying. Studying had a way of falling by the wayside, though, when another mutant popped up. Calley took the manga out of the wolfhound's mouth, and tucked it up under his arm with the notebook and the geometry text. Then, with a shift, he reabsorbed all three splinters: dog, cat, and bird did a vanishing act in the blink of an eye. Not that they'd really gone anywhere, per say. They'd only been little ol' him to begin with. He'd grown rather a bit in his powers since that lovely night at the bar. For one thing, he was pretty sure that if he pounced at a large werewolf today, he'd actually hit the thing. For another, he could now shift into multiple forms at once, instead of just one at a time. Hence the illusion of having his own personal petting zoo. The 'personal' being the key word there, really.

Tentatively, he sat on the bench, making sure to leave a bit of breathing room between them. It was as much for his own sake as it was for her's: he might be out from under Hunter's thumb, but he still had a few lingering personal space issues. Not that putting this amount of space between himself and a man with super speed would have done much good.

"Do you mind if I join you?" He asked, politely but belatedly.

"If you haven't been with the X's or the O's, do you have your own place around the city, now?" He inquired.

If Calley had known what the woman in front of him was thinking, it was likely that a caterpillar would indeed have sprouted from his ear.

"Yep," he answered to her question about his mutation, with a grin. "I'm Animals 'R' Us. Your go-to location for all things furry, featured, and scaled." And a few other descriptors. His range was the animal kingdom itself, limited only by those member he hadn't yet met in person.

"What's your mutation, if I may ask?" He asked politely. Not every mutant appreciated the question, but usually the ones who asked first were prepared for the turn-around.

"And what's with all this 'stable hands and maids' business? Where you at some kind of ranch?" Hmm, a ranch--Calley should look into that. The only horse form he had was the one he'd swiped at Mondragon Labs, from a samurai's warhorse. Cool, yes. Limited? Definitely. You could never have too many equines.

((ooc: Apologies for the delay in my posting, and hope you saw my note on the ‘Damn! Have to leave!’ thread. Novel is finished now, so back to posting I am. )

Calley blinked at the description of her ability. Blink... blink. Unsettled, uncomfortable bliiiink. He was male, wasn’t he? Last he checked, yep. And he had kind of approached her out of the blue. Which was something he’d had a reason for. But not a strong reason. Err, had he come over here because of her power, or because he’d wanted to? It was the question that he maybe shouldn’t think too hard about. Or… maybe he should. Being hyper-cognitive about things helped against mind-control-ish powers, didn’t it? He didn’t know.

She was blushing. And not ordering him to walk off any cliffs. Therefore… he tried to hide his sudden rash of twitching-where-he-sat discomfort under his traditional habitual smile.

>> "And yes, I own a hacienda. Like a ranch, but bigger. I'm the only one of my family that lives there, with a bunch of personnel to keep me company."

Smile. “That’s cool. Where is that? You said something about just getting into town?” If she’d said where she’d been, he’d managed to miss it. Or forget it. Could her powers influence memory? Was that a sign she was using them?

…There was no reason for him to be this paranoid.

Or was there…?

If the eighteen year old's eyes were more mature than the average boy his age, it was not by choice, and it was not something he'd ask to repeat. He'd rather have more naïveté in his gaze that the average teen. Rather hard to undo things like that, though.

Oddly enough, though, he started to relax. Something about her smile made him realize how silly he was being about her powers. Of course she wasn't using them--he came up to random people and started random conversations all the time, for less reason than he'd started with her.

But when he'd sat on the bench, he'd left a buffer of space between them for a reason. It was just as much for his sake as it was for hers. Letting other people physically close--particularly mutants--had a danger to it of which his eyes had learned.

Oddly enough, he didn't mind her inching closer into that immutable space, though. Back in the Spring, that slight movement would have sent him skittering to his feet and several cat-like steps away. Now, he was rather more confident in his own abilities to defend himself, if it came to it. Now, that hard won instinct to run was under just enough control that he stayed in place. Flinched back for a moment, uneasily, but allowed himself to feel calm again. It wasn't the sort of calm that invited thoughts about where it was coming from.

"Spain, huh?" He replied. "That's cool. I've always wanted to go to Spain." This was a blatant lie. But it was the sort of thing you said to something like that, right? 'You've been to x nation? Cool! I've always wanted to go there and visit [Insert Tourist Trap Here].' Calley hadn't really thought much outside of New York. It had been his own little kingdom, for the better part of four years. Spain might be nice. He could go there. There was absolutely nothing stopping him.

That was a calming feeling, too. Nothing was stopping him from leaving. Nothing. So it didn't matter that she was closer, and still smiling.

>> "Would you be interested in getting a bite to eat? My treat."

"Yeah, that sounds good." he smiled back, feeling unexpectedly good. He stood up, offering her a hand. "I wish I had a jacket, or something. You're not too cold, are you? It's sunny, but it's definitely not summer yet. I know this nice little Vietnamese place, if you're interested. I know a good Spanish one, too, but..." He gave a lop-sided grin. She was rather pretty. And Isabel had just dumped him, hadn't she?

But she was rather older than him and she was too close and her powers were--

It was all too easy to let any roiling thoughts drift aside, as he offered his arm in a pseudo-gentlemanly manner to the siren.

((ooc: Does your power work on mutant boys who happen to be animals? Just in case that comes up, later on. )