Cafas was entirely sure he preferred the months of routine to getting back into the life of a movie star. The movie had been in post production for ages. Still a few months from release, but apparently they were due at a few conventions as a pre-release hype building campaign. In a way he wished that they movie was a bigger deal, maybe then they could get some special back stage area to hang out the whole time before the panel. Instead they were given a time and told to turn up. Well, he sure as heck wasn't going to be early.

In fact, he was almost late, having walked into the convention centre about twenty minutes before he was due on. He had counted on this being plenty of time. It was not. He had taken about ten steps into the con's main crowd before his progress became much slower. One step per autograph and photo was not the pace he had been hoping for. By the time he had arrived on the stage (to deafening screams of joy) everyone else was already in place and the introduction was about to begin. He took his seat next to Allison and the producer and a little red light appeared on his mic to tell him it was active. He lent forward into it. "I'm not late am I?" A big grin spread across his face and he winked to the crowd, who reacted predictably.

Leaning back the producer gave him a questioning look. He responded to the glance, doing his best to keep his voice down so the mic didn't pick it up. Sorry, I got here 20 minutes ago, but there was a wall of them, I barely made it here as it was. He turned back to look at Allison and smiled "Looking good, new glasses?" that joke never got old. The differences were completely unmissable, for one her hair and eyes were totally different colours, and she looked like she hadn't seen the sun in about fifty years. By now their introductions had begun, starting on his far left. He figured he had about 30 seconds before it was his turn. "So Your mutation kick it up a notch? Or is it a great makeup job?"

His turn, he lent into the mic again. "I'm Cafas Johnson, and for any that don't know I play..." The screams of the character's name was almost painful. So much for his dramatic pause. He sat back in his chair for Alli's introduction.

Allison was getting a bit sick of smiling. Sure, it wasn't painful yet, but it was still a bit annoying to have to smile, and smile, and smile, even though she didn't feel at all like smiling. And felt a bit like glaring when it got to be time for the panel, and Cafas was very distinctly missing. She still had to smile and wave when she caught sight of him, though.

Okay, maybe she could forgive that. Between her tattoos and just not being the goal character anyway, Allison had managed to slip through the crowds without too much bother. Though Cafas had better remember that detail for the next one. She blinked at his question, and had to reach up to check that she actually wasn't wearing glasses. She hadn't worn glasses for years, since they didn't really do any good, but sunglasses were becoming a nice addition more and more often. His next question clarified what was going on for her, though, and she dropped her hand. "Oh." She'd forgotten about that, actually; it hadn't been a dramatic enough change to do more than cause a few startled examinations in a mirror, and while she was pretty sure that the week of being kidnapped had triggered it, it hadn't been an immediate enough change for the connection to be very strong. "Yeah, mutation." Her answer was low, but not a whisper; whispers were too inclined to carry. "I create ink now. Really, really slowly. Costumers are going to have a fit, I'm sure."

Allison wasn't sure why no one else did, but she saw no reason not to casually place her hands over her ears halfway through Cafas's introduction. Her head hurt enough already; she had no desire to add to it with the teenage screeching. The pasted smile was still in place when she dropped her hands again and leaned toward the microphone. "And I'm Allison Sinnocent," the pause there for giggles actually had been trained into her long before movies were ever mentioned, but was still convenient, "and I play Rashell."

The introduction moved on to the author--not necessarily a bad person, in Allison's mind, but a bit... annoyingly naive--and Allison leaned back toward Cafas. "So, how have you managed to avoid them? Any idea how you'll get out of here?" Allison might be annoyed on the way out, but probably would be allowed to leave; Cafas... might have a bit more difficulty with that.

The introductions were over, the director decided he needed to speak. Cafas assumed this was a thing that just happened on panels, he'd seen it happen before. He turned to look at Allison with a slightly sympathetic expression. "No control on the creation yet? Kinda makes me glad my mutation's always been so stable. Though I think props are slowly but surely plotting to kill me."

If they want real metal they can deal with it.

As if by magic he knew he needed to pay some attention. He got the feeling he had been mentioned. A distinct, earsplitting feeling. Cafas looked up towards the director. "Haha. As I was saying, the role of Jamet, as you all know,is played by Cafas, but did you know this is actually his first acting role, despite that I think he did an amazing job, and can see a beautiful career blooming..."

Nope, just smile and look modest.

"Sorry thought he might actually be asking me something, what were we... Oh right, avoiding them. Mostly it's a matter of just daily routine; Metalwork, managing my store, X-men duties where applicable, down time with Calley when he isn't studying. My plan for getting out though... Don't suppose you know anyone who can teleport?" Cafas couldn't remember if he did. It was possible, he didn't know everyone's mutations (Though he spent enough time around the files).

"How 'bout you? How're you managing it? Staying off the radar I mean. Heck you even dropped off my radar for a while there." He was referring, of course, to a conspicuous period of time in the X-men's files on the comings and goings of the sanctuary where she did not seem to exist.

Not that you're keeping tabs on her or anything...

It was true, when he'd not seen her in a while Cafas had decided to check the files on the sanctuary, but hadn't found her there, and he assumed her moving would have made at least some news within the celebrity gossip circles. God knows just about anything he did in public managed to.

"No, not yet. It doesn't change, though, I'm not sure I ever will." Which Allison was fine with, really; she honestly had no idea what she'd do if she could control how fast the ink was created. All she did now was periodically strip it out, and let it build up again. "I can change the color, though, but it's too slow to be much fun." Allison didn't have any interest in keeping the same tattoos for days, so the ink either remained unchanged, or changed to a dark mud color. Which was why she stripped it out as soon as it began to build up. Though, perhaps if she could speed it up enough... starting a party with no tattoos and having them fade in over the hours might be entertaining enough to be worth the preparation. She smirked equally at the idea and at Cafas's comment, and turned her head, raising a hand again to hide her mouth as she kept talking. "If a printing house ever tries to drown me, I'll let you know."

Allison winced again at the noise, but kept it internal as she followed Cafas's gaze to the director. Weird man; she still couldn't understand what he was doing directing this movie, he was constantly criticizing it and shaking his head at everything that happened. For money, then, probably. "It's fine." Better pay attention when it wasn't needed than miss when it was, always. They could probably be excused once of twice on the basis of 'aw, look how cute the couple is,' but even that would wear out pretty quickly.

"Not... actually one, maybe, but he's mad at me." Also, Allison wasn't entirely sure Shade could teleport. And was pretty sure he wasn't someone to introduce to an X-man. He was (presumably) still mad at her, though, so that was a convenient excuse. "It's not that hard for me, actually. They don't follow me as much. Change tattoos, put on a hat, that's normally enough. Mutation change helped with that too." Or, walk cheerfully into a legendarily dangerous part of town. That habit wasn't well known yet (and would be easily explainable once it was, since Allison did live there after all), though she was sure it would be eventually. But even for those who did know where she tended to walk and didn't know where she lived, it wasn't an issue; the cheerfully oblivious persona that had been constructed around Allison would see no problem wandering anywhere. And Allison didn't; that that happened to be because she was a distinctly lethal fighter rather than because she was oblivious to danger, or simply used to it, didn't ever need to be known. "Though, they'll probably get better at recognizing me again after this."

"Of course I did, you haven't seen me for months." And Allison only got into the magazines when they were able to speculate on her relationship with Cafas, or found ways to pick at her. She just didn't go out in public that much, especially recently. Having quit college was the most recent (major) thing they'd seized on to criticize; Allison almost hoped they'd bring it up so she could explain exactly why she had. And, of course, since she hadn't been seen with Cafas any time recently, there'd been endless speculation that they'd broken up. Allison was amazed they hadn't run out already, though with all the whispering they were doing now, that conversation would get another boost from this appearance, even if no one dared ask if they were dating.

...No, Allison didn't have that much faith in humanity. Of course someone would ask.

And the author had taken over from the director. Interrupted, going by the director's expression. She was rambling about how she'd just known Allison and Cafas were perfect for the roles when she first saw them, and the picture was so perfect she was sure that God had even given her the book to write based on them. Allison firmly tuned the comments out there, checked her smile, and widened it a bit when she noticed it had begin to fade. A distraction was definitely needed; she pulled her attention back to Cafas. "So, anything interesting happen in your daily routine?" Which was a dangerous question, really, considering the many meanings of interesting, but at least it wasn't God basing sappy cliche romances on Allison. Any god that did that deserved a good beating, in Allison's opinion.

"Still, you'll save money on pens I suppose. Just hope they don't get you to start signing stuff with it." He wasn't sure who was more likely to do that, the fans or the guys in charge of advertising and publicity. On second thoughts, he really didn't want to think about the weird sort of stuff people were going to ask them to do.

Hmmm so simply getting a teleport out of here isn't an option...

"Damn, well, without a teleporter I have nothing. They catch one glimpse of me and suddenly it's a swarm. It's why I wear a hoodie so much, so my hair doesn't give me away from every angle." Also why he spent so much time inside the Mansion, heck, he even started having a courier deliver his work from the mansion to the store and set up the store computer system so he could get it from home too.

"Months? Has it been months? I kind of lost track. Suppose it has. So much for our fake relationship huh? Though maybe we can come up with a reason. Though I think the illusion may be ruined sooner rather than later even if we reinstate it; My relationship isn't exactly a secret." He angled that well away from the microphone. No need to break more hearts than absolutely necessary.

The absolute necessity of breaking hearts... What has my life come to?

And then the author opened her mouth. Oh dear god. Why? What possible Crime was he being punished for, listening to this crap?

No really, the murders? The grievous bodily harm? The theft? Speeding? The...

"Interesting? Not really. I work a lot. Lots of tension these days too, after what happened to Gina. You? What's new?" Why were the microphones so loud? He could not possibly avoid hearing the drivel about how he looked exactly like the guy she described as essentially physically perfect. Seriously, she may as well have winked on him and bought him a drink. The worst was still to come though.

Question Time...

And first out of the gate was "This is for Cafas and Allison, first, you guys are, like, perfect for Jamet and Rashell. Did you like The Tale of the Dawn before you started the movie?"

"That'd take way too long, I hope." Especially because Allison had never actually signed her own name with her mutation yet. For anything official, it could be questioned by the lack of dents in the paper from a pen tip; for anything unofficial... well hopefully they'd not think of that. Unless she pre-made a bunch of signatures and stored them in her skin to print on paper, that would take at least a few minutes per signature. Though, that might always just mean she'd finish when Cafas did instead of having to wait....

"Try sunglasses." Hiding uniquely mutant eyes out of shame of being a mutant Allison disapproved of; hiding uniquely mutant eyes to avoid stalking teenage fangirls (and boys. Allison kind of feared for the fanboys' lives, based on what she knew of Caleb) she could understand. "...Or wear your costume, so they'll think you're just pretending to be you."

It took a second for Allison to reply about relationships; Cafas's comments had set off far too many thoughts at once. I don't want to keep lying about Aura. She's a criminal, I can't ever tell the truth. I'll always have to pretend I'm single, or dating someone else. Cafas is easier to pretend with than someone who didn't want to pretend. Getting accused of seducing him into cheating on Caleb is the last thing I need now. Accusing Caleb of seducing him away from me is probably not good for their health, but they'll do it anyway. I can think of half a dozen ways to explain not seeing him for months, especially since I haven't been seen much.... Allison made absolutely sure her voice was too low for the microphones to pick up, and caught another piece of Myra's rambled certainty that she and Cafas were favored and blessed by God. She shoved it away. "I might be able to change their minds on that. Want to be a dad?" Granted, Cafas would certainly be accused of being the kid's father anyway, but whether he decided to go along with it or not would be... pretty important to clarify now, probably. Before Allison said anything either way, at least.

"Uh. Yeah.... That's complicated." Actually, it really wasn't, but 'complicated' sounded nicer than 'traumatizing.' And Allison was probably going to have to rescue Cafas from Myra later. That would be fun to pull of, she was sure.

Oh look, a distraction! Allison had no clue how much practice Cafas had with tact, but she'd divert the question anyway. She smiled and leaned toward the microphone again, apparently oblivious to the conversations she'd just been having. "Well, it's not a genra I normally look for, so I actually first read it because I noticed myself on the cover. It was definitely entertaining, though. I had fun reading it." That despairing sort of fun she had when ranting about incompetence and stupidity, but nonetheless, something that could be called fun.

And once that question was answered, a new one. "For Cafas and Allison again. You two have such a great relationship, were you friends before the movie?"

Hm. Evidently, Cafas-and-Allison were a unit now. Wasn't there some magazine that had tried to start calling them Calli? Allison wasn't sure where that had disappeared to, but she was glad it was gone. Being referred to as AlliSin was annoying enough.

From perfectly ordinary conversation to weird proposition in one sentence flat. "Pardon!?!" His voice carried rather perfectly into the microphone.The result was the whole room stopping to look at him. Lovely.

Did she just ask... I mean is she propositioning me?

Cafas leaned forward "Sorry, can you repeat the question please?" Sheepish grin smothered, replaced with polite interest. "Were you friends before the movie?" Good now he had to answer that. He had all of one second provided by a nod of understanding. "Thanks. Well, actually we met in a bookstore she was working at. We both got the parts while we were talking right there. The answer is still yes though, I knew I liked her the minute we started talking."

Lean back, smile, try not to think too hard about the question he'd just been asked. Actually, that did kind of merit thinking about.

Nope, shut up, don't say any...

"I mean... You know I have a boyfriend right? Because I know Calley is kind of an ambiguous name. I mean it's nothing personal but we are just acting the couple here." There, nice and tactful. And said low enough not to carry. He faced front again as a new fan stepped up to the mic. "For the brilliant auth..." He'd stopped paying attention again. "You know there might be easier ways to make our relationship believable without getting you pregnant.

Okay, so maybe that had come a bit out of nowhere from Cafas's perspective, but that was still an extreme reaction. Allison blinked at him right along with everyone else. And aw, that was a cute answer, though she didn't at all believe the attempt at being casual.

She blinked as Cafas hesitated, then started rambling at her, and had to raise her hand again to hide the giggles she couldn't quite suppress. "I know. I've met Caleb. He's an asshole, and I still need to fill his room with sticks." As soon as she found his room, anyway. The brat had been annoyingly evasive. Being able to not be human on a whim probably helped with that. "And I am pregnant. I assume that's a no, you don't want credit, then." She paused before continuing. "Which means half the magazines will freak out saying I was cheating, a quarter will blame you anyway, and a few might actually figure out that the actors were acting."

The fourth question had been for the director, but the fifth was for Cafas. A girl who looked about sixteen and far too star struck bounced up, hesitated, and blurted out, "Cafas, would you go on a date with me?"

Allison did her best to hide her giggles. And the pity.

Oh, right, yeah everyone knew Calley. Cafas did try to ignore how many of them disliked him and how many were known criminals. Though it wasn't like he was universally liked (or at least, assumed he wasn't) or particularly clean of crimes. "I really would prefer you didn't, it's kinda my room too." And clearing out that many sticks would be frustrating.

Oh, and we're up.

The girl, who apparently wanted a date, was far too young to be dating him. Also clearly far too excitable. On top of all that he had a two relationships already, however fake one might be. "I think Allison might have something to say about that one. Tell you what though, what's your name?"

"Uh, Libby."

"Well, Libby, if you want that photo there signed, jump up here and I'll sign that for you."

The speed she reached the panel with seemed superhuman (which it admittedly may have been). She had the photo on the table in front of him before he could blink. Cafas picked up a marker that had slid up the table from the director. He signed the photo, looked up smiled. Something clicked in his head. "Hey, you got a camera?"

Libby produced a phone from here pocket and switched to the Camera app. Cafas accepted the offered phone, made sure Libby, him and Allison were all in frame, and snapped a photo. "There you go, enjoy the convention." Libby was ushered off stage and Cafas went back to his conversation with Allison.

"So, pregnant huh? Yeah that is going to make the relationship awkward if I don't claim responsibility, but I couldn't do that, I mean the long term repercussions are just massive, for you, me and the kid." Plus, you know, Calley. "So, is he anyone I know? The father I mean."

More importantly how is he gonna feel about it if I claim to be the father.

"I've never seen you around Sanctuary." Admittedly, it had been quite a while since she'd met Caleb, and the puppy could have just led her to the wrong place. But Lisa had known him (even in the form of a puppy), and it would be much more convenient if he just had his own room in Sanctuary. Closer to Allison, and therefore easier to get to... and if his Sanctuary room was only one of multiple, much better opportunities to sneak the sticks in there without getting caught. Of course, he'd probably just be able to catch her by smell... unless she drowned her scent out with something else. There were some pretty strong perfumes in the world.

Hm, so apparently they were renewing the relationship pretense. Allison smiled, and shook her head at the girl. It didn't seem to make any difference either way; she wasn't paying any attention to Allison.

...Woah. That was... fast. Well, that made sense; there weren't that many well known mutants, especially for teens to watch; it made sense that they'd latch onto any that did exist. Representation was always nice.

...Hm. Maybe Allison should talk about that. Once she got an opportunity, anyway; no need to drag the topic in when it would annoy people by cutting off what they wanted to talk about. She waited while Cafas dealt with the fangirl (aww, he was growing up into a real, genuine celebrity!) who departed at a much more normal speed than she'd arrived.

The smile Allison gave Cafas when he was able to answer her again was thoroughly pleased, and just that bit shadowed by a glare. "The father is dead." Who, exactly, he was she didn't know anyway, but she had made very sure of that.

Oh, yeah, this was Calley we were talking about. How many rooms did that shifter have? "Nah, but he's my room mate at the mansion." When it suited him. "I don't tend to go to the sanctuary, it's proven bad for my health." Being seen re-kidnapping a girl by a guy who looked like he could turn you into paste did not make one want to return.

Wait, dead?

Cafas didn't know how to take that. Allison didn't seem particularly broken up by the fact the father of her child was dead. His X-man senses were tingling. He suspected this probably wasn't voluntary. "This wouldn't have anything to do with that time you were missing would it?" This didn't seem like it was going anywhere pleasant.

Hmm,wasn't pregnant before she went awol, is now, y'think it's related genius?

They got a few questions' break, but he supposed being the face of a film did make them kind of the obvious people to get questions leveled at them. A few about the filming, how they viewed their characters, the sort of questions they had a script for. which was all good, because it gave them a chance to talk without being too distracted.

Allison... couldn't argue that. The Sanctuary was bad for some peoples' health. It was also very, very good for others' health; it just depended on how much attention you paid to who, and what you were willing to turn away from. Cafas... did not seem like the type to look away for his own good, or to understand why many of Sanctuary's members did what they did. So, yeah, it being bad for his health seemed reasonable. Though Allison did wonder just who exactly he'd offended; she might have to make a point of keeping them separate if it was anyone she knew....

It was fortunate that the next questions didn't take much attention. It gave Allison the opportunity to turn and blink at Cafas. "What time that I was missing? You know what time I was missing?" Hadn't he just said he avoided Sanctuary? And agreed that he hadn't seen her for months?

Well, either way. It didn't change her answer. "...No. That was... slightly after I was missing. When I was missing was these." She flipped her hand over, under the table, so that the scars were visible. Small and neat, cutting across her palm and the inside of each joint, and still a bit red since they were constantly being stretched. "Well, and bruises, but those heal. ...And mutation, probably."

"Part of my job is keeping an eye on the sanctuary, I suppose you might understand why, you live there. I just noticed you didn't seem to be around." Sort of true, the X-men did, he was an X-man, he saw the files, perhaps on purpose. "Plus I got a call or two from the advertising team to see if I could get hold of you." Again sort of true. That had seemed kind of like a secondary objective for them.

Not that it's my business really.

When Allison flipped her hand over it took a great deal of restraint to not look surprised. "Surgery? Ah you were in hospital? What was wrong? Accident?" Maybe he was being stupid then. Being in hospital would explain why she was off the radar, especially if they wanted to keep the media from prying. Which they inevitably would do if they caught wind of it. An accident explained a need for surgery and bruises too.

See nothing to worry about. Except maybe the whole father is dead thing.

Cafas answered a question, straight off the script. Someone mentioned that there was only enough time for ten more questions. The first three of the last ten were all for him. Luckily, they were things he'd practiced for.

Okay, yeah, Allison did understand. Also, she was going to have to be a bit more careful who she hung out with. Living in Sanctuary was excusable; wandering around chatting with Isabel was a little less so. He hadn't said anything yet, though, nor had she been arrested or the magazines freaked out, so presumably that had gone unnoticed. Good.

And Allison found herself staring at Cafas again. "You... are really naive. What surgery requires cuts like that?" Pulling out all the hand's tendons, maybe? Or all the veins instead? Certainly nothing good that she could think of. "I disappeared because someone kidnapped me and sold me to the Russian mob. They wanted me to forge things for them."

"--question is for Allison. What do you plan to do next, once the movie comes out?"

Smile at the fans and at the camera, and don't nod because that's too obvious, but make sure your body smiles at then too. "I'm not entirely sure, yet; there's some suggestions of making sequels--" Ah, and there; something Allison said got cheers. "--but that depends on how well the movie does." And voice back down, lean back and look relaxed, like you're only chatting casually and not explaining nightmares with a smile. "I got cut because I'm more stubborn than they are patient, they couldn't risk killing me, and they figured out my hands are sensitive." The breath wasn't entirely necessary, at least in terms of volume of air, but it helped her head spin a little less. "Being... raped..." she still hated that word; it felt like electrocution, but starting from her tongue, but Cafas didn't seem to understand anything less, "was a bit later."

Smile for the cameras, everyone; they don't care what happened to you.

Cafas found himself a little dazed by the influx of information. Of course, the thoughts had crossed his mind, heck they were probably his first assumptions. However he found it helped to maintain an optimistic outlook when one wanted to not become jaded and paranoid. Still, it di lead to this situation, where his brain exploded all at once. Training, instinct, reason and emotions all struggling for control. In this case, reason won out.

"You kind of have to admit, if I assumed that every time, I'd probably be a pretty miserable person. Still, I assume you handled it. I doubt it was in the manner the X-men and police would have liked, but, well, let's just say you're not the only one who knows Aura." Cafas faced front, smiled for the cameras, answered the last question and waved to the applauding crowd. "Well, sure glad that's do... Can't wait for the next one, oh, hey, yeah sorry I was cutting it so close." Lovely, apparently a certain Author wanted to speak with him.

"Cafas, lovely to see you! I don't suppose you have an hour or two free, we can get a drink?"

"Oh, I'd really love to, but I thought I'd spend some time with allison, I mean, what sort of boyfriend would I be if I just r..."

"Come now, you two may fool the media, but I can see that it's an act. Come on, I know a lovely bar."

I really, uh..."

Cafas turned to Allison, pleading look in his eyes and mouthed 'Help me!' while the rather too old for him author took his hand and decided he needed to be pulled away. All of which seemed to confuse the crowd, not to mention adding just another layer of confusion and stress to Cafas' already overloading mind. The kidnapping and rape of someone he felt responsible for, especially when she was taken from right under the X-men's nose, kind of made him want to stick around to do what he could for Allison.