He wasn't doing... anything, really.

Not anything X-gene related, anyway. And. So far, it was actually kinda nice.

He wasn't chasing down a human trafficking ring. He wasn't invading the warehouse of an arms dealer. He wasn't taking breakdance fighting lessons. Mostly Jude had simply been getting his bearings back. Getting his house in order. He had been working and paying his bills. Beyond that, it was scraping up a small savings by eating instant noodles and pb&j.

Now, 37 days, 18 hours, and 42 minutes, 01 second into his savings plan, Jude was staring down a very sad looking crushed cup-o-noodles. It had been in his pocket. He had grabbed it from his stash at work and then taken the bus. Now, standing outside his apartment building with his sad noodles in hand... he didn't want to go in.

He did not want another cup of noodles. Or bread. Or marmalade. He wanted a big fat steak, dammit, and he was going to go find one.

Sure, the last restaurant he'd visited had exploded, but that was hardly his fault. He was almost certain that was a freak (non-mutant) accident and it wouldn't happen again.

'I mean, what are the odds, right?'

So it was time to do what Jude did best.

Eat.

Japanese Teppanyaki? Suuuuure. The menu outside said steak so he was going for it.

"Just one, please."

The maître d' was a young thing, probably older than him but that didn't mean 'older' in Jude's whacked out timeline.

"Oh. We don't... do... tables for one."

Once again, purple light radiated from the purple-haired girl's black hoodie pockets as she briskly walked down the street. Her eyes scanned the area as she looked around. She..didn't recognize any of this. Part of her wondered if she'd ever get the hang of where things were here--although of the few times she had gotten lost already, they did end well, but that was not looking to be the case today. She pulled the hood up as she looked from building to building, hoping to see something familiar.

But there was no sign of the wing place, the bookstore, or even that creepy pawn shop that was near Blaine's apartment. So...it seemed she wasn't going home for a little while, at least. Though...maybe she could swallow her pride and ask for directions. Swallowing, the light in her pocket grew stronger as she walked into a nearby restaurant, hoping to get directions and leave.

However, the scene she walked in on caught her ear.

"Just one, please."
"Oh. We don't... do... tables for one."

"Make it two, then,"

Skye didn't know what came over her, but the purple light was very visibly pulsing from her hoodie pockets right now, and she refused to take them out. If she got any worse, maybe the jacket would help to muffle or dull the inevitable.

It was a nice place, and it would eat into her funds a little...but she was getting kind of tired of wings and pizza. And whatever that was Blaine called leftovers. So, maybe she could eat and help someone out in the process. There was nothing weird about getting a table for two with a complete stranger, right?

Her voice surprised him. Jude hadn't been intending to meet a her. Here, or at all. He turned to raise an eyebrow at the her and he realized two things in two different ways. Her pockets were glowing, and his power tugged toward the girl which meant she was a mutant. The first kind of made the second a "no duh." Maybe he could help her provided he could stand for her to help him first.

"I thought you weren't going to make it." He let the lie show in his eyes and smiled at her before he showed his smile to the hostess. "So. Two?"

The hostess's eyes kept floating down to the obvious light, but she ultimately said nothing about it. "Yeah. Absolutely. I can get you... now, actually. Right this way."

"Jude." He offered his arm to the woman and spoke lowly so Ms. NosyPants couldn't hear.

"Is the light going to be a problem?" He didn't have to touch someone to copy or take their powers away, but it did make things infinitely easier.

The light steadied a little as she managed to only slightly calm her nerves. Besides, food and deception made everything better, did it not? Luckily, she'd gotten...well, not good, but relatively decent at keeping her stress from reaching a fever pitch. And furthermore, this was liable to be interesting, no matter what.

"Yeah, I did say I was running a little late, hun," she said with a sort of artificial sweetness that almost made her sick to her stomach. Though she was still glowing, the light faded to a flicker as she continued to breathe. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. It'd been awhile since she'd had an actual date, even if the date was technically a lie. She hooked her arm in the young man's, keeping the act going as her free hand pulled the hood down to expose her purple hair to the world.

"Skye," she whispered back, keeping an eye on the hostess. Not that it was illegal for two strangers to get a table together. Was it? Laws were weird.

Skye shook her head. "Not usually. As long as I don't get too worked up, it'll be fine. And it kind of takes a lot to do that." Then, she lowered her voice a little. "Worst case, there's a bright flash of light and your ears will ring for awhile. No biggie." she gave a slight shrug and a sly smirk over at him.

Skye was not the name he would have guessed for this lovely creature who had lied her way into sharing a tale with him. He would have guessed something less hookery and a little more... Greek mythology. Callisto, a nypmh, or a lady Dolos, spirit of guile. Maybe that was just the shock of purple hair that made him think she seemed so unreal.

"Cool hair."

The worst-case scenario she described wasn't all that bad. Still. He had been hoping for an explosion-free evening. Was it insulting to ask after how good she was with her own mutation? Or was it only fair,
since he'd be in the blast-zone?

"I'll be sure to stay on your good side, then." He flashed her a toothy grin and let the hostess pull out a chair for his "hun." Jude took his own seat as the smallest little Japanese grill he'd ever seen. Just two chairs and a bar-like space for them to eat in front of a little rectangle of steel. The hostess went and flipped a switch, probably to pre-heat the thing. All around them chefs were twirling knives and tossing shrimp shells into their hats, but those were all bigger tables near the middle. This was just for two and with a paper screen it at least gave the illusion of privacy.

Which was... weird. Considering that they were strangers.

"Hope you like American-ified Japanese food." He took his seat next to her and they were pretty much rubbing elbows. There wasn't a ton of space back there.

"Thanks for the rescue. Didn't realize it was going to be a table like this." Not that it was bad, right? It wasn't bad. Just unexpected.

"Thanks," she said with a smile over at him, though the purple didn't go away. After all, she still had no idea where in the city she was, and she was about to go on a 'date' with a stranger. Though that second part didn't sound so bad, to be honest. The good news was, she wouldn't be flash-banging the entire restaurant. Not right now, anyway.

"Well, you're doing a good job of that so far," she said with a grin as the light from her hands faded, signifying that her emotions were at least considerably calmer than they had been. However, a slight blush rose to her cheeks as her hands began to flicker purple again. That grill was...teeny. And those chairs were really close together. And wasn't the privacy screen a bit much? Well, she supposed this was the consequence for lying. Oh well. At least he was cute, right?

And he pulled her chair out, which was sweet. That or he was really trying to sell the whole couple thing. Either way, it was something the young woman wasn't necessarily used to.

"I guess I'm about to find out," she answered lightly. "I'm not a picky eater though, so I'm sure I'll be fine." And then he sat down, and she realized just how....cozy this table was.

She giggled lightly. "You got lucky, honestly," she replied without looking at him, because this close, eye contact would be weird, right? Possibly. Not that he was hard to look at or anything, but still. But...she would argue that it wasn't exactly a bad thing.

"I was trying to find my way back to my uncle's apartment, and I ended up getting lost as hell. Stepped inside for directions, heard your dilemma and thought I'd swoop in and make the save," she said, a little bit of a sly, teasing tone to her voice as she finally looked over at him, giving him a wink.

"I didn't foresee this either, but it could be worse, I guess."

She didn't know if she liked the food. She'd just sorta wandered in. Which meant Jude could be counted on to foot the bill, probably. Or they could dine and dash. Jude had been pretty good lately with not being bad. He might argue that he'd never been "bad" it was just that the rules were sometimes bad. Paying the food bill was a rule that would only hurt the people at the lower levels of this restaurant. That wasn't the kind of person he wanted to hurt.

"My mom's part Japanese or something so I'm gonna guess I'll be disappointed, but I came here 'cause I'd never been. I like to try new things. I'm not sure it's possible to hit every restaurant in New York before I die, but that might be worth trying, y'know?" It was still weird to call Ghost 'mom,' but it got cumbersome to explain about the woman he met in the future who remembered him in the past and then raised him into this alternate future.

At least the weather wasn't jacked in this timeline like it had been in his original future.

> "...could be worse, I guess."

"Company's not bad." He teased. She seemed like a nice kid for a... what was she? Like... 16?

Their waitress returned with miso soup, cloudy with the tell tale floating chunks of tofu, and a salad that had a shockingly orange dressing on top. Oh. And menus. Apparently they got to choose.

"So where's your uncle live? I know this city pretty well for an immigrant." And he was definitely keeping a law-key eye on her light show. If he needed to step in to stop her power from going off, he would.

She nodded over at him. "I can't say I'll be disappointed. My uncle does this thing that he calls cooking; he can't feel, so texture is lost on him. It's...well, it's well seasoned, but aside from that, inedible. It's well-seasoned garbage," she said with a bit of dryness to her humor. "Well, I'm always up for trying new things--I'd kind of have to be to pull the stunt I did to end up here," she said with a smirk. "Though if I had to guess, I'd say you have plenty of time to try. Just make sure you always eat somewhere new, and you'll at least put a dent in it."

She giggled a little, brushing her hair out of her face as it turned from purple to a more peaceful indigo; it was a slight change, but it was a change, nonetheless, and her hands were still without light, for now.

The soup came out, and the Maine native looked at it, mildly confused, but it was still miles above anything that had ever come off of Blaine's stove.

"He lives in an apartment complex," she said, reciting the address. At least she had that part down, anyway. "I know it's not too far from The Missing Link, a bar and grill where I wait tables, and there's a wing place not far from that," the now-indigo-haired mutant explained as she tentatively tasted her miso soup. Honestly, it wasn't bad.

Picking up the menu, she looked it over, trying to figure out if she'd been daring enough for the day, or if she should just keep going out on a limb. So far, that seemed to be going quite well today, but she knew all limbs eventually broke. She bit her lip in thought, occasionally stealing glances at her "date" for the afternoon.

Jude snorted at the uncle anecdote. Well-seasoned garbage was at least seasoned! Jude had a short self-imposed garbage point in his life. He didn't like to talk about that, though. "I was totally spoiled growing up. My mom cooks for her hobby so only 1 out of every 10 meals were a little too experimental. Even I'm surprised that I don't have to be rolled everywhere."

> "..Just make sure you always eat somewhere new, and you'll at least put a dent in it."

"The problem is that restaurants come and go. So... if this place shuts down tomorrow, do I get to count it? Or do I have to eat at whatever pops up next too?" Just was asking the hard questions in life, and totally acknowledging that he enjoyed when these were the hardest questions he had to face. The circus of life and death that was X-men missions was for braver people than him.

And that's when her hair did a thing.

He could feel the 'uuuugh' building up inside him. Mutations were just so flippin' weird sometimes. He figured this one was safe if it was just the light show, which he'd been assured was harmless. So he'd gone for it. He let his greedy little power off the hook and... and now his hair was slowly fading brown, bordering on auburn. Jude let his head hang down for a moment, both for a better look at what little he could see of his own hair and so that Skye could finish up talking about where she lived.

He knew the area. Maybe. So he could probably... maybe get her home.

His hair darkened a bit.

"Well, if this place blows, maybe we can get wings." Yes. Definitely a joke was in order. He hadn't quite cracked the code of the hair debacle and... and now his hair was going back a bit more auburny? Bah!

"So I guess the hair color is related to your power then." Was that a note of resignation in his voice? Jude found his fork and mixed his salad around. "Since you walked in and it was purple and now it's... not. Is that emotion-based or based on sunlight absorbed or...?" There were a million ways to do it. Bah! He shoved a bite of salad into his face. Maybe he would just remove the power from himself.

She nodded at his own experience with cooking. "I've seen every end of the spectrum, honestly. I've eaten lobster, and I've lived off of takeout," she said with a smirk. Then she was forced to think a little at his next question.

"Maybe the better idea would be just to make note of where you've eaten. Like a restaurant bucket list?" she said with a slight shrug. Honestly, she was enjoying this time, even if he was a stranger; granted the more they talked, the more they were getting to know each other, right? Of course.

"Oh, wings sound like a good plan B," she said quietly as she chuckled lightly, her hair shifting from indigo to a cheerful orange. Her mood had brightened in such a short time, but her emotions tended to change with the wind, it seemed.

And then her eyes widened quite a bit. Did his hair just...was he--what the hell? Maybe she was just seeing things. "Yeah, it's emotion-based, I've gathered. Don't ask for any sort of chart though. I don't even have it figured out. I know the flash-bang only happens when I'm really stressed or pressured though. Used to be more hair-trigger, but it's helped me not be as sensitive, heh." She finished talking and gave him sort of a sideways glance as she picked at her own salad. Something weird was going on.

Snort. Hair-trigger hair color.

"If you want to figure it out, now's as good a chance as any. I'm pretty good at helping people figure their powers out. Take notes if you have to. It's worth knowing what you do in case of emergencies or... whatever." And the more resigned he became to playing guinea pig, the more his hair darkened to the deepest blue-black. Jude took a particularly stabby fork-full of lettuce.

"I'm a power copier." He was interested in this salad. Yes. Very interested and not at all avoiding the gaze of someone who might flashbang him. "So whatever your power is doing, now so's mine." Was that a subtle swell of violet? Well, he was juuust a little bit proud of his ability to take a mutation and figure it out.

Okay, she definitely wasn't going crazy; his hair was changing colors. "Well, it seems to be...pretty broad of a spectrum. And iffy, but...I'm not going to turn down help figuring this thing out. I mean, I've learned to live with it, but if I learn specifics...it'll be a lot easier to prevent--or maybe cause?--the more explosive part of my mutation," she mused, noting how his own hair was hued with a very subtle violet now.

"Interesting," she murmured with a soft smile, her hair turning back to indigo as she puzzled over it. "I know orange is when I'm happy...and blue sad, red angry...but sometimes it's blue and I'm not particularly sad. Or red when I'm not angry?" she thought out loud, poking at a piece of lettuce with her fork. "I have the feeling by the time this is done we'll be in a basement decorated with wall to wall graphs and sticky notes everywhere," she said, her dry humor bleeding through.

This was turning into quite the adventure indeed, and they hadn't even really eaten yet. "So...what? We start toying with each other's emotions?" she said, quirking a brow.

Oh. Yes. The bright and shiny part should be controllable even if the hair was not. Now Jude was trying to remember if it was against the rules to bring people into the firing range. Okay. He knew it was against the rules, but he was debating if they could get away with it (no way) or if testing a mutation there might be worth the trouble (maybe if he thought she was the elite spy type). Jude glanced back at the girl again as he munched his salad. Mmmm. He'd find a place to practice the light thing. For now, though...

> "So...what? We start toying with each other's emotions?"

That was... certainly an option. Jude grinned and his hair lightened to practically ginger.

"So maybe the emotions are bucketed by type?" This was the fun part where they got to throw out ideas to see what stuck. "Not a one-to-one chart like red equals happy, but more general? Warm colors are positive and cool colors are less than positive? I think I saw a chart once about some psychology for how we put emotions on colors." It was probably funded by marketing or something. People were always willing to spend money on making more money. Jude juggled his salad fork and his phone while he went to look up the chart.

"Huh." He couldn't find the one he'd been looking for, but dang there were plenty out there. "This one suggests there's a positive and negative for each color." Man. Her suggestion of a crazy basement conspiracy theory chart was sounding more and more plausible.

"Have you decided what you would like?" Jude was so engrossed in the power trip, that he'd forgotten they had menus. Even more dangerous, he hadn't even heard the server approach with waters for them both.

"Oh, uhhh. Can we have a couple minutes? We'rs still in negotiations." That bought them a little time, but now Jude was juggling his salad, a water, soup, a menu, and his phone. This was getting ridiculous. His hair settled to a mousy brown.

She grinned a little; the girl had to admit, her impromptu lunch partner looked pretty damn good as a ginger. "Yeah, I think so, but I get the feeling it's not that simple. I do sort of have it narrowed down to red, blue, green, and purple can result in the other effect of my power, but orange, yellow, pink, and indigo just result in the light show? And my hair's been black before. I'm not sure what exactly black does..." she looked at the chart on his phone. It looked right in some aspects, but she really couldn't be sure. If this kept up, they were going to have to buy some corkboards, yarn and some tacks after this...

She froze for a moment. Right. Food. Biting her lip, her attention turned to the menu. "Uhm...I have no clue here," she admitted, giving a nervous laugh, though the nervousness didn't override the happy peaceful indigo glow she was feeling. "What do you think?" she said, gently reaching over to help arrange some of his stuff. "Here, at this rate you're going to be wearing something," the girl teased lightly as she sort of moved the cup of water and the soup bowl slightly out of the way--well, the best she could, anyway, given the space. "Let's enjoy lunch, then we can worry about mapping out my color code," she said gently.

"I think I'm more than qualified to say that mutations are never simple." Unless it was 'me heap big man, muscles crush', but even then every time he'd copied a power, it came with at least one unexpected twist.

Skye helped with the juggling and Jude had to admit that having someone who was paying close enough attention to notice and help out before he made a mess of himself was nice. (Obviously, he wasn't to ask for help.) She'd already saved him from dining alone (or not at all) here. So, the least he could do was help her out with the menu. He scooted his open menu between them so they could share. There wasn't actually room for them both to open their own menus.

"It's easier than it looks. Choose a protein from the list or you could do veggies if you're into that kind of thing. All meals should come with rice and you can upgrade to fried rice. Do recommend. All of this other stuff is junk." He pointed to the sections labeled as appetizers and bento boxes. "Except gyoza which are little fried packets of pork heaven and tempura which is also fried and absolutely how I like my vegetables. I wouldn't touch sushi from a place like this unless it's cooked. Even then, it's a total waste. We have this big grill-griddle-teppan thing. That's what we're really paying for. Ordering those other things don't get you a table chef and show."

Oh was that lobster? He'd never seen lobster done on one of these, but... oh yeah that was lobster pricing. If he wanted to keep eating out all the time, he had to balance his expensive tastes.

"Oh weird. There's a dancing squid meal too. Gross." Raw food was okay when it was on purpose, but dancing raw food was crossing a line for Jude. "I'll probably go for the surf and turf. Cow and shrimps are delicious friends."