The city was entirely too busy, to make it easy for a mutant who looked more animal, feel comfortable. Still there was work to be done and Sara had to do some research for her next job. A job that currently involved a jewelry store, that was located across the street from where she stood.

Being a thief wasn’t exactly Sara’s personal calling, but it put leather pants on her legs to protect her when she skid across pavement, shirts on her back, and kept her honest with a local Chinese food vender. The lady that worked the closing shift at Dragon Inn didn’t squeal anymore when Sara snuck in, so that had to be a good thing. The jewel heist would keep her from having to steal petty small amounts of cash for a while. Hopefully people would forget that she was around by the time she had to strike again.

It had to be about 2 am. The streets had some inhabitants walking here or there, but the side walk traffic was nothing compared to the day time. Over all, it was a good night.

Sara let her eyes flick off of the store front, as she glanced down on her feet. Window shopping was tedious in her form of work.

It was getting late. It was late and she was lost. It had to be past 1 in the afternoon, she had heard church bells ringing many, many blocks ago. Ghost creeped along the sidewalks like a little mouse who knew there was a cat around. She was supposed to take a certain bus at a certain time from a certain street and obviously she wasn't meeting any of those requirements now. Why in the world had she thought that she would be okay on her own for sight seeing? She pulled out a small, carefully folded piece of paper from her jean shorts pocket. She had written every step of her day down carefully and now it was basically moot.

She read and re-read the street names again. The shops and cafe's in this area looked reputable enough. Maybe... she could ask someone?

Ghost walked past several large windowed boutiques that looked entirely too over priced. She hadn't come to waste other people's money... today she had decided to attempt to find the New York Public Library. She was taking buses because... well, honestly she didn't want to die on the underground train system. She'd rater take her chances with above ground transportation.

After attempting to stop a few people to ask them for help, Ghost spotted an already stopped person. The person was looking down as if something interesting were taking place between her toes. Ghost cleared her throat.

"Excuse me." She called as an ice breaker. She didn't mean to intrude on any personal battles or anything. "Hi. I was wondering if you know the way to..." She checked her paper again, "Fifth Avenue and West Forty-Second Street?"

Sara was surprised to hear someone close by speak up. There was a pause where she was sure that they must be talking to someone else. Her feline ear flipped back and then forward as she waited to hear the response but none came…. Okaaaayyy.

This was odd. There wasn’t another person answering witch means that this question had to be directed in her direction. So this meant one of two things. Either this person didn’t mind that Sara looked like a large, 6 foot tall walking on two legs cat, or this person hadn’t minded the way Sara looked. Both thoughts had their own degrees of entertainment.

“You need to take a left, and walk three blocks to the next intersection.” Sara said before lifting her head so that the individual could see her face. “Anything else?”

"Left... right." Ghost nodded and finally got a real glimpse of just who she had asked for help. She swallowed.

"Anything else?" They cat lady had asked.

Ghost scratched her feathery white hair. She didn't want to be rude, but her curiosity was eating her up inside. She tilted her head, making sure her eyes were meeting the cat-lady's eyes, "It is... permanent?"

She folded her paper and shoved it hastily into her pocket. "That was rude. I'm sorry I asked. Forget it." Ghost waved her hand in the air as if the question still hung there awkwardly and she could swat it away.

"Okay so three blocks and left and ... no... left and..." She got out a pencil from her pocket and offered her paper and pencil to the lady. "I'm sorry. Can you write it down?" It didn't seem that far, but she wasn't about to mess it up again.

"It is... permanent?"

Sara’s lips pressed together and her eyes narrowed. “The directions? Yeah. Every time you go some where it’s just three blocks and a left turn to Fifth Avenue and West Forty-Second Street” yeah, yeah, yeah, Sara knew the question was about her looks. It could be worst, but it certainly was annoying.

"That was rude. I'm sorry I asked. Forget it.--I'm sorry. Can you write it down?"

“Right.” Sara sighed. She dug through her pockets finding a napkin and a pen, and began scribbling down the directions. Even including a few land marks the girl could look for if she couldn’t see the street names. “Hold on.”

Ghost stood awkwardly and mumbled a 'thanks' while she waited for her directions. She hadn't expected everyone she met in New York to be super nice and understanding. She hadn't meant to offend either, but it seemed her nosiness was offensive enough. She scratched her hair again, inadvertantly exposing the bubbly scar across her wrist. She hadn't had it as bad as some others, actually she had been quite lucky so far in New York except for the whole imprisonment thing.

She supposed that this woman would have turned off her mutation if it were possible. Only a person with a death wish would walk around in broad day light looking decidedly abnormal.

Sara was about done finishing her directions. The silence sort of felt odd. Even if the silence was better than being insulted. Really she got the sense that the girl didn’t really mean what came out.

“It is permanent.” Sara replied adding a little map of the streets in the corner. “It’s been permanent like this since I was little, when I had first changed.” She finished the quick, yet neat, directions and held them out, while the other hand pocketed the pen. "I get a little touchy on the subject."

"I guess I'd be touchy too." Ghost nodded and took the directions in both hands carefully. She never covered her camp scars. They hardly showed on her now pale skin anyway.

Ghost was loathe to leave, but she felt like any other question she had was a little too personal. She had already messed up her careful schedule by getting lost anyway - so it didn't really matter if she hung around and annoyed the cat lady further. Not according to her own schedule anyway.

"At the camps..." She began awkwardly. "I mean, were you... did you maybe not go there?" She didn't mean for it to sound like a vacation, but she didn't want it to sound accusatory either.

"Since it's permanent." she blurted further incriminating herself, "because I never met you there..." Ghost studiously examined the napkin cat-lady had handed her.

Honestly she hadn't seen much of anyone besides guards and the occasional straggler at the showers. It seemed that the camps had done some good in that now, many mutants had met one another and had joined forces for at least a short time: united against a common enemy.

Now there was no single enemy. Now the mutants had scattered back under their respective rocks.

She was still getting used to telling people. She was so used to hiding, but meeting a mutant who never had the option of hiding made her want to at least introduce herself as a fellow mutant.

“Yeah, I was at the camps.” Sara breathed. It was a little surmising that Sara hadn’t seen the girl there. She had thoughts he’d at least know her face, since Sara had been about everywhere in the camps, thanks to her given job. Laundry… If Sara ever had to wash another person’s cloths, it would be entirely too soon. Then again, being run around, everywhere, could have done just that. Made her miss individuals.

Sara was a healer, and a stubborn healer at that. Most individuals would have walked away covered in scars but her? She just healed, and a some of the guards singled her out for that reason. They could take out frustrations on her, and in a few minutes, with a little soap and water, there was no proof that she had even been mistreated. Lucky her.

There was one scar though. The one from Sara’s cuff, that shocked her when ever she used her powers. Sara couldn’t control when she was using her powers. They just kicked in when ever she stubbed a toe or got a paper cut. As a result, Sara had lost all the fur around her wrist, where her cuff had been set and there was a raised area of skin circling her wrist from the repeated healing. Things that just happened hours on end until her body just didn’t have the proper fuel to heal with any more.

That cuff that made Sara’s scar was one of several things that Sara just didn’t have control over. Sara didn’t have control over the way she looked. Over the fact she didn’t have a normal job. She didn’t even have control over the people who saw her, and called animal control, but she had control over one thing. Having control over that one thing was something she took advantage of when ever she went out. She could hide the few scars that she had. The one over her right shoulder blade was one that she forgot about, because it had been there as long as she could remember. But the one she could see, on her wrist, she could see, was a reminder she didn’t want people to see. It meant that the one thing about her body, that was supposed to be perfect, wasn’t. So she had control to hide the imperfection with a black leather cuff, that stretched from her wrist, to her elbow.

“So you’re a mutant as well?” Sara asked. Of course this should be obvious, unless the girl was one of the staff. What would Sara do if she said no? The thought tumbled through Sara’s mind. She could be standing next to a staff member. Please be mutant. because Sara still didn’t know what to expect from herself. She tried to imagine but her mind seemed to go numb.

"Yeah, I was at the camps." The cat lady became pensive and Ghost remained respectfully silent, consumed with her own thoughts. Ghost was hoping that cat-lady had somehow escaped that fate, except with an un-turn-off-able mutation... it turned out to be an empty wish.

She had been at the camps, but from what she had heard -- she had it easy. Being locked away entirely by yourself was bad, but she had heard of worse. She hadn't seen many people except on the way out. Ghost could tell from the prolonged hush that fell between the two, cat-lady had probably not come out as un-scathed.

“So you’re a mutant as well?”

"I am." Ghost replied quietly, not because she was ashamed of being a mutant, but because she was ashamed of ... well, getting off easy.

"Air elemental." She reported dutifully, since her mutation wasn't as obvious. "I was... uhh... in solitary. I can slip in and out of places so..." She shrugged and raised the napkin. "Thanks for this - I'll get out of your hair now."

She'd hate to over stay her welcome.

She was a mutant. Sara’s shoulders immediately relaxed as she realized she needn’t worry about what she would do to this one at least. Really, something in her should have known, but it was still a thought. How she was going to handle things.

“It’s good to know you got out then.” Sara said, finally let a little bit of a smile show. Though it was closed lips mind you. No need to flash off pointed teeth.

“An air elemental? Cool.” This was another mutant that has control of something Sara didn’t but there was a difference there, because she did have something in common with herself. Funny how a lot of powers were about control of something. “Mind if I ask where you are headed?”

Ghost actually smiled as she waved the napkin at cat lady. "I'm starting at the library.. I wanted to look up some stuff on Latin, but I hear there's all kinds of stuff to see in this city and it's my first time here. And it's all kinda in this area..." She halted mid-thought.

"Hi. I'm Ghost." She offered her hand. Mutants never seemed to do the whole introduction thing very well, but she didn't want to have to keep mentally referring to cat-lady as... well cat-lady.

Sara nodded with the response. The library wasn’t bad, though the building wasn’t a place Sara had really gone. Too many norms that were close to security phones. Sara could probably try to sneak in there after hours one night… Actually that was a good idea. Sara filed that away for later.

“Ghost is sort of a funny name.” Sara took the extended hand lightly so as not to poke the girl with a claw. “Just call me Sara.” Funny how, as far as Sara knew, the ones who looked normal, liked going by code names, and the ones like herself, well, they had other names. Like Ted going by Ted while he looked like he was part wolf.