((open for one or two more))

Being grounded sucks. That's why Jude wasn't doing it. Only little kids got grounded. He was beyond all of that. No, he was above all that. Better by far. He was more grown up and more responsible than many of the "adults" at the Mansion. He could take care of himself.

The dark haired boy tossed his make shift rope out of his second story bedroom and paused only briefly to look over his shoulder at his disheveled room. He kept fewer things here than he did at his real home, the apartments above Iris Clinic. He wasn't sure if he would need anything more than what he had on.

His fists balled with anger and he tested the rope made of shoe strings, bed sheets and old pajama pants. Ghost and Sebastian could not just stash him at the Mansion whenever they didn't want to deal with him. They had adopted him for goodness sakes. Didn't that mean they were supposed to take care of him? Or at least pretend to like him?

They should have talked to him like the adult that he was. He knew Ghost was sick. He had seen her at her worst. They were punishing him just to keep him out of their hair. He had convinced himself that his booze bender had nothing to do with it.

When his feet plopped onto the springy Mansion lawn, the coins in his pocket jangled. Oh yes. He knew where Ghost kept the spare change Sebastian brought home in his pocket nearly every day. Now, though he would be paying in pennies and quarters, he could survive a while on his own. At least until he got a job.

And the headaches had started too. No one was ever so happy to get a headache as Jude was because that meant his mutation was coming on. Psychics could find much easier work.

Whistling, Jude tightened his belt to keep his coin-laden pockets from pulling down his pants before he ambled off of Mansion grounds. He was a free man now. Soon to be a free mutant.

Amber was just returning to the Mansion after a full night of eventful hunting of ever so threatening rodents. She had even managed to catch herself an abandoned cat for the first time, a true and very much enjoyable hunting challenge. So what if she had a few scratch marks down her arms that would take a while to heal, the point was she had been the victor in that particular contest and warm cat meat on her tongue had been a rather delicious and satisfying reward. It had been many months since she felt any real distress at the concept of eating raw meat. When one was a predatory creature, complete with sharp teeth and claws, it was only right that one feast upon the flesh of one's prey. Besides, it wasn't nearly as bad as people seemed to think it was.

Amber's dark blue robes had been stashed on the ground directly next to the outer Mansion wall. At first she didn't notice the robe of bedsheets coming out of the window above her, nor did she notice the small boy begin to climb down them. Shifting took all of her concentration, complete with the necessity of blocking out the agony of doing so. Nor did she notice the boy once the final scale disappeared back into human flesh and her body grew to regain full human height or for the brief moments in which she stood naked to the world as she put her robes back on her person. It was only once she was fully clothed again that she happened to look to her right and spot the boy, only a handful of feet away, climbing down a rope.

Before deciding what, exactly, she wanted to do about the situation, Amber looked towards the sky, deciding that, despite the early dawn hour, it was sufficiently overcast that she could remain outside for a while. There was no mistaking the boy's intent of running away, hard to miss when the rope was clearly makeshift and besides, it wasn't like no one at the orphanage had ever pulled a stunt like that either.

Amber remained silent until his feet touched the ground. Hopefully he hadn't seen her without clothes, even if he was only a kid, that would still be more than a little embarrassing. "Going somewhere?"

Yes it was early, and yes it was rather overcast, but Aleksandr would be damned if that stopped him from lazing about outside the moment the sun was supposed to have been up. He was determined to spend as little time indoors as he was able until such a time as he no longer felt so claustrophobic within the Mansion walls. Plus, the moisture in the air was good for his skin and very refreshing after lying around in all the dry heat pumped into the school during the winter months.

After getting used to the chilly dew on the lawn, he'd settled into a pile of coils in the sunniest spot he could find. Fortunately that patch of awn also happened to be right near the Mansion's outer wall so he could press his scales against the stone and soak up whatever heat it had managed to absorb thus far.

A thump on the ground a short distance off sounded just loud enough to catch his attention. He opened on eye and glanced around before sitting up and stretching with a wide yawn. Nothing yet, but he had definitely heard something. Maybe it was a rabbit or a rat or something that had wandered onto the grounds. Breakfast sounded good to him, and a little challenge catching it was always welcome.

However, when he slid his way around the corner of the school, all he saw was a little biped casually strolling through the gates. That couldn't be right. Were younger students allowed to wander off by themselves, especially at such odd hours? Of course Aleksandr wasn't a teacher, so he wasn't entertaining ideas of punishment or any such thing. He was merely curious.

Straightening himself out to raise his height from stalking level to a higher, more casual level, he glided after the youth, pausing only a moment when he was beaten to the punch as a well covered young woman apprehended him first.

With a small grin and a flick of his tongue he resumed moving, putting himself a bit closer to the pair. "Is a bit early to be meting girlfriend, nyeht?" he asked, grinning a bit wider. Kids were easy enough to get answers out of when assumptions were made about their actions. Particularly the younger boys when girls were involved.

The eyes of the dark one were everywhere. This was a mansion of mutants. He did not expect to get away without being seen. Jude did not, however, expect to be doubly apprehended before he had even gotten out the front gate.

>"Going somewhere?"

Jude did not jump. Okay, maybe he did a little but it wasn't like he was really doing anything wrong. He turned to address the... pile of sheets with every ounce of manliness he had. "Yes." And he turned to continue on.

Only now, there was a snake talking to him. A giant nudey snake who thought the pile of navy cloth was his girlfriend. The eleven year old barked a laugh. "She iz much too young." The one word had not been enough to make his accent noticeable, but with just one sentence it was clear Jude was not American raised.

Brown eyes flicked between too much clothes and not nearly enough clothes. "Between ze two of you, you are almost properly clothsed." But instead things were severely skewed and he was being delayed.

"Are you keeping me 'ere or may I go?" Not that he had anywhere in mind to go. He just wanted to get well away from here.

Amber was used to the strangeness that was the mutant condition. Living in Sanctuary and going to school at The Mansion, it was kind of hard not to be. She had seen all sorts of amazing powers and her fair share of mutants that didn't exactly look normal too. For that matter, she could even be considered one of those mutants that didn't look normal, with her eyes and her skin, although she was on the mild end of the scale. Even she had to stare, however, at the appearance of the miraculous snake man. He was, in a word, amazing. Amazing and just a little frightening because of how large he was, but mostly amazing.

"D-don't you think he's a little young for me," Amber asked, trying not to stare at the miraculous creature. It was rude to stare, after all, and most mutants that looked a little different didn't exactly appreciate it. What if he didn't realize that it was a stare of admiration rather than a stare of disgust? Her own tiny form would never be half so miraculous, although she couldn't quite claim to experience any sort of envy based upon the fact that she could, in theory, take dozens of different forms, each of them amazing in their own unique ways. Even if currently she could only take 6, not counting her human one.

As for the little kid, he apparently had no intention of stopping on her behalf or, it seemed, the snake man's either. Amber had no intention of trying to stop the kid, that wasn't her place, but she also didn't feel entirely comfortable simply letting him wander off of Mansion grounds. Even if he wasn't a mutant, and given that he seemed to reside in The Mansion chances were very good that he was, the world was not a very nice place for little boys to run around in alone. At least if she went with him she could try to prevent any real trouble from occurring.

"You're what? Nine? Ten?" Amber ignored the jab about her clothes, there didn't seem to be much point in getting worked up by a ten year old's insults. "I won't stop you b-but I'm going with you." She snuck another peek at the amazing snake man half hoping that he would come too. Just because he was so fantastic to look upon.

"Both are too young for the other?" Aleksandr said, grinning at the thought of it. He suspected the veiled young woman might say as much, but for the younger boy to say so was rather amusing. So much for saying the wrong thing and getting him to blurt out his true intentions. He supposed he'd have to stick around a little bit longer and find out what was going on. Very well. He enjoyed strolling.

While his attention was mainly focused on the early morning escapee, he hardly ever missed it is someone were looking his way. At least, he thought the young woman was looking his way. With eyes that were completely black, it was difficult to tell where exactly her gaze was focused on, but he wasn't about to let the possible attention slip past him. He grinned a little wider and gave her a wink, his chest puffing out just a little bit, mostly out of habit.

"Natural modesty is good to make up for lack of clothing," he commented at the young man's quip. Aleksandr used to try wearing shirts, but they all tend to look a little silly on him perhaps with the exception of wife beaters. But why would he go to the trouble of covering up such gorgeous scales? That was just silly.

"Was not intention to stop you," he assured the little traveler, his attention easily caught by his unusual accent. It made his own thick Russian accent seem a little less out of place in his mind. "But lovely young lady and independent but young man will have need of chaperon in large city. Is what I will do for you."

This was not the escape he had in mind.

Also Jude was a little confused by the snake man's comment about natural modesty.

"I am twenty one." Jude frowned at each of them in turn. He was twenty one and not a pervert. He liked properly grown women as was proper for his age. Why did no one ever believe him? Was it the Stegosaurus on his tee shirt? Jude looked down at the neon green and blue dino. He was totally radical. No one could begrudge him his awesome dinosaur.

"I am going to look for a job." Jude announced his intentions right out. For all the not stopping him that they were doing, no one seemed to be going anywhere so the little boy started walking again.

He walked precisely to the other side of the gate so that he was a free mutant and turned to face the other two. "Do you...?" Well, now that he was on his own, he was feeling a bit shy. His voice lowered so his question was less of a proclamation.

"Do you know anybody who might hire a psychic in training?"

Amber thought she might actually come to like the grinning snake man. Not only was he among the most physically impressive mutants she had ever met, but he seemed to have a sense of humour too. She had gone through too many bad things in her life to be insulted by a little quip in her direction and the kid's. The world was too full of actual real problems to worry about the things that weren't really problems.

"We would l-love an escort," Amber agreed. Whatever the kid had to say about it didn't really matter. He was stuck with her and, it seemed, the snake man also. She even sent a tiny glare in the direction of the kid, just in case he decided to try and argue the point. "I'm Amber." She extended a hand first towards the snake and then towards the little boy, should either of them deign to shake it. "My own scales d-don't gleam nearly so much when I have them," Which would probably be the strangest statement ever to make if one wasn't in the middle of a mutant school.

"You are very t-tiny for twenty-one," Amber commented on the kid, arching an eyebrow. "B-but you have good choice in shirts," she pointed to the dinosaur on the kid's shirt. It was amusing to think how he might react if a real dinosaur would happen to show up beside him.

"Psychic in training?" Amber couldn't' recall having met any psychics. "What k-kind of psychic are you?" Could be a pretty cool power though, to know what someone else was thinking. Or a very depressing power, depending on how one looked at it.

A rather short twenty-one year old out for some early morning job hunting. That certainly hadn't been the answer Aleksandr had expected. Kids often pretended to be older and played at performing the duties of a profession they desired to have once they were older. It wasn't so often that a child actually set out to seek employment.

"Is not always I am seeing such small adult," he commented, figuring he'd humor the kid if nothing else. The little traveler would be back at the Mansion at the end of the day, so there was no harm in letting him indulge himself with the mission he'd assigned himself.

Glancing back at the young woman, who introduced herself as Amber, he gave a little dip of his head, smiling at her willingness to let him escort them through the city. He didn't really know his way around, but at least he could be there to discourage most trouble people might mean to cause for a young woman and small twenty-one year old.

Instead of shaking the hand that was offered in greeting, he gently gripped her gingers and turned her hand palm down before dipping to place a kiss on her knuckles, as was his habit when meeting young women. "Is pleasure to be meeting you. I am Aleksandr."

Turning back to the young man, he thought on the posed question. He couldn't say that he'd heard of anyone looking specifically for psychics, nor particularly small ones. Then again, he wasn't really one for job hunting. "I am not hearing of any psychic search," he replied. "You have tried newspaper, maybe?"

Jude felt better as soon as he was outside of the gate. He was really doing it then. He was free... well, he had a snake and a bunch of sheets weighing him down, but for now they weren't all that unwelcome. Amber even complimented his taste in shirts. "I know, right? People just do not understand the merits of dinosaurs these days." And he, sporting his tee shirt, clearly did.

Yes. Small. That's all it was. He was just short. Jude beamed up at the Nudist for the excuse he had supplied Jude. It sounded plausible when the snake said it. Less plausible when Amber repeated it, but he wasn't catching too much grief.

As for the kind of psychic he was, "You know. The regular kind." Jude shrugged his thin shoulders and watched carefully when Aleksander introduced himself to the girl. He just shook Amber's hand all normal like, but he would have to try the dip and kiss the hand thing. If a nudist could pull it off without people laughing at him then certainly a tiny frenchman could as well.

"Jude." He didn't kiss the snakes hand either.

"I think I saw a newspaper stand closer to downtown." So when Jude turned onto the sidewalk, he pointed himself toward downtown and started walking that way. Because that was where the newspapers were. Because he needed a newspaper to get a job. Because he was actually twenty one.

Amber's cheeks reddened as Aleksandr kissed the knuckles of her hand. It only served to reinforce her impression that she had most certainly never met anyone like him before. Maybe it had something to do with the accent? Maybe if more people acted with such class there would be fewer problems and less conflict in the world.

Amber nodded and grinned at Jude. Yes, they had the dinosaur thing in common. Now, when would she spring upon him just how into dinosaurs she really was? And what dinosaur should she show him? Maybe once they returned to The Mansion because it just wasn't smart to shift in the middle of the city, what with mobs of people enjoying the opportunity to try and kill dinosaurs running down the street and what not. She wasn't certain that she'd ever get over her fear of angry mobs.

As Jude started walking towards downtown Amber shrugged and began following. As far as the regular kind of psychic was, she really had no idea what that might be but was beginning to suspect that maybe Jude wasn't a mutant after all. Or if he was, maybe he was like her when she had first come to the city, still unsure of what his power might be. For a while she had even been worried that she didn't have a power. Still, what could it hurt to let the kid believe that he might be a psychic? Or, what had he called it? A psychic in training?

"I'm afraid I d-don't know much about psychics," Amber explained to Jude apologetically. "I don't think I've ever met one." Which just so happened to be true. At least she was pretty sure it was.

Aleksandr made a point of joining Amber in silently appreciating the colorful dinosaur printed on the front of the tiny twenty-one year old's shirt. They were giant reptiles, after all, and as such he felt that he had some level of understanding of them, as well as some level of respect. He was a snake, but he was in a way distantly related to such creatures as crocodiles, which in a sense were modern day dinosaurs.

He allowed Jude the mini adult and Amber to walk ahead of him as they headed in the direction of downtown to procure a paper. He thought about suggesting they find one for free in the Mansion somewhere, but Jude seemed so determined to be out and about that he kept the idea to himself. "What is job that psychic can have?" he asked, curious as to what kind of work the psychic-in-training might have in mind.

"Well, let me tell you." Jude tromped down the sidewalk toward the bus stop. He could not imagine the large snake man on the bus, but he did not intend to walk the 20 some odd blocks to reach down town and the change jangling in his pocket was enough for the bus, but not enough for a cab.

"Psychics can sometime read other people'z minds. Like right now, you're probably sinking about dinosaurs, but I can't really hear anysing out of your head because I haven't perfected zis. I used to do it really well and I could talk inside people'z heads too. I'll get better as I grow... uh, taller."

Jude jumped to mash down a particularly tall bit of grass and his pockets jingled merrily.

"As for jobs, psychics are good at being private detectives or policemen, but I don't want to be a policeman. I don't like guns. Sometimes psychics work at mystical shops, telling ze future and stuff? Zat's all kind of bogus zough because you go in zeir heads and tell zem what zey want to hear."

It was clear that Jude could have continued on the topic of psychics for some time, but to be polite he thought he might open the floor to the pile of walking bed sheets. "Do you live at ze Mansion? What can you do?" It was sorta obvious what the big snake man did, but a lot less obvious to tell what a big puddle of cloth could do. Maybe she was actually made of the stuff? Or it was stuck to her? If she didn't fess up, he might have to test that theory.

It was clear to Amber that the kid knew a lot about psychics. It was still unclear to her whether or not he actually had any psychic powers. His descriptions, while detailed, also appeared to be all over the place. Then again, she was far from a psychic so what did she know about such things anyway? For all she knew, he actually was a budding psychic.

Amber grinned at Jude when he asked what she could do. It certainly sucked not being able to go outside while not covered from head to tow, but when it came right down to it, she had yet to hear of another power that had the sheer awesomeness factor of her own. Maybe because secretly she was still just a big kid inside.

"I change into dinosaurs." Let the kid contemplate that for a few moments. And the snake man, for that matter. Amber nodded towards Aleksandr. "See, I know a l-little something about scales myself. And feathers. Maybe one day I'll even find myself a prehistoric snake form." Because that would be kind of sweet. Plus the fact that prehistoric animals that looked almost like modern animals didn't tend to attract violent angry mobs, which was a definite plus.

Aleksandr listened with quiet interest as Jude explained some aspects of psychics and the professions they could be employed in. It all sounded fairly interesting, though the snake man wasn't so sure he'd want to be able to read other peoples' minds. It seemed like it could sort of take away from the excitement of meeting new people and getting to know them. Plus he loved his scales so much he'd hate to be without them now.

Shifting his attention to Amber as she was asked about her mutation, he quirked a brow curiously. Now that was different. He'd never head of a dino-shifter before. He wondered what kind of dinosaurs she could change into. Perhaps he'd be lucky enough to catch sight of it someday.

He smiled brightly at her when her attention shifted to him. "I am sure scales are very lovely to be on you," he replied, careful to navigate around the other pedestrians that were passing or gathering to wait for the bus. "If there is snake form, I can be helping you with learning to move. If is necessary."