Tses couldn't quite keep up with Allison's brain either, but that was ok because once they got to the area, she was pretty sure it would make more sense anyway. Without ever playing the game (or really any game like it...or game at all. She really was lacking in the 'fun' area of life), Tses couldn't quite picture what was being discussed. Something about lasers, deflecting them, using light to hit someone, something about wavelengths.... Waves.... Tses was a little confused by that, and ended up with the jumbled mental image of soundwaves, lights and water waves all mashed up together. It was a curious little image, but not useful really in the end.

"I think you may be over thinking it. But I'm no expert on tag.... and never heard of dodgeball, so I guess I wouldn't know if it is a more appropriate description." She stretched and poked a few more things on the phone, then held it back out for Allison to take back.

"Oh, I know what computers do. I own one, and I did some computer hacking for awhile. It was pretty fun, but I've never had a reason to have a phone. Not really anyone who would have called me, if someone wanted to find me they'd just find me." It sounded sort of mysterious and secretive, but the people she worked for were just like that. They'd show up behind you on the street, at your house, in a store while you were shopping, give you a file and tell you to do something. They had bit issues with their own privacy. Tses hadn't bothered much with her own. She had no real identity, as far as she knew. Ever since she was a kid she was just 'Tses'. There was no last name, no school records, no criminal records she really knew of. Maybe there was a file somewhere in the government just labeled 'Tses?'.... She kinda liked the idea of it. Her being some mystery robbery plaguing the New York Area.... More likely than not she just got shoved into the general 'mutant' database and would fish up whatever evidence they could against her if she was ever brought in. As long as she didn't get brought in though, there was nothing to worry about.

"Before I moved here to New York though was more of a street kid anyway. And it's not like you're going to have a cell phone when you don't have a house." She laughed at the idea, and shrugged her shoulders once more.

“Overthinking is fun. People make funny faces when you do it out loud.” Okay, so Allison knew what those ‘funny faces’ meant, and that they tended not to be very flattering to her. It was annoying sometimes, but she could deal with it; the faces were funny, and seeming smart wasn’t really a good way to be liked, anyway. Seeming delusional, oddly enough, was. “And dogeball is… well, you put people in two teams, and then you throw balls at the other team. If they get hit, they’re out, and the last team to have people left wins. And sometimes if you catch a ball that’s thrown at you whoever threw it is out, and sometimes getting someone on the other team out gets someone on your team back in.”

Also, again: how, exactly, did Tses ever manage not to hear of dodgeball?

Well, at least she knew computers. “That’s… good, I guess?” Allison was pretty sure hacking was illegal. Absurdly common and rarely caught, and just as rarely cared about, but still illegal.

Then again, killing was illegal too, even if they had been trying to turn her into a sex slave. So Allison didn’t really have much room to comment.

“Well, I do.” Not that Allison had to live in Sanctuary. She probably could have managed without it at any point, and now it was just unnecessary. But she liked it there, and the place wasn’t exactly full… and since she’d moved in with Aura, she wasn’t even taking up an extra room, anyway. Still, even when it had been distinctly helpful, she’d had a phone. Being able to contact people who weren’t within ten feet of her was useful.

Huh. Now Allison wondered if telepaths had phones. At least, the ones that were open about it….

The more Allison talked, the less Tses knew what to think of her, but she wasn't really bothered by it, more, bewildered. She had never met anyone this random before. She seemed accepting at least, which was nice. Tses had been yelled at far too many times recently to ever turn away someone who didn't seemed bothered by her rather distasteful personality. but she could tell Allison was a bit confused by her lack of...knowledge of things. As she described dodgeball, Tses listened attentively, then smile slightly at the end.

"That sounds kinda fun. Confusing, but fun. I don't know, a game where I get to throw something at people would be fun regardless to me. Although, I've never been great with rules... I guess I have to learn one thing at a time. We can start with laser tag." She chuckled. she tugged at her arm bands and glance out the windows of the subway as the walls of the system roared past. She liked the underbelly of New York and the little networks that were here. It was fascinating to her to see all the little veins that moved into the heart of New York. It was one of the few things that she felt separated her life in Chicago to here. In Chicago she lived out in the open. But New York, she was entwined with the network of the city. She may not know much about sports. But she knew the city pretty well.

“It is fun. And… well, a little confusing. You get used to it, though. Like driving; there’s a whole lot to pay attention to but you adjust. Only the goal is hitting people with balls instead of not hitting them with giant metal masses of death.” So maybe Allison was exaggerating a bit, but the point got across. …And anyway, cars could be giant metal masses of death. Just because they weren’t always didn’t change the potential. “Laser tag’s similar, really, just with lasers.” Which was kind of obvious, but oh well.

…Hm. Now Allison wished that the subway tunnel had lasers. That would have been fun.

The subway was stopping, though, and Allison was pretty sure it was the right stop. She glanced up to check as the momentum ran out, then moved toward the door. “It’s about eight blocks from here.”

Tses felt a grin unwillingly spread across her face, and she chuckled slightly. "My experience with driving involved a lot of yelling and screaming and some kid telling me not to crash and stay in the lines and why the hell was I blowing things up.... I couldn't imagine Dodgeball being anything like that. Perhaps driving isn't the best analogy."[/color] She smirked. After all the slightly humbling conversations that pointed out what she didn't know, this conversation was a little more fun. It was like laughing at your own mistakes, but she was just laughing at her own rebelliousness. If that was a word.

"The word laser always makes me think of something more deadly than the little red beam of light they have in high security places... I'm guessing they wouldn't have the lethal type of laser tag, but could you imagine? That would really make it interesting." She remarked. As the subway stopped, she followed her out the door, and put her hands behind her neck.

The subway tunnels always had a slightly musty smell on this section of town, but she didn't mind. After living on the streets for so long, she'd smelt worse. Heck, just riding the subways she'd smelt worse. The walls and tiles were a sort of dirtied white color with chips in the corners, and a few people lingered around the turnstiles and on the pathways. The nighttime crowd had a slower pace, and she was pretty sure at least a few people were wandering around drunk. She wondered what it would be like to ride a subway drunk. Probably either really amusing or awful.

"So how'd you find out about this stuff? Just things people normally do for fun?" Tses said, trying to make more casual conversation. She wasn't super great at it, but she was giving her best attempt. She needed something, anything, to keep her mind off the worries and anger in her mind.

Allison paused, considered, and paused again. “…Depending on the competitiveness of the people playing, actually, that might not be that far off. Only the kid would be causing the explosions, not yelling about them.”

Allison waited until she was off the subway and could walk next to Tses again, so they could hear each other. Then, she immediately formed a gun with her hands and pointed it at Tses. “Zzt! Game over. Maybe we’ll get that once we have virtual reality. Or invading aliens.” She dropped her hands. “I know scientists have lasers like that, they just aren’t letting us have them yet. Something about the military objecting to hand held instant-kill weapons for kids….”

A few years ago Allison would have made a face at the poorly kept condition of the subway tunnels; now she ignored it, apart from a slight bit of pride at the fact that she wasn’t bothered as they climbed the stairs. “Yeah. Not, like, every day normal, since you have to pay for it, and if you go during the day you normally have to reserve space, especially if you’re part of a big group… the first time I went was for someone’s birthday.” A friend, the invitation had said. A friend whose parents’ company was codependent with Allison’s parents’ company before it was replaced, and whose name she hadn’t bothered to remember.

Tses blinked slowly, and she tried to imagine her experience driving transformed into dodgeball form. Suddenly, she really wanted to try this game, if nothing more than to see what someone would do if one of the dodgeballs was suddenly explosive. She wondered if that would be allowed. Probably not, but knowing Tses should would try it anyway. "I may have to try that game sometime then..." She considered, then listened as Allison kept talking about laser tag. She was a rather talkative individual, and Tses wondered if she would just keep talking if she stopped responding. It seemed likely, she had met a few kids like that back in Chicago. She could never keep up a conversation for that long. Her mouth would get tired.

Birthday party. Now there was something she couldn't relate to. "Never been to a birthday party. Seen a few from far away, but wasn't really the type of person to get invited to one. Oh, I did blow up someone's cake once, don't think that counts though..." She had been in a bratty mood that day. Well, brattier than normal that was. She almost smiled at the memory. There was frosting alllll over the mom's dress, and the dad's hair caught on fire by one of the stray candles. "Sometimes, ruining peoples parties seems more fun than being in them anyway."

And children everywhere hide their birthday cakes.

“You should!” Allison had no notion of exploding dodgeballs, and so was much more enthusiastic than she might have been otherwise. Or, perhaps exactly the same. “It’s really fun.”

Allison stopped, blinked at Tses, then noticed and began walking again. She’d only missed a step or two, anyway, so she just stretched her legs to catch up. “Um….” How have you never been to a birthday party? Shouldn’t you have at least been to your own? Do you have amnesia? None of those were remotely appropriate questions, though, nor were the answers (or reactions) likely to be amusing enough to justify it. Well, she could think of people show parties she would have enjoyed ruining…. “Probably not. I can think of a few people who definitely would have deserved it, though.”

The subway opened up onto a fairly, in Allison’s opinion, typical street; mostly clean, with the exception of cigarette butts and the occasional wrapper or empty plastic cup flattened in the street, storefronts that weren’t new but were well kept, with a variety of things--clothes, books, toys, fudge and candy, souveniers--in the windows. The wind was still there, but the night was quiet and empty; weird, to Allison’s mind, but more fascinating than frightening. She grinned and refrained from skipping as they headed toward the laser tag arena.

Reaching the street, Tses looked around, breathing in the night air. She let the distant moon fill her veins and absorbed the energy happily. She missed the bewilderment on Allison's face, and was more focused on just enjoying the walk. She liked being out and about like this. It was relaxing, which was nice, under the circumstances.

Putting her hands behind her neck, she glanced at Allison, and watched her expectantly for some form of direction. "So how far away are we from the laser tag place now?" She said, her boots tapping the concrete as she walked. She could hear the soft clatter of her buckles, and the night was quiet enough she didn't have to strain her ears too much. There were the sounds of cars on pavement, distant horns honking, but not very much pedestrian activity that she noticed. The stores didn't interest her. She just liked to enjoy the rhythm of the city.

Allison was somewhat relieved that Tses didn't notice--or, possibly, chose to ignore, but that seemed less likely--her reaction. She wasn't sure what could have led to Tses never going to a birthday party, but she was fairly sure that the answer, interesting and curiosity satisfying as it might be, wouldn't fit very well into the light chatter that they'd successfully kept going so far. So she kicked the curiosity away and, much to the surprise of many people who knew her, kept her mouth shut.

It wasn't that Allison didn't know how to behave. It was just that most of the time she didn't want to.

Allison glanced around, taking a moment to spot stores that had been named on the map. They were all closed; the entire street was closed, in fact, and even cars were rare in a sleeping tourist center. Which made it easier to spot locations and directions. "About four blocks this way, if we cut across a yard." Which Allison had no problem with doing. She was pretty sure from the map that it wasn't even really a yard, anyway; more like grounds around a small hotel. If it had been a private yard she might have hesitated, but hotel grounds... well, they were meant for people to walk on. And no one would be able to tell that these particular two someones weren't hotel guests from a glance.

Tses did not know Allison well enough to be extraordinarily surprised at Allison's silence. Yet she'd spent enough time around the young woman to feel relieved at it. The night noises moved to replace the girls constant chattering, and she exhaled deeply, taking in the moment. Then, she answered the question, and was speaking again.

She shrugged her shoulders and took a step into the hotel grounds.

"Psh, I'm not going around it. Someone doesn't want me walking on their grass they can get over it." She smirked, and watched to see if the other girl would follow. It was always a learning process with new people. Sometimes, she could get away with whatever she wanted. Sometimes, they seemed to show some sort of moral spine. Then again, Tses was like that herself at times. she could act pretty un-effected by most crime and mischief, but she had her own personal boundaries. She would never steal from the cat lady next door, or someone she knew. But she had no problem taking stuff from a stranger.

Allison's amused smirk was almost certainly hidden by the dark; that was most of why she allowed it to exist instead of a smile. "Grass is supposed to be walked on." At least, Allison didn't know of any other purpose for it; maybe Tses did, though, since she seemed pleased enough to defy it. Allison didn't see much glee in walking on something that was meant to be walked on.

Past the hotel was a large, solid-walled building; small windows lined the top of the three-story wall, but they'd all either been bricked up or painted black. A former warehouse, which had been converted into the laser tag arena. Arenas, Allison was pretty sure; probably two or four per floor, though one floor might be exclusively that 'Ultimate Arena' the website bragged about. The door, of course, was on the other end of the building, which meant walking another block, but it had CYBER LASER TAG in swooping, angled neon letters on the wall.

Well... they'd definitely found it, anyway.

The grass squished a bit underfoot as the moisture rose to the tips of the blades with the coolness of night. The warm sunlight that would have otherwise evaporated the drops of water was gone, leaving the water to chill, and if it was cold enough there would be a blanket of frost in the morning. They were small little details Tses sometimes caught but never really appreciated. She lacked any real level of scientific knowledge, so much of how the world worked was simply just a magical faith in the unseen. She didn't need to know why a fire escape could hold her weight, or how her boot buckles worked, or why she could turn moonlight into explosives. The world was just full of things that happened, and she adapted to them. Just like kicking the water droplets from her boots when she reached the sidewalk on the other side, she threw her thoughts aside as she looked around.

The glowing sign above her head could have been another language for how easy it was for her to understand. She momentarily squinted at it, and mouthed the words. k-yuh-behr.... lah---seh----er.... tag was about the only word she could understand, but she figured it was something about laser tag piecing the first and second words together. Reading to her was like solving a puzzle. Only the context enabled her to make much of it.

"Have you ever been to this place before?"[/color] She said, starting the walk around the building, and scanning the size of it. She sort of wished she could just make her own entrance into the place from this end, but that would probably spoil the fun. "I've never heard of it, but I guess I don't hang out anywhere most people would think is fun. Although, i bet this place looks pretty cool from the rooftop. You get a whole different view of the city when you look at it from there." She smirked.

"I haven't." Which wasn't really the most reassuring answer she could give, but anyone who spent midnights hanging out on fire escapes and wandering off with strangers probably wasn't looking for reassurance, anyway. "I haven't played laser tag since I moved here. It's not really fun to go alone, and no one I knew was interested." Not that Allison had tried particularly hard to go, or invited anyone, but... well. She didn't exactly have a lot of friends now. Aura. Possibly Amber and Cafas. That... was really it. And Aura was definitely a bad idea for playing laser tag. Though Cafas might be an option....

"It probably would." Allison hadn't thought of it, but yeah, rooftops tended to result in interesting views. "It ought to look cool inside, too." Cool was pretty much the point of laser tag, after all.

They'd get to see soon, though. Allison opened the door and ducked into the entrance; a bare room with walls painted black, retro scifi planets and galaxies glowing on them, too much space, black tile, and a tired twenty-something with too much makeup not to be hiding something behind the desk. She straightened up as they entered. "How can I--" her voice caught on a yawn, though only slightly, "help you?"

Tses blinked as they entered the room, and glanced around at the strange space. The planets and glowing paint and black tile through her off a bit, and she resisted the urge to ask why the paint was glowing. That would just put her back in the clueless image that was likely already associated with her. The little over-makeuped gal at the counter looked about as enthusiastic to be here as the walls were. At least the walls were glow-in-the-dark and making an effort.

"We want to play laser tag. Duh." Tses answered somewhat snarkily. Since Allison had never been to this place either, she didn't feel as bad speaking up. She fished in her pocket for some money and glanced around for a sign with the price. She didn't bat her eye at the $20 a pop. She's just pick-pocket it back later.

"Suits are over there." The bored girl said and pointed her thumb off to the side. Tses resisted sticking her tongue out at the brat as she wandered to where the gear was gathered.

"Hopefully you at least know how to play. I don't think she's going to be much help on the instruction side of things..." Tses muttered under her breathe.