“Oh.” Allison… didn’t really have a good response to people who knew about Sanctuary and didn’t like it. She’d never met such a person before. A few people who insisted that other places were better, but not anyone who just disliked Sanctuary. She blinked, then shrugged. “There are some people that are kind of tempermental, yeah. And it’s just for mutants so no one’s really shy about showing off mutations if they get pissed off. It’s just people, you know? In a group that large, there are going to be a few assholes.” And, in Sanctuary, a few mass murderers and most if not all of the Order… but Tses really didn’t need to know that. Besides, the Order protected Sanctuary, they didn’t hurt anyone in it, so really it was irrelevant anyway.

Allison grinned. “I know two shadow mutants, and I can’t picture either of them saying nyan… well, maybe Nate would, but he’d act all put upon and sulky about it. Anyway!” Allison attempted an overdone curtsey, which might have looked less ridiculous if she’d actually had skirts, instead of holding onto air. “I’m glad to help change your opinion, at least.”

Tses listened to the girls explanation and nodded slowly. "Well, I guess it's hard to judge a whole place after one person. And he did help me get away from the cops in the end... although I can't say I'm a fan of teleportation or whatever he did..." then she smiled at the girl, and chuckled at her attempted curtsey.

"Maybe eventually I'll check out the place, although I can't imagine what it would be like being around so many other mutants all the time...." Tses tried to imagine, but she wasn't quite creative enough for the images to formulate in her mind.

“Chaotic,” was Allison’s immediate answer. “And awesome. Sometimes annoying; there’s this one guy who controls squirrels and every time I forget about them one starts climbing up my leg. But it’s also this entire community where you don’t even have to assume that no one cares if you’re a mutant, because you know.” And that was something Allison hadn’t found before, for mutations or anything else. “You really should check it out at some point. Even if you don’t live there, it’s a good place to hang out.”

Which… made Allison wonder, actually. She assumed there were people who hung out at Sanctuary without living there, but she had no idea how many. Certainly most of the people she knew seemed to live there, but then again she’d never asked….

A wind blew through the alley, and Allison shivered, folding her arms to try and keep them warmer. Other benefit of Sanctuary? It was inside. Layers were not quite enough to counter the fact that it was cold outside. “Want to go somewhere warmer?”

Tses listened to Allison's description of what she labeled in her mind as 'mutant manor', and shrugged her shoulders. She didn't promise to check the place out, but she at least said she'd consider it. At least now she didn't write it off as completely dumb.

When Allison shivered, Tses started to register how cold it really was, and mentally chided herself. Her childhood on the streets often made her tune out feelings of discomfort like cold or hungry, but she had to learn to start listening them again, if nothing else than to appear more human. "Someplace warmer would be nice. I admit, I don't have many ideas of where to go though..." In her mind, she hoped Allison wouldn't suggest a coffee shop. She had a kind of interesting records with those. Oh, the first adventure had gone all right, and the smoothie was great, but the botched robbery at the second kinda left a bad taste in her mouth. It tasted worse than coffee, to be quite frank. "Although, in my current mood, anywhere warm where I can be mildly destructive sounds even better... They should make indoor firework ranges or something..." Somehow, the idea of dangerous explosives in a confined space sounded entertaining to her. Perhaps she was loosing it a little without Ty around to keep her normal.

"I've never actually set off a firework, to be honest..." She added thoughtfully, considering the idea.

Allison shrugged. “There are always coffee shops, bars…. Fast food places…. I don’t know what else. I’m sure there’s something, though….” It was, after all, New York City; Allison knew that no city ever really slept--really, that may as well be the definition of a city--but she was pretty sure New York was the one that bragged about it. There had to be things around that were open.

…A midnight water park would be fun. Pretty cold now, though…. Maybe it could be inside? Oh, and then there could be artificial rain whenever it was wanted….

Destruction brought Allison’s mind back to the point. “There are probably indoor archery….”

…Okay, evidently Tses wanted something a little more destructive than that. “I haven’t either, actually. Except for sparklers.” Which were really fun, especially in theory, and especially if you got to run around waving them and making lines of light in the air and conducting made up rituals to freak out anyone nearby. Unfortunately, Allison didn’t know of any indoor sparkler ritual spaces… and if there were, they’d probably need reservations anyway. Something fun and indoors, though, in the dark and looking awesome…. “What about laser tag?”

Tses listened politely to the different suggestions Allison rambled off. The typical fast food joint and coffee shop seemed pretty boring, and Tses didn't know what archery was so she didn't knw if that would be fun or not. Then, the last suggestion came up, and Tses felt her head tilt inquisitively.

"Laser tag? What's that?" She asked, pushing her hair out of her face. She was at least familiar with the concept of lasers, but mostly for their security type purposes. The tiny little red lines of light were like trip wires of light, and she always found them to be a mild annoyance when she tried to rob higher end buildings. To her, lasers had negative connotations for that reason. But Allison.... she seemed to be suggesting some type of game.

Tag.... she had heard kids talk about it, and Kelarii sometimes played it in the school yard when Tses would drop her off. She didn't really understand much of it, only that one person touched another and ran away. She wasn't sure if that was all there was to it, but if so, how could someone 'tag' with a laser? "Is it like a game?" She usually wasn't big on games, but maybe it could be entertaining. She wanted to try something different after all, and that could be different.

Allison paused halfway through a thought to blink at Tses. “…You don’t know what laser tag is?” How could anyone not know what laser tag was? Okay, Allison could easily imagine people who’d never gone before; even she remembered the first time she’d gone, and she’d known people who’d never gone until high school, or not at all. It was expensive, after all, at least compared to other forms of entertainment. But she hadn’t known anyone who didn’t know what it was; the rarity just made it more legendary. And somehow, Tses didn’t know about it. Though technically Allison had never mentioned it to anyone since moving, so maybe it was a New York thing?

…Nope, not an acceptable excuse. Allison grabbed for Tses’s hand and pulled the other girl after her. “We’re going to play laser tag.”

A few blocks later Allison stopped abruptly and let go of Tses in order to pull out her phone and start poking at it, squinting at the screen as it glared at her. Way too bright.

Tses had met a few energetic people in her time, but Allison seemed to be a whole different variety. A few moments after announcing her lack of laser tag experience, she found herself suddenly dragged along by the hand with an unpleasant jerk. While Tses was normally the type of person who would be irritated by such treatment, her current state of mind made her reactions a little unpredictable. Sometimes, she was overly volatile, and lashed out to those around her. Other times, like now, she felt mildly apathetic, and couldn't quite pull together the necessary energy to grumble over the treatment. Like a dog on a leash she followed, and absentmindedly wondered what she was getting into.

Thankfully, they hadn't gotten far before Allison slowed, and her arm was released. Somewhat ruefully, Tses rubbed her arms, but it did little to really relieve the tingling with the strips of fabric blocking her touch. Overhead, the stars competed with the city lights to let their glow reach the ground, and in the dim light the phone Allison pulled out seemed painfully bright.

"So.... you do know where we're going, right? Or is this one of those 'winging it' type adventures? Because those rarely seem to turn out well for me." Tses admitted, and some of her naturally sour personality slipped through into the comment. Then she gave a tilted smile that was a bit more welcoming, if not somewhat frightening in the dim light of the phone. The shadows crossed her face in little curves that were about as haunting as the light of her own powers when she let it wrap itself closer to her face. Tses loved the effects of light in darkness, and loved to see the way it messed with the shadows and sent its 'tendrils' of darkness scattering across the silhouettes in the alleys and roads. Even if she hadn't gained the ability to blow things up, light itself was something amusing to her. Most people saw it as bright and cheerful: she saw it as something trans-formative and dark.

“Nooo…. I know where we’re going.” Sort of. Allison knew they were going to play laser tag, anyway, and she knew what laser tag arenas tended to be like. And she had a vague idea which direction it was in. “I just don’t know where we are.” Or how far it was, or how to get there.

A few minutes of squinting at the phone screen, fortunately, gave directions, both to the laser tag arena (or one of them, anyway; the closest two were closed, but the third was open 24/7) and to the nearest subway stop. Actually getting from that to the stop nearest the laser tag would be up to maps, but that wasn’t an issue. Allison turned the phone off, squeezing her eyes shut as she slid it back into her pocket so her eyes would readjust to the night faster, and then set off for the subway entrance.

Tses slowly put her forehead against her palm, and then rubbed her eyes with an expression that was somewhat annoyed, somewhat bored. Because of her life on the streets, she rarely got lost, and knew her way through alleys and back roads like she had her own map worked into her mind. Every little corner, fire escape, pathway and subway system felt familiar at this point, because she didn't live on the surface of the city like most people. She lived in the heart of it, working her way through the veins out to all the outer reaches.

Perhaps she could have pointed out the right direction, and perhaps she could have helped. But Allison looked so determined to find it on her own she left the girl alone with her shiny phone to sort it out that way. Tses tried her best never to rely on technology to solve her problems, but she knew she was a rare exception to the norm. Sometimes, technology made things faster. But she thought it took out some of the fun.

Finally, Allison seemed to sort out the right direction, and set off like she was on a mission. With a sigh, Tses followed her, and chuckled slightly to herself. "So you sure you know which way you're going now?" She teased, a small glint in her eyes that matched the taunting in her voice.

Okay, so maybe Allison kind of deserved that. She’d be more annoyed if she hadn’t. As it was, though…. “I am! And that it’s open. That was the problematic part, most of them aren’t.” Which she should have expected, actually. Most anythings weren’t open now, unless they revolved around alcohol, naked people, or both.

…Actually, maybe she should explain that, if Tses didn’t know what laser tag was. “Laser tag prettymuch always is indoors. Huge buildings that get turned into arenas, and stuff. The arenas look really cool too; most of them have fog everywhere, and weird lighting, and fake landscapes. It’s basically a video game, I guess.”

The subway had only been a few blocks away, so it wasn’t long until Allison could lead Tses into it, and over to a map. She studied it for a moment before pointing. “That’s where we need to get to.” The map conveniently, and obnoxiously, already informed them where they were.

Tses listened as Allison started to explain what was happening, and most her annoyance went away. She could be a little annoyed about getting lost, but not knowing which place was open was something her street skills couldn't solve anyway. So maybe the phone was useful for something. It at least got them down to the subway, and the map helped with the next stage of the navigation while Allison finished talking about where they were heading.

Laser tag, as Allison explained it, seemed pretty fun. It almost seemed like an indoor battle, but without the whole life or death, knives and exploding objects. Maybe a little more boring in that instance, but it could be fun and at least, if nothing else, less painful than her normal fights. "That sounds kinda fun. I think. I never really played video games so I can't exactly compare it to that, but it still seems entertaining. Even if I probably couldn't use my powers in there." She smirked slightly, and let her glowing powers travel up her arms for a second then turning it off. Then she let her attention fade and watched Allison mess with her phone while they moved.

As they walked, Tses, glanced at the glowing object. It seemed a lot more modern than the phone the cat lady next door had, and that peeked her curiosity. "Hey, think I can look at your phone once you're done using it to like, navigate? I keep thinking about getting one.... Never owned a phone before." She said thoughtfully, and rather politely for her.

Allison blinked. “I… don’t know, actually. It is all about light, so you might be able to. Depending on wavelengths and speed and stuff like that. We could test it, maybe?” Although how to test it… that was a more interesting issue. “How far away from you can you make light appear? And how bright can it get?” Without blowing up, anyway. Allison would prefer not to have things exploding on her, thank you, sake of science or not.

“Um, sure.” Allison gave the girl an odd look as they reached the correct platform, and she checked the time before handing the phone over. How the girl could have not ever seen a touchscreen phone before? Or not owned a phone at all? Or never heard of laser tag, or played video games, or… well, done absolutely anything less necessary to survival than breathing, apparently.

…Actually, it was reminding her a bit of Aura. Allison still wasn’t sure what exactly Aura’s childhood had been, but she knew it was neither normal, nor pleasant, nor (probably) legal. Tses’s personality wasn’t particularly like Aura’s though, so it probably hadn’t been exactly the same…. Allison was beginning to doubt that Tses’s had been normal or good, though the wasn’t sure she wanted to know if she was right.

Tses tilted her head to the side, a little surprised by Allison's comment. She had mostly been talking about just blowing stuff up, but using the light from her powers in another way sounded like a unique challenge. To her, the light was something just personally fun. She could glow in the dark, use it to find her way around her apartment or scare away the random human. The only time it really seemed beneficial was when she fought that shadow mutant, and the light kept him from disappearing. She usually saw light as a side effect of her powers, rather than an embraceable element of it. "I've.... never really thought about testing that aspect of my powers really. the light usually just had a mind of it's own. My body kinda absorbs moonlight, and then it converts it into the glow.... it can't hurt anyone, can't be felt, so it didn't seem useful..." She chewed her lip slightly, considering.

"The furthest away I've ever made the light go without condensing it was probably two feet, and that's when it's more centralized around my arms. I can't really control the 'direction' it goes though. It kinda flickers and moves like a flame, and I can let it grow or snuff it out... It can get about as bright as a light bulb when I'm upset, but it's usually about half that intensity." Disusing the technicalities made her think about her abilities in a way she had never been forced to before, but she liked it. It made her feel like she was learning something about herself.

While she was still thinking, Allison held out the phone and she took it, eyes curious as she poked at the screen. It responded to her touch like a mouse would have, but there were no keys to dial numbers and no real 'buttons' she could see. She wasn't sure how useful something could be that relied only on touch. What if you had gloves on? Did it work then? "What all can you do with this?" She asked, flicking her thumb across the side and blinking in surprise as the icons 'scrolled' sideways. Thankfully the phone had more pictures than words, and she sorted out the basic symbols for the web browser and the directory, which were similar to other phones she'd seen. She stumbled ever so slightly as the subway started moving, but her legs adjusted quickly to the sway of the subway without much effort. She had the New York attitude that enabled her to stand without using the handrail, unlike the tourists she often ran into who sat or clung to the railings for dear life.

“Hm… I don’t think you’d be able to deflect lasers, then. Maybe weaken them, though? Although lasers go pretty far, so it takes a lot to weaken them… I don’t know.” Allison’s mouth couldn’t always quite keep up with her brain. It made thinking out loud something of a bad idea, or at least one likely to be confusing a lot of the time. Sometimes the skipped brainsteps weren’t needed, though, and she ended up seeming smarter, with her conclusions emerging from (apparently) unconnected thoughts. Allison could never tell the difference.

“You might be able to use the light to hit someone, then, if the sensors pick up the right wavelengths… we could test it, if you want to. Though it’d really only be useful if you left your gun somewhere, or ran out of charge.”

Which, actually, made Allison wonder. In tag, you couldn’t keep tagging people once you’d been tagged (or you could, but you couldn’t tag them until you were tagged…). You weren’t supposed to in laser tag either, but whether you could or not depended on how sophisticated the technology was (and how much you cared for rules). Anyway, the people who tagged others weren’t also the ones being tagged, and you weren’t defending bases…. “I guess it’s really more like laser dodgeball, actually. Dodgelaser?”

“Er….” Okay, really, just what had Tses’s life been like? She ought to have at least seen ads for touchscreen phones; they were pretty inescapable. “Um, anything a computer does, just a bit slower sometimes and the keyboard’s tiny. Plus make phone calls. Only it kind of sucks at it, because sometimes your cheek hangs up on people. Video calls are more reliable.”

“…You do know what computers do, right?” Allison hoped so. If not she was going to have to ask if Tses had been raised in a lab or something. Then again, phones certainly weren’t less omnipresent than computers….