Allison had not been entirely sure what she was doing when she invited Amber to go shopping. Well, the technical answer was obvious; it was why that she was less sure of. But she was bored, and should probably get to know her… sister in law? Girlfriend’s sister? Allison still hadn’t quite decided whether she still got to call Aura her wife, with the whole future-that-will-probably-happen-but-she’s-getting-less-certain-and-anyway-it-hasn’t-yet. Anyway, she should probably get to know Amber. And while she didn’t really need anything, shopping included just about everything, so there was something of interest for everyone, and offered plenty of things to talk about in case they ran out of ideas on their own.

Apparently, however, it wasn’t going to be needed. Outside the mall--a block away, technically, but the in between was just parking lot--were protesters; lining one side of a quiet street, yelling and waving signs at cars, occasionally running out to hand pamphlets into cars that stopped.

Getting to the mall could be done; Allison and Amber would have to cross the street at a corner the protesters were edging toward, but skirting around them would still be possible without being too obvious. Provided the protesters didn’t connect Allison’s tattoos or Amber’s clothes with their being mutants, which… well, wasn’t impossible.

Of course, that didn’t mean Allison wanted to leave them alone. But she wasn’t by herself, so it wasn’t really her decision, entirely; she stopped long enough to eye the signs, then turned to Amber. “Um…. What do you want to do?”

When Amber had received the invitation from Allison to get to know each other and go shopping at the mall she had been mildly surprised but not at all displeased. She didn't know much about the other woman except that her sister had strong feelings for her and she seemed to have a good heart, if first impressions were any indication. The urge had been there to do some online digging about her sister's girlfriend, but social decency indicated that it probably wasn't polite to go snooping into the love interests of family members. Well, at least not do too much snooping. As Amber had been looking into the history of her own birth parents since returning to Sancuary, it didn't seem like much of a stretch to look into a little bit of Allison's history too. Just a little bit wouldn't hurt, right?

What had struck Amber, in her research, was similar family names that had come up. Nothing similar at present day, but there were names previously in common, names of possible grandparents in common. She might just be over-thinking things, of course, but the possibilities were fascinating nevertheless. What were the chances that her adopted sister would be going out with her...cousin? Too weird and too fascinating by far but it was something she intended to pursue.

The timing was a little off with it still being daylight, but Amber determined that the discomfort of being outside was worth it. After all, their goal was only a block away and it was a lovely overcast day so, with the protection of her robes, she knew it wouldn't be too bad. In truth, she probably could spend more time outdoors during daylight than she typically did, at least when it was overcast, but there were too many bad many and too many risks associated with her doing it often. Thus, she almost exclusively left the safety of Sanctuary only at night. Today was the exception.

Knowing the protesters that were bound to still be nearby, Amber opted for some rather unassuming pale blue robes. Surely that wouldn't set anyone off, if a particular colour could even do such a thing. She didn't want to have to deal with an angry mob out for blood and that was, unfortunately, what she thought of when she thought of protesters. Maybe it was due to bad personal experiences. Probably, in fact.

Amber entered the Sancuary foyer to find Allison waiting for her. "I didn't have anything in mind. Maybe some browsing and some food?" Her adopted father Abyss had more money than she knew what to do with and she had mostly free access to that fortune.

Allison was never sure if she counted as a visible mutant or not. She certainly wasn’t extremely visible; she was still human shaped, and the ink her skin had started producing could decently imitate a tan, if she let it build up long enough. Of course, she tended not to let it build up for long, at least on her face an arms, and she hadn’t gotten over the habit of replacing it with abstract, highly visible tattoos. And her hair had started growing out white… as had her eyelashes and eyebrows. Which she was going to have to find a better solution to; dying each hair individually with ink was possible, but way too time consuming.

Even while she made those look normal, though, she at least looked a bit… off of average. Almost similar to Amber, she noticed idly; they were both absurdly pale now. Maybe she could suggest that Amber start wearing tattoos too. And maybe she should wear more blue. That pale blue looked nice; a bit more docile than Allison would prefer for herself, but a darker blue or the right cut could fix that, and if she ever did need to look nicely docile without being obvious about it….

“Food’s always good. Any particular favorites?” Not quite the best conversation starter she’d ever thought of, but as long as it worked….

The walk was short, and conversation went well enough. The protesters, however, Allison had not expected. She kept as much distance as she could without being obvious, and kept an eye on them, but it was more disapproving and thoughtful than wary. The dangerous bigots in Allison’s experience hadn’t bothered with protesting; they’d gone straight for violence. Viewing the protesters as not being immediately dangerous, though, didn’t make her any less inclined to try to get rid of them, or at least counter what they were doing. If she could think of a way, though… and particularly a way that wouldn’t completely ruin the get-to-know-you fun point of the trip. She’d heard of counter protests that were successfully entertaining, if she could just remember what sort of things they’d done….

…Well. Allison wasn’t sure whether she’d heard of a counter protest doing that, but at least she couldn’t think of a way that it would go too badly. She stopped and grinned at Amber. “Want to annoy them without letting them do anything back?”

It struck Amber that she and Allison looked oddly similar. Perhaps she might not have noticed if not for her earlier investigations into their history and the possible overlaps. Bother, however, were extremely pale which might have just been coincidence or, perhaps not so much. How did one broach the topic of possible family relations with your sister's girlfriend anyway? Not for the first time she was struck by just how much easier it was to live the life of a predator rather than a human mutant.

“Food’s always good. Any particular favorites?”

Raw red meat came to mind but maybe that wasn't the best thing to blurt out and so Amber restrained herself from doing so. Maybe she wasn't the best when it came to conversation, but she wasn't completely clueless either. "I've always had a thing for sweets." \She couldn't really get those when in dinosaur form nor did she think she could properly digest them, so it was one of those human luxuries she came to miss when spending too much time not in her human body. "Otherwise, I'm really not too picky. How about you?"

The walk was, for the most part, uneventful aside from a minor itching from the daylight felt under Amber's robes. That was, of course, until they came up to the protesters. Those had been cropping up all too often as of late and none of it boded especially well.

“Want to annoy them without letting them do anything back?”

It was an interesting suggestion and one that seemed to be oddly appealing. Not sure what exactly she had in mind, Amber nevertheless grinned back at Allison. "Nothing would please me more!"

Ice cream, pie…. Dessert wasn’t exactly the topic they were talking about, though. “Fruit, mostly. Especially kiwis. And fruit salad!” Allison’s immediate instinct was to spin, or jump or do something similarly exaggeratedly cheerful. But Amber was (supposed to be) trustworthy, even if she was a stranger, so Allison just grinned.

Although, when Allison actually thought about what Amber had said, maybe dessert was what they were talking about. Or, more accurately, junk food. “Have you had cinnamon pretzels? The giant soft ones. They’re great.” And in prettymuch every mall, so even if Allison hadn’t been to this particular one before she felt fairly confident promising them.

Of course, protesters weren’t a typical mall feature to Allison’s knowledge…. She grinned at Amber. “I have an idea, then.”

The mall, it turned out, did have cinnamon pretzels, and Allison made sure to buy a bag full of a dozen of them; they were almost as good cold as hot, anyway. Really, cinnamon pretzels were pretty hard to get wrong. Fortunately, the food court wasn’t far from the door they went in, and neither was a….

Okay, well, Allison wasn’t sure exactly what the store was supposed to be. Something like a dollar store, it seemed, only missing the dollar part. But the had bubbles, and Allison led Amber back toward the protesters with one bag full of pretzels and one of bottles of bubbles.

A few of the protesters might have glanced over, but they didn’t seem to pay much attention until Allison had set the bags down, retrieved one of the bubble bottles, and begun blowing bubbles toward the protesters. The wind had decided to be nice, and the bubbles easily drifted toward the nearer protesters.

Once some were paying attention, Allison paused, waved at them, and grinned. “Hi! I’m a mutant.” She’d intended to make the comment in a cheerful, let’s-all-politely-fake-ignorance tone, but it came out much more like ‘say something, I dare you.’ Oh well.

Amber had no idea what Allison's idea might be, but she grinned in appreciation anyway. She didn't seem like the type to start violent and bloody attacks of the protesters which meant that she probably didn't have too much to worry about on that front; something that was actually quite a relief. A little creative counter-protest might actually be kind of fun.

Amber followed Allison into the mall, grateful for the relief from the sun. Pretzels she accepted happily, even offering to pay for the lot of them. After all, what was the use in being a part of a loaded family if not to share the wealth? In following her new friend (at least, she felt it was appropriate to call the other woman a friend) to the dollar store, she offered to cover the cost of those supplies as well, making sure to be fairly insistent if Allison were to protest the action.

The bubbles were an interesting, all be it confusing choice but who was Amber to question the logic behind them? She certainly wasn't an experienced counter-protester by any means but decided to simply follow along and blow some bubbles of her own towards the protesters. Bubbles. How had she never explored the fun of bubbles before?

“Hi! I’m a mutant.”

Amber was nothing if not a fast learner and, taking Allison's lead, she too smiled and waved. "Hi, I'm a mutant too." This had the potential to either be a lot of mischievous fun or go very very badly and she wasn't quite sure which yet.

Kiva wasn't normally one for malls. The big, scaly mutant wasn't one for shopping period, really. Not due to any overwhelming hatred of all things 'girly,' mind you, but simply because shopping for much of anything clothing-related was a pain when you were a tall, muscular woman with wings. Malls were pretty good for finding lots of different things, however, and she'd managed to accumulate a number of 'I really should buy this' items of various types on top of a need for new clothing, so she'd bitten the bullet and gone.

Some hours later, the bronze-scaled woman was carrying about four bags on each arm as she stepped out the doors of the mall and, though she'd walked today rather than taking her motorcycle, cast her gaze toward the parking lot as something of a habit.

Oh. Hoo boy...

Protestors. She wondered vaguely when it was they'd shown up, and the urge to immediately start walking in the direction of home and not look back was very tempting. Kiva did not get involved in this kind of thing, as a rule. She was a prime target, after all, not only being visible but looking distinctly dangerous with her natural armor and various pointy parts. Not to mention she was dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt that had a skull image on its front; she looked like hoodlum even without her mutation.

...Wait, were those bubbles?

Her inner child chose that moment to make itself known, and there was a faint thump thump of her big, leather boots on pavement as she drew closer. There were women...blowing bubbles at the protestors? Why?

Curiosity killed the cat. Kiva promptly told the part of her brain that had said that to shut up. She was still far enough away that she couldn't hear them, but she found herself watching, particularly when the women waved at the targets of their bubble-blowing. They clearly weren't part of the protest, and one of them was wearing quite the interesting outfit...

Kiva looked at her bags. This was going out on a limb...but...She let the bags slide off her arms to the ground, then went through one of them, which had the logo of the mall's small pet supply shop plastered across both sides of it.

I am officially out of my mind, she thought to herself as she pulled out a jingle ball, which she held in one hand as she casually rested all of her bags on her opposite arm. She then started walking. Straight toward the two women and protestors. Yup, completely lost it. Com-plete-ly. Going up to a crowd of strangers bearing cat toys. Something in my mind has obviously snapped.

...Or maybe she just liked bubbles.

Either way, she started tossing the jingle ball up in the air and catching it, adding the whimsical sound of the cat toy to her stomping footsteps. She smiled and pretended to be completely focused on this, both out of a desire to look less threatening and an excuse not to check if she was being stared at. She may just lose her nerve if she looked over and saw everyone looking at her while there was still distance to play the 'pretend you never saw me' card.

Then, when she got close, she 'accidentally' dropped the toy and let it noisily roll across the pavement toward the two women's feet, and the dragon mutant stopped, blinked, and flashed a sheepish smile at any eyes on her. "Um...hi..." She made a vague, awkward gesture at the toy in a 'can I please have that back' way, realizing she had no step two to this.

Completely lost it.