Spaced out? Really? Being spaced out usually involved not thinking much. He was thinking plenty much. He did not need a hand an inch from his nose without warning when he was thinking. Not only was it surprising and hard on his nerves, but it totally messed up his train of thought. Whether or not that was actually a good thing in this particular instance was beside the point. The point was that her actions were unnecessary and undesired.

Did she seriously not see the giant bright white line across an entire half of his face? "You didn't notice this?" he repeated with more than a little sarcasm, and pointed to the start of the scar, at the bridge of his nose, and jerked his finger along its path to where the not-quite gleaming white streak ended with the outer curve of his ear, cutting clean across his silver eye. He knew full well that sunglasses didn't cover much of the scar, though his hair tended to hide the damage to his ear, but the scar was rather less visible than his freak eye. Even normal people had scars. Normal people didn't have silver eyes.

Great. Now he was thinking about his stupid scars again. His outburst fading nearly as quickly as it had emerged, Aiden turned aside and uncomfortably rubbed his shoulder where his other excessively pale scars crossed near his right collarbone. He really didn't want to think about them, or what had c- no. No, he'd rather get a tattoo by a complete (or partial) stranger than go down that road.

That... made sense, actually, now that the kid pointed it out. Allison had assumed the eye was a mutation thing, but asymmetrical mutations really were unusual. Se shrugged anyway. "Other detail about me? It turns out its not a good idea to try dying your eyes fun colors even if you can absorb ink into them. My vision sucks." Not quite as badly as the comment implied, to be fair; she could see the scar now, she'd just dismissed it and her brain had continued skipping over what was already dismissed; all mutants had scars, except the best self-healers anyway. Allison had plenty. And really, the only reason her vision wasn't as bad as she implied was because she'd only tried dying one eye. how it had taken her years after that to realize she could blind other people, she had no idea.

Oh well. Back to the point. "So. Tattoo, tour, or would you like to leave?"

Aiden sunk in on himself a little more at Allison's words. Asking if people with sight issues could see something kind of crossed a line. A line that was normally very large and brightly coloured and well lit and, well, extremely noticeable.

Wait, she had tried to dye her eyes?

Okay, probably-not-mob chick was insane. Nice and simple, and time to go. As quickly as was prudent.

"I think I'll pass on the first two," he said quietly. Spending time around crazy people, even crazy people who gave him sunglasses when he dearly needed them, was probably not good for his health and definitely wasn't on his list of preferred activities. Wait a second - did he actually know his way out? Looking at the door, he tried to concentrate and remember the route they had taken to get here. Well... he might be able to get out, but there was an uncomfortably high chance of getting lost. He did not want to get lost in this place. And as for getting out of the neighbourhood.... He was almost starting to superficially consider if a pair of functional sunglasses were actually worth all this. He glanced back at Allison. Ask the crazy lady for a hand out of this deathtrap, or take a chance solo?

No, wait, the other mutants that lived here would be way more likely to go after him (or accidentally squish him, which would have much the same effect as far as Aiden himself was concerned) if he were alone rather than with someone they recognized. Crazy lady lion tamer? Best option he'd thought of so far. "How exactly do I get out?" he asked warily, hoping that she would just lead him out and so protect him from other crazies. The logic of that kept eluding him, but he knew it was there; he just couldn't quite seize hold of it.

Really. This kid just couldn't be happy, could he? Most people would be amused at the idea of her attempting to die her eyes with ink; it was a phenomenally stupid thing to do. At least they'd laugh at the silly girl's vanity. But this kid? No, nit the slightest hint of amusement; instead he started cringing like he'd done something wrong.

...A mutation that made the mutant incapable of happiness would suck. Allison really hoped no such thing existed. Of course the genetic component of depression could technically be called that, but even that was a risk, not a guarantee, and depression itself could be managed. Actual, complete inability to ever be happy.... She couldn't even comprehend that.

Well, at least he was speaking this time. "I'll show you." The walk wasn't far; only three corners to the entrance, from which the doors were perfectly visible. It was, however, going to be sidetracked; Allison had been keeping an eye out for Isabel for a while, and that now was conveniently distinctive. "Lady Isabel!"

Isabel was not used to being accosted in the hallways of the Sanctuary. That sort of thing was usually saved for the boys in blue out on the streets on any given day that they were feeling their oats and thought they had even the slightest chance of taking her down. Only rarely was she ever stopped or called after in her home, usually by someone she had some sort of acquaintanceship with, but occasionally some foolish newcomer that recognized her face would try to gain her attention for one reason or another. The latter was often left disappointing and sometimes a little worse for wear depending on her mood, but seeing as it was the former that had hailed her she consented to stop where she was and spare a glance back down the hallway.

One brow raised as she took in the sight of Allison and the rather cowardly looking individual that she seemed to be leading through the hallway. She'd never seen the kid before and judging by his demeanor he was definitely new to the Sanctuary and perhaps reluctantly so. He also seemed to be very confused about the function of sunglasses.

"Hi Allison," she said, turning to face the pair and crossing her arms as her weight shifted to one leg. Her gaze shifted from Allison as she spoke back over to the cowering young man, an expression of curiosity mingled with a sort of superior confidence settling across her face. "Might wanna clue your friend in before he walks into something: Sunglasses were made to be worn out in the sun."

Aiden felt inordinately relieved that Allison was going to lead him out of this place. Wait, was it really inordinately? Feeling a large amount of relief at such a thing was perfectly normal, so no, inordinately was definitely the wrong term. It was annoying when writers tried to use big words to sound smart and cool and fancy, but ended up using them poorly.

Oh, whatever. He was getting out of there!

Just as the distinctive golden doors came into sight, however, Allison called out to someone. Aiden hung behind her, unsure of the proper action to take. He could technically (probably) just keep going and get outside without waiting any more, but the normal polite thing to do in the general situation would be to wait for Allison to finish talking to the strange woman with the weird bow. What, did she think she was a manga character or something? People didn't wear things like that in the real world unless they were going to a con or were insane. Possibly both. Possibly probably both.

Never quite looking straight at the bow-endowed woman, it occurred to him that there was something oddly familiar about her. It wasn't a 'passed-in-the-street' sort of familiar; it was both stronger and more distant than that. His concentration was broken by the woman's words, however. He was not going to walk into anything! He could see just fine, and he could take a bit of darkness if it meant that people couldn't see in from the outside. Not that he was going to say that to her face; not only was he still trying to place her, but something was warning him that she probably wasn't a good individual to tick off. So... he stayed behind Allison and hoped that the woman would pass on her way soon, and he could get out of here without making anyone angry enough to try to kill him.

Allison... was not going to be telling Isabel why the kid was wearing sunglasses. She wasn't sure if Isabel actually cared about mutant pride or not, but considering how much she disliked humans, trying to be like humans in any way was probably not a good trait to have around her. Instead, Allison grinned. "I think he can see fine. Better than me anyway, he seems to be used to it."

She... probably could not get away with cuddling Isabel right now. It was tempting to try anyway, but she wanted Isabel's help, and there weren't any stupid gutterminded boys to taunt, so she refrained. Instead she kept grinning, rocked back on her heels, and just to amuse herself, clasped her hands behind her back with the most cliche innocent little girl expression she could manage. "So, there's something I thought you might like to help me with."

Isabel 'hmph'-ed as Allison sort of defended the kid's choice in eye wear, her attention fixed mainly on him as he appeared to be trying to hide behind his tour guide. She wasn't all that surprised by the behavior, especially if the kid recognized her. She'd met a handful of skittish mutants wandering around the Sanctuary that had avoided her like the plague until they realized she wasn't likely to go on a killing spree within her home. There were a select few individuals that she'd go out of her way to try and murder in the halls, but for the most part the general population was relatively safe while living there.

One brow quirked and her attention shifted back to Allison as a request for a favor was posed. She mulled it over briefly before deciding on an answer. Last time she'd run into the other young woman had been when she'd been in the process of tattooing vibrant pink birds onto someone's backside. She wasn't so sure she wanted to help if it was going to be something like that again. "Well I guess that would depend on what you're going to be doing."

Isabel looked... skeptical. That was odd; Allison had always gotten the impression that what Isabel liked and disliked was pretty simple. Admittedly, her experience was a few years into a now-averted future, so it was possible that Isabel's tastes had gotten simpler by then. Most peoples' had by then, really. Especially concerning food. Killing humans was a bit on the other end of the scale, though, and something that Isabel was already well known for.

Well, better just to ask. Allison kept the innocent look, except for the smile. That was still a mouth that turned up and showed teeth, but it wasn't really a smile any longer. "There's this gang of rapists and murderers that I encountered a bit ago. They're human and think it's a great sport to stalk, capture and torture mutants. There are more than I can deal with on my own," especially when her mutation decided to fail her at the worst moments, "but I thought you might be able to help."

He was almost about to give up on placing this Isabel person. Almost. She probably just looked like someone he'd met, or had passed him on the street sometime. Or, perhaps more likely given the excessive bow, she just reminded him of one of the many, many characters he'd come across over the years. Actually knowing anything about this woman, a woman to be found in a place like this, well, that was just impractical.

As he was deciding this, some aspect of Allison's dialogue filtered through his brain and made a connection.

Isabel. News. Murder.

Oh. That Isabel.

...

WHAT THE HELL WAS HE DOING IN THE SAME ROOM AS A NOTORIOUS MASS MURDERER? There was no way he was sticking around politely for Allison to finish her conversation. He had to get out of there, stat.

Aiden started out moving slowly and evenly, hoping to avoid drawing attention to himself. After only a few steps, however, he broke into a full sprint for the door - only to find a large visual mutant of the big spiky variety in his path. Aiden sidestepped the nearest of the spikes without slowing, ducked beneath what may have been some sort of equivalent of a wing or perhaps just more spikes, and pivoted lightly on the ball of one foot to regain the path towards the door. Unbeknownst to him, with the first move in his dodge a handful of snowflakes had gusted erratically in his path, and more gathered at his back until he was running straight again; in his wake, they settled to the ground and began to melt in the returning warmth.

Isabel's expression of wary curiosity fell into a full blown scowl as Allison elaborated on what she wanted help with. Humans that delighted in the torment of mutants, and in some of the most depraved ways. Her hands curled into fists at the thought of it. She didn't even want to think of how Allison had run across them. How dare they. How dare they.

"Just tell me when and where," she replied. A gang was pretty easy to eviscerate without too much media attention, as Zephyr had insisted she make a priority. What news station would bother to report on the murder of criminals? And who would ever suspect Isabel of the discreet murder of common thugs? She killed for shock and attention. She'd just have to make sure she didn't leave anything overly obvious behind to connect her. It would be so simple.

In her growing temper she hardly noticed Allison's attachment making a run for it. If he couldn't stomach a little murder plotting, that was his own fault.

That... was not a much more encouraging expression, outside of context. Within context, it could be either; Isabel might be mad at the humans, or at Allison for waiting this long to deal with them, or at something that kept her from killing them... or, in theory, she could disapprove of Allison needing help, but Allison was pretty sure that that wasn't it. Fortunately Isabel's answer clarified that, so Allison didn't have to waste time being persuasive. "I can show you where. How about now?" It was getting late; there weren't many people out to recognize them, and the gang would be gathering in their bar. Besides, it wasn't that far, and most of the walk was in Sanctuary territory; Allison doubted anyone inclined to report Isabel--or anyone with her--would be in Sanctuary territory to start with, but even if they were, it was unlikely they'd dare.

Allison did notice Aiden's run away, and took a second to blink at the snow that was quickly forming a puddle on the floor. Well that explained why he wasn't bothered by cold, anyway. "Heal or something" indeed. Oh well; it didn't really mean anything for her, and probably wouldn't mean anything for anyone until he got over being ashamed of it. And it was just as well that he'd left, anyway; he certainly wouldn't help in executing the gang, and Allison doubted he'd do very well if he got in the way. Shame he was scared, but oh well; he'd get over it eventually. In the meantime, Allison had a gang to deal with, and Isabel to help.