"Man, things change." Danny nodded absentmindedly in response - that was practically the very motto of the mutant community. If he had just been a normal human...well, he'd be dead by now, and wasn't that a strange thought. He couldn't say that he regretted his immortality too much, though, because the last century or two had been rather impressive. Mostly the Internet, but everything else was pretty cool too. But if his first death had been a natural one, and permanently stuck him as an old guy - that would've been a nightmare. At least like this he could actually move.

Margo said something, breaking Danny out of his reverie. "I guess I was feeling awkward in the first place, ha, which is like, totally normal because I'm totally awkward. Danny gave a little half-smile, completely understanding where she was coming from - he'd been less than comfortable this whole conversation as well. Talking to people wasn't usually his forte, but things change, as she had so succinctly put it.

"Okay-now? So apparently 'they' have forgiven you...except what exactly did you do in the first place?" Danny winced.

"Uh, like I said before, I may or may not have broke in," he said. "And then attacked an X-Man. But we're cool now. We're sort of...friendly acquaintances?" Danny wasn't sure if that was the right way to put it, but it seemed to be a somewhat accurate way of describing his relationship with Mirror.

"Uh, like I said before, I may or may not have broke in. And then attacked an X-Man. But we're cool now. We're sort of...friendly acquaintances?"

"Friendly acquaintances, huh?" Margo said, with a slightly sarcastic laugh. "I bet. That's totally cool." She wasn't quite sure exactly what the guy meant, but passed it off as a matter of awkward wording. Whether Danny and the unnamed X-man -X-men, she wondered?- were coworkers or besties...really, was it any of her business, as long as there were no bad feelings between them? She thought not.

Well, now that he'd explained, the girl guessed they'd be off. Rising, she briefly contemplated going into the back and informing Ron (one of the baristas) that she would be leaving, but decided against it. She waited to follow Danny out, just to avoid any awkward scenarios that could occur as a result of her not having her sights on him. Aka: Not knowing where she was going, turning around to try to find him in a crowd, and running head first into him...or somebody else.

(OOC: I'm going to assume they exit and head toward the Mansion)

"So, leaving the slightly more dangerous topics untouched until we reach our destination," Margo said, after a bit of silence, "How long have you been in the city?"

[OOC: Sorry for the late post...]

"Friendly acquaintances, huh? I bet. That's totally cool."

Danny nodded, almost sheepishly, in response. He wouldn't categorize them as friends, considering most of their meetings were either unintentional or because Danny had done something stupid, but they weren't exactly enemies either.

Margo started to rise, and Danny did the same in response. It took him a moment or two to realize that she seemed to be waiting for him to go, so he started to leave, almost embarrassingly.

"So, leaving the slightly more dangerous topics untouched until we reach our destination. How long have you been in the city?"

Well, way to leave the dangerous topics untouched. But then, it wasn't really her fault - it was a relatively innocuous question, if not for the fact that Danny had been in the city for far longer than his apparent age.

There were a few beats of silence, but eventually, Danny spoke.

"A long time," he said, leaving it at that, hoping she would take the hint. "You?"

Margo's relatively innocent question (or so she had thought) was greeted by a silence long enough that she had just begun to doubt whether Danny had heard her at all- perhaps the crowd had swallowed up her words- when he answered.

"A long time," he said, his answer careful and laced with a warning, or at least she divined so. "...You?"

"A short time," she replied, her answer equally as brief. She left it at that, not trusting herself to make further attempt at conversation.

The city around them was so unlike the places Margo had grown up. The scattering of smog, the towering skyscrapers. New York had its own rhythm; as did wintry Canada, dim in her childhood memory, and the place she had called home for the last couple of years- so green, but haunted by the ghost of her lonely soul. Blessed by the touch of friendship.

When she had first come to this city of cities, she had done it on an impulse, thinking she would go back when she had figured things out. But now, several months later, Margo contemplated whether she would ever figure things out. Would she ever, and would Danny play a part in it?

"I guess things change, and we just have to let fate do the deciding," she said quietly, half to herself.

A short time," Margo said in response to Danny's own vague answer, and he nodded. She didn't say anything else, and assuming that meant their brief attempt at conversation had ended, he just glanced down at his feet and kept walking. Her silence seemed to indicate that she was thinking, and with nothing better to do, Danny's mind started to wander as well.

He liked this city, especially for the anonymity it provided - to those who didn't know him, he was simply another face in the crowd. Being uprooted and forced to leave, start over somewhere he'd never been and pretend to be someone else he was not - that life had never particularly appealed to him, even after living it for so long. Change was fun, of course, but only when he had somewhere he could call home to go back to at the end of the day, and especially friends to ask for help when he truly needed it. The question now was whether Margo would become one of those people.

"I guess things change, and we just have to let fate do the deciding," came the quiet voice from beside him. He let out a noncommittal huff in response.

"Things change, yeah, but there's no such thing as fate," Danny said after another pause. "We have to roll with the punches, sure, but we decide ourselves how to fight back."

"Things change, yeah, but there's no such thing as fate. We have to roll with the punches, sure, but we decide ourselves how to fight back." Danny replied, after a long pause.

Resisting the temptation to mimic his noncommittal huff- which, as silly as it might seem, had stung her feelings (fine, not really)- Margo stayed silent. She hadn't meant to go down this road. She hadn't even meant to speak out her thought out loud. She definitely hadn't meant to delve into this debate, however tempting it might seem.

"Yeah," she replied, just because she had to say something. Then continued, "I mean...somewhere, in some book...our stories are being written. And I think we decide how they are written. And...as dumb as it sounds... I think at the same time our paths are already laid out in front of us."

Hey, she'd needed to get it out. It wasn't her fault he'd gotten her started on this topic. Oh, wait! She realized, it actually was.

She sighed, then said in a tone with an edge of humor, as if to determine that the case was closed, "Why, may I ask, does everything with you evolve into some sort of a fight?" Since, you know, he had used an analogy that compared life to a street brawl. Just saying.

"Yeah," Margo said after yet another heavy silence, and Danny got the feeling that she was not entirely pleased with his response. "I mean...somewhere, in some book...our stories are being written. And I think we decide how they are written. And...as dumb as it sounds... I think at the same time our paths are already laid out in front of us."

Danny resisted the very strong temptation to argue, as natural as that was - he was stubborn, and he knew it, so at least he was aware that this would dive into a full-blown argument should he continue it. So he didn't, even though he really wanted to, especially since the whole fate thing was a constant source of annoyance for him. He lived forever. Most others didn't, or at least had some way out. He'd tried - nothing could kill him, not even a freaking volcano, because he'd just woken up after the eruption had deposited him into a calcified wasteland. So he really preferred to believe that there wasn't somebody writing his book, as she had put it, because he really hated whoever that was, constantly making him suffer through rebirths and dying every other day. His life was like depressing angsty fanfiction at this point.

Not that he read depressing angsty fanfiction. No, of course not.

Then Margo said something again, changing the subject, and with an undertone of sarcastic humor in her voice.

"Why, may I ask, does everything with you evolve into some sort of a fight?"

That... was a very good question. Probably because he lived so long and needed some source of entertainment, and adrenaline was the only way he could find it, even if he was essentially guaranteed to win a fight no matter what. But he wasn't going to say that. Instead, he gave a small, amused laugh, and said, "No idea. It just kind of happens. Either I'm just really aggressive, or conflict just happens to follow me around." Then he frowned. "Except for when I start it. World War I was an accident." All the other assassins had been caught but him, and he had only functioned as a trainer anyway because there was no point in him trying to assassinate the Archduke and then commit suicide, considering we all knew how that would work out.

He obviously hadn't liked, or, at the very least, didn't agree with what she had said. Her words seemed to...well, set off a devastating, angst-y avalanche was the best way to put it. Seeing the way he refrained from arguing, despite an obvious urge to do so, Margo was glad she had changed the topic.

"No idea." Danny laughed in reply to her question. "It just kind of happens. Either I'm just really aggressive, or conflict just happens to follow me around." Then, frowning, "Except for when I start it. World War I was an accident."

At that, Margo lost any words she might have said in reply. She didn't dare gape, for fear that they would attract unwanted attention. But, golly! World War I? World War I?

He had not just said that. She must have heard him wrong or something. Was she hallucinating? Maybe she had better go see a doctor or something. As if she didn't know how that one would end.

"So much for staying away from dangerous topics, huh?" she said, her tone deceptively calm but still sounding rather like a croak to her. Golly, he had started World War I? The Great War, the War of Wars? He wasn't suggesting that he had been the one to kill the Archduke! Not that that mattered to her. But it did! And exactly how old was he really, to have seen so much?

She couldn't imagine a life like his. Never dying. Watching everyone around him grow up, grow old in a blink of an eye. Then their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Was that how it was, or did it grow easier with time? How did he manage it? She regretted the thought she had spoken out loud earlier more than ever now. What could she say about such things?

"Sorry," she said quietly, not daring anything else.

Well, she did not look like she appreciated Danny's last comment. It was an accident. An accident. It wasn't like he'd known that killing the one guy would end in a huge global conflict, did he?

"So much for staying away from dangerous topics, huh?" She seemed surprisingly calm, considering the bomb he had just inadvertently dropped, but all of a sudden her expression seemed to turn apologetic. Why - oh. Really, he couldn't carry on a normal conversation about his mutation anymore. It just wasn't possible, it seemed. And usually because people kind of pitied his inability to have normal human relationships because everyone grew up and died so quickly, but to be honest, it didn't really bother him. It was so much easier being a nomad, considering people tended to notice after a while and it was simpler to just move around so he didn't have that issue. But other than the "people who don't age tend to become obvious after a while" issue, eternal life wasn't so bad. Sure, it had been kind of depressing in the earlier years, and Danny was probably going to have another internal crisis in a couple of decades or so, but right now, it was fine. There were quite a few interesting characters he'd met here in New York, and that was enough to keep him entertained.

"Sorry," Margo suddenly said in a quiet tone of voice.

"Oh, don't worry, it doesn't bother me," Danny quickly replied. "You have your own way of seeing life, I have mine. I don't really need the same things... uh, mortals do."

Just then, as they rounded a corner, and the Mansion came into view. "Looks like we're here," Danny said, grateful for the change of subject. But by now, he'd completely forgotten why they were walking to the Mansion anyway, and fell silent, hoping that maybe Margo would give a hint as to why they were here again.

"Oh, don't worry, it doesn't bother me," he replied quickly, "You have your own way of seeing life, I have mine. I don't really need the same things... uh, mortals do."

They rounded a corner just then, the Mansion coming into sight. "Looks like we're here," said Danny, before falling silent. Grateful that their arrival had saved her the trouble of having to answer (or even think about a reply to that cryptic statement), Margo simply nodded, blanking out for a moment as to the reason they were now standing before the gates of her residence.

They continued in, nobody so much as giving them a second glance. Margo had always been something of a chameleon, just hanging out in the background. As for Danny- well, she supposed everybody around here was used to seeing strange things. And she supposed they looked normal enough, just two kids walking around aimlessly? (Not that the girl really cared whether they were noticed or not.) She was on home turf, at least relatively.

"So, now that we're here, where to?" She asked. "I don't suppose you want just wander around. My room is upstairs, but that would we weird. And awkward." Pausing for thought for a moment, "There are a lot of places about where we can, you know, hang out, chat, hatch our evil plots."

As they walked into the Mansion, Danny was surprised to see nobody paying that much attention to them. Maybe not about himself - sure, he occasionally had an, uh, explosive personality (heh heh), but he was good at staying unnoticed. Now, Margo, he figured somebody would notice her. Wasn't she living in the Mansion? But no, apparently not.

"So, now that we're here, where to? I don't suppose you want just wander around. My room is upstairs, but that would we weird. And awkward." Yes, it kind of would be. He sincerely hoped she had a better idea than that. "There are a lot of places about where we can, you know, hang out, chat, hatch our evil plots."

Ooh, evil plots.

He liked the sound of that.

But, sadly, this was the Mansion. And no random trip to the Mansion would be complete without sneaking into the Danger Room. And he said precisely that.

"Why not try out the Danger Room?" he suggested. "I don't know if your mutation has combat capabilities, but it might be fun." Suddenly, he frowned, considering something else. "Er, if you're not a fighter, than we don't have to. Evil plots sound awesome as well."

"Why not try out the Danger Room?" he suggested. "I don't know if your mutation has combat capabilities, but it might be fun." Then, frowning, "Er, if you're not a fighter, than we don't have to. Evil plots sound awesome as well."

"It doesn't. My mutation, I mean," Margo said thoughtfully, considering. She'd not made any plans... So why not? What was life if one didn't do something fun every once in a while? And if Danny thought she was one to back down, well, he couldn't have been more wrong. She would never be one to admit a weakness; it was one of her many shortcomings.

"Why don't we? How about we go try it out. If we survive, we can hatch our evil plots later." She said, laughing a little. The girl was assuming Danny had done this before- and he better have, because though she had passed it many times, often with a curious glance and nothing more, she'd never gone into the Danger Room.

It was pretty tech-y. Technically, she wasn't allowed in it. It seemed pretty...dangerous. But, really, who cared?

"It doesn't. My mutation, I mean," Margo said, almost lost in thought. Hmm. No combat capabilities, and not immediately obvious. That... did not leave a ton of options, to be honest. So far, pretty much every mutant he'd encountered had a mutation with combat capabilities. This was interesting, then.

"Why don't we? How about we go and try it out. If we survive we can hatch our evil plots later," she said laughing, and Danny grinned a little in response.

"It can't possibly be that bad, could it?" I mean, really. Worst that could happen would be a few burns here and there... "I don't know exactly how to get there from the front entrance, though," Danny added on to his last statement sheepishly. "I usually come in through the, ah, very back entrance." Also known as over the wall. But hey, he couldn't really sneak in through the front entrance, could he?

[OOC: Sorry again for the late post... school. Sucks. But anyway, do you want to move this to the Danger Room board in the Mansion, or would you prefer to keep it here?]

(OOC: Don't worry, I know how that feels. And I'm not really sure what the protocol here is, but we can move it to the Danger Room board if that's good with you. Also I think my color is a little off yours, so sorry about that)

"...I don't know exactly how to get there from the front entrance, though," Danny said sheepishly, "I usually come in through the, ah, very back entrance."

Well. Geez. Margo, the fool, had thought that Danny had visited the Danger Room before. At least once? Once?

In any case, it was too late for her to back out now. So all she did was raise an eyebrow at his admission. "And, um, we're going to discuss this coming in through the back entrance." She said, then added, jokingly, "That is, if we survive."

It wasn't far to the Danger Room from where they were. A right and two lefts that took them to the mystery place itself. Margo just hoped Danny had a plan for getting in.

[OOC: Er, I feel like I should just apologize in advance now for any and all late posts in the future because school. But yeah, do you want to start a thread in the Danger Room board going off of this post? And don't worry about the font color, it's no problem.]

"And, um, we're going to discuss this coming in through the back entrance. That is, if we survive."

Danny grinned sheepishly as he trailed after her. He was a naturally secretive person, which was why he hadn't expected his sneaking in to be a big deal, especially since he'd only been caught that one time, and he'd gotten away easily. So he paid special attention this time around - a right, two lefts. Easy enough. He doubted that the residents of the Mansion appreciated his constant intrusions, even if most of them were hardly aware of his existence.

[OOC: I am also not entirely aware of how the MRO Danger Room works, so I'm kind of making stuff up here.]

The Danger Room was unlocked, as it usually was, as was the door that led to the separate control room. Danny hit a few buttons, making the situation that the two of them would encounter completely random, as a green light over the door to the main room itself lit up.

"After you," he said, grinning, pushing open the door so Margo could enter. Well, this would be fun.