Michael was still getting used to being a guard. He was however, very happy with what he could do for the other prisoners. Just this morning he'd managed to stop a guard hassling one of the younger guys by stepping in and offering to deal with it. It seemed that for quite a few of the guards the initial thrill of poer had worn off and laziness was setting in. Any offer to do work for them saw a lot of the guards wander off and leave Michael to it.

So Michael was now wondering aimlessly around the campsite, keeping an eye out not for mutants in making trouble, but mutants in trouble. It felt good to be able to do something helpful with immediate results at last.

ooc: Sorry it took me so long!
ic:
Raina was walking around with her head in the clouds. She still coudln't get over the events of the day and he rmind continued to flash back to Naveed. If there was one thing she was thankful for it was that seeing Naveed made her momentarily forget about Rupert. Usually these days her mind focused on Rupert but with Naveed's arrival that proglem was put to rest.

She was so lost in her thought she didn't notice Micheal as she nearly walked into him. She stumbled and looked up with a shocked look on her face. In took her a moment to take him in in the guard uniform. She stood still looking cautiously at Micheal with questioning eyes. Was he on their side?

Michael managed to fake scowl at Raina for only a moment before his face split into a broad smile. "A new set of clothes dosen't change who I am underneath," he said, "it's still me." He then enveloped Raina in a big hug. The woman had been through a lot, and had it tougher than most. Michael still remembered seeing her and Rupert back at that Jazz place. It seemed like a life time ago.

Breaking the hug he asked, "Have they let you speak yet or is it still all in hand gestures?" If they still weren't letting her speak he'd see if he could get them to change it, callibrate the thing so it only went off if she sang. That way she could at least speak to people.

Raina gave a shrug. She pointed to her collar and held up two fingers to show that she'd had the collar off twice with permission (once while she was enduring her mutation and the second time during the fire) but then shrugged again because it was back on. She smiled brightly and gave him a hug. It was true that Raina had been through a lot but there was something distinctively different about her. She seemed more defined but almost elfesh in appareance- something otherwordly about her. Her eyes seemed to swim in colours from green to gray and blue and back again. She pointed and touched his chest in her best attempt to ask him how he was doing. It was hard for her to remember he was younger than her as he towered over her. It made her momentarily think of Ted and she smiled.

Michael managed to deduce that she'd had the collar off twice. Mabye he'd manage to get it altered. When she asked how he was (or at least that's what he assumed she meant) he answered, "I'm good Raina. This guard lark is not bad, and it lets me help all you guys out."

He paused a moment before saying, "Something's happened to you hasn't it? You've changed, you look a lot better than the last time I saw you? What happened?"

Raina stifled a laugh. She wondered how in the world she could posibly show that her mutation had intensified and now whenever she gets wet she's fish girl! She waved her hands about wriggling them and grinning from ear to ear. She finally gave up with another shrug. She flexed- a little more muscle this time! There was no way he'd get it without... oh wait she knew! He could ask Sara! She bent down to a little bit of snow in the shade and drew her best Kitty face and wrote with her finger "Sara knows"

Michael could not help but laugh a little as Raina tried to explain whatever it was she was trying to explain. Eventually she seemed to give up and wrote something in the snow. Seems he'd have to ask Sara as to what had put Raina in such a happy mood.

"Ok, I'll ask her next time I see her," he said, still smiling, "But I take it things have been going better for you than last time, which is good. So, anything intersting happen that you can communicate to me or am I going to have to ask someone else?"

Raina snorted and smoothed out the snow again. This was certainly interesting and a fun way to communicate so long as nobody caught them. She wrote in the snow "There was a fire on cleanup detail." she smoothed the snow out again and wrote out new words with the dwindling white "I saw my brother there." she wasn't going to get anymore out of that patch of snow. Moving it around so much had caused it to melt and become muddy. It was a lot, and she was getting frusturated with the collar. She pointed to Micheal and then pointed to her collar and whisked her hand in the air to symbolize getting it off. She grinned. Maybe he could get the thing changed around sometime for her.

Michael watched as Raina wrote some more in the snow. "A fire huh?" he said, "I take it no one got hurt." He waited as she wrote some more. "Your brother?" he said in surprise, "I didn't know you had a brother." Pausing a moment to look around and check no other guards were near he asked, "Is he a mutant too?"

When she gestured to her collar he offered her a smile saying, "It's on my to do list. I'll speak to someone first chance I get about maybe changing it so you can at least speak, just so long as you don't sing."

Raina gave a shrug when he asked if Naveed was a mutant. Who was to know? He wasn't when she left... but if she was a mutant it didn't mean he wasn't.

He spoke about her collar so she nodded in agreement and gave him a hug. Then she looked over her shouler and gave him a wave to signal she better be leaving.