It was getting late. Late enough for the bar crowds to be dwindling, even. The air was crisp and cool, the temperature having dropped significantly following the setting of the sun. 

Juliette had just finished up a shift, and she was beyond exhausted. Running on three hours of sleep a night for several days could do that to do. She was also low on energy. Very, scarily low.

She was still a ways from her apartment, somewhere along Midtown. She had gotten lost somehow and ended up there. The brunette wasn't sure how exactly she had managed to do that, but she chalked it up to lack of sleep.

Juliette dug around in her purse for her emergency flashlight. It was good for times like that when she had few sources of energy available and a need for some right away. Her hand rummaged through kleenexes and gum for some sign of the cylindrical object.

...Damn. 

It wasn't in there. 

Then, it struck her. She had taken it out to try and fix one of the springs that had fallen off when she dropped it the other day... And apparently hadn't put it back in.

She was already starting to feel extremely weak, and she still had a ways to walk. She weighed her options. She could:

1) Just keep going and hope she could make it home on what little she had left.
2) Find somewhere lit and empty nearby.
3) Steal from the streetlight next to her.

She looked up. The streetlight was right there. Option three it was.

Juliette didn't really even have to concentrate to absorb the light. She wanted it so badly that as she breathed in, it happened naturally. She didn't even notice how obvious it looked that her skin was beginning to glow. Perhaps if she had noticed, she might have also noticed the group of drunk men that was beginning to watch her.

"She's one of those damn muties, isn't she?" A big burly man yelled. "We don't need any of your kind in this country, freak!"

Juliette's eyes shot open at the man's words. She was rather surrounded. 

Well ****.

The date had been a colossal failure. The guy had bought her drinks well enough, and listened as good as anyone could have hoped for, but his personality left a lot to be desired. He was pushy and opinionated, and when she disagreed with him on things, he took that as personal offense. If he'd disagreed, they could have had a nice intellectual conversation. He had poisoned the well, instead. When he had asked her if she wanted to 'get out of here', she had said yes. Then she had left without him. The look on his face had almost made it worth it. Almost.

It was late now, and she needed to either find a cab, or walk home. She'd had a few drinks. Amelia most definitely wasn't driving her Focus home now. It would have to be picked up in the morning. It should have been a sign when the guy had wanted her to drive her own car to the bar, rather than have him pick her up. But it had worked out for the best.

New York was beautiful at night, but it was a beauty like a rose. She wasn't being poetic here. There were a lot of red. Sometimes, blues. Sometimes, white neon. A heady aroma of food and garbage. And plenty of thorns. She went carefully, mindful of her surroundings. In the current political climate, she had to be careful, both as a mutant, and as a woman.

Walking in minor heels wasn't as bad as if she'd had six inch heels. For that, she was grateful. Amelia was also grateful she hadn't gone out of her way to dress ridiculously. A smart leather jacket, tee, red scarf, and fashionable jeans had been good enough for the date. She looked good, but she didn't look like a fashion model.

The bar had been around midtown. Her apartment was within walking distance, in the same general area as her brother's apartment. It cost about as much as you'd expect. She worked for a living, and paved her own way, but her parents still chipped in if money was tight. It was up to her to spend wisely and use good money habits.

As she walked, she held her black purse close to her body and kept her head on a swivel. She walked for several minutes, then stopped. She had heard something. She paused. There. There it was again. A metallic rattling.

Something sprang from a trash can and bolted across the busy street. It was a black cat. Her eyes followed it as it blazed its crazy breakneck path... right past a group of big men, surrounding a woman. The cat hissed at the biggest guy, back arched, hair on end. The guy shouted at it, and shouted at the woman they were surrounding too, for good measure.

Amelia was bright enough to see the body language. The woman was nervous. The men were posturing and angry-looking. Amelia hit a crosswalk button. It took her three, maybe five seconds, before the light changed and the street settled down enough for her to cross. By then, the cat was long gone. She approached the big men confidently. Her feet fell with the practiced grace of someone who has studied martial arts.

"Hey there," she addressed the biggest meanest guy. He was somewhere in the realm of 7 feet tall. She was a hair over five nothing, with almost shoulder-length hair, the picture of a woman. "Is there a problem here?" Amelia asked dangerously.

The big man and his cohorts just laughed.

The light from the streetlight was gone, and Juliette was feeling better, but she was left with a much different problem. The men were closing in around her, forming a tightly knit circle of testosterone. One guy even cracked his knuckles; it looked like something out of a cheesy eighties action movie.

Juliette straightened her spine, trying to appear like the group didn't phase her. She wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she certainly wasn't going to lie down and let them come at her.

>>"Hey there, is there a problem here?"

A short woman had just addressed the biggest guy in the group. She was small - even smaller than Juliette - and didn't look like someone who should have been trying to take on a group that size. Though, Juliette realized, looks could be deceiving.

The group of guys chuckled heartily at her comment. "No, there's no problem. Unless you're looking to stick your head where it doesn't belong. You got a problem with mutie violence?"

Juliette glanced at the girl, then back at the group. Obviously, their attention had shifted away from her and onto the other woman. If she was quick, she could just leave. But that felt wrong. Especially after she had just stuck her neck out for her without any prompting.

"If you're planning on doing something, why don't you just get on with it. I don't have all night," Juliette spoke up. She wasn't sure what she was going for, exactly, but she mostly just wanted to get their attention. If they were planning to be as violent as she expected, then she could fight back. But if not, she didn't want to start something preemptively.

She turned her focus to the woman who had just walked up and jerked her head to the side, signalling that she was giving her an out. 

>>"No, there's no problem. Unless you're looking to stick your head where it doesn't belong. You got a problem with mutie violence?"

Oh, hell no. He did not just talk down to her like that? Idiot.

The woman they'd surrounded had style. She didn't quail at the mean words from her would-be attackers, either. Amelia saw the subtle head motion, the go ahead to run, and she ignored it.

She was going to be a police officer, but at the moment, pretending to be a cop was furthest from her mind. No, she had a different idea. She had met the woman in question, so she had a good idea of the lady's ticks, and how the power looked. It was something she had thought of doing ages ago, if push ever came to shove, and while it wasn't the most HONEST thing, it sure was smart.

"Hell yes, I have a problem." Amelia snapped. She tossed her purse to the side, and whipped her hands down to flare at either side of her body, then focused. A pair of pink drill-like constructs burst into life without a sound. They hovered, spinning gently at wrist level on both arms. "I'm Aura. Maybe you've heard of me? I eat idiots like you for breakfast."

The constructs wouldn't tear through their bellies like Aura's aura drills would have. They would hit their clothes, maybe tear those up, but that was it. But then, they didn't know that, did they? She was trading on Aura's infamous reputation. If they were smart, they'd run, because nobody with any inkling of sanity picks a fight with Aura, the cop killer. Who she most certainly was not.

Juliette blinked at the woman. Size really could be deceiving. She wasn't entirely sure who 'Aura' was, but she had heard a few things. None of them good. Obviously, though, the men had some idea.

The big guy, the one that was almost seven feet tall, looked like he had seen a ghost. As the pink constructs swirled near him, he watched with a grave expression. In the low light, it was still easy to tell that all the blood had drained from his chubby face.

"S-sorry, Aura," he muttered, motioning to the group to start walking, "we don't wanna start something."

Well, he may have looked like an idiot, but he certainly wasn't one. The others looked terrified, too. The Aura woman must have had some kind of reputation to do that to them.

The group walked off quickly, one of them tripping over his own feet. They looked as if they would rather have been anywhere else but there.

"Thank you, Aura," Juliette said to the woman once they had left. She had just saved her a lot of trouble.

Biggest guy apologized. He looked like he might have peed a little. That's right. Amelia thought. Keep walking. She didn't take their eyes off them until they had completely left. She didn't say anything snarky to make them question their decision, either. She merely let the reputation work for her.

Amelia smiled, once they'd vanished around the corner. One of them had even tripped! What a laugh.

The woman thanked her. Amelia smirked. "Oh, I'm not Aura. My name is Amelia." The pink "aura drill" constructs vanished as if they hadn't ever been there. "I just figured the name might work for me, to scare them off. It did. It was a bluff. You're welcome!"

She walked over to pick up her purse, and slung it over one shoulder.

The fact that the woman wasn't actually Aura made sense. From what little she actually knew about her, Juliette was aware of the fact that the real Aura probably wouldn't have helped her. She was grateful that Amelia had been there instead.

"Well, thank you, Amelia," Juliette smiled at her, watching as she bent over to pick up her purse.

She glanced around where they were. There were several bars around, most of them starting to empty. Juliette thought for a second. She really wasn't tired anymore.

"Hey, can I get you a drink or something as a thank you?"

A drink? Her hand gripped the strap of her purse and shifted it slightly on her shoulder. Sure. What the hell? Her night had been less than stellar so far. If the woman was offering in good faith, she would do the polite thing and accept.

"Okay," she said. "Thank you-- I didn't catch your name."

One more drink tonight would be fine. The woman was offering. She wasn't going to ask for a round or anything rude that would take advantage of the kindness. They would just hang out for a minute. Maybe she'd simply saved someone and made a friend.

"Oh, yes, sorry," she had completely forgotten to give Amelia her name. "I'm Juliette."

She gave the bars around them another look over as she tried to decide which of them would work best for a simple drink. None of them particularly stood out to her, except one called The Looking Glass. It looked slightly less skeezy than the others.

"Is that place alright?" Juliette asked Amelia cautiously. She didn't want to completely steamroll her, after all.

"Nice to meet you, Juliette." Amelia said.

The bar Juliette had found was a basement level bar. The entrance was an alleyway stairwell, and it reminded Amelia of a bar she had once read about in a book. She glanced over her shoulder, checking for any scruffy men in leather dusters with a big dog, but found none. Juliette must have found the place by following the chalkboard café style sign pointing towards it, and the lighted stairs. It must not have been a super busy night, because there was no doorman at the entrance. It felt like the sort of place where such a thing was necessary when it was nearing capacity. Some sort of music was playing faintly. She could hear it emanating from within. It sounded jazzy and upbeat.

"The looking glass." She read the sign. Gave it a nod, smiled, and said to Juliette. "Yeah. That stairwell feels like a sufficient fall down the rabbit hole. I think this will do just fine."

Lewis Carroll-themed bar. Interesting. Classy, without being snooty. She led the way to the entrance, and stopped at the host stand to present her ID. The jazz was louder by the entrance. A girl in front of her looked too young to drink. They slapped a wristband on her. Amelia supposed the bar was open to minors, but just served them food and pop. That actually made her feel better about the place. It was no McAnally's, but it would do.

(( OOC: Randy posted a nice description of his bar here: theultimatexmen.proboards.com/thread/11980/trip-looking-glass ))

Juliette wasn't exactly sure what she had been expecting from a bar called The Looking Glass, but she was definitely surprised when she walked inside. In a good way, of course. It was elegant, in an understated way. The lighted stairs created a path down towards the basement bar.

The rest of the scene kept the same sort of fantasy ambiance. Subtle hints to the Alice in Wonderland theme dotted the bar, and cafe style signs noted the directions they were meant to walk in. Overall, it was definitely one of the more well done themed places that she had ever been to.

"Shall we?" Juliette gestured down towards where a long bar and a few tables were.

Without really waiting for her response, Juliette stepped down the stairway. She took a seat at the bar on a tall, padded stool and looked over one of the menus. "Drinks are on me," Juliette said.

>>"Shall we?"

"We shall," Amelia replied. She followed the woman's lead. Juliette hadn't really waited for her response. Maybe she'd just replied to a rhetorical question. But it didn't matter.

She liked the ambiance of the place. The cards and everything weren't too much. It was simple, but fun.

Amelia slid onto a bar stool, and grabbed a menu. There were all sorts of themed drinks. How fun. "White Rabbit?" She requested. That sounded good. Vanilla vodka, vanilla liqueur. Milk. Ice. Shake and serve. They even had food. If she hadn't just eaten at a restaurant on her date, she would have ordered something. Wings were always a favorite. Honey bbq. Something sweet and savory. Or maybe 'melt your face' hot.

This place had lots of stuff. It even had a dance floor. There were mirrors backing the bar, and two full length mirrors along the dance floor. There were croquet mallets along the bar's panel dividers.

Not too far away, people were dancing. It looked like they were having a good time.

The selection on the menu was extensive; more so than most bars she had been to. They even had a number of specialty drinks. Amelia had ordered the white rabbit, which had sounded appealing to her, but she figured she should try something different.

"I'll have the Red Queen," Juliette told the bar tender and then set down the menu in front of her. The drink sounded just as good, if not better. Citrus vodka, blood orange vodka, blood orange juice. All topped with a toothpick lined with maraschino cherries.

There were people dancing not far from them. They looked to be having a good time. Juliette was too tired to even consider joining them at that point.

"Those... Constructs?" She struggled for a word to call them, "that you made. Those were really cool. Are your powers sort of like Aura's?"

Amelia's lips curved upwards slightly at the woman's question, a mildly amused smile. "Aura," she said. "Is really dangerous. She can make aura drills and aura hammers, and hurt people. I'm nowhere near that dangerous. My power," the small smile broadened into the real deal. "Takes a bit more finesse."

Some people were cautious talking about their powers, but she had never been the sort. Maybe she would need to be at some point when she joined the police force. The thought that she would cow to pressure like that didn't rest well with her. She decided then and there that she would never let herself be pressured into silence like that.

She started explaining. Her tone showed a lot of love and passion for her power. Clearly, she had had time to experiment, and liked what she could do. "I make constructs a little like Aura, but where she can use them on anything, my constructs float in the air and only work on clothes. So I couldn't swing a hammer like she would, or use a drill exactly like her. I couldn't even really touch the drills I made, unless I were wearing gloves. If I'd had to move my hands, I'd have had to move the drills with them, or ruin the illusion... The drills would have passed through my hands without doing anything. And a drill would hit with blunt force, but it'd just ruin their shirt."

"I've done some experimenting..." She went on. "I can wear gloves and swing a construct bat with them. And if it hits clothes, it transfers force into people at the point of impact. But I can't make a katana that cuts anything other than clothing, or anything neat like that, while Aura probably could. And I guess the last big difference between Aura and I is that I'm not evil." She paused. "Well. Aura isn't evil, really. She's just a bit crazy, and reacts violently to threats, imagined or otherwise. I've met her. The girl needs help. But I'm a good guy. Clearly. If those guys had gotten violent, I'd have pulled some aikido ghost hand crap to bring them down, then called the cops. Because I am not a vigilante." She nodded. "But I am the kind of person that doesn't stand back and watch people hurt people like that."

"So what about you?" She asked. Now that she had spent what felt like five minutes talking about her mutation... What exactly was it Juliette had done to attract those thugs? "Yes, thank you." Her drink had arrived. She took a sip. It was good.

A clothing manipulator. That was something that Juliette had never heard of before. She had thought that the constructs were interesting enough without the added information of the clothing manipulation, but that was a whole other level. From the way Amelia was talking, it sounded like her powers needed a bit more effort in order to inflict damage. It really sounded like she had a good grip on her powers, though. Enough to know exactly their limits, at least.

Juliette had a tough time trying not to be jealous about that.

They were handed the drinks they had ordered. They looked even a little better than they sounded on the menu. Juliette picked hers up and tried it. It tasted just as good, if not better, than it looked.

>>"So what about you?"

Juliette paused for a moment. Describing her mutation was something that she seemed to be doing at an increasingly steady rate, but she still wasn't entirely comfortable with it. There were a lot of things she still wasn't entirely confident with, and that were difficult to put into words. However, social conduct dictated that she return the favour of sharing.

"I can absorb and manipulate light," Juliette told Amelia. It was a good starting point, and one she tended to use. "Sunlight, lamps, fire, that kind of thing. Those guys out there saw me absorbing light from the street lamp, which is why you were dragged into all of this. Sorry about that, by the way." It was a much, much shorter explanation than Amelia had given her, but it was a start at least.