Serena grinned as she finished her tea as her friend needed to get going to her job. She had spent a good portion of the conversation hearing about how lucky Serena was to not have a normal minimum wage job and that she was so jealous of her, Serena of course was very humble about all this but she had worked very hard to get to where she was and you couldn't deny she had talent.

Her friend said her good byes and then set off to work at a fast food chain. Serena stood up with a yawn, stretching her arms and picking up her shopping. It had been a lovely, relaxing and uneventful day so far. No little mobs, nobody picking fights, she hadn't even had to deal with anything depressing which was a small miracle all things considered with everything that had been going on as of late.

So you can imagine her surprise when she stepped outside, to take a leisurely walk home and saw a man, very understandably, freaking the heck out as he was bleeding all over the side walk. "World. You have a seriously F****** cruel sense of humour." Serena cussed to nobody in particular and dropped her shopping, running over to the man in question as quickly as she could.

"Oh my god. That is a lot of blood." She approached him swiftly, trying to gauge how much their was.

It had never been a normal day. Seriously. Memo started off by going for a walk, since he'd spent the previous day scrubbing dishes and standing in one place and wanted a change (and that mood had stuck around through the night). But then he'd forgotten where he was going, and then why he was walking and not running, and then he'd run through an alley during an apparent gang fight, and they'd all yelled at him, and then he'd kept going and got caught up in some sort of pro-mutant protest.

And then the cops had come and lined the streets, and he couldn't run out the other side because there was a wall of uniforms and META bots, and he was just running! He wasn't doing anything. The protest didn't explode or get violent or anything, though, and after nearly an hour of forced walking the protest tapered off and people started heading home. With the group splitting up quietly, the police let them go and the bots didn't even go rampage-y and try to arrest anyone. Memo was vaguely surprised but couldn't quite put a finger on why.

He'd returned to jogging after that, only to be stopped by a lingering police officer who wanted to know why he was running. He was just trying to go for a run, really! He'd just run into that group, and then he couldn't get out for a while. There wasn't much the cop could argue with there, and there was no robot logic around to interfere, so Memo got to continue on with a warning to behave himself.

A few blocks later, someone jumped him in another alley, grabbing him around the middle and trying to haul him to the ground.

For better or worse, his would-be mugger's hands slipped under his shirt and clamped down on a pattern of streaks just below his ribs. Which then turned white, and featherstab gashes tore themselves back into existence as something about maps and children with pretty wings forced its way back into his head.

The mugger freaked out and bolted, shoving Memo aside to get out of the way himself. His bare hand caught the back of the bleeding mutant's neck, and by sheer luck brushed another marking.

Sunburn. So much sunburn. Last summer, seasonal job working outside, forgot sunscreen. NEVER FORGET SUNSCREEN AGAIN.

Perhaps if he hadn't been looking at his very much bleeding guts at the time, all that would have been left of that memory would have been the fresh blood on his shirt, but he was. So the memory was interrupted, and less lethal than the original, but now he also had a severe sunburn across the back of his neck and most of his arms. And the backs of his ears. The back of his neck was definitely the worst, though.

He staggered onto the main road, arms clamped over his very, very painful belly and tried to yell for help. It was kind of tangled up with colourful swear words, general confusion, and the complete forgetting, for the moment, that he could just forget about the injury.

Sadly, not the first time he'd forgotten that he could heal from whatever.

Serena would try to refrain from using her mutation unless it was really really serious, or if she knew whether or not this man was a pro or anti-mutant person. It really wouldn't help if she used her power to help with the bleeding and seriously freaked the man out. Of course, knowing her luck the person she'd just run into was a mutant who had just gotten involved in a fight, and there was a gang or mugger around the corner who was ready to stab her too.

She took a breath as she reached him, shaking off all of the thoughts and scenarios swimming through her brain like a particularly energetic school of fish and gave the man a concerned glance over, not sure whether or not she should touch him her hand stopped just short of actually touching him.

"I'm sorry Sir, you're clearly badly wounded. What happened?" He wasn't exactly fainting, so the blood loss couldn't be that bad yet, she still had time to stop the blood flow, mutation or not.

Funnily enough of the first thoughts that followed her mental working for fixing the situation with her power was 'great, I'm going to stain my dress'.

OH GOOD SOMEONE WAS COMING TO HELP HE WAS SAVED

From, er, what? He was bleeding, and he really hurt, but his power had activated a little too sporadically in the last few moments for the actual attempted mugging to make much of an impact. Perhaps he was going to look like a dying fool again. That felt vaguely familiar, so he probably did it a lot.

If nothing in particular had happened... oh, he must have remembered getting hurt again. That would probably help his saviour understand. "I think I remembered this," he said with all the helpfulness in the world, and wobbled where he stood. Looking down, that was really a lot of blood. How had this injury not killed him the first time. Or had it?

"I'd really rather not die again," he said wistfully. "I think I've done that too much lately."

Okay. Okay. Alright. Must not freak out. Do not freak out.

Serena took a breath in and listened to everything he was saying, the blood was continuing to spread at a rapid rate, okay he was bleeding from heavy blood loss. She took a very quick glance around to see if there was anybody else you could contribute help or if the assailant was still there. Once she confirmed that she and him were not in any more immediate danger, and that they were indeed alone she set out trying to help him.

... did he just say again? Alright, he was either insane or a mutant. Either way there was no harm in her doing what she could to help him, she just needed to make sure that it wasn't going to get any worse.

"Alright, just calm down. Take slow breaths and sit down." She gently grasped him and helped to set him down on the ground. She quickly unbuttoned his top and saw all the blood. Now where most people would be holding their breath or trying to resist throwing up, Serena just got straight down to business, she looked up at him and smiled reassuringly. "I'm going to help you, just try to relax and trust me." She said sweetly.

She took note of the binder on his upper body but there weren't any wounds there and she had far more immediate concerns. The girl gently laid her hands on the wounds, just barely touching the skin beneath the blood, once she got a handle on how much their was she smiled at him again. "I'm going to use a mutant power, please try to stay calm it's going to help." She reassured.

Calm down? He hurt and he was bleeding and he hurt. That wasn't very calming. He made to wibble a bit at her, but then she was making him sit down and he was way too dizzy to do both at once and sitting down was clearly not optional, so he just did that.

Aw, she sounded so nice and helpful. "Okayyy," he said, somewhere between faintly and almost dreamily. When had he started to take off his shirt? Oh, she had. Ohhhhh that was not a pleasant sight. She might be able to look at the stab wounds buuuut he would really rather not. There had to be other things to look at. Ummmmmmm uhhhh oh! He could stare at her hair. That was better than nothing.

Something about mutant. Yes, yes he was a mutant. He gave a floaty thumbs-up, intending to confirm that yes, he was a mutant, but hey it worked to confirm that he wasn't bothered by mutantness too. The sun was reflecting off of her hair. The little skinny bright lines looked cool, when he could see them clearly.

Serena took a breath in and activated her mutation, a faint blue glow slowly radiating outwards from her body, and then across the blood. She'd worked with more than this before, so this shouldn't be too difficult, she just had to concentrate on helping him. She got a grip on all of the blood, and after confirming that there were indeed no wounds below the binder, she set it out of her mind.

She drew the blood out of his shirt and around the wound to softly pressure on the wound, in a similar way that someone might apply pressure with their hands, or bandages to let the blood under the wound clot and stop the bleeding. The real danger to him was that he'd already lost a lot of blood, and the faster she stopped that, the quicker she could call medical professionals to try and sort out the rest of it.

She did it gently at first, applying more pressure, while feeling how much was coming from the other side of the blood-bandages she was able to see how the blood flow slowed and able to tell when she could stop with the whole actively using her power thing. "That's it, just relax and breath normally, everything will be fine." She soothed.

A bit of blueishness caught the edge of his vision, and he glanced down to see if it was just his eyes messing with him, or lack of blood or something. It wasn't, but his blood was moving and also there was so much of it and it really didn't help him feel better. Hair. Hair was safe to look at.

Staring at the woman's hair, he at least kept from fainting (and more from looking at all the blood than from losing that blood) and stayed calm enough to notice the pressure. It felt much better than the whole freely bleeding out scenario, and it became a little easier to stay sitting up.

"You are very helpful," Memo said, as if saying that would help her even more. Or maybe he just wanted to say it. He wasn't sure. Thinking wasn't so much like slogging through thick, sticky stuff as trying to catch a laser pointer that was being shaken at a disco ball.

"Are you a nurse? I think you remind me of one. I think I ruined her froyo. Have we met before?"

Serena smiled gently, letting the blood harden a little and pulling the rest of the blood off of his clothes, letting it form a little orb in her lap as she was down on her knees trying to get his blood loss fixed. She was concentrating quite hard on the blood itself, trying to judge when was the best time to let go of it, so she could call an ambulance or something.

She wouldn't thank him for his compliment, not until she was sure that his life was out of danger. She felt no pressure really coming along the make shift bandages that she'd made for him. She gently pulled away from the bandages until they were thin enough to cause little discomfort, without hindering the fact that they were stopping the bleeding. She gently added them to the little ball of blood in her lap, until it was just bigger than a golf ball.

The glow faded as Serena let out a deep breath and released her grip on the blood, gently monitoring it to make sure it was fine as she did so. She took a few breaths and then shook her head at his comment. "I don't believe so." She responded plainly. She looked at her handy work, gently running her hand on the skin around them, just to make sure that no blood was leaking out or anything.

She sighed and stood up gently. "I should call an ambulance, I don't think your life is in any danger anymore, but I don't know how you got those injuries so I can't be sure."

Memo leaned back a little bit, feeling much better. The sun was really quite nice, sitting here. Soft and warm. He'd been feeling a little bit cold, but the sun was definitely fighting that off. The ground was warm too. It was nice to sit down and just enjoy the world sometimes, even on a random sidewalk. Relaxation was so underrated sometimes.

"Ambulance?" Memo asked, vaguely confused. He looked around. The woman was standing up, but she was covered in blood and his hands were clean. He always seemed to get blood on his gloves, but they looked just fine. Usually he was the one covered in blood, but he didn't hurt at all. He scratched the side of his head and looked back at the woman without examining himself further. She was talking about him being hurt, but she was the one who looked hurt.

He pushed himself to his feet, blood loss literally forgotten. "Are you okay?"

Serena sighed at the blood on her dress, she'd have to get that out soon. She did love that she was able to pull blood out of clothing so no clothes ever got ruined by blood stains. Blood stains in general just weren't a thing for her, which was a well and truly awesome thing about her power.

She blinked slowly, looking at him, he seemed so much more vibrant all of a sudden and lucid. He certainly hadn't been that relaxed before she had started working on him. For that matter, him standing up was rather odd. He should have still been weak for a while, what the hell? Was he a mutant? He must have been, that was the only explanation she could think of for this, either that or her power had mutanted again and had gotten some weird healing component.

God, she hoped she wasn't going to have to learn how to control something again. She responded to him with an extremely confused look. "No... I'm fine, my power doesn't take that much out of me for a short use." She responded slightly off balance. "Should you be on your feet? You could barely stand a minute ago." She responded, clearly lost.

Great, now she was confused too. Maybe his mutation should just be to instill confusion in everyone. Or maybe that was just an actual side effect? He hadn't run into another power-reader since the group with the last one tried to kill him and only kind of succeeded.

Errrrrr

Could barely stand? Memo looked down again, expecting to see something going on with his legs, but instead noticed that his shirt was wide open. Embarrassment kicked in before recognition of the blood bandage, and his dark skin flushed as he hurriedly moved to button up his shirt and cover his binder. He'd had people react worse to things like that than to his mutation. When he was half done with the buttons, though, he felt the hardened blood through his gloves.

He stopped to poke at it and kind of stare. "What is that?" he asked, confused but also curious before a familiar realization dawned on him. "Oohhhhh was I dying again? No, that doesn't explain why I'm not covered in blood." His forehead wrinkled in thought.

Serena was very very confused. The man seemed to be as well. He didn't seem to be in any danger though, so she was considerably more relaxed (probably to the further confusion of Memo, given that she was covered in blood now too). Still though, Serena had really had her fill of awkward greetings or conversations over the years, especially when it came to meeting other mutants, so she'd take a bit of confusion over cringe worthy, unbearable awkwardness.

Recognition dawned on her face as he spoke. He must have had some kind of memory side effect. She was assuming that he was a mutant at this point, she'd had no sign that she was a healer at all. God, she hoped that she was right on this.

She nodded with a now, far far more relaxed smile. "Well I stumbled onto you while you were... Urm. Forgive my bluntness but you were bleeding to death." She responded with a sheepish smile. "I calmed you down a bit and then stopped your bleeding with some make shift bandages made of blood."

Memo was so glad she was willing to explain a bit. This was always so much smoother when someone could explain what in the world was going on. That person never seemed to be him, although he frequently had to try.

Bleeding to death. Unpleasant but not especially surprising. It definitely felt like a habit of sorts. An unpleasant habit, and one that most people didn't have to deal with. He nodded his understanding. "I feel like you distracted me enough to forget about it," he mused aloud. "I think it's that or I died, anyway. I'm not sure I could tell the difference, though. Actually, I'm not sure there is a difference for me. It's kind of hard to figure out and I'm not sure I'd remember it if I did."

WAIT A SECOND HE HADN'T EXPLAINED YET probably

"I'm a mutant. I basically forget stuff. And then remember stuff. Which exists if I remember it but not if I forget it. Like bleeding to death. Or dying. Or being drunk."

Serena tilted her head, she hadn't ever seen or heard of a power even remotely similar, she'd heard of self healing but most of it was pretty simple, like when sleeping, or touching water or whatever. Nothing quite like this. Obviously, she was fairly confused during his explanation of how his power actually worked, it wasn't massively typical at all.

She was both amused and a little drained from the whole experience if she was being totally honest. She had been having such a normal day so far, and that wasn't to say that mutants were necessarily abnormal or anything but her meetings with most other mutants didn't revolve around trying to save their lives, come to think of that she'd only ever really had to do that once or twice.

She nodded as he finished explaining. "Well... That's certainly a unique power. As I'm sure you've gathered from the make-shift bandages and comments on my power, I'm a mutant too, and I control blood. Lovely, I know." She smiled. She used to actually have quite a crippling fear over her power, but she'd come to accept it as part of who she was at this point, if people had a problem with it, that was their problem not hers. "I'm Serena by the way... Uh... Nice to meet you?"