Lunch-time. Well, actually, it was mid-afternoon. That warm part of the day where nearly everyone was lethargic and preoccupied with keeping cool, and hardly anyone had the time or patience to eat. Most people prostrated themselves in front of a fan and hoped to cool themselves down.

Jack was on a lunch break-- and, given the time of day and the bareness of the dining room, she had chosen to eat there rather than at some forgotten corner of the Mansion. Her surgical mask had been removed for the meal and set aside, flat against the table where no stray crumbs could fall upon it. She was hunched over the table, which altogether seemed dwarfed by her enormous shoulders. Her massive primary hands clasped a six-inch portion of a footlong, the sandwich looking small in her grasp. No one was thinking of eating that this hour, thus Jack felt safe to eat, now.

Jack was quite the spectacle when she ate, hence why she was so self-conscious about eating around others. She typically preferred some corner of the staff-room, where few might happen upon her. Her first (outer) maxillae would tear into the food, her second maxillae would push it back towards the mandibles, which would masticate whatever she was imbibing in. Sometimes it was sloppy, despite her best efforts, hence why she hunched over the table-- it was better to get a mess on the placemat or plastic bag below you, rather than on your shirt.

The prawn munched quietly to herself, ears trained on the entrance to the dining room.

It was hot and sunny out and most people around the Mansion seemed lethargic witht the heat.  The heat had long ago ceased to bother Amber, right around the same time it became apparant that she wa something half dead.  The sun was another thing entirely and in the bright afternoon sunshine she had two options: Either remain inside where thick walls and windows protected her from the sun's harmful rays or go outside in a non-human form.  For the past 2 years (at best guess, anyway) her form had been that of a dinosaur and, for once, she preferred to hold onto her weak, two legged form.  So, inside it was.

Mostly, she lived a nocturnal lifestyle but in returning to the human world, even that was proving more difficult than expected to hang onto.  Despite dull senses, daytime was when most were active and making noise and it was proving, especially today, difficiult to sleep amongs the wracket. So she found herself awake and wandering aimless, hoping half an half to have no human interaction or to have someone speak to her in kindness.  Being human was so much more difficult than living as a deinonychus.

Eventually Amber's wandering's brought her to the dining area.  One of the things she'd missed most during her self-imposed exile was human food and its wonderful variety.  She had to be careful what she ate now as certain foods made her horribly ill, but as long as there wasn't much in the way of artifical colours and preservatives she was normally good.  First she found herself a sandwich, then it was time to find herself a seat.  Mostly, the dining room was deserted except for a very curious looking mutant with what appeared to be an iridescent exoskeleton.  Should she sit with the stranger or find a seat on her own?  What was the social rule here?  What was the right answer?  She froze in place, near the entrance, staring and undecided on her next action.

The prawn chewed slowly, her antennae twitching at the sound of quiet footfalls. Jack swallowed her current bite, lavender gaze sliding towards the entry to the dining hall. Most students weren’t eating at this hour.

Jack met a pair of dark eyes. Completely, inky black. Their face wasn’t familiar, which left Jack wondering if they were a new student. She knew or at least recognized nearly everyone.

Having paused in eating, Jack took a moment to click a greeting the girl’s way, “Hey.”

If she was a student, a kid, Jack felt even more compelled than usual to be welcoming to them. While most kids were cool with a behemoth like herself, some were a little timid, at least first. Jack did her best to be as small and as unintimidating around the kids. She wasn’t trying to scare them—she wanted to protect them. And, in order to keep them safe, they needed to trust her.

“Hasn’t seen you around ‘e-sore,” the prawn greeted. She touched a primary hand to her chest, “I’n Jack, I’n on security here.”

Amber wasn't intimated for traditional reasons.  The stranger may have towered over her (although to be fair, at 5' most people towered over her) and she may have looked decidedly inhuman, but Amber had experienced a lot in her short life and there weren't many things larger than dinosaurs.  As a styracosaurus, she was easily the size of an elephant with a 2 ft horn jutting off of her nose and knowing she had a form like that up her sleeve provided a very real sense of comfort.  

No, her uncertainty was far more generalized than that and had much more to do with talking to people in the general sense than it did with talking to one particular, very large and very well armored, person.  She dearly hoped that one day soon that horrible anxiety would go away, but that wasn't today.

"Hi."  She hated her terrible awkwardness.  "I guess I'm new here.  I was a student a long time ago.  Then I left.  Now I'm back again."  She continued to stand there, uncertain.  A glance towards the stranger, towards the fridge where she knew she could find pre-made sandwiches and back to the stranger.  "Um, would it be all right if I sat with you?"  Or she could sit alone.  That was good too.  Probably better, even.  She was good at being by herself, not so good at being with people.

The kid stayed rooted in the doorway, uncertain. The prawn watched patiently.

>> "Hi. I guess I'm new here. I was a student a long time ago. Then I left. Now I'm back again."

So, maybe not a “kid” per se, but a resident nonetheless. They were still under Jack’s watch, so it was still imperative for Jack to make them feel comfortable. She still had a soft-spot for women, which was different and yet comparable to her soft-spot for kids.

>> "Um, would it be all right if I sat with you?"

“Uzz course,” the prawn grunted, “Any seat you like, is yours.”

She gestured to her own table, which had plenty of empty seats to choose from. Of course, company meant that the prawn would have to overcome her self-consciousness over eating (at least in the moment) or wait for the young woman to leave before eating again.

“’at’s your nay-n?” the prawn inquired. Names. That was a pretty easy question to start with.

An invitation to come sit, well that was a good start at least.  It meant that maybe, just maybe, she was re-learning to read social cues and this was an opportunity to converse without too much pressure.  If she wasn't so stubborn as to make this new life for her work, she might have broken down and just given up, resigned to a life of abject loneliness.  Life, however, wasn't always easy and she was prepared to tackle its many challenges.

A quick trip to the fridge to grab a sandwich and she sat down across from the giant crustacean.  She really did seem larger up close!  Had she noticed the less than neat way the other ate, it wasn't something she would have given much thought to.  Humans cared much more about cleanliness while eating than dinosaurs.  In her human body she might have eaten much like any other human, but she was used to tearing raw flesh off of prey she'd killed herself and eating it whole, so what did a few bits of dropped food matter?

"Thank you."  Politeness was good, right?  "My name's Amber.  What's yours?"  A small start but a start nevertheless.

>> "Thank you. My name's Amber. What's yours?"

“Jack,” the prawn said patiently. She’d already introduced herself, of course, but sometimes kiddos were forgetful like that. The prawn’s eyes cut towards the surgical mask, then back to the sandwich, and she took a careful bite. She chewed slowly, careful to not accidentally drop any significant bits of sandwich.

After she swallowed a bite, she asked Amber, “How long ago ‘ere you a student?”

Jack was terrible at guessing ages. To be honest, if she hadn’t said that she “used to be a student”, the prawn probably would have assumed that she still was.

It was only after Jack introduced herself for the second time that Amber realized she had all ready done so when she had first walked into the room.  She reddened in embarrassment.  No one else would make a foolish mistake like that and it made her feel worse than she all ready did.  Why was it so hard to just talk to people?

Fortunately she was distracted from her own less than sunshiny thoughts by a question about how long ago she'd been a student.  She thought about it a moment before answering.  "I think maybe 4 years ago.  I don't know for sure.  Some of the time I spent away wasn't in the best circumstances.  I lost maybe a year of memory and spent some time living in the woods."  Was that too much information to share with a stranger?  She wasn't ashamed of her past or her choices, even if some of them had been difficult.

"I think I'm happy to be back though."  Mostly.  Probably.  "How long have you been doing security here?"  She took a bite of her sandwich, still delighted by the simple human foods she'd missed during the last 2 years.  

Amber seemed unruffled by the sight of Jack eating, if her lack of a reaction was anything to go by. Thus Jack took this as a cue to continue eating.

She listened quietly as Amber explained she'd been gone for maybe four years, but she wasn't sure. Jack's time on the streets was mostly a blur, to be honest. She knew abstractly where she'd gone-- how she'd traveled down the cost from Washington to San Francisco. She'd fallen-in with a gang in the East Bay, before being taken-in by a mutant school.

The only thing she could remember with clarity is seeing the other runners get shot and ultimately die on the scene.

Jack's gaze had grown distant, one of her antennae twitching faintly.

>> "I think I'm happy to be back though... how long have you been doing security here?"

"Year-ish," the prawn grunted, likewise unsure of the accuracy, "Not long. Got recruited here 'y San." Jack covered one of her eyes, simulating an eyepatch. Sam's eyepatch, specifically, "You know, San?"

"Good guy," she murmured, taking another bite of her sandwich. And probably an alcoholic, but she wasn't about to air that sort of thing to a former student.

Amber shook her head.  "I don't think I know San."  She really didn't know very many people there.  Ghost, of course, who had brought her in both times she had spent there.  Most of the others who she'd known from her past were now gone.  So it was very much like she was starting anew, for the very first time.  

"Do you know Ghost?  She's the one who let me stay here.  Both times."  She smiled fondly at the memory.  At least some of her memories of the past weren't tainted by feelings of bitterness and regret.  Ghost had never been anything but wonderful to her.  Wonderful and motherly. She'd never actually had a real mother.

She continued eating her sandwich, thoughts wondering.  "Do you like it here?"  It was hard to imagine now liking it.  The Mansion was one of the very few places she'd ever felt like she belonged, even a little bit.  

>> "I don't think I know San. Do you know Ghost? She's the one who let me stay here. Both times."

Jack, who was not privy to any of the hero names that Xavier's staff might hold, shook her head. She wasn't familiar with Ghost/Maya anyways. What she found even more befuddling was that some parent would name their child "Ghost".

The prawn shook her head. "Don't know any Ghosts. Sounds nice, doh."

>> "Do you like it here?"

The prawn took another bite of her sandwich and nodded. "Like kids nor dan I like sloshed 'eo'le."

She paused for a moment, realizing that this might sound bad.

"'ork at a nightclu' too," Jack clarified, "Security. Totally diss-erent iss you're dealing 'iss drunk 'eo'le. Diss nor... sun... less stress-sul."

She knew there were a lot of people that lived at the Mansion, both students and non-students so it wasn't surprising that Ghost wasn't known by everyone.  She was the fact Amber associated with the place, but she wasn't really basing that on anything but the fact that she was the one that had found and brought her in both in past and present.

She was finding Jack a little hard to understand, but she nodded anyway.  "I don't really drink.  Was too young when I left and now that I'm back I don't really understand the point."  From what she had seen, alcohol tended to make people loud, sloppy and irrational, none of which were favourable for a hunter like herself.  Yet another human trait she didn't understand.  Maybe she should be making a list.

"I've never even been inside a nightclub.  Do you think they'd let me inside?"  Yet another thing she'd been too young to enter before she left and yet another somewhat baffling human activity.  At least it seemed more fun than getting drunk.

>> "I don't really drink. Was too young when I left and now that I'm back I don't really understand the point."

The prawn took another bite of her sandwich and nodded. Drinking wasn’t for everyone. Jack only drank occasionally, and never to get drunk—she was too big for it to be practical, it took too much alcohol for her to get to that point. Besides which, she’d seen people get sloppy-drunk before. No one would be able to handle a seven-and-a-half foot behemoth if they were sloppy drunk, and she was to responsible to impose that on anyone.

>> "I've never even been inside a nightclub. Do you think they'd let me inside?"

Jack swallowed her bite of food, and nodded her head.

“Iss you has an I.D. dat shows you’re old e-nuss, yeah,” Jack said simply, “Sun cluh-s require you to gizz cash at duh door… not al’ays, doh. It’s diss-erent at each cluh.”

Taking another bite of her own food, Amber nodded her acknowledgement.  "Um, I don't have any ID.  If Abyss was still around he might have my adoption papers or maybe my birth certificate, but he's gone."  Another pang of sorrow at her lost father.  Would she ever get over his abandonment of her?  The fact that it probably hadn't been personal and there was probably a very good reason for his disappearance didn't occur to her.

"I'm old enough though and I like music."  All the long hours she'd spent learning the violin felt like a lifetime ago now.  Probably because it was a lifetime ago.  So many things had happened since she'd been so young and naive.  Maybe some would say she was still young, but she'd never be naive again.

"Maybe Ghost could help me get an ID.  Or...um...someone."  She took a sip of water.  There wasn't really anyone else she knew to turn to and probably Ghost wasn't appropriate either.  She was, what to her exactly?  A kind motherly woman who had let her come live at the Mansion.  Not actually her mother.  It was sad to be alone in the world.

Jack inclined her head, listening carefully as Amber worked her way through the issue of acquiring an state i.d. She rested her chin upon her primary hand. She had no adoption papers, and no birth certificate-- it might have been with some fellow by the name of "Abyss", but Amber said that he was gone.

"Dere has to 'e sun legal way to get dat," Jack said, with a flap of her hand, "You'd need dat to go to a clu'."

"Nay'e... duh counselor?" Jack pondered aloud. Amber couldn't be the first student to have had this problem, and she certainly wouldn't be the last. A school counselor would be a great place to start.

"I nean... when I sirst went to school as-ter turning into a nyu-tant," Jack mused, "Duh counselors hel'ed nee get ny docu-nents in order. So duh counselor could totally hel' you too..."