Amber nodded and continued eating.  She knew there had to be a legal way to get her id, but she had no idea what that way could possibly be.  She was barely holding her own as a human being as it was, let alone did she have an understanding of how to navigate the ins and outs of paperwork.  Why did these things have to be made so complicated, anyway?

"Oh, Gemma!  Ya, she probably could help.  She helped me before, registered me to get my GED." Why hadn't she thought of that herself?  That was kind of her job, wasn't it?  To help with things like paperwork and other things that wayward mutants might struggle with?  Maybe things weren't so difficult, after all.

"Did you know she's an adapted?  You go near her and you look normal.  Its bizarre."  She probably did not that, having been the one to suggest the counselor.  Still, it was pretty weird.

>> "Oh, Gemma! Ya, she probably could help. She helped me before, registered me to get my GED."

Now the prawn nodded, mostly to show that she was listening, rather than indicating some affirmative. She, too, took the opportunity to munch on her sandwich.

>> "Did you know she's an adapted? You go near her and you look normal. Its bizarre."

Jack paused mid-chew, wiping at her mandibles, before fixing Amber with an unwavering look.

"Ne'er heard uzz an Ada'ted," the prawn said flatly, resting her head on her chin. She was obviously skeptical. Make Jack look normal? Impossible. She was seven-and-a-half feet tall. She had a carapace. Totally impossible, "Dey can do zat?"

Amber was well aware of the great size of the crustacean and how many might consider her more than a little intimidating, but she found her to be social and almost comforting to be around.  Maybe it was as simple as not being the most physically discomforting person in the room, but she was glad she'd pushed through her anxiety and sat down to chat.

"I don't know too much about adapteds and Gemma's pretty much the only one I know.  If you get close tot them, your powers disappear.  I think its an aura, or something.  For mutants like us, it makes us look normal for a bit."  Unlike many physically mutated mutants, Amber wasn't really ashamed of what she was nor did she really have a desire to look normal.  Aura had taught her to be proud of everything she was and every gift she had been born with and she tried her best to live by that.  Even so, it was sometimes hard to come to terms with being something half dead.  

"Maybe you should talk to her.  Its quite a shock the first time, but its pretty cool too."

Jack was admittedly skeptical about this alleged power-nullifying “Adapted” ability. Her transformation from human into horrific, oversized crustacean had been unfathomably painful and laborious. It wasn’t something that could just be wiped away by some mystic aura… right? The prawn chirred contemplatively. She’d have to meet this Adapted at some point.

>> "Maybe you should talk to her. Its quite a shock the first time, but its pretty cool too."

“Still ske’tical,” the prawn clicked, smiling, “’ut I’d luzz to neet her doh. Just to see.”

The prawn took a final bite of her sandwich, munching thoughtfully before swallowing.

"I would be skeptical too if I hadn't seen it myself," Amber agreed, taking another drink of water. "Its like this weird zap of energy goes through you and suddenly you're human again."  Even for one such as she who was mostly at peace with her appearance, it was an exciting prospect.  She could only imagine what it must be like for other mutants with less acceptance of what they were.

She took another bit of her own sandwich which was now almost gone.  "It must be kind of scary for some.  You know, like those who's powers make their senses very different from human.  Or their physiologies.  I'll bet its pretty unnerving for them."  Her own always on mutant traits were a bit more subtle than some.  Maybe if they were out in the arctic or something and an adapted came walking by, then she'd have a problem.

She paused before speaking again.  "Do you...like being a mutant?"  It almost seemed like a taboo question to ask, insinuating that there might even be a chance of disliking the gifts one had been born with.  Aura would probably consider it blasphemy or something.

Jack nodded her head in understanding. She would have to meet this Gemma, some time. Just to see if this “mystical aura” would turn her into a human. It would be cool but, as aforementioned, Jack was skeptical.

>> "Do you...like being a mutant?"

That question caught Jack off-guard. Her eyes cut to Amber, and she leaned back in her chair. How did you answer something like that? Most adults would probably lie through their teeth, feed their peers some self-acceptance bullsh**. Truth be told, though, Jack didn’t know.

“It’s who I an,” Jack said abstractly, “Sun tine it’s a… headache. Can’t talk right. Too tall sore a lot uzz sings. Hands are gigantic. Need to eat organic… ‘ut… I don’t know how else to ‘e.”

“I used to hate it,” Jack admonished. She rubbed the back of her neck, then rubbed the back of her hand against her mandibles, wiping away any stray sandwich-fixings, “’en I was a kid, sir-teen, sore-teen years old, I hated it. I ‘as angry. Now, doh, I don’t sink I could go ‘ack to… you know.”

Being human. She couldn’t even say it. Too much had happened. There was no way she could go back.

Amber knew in asking her question that the answer was often not so clear as yes or no.  Not every mutant was blessed with useful powers and many mutants had disadvantages that went along with their powers and for some those disadvantages outweighed all the good.  She had more than a few of her own.

"I need to eat organic too," she offered by way of empathy.  "Well, sort of.  I can't eat lots of preservatives and stuff because it makes me sick.  Its actually pretty horrible."  She offered a laugh because sometimes humour removed the sting of it.  "And sometimes I can't talk at all.  That's pretty frustrating."  A pause before she realized she hadn't actually told Jack what she could do.  "Because I'm not just a walking corpse.  I can change into dinosaurs and most people can't understand chirps and growls."  Boy, would that ever make life easier if they could.

"Even before I knew I was a mutant I was different.  Can't go into the sunlight.  When I discovered what I could do it was amazing, finally I was someone special, not just a sickly little orphan girl."  That first change, in many ways, had been one of the most amazing times of her life.  Also kind of terrifying as it resulted in half the city trying to hunt her down and kill her, but in retrospect she could now smile at the memory.  "Then I started to turn into a living corpse and I still don't know what to think of that."  She shrugged her shoulders.  She was blessed to be what she was but there were still struggles.  Most people didn't much like zombies.

Jack listened carefully as Amber explained the shared predicament. Eating organic. Unintelligible mouth-noises. Just like her. The prawn gave a delighted trill, almost like a burble of laughter, and an excited primary hand tapped upon the table, “I know exactly what you nean!!”

As if the humored trill wasn’t enough of a dead giveaway, the prawn exclaimed, “I nake all sorts uzz odd noises. Chir’s and such. You can’t hel’ dat kind uzz sing!”

Dinosaurs, though? Turning into dinosaurs was pretty cool… At least she wasn’t permanently a dinosaur… Amber confessed to her own struggles, however—how she’d been an albino kid, an orphan… and now, allegedly a zombie. She had her own challenges for sure.

The prawn reached into her pocket, fishing-out her wallet. To some, it might seem as though Jack was preparing to hand Amber money, but in actuality she was fishing-out a very important photo… one she hadn’t even shown Zinnia.

Jack held it out to Amber, offering little explanation. Upon a closer examination, Amber would notice an altogether normal-looking blond girl with a freckled face and a grin full of missing teeth, standing next to a dragon-looking girl of about the same day. Sunlight shone upon them, crowning each child with a halo.

“Dat kid wiss duh hair, wiss all duh nissing tees…” the prawn trailed, “Dat’s nee. ‘e’sore I, well… nyu-tated. Duh scaly girl, dat uzz ny dest s-riend… ‘ro’aly woulda ‘een ny girl-s-riend too, iss I hadn’t runaway.”

It was hard not to share the prawn woman's excitement at shared challenges and she grinned back.  "It's made for some funny times though.  Hopping around and trying to mime actions and directions."  She giggled at the memories of such challenges.  As a deinonychus, she at least had arms and fingers and while they had no opposable thumbs, the vaguely human configuration of limbs was one of the reasons she'd taken it as her second true form.

"Different shapes make different noises.  I've often wondered if I could learn to talk like a parrot or a raven as a deinonychus, but so far no such luck."  She shrugged her shoulders.  It wasn't surprising, really.  Talking birds were far more the exception than the rule.

Amber took a look at the picture and felt bad for her.  "I'm sorry things went that way for you.  Sometimes its really hard being a mutant."  And it was always harder for those unfortunate mutants who looked different than everyone else.  At least if you looking normal you could blend in, but those like the two of them would never have a normal life.  She, at least, had the option to go into exile in the woods and live away from the judgmental eyes of humans, but most didn't have that freedom.

"At least we have places like this though, right?" She asked, bringing her attention back to the present.  "Where we can be who we are and not have to worry about how others might react to us.  I don't have any pictures of me from before the change.  Couldn't exactly  bring such a thing into the woods with me."

Jack nodded her agreement, smiling wistfully as she tucked the picture back into her wallet, and slid the wallet back into her pants pocket. She wadded the sandwich wrapper up before her, before letting the uneven ball of paper roll.

“Nyu-tant schools are a gi-st to doze who go dere,” the prawn said carefully. A blessing, more like, but b’s were a challenging consonant, “Duh consultati-zz ser’ices, duh school credits… gi-zz kids a chance at a nor-nal lice dey ‘ouldn’t uzzer-ise has. You know?” She had to know. Amber said herself, she’d otherwise be living in the forest, if it wasn’t for this school.

“Lizzed on duh streets,” the prawn offered back, a frown tugging at her lips, “Sore a see-ew years, e-sore a nyu-tant school in San Su-rancisco took nee in. In a ‘ay, duh city uzz kinda like sore-est. Lizzing on duh edge… you know? Hard to adjust.”

She had to learn to speak, re-learn how to eat properly and not wince away from the staff at the school.

Amber nodded.  Her own history had been somewhat unusual because Abyss had adopted her before the full extent of her mutation had manifested.  If things had been different, maybe, she wouldn't have ever ended up at the school.  But he had left and how here she was and she was grateful.

The streets were hard.  School was better.  She did know.  What were the streets if not an urban forest?  She'd hunted in the city too, although it was never needed for a prolonged period of time. Between Sanctuary and the Mansion, there were always places to find food. The forest was much cleaner and more welcoming, at least for those who could call themselves creatures of the woods.  She could.

"I'm sorry but I need to go now.  It was nice meeting you, Jack.  I hope we can become friends."  She got to her feet and prepared to depart.  Ghost has told her that she should find herself friends and she was trying her best to listen to her advice.  Besides, she liked Jack.