It was strange. Usually what would have been a full nights sleep had been... less so. He'd gone to bed around sunset, after some grading. He hadn't glanced at the clock. But dawn had come earlier... he couldn't quite place it, but that was how it had felt. He'd gotten up to go to the bathroom, and the sun had been out, so he'd rushed to get ready for classes, thinking he was late. He hadn't checked the clock. By the time he'd gotten dressed and ready and started his car, he was sweating bullets, worried he'd get fired within the first few months. Then he'd noticed the time on the cars clock. He wasn't going to be late. He was running early. Way too early.

Shin drove through a fast food place to get breakfast with his newly-found time. And he was still early. The sun was up, but not too high. It was really weird. By his estimations, it should have been around 7, but it was closer to 6. He flicked on the radio.

"Near summer, it always feels like the dawn comes earlier and earlier!" The radio host announced.

Shin hmmmd thinly to himself.

---

Classes came and went. He packed up his papers, and put them in his Escape. The Asian didn't immediately go home, though. He needed to buy something from the mall. His tie collection was dangerously lacking, he needed a new pair of slacks, and he really ought to buy a brown belt. And maybe some new shoes. Okay, so several things.

The Asian went to the mall.

It was late in the evening. Kendra had woken up and puttered around a bit before growing bored. Her girlfriend was busy mostly and she had nothing to do but wander around the mansion. It wasn't ideal. It wasn't even close. She wanted adventure, she wanted excitement, but mostly she just wanted to bring the tempeture waaay down on her cabin fever.

Kendra was feeling tired, especially tired because she hadn't slept much the night before.  She moved around her room at the mansion in a fog.  Drifting from one corner of the room to the other, lazily straightening up.  The sun was still out and the sounds of kids laughing outside her window  made her thirst for adventure all the more.  Kendra stood there a moment.  She was dressed in a plaid skirt, leggings scuffed combat boots and a leather jacket over a t-shirt.  It was a usual look for the social outcast. 

Kendra weighed her options.  She could go outside, try and be active or she could sleep and still go outside and try and get some rest at the same time.  Kendra decided to sleep.  She slowly trudged over to her bed and laid down.  She didn't bother to take off her shoes, because when she slept she dream walked.  Her body made a copy of itself exactly as it was and her conscious thought was transferred over to her astral form.  She was invisible, like a ghost and gained a limited teleport ability.  It was how her power worked, but she wasn't sure why it worked that way.

It didn't take long for the fiery redhead to find herself asleep.  She stood there outside of her body staring out the window a moment.  She still felt tired, but as she dreamed she would gain more and more energy.  She was the Benjamin button of sleep disorders. It was funky.  Kendra yawned and stretched before exploding into an invisible cloud of red and white smoke.  Teleporting herself outside to the mansion lawn she could feel the sun on her pale skin.  Now...What to do with all this free time.  She wondered. 

Just then some kids walked past her.  They didn't notice the invisible girl as they walked right by her.  She heard them talking about some new store in the mall.  She hadn't been to the mall yet.  The mall wasn't really her thing.  She wasn't the social hang out kind of person, but she figured she could kill some time people watching at the very least.  It was the first suggestion that leapt out and grabbed her attention so she shrugged and rolled with it.  Kendra began to walk across the grass.  Every couple of steps she took she exploded again and reappeared a few feet further.  It was quick.  A mixture of walkin and teleporting that she called 'Blinking.'  Blinking was the only way to travel.

After some time she found herself standing in the food court.  Kendra looked around a moment and saw that it was bustling with life and people.  Ordinary people going about their daily lives.  A slackjawed tired expression washed over her face like a tidal wave and her shoulders slumped.  Oh what I wouldn't give to be ordinary sometimes... She thought as she began to walk through the mall.  She didn't have a destination in mind.  Kendra was operating solely on impulse now.  She was like a little bird.  She would flitter away and follow whatever seemed the most shiny and the most interesting in the moment.

Ties, ties, ties.

Brown ties. Black ties. Ties with designs. Little yellow triangles, set in a row. Video game ties. Formal ties. What kind of teacher was he? Was he the kind who shopped for goofy ties that made students smile, or the type to wear a simple tie? A solid color, or black? Did he have a tie that looked simple, but had a little hidden pineapple at the bottom, tucked away and out of sight? Fun, but business up front. Like the mullet of the tie world. Or was that ridiculous? The inclusion of mullet in the paragraph made that one distant. Not quite what he wanted. What kind of tie wearer was Shin, the teacher?

The store had things other than ties, sure. Loads. Pretty dresses for women, amazing jackets for men. There was one outfit his wife would have loved. It was in the shop window outside, and on sale. It was attracting a lot of attention from the women browsing the stores. The bag it had, Shin was seriously considering buying for her as a surprise. And buying things for his wife was way more interesting than buying ties.

Shin was Shin. He made a beeline for the tie racks, found a black one with three little triangles at the bottom of it in an arrangement, and selected it. Then, he grabbed a plain blue one, one that was blue and black striped, and a few others (for a selection). One had a D and a K at the bottom, where it would be hidden when tucked in. Once he had a good assortment, he set them in his cart, moved to the pants section, nabbed one pair black and one brown in his size, grabbed a brown belt, a new black belt, and was off. He did things in the most speedy manner, because shopping for himself was now an afterthought. Just a few ticks off his list before he stopped in front of those bags.

His things all shopped for and carted, the Asian approached the handbags section. He looked at the selection.

This is so freaking boring! Kendra thought as she moved through a sea of mostly teenagers. She never understood the appeal of the mall. She wasn't the most social of individuals, but the thought of coming into a crowded place to buy your wardrobe in front of strangers always baffled her. Kendra shopped online mostly. Had her stuff delievered. She was always a bit self conscious about buying things in public. Like maybe people were secretly judging her taste in things.

It sounded silly sure, but she was always in her head. Kendra was a neurotic overthinker who cared way to much what others thought about her. At least she was when she was awake. In the waking world she could be seen. She could be judged.  And though she would rather not have her powers at all sometimes, she kinda enjoyed the invisible aspect of her powers for the most part.  It let her go unseen, unjudged. It allowed her to watch people and learn more about them without having to get to close to them. Relationships were often messy affairs. She was learning that she did enjoy being around others. Her time at the mansion so far had taught her that, but she was so socially awkward that it was tough for her to make friends.

Kendra wandered around the mall. She didn't see anything that particularly caught her attention.  It was mostly teenagers hanging out and being, well teenagers. She wasn't sure if she would find anything exciting here.  That was until she saw the Asian man shopping for ties. I know him! Or at least I think I do! Kendra thought. She could have sworn that she had seen him at the mansion. She had been there a few weeks now. The place was so big that she hadn't even seen all the rooms yet; let alone meet all the faces that occupied it.  Have I seen him there?  Perhaps.  Perhaps she saw his face in a photo around the mansion or on one of the walls, but she defiantly remembered seeing his face before.

Kendra moved a little closer trying to be as quiet as possible.  She was invisible, but it didn't mean that she didn't make noise.  Kendra was prone to clumsiness so she was trying to be extra careful.  Is this guy a mutant?  She wondered.  She did feel a little bad potentially spying on one of her own kind, but it was the first interesting thing that she had saw in this stupid mall.  Kendra edged a little closer and watched him from a fountain that was in the center of the mall.  She could see him weighing the pros and cons of which tie to buy in the little window. 

Kendra raised an eyebrow.  Tie shopping?  How boring.  Wonder what his power is..... She found herself thinking.  Kendra sat down on the edge of the fountain and watched.  The soft sound of the flowing water, and the endless chatter of everyone around her accompanied her crowded thoughts.  Her brown eyes kept careful watch of him as he seemed to move to a ladies department and start handbag shopping.  The thought never occurred to her that he might be married.  The fact that he was shopping for ties AND purses  struck her as a little absurd and she cracked a goofy smile.  "Hey let's go to the food court!"  Someone yelled and started to walk past Kendra. 

Kendra hadn't been paying attention to anything but the Asian guy and she didn't realize how far her invisible feet were sticking out into the walk way.  Some girl walking past tripped over Kendra's invisible feet.  She face planted hard in the floor and her friend burst out laughing.  "Ahhhh"  She yelled as she fell.  "What did I just trip over?"  The confusion in the girl's voice was apparent.  Kendra turned red from her lack of attention.  She exploded into a cloud of smoke and teleported away from the scene unfolding just outside the store.  She reappeared inside the store just a few feet away from the Asian man.  She hoped she hadn't just blown her cover.  She wanted to watch him a little more, find out what else he was up to.

You ever get the feeling someone is watching you? That something unseen is passing you by? Moving things? Making noises. But you never can pin down the source? Yeah. Neither had Shin. And he'd known a man who lived with literal ghosts.

To think such thoughts is paranoia on the grandest scale. The Asian didn't have much paranoia left in him. If something jostled nearby, it was probably his fault. If a ghost fart or show squeak happened, well... there was probably a reason. But he didn't immediately consider it a threat. So he didn't sense any eyes tracking him, unseen or from a distance. And he didn't watch his back. He was sane. Ish.

Really, the skill at which Shin ignored things around him was a testament to his strength of will. When one has special triangular pupils and eyes that turn the entire world into a green grid, constantly making distance calculations and feeding him figures, one learns to tune crap out. Especially with the added motion sensitivity and aversion to bright lights that came as part of the package deal. It was like the super speedster who lived with the world moving in slow motion. Let that stuff overwhelm you and you could go mad. Learn to live with it, and you can survive.

A noisy disturbance outside the store made him glance up. The girl was fuming and cursing and kicking at nothing by a fountain. Strange. He supposed maybe she was insane. Or perhaps the trials of life had just gotten to her, and she was having a bad day. She looked disgruntled. Job for the X-men? No... her friend was laughing her ass off. Nobody seemed hostile. Just grumpy. A t-shirt was jostled off its place on a table nearby him as the teenagers walked away towards the food court. He turned towards the fallen t-shirt, and missed the teenage girl flying the middle finger at the fountain proudly. What had knocked the shirt down? Must've been the wind.

As Shin bent to pick the shirt up off the ground, he caught a reflection in a nearby pane of mirrored glass. The wall of the store had several such panes, so women could glance at how they looked with their new baggage. The kind that helped them forget about the more emotional sort of baggage. The reflection was his. Oh.

He turned to set the t-shirt back on the table. He didn't try and fold it. That would do more harm than good. As he stepped towards the table to get close enough to lay the shirt down, he jostled an invisible figure.

"What the hell?" Shin asked the air.

"Ahhhhh!"  Kendra screamed. She hadn't been paying attention. Her mind had a tendency to wander. It was a result of having a 24/7 constant live stream of her brain. Even when she slept her brain moved at it's normal pace. She was never really asleep so her mind never got a chance to click off, reboot and allow it to get some rest. She always felt fried. So sometimes she would zone out for a bit and just well, Daydream.

Kendra shrieked at the unexpected touch. She wasn't exactly stealth. She felt more in line under the category of clumsy.  When he bumped her she instinctively teleported backwards away from him. Only a few feet but enough that she wouldn't be bumped again. It didn't help that she let out a scream. That was stupid. Kendra thought grumpily. 

 Maybe he would think it was someone else in the store. Kendra took a few steps back, trying to put just a little more distance between her and the man she had been quietly stalking. Her luck continued to show that it was in a playful mood as she accidentally bumped into a mannequin wearing a flowery dress. It fell over and it's freaking head fell off and rolled across the ground all on it's own.

Kendra was sure that she was busted now. There was no explaining that away. If it was the wind, it was a freaking hurricane in this store. Not likely since there were not cows or mailboxes floating around in a dust cloud. Kendra teleported back outside the store where the fountain was. In the process she bumped into another person. "Hey what the!?" The man cried as she accidentally knocked him into fountain.  Oh shit!  She thought.  The man fell in with a splash and started screaming bloody murder. 

Somewhere in the mall, mall security was already hustling towards the area wondering what all the screaming and fussing was about.  Mall security.... What a joke.  They were so bored they were just excited for a chance to do something with their long boring days. 

 Kendra wasn't sure what she had been thinking, but she was a classic klutz.  And now she was recking things at a near professional level.  Kendra decided it was time to bail out.  She was sure he was a mutant, but she never verified he was a nice one.  What if he was angry.  It was harmless enough but she could see how stalking could make someone a bit peeved.  Kendra unrealistically envisioned herself being metled by heat ray eyes or sucked into a blackhole.  She wasn't sure what he could do with his mutation, but she didn't want to see it first hand. 

Well.... Today got a lot more interesting she thought as she grabbed the railing of the excelator by the fountain and began to run up the down excelator.  As she made her escape she pushed past several other people and left a trail of chaos in her escape.  Kendra didn't want to teleport anymore, she was making enough of a mess as it was.

A disembodied scream tore through the air like a banshees cry, and something unseen knocked over a mannequin. The specter decapitated it. The head rolled across the floor. Shin stood, staring, uncertain who he should speak to about this whole thing. Maybe he should call over someone who worked in the store?

More sounds came from outside, from the fountain outside, which passerby were fairly certain was now haunted.

Shin almost called Tarin then and there. But no, that was silly.

Part of him wanted to chase after whatever was causing the distraction. Part of him had about 10 different articles of clothing in his shopping cart, and realized it would likely take about 20 minutes to ring the entire thing up.

He blinked, then turned at the sound of a cough from behind him. A woman stood there, completely in-place, like she belonged to the store. These were her people, this, her domain. "You saw the reflection, right...?" She asked querulously. "The girl you bumped into? The one freaking out?"

The woman's face was familiar. He knew her. But where-- duh. Where did he spend the majority of his time. She took classes at the mansion. Not his class, but he'd seen her in the hall. Therefore, she was someone who knew his affiliations and knew he was an X-man.

---

As Shin was being lectured about how he should help scared mutant girls who knock over mannequins in the middle of stores whilst invisible, said invisible girl found her path up the down escalator blocked by an overweight man with a beard. There was no shoving him out of the way. He would not be moved. He wore some aviator sunglasses with reflective lenses. Her face was reflected back at her in his shades.

"Something there?" He asked. His voice was gruff, but smooth. Like gargling with honey. People had been shoved going down in front of him. He couldn't see anything, but lord knew something was there to cause the mess. People were swearing and complaining as they'd stepped off. "What kind of mean spirit are you?"

---

It had taken some standing helplessly and listening to feminine yelling, but he'd finally been convinced. Yes, he would go investigate the mystery mutant, definitely not a ghost, girl. She would watch his things and ring him up when he was done. She'd even grab the handbag he had his eye on for his wife, so it wouldn't get sniped out from under him. But where to start?

He looked around the mall... and saw commotion on a down escalator. People were staring at a large man in khaki shorts, light blue superhero t-shirt, and aviators. He had just reached the bottom of the escalators flight. And he was talking to air. Shin started walking towards the man.

Kendra saw the man she was stalking heading this way. Cheese and crackers! She thought in a flustered.  Kendra was invisible, but she closed her eyes and wished herself more invisible.  Wouldn't help.  It was the same way a child might close their eyes and wish the boogeyman away.  Kendra was in many ways like a child.  She was stubborn and willful, inconsiderate and a bit of a prankster.  She didn't stop to consider consequences only what was fun in the moment. 

Kendra thought if she was just quiet then maybe they'd all think nothing was there.  She didn't know this guy, or what he could do.  She didn't know if he was angry, but she found herself face to face with him soon.  The fat guy finished complaining and decided that he was imagining things before wandering off to continue his shopping. 

Kendra watched him wander off.  At least that was part of her problem solved.  She had kind of made a mess of her day.  She could see mall security now taking everyone's stories in the background.  They were standing just a little ways off from where Shin now stood.  Kendra didn't realize that she was outted.  She didn't realize that she had been since in a reflection.  She dared to open her eyes and saw the man staring in her direction.  Don't say a freaking word girl.  She thought.  

Kendra had carved out a role for herself at the mansion.  She was the teaching assistant to the biology teacher there.  She didn't know that this man was another teacher.  She should have figured that since she recognized him from the mansion that he was at least on the up and up.  She didn't think about that in the moment.  Panic had gripped her causing her to flea.  Kendra tried to remain as quiet as possible.  Why doesn't he leave? She wondered.  Then it happened.

Oh no!  She thought.  Kendra's nose started to itch.  She couldn't teleport away now because her teleport made a small wooshing sound.  If he didn't know she was there before he would know after.  She just hoped that he would loose interest, but her nose began to twitch.  Kendra could feel a sneeze coming along.  It was the worst possible timing.  Kendra sneezed.  It was a small sneeze but it was enough to let him know someone was standing right  there.

Crap!  She thought.  Well, might as well come clean.  She was caught at this point.  It would be rather silly to keep trying to pretend she wasn't there.  Kendra didn't have the power to turn visible.  In her astral form she remained this way weather she wanted to be or not, but she could at least make herself known.  Kendra cleared her throat a bit.  That alone might have been startling.  Then suddenly she spoke.  Her voice was low and quiet.  She didn't want anyone beside this guy to hear.  She didn't want to start a panic.  She could already hear the screams "Hey it's a mutant!"  Her overactive fears kicking caused her voice to be nothing more than a tiny squeak.  "Hi. Sorry about the ya know.... General  chaos and destruction and all that." She said.  It was awkward, and weird.  But that was her in a nut shell. 

Kendra stood there a moment.  She absentmindedly rubbed at her arm and waited for the questions to come flying in.  Kendra looked up from the floor so that she was staring at him.  He had a kind face.  Or at least he seemed to be a kind person.  She honestly felt pretty bad for possibly scaring the poor guy half to death, but she just wasn't graceful.  She was invisible.  She couldn't help that, but she was also clumsy and awkward.  She often made a mess of everything.

The air does not usually sneeze on its own, no matter the pollen count. That told him something. It told him the girl from the store hadn't been lying and sending him on a goose chase of the wild type. It also told him it was dusty.

The Asian stared placidly at thin air as it squeaked like a mouse. Nothing apologized. It certainly had something to apologize for.

In his vision grid, divided by green graph lines as it were, he caught bits and pieces in reflective surfaces around the nothingness that belonged to the feminine squeak. A bit of arm here, leg there.

"In Greek mythology," Shin began. "There was a guy who stole a Golden Fleece from a cyclops. When asked who was there, he said Nobody. Nobody was there. Nobody stabbed him. In the future," A small smile tugged at him. "Maybe you should adopt a cooler alias to blame the pranks on. It's way more interesting for a cyclops to swear vengeance on Nobody, than, say, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson. Shall we go somewhere more private so you can reflect?" The Asian asked disarmingly. He wasn't mad. Amused, maybe, but not mad.