Manti walked through the hedge maze, more out of curiosity then anything else. The mansion boasted some neat stuff, and he hadn't seen a hedge maze before, well, not a proper one anyway. Most weren't much higher then a persons head, which for Manti made them too easy. This was a proper maze, obviously crafted to live up to the 'maze' it's name promised. His time at this 'school' was certainly turning out to be interesting, out of all the weird stuff going on this seemed to take the cake. He had no memory of this place, though people here seemed to have memories of him. He was determined to figure this out, everything was so out of place it made no sense, yet he had seen the room where he supposedly lived, and sure enough it had his scent and even some quills that were undeniably his. They lacked the smell of motor oil, but his base smell was there, and his nose did not lie. 

He was still searching for some sort of explanation, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy himself while at it. From what he could tell, 'he' had walked here before, his faint scent lingered from some time ago. Honestly it was a bit creepy to be in a place where his scent was but he had no memories of. But hey, that made it just a bit more fun, what was an adventure without a few thrills?

Since the first time she had chosen to visit it, Amber had taken a liking to the hedge maze.  It was a place to escape the business and chaos that often existed within the walls of the Mansion.  It was a place she could get out and think, a place that was natural even if it was a tamed sort of natural.  It was also a place she could safely transform without having to worry about scaring anyone or being mobbed in the street.  Both those things she'd had experience with and both were most decidedly better avoided.  

Lately, Amber had a lot to think about, especially after her unexpected foray into the other universe.  That there was a whole other universe was shocking, to say the least.  The question of whether that also meant there was a whole other her was a confusing one to ponder that elicited a barrage of hard to describe emotions.  She'd been out there since dawn in her deinychus form, mostly sunbathing and switching between sunbathing and napping.  It wasn't a bad way to spend an afternoon, all things considered.  Dusk was now coming, however, and hunger helped her decide that it was time to re-enter civilization.

Trotting along to where she'd stashed her robes, a vaguely familiar scent floated out to her.  What was his name?  Leon?  She'd only met him once and felt she'd left a very bad impression.  Maybe now might be an opportunity to change that.  Changing back into her human form, she put her robes back on and walked into the open.  It wasn't quite dark yet but the sun's dangerous ways had been blunted enough to not be much of a concern.  Spotting him not far from her, she called out.  "Hello?  I'm not sure if you remember me, but we met a few weeks ago.  I'm Amber."  Remembering that he seemed to have some issues with people getting too close, she kept a healthy distance between them, not approaching closer than she hoped he'd be comfortable with.

Manti's trip down the rabbit hole had thus far yielded no answers, he seemed to have been here but there didn't seem to be any indication of why. It was a perplexing mystery, he had wondered before if he had some form of amnesia or something, though he was sure he wasn't missing any time. Well, maybe that wasn't true, a few times his watch had seemed to be off, could he have blacked out then? And why would he come here? And that still didn't explain why his shop was gone any everything else was so weird.

"Hello? I'm not sure if you remember me, but we met a few weeks ago. I'm Amber."

He heard the voice before he saw her, and smelt it before that. "Ambro..." he started turning to look, but he saw someone quite different then who he had been expecting. Huh, he was sure that had been Ambrosia's scent. Well, there were some off characteristics, just like everything else, his first instinct had pictured the mini-dragon elf woman, but the person before him now looked almost opposite to the happy go lucky person he had known. Covered up, black eyes, and a slight more bitter undertone in the scaly scent. "Oh, sorry, thought you were someone else." he said in a cheery voice, "Though I'm not completely sure to be honest, seems I've been a bit off as of late. I'm Manti," he said, offering a paw. She seemed to be keeping her distance, perhaps she was intimidated by him? "I don't bite, promise." he said giving her a grin, which showed off the shark-like teeth he had. Probably not the brightest idea, but hey, he would just roll with it.

It sounded almost like Leon was going to call her by another name but then he stopped himself.  Maybe he'd forgotten her name; not really that surprising.  They'd only only met once, after all, and she hadn't exactly been at her best during that meeting.  But then he suggested that he thought she was someone else and introduced himself by a different name.  Not only that, but he was acting very different than the first time they had met.  Had she just encountered him on a bad day?  He certainly looked the same and his scent was the same too.  Or was it?  Had there been something just slightly off about it?  In her current form, limited as it was by her weak human senses, she couldn't be sure.

Since Manti no longer seemed concerned about human touch, she wasn't concerned either.  Remember the warning about the poisonous barbs, she walked closer and took the offered hand, careful to only touch the skin she was pretty sure was safe.  She offered a toothy grin in return, all be it once presently lacking in meat-cutting incisors that were present in so many of her other forms.  "I don't usually bite either."  Not while human at least.  And not normally unless she was hungry or angry.  

"You're acting very different than when I last saw you."  The words were spoken bluntly and directly.  Finesse was not one of her skills.

Manti chuckled warmly at the returned gestures of greeting, though he had to admit she seemed to be timid in taking his hand, like she was trying to avoid touching him more then she needed to. Luckily that was not something he was particularly worried about, if she had a problem, it was hers, not his. He wasn't the type to sulk about wither someone liked him or not, he was awesome, and if someone couldn't see that, well, their loss.


"You're acting very different than when I last saw you."

"I seem to be getting a lot of that lately." said Manti, scratching the back of his head while making a gesture of mild amusement mixed with embarrassment. "Sorry, but I don't remember you at all," he said, though in a lighthearted tone that indicated more of his own confusion on the matter then anything wrong with her. "I mean, it used to be I knew everyone, but now apparently everyone I know doesn't recognize me, and everyone I don't know does." He was used to this by now, though it got tedious having to re-explain this to everyone who greeted him and apparently knew him and said he was acting odd. From what he had gathered he had been staying at this school, though he couldn't exactly figure out why since he had graduated some time ago. Mystery upon mystery.

"I'm the dinosaur girl."  She looked at his expression, trying to glean a bit of recognition.  In her human form, she knew she was unique.  How many corpse girls could there be, after all?  Certainly none other that she'd had the opportunity to meet.  In her other forms, she was even more recognizable.  Most of the reaction she'd gotten when she'd displayed her powers ranged from terror to excitement to some combination of both.  Dinosaurs, generally speaking, were considered pretty awesome, or so she'd gleaned.  Either way, a walking, breathing dinosaur wasn't something that was likely to be forgotten easily.

She wasn't the best judge of tone of voice or body language, but even she managed to glean that he seemed maybe even more confused about this whole memory loss thing as she was.  Understandable; she had nearly a year of lost memories when she was was trapped in the Brazilian rain forest as a deninonychus.  Blank spots in your memory were scary things.  She still didn't' know how many she'd hurt or killed during that time and would never be completely comfortable with that lack of knowing.

"When did it change?  I mean, when did people stop knowing you?" she asked, concern in her voice.  Maybe with more information she might be able to help.  

Manti went through the list of faces he remembered. He knew many mutants who attended the bars, at least he had known. He knew lava mutants, cat mutants(of which he was included), and even insect mutants, but he didn't know Amber's face, nor could he recall any dinosaur mutants in his circle of friends. Like Derek he was drawing a blank despite hem knowing him. "I know a dragon girl, I almost thought you were her, but that's obviously not the case. But hey, dinosaur powers, cool!" he said, giving her a thumbs up. Anyone who knew Manti well knew of his easy going and generally upbeat personality, though that wasn't saying much at the moment since people seemed to think he was mopey, which made no sense whatsoever.

"When did it change? I mean, when did people stop knowing you?"

"Hmmm, I'd say a few weeks ago, give or take," he said, thinking back. He had had one of his time losses, where time seemed to change on him, and suddenly everything else had changed with it. "I mean I could understand if I hit my head or something, but I remember everyone I know and most everything about my life, or at least think I know, and I don't think amnesia works that way anyway."

The myth of dragons was probably birthed out of the discovery of giant dinosaur bones and why not?  A dragon might well have been a dinosaur with a few tweaks here and there.  Of course, no dinosaur could blow fire (that she'd ever encountered, anyway), but humans liked to embellish certain things and impart certain supernatural traits where they could.  She wasn't entirely certain what a dragon girl had to do with her, but she had to admit that dragons were pretty cool.  She offered a thumbs up in return although the gesture was somewhat awkward and she couldn't quite place why the mention of a dragon girl disturbed her slightly.

At the mention of when the memory issues started, certain things began to fall into place within her mind.  "A few weeks ago I fell into a rift between worlds."  Her words were tentative as she was unsure if her own experiences were actually related, but it was at least a place to start.  "There's a whole separate universe out there.  There are X-Men there just like there are X-Men here.  Everything is kind of the same but also different.  Is it possible that you might have accidentally fallen through the rift too?  It might explain why so many don't seem to know you anymore and why people think you're acting so strange lately."  It was hard to imagine falling through the rift and not realizing it; her own trip had been rather dramatic,but anything was possible.  The implications were disturbing.  If there were two versions of Manti there were probably two versions of other people as well.  Including her.  That was an uncomfortable though.

Despite amber having at first reminding him about Ambrosia, he could see this person had a much different personality. Still she seemed somewhat okay, a little reserved perhaps, maybe a bit lacking in the confidence area, though to be honest, a lot of people lacked confidence if you were comparing to Manti. However the story she gave made no sense at all. "Your pulling my leg, right," he said laughingly, "Try the other, it has bells on," he teased. Yeah, he could believe a whole bunch of things thanks to mutants. He could believe there were people who could move mountains with their minds, or jump from one end of the planet to another, but even he could only go so far in suspension of disbelief. But then he could see in her face a conviction he recognized. "Holy crap, your serious!?" he said, his tone shifting from teasing to something more unsure. Amnesia, even an unconventional case, was much more believable, his common sense and logic rebelled against there being another world, another dimension, let alone that he had somehow stumbled into it. But That couldn't be it, could it? Suddenly the supremely confident cat man was not so sure anymore.

Amber didn't lack in self confidence, not really.  She wasn't ashamed to be who and what she was and she knew herself to be more than capable when it came to survival.  Literal years spent living alone in the wilds made it quite apparent that she had survival skills in droves.  For all her physical skills and a reasonable collection of mental skills to go with them, however, social skills were another matter.  Humans and mutants alike were often puzzling to her with their many social rules and foibles which often made little to know sense.  Partly because of her lack of understanding, she remained reserved and quiet, mostly content to remain in the background.

"I'm being serious but if I hadn't been there myself, I would probably also disbelieve.  It is pretty amazing, isn't it?"  She offered a smile at his little joke.  Lying was one of those human social skills she'd never really learned.  "I still don't really know what to think of it all.  Do you have any idea how you might have ended up here, if you did actually come from the other world?"  It was quite the mystery.

Manti wasn't sure he like this, having something wrong with his head was confusing enough, but being in a whole different world literally? Did this mean he was stuck here? Did it mean that he would never see his friends again, or at least the ones he remembered? By now they may even think him dead if he was missing for weeks. He huffed over the thoughts, not liking how this made him question himself. He had always been assured in himself, and this experience had thrown a spanner in the works. "Well, like I said this started a few weeks ago while I was driving around." he tried remembering exactly where it had been, which he hadn't been paying attention to. He hadn't even registered the change, the big changes, until much later when he had gone to the shop and home. "Crap, where was it?" he said allowed, the tone in his voice a testament to his frustration.

She could see the confusion and his face and didn't blame him.  She was still struggling with the idea herself and she'd at least had the advantage of going to the other world knowingly.  Not voluntarily, mind you, but at least she'd been aware of something dramatic happening and she'd eventually managed to get herself back home again.  She could only imagine what it must be like to suddenly wake up to the realization that everything you knew and everyone you loved was literally on another world.  

"The timeline sounds about right," she responded thoughtfully.  "The eclipse is when it first opened.  I, um, I think it's stable.  You could try to just go through it again, probably."  Or in so trying be torn into a million molecular shreds.  That was also a possibility.  Probably not a large one since she'd gone through fine twice but also not a zero one.

Manti scratched his head as he thought about this whole mess he had stumbled into. Well, at least this cleared up the whole mystery. And at least this meant he wasn't crazy or missing memories. Wait, so if everyone knew him here, that meant there was another version of him. Then, where was this other him? Derek had said something about him going missing, so was he is his world? Did they switch places or something? "So, what's this other.... me like?" he asked, a bit curious. It wasn't often you were in another world, or learned there was another version of yourself with it's own life. Were they the same? Or completely different? He guessed the latter since everyone thought he was acting weird. Still, how were they different? And why? That was the real question he guessed. He loved his life the way it was, but even so he wondered what things could have been like, and this was probably the only opportunity to see how his life may be given different circumstances. With Amber saying that he could likely go back just by diving where he did before, he at least had a way home. Maybe he could stay just long enough to find out what this other Manti... well, they called him 'Leon' didn't they, he coul find out more about Leon before he went back to his life.

Whole other worlds seemed to be the things fantasy and science fiction, not anything routed in reality.  Still, she had literally been to the other world and one couldn't deny their very own senses.  Maybe there was the small chance she was crazy and had imagined the whole thing but she didn't think so.  Maybe making some inquiries might be in order, to see if others had been to this other world as well.  Just in case.

"I didn't know the other you well.  I only met him once.  He was...very different than you.  He was afraid of what he was, afraid of hurting people with his powers.  I think, because of that, maybe afraid to get close to people.  I felt bad for him."  Felt worse for him because the words she'd spoken which had been intended to try and metaphorically slap him awake had only made him feel worse.  Figured, of course.  Social interaction was not exactly one of her strong suites.  Put her in front of a dangerous foe and she'd tear it to shreds, but force her to talk to another human in a humane and sympathetic fashion?  Laughable failure, she was.

"Is the dragon girl you mentioned, is that like...another me?"  Something she didn't want to think about and yet couldn't stop.  the question felt like picking at an open wound; she just couldn't help herself.

"Wow, I sound like a real downer," said Manti, partially in jest, he didn't know this other him, he could have had a very different life. It was weird that he would be afraid of his powers, since he had no issues with his, he had never poisoned anyone by accident.

Amber's question about Ambrosia made him think about it. If everyone was mistaking him for Leon, wouldn't Amber's counterpart be just like her? While Amber smelled similar, she not only looked different, but her powers were different as well. Shapeshifting aside, he didn't know how dino shapeshifting would become fire breathing dragon. "I don't think so," he said, "I mean, Ambrosia looks different and her powers are different. You do have similar smells though. Hmmmm... maybe she's a relative?" It was the best explanation he could come up with.

A thought came to mind. "If I'm here, could 'Leon' be in my world?" he asked, a bit worried by that thought. He didn't want his relationships ruined by some misunderstanding of mistaken identity.