Ambrosia loved this new world!  At first, it was the sense of adventure that came with exploring the great unknown.  She was an explorer at heart, accused more than once of leaping before she took the time to see what she was jumping into.  Act first think later was not exactly an intentional motto, but it sure did tend to make life more interesting.  With just such a motto in mind, she had taken a head first dive into the rift between worlds almost as soon a she'd found out that was an option.  Much to the dismay and fear of those around her who thought for certain she was going to get herself killed or worse!

Since that fateful night, she'd spent as much time as she possibly could on this side of the rift, exploring and adventuring as whim and whimsy demanded.  There was just so much to explore and for all the similarities, there were so many differences.  It was those differences, similar yet distinct, that caused no end of delight for her.  Here, a club that didn't exist there and there a building coloured red where plain boring brown existed here.  Rumour had it, residences of both worlds also had their very own doubles but she'd yet to verify that little theory for herself.  What might an alternate Ambrosia be like?  She'd very much like to know.  Perhaps one day she'd have the opportunity.  How strange to make friends with an alternate version of yourself, right?  How truly delightful the thought.

Today was shopping day.  Or rather, window shopping day since, despite all the recent excitement of her life, none of that excitement had resulted in an influx of money.  Poor retail slave and almost student that she was, new clothing was a luxury that she just couldn't afford.  That did't mean, however, that a girl couldn't dream and couldn't ogle all the interesting fashion ideas the whole new world had to offer.  Tinkling as she walked (because it was fun to wear bells), she took no pains to hide her pointed ears or her cat-like eyes.  She hadn't done so at home so why should she hear?  If anything, home was even more harsh when it came to reacting negatively towards mutants.  Besides, she was far too cute to be harassed over a pair of ears, wasn't she?  The correct answer was: Of course she was!

Winter is coming. It wasn't just a line from some TV show that Allegra never cared to watch. It was a reality in New York and a frightening one for a girl from sunny California. Granted it was still a while away, but now was the best time to prepare. Preparation, of course, meant fall and winter fashion.

Allegra had felt more and more stressed. She didn't feel like she was really fitting in and nothing stressed her out more than that. So what do you do when you're all stressed and frazzled. Go get some therapy. And for Allegra that meant retail therapy.

She was now carrying three bags of awesome new outfits and she was just getting started. The world had gotten so crazy. Allegra just learned she was a mutant and now there were stories about some rift and another dimension where there were different versions of everyone. Allegra didn't really understand it all mainly because it seemed even more outlandish than the idea of mutants. There was a reason she rarely watched the news. Allegra knew reality TV was fake, but the news was just completely outlandish.

But fashion she understood completely. Allegra loved art and she considered clothing art for the body and herself the canvas. Buying clothes not only added to her wardrobe. It gave her ideas for her own designs.

It was also a nice respite from her crazy mutant life. She was a bit sad that she didn’t have a whole gaggle of friends to join her like back home, but she was still able to text them and pretend that things were just like normal.

Normalcy was quickly shattered. “Look at that freak!” someone shouted. Allegra went on the defensive immediately. She was always afraid that someone would figure out she was a mutant.

She spun around and saw the target of the mocking. It was a mutant with elvish ears and cat eyes. She was outing herself as an obvious mutant.

“Freaky furry!” the guy taunted. Okay, he hadn’t figured out this girl was a mutant. He was as stupid as he was rude.

“Leave her alone. She’s just having fun,” Allegra shouted at the guy. “What’s the excuse for your ugly costume? All that acne over your face looks a little too realistic. And how many pillows do you have under your shirt? No one is that fat in real life. You should tone it down a bit.”

Allegra ran over to Ambrosia completely ignoring anything the bully shouted back. Even without her little bit of self defense training at Xavier’s, Allegra was pretty sure he could take him down. Besides, he couldn't even tell the difference between cat ears and elf ears. How stupid was that?  

She put her arm around Ambrosia and whispered in her ear. “You’re a mutant right? You really shouldn’t be walking around like this.” Allegra pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her bag. “Here, put these on and we’ll get you a hat somewhere. You really shouldn’t be walking around like that. You could get seriously hurt.”

Despite the rather sorry state of her bank account, Ambrosia couldn't deny that she was enjoying herself.  If nothing else, wandering all the quirky little shops of the city gave her ideas on what types of fashions and looks she might pursue in the future.  Most of her actual purchases came from thrift stores and second hand stores and she'd recently began dabbling in sewing her own clothing.  Although she was still a novice, there was something damn satisfying about wearing something created of your very own hand.

 “Look at that freak!” 

Internal groan.  And she was having such a lovely day too, why did people have to be like that?

“Freaky furry!” 

Furry too?  My, but she was something special today, now wasn't she?  "You're just jealous," she taunted back.  "You can only wish to be as enchanting and adorable as me."  OK, so maybe taunting the potentially volatile and violent human wasn't exactly the smartest response she could have made, but she just couldn't help herself.  He was such a jerk to say such mean things and someone needed to stand up to him.  Besides she (probably) wasn't in any real danger, right?  Even if it did come down to violence, one on one she could take care of herself quite successfully and her powers were such that there was no real risk to anyone she was fighting.  The word 'fighting' in that context might have been an exaggeration.

“Leave her alone. She’s just having fun,   “What’s the excuse for your ugly costume? All that acne over your face looks a little too realistic. And how many pillows do you have under your shirt? No one is that fat in real life. You should tone it down a bit.”

Oh, now she had an ally in this proverbial war of words.  Awesome!  "Ya, what she said!" she yelled back with vigor.

The stranger ally ran up to her and offered her a pair of sunglasses to hide her eyes.  She accepted, although obviously rankled at being forced to do so and only reluctantly because they were an awfully cute pair of sunglasses.  "Hey now, that's not exactly fair.  He started it."  Yes, she may have been pouting.

Allegra noticed that the bully didn't know how to respond to the girl's retort that he could only wish to be as enchanting and adorable her. That was a great comeback. Allegra would have to remember it.

When the two of them shot back at him, he was completely dumbfounded. "Bitches!" he shouted.

"That was creative," Allegra commented to Ambrosia, not even bothering to respond to the ignorant jerk. "I'm really let down by the quality of ignorant bullies these days. They used to be a little smarter."

Allegra led the girl into Attitude, one of her favorite stores. Ambrosia's bell announced their arrival.

Allegra looked back just to make sure the creep wasn't following them. "No, it's not fair," Allegra said. "But there's a lot of dangerous people out there who could really hurt you." She spoke in a whisper. "I'm a mutant too."

This wasn't something she normally admitted. It was something Allegra was ashamed of, but there was something about this girl that Allegra liked instantly despite her mutation. Sometimes you see someone and you know they're a friend you just haven't met yet.

"I'm Allegra, by the way," she said as she grabbed a black floppy hat and positioned it on Ambrosia's head. "That looks perfect, don't you think?"
 

 "Bitches!" 

Well that was mature.  She stuck out her tongue at the idiot and offered her very best glare in his general direction.  OK, so maybe she wasn't the most mature either but he started it!

Turning around, she returned her attention back to the new girl who seemed almost certainly destined to become a fast friend.  Sometimes, you just knew you were going to hit it off right away and this was most certainly one of those times.  That thought was only reinforced with her own comments directed at her not-so brilliant verbal assailant.  "I swear, on my world they are," she rolled her eyes.  Or was she not supposed to talk about that?  

Resisting the urge to turn around and offer one final death glare (now that would be an awesome power!), she followed the blond where she lead.  It was probably better not to draw any more attention to herself anyway.  "You're a mutant too?  That's great."  For all that she was sometimes lacking in common sense, years of activism had taught her that not all mutants were out of the closet, so to speak, and she had the sense to keep her voice low.  "Oh, and don't worry about them hurting me.  I can take care of myself."  Sort of.  As long as it was only one assailant and she didn't actually have to hit anything.  Either that, or she was very good at running (or flying) away.  Because sometimes that was a skill worth having.

"I'm Ambrosia and it's lovely to meet you.  It's perfect," she agreed, referencing the hat.  "Too bad I'm perpetually broke and couldn't afford a thing in this place if I wanted to," she offered an exaggerated grimace.  She was an artist at heart, being broke as heck pretty much all the time just came with the package.

Allegra winced noticeably when her knew friend said that it was great she was a mutant.  She couldn't understand why so many mutants were just overflowing with mutant pride. Most people Allegra knew (well, before coming to New York) were afraid of mutants and when you called someone a mutant it was not a compliment. Being a mutant seemed to define who someone was. Allegra just wanted to be Allegra. She didn't want to be, first and foremost, the Mutant Freak.

"I don't know what you can do, but you have to be careful," Allegra said. "I really admire your confidence in being able to take care of yourself but what if that creep had a gun or something? You don't know what people are capable of. "

"Ambrosia. That's such a pretty name," Allegra said. "And I'm buying the hat for you." She held up her hands to ward off any potential protests. "Nope, I don't want to hear anything. It's final. I'm doing the whole paying it forward thing. See this dress I'm wearing? About a week ago, I was at a music festival and all my money and credit cards were stolen. A total stranger bought this dress for me and covered me for food and drinks and everything. She really saved my life. I would totally suck if I didn't do the same thing. Plus, you seem to have a wicked fashion sense which I totally admire."

Allegra moved over to the dresses. "If you see something you love, it's yours," she offered. "So are you from New York? You know there's something kind of familiar about you but I just can't place it."

 

"I like to think the best of people," she responded with a casual shrug.  "If you go through life constantly afraid and expecting the worse of people, what kind of life to live is that?"  It was an argument she'd heard before, many times and usually from her more cautious friends.  It was an argument that had more than a little truth to it which she could attest to first hand.  More than once she'd gotten herself into trouble due to her general disregard for her own personal safety and a naive view that most people were decent and even the jerks were usually more bark than bite.  Usually it was true.  Usually.  

"As for what I can do, I'm a vicious fire breathing dragon."  Where vicious was comparable to kitty cat levels of vicious and fire meant a pretty purple and green display with decidedly no burning going on at all.  She waited for some kind of reaction from her new friend before winking and letting out a giggle.  "I'm a faerie dragon shifter.  Think, tiny cat-like dragon with non-burney fire.  I'm good at fleeing, if nothing else.  What can you do?"  And hey, cats could be viscous too, right?

"You're too kind and that's a lovely story."  She protested a little but not too much.  She was a person in need, after all.  Sort of.  She began browsing through the racks of clothing as she spoke.  "You could say I'm kind of from New York.  You've heard of the rift between worlds, right?  I came from the other one."  Who she might be similar to in this world she had no idea.  Surely, even if there was another her running around there would be more than a passing similarity, right?  Was that even a thing?  Alternate selves in alternate worlds?  Something to explore later, perhaps.

Allegra had to agree with Ambrosia. She too tried to see the best in people but these were dangerous times especially where mutants and those that hated them were concerned.

"I don't go through life afraid but you have to be careful," Allegra said. "Lots of people think bad things about mutants so why would you want to advertise it?" Allegra knew that was kind of the equivalent of staying in the closet but being a mutant was different from being gay or something like that. Being a mutant was kind of like being a monster, at least as Allegra saw it.

"Vicious fire breathing.......??" Allegra was a little stunned.  Even a cat-sized dragon was a little scary. "What exactly does non-burney fire do?" she asked. "I thought fire burnt stuff. That's what made it fire, right? Um, do you have dragon wings? Can you fly?"

Then came the part of mutant conversations that Allegra hated. What could she do?

"Oh, I just mess up mutant DNA and give people random powers," she said under her breath. "For instance I killed a good friend for about 10 seconds and turned him into a girl. Non-burney fire power is much better."

The salesperson walked over to them to see if they needed help. Allegra just assumed she was listening in on their conversation. "We're practicing for a play!" Allegra blurted. "That's it! Honest!"

"Sorry," the salesperson said. "I just wanted to know if you needed help finding anything. I'll be over there if you do. Good luck with the play."

Now Allegra was completely embarrassed. "Sorry," she said to Ambrosia. "I bet you feel I'm some first class spaz. I'm not. It's just......" Allegra did not want to go into her feelings about mutants right now. "Hey! This top would look adorable on you," she said changing the subject. Yes, time to start acting normal.

That lasted about three seconds when Allegra's new friend explained she came from the rift. Allegra flinched and backed away. "What?" she asked. She had heard about the rift but didn't follow the news much. There were different theories she had heard. The rift people were anti-matter and you would explode if you came in contact with them. They were evil versions of people. They were spies from another dimension planning to take over the planet.

"You're not for real about that are you?"