Earth Two was worse than Benji had imagined. He got no cell signal, his credit cards didn't work, he couldn't ride the bus. He was stranded. He'd wanted to rush back through the portal as soon as he'd been pushed through it, but there had been extenuating circumstances that had given him cause to run into the city rather than stick around... and now, he was walking a few blocks from the scene of the portal, and considering what he would do.

They hadn't dug too much into all the details about Earth Two with the dinosaur girl. He'd learned there was an X-men team, and that things were different. But the attitude towards mutants was truly shocking. So, too, was the attitude of police. They had robots. They had weird "government types" that wanted to talk with you for coming out of a flipping portal.

He gawked at a billboard for some haircare product. The woman was either a mutant, or a smurf under the effects of a Harry Potter grade engorgement charm. Yeah, the attitude towards mutants certainly was different than on Earth One.

Benji tried his phone again, but it said it was out of service area still. Zero bars. Who would he call? Who could he contact? Where could he stay until the area around the portal got clear, and he could go back? Work wouldn't like his absence, but his projects had been finished. Any new customers would just leave him messages and move on. Freelance computer work has its merits. His only fear was that he'd miss an important call from an orchestra group or art dealer looking to showcase his work.

A long sigh escaped him as he walked past a hotdog stand. His stomach gurgled. Damn. Fighting thieves works up an appetite, and he was broke. Maybe he could bum a few dollars off someone? It was suboptimal, but... desperate times. Casting out good vibrations of positivity and hope, Benji looked around the crowd.

The Rip that had appeared during the eclipse had gotten the city buzzing. It was all anyone wanted to talk about, it dominated the news stations and papers, it drew a near-constant crowd monitored around the clock by a rather tired looking parade of uniformed individuals. It was exciting to say the least and Aleksandr was always looking for a little excitement in his life.

The year was quickly slipping away and taking with it the summer warmth. Chilly days were already sandwiching themselves between warmer ones and the breezes that passed by were starting to carry a bite. There was increasingly less time for the reptilian individual to spend outdoors soaking up the dying heat before he'd be forced indoors for extended periods of time during the next few months. A mystery portal provided the perfect excuse to get out of his apartment and spend the day wandering the city. Not that he ever really needed an excuse.

The atmosphere among the others out on the streets was tenser than normal. People were a little on edge and much more interested in watching the others passing around them. Aleksandr didn't mind the attention one little bit, but he was saddened by the additional concern and apprehension that it carried with it. Not many people were acceptably appreciative of him on a normal day, but now there was more of an edge to it. He hoped that frequenting the streets as often as he did would at least mark him as a familiar face among some people and wouldn't mistake him for one of the distrusted 'others' from the opposite side of the Rift.

Side-winding his way toward the side of a building to avoid a gaggle of young girls hurrying by with their arms interlocked, he took a moment to stop and look around for himself. He enjoyed people watching anyway and with so much activity in the city lately there was plenty for him to look at. A rather lost looking young man stopped not far from him caught his attention for whatever reason. There wasn't anything remarkable or eye-catching about him, but he drew the serpent's eye nonetheless. He didn't seem to be rushing off anywhere which made him a good target. The only thing the snake liked better than people watching was interacting with people.

"You are looking like you are getting lost," he commented casually, sidling up to the young man once he found a break in the passing crowd to slide through. "Are you needing directions to be getting somewhere?"

He felt the absence of his signature motorcycle helmet like a lack of pants. Since he'd started the whole vigilante kick, he'd smuggled it with him to various locales. It, and the myriad other broadly-grinning helmets he'd painted. Wherever he could pass it off as normal to carry such a thing. It covered his secret identity... but he'd lost it in the fight that had lead to his arrival on Earth Two. He still didn't know if people had caught sight of his face. It was a silly thing to miss the presence of, on a new world where his identity hardly had any reason to be a secret... but he did. Maybe it had turned into a dumb security blanket.

What he really needed, Benji decided, was to start carrying more cash. That was far more useful than a helmet... unless you were trying to protect your head. Cash would have allowed him to buy a hot dog-- as opposed to being hungry and worried about trying credit, like he currently was.

Maybe he could head back to the portal. That woman might be gone, and--

A sudden voice made him realize that while he'd been casting around hopefully, looking for a friendly face and some help, he hadn't been really paying much attention. Space cadet, he mentally reprimanded himself. He'd gotten lost in thought. There was a mutant ahead of him that reminded him of a final fantasy monster. What? A Lamia? Though those were usually women...

"Yeah," Benji said. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "I am a big lost. Just came through that portal thing, see, and I'm not very familiar with this alternate version of the area... I also didn't think to bring cash to buy a map."

Well he certainly wasn't trying to play it off as a secret. By now, the rip had seemed less sensational, earth one side. Maybe it was commonplace here too?

So the boy was lost. Very lost. Aleksandr hadn't been near the portal when it had appeared since the festival contained too many people that could have trodden on him, but the news had made it out to be quite an event. It wasn't all that surprising that at least a few people wound up on the wrong side of things, but it was a shame nonetheless. So much security had been set up around the Rift that it had to have been made very difficult to get back to where they'd come from.

"Well, I do not think you are getting back through the portal very soon," he replied apologetically, dropping his hands on his hips as he looked the young man over. He was cute, but he wouldn't stand out in a crowd. That was probably beneficial for someone stuck in an strange place. Easier not to make waves that way and the patrol around the Rift might be more forgiving of a human face. It was just a matter of when they'd start correcting things and letting people back through the portal.

A map was easy enough, though. They could be readily found all over the city since there were so many tourists that came through. It wasn't too hard to get directions from other people, either. But if he was unfamiliar with the city it could still be confusing even with a map in hand. "There is something you are looking for specifically?" he asked, assuming he could at least point the young man in the right direction for a start.

HThe snake man didn't think he'd be getting through the portal any time soon... and Benji suddenly felt suspicious. A guy, out of place on an alternate earth. He had a right to be. Why was he not going through the portal, huh? He had no reason to assume anything nefarious, but it would have been oh too simple for the snake man to follow up with some snazzy line like "Because I am going to eat you."

What? Is it rude to assume all snakes like to eat people, just because there isn't much else their size? Yeah, probably. And he didn't REALLY think this man wanted to devour him. Not on a real level. It had just been a passing thought. Please don't judge.

Benji quirked an eyebrow, and waited for an explanation. He didn't get one. Well, at least the follow up comment had been helpful rather than (again, don't judge) hungry. He wasn't usually like that, seriously.

"A place to stay, if you think it'll be too difficult getting back. And maybe a suggestion for a good restaurant... and." He glanced around and lowered his voice. "Hear anything about the x-men?"

In his reality, the organization was underground. This would be a surefire way to get himself into the thick of things, if that situation were the same here. He'd just have to see what it was like.

Finding a place to stay made sense. It wouldn't be such a difficult feat either given they were in the city, though finding a place that didn't need rent was slightly trickier. Someone from the Other Side certainly wouldn't have any income to pay a rent check so he'd have to settle for something slightly less upscale. Aleksandr didn't think he'd plan on sticking around long enough to find a job, not that he blamed him. Had he been stuck in on the wrong side he'd be eager to get back, too.

"Well, Sanctuary is good place to start looking," he began, one hand sliding up into the tangle of tails at his his and coming away with one twisting through his fingers as he thought. "There are some... unsavory individuals living there, but the building is very good mutant shelter and easy to get a room from, no cost. Is getting better since new management has moved in." There didn't seem to be much that could be done about certain mutants living on the property, but the hive of baddies that had once lived there seemed to have moved on. From what he had heard it was a much more peaceful place to be that it had once been. "Also Haven Apartments is making good name for itself, but I do not know what the rent may be." Again, paying for a room might be tricky, but the option was there.

The snake man leaned in a bit to catch the last of the young man's questions, a bit confused as to why the X-Men would elicit such a hushed tone. How curious. "X-Men are working at Xavier's Mansion. Also a place for mutants to stay, but you will need to be student or teacher I think. They are also maybe working with police to watch the Portal," he answered with a shrug. He hadn't looked too far into it, finding the news to be repetitive and boring after a certain point. It was much more interesting to see it for himself.

"Now, lunch," he began, glancing up and around as if a restaurant might jump out and catch his attention. "Is the city, so there are many good places to eat for most people. There is nice place a few blocks from here that I like. Good food and is mutant friendly." Big doorway, bigger seating options, and friendly, often mutant wait staff. "Is nothing fancy, but they are making one of the best burgers in the city I think."

Unsavory sounded, well, unsavory. He far preferred savory to unsavory (and sweet over both). The fact this Sanctuary was getting better under new management didn't really tell him much. One man's better is another man's minor improvement. There isn't much of a difference between getting stabbed and struggling murderer outright, aside from the heightened chance to survive.

Haven sounded much more likely... though rent was mentioned, and again, he was currently broke. Also, what was with these places and their foreboding descriptive names? Sanctuary, Haven... was there a place called Happy Home, or some sort of mansion that also took in troubled adults in addition to troubled youths? A School for Those In need (no we don't charge tuition because we're good), perhaps? The subtitle on the school was unnecessary and debatable. Benji scratched his cheek as he considered.

The Snake man's response to his last question, the one about vigilantes, cause Benji to tilt his head. Damn. There was a mansion. What was this, a comic book? Only in comic books would you find ridiculous foreshadowing and mysteriously good-sounding places like 'Sanctuary' and 'Haven.' In the real world, people just called the places shelters and were done with it.

Had he also said the xmen worked with police? Weird. Things really were different. Not vigilantes, then? Benji turned his rapidly whirling thoughts to food.

"Ah yeah?" He said. "You mind showing me?" Or was that asking too much? Directions are all well and good, but having someone show you around-- that was better. And if the weird person from the rip showed their face again, he could blend in with the crowd or point them out to the snake man. What that would end up achieving, he had no clue, but it was better knowing another person saw the shadowy mystery person, rather than thinking he was crazy all by his lonesome.

"I'm Benji, by the way." He smiled politely.

"Yes, of course. Is this way," he replied, turning and waiting for the other young man to fall in step before he began to head down the street. One thing about being so large and unusual was that people often parted on the street and allowed Aleksandr to pass with relative ease. It made traveling in crowds a little easier, though there were always a few people that still tripped over or trod on his poor tail. At least on the sidewalk there was some flow to the foot traffic that made it easier to avoid scuffs on his scales.

"Is nice to meet you, Benji. I am Aleksandr," he said, returning the smile. He really should work on introducing himself sooner. He always tended to forget, but thankfully no one seemed to hold it against him. Maybe it had something to do with his appearance. It could be rather jarring, or dazzling depending on the person, so it was understandable that swapping names would slip the mind now and again. Truly a blessing and a curse.

"It is very different on the other side of the Rift?" he asked as he wove his way around a small line for a food vendor at the edge of the sidewalk. He was getting curious about the differences on either side, too, and the odd way Benji had asked about the X-Men had piqued his interest. "How are you getting to this side of things?"

Benji fell into line behind the snake man. Dnd campaigns told him that if this guy had been a gal he'd also be a lamia. The fact he knew that made him a lame-ia. Now wasn't the time for obscure nerd lore. Even if it was hilarious.

The not lamia made his own path through the crowd, the way only mutants and celebrities could. People scattered and shifted. Some even tripped.

He made a mental note of the name. Aleksandr. Aleks. Al. At first, Al had been intimidating. The friendly factor, however, was changing that opinion from intimidation to charming. Not many were this helpful, mutant or not. Especially for some guy off the street.

He fell behind for a step, as his eyes wandered around his surroundings. Someone bumped into him, and apologized. Benji took it in stride, and was grateful they hadn't flipped him off in standard New York fashion. Maybe this side of the universe, people were more polite?

As if sensing his thought, Al asked him a question in a similar vein. "So far, so good." Benji commented. "Minor differences. For instance, on this side I've heard you all have a better view on mutants. More friendly. And there's a mansion--"

While Benji was speaking, he didn't notice another collision several feet behind them. It wasn't noisy, wasn't flashy, was hardly noticeable at all. Someone hunched forward in a black hoodie passed the man who had bumped into Benji, and nobody was the wiser. Except the guy himself. He stopped for a second, and fumbled for something in his pocket. Looked around. But he hadn't noticed what the man who'd bumped into him looked like, and he'd vanished into the crowd.

"On my side, there isn't as much public support. If you were to go out and help people, they'd try to arrest you, and--" 'if your identity got discovered, you might do better on the other side of a rip in the fabric of space and time' he finished mentally, recalling something someone had said.

Another person bumped into Benji, as he wove around the line for a vendor. He caught the briefest flash of green and black. No apology this time. People weren't all polite, it seemed.

As he stared at the back ahead of him as it vanished into the crowd, Benji got a sudden sinking feeling in his gut. "Hold up a minute," he called out. He started pawing at his pockets.

Aleksandr frowned at the answer he was given, displeased to hear that the other side of the Rip was not such a friendly place for mutants. He'd personally dealt with open hostility toward mutations on many occasions in the past, particularly back in Russia, but he'd also seen a lot of support for it. It was almost a balance, but things were gradually tipping in favor of the supportive population, slowly but surely. But if arrests of the helpful crowd were being made on the Other Side things probably weren't going so very well for their supporters. What a shame. He hoped things would turn out for the better for those people.

While the young man was keeping step behind him the snake man did his best to keep a steady, easy pace. He was large but he could move pretty quickly and wasn't hard to outstrip a biped's leisurely pace if he wasn't paying attention. It was bad enough for those living in the city to get lost in the crowd, but someone from a different reality all together wouldn't even have the benefit of familiar markers to help reorient themselves. It wouldn't do to lose the poor kid before they even got to their first destination. The only thing worse than lost was lost and hungry.

When Benji called for a halt Aleksandr stopped and spun around, his tail beginning to coil beneath himself to keep it mostly out of the way of passing feet. "I did not hit you with tail did I?" he asked, fearing he'd not been navigating carefully enough with the young man following so closely. Even at a slower pace his tail was heavy and it could easily knock someone off balance if he brushed by them too closely. But seeing the way he was patting himself down put that particular concern to rest. "You are missing something?" he guessed again, his gaze sweeping the ground quickly in case the missing item was still nearby. "What is it you are looking for?"

It was weird. Like, super weird. At first, he'd thought something had felt off. Maybe starting around the time the first guy had bumped him. But he hadn't been able to place it. And then, the second had come along and he'd made the mental leap from accident to pickpocket. Either the first, or the second. One of them. Because at times he was way too trusting, and people running into you in a New York crowd could be all sorts of shifty. The weird thing was, after he'd stopped and patted himself down, the pocket his wallet had resided in hadn't felt lighter. Quite the opposite situation, in fact.

Benji held his wallet in front of him, blinking as he leafed through it. Same brown leather wallet, no cards missing, but where he'd only had a couple of ones before, now...

"I, uh. Seem to have been the victim of a reverse pickpocketing." Benji said, confusion evident in his tone. "I sure as heck didn't have this many twenties when I came over."

---

Somewhere in the crowd, the green man smirked to himself. He hunched forward in his hoodie, and pushed on through the cold.

The guy who'd stolen the Korean guy's wallet hadn't seen it coming. And that poor Korean kid. He'd been broke. Apparently, he'd momentarily turned into Robin Hood, because he'd seen the stolen wallet, got the idea, filled it and returned it. Then, got on with his life. His good deed for the day was done.

"Reverse pickpocket?" The phrase didn't sound familiar, but it was always possible he'd come across the term before and simply forgotten it. Pickpocketing wasn't ever really much of a concern for Aleksandr anyway since he hardly ever had pockets to pick. Still it wasn't too hard to figure out what the young man meant when he clarified the discovery of a handful of unfamiliar cash in the wallet. So he'd gotten money instead of losing it. Interesting.

"This is a bad thing?" he asked, crossing his arms and cocking a brow at the young man's confusion. Extra cash had never been a complaint that he'd heard before. Once he got over the shock of the discovery Aleksandr was sure Benji would be rather overjoyed at the gift. A pocket full of spending money was a bit of a blessing for someone who was lost. "Now you will be able to buy many maps and many meals." Maybe even find a hotel room for a couple of nights depending on how many twenties were stuffed in there, which would buy him a little time to try and figure out his dilemma with some level of comfort. "This is good thing. But you are maybe wanting to put the wallet away or the reverse pickpocket might be reversed again."

Reverse pickpocketing, snake man asked for confirmation. Benji confirmed.

"Yeah." His voice still held a note of confusion.

While it was true that it didn't seem like a bad thing, it still begged the question of who, what, when, and why. Not so much where. He knew that. And that was more several questions, than it was one. Was the money stolen? Counterfeit? Was he being set up? He was happy, yeah, about potential purchases. But he had more sense on him than to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe said gift horse was responsible for several murders in the area and would soon require being put down. ... bad example.

"All true things," Benji agreed. He smiled a little at Al's joke. "Though I doubt a person who went to the trouble of stealing my empty wallet and filling it would undo what he did. Though who knows? He could really be THAT capricious."

He slid the wallet away, to a front pocket this time, not a back. Front pockets were harder to infiltrate. One tends to notice encroachment on that whole front area.

"Anyways," Benji changed the subject. "We nearly there?" The fight with the portal guy had made him hungry.

Aleksandr simply shrugged in response to Benji's doubts. He was probably right, but there were a number of odd individuals living in the city and it wouldn't be all that out for the ordinary to find that someone was amusing themselves by gifting and then un-gifting loaded wallets at random. At least it was relatively harmless fun, unlike the more violent happenings he'd sometimes skimmed over in the news. Still, pocketing the wallet and moving on was probably the best course of action. Losing that much cash again was only fun for the thief.

"Yes, it should be maybe only one or two streets left from here," he replied, turning again to continue on to their destination. He wasn't so good with street names so sometime he got the street corners mixed up, but he could remember what was around the diner well enough to find it again with little trouble, even if it was sometimes on the opposite side of the road than he remembered it being last time.

It wasn't a particularly large space, hole-in-the-wall being a petty apt descriptor. Still, it did a decent amount of business, particularly since it was so welcoming to mutants. Tee semi-retro vibe tended to attract people that appreciated dining aesthetic as well. Aleksandr couldn't remember stopping in when it was any less than half full. "Here we go," he said as he crossed the sidewalk to sidle against the wall and hold the large door open for his smaller companion to pass through. It would be easier for him to get inside the building in front of the snake man, rather than trying to navigate around his long tail in the entryway.

One of the waitresses stepped out of the back room at the sound of the door's bell jingling and flashed a smile and a wave as the pair entered, greeting the overlarge reptile by name. Aleksandr was rather hard to forget as it was, but he'd made a habit of turning up the charm around the staff as well, at least enough that most of them could recall his name when he stopped by. The waitress grabbed a pair of menus and flagged them over to an empty table where he'd have enough room to stow his large body.

Thanking the young woman with a wink, he settled in and flipped the menu over once or twice without paying too much mind to what was on it. He was probably just going to get his usual. "The hamburgers here are very good," he recommended, placing the menu down after decided that yes, his usual choice would do. "But there are other sandwiches and some things that are fried that are very good also." He couldn't vouch for the salads or other non-meat dishes, but he doubted they would be unsatisfactory.

The restaurant was fine. Pretty much what Benji had expected. For the money he had, it was perfect. Simple and clean. Benji followed Al, and went through the doorway when the snake man held it for him. After he stepped in, he realized it was entirely possible the act had served multiple purposes. It was polite, yeah. But he might have stepped on a tail, otherwise. And stepping on tails is no fun.

The waitress seemed cute enough, and she knew Al. He was definitely a regular. Benji sat down at the table, and looked over his menu.

"Burger sounds good," Benji agreed with the recommendation. "Although--" He paused, and glanced down the sandwich section. Ah yeah! They had one. "Steak sandwiches are one of my favorite things." He confessed. "Not everyone has them, though. Well, I know what I'm getting." Smiling to himself, Benji folded the menu up and placed it in front of him.

He was going to get a steak sandwich with fries and a Coke. While he waited for the waitress to return and take their drink orders, Benji looked to Al. "So, Al. What do you do for fun around here?"