Julia had applied for and gained a job in Margaretville NY. The job was being a worker at a well known catering business. Julia knew that they always assumed that she was staying at the job for years, but probably didn’t know that she her plan was to leave within two weeks. In fact it was probably less than two weeks since two weeks was a high amount of time for Julia to stay somewhere. Julia felt a twinge of guilt for portraying herself one way, but there was no guilt in the fact that they assumed that she was staying at a low end, low paying job for the rest of her life. Julia needed the job for the quick buck without the hassle of explaining her lack of a social security card. This was the job.

However, it all backfired for Julia because she was told that her, along with a few other new hires, had to be fitted for uniforms. So she was on her way to the catering businesses’ uniform fitting. It was not something that Julia liked nor felt at all comfortable doing. For one, human contact, and secondly, possibility of her mutation being discovered. She had a backup plan of course. It wasn’t quitting the job since she so desperately needed the money to get to her next destination without starving. Her plan was to give the individual who would be taking the measurements and doing the fitting her body measurements and calling it a day. She had them written on a piece of paper as she walked into the small little shop that she was told was the catering business’ dressroom before their events. She was late, and the individual who had been timed to be fitted before Julia had probably been long gone given the fact that Julia was an entire ten minutes late to her thirty minute time slot.

Some tailoring jobs were more glamorous than others. Javier made costumes for vigilantes (that was a recent development), and costumes for cosplayers who cosplayed vigilantes (also a recent development). Sometimes he designed things for local fashion shows, although he never really aimed as high as his father with his creations that boosted his mother's modeling career. Javier was way too anxious to fight it out in the fashion industry. Plus, he had learned early and long ago never to look down on normal, everyday work either. He was just as happy working on uniforms for a catering business as he was fixing things for cosplayers. Work well done was work well done.

He spent the afternoon taking measurements of the catering staff, talking to them about the uniforms and their possible uses. He wanted them to look good, but also feel comfortable, and no one knew better what was needed than the people who were actually going to work in these outfits. Several of them came and went; glancing at his list, Javier could see that there was only one name left. She was late, but he had time. And patience. The young tailor sat in the small dressing room, drumming his fingers on the desk, waiting for the last person to show.

When the door opened, he looked up with a smile.

"Hello! I'm Javier. I'll be making the uniforms for you..."

Julia opened the door like any other person would, however her facial expression was very expressive in itself. She didn’t want to be here and she wasn’t going to put on an act for others, no matter how cheery nor friendly they may be. She wasn’t getting paid for this and although she would try to act like she was confident about her plan, even the interaction of having to go through with it was annoying to Julia. She heard the guys spule, and instinctively gave out a light sound of “ ugh” at just how positive and confident this man was about his job. To her it seemed annoying and she wasn’t going to hide her thoughts.

She approached him nonetheless with the piece of paper with her clothing sizes that to anyone decent at tailoring would have probably realized that they were bigger sizes than necessary. “Here’s my f****** shirt, pants, and boot size” she said, using the word boot size because she didn’t know what type of shoe the catering service had in mind, if any, but she knew that she would only be willing to wear boots. Furthermore she knew that the swear word was not necessary even if it had became a part of her general vocabulary. She then held the piece of paper out for him to grab as she herself gave him an uncaring looking as if she just needed him to grab the piece of paper so she can get the h*** out of here.

Instead of responding to his friendly greeting, the girl handed him a piece of paper with a none-too-friendly look. Javier winced; unsolicited hostility always confused him, and put him on edge, immediately jumping to assumptions that he had somehow done something wrong without ever meeting this other person before. He glanced at the numbers on the paper.

>> “Here’s my f****** shirt, pants, and boot size”

Javier blinked, looking between the paper and the girl, not sure what to say for long moments.

"Uh, I'm not sure... what they told you, but I'm here to... uh, take the measurements." he offered, his well-practiced smooth greeting going right out the window, replaced by his usual anxious awkwardness. "And these... look like they would be too big for you?" definitely too big, he did not need the measuring tape to know that. "It only takes a minute. And you don't have to... undress or anything."

Julia was used to the confused and or baffled reactions that she always received from other individuals. Her being used to it however didn’t mean that she was okay with the reactions. They made her irritated if anything. She always felt as if people liked mocking her, enjoyed pointing out her differences. To Julia she had made up walls of anger so that she could walk this earth with confidence. Even If she wasn’t entirely aware of her own defense mechanism, she was aware of other people’s reactions to the very walls that were meant to protect her. Although the reasons why she always had been treated differently( since she left her home state of Alaska) had been a result of a mess of her own making( for the most part), she had never felt it was and always retaliated with more hostility because she thought it was the individual’s own fault and not hers. This has led to more problems and therefore a cycle that persists.


Therefore his confusion and bafflement from Javier had bothered her even more than most. Perhaps it had been the long pause responding to her that made it worse or it was because he wanted to take measurements or because he didn’t just take the d*** piece of paper. Julia didn’t know why, and she didn’t care, but she did care about some cocky *sshole thinking that he knew that her outfit measurements were too big and thinking that he was able to persuade her to be measured by him. “There’s no f****n need. These are my f****n sizes” she said flatly with an edge of hostility, and impatience within. She didn’t want him touching her, measuring tape or not, and she really didn’t want him inadvertently figuring out that she was a mutant. The sooner she was let off the hook, the better, but she was getting a bit fearful that her plan was not going to go down as effortlessly as planned, only adding to the anger in her words that she had spoken.

>>“There’s no f****n need. These are my f****n sizes”

The young woman was reacting to his efforts with a lot of hostility. Javier winced again. His logical mind knew that she was probably not angry at him personally at all. Maybe she did not like uniforms? Maybe she had something more important to do, and her employer forced her to be here? Maybe someone had hurt her about her looks before? All were definite possibilities, and yet Javier's anxiety insisted on concluding that she somehow had a problem with him. Specifically. He shrunk a little, trying to look less... well, like a guy.

"I'm sorry, I don't... I didn't mean to assume. If you have special requirements for the uniform, I can work with that. It's part of my job." the tilted his head, a little timidly "Do you want to tell me why you want a larger size? Not that it's a problem at all..."

Julia had noticed Javier recoil and shrink. She at first assumed that he was recoiling at her personally and not at her reactions. Somehow she had assumed that he somehow some way knew that she was a mutant and that he was recoiling at that possibility. She recoiled inwardly at the thought of him knowing.

However, his words did not show anything of the sort. Therefore she had started to become less tense in both her thoughts and her features( Which for her was more of a intimidating neutral stance and expression). She became less stressed, that is until he asked the question of why did she want the sizes to be larger.

Instantly her shoulders tensed up, she felt sub conscious and furthermore felt like she was put on the defensive. Her words expressed offensive words instead of a defensive one when she rhetorically questioned “Why the h*** do you need to know why?!” She said. All other words that exclaimed that Javier that were perfectly fine with Julia and that had nothing but kind motives for his words had been forgotten. Of course she wasn’t going to give a reason and if it weren’t for the fact that she needed this job, she probably would have left after that question that made her feel as though he knew that she was a mutant.

For a moment, the girl seemed to relax at Javier's careful words... just to immediately tense up again when he asked her about her size. Javier mentally kicked himself. He should not have pushed her too far too soon with the questioning.

>>“Why the h*** do you need to know why?!”

He really wanted to get out of this situation. Confrontation was not his strong suit, and his anxiety made him want to run, or to curl up and apologize repeatedly. But he was an adult, and he could not do either without appearing ridiculous. He had to find a way to talk to the girl, without getting either of them into trouble with the management.

"I'm just asking" he said, holding up his hands in a calming motion "Because... uh, I need to know, if I'm gonna make an outfit that is comfortable for you. Sometimes... people have special requirements, and... there might be a better solution to that, design-wise, than a larger size." he looked at her, trying to guess if she understood what he was trying to explain.

Julia never enjoyed picking on people who she viewed as ‘weaker individuals.’ Her definition of weaker involved either physically or mentally in the way that someone expresses their emotions more than she views appropriate( even if she does the same more often than not). To her this ‘clothes guy’(Javier) was most certainly of a ‘weaker quality’ given his eagerness of trying to not p*ss Julia off. That or he knew that she was a mutant, which would actually p*ss her off also( a lot of things p*ss her off), especially if that’s why he appeared afraid. She didn’t like the feeling of others feeling afraid of her because of her powers. This was one of the reasons why she had always hidden her powers( and physical mutations) or had put on an act as if she enjoys people fearing her when she does use her powers.

Therefore given Javier appeared to be stumbling along, fearing her and given that Julia appeared to be getting her way( or at least she viewed it as her way,) she decided to let this individual off the hook from her normal escalative way of handling things in that she didn’t escalate anything further when she said “ Super high blood pressure, it causes a lot of swelling” the fact that she didn’t use any expletives was her trying to be nice, but that was as far as her niceness went for her tone still had some natural irritation interwoven in it, and her face just maintained a neutral one instead of the angered one that she had. Furthermore her reasoning was obviously a lie, and a bad one that clearly lacked enough care to spend the time to make up a good excuse for why she wanted bigger sizes.

>> “ Super high blood pressure, it causes a lot of swelling”

Part of having GAD was that it made Javier super sensitive to other people's emotions. It was weird enough that initially he thought empathy was his mutant power, rather than strength. While the perception was not exactly superhuman, it was definitely enough to get a weird, awkward feeling when someone was lying to him. Not that he was brave enough to ever call them out on it. He didn't call this girl out either.

"Okay, I can work with that." he nodded, looking at his notes, than back at her "Do you want to tell me your name...?"

Julia had been relieved and yet a bit surprised that he seemed to believe that that was her reason for wanting the uniform to be a size too big. She wasn’t stupid enough to be counterproductive and point out her lie and so instead she became far less tense with her stance and even bothered to answer his question in the not the meanest way that she could. “ It should f****n be on the paper that I assumed the employer gave you.” she said it in a not so aggressive way, the swear word being more out of habit than intentional.

“ It’s Julia” she said, of course he didn’t need to know her last name, and dropped the piece of paper with the sizes on it on the floor. “ See ya” she said, assuming that this conversation was done and she could finally leave. She assumed that she had gotten her way and that this conversation was over as she went to turn around to walk out of the place.

She gave him a break for breathing, and he asked for her name. Maybe if they were on first name terms, she would be less hostile?

>>“ It should f****n be on the paper that I assumed the employer gave you.”

Javi winced again, visibly.
Maybe not.

>>“ It’s Julia. See ya”

"Wait." Javier sighed, looking at the paper, the measurements, her clothes, and her general demeanor. It was a wild guess, but an educated one, and besides, if she completely freaked out after, he really had nothing left of this encounter to ruin.

"I'm a mutant." Javier muttered, watching her reaction "I'm just telling you in case you are one too. It's not... awkward, or anything. In case."

Oh, it was awkward.

Julia froze at the word ‘wait.’ If there was one more question, Julia was going to flip. Then came the sentence Julia never wanted to hear in her lifetime. This man here was a mutant. Or he said he was. Either way, Julia didn’t care to know because then that meant that an individual usually wanted to have an entire ‘kinship’ type thing going on.

The words spoken by Javier showed that he ran towards awkwardness because he said that this totally wasn’t an awkward thing even if Julia assumed that he totally knew it was awkward based on those given words. Julia didn’t even like knowing that she was a mutant, she didn’t want some random dude knowing she was a mutant.

That being said she couldn’t afford to lose this job over some poor sap’s attempt to ‘empathize’ with her. Therefore she spoke. “ If I said that I was, would you f****n make the uniform using the measurements that I gave you?” She said turning around. She dropped a few opportunities to swear, since she just wanted to come to a compromise on this little... discussion? Sooner rather than later.

There was no sign of relief in Julia's expression at the revelation as she turned around again. If anything, she looked angrier, and that made Javier wince again. Did he make a mistake? Did she actually hate mutants, and was offended by the accusation? Really, there was nothing more he could say.

>>“ If I said that I was, would you f****n make the uniform using the measurements that I gave you?”

The measurements. That were clearly wrong for her, even though she insisted she needed them. That was not a medical condition, really. It had to be a power. And yet she was still resisting talking about it, which left Javier fresh out of options, other than making an ill-fitting uniform. And he was proud of his work.

"No, it would f**** make you a uniform that works with your powers." he snapped back, before he could stop himself. The next moment he already shrunk back to his usual self, waiting for her to yell and storm out. This meeting was not going well...

Julia wasn’t entirely dumb but she wasn’t entirely sophisticated either. Simplistic was honestly a word to describe her mentality at times. Her logic was flawed but to her it often appeared to be the only logic that made sense. Therefore her reaction to Javier’s outburst wouldn’t have made any sense to most people as she acted as if Javier was the one being aggressive. “ Why the f*** do you think you can f****n swear at me?” She said, bristling with anger.

Truth be told Julia felt like he was becoming more ‘confident’ than Julia felt comfortable with. He from her point of view may not even be a mutant but someone using that as an excuse to find out that she was a mutant. “You f****n think that because I am a f****n mutant that you can-” she cut herself off because she had realized she in her haste to be aggressive and show off her anger, that she just admitted to being a mutant. Just like that. Julia gave herself away.

“Give me f****n proof that you’re f****n a mutant, f****n right now” she said quickly as she approached timid man in a quick for her movement . This was more out of fear since she didn’t want to lose this job and most certainly not because she was a mutant. She wanted to be sure that he was telling the truth or she was going to have to skip town sooner rather than next week. She didn’t need a mutant hater or even a mutant phenatic stalking her or telling the whole town that she was a mutant.