So Portland was big. But New York was like. Super mega big. When April had woken up practically in an alley a few days ago she had freaked out pretty hard. Normally she was a pretty level headed pers- Okay no, so she wasn't level headed. She was hot headed, but she wasn't a little girl she was a full grown woman and she didn't panic dammit. She had been near live explosives and ammunition and could literally handle the heat.

She was absolutely confused that day, and then she'd looked down and seen clothes she didn't own, set fire to a pile of garbage and pulled out a phone she didn't own and found a number labelled with her brother's name, gave him a call and then entered some crazy sci-fi level madness that she was in no way ready for.

She was still shaking her head over the whole thing. She wouldn't have believed him except... Well, he was older than her now. And there were clocks, and the internet and she had discharge papers...

She actually had gotten a little teary and had a breakdown when she heard about it. The base had been such a big part of her life up until the other day. Or it hadn't? Apparently she'd been out of the navy for a few years, and had been working as an EMT in the city here. She had SO many pretty people's contact details in her phone and some pictures...

She'd made Danny promise not to tell her parents, yet at least. She needed to get a handle on this. On her life, on this city. She'd spoken to somebody that he'd said was one of her colleagues and might be able to tell her more about her life for the last 8 years. She'd agreed to meet them at a bar she'd obviously never heard of.

Danny had told her she'd always said she'd never go to the place, but not why. She wasn't sure, but she thought she was in more or less the right area? She wandered around aimlessly until she bumped into somebody that was very clearly another mutant. "'Scuse me hun, I'm kind of lost, can you help a gal out?" She asked the scaled person. They responded in a feminine voice, which clarified something to her that was not obvious by their appearance.

"Er...Sanctuary might be able to help, building over there." The mutant said with a gesture.

She thanked them and gave them a few bills, they looked semi-homeless at the very least and stepped over to a building with very little current activity. It was getting dark now, she had a couple of hours left before she met this person and she'd wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to find it. Danny was right, she should've used google maps more.

For whatever reason the after holiday had produced something of a wave of people to house. Erik wasn't entirely certain if the holiday cheer had run out or people had just decided they had enough of the cold. Or was it just the usually people who helped out deciding their own families were more important? Erik lacked those answers. Usually he just helped with less social things like handing out jackets and blankets or watching stuff in the kitchen to make sure it didn't burn. Now out of the blue he was asked to help someone who showed up and finished putting a few boxes away in the store room before quickly heading to the entryway.

Homeless people tended not to look that good or well kept. Of course the blonde could have just been kicked out on the street by someone. Erik reserved judgement until he got some more info, if he ever did. By the time he made his way over to April he had given her an appraising once over and plastered on his best welcoming smile. Being as good looking as she was he found the smile less forced then he would have with someone else. "Hello, welcome to Sanctuary how can I help you? Would you like something warm to drink?" It would be easy enough to fetch some hot coffee or chocolate. 

April had been pointed to the building and on arriving and asking around she'd been told that somebody would come and give her a hand in am in. She wasn't waiting all the long remotely speaking but she leaned against the edge of a sofa in the entrance outside of the direct blast of frigged air coming from outside and began rubbing her hands together gently. She was of course properly dressed for the weather.

The problem was that there were only so many layers you could put on, even when they were thermally laced. Freaking arctic weather.

She smiled widely when a man clearly moving with purpose came into the lobby and started moving towards her. She glanced him up and down as he approached her. There was something familiar about the way he walked and held himself... He was in a ready stance, that was it. His face was friendly enough but there was this tension in his limbs that she was very familiar with.

And hotdamn he was fit. And not in just the April wanting to get to know him without clothes on kind of way (Well, that too), it was his muscles. He was clearly somebody that kept in shape, and his stance betrayed something... Military in training. She was definitely very curious and interested in him.

She probably would have spent much more time checking him out if he hadn't thrown her by greeting her and offering her nector. "Uhm, that'd be a hell yea!" She exclaimed. "Oh! Hi, names' April, I'm sorta kinda lost~" She blinked and then glanced around again. "What is a sanctuary?"

There was always this sense of indescribable tension when you realized someone was assessing you even as you were doing the same to them. Until someone got around to throwing a punch is was all trying to throw off your opponent. Erik figured when he was asked for help Sanctuary had a questionable entity they wanted watched and, if it came to it, escorted away. She had an easy confidence and stance of her own. Her threat profile ratcheting up a bit until she spoke. She seemed genuinely confused and lost. That earned her the slightest of leeway. Afterall people DID come to Sanctuary for all manner of reasons. 

His face didn't betray his inner thoughts thankfully. Instead he kept the same affable smile plastered on his face. "Of course." Erik didn't find the coffee particularly good so he mixed it with a package of hot chocolate at the little table they kept up front like any office building and brought it over to her. Lost? That was a new excuse. Though if she was telling the truth it was pretty serious. His eyebrows furrowed deeply in concern. "Where are you trying to get too?" His eyes tracked with hers and nodded. "Sanctuary started as an outreach center for people in need. Over time it has focused more on mutants in need." 

It wasn't everyday you had to explain what Sanctuary was to someone. "You from out of town?" Venturing it was a safe enough question presuming the woman wasn't around on false pretenses. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone else he could foist the responsibility of host to having drawn the short straw today. Thankfully they weren't busy or the lobby would be full. Crowds made him edgy.  

April slowly shifted on the spot, clinging to the area radiating heat while Erik went and made her a drink. She was very very down for a hot drink, but she was not going to shift from the heat until she had to, no sir. She leaned her head back and started to slowly feel more and more comfortable. There was this odd balance between wanting to go out and explore this brand new city she apparently lived in, and also trying not to totally freeze to death whenever she went out into the cold.

She glanced around as Erik came over with the drink, trying to take in the room and work out what it was for. It was pretty inconspicuous. A charity maybe? It definitely didn't strike her as a business. She gazed into his eyes and tilted her head slightly. He was showing a lot of concern towards her, which was a little odd. Something about the way he held himself and sized her up earlier struck her as odd. It wasn't the normal checking out her rear, it was more calculated. And familiar.

"Uhm, some bar around here. I walked into about 4 wrong bars before figuring out that I was totally lost." she admitted, taking a sip of her sweet drink. April was by no means a snob, hot drink was hot drink. And caffeine. Caffeine was good. "Oh, that makes sense! So, sorta like a mutant shelter?" She was now very interested, she'd never heard of anything like this but then again it made sense that it was here.

"You could say that..." How did you word this to a new person? "Er... I sorta woke up in an alley a few blocks over last week." She admitted.

Whoa that was a whole lot of knowledge to process. He looked her over again and relaxed a noticeable amount the readiness slipping into a more passive form. "Yeah I guess that is the word for it. They offer all sort of services here. I also know the area pretty good. Is there a reason why your looking for a bar?" She hadn't shied away from him so there hadn't been a sexual component to the whole waking up in an alley.. or she was made of steel and keeping it together. Whelp now he just felt like a complete jerk and with his track record that wasn't a huge shock.

"Would you like to come inside it is warmer in the eating area?" Gesturing her to follow and not giving her much choice in the matter. Making his posture and demeanor as non threatening and welcoming as he could as he walked down the hallway. An almost total flip to the other side of the spectrum. "We have chicken and dumpling soup if your hungry and need something warm. I am guessing you didn't wake up with any missing organs or you wouldn't be here.." The next part he struggled with more then he liked. "If you need me to grab a female instead to talk to I would also understand.. we can even get you some counseling here on sight in a few minutes if that is what you're looking for?" Regardless of what had happened when she slept waking up in an alley had to be a heck of a thing.

She blinked. How did she bring this topic up? It was like when she'd first found out she was a mutant she'd been unsure of how to tell her friends, and they had responded with a mixture of feelings, some thinking it was super cool others being absolutely horrified. Although she supposed lost years and memory were a lot less potentially dangerous than the ability to literally burn down whichever building you happened to be walking around in at any given time...

"I'm supposed to be meeting somebody in a couple hours and I don't know the area at all so I just wanted to work out where I was going." Honestly she had no idea who the person really was either, her brother had just texted him for her.

"Oh, that would be lovely. I don't really need to eat anything, but warmth is always a good thing." She admitted thankfully. She'd fueled up on burnt scrambled eggs before she'd left the apartment, she did wonder aloud if her cooking had improved in 8 years, only to receive a snarky comment from her older? brother.

"Er..." Okay, maybe she should just be straight with him so he didn't jump to wrong conclusions. "Believe it or not the situation is much stranger than assault or organ harvesting." Wow. That was a mouthful. "I sorta woke up in an alley not knowing what city I was in, and thinking it was 2011, because apparently I'm 8 years younger than I should be, go figure." She wasn't a shy person, she just didn't want to freak people out by leading with that. Erik seemed to have a pretty solid foundation thought.

Yeah. Solid. She thought in a sultry subtext, checking him out a little when he wasn't watching. "So no, I'm not in need of female to female counselling or something, if that's what you're implying, thank you for the thought though honey."

"Oh that is easy enough. If you know the name I can give you pretty good directions to get there." Having spent a homeless year wandering and trying to get the streets memorized left him with a pretty good working knowledge of city. A fact that hadn't been lost on him when he had started the little journey. 

Once they were in the eating area he took a seat on one of the cafeteria style seats and gestures for her to take one as well. Listening to her story made his eyebrow raise. It also probably should have bothered him they they were having such a casual conversation about all the possible probabilities that could have happened. He eyes her a bit and nodding a bit, impressed by how kept together she seemed. The news she was suddenly 8 years younger.. whoah. Sadly still not the strangest thing he had heard of since he came to New York, but it certainly made it in the top ten. 

As she expressed her appreciation he just smiled a bit embarrassed and shrugged. "Well we get all sorts of people from all walks of life. Sometimes when a person says they are lost they mean it in a more.. psychological or spiritual sense. You can't imagine how many people come here after their parents or loved ones call them a freak." Perhaps it was a bit thick skinned of him, but he shrugged it off. He could only help people along, not take their journey for them. 

"But back to you. 8 years gone huh? Do you have a phone? If so do you know how to use it? I can help you with both and anything else you might need. If you need a ride there we can manage that too." The tension from regarding her as a threat earlier had evaporated and now was intent on being as warm and helpful as possible. It was quite the shift in demeanor.

April tilted her head at him and gave him a pretty innocent smile this time. "Oh, so I take it you know the area pretty well then?" She mused. It would probably serve her well to get to know a few people around that knew what was where. Rather than just always aimlessly wandering around, even if that had led to a few particularly exciting encounters.

She shrugged. "Shady tap I think it's called, someone suggested I meet them there, I have no idea where it is or anything though." She admitted, embarrassed. What April was unaware of, was the bar having a pretty heavy anti-mutant leaning. Not that she was a visible mutant, but she definitely wouldn't have agreed to meet if she'd known this.

She snorted "I'm definitely not spiritually lost, just physically. Pretty sure I know where I fit in the universe." She chirped. "And it freaking sucks that anybody would do that to their kids. People like that should never have children." She shot back with some heat, completely unashamed.

She raised an eyebrow at Erik. "That's awfully sweet of you Erik. Did I pass whatever mental test you were throwing my way?" She asked innocently. He was so hard to read, but struck her as super cautious. He'd also not remotely responded to the flirtatious body language she'd thrown his way. Hm.

"'Preciate it. Really. But I had my phone in my purse when I woke up, found some numbers I recognised and pieced some things together. I'm just slowly putting the rest of it together while I explore the city." She admitted.

Being of the delicate age of under 21 he wasn't 'in the know' about New York's dive bar scene or any sort of over 21 establishment for that matter, but he felt like he should remember something about the Shady Tap when it was mentioned other than where it was. "Well I could certainly tell you how to get there at least. Don't know much about it otherwise." A tiny smile edging out momentarily as he was dedicated to playing at a good host. 

Her snort made him chuckle a bit. "If you have that figured out. That makes us one of us." The little smile edged out to more of a grin before he shrugged. "People have kids for all sorts of messed up reasons. Propagating fanatical religious beliefs just happens to be one of them. Parents always expect their kids to turn out just like them for some reason." The tone in his voice indicating it wasn't at all a hypothetical discussion. He had seen it and had dealt with it personally. "I agree with you though. Kids should be born of love and into it." He had at least managed half of that equation and felt like he came out ahead in that regard if only just.

Mental Test? Rosy pigment blossomed lightly on his cheeks. "Uh, I didn't mean to imply you were dumb or anything. Is that what is sounded like?" Nervously he scratched a cheek and tried not to let too much of his sudden anxiety show. "Just making sure I could help however I could and that you weren't some undercover reporter. We get the occasional jerk reporter trying to snoop on the 'freakshow' we have going on or worse." Even adding air quotes to freak show even as the anger burned away a bit of the embarrassment he felt. 

"That sounds like the best possible outcome that could have happened. Not sure why anyone would do to you what they did. If you need anything you could always give me a call? I do all sort of odd jobs, but I think helping someone piece together eight years of their life would be new even for me."   

April raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I'm glad you can. I'm starting to think it's a wasted effort, the person that asked me there was viewing me as somebody very different to I am now." even Danny had commented on how different April was as a 21 year old. She still had much more of the free-spirit she'd always had, apparently. She'd seen some photos on her phone, and locked in her draw. A few unposted selfies, and some X-rays too.

It wasn't hard for April to put 2 and 2 together about why she'd allowed herself to be de-aged, which she suspected was what had happened.

Laughing outloud again April replied "It's not hard for everyone, I'm pretty sure I was put on this earth to burn bright and spread happiness in one way or another to people, or at least show a bunch'a people that there is more to life than they think." her voice was pretty sincere, there weren't really mind games or tricks or deception with April. What you saw was what you got.

"Oh sweetie, I didn't think you were implying I was dumb at all. I thought you were suspecting something more nefarious." She actually wasn't sure, but she figured it was a good guess. He'd been somewhat on guard since she'd walked in, and he held himself like someone coiled up and ready to react to things.

Smiling sweetly April reached across and to pat his arm gently. "Honey, I'm not a reporter, I'm not a spy and I'm not some assassin. I'm just a lost, very sexy mutant."

"You are just the sweetest~" the last word came out like more a purr. "I'm doing a pretty good job thank you, but I appreciate the offer, and you."

Ah! She was one of those exhuberant happy people that would have gotten him killed in his former profession. Now he could just be envious of the obvious confident way she could be almost irritatingly chipper to total strangers. Still the statement warrented some sort of response and he went with an almost neutral statement. "What you mean 9-5's and suits aren't your thing?" 

Thenkfully he hadn't just unintentionally insulted someone in need and his blush evaporated. "Well you know what they say even paranoiacs have real enemies.." Shrugging and attempting to relax and smile more in the face of the incorrigable woman. Relaxing was easier then a genuine smile, but the attempt had been made. 

The reassurance worked to some degree. She certainly wasn't a reporter, she had spent most of her time looking at him instead trying to peer into every nook and cranny. Spy or Assassin were still both eligible potential assessments. The bulky winter clothing could hold a blade and he was pretty sure he had made out the faint outline of one regardless. Not that he begrudged anyone the need to feel safe in a town as crazy as New York. At her own self observation he scrutinized her form more closely as if for the first time really noticing. "Ah, yes you are very pretty. Are you a model of some kind?" It was a fair conclusion he thought. 

Eyebrows perking at the purr. 'Some kind of cat mutant?' He thought to himself before smiling and nodding more genuinely. "Thank you. I try to be as personable as I can. It helps when volunteering." Gesturing a bit around him before shrugging. "Day job leaves me seeing too much of the preening rich privileged sort. Nice to help people who actually need it then demand it, you know?" 

April smiled at Erik and batted her eyelashes. “Am I that obvious?” the smile broke into another small laugh.

April shrugged. “I’m sure that’s true of some people, but it’s also a very unstimulating way to live your life. You can be smart, you can even be on guard where it makes sense, but what is life without a lil’ fun?” She tilted her head, giving Erik a wicked smile. He was intriguing, in his own way.

April noted the uptake in warmth and as they were sitting decided to discard a couple of layers down to a more reasonable top and cardigan, still sipping from her hot drink and taking in Erik. “Oooh, that’s a nice thought. I’ve been asked if I was a prostitute before, model is definitely more complimentary.”

“What about yourself? Male model?” She raised an eyebrow with amusement. “And I’m currently not anything, woke up in an alley remember? I guess I was an EMT before this happened.” She gestured down to herself.

“I can see that, some people need to get their ego checked, pretty hard. It’s nice that you’ve found a way to spend some time doing volunteering you find meaningful.” Oh, there were definitely layers to this man.

Erik was pretty certain his life was both stimulating and fun. Not many people could say they got to carry a gun around and legally blow stuff up should the need arise. Still he was thankful he wasn't some hourly stiff in a cubicle hellscape. "Hmm, the best sort of people make their own fun I think. Even a boring job can be interesting with intriguing people around wouldn't you say?" His coworkers were certainly a.. bunch.

A prostitute? Well that would be rude if it wasn't an appropriate time and place. "Some people are used to buying their affections. Least with people like that their mouths are a good indicator of lack of character." Shrugging then his eyes going a bit wide as she turned the compliment around on him "Ah, no. Security Consultant." Which was just very politically correct and polite way of saying 'mercenary.' Anyone who had ever held a gun for a living would see right through that self gratifying title. 

"I have been in a position where I needed help and couldn't get it. Not a position I would wish on anyone least of all kids whose only crime was being born with the 'wrong' genes." Shrugging a bit before looking at her neutrally again. "People who need help can get it here so I do what I can."

"You think you lost anything important with the whole clock rolling back bit? I have had entirely too eventful last couple of years to want to have missed out on any of it myself. Good or bad."