"So... I take it you're not very comfortable being a human then? What happens to your clothes when you transform? Do they just fall off or do they disappear or something?" Bear looks at the kid before shifting his weight forward, placing his elbows on his knees as he sits on the couch, uncomfortably. Yeah, inviting a guy wearing a trench coat with a stab wound and long hair, whom you dont know, into your apartment always seemed like a bad idea to Bear. But, this guy was from that Mansion place so he was surprised he didnt see a platter of cookies sitting somewhere in the house.

"What's it like being a cat? How does it feel to transform? Did it take a long time to learn how?" Why was he asking all of these questions? Bear has never been this interested in a mutant before, besides Aris, so he really couldnt figure out for himself why he was suddenly so curious. It was like something inside of him told him to find out as much as he can about this Cat-Boy-Tiger named Calley. Who really knows though anymore, he's a mutant who's hiding that he's a mutant, so maybe if he's comfortable sitting with a mutant, pretending to be a human, he'd ask questions. Yeah that's a good explanation for all the questions, he's playing the role of a curious human trying to find out more about the mutants for one reason or another.

((ooc: That post was totally fine, Bear. ))

And then the questions began. Calley wasn’t sure whether that made things more or less awkward. It gave them both something to do, though. That was a nice change and/or distraction.

“Err, depends on what size I shift to. If I’m going cat, I usually have to wiggle out of the neck hole to escape after I’m done; if I’m going tiger, I kinda leave shreds behind. I, ah, can end up going through outfits pretty quickly.”

“Being a cat’s nice,” Calley said, slowly sliding down the wall and back onto his stuffed tiger spot on the floor. Yeah, not appropriate. But joining the man on the couch? Kinda even more awkward. And he liked his tiger doll. “I really don’t know why I’m more comfortable that way... but yeah, I am. It’s just... I don’t know.” He gave a shrug of his shoulders, and ran one hand through his perennially tousled hair. “Less visible, I guess. If I don’t talk, I can pretty much go anywhere, and do anything, and no one minds. You don’t get that as a human. And you definitely don’t get that as a mutant.”

The guy was very curious. That was probably pretty natural, come to think of it. How often did a human get the chance to talk to a mutant that wasn’t trying to do horrible unspeakable things to them, shouting about mutant rights, or both?

“The transforming is really easy—I pretty much just think of it, and it’s done. No pain or anything.” Except when he’d figured out he could break his own bones if he thought about it, and then he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. That... hadn’t been a good day, actually. That had been the day that had finally snapped his brain enough to produce Slate. “The learning to control it was a lot harder. When I take a new form, I’m pretty much stuck for awhile—until I learn to use it. I spent most of the first two years waking up as something or another, and hiding from my family as I figured out how to change back. Took me a long time to learn the trick of just falling asleep in animal form; I only lose control if I sleep as a human. It’s kind weird, but I guess that’s my least stable form. It’s like my body wants to be something else.” His body, and the rest of him. It was so much nicer, being anything but Calley. His human form did have its uses, though.

“How about you?” Calley asked back, slowly. “How does it feel... to just be normal?” He was starting to forget. He remembered that he was twelve, and he thought of mutants vaguely as a ‘those freaks’ concept that hadn’t really touched him. He still thought of mutants as ‘those freaks’, a lot of the time. He was definitely a freak. So were a lot of the people he knew. But... it was more an issue of who they were, then what they were. You could be a freak and be human, he was pretty sure. He just happened to know a whole lot of mutants who qualified for the term.

Bear sat back on the couch listening to Calley speak, trying to keep his brain wrapped around everything he was saying while still trying to catch everything he was saying. He knew the questions were probably awkward but everything about the situation was awkward at the time so technically, awkward was the norm in the apartment at the current time they were in. And now the question to him, 'How does it feel to just be normal?' I guess he would know how to answer that question, especially considering he tried to live his life as just a normal person, despite being a mutant himself.

"Well, I guess it's just... Normal... You go to work, earn some money, come home, drink a beer, have some pizza, maybe play some video games or get on the internet... Then you fall asleep and do it all over again. I assure you, you probably have more fun being a mutant than most humans do... You get freedom for the most part, especially you, you can hide in plain site if you wanted to... In whatever form you wanted almost, you'd just have to be in a zoo to hide as a tiger..." Bear laughs lightly, thinking about a tiger casually walking through the streets of New York as everyone else flees the scene as fast as they can, trying not to be tiger food.

"I bet you know tons of secrets there Calley, stuff nobody would want you to know... Heck, you could go to the Mayors house every night for a week and probably find something out that he doesnt want anyone else to know about. THEN! You could blackmail him if you really wanted to..." Oh boy his dark side starts to come out, what a great feeling, he's suggesting things that this Cat-Boy-Tiger has probably already thought about and possibly already done. But then again, with him and his fruit-punch bearing, cookie eating, group of friends, that stuff is probably the last thing on his mind. He'd probably rather go chase butterflies in the park than do something like that, or would he? Maybe it's all just a front....

"So... What makes you speak so highly of this "Mansion" of yours... I mean, it sounds good and well, but it also sounds like some sort of cult." He finally said it... What a great feeling of relief it was to finally say it sounded like a cult. " 'We bring in all kinds of mutants, we train them and teach them how to use their powers, then send em out on the rest of the world.' I mean... I doubt all mutants are like that... But that's just what it sounds like in all honesty...." Bear shifts in his seat a bit nervously, hoping he didnt offend the young man.

Normal sounded fairly boring. But boring didn’t sound half bad. Go to work, earn some money, come home; no mention of Boss Men whose super strength and speed basically made your own mutation a moot point. Who could and did throw you against the wall or pick you up by the throat for the slightest infraction. His first job: Hunter Antonescu’s spying patsy. The Kabal’s former leader hadn’t been as humanitarianly inclined as its current one.

Calley crossed his legs, leaned forward slightly as a thought struck him. “Hey, what was your first job? Was it fast food? How much did you make? Were you still in high school?”

He blinked, suddenly realizing how very normal that was, indeed. High school. He’d never been to high school. Not the one he should have gone to, anyway. Just the Mansion. He’d passed eighth grade at the school by his home—his actual home, back in Newark—but just barely. His sister had helped him. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” The brown-haired teenager asked. “Do you still talk to them? Did they come to your high school graduation? What was that like—graduating?”

Normal. He could have tried harder to have normal. They guy’s continuing words hit him like a kick to the gut, and it probably showed on his face.

>> “You get freedom for the most part, especially you, you can hide in plain sight if you wanted to... In whatever form you wanted almost, you'd just have to be in a zoo to hide as a tiger..."

“Yeah,” he said, simply and softly, “I could. But I can only be a human or a cat or a tiger, you know? I can’t be a human and a cat and a tiger. If I wanted to hide—really hide—I’d have to chose. And, well... I did, for a long time. I tried hiding as a human, but I still haven’t figured out the trick to keeping that form while I sleep most of the time. Then... err, I tried hiding as a cat. And that worked really well. But... for forever? I guess I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t stay trapped like that. If you were a mutant, what would you choose? I mean, if you didn’t have any physical mutations. Would you try to pass as human, or would you try to use your abilities? Because once you pick the ‘use my abilities’, there’s no going back. Trust me.”

>> "I bet you know tons of secrets there Calley, stuff nobody would want you to know... Heck, you could go to the Mayors house every night for a week and probably find something out that he doesnt want anyone else to know about. THEN! You could blackmail him if you really wanted to..."

And that, friends, was a little close to home. But not really. Yeah, he’d spent two years listening in wherever he wanted—he even had a woman who feed him over at the NYPD. Detective Cassandra Elliot. She was awesome like that, and listening on her windowsill let him learn the ins and outs of mutant crime in this city long before the locals knew he existed. But he hadn’t used it. Not like Bear was suggesting. The scrawny teenager leaned back against the wall.

“Yeah, I could. But, I mean... I’m not a good person. But I’ve never really gone out of my way to be bad, either. If you had a mutation, would you use it for bad things, just because you had the power to? Or would you just be who you are now, except with powers?”

The teen gave a bit of a shrug. “It seems like a lot of mutants pick ‘do bad things, because I can’. There’s a reason humans—err, yourself excluded, maybe—call us freaks. And a lot of my friends would kinda yell at me for saying this, but I call us freaks, too. Just in my head, usually. But... we kinda are. But it’s not because we have powers; it’s because we have powers, and we use them to be freaks. I mean, what do you think of us?” The guy obviously wasn’t a zealot—either that, or he was the kind of zealot who could bide his time until Calley slept. But Calley couldn’t help but think that if he was a human, he’d pretty much avoid mutants. Self-preservation was generally a strong force, in all species.

>> "So... What makes you speak so highly of this "Mansion" of yours... I mean, it sounds good and well, but it also sounds like some sort of cult. 'We bring in all kinds of mutants, we train them and teach them how to use their powers, then send em out on the rest of the world.' I mean... I doubt all mutants are like that... But that's just what it sounds like in all honesty...."

Calley couldn’t help but swallow a laugh. “Sorry, didn’t mean to speak ‘highly’ of it. Err, not to speak ill of it, either—it’s just a good place for mutants that don’t have anywhere to go, and don’t like to kill many people. There’s another place for that. If you haven’t heard yet, it’s best for humans to avoid the Sanctuary. It’s got big golden doors out front; you really can’t miss it. Give it a few block’s berth, and you’ll be fine. And run if you see a girl in a bow, especially if there are cops nearby.”

“Errhm, but yeah. As far as I can tell, the Mansion was founded by a mutant with a lot of money who wanted us to have a school where we didn’t get harassed for being mutants, but it pretty much acts like a refuge for any mutant, of any age. You don’t actually have to take classes. The Sanctuary does the cult thing a lot more strongly than we do. We’ve got a proud,” if you could call it that, “history of having a ton of different opinions around, some of which are completely counter to the founder’s wishes. He kinda wanted to build a world where humans and mutants could be equals, but not everyone at the Mansion cares about that. Some people do, like the bookstore owner I’ll introduce you to. But some people... just don’t.” Emerald came to mind. Honestly, he didn’t know why the wolf girl wasn’t at the Sanctuary, merrily justifying her murders with the rest of them. He, ah, kinda didn’t like her, from her zealotous rants he’d heard at X-meetings.

“Pretty much, the Mansion is a really diverse place. Some of it sucks, but a lot of places suck worse, so I go there. I’m trying to get a high school degree. Maybe.” A slight blush crept into his cheeks. It wasn’t obvious from looking at him, but that degree might just be a long time in coming. He was nineteen; if he was normal, he’d be graduating from his nice normal high school this year. Instead, he was probably going to get demoted down to freshman classes for the next semester, after his horrible grades this semester. Unless that tutor Raina promised really came through for him.

“Where’d you get the cult idea? Is that the latest swing the papers are using?” Calley asked. It wouldn’t really surprise him. It was clear from his voice that he wouldn’t be offended by most answers Bear could give, either. He was a mutant, but he was a pretty non-violent one. That meant that he was used to letting things go. The mutants who didn’t? They’d probably have killed Bear already. That first kick to the tiger’s side would have been a very, very poor idea.

Bear sat back on the couch, thinking to himself about all of the possibilities of being a Cat-Boy-Tiger when he heard a question shot at him.

>>“Hey, what was your first job? Was it fast food? How much did you make? Were you still in high school?”

"Well... My first job was at a Gas Station back home... I started working there right out of High School and continued working there, stupidly, for the past 4 years until I dropped everything and moved out here.. I didnt make enough... But I was smart with my money and saved it up, which is probably the only reason I havent starved yet out here in New York... Got quite a bit saved up... But not enough, none of it ever is enough..." Bear thought about all of the boring days he spent working for that jerk. "Brothers and Sisters? Nah... Just my best friend back when I was a kid, it was me and her... And as for my High School graduation, my friend was there, she was so Happy... And I was there for hers... Man I was proud of her for graduating... She did pretty good too, better than I did in High School, I'll tell you that much..."

Bear continued to listen to the boy answer his questions then ask questions of his own, it was a rather interesting conversation to have, he was a mutant who lived a normal life and Calley was a mutant who couldnt live a normal life, or didnt... Hiding wasn't too hard when you just basically forgot you even had abilities aside from the occasional stray thought or question from Aris.

>>"If you were a mutant, what would you choose? I mean, if you didn’t have any physical mutations. Would you try to pass as human, or would you try to use your abilities? Because once you pick the ‘use my abilities’, there’s no going back. Trust me.”

If you were a mutant, oh how much he didnt know... "If I were a mutant huh? And I could hide in plain site? I dunno... I guess I'd probably hide... But then again, why wouldnt you use your abilities?" Maybe because you think you're a freak for having abilities. Yeah that's a good reason not to use em, but of course you wont tell Calley that. "That is a tough question to answer Calley... I really couldnt say unless I was put in that position..." Which I am. And decided long ago...

>>“Yeah, I could. But, I mean... I’m not a good person. But I’ve never really gone out of my way to be bad, either. If you had a mutation, would you use it for bad things, just because you had the power to? Or would you just be who you are now, except with powers?”

"Well, again Calley, I couldnt answer truthfully unless I were in that position." Which I am... "But... If I had to choose one... I think I'd just try to be me, except with powers.." Which I have... "But... It'd be quite interesting to know what you could do and to see people afraid of you for a reason for once instead of just looking at you, finding out you're a mutant then running away... Err... Well, I just assume that's what happens... I mean that's what I've seen happen a lot..."

>>"What do you think of us?”

What do I think of us? Well, I think we're freaks too... Doing rotten stuff... But then again, last night was very interesting... Makes me wonder if it's really the mutants that are the freaks and not the humans. "Well... The interesting part about that Calley is, who really is the freak? The people defending themselves and trying to stick up for their rights as people... Or the ones spitting on people because they're different? I mean, I've seen some pretty bad things happen... People walking down the street, visible mutants, they get pulled into a dark alley and assaulted... But what happens? The mutants defend themselves and then get charged with assault with a deadly weapon or something like that... Where's the justice Calley? Who's going to stick up for the mutants if they dont or cant do it themselves..." What was he saying? He could feel himself turning into a mutant already and he's only been around his kind for 2 days. It was weird, Bear didnt know what to do with himself and he didnt know how to handle the situation. All he knew was he was having problems and needed to find a way to deal with them the best way he could.

"A girl in a bow huh? Sounds interesting, what does she do? And why run especially if there are cops? Is she an especially dangerous mutant? Or does she just take pleasure in dismantling cops or humans in general?" Bear continued listening to Calley talk about the mansion and their ideals, a peaceful world where both could live happily. Yeah, like that was going to happen, what self respecting mutant would ever believe a bunch of horse hockey like that, it was ridiculous. "So, you're on the side of peace for both then I take it? Havent you ever heard of peace through war? I mean I dont like saying that, being a human and all... But that's the way of the world... If you want peace, there usually needs to be a battle of some sort to find out who's going to come out on top... And if that's the case, I think that we as humans are out of luck in that department... I mean, sure, we have guns... But you've got people that might as well be guns... People that can tear a gun apart with a thought... What're guns going to do against mutants? Maybe a few will die... But how many humans will die in that war? Most of 'em probably..."

>>“Where’d you get the cult idea? Is that the latest swing the papers are using?”

"Oh... It's just what I think about when I hear about places that are "Great" or sayings like "All roads lead to the mansion..." It just makes me wonder who's really behind places like that... Y'know it's like thinking about the "Bright 'n Shinnies" living there... That's all... Buncha crazies.. But I guess it isnt is it? It's just a normal place for mutants to stay and feel safe and feel like they're part of a family..." Bear laughed inwardly, still thinking about it as being a cult... He didnt really know what to think about this little faction war going on... He kinda felt this Sanctuary had things better off for themselves than that Mansion place. But who knows... Maybe the Mansion is better funded?"

>> "But... It'd be quite interesting to know what you could do and to see people afraid of you for a reason for once instead of just looking at you, finding out you're a mutant then running away... Err... Well, I just assume that's what happens... I mean that's what I've seen happen a lot..."

Calley gave a shrug. “Personally, I think people would do a lot less ‘being afraid of us’ if we’d stop stabbing them. And disemboweling them. And beheading them. And manipulating their skeletal structure to impale themselves and their friends in horrible ways.” It was spoken nonchalantly. In the mutant community, those actions could get frighteningly nonchalant. Urk. “Umm, you.” Not ‘them’. ‘You’; he was talking to a human, after all. Stabbing you. Disemboweling you. Yeeeah...

“Frankly, I think humans and mutants can both be freaks. A lot of us mutants hide behind ‘self-defense’, when what we’re really doing is going out looking for trouble. And even if we’re honestly attacked, it would be easy with our powers to just disable a human. That’s what self-defense is. I mean, human black belts in martial arts are considered ‘lethal weapons’ because of their skills; if they killed someone in self-defense, they’d be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, too. And it’s not like there’s any jail that can hold us, after we kill people. There isn’t any justice in you humans doing hate crimes. But there isn’t any accountability for us mutants who do hate crimes, or just plain kill humans, either. And we can be zealots, just as much as you can. Our zealots tend to have higher body counts than yours, though.” Another shrug. “Did you honestly hear about those massacres on the news, and think ‘oh good, the mutants are standing up for themselves?’ I mean, if you were a mutant even, would you think that?” Personally, they just made Calley feel sick. And a little like his life had just gotten harder. Thanks, mutant zealots. Thaaaannks.

>> “A girl in a bow huh? Sounds interesting, what does she do? And why run especially if there are cops? Is she an especially dangerous mutant? Or does she just take pleasure in dismantling cops or humans in general?"

“All three,” Calley answered, succinctly. “Isabel Duskmoor. Look her up in the news—she’s not hard to find.” Yep. Bear was definitely new to the city. Otherwise, he’d know about Issie’s reputation. Personally, Calley was currently avoiding her as well—she’d, err, dumped him recently. After he came clean about pretending to be her cat. A multi-week act which may or may not have involved seeing her change clothes on multiple occasions. Heh. Calley-cat regretted nothing. Issie was awesome, besides the rampant bloodbaths. After she’d cooled down some, he’d try talking to her again.

>> "So, you're on the side of peace for both then I take it?”

“Nope,” Calley put in. “I’m on the side of living my life. And I get a little irked when zealots on either side don’t stop to think about how hard they’re making it for everyone, human and mutant.”

And then came the war speech. For the first time, Calley didn’t reply quickly. Instead... he stared. Dark eyebrows came a little closer together. Where had that come from? And why was it being voiced from the mutant perspective? Especially with that kind of passion. Another first for the evening: Calley began to question his assumption that this guy was strictly human.

With that questioning, a lot of little things seemed to fall into a kind of sense.

The guy’s utter lack of fear in the face of an obvious mutant. Not even just fear—he’d been almost completely unphased. And that was saying a lot, considering that a tiger had fallen on him.

...A tiger had fallen on him, and he really didn’t seem hurt. Huh.

The dodging of a real name by giving an obvious fake; a common act in the mutant community, though considered a bit rude in the human one, the last he’d been human himself.

All the little hints through this conversation. The overwhelming sympathy to the mutant cause; the almost complete lack of words voiced in support—or even from—the human perspective.

And the fact that the guy hadn’t actually said he was a human until just then, that Calley could remember: ‘I mean I don’t like saying that, being a human and all...’ And what an interesting emphasis that had been.

Calley didn’t actually reply to the guy’s war speech. He just watched the guy. The guy who was new to the city, but hadn’t asked a single question about the Sanctuary, even though Calley had basically stated it was a death trap. For humans. The guy had called his blatant hints that Isabel was a killer ‘interesting’, though.

>> "Oh... It's just what I think about when I hear about places that are "Great" or sayings like "All roads lead to the mansion..." It just makes me wonder who's really behind places like that... Y'know it's like thinking about the "Bright 'n Shinnies" living there... That's all... Buncha crazies.. But I guess it isnt is it? It's just a normal place for mutants to stay and feel safe and feel like they're part of a family..."

“The Mansion is just the same as the Sanctuary,” Calley stated bluntly. “They both offer free room. Free board. Free family and friends, if you’re into that. Free morals shoved down your throat. They both house a mutant Faction, and both of those Factions are pretty hypocritical. They talk a lot. They don’t actually get much done. The difference is in the ethics: the Sanctuary’s Order likes to go around murdering people, and justify it afterwards. Sometimes they kill humans who actually hate mutants. A lot of the time, though, they’re just like those idiots I ran into earlier tonight—they’re just attacking humans because they feel like it, and they’re doing it in as stupid and ill-planned of a manner as possible. The X-Men are sworn to protect humans, but they do a crap job of it, for the most part. They do some good, but not much. Just like the Order doesn’t actually do much.”

“So,” Calley stated simply, baby blue eyes still watching the man from his tiger-toy seat on the floor, “have you actually joined the Order yet?” If Bear wasn’t a mutant who’d been letting him talk like an idiot, then he was quite possibly the most confused human on the planet.

>>"And even if we’re honestly attacked, it would be easy with our powers to just disable a human. That’s what self-defense is. I mean, human black belts in martial arts are considered ‘lethal weapons’ because of their skills; if they killed someone in self-defense, they’d be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, too."

Bear sat back and listened to what Calley had to say, after a few moments he heard something that went against what he had just said and felt he needed to fix that. "Well, first of all, I'm saying that if the mutant DIDNT kill the thugs attacking them... They'd still get charged with Assault with a Deadly Weapon. You and I both know that..." Bear sighed lightly, leaning back against the couch and putting his arms out to either side, resting them on the back of the couch. After a few moments and his little war speech, Calley set in about the mansion and Sanctuary. Yeah, ok, so hypocrites on both sides and all that yadda yadda, Bear really didnt need to hear this, knowing that it was the truth.

>>"So, have you actually joined the Order yet?"

Bear's eyes shot open and he looked at the boy, had he figured out that he was in fact a mutant and not a human as the boy had assumed. Bear wasnt lying, he just wasnt telling the full truth, oh wait, there was the point where he said 'being a human and all...' But... That wasnt anything really solid against him, he did put emphasis on the word, practically bringing his fingers up for a quotation sign. Bear smiled lightly and leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together, a slow gaze turned to look Calley directly in the eyes. "Nope... I havent..."

Bear couldnt believe he would ask a question like that but then again, why wouldnt he... He already seemed to hate both sides equally and Bear was spouting off, basically supporting The Order, wait, he was supporting The Order... Wait, he's willing to admit being a mutant... This isnt right, what's going on? Bear, you really need to get your head on straight dont you buddy... Hmm, it must be time to come clean. "Alright... Yeah, I'm a mutant... But you can't blame me for playing along with the whole 'human' card, you basically shoved it in my face. Almost instantly assuming I was a human, despite getting up from you landing on me in your 450lb Bengal Tiger form... What human would get up from a huge tiger landing on them, much less be able to push the dang thing off of them then proceed to kick it lightly without being afraid of it? I mean really, is it my fault you assumed I was human? I dont think so... I just went with it... Heck, I didnt even go with it, I never out right said I was human until a couple minutes ago... And at that point I might as well have put quotations up in the air just to make it more obvious that I was giving myself a label that was already given to me by you without actually saying I was human."

"Y'know, I might be a mutant and I might support The Order more than I do This Mansion of yours... But it's because 'peacefully' standing around doing nothing will get you exactly what you're doing... NOTHING. At least The Order takes action and stands up for their rights as people... Yeah sure, they go about it the wrong way but you really gotta think about it Calley... Violence begets Violence... Mutants are treated poorly the moment they're revealed to the world... We're segregated away from society, forced to go to 'relocation camps' known as 'The Mansion' or 'Sanctuary' that's what those places are... They're ways to get us to stay out of society, the mutants themselves might have made these places but the Humans forced their hands and caused them to make these places. They also caused The Order to act the way they do..." Bear could feel his blood boiling now, thinking about the way he was treated all his life and the way the boy was treated and how he wasnt even the slightest bit angry with the humans.

"I spent 7 years of my life after finding out about my ability, Listening to my parents and my best friends parents cursing mutants and talking about the 'Mutant Problem', I am a 'Mutant Problem' to my own parents Calley... And I'm sure you can say the same thing and you're not angry at all? That's not right... OH! And about the stab wound I got... I got it from defending my mutant friend who got pulled into an alley and jumped just because she was a mutant..." Bear sighs lightly, he could almost kiss that interview goodbye at this very moment, there had to be something he could do to save himself.

"Look Calley, I'm not a violent person... I'm the kind of person that stands by the words of 'For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.' If someone attacks me, I'll defend myself... I probably wont sign with The Order, and I'm trying to get myself an apartment so I dont have to stay at The Sanctuary... I'm not comfortable with my own kind, I agree with you Calley, most of us are freaks..." Me included "I just want to try and live my life and be there for my friend if she needs me... And I need a job to do that... Heck, maybe your Mansion will earn itself a little trust from me because of this friend of yours one day... But who really knows what's going to happen... As I said, I just want to live my life and continue pretending to be human without actually saying I am... I have that luxury because I dont change the way I look even when my power activates... I can live in society... And that's what I want to do... So that answers your question from before more thoroughly.. "If you had a power and could hide, would you? Or would you use it?" Well, Calley, I have a power and I can hide and that's what I've been doing for 7 years..."

Bear could feel his face get heavier as he looked down, his emotions whirling inside of him, his brain racing with indecision. He didnt know what to do or what to think, he was still so easily swayed by anything and everything, especially the need to just live his life the way he wants to. Bear let out a heavy sigh, trying to calm himself down a bit before sitting back against the couch, hands still folded in his lap. He glanced over at Calley, his cocky smirk and tone gone completely from the moment he began spilling his guts. In all actuallity, Calley was older than he was, Calley has experienced more things... "Oh and what I said about 'being normal' wasnt a lie... That's what I did for the past 4 years... And 3 of those years I was just trying to keep myself a secret while going through High School."

((OOC: Wow... Bear took a big turn there didnt he...))

((ooc: Don’t you love when that happens? Really helps you get a feel for the character. )

Calley listened. Really, really listened. Because, folks, now they were getting somewhere. And now things were getting interesting.

“In my defense,” he replied to the ‘how did you not notice I was a mutant’ bit, “I had just fallen off a roof. And, err, been mildly electrocuted.”

And he kept right on listening. To the man’s thoughts on at least doing something; to the way his friend and he had been attacked, to the way his own parents had made him want to hide and just keep hiding forever. And how effectively he’d done so. Seven years. Wow. Calley had maxed out at two. Though, granted, he’d been hiding as a house cat at the time, and had reeeeeally wanted to try and do something... normal. Though, err, ‘normal’ had turned out to be pretty far from what he’d expected.

Finally, Calley started talking back. There was an energy about him that there hadn’t been before—a slight Cheshire grin lurking at the corners of his mouth. Now they were getting somewhere, after all. Now this guy was a mutant, not a human. Now Calley might just be friends with him after tonight was over. “I can understand the wanting to hide thing, and I definitely made it easy for you. But word of advice—” the Cheshire grin twitched into a smirk; “—careful with kicking tigers and then pretending to be human. There’s a lot of mutants that would kill you for that if they thought you were human, and I’ve met plenty who can do it before your power can activate. Err, if your power needs an activation. I know with mine, it’s just a spit second to change forms—but that still got me drenched and thunder-bolted by those idiots earlier tonight. I was just lucky they were small fry.” Yep, small fry. And he could have taken them, if he’d gone all out. But you don’t go all-out against small fry. Calley had fought a vampiric immortal and held his own. He’d fought one of Abyss’ clones into submission. His rooftop friends didn’t begin to match the major leagues. Unfortunately, neither did Calley’s tiger form.

Good thing he had others.

But that, friends, was not what they were discussing.

“I completely agree,” the teenager stated, with a thorough and proper nod. He shifted to sit cross-legged. “Things do need to change, and they probably aren’t going to change through bake sales. Be careful with the Sanctuary, though. They’re not exactly what they say they are, to the new recruits.”

He shifted, a hand running through his brown hair. “Listen, you can believe me or not on the rest of this, but it’s true. Remember what I said about trying to hide as a cat, and remember what you said about spying on the mayor? Yeah, well... put them together. I was a house cat for two years. And for some of that, I lived at the Sanctuary. It’s not like I was really spying—it’s more like they didn’t bother to keep the little cat out of their meetings.”

“The Order does things, all right, but they might not be the kinds of things you’d want to see done. While I was there, they raided a lab and rescued some mutants. Good, right? But the reason they did it was to get at this one mutant they thought was useful. And then they put her in their own lab—King Pharmaceuticals. She was just this little girl. They didn’t treat her bad, but they still just moved her from one place that was experimenting on her to another. And they did use her for experiments.”

“And what they experimented on,” Calley continued, with a sort of that’s-just-how-it-was shrug, “was people. Humans and mutants, both. They just kidnapped people off the streets—and can I emphasize the ‘and mutants’? That’s kinda the part that gets me. The humans died in the experiments, and the mutants... they went through a lot of pain, and were kept captive for weeks. And at the end, they took one of the mutants they’d experimented on, and they released her at the Mansion. I say ‘released’, because they knew that their experiments had screwed up her mind. And they’d also boosted her powers through the roof. They took a dangerous mutant who was basically out of her mind, and they dropped her in the middle of a school full of mutant children, and walked away. A lot of the Mansion was destroyed, and people got hurt. It was just luck that there weren’t any deaths. I can understand fighting the X-Men—the Order and the X-Men always kinda fight. It’s like the thing to do, around here. But I don’t like it when civilians get dragged in. I think it’s stupid when I see random humans turn up dead on the news for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I think they’re idiots for attacking mutant kids.”

Another shrug. That was probably a lot for Bear to take in. “Like I said, you can believe me or not. I was living at the Sanctuary while all that happened. I still have a room there. One of my best friends is on the Order. I’m an X-Men—err, trainee, anyway—but just because it gets me out of class, mostly.” Always a good reason to go on missions. “I guess what I’m getting at is this—just keep your eyes open. The X’s and the O’s both talk a lot, but if you look at what they do... yeah. It’s something else, with both of them. If the Order was actually fighting for mutant rights, I’d probably join them. But a lot of what they do... well, yeah. Just look for yourself, if you’re thinking of joining. Definitely have your friend’s back, and maybe tell her what I said, if you want.” Calley had nothing against the Order. Nothing more than he had against the X’s. He lived at both the Mansion and the Sanctuary, when he felt like it—and it honestly might be time to switch up his main residence again. At least until finals were over...

At the end of the day, he was only on the X-Men instead of the Order because the X-Men didn’t expect him to kill people. They didn’t expect him to enjoy it if he did. And they didn’t ask him to not puke on their shoes if they did it in front of him, or if they attacked a school full of mutant kids again, or kept talking about rounding up humans into breeding camps and culling the excess out of the herd. As much as Abyss might beg to differ, Calley reeeeally didn’t see himself as an Order type of person. He wasn’t really any Faction’s kind of person. Which was okay: because he was a big cat now. He’d held his own in a fight against the Kabal’s former leader. More importantly, he’d grown the spine to challenge the guy in the first place. Isabel’s Kitten was all grown up, now. He could take care of himself.

He did kinda worry about newcomers to their friendly little city, though. “Errhm,” Calley said, “about the looking for an apartment thing? You can stay here for awhile, if you want. I usually stay at either the Mansion or the Sanctuary, myself. I just like to keep this place in case I feel like hiding low for awhile. You’d have to chip in on rent or help clean or something, though. And you’d definitely have to buy your own groceries. I’m not as nice as the places that let you freeload.”

Bear returned the favor, simply listening to what Calley had to say about the whole situation, his brain turning quickly, processing as much of this information as he can. Human experiments were one thing, he could ALMOST handle human experiments, but mutant experiments. Mutants experimenting on mutants, now that's just wrong. "Well, I'll make sure to keep those things in mind... And by the look on your face when I was admitting things to you... I think you understand why I'm having issues..."

Bear pauses a moment, thinking back on all of his problems in life, everything that's gone wrong to cause him to live his life in shame... And now, all the things that are basically turning him into one of the activists are the exact things that caused him to go into hiding. "I think talking to you has opened my eyes a bit Calley, and I appreciate it... But I need more information I think... I wanna hear some of this stuff from the horses mouth... I would say the same to the X's but I doubt they'll have much to say besides telling me that we should strive for peace through peace... Which makes no sense to me... Peace through war is all history tells us and that's the only thing that makes sense. I hate to say it so bluntly..." No he doesnt. "But it's the truth..."

Throughout this conversation, Bear had hoped Calley was at least intelligent enough to understand that one very simple fact. Wars always ended in a period of peace and before the war there was always some kind of turmoil. Peace, through War. It was one of those truths that you didnt want to believe because it was such a dirty and disgusting truth, but the key word there is simply that, TRUTH. But for now, onto more pressing matters, the problem of not having a place to stay and the simple possibility of that being remedied by this young man. "Well, I dont mind paying half the rent or more of the rent because you said you dont really stay here often... Right? Either way... I think your offer of being roommates is a fair and good offer, so I'd like to take you up on it, whatever the condition, you let me know and we'll work something out... I'm sure you'll be fair."

"Oh and trust me, I'm not a freeloader and I know how to cook if you dont... So you may be treated to some gourmet old fashioned cooking... Ok Gourmet and Old Fashioned dont really go together so I'll just say some good old home cooking. I'm a pretty decent cook." Bear smiles politely, leaning back on the couch and looking around. "I guess I'll have to get my stuff sooner or later... I uh... Actually left it at the sanctuary with a friend of mine... So, it may take a while for me to even get to getting my stuff which kinda sucks... Then again, I could just call her up and go get it..." (without opening a thread )

Calley’s intelligence wasn’t at question: he knew he was stupid. That was just a fact, as much as Abyss seemed to think otherwise. Something that wasn’t a fact: wars bringing on peace. Wasn’t really something he thought of, though. People always fought. And they always would. That was his day-to-day life. Real peace? Real peace was an afternoon with Katrina or Ghost or laying in a sunbeam. It didn’t last. War was, and always would be. Peace occasionally was, and would always go away. Those were Calley’s facts. Waging war to get peace was a lot like painting a zebra black and white. Go ahead: just don’t be surprised if you step back at the end, and can’t see what difference you made.

The teenager nodded as Bear talked. “If you didn’t go out and get your own info, you’d,” be a roaring idiot, and clearly unappreciative of how much information is work. Calley was alive because of information. In a very many literal cases. “...Err, yeah. Checking things out yourself is good. I approve. Just keep your brain’s propaganda firewalls up, and you’ll be fine.” Propaganda? That hadn’t kept him alive. Propaganda was like peace: it might be nice for awhile, but it’d always fade back to reality. War, and truth.

There was serious perking at the sound of food. Calley could appreciate food. A grin quirked at one corner of his mouth. “I think you and I may just get along, Bear. How does ‘half the rent, and if you’re cooking something good, you tell me’, sound? And like I said before, you can have the bedroom. Not just for tonight; that can be yours, period. I haven’t used it for months. Just leave me some space in the closet for a few outfits.”

“So,” he said, straightening his back up quite formally, “ground rules. First: don’t vacuum my tiger doll, or shove it in the washer, or anything. I like the car fur.”

“Second: leave the window cracked open an inch or two in this room. I come in that way sometimes when I’m not biped, and there’s an overhang out there that keeps the rain out. We’re too high up for mosquitoes, too, so don’t worry about them getting in. And if a bird comes in who isn’t oddly intelligent, feel free to shoo it back out. Or leave it. I’ll eat it.”

“Last: I don’t have pillows. If you buy some,” which would probably be the normal thing to do, “keep them in the bedroom. I’ve got a thing with pillows.” It was called conditioning, and it had involved a beating and the ripping off of his tail. His loathing for pillows actually grew with time. He used to just shove the pillows into the closet; it had progressed to the point where he’d shoved them into the dumpster. That had felt good.

“Any things you’ll be needing me to do?” He asked back. Fair was probably fair, unless he didn’t like the sound of it. Then he’d pull the landlord card. Heh.

“And... yeah. I think that’s it. I can call up Ghost in the morning—that’s the owner’s name. Set you up an interview, and all that jazz.” Calley scratched at the back of his arm. Yeah; all that jazz. That pretty much did it.

Except for one thing. “What’s your mutation, if you don’t mind my asking? I’m an animal shifter, if you haven’t figured that one out yet. I can pretty much do any animal form.” When inviting a mutant to live with you, it was good to ask what you were getting. “Oh, and any mortal enemies I should worry about?” Baby blue eyes gave a perfectly reasonable blink. Another decent question, in the world Bear was stepping into.

>>"How does ‘half the rent, and if you’re cooking something good, you tell me’, sound? And like I said before, you can have the bedroom. Not just for tonight; that can be yours, period. I haven’t used it for months. Just leave me some space in the closet for a few outfits.”

"Done, done and done... That all sounds pretty fair so far... I dont mind cooking for more people... Would you be against me possibly inviting over a friend for dinner every now and again... Considering I only have one friend, well... Two now I guess.... At the current moment in time..." Bear smiled, trying to remember all of the recipes built into his brain over the years, he then realized that'd be a bad idea considering his mind was already racing with everything else going on and all the information sifting through it. "Oh and of course I wont vacuum the tiger, or do anything like that... We'll be lucky if I remember how to use a vacuum..." Bear laughed lightly, knowing he's telling the truth, especially considering his mom was a House Wife/Mother his entire life and he only knew how to cook cuz she didnt come over to his apartment to cook, just to clean up after him. Oh man, despite his parents hating mutants, he sure as heck was a spoiled person when it came to his mother, such a momma's boy.

"Window cracked, got it... And I'd probably just leave the bird for you for a snack or something... Door locked whenever I leave though?" Bear glanced back at the door to the apartment, wondering if that was a good idea, considering Calley had a tendency to probably lose his keys whenever he took on a different form. Then again, even if he lost his keys, he could always transform into his cat-like-ness and climb in through said open window.

"Yeah I'll probably go buy some pillows soon and I'll make sure they stay in the bedroom, it'd just be weird to have them elsewhere anyways." Bear laughed lightly, wondering why the boy didnt want the pillows out of the bedroom, also wondering why he had no pillows in the first place. Must be a 'straight back' kinda sleeper like some of those weird people out there.

>>“Any things you’ll be needing me to do?”

"Uhm... I'm not really a picky person... I guess just that prior question you already answered... And... Hmmm..." Bear sat back, thinking to himself, trying to figure out if there was anything he needed from the Cat-Boy-Tiger. "What do you... Err, we, have in the means of entertainment? Cable? Movies? Internet? Video games? If you say no to any of that stuff... I'll probably go buy some of it when I have enough money... If I get that job with your friend... Ghost was it?" Bear paused, thinking back to what the boy just said, trying to remember the shop owners name. "Yeah... If I get that job, it'll probably happen sooner... Anything you'd need me to buy?"

>>“What’s your mutation, if you don’t mind my asking? I’m an animal shifter, if you haven’t figured that one out yet. I can pretty much do any animal form. Oh, and any mortal enemies I should worry about?"

What's your mutation? Oh god, that question... Hmm, how to answer it... "Well... I uh... I get stronger with the more pain I feel, hence me being able to lift a 450lb cat after having it drop on me... Only problem is, when my adrenaline wears off, I lose my strength and feel the pain hit me suddenly..." Bear sighed, thinking back to all the pain he's been through from the fights and tiger bombardment... "And no, at the current moment in time, no mortal enemies..." Mortal enemies? How could Bear have mortal enemies? How does one even get a 'mortal enemy' it just didnt make sense to him... Sounded like something out of a comic book. Wait, most of this mutant stuff sounded like comic book stuff... So it sorta made sense if you really put all those things together.

The teenager waved a hand. “Friends are fine. Just hang a tie on the doorknob if you’re going special friend on me. And, err, one on the windowsill, too.” Nothing like a hawk flying in on your hanky-panky. “And yep, door locked, please. Not that I have anything to steal, but it’s kind of the principle of the matter.” And while Calley didn’t have any mortal enemies, he was pretty sure that Slate might be actively making a few somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere. And since he and Slate were ‘identical twins’... yeeeeeah. But Bear didn’t ask about that, so Calley wasn’t going to tell until it actually became a hazard. Until then: door locked. Good idea. “Don’t worry about me gettin’ in—I can always take the unconventional route if my keys are lost in a pile of clothing scraps again.”

>> "What do you... Err, we, have in the means of entertainment? Cable? Movies? Internet? Video games? If you say no to any of that stuff... I'll probably go buy some of it when I have enough money... If I get that job with your friend... Ghost was it? Yeah... If I get that job, it'll probably happen sooner... Anything you'd need me to buy?"

“Err,” a sheepish scratching of the back of his head, and a slight look at the bare living room. “None of the above. I think the TV gets regular stations, but I haven’t checked in awhile. Feel free to buy whatever you want, though. Just, umm, no coffee tables or anything for the middle of the room. I test out new forms here sometimes, and running into the walls is bad enough. I don’t need to deal with coffee tables.”

Interesting mutation. He’d definitely never heard that one, before. “Cool. But, err, you sure you don’t need to hit up a doctor?” Falling tiger + damage that starts hurting after the adrenaline wears off = yeeeeeah.

Calley foofed the tiger toy behind him, and resettled comfortably onto its stripped fluff. “So yeah. Welcome to your new apartment, roomie. Do you have a name other than Bear?”

"Alright well... First off, I dont think we'll have to worry about special friends, cuz well... I dont have any and I dont have much luck with women either so yeah... Oh well..." Bear paused mentally, skipping to the subject of entertainment, knowing if he was ever cooped up in an apartment for a matter of more than an hour with only basic channels, he'd go crazy and go kill someone on the streets of New York just so he'd have something to do. Bad bad things would happen if Bear got too bored. "We'll have some of that other stuff eventually I think... I mean cmon, what guy DOESNT like playing video games? Huh huh?" Bear laughed lightly looking over at Calley, he could already feel himself getting a bit more comfortable with the whole living situation.

"Yeah, no worries about the whole doctor thing... I'll be ok... It's weird... It's kinda like my body just gets used to the pain after a while... And when I take on my ability, after the rush of pain, it's kinda an acute thing... And my body will hopefully..." Bear crosses his fingers. "Absorb most of a blunt blow without too much effect... But I havent fully tested everything out yet... Remember, I've been in hiding for 7 years... Not much time between when I found out my abilities, 7 years and a couple days ago... And now to figure out the entirety of my ability... All I know is pain manifests it right now and I get stronger and faster and a little more durable."

"Real name? Heh... Well, the only person in this city that knows my real name is my best friend... But... I guess I could give it to you... As long as you promise not to use it anywhere but in the confines of this apartment..." Bear pauses a moment, waiting for the boys response. "Alright... Name is Nicholas Orthin, but dont call me Nicholas if you have to use my real name... My mom calls me that... Just call me Nick." Bear, err... Nick smiled lightly, reaching out his hand to formally introduce himself. He sure did like his formalities after all... Heck, even if he were about to kill a man, he may want to find out his name first... Probably only for the tombstone but that's besides the point.

There was an ‘of course’ nod to keeping Bear’s real name on the down low. Of course. In general, only about half of what Calley knew ended up filtering to other places, even when he’d actually been a Kabal spy. Now? The Scary Boss Man was gone. He was collecting info for himself, because there was something altogether satisfying about knowing things.

Calley shook that offered hand. “Nice to meet you, Nick.” He grinned. “Now shall we get some sleep?” It wasn’t every day a guy met a tiger and got himself a new place to live. Or every day that a tiger met a guy and gave him a place to live, for that matter.