Emerald perked up when she saw someone sit by her someone she didn’t know. It was interesting, she hadn’t thought that anyone would actually approach her, but since someone did she might as well be nice.

“Sure go on and sit, hell I didn’t think anyone would sit by me.” Emerald answered honestly. “I'm sort of the big bad wolf around these parts.”

What the wolf girl said was true, she oftentimes scared off potential friends with her feral attitude about certain things. She was considered a renegade by the X men and a potential member by certain bone wielding members of the order, so she wasn’t exactly popular. Emerald didn’t mind being the renegade though, it wasn’t her fault that the X men sucked at keeping the order between mutants and humans. So she decided its good to ‘keep the peace’ in her own way. She had to wonder though on what side did this young male fall under?

“Alright, why have you come to this shindig? Me I’m only coming to support the happy couple, even thought I hardly know em.” Emerald explained with a small wolfy smile with her sharp teeth. “After this I am getting out of these clothes, back into some normal clothes and I’m gonna go work out or something.”

As the wedding calmed down he noticed mroe people that he didn't see before during the weeding. The reception was getting full and he even noticed someone he hadn't seen in a while. Emerald, snacking out on the food. Of course there was also Jewel there that he thought he should mingle with for a little bit. Why were there cops here at the wedding? And why were they going up to Sam? Hearing what they had to say put his mind at ease. But there was plenty of activity to keep him busy and occupied. There was also the fact that there were Order members in the mansion joining in with the wedding.

None of the looked like they were here looking for trouble, but one could never tell with them. They look like they're enjoying themselves. I didn't know they knew how to be civil. Streak thought to himself as he continued to look around, keeping an eye out on people to mingle with. With his mind still on Lily he decided to excuse himself from Sam and Alexandra and headed over to where Jewel was talking with a...guy?... girl? A guy dressed like a girl? He was thoroughly confused with the person that Jewel was talking to. Introductions would be done moments after he had arrived and announced his colse proximity to Lily. There was no hiding from Lily but he didn't know how well she could tell how close he was to her. Once he was close enough he said, "Hey Lily. i didn't know you were coming to the wedding." Streak hoped he wasn't interrupting her previous conversation with this...person.

Twyla Ashby had been invited to the wedding that was taking place in the Danger Room because she was a student and not because she knew either the bride or the groom. She’d heard of Ghost (she’d even been to her bookstore) but she hadn’t met her in person. The groom she hadn’t heard of and (obviously) hadn’t met him either. All this led her to only attend the reception–it’s what her parents did when they just kinda knew someone or it was so-and-so from highschool’s daughter getting married....Well, that was half of it, the other half was that she held nothing in her closet suitable for a wedding. All of her ‘nice’ clothes were still in her closet back home and not wanting to be the eyesore of the ceremony she made the executive decision to only be an eyesore after the ceremony. She felt less guilty with this plan than her alternate plan which would have been to not show up at all and to hide in her room the whole night. Thatwould be kinda rude.

It had taken her most of the night before to scrounge up a half decent outfit. What was settled on was a green skirt with a layer of tulle over it that came to just above her knees, a green tank top that was almost the same color, and a dark green cap-sleeved hoodie that was made of a sweater-like material. For shoes she had a pair of brown leather sandals that she had bought during the summer. All in all Twyla felt like she looked like a grasshopper. At least her hair had cooperated itself into the complicated, braided bun that she had decided to try and she was steady enough with her make-up hand that her face looked nice. Thank the Lord for small mercies.

When Twyla entered the Danger Room Twyla wasn’t surprised by the number of people as much as she was surprised by the way the Danger Room looked. It never ceased to amaze her what the special room could do–its talents ranged the whole spectrum from training to weddings, apparently. It looked and felt like the reception was outside and she stood amazed for a moment. With a blush she closed her gaping mouth and searched around for a familiar face. Locating a pleasant (if in a weird way that she didn’t want to make sense of) surprise Twyla headed off in the direction of the food. It figured she-he-they? would be wanting to eat but why were he-she-they? there in the first place?

Twyla didn’t know the wolf-ish looking girl that Gawain was sitting next to, but that wasn’t a deterrent and she made a beeline for where they were sitting. The skirt made funny whooshing sounds as she walked and Twyla was secretly thankful that she currently didn’t have any heels at the Mansion. Separately she could maneuver in a skirt or heels but at the same time...let’s just say Twyla was always weirdly uncoordinated in that outfit. She didn’t bother to grab any food, she wasn’t very hungry, and she stayed out of Gawain’s line of sight until she was right behind him. Throwing a bright smile at the unfamiliar girl she placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to startle him-her-them?.

"I'm not really much for wedings either," Meld admitted, though she was pretty sure that her discomfort was obvious for any of those who cared to look. "Though defence isn't really a concern of mine," she added with a short laugh.

As Meld conversed she closed her eyes briefly and opened her tail eye. Immediately the world turned red as she took stalk of what was going on behind and around her. For the first time she noticed Calley and his...twin? Now that was an interesting development. She hadn't been aware that the little shapeshifter had a twin. More interesting than that, though was one of the Abyss clones. Her first inclination upon seeing him was to remain out of sight and, hopefully, out of mind. Abyss, like Isabel, had all the reason to hate her and all the reason to want her to suffer if not become quickly dead. She was a trator to The Order, after all, in their eyes at least. No matter that it wasn't actually true. But then a little piece of memory filtered back into her consciousness. There had been a clone that had left The Order long before her own departure, hadn't there? She couldn't remember exactly where she had picked up this little piece of information, but she was almost posative it was accurate. And perhaps she could use an ally such as him in her self appointed mission. The question was, was it worth the risk?

For a long moment Meld watched the clone, trying to remember what the name of the trator was and unfortunately failing to dredge up that important piece of information. But she was fairly certain that Abyss and the other clones wouldn't be at a gathering like this. Would they? She didn't know them that well, after all. With a sigh she finally decided that the risk had to be taken and she had to speak to him. Hopefully even if she was wrong the clone wouldn't attack her in the middle of a wedding.

Meld closed her tail eye and reopened her regular eyes. The entire oberservation and consideration had only taken a few seconds, not long enough for it to appear particularly unusual. "If you will excuse me, Alchemist, there is someone I must speak too."

Meld walked up to the clone and waited for a polite moment to speak with him. "Excuse me, and I don't mean to be rude, but do you mind telling me which of the clones you are? I apologize but you do all look sort of similar." She laughed slightly, nervousness, much to her annoyance, being conveyed in that uncomfortable laugh. Had this been a proper battle she never would have let such a weak emotion be perceived, but this was not the field of battle she was used to and she had never been at her strongest in such situations.

They clapped. They more than clapped, it was a standing ovation. Ghost gave Sebastian one last peck before they took a few steps back toward the crowd. Her dad was there, patting her on the back, kissing her cheek and moving on.

Inevitably they were going to get separated in this crowd. It was better that way, though. Then they could greet twice the people. Ghost squeezed Sebastian's hand before letting it go. They had the rest of Ghost's life to spend with each other. What was a few moments apart now?

A gaggle of teens from the girl's hall, each one teary eyed, came between herself and Sam and Katrina. After a few promises not to disappear entirely from their lives and a good round of hugs and compliments on the wedding, Ghost looked up to where Sam, Alexandra, and Kat had been sitting. But now it was almost like Kat had grown up into an adult. There was a blond woman shaking Sam's hand and she had a contingency of police with her. Well, Ghost had sent the commissioner an invite.

With a quick smile and hug for Alexandra, Ghost snuck up next to Sam and poked him on the arm. "Who're your friends, Sam?"

Ghost grinned her finest 'I just got married' grin and offered her hand to the police people. "Hi, I'm Married." Her eyes widened and if she hadn't been shaking hands with a man who's name tag read White, she probably would have smacked her forehead with her hand. As it was her cheeks and ears went red. "Maya, I mean. Heh. Easy to get them confused considering the circumstances."

Oh look! Was that Calley? Ghost gave Sam a good hug an whispered in his ear for a moment before tottering off through a sea of chairs toward the food and a lonely Calley who looked entirely too stiff in his suit. Ghost was surprised Kat hadn't pounced him out of his shoes yet.

There was a wedding going on. From whom she did not know but she was invited just like everyone else. She had gotten a dress from somebody that she borrowed. It was nothing special, just a dark blueish dress. It was simple, bland and with straps.

She was in over her head though. She wasn't here very long, didn't know anybody and was a bit of the odd duckling in class. She said what was on her mind and sometimes even weird things that nobody had a clue about what to do with it. This made her the odd duckling in class for sure. Some kids even avoided her a little she thought. It didn't matter, she prefers alone time over populairity.

She walked into the danger room yet it did not look anything like it. It was decorated for the wedding and everything looked all nice and people where talking and enjoying themselves. She walked in without shoes and her bare feet touched the ground. It didn't feel akwardly cold or anything, strangely.

She walked around very slowly with big steps and watched the crowds. Nobody familiar just yet. But it was a big crowd never the less. She stood at the table with drinks and little snacks and gazed over them. She started to murmer all of the things that stood on the table and things she would relate them too. She shifted her look a couple of times real quick. She was so focused on everything on the table that she didn't pay any attention to the people who where in the room. Her brother was probably there too but she hadn't seen him yet. But what would she pick. She just picked up a drink that looked good and examined it. It looked like it had some fizz in it and non alcohol at all. She held it up high to look through it with some light. It remined her of apple juice. It made her want a apple though. She took a carefull sip and looked over the table again, this could keep her occupied all day.

Feeling the hand slip onto his back Sam turned his head to his date and smiled to Alex, ”Easier said than done, I just hope Ghost enjoys the scenery, this is after all her big day and I want it to be perfect.” smiling and looking around to make sure that some mingling and some eating was happening Sam turned his attention to a few officers that were making their way towards him. Looking over to Alex Sam joked, ”What did you do?”

Turning his attention to the officers Sam smiled and nodded his head, ”Officers, glad you all can make it, even if it might be required you attend.” Sam smiled extended a hand and let out a wink as he shook hands with the first officer that introduced the group, while he nodded to the rest of the group before shaking their hands, ”And I have met Ms. Fletcher, wasn’t the kind of meeting one remembers to fondly however though I am glad I can say that with a smile, if things happened differently I might not be here today.”

Reaching his hand up to the eye that was once bruised and swollen shut Sam smiled and said, ”I hope your feeling better Ms. Fletcher.” his attention turned to his side as his brother approached Alex and spoke to her. Giving his brother a quick nod he turned his attention back to the police, as he debated introducing his brother, then again they all might know him already. Deeming it wasn’t necessary Sam felt a poke on his arm and turned his head to see Ghost looking as lovely as ever in her wedding dress.

Turning his attention from everyone Sam wrapped his arms around ghost and kissed her on the cheek then hugged her tightly, ”Congrats, Ghost! Be sure to save me a dance!” there was a moment when Ghost whispered into his ear and Sam’s composure dropped slightly as another round of tears reached his eyes. Squeezing ghost again Sam loosened up as she seemed to be so excited about the happenings of today. Watching her walk away Sam reached up and whipped his eyes briefly before turning his attention back to the police and the people he was with.

”That was Maya, the belle of the ball and these two…” Sam gestured to his brother and then wrapped his arm around Alex’s waist his eyes still red from the last out break of tears while a smile was on his face, ”are my brother Dom and my girlfriend Alex, they are also part f the X team so more than likely you will be running into each other soon.”

Alexandra let her hand slide from Sam’s back to his elbow, giving it a small squeeze. “Sam, I’m sure she’ll love it.” the molecule manipulator replied as she let her eyes wander around the room, searching for familiar faces that she hadn’t seen yet. Some she wasn’t surprised to see, but some did bring a questioning look upon her face. For example Meld, the woman she had met in Central Park. Surprising of her to be in the Mansion after the KP Incident. But they did talk about loyalty and such so she might have changed the Order for the Mansion. Sighing slightly she moved on to her try-out partner in crime, Jewel and smiled in her direction in case she was watching. There was also Slate who was being pounced on by a blonde young girl. Also there was- Wait, wait, Slate was being pounced on? That…was strange. With an eyebrow arching in disbelief she turned her attention to the other side where her eyes met Shin and Streak (again she smiled in their direction in case they were looking) and --- Another Slate? The hell? Slate had a brother? A twin brother?

What did you do?”

Still surprised, Alexandra watched Sam confused before her head turned in the direction of the police officers heading their way. Nothing they would know about. She thought as she let out a small laugh. Before she could pay too much attention to the officers Dom approached her. Smiling at his compliment, Alexandra reached out and straightened up his tie. “Thank you Dom. You look lovely yourself.” Her eyes slipped past Dom where a group of girls were giggling in Dom’s direction, then with a smirk, she winked at Dom. “I think you’re building a reputation.” She whispered with a small nod in the girls direction. After chuckling for a few moments at Dom’s comment on whether Sam was going to the slammer or not, she elbowed the teen softly, a mischievous smile on her lips. “Shhh. Don’t let him hear you.”

As the officers joined Sam, Alexandra eyed them without paying too much attention… well of course, minus the blonde that was extending a slightly shaking hand toward her personal ice mancer. Alexandra Kettler, are you jealous? The molecule manipulator silenced the mental chuckle while she dismissed the idea of being jealous. After all, it was just a handshake… (Although she did wonder where the two had met and why exactly she wasn’t aware of that.) She was still forcing that particular thought out of her mind when Ghost joined them. “Ghost, congratulations! It was beautiful.” Alexandra complimented as she hugged the happy bride.

So happy that she even forgot her name, Alexandra noticed amused as Ghost’s cheeks turned red… That, of course until her own cheeks gained a shade or two of red when Sam introduced her to the officers as his girlfriend… and put his arm around her waist. Clearly she was not.ready for that move. “Errr...” No, no, no. That wasn’t supposed to come out that way. Let’s try again. “Alexandra Kettler.” Oh, she managed to speak. Her hand was extended politely toward the officers and, as she shook hands with each, she repeated the ‘Nice to meet you’ line every time.

With introductions being done and with the red on her cheeks fading away, she waited until Dom finished as well. She planned on letting Sam handle the conversation with the officers while she would drag Dom away to eat something and speak with a few persons. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll let you gentlemen” Blue eyes passed from a man to another “and miss” she added as she looked at Miss Fletcher how Sam called the woman earlier “carry on the conversation.” Alexandra turned her attention to Sam, as her lips brushed the corner of his lip “Save me the first dance, baby.” she said softly, as if her words were intended to be heard only by his ears but they accidentally came out louder than they should have. Eyeing everyone again, Alexandra slipped her hand trough the crook of Dom’s arm and leaded him away before he could say anything else. “So, is there anyone you’d like to talk to first? Or does food sound better?” She asked the teen as her eyes traveled from person to person before turning to Dom.

Kasumi walks in as her eyes looks around. Evey thing is breath taking soon she smiles having in a [url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/AngelSilverRose/_5559428.jpg?t=1258349639[/url] new dress [/url] Her long red hair was curled a few curls are around her face crowing her face. There is a few sprigs of baby's . breath in her hair. Along with some roses that are cream color. She has on makeup that brings out her eyes even more. It is dark brown smokey the way that she wanted her eyes to look with eye liner and mascara bring out her long eye lashs.

Soon Ghost appears as she stands up in awa of her. Kasumi smiles as she sits down watching Ghost and Sebastian takeing there vows. Soon she dabs her eyes as she sees what is going on. Soon Kasumi finds herself crying at the end she claps her hands as she smiles huge. Kasumi moves so soft and grasefull as she walks. Soon she looks around her eyes rest on Shin as she smiles "Hey Shin"

Soon Kasumi's hand comes out as she picks up a whine glass she takes a sip as she closes her eyes. Kasumi seems to be glowing yet it gave her a few ideas in what she wants in her wedding. She has at last found the man that she loves. Shin is everything to her. She could not help but to smile more. Soon her eyes rest on a happy singing bird she could not help to put her hand out.

The wedding was excellent. Very romantic and touching, evidence by Kokoro's wet cheeks and bright eyes bulged out shimmering along with a wide grin slapped across her face. Not to mention, she got to sport her new pink dress. It really made her think about what her wedding would be like....but she'd have to trap a guy, I mean get a guy to fall for her. Ah, yes. Tonight would be spent surfing the net for love spells so she can have a bookie bear to snuggle on. Once the wedding was over, Kokoro went from fantasizing about her own dream wedding to leaping over the chairs and dodging people ninja style on her way to the refreshments. Yes, the wedding was cute and romantic, but she was still hungry! She crept ever so sneakily towards the cake, sneaking past Shin who was occupied socializing with a couple of others.

Once she made it beside the Wedding cake, her eyes chinked up as she gave shift glances to her left and to her right. Her hand slipped into her little pink purse and pulled out a shiny, sharp butcher knife. Not American psycho...she was japanese and she wanted cake. She gave a few more shifty glances before raising the blade to cut.

>>“Sure go on and sit, hell I didn’t think anyone would sit by me. I'm sort of the big bad wolf around these parts.”

Gawain chuckled at that. The girl didn't look 'bad' at all, and she wasn't that 'big' either. He didn't argue with the wolf part though.

"Well, I'm not from around these parts" he shrugged, winking at her "So I was not aware I should be afraid. But if they have monsters like you around here, I might just visit more often..."

Yeah, it was bad. Gawain didn't really mean it as a pickup line either - things like this just slipped out sometimes before he stopped to think about it. Flashing another cheeky grin he moved on smoothly to answering her question.

"Oh, I know the bride. Kinda. We..." share the same name. Uh. Good catch. "... met before, and she saved me the trouble of having to crash the wedding."

Chuckling, he took another bite of his food. It was really good. Of course, Mirror was never picky when it came to food, but whoever was responsible for the wedding reception, they did an excellent job with the buffet.
Looking at the wolf girl again, he grinned.

"Oh, by the way, name's..." A hand landed on his shoulder, and he froze. "... Gawain."

Great. Just great.
It was logic, simple and clear.
He could tell from the swishing sounds and the touch that whoever was standing behind him was a girl. He wasn't familiar with any girls at the wedding, except for Ghost, but he could see her from where he was sitting. He'd also met the weird girl in the library before, but he doubted she would do something like this. And that left him only one option.
See? Logic. Makes more sense than 'he knew without turning around that it was...'

"...Twyla." he could feel a blush creeping onto his cheeks as he looked up over his shoulder. "Um... Hi."

Sebastian returned the squeeze Ghost gave to his hand. He understood. They needed to do their duty now, and accept the congratulations of their friends and family, though the family was actually a fairly small percentage of the crowd. It was regrettable, but the two of them would be back in each others arms before too long; for now, their arms were needed for shaking and hugging and accepting all sorts of other greetings from their well wishers.

Ghost was swamped by mansion students first, Sebastian stepped back to let others make their way to greet his bride. As for him, his percentage of the crowd was somewhat smaller and somewhat quieter at the moment. Most of his friends did not live at the mansion, so it was no surprise that they might feel a little more comfortable hanging back and not making themselves stand out as an event where so many people knew each other already.

He scanned the crowd for familiar faces, now that he wasn't completely distracted by Maya walking down the aisle. The most obvious was Pluto who stood at the ready to prevent anyone from causing trouble. The last thing they needed was a vendetta fueled wedding fight to rival last year's supposed birthday party brawl. He hadn't been present at that, but he had been part of the clean-up efforts and it hadn't been exactly pretty.

Speaking of people he'd help put back together again, Isabel had made it, he was happy to see. He hadn't been entirely certain she had forgiven him for his part in the pharmaceutical company blowout. Slate and his lackadaisical twin from the Order were both present. Calley had elected to wear pants for the occasion he noticed. Meld was present, looking uncomfortable in her surroundings; she was still elegant in a dress despite her mechanical parts. Sebastian remembered her attitude from the dinner at the Order; she hadn't really fit in there, either. Her view was to broad for the narrow minded Order and perhaps a bit too violent for the peaceful minded mansion dwellers who made up most of the party. She would perhaps feel more at home with a group that had a somewhat broader view of the world.

Most of the rest of the crowd he didn't recognize, at least of the people he could see at the moment. It was a constantly shifting mass of people that mostly, he assumed, knew Maya.

There was one other person he recognized over by the buffet line, but he didn't know her name. Perhaps now was a good time to find out. He made his way over to her and as politely as possible tapped her on the back.

(earlier)

The stack of invitations had been so large, he was certain they had ordered too many. Perhaps there was a discount if you got a hundred printed at once or something like that. His half of the stack hadn't gotten much smaller even after his visit to Mondragon Labs Medical, the Sanctuary, and the Medium Shop. As he walked home to the clinic, wondering if Maya had already invited Garrett or if he got to use one of his invitations to give to his coworker, neighbor, and friend, he cut through an alley next to a restaurant to cut off a few minutes of time. It was getting dark and he wanted to be getting home sooner rather than later.

There was a figure slumped next to the garbage bin, sleeping as peacefully as a child in a bed. He thought about waking her up and offering her a place to stay for the night, but she was already so peaceful looking that he didn't want to startle her or anything. Instead, he decided to leave one of his stack of invitations for her. She could come and have a free feast and maybe he could talk to her once she was more awake. Carefully, he tucked the invitation under the flap of her jacket so it wouldn't blow away before walking the rest of the way home.

“I'm glad you could make it,” he smiled to the girl. He took in the black shirt and stained blue jeans, the green part of her hair just barely poking out of the hair sculpture in the back of her head, “Please, don't be shy about the food. There is plenty. I'm Sebastian, by the way.” He would shake her hand if it was convenient, but she was holding a plate, so it might not be.

(Attn: Verdy, for skimmers.)

Dom couldn't help butch chuckle when Alex straightened up his tie. It was a nice motherly thing to do. It seemed she would only see him as just...a child. Given the circumstances that she was dating his older brother, that pretty much squashed any chance he had with her, if he even had a chance but, oh well. Moving on, his icy blue eyes caught site of the little group of chickadees smiling and giggling at him. His lips twisted up into a smirk hearing Alex's words about his reputation building. "It can't be helped. I'm just too sexy for my own good." he shrugged while his ego swelled more. Maybe he was Cold Steel, the second coming. Minus the leadership, the power, the wealth, the hot girlfriend...

"F*ck my life..." he sighed under his breath but then straightened back up once he saw Ghost walk by. "Congratulations, Boss lady. May you be happy for years and years to come. You deserve it" he said to the bride before taking off. His attention returned to the police officers that were speaking to Sam, who grabbed Alex by her waist and decided to introduce her and the younger Johnson. "Nice to meet you. I have a clean record, except when I stole that pack of pokemon cards from Walmart when I was 11, but could you really blame a guy? I just had to get me a holographic Charizard. Because he is awesome, but personally, I'm more of a water pokemon fan, so Squirtle is my favorite." he rambled, intentionally for the humor, but he was luckily dragged off by Alexandra, thus preventing him from coming off as a bigger dork.

“So, is there anyone you’d like to talk to first? Or does food sound better?”"

"Well, my dear Alexandra, nothing would suffice more than to have a bite with thee. It's always a pleasure to be in your presence" he replied in a mock british tone. He chuckled a bit and led her over to the table spread with the various little finger foods and the drinks. He looked over watching a brunette girl raising her glass as if she was inspecting it for poison or something. "Ah man, don't tell me someone spiked the cider. Gives me more reason to drink the real bubbly." she smiled grabbing a glass of champagne and handing it to Alex before grabbing his own. "So...you're Alison, right? Streak's little sister?" he asked. She did look sort of familiar. He'd seen her around the mansion a few times, but he never really exchanged words with her. Oh well, better late than never. He took a sip of the champagne waiting for her response.

"Hey Lily. I didn't know you were coming to the wedding."
Lily turned around and smiled at the silver mutant. She knew he was near, although a fancy party like this one usually contained more precious metals to distract her.
"Hi Shawn. I didn't know either, but I got an invitation, and... well, I figured everybody's going to be here, so, here I am." she chuckled "Never thought someone would come up with this setting in the Danger Room..."
Glancing at Juka then back at Shawn she realized they probably didn't know each other. She noticed on Shawn's face the look most people had when they first saw full frontal Juka-ness face to face.
"Shawn, this is Juka. We've been friends since we were kids." well, it was a stretch, but still closer to the truth than anything Juka would have said "Juka, dear, this is Shawn."
Smiling at her friends, Lily realized this was the most unique party she'd ever attended. In more than one way.

A gentle touch on her back made her stiffen and the delicate puff pastry wonder on the way to her mouth dropped back onto her plate. The plate held in her left hand. There was not enough time to drop her plate, grab the marbles from her pocket and force them through the portal and into the face of whoever was behind her, nor were there any sticks or pebbles out of place that were likely to be picked up by the probing wormhole. Not to mention with so many guests it would be difficult to discover an object not being touched, looked at or of the right size. She swallowed her mouthful nervously before turning around.

She had seen the police officers in attendance, and she had not forgotten the days when her face was plastered on milk cartons, there was almost certainly a photograph in a missing person’s file in a large filing cabinet. It would be awful to be caught now, at her first real outing, after nearly three years of avoiding detection.

The man standing behind her smiled.

~ “I’m glad you could make it, please don’t be shy about the food. There is plenty.”

So her attempts to remain overlooked through not pigging out on the free food had been noticed. By the groom no less. She felt her face flush and she wiped her fingers on the thigh of her jeans nervously. All the half planned ideas for explaining how she had wound up with an invitation and arrived disappeared, leaving her mouth dry, albeit still tasting faintly of spinach and ricotta roll.

~ “I’m Sebastian, by the way.”

She flushed even redder and held out her empty right hand. A handshake, the original declaration of peace, as it was offering the sword hand out to a potential opponent, leaving your sword dangling in it’s sheath on your side. She couldn’t recall the last time she had felt so exposed. As her right hand was her firing hand, offering it was usually fine, a left hand could quietly sneak into her pocket and grip marbles or small pebbles to use as a projectory weapon in case of an emergency. With a fancy plate in her left hand however she was completely and utterly defenceless, and offering her hand to a man with a horn.
“Verdigris. Congratulations on the wedding-ness…”

She bit her lip nervously, and considered once more how to phrase the comment that she really had no idea who he or his new wife was. Ah, to hell with it, nothing like a good dose of truth in your veins. Telling a truth instead of constantly lying and stealing would do her a world of good she was sure.

“I, uh, don’t actually know you or Maya but, er, I found an invitation and I thought maybe it would be nice to come.”

Her flush spread up to the tips of her ears and the palms of her hands were itching with the tension, her current position was one she could honestly say was like nothing she had ever done before.

“But you were beautiful. The whole thing was amazing. After all the bad press that people with gifts have been getting” She nodded towards his horn “I had almost convinced myself there was no hope, that we were all evil, just yet to discover it.”

She stopped with a jerk. Oops.

“I’m sorry, that was probably rude of me. It’s just… Been a while since I’ve held a proper conversation. No intention to offend.”

No intension to out herself as a mutant either, but that had just gone so well hadn’t it. She bit her lip nervously, ah well, at least she had had some food if she was to be thrown out now. She just had to remember to pick up her bag. After all, it was rather impolite to call the groom evil or heartless to his face on his wedding day. Rather.