It took a while for her eyes to figure out how to focus. Yesterday had to have been a big day. She was sleeping in her suit. She didn't sleep in her work clothes normally. She didn't have to remember to know that was odd. She sat up slowly and a piece of paper fluttered off the edge of her bed.

Today is Friday. Your name is Noel Gage. This is your home. You have the day off. Believe you/me, you earned it. Get out and go make some memories. Today's spending limit is on the kitchen counter. Don't worry. Somethings will start coming back to you throughout the day.

Thank you, self. The paper folded crisply in half and went on her bed stand. It was a nice bed stand. Maybe not what she would have picked for herself but... well... apparently she had.

Breakfast was weird. Everything was weird. She actually had a little pouch around her ankle that had stuff in it. Papers mostly and a little cash, there were several things marked on the little map: a building and a restaurant in Queens, a skyscraper in the Bronx, a club in Manhattan. Everything else was a mystery. A mystery that wasn't going to get solved from staying indoors.

Her closet was... interesting. There was quite a range, everything from business chic to classy to slightly trampy to high school skater. There was even a fur coat. It probably wasn't real... probably. She was pulling on a pair of cargo shorts when something started pinging in the other room.

It was a phone. And the phone said for her not to forget a coat because it was winter. Thank you, phone.

Bundled up for a winter's day, Noel made her way down the street. She recognized the restaurant from her map as she made her way to the subway. The subway was good. She could just get on and go.

And so she did.

Susan was getting good at things she had never been interested in before. Like avoiding attention while walking on the streets. True, she'd never been one to stand out in a crowd - colorful eyes not included - but in the past weeks she developed a certain common sense to avoid being found. By whoever was looking for her. Including the police. Considering she was still living with a police officer... well, it could have been worse.
Simultaneously she also got better at observing people. Observing was the thing to do. Now that she found out how the mutant gene looked, smelled, tasted, felt, sounded like, looking at people had a whole new angle to it.
And so happened that wandering aimlessly around the City became her favorite pastime. You could never know who you were going to find.

Like the lady on the subway. Susan was standing just a couple of feet away from her, and she was pretty sure the lady didn't waste more than a glance at the schoolgirl with the dark glasses.
Taste of something sweet and sour, together with the one taste you can't really name. Definitely mutant.
Disturbingly mundane looks, no glancing around, no signs of awkwardness.
No visible mutation.
Once the subway stopped and the lady got off, Susan found herself following her. Even in a crowded place like New York it was a rare occasion to find fellow mutants; rare enough to spike the curiosity of a certain young witch.
What is her mutation? Does she know about it? Is she aware of the fact that there are others out there? Where is she going? Is she using her powers? Does she have a normal job? Does she have a normal life?...
Susan had always been a scientist. A researcher. Finding out more about the new world her genes had dragged her into was her top priority.
If it meant following other people in a way that might be considered stalking, so be it.

She didn't recognize the stop, but it looked as good as any other. Besides, the woman next to her had been elaborating on her weekend to her friend. Her elaborations had started to taste a bit rotten. It might be worth it to take a cab home just to avoid the verbal fabrications of others. Plus she might not know the way... but she would always know her address since it was tattooed on the inside of her arm.

Noel took her time in the subway. She sort of lollygagged so that she could take in the details. It was important to know unimportant details. She needed to fill her head with them so that the next time she emptied her head she wouldn't loose anything important. Funny how that worked.

Plus, in the subway there were a lot of people. Short ones, round ones, rectangular, slightly reddish, wearing a thong, with toilet paper stuck to a shoe... one was even following her. Or perhaps dawdling at the same pace.

She was just being paranoid to think that she was someone important enough to follow. Her job was... well, it wasn't important what she did because she couldn't possibly be in a position of authority with her disability. She'd forget.

Eventually Noel just felt creepy taking her time navigating the subway interchange. She decided it was time to go ground level. Surely on a Friday there would be plenty of people about.

The lady looked... disoriented? Lost? Uncertain? The list went on and on inside her head as Susan walked at a comfortable pace after the newly discovered mutant. She was a weird one, not that the Witch would have any right calling others 'weird'. Even in a positive way.
There was a certain air of uncertainty around the woman; Susan could almost see it. She was not sure if it was the result of her mutation, or some smell people's emotions had and her smell/vision picked up, but it was there, faint blue and almost childishly innocent.
In old times pink was for boys, blue was for girls...
Emerging from the subway onto the surface, Susan was almost entirely sure the lady way lost. Or she started out without having a specified destination. Either way, she was not doing anything interesting, besides behaving the way she did. Susan followed her a little bit more - she was trying to work up the courage and the right attitude to talk to the woman.
Not like she needed to. She could have just walked on and left it at that. She had more than enough new... friends? Acquaintances?... already. More than enough for a girl who was not used to having any.
But then again, of she was going to find out more about mutantkind, as a scientist she could not pass up such a rare chance.
Walking a bit faster in a rush of determination to catch up to the woman, Susan cleared her throat.
"Um. Hi there..."
Yes, Miss Hyde. Your eloquence is truly fascinating.

This street was nice. It smelled strongly of spices and it looked like there were street vendors. Not the hotdog variety, but the heroine addicted tube sock variety. Whatever they could get in bulk and sell for quick cash was all here in nice neat little addicted rows.

She wasn't interested in them. She was interested in the way that one of the card tables was rusting right around the screws on the powdery blue legs of the table. One man's shoe had a hole big enough that Noel could see sock. The veins were visible in a sickly thin girl's eyes. Footsteps sped up behind her.

"Um. Hi there..."

Noel's first instinct was to go for the throat and then throw her weight through her shoulder and into the aggressor's middle, but "um. Hi" wasn't usually a punishable offense.

"Can I help you?" Noel's hand went to her wallet. The chain was still there so the wallet should be too. So. The woman hadn't attempted to steal that. Yet.

The lady jumped and whipped around; she probably was expecting someone less pleasant (not that Susan thought of herself as someone 'pleasant' at all) than a teenage girl. In this neighborhood... no wonder. If she did not have a destination, she sure did choose the wrong place to play tourist. Susan's peripheral vision picked up dark colors of street smells and sharp, unpleasant sounds.
"Can I help you?"
"Probably not" Susan shook her head "But I don't have enough information to tell. Um..."
Think straight, Miss Hyde. Introduction to Introductions, 101.
"My name is Susan Hyde. I was just... you seem lost, lady. Also, you are one like me. So. Um. I was wondering if you needed help."
Probably not. Not from a teenage runaway witch, anyway. Even if she could help. Still. Someone needed to break some ice.

"Probably not"

And that was good, clean broccoli honesty. No frill. Just nutritional fact. The girl was shaking her head and sort of muttering. She was a little to coherent for drugs. Her movements appeared to be under her own control. It didn't look like dimenshia unless it was mild. Noel sort of liked her for her bland honesty.

"My name is Susan Hyde. I was just... you seem lost, lady. Also, you are one like me. So. Um. I was wondering if you needed help."

You are one like me? Noel extended her hand hesitantly. How did normal people go about their lives without severe paranoia? Many of the strongest mutant abilities were delivered through touch. "Noel." It didn't even occurred to her to introduce her full name.

A cough. Yeah this was a bit awkward. A car was creeping down the narrow lane. They had better move. "I am not lost. Not exactly. Let's get out of the street, Susan." Susan. Susan. If she repeated it enough times she wouldn't forget it as easily. Noel inspected the lazy drip from a canvas canopy and the way that it splattered on the sidewalk. Minutiae were important.

Noel led the way to that drippy canopy and stopped near the front of an apartment complex with a buzzer that looked at least as old as she felt. "So.. you taste words?" Now it was Noel's turn to shake her head. She had better back up and start at the beginning. Or maybe Susan did. "Explain."

"Noel. I am not lost. Not exactly. Let's get out of the street, Susan."
Well, she did sound lost. Her voice had a taste of uncertainty, as if it couldn't quite decide how it wanted to taste. It carried a strong tinge of the mutant gene, but above that, it was almost as if she... wasn't quite sure about her own self.
Susan followed the lady called Noel out of the street.
"So.. you taste words?... Explain."
Blink, black eyes, blink, normal eyes. How did she....?
"Actually, I do." she nodded cautiously "I can also smell them, see them, and touch them. I possess the mutant gene just like you. But I did not expect you to have abilities similar to mine. I can simply... tell if someone carries the X gene. That's why I followed you. Besides, um, the suspicion that you might not know where you are headed."
Yeah. there was that. Why on earth would someone come to a place like this anyway?
"So... you taste words?"

"Actually, I do."

She... did? Since Noel had spilled the beans first, the other woman recovered first and she had a lot more beans to spill. Pure unadulterated beans. Still truth.

Noel did eventually recover. And she did snort. "You got a leg up on me. I only taste 'em." Noel leaned against the building side. "I taste them and can forget things, can make you forget things too." 'Can' was a bit on the liberal side of her power explanation, but not a lie.

Trash clanged down the chute around the edge of the building. Noel didn't look. It was almost certainly trash, but in this neighborhood it was almost worth not looking a mite more confident.

"And you're right. I don't know where I am going. I very seldom do. But if I don't find a lot of useless things to learn before the forgetting starts again, I might just loose something really important." Like the face of a family member, the encouragement of a teacher, common sense...

"I taste them and can forget things, can make you forget things too."
That statement actually made Susan take a half step backwards. Forgetting somtehing important - forgetting anything, really - was one of the most horrible things she could imagine. Being a person who mosty relied on her intellect all her life, Susan treasured knowledge more than anything else.
On the other hand, the ability sounded interesting.
"And you're right. I don't know where I am going. I very seldom do. But if I don't find a lot of useless things to learn before the forgetting starts again, I might just loose something really important."
Susan tried to wrap her mind around the idea.
"So... you forget a certain amount of information from time to time, and you have no control over what part you forget?..." she guessed, not having enough information to make a more coherent theory "How long have you been doing this?"
Susan was completely oblivous to their surroundings. She had something much more interesting to focus on. And, not knowing as much about the world as any normal 18-year-old, she was not aware of the awkwardness of the situation either.
"I only found out about the X gene a couple of weeks ago." she supplied. She knew the number of days exactly, but even she could tell one does not bother strangers with details like that.
They'd just forget anyway.

"If I have control over what I forget, I've forgotten how it works." and that wasn't exactly easy to admit. Noel shrugged. Susan didn't seem to be bothered by their surroundings so Noel took her cues from the other girl.

Pretty much anyone had more experience than her about what was dangerous and what was not. She had to rely on the fact that this girl had survived as long as she had by not doing stupid things like standing in a dangerous neighbor hood wearing the wrong color.

"You could unlearn about the gene if you wanted." Though she didn't look the type and who knew where that would leave Noel? No. Today was about gaining memories not loosing more.

Noel studied the girl. Had she said her name? Oh. Susan. That was right. She had.

Her nose was cute. It flared slightly when she breathed in. She was a healthy nose-breather. Her eyes were serious and her hair was everywhere. Every word out of her mouth was frank and tasted like truth. Noel felt like they should be friends some day. If Susan didn't mind being forgotten… which everyone seemed to mind eventually. "How old are you?" She really couldn't tell by looking.

Behind the locked apartment complex's outer window, someone was watching.

"If I have control over what I forget, I've forgotten how it works." That was exactly the feeling Susan never, ever wanted to experience. She shuddered at the thought.
"You could unlearn about the gene if you wanted."
"No thank you." she answered without hesitation, then a few moments later she realizet it might have sounded a bit offending. Maybe.
"Um... no offense." she added, looking away "I just... prefer knowing the truth to guessing at possibilities."
Noel looked at her, and she looked back, tilting her head and trying her best not to blush. Blushing was not useful. And it usually made social interactions a lot harder to manage.
Knowing the woman had some kind of power over her mind did not help things either. Susan's eyes turned blue as she watchd the strange, glass-fragile aura of the X-gene around her. It would be good to know how it works exactly.
"How old are you?"
"Eighteen." she answered automatically, and then, because she had no idea how to react to the question, she asked back. "You?..."

"Um... no offense. I just... prefer knowing the truth to guessing at possibilities."

Yeah. She'd better look away. "Yeah. It must be nice. Knowing things." A snort from Noel. "No offense or anything, but your interpersonal skills suck butt." And that, my friends, was something that she could tell even now in her less than expert state. Her tones wasn't bitter, but it was a very near thing. It really was too bad her arms were already crossed because that was an arm crossing statement.

"Eighteen. You?..."

"Embarrassingly old." Noel's hand went to her ears. Lots of studs. Some of them had things in them. Something important no doubt, but the actual piercings represented her age. She was running out of ear room.

"Over twenty, approaching thirty." She didn't want to stand there and count them. It had seemed a much cooler idea when she was 16, okay? If she lived much longer she was going to have to start making loops or count for 5 years or something. Or maybe a bar across the top. She'd have to think that meant something special, right?

The door to the apartment building behind them opened and Noel jumped.

"You ladies need something?" The Russian accent was heavy, but Noel didn't think that was the whole reason for her being unhappy with the two mutants on her doorstep.

"Yeah. It must be nice. Knowing things. No offense or anything, but your interpersonal skills suck butt."
Susan nodded.
"I am aware of that fact. I appreciate the honesty though. I shall work on it."
She could smell some spice on the words, the kind that marked most of her social interactions - it meant someone was not happy about her attitude. Or was hurt over it.
"Embarrassingly old. Over twenty, approaching thirty."
Susan tilted her head as she examined the earrings. A smile tugged at her lips.
"I don't see what is embarrassing about being over twenty. I imagine it makes life easier. But, as you have observed, I have a lot lot learn."
No, she was really not that clueless. She was not much better either, but not totally clueless. But once Noel decided she was weird with people, she might as well play along.
"You ladies need something?"
Noel jumped, and Susan did too, despite the fact that she was not really afraid of random people. Her eyes turned black and the words turned into something frosty and dark in color.
"No we don't, thank you." she answered automatically, glancing at Noel to see if she had something to add.
Maybe they should levae this place after all.

She didn't get angry with Noel's sass. That ... confused her. Didn't people normally not like honesty? And especially not like cooking with sass?

Menacing maternal matron for the mandatory move!

"We were just leaving." It complimented Susan's statement nicely. A nod to Susan and they were walking to no where in particular. "We can go somewhere and talk." She'd expected to make the girl angry by now... or be angry herself. The fact that they were still getting along had her confused. Usually her interactions didn't go this well unless she was trying to schmoose someone. She hadn't sugar coated anything for Susan.

There was a map in her ankle fanny pack, but that would likely lead her to a familiar place. She needed new information. "Know anywhere good?" Maybe... just maybe... she'd made a friend. When do you actual become friends? Noel wondered.