Since he had grown up in a small house with just one floor Chris had never realized that it was possible to actually get lost inside a house. Earlier that evening when he'd walked out of the dorms his goal had been the kitchen, but a few wrong turns later he'd ended up by the infirmary. He actually had to stop another student just to ask for the way. Still, he started to get the knack of it... the other day he'd ended up outside the library.
"This place should give guided tours," he muttered to himself as he opened one of the fridges. He drew out a small white bin with his name on it - at his request the kitchen staff always left some raw uncooked ingredients from the day's meal. This day it had been some kind of fish stew, so when he opened the bin a half cod stared up at him with blank eyes as if it cursed its destiny. It was already gutted, so he just had to remove the fins, the scales and the head.

Chris sat down by a small table looking down at the raw piece of fish in front of him. He wasn't very hungry, so he pushed the fish around on his plate with the fork. He'd only been at the mansion for a few days. It was hard to describe how he felt about the place... It was so much more than he'd hoped for, and at the same time he felt a bit disappointed. At himself, that was.
Chris had came there with great expectations, somehow believing that everything would be fine just because there would be people like him there. That he wouldn't have to feel like an outsider, like that backwood freak he'd been back home.
But he felt like he belonged even less here. He missed the woods, the lakes, the silence... All the things that had been bothering him back home suddenly seemed less annoying. Most of all he missed his grandfather. The old, quiet man hadn't been a very likable person, but he'd been the only friend Chris had when he grew up. If you didn't count Jess, but they had only known each other for a few weeks.

Chris put the fork in the cold white fish in front of him. He didn't want to think about Gramps or Jess.
Some of his classmates had welcomed him and tried to talk to him, but when he was in a big group Chris became even more withdrawn. So after a while they left him to himself, probably thinking that he didn't want to be bothered.
Chris felt very split over this - when he was with others he wanted isolation, and when he was alone he longed for company. Right now... he felt very alone.
He sighed gloomily and rested his chin in his hand.

It was weird no longer having to eat. After several months of Juka's appetite completely disappearing, it was still weird that he didn't have to eat. He knew he didn't have to eat, just like he didn't have to drink or sleep any longer, but that didn't make him any more comfortable with the fact. Maybe if he understood exactly why it was no longer necessary he might feel a little better about it. It had something to do with his bubble, he knew that much but how did his bubble effect his appetite? It affected time or at least it affected the way time worked on objects within it, so did that mean it was affecting Juka himself in a similar manner? He hadn't actually "told" it to prevent him from needing to eat and yet here he was, having eaten almost nothing in the past 3 months. His theory seemed to make sense, though, since he would go through brief periods of feeling hunger but, after bubbling for a while, the urge would disappear. Now if only he could figure out what was going on, how to control it and if anything else strange was going on without his knowledge or permission. Bubbles that thought for themselves were rather frightening, especially bubbles that thought for themselves and were able to affect time. Yes, rather frightening indeed.

Despite the fact that Juka no longer needed to eat, however, he did still sometimes have cravings, especially cravings for things that were sweet and past experience had shown him that necessary or not, eating didn't seem to do any more harm to him than it would to anyone else. Today was just such a day in which he was quite determined that he would find himself some delicious chocolate. Surely he deserved it after a hard day of training the agility of his bubble by weaving in and out of tree branches right? Whether or not calories were still an issue (and he really didn't have any idea if they were or not) didn't change the fact that he had earned his treat and it was in pursuit of that wonderful treat that he made his way to the kitchen.

As had increasingly become his way while at the Mansion, Juka opted to float to the kitchen inside his bubble rather than walking. As he saw it, it served two purposes: The first was that it allowed him more practice to perfect its control and the second is that he was able to get more used to the looks people gave him while inside his bubble. The Mansion, at least, was a safe place to look like the freak he was (and freak was mostly a good thing anyway wasn't it?). He had recently vowed to become a true hero and a defender of innocents, especially innocent helpless mutants, and part of doing so was to know, in and out, what it felt like to not be able to hide what he was. Thus, his choice to float in his bubble rather than walking like any other person might have decided to do.

Floating down the stairs and into the kitchen Juka wasn't surprised to see someone else down there enjoying a snack. What he was surprised at was that the snack appeared to be (and the smell confirmed it) some sort of...raw fish? And the person was a stranger who Juka had neither met nor previously seen around the Mansion. A newcomer then, and he wouldn't, positively would not, comment on his strange choice of consumption. Who was he to judge anyway? Nor would he comment on the fact that the kid didn't look entirely human, not such a rarity in the Mansion anyway.

Instead of rude comments, Juka instead opted to float in front of the guy and, as soon as he had his attention, bowed deeply to him. "Greetings most curious newcomer to the Mansion. I am Juka Miami. A pleasure to meet you. If there is anything, anything at all, I can do for you, please do not hesitate to ask." Grey mucus covered skin wasn't exactly Juka's idea of an ideal partner but that was no reason not to be polite.

Chris finally came to the conclusion that there was no point just sitting there, the fish wouldn't eat itself. So he chopped off a bit of it and opened his mouth to take a bite.
It was first then he realized that he wasn't alone in the kitchen.
The fish piece fell from his fork down on the plate again, but he was so busy staring that he didn't even realize it.
>>"Greetings most curious newcomer to the Mansion. I am Juka Miami. A pleasure to meet you. If there is anything, anything at all, I can do for you, please do not hesitate to ask."
Firstly, the person before him was floating. In some kind of bubble. Well, at least that explained why he hadn't heard any footsteps. And even though this was a school for mutants and he'd already seen his share of weird mutations by now it still took some time to get used to them.
Secondly, the person inside the bubble had a very special appearance - he/she wasn't the kind of person you'd forget if you'd met or not. Orange hair, make-up, elaborate and flashy clothes... he'd never seen a person dress like that. And he couldn't tell if the person in front of him was a man or a woman. He/she was tall, but those clothes and that make-up... even the name sounded androgynous. This shouldn't have been an issue, but Chris still had problems getting used to regular people. When he couldn't tell what gender the person in front of him was... well, he got even more confused.

He suddenly realized that he had been staring at the new mutant for a couple of seconds. He quickly shut his mouth, and remembered that the other mutant had said something to him.
"Uh, well, hi! I... I'm Chris. Chris Berg."
Now that didn't seem retarded at all. This was why he should stay at his room - since he had minimum experience dealing with other people he got thrown off his balance really easily and just made a fool out of himself. He looked down at his fish, not sure what to do. The other mutant would probably just float away to the fridge, get what he/she had come for and then float away again, concluding that Chris was too weird to talk to. Actually, that raised some questions for Chris - if the androgynous mutant stuck his hands through the bubble to open the fridge, would it pop?

The gray skinned mutant seemed a little intimidated by Juka and more than a little uncomfortable. He tried to smile encouragingly at Chris, knowing that he could be a little overwhelming for people not used to him. He was, after all, Juka Miami and everything about Juka Miami was bright, colorful and over the top. Maybe he was another one, like his darling Shana, who needed a little help coming out of his shell and there was no one better than he to help someone come out of their shell. Whether they really wanted to or not.

"No need to be nervous around me Chrissy," Juka assured the poor overwhelmed mutant. "I promise I won't bite unless you really want me too." A wink and a grin followed the statement. And then the sudden realization that someone like Chris might not understand Juka's rather unique sense of humour or the fact that he was flirting in a completely non-serious sort of way. Because, well, he flirted with pretty much everyone. For that matter, he might not even realize what flirting was depending on how isolated he had been in his life. How much flirting could he have gotten looking like that, poor lad. "I didn't really mean it," Juka said before the boy could react too badly to his words.

While talking Juka sent a tendril out to the fridge door, wrapping the tendril tightly around the handle and then pulling to cause the door to open. It was something only recently discovered, that he could do more than just poke things with his tendrils but he could also open doors. The advantage of his time trapped in his bubble although his tendrils weren't able to do anything that required opposable thumbs, of course. He then proceeded to bubble several objects, one at a time, moving them out of the way so he could reach his secret chocolate stash, carefully hidden behind an old jar of peanut butter. And finally, success! In triumph he bubbled a bar of chocolate from the fridge and used a second tendril to close the door. A moment later he retracted the bubbled chocolate bar inside the confines of his main bubble and, once safely inside with Juka himself, took the bar with his hand and happily sat down at the table with Chris.

"So, how long have you been in the Mansion?"

Aleksandr had been exploring the Mansion almost non-stop since he'd been admitted into the building. It had been easier than he'd thought, with only a few questions to answer before they allowed him to wander off on his own. He had ignored any option for a tour, preferring to make his own way around what was now to be his home. It was more interesting that way, and the worry over getting all turned around and lost only made him pay more attention to which way he went and which rooms and hallways he traveled down.

The hallways were marvelous. They were so wide and spacious, not at all like the corridors normally found in regular homes, apartments, or even some office buildings. The corners were so easy to glide around, and there was enough room that if a door were to open unexpectedly, he could crowd the other side of the corridor and be clear out of the way without even the littlest bit of grazing against his scaled skin. Even the stairs, which were usually fairly uncomfortable to climb, were rather wide and held his body better than most stairwells. The Mansion obviously knew what kind of individuals they'd be catering to.

The only thing he'd had to change was the setup in his room, once he'd found one that was still unoccupied. He'd needed to move just about all of the furniture. The bed was shoved way into the farthest corner, the dresser finding itself in much the same position. Any chairs or standing lamps had been removed entirely. He rarely, if ever, used any type of furniture anymore. His body wasn't built for it, and even if it were, he was much too large. He was perfectly comfortable on the floor, he just needed to make sure there was enough space on it for him.

After the moving was done, he'd made his way out to the garden to soak up what was left of the sun before it set before heading back inside to resume his exploring. and maybe grab a small snack while he was at it. His particular mode of movement burned a lot of energy, and he was always on the lookout for some little morsel that would foolishly wander a little too closely. However, he'd left the critters in the garden alone. He'd been much too content simply soaking up the warmth and relaxing his muscles.

Winding his way down the corridor that led past the kitchen, he flicked his tongue out as voices softly filtered out through the doorway. Something in the air tasted particularly fishy. Had the cooks been preparing seafood earlier in the day? It certainly was possible. The voices, however, were much more interesting. He'd exchanged pleasantries with a few mutants he'd passed during the day, but he hadn't taken the time to really get to know any of them, or even to have a full out conversation with anyone. This could prove interesting.

Slowly he made his way to and then through the entryway of the kitchen. He paused a moment before carefully creeping a little further into the room. People weren't often used to seeing what appeared to be a giant reptile everyday, and as such he'd learned to approach people slowly and cautiously until the initial shock had passed. Perhaps it wouldn't be a problem here, though. After all, one rather extravagant individual appeared to be floating, while the other seemed to have a number of features that weren't all together human.

"Dobriy vecher," he greeted, his accent thicker than usual as he absentmindedly spoke in his native tongue. Realizing his mistake, he quickly corrected himself. "My apologies. I was meaning to say good evening." He gave a smile, letting his gaze flicker from one individual to the other. The grey-skinned mutant seemed to be the source of the smell that he had tasted in the air, or at least his meal was. Speaking of which, that reminded the serpentine mutant why he'd sought out the kitchen in the first place.

"My name is Aleksandr," he offered as he slid over to the fridge to root around in it. Fruits, veggies, no, no. Pudding cups, juice boxes, condiments, no, no, no. Idly he poked a finger at an unused package of raw hamburger, which might have been left to thaw for the next days meal. Would they miss some if it were to disappear? He decided to chance it anyhow and removed the package from the fridge. They were sure to have more somewhere. "I am new to Mansion. Have you two been here long?" he asked ad he slipped a clawed finger in the cellophane and slit it open.

Just as Juka suspected, there hadn't been much flirting going on in Chris's life. Because of that his statement just resulted in a blank look while Chris tried to figure out what Juka meant.
Won't bite unless I really want him too? Why would I want anybody to bite me?
It was probably just as well, if Chris had understood Juka's playful intonations he would have been too flustered to answer.
>>"I didn't really mean it," the other mutant reassured.
"Uhm, okay?" Chris said, still trying to figure out what it all had meant in the first place.

Then he noticed how a part of the bubble seemed to reach for the fridge like some kind of arm; it went through the fridge until it finally found a snack that was deemed to be worthy. Chris watched with something that looked like awe as the chocolate bar got pulled back into the main bubble. After all, he hadn't been at the mansion for very long and was still easily impressed.
He turned back his attention to Juka when he/she sat down beside him and asked about how long he'd been at the mansion.
"Uh, I'm new here, I've only been here for three days."
While he still felt a bit overwhelmed by the colorful person beside him, he suddenly realized that this was a new chance to talk to someone. When his new classmates had tried to engage him in conversation, he'd been to shy to ask counter-questions. Which meant that the conversations had pretty much being them asking questions and him answering, until everything just turned into a long embarrassing silence. That was not how to do it. When you where in a conversation, you had to ask questions too. Of course he knew that, but it was just hard to remember all the rules of socializing when you were in a big group and had everybody's attention.
But now there was just one person. He could handle this. Alright, his turn to ask a question.
How about you, for how long have you been living here? was what he intended to ask, but instead he said:
"Are you a man or a woman?"

It took a couple of seconds before he realized what he'd said. No. God no. Wasn't that, like, a really rude question to ask? His expression clearly showed his dread and he clasped both of his hands against the sides of his head. He looked down at the table, unable to see the other mutant's reaction.
"I... I... I didn't mean... I'm sorry...!" he managed to stutter, and then he noticed that another person had entered the room. Once again he hadn't heard any footsteps. Maybe that wasn't so weird, considering that the shape in the doorway didn't have any feet or even legs. Instead, his torso seemed to just continue. Chris's eyes turned even wider. He'd met a few mutants with visible mutations earlier; like Meld, Anthony, Kasumi, Andrea and some students at the school. But this was the first time he'd seen one that looked even less human than himself.
>>"Dobriy vecher," the new mutant said in a language Chris didn't recognize right away, and then he added: "My apologies. I was meaning to say good evening."
He was clearly some kind of reptilian mutant, with scales covering his entire body and that snake-like tail. He also had yellow eyes, a flat nose that actually seemed to be just nostrils and hair that reminded Chris of tentacles. The snake-mutant presented himself as Aleksandr while he slithered over to the fridge and then declared that he was new to the mansion and asked if they had been there for long.
Chris answered hesitantly.
"Not... not really. I've only been here for three days."
Then he remembered that it was the exactly same question as Juka had asked just a minute ago. Juka! Since the newcomer had arrived Chris had almost forgotten about the ill-mannered question. He turned slowly back to Juka, not just a little bit afraid to see how the other mutant would react. Would he/she be hurt? Upset? Furious?

"Are you a man or a woman?"

Juka burst out laughing and continued laughing until tears came out of his eyes. He really couldn't help it, Chris was just so adorable and so very mortified at his question and assumed breach of etiquette. It wasn't as if Juka had never heard such questions before nor was his laughter in any way malicious, but it was just such an odd expression on the grey skinned mutant's face that there really wasn't anything to do but laugh. He tried to compose himself, brushing tears out of his eyes. It was not official. This day was going to be a good one, no doubt about it.

Juka was about to apologize for his unfortunate outburst (if the kid didn't understand flirting he most certainly wasn't going to understand why Juka was so amused) when a second mutant...slithered? into the kitchen. Much like Chris he wasn't someone Juka had ever seen before and he was quite certain that he would remember seeing one such as that, cream and black scaled tail and all. For the second time that night Juka tendered a deep respecteful bow to a stranger, not even pausing for a moment to wonder at the newcomers rather interesting and impressive appearace. Well, OK, so maybe he did pause to stare for a few seconds before bowing but who wouldn't considering what had just appeared before him? And if anyone cared to notice, the stare was definately more awe filled than judgemental anyway so that couldn't be such a bad thing, could it? After all, he liked when people stared at him with awe filled eyes.

"A pleasure to meet you, Aleksandr." Juka tried not to pay any attention at all to the fact that the newcomer's food tastes seemed to be just as strange as Chris's. "Its posatively wonderful to see so many new faces around here. I've been here a few months, myself, though I don't technically actually live here. Its just where I come when I'm bored." He didn't bother to mention the fact that since the need for sleep fled him, that was despairingly often.

Juka turned his attention back to poor Chris, doing his best to school his expression to one as apologetic and unthreatening as possible. "And I am a man, dear Chrissy. You aren't the first person to ask and won't be the last. Its kind of part of the point, to see how people react when they can't quite tell how they should address me and how they should act around me. Really, it can be quite amusing." Ah, good clean innocent fun. Or sometimes not quite so innocent fun but most likely neither of these two wanted to hear about those particular adventures.

Aleksandr settled himself comfortably against the nearest counter, his tail coiling lazily beneath him as his lower back was rested against the edge of the counter top. He smiled pleasantly as the somewhat amphibian-looking individual seemed to follow his every move with his gaze for the time being. Staring wasn't anything out of the ordinary to him anymore. Nor did it particularly bother him. On the contrary, he usually found it to be quite flattering that he caught peoples' eyes and held their gaze captive for at least a few moments.

Movement from the more colorful individual caused his attention to shift again, almost at the same time the other mutant's did. Bowing, unlike staring, was more of an unusual thing. He didn't think anyone in America bowed to each other like that. Placing the packaged meat down on the counter for a moment, he straightened back up, placing one arm behind his back and bringing the other across his stomach, and returned the bow, though he did not lower his head far enough that he'd lose sight of the bubbled individual.

Falling back into his previous, more comfortable position, he retrieved his meal and picked idly at the ground red meat. It seemed the less human-looking of the two was nearly in the same boat as the reptilian mutant with just three days spent in the Mansion so far.

"I am new to Mansion. I have just arrived today. Is very lovely here. I like the garden very much," he commented, his tongue flickering out once more as he picked a small section of meat out of the package before bringing ti to his mouth. Cooked meat certainly had a lot of interesting flavor that could be added, but raw could be just as delightful. He'd long since gotten past his squeamishness over eating uncooked meals. It was more convenient in a pinch. And more fun to obtain.

He repeated the short process again, this time with less tongue flicking, and watched quietly as the brightly colored bubble-kid seemed to answer a question of the fishy male's, which must have been asked prior to his entering the kitchen. He couldn't help but grin once his mouth was empty once more. "Is interesting how people react to others," he piped up. "Is always fun to travel around crowds on street."

When Juka started to laugh, Chris flinched a bit. He had a somewhat surprised expression, but as Juka continued to laugh he begun to relax a bit. Seemed like his question hadn't been so offensive after all. Good, but he was going to watch his tongue better from now on.

Chris noticed that Juka and Alexandr bowed to each other, and remembered that Juka had bowed to him too. That was a kind of unusual way to greet someone, wasn't it? And now he noticed that the reptile mutant, Alexandr, was holding something that looked like a package of raw ground meat. That lightened him up a bit; so far he'd thought he was the only mutant with strange eating habits at the mansion. But he looked away when Alexandr started to eat, feeling that it wouldn't be polite to look. He himself had problems eating in front of others.

>>"And I am a man, dear Chrissy. You aren't the first person to ask and won't be the last. Its kind of part of the point, to see how people react when they can't quite tell how they should address me and how they should act around me. Really, it can be quite amusing."
Chris didn't really understand; what was the point in confusing people? But he still was relieved that he wasn't the only one asking.
>>"Is interesting how people react to others," Alexandr agreed. "Is always fun to travel around crowds on street."
Chris frowned a bit. These to mutants seemed to like to stand out in a crowd, and he couldn't see the point in that either. On the contrary; he hated getting people's attention everywhere he went just because he was different.
"I don't know about that," he said quietly and then tried to explain what he meant. He looked down on his hands that rested on the table in front of him.
"I... I mean... sometimes it would feel nice to be just another face in the crowd. Or something."
As he spoke, he realized that it might sound as if he was whining. He shrugged at the end of the sentence, trying to make it look like it wasn't a big deal to him.

Now Aleksandr the snake mutant seemed to understand exactly what Juka was getting at. "I bet you get lots of interesting looks with that gorgeous scaled tail of yours," he remarked, voice completely free of any sort of mockery. Juka had always been accused of having strange tastes and while they didn't normally go into the direction of animal mutants there was a first time for everything, right? He wasn't sure about the whole eating of raw meat thing, but that could be fixed with a breath breath mint. Besides, imagine all the interesting things that could be done with a tail...He shook his head and winked at Aleksandr.

"I... I mean... sometimes it would feel nice to be just another face in the crowd. Or something."

Juka felt instantly bad for poor Chris. Here he was, flirting with Aleksandr (and he could hardly believe that he was anyway but go with the flow right?) and Chris was plainly distressed about the fact that he would never be able to blend in with a crowd. Well, neither would Aleksandr he had to assume, but Juka was different because he chose to stand out. He remembered the brief time when he was trapped in his bubble and didn't have a choice whether or not to appear freakish and mutant or not and how much that had affected his psyche. He was over that now and often went out in his bubble regardless, but there was certainly something to be said for that being a choice rather than a necessity.

"I'm so sorry Chrissy, I was being insensitive. Maybe I can help though. Blueish skin or not, I'm kind of a fashion expert. I'm sure I could find you something to cover up that blue skin of yours. Maybe we could even use a little makeup to make you're face seem a little more normal too." He looked at the guy critically, with an eye for what could be done to allow him to better fit in with a crowd. "It wouldn't be perfect and I'm not sure it'll hold up under close scrutiny, but if you let me work with you I'm sure together we could come up with something." Hopefully the other guy wouldn't ask the same of him as he was fairly certain that even with his exceptional talent for fashion there wasn't much he could do to hide a tail.

Aleksandr couldn't help but smile in mild amusement as the individual now known as Chris, or Chrissy as the other mutant pronounced it, seemed to abruptly cease glancing in his direction as he picked at his makeshift meal. He seemed to be a rather high-strung person, or at least one that was unsure around other people. "Meat is easier for me to eat than anything else," he explained, hoping to diffuse some of the tension the young man might have felt. "My teeth changed with mutation so produce is dificult to chew. Raw foods are digested with more ease as well," he concluded, his lips peeing back from his sharp, angled teeth as he tapped one claw against them as a visual aid. He knew his English wasn't very good.

As the one named Juka spoke again, the reptilian mutant turned his attention back to the oddly dressed individual, his expression falling back to neutral from the distortion it had previously been in.The comment that was made surprised him a little. It wasn't often that people came right out and complimented him so directly. He usually registered approval and admiration from the various glances he received at any given time. He couldn't help but grin pridefully. "Very many looks," he replied, the tip of his long tail flicking up and then down again as if giving its own approval.

The wink was entirely unexpected, but he didn't bother putting much thought into it. He didn't entirely understand American culture and as such feared bringing attention to the gesture lest he misinterpret it. He would have to pay closer attention to the way that people interacted around him. He hoped to be a fast learner.

He couldn't exactly say that he agreed with the gray-skinned young man's views on visible mutations, but he could certainly sympathize. He'd had issues adjusting once his mutation had changed him, but had embraced it as quickly as he was able. His family had been the only important thing that hadn't improved over time.

"Why not embrace what you are? Mutant appearance dose not change who you are. Why should human appearance?" he questioned wanting to understand why it was so important to look like everyone else. Juka's offer certainly was generous, but what was the point? Putting a mask on wouldn't change anything. "We hear of America's Registration problems in Russia. There was fear it would happen there, too. But things have improved since, no? Why not be proud of what you are?"

The reptilian mutant seemed to have noticed that Chris had been looking at his meal and explained why he ate raw meat. Chris still felt very relieved that there were other mutants out there who prefered their food natural, and something Aleksandr said - my teeth changed with mutation piqued his interest. So Aleksandr hadn't always been a snake-man? In a way, he was glad he was born the way he was. If he at some stage at his life had had to turn from a regular human into what he was now... he wouldn't have been able to deal with it, never. But Aleksandr didn't seem to regret his new form - on the contary, he seemed to be prud of who he was and what he looked like. Even whe he showed his rather vicious-looking teeth.
But anyway, Chris looked up with a rather enthusiastic look on his face.
"Really? Me too. I mean, I can eat cooked meat or fish if I have too, but I'd rather not."

When Juka then offered his help with fashion and maybe a bit make-up he turned towards the colorful man inside the bubble with a hopeful expression - he had a sudden picture of himself going down a sidewalk in central New York with a normal skin tone... and maybe a wig. A wig with thick, chestnut brown hair cut in the Jesse McCartney style. But then his face visibly gloomed as he realized that it would take more than some rouge to turn him into a regular John Doe.
"Could you make up a nose?" he asked glumly. Then he realized that he was probably being very rude - Juka had, after all, kindly offered to help him. So he tried to explain what he meant, but it just made him even more flustered.
"I... I didn't mean that I don't want any help, I'm just thinking about what good it would do, anyway... I don't think I would be, be really comfortable with..."
His voice died away as he realized he was babbling. He made a helpless gesture, something that was a mix between shrugging and pressing his hands against each other in front of him, and then stared down at the table in front of him. He mumbled a "but thanks anyway" but wasn't sure if it was loud enough to be heard.

When Aleksandr asked why he didn't embrace what he was he suddenly had a flashback from his meeting with Meld. She had been the first other mutant he'd ever met and the first person ever to tell him that he should be proud of what he was. She would probably cut him to ribbons if she heard him sit there and whine over what he was and what he wasn't (but still, the idea of that chestnut wig lingered a bit too long in his mind for him to be comfortable with it.) Aleksandr absolutely had a point - even though his sentence structure was a little weird in its places - but Chris still felt different, somehow. He looked from the snake guy to the bubble boy - two mutants who seemed to embrace their differences - and raised his shoulders and arms in the universal I don't know gesture.
"I'm... I'm not ashamed of what I am," he said a bit defiantly. "Mostly. It's just... well, I dont like being stared at. When you're out and you can feel people stare at you and you don't know what they think..."
He finished mid-sentence again, not really sure how to express his feelings, and then added:
"It's just the worst ever."
Wow, that sounded even more lame than it had in his head. He should probably just shut up for a while.