If there was one place in particular in the city that Amber loved it was Central Park. Back when she had lived at the orphanage she hadn't had the opportunity to go there often. Her skin condition prevented her from spending much time outside during the day and her guardians hand't exactly approved of her going outside after dark. Since being adopted by Abyss, however, that was no longer an issue. For one thing, her giant red adopted father didn't seem to mind when she came and went and for another, she was now a mutant who could turn into dinosaurs so she didn't worry half as much about the bad men and women that were said to proul the streets at night.

Of course, Amber never had much interest in going into the seedy parts of the city where dangerous people were said to be. Unlike Koga she was no hero, trying to do away with evil doers everywhere. Maybe one day, when she learned to control her powers better or maybe not. Recently she had had some bad experiences with humans, from a group of men that had attack her and her sister, Aura, to a mob of humans that had chased her down the street after she had accidentally transformed. She didn't even hurt anyone and it wasn't like she was a giant, scary t-rex. She had been human sized and covered in feathers, not even intimidating at all! So really, she wasn't even sure she really wanted to help humans out, if they were going to treat her like that. Still, aside from those two incidents and some general uncomfortablness due to her eyes, she hadn't had too many bad experiences.

No, Amber was far more interested in going into Central Park, enjoying the nature and doing some people watching. Maybe when it got late enough she might even start experimenting with her power again, but last time she did that she got stuck and couldn't change back so maybe it was better for her to wait until she was closer to home to do that again.

The moment the sun began to set, Amber carefully put on her robes, forgoing her veil since she'd be back before dawn, and set out. The bus ride to central park was uneventful and she even managed to win herself a friendly smile from the bus driver. That was a little hit or miss, in her experience. First thing she wanted was some tea and then a nice piece of grass to call her own. Luckily, she knew just the place to get some high quality tea, having been to a little coffee stand once before a few days ago. They had treated her right and given her exactly what she wanted and she really couldn't ask for much else.

Despite the fact that the hour was starting to get late, there was a bit of a line up to get her tea and Amber found herself behind a brown haired woman. A brown haired woman that kept looking back at her. Self consciously Amber dropped her eyes to the ground. Did people really have to stare at her like she was some kind of a freak? "C-can I h-help you with s-something?" The question was directed at the rude staring lady. Abyss, she felt sure, would be proud of her.

Lee had been changing some things about her life lately, like not spending all day out in the city around a lot of people so that she could actually get decent amounts of sleep at night. For the baby, of course, because she'd survived for years sleeping how she had been up until recently.

Another change was the switch to decaffeinated coffee. There was no way that Lee was going to be able to completely give up coffee. Yes, she had used the caffeine in it for years go give her that very slight boost to function until she could get some real energy, but it had also become one of those comfort things: when she was upset, she'd have coffee.

But with keeping her energy level at a reasonable level, Lee had gotten sick of staying in the apartment. Plus, she hadn't yet bought decaf that she could make at home, so she needed to go out. Plus, it was later now, so there wouldn't be as many people out and about in the park as there would have been during the day. That worked perfectly for Lee.

Even the line for coffee wasn't that bad, only a couple of people in front of her.

It didn't take long before Lee felt something strange behind her. Her brow furrowed, Lee turned to look behind her. Only to see a teenage girl with white hair standing there. Lee frowned as she turned back to the front of the line, focusing on her siphoning. It felt wrong. Lee couldn't exactly put her finger on what was wrong with it, or how it felt, but she knew that it did not feel like it normally did when someone was standing behind her like that. As she was trying to figure this out, waiting while the line in front of her got shorter, Lee kept unconsciously looking behind her.

Until she heard the girl stammer a question just as the last person in front of Lee moved forward to order. "Oh, sorry, I-" Lee stammered slightly herself. She hadn't thought she'd been looking enough to be caught looking and called out for it. Maybe being pregnant was messing with her powers. She had read that hormones did a lot to a woman's body, so who's to say that it wouldn't effect things for her more than most?

"Sorry, I think I'm coming down with something, I'm feeling a little off."


(Edit for spelling)

Apparently Amber's question had caught the lady off guard. Score one for the dinosaur mutant! Or at least, she thought that was a good thing? Calling someone out on their rude behavior was the first step towards actually doing something about their rude behavior wasn't it? Neither Aura nor Abyss seemed to approve of humans treating mutants badly and staring at her mutation most certainly did constitute treating badly. Well, at least a little bit. Or at the very least it was considered treating rudely and that was almost like a lesser version of badly.

Except, if Amber was supposed to be calling out rude and potentially mean humans, why did she suddenly feel kind of bad? The lady actually seemed to be as baffled as embarrassed as she was and she didn't think bad humans were supposed to react like that. They were supposed to react with anger or violence or at least...not stammering uncomfortableness. Maybe she didn't deserve that point after all.

"I'm s-sorry," Amber apologized, turning red. How had she ended up being the one to apologize anyway? She hadn't been the one staring. She hadn't done anything wrong, now had she? And yet, here she was apologizing. Maybe it was a sign that she needed to work on her confidence and people skills.

"I g-guess I'm s-still not used to p-people s-staring at my eyes." That much was true since her eyes had only changed a couple of months ago. Before Amber's eyes had changed she still got the occasional funny look because of her style of dressed, forced upon her by her sensitive skin, but it was different when you knew they were staring for the simple fact that you were a mutant. That took a little getting used to.

Her eyes? Lee blinked, and only then noticed the fact that the girl's eyes were completely black. That was definitely odd, but to be honest not nearly as freaky looking as Tarin's were when he was using his powers. Black eyes, especially since it was getting dark, just looked rather dark, solid white was simply unsettling.

"Sorry, I wasn't staring at your eyes," Lee told the girl. She really hadn't considering the fact that she hadn't even noticed until they had been pointed out to her.

"Just the one tonight?" Lee heard from behind her. Turning, Lee saw the coffee vendor already pouring a coffee for her.

"It's actually different tonight" Lee said, a slightly sheepish smile on her face because she hadn't been paying attention to tell the man sooner. Lee knew that he poured her coffee as soon as he saw her. "I need to switch to decaf, but still black."

"Decaf?" The man asked, sounding quite shocked by the fact. "I hope that won't change how often you actually get coffee."

With a bit more grumbling the man on the other side of the cart went about pouring her a cup of decaf instead, so Lee turned back to the girl behind her. "I'm guessing it's a recent thing?" She asked, making sure to keep her voice down.

Amber hadn't even considered that the woman might be staring at her for any reason other than her eyes. What could possibly be so interesting about her if not that? Sure her skin was a little on the pale side, but it wasn't freakishly pale and you couldn't even see it very well at night anyway.

"W-what were you s-staring at then?" Amber asked, suddenly having a horrible premonition of more visible mutations developing. Her powers were still pretty new, after all, and she knew that Koga didn't used to look quite as reptiley as he currently did. What if that kind of thing started happening to her? What if she started sprouting feathers or scales or something like that? She glanced down at her hands, just to be on the safe side and was relieved to note that they were pale and smooth as ever.

"Its r-recent," Amber agreed, seeing no reason not to admit as much. The woman didn't seem like she was judging her, after all, aside from the initial and still slightly confusing staring at her. Besides, if she suddenly turned hostile Amber could simply turn into a dinosaur and attack. Or run away. Probably. And on second thought, running away would probably be the much better option anyway.

Amber waited patiently for her turn to order her tea. Strange staring woman or not, she still wanted some and, thanks to Abyss, money was no longer a problem. She wasn't certain how much money her adopted father had, but she knew it was much more than she was used to and she could most certainly afford a cup of tea.

The girl asked what could only be seen as the next logical question when Lee said that she hadn't been staring at her eyes.

As Lee thought about how she would explain why she had been staring, she moved forward to pay for the coffee. Coins changing hands, Lee took the extra large coffee in her hand and stepped to the side to let the girl behind her order.

Really, though, how was she supposed to explain that she felt peoples' energy, but the energy coming from this girl didn't feel like anything that she had ever felt, and that's why she had been staring?

"It just...felt really strange when you got into line behind me," Lee finally replied, keeping her voice low enough that the man on the other side of the cart would have to actually be trying in order to hear. "I was trying to figure out what I was feeling behind me, and trying to put together that with what I saw.

"Does that make any sense at all?"

Once the woman in front of Amber ordered her drink, Amber was next and she took a moment from her conversation to order her own tea. She could see the looks from the person manning the booth, as she caught sight of her rather unusual eyes. No comments were made and money was exchanged as it should be, but the look hurt. The look said that she was a freak, no longer human, no longer able to fit in. She tried to ignore it an, once she had tea in hand, turned back to the other woman. At least she didn't make Amber feel like a freak show.

"H-how do I feel s-strange?" For that matter, how did she feel at all? While it was true that people sometimes tended to avoid Amber, she had always assumed it had to do with her strange way of dress and the fact that she unconsciously tended to push people away and, more recently, her eyes. No one had ever told her that she felt strange though.

"A-are you a mutant?" The question was asked in hushed tones as Amber suddenly realized that that would be the most logical reason for her being felt at all.

The girl got her tea and then asked about what Lee had said about feeling her. At least that meant that they didn't have to stand talking about this at the coffee stand.

"Let's walk," Lee said, turning, coffee in hand and walking slowly. After about ten of fifteen steps, Lee started speaking again, though her voice was still low. "Yes, I am a mutant," she admitted. "I can feel people's energy. But, most people's energy feels pretty much the same. Except yours, yours is different for some reason."

Taking a sip, Lee made a bit of a face. The decaf definitely did not taste as good as her normal coffee. But at least it was coffee. Of a sort.

"That's why I kept staring at you."

Amber was happy to walk away from the crowd of people. While everyone had been fairly civil so far, it didn't really seem too smart to talk about mutant stuff in the middle of a crowd. Even if she'd only had a couple of bad experiences with humans, Aura had counseled her how dangerous they could be and she didn't want to take any chances, just in case.

"How d-does mine f-feel different?" Amber asked quietly, genuinely curious. "Is it b-because I'm a m-mutant?" Feeling the energy of others was cool enough, but she really wanted to know what would make her own energy different than that of others. Maybe it had something to do with her powers, after all it seemed like multishifters (at least she was pretty sure that was what Calley had called them) didn't seem to be all that common.

"W-what does energy f-feel like?"

"How d-does mine f-feel different?"

Lee continued to walk, deep in thought, as she sipped her coffee. What exactly was it about her that made it feel different? As she walked, Lee focused on the girl's energy, trying to pinpoint what about it felt so weird.

But she hadn't even been able to properly explain to Tarin, despite multiple attempts, what it was like to siphon. She couldn't actually remember if she'd ever tried to explain what the energy itself felt like, other than when he was merged and it felt like there was more energy, or when he'd been in that coma thing, and there hadn't been as much energy as normal.

"No, I've been around a lot of mutants," Lee replied, glossing over the whole question of how it felt different for now. "I've never felt anything like this, even from another mutant. Unless," Lee continued slowly. "It's because of what your power is. I don't know."

Then Lee went back to thinking about how it was different. But how did you explain colour to a blind person? "The difference is," Lee finally continued, tapping her finger on her coffee cup as she spoke. "Almost like two bells. Most people are like one, but your energy feels like the difference in sound that the second bell has."

Did that make sense? No, probably not, but it was the best Lee could think of at the moment.

Amber wasn't really sure if she should feel honored or embarrassed that her energy felt different from that of other mutants. Was it something that made her unique among mutants or was it something that made her inferior to other mutants? For that matter, did it even matter?

"I t-turn into d-dinosaurs, if that h-helps," Amber offered to the other woman. Even if she was feeling confused (which seemed to be happening a lot lately) that didn't mean she wasn't proud of her power. No matter what, she still thought it was one of the coolest powers one could ever possibly as for. She wasn't, however, about to give a demonstration. For one thing there were to many people around and for another she hadn't quite mastered the art of turning back into a human yet.

"I th-think I understand," Amber answered. Actually, she wasn't really certain that she did understand, but maybe it was one of those things you couldn't really grasp unless you had experience with it.

"M-my name's Amber. What's y-yours?" Amber realized that she had neither introduced herself nor had she gotten the name of the woman she was currently conversing with. It seemed like a good thing to get, given that they were having an actual conversation.

Lee blinked. The girl could turn into dinosaurs? That was most definitely different. She had never heard of anything like that before, but then again nothing seemed to be impossible when it came to mutants. All she had to do to remind herself of that was look at her own husband's powers and everything that those had done.

"I'm Lee," she replied after the girl introduced herself. "And don't worry about actually understanding it. I really don't think that it can be understood unless you can feel it. I've tried explaining it to my husband countless times, and he tries, but he doesn't properly understand it. But then, there's some things about his that I just can't understand, either."

Amber enjoyed watching the reactions of others when she announced what her power was. It made her special which was something she was rather proud of and it made her feel even more proud when she saw the surprise on the faces of others. She really couldn't think of any power she could possibly want more than the one she had been blessed with, as cool as some of the powers were that she'd seen in her short time around mutants.

"N-nice to meet you," Amber replied, always polite. Her guardians had taught her the merits of being polite. "W-what does your h-husband do?" she asked. She coudln't help her natural curiosity. Mutants and there powers were still so very new to her that every one of them seemed fascinating and amazing.

At least the girl was polite, Lee couldn't fault her there at all, even if she was still stuttering a lot. Lee couldn't help but wonder what the reason behind the stuttering was, but at the same time knew that they didn't know each other near well enough to ask. They had just gotten each other's names, after all.

And then Amber asked what her husband did. There was the full answer, and then there was the easy answer. And since the full answer never got explained unless it absolutely had to be explained, that left only the short answer.

"He can see spirits," Lee said. "Talk to them. You know, the whole medium thing." Lee glanced over, looking at Amber's eyes again as she spoke. "His eyes actually go all white when he's using his powers, like how yours are black right now."

Amber thought that it must be really cool to see and talk to spirits. Of course, having watched the Sixth Sense and read more than a few books that included similar abilities, she also thought it was probably rather scary. She was pretty sure some of the stories of dead men and woman probably weren't exactly uplifting.

"Th-that sounds kind of f-frightening," Amber stated, trying to get the image of bleeding disemboweled corpses out of her head. Or maybe she had just watched too many horror movies as a child. She never had liked them much, but living with so many other children she rarely had much of a choice about what was on television.

"I m-met another m-mutant with eyes like mine. Is it c-common for mutants to h-have funny eyes?" Amber had met a few mutants that looked strange. Koga, of course, had more than just funny eyes and Abyss and his brothers were all giant and bright red. She knew from the news that it wasn't completely uncommon.