It was finally the weekend and Amber had every intention of enjoying it. As much as she loved school and as much as she enjoyed coming and going from Sanctuary and the Mansion, it was exhausting. She needed no more proof of that than the fact that she had dark circles under her eyes hinting at a lack of sleep and her skin had taken on a rather thin and sickly appearance. The circles were easily explained away due to her ever increasing nightmares, though she wasn't certain about the sickness. She didn't feel sick nor had her appetite changed at all recently, though she was looking more gaunt than usual. Maybe it was all related to lack of sleep and maybe a weekend spent lounging around was exactly what she needed to regain her usual healthy complexion. Even if, in her case, healthy meant paper white.

Amber had started her morning off by sleeping in, not getting out of bed until noon. After that, a good breakfast made by one of the Sanctuary cooks, who she was fairly certain had the power to make everything he touched delicious. Now, past one, she had the entire afternoon and night all to herself. The afternoon, at least, she intended to spend indoors mainly do to the fact that it was still bright summer outside and she couldn't easily or safely go outside in that kind of weather. The night's activities were still to be decided, but she was confident she'd think of something. Or maybe she'd just do nothing at all, which was sounding rather appealing at just that moment.

Amber chose the library for her afternoon's activities for two reasons. First, she loved books and hadn't had much of a chance to see what was hidden in the fairly sizable collection in the Sanctuary library. Second was the fact that she really didn't want to dwell on any of the less pleasant things that had happened in her life lately, and they were numerous. Ever since the incident at the pet store she coudln't help but brooding over the direction of her life. When all the good things that happened to her, from being adopted to finding out she had a mutant power that was actually cool, she had been convinced that bad things were soon to follow because that was, simply speaking, the way of her life. And she had been right, in so many ways. So, she came to the library both to read something interesting, and to distract her increasingly pessimistic and brooding mind.

Nathan was wandering. The sanctuary was new to him and he felt like a kid at a new school. He was trying to work his way around a labyrinthine place, a task which he knew would soon be second nature to him. He knew where his room was. And where the kitchens were. Far from sorted, he had at least managed to figure out where to eat and where to sleep. In that order. So at least he had his priorities straight. He enjoyed wandering, however, the many levels that existed in this strange building.

He had seen several doors marked ‘off limits’ and hadn’t tried his luck. What was the point? He had the immense good fortune to have stumbled into a shelter for people like him. Mutants. He assumed that that’s what the majority of people in here were, but some of them hadn’t been very interested in talking about their own problems with a good-natured limey. More than a little scared, he retreated to some of the other rooms, feeling more like an explorer and less like a guest with every step.

He walked past a set of double doors with glass panels in and then did a double take, backtracking to peer through. “Whoa…” he said, the exclamation thoroughly justified. He pushed them open and stepped through into a thickly carpeted library. Enormous shelves ran around every wall and the stacks ran deep and long. The books looked largely old and mysterious. This was a library that could easily have stepped out of any one of a dozen fantasy movies.

He walked through the bookshelves, looking at some of the enormous tomes. He read some of the titles and then heard a sound. A page turning. Somewhere. He was clearly not alone in the library. Looking up and down the aisle he was on, he saw mostly shadows and creepy grimoires. And there was someone (or something) in here with him. Not cool. “Hello?” he called out, hurrying to emerge from the row so he had a clear view to the door. Not that he’d need to run. Of course. But just in case…

Amber went searching through the bookshelves upon bookshelves of books. How lucky was she that there was a library of this size and caliber right outside her bedroom door? Not too many people could say that, now could they? Sometimes, even amidst the chaos and unpleasant happenings of her life, she needed to be reminded that it some ways she really didn't have it that bad. In fact, it was almost like she had a life of extremes. The good parts of her life were amazingly awesomely good but the bad parts of her life were just as forcibly bad. Maybe it was just the price for having good things happen. The universe might allow others to have good things happen to them without the balancing negative effect, but not for Amber Thirsis because Amber Thirsis was cursed. The best she could ever hope for was for the good and bad to even out.

Trying not to dwell on such things, Amber tried to figure out exactly what she felt like reading right at that moment. Of course her eyes and body wandered directly over to where the books on dinosaurs were and she grabbed one of the books, a relatively small one with pretty pictures inside to accompany the detail about the individual dinosaurs. It was something of an introduction to the different species that had been discovered to date. Could anyone really blame her for wanting to do a little research? After all, eventually she'd have to go searching for some new forms since she only had 5 currently. Book chosen, she sat down for a solid afternoon of reading.

Amber didn't get very far in her book before she heard someone call out Hello . "Hello," Amber called back, standing and waving an arm above her so she could be seen over the tops of the shelves around her. Anyone that decided to come visit the library was someone that she was certain would be worth talking to. Plus, living in Sanctuary meant they were a mutant and that reduced the chances of them wanting to throw things at her by nearly 100%.

Nathan made certain he had the door in his sights. This was an awesome library, but more than a little creepy. Boy goes into dark, musty library in a building he’s not been in before…sounded like the beginnings of a horror story. Actually, that didn’t sound half bad. Nathan distracted himself from his growing concerns by making the mental notes necessary to remind him to start writing that later. He reckoned it could be fun to write. Not certain how it’d end though. Maybe he cou-.

His train of thought was abruptly derailed as he heard a ‘hello’ called back from somewhere in the bookshelves. He looked and saw a pale white hand waving, just visible over the top of some old red books. Nathan doubted any monsters were going to announce their presence in such a comical fashion, so he went in search of his fellow bibliophile.

Emerging from a large stack, he turned and saw a nest of tables thrown together in the middle of the library. A communal research area, he supposed. Standing and beckoning over the bookshelves was the palest person Nathan had ever seen. He could only see some of her extremities and her face, because the rest of her was covered from head to toe, swathed in clothing. She must have stood a good foot shorter than him and looked a little frail. Her eyes were the thing that struck him most, however. Black. Pure, jet black. Obsidian portals. Who was it that said the eyes were the windows to the soul? Whoever they were should come meet this girl. Whatever she looked like, she lived in the Sanctuary with him, which made him a mutant, so regardless of her appearance, he coughed to announce his presence.

“Sorry to disturb you” he said, smiling tentatively. “I’m Nathan, and I was just wandering, when I found…” he paused and looked around indicating the ancient books stacked wall to wall. “…this place. It’s amazing.” he said, walking over to see what she had been reading. The chairs were standard library-affair, looking somewhat out of place: Metal framed with built-in cushions on the seat and back of the chair. It was the metal frames that caused Nathan to pause. He reached around into his back pocket and pulled on his leather gloves before pulling up a chair to sit down on.

Amber stuck her head back into her book as she waited for whoever the mystery person was to come and find her. In Sanctuary it was kind of fun to meet new people, although there was a bit of a hint of Russian Roulette in it because many of the people in Sanctuary weren't ver social, to say the least. But in a way that was part of the fun. Still, anyone who came to the library of all places couldn't be that bad, she was pretty sure. Evil and geeky just didn't go hand in hand very well. Not that anyone here was evil, exactly, more like anti-social and maybe a bit mean, understandable given the pasts of some of the mutants there. Not all of them had the good fortune of being adopted into a loving household when they were still young enough to appreciate it.

Finally the stranger in the library managed to navigate his way to Amber's table. He didn't look particularly intimidating, despite being about a foot taller than her, and in fact he looked like he was rather nice, blue eyes and everything. Of course, physical size didn't phase her much anymore because she had the secret fact that she could transform herself into things many times larger than even the largest human. Well, except for maybe Bacchus of course, but he was a mutant so maybe that didn't count.

"You aren't disturbing me," Amber replied, trying her best to smile in friendly manner. No reason to be all broody when she had a potential future friend to talk too. "N-nice to meet you, I'm Amber. And you're right th-this place is amazing." Even with her disturbing black eyes, no one could miss the expression of glee on her face as she took in the great library. Ah, how she loved places like this.

Nathan smiled at the introduction. Despite the strange sort-of-scary appearance of this girl, she seemed a little nervous and fairly nice. He saw her face (if not her eyes) light up as she looked around the library. Age was kinda hard to figure, but he picked her at around 14-15. She had been nose-deep in the book when he came across her, and he was intrigued now. “So whatcha reading there, Amber?” he asked, unable to see the title of the book.

She was one of the few people in the sanctuary who hadn’t been hostile to him. He wasn’t antagonistic by nature, and responded well to kindness, moving his chair round to sit closer to Amber. Who was he to judge by appearances? After all, were it not for the gloves he’d be shiny and made of metal right now, so it was swings and roundabouts any way you looked at it. Maybe she couldn’t turn her appearance off in which case Nathan felt sorry for her. It had to be hard having a mutation that made it difficult to interact with the public. Well, of course it was, else she wouldn’t be here, but…In the back of his mind he wondered what her mutation was. It was a sort-of-fun guessing game, trying to identify people’s mutations from their appearance and demeanour. She was a little reserved and had deep black eyes. He was sure they had to be something to do with it. Maybe she could see in 3D?

His inner monologue chimed in with a well timed slap to the face. “Nathan, everyone sees in 3D. Don’t be such an idiot.” He blinked for a few seconds, before mumbling aloud “Well, maybe 4D then…”

"A b-book on dinosaurs," Amber answered the question, pushing the book around so that Nathan could see it also. "It k-kind of has to do with my power." For all her problems in life, her power was one of the things that kept her sane. When she first discovered she was a mutant her eyes had changed but she didn't discover her power until weeks later. It had been a horrible time for her, cursed to be a mutant with no cool power to show for it, or no power at all for that matter. When she had finally discovered that she could turn into dinosaurs, well, that had almost made up for the weeks of stress and depression. She wouldn't give up her power for anything.

"So are you n-new at the Sanctuary?" Amber asked curiously. She couldn't remember having seen anyone like him around, but that wasn't surprising given how often she was at The Mansion going to school and her rather unusual sleep patterns. Not being able to go outside during the daytime really put a hamper on things as far as life in general went. That was why she was normally nocturnal. Life was just easier that way.

A book on dinosaurs? Well that was just cool. Ranked right up there with books on ninja or pirates. Or zombies. Amber was in this awesome repository of knowledge and she was reading about Dinosaurs. That automatically made her cool in his books, and he mentally added a score in her ‘Awesome’ column on the blackboard of his mind. It kind of had to do with her power, eh? Well that set Nathan’s mind a-whirrin’.

Maybe her power could absorb knowledge? Maybe her eyes read books really quickly? That would explain why she liked libraries so much. It’d also make homework a lot easier. Nathan pondered for a second the morality of using one’s powers for such self-serving ends, but then decided that the stigma associated with being a mutant more than justified such an innocent usage. If someone walked through walls to rob a bank, that was one thing, but using super-revision to cram for a test?

Of course, the simplest solution would just be to ask her. He wondered if that’d be okay. He’d asked some of the other mutants he’d met and they’d either refused to answer or threatened him outright. One of them had shown him their power and he was still trying to get the taste of vomit out of his mouth. This might be a shelter for mutants, and they weren’t hated here which was a plus, but at the same time…well, a lifetime of ostracism probably bred anti-social tendencies into even the nicest people, he told himself, trying to excuse their actions.

>> "So are you n-new at the Sanctuary?"

Another tick for ‘enhanced recall’. If those eyes remembered everything they’d seen then she’d know he was new at the sanctuary. It was that for sure. “Or, she just hasn’t seen you around here before?” his inner monologue suggested. Yeah, or that. “Yeah, actually, I just got into New York, and I…I ran into a bit of trouble. Luckily a really nice woman picked me up and brought me here. I think she lives here, her name’s Meld, if you know her? Anyway, I’m still trying to find my way around the place. Is your power, maybe, to do with books? Memory, something like that?” he asked, with a questioning face, but a grin plastered on the inside of his head. He might get some serious props for his awesome deductive skills here.

Amber could see the gears of Nathan's mind whirring around as he contemplated...something. Something to do with her probably. He didn't seem to be judging her choice of reading material though, which was good, nor had he stared at her eyes any longer than was polite which was also a mark in his favour. In fact, if she was any judge of expression, she might even say that his was approving, when it came to the book at least. Beyond that, she wasn't certain what he was thinking because, alas, she was not a mind reader. Nor did she really want to meet a mind reader and was thankful to note that she had yet to do so. That might be a little uncomfortable.

That was when Amber realized what she'd said, hinting at her power while not stating it outright. Maybe that was it and he was trying to guess what it was? Well, he could just ask and she'd be more than happy to tell him, though remembering he first few nights in Sanctuary and knowing how intimidating some of its residence could be, she realized that there was probably a very good reason why he didn't ask. Mainly, the fact that some of the residence might just bite his head off about it. In some cases, literally. Luckily, she wasn't one of those people, though she supposed it might technically be possible if she found herself a T-rex form or something.

"I don't th-think I know a Meld though my s-sister's mentioned the name once or twice. Th-there are a lot of mutants here." Amber shrugged. She certainly didn't know everyone that lived at Sanctuary, in fact she knew relatively few people there. Most she didn't really want to know because most were rather hostile. But at least they left her alone as long as she left them alone. It was one of the first things she had learned about living here: everyone lives their own lives and they won't bother you as long as you don't bother them. Actually, once you learned that little piece of advice it was wonderful living at the Sanctuary.

Amber giggled at the suggestion that her power was book related, though there was nothing of cruelty at all in the sound. "Nope," she answered, grinning. "It has t-to do with dinosaurs. The fact that I c-can turn into them. So, you know my power now, what's yours?" She waited in anticipation because powers were often fascinating to hear about, every one of them varied and different.

…Nathan’s jaw dropped as he struggled to contain the awesome. This girl could turn into dinosaurs? That wasn’t a mutation, that was just win. That was probably the coolest power he could imagine. No, you know what, he couldn’t imagine a cooler mutation. That was it. Right there. Top of the list. Right up there with turning into Ninja, or Pirates. Or zombies.

Wait, she’d just asked him a question, hadn’t she? Oh right, his mutation…Compared to hers, his felt super-lame. He was becoming steadily resigned to the precautions he’d need to take to stop it from screwing up his life too much, but here he was with an involuntary transformation into a super-heavy walking deathtrap for anyone who he accidentally touched, and there she sat with the ability to turn into freaking dinosaurs! Life just wasn’t fair, he mused, glumly.

“Wow…that’s such an awesome power!” he said, enthusiastically and meaning it. He couldn’t hold his problems against Amber. She seemed really nice and her appearance couldn’t have made it easy for her to blend in. At least with some caution he could pass for normal. Almost. “I really wish mine were anything like that cool. I just…well, I turn into metal.” he said simply, wondering if the floor to the library was stable enough for a demonstration.

Amber watched the expressions play across Nathan's face and grinned right back at him. Oh yes, her power was awesome and she wasn't going to deny it. Usually she was a fairly modest person, just not in this particular instance. Surely she was to be allowed her one vanity in life? It wasn't like she had a lot of room to have any other vanities. Surely not her appearance because she was a freak with her pitch black eyes and pale, unhealthy complexion. Certainly not her physical prowess, because she really didn't have much to speak of. Maybe her violin playing, but even that, while good, wasn't great. No, her one true vanity in life was her power and she was going to hold onto that for dear life.

"Why d-do you say turning into metal isn't cool?" Amber asked. Sure, it wasn't turning into dinosaurs, but she had to think that it could still be pretty cool. "It m-must make you nearly invulnerable. If p-people throw things at you, I bet it wouldn't even hurt." Something she had unfortunate experience with except that she didn't have the advantage of being invulnerable metal.

"A w-word of advice," Amber offered up to Nathan as she recalled, yet again, her experiences being chased by angry mobs. "Avoid angry mobs." She shuddered at the thought. "Even if their th-thrown objects can't hurt you. She wasn't really certain what could hurt a metal man but, still. Avoiding angry mobs was good advice for just about everyone, she was pretty sure.

Nathan looked across at Amber, fully aware that she was watching him. She was smiling and he knew why. If he could turn into dinosaurs, he’d damn well be proud of it too. He couldn’t though. He was a metal-shifter, and…his thoughts trailed off once more as he imagined metal dinosaurs, and then he shook his head back to reality. He’d come up with a new ‘ideal power’ though. Heh.

>> "Why d-do you say turning into metal isn't cool? It m-must make you nearly invulnerable. If p-people throw things at you, I bet it wouldn't even hurt."

Well, maybe not his skin but certainly his feelings. “It hurts all right. In here.” he said, pointing at his heart, straight-faced in a hollywood moment before laughing. “No, you’re right, sticks and stones can’t break my bones, but words can sting. And they do.” he said. He didn’t have to tell her this, she clearly knew. All mutants did.

>> "A w-word of advice, avoid angry mobs. "

Nathan smiled. “Now that’s good advice. Normally whenever I see an angry mob I run straight towards them, can’t help myself, but avoiding them, huh? Good strategy.” He said with a wink. He liked Amber, but didn’t know if teasing was too much too fast at this point in their (very immature) relationship. He totally didn’t want to upset her.

“The reason my mutation’s pretty lame is that…well, I have no choice in the matter. I touch metal? Bam. I become metal. Which is kinda fail, really.” he explained, deciding that he wasn’t convinced the library floor could take a sudden increase in weight of several thousand kilograms, and that since she hadn’t ‘shown him hers’ he was under no obligation to reciprocate. “Genuinely though, I’m right with you. Angry mobs suck. Can’t exactly blame people for being scared, though, right? I just wish that was where it ended….”

“It hurts all right. In here.”

Amber nodded, her expression sobering instantly. "I know it d-does. I wish people c-could just accept us for who and what we are. I d-don't want to dislike humans b-but sometimes they make it so hard to think otherwise." How was she supposed to react otherwise when all they seemed to do was either look down on her or hate her? There didn't seem to be any middle ground with them. That's why she preferred living and being among her own kind because then, even if she was given the cold shoulder, at least she wasn't judge because her skin happened to be a little too pale and her eyes happened to be black.

“Now that’s good advice. Normally whenever I see an angry mob I run straight towards them, can’t help myself, but avoiding them, huh? Good strategy.”

Amber smirked back, although she couldn't quite dispel the shadow of sorrow that had settled over her. "You know, if a c-crazy metal man started r-running at me, mob or no mob, I think I'd be the one fleeing." Then again, one of those mobs had attacked her when she had giant horns and was the size of an elephant, so maybe not. Surely a Styracosaurus couldn't be that much less intimidating than a man made entirely out of metal.

"S-sometimes I still shift when I'm n-not meaning too," Amber stated in sympathy of Nathan's own unfortunate problem. "And s-sometimes I get stuck shifted and when I'm shifted I can't even t-talk. It doesn't happen too often anymore though," she added hastily, just to clarify that point. All powers, it seemed, had their disadvantages. Hers involved horrific pain while shifting in and out of a form and the fact that she couldn't talk. His, apparently, involved involuntary shifting. Even if she didn't shift accidentally too often anymore, except when she was afraid for her life, she still knew what that felt like and it wasn't pleasant. Mainly because none of the humans around tended to be very understanding.

"I c-can blame them," Amber answered darkly. "I never hurt any of them, n-not ever and still they t-try to hurt me. I d-don't blame mutants that d-defend themselves against that, not at all. They hate us and I d-don't even know why. M-maybe because they're afraid of us, but that's no excuse." It would be better if she could live in a mutant utopia and didn't have to worry about human prejudice at all, but of course that would never happen.

He nodded, understanding. She shifted sometimes, even if she didn’t mean to. Well, that meant that she could understand a lot more of his perspective than he’d originally anticipated. Plus, she turned into dinosaurs. He couldn’t let himself forget that. He was exceptionally glad to have met her, because she was at least similar in age group enough to talk to without age-stigma, and could understand some of his issues. They were teenagers, and they had enough problems going on in their lives before these damn mutations.

>> "I c-can blame them. I never hurt any of them, n-not ever and still they t-try to hurt me. I d-don't blame mutants that d-defend themselves against that, not at all. They hate us and I d-don't even know why. M-maybe because they're afraid of us, but that's no excuse."

Nathan nodded. He totally understood what she was saying and in the month before he’d come to NY, he’d felt the same way. A few days ago, however, everything changed. At least, for him. The moon was still up in the sky, the planets were still rotating away, and the tide still ebbed and flowed…at least he assumed so. He’d not made a point to actually check any of those things…the point was: He thought about things differently now.

“I hurt one of them.” he began, slowly. Talking these things through wasn’t easy, but he wanted her to know how he felt. “I didn’t mean to, and sure, he was trying to kill me, but…I hurt him. Really badly. Without even trying.” he said, trying hard to find the words to explain what he thought about everything which was a challenge because he wasn’t certain himself. “The point is…I’m dangerous. I didn’t want to hurt anyone but I did. Because I’m a mutant. If I hadn’t been, that guy would be fine right now.” he said.

“So what I think I’m trying to say is that…a month ago I had no idea why people hated me. Hated what I was. Were afraid of me. I thought that this was my problem, right? Like…how could it affect them? Well, now I know. And I get why they’re scared of us. We are dangerous. No two of us alike, and, even those of us with good intentions can end up…hurting…innocents. So what about those of us who don’t have good intentions?”

He was rambling a little here, but it was all coming out. He’d avoided mentioning that he’d killed anyone. He was ashamed of that and guilty. He knew that her not liking him couldn’t make him feel any worse than he already did about it, but thought it was foolish to jeopardise a possible friendship so early on.

Amber thought carefully about how she was going to reply before actually saying anything. She usually thought before she spoke, unlike some people, but this time it was even more important than usual. She knew that she had the potential to be dangerous since dinosaurs were simply physically superior to humans and when she said she hadn't hurt anyone it wasn't technically entirely true. There had been one person she'd hurt, although not too badly, but he had it coming because he had tried to stab her so it had been self defense. Defending herself was not something she considered a crime nor did she think that Nathan should consider it a crime, because he didn't seem at all the type to go around searching for trouble.

"Many m-mutants are dangerous," Amber began because it was a fact and she wasn't going to deny it. "We have p-powers that make us dangerous. Sharp c-claws and teeth, elemental powers, telekineses, any n-number of things. B-but humans are dangerous too. Maybe they d-don't have powers, but nothing stops them from p-picking up guns or knives or bombs. They can cause j-just as much destruction as any mutant. So how d-do they have the right to j-judge us when they can be j-just as bad?" She lifted her gaze to meet Nathan's trying to show him with her expression how serious she was. They had no right to judge, none at all.

"You d-don't seem the type to go after innocents," Amber stated. Maybe she was going out on a limb in saying so, but he just didn't seem the type, though she knew that some mutants were. "I clawed a g-guy once. He tried to stab me b-but I was faster. It was s-self defense and I'm n-not ashamed. Nor should you be. You have a r-right to d-defend yourself."

It felt odd to Amber to be in the position of being the one to give a pep talk. Aura and Abyss, when she had first come to Sanctuary and been adopted into their little family, had been given a similar talk. They taught her to be proud of who she was, both her powers and her physical anomalies, explaining that her eyes showed the world that she was superior, a mutant. Now she was trying to impart the same logic to Nathan, as inadequate a job as she might be doing.