The moment Amber had heard that there was a Jurassic Park themed event coming to New York, she knew she had to go. Some might have considered her interest a little odd considering she was, perhaps, the one and only person who could turn into real living breathing dinosaurs and the dinosaurs at the event would be, at best, inadequate imatations. It was also true that, unlike the museum, there was little chance of encountering actual fossils which would assist in learning new forms to shift into, although one could always hope. The real reason she wanted to go, however, was for the possibility of learning. The more knowledge she gained about the prehistoric reptiles the more knowledge she would have to assist in choosing the very best forms. Well, that and the fact that dinosaurs were just awesome no matter which way you choose to look at it.

The show was apparently going to be in the city for only two weeks and, as was often the case, it wasn't something that ran at night. There were definate disadvantages to being nocturnal by necessity. Being fall, however, Amber was confident that there would be a cloudy or, better yet, a rainy day in which she could indulge her curiosity and, a few days before the end of the show, just such a day arose. She didn't go to school that day, deciding that this was clearly a once in a lifetime and surely her teachers would understand. Instead she put on her dark purple robes and veil, hopped on the subway and made her way towards the event, excitement bubbling inside her.

Once Amber had gotten to the location of the event and paid for her ticket, she consulted a map and began mentally planning her route. Even though it was overcast she knew she only had 2 or 3 hours before her sensative skin started to bother her and she intended to take full advantage of the time she had before her. Part of the demonstration was indoors, those smaller models and informational videos, and part of it was outdoors, the larger models that didn't easily fit inside. Indoors were the first order of business, she decided. After all, just in case her skin bothered her sooner than expected, that would ensure she at least got to see the majority of the presentation before heading home. That decided, she entered the nearest temporarily constructed shelter, little more than a giant tent really.

Svetlana seemed to be spending more and more time visiting strange places. Malls got boring real fast; now she was on to carnivals, amusement parks, and... donisaur exhibitions?
Her excuse of the day was that someone had to scout the place out before they brought Jude here. Naturally. No matter how grown-up he thought himself, he was still a kid, on the outside anyway, so one had to know if the exhibition would be suitable for him.
Or at least, that's what Sveta kept telling herself as she bought her ticket.
Really, she was just that bored.

She'd never really been interested in dinosaurs. They were long dead, and they all looked the same to her, except for the size. Honestly, they looked kinda stupid. But kids were crazy about them, and Bo used to love them too. For a moment she wished Bo could come with her. She'd have to visit her soon. She missed her little sister.
So. Dinosaurs. She walked inside the first building, and started walking in a random direction. She watched the people as much as she watched the dinosaurs; their reactions and conversations were really interesting. The dinos, not so much. They were huge, and silly looking, and made of plastic. Still, in the dark, they looked a bit scary too. Ghost-ride scary.

Whatever.
It's not like they were really alive, right?...

If Amber were honest with herself, and she usually did try to be, she would admit that there really wasn't much at the exibit for her to learn. The exibit was plainly aimed at the average person and, just as clearly, the average person did not have any experience with actually turning into dinosaurs. While the small blurbs in front of each display were interesting, in a very basic sort of way, they offered her nothing she wasn't all ready aware of and, in at least a couple of instnaces, she happened to know for a fact that what was written was wrong. Still, she couldn't say that she was really disappointed. No one bothered her while she looked around and the displays really were impressive. If nothing else it reminded her just how many different dinosaurs existed and just how many more forms she had the potential of gaining.

The first part of the afternoon passed without incident for Amber but, of course, misfortune always seemed to follow her. She heard a commotion behind her, fast approaching, and turned just in time to see a large heavily tattooed man barelling in her direction. He pushed his way rudely through the crowd, even knocking a young child to the ground who proceeded to begin wailing in pain and terror. A moment later two police oficers emerged, running after him, guns cocked. After a moment of stunned silence, the crowd began milling and the previously peaceful and enjoyable environment took on a dark undertone.

Or perhaps the dark undertone was just in Amber's own mind. She had had bad experiences with angry mobs in the past and at the slightest sign of potential trouble her mind turned to the worst case scenario, men and woman turning on her and somehow blaming her for whatever misfortune had transpired. As her irrational terror mounted, she felt the first pricklings of change coming across her, as her flesh turned to scales. She had to escape, had to hide before anyone saw her for the mutant that she was. Had to hide before the crowd of humans attacked her and tried to tear her limb from limb. Thinking quickly, she darted behind one of the displays, out of sight of the crowd, and gritted her teeth against the pain of her inevitable transformation.

Sveta let out a breath she'd been holding.
Of course someone has to make trouble. Lucky enough, this time she was not involved. She stood aside and waited for quite some time for the commotion to settle down; she composed herself, and smoothed down her dress, and then went on, looking at the stupid dinosaurs, pretending that everything was fine.
Maybe Jude could do without this particular exhibition.

Once she was pretty sure she saw every plasticsaur in the building, and skimmed every sign, Sveta was ready to go home. This was just somehow not her best day. Maybe she'd just take a look at all the other stuff outside on her way to the exit. That would be more that she needed right now anyway.

Walking towards the door, she sighed. Criminals, policemen, dinosaurs. How weird.

Amber gritted her teeth as the involuntary changes overcame her body. Pain ripped through her as her skin rippled, turning to scale and she began to shrink. Her teeth became pointed, her neck elongated and a tail sprouted behind her. It took less than a minute for the changes to complete themselves, less than an agonizing horrible minute and the result was a tiny little Compsognathus hidden behind a large animistic dinosaur and sitting in a pile of fabric.

Immediately Amber realized she had a very serious problem. Sure the police were clearly not interested in her and in fact both they and the criminal were long gone by now. The problem was that she was now a dinosaur in a very public place and was likely going to be stuck as a dinosaur for some time as was usually the case when she involuntarily shifted. Maybe if she got somewhere private to calm her nerves she'd be able to shift back, but it just wasn't going to happen while she was worried about exactly how she was going to escape the public place and get some place private. How exactly she was going to do that without getting trampled or causing some sort of riot she had no idea.

There was at least the one advantage that Amber was in a place surrounded by fake dinosaurs. Maybe if she pretended to be one of them she might be able to make it out alive. She peeked her head out from behind the display she was hiding behind, trying to plot her course out. Peering way up, she realized just how busy it was and was feeling the pangs of panic and despair when she spotted a familiar face, a woman she had seen at The Mansion a couple of times before. Sure she had never talked to the blond before but the fact that she had been at the Mansion more than once meant that she must, at least, be mutant friendly and thus would, perhaps, be willing to help out a poor mutant dinosaur.

Decision made, Amber waited for her opportunity and as soon as the woman walked by skittered out from behind her hiding place and behind the woman, hoping against hope that no one spotted anything unusual. At least she was small and most people couldn't be bothered to look down. Hopefully.

Sveta had a feeling she was being followed. She glanced back over her shoulder several times, but saw no one who would be suspicious.
Calm down, Sveta, you're being paranoid.

There was really no reason for anyone to be following her now, right?
She was just a young woman, wandering around in a dinosaur exhibition.
Maybe it was time to go home.

She was almost at the door when she glanced back again one more time; there was a small sound down at her feet. She looked down. It was a tiny dinosaur. Looking up at her. Without blinking.

"Now that is just creepy." she frowned. Who comes up with an idea like that? Besides being creepy, someone might steal it. It was not even chained down.

"Whatever." she turned and walked on; a few steps later, she glances back again.
The little creeper was still there.
Moving dinosaurs. How fun.

She looked around, trying to see who was controlling it. There were a few people around, but no one who looked like they worked there. Frowning, Sveta glances back again.

"It is not funny." she told the little creature.
Maybe it had a camera.

It was tricky to following the woman without being noticed by the rest of the crowd, but there was also valuable practice. There was a certain thrill in the challenge, even though it was also dangerous as Amber knew that if anyone noticed anything amiss very bad things could happen to her. The trick was darting behind exhibits when exhibits were close by, then scurrying out when the woman was passing them, then darting behind the next exhibit, almost as a sort of game. A very dangerous game of course, but it helped to think of it that way. At least then she wouldn't completely lose it to her so far suppressed sense of panic.

Eventually the woman noticed Amber following, a fact she realized when the blond glanced back at her several times. In normal circumstances she would have done something to demonstrate the fact that she wasn't just any mere dinosaur, but there was the concern that if she made herself more obvious to the woman she was following she would also make herself more obvious to everyone else and that could simply not end well for anyone.

"It is not funny."

Taking a quick but careful look around, Amber realized that if she was ever going to have a chance to announce her presence, or rather allow the woman to know she wasn't just part of the show, this was the time. For the moment, at least, there were few people around but she knew it wouldn't last. Taking a mental breath to center herself just in case the worst happened, she chirped a reply at the woman and looked, way up, directly into her eyes. Normal animals didn't really look right into the eyes of another, not if they were the size of a house cat and not directly challenging someone and she didn't think normal dinosaurs would do so either. Hopefully the woman would pick up on that fact. Also hopefully she wouldn't panic and start screaming if she did.

So, the dino looked up at her. Sveta looked down at it. Who would design such a creepy little thing? It was probably for the kids. Maybe you could buy it in the gift shop or something.
At least it was not trying to look up her skirt or hump her leg.

"Go away." she said, leaning down to look the dino in the eye. Or, camera. Rather. "I do not play."

She turned and walked; a couple of moments later, she looked back again.
It was still there.
What did it want from her?...

"Vat do you want?" she asked, walking back and crouching down to look at the dino. It felt stupid. She moved over to the side, half hidden by some fake bush. "Where are you anyway?..."

"Go away. I do not play."

Amber did not go away nor did she have anywhere to go even if she did decide to go away. She needed the blond to get her safely out of the dinosaur exibit and even once she was free of that place, she would have a whole new set of problems. Mainly the fact that her robes were back inside somewhere and getting back to the Mansion in her present form would be next to impossible given her current size. Even without her skin condition she couldn't exactly run through the city naked. So yes, she needed the blond whether the blond wanted her tagging along or not.

The woman turned her back and start woman and a moment later Amber scurried after her, resuming her previous almost game of running, then hiding, then running again. It was a minor miracle that no one had noticed her yet. Well, no one except for the blond woman of course.

"Vat do you want. Where are you anyway?..."

There were certain disadvantages to not having a human mouth or human vocal chords. In fact, as far as Amber was concerned that was pretty much the main disadvantages of changing forms as she did. Bereft of human speech, however, all Amber could do was let out another distressed chirp at the woman. She held out her tiny dinosaur arms, miming the actions of paper and writing on said paper as best as she could. At least her hands were close enough to human hands that writing was actually possible, in a clumsy sort of way at least. Hopefully the woman had paper and a pen. Or, better yet, some impliment of typing like a phone or a laptop.

It looked like the tiny dino did want something from her. It was chirping quite desperately, and making estures with its tiny hands.
On second thought, it didn't look like a machine at all.
Sveta reached out one gloved finger, and tentatively touched the little animal. It felt cold.
Maybe it was a machine.

She looked at the gestures. They looked like the dinobot was miming... writing? It actually wanted to write something?
More and more weird.
Before she could think about it, Sveta was digging around in her purse for a piece of paper and a pen, some distant part of her brain wondering why she didn't just walk away, or report the dino tho a guard. Maybe she was just too used to weird stuff happening around her.

Like, robot dinosaurs writing messages into her notebook.

Amber stilled her frantic movements instantly whent he woman reached down to touch her, hoping that it was a sign that she was actually getting through. She chirped one final time, wishing that communication was somehow easier while in a non-human form. She would make the best of things, however.

Finally the blond was digging into her notebook and Amber nodded her long neck (long in relation to her tiny body at least) in approval. Finally they were making progress, or so it seemed. Now hopefully she would come with some kind of writing impliment and she would finally be able to actually communicate. One never appreciated the ability to talk until such a time as one lost that ability.

Amber looked around apprehensively, praying that no one noticed what was going on an panicked while she waited. After all , even in a dinosaur exibit no one expected one of the dinosaurs to actually come to life. Tiny or not, sometimes people could be irrational and irrational people tended to panic and attack whatever it was that was causing their fear. And Amber really really did not want anyone to attack her.

"Dere you go." she said, opening the notebook at an empty page, and putting it down together with a pencil. She had to admit, she was very curious about what the dinobot would do with them; maybe there was somebody playing games somewhere with a remote control, or maybe it was just programmed to do that. Sveta was not all that interested in science, but after having seen what mutants can do, he wouldn't have been surprised to learn they make such intelligent robots already. Where if not in New York...

"Go ahead. Write." she nodded to the dino, then looked around "Dis is not one of dose camera tricks is it?..."

Amber waited expectantly as the notebook and pencil were put on the ground before her. She grabbed the pencil in her small arms, carefully positioning it for writing. Just because she was capable of writing in her current form didn't mean that writing was easy. With a pencil almost as tall as she was, there were certain difficulties. Difficulties that could be overcome.

Amber only wrote three words on the notebook, three words that were messy almost to the point of illegibility. The fisrt was her name. Following that printing sht pointed to herself. The second was the word mutant and for a second time she pointed to herself and added a chirp for good measure. The third was Mansion and this time she looked up to the blond expectantly.

Sveta watched as the little dinobot scribbled on the paper; it was kind of cute as it moved the pencil up and down, fighting to create letters.

Amber.

"That's your name." Sveta nodded with a smirk. Of course, because how would someone name a dinosaur of not amber. Even Sveta had seen Jurassic Park.

Mutant.

She did not expect that. Her eyes widened as she looked at the dinosaur again. So, it was... not a robot. Or a dinosaur. It was a mutant. A very cute little mutant. Called Amber.

Mansion.

"Mansion?" she asked, more than a bit shocked "You mean Xavier's?" she leaned in to look at the dino more closely "You... you are a Mansion student?!"

Weird as it may sound, that kind of made sense. The dino must have recognized her from the school, and followed her to ask for help. Although Sveta didn't remember anyone called Amber, the... dinosaur had no reason to lie.

"You need help?" she asked, unsure of what she should do "You are a shifter?..." she looked at the dino "Do you want me to get you out of here? Maybe you fit in my bag."

Hopefully.

Finally Amber had gotten through to the blond! She felt like dancing for the joy of it and the fact that she now actually had a chance to get out of there unscathed. Instead of dancing, however, she managed to retain her composure and settled instead for an enthusiastic bob of her head and a toothy grin. A toothy grin that, come to think of it, probably would have looked more like a threatening baring of teeth had she not been the size of a cat.

Everything the blond surmised was true. Yes her name was Amber, yes she was a mutant, yes she was a shifter and yes she was a student at the Mansion. How did she get into these predicaments anyway? She had tried to be careful, honest. How wasshe to know that some vicious criminal and the police would scare her into accidentally shifting? For that matter, if she had to shift couldn't she have shifted into something large enough to actually defend herself? Like her Deinonychus form. That would have been perfect, complete with sharp claws and teeth. Unfortunately she hadn't been willing shifting and thus apparently didn't even have enough control to choosewhat to shift into.

Amber eyed the purse that the blond was holding, trying to gauge its size compared to her own. Finally she nodded and let out another little chirp. Yes, it looked large enough to hold her. Barely, but it wasn't like she would have to remain inside it for long.